The Stanley Cup is Temporary

I am ashamed that we ran zero stories about the Stanley Cup Final in the previous couple weeks. Playoff hockey is the best thing this side of your baseball team making a World Series run, and we wrote nothing. Piss poor, I say. Here’s a fun little story to partially make up for it.

The best trophy in sports is the Stanley Cup. There’s no debate there. World Series trophy – lame. Larry O’Brien trophy – weak. College Football – I’ve seen better crystal in a retirement home. And the Super Bowl trophy looks like a hood ornament.

No, the Stanley Cup is the best, by a long shot. It’s (kind of) been around since 1892. The names of every player and coach from the winning team have been engraved on the cup every year since 1924. There was a good chunk of time when each winning team added its own ring to the bottom of the cup. As time went on, more rings were added to make room for new teams. More years, more rings added, and so on, until the cup was referred to the stovepipe:

The decision was made to remove old rings from the cup (and place them in the Hall of Fame) and cram multiple years on each ring. Now, each time a ring is added, a ring is removed.  All of this begs the question: How tall would it be if none of the rings were removed?

Eight feet, nine inches. I want to be in favor of this, but let’s face it: The thing would look like a men’s softball tournament trophy from Vegas or something. That or a NASCAR trophy. No, that won’t do. Not for the best trophy in all of sports.

It’s likely that members of the Pittsburgh Penguins will be alive when their names are removed from the Cup (2070). That’s the day when some snot-nosed grandkid of theirs will question whether or not grandpa was a great hockey player saying, ‘Then why isn’t your name on the trophy, grandpa?”. Then gramps will pull the kid’s sweater over his head just to show that gramps could get a couple shots in if we really wanted. – PAL

Source: “How Tall Would The Stanley Cup Be If The NHL Never Removed Anyone’s Name?”, Dan McQuade, Deadspin (06/12/2017)

TOB: If it makes you feel any better, I wanted to write a story about what a goddamn fun-hating, whiny  little bitch Sidney Crosby is last week, but I didn’t get around to it. We also didn’t too much about the NBA playoffs.

As for the Stanley Cup as a trophy…I think it’s a little overrated. Saying the Stanley Cup is the best trophy in sports is one of those weird hockey-isms that even non-hockey fans have come to accept, without questioning. For example, hockey players are the toughest! Or, no really, you have to see hockey live, it’s soooo much better live! TV doesn’t do it justice!

Don’t get me wrong, the Stanley Cup is pretty cool. But as a trophy, it’s unwieldy. Now, the fact that each member of the winning team gets to spend one day with the trophy each offseason is without question the coolest trophy-related practice in the North American team sports. But I don’t think the trophy itself is the coolest. For example, Gold medals are cooler.

The Heisman is cooler.

Wimbledon’s men’s trophy is cooler, assuming you can drink out of it, which I will believe even in the face of concrete evidence to the contrary.

However, the Claret Jug is, in my opinion, the coolest.

Like the Stanley Cup, the winner’s name is engraved. Like the Stanley Cup, the winner gets it for the year, until the next tournament. Plus, It’s been around longer than the Stanley Cup (1872). And finally, you can, and people do, drink out of it, like the Stanley Cup. But it’s much more manageable than the Stanley Cup. Imagine taking that thing into a crowded bar the night you won. Goddamn. You would be the belle of the ball. And, on top of all that, it’s a JUG, which is many times cooler than a cup. #jugcore.

PAL: Tennis & golf? When did TOB go country club on all of us? I should clarify: Best team sport championship trophy. Medals are a separate matter. While they award athletic achievement, I wouldn’t classify them as a trophy. The Heisman is great, but it’s an individual award and not entirely related to winning games or a tournament.  

The Ball is Juiced, Part Deux

Since the All-Star break in 2015, the home run rate in major league baseball has dramatically, and suddenly, increased. You can see in this chart, it’s the biggest 3-year increase ever, including over the end of the dead-ball era, and the beginning of the Steroid Era.

The 2015-post All Star Break gain was so dramatic in fact that it was the largest home run rate increase between a first half and a second half ever, and the rate continues to rise: there have been 2,395 home runs hit already this season, on pace for the most ever. Yes, ever. More than the height of the steroid era. So…what the hell is going on? The 2015 second half home run surge was fueled by a spike in batted ball exit velocity. But why? As you may have guessed, there are some theories. Some have wondered about warmer temperatures, but while that would affect the distance a ball travels, it would not affect exit velocity. Others have opined about a changing strike zone, or widespread PED use, or even the fact that pitchers are throwing harder (but a 1 mph increase of pitch speed only increases a batted ball’s distance by less than one foot).

The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh, however, makes a very convincing argument that, this time, the ball really is juiced. First, changes in the baseball have produced dramatic changes in offense in the past, including in MLB, Japan, Mexico, and the NCAA. Second, the fact the spike occurred so suddenly, at the 2015 All Star break, suggests player behavior cannot account for the change. Third, the home run levels in AAA did not change, and they use a different ball than MLB. Fourth, the home run levels have risen not at the top of the leaderboards, but at the bottom. As this article notes, “[p]layers who previously had warning-track power might have more to gain from adding extra feet to their flies and regularly reaching that sweet spot than the elite sluggers who were already comfortably clearing the fence.”

For its part, MLB denies there has been a change in the ball, and claims they have performed multiple studies proving their claims. This article, however, scientifically calls into question those studies. The author of the article purchased a number of game-used baseballs from MLB. 17 balls used before the 2015 All Star Break, and 10 used in May, June, or July 2016. The balls outwardly appeared the same, but they were not:

The testing revealed significant differences in balls used after the 2015 All-Star break in each of the components that could affect the flight of the ball, in the directions we would have expected based on the massive hike in home run rate. While none of these attributes in isolation could explain the increase in home runs that we saw in the summer of 2015, in combination, they can.

OHH SNAP. The newer baseballs are bouncier, have lower seam height, and are smaller, all of which increase the distance a batted-ball will travel.

The ball is juiced! That is some mighty fine journalism. Maybe next Lindbergh can investigate why only San Francisco Giants’ opponents’ pitchers are using the old baseballs, which is the only explanation for the Giants’ moribund offense. -TOB

Source: “The Juiced Ball is Back”, Ben Lindbergh,The Ringer (06/14/2017)

PAL: Whoa, that was one hell of an article. Best thing I’ve read on The Ringer, that’s for sure. I’m convinced the balls are juiced. Also, who gets to make the call to change the circumference of a friggin’ baseball? What?!? Hey, the Twins, a team made up of a lot of WTP guys (warning track power) are hitting bombs left and right and were busy kicking the crap out of the Giants last weekend. I’m good with it. Hell, maybe Joe Mauer can even hit 15 home runs this year while making a gazillion dollars playing an average first base and hitting .280 with no power.

Sir Edmund Hillary Posthumously Hosed

Back-to-back weeks with a mountaineering story! Aside from the mountain itself, the most well-known, iconic characteristic of Mt. Everest is Hillary Step. Named after the Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two confirmed humans to summit Everest, the boulder sat perched a mere 200 meters below the summit and was one last major challenge for climbers so close to standing on top of the world.

Turns out, Hillary Step is no more. A 2015 earthquake is likely the culprit. What’s crazy is that it took this long to confirm it. Climbers have a small window, usually in May, when the weather cooperates to summit Everest. In many cases, Hillary Step is covered in snow, so one couldn’t tell for sure whether it was under the snow or not. American climbers summiting this year have pretty clear photographic evidence that the main boulder is gone.

Kind of sucks for Sir Edmund Hillary, doesn’t it? I mean, talk about a bad ass monument. You can have your statues outside of ballparks, hall of famers. Take your spot on Mt. Rushmore, presidents. Sir Edmund Hillary’s monument sat atop the world. – PAL

Source: “American Climbers Confirm the Hillary Step Is Gone”, Jay Bouchard, Outside (6/12/17)

Track & Field’s Surrender

The longest-standing track world record – Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 800 meter time of 1.53.28 (holy crap) – is in jeopardy. Not because there is an up-and-coming superstar tracking it down, but because a group of people want to just erase it from the record books.

“European Athletics made a striking proposal in May to have the sport’s global governing body void all world records set before 2005. That year, storage of blood and urine samples began for more sophisticated drug screenings.”

This is the most aggressive approach to anti-doping I’ve come across. I’ve never heard a proposal for fending off doping in sports that basically says, ‘let’s start over’ and erase history. Is there any better piece of evidence the governing body has no real way of getting ahead of cheating than a solution that looks to correct the past?

I mean, if you want to start over, then really start over. Change the distance of the races altogether. Replace the decathlon with tough mudder. Hell, scrap the name of the sport, too, and sell the naming rights to a sponsor. “Track & Field” can become “Monster Energy Dashes and Obstacles”.

Rant over. The most fascinating part of the article is the legend/backstory of Kratochvilova. She makes Michael Jordan’s will to win look like Nerf ball:

Kratochvilova was born, and still lives, in the village of Golcuv Jenikov. As a girl, she worked on her uncle’s farm, harvesting beets and potatoes by hand. When Track and Field News named her athlete of the year in 1983, the accompanying story by a Czech journalist said, “At 12, she was already able to toss a pitchfork of hay into the loft as well as any adult farmer.”

While working as an accountant and training for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Kratochvilova sometimes ran beneath streetlights at 4 in the morning before heading to her job. At those Games, even as a part-time athlete, she won a silver medal at 400 meters for Czechoslovakia.

She then began training full time here on a cinder track and forest paths. The stories about her immense willpower and strength are legendary in the track world. And whether they are repeated matter-of-factly, or told with awe or wariness, they remain astonishing.

She sprinted in spiked shoes on a frozen pond when snow covered the cinder track in winter. She ran repeats of 200 meters while dragging a tire filled with varying amounts of sand. To recover from surgery on her left Achilles’ tendon, she dashed through a foot of water in a pool, wore a weighted vest and placed a gas mask over her face to restrict her breathing and raise her pulse rate.

There’s an obvious point that we’re avoiding: In her prime, Kratochvilova was built like a very strong man.

Combine her physique with a record that’s never been broken (or even really seriously challenged), and a state-sponsored doping program, and people are going to draw some conclusions. In fact, take a look at the women’s 25 fastest 800 meter times. Anything stand out?

No one’s ever come within a tenth of a second of Kratochvilova’s time in over 30 years. Also, exactly 2 of these times would exist if the proposed measure of removing world records pre-2005 was enacted. Lastly, look at the countries dominating the this list. A whole lot of “Iron Curtain” countries represented.

So, while the suggestion of wiping away all world records before 2005 is absurd, I can understand the path that led to absurdity. Still, you just can’t just take a record away based on era and geographical generalizations. If they had something on Kratochvilova, it would be different, but they don’t.

The hard part is we’re in the general vicinity of Barry Bonds/Lance Armstrong territory (no positive tests). But I’d rather be fooled than be a sports pessimist. – PAL

Source: “Track’s Most Resilient (and Suspect) Record Is in Danger”, Jeré Longman, The New York Times (06/15/2017)

TOB: This is pretty appalling, as it judges everyone before 2005 (which is not that long ago) as guilty of doping by association. Is Kratochvilova’s record legit? Hell if I know, and that’s the point. As the article points out, there is “no proof that every record set before 2005 was aided by doping and no guarantee that every record achieved since then was unassisted by banned substances.” What of Mike Powell, the long jump record holder? As we profiled here last year, Powell’s record is unlikely to ever be broken because it takes years of specialized training that no one wants to put in, because why strive to jump 30 feet when 27 feet will get you a gold medal? Now? Powell’s record will be gone. As will Bob Beamon’s behind him, whose record stood from 1968 until Powell broke it in 1991. The new record would be Dwight Phillips, at 28 feet, 8 inches, back in 2009.

As for Kratochvilova, the evidence against her is sparse. There is a document from 1984, a year after her record was set, with Kratochvilova’s name on a list of athletes “who were to” undergo “specialized care”, believed to be doping. On another document, showing an internal doping test given to Czechoslovakian athletes in 1987 to ensure they would pass drug tests, Kratochvilova’s test was negative. And, there are no documents “showing that (Kratochvilova)  signed a consent form, as required, to participate in the doping program,” and “no document showing dates and doses of drugs administered to” her. Whether she doped or not, I find this to be a compelling point:

Nekola, the Czech antidoping expert, said any revocation of records should carry an asterisk. It should be clearly stated, he said, that athletes participating in state-sponsored systems were victims. That they were treated like “guinea pigs,” essentially left with no choice if they wanted to remain at the elite level and enlisted in a scheme where sport could not be separated from Cold War politics.

“If we cancel the records, automatically athletes will be the guilty ones in the eyes of the public, but the true guilt lies with the system,” Nekola said.

He added: “I do not want individual athletes to be judged. But I believe we must judge the system that required them to take banned substances.”

The Baseball Scout Glossary

Vice Sports polled several baseball scouts and compiled the best scouting terms.

This is hilarious. Here are my favorites:

“High Ass: No, really, stop laughing. This is a term. Alternately referred to as “high back pockets” or a prominent “lower half,” having a big posterior is said to portend good power potential. But it’s more than a little weird when you think about a grandfatherly scout using the term on a teenage prospect.”

“He’s a baseball player: Though it would seem to apply to anyone on the field—I mean, is everyone else playing a different sport?—this sentiment is intended to be a noble compliment conveying an evaluator’s utmost respect for a prospect, often connoting intangible skill or countenance that exceeds his physical tools. In Dollar Sign on the Muscle, a Phillies’ scouting report on Bip Roberts praised him because, among attributes, he “can run, play defense, play baseball.” Yes, play baseball, indeed.”

“Red Ass: A fiery, argumentative, hard-nosed player is said to be a red ass, a term that apparently dates to at least the 1920s. (See: Lo Duca, Paul)”

“Hyphenated names: Two incredulous scouts said they’ve heard peers speculate that conjoined appellations are indications of poor potential. One of the scouts summarized the ridiculous thinking as follows: neither parent is an Alpha, so they’ll allegedly lack a killer instinct. Really. We don’t get it, either.”

“Redhead: Another insane marginalization of an entire subset of people: some scouts are said to shy away from red-headed ballplayers, apparently because of an inability to cope under the hot summer sun. (Speaking as a ginger, I do go through an awful lot of sunscreen . . .)”

“Has an idea: Having an idea suggests a player has know-how. Often this is used to discuss his hitting approach and strike-zone discipline. It also means his brain is working.”

“Milk drinker: A scout told Perkin that he prefers players who aren’t too wholesome and have an edge.”

That last one made me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. -TOB

Source: “Good Face, High Ass: The Baseball Scouting Glossary”, Joe Lemire, Vice Sports (06/15/2017)

PAL: In scouting for 1-2-3, we ultimately had to pass on writing prospect Ryan Rowe. Here was my analysis:

While he has an idea around the written word, but his arm slot while typing utilizes the inverted W. He’s got plus stuff, but worried about carpal tunnel in near-to-mid term. He’s not a milk drinker, and some scouts consider him a toolshed, but in the end it’s a can or can’t. Don’t think he’s ready, and I’ve never seen a prospect with a lower ass.

Baseball Art

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Cake – “Stickshifts and Safetybelts”

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Mission: Accomplished (?)

Now that the Astros are in first place and laying waste to the rest of baseball, this is an interesting read. Written in 2014 in the midst of the Astros rebuild, the final year of a 4-year stretch in which they lost 416 games, Ben Reiter got Moneyball-level access to the Astros braintrust as they prepared to make an unprecedented third straight #1 overall pick in the draft. The Astros considered 4 players and weighed the merits of each, using their blend of analytics and traditional scouting: Carlos Rodon, a college pitcher, Alex Jackson, a high school outfielder, and Brady Aiken and Tyler Kolek, high school pitchers. They eventually settled on Aiken, despite their reservations about taking a high school pitcher – historically a very risky pick. It’s fascinating to read, three years later, because I have the benefit of hindsight to see how they did. So, of course I did.

Aiken, Jackson, Rodon, Kolek

Aiken is a major bust at this point, and making matters worse for the Astros is the fact they never even signed him. After the draft, they claimed their doctors found an issue with his elbow, and so they offered him a lowball signing bonus. Aiken called their bluff, and re-entered the draft the folllowing year. He has since undergone Tommy John surgery and has never pitched above A-ball. Yikes.

Kolek has not fared much better. He went #2 to Miami, also underwent Tommy John surgery, and has also not pitched above A-ball.

Jackson at one point was rated highly enough to warrant me taking him in my keeper league as a prospect, but has failed to develop.He strikes out a ton, and has also not produced the kind of power expected from a player who led the entire state of California in home runs as a high school sophomore. Needless to say,  I released him.

Finally, Rodon – the guy they should have taken. Rodon was called up in 2015, and has been a nice addition to the White Sox rotation, if not a star. He strikes out just over a batter an inning, doesn’t walk many guys, and has a career ERA of 3.90.

All told…yikes. I wouldn’t be too harsh on the Astros, though. I checked – it was a pretty bad draft. Not many of the guys are even major league starters, let alone stars. Interestingly, Houston’s #1 overall pick from the previous season, Stanford’s very own Mark Appel, has also been a complete bust, never appearing in the majors, with a career minor league ERA of 5.27 and a K:BB ratio of just 2:1. Houston finally gave up on Appel last year, and he’s in the Phillies’ system at present. So, the Astros did a complete rebuild and got zero from two straight #1 picks, making their current destruction of the league all the more impressive. The players leading the charge are featured quite a bit in the article- then-prospects like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and George Springer were so promising at the time that Sports Illustrated even wrote, at the end of the article, a fake “Dispatch from the Future”, discussing the Astros’ victory over the Cubs in 2017 World Series. That prediction does not look bad, at the moment.

If you read and enjoyed Moneyball, or wanted to read Moneyball but never found the time, you will enjoy this look into the braintrust of an innovative, and ultimately successful, baseball front office. -TOB

Source: “Astro-Matic Baseball“, Ben Reiter, Sports Illustrated (07/27/2014)

PAL: Great stuff. I loved Moneyball, and, as Reiter points out, the Astros represent the evolution of innovative baseball analysis. Projecting MLB talent is absolutely gambling. If a player represents a blackjack hand, the team is trying to figure out whether to hit or stay on him.

Definitely worth the read!

The Legend of Frank Deford

“His stories, along with those of other Sports Illustrated writers including Dan Jenkins and Mark Kram, helped raise sportswriting from the daily chronicle of victory and defeat to something with more literary ambition.”

I can’t imagine a more honorable quote for a sportswriter, but Frank Deford wasn’t just a sports writer.

Deford, Jenkins, and Kram set the groundwork for the legend of Sports Illustrated, and the impact of that publication on sports lovers cannot be diluted in the world of Bleacher Report, Deadspin…hell, even 1-2-3 Sports! Box scores are a snapshot, but to those of us with the sports hook firmly set, we want more, and we want more because of the types of stories Deford wrote.

“For Mr. Deford, it wasn’t enough to present in-depth profiles of familiar names, such as coaches Paul “Bear” Bryant and Bobby Knight. He sought to grasp how sports were an inescapable part of the American soul, an emblem of loyalty, aspiration and, all too often, heartbreak.”

That heartbreak was uncovered in Deford’s story on Kirby Puckett’s downfall. It still pains me to read, but you can’t discredit the writing.

I came to Deford when his prime as a writer was in the rearview, and some of his later work could lay the Americana storytelling on a bit thick, the guy was a giant. Here’s to the next who will redefine it for my nieces and nephews. – PAL

Source: “Frank Deford, who wrote about sports with panache and insight, dies at 78”, Matt Schudel, The Washington Post (05/29/2017)

No Fan Left Behind

God damn, this is funny. The morning after the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race last weekend, clean-up crews filed in to clean up the mountains of trash left behind. They found the usual – beer cans, etc., but also found tents, a kiddie pool, a woman, a couch. Wait, a woman!? Yes, Jody Nash, whose friends and/or family left her behind. I’m guessing they had difficulty rousing her…but it sure made for a great local TV spot.

“Hey, Mom, I’m okay!” Nash said, holding a Bud Light. “I’m still here in Turn 2!” Y’all come get me?”

Follow the link for the excellent video. -TOB

PAL: I think we might have to go to a NASCAR race. One of the funniest videos I’ve seen in quite some time.

Source: “Woman Left Behind at Charlotte Motor Speedway“, WBTV (05/30/2017)

Video of the Week

https://twitter.com/Takk/status/870319043177086977

Richmond, California’s own Takk McKinley. I’d be dancing like that, too, if I got a $5.5 million signing bonus.

PAL Song of the Week: Delicate Steve – “Butterfly”

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On the weekend we celebrate one of our most loyal readers, the many faces of Ryan Rowe.

Yip, Yip, Yip.

ESPN has a very interesting and well-researched story about LeBron James’ free throw struggles this season. Whereas most free throw shooters, especially the good ones,  maintain the same pre-free throw routine for their entire careers, LeBron who is right at the league average for his career, has altered his pre-shot routine considerably throughout this season, and even within the same game. Whether it is blowing into his right hand, rocking back onto his left foot, or shrugging his shoulders, LeBron has employed 18 distinctive variations to his free throw routine this season, and he has used those 18 variations in countless combinations. Why? LeBron, shooting only 67.9% from the line, by far the worst of his career, might just have the “yips”.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/19417706

It is, surprisingly, affecting how LeBron plays the game. This season, he took only two free throws (on the same trip to the line) in the final minute of a one possession game – way back on December 29. That’s it. That placed him in a tie for 117th, with a couple guys I’ve never even heard of. That’s not normal for LeBron. He’s averaged 18 such shots per season in his career, with as many as 32 in 2007-08. This tells us his free throw woes are changing the way he plays, because he is simply not trying to get to the rim in late and close situations. Could this affect his quest for a fourth title in the rubber match against the Warriors? It very well might.

There was another interesting nugget in this story:

In 1993, a white-haired podiatrist from Long Beach, California, named Tom Amberry etched his name in the Guinness World Records by making 2,750 free throws in a row. In March, Amberry died at age 94, leaving behind a 144-page manual, published in 1996, on mastering free throws. It includes seven steps to successful free throw shooting, stressing the importance of keeping things simple and routine. In a 1994 Sports Illustrated profile, Amberry offered this advice: “You have to perfect all parts of your technique, then it’s just focus and concentration. A free throw takes six seconds, and you can’t think of anything else during those six seconds — you have to put all other thoughts out of your mind. Each shot is a separate shot, and it’s the same ritual every time.”

First of all, 2,750 consecutive free throws made is incredible, moreso for a guy who was 70 years old. Second, I reeeeeeeally want to find that manual. How can someone write a 144-page manual on how to shoot a free throw? I bet it’s insane and hilarious. Someone find it for me. -TOB

Source: “Fifteen Feet of Trouble”, Tom Haberstroh, ESPN (05/19/2017)

Becoming Curry

Danny Chau writes about Game 1 of the 2013 Western Conference Semifinals between the Warriors and Spurs, the night Steph Curry broke out and started to become the unstoppable force we know him as today. Prior to that postseason, Steph Curry was a pretty good, oft-injured, player mostly known for his outstanding three-point shooting, and not much else. He missed the majority of the previous season with the latest in a long line of ankle injuries that appeared to seriously threaten his career, and he was still so skinny that it just seemed impossible a guy his size could ever withstand the physical grind of an NBA season.

I’ll never forget that series, because I was particularly invested in the Warriors’ playoff success. Indulge me. That season, I was involved in a game of Turnerball, invented by my friend, Turner Sparks. Turnerball is simple. Starting at the all-star break, each player picks three teams to win a game, straight up, each week. You cannot pick a team more than once. After the regular season ends, the players then select who they think will win the NBA title in order of their regular season finish in a draft conducted through e-mail.

I had the 9th pick, and I was eyeing the #6 seed Warriors, playing the #3 seed Nuggets. Complicating matters was the fact I was on my honeymoon during the draft, and in fact would be on a long flight when the #7 and #8 selection was to be made. I was hoping the Warriors would be available when I landed. When I did, I turned on my phone and eagerly checked my e-mail. Despite having warned the group of my flight, I had a few e-mails wondering what the hell was taking so long, but I didn’t mind because the Warriors were there.

As I expected, the Warriors pulled the first round upset against the Nuggets (who were selected fifth in our draft). They went on to play San Antonio in the second round, and though they lost, Curry was a one-man wrecking crew. The offense was get Steph the ball, get out of the way, and let’s hope he shoots us to a win. The Warriors absolutely gave away Game 1, and still got the series tied at 2, before the Spurs closed it out in Games 5 and 6.

But Curry put the league on notice. He had arrived. He did things we’ve never really seen before – taking deep, contested threes, and making them over and over at a clip (watch the video above, but the shot at 03:52 into the video is illustrative). He might be my favorite basketball player to watch, and it all started in 2013, coming full circle this week when the Warriors brushed aside the Spurs, albeit without the retired Duncan or the injured Parker and Leonard, in four largely noncompetitive games in the Western Conference Finals. A rubber match with Cleveland awaits, and I can’t wait to see the best team and most exciting player against the best player. -TOB

Source: “The Night Steph Curry Became a Star”, Danny Chau, The Ringer, 05/23/2017

Missed It By That Much

It’s one thing to never come up short on a dream by a lot. Take, for instance, me. I dreamt of playing for the Minnesota Twins when I was a pipsqueak. Spoiler: It didn’t happen. It was never going to happen. I got over it.

It’s another thing to come up short on a dream by the thinnest of margins. That must be a little harder to get over. That’s what Billy Witz’s story is about – the guys who made the last out in a World Series.

We’ve all heard it. Hell, many of us probably uttered the familiar lines while playing in the back yard. Bottom of the ninth. Two outs. Down by 3. And [enter your name here] walks to the plate as the [enter your team] last hope for a World Series…

Michael Martinez, a utility infielder for the Indians last year, lived a real version of that. So did Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Tony Gwynn, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie McCovey, Mike Piazza and Honus Wagner. And they all made the last out of a World Series. Read the story below to learn of the incredible way in which Ruth ended the 1926 season.

This story is also about Martinez, and his journey to that moment when he grounded out to Kris Bryant, ending the Cubs 100+ year championship drought (and extending the Indians 65+ year drought).

Baseball is the best. – PAL

Source: “We All Remember the World Series Celebration. How About the Guy Who Made the Last Out?”, Billy Witz, The New York Times (5/22/17)

The Time Tupac Ran Into the Long Beach Poly Football Team at an In-N-Out in Barstow Just Hours Before He Was Shot

That title was a mouthful, but there’s really no other way to put it – and this is a fun story. Long Beach Poly is one of the country’s best high school football programs, producing tons of talent over the years, including DeSean Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Willie McGinest. In 1996, the coaches decided it was time to take the team on their first out of state road trip. They decided to go to Las Vegas, to play the defending Nevada State champions. It was a disaster. A team of mostly inner-city kids from Long Beach staying on the Las Vegas Strip? Yeah, most stayed out all night drinking and gambling…what you do in Vegas. Predictably, the team was listless the next day and got their butts kicked. On the way back, they stopped at an In-N-Out in Barstow. Who happened to be at the same In-N-Out, heading to Vegas?

After the two buses pulled into the allotted parking spaces along the northern side of the In-N-Out, players wearily rose from the green vinyl seats, when Robert Hollie, the Jackrabbits’ backup quarterback, gazed out a window and said, softly at first, “Yo, it’s Pac!”

What?

“It’s Tupac!” he yelled. “It’s Tupac!”

That’s right. Tupac. Pac and his crew happened to be heading to Vegas to see the Mike Tyson/Bruce Seldon fight that night. Suge Knight was there, too. The kids made a bit of a mistake, though:

Hollie and Gary Barnes, a nose tackle, led a dozen or so teammates toward Tupac. According to multiple witnesses, the rapper had his back toward the players and was speaking loudly—and animatedly, with his hands—to the small number of Knight’s Mob Piru members beside him. They were leaning against the black SUVs. At one point, Tupac heard the approaching footsteps and spun. Meanwhile, two of his colleagues pulled out what looked to be Glocks. Hollie, Barnes and the others stopped in their tracks. “Bloods, you can’t be walking up on me like that!” Tupac yelled. “You don’t know me like that!”

“He was extremely paranoid,” Croom says. “He started cursing—he was irate. We were just kids, so it was definitely an overreaction.”

“He yelled, ‘Don’t run up on me!’” Lewis says. “The guys with him were big dudes. Really big.”

According to Rideaux, Tupac looked over the Long Beach Poly group, noted the collective youth and seemed to calm down. Around this point Knight had returned from inside the In-N-Out, and the players were equally shocked to be in his presence. “It was crazy,” Lewis says. “Not your ordinary rest stop break.” Tupac realized the teenage boys did not pose a threat.

“Where are all y’all little niggas from?” he asked.

“We’re from Long Beach,” Hollie replied.

“Oh, so y’all know my homie Snoop?” Tupac said.

A few nodded. They did indeed.

Everyone seemed to take a deep breath. The Glocks were put away.

“When we first approached Tupac, I wasn’t star-struck—I was scared,” recalled Rideaux. “There was this feeling of anxiety and unease. Growing up in Long Beach, you had these moments when the police would pass you and slow down to question you, even though you did nothing wrong. And you get that anxious feeling in your stomach. That’s how this felt at first.

“But because of the way Tupac embraced our group, it got a little lighter. A couple of guys peeled off as soon as they saw the guns and heard him talk angrily. But those of us who stayed around connected with him. It was brief, but it was a little connection. So that was nice.”

Tupac would be shot later that night, and died a few days later from the injuries. Reading the above, I can’t help but wonder – was living in fear like that Tupac’s every day life, or did he know something was up on that particular day? The story reminds me of the time I stopped at a fast food spot in the middle of I-5 in Nowhere, California, and in front of me in line was the WWE’s Big Boss Man and Dustin Runnels aka Golddust. I was not a huge wrestling fan at the time, but I knew them both from when I was as a kid. Still, it wasn’t Tupac. What a wild story. I can’t believe it took nearly twenty years to tell it. -TOB

Source: “Tupac, Glocks, and In-N-Out: A Football Team’s Run In With the Rapper Revealed“, Jeff Pearlman, Bleacher Report (05/23/2017)

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week – There’s only one choice on this bachelor party weekend…Banda MS – ‘El Mechon’

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Worst. Trades. Ever.

This is a quick and fun read – what are the WORST trades in sports history? But I have a major beef with the rankings here. First is the Babe Ruth being “traded” from the Red Sox to the Yankees. I say “traded” in quotes because his contract was actually sold, for $100,000 and a $300,000 loan. It’s a technicality, but I will allow it. It was a horrible decision. But then you continue down the list…Randy Moss from the Raiders to the Patriots for a 4th rounder, sure; Washington’s big trade to get RGIII in the draft, ok. Those are not good trades!

But then you get to #4. In order to draft NBA legend Bill Russell, the Celtics traded their #2 pick and, I kid you not, “a week with the Ice Capades”  to the the Rochester Royals for their #1 pick. Uh, what? I needed a little more context, and here’s what I found:

“The owner of the Celtics, Walter Brown, was also the president of the Ice Capades.  Brown called up the owner of the Royals– Lee Harrison — with the following offer:  Brown would send the Ice Capades to Rochester for one week if the Royals would pass on Russell.”

HOLY SHIT. As the article notes, Bill Russell went on to win five MVPs and eleven NBA titles, and is considered one of the greatest players ever. FOR THE ICE CAPADES FOR A WEEK. Mind-boggling. That’s so so so bad. That’s at least #2 on the list, and I will make a strong argument for it being #1 over Ruth to the Yankees if you get a couple beers in me.

Oh, and the Royals eventually became the Sacramento Kings, because of course they did. God damn, we always sucked. -TOB

Source: “Most Uneven Trades in Sports History”, David Ubben, Sports on Earth (05/18/2017)

PAL: Randy Moss is my favorite NFL player ever, and even I would have traded him after his two years in Oakland.

You Ought To Know Steve Palermo

Until this week, I thought I knew nearly everything about the 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves. It is more than just my favorite fan memory. A few of you may have heard me say that Kirby Puckett’s 11th inning walk-off home run remains the moment of my life in which I’ve experience the purest joy. I was nine, so I knew just enough to appreciate the drama of the moment and to have chosen a favorite player in Puckett, but not enough to know that there were more important things to life that the Twins winning the World Series.

The series was incredible: 5 of the 7 games decided by 1 run, 3 extra inning games, and an all-time classic game 7, in which Jack Morris went the distance to shutout the Braves 1-0. It was outstanding.

I never knew the most outstanding story from that series: Steve Palermo walking out to the mound before Game 1 and throwing out the first pitch.

Palermo was a Major League umpire from 1977 until July 6, 1991. He was eating dinner in Dallas after a game between the Rangers and the Angels when he and two friends rushed to help two waitresses who were being beaten and robbed by three men. Palermo and his buddy chased down one of the attackers while the other two attackers fled. They came back and opened fire. One of the bullets hit Palermo.

“Hit me, belt high, and tore a path through my body,” Palermo said. “And then instantly, I was paralyzed. I just kind of melted into the pavement. I knew right away that oh boy, this is serious.”

His doctor told him it was unlikely he would walk again. 3 months later, with the help of braces and crutches, he got himself to the mound to throw out the first pitch of the World Series. At the game, Palermo offered his assessment of his situation to the Pioneer Press:

“If I wanted to get out of this game, that would be one thing, but for somebody to take it away from me like this doesn’t feel right. I’m looking forward to being booed again.”

While he never umpired again, he remained very much a part of Major League Baseball. He worked as Bud Selig’s special assistant, an analyst, and eventually an umpire supervisor. His professional umpire career began when he was noticed umping a Little League game, and he was the third base umpire the day Yankee Bucky Effin Dent (as Boston fans refer to him) popped a home run down the left field line over the Green Monster. Palermo’s dad was a Red Sox fan.

“What, you couldn’t have called in foul?” his dad said after the game.

Steve Palermo died of cancer on Sunday. – PAL

Source: “Steve Palermo, Whose Umpire Whose Career Was Ended by a Bullet, Dies at 67”, Richard Sandomir, The New York Times (5/15/17)

Source: “Steve Palermo, a hero, former MLB Umpire and KC resident, dies at 67”, Blair Kerkhoff, The Kansas City Star (5/14/17)

TOB: A few thoughts:

-Please, don’t be a hero. Palermo says he’d do it again, and would hope others would, too. But, I can’t agree. Helping the woman being attacked was absolutely the right thing to do. But once the attacker fled, it’s not worth risking your life to chase the attacker down. Palermo was paralyzed, and he could have died. For what? Be a good human and help the victim, and then let the police do their jobs.

-Boy, do I love those AL/NL umpire hats. That is classic. I miss when the AL and NL were truly different.

-Phil left out my favorite part of the story about Palermo’s dad and the Bucky Dent home run. After his dad asks why he couldn’t call it foul, Palermo said, “It was, like, 20 feet fair.” His father replied, “So?” Ha!

Francona Better Not Ask Cash to Get His Shinebox

This is so good. Kevin Cash is the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. He both played and coached under Indians manager Terry Francona. Cash was not a very good major league player. Francona and Cash obviously have a good relationship, because Francona is absolutely killing Cash every time the Rays come to Cleveland. Last year, the Rays were greeted with this message on the big screen:

Savage. And this year?

https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/864212995760586753

God damn, that’s good. But if I were Francona, I’d stop short of telling Cash to get his shinebox.

-TOB

Source: “Terry Francona Won’t Stop Owning Rays Manager Kevin Cash in Increasingly Public Ways”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (05/15/2017)

PAL: Being an MLB manager sounds like a pretty awesome gig. You essentially get to wear sweatpants to work every day, and you can pull rank on a scoreboard operator. Does it get any better?

Overthinking It

I don’t care about college softball (unlike some fictional presidents), but this story is ludicrous. Add to it that Minnesota is on the wrong end of it, and – well – now you have a 123 post, don’t you?

The U women’s softball team went 53-4 this year. By any measure of baseball or softball, in any level of competition, that’s a hell of a record. Good enough for the team from up north to be currently ranked #1 in the country. And when the selection committee released its seedings, The U failed to garner a top-16 seed in the NCAA tournament.  How in the you-know-what is that possible?

A laughable explanation:

When selecting the top 16 seeds the committee emphasizes a team’s performance against Top 25 teams along with other variables including strength of schedule. Additionally, two regular-season rankings were released, however, the rankings are not used by the committee when determining the seeds and final bracket that was released yesterday.

When the committee compared Minnesota against other teams being considered for the top 16 seeds, Minnesota did not have as many regular-season Top 10 and Top 25 wins as compared to other teams. The teams that were selected as the 16 seeds had at least one or more Top 10 wins and between four to 18 Top 25 wins. Minnesota did not have any Top 10 wins and only two Top 25 wins.

Furthermore, Minnesota’s strength of schedule was 114. The top seeded teams had strength of schedules ranging from 1 to 36.

That strength of schedule is glaring—I’ll give the committee that— and ranking sports teams is a subjective pursuit without head-to-head games, and that’s especially the case for a fringe sport like college softball, but give me a break. At some point wins have to matter more than the qualifiers of a win, e.g., quality wins, strength of schedule.

In a sport in which one conference – the SEC – had every single damn team make the tournament, you have the a team that’s ranked #1 in the country in the coaches poll to fail to garner a top-16 seed. Talk about paralysis by analysis. Go Gophers! – PAL

Source: “The Top-Ranked Softball Team In The Country Is Somehow Unseeded In The NCAA Tournament”, Dan McQuade, Deadspin (5/16/17)

TOB: This is just so stupid. IMAGINE. For one minute, that…Gonzaga was ranked #1 in the country. They have a soft schedule every year, and this hypothetical year is no different. But they plow through everyone they play and are ranked #1 in the country. And the Selection Committee decided they were only a 8 or 9-seed. People would go nuts. 

But you know who hates this as much as Minnesota? Florida. Florida is ranked #2, and now has to play the #1 team in the first round.  So, not only did the Committee not give #1 Minnesota a regional to host, but they put them in #2 Florida’s regional. That means they thought Minnesota is 32nd best team. The only other question I have is for Phil: What does Miami have to do with this story?

Video of the Week: 

PAL Song of the Week – Van Morrison – “Real Real Gone”

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Ingenuity is a beautiful thing.

Big Baller or Big Bluster

We have covered Lonzo Ball and his one-man-hype-machine father, LaVar, before. I thought LaVar was kinda funny. Not everyone agrees. After proclaiming he’d be looking for a $1 billion (yes, with a b) dollar sneaker deal for Lonzo and his brothers (both still in high school) or he’d start his own shoe company, LaVar and Lonzo made the rounds at the big sneaker companies. He…did not get a billion dollars. LaVar reported Nike offered Lonzo a 5-year, $2 million per year deal. The Balls did not accept, and I would have loved to have been in attendance at that meeting.

Instead, this week, LaVar announced Lonzo’s first shoe, on their own “Big Baller Brand”. It’s…fine.

If it was under $80, I might even wear them. Others have pointed out they look like the Kobe 8, which isn’t a bad thing. That’s a nice shoe!

But these shoes are not under $80. Or $100. Or $200. These shoes start at $495. Five hundo!!! For a pair of shoes! And they go MUCH higher. Plus, there is no way to know if they are even decent shoes. It’s not like LaVar Ball has been producing shoes for decades. Five hundred dollars!! GTFOOH. Even funnier, they are also selling these stupid slide sandals for $220.

These are not affordable for most anyone…but that’s kind of the point.

LaVar is attempting to market the shoe as a luxury item/brand – to create a status symbol. I’m betting he will fail spectacularly, but I imagine people thought he was insane when he was guaranteeing his kids would play in the NBA, so who knows. Check out the article, though. It breaks down why Lonzo’s offer from Nike was so small (compared to, for example, John Wall’s $15 million per year deal given before he played a game). The economics simply don’t make sense for shoe companies, unless you become a true star who can give your company credibility. -TOB

Source: “Why the Hell Are Lonzo Ball’s Sneakers $495?”, Dan McQuade, Deadspin (05/05/2017)

PAL: The Balls are DIY, and I’m all for that as a business philosophy. We need more of it! The problem is that LaVar Ball doesn’t know his product, and he’s impatient. That’s a dangerous starting point for a business.

The value of Big Baller Brand (a cringeworthy name) is currently based on one unknown data point: Lonzo Ball’s ability to excel in the NBA. If he appears to be a transcendent player next year, then BBB has a slim chance of success, and that’s looking past, as one expert notes in McQuade’s article, the fact that LaVar knows nothing about the sneaker business. I’m not sure Lonzo being great is good enough. As McQuade’s article points out, there are a lot of great players in the NBA who can’t push shoe sales.

It’s reported that LaVar was not just looking for an endorsement deal from the likes of Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour; rather, he wanted them to license Big Baller Brand. Do you think the execs openly laughed him out of the room when he made that demand, or texted each other what a piece of work during the meeting?

If LaVar was looking to negotiate with the big three shoe companies, or — better yet, a bidding war to ensue — then he grossly overestimated his leverage.

I can understand two options for the father-son duo (let’s keep the younger Ball boys out of this for the moment):

1. Play it safe. Take the $10MM as an insurance policy and renegotiate after the 5 year endorsement. If Lonzo’s for real, then he’s essentially a sneaker free agent in the early stages of his prime. That’s when you have the leverage. Worst case scenario, Lonzo has a career ending injury day 1 and you walk away with millions.
2. You bet on your son. Don’t take the $10MM. Put every ounce of energy making sure Lonzo is ready to kick ass game 1 of his rookie season. He has a fantastic first half of his rookie season. Surpasses the hype and he’s a legit MVP candidate. At that point you go back to the shoe companies with some leverage and demand the licensing deal + a whole lot more money. Or, you launch Big Baller Brand with some some juice that’s based on actual performance.

The path they chose doesn’t make business sense to me, and that’s why I don’t buy LaVar when he says it’s all about his kids. Right now, until Lonzo steps on an NBA court, it’s about LaVar. That’s why they launch Big Baller Brand now. That’s why he makes foolish demands with companies that have a pretty good idea of how to market athletes. He doesn’t want to wait, and marketing his son is his job right now. Waiting either minimizes the father’s role as a public figure (at that point, it will be about Lonzo the player), or worse, demonizes him as a father who got in the way of his son’s ability to succeed.

Back At It Again

The Golden State Warriors are sweeping their way towards a NBA Finals for a third consecutive year (8-0 in the playoff so far). They’re stacked with talent: 4 of the 5 starters were All-Stars this year. Some would argue that anyone could coach this team to a championship, but head coach Steve Kerr has played a major role in turning a 50-win team team into a historically great, championship team. I include him in the “stacked with talent” category.

As many know, Steve Kerr is not coaching the team right now. He had back surgery in July of  2015, and it did not go well. He missed 43 games last year, and now he’s missing the playoffs this year due to nausea, head, and neck pain stemming from the original surgery. He had a corrective spinal-cord-leak procedure at Duke last week (how terrible does that sound?), and there’s no timetable for his return.

The Warriors are on a historical run that Kerr’s leading, and it’s so strange to see such large chunk of it take place in his absence. When his coaching career is complete, I’m sure some hot take talking head will look to minimize his success due to his absence, and that will be dumb argument. Even while away, Kerr is making his impact known.

He’s watching tape, strategizing offensive schemes and player rotation with acting head coach Mike Brown. He’s also communicating directly with players. It all makes for a easily written story—Kerr’s impact is felt in his absence—but I just come back to how difficult it must be to be put in such a great coaching position (his first coaching gig), only to have to watch from afar, especially for a former player whose professional life has largely taken place on the court.

Suffering through greatness. This also seems to be foundation of Kerr and Bob Myers (GM) friendship.

I would be shocked if the Warriors didn’t cruise to another championship, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Kerr isn’t on the sideline to see it, and that doesn’t seem right. – PAL

Source: “Warriors’ Steve Kerr trying to help without imposing orders”, Connor Letourneau, SF Gate (05/09/2017)

TOB: This whole story has me very sad. As longtime readers (3 years!!) of this blog know, I am a huge Steve Kerr fan. I don’t have much else to say. I have actually avoided clicking tweets or links about Kerr, because I don’t want to read bad news. I am hoping his body will heal, and he’ll return to continue making the game of basketball even better.

Talent > Technology

Nike wants to own the first sub-two-hour marathon. It is the driving force behind a multi-year marketing campaign called “Breaking2”, and last week they put on quite a show.

The concept: Create the absolute ideal conditions to run the fastest marathon possible. It would not count as an official time, but that was not the point. If you asked Nike, it was about human potential, and as Sarah Barker points out, it’s also about selling merchandise through a production of awe.

Nike announced their plan to breach the two-hour marathon six months ago, though they said they’d been working on it since 2014. They made soaring statements likening their mission to a moonshot, Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile quest, a dreamer’s starry-eyed push at the limits of human potential, but let’s face it—Nike is a retailer, first and last. The plan was to control external factors—weather, altitude, course—and apply the latest and greatest shoe and clothing design, hydration, fueling, training techniques, pacing strategies and physiological knowledge—all with marvelous retail potential—to already accomplished athletes. They chose Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa, and Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, in the same way they chose the Formula 1 racetrack in Monza, Italy, as the perfect parts for their marketing machine.

I’ve watched chunks of the race (it’s worth skimming through here). It’s essentially a three-hour Nike advertorial mixed in with live footage of the runners making laps on a Formula 1 track. Pre-taped features on the science, the gear, the nutrition, and short bio features on each of the runners. It’s heavy-handed, but done cool and interesting in a way that Nike has mastered over the years. It motivates you to run, but only after you buy some new-fangled Nike shit.

Of the three runners, only one – Eliud Kipchoge – finished the race within a shouting distance of the pacers (the pacers would rotate in 5K increments). His time: 2:00:24. With the current world record standing at 2:02:57, it may seem like we’re very close to breaking the two hour mark. We are not. Running – not racing – on a closed track in ideal settings with a pelaton-like wall of world class runners to draft off of is far from racing. I’d say it’s a 50/50 shot that a clean 1:59:59 marathon happens in our lifetime.

Barker’s beautifully written article is not only a dissection of the infomercial, but the surprising conclusion. While Kipchoge did not succeed in Nike’s “moonshot” (its comparison), watching a generational talent do the one thing he was seemingly born to do under ideal conditions is mesmerizing:

It was the Kipchoge show. The commentators blathered endlessly about Nike science, but that all went out the window the minute the camera focused on Kipchoge. Nike’s gimmickry did little for the other two unfortunates, which was driven home like a knife with every velvet step Kipchoge took. Flying on after 30K, faster than any human had ever run, it was increasingly clear that this part, going over the wall where the strain on mind and body must have been excruciating, this was about one extraordinary athlete. The shoes, all that, had fallen away, useless, silly. What was happening was not Nike-made, and had very little retail potential. It cannot be reproduced on others. Though no doubt unintended, Nike produced a two-hour opus by Kipchoge, on Kipchoge.

Good work, Kipchoge. Good work, Sarah Barker. – PAL

Source: “Nike’s Two-Hour-Long Eliud Kipchoge Documentary Was Beautiful”, Sarah Barker, Deadspin (05/08/2017)

It’s Back: The WHL Bantam Draft Name Game

We covered this last year, too, and it’s still so goddamn funny. The WHL recently held its Bantam Draft (14-15 year olds), and the names are so stupid and hilarious. God damn you, white people. As Barry Petchesky points out, “This is a snapshot of a time and place: naming conventions in the American and Canadian Wests (including Mormon Country and the Prairie Provinces, crucially) circa 2002.” Behold:

There are FOUR different ways to spell “Kaden” and FIVE different ways to spell “Braden”. As Petchesky says, “We will have a President Braeydaen in our lifetimes.” I can’t argue.

Other highlights: Cohner. Come on, what? TRUE!!!!! They named their kid TRUE.

Nurse: You need to come up with a name for the birth certificate.

Parents: Oh, that’s true.

Nurse: Got it, thanks.

There is a Talon and a Talyn. There’s a kid named KRZ. WHAT THE HELL COME ON. KRZ??? What kind of name is that? Oh god, it’s pronounced “Cruise”. I am dying laughing.  A kid named Cannon? Ok, actually, that’s pretty dope. If only LaVar had named one of his kids Cannon. -TOB

Source: “The Future of Hockey Remains a Bunch of Kids With Irritating Names”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (05/05/2017)

PAL: People can name their kids whatever dumbass name they want. I feel the same way about standard names as I do about people without tattoos. In 10 years, nothing will be edgier than a tattoo-free college student named John.

The thought of an expecting couple in bed kicking around these names, then talking about the spelling of the name has me laughing out loud right now.

You know what the shit of it is? Krz might grow to become a grounded, generous, kind person, and I would never know it because it would be damn near impossible to get over that first impression.

Machismo and the Mexican Fighter

Art by Jim Cooke/GMG; photos via Getty/AP

This is a great article putting Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s blowout loss last weekend to Canelo Alvarez into historical context. This article explores the Mexican psyche, the origins of “machismo”, and goes in-depth on the 1996 fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez (Sr.), including why Mexicans and Mexican-Americans embraced Julio Cesar Chavez and considered Oscar de la Hoya a “gringo”. I urge you to set aside 45 minutes and read this. -TOB

“Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. Lost So Much More Than a Fight“, Roberto Jose Andrade Franco, Deadspin (05/11/2017)

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Bob Dylan – “Abandoned Love”

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Better ingredients. Better buzz. Papa John’s.

Long Live the MVP?

Very early this season, the MVP race became, effectively, a two-man discussion: (1) Russell Westbrook, who finished the season averaging a triple-double and dragging a bad, talent-bereft team to 47 wins in the Western Conference, through sheer force of will; (2) James Harden, who moved to point guard under new coach Mike D’Antoni and damn near averaged a triple double on his own, while leading the Rockets to the 3-seed in the West. The online debates are raging, and I find myself firmly in the Westbrook Camp. I don’t care if a triple double is arbitrary; I don’t care if he’s a ballhog. What he did this season is amazing, and will be talked about for decades to come. Harden is a boring player, by comparison, flailing and falling into defenders to get to the free throw line, and doing much of his damage there – he did have a great season, but if we’re splitting hairs I’m going to split some god damn hairs.

Finding himself as a complete afterthought in these discussions is the reigning two-time MVP, Steph Curry. Curry got hurt in last year’s playoffs and never regained his form, as the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead to the Cavs in the Finals. It was, perhaps, a long-term blessing for the team, as I find it hard to believe they really would have signed Kevin Durant in the offseason. Durant was the league’s MVP before Curry first won it two years ago, but seemed tired of playing in Oklahoma City, alongside the mercurial Westbrook. The Thunder, of course, also blew a 3-1 lead in the playoffs…to those same Warriors.

When you look at Curry’s numbers, though, you start to wonder why he’s not a bigger part of the MVP discussion. Even adding Kevin Durant, though his numbers are not as insane as they were last season, they are nearly identical to his 2014-15 MVP season. His team once again won a ton of games, and they are the favorite to win the title this season.

FiveThirtyEight broke down the candidacy for Steph Curry, and it is hard to argue with, and this chart is Exhibit A:

I’ll let Benjamin Morris explain:

There are stories to be told in each section of that chart, but for our purposes, focus on the fire raining down from the sky in the Curry section. Not only do virtually all of his teammates (10 of 11 players with at least 30 shots, representing over 1,700 shots taken without him shoot worse without Curry on the court to draw attention, they shoot dramatically worse. Overall, Curry’s teammates shoot 7.3 percentage points worse with Curry off the court, with his average teammate shooting 8.3 points worse. Among our MVP candidates, LeBron has the next-highest impact on average teammate shooting (3.9 points), followed by Westbrook (2.5 points). When it comes to opening up a team’s offense, Curry has no equal.

For the uninitiated, “true-shooting percentage is a shooting efficiency statistic that acts like field-goal percentage but is adjusted for three-pointers and free throws. Essentially, because three-pointers are more valuable than two-pointers, and because free throws are not accounted for in shooting percentage, it adjusts shooting percentage based on those numbers to get the “true” value of a player’s shooting.

So, looking at the chart, not only is Steph Curry very good, but both the shots and spacing he creates for his teammates makes them all (or nearly all) much better players.

Another chart helps explain the end result of this.

When Curry is off the floor, his team is a good team. When he’s on the floor, though, they are great. The delta between Curry on the floor and off the floor is second only to LeBron’s impact on the Cavs. There’s more, and if you like basketball, you should read the article. You might just end up wondering why there wasn’t more support for the two-time defending MVP to win his third. -TOB

Source: “The Case for Stephen Curry, MVP”, Benjamin Morris, FiveThirtyEight, (04/13/2017)

PAL: Sold. How can anyone make a case for someone other than LeBron or Steph win this award after reading this article? 

I watched just enough of Westbrook this season to strongly believe he is not the MVP, and Houston’s drubbing of the Thunder in the first round only firmed that up (I know – the votes were cast before the playoffs). His season was an unbelievable showcase of effort, volume, and endurance, but that does not equate to MVP. No doubt, that’s a critique on Westbrook and the team around him. To be honest, Westbrook seemed a bit like a sideshow.

Surely, LeBron could average a triple double if that was his goal coming into a season (even at this stage of his career), which I think was the case with Westbrook. And I don’t doubt Steph could average 35 a game if he shot as much as Westbrook (Curry attempted 18 shots per game, Westbrook attempted 24). If either of those scenarios played out, LeBron or Curry wins the MVP this year.

LeBron and Curry didn’t do this, because it wasn’t the best approach for their teams to win a championship. Westbrook’s approach may have very well been the best way for the Thunder to win, but it was never going to amount to a significant run in the playoffs, which is really easy to say after they lost in first round of the playoffs.

Westbrook’s triple double season is historic, and it will age well, but it tastes a bit flat coming right out of the brewery.

The Search for ‘The Next Jordan’ has Ended

Note: All of these graphics are pulled from the original story linked below.

In many ways, Michael Jordan has been our North Star by which we’ve navigated the past three decades of athletic greatness. While his success on the court is measureable (averaged 30 PPG for his career, 6 NBA Championships, 6 Finals MVPs, 5 season MVPs, 10 All-NBA first team, 9 All-Defensive first team), it’s harder to quantify the magnitude of his cultural significance. As Howard Beck writes, every superstar athlete is “playing in a world MJ practically created.“

However, in one way his significance has faded, and that’s the anchor to Beck’s article, which you should absolutely read. At the end of his career, we started looking for ‘The Next Jordan’. For decades, anytime a talented player with some hops – be it a high school phenom, or a college kid with a few great games in the NCAA tournament – made a splash, the media asked if he was ‘The Next Jordan’.

This premature coronation of promising basketball players spanned generations of players. From Len Bias to Penny to Harold Minor to Grant Hill to Vince Carter to Kobe to LeBron.

We don’t hear that curse wrapped as a compliment much anymore – a fact that Google search term stats back up. What’s more, Beck asserts “that might be the best thing to happen to the NBA since, well, the Age of Jordan began.”

Beck makes a compelling case as to why that phrase has floated away from relevance.

Reason 1: We are not that young.

The following anecdote from Jordan’s former teammate and Bulls announcer Bill Wennington captures it all in one fan exchange:

Overheard at the United Center at a recent Bulls game, where two fans were admiring a large photographic display:

Fan No. 1: “Oh, wow! Look at that guy! He’s wearing the original Jordans!”

Fan No. 2: “Dude! That is Michael Jordan.”

You want numbers to back it up? Beck has numbers for you, and they are not going to make you feel very spritely, my friends.

• 17 active players competed against the creaky, Wizards edition of Jordan, who sank his last field goal 14 years ago.
• Lakers rookie Brandon Ingram was nine months old when Jordan clinched a sixth championship with his iconic jumper over Utah’s Bryon Russell. Steph Curry, now an elder statesman and an idol at age 29, was 10 years old.

Damn.

Reason 2: The game today hardly resembles the one Jordan played.

“The hero-ball style that Jordan inspired may be as out of fashion as acid-washed denim in today’s pace-and-space, three-point-obsessed NBA. And just three of the league’s top 20 scorers this season play Jordan’s once-glamorous position of shooting guard (DeRozan, Beal and CJ McCollum), while only two shooting guards made the All-Star Game (DeRozan and Klay Thompson) alongside eight point guards.

“The game has changed radically—more wide-open, more free-flowing, less grabbing on the perimeter, less banging in the post—and it no longer demands, or rewards, the repertoire of footwork and mid-range isolation artistry that made Jordan elite.”

Jordan’s dunks might be the posters of our youth, but those dunks were set up by a mid-range jumper that is now seen as the worst shot on the court. A higher volume of three-pointers, combined with a higher percentage of shots by the rim is a formula nearly all teams have adopted in recent years. Combine that philosophy with a game that made the hand checking illegal in 2000 and the maturation of a generation of kids shooting three-pointers from grade school on, and you have better long distance shooters in a league where it’s also easier to get to the rim.

Michael Jordan made 591 3-pointers in his 13-year career. Steph Curry made 402 last season.

Reason 3: Unique is more interesting than commonality.  

Jordan was transcendent, so it makes sense that we wanted to bask in that greatness after he retired the first, second, and third time (well, maybe not so much the third time). How foolish. Here was this once-in-a-lifetime talent, and we knew that fact while simultaneously criticizing the next phenom who didn’t match the once-in-a-lifetime talent. Vince Carter, one who was dubbed ‘The Next Jordan’ for a minute, provides blunt honesty on the topic:

“I want to be me, man,” Carter recalls of his sentiments as a springy 6’7″ guard out of UNC in the late ’90s. “I just don’t want to put that pressure on myself. In no way, shape or form I’m thinking that I am him, will be him or could be him.”

“As soon as I walked in, my first year, that’s what you hear. For as cool as it may be, you don’t want it. You’re like, ‘No, thank you.'”

“There was a point where [critics said], ‘He doesn’t have the approach, his mentality is not like Michael Jordan,'” Carter recalls. “You’re right. Because I’m not Michael Jordan. You’re right. You’re exactly right. And that was starting to get frustrating.”

As I’m thinking about this, LeBron, who in Beck’s opinion represent the end of ‘The Next Jordan’ lineage, seem like the first great player that escaped the shadow of Jordan. Kobe, featured prominently in this article, admittedly impersonated Jordan in every way; LeBron is so unique that admiring him within the Jordan context isn’t as fun.

Sure, we can compare the numbers, but you don’t think of him in terms of whether or not he’s like Jordan. Furthermore, the NBA is so flush with unique talents right now —Curry’s shooting, Westbrook’s triple-doubles, Giannis’ essentially playing point guard as a 7-footer in Milwaukee to name a few—that the comparison to Jordan seems not only dated, but downright lazy.

Thanks to my college roomie and battery mate, Ryan Nett, for sending this article along. He threw a good knuckleball one time, and he never misses an opportunity to bring that fact up. – PAL

Source: “The Ghost of The GOAT: Why There Isn’t a ‘Next Michael Jordan’ Anymore”, Howard Beck, Bleacher Report (04/26/2017)

TOB: Man, what a fun read, and great job by Phil of pulling it all together.

Dion Waiters With the Best Players Tribune Article (And Headline) Ever

Dion Waiters has always struck me as an interesting guy. He seems moody and overconfident in his skills. He’s kinda J.R. Smith, but less athletic and less talented. Dion had a very good season with Miami, though, his first with the Heat. The Heat just barely missed out on the playoffs, and likely would have made it if Waiters hadn’t been injured for an extended period early in the year. This week, sitting at home, not in the playoffs, Waiters wrote an article for the Players Tribune…and it’s REALLY good. The dude is funny. Here’s Dion talking about his best friend growing up, Rhamik:

Everybody in our hood loved Rhamik. He was just a legendary kid. The thing people knew him for, other than ball, was skating.

See, in Philly, skating was a huge deal. Still is. I’m not talking about, you know, Tony Hawk. I’m talking about roller skating — the brown skates with the four wheels. Every Sunday, we used to have these skating parties run by Ms. Doris. If you were up to no good in school (which I usually was), Ms. Doris would catch you at the door and be like, “Dion! You’re banned from the skating party until you start acting right.”

That was a dagger. You did not wanna be banned from the skating party. That was the spot for meeting girls. If you’re picturing some disco thing, that’s not what it was. This was like 100 Philly kids skating around to Rick Ross, doing the Philly Bop.

Sadly, Rhamik was killed when Dion was away at a boarding school to play basketball. Which is kind of Dion’s story. No, it’s not a unique one, sadly. Lots of professional athletes came from impoverished areas and buried friends and family members, just as Dion did. But the way he tells it is very good. Including how he responds to his critics:

You know, it’s hilarious to me. I’m not a big Internet guy, but I see things. I see what people say about me. I see the GIFs and all that. They say, “He never seen a shot he don’t like.” “He’s got irrational confidence.” “He thinks he’s the best player in the NBA.”

Hell yeah I do. I have to. Listen, now you know where I’m from. Picture yourself walking into a South Philly playground at 12 years old, with grown-ass men, bleachers packed with people, trying to get a run in. You think you can survive in Philly without irrational confidence?

https://gfycat.com/BeneficialFortunateAquaticleech

He also tells the story of meeting his boss, Pat Riley, for the first time, last summer:

I walked into his office and … damn. The hair was slicked back, and he was wearing one of those suits of his, you know, real O.G., looking like a million bucks. Behind him, he’s got photos of all his championship teams lining the walls. He’s wearing one of his nine rings. He’s sitting there looking like De Niro in Casino. He’s looking like the boss. He’s looking like he’s seen it all, because he has.

And he gives us a great headline, to boot. Quintessential Dion Waiters. -TOB

Source: “The NBA is Lucky I’m Home Doing Damn Articles”,  Dion Waiters (04/25/2017)

Truer Words Have Been Written

Stephen Krupin was a speechwriter for President Obama for about a year, but he’s been a Washington Capitals fan his entire life. Being a Caps fan means hating the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have beat the Caps in 8 of their last 9 playoff appearances. Ouch! The Penguins won the Stanley Cup last year, which comes with a visit to the White House and a speech from the president. Krupin wrote the president’s speech praising the hated Penguins.

On the eve of yet another Caps-Pens playoff series, Kupin shares his experience writing the speech last year, and it’s pretty damn funny.

Cody Keenan, our chief speechwriter and a die-hard Chicago sports fan, offered me an out. He recalled that on the day the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers came to the White House, Cody didn’t just delegate the speech assignment; he worked from home rather than risk running into any cheeseheads in the hallway. “You don’t have to be a hero,” Cody counseled.

At one point, a baby in the crowd cried. President Obama ad-libbed an apology for the dad jokes we scattered through the speech. “These are so corny,” he said. Good, I thought to myself; the Penguins don’t deserve our best stuff anyway.

One of the problems in writing a speech is you have to research the subject, which meant Krupin had to get to know the people behind the Penguins jersey. What he found didn’t help: Acts of charity, brotherhood, grace, and community building.

I place speechwriter for the president in the dream job category, and I assume Krupin would agree. I imagine him watching the Penguins close in on another Cup and realize he could play a role in their celebration. Painfully hilarious. Just the the thought of having to heap fake praise on the Yankees or the White Sox disgusts me. – PAL

Source: “The one speech I wrote for Obama that I didn’t believe in: Praising the Penguins”, Stephen Krupin, The Washington Post (04/27/2017)

TOB: Nah, I couldn’t do it. I’d beg off. Because if I didn’t, I’d make subtle and not-so-subtle digs at every chance I got. Like, if it was the Dodgers I’d congratulate them on their first World Series win in the last 7 presidential terms! What an accomplishment, I’d say. And then I’d get fired.

Video of the Week

That did NOT happen at my school.

Bonus video:

PAL Song of the Week: Minutemen – “Corona”

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Happy birthday, TOB! May your old man basketball game only getting more refined over time.

Altruistic Masochism

The Barkley Marathons consists of five roughly 20-mile off-road loops (most agree the actual distance is closer to 26 miles, thus, Marathons, plural) in Frozen Head State Park, in eastern Tennessee. Each loop features about 13,400 feet of elevation gain and loss, two-thirds of which does not follow an existing trail. The early spring race date practically [e]nsures foul weather. Entrance is limited to 40 people who must navigate the unmarked course without GPS, hitting 13 unmanned checkpoints along the way. The checkpoints are books stashed under rocks or wedged between trees from which the runner tears the page that corresponds to his bib number, turning in the pages after each loop to prove he finished the whole route.

What draws people to marathons these days: ego or self-discovery? Surely, there’s balance of the two, but the proliferation of mileage bumper stickers, Team in Training groups, energy bars, compression socks, and fitness wearables point to a growing industry for which the prevailing purpose just might be so more and more people can tell you they are running a long distance.

Running a long distance is a challenge. We impress ourselves for doing something challenging. We want people to know we are challenging ourselves and for them to be impressed, too.

I understand, but in recent years there seems to be a lot of weight on the ego side of this teeter-totter—maybe too much—and a man they call Lazarus is ruthlessly orchestrating the shift of some some weight back on the side of self-discovery.

The Barkley Marathons is about the accomplishment of finding your breaking point. More of the Forrest Gump kind of running than the Strava kind. No technology is allowed, and no amount of training will fully prepare you. 18 people have completed the race since 1986.

This year Gary Robbins (pictured above) “completed” the course six seconds after the 60 hour cutoff. He also got turned around in the last two miles of the race, and crossed the finish line – a yellow park gate – from the wrong direction. DNF.

If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at people and their boring marathon training ramblings, this story is for you (there’s also a fun documentary about the race on Netflix). Laz is your anti-hero. -PAL

Source: “The Brutality Of The Barkley Marathons”, Sarah Barker, Deadspin (4/10/17)

TOB: This is incredible, and I want to watch this movie, but…when is enough enough? Someone is going to die doing this, right? I can’t decide whether I like this Cantrell guy. He’s got some pluses and minuses. Charging $1.60 and a random item for the race entry fee (e.g., gold-toed socks)? Funny, cheap – a plus. Starting the race, on a whim, in an eleven hour window? Minus. Buuuut, starting the race by lighting a cigarette? Plus. Calling yourself Lazarus? Minus. Having a bugler play Taps when a racer drops out? Hilarious. Huge plus. Announcing an hour from race time with a conch? Oh, come on. Minus. Greeting runners with, “Good luck, morons.” Hahahahaha. Plus. Well, there you go. Simple math says I’m on team Cantrell. And read this great account of a guy who nearly lost his mind during the 5th loop. Highly entertaining. Finally, shout out to the 30 people, of 1,000 who have attempted this over the years, who never even got to the first book in the first loop. You are my people.

Where Does Russell Westbrook’s Season Stack Up?

In the wake of Russell Westbrook becoming the first player to average a triple-double since Oscar Robertson, The New York Times asks if his feat is the greatest season for an athlete and reached out to a stable of writers to see what their choice is for the greatest individual season. Here are some of the more interesting factoids from the nominees:  

Secretariat: I’ve watched the Belmont video multiple times now. It looks incredible, and I’m not sure where I stand including horses as athletes. On one hand, an animal doing what it was born and bred to do seems like athleticism in its purest form. On the other hand, I just don’t care about horse racing. For the purpose of comparison, I can’t weigh 3 horse races against Westbrook doing it over the course of 81 of 82 NBA games this year.

Bobby Orr: My favorite comparison of the article. If the triple-double is stat about all around play, then Orr’s leading the league in points (120) as a defenseman, leading his team in penalty minutes, and dominating the playoffs, all while capped with a Stanley Cup winning goal in iconic fashion is a pretty damn good season.

Ruth/Bonds: I love Tyler Kepner’s definition of greatness: breaking the game is a fresh way of putting it. “To find the greatest individual season in baseball history, look at the players who broke the game. Many have changed it, mastered it or nearly perfected it. But to really break it, a player has to upend the norms so thoroughly that the performance looks like a mutation.”

Ruth and Bond broke the game, and it’s plainly evident with two stats. Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs in 1920, more than any other team in the American League. In 2004, Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 120 times. No other player has ever been intentionally walked more than 50 times in a season. As Kepner puts, “Bonds was such a destructive force in 2004 that rivals simply stopped competing.”

Tiger Woods: Tiger won 9 of 20 golf tournaments in 2004, including 3 of 4 majors with a combined score of 49 under par. With a typical tournament field ranging from 132 – 154 golfers, when all of those dudes are capable to shooting low on any given day, it’s astounding that one guy was just that much better than—not just a division of 5 teams, or even a league of 30 other teams—than a field of that size in a global game. It’s not like running track, where some guys have literally never run as fast as Usain Bolt’s average time. All pro golfers are capable of shooting 65. I don’t care that Nicklaus has more majors than Tiger; no one can convince me there’s ever been a better golfer on this planet than Tiger Woods in his prime.

Michael Phelps: 2008 Olympics: Tough to beat, but I’ll admit I’m a sucker for gold medals. Karen Krouse brings up a good point about the level of competition and its role in ranking greatest seasons. There were no pushovers like the 2016 Lakers in the Olympics. However, 2 weeks of greatness can’t really stack up to 82 games of consistent excellence. And yet, these two pictures makes it hard to rank anything above Phelps. Here he is with the 8 from Beijing:

And here’s all 23 golds just for good measure:

Fun read, and an even better happy hour debate. – PAL

Source: “Is Russell Westbrook’s Season the Best Ever? Some Apples and Oranges to Pick From”, The New York Times (4/10/17)

TOB: I have to ignore individual sports. Sorry, Phelps, Tiger, and others, who had impressive seasons. It’s just a different discussion. And I tried to set bias aside…but I can’t get away from Bonds’ 2004 season being the best ever. Westbrook’s season, though, is right up there. As Sopan Deb says, Westbrook made the triple double look “routine, to the point that fans began undervaluing it.” The Triple Double Season has been, as long as I’ve been alive, one of those untouchable records. It just wasn’t possible. LeBron came…sorta close a couple times, with 30/8/8. But that’s not really all that close. Think about this: Triple Doubles were major headlines in nightly highlight shows. This dude just had FORTY TWO of them in one season, which would be the 9th most in NBA history for an entire career. If he doesn’t win the MVP, I’m going to be furious. People will look back at it in ten years and say “Hey…a guy averaged 31/10/10 on a team with very little help, still won 47 games and made the playoffs in an insanely competitive conference, and didn’t win the MVP? What the hell?” This is like Barkley over Jordan in 1993, or Malone over Jordan in 1998. Someone idiot suggests something and suddenly people start clamoring to show they’re so much smarter than everyone else and say “The triple double is nothing more than our desire for round numbers.” Or, “He’s a ball hog and hunts for rebounds.” To that I say: 30/10/10! GTFOOH.

But back to Bonds, and I’m so happy to discuss this. As Tyler Kepner noted, Bonds broke the freaking game. He was intentionally walked 120 times that year! 120! That’s almost one per game. He was once given an intentional walk with the bases loaded! He was walked with the bases empty many times. As luck would have it, I came across this fantastic video this week. It’s our video of the week, down below. It analyzed, in depth, Bonds’ 2004 season with one twist: what if Bonds played the entire 2004 season without a bat,  buuuuuut the pitchers didn’t realize he didn’t have a bat. It’s entertaining, and really goes into the depths of how insane Bonds was in 2004.

PAL: What about the idea of controlling the game, and how that impacts your ranking? As great as was, Bond’s was at the whim of the pitcher. Hitting is a reaction. Westbrook is like a pitcher. He has the ball. He dictates the game. If anything, this makes what Ruth and Bond’s did even more impressive to me.

When Sports Bring People Together

This week, just before its Champions League Match against Monaco, the Borussia Dortmund team bus was bombed. Yes, bombed. It could have been a lot worse. One player was hurt, and the game was postponed…an entire day. Many Monaco fans had made the trek to Dortmund, and some were left scrambling for a place to stay, not having planned to stay so long. Dortmund fans began tweeting with the hashtag “#bedforawayfans”, offering Monaco fans a place to stay. Monaco fans took them up on the offer, and boy isn’t the internet great?

Yes, das ist futbol, indeed. -TOB

Source: “Dortmund Fans Gladly Host Traveling Monaco Fans After Champions League Game Delayed by Explosions”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (04/12/2017)

Short Dudes Representing

I’m short. Short dudes are hitting more long balls in baseball the past few seasons. Chicks dig the long ball. I like this story.

Why are short dudes hitting more dingers and scoring more chicks? Perhaps it’s because the strike zone has lowered in recent years. Maybe it’s because more kids are coming up knowing that dunking singles over the shortstop’s head ain’t going to get them where they want to go in a game that’s put a premium on power.

But really, my guys are swinging for the fences for the chicks, man. By the way, I hate the title of the ESPN article I’m linking here. Mighty Mites? How cute and diminutive…what the shit is that crap? – PAL

Source: “Mighty Mites are taking over baseball!”, Sam Miller, ESPN (4/13/17)

TOB: I’m sure all of the factors discussed in the article contribute. But I happen to think the majority of it happens to be the last factor mentioned: we’re in an era with a cluster of good power hitters under 6-feet tall.

PAL: Or, TOB, short people have been persecuted in sports for decades and we’ve finally had enough. By the way, you aren’t that tall either, bub. You easily qualify as short using this articles cut-off (under 6-feet).

TOB: Short people got no reason to live.

PAL: I wonder how my life would be different if I was 6’2” more often than I should.

TOB: 

Video of the Week

What if Barry Bonds had played the 2004 season without a baseball bat? It’s long, but very entertaining.

PAL Song of the Week: Neil Diamond – “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon”

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“If you keep your mouth shut, you’ll be surprised what you can learn”

– John B. McLemore

Drink it all in.

In Which Tony Hawk Teaches the Writer to Ollie

Sometimes you read an article and realize, “This writer is deeply funny.” This is one of those stories. The writer, Kelly Conaboy, had never ridden a skateboard in her life. She decided she wanted to ask Tony Hawk to teach her how to ollie. So she e-mailed him. And he said yes. And they filmed it. The results are funny, but the way Kelly writes it is even funnier. She walks us through the entire process – including video, from pitching the story to various publications, to learning how to simply ride, to Tony Hawk kinda, sorta, teaching her how to ollie. 

Victory!

Congrats, Kelly. And, please, keep writing. -TOB

Source: “I Asked Tony Hawk If He Would Teach Me How to Ollie and He Said Yes”, Kelly Conaboy, The Outline, 03/31/2017

Killing Them Softly With His Threes

This has not been Steph Curry’s best season. That’s undebatable. The bar was set VERY high though, and he’s still been fantastic. Unrelated: The Ringer is largely, in my opinion a dud, but Shea Serrano is a Grantland veteran who still does a very good job there. Shea Serrano writing about Steph Curry couldn’t have been anything but good, and it was. Serrano discusses the different and devastating ways Curry uses the three-pointer to demoralize a team. But, he does it in a funny way. My favorites are The Wire-inspired “You Want it to Be One Way” 3:

This is the 3 where you want it to be one way, but Steph shoots it to let you know it’s the other way. The most perfect example was that 3 at the end of the third quarter of Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Grizzlies in 2015. The Warriors led the series 3–2 and they were playing in Memphis. The game was close (73–68) and the Grizzlies had the ball with a chance to cut it to two or three. Also, remember, this was before the Warriors had won a championship, so most people didn’t quite understand how all the way terrifying that team was yet. There was a feeling that if Memphis could just squeak out a win in Game 6, their veteran leadership would prove the difference in a big, Big, BIG Game 7. Only Jeff Green dribbled the ball up the court in the final seconds, tried to shoot a 3 at the buzzer, had it blocked, and then everyone watched as Steph, who’d grabbed the loose ball, chest-passed a 75-foot shot at the buzzer toward the other rim that swished in. The Grizzlies were suddenly down eight, the crowd was stunned, and 12 game minutes later the Warriors were headed to the next round of the playoffs. The Grizzlies wanted it to be one way, but it was the other way.

And the Apocalypto 3: “This is the 3 Steph shoots where he toasts somewhere from three to five different defenders on his way to getting it off.”

https://giphy.com/gifs/clippers-schools-KGJilMBLfNNTy

Start the playoffs already! -TOB

Source: “The Five Stephen Curry 3s You Meet In Basketball Heaven”, Shea Serrano, The Ringer (03/31/2017)

Can a Pair of Headphones Improve Athletic Performance? I dunno. Maybe?

This year, the San Francisco Giants have adopted brain-stimulating headphones from Halo Neuroscience for their players to use during practice. How does it work? Well… let’s let the scientists explain it:

When you put on Halo Sport, those special features underneath the headset naturally go over the motor cortex. Those features are actually electrodes that send out electrical pulses that stimulate the motor cortex. After a 20-minute neurostimulation, which we call neural priming, Halo Sport will induce a state of hyperlearning, known as hyperplasticity, in the motor cortex. We tell athletes to use the headphones 20 minutes before their workout while stretching and warming up. When the neural priming session ends, they start their athletic training session and begin feeding their brain with movement-based repetitions. For a basketball player, that can be shooting free throws or dribbling. For a baseball player, it can be throwing or fielding grounders. If athletes feed their brain deliberate and trained repetitions after neural priming, their brain will learn more in that training session than they would’ve without it.

Makes sense. Does it work, though? The Giants used it on some of their top minor league prospects at their annual winter workouts ahead of Spring Training. Half of the players used the Halo headsets, and half did not. The players who used the headsets “did much better” than the players who did not. The Giants were convinced and adopted Halo throughout the organization. I just hope the bullpen starts using it. That 6.65 ERA after the first series of the year is an eyesore. -TOB

Source: The San Francisco Giants Think These Headphones Will Help Them Win“”, Joseph Misulonas, Good Sports (04/04/2017)

VICTORY

A few weeks back, we invited our readers to join the first annual 1-2-3 Sports! NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge. No cash was involved, but we offered a guest column on the blog to the winner. Uh…

I won. Suckers. -TOB

Video of the Week

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Enjoying our side project, Bleacher Seat Brewing’s first production: Spring Training IPA

March Alchemy

Here’s a really cool story about the technical feats behind the birth of March Madness as we know it.

While some think the Bird-Magic game in ‘79 ignited a national obsession with the NCAA Tournament, this article makes a strong case that March 14, 1981 was the real moment the match was struck.

That day helped define the careers of many involved (both positively and negatively) — and changed how we experience sports today thanks to some ambitious TV youngsters willing to try something different and the luck of three games decided in the last seconds.

As writer Tim Layden puts it, before March 14, 1981, the tourney viewing experience was “very primitive: NBC, which held the rights to the NCAA tournament from 1969 to ’81, would broadcast the day’s games regionally, but in general would stay with games to their conclusion. You got your two or three games and that was it. For the rest you got highlights at 6 and 11 (again, ESPN was just ramping up) or a story in the next day’s newspaper.”

The goal for 1981 was different: Put on as many close games as possible. Seems obvious now, but NBC was still living down the “Heidi Game”. 13 years prior NBC cut away from a Jets-Raiders game to show a TV movie. The Raiders then scored two touchdowns in the final minute to complete the comeback…with no one seeing it on TV.

Still, the producers and board operators went for it, even while admitting they didn’t know what the hell they were doing. The logistics of it are hilarious.

Instead of a comingled headset, Aagaard had a bank of landline telephones, each connected to a game site. If Ohlmeyer called out a switch, Aagaard would pick up the phone and execute the change by talking to producers in a coordination room in New York and the production crew on site. (Bryant) Gumbel (in-studio host) was the traffic cop charged with receiving from one site and tossing to the next.

They couldn’t have picked a better day to try this out. 3 buzzer beaters in one day: St. Joe’s over DePaul, Arkansas over Louisville, Kansas State over Oregon State. 2 of them within 47 seconds of real time, all before a network audience.

The article also tracks all the key players on this day. The players that became local legends and the players that fell hard. The producers that became TV executives, and the sportscasters (Marv Alberts and Bryant Gumbel) well before their apex. In the broader context, the tournament became what it is today back in 1981. 

Wherever it was that the NCAA tournament lived in the sports pantheon before March 14, 1981, it lived somewhere bigger and better afterward, someplace more significant, and certainly more profitable. Broadcast professionals took chances that day that helped make their careers. Basketball players succeeded and failed in such outsized ways that it defined their legacies. Because of what transpired that day, and where it fell on the continuum of the game, there has never been another day quite like it.

You have to remind yourself that this was not how sports were broadcast in 1981. And the fact that we come to half expect this nowadays is only further proof how pivotal this moment was. A Fun and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a cultural phenomenon. – PAL

Source: “March 14, 1981: When the NCAA Tournament became Madness”, Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated (3/14/12)

World Baseball Classic Fever: Catch It

Look, Alex Pflepsen is just wrong. And I feel comfortable saying that because I have a self-given platform and he does not. The World Baseball Classic is great, even though I couldn’t watch a single game because I apparently don’t get the MLB Network despite paying a pretty penny for satellite television service, a fact I didn’t realize until I tried to tune into the U.S./Dominican Republic elimination game on Saturday night. I did follow what I could on Twitter, and enjoyed seeing the highlights, though. I also did get to watch the final on ESPN2…en español. And of course it was a blowout. Marcus Stroman, who almost played for Puerto Rico, no-hit the Puerto Rican team for 6 innings, and the U.S. ran away with it 8-0. But it was still a blast. For one, Latin players and fans know how to have fun, despite what Herbs like Ian Kinsler say, about how Americans know how to win The Right Way (read: boring as hell). Perhaps to Kinsler’s chagrin, teammate Stroman certainly had a good time:

More than being great theatre, the WBC is catching on. Ratings were up 32% from 2013, and attendance totaled 1,086,720,  The best part about the WBC is it is FUN. The players are having a blast. No one is worrying about getting earholed for celebrating too much, because everyone is too busy celebrating to care.

https://twitter.com/JATayler/status/843995741823614977

https://twitter.com/JATayler/status/844057642339368960

The players are into it. The fans in attendance are into it. Hell, the announcers and reporters are into it.

Long live the WBC!

But the WBC did call attention to one problem. Monday night’s semifinal between Puerto Rico and The Netherlands seemed (again, I couldn’t watch) like great theatre. And then they got to the 11th inning. The WBC is using the rule MLB has kicked around as a possible future rule change – beginning the 11th inning, each team starts with runners on first and second. The results were predictable and awful. Both hitting teams opened the inning with a sacrifice bunt, moving runners to second and third. Both pitching teams responded with an intentional walk. The Netherlands’ 11th inning ended in a double play. Puerto Rico’s ended with a sacrifice fly to win.

If MLB implements this stupid rule, get ready for a lot of sac bunt/intentional walk/sac fly sequences. What a terrible way to end a great baseball game. I get that MLB wants to shorten game times – but the key to that is to cut time between pitches, not to actually shorten the games. Baseball is a fantastic game that doesn’t need fixing. Just let baseball fans enjoy baseball, damnit! And, players, lighten up. Be more like the WBC. The WBC is good. -TOB

Source: “The WBC Was Baseball As It’s Going to Be”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (03/23/2017)

The WBC Missed Shohei Otani

Consider this a really long response to TOB’s post above. The WBC is also an opportunity to watch the next crop of international players making their way to Major League Baseball. Which is why it’s such a shame we weren’t able to watch Shohei Otani of Japan.

Otani, 23, is a legit power prospect — as a hitter and a pitcher. Over his career on the Nippon Ham Fighters, he’s posted a 2.49 ERA as a pitcher (10+ strikeouts per nine innings). This past year, he belted 22 HR, hit .322 in the 144-game season on his way to MVP honors. It’s no surprise MLB teams have taken notice.

Stalwart Japanese prospect: We’ve heard this story before, right? Aside from Otani’s hitter-pitcher talents, what makes this story interesting is how new rules around international players is putting a tough financial decision in front of Otani.

Ken Belson explains it as follows:

Major league teams that want to negotiate with Otani must offer a posting fee to the Fighters (his current team) that would be paid only if they reached a deal. The Fighters will almost certainly set the fee at the maximum: $20 million.

Under the new rules, (MLB) teams are subject to a financial cap for certain international players who are not free agents. To be exempt from the rules, a player must be at least 25 with six seasons in a foreign professional league, but Otani will not meet those criteria until after the 2019 season. The salary cap previously applied to players who were 23 and had five years of service.

Most teams will have between $5 million and $6 million to spend on international players subject to the new rules, though they can trade with other teams to increase their pool of money. Even so, the cap limits how much teams can possibly offer Otani for his first year.

Otani’s clearly a big league prospect right now. So the decision before him is as follows: Does he wait until after the 2019 season (3 years!) to become a free agent, hope his stock continues to rise, and demand a massive contract from an MLB team; or does he accept a one-year, 5-6M contract now, in hopes of signing a second, ideally monster MLB contract the following year at a younger age?  

Current Yankee Masahiro Tanaka’s advice to Otani: Get to the MLB as soon as possible. His rationale is pretty simple: “If you have what it takes, I think the younger you are, the better contract you get.”

It should be noted the team that currently holds his rights will almost assuredly allow him to leave, as they would receive $20M posting fee from the MLB that signs Otani.

“With the exception of the Yomiuri Giants, the country’s most famous team, almost all Japanese teams are unprofitable and view posting fees as a way to balance their books.”

Solid read on the international impact on MLB in the wake of the WBC. I have to say – I got into the tournament the past weekend. The players looked legitimately pumped, and it’s cool to see Adam Jones (USA) robbing Orioles teammate Manny Machado (Dominican Republic) of a home run. The tournament needs a real moment, though, and I wonder if it comes in the form of a phenom of a Lebron or Gretzky magnitude to introduce himself to the world by way of the WBC before ever putting on an MLB uniform. – PAL

Source: “For Japan’s Hitting-Hurling Double Threat, a Complex Path to the Majors”, Ken Belson, The New York Times (3/19/17)

TOB: Good lord, those rules are frustrating. Otani is screwed – I don’t see why an MLB team would try to sign him now if he’s looking for a 1-year deal. What team is willing to pay the $20 million posting fee, plus their entire annual international signing allotment of $6 million for a 1-year deal, and risk Otani leaving for another team as a free agent after that?

LaVar Ball…C’mon Bruh.

LaVar Ball has been talkin a lot of trash – that he’d beat MJ one on one (note: LaVar scored 2 points per game as a college player at Wazzu). He also said his son, Lonzo Ball, who is a great college point guard as a freshman at UCLA , is better RIGHT NOW than Steph Curry, the two-time defending NBA MVP. The list goes on. This week he appeared on ESPN and argued with Stephen A. Smith:

Hmm. Ya know what? I gotta admit it. He won me over. He’s ridiculous. But that was hilarious. -TOB

Source: ESPN First Take, 03/23/2017

PAL: God, all of this sucks. Stephen A. Smith sucks. ESPN is dying, they know it, so they run daily updates on Tim Tebow’s minor league at-bats and shouting matches between an overbearing sports parent and a professional carnival barker because it gets clicks today. This entire thing — you guessed it — sucks. The main reason LaVar Ball sucks most of all is, as Max Kellerman points out in this clip, daddy’s doing all the talking while his sons will have to back it up. I wish the kids all the best.

Video of the Week (this guy’s 40, folks)

Serena, Serena: Queen of the Mission

Serena Williams is the greatest female tennis player of all time. Few would dispute that assertion. Serena Williams is the greatest female athlete of all time. Not many would dispute that, either. Serena Williams is also cool as hell. She recently announced her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian. For most, the announcement came out of nowhere and was deeply funny. What an odd pairing (sample headline: “Who the heck is Alex Ohanian, and why would Serena Williams want to date him?” – Slate.com). I say good for her, though. Ohanian lives in San Francisco, which means Serena has been spending time here, especially in the Mission. On Sunday night Serena stopped by the tennis courts at Dolores Park and asked some locals if she could join them for a game of tennis. Their reaction is entirely appropriate: “Holy crap.”  So Serena played, in fuzzy boots:

Presumably, she beat the crap out of them. When I first read this I decided I’d pay $75 to get 30 minutes’ notice of this so I could see it, and maybe play. It also made me mad because we parked in front of those courts the day before. I missed her by only like 30 hours! I have famously maintained I could score at least one basket on Mike Bibby in ten tries. I still believe it. If I played Serena in tennis, though, I think I’d be lucky to put a ball in play. -TOB

Source: “Serena Williams Surprises Dolores Park Tennis Player”, Laura Wenus, Mission Local (02/27/2017)

PAL: You would not score on Bibby (unless he allowed it), and you would not put a single ball in play on Serena (unless she allowed it). Based on the 5-7 times I’ve played tennis, it’s a true athlete’s sport (caution: expert analysis), and – damn – she’s impressive. Good work, Ohanian. Very good work, indeed.

We do forget that icons are people that walk their dogs at night, and sometimes that walk goes by a park. If I were the G.O.A.T., I’d like to think I’d make someone’s day like Serena did in this video. We also separate their age from their wiki page. Serena is my age, and this story makes complete sense to me. An 35 year-old legend with even a tiny bit of perspective making someone’s day makes so much more sense than a 21 year-old superstar making someone’s day.

With that said, I need to see her kicking this guys butt on video!

TOB: Bibby Assumptions: He has to play defense as hard as he did in the NBA (not very hard). He does not get to know it’s a bet, based on how bad I think his defense is. It’s just normal Bibby defense. I’d get 1 in 10, no sweat.

Baseball Players Remain Silent on Politics, Much to My Delight

Yes, I am a complete hypocrite in this regard, and I am deeply deserving of shame for it. I have been openly applauding professional athletes standing up for their political/social beliefs over the last year or so. Athletes like Kaepernick, LeBron, Melo, WNBA stars, and more, have earned my praise, because they agree with me. Jayson Stark points out, though, that baseball players have been noticeably silent, and attributes it to greater diversity within MLB, and the fact MLB teams have evolved to maintain the clubhouse as a sanctuary from the outside world. I’m not sure I agree. I just have a very strong suspicion many of my very favorite players would be much harder to root for if their social and political beliefs are in fact what I suspect them to be. Oh well. Go Giants! -TOB

Source: “With Nation Deeply Divided, MLB’s Silence Speaks Volumes”, Jayson Stark, ESPN (02/28/2017)

PAL: This was a long-winded story about the flip-side: Athlete’s don’t have to take a political stand if they don’t want to take a political stand. However, I would warn MLB players that there is a historical cost to this stance. When we talk about politics in 2017 – and we will for decades and decades – not one baseball player will be mentioned. Football players and basketball players will make cameos in history books. In other words, what’s the cost-benefit analysis of short-term criticism vs. a legacy of any real value? In other, other words – grow a pair, baseball players. The collective eye-roll that takes place every time you refer to the clubhouse as a “sanctuary” is all but audible. 

Breaking News: Baylor Coach with No Perspective

Let’s get right to it. Baylor Women’s basketball coach had this to say on the court during senior night:

“If somebody’s around you and they ever say, ‘I will never send my daughter to Baylor,’ you knock them right in the face,” Mulkey said (my emphasis added). “Because these kids are on this campus. I work here. My daughter went to school here. And it’s the best damn school in America.”

She then proceeded to drop the mic, as if she was anything other than the pathetic shill at a pathetic athletic department to a pathetic school that sold its soul for a temporary relevant football program.

And then she doubled-down post-game:

“I’m tired of hearing it. I’m tired of people talking about it on a national scale that don’t know what they’re talking about,” Mulkey said in a press conference after the game. “If they didn’t sit in those meetings and they weren’t a part of the investigation, you’re repeating things that you’ve heard. It’s over. It’s done.

“I work here every day. I’m in the know. And I’m tired of hearing it. The problems that we have at Baylor are no different than the problems at any other school in America. Period. Move on. Find another story to write.”

What is she tired of hearing about, you might ask?

52 alleged sexual assaults by 32 football players at Baylor over a four year period.

Let’s do the math on that, Kim. 52 alleged assaults divided by 48 months equals 1.08 alleged sexual assaults per month by the football team over the four year span. That is not the same on all college campuses, you idiot. And guess how many players were kicked off of the football team…

Two.

I’ve watched the videos several times, and I remain dumbfounded. At best, Mulkey is pandering to a base of Baylor faithful who feel personally threatened by the actions of their football program gone rogue (see: Penn State). At worst, she is undercutting victims of sexual assault in an institutional environment that, through either ambivalence or enablement – and those are the only two options here – allowed for this to continue.

Clearly, Baylor knows this is more than a – and I hate the implications of this phrase – witch hunt. School President: Gone. Athletic Director: Gone. Football Coach: Gone. Title IX Coordinator: Gone. Oh, and they offered to pay the tuition of one victim in order to keep her mouth shut. Christian values, indeed.

Go to hell, Kim Mulkey. You’ve forgotten what makes great institutions great – the students. I don’t know if Baylor was ever a great school, but I know it’s not now, and it’s partly because people like Kim Mulkey choose to stand by the institution of Baylor in the name of football relevancy rather than support its students.  

Source: “Baylor’s Kim Mulkey was out of line with her comments on Saturday”, Rob Dauster, NBC Sports (2/25/17)

Plagiarism at Its Finest

I read this article and thought, “Why have I never thought of this?”. That’s a great indicator of a 1-2-3 Sports! Story, my friends.

Steve Green coaches a JuCo in Texas. They’ve been good for some time, but last year wasn’t very good at all by South Plains College standards (21-9). He decided it was time to re-think his philosophy. More specifically, he decided it was time to steal another philosophy.

Green become a student of the Golden State Warriors. Don’t get my characterization of student wrong: By student I mean the student who copies the homework of the best student.

“Green scribbled down every cut, every back screen and every curl. In pursuit of a goal that was so ambitious that it bordered on audacious, he consulted with his assistants and overhauled his playbook.”

In other words, Green watches what the Warriors do and tells his team to do the same thing.

He’s not clever or nuanced about it. He literally watches every Warriors’ game, takes notes, and implements. The results are – and this shouldn’t come as a surprise – very good.

Why isn’t half of college basketball doing this?

Incredibly fun story about a no-name junior college doing something noteworthy. Take five minutes and give it a read. – PAL

Source: “Team Plagiarizes Golden State Warriors. Team Is Undefeated.” Tom Cacciola, The New York Times (3/2/17)

TOB: He makes it sound so easy, we should try it. Phil, can you start charting plays this weekend?

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Prince – “When You Were Mine”

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