I have to admit that I watched these games a lot more than I have some in the past. It might be because I have a 16-year-old at home right now that loves all things sports.

Or it might be because that 16-year-old isn’t around the house anymore and I’ve begun searching for things to do because he’s not there. I really enjoyed watching the swimming because Michael Phelps made that easy to do and the track and field events weren’t bad to watch with the exception of the fact that are runners apparently have no idea about how to pass a baton.

Some of the other sports, especially the volleyball, baseball, water polo and gymnastics weren’t too bad to watch either.

But I still have trouble seeing how a game most of us learn to play in a garage or basement with friends can be an Olympic sport. Yes, I’m talking about table tennis or ping pong, as I know it. The Chinese apparently won almost all the medals awarded in that sport. One sportscaster said 425 million people (about 120 million more people than there are in the United States) watched a table tennis match.

Take away the four gold medals the Chinese won in table tennis and the gap between that country and the U.S. narrows significantly. But I also think you could take away the gold medal the United States won in beach volleyball. I don’t think table tennis, beach volleyball, badminton (another sport most of us learned to play in the front yard), artistic gymnastics and synchronized swimming qualify as a worthy of the Olympics  either especially since the International Olympics Committee has dropped what was once America’s favorite pastime, baseball, as well as softball for the 2012 games in London.

How can you drop baseball and softball and keep a sport like handball? In case you missed it during the Beijing Games, handball is a sport that looks a lot like soccer to me, except you can use your hands to throw what looks like a nerfball into a net. You don’t have to dribble the ball or hit it with a bat or catch it with a net and then throw it. It sure didn’t seem like much of a sport to me. In fact, it looked like a game my son and his best friend used to make up when they were younger and had some time to kill.

Now that the Olympics are gone, I guess I have to go back to my favorite past-time of late, watching the hummingbirds drink from feeders in my yard and the yards of my neighbors.

To each his own, I guess.

Now while it’s obvious that Jimmy Johnson probably deserved to win the Brickyard 400 (notice I didn’t mention the official name of the race), no one else even had a chance to prove they had a car that they might have brought home first.

There was no race Sunday. The have longer runs between pit stops at the Brownstown Speedway. Heck they don’t even have pits stops at the Brownstown Speedway.

I know there was a safety issue, but Sunday’s debacle was almost as bad as they one involving Formula I at Indy in 2005.

It’s easy to blame the track for the tire problems even though nothing’s been done to the track since 2005. Michelin did it back in 2005.

NASCAR and the crews chiefs should have held an open test at the Speedway and they didn’t. So let’s blame them. But let’s also blame Goodyear.

That company has a reputation to uphold, and I don’t think they did a very good job of that Sunday.

I think NASCAR needs to reconsider and allowed anyone who can meet specs to sell tires for races. Teams have all kinds of options when it comes to chassis, car bodies, engines and even drivers. Why is Goodyear the only supplier for tires?

A lot of drivers spoke out about Sunday’s non-race, but one in particular, Tony Stewart, was silent on the issue at least that day. He later said on his radio show that he couldn’t blame Goodyear entirely.

I guess as car owner, Tony is trying to learn to be a little more diplomatic and maybe that’s why he was silent Sunday. That’s a shame because while he might not always be right, Tony sure doesn’t have a problem saying what he thinks. NASCAR could use a little more of that especially in light of Sunday’s non-race.

A lot of fans, including myself, left the track less than happy. Some of us may not be back. There were a lot of empty seats Sunday and there will probably be more next year even if NASCAR says they have the tire issue corrected.

As for Tony, I’m glad to see him jump on a deal that made him a instant car owner and promises to keep him involved in the sport for years to come. Who wouldn’t jump on the chance to be a car owner without having to put a lot of money into it.

Tony brings a lot to the table and hopefully he may one day make Stewart-Haas a top team. That would be special.

I like to think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t have to drop names to prove my importance.

But I think I will anyway.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed Tony Stewart, Fuzzy Zoeller, Evan Bayh, Mitch Daniels, Frank O’Bannon, Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser Jr. and a host of other well-known individuals. I’ve had the opportunity to cover events featuring former Vice President Dan Quayle as well as his wife, Marilyn, former President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Barrack Obama. I also had the chance to say “howdy” to Gomer Pyle one time after an Indianapolis 500.

My favorite encounter with a famous person, however, occurred long before I became a journalist.

At the time, this person wasn’t famous himself. In fact, he was a little boy of maybe four or five years of age. I was just a 16-year-old teenager trying to make a buck so I could keep paying the then unheard price of 69 cents for a gallon of gasoline.

My work as an usher at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis led to my meeting the child of one of the future members of the Big Red Machine. There were many players from a squad that would win the World Series in 1975 and 1976 playing for the Indianapolis Indians in 1973.

I knew many of their wives by sight, and some of their children as well.

One of those children just happened to be Ken Griffey Jr. Like most boys of that age, Junior loved to throw or roll a ball down the ramp to the area where he sat with his mom and other player’s wives and children.

He wouldn’t remember much about me from his days hanging out at Bush Stadium.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of how far this little boy would go in the world of baseball.

It was great to see him recently hit his 600th homer and join an elite crowd of just five other players in the game’s history. I’m happy that Griffey’s name will go down in history with the likes of Ruth, Aaron, Bonds, Mays and Sosa.

In my book, Griffey’s already got a leg up on at least three of the people on that list because he seems to have been able to stay out of trouble. He also is a far better role model than some of the other members of that club.

Junior might not be the greatest player to ever play the game. But he’s in my top 10.

The dazzling beauty sparked a fairly big surge of the interest in the sport when she appeared on the scene several years ago. You could tell Patrick had more going for herself than looks at that time, and her win in her 50th start Saturday night proved she has what it takes to get to victory lane - often.

I knew she could do it, and I’m sure her victory is going to make this year’s Indianapolis 500 more exciting.

As a kid growing up near the track, the 500 was the race to see and in my book it still is the greatest race in the world.

I’ve only missed six races (including the last three) in a time span of 40 years, but I have no intentions of missing this one. It sure would be great to see Patrick wind up in victory lane.

It was a little odd to see tears in victory lane. It’s not something you’re likely to see out of Tony Stewart, but I’m sure she’s not the first one to shed a few after a win.

Way to go Danica. I hope you keep kicking some butt in a male-dominated sport.

Despite what many think, I really don’t care who wins the game. Yes, I have a son who is a freshman at Brownstown Central and he’s hyped about the game. And my wife is a Brownstown Central graduate. I know who both of them will be rooting for Friday night.

I on the other hand only truly care about how my Ben Davis Giants do on Friday night.

I still think the Braves-Owls game will be good for the community and one that will be talked about for a long time to come. It’s a game that should have been played many years ago.

I hope the two schools continue to meet for years to come. Here’s wishing both team “Good Luck.”

Tony wants to win every time he straps into a race car and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think he was probably out of line after Saturday’s incident with his teammate, Denny Hamlin, at Daytona, but even Joe Gibbs stuck up for two-time champion. I think he was pretty hasty in making a decision about who was at fault in this melee.

Tony often opens his mouth before thinking about the consquences of what he says, but that’s who he is. He reminds me a lot of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who never caused a wreck in his life on the track if you asked him. It was “just racing,” Earnardt would say.

It didn’t, however, change my opinion one bit about a Hoosier who claims he’s not a politician, but simply a race car driver who just wants to win.

I’ve not given up on Tony’s chances of winning another title although rival Jeff Gordon sure looks like he’s well on the way to another title. Tony is doing what he needs to do to make sure he makes the chase, but he doesn’t need anything similar to what happened Saturday night to occur again. It’s not been that good of a season for Stewart, but he can still turn things around. A couple of wins would do a lot to help the cause.