04/18/24
Recent Posts by hincandenza
August 07, 2016
Alex Rodriguez to retire from baseball: Inarguably the greatest shortstop to ever play the game, and certainly one of the greatest hitters in history, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has formally announced the intention to retire next Friday, and move into a position as special advisor and instructor for New York.
While the terms of the agreement with the Yankees does allow him to pursue a position on other major league teams, his dramatic loss of skill this year makes it likely he'll have played his last game some time this week, ending an often contentious, rarely popular (with fans or media), but undeniably successful on-field career. Barring an unexpected homerun barrage in the next few days, or a stint with another team next season, he'll finish just shy of the 700 HR mark and the fourth highest total of all time.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 10:37 PM - 2 comments
Ichiro finally reaches 3,000 major league hits: Fittingly for one of the game's most unique hitters, the slap-hitting wizard got his 3,000th hit as a triple (video) off the right field wall in the 7th inning of the Miami-Colorado game, capping an illustrious major league career.
Or possibly not "capping": while not the same electric All-Star hitter he was in those first 10 years after breaking in as a much-hyped 27-year-old rookie for Seattle in 2001- when he racked up 10 straight 200-hit seasons including the single-season record of 262- he is still a productive player this year, hitting .318 (110 OPS+) in limited playing time with Miami. Seemingly ageless, he has even said he'd like to play until he is 50, which for a player of his style and rigorous fitness regimen isn't beyond the realm of possibility, potentially adding to his already gaudy career statistics and delaying what is almost certain to be a first-ballot HoF induction.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 10:15 PM - 3 comments
March 17, 2015
John Oliver tackles the NCAA and student athletes: In an extended segment on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight", John Oliver delved into the issue of unpaid "student-athletes" and the onerous and exploitative NCAA money machine.
posted by hincandenza to basketball at 12:50 AM - 2 comments
August 22, 2013
Ichiro reaches 4,000 hit milestone between Japan (1,278) and MLB (2,722 and counting).: While his production is a shadow of those early Mariners years when he was a 200+ hit machine for more than a decade (just LOOK at that rookie spike of 242 hits, or the record-setting 262 hit season), the 39-year-old Yankee outfielder continues to produce at a decent if unremarkable level.
Questions arise over how long Ichiro will continue to suit up (he's signed with the Yankees through the 2014 season), but even at his reduced performance level, if he can stay an every day player into the 2015 season he'll almost surely eclipse the 3,000 hit mark in MLB. posted by hincandenza to baseball at 10:08 PM - 17 comments
February 08, 2011
NFL Pick 'Em, SUPERBOWL and final results: The final standings are in after all four founds of the Sportsfilter 2010-2011 NFL Playoffs Pick 'Em... and we have a winner!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 02:33 PM - 6 comments
February 03, 2011
NFL Pick 'em, SUPERBOWL Round: : It's finally here: the last Sportsfilter Pick 'Em of the 2010-2011 NFL Season. A veritable smorgasbord of picks are to be found inside!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 12:17 AM - 16 comments
January 23, 2011
NFL Pick 'em and Confidence Pool, Conference Round RESULTS: Results are in for the NFL Pick 'em and Confidence pool after the Conference Round. A pair of exciting games today, and some interesting results in our two pools!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 10:01 PM - 9 comments
January 19, 2011
NFL Pick 'em, Conference Round: Hope posting this earlier will get more participation this week!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 11:19 AM - 12 comments
January 16, 2011
NFL Confidence Pool and Pick 'Em Results (Week 2): Ouch. Some tough losses this week, and some surprising results. The confidence pool results and pick 'em results are inside.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 09:36 PM - 4 comments
January 15, 2011
NFL Pick 'em, Divisional Round: Wildcard and Confidence pool results are in; make your second week picks inside.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 02:09 PM - 8 comments
June 27, 2008
Barry Bonds offers to play for free.:
My opinion on Bonds is no secret, however I noticed this tidbit in the paper yesterday and have been meaning to post about it. Barry Bonds' agent has offered his services to all 30 teams, at a pro-rated salary of the league minimum (at this point, about $200,000 total), even offering to play for free by donating that salary to buying tickets for the game; his trial date isn't until next March, so he would not be prevented from playing.
Despite this, apparently Barry's agent has received no interest, bolstering claims that the league is colluding to prevent him being hired.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 09:32 PM - 78 comments
June 16, 2008
Seattle Mariners (finally) fire GM Bill Bavasi.: For weeks the indisputable worst team in the majors, the $117M Seattle Mariners have finally made a major personnel change by firing General Manager Bill Bavasi today. Many in the media predicted such a shakeup should the Washington Nationals, who came into Seattle with worst record in the NL, complete the sweep of the Mariners in Seattle this weekend.
In his 5 years as Seattle GM including 2008, Bill Bavasi guided the Mariners to a last-place finish in every single year but 2007, where the 88-74 Mariners finished 2nd. The fervent Mariner blog community, who have demanded front office firings for a long time now, are already advocating for his replacement.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 08:44 PM - 5 comments
January 20, 2008
Patriots advance to their 4th Superbowl in 7 years. : Despite his second worst QB rating of the season, Tom Brady and the Patriots advance to the Superbowl thanks to a second half running game and a defense that held the Chargers to only 4 field goals on the afternoon. The Patriots take their 17-1 unprecedented 18-0 record to Arizona in two weeks, facing the Ravens winner of the Packers/Giants game, in the hopes of completing a truly historic season.
posted by hincandenza to football at 05:25 PM - 131 comments
January 06, 2007
Seattle edges Dallas in a wild, wild 4th quarter:
One of the most nail-biting fourth quarters I've ever seen! Dallas looked poised to waltz into the end zone for an easy 2 or 6 point win in the final two minutes of the game, until an incredible goal line stop by Tatupu and an improbable drop of a FG snap led to a wild finish to Saturday's football action.
posted by hincandenza to football at 10:28 PM - 75 comments
February 05, 2006
NFL 2006 Pick 'Em Playoffs, FINAL RESULTS:
The final results are in! Smithers is our winner overall with 43 points, while grum@work and willthrill72 demonstrated almost supernatural futility to take home the Costanza in a tie for last with 16 points. Full write-up and banners/plaques can be found on the LEADERBOARD.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 11:07 PM - 28 comments
February 01, 2006
NFL 2006 Pick 'Em Playoffs, Superbowl Edition!:
Congrats to all our players who've been with us since the beginning... this is the final week to decide the overall winner and the Costanza winner!!! Please have your picks in by Sunday, 2/5, 6:00PM EST (just before the game starts)!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 05:21 PM - 0 comments
January 24, 2006
Photoshop help needed!:
Need some photoshop help to make proper awards for our NFL Playoffs Pick 'Em. We have two trophies to give out (possibly more, there's been some debate we need a "Manning Cup", for someone in an arbitrary middle spot; an award that means nothing).
There's been some discussion about it, and I've displayed my mock-ups of the regular winner's trophy and the fabled Costanza Trophy. However, while dusted's original design, still used for the Winner's Plaque, the Costanza could use the touch of someone with l33+ Photoshop Skillz.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 03:46 PM - 0 comments
January 18, 2006
NFL 2006 Pick 'Em Playoffs, Week 3 (Conference Championship Round):
Congrats to all our players who've been with us since the beginning; please have your picks in by Sunday, 1/22, before 3:00PM EST! Sadly, it is too late to enter if you've not played in the previous weeks; although you can post your picks for the fun of it, they won't be tracked by the Commish, nor appear on the leaderboard.
There are some new and interesting picks for this week! The Leaderboard, which should be updated after every game, can be found here.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 05:28 PM - 0 comments
January 09, 2006
NFL 2006 Pick 'Em Playoffs, Week 2 (Divisional Round):
Congrats to all who played this past weekend- we had 48 players enter! It's not too late to still play- again, it's free and easy- as a good week this week can put you right into the thick of things, especially with the new-this-week "parlay" system!
The Leaderboard, which should be updated after every game, can be found here.
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 08:09 PM - 0 comments
January 03, 2006
NFL 2006 Pick 'Em Playoffs kicks off today!:
It's free and easy, and a Sportsfilter tradition! Show off your pigskin prognostication- or lucky guessing skills- by playing in the annual NFL Playoffs Pool!
posted by hincandenza to fantasy at 04:55 PM - 0 comments
October 26, 2005
For the second time in 87 years, the two Sox franchises won back-to-back championships in the same number of games:
In 1917, the Chicago White Sox defeated the NY Giants 4 games to 2; in 1918 the Red Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 2. Both teams then endured nearly 9 decades of futility... until tonight, when the Chicago White Sox rode great pitching to a Series Sweep of the Houston Astros, one year after the Red Sox did the same to the St. Louis Cardinals.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 11:13 PM - 52 comments
October 09, 2005
Astros win 18-inning epic battle in breathless fashion,to advance to the NLCS.: If you missed this one- sweet jesus, what you missed! The longest post season game in history, 18 innings and nearly 6 hours in length. One of the great games I've ever seen: the Braves lead early, holding a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the 8th at Houston and appearing to be cruising to a deciding game 5. A Berkmann grand slam brought the Astros to 6-5 in the bottom 8th, and a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the 9th by Ausmus sent this roller coaster ride into extra innings.
A whole second game ensued, 9 more innings of two depleted teams throwing every player they could to pull this one out. Relievers put up 0's across the board for 8 1/2 innings, as we stayed knotted 6-6 until the bottom of the 18th. The Astros had used 23 players, a record (only the absent Pettite and last night's starter, Oswalt, didn't appear), forced to use Clemens- the only pitcher left- for a 3 inning stint to get the win. Chris Burke, a pinch runner used much earlier in the game, was the hero today by smacking a 338 foot homerun to finally put an end to it all.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 06:35 PM - 38 comments
June 23, 2005
Dallas Maverick's center Shawn Bradley to retire after 12 years in the game.:
7' 6" Dallas Mavericks center Shawn Bradley will call it quits after 12 years. Many in the game may question this long-fabled warrior's decision to bow out of the game, on the precipice of immortality. Bradley retires just 31,635 points shy of Jabbar's scoring record, and a mere 18,656 rebounds shy of Chamberlain's long-standing record.
posted by hincandenza to basketball at 10:26 AM - 37 comments
January 23, 2005
Patriots taste revenge against the Steelers.: In a dominating performance- albeit with a nail-biting New England defensive lapse through much of the 3rd quarter that allowed the Steelers to get back in it- the New England Patriots earned their 3rd trip to the Superbowl in 4 years, facing the Eagles on February 8th. This was the second time in those 4 years the Patriots defeated through the Steelers in the AFC Championship game.
posted by hincandenza to football at 09:30 PM - 62 comments
October 18, 2004
Boston. New York. Game 5: Can't believe no thread's been started and we're in the third. Enjoy! Go Sox!
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 05:16 PM - 174 comments