November 19, 2012

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 11 comments

Gronkowski breaks his forearm blocking on the extra point after the Pats' final touchdown late in the 4th quarter.

They don't have someone else further down the roster that could be out there instead of him?

posted by beaverboard at 07:24 AM on November 19, 2012

South Park's 20 Greatest Sports Moments

posted by tommybiden at 11:29 AM on November 19, 2012

From Peter King Coaches have 45 active players each game. They don't have a "second team'' of the point-after-try unit. The PAT is one of the most risk-free plays in football. Rodney Harrison, the former Patriots safety now in the NBC studio with me on Sunday nights, didn't get taken off the kickoff team in routs. And Tony Dungy, who coached the Colts and Bucs, told me: "Jeff Saturday was my right guard on the PAT team, and I'd never think of taking him off. All my years in football, I never heard anyone, never heard Chuck Noll saying, 'Well, we better get Jack Ham off the PAT team.' It's not something I'd question.

posted by kokaku at 01:15 PM on November 19, 2012

I wrote up a quick column about "Better Timing" Triple Crown winners.

I wanted to see if anyone could have won a Triple Crown in baseball if things had broken a bit better for them. I used 5-year windows (2 years before, current year, 2 years after) to see if they beat the lowest league leading totals for those seasons in the Triple Crown categories.

This is the sort of thing that bothers me during lunch hours...

posted by grum@work at 01:36 PM on November 19, 2012

New York Times Soccer Blog: Messi Plays Maris to Müller's Ruth

posted by Hugh Janus at 08:09 PM on November 19, 2012

I totally buy the idea Messi is doing it against stiffer competition, but,

So far this year, Messi has scored 50 goals in 33 games in the elite competition that is the Spanish league.

Well, yes and no. There's one other elite team in his league and a handful of European competition level teams, but it's not like every game is a wet, windy Tuesday against Stoke.

posted by yerfatma at 09:08 AM on November 20, 2012

One could argue that while Real Madrid is the only other club on Barcelona's level, the second tier of Valenica, Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, and Malaga plus the derby against Espanyol are never easy games.

Even in the Premier League, not every game is a wet, windy Tuesday against Stoke. In fact, none of the Premier League games are on wet, windy Tuesdays against Stoke except possibly one at the end of January when Wigan comes to visit.

posted by billsaysthis at 12:18 PM on November 20, 2012

Stoke-Wigan should always be played on wet Tuesday evenings.

See also : Sunderland vs Aston Villa, (preferably with a really thick fog for this one).

posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:34 PM on November 20, 2012

Grum, that link isn't readily found on the front page- shouldn't it be?

posted by hincandenza at 06:46 PM on November 20, 2012

hincandenza

It doesn't have to be. It was something that was bothering me and I wanted to research. I dumped it in the "columns" section so it wouldn't be lost if someone ever was interested.

If someone in charge wants to put it on the front page, they can do that if they think it's worth it.

posted by grum@work at 08:35 PM on November 20, 2012

Stoke-Wigan should always be played on wet Tuesday evenings.

And without floodlights. Stoke should always play at night without floodlights.

Re the whole Messi/Muller thing. Gerd Muller was the classic goalhanger, sniffing around in the box and turning in loose balls. So to speak. Messi is on a completely different level regarding creativity.

posted by owlhouse at 09:07 PM on November 20, 2012

You're not logged in. Please log in or register.