04/26/24
November 02, 2018
SportsFilter: The Friday 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.
Here's something that I had not done in forever: I eschewed a football game in favor of a basketball game. I obviously made the right decision 'cause that Bucks/Celts game was pretty damn good.
posted by NoMich at 08:10 AM on November 02, 2018
I got home in time to see snippets of NFL garbage time, which is the only reasonable explanation a person has for voluntarily watching even part of a game like Raiders-Niners. Some people unwind and veg out with Kojak reruns. I unwound with ugly ball.
On paper, the Niners have a pretty darn good QB situation, when all 3 are healthy. That young kid looks like he can play. He's higher energy than Beathard, which is a good thing. He's got that look of someone who's always going to be trying to get the most out of what talent they have, if not flat out overachieve.
I'm surprised you got to see much of the Bucks-Celtics contest. Howard attended that game, and I assume the TV producers focused most of their attention on his presence (as well they should), with the game action relegated to being a tasty afterthought.
posted by beaverboard at 10:45 AM on November 02, 2018
Well, that's what TNT did.
posted by NoMich at 11:02 AM on November 02, 2018
Don't come to any conclusions about the Niners based on the results of a victory over the Raiders.
SF has a history of drafting and filling in pieces of the roster well. They have a lot of promising young talent at many positions. None of that matters when you have Jed York running the show. The only owner in NFL history to have multiple coaches and players in their prime to walk away from a Superbowl caliber team.
Trust me, as soon as they start looking like a contender again Jed will step in to try to appear like he's important and the entire organization will blow up again.
posted by cixelsyd at 01:43 PM on November 02, 2018
TNT was very much occupied by the presence of my very special guest at the game. By a very fortunate set of circumstances, kokaku's dad was able to accompany me. As it turns out, Milt (kokaku's dad) lives in one of the southern suburbs of Boston. kokaku put us in touch, we met up, and enjoyed the evening. Milt and I were graduated from the same college, Northeastern, in Boston. He is a Navy veteran who served some time in USS Hornet in the Western Pacific. Yours truly spent a good amount of time working in Japan and other Asian countries, as well as doing a 2 1/2 year tour in USS Midway, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. Both of us as Celtics fans go back to the era of the NBA before the 24 second clock. A really fun evening was spent telling sea stories about Wespac, remarking on how the game has changed, lamenting the new emphasis on calling even the slightest of fouls (screed to follow someday), cheering when the Red Sox were introduced on the court during a first quarter time out, and generally enjoying a fine evening. I understand that TNT limited our exposure because our agent was asking too high a price for our appearance. We will work on this.
posted by Howard_T at 01:45 PM on November 02, 2018
Thanks for the update Howard. Knowing my dad, he's probably still sleeping so I hadn't heard from him yet. Great that you two had so much in common.
Looking forward to the screed too. With so few of us here reading regularly, maybe we need more screeds to spice things up.
posted by kokaku at 01:57 PM on November 02, 2018
as soon as they start looking like a contender again Jed will step in
When I look at John Lynch, I see a guy who is capable of holding his own, and making the other guy wish he hadn't made a nuisance of himself. While smiling the whole time. We'll see what unfolds.
The only owner in NFL history to have multiple coaches and players in their prime to walk away from a Superbowl caliber team.
Jerry Jones. Robert Kraft. Georgia Frontiere. Leonard Tose. Dan Rooney. Art Modell. And no doubt others that I can't think of off the top of my head.
posted by beaverboard at 02:03 PM on November 02, 2018
"The urine of drug addicts who have insurance is liquid gold ... "
posted by tommybiden at 02:09 PM on November 02, 2018
and making the other guy wish he hadn't made a nuisance of himself
I like Lynch, but do you really think Harbaugh was a softy?
And the names you mention - many of those owners divested themselves of players when the team was good, and several of the players left those teams in free agency. I think the only parallel I see with the 49ers recent history is Megatron and Sanders leaving Detroit in their prime ... but the Lions sucked and were not doing anything to get any better in both instances.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:16 PM on November 02, 2018
Great story, Howard. Sounds like a fun night. My oldest brother did a Wespac thing during his time in the Navy; late '70s, early '80s
posted by NoMich at 02:20 PM on November 02, 2018
TNT was very much occupied by the presence of my very special guest at the game
Anybody have a video snippet? I only saw a portion of the game and was being bombarded with Leafs updates during any stoppages so missed any crowd shots.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:21 PM on November 02, 2018
I attended the Columbus Crew-DC United knockout round match last night at Audi Field, and I have to say that the United have built themselves a very nice stadium there in southwest DC, and they produced a tremendous atmosphere for a very entertaining match.
posted by bender at 03:05 PM on November 02, 2018
Sorry to disappoint, but the cameras rarely get to the balcony, and when they do it's for the jumbotron entertainment. Since neither of us is outlandishly dressed nor willing to make a fool of ourselves, we just don't make it. You can check out the Celtics Fan Cam on the web. I posted the link previously, but I will find it again and post it. NoMich, you should get your brother to tell you some of his Wespac adventures. Just remember that what goes on on cruise stays on cruise.
posted by Howard_T at 04:20 PM on November 02, 2018
I am having fits trying to post the link to the Celtics fancam. For some reason the characters %20 get plugged in to the URL, and that messes it up. So we have to do it the hard way. The link is
https://Celtics fancam.com/20181101
Once you get there, rotate the image horizontally by 180. You should be looking at the broadcasters table. Pan upward to the balcony and zoom in far enough to read the section numbers on the back wall or pillars. Once you have found section 316, find the 5th row from the front, go to the end of the row to your right, and count back to your left. In the 5th and 6th seats will be 2 handsome gentlemen, one of whom is wearing a white ball cap. That's me, and Milt is to my left.
posted by Howard_T at 04:56 PM on November 02, 2018
What an awesome story, Howard. Glad y'all had a blast. Hope you don't mind, but I took a quick screen grab for this thread. If it weirds you out, I can certainly delete it:
posted by Ufez Jones at 05:32 PM on November 02, 2018
NoMich, you should get your brother to tell you some of his Wespac adventures.
Oh, he has. Especially his stay in the Philippines. He picked up a really nice Japan-only JVC amp when he was there and that thing is great to this day.
posted by NoMich at 06:00 PM on November 02, 2018
Thanks for posting it, Ufez. You never know when the fancam shot is taken, so we're lucky it didn't catch me picking my nose.
NoMich, the Japanese stereo stuff was the thing to buy back in that time. I still have an Akai reel to reel tape player with a built-in 8 track. I used to make my own mixes by using the reel to reel to tape classical music from NHK FM and then edit them to fit the 8 track in my car.
posted by Howard_T at 08:37 PM on November 02, 2018
I'm actually digging Virginia's football uniforms tonight. Looking sharp
posted by NoMich at 09:55 PM on November 02, 2018
Two things tonight - one a SpoFi observation, and one a fun chance encounter:
The SpoFi observation - love that Howard_T is the elder statesman (no disrespect intended) of SpoFi. If you told me you were on the Enola Gay, I wouldn't bat an eye (and yes, I know you're not that old -- but I'm probably closer in age to your kids than you and I've got a 12 year-old son myself).
On the chance encounter, I got stuck in NY over a December weekend a couple of years ago (I live in Chicago) for an M&A transaction I was working on and got back late to my hotel in Midtown and ended up seated at the hotel bar grabbing a late dinner next to none other than John Lynch. Great player (obviously) but a great guy as well. He was in town to call a Giants game when he was the color guy for a Fox team (with Kevin Burkhardt as the PBP guy?). Got a lot of good inside-baseball (or inside-football) info from him just chatting away, and he introduced me to the whole production team. As a Louisiana native, I told him I thought that maybe Eli to Odell was the most prolific QB-WR combination of two players in the NFL that went to the same high school (Isidore Newman in New Orleans) and that they should look it up. Lo and behold, on the broadcast the next day he mentioned that, as the stats team had looked it up. God bless the information age.
posted by holden at 12:45 AM on November 03, 2018
Ha, that's awesome holden!
posted by yerfatma at 02:52 PM on November 06, 2018
Buffalo Bills look like geniuses for keeping Nathan Peterman and trading AJ McCarron, after what we saw last night.
Gruden needs to watch his back. Hue Jackson is now available.