Commentary and news about sports and sports teams — and media coverage of them.
Ichiro Suzuki is among the greatest to ever hit a baseball — in another decade or two when my grandkids ask who were the best players I ever saw in person, Ichiro will make the list — along with the likes of Mantle, Berra, Ryan, Reggie, Bonds, Schmidt.
But Ichiro can also be more quotable than most as this item at Bats reveals.
Want to get in shape for next month’s Olympics? You need Olympics Statistics and History:
First off, we have not only every medalist ever, but every one [of] the known 110,000+ athletes has their own page from Paavo Nurmi and Boris Shakhlin to Sabine Bau and Knut Johannesen. 24,000 of them even have a brief biographical snippet as well.
There are results for each Summer and Winter Game including the disputed 1906 games.
There are summaries for each sport, each country, each country by sport and each country by event. For sports, we also have a summary of each sport by game.
For each event that has taken place, we have a listing of the medalists for each game (including all participants) and for all games.
Which old witch?
The wicked witch.
CBS has fired Billy Packer.
It ought to be a national day of celebration and thanksgiving.
The Quad, The New York Times college football blog, has been counting down the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Here’s a few links for teams NewMexiKen follows. Michigan was posted just today.
Sports Illustrated recently published the results of a poll taken among 495 major-league baseball players. The question was “Who is the most overrated player in baseball?” and the winner, with 10 percent of the vote, was Derek Jeter. Barry Zito – he’s not overrated, just overpaid – came in second, followed by J.D. Drew, Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Youkilis. Rounding out the top 10 were David Wright, Mark Prior, Andruw Jones, Curt Schilling and Juan Pierre.
David Kelly has more, including his list of the all-time most overrated.
“If they do get together, I hope la Ciccone isn’t expecting much action in October.”
Charles Pierce referring to A-Rod and Madonna.
Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige was born 102 years ago today. A huge star in the Negro Leagues, Paige began pitching in 1926 and was the oldest major league rookie ever when he joined the Cleveland Indians at age 42. Paige pitched in his last major league game in 1965 (at age 59).
In the barnstorming days, he pitched perhaps 2,500 games, completed 55 no-hitters and performed before crowds estimated at 10 million persons in the United States, the Caribbean and Central America. He once started 29 games in one month in Bismarck, N.D., and he said later that he won 104 of the 105 games he pitched in 1934.
By the time Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 as the first black player in the majors, Mr. Paige was past 40. But Bill Veeck, the impresario of the Cleveland club, signed him to a contract the following summer, and he promptly drew crowds of 72,000 in his first game and 78,000 in his third game. (The New York Times)
Paige first published his Rules for Staying Young in 1953. This version is from his autobiography published in 1962, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever.
“But as far as sitting down and watching a sporting event, that’s just not part of my day, it’s not part of my night, and, ahh, I’ll be honest with you, watching The Bachelorette is.”
Joe Buck, Fox Sports’ lead announcer for Major League Baseball and the NFL, on ESPN Radio’s The Herd via Awful Announcing.
NewMexiKen wrote this about Buck six months ago (January 6, 2008):
I’m thinking that Joe Buck doesn’t actually like sports. He likes the life — he learned that from his dad, and he can recite from his notes with the best of them (and then some), but I don’t think he actually likes sports (the game on the field). He got into this because it was the family business.
Two Angels pitchers held the Dodgers hitless for eight innings last night, but it’s not a no hitter because the Dodgers didn’t bat in the ninth inning. They didn’t have to. They were the home team and they were ahead. The Dodgers won without a hit.
It’s only the fifth time since 1900 that a major league baseball team has won without getting a hit.
Angels, no runs, five hits, two errors.
Dodgers, one run, no hits, two errors.
The Los Angeles Times has the story on the Dodgers no hit 1-0 win.
Those who have seen Field of Dreams or read the book on which it was based, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, will remember the character “Moonlight” Graham, played by Burt Lancaster in the film.
Archibald Wright Graham (1876-1965) was an actual player, and a doctor. Graham played in one game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905 (in the movie it was the last game of the season in 1929). Graham played two innings in the field but never batted in the major leagues; he was on deck when his one game ended.
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home!
I give you my revised list of the two commandments:
Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie and Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.Two is all you need; Moses could have carried them down the hill in his fuckin’ pocket. I wouldn’t mind those folks in Alabama posting them on the courthouse wall, as long as they provided one additional commandment:
Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin, 1937-2008
SAN DIEGO—A man who used several different bent sticks to hit a ball to an area comprised of very short grass surrounding a hole in the ground was praised for his courage Monday after he used a somewhat smaller stick to gently roll the ball into the aforementioned hole in fewer attempts than his competitors.
The Onion – America’s Finest News Source. There’s more.
Thanks to Jill for the pointer.
Reconstructive knee surgery.
“As for Tiger’s knee pains at the U.S. Open? Armchair surgeons suspect it’s either an anterior cruciate or a rocco mediate.”
122 franchises in American professional team sports and the Boston Celtics are my 122nd favorite.
An excellent column from John Feinstein about Tiger Woods and the U.S. Open.
Feinstein gets off a couple of great lines and some valid criticisms, too — among them, you DON’T throw clubs.
Thanks to Jill for the pointer.
“There were no fewer than 1,004 mentions of Tiger’s knee surgery during the five days of coverage … but does anyone know what the surgery entailed? How come there was never any specific mention as to what kind of surgery he had?”
NewMexiKen has been watching sports for at least 56 years that I can remember and while fully understanding the emotion that makes the contest du jour the event of the century, I must say that the past three days of U.S. Open coverage have been absolutely compelling. It just doesn’t get any better.
91st hole, sudden death. Woods putts for win, misses, then taps in. Mediate putts to tie (and continue the match).
P.S. The four most dramatic putts in memory (on 18) and the imbeciles who manage the local NBC affiliate run a programming crawl that cancels out the high definition picture, then forget to change back until Woods and Mediate have finished.
The Quad, The New York Times college sports blog, is counting down the 120 bowl division college football teams.
The season begins on Aug. 28 and to get you ready for that momentous date, The Quad is ranking all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. We’ll begin today with No. 120 and reveal one each day until we get to No. 1. In addition to ranking the teams, we’ll provide plenty of relevant on-the-field facts as well as some fun off-the-field tidbits that you can use to impress your friends. Feel free to disagree with our rankings. As we all know, the great thing about college football is that it all gets settled on the field. Oh, wait …
Alas, they’re only to number 76, and there’s my alma mater, The University of Arizona.
Toughest quote: “Entering his third year as the starter, Tuitama is in position to set all of Arizona’s meaningful quarterback records. Except victories, of course.”
“How resounding was the Celtics’ comeback from a 24-point deficit to beat the Lakers in Game 4?
“Cemetery workers swear they could smell cigar smoke wafting up from Red Auerbach’s grave.”
Sixty-nine years ago today.
Back row: Honus Wagner, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Walter Johnson.
Seated: Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Cy Young.
Ty Cobb is absent from the photo; he had missed a train and arrived late.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was officially dedicated in colorful ceremony on June 12, 1939. The game’s four ranking executives of the period — [Kenesaw M.] Landis, [Ford] Frick, [William] Harridge and William G. Bramham, President of the National Association — participated in the ribbon-cutting. Of the 25 immortals who had been elected to the Hall of Fame up to that point, 11 were still living; and all of them journeyed to Cooperstown to attend the centennial celebration. A baseball postage stamp commemorating the occasion was placed on sale that day at the Cooperstown post office, with Postmaster General James A. Farley presiding.
Check out the Babe’s socks. He was into the low-cut sock look long before anyone else.
salary vs performance is a chart that “looks at all 30 Major League Baseball Teams and ranks them on the left according to their day-to-day standings. The lines connect each team to their 2008 salary, listed on the right.”
The more vertical the blue line, the better the ratio. (Congratulations Rays and Marlins!) The more vertical the red line the worse. (Way to go Yankees, Tigers and Mariners!).