- 01:48 AM
- 11/22/09
Congrats to Lincecum and all that. Anyone know if a pair of starting pitchers from the same team has gotten a higher vote total than Carp and Waino did this year?
2002 - Arizona Diamondbacks Randy Johnson (160) and Curt Schilling (90) finished 1st and 2nd in the voting.
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks Randy Johnson (156) and Curt Schilling (98) finished 1st and 2nd in the voting.
posted by grum@work at 08:48 AM on November 20
With his 5 second place finishes, and a 3rd place finish, Gardenhire has won the equivalent of 2.98 Manager of the Year awards in 8 seasons.
(Max points each year in voting 140 (it's a 5-3-1 point system). He's accumulated 417 points in the 6 seasons he received votes.)
posted by grum@work at 07:51 PM on November 18
maybe, can you provide a link? I saw it a lot even after Gretzky retired.
Huh?
Nobody wore 99 after 1984, if I remember correctly.
I think Wilf Paiement was the only other player to wear it, and he gave it up pretty quickly.
Edit: Well, I missed the follow-up comment that showed it was Paiement and Dudley, and it was Gretzky-only after 1982.
posted by grum@work at 11:22 PM on November 13
This is the basis for the Rocky vs Thunderlips (Hulk Hogan) scene in "Rocky III".
posted by grum@work at 06:56 PM on November 11
From the coaches to the scouts to the GM- they have smarter people than you do.
It does take some serious brains to sign Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Kei Igawa for a combined amount of more than $114million, and get 521IP of 5.28 ERA. That's some smart spending right there.
No, wait. What's the opposite of smart?
It doesn't matter, because the enormous payroll advantage allowed them to eat those three disastrous contracts and still sign A.J. Burnett, C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez (for a raise), Johnny Damon, Mike Mussina, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield in the past 7 seasons.
That also doesn't include picking up high-priced stars like Randy Johnson, Bobby Abreu and Kevin Brown from other teams looking for salary dumps.
Or resigning their own players for above market value to keep them.
Yes, they've done some good things with the money, and they've done some good things with drafting and developing players. But the last 8 seasons has been more about throwing a whole lot of money around and hoping it works. In 2009, the money landed in the right pockets and things worked out for them, and they were able to absorb the damage when the money went in the wrong pockets.
posted by grum@work at 10:30 PM on November 08
Wow. That's one scary looking play. The teammate that almost jumped on him to celebrate was at least quick enough to stop himself and call for medical attention.
posted by grum@work at 12:00 PM on November 08
Wouldn't it be reasonably likely that Girardi has a few in celebration with his team?
He probably did have quite a few...poured on his head, sprayed in his face, drained down his back.
You don't see the guys drinking that much of the champagne. The bottles are usually wielded like super-soakers instead.
posted by grum@work at 09:35 PM on November 06
Establish a salary cap with a reasonable floor as well as a maximum and that should solve that problem.
A salary floor is just going to lead to silliness where the Royals/Marlins/Pirates sign some aging/useless veteran outfielder for WAY over market value, just because they HAVE to.
"Mr Griffey, I know you want to retire, but we're $8 million short of the floor. Can you do us a favour and play for us this year for that amount?"
Personally, I don't think the Yankees cheated, I just feel that the payroll disparity cheapens the win.
I used to let that eat me up as well (being a Jays fan), but the difference this year compared to the previous 8 seasons is that they spent their money wisely this time.
I didn't really care when they were blowing cash on bad investment (Wright, Pavano, Igawa). But they've spent it on GREAT players this time (CC, Tex).
Of course, the single biggest advantage the Yankees have had since 1995 is that their "core four" (Posada, Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte (although he left and came back)) have performed amazingly well for 15 seasons. It's really hard to find any teams since free agency that can claim to have had that sort of reliability in that many players for that long.
posted by grum@work at 08:13 AM on November 06
If this goes 7 games, I think there is a VERY good chance Lee will be available for 2 innings of work (say, 7th/8th) if needed.
It was only 8 years ago that we had a chance to witness something even more impressive.
posted by grum@work at 08:54 PM on November 04
Jeter was, is and will be over-rated. I don't get it.
I'm pretty sure that I've been on both sides of the "Jeter is overrated" argument.
The best way to describe it is:
Jeter is a hall-of-fame shortstop who has performed at a high level for almost his entire career. He has fantastic defensive plays, amazingly timely hits and clever baserunning on his resume.
He has not, however, walked on water, healed the sick or revolutionized the sport in any way, despite how the New York and national media feel the need to portray him. Everything he does is not perfect. Sometimes, he makes mistakes and fails in the clutch, so it doesn't reduce his luster if the media would mention that, once in a while. He also sometimes performs exactly like an average player would in that same situation, so please stop telling me how AWESOME he is when he fields a 4-hopper and makes a throw to first base.
He's not the best Yankee ever (probably not even top 5). He's not the best shortstop ever (probably not even top 5). He's not the best player in the league right now (not even top 5).
But he's definitely one of the best players of his generation, and I have no problem saying that.
posted by grum@work at 09:13 PM on November 03
Speaking of lights-out guys... can someone please explain why Mariano Rivera is still so wildly successful?
It's the same thing as a Nolan Ryan fastball; you know it's coming, but you still can't hit it.
The ball has so much movement that the batters just can't adjust properly.
It's one thing to say "I'm going to swing lower than I normally do", but it's another thing entirely to convince your brain/body to do it.
If you've trained yourself for 20 years to swing a bat by reacting to how the ball looks .5 seconds after it leaves the pitcher's hand, it's probably impossible to override that instinct just for this one pitcher.
3. Generous strike zone. All star pitchers get it. Rivera does more than most. You can see it almost every game he pitches.
One way to examine that is to determine if he gets a higher number of called strikes in his career compared to the league average over the same time period:
Strikes (Looking) as a % of Total Strikes (career):
Rivera: 24%
League: 28%
Less than the league average.
Doing some quick calculations from that table:
Percentage of strikes (looking) of all pitches thrown (career):
Rivera: 16.32%
League: 17.36%
Again, less than the league average.
If he's getting help from the umpires, it's not showing up in any statistical fashion.
posted by grum@work at 07:46 PM on November 03
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)
Don't short change him.
He pitched 5 times in 16 days.
(September 16, 20, 24, 28 and October 2)
That's a lot of games (4) in a row on 3 days rest.
The last three games of the regular season were the first times he'd pitched on 3 days rest that season.
posted by grum@work at 09:18 PM on November 02
Girardi got away with Sabathia on short rest where he's always sucked, and he's got Burnett doing the same thing (same comment).
Huh?
Burnett never pitched on 3 days rest in 2009 during the regular season. Over his career, he's only done it four times. 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA and a 24/10 K/BB ratio.
He's done it once in these playoffs, and in that case it was literally just one bad inning (the 1st) and one bad reliever (Hughes).
So I don't think it's right to say that Burnett has "always sucked" on short rest.
posted by grum@work at 03:22 PM on November 02
I was on another baseball site and as soon as Lidge came to the mound, the Phillies fans (pretty much to a man) were bemoaning this move. Hell, some of them were saying things like "I'd rather see Mitch Williams"
Joba Chamberlain, while wallowing in misery in the dugout for blowing the lead on the Feliz home run, got the win.
Example #45000 why using wins as any sort of judgment of pitcher quality is a farce.
posted by grum@work at 10:01 AM on November 02
And a side note, dviking above is right, players need to be placed by ability, not age.
According to some, age IS ability:
The book begins with Gladwell's research on why a disproportionate number of elite Canadian hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year. The answer, he points out, is that since youth hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year, children born on January 1 play in the same league as those born on December 31 in the same year. Because adolescents born earlier in the year are bigger and maturer than their younger competitors, they are often identified as better athletes, leading to extra coaching and a higher likelihood of being selected for elite hockey leagues.
posted by grum@work at 02:04 PM on October 31
The jury disagreed that the dangers of aluminum bats were common knowledge. The manufacturer lost because they failed to properly warn about the dangers of their bats.
Why would a warning label on the bat help the pitchers or fielders? They can't read it, and the batter is in no danger from using the bat.
The warning label should be on the baseball!
"Warning: If pitched towards a batter wielding an aluminum bat, the resulting hit may be dangerous. Please take extra precautions."
But then it makes it difficult to find space for autographs...
posted by grum@work at 02:00 PM on October 31
But that number doesn't take into account the intentional vs. the unintentional vs. the unintentional intentional walks.
Well, for their entire careers, intentional walks accounted for 11.3% of McGwire's total walks. For Hal McRae, it accounted for 10.5%.
That's not that big of a difference.
The walks were not always a part of his game.
Huh? For 1000 consecutive games (18 seasons, 1992-2000), his OBP was .434.
He's ALWAYS been about the walks and the HR, even when he struggled with his batting average.
posted by grum@work at 12:47 AM on October 27
McRae struck out less than half as much (779 vs 1596) as McGwire while playing 100+ more games.
Well, I can't just leave that hanging. There used to be a phrase for this sort of thing around here...
McGwire:
PA: 7660
Walks: 1317
OBP: .394
McRae:
PA: 8058
Walks: 648
OBP: .351
McRae had a decent batting eye (22 points above league average for his career in OBP), but McGwire had an amazing batting eye (62 points abvoe league average for his career in OBP).
Of course, one of the greatest batting eyes in baseball history (122 points above league average for his career in OBP) was a TERRIBLE teacher/manager, so who knows how this will work out.
posted by grum@work at 08:55 PM on October 26
I'm sure if he can impart any pitch recognition skills upon the lesser lights of the Cardinals, he'll prove to be quite useful.
He should, however, stay away from Pujols.
That's a dude who really doesn't need to change anything.
posted by grum@work at 01:21 AM on October 26
As an alumni of Waterloo, I couldn't be more proud.
Wait, that's not the word I'm looking for...
posted by grum@work at 08:37 AM on September 05
There's been some dubious judging on a lot of Chinese won events. My wife was the first to say "Is it just me? Or have the Chinese done well in all the scoring events?" This came after I was extremely suspicious during the Womens 3m Synchro Diving where the Chinese kept getting huge scores, despite not even being synchronised on a couple of occasions, and far better diving pairs were getting lower scores.
In general, judging events are always suspect because of the human factor. However, most judging events use multiple judges from different nations, so you'd need to have a other nations helping China "cheat". As well, even if you had another nation willing to boost China's score, there is a system in place where they drop the highest and lowest scores before the calculations. Therefore, you'd need to have at least TWO other nations in on the scam.
At that point, you're getting into tinfoil-hat territory.
(Yes, there was judging scandals at the Winter Olympics with regards to figure skating, but that has since been cleaned up with an even more judging/scoring system.)
posted by grum@work at 10:25 AM on August 23
I'm going to agree with Hal.
Hamilton up to bat, down by 4 runs, with the bases loaded. The only reason you walk him is because you are worried that he'll tie the game up with one swing of the bat. He can't win it, just tie it.
Josh Hamilton, vs RHP, has had 631 plate appearances in his career. He's hit a HR 39 times, or about 6.18% of the time. Therefore, there is about 6.18% chance of Hamilton tying the game during his at-bat.
The moment you walk Hamilton, you make the score 7-4 and still leave the bases loaded. The game can be tied with a double or a triple, and LOST with a home run.
Marlon Byrd, vs RHP, has had 1600 plate appearances in his career. He's hit a double 70 times, and a triple 11 times, and a home run 26 times (for a total of 107 different ways to end up with at LEAST a tie game). Therefore, there is about a 6.69% chance of Byrd tying (or WINNING) the game during his at-bat.
You increase your chances of the tie (or LOSS) by walking Hamilton to get to Byrd.
Want to use bases-loaded splits instead?
Hamilton: Hits a home run 8.33% of the time (2 out of 24). Byrd: Hits a double, triple or home run 13.89% of the time (3+2+5 out of 72).
You increase your chances of the tie (or LOSS) by walking Hamilton to get to Byrd.
posted by grum@work at 01:09 AM on August 21
This guy actually seems super human. (Doehead)
I am convinced that genetically he is a natural swimmer. (YYM)
Who says he's human? The guy has to be at least part fish. WOW!
At least we know he's clean and not using any performance enhancing drugs, right?
Right?
posted by grum@work at 08:18 PM on August 10
posted by grum@work at 09:51 AM on July 27
BTW, OC Barons doesn't sound so bad. But that might be my old NHL bias kicking in.
posted by grum@work at 06:57 PM on July 26
Here were the choices for the Orlando franchise: Heat, Tropics, Juice, Magic Here were the choices for the Toronto franchise: Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs, Raptors, Scorpions, T-Rex, Tarantulas, and Terriers Here were the choices for the Charlotte franchise: Flight, Bobcats, Dragons (and Spirit and Hornets for the original one) In general, the choices don't seem to be that great. However, the name that usually wins is good enough that people aren't complaining about it for too long. I'm surprised they didn't try to bring "Dragons" over to the Oklahoma franchise. That is their stand-by option, it seems.
posted by grum@work at 06:52 PM on July 26
That's the best reason I've heard yet for the Williams sisters to play Indian Wells. Actually, part of me wants them to play at Indian Wells, both of them make the finals, and then both drop out 10 minutes before the match because of "injury". And then never return to Indian Wells again.
posted by grum@work at 08:46 AM on July 20
I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that Bob Beamon had sex the night before his Olympic event. That turned out okay.
posted by grum@work at 08:57 AM on July 19
Derek Jeter has had 495 postseason AB -- or about 75-80% of a typical 162 game season for him -- and has hit .309/.377/.469, not much different than his .316/.387/.459 lifetime regular season averages. Actually, it's WORSE than his regular season numbers (since he is likely to get a hit or get on base). Jeter is a (minimal) post-season choker! Not that Tim McCarver, FOX or NYY fans would ever want to hear that...
posted by grum@work at 02:07 PM on July 09
I think your Royals example may be a touch off base. Soria has a 1.62 ERA, 44 k's aganst 17 walks, and has converted 23 saves in 25 opportunities. I think he deserves it, and I think quite a few Royals fans who are only casual baseball fans overall would watch. Good point. I picked the Royals rep on reflex because (for the last few years) they usually send the biggest example of "filling the need for every team to be represented". Soria has the numbers to go to the show. Then again, almost every team has at least one reliever that is having a good year, and you need a lot of relievers/pitchers for the Some-Stars game, so "filling the need" almost always falls on the relief pitcher. "I wanted to correct them," Hamilton says. "It's 'Josh smoked crack.' If you're going to rag on somebody, then get it right." Heh. Sounds like he's (finally) got a good head on his shoulders.
posted by grum@work at 03:42 PM on July 08
I'm really turning into for two moments: 1) Josh Hamilton's first at-bat. I'm hoping the crowd gives him a nice ovation. 2) The hope that Mariano Rivera will be the last pitcher of the night and he gets the save for an AL win. I really want Tampa Bay to have home-field advantage in the World Series. ;)
posted by grum@work at 12:45 PM on July 08
I have to agree. Dioner Navarro does in fact deserve to get the nod over Varitek. Oh, you were talking about Posada, weren't you? Well, Navarro used to be on the Yankees roster if that helps but he does deserve to be an All-Star this year. Navarro is on the roster. He was a manager's pick. If you are going to use 3 catchers, one of them might as well be Posada. My choices would have been Mauer, Navarro, Posada, with Jorge getting into the game in the 9th inning (to possibly catch Rivera). I am not a fan of giving every team a representative. Agreed. It's supposed to give people from every market a reason to watch the game, but I really doubt the K.C. fans are overjoyed that [looks at the rosters] Soria is getting to play. And those at bats against the best pitches in the NL by someone who can't hit a BP fastball currently. Good job, players. I have this horrible fear that Varitek will go yard in his first plate appearance, and the brain-dead section of the Red Sox Nation will go crazy with "I told you he deserved it!" crap. It would be super-duper-classy of "the captain" to bow out of the All-Star game, and Francona picks Posada as a replacement. Sort of like those Christmas time cease-fires during World War I, where bitter enemies can still show some respect for each other.
posted by grum@work at 12:44 PM on July 08
Mainly, though I think it sucks that Francona didn't pick Maddon to be on his staff. What's that about? Probably some ill-will still exists between the two teams after the Coco Crisp inspired brouhahas.
posted by grum@work at 10:40 AM on July 08
Varitek was voted in by the players, his peers. It doesn't make it any better. Varitek getting chosen to go to the All-Stars game (or, as Lee Sinins calls it "the Some-Stars game") is the worst selection (by fans, players or managers) since Carlos Garcia in 1994 (1st half OPS .639, career .681 OPS). What makes it even worse is that there was a MUCH better choice (both statistically, historically and emotionally) than Varitek.
posted by grum@work at 10:38 AM on July 08
Nadal just kept Federer from tying Borg for consecutive wins at Wimbledon and consecutive championships. That has gotta hurt. Actually, he was already tied with Borg for consecutive championships at Wimbledon (5). He was on the verge of setting the new (open) record of 6 consecutive. As for the match, I only caught the tail end of the 4th set and all of the 5th set, and I couldn't turn it off after I started watching. I was pulling for Federer (to set the record) and to make the miracle comeback, but Nadal winning is fine too. I thought it was cool that McEnroe declared it the best final ever, since it pretty much dethroned his match against Borg in 1980 as the best final ever at Wimbledon.
posted by grum@work at 03:59 PM on July 07
If Jagr never returns to the NHL again, I hope everyone remembers that he was the "bridge" between the Gretzky/Lemieux era, and the Crosby/Ovechkin era. Actually, that does a disservice to Jagr's career. If he had his prime in the 1980s, he probably would have challenged Gretzky's single-season point record. When his time comes for HOF voting, it better damn well be unanimous.
posted by grum@work at 08:36 AM on July 06
You all need something else to talk about.... Comment icon posted by knowsalittle at 7:47 PM CDT on July 3 Really? On a sports site? In a baseball thread? About Barry Bonds?
posted by grum@work at 08:03 PM on July 03
/watches video *faints*
posted by grum@work at 08:01 PM on July 03
Pete Rose Stan Musial Ty Cobb Babe Ruth Cy Young How can you not have the top 3 hits leader and #1 pitcher in wins and the Bambino's season and home run totals held up for years, also he wasn't too bad of a pitcher It's quite easy to pass up Pete Rose. His record is simply a factor of longevity. He stopped being a useful 1B/OF around 1982, but still managed to play another 5 seasons (some of which he managed and put himself in games when better options were available). If he wasn't stumbling towards the hits record, he wouldn't have played the last 4 years of his career. Even when he was getting hits, they were mostly just slap singles. He hit double-digit home runs just ONCE in the last FIFTEEN seasons of his career. He holds a record, but that doesn't make him even CLOSE to one of the best of all time. I do think Bill Simmons' approach is one that simply has to be adopted eventually: have a tiered, pyramid/cone shaped Hall of Fame, where you walk up a sloping spiral like in the Guggenheim and the lowest levels contain the edge cases like Phil Rizzuto et al, while the higher you go the more "sure" you are until you reach the last room at the top, with plaques of guys like Ruth, Williams, etc. The last couple of spirals would be an interesting debate. When guys like Musial, Schmidt, Berra and Morgan don't make it to the last ring, you'll definitely have controversy. Over at Baseball Think Factory, they have something called the "Hall of Merit", where they have finished voting on all the players available for the Hall of Fame (on a year-by-year basis, so only players eligible in 1945 could be voted for in 1945, for example). Since they've finished the yearly voting (there is an interesting mix of HOM players who aren't in the HOF (like Rose and Jackson) and HOF players who aren't in the HOM (like Maranville)), they are starting to try and "tier" the players by position.
posted by grum@work at 02:24 PM on June 30
I actually think they got it right the first time. If anyone didn't already look it up, here is the original "first class": Ty Cobb Babe Ruth Honus Wagner Christy Mathewson Walter Johnson
posted by grum@work at 09:57 AM on June 30
Based on the options in the poll given at the bottom of the article, I chose: Ruth Bonds Williams Gibson Wagner Josh Gibson is the pick I feel least comfortable with, but I've recently read too many accounts from too many people with too much expertise on the matter about how dominating a hitter Gibson was during his time. When people start making comments about how he was "as good as Ruth", and he's a catcher? You start to pay attention.
posted by grum@work at 08:01 AM on June 30
All of them are expressions of joy, but the one that made me laugh the most was the one at the very end of the second clip. "Congratulations." "Thank you." "Well done." "Thank you." Of course, this clip would be near the top of the list for WORST football celebrations.
posted by grum@work at 10:09 AM on June 29
If there is collusion, who wins? That doesn't make any sense to me. I hate conspiracy theories. Who wins? Bud Selig and the MLB head office. If Bonds was playing, reporters would be talking about him and steroids. It might make things uncomfortable for Selig as it would be perceived as a black mark against baseball. Of course, the real problem would be when the reporters got tired of the same old song-and-dance ("Evil players! Deceiving the fans! The horror!") and then actually did their jobs and dug just a LITTLE bit deeper and realized that the league silently sanctioned the use of steroids ("Chicks dig the long ball.") by turning a blind eye and using a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the clubhouse. Then Selig's whole regime would come under question, and that would be "a bad thing". So who wins by having teams collude to keep Bonds out of baseball? Bud Selig (and MLB). And who has the authority to actually enforce the collusion? Bud Selig (and MLB). Does that mean there really IS a collusion between the league and the teams? No. Does that mean we should immediately assume that there ISN'T? Given the past history of MLB to collude (four times: Collusion I, Collusion II, Collusion III and Collusion IV), it would be ridiculous to assume it's a "silly conspiracy theory".
posted by grum@work at 09:18 PM on June 28
Maybe most major league teams would rather not have a prick in the clubhouse. Really? Teams are still employing Milton Bradley, A.J. Pierzynski and Jeff Kent, to name only a few.
posted by grum@work at 02:34 PM on June 28
Any team that picks up Bonds risks the posibility of losing fans. Except, of course, that isn't the case at all. Average attendance to Giants home games: (from Baseball Reference) 2004: 40,208 2005: 39,272 2006: 38,886 2007: 39,793 2008: 34,721 Well, maybe Giants fans are just crazy. How about fans at opposing stadiums when the Giants visit? (numbers found on another site) (in thousands per game) 2004: 36 2005: 31 (Barry misses most of season) 2006: 33 2007: 35 2008: 30 So obviously opposing fans still came out to see him, and just plain didn't care about the Giants after he was gone. I just can't see any team's fans reacting well to "their team" signing Barry Bonds. You know to what fans react well? Producing on the field and helping the team win. If Barry were to put up numbers a little lower than what he did in 2007, and the team he played for did well and made the playoffs, lots of "haters" would become "fans" real quick. A) Is a well noted asshole B) Is in quite a bit of legal trouble C) Is of no use for publicity due to him no longer chasing any records. Hardly collusion for any manager in their right mind to want to stay the fuck away from him. First off, part C is incorrect. Every home run he hits is a "record", and he's only - 4 RBI from 2,000 (4th player ever) - 14 games from 3,000 (9th player ever) - 24 bases away from 6,000 total bases (4th player ever) - 65 hits away from reaching the magical 3000-hit barrier As for A and B, I'm therefore shocked that a team like the Phillies (and their fans) would have Brett Myers, or the Red Sox would have Julio Lugo. Unless, of course, fans think alleged spousal abuse (with signed statements from the victim) is more acceptable than alleged steroid use.
posted by grum@work at 12:05 AM on June 28
Feelin' like baseballs been picked on unfairly and the NFL has been getting a free ride? It's a weird combination of that and the notion that football/NFL is now "America's Sport". If it IS the new "America's Sport", how come it doesn't get the attention that baseball does when a player does something wrong? How come any time a baseball player gets accused of using P.E.D.s, it's top-notch news for days in a row, but when whole teams of players in the NFL are accused (or even individuals) Can you imagine the uproar if the team doctor for the Chicago Cubs plead guilty to prescribing and supplying illegal P.E.D.s to large portions of the team? It would be front-page news. This stuff? Barely touched by the mainstream media, and relegated to tittering speculation on very specific blogs. I guess it comes down to the fact that people really don't care about the NFL as much as they think they do. Watch it? Sure. Care? Maybe not.
posted by grum@work at 09:26 PM on June 27
From what has been presented for my reading, all I can gather about Bradshaw is that he took legal steroids for recovery from injury and that they weren't anabolic steroids. But maybe he did take the "evil" kind. I'm not sure where you get the idea that they must have been "legal" steroids. He uses the term "steroids", not "cortisone shots", or "cortical steroids". Is there an article where he makes a point of differentiating between the two types and implies it was one over the other? Players (in all sports) have been getting cortisone shots for years, so I doubt it would be something you'd even bother mentioning in an interview. It would be like talking about how you got massage therapy, or used the jetstream tub to loosen up muscles after a game.
posted by grum@work at 02:58 PM on June 27
My believe, is that properly administered by a Doctor, cortiosteriods are helpful in recovering from injuries. I'm pretty sure that Bradshaw is talking about something OTHER than cortisone shots. As Haslett says, it was the "evil" kind of steroids. Now imagine if Cal Ripken Jr. announced he used steroids in the 1980s. The internet would explode with the hand-wringing/teeth-gnashing/name-calling. But an NFL superstar mentions it? Barely a notice. Ho hum. Welcome to mixed-messages-land, media representatives...
posted by grum@work at 07:33 PM on June 26
But since it's about football, no one really cares, right?
posted by grum@work at 11:27 AM on June 26
He may have benefitted from playing alongside Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and the rest of the Big Red Machine but he was still one of the cogs that made that machine work properly. For a guy that won back-to-back MVP awards, and was arguably the best player on the team from 1972 - 1976 (based on win shares), it's more likely that Rose, Bench and tBRM benefitted from playing along side Morgan.
posted by grum@work at 11:17 AM on June 26
I was particularly impressed by how he bravely turned his tail and fled every time he was confronted. He wasn't fleeing. He was celebrating! ;) Those are some impressive kicks.
posted by grum@work at 12:01 AM on June 26
Or possibly upset that you're no longer even mentioned as the best 2B of all time; I believe that honor would have to go to either Ryne Sandberg, Jeff Kent, and/or very soon Chase Utley.. Uh, I think Joe Morgan is a grade-A moron when he tries to talk about anything other than himself and the Reds, but don't go down that same path by trying to imply that Sandberg, Kent or Utley are anywhere remotely as good as Morgan. While he's not the best in history (I think that's between Eddie Collins and Rogers Hornsby), Joe Morgan is still one of the best of all time.
posted by grum@work at 11:47 PM on June 25
Darren Pang is an excellent commentator when used in a group format (bouncing ideas and discussions off others). I think he deserves a chance to be the colour guy for a national broadcast. Kelly Hrudey is definitely the heir apparent for Don Cherry's job (and, personally, can't take it soon enough).
posted by grum@work at 07:49 PM on June 24
Some time ago Boston had a reliever named Greg Harris, who was ambidextrous. The club would never allow him to change sides, and limited him to pitching right-handed only. Too bad. It would have been fun to see. He got his chance as a Montreal Expo. He pitched right-handed, then switched for two batters as a left-handed pitcher. The game log doesn't mention it, but his splits show it.
posted by grum@work at 04:29 PM on June 20
Let's party like it's 1989! I get the feeling that this was an edict from Paul Godrey (team CEO) rather than J.P. Riccardi. Is it going to help? No, probably not. Is it going to draw some extra viewers tonight? Definitely. And if they get on a run, it might even draw some people to the park.
posted by grum@work at 04:20 PM on June 20
Not to back Goosen, however, I did wonder myself how he could put so much pressure on his knees doing the deep knee bend he did when he sank a putt, and then 5 minutes later limp after he mis-hit a shot. Maybe adrenaline explains it? Adrenaline for sure. I finished the last 10 minutes of a soccer game with what turned out to be a cracked rib. It was a dull pain during that time, but once the game was over and I was no longer pumped with adrenaline, it almost became unbearable to take a deep breath (and would remain so for the next 7-8 weeks).
posted by grum@work at 03:42 PM on June 18
The watering-down of the Hockey Hall of Fame continues. Larionov makes the Hall a better place, but Anderson? He's has some good numbers, but I still believe he's a product of the teams he played on more than his skill. I think this is a weak selection (but not as bad as Clark Gillies). If you are a fan of the "big hall", then this is a good selection. I'm upset that truly fantastic, game-changing players like Pavel Bure and Adam Oates are still on the outside looking in.
posted by grum@work at 09:35 AM on June 18
Tiger's Golfing Career Check List win first tournament win first major win major by more than 10 strokes world ranking : #1 win career grand slam win four majors in a row win a major with a significant injury win a major while defusing a nuclear bomb and saving the country win 19th major achieve enlightenment, heal the world
posted by grum@work at 03:33 PM on June 16
grum@work's Check List post on SpoFi learn the difference between defuse and diffuse
posted by grum@work at 09:53 AM on June 16
Brett Favre Mic'd Up
His love for smacking asses is so very Pop Warner football.
I've been saying he should have retired
4, 3, 2,1 year ago, but since he seems to have so much fun doing this, I guess I can cut him some slack.