All Things Sports!!

[pnwguy]

Glad to see the Phillies back in the pennant finals for a second year in a row. The second half of the season has seemed like a home run derby, and they are looking good in the post season. Go Phils.

[andydp]

Oct 17, 2023 5:52:19 GMT pnwguy said:

Glad to see the Phillies back in the pennant finals for a second year in a row. The second half of the season has seemed like a home run derby, and they are looking good in the post season. Go Phils.

My wife and her family are enjoying the ride.
I’m certain my wife’s screaming at the TV is what has been making them fearful of a loss.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 17, 2023 3:11:14 GMT andydp said:

Oct 17, 2023 2:56:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

My husband and I always laugh at the inane baseball stats tv announcers bring up.  After the Phillies and D-backs game, Bryce Harper (Phillies) was interviewed and at the end the interviewer said Bryce was the 4th player in the MLB to hit a home run on his birthday.  Who keeps these stats?  Don't they have a life?

Ever seen the Baseball Encyclopedia ? It is massive. Baseball is a game of statistics.
How many outs by “Pitcher” on a humid day, third inning, facing left handers. All the teams have a stats person and had so for years.

Don't they have a life?  I really like baseball but there is no way I'd ruin it by keeping inane stats.  They are perhaps interesting in a sort of academic way but I just want to sit outside and watch the present game unfold.

[pnwguy]

10-0 for game 2. Phillies are on a tear. I hope they can keep that pace up in Arizona.

[goldenvalley]

Wow that Astros-Rangers game today.  Bench clearing fight after a Ranger was hit by a pitch.  Two Astros thrown out of the game, including Dusty Baker.  He's a native of Sacramento and usually so calm and measured, but an example must be made I guess. Also the Ranger guy who was hit was ejected. Altuve comes in with a monster 3 run HR that clinches the game.  He's a master at the physics of hitting a baseball. Despite the cheating scandal of the Astros of the past I'm still pulling for them...partly because of Baker's presence plus friends who live in Houston.

Now off to the Phillies game.

[pnwguy]

Oct 19, 2023 0:55:37 GMT pnwguy said:

10-0 for game 2. Phillies are on a tear. I hope they can keep that pace up in Arizona.

Well, nice while it lasted. D-backs pitching really iced the Phillies bats these last two games

[andydp]

For the Philly Phanatics out there:

From "Casey at the Bat" by EL Thayer

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

[andydp]

Since its now NCAA College Basketball season I have to start boasting about our school: Seton Hall University. (SHU or The Hall) The Hall is part of the Big East Conference.  Probably the hardest conference to play basketball in.  The Championship is at Madison Square Garden.  

Although expected to finish 9th in the Big East, Seton Hall has managed to beat the current National Champs UConn, beat # 23 Providence and today, they beat #7 Marquette.  I'm waiting for them to get into the top 25, but that won't happen until they win a few more. Meanwhile we watch UConn lose games and still stay in the top 10.

Watching games here is an "experience".  Karen knows the game quite well, used to be a ref and is more than willing to yell (I mean YELL) at players for doing stupid moves.  Karen was a member of the first ever SHU women's basketball team.  Sadly, the women's games are carried on "FloHoops".  That service costs about $175 a year. I've looked, but no dice on finding an alternative.  It would be nice if you could get a "team specific" subscription.  

Perhaps we could get this thread changed to "All Things Sports".  

[AnBr]

I kind of liked having a dedicated baseball thread.

[Bact PhD]

This way, the thread can shift with the seasons. For the most part, the sports chat here is pretty limited.

[Bact PhD]

There’s definitely a “Changing of the Guard” going among head football coaches this offseason. In the space of less than 24 hours:
-Pete Carroll walked away from the Seattle Seahawks sideline, although he is supposedly staying with the organization in an advisory capacity.
-Nick Saban hung it up at Alabama after what seems like forever
-Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots parted ways.

Considering that for Dear Son, those three men in those three positions had been in the “They Have Always Been This Way” category.

I suspect that the era of head coaches sticking around until they are in their mid-70s, a la Bobby Bowden, is over. The demands are more varied, and require a much more diverse skill set (including much more glad-handing of the big $$$$ donors/owners, as the case may be) than was the case back in the Bryant-Hayes-Schembechler days.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 12, 2024 2:27:14 GMT Bact PhD said:

There’s definitely a “Changing of the Guard” going among head football coaches this offseason. In the space of less than 24 hours:
-Pete Carroll walked away from the Seattle Seahawks sideline, although he is supposedly staying with the organization in an advisory capacity.
-Nick Saban hung it up at Alabama after what seems like forever
-Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots parted ways.

Considering that for Dear Son, those three men in those three positions had been in the “They Have Always Been This Way” category.

I suspect that the era of head coaches sticking around until they are in their mid-70s, a la Bobby Bowden, is over. The demands are more varied, and require a much more diverse skill set (including much more glad-handing of the big $$$$ donors/owners, as the case may be) than was the case back in the Bryant-Hayes-Schembechler days.

The latter 3 are of an era where football was really a religion.  College ball is much more a business now.

[goldenvalley]

Watching the Buffalo Kansas City game.  Saw this tweet in response to the celebration by Kelce over Kelce touchdown:

[andydp]

I believe that was Miss Swift behind him. You can see her knit cap.

[andydp]

Tonight at 2000 on FOX:   Iowa's Caitlin Clark is will continue her run to be the highest women's college BB scorer ever.  She's about 100 points short at 3424 and averages about 32 points per game.  The record 3527 was set by Kelsey Plum, currently of the WNBA's Vagas Aces.  Coach K of Duke is quoted as wishing she could have played for him.

[goldenvalley]

From a newsletter on California politics:

As America’s two favorite pastimes — football and intricate political conspiracy theories — collide in the runup to Super Bowl LVIII, a strange thing has happened, writes my colleague Julia Wick.

Several conservative commentators announced that they plan to root for San Francisco, the liberal city they more typically vilify.

The nascent 49ers fans declaring their unlikely allegiance are sticking it to Taylor Swift, the pop star dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who will be facing off against the 49ers on Sunday.

Swift has been at the center of a series of sprawling but unfounded right-wing conspiracies that allege she is somehow in cahoots with the NFL to hurt Donald Trump’s chances in the 2024 election and help reelect President Biden by, among other things, endorsing him during the Super Bowl. Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but there is no evidence that she plans to make any political announcements at the big game this weekend.

Nonetheless the conspiracies led one conservative pundit to declare on Fox News that he’s “proudly supporting the San Francisco 49ers, America’s team.”

Democratic San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney told Wick that it was “a little strange to see people who usually hate San Francisco now cheering for San Francisco.”

“They hate Taylor Swift even more, I guess,” he said.

[goldenvalley]

Here's what is really at stake in today's Super Bowl:

[goldenvalley]

Baseball in my town!   Major League Baseball comes to Sacramento for 3 seasons in our Triple A stadium starting next year.  The Oakland A's made a deal to go to Las Vegas but there is no stadium built and the Oakland won't renew the lease for the stadium there. The Sacramento facility is small for the majors but I guess they have no easy alternative. Until about 6 years ago the Sacramento team was the farm team for the As anyway and now is for the Giants.

[andydp]

Seton Hall wins NIT Championship !! A a very close game against Indiana State Sycamores.

Seton Hall had been snubbed by the NCAA selection committee. We’re glad to prove them wrong.

Due to the importance of the game, I suspended my "no drinking alone" rule in order to enjoy the game more if they won, and cushion the blow if they lost  This was my second "Pantless Thunder Goose Double IPA".  It was also stated if I had a pet at home, it would not be drinking alone.

[goldenvalley]

I probably should have put this in the RIP section but Whitey Herzog is a baseball legend and it seems right to be here.  His "Whitey Ball" was instrumental in the St Louis Cardinals success in the early '80's. I lived in St Louis at the time and watched the '82 World Series on my 9 in black and white tv. It was fun to watch...it was chop down a pitch and run like hell plus base stealing.  Probably mostly possible because of the astroturf in the field and exceptionally fast players.

Among the noteworthy names that came and went were Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers, Ted Simmons, Terry Kennedy, Gene Tenace and Leon Durham. That offseason, Herzog also signed free agent Darrell Porter, who had been his catcher in Kansas City. In 1982, Porter was voted most valuable player of the NLCS and the World Series for St. Louis.
***

A year later, Herzog shuffled more Cards, making moves that set the stage for three World Series appearances by trading for acclaimed shortstop Ozzie Smith and outfielders Willie McGee and Lonnie Smith while also re-signing starting pitcher Joaquin Andujar.

The roster was set for full-fledged “Whitey Ball,” as it was known, and the 1982 Cardinals hit just 67 home runs while stealing 200 bases to the soundtrack of “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang. St. Louis won the World Series in seven games over the Milwaukee Brewers.

[andydp]

Think NFL or Hockey is Namby Pamby ?  Wait until you read about "Ferret Legging".

The Weirdest Sports from Around the World

What would make hockey better? How about if it was played underwater? Yup, that's a thing. What if instead of racing boats, people raced bathtubs? That exists too. And wouldn't polo be better if played with a goat's carcass instead of a ball? Depending on who you ask, the answer might be yes! Be a sport and upvote the weirdest sports below.

www.ranker.com/list/weird-sports/swiperight?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=weirdhistory&utm_campaign=wh_active&utm_content=20240517&lctg=63c98775b1c131b5d207e517&user_email=8cf65b4b122d41382254149d35d7a78c

[Bact PhD]

It’s been a very interesting Men’s College World Series in Omaha the first couple days.
-The unranked Florida Gators aren’t supposed to be there, but an incredible winning streak came at just the right time. Alas, Texas A&M dropped them into the losers’ bracket after a game that didn’t record the final out until 1:15 AM local time.
-That game was the only one in the opening round that did *not* end in a walk-off. Tennessee, North Carolina, & Kentucky needed that “home” advantage to win.
-Kentucky also needed extras to secure the win.
-UVa is 0-6 in Omaha the last three years.

[andydp]

I've had a love hate relationship with the Yankees for selling out to Amazon.  Some games are aired on Prime. I bought a book for our grandson: "P is for Pastina".  (Italian picture book for kids) Got a free month of Prime so we're watching Yankees and Phillies tonight.  This makes Karen happy to see her home team.

[andydp]

Tonight: first game of the American League Championship: NY Yankees vs Cleveland.  If you're a fan of the Movie "Major League" this is the same scenario as in the movie.  My comments from FB:

Random Musing: Sometimes, movies reflect life. Yankees and Cleveland are playing in the American League Championship Series. Does this situation evoke a memory ? Any bets Uecker will be doing a "guest" commentary ? ("Juuuust a bit outside.")

Go Yankees !!!

[AnBr]

Go Guardians!