The sudden hipness of ski racing

Joe Maddon is the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays -- remember them? I mention him not for piloting the team to their first ever World Series run or for his controversial moves on the base paths. No, that would be terribly conventional of me. I mention him for his glasses. Has nobody told him they are unnecessarily hip? Seriously...if you're over the age of forty or so, you can get away with wearing run-of-the-mill glasses. Why he yanks out the thick-rimmed "look-how-cool-I-am" glasses doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. We viewers in TV land would take him a lot more seriously if he looked like the other old fart managers.


What do Joe Maddon and hip glasses have to do with skiing? Well, I am becoming more and more amazed at how "hip" we all are. I'm writing a blog, Ski Racing Development has a blog, generic-brand brightly colored goggles sell for almost $100 (I'm talking to you, Ted Ligety), you can read the Talon Crew's near-daily updates online, our major athletes are on Twitter, and Lange is actually darkening their "crazy blue" boots. What is going on here?!

I don't suppose it's a bad thing. After all, this sport could use some more exposure. I'm just saying don't expect to see me dig much further than this blog.

While I think of it, when did duct tape become cool? It reminds me of the DereLicte show in Zoolander. Homeless fashions might sound like another Jon Lajoie video, but they're growing quite popular in ski racing. One of the course maintenance guys at the Birds of Prey had a giant gorilla suit on. Let me repeat: one of the COURSE MAINTENANCE CREW was wearing a gorilla suit. A GORILLA SUIT. Hey, draw your own conclusions, but he was probably warmer than the rest of us.

So get with the times. Blog or tweet or whatever it is you do, but do it about skiing and ski racing. Just remember the movement started right here so I can eventually turn it into income.