There is a gut-wrenching video sequence on the internet of a young bloke taking a three-point shot (during the half-time of a pro basketball game), with a prize of one million dollars at stake. Mike's foolproof ritual In the clip, the kid, Mike, starts off practicing his wrist-snap by flicking the ball into the air precisely four times. Next, deliberately, almost in a trance, … [Read more...]
How Socrates (nearly) openned the batting for Australia! A true cricket tale.
I was in the second year of an overseas posting working for a multi-national publishing company in Maidenhead, England. One day the Managing Director of the U.K. Publishing house I worked for stopped me in the foyer as I was leaving the building. I was about to start a three-day road trip visiting university towns in the North of England to jag some new authors for the … [Read more...]
Sally Pearson shows the Phoenix how the rising from the ashes thing is done! (Part 1)
A few weeks back Socrates had a chat to World Champion hurdler, Sally Pearson, about her last few years as an athlete. What a tale the world's number one had to tell. In Part 1. of Sally's story, Socrates describes Pearson's rise from the ashes despite extraordinary physical and emotional pressures and, just to prove she doesn't mind doing it the hard way, she did it all … [Read more...]
A Summer With Geoff – friendship reveals the soul behind the stony concentration of Geoff Boycott
The red double-decker bus was packed with celebrities in various stages of decay. Actors, singers, sportsmen and then there was me. The reason we were all riding the bus? A celebrity pub crawl to introduce a slew of imported beers into Australia. Carlsberg Elephant Beer, Grolsch, Corona to name a few. The rest escape my mind, my memory is hazy at best; completely gone at … [Read more...]