- 05:50 AM
- 07/25/08
| Name: | Holden O. |
|---|---|
| Location: | Chicago |
| Member since: | February 11, 2002 |
| Last visit: | July 24, 2008 |
holden has posted 25 links and 1078 comments to SportsFilter and 8 threads and 181 comments to the Locker Room.
Some Athletes’ Genes Help Outwit Doping Test. Studies suggest that about 2/3 of Asian men and nearly 10 percent of Caucasians lack both copies of a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine, calling into question the efficacy of certain drug tests.
posted on May 1, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
Lenny Dykstra, Financial Planner to the Stars? The fascinating post-baseball career of a man called Nails.
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
BBWAA Admits Online Writers. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (already in the news this week) votes to accept into its ranks 16 online writers (most of whom previously wrote for "traditional media"); Neyer, Law snubbed; Peter Abraham, Rob Neyer and various other luminaries drop by the comments section here for some good back-and-forth.
posted on Dec 7, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Baseball GMs Vote in Favor of Instant Replay. In a move sure to make at least one former SportsFilter member roll over in his grave/production booth, baseball GMs have voted to propose that MLB adopt instant replay for disputed home run calls.
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
The Kick Is Up and It’s ... A Career Killer. Michael Lewis explores the job of the NFL kicker (registration or Bugmenot req'd.):
A kicker in the N.F.L. can be one of two things: the bland technocrat who does what he's assigned to do but who, even when he's exceptionally good, must accept that the coach and the team will be credited for the victory. Or he can be the little choke artist who is very nearly entirely responsible for the loss. For a kicker in the N.F.L., . . . there is no upside.
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Josh Childress spurns the Hawks & the NBA for the Greek League. Childress will be playing for basketball powerhouse Olympiakos. Olympiakos finished as the runner-up in the Greek League, and made the quarterfinals in Euroleague 08.
posted to Basketball at 11:43 AM CDT
Joe Buck Prefers Bachelorette to Baseball Fox's lead baseball announcer told ESPN's Colin Cowherd yesterday that he prefers watching The Bachelorette to watching baseball. "These games take forever," Buck said, "by the time you get through the sixth inning, if you're watching every minute, you've put two-plus hours into the thing. ... From our own perspective the Saturday Game of the Week ... is not as special or unique as it used to be."
posted to Baseball at 10:30 AM CDT
Since when is "sport" a proper noun?
On the substance, I really don't care whether Joe Buck loves the sport he is covering -- I would rather judge him on the merits of his announcing. And his announcing leaves a bit to be desired, in both baseball and football. While I'm not clear on whether he dislikes football as well, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a Joe Buck thing in general and not a passion-for-the-game thing.
posted at 12:03 PM CDT on July 3
The World's Greatest Athlete? The Journal sought to identify the world's greatest athlete with an approach that, while not completely scientific, took a number of measures into account. A panel of five sports scientists and exercise physiologists was given a list drawn up by the Journal of 79 male athletes. Candidates had to be active in their sport and among the all-time best.
posted to General at 11:47 AM CDT
Ronaldinho on this list is a joke. Maybe 3 years ago. But fat, slow and broken down does not a top athlete make.
posted at 8:21 PM CDT on June 20
As the Apple turns... Willie Randolph is out as manager of the New York Mets, fired in the middle of the night 2 1/2 months into a disappointing season that has followed the team's colossal collapse last September. In the middle of the night? Seems pretty cold.
posted to Baseball at 4:25 AM CDT
The fact that he was fired at 12:15 a.m. local time after a West Coast night game, while acknowledging that it is not doing the media any favors, is not as bad as truly firing him in the middle of the night. The worst part of it, as BornIcon suggests, is firing him one day after making him fly cross country. That's just awful.
I think Joe Sheehan's take at Baseball Prospectus gets to the heart of the matter and is consistent with some of Hal's and BornIcon's comments.
posted at 10:12 AM CDT on June 17
RAZORDODGER -- putting aside the fact that the Dodgers are better off without Nomar in the lineup and a decline-phase Jones sucking up at bats, why do you assume that all of these injuries are preventable with better conditioning? Some guys, like Nomar, are just injury prone notwithstanding the fact that they are very well-conditioned and work out a ton. Furcal by all accounts has a chronic bad back; he's struggled with it dating back to his Atlanta days. Do you think when he has millions of dollars on the line (he's in his last contract year) that he's really going to report in bad shape and skip out on the conditioning? Others, especially pitchers, are going to break down with age and the fact that pitching is a highly unnatural act that puts a ton of stress on one's arm, shoulder, and body generally. Schmidt had a ton of red flags at the time the Dodgers signed him; his current unavailability has nothing to do with Joe Torre (considering he has not been right since before Joe came) and probably very little to do with the Dodger's training staff generally.
Just because Ray Durham got religion and trains better now than he did as a rookie does not mean that the players or coaching staff are always to blame when injuries hit. Some things are just unavoidable -- and that applies to both chronic injuries and acute injuries.
posted at 10:13 PM CDT on June 17
Scolari is new Chelsea coach, effective July 1. Looks like Avram Grant was a stopgap until they found a big name. Now they've found one in the current Portugal coach (who also won something called the World Cup as Brazil's coach in 2002), who's doing quite well at the Euro 2008 championship right now.
posted to Soccer at 3:54 PM CDT
I wonder if this makes it more likely that Carvalho, who has been linked with a move to Inter, will stay with Chelsea.
posted at 6:28 PM CDT on June 11
posted to Baseball at 7:49 PM CDT
This about sums up how I feel about Griffey.
Great accomplishment, beautiful swing. In terms of how much press this has been getting, I think MLB has done a pretty decent job of highlighting this, with frontpage stories on the website and live look-ins of each at-bat once he got to 599. Of course, it seems that Manny got as much or more coverage when hitting his 500th.
posted at 8:43 PM CDT on June 9
Interesting to me to see how Junior's reputation has been rehabilitated over the years. I tend to recall he had a bit of a reputation as a prima donna in the past, from refusing a trade anywhere other than Cincinnati (when the Mariners arguably could have done better with another team), to more recently refusing to move from CF for the Reds when his skill set had declined past the point of being a useful center fielder. Funny what a complete absence of the taint of steroids will do for the perception of a player by fans.
posted at 10:03 AM CDT on June 10
Nadal wins 4th straight French Open in a rout. Rafael Nadal put on a clinic against World #1 Roger Federer to match Bjorn Borg's record for consecutive victories at Roland Garros. He was so dominant, he felt he had to apologize to Federer for the result.
posted to Tennis at 2:02 PM CDT
Nadal is to clay what Federer is to everything else. No shame in losing to him.
posted at 4:25 PM CDT on June 8
CBC fumbles negotiations on Hockey Night theme A lowball offer by the CBC to buy the Hockey Night in Canada theme song from its composer prompted the temporary collapse of year-long negotiations and a national furor Thursday over the future of the iconic anthem, the man in charge of its copyright says. For many Canadians, the stirring “dunt-da-DUNT-da-dunt” that has opened each broadcast of Hockey Night since 1968 is pure Canadiana — as deeply woven into the national fabric as Tim Hortons and the great game itself.
posted to Business and Law at 10:08 AM CDT
That music is as awful yet strangely, goofily endearing as the BBC match of the day intro music.
posted at 11:37 PM CDT on June 6
What franchise has the best run of players at one position in history? Batter's Box says it's Left Field for the Red Sox, but plenty of other arguments appear in the comments.
posted to Baseball at 1:33 PM CDT
If Rice is elected next year (he was my favorite player as a kid, but even I don't think he quite makes the cut, as a weak defensive left fielder with good but not stupendous stats- his counting stats aren't that great for an outfielder to make the HoF), and with Ramirez a foregone conclusion then Boston will be able to say 4 HoFers played significant time at that position, 3 of them in a row with almost no interruption (Williams spent time in the wars, and Yaz had a year at CF I think when Conigliaro came up).
I think it's the fact that these guys largely played in succession that is so impressive and that sets the Red Sox list apart from other teams who happen to have had some really good players at a specific position over the years. Up until this year, when Jim Edmonds left, the Cardinals had a run of basically three players in CF since the early 80's -- Willie McGee, Ray Lankford and Jim Edmonds. No Hall of Famers in that group (an argument could be made for Edmonds, I suppose, but his precipitous decline over the past few years didn't really allow for the stat-padding that was probably necessary), but still a pretty cool accomplishment in these days of free agency and mix and match parts to have 3 players man a position for nearly 25 years and to frequently provide All Star-level production in the process.
posted at 11:31 AM CDT on June 5
Game 6 (check the byline).
Detroit Red Wings v Pittsburgh Penguins.
Remembering Pittsburgh's Best OT Wins.
posted to Hockey at 7:26 AM CDT
Many of the reports on the European captain thing seem to say that Lidstrom was the first European-born, European-trained captain to hoist the Cup. I suspect that the "European-trained" part is thrown in there because some Canadian national who ended up being a Stanley Cup winning captain was born in Europe. Anyone know if this is the case?
posted at 4:42 PM CDT on June 5
Thanks fab and tommy!
posted at 8:46 AM CDT on June 6
Game 3.
Detroit Red Wings v Pittsburgh Penguins.
What's happening with the Penguins? What changes do they need to make?
posted to Hockey at 10:35 AM CDT
Malkin looks pretty gassed to me. Not sure if extra ice time is a good idea for him.
posted at 12:30 PM CDT on May 28
ESPN Fires Pittsburgh Radio Host Mark Madden Last Wednesday, ESPN 1250 host Mark Madden responded to news of Sen. Ted Kennedy's illness with this comment: "I'm very disappointed to hear that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Senator Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated." This Wednesday, he's looking for a new job. AOL Fanhouse blogger Ryan Wilson's response: "It couldn't have happened to a nicer jerk."
posted to Other at 8:34 AM CDT
While he might not have an outlet as large as ESPN Radio, I would guess he'll be back on the air in short order.
posted at 10:59 AM CDT on May 28
I thought Henry Abbott over at True Hoop had a very good perspective on this.
Josh Childress seems more cerebral and open-minded than the typical NBA player, so I'm not sure how likely this is to be the start of a widespread trend. That said, if the economics are good enough, I'm sure folks will be able to get over any culture shock and homesickness pretty quickly.