2011 Tank Awards Year in Review

[NJTank]

http://sportsecyclopedia.com/2011/tanks2011.html

Thoughts?

[Kevin W.]

I disagree with giving Kris Humphries the Most Annoying Person award, as that whole kerfuffle wasn't his fault, it was the fault of the Kardashian clan and their cult of personality.

Also, it's Barea, not Barrera.

[infrared41]

For the gazillionth time, it was not Bill Buckner's fault that the Red Sox lost that game 6. If you're going to name the choke award after someone on that team, name it after Bob Stanley or Calvin Schiraldi. Better yet, name it after John McNamara. He was the one who made all the bonehead decisions that got us to Buckner's error.

[CC97]

You should have an editor or a second set of eyes read through these before posting, a lot of typos, a lot of sentences that don't make any sense or repeat themselves... I found myself saying "huh?" through most of the award captions.

The winners themselves are fine, I think LeBron was more hated than Humphries by far

[CS85]

Tebow review is outdated, and if they lose to Orton and the Chiefs he'll have led them nowhere in a cunning twist of fate. I'd vote for the Canucks blowing a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals as a bigger choke. Weasel of the Year should probably be Sandusky/Paterno. Fat Ass of The Year seems like kind of a...tasteless award, plus you could've done better than a Fat Albert joke. Giant Ego award should be LeBron & co. celebrating their victory over Boston like they had just won their 8th title.

[Saintsfan]

Surely the cardinals Squirrel should get the mascot of the year prize. I'm still not sure the Rangers really choked. They didn't drop a catch of miss field on one of the outs they needed, it's rather more that the Cardinals came through in the clutch.

[TFoA]

For the gazillionth time, it was not Bill Buckner's fault that the Red Sox lost that game 6. If you're going to name the choke award after someone on that team, name it after Bob Stanley or Calvin Schiraldi. Better yet, name it after John McNamara. He was the one who made all the bonehead decisions that got us to Buckner's error.

It's funny because Fever Pitch (which is actually a pretty enjoyable movie despite the fact that it spawned probably a gajillion bandwagoners) touched on that.

"It wasn't just Buckner; Stanley screwed him. He didn't cover first," said the main character in a depression-induced stupor. But for real, Buckner really gets the short end of that stick when it comes to that collapse, when the guys who you mentioned above were just as much at fault, if not more.

That being said, I agree w/ the award. I still can't quite believe that the Rangers came to within a strike of winning the World Series (TWICE!) only to have that happen. I mean, that scenario was basically the Cardinals late-season run in a nutshell (little-to-no chance of success, yet kept on fighting until the end and it worked out for them), but still. YOU'RE ONE STRIKE AWAY, you gotta get it done. I don't think the importance of this moment in baseball history has quite hit me yet, either. I guess I'll get all misty-eyed when I look back on it years from now as I reminisce over one of the best moments in World Series history, but for now, I'm still trying to let it soak in & I didn't even have a dog in the fight.

[BrySmalls]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

[Breakwood]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

The Boston Bruins are not deserving of anything

[Kevin W.]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

Agreed, though it is certainly very close. I'd give the nod to the Bruins mainly because of the number of games played and the fact that they clinched their title in a true hostile environment rather than a neutral site.

[Cujo]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

Agreed, though it is certainly very close. I'd give the nod to the Bruins mainly because of the number of games played and the fact that they clinched their title in a true hostile environment rather than a neutral site.

I'm pretty sure the Packers had a MUCH better winning percentage in 2011 than the Bruins.

[RedSox44]

For the gazillionth time, it was not Bill Buckner's fault that the Red Sox lost that game 6. If you're going to name the choke award after someone on that team, name it after Bob Stanley or Calvin Schiraldi. Better yet, name it after John McNamara. He was the one who made all the bonehead decisions that got us to Buckner's error.

Hell, name it after Rich Gedman who let the passed ball (inexplicably ruled a wild pitch from Stanley) by which allowed Kevin Mitchell to score, which set up Mookie for his little dribbler to be a game winner.

[Kevin W.]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

Agreed, though it is certainly very close. I'd give the nod to the Bruins mainly because of the number of games played and the fact that they clinched their title in a true hostile environment rather than a neutral site.

I'm pretty sure the Packers had a MUCH better winning percentage in 2011 than the Bruins.

It's not that difficult to have a much better winning percentage when you play a fraction of the games a hockey team does.

[loogodude90]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

Agreed, though it is certainly very close. I'd give the nod to the Bruins mainly because of the number of games played and the fact that they clinched their title in a true hostile environment rather than a neutral site.

I'm pretty sure the Packers had a MUCH better winning percentage in 2011 than the Bruins.

It's not that difficult to have a much better winning percentage when you play a fraction of the games a hockey team does.

Yeah, seriously. It's nonsensical to compare the winning percentage of a team that played 16 games to a team that played 82 games.

[RedSox44]

The Boston Bruins are more deserving of the "Best Team of the Year Award" than the Green Bay Packers.

Agreed, though it is certainly very close. I'd give the nod to the Bruins mainly because of the number of games played and the fact that they clinched their title in a true hostile environment rather than a neutral site.

I'm pretty sure the Packers had a MUCH better winning percentage in 2011 than the Bruins.

It's not that difficult to have a much better winning percentage when you play a fraction of the games a hockey team does.

Yeah, seriously. It's nonsensical to compare the winning percentage of a team that played 16 games to a team that played 82 games.

You guys took the words out of my mouth. Comparing the winning percentage of a team that played 19 games to a team that played 107 (including the playoffs, which had three seven-game series, which I believe was the most for any Stanley Cup winning team in NHL history) isn't really fair.

[GriffinM6]

Honestly, the choke of the year and biggest ego award needs to be LeBron James hands down. He was all me, me, me, I'm the best(don't get me wrong, he's good), whoopdeedoo. The way his ego was exposed in the finals showed how much arrogance he has. He choked so badly in the 4th quarter(s), and couldn't help his team at all, utter choke.

[Cujo]

You hockey fans can throw out the winning percentage if you want, but I'll give you this: The Bruins finished the regular season with the NHL's 7th best record in 2011. The Packers went wire-to-wire with the NFL's best record in 2011.

[Lights Out]

Wow... every time I read the same hackneyed criticism of LeBron, I just think about how lucky Michael Jordan must feel to have largely avoided the fickle, obsessive, reactionary nature of today's sports media. It took Jordan several seasons to win a title. If that happened today, he'd be written off as an arrogant lifelong choker who will never win anything by his second playoff failure.

I'm especially curious as to how LeBron's ego was exposed in the Finals. If anything, wouldn't it have been deflated? When I think of ego exposure in the NBA, Kobe in '04 comes to mind.

[infrared41]

Wow... every time I read the same hackneyed criticism of LeBron, I just think about how lucky Michael Jordan must feel to have largely avoided the fickle, obsessive, reactionary nature of today's sports media. It took Jordan several seasons to win a title. If that happened today, he'd be written off as an arrogant lifelong choker who will never win anything by his second playoff failure.

Yup. Couldn't agree more. Not to mention that LeBron basically beat Detroit all by himself and took a Cavs team that had no business being there to the finals in 2007.

[RedSox44]

You hockey fans can throw out the winning percentage if you want, but I'll give you this: The Bruins finished the regular season with the NHL's 7th best record in 2011. The Packers went wire-to-wire with the NFL's best record in 2011.

Alright, I'll give you that (even though this season isn't even over yet, and the Packers could very well get taken out of the playoffs early via an upset).