Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Blog Hiatus

Hi all. So after October 31st, I'm taking a break. Why? I've enjoyed blogging a lot, and I certainly have not come close to running out of story ideas. But I need to take some time off. I've accomplished my short-term blogging goals of being linked to by bigger web-sites, having interesting comments, and making some novel arguments in sports blog land. Now I need to decide if I want anything else from this experience. I can't see myself making a rational decision unless I take some time to think. Thus, farewell for at least a month.

Bloggolalia: Who is the Next King of Sports Links?

In response to SML's History of Sports Bloggging, one last post. Disclaimer: this is wild speculation, and I cheerfully admit I may be as ignorant as can be on all these topics. So no quitting your job to blog or anything because of this.

I wrote my history of what might have been already. But what's still left untapped? I wrote about some issues related to bigger firms here. So let me just ask. Can Deadspin be beaten? Will we have a new "King of Sports Links"? I would say, probably; very few things are triumphant for long on-line. (cough Mark Zuckerburg sell while you can cough). The short answer is, no matter how much money Gawker makes, it's still a lot less than ESPN, Yahoo, or Google make. Even if ESPN or Google writers had half the talent of Will and Rick, if you hired 8 people to run the site, the combination would be victorious. The only trick is to avoid that whole condescension thing that SML pointed out.

For the long answer, here's what I think. A blog should properly be seen as a cross between Google's Search Engine and Yahoo!'s Answers. It's a smart search engine that writes answers IN ANTICIPATION of readers questions. See, I could just type in words with my specific interests into Google's search engine...but then I have no one to tell me what links are best. Worse, I can't talk about the stories with anyone. Yahoo! Answers gives me someone to talk to and allows me to narrow my focus, but it takes time to get an answer. So what a blog author does is write stories around interests that people would search for and want to read, and then give them a place to discuss said interests. Basically, I have an expert doubling as a search engine; better than Google and Yahoo! Answers would be separately. To be successful, you need to be a lot like your readers, but have several intriguing quirky ways of being different.

However, the problem with Deadspin (or nearly any sports blog site) is that it's just written by one or two people trying to stay current with many, many readers. As writers age, in general, they tend to get more out of touch with the 18-35 sweet spot. Or, as their readers get used to their columns style, the reader gets bored by the repitition or picks at the flaws. Deadspin has shrewdly tried to fix the two writer problem by handing over columns to David Hirshey, Big Daddy Drew, AJ Daulerio, Weekend Editor (which now rotates to include more editors), and others. But I'm not so sure getting more writers is the answer. There has to be a better way of knowing what stories your readers care about. (For example, I could care less about ESPN).

So a blog that could collect the searches of its readers about sports AND then write links and columns based on those searches would trump Deadspin. Or, if one could get 20-30 readers to devote 10 hours of their time per week to digging up interesting stories (aka an army of interns) in return for a nominal fee, again, that would trump Deadspin. (I didn't think of it when I first wrote this, but that description fits Epic Carnival. However, the site might have a touch too many writers right now, and the comment section needs some work.) The key is better information and understanding about your readers. And right now, let's be honest, most of us are guessing. However, I have some severe scruples with the "turn your commenters into worker bees" movement. It's just not going to work, and I'll explain why in one word: "laziness". There.

Secondly, I think there's still room for improvement in the commenting game. Right now, people comment for free, and it gets really hard to know which comments are worth reading and aren't. But what if, instead, a site used a team of 15-20 writers on each column? I'm thinking like the Simpsons TV or Family Guy show writers, where the show itself doesn't fit together that smoothly at times but the individual lines are great because they were the best work out of 15-20 writers. Or, VH-1 review shows where they ask 20 people the same question and only 2 of them are used on-air. So, the blog author writes the 200-word column...and all the other writers write short, snarky pieces related to the column. Author picks 3 of them to run with his piece, and publishes it. Now you have funny X 4, and the best comment written in response gets to be the 5th author. So now you have competition, which gives you the online video-game angle.

Or, consider a better version of DU!AN, where only the best comments made while watching a game make it on-air in real time, and 4 authors live-chat simultaneously about the game via text, audio, or video. You're telling me that this wouldn't be better than many commentator teams? (copyright infringement issues aside). So you have beta testers killing the dumb comments while the good ones survive (ala Youtube, Digg, everyone else with their thumbs-up/thumbs-down routine). I still think there's more to be done with interactivity, and we're not there quite yet.

Thirdly, have you seen Deadspin's IT lately? Anyone remember how Friendster's terrible IT helped open the door for Myspace? While the average reader isn't concerned right now, they may be if live blogs keep failing, comments keep freezing, and posts fail to show up.

Fourthly, Deadspin is an amoeba. If you're a commenter and you're really funny and good, why should you stay at Deadspin? Why not start your own blog? So I think retaining long-term commenting talent is a problem, and commenting is a big draw to linking sites. Most of the commenters left amiacably and stayed on good terms with Deadspin. But one wonders if that will continue indefinitely.

Finally, what happens when sites start rejecting links? No, I'm serious. Linking makes you dependent on the site that linked to you. It ruins the exclusivity of you and your readers and admits another X number of strangers in from another site to run amuck in your site. Most of us welcome this. But I could see a time 2-3 years down the road where blogs form paying communities and don't want those communities disturbed. You pay for the exclusivity, rather than the content, perhaps; the blog author promises to write articles based on your suggestions and your interests. At that time, if everyone knows every site, then why would my readers want, say, SML's readers? If they wanted to read SML, they would be at SML already. etc. I could also see situations where columns are "exclusive" to one blog and can't be linked/embedded elsewhere. Now it becomes a content war; and Deadspin's specialty is not developing original content, but rather tweaking existing content.

Anyway, those are some scattered ideas. Yes, I'm testing your attention span. If you got here, BLINK!

A final point I thought about...what about Ballhype as the new link king? You know, by ranking us, Ballhype controls us, right? I think people underestimate the power of Ballhype to take a run at Deadspin. You know what it would take? Hire one or two writers to provide exclusive site-specific content, and otherwise just post the best links on the web as they do now. Bingo. Don't sleep on Ballhype as eventual blogger competition.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

7 Random/Weird Facts About MCBias

So the boisterous Redhead demanded that I post 7 random or weird facts about myself on this blog before going on hiatus. Despite pointing out that Blogger 2007 is not LiveJournal circa 2003, this is a sports blog not a personal blog, and that facts about myself cause insomniacs to slumber, I decided to push this out before going on hiatus. But I'm not tagging anyone because I'm going on hiatus tomorrow; so I wouldn't get a chance to read them. Oh, and I know the list is kind of grouchy. I just couldn't figure out a way to disguise the good stuff without giving out too much personal info.

1. The last soccer game of my senior year of high school, I headed an own goal into our net that essentially cost us the game. My dad was videotaping the game, but thankfully was distracted at that moment. More amusingly, as part of a plan to capture the glories of my senior year, I had my dad videotape several sporting and academic events. I lost or messed up in every single event he videotaped...let's just say he will never be allowed to videotape me when I'm using power tools.
2. I once got a backstage pass to meet a rather famous singer from a female member of his band who I was also going to meet...and was about 2 minutes too late to be let in.
3. At one volleyball practice, I was hit in the right eye by a spike, and a few minutes later, I was hit in the left eye. I have never been hit in the eye before or since in volleyball.
4. I have worked at a place where a gunman shot someone. Thankfully I was absent the day he did it.
5. One day, my roommate and I were supposed to get up at 8:00 AM for church. We both managed to sleep in until 1:30 PM. Five and a half hours late, even though neither of us is the type to sleep in, and our alarm was apparently set on closer inspection. We're still not quite sure how that happened.
6. I've met people who got perfect scores on the ACT and the SAT (not the same person).
7. I'm an introvert who does surprisingly well at public speaking, thus merrily confusing people about my true personality.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Jesus Plays Sports: When Christian Athletes Fail

So with the Rockies and Paul Byrd both having fallen on hard times lately, I thought I should squeeze off a quick post about that. I hate it when people only talk about their causes or favorite players when times are good, thus I respond.

First, the Rockies were swept in the World Series. I wrote about this team's unique relationship to Christianity here. Quite honestly, I'm not surprised they lost in the World Series. You know, some might argue that had the Rockies won, they could have been this great testimony to fans about the power of Christ, etc. But rarely do things work out that neatly for Christians. Look at Kurt Warner's up-and-down career as an example. No blessing of God is guaranteed for being a Christian athlete.

Warning: Christian speculation ahead!
My personal bias, which I don't think Christians or non-Christians may agree with, is that God has a way of being coy about his role in the affairs of men. That way, only people who really are looking for him will notice. For me as a Christian, a few times my team won or lost games, and I thought "Wow, that was ALMOST miraculous the way we won or lost, it felt like something different was in the air, etc." But you can't prove it to be truly miraculous on pure statistics alone; unlikely, yes, but miraculous, no. So you're just left wondering if God may have intervened or if you're making too much of nothing. I think that although sometimes God is obvious, more often he makes himself known, then retreats. It then becomes a matter of faith as to whether you believe he really exists or not.

Second, Paul Byrd. There's a temptation to defend Paul Byrd as just trying to compensate for a medical condition in a way that was legal at the time. After all, often people complain that Christian athletes aren't tough or competitive enough. There's nothing uncompetitive about the man who got into a heated confrontation with Bob Wickman last year because he felt Bob cost him a W.

However, I keep thinking that Christians should hold a higher standard in the competitive arena. After all, on the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talks about "If someone forces you to go with them one mile, go with them two" and talks about thinking about adultery and saying harsh words to a brother as being a sin. Other muscle-building substances were illegal at the time Paul Byrd injected HGH. It seems that Paul Byrd obeyed the law of MLB but disobeyed the spirit of the law. That doesn't seem quite right to me.

However, I'm saddened because Paul Byrd's book was going to talk about his struggles with porn, despite being a married athlete. To think that athletes, known for being wealthy and supposedly having all these women at their disposal, have problems with porn would be a new perspective for a lot of people. I think it would start some badly-needed conversations about the lure of virtual reality (VR) in general (video games, porn, Internet communities, TV, etc.). Many, many Americans are getting addicted to VR at the cost of everyday relationships and experiences. It's a problem we need to seriously confront as a society and as individuals. Now, though, there's not much chance that book comes out.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Linkstigational: New (or new to me) Sports Blogs

I hate linking. It takes a long time, exposes the fact that even making links stretches my HTML ability, and most readers already have seen the content I link to. If you read and like my stuff, chances are you read the blogs I like as well, right? But when new blogs appear (or blogs I hadn't seen before), I will make an exception. There have been so many in this last month, I've actually had to split this column in two. First, some bigger names in new and improved roles; next time, some newer writers that you should read.

Cosellout is a fascinating read; the man is a fact-spewing cannon in defending the unpopular (Isiah Thomas) and re-evaluating popular sports folk (Rick Reilly, Steve Nash). Check out his Steve Nash post.

D-Wil is back at his home site, but is still as provocative and ornery as ever. I envy his ability to analyze media content rapidly and understand where arguments are weak and biased. For example, he points out that Keyshawn Johnson essentially betrayed and sold out Chad Johnson, his cousin, for a cheap 5-minute interview.

Matt Ufford is quietly writing a great NFL column over at the AOL Fanhouse this year. Maybe it's just me, but I haven't seen much mention of it on other blogs, and that's a shame. (Ahem, Fanhouse; your format makes it impossible to separate the fruit from the rind.) I was initially a little suspicious of its content given the pretentious-sounding "The Prelude" title, but it won me over quickly. Anytime a blogger can mention the Vicksburg Campaign and other great battles of war in a column, I want to read that column. Ignore the scurrilous rumors that my real reason for liking the Vicksburg Campaign is because the town name of "Holly Springs" sounds like the name of a pretty girl; they are 95% false. Ok, 80% false.

Finally, this Stop Mike Lupica fellow actually believes a link from MC Bias is worthwhile. Yet another blogger believes I have multiple readers. Wow, bloggers are gullible. Head on over there to keep up the charade, especially those of you of the left-handed persuasion. Watch the GI Joe cartoons and mock him for forgetting Bill Russell on his famous NBA left-handers list, ok?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Media Mayhem: Simmons, Banks, Leitch, Reilly

Lots of stories going around about sports writers lately, so I decided to do a rare post about sports writers.

I am ready to start a Paypal fund to collect enough money so Bill Simmons can move back to Boston. Not being in Boston anymore, he isn't surrounded by Boston folk. Thus, he gets his Boston fan talk fix by writing about it to us. His writing is more about his fond memories of Boston than anything else. If he would go back to Boston, I believe he would become a little more well-rounded in his columns. But let's be honest about Simmons' writing. Bill Simmons gets worse and worse as the year goes on, hitting bottom around January, until he can write about the NBA again. He's a great NBA writer, and only an average NFL writer. That's forgiveable; it's very hard to be good at writing on all leagues. But it still is hard to read him this time of year.

Don Banks may be my favorite NFL sports writer (Michael Silver also would be in the discussion). But I couldn't believe this line in his column about Boston sports fandom:

I've lived other places -- the Tampa Bay area, the Twin Cities, and the Baltimore-Washington area -- and nowhere matches the year-round intensity and passion for sports and its local pro teams that Boston exhibits.


What?! That means nothing; of course Boston is more fanatical about sports than those cities. How well do the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or other Florida baseball/football teams draw? The Twins were nearly contracted by MLB, and Minneapolis may be one of the few places in the country where intellectual and artistic events are revered just as much as sports events by the average citizen. And Baltimore-Washington folk are too busy getting their politics on to pay faithful attention to all of their sports teams. I understand the point Don is trying to make (he recently moved to Boston and thus compares it with past cities), but those cities are poor sports towns, period. Not a good comparison.

Bloggers have been quick to praise Shanoff's idea that Leitch take over the back page of SI. Look at the Ballhype votes and links. However, look deeper at the comment section of Shanoff's post here. None of Dan's readers like the idea! And neither do I. Leitch is very talented, but I don't know if his style works for the last page of a magazine. What Will does best is write provocatively to inspire comments and thoughts. I could see him doing an excellent job with the first page of SI. But the last page? You don't stretch folks there. Instead, you tickle their egos and massage their biases so they buy your magazine again. Some time later I'll talk about how a magazine should be laid out.

Rick Reilly is not going to be the same at ESPN. Cosellout made some good points in his Reilly article. Reilly isn't the ex-high-school jock; he's the ex-nerd who married the head cheerleader, built an impressive resume at SI...and now both of those aspects are gone. SI was the perfect place for Reilly with its witty and laid-back style. ESPN is the opposite of Reilly, with its ex-frat boy feel at times. While Reilly may aspire to that style, I don't see that in him. It'll be interesting to see how his style may or may not change due to the location change.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

World Series Quick Post

Sadly I was right about the Indians having Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tendencies. CC and Fausto reverted to last year's form, Grady resisted the awaiting Derek Jeter mantle Fox so badly wanted to place around his shoulders, and Travis was all donkey.

This is a tough one for me; originally I had the Red Sox winning the Series. But this setup of Red Sox vs. Rockies sounds a lot like Yankees vs. Marlins in 2003. When teams with very young, homegrown line-ups reach the World Series, they tend to be very successful. Additionally, expansion teams are 3-0 in the last decade in the World Series. Also, the Rockies are a better regular-season fielding team according to MLB.com's stats and at least as good of a regular-season hitting team.

True, the Rockies starting pitching isn't as good when viewed over the regular season stats...but the Red Sox are relying on an elderly Curt Schilling, a overtaxed Daisuke who finished the season poorly, AND a first-time play-off starter in Jon Lester. Plus, the Rockies get Aaron Cook back for Game 4; that will be an emotional lift. And don't be so sure that Papelbon's good closing will continue. If Garko hits that ball a little harder in Game 7, it's 5-5.

For the record: Rockies in 6.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Posterized: White Men Throwing Heat Edition





Sorry the posters aren't that funny this week; had a hard time thinking of subjects.

My quick rant this week is on Favre. It's fascinating how his decision to not retire looks when viewed at different time intervals. Here's what the Packers record has looked like in the past 3 years:
10-6
4-12
8-8 (4-8 followed by a 4 game win streak)
5-1

So if you looked at the Packers record in 2005 or midway through 2006, his decision to return looked awful. It appeared as if the Packers were plunging into the basement after years of above-average records. But if you look at the Packers now, it appears as if that 4-12 campaign was the only losing season in a decade of winning or .500 level seasons. And guess what? Even with the recent success, it's still hard to say whether Favre's decision was wrong or right until 3-4 years after he retires. Suppose the Packers go 2-8 for the rest of the year. Then experts might say that the Packers had 0 winning seasons since 2004, and that Brett had made a mistake in returning. This is why it's really hard to evaluate whether a certain decision is wrong or right, because your time frame limits you.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Indians Fan Reacts to Game Seven



Ok, so maybe that individual isn't a Cleveland fan, but those last two seconds is how we feel right now. I'm not the world's biggest Indians fan, but that was just brutal. To be so close to getting that 3rd run and never getting it all night long... I have to admit, I never got too high after Game 4's 3-1 lead, and sadly that was the right reaction. I am a well-trained Cleveland fan, what can I say? Congrats to my Boston blog buds.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bloggolalia: Why Blogging Happens, a Gawker Response

The Big Lead documented this New York Magazine article and thought well of it. I do not, and thus I am posting my revised comment to The Big Lead's post as my Friday blog ramblings. In the author's rush to document Gawker, she’s put on New York blinders so strongly that she can’t see the bigger picture about blogging. Please skim the article first, as otherwise this won't make complete sense. Sorry to blog about this and not the Indians, but I already had most of this typed up from my TBL comment.

First, I disagree with this idea that the top jobs are gone, and that's why Gawker exists. It’s not that employees are moving up the ladder, then finding they can’t make $200000 anymore, and jumping to Gawker. No, Gawker and Co are being run by very young employees in their 20’s who usually have been unable to find a job in the mainstream. And the average readers tend to be people in their 20’s, out of college, on their first job or two. Why?

Because there just aren’t good jobs for people coming out of school the way there used to be. So there’s this large segment of the population that is underemployed, in my view, and that’s where a lot of your bloggers and commenters are coming from. These people have been achievers for a while, joined lots of clubs or played sports in high school, had this really balanced life…and now they’re working at a boring job for 40K. So they turn to blogging as a hobby, and because they aren’t really able to use their full range of gifts at their current job. It's not the creative underclass in writing; it's the underemployed in society at large that are driving blogs right now. It's not that technology has changed since circa Geocities and 1997; it's that society and we have changed. Innovation happens when society is ready for it, not before.

I would also note a slight decrease in friendships because we move around more as people; thus, on-line community looks more attractive than it normally would. In addition, there’s a delay in growing up in our society; we marry, get that stable job, buy houses, etc., a little later in life than before. So it’s like adolescence is extended…and instead of having our small high school group to party and gossip with, we instead move to media culture, celebrity, or sports culture to fill that adolescent void, ha. Gawker is like a substitute for the high school/college atmosphere in some ways, no?

Finally, Nick Denton’s plan of turning contributors into commenters…it’s a trend that bloggers think they can turn their contributors into field reporters/writers and get this gigantic swarm of worker bees. It’s not going to happen. Why? Readers are lazy. As soon as it becomes work, not fun, they’ll quit. Sure, people are excited to be a part of Web 2.0 now. But I think a lot of it is a fad. I’m getting burned out on commenting, personally; it takes too much time from my job, and the pay-offs are too low. Over time, the rewards for commenting are just not high enough yet. And quite honestly, I'm tired of sites constantly trying to turn their readers and commenters into slaves for the greater glory of the site. I know that many of the site owners mean well...but I know others just want us to do their work for them. That's ok only up to a certain point. Yes, your site is free...but my time isn't.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

AV Wednesday: Kids Love Sports



You have to watch this video for the sake of the kid who shows up around the 1:02 mark. He references Super Bowl history and his fantasy football team...and he's what, 10? See, a lot of times we like to think that as adults, we are so much smarter than children. Sure, we have schooling and experience, and they don't. But I look back to some of my thoughts and ideas as a kid...and I have to think, not bad. I knew my baseball stats much better then, because I used to study my baseball cards methodically. Ha, ok, thinking outside of sports, perhaps I had better morals and perspective then, too.

I would say after watching this video, don't be too quick to turn your back on your "young" self, to think that you must leave your past completely behind as you grow. On the other hand, don't let your birth age or current age define you. I'm struck by how many bloggers complain about their favorite sports team or ESPN or what not because "It's not like it was when it was growing up." That might be true, but it can also trap you into comparing everything to how it was at some idealized age. Or, you're so obsessed with being 22 and being in college, let's say, that you don't dare do anything that doesn't fit with what a 22-year-old would do. Stretch yourself outside of your age; I can't remember the last time I spent some time with little kids. And looking at this video, I'm missing out; they are funny and refreshing.

Wow, that was a lot of moralizing. Sorry.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Jesus Plays Sports: Paul Byrd's ESPN Interview

Take a look. It's rare that I do a post that contains one link and no real commentary. But I thought it would be worthwhile to have an open forum on what you think about faith in sports. See, when I first started to write on this blog, I wanted to bring it up more. But there really weren't any stories out there. Now, in the past two months, it's been all over the place, with Jon Kitna, the Rockies, and now this Paul Byrd interview. So read the interview and tell me what you think.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Posterized: The Weak and the Elderly

UPDATE: The Starting Five has split up. Long-range, I think it'll help the writers to be separate. But short-range...to me, this was the best thinking-man's sports blog out there.

For this week, I decided to focus on some unlikely heroes. The aging Trot Nixon and Vinny Testaverde and the unlikely play-off bound Rockies are the poster topics for this week.




My mini-rant is on the attention paid to the Rockies' Christian leanings. I think that Christians in positions of power need to be very careful about subjecting non-Christians to Christian standards. That said, banning pornography and playing music with obscene lyrics from the workplace is hardly an unusual move. It's not as if most workplaces outside sports allow those things either.

I'm more cynical about columnists' reasons for questioning the Rockies. Think back to changes in the default athletic culture over the years--whether it's coaches who are soft-spoken instead of drill sergeants (Tony Dungy), using mathematical know-how to design a team (Moneyball with Oakland), or a change in the dominant demographics (majority black, Latino, or Christian players). Usually, what we saw initially in all those cases are columnists' harshly judging these changes. It's made to sound as if the previous culture made no demands on anyone, and all these new quiet or smart or black or Christian people are ruining everything.

However, this is a manipulation of the truth. The dominant culture (or if you will, government) ALWAYS coerces follower personalities to do what it wants. We just don't recognize the type of coercion after we have lived in it for a while. To pretend as if the new culture is coercive and the previous culture was not is revising the truth.

The main question instead is, which type of behaviors do you want the dominant culture to push on people? And after the deaths of Beck, Hancock, Caminiti and other baseball players due to rampant substance abuse, I think the Rockies style deserves a try. Even though as a Christian, I have some concerns about the Rockies's decisions (Christians are called to influence and infiltrate the dominant culture, rather than create their own separate culture), I think that this is an improvement over the default sports culture. So I'd ask you as well, dear reader, to keep an open mind.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Shawn Marion Fourth Person

At first, I wasn't sure I sympathized with Shawn Marion. After all, he's a top player on one of the top teams in the league. Why would he want to go somewhere else? Then I dug a little deeper into my past...see, I fulfilled a similar role to Shawn when I was a teenager. I hated being a mediocre player on a great team, while hating myself for hating it. Make any sense? So I tried my hand at a fourth-person take, set during last-season, on how I think Shawn feels...plus candid Shawn Marion photos.



You are Shawn Marion, it's 5:30 PM, and you're in New York...no, Cleveland...eh, you can't remember any more. Wait, it's New York. You are looking at the scouting report, and realizing that New York really lacks star power. In fact, it's pretty clear to you that if you went to New York right now, you would be their best player. Shawn Marion, the king of New York...much better than Phoenix. Maybe then you would get a local fast food commercial in your area, instead of all those car dealerships.




You are Shawn Marion, it's 11:00 PM, and you are resting after another Suns victory. It felt so good; the team felt like a machine. And you were in the middle of it all, deflecting balls meant for Eddy Curry, denying Crawford the ball...you helped make it happen. The New York media covered the game...of course, not many reporters talked to you, but enough. Maybe this team can win the championship...



You are Shawn Marion, it's 1:00 AM, and you're sitting in the airport terminal. You wonder where you should go on vacation this year. Definitely a Caribbean island, but which one? Just somewhere different...after all, you went to school at UNLV and then played at Phoenix for the last decade. That's not a lot of variety. The desert is ok, but what would it be like to play in a town where it snowed? Eh, you'd probably hate it...but what if it were Boston or somewhere with lots of basketball tradition?

me and shawn marion

You are Shawn Marion, it's 3:00 AM on the plane, and you find yourself wondering who you are, because you can't sleep. You've played on the same team for 9 years, and you've never truly been the man on that team.
You increased your average the first four years, dropped back a little bit the year Steph got traded and Amare was hurt...and since then, your stat line has leveled out. Your assist numbers are down, as are your turnovers, because you don't get to handle the ball anymore in Coach Mike's offense. In the Knicks game, you got to take someone off the dribble once the entire game. This for a quick 6'7" guy who's a matchup nightmare for big or small guys. It's been a long time since they chose you to guard Michael Jordan in his last All-Star Game down the stretch.

Suns Game!

You are Shawn Marion, it's 3:30 AM on the plane...What about the Hall of Fame? Scottie got in, but he played for other teams after Chicago. And, Scottie was the second-best player, not the #3 player. Is Dennis Rodman going to make it to the Hall of Fame as the energy guy on those teams? You don't think so. Who is your role model in being the #3 player on a contender? James Worthy, who people still question his Hall of Fame credentials? Kevin McHale, who had to put up with Bird's disdain, or the nearly invisible Robert Parrish? Sam Cassell from the Rocket years? Manu Ginobili? Glen Rice on the Lakers?! Yeah, great choices.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

You are Shawn Marion, it's 4:00 AM on the plane, and you're wondering when Amare is going to learn a real post move...and play some defense. Sure he blocked Tim Duncan that one time--so what? Tim Duncan can't jump, and everyone in the league knows it. You're sick of bailing him out on D.



You are Shawn Marion, it's 4:30 AM on the plane, and your knee is still throbbing from that collision with David Lee. you think about faking an injury. Hey, when Steve missed those games the first season he was on the team, and we went 1-5, that's when everyone started yammering about how great Steve was for our team. You wonder about how quickly Stephon Marbury and Jason Kidd were forgotten in Phoenix. And when Amare went down, everyone started talking about him and wondering if he'd come back the same. Of course, the team still had a great record without him. You smile in the darkness; you took care of that. No way that people were going to think that the Suns were the Steve and Amare show. Hate is a great motivator. But you think, with your luck, Boris Diaw would take your job and the team would do even better.

Shawn Marion w/Fahed's children

You are Shawn Marion, and you drift off to sleep at 5:00 AM, wishing you couldn't see the flaws so clearly in this team. Championship? No way. You just know everyone too well, and you can pinpoint each flaw by now. You want to write a column about it, just so it's clear that you could do the sportswriters job better than they can. But everyone would know who wrote it...maybe an anonymous blog? Oh, it's just not worth it. You know, and that's what counts. You wish you didn't care so much about what people thought about you, but it's who you are by now. If you demand a trade, and the team fails (which it will whether you leave or not), you'll get the blame, and get even less respect than you do now. Of course, if you stay, you already know the end of the story. So doomed if you do, doomed if you don't. And then, 20 years of going to trading card conventions, wishing you had spoken up while you could have been traded? No thanks.

Shawn Marion

Guest Blogging: Red Sox Monster, and video

I posted about the Indians and how hard it is to figure out their true talent at the Red Sox Monster. Yes, that's the site that brought you oodles and oodles of goofy baseball fan video this season. But Dan also posts these cool word-like things on the page too, ha, it's not just video. Check out his excellent article trying to figure out why a Red Sox fan was physically beaten, for example.

Oh, and let me flip a video onto the pile myself: it's Tobin Heath and Casey Nogueira (US U-20 soccer players) competing in a soccer ball trick battle. I've always wanted to get into one of these in basketball.


Eh, while I'm at it, a rant. I was watching Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman's scripted banter on Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night. And it made me think about how ideal stereotypes can go terribly wrong. Kimmel fits the stereotype of being a laid-back yet professional fraternity boy. Hypothetically, old people should think he looks like a nice normal boy, and young people should appreciate his edginess. However, to me he reminds me more of that guy at parties whose politeness and sincerity is a mile wide and an inch deep. This is more of the real Jimmy Kimmel personality to me:

Additionally, most skits on the show are based on an idea frat boys at 2AM think sounds really cool, but is actually quite lame in execution. Believe it or not, ethnic/elderly jokes done by ethnic/elderly people aren't funny to everyone.

And what about Sarah Silverman? (I'll get to sports momentarily, promise). Stereotype is she looks like the girl next door but says outrageous things like the guy next door. Man words with woman parts-great idea, right? But in actuality, that stereotype isn't that cool; think about it. You're shooting baskets or what not, a girl comes over to join you, and it's great to be playing sports with a girl. That is, until you realize that she drops an obscenity every time she misses a shot, and burps and farts on the court more than you do. That's not exactly what becoming "one of the guys" is about. (Per Man Law #4236, I'm not allowed to reveal the details, but it involves face paint, drums, fried rattlesnake, and merry-go-rounds). If said girl reacts that way when she misses a shot, how she would react if we would make a mistake on a date? So some guys tend not to go for that type of girl...then such girls wonder why "guys won't ask me out" when they try so hard to be one of the guys. Admittedly, it's a stereotype double standard of sorts. Guys say they want their girls to be more "down-to-earth", but they usually don't mean "earthy" per se. It's similar to when girls say they want to date a "nice guy". They don't mean a Boy Scout, they just mean "don't beat me and steal all my stuff while I'm sleeping like my last boyfriend did."

Anyway, bottom line is, the same "bait-and-switch" when it comes to stereotypes happens in sports, especially football. We say we want this feel-no-pain, throw darts, hard-living QB...and then we bash Brett Favre for using painkillers to keep up that image. We say we want super-intelligent coaches who only care about winning...and then we bash Bill Belichick for having no personality. We say we want these acrobatic wide receivers who celebrate in the end zone and want the ball really bad...and then we bash Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson for complaining too much when they don't get the ball, or over-celebrating. Frankly, what we think we want or say we want and what we actually want are two different things. The sooner fans and media realize that, the better.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Top 10 Comment Sections in Sports Blog-Land, 1-5

See Part 1 here. Once again I am joined by my acerbic fictional alter-ego, MR CAPS, representing the best and worse of cynical commenting:

5. Yaysports
Ask me a few months ago, and this site would be a few spots higher. The Cavalier’s hilarious pictures and outrageous posts inspire bitingly funny comments from regulars like Jack Cobra, Boney, StillaJew, Roger, Becky, Jordi, and Tony Parker. The Cavalier also often shows up in the comment section to spice things up. However, being an NBA-only blog it gets pretty quiet in the off-season.

YOU FORGET TO MENTION THAT HALF OF THOSE READERS HAVE NOT POSTED IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS, THEY HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY FRAT BOYS WHO FAIL TO RECOGNIZE THAT COLLEGE IS THE BEST TIME OF THEIR LIVES AND SHOULD NOT BE WASTED ON INTERNET COMMENT SECTIONS.

Best time as in the only time in life one must balance a full-time job, a full-time class schedule, and a full-time debt load?

DON’T FORGET FULL-TIME BABE WATCHING. "PARDON ME, NEW FRESHWOMAN, BUT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A HEART-BREAKING EXPERIENCE WITH AN OLDER MALE STUDENT TO RUIN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF SCHOOL? MR CAPS CAN INSPIRE AT LEAST 20 WHINY BLOG POSTS AND 30 DRUNK DIALS, GUARANTEED! AND DO YOU ALSO HAVE A POOR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR FATHER? YES?"

I support eugenics and forced castration programs only if they involve MR CAPS.

HARSH

4. The Starting Five
Posts talk about controversial acts of omission and commission in media coverage, which inspires a lot of interesting commentary. In addition, this site has a lot of unique and regular commenters you won’t see elsewhere. The comments are usually somewhat smart and lengthy, but can also be funny. And you usually can get responses to your comments. If you asked me a month ago, this site gets ranked higher.

I AM STILL NOT SURE WHICH COMMENT LAST WEEK CAUSED YOU TO RATE IT LOWER, MC BIAS. LET ME THINK…WAS IT (A) THE COMMENT WITH ANTI-SEMITISM? (B) THE COMMENT WITH CRACKPOT THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF BLACK PEOPLE? (C) THE COMMENT WITH AN INJUNCTION TO BLACK MEN TO STAY AWAY FROM WHITE WOMEN? (D) THE COMMENT WITH THE F-BOMB DROPPED ON YOUR SORRY ALIAS WHILE TRYING TO BE NICE?

I refuse to pick just one. Yes, there have been a few too many extremists playing both white and black bigot cards lately, and the comment section’s getting a little too long. Pity; the site is becoming a victim of its own success.

OR, ITS SUCCESS IS MAKING ITS READERS THAT DO NOT FIT A CERTAIN TEMPLATE INTO VICTIMS.

I’ll believe my opinion for now, MR CAPS. It’s still one of the best sites out there, even if many other sports blogs don't give it credit for the original reporting it does.

3. Deadspin
I really want to rate the site that made commenting cool a few slots higher. Will sets up posts like a pro for the masses to make jokes on, and the open-hearted, I-love-my-readers style of the site is charming. DU!AN made it socially acceptable for commenting to occur after work hours. Plus, they have a commenting intern too, who writes columns!

FACT: THREE OUT OF TEN DEADSPIN READERS WHO ATTEMPT TO READ A COMPLETE COMMENT SECTION SUBSEQUENTLY SUFFER FROM VISION IMPAIRMENT, INCLUDING OUTRIGHT BLINDNESS OR VISIONS OF DANCING SKIP BAYLESS HEADS LEVITATING ABOVE LEATHER JACKETS.

I know it’s a long comment section, but it’s usually worth reading.

FACT: 100% OF THE FUNNY DEADSPIN COMMENTERS GO START THEIR OWN BLOGS. ONLY THE LESS TALENTED REMAIN, TO POST “LOOK AT ME! I BE FUNNY!” STYLE COMMENTS.

That number can't be fact. After all, I started my own blog, and I'm not that funny. And being funny IS the point; write something so funny that people must respond.

EXCEPT THAT SOME NEWER, LESS TALENTED COMMENTERS HAVE OCCASIONALLY RESORTED TO RACIST ATTEMPTS THAT AREN'T FUNNY OR HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH THE POST. HUMOR IS THE GOAL, NOT INAPPROPRIATE AND BIASED SOCIAL COMMENTARY.

Yes, by all means, leave the bias to me. I’m going to have to agree with you for once. But it's just a few bad apples, and...

ALL YOUR FUNNY ARE BELONG TO ME. MR CAPS IS INVICTUS!

And immediately disagree, sigh.

2. The Big Lead
One of the largest blogs that still allows commenters to direct-link their names to their sites. Thus, lots of smaller bloggers hang out here. Comment section rarely gets past 40, so you can read the comments in one sitting. Also, perhaps the funniest crew of haters (Jay the Most Hated, Lozo, The Maj) on any site.

THE BIG LEAD'S RANKING SHOULD BE PENALIZED FOR ITS RELENTLESS BAITING OF MIDWEST TEAMS TO DRIVE UP VIEWS AND COMMENTS.

They’ve been right so far on the Bears and on Notre Dame. Look, it’s a decent site, and the best complaints other commenters have is that they don’t like TBL’s taste in movies.

DON’T FORGET THE WHINING OF COMMENTERS TRAPPED AT WORK BEGGING FOR MORE PICTURES OF STARLETS IN LESS THAN CONCEALING CLOTHING. IT’S A SPORTS BLOG, NOT TMZ OR WWTDD.

Still a solid #2.

1. Free Darko
Highbrow posting leads to funny, smart, and detailed comments. Stupid commenters are kept too busy looking at the random pictures in the posts or scratching their heads about what the post meant to comment. For some reason I haven’t been here often, but I should have been.

NOT EVEN THE WRITERS OF FREE DARKO KNOWS WHAT FREE DARKO IS ACTUALLY ABOUT IN ANY GIVEN POST, WHICH MAKES THE SITE EVEN MORE FREE DARKO…IF ANYONE KNEW WHAT FREE DARKO WAS. BUT I UNDERSTAND IT ALL.

Really? You know, maybe you do have something worthwhile to share and I should post this intelligence-insulting routine more often. Go ahead.

ABOUT TIME! LOOK AT THE WEB-SITE SIDEWAYS IN A MIRROR AND REALIZE THAT IT’S REALLY THE PUBLISHED MEMOIRS OF DARK O’ FREE, A FORMER SLAVE. HE, NOT NAISMITH, ACTUALLY INVENTED BASKETBALL. THE SITE IS JUST POSTING THE 453 PAGE UNPUBLISHED THESIS OF DR. LAWYER INDIAN CHIEF.

That is the stupidest thing I have ever read and is offensive on so many levels. You have run out of things to say, haven’t you?

BOXERS AND LAWNGERIE BEARING THE MR CAPS LABEL SEND A MESSAGE TO THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE THAT YOU ARE LOUD, PROUD, AND IN CHARGE. PURCHASE THEM FOR AN APPROPRIATE DONATION AT

Why am I not surprised you can’t spell lingerie? For the last time, no merchandise sales for you. This list is over!

Again, I am posting about my betters and just having a little fun with them. Feel free to tell me what cool comment sections I missed in the comments.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Posterized: Midwest Tough

I was hoping to feature all sorts of exciting action from the first round of the baseball play-offs...and three of the series are already sweeps. Oh well, more time for Indians/Yankees. (Click poster for larger view)

For my mini-rant, I'd like to thank the New York City media for doing their usual freak out job when confronted with anything different. Little did I know that the hordes of summer mites (aka Canadian Soldiers) in Game 2 were such a threat to life and limb. It's hard for us Midwesterners to compete in suffering with the Florida hurricanes, California fires, and Texas heat; maybe that's why we're sometimes stereotyped as nice and quiet. East Coast might talk smack to your face, South talks smack behind your back, West Coast, um, does smack, but the Midwest! Ah, we let our actions do the smack-talking. We heroically trudge through swarms of flies, mixed with snow. That's us earnest Midwestern types. Is this a good time to mention that I have jogged through swarms of summer mites without swatting once? Yes, that's me, Midwest tough. Please, ladies, don't swarm to me all at once--although of course, if I can handle those vicious, 1 millimeter, non-biting mites, I can handle any swarm.



Thursday, October 4, 2007

Bloggolalia: What might have been?

When I reflect on sports blog history, like SML did, I think most about what might have been. It's an intriguing aspect of great ideas that often, the pieces for the idea have been around for years. It's just that no one ever thought to put them together. I'm specifically intrigued by the competition to become the King of Sports Links, and how a gap in the market led to Deadspin becoming the current King. I must immediately apologize for any inaccuracies; there are few Wikipedia entries on the dates for most of these sites.

Contender #1: Bill Simmons. I don't know of any web-site that can truly challenge Bill Simmons as the founder of the Sports Links type blog. While I never saw his site when he was Boston Sports Guy, I did read his first words for ESPN.com. You may remember that he had his first intern, Jamie, putting out a fairly regular link column with some commentary. But Bill himself stayed away from the link game when he got to ESPN. Why? In a column, he stated that ESPN was nervous that they would link to something, and then the site author would switch it with, say, a link to a sexually explicit site. Then, in May 2005, Kevin Cott won the intern contest, and went on to publish...not much of anything. I forget exactly why, but little was done with links. When does Deadspin come along? May 2005 (I know Wikipedia says September, but there are earlier articles). The coincidence is intriguing to me. I have severe doubts whether Deadspin could have become King of Sports Links against a Page 2 Linking page of average or better strength.

Contender #2: The Sports Frog and Can't Stop the Bleeding. I have to be honest here: I don't know those sites well enough to talk about them. See SML's article.

Contender #3: slamonline.com and insidehoops.com . I don't know why, but I do believe that basketball has been a little more link-friendly than both baseball and football over the years. Both of these sites did a lot of linking to really interesting basketball stories, covering most of the major newspapers and team web-sites. To my knowledge, they were doing this at least since 2003, perhaps even before. And yet, I don't think people really know about either site. Both sites initially decided to feature forums rather than a comment section, which may have been a mistake. Also, I remember that slamonline.com used to publish a lot of reader letters and comments, but stopped doing that as much as time went on. It's my belief that if Slam would have hired those interns to help Lang Whitaker run the site in 2002 instead of years later, or if the posting would have been done throughout the day instead of one massive column, Slam could have become a links + letters column that would have been quite popular. One also wonders if you can be TOO good at linking. There were so many links to navigate through and read, it got to be too much after a while for me.

Contender #4: Anyone with a Blogspot or Xanga or Live Journal in 2004. I'm a little irate at how many people believe the blog game is recent. Look at SML's examples of previous sports bloggers. (I would add hoopstv.com, defunct since 2001? or so. Similar column styles to free darko and the starting five mixed together). You're telling me that no one could have copied Matt Drudge circa 1998 in sports? And actually, I got more comments running a blog in 2004 than I do today. So don't tell me the readers weren't there. They were.

So why did Deadspin become so popular? I think the key was that it was not a link site by itself, or a column writer by itself, or a monitored forumboard by itself. It essentially combined all three aspects into one package, in real time. And that helped it grow. A lot of the competitors above fell easily into two of the three categories, but struggled with the third. Deadspin so far has been able to handle all three categories. I also think that the rise of the search engine is a major factor in Deadspin's success. As search became better (and users became better at search), there was greater appreciation for links sites.

Anyway, I wrote Part 2 where I analyze what it would take to dethrone Deadspin, but I'm tired and so are you at this point. I'll post it next week.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Quick MLB picks

NL:
Rockies in 4 I think the Rockies have one more win streak left.
Cubs in 3 I just don't think much of the Diamondbacks; Randy Johnson's not coming out of the bullpen, folks. Wait, did I just steal a joke Bill Simmons made famous? I will now light myself on...ugh, wait, that's his too.
Cubs over Rockies in 5 And the Rockies fall apart here after taking the first game.

AL:
Yankees in 5. Really want to pick my Indians, but Yankees have bullpen + offense over us.
Red Sox in 4. Quick! Name 3 players on the Angels who are not currently injured!
Red Sox over Yankees in 6 Worse pen, but better pitching and offense.

WS:
Red Sox over Cubs in 7. I just can't find an advantage for this Cubs team over the Red Sox; but I think they can fight long enough to make this a memorable series.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

AV Wednesday: U-20 Soccer Players Visit Orphanage

I promised less videos, but this one is worth a post to itself. This video is about the US Under-20 women's soccer team at a Russian tournament. While there, they decided to visit an orphanage. A boys orphanage. In another country. And the women's team played soccer with them, even though they were risking injury. And they brought them gifts. Rarely have I felt prouder of the way an American team represented us. Thank you, whoever thought of this, for doing it, and to the players for agreeing to visit.



Note: I had another blog up a few hours ago. Then I decided I should sit on it for a few days. That's why it's gone now. I love not having many readers, ha; I can do such things easily.

Top 10 Comment Sections in Sports Blog Land, 6-10

Most of us comment because we enjoy letting our opinions be heard, getting strong (hopefully favorable) reactions back, and becoming a respected regular within a site community. I first started commenting on blogs and forums a decade ago. Chances are you've seen my comments on one sports blog or another under "mcbias" or "midwestcoastbias." But I’ve also commented on blogs and boards run by pastors, singers, models, entrepreneurs, cutters, anas…you name it before getting involved in the sports blog world. Wherever I commented, I’ve discovered that one of the best ways to get readers is to make an insightful comment on an interesting site.

So which sites are best for getting readers/friends and having a good conversation, without having to wade through a morass of idiot commenters? I took a shot at it, and the result is...biased. Apologies to team web-sites for not ranking you; it’s really hard to comment on most of those sites unless you are a fan of the team. But I thought, with so many trotting out their lists of blog rankings based on popularity or quality or "please link to me", we needed a blog ranking list based on commenting.

Here are some of the issues I considered in ranking blogs: Does the blog owner respond in the comment sections? Is the blog owner willing to credit commenters, or does he/she always fight commenters who disagree with them? Are there enough comments, but not too many? Regular commenters? Few stupid commenters? Possibility for both funny comments, informative material links, and smart discussions? Diversity of commenters, style, and belief? (i.e. women and men, nerds and jocks, East Coast and West Coast, etc.).

Just missed it: True Hoop, Cobra Brigade, and Slamonline .

10. With Leather
Matt clearly values commenting, makes great jokes in his posts, and I believe was the first major blogger to run a “Comment of the week” feature. For that alone, it’s instantly a top-10 comment section. Plus, if you like talking trash with/against fellow commenters, there are some great guys to do that with in the comment section. In addition, he…

NOW JUST HOLD ON, MC BIAS! YOU THINK YOU CAN HAVE A TOP 10 COMMENT SECTION LIST AND KISS UP TO THESE BIG BLOGS, EH? HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL COMMENTS IN THE COMMENT LIST, WITH ACTUAL CRITICISM?

Oh come on, MR CAPS. I thought you went into retirement after the Alyssa Milano debacle. My psychiatrist promised me I don’t need fictional alter-egos anymore ever since that schizophrenic episode at the funeral, and…

NYET! MR CAPS HAS COME TO RESTORE SOME NEEDED BALANCE IN BLOGGERS LISTS OF OTHER BLOGGERS. KISSING UP SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE, NOT FOR OTHER BLOGS. START AT THE COLLARBONE, AND

Oh no, please, there’s no way MR CAPS will ever talk about kissing on this blog. I surrender! Say whatever you want!

THAT’S BETTER. YOU FORGOT TO MENTION THAT POTENTIAL COMMENTS ON WITHLEATHER ARE LIMITED TO “THAT GIRL IS PURTY”, “THAT ATHLETE IS DUM”, AND “THAT VIDEO IS FUNNY”. THOSE GEMS CAN ONLY BE POSTED AFTER REGISTERING, AND MR CAPS IS UNABLE TO LINK TO HIS OWN SITE. THEY SHOULD BE LUCKY TO HAVE MR CAPS IN THEIR COMMENT SECTION! MR CAPS SHALL BE HEARD FROM AND OVERCOME ALL!

Sigh, ok, there’s one blog that will never link to me again. Only nine more to go...

9. Ladies…
Most female commenters anywhere, as you might guess from the title. It's not all sports diehards either, lots of variety in commenters. Some guys also hang out here, perhaps making it the most diverse comment section in sports blog land.

WHAT YOU MEAN IS, DESPERATE MALE COMMENTERS ARE DRAWN TO ESTROGENVILLE FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK TO YOUNGER WOMEN WITHOUT PAYING BY THE MINUTE.

MR CAPS! Come on, if that was truly the motivation, those male commenters would be on Myspace.

THEY ARE, BUT NO ONE WILL TALK TO THOSE MEN THERE, AND THE LADIES… DON’T HAVE A BLOCK USER BUTTON YET.

Anyway, on occasion Ladies... can have the best comment section around. For example, read their Hot Blogger contest or their blog on how men react to women who love sports.

ON OCCASION THE COMMENT SECTION CAN ALSO BE FUNNY. HOWEVER, THAT "OCCASION" APPEARS TO BE ONCE EACH LEAP DAY. ONLY 5 MONTHS AWAY!

MR CAPS, the goal of the Ladies blog isn't to be funny, and the posts are very creative. You shouldn't be so judgmental; you should expand your horizons.

IT'S A PITY THE OFFICER WAS SO "JUDGMENTAL" LAST WEEK WHEN YOU TRIED TO "EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS." CAN YOU STILL BLOG FROM PRISON?

Whatever.

8. Kissing Suzy Kolber
I feel conflicted about this pick; it’s a little low for a site run by some of the best, most frequent commenters in sports blog land. They instituted the commenter draft for the slow summer months (which was an act of genius), ran different contests, AND had a charity drive so that commenters could help soldiers. For sheer ingenuity, they deserve to be top 3 on this list, and their commenters are numerous and very loyal.

THE KSK COMMENT SECTION ALSO DOUBLES AS A REFUGEE CAMP FOR WOULD-BE DEADSPIN COMMENTERS, AND THE UNNECESSARY DISPLAYS OF TESTOSTERONE ARE UNDERWHELMING. MR CAPS BETS THE CLOSEST ANY OF THE COMMENTERS GOT TO A REAL FOOTBALL FIELD WAS CATCHING UNCLE RICO'S PASSES IN PRACTICE 25 YEARS AGO. IF MR CAPS WANTED TO PLAY “WHO HAS THE BIGGEST STICK” ON THE INTERNET , MR CAPS WOULD GO TO…

PG, MR CAPS, remember, PG! And it's a blog for guys about football; you expect discussions on quantum physics and etiquette?

…WIKIPEDIA TO FIND THE ANSWER. DO ANY BLOG AUTHOR(S) MOCK THEIR READERS MORE THAN KSK WRITERS? IF MR CAPS WANTED PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE INCONSISTENT SCORN, MR CAPS WOULD CALL HOME MORE OFTEN, OR EX-GIRLFRIENDS. THE “WE’RE COOLER THAN YOU, BUT YOU GET COOL POINTS FOR HANGING OUT WITH US” ROUTINE IS BEST LEFT TO TEEN GIRL MOVIES STARRING GIRLS WITH WHITER COMPLEXIONS THAN…

This really is a comment section, isn’t it? That’s not at all an original or funny joke.

MR CAPS WAS GOING TO MAKE FUN OF BDD’S PAUNCH INSTEAD. MR CAPS WAS CONCERNED THAT AFTER HIS IMPENDING FATAL HEART ATTACK, A GRIEVING MRS. BDD MIGHT FIND THIS POST. WEEPING AT THE CRUELTY, SHE MIGHT...

So you feel compassion for his grieving widow? Don't tell me MR CAPS is actually being compassionate for once.

MR CAPS DID NOT FINISH. ...REACH FOR A TOWEL TO WIPE HER FACE OF TEARS...A UNWASHED TOWEL USED BY THE RECENTLY DEPARTED BDD.

(gags) OK, I guess that’s compassion…or something like that.

7. Nation of Islam Sportsblog
You either love or hate their comment section, and I enjoy it. NOIS strings along the newbies who aren’t sure whether the site is sarcastic or not, and it is fun to watch. The site can be a little mean, but many of the people who get the mean treatment are often stupid or bigots. So I say flame on, to a certain extent.

MR CAPS TAKES NOTE OF YOUR DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET DTW TO COMMENT ON THIS SITE. MAY MR CAPS HAVE THE HONOR OF DELETING THAT COMMENT?

Shh!

IF MR CAPS WANTED TO HANG OUT WITH RACE-BAITERS OR BIGOTS, HE COULD DO THAT ANYWHERE, NOT JUST ONLINE. AND NOIS HAS GOTTEN TOO GOOD FOR THE COMMENT SECTIONS LATELY.

It's more likely that NOIS has a life and got tired of arguing with idiots.

6. Awful Announcing
I don’t know this commenting section as well as I should, but the live blogs look tremendous. Incorporating reader comments into the live blog is a really nice touch. I’m glad to finally say about a blog that I expect to rank it higher the next time I rank commenting sections, rather than lower.

THE SITE ALSO HAS AN INORDINATE AMOUNT OF AFFECTION FOR ERIN ANDREWS.

And?

AND, IT HAS DISTRACTED FELLOW READERS FROM THE TRUE BEAUTIES IN THE SPORTS WORLD, LEAVING THEM AT THE MERCY OF MR CAPS' RIGHT-CLICK MOUSE BUTTON. I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT AA.

No one is impressed by your expertise with “Save-As”; what are you, 13? Haven’t I seen you on the AOL Fan House?

UM…MR CAPS HAS TO, UM...

Yes? Work on Algebra homework? Ride his bicycle? Clean his room?

BRB

I knew it!

Comment Sections 1-5 some other time. And please, don't take this seriously; I'm just having fun while praising my betters. It's a totally biased list, and I make no excuses for that; there's no way that I was as objective in ranking this list as I think I was. Feel free to re-rank or post your own rankings.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Why the Brazil Game was so Special to Hope Solo

In my post below, I already analyzed Coach Ryan's decision to bench Hope Solo. I decided to watch more on YouTube to find out about the women's soccer team. There is a user named Martynny who has excellent Youtube video of the women's national team. If you are looking for Hope Solo video, she is the place to go.

Martynny has a video that she said explains why not playing against Brazil may have hurt Hope's feelings so badly. This is documentary-type footage, shot before the World Cup, I believe. I haven't seen this story mentioned in coverage of the team, so I wanted to bring it to your attention, while giving Martynny full credit for pointing this out.

UPDATE: I give up on trying to break stories online, ha. Beaten again! The well-informed Michael David Smith saw this video too, and USA Today has a story on it today. So I'm not the exclusive source for this: sorry.

Warning; this video is sad, so if you cry easily, be prepared.



For those of you who can't watch the video; Hope explains that her dad was finally going to come watch one of her games. It was going to be the US game against Brazil in New York City in 2005. However, he suffered a heart attack the week before and died, so he never got to see her play. So it's safe to assume that the Brazil game had a lot of extra meaning to Hope, and that she would have wanted to win for her dad. Sigh, I guess we're reminded again to be careful about judging people's motives.

Anyway, here are some nicer, funny videos of Hope to lighten the mood and give you a more complete perspective on her.

30 second brief interview with Hope.


Hope talks about the "Goalkeeper's Union" (4.5 minutes or so)


Hope plays video game soccer against Drew Carey (scroll to about 3:13 minute mark). It's funny. For the record, Hope enjoys video games.

Posterized: Losers Edition

UPDATE: I don't know why, but I was truly saddened to hear of the President of Bosnia's Serb Republic passing. Milan Jelic was a doctorate in economics, a soccer player, and president of Bosnia's soccer federation; what a cool life. He was 51.
UPDATE 2: I'm fascinated that the play-off between San Diego and Colorado counts as a regular-season game. If Jake Peavy wins this, he will have 20 wins on the season. On the other hand, if Josh Fogg loses this, he will drop to 10-10. And Matt Holliday (fixed: I had Roy Halliday before, thanks to Jack Cobra for the correction) can either clinch or lose the batting title based on his performance in this game. Those are interesting subplots.

Another week of punning and whacked analogies is upon us in the poster post! For some reason, the stories this week in the sports world were more about who lost than who won. The posters follow suit. (Scroll past my blather to see posters, click for larger size).

For my mini-rant, I have to both defend and offend Coach Ryan of the US Women's World Cup team. Ryan has fought hard to eliminate the ghosts of 1999 that creepily hang over this team, to the point of not even letting Brandi Chastain try out for this team. And this was needed; you can't stay stuck in the glorious past. It's similar to how the US men's basketball team must step out of the 1992 Dream Team's shadow. However, he offered up one last sacrifice to the ghosts of 1999 by putting Scurry in goal. There's no doubt to me that it was the correct strategic decision. Hope was shaky in the North Korea game, allowing at least one cheap goal. I'm not sure she could have handled the relentless and creative Brazilian attack.

However, psychologically, inserting Briana Scurry smacked of desperation; it admitted that the US was no longer good enough to just show up and play Brazil. Sometimes, when you play a team that can beat you (as Brazil was, and did), a coach must lie to her team and pretend she is not worried about their opponent. It is possible to take a team TOO seriously; and that apparently is what Ryan did to his squad. By the way, Briana Scurry's work as an excellent goalkeeper deserves more credit; see here for a nice article on this.

As for the importance attached to Solo's words--please. I think the story got too much attention because she is a pretty face. You all do know that nothing is worth reporting in this world unless it involves attractive people and video, right? In addition, the relentless crush of male sports bloggers on Miss Solo is reminiscent of women fans who only know the QB of their favorite NFL team and thus develop a crush on him. Of course, I say that while sitting in my glass house sans stone-proofing...