Tag: Sports, Games and Competitions

Up By Three With Five To Go

There is a certain type of jockeying going on to be sure. Joe Torre does not put Kyle Farnsworth in the game the Yanks end up losing in extra innings (best call of the night after the bottom of the ninth, all tied up: “Free Baseball!”) if he is not sure the greater good is being served. But was it? Tampa, which has been inordinately – actually unbelievably – strong since the first of August…won.

Meanwhile, the Sox smoked a disinterested Oakland. Shilling threw a good six innings. Youk is back and Manny is back.

Friday Bullet and Chat and Autumn’s Just Around The Corner

OK, so it wasn’t the end of summer last week. It’s this weekend. You wouldn’t know it. as it is going to push 30C later today in some parts of Ontario today. A weekend of actual sunshine, warmth and nothing to really do lays out before me. What to do? What to do? We have been playing a sort of lawn bowling with our boules set nightly. Likely the land will hear more of the click of the steel.

  • Update: Do you have any idea how nice it was to know that the Red Sox could not lose again last night because they were not playing. The New York Times shares my pain.
  • I did not watch the provincial election debate last night. Ontario politics, due to the odd polite role Ontario plays not actually pulling its weight in the national scene, is sort of dull. All three candidates are reasonably polite and reasonably good intentioned people leading a huge government bureaucracy of the scale of a nation within a nation that has seeming difficulties expressing itself as a cultural fact. Though, to be fair, the conservatives use of the phrase “catch and release” justice is getting tedious. And the idea that a broken pledge to not raise taxes is wrong after the promise maker gets in power and finds out, as we all do from time to time, that conservatives (the accusers now) have no idea how to run a finance department without a resource windfall attached to it is simply laughable. I will, however and again, not vote for the winner. If you are interested, the Globe blogged the debate backwards requiring you to read the impressions from bottom to top. The MSM is sooooo bad.
  • Ry has a request:

    Ack. We needs a fun topic, Al. Writing 4 page essay length stuff for John and his commentators is killing me. How about we start a pool for the MLB playoffs. It’s almost Oct after all. Something like March madness would suffice I think. It’s smaller and easier than that, but could still be fun.

    That is reasonable but I am crawling into my shell what with the collapse of the Sox. Did you know that they are in the lead now but not by a huge amount? I mean I should be absolutely shattered because they are in the lead but only by a bit. Any ideas how I can overcome my despair over them being in the lead?

  • I have seen this sort of claim from Western apologists before and it is the oddest falsehood for someone to cling onto. From Ezra Levant in (yawn!) Canadian Lawyer‘s September issue:

    But tens of thousands of Canadians think otherwise. They’re not choosing Saskatchewan, a province with nearly as much oil and gas, more wheat, more potash, and more uranium. Alberta’s wealth is not because of its natural resources but precisely because of its free market is working so well.

    If this shabby thinking is what you need to get you through the night, fine, but it is good for the rest of you to know that as Alberta’s oil reserves are 174.8 billion barrels and its gas reserves are 41 trillion cubic feet, Saskatchewan has only 1,244 million barrels of oil (0.71% of Alberta) and just 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas (8% of its neighbour). Once again, say it out loud, Alberta is incredibly wealthy because it is sitting on the one resource the world is begging for and it was blessed with that by fluke of geology and late Victorian boundary-making. People move there to make a lot of money just like people move anywhere there is plenty of money to make.

  • Jay is writing longer pieces. I used to write longer pieces. I used to be able to hold that much in my mind. Jay can. Or maybe he writes a bit each day. Yeah, that must be it. So apparently we could be the new Switzerland. Switzerland?

    In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

    Hoo-ray. Melted cheese for dinner, too.

That’s it. The computer just about froze so I better send you on your way.

That Is The Sound Of Choking You Hear

It is something of a comfortable feeling, this free fall. Sure some people say things like this:

“We still have work,” Manager Joe Torre said. “We won’t allow ourselves to get caught up in what people will assume is a foregone conclusion.”

But those are the words of someone planning on winning, not one trying to avoid losing. Still, the Red Sox have good company with the Mets bumbling, tumbling and stumbling as well. It’s not just that they are losing. They are losing with a certain style. Last Friday’s eighth inning collapse that turned a 2-7 lead, Sundays failure to convert bases loaded in the ninth into a David Ortiz grandslam…or hit. Last night’s snatch of failure from the jaws of victory was particularly sweet – after getting two outs holding a 2-1 lead, Gagne decided to throw bean balls at the right handed pitcher. Except the guy was batting left. In an act of utter remorse and considered correction, Gagne decided to aim for the leftie’s ankles. Again, he adjusts. You can see him making one of the next pitches above. Read the rest here. Not pretty.

My new pal Clay Buchholz pitches tonight.

Me And TV Sports Yesterday

Having messed up my sleep this weekend due to watch The Guns of Navarone on Friday until 3 am (I was in need of watching something where the right team won after the Sox choked after being up 2-7), I spent a rich and rewarding day napping and watching sports with half an eye.

In a nutshell: Syracuse was really bad in the game that started at noon and the Sox were really good in the one that started at four. And over steak and kidney pie (punchline: “No, I didley!?!”) out visiting, it became clear that the young guys and the bench on the Sox are maybe a bit better than the young guys on the Yanks. Though no pup anymore, Hinske did a good number on Posada:

“[Third base coach] DeMarlo Hale said I’m going on contact,” Hinske said. “I’m trying to score a run. I realize I’m going to be out. The only play is to try to run [Posada] over. I hit him pretty good. I think it pumped up the team a little bit.” Hinske, who gained more than 1,000 yards as a running back at Menasha his junior year, once dreamed of playing football for the University of Wisconsin. But when his Badgers didn’t recruit him, he went to the University of Arkansas on a baseball scholarship. Years later, the football mentality has never left. “I put my shoulder down – I hadn’t done that, I think, since the minor leagues,” he said. “It felt great. I had fun playing high school football. I asked Posada my next at-bat if he was OK and he said he was fine.”

To be fair, he said fine like a man who was trampled by an ox on national TV says he’s fine – though Posada did hold onto that ball.

And to be entirely fair in relation to the headline above, I listened to the Syracuse game on 100.7 FM as much as I watched it on the five hundred cable TV channel universe, that wonder that provides what the internet has given only promises about for a decade. It was not prettier audio-unvisually. Getting the first field goal was a balm to their emotionally fragile offense. A great hit on a receiver just about to take the corner was apparently a surprise in the class of the child who first gets to the pool’s edge without assistance. Apparently a win against Buffalo is now even in doubt.

The Big Papi Remedy

What better way to end a grumpy day?

For the first time this season, and the 10th as a Red Sox, Ortiz ended a game via a walkoff home run. This one came with Julio Lugo at first base, one out, Tampa Bay closer Al Reyes on the mound, and, perhaps most importantly, Delmon Young in right field. Ortiz, who supplied the Sox’ earlier offensive output with a three-run homer in the third inning, launched Reyes’ 3-1 fastball high into the Fenway night. As the ball started tailing away from the right field foul pole, Young remained drifting toward the line. By the time the rookie recovered, Ortiz’ blast landed in the first row of Section 86 for the Red Sox’ first walkoff home run since Carlos Pena lived his dream, one year and eight days before.

I touched the TV right after and I swear it made me feel better. So now the last Yankees v. Red Sox series of the season begins this Friday at Fenway. New York has, frankly, been on fire facing some weaker teams, including last night’s win over the collapsing Glaus-gate-ridden Jays. Taking 2/3 off of Tampa was good work for Boston as the Rays have been hot as well. Anyway, find a TV or a radio because come Monday Boston can be anywhere between two and eight games up.

Wow! SU’s 2007 Football Really Does Suck

Not that a university team is as similar to a pro team from one year to the next but last season the Syracuse Orange lost to Iowa in overtime. This year they lost 0-35. Yikes. That after being massacreed at home by Washington in last week’s season opener.

This makes the decision as to which game to take in tougher. What game won’t be a boring blow-out. To reiterate, then: which is the most likely home game to give the best experience?

Fri, Aug 31 – Washington: lost by blow-out.

Sat, Sep 15 – Illinois: No, a confusion of orange and Illinois is 1-1 with a shut-out win yesterday. Plus it may be on TV this early in the season. Chance of a win, sure, but I do not see it happening.
Sat, Oct 6 – West Virginia: yes, a hated rival but one that has scored 110 points in its first to wins. Blow-out by a bowl team.
Sat, Oct 13 – Rutgers. Ba-low out by a better bowl-bound team.
Sat, Oct 20 – Buffalo. They better win this one. This is the best chance. Blown out by Rutgers in game one, Buffalo smoked Temple who, it turns out, actually has a football program called the Owls.
Sat, Nov 10 – South Florida. If they have not won by now, why would I go? Maybe to check out the new coaching staff?
Sat, Nov 24 – Cincinnati. Ditto time ten.

So there you have it. I forecast at best three wins and a good chance of one with zero wins not being out of the question. Will I go? Will I go see a Division II game instead? Stay tuned.

More angst in more detail at Orange 44.

Still Six Games Up…Let Me Check…Wow…Six Games

Well, it was a damn good thing the White Sox got a thrashing last weekend and that the Tigers played well against the Yanks or it would be more like a two game lead instead of six. That being said, the Yankees have played the last two games like…the Yankees. Pettitte and Clemens were both powerhouses on the pitchers mound, though to be utterly biased, their strike zone was a tad bizzare. And Damon [Ed.: pittuie] has played…(gak)…[Ed.: hairball sounds]…well. Yet, if Shilling plays well today, the season’s games in the Bronx will be over and the lead will be seven.

No, the concerns (because what is a fan without concerns) are really long term. One wonders what will happen way down the road, you know, in September. Here are my thoughts:

  • Dice-K has been a minor bust. But so was Beckett in his first year. Maybe it does take a year to settle in sometimes but there is something sloppy about Matsuzaka that seems dislocated in relation to big innings. It’s like he averages one really poor inning every ten to fourteen. That is disconcerting. It will be interesting to see if he ups his game or if he can.
  • Mike Lowell is the A-Rod of the Red Sox. If he wasn’t on the team, the race would now be tied. Youk and Pedroia are the something of the surprises of 2006 and 2007. Likely they are not surprises to those in charge (note: me fan) but it is these three players who have the Sox where they are this year.
  • There may have been a combination of bad picks (Drew and Willi Mo) and neccesary reliance on certain guys for too many seasons (Shilling, Ortiz, Manny) but there is a gap between the young players and the players at the end of their careers that could be looming and may be a reason that the rest of 2007 is not too pretty.

Thankfully, there is an afternoon game today. I will have to deal with it at a distance, though I think I can jimmy a make-shift antennae at work to pick up the Yankees broadcast if I can reach high enough and the chair will stay up on the bookshelf.

A Kick In The Teeth

Amongst all the insane middle-of-the-night thunder and lightning – again – I turned on the radio and heard that the Yankees were tied at six in the 6th inning in Detroit…because, due to rain delay, they only started at 11 pm and finished in extra innings around 3:30 am. Smile and back to sleep.

I wake to find the Yankees lost. The Yaa-aaa-aaa-aaa-kees lost. Which means they are 6.5 back as the Sox swept the Sox in a double header on the road for the first time since the time of the dinosaurs and grass that looks like tiny little palm trees.

And so off to find a growler of mild in old Galt.

Friday “After The Thunder” Chatfest

Don’t expect much from me today. What a thunder storm. Like the 1812 Symphony without the orchestra: boom, blam, whammo. What with the many mouths a wailing, not a lot of sleep. I almost wrote “flat chest” up there. One more week in August and therefore in summer. Summer really ends around here in October compared to the Maritimes but you know what I mean:

  • Update #2: A neato series of photos from the collection of a new technology museaum in the UK with photos of things like a lump of concrete from 1899 and early 1900s analogue computers including one called “the totalisator” which is my new nickname for me.
  • Update: Brendan Carney, subject of last fall’s overly wrought series on the SU football team, made the pros.
  • Nice to see the scoffing one dimensional right wing bloggers were wrong – again – as the police did infiltrate the wacko protest group at the summit. Darcey’s comment makers display an interesting learning curve but Darcey’s own response is gold:

    Wouldn’t it be crazy if they were undercover protesters pretending to be police officers pretending to be protesters? That would be the ultimate…Or wouldn’t it be weird…if they were police who wanted to be involved in the protest? Maybe their overwhelming zeal was too much for some of the more moderate protesters on the line. This is a good story.

    Cheeky monkey. Far more entertaining that the scoffing one dimensional left wing bloggers

  • What started as a funny idea for naming a sport team seems to end up in a grade seven locker room.
  • If you ever worry about your own beer intake or, conversely, consider it boring check out Ron’s series of posts of drinking his way thought Germany’s Franconia region. Plenty of gems like this:

    Andy met someone he recognised. It turned out to be Dan Shelton and his wife. He was making a documentary about Bamberg or something. I wasn’t concentrating that much on the conversation. I was in my beer zone. Feeling the warm glow of contentment that comes after a morning’s drinking. Very tall. I can remember that. Dan Shelton’s very tall. And annoyingly skinny for someone who works with beer.

  • Amy Winehouse update. I sent portland a copy. Let’s see what happens.
  • The Australian government has been tidying up wikipedia, too.

That is it. Not caffeine in the brain yet.