Sports, Games and Competitions – Page 9

Chatfest Friday Style With Bullets

Can there be 100 comments without ry? That was the question I asked myself last night. We have settled into a kind rapport even with our differences. Is this middle age? Yesterday at the beer blog, I cited a post that I wrote in October 2003. That’s a long time ago. When do blogs hit middle age?

Blackness Update: Connie found guilty on four counts…those being criminal counts…no pardon expected.
…nuttin’…sympatico is choppy this mornng…uh, oh…
Lunch is approaching Update: I caught this guy on one of the morning news shows and now believe that Jim Early’s work on North Carolina BBQ could be a key to understanding the culture of the Western World.
Global warming may be good news for Ontario as long as we all plant ash trees now!
I think this is the blog that sets the standards for all blogs of a certain class of blogs. Did people do this before there was a medium to record that they were doing it?
PEI is all a dither. What else is new? Well, I will tell you one thing that is new – apparently a rock band said “fuck” during a concert and the entire community is going last-scene-of-Frankenstein. Chris has the whole story. There is a law in PEI that sets out how to do a rock concert and this is the only way you are supposed to do it under the Rock Performances Act (Marine), RSPEI 1957, ss 87-213.

Bullets postponed until bandwith available.

Update: Why does my broadband cut out in thunder and lightning? Does it rely on AM radio at somepoint between here and there?

This is nuts:

The Harper government has been told to stop referring to “fighting terrorism” and the Sept. 11 attacks, and to banish the phrase “cut and run” from its vocabulary if it is to persuade a skeptical public that the military mission in Afghanistan is worth pursuing.

If we are going to ask our youth to fight, speak about what they are fighting for. If you disagree, speak about the nature of your disagreement strongly. I may not vote for you but I will respect your free expression of your view. But for God’s sake, leave the PR consultants out of this. And as for not connecting 9/11 to Afghanistan…are you crazy?!?! Has no one any memory of the BBC leading the charge into Kabul? That is the theatre where all the resources of the Iraq war should have been focused. Offer me war bonds.

Bullets And Chat And Friday And Stuff

How will I remember this week? How will it sit in the past? I loaded and unloaded a canoe by myself this week. I bottled a hefeweizen. I ate well-roundedly and got a decent amount of sleep. If a nuclear holocaust were to come and I survive like those few in A Boy and His Dog or even Mad Max this is the sort of week I’ll miss. If not, I’ll have a hard time recalling it.

Update: Who is this “the left” that the Flea and some like the Babbler speak of, though the latter admits the truth? Cases would be much better made with out reference to boogie men. There is a distasteful and false presumption among those who elect themselves to speak for the equally vacuous “the right” that patriotism, security and common sense (despite all the evidence) is their sole inheritence. Given a recent pole [Ed.: see below] that says 40% of conservatives are against the war in Afghanistan, it is a meaningless broad brush. Name names. Focus the slur on the fringe. Admit the fluidity and undemarkated nature of the problem. Put up.

Break slamming point of correction: And just like that the Flea did in most excellent fashion…

A self-selecting group exhibiting the psychopathologies outlined above and related psychopathologies concerning the free market, crime and punishment and reality-testing deficiencies regarding the weather. The real left, the ones who continue to advance universal values of liberty and equality, do not exhibit these symptoms. Here I am thinking particularly of Christopher Hitchens and those of us who advance under his banner.

I can heartily live with this as long as “the real left” includes those large number who see the same security ultimately in participating in a social welfare system as well as well-resourced police and military. I once came across someone flogging the idea that only persons of the right were in the military. Horse pucks.
Update: Sounds like leasehold improvements to me. Pay up, Royals.
A good week for baseball. The Sox gave a thumping to Tampa Bay and, due to the badness of scheduling, will play them 15 times from here on in. No wonder there is now the sort of talk that does one no good.
The Baseball Hall of Fame has a snazzy new website.
An interesting article in the NYT about the continuing random police checks that have occurred in that city’s subways since 9/11.

Terrorism experts said the program’s effectiveness was not so much that it is a tight barrier to keep terrorists out of the subways, but that its fluid nature could keep any attack planners off balance. Trumpeting the program publicly is also a deterrent, they said.

That and John Smeaton – the West’s best defences.
Brother Doug considers how to dequill.
In addition to Smeaton proving that Scots in fact are the toughest wee bastards in the worrrrld, Scots finalized their take over of the UK with the beginning of the government of Gordon Brown who has made a wise decision:

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he had given orders for government offices to “fly the flag.” He said he had abolished a rule which allowed government buildings to raise the British flag, the so-called Union Jack, only 18 days a year. “It was because they listed the number of public events and on no other days would the Union Jack be flown,” said Mr. Brown, who has pushed for efforts to promote a British identity for all citizens.

Good for Mr. Brown. I have to admit, I like that in the states more flags are flown and that they seem to represent each person not the government. We do well around Canada Day but, aside from the politics, the bi-colour is frankly just a little less eye catching. I had though the Red Ensign had recently be raised back to official status but can find now reference this morning. Viva Tanganyika, if you know what I mean.

A quiet week here but not so elsewhere.

Lessons

Chat For The Last Friday Closer To 2006 Than 2008

Yes, your life is flying by. The end of June is the end of the first half of the year, the year you still think of in the back of your mind as new. Time to get another hobby or make a greater change.

Update: freaky:

Authorities said Thursday they are trying to determine who altered the entry on the collaborative reference site 14 hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their son. Benoit’s Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife’s death. A Wikipedia official, Cary Bass, said the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Conn., where World Wrestling Entertainment is based.
I received a copy of a 1975 game called Pub Games of England and what a treat. Who know that skittles was created as an illustration of mass conversion of pagan Germans to the faith? Who knew that darts was likely created as a response to legal bans on all games but archery for military (and not moral) purposes – it’s just a small archery game with the target being a cask of beer? And who knew lawn billiards (or pell mell) was the game of the future?
Speaking of early games, please lend your support to Project Protoball.
Interesting to note the passing of the NPR show Radio Open Source. NCPR observed the passing of another attempt at substantive convergence in this way:

So it is with very real regret that I report the end, for now at least, of his innovative and lively evening program Open Source. The producers were unable to put together secure funding to continue national distribution, and made the difficult decision to suspend production this week. Chris has been a great exploiter of both the countertrend and unabashed intellectual in the age of dumbing down–and of the coming trend–building a radio program upon the swiftly shifting sands of a community of bloggers.

The other posts this week were a bit telling – the lack of a MSM partner and the “old school” actual revenue stream as well as an odd choice for a celebration of the sort of substantive social community (SSC…as opposed to vacuous linking or LSC) that has never been triggered but has been much promised and, like the emperor’s clothes, observed. Maybe they’ll do a Lessig and declare they are going to reinvent cooking or home repair DYI.
In not unrelated news, the CBC has been shocked to discover that when you ask people to express what they believe in they will express what they believe in.
I don’t even like the NBA but am happy to see that Demetris Nichols is a Knick.
This is a good court ruling by the US Supreme Court in the Panetti case: do not execute crazy people. But it does make you wonder about the death penalty in terms of the idea of purpose – other than general deterrence – which is sort of captured in the description “a defendant who is to be executed be able to recognize the relationship between his crime and his sentence.” But if I am dead…I can’t recognize that relationship. But nuttier is the objection by Clarence Thomas who called the ruling “a half-baked holding that leaves the details of the insanity standard for the district court to work out.” Well, seeing as there concern that the door is open to false claims of incompetency, shouldn’t the lower trial courts assess each case? Or is there a suggestion in the dissent that mental illness isn’t real? Interesting to note that Anthony M. Kennedy has decided to become Mr. Swing Vote instead of Mr. Fourth Conservative Near The Back.

That’s it for now. I have to go Xmas shopping.

Is Clemens A Bust?

Watching the Yankees die a thousand deaths this year has all the delicious splendor of that day and year and decade when the Montreal Canadians watched Patrick Roy let in nine goals, tell the owner, GM and coach behind the bench that he was never playing for the loser club again and get traded to Colorado where he went on to confirm himself as the greatest goalie of all time. Of Roger’s outing last night against the lowly Orioles, the NYT’s story this morning begins:

It feels like falling off a cliff, Joe Torre said Wednesday night after another loss, and the metaphor is appropriate. The Yankees had reached a high point before this trip, but suddenly they are plunging to depths never experienced in Torre’s 12 years as manager.

Nice to see that it was eastern Ontarian Erik Bedard for Baltimore who shut down the opposition. Clemens, on the other hand, is now 1-3 with a 5.42 E.R.A. in his four starts.

Why do I care? Is it always good to relish the failures of the great? Wouldn’t the world be a better place of Clemens wages originally estimated at around a million bucks a win (now estimated at five) had gone to a worthy cause…like minor league player development? Is there any hope for my prayers to be answered and the final AL East standings ending up Boston, Baltimore, Tampa, Toronto, New York?

Chat. Friday. Bullets. Go!

An interesting week. The Red Sox have gotten back in gear and gotten back into the groove as the Yankees again falter. Summer is now here which means it will be a bit colder this weekend compared to last. Gary reports a tornado yesterday from the cold front that gave us hail up here. That was the sports and weather. Here is the news:

Neato Update: Excellent. Excellent. Excellent:

Your order #202-6921784-XXXXXX (received 18-February-2007)

Amazon.co.uk items (Sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L.):

1 Pub Games of England (Olea…) £11.94 1 £11.94

Shipped via International Mail (estimated arrival date: 29-June-2007)…

Excellent. Did I mention this is excellent?
Update: Good thing they gave him a ticket.
Update: I have officially coined “Royal Sombrero” and, implicitly, the intense version “Sombrero Royale”. Alert the media.
Chris, Darcey, and the Flea all note the most offensive and apparently acceptable thing I have ever seen in a Canadian newspaper.
NCPR’s Brian Mann won an Edward R. Murrow award this week for his report on a rugby tournament in the Adirondacks.
My good pal the Pope announced his rules of the road earlier this week. I think this is a good thing. If the Conservative party is going to co-opt NASCAR, the Vatican was wise to grab the branding of the drive home. But I am sure he ripped this one off from me, something of a personal motto: “courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.”
Remember when cable TV was in its teens and the new channels got notice? One, the History channel, quickly was dubbed “the war channel” as it was odd to see old battle footage documentaries all the time. The other night, I was watching one about WWI and followed up with some surfing and came across this extraordinary contemporary report on the fall of Brussels in 1914.
I find these addiction to email stats interesting. I can’t say I am addicted to email because it’s died back a bit compared to a few years ago as a tool for me. A bit over the top to write: “[h]alf of Britons could not exist without e-mail…” Also noteworthy is the observation that Facebook is establishing itself as MySpace for adults.
The forces of anti-Canadian flag waving in Los Angeles have backed down. I suppose there being so few Canadians in the area, the Dodgers didn’t know what they were looking at when they saw the Maple Lead flapping up there in the bleachers.
Having only lived in Canadian military towns for most of my life – without being a military kid (except for that Berlin airlift bit in the RAF) – it was odd to see the brief flap in Toronto over the yellow ribbon thingies on the Big Smoke’s emergency vehicles. In the end the right thing was done which is good as I support supporting. Russon’s a bit surprised that the Star supports supporting those supporting us.

Well, that is it for now. Not an earth shattering week but we are again the house of many mouths and that sort of keeps things local. Wizards tonight as well as maybe Steve and Barry’s.

Good Sweep For The Sox

I don’t agree with the NYT’s headline “Things Going Right for Red Sox, but for All the Wrong Reasons“. Over the weekend Manny hit, Wakefield stilled the spin of his knuckleball, Pedroia and Youkilis are turning out to be home grown gold. Sadly, the Yankees have found their form but they fell back a game for the first time in weeks nonetheless. The Sox’s last two opponents of interleague play, the Braves and the Padres, are far tougher than those the Yanks face, the Rockies and the Giants, so it will be an important week to have a large amount of supportive angst milling in the gut.

But What About The Mike Schmidt Era?

I have something of a spot for the Phillies as, in the old days of the Expos and the NL East and national media that was not so Toronto-centric as to singlehandedly kill off a team, it was once possible to watch them. But they are one of those teams, like the Cubs, known more for their failings than anything:

Defeat has been as spectacular and excruciating as it has been regular. On May 1, 1883, the team lost its inaugural game; by the end of that miserable season, a pitcher named John Coleman had lost 48 times. From 1938 through 1942, the Phillies lost at least 103 games each year. The franchise has set awful records for futility — with a collective earned run average of 6.71 in 1930 and 23 consecutive defeats in 1961. And, of course, 1964 brought one of baseball’s most infamous collapses, when the Phillies held a 6 ½-game lead in the National League with 12 games to play and blew the pennant after losing 10 in a row.

Good story in the NYT about the losing-est team in sports history who, in large part because of Mike, won the World Series when I was in grade 12 leaving me forever with a skewed understanding of their legacy.

Guess Where This Was Said

Quoted:

Flag waving “causes the fans, at times, to become aggressive toward each other. … It’s a zero tolerance policy…”

A hint can be found below.

La-la land.

Was this all because of soccer? And what would patriotism-whipped Canucks look like anyway? Would they break out a second Crispy Crunch like mad men? Maybe demand maple syrup for their hot dogs?

Rain Out In Watertown, New York

It was Thor, the God of Thunder and Marvel goodness one and opening day at the Watertown Wizards zippo. Our company included a former high school pitcher who was able to explain whallops of stuff I was not picking up. My Mets t-shirt itself triggered two conversations with other and extraordinarily friendly fans. Free pennants as the give away and Mel Busler of WWNY 7, shown below doing his job, signed the photo we took of him and the kids last year. They did get an inning and a half in against Glens Falls before the lightning started in the retreating clouds to the east but within a half an hour it was all around and time to retreat to the Texas Roadhouse where we have been given assured of no chance of a table at 5 pm. I can report that the ribs were again fantastic, though the place’s interest in NY craft beer seems to already evaporated with Bud and Blue now being the theme.

I figured out a bit more about the NYCBL. It is not so much an undrafted college players league as a pre-draft one. Players make the team only after their first or second years and they come from throughout the USA. Watertown has players this year from Texas, Oregon, Nebraska as well as New York. Plus – the best hot dogs I have ever had at a ball park. No question about that at all.