Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn nets’

Under the Fedora Sports Thoughts My 5% Bruins Solution, Kyrie Decades in the Making, A big Spread, Rational Natural Selection , No Hitters Larson and Marketing

Posted: November 5, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, nba, nfl, nhl, Sports
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Yesterday the talk of Boston Sports Radio was the Bruins signing of Mitchel Miller who was apparently quite an ass as a youth when he was 14.

The thing that really clinched the anger was the sudden “apology” just before the signing and the fellow insisting it had nothing to do with Hockey, which confirms he’s still an ass.

The whole principle of a juvenile court system is so people aren’t punished as adults for things they did as kids but re is a reason why we have a juvenile court system on the other hand you also want to provide an incentive for folks to avoid this kind of thing in the future so here is what I’d do.

He wants to play in the NHL fine, 5% of his contract should go to the kid in question and since he waited six years to apologize, that 5% should continue for the first six years of his career. And since the Bruins decided to make the signing let them match that 5% as well.

You can’t make a person virtuous who is not but you can provide incentives to make virtue less expensive than vice. I guarantee if a young jock figures this kind of thing will cost him real money it will at best stop cold or at worst produce the required contrition without a six years wait.

Kyrie Irving has been suspended five games for tweeting out a link to an Holocaust denying documentary.

Given the left’s embrace of this kind of thing and the NBA’s embrace of the left it’s almost a shock Brooklyn punished him even if the team does reside in one of the most Jewish sections of the nation.

The NBA itself has decided to leave him alone and leave things to the Nets. After all as far as the NBA is concerned he didn’t do something really horrible in their eyes, like hitting China for slave labor etc. If he had Irving would have gone the way of Enes Kanter Freedom and not see the inside of an NBA court again. Irving cost him embarrassment, Kanter cost them money.

One more thought. The idea that Kyrie actually might have bought the idea that the black race are the actual tribes of Israel is no surprise to me. It’s been 25 years since Mary Lefkowitz warned us about this stuff in Not Out Of Africa: How “”Afrocentrism”” Became An Excuse To Teach Myth As History With 25 years of this going on since the release of this book without any pushback the wonder is that it isn’t more prevalent.

Boston sports radio is all over the place on the New England Patriots. Nobody seems sure about anything except that they’re not good enough to beat Buffalo. Here is their remaining schedule:

  • vs Colts
  • vs Jets
  • at Vikings
  • vs Bills
  • at Cardinals
  • at Raiders
  • vs Bengals
  • vs Dolphins
  • at Bills

With the exception of the Bills there is not a team on the list they aren’t capable of beating nor any time not capable of clearing their clock. Given the parity in the league, the quality of their roster and the uneven play of everyone. I’d not be surprised to see them finish anywhere from 11-6 to 4-13.

It’s bad for the nerves but good if you want some mystery in how a game will go.

There has been a lot of fuss about the fact that there are no American born black players on either roster in the World Series this year. This is being pushed as a stain to baseball, but frankly it’s not a stain in terms of racism but a stain in terms of marketing.

Part of it is cost you can play football or basketball with a single ball and a small group, but you need at least 10 or 12 for baseball, plus bats gloves but more importantly both the NFL and the NBA have done a much better job of marketing of both marketing its stars, both in general and to the black community in particular. Meanwhile the Latino stars from central and south America are huge in their countries and within the communities.

Personally I think it’s crazy. MLB besides being a better game has guaranteed contracts, less physical punishment in terms of contact and the potential for a longer career if you can’t sell that and the players to kids dying to become athletes then you need another career.

A great example of this lack of marketing is the current world series. It’s been a great playoffs and a spectacular series but game four illustrated exactly why.

The Astros put together five runs in the fifth to give them a 5-0 lead in a game they desperately needed to win. Meanwhile Christian Javier pitched six no hit innings, and then was pulled with a five run lead.

Now I understand priority one is to win the game and the Phillies have a history of coming back. But there is no reason why the Astros could not have had Javier pitching in what is likely his final start of the year and a five run lead could not have come out for the 7th with Bryan Abreu ready in the pen if he gave up a hit.

There is a reason why Don Larson is remembered 66 years after his perfect game in the 1956 World series, but I had to look up who the starter was to see who pitched in the Astros no hitter.

Personally I think MLB should fire their entire PR staff of the league and start again.

Sunday Morning Under the Fedora Media vs Brady, Kyrie addition by subtraction, Tampa Bay Lightning not striking twice, Betts as Ruth Redux and Games on paper vs games on paper

Posted: December 29, 2019 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, nba, nfl, nhl, Sable Baseball, Sports
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Are we still after last year seeing sports casters saying that even if the New England Patriots win against the hapless Dolphins today that the only question in the playoffs is: “Do the Patriots lose to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs at home or in Kansas city?”

Now don’t get me wrong, Kansas City is a good team and as demonstrated earlier in the year they are quite capable of beating any team including the Patriots, but I can’t think of anything that is more likely to motivate an already great Patriots defense and Tom Brady back into “Deflategate revenge tour” mode than stuff like this.

It’s still very early in the season but I’d like to point out that last year the Brooklyn Nets finished the year at 42-40 with a .512 winning percentage without Kyrie Irving as the 6th seed while the Boston Celtics finished at 49-33 with a .598 winning percentage as the 5th seed in the east with Kyrie irving.

This year Irving left the Celtics and the team is currently the #3 seed at 22-8 with a .733 winning percentage and even with the #2 Miami Heat in the Loss Column. Irving signed with the nets who are currently 16-15 with a .516 winning percentage and 7th seeded in the conference, but more importantly is 12-8 with a .600 winning percentage since an injury sidelined Irving after a 4-7 start.

This man is the anti-Brady

Last year in the NHL during the Regular Season the Tampa Bay Lightning simply dominated the league in a way we hadn’t seen in years until the playoffs came around. I remember driving home after game one listening to sports radio as they declared that despite that loss Columbus had no chance right up until they finished the lightning off.

It’s a year later and the team that managed 128 points, a solid 20 above every other is now currently at 42 points five points behind the last wild card team. Now there are still 46 games to go but it’s an important reminder that you have to take advantage of any opportunity you have because you just might not get another chance.

Speaking of not getting another chance as the year ends and the 2020 season draws near we are still getting “the trade or don’t trade Mookie Betts” debate in Boston.

It’s been a pretty quiet off season for the Red Sox with three players from last world series win (Brock Holt, Mitch Moreland, Rick Porcello ) currently testing free agency and Catcher Sandy Leon traded to Cleveland for minor league pitcher Adenys Bautista. As of today their current offensive depth chart looks like this (via redsox.com):

With the exception of Pedroia this is pretty much the Red Sox offence that tore up the league last year but was betrayed by injuries in the rotation and weakness in the bullpen. Or to put it another way, this team is one closer and perhaps one healthy rotation away from fielding a team more than capable of dominating the American league with a monster offense, a zipper outfield and a rotation as good as any other in baseball.

So to those who say forget 2020 and trade Mookie let me remind all these people who have forgotten the lean times of a little history.

Exactly 100 years ago another Red Sox had an off season at 66-71-1 (one game called after 10 innings never made up) where they had dropped to sixth a year after winning the world series. They decided to get rid of their star right fielder, who could also pitch a bit, before the start of their next season selling him for a price higher than the entire payroll of the the previous year’s team. More money than the combined salaries of the top 8 players in the league.

That team had won five World series in the 20th century at that point, they would not win another.

Now Mookie Betts is no Babe Ruth but the point of the story is when you have a chance to win a World Series take it, because it might be another 86 years before you win another.

Finally as I mentioned before the old table top face to face fantasy baseball league that I started 32 years ago (the year before I got married) was revived this year. Going into Friday I had a record of 8-4 having won my 1st 4 series with a pair of series coming up against two relative newcomers with one season of experience between them both with losing records.

Over the next two days I lost 4-6 including a 9th inning blown save by Kimbrel, a 14th inning marathon, and had a team with Mookie Betts batting 1st and Anthony Rendon hitting 3rd shut out for the final 20 innings of the last two games against a sixteen year old kid who was playing in his 1st baseball simulation league 50 years after I had gotten my 1st baseball simulation game, Milton Bradley baseball for Christmas in 1969 (great game btw you can get it on eBay here) at the ripe old age of six.

This demonstrates a sports rule that extends even to games on paper. No matter what the betting line or the prognosticators say there is a reason why you actually play the games.