04/23/24
October 14, 2012
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
BTW, because it's being broadcast from on my sports channel (SportsNet in Canada), I'll point out that a brave motherfucker is about to parachute from space!
posted by grum@work at 02:00 PM on October 14, 2012
posted by grum@work at 02:42 PM on October 14, 2012
Just watched the whole jump live on grind tv, ascent and all. Gripping stuff. All unfolding in the skies over quaint Roswell, NM.
(Aliens living along nearby ridge since the late 1940's run for cover as mysterious earthling in pressure suit free falls from space at over 700 mph).
I don't know why they had to schedule this historic event during the Chiefs - Bucs game. It's not every day that Brady Quinn gets the nod at QB.
posted by beaverboard at 02:43 PM on October 14, 2012
He's a terrible fantasy pick though.
43,000 yards, but only one touchdown.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:22 PM on October 14, 2012
Thanks, umpires. How that call at second base is missed is beyond me. Absolutely horrible.
posted by dyams at 06:41 PM on October 14, 2012
What are some opinions on the TBS announcers? I can't stand them and it seems they get stuck on talking about the Yankees with way more frequency than they talk about the Tigers. But this may be my Detroit bias talking so I'm interested to hear some outside perspectives.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:55 PM on October 14, 2012
I think the call was missed because the umpire couldn't see the glove touching Infante.
posted by rcade at 07:17 PM on October 14, 2012
Thankfully it didn't have a huge effect on the outcome of the game. Not that it will prevent the media from covering the call incessantly for the next two games.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:32 PM on October 14, 2012
The Pats look like a team that could go 8-8 this year by dominating most teams they play and simply squandering opportunities.
The intentional grounding that cost them 3 points at the end of the 1st half and the pick in the end zone along with a completely blown coverage on the winning TD were a few examples of a team that seems unable to play 60 minutes of good football at a time.
posted by dfleming at 08:00 PM on October 14, 2012
a brave motherfucker is about to parachute from space!
I did not see the jump, but I read the brief account of it in the news. He hit Mach 1.24, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 MPH. That's not a neighborhood I'd like to experience in anything but an aircraft. At one point he started into a flat spin (the bane of the F-14 for many years), but somehow got it under control. One of the problems early on with high-speed aircraft was uneven pressure distribution on the airframe and control surfaces that led to a loss of control. Swept wings and area-ruled fuselages (putting a sort of pinched in area in the mid-fuselage) largely eliminated much of this, but Felix had neither swept wings nor an area ruled fuselage. I would love to see a pressure distribution chart for various points on his body as he passed through Mach 1.
posted by Howard_T at 11:02 PM on October 14, 2012
Yeah, I assume that was the most dangerous part: not the actual fall, or re-entry/heat, or the parachute, or the landing- those are all controllable by science and experience. But the chaos of going into a spin, without the mechanical controls to get himself readily re-stabilized (and as you say, Howard_T, the uneven pressures and forces at work), means he could have gone into a spin that blacked him- out or worse- and left him unable to deploy the chute. Well, I imagine they had a way of deploying the chute remotely, but if the spin/pressure had gone out of control, he could have been killed before he hit the ground.
FYI, for those of you who haven't seen it, you can watch it here. You'll see that part where he starts spiraling crazily, but then stabilizes himself.
posted by hincandenza at 11:30 PM on October 14, 2012
An interesting side note to his breaking Mach 1 is that with his goal of maximum speed descent, Baumgartner did not break Col. Kittinger's record for longest duration freefall even though he began his jump 25,000 feet higher in altitude than Kittinger did. I think he missed the duration record by a handful of seconds.
posted by beaverboard at 11:36 PM on October 14, 2012
I thought it was pretty cool that Kittinger himself was the one communicating with Baumgartner in the capsule (going through the checklist), and referred to "our guardian angel" when he was about to jump.
I'm also kind of glad that one of Kittinger's records still stands (freefall time).
posted by grum@work at 07:53 AM on October 15, 2012
But the chaos of going into a spin, without the mechanical controls to get himself readily re-stabilized
He's a wingsuiter.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:35 AM on October 15, 2012
I love Kittinger's role in this. He's 84 years old and was an integral part of this effort. The last words Baumgartner heard before making the leap were his.
Should Baumgartner be in the running for sportsperson of the year? This is an incredible achievement.
posted by rcade at 10:53 AM on October 15, 2012
It was truly great to see Col. Kittinger pivotally involved the way he was. But overall, the mission felt a bit rag tag compared to the highly orderly, controlled environment we're accustomed to with a successful NASA mission.
The checklist did not go exactly like clockwork, Mission Control had to correct its directives to Baumgartner a few times, and when he was under parachute, he had multiple people giving him conflicting wind direction info.
It sure looked like he had good equipment from top to bottom though. Was glad to see that they got the capsule recovery task underway shortly after the jump commenced.
I would be willing to vote Baumgartner a sportsperson's award as long as he agreed not to parachute into Citi Field before Game 6 if the Mets and Red Sox ever meet in the World Series again.
posted by beaverboard at 01:13 PM on October 15, 2012
and when he was under parachute, he had multiple people giving him conflicting wind direction info.
The weather crew was a little out of control after getting jacked up on six Red Bulls before the jump.
posted by grum@work at 03:15 PM on October 15, 2012
From the huddle 2 weeks ago:
There've been some voluminous college FB scores lately.
Yesterday's WVU-Baylor result was more like a Daly-era Pistons game score.
Looking forward to the mid-Oct. meeting between Tex. A&M and La. Tech.
Yesterday's score: A&M 59 - Tech 57