Recent Comments by eckeric

Cheerleader death renews calls for increased safety steps.

Look around at a basketball game or a football game: it's not just about whether our team beats their team, but whether our cheerleaders beat their cheerleaders, our band beats their band, even whether our fans beat their fans, forgodsakes.
It has ALWAYS been about our band beating their band. People do not join band to cheer the football team on. They join band to be in band. Playing at a football game is a chance to prepare for the state band competition. I mean, "go school!" and everything, but the band loves the football team as much as the football team loves the band.

posted by eckeric at 03:29 PM on April 22, 2008

Walking Through the Fire

I think he has just been rereading What IF...

posted by eckeric at 05:58 PM on January 12, 2006

2005 NBA DRAFT.

I think Salim will be ok. The local paper indicated that the Hawks did their homework: Rosborough said a West Coast-based Hawks scout, Herb Livsey, charted and watched Stoudamire at UA more than any other NBA official. "Herb knows what Salim can do," Rosborough said.

posted by eckeric at 10:02 AM on June 29, 2005

Is anyone else sick of Curt Schilling?

you know, if Boston wins, they could auction off those bloody socks of his and make a hell of a lot of money for the the K ALS campaign. Hope they have the sense to not wash them.

posted by eckeric at 10:48 AM on October 25, 2004

Frischilla stumps for change.

2 and 4 sound good to me.

posted by eckeric at 11:14 AM on August 31, 2004

Owners to politicians: Give us money!!!

Bleah, what a rip-off.

posted by eckeric at 10:16 AM on August 03, 2004

Big Unit in Pinstripes, perhaps Starting by Friday?

Here is an arizona article.

posted by eckeric at 05:02 PM on July 29, 2004

Masters of the Mic

Yeah, Vin Scully is my favorite. When I was growing up, they would carry the Dodgers on the radio here. His voice is one of the things that reminds me of summer. (Actually, here in the home of the Diamondbacks AAA team, a radio station joined up with the Dodgers radio network a few years ago, so I can still tune in and hear that voice).

posted by eckeric at 03:51 PM on July 29, 2004

The MLS officially announces expansion squads.

Utah Saints! (warning: midi file)

posted by eckeric at 05:35 PM on July 14, 2004

The MLS officially announces expansion squads.

Huh, I remember so many expansion sites being discussed. When did Utah enter the mix?

posted by eckeric at 03:51 PM on July 14, 2004

Johnson's latest pitch: He's open to a trade.

The local press and sports radio folks (in Tucson anyway) are pretty much saying that the Diamondbacks are now a rebuilding team and that as much as it would hurt to let Randy go, it doesn't do him or the team any good to keep him here. If he stays, he will win his games, but the team can't contend with just Randy winning. He pretty much spends the rest of the year not making a difference, no matter how good he is. Plus, if they hold on to him, the team loses the chance to get a good trade and actually build for the future. If they miss the chance to trade, it will be that much longer before the club has a chance to contend again. The radio announcers for sunday's game were talking about how there was a lot of hope at the begining of the year centered around the bullpen, and that folks felt like it should be ok moving from last years system where we only scored two runs, but Curt and Randy kept the other team below that. Of course, they had a lot of time to talk, as SF scored their 6th, 7th, 8th runs. Anyhow, they never really brought up trading Randy, but they did a good job of pointing out that we sucked a lot more that we were supposed to (which has got to be hard to do as the homer radio crew), and I think that that gives some background as to why it doesn't make sense for Randy to stay. I think one writer said that the fans will cry into thier beers when the trade happens, but they will also know that it really has to happen. I'm sure the thing that people really want to know, is who the press thinks they may try to trade for, but they haven't had much on that, at least, I haven't seen it. Jerry Colangelo is keeping his mouth shut.

posted by eckeric at 01:00 PM on July 13, 2004

Johnson's latest pitch: He's open to a trade.

I think everyone in Arizona pretty much knows that Randy will have to go. It just isn't fair to anyone to let him ride through this rotten year. What are we, 27 games below .500? Sure, if this was the NBA, we could still talk about making the playoffs! But in Baseball, this year is so over. Please let the man have an impact somewhere. I would like to see him and Curt on the same team again...

posted by eckeric at 11:15 AM on July 13, 2004

"Old White Guy Makes Racially Insensitive Remark"

I think the underdog thing is a big factor with Luke. At college games the fans always flip out when the 12th man on the team (or any of the walk-ons) steps out onto the court. Everybody likes an underdog. And on a team that that lousy with all-stars, you don't get to cheer for the underdog very often. How often do LAs fans actually get to cheer for someone they like?

posted by eckeric at 05:56 PM on June 09, 2004

Every game should have a winner.

Yeah, but who the hell would want to play cards if in order to determine a winner one had to simply flip cards to see who had the highest card? No one. Just like how penalties are a lame way of determining a winner. yes, if we are going to insist on a winner, we might as well do something fun like subtract one player from each team every 5 minutes of overtime, until it is KEEPER VS KEEPER.

posted by eckeric at 01:50 PM on April 27, 2004

Hmn, our paper just covered preventing problem parties yesterday. Sadly, I don't think there was anything she could have done to prepare for this, assuming that she knew the folks who had the fight. This did not sound like one of those 300 person parties that get out of control.

posted by eckeric at 04:06 PM on April 26, 2004

You are a braver man than I, dusted. Arms, chest, legs, sure, no problem. Scalp -- what if it doesn't grow back? Back -- what if it grows back it did on my club coach in high school? No thanks, I will wear a cap and go .04 slower on the 1650. Seriously though, I think most of the time drop most folks see is from tapering, anyhow. Maybe it makes a difference for the top level swimmers.

posted by eckeric at 04:44 PM on March 12, 2004

Celebrating fans paralyze high school basketball player.

Everyone I know is very sad about this. I am hoping, hoping, hoping that the fact that he is young and the fact that he has a strong family to support him will help him get through things as much as his body will allow. It is just hard to know what that level will be. Strokes are scary. I am not sure what can be done to prevent stuff like this from happening. High School Gyms aren't really designed to keep people off the courts, and colleges don't really do a good job of crowd control even with the larger staffing and different bleacher design. I guess the key is getting fans to think a little bit. More local links Unruly prep fan behavior increases ROWDY POSTGAME CELEBRATIONS: COURTING DANGER All-around Joe improving Some of the local paper links expire kind of quickly, so I don't know how many days they will be good.

posted by eckeric at 03:26 PM on February 10, 2004

WUSA calls it quits.

Ok, I need to let go of the mouse and step away from the google news, but this was an iteresting bit of information in an article in IHT.

In England, where the FA responded to the popularity of women's games during World War I by banning its clubs from sanctioning them for 50 years, 14,000 fans attended the World Cup qualifier against Germany. The average national team game crowd is 8,000. . Now, according to Ward, almost every club has a women's team, including Sheffield, the world's oldest, which not long ago didn't allow women to attend its annual dinner. . Four years ago, the FA began to explore its own pro league. "We found it was too early," Ward said. "There's no timetable, only when it can be sustained."

posted by eckeric at 06:20 PM on September 19, 2003

WUSA calls it quits.

It looks like they are trying to save the league. I would like them to do well and keep going. I think that they can pull it off if they have a business plan that cuts down on costs and allows them more time to build up some tradition and fans who want to follow them even when money is tight.

posted by eckeric at 02:36 PM on September 19, 2003

WUSA calls it quits.

Interesting Q & A with a reporter from the Washington Post (probably have to do some lame registration to get to it)

posted by eckeric at 12:57 PM on September 17, 2003

FIFA Women's World Cup 2003.

Eh, soccer is fun. Big tournaments are fun. This should be fun. I wish I could see Sweden (having some Swedish roots, yo) but think I could have fun cheering for Ghana or Austraila. But I have fun going to Sonoran Thunder games -- which would be women's amateur soccer, so what do I know.

posted by eckeric at 11:02 AM on September 05, 2003

FIFA Women's World Cup 2003.

I want to try to get out to LA for one weekend, but they were packaging the tickets with the final, and I couldn't pay that much. I guess I need to see if they are selling single game tickets yet.

posted by eckeric at 01:46 PM on September 04, 2003

Indoor lacrosse team relocates

"We believe that in lacrosse and hockey, our two National Games, we have the best moral, physical and mental developers of any games known to the athletic world." A.E.H. Coo, President Canadian Amateur Lacrosse Association April 12, 1926
We can use more Lacrosse posts, of course, I think that it has come up before. I didn't know about indoor Lacrosse. If Phoenix picks up that Columbus franchise, I might try to drive up and watch. Phoenix is perfect for air-conditioning enhanced sports.

posted by eckeric at 06:24 PM on July 25, 2003

A great interview with Bill James.

I just (yesterday) bought Moneyball for my Dad (Father's Day = Sports Books). I flipped through the first few pages, and it looks like it will be good.

posted by eckeric at 01:23 PM on June 12, 2003

Worst. Mascot. Ever.

Scottsdale Community College Artichokes, anyone? Everybody likes to bust on mascots.

posted by eckeric at 05:49 PM on June 03, 2003

The Foreign Invasion of the American Game.

he NBA has chosen to market itself in a certain way and they got the results they were aiming for. The problem? They lost white guys like me (25-35 years old) in the process...Call it what you want, but I don't drive a Hummer H2, have my teeth capped and have outfits that revolve around my baseball hat. Sooo...you are upset that they are marketing to 14 to 25 year old white guys?

posted by eckeric at 05:18 PM on May 28, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

It sounded like a great match on the radio. I am bummed about the outcome, but I am looking forward to see the tape (gee, I didn't get the impression that Celtic had any nasty fouls from the BBC Scotland feed, go figure). Congrats to Porto!

posted by eckeric at 04:42 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

Sorry to be posting away. You may be interested to know that the game has gone to silver goal.

posted by eckeric at 03:49 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

Damn, this is turning into a scorefest. Larsson just scored again. 2-2 now. The radio folks pointed out that the 4 goals have happened within 14 minutes of each other.

posted by eckeric at 03:11 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

And just like that Porto goes up again.

posted by eckeric at 03:03 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

Dang, I walk away and Henrik Larsson scores! 1-1!!

posted by eckeric at 03:00 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

Ah well, halftime now. That goal in the 45th minute hurts.

posted by eckeric at 02:42 PM on May 21, 2003

Celtic v Porto - Uefa Cup Final!

crap, Porto scores

posted by eckeric at 02:35 PM on May 21, 2003

Spurs oust champions.

Yesssssss! I like all three teams left in the west.

posted by eckeric at 10:33 AM on May 16, 2003

William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy

Nice Post. I had always assumed that the hand signals came into being because of crowd noise. I like this quote from the Baseball Crank link: I roomed with Dummy in 1899, and we got to be good friends. He was a real fine ballplayer. When you played with him in the outfield, the thing was that you never called for a ball. You listened for him, and if he made this little squeaky sound, that meant he was going to take it - Tommy Leach

posted by eckeric at 05:26 PM on May 13, 2003

Goons!

I didn't realize that there was a market for such stuff either. I guess I like to root for the role players in basketball and other sports. Goons just have a bit more hardcore role than, say, a three point shooter. I don't know if the book is any good, but I think it is interesting that he was able to play on a pro level even though he didn't start playing till he was 19. In other sports you have to be 7 feet tall to pull something like that off. I guess "There's always room on our team for a goon Son, we've always got room for a goon" (warning: 2 pop-ups)

posted by eckeric at 04:19 PM on May 09, 2003

Sectarian thugs attack Celtic football star Neil Lennon.

Aside from him not being hurt too badly, the only positive thing I see in any of these articles is in the Glasgow Evening Times article: Passers-by approached Lennon after the incident and offered their names should he need witnesses. Sigh. I was just reading an article the other day that stated that the last thing that folks in the SPL want is for there to be a tie at the end of the season that would require a final game between Rangers and Celtic. No wonder. FYI: Celtic Trounced Motherwell the other day 4-0 which brought them just barely ahead of Rangers for the first time in a while (I thought that they were out of it).

posted by eckeric at 01:39 PM on May 09, 2003

Thanks Grum. That doesn't sound too cold, but last time I lived in weather like that I just darted from building to building, so what do I know (I get cold at Arizona football games now). I hope we can see this on American TV.

posted by eckeric at 10:28 AM on May 09, 2003

That sounds like it will be a lot of fun. How cold is it in Edmonton in November?

posted by eckeric at 06:24 PM on May 08, 2003

"As you'll notice, most of these players were Warriors around the same time, from '96-'97 to '00-'01.  This was the 5-year void during which Oakland didn't actually have an NBA team, but 12 lucky YMCA players got to dress up as the Warriors and compete against the other 29 teams each night. " Heh.

posted by eckeric at 05:48 PM on April 16, 2003

Sports Movies.

All sports movies suck. Oh, I don't know, Rumble in the Jungle was pretty good. And Love and Basketball if nothing else, had a fun soundtrack.

posted by eckeric at 04:19 PM on March 21, 2003

Sports Movies.

Does GYMKATA count?

posted by eckeric at 03:34 PM on March 21, 2003

Hmn, everyone is just sort of trying to out-guess each other, then? Cool.

posted by eckeric at 03:27 PM on March 20, 2003

Go Celtic! Thompson takes the free-kick - 30 yards out, just to the right - and sends in a daisy-cutter which goes under the wall (they jump out of the way) and into the net. Huh, is it hard to time a kick under the wall like that?

posted by eckeric at 03:06 PM on March 20, 2003

Steve Lavin just won't die.

Heh, yesterday was just no good. First, Liverpool gets a goal on the road, and then this UCLA loss. On the plus side, it will actually be fun to root for UCLA for the rest of the tournament. UCLA boosters think that they can dump Lavin every season, and then, whoops, Sweet 16. Sure, he would at least have to make it to the Sweet 16 to keep the job, but now every UCLA win will be a stab at the heart of all those UCLA boosters. Heh heh heh.

posted by eckeric at 03:04 PM on March 14, 2003

The Seattle Times has launched a sports weblog

This is a great way to cover high school basketball. I always love driving through rural AZ and finding a local basketball playoff game on the radio. Not every community can do that though, so this is pretty neat. The commentary just doesn't seem as exciting to us since we have gotten used to EPL games on the web, and you don't have to be nice to EPL players. Plus, the end of the Issaquah-Kennedy game was great! I could picture the last 11 seconds. Also, in a newspaper account, you don't get comments like: "One of the cheer guys just dropped a cheerleader. No one was hurt."

posted by eckeric at 05:04 PM on March 05, 2003

LIVE! England v Australia (8pm GMT/3pm EST).

or even the fans. Oh, I don't know. Mexico and Columbia played last night at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, and on Telemundo it looked like the 28,700 fans were having a good time at the game. I wish I had known about the match a little bit ahead of time. I could have made the hour and a half drive to go see Mexico not score again.

posted by eckeric at 09:46 AM on February 13, 2003

Hey, Blackburn ended an eight-match win-less streak with a 1-0 victory over Southampton. Yea!

posted by eckeric at 09:51 AM on February 10, 2003

Worthington Cup: Liverpool vs Ipswich (8pm GMT/3pm EST/noon PST).

Cool. I look forward to the next round of matches then, it is fun to watch the underdog win when it isn't your team they are beating (and as an Arizona Basketball fan, I know all about big name teams losing to those that they are expected to beat).

posted by eckeric at 03:19 PM on December 05, 2002

Worthington Cup: Liverpool vs Ipswich (8pm GMT/3pm EST/noon PST).

It was rubbish. Well, sure, if you are a Liverpool fan. ;-) Now, if you like train wrecks (or, say, you are at work with the flu) it was not bad. Anyhow, I see that the Quarter-final draw is: Wigan v Blackburn Aston Villa v Liverpool Sheffield United v Crystal Palace Manchester United v Chelsea Do any of the lower division teams have a good chance to advance? I see that Wigan has beaten 3 Premier Division teams so far, and Sheffield (First Division) beat Sunderland to get to the Quarter-finals? Is the talent gap between the divisions signifigant? Do the Premier teams tend to rest top players during these games?

posted by eckeric at 05:57 PM on December 04, 2002

Worthington Cup: Liverpool vs Ipswich (8pm GMT/3pm EST/noon PST).

Whoo, great match! Thanks for the heads up, WC.

posted by eckeric at 04:42 PM on December 04, 2002

Worthington Cup: Liverpool vs Ipswich (8pm GMT/3pm EST/noon PST).

Huh, Wigan (a second division team ) beat Man City and Fulham? Go figure. ooh, final whistle! You got your wish

posted by eckeric at 04:26 PM on December 04, 2002

Worthington Cup: Liverpool vs Ipswich (8pm GMT/3pm EST/noon PST).

hoping for no surprises and Liverpool to beat the Tractor Boys Well, someone has to support the underdogs...Go Tractor Boys!

posted by eckeric at 04:00 PM on December 04, 2002

The Olympics have gotten too big and need to shrink.

Anything to do with judging has got to go. That means...gymnastics (it'll never happen) No, just replace it with gymkata.

posted by eckeric at 10:08 AM on December 02, 2002

A North-Atlantic cup would be great for the US, I think, even if our teams got hammered. But, yeah, it dosen't look like it will happen any time soon.

posted by eckeric at 10:19 AM on November 22, 2002

Oooh, I didn't know that BBC had video highlights of the Celtic match. Thanks Trox!

posted by eckeric at 05:24 PM on November 21, 2002

College Basketball Tips Off Tonight

It felt so good to turn on the TV last night and see college basketball again. I think Arizona should have a good year this year, so that should be fun (although they always seem to do better when no one expects much from them). Plus, ugh, this is turning out to be a awful end to the season for the football team ($800,000 a year for a verbally abusive coach, whee - funny thing how 18 year olds don't play better when you tell them that they are a disgrace to their families), so I will be real happy to see college football go from the local news. As far as I am concerned the NBA only exists so we can follow up on the lives of former college basketball players.

posted by eckeric at 11:31 AM on November 15, 2002

Champions League Tonight!

Yeah, that was the impression that I got from the running commentary at the Guardian. It should be interesting to see how Celtic does in the second leg. It doesn't look like playing at home helped them very much.

posted by eckeric at 09:34 AM on November 01, 2002

Champions League Tonight!

Ooops, dropped the L out of Celtic (need more coffee). Is this a game that people care about, or is the UEFA cup not as important in most peoples minds? Celtic and Blackburn have players that I latched onto during the world cup (Henrik Larsson, Brad Friedel) so I think it would be a neat match. I just have no sense of how much importance these things have.

posted by eckeric at 10:50 AM on October 31, 2002

Champions League Tonight!

Relegation would be great in the NFL. I am sure that there are plenty of cities that would support a second division team, and it would be a big wake up call for teams like the Bengals that, hey you might have to do something once in a while if you don't want to end up booking flights to the Quad Cities or El Paso. It would jack up the new North, South, East, West set up pretty fast, though. Anyhow, Cetic and Blackburn play today, right?

posted by eckeric at 10:04 AM on October 31, 2002