04/23/24
December 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.
A Twitter account allegedly posted the Champions League draw a day earlier and got it right.
posted by rcade at 01:28 PM on December 24, 2013
Watching kickoffs last night on MNF, I marveled at the continuied existence of the play in the CTE era of football. Players hurtle at each other at speeds that make collisions exceptionally harmful.
I was wondering if an alternate kickoff could work where players are split up and stand five yards apart from each other at different yard markers from the kick spot to the opposing 20. So there might be three at the kick, three at the receiving team's 45, three at the 35 and two at the 20. Players could not run until the kick was touched by a receiving team's player.
posted by rcade at 01:32 PM on December 24, 2013
I saw this in the mail bag of one of the blogger's columns in The Boston Globe. Perhaps it will give some of us who really need to get outside more often something to think about during the holidays. Anyway, here it is:
A little green man wearing a black and white striped shirt has just landed his ship next to you. He blows his whistle to get your attention, and makes you an offer. He will give you a one-time round trip in a time machine, but the trip can only go back in time, not forward (just so you cannot make a pile in the sports books in Las Vegas). The other restriction is that you must go to a sporting event, and one game only.
I told you, the green man was wearing a black and white striped shirt. That should have been a clue. So what's your answer? I'm pretty sure this group of SpoFites can come up with some good ones. My pick was the USA vs Russia Olympic hockey game. No, not the well-known "miracle" of 1980. Rather, I would like to have seen live the 1960 game when a few college kids and a bunch of true amateurs beat the Red Army juggernaut. I saw it on TV, but I would love to have been there at the outdoor rink. Second choice for me would be any one of the 3 games between Red Sox and Yankees when Boston, largely on the heroics of David Ortiz, overcame a 3-0 series deficit to force the decisive game 7 that put the Sox into the World Series.
posted by Howard_T at 05:05 PM on December 24, 2013
I would think that to prevent one from making bucks on a bet you'd have to go forward in time, since I already know the result of, say, the 1960 USA-Russia hockey match. Finding someone to take the other side of the bet at the game shouldn't be too hard.
In the Xmas spirit, though, I'll pick any of the Liverpool European Cup finals since I didn't see them on TV or the 1958 World Cup Final, just to watch the young Pele astonish the world.
posted by billsaysthis at 08:49 PM on December 24, 2013
Three choices for me:
- Maple Leaf Gardens, May 2nd 1967.
- Shibe Park, May 21st 1930 or Forbes Field, May 25th 1935
- Berlin Olympic Stadium, August 3rd 1936
posted by grum@work at 10:02 PM on December 24, 2013
My first thought was Berlin, too, grum. So given that you will take me along for that one, I'd pick:
Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt, European Cup Final, Hampden Park Glasgow 1960, or the 1970 World Cup Final, Brazil v Italy in the Azteca.
posted by owlhouse at 03:36 PM on December 25, 2013
I'd probably pick a game that I saw on TV that had that certain extra dimension of sound that comes from a crowd that knows it's witnessing something extraterrestrial.
There are several. The first one that comes to mind is the 1984 Orange Bowl.
posted by beaverboard at 06:49 PM on December 25, 2013
1982, Estadi de Sarria in Barcelona to see Italy vs Brazil. One of those moments that completely change your outlook, when you're a kid. I watched a European team play defence for 90 minutes and be largely outclassed and still beat Brazil.
Interestingly, while I was running around my front room celebrating at the result, the person who would go on to be one of my best friends 20 years later was running out of his house to lay in a field and cry because he couldn't believe Brazil could lose.
I also like watching this one to be reminded of just how quick Socrates was, for a guy who smoked a couple hundred cigarettes. Per game.
Brazil - France in 1986 would also be a good one to get to watch again. Joel Bats had saved a penalty from Zico in regular play and then the penalty shoot out was intense.
Socrates had started doing this slow runup, scoop-shoot penalty in the top corner and I'd never seen a keeper get near it. Then Bats flew up to the corner to turn it away.
Ipswich 6-0 Manchester United in 1980 would also be a good stop to make.
Perhaps you could just drop me back in May 1978 before Ipswich won the FA Cup and leave me there and I'll work my own way back.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:44 PM on December 25, 2013
NFL concussions by position in 2013. Unsurprisingly, the likelihood of a concussion correlates to the distance you play from the line of scrimmage (or is it the likelihood of you reporting the concussion??).