Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

The Brady Effect Comes to Tampa

Posted: October 22, 2020 by datechguy in Sports
Tags: , ,

While I haven’t been watching any sports I’d like to make a note of something interesting concerning Tom Brady.

The year Tom Brady came to the New England Patriots, the New England Patriots had been to two Superbowls in 40 years and lost both, the Celtics had not won a championship in 14 years, it had been a decade since the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup finals and nearly 30 since they had won and the Red Sox had not been to the World series in 14 years and had not won in 82 years.

Within one year The Patriots had won their first title (they would win 5 more in 8 trips to the Superbowl) and during his time in New England the Celtics would win a title and make it to the finals a 2nd time, the Bruins would win their 1st Stanley Cup in 40 years while making to 3 finals and of course the Boston Red sox would break their 86 year curse with a World Series win in 2004 and would win three more for good measure during Brady’s Patriots template.

Now Brady is has gone to Tampa Bay and no Boston Team has made the finals this year and the Patriots have a losing record after five games.

Meanwhile what’s happening in Tampa?

Well Tampa Bay does not have a Basketball team, but since Tom Brady’s arrival their Baseball team the Devil Rays finds itself in the World Series for only the 2nd time ever while their Hockey Team Won the Stanley Cups also for the 2nd time ever.

Oh and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are now in 1st place in the NFC West a division they haven’t won in 13 years.

I’m sure it’s all a coincidence.

And the Denial Keeps on Coming

Posted: October 20, 2020 by datechguy in Sports

While I’ve given up on sports I do still listen to sports talk radio on the way to and from work and I was listening to the host lamenting the drop in viewship for sports in general and the ALCS in particular noting they were the worst of all time.

He however immediately dismissed the idea that any non-nba ratings drop had anything to do with the whole embrace of BLM because only the NBA had this stuff on the court…completely ignoring the kneeling stuff in the NFL & NHL and the opening day BLM orgy in MLB. He might have forgotten that but a lot of us haven’t.

In one respect I don’t blame them, jobs in media are scarce enough and these guys are afraid of angering the bosses above. After all if after decades in the industry as one of the most respected broadcasters in the game Red Barber could lose his job for stating bluntly:

“I don’t know what the paid attendance is today [413], but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game.”

what chance does some late night hack have if he says the verboten words that getting woke might lead to going broke? Particularly when you contrast it with sports that aren’t so woke:

Ratings for golf, for instance, are up, with this year’s PGA Championship enjoying the best ratings in five years, and there were no spectators there, either.  What about the Tour de France, which saw an 11% increase in viewership?  Even professional wrestling, which arguably isn’t even a real sport, has seen solid ratings.  

Is any of this good news?  Of course not, it’s sad.  The Boston Red Sox are one America’s iconic sports teams playing our national pastime, and they saw a jaw-dropping 54% freefall in their ratings this year.  

This is the first year of my life that I’ve not watched or listened to even a half inning of Red Sox baseball. When it was on I changed the channel or shut the radio off.

Now perhaps the stations are figuring this is a good thing as it means they’ll be able to get a better deal on rights to the games, of course they might change their tune when they go out to the public to sell ads and find that business might just think twice before linking themselves to woke athletes.

Face to Face Dynasty League Update and Openings Plus two upcoming and one in progress online league

Posted: October 3, 2020 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, fun, gaming, online gaming, Sports
Tags: , ,

Our Dynasty Face to face league finished our SF Giants team won the world series in six and we are preparing the groundwork for a new season.

There will be a meeting at Zeda’s Pizza in Fitchburg MA today at noon any interested players are more than welcome.

Our draft will be November 14th again at Zedas. Depending on how many players we have there may be an expansion draft before the basic one. We will be playing with the 2019 season cards.

NOTE IF YOU WISH TO JOIN AS AN EXPANSION TEAM YOU NEED TO JOIN AND LET ME KNOW BY OCT 31st.

Additionally there are three online leagues that are either now or will be looking for players that I’m running.

Our 2nd season of the all pathetic league (all teams that lost at least 96 games) is now 12 games into a 162 game season, we play once a week (scheduled time Thursday 10 AM EST but you can reschedule at will) and there are currently 12 of 24 teams open. If you think you can take a bad team and make it the best of the bad we’d love to have you.

Our all time great league 2nd season is currently in playoffs in the league divisional round. By the rules of the league all playoff teams are retained for the next season and players who wish to keep their current teams may do so. But there are always openings and new teams that will be included. If you would like to manage a great team, either a playoff team that has been abandoned or a great team that is added in you are welcome to jump in. We will be reducing this league to once a week to make room for our third online league…

This will be the all mediocre league. This will consist of teams that finished with a record between two games under .500 & two games over .500 (in a 162 game season 80-82 – 82-80 in a 154 game season 73-75 – 75-73. Unlike the all pathetic league you will find a few starts on such teams and maybe more than an handful of HOF players in said league. Unlike the great teams league these are teams that were usually on the rise that hadn’t made it yet or good teams on the decline (or the teams like Connie Mack’s favorite the 4th place moneymakers)

It is more profitable for me to have a team that is in contention for most of the season but finishes about fourth. A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don’t have to give the players raises when they don’t win.

Connie Mack

This type of team would win about 60 games vs the all time greats (last season I demonstrated this when I accidentally put such a team the 2013 Diamondbacks in the ATG league instead of the 2001 team that I intended) and would dominate the all pathetic league. It will be interesting to see what they teams that are good enough to dominate bad teams and just good enough to put up a fight against great ones will do against each other.

These are the available teams by franchise

  • Orioles 57, 95, 15
  • Senators 67 Rangers 06
  • twins 73, 74
  • Yankees 71, 73
  • whitesox 74, 97, 98 .02
  • indians 75, 04, 08, 11, 15
  • Redsox 93
  • mariners 93
  • Brewers 96, 05, 09, 14
  • Angels 2000, 10, 17, 18
  • bluejays 2001, 05, 11, 15
  • tigers 2010
  • a’s 2010
  • Royals 2016, 17
  • Devil Rays 2017
  • Phillies 57, 74, 02, 12, 18, 19
  • Pirates 67, 73
  • braves 71
  • astros 73, 74, 96, 06
  • mets 75, 01,
  • Cardinals 75
  • giants 75
  • Padres 82, 05
  • dodgers 93, 94, 07, 10
  • cubs 95
  • Marlins 96, 10
  • reds 96, 06
  • Rockies 2000
  • diamondbacks 2008, 12, 13, 18
  • Nationals 2011, 18

If one of these teams is to your liking contact me online. this will be a 162 game season 3 game a series played once a week.

So if you want to play some sports where there is still no political grandstanding going on I’d love to have you, either in person or online. Either stop by at Zedas or leave a comment here and we’ll go from there.

Bidenball not withstanding If LeBron wins the Title in LA he passes Jordan for 2nd Best of all time.

Posted: October 1, 2020 by datechguy in nba, Sports
Tags: , , , ,

The only sports I’ve watched this year has been five to ten minutes of game five between the Celtics and Heat and that only because I was seated at a restaurant right next to a TV that I could not avoid, however there is a sports subject I think is worth bringing up.

This week the Lakers began their series with the Heat in the bubble for the title and apparently one game one (heard that on the radio on the way home).

If the Lakers win then this will mean that LeBron James will have won titles in three different cities under three different coaches with three different system while being the primary driver of his team.

He will have also managed to do it in a year where there was no home court advantage.

In my opinion that puts him above Jordan as he will have proved that he can lead any team in any system to a title even though he will have one less ring.

Of course Kareem won six titles over twenty years with two teams including one at age 39 and 40 so Mr. James may still be involved in a two way tie for 2nd best of all time.

And neither in my opinion tops Bill Russell who not only has 11 rings but won two of them as a player coach although you will be able to make a case for Kareem based on longevity or for James based on the wins in different systems without sounding ridiculous.

In my opinion if someone can make a case can be made that you are as good as Bill Russell without sounding crazy you are something special and whatever my opinion of Mr. James political opinions he is without question the best player of the 21st century and, if he wins this title clearly better than Jordan.

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