A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
It’s that time of year, dear readers! The 2008-09 NBA season is starting tonight, so that means it’s time to check out the official Virtual Memories NBA Season Preview!
Sure, you might want to go straight to the team-by-team previews, but I think you really want to check out contributor Tom Spurgeon’s great intro essay, Where Amazing Flattened, first!
For some reason, I thought this card would be in black and white:
How long has Jamie been in the big leagues? To quote ESPN columnist Buster Olney,
The folks at the Elias Sports Bureau answered this question: Who are the youngest and oldest hitters he has faced? Tony Perez, born on May 14, 1942, is the oldest, and Justin Upton, born on Aug. 25, 1987, is the youngest. That’s a gap of 45 years, which is almost incomprehensible.
I saw Jamie pitch in Seattle in 2001. He was only 38; when the radar gun showed one of his pitches at 78 mph, fans started shouting, “Drug test him!”
Congrats on making your first World Series appearance, Moyer! Go Phils!
Update: Looks like Jamie might get some post-Series endorsements for Depends.
Possibly the greatest basketball-to-comics non sequitur ever, courtesy of ESPN’s NBA preview article on Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey:
Morey grew up reading Bill James’ Baseball Abstract and later worked for the stats guru, but his geekier tendencies might actually have more to do with his boyhood love of comic book anti-heroes who cut against the grain, figures like Frank Miller’s Dark Knight. “In a league in which 30 teams are competing for one prize, you have to differentiate yourself somehow,” Morey says. “We chose analytics.”
What’s great is that this article is all about using calm, cool reasoning and “analytics” to explain the decision to trade for Ron Artest!
Bonus: Did I mention that the annual Virtual Memories NBA Preview will be posted on Tuesday morning, just in time for the debut of the 2008-2009 season? I just did!
Are you ready for some linkage? I put in some hefty ones, to make up for last week’s hiatus (woop-woop-woop!). Also, because my brain was going to shut off if I listened to any more of the VP debate. Just click more!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Oct. 3, 2008”
I just couldn’t resist that headline after I saw this story.
My favorite part of this Daily News headline is that the News is supposed to be the “smarter” of the two NYC tabloids. Your a genious!
Am I the only guy who didn’t know that Escalade is the younger brother of Mark Jackson?
I feel kinda bad that I stopped paying attention to Hurricane Ike once it took New Orleans and environs off its itinerary. Sure, the people of Houston and its environs have plenty to worry about, but hey.
In fact, Ike’s change of path may have an added benefit! In addition to an election season where we have our first sorta black presidential candidate and our second female vice presidential candidate, Ike may have revealed to us the first out gay player in the NFL!
The Houston Texans, concerned about the timing of Ike’s landfall, have pushed their home game against the Ravens from Sunday afternoon to Monday evening and rescheduled practices to allow players and office staff to take care of their families. But buried in the middle of the article is this paragraph:
Texans tight end Owen Daniels said the hurricane isn’t a distraction and is a bit intrigued at the prospect of going through one. He has a degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences and hopes to be a television weatherman one day.
Far be it from me to stereotype an entire profession, but I think it’s pretty clear that all television weathermen are gay. (Don’t believe me?) Every single one of them. (Especially him.) I’m not sure why that is, but it adds some color to the local news, I guess.
Now, I may be wrong; maybe Mr. Daniels wasn’t speaking in lightly veiled code about his sexual preferences. Still, I hope he embraces this role in bridging the hypermacho NFL and the hypergay weathercasting worlds.
(And I hope that Houston doesn’t get pasted too badly by the storm. Good luck!)
Looking for a bunch of oddball links to ease you into the weekend, dear reader? You’ve come to the right place! Just click “more”!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Sept. 12, 2008”
I’m kinda astonished that the NFL season starts tomorrow night. I figure I’ll order up some pizza on the way home from Amy’s train and watch the Giants begin their defense of the champi —
— oh, who am I kidding? The Giants could go 3-13 this year and I won’t care! They beat the Patriots in the Superbowl and derailed The Perfect Season!
Anyway, I was just clicking around on ESPN.com and noticed that Baltimore’s starting QB Kyle Boller last year is gone for the season. I wondered who’s going to start for new head coach John Harbaugh, and I read the following sentence:
Boller entered the preseason competing for the starting job with Troy Smith and top draft pick Joe Flacco, who ultimately won the job because of Boller’s injury and Smith’s lengthy battle with infected tonsils.
So that means that Baltimore is starting a QB because one of his competitors wrecked his shoulder and the other got tonsilitis.
I know this team won a Superbowl with Trent Dilfer at QB (beating the Giants), but I have a feeling the Ravens fans will be covering their eyes and saying, “Nevermore!” a week or two into the season.