Category: Sports

Commentary and news about sports and sports teams — and media coverage of them.

It can always get worse

So some kid carrying twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system was driving the UNM football coach’s SUV when arrested yesterday. He said he was a recruit, but it appears he was possibly just a friend of the coach’s son. Whatever.

He was driving through the football game crowd when stopped. Not that he could have done any harm there — it was the smallest crowd at a New Mexico home game in 19 years. (They lost to a FCS school, Sam Houston State, in OT 45-48. Now 0-4.)

Meanwhile the most recent former UNM coach, Rocky Long, was coaching the San Diego State Aztecs in front of 110,707 at Ann Arbor.

Didn’t Sam Houston State used to be Sam Houston Institute of Technology?

Update: The 19-year-old was charged with aggravated DWI, minor in possession of alcohol, reckless driving and driving without a license.

Moneyball

From Roger Ebert’s review:

“Moneyball” is not a traditional sports movie, and indeed should be just as gripping for non-sports fans. It’s not a series of Big Games. When it goes to the field, it’s for well-chosen crucial moments. Its essence is in terse, brainy dialogue by the two accomplished screenwriters Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network”) and Steven Zaillian (“Gangs of New York”). As in “The Social Network,” abstract discussions reflect deep emotional conflicts. There are a lot of laughs, but only one or two are inspired by lines intended to be funny. Instead, our laughter comes from recognition, an awareness of irony, an appreciation of perfect zingers — and, best of all, insights into human nature.

From Joe Posnanski’s review:

This is a pretty long movie — more than two hours. And there are a lot of scenes where nothing happens. We spend a good chunk of time alone with Billy Beane in the car. There are plot swings that don’t go anywhere. There’s a lot of actual baseball footage — probably more than has ever before been in a major motion picture. And, let’s face it, some of the crucial questions of the movie are: (1) Will Beane be able to acquire Ricardo Rincon? (2) Will the A’s beat a terrible Kansas City Royals team? (3) Will A’s manager Art Howe realize he should have Chad Bradford, and not Mike Magnante, as the first man out of the pen?

These aren’t exactly, “Will Luke be able to destroy the Death Star,” or “Does Ilsa choose Rick or Victor” sorts of questions.

The Geography of College Football Fans (and Realignment Chaos)

Nate Silver on The Geography of College Football Fans (and Realignment Chaos)

Surveys find that about one-quarter of the United States population, or between 75 and 80 million people, follow college football regularly. But which teams do they align themselves with?

This question is not easy to answer, but we’re going to make an effort to resolve it, and then use the results to shine a light on college football’s increasingly complicated realignment picture.

Best baseball on TV line of the day

“For the World Series, how about letting the great Vin Scully have one last hurrah?  We won’t have many more chances to hear this national treasure.   Oh, and let him work alone. It’s the best Tim McCarver will ever sound.

“And while we’re on the subject of the upcoming baseball playoffs – there’s something wrong when Dick Stockton is working for two networks and Jon Miller is not even working for one.”

By Ken Levine

The Myth of Pressure

Joe Posnanski thinks the best player is the best player, regardless of the pennant race. Pressure he says, is not on the winners.

Think about it: What pressure is there on players in pennant races? The pressure to win? Sure. But players come to the ballpark energized. Everyone on the team is into it. The crowd is alive and hopeful. The afternoon crackles. Anticipation. Excitement. There is nothing in sports quite like the energy in a baseball clubhouse during a pennant race. Players arrive early to prepare. Teammates help each other. Everyone’s in a good mood. There’s a feeling swirling around: This is exactly the childhood dream. The added importance of the moment could, in theory I suppose, create extra stress. But the reality I’ve seen is precisely the opposite. The importance sharpens the senses, feeds the enthusiasm, makes the day brighter. Baseball is a long season. Anything to give a day a little gravity, to separate it from yesterday, to make it all more interesting … anything like that, I think, is much more likely to make it EASIER to play closer to the peak.

A losing clubhouse? Exactly the opposite. The downward pressure is enormous and overwhelming — after all, who cares? The town has moved on. A Hawaiian vacation awaits. Teammates are fighting to keep their jobs or fighting to impress someone on another team or just plain fighting. The manager might be worried about his job. The reporters are few, and they’re negative. Smaller crowds make it easier to hear the drunken critics. Support is much harder to come by, and there is constant, intense force demanding that you just stop trying so hard. After all: Why take that extra BP? You’ve got the swing down. Why study a few extra minutes of film? You’ve faced that hitter before. Why take that extra base? Why challenge him on that 3-1 pitch? Why? You’re down 9-3 anyway.

Click above to read Joe’s analysis of pressure. Click here to read his strategy for the AL MVP vote.

Play of the day

This is a AAA game, Nashville Sounds vs. Omaha Storm Chasers.

Runners at first and second none out.

And if it isn’t clear, yes it is a triple play (notice tag of second before throw to first).

The Ball-Strike Machine

Among the great things about baseball are some that its critics most disparage — too slow and too many statistics. Many of us that love baseball cherish most that it moves at a pace that allows us to revel in the inside stuff.

Joe Posnanski has written another piece that shows what I mean. There are human beings that despite the great effort it takes to pitch, can throw the ball with various speeds and spins and move it around within a finite space. Read about Glavine and Maddux deep in his story and think of the mastery it takes. The Ball-Strike Machine.

I don’t think there’s really any question that Maddux in his prime was the beneficiary of a wide strike zone. He didn’t just achieve this with his name or reputation. He achieved it by expanding the zone with his almost ludicrous command of pitching. He pitched the way a brilliant shell-game operator works the cup and balls — he showed the umpire a pitch a tenth of an inch outside, then pitch a half inch outside, then a pitch three-quarters of an inch outside, and so on, until he could throw a pitch into Centennial Park and the umpire would think it grazed the corner.

Six Hundred

Minnesota Twins DH Jim Thome joined an elite group last night, hitting his 599th and 600th career home runs to join this group:

Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Alex Rodriguez 626
Sammy Sosa 609
Jim Thome 600

Jill wrote me last night to say she, Byron and 10-year-old Mack had seen five of the eight play in person. Only two for me I think, Rodriguez and Griffey. (Jill also reminded me that we saw Rodriguez play in the first series of his career, July 1994 Seattle at Boston.)

Joe Posnanski has a nice tribute to Thome.

Hardball

Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was hit by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds on this date in 1920. Chapman apparently never saw the pitch. It hit his head hard enough that Mays thought it had hit the bat; the pitcher fielded the carom and tossed it to first for the presumed out. Chapman took a few steps and collapsed (some reports say he collapsed immediately). He died the next day.

The tragedy caused Major League Baseball to direct umpires to replace the baseball whenever it became dirty. The spitball was outlawed as well, partially in response to Chapman’s death. Previously pitchers dirtied every ball as soon as it was put in play, with dirt, tar, tobacco juice, petroleum jelly. A sticky, dirty off-balance ball could be thrown contrary to the batters expectations — and was hard to see.

Batting helmets were not made mandatory until 1971, though some teams adopted them earlier. Older players could choose not to wear a helmet. The last was in 1979.

On April 12, 1909, Philadelphia Athletics catcher Michael Riley “Doc” Powers crashed into the wall chasing a pop up. He died of of peritonitis as a result of the surgeries two weeks later. And he himself was a physician. It was opening day.

Those are the only two fatalities from on-field action in Major League history.

I attended a game, probably in 1957. Kansas City vs. Detroit at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium. If I’ve found the right game, it was Jim Bunning vs. Don Larsen. I do remember Vic Power coming to the plate as a pinch hitter and declining a batting helmet. Bunning made him reconsider quickly however, and Power made a great show of going to the dugout and putting on a helmet.

Ben Hogan

… was born 99 years ago today. Hogan was the great golfer of mid-century, overcoming injuries from a severe, near-fatal auto accident. Hogan won four U.S. Opens, two Masters, two PGAs and one British Open between 1946-53.

At some point NewMexiKen read a story about Hogan playing in a pro-am. The duffer with him kept asking how he, Hogan, did this and how he did that, as if the amateur could match Hogan’s skills if only he used the right club. Finally, after a wonderful chip shot, the amateur asked Hogan which club he had used. That was too much. Hogan proceeded to pull out every club in his bag and make perfect chip shots onto the green with each.

James Dodson’s is a good biography of Hogan.

So It Was Steve Williams All Along

“[Adam] Scott closed with a 5-under 65 and brought smiles to his caddie, Steve Williams, whom Tiger Woods fired last month after 12 years. Williams had been with Woods for 16 world titles, including seven at Firestone.”

Golf.com

It was Scott’s first World Title. Williams, the caddy, now has 17.