- 05:24 AM
- 05/18/08
| Member since: | November 8, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Last visit: | May 17, 2008 |
Monkeyhawk has posted no links and 18 comments to SportsFilter and hasn’t posted any threads or comments to the Locker Room.
Pacman gives Dallas Cowboys a dual threat: This is what Pacman Jones can bring to the Dallas Cowboys on the field if he plays in 2008: A playmaker on defense as a cornerback and on special teams.
posted to Football at 12:11 PM CDT
Aussie Rules Football Is Punchtastic! In connection to the previous post about Sean Avery, this is what Brodeur should have done to him. And we think American football players are tough. Truth be told, it was a really cheap shot..... but funny.
posted to Football at 5:21 PM CDT
I didn't know Australian Rules Football had any rules.
posted at 11:48 AM CDT on April 17
Kansas Wins National Title... ....although to read the article you would think that Memphis had it gift wrapped.
posted to Basketball at 12:04 AM CDT
Cut me and I bleed Crimson and Blue.
The game came down to poise and I give that credit to Bill Self. Calipari lost control of the game and lost control of his team. Forget sitting on two times-out with ten seconds to go. Forget not getting the foul on Sharron Collins.
Memphis was whupped at the end of regulation. You could see it in their eyes. Both teams had five minutes to win it in OT. Calipari lost it before the overtime tip-off.
posted at 1:14 PM CDT on April 8
NASCAR Rookie Survives Unbelievable Crash NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie Michael McDowell tested the new safety features in the Car of Tomorrow yesterday during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway, slamming into a Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier at more than 100 mph and rolling eight times (see the video). "That was the hardest hit I think I've ever seen anybody take," driver Tony Stewart said.
posted to Auto Racing at 11:37 AM CDT
I really don't want to sound preachy...
And I'm totally agnostic on the "social implications" or that crap...
But can we admit we go to NASCAR or the Indy 500 or the local dirt track... we're always there with the knowledge there might be an horrific crash. And we're okay with that.
I got drunk in a motel bar in Dodge City a few years ago with a few professional bull riders.
I don't think there's a harder way on the planet to be a professional athlete than to be a professional bull rider.
For one thing. Half the crowd is rooting for the bull.
Here's a link to Joe Poznanski's blog with an interview with Liz Clarke about her new NASCAR book.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/
posted at 11:39 PM CDT on April 5
Part of it us how the sport is reported.
How many more times does TV show wrecks than a moment of skilled driving in the Number Four corner?
Remember that NASCAR is a santiziized version of an original American blood sport: moonshinin'in'.
The basis of this game is "How much would it take to get you into this motor vehicle and risk your neck?"
There's an incredible, albeit limited, skill-set required to drive a state-of-the-art funny car down an NHRA track. But the only reason it's a spectator sport is that the funny car might blow up some day.
No. Nobody goes to the horse races just to see an entry break down. But what are the days at the track when people tell their stories?
"I *SAW* that wreck!!!" is a badge of being an authentic NASCAR fan.
Not "I saw that pit stop!" or "I *SAW* that drafting!"
We go there for the wrecks.
posted at 11:55 PM CDT on April 5
A hundred thousand people don't go to the Daytona 500 to watch "an engineering competition." That's Liz Clarke's argument. Instead of personalities -- Dale, Rusty, Jimmy Johnson... NASCAR has turned into a bunch of antronaut-vanilla technicians programmed to recite all their car's sponsors.
The only reason we watch NASCAR is because it's a dangerous sport. I'll never be able to dunk a basketball. I'm not only small, but I'm slow so most stadium sports aren't my ticket to superstardom. But hell, I can DRIVE a car!
The only-est reason we go to car races is because it's a dangerous enterprise.
It's a tried and true meme about how motor racing helped create better automotive technolgies -- from the rear-view mirror at Indy to the disk brake from Le Mans, the seat belt, the roll cage..... But a hundred thousand people show up in the coliseum every weekend to watch gladiators literally put their lives on the line.
It's a blood sport. Like boxing. The COT rules are the latest version of the Marquise of Queensbury's rules; another subparagraph about what can stuff the boxing glove.
Maybe we as a species need this s#it. I dunno. And without rehashing all the cliches about how football is a metaphor for war; "...the playing fields of Eton;" and all that. Something we seek in sports is ultimately rooted in our need to dominate an opponent.
And you can't get more dominated than dead.
posted at 11:20 AM CDT on April 6
A Short History of the Baseball Played in a (Small) Coliseum With the Red Sox and Dodgers set to play three in LA, a little back-story to the field.
posted to Baseball at 3:36 PM CDT
One of the aspects of baseball I dearly love is how ballparks shape teams and the game. I love that they're gonna play some games in the Coliseum.
I was a kid when Charlie O. Finley tried to build his "Pennant Porch" in Kansas City's old Municipal Stadium; to match the right field porch in old Yankee Stadium. I don't remember where Bobby Thompson's home run landed, but it was in the Polo Grounds and might have been a long fly ball in, say, Cleveland.
I love how people can still debate how the numbers might have changed if Ted Williams had played his home games in Yankee Stadium and DiMagio had hit in Fenway. The new pseudo-old parks appeal to me by creating flukes in the outfield walls, but nothing's quite as charming as the old coot in Washington who refused to sell his house so Griffith Stadium had that notch in center field. Houston's pseudo-old ballpark has that rise in center field that echoes Crosley Field's earth ramp caused by a sewer pipe or something.
Willy Mays' *catch* wouldn't be the same if it hadn't been at the Polo Grounds with its 500-foot dead-center fence. Bucky (F*ckin') Dent would have hit a pop fly in any other ballpark.
When I was in high school, we played football against a team that had a 95-yard field... and there were trees growing in one of the end zones. I sometimes wish the NFL had a tree or two on some team's field. A field with personality.
posted at 5:09 PM CDT on March 26
Rock Chalk Jayhawk...football?
posted to Football at 10:20 AM CDT
Instead of Gatoraid...
Perhaps the kids should've tried to throw a bucket of chicken on Mangino. Just to see if any pieces hit the ground.
;-)
posted at 9:10 PM CDT on January 4
Fergie bungles at Bolton. With the "Big Four" teams playing mostly drop-zone teams today, defending champions Manchester United lose a shocker 1-0 to Bolton, who were the top of the bottom three at the start of the matchday but scrabbled out of the relegation zone with today's upset. Ferguson decided to rest Ronaldo (after he played two Euro qualifiers for Portugal in a week), his top performer this season, by not even naming him to the squad. This, with firebrand Wayne Rooney also out, turned out to be a bad gamble. Fergie also got sent into the stands by the referee after a prolonged outburst. Arsenal went on to beat second-from-bottom Wigan 2-0, and now heads Man U and the league by three points, with an extra game to play. Chelsea is, in the meantime, leading bottom-boys Derby 1-0. Also, Liverpool thumped Newcastle 3-0 to move into fourth. Has Ferguson lost the plot?
posted to Soccer at 12:30 PM CDT
See, here's the problem I have -- sitting here in the middle of the United States of America -- with soccer.
Just what influence does the *coach* have on any game. He can substitute, or not. He can tell his team to "go Go GO!"
But when it gets on the pitch, ... WHAT?!
A baseball manager can call for a squeeze play. An NFL coach can decide on a double-reverse. Just what is the in-game basis for any soccer team's coach?
I admit. I don't understand a lot of the nuances of the game, but I've seen a bunch of 'em and it still seems to me that it's up to the players on the field that respond to the situations in front of them.
For the life of me I can't figure out how a soccer coach has anymore credibility in any soccer game than, say, a referee in professional wrestling.
posted at 8:58 PM CDT on November 24
Tale of the Tape (Measure) "Not tall enough for the elite programs, that was the verdict. The tyranny of the tape measure can be a cruel thing. It canceled out a vast array of attributes both players had to offer . . . Maybe now it's time for colleges to break their own molds . . . Maybe that will be the enduring legacy of the little men currently occupying center stage in this jarringly unconventional college football season."
posted to Football at 10:42 PM CDT
Can I drag out the old "It's not the size of the dog in the fight..." cliche?
KU and Mizzou are flat fun to watch. The Tigers might have the edge on individual talent, but Mark Mangino has molded a bunch of so-called "second-tier" recruits into a *team* that simply doesn't understand how to lose.
I'm a Kansas grad and bleed Crimson and Blue. So maybe my heart is in play when I think KU's defense gives 'em an edge in this Saturday's game.
Kansas v. Missouri at Arrowhead is kismet. There *will* be beer sold in the stadium. There's gonna be plenty of barbeque at the tailgating parties. And a bunch of kids who will never play football for money are gonna show us all what college football is all about.
So maybe, like so many games hyped as offensive slugfests, it'll turn into a defensive struggle. Maybe one team will be up and the other team will be unlucky, but I doubt there'll be a blow-out. I think the Kansas City Chiefs play on the same field the next day. The pros will likely have to deal with slippery turf, stained with blood, sweat, and tears; tears on one side of the field anyway.
To truly appreciate the game, get some real barbeque -- McRib sandwiches don't count -- and enjoy two college football teams at the top of the game.
By any measure -- even the tape measure -- it's gonna be fun.
posted at 6:49 AM CDT on November 22
It's 7:12 Central Time and KU and Mizzou are about to play.
If you're not watching this game, I hope I owe you money.
posted at 7:13 PM CDT on November 24
Tampa Bay Rays Cast Out the Devil Baseball's most woebegotten franchise has changed its name, dropping the Devil and adopting a new two-blue color scheme and logo. No longer a filter-feeding eater of plankton, the Rays have become a "beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida," said a beaming owner Stuart Sternberg.
posted to Baseball at 7:23 PM CDT
I'm guessing it's the first step toward moving the franchise.
Switching from the maritime Devil Rays to the sunbelt Rays opens up the opportunity to move to, say, San Antonio, one of the Carolinas, Vegas... some town with corporate money for a ballpark that doesn't look like the teams are playing in somebody's basement. Tropicana "Field" is a depressing venue, better for boat shows and flea markets than big league baseball.
I mean, why put a ray of sunshine in the logo for a team that plays in the dark?
posted at 12:55 AM CDT on November 9
Charlie O. Finley broke the rule for baseball uniforms. The Kansas City A's came out in Kelly Green & Gold and the traditionalists were apoplectic. The team wore white shoes! "Albino kangaroo pelts," Finley lied. Finley's A's were the first teams with names above the numbers. But he insisted on nicknames. So it was "Catfish" instead of "Hunter" and "Blue Moon" instead of Odom.
Most people hate the early 80s Astros uniforms, but I kinda liked them. It's probably apocryphal that the Yankees adopted pin stripes to make Babe Ruth look slimmer, but there's something special about seeing those uniforms only in the Bronx, and those dull-gray road uniforms everywhere else.
It was the fault of polyester and the 70s that the Pittsburgh Pirates wore those garish gold Cap Anson uniforms, but they were distinctive. Call me a purist, but I preferred the old black-and-white vests for the Pirates, and the read and white vests for Cincinnati (who was that 50s homer-hitter who played with *no* sleeves?)
Changes are made for all sorts of reasons. The Yankees used to be the Hilltoppers. The Brooklyn Trolly-Dodgers were once the Superbas. During the McCarty era, the "Reds" became the "Red Legs," so as not to confuse them with commies. The Cardinals only became the "Red Birds" because they originally selected cardinal red as the team color. (Let's face it, the 19th Century was overly concerned with team colors: cardinal, brown, red sox, white sox... One of my first memories of big league baseball was going to a game and the Chicago team wasn't wearing white sox.)
At least baseball execs have a little common sense when they move franchises. Is there anything more patently absurd than the Utah Jazz? Yeah, that's where we all go to hear be-bop and dixieland near a Great Salt Lake. Shouldn't the "Lakers" be in Utah instead of a desert town on the Pacific Coast? If MLB worked like the NBA, there'd be the Baltimore Browns. If the NFL worked like the NBA, they'd be the Tennessee Oilers. And wouldn't make a lick of sense.
That beam of sunlight in the new Tampa Bay logo signals they don't want to be a dome team.
Mark my words: the "Rays" will move in a few years. Maybe they'll retain the Rays nickname; maybe they'll become the (I dunno) Las Vegas Hookers or the San Antonio Roses. Or go retro and call themselves the Memphis Blues.
posted at 4:27 PM CDT on November 9
I don't have much of a clue about Nashville, but I've always wondered what it's like for pro football players who are forced to live in Green Bay or Charlotte or Jacksonville or other marginally-backwater towns. Yeah, you're a big fish in a small town, but just where was Pac Man supposed to find entertainment in Nashville? An Amy Grant concert?
Dallas is big enough to offer diversified entertainment. Oakland always was a rough town, from longshoremen to Hell's Angels to the 70s-era Raiders. "Felonies start after the third death," an' all that...
Would the Bengals have as many discipline problems if they weren't, ya know, located in uber-Kentucky?
Part of what put Joe Namath in the Hall of Fame was this Pennsylvania kid, by way of Alabama, was perfectly suited for NYC in the 60s. San Francisco was a perfect (albeit ironic) match for 39-year-old virgin Steve Young, since the a large portion of the fan base could share his never-been-naked-with-a-girl persona.
Carl Peterson decided Jared Allen just "wasn't a good fit for Kansas City." Not for the Chiefs. Not for making sacks or winning football games... but for the "city." Maybe he's right. Three high-profile DUIs might do that.
As for Dallas? Remember the "North Dallas Forty" Cowboys? The "Semi-Tough" Cowboys? Pac-Man will fit right in.
"steelergirl" --
Where do ya suppose a southern Califonia kid goes for sushi in Kansas City?
Maybe, "hawkguy" --
But going for sushi in Johnson County Kansas sounds a lot like going to San Diego for barbecue.