Malcom Gladwell compares and contrasts dog fighting with the NFL: "A dog that keeps charging at its opponent is said to possess 'gameness,' and game dogs are revered. In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. [.....] This is why Michael Vick's dogs weren't euthanized. The betrayal of loyalty requires an act of social reparation. Professional football players, too, are selected for gameness".

posted by rumple to football at 01:15 PM - 2 comments

FlipFlopFlyball: is designer Craig Robinson's collection of the sports graphics he does for fun. Mostly about baseball, these range from whimsical to silly to interesting to simple. He also has a baseball flickr set.

posted by rumple to culture at 02:10 PM - 3 comments

30 dirty players in 30 days: "I have finished my 30 Dirty Players in 30 Days feature. Over the month of August, we featured the all-time dirtiest player from each NHL Team - From Anaheim to Washington."..... 18. CHI Bobby Hull - Nice guy on the ice. Too bad his wife didn't play hockey. 22. VAN Todd Bertuzzi - In this case, one cheapshot does make you a dirty player. 29. FLA Brian McCabe - This "Flying Ass" was the inventor of the "Can Opener". 30. COL Steve Moore - Of course he didn't deserve it, but his hit on Naslund was dirty. And 26 others ...

posted by rumple to hockey at 12:33 PM - 19 comments

Monica Seles talks about her hair, her fridge, her body, and being stabbed in the back: The former teenage prodigy won eight grand slam events before being attacked at age 19 by a deranged fan. She came back to win a ninth, but was never the same again. In this interview she reflects on her career, and on being a teenage girl under the spotlight. "My generation was the last when you were marketed really as a tennis player - Graf, Hingis. But when Anna Kournikova came along, there was this whole other thing - suddenly it was all about looks. Tennis is pretty unforgiving if you are carrying weight. You are expected to wear short skirts, and you are compared to all these 16- and 17-year-olds.

posted by rumple to tennis at 03:21 PM - 8 comments

Sunday Flash Fun: Little Master cricket is an extremely simple, yet surprisingly addictive, flash game. Control a loose-limbed batsman, defend your wicket, and hit for 1, 2 ,4 or 6. As in real cricket, starting stance and bat angle are crucial. Unlike real cricket, the balls pile up if you play with too dead a bat. Game resets extremely quickly, which is good, because it is tricky to score well and you only get one out!

posted by rumple to other at 02:27 PM - 6 comments

Formula 1 at the Big Picture blog: in wet and dry conditions.

posted by rumple to auto racing at 05:11 PM - 5 comments

Two can't misses, who missed. Todd Marinovich: a familiar story, compellingly told with a new interview, and Mike Harrington: drafted 5 times, turned down a 5 million dollar contract, changes tires at Costco.

posted by rumple to culture at 08:38 PM - 4 comments

Soviet Hockey Cards: from the 1970s glory era.

posted by rumple to hockey at 10:58 PM - 3 comments

Stats Guru Bill James dissects the BCS: A precise encapsulation of all that is wrong with College Football rankings.

posted by rumple to football at 01:13 PM - 2 comments

It's not every day you pick up 15,000 games in the standings. : But last fall a man hardly anyone's heard of went from the losingest team of all time to the winningest team of all time....

posted by rumple to basketball at 11:07 PM - 0 comments

Basqueing in Glory:: Athletic Bilbao is Europe's most exotic football club. For 80 years, the legendary club has managed to keep itself in Spain's top division, fielding players recruited exclusively from the Basque region. But how long can the fiercely independent club continue to resist the trends of globalization?

posted by rumple to soccer at 02:35 PM - 13 comments

Profile of Asafa Powell,: who has run the five fastest 100 metre sprints in history and is still based in a run-down training facility in Jamaica. Photo Gallery

posted by rumple to other at 01:33 AM - 1 comment

Football Filter: is a new "online community a la digg that concentrates on quality links on the world of football (soccer)". via Metafilter Projects.

posted by rumple to soccer at 12:54 AM - 15 comments

ZEUS: is a computer program that analyses NFL coaches based on the plays they call across the season. Belichek's notorious 4 & 13 call in the superbowl was the right choice, but coaches lose their teams 0.5 to 1.5 games a year on blown calls. Interesting interview with the programmers. via kottke

posted by rumple to football at 08:30 PM - 3 comments

White men can't jump: 10 myths about race and sports.: A quiz from the American Anthropological Association.

posted by rumple to culture at 02:54 PM - 2 comments

All the Super Bowl Logos, from I to XLII.: An implicit mini-history of American design, good and bad.

posted by rumple to culture at 11:55 AM - 24 comments

The Joy of Six: The six worst sports movies ever. "Stumbling around seemingly high on botox, Stallone spends his time mulling over snippets of cod philosophy - "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place" - and comes to the conclusion that, by losing, one can actually become ... wait for it ... a winner". The ensuing comments are lively.

posted by rumple to culture at 01:59 PM - 74 comments

Flights of Fancy:: "In pursuit of a childhood dream, one man packed in his job to see if he could make it as a professional sportsman. Well, darts player, anyway. After a year at the oche, he tells his humbling story of growing obsession, drinking Guiness before 10am, and learning some hard lessons." What? No "darts" category? Gosh.

posted by rumple to other at 02:04 AM - 5 comments

The gambler who didn't know when to quit:: "Gary Bettman, the smooth-talking commissioner of the NHL, is the most disliked man in hockey, and justifiably so." A punchy column from The Guardian assesses Bettman's role in the current state of the NHL, from a U.K. perspective.

posted by rumple to hockey at 04:44 PM - 1 comment

CBC Radio and TV Archives, Sports Category: includes vintage clips such as Wayne Gretzky interviewed after scoring 1,000th career goal (at age 13); NHL doubles in size (1966); Rocket Richard in playoffs (1944); "skurfing" the streets in 1965; wrestling legend Gene Kiniski interviewed in 1978; making wooden lacrosse sticks; Montreal Expos first home opener in 1969; no beer at Blue Jays games; Russ Jackson and Rough Riders beat Roughriders in 1969 Grey Cup; novelist W.O. Mitchell reviews curling; and much more. Worth a browse.

posted by rumple to general at 03:03 AM - 3 comments

Casualties of the NFL:: The fits, when they come, turn him as white as the walls and send unself-conscious tears down his cheeks. It's DeMarco at 35: dirt-poor, broken, and in a headfirst spiral, taking his wife and children down with him. .... "There was no food in the house, and I mean none -- not a box of mac and cheese or a can of tuna ..... Brian and Autumn hadn't eaten in a couple of days and between them had 75 cents. Total." A harrowing account of post-NFL experiences.

posted by rumple to football at 08:53 PM - 39 comments

Selected editions of the Spalding Baseball Guides from 1889-1939: are scanned (full text, high resolution) and free online at the Library of Congress. They also have 2100 baseball cards scanned and searchable.

posted by rumple to baseball at 04:48 PM - 3 comments

Spoil Sports:: An interesting article on the growing influence of Persian Gulf oil money on international sport.

posted by rumple to general at 02:22 AM - 1 comment

The Extortionist:: an interesting, lengthy profile of high-profile baseball agent Scott Boras.

posted by rumple to baseball at 07:03 PM - 10 comments

Mackenzie Kline: is one of the world's leading 15 year golfers, a remarkable feat since she was born with only 3/4 of a heart. Her web page has more information.

posted by rumple to golf at 11:15 PM - 3 comments