hincandenza's profile

hincandenza
15
Name: Hal Incandenza
Gender: Manly-man
Member since: January 29, 2002
Last visit: May 24, 2013

hincandenza has posted 45 links and 1496 comments to SportsFilter and 4 links and 51 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

My name? Same reasoning as at my Metafilter page... from the book "Infinite Jest".

Grew up as a long time New Hampshire-ite, and thus a New England sports fan: die-hard passion about the Red Sox, enjoy the Celtics and Patriots, but honestly couldn't care less about the Bruins.

I still recall being 11 years old, leaping up and down in the living room with my dad standing up as the Red Sox were one strike away in 1986. I hollered for my mom to come in and witness history, and she called from the other room "Ah, they're just going to blow it." Mere moments later, Schiraldi's passed ball, etc. etc. Forget the Bambino- my mom is the reason the Sox lost that year.

Currently live in Seattle, big into the Mariners. I root for them as much as the Red Sox these days, and would love to see them win the championship. However: while last year, during that magical 116-win season I realized would have actually rooted for the M's over the Sox had they met in the ALCS (only because of the 116 wins, you understand, and because it didn't "feel" like the Sox year that year- fortunately the Sox imploded and that dilemma was avoided for a season), as a general rule I root for the Sox first and foremost. And since the Sox and M's both have exceptionally good chances to make the playoffs, I hope they don't go directly head to head because then I'd have to root against the M's.

This year, with the Sox playing historically well, I'm hoping they can finally make all us long-suffering Red Sox fans complete.

But my mom's right- they'll probably just blow it anyway.

Recent Links

Comment Editing: Wow, I'm not really not cool with the comment editing- chide me if you must, but if you're going to rewrite comments (and without clear indication, to boot), this site just became a whole lot less friendly.

posted by hincandenza to editorial policy at 05:57 PM on September 05 - 33 comments

NFL Pick 'Em, SUPERBOWL and final results: The final standings are in after all four founds of the Sportsfilter 2010-2011 NFL Playoffs Pick 'Em... and we have a winner!

posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 02:33 PM on February 08 - 6 comments

NFL Pick 'em, SUPERBOWL Round: : It's finally here: the last Sportsfilter Pick 'Em of the 2010-2011 NFL Season. A veritable smorgasbord of picks are to be found inside!

posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 12:17 AM on February 03 - 16 comments

NFL Pick 'em and Confidence Pool, Conference Round RESULTS: Results are in for the NFL Pick 'em and Confidence pool after the Conference Round. A pair of exciting games today, and some interesting results in our two pools!

posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 10:01 PM on January 23 - 9 comments

NFL Pick 'em, Conference Round: Hope posting this earlier will get more participation this week!

posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 11:19 AM on January 19 - 12 comments

Recent Comments

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle

The link you posted isn't right, and I suspect you copy/pasted the link from a playlist.

I think you meant this one?

posted by hincandenza at 01:51 PM on May 20

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

posted by hincandenza at 02:45 PM on March 15

SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle

yerfatma: Harden's scoreline should go into the efficiency hall of fame.
Harden was freakin' unconscious in that game- jesus, 14-19 from the field, 7-8 from beyond the arc, 11-12 from the line? That highlight reel with Harden and Lin was like watching the 3-point contest during the All-Star weekend. The whole time I was watching I was thinking "Wow, I sure hope they win this game and it's not the 'Best performance in a losing effort' highlight reel".


Also... is it irrational of me that, despite not caring about the Knicks/Houston, or even being much of a basketball fan, that I really want Jeremy Lin to have a good, successful career in the NBA? Not spectacular, but just solid, reliable, and noteworthy... I really want to believe he's got the head on his shoulders to develop past his bad habits, to mature in the NBA, and be a decent point guard for a good long while.

posted by hincandenza at 02:05 AM on February 22

SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle

Unsurprisingly, XKCD has nailed the heart of the issue when it comes to steroids in professional sports.

posted by hincandenza at 05:43 PM on February 14

Olympics drop wrestling for 2020

Jayzus... I mean along with the more basic track and field events, is there anything that is more authentically "Olympics" than wrestling? That's insane! And as etagloh points out, it's hardly like building a swimming arena solely for that class of sports- you can do wrestling in any event hall, just toss a few mats down on the floor. Maybe it's as described, that wrestling gets to re-apply for the sole open slot, and as such this is a guarantee the others won't get in- i.e., it's all a political gambit.

But I don't get what the limiting factor is; is there some law about how long the Olympics can run for? They have to drop sports to make room for others? It's not like the IOC has any respect for the cripplingly deep debt the host cities go into, that it cares about having them build yet another facility.

posted by hincandenza at 02:56 PM on February 12

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

Well, am I the only one who noticed that you can rearrange the letters in

TIMOTHY LEROY LINCECUM
to read
ICY YELL, "CUT INTO HER MOM"
That's no coincidence, folks. I don't exactly know what it means, but that's no coincidence...

posted by hincandenza at 08:33 PM on February 08

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle

Ouch!

But... deserved.

posted by hincandenza at 11:01 PM on February 04

NFL Pick 'Em Champion: Ying Yang Mafia

The Constanza goes to the incandescent hincandenza, whose 6 points were the lowest of any player who entered at least four rounds.
It's a gift, what can I say? I am George Costanza!

posted by hincandenza at 04:38 PM on February 04

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle

It's not a coincidence, but I also don't get the deer connection...

posted by hincandenza at 04:37 PM on February 04

NFL Pick 'Em, Super Bowl Edition

1) I may nab the Costanza with a clean sweep of my picks this week.
2) I doomed the 49ers to not winning by picking them across the board this week.

TREMBLE BEFORE MY MIGHTY POWERS AND DESPAIR YE MORTALS!

posted by hincandenza at 09:02 PM on February 03

NFL Pick 'Em, Super Bowl Edition

1. The winner of the Super Bowl: 49ers
2. The over or under on 47.5 total points Over
3. The quarterback who will pass for the most yards Kaepernick
4. The player who will run for the most yards: Kaepernick
5. The player who will catch the most yards: Crabtree
6. The player who will score the first touchdown: Crabtree
7. The player who will make the most tackles: Ray Lewis
8. A player who will make an interception or recover a fumble ("none" not allowed): Dashon Goldson
9. A player who will get a sack: Ray Lewis
10. The brand that will win the Super Bowl Ad Meter: Doritos
11: The Super Bowl's overnight rating (to one decimal place, for example 30.1, 35.2 or 39.0): 34.1
12: The total number of points scored in the game: 78

posted by hincandenza at 04:50 AM on February 03

Rajon Rondo Tears ACL, Out for Season

Man, the twenty-teens have been a rough decade to be a Boston sports fan...

I know I'm getting zero sympathy from any of you...

posted by hincandenza at 04:38 PM on January 27

Fake-to-Third, Throw-to-First Now a Balk

Mike Cameron was so embarrassed, he retired from baseball 3 weeks later!

posted by hincandenza at 04:32 PM on January 27

Fake-to-Third, Throw-to-First Now a Balk

Yeah, I've always felt that move was in the spirit, if not the letter, of what a balk is defined as. After all, the below is one of the rules defining a balk, but previously the ftt,ttf move was considered an allowed exception. This change basically just enforces an existing balk rule more starkly:

throws from the mound to a base without stepping toward (gaining distance in the direction of) that base;

I've long felt the balk was a weird part of the baseball rules, since I think the balk gets called more for weird ticky-tack things (like a slight rolling of the shoulders that no one actually confuses for a deception aimed at the baserunners) than for stuff that might be seen as unfairly imbalancing the game.


But then again, a part of me can side with the purists: as soon as the pitcher's foot is off the rubber, it's your responsibility as a runner to keep your guard up.

posted by hincandenza at 04:59 PM on January 26

The NFL Pick 'Em, Pro Bowl Edition

rcade: The Super Bowl round of the pick 'em will have 10 categories and be posted Friday.
Excellent! I'm slightly more than a week away from completing my utter domination of the Costanza this year... :(

Pick:
1. AFC
2. Over
3. Peyton Manning
4. Adrian Peterson
5. Wes Welker, because it would be freakin' ironic for him to start catching the ball this week
6. Colquitt

posted by hincandenza at 04:46 PM on January 26