12/22/24
September 24, 2013
SportsFilter: The Tuesday 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.
Welcome to Bizzaro world. After 20 years of under .500 baseball the Pirates are in the Playoffs. It is so awesome to see how excited the fans here are especially a generation of fans that have NEVER seen this and if you missed it, what a play at the plate last night. They should have never sent that runner but O well. We have been the victim of crappy base running for 2 decades Lets go Bucs.
posted by Debo270 at 09:04 AM on September 24, 2013
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 12:19 PM on September 24, 2013
The Infinite Sadness of Roy Halladay
Wow, he not only pitched poorly, but he looked awful. Says he has a diet problem that runs in the family that he has under control, and that his arm is tired because of rushing back to fulfill his contract. Hoping that's all it is, and he comes back strong.
posted by justgary at 01:55 PM on September 24, 2013
NCAA to restore Penn State football scholarships beginning in 2014-15. The restoration of scholarships has been laid out by the NCAA to allow the football team to increase to 75 in 2014-15, 80 in 2015-16, and begin competing with 85 scholarship student-athletes again in the 2016-17 academic year.
posted by bender at 02:18 PM on September 24, 2013
If that's Halladay's last appearance, he's probably built up enough of a resume to get into the HOF a couple years into the balloting process. HOF voters like win totals, but his 203 is low in comparison so he might not get in on the first ballot (especially if it's as crowded as it is expected to be for the next 5-10 years).
However, his win% is astounding (.659). They also like single season win totals (he has three 20-win season), and Cy Youngs (two of those), and "toughness" (he led the league in complete games 7 times), and ability (top 40 in ERA+, 8th in career Cy Young shares).
He's got a perfect game and a playoff no-hitter on his resume, and he's been considered one of the nice guys of the game.
If he had pitched in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, or any major American baseball market (instead of Toronto), he'd be legendary (and probably have a few more wins and maybe another Cy Young).
If it isn't his last game, he's a free agent and I'd LOVE it if Toronto would throw some of that freed-up Josh Johnson money at him to see if he's got one or two more seasons left in him.
posted by grum@work at 03:06 PM on September 24, 2013
Helenius undressed by Vertonghen.
posted by Hugh Janus at 04:06 PM on September 24, 2013
Not sports related, but I know that there are plenty of SpoFites who are Tool fans.
posted by MrFrisby at 07:23 PM on September 24, 2013
AFL Grand Final this weekend. Now available in 18 languages, unfortunately none of them American.
posted by owlhouse at 11:17 PM on September 24, 2013
I may have jinxed the America's Cup by posting a few days ago that I was delighting in how Ellison was having it handed to him. I think that is when fortunes turned. Or when the Oracle team and boat preparation effort dug deeper and found a higher gear, if you like.
Regardless of the eventual result, it has become a compelling story. I've been following this live blog - one of several out there no doubt. I like that the dateline is always a day ahead of the US mainland. If Oracle were to carry on and prevail on the water, that would be a massive accomplishment.
One tortuous subplot is that if Team Oracle is to win the next race (giving them 7 points), there is talk that Ellison may immediately unleash his lawyers to protest the prior two point penalty that Oracle was assessed. If a decision was reached to overturn the penalty, Oracle would then have 9 points and the regatta would be over.