Archives for October 2014

October 31, 2014

October 30, 2014

Giants Win World Series: The San Francisco Giants are World Series champions for the third time in five seasons after defying the odds for a road team in Game 7 and beating the Kansas City Royals 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium. Michael Morse gave the Giants that lead with a fourth-inning single and the San Francisco bullpen, most notably Madison Bumgarner, pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings to deliver another parade.

posted by rcade to baseball at 12:58 AM - 29 comments

October 29, 2014

CFL Pick 'Em, Week 19: Two weeks to go! Everybody in the West has clinched, nobody in the East has followed suit, and absolutely nothing has been settled in our little pick 'em. argoal's looking strong with a two-point lead, but in the CFL (Pick 'Em), no lead is safe. Call a timeout and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 09:21 AM - 13 comments

What's in a shirt?: "With financial fair play forcing clubs worldwide to maximize their revenue streams, the once-humble kit deal is now more important than ever before. What used to be a local, pragmatic endeavor - you sponsor it, we wear it - has become a global statement of commercial intent."

posted by yerfatma to soccer at 08:49 AM - 6 comments

October 28, 2014

October 27, 2014

Denver Broncos Fan Disappears During Game: A 53-year-old man attending his first Denver Broncos game with his son and two friends disappeared during halftime and has been missing for four days. Paul Kitterman told his son Jarrod they'd meet up back at their seats when Jarrod went to the restrooms at halftime. Paul Kitterman never showed up and has been gone since. He had $50 in cash, no credit cards and no phone. "He's absolutely nowhere to be found," said friend Tia Bakke, who attended the game with him. "It's been the longest, [most] miserable three days of our lives."

posted by rcade to football at 06:19 PM - 13 comments

October 26, 2014

Top Cardinals Prospect Oscar Tavares Killed in Car Accident: St. Louis Cardinals top outfield prospect Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend died in a car accident near his home in the Dominican Republic on Sunday afternoon. The 22-year-old made his Major League debut this season and "entered the season rated as one of baseball's top-three prospects," writes Bill Baer of HardballTalk. He made the postseason roster and hit a pinch-hit home run in the NLCS.

posted by BoKnows to baseball at 10:41 PM - 5 comments

Minor League Hockey Player Suffers Gruesome Cut from Skate: A minor league hockey game in Peoria, Illinois, came to a halt Saturday after a player fell on an opponent's skate and suffered a deep and potentially life threatening cut to his thigh. Trainers and players from both teams raced to help Huntsville Havoc center Justin Cseter, bringing towels and fashioning a tourniquet out of a broken hockey stick. Dave Eminian of the Peoria Journal-Star penned this memorable lead: "The Peoria Rivermen were gaining momentum, had just scored to build a 2-1 lead over the Huntsville Havoc on Saturday at Carver Arena. And then hockey gave way to horror."

posted by rcade to hockey at 06:02 PM - 2 comments

October 25, 2014

October 24, 2014

PGA Exec Calls Ian Poulter 'Little School Girl': PGA of America President Ted Bishop, upset by criticism of past Ryder Cup captains Nick Faldo and Tom Watson by Ian Poulter in his new book, called Poulter a "lil girl" and "little school girl" in social media posts. Bishop wrote on a Facebook post that athletes with "lesser records or accomplishments in a sport never criticized the icons" and then said of Poulter, "Really? Sounds like a little school girl squealing during recess. C'mon man!" He later deleted the posts and apologized. Poulter's response: "Is being called a 'lil girl' meant to be derogatory or a put down That's pretty shocking and disappointing, especially coming from the leader of the PGA of America."

posted by rcade to golf at 02:38 PM - 2 comments

Steve Nash’s transcendent career has come to a close: But after all those years, all that brilliance, this voyage to worlds we’d never imagined, somehow, it wasn’t supposed to happen so soon.

posted by Ufez Jones to basketball at 10:17 AM - 1 comment

9 reasons Hunter Pence is the most interesting man in the World (Series).:
Runs like a rotary phone thrown into a running clothes dryer. Throws like an effete Frenchman throwing a bookcase uphill. Swings a bat like his elbows are stapled to his knees and his underwear is pulled over his head.

posted by grum@work to baseball at 01:00 AM - 2 comments

October 23, 2014

NFL Pick 'Em, Week 8: Week eight of SportsFilter's NFL Pick 'Em contest finds Mattwalshvideo continuing to hold a big lead, 50 points ahead of Lsun667 and Wmwtm and 60 ahead of Mbates321. San Diego visits Denver tonight in Thursday Night Football.

posted by rcade to football at 06:49 PM - 0 comments

October 22, 2014

CFL Pick 'Em, Week 18: Three weeks to go and we've got ourselves a horse race. argoal and JPR are going out with a bang, keeping us all entertained while the actual CFL standings just have us plain confused. Grab your crossover calculator and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 08:56 AM - 13 comments

October 21, 2014

October 20, 2014

October 19, 2014

October 18, 2014

October 17, 2014

October 16, 2014

Was Belichick to New England the Best Deal in NFL History?: and how does Bill Parcells remember it all going down in his new memoir?

posted by yerfatma to football at 07:47 PM - 2 comments

Concussions last longer than they used to: because the media reports on them. Thus spake Marvin Lewis, who knows about head cases.

posted by yerfatma to football at 11:02 AM - 2 comments

CFL Pick 'Em, Week 17: The turkey leftovers are nearly finished, which means that we're past the final quarter pole and into the home stretch. Four weeks remain in this weird and wild 2014 season. argoal stands alone at the top this week, but who will it be next week? Grab your crystal balls and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 09:38 AM - 12 comments

October 15, 2014

Royals Advance to First World Series Since 1985: The Kansas City Royals won their eighth straight post-season game Wednesday, sweeping the Baltimore Orioles 4-0 and advancing to the club's first World Series since 1985. Kansas City scored two runs in the first inning without a ball leaving the infield, then made them hold up over the next 9 for a 2-1 series clinching victory. "Manager Ned Yost has become Midas here in October," writes Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star.

posted by rcade to baseball at 08:38 PM - 8 comments

"How Rebounds Work": stat-porn from Grantland.

The league's tracking system not only logs locations for every missed shot, it also charts the locations of their subsequent rebounds. In turn, we can map out the spatial relationships between shot locations and rebound locations with unprecedented depth and clarity. We can uncover the fundamental facts about rebounding that until very recently have been impossible to get to.

posted by yerfatma to basketball at 03:42 PM - 4 comments

October 14, 2014

Drone with Flag Sparks Brawl at Euro 2016 Match: The Euro 2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania was abandoned after a drone carrying a banner with an Albanian nationalist message flew over the pitch at Partizan Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia, and sparked a brawl between the teams after a Serbian player pulled it down and Albanian players tried to take it from him. Albanian supporters had already been banned from attending over security concerns, given turbulent relations between the countries. Deadspin has the video.

posted by rcade to soccer at 09:17 PM - 1 comment

October 13, 2014

Infamous College Tackler Tommy Lewis Dies: The former Alabama player who made one of the most infamous tackles in college football history has died. At the 1954 Cotton Bowl, Rice halfback Dicky Maegle had broken free on a run likely to end in a 95-yard touchdown when Tommy Lewis left the sideline and tackled him near midfield. The officials awarded Maegle the touchdown. Lewis, who would be invited with Maegle to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show two days later, explained, "I was just so full of Alabama, and I couldn't stand to see him make another touchdown. I lost my composure and tackled him."

posted by rcade to football at 08:58 PM - 1 comment

DeMarco Murray Ties Jim Brown Record: Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray became the second running back in NFL history to start a season with six straight 100-yard rushing games, matching Jim Brown. And he did it against the league's best run defense, which had not allowed a running back more than 38 yards in a game this season, as Dallas defeated the Seattle Seahawks 30-23.

posted by rcade to football at 10:54 AM - 6 comments

October 12, 2014

NFL Pick 'Em, Week 6: Six weeks into the contest, Mattwalshvideo's lead has narrowed slightly to 40 points, with jagsnumberone in second and lsun667, aeonmcallister, wmwtm and crisisstills tied for third. Biggest anticipated rout: The Pick 'Em hive mind predicts a 98% chance of a Denver victory over the New York Jets. Fun fact: Jagsnumberone would be tied for the lead if he hadn't picked Jacksonville to win four times.

posted by rcade to football at 09:38 AM - 3 comments

October 11, 2014

October 10, 2014

October 09, 2014

October 08, 2014

CFL Pick 'Em, Week 16: The crazy times continue: the East wins out again and our rankings turn upside-down. JPR and argoal take over the top spot, which means they're bringing the maple turkey on Monday. That's right, it's Canadian Thanksgiving, so grab your hoser hats and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 10:39 PM - 11 comments

October 07, 2014

October 06, 2014

The NBA has a new TV deal.: And it's a bit bigger than anyone guessed. Zach Lowe looks at what putting all that new money into the salary cap may mean for the near future of the NBA.

posted by yerfatma to basketball at 02:46 PM - 10 comments

Florida QB Treon Harris Investigated in Alleged Sex Assault: Two days after he helped Florida come back to a 10-9 road victory over Tennessee, freshman quarterback Treon Harris has been suspended indefinitely by the team because of an alleged crime involving a female student. The crime is not yet being described, but university president Bernie Machen said in a statement, "We have no tolerance for sexual assault on our campus."

posted by rcade to football at 01:07 PM - 2 comments

October 05, 2014

October 04, 2014

Keyon Dooling's Secret: The 13-year NBA veteran on the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, the breakdown he endured after years of holding back the memories, and finding his calling as a public speaker and life coach. [warning: article contains strong language and descriptions of sexual violence]

posted by Ufez Jones to basketball at 01:50 PM - 2 comments

October 03, 2014

Why no one wants to host the 2022 Olympics: The surest sign that the bid process for hosting the Olympics is broken is actually not the trail of bribe money or crony-rich government contracts at the feet of International Olympic Committee members... The effect is the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, which is now down to just two cities. The final vote comes next summer. There's Beijing, China, which doesn't actually sit within 120 miles of a usable ski mountain, and there's Almaty, Kazakhstan, which in its bid touted itself as "the world's largest landlocked nation." It's down to these two cities not because the IOC narrowed the field, but because every other city in the entire world said no.

posted by Ufez Jones to olympics at 12:25 AM - 11 comments

October 02, 2014

NFL Pick 'Em, Week 5: Minnesota visits Green Bay for Thursday Night Football. Mattwalshvideo remains atop our Pick 'Em Contest by 50 points, with Wmwtm, AeonMcCallister, Crisisstills and Jagsnumberone tied for second.

posted by rcade to football at 04:20 PM - 2 comments

Watch the Senators beat the Giants in the 1924 World Series. : The Library of Congress recently found nearly perfectly preserved nitrate film of a "Kinograms" newsreel showing the Washington Senators winning the World Series over the New York Giants and fans storming the field at Griffith Stadium to celebrate.

posted by Ufez Jones to baseball at 02:57 PM - 3 comments

Another NCAA member covers itself in glory: in women's basketball. While Kansas State finally relented in the case of Leticia Romero, the University of Alabama is not being so kind to a player who

  • already graduated
  • wants to get an MBA but did not get into Alabama's business school
  • has a brother with end-stage renal disease and requires kidney dialysis several times per week
All while benefiting from the same situation with a grad student from FSU who's competing for the starting QB job.

posted by yerfatma to culture at 12:13 PM - 2 comments

October 01, 2014

CFL Pick 'Em, Week 15: Six weeks to go and absolutely nothing is even close to being decided. Calgary and Saskatchewan, early favourites, now have no quarterbacks. Montreal and Hamilton, left for dead, are winning games by magic. And we have four players tied for second place. Blink twice and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 05:44 PM - 14 comments

MLB Pace-of-Game Committee Suggests Six New Rules: The Arizona Fall League will test out six new rules intended to speed up baseball this year.
1 -- Hitter must keep one foot inside the batter's box (except for fouls, wild pitches, time outs granted by the umpire, etc.).
2 -- Manager can signal an intentional walk rather than have the pitcher throw.
3 -- Maximum break of 2:05 between innings, hitters in the batter's box by 1:45. Umpire can call a strike on slow hitters and a ball on slow pitchers.
4 -- Maximum of 2:30 for pitching changes, including during inning breaks (clock starts when reliever enters the field).
5 -- Three "timeout" mound conferences per game.
6 -- 20 seconds to pitch after receiving the ball (Salt River only). Clocks will be posted in dugouts.

posted by Etrigan to baseball at 04:21 PM - 58 comments

Royals Steal 9-8 Win Over A's in Epic 12-Inning AL Wild Card: The Kansas City Royals entered the eighth inning down 7-3 to the Oakland A's with ace Jon Lester on the mound. Using their speed on steals and sacrifice bunts, they scored three in that inning and another in the ninth to send the game to extra innings, then came back from a one-run deficit in the 12th with a Salvador Perez single to left that scored Christian Colon, sending a franchise that had waited 29 years for postseason baseball into the ALDS.

posted by rcade to baseball at 02:13 AM - 11 comments