08.29.2012 Pac-12 Football Podcast

Hotdog & Friends Pac-12 Football Podcast Season Five

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TwiMs Baseball 8/15/2012

I've always said baseball would be the best sport to care about, because there's so damn much of it.  This year I'm going for it, complete with a controversial "root for two teams" strategy.  I give you, The TwiMs! 

1. The three months that were - developments since the last one of these from three months ago.
a. Mariners. The Bombs went 38-43 (15-11 in July!). Fair to poor!
b. Twins. The Twinkies went 40-40. FIVE HUNDRED!!!!!

2. Ichiro was traded.

a. Othering. Ichiro, you may have heard, is Japanese. Edward Said (a white! Corrected: He is Arabic) wrote a book in 1978 called Orientalism.  The idea in the book is that Europeans subtly portray Asians and Arabs as vaguely effeminate and somehow lacking in culture as a way to justify their subjugation by western powers.  Part of this is reinforcing the idea that THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT LIKE US, because if westerners stopped and conceded that people are people, we wouldn't allow our politicians to send our troops abroad to, among other things, kill their poor. IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS! Or security. Or something.

Penn State

So the NCAA has ruled that Penn State loses 20 scholarships over the next 4 years.  Literally punishing the University for failing to protect children by reducing the number of kids that get an opportunity to get a college education.  That sounds about right for the NCAA.

Who is being punished here?  20 kids who may have gotten a college education through their athletic ability.  Probably not at Penn State, as any athlete who is good enough to warrant a Penn State scholarship will no doubt be able to get a scholarship to another school, but the fact is that prior to this penalty there were __X___ Scholarships in Division I football (I don't know the exact #), and now there are _____X____ - 20 scholarships in Division I football.  So, take that potentially marginal football scholarship hopefuls.  Because Jerry Sandusky was a monster and abused kids, you may not get to go to college anymore. 

Happy Father's Day from Kasen Williams

He sonned Nolan Washington.  Bow Down!

Oklahoma City has great fans (maybe)

Just finished reading Bill Simmons' column praising OKC fans. I totally agree that OKC fans appear to be among the best in the NBA.  

But before we go overboard talking these fans up, let's think about what they've had to root for:

2005-2007: Transient Hornets. OKC never had a top level professional sports team before Hurricane Katrina.  They are Katrina profiteers.  The circus was in town, complete with young Chris Paul, and OKC's citizens were drawn to the novelty of big time basketball.

2008-2009: Expansion Thunder.  Although the team went 23-59, Kevin Durant was clearly in line to become the best player in basketball, averaging 25 ppg as a 20 year old.  Rookie Russell Westbrook provided hope that the losing would be short-lived.  OKC fans embraced a team they could finally call their own.

2009-2010: Playoff Thunder.  The Thunder added James Harden to KD and Westbrook to create a lethal triumvirate. If that wasn't enough, they also added Serge Ibaka.  4/5ths of the present crunch-time lineup was in place.  The Lakers eventually won the championship, but not before the Thunder took them to 6 games in the first round. OKC fans had to wait all of one season before their team was in the playoffs with a championship-quality nucleus.

2010-2011: Contender Thunder. The Thunder added Kendrick Perkins to solidify their present lineup.  They lost to the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.  OKC fans had to wait two seasons before their team won two playoff series and almost made the Finals.  

2011-2012: Championship Thunder.  OKC came back from 0-2 down to steamroll the San Antonio Spurs and send the Thunder to the NBA Finals.  In the Finals the Thunder were matched up with the equally talented, but somehow inept, Miami Heat.  OKC fans had to wait three seasons before their team were NBA Champions.

The point is: 

WHAT CITY WOULDN'T SUPPORT THE BEST YOUNG TEAM WITH THE BEST YOUNG PLAYER, THAT CONTENDED FOR AND WON A CHAMPIONSHIP IN THEIR FOURTH SEASON?  

We know nothing about what sort of fans OKC has, aside from that they support an exciting expansion team, and they support an exciting winner. 

Newsflash: This isn't the normal course of business for most NBA teams.  Being a fan of an NBA team means supporting a 35-45 win squad that attempts to improve with the 12-17th pick in the draft. That's purgatory, and every team gets there eventually.  

The Lakers were 34-48 as recently as 2004-2005. Boston was 24-58 as recently as 2006-2007.  Those teams only improved because they play in markets that top tier players are willing to be traded to.  

So do the OKC Thunder have great fans? Sure.  A qualified yes.  Limited to these tremendously favorable circumstances, yes.  

Eventually the bloom will be off the rose and we'll see how this city supports a normal NBA team.  To make it more difficult, they will have to support a normal NBA team with the terrible knowledge of what it is like to have won.  

James Harden will sign a max deal elsewhere.  The Kevin Durant era will end.  The team will start to lose.  Seasons will start where there is no hope of a championship.  Seasons will start where there is no hope of a .500 team.  

Then, and only then, will we be able to know whether OKC truly has great fans.

Winning Time?

I really enjoy the ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries.  An interesting one is the Reggie Miller joint entitled "Winning Time," documenting Miller's penchant for taking out the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference playoffs. 

Reggie Miller was a clutch shooter for sure - and the Pacers had some great series against Patrick Ewing's Knick squad, but is it really fair to call a documentary about Miller "Winning Time."  The Pacers never won an NBA Title, and only advanced out of the Eastern Conference 1 time during Miller's career. 

Alternative Title Proposal:  "Things that happened in Basketball during the early 90s that weren't related to Michael Jordan." 

In which the Oklahoma City Thunder (along with Clay Bennett, Howard Schultz, David Stern, and the Seattle Supersonics) teach us an important lesson.

It's stupid to care about sports.

Everyday interleague play will confuse nobody

The Houston Astros will join the AL next year.  When that happens the AL and the NL will have 15 teams each.  Because each league will no longer have an even number of teams, there will have to be interleague play every day.

I was listening to the Scott Van Pelt Show last week, and he was arguing that everyday interleague play would be too confusing for fans to follow due to the perpetually shifting absence or presence of the DH, based on the venue of the game.*

To the contrary, I firmly believe that everyday interleague play will confuse nobody.

Here's your test:

1. Which team is the home team?
a. If NL team is home, there is no DH, and the pitcher will bat.
b. If AL team is home, there is a DH, and the pitcher will not bat.

This test requires that you know which teams are in the NL, and which teams are in the AL.  95% of my friends have known this information literally longer than they have known their multiplication tables, and the other 5% have smartphones.**

There is nothing more to the analysis than the above test.  Easy, right? Everyday interleague play will confuse nobody.

* I am aware sports radio hosts have to advance positions they don't necessarily believe in to fill segments.


**The 5% who don't know which teams are in which league would likely only ask about the DH situation if they were watching a game, surrounded by a bunch of people ready to answer their question.  (And honestly they don't care about the DH, they're just asking to pretend to be interested in the game you dragged them to.)

Dear Diary: 2012 Champions League Final

PRE GAME

11:02 - Fox's national coverage kicks off.  Curt Menefee is pitch-side.  This is the embarrassing part where he tries to convince skeptical Americans that this game matters.  Fox uses their NFL theme music for the CL - presumably so people half-watching the tv will go, "WHAT?! AMERICAN FOOTBALL, OR SOMETHING OF EQUIVALENT GRAVITY?! LET'S WATCH!"  This is stupid because the Champions League has glorious theme music.

11:07 - I think Bayern Munich will win.  I loved their run in 2010 when they were eventually stopped by Diego Milito, Jose Mourinho, and the rest of Inter in the final.  During that spring, absolutely no one in the world was consistently coming up big in big moments like Arjen Robben.  He was better than Messi for that stretch, in my opinion.  Arjen Robben played for Chelsea from 2004-2007 by the way - probably should have figured out how to use that world class talent.

11:09 - That said, I want Chelsea to win.  When I first started following the Premier League in earnest, a mere six or seven years ago, my Liverpool friends would always bitch about how Chelsea were ruining the game.  Russian oil billionaire owner Roman Abramovich was pouring unprecedented amounts of money into Chelsea, and even traditional powers like Manchester United, Arsenal, or Liverpool couldn't keep up.

That seems like an attractive enough argument: teams ought to be built "the right way."  It ignores the fact that while Manchester United and their kin were possibly built the right way once upon a time, what keeps the powers on top is the deployment of resources that lesser teams can't match.

Once you understand that, the argument against Chelsea (and nowadays Manchester City) becomes: "We should be the only teams that are allowed to bully smaller teams with our money.  Only teams that traditionally finish near the top should be allowed to finish near the top." This is obviously hypocritical and preposterous.  Where "traditionalists" (read: people with a rooting interest in the status quo) see modern money-splashers like Chelsea or City as ruining the soul of the game, I see it as proof that ANY team can compete given the sort of resources traditionally enjoyed only by the top teams.  This also punctures the idea that there's something "special" inherent in those teams that makes them win.  It's just money.

NOW WILL SOME TRILLIONAIRE PLEASE BUY EVERTON!!

@pastimist recommends you follow: @101greatgoals

Twitter is the absolute best.  Here's an account I love:


@101greatgoals

Premise: Goals.  This account links you to videos of goals from all sorts of leagues shortly after they occur.  You get the video within a couple minutes.  In addition to the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga - this account takes care to occasionally pepper in "A Great Goal You Won't Have Seen".  (One of the goals that made this cutoff was Fredy Montero's recent absurd strike against LA Galaxy.)  You also get video of coaches' post-match comments, interviews...just a bunch of soccer video.

Appeal: Even if you don't really like soccer, you do like seeing goals.  If you do like soccer, you like seeing goals.  This is the most cooked crack American-ized way to enjoy soccer.  The hits and only the hits all the time. Be honest, when couldn't you go for watching a goal or two?

Representative Tweets:


I'll put up a few examples of the types of compilations @101greatgoals links to, but then let's simply enjoy a few goals, in the spirit of the account.

follow @101greatgoals, follow @pastimsit (this blog!), follow @warrencb11 (me!)

TwiMs Baseball 5/16/2012

I've always said baseball would be the best sport to care about, because there's so damn much of it.  This year I'm going for it, complete with a controversial "root for two teams" strategy.  I give you, The TwiMs!

1. The week that was - developments since last week's installment of TwiMs baseball.
a. Mariners. The Bombs went 2-4.  They are 1-4 on their current ten game road trip.  
b. Twins. Not to be outdone, the Twinkies went 2-5.  That's one more loss!


2. Does there exist a gif that encapsulates the 2012 Minnesota Twins season?
a. Yes.
b. 

An addendum to the Seattle Times post entitled "Four reasons the Northwest is good training for golf."

I came across this interesting post at www.seattletimes.com, which lays out 4 reasons why the Northwest is a good training ground for golfers.  The four identified reasons being:

1.  More efficient Practice (because it rains so much you can't play as often);
2.  Toughening up because of the elements (because it rains so much, you end up playing in that rain sometimes);
3.  Driving Accuracy (because it rains so much, there are lots of large trees that have sprung up and which line many fairways in the Pacific Northwest); and
4.  Smaller Greens (not sure if this has anything to do with rain).

So - there you have it.  The PNW is the place to learn golf because all the rain makes you a stronger player.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, or, like a golfer I guess, I would hazard that these explanations are far too simplified and do not really adequately explain why it is that the PNW is a good place to learn the game of golf.  Accordingly - I have created this addendum to further extrapolate the post above:

American Golf

With Matt Kuchar's victory last week at Sawgrass, you have to feel good about where American golf is headed.  Kuchar, Fowler, Watson, Bradley, and Mahan have all cemented themselves as world class players in the last 18 months and for the first time in a long time, look like they may be ready to challenge the Europeans and their solid contingent burgeoning talent. Behind the group just mentioned, there are a number of contenders who look poised to break through anytime.  Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Johnson Wagner, Bill Haas, Nick Watney, and Jason Dufner.  Most of these players have won on tour, and are starting to show up on leaderboards on a consistent basis.

These relative newcomers add to the American stalwarts - Tiger, Phil, Stricker, Furyk, and potentially Zach Johnson, who are still very dangerous.

It has been a long time coming for the Americans.  For the better part of 5 years there have been questions asked about who will follow in Tiger and Phil's footsteps as the ambassadors of the game for the United States.  There have been a lot of names tossed around and more than a few players have shown flashes of being able to carry that torch, but there has not been any run of sustained success by the 'young' Americans (truth be told Kuchar is 33 and Mahan is 29).  Now, however, we are starting to see a core group emerge that is always around the leaderboard, with more and more breaking through for victories.   Currently, 6 of the top 10 players in the world are American, and 10 of the top 20. 

Spurs Basketball

Kawhi Leonard is the perfect Spur.  He was great in college but he played on a San Diego State team that was under the radar and was an older player in the draft, so the brain trusts of other teams bypassed his ability and looked elsewhere.  The Spurs took the best player available - and now he's a starter on a #1 seed. 

I grew up in San Antonio.  As a result I love the Spurs.  My analysis regarding the Spurs is not objective, but I have to say it's refreshing rooting for a team that is run with cold blooded efficiency.  They may not be the best team from a talent standpoint anymore.  They are aged.  But you'd be hard pressed to find a team that has drafted better than the Spurs in the last 10 years.  Or put together a deeper roster.

Spokane Falls

Spring time! River is up!

#FF @horse_ebooks

Twitter is the absolute best.  Here's an account I love:

@horse_ebooks

Premise: I'm pretty sure this is a robot.  There is no thinking being behind this twitter feed.  I feel comfortable saying this is the most important robot twitter feed. This account works by pulling from a cache of written material (I think).

Appeal: I first noticed @horse_ebooks when a bunch of funny twitter feeds I follow kept re-tweeting it.  Upon further inspection most of @horse_ebooks' tweets have 50 RTs and 50 favorites. What makes @horse_ebooks so great is that it constantly pulls out profound non sequiturs.  Frankly, if you aren't well-versed on @horse_ebooks, you're not doing twitter right.

Representative Tweets:

So follow @horse_ebooks, follow @pastimist (this blog!), and follow @warrencb11 (me!)

Leisurely Spokane bike ride

One of my goals for this blog is to post things where I actually go outside and enjoy the world.  Please enjoy this video of me biking around Spokane on a lovely spring day.

TwiMs Baseball 5/9/2012

I've always said baseball would be the best sport to care about, because there's so damn much of it.  This year I'm going for it, complete with a controversial "root for two teams" strategy.  I give you, The TwiMs!

1. Mariners are sneaky competent.  On the surface, your 14-18 Mariners seem like the same uninspired collection of jagoffs that we've seen for a few years running.  Sniff closer, and savor the unfamiliar stink of promise surrounding these Baby Bombs.