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May-02-11
 | | keypusher: I'm sure a million people have thought of this already, but doesn't Kirsan believe in reincarnation? And don't Prince Dadian and Kirsan have a lot in common? |
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May-02-11
 | | Phony Benoni: <keypusher> I'm sure Kirsan has believed in reincarnation at some time or another. |
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May-03-11
 | | perfidious: <hangingenprise: phony: is travis getting a little nervous now that lion fan can spell defensive line? the lions will be very nasty on defense and got a steal: ok a great pick.> The first step to making Lions respectable again was the day Matt Millen was told to gtfo. Either Millen or Kevin McHale gets my vote as the worst GM of all time in any sport. Any other candidates? |
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| May-04-11 | | Jim Bartle: Isiah Thomas with the Knicks has to equal either of those guys. Who's the Portland GM who chose Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley? He'd probably qualify on that alone. I remember in the 60s or 70s the Astros were famous for making terrible trades and the GM became sort of a running joke. Can't remember his name. |
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May-04-11
| | perfidious: <Jim> Spec Richardson is your man in Houston-they could have had a team to rival Reds and Dodgers in the 1970s, but his talent in giving away promising youngsters for hasbeenusetawases kept them from doing anything till the 1980s. Stu Inman was the Portland GM when they drafted Bowie. While I don't believe this pick was wonderful, remember that at the time, the consensus was that one needed to have a centre in order to win a title.
Till then, other than the 1975 Warriors, who had won anything without a big man? What if Jordan had turned out to be 'only' an All-Star? We shall never know. Thomas was incompetent, but I'm not sure he rates with those I've named. |
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May-04-11
| | Phony Benoni: The GM Portland was <Stu Inman> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stu_In...). Hard to call him the worst, since he also built the Portland championship team of 1977. The Astros GM might be <Spec Richardson> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spec_R...), who later served as GM of the Giants from 1976-1980. |
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| May-04-11 | | Jim Bartle: That's the guy, Spec Richardson. I don't really remember his bad trades, except at the time they seemed to come in waves. I think he traded young Rusty Staub to Montreal for nothing. And of course he traded Joe Morgan to Cincinnati, basically Morgan and Geronimo for Lee May. I remember at the time thinking that was an absolute steal. In Houston's favor. I wonder if a large part of Richardson's problems occurred because nobody thought about how different stadiums affected statistics back then. It was extremely tough to hit home runs, or score many runs at all, in the Astrodome, so maybe he undervalued players like Morgan and overvalued his pitchers. |
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| May-04-11 | | Jim Bartle: The Bill Simmons book on the NBA has a story about that draft. Bobby Knight was the coach of the Olympic team that year, and in tryouts Jordan was just tearing the place apart. Knight called his friend Inman and said, "You've got to draft Jordan, he's really great" (the #1 pick was sure to be Olajuwon--still a good choice). Inman said, "But we've got to get a center," and Knight yelled at him, "Then play Jordan at center!" |
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| May-04-11 | | Jim Bartle: I hate to say it, because he was such a great player and a good guy, but Elgin Baylor was just an awful GM with the Clippers. His draft choices were just bad, over and over again. |
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| May-06-11 | | bronkenstein: < My greatest achievement in chess, other than tricking you into reading this ... > Damn , too late! |
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May-07-11
 | | WannaBe: Congrats to Verlander, 2nd career no-hitter, and 2nd no-hitter of 2011. Bring back steroids!! |
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| May-07-11 | | Jim Bartle: Impressive. I saw this guy Scherzer pitch for Detroit the other night, and he looked as if he could throw a no-hitter some night. |
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May-07-11
| | Phony Benoni: Starting pitching hasn't been the Tigers' problem this year. Hitting, bullpen and defense have been sporadic. They're the kind of team that can dominate a postseason series with their aces, but I can't see them getting there over the long haul. |
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May-07-11
| | WannaBe: Sure you can see them over the long haul, aren't they on Fox Detroit?! If not, Fox/ESPN usually have game of the week on TV. |
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May-07-11
| | Phony Benoni: Ha ha. Actually, i can't see them over the long haul. I don't have cable or any of the fancy alternatives, and frankly, I don't want them. It might take away from my time here. |
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May-07-11
| | WannaBe: They now have radio broadcast over the internet now, so you listen to the games (if you don't have a radio) and still hang around here... Maybe we can hook up you with a stocker ticker, like they used to have at NYSE, and have the play-by-play come tickering out. =) |
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May-07-11
| | Phony Benoni: Still costs money. What I generally do is follow the play through a game tracker at some site like MLB.com or CBSsports.com. Free, and the only thing I'm missing are the broadcasters. Of course I don't get the visual highlights instantly, but I consider it a protest against our instant news culture. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. |
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May-07-11
| | WannaBe: Ah, we are both so 'old schooled' that Plato was our teacher! =) |
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| May-08-11 | | Jim Bartle: Baseball on the radio, with a good announcer, is almost as good as watching on TV. Sometimes I turn on games on TV and just listen without watching. |
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| May-08-11 | | crawfb5: <PB> The draft of the cable match article is nearly complete. It's on my user subpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:C... I'll probably rename it something like <Anglo-American cable chess matches> when I move it to the main article space. Any comments or suggestions?
I didn't put it in the article, but the 10th match was not only the first one to actually require adjudication of a couple of games, but there was no congratulatory cable from the losing team (unless it was sent late). The next couple of matches also required adjudication of games. A bit of hard feelings there? Your game collection was very useful as a starting point. With the exact dates I could go right to the newspaper issue covering the result. I put an external link to the collection as a web-viewable source of the match games. |
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| May-09-11 | | playground player: <Phony Benoni> Big weekend series, Dodgers visiting the Mets--and nobody came. Well, you charge people $275 a seat for a ballgame, and I can think of a lot of people who ain't gonna come. Don't the powers that be in baseball realize that they're in competition with video games and other infinitely cheaper forms of entertainment? The Yankees have a new cable TV network, and I heard an ad for it yesterday: "Make sure you don't miss the Audi Batting Practice show." I think that very nicely sums up what's gone wrong with baseball. |
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May-09-11
| | Phony Benoni: <playground player> For many people who go to a sporting event the actual game is not the only of the attractiona. They go for the experience of being part of the game, the exhiliration of the crowd experience, the feeling of being part of the "In" thing to do. Why else do people continue to pay premium prices for concert tickets when they could just stay home and listen to the music on their IPod? There is something about a live experience that video games or Memorex just can't duplicate. I never cared for the crowd experience, which is one reason I don't go to games anymore. That, and the fact my eyes have gotten so bad I can no longer follow the flight of the ball. And, most importantly of all, Comerica Park has the lousiest hot dogs I've ever tasted. I think they're healthy or something. |
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May-10-11
| | WannaBe: <Phony Benoni> I, go to the game to enjoy it, I never know if I'd witness a 'miracle' (I was there, when Tommy Maddox and Rodney Pete played for UCLA-USC @ Rose Bowl, and both team scored 3 touch downs in the 4th quarter, yes, 42 points in the 4th quarter!!) People will pack the stadium, because they know Nolan Ryan is pitching, or Fernando back inthe 80s, or NomoMania in the late 90s. In baseball, the pitcher heself is an attraction, when Randy Johnson, or Felix Hernandez is pitching, the Mariners probably have more people in the seats than <Phony Benoni> vs. <WannaBe> pitching. Video game, is one thing, but to be there, to see the 'blown' no-hitter, to see the 'possible' of E. Jackson throw a no-hitter (After Dodgers got rid of him?!) is always the best 'possibility'! When I go to a game, in person, I often joke, after the first hit, or walk; I'd say "There goes the perfect/no-hitter, I am leaving!" The closest, I have ever come to actually witnessing a no-hitter/perfecto, was earlier this year, then the Oregon Ducks visited Long Beach State, and the pitcher for the Ducks on that Friday night, had a perfecto going. But the first batter in the bottom of the 8th, lined a clean single up the middle for a hit, and everyone in the stadium stood up and gave the kid a standing-O. Thought that was really gamesmanship, real sporting, and that is why we play the game. A handshake, 'good game', and then 'let's go get a beer!'. |
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May-12-11
| | perfidious: As to hopped-up ticket prices (in all sports): what happens to all those luxury boxes, with IRS tightening up on some loopholes at least? It'll be tougher for companies to write off certain expenses. Here's my closest experience to witnessing a no-hitter: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/.... Weak as that Indians team was, two present-day managers appeared in that game for them. The lone hit was blooped over the infield by Clark-and I never realised that he actually had a cup of coffee as a manager, till now! Here's another game I had the dubious pleasure of going to that season: Red Sox set a ML record for most LOB in one game while being shut out. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... |
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May-12-11
| | Phony Benoni: <perfidious> It would be an interesting project to find the game with the most future managers as players. Here's one with five: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... For the Giants, Dave Bancroft, Frankie Frisch and Casey Stengel; for the Cardinals, Rogers Hornsby and Jim Bottomley. In addition, Heinie Groh of the Giants had a short managerial stint a few years earlier, so maybe we should make it six. As for witnessing no-hitters, I think this is the closest I came: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... "Toothpick" Sam Jones made it through 5 2/3 innings without giving up a hit. Things got ugly after that, and the Orioles ninth was a thing of horror. |
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