- 03:31 PM
- 05/19/12
I don't think the jinx rule should apply to people who tell others so they have a chance to watch it happen, as long as they are not in earshot of the pitcher. But I'm open to reconsideration to avoid angering the baseball gods.
posted by rcade at 10:05 PM on May 18
Josh Harrison hit a one-out single in the ninth to bust up the no hitter.
posted by rcade at 09:32 PM on May 18
Justin Verlander has a no-hitter through seven at home against the Pirates.
posted by rcade at 08:58 PM on May 18
Yes they should. It's outrageous that they can drop a student-athlete on scholarship in the middle of pursuing an education.
posted by rcade at 03:36 PM on May 18
Bryan Stow had the bad luck to walk by a belligerent Dodgers fan in the parking lot spoiling for fights. There's never been any claim he was drunk or trash talking.
posted by rcade at 03:35 PM on May 18
This is one of the most exciting games that will never happen in college football history.
posted by rcade at 01:19 PM on May 18
I find it ironic that so many are quick to imply that football is too dangerous, but aren't condemning boxing ...
Sports fans here and elsewhere have condemned boxing for years.
posted by rcade at 11:15 AM on May 18
I am opposed to the catch and release tradition. If I catch an opponent's homer I am giving it to a kid in that team's uniform or switching my team allegiance and keeping it.
posted by rcade at 10:59 AM on May 18
Schilling doesn't have that experience, but 38 Studios does because it bought Big Huge Games, the 12-year-old company that created Rise of Nations, and retained 70 of its 120 employees.
When Kirk Minihane calls Schilling the "only face and voice of the company since Day 1," it shows that he did poor research. Rolston, Salvatore and McFarlane are all big names in their fields attached to the venture, and CEO Jennifer MacLean was chair of the International Game Developers Association.
posted by rcade at 09:43 AM on May 18
Schilling's politics aren't consistent with taking that enormous guaranteed loan (I wonder how he feels about the stimulus), but the article understates his gaming experience. He started Multi-Man Publishing in 1999 to keep the wargame Advanced Squad Leader in print, so he's not a business or gaming noob. 38 Studios had Ken Rolston, R. A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane working on its first game, which is an impressive lineup.
posted by rcade at 08:50 AM on May 18
I went to a Dallas Stars game shortly after their Cup victory (shut up, Buffalo) and sprang for some of the most expensive seats. I could leave my seat, walk four rows up, and be in a full-service bar. The place was packed the entire game with more than a hundred people, none of whom seemed to have the slightest interest in the glorious hockey being played a level below them. Rich people are weird.
posted by rcade at 08:17 PM on May 17
While their physical presence may remain due to their size, just how many people will recognize a Junior Seau in street clothing? He was a big star on the field but does the average person recognize his face away from the game?
Junior Seau was one of the most beloved athletes in San Diego history. There were 20,000 people at his public memorial at Qualcomm Stadium. He did not lack recognition.
posted by rcade at 03:27 PM on May 17
Cool, but baffling. What's he doing that is so effective at selling balls as strikes?
posted by rcade at 02:22 PM on May 17
Assuming you are referring to this ...
Instead, the tunnel vision and unwavering devotion a football career demanded left me utterly unprepared for anything else.... I don't buy it. All major sports at the top level require natural physical attributes, tunnel vision and "unwavering" devotion to the game.
Football is different from other major sports in that way. Hard work and dedication cannot make you a 7-foot-1 center in the NBA, but it can help a 6-foot-2 linebacker go from 205 to 245 pounds while gaining speed and athleticism. That was the path I followed from undrafted prospect at East Carolina to NFL starting lineups from 1992 to 2000.
posted by rcade at 01:28 PM on May 17
Mike Freeman is an idiot. If an NFL player wants to sell his Super Bowl ring, that's his choice. Just because Freeman regards the ring as "something so cherished" does not mean the people who earned one have to share his opinion.
posted by rcade at 11:59 AM on May 17
I think you're trying too hard not to see the elephant in the room. Where is the epidemic of baseball suicides? They go through the same transition from star athlete to retirement as NFL players.
posted by rcade at 11:55 AM on May 17
That pole needs a Facebook page.
posted by rcade at 10:55 AM on May 17
When former NFL player Jason Sehorn talks to his wife Angie Harmon, he says "sidebar" before a topical digression.
posted by rcade at 10:37 AM on May 17
I'm not about to make my way from NH to Boston, get to Fenway, and find out that I can not get a seat in my price range or one that actually offers a view of the field rather than the bullpens.
I'm surprised you would leave at all without a ticket when you can get them online from resellers like StubHub. I do that at Jaguars games, because tickets are always available outside from scalpers, but this is the Red Sox we're talking about.
posted by rcade at 09:52 AM on May 17
Floyd Mayweather Jr. supports gay marriage. Manny Pacquiao opposes.
posted by rcade at 07:40 AM on May 17
The Saints will keep an empty seat around at team activities and trips this year in honor of suspended coach Sean Peyton.
posted by rcade at 07:54 PM on May 16
Deadspin mashes up the survival Sunday games along with reactions of fans to goals in other stadiums.
EPL soccer is awesome.
My favorite comment, by Ian Darke: "Cue bedlam."
posted by rcade at 06:48 PM on May 16
The SEC has much better TV money and is a much more prestigious football conference. I don't know what it was like when Florida State joined the ACC in 1991, but TV deals these days make it a new ballgame.
posted by rcade at 12:41 AM on May 16
Florida State would jump to the SEC in a heartbeat if a spot was offered.
The BCS rules are being revised and the AQ system is likely to go away. But I don't see the ACC being squeezed out of a playoff system, though it's weaker than the SEC and Big 12.
posted by rcade at 07:37 PM on May 15
UNT has trouble getting home-and-home deals with BCS schools.
posted by rcade at 03:30 PM on May 15
I've heard that Florida doesn't want Florida State in the SEC. That's a shame, but it would be pretty wild to get Big 12 schools rolling into Tallahassee on a regular basis.
posted by rcade at 11:34 PM on May 14
$50 on Had My Ass to win.
posted by rcade at 11:30 PM on May 14
I love that reaction shot. Dr. Evil (a natural Man U fan) rubs his hands deliciously in triumph, then -- what?
There was an earlier one of the Man City crowd where a hundred people all turned at once, like a herd of deer who've spotted a lion.
Ian Darke had a great line about how the fans get the news of other games via bush telegraph.
posted by rcade at 08:27 AM on May 14
That stuff I said about how fans at the Player's are well-behaved? Maybe not.
posted by rcade at 10:28 PM on May 13
Here's a relevant blog post on the constitutional issue.
Given the university's established interest in providing an environment free of discrimination, I think it could legally fire a coach who "gently" tells his athletes that homosexuality is a sin and speaks out against anti-discrimination policies covering gays.
However, as a public university that would want to cultivate an atmosphere of free speech, it might fear the message it sent to punish an employee for his political advocacy.
posted by rcade at 09:24 PM on May 13
The Premiership knows how to put on a show during the final weekend. I was crying and it wasn't even my team. I love that winning a championship in the standings matters so much in that league.
During the celebration on Fox Soccer, as players huddled around jumping up and down a City fan came barreling into them after slipping.
People are calling this Manchester City's first Premier League title in 44 years. Does it matter that the Premier League didn't exist until 1992?
posted by rcade at 01:04 PM on May 13
Epic. I was expecting mass suicides at Etihad, the way fans were throwing violent tantrums against their clothing.
posted by rcade at 12:52 PM on May 13
No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
posted by rcade at 08:31 AM on May 13
Kevin Durant finished second. I'm hoping for a Heat-Thunder finals.
posted by rcade at 08:07 PM on May 12
My son's team turned a triple play that way this season.
posted by rcade at 06:09 PM on May 12
Given what Brown is publicly campaigning for -- the government to do nothing to stop gays from being discriminated against in things like housing and employment -- I don't see how it has no effect on his ability to do his job.
He says in his letter that if one of his players was gay, he would "gently" ask them to consider that their "lifestyle" is a sin. So if some 18- or 19-year-old comes out while on Nebraska's football team in the next few years, he'll have to deal with Brown and any teammates influenced by the coach's outspoken views to share their opinion on his sinfulness.
When Brown was a college athlete playing football for Brown University in the 1970s, how would he have reacted to a coach "gently" telling him that race-mixing was wrong? What message would it have sent to black athletes when his school tolerated that conduct from one of its officials?
posted by rcade at 09:56 AM on May 12
In fact, at the risk of losing friends: fat jokes = black jokes = Jew jokes? Hardly.
All three are examples of cheap discriminatory humor. I'll grant that they're not the same, but why is it acceptable for a CBS golf columnist to use his platform to unload dig after dig about a fat fan when even a single joke about race or ethnicity would be a firing offense? Fuzzy Zoeller became a national scandal for one fried chicken joke after Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters.
The column as it reads now, where she's described only as "distinctly rotund" and "large," is not so egregious.
But singling out a fan for abuse the way he did -- especially on Twitter -- is over the line. Did he consider that the fan might be back for days 2 through 4? Is it cool for this pro journalist to make a fan at an event he covers unwelcome and expose her to ridicule for being fat?
Keep in mind that this is a sport where fans can be expelled for insulting a golfer's pants or asking a golfer a pointed question.
posted by rcade at 11:07 AM on May 11
Boy, that's sad. They denied that girl and the boys on both teams an opportunity to compete in the championship because their God doesn't support co-ed youth sports.
posted by rcade at 09:52 AM on May 11
I've updated my blog post with a quote from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
You really think he will get the point you are making? He seems pretty crass to me.
Given his responses on Twitter, I don't think the point would get through to him unless he paid a price for it. Evidently somebody at CBS didn't like the "cottage cheese" insult, because the line has disappeared from the column. The Twitter insults remain.
On Twitter today Elling's criticizing Augusta National's sexism, so he's not blind to social issues. I think he degrades his reputation (and that of CBS) by unloading dig after dig at somebody for being fat. He wasn't even calling the woman was being rude or unpleasant. Just loud and silly.
Elling turns up in the intro to Fitness for Dummies with this praise: "When it comes to fitness, like most male American slugs, I'm actually more of a complete blathering moronic idiot. This book will come in handy for those of us who don't know a fat gram from Phil Gramm or a donut from a bagel. Now all I need to know is how to look cool and studly in the gym while sweating profusely."
He sounds like one of the people who loses weight and then decides everybody else could do it if they were just as virtuous.
posted by rcade at 09:46 AM on May 11
It gets even worse on Twitter. Elling thinks fat people are hilarious.
I told him this on Twitter: "Using your platform at CBS to mock fatties is awesome, @EllingYelling. Now tell some of your best jokes about Jews and blacks."
posted by rcade at 06:11 PM on May 10
Kids today don't know how much tougher it was to be exposed to filth before the web. Cherry Poptart was a concentrated dosage of wrong from the first Archie-inspired panel on.
I think we've officially derailed this discussion.
posted by rcade at 05:05 PM on May 10
Ah, Cherry. A more innocent time.
It's troubling you knew exactly what I was referring to.
posted by rcade at 04:28 PM on May 10
What if some of the comics were pornographic?
posted by rcade at 02:26 PM on May 10
my vote for best looker in the pinstripes?
Gotta be somebody who wears the high socks and doesn't look like an unmade bed.
posted by rcade at 02:24 PM on May 10
NCAA athletes should be able to earn at least a small amount of money for playing their sport. I earned money editing the school newspaper. It wasn't much, but I didn't need much for food, beer, comics and a hovel.
posted by rcade at 01:09 PM on May 10
The NFL should fund an experimental league that plays football with different rules developed to remove concussion and injury risks.
Either that, or the game should be played with robots.
posted by rcade at 10:32 AM on May 10
Artistic nude photo of jockey Chantal Sutherland, taken by Bo Derek for Vanity Fair.
posted by rcade at 10:10 AM on May 09
A Yahoo headline let me know Hamilton had a chance to hit four, so I got to see it happen on MLB Network.
Think the Rangers made a bit of a mistake not inking him to a new deal in the offseason?
posted by rcade at 09:16 AM on May 09
I wish people told me I played like a girl.
posted by rcade at 12:08 PM on May 08
And he does that on every home run he hits.
Surely not. If there's any doubt at all he'd be hustling down the line in case it stays in the park.
posted by rcade at 08:50 PM on May 07
Isn't the bottom line here that repeated brain injuries can only be eliminated by getting rid of blows to the head?
There are other things they could consider, like switching to soft helmets that can't be used as weapons. When Ryan talked about the weight of players, it made me wonder what football would be like if there were maximum weights for different positions.
Though football should be taught differently from the youngest ages, that won't change things as fast as litigation and fan disillusionment will.
posted by rcade at 08:48 PM on May 07
Richard M. Stallman weighs in:
NFL players often sustain repeated brain injuries that subsequently ruin their lives. The NFL denies this, so some players commit suicide and donate their brains to science to help prove it.I don't even like to watch football because the violence fills me with revulsion. I wonder how watching such violence -- real, not fictional -- affects children and teenagers. To ban fiction is censorship, but it would be legitimate to regulate football violence in reality.
posted by rcade at 05:34 PM on May 07
Nice minor league catch. Or nice acting.
posted by rcade at 03:28 PM on May 07
I thought you were kidding, Bismarck. Chicken on the pitch.
posted by rcade at 03:25 PM on May 07
Jason Turbow suggests that Hamels was (a) responding to Bryce Harper questioning the strike zone in an earlier game and (b) sending a message about toughness to his own team.
posted by rcade at 02:50 PM on May 07
Why would he know it's coming on the first pitch he faced in the first inning? I'm not aware of anything he did the previous game that would make the Phils angry.
posted by rcade at 02:46 PM on May 07
It was hard to see how long Pujols walked on most highlight clips. I count six steps.
I don't want to overstate my outrage, but that does look kind of chumpy. If Bryce Harper did that he'd get Hameled.
posted by rcade at 01:43 PM on May 07
Of course I'm gutted that Cech made the save on Andy's second try.
Do you think Carroll and Suarez had a chance at knocking it in if they hadn't suffered premature celebration? The ball fell perilously close to the goal line and Kuyt (I think) made a frantic lunge that almost succeeded.
posted by rcade at 01:02 PM on May 07
SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle
What if I design a robot that can detect potential perfect games and no hitters in progress and share the news without human intervention? Everybody loves robots.