Subject: Recent sports oddities
Date: Tue Aug 11 15:39:25 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:My bad. I had forgotten how difficult a play it was, and since I was using my phone, was just going from memory instead of re-watching it as i should have done. Base hit was the correct call, and HR also. Pardon my interruption.
Good question, Mr. Inquisitor. Since *I* botched my previous ruling, I'll let someone else tackle that one.
Date: Tue Aug 11 23:12:31 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:Tonight, Toronto played their first game at their home-away-from-home city, Buffalo. It was first major league game in Buffalo since 1915, when the Buffalo Blues played in the Federal League.
Toronto won against Florida, 5-4 in extra innings.
Date: Wed Aug 26 15:27:10 2020
User: Oded789
Message:Not sure it's an "oddity", but the game 4 Mitchell-Murray duel in the Jazz-Nuggets series was historic.
First ever playoff occurrence of opposing players scoring 50; there wasn’t even a 45+ one before.
Only once since 1962 had it happened in the regular season (Jamison vs Kobe with 51 each, the Warriors upsetting the champs in OT).
This was Mitchell’s second 50+ game of the series, after scoring 57 on game 1 (3rd most ever in a playoff game). Only 4 other players - Jordan, Wilt, Iverson, Jerry West - all HOFers - have two such playoff games in a career!
Mitchell shot 17/18 from the line; the entire opposing team was 12/13. Nuggets coach Michael Malone when asked about it: “I’m not going to really comment on that. I’m not giving the league any of my money.”
Murray had arguably the best ever playoff regulation game by a losing player: 50 points, 18/31 FG, 9/15 beyond the arc, 11 reb, 7 ast, 0 TO. Only two double overtime losses by Hakeem (a 49–25 double-double with 6 blocks) and MJ (the famous 63 point game at the Garden) top that.
And he followed that up with 42 (in 17/26 shooting), 8, 8 and again no turnover, almost single-handedly keeping Denver alive.
Not many players had two back-to-back games like that in the playoffs.
The following is one of the best highlight reels I've seen from a player recently. Check out the move at 1:48.
Link: Jamal Murray game 5 highlights
Date: Wed Aug 26 18:32:13 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:Amazing stuff. Too bad I just can't get into any of these sport right now. I'm calling them "pretend sports", for.......well, the obvious reason.
Date: Sun Nov 22 14:05:44 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:Apparently this actually happened......
Note that there are actually (or so it seems) *3* defenders in goal, and on the second shot, one of them actually ducks. What's that all about.
Link: amazing (futbol) goal in Denmark
Date: Sun Nov 22 14:50:46 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:That was a nice goal. The athletic "scissors kick" and the half volley off the bar.
As for the defender on the left post: I'd be tempted to call him a bag of rocks, but a bag of rocks cannot duck out of the way. Most teams station a player on the near post during the a corner kick, and many put one on the far post. Mr. Irrelevant was the latter. The point of the near post guy is to protect against short plays. The post defenders usually release after ball comes in play, but in the video neither moves an inch prior to the first volley. After the scissors kick, the player on the near post steps up, but Mr. Irrelevant is sound asleep and doesn't budge until the second kick is rocketing toward his dome at which time he flicks his head with minimal motion to avoid contacting the ball.
That defender would be a perfect candidate for the famed Long John Silver Impersonators football team (linked below).
Link: Gynecologists vs. LJS Impersonators
Date: Sun Nov 22 15:38:06 2020
User: Kumquat-of-Conciliation
Message:With the defenders on the short end of a 9-0 score there............it doth beg the question of what exactly was going on. That was less defense than the recent (oh......last 3-4 decades) NBA All-star games.
Date: Tue Nov 24 19:06:53 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:A curiosity from last night's Bucaneers/Rams NFL game:
It's third and ten. Brady throws a forward pass that bounces off a DL's arm and Brady catches it. Brady throws it (forward) again, and it is caught by Evans but he is 2 yards short of a 1st down. The second forward pass was illegal, and I assumed a penalty was impending for the Buc's.
We have seen plenty of instances of illegal forward passes during desperation laterals at the the end of the game or a forward pitch across the line of scrimmage. These penalties are nearly always accepted except when the outcome of the game is unaffected. It is rare that the quarterback catches a deflected pass and throws it again. The penalty is either accepted or declined depending on game circumstance.
But, this one was new for me: the Rams declined the penalty so the illegal pass was ruled as complete for 8 yards! This offending team was actually rewarded for their infraction. The Buc's punted, but the stats on the illegal but completed pass are in the record books.
It makes sense in retrospect, I guess, but I cannot see why the penalty of an illegal forward pass is not associated with a loss of down.
Date: Thu Nov 26 21:38:28 2020
User: FilthyMcNasty
Message:The Thanksgiving Day football game between Detroit and Houston was droning on in the background when the announcer made some interesting calls. The first was mildly amusing with only a hint of double entendre:
"As Marvin Gaye used to say, 'Let's get it on!'" I am quite certain that the late Mr. Gaye was not referring to pro football.
The next one surely got the attention of the boys and girls in the control truck: On a short pass, the defender put his hand on the receiver's waist and rotated him about sixty degrees. Pass interference was called, to which the same announcer observed, "The defensive back was guilty of a reach around."
I would love to take a peek at the movie rental list from that announcer's hotel bill.
Date: Fri Nov 27 12:14:31 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:In the same game, after a touchdown by Houston in Detroit, the color commentator, Tony Romo (who is truly excellent) said, "That quieted the crowd." But the only fans were cardboard cutouts. I replayed that comment a couple of times but failed to detect irony or sarcasm in his voice or a punchline. Perhaps that was Romo's way of complaining about the artificial crowd noise.
Anyway, getting to my point about football games this weekend: Eleven college games, including several involving top 25 teams, have been postponed or cancelled due to virus concerns. University of Houston had its sixth game of the season impacted by the virus.
In the NFL, the schedule is getting strained. Baltimore was scheduled to play Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving Day, and the NFL resisted changing the game despite Covid-19 flareups on the Ravens. The NFL finally relented and moved the game to Sunday, but Baltimore continued to have new positive tests. Raven quarterback, Lamar Jackson, was the latest victim and is in a quarantine protocol for 10 days. The entire Ravens facility has been shut down until Monday, but the NFL has not announced what they will do with the Ravens/Steelers game. Neither team has flexibility in their schedule, and both are probable playoff teams. The NFL is in full handwringing mode looking at a slate of unpleasant options for the last weeks of the regular season and the playoffs.
Date: Fri Nov 27 19:14:53 2020
User: mrbuck
Message:FYI 80 days until MLB Spring Training. I hope.
mrbuck
Date: Sat Nov 28 01:03:30 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:Baseball should never be played before April - preferably mid-April. I guess it would be ok for Spring Training to start in about mid-March.
Date: Sun Jan 10 20:56:17 2021
User: Oded789
Message:The Browns are 28-0 up at Pittsburgh in their first playoff game since 2002 (where incidentally they lost at the same venue being up 24-7 despite Kelly Holcomb having a career day), and we're not even through the 1st quarter.
Must be what TN calls "pretend sports", because this cannot be happening for real.
Date: Thu Jan 21 12:17:54 2021
User: Oded789
Message:Brooklyn's "big three" had their debut together last night after Kyrie ended his bizarre seclusion. They combined for 96 points, but someone stole the show...
You don't often see a player score 20 points in less than 4 minutes, no less in OT.
If his last three (not shown here, and wasn't really close) would've gone in, that would be an OT record [single period] for points (Curry 17 in the playoffs vs Portland, Arenas 16 reg. season vs the Lakers when he scored 60 on them).
Even a rare 27-26 double-double by Capela (with 5 blocks to boot) in another game pales in comparison.
Link: Collin Sexton steals the show
Date: Thu Jan 21 13:11:50 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Double wow. Thanks for bringing that to my/our attention. That's full-on ridiculous. Both of them.
And 3+ years, earlier, *in* Brooklyn instead of against 'them', he went off in another kind of strange way (see link below). Dude got game.
And the Capela performance....................good gracious. First time somebody's gone 25/25 or better since Shaq in '04. And Olajuwon, Mutombo, and Ewing the only other ones in the last 35 years.
If not for all the political stuff, both those should have been front-page noteworthy.
Link: Collin Sexton taking over in 2017..............3-on-5
Date: Thu Jan 21 15:20:17 2021
User: Oded789
Message:Slight correction: what you say about Capela's statline is true if you add his 5 blocks to your query.
If you look for "just" 25-25 games without 5+ blocks, this is the 18th since that Shaq game in '04, so about once a year on average.
Notably, Kevin Love had a double-30 game about a decade ago, the only one of its kind since 1982.
https://www.nba.com/news/legendary-moments-love-30-30-game-knicks
Even though that 3 on 5 game starring Sexton also made it to some sports sections around here, I didn't know about it, so thanks. I'll watch its youtube video later.
Meanwhile, I'll call and raise you one - see the link below.
It also happened in another HS game (with a team from Alabama) in '92, there's a long article about that one.
And also in a semi-pro league game in Israel about the same time (circa 1990), in which the short manned team was playing 2 vs 5 for about two minutes, and remarkably even stole the ball in a crucial possession, winning by 2, iirc. No trace of that on the net, but I remember vividly reading about it at the time.
Link: 2 vs 5 HS basketball win
Date: Thu Jan 21 16:49:47 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Proper correction on the rejection stipulation. I knew that but omitted it from my post. And I had forgotten about the Love game. Still mind-blowing.
The link is from a h.s. game in Missouri, but still remarkable. That one guy on the red team was certainly a good ball-handler, thankfully. Interesting(?) to see the crowd's reaction at the end. Apparently their team was on the losing end of that, and that's an embarrassment that'll be hard to live down in a small town.
I've been playing in games where we were down to 3 (once, at the end) or 4 players (3 or 4 times?), but not in a h.s. game. And, as I recall...............I don't think we won those games, but we sure made at least one of them very close. I've always advocated for teams playing more box-and-one, or even triangle-and-two, depending on the other teams' players of course.
Date: Thu Jan 21 17:00:51 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:........and all that reminds me of our earlier discussion about rebounding stats. I suspect you'll recall that. Well, I was watching a college game a few days ago, and one team's leading rebounder was doing very well. The announcers were keeping the watchers aware of both his scoring stats and rebounding stats because they were very good in an ongoing fashion. So on one play, said player got two very clear tips on a rebounded shot in which he clearly had control of the ball while tipping it. Neither shot went in, but he got credit for only *1* rebound. So I don't know how that squares with what happened. It should have either been 0 or 2.
So..............back to my original question/theory..............the example I was referring to was a player for my local college team, and he was very near the top in the country for two years in rebounds/game, and I was an eyewitness to many of his games, and so I know how they counted rebounds at that time ("controlled" tips were included). And altho that's been a very long time, those records (for the local team) have not only never been broken, they've never been closely approached. Truly he was exceptional - almost Rodman-esque - but my sense is those are not given full credit these days. I don't think I've ever tried to find that in the rule book, tho.
Date: Thu Jan 21 18:19:19 2021
User: Oded789
Message:Clarification: the 2 vs 5 HS win given above is indeed from Missouri, in 2018.
There's *another* one like that from 'Bama in 1992, which I can reproduce here if you wanna (the article is loooong and follows the personal life of the heroes later on; it has quite a lot of typos, mainly missing spaces and thus "connected words").
I can't say for sure, but I doubt that stat stuff like that are present in the rule book. Some definitions (as what constitutes an assist, depending of what the pass recipient did prior to shooting) are not that clear-cut.
Date: Thu Jan 21 19:52:53 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:No, no need to post that other game stuff here.
And I almost added to my previous post that I think there's a separate 'rule book' for scorekeepers - but I'm not sure. There used to be for such things long ago, because I had to know (some of) that stuff. "Things may have changed." LOL. I may look into that at some point, but not critical to me at this point in time.
Date: Fri Jan 22 12:02:26 2021
User: ix
Message:oded, are american sports big there? how do you follow all this stuff, cable with a sports package? how much american tv in general is there?
Date: Fri Jan 22 13:50:23 2021
User: Oded789
Message:NBA is quite big, with a lot of live games on various local sports channels. With extra spotlight when there's an Israeli player there (though the media often gets too hyped up about each and every step they make).
NFL less so, but there are also a couple of live games a week. Funnily enough, one of the reliable sources for that is an antique channel called METV which mainly has an odd mix of Christian preachers and old American TV shows.
There used to be a localized ESPN version on one of the main cable providers, and I'd regularly watch PTI and sometimes SportsCenter, but they took it off about a decade ago.
Honestly, during both regulars seasons I mostly make do with quickly browsing boxscores and watching highlights on Youtube.
I'm much less into hockey and baseball (which gets close to zero coverage here anyway), though I sometimes take a look at scores there, too.
I think the only complete baseball game I've ever watched live was game 7 of the 2016 World Series, because I knew there's history ready to be made.
My favorite sport to watch, btw, is T&F (or Athletics as it is more often called globally).
Date: Fri Jan 22 14:17:59 2021
User: Oded789
Message:Missed your last question, ix.
As for American TV in general - very big. Most of the hit TV series in America make their way to cable channels here very fast.
Also some of the news stuff and talk shows, though the coverage is very partial there.
Date: Fri Jan 22 14:23:30 2021
User: ix
Message:so helpful with the big picture, thank you
Date: Wed Feb 24 16:57:48 2021
User: Oded789
Message:Another neat one from yesterday:
The Nuggets finishing a whole game with 1 turnover, an NBA record. Five teams shared the previous record with 2.
The "felon" was Jamal Murray, who dished 8 assists. That's a great ratio, but in this case he's probably feeling a bit bummed about it...
Link: Fewest turnovers NBA record
Date: Wed Feb 24 17:30:54 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:That's a mind-blowing stat. Does anybody play D in The League these days - before the playoffs, that is? Part of what makes that feat possible is that they virtually never call traveling/walking - which imo has *really* hurt the league. But still..........
Date: Wed Feb 24 18:19:31 2021
User: BuzzClik
Message:In a 40 minute game, Maryland beat Iowa 111-93 (NCAA women). Maryland was 68% from 3 (15 made) and Iowa was also over 50% (17 made). Their 2-point shooting was similar.
Yeah, not a lot of D in that game, either ... the average score per game in NCAAW is 120.
Date: Wed Feb 24 19:03:25 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Wow. That's amazing, too. Who knew girls could shoot?
.runs and hides
Date: Mon Apr 12 21:22:53 2021
User: mrbuck
Message:Never happened at this level before. The best game ever pitched!
mrbuck
Link: the rare perfecto
Date: Mon Apr 12 22:24:25 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Saw that, too, and it reminded me of Eddie Feigner, who I mentioned some years ago on this board. I'm sure he had oodles of all-K games..........but that's a different situation, of course.
I hesitate to do this........but would bet there are a few here who don't know of his prowess, and the SI articles about him. Read and learn, those of said camp. His feats sound impossible, but they were real.
Link: The King and his Court
Date: Mon Apr 12 23:22:13 2021
User: mrbuck
Message:And I made a bit of an error. Because it's softball it's seven innings long, so 21 up, 21 down, all on strikes.
Eddie Feigner was awesome as well.
mrbuck
Date: Sat May 1 08:03:43 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Jayson Tatum went for (a career high) 60 last nite, tying Bird's Celtic franchise record, but perhaps(?) more amazingly, brought said Celtics back from 32 down (29 at the half) to beat the Spurs in OT. Largest halftime lead ever blown by the Spurs.
Link: Jayson Tatum just goes all off
Date: Sat May 1 13:39:05 2021
User: Oded789
Message:3rd biggest comeback in NBA history, after Utah-Denver in 1996 (36 points) and Sacramento-Chicago in 2009 (35 points).
Link: NBA comebacks
Date: Sat May 1 14:19:26 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Actually, I didn't know that so thanks. I wouldn't have guessed quite that, either, altho I'd have guessed top 10. I'm pretty sure 'we''ve discussed this in the past on one of these threads, but not sure this one.
Date: Thu May 6 07:59:43 2021
User: BuzzClik
Message:John Means threw a no-hitter for the Orioles last night, facing the minimum 27 batters. Which is not particularly odd. However, the only base runner reached on a "wild pitch" on strike three. The batter swung and missed, the ball got past the catcher, and the runner ran safely to first. On the next pitch, the runner was thrown out attempting to steal second.
According to all records, Means is the first pitcher to lose a perfect game on a third-strike wild pitch: he is the first pitcher to throw a non-perfect no-hitter with no walks, no hit batters and no errors.
Link: Oh no!
Date: Thu May 6 10:54:10 2021
User: The_Longhorn
Message:):o I went to a state championship football game in Oklahoma in 2019. Regent Prep of Tulsa turned the ball over 8 times, and was stopped on downs twice, once at the 1-foot line. Shattuck had 0 turnovers, and went on to win by only 5 points (24-19).
):o Moo.
Date: Thu May 6 12:30:14 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:That's some craziness there, Buzz.
How can a "hard-hit ball" be a pop-up?
First-pitch strikes on 26 out of 27 hitters?? That may be a first. Just wow......
Date: Thu May 6 15:54:44 2021
User: BuzzClik
Message:TN, you haven't been glued to the baseball broadcasts as much as you need to help you understand the new "analytics" and stats. In this case, the "hard hit ball" refers only to velocity off the bat: an "exit velo" of 95 mph (Dizzy Dean would not approve). All the technology and all the massive databases allow compilations of mountains of useless information that can be called up in the wink of an eye.
Date: Thu May 6 16:01:20 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:Well, altho what you say is true (I'm still considerably withdrawn from the game because of the strikes and steroids) I did read, and already knew about, the "exit velocity" metric. I guesssss........one could say that a ball thrown 98 mph, that is barely struck by the bat, resulting in a pop-up, would still have the majority of it's velocity intact from the pitcher's arm, say 95 mph, until it got a few meters in the air. But to call that a "hard-hit" ball is ridiculous.
Date: Thu May 6 16:35:10 2021
User: BuzzClik
Message:Agreed. Up until recently, a ball like that would have been considered "lazy", not hard hit.
Date: Thu May 6 16:52:41 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:If they're really calling a pop-up, that still has most of it's velocity due to the pitcher's arm, rather than the swing of the bat, a "hard-hit ball", then that's messed up and a worthless stat.
Date: Fri May 7 03:13:12 2021
User: Kaos
Message:My home-town Mariners just lost to Baltimore and the box score showed 27 up and 27 down for Seattle, no walks, and for Baltimore no errors. So, Shirley a perfect game 💥. But, I only saw it referred to as a no-hitter. Only today did I read that one Seattle player reached base after striking out on a wild pitch and getting to 1st. Has this ever happened before? I’ve been waiting for the “Elias Sports Bureau” article saying this is the Nth time this has happened before but it hasn’t been forthcoming.
Date: Fri May 7 04:25:12 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:See BuzzClick's post above at Thu May 6 07:59:43 2021, and most especially his link "Oh No!"
Date: Sat May 8 14:17:03 2021
User: Klepp
Message:All these no-hitters serve as grist for the move-the-mound-back-two-feet crowd...(been discussed, I hear).
Date: Sat May 8 14:48:37 2021
User: TNmountainman
Message:This'll never happen, but you know what would make the game more fun and exciting? Making the dimensions of the field larger, to cut down on HRs. We've discussed before here the big risk/big reward status of most of the games. Too many Ks and hitters swing for the fences. What's one of the most exciting plays of a game? Triples. It'd be a more fun watch to see maybe as many triples as homers. But I know.........fat chance of that. If, as Klepp says, the mound were moved back (fat chance of that, too), that combined with larger parks would give more strategy, more offensive creativity. The multitude of little nuances that have historically made baseball the more intellectual sport have been being slowly eroded.
Date: Mon May 10 12:25:22 2021
User: BuzzClik
Message:DK Metcalf of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks decided to try to qualify for the Olympics in the 100 m. He was a hurdler and triple jumper in high school, with impressive marks in both events, good enough to place second in the MS State Finals.
This past season, Metcalf ran down a DB who had intercepted a pass and was clearly streaking toward the end zone. Metcalf ran him down and tackled him, preventing the touchdown. At this point, Metcalf was declared by the football pundits as perhaps the fastest human ever to play the game. Metcalf's tackle was always part of the NFL's year end highlight reels.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Before Metcalf can qualify for the Olympics, he must qualify for the US Olympic Trials. He must run in a sanctioned meet and either make the minimum qualifying time (10.05 s) or be among the top 32 times in the country this year. Metcalf has been earnestly training and entered the USATF Golden Games. There were 2 preliminary heats of nine competitors each and then the finals. Metcalf ran 10.37 and finished last in his heat. He was 11th of among the US competitors in the prelims.
10.37 is a solid time, but it is far away from his goal of qualifying for the US Olympic Trials. He currently ranks about 90th among American men and would need a 10.22 to break into the top 32.
Link: https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/dk-metcalf-100-meters-131032450.html
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