THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tiger Woods is a lot like ARod in that he tries real hard to be liked, and to always say the right thing, and it comes off as phony.  40 years ago, a ballplayer could do that and say all the right things, and parents would try to introduce their daughters to them.  Today, we want “reality”.  And I think among some people, Tiger and ARod aren’t as well-liked, or respected, as they should be, because they come off as phony.

In addition, I’ll bring up a corrolary to the Jessica Simpson/George W. Bush Theorem.  The Jessica Simpson/George W. Bush Theorem is that if you have a camera on someone for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they’re going to say a couple stupid things.  Likewise, Tiger is going to say something that doesn’t come across well if you give him enough airtime.  It just happens.  I think he was trying too hard to be likable and to crack a joke, and he got called out for it.

And as an aside, I think this year’s Stanley Cup Finals was awesome.  You already mentioned the third period of game 3, and the guy between benches.  But I also liked that they were experimenting with the viewing angle on the power plays (I kind of liked it because you saw the ice real well, but didn’t because you couldn’t really see what happened when the puck got to the most exciting 50 sq ft - right in front of the goal).  And the last 2 seconds of the last game, I watched about 10 times.  If Osgood had Fleury’s bad luck, he could have easily nudged the puck in by mistake.  Or if it dribbled behind him 4 inches to the left (maybe hit some snow), Crosby has the sickest backhand goal ever.  And I loved the youth vs. experience - the passing of the torch - aspect.  You have Lidstrom and the ghost of Chelios in one corner, Lidstrom having now 4 titles in the past 10 years.  And you have Crosby, Malkin, et al on the other side, who might just win 4 out of the NEXT 10 years.

Anyways, not my blog, it’s yours Just my thoughts.

I thought the finals were rather dull myself, although i did not see every minute of every game (and I entirely missed game 5.)

When Detroit gets the lead they play virtually flawless hockey.  Flawless = boring.

Dull?  The last two games were electric, IMO. I only had NBC to watch. We used to get CBC on our basic cable but no longer, so didn’t have the option to compare the two coverages.

I’m going to miss CBC when the Beijing Olympics come on because they always do a better job, and broadcast for more hours, as well as more events in “real time,” than do the American networks.  No insult intended here but I think one reason CBC has better coverage is that they pay more attention to the preliminary rounds and the heats while the Canadians are still competing, whereas the U.S. networks seem only to be interested in the finals and often don’t even stay tuned to the entire event (say if it’s a long track race).

As said, I missed all of game 5 as well as the second period in game 6.  Games 1 and 2 were snoozers and the third period last night wasn’t particularly interesting until the very end.

DJ Gallo had an article over on ESPN Page 2 that was a mock open letter to Tiger from the NHL. It hit on a lot of the same points. I think it’s a decent-good read.

Ryan, it looks like the games you missed were the best games that were played.

Of the recent years, the best series was probably Flames/Lightning (Iginla v Lecavalier).

It looks like the end of the line for Chelios.

Yeah, Tiger is a phony like ARod.  Seriously, how tough is it for these guys to be humble like Gretzky has always been (even when he was a teenager)?  Heck, I’d be happy with Michael Jordan or Patrick Roy bravado.  Instead, we get their phony attitude.

The rule for putting the names on the Stanley Cup is:
a) min 41 games played in the regular season (i.e., half the season)
or
b) min 1 game in the Cup Finals
or
c) petition from the team

This really kills the backup goalie.  Hasek, as it turns out, played 41 games, but no Cup Finals games (he played in the first round only).  So, he could have been relegated for a petition from the team to get his name engraved if he played one less game.  Goalies deserve special consideration, since a regular skater who plays 41 games would be equivalent to a backup goalie who plays say 25 games.

What is also interesting is that no other sport puts the names of the players on their trophy.  I think it’s clear that the most special of all trophies is the Cup.  The baseball one is pretty crappy in design.  I have no idea what the other trophies look like, but I’ll guess they have a football, basketball, soccer ball, and golf club in it.  You’d think someone can come up with something as iconic as the Cup.

Agreed.  Like many Canadians, I have gone to see the Cup in person.  Seeing all the names engraved on it is just so cool.

I think what makes the Stanley Cup great is that since it’s Lord Stanley’s cup, it’s easy to give a narrative to the cup that makes it seem something like a medieval jousting tournament: Lord Stanley has decided created a tournament where exceptional athletes will compete in a game called hockey (to the death!) and I will award the winning team this cup and engrave their names upon it.

Of course none of it’s true, but doesn’t having a cup named after a lord sort of give it this feel?

Of the recent years, the best series was probably Flames/Lightning (Iginla v Lecavalier).

G5 and G6 in the 2005-06 finals were pretty damn good.  Actually, G1 was pretty fantastic too, up until there were about five minutes left.  The ending to G5 was one of the better finishes to a finals game I can recall; like the McSorley game but with a twist.

But of the hockey revenue, 90% is drawn from Canada, 9% from Detroit and the rest from the other US teams....