- 07:38 AM
- 11/22/09
I do not see anything in the linked articles that suggests that Henry admitted he cheated, Dunne's characterization notwithstanding. (If you look at what Henry allegedly said, Dunne recounted it as "He just said he handled it, he didn't mean it" -- but then goes on to make his own conclusion that "Looking at it, it's quite obvious he did mean it.") Henry clearly has admitted that he handled the ball and that the goal should not have stood, but my personal definition of cheating (and I know we had a big semantic argument over this on SportsFilter some months or years back) requires intent. I am not sure he intended to handle the ball -- although, personally, the second bit of handling (where he played the ball off of his hand after it glanced off of his forearm) seems like it may have been intentional. But Henry seems steadfast in arguing that his handball was an instinctive/inadvertent action (or reaction).
posted by holden at 11:54 AM on November 20
The next best season on that list from 2009 belongs to Chris Carpenter at #82.
I call New Hampshire bias.
posted by holden at 11:18 AM on November 18
Good for the voters for getting it right and not just going for the guy with most wins.
posted by holden at 08:47 PM on November 17
You don't know what you're talking about. Romo didn't trash the coaches or play calling after that 44-6 loss last year, and I can't recall ever hearing him do it. You've said that a few times here, but absent a source, I think it's BS. If Romo had criticized the playcalling in a game the Cowboys lost by 38 points, it would have been widely ridiculed.
Owens, Romo Point Finger at Garrett for Failed Offensive
posted by holden at 09:31 PM on November 16
but, again, you're adding in the odds that Pittsburgh could convert the 4th and 2 against the Chiefs into the equation. I personally doubt the Pats would convert that play 60% of the time against the Colts in this situation.
But you are also adding in the odds whether the Chiefs (or Raiders or whoever) could convert against the Steelers (or Ravens or whoever), which is presumably lower than 60%. Fact is, the Patriots offense is much better than average, with a top three QB and two very good passing-game weapons in Moss and Welker plus another (Faulk) who excels in short-yardage situations. The Indy defense is above average, but not elite, and is missing two key pieces of the secondary as a result of injuries in the past few weeks. So, overall, I would say the 60% number is either a n on-target approximation or perhaps even a bit low.
I also believe that the call of "bobbling" on the first down attempt was very creative.
It appeared to me pretty clear that Faulk bobbled the ball; what was not clear was whether he really failed to establish possession after the bobble at or past the 30. It seemed to me he had possession at the 30, but I doubt it would have been overturned on replay (it appeared inconclusive on NBC's replays at least).
posted by holden at 04:29 PM on November 16
There's no inherent right here that's violated by taking the Redskins mark away from them. Trademarks are a privilege.
While it's not been litigated or argued to my knowledge, one could make an argument that stripping trademark protection in such a case constitutes a government taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment, thus violating an inherent (constitutional) right.
posted by holden at 02:41 PM on November 16
Cliff Lee has never been started on three days' rest in his entire career. He has thrown 265 innings this year, which is only surpassed by four other pitchers this entire decade. Cole Hamels is a much stronger choice for the final game.
Good point. Not to mention the fact that if Lee pitched Game 7, he would be doing so on 2 days rest. Based on normal pitcher routines, Thursday (the day of Game 7) would be Lee's "throw day," so he could get some work. But to throw him out there expecting anything more than a couple innings is a highly suspect approach.
On edit -- the point about Gibson and Koufax is well-taken, but pitchers back then regularly pitched complete games, pitched in 4-man rotations, etc. In other words, their bodies were used to more stress. Today's pitchers just are not suited to that. To suggest that this is purely a mind-over-matter, mental type of thing ignores the fact that there are physical limitations based on players' routines, repetitions, etc. Gibson and Koufax each had multiple years of over 300 innings pitched and 20+ complete games. Today's pitchers don't even come close.
posted by holden at 05:57 PM on November 04
If Jeter (who is not one to GIDP in the 9th inning of a playoff game) had simply grounded out, there would have been a much bigger threat.
Jeter ranked 15th in the AL this year in GDP this year, so it should not be surprising that he grounded into a double play there -- here is DP-prone. And he is just as likely to ground into a DP in the 9th inning of a playoff game as he is to ground into a double play in the third inning of the 20th game of the season.
posted by holden at 08:11 AM on November 04
owlhouse -- I am not familiar with the way odds are described on horses in Australia. What does it mean that a horse is at $10 (or some other amount)? Anyone else who knows can chime in as well.
posted by holden at 07:48 AM on November 04
Especially impressive that 4 of the 5 homers have come off of lefties, considering that many left-handed hitters struggle against lefty pitching (I'm looking at you, Ryan Howard). Of course, Utley has actually performed better against lefties in his career, so it should not be too surprising to anyone who has been paying attention.
posted by holden at 02:08 PM on November 03
Girardi got away with Sabathia on short rest where he's always sucked. . .
Sabathia's regular season line with 3 days rest:
3-1 in 4 GS, 1.01 ERA, 0.825 WHIP, 26K/6BB in 26.2 IP, .413 OPS against.
So no, not always sucking. In fact, quite the opposite.
In the postseason (can't find an aggregated line and too lazy to do the math), he did poorly last year with Milwaukee against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS (he had pitched the last day of the regular season) but did not too bad against the Angels in Game 4 of the ALCS this year.
posted by holden at 06:04 PM on November 02
Looks like Manuel made the mistake of taking a results-oriented view of Lidge's post-season performance to date and ignoring the much larger body of work Lidge built up over the season. Too bad, as I (as a neutral) was hoping for a 7 game series. Pretty good chance of it at least getting back to New York with Lee pitching tonight, though.
posted by holden at 10:21 AM on November 02
How much has your day been ruined if you are a Cleveland Indians fan and get to watch your 2 former Cy Young winners start the World Series tonight. Possibly worse to be a Mets fan. As Jon Stewart put it:
I'm a Mets fan so for me last night was like coming home and catching your wife f****** the Yankees and the Phillies.
posted by holden at 05:35 PM on October 28
So he is a money grubbing bastard after all, holden.
Typical me-first athlete. It's not like the university has made any money off him, and they gave him a scholarship to boot. Selfish, selfish, selfish.
posted by holden at 03:30 PM on October 27
It's too bad. I applaud the decision to come back for his senior year.
Actually, he came back for his junior year. He was a draft-eligible sophomore last year, on account of being redshirted as a freshman, but chose to come back for his junior year. So he actually has one more year of eligibility left and is skipping out on that.
posted by holden at 02:33 PM on October 27
Look what I started and then did not have the decency to stick around and debate. But at least now we know what incantations to chant to summon grum.
posted by holden at 11:17 AM on October 27
Based on overall career batting stats, McGwire is a huge step down from Hal McRae.
If by "career batting stats," you mean batting average, then yes, you are correct.
posted by holden at 02:45 PM on October 26
While it is not remotely close to the record of futility that Acta had with the Nationals, Terry Francona's record with the Phillies was pretty poor (285-363 for a .440 winning percentage) and he has turned out to be not-so-bad with the Red Sox. Perhaps Acta can have similar success with a halfway decent front office (although Boston has both an outstanding front office and a load of cash, the latter of which Cleveland is missing). I understand Acta is well-respected in baseball circles (particularly in developing young players and in being a good tactician) and, let's face it, he had no chance with Washington.
posted by holden at 12:44 PM on October 26
The only disappointing thing about the direction this thread has taken is that it is overshadowing the fact that Steve Phillips was a historically bad GM and a historically bad announcer/analyst. Now he will be remembered as that guy who had an affair with an insane production assistant and not for the fact that he was truly awful at both of his primary jobs of the past decade.
posted by holden at 11:46 PM on October 21
I think Steve Phillips was a pretty terrible GM (I'm sure Mets fans could go on and on) and I think he has been an even bigger blight as an alleged analyst/commentator and third-man-in-the-booth (only because he has had the opportunity to affect/infect a wider audience than just Mets fans). If this hastens his departure from baseball (and it should; you should never have a relationship with a work subordinate), that is a good thing in my book.
posted by holden at 03:24 PM on October 21
In my view you are overthinking this. It's a nice expression of national sentiment that's a great improvement over the wretched "Star Spangled Banner," both musically and for the fact that it's not bloodthirsty as hell. It doesn't have to be of monumental importance -- if people take heart in it, where's the harm? I wish we'd drop the anthem and just sing this instead to open sports events.
Why do we need any sign of national unity at sporting events? I don't see the harm, necessarily, but what's the point? I go to sporting events to see physical specimens at the top of their respective games score goals/baskets/touchdowns/etc. and occasionally beat the shit out of each other. Not to affirm my allegiance to the country. While it's hardly an original idea, if we do have to have some national unity singalong, let's scrap both the awful Star Spangled Banner and God Bess America and go with This Land is Your Land.
posted by holden at 10:22 PM on October 17
Reminds me of this incident from a few years ago (with both incidents being the fault, so to speak, of their own overzealous supporters).
posted by holden at 10:00 PM on October 17
Somebody get this girl in touch with Delonte West and let's get a script working for them.
He's a 6 foot, 3 inch shooting guard with an itchy trigger finger. She's a short and spunky gymnast with a mean streak and the ability to backflip her way out of an jam. They're off on a cross-country motorcycle adventure, but the only problem is that they are living through the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. Luckily, they have enough firepower to make NATO blush. Join them for a madcap adventure in .... ZOMBNASTICSBALL!!!
posted by holden at 09:29 PM on October 16
"God Bless America" should never be sung at a baseball game, ever again, whether it's the playoffs, the World Series, 4th of July, or whatever. That we at least won't have to be subjected to a pompous 7 minute rendition is heartening and is a step in the right direction.
posted by holden at 09:22 PM on October 16
Good opportunity to link to Tom Wolfe's profile on Junior Johnson, The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!, widely considered one of the best pieces of American sports writing of the past 50 years and selected by Esquire as one of its top seven features of all time.
Great excerpt on Johnson and Pearson getting all competitive in practice laps:
Anyway, at Hickory, which was a Saturday night race, all the good old boys started pouring into the stands before sundown, so they wouldn't miss anything, the practice runs or the qualifying or anything. And pretty soon, the dew hasn't even started falling before Junior Johnson and David Pearson, one of Dodge's best drivers, are out there on practice runs, just warming up, and they happen to come up alongside each other on the second curve, and -- the thing is, here are two men, each of them driving $15,000 automobiles, each of them standing to make $50,000 to $100,000 for the season if they don't get themselves killed, and they meet on a curve on a goddamned practice run on a dirt track, and neither of them can resist it. Coming out of the turn they go into a wild-ass race down the backstretch, both of them trying to get into the third turn first, and all the way across the infield you can hear them ricocheting off each other and bouncing at a hundred miles an hour on loose dirt, and then they go into ferocious power slides, red dust all over the goddamned place, and then out of this goddamned red-dust cloud, out of the fourth turn, here comes Junior Johnson first, like a shot, with Pearson right on his tail, and the good old boys in the stands going wild, and the qualifying runs haven't started yet, let alone the race.
posted by holden at 02:52 PM on October 15
It's a shame this woman's death will be overshadowed by speculation about what this means for Davis' career, what he was doing out that late on a night the team seems to have had a curfew, etc. (And that's not to piss on any such speculation that ultimately makes it into this thread (this is, after all, a sports site), just a tragedy that someone lost a daughter/sister/etc.)
The Twitter feeds linked by goddam make it sound pretty bad for Davies in terms of the extent of his injuries. And all this after a very good run of form for the USMNT and what appeared to be strong contention for a starting role or first-off-the-bench role in South Africa. Sad.
posted by holden at 10:30 PM on October 13
I have no feelings pro or con about having my name attached to the front page link. (I know better than to f!&* with a PopeSquatter.)
Kidding aside, I imagine we will come up with some protocol/technological fix for this going forward?
posted by holden at 10:24 PM on October 13
U.S. Men's National Team forward Charlie Davis was involved in a serious car accident earlier this morning. See also.
posted by holden at 03:37 PM on October 13
I went to the LSU-Florida game in Baton Rouge on Saturday (great tailgate and in-stadium atmosphere; pretty boring game and bad result for the home team). Heard a pretty funny joke from the guy whose tickets are behind my father's, in reference to the LSU-Mississippi State game from a few weeks ago (where MSU had three chances from inside the LSU 1 yard-line towards the end of the game and couldn't get it in):
Q. What's the difference between a hooker and Mississippi State?
A. A hooker don't choke on 4 inches.
posted by holden at 12:09 PM on October 12
How many pro sports teams have won a championship in their first year in a new facility? (That would include winning a Super Bowl even if it was played at a neutral site).
Cardinals, new Busch Stadium (III), 2006 World Series (for one).
posted by holden at 10:13 AM on October 08
I was just kidding around folks. Just reacting to what I thought I saw when I first saw this on my reader, even though I saw before I posted that I was mistaken. Carry on.
Seems like Edwards may have just needed a change of scenery and the Jets got a first-round talent (not that the performance has matched that, but he's still young and has been part of an execrable program his whole career) on the cheap.
posted by holden at 11:30 AM on October 07
Looking good on the locks, Fraze. Looking real good.
Kidding aside, betting is hard, particularly when you are trying to call all of the games. It's one thing for a seasoned gambler to try to pick certain games to make money on, but an whole other thing to try to pick all the games. So good work on the overall 36-26 record against the spread and being in the black in terms of overall take for the year.
posted by holden at 10:31 AM on October 07
I am not sure how much Trent Edwards will play with Eli Manning already there at quarterback, but I guess we'll see. Not sure how this makes sense for Buffalo, though.
posted by holden at 10:26 AM on October 07
If Bowden was running a clean program with high graduation rates, etc., etc., I would say give him some more rope. But his program has not been successful (at least under the standards by which elite programs are judged) for an extended period, and they seem to make the news every season or off-season for some unsavory off-the-field incident. Perhaps it was not appropriate for the trustee to go public with this type of call for Bowden's resignation, but it's time for him to go. Hand the reigns over to Jimbo Fisher, bring in someone else, or whatever, but this should be the last year.
posted by holden at 05:19 PM on October 05
Anyone know the story behind this Seahawks-Saints photo?
Ken Hamlin on Donte Stallworth from 2003, I believe.
posted by holden at 03:36 PM on October 05
I agree with Atheist. There is a private/market solution to this problem, one that should theoretically work better than some because there is a well-funded and well-organized union that should counterbalance the power of ownership.
As usual when Congress gets involved in professional sports, this is just an opportunity for Congressional grandstanding and for Congressmen to engage in their time-honored tradition of sucking up valuable governmental time and resources to remind multimillionaires like Roger Goodell who is boss.
posted by holden at 03:21 PM on October 05
Minneapolis Lakers - about as sensible a name as one can imagine. Los Angeles Lakers??? The closest thing to a lake in Los Angeles is some billionaires swimming pool. Then again, it is California.
This would be more damning if not for the existence of the Utah Jazz.
Not the best week so far at 7-6 ATS, but if the Packers come through tonight, I'll be laughing all the way to the pay window for the third week in four tries. Plus it would be nice to be .500 on Locks. *rolls eyes*
I hope someone took my recommendation in the Hoser Picks thread of betting the under in Tampa-Washington. That call was almost too easy.
posted by holden at 12:15 PM on October 05
The under in the Redskins-Bucs game looks good to me. With two very middling offenses (although offset by Tampa's awful defense to some extent), 37 seems high.
posted by holden at 12:44 PM on October 02
Rio and Madrid are the finalists for the Olympics. No Chicago.
While there seem to be plenty of depressed people here in the Loop, I have to say I'm pretty happy (except for losing out on the $10,000 or so we probably could have rented our home out for over the three weeks when we got the hell out of town). Very surprised that Chicago did not even make the first cut, though. Not to cross too much over in to politics, but for all the glee you'll find on the conservative opinion sites about the egg on Obama's face, the bigger political story here is what this means for the Daley monarchy here in town. Consensus was that winning the bid would basically shore up Daley's position (which has shown some cracks as of late) and make him unassailable through 2016, but not so much now.
Oh, and my money is on Rio being sure to get it now. No Olympics ever in South America and with Europe already having the 2012 Olympics, I don't see it happening there for the next games.
posted by holden at 12:03 PM on October 02
As a Chicagoan, I have to say I hope it goes to Rio.
posted by holden at 11:39 AM on September 30
How awful.
Not to ignite a controversy, but how do the parents (or those who may be parents in the future) on SportsFilter feel about their children playing football? My sons are very young, but I have a feeling at this point that while I may not come right out and forbid my kids from playing football when they come of age, I will, at a minimum, strongly encourage them to engage in other same-season sports (to the extent they are into sports -- one of them has chess club/band written all over him). For what it's worth, I did not play football growing up, so perhaps that influences my thinking.
posted by holden at 06:34 PM on September 29
Wait- wasn't there a FPP here a few months ago about how Dykstra was part of some financial management program for athletes? Am I misrememberating?
posted by holden at 11:24 PM on September 28
And at NBC studios in New York, Peter King just did this.
posted by holden at 08:54 PM on September 27
Interesting discrepancy here between the steal and the base on balls (which is warranted, IMO). Intentional bases on balls count towards the batter's overall base on balls totals, but are also kept as a separate stat. While many (most?) IBBs are a clearly a sign of respect/fear and are in some respect "earned" by the batter (no surprise that Albert Pujols leads the majors in IBB with 43, more than the next two guys (Adrian Gonzalez and Manny Ramirez) combined), there are also a fair number of IBBs that are given up because a batter is in the 8-hole ahead of the pitcher or for match-up/platoon reasons. But the scoresheet does not distinguish between the "we fear you" type of IBB vs. the "the dude behind you sucks/is an easier out" type of IBB.
posted by holden at 03:58 PM on September 23
holden,
It would have just as easy to make your post and leave out the "learning disabilities" part. There was absolutely no use to that information in the original post -- aside from people using it to demonize the winning team.
There's no mention of the losing team here being disabled in any way, so how does help this discussion?
Fair point. I was just trying to capture the spirit/content of the prior thread, but as I noted above, I agree that mentioning the learning disability angle is unnecessary. My issue with your characterization was simply that it seemed to mischaracterize what I specifically said.
posted by holden at 11:42 AM on September 17
I figured this would be brought back up, and immediately my first thought was, "Someone's going to bring up the disabled thing." So here's the exact disability in question: "trouble with concentration and short attention spans."
wfrazerjr, I'm not sure my post is the right one to use to make your point, at least in the form you are making it here. What you refer to as the "the disabled thing" was referenced in my post as "learning disabilities"; I was not trying to suggest (as your post seems to imply, but perhaps that's an uncharitable reading) that this was a group of developmentally delayed and/or physically disabled students and was, in fact, simply using the terminology in the article linked in the prior discussion. Trouble with concentration and short attention spans, while arguably being symptomatic of being a teenager in general, seems to fit within a reasonable definition of learning disabilities. Perhaps your point is just that it's superfluous and/or a red herring to even make reference to the learning disability thing, because it should not factor into the discussion of whether what the other school did was okay, bad, or the worst ever, but you could make that point without stripping the nuance out of my summary of the prior situation.
posted by holden at 11:59 PM on September 16
The running up the score story from a while back was about a girls' high school (or junior high) basketball team that was running a full court press throughout the fourth quarter to win a game 100-0 against a team from a school for students with learning disabilities. Slightly different context.
posted by holden at 09:40 PM on September 16
Dad makes the catch, daughter gives it back.
posted by holden at 11:20 AM on September 16
The funny thing about the Bills kick-off fumble was that if the returner had managed to not lose the ball, his return would have taken the clock past the two minute warning, and everyone would be raving about how his heads up play left the Patriots in a bad spot with only two timeouts remaining.
And the throwback jerseys (but not the officials' uniforms) should be mandatory for the rest of the season. I am sure there is a clunker in past AFC unis somewhere, but none of the current uniforms of the four teams playing last night is an improvement over the retro versions (admittedly, the Chargers wear the powder blue with some frequency and the Raiders' is not that much different).
posted by holden at 03:43 PM on September 15
I got a kick out of the following quote from this article:
"One thing I was preparing for was for Junior not to get the 200-hit ball because he would write silly things on it," Ichiro said. "But he did get the ball and he did write silly things on it."
posted by holden at 11:53 PM on September 14
Great article -- thanks for posting, etagloh. It's too bad Deng was injured last year in the playoffs; it would have been interesting to see if the Bulls could have advanced further with him and I look forward to seeing how they do this year with him. Great to see what he is doing off the court and interesting to see that he is relatively anonymous in the U.K.
posted by holden at 11:02 AM on September 14
Can you provide some of the previous evidence? I follow the team pretty closely and I've heard very few complaints about Seymour other than when he held out for more money in the midst of being a regular All-Pro.
Not that it is any kind of evidence of Seymour being a me-first player, but Seymour has been accused of being a dirty player in the past.
posted by holden at 01:50 PM on September 11
The real news there is he wrote the same damn column about Terry Anderson in 1991. That is hack-tastic.
If he really wanted to use this conceit (again), couldn't he have waited until someone came out of a long coma?
posted by holden at 02:31 PM on September 10
Funny -- the NCAA has an issue with beer being sold at games, but not with raking in the dough from Bud Light Fan Cans. Are there bigger hypocrites in the world?
Is the NCAA actually receiving any revenues from this? From the articles I read, this is purely an A-B play, without sanction from the schools or NCAA. This article suggests that the NCAA has actually protested this product campaign, although I am not sure they can do anything about it because licensing would likely be on a school-by-school basis.
posted by holden at 12:25 PM on September 10
What a travesty. I mean, how could he have forgotten the Buccaneers winning a Super Bowl?
Kidding aside, how absolutely awful.
posted by holden at 07:21 PM on September 09
I wonder if Jermaine O'Neal will be reaching out to that guy he laid out with the sliding right hand megapunch (at about 7:40 of this video).
posted by holden at 12:32 PM on September 09
Quite a punishment. Even with the advanced age of their first team squad, I believe Chelsea have a fairly decent youth system + reserve squad, and they can always bring back all of the players they have out on loan.
posted by holden at 11:22 AM on September 03
Since this is more or less an all-purpose foul mouth athlete link dump, I'm going to have to go with the old standby of George Brett recounting shitting his pants which, while the subject matter calls for off-color language, is peppered with a lot of gratuitous four (and more) letter words. Bonus link -- musical version.
posted by holden at 08:29 PM on September 01
Along the lines of Johnny Depp changing his "Winona Forever" tattoo to "Wino Forever" after his breakup with Winona Ryder, I would suggest that Toni forgo the cost and pain of a full on removal and get the "WHITE PRIDE" tattoo selectively changed to "HIT BRIDE" (two letters removed and an extra hump for the P -- all yours for the low cost of $99.99) in an effort to win over non-racist wife beaters.
posted by holden at 08:00 PM on September 01
AP Columnist: 'Soccer Players Can't Be Trusted'
The article says that Dunne confirmed that Henry said the words "I cheated" to him and it was shown by TV cameras. Other press accounts make the same claim. What he meant by the word is open to interpretation, but if he used the word it's good enough for me.
Somehow I overlooked that stretch of the article; comment(s) rescinded.