Category: Sports

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

Even more hardly surprising news about Contador

“A test new to the antidoping movement was used for the first time at the Tour de France last summer, and now it appears that the three-time Tour winner Alberto Contador — who tested positive for a banned drug at the race — may have more explaining to do.”

The New York Times has the story. This new test reportedly found evidence of plasticizer — the kind found in plastic IV bags — in Contador’s blood — eight times the minimum amount that signifies doping.

Thank to Kevin for the link.

Michael Vick’s redemption

Bill Simmons on Michael Vick’s redemption includes this:

Eventually, Vick found his voice as a spokesman for the Humane Society. Cynics might say Vick reached that point for the wrong reasons; optimists might say it ended beneficially and that’s all that matters. But if you believe in redemption, how can you not admire the way Vick humbly reinvented himself, dumped every negative influence in his life, surrounded himself with the right voices, picked an NFL franchise that was devoted to making him a better person, quickly won over his teammates and coaches, gracefully handled every interview (and a few biting questions), stayed out of trouble, waited patiently for a chance to shine, then crushed that chance when he got it? What else is left? Was there a box on the “How to salvage your career and character” checklist that Michael Vick didn’t check?

All five in five years

Karen, you may be my only reader (of seven) who cares, so this one’s for you. Congratulations on your team, the Giants, winning the division. (They will win one game this weekend, won’t they?)

Here’s a little fact for you: If the Giants go to the playoffs — they’re one win away — that will mean that in the last five seasons all five NL West teams have reached the playoffs. All five in five years — no other division can claim anything even close to this. Here’s how many seasons back you have to go to say that every team in a division has made the postseason:

AL East: 18 seasons (Toronto last made it in 1983)
AL Central: 26 seasons (Kansas City last made it in 1985)
AL West: 10 seasons (Seattle last made it in 2001 — and remember there are only four teams in the AL West)

NL East: Infinity (Washington has never made the postseason; if you want to go back to their days in Montreal you have to go back to 1981).
NL Central: 19 seasons (PIttsburgh last made it in 1992 — have not had a winning season since).
NL West: 5 seasons (The Padres last made it in 2006)

From a post on the NL West by Joe Posnanski.

The Many Iterations of William Shatner

I was busy with other stuff but came across this and decided you deserve to know about it and read it.

And, speaking of wonderful, entertaining writing — as I was immediately above — here is another — Joe Posnanski on 32 Great Sports Illustrated Covers.

Ode To Quiz and Nolan and Ichiro are both by Posnanski as well, and both exceptionally fine baseball essays.

Truest but too bad line of the day

“Both New Mexico and New Mexico State hired a new coach prior to last season: I don’t think N.M.S.U. struck gold in Walker, but the university certainly could have done worse. Could have done far worse, in fact — it could have hired Mike Locksley, the U.N.M. coach rapidly making a claim to be the worst coach in the country.”

Pre-Snap Read, which has the gory details.

Another:

“Congratulations are in order for Locksley: just when we think you can’t lead this program any lower, you surprise us with a performance like the one we saw on Saturday.”

Alas

In the preseason the New Mexico Lobos were ranked 116th by Pre-Snap Read.

After three losses they’ve slipped to 119th.

Out of 120.

(As we say around here, thank God for North Texas State.)

Arizona on the other hand has gone from 46th to 13th.

New Mexico State has moved up, too — from 115th to 113th.

Good acting or cheating or both, you decide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5iMSrwVUB8

And come to think of it, why did the ball hitting a wooden bat ping like that?

BTW the Rays fielded the ball and Jeter was out at first (unless it brushed his hip, then it was a foul ball).

But the umpire got it wrong and Jeter was given first — and scored. (He’s batting just .262.)

UPDATE: Joe Posnanski on “The Jeter School of Acting.”

The Human Element

Joe Posnanski has another great piece, this mostly about the use of instant replay.

This excerpt was actually an aside, but I liked it. I offer it here for those who don’t want to click the link and see what Joe has to say, but if you follow baseball or football you really should.

Anyway: I have a pretty high tolerance for showboat moves in the NFL. It’s like my friend Michael MacCambridge says — these guys take extreme punishment, they wreck their bodies for money and glory and our entertainment, they really are something close to modern gladiators, as cliche as that has become. And so if they want to celebrate themselves by making exaggerated first down gestures or by flexing when they make a great defensive play or by sounding their barbaric yawps over the rooftops of the world when they score touchdowns, hey, I’m not saying I LOVE it. I’m not saying I don’t reserve special admiration for the Barry Sanders’ move of flipping the touchdown ball to the official. But I’m not bothered by it. Football is a game played best with emotion, with joy, with ferocity, and I can understand and even appreciate the excess.

Why I Like WAR (with Poker talk)

Great baseball stat stuff from Joe Posnanski.

Gotta love the national pastime. Baseball is so great that we (me at least) can enjoy reading not only about baseball, and not only about baseball stats, but analysis of the nature of the stats.

As Posnanski says, “This is all just a goofy Batman could beat Superman talk.”

Precisely!

Look: One of the great things about watching and enjoying sports is that there are no rules. You can believe what you want to believe. It’s supposed to be fun. Dan Quisenberry said the best thing about baseball is that there’s no homework … I would add there are no pop quizzes. If you want to believe that baseball is won entirely by heart, that RBIs and wins are the two most important numbers, that defense can be measured best and entirely by what you see, that Jack Morris and not Bert Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame, that numbers deaden the sport, you are absolutely entitled — more than entitled, you are empowered to see the game as you want to see it, enjoy it as you want to enjoy it. I’m not sure what you’re doing here, 2,000 or so words into this essay about WAR, but you absolutely should watch all sports for the joy of it. I just hope you’re not running a team I like.

In defense of Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, jaywalkers, and all the other scofflaws that make America great

Bill James begins:

First of all, I have absolutely no doubt that, had steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs existed during Babe Ruth’s career, Babe Ruth would not only have used them, he would have used more of them than Barry Bonds. I don’t understand how anyone can be confused about this. The central theme of Babe Ruth’s life, which is the fulcrum of virtually every anecdote and every event of his career, is that Babe Ruth firmly believed that the rules did not apply to Babe Ruth.

It’s a provocative essay really more about crime and America than it is about baseball.

Highly recommended.

Now you don’t see that everyday

Trailing Cincinnati 5-0 after two innings, the Rockies game back to tie the game 5-5 in the eighth on Tulowitzki’s leadoff home run. Giambi walked and Chris Nelson went in to run, getting to third on a throwing error.

And then, with one out, Nelson stole home.

Rockies 6 Reds 5. Sweep.

Here’s the video.

Nelson spent most of the season with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. It was his first Major League stolen base.

Best story of the day

This reminds me of my favorite unlucky criminal of all time — a guy in Spain who tried to steal the luggage of hurdler Larry Wade. At the time, Maurice Greene was the fastest man on earth, and he was there, and he chased after the criminal and caught him and got Larry’s luggage back. It always struck me that the criminal was sitting in a jail cell muttering, “Yeah, of course, my luck, MAURICE GREENE had to be there. If it had been anyone else, I get away. If even the second-fastest man in the world was there, I outrun the guy. But, no, it had to be Maurice Greene.”

Joe Posnanski

If you like baseball read this article and the related one. Best line in the article listing the 32 fastest pitchers is this:

“Lefty Grove could throw a lamb chop past a wolf.”

I had to hold off from including about a dozen more great lines.

Best line of the day

Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press begins his column:

Among the University of Notre Dame’s many purposes — inspiring movies, polarizing college football fans, and, like, educating people and stuff — is measuring our local teams every September.

In the next two weeks, we will get a feel for how good Michigan and Michigan State are. U-M visits South Bend, Ind., on Saturday, and Notre Dame goes to East Lansing the week after that.

The two state programs have some similarities. (I know, I know: It kills you to think your school has ANYTHING in common with the other one. Michigan fans don’t think Michigan State should be allowed to have the words “Michigan” or “University” in its name; Michigan State fans don’t think Michigan fans should be allowed to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. But let’s play nice for a few minutes, OK?)

Rivalry, as in so many states.

It pained me for decades when asked where I went to school and answered, “The University of Arizona.”

And the yahoo would respond, “Oh, Arizona State.”

“No. The University of Arizona. That other school is Tempe Normal to me.”

Arizona State was founded in 1885 as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory. (A normal school trained high school graduates to be teachers, setting teaching standards or norms, hence normal school.)

Only in 1945 did it become Arizona State College. It became Arizona State University in 1958. (Sun Devils is a cool name, though.)

The University of Arizona was established as The University of Arizona in 1885.

Not good

Oregon is defeating New Mexico 59-0.

At the half.

Lobos Coach Mike Locksley should remember to tell his team, in the immortal words of USC Coach John McKay after a particularly lopsided loss, “If you think you need it, take a shower.”

UPDATE:

The final score, Oregon 72 New Mexico 0

And it wasn’t that close. Total offense: Oregon 721 yards, New Mexico 105 (with 5 turnovers).

Aroldis Chapman line of the day

“The average human eye blinks at a speed (between) three-tenths and four-tenths of a second. So if you are the batter and you blink at the point of Chapman’s release, the ball will pass you before you open your eyes again.”

Matt Bynum of Hillerich and Bradsby quoted by Paul Daugherty – SI.com.

Estimated time from Chapman’s hand until the ball crosses the plate at 104 mph — 0.36 seconds.

Steven who?

While summer’s phenom Steven Strasburg prepares for surgery tomorrow, Aroldis Chapman lights ’em up.

Cincinnati’s Chapman appeared in his second game Wednesday, getting the win with an inning of relief.

The Cuban threw 11 pitches, nine for strikes and hit 104 mph twice, four were 102, and he tossed up a 99 mph change of pace.