Long, sullen winter continues

Bill:
So according to Mazz, the Toronto Blue Jays are "the team to keep an eye on."

 

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Doug:
Wait a second, weren't the Blue Jays the so-called dahk horse last year, too?

 

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Bill:
Yeah, and the year before that and the year before that …

 

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Doug:
Hell, if they say it long enough, one of these years it may just end up being true.

 

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Bill:
Oh, and speaking of repetition, "a trade of Johan Santana is expected to occur within 10 days."

 

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Doug:
Ah, for fuck's sake. Trade him already. I'm sick of hearin' about it.

 

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Bill:
Seriously. On days like this I wish I were a bear — then I'd just crawl into a cave sometime aftah the wintah meetings and not come out again until the guys are playing catch in Fort Meyers.

 

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Comments

[louclinton]

Ooof, no kiddin' hb. Even wif the SB, these days are the dog days.

lc

[Bob]

Despite all the Mets talk, the Skanks will end up with Santana. And I could care less, frankly.

[Jeffrey]

this weekend sucked from a sports point of view. I wound up watching the Daytona24 race.

But I am a NASCAR fan, Daytona 500 in three weeks, that's something to look forward to. 50 year anniversary.

Anyone?? Anyone?? Buehler?

[granular_serene]

Can't back u up on the nascar - i just don't get it. They go around and around. over. and over. and over again. Maybe if the cars could shoot bowling balls at each other or something...i guess like baseball it's an acquired taste.

[vermonter]

Attention...Attention...just over the wire...it appears that Tom Brady farted this morning at approximately 9:56.

What does it all mean? Film at 11.

[Jeffrey]

Actually, it's more fun than bowling balls. If you get a second (it's Monday afterall)

Do a YouTube search for Talladega Kyle Busch 2007

Then try Daytona 2007 finish

Plus, NASCAR is just like baseball - Go fast and turn left.

There is a lot of strategy if you pay attention. And I've met the guy who totally revolutionized the concept of the pitstop, so that's got me hooked as well.

[yazbread]

If you want to strike up a conversation with a NASCAR fan, just say 'where were you when Dale Earnhardt died?'. It's like the Kennedy assassination.

[Kaz]

Roger Clemens is getting desperate. His agent just released a 38-chart, 18,000-word position paper on why Roger's game was no different than any other pitcher's ebb and flow for his entire career. They claim he was better but steady, showing no signs of steroids in his stats.

You can find it at http://www.rogerclemensreport.com (worth a look just for the craptastic web design alone).

Here's the thing though, it abuses sabermetrics and doesn't evaluate much other than ERA (a notoriously bad statistic for judging pitchers by). And for every statistic brought up, they then compare his numbers to Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, and Nolan Ryan. The charts are rife with "well he was injured here", etc. and they stop comparing him to the league shortly after overall ERA. Seasonal Ks, IP/G, and one or two other numbers are compared only to RJ, Schilling, and/or Ryan. The whole thing is abysmal from a statistical validity point-of-view. They spend more time trying to establish how he trends compared to 1-2 other pitchers and not how it compares to the whole league any more. They do nothing to normalize for league. They do nothing to normalize for much of anything. It's just straight up comparisons of numbers and not even numbers that might be totally indicative of steroid abuse...particularly how Clemens often did so (midway through a season for the stretch run or right after injury to bounce back faster).

This also would have been about 40x more impressive if it'd been done by an independent agency hired by them instead of by their internal stat guy.

[Kaz]

I went to my first NASCAR event at last year's Martinsville Subway500. It was definitely different from nearly any other sporting event I've ever been to. Food was reasonably priced. You could bring in your own beer and food. You had to park a country mile away and walk to the location.

Crashes were what I went for but then I also started getting into the race itself. It goes slow at times when it's more a matter of fuel strategy and things, but the few moments where you're trying to watch about 3 or 4 guys caravan past the leader or see 3 cars go wide through a turn (not too often at Martinsville...very small track), they were good parts of the race.

I could see myself going to like 1 race each year. I'd never be the guy renting the wireless "pit crew" radio/TVs (although the technology on that should be in every sport ever). I'd also probably never buy a shirt or pick my favorite racer. The event is worth the price of admission though.

[COD]

Purdue upset #11 Wisconsin.
IU lost at home to unrated CT
My son placed 5th at the VA regional youth fencing tournament in 14 and under Foil.

I thought it was a damn good sports weekend.

[Jeffrey]

Thanks for not leaving me out here by myself Kaz.

I first got into NASCAR during the Daytona 500, when there is nothing else to watch.

When John Henry invested in Roush, I started watching the Roush-Fenway team (Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth). You tend to get into it more when you have a "horse in the race"

Last Spring, a group of us were laughing at our guilty pleasure in watching NASCAR. One guys uncle owns an RV dealership, and we decided to rent an RV and go up to Loudon for the Sept weekend F-M. I never would have imagined I would have had so much fun. It was like Mardi Gras meets Tailgating meets a frat party. Keg Stands, women earning beads, Big Screen TV's to watch the Yankee/RS game, Dance Floor w/ DJ - and this was all in the RV lot. The race was a good time, but we are going back in September for the whole experience. I could write for hours the shit we saw.

[youknow]

I like the Daytona500 just fine.

Sincerely,
that skinny broad who works at the Hooters across from Daytona Speedway

[Sonoma Sox]

So Trot's working on his defensive skills at 1B.

I guess I could deal w/ Trot as a back up at first. Could be worse.

[buckner was framed]

anybody else still in the 'virtual waiting room'?

[vermonter]

Congrats to your son, COD.

Feels good when the shorties make you proud.

[yazbread]

Well - speaking of virtual. Funny article in the Chicago Tribune this morning - business section. Members of the online community 'Second Life' get fleeced by placing their money (apparently 'real' money) in a virtual world 'bank'. Return of 40% apparently did not make anyone suspicious. So some enterprising virtual banker actually made off with $75,000 of real money. Sad part of the article - suggested solution is government regulation of virtual worlds.

[granular_serene]

Thanks for the heads-up regarding second life. There's a virtual guy from virtual nigeria who's going to be sending me a bunch of money - i'll make sure i don't piss it away on some hare-brained investment scheme.

[COD]

Thanks Vermonter. I always envisioned my son as a baseball star. And although he kicked ass back in the 8-10 age group, the world caught up with him and he took up sword fighting instead.

I still don't understand why fencing is not more popular in this country. You would think a sport where young boys are handed real metal swords and encouraged to hit each other would be the most popular thing ever.

[Jeffrey]

Congrats COD on you son. I always liked to play "sword-fighting" growing up, but that was in the back yard with sticks or whiffle bats.

Baseball, Football, street hockey, those were more team sports and I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of kids; never had a problem with pick up games. Plus not a lot of "official" equipment needed.

As for the Nigerian Prince that contacted me before Christmas, I opened up a bank account like he asked, and gave him the acct number, but I check it everyday and no $3.3Million check... I guess I need to be patient, it takes a while for money to transfer from overseas.....

[steve in MD]

/You would think a sport where young boys are handed real metal swords and encouraged to hit each other would be the most popular thing ever./

Not with mothers...

[yazbread]

You'll poke your eye out.

[kjc]

I always thought NASCAR would be more fun if half the cars went one way and the other half of the cars went the OTHER way. Sort of like the figure 8 smash up racing they used to have on Wide World o' Sports. But at 200 mph.

At least Red Sox Hot Stove show is on NESN now.

[Kaz]

Fuck the president.

There, I said it.

Fuck this guy. Stop screwing up my country.

I need a drink.

[Kaz]

Oh, yeah, and fuck the muttonheads who keep applauding him.

I hate you, Pelosi, most of all. You were supposed to pull us out of this guy's asshole and all you ever wanted was to be first in line to get in it.

[Kaz]

Argh! NBC, now you're shilling Obama and Hillary at me? Polling current Senators on the State of the Union? Why just Hillary and Obama? Oh, just current Senators who have political campaigns right now? Where's Ron Paul then, you rat bastards using *my* airwaves!? Ugh, *just* Hillary and Obama.

Go to hell, NBC. Bush made this bus and you guys are driving it.

[soxdownunder]

Chill, Kaz, chill: at least you get a vote!