- 04:36 AM
- 04/20/24
My list had the Angels listed as the Anaheim Angels so my brain skipped over them.
posted by tieguy at 01:26 AM on June 16, 2008
So now I've got a spreadsheet (no losers, only winners. Someone else can do that.) I think I've got the years lined up right, though I probably don't account for things crossing years very well (like Sox '07/Celts '08 if it happens.) Besides the ones mentioned above: '35: Detroit Tigers/Lions, and Red Wings won in spring '36, so I guess all three teams were holding the title at the same time? '27: Yankees/football Giants, though the Giants did not win a championship game- merely had the best regular season title before there was a championship game. '28: Yankees/Rangers '33: baseball giants/Rangers '52: Lions/Red Wings (I ignored the AFL-NFL split years in the '60s for football; also, during this period the Lakers were losing a lot to the Celts while the Dodgers were winning.) Impressively, the Celts and Bruins managed to miss each other in the late '60s/early 70s, looks like. Ditto Pirates/Steelers of the same era. '86: Mets/football Giants '89: (sort of): A's/49ers (obviously giants/raiders fans disagree.) '04: Sox/Patriots (duh, given how this came up.) Perhaps the thing that was most interesting to me about this list was how many great dynasties (Jordan's Bulls, the Yankees, early Celtics, '49ers, Steelers, etc.) never overlapped with other great teams in their cities. You'd think that would happen more often. Boston fans really do have it historically good in that sense- even Detroit in '35/'36 didn't have that.
posted by tieguy at 04:09 AM on June 14, 2008
Hal: Mets fall of '69, Knicks spring of '70; also Lakers and Dodgers in '88. In baseball-football, Yankees/Giants did it in '38 and '56. I immediately guessed 'Knicks-Yankees', just because the Yankees have so many titles the odds are good, but forgot that the Knicks only titles came during the '64-'76 Yanks malaise. Oddly, the most recent (football) Giants titles came during Yankees droughts as well (the '81-'96 drought and '01-present). Rangers-Yankees also have some overlap, I think. No three-fers for NY that I can see, and I can't imagine there are any for other cities either- Chicago's baseball titles well predate professional football and basketball; the Lions and Tigers had long dry spells, and so on. It'd be interesting for someone with more time on their hands to see if the three appearances in championship games in the same year is unprecedented- I'd imagine it must be. (Handy reference chart for someone who wants to undertake it.)
posted by tieguy at 03:45 AM on June 14, 2008
The Sox had two double steals today, both featuring Ellsbury. Bizzarro Sox! Far cry from the manufacture-runs-by-walks-and-hits-and-none-of-those-pesky-steals team of '04 (that did, admittedly, have one of the most famous postseason steals ever in the ALCS.)
posted by tieguy at 09:59 PM on May 04, 2008
The whole starting lineup is signed though, right?
posted by tieguy at 02:57 PM on April 30, 2008
$17.5million over 6 (guaranteed) seasons is really not that big of an investment for a MLB team. It's actually below the current average salary, so if the kid is good, this is a steal.
posted by tieguy at 08:50 AM on April 19, 2008
Weedy: the difference is that in China you could be arrested for posting a criticism like that on sportsfilter.cn- that is, if you could get to a politically sensitive page like this at all. I fully agree that the US has lost a fair amount of moral high ground in the past seven years, and as someone with Latin American roots, I'm pretty strongly aware of how weak that high ground was well before that- most of Latin American could swap notes pretty handily with Tibet. If people wanted to protest an American Olympics right now, they'd have every right. But even with all that damage China's government, and the lack of rights people have to protest it, is still in a different, even lower, class. Relatedly, that's why I don't even feel that badly for the torch runners. They chose to participate in an event that was explicitly- from day one of the bidding process- planned as a propaganda coup for the Chinese government, through which they would announce to the world that they had ascended into the realm of modern, respectable, 'first class' nations. (They didn't build those fancy stadiums to show off how effective forced labor is.) Unfortunately, China has been called out on what a lie that is, and so those who were being used as part of the propaganda (torch runners, athletes, etc.) are being caught up in it. Certainly it wasn't their intent to propagandize China, so I feel a little badly of them, but they should point the blame at the IOC- which damn well knew it was a propaganda exercise when they accepted the Beijing bid- rather than the protesters who are trying to expose the Chinese government for the authoritarian police state that it is. (And don't get me started on the 'if we expose them to our culture, they'll realize how bad their government is' stuff. It is basically true- but in letting the Chinese government set up all the ground rules for the Olympics, you really think the average Chinese citizen is going to get any exposure to Western democratic values? No, they're going to get hours and hours of propaganda about how the Olympics proves the greatness of China and the Chinese government. By participating- by showing our flag there- we're only complicit in that masquerade.)
posted by tieguy at 05:04 PM on April 08, 2008
lbb: no, not you specifically, sorry if I gave that impression. Lots of others, though. (Or alternately, it is only about Darfur, or only about... whatever.)
posted by tieguy at 09:02 PM on April 07, 2008
It also sucks to be a Tibetan Buddhist nun imprisoned and tortured for taking part in a demonstration. Or a college student shot and killed in Tiananmen, only to have it stricken from your country's history books. Or a Darfurian starved by a government suported by China in return for mineral resources. Or a blogger jailed for speaking their mind, or an athlete prohibited from speaking about all this. The list is very, very long; I could go on. I'm sad that so many people think it is only about Tibet. If the IOC didn't want politics, they shouldn't have given the games to a police state.
posted by tieguy at 07:19 PM on April 07, 2008
Jalopnik has extensive coverage of this. It is indeed hilarious.
posted by tieguy at 04:22 PM on April 05, 2008
Jeez. I've complained about the Dolphins pathetic drafting of late (particularly painful when the Patriots draft magic is in your division) but at least we've had successful draft picks more recently than 1986...
posted by tieguy at 04:14 PM on April 05, 2008
Uhm, what? The Pats O line, the one commentators drooled over all year is a problem? Well, there is the detail that the Giants D line should have collectively been the MVP of the Super Bowl. Partially their great play, partially the Pats O line's complete inability to block most of the night.
posted by tieguy at 12:34 PM on February 06, 2008
162-0. If the Red Sox lose a game next year, I am going to be pissed. I know this was said in jest, but man... if a Boston fan 10 years ago had set this as their bar for excellence, they'd have been laughed out of the room. Now everyone just hates them quietly, fearing it just might happen...
posted by tieguy at 06:19 PM on December 30, 2007
For the record, I'm with chico. Life-long Dolphins fan, so multiple reasons (AFC East and '72) to hate the Pats, but man... what they've accomplished is certainly the most impressive single-season team achievement I've ever seen in sports. Asterisk it, do whatever you want, but even with all the disclaimers it trumps any other single season in NFL history- probably even '72, if only because this year's Pats offense was such an unstoppable force. That said, they won't be more than a touchdown favorite against the Colts, and a loss in that game shouldn't shock anyone- as kokaku's link pointed out, 24 teams have outscored their regular season opponents by more than 2-1, but only 10 won it all.
posted by tieguy at 04:06 PM on December 30, 2007
So... given that their three year records are almost identical (with Willingham posting a better record against ranked teams), why was Willingham fired and Weis given a multi-year, multi-million dollar extension? I'm not necessarily sold that race was a factor, but if 'notre dame wants to win', and Willingham's losses were the reason he got fired, then Weis should be out the door too. And he's not.
posted by tieguy at 02:02 PM on December 17, 2007
I'd met a streak runner before (he was going on 15 years, I think) but didn't realize it was a widespread thing. Wild.
posted by tieguy at 08:59 AM on December 17, 2007
I look forward to being on a plane for the 1-13 v. 14-0 game.
posted by tieguy at 07:18 AM on December 17, 2007
woooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. This has been the most painful football season of my entire life, between Duke, the Hurricanes, and the 'Fins. Of course, we're going to lose by 40 to the Pats next week.
posted by tieguy at 04:24 PM on December 16, 2007
For the record, that wasn't my plan, it was grum's.
posted by tieguy at 07:28 PM on December 15, 2007
Oh, but he hired Bob Goodenow. So he's not actually going to 'succeed'.
posted by tieguy at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2007
Great. This is the first step towards my evil plan, announced ages ago here on spofi, for the NHL to contract to 16 teams and merge with a 16 team Euro league to form the first global sports league.
posted by tieguy at 11:53 AM on December 15, 2007
If Selig had wanted, this all could have been done with sealed results. Only shared with the players and their respective teams, and the players association. Ah, yes, because that would have made the player's association see the light. Or not. Don't get me wrong; I'm not thrilled with this outcome. But the player's association has mostly itself to blame for being so obstinate for so many years over this issue, and I'm not convinced that anything short of public shaming like this would have convinced them to see the light.
posted by tieguy at 10:18 AM on December 15, 2007
Nice list, but can't be complete until it lists the most memorable days of the season- like the three weekends where #1 and #2 lost.
posted by tieguy at 09:56 AM on December 15, 2007
+1 to most of what Weedy says, though I think in part the NFL gets away with it because it has no pretensions of being high and mighty and 'pure.' It is trench warfare, and people know it.
posted by tieguy at 05:23 PM on December 14, 2007
By your reasoning, you would be OK with your kids taking performance enhancing drugs just as long as you can get that ELECTRIC chill when you watch them play. Which, frankly, is probably a majority position. You'll note that baseball attendance has been steadily increasing in the past few years despite the whole steroid thing and despite the media constantly obsessing over whether or not the sport will 'survive' the 'steroid era'.
posted by tieguy at 12:55 PM on December 14, 2007
It's not "broken". It's job is to protect the players. The best thing the union can do for the players is to move aggressively to restore some integrity to the sport. Instead, it is 'protecting' them by keeping this cloud over all of their heads (both the guilty and the innocent); helping the guilty pressure the innocent into damaging their integrity and their health; and threatening the future of the sport. They are trying to protect the guilty, and not only are they doing a poor job of that, they are screwing over both the current innocents and all future players as well.
posted by tieguy at 10:26 AM on December 14, 2007
Here's a wrench.....Not many of these players were EVER busted by a bad test. They were not busted by a bad test because MLB and the players union had their heads up their asses in the sand, and so refused to test. To me, the most damning part of the report was not the naming of names, but the letter from the player's union telling players not to cooperate with the report. That tells me the player's union is still deeply broken with regards to this issue.
posted by tieguy at 06:33 AM on December 14, 2007
Actually, apparently that list isn't complete; that is just the names listed in one particular section. Oops.
posted by tieguy at 01:58 PM on December 13, 2007
Complete (and correct) list here, but as the comments mention, this is just 'the guys who weren't smart enough to use cash.' So if your favorite player isn't here, that doesn't mean much, except that he's not quite as flagrant about it as these guys.
posted by tieguy at 01:54 PM on December 13, 2007
Because he...ahem...OWES THE FALCONS TWO MORE GAMES AND FOUR MORE YEARS ON HIS CONTRACT.
Ah, yes, because we all know the great sanctity of contract in the NFL. The great lengths to which team owners, GMs, and players treat the sanctity of the mighty contract.
Or not.
Look, I'm not saying that Petrino is somebody I'd want my kids to look up to or anything. But I wouldn't go around telling my kids he's a loathsome, 'chickenshit', individual either. Coaches, GMs, and players in the NFL break contracts all the time. On the grand scale of reasons to break them, this one seems fairly respectable to me- he's an offensive coach, and he came to Atlanta to work with a unique offensive talent who is no longer in Atlanta. And I'm sure he's leaving a lot of money on the table by walking away now. So... dunno. Chickenshit seems like a very strong, very irrational label to use on him.
posted by tieguy at 09:46 PM on December 11, 2007
but what a chicken-shit move to not even finish out the season.
Why? The Falcons season is finished; they have no chance of making the playoffs. And this is an important time for a new coach at a college- you have to assemble a staff starting now.
To put it another way: if he stays, he doesn't help the Falcons at all, and he hurts Arkansas and himself. I don't see why that makes him chickenshit.
posted by tieguy at 08:33 PM on December 11, 2007
Can you blame him? He clearly signed up to coach Vick, not the Falcons.
posted by tieguy at 06:11 PM on December 11, 2007
Howard: it sets a low bar, but don't worry, ESPN can lower itself to any bar, no matter how low you put it.
posted by tieguy at 11:27 AM on December 09, 2007
(I'm completely biased because Neyer and Law know more about baseball than most of the rest of the BBWAA combined.)
posted by tieguy at 04:15 PM on December 08, 2007
The exchange in the comments is pretty spectacular. Hey, Neyer and Law aren't writers, because, well, they don't go to ballparks. It's like these guys have never heard of TV, much less the intarwebs. [And I realize there may have been good historical reasons for that at one point, but c'mon, guys... 2007. You've just exposed yourself to ridicule all over the internet. Get off your asses and fix the problem already.]
posted by tieguy at 07:04 PM on December 07, 2007
If Boston picks up Santana... This is weird to say about a team with Manny and Ortiz, but if the Sox pick up Santana at the price of Ellsbury, I wonder a bit where the offensive firepower comes from for the Sox. Despite the offensive outburst that ended the season, last year's team sputtered a bit at times offensively, and Ellsbury looked like a very nice salve for that. And you know Lowell will regress a bit to the mean next year- he can't have career years back-to-back at his age. So... can you look a gift Santana in the mouth? No. But I think I'd rather a few more bats than arms in Fenway. [Not to mention that offering Santana $150M makes me gag a little. He's probably worth it if any pitcher is, but leave that kind of contract to the Yankees.]
posted by tieguy at 09:11 PM on December 05, 2007
Wait. Curt Schilling has a blog? Really? REALLY? Oh, yes. And a mighty self-absorbed and entertaining one, even by bloggy standards. (OTOH, Posnanski's blog is pretty self-absorbed too- does he seriously think the BBWAA is what brings seriousness to the MVP awards? What crack is he on?)
posted by tieguy at 08:34 PM on December 05, 2007
My eyes did glaze over at some point during this "discussion", but I have to say that if you can't understand why W/Ls are almost always a lousy metric to measure a pitcher by, this may be the wrong sports site for you. More specifically... yeah, the Tigers have a heck of a lineup, and while Willis clearly had a rough year last year, I'm sure most teams would be more than happy to have him as a #3-4 pitcher. I think it was someone at Baseball Prospectus who said next year's AL regular season will be fascinating- Indians, Yankees, Sox and Tigers are all loaded, but only three of them can make it into the playoffs. Someone is going to be left out, and they aren't going to be happy...
posted by tieguy at 05:24 PM on December 05, 2007
'Luther says maybe the Catholic Church wasn't so bad after all.'
posted by tieguy at 09:09 PM on December 04, 2007
Sagarin has Hawaii's SOS ranked 137th. Obviously, you can take your computer rankings with a grain of salt, but that is abominably bad. (I wish someone did something like KenPom's awesome stats database for college fb.)
posted by tieguy at 02:50 PM on December 02, 2007
I'm with urall cloolis. Especially if Duke can somehow steal Paul Johnson away in time for the game.
posted by tieguy at 01:16 PM on December 02, 2007
I'm actually a reasonable fan of the BCS (or at least as close to one as there is, I think.) Most years the regular season is a fair-ish playoff. But this year... man. You could not have wished for a better, wilder, more chaotic scenario if you dislike the BCS. They should delay the human polls for a week so we can argue about it...
posted by tieguy at 09:14 AM on December 02, 2007
Just when you thought the Knicks couldn't sink any lower...
posted by tieguy at 09:11 AM on November 21, 2007
grum: I knew King hadn't voted for Martinez; but I didn't realize he'd voted for pitchers in immediately previous years. Thanks for spreading the knowledge, even if it did make me throw up in my mouth a little.
posted by tieguy at 12:40 PM on November 20, 2007
Sagarin has ND's schedule strength as #3 this year. Surprised me, honestly.
posted by tieguy at 11:17 AM on November 17, 2007
Someone from deadspin points out that this may, in fact, be the worst nationally televised football game ever.
posted by tieguy at 04:54 PM on November 16, 2007
NBC is indeed televising it. I believe this will be my first chance to see Duke football in glorious HD, in fact.
posted by tieguy at 01:29 PM on November 16, 2007
Very cool- thanks for the link.
posted by tieguy at 08:09 PM on November 14, 2007
(grabs popcorn)
posted by tieguy at 09:17 AM on November 14, 2007
There is a sucker born every minuteA sucker buys a share of stock in something every minute.
posted by tieguy at 03:34 PM on November 13, 2007
17-0* * not exactly gracious winners. [And this from a lifelong Dolphins fan who would take Shula and Marino above any other coach and QB ever anywhere.]
posted by tieguy at 10:34 AM on November 07, 2007
I want to like this article, but I think he lost me when he said that Papelbon blows up the closer myth. Papelbon may blow up the 'incredibly highly paid older closer' myth, but there is no sense of the word that he is not a fireballing, modern closer on the mound. But hey... if this guy wants to convince other teams not to have fireballing closers, and the Sox keep Papelbon, I'm OK with that.
posted by tieguy at 04:20 PM on November 05, 2007
Darren Rovell asks an interesting question about Weis's contract. Bottom line for Rovell: the contract is so huge that ND probably couldn't fire Weis even if they wanted to.
posted by tieguy at 08:03 AM on November 05, 2007
Very cool. Wish it had a bit more explanatory text.
posted by tieguy at 07:30 PM on November 01, 2007
Terrific article- thanks, holden.
posted by tieguy at 11:14 AM on November 01, 2007
I love the phrase 'Towering Inferno of arrogance.'
posted by tieguy at 01:53 PM on October 30, 2007
The one-year team thing worked fine for the Marlins for their first run.
posted by tieguy at 03:41 PM on October 29, 2007
Not even for doing it in the 8th inning of the last game of a World Series he wasn't involved in? Exactly. This is a business; he can opt out if he wants to, and he won't be alone. But he could have done it any time in the next 10 days- doing it during the world series was a crass, self-centered gesture far above and beyond what any other player opting out of their contract has done. Justified or not, it will confirm his image as a self-centered jerk at a time. Hopefully the multiple reamings he received for it on ESPN will make teams think twice about signing him, so that (for once) a Boras client has to pay for being associated with such a bore. Sadly, I'm not holding my breath. Also, Rovell on the deal; he predicts 8 years @ 32M/per, with a bidding war between the three california teams and (possibly) the Yankees stepping back in, like they stepped back in with Torre after basically promising to fire him.
posted by tieguy at 02:54 PM on October 29, 2007
Yankees Stay Atop East with Extra Inning Comeback
It's sort of outrageous/insane that the Yankees are +105, the Os are -5, and yet the Os are only one game back.