Categories
NHL General

Lindy Ruff vs Ken Hitchcock


After getting pasted 6-0 in the first period of last night’s playoff hockey game against the Sabres, the Flyers started getting a little chippy as they say in hockey and took a bunch of penalties in the second period. Of course, Flyers fans will say they were just sending a message for the next game, which is one of the great things about hockey.

After the game, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said that the Flyers were playing “like idiots”. When told about Ruff’s comments, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said, “That’s Lindy’s opinion. I’ve seen his teams do the same things. Lindy ought not to talk about that.” OK…no news so far… then as he was walking out of the presser, Hitchcock added:


Tell Lindy to fuck off, to mind his own fucking business.

Sure, it was a calculated move to deflect attention from his own team but you gotta love hockey coaches for saying stuff like this.

Links:
[Philly.com]: Ruffly speaking, Hitchcock offers fighting words

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for April 25, 2006: Rick Monday is the man

1. God Bless America: 30 years ago today, Rick Monday made the “greatest heroic act that’s ever happened on a baseball field”. After a man and his son jumped onto the field at Dodger Stadium and spread a flag out so they could burn it, Monday ran over, grabbed the flag and ran off with it. The crowd was shocked but then broke into a spontaneous rendition of God Bless America. Major League Baseball and the NFL try to manufacture this kind of patriotism all the time post-9/11 but nothing will ever come close to that one night in 1976. Monday has been offered $1M for the flag; “But the flag is not for sale. What this flag represents, you can’t buy.” (from USA Today)

2. The streak is over: Coming into last night’s White Sox-Mariners matchup, the game just didn’t seem fair. The White Sox had won 8 in a row, and the Mariners were a four-game slide. Both streaks are now over and done with, because the Mariners bested the Sox in an 11 inning brawl. Both teams had excellent games from their pitchers. Chicago starter Jon Garland allowed 3 runs over 8 innings, while Seattle’s Jamie Moyer gave up just 1 in 7 innings work. With the game tied 3-3 in the 11th, unheard of Mariners pinch hitter Yuniesky Betancourt hit a bloop single to left to score the winning run for Seattle. Chicago’s streak was the highest in the majors so far this year, and if they had won this game it would have been the team’s longest streak since 1977. They still share the MLB-best 13-5 record with the Astros.

3. The surprise of the season: Just about everyone wrote off the Reds coming into this year. Some said they had no pitching, others that they played in a murderous division. Well, they don’t, and they do, but they are still getting the job done so far this year. Last night, they scored 4 runs in the first two innings against the Nationals in a winning effort, and starter Elizardo Ramirez picked up his first career victory. This improved the Reds to a hard-to-believe 13-7 record on the year. They are tied with Houston and Chicago as the teams with the most wins in the MLB, though the Reds have one more loss than those teams.

4. And the team right below them…: St. Louis, one of the top five teams in the majors on anyone’s list, has suffered through a semi-slow start so far this year. Their record is a decent 12-7, but that puts them in 3rd place in the riotous NL Central division. Anyway, they have showed signs of their usual excellence, including in yesterday’s 7-2 win over the Pirates. Guess who homered for the Cardinals? Albert Pujols, what a surprise! It was his league-leading 12th slam of the year. Chris Carpenter continued his dominance against the Pirates as he pitched 6 strong innings to get the win. Pittsburgh has the worst record in the NL at 5-16.

5. Mr. DL wins the game: Nomar Garciaparra has joined Ken Griffey Jr. and Jeff Bagwell as players who are more often on the DL than off of it. Well, Nomar’s back, and in his 2nd game for the Dodgers, he won the game for them. With a 2-2 game coming into the 9th, the Dodgers loaded up the bases against usual stud closer Brad Lidge. Then Nomar came up, and hit a big-time grand slam off Lidge to win the game. These were his first RBIs as a Dodger. Lidge was hit with his first blown save and loss of the season.

Categories
NFL General

Computer is smarter than your head coach



Hello Barry Switzer

The mad scientists at End Game Technologies have come up with a computer model, ZEUS, that can correctly pick the next play to run. Using data from NFL game logs and the current situation, the computer can run a million game simulations and tell the coach which play he should call next that will result in the highest game winning opportunity.

Here’s an example:


Coaches often lose sight of this goal by focusing on points rather than the statistical expectation of winning. Points certainly matter in an NFL game, but not all points have the same value.
Consider a team trailing by 2 points on the last play of the game at their opponents 2 yard line: the extra 4 points that come with a touchdown in lieu of a field goal have no value whatsoever. The field goal is the optimal GWC choice. In this simple example, if the team went for the TD and succeeded they would still be charged with a large blunder even though it didn’t affect the outcome of the game. This is because the chosen play will lose on average. ZEUS focuses on the methodology of optimal play-calling not the short term results.

They are quick to stress that ZEUS is intended to be a coaches aide and not a replacement. Considering the salaries that coaches make, you can believe that these units won’t ever make it into team headquarters. However, we see a future where every football analyst has one of these bad boys and plugs in the data for critical decision and god help the coach that makes the wrong call. Basically, everytime your boneheaded coach makes a dumb call, you’ll know about it.

This article on this site about onsides kicks supports what we’ve been saying for years: the onsides kick is severely underutilized. This is purely our own thinking… Let’s say your team has just scored and needs the ball back with 1:59 to go. You have two time-outs left. If you kick off and stop them at the 20 yard line, so what? If they get a first down, you’re done. Now, let’s say you onside kick. If you recover, well, great. (ZEUS says there’s a 25% recovery chance.) If not, the opposing team has the ball at, say, your 45 yard line. If they get a first down, you’re done. So what’s the difference between your defense having to stop them on your 45 or their 20? Sure, you have less field to goal if you force them to punt from their 20, but the biggest factor in this situation isn’t the field position, it’s possession. Why not give yourself the extra 25% chance of getting the ball back right away?

Back to ZEUS…

The company states that over a course of the season, callign the correct PAT and 4th down play can result in an increase between .6 and 1.25 wins . They also claim that ZEUS can help make decisions regarding the GWC (game winning chances) of the #1 ranked kicker vs the #32 ranked kicker. So no more terrible contracts and overvaluing of players by GMs.

Of course, if any of this comes to pass, football won’t nearly be as fun to watch. If we can’t second guess and curse at the coaches, who are we going to blame for our team losing again? Oh yeah, the refs.

(Story via Fark.com)

Links:
[Science Daily]: New Computer Model Of Football Can Help NFL Coaches Call The Next Play, Evaluate Playe

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

Ron Mexico settles out of court


Sonya Elliot, the woman who sued Michael Vick for giving her herpes simplex II (much milder than the dreaded herpes simple ten) has settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

This woman is one of the unsung heroes of modern sports pop culture. Without her, we would never have Ron Mexico. Without her, thousands of fans wouldn’t be able to throw tubes of Herpecin-L and make outbreak jokes at Michael Vick. What? No one throws tubes of herpecin at Ron Mexico? That’s just a wasted opportunity.

Links:
[Atlanta Journal Constitution]: Attorney: Vick suit resolved

Categories
San Francisco Giants

Barry will pass Ruth but not Hank Aaron



Steroids give you psychic abilities

It seems that Barry is giving Bud Selig and George Mitchell’s “independent” investigation a way to save face. In an interview with MLB.com on Sunday, Bonds said that doesn’t think he can catch Hank Aaron because of his deteriorating knees.

Bonds will posture that he’s chasing Aaron and not Ruth but it is clear that Ruth is his target. By passing Babe Ruth but not Hank Aaron, there won’t be as much of an uproar over Bonds’ place on the all time HR list because he won’t be at the top of it. Over the weekend, Bonds hit his first HR of the season, putting him just 6 shy of breaking the Babe’s mark. Most people have already assumed he would pass Ruth’s record at some point this season so that 715th jack will get plenty of time on Sportscenter but register a collective shrug from baseball fans. Yes, there will be plenty of boos but there won’t be the protests and petitions to put an asterisk next to Bonds’ name like there would be if he got to 756.

Perhaps Barry can’t take the abuse anymore. We wonder how he could have put up with this much. This year, he’s already had a syringe (sans needle) and a tube of Icy Hot thrown at him, not to mention the banners and signs at every game. He knows he has to get through this year so that the hecklers won’t get the satisfaction of driving him from the game but there is no real incentive to go through another off season of speculation and another season of knee pain, ridicule and scrutiny just to be on top of a list that, if he were to get to reach the pinnacle of, might very well render the list inconsequential.

Plus, getting out of baseball and disappearing from view (anyone see Mark McGwire lately?) might just get the feds off his back about that pesky perjury charge.

Links:
[MLB.com]: Bonds: Passing Aaron not likely
[SFGate]: Jeers, not cheers for man who would be king of swat
[Cincinnati Post]: Bonds pays for sins of baseball

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Mon Apr 24 2006: Why we love hockey

This clip from Saturday’s Sabres-Flyers game illustrates why hockey is the toughest sport in the world. First you have a rookie getting laid out in the NHL playoffs, and then a fight breaks out because the rest of his teammates are defending him. And actual punches, not NBA-style posturing.

In other news…

[The 700 Level]: Phillies might not get into the playoffs, but fans have a new hero.

[Las Vegas Review Journal]: Andre Agassi is a big tipper.

[San Jose Mercury News]: OLN will become versus… as in the network vs good ratings.

[MSNBC]: Duke Lacrosse player wants to transfer to Syracuse. Syracuse treats him like a fat chick at a frat party

[YAY Sports]: Carmelo Anthony’s agent must hate him
[SFGate]: Iran to let women attend soccer games. Keith Hernandez says…

Categories
NHL General

Maggie the Monkey picks the 2006 NHL playoffs



A good a system as any

Ever since Eric McErlain from Off Wing Opinion joined us for the weekly podcast last week, we’ve been all over the NHL playoffs. And we’ve been rewarded with some damn exciting games over the weekend — a couple of double-overtime games, 8-1 upsets — we remember now why the NHL playoffs are better than the NBA playoffs.

In researching the experts picks for the series, we learned that Maggie the Monkey is the doyen of NHL prognosticators. Maggie, from Canadian sports network TSN, came into fame when she was the only expert on TSN to pick the Ducks to upset the Red Wings in 2003. She regulary does as well as any of the talking heads.

Oh, in case you didn’t know, Maggie picks the teams by throwing feces onto a board. Wait, no, that’s Darren Pang. Maggie spins a wheel.

Here are Maggie’s picks for the first round this year.


Tampa Bay (8) over Ottawa (1)
Carolina (2) over Montreal (7)
New York Rangers (6) over New Jersey (3)
Buffalo (4) over Philly (5)
Detroit (1) over Edmonton (8)
Colorado (7) over Dallas (2)
Calgary (3) over Anaheim (6)
San Jose (5) over Nashville (4)

So far so good for Maggie. We’ll update you after the first round.

Links:
[TSN.ca]: Monkey Business 2006

Categories
Golf

Tiger Woods wins stockcar race in New Zealand

Tiger Woods is so good that he decided to let Stuart Appleby win the Houston Open and head down to New Zealand for the wedding of his caddy Steve Williams instead. While in NZ, he put some more gray hairs on the the head of his agent Mark Steinberg and Nike executives by jumping off New Zealand’s highest bungee jump twice and driving in a charity stockcar race.

Of course, Tiger wasn’t content to just be in the race. After a rough first race (including a couple of spin outs and being lapped), Tiger learned quickly and won the second race for his team with some aggressive driving. They lost the rubber match but Tiger proved that he can win at anything.

We’ve been obsessed with Tiger Woods lately. Partly because his wife will top our upcoming list of athlete girlfriends/wives but also because we’re completely addicted to Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the Xbox. All right, Tiger, we’re challenging you to a Flip Cup tournament. Best of 5 series. Our monthly salary vs yours. Have your people call our people.

Links:
[NZ Herald]: No put-putting for hard-driving Tiger
[TV Z]: Huntly turns it up for Tiger

Categories
New York Mets

Keith Hernandez named NOW man of the year



Keith is old school

During Saturday’s telecast of the Mets-Padres game, Hernandez spotted massage therapist Kelly Calabrese in the Padres dugout and said “Who is the girl in the dugout?” When told that Calabrese was a member of the training staff, Hernandez said,


I won’t say women belong in the kitchen. But they don’t belong in the dugout.

Then he added that they’re better barefoot and pregnant. OK, we made up that last part. Hernandez quickly said he was just teasing about the kitchen comment but that he felt strongly that MLB “is a man’s game and I feel very strongly about it” It’s rare that we defend stupid athletes, but people need to lay off Keith Hernandez. While inappropriate, Hernandez’s comments aren’t something you get your panties in a bunch over. (Wait, perhaps that expression was poorly chosen.)

Hernandez was reprimanded by SportsNet New York and gave the standard athlete-non-apology on Sunday: “In my discussion I made a couple of inappropriate comments. If I have offended anybody I sincerely apologize.” Gotta love the ‘if I offended anybody (then f you)’ apology.

By the way, there’s a rumor going around that Keith didn’t actually say it and it was really Roger McDowell.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Amid ‘kitchen’ heat, Keith sorry

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for April 24, 2006: Wake us up for the fight



Alou gets tossed

1. ‘Extracurricular activities’: The Giants and the Rockies aren’t exactly heated rivals, but they played like they were on Sunday. Ejections started piling up in the first inning, when Giants pitcher Matt Morris was tossed after hitting his second batter of the inning. Manager Felipe Alou was ejected automatically, and pitching coach Dave Righetti was thrown out as well after arguing. Jose Mesa was ejected for the Rockies for hitting Omar Vizquel, who in 2002 wrote a book which included a criticism of Mesa for blowing a save in the ’97 World Series. The Rockies won in 10 innings, 3-2.

2. Un-Uribe-able: Juan Uribe powered the White Sox to their eighth win in a row on Sunday. He hit 2 homeruns and 4 RBIs in the 7-3 win by the Sox, who completed a series sweep of the Twins. However, Jim Thome failed to score a run for the first time this year, snapping a record 17 game streak. The White Sox are now a major league best 13-5.

3. Yanks improve to .500: Jason Giambi is probably off the juice right now, but he’s still pretty powerful. The slugger crushed Orioles pitching for 2 homers and 5 RBIs, both season highs. Yanks starter Randy Johnson rebounded from a terrible loss last week with only 3 hits allowed over 8 innings. New York is finally above .500 on the year at 9-8.

4. The big 4-0: Greg Maddux’s best years may be behind him, but he’s sure forgotten that so far this year. At 40 years old, he has a 4-0 record so far this year, supplying nearly half of the Cubs 10 wins. After shutting down Albert Pujols and the Cardinals to no runs over 7 innings, Maddux’s ERA dropped to 0.99, best in the National League. The Cubs became the 4th team to reach 10 wins in what will be a crowded NL Central division this year.

5. Victory…at last: The Royals have been an absolute disaster this year. They have the worst record in the majors, have terrible pitching problems, and their most expensive player is hitting .173. Adding to that, they had yet to have a starter win a game all season. Until last night, when starter Jeremy Affeldt picked up the win against high-powered Cleveland. Overall, the Tribe was held to only 1 run and 7 hits in the 5-1 loss.