The World And Everything In It

Some Very Silly & Out of Date Baseball Arguing...

2015-12-08T06:50:00.002-08:00

Teddy Ballgame’s Unclaimed Legacy: Why Ted Williams is the Greatest Home Run Hitter in Baseball History

Hank Aaron. Babe Ruth. Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. Any baseball fan knows what these men and others like them stand for. Home runs. In a game where the home run is the ultimate display of one’s hitting prowess and where a garden-variety Hall of Famer usually has between four and five hundred home runs, these are the men who stand apart from the crowd. These are the men considered true masters of the long ball.

Sometimes their nicknames give them away: ‘Hammerin’ Hank,’ ‘The Bash Brothers,’ ‘The Big Hurt.’ Sometimes their statistics tell the story: Hank Aaron’s 755 career homers, Barry Bond’s 73 homers in a season. And sometimes legend is all they need: Reggie Jackson’s 3 World Series homers on 3 swings, Kirk Gibson’s limping golf shot into the right field stands, Carlton Fisk’s leaping game-winner over “The Green Monster.” However they are remembered, they are remembered for one Olympian skill; the ability to hit a small white ball very hard and very far.

Yet there is one among their ranks who is remembered as perhaps the greatest hitter who ever lived but who rarely gets consideration as the greatest home run hitter who ever lived. It’s time for Ted Williams, ‘The Kid,’ ‘The Splendid Splinter,’ ‘Teddy Ballgame’ himself, to ascend Mt. Olympus and take his rightful place at the top of the list for he is certainly the greatest of the great.

Ted Williams is remembered as the last man to hit .400- .406 to be precise. (Baseball Encyclopedia, 1600-01) He is remembered for “The Williams Shift” and for being a true American hero who served in both World War II and The Korean War. He is perhaps best remembered for his passion for hitting and for the success that accompanied his tireless dedication to his craft.

Yet, although he hit 521 career homers and ranks in the top 15 statistically all-time, he is not remembered as a great home run hitter. This is a tragic misreading of the career of Ted Williams. The historians and myth-makers of baseball should recognize that Ted was indeed the greatest: he hit more dramatic home runs in his career than any of his peers did; he missed hundreds of games due to his service record and injury, games that cost him home runs; and he understood the art/science of hitting better than anyone who played the game before or since. For all of these reasons Ted Williams deserves recognition.

During his playing days, dramatic home runs off the bat of Ted Williams occurred so often as to become commonplace. Even as a rookie, Ted had the ability to make the sublime legend of the long ball simply a matter of fact. In his first series as a big leaguer, in Atlanta, a Red Sox equipment manager pointed out the right-field wall with its three strange parallel fences, one behind the next, and mentioned that he had seen Babe Ruth hit one over the farthest fence. Ted hit one to the same spot, two days later, in his third big league game. (Cramer, 66) In his first game ever at Fenway Park, his home for the next twenty years, Ted hit a home run to center field, where only five home runs had been hit the entire year before. He completed his rookie season by hitting at least one home run in each American league park. (Cramer, 67)

Perhaps this is where the de-mythologizing of Ted Williams ‘The Home Run Hitter’ began. He simply kept doing the impossible on a routine basis while also leading the league, year after year, in batting average (he won the batting title 6 times). There was a feeling that, when Ted hit a game-winning homer, it was just another average day at the office for him. His place as the third most prolific hitter of Grand Slams in history (ahead of Ruth. Aaron and McGwire) simply illustrates the point that the dramatic was simply commonplace for him. (Baseball Top 10, 41)

Other hitters have smashed legendary homers. Baseball fans will always remember Dave Henderson in ’86, Bucky Dent in ’78, Roger Maris in ’61. They will argue about Bill Mazerowski, Joe Carter, The Sosa and McGwire race, ‘the homer in the gloaming,’ and ‘the shot heard ‘round the world;’ these will always be the standard for comparison. But the sheer numbers of critical homers Williams hit is simply staggering. There are too many examples of the dramatic power (literally) Williams possessed to list them all. A few do stand out more than the others, however.

In 1939, Ted was the first batter to hit a ball completely out of Tiger Stadium. Only eight more players had done so by the 1971 All-Star Game held at the same stadium. (Smith, 32) The 1946 All-Star game was held at Boston’s Fenway Park, Ted’s home field. He proceeded to steal the show by hitting two home runs, including the first one ever hit off Rube Sewell’s infamous “blooper” pitch. The pitch was so far off the plate Ted had to step toward it just to swing. He also tied the All-Star game records for most hits (4) and most runs batted in (5). (Reichler, 11-12) In 1941, Ted’s .406 year, his average was at .39955 on the last day of the season. Technically, that was the elusive .400 and Ted’s manager offered to let him sit out the doubleheader. Ted declined and proceeded to play both games, getting six hits including a homer. He had conquered pressure with his own brand of drama once more.

A casual listing of other big Williams’ homers includes his first game back after a three-year stint in the Navy during World War Two; he hit one in his first at-bat. In 1950 he broke his elbow and was out for two months. This time his first game back included a homer and a four-for-four day. When Ted was again discharged from the service in 1953, after the Korean War had ended, he took ten days of batting practice after two years off. In his first game he of course hit a pinch-hit homer in the seventh inning. (Cramer, 75-81)

Finally, let’s consider the two biggest at-bats of his career. At the 1941 All-Star Game, in a game that meant much, much more to the players and public than it does now, a game played for league pride and bragging rights, Ted came to the plate with two men on, two men out, in the bottom of the ninth with his team trailing 5-3. The result, one asks, of this clichéd collision with the fantasies of young boys and baseball immortality? A game-winning, three-run homer, of course. Or, we can look at September of 1960, when an aging Ted stepped to the plate at Fenway for the last at-bat of his storied career. One doesn’t need to be told to know what happened. That was simply what Ted did all the time; his ability to do so has perhaps devalued his unique greatness.

When World War II broke out, Ted Williams was just another great baseball player. By the time the Korean conflict ended, he was a national hero who had served in two wars. Before and after that, Ted had missed many games with injuries. Where then would he stand on the all-time home run list if he had been able to play in all those games during the prime of his career? One thing is known for sure. Even without those homers, when Ted Williams retired he was in 3^rd place all-time behind only Ruth and Jimmie Foxx.

With this in mind, estimates to extrapolate his “true” career totals can be done in a variety of ways. One such estimate would be to throw out games missed due to injury (all players get injured sometime with the singular exception of Cal Ripken) and add projected homers for seasons missed due to military service. If we take a very conservative approach by adding totals based upon an average of 20 home runs per season (well below William’s standard) against five missed seasons, Ted’s additional 100 home runs would put him in the very elite 600 Homer Club with Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

If we ratchet those numbers up to reflect his average home-run performance during his 12-year “prime” (five years of which Williams missed) between 1941-1953 (when he won the Triple Crown and four batting titles), Williams would have an additional 190 homers for a career total of 711, only three shy of Ruth’s all-time record which stood for forty-one years before Aaron broke it. The answer is clear any way we crunch the numbers; based on total plate appearances, Ted Williams is one of the three best home run hitters the game has seen.

Finally, there is the undisputed fact that Ted Williams cared more about his hitting than any other player ever did. In fact, Ted spent so much time practicing his swing in the outfield, during games, that his first and only minor league manager demanded that either he or “the kid” go. Ted stayed. (Cramer, 66)

Williams became so obsessed with hitting that he would drive roommates crazy with his constant batting stance adjustments in front of the mirror at three in the morning. He used rolled-up newspapers in coffee shops to illustrate his vision. He eventually wrote books, The Science of Hitting and Ted William’s Hit List, that would become both standards for hitters and a bone of contention between physicists who believed his baseball-applied theories on rotational mechanics and batting coaches who didn’t need to confuse their young charges anymore than they already were! Perhaps under his brusque exterior, Ted Williams was really the definition of a scholar-athlete.

Perhaps the most fitting tribute to Ted’s study of hitting was Mark McGwire’s revelation at the 1999 All-Star Game that Ted had asked him if he ever smelled the bat burning. (McGwire, 1999 interview) What Ted was referring to was the friction caused by the perfectly aligned seams of a 95 mile-an-hour fastball ricocheting upward off the surface of a bat traveling seventy miles-an-hour in the opposite direction. There are only a handful of men in the world who have ever smelled this phenomenon, who can take scientific pleasure in missing a towering home run by less than a centimeter. Ted was their leader.

There is no other player in the history of the major leagues who has combined the talent of hitting home runs often with a flair for the dramatic like “The Splendid Splinter” did. No other great hitter ever lost so much playing time, in his prime, as “Teddy Ballgame” did. There has never been another player who has been able to explain how and why he hit the way he did quite like “The Kid.” He was an arrogant, loud, prickly, complicated man. And he was the greatest hitter who ever lived.

Remembrance of Championships Lost

2011-07-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Boston may be the City of Champions but she certainly has felt the pain of championship game (or series) defeat. Before the Red Sox won in 2004 they were a cottage industry of big-game failure unrivaled in professional sports. The Celtics, Bruins and Patriots have also all experienced their fair share of disaster come title time. Here, in ascending order, are the ten "almost" championships that hurt Hub fans the most.

10. 1985 Patriots, Superbowl XX
The Patriots actually led 3-0 in the first quarter of this game. But the "team of destiny" that won three straight playoff games on the road and finally "squished" the hated Dolphins in a meaningful game was simply no match for the Chicago Bears and their all-time great defense. The final score of 46-10 wasn't even that close. The "Patsies" went from a joke to near greatness to worse than a joke (remember the scandals that rocked this team after the Super Bowl?) in the span of one season.

9. 1946 Red Sox
Ted Williams had one shot at the world series and batted .200 Only on the Red Sox would the star and "greatest hitter who ever lived" be hit on the elbow by a pitch in an exhibition game four days before the World Series started. At least Johnny Pesky would get redemption in '04.

8. 1985 Celtics
Before this Finals, the Celtics had never lost to the Lakers in eight championship series. Unfortunately, apart from the "Memorial Day Massacre" in Game One, this Finals was all Lakers.

7. 1930, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1977, 1978 Bruins
What do all these Stanley Cup Finals losses have in common for the Bruins? They were at the hands of the hated Montreal Canadiens. Aargh.

6. 1967 Red Sox
Too bad Jim Lonborg wasn't able to pitch more on better rest in this World Series. Instead, the Impossible Dream met the indomitable will of Bob Gibson and Gibson won. The Red Sox would have to wait until 2004 to exercise their revenge upon the Redbirds.

5. 1978 Red Sox, AL East tiebreaker
Ok,ok, so this one wasn't a championship game. But it was Red Sox-Yankees for the right to go to the playoffs after an epic regular season. Bucky F-ing Dent has long been a curse word in New England but Lou Piniella's blind stab in right field was the real back-breaker. Those kinds of plays always used to go the Yankee's way when they played the Red Sox. The game ended with poor Yaz popping up with the winning run on base- what a nightmare...

4. 2010 Celtics, NBA Finals
This one hurt in so many ways. The Celtics should have won Game Six and never had to worry about a Game Seven. The Celtics were a better team than the Lakers for most of Game Seven. The Celtics always beat the Lakers in Game Sevens. Kendrick Perkins would have made sure the Celtics won either Game Six or Seven if not for his most untimely injury. The only solace Celtics fans could take away from this one was that the team wasn't supposed to even be in the Finals.

3. 2007 Patriots, Super Bowl XXLII
It wasn't so much that the most prolific offense in the history of the NFL scored only 14 points against a team they had beaten 38-35 just weeks before. It wasn't even that they couldn't finish off an unbeaten streak that would have finally shut the '72 Dolphins up. Nope, it was that David freakin' Tyree made the deciding play of the game.

2. 1987 Celtics, NBA Finals
Well at least Larry beat Magic once in the Finals. Magic's Baby Hook in Game Four was as shocking an occurrence as the Garden has ever seen and sent the Lakers back to L.A. up 3-1 rather than tied at 2-2. It still hurts to this day to watch Magic dribble, lean and let go with that impossible game-winner

1. 1986 Red Sox
Oedipus had nothing on this tragedy. The absolute nadir of New England professional sports.

Celebrating Champions of the Hub, Past and Present

2011-07-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

Now that the good ship Sporting has resumed her proper course with another city of Boston championship, this time from the long-dormant Bruins, it's only fitting that we take the time to rank the greatest of Boston's 33 championship teams from over a century of competition. The list was compiled using the most advanced statistical methods available, i.e. the author thought real hard for almost fifteen minutes about which teams he liked best. It is presented in ascending order of greatness. Green Bay may be Titletown but Boston is, indeed, the City of Champions.

Everyday Champions

22. 1967-68 and 1968-69 Celtics
After the end of the first Celtic dynasty, these two championships were just business as usual. Did the Celts roll out of bed one morning and say to themselves, "Hey, it's been two years since we won. Let's go out and get two straight?" After these two titles they would have to wait all of five years to get back to the top.

21. 2007 Red Sox
There's no questioning how much fun it was to watch the Sox win again after so many decades of Greek tragedy. However, after they came back against the Indians in the ALCS did anyone actually think they wouldn't sweep the Rockies?

20.1928-29 Bruins
The B's won their first cup. And they did it against a New York team. The Hub rejoiced.

19. 1912 Red Sox
Smokey Joe Wood's team. The team that kept the championship fires burning between 1903 and the dominant performances of the late teens.

18. 1985-86 Celtics
In the world of the Celtics, you just aren't that great unless you win multiple titles. Nobody was going to catch Russell, but Larry Bird and his Big Three co-conspirators (not to mention DJ) made sure they passed the mid '70's Celts in number of rings. Even the world's tallest Deadhead, Bill Walton, got in on the fun. Too bad the Lakers didn't show up.

17. 1940-41 Bruins
The great Eddie Shore was gone but this was a team that had won four straight President's Trophies. The least they could do was get another cup without him...

16. 1915, 1916 and 1918 Red Sox
The Red Sox of this era were so good Babe Ruth didn't even pitch in and barely played in the 1915 World Series. We all know what happened after the confetti stopped falling in 1918.

15. 1975-76 Celtics
Just like the Bruins of a few years before, the Havlicek/Cowens Celtics needed at least a few championships to cement their place in Boston and team history. They got 'em both. Along the way they also managed to play perhaps the greatest game in NBA Finals history, a triple-overtime epic against Phoenix in Game Five.

14. 1980-81 Celtics
Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell's finest performance as a Celtic and Larry Bird's first title. Boston would stay tuned for more to follow...

13. 1959-66 Celtics
The problem with having a dynasty is that all the championships seem to flow together. For eight straight seasons the Celtics absolutely dominated the NBA. Since they were so good for so long it's hard to find any one season that sticks out too much more over the others. In point of fact, the Celtics of this era should probably have their own Hall of fame, just to keep it fair for everybody else. Sure "Havlicek stole the ball" in '65 but that play didn't even occur in the Finals. It's tough to penalize sustained greatness but that's the reason none of these individual champions make it any higher on the list.

The Gold Standard

12. 1939-40 Bruins
In the first two decades of their existence Eddie Shore was the Bruins. After a dominating and controversial career in Boston the all-time great defenseman would leave the Bruins after this season so it was only fitting he go out in style.

11. 1973-74 Celtics
With Bill Russell gone people had started to wonder if the mighty Celtics would ever win a championship again. Perhaps it was all Bill and Red the whole time? Not a chance. Johnny Havlicek became just John and Dave Cowens decided he too wanted to be a Hall of Famer someday as the Celts returned to glory.

10. 2002-03 and 2003-04 Patriots
After spending most of their history as a league-wide punching bag (or blocking sled, as the case may be), the Patriots turned over a new leaf in 2001 with Golden Boy Tom Brady leading the on-field charge and Grumpy Man Bill Belichick at the helm. Still, watching these perennial losers become the gold standard of the NFL with back to back Super Bowl titles was about as shocking to Boston fans as watching Ray Bourque hoist the Stanley Cup in an Avalanche uniform. This time in a good way.

9. 1971-72 Bruins
The hard-driving, hard-drinking, Big Bad Bruins of the early 70's had a lot of talent. A lot. They also had a tough time staying focused long enough to win championships. They probably should have had a handful and been their era's version of the early 80's Islanders or late 80's Oilers. Instead Boston fans had to be content with "At least we got two."

8. 1983-84 Celtics
Larry Legend already had his first title. But he hadn't beaten Magic yet. And Magic had three NCAA and NBA crowns to Larry's one. So it was time for revenge. Larry, in the midst of his three straight MVP seasons, was also the Finals MVP and the Celtics had the makings of a new dynasty.

7. 2007-08 Celtics
When a franchise has 16 world titles and it's been over 20 years since the last one, there are certain expectations. When that same franchise brings in two sure-fire Hall of Famers to add to the one it already has and anoints them "The Big Three" those expectations go right through the roof. Especially since the last Big Three in town won 3 championships for the green. Never Fear. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and a little-known point guard named Rajon teamed up to bring the title back to the Gaahden. The fact that they embarrassed the Lakers to do it made this one all the sweeter.

6. 1903 Red Sox
The first modern world series. The Royal Rooters. Tessie. Back before the Curse of the Bambino and Buckner and Bucky "freakin'" Dent the Sox were the class of baseball. They proved it here.

5. 1969-70 Bruins
Before Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr was the greatest hockey player anybody had ever seen. A lot of people to this day still think he was even after Gretzky. Great players need rings to cement their place in history and Orr and Phil Esposito gave the Bruins a championship after a wait of almost 30 years, an endless drought for an Original Six team.

4. 1956-57 Celtics
Bill Russell's rookie season was something pretty special. With Red Auerbach at the helm, Russell's rebounding tore up the league and the Celtics won their first ever NBA title in their first try. Little did Boston know what was in store for the next decade...

The Truly Miraculous

3. 2010-11 Bruins
A former Vezina trophy winner at the supposed end of his career who started the season as a back-up? Check. An underachieving team that two years before won the President's Trophy and flamed out in the playoffs and then blew not only a 3-0 series lead but a 3-0 Game Seven lead, at home, the following season? Check. Three Game Sevens? Check. What a ride this gritty team gave Bruins fans who had been jonesing for a trophy for almost 40 years. Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara not only redefined their places in Boston sports history, the Bruins themselves finally caught up to the decade long championship party. And it all started with a first-round win against the hated Canadiens.

2. 2001 Patriots
Stunning. Shocking. Unbelievable. That basically sums up the Patriot's Super Bowl victory in 2001. The team that had long been ridiculed as the weak sister of Boston sports climbed on the back of unknown QB Tom Brady and, riding the momentum of the "did he pass or fumble" playoff game against the Raiders, shut down the heavily favored "Greatest Show On Turf" St. Louis Rams to win New England's first ever Super Bowl. The closest Super Bowl ever played was decided by gutsy calls by coach Belichick and gutsy play by his team. Wait a minute... from the Patsies? Yup. Who would've thunk it?

1. 2004 Red Sox
No other team or champion has come remotely close to unleashing such frenzied joy as the "idiots" did in claiming their first world series title in 86 years. Given that the Red Sox are not just the Olde Towne Team but also New England's first "real" team (sorry Patriots) is it no wonder that generations of fans wept openly at the "Reverse of the Curse?" The fact that the greatest comeback in the history of baseball and probably professional team sports began in the depths of despair (against the hated Spankees, no less!) just made it all the sweeter. Every single guy on that roster could open a bar anywhere in New England and have no fear of ever closing down. Yes, it was that special.

Bracket Busting Brings on the Madness

2011-03-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Day one of "The Greatest Show on Earth" (more commonly referred to as the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament" among the uninitiated) is in the books. As usual there were shocking surprises and predictable results. So what did we learn, if anything, from the first day of madness?

What We Know

Calling the play-in games "The First Four" is just ridiculous. Yeah, it's just a marketing scheme but seriously folks. Why not just call it "The Fiscal Four" or "The Sacrificial Cash Cow Four?" Very Irritating. Plus CBS knows people will start using the term accidentally and it will stick. Aargh.

Also, calling the first round the second round (because of said First Four) is just confusing.

Pete Carrill's Princeton teams would've found a way to make that upset happen.

Butler just knows how to win come tourney time.

Belmont was not the surprise of the Spring.

Temple isn't very good. Barely beating a just-lucky-to-be-here Penn State team from a weak Big Ten is not impressive.

What We Think

Rick Pitino got his. Losing to Morehead State? Celtics fans everywhere rejoice.

Richmond seems to pull off the upset every time they get into the tournament. Those of us who jumped all over that 12-5 upset are loving how that makes us look. Especially after K-State didn't oblige in the nightcap.

Don't bet against Gonzaga in the first round. Ever.

In the wake of the "Fab Five" special it's nice to see Steve Fischer getting some tournament time. He's been toiling at SDSU for a while now and has brought real respectability to a program that was just terrible when he got there.

Most of those "mid-majors" are pretty good, even when they lose. Except UCSB and Bucknell. Those two? Not so good.

For once the Big East teams didn't embarrass themselves in the first round (excuse me, second round).

What We Hope

That the Big East doesn't embarrass themselves in the first round (whoops!) today.

Bob Huggins makes a quick exit from the tourney. There are some coaches we're just not fans of. Perhaps he can go tutor his former Cincy players. Or teach them how to drive...

Pittsburgh doesn't blow their #1 seed. It seems like, under Jamie Dixon, every year the team wins its first game by 25, its second by 12 and loses the third one by 2. Stop the bleeding, Jamie!

C'mon upsets!

.

Kemba Walker Walks Off With Win

2011-03-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

Kemba Walker has provided the University of Connecticut basketball team with big shots all season long. Thursday the Huskie's star guard may have saved his best for tournament time.
With his team down by a point to Pittsburgh in the first quarterfinal of the Big East Tournament, Walker hit an 18 foot jump shot as time expired, sending the Huskies into the semifinals against #11 Syracuse on Friday night. It was an ignominious ending for the Panthers who blew a first half double-digit lead and looked terribly disorganized on Walker's final shot.
Pittsburgh, ranked #3 in the country in both the AP and ESPN/Coach's polls, had been one of the favorites coming into the tournament yet they ended up being spectators to the Mighty Kemba's heroics. Although the loss likely won't affect Pitt's seeding in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, its residual effect may have long-term repercussions on the psyche of a team expected to contend for a national title this season.
Connecticut, on the other hand, is riding high after entering the Big East Tournament seeded only 9th and ranked #19 in the country, a far cry from their earlier ranking of #3 this season. After running roughshod over hapless DePaul in the first round and cruising past #22 Georgetown in the second, UConn and Walker found themselves down big to a Pitt team that had handed them their first loss of the season back in December.
However, behind Walker's 24 points, the Huskies chipped away at Pitt's lead early in the second half and found themselves in a one-possession game for most of the last eight minutes. When UConn came out of a timeout with 5.7 seconds left to play and the score knotted at 74-74, there wasn't a soul in grand old Madison Square Garden who didn't know one Kemba Walker would have the ball in his hands.
Unfortunately for Pitt, big man Gary McGhee was the only one standing between Walker and tournament immortality. Walker drove right, stepped back, drove left, stepped back and calmly buried the game winner from the top of the key while a broken McGhee looked on helplessly, a witness to his own team's demise.
Such heroics are old news to Walker, who beat both Texas and Villanova with late shots earlier this season. But today's buzzer-beater against Pitt was in a league of its own; unless Walker has another miracle in store. UConn and Syracuse played a six-overtime classic in this very tournament just a few short years ago. Perhaps the time is now for Walker to add another layer to his legend.

Did Blackhawks bottle last year's magic?

2011-03-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the Chicago Blackhawks were experiencing a Stanley Cup Hangover of monumental proportions; online photos of various players 'celebrating' certainly show they had the will, discipline and talent to do so. Perhaps a team that traded away starting goalie Anti Niemi and All-Star Dustin Byfuglien, among others, needed the proverbial 'time to gel.' Or perhaps Patrick Kane just needs to miss practices and drink Jaeger with his fans more often.
   Whatever the reason, the defending champions have suddenly ended their season long doldrums in emphatic fashion. Since their OT loss in Phoenix, followed by Kaner's Sambuca fueled return to Chicago, the 'Hawks have gone 7-1 and won six straight games. As we head into the last quarter of the season they have leapfrogged five teams and are currently tied for the fourth spot in the Western Conference. For a group that was essentially out of this year's race it's quite an accomplishment, even more so given the fact that not only did they have to make this run to stay alive but, as defending champs, they were also expected to.
     As sports fans we tend to discredit exactly how hard it can be to 'turn a season around.' Having seen 'miracles' many times before (blame ESPN for that one) we now expect to see them routinely. However, most teams, in any sport, who spend the majority of their season two or three places out of the final playoff spot (or worse) do not magically get better and start winning just because they want to. There's usually more than one reason why a team is under-performing; be it age, injury, exhaustion, that elusive chemistry or just bad luck, many factors conspire against success, no matter how hard a team works or how talented it is 'on paper.' Teams certainly don't start winning because they suddenly 'remember' they are last season's champion. If history has shown anything it's that repeating is extremely hard to do. It's hard to perform on cue and under great pressure, even for professional athletes. Especially when everyone is gunning for you.
   So kudos, Blackhawks. You're probably not going to catch the Red Wings in your division. You may or may not host a first round playoff series. You almost certainly won't defend your title. But you have made a mediocre season just a little bit more exciting when it counted and made your games 'must watch' events again, at least for your own fans. And isn't that, after all, what it's all about?

Big East no Big Easy But Red Storm Believes

2011-02-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Is it possible that Steve Lavin is actually a good coach? The former UCLA 'golden boy,' whose uneven tenure ended in 2003 after just one losing season in seven (but no NCAA titles for the Westwood faithful ) seemed a prime candidate for the 'He who can't coach can analyze' lifetime achievement award. At least until he signed on with a mediocre, senior laden St. John's team and made them the darlings of the basketball world. Fran Fraschilla, himself a former golden boy of the St. Johns basketball program, can breathe a sigh of relief knowing his position as 'the coach who couldn't' is safe for the time being.
     After Saturday's win at #19 Villanova, Lavin's bunch have stormed the upper echelon of the Big East conference, reside at #15 in the country and control their own Big East Tournament destiny. St. John's season, full of last second miracles and home-court hosannas, is a study in pluck and more than a little luck.
     Entering the season the Johnnies were expected to be a middle of the pack team at best. In fact the arrival of their new coach amid much media coverage overshadowed whether the brand of basketball they played would actually be any good. In their previous campaign they had been 17-16 and 13th in the Big East and their best player, Dwight Hardy, hardly seemed like a possible Big East player of the year.
     Fast forward to February 10 when the Red Storm beat then #9 Uconn, saving an exciting but disappointing season from the mediocrity this program has seemed to accept ever since Lou Carnesecca left. They then reeled off five more consecutive wins, including Hardy's last-second heroics against #4 Pitt and Saturday's shockingly easy win at 'Nova, to vault into the polls.
     Sandwiched in between those two gems were a 'revenge' win at Cincinnati and an easy win against terrible DePaul in a potential 'trap' game, proving this team means business. The program is ranked for the first time in over ten years and seems intent on keeping it that way. Wins this week over hapless Seton Hall and USF would guarantee a double-bye in the Big East Tournament. Look for that to happen. Easily.
   Make no mistake about it- this team is primed for the Big Time on the Big Stage, which also, at least for the conference tourney, happens to be their home court. The Big East this year is a tough, tough league. Nine of its teams have spent time in the Top 25 this season and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that, in an expanded tournament and down year for some of the other power conferences, the league will send nine or even ten teams to the Big Dance.
     In an amazing display of 'power parity' there are six Big East teams ranked between #11 and #19. St. John's has as good a chance as any of them and better than most to come out of the conference tourney on top, flying high and riding a double digit win streak. They have beaten everybody they've played in the Big East except #12 Syracuse and #11 Louisville, including #8 Notre Dame and the aforementioned Panthers. They have beaten West Virginia, Cincinnati and Marquette, three teams hovering on the cusp of that tournament bubble. And lest anyone forget, in late January they handily beat a Duke team that was ranked #1 at one point this season.
     From a group that lost consecutive games to St. Bonnie's and Fordham, of all schools, and had a losing record in the Big East as late as January 30, St. John's has become the giant-killing, fire-breathing Monster of Manhattan. There's a perfect storm rising and it's about to wash over Madison Square Garden.

Displaced persons continue to pursue NFL

2011-02-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

The NFL can't wait for March Madness to begin.
   In the story that just won't go away, there are now two separate groups of fans suing the league for supposed mistreatment during the Superbowl. This mistreatment? Being forced to watch the Superbowl from standing room only seats or in various stadium sports bars (with free food and drink) because their $800 seats were not completed in time for the game.
   Now it's understandable that people might be upset because they weren't able to sit in the seats they paid for. But it's not like those people were turned away from the game. On the contrary, the NFL went out of it's way to fix the experience for these fans. They were even allowed on the field immediately after the game ended. Who wouldn't want to be part of that scene? I would have traded my regular seats for a chance to still watch the game with free snacks and drinks and then mingle with players and celebs on the field - what sports fan wouldn't love that chance?
So, sometimes things happen. Not even bad things, like earthquakes or murder at the Superbowl, just inconvenient things that made a once-in-a-lifetime experience a bit more memorable. None of these fans came away from the game traumatized by what happened to them. All of these fans came away with a story to tell for the rest of their lives.
Yet the real problems began when the NFL decided to "make it right" for these fans by offering them $2400 for each $800 seat they purchased. Apparently three times face value isn't enough of a payoff for some people. Especially people who still got to see the game. There were other fans who missed almost the entire first half because they were waiting in line and they only got face value refunds for their seats. Why aren't they protesting their terrible circumstance?
     Perhaps because those fans didn't leave their brains in North Texas and have at least a vague understanding that sometimes life just happens.
The seat-less sufferers however, weren't buying the 'insulting' offer the NFL made. They weren't buying the next offer either; $2400 for each seat plus tickets to next year's Superbowl plus airfare and hotel accommodations. Some of them claim the offer is unfair because they can't be guaranteed their team will be in the game next year. Well? What the hell are you waiting for NFL? Get it done. Make sure these poor people, who have already seen their team in the Superbowl, get another chance.
     Oh, wait. The NFL did that, offering tickets to any future Superbowl plus at least $5000 cash money (more, if you can prove expenses) for these poor, huddled masses.
     The best part of this whole story is how these fans have identified themselves. Displaced persons? Really? Who exactly are we talking about here: Haitian boat people? Katrina refugees? The Jewish Diaspora? If Superbowl fans without a seat are displaced persons then I'm suing my local library every time there isn't a chair in the Adult Reading Room.
     Where does something like this stop? This isn't even the fault of the lawyers for once. This is just pure, naked, All-American greed on the part of these fans. They do not come across as sympathetic victims; they come across as spoiled children. They are behaving as if they are somehow owed reparations, as if they were Soviet Russia demanding justice from Germany at the end of World War Two. They are behaving as if they have been terribly wronged and the NFL needs to be dragged before an international war crimes tribunal to make their pain 'mean something.'
     Who are these people? Is this what we are, as a society?
     You went to the Superbowl. You had a good time leading up to the game (and if you didn't, that's not the NFL's fault). You had a perhaps slightly uncomfortable, ultimately memorable time at the game. And you either broke even or made a profit on the experience. Oh, right, you also got free tickets, flights and rooms to the next Superbowl of your choice. Please, please don't clog up the courts with your ridiculous lawsuits. Go home, sit down, shut up and enjoy your hush-money; March Madness is just around the corner.

Clash of the Methuselahs

2011-02-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

     I'll admit I'm not much of a fan of the NBA these days. I stopped watching most regular season games around the time I realized it wasn't really that important to me whether Tim Duncan could win without David Robinson (apparently he can). Not to mention the simple fact that any NBA game worth watching is only worth watching for the last five minutes or so. Or that it seems pretty much every team gets into the playoffs, just like the good 'ol NHL. Of course hockey's playoffs are better but I will admit even the interminable NBA playoffs are good TV. I just don't have the patience to watch what I think of as "bad" basketball for the six-month regular season
     And that's OK. If I start feeling nostalgic for "my" NBA I can always pop in a DVD of the 80's Celtics, Lakers or Pistons; the 90's Bulls, Rockets or Knicks (I still feel bad for Pat Ewing and Sir Charles) or the Ought's Spurs. ESPN Classic sometimes shows some pretty darn good games too.
I'll leave the NBA and its current cast of Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Melo and The King to those who want to follow them.
     So imagine my pleasant surprise last night when I stumbled across TNT's Dallas Mavericks/ Phoenix Suns match-up. It was like being transported to a magical arena where players play for as long as they want and the ravages of time (not to mention injuries) seemed not to matter. Now I know there are plenty of players who hang around the NBA way past their prime but to have so many assembled in one place and still playing like they were in their prime (well, maybe not Grant Hill so much but I'm just happy he can still walk) seemed to me nothing short of miraculous.
     Some of the Methuselahs on the court last night would have made Brett Favre proud (if Favre could be proud of anything these days). Jason Kidd is practically my age and I went to Greg Kite's basketball camp as a teenager. I thought Kidd was still a Net. Hell, I thought the Nets retired his number. Actually what I really thought was that poor Kevin Johnson was probably wondering how the young guy who carried his bags was still in the league. Jason Kidd played against Michael (in Michael's first time around), Hakeem, Barkley and The Mailman. Most of Kidd's younger teammates only know Barkley as a bad gambler but worse golfer. Or would except they're all pretty old themselves.
     It only seems like Kidd's a rookie compared to Grant Hill; they're actually pretty close in age. Most NBA followers will tell you Hill lost a lot off his game due to injuries. Yeah, he sprained his back helping Naismith hang the peach baskets. Seriously, though, Grant Hill played at Duke only a few years after Danny Ferry, who himself played only a few years after Dick Groat.
     Steve Nash and his hair have been around almost as long. Nash is Canadian so he looks and acts younger than he really is, a by-product of stress-free socialized medicine while he was growing up but he's actually been in the league so long that ESPN voted him the Ninth Best Point Guard of All Time, an award that came with a lifetime supply of Icy Hot, presented to him by fellow octogenarian Shaq. He's been in the league for so long that ESPN felt the need to put him on an all-time list while he's still playing which probably says more about the network than Nash himself.
      Poor Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki. They're almost too young for this conversation. Almost. I remember when Vince was a dunking machine but I'm not sure he does anymore. Back when he was a Toronto Raptor Vince was diagnosed with "Jumper's Knee" which is a nice way of saying "You're getting too old for all that dunking." Dirk is still young enough to be considered in his prime despite all his injuries but old enough to be considered damaged goods despite still being in his prime. Dirk's actually playing at a near-MVP level right now, pretty impressive for a guy who just a month ago seemed ready to head to the local Denny's to fill out his AARP application.
     The Mavericks, at least, apparently felt that Dirk and Jason needed some old friends to help them out; Peja Stojakovic, Jason Terry, Deshawn Stevenson (DeShawn Stevenson!) and Brian Cardinal (Brian Cardinal!!) all have ten or more years in the league. Tyson Chandler only has nine years in the league; it just seems longer because he entered the draft straight out of middle school and then decided to play for every team in the league at least once.
     I certainly don't mean to demean these guys or their accomplishments. This is more about my own perceptions of the passage of time as viewed through the sporting filter. I guess those who watch the present are occasionally doomed to see the past, in all it's receding hairline, knee-braced glory. Carry on old-timers- I'll be rooting for you all the way. To the trainer's table, most likely, but still rooting for those who would continue to sprint and leap ahead of that final two-minute warning.

Proofreading Blunders: Poor Bill Bryson

2011-02-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

I don't claim to be perfect when it comes to matters of proofreading and editing. I don't think anybody does or can any more, even the venerable Times. Just Google am or pm (or AM or PM) someday to see how many varieties of common usage appear acceptable. Language is an ever-morphing conceit and yesterday's consensus might be tomorrow's red flag. I still think, however, there's a place in this world for the Grammar Police (Thank you, Lynne Truss). I just live in a bit of trepidation that they might set their sights on me.
     I'll admit as well that I don't hold everyone to the same standards; I wouldn't expect the local Baptist church bulletin to be edited with the same zeal as The Encyclopedia Brittanica. That's why Seeing Further, a recent "history" of The Royal Society edited by the inimitable Bill Bryson is so frustrating.
     This is serious subject matter, encompassing as it does the birth of the scientific method and the enlightened advancement of human thought. And Bryson, for all his witticisms and gentle chicanery in previous books, is a serious student of both science and the English language, as evinced by his previous books A Short History of Nearly Everything and Mother Tongue and Made In America, both of which trace the evolution of our language.
   So it's quite a shock to catch some of the appalling mistakes printed in this otherwise fascinating book. To use only one abject example here, in Margaret Atwood's essay on Swiftian influence upon the "mad scientist" genre, there is a discussion of the concurrent smallpox epidemics that broke out in London and Boston in 1721. Cotton Mather, of all people, worked in concert with Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, to arrest the epidemic through inoculation. Apparently Dr. Boylston knew a little bit more about human physiology than he let on because according to the proofreaders and editors of Seeing Further the good doctor visited the Royal Society in 1826 to read a paper on his findings, more than one hundred years after the epidemic. It would seem Dr. Boylston had quite a good memory as well.
     Perhaps we shouldn't really pick on Bill Bryson and his assistants; grammatical and spelling errors occur all the time, right? But honestly, what about content and context? There's just no good reason why such a glaring factual error should have made it into print, especially in such a book as this.
     This is the kind of thing that drives this gentle reader absolutely over the edge precisely because it should have been caught. And it's the kind of thing that will be commented upon, here, every time it happens. And, yes, nowadays it's considered acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction. Mostly.