04/24/24
July 16, 2015
SportsFilter: The Thursday 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.
With the pitches England are setting up for this series, winning the coin flip may mean that you can't lose the game. Australia won the toss today, elected to bat and the pitch is doing nothing.
I expect it will continue to do nothing for two more days and then it'll be a question of whether whoever has to bat fourth is close enough to chase, or close enough to time to bat out for the draw.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:59 AM on July 16, 2015
Watching via The Guardian's OBO. Only one team batting second has won a Lord's Test in the last 15 attempts.
So, yeah, coin toss.
posted by owlhouse at 10:07 AM on July 16, 2015
The big question is, will England tough it out to get close to the 500 Australia put up, or will it be the trademarked first inning collapse, follow on, some semblance of fight when it's already too late and all done in three days?
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:16 AM on July 16, 2015
By the way, if you're a fan of video games, then the upside down devs BigAnt have finally put their Don Bradman's Cricket 2014 on sale. It's a narrow field, but this is by far the best cricket game I've played on any platform.
Buying from there will get you a Steam key. If you don't know what that means, (or you don't know what Third Man means), you should probably pass, but this is really, very good.
Amusingly, the sale comes about because the devs said they'd slash the price if Shane Watson got out LBW again in the second innings in Cardiff. So, well done Shane.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:47 AM on July 16, 2015
Dan Connolly goes out on top. The ten-year-veteran OL was a captain of the Super Bowl championship team this year. He was signed by the Jaguars in 2005 after going undrafted out of Southwestern Missouri State, then joined the Patriots in 2007 via the practice squad. Connolly is perhaps most famous for his 71-yard kickoff return rumble against the Packers late in the 2010 season, for which he won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
He had five diagnosed concussions (one in high school), and cited health concerns as his reason for retirement.
posted by Etrigan at 11:08 AM on July 16, 2015
The Mexico vs Trinidad and Tobago CONCACAF fixture last night was a madhouse, especially in the last minutes of the match. The Trinis spotted Mexico 2, came back in the 2nd half to take a 3-2 lead, were tied and then down a goal in furious action. Finally, at 4-3 Mexico, late in extra time, T&T had a corner. As the T&T player placed the ball for the corner, he was ducking a rain of bottles and other trash. The pitch looked like the local landfill. Sure enough, the cross was true, the striker was free, and T&T pulled out the draw. Games like this could go a long way toward making soccer a lot more popular in the US.
posted by Howard_T at 12:00 AM on July 17, 2015
Plaxico Burress fires one into Nick Saban's groin.