Just for Sport

Last night we were all graced with one of the great football games in recent memory.  It surely goes down as one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen.  If I had to choose the five greatest games in all sports in the last ten years without spending a bunch of time thinking about it or researching, they would go as follows:

5 - 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise State over Oklahoma, 43-42 (OT).  This makes the list for me because (A) I hate Oklahoma - see sidebar, (B) Nobody thought Boise State would stick it to OU for three and half quarters, much less pull the upset, and (C) Those last couple of plays - The Hook and Lateral and The Statue of Liberty.  Instant classic.

4 - Super Bowl XLII, New York Giants over New England, 17-14.  Not many people predicted a low-scoring game, much less a close one.  The three lead changes in the 4th quarter plus Eli Manning’s escape/David Tyree’s catch (Do we have a name for that yet?) made it a great game anyway.  The storyline behind the game (destroying the perfect season, etc.) put it on the list.

3 - 2004 AL Championship Series, Games 4 & 5, Boston over New York.  Game 4: 6-4 (12 innings).  Game 5: 5-4 (14 innings).  I think it’s fair to lump these two together because it was really the series that was impressive.  Also, Game 5 started 16 hours after Game 4 ended.  These games were great not only because nobody had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit before, but because the Yankees had so thoroughly dominated the series up until that point.  The way they won those games was just fantastic.

2 - 2006 Rose Bowl, Texas over USC, 41-38.  This one was just like last night’s game, except with 4 times the scoring.  USC were the overwhelming favorites, and Texas overcame the odds in the Championship Game, with Vince Young scoring the winning touchdown on 4th down.

1 - 1998 NBA Finals, Game 6, Chicago over Utah, 87-86. Michael Jordan hits "The Shot" (Does that play have a name?  What is it?) in his last game in a Bulls uniform to cap off a 45-point performance and the Bulls 6th Championship.

There are some others that perhaps mean more to me than the greater sports world:

1999 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 6, Dallas over Buffalo, 2-1 (Triple OT).  Creasegate.  Modano plays 55 minutes with a cast on his arm.

June 29, 2007, Chicago Cubs over Milwaukee, 6-5.  The Cubs rally from a 5-0 deficit to win on Aramis’ walkoff home run.  This game also turned the tide in the division race.

2007 NL Wild Card Tiebreaker Game, Colorado over San Diego, 9-8 (13 innings).  This was a great game even before the 13th inning.  Plenty of offense early, followed by dominant pitching and stellar defense.  There was a grand slam and a killer error that allowed the game to go into extras in the first place.  The Padres got 2 in the 13th, and the game was thought over.  But the Cinderella Rockies beat the odds and killed Trevor Hoffman.  The play at the plate, which is consistently the best play in sports, capped it all off. 

2006 NL Championship, Game 6, Florida over Chicago Cubs, 8-3.  I hate this game, but for the Marlins, this was a GREAT game.  Cubs fans, please don’t blame Bartman.  Blame Baker.

2007 AFC Championship Game, Indianapolis over New England, 38-34.  If this game was the Super Bowl, it might have made the list.  The Colts looked dead in the water, behind 21-3, then rallied to beat the team that had been keeping them down in dramatic fashion.

Feel free to disagree or suggest some other games. 

I’m too dumb to embed YouTube videos, so here’s a couple of links:

Great Play

Best Commercial 

First, here’s how the first round shaped up for me:
1 – 26 wins, 6 losses. My previous first round best was 23-9.
2 – I had a perfect East bracket, and missed only 1 in the South.
3 – Most importantly, all 16 of my Sweet 16 teams are still in it.

Thoughts moving forward:
1 – I wish I would have drunk the Kool-Aid on Winthrop. I saw a couple of games early on in the season where I was impressed with Notre Dame’s big men, but it just didn’t translate. It’s kind of hard to play the whole second half in foul trouble, but the Eagles played a good game as well.
2 – I mentioned that all of my second round picks are still in, and I’m not flip-flopping on any of them. I don’t think any of the changed match-ups are very significant. I’m a little worried about Wisconsin against UNLV, but I think their first half dud against TAMUCC might have woken them up.
3 – I should have seen the Duke collapse coming. I picked them because A) It seemed like everybody was picking them to lose, and I didn’t want to get caught up in the hype, B) I overestimated Paulus, and C) I’m not that high on Virginia Commonwealth. Good win for them, but get ready for a letdown against Pitt.

My Second Round Upsets:
5 Virginia Tech over 4 Southern Illinois
9 Michigan State over 1 North Carolina
6 Vanderbilt over 3 Washington State
5 Tennessee over 4 Virginia
7 Nevada over 2 Memphis

Well, the tournament starts in about an hour, so it’s about time to reveal picks. I played it pretty safe this year; in years’ past I’ve been horrible at predicting upsets. Speaking of upsets, here are the first rounders that I picked:

9 Purdue over 8 Arizona
12 Old Dominion over 5 Butler
10 Georgia Tech over 7 UNLV
9 Villanova over 8 Kentucky
9 Michigan State over 8 Marquette

I actually picked no upsets in the South. This doesn’t usually happen, but it’s not like I’ve ever gotten an entire quarter of the bracket completely right anyway. Elite Eight:

Florida
Wisconsin
Kansas
UCLA
Texas
Georgetown
Ohio State
Texas A&M

I have Florida beating UCLA, and Georgetown beating Texas A&M. Florida repeats with a 79-73 win over the Hoyas.

I also made another bracket where I picked the most ridiculous scenarios I could think of, because heaven knows something is going to happen that nobody thought of. The final four from that bracket consists of Winthrop, Gonzaga, George Washington, and Long Beach State. If it looks like my bracket is going to be busted early, I’ll be rooting for these guys.

Every year, there is a short time (this year, it’s 12 days) which I refer to as the Sports Black Hole - it is the time between the Super Bowl and The Day when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. During this Black Hole period, hockey and, to a lesser extent, basketball tide me over. Perhaps, then, this is the best time for me to write a bit about each. First, though, I want to mention the thing that is helping me cope with the Black Hole this year - umpiring.

On February 5th, the day after the Super Bowl, I stepped behind the plate for the first time and called balls and strikes. I also took my position in the field and performed umpiring duties there. It was a fairly uneventful game. I got to call a play at the plate. My strike zone was a little too small for the hometown fans, but it was consistent. We did blow a call or two. There was an infield fly that went uncalled, and a ball that should have been called foul was called fair. Nevertheless, the game went on. I am looking forward to a year (and hopefully more) of umpiring. I am proud to take this role in America’s Pasttime.

As for hockey, I have this to say: Sportswriters and television commentators need to grow up. Most of them speak as if they have been personally slighted by the NHL. Hockey? We don’t cover that inferior sport. These people are paid to cover sports, yet they only cover the ones they enjoy personally. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see as much hockey as I would like this year, although I did attend my first NHL game in October. It seems as if the NHL is committing suicide by allowing the majority of their games to be broadcast on a crappy network that’s apparently too good to be broadcast on satellite.

Having said that, this season has been an exciting one. For Stars fans, it has been frustrating. I was at the game where Steve Ott broke his leg, and that seemed to set off a steady stream of injuries that have crippled the Stars all season. Add an inconsistent Marty Turco to the equation, and it makes me more nervous as we approach the end of the season. I had all kinds of optimism going into last year’s playoffs, and it all got squelched in the first round. I don’t know if I can handle another collapse. Stay tuned…

As for basketball, I’d like to get everything I have to say about the regular season (both pro and college) in one post. So, here are my mid-February Final Four picks. As always, you never know who’s going to end up in what region, so I tried my best to come up with four teams that are fairly spread apart. I’ve got two fairly obvious picks and two underdogs, listed here in alphabetical order:

Florida
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Texas A&M

In the pros, I see only six legitimate contenders for a Finals berth: Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago. If you forced me to pick right now, I would say Dallas vs. Detroit, although anything can happen in the West. I’ll probably have more to say when the regular season is up, but not until then.

On Friday, watch for a preview of both the Rangers and the Cubs.

1. Everybody has an agenda, including Barry himself, about Barry Bonds.

I usually have a Tuesday night class, so tonight was the first time I was able to catch “Bonds on Bonds.” I wasn’t impressed. There are two things you have to say when talking about this show: (1) like any controversial issue, everybody, myself included, has a preconceived notion about it. More on this below. (2) Barry Bonds has complete creative control over the project, which means that every single second, from Barry comparing himself to Mohammed Ali to Mark Grace sticking up for an old friend, has been through the spin cycle. It’s like the SportsCenter commercial where Dwyane Wade gets to edit his own highlights. “Can we add a couple more defenders in right here and make it look better?” I have to admit that I turned on the show expecting to be cynical because I have already convicted Bonds in my mind. The fact that he is trying to cover up and suck up to the media and the fans after years of being a jerk makes it that much worse. To some extent this isn’t fair. I have certainly made my share of missteps, and it would be completely justifiable for some people to get on a blog and rip into me. The difference is that I haven’t betrayed the trust of a nation. There’s a scene in “The Great Gatsby” where Jay Gatsby introduces Nick Carraway to Meyer Wolfsheim, the gambler who fixed the 1919 World Series. Carraway narrates the following reaction:

The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought of it at all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occured to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people - with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.
“How did he happen to do that?” I asked after a minute.
“He just saw the opportunity.”

I’m about two-thirds of the way through “Game of Shadows,” and though Fainawaru-Wada and Williams have a pile of hard, incriminating facts, it’s evident that there’s a touch of bias as well. There’s nothing wrong with that; we all have it. I guess I’m just trying to say that I’m not sure what to do about Barry Bonds just yet, but I am convinced that it’s important. I do know that you can’t trust “Bonds on Bonds” at face value though, and that’s my point at the moment.

2. The Houston Texans made the right choice by taking Mario Williams over Reggie Bush.

Tonight ESPN aired a draft wrap-up show, and the talking heads had Texans owner Bob McNair on to ask him some pointed questions. First of all, let me say that anybody who is aware of the media circus surrounding the NFL draft knows that any team that passed on Reggie Bush was begging to be crucified. (self-plug: I told you so.) That’s why I admire the pick of Mario Williams even more. McNair made three legitimate points about why they did what they did: (1) Last year, the Texans led at halftime 8 times (4 times going into the 4th quarter), and they lost every single one of those games. That’s not the offense’s fault; it’s the defense’s. They already have a 1,000 yard rusher in Domanick Davis; if Reggie even gets close to the hype and gets 1,500 it still wouldn’t have made a difference. The Texans need a playmaker on defense, not a guy who might be an upgrade over the one they already have. (2) The rest of the NFL has figured out that the way to beat Peyton Manning is to put pressure on him. Just ask the Steelers. The Texans have to play the Colts twice every year, and this pick gives them a legitimate chance to compete on the same field. (3) Barry Sanders only won one playoff game. To this day, the Detroit Lions continue to draft offense, and it hasn’t helped them yet. In the NFL, you have to be able to play on both sides of the ball. Ron Jaworski disputes this fact, but Jaworski has evidently forgotten two things: (1) he’s not dealing with his Arena team, where players play both ways, and (2) he has continually ripped the Indianapolis Colts for being all offense and no defense. For all of the talking heads, I have a prediction of my own: 2006 is the year that fans stop taking the “draft experts” seriously because Reggie Bush will be a big-time bust, and New Orleans will continue to be irrelevant.

3. Kobe Bryant is way over-hyped.

Today I sat around with some people and talked, in a positive manner, about Kobe Bryant. For those of you who know me and the people I associate with, this should be a surprise. I have never liked him, and it’s not just because he’s a veteran or has swagger. The main knock on Kobe has always been that he’s selfish. Whether or not you believe that he ran Shaq out of Los Angeles, it is an irrefutable fact that he hoists up way too many shots every game. Recently, however, he has been getting his teammates involved, which is an even bigger accomplishment when you consider his teammates. One of the talking heads on ESPN recently called him “the Mariano Rivera of basketball,” implying that he has an exceptional ability to close games. This is ironic if you consider that espn.com recently ran an article about clutch shooting. Much has been made of the Nike commercial where Michael Jordan states that he has let his teammates down 24 times. The fact is, Kobe has done the same thing many more times than that. In fact, with less than 24 seconds left and his team down by three points or less, Kobe has one of the lowest shooting percentages in the NBA. In a recent poll, 58.4% of fans said that Kobe had been the top performer of the first round of the playoffs. However, on the same page, there’s a link to a page that shows each player’s Player Efficiency Rating, or PER. PER is a statistic developed by John Hollinger to measure each player’s per-minute performance. 15.0 is supposed to be the standard average. For the 2004-05 season, Bryant finished a respectable 8th in PER with a 23.28. However, in this year’s playoffs, he is 39th with a 16.52, less than half of first-place Dirk Nowitzki’s 33.69. Supposed “slouch” teammate Lamar Odom is ranked 22nd with a 19.5. The only way the Lakers will continue to win is if Kobe continues the surprising trend of being a member of a team and doesn’t jack up 35 shots a game. Otherwise, the Los Angeles Kobes will lose to the team that plays in the Staples Center.

Note: This post originally appeared on February 8, 2005.

This afternoon I got back to my room from class and turned on one of my favorite TV shows, Pardon the Interruption. If you don’t know (and you should), PTI is a genius show where two guys, Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, sit around and argue about sports. This is truly near and dear to my heart. Anyway, one of the issues today (as it is many days) was the national poll for college basketball. There are currently two undefeated teams in NCAA basketball, The University of Illinois and Boston College. The problem is that while Illinois is ranked #1 and has been for a while, BC is still ranked #4, behind two seemingly better, but not undefeated teams. Of course, anybody who follows sports at all knows that there has been a whole lot of trouble for college football concerning the national poll and the BCS system. Because basketball has a tournament, it’s not a big deal to a lot of people, but I think the poll in basketball is just as flawed and needs attention.

I have a simple solution. And please don’t misunderstand me, I am not taking up Boston College’s cause. I don’t give a rip about them. As a matter of fact, they are tied with Notre Dame 20-20 as I write this. No, this is a matter of principle. Allow me, if you will, to set up a hypothetical situation for you. A certain team in the NFL, say, the Browns, goes 9-7 in a given year. They never won by more than 10 points, and they only beat a winning team twice. All of their losses are blow-outs. Then take another team, say the Bengals, goes 8-8 in the same season. They beat the Browns twice, but a few heartbreaking losses and a hard schedule gave them the .500 record. The question is, who goes to the play-offs first? The answer is always the Browns. It doesn’t matter how much the sportswriters like the coach; it doesn’t matter if the quarterback is cordial to the media; it doesn’t even matter about the strength of schedule. 9-7 always beats 8-8. That’s why all college teams should play the same number of games, and rankings should be based on record. All undefeated teams go automatically to the top, followed by one-loss teams, etc. It’s really not that hard. Then, let the people vote on teams with the exact same record. Under my system, the current top 5 in NCAA basketball are as follows (with actual ranking in parentheses):

1. Illinois 23-0 (1)
2. Boston College 20-0 (4)
3. Kansas 18-1 (3)
4. Syracuse 21-2 (7)
5. North Carolina 19-2 (2)

As you can see, there is an apparent discrepancy. Under my system, University of the Pacific (18-2) would be way higher than the 24 they are now. Before you argue based on strength of schedule, let me remind about our humble little example. 9-7 always beats 8-8. Every time. Why? Because WE PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! It doesn’t matter how good you are if you can’t win games. North Carolina doesn’t deserve to be #2 if 2 teams have already beat them. As far as I’m concerned, there are at least two teams that are better than UNC, and that was proven on the court, not in some reporter’s notebook.

Note: This post appeared as part of a larger post on February 10, 2006.

Sportscenter opened with the Mavericks last night, not only because Mark Cuban claimed ownership of Phil Jackson, but because they’re on a 13-game winning streak and playing defense. Anybody that knows anything about the Mavericks knows that defense has always been their Achille’s Heel, so it’s fun to see that the Little General has them whipped into shape. Even Dirk is playing defense! The franchise record for wins in a row is 14, when they started the season that way a couple of years ago. They go for the tie tonight against Denver, and a cupcake schedule for the week or so after that should allow the Mavs to keep on rolling. I can’t wait to see how they stack up against the Spurs on March 2. They’ve split the season series so far, and the way things are going, one game might make the difference between the 1 and 2 seed. Even more than that, I’m looking forward to March 28’s matchup with the Pistons. The first time they met at the beginning of the season, Dallas won 119-82. They also won both preseason matchups. Detroit has played out of their mind up until last week, but I believe they’re just a little overrated. We’ll see soon enough; for now I’m enjoying the streak and some awesome team defense.

The Stars won last night as well. Kapanen had a hat trick, and they scored three power play goals, which has been their Achille’s Heel recently. Hedberg did a great job as the backup, and a team that looked like a 4 or 5 seed at the beginning of the season might actually contend for the President’s Trophy. I’m really worried that the Olympics are going to hurt their momentum, but they have enough veteran leadership to get through it.

Finally, pitchers and catchers report soon (although that’s going to be kind of weird with the World Baseball Classic coming up next month). There’s no precedent for how the WBC will affect players (with unforeseen injuries, fatigue in the later months of the season, etc.), so I’m going to make my preseason predictions with complete disregard for all of that, since I have no idea what to make of it all. Here’s how I think each division will go down:

NL East
The New York Mets have done a lot to help themselves this offseason, so it’s tempting to give in and predict them to win. There’s always a danger in betting against history, though, as the Atlanta Braves have won 15 straight titles. They did trade away some of their prospects, and they have no closer at this moment. I think the Mets actually benefit from the loss of Piazza, as they can actually throw runners out now. It’s also tempting to put the Marlins in last based on their fire sale, but I think getting rid of Thome makes the Phillies implode.

NY Mets
Washington
Atlanta
Florida
Philadelphia

NL Central
My Cubbies have improved this offseason, getting some help in the bullpen and in the outfield. Juan Pierre gives them a leadoff hitter, and an overflowing infield allows them to make a deadline deal to make a title push. The Astros probably won’t have Roger Clemens, and they haven’t done anything to improve their poor hitting (except force Jeff Bagwell out?). The Cardinals will have a dropoff also, although the continued emergence of Albert Pujols will make things interesting. Milwaukee is in position to be good in a couple of years, but not yet.

Chicago Cubs
St. Louis - Wild Card
Milwaukee
Cincinnatti
Houston
Pittsburgh

NL West
The league’s worst division probably won’t be much better, although the Dodgers are trying to separate themselves from the pack. San Diego won’t get anywhere without Adam Eaton (and Chris Young’s not ready yet), and one or more of the San Francisco Giants might die of old age on the field. The Dodgers will win a close one, but with the league’s 7th or 8th best record.

Los Angeles
San Francisco
San Diego
Arizona
Colorado

AL East
Hooray! My least favorite division. There are two teams that ruin the financial balance of baseball with their overspending (Boston and NY Yankees), one that’s trying to do the same thing (Toronto), one with the whiniest owner in baseball (Baltimore), and the worst team in the league (Tampa Bay). Unlike previous years, the Wild Card will not come out of this division, simply because the rest of the AL has gotten stronger and the top three in the East will beat up on each other. I don’t think there will be much of a change top to bottom here from last year, but the Blue Jays will make it closer than in years past.

New York Yankees
Boston
Toronto
Baltimore
Tampa Bay

AL Central
Lots of people are picking the White Sox to repeat, but I’m not sure they know how to play under pressure. The last Chicago team to be a favorite imploded. Here’s a simple rule I like to live by: Never expect a team to overachieve two years in a row, especially not in baseball, where the schedule is 162 games long. Minnesota has been due for a stellar year for awhile now, but they won’t be as good as the other elite teams in the league because they lack depth. Cleveland will have a breakout year if they can pull off a major deadline deal. I’m banking on that.

Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago White Sox
Detroit
Kansas City

AL West
This will be interesting, since the A’s and Rangers have both improved during the offseason. Most people are picking Oakland to win, but I’m going to stick by my prediction that they won’t win the division again as long as Billy Beane is the GM. The Rangers actually have a rotation this year, and they have the extra players to make the all-important deadline trade. Even if they don’t deal, they have the depth to overcome injury and an extended season because of the WBC (Okay, just one!). Phil Rogers seems to think that Michael Young is ready to break out, and if he does, the Rangers have a shot to hit 100. The Angels will fall off this year, as they have lost 2/5 of their rotation. Washburn and Byrd were essential parts of Anaheim’s run last year, and they won’t be able to find help. Seattle will improve, but not that much.

Texas
Oakland - Wild Card
Seattle
Anaheim