Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan: Kingpin bows out
This might be the best moment of the Olympics... short of the fracas that broke out following the USA men's basketball win over Spain this morning. Anyone think that this wrestling dude got a little change on the side from Asics for getting his shoes a little close-up fact time on prime time national television? At any rate, this guy was cool, and deserves all the accolades he receives.

Woody Paige from the Denver Post also has a cool look, including these classic lines...

Gardner lost a toe to frostbite in 2002 when he was stranded overnight during a snowmobiling adventure (when he goes home, Rulon will bury the toe he has kept in his refrigerator), and it seemed that his career was over. But he made an almost miraculous comeback and qualified again for the Summer Games held in a country where wrestling had been inaugurated as an Olympic thousands of years ago.

Gardner is a risk-taker. If he had wrestled safe in the first session Wednesday, he probably would have reached the final. Against an exhausted foe, Gardner could have pulled out of a hold and eventually won the match. Instead, he tried to turn and was twisted into defeat. If he hadn't wrestled boldly, he wouldn't have decisioned the champion who had won 59 consecutive matches.

Wow, cool stuff. And how about the Red Sox with 17 hits last night! Keep the streak going, 5 1/2 and counting...