Sport

I mean, if I was King of Soccer this ref would be looking for a new job today. After the game Pat Noonan said something to one of them about blowing a call and the assistant referee's response was something like "you blew it when you blew a 3-0 lead", which is just not acceptable behavior from a sports official. The score or the game's events should never influence your decision making on a specific call nor should you voice an opinion on the coach's and/or team's performance. Noonan rules. He pulled one of my favorite moves in a dispute like that with "you :censored:ing know", a variation of my "You know I'm right".

I got a last minute invite from a college friend and we sat in the swanky club section with free food and drinks. Not too shabby. That was the craziest soccer game I've ever been to. From my seats the refs were atrocious.

So much worse. The retargeting ads you see on websites and the videos that interrupt stories on Snapchat.

I went to the Cincinnati - Orlando game on Friday night and had a great time. This was only the third time I've been to the stadium, but it was the first with a full crowd on a weekend night and I wanted to check-in here to say that I think this city has something special and you should all come if you get the chance. I kind of still can't believe Cincinnati, of all places, has this. We ubered downtown, walked to my wife's friend's place in OTR and had some drinks, got dinner in OTR, walked to The Pitch through Washington Park, which was alive with families and people enjoying the beautiful weather, enjoyed some more beverages, and then strolled into our seats at the stadium. A quick two and a half hours later when the game ended we walked to another bar and got more drinks, and then ubered home. It was a perfect pro sports experience and I enjoyed the game and pregame and postgame activities way more than I have enjoyed a Reds game in years. I give it 10 soccer balls out of 10 soccer balls. Here's a picture:

It was not that bad for me, but I'm still humming off the fumes of 2019.

They overcame having 35 year old Jack Johnson playing serious defensive minutes in 2022. He was a healthy scratch in the playoffs for the Blue Jackets four whole ass years ago. I feel good for him, though, what with all the crap he's been through with his parents stealing and losing most of his career earnings. I'm glad his cup didn't come as part of the Penguins. I also feel great for Ryan Murray. I wish he'd gotten to be a part of the playoffs on the ice. That guy just can't stay healthy. It's honestly weird how bad they were that year because clearly they had some dudes on that team. Matt Duchene was there too. And we all thought at the time what terrible luck it was to go through that season and wind up with only the 4th pick. The guy they got just won the Norris and Conn Smythe, the three guys taken in front of him are good (Nico and Heiskanen) to full-on bust (Nolan Patrick), but in a redraft Cale Makar goes #1 every time. Hockey is funny.

I need to know what went down in their time together with the Reds that Iglesias and Winker are now at each other's throats.

I will!

All I've done is talk about the Avalanche's numbers and I've never gotten personal in this exchange. You have multiple times. That's not my problem.

LOL I'm sitting at a desk at my job talking about numbers on a hockey jersey killing time before a zoom call in about 15 minutes that covers digital banner ads. Later this afternoon I'm going to an event at a Boys and Girls club to see the opening of their new gymnasium and community garden. Tonight I'm going to the FC Cincinnati game. This isn't serious, yet you're the one who's continually made it personal. Follow your own advice.

Who's asking for this? Maven wants to do everything with the SI brand except cover sports well. I don't get it.

It was my fourth post on this subject and the first one was beyond thorough in talking about fixing the issues with their current road uniform. I could not have been more clear. I'm not sure it's not just the twill material which is why I'm saying don't do something (outline the numbers with burgundy) that makes the number color appear brighter than it already is. Never said it was. In fact I said multiple times that it appears brighter than the rest of the blue equipment, which is in and of itself a problem. No. That is not what I said. I said, again, "the two colors are too close in value to have them touch like that". The blue looks brighter on the numbers because the hard edge stroke makes it stand off from the white background and appear brighter and/or they literally chose to use a brighter blue and a darker burgundy stroke to improve contrast. In either case, using a blue that looks brighter (either by their deliberate choice or by the laws of fabric/color/light) from the rest of the blues on the uniforms is not a good thing! If they outline the number with silver it'll draw less attention to the color difference, it'll soften the intensity of the blue, and lessen issues they have with matching twill.

YEAH I was trying to show how to fix this one issue with their current uniform without overhauling their entire existing uniform. I even said "If we have to use blue instead of black then I just want this". Couldn't have been more clear. I thought I was "Butthurt"? No I'm saying the burgundy outline makes the blue appear brighter than it actually is. A gray stroke on the same blue number would "shock" it less. Did it? Looks like the same issue. Same exact problem. Nobody cared because it was a short lived event that wasn't a full-time uniform. If it was a full-time uniform I'd say the same beef. And just because nobody complained about the Nordiques 30 years ago doesn't mean the current Avs couldn't do something to look better. CRIMINY.

I don't want the Avs to wear blue pants and gloves. If I had my druthers they'd be wearing what they wore in 2001 (with some small changes here and there). My solution is trying to make the best of their current road uniform. Thought that was pretty clear from the get-go. My solution is blue numbers with a gray stroke. It solves all the problems that are making me so butthurt.

And as I explained at least twice I did that to demonstrate how close these two colors are in value, which is why it's best to avoid placing them directly next to each other. That photo also demonstrates on MacKinnon's "A" how way off the blue on the number is from the color they're supposed to be, which isn't a point in its favor!

Again I'm not talking about contrast. I'm talking about the relationship between these two colors and how the two interact when placed directly next to each other. I shared that photo because I was pointing out where the blue yoke meets the burgundy jersey without a color separating the two and how rough that looks. The colors do vibrate with one another, but if you ignore that, the color on the numbers still doesn't match the blue in the rest of the uniform, the burgundy outline on the numbers still doesn't match the burgundy on the rest of the uniform, and the two colors touch each other when they don't touch anywhere else on the rest of the uniform. So like I said earlier, there's like 3 problems created by outlining the numbers in burgundy that could've been avoided if they'd just kept the stroke silver and the whole thing would look better. The Rangers are grandfathered in my mind because they've been doing it for so long, but if they started today that's not how I'd scheme their numbers. The Avs made this change in 2021, though, so they had all the color theory and material tests at their disposal, they even had the previous black numbers with silver outline to use as the proof of concept, and still made the wrong decision, which is less excusable. Knowing all that, the question is, "but does it look good?" And I'm saying no, that inconsistency in color and usage creates this incongruent element that sticks out, which is why they look like they took the jerseys to a local seamstress and they did their best to match colors with materials they had on hand.

I'm being misunderstood. I'm not talking about contrast. I'm talking about the relationship between these two colors and how the two interact when placed directly next to each other, which is why the two colors have been separated by at least one other color for almost all of the team's entire history until this recent decision to outline the blue numbers this way. One of the rare cases where they didn't buffer the two colors they got this stupid look.

I don't see where the selection bias is. I've been consistent since my first post. If we have to use blue instead of black then I just want this That's a more harmonious use of these colors and every element plays by the same set of rules.

Yeah I addressed that. They're not identical BUT they still don't look good together because "They're too close in value to use effectively touching each other like that." and "Beyond that, though, it's also visually inconsistent with how the two colors are used with a buffer color in almost every other application. The other problem is, look at the A on Mackinnon's chest, the blue used on the numbers appears to be a much brighter blue than the blue equipment or the blue on their socks. The numbers are bad for like 3 different reasons that would all be solved by simply not outlining them with burgundy." If you like the Avs numbers that's fine. I think they look bad, which is why I used IMO in my original post. Have a good one.

It's called chromostereopsis It's not "one bright, one dark". They're too close in value to use effectively touching each other like that. If you look at the uniform in black and white there's very little discernible difference between the two colors. I know the pants are blue, I know the jersey is burgundy, but you can't tell the difference here. Beyond that, though, it's also visually inconsistent with how the two colors are used with a buffer color in almost every other application. The other problem is, look at the A on Mackinnon's chest, the blue used on the numbers appears to be a much brighter blue than the blue equipment or the blue on their socks. The numbers are bad for like 3 different reasons that would all be solved by simply not outlining them with burgundy.

The Avalanche and their white jerseys have been bothering me all playoffs. Two Things: 1. They switched from black to blue pants and gloves to simplify the color scheme and balance the uniform better. I would've solved the problem differently in order to keep black, but I get why they made those decisions. The Colorado shoulder patch looks good on the burgundy jerseys because it contrasts with the blue yokes, the white jersey however, which could use more blue, somewhere, anywhere, just uses the same shoulder patch. Here's what it looks like now: Here's how I think it should look: 2. The numbers! How did they mess these up? Burgundy and their blue should never touch! EVER. The values are too similar and it creates a "vibrating" effect. They get this right almost everywhere else on the uniform except for the numbers. The policy should be that the numbers are only ever outlined with silver. Also, for consistency's sake, why are they outlined in silver on the back of the burgundy jerseys, but stroked with blue on the burgundy sleeves of the white jerseys? They got this right the first time when they outlined the black numbers in silver on the white jerseys, but when they switched to blue numbers they inexplicably decided to outline them in burgundy and it doesn't work IMO. Also I'd use a darker, gray twill instead of a silver, shimmery material so the outline isn't lost when touching against white like it is here: The Kings have the same problem on their black jerseys

I feel like the Avs stole that one, but that's what great teams do. Didn't play great for 60 minutes, were outshot, outworked, outchanced, and Kuemper looked shaky, but hold a team to under 3 goals and you'll win most nights. In overtime they had possession for what felt like 75% of the time and a goal felt inevitable, which is why I can't really care that much about Kadri going early on his line change. Now, is it too much to ask to invent a net where the puck doesn't get lost so easily and/or there's some kind of puck sensor system that automatically turns the red light on when the puck enters? That goal was anti-climactic and the TV coverage of it was not good. They never did show the moment when the Avs figured it out. It just cut from the players standing around to the celebration and the announcers didn't really know what happened.

I think this is it. They've played only 3 more games in these playoffs than Colorado, but Colorado had 9 days off between the conference finals and the final and Tampa only had 4. Plus Tampa's played 23 extra playoff games over the last two years compared to Colorado. That's a lot of extra mileage. Plus I think the Avalanche are just damn good.

Great. We just won the fight to get FC Cincinnati games on local TV without a blackout and now they're going back behind another paywall. I'll probably subscribe to this because I have another $5 each month and I've grown fond of watching our beloved FCC's, but grrrrr I can't count the number of streaming services I subscribe to on two hands.

I wouldn't say he's debunking them because he also provides the reasons why each cause makes sense. He's just laying out reasons to explain why this might be happening. He finishes with "I don’t think we can settle on one answer. I’ve given you the eight best theories that are out there, and none of them stands out as being unassailable. But that doesn’t mean we’ve come up empty. Most complicated problems have more than one cause, so we can pick and choose from our options here. Personally, put me down for a mix of theories 3 and 7, a little bit of theory 5, and a healthy dollop of theory 8. Your recipe might be different, and I’m open to hearing it, or any other theories you might want to share. " And where have I seen this before? "There are seven Canadian franchises, nearly a full quarter of the NHL’s 32 teams. Those numbers have changed over the years, but the ratio has been roughly consistent, meaning you’d expect a Canadian team to win a Cup every four or five years. Instead, nothing." The extent to which people care is separate from your initial point that a Canadian cup drought doesn't even exist. It does.