Tribute to Kiptum:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/sport/david-rudisha-pays-tribute-kelvin-kiptum-spt-intl/index.html
In the NBA, these playoffs have seen enormous blown leads (e.g., Nuggets last night) and teams down 0-2 coming back.
The Pacers shot 67% from the field while taking out the Knicks.
I keep seeing batting averages shown with *to-the-decimal-point's-left ZERO* and merely two (vice three) decimal places to its right...e.g., 0.23, or 0.29, or even the pitiful 0.12 (awful DET team BA, albeit mid-May (~45 gms. in) not so very early anymore)...
The way super-smart Millennial data miners ply their trade these days, PSHAW!
Unsure which snarling feline sounds more comedic: NHL's FLA Panthers' or NCAA's PSU Nittany Lions'...though it's possibly the same animal (not quite sure).
Has the world gone mad?!?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/cy990k0lwl7o
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/sport/usa-pakistan-t20-cricket-world-cup/index.html
What's next - Bangladesh or Sri Lanka making the Super Bowl or the World Series?
I saw that! Curious. Sort of. We have been stealing their brains for a while. Apparently cricket talent came along, too.
Self-explanatory:
Francesco Molinari: Golfer produces ‘incredible’ hole in one to make US Open cut | CNN
Red Sox set a franchise record of 9 stolen bases in a single game tonight against the Yankees. It was the most ever against the Yankees in their history.
I don't know my way around the MLB stats like TN and Brewsky, but the only source I can find shows NY catcher Trevino being well below average (ranked 44 out of 61) in throwing out attempted steals. (These are steals from 2B taking 3B -- not sure why stealing 2nd isn't listed). So, Stroman wasn't getting much help.
I'm not sure how one part of this is gonna work, but.........
The part that mystifies me is: "Adding to the oddity, Jansen will play catcher during the at-bat that he started back in June." I guess he'll be catching, but somebody else will pinch-hit for his AB? But even harder to understand, is why that game was suspended, rather than just a normal rainout, like it's supposed to be if 5 innings aren't played? At the top of the story, it says "postponed", which means it didn't happen, as far as stats and so forth, so...........??? Somebody needs to do some mansplainin'.
Oh garsh. The mitigation of *not* playing 1.5 or 2 innings, when everybody is already gathered for a whole game seems ridiculously low - like infinitesimally low. Next thing you know............they be allowing other batters to hit for pitchers, without them having to leave the game; or telling fielders where they can and can't play; or putting men on base in extra-inning games to avoid the 18-inning chess matches. Where will it all end? Will they put teams in far flung places like Texas, Colorado, and Florida!?!? Will they increase the schedule from 154 games (like God intended) to more games so that some of them can more likely be played in the snow?
And don't get me started on these "City Connect" unis, which I just learned about yesterday. Apparently a marketing gimmick for Nike to make *yet more* money, instead of putting it towards the good of humanity - that MLB 'bought' into. Sheesh. The devolution of baseball from sport into "entertainment" is full throttle ahead, I see. At what point in the future will it devolve into something that will be described by verbiage like: "It evolved from an ancient game played in the 19th and 20th centuries, in which players actually *competed* against each other by batting the ball, running "the bases", and trying to score "runs", whilst the other team tried to prevent same"?
It would have been cool to watch Billy Martin manage into his elder years.
So.........Jansen completed that aforementioned "double duty". (And yes, my theory of someone pinch-hitting for him to complete his AB was correct.) From this pic, it looks like the ball is so scared that it's losing its innards, even before Jansen has a *chance* to knock the cover off of it.
Double-duty Danny Jansen plays for both teams in one MLB game. Here's how | AP News
[Billy Martin may or may not have been a good manager. Opinions differ, depending on how one defines that, or who one asks. But he was a punk. He had a tough upbringing, but still.......... He and Steinbrenner sort of deserved each other, I guess.]
"Cool" meaning interesting...screaming, yelling, old stuff we used to get to laugh at more of in older baseball days.
So... yesterday George Springer hit his seventh HR of the season in the opener. In the night game, Springer hit his 19th HR of the season.
All the stats in the opener count for the day in which the game was scheduled.
Imagine having a long streak going into the suspended game, say, 40 game hit streak. And the game is suspened before your first AB. In the next 30 games, you get a hit in each game, but you won't know the official hit streak until the suspended game is played, whenever that may be. If you get a hit, new record. If you don't, well, zip.
================
Billy Martin: When I was a kid, my father would call an elderly blind lady every evening. He'd pick up the phone and talk to her for 20 minuters or so. At one point, he needed to leave town for a couple of weeks, and asked me to call her every night. I had met this lady a couple of times, so it was fine. I was 12 years old at the time, and she knew I liked baseball. She would always turn the conversation to baseball. She listened to the Denver Bears (AAA farm club for the Twins at the time) on the radio, and she asked me to listen so that we could chat about the game. I did so, and it was interesting. Billy Martin had his first manager gig with the Denver Bears, and he was at the top of his game. During one on the home games when I was listening, Martin had a classic meltdown, and the announcers were thrilled. He kicked dirt on the umpire's pants, he got down on his knees and used his hands to cover home plate with dirt, he screamed, he gestured, he threw stuff. As a kid, I was delighted. The next evening, when talking to my new baseball buddy, she was appalled and refused to talk about the game. Years later, Martine was still using the skills he developed in Denver.
(The Bears took off for bunch of road games during my two-week listening stint. The play-by-play guy stayed home and broadcast the game using a feed from some sort of ticker that gave him progress. He had taped crowd noise, and he generated a clicking sound with a pencil on wooden block when the batter hit the ball. That was really strange.)
I guess I'm more like the old blind lady (appropriate jokes pre-noted, to save you all the time and trouble). Couldn't stand Martin - and for most of his career, was with the Yankees, so........double knock. That's also why I couldn't stand Earl Weaver - minus the Yankees affiliation.
Hyper-competitiveness can lead to success at times, but just comes across as unseemly to me usually. Give me Bjorn Borg, attitude-wise. Even tho I had some modest success in sports, I never developed a "killer instinct" (nor wanted to). True story: I once lost a match in a tennis tournament, with a lot of folks watching, after leading 6-0, 5-0. By far the most ignominious loss I ever endured - and it taught me 'that' about myself. 🧐 And yes -- it does indeed show in my freecell playing.
You are/were not alone in your despise of Martin. His longest stint with any club was less than 3 seasons, always ending with getting fired.
Astonishing factoid.........and recent enough, methinks.....
What are the last two examples, in FBS football, of a 21-pt. underdog winning said game by 21+?
NM St. --- in both cases --- and over the same coach. 😯😳
In 2022, beat Liberty, in VA, coached by Hugh Freeze, 49-14. Liberty was favored 21.5.
In 2023, beat Auburn, at Auburn, coached by Hugh Freeze, 31-10. Auburn was favored by 25.5.
I won't post those in-game "win probability" graphs here, but yes.........they're as dramatic as the above data would indicate.
mrbuck's James Madison thrashed the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill 70-50. And yes, that's still football, not hoops. And JMU rang up 53 of those points in the first half 😳. UNC was favored by 11.5.........but the biggest shocker is that the over/under was 48.5. Oh........and UNC paid JMU $700,000 for the football lesson. Oh......and JMU has a new coach because their last (very successful one) moved over/up to Indiana. Taking 55 players with him.
Sidelights:
The teams combined for over 400 total yards - in the first 14 minutes. 😮
Apparently UNC had the nation's #1 hoopster attending, hoping to sign him to a scholarship/NIL deal.
Has there ever been a college football game where the over/under was exceeded by 71 points?? 😲 I strongly doubt it. [disclaimer: altho those are gambling odds I quote, I do not bet on sports - or anything for that matter.]
Maybe parimutuel betting could drive odds that foolishly off?
(I note Bears' odds oft seeming askew--ostensibly due CHI homers shoveling non-coveted cash to cheer their favorite to victory (albeit loss)).
Well, homerism certainly affects just raw win/lose odds - and the bookies and "smart money" take into account. But can't see how that would affect the over/under action. (Excepting for the "Da Bearz" skits on SNL, of course, where 83-3-type projections would have some affect.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B9NO24hbe8Q
The White Sox were 0-94 when trailing after 4 innings. That changed last night against the Angels as the Angels, dead last in the AL West, lost their 94th game of the season.
South Siders will need to wait another day for 121.
Hard for millionaires to get pumped for that, so you gotta put the kids in who're making the league-minimum pittance $500K/year (comes to around a buck a minute--all hour, all day, all year (provided 26-man (28, for Sept.) roster status is kept))...
That's an amazing stat for the ChiSox. I've posted crazy similar stats before (at least one being the Yankees' record when leading going into the 9th - specifically when Mariano Rivera was pitching, as I recall?), but that one's quite remarkable. That's essentially like losing 94 straight 5-inning games. Takes a dedicated effort to pull that off.
Pale Hose won again. They need to win them all to avoid sole ownership of the single season record for futility. One more game against the pathetic Angels, and then it's on to Detroit. Detroit will likely need at least one win to secure a wild card spot...
I'm seeing considerable conflation about this, even as little attention as I pay...........but the real 'winner' of what the ChiSox are chasing is lowest winning percentage. With playing 8 more games now than God (and I guess Kennesaw Mountain Landis) intended, sheer number of losses doesn't get it. Last I saw, a few days ago, the Philadelphia A's were still "winning". And I can't believe others are apparently seeing it differently. 🤔🤔😮
Yes.......most number of games lost in a season is certainly a noteworthy achievement - but lowest winning percentage is what really matters.
Agreed, and the White Sox cannot catch them. If the Sox lose out, they will have won 0.2346 of their games. Philly won 0.2353 of theirs back in 1916.
ON EDIT: ^^^^ wrong!!! ^^^^^ (see below)
Well then that settles that. 👨⚖️
[Edit -- but according to your figures, the Sox winning percentage *would* be lower.]
Good lord. 😡 (My brain has the ability to interchange letters and numbers when read without sharp focus). I am letting that post stand with an added note. Here's the correction:
"Agreed, and the White Sox might just catch them. If the Sox lose out, they will have won 0.2346 of their games. Philly won 0.2353 of theirs back in 1916."
Detroit didn’t let this hang around. The Tigers needed one win to clinch and had no mercy in the reeling Sox yesterday.
Sox won today and may win tomorrow.
Filip Gustavsson, goalie for the Minnesota Wild, scored a goal last night late in the game. The famed Goalie Goal.
There have been a few lately, so I was under the impression that they were about as common as no-hitters in MLB, but not so. There have been a total of 18 goalie goals in the history of the game, making the Goalie Goal rarer than the perfect game in MLB (23).
The NBAs quadruple double (4) is quite rare.
Kennesaw State was winless this year, their first as an FBS school. However, they won tonight against 5-0 Liberty.
KSU is now 1-6.
Wow. That's a *huge* upset - perhaps more on the surface than fundamentally. But still....
New women's marathon record - of a different sort, knocking off one of roo's countrywomen:
https://apnews.com/article/belgium-marathon-woman-record-endurance-95838c15e8292a3f6ed28c99696c319f
Altho that's an utterly amazing accomplishment...........is running a marathon distance the same as "running a marathon"? Personally.......I think not. Obviously it's a question of semantics, and will be interesting to see how Guinness labels the feat.
Of late, the statistics associated with the NBA often are meaningless tripe, such as the most triple doubles before age 25 or the first person to score 250 points with seven different teams.
This one is different: on Thursday, Nikola Jokic amassed a scoring line of 35 points, 22 rebounds, and 17 assists. Only one other player in the history of the sport has accomplished 35+ point, 20+ rebounds, and 15+ assists, and that was 57 years ago.
Oscar Robertson did it (I didn't look it up)?
Last night, Kansas lost to BYU 91-57.
Worst loss in program history vs. an unranked opponent. First time Kansas has lost to an unranked opponent by 30+ points since the initiation of the AP poll in 1948. They *were* the only current D1 team that had never lost to an unranked opponent by 30+ points since the initiation of said poll. (That a pretty remarkable stat.)
Kansas was the preseason #1 team in the country, having paid big-time NIL money to gather the parts. Apparently mucho internal dissension. Be careful what you wish for?
Find the video of Jokic making a blind assist through two defenders and onto the fingers of his teammate. Jaw dropping.
'bama just broke the record for made 3-points shots in an NCAA tournament game. Record was 21, by the historic Loyola Marymount team in '91(?). Now 23 with 6 minutes left 😳.
Edit/update: they ended with an absurd 25. 25/51 from deep. Got abused in the paint, but shooting like that, they still won by 25.
And here's Jokic's way cool assist:
https://talksport.com/basketball/3057322/nba-nikola-jokic-assist-nuggets-bucks-record/
Thanks, TN. ESPN had on their site, but linking to videos on ESPN is a task I haven't mastered.
And Jokic buried a 3/4, lightly contested court buzzer beater at the end of the half yesterday.
Here's the link (a bit easier to do on a computer than on a phone): Jokic 3/4 court buzzer beater
Amongst the set of "all freecell players + Jokic", Jokic is the one "not like all the others". Same could be said for the set of "all the world's population".