holden's profile

holden
221
Name: Holden O.
Location: Chicago
Member since: February 11, 2002
Last visit: May 22, 2013

holden has posted 50 links and 2013 comments to SportsFilter and 8 links and 268 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

My Teams:

MLB -- Cardinals
NFL -- Saints
NCAA -- LSU
Football -- Spurs, Barca
Hockey -- Red Wings
Basketball -- Ambivalent

Sports Lowlights:

In my first real year of Wings fandom (I was a transplant to the North and was a latecomer to hockey), I saw the Leafs beat the Wings because Nicklas Lidstrom (of all people) allowed Nikolai Borschevsky to get his stick on the puck for the Game 7 overtime winner. I have attended my share of heartbreaking sporting events, including Game 7 of the 1994 Western Conference Quarterfinals (top-seeded Wings lose to eighth seeded Sharks, margin of victory is a goal by the Sharks due to Chris Osgood not getting back in position after playing the puck away from the net) and Game 4 of the 2004 World Series (Cardinals are ignominiously swept by the Red Sox in St. Louis).

Sports Highlights:

I have also attended a few fantastic (from my perspective) sporting events, including Games 3-5 of the 2006 World Series, Game 5 of the 2003 ALDS (Oakland v. Boston -- no rooting interest, just a great game, with Derek Lowe striking out Terrence Long looking with the tying run on third to end the game and then classily grabbing his crotch), and the 1998 ACC men's basketball tournament (with Vince Carter and Antwan Jamison-led UNC taking out Duke in the final).

Recent Links

Euro 2012 Confidence Pool (Final Standings): Congrats to our winner, goddam, who narrowly pipped second-place finisher owlhouse (and apologies to those of you whose entries the software ate). Full standings inside.

posted by holden to fantasy at 11:43 AM on July 05 - 1 comment

Euro 2012 Confidence Pool (Standings Post-Group Round): Standings after the group round inside.

posted by holden to fantasy at 02:59 PM on June 22 - 1 comment

Euro 2012 Confidence Pool: For those not interested in playing a full-blown Euro fantasy league or (like me) interested in both, click the link for the SpoFi Euro 2012 confidence pool. Additional details inside.

posted by holden to fantasy at 01:19 PM on June 07 - 22 comments

SportsFilter Euro 2012 Fantasy League: If you are interested in joining a fantasy league for the European Championships, see details inside.

posted by holden to fantasy at 02:41 PM on June 05 - 5 comments

An Anatomy of Three Hits: Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden pens an essay at Grantland about hits and their consequences in the NHL of today and yesteryear.

posted by holden to hockey at 02:30 PM on April 27 - 1 comment

Recent Comments

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle

Congrats on the baby front, yerfatma and grum. As a father of three young boys, we could maybe pull some arranged marriage stuff -- craft brews, bourbon, old copies of Bill James abstracts, and Garth Iorg jerseys are all acceptable dowries.

On the CY Young front, at least one and maybe two of my boys are lefties. I keep figuring that if I can just somehow get one of them to be able to pump it in there high-80s to low-90s, I really don't have to plan for retirement. [Pulse + LH + reasonable velocity = LOOGY at worst]

posted by holden at 02:05 PM on May 22

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

It's not looking good for Gonk. At this point, I wonder about his future with the Patriots.

Perhaps they could upgrade and replace him with an R2-series astromech droid.

posted by holden at 10:05 PM on May 17

2013 SpoFi Stanley Cup Pickem - Conference Semis edition

PIT in 6
NYR in 7
DET in 7
SJ in 6

posted by holden at 09:39 AM on May 14

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

Hey, man, I know. I came of age in central Michigan on late 80s to early 90s Wings. But I am more at peace with the travails of the past now. Age and 4 Cups, I suppose.

posted by holden at 01:46 AM on May 04

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

holden, that was a nice trip down memory lane. Can you dig up clips of the Wings losing to San Jose in 94, too? Oh, and fuck you, by the way... =D

What has come since has been worth it, no? I was at Game 6 of the 1994 Wings-Sharks series in Detroit. 7-1!!! No way they lose Game 7, right? Oh, Chris Osgood (at least he eventually redeemed himself).

posted by holden at 07:58 PM on May 03

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

grum -- maybe this will make you feel better.

Only time I think I have ever seen Nicklas Lidstrom (who was 23 at the time) exhibit poor defensive technique. I recall a number of commentators suggesting at the time that he was too "soft "(i.e., European) to be an effective NHL defenseman.

posted by holden at 05:22 PM on May 03

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

self-consciously liberal democrats they don't always college is really all that.

...

nephew setting up after doing a lot of real estate so right toward the kuwaiti

posted by holden at 12:09 PM on May 03

Rec Soccer Ref in Critical Condition After Player's Punch

Wish I could make some insightful observation about the consequences of ratcheting up levels of competition and anger in America (and I'm sure some will), but suffice it to say that this is an awful thing to have done and something that could greatly alter the course of this kid's life (and the ref's as well, obviously).

By the way, article says the player is 17, not 14.

posted by holden at 09:15 AM on May 01

2013 SpoFi Stanley Cup Pickem - first round edition

Pittsburgh in 5
Montreal in 6
NY Rangers in 7
Boston in 6

Chicago in 5
Detroit in 7
Vancouver in 7
Los Angeles in 6

posted by holden at 10:25 AM on April 30

The story behind Jason Collins' story: How it happened

If you want your faith in humanity to be undermined, take a look at the comments threads accompanying this story at Yahoo!, ESPN, and other outlets.

posted by holden at 04:59 PM on April 29

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

Sources are reporting that Russell Westbrook is potentially going to be out for the remainder of the playoffs after suffering a knee injury (requiring surgery) in Game 2 of the Rockets-Thunder series. Without Harden around to pick up the scoring load, seems like this opens up the West considerably, making a Heat-Thunder rematch more unlikely.

posted by holden at 01:08 PM on April 26

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle

LI -- I think the coverage in large part is due to slow sports news cycle but also that the injured player is a former CYA winner and was the biggest free agent pitching prize in the last offseason. It is not a small-team/big-team bias, but a small-player/big-player bias. If the Rockies or the Padres had a pitcher of Greinke's stature, I bet it gets similar press. Or if it happened in a Rockies-Padres game and Troy Tulowitzki was the guy who got busted up in a scrum that probably did not have to happen.

Also, somewhat slow sports news cycle this time of year.

posted by holden at 05:27 PM on April 12

Goat Head Sent to Chicago Cubs Owner

Considering the relative abundance of good to great birria joints in town, I would hope the rest of the goat was put to good use.

posted by holden at 05:22 PM on April 12

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

Welker is, in part, a product of the system he played in (as are many skill-position players). I would imagine the thinking is that Amendola is a younger version that can just be plugged into the Pats' offensive system and put up comparable numbers. The health thing is massive, however.

I would not be surprised if, assuming even number of games played, Amendola puts up superior statistics to Welker this coming season (although part of that is due to the fact that the Pats have little else to work with in the receiving corps and Manning has Thomas and Decker to feed, in addition to Welker).

posted by holden at 12:58 PM on March 14

SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle

The baseball in Nevada thing is really the only thing that I found surprising/odd.

posted by holden at 10:35 PM on February 22