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Thread: From The Sports Desk

  1. #46
    Registered User bounty's Avatar
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    I got both of those star trek shows from one of the local libraries tailor. so maybe one near you will have them?

    that's a neat story Sancho. twice in my life I have been confused for other people, and in both instances I knew who the other person was that I was being confused for. slight resemblance, but it I don't think enough for the mistaken identity. I have been told I look like cal ripken, jr, and also alexi Grewal (a former professional cyclist).

    I suspect "whack an intern" would not go over well in today's hyper politically correct society.

    the authors (Christopher russo [aka mad dog] and allen st. john) believe the 56 game hitting streak is the more impressive and unbreakable. their argument was that it requires more consistency and that that attribute is the more difficult in baseball. "the guy on a hitting streak afford a bad day."

    also, some baseball statistician fellow did a study and found this: "he programmed a computer to spit out a thousand seasons' worth of random stats based on DiMaggio's career numbers. the computerized clipper never had a hitting streak longer than 48 games. he did the same thing with wade bogs. the results? cyber boggs hit over .400 five times."

    the authors go on to mention todd helton and ichiro Suzuki as potential .400 hitters. by their time I wasn't paying attention anymore so I cant say how that prophecy ever panned out.

    I perused the book last night. some of its dated, some of it arent really arguments/debates in the strictest sense. so i'll be picking and choosing what to put next.

    here is potentially another fun one:

    five on five fantasy: if cousy and company took on Michael's crew, who'd win?

    so they've got the old timer team of bob cousy, bob pettit, wilt chamberlain, elgin baylor and Oscar Robertson

    against

    john Stockton (the authors eliminated magic Johnson because of the extreme height difference between him and cousy), karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, Julius erving and Michael Jordan.

    which team wins?
    Last edited by bounty; 01-19-2023 at 05:49 PM.

  2. #47
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Uhh, I don’t know, man. Seems to me basketball as a sport has moved on from the old timer’s team. It’d be like a Model T racing an Indy Car.

    Now there’s a sport we haven’t covered — auto racing. I went to a stock-car race at The Atlanta Motor Speedway once and was amazed at how LOUD it was. The crowd was fun, though. I saw a woman dressed in Richard Petty bumper stickers. Yep, she’d pasted bumper stickers over most of her private parts. I was thinking, that’s gonna hurt when she peels those suckers off.
    Uhhhh...

  3. #48
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    the jaguars just made a go good at it with the chiefs but fumbled inside their own five yard line to turn the tide of the game away.

    shockingly, the authors pick the old-timers! (I think they are whacked.)

    "I think the problem that the new team has is that erving doesn't match up well against elgin, so I think the old guys would win." p6.

    ps: its a little weird that Julius erving qualifies as a "new guy." his career overlapped a smidgen with wilt chamberlain and Oscar
    robertson.

    there are three auto race tracks within a 45-ish minute drive from me but ive never been. when I was a kid and my grandpa used to take me to the county fair, they had midget car racing, those were pretty neat. there's a local go-cart racing track that's kinda popular. I had an uncle that enjoyed going to the Daytona 500 every year. id go to some big race, probably at least once, just for the experience.

    the andy Roddick beat me with a frying pan asks the question: "are these guys really athletes?"

    nascar drivers
    field goal kickers
    relief pitchers (what??)
    golfers

  4. #49
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    NFL... sorry to hear; where's Blake Bortles when you need him

    Old timers I'd go with: Wilt, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Rick Barry, Bill Russell

    Athletes: bowlers ?

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
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    7-8-2015

  5. #50
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    pps: some years ago I wrote a paper on "muscle dysmorphia." here's a relevant section:

    "I compared height and weight information from basketball and football players from approximately 25 years ago to that of today’s players. T-test results were significant at the .001 level for the mean weight of the basketball players as well as the football players. Ball handling football players (QB, WR, RB) are on average 13 lbs. heavier and starting teams in basketball are 11 lbs. heavier. What is more, today’s player’s BMI’s are also significantly higher, which means that players of today are heavier per unit of height than they were 25 years ago. What this translates to mean is they are not just bigger, but since muscle is more dense than fat, they are therefore more muscular. "

    in short, todays players are bigger, stronger, and more likely faster. your indy car vs the model t.

    blake bortles! holy cow tailor I remember that name!

    youre missing a guard and have two centers tailor---ya gotta trade out bill Russell for jerry west.

    okay, lets add your suggestion to the andy Roddick frying pan question of "are these guys athletes?"

    nascar drivers
    field goal kickers
    relief pitchers (what??)
    golfers
    bowlers

  6. #51
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Ok... Bill as my sixth man and bring on Jerry ! Let Wilt bump and grind and Score until he fouls out.

    athletes? -

    no... endless left turn tracks
    no... just need one strong leg and half a foot and a therapist
    no... this almost made yes for me when I thought of Mariano Rivera
    no... laughably no
    no... I thought of going pro, so a definite no.

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  7. #52
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    What about curling? It’s in the Olympics.

    As for the basketball team, bounty — bigger stronger faster and I’ll add — smarter. I’m not saying MJ and friends are more intelligent than the old guys. What I’m saying is they know more, by virtue of the fact that they came after the old guys and benefited from everything that came before them. Plato stood on Socrates shoulders and Aristotle stood on both of them, which would mean in this contest Michael Jordan is slotting in somewhere around Søren Kierkegaard.
    Uhhhh...

  8. #53
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    having grown up in western ny and being so close to Canada, I got to watch curling on the telly when I was kid, and I enjoyed it. I spent time in Minnesota in the early 2000s and went once to a bonspiel (a curling tournament) in which the contestants portrayed themselves as representatives from all over the world. they dressed in the colors, and had the flags, and it was all really neat.

    I agree---today's game seems to be played at a much higher level of thoughtful intricacy than in the past. same with football.

    tailor in a bit of the build-up to the author's conclusions (or rantings), he takes up your bowling question. "while the legendary warriors who have advanced to the top ranks of games such as darts, pool, and bowling are universally regarded as something less than real athletes..." p156.

    he says no to nascar
    no to field goal kickers (poor garo Yepremian)
    barely yes to relief pitchers
    and no to golfers, adding insult to injury with---"if there is a sport where a grandma can beat you, then its not a sport." p163

    setting aside for a moment the difficulty of settling on a universally acceptable understanding of the world "athlete", id give the relief pitchers more credit than he does. his whole argument seems to rest on the fact that some of them are fat and can still succeed in spite of that.

    don't know the final outcome but the eagles were trouncing the giants last night when I went to bed.

    todays the big bills/bengals game that will very likely be the source of all sorts of anxiety and exasperation. the bills are going to have to step it up quite a bit to win. I hope im wrong but I think the bengals are going to beat 'em.

    my favorite part of the game is when its over and the opposing players meet on the field for hugs and quick conversations. I wouldn't mind if they showed a little more of that.

    using the present question as a segue, we can go either with:

    how would a pro-bowler do at skee-ball?

    or

    how good are pro golfers at miniature golf?

    or

    playing one-handed, could a pro billiards player beat an amateur?

    or

    can fans hit as well as pitchers?

    or

    how long before nascar drivers are replaced by AI?
    Last edited by bounty; 01-22-2023 at 07:45 AM.

  9. #54
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    dag nab double posting!
    Last edited by bounty; 01-22-2023 at 07:44 AM.

  10. #55
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Hah! Good questions.

    I’ll bet a pro bowler, with a little practice, would kill at skee-ball.

    My guess is, on his home course, a Putt-Putt hero would kill a pro golfer.

    One handed, I think a pro billiards player would beat a recreational player but not a good amateur.

    Some MLB fans would outhit some MLB pitchers, but not all MLB pitchers. As the old saying goes (I think) — You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of time.

    As for AI and NASCAR, what’s the point? Would it be some sort of hillbilly Turing machine? Anyway (and I’m no NASCAR expert) I’ll bet driving a stock car is a lot more physical than the detractors let on. It’s also got complexities that a casual observer doesn’t see, like curling.

    Is a Reno Air Racer an athlete? Those guys deal with serious g-forces which make it seriously physical.
    Uhhhh...

  11. #56
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Living in California I just don't get curling.

    tailor in a bit of the build-up to the author's conclusions (or rantings), he takes up your bowling question. "while the legendary warriors who have advanced to the top ranks of games such as darts, pool, and bowling are universally regarded as something less than real athletes..." p156.
    ... true dat

    "I’ll bet a pro bowler, with a little practice, would kill at skee-ball." Yup, also Corn Hole game and Horse Shoes... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Ray_Williams_Jr.

    "My guess is, on his home course, a Putt-Putt hero would kill a pro golfer." - lol

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  12. #57
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    the summary version from last nights reading:

    the author coaxed a former mlb pitcher, paul abbott, to give the question a go. in 7 at-bats, the author put the ball into play 3 times with the judgment of "what appeared to be one hit." but the he also gave the caveat that since abbott was removed from the game, he was throwing his fastballs probably 10mph slower than normal. previously he had batted in a cage simulating a "90 mph slider from randy Johnson and all I saw was a blur." he went on to say "I really looked dumb trying to hit his curve, and his best pitch, his change-up." the general consensus from the author and the pitchers he talked with is that no way the average fan could hit as well as a pitcher, but mayyyybe some former players who batted really well in high school/college MIGHT be able to.

    the mini golf question. the author took on a former pga ranked player to the former's home course, and they effectively tied. the number 1 ranked putt-putt player played a match with the number 1 ranked pga putter, and they split two rounds. consensus was a large advantage is given to the home course players and that if the pga players had time to practice on the mini golf courses, they'd be even better and would usually win.

    nascar---apparently already such things go on (AI racing) but the participants---kinda like what youre hinting at Sancho---allow that a lot of nascar's allure is the personalities behind the wheel, and so AI wont be replacing them anytime soon.

    pool---a similar retort to the mini golf question. the author, who considered himself an excellent player who could run tables, lost in a best of five match with the pro, but the pro made a point of saying "see, to people who don't play, they see your game and think you are an excellent player. but to a pro, youre nothing. I have not shot one-handed in a very long time. give me a month, two months, you come back and it would not be so good for you."

    haven't read the bowler/skee-ball chapter yet, so more suspense on that one...
    Last edited by bounty; 01-23-2023 at 10:44 AM.

  13. #58
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    Hah! Great stuff, bounty. They don’t have windmills and giant day-glo orange jumping frogs in the PGA.

    Alrighty-right. I like a challenge, and since we’re already on it, I’ll defend golf as a sport. And I don’t even like golf. I’ve scoffed at the idea of golf as a sport … to golfers. In fact I’ve always agreed with the quip — golf is a good walk spoiled. I’ve only played the game a few times in my life, and then it was just an excuse to go drinking with some buddies. This was done mostly at the golf course on Osan Air Base in South Korea. The Air Force does love their golf courses. I think when they plan out an Air Force Base they start with the golf course and only then do they get around to planning out the runway. Anyway on this particular course a clever golfer can bank a shot off a concrete wall on one of the holes to get the to the green in 2. There’s a hill right in the middle of the course, and on that hill sits a Hawk missile battery. (Used to anyway) The Hawk is an Air-Defense-Artillery system, something the Air Force deems as important as golf.

    So with that lead-in here’s my defense of golf as a sport. All sports are a combination of mental and physical exertion. Some sports lean to the physical side some to the mental. Golf is largely mental. The physical part just requires that you leave the cart at the clubhouse and lug your clubs around for a couple of hours. Golfers who use golf carts lack moral fiber. The mental side of golf requires an almost zen-like focus — it’s a teeny-weeny little ball after all. It also requires a keen awareness of the environment — wind, humidity, visibility, slope, turf conditions, to name a few. It requires a sense for geometry and trigonometry and perhaps even a passing familiarity with derivative calculus. Golf is social as well as competitive. You can play as a member of a team or individually and you gotta get inside your opponent’s head:

    Nice drive, Bill.
    F*** you, Bob.
    No really, Bill, I’ve never seen anybody put that much English on a golf ball.
    F*** you, Bob you F***.
    Hey, want me to help you look for it? I can go get my waders.
    F*** you, Bob, you f***ing f***.
    Just trying to help, Bill. Hey, you feeling OK?
    Ack.

    But here’s what makes golf a sport and quite possibly a sport that’s superior to many of the more generally accepted sports. Golf is something you do, not something you watch. People watch it, but I think they watch it to get better at it and then go out and do it. Additionally golf is something you can do pretty much your whole life. Football is something you do during your school days and then you just watch it. Almost nobody plays football past the age of twenty. So football is a spectator sport. Golf is a participatory sport. And isn’t it more fun (and healthy) to participate than to spectate? Sports, music, conversation, and of course … ah well, you know.

    I’ve got friend who loves golf. Lives for it I think. He’s pretty good. I give him a hard time about golf being a waste of time. He’s a pretty easy-going guy, with a knack for telling a good story. He explained it to me like this, and I kinda got it — So he’s been a member of a foursome for years. Once a year they take a trip. The year he was telling me this story they’d just gotten back from playing some sort of amateur tournament at Pebble Beach. They’d been trying to go there for years. It was their first time to Pebble Beach. They’d all spent a ton of cash to get there. Anyway on day-one, first hole, their best golfer tees up. There’s a small crowd. He takes a few practice swings and steps up to the tee, concentrates a moment, takes a mighty swing, and … whoosh … misses the ball. Looks around, shakes his head, steps up to the tee, swings again, and … whoosh, misses a second time. The crowd is dead silent now, no doubt thinking, these guys are supposed to be good. He looks at the crowd, shakes his head, and says “toughest course I’ve ever played.” Steps back up to the tee and launches the ball down the fairway like a rocket.

    Golf takes confidence too.
    Uhhhh...

  14. #59
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    the skee-ball chapter was the best of the recent bunch.

    "skee-ball, for those who grew up in communist Russia, is a game played at family fun centers where a player rolls a tennis-sized ball up a ramp nine times, attempting to enter one of five different holes...and you can win a Chinese finger torture toy or a super bouncy ball if you do well."

    the author invited a hall of fame pba bowler, pete david weber, to join him trying to scoop up all the tickets they could. weber beat the author 4 games out of 5 (by quite a substantial amount). the author asked the proprietor what the all-time skee-ball record was. they didn't keep track of such things but the guy said "the most ive really seen is about 290." weber had just shot a 300.

    Sancho, any mention of "zen" and "golf" must be followed up with a reference to caddy shack!

    I think "destination golfing" sounds pretty neat.

    many years ago here in ny, the high school PE programs made a change to lifetime and fitness type activities. I don't know if golf made it into the curriculum though.

    I grew up in the neighborhood of the local country club. we'd sneak onto the tennis courts sometimes, very rarely into the pool, one of my friends caddied a bit. one of the club's hallmarks was it was the most popular sledding place in the winter time. likewise on another side of town where the local university course and cemetery properties met. another is that every alumni weekend in my hometown they host a tournament that's very well attended by most of the classes.

    have attached something in poor taste but probably still funny...
    Attached Images Attached Images

  15. #60
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Bah-hahaha
    Those guys should be in the marching band. They’re all in step. If I had to put money on the foot race, I’d back the 19th-hole guy, he’s less encumbered.

    I’m gonna have to get that book, bounty. It sounds hilarious.

    Be the ball, Danny.
    Where’d it go?
    Right in the lumberyard.
    Ya know, I’d forgotten all about that scene, but speaking of Caddy Shack and Communist Russia I used to use that movie as an informal authentication that I was dealing with an actual American not an foreign imposter or a Russian spy. I’d say “so I got that going for me.” And if the other guy didn’t immediately come back with “which is nice,” he was definitely under suspicion and everybody kept a close eye on him.

    Anyway I think I was channeling Robin Williams on Tiger Woods with the zen comment:

    Tiger. Son of a black man and Thai woman. Not even a German geneticist could’ve thought that one up. — Black athletic ability, Buddhist concentration.
    Uhhhh...

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