American Football

David Foster Wallace Tennis writing

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:21:00 +0000

Bookish types (sportreview.net.nz readers are notoriously literary) will have been sad to hear that David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest writer and a fine journalist, took his life last weekend.

As well as being an all-round shit-hot writer, Wallace was a nationally (US) ranked junior Tennis player, and often wrote features on the sport. Here’s what I could find online:

Roger Federer as religious experience - New York Times

Democracy and Commerce at the US Open - Tennis magazine

Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern boyhood - Harper’s Magazine (pdf, about 3 MB)

Other DFW stuff:

The Onion chips in with NASCAR Cancels Remainder Of Season Following David Foster Wallace’s Death

Get your Enfield Tennis Academy t-shirt

Ryder Cup high five report

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 11:02:00 +0000

I’ve enjoyed the Ryder Cup golf the last two mornings. It’s real tense, with the kind of pressure that makes players want to vomit over two foot putts. Vomit REALLY messes up your line.

But if you want a laugh, watch the high fives. Normally the domain of Basketball players and West Indian fast bowlers, in the Ryder Cup every putt, drive, muesli bar, chip, or bunker shot gets a hand-slap more awkward than a Stephen Hawking breakdance. Try as they might, the Europeans are crap high fivers - at the end of the Poulter/McDowell match, there was a conspicuous miss. Ouch.

On the American team, Anthony Kim was swinging his arm like a Steffi Graf forehand at playing partner Phil Mickelson. Phil didn’t seem like he wanted to be high fived quite that hard, ta very much, but made up for his lack of hand slap commitment by making his eyes bulge wildly and whoopin’ instead.

It all finishes tomorrow - if you enjoy watching golfers making names for themselves, cracking under the pressure, or pulling out of high fives to save their valuable, valuable hands, take the day off. It’s going to be good.

Links
- Harry Pearson Ryder Cup preview
- Six great moments from The Guardian
- 14 1/2 great moments from The Times.
- Will Buckley on Europe captain Nick Faldo

Appealing 101

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Links on Friday (on Saturday)

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:44:00 +0000

Big time Basketball guy LeBron James gets his arse handed to him in a trick shot contest by some guy. He’s smiling, but he’s not happy.

Another reason to save pennies for a Wii - Beach Cricket. Still, XBox has Left 4 Dead… lucky I can play Doom on my Mac, eh? At least there’s some cool weapons.

Lazy Pommy journo in trusting Wikipedia shock - nice takedown on B3ta.

Never ever bloody anything ever. sportreview.net.nz lives their life by that rule.

League commentator actually shuts up for 5 seconds

admin — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:54:00 +0000

SRPA: The Rugby League world was rocked today by 5 seconds of silence from Brisbane Rugby League commentator Dickie “Barracuda” McDagstead. A full 5 seconds’ silence went to air on McDagstead’s watch during the weekend’s Roosters v Broncos match, each second a bombshell to the heart of the proud winter code.

League fans wasted no time lighting up talkback switchboards in disgust. “I had no idea if this encounter was bruising, epic, or just plain huge.” said Broncos fan “Stumpy” Hodges, speaking from the East Brisbane RSL. “I mean, there were things happening, and they weren’t being described in unnecessarily intricate detail. Where was the big call? Where? I’ve never been so scared”.

Retired commentary great Roy “Boomer” Stretchtrouser lamented the modern commentator’s lack of standards, pointing to his 53 year career of uninterrupted incomprehensible drivel. “This Wouldn’t Have Happened in My Day. I Was Being Shelled By Japanese Subs Moored In Sydney Harbor, And Still Shouted ‘Jenkins-Barrington’ 34 Times During A Runaway Intercept Try. These Cowboys Today Have No Idea.”

McDagstead, who may be in breach of his contract with Channel 9, apologised immediately, admitting a dropped sausage roll played a key role in Silencegate. “I Took My Eye Off The Ball” said McDagstead. “Ohhhhhhhhhhh, It’s A Tragedy.”

Logos with balls

admin — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Cricket With Balls’ Jrod bemoans the similarity of UK Sky Sports’ Cricket logo with the Major League Baseball one.

Sat at the Mac trying to find something to fuck around with when I should be writing, I fired up Photoshop:

Them apples. You like?

Links on Friday

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:13:00 +0000

I never really warmed to Robbie Keane - I always suspected he’d be crap at Kareoke. He’s no Chris n Glen, put it that way. He’s not even a Gazza

More Tour De France pictures? OK

Will Ferrell accepts Tiger’s ESPY. I’ve already written my ‘half-arse blogger of the year’ award speech ready, you know. Just in case, like

If you get telemarketing calls, you should do this

The trade changed

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:33:00 +0000

It's not Kontos and Coke, but Karstens and McCutchen going to Pittsburgh. This definitely makes it look better from Pitt's side, as McCutchen is a fairly high ceiling pitcher, and Karstens already has shown he can be an effective ML pitcher. Both should do better in the NL Central as well.

- The trade (unfortunately) overshadowed the best game of Joba's career. His slider was darting and diving, his fastall averaged 95 mph, and he even tossed in a few nice curveballs and changeups. Did he throw at Youkilis? Probably. Did Youkilis run over his dog or something? Maybe. I remember when Pedro put two Yankees in the hospital in the same game. Until Joba does that, he's ok in my book.

Yanks trade Tabata and others for Marte and Nady

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:32:00 +0000

The full deal is Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, George Kontos and Phil Coke. Damaso Marte is an excellent lefty specialist, while Nady is a decent rightfielder. At first glance, I'm not happy.

Nady is having an extraordinarily good season, well out of line with his career averages. His 2008 looks like this: .330/.383/.535 (142 OPS+). Certainly a great season, but Pittsburgh is trading high; his career line is a slightly above average: .281/.337/.456 (108 OPS+). Range Factor shows him to be an above-average rightfielder. He's 29, so is at the peak of his career; it will probably all be downhill after this season. Nady is fairly versatile, having played 3b, 1b, and all three outfield positions in his career. However, with Abreu entrenched in RF, where does Nady play? Left-field, where he hasn't played since 2007 (when he played just 10 games there)?

Marte is an excellent lefty reliever, owning a career 141 ERA+, with 484 strikeouts in 454.1 innings. He absolutely owns lefties: .578 career OPS against them. What about 2008? Not quite as dominant: a .669 OPS against left-handed batters. Is that an aberration? It might be, because in 2007 he destroyed lefties - they had a .352 OPS against him. Ironically, Marte was with the Yanks for half a season before being traded for Enrique Wilson in 2001.

According to Cot's, Marte has a team option for $6 million next year, which will likely be exercised. Nady (as far as I can tell) is arbitration eligible.

Frankly, I don't understand the move because the bullpen is the strongest area of the team right now. Marte might be great, but he also might block guys like Cox, Melancon and Horne who deserve chances once they show they're ready (which should be soon). Both players are at or past their prime, and Nady is having a career year. The Yanks are buying high on Nady and selling low on Tabata and Ohlendorf (who are both having poor years).

Nady won't play his natural position of right-field because of Abreu, so where is he going to play? He hasn't played LF in over a year, so will he be expected to jump right into Yankee Stadium's spacious leftfield? Now that I think about it, he might be the 1b replacement for Richie Sexson, and occasional leftfielder.

- That was the Yanks best start of the year... after Wang's complete game shutout in Fenway of course. Just an incredible game by Joba. THAT'S why he became a starter: 7 ip, 3 h, 0 r, 1 bb, 9 k.

- Back from the dead, Carl Pavano is making a minor league start on Tuesday for the GCL Yankees. Monday will see Phil Hughes also make his first rehab start.

The Final Five

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Crain's Chicago Business has identified the Final Five bidders for the Cubs. They are:

Mark Cuban
Tom Ricketts
Hersch Klaff
Leo Hindery
Michael Tokarz/Fred Malek

The final two on the list are combining their previously individual bids. Unless something outlandish occurs, the Cubs new owner is likely on the above list.

It's just too bad none of them look like Tricia Helfer.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Last night's fight between the Peoria Cheifs and the Dayton Dragons. Some audio NSFW.

Can't imagine how this would have gone down had Ryne Sandberg been there.

Thoughts on Shock, Barry and football rules

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:06:00 +0000

I'm very conflicted when it comes to Barry Bonds. I hated him for tarnishing the game's history with his PED-enhanced record-breaking homeruns. But if I hated him, shouldn't I also hate Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte, who have admitted and apologized for PED usage? I don't hate Jason and Andy, and here's why: I'm biased toward Yankees (what can I say?), they apologized for their transgressions, they were already on the team at the time (meaning the Yanks would be bringing in a known PED user in Bonds), and didn't break any cherished records, all unlike Barry. Yeah, those are fairly shallow reasons, but reasons nonetheless. I wouldn't like the idea of bringing the Bonds-media circus to the Bronx, but hey, if he helps us win ballgames, he'll be tough to dislike.

- The Giants offense may suffer this year with the loss of Jeremy Shockey, but it was the right move in the long run - and until Jerry Reese fucks something up, I'm going to continue believing he's infallible. Shockey was one of the better tight ends in the game, and also an excellent run blocker. I still remember his first pre-season game when he bowled over some poor Houston DBs as a preview to his career. Unfortunately, he never truly lived up to the hopes of management or fans.

His incessant enthusiasm was fun to watch (usually), but got out of control at times, causing stupid penalties and demands for more passes. His refusals to work out with Eli in New York didn't help either, as the two never seemed to get into a rhythm. Eli would throw left, Shockey would break right. And the worst thing that could have happened to Shockey happened: the Giants won without him. Steve Smith and Kevin Boss proved they could make big catches with the game on the line. They discovered Ahmad Bradshaw was the most explosive player on the team. Eli Manning actually looked comfortable - no one ran back to the huddle screaming for the ball. Football is funny: the Giants lost Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey, two of the better offensive weapons over the last decade, and went on to win the Superbowl.

With a year of experience under the belts of Smith, Boss and Bradshaw, a healthy Plaxico, an O-line going into it's second year entirely intact, and with the addition of Mario Manningham, the offense might not skip a beat. I expect we'll see more four and three (with two backs) wide receiver sets.

- Speaking of football offense, this high school has the right idea. They're using six-WR sets with two quarterbacks. If only the NFL was that brave and creative. Although I'm not sure if NFL rules would restrict such creativity. I don't know why the NFL has to be such a stickler for contrived rules. If the offense wants to send nine WRs out for a pass, why shouldn't they be allowed? Where did they come up with the arbitrary rule that five men have to be on the line of scrimmage? Why five? Why not four or six? Imagine how exciting that would be to see nine WRs out there. Maybe because of that, the defense, if they wanted, could blitz just two guys (because there'd be only one blocker, the center). That kind offense would require a mobile QB; it would be perfect for Vince Young and Michael Vick. But what about making a backfield of Eli and Vick, where the defense wouldn't know whether Vick would be running or throwing, if Eli would be throwing or handing it off or throwing a short pass to Vick. And hey, if you don't want to run that crazy offense, there's always the the tried and true I-Form. But it would nice to at least have those options.

Pony Up

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Just a few weeks ago, we kicked around the idea that the Cubs would be sold to the highest bidder and not who Bud Selig wanted. With billions of dollars in debt to pay off with Cubs sale proceeds, there's no way that Sam Zell could accept a substantial discount to the highest offer he receives for the team.

Certainly, that seems to be true:

It is certainly a business deal on Tribune Co.'s end.

The media company went private late last year in a heavily leveraged $8.2 billion transaction engineered by real estate investor Sam Zell, who has said he expects proceeds from the auction of the Cubs, Wrigley Field and related assets will help meet a major payment obligation due next year. That is why the company is intent on wringing every dollar it can.

What Phil Rosenthal does is some further speculation on the recent $500,000 fine the Cubs paid for violation of draft rules.

The decision not to move Canning's group to the next round came on the heels of Major League Baseball's recently reported $500,000 fine of the Cubs for violating draft rules.

The severity has been seen by some of those who follow the sport's behind-the-scenes politics as a sign that the once strong relationship between Selig and the franchise's ownership may be fraying. Some, however, interpret the steep fine as less a message to Tribune Co. than to all franchises about adherence to MLB rules.

There was speculation by commenters here that a fight between Selig and Zell would be a lot of fun to watch. The $500,000 fine may have been Bud's salvo back to Zell once Bud knew Canning was going to be eliminated.

Selig needs to have a nice, cozy group of owners who won't rattle the cart and will do everything possible to keep costs under control and have governments pay for stadiums. Zell doesn't care about any of that (hell, he said "Fuck you," to one of his own employees in a public, broadcast forum). He's selling for the most money and he'll go as far as he can to accomplish that goal.

In a battle between Sam Zell, billionaire real estate mogul, and Bud Selig, used car salesman and mouthpiece for baseball, the bet here would be on Zell to win in a knockout.

Additional note: It looks like Don Levin has been elimianted. Too bad. But if losing Levin meant losing Canning, that's a net positive from the fans' perspective.

And Then There Were Three

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:26:00 +0000

Big News on the Cubs' sale front. The initial ten bids have been weeded down to three. That was expected. What was not expected (but was guessed as to be a good possibility by this writer) is who got knocked out:

A group led by John Canning, chairman of Chicago private-equity firm Madison Dearborn, valued the Cubs, Wrigley and the team's stake in Comcast SportsNet at far less than the $1 billion or more that the four or five groups team owner Tribune Co. deemed satisfactory to continue, a source with knowledge of the process said.

Canning declined comment.

Madison Dearborn Partners, the company that Canning chairs, has had some financial difficulty of late. It was suspected that this might hinder Canning's ability to match maximum bids on the team.

If Canning is out, especially after making a low-ball offer, this is tremendous news for the fans. Canning would own the team just like the Trib does - as a portfolio investment. That's a negative for the fans. We want an owner who will view the team as a toy on which he would spend the income he's earned from his real business in a carefree manner.

As this page has suspected all along, Sam Zell needs to squeeze every dollar out of this sale to pay down all the debt on Tribune Company books. By blowing out Canning now, Zell has sent a message, not to Canning, but to Bud Selig. The message? "I'm selling this team to the guy who offers me the most cash, not your crony, no matter how connected he is."

Three Groups are left in. Word should leak very quickly who those three are.

Ivy Chat Speculation on the identities: Mark Cuban, Tom Ricketts, Don Levin.

Oh Good, Oh No

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Sometime around 8:40 PM this evening, Alfonso Soriano will step into the batters box at Not-Yet-FDIC-Run-Bank Ballpark in Arizona. He'll likely flail away at the first pitch and a sigh of relief will likely be heard from several sources. The biggest sighs will come from the direction of Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Just maybe having Soriano in the lineup will take some pressure off these guys and get them back to producing.

The reality is that the 2008 Cubs can live without Soriano in the lineup if they are getting solid contributions from Lee and A Ram. Lee has had two home runs since the end of May and seen 50 points drop off his OPS (81 points of it due to a drop in slugging) since that time. Ramirez has been in a funk for almost a month, as well. He's only had 9 hits since June 26th.

Just maybe with Soriano out, these guys were pressing. And as the team has treaded water for a month and burdened with heavy expectations, maybe they felt a need to press even harder.

This page holds no brief for Soriano. But, if his presence can get Lee and Ramirez to relax and get their games back, then Soriano can't get back soon enough.

Does this post really say that?