Agent Palmer

Soccer Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper was first published in 1994 with the subtitle “How the world’s most popular sport starts and fuels revolutions and keeps dictators in power.” I recently read the updated 2006 version, but since a lot has happened in those intervening years, like for example a World Cup in Qatar, this book is just exhibit A. This book is about Simon’s research by being boots on the ground in places like Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany,…

I previously went the full nine innings reviewing Bull Durham. It should be not surprise that I’d go another nine innings with The Church of Baseball written by Bull Durham writer and director Ron Shelton about the origin of, writing of, production, release, and reaction to Bull Durham.

So let’s do it, on to the first pitch… Play Ball!

Palmer Recaps the 111th Edition of the Tour de France 

The 111th edition of the Tour de France started in Florence, Italy, and finished in Nice, France. It was dominated by two-time (now three-time) winner Tadej “the Tornado” Pogacar in the high mountains, where he distanced his main rival and previous two-time consecutive winner Jonas Vingegaard. But there was more to this Tour than just two heavyweights battling up the high mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees.

Netflix’s sports series are great at covering sports and aspects of sports that don’t often get much attention. Six Nations: Full Contact continues the tradition in setting a new standard in sports docuseries.

Like Netflix did on Drive to Survive with Formula 1, Captains with FIFA World Cup Qualifying, and Quarterbacks with NFL QBs, Full Contact takes you on the pitch, inside the locker rooms, meeting rooms, and homes of select players and coaches from the six nations of the 2023 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship, a Rugby competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales.

With NASCAR: Full Speed, Netflix is trying to capture F1: Drive to Survive’s success in open-wheeled racing with the tradition and pageantry of stock car racing. Does it succeed? That’s a tougher question to answer than I would like it to be.

The answer, however, is probably not.