Category: Sports

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

The shot

Joel Achenbach explains Tiger’s miracle shot:

What few people realize is that this is all done with powerful magnets. Augusta National has the most advanced electronics underneath its greens of any golf course in America. There’s essentially an entire city down there, with technicians in jump suits, hallways as long as a Par 5, enough computing power to track a fleet of satellites. In fact they use GPS to guide the ball into the hole. Basically all Tiger had to do was get the ball somewhere on the green — anywhere. Although he hit a terrible shot and came nowhere close to the hole, the folks in the bunker took over and guided the ball home.

Achenbach goes on to explain that this was because Tiger’s success is more critical to the television networks and corporate sponsors than Chris DiMarco’s.

The Masters

NewMexiKen isn’t sure why the commentators keep making such a deal out of Tiger Woods’ shot on 16 during the final round of the Masters yesterday. I’ve made that uphill, curve around and drop back into the hole shot dozens of times.

And I usually have to hit it through a minature windmill, too.

Interesting that after the high of seven birdies in a row, Tiger bogeyed two holes. Then after the high of making an impossible shot on 16, he also bogeyed the next two holes. Coincidence, or does Tiger let up a notch after reaching some emotional height?

Chris DiMarco showed more game than all the rest of the golfers out there. And a short game to die for.

The old guys who run the Masters should be ashamed of their biases and all, but they sure know how to keep the romance in a golf tournament. Limited TV coverage; better yet, limited commercial time away. Without the barrage of disconnected messages, the viewer can actually get caught up in the drama. Good commentary from CBS too, primarily focused on the play in front of them.

Reality TV at its best.

Talking the talk

• John Salley, co-host of FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” on reports of steroid use by NFL players in the 1970s: “Who cares? Their job is to entertain us and go back to their cages.”

• Comedian Argus Hamilton, on the Yankees’ Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui — not Jason Giambi or Gary Sheffield — being chosen for random drug tests this week: “By this logic, the Nuremburg trials would have indicted General Eisenhower and Bob Hope.”

Sideline Chatter

Let Jimmy Chitwood shoot it!

Fantastic Four – Best basketball weekend ever: Comebacks! Overtimes! Bad coaching! By Robert Weintraub. An excerpt:

Still, these questionable moves are small beer next to the plays “drawn up” in the endgame by Kentucky’s Tubby Smith and Arizona’s Lute Olson. Two coaches who have won national championships. Two graduates of the Andy Reid School of Clock Management and Game-Ending Infamy.

Don’t rail against Olson because the Wildcats blew a 15-point lead in the span of a single TV timeout. Perhaps owing to a home-court edge the tournament supposedly eradicated years ago, Illinois won late-game favor from whistle-swallowing referees who allowed the final minutes to turn into an episode of The Shield. Even with the historic comeback, Arizona still had the game in its hands with seconds left. So, what does Lute draw up? A clear-out for Salim Stoudamire, who was off during the game but hit game-winners in the regular-season finale and 48 hours previous against Oklahoma State? Perhaps a simple two-man game with Stoudamire and big man Channing Frye, who dominated inside all night? Nope, he put the ball in the hands of Hassan Adams, a brilliant offensive rebounder who can’t pass or sink outside shots. Adams should’ve been crashing the boards to tip in a potential Stoudamire miss. Instead, he heaved an off-balance chuck—and this crazy shot didn’t come close to going in.

Exactly!

How dumb are the people who run Division I-A football not to decide their championship on the field of play the way college basketball does, with teenagers and barely twenty-somethings doing unpredictable, inexplicable, sometimes wonderful but also very human things one night after another in March.

Michael Wilbon

They’re very dumb; world class dumb.

The not-so-great seer

NewMexiKen promised to link back to Thinking ahead to the Final Four, but was so discouraged by Arizona’s loss I forgot.

I said that in Chicago, the winner of the Arizona-Oklahoma State game would go to St. Louis. I was wrong, it’s Illinois.

In Albuquerque, I said it would be the winner of the Louisville-Washington game, and it’s Louisville.

In Syracuse, I thought North Carolina would win, and that was correct.

For Austin, I predicted the winner of the Utah-Kentucky game would emerge, but Michigan State defeated Kentucky.

Two for four.

Louisville and Michigan State showed great desire, winning in overtime and double overtime respectively, but my choice to win it all is Illinois, which showed they would not be denied. If not, may Roy Williams of North Carolina finally win a championship.

Speaking up for Barry Bonds

Joel Achenbach looks at Barry Bonds from another direction:

No one has ever done what Barry Bonds did at the plate. Even in a league rife with steroids he has stood out as leaps and bounds better than everyone else. That’s why he has to go into the Hall even if people think that he’s a steroid cheater. We judge athletes against their competition. Even steroids don’t let your average superstar win seven, count ’em, seven MVP awards. If steroids make such a big difference than how come Jose Canseco never reached 500 home runs for his career? Canseco never managed to hit 50 home runs in a season, much less the 73 that Bonds hit to set that all-time record. Bonds has inspired more fear in pitchers than Canseco, McGwire and Sosa combined. He became, in his late 30s, so dangerous at the plate that he deformed the basic principles of pitching. Last year he walked 232 times, which is absurd, and by far the all-time record, but what’s stunning is that, of those, 120 were “intentional” walks, meaning the pitcher didn’t even pretend to want to pitch to him. Pitchers basically gave up.

Even if we believe that Bonds took steroids and that by doing so betrayed the game, the fact of the matter is that Bonds has been at the center of the steroid controversy not because he abused them in any special way. It’s because he’s a lot better than everyone else.

Winning ways

NewMexiKen wrote in December that the local high school, La Cueva, had won its second consecutive state football championship and gone 26-0 over the two years.

I learned Thursday that the La Cueva baseball team has gone 67-0, not losing a game since May 2002. On Tuesday they will play for their 68th consecutive win and a chance to tie the national record winning streak. (Archbishop Molloy High of Briarwood, N.Y., went 68-0 from 1963-1966.)

It must be the water.

Game winner

The photo below is the game winner by Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire with 2.8 seconds left. Arizona beat Oklahoma State 79-78.

Stoudamire was four for four in the closing minutes.

The elite athletes

U.S. Men’s National Team coach Bruce Arena on the increasing attraction of soccer to the best young American athletes:

I think any young kid that aspires to play a sport they always look to the top. In this country, traditionally, we’ve had an NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, etc. We’ve rarely had a professional league in soccer. Over the past 10 years I think it’s been obvious to kids that they can become professional soccer players in the United States. They see the success of some of our young players, DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, now Eddie Johnson. They realize that that’s ahead of them as well. I think that inspires African-American players, Hispanics, Caucasians, etc. Professional soccer, I believe, is here to stay in the United States and it will now compete for our elite athletes and I think that’s been the reason. The existence and growth of MLS has developed a dream for young kids.

The U.S. plays Mexico in a World Cup qualifying match this Sunday at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City live on ESPN2 and Telemundo at 11AM MT. The whole interview with Coach Arena is here.

Ya’ think?

There are two facts to consider here. If Barry Bonds really has been juiced all this time — what are his options? To keep doing it until he gets caught? To suddenly stop and turn back into your average 40-year old ballplayer and never get to pass Hank Aaron’s record?

Or is a third one more appealing? To ‘have’ to retire due to the bad knee, or the ‘malicious’ media coverage. To pass up the chance at Aaron’s record (and, oh by the way, to pass up ever having to be tested for steroids again) and go out in a blaze of martyrdom?

Some of Bonds’ other remarks in Scottsdale suggested as much. “You wanted me to jump off the bridge,” he said to no one in particular, “and I finally jumped. You wanted to bring me down and you have brought me and my family down. You have finally done it, all of you. So now, go pick on a different person. I am done.”

There is one other option here, a little less melodramatic, but even more conspiratorial. It should be noted that under the new steroid-testing program, a player on baseball’s disabled list — say, a guy rehabilitating a knee injury — is not required to be tested for the drug use. If, say, a particular player had been using steroids all these years and needed to let the steroids clear out of his system, the absolute best place for him to be right now — would be on a pair of crutches.

Keith Olbermann

First round upsets

Some interesting numbers from Salon’s King Kaufman:

Here’s the number of first-round upsets, not counting 9-over-8, in each of the last 10 years:

1996 — 6
1997 — 5
1998 — 8
1999 — 7
2000 — 3
2001 — 9
2002 — 7
2003 — 5
2004 — 3
2005 — 5 …

Here are second-round upsets over the last 10 years, not counting 5-over-4. Keep in mind, the second round is only 16 games, half as many as the first:

1996 — 3
1997 — 5
1998 — 3
1999 — 6
2000 — 8
2001 — 3
2002 — 5
2003 — 4
2004 — 5
2005 — 5

So over the last 10 years there have been 58 upsets in the first round, or one every 5.5 games. In the second round there have been 47 upsets, one every 3.4 games.

And, for all the talking heads nonsense last weekend about “parity,” no real trends, though Kaufman theorizes that the NCAA is seeding the tournament better.

Thinking ahead to the Final Four

Here’s who NewMexiKen thinks will be booking a trip to St. Louis:

Chicago: The winner of the Arizona-Oklahoma State game.

Albuquerque: The winner of the Louisville-Washington game.

Syracuse: North Carolina.

Austin: The winner of the Utah-Kentucky game.

I promise to link back to this Sunday evening for the appropriate praise or ridicule.

You are invited to climb out on your own limb in Comments.

Blaming the messenger

Stanford fan Broken Cowboy also sees problems with the CBS coverage of the NCAA tournament:

CBS doesn’t seem to like to show early round games in their entirety; instead they feel like they have to jump around. So while I was trying to watch Stanford and Mississippi State, Gumbel interrupted the action towards the end of the first half and told me I’d have to watch Kansas and Bucknell. No problem, though. Stanford was up 39-27, and things were looking good.

But as Kansas and Bucknell were running back and forth across my screen, the ticker in the corner told me that Mississippi State was coming back and coming back quickly. When CBS decided to send us back to our original game, it was tied at 41. Damn you, CBS. Then when the Bulldogs started to pull away in the second half, opening up a ten-point lead, Gumbel again switched us back to the Kansas game. From there the lead exploded, and the Cardinal ended up on the business end of a mysterious blowout. Why mysterious? Because they played pretty well — actually better than Mississippi State — when I was watching. Take a look:

Televised:
24:43 — Stanford 51, Miss. State 49
Not Televised:
15:17 — Miss. State 44, Stanford 19

There could be other factors involved, but I choose to blame CBS.

Double overtime

The West Virginia victory over Wake Forest in double overtime last night was reality TV at its best. Six players (three from each team) had left the island (fouled out). The drama included made free throws and missed free throws and some stunning game tying threes at the end of regulation and the first OT.

And an incredible block by the Demon Deacons’ Eric Williams to save the tie at the end of the first OT.

West Virginia’s Mike Gansey’s scored 19 of his 29 points in the extra periods.

The underdog Mountaineers won. Billy Packer’s alma mater lost.

NCAA and CBS

The NCAA tournament is exclusive to CBS. Some games I believe can be watched through the internets, but if you’re a typical viewer you’re stuck with what CBS gives you.

What I don’t understand is why the people at Viacom/CBS aren’t clever enough to make money by showing all the games in full on their several channels. Viacom not only owns CBS, they also own UPN. UPN has coverage in 86% of the U.S. Why not show a second game on UPN?

Viacom also owns MTV, Nickelodeon, Black Entertainment Television, VH1, Spike TV, CMT, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix and some others. Ought to be room enough for every game.

Hey Viacom, by next year figure out how to make your profit and please the fans. We all have remotes — let us switch between games.

And no annoucers over 70.

[ ]

Get it? The headline. Brackets.

Anyway, no upsets in the Albuquerque region. The top eight seeds advanced.

Elsewhere three of the nine seeds beat eight seeds. This always happens. The nines are good picks. Pacific was the only eight seed to win.

A 14, a 13, a 12, an 11 and a 10 seed all won.

NewMexiKen picked New Mexico to defeat Villanova. I didn’t know the Lobos were going to phone-in the first half. The score at half time was 34-11. Eleven! Nice gutsy comeback in the second half though. UNM won the second half 36-21.