Recent Comments by Mothball

Shohei Ohtani hits a ball out of a domed stadium.

Thanks grum, I'd forgotten how much I love listening to Japanese commentators during baseball games.

posted by Mothball at 01:18 PM on November 14, 2016

Cubs Beat Dodgers, Head to the World Series for the First Time in 70 Years

Carrying major events like the NLCS is one of the best ways to get cable and satellite providers to include your channel in their main packages. Or at least that's probably the logic they are using.

posted by Mothball at 12:11 AM on October 25, 2016

Prince Fielder's Baseball Career is Probably Over

I hate to see his career end this way. I always liked the way he played and the enthusiasm he had.

To my mind the trade for him was a good move. It didn't work out well for Texas, but I always felt it was good deal on paper. It filled a void they had and the cost was a player at a position they had multiple prospects at.

posted by Mothball at 12:26 AM on August 11, 2016

Gotta give a shout out

Bad luck on the 134 pitch count there. Still since Ryan was at the game, and I'm not sure he ever had a no-hitter with so few pitches thrown, maybe that will help break the streak.

posted by Mothball at 12:25 AM on August 23, 2015

Gotta give a shout out

posted by Mothball at 12:24 AM on August 23, 2015

Losing Wisconsin Coach Laments 'Rent-a-Player' Trend

Not sure that Jermaine O'Neal is the best example to use there Grum. While it's true that he went on to have a nice career, he was quite awful in his time with the Blazers.

He was just too young and nowhere near ready to play in the NBA. If I recall correctly he was only 17 when he was drafted. It wasn't until he moved on to Indiana that he blossomed into an excellent player. It was still a good move for him though since he spent four years getting first round money instead of taking pots for jocks at some hoops factory.

posted by Mothball at 04:47 AM on April 09, 2015

Obama Proposal Could End Taxpayer-Subsidized Pro Sports Stadiums

rcade, I think he's saying you're more the exception than the rule. Not a bad thing in this case.

posted by Mothball at 12:53 PM on March 20, 2015

Obama Proposal Could End Taxpayer-Subsidized Pro Sports Stadiums

They understand that it is a cost, they just don't say it. Keep in mind that campaigns are very expensive and the people who make them possible also tend to be the ones with lots of money for things like, oh sports teams. I agree, it's incredibly frustrating when politicians say stuff like that, I just don't believe that they are that dumb for the most part, just that corrupt.

posted by Mothball at 03:50 PM on March 18, 2015

Baseball's fight with fatigue

I think most of the Rangers problems historically have had more to do with an utter lack of quality pitching than the heat of Arlington. Keep in mind that the two years that they went to the World Series were two of the hottest summers Texas has ever seen.

posted by Mothball at 12:32 AM on March 08, 2015

Seahawks Edge Niners

rcade, there is no need to make special rules to help the Cowboys. Just Outlaw Jerry and they'll be fine. It may take a few years to recover, but they'll be fine with a real GM.

posted by Mothball at 12:00 PM on January 20, 2014

Taro Tsujimoto's story

That was a very fun read. What a character.

posted by Mothball at 04:35 PM on January 13, 2014

Down 38-10, Colts Beat Chiefs 45-44

Trent had one carry, fumbled the ball and I didn't see much of him after that.

posted by Mothball at 11:47 PM on January 04, 2014

Ohio State Falls, Auburn Likely to Face Florida State

Doesn't Ohio State need to get past Michigan State's defense next week before we talk about whether or not the Buckeyes deserve a shot at the national title game?

I think that Michigan States offense had as much to do with their victory as the defense did. Impressive job by the Spartans.

Auburn and Florida State. If you'd told me before the season started that it would come down to those two teams, I'd have laughed and happily offered to relieve you of your money.

posted by Mothball at 04:08 AM on December 08, 2013

Sporting KC Wins MLS Cup on 10th Round of Penalty Kicks

After 120 minutes of play, teams tend to play lousy ball. The lack of substitutions is the big difference. Sudden death in a game that is difficult to score can lead to ultra conservative play as exhausted players strive not to lose, rather than trying to win. It produces a style of play that is unattractive to watch.

They did experiment with the golden goal concept for a while, and it was a total failure. Overtimes became less likely to produce a goal.

posted by Mothball at 10:17 PM on December 07, 2013

UW Snaps Up Boise's Petersen

The Apple Cup is always the final game of the regular season for UW and WSU. That should make it easy to keep scheduled.

Agree with jjzucal about Orgeron. I've never really been sold on Sark though. Guess I'll find out in a few years if I'm an idiot or actually perceptive for once.

posted by Mothball at 10:12 PM on December 07, 2013

UW Snaps Up Boise's Petersen

I did not see that one coming. It makes sense I guess. He likes the Northwest and Washington is a much more forgiving school than USC. I think the Huskies made a good hire.

posted by Mothball at 04:12 PM on December 06, 2013

No criminal charges for Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston

Oh great. Now I'm reading the police reports. This is not a real fun read.

posted by Mothball at 03:26 AM on December 06, 2013

No criminal charges for Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston

The second persons DNA was her boyfriends. Meggs said that they were able to confirm that, but that he declined to talk to them. Essentially the problem would seem to be one quite common to rape reports. One person says that they were raped, the other says they weren't. Without something stronger to work with, it's almost impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a rape occurred.

posted by Mothball at 10:48 PM on December 05, 2013

USC Hires Steve Sarkisian

And the rest of the Pac-12 can now breathe a deep sigh of relief. Sarkisian is a good coach and has done a good job at UW, but he wasn't mind blowing good. There's hope that USC won't jump straight back to the days of Carroll and roll everyone in the conference now.

posted by Mothball at 03:42 PM on December 02, 2013

Don't Play Thailand

Journalists !== maths wizzes, methinks!

What he said. I've noticed that journalists frequently stick numbers into stories that don't add up properly.

posted by Mothball at 11:20 PM on November 29, 2013

Incognito and Martin: An Insider’s Story

Judging by the fact that the latest comments from the Martin camp are from his lawyer, I think it is safe to assume that the Dolphins will soon be learning that they are a workplace, and subject to the same workplace laws on harassment as any other.

Also saw that the lawyer mentioned a malicious physical attack as well as daily verbal abuse. The drama continues.

posted by Mothball at 03:54 AM on November 08, 2013

St. Louis Cardinals Radio Signal Going, Going ...

Probably a safe bet on their part. For it to not be true, the person would have had to be there for both nights, and it being Boston, the media would have been all over it. Think about it, the right word to the media and the Red Sox would have been providing free tickets for the fan.

posted by Mothball at 02:21 PM on November 01, 2013

St. Louis Cardinals Radio Signal Going, Going ...

My granddad and great granddad were both Cardinals fans because of KMOX. They lived in the Texas panhandle. KMOX was listened to throughout the plains states back in the day.

posted by Mothball at 03:09 PM on October 31, 2013

Reds Fire Manager Dusty Baker

They were also tied for first in the NL for highest percentage of strikeouts ending with a swing (79%).

Then at least they went down swinging. :)

posted by Mothball at 05:18 AM on October 06, 2013

Rays, Rangers Meet in One-Game Playoff for Wild Card Spot

That is a pretty cool bit of trivia there. Sad to see my Rangers flame out, but probably better for my digestion over the next few weeks.

posted by Mothball at 11:54 PM on September 30, 2013

Rays, Rangers Meet in One-Game Playoff for Wild Card Spot

I'm just hoping the Rangers can take that streak to 9 games. Never should have come to this though.

posted by Mothball at 05:06 PM on September 30, 2013

NBA Finals Likely to Adopt 2-2-1-1-1 Format

Too bad, I always liked the 2-3-2 format. I do realize though that I am in the minority on that.

posted by Mothball at 05:04 PM on September 30, 2013

Browns Trade Trent Richardson to Colts

Nice job of saying what I was trying to say yerfatma. grumble grumble, this is what happens when you spend too many years lurking and never posting, can't make your point, keep getting lost in the forest.

posted by Mothball at 01:01 PM on September 19, 2013

Browns Trade Trent Richardson to Colts

That's a really simplistic way to look at it. Since he stepped on the field, he's been the focal point of the defence and the Browns have done zero to make teams pay for overcommitting to the run. This year, the Dolphins had 8 men in the box and the Ravens had three guys on him by the time he crossed the scrimmage line.

Considering that both Weeden and Richardson have been less than impressive, that almost sounds good. A deeper look though, finds that while Weeden has a td/int ratio problem, he does complete a decent (not good) percentage of his passes, and averaged 6.5 yds/att last season.

Richardson had a total of 2 carries for 20 or more yards last year on 267 carries. That isn't much production from the third pick. He is a good receiver, and when he gets into the secondary can run over people. He just doesn't have the ability to get past the front seven (or eight). It's not that he's a bad back, it's that you can replace him with a late 1st or early 2nd round pick, and pay less for the first 4 years.

posted by Mothball at 10:51 AM on September 19, 2013

Browns Trade Trent Richardson to Colts

They traded a back who averages 3.5 yds/carry for a first round pick. Sounds like a good deal to me. I think it's called getting something back for a bad pick last year.

posted by Mothball at 10:51 PM on September 18, 2013

Matt Besler's Yellow Card a Complete Farce

This is where the USSF needs to make some real noise. Two things should happen, the Mexican ref who gave the yellow preventing Besler from playing against Mexico needs to have a long conversation with the powers that be. The second thing is a suspension for Campbell for obviously faking a foul.

There was the comment made before the match (I think it was Klinsmann) that having a Mexican ref for a game immediately preceding a match with Mexico was not good since it could raise questions of bias if there were questionable cards given.

posted by Mothball at 04:36 PM on September 11, 2013

Bruno Mars to Play Super Bowl Halftime

You may be in luck Grum, watching the video, he seems to be pretty "old school". I'm in the same boat as you. I still hear songs here and there, but I never know the title artist, or to be honest, the lyrics.

posted by Mothball at 01:19 PM on September 09, 2013

NFL Settles with Players for $765 Million for Brain Traumas

And on a practical level, I respect the fact that the NFL will put a substantial amount of money into research that might eventually help solve the problem. A drop in the bucket compared to what it could do, but a hell of a lot of money nonetheless.

I'm not sure I can call $10 million for medical research a hell of a lot. For most things, I'd agree that is a lot of money. With medical research, I'm not sure how far that will really go. The downside to medical research is that it is VERY expensive.

posted by Mothball at 12:50 AM on August 30, 2013

Claim: Bobby Riggs Threw the Match Against Billie Jean King

While I didn't see the match at the time, I don't buy it. Between Riggs's chauvinism and ego, I don't think he could have kept his mouth shut afterwards. He hated losing that match.

posted by Mothball at 10:46 AM on August 27, 2013

Alex Rodriguez attorney accuses Yankees of hiding MRI results

I was trying to avoid the appearance of cynicism.

posted by Mothball at 04:22 PM on August 19, 2013

Alex Rodriguez attorney accuses Yankees of hiding MRI results

The only thing I could see is the Yankees hoping that he would hurt himself badly leading to either a career ending injury or at least missing an entire season so the insurance company could eat the cost.

That of course assumes a complete lack of ethics on the part of the Yankees management.

posted by Mothball at 12:36 PM on August 19, 2013

The Statistical Case Against Miguel Cabrera for MVP

I would interject that the award is Most Valuable Player, not Most Statistically Significant Season. Value is tricky to define in this setting.

Take the much maligned RBI and the oh so loved SB. How many games are won by a team with zero RBI's? How many are won with zero SB? From a pure winning game standpoint, RBI's are perhaps the most significant thing you see and a decent predictor of how a team will perform while SB isn't.

Looking at team totals for this season the three teams that led MLB in steals were in order, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Miami. The three leaders in RBI were Texas, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee. This tells me two things, stealing bases doesn't make a team a winner and Milwaukee really needs some more arms.

As far as the specifics of Cabrera's season, the argument that Ramirez and and Helton had seasons that were better in each category without winning an MVP is meaningless. The question is what the winners seasons looked like.

Personally I could see either Trout or Cabrera winning and would have been fine with it. Trout didn't do much in September as he cooled off while Cabrera was playing very well. On the whole I think it came down to more that just the triple crown, and Trout would have garnered more votes if he'd been hot down the stretch and gotten the Angels into the playoffs.

posted by Mothball at 03:23 PM on November 18, 2012

Formula 1 Racing Returns to the U.S.

So far the Circuit of the Americas seems to be pretty good. It seems to be challenging from a pure driving standpoint as well as being wide enough and laid out in a way that there is a good bit of overtaking. Quite a fun race so far.

posted by Mothball at 02:45 PM on November 18, 2012

Darvish Won't Play in Baseball Classic

He's a Ham Fighter. He can take it.

He's a fighter, not a Ham Fighter. Nippon Ham is the name of the company that owns the team. Fighters is the team nickname. Just thought I'd clarify.

posted by Mothball at 04:37 PM on November 07, 2012