Cool Person of the Day: Michael Ball

by Chris... on Jun 30, 2008 2:01 PM EDT in News

Jered at Pez poignantly relays today's most important story: that Rock Racing owner/showman/fashionista Michael Ball is creating a catastophic injury fund:

Ball will not reveal his personal contribution, only saying it’s “in the hundreds of thousands,” and that he’d like to see the fund collect $20 million over the next two years.

“I truly believe that these athletes are the greatest athletes in the world,” Ball said in an interview with The Associated Press. “They deserve to be treated in such a way that, at the very least, they have some basic insurance, for God’s sake.”

One word... respect.

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Darn it...

He’s going to make me like him eventually, isn’t he?

by cg. on Jun 30, 2008 2:20 PM EDT 0 recs

Well

For a bit. But you can always go to Nordstroms and check out what he’s charging for blue jeans.

"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."

by Chris... on Jun 30, 2008 2:23 PM EDT up 0 recs

has he

given his riders a better deal than the essentially “day-to-day” contracts that they were on?

by R Mc on Jun 30, 2008 2:24 PM EDT 0 recs

sigh

Now I’m going to have to wait a few days before highlighting his interview over at Velocity Nation.

by Sui Juris on Jun 30, 2008 2:27 PM EDT 0 recs

he’s annoying as hell, and his ego is the size of Orange County, and his jeans are just silly, but he’s directing some of the profits from those silly jeans towards something I care about, and he has my respect for that. And that Velocity Nation interview is more of the typical Ball act… “I am the savior of cycling, I am the only person putting money into cycling, I will make cycling cool like NASCAR”... but regardless of his act, the guy is putting his money where his mouth is. And read the other story at Velocity Nation about John “Mancrush” Eustice. Eustice has some interesting comments about Ball.

by Jimbo... on Jun 30, 2008 2:46 PM EDT 0 recs

Eustice interview link

here Yes, very interesting, including / especially his race history

by JFS_PGH on Jun 30, 2008 7:08 PM EDT up 0 recs

Eustice has quite a past as a racer

I had no idea. Interesting guy. Made me feel kind of bad for all the snark we threw at him during that Philly race live thread, until I started watching my Tivo of the Versus coverage of that race. Now I feel fine.

by Jimbo... on Jun 30, 2008 7:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

And have you watched the Tour of PA stuff yet?

They were back. Not as bad but wow….

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Jun 30, 2008 7:47 PM EDT up 0 recs

We can totally give him props

for his racing and sideline reporting, while panning his live race commentary. He was on Vs on Sunday for the Tour de Penn final stage and he wasn’t good (though neither were his compatriots in the booth). Far too excited and exclamatory at most of the wrong times.

Every move is not the equivalent of Lance dropping Jan on Alpe d’Huez.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew... on Jul 1, 2008 8:44 AM EDT up 0 recs

was it just me

who found the whole protect-doping-riders schtick completely unbelievable? Esp. from a guy who drug tests his own employees?

by Sui Juris on Jun 30, 2008 7:11 PM EDT up 0 recs

Try this

form a mental picture of someone that you don’t despise delivering his schtick, or read it using someone else’s voice. Like Ricky Ricardo, or Homer Simpson. That helps me…

by Jimbo... on Jun 30, 2008 7:49 PM EDT up 0 recs

I did, and

after hearing Homer tell me that all dopers really need is more understanding, all I could think was

D’OH!

Still doesn’t get it.

by Sui Juris on Jun 30, 2008 8:14 PM EDT up 0 recs

Since when is NASCAR cool? Ugh.

Just here for the view

by ZoeRochelle on Jun 30, 2008 10:47 PM EDT up 0 recs

Jered...

...did you really mean to write “Sexy Back” on Pez??

“Switzerland: Fabian Cancellara (CSC-Sexy Back)”

Nice one. :)

-Greg

by gregm on Jun 30, 2008 4:53 PM EDT 0 recs

He gave credit to Ruthann for the thread

but I so have to laugh that our bringin’ Sexy Back name made it onto Pez. Score Ruthann!

Oh and Jered – HUGE congrats with your moving to Austria!!! So many good lucks your way with that!
Hope you share more soon!

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Jun 30, 2008 5:47 PM EDT 0 recs

I saw this, including the "how we pay in" details

From the press release,
highlighted here
” Ten percent of all Rock Racing on-line sales will benefit the fund as will 100 percent of proceeds from special Fund-branded products to be introduced later this year. The goal is to raise $20 million over the next two years.”
That means if the other teams don’t come up with something similar-and FAST-I will have to sport some fuggly piece of RR gear soon.

GarMEN, do you hear me? I want to pay extra for a bike-specific road finder, and have you throw money into racer insurance. Or how about bike shorts with SexyBack” on the ass, size XL? (Sure, assvertizing is so 2007, but how could anyone resist that?).
(Note to QS: little spoons / mirrors would not be good items for your team. Trust me.)

C’mon, teams, step up. Even if you are based in one of the many countries with actual health care, you never know when you’ll have to hire someone from the US.

by JFS_PGH on Jun 30, 2008 6:49 PM EDT 0 recs

this is going to be harder than I thought

Again, I even admire that it’s almost all “made in USA.” But I don’t WANT a skull with snakes in “road rash” (red) or “venom” (chartreuse). However, if you secretly do…click.

by JFS_PGH on Jun 30, 2008 6:59 PM EDT up 0 recs

ha!

Even if you are based in one of the many countries with actual health care, you never know when you’ll have to hire someone from the US.

Funny, because if I don’t laugh, it’s too )_(*#!#@ sad.

I did make another sponsor-influenced purchase the other day. Stuck in ATL without a pair of shorts, so I stopped by REI. Usually a North Face guy, but picked up the Columbia shorts. That said, I’m really not sure that I can bring myself to drop the coin on a new Edge 705, yet. Thus far I’m satisfied with stealing Megabeth’s Forerunner 301.

by Sui Juris on Jun 30, 2008 7:10 PM EDT up 0 recs