Posts by chilltown:
Harvard’s Jeremy Lin Wins Horse Forever
November 16th, 2009
Remember the name.
The situation more closely resembled a high school game than a Division 1 revenue sport contest. The video you will probably see on SportsCenter is grainy and taken from the videoboard feed in the arena, not from any TV feed. But the shot was real, probably the best buzzer-beater you will see all year, and the player who made it, Jeremy Lin,certainly belongs on any college basketball court in the land. Read the rest of this entry “
Basketball is Back: 3 Final Four Sleepers
November 9th, 2009
We’ve reached the second week of November, which means that yes, believe it or not, the college basketball season is right around the corner. As Isiah Thomas’s FIU Golden Panthers get eviscerated by North Carolina tonight, the journey to the Final Four will officially be underway. There are prohibitive favorites to square off in Indianapolis in early April — Kansas, Kentucky, Villanova, Duke, and Texas immediately spring to mind– but what of the talented teams who are not projected to make it to the Final Four? Which teams have the ingredients necessary to make a deep run in March? Join me after the jump as I analyze three surprising candidates to make the Final Four. Read the rest of this entry “
Boston College and the Illusion of Average
October 6th, 2009
This is BC's coach. Really.
This season, I’ve had the displeasure of experiencing the peculiar phenomenon of being a fan of an average team. For that’s exactly what my football team, Boston College, is. They do nothing exceptionally well, and (with the exception of the Clemson game) nothing exceptionally badly. You would think that this would be comforting for a fan; the expectations for any game will be reasonable. However, as I’ve come to realize, its extremely disquieting. I believe that this phenomenon can help to reveal a deeper truth about us as fans. Read the rest of this entry “
“Let Them Pitch!” The Idiocy of LLWS Pitch Counts
August 20th, 2009
"It's a good thing I didn't throw 86 pitches, because my arm would fall off!"
Its the gloaming of the summer, which means it’s time for the Little League World Series. Yes, that annual rite of passage in which the dads who have done the very best jobs of living vicariously through their children compete on a national stage, thanks to ESPN (who, coincidentally, will now let you “wager” on LLWS games in Streak for the Cash).
Cynicism aside, the LLWS is a fun event to watch occasionally, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the kids. It’s a shame that experience is being compromised by the pitch-count rules that are supposedly saving kids’ arms. Read the rest of this entry “
Snide Tiger Gets Whiplashed by Y.E. Yang
August 17th, 2009
Tiger is in the train here.
Sorry to dwell on golf, but I couldn’t let this momentous day go unremarked on.
Before Sunday, playing in the final group of a major with Tiger Woods was like a silent movie gone wrong. You know the archetype: The villain ties the kidnapped hero down to the train tracks, a small speed bump for the locomotive. Except Eldrick was the villain driving that locomotive, and he had never failed to reach the hero before he freed himself. Of course, he had left it very late before (see: Bob May in 2000, Chris DiMarco at the 2005 Masters, and Rocco Mediate at last year’s US Open), but he had never let the hero get off the track.
Yesterday, Y. E. Yang stopped the train. Read the rest of this entry “
Introducing The Most Interesting Knuckleballer in the World
August 13th, 2009
A rare blueprint of the knuckleball machine
Yesterday on the NESN broadcast Heidi Watney let slip the fact that new Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez was practicing for knuckleballer Tim Wakefield on a “knuckleball pitching machine” in an otherwise banal sideline report. This burying of the lede got me wondering: what sort of nefarious black magic is a knuckleball machine?
A quick Googling revealed that the knuckleball machine has been used by the Red Sox since 2007, but that the origins of the machine are “murky”. Clearly the Red Sox don’t want this sensitive technology getting into the wrong hands. The inevitable question prompted by this discovery: what other inventions and innovations has Tim Wakefield inspired throughout his unique career?
The answers may surprise you. Read the rest of this entry “
The Man City Fan’s “Dilemma”
August 10th, 2009
City Welcomes Tevez to Manchester
As you may or may not know, I am a massive Manchester City fan. City, as they are affectionately known, has recently become the richest soccer team in the world. Apparently Dubai sheik money is recession-proof. And this summer, City has spent like it, signing Carlos Tevez away from hated rivals Manchester United, and several other high-priced players to the tune of 94 million pounds spent.
Now, some City fans are getting angsty with their club’s new, big-budget ways. After the jump, I will explain to you why their durm und strang is misplaced. Read the rest of this entry “
The Small Ball Triple Crown
August 3rd, 2009
Coaching third: Someone about to get spiked.
Albert Pujols’ amazing start to the 2009 season has brought renewed interest in the Triple Crown (leading the league in home runs, RBIs, and batting average) in one season. This achievement, which hasn’t been accomplished in over 40 years, is undoubtedly a mark of a tremendous season. The Triple Crown, however, is a fairly arbitrary stat—why not use slugging percentage, for instance? It also ignores a large portion of the game: The lead-off hitters and base stealers have little chance in this competition, yet their value to a team is far from negligible.
Enter the Small Ball Triple Crown. Read the rest of this entry “
On Site Reports: The Gold Cup Final
July 28th, 2009
On Sunday, your intrepid blogger and some of his more soccer-inclined friends ventured out of the relative safety of verdant Central Jersey for the freeway-striped land of North Jersey, specifically Giants Stadium, for the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final. We knew what we were in for by midnight Thursday night when Mexico beat Costa Rica in penalty kicks, setting up the USA-Mexico final everyone wanted (admittedly this was the USA’s “B” team). We knew the crowd would be pro-Mexican, but we had no idea how pro-Mexican until we got on the New Jersey Turnpike and got stuck in traffic 10 miles before the stadium.
Literally every other car had Mexican flags or Mexican jerseys hanging out the windows. Horns were honking, and cars and minivans were stuffed to the gills with fans of El Tricolores ready to cheer on their team.
As my friend so eloquently put it, “The Mexicans are so much better than us at carpooling.” Read the rest of this entry “
Last Call: Being There
July 24th, 2009(Yup, this is the video Simmons is always talking about.)
Shortly after Michael Jackson’s death, there was an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal based on the conceit that Jackson was the last true celebrity, the last one who gained his immense fame before the age of 24-hour TV and the oversaturation of Americans. The article continued that the thousands of people branded into our collective consciousnesses by television, movies, and the Internet were not famous, but merely familiar. In short, celebrity had been debased.
I couldn’t help but think of the parallels to sports. Read the rest of this entry “
