Borderline Fantastic Sports

I keep telling myself to do this daily, but I get sidetracked. Here is a sampling of the links I shared with my friends this week. These are the ones that made the cut and aren’t dumb after looking at them again.

The Condiment Pistol. Now if they can figure out how to get ketchup and mustard into the same gun. Perhaps a double-barreled shotgun?

My new favorite dinosaur name: Duckbilled Edmontosaurus.

Finally I won’t have to listen to everyone demanding that BattleBots come back.

Life Clock. Cool, interesting, or morbid?

Not sure how the Secret Public Journal will turn into a sitcom, I’ll watch though.

Colbert is coming to Philly. I got burned by the fact that I DVR it and watch it after work the next day. By the time I saw this, tickets were gone.

Do we want the largest building in the hemisphere to be in Philly? I guess we never want to win a championship.

Kenny Maine is writing a book? It will be kindling. Not because it will be bad, I will probably get it and enjoy it, but its going to be so try the sun will set it on fire.

The Dodgers are leaving Dodgertown. So sad, it really makes no sense. Orioletown doesn’t sound nearly as good. Lasorda said, “We’re going to leave, but we’re not leaving our memories.” Something about the wording of that quote bothers me. Sounds to me like ‘we’re leaving and we’re taking our memories with us’.

Is independent study a major at Michigan?

Service Pack 1 was released for Vista. Usually things start looking up after the first Service Pack. Who knows with Vista, everyone hates it so much and most of them haven’t even tried it.

The Adam Carolla Show
Teresa tells what Adam says is his favorite story. Part 1 Part 2
Who the F sells this S? (My favorite segment) Part 1 Part 2

These are a little old, but in the off chance you missed them …

Baseball Picks was my first idea that led to the creation of Ice Cream Helmet. That was last year. Now Baseball Picks is back for its second season. Not much has changed on the surface, I learned quite a bit behind the scenes.

The idea is fairly simple, pick who will win each baseball series during the season. Most series are 3 games, so which ever team wins the majority of those games (2 or 3) wins the series. If you’re curious there are 780 series during the season. I thought series would be a better pick than games, there are 2,430 of those.

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Baseball Picks on Ice Cream Helmet

I’m trying to keep an open mind when it comes to the Johan Santana trade.

-The Mets had to give up 4 of their Top 10 prospects. This will hurt them down the road. Although I’d be much happier if they threw in Fernando Martinez as well.
-They are going to pay him a ton. Although being in New York and having a new stadium next year, this isn’t an issue.
-Santana only went 15-13 last year. I guess you could argue that the Twins weren’t as good as last year.

Of course I’d want Santana on my team. Problem is, my team is the Phillies. We would never get him. We don’t have the talent in the system to make a trade like that. If we gave him a contract like that we wouldn’t sign anyone else. Then how would we sign guys like Adam Eaton and Pedro Feliz?

Alright, I’m a little scared. Are you ready for the Santana/Hamels rivalry?

Audio: mp3
Running Time: 49:46
Hosts: Evan and Mike
Guest: Gregg

Evan and Mike return after a week off following the trip to Penn State for the game vs Ohio State. We discuss that event and all our usual college football topics. Evan has a story the might be a little heavy for Inter-Dis.

Topics
Evan’s Trip to Penn State
Changing opinion of someone you disliked when they have a serious injury.
Replay in MLB
College Football
-ESPN Page 2 College Football Rules #34-45
-Picks
-Heisman
-Conference Champions
-Mike going to the Penn State @ Temple game on Satuday
Evan taking his 1st sick day as a teacher - Plans to watch Reign Over Me and Evan Almighty

(We never got back to discuss why Gameday is in Williamstown, Massachusetts this Saturday. Mike and Evan don’t understand the reasoning.)

(more…)

Audio: mp3
Running Time: 1:02:38
Hosts: Evan and Mike
Guest: Gregg

Evan and Mike are joined by a fellow Inter-Dis alum, Gregg. Most of the discussion, as usual, focuses on College Football. As well as looking ahead to the big weekend with Ohio State visiting Penn State.

Topics
Multiple Ketchup Brands on a Restaurant Table
Gregg is an Inter-Dis Alum
College Football
-ESPN Page 2 College Football Rules #27-33
-Picks
-Heisman
-Conference Champions
-Halloween Tailgate
World Series
-Mike: Rockies in 7

(more…)

Audio: mp3
Running Time: 38:41
Hosts: Evan and Mike

Back from a week-long hiatus due to sickness and Phillies playoffness. Speaking of that, the baseball playoffs are underway with a new player this year: TBS. We also look at a few more of Page 2’s College Football Rules and then get into the usual things.

Topics
TBS covers MLB Playoffs
College Football
-ESPN Page 2 College Football Rules #10-23
-Picks
-Heisman
-Conference Champions
-Evan will be at the UF/USC game

(more…)

The past few years I have jumped on a team’s bandwagon for the MLB playoffs. For whatever reason I find myself liking the way a team plays the game so I root for them all the way through. The past few years I’ve supported Detroit, Chicago, and Boston. This doesn’t violate any rules since the Phillies hadn’t been in the playoffs since 1993.

This year was different. The Phillies managed to get hot at the end of the year and the Mets went ice cold. The perfect situation. I could root for the Phillies in October. Unfortunately the bats weren’t prepared for October baseball and now I’m back to my usual position in October.

After the Phillies lost I didn’t just go and search out a team. One of them has to be interesting to me. There has been such a team and that team is the Cleveland Indians. The fact that they are up 2-0 on the Yankees somewhat helped the situation. At least because I’m not going to start pulling for a team on the verge of elimination. The shortest explanation of ‘Why the Indians?’ includes the names Sizemore, Sabathia, and Carmona. The slightly longer answer includes Martinez, Peralta, and Hafner. The rest of the AL teams have been doing this for a few years. I like young upstarts. If you are allowed to call a team young when Kenny Lofton is on the roster. The Indians last made the playoffs in 01, and they were led by Charlie Manuel. I fell that also puts us in the same boat. I don’t remember hearing a lot of complaining about Manuel from his Cleveland days. So either he’s lost it or the Cleveland fans were just in too much pain to yell loud enough for me to hear.

Things are slowly coming in to focus in college football. A few underdogs have emerged with a shot. South Florida being the most obvious. Although they made the FAU game a little interesting. Now it looks like the Big East might be decided in the USF/Cincy game on Nov 3rd. I’m shocked South Carolina is in the Top 10, but that SEC is rough.

One team that I’m pulling for is Arizona State. Their 6-0 start has moved them up to #14. Of course they haven’t played any of the big guns in the Pac10. Their 3-0 conference record come courtesy of wins against Oregon St., Stanford, and Washington St. However, today, their 41-3 win at Stanford seems a lot more impressive. Their upcoming schedule includes Washington, California, Oregon, UCLA, and USC. Make it through that only losing 2 then people will start talking. Its been a few years since I’ve heard much excitement about ASU. Really, I wasn’t aware they’ve had a program since The Snake left. I’d like to see them compete, I’m a fan of any non-Cali team competing for the Pac10 Championship. I’d be almost as excited for Arizona, but they have basketball. Looking into the history books, ASU needs some good years. The school has had only 3 bowl wins (in 8 games) in the past 20 years. Just maybe they can survive this schedule. Or just maybe they’ll lose to UDub this weekend and we’ll forget I ever said any of this.

Group Page - If you are logged in you can join the group right on that page. If not, login or create an account then go back to join.

I started Baseball Picks on Ice Cream Helmet this year. Its been great so far. To let me people get in on it I’ve created a group for the 2nd half of the year. The scoring will start right after the All-Star Break, on July 12th.

Its pretty simple to play. Just pick who will win each series each week. To win a series a team just has to win a majority of the games.

In my group from the start of the season I’m leading so far. Even though its my site I did forget to finish making picks one week. I was able to bounce back and retake the lead.

Feel free to invite anyone to join this group and if you want to have one with your friends, create your own group. There are additional options to customize your group when you create your own.

Group Page - If you are logged in you can join the group right on that page. If not, login or create an account then go back to join.

I finished a book! Always a big deal around these parts. As you know, I’m not a reader. I’m going to try and keep pace with finishing a book around the same time as each no-hitter this season.

I read Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Took less than a month. That should be an indication of how much I liked it.

I know the book has been out for a few years. Its been on my self for almost that long. After I finished my last book the next one I had planned to read, Can I Keep My Jersey? had not yet arrived. So I decided to pick up Moneyball. As soon as I started it I was hooked.

I’ve been a fan of the A’s because of the way they run their team. Not spending a lot but winning every year. I follow a team that spends quite a bit and hasn’t been to the playoffs in 14 years. The A’s always seem to be able to restock with talent they’ve grown themselves. It isn’t all that complicated to see how they’ve done it.

I’m also a fan of statistical analysis. I’ve always kept a close eye on stats. When I was little I would beg for any stat book I saw, especially Bill James. I was always behind on them because I had to wait until the next year when they only cost $1.

The book does a great job of giving you an in-depth look at Billy Beane (the A’s GM) and a couple of the key players. He takes a look at each part of the game and how they are judged completely wrong. It doesn’t take a genius to realize there is more than batting average and that RBIs are a meaningless stat.

The amazing thing is how this all makes complete sense, yet its still so over looked in baseball. If you are running a baseball team everything that is in this book should have already been figured out on your own. Apparently even after reading it people still haven’t been convinced.

This all goes a long way to explain why the Phillies are run so poorly. Our drafting is pretty terrible, we make bad signings, and make poor decisions during games. Its not surprising that Pat Gillick is even mentioned at the end of the book because he said he refused to ever read it. Not really a surprise.

If you haven’t read Moneyball yet and are a baseball fan then I’m guessing you are like me. You heard about the book but you didn’t bother to read it. You heard the general concept and figured that was all you needed to know. You were going to read it but then realized it was a book and you don’t read books. I say go ahead and read it. It didn’t hurt me one bit. In fact, I wanted to keep reading it.

Now its on to Can I Keep My Jersey? I actually already started it, Paul Shirley is pretty great.

Hopefully the highlight of the week will be the return of Last Comic Standing. Sadly, I fear that it won’t be. Still, with the College World Series starting up I should be able to survive.

Sports

NBA Finals
Game 3 @ Cleveland: Tuesday (9, ABC)
Game 4 @ Cleveland: Thursday (9, ABC)
Game 5 @ Cleveland: Sunday (9, ABC, if necessary)

Men’s College World Series
Starts Friday at 2pm on ESPN2. Continues until June 24 or 25 on ESPN and ESPN2.

US Open - Golf
June 14-17 on ESPN/NBC. Taking place at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, PA.

See the rest of the week in tv … (more…)