tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59744878807469950762024-03-06T00:32:50.802-05:00Seth Curry Saves Duke!TOBACCO ROAD BLUES IS COMING AUGUST 8TH!SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.comBlogger700125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-14944146251849367912011-08-08T09:36:00.003-04:002011-08-08T09:40:00.877-04:00We're moving on!Ladies and Gents, this is officially the end for Seth Curry Saves Duke!
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<br />I'm purposefully not making a big deal out of this post for two reasons. First, I don't want to weep all over your internet.
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<br />Second, I don't see this as an ending. Seth Curry Saves Duke! is just growing into its next phase of life, and that phase is:
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<br /><center><font size="6"><strong><a href="http://tobaccoroadblues.com/">TOBACCO ROAD BLUES</a></font></strong></center>
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<br />I will see you over there, my friends! In fact, I expect to see you there. This shit don't die. Thanks for everything.
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<br /><center><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/L-8YWps5QuQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-598870687984087472011-08-01T09:50:00.002-04:002011-08-01T09:52:37.713-04:00Three Discussion Topics<strong>1</strong> - New recap piece up on Grantland. The feature is now called "<a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/935/about-last-weekend-10-jokes-you-can-repeat-in-low-company">About Last Weekend</a>," and I'm pretty happy with today's post.<br /><br /><strong>2</strong> - Tobacco Road Blues launches in ONE WEEK!<br /><br /><strong>3</strong> - I'm now engaged. For REAL, y'all. Downtown Shane Ryan has become a legit human being. (You guys call me "Downtown Shane Ryan," right?) Anyway, I hope this will be just the first of many happy engagements for me.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-58849814560017598782011-07-28T23:31:00.009-04:002011-07-28T23:40:46.144-04:0029 Batters: A Visual Representation of Ervin Santana's No-Hitter<em>With gratitude to <a href="http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2010/10/21/1765161/some-thoughts-on-game-4-of-the-nlcs#storyjump">Jeff Sullivan</a> for pioneering the form. Follow along <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=310727105">here</a>.<br /></em><br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />I believe in myself! With love and a little elbow grease, anything is possible!<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">First Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29008.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />There goes your perfect game, amigo.<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6522.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />My bad, brah. Kinda fell asleep for a second. Looong night.<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30043.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Gee whiz, talk about an unproductive out! Sorry, fellas!<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28671.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Advance the runner, am I right? Fuggedaboutit.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29008.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />There goes your shutout, amigo.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28671.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />When you're right, you're right.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />I still believe in myself! Life is an ongoing treasure!<br /><code></code><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/4752.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />OH FUDDY DUD, A STRIKEOUT.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Second Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Seriously, make a Santana joke. Just try it. I dare you.<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30523.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Life ain't nothin' but heartache and strife. Might just as well ground out.<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29402.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />WASSSUP DUDES! I just watched that third strike like it was a 3-foot wave! This guy's good!<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Third Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/31007.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh. Yer awful pretty. Aw durnit a grounder.<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/5012.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Now if I just calculate the velocity and approach angle, this should be child's play OH BLAST A STRIKEOUT.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29008.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />You got me this time, amigo, <em>but we will see each other soon</em>.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Fourth Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30043.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Golly, you hate to start an inning with a simple grounder. Yeesh and phooey!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28671.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Eh, what are you gonna do? Everyone strikes out. <em>C'monnn</em>.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/4752.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />PARDON MY FRENCH, BUT I AM PLAYING CRAPTASTIC BALL.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Fifth Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />I can just tell you want to say something about the guitarist who shares my name. <em>I can just tell.</em><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30523.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />That's just one out closer to death, is all. Don't suppose the world could get much sadder.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29402.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />WHOA, brosephs! Another out! That dude on the mound is straight jammin!<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Sixth Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/31007.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh. You want I should take yer photo? Aw tarnation I grounded it again.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/5012.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />This is nothing more than simple physics. I swing now, and OH MERCURY'S MOTHER, A GROUNDER.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29008.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Dios mio, brother, you have fooled me. But soon, you will dance with <em>el diablo</em>.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Seventh Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30043.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Shucks, if I wasn't raised to know better, I'd have a mind to wander off and curse right about now!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28671.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />What do I care, I got three car dealerships in Jersey doing 10 mill in a bad month. Out the wazoo, BABY!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/4752.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />I AM PLAYING LIKE A PIECE OF TURD! THEY SHOULD TRADE ME FOR A BRICK!<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Eighth Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />How the hell can I focus when everyone wants to make a mockery of my name! I'm NOT paranoid!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30523.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Sure, I reckon I'll walk to first. But a casket is every man's true destination, and his ticket shall be redeemed.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29402.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />This is <em>gnarley.</em> I know I should be upset, but man, you gotta respect a dude who straight <em>rocks it out</em>.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/31007.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh. I'd sure like to go a-courtin' with you. Aw hellfire, I plain swung at air.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Ninth Inning</span></strong></span><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Three outs until history! How could any man not love this bountiful earth!<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28646.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />YEEEE-HAW! I'M WILD TRAVIS BUCK, AND I'M HERE TO PINCH HIT!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Never lose that spirit, Travis! Now sit down.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/28646.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />CAN I BORROW FIFTY DOLLARS?! I CAN PAY YOU BACK TOMORROW!<br /><br /><img class="alignnone" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/official_info/umpires/y2011/barrett_ted.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="110" /> Go on back to the dugout, son. I'm Tim Barrett, home plate umpire. Hello.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/29008.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Oye, amigo! You may have got me out this game, but this isn't over! <em>We will dance again!</em><br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Oh my, one more batter. I will be sorry to see an end to another wonderful day.<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30043.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Oh, bushel corn! I've muffed it again! Mike Brantley, you are a preacher's cuss!<br /><br /><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6280.png&w=350&h=254" alt="" width="150" height="110" />Christmas came early! I could just about cry!<br /><br /><br /><strong>(PS: Happy 700th post to this blog.)</strong>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-23577816189114683712011-07-26T15:04:00.002-04:002011-07-26T15:06:41.608-04:00Ron Gardenhire's Game Diary, 7/25<em>The Minnesota manager's account of last night's <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=310725113">20-6 loss</a> to Texas.</em><br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Pre-game. 0-0.</strong></span><br /><br />Sweet Jesus, it's hot. But that's Arlington. What did I expect? It's got to be 100 degrees out here, and it's 7pm! What the hell temperature is it at noon? Why does any sensible person live here? You gotta be half crazy. But then again, Texans are half crazy. They're always trying to secede, God bless 'em. That, and they drink poison river water that changes the shape of their brains. I saw that on a science show one night in an El Paso motel.<br /><br />I hope Morneau didn't forget the miniature hand-held fan. I told him if he's going to be sitting around on the DL, he might as well make himself useful. And having him hold a fan aimed at my head for nine innings is useful. It's also degrading, which I like. It'll motivate him to heal faster.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 1st inning, 3-0 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />What a miserable. I'm ready to put my boot up Nick Blackburn's ass. Three runs? I wish I'd left this guy where I found him, outside an Oklahoma Denny's throwing old pancakes into a bucket. That should have been a warning sign. Plus, he only made about half the pancakes. What was I thinking? What were any of us thinking?<br /><br />Then again, those were the early 2000s. In those days, we'd do just about anything to get our kicks.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 2nd inning, 6-0 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />Well, this game's over. I'd get ejected if I had the energy to leave the dugout. It'd be easy. Mike Winters is behind the plate. All you have to do is remind him that his wife lost most of their life savings in an insurance scam, and bam! You're gone. I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I'm not getting up. Same reason Blackburn's still in the game. The hell if I'm going out in the sun. I don't care how much Rick Anderson stares at me. Everyone's replaceable, Anderson, you pompous devil! Even a pitching coach!<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 3rd inning, 11-1 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />I had to take Blackburn out. On the walk to the mound, it was so hot I hallucinated that Tom Seaver was out there. I tried to tackle him, but I ended up stumbling on the mound and falling. I hate Seaver so much. He was always so uppity. Uppity Tom, with his handsome eyes and his cackling laugh. I still have a tape of him laughing. I listen to it every morning if I need to feel angry.<br /><br />Speaking of laughing, you could hear the idiots in the stands yukking it up when I fell over. I was so embarrassed when I got back to the dugout that I slapped Morneau right on the head. But in good news, we're on the board. Good job, Cuddyer. Good job grounding into a double play so a run scored. That's like cutting off an arm to lose weight.<br /><br />I knew a guy who did that, actually. We called him Tipper, because he was always tipping to one side. Good man, great gambler.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 4th inning, 14-1 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />I'm thinking of buying stock in these new Squish Teddies. A friend of mine from Hoboken told me about them. It's a new business, he think they're going to be bigger than Beanie Babies. A lot of people made money on those Beanie Babies, they tell me. My wife had one that looked like David Crosby until I accidentally burned it in the grill. They were the big thing. Now it's Squish Teddies. He wants $50,000. I think I'm going to pull the trigger.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 5th inning, 18-1 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br /><strong></strong>Morneau is really getting on my nerves. He's starting to cry. Someone named Chuck James was pitching for us this inning. I can honestly say I have no idea who that is. I have never heard of Chuck James in my life. He's terrible, though. He's worthy of this pitching staff. I told Morneau to go piss in his locker to make an important point- giving up 4 runs isn't the Twins way. That's when Morneau started crying. But he did what he was told.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 6th inning, 18-1 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />If I have to make another pitching change, I will literally walk out to the mound naked. It's something I've always wanted to do anyway. I've done it a thousand times in my dreams, and the people always love it. I just asked Morneau what he thought of the idea, but good luck getting a reaction out of that guy. He's one of the seven most boring people I know, and the other six all come from Canada.<br /><br />So help me God, we're holding them to under 20. I'll bet my job on it.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 7th inning, 20-2 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />You win some, you lose some. Like my friend Tipper. He won a weight loss contest, but he lost an arm. And he's still one of the happiest men I know. Happier than me, that's for damned sure. Phil Dumatrait is pitching now. How do you think you pronounce that last name? I've never had a conversation with him, so I couldn't tell you. He reminds me of an old photo of James Garfield from my 7th grade history book. God, how I hated Garfield. I cheered like a mad fool when I found out he was assassinated. It's still one of the ten best days of my life.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of 8th inning, 20-5 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />We're turning this one around! Jason Kubel just hit a home run. There's a man I can respect. He's got a beard like you used to see on movie stars, before Hollywood became a giant sissy factory. Jason Kubel could out-act any man in this country. I'd bet my life on it.<br /><br /><strong><u>End of game, 20-6 Texas.</u></strong><br /><br />Three hours ago, I was dreading this game, but I have to say, I had a really good time. Morneau and I shared a lot of laughs, and Joe Mauer went 0-5. He's always rubbed me the wrong way. Somehow, this has been a pretty good night. It's just another one of the wonderful mysteries of this game we call baseball.<br /><br />I hope the post-game spread is good. I could eat the head right off a horse.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-73855574167625462832011-07-25T08:05:00.009-04:002011-07-25T10:50:32.262-04:00Introducing: Tobacco Road BluesMoody B's, Powders, and everyone in between:<br /><br />A launch is coming.<br /><br />Some of you may have heard rumblings about a supposed new site, SethCurrySavesDuke.com. My plan was to launch it way back in...March? April? I can't remember. One way or another, it didn't happen. Call it distraction, laziness, or the fact that whenever I tried to work on it, my attention was drawn to a quart of ice cream sitting in some cooler only a mile or two away (in other words, distraction plus laziness). <br /><br />Anyway, that site is DEAD. Sorry. But I'll tell you what's alive:<br /><br /><br /><strong><font size="6"><center><u>TOBACCO ROAD BLUES</center></u></strong></font><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.prohiphop.com/images/graf/commonmarkettobaccoroad.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.prohiphop.com/images/graf/commonmarkettobaccoroad.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />From the creators of Seth Curry Saves Duke!, as they say, comes a new site devoted to Duke and UNC athletics. Here's how TRB will differ from SCSD:<br /><br /><strong>1 - Focus.</strong> As much as I'd like to write about the Yankees all summer, the blog world isn't aligned that way. We're narrowing the field of vision to two schools, and those two schools will be covered like we're Nolan Smith and they're Kendall Marshall, circa 3/13/11. (As you see, a slight Duke bias will remain.)<br /><br /><strong>2 - Voices.</strong> I'll be blogging for Grantland full time (check out this week's piece <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/740/the-weekend-that-was-seattles-woes-the-nfl-lockout-and-chipwiches">here</a>), and while the majority of posts on TRB will still be mine, I welcome any and all folks* who'd like to lighten my load and write about any subject within the Tobacco Road sphere. I can pay you in gratitude and esteem, and I'll send you an autographed photo of me pretending to kiss a Coach K poster.<br /><br />*Slight misspeak. There will be standards. But seriously, be in touch. Also, if your name is Laurie, I have this great idea for a feature called "Tuesdays with Laurie." All Lauries will have a huge leg up in the application process. Ditto for anyone named Corey or Tori.<br /><br /><strong>3 - Content.</strong> Basketball will always be the jewel in the crown of TRB, but we'll be branching out heavily into football as well. Come the spring, we might delve into baseball and tennis and sports of that ilk. I have no idea what will happen in the late spring and early summer. I shudder to think that we might have to cover recruiting. Surely there's a way around that.<br /><br /><strong>4 - Appearance.</strong> Unlike SCSD, which is the blog equivalent of a mistreated, waterlogged notebook, I'm going to try to make TRB look nice. And by that, I mean I'm soliciting help from folks who know how to do that kind of thing. I'm already working with a couple people, but if you feel you have something to offer in that regard, please be in touch.<br /><br /><strong>5 - Car Chases.</strong> I've really dropped the ball on this one over the past two years, but believe me, that's changing. Every Wednesday, TRB will feature one of the internet's top car chases. Guaranteed to end in a crash.<br /><br />Tobacco Road Blues will launch on Monday, August 7th. For a week, I'll be re-posting SCSD posts to ease the transition. Sort of a 'Greatest Hits' type of thing. The national championship post will go up, the Psycho T post will go up, the sportswriting post will go up. Anything that made people glad or mad to extremes. Then, starting August 14th, <a href="http://today.duke.edu/2011/02/bballtour.html">Duke is going to China!</a> We'll be covering that trip in-depth, and I really, really hope the games are on television. If anybody knows something about that, dish.<br /><br />Following that, it's football and soccer season, emphasis on football. I will personally be making Duke football my pet project this fall, in part because I love Coach Cutcliffe, and in part because they're at a really interesting crossroads. If we're ever supposed to take this rebuilding process seriously, it has to start this season. I've looked at <a href="http://www.goduke.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&SPID=1843&SPSID=22666">the schedule</a>, and I'd say there's a fair outside shot at 6 wins and a bowl berth.<br /><br />So, that's the big news. Let me know what you think of the name. Follow me on twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/tobaccordblues">@TobaccoRdBlues</a>. And stay tuned to this blog in the meantime for news and updates. This is going to be good.<br /><br />(Also: Happy Birthday, Nolan!)SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-56361313028356439202011-07-19T16:25:00.001-04:002011-07-19T16:25:28.739-04:00Living Up To Expectations<em>Why Detroit is primed for a fade and Milwaukee won't make the playoffs</em><br /><br />Imagine a hypothetical 3-game series between two baseball teams. Team A wins the first game in a rout, 13-0. Team B recovers to win each of the next two games 1-0.<br /><br />At that point, Team B obviously has the better record at 2-1. Their run differential, however, is -11; they've scored two, and allowed 13. Team A is behind in the standings, but boasts a run differential of +11.<br /><br />The sample size is too small to draw any reasonable conclusions, but it's safe to say that in this short series, Team B has maximized their run scoring. If they maintained this exact pattern over a 162-game season, they would score 108 runs and allow 702, for a run differential of 594, but their record would be an excellent 108-54.<br /><br />That's an extreme example that could never happen in major league baseball, but we see the phenomenon on a smaller scale every year. This season, the Detroit Tigers have been among the best in baseball at distributing their runs. With 419 runs scored and 437 runs allowed (-18 differential), you'd expect them to have won roughly 46.5 of their 95 games.* Instead, they've won 50. For the purposes of this post, we'll say Detroit's Wins Above Expectation (WAE) is +3.5.<br /><br />*I'm using a simple formula that shows expected wins in proportion total runs scored and total runs allowed. The formula is (Runs scored x games played)/(Runs scored + Runs allowed).<br /><br />On the other side of the table, the Toronto Blue Jays are two games below .500 at 47-49. Their run differential, though, is a respectable +17. Based on their runs scored, they should have won 48.9 games. Toronto's WAE is -1.9.<br /><br />What conclusions can we draw from these numbers? The most obvious is that Detroit is winning close games, while Toronto is losing them. The stats prove the point- Detroit is 32-19 in games decided by three runs or less, but only 18-26 when games are decided by three runs or more. Toronto, on the other hand, generally wins the blowouts but loses the tight ones. They're 30-35 in three-runs-or-less affairs, and 17-14 when it gets lopsided.<br /><br />More broadly, we can make some educated guesses. The two factors which logically seem most important in winning close games are opportunistic hitting, and a strong bullpen. We know Toronto is a power hitting team, so it makes sense that they beat up on bad pitchers and win some games by a lot of runs. Their pitching, on the other hand, is 50 runs worse than the best teams in the AL East, so they're vulnerable in games that are close near the end, especially in the division (though the Toronto bullpen is average- 8th in the American League in ERA).<br /><br />With Detroit, conclusions are more difficult to draw. Their bullpen is the second-worst in the AL by ERA, and they actually score more runs than anyone in the AL Central. They also have the best power numbers in the Central, which means their profile is more fitting of a team like Toronto. So why, with a bad bullpen, are they winning 63% of their close games? There are two possible explanations.<br /><br />1 - They're getting lucky.<br />2 - There's something inherent about the Tigers- call it clutch play, or opportunism, or whatever- that allows them to thrive in pressure situations, and which conversely makes them perform poorly when the pressure's off.<br /><br />If you believe they're getting lucky, Wins Above Expectation can work as a predicting mechanism. If everything gravitates toward a statistical norm, Detroit is due for a correction- they should start losing games at a faster clip, and possibly end the season below .500 and out of playoff contention. Toronto, meanwhile, should start winning, though the pace won't be enough to catch their AL East brethren.<br /><br />But using WAE to predict future outcomes is an exercise fraught with peril. While no team since the 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks has made the playoffs with a negative run differential, as Detroit is threatening this year, almost every playoff team finishes with a positive WAE. This makes sense, since in theory WAE should depend on opportunistic hitting and a strong bullpen, two critical components of a successful team. Here are the WAE totals for last year's playoff teams:<br /><br />Tampa Bay: +6.5<br />New York: +5.3<br />Minnesota: +6.9<br />Texas: +5.3<br />Philadelphia: +8.4<br />Atlanta: +3.5<br />Cincinnati: +3.2<br />San Francisco: +3.8<br /><br />You have to go back to the 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers to find a playoff team with a negative WAE- the Dodgers registered a -0.1 in a down year for the division. That same year, in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Angels posted a +15.3 WAE, the highest total for any team in the past four seasons.<br /><br />Let's take a look at this year's WAE numbers by team, from best to worst. Bold italics denote a team currently in playoff position, and all numbers are rounded to the nearest tenth. Run differentials are in parentheses.<br /><br /><strong><em>1. PHI: +6.2 (+88)<br />2. SFG: +6.2 (+12)<br />3. BOS: +4.5 (+113)<br />4. ATL: +4.4 (+61)<br />5. DET: +3.5 (-18)<br />6. TEX: +3.3</em> (+68)</strong><br />7. ARZ: +2.9 (+11)<br /><strong>8. NYY: +2.7 (+114)</strong><br /><strong> 9. CLE: +2.3 (+6)</strong><br />10. LAA: +1.9 (+16)<br />11. PIT: +1.7 (+12)<br />12. TBR: +1.3 (+35)<br />13. STL: +1.1 (+26)<br />14. MIN: +0.8 (-65)<br />15. WAS: -0.1 (-10)<br />16. FLA: -0.3 (-30)<br />17. NYM: -0.6 (+12)<br />18. CWS: -1.1 (-7)<br />19. TOR: -1.9 (+17)<br />20. SEA: -2.0 (-33)<br />21. CIN: -2.1 (+29)<br />22. COL: -2.4 (-1)<br />23. BAL: -2.7 (-98)<br />24. LAD: -3.2 (-35)<br /><strong>25. MIL: -3.7</strong> (-12)<br />26. SDP: -4.5 (-36)<br />27. CHC: -4.6 (-98)<br />28. OAK: -4.9 (-15)<br />29. KCR: -6.7 (-52)<br />30. HOU: -10.3 (-110)<br /><br />As expected, WAE correlates pretty closely with actual winning- excelling in close games generally means you'll have a good record. The anomalies are where things get interesting. Detroit's success in spite of a bad bullpen and a negative run differential has already been mentioned. But the real strange bird here is Milwaukee. We already knew the Brewers were an <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6746478/undervalued-sluggers">odd team</a>, but now they're threatening to make a playoff run with a negative WAE. That would be a rare feat, last accomplished by the narrowest of margins in 2008. The Brewers, though, are doing it in style, with a drastic -3.7 WAE.<br /><br />Despite the difficulty in using these numbers to predict how the season will end, I'll go out on a limb and draw two conclusions:<br /><br /><strong>1</strong> - With a power lineup and a weak bullpen (third worst in the NL), it's no surprise the Brewers lose a lot of close games. That trend should continue as the season plays out. What <em>is</em> surprising is that they're atop the NL Central. With just under 70 games remaining, it's doubtful they can sustain their position. If you're looking for a dark horse candidate in that division, check out the Cincinnati Reds. They score the most runs in the NL, and their bullpen is 6th-best in the league. Sure, their starters are pretty bad, but their second half schedule is great- outside of the division, they only play 10 games against teams with a record above .500, and 26 against teams at .500 or worse. Their -2.1 WAE seems like a fluke of bad luck, while Milwaukee figures to continue losing the close ones.<br /><br /><strong>2</strong> - Detroit, with their second-worst bullpen ERA, can't possible continue to win 63% of three-runs-or-less games. In their division, Cleveland's offense scores almost as many runs, and their pitchers are better across the board (with a bullpen 3rd best in the AL). The Indians' +2.3 WAE seems a lot more realistic than Detroit's +3.5, and they're a good bet to outpace their rivals in the final two months.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-4270863032461625772011-07-18T11:39:00.002-04:002011-07-18T11:44:13.522-04:00Two TakesHere's <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/693/the-weekend-that-was-womens-world-cup-the-british-open-and-verb-tenses">one take</a> on the weekend recap, Grantland style, and here's another that only partly makes sense:<br /><br />Today, we'll be looking back at the weekend in sports through the lens of important moments from the Women's World Cup final. Does that even make sense? Let's find out!<br /><br /><strong>1. Abby Wambach's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVcvxZ_VYg">post-rattling shot</a> in the 28th minute.</strong><br /><br />This one goes to the <a href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report/_/id/325480?cc=5901">World Cup final itself</a>. The shot was a microcosm of the entire match for the U.S. women; full of excellent chances that, through bad luck or error, went begging. Japan came back from the dead twice, scoring late goals in regulation and extra time to force the match to penalties, where they won the Cup 3-1. The Americans controlled play throughout the match, but couldn't reap the fruit of their attacks, at least enough to hold off the unflagging Japanese.<br /><br />The prevailing post-match narrative was <a href="http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6778775/japan-finds-reason-celebrate-women-world-cup-win">Japan's triumph</a> in the wake of the tragic earthquake that devastated the country in March, but the humanitarian angle won't curb the regrets of U.S. fans who reasonably expected a win.<br /><br /><strong>2. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSGYCvIBtE">Wambach's header</a> in the 104th minute to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead.</strong><br /><br />It was the perfect ending, until it wasn't, and this moment goes to Darren Clarke, who did sustain his storybook finish to <a href="http://espn.go.com/golf/britishopen11/story/_/id/6777369/darren-clarke-claims-first-major-title">win the British Open</a>. It was the first major victory for the easygoing Clarke, 42, and the jewel in the crown of a strong career. He also became the third Northern Irish golfer to win a major in the last two years. As you might have heard in the sporting ether, Northern Ireland is a nation of 1.8 million, and they've <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/22710/clarke-and-his-little-country-that-could">split the last six majors</a> with the rest of the world (population: 6.9 billion).<br /><br />Then again, the rest of the world managed to get their independence from Great Britain somewhere along the way. <em>Am I right, Earth??</em> (If that comment plays any role in re-igniting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_troubles">The Troubles</a>, I apologize in advance.)<br /><br /><strong>3. Alex Morgan's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLOW-8ufkNg">breakthrough goal</a> in the 69th minute to end the 0-0 gridlock.</strong><br /><br />To the Texas Rangers, who are in the midst of their own breakthrough in the AL West. They <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310717112&teams=texas-rangers-vs-seattle-mariners">won their 11th straight game</a> on Sunday, sweeping the Mariners and opening up a 4-game lead in the division. Texas always looked like the superior team in the west (the run differentials alone bear this out), but a sluggish start kept them in range of the Angels. Now, the cream is rising, and it would be a shock if Los Angeles- or anyone else, for that matter- could keep pace as the summer unfolds.<br /><br />Speaking of the Rangers, did anyone else read the review of <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6761350/bringing-all-back-home">Kornheiser's great Nolan Ryan profile</a> and feel really bad that Ryan played in an era before people realized the flaws of measuring a pitcher by wins and losses? We should all congratulate ourselves on living in a world where Felix Hernandez can win a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/baseball/19cyyoung.html">well-deserved Cy Young</a> with a 13-12 record. If the old mindset persisted, David Price (19 wins) or CC Sabathia (21 wins) would have won in a walk.<br /><br /><strong>4. Aya Miyama's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9wRSOKIqks">game-tying goal</a> in the 80th minute.</strong><br /><br />The stunning equalizer gave U.S. fans the sinking feeling that the deferred celebration had transformed back into a war of attrition, but it was hardly less stunning than the fact that the Pittsburgh Pirates are <a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/howard-110714/the-pittsburgh-pirates-buyers-mlb-trading-deadline-first-time-generation">sniffing around first place</a> in the NL Central. They beat the <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310717118&teams=pittsburgh-pirates-vs-houston-astros">Astros in 11 innings</a> Sunday to stay level with the Cardinals and a half-game back of the <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6746478/undervalued-sluggers">power-happy Brewers</a>. The Reds are within striking distance too, and all four teams have benefited from the ineptitude of the Astros and Cubs, who are currently the two worst teams in baseball.<br /><br />The winner of this horse race is anyone's guess. The Pirates have pitched the best, the Reds have hit the best, and the Brewers, with their -12 run differential, have either been very fortunate or excel at winning close games, depending on your worldview.<br /><br /><strong>5. Homare Sawa's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkkBBrSjXc">gut-punch goal</a> - 117th minute.</strong><br /><br />If you're a pessimist, and an American, Sawa's goal probably gave you the sinking realization that fate or luck or karma or whatever was on the side of the enemy Sunday. For lack of a better candidate, we'll give this to the NBA and NFL lockouts. Good news seems to be on the horizon for the NFL, but a <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/6776103/nfl-lockout-mediation-tap-league-meeting-looms">litany of issues remain unresolved</a> as the preseason approaches with the looming threat of canceled games. In defiance of their own lockout, the NBA <a href="http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6778834/despite-lockout-nba-league-office-release-schedule-tuesday">released next year's schedule</a> while Deron Williams <a href="http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/6774378/deron-williams-new-jersey-nets-signs-deal-play-turkey">signed a contract to play in Turkey</a> and Dwight Howard <a href="http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6778950/dwight-howard-strongly-considering-playing-overseas">considered a similar path</a>. Resolutions to both conflicts may be imminent, but in the meantime fans will have to suffer the byzantine twists and turns of the player-versus-management drama.<br /><br /><strong>6. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZx7hm4lhg#t=2m45s">U.S. collapse in penalty kicks</a></strong><br /><br />First, Shannon Boxx pushed a tentative kick to the right that was easily saved by Kaihori. Then the much-maligned Carli Lloyd sailed her attempt over the crossbar, and when Tobin Heath's weak shot to the left was kick-saved, America's hopes were all but snuffed out.<br /><br />This one could go several ways. Phil Mickelson certainly qualifies; after a scorching start brought him within one shot of the lead, he shot a back-nine 38 to <a href="http://espn.go.com/golf/britishopen11/story/_/id/6775113/phil-mickelson-furious-british-open-rally-falls-just-short">fall to a distant second</a>. Or it could go to the woebegone Mariners, who celebrated the <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6776792/seattle-mariners-honor-10th-anniversary-116-win-team">tenth anniversary of their 116-win season</a> with 9 straight losses, and who boast the league's worst offense for the second straight year.<br /><br />Instead, let's give it to Bengals running back Cedric Benson, who managed to get <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/6777620/cincinnati-bengals-cedric-benson-jailed-family-assault-charge">arrested for assault</a> one week before <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/29401/benson-puts-contract-status-at-risk">the start of free agency</a>, jeopardizing his expected contract extension. And if there's one thing we know about NFL football, no player ever comes back from committing a crime to have a successful career.<br /><br /><strong>7. "Epic"</strong><br /><br />The one word which most aptly describes the entire match goes to the weekend's second-best game: Red Sox-Rays, Sunday night. A fantastic <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310717130">pitcher's duel between Josh Beckett and Jeff Niemann</a> (8 scoreless innings apiece) stretched into extra innings, where the Red Sox finally won in 16. With a game that long (almost 6 hours), there's always the risk that fans will leave early. Luckily, this game was in Tampa Bay, so the fans had nothing else to do. Also, none of them showed up in the first place.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-15471096971068370272011-07-12T08:56:00.004-04:002011-07-12T09:32:33.962-04:00Robinson Crush-oeThat was sort of a pun on both Robinson Cano and Robinson Crusoe, which is a seriously high-caliber headline pun. And it's the least I can do after my favorite player just <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar11/news/story?id=6759810">won the best Home Run Derby</a> in world history.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mcenter.slideshowpro.com/albums/027/935/album-245485/cache/gngn5292.sJPG_900_540_0_95_1_50_50.sJPG?1310474255"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 693px; height: 540px;" src="http://mcenter.slideshowpro.com/albums/027/935/album-245485/cache/gngn5292.sJPG_900_540_0_95_1_50_50.sJPG?1310474255" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />That photo shows Cano just after he bashed the winning home to run to beat Adrian Gonzalez in the last round. A second later, he stretched both arms out to the side like a baseball Jesus icon, and was lifted into the air by Russell Martin and David Robertson. I can't find a photo of him by himself with both arms outstretched yet, but if I do, I'm getting it tattooed on my stomach and forehead (that's two separate tattoos, not a weird interrupted one). <a href="http://mcenter.slideshowpro.com/albums/027/935/album-245485/cache/gngn5291.sJPG_900_540_0_95_1_50_50.sJPG?1310474255">Here's one</a> from the aftermath, but they caught it a little too late. Ditto for <a href="http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2011/07/11/photos-from-2011-home-run-derby/#287-4">this one</a> and <a href="http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/U.S./660/371/071111_cano.jpg">this one</a>. If anybody can help me find that photo, I'll do you some favor that you can't even imagine.<br /><br />I can usually take or leave the derby, but last night was special. And as I said on twitter, the best part of the whole thing was that everyone got to see what a great guy Cano is. I mean, after he tied Gonzalez in the last round, he actually walked to the mound, hugged his dad (a former Astro who was pitching to Cano), and said, "I love you, dad." Who else would do that?<br /><br />Okay, I just found this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i56.tinypic.com/2u78ylk.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 206px;" src="http://i56.tinypic.com/2u78ylk.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Without the obnoxious "swag," that would be pretty great.<br /><br />In other news, Sunday's Women's World Cup match against Brazil was phenomenal. I actually watched the whole thing, and I doubt I'll ever see a more unlikely goal in my life.<br /><br /><center><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ydBvRFNeMKc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />Wednesday, they take on France, which is nice because typically the Wednesday of the All-Star Break is the one day of the year where absolutely nothing is happening in the world of sports. Along with the Monday, it's one of only two days where no professional sports are played, and Monday has the derby.<br /><br />Another Grantland <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/556/the-weekend-that-was-springsteen-derek-jeter-and-the-womens-world-cup">weekend recap</a> thing went up yesterday, and I might have a story soon about pro wrestling, of all things. Or I might not. We shall see.<br /><br />82nd All-Star game tonight. Let's go AL! Also, my girlfriend is coming home after a 10-day vacation. Prior to that, I was gone for about 10 days myself on a trip to upstate New York. We got to see each other for like half a day in between, so it's basically been three weeks since we've lived together. And if I've learned one thing in that time, it's that I'm barely capable of maintaining a non-horrifying life by myself. Thank God this little experiment is about to end.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-87064758645813305952011-07-05T10:12:00.004-04:002011-07-05T14:52:12.455-04:00America Made It Another YearHurrah!<br /><br />In my own personal world of fireworks, you can check out the new piece on <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/483/the-weekend-that-was-a-taste-of-wimbledon-all-star-snubs-and-the-halladay">Grantland</a>.<br /><br />Also, if you want an excellent investigative recap of the whole Kyrie/Miss Hawaii twitter saga, along with (forgive me) naked pictures of the culprit, read <a href="http://blacksportsonline.com/home/2011/07/jessica-miss-hawaii-jackson-exposed-arrests-stalking-naked-pics-hooker/">Robert Littal's piece</a> at Black Sports Online. For a refresher, here's my <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/03/weird-horrible-elephant-in-room.html">original post</a> on the subject from March, along with a <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/03/last-update-on-kyrie-twitter-scandal.html">twitter timeline</a> of the whole craziness.<br /><br />Back with more later this week. Also, I'm still trying to figure out how SCSD will function now, but I definitely intend to keep it going. Stay tuned.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-45631417376856032172011-06-28T10:47:00.003-04:002011-06-28T11:02:48.315-04:00Three Things<strong>1.</strong> Marc is the new Pick Six champion! In a wild week that ended with everyone losing points, his intelligent selections propelled him to the top spot. Well done, Marc!<br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br /><br /><blockquote>Final Standings:<br /><br />1. Marc: 7<br /><br />2. Craig & Tim: 5<br />3. John: 3<br />4. Tim B.: 0<br />5. Swetha & Sabreena: -13<br />6. Monty: -21</blockquote><br /><strong>2.</strong> Last week, I had a <a href="http://www.runofplay.com/2011/06/21/soccer-america-and-the-emblematic-woman/">soccer essay</a> go up on Run of Play. The site is run by Brian Phillips, an unbelievable writer whose <a href="http://www.grantland.com/search/_/query/brian-phillips">recent Wimbledon pieces</a> are must-reads. A similar version ran in this blog previously, but I took it out once I knew it was going on RoP.<br /><br /><strong>3.</strong> My second recap-style piece on Grantland <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/409/the-weekend-that-was-tv-binging-a-lost-cup-and-the-managers-calling">went up yesterday</a>. Give it a gander.<br /><br />Have a great week!SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-72792049348190087972011-06-25T09:45:00.002-04:002011-06-25T10:07:36.518-04:00THE FRIDAY PICK SIX! Volume Four, WEEK SIX!There's no turning back now!<br /><br /><center><strong><font size="7"><u>THE FRIDAY PICK SIX</u></font><br /><br /><br /><font size="5">VOLUME FOUR, WEEK SIX</font></center></strong><br /><center><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tDZJEV68DaY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:<br /><br /><strong><u>VOLUME FOUR</strong></u><br /><br />Here's how it looks:<br /><br /><em>The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust):</em> Swetha & Sabreena<br /><em>Purgatory Part 1:</em> Marc, Monty<br /><em>Newcomers:</em> Craig & Tim, Tim B., John<br /><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/pick-six-volume-four-introductions.html">Volume Four Intros</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogger-stole-my-comments.html">Week One</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-two.html">Week Two</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-three.html">Week Three</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-four.html">Week Four</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-five.html">Week Five</a><br /><br /><strong><u>THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS</strong></u><br /><br />1. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/10/pick-six-our-first-champion-is-crowned.html">Tom</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/12/pick-six-champion-is-crowned.html">Mike</a><br />3. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/02/pick-6-champion-is-crowned.html">Patrick and Dylan</a><br /><br /><u><strong>Current Standings</u></strong><br /><br />1. John - 26<br />2. Tim B. - 23<br />3. Marc - 20<br />4. S&S - 19<br />5. C&T - 17<br />6. Monty - 9<br /><br />John came out guns ablaze in Week 5, vaulting to the top of the leaderboard. However, history doesn't favor him; the leader after Week 5 has never won a pick six. In fact, 4th-place seems to be the charmed position, and that's where S&S sit at the moment. It all comes down to week six, and that is as it should be.<br /><br />Time for this week's docket:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. Pick the finalists of the College World Series. By Friday, when picks are due, it'll be down to a final 4. 1 point each.<br /><br />2. Mets - Rangers - weird interleague series. Who wins it?<br /><br />3. Who wins the Gold Cup? US-Mexico.<br /><br />4. Yankees against Rockies, Boston against Pirates...which team scores the most runs of all 4? The least? 1 point each.<br /><br />5. Pick any other baseball series that you think will be a sweep. If it's a sweep, you get a point. No sweep, no points. No need to tell me the winner.<br /><br />6. THE PICK SIX WEEK SIX SPECTACULAR!<br /><br />Monday is the greatest day in tennis, with every round-of-16 match being played on both the men's and women's side of the draw. You may pick as many or as few Wimbledon quarterfinalists (Round of 8) as you wish. This is for men's and women's, so the maximum you can guess is 16.<br /><br />Here's the scoring:<br /><br />For every quarterfinalist you correctly pick, you get 3 points. For each quarterfinalist you incorrectly pick, you lose 5 points.<br /><br />Exceptions: 1 point only for the following players - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray. Sorry, but that's too easy. You can certainly pick against them if you so desire for full points.</blockquote><br />Let's get it started with John the Destroyer. This is for every marble in the bag.<br /><br /><strong><center><u>John</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s1600/john_avatar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s200/john_avatar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603614546172792978" /></a><br />Here it is...moment of truth. I’m up a break and serving for the match. I have many years of knowing that tense feeling that comes with knowing that a tough match will not be handed to you...that you still have to go out there and serve and hit hard and win yourself this damn match! I’ve gotten better at this by learning a this: you play a lot better by realizing that a tennis match really isn’t that important. This of course is a false realization, because every loss stings for days. I don’t lose much, but I’m down 4-6, 0-3 right now in a match rain delayed yesterday for top place in a local ladder...I’ve been stewing for a day about it. I digress...if you can fool yourself a little, you can close the deal...that is my goal. Obviously all the marbles are on #6 this week since the others are small fries...tennis too...bittersweet since I know if I play conservative I can coast into at least a purgatory finish, while if I go all out, I risk it all...time to relax and tell myself(the false notion) that it really isn’t important...I mean I’m about to have a new daughter any hour now and you would think that that would be what I’m worried about, right?...this is just a game, right? Loosen up and pick’em! OK, if I win, I’m dedicating my Indian trophy to my as yet unborn girl...and naming it after her as well! <br /><br />1. How can I pick against the winner’s bracket? I’m rooting for UVA and Vandy, but I have to pick <strong>UF and the Cocks</strong>...I’m pretty much guaranteed at least one of those. <br /><br />2 I’ll go for the <strong>Rangers</strong> in Texas<br /><br />3. I don’t really know much ‘bout dis. I recall some Mexicans getting kicked out for doping so maybe they are weakened…I see the final is in Pasadena so I’m expecting good ol’ USA to get drowned out by the bunch from East LA. I would be mildly ok with being wrong, but I’m going with <strong>El Tricolor</strong> (thanks Wikipedia)<br /><br />4. I’ll go with the Yanks for most since they have the stupid DH this weekend. Least? <strong>Pirates.</strong><br /><br />5. <strong>Philly/Oakland</strong><br /><br />6. THE PICK SIX WEEK SIX SPECTACULAR!<br /><br /><strong>Men: - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Roddick, soderling, berdych</strong><br /><br />This is tough, I can’t even keep all Russians straight, and the women’s game has no order right now. I’m tempted to leave this section blank...seriously...but the women are for all the points...<br /><br /><strong>Women: Sharapova, the Woz(niaki), Ivanovic, Serena, schiavone</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Tim B.</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s1600/Ted.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s200/Ted.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603615387759899202" /></a><br />1. It’s probably smarter to pick the two teams who only need to win once, but I’ll split the vote: <strong>South Carolina and Vanderbilt.</strong> The Commodores deserve my faith after beating UNC twice.<br /><br />2. Are there any non-weird interleague series? Even though Arlington is, as all Mets fans know, where Jose Reyes made his big-league debut, it’s also where teams with power hit a lot of home runs. The Mets do not have power. <strong>Rangers.</strong><br /><br />3. It’s on U.S. land, but last I heard, Freddy Adu was actively involved in a slim win over Panama. Plus, and I don’t know if he still plays for them, but Cuahtemoc Blanco always had one of the best names in soccer. Cuahtemoc Blanco. Like an Aztec emperor. <strong>Mexico.</strong><br /><br />4. While the Red Sox have the best offense of the four, the Pirates have actually pitched pretty well, and Boston will be without Ortiz (unless they hilariously play Gonzalez in RF). The Yankees, meanwhile, will probably be better off without the albatross of Jorge Posada in the lineup, and they don’t face Colorado’s best starter (this year) in Jhoulys Chacin. <strong>New York.</strong><br /><br />5. I hate being bland, but the <strong>Phillies</strong> are so easy to take against the lackluster A’s, who won’t even toss Gio Gonzalez against them. Of course, if Oakland sweeps, I still win, right?<br /><br />6. Has anyone ever considered multi-surface tennis? Not one court that contains all three, but like a match that takes place on all three. You could do a best-of-three-sets with each set occurring on a different surface, or (my preferred idea) a first-to-win-on-all-three-surfaces marathon in which you cycle through surfaces. Only then can we really settle Federer-Nadal. (Federer, I think, would win a best-of-three by taking grass and hardcourt; Nadal would win in the latter idea because it’s so tough to take even a set from him on clay.)<br /><br /><strong>Nadal (what happened to Del Potro?)<br />Berdych<br />Murray<br />Federer<br />Soderling<br />Djokovic<br /><br />Wozniacki<br />Ivanovic (a pick with my heart over my head)<br />Serena<br />Zvonareva</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br />Well shit. The Bobcats once again prove to be the most inept organization in the NBA. Kemba Walker won't amount to shit in the pros and Bismack Biyombo is reincarnated Casey Sanders, but shorter. Hey Michael Jordan, you were supposedly good at basketball at some point in your career. I guess you spend too much time jacking yourself off with Air Jordan's to understand how to create a successful basketball team. Enjoy another year of apathetic fan support. How fast can we get a different NBA franchise in Charlotte?<br /><br /><strong>1. Virginia and Vanderbilt going with the V's!<br />2. Rangers. These teams are singlehandedly responsible for the financial collapse. I wish they'd both collapse into a lava pit.<br />3. Mexico! We suck at soccer.<br />4. Yanks most, Pirates least.<br />5. Phillies and Athletics.<br />6. Nadal, Federer, Murray, Djokivic, Berdych, Soderling and the Williams sisters.</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Swetha & Sabreena</strong></center></u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Alright readers and fans (aka Jill and Carrie), this is our final Pick Six post ever. Ever! So if we don’t emerge victorious, this is goodbye.<br /><br />1. Virginia’s mascot kind of looks like Antonio Banderas with a pirate hat. And Vanderbilt is good. <strong>UVA,VANDY</strong><br /><br />2. Texas forever. <strong>RANGERS</strong><br /><br />3. I wanted to make some sort of “tree falling in the woods with no one around, does it make a sound” joke regarding soccer and whether Americans would care. But I don’t know how to phrase it so it makes sense. <strong>MEXICO.</strong><br /><br />4. Most - <strong>BOSTON.</strong> Least - <strong>PIRATES.</strong><br /><br />5. Well, it doesn’t say we lose any points for picking incorrectly (we are holding you to the original email, Shane). So we are picking them all! <strong>BRAVES/PADRES, REDS/ORIOLES, ATHLETICS/PHILLIES, DIAMONDBACKS/TIGERS, RAYS/ASTROS, TWINS/BREWERS, NATIONALS/WHITE SOX, BLUE JAYS/CARDINALS, CUBS/ROYALS, ANGELS/DODGERS, MARINERS/MARLINS, INDIANS/GIANTS</strong><br /><br />6. The boring ones. <strong>NADAL, MURRAY, FEDERER, DJOKOBITCH, SODERLING.<br />The Americans. RODDICK, S. WILLIAMS, V. WILLIAMS.<br />The ones with names that sound like spies. IVANOVIC, SCHIAVONE, TSONGA, KUZNETSOVA, WOZNIACKI, PETROVA.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Craig & Tim</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s1600/matrix+jaws+image.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s200/matrix+jaws+image.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603632371865673858" /></a><br />1- <strong>Florida and South Carolina.</strong> I have a dream that one day a team from the north of the Mason-Dixon line will compete for a CWS title. Alas, it is not this year.<br /><br />2- <strong>Rangers</strong> over Mets. Mets are hovering near .500, I eagerly await their inevitable collapse in the second half of the season. No way they take two of three from the Rangers in Arlington. Jose Reyes may be in pinstripes come July. And with the Mets' financial situation and attending drama, I wouldn't be surprised if Fred Wilpon loses custody of the Mets to Kevin Federline in the near future.<br /><br />3- Hey! Its another U.S.-Mexico Gold Cup match! The U.S. is coming off a gritty victory over Panama which featured the return of Freddy Adu to the international soccer scene. Apparently this is a good thing, since he was touted as the Next Great Hope in American soccer when he was 13. Even though the game is going to be played at the Rose Bowl, I think <strong>Mexico</strong> takes it. The US can't stop Chicharito even if he isnt flanked by dos Santos and Guardado.<br /><br />4. The Red Sox<br /><br />5. Nationals vs. White Sox. Will the sudden and surprising resignation of Nationals manager Jim Riggleman backhand slap the Nationals into a shock-induced losing streak? Will it result in a spite fueled winning streak? Either one would be fine with us.<br /><br />6. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvzIPnfSaDI">It's time.</a><br /><br /><strong><u>Gentlemen</u><br /><br />Federer<br />Djokovic<br />Murray<br />Nadal<br />Soderling<br />Roddick<br /><br /><u>Ladies</u><br /><br />Caroline Wozniacki<br />Maria Sharapova<br />Serena Williams<br />Petra Kvitova<br />Vera Zvonareva</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Monty</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s1600/Monty.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s400/Monty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551677206455079218" /></a><br />1. The College World Series is all about the letter V, So I'm quite certain that <strong>Vanderbilt and Virginia</strong> will face each other in the finals. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that no one will reach the final, given the wild party nightlife in Omaha.<br /><br />2. No one wins when the Mets play the <strong>Rangers.</strong> But if you mean which team will wind up having scored more points than the other in more games, I'm pretty sure that won't be the Mets.<br /><br />3. It's not possible to win the Gold Cup. Winning is only a description of a way to achieve possession of the cup, and possession of material goods is an illusion, as are the material good themselves. That being said, the <strong>Mexicans</strong> have much more skill at soccer than the Americans.<br /><br />4. The most likely outcome of both baseball series is that the stadiums are infiltrated by Thetans who perform weird group-therapy on everyone. In the off chance that Mr. L. Ron was wrong though, I'd have to pick <strong>Boston</strong> for the most points and the <strong>Rockies</strong> for the least number of points.<br /><br />5. <strong>LA Angels at LA Dodgers.</strong> I have nothing odd or unwitty to say about this.<br /><br />6. <strong>Nadal, Haase, Murray, Lopez, Ferrer, Federer, Soderling, Djkovic, Wozniacki, Sharapova, Lisicki, Williams, Schiavone, Petrova, Wickmayer, Williams</strong><br /><br />Everyone should prepare to feel supremely humbled when I come from this far behind to win everything at the last moment.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-14533427362983175792011-06-20T22:42:00.003-04:002011-06-20T22:48:56.740-04:00New News, Grantland StyleHello my friends. Sorry for the lack of activity lately, but things have been in the offing.<br /><br />First, I'm excited to tell you all that <a href=" http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/257/the-weekend-that-was-golf-blow-outs-chicken-fights-and-funeral-crashing">I wrote a piece for Grantland</a> that was published today. I'll hopefully be doing more with them in the near future, and I'll be sure to keep everything updated here. Grantland, for those that don't know, is a site started by ESPN's Bill Simmons dedicated to sports and culture writing. It's been pretty great so far, give it a look if you're not familiar.<br /><br />Second, and this has been a long time coming: please read <a href="http://theborgbaseballblog.blogspot.com/">The Fabulous Penguin's baseball blog</a>. T Fab P has been a loyal reader for some time, and combined with his son Dylan to win the last Pick Six. I've been meaning to link his blog for like 2 months, and now the deed is done. No longer will I hoard this very enjoyable site. Check him out.<br /><br />The Grantland stuff came as a direct result of this blog, and I can't thank everyone enough for the support you've shown over the past two years and change. Without you guys, I would've quit long ago. Because of the blog's vibrancy, though, especially during basketball season, I can't imagine doing anything else with my weekday mornings. It's always been a pleasure.<br /><br />More later, pals.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-33163476314412957272011-06-17T11:29:00.002-04:002011-06-17T11:53:51.098-04:00THE FRIDAY PICK SIX! Volume Four, Week FiveOnward, brothers!<br /><br /><center><strong><font size="7"><u>THE FRIDAY PICK SIX</u></font><br /><br /><br /><font size="5">VOLUME FOUR, WEEK FIVE</font></center></strong><br /><center><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZbkSBgs_YiE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:<br /><br /><strong><u>VOLUME FOUR</strong></u><br /><br />Here's how it looks:<br /><br /><em>The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust):</em> Swetha & Sabreena<br /><em>Purgatory Part 1:</em> Marc, Monty<br /><em>Newcomers:</em> Craig & Tim, Tim B., John<br /><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/pick-six-volume-four-introductions.html">Volume Four Intros</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogger-stole-my-comments.html">Week One</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-two.html">Week Two</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-three.html">Week Three</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-four.html">Week Four</a><br /><br /><strong><u>THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS</strong></u><br /><br />1. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/10/pick-six-our-first-champion-is-crowned.html">Tom</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/12/pick-six-champion-is-crowned.html">Mike</a><br />3. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/02/pick-6-champion-is-crowned.html">Patrick and Dylan</a><br /><br /><u><strong>Current Standings</u></strong><br /><br />1. Tim B. - 15<br />2. John - 14<br />3. S&S - 13<br />4. C&T - 12<br />4. Marc - 12<br />6. Monty - 9<br /><br />Week Four was an incredible one for pure scoring, as Tim vaulted up the leaderboard with 8 points. The others kept pace, giving us a tightly-packed top as we head into the penultimate week. Monty, who forgot to submit picks, paid the price as he went from first to worst.<br /><br />Time for this week's docket:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. Gold Cup Quarterfinals. This is the national soccer competition held roughly every two years for countries from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Saturday, the US takes on Jamaica. Normally this would be a formality, but the US has looked like shit and Jamaica has looked surprisingly strong. Plus, I'm throwing in a wrinkle. So, yes or no answer, will the US win by 2 goals or more?<br /><br />2. US Open, golf. How many foreign blokes will finish in the top 20 of OUR FUCKING EVENT? 5 points for a direct hit, 3 points for best guess otherwise, 2 for second, 1 for third.<br /><br />3. UNC takes on Vanderbilt in Game 1 of the College World Series. Patrick Johnson will be going for the Heels, and he's given up about 1 run in 30 innings or something insane like that. Jacob Stallings, the UNC catcher, is the son of Vanderbilt basketball coach Kevin Stallings, and has been ridiculously clutch lately. So, which total will be higher: Jacob Stallings' hits, or the EARNED RUNS conceded by Patrick Johnson in his outing?<br /><br />4. The Yankees play in the hallowed grounds of Wrigley Chewing Gum Field for the first time in what must be ages. We're earning our "Bombers" nickname over the past week, so how many home runs will the good guys hit over the ivy?<br /><br />5. It was tough for all of us to watch the thugs from Boston punch their way to a Stanley Cup title, but perhaps the Brewers can extract a measure of revenge in Fenway this weekend. How many runs will the Brew Crew score against the woeful John Lackey Friday?<br /><br />6. There's a weird tennis event going on in England right now which is a run-up to Wimbledon but isn't the famous Queens tournament. Try to pick who'll win.</blockquote><br />We start with Tim B., the man who capture our hearts and imaginations in Week Four:<br /><br /><strong><center><u>Tim B.</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s1600/Ted.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s200/Ted.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603615387759899202" /></a><br />1. Two goals? The US isn't Barca. <strong>No.</strong><br /><br />2. Said it a few weeks ago. Euros are taking over golf, and they've been more competitive at the US Open in recent years (with McDowell breaking through for the win obvs). I'm going with <strong>11 unAmericans.</strong><br /><br />3. I can't trust an athlete named Patrick Johnson, whom I merely see as a conflation of Blue Devil walk-ons Patrick Davidson and Steve Johnson. <strong>Earned runs.</strong><br /><br />4. Wind was blowing out Thursday, which bodes well for the long ball. Doug Davis pitching Friday night bodes better. <strong>Eight.</strong><br /><br />5. Lackey's been aight since coming off the DL, but he did allow 66.7% of the runs the Sox gave up in that Toronto series (and that was considered a good start). Milwaukee touches him for <strong>five.</strong><br /><br />6. <strong>Tipsarevic.</strong> Not because he's the only one I've heard of (I know Stepanek too, although I probably would have guessed he played hockey for the Rangers [that's Radek Dvorak, I guess]), not because he's the only one ranked, not because he almost beat Federer that one time and did beat Roddick that other time, but because his wife <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-DSk2dwUb04/TH9MzSv7FQI/AAAAAAAACeQ/4JOVuMTaAF8/s1600/Biljana-Sesevic-Janko-Tipsarevic-wife-win.jpeg">looks like this</a>. Tennis allegiances can be fickle.<br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>John</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s1600/john_avatar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s200/john_avatar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603614546172792978" /></a><br />1. I think our team is currently falling apart and hasn't hit the bottom yet...still in denial stage. I say, <strong>No, we will not win by 2 or more goals.<br /><br />2. 11<br /><br />3. ER by Johnson. I hope I'm wrong.<br /><br />4. 4<br /><br />5. I'm assumming this is just runs against the starting pitcher (and earned runs since that is what is credited to the pitcher): 4<br /><br />6: Tipsarevic</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Swetha & Sabreena</strong></center></u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I've been on a real "This is SportsCenter" kick recently, so we're going to use this docket as an opportunity to throw out some of the best commercials related to these topics since we don't really have any strong opinions about any of the questions. Also, we're aiming to finish this week in fourth place overall, because that seems to be the formula for winning the pick six. <br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27iQdCffxFk">Jozy Altidore tries to share</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2147p8lG90">Landon Donovan gets owned by a copier</a>, and America still kicks Jamaica's ass. <strong>USA BY 2+ GOALS.</strong> <br /><br />2. Our favorite golfers either aren't in the field (please get healthy, Tiger) or now <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLxKSvkpE1Y">more famous for drinks than drives</a>. <strong>TEN INTERNATIONALS.</strong> <br /><br />3. This genre is kind of lacking in terms of college sports, so here's the only <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkacc5FyeGc&feature=BFa&list=FL7Hnb5F85s8U&index=13">UNC video</a> we can really tolerate, pretty much because of Danny Green's tongue gag. <strong>JOHNSON RUNS.</strong><br /> <br />4. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M06kTVwXUs4">Derek Jeter gets peeved</a> (while on the bench, of course), and the Yanks get homer-happy in his absence. <strong>SIX.</strong><br /><br />5. The Milwaukee Brewers are another team seriously underrepresented in the SportsCenter set. They're really not that impressive. <strong>THREE.</strong><br /><br />6. None of these four names are even remotely familiar. You'd have to imagine that if any of them walked around ESPN headquarters, something <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9w4iLt0E_o">like this</a> would happen. <strong>JANKO TIPSAREVIC.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Craig & Tim</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s1600/matrix+jaws+image.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s200/matrix+jaws+image.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603632371865673858" /></a><br />Familiarize yourself with the concept of Qualia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia . Nothing I can say will ever be able to fully capture just how special this Boston Bruins team was...so I'm not even going to try.<br /><br />Instead, I'll just state the obvious. Vancouver didn't win because you don't need a cup if you don't have balls.<br /><br />1. The United States will be celebrating on Saturday, but it will be parade style in the storied streets of Boston...non soccer related. <strong>No,</strong> the US will not win by 2 or more goals. Yes, the US will show those clowns to the North how to gather together as a city without burning it down.<br /><br />2. There will be <strong>12 fuzzy little foreigners</strong> that finish in the top 20 of the US open. That's a Caddyshack reference for any of you who thought about getting angry since being castrated by the knife of political correctness.<br /><br />3. The number of <strong>earned runs</strong> let up by Patrick Johnson will exceed the number of hits by Stallings. Metal bats are a joke, even a great pitcher can get tuned up within a blink of an eye.<br /><br />4- "Good guys" is an inherently arbitrary term, as it implies that there is some universal consensus as to what is "good" and what is "bad". However, the term "good guys" should never be ascribed to the Yankees. Not in a baseball sense, not in a "they're good guys" sense. Jeter = womanizer. Posada = whiny little bitch. Teixiera pulled a LeBron before LeBron and took his talents to the Bronx, eschewing a return to his hometown Orioles for the bright lights and glamor of NYC. It is rumored that he plans on leaving his wife at the end of the season for the Olson twins. Nick Swisher? Unabashed tobacco-chewing enthusiast who displays a general lack of personal hygiene at all times. Russell Martin routinely pushes small children and old ladies out of the way to grab foul balls and then stares at them triumphantly. Cano steals the money from the collection plate at St. Patricks Cathedral and when confronted by the priests, he pretends not to understand English. A-Rod? I don't know where to start. Let's just say that he doesn't have a soul and it is unclear whether he can even be considered a human being.<br /><br />That being said, the Yanks aka "Not Good Guys" face the immortal Doug Davis on Friday, Ryan "Dumpster" Dempster on Saturday, and some kid who won a contest to pitch for the Cubs on Sunday. I won't underestimate the Yanks and it could be a close race in the AL East all season. The Cubs pretty much suck, are near dead last in terms of team ERA and WHIP, and are close to last in BAA. Yanks hit <strong>7</strong> out of Double Mint Park.<br /><br />5- Brewers score <strong>3</strong> off Lackey, who pitches into the 7th inning before his double chin starts wearing his face down.<br /><br />And way to support America, Benedict. You'd rather see a group of traitors from Canada prevail over a hard-working, blue-collar, nitty-gritty hockey team that represents the best of America? In any sport? By the way, the Bs didnt need to punch their way to the finals. The 'Nucks did a pretty good job falling down on their own like a bunch of Euro-trash soccer players and drunken teenagers. And the Bruins couldn't punch a Canuck in the face because they'd get bitten or cheap-shotted. Plus, look what happened when Vancouver lost: Vancouver-ites trashed their city, creating a state of national emergency and forcing a massive increase in the nation's mandated sedative doses. In Boston? Only two arrests, for public intoxication. The Boston police didnt even have to shoot, maim, or kill a celebrating fan this year. See you at the title parade on Saturday.<br /><br />6- So a Serb, Russian, Italian, and Japanese guy walk into a bar and start drinking...who is the last man standing? The Serb drinks beer, the Russian drinks vodka, the Italian drinks red wine, and the Japanese guy drinks sake. The Japanese guy passes out after his 8th sake bomb. The Italian follows suit, after his third bottle of<br />Chianti. The Russian is wobbly and cross-eyed after polishing off a liter of Stolichnaya...looks like the Serb is the last man standing! 18 beers later, the Serb succumbs to his beverage of choice. But wait! The Russian is back on his feet...and he doesn't even look drunk...AH HAH! The Russian tricked the Serb! The oldest trick in the book! After all, everyone knows that vodka courses though the veins of all Russians!<br /><br />As a result of this possibly racist hypothetical, it can be said with confidence that the Russian, <strong>Igor Kunitsyn,</strong> will win the ATP Aegon International.<br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br />This past week was crazy. My apologies for lack of a rant. I'm going to have a short rant this week because Shane decides to send in the docket at the latest moment possible and some of us have lives Shane!<br /><br />1. It was a few months ago when I stole into my friends house to watch their cable while I pretended to do push-ups on the floor. HBO On Demand is a wonderful thing. So many options, from shows to movies to documentaries. However, one choice on the television screen sparkled at me. Cool Runnings. Feel the rhythm, Feel the rhyme, Get on up, It's bobsled time...... COOOOOOOOOL RUNNINGS! The ending scene nearly brings me to tears every time. The only thing I've cried about in the past four years is the conclusion of Marley and Me (the book). Therefore, the answer is <strong>No.</strong><br /><br />2. I'm trying to navigate the US Open website but it seems the old white guys just discovered flash and decided to put as much of it everywhere on the site. Wild guess time! <strong>12</strong><br /><br />3. This is tough, I remember your piece on the catcher, and it seems he has a lot of Jesus behind him. That's something to be feared. As we all saw, Jason Terry has a bunch of Jesus and look what happened. What about the losing teams? Don't those guys believe in God? Why didn't he ordain their victory? Regardless of your views on religion I think it's absolutely ridiculous when athletes praise God for their victory. If there is a God, he/she hopefully doesn't care about sports, but who knows. I'm going with <strong>Stallings.</strong><br /><br />4. At this very moment (4:44 on 6/16) the Yankees are going into extras with the Rangers. This might make them tired for the weekend. Baseball is a very tiring sport. All that sitting down and chewing gum (tobacco yeeeeehaw!). Maybe playing a little bit of grab-ass. I'll go for <strong>four homeruns</strong> because of those tired arms.<br /><br />5. It seems Lackey's ERA is a billion and he has only pitched four innings this season. He's giving up <strong>four runs.</strong><br /><br />6. Wildcard question! <strong>Janko Tipsarevic!</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Monty</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s1600/Monty.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s400/Monty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551677206455079218" /></a><br />Monty has yet again chosen not to participate. It's a bold strategy that he hopes will pay off in Week Six.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-73118630012351651512011-06-13T14:05:00.003-04:002011-06-13T14:15:06.023-04:00Weekend Wrap-Up<em>(Note: This blog post was written for a different site and is being posted here instead due to timing issues.)</em><br /><br />This past Saturday, three friends and I went to watch Game 2 of the UNC-Stanford super regional here in Chapel Hill. We sat in right field under the direct, awful heat of the sun, where it was 117 degrees* by first pitch.<br /><br />*This is an estimate - stadium security confiscated our thermometers.<br /><br />The tough thing about sweltering heat is that it dominates your thoughts and emotions. In the bar beforehand, we were focused on Tar Heel baseball. By the time we finished the long walk to Boshamer Stadium, though, the only thing that registered was the very miserable hotness of our existence.<br /><br />While the drama on the field played out, I tried not to discuss the weather. It's something I usually reserve for dead-end conversations with neighbor types, and only then as a last ditch effort. I can persist for up to ten minutes on meaningless formulations like, "hooo...man" before I'll resort to weather talk. It's one of my few principles- that, plus never fighting with the priest in church.<br /><br />But when the weather is so extreme that it invades your personal space, you can't stay mum. Deep tragedy renders us mute, but a mere inconvenience? That spawns endless protest. During one of the lulls in action, I finally broke:<br /><br />"Guys, it is <em>really </em>hot!"<br /><br />Their reactions were some form of "we know, shut up." But they broke too, inevitably. To keep it interesting, we approached the topic in different ways. We treated the heat like a parent who keeps showing up drunk to PTA meetings:<br /><br />"What is <em>with</em> this weather?!"<br /><br />We sprinkled in profanity:<br /><br />"Son of a <em>bi***</em> it's hot!"<br /><br />We reacted like it was a long line at the DMV:<br /><br />"Come on, this is getting ridiculous!"<br /><br />By the sixth inning, we were like punch drunk boxers, slack-jawed and swaying. But there's a weird kind of satisfaction in outlasting extreme weather. We didn't actually <em>do </em>anything besides sit in place and occasionally buy a snow cone, but it felt like we were persevering through something meaningful. It's the same way marathoners feel, if they're lazy and don't run marathons.<br /><br />Carolina took a 6-1 lead, and it was all building to the glorious end when they would clinch a College World Series berth. By the top of the ninth, things had cooled down and we were in good spirits. The game mattered again.<br /><br />Then the sky darkened and the unthinkable happened: lightning struck<br /><br />Call me selfish, but I was hoping the teams would risk their lives and play through the storm, metal bats and all. I couldn't leave without a resolution, even if that meant death. The bureaucrats on the field didn't agree, though, and the game was postponed. We were long gone by the time UNC won. I saw "Super 8" with my friend Justin, which was great until we got to the important alien part and an earthquake destroyed our theater.<br /><br />The weekend in sports was a bit more satisfying.<br /><br />-The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title with a <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=310612014">105-95 win</a> against Miami in Game 6. A jubilant Jason Terry, pointing to his bicep tattoo of the Larry O'Brien Trophy, said, "when you do something as crazy as I did, you gotta back it up!" In the Miami locker room, meanwhile, a distraught Chris Bosh pointed to his Eastern Conference Trophy tattoo and said, "I should have been more ambitious!"<br /><br />-Dirk Nowitzki <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba/news/story?id=6655454">won the Bill Russell Finals MVP award</a>, averaging over 20 points per game in the series and leading three separate fourth quarter comebacks. In a related story, LeBron James finished 9-7 as the Chicago Bears in the Tecmo Bowl season he played during timeouts.<br /><br />-Francisco Liriano was perfect through six innings Sunday before an error by third baseman Luke Hughes spoiled the effort. He lost the no-hitter in the 8th, but the <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310612109">Twins beat the Rangers 6-1</a> to win the series. Afterward, Liriano said he was slightly distracted when he received a fifth inning phone call from the entire Miami Heat team congratulating him on his perfect game.<br /><br />-The Yankees won Sunday to <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310612110&teams=cleveland-indians-vs-new-york-yankees">sweep the Cleveland Indians</a>, who, despite an impressive 34-29 record, continue to be a terrible baseball team.<br /><br />-The Vancouver Canucks <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=310610022">beat the Boston Bruins</a> in the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday to take a 3-2 edge in the series. The two teams play a sport called "ice hockey," a Canadian invention featuring 12 men in bladed shoes racing back and forth on a sheet of manicured ice while attempting to hit a vulcanized rubber disk with wooden stick implements. The game ends when somebody dies.<br /><br />-Phil Humber pitched 7 strong innings and Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer to <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310612104&teams=oakland-athletics-vs-chicago-white-sox">lead the White Sox over the Oakland Athletics Sunday</a>. After the game, the two men finalized the marketing strategy for their latest clothing product- the "Humber-Dunn Cumberbund."<br /><br />-The Seattle Mariners <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310612106">hit three home runs</a> to give staff ace Felix Hernandez plenty of support in a 7-3 win over Detroit. After the game, local villagers wept and erected a shrine at the scene of the miracle. A mariachi band led a spontaneous parade, and the Virgin Mary's face was spotted in a tattered photograph of Miguel Olivo.<br /><br />-The city of Dallas went into a state of shock Sunday night as the Dallas Baptist Patriots' dream of reaching the College World series <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310612363">fell short in the NCAA super regional</a>. They were swept by the California Bears- or, as the Baptists call them, "The University of Gomorrah." Or, as the really old Baptists call them, "gold country!"<br /><br />-Along with Cal, <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310611164">UNC</a>, <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310611213">Vanderbilt</a>, <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310612175">Florida</a>, <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310612226">Texas</a>, and <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/cws/recap?gameId=310612169">South Carolina</a> all punched their ticket to the College World Series. The winner of that tournament will presumably play the champion from the northern half of America.<br /><br />That's all for now. Enjoy Bruins-Canucks tonight.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-53877842173787127952011-06-11T09:15:00.007-04:002011-06-11T11:47:47.014-04:00THE FRIDAY PICK SIX! Volume Four, Week FourHere we go...<br /><br /><center><strong><font size="7"><u>THE FRIDAY PICK SIX</u></font><br /><br /><br /><font size="5">VOLUME FOUR, WEEK FOUR</font></center></strong><br /><center><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cEWTvNCjzn4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:<br /><br /><strong><u>VOLUME FOUR</strong></u><br /><br />Here's how it looks:<br /><br /><em>The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust):</em> Swetha & Sabreena<br /><em>Purgatory Part 1:</em> Marc, Monty<br /><em>Newcomers:</em> Craig & Tim, Tim B., John<br /><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/pick-six-volume-four-introductions.html">Volume Four Intros</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogger-stole-my-comments.html">Week One</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-two.html">Week Two</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/06/friday-pick-six-volume-four-week-three.html">Week Three</a><br /><br /><strong><u>THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS</strong></u><br /><br />1. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/10/pick-six-our-first-champion-is-crowned.html">Tom</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/12/pick-six-champion-is-crowned.html">Mike</a><br />3. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/02/pick-6-champion-is-crowned.html">Patrick and Dylan</a><br /><br /><u><strong>Current Standings</u></strong><br /><br />1. Monty - 9<br />2. John - 8<br />2. Tim B. - 8<br />4. Swetha & Sabreena - 7<br />4. Marc - 7<br />6. Craig & Tim - 5<br /><br />Week Three was WILD, as Monty shook off his early fatigue and busted out with 8 points, correctly guessing that there would be 6 sweeps in baseball. John and Marc also acquitted themselves nicely, and the three lowest in the standings are now the three leaders. It was a week of tragedy for Swetha & Sabreena, who only managed 1 point and are now in last place in their final Pick Six. Can they begin the comeback this week, or is it lights out for the ladies?<br /><br />Time for this week's docket:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. Heat-Mavs, GAME 6. Who wins?<br /><br />2. Friday night: Bruins-Canucks!<br /><br />3. Pick two weekend baseball series' (Fri-Sat-Sun) and tell me who wins. Get both: 2 points. Split: 0 points. Lose both: -2 points. Go 6-0 on games (as in, both are sweeps): 5 points.<br /><br />4. UNC-Stanford in the CWS: 3-game set, who wins?<br /><br />5. How many innings will Ivan SuperNova pitch Friday?<br /><br />6. Who will get the most points in Week 6 of all the other Pick 6 players? You can't pick yourself.</blockquote><br />We start with our new leader, the man who claims not to be British:<br /><br /><center><strong><u>Monty</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s1600/Monty.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s400/Monty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551677206455079218" /></a><br />Monty has unfortunately not submitted picks this week, and will have to take a big 0. I blame myself- I sent the docket late, and that can't have helped.<br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>John</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s1600/john_avatar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s200/john_avatar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603614546172792978" /></a><br />No time for screwing around this week...to the picks!<br /><br />1. Miami is warm this time of year: feel the <strong>HEAT</strong><br /><br />2. ? <strong>Bruins</strong> I guess. I watched the whole overtime to game 2. I admit it was an exciting period. I can officially handle 12 seconds of hockey if it involves a game winning goal.<br /><br />3. <strong>Atlanta</strong> wins on the road and <strong>Philly</strong> at home<br /><br />4. Good going shane, make people root for the <strong>Heels!</strong><br /><br />5. I had to google to find out who this was. I’m guessing a decent outing with <strong>5.1 innings</strong><br /><br />6. Well...my unofficial count has Monty in the lead with 9 points with me pulling into a tie for 2nd with 8...since he doesn’t like hockey either, and because his name sounds like a funny Brit, I’m going with <strong>Monty the Python</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br /><strong>1. Heat<br />2. Canucks<br />3. Phillies and Giants<br />4. UNC<br />5. I have no idea who this is. 6.<br />6. John</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Tim B.</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s1600/Ted.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s200/Ted.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603615387759899202" /></a><br />1. Series is going seven. <strong>Heat</strong><br /><br />2. Boston totes overconfident, <strong>‘Nucks</strong> win it, perhaps big. This is like ’94, folks: Game 7s across the board. ‘Cept we’ll have a World Series, too.<br /><br />3. That the Red Sox and Yankees are still playing throws a wrench into two of my secondary picks. I mean, everyone’s gonna take the <strong>Phillies</strong> over the Cubs, obvs. I’ll go with the <strong>Braves</strong> over the ‘Stros as well, as vengeance for Chris Burke.<br /><br />4. Home-field. <strong>Carolina</strong> sinks the Cardinal's diamond...more so. I would sigh, but I don’t much like Stanford either.<br /><br />5. <strong>5 2/3.</strong> He will be replaced by Joba, oh, my bad.<br /><br />6. Presented without commentary, <strong>Swetha and Sabreena.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Craig & Tim</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s1600/matrix+jaws+image.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s200/matrix+jaws+image.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603632371865673858" /></a><br />1. Game 6 goes to the <strong>Mavs.</strong> Lebron James is a fucking douchebag and I'd rather get punched in the face than root for him to win anything...and I'm not joking. Anyone that loves them self that much deserves a bus to the nuts, not a championship. The people in the Gomorrah-esque coke-funnel known as Miami care more about the umbrella positioning in their mojito than they do basketball - so fuck them too.<br /><br />2. <strong>Bruins</strong> win. I'm in full superstition mode right now so my commentary here is a bit bridled. I will however leave you video evidence showing what happens when arrogant <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiCdntbwO5c">Canadian based hockey teams try to get physical</a>. NHL hockey teams often take on the persona of the city they play in. Montreal is the most European of North American cities, and their hockey team is a perfect reflection of this French, diving, pussy trapeze artist mentality. Vancouver - don't expect to win the Stanley Cup when you take on the attitude of a tweed-sweater wearing beatnik sitting in the corner of a solar-powered coffee shop flicking at an iphone oblivious to the world around you. Take your greenman costumes and put them to use at an environmental rally. Your blind faith in the global warming hoax is better served there than your blind faith in the regular season Canuck stat sheet. Go Bruins.<br /><br />3. <strong>Rays and Red Sox.</strong><br /><br />4. Truth be told, I rarely watch college baseball. In fact, I've seen more American Legion and Cape League games than college games. And I think a big part of that has to do with the fact that they still use metal/composite bats. I simply hate that. So while it may be "fun" to see 12 homers a game and scores like 24-17 on the reg, I think the college game is lacking. Plus, there were some real douches on the baseball team when I was in college. Lax players generally seem to get a bad rap for being punks, but the baseball guys were worse. That being said, we're going with <strong>UNC</strong> over Stanford in this series.<br /><br />5. Thank you for including this question, it allows us to take gratuitous pot-shots at the Yanks. First off, that was a very enjoyable series at Yankee Stadium. Besides being swept, the Yanks skipper made an ass of himself by trying to "protect" his young pitcher after Ortiz dropped a bomb and flipped his bat in Game 1. Sox are 6-0 at Yankee Stadium this year and the seats behind home plate are half-empty every game. Secondly, I'm convinced that A.J. Burnett is completely insane. After his most recent meltdown it was entirely conceivable that he went on a murder spree in the Bronx right after the game ended. Yet we digress...seeing that Nova has only pitched 7+ innings once in his last 10 starts, I don't see him getting there. We predict he lasts <strong>6 1/3</strong> after giving up 4 runs. Yanks lose to the Indians.<br /><br />6. The most difficult question to date. Gotta go with the gut on this one, and we'll select <strong>Tim B.</strong>, a/k/a Little Whiny Tim. He just seems like the kind of guy who scours the web on a friday night, looking for inside info on his pick 6 selections.<br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Swetha & Sabreena</strong></center></u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Not really a banner week for us last time around. We’d like to think it’s because we threw a little more effort into the links than the picks, and that's not going to happen again.<br /><br />1. No way Miami goes down three times in a row. Besides, this series deserves a Game 7, no matter how much we want Dallas to win. <strong>MIAMI.</strong><br /><br />2. Seems like Boston has gained control of this series, but we really have no idea. Maybe home ice means something now? <strong>CANUCKS.</strong><br /><br />3. The Phils have the dream team going (sorry, Hamels) and the Giants have a pretty good rotation this weekend, too. <strong>PHILADELPHIA AND SAN FRANCISCO.</strong><br /><br />4. Let’s be honest, we’re not going to put a whole lot of effort into college baseball. We are from Duke, after all. <strong>NORTH CAROLINA.</strong><br /><br />5. The Indians are good -- can’t imagine this is going to be a successful outing for SuperNova. <strong>5.1 INNINGS.</strong><br /><br />6. Even if we could pick ourselves, that would probably be a bad idea. Ideally, we want the person in last place to get the most points. Unfortunately, not only is this unlikely, but we’re not entirely sure how the scoring broke down for the baseball sweeps last week, so it’s unclear who sits in last place. We’ll just choose the other Dukie in this group. <strong>TIM B.</strong>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-27501821878707088502011-06-10T08:41:00.001-04:002011-06-10T08:41:32.126-04:00Pick Six coming soon!Probably tonight, maybe earlier if fortune smiles...SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-68555759962785666282011-06-06T00:19:00.005-04:002011-06-08T19:20:05.892-04:00Federer’s Tears: Why LeBron and the Heat Will Probably Win the NBA Title, and Why That’s Okay<em>(Editor's Note: This post was conceived before Game 1 of the NBA playoffs and written before Game 2.)</em><br /><br />A couple years ago, I met my family in upstate New York for a weekend trip. My two brothers, 15 and 17, were joined by their friend, a German foreign exchange student named Malo. <br /><br />Malo was different than your average teen. There was something calm about him, an easy style inherent to a dude with nothing to prove. He watched the aggression of his friends with a kind of amused half interest, but though he never participated, he still had their respect.<br /><br />In essence, he seemed emotionally mature in a way that’s foreign to most teenagers. That relaxed quality manifested in almost every situation. He, my brothers and I were driving once, headed out to lunch, when the song “Take On Me” came on the radio. When Malo put his falsetto to use, I watched my brother’s face in the rearview mirror. First, the instinctual laugh, the pleasure of watching something fun. Second, the urge to participate, to let himself loose for a moment. And third, the stifling, corrective barriers of being a cool American teen.<br /><br />There were times when I forgot that Malo was almost a decade younger than me. The reason I enjoyed him, mind you, was because I was older. My teenage days were not free of the humming angst I saw in my brothers, and if I met Malo as a 17-year-old, who can guess which of my neuroses would have interfered? I could relate only because we’d finished a maturing process at different points in life.<br /><br />Anyway, Malo was a very good high school basketball player who wanted to become a professional, and his hero was Dirk Nowitzki. So when I see Dirk, I think of Malo.<br /><br />And that’s convenient, because the contrast between my brothers and their German friend is playing out in the NBA finals. Dirk is the graceful, free-flowing entity that seems almost literally fluid in his movements. He’s elegant. He’s majestic. He’s almost wispy. He could have played one of the elves from Lord of the Rings, if he was into that kind of thing. If these were the 1960s, he’d be an inadvertent counterculture icon, like Bill Walton without the arrogance. <br /><br />LeBron, meanwhile, basically lacks subtlety. He’s the bull-headed, relentless emblem of stubborn America, all muscle and rage. He wears his masculinity proudly, and we can <em>witness</em> the effortful assertion of self at every moment. While Dirk seems to exist in sync with his soul, LeBron is a striver. The machismo comes with its attendant egocentrism, which became embarrassingly evident during ‘The Decision.’<br /><br />This is elegance versus power. Am I generalizing? Probably. Plus, rumor has it that the finals are being contested by two teams with full, functioning rosters of a dozen professionals.<br /><br />Still and all, the NBA is constructed around individual battles. Two men will write the central narrative of this series, and the unabridged manuscript of the Finals will resonate with their disparate voices.<br /><br />*<br /><br />This is not the first time elegance has confronted power in professional sports. Far, far from it.<br /><br />The first chronological example that comes to my mind is a little arcane; the 1954 World Cup Final. A team from Hungary, of all places, had recently revolutionized soccer. They were called the “Magnificent Magyars,” and they came into the World Cup unbeaten in 32 matches. They routed West Germany 8-3 in the group stages and outscored all opponents 25-7 on their way to the final. There, they met West Germany again, who switched things up by playing a slower, plodding game with an emphasis on punishing defense. With the help of the weather and a few questionable calls, they beat the Hungarians 3-2 and killed a strange, wonderful dream.<br /><br />The Magyars played an attacking style that was a forerunner to the “total football” of the 1974 Dutch team, who some consider the greatest and most beautiful side of all time. Led by Johan Cruyff, they made the World Cup finals by outscoring opponents 14-1 in six matches. There, they met (who else?) West Germany, a so-so squad who had lost in the group stages to an East German team that presumably practiced with a ball made of old scarves knitted into a lumpy sphere. Despite that, the West Germans prevailed 2-1 against the Dutch, playing a practical style and negating the legendary offense.<br /><br />(If it makes anyone feel better, the situation was reversed on Germany in the last World Cup when they played the most engaging style throughout the tournament but were beaten by the steadfast, defensive-minded Spaniards in the semis.)<br /><br />Every sport has its examples. In professional basketball, the quintessential case study is Spurs-Suns, 2007. The Nash-led Phoenix team embodied the ideal of fast, sophisticated basketball. The Spurs were so stolid and ruthless as to be almost cynical, and this particular clash of styles turned on a cheap trick by Robert Horry.<br /><br />In NFL football, Bill Belichick has been involved in destroying two of the greatest, most explosive offenses in history. In 1991, he had his Giants defense ‘accidentally’ kick the ball after the whistle to slow down the Buffalo no-huddle attack, and that tactic, among others, led to a hard-earned championship. In 2002, he may have illegally videotaped St. Louis’ ‘greatest show on turf’ to gain a defensive advantage before the Patriots’ eventual victory. In both cases, a stalwart defense and a competent, controlling offense took the air out of their spectacular foes.<br /><br />In college football, last year’s national championship was just the latest example of an exciting, unique offense falling prey to a physically superior SEC team.<br /><br />Baseball is harder to pinpoint, but what about the 1993 Phillies? There was a team of scruffy, oddball players who captured a kind of bizarre chemistry until the uber-corporate* Toronto Blue Jays beat downed them in 6 games in the World Series.<br /><br />*This is probably an unfair adjective, but come on, baseball in Toronto?<br /><br />You’re probably starting to see a pattern. In the cases I’ve presented- and, I would argue, in the broader history of sports, with notable exceptions- we routinely see the exquisite teams brought crashing back to reality by the efficient tough guys.<br /><br />There are two ways to look at this. The first is to see it as a recurring tragedy, like an endlessly streaming YouTube video of Gandhi losing a fistfight to Sean Hannity. The rarity of the mystic geniuses actually winning makes them, I realize, more appealing. There’s an exciting, revolutionary flair that naturally attracts you to their side. As such, it can seem pretty shattering when they lose, like some kind of flat signal from the earth that nothing is divine.<br /><br />But I’m here to tell you there’s another way to frame this phenomenon: you can appreciate it. The prosperity of the power game can be, believe it or not, a celebration of humanity. It can be the final hard-fought emergence of a resilient group who won by finding an absolute unity. <br /><br />It can be, dare I say, a triumph of the will.<br /><br />(Crap, I promised myself I wouldn’t accidentally use that phrase again.)<br /><br />*<br /><br />David Foster Wallace, a better writer than I, visited this contrast back in 2006. His famous essay about tennis for the Times treats Roger Federer as a sporting deity. The title of the piece, in fact, is “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.” In it, he discusses Fed’s “kinesthetic virtuosity” and capitalizes what he calls the “Federer Moment.”<br /><br />The last line of the article is this:<br /><br /><em>“Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform — and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled.”</em><br /><br />This was after Wimbledon 2006, when Federer defeated Rafael Nadal in the final. The “power and aggression” belong to Nadal himself, a subject of subtle mockery, or perhaps just philosophical dislike, throughout the piece. Wallace describes Rafa as “mesomorphic and totally martial,” cites his “passionate machismo” in contrast to Federer’s artistry, and notes that his style of dress makes it so that you “have to look at his muscles right away.” He makes note of how Nadal tugs at his shorts, and “his way of always cutting his eyes warily from side to side as he walks the baseline, like a convict expecting to be shanked.”<br /><br />It served Wallace’s purpose well, but not long after that final, history took a different turn. The next year, in 2007, the two men met again in the Wimbledon final. This time, Rafa took Roger to a fifth set. The intensity affected both men, but particularly Federer, who seemed suddenly petulant and asked that the video review system be turned off because he thought it was malfunctioning. Still, Federer withstood the scare and won again. Then came 2008, and the greatest match ever played, when Nadal finally triumphed on the English grass and began the process of usurping Federer’s title as the world’s best player.<br /><br />Full disclosure: Rafael Nadal is my favorite athlete. Period. I can get a little boring when I sing his praises, the way an obsessive person prattles on about trains or politics or lovers or babies, so I’ll try to keep this to a sentence: His work ethic, individuality, and humility are the three (clichéd, I admit) qualities that make him, for me, a transcendent athlete.<br /><br />*<br /><br />Like many of my peers, I feel ensconced in a lifetime battle for fulfillment and success that seems, so often, unwinnable. Maybe I see the small story of my struggle reflected in Nadal’s quest to beat Federer; the sheer, disgusting impossibility of the thing, the way you understand the amount of work required and the absence of any guarantee that your work will be rewarded, but do it anyway because that’s the fucking drill.<br /><br />David Foster Wallace was, without a doubt, a genius. He became renowned, albeit in a kind of niche way, at a very young age. So did Federer. It would be too simplistic (and, in fact, wrong) to say that they achieved their fame without work. But Wallace’s gift with words was somewhat like Federer’s native brilliance, and though he would probably never admit it, he surely saw himself in the grace and ability of the Swiss star. He could understand the magic because he had a bit of his own. Though his facility with the language and his prodigious memory weren’t coupled with the prosaic elegance of a Fitzgerald or Nabokov, his style nevertheless reflected a congenital sort of luminosity.<br /><br />But we’re not all like David Foster Wallace. In fact, I rabidly disagree with that closing line about inspiration. Beauty, to me, has always been merely an enjoyable abstraction- not something with which I could ever identify. But when I saw Rafa crumble to the court in the Wimbledon dusk in 2008, having overcome, at last, his historic obstacle…well, screw kinesthetic virtuosity, because <em>that</em> is when I felt reconciled.<br /><br />*<br /><br />To repeat myself: it’s possible to enjoy the ascension of power, of practicality. More, it’s possible to find it beautiful in a way that might not be initially obvious.<br /><br />Which brings me back to LeBron. The way he guarded- nay, stifled- Derrick Rose practically gave me goosebumps. Rose was the MVP, the fan favorite, maybe the greatest symbol of dynamism in this year’s NBA. For LeBron to put a cap on that genie lamp seems, on its surface, like an act of great cruelty. We imagine a humorless Chinese soldier finding a Tibetan monk boy singing some gorgeous, lilting song, and responding by smashing him with the butt of his rifle.<br /><br />And LeBron, as we know, isn’t very sympathetic. Still, if we force ourselves to focus on the court and pretend, like a juror at the trial of a celebrity, that we don’t know the backstory, how can we not be moved by that act of defense? To meet an electric force and render it basically immobile, with everyone in opposition, reflects an unbelievable body awareness and, more to the point, a pressing desire to win. It was by its nature a profound act of defiance.<br /><br />LeBron is the man who stands in the way. He’s the muscular linebacker who lowers his shoulder and barrels into the lane. He absorbs contact and maintains his forward momentum. On both ends of the floor, his strength grinds, and grinds, until it breaks you down.<br /><br />That’s what the LeBron style means; breaking the enemy down. It’s what the Germans did, it’s what the Spurs did, it’s what the Belichick defenses did, it’s what the SEC does. It’s what they’re all forced to do in order to win. And there, it seems, is the common thread: champions understand winning, and how it’s not a product of magic or rarified spiritual qualities, but a very practical and brutal act of repetition that becomes ingrained and habitual.<br /><br />*<br /><br />In his article, Wallace gives Nadal a brief moment of credit when he mentions that Federer “may be peculiarly vulnerable to, or psyched out by, that first man.”<br /><br />This might have been a mere supposition in 2006, but by 2008 it was reality. After the 2007 Wimbledon final, when Nadal lost in five sets, he retreated to the locker room and wept. He wept for the missed opportunity, for the staggering loss, and probably for the idea that despite the endless work and his unwavering spirit, he might never beat Federer.<br /><br />A year later, everything changed. Federer lost to Nadal in the French Open for the fourth straight time, and this defeat was worse than the others. When Wimbledon came around, he grew irritable and repressed, by turns, as the match wore on. His demeanor after the loss seemed to indicate that he’d been the victim of a horrible fluke, a king brought low by an unworthy serf.<br /><br />But when they met in the Australian final the following January, the truth had set in. Despite barely surviving an epic 5-hour semifinal match in withering heat the day before, Nadal recovered to defeat Federer in 5 sets. If Wimbledon 2006 was Roger Federer as Religious Experience, Australia 2009 was Rafael Nadal as Iconoclast, sending a God tumbling from Olympus to dry land.<br /><br />After the match, the two waited on the podium. The full weight began to bear down on Federer. He remembered Nadal’s topspin, and the relentless way the Spaniard sent the leaping shots to his backhand, time and again, hammering at a perceived weakness, and how it produced an unlikely mental and strategic advantage that chipped away, and chipped away, until Federer’s magic was ground into dust. Maybe he saw the future, too, and how Nadal would come to dominate the rivalry.<br /><br />He stepped up to the microphone. He waved to the crowd. He even smiled. He held the second place silver plate by his side. But as the fans shouted their support, he stopped.<br /><br />His voice caught. His shoulders shook.<br /><br />“God,” he said, almost choking on the words. “It’s killing me.”<br /><br />And then he broke down, weeping in that broken heart way you just can’t fake.<br /><br />*<br /><br />If Dirk Nowitzki leads the Mavericks to an NBA title, it will be glorious. A lot of people will feel vindicated for hating LeBron and the mercenary way he ended up in Miami, and the title will be the jewel in the crown of Dirk’s excellent career.<br /><br />But the sweep of history tells us that we should expect the Heat to win. When they do, we should do them the favor of realizing that every championship requires a journey, that few of us are blessed by genius, and that in our gritty, imperfect world, most men have to elevate themselves.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-2954491995438497462011-06-03T03:30:00.006-04:002011-06-03T18:15:39.912-04:00THE FRIDAY PICK SIX! Volume Four, Week ThreeHere we go...<br /><br /><center><strong><font size="7"><u>THE FRIDAY PICK SIX</u></font><br /><br /><br /><font size="5">VOLUME FOUR, WEEK THREE</font></center></strong><br /><center><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OjnIj5XyuJI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:<br /><br /><strong><u>VOLUME FOUR</strong></u><br /><br />Here's how it looks:<br /><br /><em>The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust):</em> Swetha & Sabreena<br /><em>Purgatory Part 1:</em> Marc, Monty<br /><em>Newcomers:</em> Craig & Tim, Tim B., John<br /><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/pick-six-volume-four-introductions.html">Volume Four Intros</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogger-stole-my-comments.html">Week One</a><br /><br /><strong><u>THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS</strong></u><br /><br />1. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/10/pick-six-our-first-champion-is-crowned.html">Tom</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/12/pick-six-champion-is-crowned.html">Mike</a><br />3. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/02/pick-6-champion-is-crowned.html">Patrick and Dylan</a><br /><br /><u><strong>Current Standings</u></strong><br /><br />1. Swetha & Sabreena - 4<br />2. Tim B. - 4<br />3. Craig & Tim - 2<br />4. Monty - 1<br />5. John - 1<br />6. Marc - 0<br /><br />Time for this week's docket:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. Holy shit, greatest French Open semi-finals ever, Part One: Can Roger Federer do the unthinkable and end Djokovic's streak? Does the Djoker have more than just an Australian Open title buried in that soul? 2 points if you pick Federer, 1 point if you pick Djokovic.<br /><br />2. Holy shit, greatest French Open semi-finals ever, Part Two: Rafa vs. Murray. Murray may have hurt himself in the third round, though you'd be hard pressed to tell, and Rafa is giving press conferences where he says he's not good enough. Which beleaguered star makes the finals? 2 points if you pick Murray, 1 for Rafa.<br /><br />3. Sunday is Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Will Dallas defend their court?<br /><br />4. Bruins-Canucks, NHL finals, game 2, Vancouver, Saturday. Who wins?<br /><br />5. There are 15 series this weekend in MLB. How many of them end up in sweeps? 4 points if you nail it, 3 points if you're the closest, 2 points if you're second, 1 point if you're third. (I know some of them start on Thursday, so just be warned: the Thursday game doesn't count).<br /><br />6. MIND BENDER: How many points will Swetha & Sabreena get over the first 5 questions? 2 points for the closest guess.</blockquote><br />We begin with the gals who lead for the second straight week:<br /><br /><center><strong><u>Swetha & Sabreena</strong></center></u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />While we still hold the coveted position atop the field (or at least atop the ranting list given that we are in a tie for first), we thought we’d give some shoutouts.<br /><br />First, to the Giants for winning the World Series last year (never thought I’d say that) and giving the NL the interleague point. Yay for Ryder Cup rules! Although, that Posey injury is a real downer, even though one of us has a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsCPE96gdK0">strange fascination with gruesome sports injuries</a>.<br /><br />Second, to Carrie and Jill for being an awesome fan base and making a chant for us. We’d like to think that was all we were missing.<br /><br />And finally, to the Toronto Blue Jays, whose incompetence has left us hungrier than ever and still in the pursuit of perfection. Although I will never understand using a pinch-runner when said runner can’t score on a double from first--I’m looking at you, Mike McCoy.<br /><br />Before we get to the tennis picks, in honor of the French Open, a video that will make you want to run out to buy Rosetta Stone - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYwvFU6dcv4">Bradley Cooper speaking fluent French</a>. God is that a beautiful... language, yeah we'll go with language. If you’re only going to click one of our links, this should be it.<br /><br />1. As much as we want Federer to win this one to restore our faith in tennis (those epic Nadal-Federer finals really were the good ole days), Djokovic seems to be on a roll. It’s okay though, this gives us a chance to make up more nicknames for him. Djokobitch? Djoko is Loco? Novak is whack? PS. His head is shaped like an eraser. <strong>DJOKOVIC.</strong><br /><br />2. We’re convinced that Andy Murray is never going to win anything significant and will forever be a part of whiny “oh pooey, an Englishman has never won Wimbledon so Murray is Britain’s only hope” features. <a href=" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/magazine/21nadal-t.html">Rafa and his wedgie picking</a> are going to take this one. <strong>NADAL.</strong><br /><br />3. Miami definitely has the edge in hometown media, with our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwOpmZJ-Qg4&feature=related">favorite child journalist superstar - Damon Weaver</a>, but you gotta believe Dallas has the momentum after that awesome comeback in Game 2. <strong>DALLAS.</strong><br /><br />4. We really know nothing about hockey, and have successfully avoided it until now, so this question presents a real conundrum. As much as we hate Boston teams, these NHL playoffs have been really back and forth, so we see the series evening up in Game 2. <strong>BRUINS.</strong><br /><br />5. I tried to find some sort of stat that says how many MLB series end in sweeps, but the search proved elusive, so instead, we have called upon recent history. The number of sweeps in the last five weekends - 4, 6, 5, 2, 2. <br />So, essentially, there's no pattern. Here's our best guess. <strong>FOUR.</strong><br /><br />6. There is way too much pressure on this question, even though we’re flattered at being included in the docket. Brings back fond memories of Shane and Spike’s epic Scrabble clash when we learned that Shane has Scrabble ethics, but is not very good at Scrabble. <strong>SIX.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Tim B.</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s1600/Ted.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s200/Ted.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603615387759899202" /></a><br />I wanted to tear into John for taking offense at my insidious use of quotation marks and for fulfilling his role as my foil, but then two weeks passed, and I kind of forgot about it, and I heard that Broken Bells song I really like about “The High Road” and, well, I don’t really know what it’s about, but it talks about a high road, so I’m taking it. Then I decided to just whine about Shane giving the tie to the NL and citing the Ryder Cup for doing it, in doing so latently praising the RC for the absolute worst part of it (if it’s tied, you play sudden-death match play with a captain’s choice; it’s what the President’s Cup does, and tell me this wouldn’t be the second-most captivating moment in golf history, behind only that brief second where it looked like Bob May’s putt on the 76th hole of the 2000 PGA* was going in), but I’m an NL guy at heart, and since the AL has the competitive advantage when it comes to the DH, I agree that ties should go to the Senior Circuit. So <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g_QOcm00J8">here’s some Shaq</a>.<br /><br />*The 2000 PGA Championship is the greatest golf tournament ever.<br /><br />The only relevant moment of the last 15 years of the All-Star Game, there. I was reading somewhere this week that Shaq’s propensity to play the star off the court hurt him on it. Well, dude went 30 and 15 in two straight playoffs and won three Finals MVPs. Todd MacCulloch still has nightmares from guarding Shaq <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/24/AR2008122402287.html">while he’s playing pinball</a>. Watching Shaq destroy my Nets was the most helpless feeling in sports. With Kobe (and all great shooting guards for that matter), stopping them seems plausible. With Shaq in his prime, it never did.<br /><br />1. Wow! You’re telling me this is the greatest French Open semifinal ever??? What incredible previous semis does it top? Surely it can’t be better than Gaudio/Coria/Nalbandian/Henman? Or Federer/Nadal/Davydenko/Puerta? Is it really a French Open without Juan Carlos Ferrero? Or Guga?* The point is, calling this year the best French Open Semis ever is like calling “Live the life you imagined” the best part of Walden. The competition doesn’t really register.<br /><br />*That’s not being facetious.<br /><br />At what point do we begin to wonder if Federer is hanging on too long? I know it’s not yet, but we’re getting there, aren’t we? <strong>Djokovic</strong> in straights.<br /><br />2. Is Andy Murray, in his prime, that much better than Tim Henman, in his prime? I don’t follow this sport enough to know. <strong>Nadal</strong> in straights.<br /><br />3. I’m trusting Shane on this one since I’m sending it in prior to the end of Game 2. With no analysis at all, I’ll go with <strong>whoever lost Game 2</strong> to bounce back.<br /><br />4. So, in preparation for these Finals, I did what I always do for championship rounds (for football and hockey), which is try to simulate the action on the old Nintendo game of my youth. Breaking out the “Blades of Steel” cartridge, I was saddened to realize the Bruins were not one of the eight teams in the game. Neither, amazingly, are the Red Wings. My sadness was immediately erased by the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tww93DVSX8U">awesome “Blades of Steel” music</a>, which is like 10 times better than the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme that those north of the border admire so much. Also, if Fox had made the players holding the puck glow, instead of just the puck, I’m pretty sure the lockout wouldn’t have happened.<br /><br />Expect a cleaner game, which means more five-on-five, which means special teams don’t kill the <strong>Bruins,</strong> who bite back in Game 2.<br /><br />P.S. I suck at that game now, just like I sucked at it when I was a kid. And I really wanted to pick the Canucks there.<br /><br />5. Arizona and Atlanta seem the best bet, if only because the unbeatable Dillon Gee is going up against noted Met-killer Jair Jurrjens (who’s been killing a whole bunch of teams this season, although like 2009, his ERA and FIP are out of whack, so it probably won’t last. Sell high, fantasy compatriots). Philly or San Fran (the Giants and Rockies play some weird series) might slip in there, with a fourth coming out of the blue (like BAL over TOR or BOS over OAK, with John Lackey finding a way to beat Trevor Cahill on Sunday). <br /><br />So let’s go with <strong>four,</strong> which I imagine will probably be the stock answer, but I had to pretend to arrive at it logically instead of “Well, four seems about right.”<br /><br />6. Well, <strong>four</strong> seems about right.<br /><br />(They’ll get the Djokovic and Nadal because they’re conservative when it comes to sports they don’t know, they’ll get the Heat because they’re good with sports they do know, they’ll go home-ice when it comes to hockey, and they will finish third in terms of sweeps.) <br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Craig & Tim</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s1600/matrix+jaws+image.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s200/matrix+jaws+image.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603632371865673858" /></a><br />We plan on following up with a more elaborate reasoning behind these selections later on, but just in case something comes up…here are our picks for this week.<br /><br /><strong>Question 1: Federer<br /><br />Question 2: Nadal<br /><br />Question 3: Dallas<br /><br />Question 4: Bruins<br /><br />Question 5: 2 sweeps<br /><br />Question 6: 5 points</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Monty</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s1600/Monty.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s400/Monty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551677206455079218" /></a><br />To start with - I'm going to pick the Mavericks to win game 2 in Miami. I think it should be obvious to everyone that Dallas is a team that will probably get down around 15 points and then storm back and win at the end. Older players are usually more explosive than younger players at the end of a game.<br /><br />1. Jesus. This is the most unanswerable question ever. I kind of think that Djokovic is going to do it. But Federer has been playing really well and I think he really wants to prove that he doesn't suck. So I'm going to go with <strong>Federer.</strong><br /><br />2. This is not hard. <strong>Rafa</strong> is going to win. You don't beat Rafa on clay<br />unless he's hurt - and I don't think Andy 'choke in big games' Murray is going to be the one to set a new precedent here.<br /><br />3. Yes. They will. <strong>(Dallas wins.)</strong> Hi Nowitzki. Zomg. I mean - who knew that the Germans were this good at basketball? (I mean, other than Mark Cuban, who has<br />held to the long-term strategy of keeping a team built around a tall German who doesn't fit any of the traditional superstar models. Of course, Mark has also invested in a chain of indie file theatres and the HDNet cable channel...)<br /><br />4. Who cares? Oh - wait. I suppose someone is watching hockey. Um - let's say <strong>Canucks.</strong> I hear that they're Canadian - which means that they are inherently better than us at all forms of this sport that aren't this past year's olympics. Also, this is going to be a year when no Boston sports team wins anything. Just saying.<br /><br />5. I did some math. In fact - I even wrote a computer program to do the complex mother fucking math I did. It's in the programming language scheme as interpreted by the GNU Guile interpreter. It looks like this:<br /><br />(random 15)<br /><br />This resulted in the answer of: <strong>6.</strong><br /><br />6. I think that S to the S is going to pull down <strong>5 points.</strong> I think they're going to be second closest on the baseball, are going to nail hockey and NBA, and Rafa, and are going to miss the first French question.<br /><br />Also - I'm pretty sure that I'm hungry, but have no food in the apartment other than gummi bears - and even though I'm in a city with 24-hour delivery service, that's too much effort - so I'm just going to sit here and watch sportscenter loop and drink some water.<br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>John</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s1600/john_avatar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s200/john_avatar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603614546172792978" /></a><br />Time and wit is short this week...answers quick and little thought out, maybe that's for the best.<br /><br />1. I'm pumped for some good tennis...wish I wasn't stuck at work tomorrow while these babies are going on. I'm going to try to to see the scores, but I always blow that. Anyway, man these two are both playing lights out tennis! Can NoDjok be stopped? i don't know, but I still don't like him much. I think RFed is playing solid tennis and has about as much chance as anyone at unseating Nole. I figure if I keep betting against the Serb, I have to be correct at some point, right? <strong>FEDERER</strong> (I could use the points)<br /><br />2. Murray is a half step slow and is making up for it by slugging the ball, which could actually improve his game. However, Nadal on Parisian clay is not who and where you want to be experimenting on a new style with: <strong>RAFA</strong><br /><br />3. Heat are tough...the Cubans go down: <strong>HEAT</strong><br /><br />4. Is hockey still going on? Shane, it would be interesting to write an article about Americans and hockey, except that I couldn't stand to read a piece more than a short paragraph about this boring sport. If soccer is the most beautiful game, what is hockey exactly? I'm not a big futbol fan, but I'll take it anytime over this, but yet it's more popular in the US (I assume)...why?<br /><br />I visited Vancouver last year and it is a great city...so is boston now that I think about it, but Vancouver is fresher in my mind...<strong>Canucks!</strong><br /><br />5. no time for my planned elegant simulations involving records, probabilities, locations, temperatures, humidity, etc. based on coin flips you'd expect 3.75 series to sweep. I'll round up due to previously mention factors causing this expectation to increase: <strong>4.</strong> I wonder there will be some nonsensical Shanian tie-breaker if more than one tie for closest. Like "sorry guys, you know i don't like ties and since a low era is good in baseball, I'm taking the guy below the right answer rather than above it...arbitrary? Maybe, but logical!"<br /><br />6. hmm, in their email S&S stated that they would be perfect over 1-5 for 8 points...I guess that tips their hand that they are playing rafa/djok in #1 since 10 points are possible. I don't know what that means exactly, but I'm factoring it in somehow for an advantage. <strong>4</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br />Holy bananas. Time for a comeback. This is Duke vs. UNC in Durham 2011. I won't be stopped, I can't be stopped. As I survey my competition I can barely suppress my schoolgirl giggles as I know they will soon be crushed. I hope everyone had a fantastic memorial day. Some people see it as a wonderful day off from work. Other people make commentaries on the people who only see it as a day off from work. I see it as a day where people crowd the wonderful beaches of southeastern North Carolina and make me road rage because it takes thirty five minutes to drive two miles. However, we must thank the troops. For without the troops we wouldn't be able to engage in such wonderful activities such as the Pick Six. Hopefully there will be a time when we won't need any more troops, but people are idiots so that ain't happenin.<br /><br />Before I start talking about sports I must regale everyone with information they don't need to know about me. I have huge nipples. It's kind of ridiculous. I also like to surf. Recently the water has warmed up enough for us surfers to shake off our stinky neoprene and wear only board shorts. This past week we have had surf three out of four days. My surfboard is covered in rough and sticky wax. When nipples meet wax bad things happen. Nipples + Wax = Destroyed nipples. I have scabs covering 50% of my nipple area. I put neosporin on my nipples to try and heal them. To top it all off my girlfriend thinks it's hilarious to pinch my overly large nipples. The more you know....<br /><br />1. I'm really up in the air here. I think I'm going to use my supernatural math abilities and run a statistical analysis to prove stuff about data. Remember when John did stupid nerdy stuff like that. See how well it served him. If you take the formula f(x) + 39.7 * Switzerland/London minus the bear = Dicks. <strong>Roger Federer</strong> wins.<br /><br />2. Here comes another formula for sphincters like John: Take the square root of the elderly mortality rate in Sri Lanka then add the mortgage derivative of the Atlantis Space Shuttle. Now with that result add that to the standard deviation of Rafa's biceps and subtract the amount of teeth in a Red Eared Slider. Simple stuff, I know. I'm on the same level as Carl Sagan. <strong>Nadal</strong> takes this shit.<br /><br />3. Everything is bigger in Texas. At this moment I'm watching Game 2 and it seems the refs really really want Dallas to win. Therefore <strong>Dallas</strong> will win Game 3.<br /><br />4. God I hate Boston. However now when I think of Boston I think of "The Town." And when I think of "The Town," I can think of Blake Lively and her naked pictures on the internet. Blake Lively is probably the hottest girl in the universe. When I see her I get sucked into a boner black hole that I don't emerge from for at least three days. Shit, now I'm going to miss my weekend. Fuck you Boston. <strong>Go Canucks!</strong><br /><br />5. <strong>Three sweeps.</strong> I asked a baseball expert. Thanks Nolan Ryan, now go beat up Robin Ventura again.<br /><br />6. Swetha and Sabreena, the most dangerous pair in the Pick Six. Not most dangerous in that they'll win, but they might lecture you on the validity of WNBA fundamentals. No one cares about that. Seriously. S & S showed me a four hour long powerpoint presentation on why two handed layups are more advantageous than one handed layups. Then they tried to prove the WNBA was awesome by showing Candace Parker "dunking." Remember when she won the McD's dunk contest with her "no-look" dunk. That was dumb. Just like S & S. Shit yea I'm talking shit. Bring it on what up. They will get <strong>three points</strong> over the first five questions.<br /><br />Gloves are off now. I'm coming for everyone.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-596907529873724952011-05-31T09:22:00.002-04:002011-05-31T09:24:51.142-04:00Just so y'all know<em>As mentioned last week, Seth Curry Saves Duke! will be on a summer schedule for the next two months. This means a longer post Monday, and the Pick Six on Friday. There may be more posts sprinkled in occasionally, but for the most part, probably not.<br /><br />The first longer Monday post, about the many planets in the soccer solar system, is below. See you Friday.</em>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-32537365246835529422011-05-29T17:57:00.008-04:002011-06-07T13:36:31.969-04:00La La LaPost temporarily removed...SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-66783180813375842662011-05-25T20:47:00.003-04:002011-05-25T20:48:23.137-04:00A Tribute to Nolan SmithI wrote a thing about Nolan Smith for my friends over at Ballin' is a Habit.<br /><br />You can check it out here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ballinisahabit.net/2011/05/saying-goodbye-nolan-smith.html">Saying Goodbye: Nolan Smith</a>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-79945114293183207292011-05-24T21:46:00.005-04:002011-05-24T22:35:45.050-04:00Sorry, My FriendsAs you may or may not be aware, depending on how often you check this here blog, I've been absent without explanation the past couple days. Sorry about that. I'm at a summer internship that's been incredibly busy (a good thing), and until tonight I didn't have the internet at my new, temporary digs.<br /><br />The 'ship lasts until the end of July, and my original plan was to update at night and post in the morning. Unfortunately, it looks like that probably won't be possible, so here's the the new plan:<br /><br />*2 posts per week. We'll still do the Pick Six, since it's not that complicated for me, and I'll post something of my own on Monday. Less frequency is crappy, but I'm hoping to be able to do more feature-y type pieces since I'll have some weekend time to write.<br /><br />Once August rolls around, things should be back to the normal schedule. Oh, and I still intend to get the new site up and running. I swear.<br /><br />Until Friday, here's a picture of an astronaut in the sea. I call it "Dude Went The Wrong Way."<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/astronaut-01.jpg?w=640&h=480"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="http://sethcurrysavesduke.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/astronaut-01.jpg?w=640&h=480" border="0" alt="" /></a>SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-53273468664576005212011-05-20T08:28:00.004-04:002011-05-20T10:07:18.245-04:00THE FRIDAY PICK SIX! Volume Four, Week TwoLife is starting to get back to normal. My little mini-vacation is over, the Yankees are winning baseball games, and the comments section is full of angry people. If the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2072748,00.html">world ends tomorrow</a>, I'll go out with a nice sense of stability. (Side note: what I really love about apocalypse predictions is that the predictor always puts themselves squarely on the line; according to Harold Camping, armageddon starts tomorrow with <em>207 million people</em> dying. That's a bold-as-hell call, and there's no half measures. When tomorrow ends normally with about 155,000 people dying, as usual, he will be flat-fuck wrong, and all his followers will abandon him and he'll be a laughingstock. There can be no equivocating. Which, in a way, you have to admire.)<br /><br />Stability aside, holy shit dudes...holy shit. This week of Pick Six is by far the most contentious, bitter installment to date. Some folks (two, actually) have serious gripes, all joking aside, and they're letting it spill forth in the rant. I think we've embarked upon the angriest volume yet.<br /><br />I'll let the internet warriors speak for themselves. Vamos.<br /><br /><br /><center><strong><font size="7"><u>THE FRIDAY PICK SIX</u></font><br /><br /><br /><font size="5">VOLUME FOUR, WEEK TWO</font></center></strong><br /><center><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OjnIj5XyuJI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br />The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:<br /><br /><strong><u>VOLUME FOUR</strong></u><br /><br />Here's how it looks:<br /><br /><em>The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust):</em> Swetha & Sabreena<br /><em>Purgatory Part 1:</em> Marc, Monty<br /><em>Newcomers:</em> Craig & Tim, Tim B., John<br /><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/pick-six-volume-four-introductions.html">Volume Four Intros</a><br />-<a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/05/blogger-stole-my-comments.html">Week One</a><br /><br /><strong><u>THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS</strong></u><br /><br />1. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/10/pick-six-our-first-champion-is-crowned.html">Tom</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2010/12/pick-six-champion-is-crowned.html">Mike</a><br />3. <a href="http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2011/02/pick-6-champion-is-crowned.html">Patrick and Dylan</a><br /><br /><u><strong>Current Standings</u></strong><br /><br />1. Swetha & Sabreena - 2<br />2. Monty - 2<br />3. Tim B. - 2<br />4. John - 1<br />5. Marc - 0<br />6. Craig & Tim - 0<br /><br />The gents who ended with straight zeros got roped in by the Boston Temptation. The Tampa Bay Lightning ruined their day, and they ended the weekend where they began it, with zero points. S&S, Monty, and Tim B. hacked their way to 2 points apiece, but it was a low-scoring affair all around.<br /><br />Time for this week's docket:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. The Mavs and Thunder play Saturday afternoon. It's game 3, so it's in OKC. Who scores more points: Westbrook, Durant, or Nowitzki?<br /><br />2. Interleague fun! There are 14 interleague series' this weekend played between Friday and Sunday. That makes 42 games total. Who wins the most, AL or NL?<br /><br />3. It must be lonely being the two NL teams during interleague weekend who suffer from the league imbalance and don't get to play an AL team. This weekend, it's the Rockies and Brewers. Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez pitches Sunday, and Zack Greinke pitches for the Brew Crew on Friday. Both have ERAs above 6. Which formerly great pitcher goes deeper into his game?<br /><br />4. Yanks-Mets. Who will get more hits over the 3-game series between Curtis Granderson and Jose Reyes?<br /><br />5. Sunday is game 3 between the Bulls and Heat in Miami. Will any individual player score more than 30 points?<br /><br />6. TEMPTATION PARLAY: For 5 HUGE points, enough to catapult anyone into the lead, pick the outcome of any 5 of the following: NHL game, NBA game, or MLB series. If you attempt this and fail, you lose 3 points. Anyone who refuses to attempt the parlay loses 1 point for cowardice.</blockquote><br />We begin, like last week, with the recent grads:<br /><br /><center><strong><u>Swetha & Sabreena</strong></center></u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AEN1935SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />First off, damn you James Harden and your refusal to see a dentist. Secondly, this is easily the most uneasy we've ever felt about our picks. With that out of the way...<br /><br />1. Dallas really has to win this game, not because of that must-win garbage that analysts spew around this early in the series, but because (spoiler alert!) we have picked them in the temptation. But based on game 2, the Mavs will likely win if Durant is quiet AND the Dallas bench has a killer effort, meaning Dirk won’t have to score a whole lot of points. Also, we figure Russell Wes is going to be a little pissed at his benching and is due for a trigger-happy game. So we’re taking the dark horse. <strong>RUSSELL WESTBROOK.</strong><br /><br />2. We thought about actually looking at all of the matchups and seeing if there was some sort of imbalance between both leagues, but that proved to be kind of tedious. So because the majority of our MLB allegiances tend towards the Dodgers (who will likely get swept in their set against the White Sox, but let’s ignore that for now), we’re picking the NL. If only this actually determined home-field in the World Series instead of the damn All-Star Game. <strong>NATIONAL LEAGUE.</strong><br /><br />3. Greinke is still coming back from injury, so he’ll probably be on some sort of pitch count. And Ubaldo did make it seven innings in his last start, so here’s hoping he’s on the upswing. <strong>UBALDO JIMENEZ.</strong><br /><br />4. For how long Shane has gone on about Curtis Granderson, we were pretty shocked to learn that his batting average is only .266 this season, whereas Reyes is sitting at .322 (yes, we actually did research this time!) Smart money says Reyes, even though the Mets pitching is god awful (sorry, Tim B.) <strong>JOSE REYES.</strong><br /><br />5. Only one player has hit the 30-point mark in this series and it was, you guessed it …. Chris Bosh! But we have a good feeling that Derrick Rose will be taking his talents to South Beach and come up with 30 plus. <strong>YES.</strong><br /><br />6. We were thinking about not participating, but then figured we were probably being too conservative this early in the game. Plus, in the chance that we lose the three points, it’s not like we can’t just make them up later when Shane starts inventing new rules.<br /><br /><strong>1. OKC has been awesome at the Ford Center this postseason, and we think they should win, but the Mavs seem to do better as the underdog. DALLAS in GAME 3<br />2. The Cubs suck. Period. RED SOX.<br />3. It’s about time the Yanks started winning. Right? YANKEES.<br />4. The record disparity between Houston and Toronto is the best of the bunch. BLUE JAYS.<br />5. Philly’s got the dream team of Halladay, Lee and Oswalt going. And nothing like facing a former team to get Cliff Lee back in the winning column. PHILLIES.</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Monty</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s1600/Monty.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1y-8S-m3CvzTydhChHa2KsLG4RzXRV2vfpfgXC9iUJldHx6iO8FEBNQAKwA9NuVyxooF-RhBa2RKhmOUH70DA52P7vwk0wgmWeCILPuFQjMXbWDvbxQBJFTSPqbhhflUD4LenXSOMZHKw/s400/Monty.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551677206455079218" /></a><br />First of all - let me say: fuck both Ryan Palmer and Graeme McDowell.<br /><br />1. He's a monster, and he's at home - and also I'm pissed off at Durant for not finishing out the last series in six, which cost me a point. So I'm gonna have to say <strong>Nowitzki.</strong> No one has an answer for him. Anywhere.<br /><br /><br />2. Well, the NL has the best team in baseball, but I'm pretty sure the AL is stronger across the board. <strong>AL.</strong><br /><br /><br />3. Definitely <strong>Greinke.</strong> I have no idea why - other than that I don't know anyone named Ubaldo.<br /><br /><br />4. I just went on a date the other night with a girl who's a Mets fan. She was pretty cool - but I'm picking <strong>Granderson</strong> anyway.<br /><br /><br />5. <strong>Hell no.</strong> Both teams are spreading things around.<br /><br />6. I'm WAY too hung over right now to pick the outcome of 5 anythings - so call me a <strong>coward.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Tim B.</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s1600/Ted.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXOoigpsRh1APysnfbghafQsI9ERPz2Xz-v3Kr-TjiEVrO5kfqxbOpT-b0WhzEAHZI8D0Ce77SQKb4j5pvlFd4xsrzf6B-w0eadvGY08KXwXWRzqoO2wO0JdH-sb3CybUNjGJiyHBoNI/s200/Ted.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603615387759899202" /></a><br />What I’m picking while thankful I don’t have the same relationship with my older brothers that Craig/Tim apparently has with his/theirs:<br /><br />1. Well first of all, I don’t expect Russell Westbrook to ever play the game of basketball again. He’s gonna join Greg Paulus and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCE2XV1or3A">that dude from George Mason</a> in the official “Eric Maynor Owned Me” Facebook group. To be fair, Paulus is in several “[Insert college basketball player] Owned Me” Facebook groups, as John can attest.<br /><br />Dirk has been absurd — I’m not gonna be the one to call him “ridirkulous” — to the point where Around the Horn asked the question “How can Thunder stop Dirk?” and I thought to myself, “What would an NBA fan from the 1980s think about that hilarious, when you think about it, question?” But, Dirk has averaged 26 on the road this postseason, Durant nearly 32 at home, and the fans in OKC are gonna be rocking. <strong>Durant</strong> goes for 34+ to win this one. The game is probably a different story.<br /><br />Side question: At what point in this postseason do we forgive any and all of Dirk Nowitzki’s purported clutch failings? In other words, are we still having the “Dirk is one of the 10 best ever” conversation three weeks from now if he gets to the Finals and loses to a better Heat team?<br /><br />2. The <strong>American League,</strong> as always. (The NL will have a far better playoff bracket this season, though.)<br /><br />3. Both these guys are gonna be fine. The Rockies have barely ever seen Greinke, and the Brewers individually have great numbers against Ubaldo, but Jimenez has had his better starts on the road, and the Milwaukee offense, while good, isn't Colorado’s. <strong>Ubaldo</strong> lasts a touch longer.<br /><br />4. Jose Reyes is 0-for-17 in his career against Saturday starter A.J. Burnett, which is far and away his worst career mark against anybody in baseball. But he’s also like the coolest player ever, and I’m sick of having to defend him to people who don’t understand how awesome it is to watch Jose Reyes play baseball, and so if this question were “Who will get more hits: Jose Reyes or the entire Yankees team” I’d still be picking <strong>Jose Reyes.</strong><br /><br />Curtis Granderson is a gentleman, by the way.<br /><br />5. <strong>Yes.</strong> Juwan Howard. Good thing who we pick to score 30 doesn’t matter.<br /><br />6. I wouldn’t be willing to do a five-team parlay on opening weekend in the SEC this September. But like O.J., if I did do it, here’s how I would have: Heat and Mavs in their Game 3s and the Yankees, Phillies, and Blue Jays. This is just me having my cake and eating it, too. <strong>No thanks.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>John</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s1600/john_avatar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe6rCCoBCqz5yMVvPI8zIG2pN21wyNPIiYaWlO3Zd3gHn1pY9upA4ifvsRywaU47Pg_PuujdFnh7fEZDnRAoWNneKWgI7VhbUate0tVBoc1MatYecPbeOJWIubWx1h_z6P3tG_fi0AMWA/s200/john_avatar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603614546172792978" /></a><br />First of all, I have to give props where they are due: Novak Djokavic has received no love from me over the years, but he made Nadal look like a commoner out there. Nadal was usually 10 feet behind the baseline getting yanked back and forth like he was a marionette of a master puppeteer. Rafa had little answers for the Djoker. I'm pumped for the French (which I hear is being played in France this year! Quelle merveille!)<br /><br />I wish I had more time to address the snobbish comments of fellow contestant “Tim B”. I think his disrespectful statements like hilarious “university” down the road in reference to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill speak for themselves and sound eerily like the tongue-in-cheek characters that our host oft parodies. Yes, that’s right, UNC is a self proclaimed "university" on par with say Phoenix University or ITT Tech, maybe? I'm glad you find it hilarious and cute that us little public schoolers dare say we went to a "university". <br /><br />I used to fall for these little games and refer to Dookies and such, but have since decided that such childish games serve little purpose and end up making the writer appear immature and foolish...Now if my avatar bugs you, well, all’s fair in the sports world…I hope you like teabags! And Megan from the comments...I’m glad you find NHL hockey to have the best/most exciting playoff systems in sports, professional or collegiate. Bold statement. Yes, I’m glad you enjoy staring at a sheet of ice while trying to find a small dot artistically flung this way and that until icing is called. You are a better and more knowledgeable and discerning sports fan than I. I hope that by refraining from going to any more NHL games in my life that I free up a ticket for you at just the right moment. <br /><br />You just couldn’t resist another jape at my institution of higher learning (<queue absurdly haughty voice> “I guess I shouldn't be surprised that John was not willing to put in the leg work; after all, he did go to UNC. “ <have another bite of caviar on water crackers and sip some choice snob juice while the rest of the circle of elites have a nice chuckle at your witticism...an oldie but always a good fallback>). Yes you and your fellow highborn are better than me all around...please sleep well knowing that and lower your expectations of me in the future.<br /><br />1. Well the trendy pick must be Nowitzki with all the press he’s getting. Also, Durant let me down last week...hmmm...He couldn’t let me down again could he? I’m pulling a last minute switch back to the German...I say he pulls out a well sharpened <strong>dirk</strong> and slices his way to a big night.<br /><br />2. I don’t know...according to Wikipedia the AL has won 1808 games versus 1652 to the NL. This 52% percentage is statistically significant (95% CI: 50.6-53.9). Additionally the AL has won for the last 7 years. So I guess I’ll go <strong>AL.</strong><br /><br />3. Tough one...pretty equal as far as the numbers are concerned...it looks like greinke has only pitched a few times this year and so may still be warming up a bit...I say <strong>Greinke</strong> surges to the innings victory<br /><br />4. <strong>Reyes</strong> looks to be playing well...gotta go with him (I admit I don’t know either of these players as a very poor pro sports fan these days).<br /><br />5. Tough call...obviously ‘Bron DWade and Rose could pull this off, even in a relatively close affair...however, I just think this game turns physical and ugly with points hard fought for. I say <strong>NO.</strong><br /><br />6. TEMPTATION PARLAY: I gave this one due consideration. I ended up working backwards here in order to determine a break-even point of expectation. As long as I am interpreting everything correctly, I would have to get all 5 correct in order to get 5 points, otherwise it is -3 (with -1 for a Pass on the Parlay). <br /><br />I would need to be at least 25% confident that I could get all 5 correct in order for this to seem like an even bet: E(points|p=0.25)=0.25(5)+(-3)(0.75)=-1<br /><br />In order to have a 25% chance of getting all 5 correct, I would need to have a 76% chance for each of the 5 picks (0.76^5=0.25)<br /><br />For baseball, in order to be 76% sure of a given series, I would need to believe that my team has a 68% chance of winning each game...this is more than a 2:1 odds.<br />In short, this is not a temptation, but a death trap. I hope that my Duke educated brethren have the confidence it takes to take up this bet so I can (likely) gain 2 points on those that enter. <strong>I EASILY RESIST THE TEMPTATION.</strong><br /><br /><br /><center><strong><u>Marc, aka Mr. Intrigue</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s1600/misterintrigue.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISMNIO2So0bPhHN8MUnOrlp7NZnhfnws0cabhPT3XV2bInHxto6QGihOD5M9CTQCTJzoTAbITu2ZwnBpiXFOsMOhiYIpsdxNj_4HLBUkkSMRnC7cy-NVkGM7xrmD58Hn44ARHXV5VkCc/s320/misterintrigue.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551697449866760258" /></a><br />My first week can be characterized as a complete victory. The trap is set, and when I come surging from behind to crush the competition everyone will be flabbergasted at my impeccable Pick Six abilities. After this week I can wholeheartedly contend that Boston is the worst place in the universe and I'm ashamed at how far it has fallen since the days of revolution.<br /><br />To celebrate my time off between normal school and summer school I ate a lot of shitty food, went to bed extremely early (8 o'clock at one night) and passed out on the floor in a drunken stupor at my girlfriends apartment, in front of her parents, who I had just met for the first time earlier in the week. In the morning the father told me to take care of his daughter, but then he changed his mind and said "Actually she'll probably be taking care of you." My finest hour.<br /><br />On to the sports!<br /><br />1. Dirk went absolutely bonkers in the first game and Durant also had a great game. This one is hard to choose because Westbrook is such a wild card. Some days he's amazing, and other days he pulls his best Bosh impression and attempts to shoot 1-18. Furthermore Westbrook has the wonderful ability of ignoring Kevin Durant. I'm going to have to go with <strong>Durant</strong> to impress the home crowd with the most points!<br /><br />2. Fuck the AL, the DH is bullshit. <strong>NL</strong> 4 lyfe homies<br /><br />3. More baseball, shit. Summer sports are the worst. Yahoo says <strong>Greinke</strong> is better so I'm going with him.<br /><br />4. <strong>Joses Reyes</strong> is a beast. Going with him. Plus he's just soooooooooooooo cute.<br /><br />5. <strong>Yes.</strong><br /><br />6. Here it is, the temptation. I can't resist it. I have to take it. Using my advanced quantum rocketry degree I've figured out that it's mathematically in our favor to take the temptation. There's no debate to this claim. Stephen Hawkings stopped by last night for a beer and he was blown away by my analysis. In fact he even patted me on the back. In reality he ran over me with his wheelchair while laughing in that chilling autotuned voice.<br /><br /><strong>Red Sox over Cubs!<br />OKC over Dallas on Saturday!<br />Vancouver over San Jose on Friday!<br />Braves over Angels!<br />Indians over Reds!</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><center><u>Craig & Tim</u></strong></center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s1600/matrix+jaws+image.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwo9I0UpvxItSus56frJArXwgUqcRV2FuOqeI89Q0Wwvf1tOzXuFJd2rS98FKOAzke7epv1jRLxzM6nvnqRFN7hIa3fiFYByvp2RGYhbJX9PV2GuK9ge8RUoL7zu9laN9iB-QXr2cA-k/s200/matrix+jaws+image.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603632371865673858" /></a><br />Why did I eat Hot Fries immediately before bed? Maybe I'll luck out and have a dream about picking at my teeth with my tongue. Oh....hello. Tim here (not to be confused with Tim-2, / Tim-B, / Tim-Danny-Devito-From-The-Movie-Twins). I'm going to skip the BS and re-emphasize the fact that despite the rough start, we sneeze God particles. I'd also like to make it known that your iPhone sucks, and your lack of knowledge pertaining to the United States Constitution sickens me (that about covers 95% of America, sorry if you were wrongly offended). <br /><br />1. Gotta go with <strong>Durant</strong> at home here. Look for OKC to play better defense at home. 24 of Dirk's deceivingly sexy 48 points the other night were at the line and we don't see that happening again. Durant is a versatile, pure scorer. Dirk is more reliant on the jump shot. If he goes cold on the road, it could be a long night for the rabbit-toothed German. Then again, he could walk right in and fart in the Unitarian church known as the OKC Arena. Tough call, but the fact that "Kevin Durant" is an anagram for "Native Drunk" means that he's the winner this week (and yes I refer to Native using the fire-water drinking version of the term).<br /><br />2. The National League is just...there. I mean I'm a big baseball guy so I appreciate the National League; I respect their devotion to the hitting pitcher, I like the small market club as much as the next guy, but the whole league just kinda sucks. The AL has a record of 1806 and 1652 vs the NL in interleague play, and I don't expect anything different this weekend. <strong>AL takes it.</strong><br /><br />3. On the one hand you have Greinke, who hasn't gotten past 6 innings yet this season...but has yet to walk more than 1 batter in a start. On the other hand, you have Ubaldo who while giving up a ton of runs/walks this year and exiting games early on a consistent basis - is coming off a 7 inning outing in which he only gave up 3 runs. We're going with <strong>Ubaldo</strong> here. I call him Jimmy, because I don't like using foreign accents. <br /><br />4. <strong>Jose Reyes.</strong> And that's all Forest Gump has to say about that. <br /><br />5. <strong>Yes,</strong> there will be a 30 point scorer. Too many scorers here to short change. Still disgusted with the Celtics, so I'll admit we're going through the motions on this one. <br /><br />6. <strong>We refuse to attempt this parlay</strong> and will take the 1 point reduction - for intelligence, not cowardice. I've done enough sports betting (and winning) in my life to know that a 5 team parlay is the last ditch bet of a desperate loser. We will not jeopardize our Pick Six chances on a suckers bet. This next statement may come off as misogynistic (and I don't care), but I bet S&S had to jump on them interwebs and fire up Ask Jeeves to find out what a parlay was. Hopefully they get suckered in and blow it; it would serve them right for their anti-Boston rhetoric. S&S, it would not surprise me if your ignorance led you astray here and you cost yourselves 3 points. At the same time, it would be equally unsurprising if you did not take the chance....after all you have no balls. It's science. <br /><br />Is that it? There's no more questions we can weave demographic-based insults into? Oh well, taking charge in the Pick Six standings will have to do.<br /><br /><center>************</center><br />The gauntlet done been laid. Enjoy the NBA games this weekend, and if you're bored on Sunday afternoon, check out Duke lacrosse in the quarters against Notre Dame at 2:30 on ESPN2. See you Monday.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-79783522040780168692011-05-19T09:11:00.005-04:002011-05-19T10:25:26.755-04:00Sports Shorts<strong><u>Robinson Cano Improves 15th-Inning Batting Average by 1.000 Points</u></strong><br /><br />With a <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310518101">2-RBI double</a> in the 15th inning against the Baltimore Orioles, Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano sent his career 15th-inning batting average skyrocketing from .000 to 1.000, a record-tying turnaround.<br /><br />"It feels good to have the monkey off my back," said Cano, who hails from the Dominican Republic. "I am now the best 15th-inning hitter in baseball, and nobody can take that away from me."<br /><br />After the game, his Yankee teammates mobbed him by the dugout, fully aware of Cano's woeful numbers in the 6th extra inning.<br /><br />"I'm really happy for Robbie," said right fielder Nick Swisher. "You never like to admit it, but it was certainly on his mind. That can weigh on you, as a person and a player." Swisher, who was replaced for defensive purposes in the 9th inning, could be seen weeping as the game continued into extra innings, well aware that he was missing his chance at history.<br /><br />Yankee manager Joe Girardi expressed cautious optimism about Cano's feat. "It's certainly a step in the right direction," he said. "But Robbie has to realize he can't rest on his laurels. When you look at the numbers, there's a lot of work left to be done. He's still batting .000 in innings 16-47, and I know he expects more of himself than that."<br /><br /><br /><strong><u>Joel Anthony, NBA's Best Player, Leads Heat to Game 2 Victory</u></strong><br /><br />The Miami Heat have evened their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Chicago Bulls at one game apiece behind the efforts of Joel Anthony, the best player in the NBA.<br /><br />Anthony, the team's star center, held the Bulls to a playoff low 75 points, including just 10 in the fourth quarter.<br /><br />"It was a great night," Anthony said. "Anytime I can personally hold Derrick Rose to just 7-23 shooting, I know I have a good chance to win the game."<br /><br />Playing before a hostile crowd at Chicago's United Center, Anthony was unfazed. He limited Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng to a combined 20 points, gave the team a spark through reserve forward Udonis Haslem, and prevented Bulls sharpshooter Kyle Korver to just one three in five chances.<br /><br />"You can measure greatness in so many ways," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, "but true excellence means elevating your teammates. Tonight, we saw Joel inspire LeBron and Dwyane to score 53 combined points, and those are the little things that make the difference."<br /><br />Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau agreed. "Joel Anthony was just too much tonight," he said. "Some of the stuff he had LeBron doing at the end of the game...we just couldn't handle it."<br /><br />Anthony, who wears a bright purple jersey that says "The Best!" in neon green letters, grabbed 2 rebounds and scored 0 points in 22 minutes of action.<br /><br /><br /><strong><u>For 110th Straight Time, French Open to be Held in France</u></strong><br /><br />Satellite photographs taken yesterday above the Stade Roland Garros in Paris indicate that this year's French Open will once again be played in France.<br /><br />The photos, taken from a distance of more than 4,000 feet, show workers preparing the many clay courts for what appears to be a tennis tournament. With the French Open set to begin this Sunday, it's all but assured that the timing is not coincidental.<br /><br />"The French Open has been played at Roland Garros since 1928," said French tennis expert Gilbert L'Estrade. "It's important not to make any assumptions, but these photographs seem to be showing that in 2011, nothing has changed."<br /><br />Fury quickly spread around the tennis world.<br /><br />"It's a bloody disgrace," said Liam Holder, the head of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, which has held the Wimbledon tournament since 1877. "The unforgiving regionalism and prejudice of the French has reared its ugly head again."<br /><br />Others shrugged off the news.<br /><br />"Yes, it would be nice to have the tournament in a different country," said defending champion Rafael Nadal. "But these things are complicated, and we must give them time."<br /><br />Many experts thought the French Tennis Association would take notice of the example set by the Madrid Open, which held its tournament in Johannesburg, South Africa this year. But FTA prime minister Francoise Lambert remained steadfast.<br /><br />"The French Open will forever be in France," he said before an raucous crowd of nationalists. "And beginning in 2014, it shall be open only to French players."<br /><br /><br /><strong><u>ESPN.com Can't Find Score for Last Night's Sharks-Canucks Game</u></strong><br /><br />As of 10am eastern time, ESPN.com's NHL division still could not get a score for last night's western conference finals match-up between the San Jose Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks.<br /><br />The game, held in Vancouver, is thought to have ended sometime last night around 10pm eastern time. In the twelve hours since, desperate phone calls and e-mails have gone unanswered as executives try desperately to find the result.<br /><br />"We don't really know anybody in Vancouver," said NHL Division Chief Thomas Stuart. "One of our interns had a friend who moved there a couple months ago, but the kid turned out to be a total hippie who had no idea about hockey, and none of his friends could help us either."<br /><br />After exhausting their personal connections and finding themselves no closer to the score, ESPN workers attempted to contact local newspapers.<br /><br />"It was awful," said marketing coordinator Jim Erickson. "I was screaming out, 'does anyone know of a fucking newspaper in Vancouver??!' We couldn't even scratch the surface."<br /><br />"Nobody even really knew where San Jose was located," said second-year administrative assistant Bethany Little. "I mean, is it in Oregon? Canada? We may never know."<br /><br />ESPN staff was unable to remember any player or coach's name from either team, and the entire department deleted all NHL contact info from their cell phones last November. "We thought they'd call us if something important was happening," said Erickson.<br /><br />One ESPN vice president had saved Mario Lemieux's phone number from the 90s, but all calls went straight to voicemail. Later, a staffer was able to use 411 to find the number of the arena in Vancouver. Earlier this morning, someone answered the line, but through the scratchy connection it became apparent that it was a representative from a beauty pageant scheduled to be held in the arena later this afternoon. The woman had no idea about a hockey game.<br /><br />At approximately 9:30am, ESPN writers were ordered to post a <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=310518022">fake story</a> about last night's game with a fabricated score and story based on rosters found on a rudimentary fan website. According to the fictional account, which is accompanied by streaming video from a 1997 game, Vancouver scored 4 goals in the 3rd period to win 7-3.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5974487880746995076.post-28628512787295671532011-05-18T09:23:00.009-04:002011-05-22T16:08:53.401-04:00Duke Can't Spell: Why UNC is Trouncing us on the Recruiting TrailThis was a <a href="http://deadspin.com/5802856/dook-loses-elite-recruit-after-repeatedly-misspelling-his-name">hard one</a> to read.<br /><br />Deadspin reported, wrongly, according to some, that PJ Hairston officially announced that he'll be attending UNC.* The kinda sad part of that story is that the recruiting letters Hairston got from Duke spelled his name wrong. The really sad part is that his decision to go elsewhere came about because he thought of the Blue Devil system as 'mechanical.'<br /><br />Which, you know...he ain't wrong.<br /><br />It would be hard to argue that Duke has a free-flowing system, especially when compared to UNC. We're not exactly some fundamental Indiana high school squad from 1951, but we're a far cry from 'loose.' Hairston is somewhere 6'4" and 6'6", depending on who you ask, and you can see some highlights <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaa_WEbHUO0">here</a>.<br /><br />The question becomes: did he make the right choice? If you were a swingman like Hairston, someone who could shoot and penetrate, would you rather play for Coach K or Roy Williams? There haven't been a ton of Dukies lately who resemble Hairston. We've had shooters, like Redick, who use the regimented system to come off pick after pick and get their points on shots. We've had players like Nolan this year, who thrived when given the freedom of the point guard position but looked like a flickering shadow of himself when subjected to the restrictions of the 2-guard slot.<br /><br />But really, who was our last great non-point guard slasher? Please don't tell me Singler. Scheyer doesn't fit the bill, even before he was point. I guess you could argue Gerald Henderson, but he never seemed like he was at ease within the system and his performances were hugely inconsistent. Before that, maybe Deng? If I'm missing someone, let me know, but none are springing to mind at the moment.<br /><br />What I'm saying is, Hairston probably made the right decision. And if that's true, it's just another example of Roy having a recruiting leg up on the Devils. We already know Duke can't land a big man; why would any promising center go to Durham with the track record they've established over the last decade? Good power forwards have been few and far between, and the failures of players like Shavlik Randolph are more pronounced than any success.<br /><br />And it's worth taking a deeper look at Hairston's language: 'mechanical.' Is it just me, or is there a pretty obvious racial component to that word choice? Some will agree with me, and some will say I'm stretching, but I think 'mechanical' conveys whiteness. Something restricted, something militaristic, something in opposition to the free-flowing black game where players like Hairston will thrive. And whether you agree with me or not, you can absolutely bet that recruiters are exploiting that angle. Do you think Hairston spent hours studying Duke game tape, or analyzing their set offense? Maybe. But I bet words like 'mechanical' come from recruiters. That's what they whisper in his ear. <br /><br />And if you're Hairston, hearing that, with your own worries about whether you'll fit in to a stifling Duke culture, maybe the misspelled name becomes a bigger deal. Maybe you see that kind of an error as an indication that Duke just sees you as a cog in a machine, that they don't care enough about your individuality to even get your name right. PJ? TJ? Makes no difference. Unless you're white or the son of an NBA star, you're nothing but a name to fill a position at Duke.<br /><br />Mind you, I don't think that's true. But I do think it might be easy to convince someone like Hairston of the fact. I don't think the extreme racial perceptions of Jalen Rose persist to the same extent today, but you can bet they linger in a tamer form. Instead of "Uncle Tom," milder words like 'mechanical' are used. But the two are not unrelated, and it's clear from Duke's recruiting record that Coach K (for one reason or another) does not have a foothold in the urban black community. That reality, it seems, is half circumstance and half choice. How aggressively do we pursue those kids anymore? How much was Coach K turned off by swallowing bitter pills like William Avery? <br /><br />Whatever the mix, Duke is crucially separated from a vast and rich source of basketball talent. Unfortunately, the team's style plays right into the hands of those who would exploit that image of separation. At this point, it seems like Duke's recruiting prowess is limited to excellent point guards and shooting guards.<br /><br />As I've discussed before, that's good and bad. Good because the style is pretty high scoring and three-point shot heavy. Bad because it creates teams that aren't built for endurance or March success.<br /><br />If you look at the overall pattern of Duke basketball since 2003, you have to see 2010 as an anomaly. The fortunate and surprising emergence of Zoubek and Thomas as ironclad enforcers underneath, along with a down year in the NCAA, created a perfect storm for a title. This past March looked a lot more like what we've come to expect from Duke, with an athletic team getting hot and sending us home early.<br /><br />All of which means that we can probably count on UNC winning another title, even another two titles, before Duke breaks through again. It's impossible to predict how a season will develop, but as of now it would surprise me if UNC wasn't at least in the Final Four next season. It was wonderful watching the Dukies excel behind senior leadership this year, and the win in the ACC title game was glorious, but the truth is that was just a stepping stone for Roy and his young team. You could even call it a good loss. This time in 2012, we might see it as a crucial step in the construction of a championship team.<br /><br />As we've seen, there's a delicate balance between recruiting college players who are championship caliber and recruiting guys who will stay for more than a year. You don't want to be Calipari, but you also don't want to be stuck with the Greg Pauluses of the world for four years.<br /><br />Roy, you have to say, has found a way to toe that line and get the best of both worlds. What can you say about next year's Carolina team? Sure, luck is involved; you could argue that Barnes would never have stuck around if his season had started the way it ended. But now, Roy has his perfect mix of four year guys and raw talent. He found an ideal NCAA point guard in Kendall Marshall, a guy who has already proved his excellence at the college level and yet lacks the natural gifts to go early to the pros. He has the best big man tandem in the country in Zeller and Henson, two guys who complement each other's gifts, an offensive and defensive specialist. He got Barnes to return, a guy who could compete for Player of the Year. And he's got a supporting cast of returning players and fresh recruits from which, at any point, a star might emerge.<br /><br />And he also seems to have perfectly bridged the racial line. He feeds the UNC dixie faithful their Hansbroughs and Zellers, but he also gets the best black players from all walks of life, and he does it while maintaining UNC's strong academic reputation. He's halfway between Coach K and Calipari. Or, better yet, he's standing solidly atop the mountain while those rivals are trying to scramble up the rocky slopes on either side.<br /><br />Which is why it was so comical to hear UNC fans sound their negativity this season. I know there's never supposed to be a rebuilding year at Carolina, and I know the negative feelings from 2009 were still fresh, but the lack of perspective was still surprising. I wonder if they'd rather have a program like Duke, with its sustained medioxcellence- a new word I just invented to classify a program that is always nominally among the elite yet requires extraordinary circumstances to compete for a title- rather than a team that obeys a natural ebb and flow, riding waves of talent, floundering a bit in the low tide days but finding themselves positioned for a championship at least every three years.<br /><br />Meanwhile, what do we see for Duke's future? Second in the ACC next season is probably a good bet. Austin Rivers will be the star, and he'll shoot a lot and score a lot of points in some games. Carolina will probably beat us both times during the regular season. Maybe the Heels will lose early in the ACC tournament and we'll win that. Then, in the second round or the Sweet 16, Rivers will go cold for a game and some athletic team will absolutely expose us underneath, and we'll be gone. And we'll sit at home and watch UNC win another title.<br /><br />Maybe that's how it'll go, and maybe not. But the critical point here is that we <em>expect</em> it play out like that. At least if we're paying attention.<br /><br />In today's ACC, it's Carolina's world. And Hairston's saga gives us insight into the perception of all the stars that will come into the college game in the near future. Duke is 'mechanical.' Duke is rigid. Duke is, when you get down to it, white. Duke will not allow you the freedom of expression you need to become a top draft pick. Duke is no place for big men, unless you want to end up in Europe or competing for playing time with goofs like the Plumlees. <br /><br />"Duke is a great school," as Hairston said in a conciliatory gesture, and everybody claims to respect the program. But it's a different kind of great school, and a different kind of respectable program. There's a wide chasm that's been developing for a decade, and both sides seem increasingly accepting of the separation. But while Coach K builds the same kind of team he's built for years and suffers the same noble losses each March, Roy will be laughing all the way to the Final Four.SPRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786996249022843460noreply@blogger.com51