Recent Comments by pitchblende

Swing and a miss

Watching Sportscenter last night, even the anchors seemed to be getting sick of the overexposure their employer has given the Yankess-Red Sox rivalry. Steve Levy was getting pretty sarcastic about it.

posted by pitchblende at 12:18 PM on April 15, 2005

Jermaine O'Neal plays the race card.

Before everyone goes off on ill-informed rants (I guess it may be too late...) it might be good to know exactly what the "age-limit" proposal is or might be. An article here says the underage kids can still enter the draft and be drafted, still collect the same rookie pay scale salaries, but have to play in an expanded NBDL until they're 20 (so this does not seem to be a ploy to keep the NCAA as a minor league either, except for the kids who want to go to school or live in the spotlight of a big-time college program.) So the NBA would not be cheating any players, black, white, or whatever, out of salary money. They just would be pushed out of the limelight. I suppose if this had happened to LeBron he may have lost some endorsement money, but probably not all of it. Has anyone seen any other articles that detail the proposal?

posted by pitchblende at 08:06 PM on April 13, 2005

Spreadin the boos.

I would love it if we could ban the word "classy" or any variations thereof from all sports discussions.

posted by pitchblende at 11:35 AM on April 07, 2005

Quotes from Steve Francis regarding the trade: "I can't put it into words," he said. "Playing with a guy, living with a guy, just knowing that every day when I wake up that's something I can count on, that I'm going to be in practice or in a game with Cuttino. "Him not being here is going to be tough for me. I don't know what I'm going to wake up for." "They messed up something that started so good, man," said Francis, an All-Star the past three seasons. "I don't feel there was a need to break something up just because he was going to be a free agent and you don't want to pay him at the end of the season. "You should have known that when you traded for him, so you should have made that decision then." "You don't wait 30 minutes before a game to tell a guy he's traded," Francis said. "The way you handle relationships, for me, is going to change the way that I approach the game, more businesslike than anything." Have you ever heard a guy sound so upset for personal reasons over a teammate being traded?

posted by pitchblende at 02:28 PM on January 11, 2005

Innocent? Guilty? Off the hook, either way

The statement from Kobe is a little odd. After reading it, my conclusion is that they have already reached a financial settlement. Why else would he admit even a shred of guilt at this stage? "Although this year has been incredibly difficult for me personally, I can only imagine the pain she has had to endure." ...at the hands of my attorneys, fans, and enablers in the media.

posted by pitchblende at 01:29 AM on September 02, 2004

Big East to add 5 teams today,

Hey! Super! If you add enough teams of course you can become the best basketball conference. If the Big 12 joined the Big 10 then they'd be the best basketball conference. But wait then the SEC could join with the new ACC and have the bestest conference ever! What's the point of even having conferences anyway if you have this many teams in one? The ACC should have capped it at 10 with Miami.

posted by pitchblende at 12:42 AM on November 05, 2003

Another take on the Lott "analysis".

posted by pitchblende at 01:00 PM on October 14, 2003

Pedro Martinez beat up Don Zimmer,

I've gotta give credit to the Red Sox - I didn't think anything could make me root for the Yankees, but the behavior of Pedro with his headhunting and taunting antics and Ramirez with his hotheaded b.s. did it. But then Jeff Nelson and Karim "I just don't know how my hand got cut" Garcia went and made me hate the Yankees again. So...go Cubs!

posted by pitchblende at 05:50 PM on October 12, 2003

Jags Punter does a bad Gimli impersonation

In later news, Jack Del Rio had a pit filled with metal spikes installed in the locker room to use as a motivational tool with the slogan, "Stay Sharp!"

posted by pitchblende at 07:47 PM on October 09, 2003

And we thought Astros Field was a "Cruddy" pitcher's park.

Maybe this is the first sign of an Enron curse.

posted by pitchblende at 01:39 PM on October 04, 2003

NY Daily news claims Tom Jackson essentially forced Rush out.

posted by pitchblende at 03:20 PM on October 03, 2003

East German deja vu all over again.

In other steroid related news...

posted by pitchblende at 12:18 PM on September 24, 2003

"The guy [McGrady] was expressionless after I asked him something, or he was two seconds away from hitting me. I couldn't tell. I'm hoping Tracy takes it with a sense of humor."

Yeah, maybe Tracy witnessed a few teammates drinking mineral water.

posted by pitchblende at 06:37 PM on September 22, 2003

Play at the Plate.

Where is the line drawn for contact anyway? There must be some sort of rule addressing this. You can't do this type of thing at say, 2nd base can you? And you can't go throwing punches, even at the catcher.

posted by pitchblende at 11:48 AM on September 04, 2003

Rascally Varmint!

Ahh, the great convergence is finally upon us: NASCAR and pro wrestling.

posted by pitchblende at 02:20 PM on August 19, 2003

3) Should be surprised that they're going down the same road visited by "First and Ten", "The Program", and "Any Given Sunday". In any case, I wish them luck. Not only those, but North Dallas Forty and probably a host of others. Is is really "original" entertainment when they cover the same old ground (at least according to the previews) that is no longer revelatory or shocking: football players use steroids, cheat on their wives, push their bodies to destruction... *snore*

posted by pitchblende at 02:11 PM on August 19, 2003

Dallas does what its best at. Building the good-old boys' network.

A team strip club would be more appropriate in any pro sport.

posted by pitchblende at 11:20 AM on August 18, 2003

I'd like to see what a 4 million dollar rings costs And I'd like to know who's buried in Grant's tomb...sorry, had to. I assume you meant "looks like." I wonder if this was Kobe's idea, or if he said to her "What's it gonna take to make this better? And she said "An obcenely expensive piece of jewelry." It's sickening either way to think about someone blowing that much money on a bunch of rocks.

posted by pitchblende at 12:06 PM on July 25, 2003

Impotence drugs and sports go hand in hand.

And Levitra might be the best name for a drug ever.

posted by pitchblende at 06:42 PM on July 18, 2003

Kobe gets charged.

In any event, does the simple fact that he was charged affect the trial results in any way I don't really follow your question. There cannot even be a trial if he's not charged with a crime, so I guess yeah, the fact that a suspect is charged always affects the trial. IANAL, but I'd think every defense lawyer would realize that he's starting out at a disadvantage, since the jury assumes from day 1 that the case would not have been brought if there was not a reasonable amount of incriminating evidence.

posted by pitchblende at 06:36 PM on July 18, 2003

My Losing Season is a great book, although it's written a bit melodramatically at times, as Conroy is wont to do. It is one of the few sports-related books I've read where I felt the writing wasn't completely dumbed down by some editor trying to make the book more sellable. I also recently read The Punch, which was interesting, but not really a book length topic, I decided after finishing. There is a lot of repetition that seems to be there solely to stretch the text out to book length.

posted by pitchblende at 01:15 PM on April 25, 2003

LeBron James becomes only two time

Why do you wear No. 32? Luol Deng: "Because of Grant Hill, and ironically I won't wear it at Duke because it's been retired." Minor point: Hill was 33 and Deng wears 33. Laettner was 32. Typo I guess. Why do you wear No. 42? Brian Butch: "It's the number worn by Vin Baker when he was a star for the Milwaukee Bucks. I liked his game and tried to do the same things." Uh oh.

posted by pitchblende at 02:20 PM on April 23, 2003

There's no protesting in baseball!

trox: Oh, what might have been...

posted by pitchblende at 12:41 PM on April 10, 2003

Things to throw at your favorite athletes!

M is for Maryland.

posted by pitchblende at 06:21 PM on April 04, 2003

He played for Dean Smith,

And if I may engage in some schadenfreude, what a wonderful disaster this whole situation has been this season and still is for UNC. Players turning on coaches, fans turning on players, fans turning on each other...etc. Seriously, even as a Duke fan, I hope they get their act together, as this mess is bad for the rivalry, bad for the ACC, and bad for college basketball.

posted by pitchblende at 12:41 PM on April 02, 2003

He played for Dean Smith,

Doherty handled the recruitment of [Shavlik] Randolph personally, an unusual move for most head coaches, certainly for one at a program like North Carolina. Every day, Doherty sent letters or newspaper clippings or even photographs, like the one of Jordan behind a desk at his office with the Washington Wizards, wearing a T-shirt: "Shav Country."

posted by pitchblende at 12:33 PM on April 02, 2003

Graduation rates among the Sweet 16

billsaysthis: This article has a chart (scroll down) with the grad rates of the players and of the overall student body.

posted by pitchblende at 01:48 PM on March 25, 2003

Good column by Kornheiser on James and wisdom from Kwame Brown.

posted by pitchblende at 03:26 PM on February 07, 2003

Phil Mickelson, what are you smoking?

There's no way he would take more money from Nike if he thought someone else's gear was better Really? What if he thinks Nike's stuff is simply good enough, and the money they give him is far superior to what any other club maker could give out.

posted by pitchblende at 01:00 PM on February 07, 2003

"All LeBron did was receive a gift from a friend as congratulations for his academic achievements,'' said [James' lawyer]Nance, referring to James' 3.5 grade-point average. Now that's funny.

posted by pitchblende at 06:55 PM on February 05, 2003

This weeks sign of the apocalypse

It's much better if you read it aloud in your best Bill Walton voice.

posted by pitchblende at 07:22 PM on January 31, 2003

Lebron James was declared ineligible

but maybe in the future rules like these might need to be looked into, so that high school phenom’s can get some cash for their work. That's nuts. I can see giving cash stipends to college athletes for living expenses etc, but paying high school players is crazy. First of all, how many high school athletes really bring in all that much money to their school. This Lebron hype phenomenon of a high school player is a once a decade kind of thing, if that, not some sort of continuing issue like it is at the college level where millions and millions of dollars are at stake. (of course now ESPN et al will go looking for the next Lebron every year, but I digress...) Second, the huge majority of these high school kids live at home - they don't have the need for money that college athletes have. Sure there are high schools, including the basketball factory excuse-for-a-high-schools, where kids live at the school, but how do you decide which kids get money and which don't - based on their ppg stats? Just the ones at private schools? Yeah that's a good idea. If you are an athlete and you want to make money, go pro.

posted by pitchblende at 07:18 PM on January 31, 2003

Arr Matey! It's the pirate bowl!

It's the pirate bowl! I don't know. At some point, the Raiders fans decided a Raider was not a pirate, but some sort of angel-of-death mad max apocalyptic zombie warrior.

posted by pitchblende at 12:41 PM on January 20, 2003

Raptors F Carter continues to lead East All-Star vote-getters.

I agree with grum: if the All-Star game (and indeed the entire sport) is not for the fans, who is it for? I used to get worked up over this kind of thing too, but then I realized it really means very little in the scheme of things.

posted by pitchblende at 02:58 PM on January 10, 2003

Eddie Murray and Gary Carter

Great column by Thomas Boswell about Murray in the Washington Post.

posted by pitchblende at 02:49 PM on January 10, 2003

Ohio State and Iowa are officially co-champions. But because the first tiebreaker is overall record, OSU is considered the Big Ten champ as far as the BCS is concerned, and would be going to the Rose Bowl back in the olden days of what, 2 years ago?

posted by pitchblende at 02:43 PM on December 05, 2002

This guy's attorney, Richard Sharpstein, can't be saying these lines with a straight face: "The truth will come out in the wash." Well, I sure hope most of it came out in the wash. Unless Mary decided just to burn everything. "Thanks to the plea deal, it won't be necessary for us to dig to the bottom of this situation..." Yuck.

posted by pitchblende at 12:28 PM on November 01, 2002

Can you fathom the sheer amount of drugs consumed by those Cowboy Super Bowl teams? The after Super Bowl parties, man...

posted by pitchblende at 12:17 PM on November 01, 2002

As a Redskins fan in Seattle, I was thinking of going to this Sunday's game. But the Seahawks without Dilfer vs. the Redskins without Stephen Davis is not worth $50+. I was going to predict a score of somthing like 6-3, however the offenses may give the defenses plenty of opportunities to score TDs.

posted by pitchblende at 01:21 PM on October 30, 2002

Emmitt Smith sweetest accomplishment: breaking Payton's rushing record

Think of how amazing this would have been if Barry Sanders had hung around for 2 or 3 more seasons. Both of these great running backs would have been gunning for Sweetness' record. I think Sanders would have broken it first pretty easily - he only needed 1400+ yards to break it, so one or one and a half more seasons was all he needed. Then Emmitt would have had to play several seasons past Sanders' retirement to break it. But if Sanders was playing today, I don't think Emmitt would have enough seasons left in him to break whatever record Sanders established (20,000?)

posted by pitchblende at 10:56 AM on October 28, 2002

Game stopped for several minutes by police spray.

Which stunk the worst: the pepper spray, the Redskins offense, or the Redskins defense?

posted by pitchblende at 02:19 AM on September 17, 2002