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- 07/25/08
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BullpenPro has posted 28 links and 861 comments to SportsFilter and 4 threads and 253 comments to the Locker Room and has written 2 columns.
Ripken, check. Gwynn, check. McGwire, not so much. A landmark Hall of Fame election, with a message for the steroid era but no real surprises.
posted on Jan 9, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
The Better Part of Pete The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame is planning an 11-month, 2000 square foot exhibit celebrating the playing career of Pete Rose. Notoriously banned from consideration by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he is not a member of the club's Hall either. There is no formal statement regarding Rose's eligibility on their list of inductees page, but it does say that there was no induction from 1989 until 1998, and after that the election process was handed over to the Baseball Writers Association of America. Are the writers executing their own ban of Charlie Hustle?
posted on Dec 19, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Morneau is your AL MVP What makes this even more impressive is that he was splitting votes with a teammate, Joe Mauer. That has hurt past candidates, including David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Morneau is the second Canadian-born player to win the MVP.
posted on Nov 21, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
The "Cancer Sucks" Ball Park Tour Jeffrey Newbauer, Jr. succumbed on Wednesday to recurrent Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. His battle was chronicled by his mother, and the family has vowed to continue the fight with ""NEWBEginnings," dedicated to taking children with cancer and their families out to the ballpark.
posted on Oct 27, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
mlb.com reports handshake labor deal The primary issues have been increased revenue sharing and a competitive balance tax. If it goes through, this will be the first time ever a deal has been reached before the active collective bargaining agreement expired. Nobody is confirming anything yet, because the deal has to be written up and signed -- and if you're wondering why that takes so long, here's the most recent CBA [pdf].
posted on Oct 23, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Joe Buck and Jim Nantz, Sportscasters or corporate shills? Slate asks - yawn - are Buck and Nantz the best TV can do?
posted to General at 2:55 PM CDT
The Legend of 'One-Hundred-Foot Wednesday' Six years ago, Shawn Alladio and J.C. Cahill, two Jet Ski riders working rescue duty at the Maverick's surf contest in San Francisco, were a quarter-mile out to sea when they saw a monster 100-foot wave bearing down on them and had to make a choice -- escape it or charge it. "The broad swath of aerated water that existed between them and shore could bog down their machines. A Jet Ski can't run on bubbles; it needs to pump solid water to move. Even if they turned and fled at top speed, there was no guarantee they could outrun this wave or that it would not catch them and gobble them into its hydraulic maw."
posted to Extreme at 8:41 AM CDT
In a world where both of their jet skis were totally under water...
posted at 3:06 PM CDT on January 31
Nice post, rcade. I would have said that in my previous post, but I accidentally hit "Post" instead of "Preview" when I made a second check that my tags were proper, and I, uh, you know... didn't have any edit time.
posted at 3:10 PM CDT on January 31
Thailand in Olympics-era Hockey Record. An inspiring headline, until you read the article.
posted to Hockey at 7:25 PM CDT
Thailand at least prevented the shutout when Arthit Thamwongsin hit the target after 47.15.
I'm pretty sure that exact same sentence is in the "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Universe." Verbatim.
posted at 8:21 PM CDT on January 29
Down with Bettman Why the wee one must go.
posted to Hockey at 3:18 PM CDT
He said, "moribund." He meant, "Hartford." The words are interchangable, and it's easy to get confused.
posted at 8:29 PM CDT on January 29
posted to General at 12:01 PM CDT
Maybe there is the potential for a positive outcome in all of this. This was quite a unique solution that brought together what seems to be a reasonably common problem with horses -- a broken leg -- with an ownership group that had the means to provide the highest quality medical care to a horse in that condition and the motive to spare no expense to get the horse well. Perhaps veterinary science gained some insight from this regarding what is and is not possible with a horse in that condition. At worst, maybe the conclusion is that you have to put the horse down -- that we simply are not equipped at this stage to get a horse in that condition back onto four healthy legs -- and in the future destroying the horse can be done with a cleaner conscience, knowing that nothing more can be done even in the best circumstances. At best, perhaps despite this failure the doctors gained some insight into what went wrong and medicine can move toward a place where future horses might be saved.
If I'm right, the perceived selfishness of Barbaro's owners may end up serving a greater good. Or maybe this is just a stupid tragedy, and I'm trying to rationalize torturing a poor horse for months.
posted at 7:00 PM CDT on January 29
There has been a public statement that Barbaro never stood as a stud.
Maybe it's the way my brain processes words. Maybe it's the font I use to read SportsFilter (Papyrus -- very cool, but not very practical). Maybe it's my painfully desperate need to be the center of attention.
But sometimes when I see "Barbaro," a quick read makes it look like "Bullpenpro." And some of these comments are striking a little close to home.
posted at 4:35 PM CDT on January 30
Matsuzaka order's the gyroball sandwhich or does he? - The $51.1 million pitch is broken down on SI.com
posted to Baseball at 9:03 AM CDT
wonder if Dice-K might use the myster of the "gyroball" as a way of keeping batters off balance. Throw something that MIGHT look like a gyroball and suddenly batters are going to be flumoxed by the idea that the next pitch COULD be the gyroball.
How many gyro-less starts do you think it will take before the league picks up on the fact he doesn't throw the pitch?
From what I've read, I don't believe he throws it, and frankly it shouldn't matter. The guy has established himself as a very good pitcher with or without the gyro. He's getting some extra press out of this, which is nice for him right now, but the unfortunate potential fallout from this is, if he starts out 1-4 with no gyro in sight, the Boston media is going to be calling this whole deal the $100 million Scam of the Century, and they'll bury him for lying about the pitch.
Maybe then the Sox will deal him to the Mets for erkno, and I can see him pitch in TWO nearby stadiums.
posted at 8:10 PM CDT on January 29
Federer Beats Gonzalez, Wins Aussie Open Take a look at these numbers: 3 Grand Slams in a row, 36 matches in a row, and the first player to win a Grand Slam without losing a set since 1980. Oh yeah, he's 25 and only 4 Grand Slam titles behind Sampras's 14. Greatest. Player. Ever.
posted to Tennis at 7:16 AM CDT
Not disputing your excellent point, JJ, but it seems to me that another big difference between golf and tennis, one that gives tennis the edge in difficulty, is that there days in tennis on which you just cannot be off your game. In the 2005 Masters, Tiger Woods and Chris DiMarco ended up in a playoff. Tiger had a bad day on Thursday when he shot a 2-over 74. DiMarco's bad day was Saturday when he shot the same. Obviously, you can't be really terrible on any day, but you can have any combination of a reasonably bad day with three great days and win a tournament. In tennis, you can't make up for your bad day later. If Federer is going to shoot a metaphorical 74, he'd better do it early and be lucky. It's harder to make up for your bad day in tennis because your tourament might be over before you get the chance, and the likelihood of prevailing on an off day in the final two matches of a major, when you're likely to be facing top-10 or top-5 competition, is pretty small.
posted at 5:29 AM CDT on January 29
Yankees sending delegation to China Yankees president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman will head a delegation that travels to Beijing next week for meetings that could lead to Major League Baseball establishing an academy in China. Levine said they hope to see the Great Wall during the trip.
posted to Baseball at 3:55 PM CDT
What is almost certainly a capitalistic enterprise on the part of the Yankees, who are looking at the potential for an enormous expansion of their consumer market -- there's, like, a billion people in China -- this relationship would certainly grow the international talent pool, and moreover it may provide some needed improvement in US/China diplomatic relations (however small in its weight).
Baseball has a pretty strong history in breaking political tensions, from the Civil War to the regrettable internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, to the Cuba embargo, right up to the current war in Iraq. The game certainly doesn't solve international problems -- see the handling of Cuba during the WBC last year -- but it can establish a base of commonality (just as soccer or any other sport might -- just look at what the Olympics have accomplished in the face of political conflict).*
*Noting that the success rate in that area is certainly not 100%.
posted at 3:26 AM CDT on January 26
Why does it always have to be about the Yankees, anyway?
Yeah, why do stories about the Yankees always have to be about the Yankees?
According to the article, the Yankees specifically were invited, not MLB. Note: Levine said baseball in China is in the "infancy stages," and that the Yankees had been talking with the CBA for six months and were invited to make the trip.
And what difference does it make whether the motives to be there are financial or not? The outcome is still more likely to benefit the greater good than not. An awful lot of the wonderful things came about as the result of somebody pursuing a buck. Like the internet, for example.
posted at 3:38 PM CDT on January 26
Quite a Concept “You’re sitting on a machine, rowing to exhaustion, going nowhere. Most people understand there’s something deeply nonsensical about the whole enterprise.” … Luanne Mills, who will take home a hammer for lightweight women, says, “I’ve met so many wonderful people from all over the world. I like everything about erging except doing it.”
[Perhaps our own Ultimate Olympian will give this a try this cold and windy winter.]
posted to Olympics at 7:57 AM CDT
I have an erg in my apartment that I use to keep in shape through the colder months (that shape, of course, being something between an egg and a pear). I have never thrown up from using the machine. And I thought I couldn't feel like even more of a sissy.
Maybe if I just had more beer before getting on...
posted at 4:06 AM CDT on January 26
Love, Baseball, and the Joy of Sox! A new reality TV show on the way will take place at Boston's Fenway Park, and will combine elements of speed dating and baseball games. What, there wasn't enough angst happening within the confines of Fenway already?
posted to Baseball at 9:49 AM CDT
For instance, he suggested there could be a golden years episode with single Sox seniors dating.
I thought all the senior Red Sox fans died in October 2004.
Scout is still trying to work out details such as whether courtship details will be flashed up on the ballpark’s scoreboards
Maybe they could just have Manny make gestures in left field that indicate the relative success of the date.
I'm so glad I don't have a bad Boston accent.
Well, I read all your posts in a heavy accent. So, yeah, no, we don't believe you.
posted at 12:56 PM CDT on January 24
I couldn't get past the first sentence.
The October-to-April stretch is the prime rib on the sports menu. On the schedule for those seven months: the World Series, the Super Bowl, March Madness, and the Masters.
Of course, three of those seven months have absolutely none of those events. That's a lot of gristle.
Eh. I'll take bland over vibrantly irritating any day of the week. I don't get the point of trashing these guys for not being exciting enough, or for staying in line with their employers. I would so much rather have a bland broadcast than have to hit the mute button -- at least I still get the nat sound. If the game isn't holding my interest, I don't want or need a broadcaster to compensate on the entertainment scale.
I don't remember a time when I thought either of these guys was the worst broadcaster in the booth.
Vin Scully is so good, and almost worth the investment in XM Radio by himself. His broadcast style has many strengths, but I think his greatest is his awareness of his medium and his ability to sustain the drama that is occurring on the field of play without manipulating it to any great degree. He is equally good on TV and radio with regard to his timing. His dramatic pauses give the audience a chance to react to what is happening on the field without making you feel like your missing anything by his silence, and he jumps back in as though he can sense when the listener has stopped screaming (or crying) and brings us back up to speed. It's not a teachable talent, I suspect, or I would think we'd have more of it.
To yerfatma's list, I would add these:
Bill White
Tony Kubek
Jim Kaat
Jon Miller
Bob Uecker