Sport

13 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

By all means, lets build a new stadium in the same damn place where there's still going to be issues getting people from Tampa or Sarasota or Clearwater...how stupid can you be? I don't care for the argument of "not enough of a local fanbase", because the Lightning are also a '90s expansion franchise and they've been wildly popular for a long time. It's not a good argument. The difference is the Lightning play in downtown Tampa, a very accessible area with a larger population base that also can draw people from Orlando and Lakeland and Kissimmee if they want to make the drive. You don't get that in St. Petersburg, you're surrounded by the ing water in almost every direction and terrible rush hour traffic and people aren't making that g-ddamned drive on a regular basis.

 

Build a new stadium for the Rays in St. Petersburg, and all you get is the same arguments about attendance existing for the next 40+ years.

I've argued for keeping the team in the Tampa Bay area provided they put the new stadium in actual dang ass TAMPA. Never did it occur to me that they'd be stupid enough to put the new one in the same location that is the root cause of all their current problems. 

Under 20k for a playoff game should never happen. I don't care that it's a day game. 

Reds Report Rap-up

- Fun team. Way more fun than expected. 

- 82-80 so a winning record.

- Could've made the playoffs with a pitcher here or another bat there, but they lost 100 games a year ago. Hard to complain about a 20 game improvement in one season.

- The core is here and the prospect tree is starting to bear fruit. 

- Lots of things to be excited. Lots of room for improvement. 

- Need another starting pitcher and need their big arms to stay healthy. 

- I will miss Joey Votto, who got ejected in the first inning of what is probably his last career game for arguing balls and strikes. That's kind of funny, kind of sad. 

8 hours ago, Dilbert said:

FC Cincinnati are Supporters Shield winners! MLS Cup runs through The Tickle (except for one game, thanks to the stupid new playoff format).

 

From three wooden spoons to the Silver plate. What a turnaround! 

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The all-white thing is fun for fans to have a white-out crowd game once a season, but doing it any more than once a season will kill the novelty. I have no idea why they feel the need to wear it on the road, which they did last year at Pittsburgh and are doing again this season at Jacksonville. 

11 hours ago, the admiral said:

If the Blue Jackets had reservations about Babcock, which at this juncture would have been totally fair, why did they jump headfirst into bringing him on? If ever there were a case to hire a guy as an "executive consultant to hockey operations" or whatever before naming him coach, like the Blackhawks did with Joel Quenneville in 2008, this would be it. If this is the new, feelings-friendly NHL with its BIPOC TikTok Teen Task Force, then you need to keep an eye on him for a while to make sure he's not too weird for it, which, apparently, he was. 

 

Long answer incoming. It's because the Columbus Blue Jackets ownership and team president Mike Priest are obsessed with being seen as an actual NHL operation. It's like they go "Ooooh this guy worked for the *DETROIT Red Wings and TORONTO Maple Leafs*.  ooooooh. Look at us." CBJ brass loves a name. The irony being that in the pursuit of perceived legitimacy they repeatedly trip over their own butts, which time and time again impedes their ability to do the one thing that would bring actual legitimacy. 

The other answer to "Why Babcock?" is they determined Brad Larsen was too soft and too much of a player's coach. They looked at a list of available coaches and picked out the biggest name with the reputation for being a dick. An over-correction if there ever was one. Also in the stew is the best run the franchise ever went on came with famous hardass John Tortorella behind the bench. They started with their criteria and worked backwards to justify it.

They said at the introductory press conference in July that they did their "due diligence", which we now know means they talked to guys they knew would vouch for him like Ken Hitchcock and Rick Nash who played for him for like 11 days in the Olympics. They didn't talk to any of his past players on the Leafs or Wings. Didn't talk to Brendan Shanahan. Didn't talk to any of the players at the University of Saskatchewan where he was recently assisting (and there's reports now that we wasn't getting along there either). Didn't talk to anyone who would might tell them not to hire him. Due diligence wasn't done so much as they built a case to cover their decision. If I owned the franchise Jarmo Kekäläinen and John Davidson would be gone for hiring this bozo. 

As for the actual transgressions, it's probably worse than we've heard, but the worst I've heard is he invited a young player over for lunch, looked through his phone for several minutes, and then made the kid leave without lunch, which is just a weird thing to do anywhere. I think if Biznasty, who I will not get into, hadn't said anything then Mike Babcock would still be the coach and the CBJ players would be quietly stewing amongst themselves, but it just got too awkward for him to continue. 

I wasn't a fan of the hire because the roster is similar to the roster at the start of his tenure in Toronto, we just drafted our most promising draft pick since Rick Nash, and it just seemed like a mismatch that never made sense. The only surreal part is his tenure went worse than I ever could've imagined. After a couple days of embarrassment and anger at the whole thing and this feeling like "how could you guys not see what the rest of us who follow hockey could?" the only thing I feel now is relief. This weird idiot was almost the head coach and now we came out of it with Pascal Vincent who might be great, might be bad, but he's not Babcock and right now that's a net positive. 

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Losing Chubb sucks and that was some classic dirty Steelers :censored: from Fitzpatrick. 
 

Watson looking like ass on grass delights me, however. 

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One thing that made the Jets throwbacks really sing last night - THEY WORE THE CORRECT SOCKS!

Class

vs. 

Ass

7 hours ago, Unocal said:

I said it in January and I’m gonna say it again:

 

Buffalo should have traded Josh Allen when his stock was at an all time high

You're not even getting paid for these takes. At least when Skip does it they give him millions of dollars. 

25 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

 

It's a tough gig, but someone has to do it.

 

 

I ain't saying . I've been here way too many times to fall for this again. I'll believe the Browns are going 12-5 when the season ends and the Browns are 12-5. (Honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'll believe it if it happens.)  Until then, I see this win as nothing more than one of those "Team A has team B's number and no one understands why" deals.

Sometimes it just be like that. The AJ Green/Andy Dalton Bengals teams were always weirdly good against the Ravens in a similar way.

I'm not to going to panic too early, though. They got hammered in Cleveland last year to fall to 4-4 and then didn't lose another game until the AFC Championship Game. It's like everyone annually gets Collective September Amnesia and forgets how long the season actually is. 

On 9/8/2023 at 1:48 PM, Sport said:

 

100% agree. I hate opening with the Browns and Ravens when recent history, especially against the Browns, says they've been a bad matchup for the Bengals and the matchup math gets worse if the Bengals shoot themselves in the foot and get down early, which is what happened on Halloween last year and in 2021. I've been worried all offseason about a slow start because of Burrow's calf and the first team offense hasn't played together in 7 months. It's why I took the Browns in the CCSLC pickem league. They blew the game week 1 against Pittsburgh last year and it ultimately wasn't that impactful, but they spent the first half of the season chasing that loss.  Ideally you'd get to figure out your timing against, like, the Cardinals where laying a big ass week 1 egg isn't as detrimental if you trip over your own butts. 

 

 

As I was saying. Everyone around me was freaking out yesterday and I was nodding along the whole game like "This is literally what I've expected since the schedule was released." I hate being smarter than everyone. 

Annual medicine taking from Browns fans. Let us have it. Maybe this will be the year it actually ends up mattering. 

On 9/6/2023 at 8:42 PM, BBTV said:

I feel even stronger now that they should do the schedule so it's something close to this:

 

First 3 games: interconference

next 3 games: intraconference

next 3 games: division round 1

next 2 games: interconference

next 3 games: intraconference

final 3 games: division round 2

 

I know with bye weeks and London it's very difficult to actually do that, but it lets teams work out the kinks in less-meaningful interconference games, before playing more meaningful intracconference match ups, and then super meaningful divisional games.

 

100% agree. I hate opening with the Browns and Ravens when recent history, especially against the Browns, says they've been a bad matchup for the Bengals and the matchup math gets worse if the Bengals shoot themselves in the foot and get down early, which is what happened on Halloween last year and in 2021. I've been worried all offseason about a slow start because of Burrow's calf and the first team offense hasn't played together in 7 months. It's why I took the Browns in the CCSLC pickem league. They blew the game week 1 against Pittsburgh last year and it ultimately wasn't that impactful, but they spent the first half of the season chasing that loss.  Ideally you'd get to figure out your timing against, like, the Cardinals where laying a big ass week 1 egg isn't as detrimental if you trip over your own butts. 

1 hour ago, buckeye said:

 

Could be nothing, could be something. Mateychuk is in blue pants with the Blue Jackets home jersey for his rookie shoot.

 

Not even the regular blue pants, which have a red cuff on the bottom

I haven't heard about a switch to a full-time blue pant so this would be a surprise to me. 

As for how it looks with the home jerseys and socks - As a fan, I'm not a fan. Red pants are the way to go at home, blue pants are the way to go on the road. 

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22 hours ago, CS85 said:

 

Here's hoping.  The Reds are overdue for some success. 

It gets worse before it gets better. Alex Cobb took a no-hitter into the 9th before Spencer Steer doubled with two outs to break it up. They're ice cold right now. Only two games over 500 now. This feels like the 2021 team all over again - Played over their heads for five months and then ran out of gas in late August and September. 

Looks like the Reds have run out of steam. Young team, injuries piling up, and this is the most baseball a lot of them have played. Fun season, better than expected, but I'll be surprised if they pull out of this tail spin. I already hit on my over bet at 65.5 wins so that's cool. Next year should be even more fun. 

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

Two key differences:

1. Harper fields right handed and bats left, so his right elbow needed TJ and that’s his bottom arm when batting. 
 

For the record, Ohtani also bats left and throws right. 

That was a ball buster and I knew it was coming. 

47 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

It is downright bonkers how they went from being a team that overhauled its uniforms every 3-5 seasons to one that has basically worn the same ones (excepting a few notable downgrades to the road set) for 33 years as of next month.

That they stopped wearing these pants is tragic. 

WHY

7 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

 

Three things always come to mind when I think of the White Sox.

 

All the different uniforms they've had.

 

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood went 24-20 for the White Sox in 1973. Everyone made a big deal of him winning 20 and losing 20.

 

The SI cover with Dick Allen juggling while smoking a cigarette in the dugout.

 

 

 

 

I'm too young to remember the White Sox in red so the first time I saw it on a baseball card I went "WHHHHHHAATTT?" It's still wrong to my eyes. Had a similar experience when I learned the Penguins started off in light blue. Both teams current color schemes seem too perfect for them to have ever used anything else. 

Always felt bad for the White Sox growing up because their drought was basically just as long as the Cubs and Red Sox, but they never got any of the same sympathy or cache. And when they finally won a World Series it happened to come the year after the Red Sox and everyone nationally was like "This again? We just did this. *snooze*" Even their name is a boring version of a more well-known brand. This is why I've always kind of liked them. Plus the black and white hats are Top 2 in baseball. 

I don't think Reinsdorf is serious about moving or serious about anything. They're the 16th most valuable franchise in baseball where they sit and they have history and tradition you cannot buy. Moving to Nashville would make them the Kansas City A's. Don't move to Nashville. Nobody should. 

A lot of people seem confused about the Bengals announcement yesterday. Allow me to break it down with visual aides

In 2016 they introduced these jerseys and pants as their "Color Rush". The one helmet rule in place at the time meant they had to use the regular orange lids. People everywhere said "those would look great with white helmets". 

They wore those as an alternate for five years and they were immensely popular. So much so that they became a jumping off point, if you will, for a full uniform redesign in 2021, which resulted in the home, road, and alternate unis they have now. 

So then in 2022 the NFL relaxed the one helmet rule, which meant the Bengals could finally pair white helmets with the jerseys and pants that were clearly yearning to be worn with white helmets. The problem, though, as opposed to 2016 is that the Color Rush jerseys now look very similar to the current road whites, but the NFL, for reasons never made clear, made the Bengals bring back the Color Rush jerseys to wear with the white jerseys. So now they have two white jerseys that look a lot like each other. 

The announcement made yesterday was simply that they don't need the Color Rush jerseys anymore and can wear the white helmets with the regular road white jerseys. 

Some people thought it meant a new jersey or a throwback or that they're going to wear the white helmets with the black or orange jerseys, which as far as I read the situation isn't happening. From a practicality standpoint the decision makes a lot more sense this way than carrying two white jerseys that aren't that different from one another, one of which uses a lot of elements from the previous uniform set. The matter of whether that looks better than the color rush is a separate issue. On the whole, I think it does. Now the shoulder stripes match the helmet, but I liked the crispness of the black block font without an outline and I'll miss that aspect of the Color Rush. 

And they're getting rightfully hammered for it. You watch the video expecting him to say the F slur like Thom Brennaman and then nothing objectionable happens. Baltimore Orioles, allow me to introduce you to the Streisand Effect.