- 03:58 AM
- 11/08/09
So what if, tomorrow, 1000 Minnesotans with Nordic heritage say that the Vikings name is offensive.
I can guarantee that you'd have trouble finding 1 Minnesotan that was so self-important as to think that a team name should be changed on *their* account.
Also, you're going to increasingly ridiculous lengths to defend a racial slur in popular usage. wtf?
posted by rocketman at 05:30 PM on September 16
This weekend is the World Hard Court Bike Polo Championships in Philadelphia.
I've been holding back from making a post to the front page about this raw and underground new sport, mostly because it's the domain of insufferable hipsters and bike nerds. That said, anybody who's a fan of hockey could totally get with this sport.
Here's a video from the New Year's Championships held in Madison, WI.
posted by rocketman at 10:32 AM on September 04
As much as I hate Boras, he's kind of got a point here.
posted by rocketman at 04:12 PM on August 16
I like the Vikings' chances this year, but somebody please pass word to Brett Favre that he can go away forever as soon as it's convenient for him.
posted by rocketman at 11:02 PM on July 06
The Brewers should sign him and bench him for the season. Obviously, this would completely waste a roster spot, but I can't imagine a competitive disadvantage that could feel better.
posted by rocketman at 11:31 AM on April 02
I am happy for Geoff Jenkins.
posted by rocketman at 07:14 AM on October 30
A Jayson Stark column? Really?
posted by rocketman at 02:24 PM on October 22
the facial expressions of the Brewers I saw makes it pretty clear they got the message -- pick it up or your ass will be gone over the winter.
I don't believe this for a second. Who are they going to get rid of? Sure, they'll let CC and Sheets go, because they can't afford them. I'd bet you twenty bucks and a six pack of Milwaukee's finest they pick up Cameron's option, and as far as the young talent, none of them are going anywhere, with the possible exception of Hardy and Fielder, who would be traded to prospect-rich teams. And those two wouldn't be traded because they didn't "pick it up" - they'd be traded because the team already has competent replacements in the minor leagues and can bring in a huge prospect haul for them.
Baseball is a business, and this was a business decision. Tossing players away because they didn't make the postseason this year would not be a good business decision. I'm sure the players know this.
posted by rocketman at 01:44 PM on September 16
As a Brewers fan, let me say that this is sorta surprising, but not really. The timing is the "sorta" part, but if you've been paying attention it was clear that Yost's days as a manager were dwindling. Personally, I figured they'd wait until the team didn't make the playoffs to fire him.
But anyone who listened to the press conference last night heard all three involved (Mark A. as "the owner", Doug Melvin as "the management", Dale Sveum as "the deer in the headlights") talk about how it's on the players, now it's the players job to get it done, the players have to make this happen. Doug specifically mentioned Ned sticking his neck out for some of the young, slumping players and resisting pressure to bench them. My read is that a critical mass of the clubhouse got work to Mark A. that Ned wasn't wanted anymore. When you couple that with the fact that Ned Yost fans are extremely scarce among Brewers fans, plus this recent slump (which is overblown IMO), I'd wager that Mark called Doug and said, "Fire Ned, or I fire you and then I fire Ned."
It's weird timing, for sure, and to me it absolutely reeks of an irrational panic. Anyone who knows anything about Doug Melvin understands he's not that kind of guy, so there you go.
Also, the very cynical part of me sees this in terms of revenue. The fans didn't like Ned, and even though this has been a record-breaking year for attendance, part of me wonders if Mark doesn't see how much more could have been taken in if somebody more likeable were in the dugout... somebody named Robin Yount... who is now going to be bench coach...
posted by rocketman at 11:08 AM on September 16
Oh, like Superman totally wouldn't kick Wonder Woman's ass.
Considering he couldn't beat Batman, I wouldn't give him good odds to defeat someone with actual superpowers. Wonder Woman is pretty great. She kicked the shit out of a titan and beat Medusa.
As for deliberately walking in a run, I dunno. Part of me doesn't like that, but you can't really argue with the results.
posted by rocketman at 02:07 PM on August 19
So I guess baseball catchers don't wear protective cups? They do, but the pitcher threw a breaking ball.
posted by rocketman at 04:15 PM on July 03
Was it Keats who said that a thing of beauty is a joy forever?
posted by rocketman at 04:35 PM on March 18
I have a new favorite sport.
posted by rocketman at 09:27 PM on March 05
My favorite part was when the Representative (I didn't catch who, as I was listening on streaming radio) got all dramatic and called McNamee a drug dealer, and McNamee said "That's your opinion." Very Lebowski, and I lol'd.
posted by rocketman at 06:29 PM on February 13
I think putting O.J. in the same sentence as Greg Maddux is what's over the top. O.J. only got away with killing two people.
posted by rocketman at 05:49 PM on January 30
From where I'm sitting, this isn't going to sit well with me for more than 10 years. In the near term, it's going to drive me nuts to see Santana mowing down the Brew Crew a couple of times a year. But I can't wait until he's in the HoF, and I can tell kids and grandkids "I saw him pitch." There will be Cy Youngs.
posted by rocketman at 05:03 PM on January 29
Wow. Very good read.
posted by rocketman at 01:23 PM on January 17
I read the RSS feed!
posted by rocketman at 03:25 PM on January 16
From where I sit, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton are equal doses of ick.
posted by rocketman at 02:58 PM on October 25
What were we talking about? How kyrilmitch_76 forgot Milwaukee.
posted by rocketman at 04:24 PM on September 11
I don't believe for a second that foie gras is inhumane, having actually witnessed first-hand how ducks are treated on a farm. They live a better life then I do.
posted by rocketman at 09:46 PM on August 09
Being a Brewers fan, I'm no stranger to futility. But Cuban buying the Cubs makes my short list of dread-inspiring events, right above Turnbow walking the leadoff hitter and below Claudio Vargas' next start. Hopefully they pass on an offer from him and make Wrigley Field the next stop for the ongoing party that is Loria/Sampson.
posted by rocketman at 03:35 PM on July 13
I was secretly hoping Giambi would refuse to cooperate, just to stick it to The Man. The fact that Giambi has never tested positive, coupled with the illegal leak of his grand jury testimony, makes it very hard for me to take Selig's side in this matter. I know we're all supposed to be shaking in our fan-boots about the scourge that is PEDs, but frankly, I'm just not all that concerned about it. Baseball drafted a policy, implemented it, engage in routine, random testing, and to me, that's the end of it. Why the need to have an investigation? Why issue a report? I know, I know, because Congress shook a stern finger at Selig, and for some inexplicable reason, he seems to care what people think about him. Anyway, back to Giambi: It's totally insane that he's the only active player who's even tried to be sorta open about this issue, and the commissioner's office response is to threaten punishment? I'm usually the Selig apologist, but I can't defend this one.
posted by rocketman at 04:11 PM on June 22
That just plain sucked, but sometimes you have to tip your cap to the opposition. He brought his A-game tonight, that's fer sure.
posted by rocketman at 11:48 PM on June 12
A small piece of friendly advice to Mr. Dukes: Buy your wife an umpire's outfit for Halloween and then send Delmon over to your house for a little trick-or-treating fun. Problem solved. That's not funny.
posted by rocketman at 04:46 PM on May 23
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posted by rocketman at 01:03 PM on April 29
Or better yet, maybe they should build stadiums with retractable roofs, like in Milwaukee. Miller Park is a hell of a place to catch a ball game. And games are never rained/snowed/frozen out.
posted by rocketman at 09:36 PM on April 09
I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. Cold beer. Warm sunny afternoon in the backyard. Four grams of pure Lebanese blond hash. Yeah, that's my approach too. The problem is this: let's say you're a big fan of the Blue Jays, and you live in Texas. Unless you pick up an XM subscription, there's no way you can hear Blue Jays games (save for an occasional appearance on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball). But I don't have a TV at all, and the radio works pretty well for me (but then again, I'm a Brewers fan, and local to Milwaukee, so this all works out). If I moved, I'd probably bite the bullet and pay up for XM, since Bob Uecker's my only friend.
posted by rocketman at 09:25 AM on March 30
Pete Rose can go to hell. I think he belongs in the Hall, but I also think he should remain outside it until he assumes room temperature. And until that day comes, he needs to live with the hell of being kept away from professional baseball.
posted by rocketman at 08:28 PM on March 14
Has a sports team ever moved with scarcely a shrug from the city or that sport's fans? I'll throw out the Montreal Expos as one possibility.
posted by rocketman at 02:22 PM on March 13
Let's not talk about Artest anymore.
posted by rocketman at 08:04 AM on March 06
If Manning really called the plays See, I'm not so sure that he did call them all, even if he did call many of them. After the interception run back for a TD, you could tell Peyton wanted to go for two (it was clear, even on my tiny B&W set, that he was throwing 2 fingers in the air), but they kicked the field goal instead. I think Peyton's got a lot of discretion as to how he runs the offense, but there's clearly somebody on the sidelines watching the choices he makes and overruling them, if necessary. But even if he only called half the plays, that's impressive.
posted by rocketman at 06:19 PM on February 05
rcade is the best! justgary for coolest guy ever!
posted by rocketman at 09:42 AM on January 22
Why was he carrying a water bottle to begin with? Didn't he get the memo about water bottles and airport security? Sincerely, Robb New Zealand
posted by rocketman at 01:25 PM on January 18
Well, that's how this article caught my eye in the first place, holden. Right now, the Brewers faithful are divided into two camps - the "a deep rotation is a good rotation" camp, and the "we need to sign a power bat for the outfield" camp. In the current market, I think Suppan at 10.5mil/year is a steal, and I agree that he's at least a #3. In the Brewers' rotation, he's a #4, and depending on how Villanueva does and Gallardo progresses (and how the injuries fall, it should go without saying), by next year he could be the #5. Maybe that's too much to be paying for a "#5 Starter", but if he puts up numbers consistent with his career, that means the Brewers would have the deepest, and potentially the best, rotation in the NL. Wow -- amazing to see all of those high 4s and 5s (and a 6 thrown in there for good measure by our friends in KC) in the fourth starter ERA listings. Yeah, it took me by surprise. For any team that throws anything resembling a league-average pitcher out in the #4 and #5 spots, this is a comforting analysis.
posted by rocketman at 01:06 PM on December 29
Who goes out before 10pm on New Year's Eve? Losers, that's who.
posted by rocketman at 06:00 PM on December 27
On Topic: I wish Ty Gretzky great luck in dealing with what will likely be a lifelong burden for him. I know that this is considered poor etiquette to let loose in-thread like this, but here it goes: I registered for nytimes.com ages ago, close to a decade. I picked a login that, at the time, was identical to all the other logins I was using. And every time I wanted to read a NYT article, I had to login. But then there were these cookies, and they kept me logged in, except when I logged in at work, it logged me off at home, so I was logging in everywhere to read these articles, and it was a huge hassle. But I did what they asked, I registered, gave them my information, and probably am still receiving spam because of it. Somewhere along the line, I forgot my password because I stopped going to NYT.com, and then I discovered bugmenot, which was a godsend. Suddenly, I didn't have to remember my password anymore. Now, bugmenot doesn't seem to work anymore, and I'm back to where I was for years: not reading the New York Times, because they totally suck. I'm not going to register again, because I shouldn't have to. It's not my problem that they designed a crap-ass website registration system and we adapted.
posted by rocketman at 03:55 PM on December 15
Perhaps some of the hitters with high HR:RBI simply didn't have a lot of folks on in front of them. *cough*Bill Hall*cough*
posted by rocketman at 03:59 PM on December 07
How many of you can slap the ass of one of your co-workers and not get fired?
posted by rocketman at 10:20 AM on November 30
Was it Michael Vick? Or was it.... DA DA DAAAAA - Ron Mexico? In all seriousness, that demonstrates a total lack of class and restraint. It's sad that fans express themselves in such inappropriate ways, but it's up to Vick to be the bigger man.
posted by rocketman at 12:46 PM on November 29
This is just stupid. Aside from the stolen bases, Matt Murton's already putting up similar numbers, and he costs under a million a year (oh, and he's also six years younger, and likely to get better). Hendry could take that extra 15mil a year and drop it on some serious starting pitching. Not that I mind. I look forward to the Brewers winning against a strikeout-prone, pitching-poor Cubs team next year.
posted by rocketman at 04:04 PM on November 20
If the proper controls can be put into place, and it can be proven that Leyland adds 30 games, then he's immediately the greatest manager ever, as well as the most underpaid.
posted by rocketman at 07:25 PM on November 07
That is really tight. Thanks for posting these.
posted by rocketman at 01:41 PM on November 02
Gary, I think not starting Rogers in Game 5 has to do with matchups. Who would have thought that Weaver would have given up only 2 runs, 1 earned, over 8 innings? Weaver is not a top-tier starter, and starting Verlander against him makes sense. Perhaps the Tigers weren't hitting well, but Leyland had to believe that at some point they would start (again, did anybody really think Weaver was going to pitch as well as he did?). And if they could scrape together enough runs to keep Verlander in the game, and eventually win the game, you want Rogers pitching against Carpenter in Game 6. Maybe he should have played the hot hand, but it seemed to me Leyland planned on winning Game 5, and was thinking ahead to how he would win Game 6.
posted by rocketman at 09:33 AM on October 28
But Wood and Prior do have the stuff to get them to the awsome point. So did Nick Neugebauer. But - whoops! - Dave Stewart was convinced the kid needed to "toughen up" and pitch through pain. That worked really well. Mark my words: Prior/Wood are worth as much as exactly that, an erection that happened two days ago. Somebody will overpay for one or both of them based on their "stuff", but neither will accomplish much from here on out. I blame Dusty Baker
posted by rocketman at 02:33 PM on October 18
Whoops, on a closer read, it sounds like the UW actually is pushing for action. It's not a huge surprise, we all know what big business Division I collegiate athletics can be.
posted by rocketman at 02:22 PM on October 18
No, but I think he holds the patent for how to be a total prick. It's not the UW that's bringing action, it's their "marketing agency". I don't really think it's that big a deal if a high school is using a similar W, but I'm not in charge, deciding who to sue and who not to sue.
posted by rocketman at 02:16 PM on October 18
Also, as a Brewers fan, let me say how sad I was to see Dusty Baker get fired. Dunno how I feel about Piniella, he's still got a lot of obstacles in his path to bring this team to success.
posted by rocketman at 07:30 PM on October 16
You would think that the A's management would realize that if they kept half of the talent that they let leave Not every team can spend their way into yearly contention. In fact, only one team seems to do it (and even they came up short against the Tigers). I don't think the problem is Beane's management, and I don't think the problem is Ken Macha either.
posted by rocketman at 07:27 PM on October 16
But there's no way to know which it is, except in the obvious case of a team like the Pirates. Is the Red Sox ownership lining their pockets? Possibly, though it's hard to argue with the quality of the teams they've been fielding.
posted by rocketman at 02:30 PM on October 05
I was under the impression that the home team's manager made the call to start the game, and thereafter it was in the hands of the umpires. At least, that's what the rule book says. If that's correct, then of course the Yankees knew first.
posted by rocketman at 01:31 PM on October 05
Somebody said nobody drinks before a baseball game I don't think anybody said that.
posted by rocketman at 01:10 PM on October 05
the auspices of creating a "family-friendly environment" Wow. Maybe I'm just a bad parent, or maybe we're desensitized to drunks, but I don't think twice about bringing my daughter with to Brewers games and the accompanying tailgate. We've given up Equality of Opportunity for Equality of Outcome. yerfatma, I agree with you entirely, but it can only go so far before it swings back in the other direction. Hopefully soon. I live within crawling distance of a minor-league ballpark, but I seldom go because the experience is so tightly controlled, sponsored so heavily by advertising: every half-inning there's some manufactured "fun" sponsored by some business, the opening lineup promotes an insurance company, etc. These ads help make the team possible and viable, and I can appreciate that, but it makes me long for my modest apartment 6 years ago, when I could stand on my fire escape after work and watch the high school league games. There were zero expectations, the view (off the first base line) was unobstructed, and the beer was priced right. Good times.
posted by rocketman at 11:43 AM on October 05
Tailgating is a football thing. If you try it before a baseball game, you're just a drunk getting a load on. Well, there's an army of "drunks getting a load on" before every Brewers home game. Though we in Wisconsin don't need much prompting to drink. No where to tailgate around Fenway. This, if true, is a tragedy. You can't find a few square feet of sidewalk? You only need enough space for a portable grill and a lawnchair. You could set the condiment tray on the back of the truck, and even nix the chair if space was tight. I feel like a dumb okey from flyover country.
posted by rocketman at 10:50 AM on October 05
First of all, I support any move that makes baseball even more esoteric and hard to understand. Why not divorce seasons from sequential numbers? It would be the birth of a whole new website (or at least a new section on Baseball Reference). Especially since no one company could possibly afford to sponsor the league for an entire season. So you'd have to remember the Brewers had a memorable run to the playoffs in American Family, which was the same season the Padres just missed the wild card, except that was US Bank or something like that. All the years would be cross-referenced with the sponsors of seasons by different teams. "I remember in Citibank, when A-Rod, presented by Proctor & Gamble, made some slick plays at Disney base and batted .306/.427/.660, but Jeter's intangibles, presented by Hanes, brought the Yanks their 1st Miller Series championship since Sony!" Second: If I go to a game with my wife, buy nothing but the two kinds of shit beer they offer and the tab comes to $76 Don't you have tailgating in Massachusetts?
posted by rocketman at 10:18 AM on October 05
Doctor Who Struck Cyclists Guilty in LA Road Rage Trial
I wouldn't mind seeing this guy go to prison, but I'd rather see his driving privileges suspended for life.