12/18/24
June 10, 2014
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.
The minds of Boston fans are shaped by these instant baseball experts who, with an eye to their own ratings, have latched onto the Red Sox as the hottest topic in town. Nowhere else does baseball radio talk begin at 10 in the morning. The two prime topics everywhere else are politics and the weather. In Boston: baseball and politics.
Replace "Boston" with "Toronto"/"Canada", and "baseball" with "hockey".
One of the biggest ratings days of the year for TSN/Sportsnet is July. That's because they have a "Free Agent Day" extravaganza for when NHL free agents can begin signing contracts.
That's right, they get huge ratings for off-ice hockey stories in JULY.
As much as you Americans think that baseball or football are big in the US, it's still nothing compared to hockey in Canada.
posted by grum@work at 09:42 AM on June 10, 2014
But "we Americans" are fine with that, as we don't have to field questions from people from overseas asking why we would allow our principal sport to continue to be so visibly represented by someone like Don Cherry.
I used to pour concrete down South with guys that dressed like Cherry. They were day laborers who had spent the night at one of their girlfriends' houses and then went directly to the jobsite in the morning.
posted by beaverboard at 09:57 AM on June 10, 2014
The Lakers think they can get Lebron (or Melo).
posted by Etrigan at 09:58 AM on June 10, 2014
Grantland present a football primer ahead of the world cup, by trying to shoe horn football into football, using football to understand football.
Also basketball.
*Warning : Contains Ray Hudson
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:00 AM on June 10, 2014
Just Sepp being Sepp: "We have seen what the British press has published. I don't know what the reasoning is behind this but we must maintain unity."
I'm pretty sure the reasoning was millions of dollars in bribes, not racism. FIFA could teach most dictators a thing or two.
posted by yerfatma at 10:37 AM on June 10, 2014
to continue to be so visibly represented by someone like Don Cherry
Cherry is quite the character, but we'll keep him. He still presents interesting commentary on the game.
Before posting did you consider that mainstream US Hockey broadcasts center around Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire? Yikes.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:04 PM on June 10, 2014
Boston was once described as "a state of mind," by Mark Twain.
I cannot find the quote, but I have heard one that goes something like this: "I have just appeared before a Boston audience - 2000 critics." I believe the origin of this is sometime in the 19th century, and if anyone can tell me the source, please do so.
There are a couple of other quotes about "our fair city" that might apply.
"I guess God made Boston on a wet Sunday." (Raymond Chandler, crime fiction writer - The Big Sleep among other works)
"When I go abroad I always sail from Boston because it is such a pleasant place to get away from." (Oliver Herford, author and illustrator)
The point of all of the above is that excessive criticism and negativity has been a Boston, and indeed a New England, characteristic for many years. Perhaps it is the old Calvinist theology of predestination with a good dose of Roman and Anglican Catholic damnation thrown in. Whatever the reason, things can never get better, only worse. Like an old friend of mine used to say, "Things are always darkest just before they turn completely black" and "In front of every silver lining there's a dark cloud." I don't like to think that this sort of pessimism has become a national characteristic, but I'm afraid that the mass media and our beloved internet have spread the infection.
posted by Howard_T at 03:37 PM on June 10, 2014
Before posting did you consider that mainstream US Hockey broadcasts center around Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire? Yikes.
I grew up with Don Cherry's Rock 'em Sock 'em Hockey and I will always treasure the stone-age bastard for helping give the Bruins their tough guy image, but what is his interesting perspective? Circa the mid-'90s he was saying things like "It's always some broad, yakking away to her friends, [who gets hit with a puck]" -- his perspective isn't an interesting one, it's a character he plays because it makes money. How the existence of Mike Milbury excuses this, I don't know.
posted by yerfatma at 05:16 PM on June 10, 2014
An ad that is going to run during the NBA Finals:
Game.
Set.
Match.
posted by grum@work at 09:06 PM on June 10, 2014
Vanishing spray at the World Cup.
posted by etagloh at 10:21 PM on June 10, 2014
[oops]
posted by etagloh at 10:21 PM on June 10, 2014
Vanishing spray at the World Cup.
Is this the same stuff they use in the MLS?
posted by grum@work at 10:41 PM on June 10, 2014
Shirley Povich on the Boston sports media in 1979; plus ça change.