Recently in sports Category
Update: The Phillies have unveiled their plans to honor Harry Kalas for the first home game since his death on Friday. Of all the plans, I really like that there will be no commentary for the top half of the first inning on the television broadcast.
Update: Comcast Sportsnet video tribute to Harry Kalas [via The Fightins.]
CSN Tribute to Harry Kalas from Mike Meech on Vimeo.
Update: Harry Kalas's obituary appeared in Tuesday's Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. No cause of death has been announced.
Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer died this afternoon. More information will come as it becomes available.
Michael Kinahan, girls soccer coach in Scituate, MA, who told parents of his 6- and 7-year-old charges that he expected his players to "kick ass" has resigned.
The original email is below. Once you get past the first paragraph of usual youth sports dribble, Coach Kinahan lets everyone know how he really feels.
Congratulations on being selected for Team 7 (forest green shirts) of the Scituate Soccer Club! My name is Michael and I have been fortunate enough to be selected to coach what I know will be a wonderful group of young ladies. Chris Mac will also be coaching and I expect the ever popular Terry to return to the sidelines. Our first game will be Saturday April 4 at 10:00AM. There will be a half hour of skills followed by a 1 hour game, so total time will be 1.5 hours. All games will be played on the fields in the front of the High School. Each player will be required to wear shin guards and cleats are recommended but not required. A ball will be provided to each player at the first meeting, and each player should bring the ball to games and practices. There is no set practice time allotted for the U8 teams, but I will convene with the coaches to determine the best time and place. If there are cancellations due to rain, all notices will be posted via the Scituate Soccer Club website, no calls will be made (though I will try to send an email). Attached is the Schedule and Code of Conduct. After listening to the head of the referees drone on for about 30 minutes on the dangers of jewelry (time which I will never get back), no player will be allowed to play with pierced ears, hairclips, etc. We used to tape the earings, but that practice is no longer acceptable. Please let me know if your child has any health issues that I need to be aware of. My home phone is 781 XXX XXXX, my cell number is 781 XXX XXXX, and I check my email frequently. According to my wife, my emails get too wordy, so for those of you read too slowly, are easily offended, or are too busy, you can stop here. For the others......
OK, here's the real deal: Team 7 will be called Green Death. We will only acknowledge "Team 7" for scheduling and disciplinary purposes. Green Death has had a long and colorful history, and I fully expect every player and parent to be on board with the team. This is not a team, but a family (some say cult), that you belong to forever. We play fair at all times, but we play tough and physical soccer. We have some returning players who know the deal; for the others, I only expect 110% at every game and practice. We do not cater to superstars, but prefer the gritty determination of journeymen who bring their lunch pail to work every week, chase every ball and dig in corners like a Michael Vick pit bull. Unless there is an issue concerning the health of my players or inside info on the opposition, you probably don't need to talk to me. Coach MacDonald has been designated "good guy" this year.Some say soccer at this age is about fun and I completely agree. However, I believe winning is fun and losing is for losers. Ergo, we will strive for the "W" in each game. While we may not win every game (excuse me, I just got a little nauseated) I expect us to fight for every loose ball and play every shift as if it were the finals of the World Cup. While I spent a good Saturday morning listening to the legal liability BS, which included a 30 minute dissertation on how we need to baby the kids and especially the refs, I was disgusted. The kids will run, they will fall, get bumps, bruises and even bleed a little. Big deal, it's good for them (but I do hope the other team is the one bleeding). If the refs can't handle a little criticism, then they should turn in their whistle. The sooner they figure out how to make a decision and live with the consequences the better. My heckling of the refs is actually helping them develop as people. The political correctness police are not welcome on my sidelines. America's youth is becoming fat, lazy and non-competitive because competition is viewed as "bad". I argue that competition is good and is important to the evolution of our species and our survival in what has become an increasingly competitive global economy and dangerous world. Second place trophies are nothing to be proud of as they serve only as a reminder that you missed your goal; their only useful purpose is as an inspiration to do that next set of reps. Do you go to a job interview and not care about winning? Don't animals eat what they kill (and yes, someone actually kills the meat we eat too - it isn't grown in plastic wrap)? And speaking of meat, I expect that the ladies be put on a diet of fish, undercooked red meat and lots of veggies. No junk food. Protein shakes are encouraged, and while blood doping and HGH use is frowned upon, there is no testing policy. And at the risk of stating the obvious, blue slushies are for winners.
These are my views and not necessarily the views of the league (but they should be). I recognize that my school of thought may be an ideological shift from conventional norms. But it is imperative that we all fight the good fight, get involved now and resist the urge to become sweat-xedo-wearing yuppies who sit on the sidelines in their LL Bean chairs sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-chinos while discussing reality TV and home decorating with other feeble-minded folks. I want to hear cheering, I want to hear encouragement, I want to get the team pumped up at each and every game and know they are playing for something.
Lastly, we are all cognizant of the soft bigotry that expects women and especially little girls, to be dainty and submissive; I wholeheartedly reject such drivel. My overarching goal is develop ladies who are confident and fearless, who will stand up for their beliefs and challenge the status quo. Girls who will kick ass and take names on the field, off the field and throughout their lives. I want these girls to be winners in the game of life. Who's with me?
Go Green Death!
This year's NCAA Men's Basketball Championship has left many a fan disappointed. The remaining seeds of 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-5, and 1-2-3-12 don't really scream your typical 'March Madness' and while the tournament produced a couple of upsets in round 1, round 2 was a much more somber affair when it comes to underdogs pulling out the W. Even the outlying 12 seed from Arizona isn't viewed as too much of an underdog. More like an underperforming BCS conference team that might be finally rounding into shape.
ESPN.com's Pat Forde is concerned about an ongoing consolidation of power. But never explains why or how that power is consolidating.
The Sporting News, published a story written by AP contributors that frets about the lack of parity. But they never mention why the parity they desire is gone or how perhaps the collapse of bracket wide parity has lead to parity among the elite.
While Dan Shanoff from The Sporting Blog can't decide which side of the fence he is on. On Monday calling the Tournament a dud and referencing a 'Stale 16".
East: 1-2-3-4; South: 1-2-3-4; West: 1-2-3-5; Midwest: 1-2-3-12Those are the seeds of the teams that advanced from each region to the regionals. That nasty aftertaste in your mouth: Chalky, isn't it? ... 15 teams you would -- based on seeding alone -- expect to make it and only a single outlier (and not even a sexy mid-major, but a retread major program that is interesting only because it was the last at-large team to make the tournament field). ... To be sure, the first two rounds have been a lot of fun, but with more near-miss upsets than actual upsets, the madness hasn't extended past the first weekend. And that is terrible for the NCAA Tournament. It started a year ago, when all four 1-seeds made the Final Four for the first time. It wasn't an intriguing aberration; apparently, it was ominous foreshadowing. Let's hope the lack of parity throughout the 65-team field signals a lot more parity among the final 16. Otherwise, the NCAA Tournament risks a fate worse than parity: Predictability.
But on Tuesday, in referencing the Sporting News article above Shanoff pleads "Oh, stop griping". Apparently the statue of limitations for complaining about the weekend's results is early Monday morning, and anything after that is unacceptable to Mr. Shanoff.
ESPN.com's Andy Katz doesn't think Chalk is so bad, though his reasons, well, aren't really reasons. He simply lists intriguing story lines through the first two rounds without ever getting into why a tournament full of high seeds 'isn't so bad'. Well done good sir.
As you can tell, I'm not so much concerned with whether or not this makes the tournament more or less interesting, and let's face it, either way, the tournament will always be one of the most exciting sports events of the year, so why worry about it. I am much more interested in the 'whys' of the situation. And it seems one could argue that this is a direct result of the NBA age limit that was put into effect for the 2006 draft, affecting the '06-'07 season.
Analyzing data from March Madness starting with the 1985 tournament (the first with a full 64 team field) it's possible we have now entered March Madness 3.0.
March Madness 1.0: 1985 - 1995. The introduction of a 64 team field. Set the base line for seed performance. Seeds 7-14 averaged 3.18 entrants into the Sweet 16 per year during this period but with a somewhat high standard deviation of 1.88 - it tended to be feast or famine in this time frame. And the total seed tabulations of the remaining 16 teams averaged 68.9.
March Madness 2.0: 1996 - 2006. During this period seeds 7-14 averaged 3.7 entrants into the Sweet 16 with a considerably lower standard deviation of .90. The Sweet 16 averaged a seed tabulation of 74.18. The early entry boom of the NBA draft dominated the period, pulling some of the country's best young talent out of high school and placing them directly into the NBA. The underdogs during this period, typically stocked with upperclassmen, took advantage of the decrease in premier talent to put their stamp on the tournament. The handful of elite players who bypassed the collegiate level, did so, most likely, to the detriment of the top programs and as a result we witnessed what might become a 'Golden Age' of sorts for the Cinderellas.
March Madness 3.0: 2007 - Present. This period has been marked with a noticeable decrease in the presence of 7-14 seeds in the Sweet 16 averaging only 2 teams a year with a standard deviation of 1.7. While the Sweet 16 seed tabulation has plummeted to 56.66. During this time period we have seen two of the four lowest seed tabulations since 1985: 2007 (51) and 2009 (49). And all three have been lower then 9 of the 11 during March Madness 2.0. The introduction of the NBA's new early entry rules have forced the nations best players back into the collegiate spot light for at least one season. The BCS conference teams are the primary recipients of the influx of said talent and as a result we are noticing a stark decline in the presence of Cinderellas advancing deep into the tournament.
For a nice Roy G. Biv visual of what I'm talking about see below. Note the clear increase in the consistent presence of orange and red seeds in the Sweet 16 during March Madness 2.0 (years 1996-2006) and the beginning of what I believe is the move into March Madness 3.0 starting in 2007.
With the NBA age limit not changing any time soon, we just may be entering an era in men's basketball that closely resembles the women's tournament whose average total seed tabulation of 53.5 (dating back to 1994) has always been considerably lower then the men's average and whose tournament has been historically lacking in Cinderellas.
Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling retired today via his blog, 38 Pitches. (via mlb traderumors)
The game always gave me far more than I ever gave it. All of those things, every single one of those memories is enveloped with fan sights and sounds for me. Without the fans, they would still be great memories, but none would be enduring and unforgettable because they infused the energy, rage, passion and "feel" of all of those times. The game was here long before I was, and will be here long after I'm gone. The only thing I hope I did was never put in question my love for the game, or my passion to be counted on when it mattered most. I did everything I could to win every time I was handed the ball.
