A Possible Future
5 weeks ago
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
2.01.2009
Hell almost froze over...
...until Santonio Holmes made sure it didn't. Congrats to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the only NFL team to have won 6 Super Bowls.
6.29.2008
The Yankees and Barry Bonds
Alright, a quick update on the state of Yankees Baseball.
Right now, they are 44-38 and 5 1/2 games out of first place- 5 games out of the wild card lead. There's plenty of time to erase those game margins from now until October- honestly, we've overcome worse deficits in the past. For a little bit, it looked like things were really clicking- A-Rod hitting one out for 4 days straight, Giambi (mustached and) playing like he did 2001, Wang figuring it out again and shutting teams down, Jeter, Abreu, and Cano all breaking out of their slumps, Petitte pitching like a no. 1 starter, Joba is now a full-time starter, Matsui hitting .330+, Damon hitting .330+, Mariano is pitching out-of-his-mind- yep it looked great. It was during this streak the Yankees left .500 ball behind them winning 8 in a row.
But not all good things go on forever. First Wang goes down and may be out for the season- we had to rely on Dan Giese and Sidney Ponson to start a double header against the Mets a few days ago. Then Damon and Giambi are on mini-slides starting bring them out of the stratosphere while Melky seems to have forgotten how to hit and Cano seems to be reverting to early season form. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that those slumps will really last. Our bulpen's inexperience is beginning to show as Edwar and Ohlendorf had a couple of trip ups and we just split a series with the Mets- THE FREAKIN' METS!
The guys over at noMaas.org (one of my favorite Yankee blogs) had an interesting suggestion: sign Barry Bonds. Apparently Bonds says he just wants to play, willing to sign for the veteran's minimum salary. In fact, Bonds' agent Scott Borris said that Bonds "would play for free - offering to donate whatever salary he receives to purchase tickets for children. (source)"
My response: just do it.
Barry Bonds put up a .480 on base percentage last season. In other words, he ended up on base nearly half the time he stepped up at bat. That's ridiculous.
Everyone knows what Bonds can do with a bat by launching a ball at any given moment (if pitched to). Imagine this as your batters 1 through 6: Damon (LF), Jeter (SS), Abreu (RF), A-Rod (3B), Bonds (DH), Giambi (1B). Each of those guys have the potential to crank the ball out at every at bat, each of those guys can take more than 5 pitches an at bat, each of those guys are tough outs. After those 6 batters, a pitcher might very well have spent 50 pitches in one or two innings! I don't care who pitches against that line up, they'll struggle.
Bonds doesn't have to play DH either. With Matsui perhaps ending up on the DL, Bonds could be put out in LF and I'm sure if you give him a glove, he could handle 1B at least to Giambi's defensive standards.
Sign Barry Bonds, it makes the Yankees better.
Right now, they are 44-38 and 5 1/2 games out of first place- 5 games out of the wild card lead. There's plenty of time to erase those game margins from now until October- honestly, we've overcome worse deficits in the past. For a little bit, it looked like things were really clicking- A-Rod hitting one out for 4 days straight, Giambi (mustached and) playing like he did 2001, Wang figuring it out again and shutting teams down, Jeter, Abreu, and Cano all breaking out of their slumps, Petitte pitching like a no. 1 starter, Joba is now a full-time starter, Matsui hitting .330+, Damon hitting .330+, Mariano is pitching out-of-his-mind- yep it looked great. It was during this streak the Yankees left .500 ball behind them winning 8 in a row.
But not all good things go on forever. First Wang goes down and may be out for the season- we had to rely on Dan Giese and Sidney Ponson to start a double header against the Mets a few days ago. Then Damon and Giambi are on mini-slides starting bring them out of the stratosphere while Melky seems to have forgotten how to hit and Cano seems to be reverting to early season form. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that those slumps will really last. Our bulpen's inexperience is beginning to show as Edwar and Ohlendorf had a couple of trip ups and we just split a series with the Mets- THE FREAKIN' METS!
The guys over at noMaas.org (one of my favorite Yankee blogs) had an interesting suggestion: sign Barry Bonds. Apparently Bonds says he just wants to play, willing to sign for the veteran's minimum salary. In fact, Bonds' agent Scott Borris said that Bonds "would play for free - offering to donate whatever salary he receives to purchase tickets for children. (source)"
My response: just do it.
Barry Bonds put up a .480 on base percentage last season. In other words, he ended up on base nearly half the time he stepped up at bat. That's ridiculous.
Everyone knows what Bonds can do with a bat by launching a ball at any given moment (if pitched to). Imagine this as your batters 1 through 6: Damon (LF), Jeter (SS), Abreu (RF), A-Rod (3B), Bonds (DH), Giambi (1B). Each of those guys have the potential to crank the ball out at every at bat, each of those guys can take more than 5 pitches an at bat, each of those guys are tough outs. After those 6 batters, a pitcher might very well have spent 50 pitches in one or two innings! I don't care who pitches against that line up, they'll struggle.
Bonds doesn't have to play DH either. With Matsui perhaps ending up on the DL, Bonds could be put out in LF and I'm sure if you give him a glove, he could handle 1B at least to Giambi's defensive standards.
Sign Barry Bonds, it makes the Yankees better.
6.05.2008
4.03.2008
Race is being run again
I'm not sure what it is, but race is back in mainstream American discourse. Between Barak Obama being the leading candidate for the Democratic Party, the illegal immigration question, the best collegiate basketball player being white (Tyler Hansborough), to even something as simple and picking ones head up and simply looking around in a class room, a cafeteria, an office, the street- race is back as an issue in American discourse. It's such a coincidence for me personally considering how much race itself has been a pivotal point in so many of my classes (Modern European History, Asian American Politics, American Grand Strategy).
Let me start with what I understand 'race' to be. The word itself is fairly modern in that people didn't talk about 'race' in Ancient Greece. In America, the notion of race has been attached to phenotypical connotations stemming from the days of American slavery. Dark-skinned Africans made up most of the underclass as slaves while light-skinned Europeans made the ruling class of masters creating a notion of racial hierarchy that has persisted today. Although slavery itself was abolished after the American Civil War, the concept of race and racial disparity has been encoded into the American legal and judicial system both intentionally and unintentionally. It wasn't until the civil rights movement in the 1960s that these institutionalized notions of race and hierarchy were addressed for, in many cases, the first time. Mind you this is being very brief but now, we have a man many would identify as 'black' as a legitimate candidate for President.
Race, beyond being associated to notions of class, also has come to represent a key part of peoples' identity. For example, one of the many things shaping my personal identity is as a Korean American living in the United States. Because of this, we get a "chicken or the egg"-like argument where race has been used to create a schema for people in the United States- namely through the use of stereotypes. There are enough harmful and dangerous stereotypes (the black underclass stereotype for one example) as well as many relatively benign ones (white people can't play basketball for example) too.
Alright, now that I've provided a little background of race in the United State as a schema, let me get to what caught my interest.
LZ Granderson, a writer for ESPN, wrote this article aptly titled "White men can't jump?" Now, I'm a huge sports fan because I have primal urges to associate myself to a larger association of people (fans) and that pro sports is every bit a part of American culture as music, cinema, current events, et cetera.
Professional sports for the last 50 years have developed and perpetuated specific racial stereotypes. LZ Granderson takes a look at this type of racial stereotyping that's prevalent throughout pro sports today. Tyler Hansborough and Kevin Love are outstanding collegiate basketball players but enough basketball pundits out there don't really consider them blue chip prospects for the NBA draft on nothing else outside of skin color. This kind of thing is seen in other sports as well, for example football: black quarterback, white wide receiver and white cornerback are all oxymorons to a lot of football fans. I hate to make it sound so academic- at the moment I can't really help it. But I really suggest you go and read this particular article.
Here it is again.
Let me start with what I understand 'race' to be. The word itself is fairly modern in that people didn't talk about 'race' in Ancient Greece. In America, the notion of race has been attached to phenotypical connotations stemming from the days of American slavery. Dark-skinned Africans made up most of the underclass as slaves while light-skinned Europeans made the ruling class of masters creating a notion of racial hierarchy that has persisted today. Although slavery itself was abolished after the American Civil War, the concept of race and racial disparity has been encoded into the American legal and judicial system both intentionally and unintentionally. It wasn't until the civil rights movement in the 1960s that these institutionalized notions of race and hierarchy were addressed for, in many cases, the first time. Mind you this is being very brief but now, we have a man many would identify as 'black' as a legitimate candidate for President.
Race, beyond being associated to notions of class, also has come to represent a key part of peoples' identity. For example, one of the many things shaping my personal identity is as a Korean American living in the United States. Because of this, we get a "chicken or the egg"-like argument where race has been used to create a schema for people in the United States- namely through the use of stereotypes. There are enough harmful and dangerous stereotypes (the black underclass stereotype for one example) as well as many relatively benign ones (white people can't play basketball for example) too.
Alright, now that I've provided a little background of race in the United State as a schema, let me get to what caught my interest.
LZ Granderson, a writer for ESPN, wrote this article aptly titled "White men can't jump?" Now, I'm a huge sports fan because I have primal urges to associate myself to a larger association of people (fans) and that pro sports is every bit a part of American culture as music, cinema, current events, et cetera.
Professional sports for the last 50 years have developed and perpetuated specific racial stereotypes. LZ Granderson takes a look at this type of racial stereotyping that's prevalent throughout pro sports today. Tyler Hansborough and Kevin Love are outstanding collegiate basketball players but enough basketball pundits out there don't really consider them blue chip prospects for the NBA draft on nothing else outside of skin color. This kind of thing is seen in other sports as well, for example football: black quarterback, white wide receiver and white cornerback are all oxymorons to a lot of football fans. I hate to make it sound so academic- at the moment I can't really help it. But I really suggest you go and read this particular article.
Here it is again.
3.31.2008
Opening Day
Today is baseball's official opening day (despite the Red Sox and A's playing a couple games in Japan already a couple of days ago). A bunch of teams kicked off their seasons- the Yankees have to wait an extra day because of a rain out. This means the last season opener at Yankee Stadium will be a night game- that's a little strange. Let me talk a little about the Yankees this year.
ESPN seems to hate the Yankees- no one predicts that the Yankees will win it all, only one person predicts that the Yankees will win the division. This is contrary to almost every SABRmetic prediction estimating that the Yankees will win about 94 games over Boston's 92- assuming the Blue Jays and Rays (no more "Devil") remain who they are, that would mean the Yankees are predicted to win the division by most "SABRmatricians". To further shame ESPN and their predictions, only one of 4 analysts correctly guessed the total average number of wins per team in 2008: 81. How do you not know that? Isn't that just basic math? Each team plays 162 games, there must be a winner and loser in each game, thus the average number of wins per team should be exactly half of 162- 81.
I'm particulaly excited about the Yankees this year. First, we have three young and promising pitches in Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlin and Ian Kennedy. As a Yankee fan, you have to be excited- this group can potentially end up as a Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz for us. Second, a we have a new intelligent manager in Joe Giardi- no longer will I have to wonder if the manager is asleep during the game. He'll manage the bullpen much better, using more than the 3 people Torre seemed to abuse. Third, the future is so bright I need sunglasses, but the present ain't all that bad in itself.
Like I mentioned, most SABRmatricians predict a very Yankee season out of these Yankees. At the very least, our starting pitching will be better. Wang and Pettite will be about the same, Mussina can't be as bad as he was last year (it was statistically a ridiculously unlucky year for the guy), and the combination of Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlin in the back end of the rotation has to be better than the parade of mediocre-at-best pitchers filling in the 4 and 5 spots last year. Our bench is quite solid as well- Wilson Betemit, Morgan Endsburg, Shelly Duncan, Jose Mollina could all easily be starting on another team. Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are all in good shape and seemed promising in the spring.
It's good to be a Yankee fan.
In the end, screw baseball, when's the NFL draft?
ESPN seems to hate the Yankees- no one predicts that the Yankees will win it all, only one person predicts that the Yankees will win the division. This is contrary to almost every SABRmetic prediction estimating that the Yankees will win about 94 games over Boston's 92- assuming the Blue Jays and Rays (no more "Devil") remain who they are, that would mean the Yankees are predicted to win the division by most "SABRmatricians". To further shame ESPN and their predictions, only one of 4 analysts correctly guessed the total average number of wins per team in 2008: 81. How do you not know that? Isn't that just basic math? Each team plays 162 games, there must be a winner and loser in each game, thus the average number of wins per team should be exactly half of 162- 81.
I'm particulaly excited about the Yankees this year. First, we have three young and promising pitches in Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlin and Ian Kennedy. As a Yankee fan, you have to be excited- this group can potentially end up as a Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz for us. Second, a we have a new intelligent manager in Joe Giardi- no longer will I have to wonder if the manager is asleep during the game. He'll manage the bullpen much better, using more than the 3 people Torre seemed to abuse. Third, the future is so bright I need sunglasses, but the present ain't all that bad in itself.
Like I mentioned, most SABRmatricians predict a very Yankee season out of these Yankees. At the very least, our starting pitching will be better. Wang and Pettite will be about the same, Mussina can't be as bad as he was last year (it was statistically a ridiculously unlucky year for the guy), and the combination of Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlin in the back end of the rotation has to be better than the parade of mediocre-at-best pitchers filling in the 4 and 5 spots last year. Our bench is quite solid as well- Wilson Betemit, Morgan Endsburg, Shelly Duncan, Jose Mollina could all easily be starting on another team. Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are all in good shape and seemed promising in the spring.
It's good to be a Yankee fan.
In the end, screw baseball, when's the NFL draft?
3.15.2008
Watching the waiver wires....
This is a bad, bad move. Why are the Yankees doing this? Why? He has so much promise! If you don't know what I'm talking about, the Yankees released this prospect today. I mean, c'mon! One bad at-bat- that's it! Sure he struck out, but the Yankees never gave the guy a chance to show what he could do. He was DHing for Christssakes! I'm sure he could have flashed some leather to win at least the utility infielder spot away from former Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzalez.
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