"Japan stuns US in softball final"

Picture taken from Bird's Nest today.

I can't believe that headline either, almost as much as I can't believe both American 4x100-meter track relay teams dropped the baton.

Then again, should we be that surprised Japan beat the U.S.? This was, after all, the team that took the U.S. into extra innings just a few days before, and the team that had the best pitcher in the tournament, Ueno Yukiko.

Olympics-related backdated posts

Three of them:

• Aug. 17 (posted 3:10 a.m., Aug. 20): Baseball
• Aug. 13: From Fengtai Softball Field
• Aug. 11: From Wukesong and the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium

And two pictures that should've been backdated:

Workers' Gymnasium


Restaurant owners, cooks and patrons stop to watch the final seconds of China men's basketball's critical game vs. Germany

Just another Friday evening softball doubleheader

I'm getting real familiar with Fengtai:








My aunt is afraid of the sun.

Australia prevailed over Chinese Taipei 3-1 and Venezuela beat the Netherlands 8-0 in five innings.

More pictures and video of softball and soccer

Because I took lots of pictures and lots of video...

From Tuesday, August 12 (softball text here, soccer here):


Chinese Taipei's Chiu-Ching Li homers in the bottom of the 7th for her team's only run in a 6-1 loss to Canada. How 'bout props to me for catching this -- a home run, for crying out loud -- live.

UPDATE: Because NBC said so...

U.S.A.'s Crystl Bustos circling the bases after a home run:


Bustos's hard single in her next at-bat:


Soccer:


Because we all like cheerleaders, here's the Beijing cheerleading squad dancing to Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music" and a tune from High School Musical, "We're All in This Together." Time (surprisingly) has a better video for you here.

From Fengtai Softball Field

Backdated 24 hours.


From a U.S.-Venezuela softball game on Tuesday. More on ESPN The Blog. (The early game was Taipei vs. Canada, in which the Canadian pitcher had a no-hitter through five.)

More pictures:


And... hey, look, it's Jennie Finch!


I'd just like to say that I can completely understand why Finch is popular. She doesn't always come off as the most articulate on TV -- thus knocking her down a couple notches in my book -- but she has an aura on the field that's hard to capture, even on magazine covers. You just always know where she is on the field, who she is. It's her long legs, the American blond hair, the way she struts on the field, claps her hand, winds up her hips -- it's all of that put together. I can imagine the first journalist to peer upon her and think, Hey, she would be great posing in a swimsuit. Then it happened, and that's how a personality got launched. Now she's the face of softball.

Is it better that she and not, say, Crystl Bustos, the Babe Ruth of softball, is the face of the sport? Well, it sure doesn't hurt that Finch is darn good: she struck out five in four innings and didn't allow a hit.