Sunday, January 18, 2004
So I guess it's time for a rundown of tonight's sports...
footy
The USA were held to a 1-1 draw against Denmark in Los Angeles. The standard of the refereeing was appalling with some monobrowed Mexican referee having the game decided by two penalties which seemed to be for no reason at all. Landon Donovan did himself no favours at all by trying to go round the goalie before finishing...every single frigging time. At least three times Jen and I yelled at the TV for him to hit it first time over, under or around the goalkeeper, surely scoring the goal(s) which would have secured a win for the USA.
But he did't and it was 1-1. Now onto the other stuff...
hoops
Damn, the Hawks are shit. I don't even want to talk about it.
pucks
The Thrashers finally got out of the nine-game winless rut they've been in, thumping Carolina 5-2. Maybe they've still got what it takes to put together a run to the post season, especially with the Heater due to return in a couple of weeks.
gridiron
There are only two results today - but they're the NFC/AFC Conference Championships, and they decide who's going to be in the Superbowl.
In Foxboro, The New England Patriots beat the Indianapoplis Colts 24-14, with cornerback Ty Law picking off three Peyton Manning passes.
In the other game, a veritable dullfest, The Pathers of Carolina beat the Philadelphia Eagles 14-3, Ricky Manning showing that if Ty Law can make three interceptions, so can he.
The Superbowl is on February 1st and my money is on Jake Delhomme leading the Panthers to victory. Delhomme is a rags-to-riches story.
Drafted by the Saints he was almost immediately fared out to the European NFL since the Saints had Kurt Warner playing QB. After a couple of difficult seasons trying to force his way into Frankfurt and Amsterdam, he came back to the US and signed with Carolina. In the season opener this year, Delhomme was the backup QB and, with almost half of the third quarter played and Carolina down 17-0 in Jacksonville, Delhomme was called form the bench.
Carolina won 24-23 and Jake hasn't been second choice since.
The Partiots are favored by bookmakers to win by seven points in Houston on 2/1. I'd be looking at Carolina winning by more than fourteen - but either way it looks like it's going to be a matter of which defense gets settled in first.
Nascar starts next week. I won't be covering it.
footy
The USA were held to a 1-1 draw against Denmark in Los Angeles. The standard of the refereeing was appalling with some monobrowed Mexican referee having the game decided by two penalties which seemed to be for no reason at all. Landon Donovan did himself no favours at all by trying to go round the goalie before finishing...every single frigging time. At least three times Jen and I yelled at the TV for him to hit it first time over, under or around the goalkeeper, surely scoring the goal(s) which would have secured a win for the USA.
But he did't and it was 1-1. Now onto the other stuff...
hoops
Damn, the Hawks are shit. I don't even want to talk about it.
pucks
The Thrashers finally got out of the nine-game winless rut they've been in, thumping Carolina 5-2. Maybe they've still got what it takes to put together a run to the post season, especially with the Heater due to return in a couple of weeks.
gridiron
There are only two results today - but they're the NFC/AFC Conference Championships, and they decide who's going to be in the Superbowl.
In Foxboro, The New England Patriots beat the Indianapoplis Colts 24-14, with cornerback Ty Law picking off three Peyton Manning passes.
In the other game, a veritable dullfest, The Pathers of Carolina beat the Philadelphia Eagles 14-3, Ricky Manning showing that if Ty Law can make three interceptions, so can he.
The Superbowl is on February 1st and my money is on Jake Delhomme leading the Panthers to victory. Delhomme is a rags-to-riches story.
Drafted by the Saints he was almost immediately fared out to the European NFL since the Saints had Kurt Warner playing QB. After a couple of difficult seasons trying to force his way into Frankfurt and Amsterdam, he came back to the US and signed with Carolina. In the season opener this year, Delhomme was the backup QB and, with almost half of the third quarter played and Carolina down 17-0 in Jacksonville, Delhomme was called form the bench.
Carolina won 24-23 and Jake hasn't been second choice since.
The Partiots are favored by bookmakers to win by seven points in Houston on 2/1. I'd be looking at Carolina winning by more than fourteen - but either way it looks like it's going to be a matter of which defense gets settled in first.
Nascar starts next week. I won't be covering it.
Saturday, January 17, 2004
footy
Fucking Wolves.
0-1 at Wolves. I fear I shall never hear the end of it.
Fucking Wolves.
0-1 at Wolves. I fear I shall never hear the end of it.
Friday, January 16, 2004
beisbol
So the Braves had an abysmal post-season and, as we're becoming accustomed to, never made it past the division championship stage. Which is, in most other sports, like the quarter final.
Still, in the close season they got rid of Gary Sheffield, Vinny Castilla and Javy Lopez (or Harvey Lopez, depending on how you're going to pronounce it).
But the good thing is that the Braves are in talks to try to stop contract arbitration with Rafael Furcal, Will Cunnane and, oh for the love of God, J.D. Drew.
Furcal is a no brainer...he's a good hitter and one of the best short stops ever to play the game...last year Jen and I saw him him execute only the eleventh ever triple play in the history of televised baseball. That means that he claimed all three outs of the inning on the same play...for that one he caught out the batter, beat the runner from second to third as the runner was trying to check back to second base to avoid being out automatically, then caught up with the runner from first to second as he tried to get back to first for the same reason. He has to stay.
Will Cunnane is similarly an easy call. He's going to be a great closing pitcher and as a fan I have to admit that John Smoltz isn't getting any younger.
The only thing I want to say "what the fuck" about is the need to renegotiate with JD Drew. And that's because he was just signed a couple of weeks ago. I understand the transfer system. A team buys out the remainder of a contract and offers a new one as the one they bought out expires. For example, if you trade in a player with five years left on his contract you have to renegotiate before that contract ends. Why the fuck did the Braves trade in a player they could have gotten as an out-of-contract player a month later? It amkes no sense...but then neither does this...
gridiron
...Atlanta Falcons fired Dan Reeves and have hired Jim Mora instead. Mora used to to be the San Francisco 49ers defensive co-ordinator. Mora doesn't have a great pedigree to speak of. No great success stories in his past, other than his distinguished lineage including former Saints and Colts coach Jim Mora (his dad).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dead set against having a new head coach...in fact, I'm very pro-new-coach. I think that Mora probably has talent and I'm sure that Rich McKay is a pretty smart guy, that he knows what he's doing and that the talents he showed as GM at Tampa Bay will prove that he was the right choice and that in Mora he has chosen the right man..but...but...I can't help but worry. Anyhow, the draft is in a little over three months so let's wait and see.
In the Arena Football forum the Georgia Force...Vince Dooley (former AD at UGA) is stepping into the front office while Kevin Butler (former UGA and Chicago Bears kicker) is trying out as the extra point guy.
The season starts in three weeks and I can't wait.
footy
My boys continue to play pretty well. Tomorrow is Wolves and it's on the TV so I'll be up at 7:30 to see that.
I'm a little confused at the reports coming out of Fulham about how my team is unsettling their striker, Louis Saha; what with them and Arsene Wenger complaining that it's not right for Fergus to do what he's doing in persuing the player.
See, it's confusing that they should object to a team offering cash to buy their player in the middle of a transfer window. I imagined that the transfer window was for that exact kind of activity. If Fulham don't ever want to sell their players I suggest that they move from league to league from country to country...neatly avoiding the transfer window in each nation as they go. Fuckers.
hoops
So I was wrong. Georgia Tech were not 13-0. They were 12-0. The game to go 13-0 was against the Bulldogs of UGA. They lost in the third period of overtime.
And then they lost the next game. But they won the last one so they have a 13-2 record which is still pretty good...they're fourteenth nationally, although I think they're probably better than that.
I'm not going to say anything about the Hawks except that they're the only NBA team without a 2-game winning stream. It's shameful.
pucks
So after the drunk driving and possible upcoming federal prosecution for Vehicular Homicide, Dany Heatley is finally back on the ice and practising. Which is good because the Thrashers haven't won in eight games.
I don't know what's up with Pasi Nurminen (the goalie) but Byron Defoe (the reserve goalie) isn't cutting it, and the sooner Pasi is back the better.
I'm not sure about the statistics of a team having this kind of a run and still making the post-season, but I'm sure they're not good.
And that's about it for the sports right now.
So the Braves had an abysmal post-season and, as we're becoming accustomed to, never made it past the division championship stage. Which is, in most other sports, like the quarter final.
Still, in the close season they got rid of Gary Sheffield, Vinny Castilla and Javy Lopez (or Harvey Lopez, depending on how you're going to pronounce it).
But the good thing is that the Braves are in talks to try to stop contract arbitration with Rafael Furcal, Will Cunnane and, oh for the love of God, J.D. Drew.
Furcal is a no brainer...he's a good hitter and one of the best short stops ever to play the game...last year Jen and I saw him him execute only the eleventh ever triple play in the history of televised baseball. That means that he claimed all three outs of the inning on the same play...for that one he caught out the batter, beat the runner from second to third as the runner was trying to check back to second base to avoid being out automatically, then caught up with the runner from first to second as he tried to get back to first for the same reason. He has to stay.
Will Cunnane is similarly an easy call. He's going to be a great closing pitcher and as a fan I have to admit that John Smoltz isn't getting any younger.
The only thing I want to say "what the fuck" about is the need to renegotiate with JD Drew. And that's because he was just signed a couple of weeks ago. I understand the transfer system. A team buys out the remainder of a contract and offers a new one as the one they bought out expires. For example, if you trade in a player with five years left on his contract you have to renegotiate before that contract ends. Why the fuck did the Braves trade in a player they could have gotten as an out-of-contract player a month later? It amkes no sense...but then neither does this...
gridiron
...Atlanta Falcons fired Dan Reeves and have hired Jim Mora instead. Mora used to to be the San Francisco 49ers defensive co-ordinator. Mora doesn't have a great pedigree to speak of. No great success stories in his past, other than his distinguished lineage including former Saints and Colts coach Jim Mora (his dad).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dead set against having a new head coach...in fact, I'm very pro-new-coach. I think that Mora probably has talent and I'm sure that Rich McKay is a pretty smart guy, that he knows what he's doing and that the talents he showed as GM at Tampa Bay will prove that he was the right choice and that in Mora he has chosen the right man..but...but...I can't help but worry. Anyhow, the draft is in a little over three months so let's wait and see.
In the Arena Football forum the Georgia Force...Vince Dooley (former AD at UGA) is stepping into the front office while Kevin Butler (former UGA and Chicago Bears kicker) is trying out as the extra point guy.
The season starts in three weeks and I can't wait.
footy
My boys continue to play pretty well. Tomorrow is Wolves and it's on the TV so I'll be up at 7:30 to see that.
I'm a little confused at the reports coming out of Fulham about how my team is unsettling their striker, Louis Saha; what with them and Arsene Wenger complaining that it's not right for Fergus to do what he's doing in persuing the player.
See, it's confusing that they should object to a team offering cash to buy their player in the middle of a transfer window. I imagined that the transfer window was for that exact kind of activity. If Fulham don't ever want to sell their players I suggest that they move from league to league from country to country...neatly avoiding the transfer window in each nation as they go. Fuckers.
hoops
So I was wrong. Georgia Tech were not 13-0. They were 12-0. The game to go 13-0 was against the Bulldogs of UGA. They lost in the third period of overtime.
And then they lost the next game. But they won the last one so they have a 13-2 record which is still pretty good...they're fourteenth nationally, although I think they're probably better than that.
I'm not going to say anything about the Hawks except that they're the only NBA team without a 2-game winning stream. It's shameful.
pucks
So after the drunk driving and possible upcoming federal prosecution for Vehicular Homicide, Dany Heatley is finally back on the ice and practising. Which is good because the Thrashers haven't won in eight games.
I don't know what's up with Pasi Nurminen (the goalie) but Byron Defoe (the reserve goalie) isn't cutting it, and the sooner Pasi is back the better.
I'm not sure about the statistics of a team having this kind of a run and still making the post-season, but I'm sure they're not good.
And that's about it for the sports right now.
