- 12:18 AM
- 11/21/09
| Member since: | March 25, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Last visit: | November 20, 2009 |
rumple has posted 28 links and 193 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 51 comments to the Locker Room.
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 on October 12 - 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 on October 11 - 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 on September 16 - 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 on July 05 - 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 on May 10 - 6 comments
Elizabeth Lambert, the UNM soccer player who went on a bit of a foul rampage the other day, has spoken publicly. The NYT has the story, Salon has the commentary:
I definitely feel because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it. It's more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The female, we're still looked at as, Oh, we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it's not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to.
The nature of the media coverage, if not the extent of it, was certainly dictated by her sex. That's understandable -- after all, we aren't as accustomed to seeing violent outbursts from women. The bigger issue, though, is that we aren't as accustomed to seeing female athletes. Remember, the only reason for the uproar is that a compilation video of her belligerence was posted online -- not because the world was actually tuned in to the game. Ironically, it might be that when we start taking female athletes seriously -- as Lambert suggests -- we won't be as shocked when they act like poor sports.
posted by rumple at 12:54 PM on November 19
Wait, Tarkenton was a coward?
posted by rumple at 02:04 PM on November 15
NHL Suspension Flow Chart ("Dammit, Pronger!)
posted by rumple at 02:00 PM on November 15
BC by 1
Edmonchuk by 11
Setta
posted by rumple at 11:45 PM on November 13
Related: Phoenix-area teams suffering from economy. In which the housing market and local unemployment are implicated - though this is surely a problem most places. But 5885 people for an NHL game is not so good. I do respect the Coyotes team a ton though for playing so hard and effectively this season. I'd like to think it doesn't have something to do with losing Gretzky and hiring a professional coach - but it most likely does. It's a rare superstar player who becomes an effective coach (Jacques Lemaire, maybe) -- they've never had to think as hard about the game as the average player and maybe it is incomprehensible to them how to go beyond opening the gate and saying "be talented out there!".
posted by rumple at 12:13 PM on November 10
A night in the life of a Phoenix Coyotes ticket holder.
Still, at every stoppage in play his eyes keep sweeping the vast landscape of empty seats and he's gripped by a cocktail of unpleasant emotions. He feels embarrassed because he knows that there is a huge predatory faction among NHL fans who thrive on criticizing his city, and for them this sort of turnout is like ambrosia. At the same time, his shame is accompanied by a stewing anger because he's here supporting his team, and yet against all logic he and the others who are here to see the game are the ones getting the lion's share of the blame for the team's financial struggles.
It's not incredibly well written (faux third-person!) but it does seem heartfelt.
posted by rumple at 12:06 PM on November 10
THX -- I thought the weakest part of the rebuttal as this: Re multi-champions in the same division: It can be aggravating and confusing, but there's a collective wisdom in boxing that knows the true champion as opposed to title-holders). The rankings of Ring Magazine and Dan Rafael (ESPN.com) reflect the consensus. More important, there have always been so-called "paper champions" and fans have always decided which fighters they wanted to see, champions or not.
I think that completely under-recognizes the effect on the public of having multiple champions - it reduces the narrative of each fight and produces dozens of "champions" - more than the average fan can keep track of or care about. The notion that "collective wisdom" knows and so this is a non-issue is fairyland stuff. Hardcore fans will know, but the average, casual fan (and I might be one myself) really needs to have a simple story to follow. Who won the Stanley Cup? Easy. Who is the third ranked WBA cruiserweight and why should I care if they challenge a champion I've never heard of? And to say "true champion" vs "title-holder" -- when the title is "champion" you better believe that's confusing, in a way that can't just be dismissed by reference to a boxing magazine.
What I am saying is, through greed and split titles boxing destroyed their own narrative; and then by taking it off TV they gave everyone a reason to not care.
I don't follow UFC or MMA at all, in fact I think it is a sick exercise pandering to video-game junkies, but they are not making the same mistakes so far as I can tell. Yet.
posted by rumple at 01:30 PM on November 09
Larry Merchant, a former newspaper sports writer and editor who now comments on boxing on HBO, recently wrote to Tom Jolly, the sports editor of The [NY] Times, to protest the paper's relative lack of coverage of boxing.
Merchant's letter and Jolly's reply provide a fascinating glimpse into issues that transcend the immediate question of whether The Times should devote resources to a sport that even an ardent admirer like Merchant acknowledges is no longer mainstream. In many ways, Merchant and Jolly are discussing the role of a general interest newspaper in a dramatically changed world.
I thought readers would be interested in their exchange.
posted by rumple at 03:33 PM on November 08
6'3", 216 pound David Haye defeats 7'2", 318 pound Nikolai Valuev for the WBA share of the heavyweight boxing championship. pics.
posted by rumple at 08:09 PM on November 07
dang! thanks for organizing. Next year I might even get to watch one of the World Series games.
posted by rumple at 01:49 AM on November 06
A nilly-willy is not ok.
posted by rumple at 12:33 PM on November 05
$6.7 Billion Lopped off Olympic Economic Benefits Projections And government's new number, $4 billion, is based on a seven-year-old 'best case' scenario that hasn't panned out.
We're going to be paying for this boondoggle for a long, long time. But go hockey team anyway, WTF.
posted by rumple at 11:44 AM on November 04
Thank heavens he didn't do lunch with Deion Sanders or something similarly heinous deserving of a long suspension.
posted by rumple at 12:04 AM on November 03
"To my knowledge, only one man in England's Premier [Hockey] League (EPL) has stepped onto the ice as an NHL star. Now, he's talking to me in a dimly-lit Bracknell car park. "
posted by rumple at 12:19 PM on October 31
CFL Pick 'Em, Division Finals Edition
BC by 1
Saskatchewan by 11
Printers
Saskatchewan