- 07:00 AM
- 04/16/24
At least we don't try to pass off some tomato soup concoction as "chowdah". I think that so-called "Manhattan Clam Chowder" was a failed experiment from the 1970s. I remember it from when I was a kid, but have not seen it since. When you ask for Clam Chowder any place in Manhattan, you get the cloudy white variety.
posted by psmealey at 12:30 PM on March 13, 2008
Chowdahheads ah roughneck guys from tha Nawth Shaw... not much of anything to do with the Sox. The Fenway Faithful, I grant you, but the so-called "Red Sox Nation" to me, means people that live in places like LA, SF and New York that pretend to be Sox fans, wear the gear, but don't really have that die hard pathos and life long love-hate affair with the Sox that the true fans do.
posted by psmealey at 05:23 AM on March 13, 2008
I have always been an outspoken proponent for letting games end as draws (except baseball, however, that would be sacrilege). The hockey shootout is always unsatisfying, NFL sudden death seems wrong sometimes, soccer shootouts are an abomination before God and the NCAA college football shootout is a freakshow, it's exciting as hell, but you might as well flip a coin to decide who wins. To my mind, look, you left it all out on the field after 60 minutes of play, and the score is tied it's a tie. Sometimes that's how it goes.
posted by psmealey at 12:20 PM on February 05, 2008
I can't really argue with them being called the team of the decade. I don't think anyone can. I fully expect them to do better than 12-4 next year and again go deep in the playoffs. As for claims of being "overrated" or "chokers", those are ridiculous. Given all this team has achieved in the past few years, particularly in view of how much parity there is in the league now (compared with the Packers in the 60s and Steelers in the 70s). The Patriots of this era certainly deserve a mention alongside the greatest evar. Just questioning the greatness of the single season team that fails to win the big one.
posted by psmealey at 12:05 PM on February 05, 2008
Come on. The patriots simply did not play well in their last game. Defensively, they were just a sharp as the Giants, and offensively, they looked great on their first offensive possession as well as their final drive. I don't think you can say that they did not play well, they did play well against a very tough and committed team. The Giants just played a little bit better when it counted.
posted by psmealey at 11:33 AM on February 05, 2008
Call me crazy, but I still say they are arguably the best single-season team in history. Ok, you're crazy. You are not a championship team unless you win the championship game. And non-championship teams do not qualify for consideration for the pantheon. The Pats had a great season, but you gotta bring home the bacon. And Superman would totally kick Batman's ass.
posted by psmealey at 10:57 AM on February 05, 2008
Having been a Giants fan since the Joe Pisarcik days, the '86 victory was thrilling, the '91 victory was surprising, but this one was enormously satisfying.
posted by psmealey at 10:26 PM on February 03, 2008
That use-my-helmet catch by Tyree was the play of the game. Agreed. Particularly at such a critical point in the game, he did everything he could to come down with the ball any way he could. That play more or less symbolized the team's overall effort: unexpected, unlikely and all about heart.
posted by psmealey at 09:25 PM on February 03, 2008
Brady's drive to pull ahead 14-10 was a monster, I really started to have my doubts at that point. But after Peyton hit a few clutch passes, The G-men's victory started to feel inevitable. Glad that the winner went to Burress, who was mostly hobble and invisible all game long. They could not have gotten this far without him. I think mostly, this victory was about the Giants' defensive preparation. They were almost perfect, save the Patriots' first and (second to) last possessions.
posted by psmealey at 09:16 PM on February 03, 2008
Coughlin's an odd bird, man. There's no such thing as a gimme field goal at any distance in 0 degree temps. When he come onto the field to berate his kicker after the first miss, I had to remark that that was the first time I had ever seen that at any level. At any rate, it was good to the Giants play some tough, defensive (and opportunistic) football in the 4th quarter and OT, they earned the win.
posted by psmealey at 09:40 PM on January 20, 2008
How many people workout in a hyper-baric chamber or pedal a stationary bike underwater to get themselves back into shape after an injury? I don't think ANYONE could EVER make a case that TO is not a world class athlete, and that is exactly the sort of commitment and effort W/C athletes put in in order to stay W/C athletes. His problem has always been off the field, the locker room stuff and ego that alienates him from his teammates. TO probably is growing up (at least until the darker angels of his nature show up again), but what you offer in support of that doesn't cut it.
posted by psmealey at 04:42 PM on January 14, 2008
OTWTF Moment: much like watching Joe Buck call a Yankees playoff game. Joe Buck a Yankees homer? News to me. Joe and his family have deep ties to the St. Louis Cardinals organization. If anything, he's probably a closet Cards homer, but I haven't heard much of that in his broadcasts.
posted by psmealey at 11:58 AM on January 14, 2008
Like when Rocky broke his arm on purpose in that Nazi soccer movie? It was the Irish goalkeeper that broke his own arm so that Rocky could take his place in the lineup and lead the heroes to escape.
posted by psmealey at 11:29 AM on January 14, 2008
I'm always glad to see the Yankees go out early, but I definitely don't think the problem is Torre. The problem is not enough Paul O'Neill/Tino Martinez/David Cone type guys on the team. The last time the Yankees were great, they had a bevy of clubhouse leaders who would push the other guys to be better. While they do have a number of very good players, they are just lacking that essential quality.
posted by psmealey at 05:48 AM on October 09, 2007
Such is the naturally occurring of misogyny (and specific hatred and mistrust aimed at so-called "gold diggers") in society, this could actually end up helping Bonds's public image. I think this is a brilliant move from Bonds's standpoint. I just wonder how much she's getting for it.
posted by psmealey at 12:43 PM on October 04, 2007
Didn't the Cubs give up something like 8 runs after the Bartman thing? That was an utterly gutless collapse if ever there was one.
posted by psmealey at 12:25 PM on October 04, 2007
Nothing against Stanford ... they're just the most prominent team with the annoying "singular" nickname. Ignorant. It's not "singular". It's not the bird it's the color. Harvard Crimson, Stanford Cardinal, Dartmouth Big Green, Cornell Big Red, and so on.
posted by psmealey at 11:26 AM on September 13, 2007
I don't see why this is such a bad idea. I say, so what if 1-AA powerhouses crack the top 25. Are they taking away valuable revenue and recognition from slightly above .500 Division 1 football factories? Go Harvard!
posted by psmealey at 07:18 AM on September 08, 2007
put sports on trial. People wanted to believe the worst of these players and suggested their participation in a team sport made them more likely to be guilty. Very true. Not to justify or excuse the rush to judgment, but overall the NCAA's teams and athletic departments have not been great on this kind of thing over the past twenty years or more, so it's not surprising that the media jumped on that as the initial angle.
posted by psmealey at 05:15 PM on June 17, 2007
It surprises me that Federer hits such a heavy ball, his shots always looked somewhat flat (trajectory-wise) to me. I would have thought Nadal or even Gasquet would have hit a significantly heavier ball from the folks I have seen in person. I've never thought of spin as making a ball "heavy", but it sure does make it a lot harder to hit and drive where/how you want it to go. I played at the college level (abroad) and when I played some real dirtballers in France and Italy, they hit with so much topspin, it could damn near take the racquet out of your hands. Very unpleasant to play against people that can impart that much spin. I can only imagine what it's like at the Tour level.
posted by psmealey at 03:30 PM on May 05, 2007
Yes, but consider the service box -- you'd still always be serving to the other surface, just as with the current setup. True, but it least it would vary on every successive point. On deuce games serving to grass the server has the advantage, and on ad games to the clay, the receiver has the advantage (or, is at least at less of a disadvantage).
posted by psmealey at 03:34 PM on May 02, 2007
It would actually be more interesting to see the half clay, half grass configuration vertically rather than horizontally. At least this way each player could maneuver for the advantage on every point.
posted by psmealey at 01:46 PM on May 02, 2007
Weird. It almost doesn't matter who's playing: this experiment seems like sheer gimmickry at best, deeply flawed at worst. It doesn't really matter if clay or grass is the player's favorite or least favorite surface, this configuration favors the player on the clay side on every point. The overwhelming majority of balls hit from the player on the grass side to the clay side, would be sit up for that player, and he could smack winner after winner into the grass all day long. Similarly, on serves, the player serving into the grass would have an enormous advantage. Of course they are changing courts after every odd game, but the player hitting into the grass (serving or not) would have the advantage. It would be interesting to watch, as it might actually be harder to hold your own serve when serving to clay as it would be to break in this situation.
posted by psmealey at 01:43 PM on May 02, 2007
I don't know if anyone taught him to go all out in exhibition games. You go out all out all the time (unless you are in half-pad scrimmages), preseason or not. Going half assed is what can get you hurt.
posted by psmealey at 05:09 PM on April 05, 2007
I guess the Mankato Free Press is only a local small town paper, but that article was so poorly written, it gave me a headache to read. I still have only the vaguest idea who Ben Utecht is, other than he plays for (coaches for?) the Colts, what St. Peters is and its connection to Gustavus Adolfus College (is that a religious school?), if he's giving up football to preach full time, and why his going to these churches is really any big deal to anyone since he's speaking to the already faithful, rather than volunteering to help the needy or something. I'm sure he's a great guy, but seems like professional football players and coaches do this kind of thing all the time.
posted by psmealey at 04:57 PM on March 31, 2007
Stunning and horrifying. These young women have some serious guts and ability, no question. This stuff fascinates me, since it's so alien to my experience. Both my wife and I both grew up in areas (she in Seattle, I in New England) where girls with athletic ability, and aspirations for "popularity" were encouraged to play team sports (gymnastics, swimming, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, etc.), and cheerleading was mostly the domain of the delicate and less able. Fascinating stuff, good post!
posted by psmealey at 09:24 AM on March 31, 2007
Ah, yes, but assterfuck is one word, encompassing all.
posted by psmealey at 10:40 PM on March 30, 2007
Your momma raised you right, yzelda4045.
posted by psmealey at 09:16 AM on March 30, 2007
you do not applaud errors I agree that it's poor form, but I have seen this behavior on many an occasion, particularly at Lleyton Hewitt matches.
posted by psmealey at 07:40 AM on March 30, 2007
Has the Grade A a**hat not heard of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe? But that would probably require taking our a** out of the hat. That's as genteel a comment as I have ever seen on SpoFi... unless a** means something really filthy that I have never heard of before.
posted by psmealey at 07:29 AM on March 30, 2007
Ditka made a comment about how he considered running against Obama, so I guess he's repub No, Ditka's an idiot. That affiliation crosses party lines.
posted by psmealey at 02:25 PM on March 06, 2007
Every obnoxious sports debate seems to be well represented. It's like Jim Rome as a website. And from that perspective, it differs from SpoFi how? Funny, I just came across this site when I was doing some reseach on another matter, and thought to see what the experts thought, so I posted it here. Some great feedback here, but I never imagined such anger about it. Weird.
posted by psmealey at 06:23 AM on March 05, 2007
That's pretty funny, mbd1, but exactly right. It seems like they tried to get ALL the functionality that's hip these days and stuff it in the same place. It has potential, but I think it's too narrow. They should really add spaces for F1, NASCAR, EPL and such if they want to make a bigger splash.
posted by psmealey at 03:32 PM on March 03, 2007
This is shocking. Utterly shocking to discover that the University of Southern California has a hockey team. Otherwise, hilarious story.
posted by psmealey at 07:25 AM on February 23, 2007
Sorry, sic. Missed your post above.
posted by psmealey at 11:01 AM on February 17, 2007
Jordan never won a single NBA title without having Scottie Pippen on his team. Think about that for a minute or two before you dis him. I think I understand where the hate comes from.From the Wiki: Perhaps the most infamous episode of Pippen's career came in the postseason of Pippen's first year without Jordan, the 1993-94 playoffs, where the Eastern Conference semifinals pitted the Bulls against their bitter rivals, the New York Knicks. On May 13, 1994, down 2-0 in the series and tied 102-102 in Game Three, Bulls coach Phil Jackson needed a big play from his team to have any hope of advancing to the next round of the playoffs. With 1.8 seconds left and the score tied, Jackson designed the last play for Toni Kuko?, with Pippen relegated to simply inbounding the basketball. Pippen, who had been the Bulls' leader all season long in Jordan's absence, was so angered by Jackson's decision to not let him take the potential game-winner that he refused to leave the bench and re-enter the game when the timeout was over.
By more accounts than this, Pippen was a selfish player, but that doesn't diminish his stature as one of the all time greats.
posted by psmealey at 11:00 AM on February 17, 2007
If my personal three-time participation in a thread is sufficient to satisfy the Encourages discussion criterion, then I certainly feel humbled and blessed by my own power and gravitas. Or, maybe you should set the bar higher. Look, the guy posts what amounts to a 100-word rant about the lack of awareness of the issue of climate change. Not even the central point of the rant, the writer uses professional sport as a device to incite further debate among an audience that he believes to be indifferent. I'm sure the writer's motive was pure, but how is this in and of itself not a troll? It's a deliberately provocative post, and irrelevant to the topice of the site, only barely incidentially is it. To me, this is no different than any of the dozen or so Pat Tillman posts that have materialized here over the past three years. Great topics for debate? Certainly. Interesting and educational? Absolutely. Sports-related? Uh, not really. It's a reach, at the most generous. So, yeah, I bitched about it. And as for "shitting in the thread", sorry for interrupting this very informed back-and-forth about how someone shovelling snow off of their driveway today proves that climate change is bullshit. Great. Very informative. As you were.
posted by psmealey at 08:09 PM on February 14, 2007
Ordinarily, I couldn't give half a shit, because I think most people come to this site for a little escapism, and fan fanaticism, but because you used such polite and genteel language, "Jack", I'll engage you. By the way, use of the word "fucking" doesn't make you seem more convincing, unless you find Charles Bukowski's odes to fucking whiskey bottles convincing. First off, not a single typo. I am impressed. Secondly, you "already fucking said as much" after your made the original post. The damage was already done; we're off topic, we're discussing a scientific issue that's huge political football (no pun intended) and only a couple of people above actually tried to swing back the issue toward sport. But worse: it's already verged to the ITS 10 DEGREEZ HEAR TODAY. LOLZ GLOBAL WARMING DUZNT EXITS, crap that we've all seen in countless other places. That was the best you could have hoped for by posting this. (HuffPo in SpoFi? Really) Fortunately, you had a few people come to the rescue, but by and large, token efforts. In conclusion, don't shit in SpoFi and tell me to take to the Locker Room. If you're going to post something only tangentially related to sport (so that you can learn something about biodieself, please), at least have the good sense to take your lumps. Read the guidelines and test your post to see if it really satisfies the criteria for a good post. You fucked up, not me. Maybe a better place for your post might have been the locker room, after all.
posted by psmealey at 06:43 PM on February 14, 2007
You definitely tried to steer it back, l_b_b. That was commendable. The World Cup ski season has been a depressing one indeed. Has anything similar happened before in recent (or distant memory)?
posted by psmealey at 04:37 PM on February 14, 2007
You know, I'm about as interested in reading about climate change on SpoFi as I am reading some armchair scientist's half baked assertion that a spate of seasonal weather disproves it as an actual phenomenon. Can we do a little bit better job policing ourselves? It would be great if we could try to keep SpoFi 100% sports related. This post is only incidentally sports related. Whether I agree with the article in question, it's AgendaFilter. Ask yourself, does the article I'm posting come from a site that has a political or religious focus? If so, it's probably not a good thing to post here.
posted by psmealey at 03:57 PM on February 14, 2007
I'm going to agree with dyams and others on the thread re: individual sports. This designation works for golf and tennis players, but it's completely irrelevant for individuals who play team sports. Who can argue that Ernie Banks, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Don Mattingly, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarketon, etc weren't true greats whose hearts were as big as all outdoors. Either you have the supporting cast or you don't. His Airness never won a title without Scottie Pippen on his side.
posted by psmealey at 08:15 AM on February 14, 2007
Even with individual sports, though, you can have those who win against the best in the world, but never at the big events. Of course, but until you do (like Agassi, Lendl and Mickelson at earlier points in their careers), you are not truly considered "great", only merely having great potential... or, more pejoratively, a "choker".
posted by psmealey at 08:04 AM on February 13, 2007
I hate questions like this. Best Player Never to Win [/Loss x, y, or z] isn't something we should have to sit back and think about. I agree. Other than for golf or tennis or boxing (where you are rarely considered "great" unless you actually do win it all), this kind of thing is a bullshit creation by sportswriters who don't have enough to do. It takes a great team to win a championship, not one great player.
posted by psmealey at 06:35 AM on February 13, 2007
Did you actually read the article, yay-yo? Of course you didn't, you're a finance major. Dobler, by any person's account had a successful career as a businessman post his NFL career. The problem is that he was beset by a tragic injury to his wife (could happen to any of us), and the cumulative effect of the injuries he had received on the job in his former career. In almost any other industry he could file for disability claims to defray the frighteningly high cost of his own medical care. What you say might have applied to the likes of Mike Webster, or Hollywood Henderson but is completely irrelevant to this story.
posted by psmealey at 02:27 PM on February 12, 2007
Rangers, Islanders and Devils fans seem to cohabitate reasonably well. I guess it's been a long time since I've been to the Garden for a hockey game, so things must have changed a bit. I will say though, going to games when I was a kid (particularly, Isles/Rangers as well as Flyers/Rangers), there were more fights in the stands than on the ice. As for the relative lack of fan violence in the US, I am totally unconvinced that it has anything to do with dilution. I think there are fundamental sociologal undercurrents at play. I think for more perspective on this, you have to read Bill Buford's Among the Thugs, or even Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. Football allegiances in Europe are much more like family or tribal allegiances than most Americans can comprehend. The US is such a large country with so much constant migratory movement (ethnic neighborhoods in our cities never seem to last for more than a generation or so, for example), that we would find this sense of tribe of belonging fairly foreign.
posted by psmealey at 09:51 AM on February 12, 2007
If I sat through an entire (boring) soccer game I would be pretty pissed off as well. Har. You're like the drunk that stumbles into the cocktail party and tells the same joke over and over again. Have some coffee and someone will call you a cab.
posted by psmealey at 11:14 AM on February 10, 2007
I'd be willing to bet Zidane can still outplay almost anyone in the MLS today. It would be a good bet. Zidane outplayed some of the best players in the world as recently as last summer.
posted by psmealey at 11:11 AM on February 10, 2007
Yeah, but our civil war was 125 years ago, Shit, there was another civil war in 1882 that no one told me about? What was that one over? ;-)
posted by psmealey at 11:08 AM on February 10, 2007
If we decide to erupt in violence at sporting events here, rest assured that we Americans will do it the proper way: With sidearms. Off topic, when I lived in Boston, I always wondered why bar fights seemed so much more common there than in other places I'd spent significant time in (New York, Seattle, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinatti). I hypothesized that gun laws in Massachusetts were such that you could be reasonably sure that the other guy was not carrying, so you could get into a scuffle while being sure it wouldn't escalate past that point. The other cities, not so much. Back on topic, I think it has less to do with the cost of the ticket. I just don't think Americans identify with their sports teams on a tribal/familial level that Europeans do with theirs. Things like identity and such are so deeply rooted in the team you support, in a way that is not fathomable to most Americans.
posted by psmealey at 11:02 AM on February 10, 2007
American Football combines two of the worst elements of American culture: 1. Violence 2. Meetings When I lived in France, I took a buddy of mine to a bar to watch the SuperBowl on a large screen tv. He was a life long rugger (and soccer hater), and had notions that the game was a bit soft, owing, I guess to all the protective gear American football players wear. Within 10 minutes of the game he told me that he couldn't believe the level of violence and brutality the game had. I don't think he ended up liking it ("some exciting moments, but too much standing around'), but definitely got over his misconceptions of it. At the end of the day, the game is so over-the-top commercialized, which annoys a lot of Europeans (having a sponsor's logo on your shirt is one thing, all those commercial interruptions are unforgiveable), so I don't see it catching on. There was an NFL Europe a while back, no? I don't think it did that well.
posted by psmealey at 10:45 AM on February 10, 2007
Rex Grossman...What a pathetic choking display that was. He seems to have the leadership ability of George Bush. I was thinking Jeff George, but ok.
posted by psmealey at 01:01 PM on February 05, 2007
that Manning was his MVP because the simple threat of Peyton's arm opened up holes on the ground. That's bullshit though, don't you think? Though Franseca may be technically correct, the award should be given for execution and performance, not because of some latent threat that the recipient represents. You still actually have to deliver.
posted by psmealey at 08:32 AM on February 05, 2007
singing "Purple Rain" in a torrential downpour was one of the best halftime performances ever.... since U2's the last decent one and that was in 200 I agree that it's been about 200 years since U2 was good. I also agree that Prince rocked that house in the best SB half-time show ever. It has finally enabled me to burn from my memory the atrocity of a clean and sober Aerosmith doing a medley of the tunes from their toxic twin days with Britney Spears and NSync.
posted by psmealey at 08:07 AM on February 05, 2007
However, the inability of the Bears offense to do much of anything killed the Bears greatest stregnth. A tired defense is not going to play as well, especially against an offense like the Colts. Bingo. The Bears' D was game, but the offense's inability to string some drives together and give them a chance to recuperate did them in. They looked winded even at the start of the second half. Rex Grossman had been taking flack all year, and it's pretty much of a cliche to dump on him here, but any flack he takes for his performance yesterday is well earned. Althought he was at times under pressure, but he made some incredibly poor decisions, and executed terribly. Bears' fans have a long history of putting up (and even winning) with mediocre QBs, but Grossman failed even to live up to that standard yesterday. Congrats to the Colts, but why did Manning get MVP? Other than complaining to the officials after almost every single play, he was fairly invisible. I would have given it to one (or both) of the RBs.
posted by psmealey at 06:55 AM on February 05, 2007
I see a marketing/product placement/sponsorship opportunity for Valacyclovir here.
posted by psmealey at 06:42 AM on February 01, 2007
Wouldn't it have been more pointed if he had used Bonds's number instead? I dunno, as big as the single season home run record may (or may not be), that's not the one Bonds has his eyes on (755).
posted by psmealey at 06:40 AM on February 01, 2007
Life resembles Idiocracy more and more each day.
posted by psmealey at 06:37 AM on February 01, 2007
Oh yeah, he's 25 and only 4 Grand Slam titles behind Sampras's 14 How old was Pete when he got his 14th? 29? 30? The sky's definitely the limit for this guy.
posted by psmealey at 04:50 PM on January 28, 2007
became the first man in the Open era to twice win three straight majors and has won six of the last seven Grand Slam titles - his only loss was in the French Open final to Rafael Nadal. Yeah, greatest ever, he's getting there. Definitely. I'd love to see him win the French Open, as well as win a *real* (calendar) Grand Slam just so we can be done with this whole debate. But Roland Garros is such a crapshoot. The surface conditions can vary widely almost day to day, and the players take such a physical pounding grinding through long rallies. I don't much care for Federer as a personality, but he's probably the best player I have ever seen (compared with his contemporaries), so I would like him to make this greatest evar thing official, to give everyone else something to shoot for.
posted by psmealey at 10:06 AM on January 28, 2007
Top 10: Hardcore Fans
Right you ahhh, Howard_T, right you ahh.