Because there aren't enough sports blogs
By Beaker
This is just me, but if it were me, and remember it’s just me, I toss this Niklas Svedberg’s sorry ass out of the league – if proven to be premeditaded. THAT, can result in a broken back or neck. Better yet, have him go through it and see how he feels.
Dude seriously has issues to pull such a stunt. Punk.
By Alex
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules, and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence; in other words it is war minus the shooting. George Orwell, 1945.
We often forget this brutal fact when we intellectualize about sports. We expect too much from pro athletes sometimes. It’s almost as if we expect them to act like gentleman-amateurs from a time long ago. Too many writers write as if they’re shocked five year-olds whenever they learn about how athletes think and act.
Too often, writers write exactly like they’ve never played sports or have a clue what makes up the DNA of an athlete. They spend too energy what ought to be while not accepting what is. Maybe questions are sterile precisely because athletes aren’t all articulate or particularly interested in coming out sounding smart. They just want to talk sports.
Pro athletes are not there to recite poetry and teach us about gamesmanship. The quicker we understand this fact, the less we’re treated to acts of literary indignation about the degradation of sports.
For a country with only 3 million people, it sure can produce great players. Of course, to the historically literate among you, this is nothing new as Uruguay has been a world class soccer nation for a long time – as their two World Cup triumphs prove.
At the last World Cup, the soccer planet plainly saw what Ajax fans already knew in Luis Suarez, Atletico Madrid supporters knew in Diego Forlan and what Palermo fans knew (and what Napoli fans know) of Edinson Cavani.
Indeed, Napoli (who are in second place in Serie A behind AC Milan) striker Cavani has been on a vicious scoring streak terrorizing defenses in all competitions. Truth is, this is nothing knew to Cavani. Witness this awesome piece of work against Lecce:
By Beaker
I’ll keep this short and sweet.
-Long-time Hall of Fame hockey writer for the Buffalo Sabres (and NHL) Jim Kelley has passed away succumbing to pancreatic cancer. I watched and listened to him and host Bob McCown on the The Fan in Toronto for a number of years. Sad to hear of this story. He was just 61.
-Former Chicago Cubs star Ron Santo has died at the age of 70. Santo had been dealing with complications due to diabeties. The thing about Santo, as baseball fans know, is the debate as to whether he belonged in the Hall of Fame.
All I know is Brooks Robinson is often cited as the greatest third baseban of all time, yet, Santo’s batting statistics are better. He hit for a higher average (.277 to 2.67), had a higher OPS (.862 to .723), had more HR’s (342 to 268) and was slightly behind on RS and RBI’s. Defensively, Robinson held a .971 fielding percentage to Santo’s .954 – a five time Gold Glover.
It seems objectively, a case can’t be made against Santo. Only subjectively have voters found ways to keep him out. One is he had a short career. The other is apparently because the Cubs blew a lead to the Mets in 1969, this is enough to keep him out. Talk about fixating on a one-off, small sample as an excuse. And if it was about character a bunch of players would not be in (first among them Ty Cobb) and Santo would be in. It’s a tricky game to play as we’ve said over and over. Judge them on the observational merits committed on the field.
-Lebron James is either a punk or a simpleton - or both - for the way he handled the entire Cleveland Penske file. On one side he talks about his respect for the city and his time with the Cavaliers and the next he’s ripping the heart right out of the city on national television in a narcissistic hit moment.
Make no mistake about it, James and his entourage simply miscalculated. His legacy is sealed in the court of public opinion. You just don’t do things like that. It’s so not cool.
All that being said, Mr. ‘I’m It’ showed up to play Thursday night for his return to Cleveland. There’s no doubt the great player he is; he just makes childish decisions as pointed out. Enough with the drama and get on with it. And don’t get me going with the Heat who are acting like a bunch of bitchy Prima Donna’s. Lay off the coach a little and how’s ’bout you actually start playing? Yeah, there are issues with the team and perhaps even the coaching style but show some balls and rise above it. Besides, wasn’t coach Spoelstra “groomed” by Pat Riley? It would be hard to see him be let go so soon. I’m just guessing.
I digress a little of course.
Man, was that anti-climatic or what in Cleveland? Not only were the fans somewhat subdued, the Cavs curled like little sea crabs sinking into the sand before the Miami Heat. By the second-quarter I had seen enough. Meanwhile, in Ottawa – a government town – the fans showed exactly how to show your disgust with a former athlete who bailed on you. A few of them politely lined-up – this is Canada you know – and waited their turn to throw a Dany Heatley jersey onto the ice. I think they even did so knowing full well they would be kicked out of the building.
There weren’t many of them but what they lacked in numbers they made up in making their point. Cleveland got punk’d by Ottawa.
Minnesota Vikings fire Childress - In the “it was a matter of time” category…buh-bye ‘Chilly.’ It’s remarkable how things can change in a hurry in pro sports. Last year, the Vikings were valliantly whiskers away from reaching their fifth Super Bowl final, next thing they know the following season, they’re a dysfunctional bunch of negative nabobs.
As for the two protagonists driving the story, the plot got stale and trying to pit blame on either Brett Favre or Brad Childress is pointless. The Vikes hitched their wagon to the stars on a thespian QB and it didn’t work out. New plan, please! Anyone?
The Rematch for football supremacy
Grey Cup final set
- The Montreal Alouettes have reached their 8th Grey Cup final in 11 years after slaughtering the Toronto Argonauts 48-17 in the Eastern final while in the Western final, the Saskatchewan Roughriders overcame an 11-0 deficit and ground out a 20-16 win over the Calgary Stampeders.
A couple of quick thoughts. It’s interesting to note that this time around (unlike last week during the semis) defensive football was played in the Western final- although the -25c weather may have had something to do with that. You may as well be throwing around a piece of brick out there that’s how hard the ball gets. The two teams were just as much battling the elements as they were each other.
Back to the Als- Argos. Coming into the game, the Argos really didn’t have much of a chance against the Als juggernaut. If there was one thing the Argos had going for them it was special teams (no, not Mensa) and the Als took that away from them early. Once that was removed the next line of defense was, well, the defense which played well this year but it was a tall order for them to stop the Alouettes – and that’s exactly what it was. Too big.
So. It’s a rematch between the Als and ‘Riders. If you’re into the whole “dynasty” thing, the Alouettes need to win this game to solidify their status as one of the greatest teams in the history of the CFL given their success over the last 10 (and even 15 years).
Someone brought up a good point about the Als 2-5 record in GC finals. The majority of the games, seven I think counting this one in Edmonton, have been played out West. Essentially, it’s been home field advantage for Western teams. It’s tough to play under those conditions.
Mike Richards irked by rookie PK Subban: Philadelphia Flyers forward is easily one of the most complete hockey players in the world. Awesome player.
With that, here’s a take on his recent comments about Montreal Canadiens rookie defenseman PK Subban needing to show some respect to his elders which sparked a debate among fans.
Clearly, Richards is a gatekeeper for the old world order. Fair enough. Although, for a guy who showed disrespect on the Booth hit I wouldn’t be so quick to judge others.
All I know is, for an organizations that feasts with pride on its bullying and tough image, the Flyers can be a bunch of whiners.
It reminded me of a team we used to play in soccer. They were bigger, stronger and meaner than us. Yet, the minute we’d stand up for ourselves they’d bitch and moan to the ref. It’s as if they had a right to trash talk and play “Canadian” soccer – which basically can be summarized as “Run aimlessly, play aggressively for its own sake and kick forward at all times.”
Pat Burns passes: With a reputation with being tough and intimidating but fair, Burns was one of those coaches who made the tough approach work. In 1019 games in the NHL, he won 501 games and one Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils. He added one finals with the Montreal Canadiens in 1989. He nearly led the Toronto Maple Leafs to its first final since 1967 only to agonizingly lose in the Conference finals to Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings. He also had a stint with the Boston Bruins.
Three Jack Adams triphy for best coach to boot and he’s still not in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Go figure.
Votto’s MVP: Cincinnati Reds first baseman and Toronto native Joey Votto won the MVP for the National League. Quite the achievement… and deserved. It always impresses me to see Canadians excel in sports like basketball and baseball where the odds of dominance are against them.
Censoring Islanders: Who knows what’s behind the Chris Botta/Garth Snow/New York Islanders story, but I gotta say, restricting and revoking credentials based on critcism is weak, man. Very weak.
By Alex
I kinda hold a small problem with the “right team won” argument in sports.
Sports, like life, is simply not always fair. An endless amount of factors, variables and permutations determine who wins and who loses. Second guessing it is beyond pointless and irrelevant. I love when I read an expert account saying, “if the team had done this” or the “manager made that change” the outcome would have been “different.”
Duh. No effen kidding. But not the way envisioned. There’s a simple phrase I apply when it comes to rationalizing what can’t really be understood be it in sports, politics, history or anything else: Unintended consequences.
We have this delusional disease where we seem to think life is a carefully constructed finite box made predictable by categorizing and manipulating facts that have already taken place. It makes us feel secure that somehow we can control random acts – of which the universe is all about. I reckon anyway.
And so it is in sports. The regular season is severely under rated in sports. We somehow think that because, for example, the New England Patriots didn’t win the Super Bowl after a perfect seeing, they’re somehow not among the greatest teams ever. The playoffs, by contrast, is over emphasized thanks to our “winner takes all” outlook.
In this way, the temptation to believe the “right team” did or didn’t win will always be present. Besides, what constitutes who “deseves” to win anyway? It’s a subjective, moving target I’d rather not entertain. It borders mental masturbation.
I see this in soccer all the time. Some fool themselves by “reworking” who should have won a domestic title (according to their own personal world view), a Champions League or World Cup.
No doubt, we can argue until we’re blue in the face if the Boston Bruins were screwed in 1979 against the Montreal Canadiens, or the Seattle Seahawks could have won were it not for bad officiating a few of years back in the Super Bowl. We can argue about who could and should have won the World Cup in 2002 had Italy and Spain not been subjected to possibly one of the most farcical showcases in officiating in soccer history. Didn’t Sugar Ray Leonard win a dubious boxing title?
If you think sports is littered with gripes and grievances imagine history of man as a whole!
Best to just accept it.
So. After 400 words. What precipitated this article? Well, it seems because Inter Milan is struggling in Champions League thanks to a recent 3-1 loss to an average Tottenham side, I’ve read some wonder if Inter Milan is a paper tiger.
Curious that line of thinking.
First of all, last year was last year. This year is this year. Neither has a bearing on each other. Ever read the fine print on a mutual fund? Last years returns are not indicative of future returns. It’s not a hard concept to grasp.
Frankly, I think it’s an unfair thought to keep. Inter Milan, to my belief, was by far consistently the best team in Europe last year or else they would have lost. If Bayern thought itself “deserved” champions, then they would have beaten Inter in the final.
Second, one-offs are funny that way. One team is always bound to opt for a tactical approach. The minute they do, the team that doesn’t adjust, on average I reckon, loses.
On that day, Internazionale Milano spanked Bayern Munich. If the Germans can’t accept that, then that’s their problem.
Inter were champions in 2010, just like someone else is likely to triumph in 2011. That they don’t repeat or lose to “lesser” team is a strawman and has little correlation to their win last season.
Just a couple of thoughts on what’s made the sports “news” these past coupla weeks. I’m not updating as much as I’d like to because I’m in the middle of starting a business. But my love you all keeps me coming back here, because, you know, my opinion so matters in this topsily turvy turbulent planet.
-Ok, first up Kevin Blackistone – he of Around the Horn repute. The other day the panel was discussing Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s ridiculously shameless dive. To make his point, Blackistone inserted USA coach Bob Bradley citing the coach’s demands soccer crack down on diving.
That’s fine and all but it really points to how perception plays into all this. Americans are big, tough and honorable guys so they’d never “dive” ergo Bradley’s message has an element of credibility. One problem: Team USA had two of the biggest cheats in South Africa.Indeed, Nathan Dempsey and Landon Donovan would have made Broadway proud with their flipping”n flopping all over the pitch.
They weren’t alone of course. Brazil, the Netherlands, England, Portugal, Spain (Fair Play award? It is to laugh), Chile and Germany – as a whole – were among the worst offenders.
Garnett: Grow up
-Ah, the age of twitter. Kevin Garnett is rightfully taking a lot of heat for his “cancer patient” remark to Charlie Villanueva. Trash talking is part of sports no doubt about it but it really takes a person who doesn’t think right to let his emotions over a damn basketball game and say those kinds of things. Worse, he followed that with a “he’s a nobody” remark.
I would submit, in the halls of class and professionalism, Garnett is a nobody. How does he measure the worth of a man I wonder? Maybe he’s upset about Villaneuva twittering about the incident, but someone needs to take this guy aside and tell him to shut it. We are all “nobody’s” when you consult life and the universe.
Spare me the “we don’t know what it’s like in the heat of battle” crap. Most of us face greater real life challenges than celebrities working their craft do. We over rate them to the point, well, of over paying them. Yeah, they can do something most of us can’t. Then again, most people can’t be doctors or lawyers or even teachers too.
- Former and Hall of Fame baseball manager Sparky Anderson passed away ths week. My best recollection of Anderson was during the 1980s when he was managing the Detroit Tigers (where I watched the Tigers win the World Series over the San Diego Padres) and an appearance he made on WKRP in Cincinnati. Ok, technically that was in 1979.
Of course, Anderson also managed the Big Red Machine otherwise known as the Cincinnati Reds winning two titles with among other notables, Johnny Bench (love that name. It captures a certain natural athletic aura. Like Bobby Orr) and Joe Morgan.
-I was talking to my uncle today about the San Francisco Giants and their 2010 triumph. He spoke of Tim Lincecum, which in turn, since we spoke about small bodies hurling lethal pitches, led to Pedro Martinez. Then, we moved to Cliff Lee and other dominant pitching performances in recent memory including Randy Johnson.
See a pattern here? All those players except for Lincecum were products the Montreal Expos organization. Lee, if you can remember, was traded in 2002 along wirh Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Lee Stevens to Cleveland Indians for pticher Bartolo Colon as the Expos decided to try and go for the division title.
Man, that was talent.
The Expos were awesome a uncovering and developing talent. The Montreal Canadiens wish they had that ability. Yet, one died and the other thrives in mediocrity.
The death of the Expos (and yes, screw you Washington Nationals for erasing the memory), is not complete. With Gary Carter and Andre Dawson inducted into the Hall of Fame, it keeps the faint memory of a beloved team alive. Next, we assume, Tim Raines will have a shot. Heck, Jeff Reardon may even have an outside chance. Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker and of course Vladimir Guerrero will all have their names on the ballot.
Potentially, in just 36 years, the Expos could have eight (maybe more since I may be overlooking someone) Hall of Famers.
How many do, say, the Cincinnati Reds have in 100 years?
See my point?
By Beaker
I was watching some Espners talking football and they showed clips of how defensive players adjusted how they hit in response to the league’s strong stance against helmet to head hits. The league spoke with force and clarity. None of this shades of grey mental masturbation bull shit we hear from the NHL and its apologists. Yes, I know it’s a fast sport but even a fast sport can be played with respect and honor.
Hockey needs a fucking summit to discuss a basic, simple issue. Crack down and send a god damn message to the first prick who sends a player to the hospital with a dirty hit. If the players won’t show respect to one another, the league has to step in and demand it.
No. Hits. To. The. Head.
It doesn’t matter if you’re Chris Pronger, Alex Ovechkin or Matt Cooke.
If players are accountable for their sticks, then they can be held accountable when they concuss one another with cheap hits masquerading as “physical” play.
I ask a simple quesiton in this short post. What does it take for TSN to improve their website? Cash? Talent? What do I mean?
Consider:
Ok. Ready for TSN? Have a cracker after that swig of wine to clear your mouth and throat.
One would think that for a country as coo-coo for hockey as Canada the pages of its favorite sport would be more, um, substantial.
The website experience on TSN is so pointless I don’t use it.
I like when I get blitzed with stats and information.
CBS Sportsline and ESPN provide me with information that quite frankly TSN should be cornering. They shouldn’t be outplayed – excuse the pun – by anyone when it comes to hockey.
And don’t get me going with how slow they are with updating their CFL pages.
TWO sports we speak proudly of and we can’t even be bothered to treat them as such.
By Beaker
I’ve always felt the statistics used to judge a goalie in hockey are incomplete. As it stands, the most popular – and useless – measure employed is goals against average. GAA should be outright ignored. It’s misleading. Save percentage is a more reliable albeit imperfect statistic, yet its traction is a recent phenomena.
The problem with SP is it only reflects how many pucks a goalie stops relative to the number of shots faced. It tells nothing else. Still, it’s a helluva lot better than GAA. In turn, GAA is more acceptable than people who think wins/lost are what matters for goalies.
Of course, this is pure idiocy. A goalie can’t score goals and trying to determine with any objectivity how many games a goalie “wins” by himself is impossible and futile. A lot like seeking “Mr. Clutch” stats. The reality is hockey is a team game and winning and losing entails the collective actions (big and small) of each and every player on the ice. To tag a goalie with a win or loss and stigmatize him with it is a human rights crime.
The other thing that drives me batshit is when I hear so-called pundits talk out of their asses by saying, “but he’s never won anything!” or “he’s unproven because he’s never won a playoff series.”
That’s commentary used to fill out air space with fluff. Most of the time, a goalie’s track record, given a large enough sample size, has a pattern and that pattern tells truths. If he’s played well all along it means he can goaltend even if he’s playing on a team that never makes the playoffs. It”s not his fault the organization he plays for is rub by a piece of celery.
I’m telling you, it’s insulting to have to hear about how one great athlete is somehow deficient because he “never won.”
If a goalie plays for a team that wins 45 games a year obviously he will win more games. Unless he’s winning those games by himself, which he isn’t, this is a reflection of a strong hockey club. Conversely, a team that wins 28 games will mean their goalie is winning less games. Duh. But does it mean he’s “shittier” than the goalie on the better team? Of course not. Any reasonable, sane person with a rational bone will concede this.
There resides among observers and commentators too much of a subjective streak in spinning a goalie’s performance. Too often we’re left with a “he shoulda had” that puck routine. According to whose context? In order to say such a thing you need to contextualize and even then, proof it statistically.
Truth is, the sports community is filled with unimaginative individuals who have come to believe in their own divine bull shit which often is pure bunk and that luck plays a larger part in outcome than they care to admit. They seem incapable – or at least unwilling – to admit that it’s entirely possible sometimesmthe best athletes in a particular sport never won a title.
There’s nothing complicated in accepting this premise. If you don’t, and you become the GM of a team, you’re likely to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over. Preconceived notions murder your chances for success.
The only option to weed this evil human flaw is to devise reliable statistics measuring a goalie’s performance.
Inspired by Bill James no doubt, puckprospectus at least explores and expands on incomplete stats.
Anyway.
The Hockey Compendium, a book woefully under valued in my opinion, by Klein and Reif attempted to at least consider a goalie’s “workload” factoring shots faced, shots faced per game and minutes played. They called it goalie perseverance and it basically is save percentage expanded with more information.
It doesn’t consider the defensive unit in front of a goalie, screened or deflected shots or other uncontrollable factors that contribute to a goal, but at least it’s a start.
According to them, and quite frankly it’s not surprising, Dominik Hasek is the greatest goalie of all time.
The Hockey Compendium hasn’t been updated so I’ve taken their calculation and applied it to the present crop of NHL goalies. Obviously, sample size differs from goalie to goalie. For example, we have little on Jimmy Howard at the pro level and more on Martin Brodeur.
I also wanted to check out their AHL and NCAA or Junior stats but there were to many gaps of missing of information and to track them down would be too much work. Maybe I’ll do it down the road. The reason is I wanted to see a goalie’s “track record” and compare it to their pro stats. I’m sure in there we’d find some gem goalies who are overlooked or ignored based on erroneous presumptions.
Here’s the list of top goalie perseverance:
1) Tuukka Rask -.978
2) Jonas Hiller – .972
3) Jaroslav Halak – .972
4) Roberto Luongo – .971
5) Jimmy Howard – .971
6) Thomas Vokoun – .967
7) Niklas Backstrom – .967
Keri Lehtonen – .967
9) Craig Anderson – .966
10) Henrik Lundqvist – .965
11) Ryan Miller – .964
12) Carey Price – .964
13) Ilya Bryzgalov – .963
14) Pekka Rinne – .962
15) Mikka Kiprusoff – .961
16) Cristobal Huet – .960 *
17) Dwayne Roloson – .959
18) Ondrej Pavelec – .959
19) Semyon Varlamov – .958
20) Nikolai Khabibulin – .957
21) Marc-Andre Fleury – .957
22) Steve Mason – .956
23) Mike Smith – .955
24) Marty Turco – .954
25) Rick DiPietro – .954
26) Antero Niittymaki – .954
27) Brian Elliott – .954
28) Michael Leighton -.952
29) Cam Ward – .950
30) Jon Quick – .950
31) Jonas Gustavson – .946
-
