The New Jersey Devils fired coach Lindy Ruff. ESPN.
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
That old devil is at it again…
Monday, March 4th, 2024More tags that I do not get to use often enough.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024Even better, this is sort of a Texas story.
For decades, countless articles and videos using similar verbiage have boasted of their creators gaining unprecedented access to sumo. What follows is inevitably a mishmash of cliche, misinformation, outdated statistics and the all-too-common confusing of amateur sumo with professional.
The reality is that ōzumo, for all its pageantry and uniqueness, is actually one of the most open and accessible top-level professional sports in the world, particularly for amateur athletes from overseas.
Summary: guy up in Dallas runs a sumo club, club holds first tournament successfully, everyone celebrates and places long distance call. Lots of great stories start out this way.
It happened.
And one thing led to another.
Emboldened by that positive experience, and their growing friendship with Gagamaru, Morrison and Sauer decided to make a sumo-centric visit to Tokyo this month to coincide with the retirement ceremony of another Georgian rikishi — Tochinoshin.
With little more than a “why not” attitude and a handful of social media connections, the Texan managed to have a deeper and more all-encompassing sumo experience over the course of two weeks than most do in a lifetime.
Morrison also took advantage of former Texan rikishi Wakaichiro’s coincidental visit to the capital by tagging along to watch training at Ikazuchi stable. Morrison was delighted when the stablemaster — who had extensive experience in amateur and international sumo — agreed to let him join practice.
“I barely even have time to stretch and, before I know it, my first bout is against Ikazuchido, who I’ve rooted for on TV and I’m like ‘what the hell is happening.’ It was surreal.
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The whole story reminds me of “Genghis Blues“, except with sumo instead of Tuvan throat singing. Brings a smile to my face, it does.
Obit watch: February 28, 2024.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024Ole Anderson, one of the Four Horsemen.
That’s the Four Horsemen of professional wrestling.
Through the 1970s and early 1980s, he was a member of the tag team known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, which over the years included Gene, Lars and Arn Anderson, who called themselves brothers and were popular around the Midwest. They were part of regional circuits like Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling that were united under the National Wrestling Alliance, which regularly crowned them tag-team champions.
In the 1980s, Mr. Anderson teamed up with Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard to become the Four Horsemen, who went on to dominate the N.W.A. and later World Championship Wrestling, which competed with the W.W.F.
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Brian Stableford, noted author, passed away a few days ago. I don’t have a direct obit I can link, but Michael Swanwick posted a nice tribute to him on his blog.
Obit watch: February 26, 2024.
Monday, February 26th, 2024I was running pretty much flat out from mid-Friday afternoon until late Sunday night, so this is the first chance I’ve had to post anything. But: the NYT finally ran an obit for Chuck Mawhinney. (Previously.)
After graduating from high school in 1967, Chuck wanted to become a Navy pilot. But a Marine Corps recruiter won him over by promising that he could delay his enlistment by four months, until the end of deer season.
The Marines had not had dedicated snipers since World War II, but by 1967 the corps had changed its mind. Mr. Mawhinney was among the first to complete the new Scout Sniper School at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps installation in Southern California. He graduated at the top of his class.
Lawrence sent over an obit for Golden Richards, former Dallas Cowboy receiver.
José DeLeón, pitcher.
Jackie Loughery, actress (and Jack Webb’s third wife). Other credits include OG “Perry Mason”, “Surfside 6”, and “Marcus Welby, M.D.”.
Charles Dierkop, actor.
Other credits include “Matt Houston”, “Bearcats!” and…two episodes of “Mannix” (“A Penny for the Peep Show”, season 3, episode 6. “Desert Run”, season 7, episode 6).
Eddie Driscoll, actor. IMDB.
Chris Gauthier, actor. Fair number of genre credits, including “Supernatural”, “Watchmen”, and the “Earthsea” mini series.
Kenneth Mitchell, actor. Other credits include “NCIS”, “CSI: Cyber”, and “Detroit 1-8-7”.
Obit watch: February 22, 2024.
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024The paper of record finally got around to publishing an obit for Niklaus Wirth.
Ewen MacIntosh, British actor. IMDB.
Lefty Driesell, noted college basketball coach.
Robert Reid, one of the great Houston Rockets.
Lawrence sent over two obits:
Paul D’Amato, actor. IMDB.
Steve Miller, SF author.
Net loss.
Monday, February 19th, 2024Jacque Vaughn out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
The team is 21-33 this season, and lost their last game before the break to Boston by 50 points. Vaughn was 71-68 in “two plus” seasons, and 0-8 in the playoffs.
In not exactly firings related news that I don’t have another place to put, I didn’t pay a darn bit of attention to the All Star game, but I did read the stories this morning.
The Eastern Conference won, 211-186. Yes, one team scored over 200 points. Yes, Adam Silver is peeved.
And the players still aren’t taking it seriously.
Instead, it was another game with virtually no defense and with little to no life inside the building — to the point that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said his most memorable moment was when the hype teams from the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers went through their dunk routines between the third and fourth quarters.
“I think the best [moment], we were talking about it, was the Bulls and the Pacers dunkers,” Davis said. “With the trampoline? They were very, very impressive.”
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Then there was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who admitted he wasn’t interested in playing all that hard in an All-Star Game, period.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” he said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.
I actually have a three part proposal for improving the All Star game:
1. Eliminate the All Star Game.
2. Shut down the NBA.
3. Profit.
Alternative proposal: no rules, no penalties, no substitutions, and the teams play until only one man is left standing.
Quick loser update: February 16, 2024.
Friday, February 16th, 2024It looks like the NBA All-Star break is upon us.
How are the Detroit Pistons doing?
Well, at the break, they are 8-46, for a .148 winning percentage. The Washington Wizards are 9-45, for a .167 winning percentage.
Projecting this out, and assuming things remain the same, the Pistons will win about 12 games, and the Wizards 13.7 games.
That’s not good, but is it historically bad?
Actually, maybe, yes.
I had a hard time finding a list of worst NBA teams. You’d think that would be a Wikipedia page, but no. ESPN has one, but it hasn’t been updated recently.
I finally found this page (from December of last year).
The 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks and 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks both went 13-69, and are #9 and #8 on the list. The Wizards could fit comfortably in there.
The 2009-10 New Jersey Nets and 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers all went 12-70, and are #7 and #6 on the list. Detroit could fit comfortably in there.
If I’m off by one (or two) in my projections, they could match the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets (11-71, #5) and the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71, #4). I can’t see either team reaching the heights of the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers (10-72, #3) or the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73, #2, and the team I think most people agree is the worst ever).
#1 on the list is the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, with a winning percentage of .106. However, there was a lockout that season, and they only played 66 games. As a personal rule, I generally do not take into account strike (or lockout) shortened seasons when I’m looking at this stuff.
Firings watch.
Thursday, February 15th, 2024Very quick, because I have a meeting tonight (and maybe some smoking hyenas to update):
Jarmo Kekalainen out as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
ESPN:
San Francisco fired Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator yesterday.
In Wilks’ lone season with the Niners, the defense had its share of ups and downs. A unit that led the NFL in multiple categories in 2022 under DeMeco Ryans — including fewest points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive expected points added (89.58) — took a step back in 2023.
San Francisco still finished third in points allowed (17.5) this season, but the 49ers were ninth in defensive EPA (41.48) and sprung significant leaks against the run in the playoffs, allowing the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs to average 5.1 yards per carry and 149.3 yards per game in the postseason.
Obit watch: February 13, 2024.
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024Capt. Larry L. Taylor (United States Army – ret.) passed away on January 28th.
I wrote about Capt. Taylor back in September, when he received the Medal of Honor. Capt. Taylor is the guy who flew four men out of a hot LZ, with them hanging onto the sides of his Huey Cobra helicopter.
Bob Edwards, NPR guy. There was a time when I woke up to Bob Edwards in the morning…
Also among the dead Bobs: Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill. I’ve bought and used specialty products from Bob’s, though I never met Bob. 94 is a pretty good run.
David Bouley, prominent NYC chef.
Kelvin Kiptum, marathon runner. He was 24 and died in a car accident in Kenya.
This seems particularly sad. He set the men’s marathon record in Chicago last year: 2:00:35.
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Many people think he had a shot at running a marathon in under two hours, which is sort of the Holy Grail of marathon running. He actually ran one in Vienna (in 2019) at 1:59:40, but that didn’t count as a record for reasons. He had said he was going to try to break the two-hour mark in Rotterdam in April.
TMQ Watch: February 13, 2024.
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024So. It has come to this. The last TMQ of the 2023 season, and the last TMQ Watch.
After the jump, this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
(Not quite) firings watch.
Friday, February 9th, 2024Billy Eppler has not been fired as general manager of the Mets, because he actually resigned October 5th.
But he won’t be involved in baseball this year: Rob Manfred placed him on the ineligible list through the end of the 2024 baseball season.
Sadly, it’s just a year, not “permanently ineligible“, which is my favorite form of ineligible.
Prithee, good sir, you may ask. Why the suspension?
…he directed the team to fabricate injuries to create open roster spots…
Manfred said in a statement that Eppler directed “the deliberate fabrication of injuries; and the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper injured list placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”
The scheme involved fabricating injuries for up to a dozen players, sources told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Sources also said that an anonymous letter from within the organization tipped off MLB.
TMQ Watch: February 6, 2024.
Tuesday, February 6th, 2024The Tuesday Morning Quarterback Non-Quarterback Non-Running Back NFL MVP is Creed Humphrey, center for Kansas City.
In other news, welcome to the penultimate TMQ, and the penultimate TMQ Watch. Also, welcome to the most boring week in sports.
After the jump, this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…