Opinion: A Step in the Right Direction

Based on the number of times the announcers and commentators referred to "the Brazilians" last weekend (about five), someone has finally come to their senses.  The five mentions are in stark contrast to the dozens of times we've heard it in almost every broadcast this season.

The PBR has seemed hellbent on turning this season into a prolonged World Cup rather than a regular season in which individual bull riders compete in an individual sport for an individual title.  It created a sense of nationality-based competition rather than individual competition.  It wasn't good for the season and it wasn't good for the fans.  I can only imagine how it felt to other riders.

And ultimately it wasn't good for the men from Brazil.  It's never good to lump individuals into a group based on any aspect, or to constantly refer to individuals as "one of  the Brazilians" or "the Brazilian bunch" or any of the other numerous phrases the PBR has used.  The most important thing about a person is not where they come from.

I am a fan of some, not all, riders.  Some of my favorites come from Brazil, some come from my home country.  I don't like to think of any of them as "the" anything.  I like to think of them as riders.

The hiring of a translator was an act of brilliance long overdue.  Fans will begin to relate to riders as individuals, and learn about who they are.  We have already seen that this is true for the announcers, who repeatedly talked about getting to know Silvano Alves and Fabiano Vieira through the interpreter last weekend, and the things that it surprised them to learn.  And all of us had a chance to get to know Valdiron de Oliveira better.  A translator gives the men who don't speak English well a chance to tell their story and let themselves be known.

I don't know about you, but I had a deep sense of relief after last week's broadcast.  Finally, we seem to be back to bull riding, men against bulls, without caring where the men are from. 

PBR Notes: San Antonio

Right up through the third round, I was liking this weekend of bull riding.  It just had a good feel to it.  There were some nice rides and a lot of really good bulls.  There was even a near-poetic save by Wendel Runyan of Josh Faircloth from the wild & brockle-faced Whiskey's Rebel.  I was happy.  After three weeks of decent but ho-hum bull ridings, this was a really good one.

Then it turned out to be one of those games in which everything happens in the last quarter.

• Guilherme Marchi makes a last minute surge with a 90.50 ride on Back Bender to lead Shane Proctor by 2 points with two rides left.

• Reese Cates rides like he's stuck to the bull and makes his fourth ride of the weekend, edging out Marchi.

• Shane Proctor shakes off his Built Ford Tough slump, rides his fourth bull of the weekend, and wins the event over Cates by 1.75 points.

• Silvano Alves walks away from a bad wreck with a trashed vest and hoof-shaped bruises all over his chest.  

• Asteroid knocks the socks off Josh Faircloth and just about everyone else with a massive out, winning high bull score over Bushwacker for the second time in a row. 

• And I'm a Gangster goes down and gets up three times in his effort to get Fabiano Vieira off his back.  Then he goes down again.

All of this in the last ten rides of the weekend, a period of maybe 30 minutes, when everything about bull riding, the good, the sad, and the scary, played out in the arena and kind of took your breath away.

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Read more about San Antonio bull scores and pedigrees in Bulls and Bloodlines.  And check out San Antonio by the Numbers to see what the facts and figures say.

San Antonio by the Numbers

90 point rides: 1 (Guilherme Marchi on Back Bender)  

45+ bulls: 3  (See Bulls and Bloodlines for details)  

Number of bull scores under 40:  5  

Reride options: 2  

Muley count:  5 (Set me straight, muley counters.)  

Scurs count: 1 (Okay, nearly impossible to tell with scurs.)

Clone count:  2   

Number of times blacklisted phrases were used: 1 ("turfed")  
Times Craig Hummer mispronounced Silvano Alves' first name:  Zero (Check You've Got Mail  to find out why.)  

Number of times announcers and commentators referred to "The Brazilians":  4 (As opposed to about 100 on all previous broadcasts this year.  Someone had a word with someone.  Individual sport, individual riders.  The most important thing about someone is not their nationality.)  

Riders with 4 rides:  2  

Riders with 3 rides:  2  

Riders with 2 rides:  2  

Riders with 1 ride:  14  

Riders with 0 rides:  19

Riders in going into Championship Round with only one prior ride:  4  

Riders placing in event top ten with only one ride:  5  

Most money won:  $45,026  

Riders winning no money:  19  

Times the chute judge yelled at riders to get out of there:  I counted 7.  (As opposed to 17 last week.  Someone's working on this.)  

Bulls with sponsorship names: 3  

Bulls with names they'd get beat up for if they were in 7th grade:  7

Bulls and Bloodlines: San Antonio

I don't have anything on I'm a Gangster except what was reported by the PBR, and what we saw.  He went down on his front legs and then down on his rear legs twice, but kept bucking.  Then he went down on his rear legs again after getting Vieira on the ground.

According to a PBR press release on Monday, veterinarian Gary Warner says that Gangster has pulled and torn ligaments in his rear left leg and possibly some nerve damage, but Robinson is reportedly "cautiously optimistic" about Gangster's return to competition by the World Finals in October.

Here's the video from PBR TV:

High Scoring Bulls (45+)

781 Asteroid - 46.50 (Circle T)
13/6 Bushwacker - 46.25 (Moreno/Oliveira)
JR070 Movin' On - 45.50 (Frontier Rodeo)  

Head to head  

For the second week in a row, Asteroid outscored Bushwacker.   

Say what?

034 Say When's bull score:  43.75.  I know he didn't spin, but okay, I say spinning is overrated!  (I'd last two seconds as a judge.)  I mark him 44.25.   Same deal with 59 Whiskey's Rebel (Boyd/Floyd).   

Broadcast bull talk

He wasn't scheduled to be on last night, but J.W. Hart soothed the soul that was pining for bull talk.   

In case you were wondering where Stubby went...

Stubby, formerly owned by D&H Page, is now known as Stanley Fatmax and is owned by Jeff Robinson.  I don't know if this is a sponsorship deal or what, but Stubby got robbed.   

Pedigree of the week

373 Hard Times:

Sire:  Chaos
Grandsire:  White Sports Coat
Granddam:  Rafter 7r 71   (Houdini daughter)

Dam:  Rafter 7r 65
Grandsire:  Spook
Granddam:  CP1 Kung Foo        

Other pedigree notes

-215 Amy's Pet (Robinson) is a son of Hot Damn.  His dam is a Broke Back V daughter.

034 Say When (Martinez/Hooper/Richards) is a Rapid Fire son.  His dam is a Bodacious daughter.

717 Hannibal (Robinson) is a grandson of Kish's Wolfman on the sire side and Kish's Velvet Hour on the dam side.

924B Immigrant (Frontier Rodeo) and 723 Panther (Circle T) are Houdini grandsons.

606 Big Cat (Box K) is a Happy Hour son and a Grasshopper grandson.

7032 Snowstorm (Ohl/Stockton) is a Panhandle Slim grandson on the sire side.  

Bull of the weekend

781 Asteroid  (Circle T).  Yeah, whoa.

Bull Talk: Tulsa

High Scoring Bulls (45+)

781 Asteroid - 46.50 (Circle T)

404 I'm a Gangster - 46 (Robinson)

13/6 Bushwacker - 45.50 (Moreno/Oliveira)

868 After Party - 45.25 (Circle T)

Not much broadcast bull talk 

And we won't be getting J.W. Hart back any time soon, so hold your heads up, bambinos, and hang on.

Three Reindeer sons:

Bushwacker, Ransom, and Red Man.  Great to see Cindy Rosser's Reindeer sons perform at the same event as their brother.  Ransom bucked off Ben Jones and Elliott Jacoby had the high score of Round One on Red Man.  These are great bulls to look at:  Ransom looks like his dad sprinkled with brindle.  Red Man is a red bull with a brockle face that echoes Bushwacker's.  Not sure what the dominant gene is, but Reindeer throws a lot of white or brockle-faced calves.

Pedigree-at-a-glance

514A Bahada:  Grandson of Blueberry Wine (sire side) and Sports Machine (dam side). (K & K)

61 Wine Hu:  Grandson of Houdini (sire side) and Blueberry Wine (dam side).  (Lightning C)

777 Misery Business:  Ratjen breeding on the dam side. (Hart/Switchhouse)

Bulls of the weekend:

781 Asteroid  (Circle T).  He gets ranker every out and this weekend outbucked every bull in the pen.  Before the event Cody Lambert said that Asteroid isn't yet at the level of Bushwacker and I'm a Gangster.  I bet this weekend changed his opinion.  Amazing.  (See bull profile here.)

868 After Party  (Circle T).  This guy shines every week.  Every week.

Bull Talk: Billings

High-marked bulls:

Note:  Usually I just list 45+ scores, but there was only one, so here you have 44+ scores:

42 Braveheart - 45.25 (Leffew/D-M)
868 After Party - 44.75 (Circle T)
781 Asteroid - 44.75 (Circle T)
615 Slim's Ghost - 44.50 (Robinson)
861 Speckled Ivory - 44.50 (Circle T)
67 Toy Soldier - 44.25 (Circle T)
5081 Highway 12 - 44.25 (Robinson)
30 Oklahoma Star - 44.25 (C'N Stars)
Stanley FatMax - 44.25 (Robinson)
651 The Situation - 44.25 (Dakota Rodeo/Berger)
H50 Blu Emu's Hank - 44 (Robinson)
W1 Buckey - 44 (Wentz)

Commentators:

If we don't get J.W. Hart back soon to put some bull info back into the broadcast, I'm going to weep.  In an event like this, with a lot of bulls many of us weren't familiar with, the lack of breeding and background information made for a long three days for those of us who tune in to watch, admire, learn about, and root for them. 

Who's your daddy (or momma):

655 Cowboy Casanova (Mesa Pate) is out of a Kish bred cow (Too Legit daughter).

510P Willie Wilco (Robinson) is a grandson of Playboy Skoal on the sire side and Bodacious on the dam side.

723 Panther (Circle T) and 434 Sam T. Straight (Bobby Harrison) are both Houdini grandsons on the sire side.

868 After Party (Circle T) is straight Ratjen breeding. 

Big bull: 

Willie Wilco

Little bull:

Rusty Zipper

Favorite bull (don't jump on me, it's subjective):

After Party.  He's not the bull that takes your breath away, but he does his job, works hard, and doesn't back down from a challenge.  I could watch this bull all day and feel happy.

Runners up:  Braveheart (who probably had the rankest trip of the weekend and definitely has the best name) and Asteroid.

The problem with predictions

The problem with predictions in bull riding is that they never pan out.  Well, if you're me they don't.  And frankly, the commentators don't do all that well either.

Here's an eleven-point analysis of the prediction problem.

1.  Bulls.  Large animals bred to get ticked off when men climb on their backs. 

2.  Heads, horns, hooves, and ground.  Velocity.  The comparative frailty of even the fittest human body.

3.  Scoring.  It isn't gymnastics or diving.  It isn't T-ball where you get a prize just for being on the team.  No ride, no score.

4.  Lengthy season.  Injuries add up, people get tired, and the long haul is...long.  Not everyone is cut out for it.

5.  The mental game.  Bull riding?  What could possibly psych you out about that.

6.  Odds. Only in baseball and bull riding is 50% considered really good.

7.  Favorites.  I know at least one rider who is perfect, and I'll bet on him every time.  Stupid idea.

8.  Hot streaks.  Everyone loves them.  Desire to be on a fast-sailing ship.

9.  Denial.  Willingness to believe that the ship will continue to sail fast even if it is obvious to everyone else that it is sinking.

10.  Trust.  If you hear it on TV, it must be true.  I rarely fall prey to this one. If you believe everything commentators say about riders, your brain will turn into a yo-yo.  Or sludge.

11.  Luck.  Always a tyrant.

That's the deal.  I will own up to #7-9 as something I could control and don't.  The rest is just the name of the game. I vow to make no more predictions until the next time I am overcome with certainty.  I made one just the other day, but I'm not saying what it was.

Thackerville Bulls

A few notes on this weekend's bulls.

1.  I thought the Classic bulls looked sluggish, but maybe it was the dirt.  In spite of that, only 14 rides on Friday.

2.  Ransom gets fifth in the Classic.  Reindeer son makes good.  Keep your eye on him.

3.  Red flanks seem to be catching on.  I'm all for it.

4.  Anyone else think Pure Smoke looked slow?

5.  Looks like Jeff Robinson has added Haunted Hotel, High Steaks, and Stubby to his ever-growing herd.

6.  Bono runs off down the arena.  Ty Murray says, "That bull just saw his last Built Ford Tough experience."  A little fast to banish? 


Best bulls of the weekend (strictly subjective):

Asteroid and Motown Magic.  Motown Magic looked massive getting rid of Chris Shivers (see video below), and Asteroid (see bull profile here) followed up his Pueblo performance with another high quality out here in Thackerville. 


High-marked bulls:

13/6 Bushwacker 46.25 (Moreno/Oliveira)
70S High Steaks 45.25 (Jeff Robinson)
781 Asteroid - 45 (Circle T)
789 Bad Blake - 45 (Lightning C)
683 Motown Magic - 45 (Circle T)
705 Shaky Waters (Show Sports)


Pretty Bull:

They showed a lot of nice close-ups of him this week, so I have to say: Bushwacker.  For the brockle-face.