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May-29-15
 | | WannaBe: SEC to add Center Judge to officiating crew:
http://espn.go.com/college-football... Is this SEC league games only? What if SEC goes on the road and play ACC? What if Big-12 plays at SEC? What if the game is at neutral field? e.g. Cowboys Stadium? |
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May-29-15
 | | perfidious: Grady Sizemore DFA'd by Phils, of all teams: this is how far out of phase a once-terrific career has gone. Probably the end of the line, aged 32. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on... |
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May-29-15
 | | Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> It only applies to states with high unemployment. They'll do anything to boost the economy before the election. <perfidious> Grady Sizemore looked like the next Wilie Mays. He turned into the next Pete Reiser. It was a tragedy, and fans everywhere felt for him. Abd biw there's Mike Trout. You just hold your breath. |
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May-30-15
| | Phony Benoni: Dumb tennis question from a non-tennis player:
With my PBS station on Pledge Break, I was forced to watch the French Open this morning. The commentator mentioned that a certain player scored about 80% on her good first serves, but only about 40% on her second serves. Now, I know that players play it safe on the second serve to avoid the chance of a double fault. But I'm wondering if, with such a discrepancy, it wouldn't be better to hit the second serve just as hard as the first, figuring the extra points won would compensate for the additional double faults. Yes, I know it's a dumb question because nobody does it. But I'm still curious. |
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| May-30-15 | | hms123: <Phony Benoni>
Yes (almost). Every coach I have worked with has basically said some version of "you are wasting your time blooping in the second serve. Put more pace on it." One coach (the best) even had me hit my first serve on both attempts hoping it would give me more confidence in hitting a hard second serve. He was right. It did. The saying in tennis is that "your first serve is only as good as your second serve." The point being that if you don't have confidence in your second serve then it is hard to hit a good first serve--too much pressure. |
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| May-30-15 | | Jim Bartle: I tried to calculate that a couple of years ago. A player gets his first serve in 60% of the time and wins 70% of those points. So there's a 42% chance he will win that point. If he wins 40% of his second serve points, it's better to take a chance on the second. Of course you can play around with those numbers, and also there's not just one 'hard' serve and one 'safe' serve. if you can get your usually first serve 60%, then you may have a serve with more spin you can get in 75% of the time and still win 60% of the points. In the 2001 Wimbledon final I think Goran Ivanesivic did go to more or less hitting all first serves, though he didn't always hit an outright flat serve on the second. He double faulted like crazy, but won almost every point when he got that huge serve in. And he won a tight match against Patrick Rafter. There's definitely a stigma against double faulting which causes people not to play the percentages. Hitting the second serve into the net or wide is inexcusable, but hitting long every so often if you're hitting hard isn't so bad. |
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| May-30-15 | | Jim Bartle: Here's the final game of that final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hE... Ivanisevic hits a true second serve on the first point, butchers the volley, and decides to hit out on every serve after that. He has three double faults but also wins several points with the second serve, including the final match point. This of course is an extreme example, as his nerves were obviously fried and he couldn't trust himself to hit anything beside his serve. |
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May-30-15
 | | OhioChessFan: I've always thought they should just hit their first serve twice. I'd love to see the statistical analysis. |
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May-31-15
| | WannaBe: Them Tigers are on Sunday Night ESPN Baseball, AGAIN!!?? That's like 8 times in the month of May that they've played on Sunday Night. Someone at ESPN must have them confused with Yankees, or Red Sox. =)) |
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Jun-01-15
| | WannaBe: I see umpire(s) suspended, soon.
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/pos... |
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Jun-01-15
| | Phony Benoni: Obviously, the balls were over-inflated. |
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Jun-01-15
| | Phony Benoni: The prelude to Harvey Haddix:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... The Braves didn't get a hit until two were out in the 10th. Klippstein pitched a pair of one-hitters in his carerr -- one 8 1/3 no-hit innings, the other 7 2/3. Apparently <WannaBe> got to his games late. |
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| Jun-02-15 | | Most Interesting Man: Hello my friend! If I may ask, why the pun on The Benoni Defense? |
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Jun-02-15
| | Phony Benoni: <Most Interesting Man> I don't always play the Benoni, but when I do it's generally because I have Black. |
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| Jun-03-15 | | Jim Bartle: Brandon Moss's 100th home run landed in the Indians' bullpen. They're holding the ball for ransom: https://twitter.com/Indians/status/... |
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Jun-03-15
| | WannaBe: 50 gallons of lube?! I'm not going there, not touching that one with 100-ft pole. |
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Jun-03-15
| | WannaBe: The thrill of the catch, and the agony of the defeat. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b... |
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Jun-03-15
| | WannaBe: Down 6-0 and you show up after a HR??
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/stor... |
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Jun-03-15
 | | Penguincw: Someone's going to end up regretting getting a tattoo: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nhl.... |
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Jun-03-15
| | WannaBe: Lots of apologies after that HR incident:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/stor... Maddon made it clear that it will not be tolerated. |
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Jun-04-15
| | WannaBe: So some FIFA member from Trinidad & Tobago is going to spill the beans and copy of bribe check of Blatt. Now news reported Ireland received $5M 'loan' for handball... In other news Univ. of North Carolina is under serious trouble with NCAA. Houston Astros will remove the incline hill and move the fence in 27 feet. New centerfield will be 409 ft to home plate. Renovation will take place after 2015 season. And be ready for 2016. |
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Jun-04-15
| | WannaBe: Joe Maddon, mad scientist!!
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1... Maybe we'll have pitchers hit 7th, soon! |
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| Jun-04-15 | | Jim Bartle: Having a real hitter bat ninth makes sense. What it really is, your ninth hitter is the leadoff batter but doesn't hit in the first inning. This means you still have two high-on-base guys hitting before the sluggers, but in the ninth inning you have a one-out better chance of the best hitters getting to bat. I think it's important to have a high on-base guy batting before the pitcher in any case. When this batter comes up with two out, he has to have a good chance of getting on base (even if it has little chance of producing a run) so the pitcher won't waste an out to start the next inning. |
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Jun-04-15
| | WannaBe: How 'bout them Minnesota Twinkies?!!? Better record than the high spending Doood-gers. Twinkies scored 4 top 9th, to chase Uehara of BoSox and won 8-4. Gonna have to bust out my 'TC' cap, now. =) |
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| Jun-05-15 | | playground player: In baseball, an ostentatious display of fielding is called "cutting the pie." Is an ostentatious display of religiosity called "cutting the piety"? |
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