Vote for Rainer, 2004-prep, Christmas Spirit
Sunday 21 December
Well, just 16 days until Rainer Schuettler kicks off 2004 in Doha, and his hopes are high for another fantastic season. No German translation done by me yet on these new links... hopefully can do so later this week on the year-end voting and articles, as well as some recent quotes/interviews with Rainer.
I have the 25th and 26th off (I take advantage of my English-ness descent and close my business for Boxing Day as well!) and I think I am going to try to do a "Best of 2003" photo post, just some of the either action, funny, emotional, winning, etc 'Schuettler Shots' I've come across or taken myself from the year. Besides, I cannot take watching the NBA all day on Christmas and since I can't go skiing on the 26th as I hoped, I will fully accept my computer geekness and create an entry. I also bought myself a snazzy new printer that I can try out. On Jan 1 I must work and sit in front of my computer for 5+ hours to close out the year in all sorts of reports, so I will try to put together my Doha/2004 preview in between printing jobs that day. I also have some totally random entries/thoughts that I haven't yet posted, so I think I'll offically add those just before the year ends.
In regards to the Christmas spirit, I was thinking about making a donation from something like "Rainer Schuettler Fans" to the charity Heifer.org. Basically they purchase animals or trees for families in impoverished nations who can then use the items for milk, clothing, money and the community. You can purchase either an item or a share of one, here are the ones that I'd like to shoot for... trees $60 (all in USD), a goat $120, a llama $ 150, a buffalo $250, and a heifer is $500 - or a shares of one start at $50. I plan on doing the same thing throughout 2004 as well. If we get really good at this, who's to say only Federer has a milk cow in his name?
I've had a lot of fun doing this since September, and it's been a great experience 'meeting' tennis fans from around the world, and I thought that maybe some 'real good' could come out of it... we'll call it using the site's powers for good! It really costs more time than anything to do the site, but the money I do spend on it goes for the photo hosting and tracking the web stats. I thought that I would match the cost of those two (about $50 USD) to start the donation, and wondered if any readers would want to contribute. We can "pass the hat" until Doha and I will keep you posted on how much money we can ultimately donate. So, if anyone wants to donate, drop me an email, even if it's just a buck or two - a big thank you! And if you don't want to donate, no obligation at all, I hope you enjoy/enjoyed the site - and a big thank you for reading!
Now on to Rainer...
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Schuettler Shots... Photos
Well, just 16 days until Rainer Schuettler kicks off 2004 in Doha, and his hopes are high for another fantastic season. No German translation done by me yet on these new links... hopefully can do so later this week on the year-end voting and articles, as well as some recent quotes/interviews with Rainer.
I have the 25th and 26th off (I take advantage of my English-ness descent and close my business for Boxing Day as well!) and I think I am going to try to do a "Best of 2003" photo post, just some of the either action, funny, emotional, winning, etc 'Schuettler Shots' I've come across or taken myself from the year. Besides, I cannot take watching the NBA all day on Christmas and since I can't go skiing on the 26th as I hoped, I will fully accept my computer geekness and create an entry. I also bought myself a snazzy new printer that I can try out. On Jan 1 I must work and sit in front of my computer for 5+ hours to close out the year in all sorts of reports, so I will try to put together my Doha/2004 preview in between printing jobs that day. I also have some totally random entries/thoughts that I haven't yet posted, so I think I'll offically add those just before the year ends.
In regards to the Christmas spirit, I was thinking about making a donation from something like "Rainer Schuettler Fans" to the charity Heifer.org. Basically they purchase animals or trees for families in impoverished nations who can then use the items for milk, clothing, money and the community. You can purchase either an item or a share of one, here are the ones that I'd like to shoot for... trees $60 (all in USD), a goat $120, a llama $ 150, a buffalo $250, and a heifer is $500 - or a shares of one start at $50. I plan on doing the same thing throughout 2004 as well. If we get really good at this, who's to say only Federer has a milk cow in his name?
I've had a lot of fun doing this since September, and it's been a great experience 'meeting' tennis fans from around the world, and I thought that maybe some 'real good' could come out of it... we'll call it using the site's powers for good! It really costs more time than anything to do the site, but the money I do spend on it goes for the photo hosting and tracking the web stats. I thought that I would match the cost of those two (about $50 USD) to start the donation, and wondered if any readers would want to contribute. We can "pass the hat" until Doha and I will keep you posted on how much money we can ultimately donate. So, if anyone wants to donate, drop me an email, even if it's just a buck or two - a big thank you! And if you don't want to donate, no obligation at all, I hope you enjoy/enjoyed the site - and a big thank you for reading!
Now on to Rainer...
- Click here for Sport1's Athlete of the Year... your chance to vote for Rainer! Was in the lead as of this post.
- Spiegel's Athlete of the Year... be sure to vote for Rainer in this contest too, he's getting smoked in this one!
- Sportbild indepth article on Rainer
- Sport1's Year in Review... in Tennis section they note Rainer, Andy Roddick and the Belgian women as "tops." Has some nice photos too.
- Sport1's slideshow of the Schuettler season with German details
- TennisMagazin.de new article about hopes for 2004
- Netzeitung story
- Sportgate's similar 2004 preview piece
- ATP Tennis story on documentary from Houston airing Monday, 22 December on Eurosport. Has grid of other airings, US is before the Oz Open
- Old picture, but BBC's tennis photo gallery has a pic from Cincy, which I also posted below.
- Rainer repeat link from late last week... Sports Illustrated's tennis writer, Jon Wertheim, tapped Schuettler as 2003's underrated player (men or women)... Yeah Rainer!
- NEW! Yahoo Deutschland report of Rainer and World Team
- Yahoo Deutschland slightly expanded similar article
- Sport1 piece on German tennis
- Sport1 wire report
- Sport1 interview about DTB
- TennisMagazin.de mention of World Team
- Sky Sports wire report on possible plans to put a roof over one or two courts at Wimbledon, my god, yes... that said Wimbledon. Is anyone at the USTA listening?
- Sky Sports piece on Kafelnikov
- BBC Sport inspiring article on an athlete's accomplishments, an athlete with terminal cancer
- ESPN wire report on stolen and found Olympic medal
- ESPN piece on Roddick and Athens
- Just for the record, as torturous as 'watching' tennis on the computer can be, I declare now that I won't gripe about it ever again.
The update within the grid is far superior to 'watching' boxing online (Klitschko tko Nicholson). Two words for online boxing... Night Mare. Along those lines, my favorite German word of the week... Supermittelgewichtsweltmeister! Today was a good TV day, I caught some of the 4-man bob coverage from Calgary... I think the bob is so cool, got to see it in person at Salt lake, and man do they move! I wish it were a more popular sport in the US, if I were about 10 years younger I'd want to be a pusher... see, told you I was a sports dope. - ESPN report on wrongdoings within NCAA softball... proving all and any sport can be tainted.
Other Tennis and Sports:
posted by Sprtswrtr @ 4:59 PM
