Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

...I've only missed one sports question in my life.

Even that one I missed, long ago, I barely missed. They were looking for the name of the Romanian-born gymnastics coach who carried an injured Kerri Strug off the mat at the Olympics. I say that I barely missed it, because I could picture the guy's face, and could come up with his first name.

It's all moot now, after yesterday's Tournament of Champions show, where I missed not one, but TWO sports questions.

The first was looking for the golfer who shot a 59. "Azinger" immediately leaped to mind, but I had a feeling that wasn't right. But I couldn't get past "Azinger". But I knew it was somebody much, much older than Paul Azinger, someone who made the leap to the Senior PGA Tour a while ago.

My thoughts were interrupted by the contestant who answered, "Who is Sorenstam?"

Wait a sec...they were looking for a female golfer? I saw "This golfer" and "59" in the question, and ignored the rest.

Sorenstam was accepted. My near-perfect record has turned to dust. I'm devastated.

Now the last clue in "sports":

"This New York horse racetrack is the oldest operating track in the country."

I booked horse races in Las Vegas for many years. And I never miss a Jeopardy sports question. So I can't miss this one, right?

But I'm still tilting from the golf question. I desperately want to say the answer out loud before someone on the tv does, and they're already ringing in.

As well as I know my own name, I know that the three NY tracks are Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga. Aqueduct is not nearly the oldest. It's Belmont or Saratoga. In my haste, I let "New York based" point me towards New York CITY, and since they've run the Belmont Stakes (part of the Triple Crown) for at least 125 years (actually 140), I blurted, "Belmont!"

That's wrong of course. If I had two seconds to think about it, I would have certainly said Saratoga, which is famous for being old! Saratoga is almost 50 years older than Fenway or Wrigley.

I never tilt when I play poker. But I had more than money on the line yesterday. I had a big chunk of ego--hell, a big chunk of my IDENTITY on the line, and it led me to choke.

///

The gymnastics coach was <font color="white">Bela Karolyi</font>, and Mr 59 was not Azinger, but <font color="white">Geiberger--Al Geiberger</font>. Finally, Aqueduct (1894) is not older than the Belmont Stakes (1867), but it IS older than Belmont Park (1905). Figure that one out.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

I can't believe that you missed the gymnastics one if your record is that solid. He always creeped me out because he spent decades hanging around nubile young girls but maybe I'm being paranoid.

Also, Chip Beck shot a 59 in a Vegas event maybe a decade ago, and I think David Duval did it a few years back too at the Palm Springs event. So there are multiple correct answers to that question unless it was worded "first" golfer to do it or something, and it was a couple more decades before it was repeated.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

I'm pretty sure David Duval did it, too...

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

Dom,

O RLY?

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika, that's all right?

Man [censored] Duval, whatever happened to him, I always thought he was going to be great.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

I was trying to think of Geiberger, I knew it was a G---er name and I knew it first happened quite a few years ago. My blurted answer would have been Chip Beck, which apparently is correct as well. Would not have come up with Duval or Sorenstam.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

without using google, who was the first basketball to score 1000 rebounds in a single season?

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
without using google, who was the first basketball to score 1000 rebounds in a single season?

[/ QUOTE ]

http://www.basketball-plays-and-tips...basketball.jpg

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

Missing the Sorenstam question would have been brutal in your situation, but Belmont is the obvious guess. My roommate and I were both watching and quickly blurted out Belmont.

I watch Jeopardy most every day (dvr) and feel like a moron for missing Sports questions too... and science/math questions for that matter. I do miss sport questions more often than you, but it is a rare occasion.

The questions for Tournament of Champions have definitely been more difficult than the norm.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

you were just watching the show, right?

i have a near perfect record for the "bible" category... lol.

some of the answers and dumb looks these people give who
can name the obscurest of Broadway musical lyrics always
cracks me up.

the only "bible" question i got wrong was one where they
asked something about the year the King James came out
or something about the Guttenberg printing press...

I had no clue...

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
without using google, who was the first basketball to score 1000 rebounds in a single season?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well that's like 12+/game and they shot a lot of bricks back in the day so it could be someone like George Mikan. But when Russell and Chamberlain came in they rewrote the record books and would each average something ridiculous like 18-20 rebounds/game. So my guess is Russell (he got to the NBA first) with some concern it will be Mikan or someone obscure.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]

I say that I barely missed it, because I could picture the guy's face, and could come up with his first name.


[/ QUOTE ]

You can do it!

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
They were looking for the name of the Romanian-born gymnastics coach who carried an injured Kerri Strug off the mat at the Olympics.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bela Karolyi (or some other spelling), without looking at the rest of you post.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
I can't believe that you missed the gymnastics one if your record is that solid.

[/ QUOTE ]

His face immediately came to me, along with the name "Bela". Then the image of him carrying Strug.

Unfortunately, I had just seen "Ed Wood" that week for the first time, and watched it more than once, so another Bela was firmly entrenched in the forefront of my mind, and I couldn't get past it. I could not name another Bela in the world at that moment besides "Lagosi".

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
My blurted answer would have been Chip Beck, which apparently is correct as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Again, I misread the question, trying to answer it before the entire question had been read. All I saw was "Golfer" and "59", and presumed they were looking for Geiberger.

They probably peppered the entire thing with clues that pointed to Sorenstam, such as "Swedish" and "female" and "2001", but I had already leaped to my Gieberger conclusion, and can't say.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Belmont is the obvious guess.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not if you're familiar with the history of horseracing, as I am. My dad owned and trained horses when I was a kid; my sister's first husband was a jockey, and her second husband a trainer; and I spent most of the 90's booking horse races at a Las Vegas casino.

Me missing a question about the oldest racetrack on the New York circuit would be like a baseball card collector missing question about an old Topps card.

One last insult in injury: my wife got the Saratoga question right when I told her about it, and she never gets a sports question right. Now do you believe me when I say I should have gotten that one?

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
i have a near perfect record for the "bible" category... lol.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, me too--I miss almost every single question. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

How much Jeopardy do you watch? Is it more than 100 shows?

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can't believe that you missed the gymnastics one if your record is that solid.

[/ QUOTE ]

His face immediately came to me, along with the name "Bela". Then the image of him carrying Strug.

Unfortunately, I had just seen "Ed Wood" that week for the first time, and watched it more than once, so another Bela was firmly entrenched in the forefront of my mind, and I couldn't get past it. I could not name another Bela in the world at that moment besides "Lagosi".

[/ QUOTE ]

And you even got that wrong! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

Everybody knows that spelling doesn't count on Jeopardy.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

Anybody who says they have only gotten one question wrong in a particular category has only seen like five episodes or is completely full of [censored].

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]

"This New York horse racetrack is the oldest operating track in the country."...As well as I know my own name, I know that the three NY tracks are Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga. Aqueduct is not nearly the oldest. It's Belmont or Saratoga. In my haste, I let "New York based" point me towards New York CITY, and since they've run the Belmont Stakes (part of the Triple Crown) for at least 125 years (actually 140), I blurted, "Belmont!"

[/ QUOTE ]

I blurted out Belmont too forgetting that Saratoga was in NY. If the question was asked in a less time-sensitive environment, I definitely would've said Saratoga.

Re: Jeopardy! I can no longer boast that...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anybody who says they have only gotten one question wrong in a particular category has only seen like five episodes or is completely full of [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

Heads up for rollz?

If you didn't buy that story, you're really going to doubt this one:

If Jeopardy is on tv in the poolroom, or at a bar, I offer the following bet: Whoever wants to play puts $1 into the pot. We all write down our answers to the Final Jeopardy question. Whoever gets it right, splits the pot. If we all miss, we all get a refund.

I've done this about 20 times in my life. Only once did I not get a piece of the pot.

I'm not saying I answered correctly 19 times. There were times that I missed, but still got the refund because everyone else did, as well.

The one time I lost was a question that I didn't know, but I was confident that no one else in the poolroom knew it, either. One of them did get it right, however. He then admitted that his answer was total guess, a stab in the dark.

I forget the question, but the answer was clearly one of the first ten Presidents. He guessed "Andrew Jackson" because seven was his lucky number. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

A lucky guess marred my lifetime unbeaten streak.