Thursday, June 28, 2012

Sports/Movies Quick Hits: June 28th Edition

There were a lot of things going on in the last few days/week or so that I just wanted to hit on briefly:

The BCS(hank) Redemption



The BCS has finally come to terms with the necessity that is a playoff for college football. This should be interesting, especially the two years in between the vote and actual implementation. I hope that a team doesn't get screwed out of a chance to prove themselves just because their timing was off by a year. Eventually, I'd like to see 8 or 16 teams, but I realize this won't occur anytime soon. Mostly, I just want any undefeated Division I-A school to have a chance at a national title, just like in every other collegiate sport. That's all I've ever asked of football. I hope this solution provides closure.

Friday, June 22, 2012

What Now for the NBA?


Scene: NBA Offices in New York City. David Stern is in a board room surrounded by a few choice individuals and a few interns brainstorming a solution to the impending lack of big story line for the league next year


David Stern (DS) : Alright guys, we rode the "LeBron doesn't have a ring yet so you should keep watching to see if he gets one" story line as long as we could. We bribed the Cleveland front office for 6 years to avoid talented free agents and make terrible draft picks. We planted the idea of a super team in the minds of Dwyane Wade and several of LeBron's "friends". Now that he's "redeemed" himself, we need a new angle. What do you got?

Monday, June 18, 2012

Is Prometheus a Game-Changer?


Ridley Scott's Prometheus has already been lauded as the savior of this summer's batch of movies and the savior of an entire movie genre. After seeing it myself last Saturday, I was confused.

I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was intriguing, well-filmed, and thought-provoking. But I also came out of it a bit.... befuddled. No, it wasn't the plot's various twists and turns that had me scratching my head. It was the insistence of setting the table for a sequel through various plot cliff hangers and an ambiguous ending that had me down right mystified.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Friday Fisticuffs - Stanley Cup Over/Unders


I hear you. "Stanley Cup over/unders? Lord Stanley's playoffs already ended. The Kings beat the Devils. You just wrote about it! Clown fisticuffs, bro." But no worries, this is a little different. These over/unders are actually about Lord Stanley's Cup. We all know about the Cup's rich tradition, crazy places its been, stories of what it's held, and tales of its undoubtedly unlikely survival amidst inordinate inebriation. So today we bring you over/unders on the Cup's 2012 summer journey with the Kings. Each player gets one day with it. What will happen? One can only guess...and we will.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

LeBron (Tries to) Get(s) by With (a/very) Little Help From His Friends



With the Miami Heat losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals, I feel as though most people are going to heap large amounts of hate and "He's not clutch," talk on LeBron James. Ok, if you want to be naive about the whole situation and bash him for that, fine. But at least take into account the fact that he has been playing with the equivalent of four high school girls for most of his career. Don't believe me? Read on.

Let's look at some of LeBron's greatest hits, some of his best playoff games and the supporting cast he had to put on his back and carry in those games. We'll analyze LeBron's accompanying starting 4 and their PERs (player efficiency rating, not a perfect stat by any means but one that takes into account most statistical factors including normalized numbers and rates players pretty reasonably in a single statistic) both for that individual season, and their career in order to gain context about whether players were past their prime or not (biggest outlier being Shaq).

Then I'll shoot out the average PER of some elite players' other four starting teammates for their respective great playoff runs.

The Pujols Deal from a Tax Perspective



Surprisingly enough, Mark and I have friends. Today we're proud to publish what was originally a facebook note by our mutual friend Ben. I won't speak for Mark, but this post requires about 100 times the brain power that I possess. So put your thinking caps on, and enjoy this guest writer's law school perspective on Albert Pujol's decision.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Just A Lot of Jealousy



By now it's been well documented. The Kings have won the Stanley Cup! They haven't won since they entered the league in 1967! Congrats Wayne Gretzky! Congrats Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, Dave Taylor, Luc Robitaille, Rogie Vachon, and Bob Berry! Congrats long time announcer Bob Miller and all other Kings legends! What a tortured fan base this has been, it's just been kept on the down low! 


The outpour of love for the Kings franchise and fan base has begun. And it's making me sick. This movie is miscast. This script was written for the Blues.


The Blues are now the only team of the NHL's 1967 Expansion 6 that haven't won a Cup. The Flyers won in '74 and '75 with the Broad Street Bullies. The Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993 and won their Cup in '99. The California Seals never won, disqualifying them in the Expansion 6 Cup-race. However, they eventually moved to Cleveland and merged with the North Stars, so you could say they got their Cup that way.The Penguins won in '91 and '92. The Kings are now the 2012 champs. The Blues? Still 0-12 in Stanley Cup Final games. Yup, swept by the Canadiens and Bruins three straight years from 1968-1970. 

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Host With the Most: Day 4 at Euro 2012


Soccer is known as "the beautiful game." And sometimes it is just that: beautiful.

Andriy Shevchenko probably understood this more than anything on June 11th. Ancient in soccer years at 35, Shevchenko scored two spectacular aerial goals to push one of the co-hosts to victory in the first game, giving Ukraine a position atop Group D.

Not only was it beautiful play, but the joy and pride on the faces of the host countries' fans was enough for anyone new to the sport of soccer to understand the importance and beauty of the game.

After finding themselves down 1-0 on a well-developed goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic early in the second half, the blue and yellow found a away to connect with a tenacious Shevchenko on two occasions, sending Olympic Stadium into a complete state of pandemonium.

What is so beautiful about the occasion may be the fact that a European after-thought finds itself above perennial powers France and England. Or that a man who may have been retired had his home country not been hosting the most prestigious tournament in soccer scored two goals.

I can't wait to see what the beautiful game provides us with the rest of the tournament.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Review of Day 1 at Euro 2012

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01524/RobertLewandowski_1524571a.jpg
An insane opening match to start Euro 2012. At first, it seemed Greece was packing it in without putting any pressure on the ball allowing Poland to wreak all sorts of havoc in the first 20 minutes, allowing Lewondoski to score early on to energize the home crowd. But the lunacy was just beginning.

After a harsh first yellow card on Sokratis Papastathopoulos, a phantom second yellow in the 44th minute of play made it appear as if UEFA had pulled a FIFA in terms of match rigging (the former for one of the co-host countries, the latter for France to qualify for the 2010 World Cup). With Greece looking hapless with 11 men, one only assumed they would look dreadful with 10.
However, early in the second half, a mix up between Polish goal keeper Wojciech Szczesny and a defender gave Greek midfielder Dimitris Salpigidis a free chip shot to equalize in stunning fashion. More bizarre turns awaited.

Having just subbed in, Konstantinos Fortounis chipped a brilliant pass over the Polish defense setting up a chance for Salpigidis to add on another tally. His first touch wasn't perfect but Szczesny came off his line, chased the ball, and purposely tripped the attacking player, bringing about an immediate red card and a penalty to Greece. As Ian Darke said, "the match [had] turned on its head." The sub Przemyslaw Tyton came on, said a quick prayer, and went on to save the penalty from the Greek captain Giorgos Karagounis.


With the game ending in a 1-1 draw, both sides believe more could have went their way to get the greatly coveted 3 points in the first match of group play.


The other match saw much less drama, in terms of cards and outcome.
For the first 12 minutes or so the Czech had about a vast majority of the possession with Russia looking extremely discombobulated. But they seemingly just needed to get comfortable on Polish soil. They quickly tallied two goals, one by whiz kid Alan Dzagoev, the second by Roman Shirokov, chipping over a seemingly overwhelmed Petr Cech.

Both goals showed an astonishingly lackadaisical Czech back line.
With the defense settling in to a uncomfortable wobble, the game slowed to a bit of a crawl. With Vaclav Pilar scoring 7 minutes past halftime, the Czech seemingly had life again. But the chances of an equalizer grew fainter and fainter with each passing minute and in the 79th Dzagoev struck again with authority on a ball Cech could have done better on. Add a final bit of penalty box wizardry by Roman Pavlyuchenko and the Russians had a well deserved 4-1 results, putting them in a commanding position in the group going forward.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Friday Fisticuffs - Euro Predictions


Because when website ratings are low, you go to what draws the most attention. Therefore we bring you predictions of a soccer tournament that the U.S. isn't allowed to be in. Here are Mark and I's predictions for Euro 2012:

Mark


Group A

1st Russia
2nd Poland

Pained me to not pick my fellow Czech country men but hosts tend to overachieve and Russia is one of the best teams people hardly ever talk about. They made the semis in 2008 and lost to eventual champion, Spain.

Group B

1st Germany
2nd Netherlands

I found the Group of Death surprisingly easy to pick. Portugal's defense is incredibly suspect. Denmark will miss out due to goal differential.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

A Quick Defense of LBJ


Ok, I admit it. I'm a LeBron James sympathizer. I don't know why because I usually don't like "the best" in a sport. Don't like Tiger all that much, hate Federer and Nadal, hate Brady. But after the whole 'Decision' debacle, I looked past the lame intro party the Big Three threw and enjoyed watching the transcendent talent that LBJ displayed on a general, night in, night out basis.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Baseball's Greatest Rarity


In Major League Baseball's treasured "modern" history (1900 and after), numbers are everything.

A player has hit for the cycle 293 times.
There have been 272 no-hitters throw in major league history. (Sorry Justin Verlander, you were just short of 273.)
A pitcher has thrown an "immaculate inning" (3 strikeouts in 9 pitches) only 45 times. (Some bizarre people on this list.)
Pitchers have combined for only 19 perfect games. (Phil Humber most recently.)
After Josh Hamilton obliterated the Orioles, only 16 players had 4 home runs in a single game.
Only 15 fielders have turned unassisted triple plays (twice it ended a game, once it happened in the World Series).
A miniscule 13 sluggers have hit two grand slams in a single game. (Fernando Tatis did it in an inning.)

These are incredibly rare historical feats. Their scarcity is reflected in the numbers. Let me drop an even rarer number on you. Something currently more rare than unassisted triple plays and four homer games.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Top Fantasy Flops

A picture of Nyjer Morgan getting clotheslined? Yes please.

When you need ideas for post topics, you think of what you know and are good at. After assuming no one wants to read about the St. Louis Blues, I decided that whining about poor fantasy baseball performances was something I'm supremely talented in, and everyone could relate to. So break out the tissues and have a good cry, or take pleasure in others misfortune. Here are your top fantasy baseball flops of 2012 thus far:

Friday, May 25, 2012

Friday Fisticuffs: St. Louis Cardinals Edition

lilithnews.com
Welcome to the first of hopefully many Fisticuff Fridays! Each Friday Mark and I will face off in some sort of contest that divides readers at greater than Democrat vs. Republican levels. This week we play "closest to the pin," predicting what some of the Cardinals stat lines will look like at the end of the year. We may or may not have also predicted Mr. Pujols end of the year results. Cause they're hilarious ... -ly bad ... for him. I miss you Albert. 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Ratemyteammates.com

A few years ago, back in my college days, I overheard some fellow freshman muttering in the cafeteria about the professor of their physics class. After a few choice words were said about the aforementioned professor's teaching techniques, one my peers stated defiantly, "Let's take him down on rate my professors dot com!"

I had heard rumblings of such a site but never really felt the need to use it. My professors were either pretty chill, pretty funny, or just so mediocre I had no need to rate them one way or the other. But a few weeks ago, after listening to a discussion on some sporting radio program about team chemistry, a thought struck me.

What if there was a website where athletes could post anonymously about their teammates, rating them on a scale and discussing them and how they performed as a teammate, not only considering their athletic skills but their overall effects on the team's physical, mental, and emotional state?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Outfield Chatter

angelsarms.org

Attending sporting events is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Why leave your big screen HD TV to pay $15 or more for a ticket and equally as much for food? You can cozy up on your couch, watch the game, eat pizza, and stare at your fantasy team as it goes 0-24 on your laptop. 


Well last night I was reminded just how great attending a baseball game can be. Sometimes I'm hesitant to pay for the trouble of attending Cardinal games. After all, baseball can be a mixed bag of excitement, or lets be honest, plain boredom at times. Its tempting for me to stay home and yell at Jason Heyward for going 0-4 ... again. I don't have that temptation during hockey season. To me, hockey is all action all the time (besides those pesky 17 minute intermissions). When you attend a hockey game, you're so caught up in the gameplay, sometimes you forget that you actually came with friends. Baseball on the other hand is basically a social gathering. Talking with people can be most of the fun; oh and baseball is being played in the background. 


Tuesday night sitting in the outfield bleacher seats at Busch Stadium proved to be great not only cause of a 4-0 victory, but because of some great conversations. They eventually led to many questions, most of which you've probably asked yourself before, but they still need answers.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

For the Love of Castro!



I found the semi-recent Ozzie Guillen/Fidel Castro storyline quite laughable. Some pundits said the MLB's suspension may have violated Ozzie Guillen's First Amendment rights. Others sports' experts thought he wasn't punished harshly enough. Personally, my thoughts gravitated towards Guillen's complete (and in my opinion humorous) obliviousness towards his situation.

He didn't realize he was managing in a city with a huge population of Cuban immigrants, who generally hate Castro? That his words would be published and dissected by every sports writer, broadcaster, and talk show host in the country? That using the words 'love' and any dictator's name in the same sentence is generally frowned upon in "Amuricah"?

Eventually, I began to wonder at what point in his verbal quagmire would Guillen have avoided suspension? If he had said he loved apple pie? Chevrolet? Baseball? Then I just thought of stuff that Ozzie should have replaced Castro with within the sentence "I love Castro". Then my mind further wandered to things that would have gotten ole Ozzie in to further trouble.

Rapid Fire: 5 Easy Bullets of Yesterday's Happenings

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/
Sleep through yesterday? That's weird. Here's what you missed:
  • Devil's beat the Rangers 4-1 thanks to Zach Parise's 2 goal and an assist performance. The soon to be UFA helped tie the series 2-2. 
    • Rupp was rude
    • Pete DeBoer isn't the media. Meaning, John Tortorella said more than one word to him when things got nasty between benches.
    • Pete DeBoer looks like Kevin Spacey in Se7en. 
  • The Thunder eliminated the Lakers in 5, despite 42 pts from Kobe.
    • Kobe's running out of time to catch Michael. 
    • Russell Westbrook did this. Cool bro. 
    • My friends and I are of the opinion Russell Westbrook looks like a frog.
  • The Celtic's beat the 76ers 101-85, and are up 3-2 in the series. 
    • Think they have a shot to beat the Heat (assuming they advance)? 
    • Someone lit a fire under Brandon's Bass. He had a team high 27 pts.
    • Rondo had 14 assists, he's a crazy good passer. 
    • Kevin Garnett looks (and acts) like Venom to me.  
  • Stan Van Gundy was finally fired. Magic GM Otis Smith got the axe as well.
    • Coaching Dwight Howard and the Magic these past years must have felt like purgatory for Stan. I imagine he's not too upset to be gone. 
    • I know nothing about Otis Smith, except for that I heard a halftime interview with him once. He's pretty charismatic, and wears cool glasses. I can only assume they're from Malaysia
    • I had to google Stan Van Gundy look-a-likes. This is what I got. Don't judge me. 
  • The Dodgers and Red Sox have each won 8 of their last 10. 
    • Yet the Dodgers are first in their division, while the Red Sox are tied for last in theirs. 
    • The Dodgers look like a playoff contender. They do have arguably the best pitcher, and hitter in the game. 
    •  The Red Sox look like they're paying $173 million for a lot of disappointment. Again. 


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Your Guide to ESPN Personalities

yardbarker.com


Summer is here, yo. I don’t know how many people who read this are actually employed, be it a full-time job or a few hours/week just to make mom and pop happy; but if you’re like me, summer equals unceasing unproductiveness. (Not to suggest I’m an assembly line of productivity during the school year). A few things usually occur during this elongated period of procrastination: I tempt the carpal tunnel gods with extensive nhl/fifa play, consume enough Qdoba to fund the national chain, and watch a heck of a lot of ESPN.

Naturally, watching ESPN so much you begin to gravitate towards certain personalities and look forward to particular analysts. (If you’re a hockey fan waiting for Barry Melrose, this is probably you more often than not). 

However with the good comes the bad. Before you begin your ESPN summer binge, here’s your guide of ESPN personalities to avoid:

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Top Ten... Ish Movies of 2011

Really personal opinion and there were still a few a movies I wanted to see (My Week with Marylin, Albert Nobbs, A Separation, just to name a few) but I did see around 30 movies that came out this year and I think that's pretty good.

11. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - I was intrigued. Serkis deserves some sort of honorary Oscar or something. The work he does is borderline brilliance. Franco was bland at times, but I didn't think it hurt the film. And the story line was really accessible to current day with the Alzheimer's storyline. I know that science fiction isn't a very artsy genre but the work done in this movie deserves recognition. While the main actor was a CGI ape, I never lost interest. That has to mean some sort of good work was done, right?

2012 Oscars Picks and Predictions

Greetings one and all. I've been to the movies more this past year than in any other year in my life. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I've always loved movies but strongly disliked going to the movies. Strange? Yes. Anyways, basically I've seen my fair share of films from the past year and have enjoyed many good films. However, I didn't LOVE anything. I thought the year was full of some very solid films but nothing really blew my mind. I wanted to preface my analysis and picks with that thought because I definitely don't have a "cause" that I am rooting for this year (like I did with Inception last year).

Without further ado, picks and commentary on the categories I can actual speak about without embarrassing myself.