September 04, 2014

SportsFilter: The Thursday 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 - 17 comments

In 2013, Sterling Marte had fewer unintentional walks (23) than times hit by pitch (25).

That's the only time I can find for someone who qualified for a batting title.
Other players have had equal amounts (A.J. Pierzynski in 2004 (15/15) and 2013 (9/9), Lou Johnson 1965 (16/16)) but no one else has ever had more (since they've recorded intentional walks and hbp).

Mike Zunino has 14 of each this year, but he needs to average over 5 PA per game in every remaining Seattle game on the schedule to qualify for the batting title (and still get plunked at least one more time).

posted by grum@work at 02:33 PM on September 04, 2014

The fifth largest newspaper in the country will no longer use the name or logo of the Washington football team.

posted by Etrigan at 02:44 PM on September 04, 2014

Ichiro Suzuki Uncensored en Espanol.

posted by ursus_comiter at 03:52 PM on September 04, 2014

Good move by the Daily News.

I wonder if a side effect of the controversy will be for the media and fans to refer to NFL teams more by their place name and less by mascot. Becoming an EPL fan has gotten me used to that approach, where mascots are almost all used far less often.

posted by rcade at 04:04 PM on September 04, 2014

Update:

It seems that A.J. Pierzynski also had fewer unintentional walks (12) than HBP (15) in 2003. I missed it because I didn't expect someone to be intentionally walked (12) as much as he was unintentionally walked (12), and still have so few total walks (24).

posted by grum@work at 04:49 PM on September 04, 2014

Ichiro Suzuki Uncensored en Espanol.

I really hope there is a movie made about his life/times in MLB. There are so many awesome stories about him (his expletive-filled pre-game All-Star speeches, for example) that I'm sure there are dozens more behind the scenes stuff that would be fun to see/hear about.

posted by grum@work at 04:56 PM on September 04, 2014

Man, I'm so excited about football being back! Football is so awesome!

(listens to Chris Collinsworth for about an hour)

Meh. Football's back.

posted by Bonkers at 11:03 PM on September 04, 2014

Was that in response to "Seattle doesn't miss any tackles. Except for that one just now."?

posted by Etrigan at 11:06 PM on September 04, 2014

"I played against the '85 Bears in '86."

Oh, Chris...

posted by Etrigan at 11:17 PM on September 04, 2014

Geno Auriemma hit with a secondary violation for calling 13-year-old Mo'ne Davis and congratulating her on being awesome.

posted by Etrigan at 11:51 PM on September 04, 2014

Was that in response to "Seattle doesn't miss any tackles. Except for that one just now."?

More his whole schtick, to be honest.

posted by Bonkers at 11:57 PM on September 04, 2014

Geno Auriemma hit with a secondary violation for calling 13-year-old Mo'ne Davis and congratulating her on being awesome.

Yes, because Geno passing congrats to a young athlete is far more damaging to college sports than it's flagship universities whose students don't actually attend classes, get unsecured interest free loans, or are involved in criminal complaints.

posted by cixelsyd at 10:15 AM on September 05, 2014

And it's not like Geno needs to do any actual recruiting of young Ms. Davis as she already has announced that she would love to play basketball for UConn.

posted by NoMich at 11:30 AM on September 05, 2014

They're only calling it a secondary violation, which "carry little if any punishment because they are typically inadvertent in nature and represent no significant competitive advantage."

If you have a dumb rule on the books and somebody broke it, sending them official notice they broke it without punishing them seems like a proper resolution.

posted by rcade at 12:59 PM on September 05, 2014

Geno Auriemma hit with a secondary violation

It's not like he was trying to hide this. Very likely the NCAA knew what happened all along and initially did not choose to do anything. It took a complaint by another university to prompt the violation decision. Sounds like a competing coach trying to gain an edge save his job for the 2019 (or thereabouts) season.

posted by Howard_T at 03:53 PM on September 05, 2014

It took a complaint by another university to prompt the violation decision.

Yes, it did. So what? Universities rat each other out all the time on recruiting rules. That's a part of the system.

posted by rcade at 04:16 PM on September 05, 2014

Well sure, but to rat someone out about an interaction with a thirteen year old smacks of desperation. I'm a bit torn on this story: on the one hand the NCAA is awful and this is a fine example of their uselessness. On the other, why exactly does Geno need to contact her? Is he her idol? It seems either like trying to gain a recruiting edge or some amazing self-importance.

posted by yerfatma at 09:12 AM on September 08, 2014

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