For the life of me, I can't understand the excitement over Daisuke Matsuzaka's spring training "debut" yesterday. Yes, he pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three (and giving up a double). But does this really tell us anything? The Sox were playing against Boston College. The only way this would have been interesting is if his arm had fallen off.
Pop-culture maven and basketball fan Chuck Klosterman has a nice piece attempting to deconstruct Gilbert Arenas. The article gets at why I think everyone (including myself) seems to like him so much: he's acutally willing to admit that his personality is at least partially self-consiously constructed. I think we're all that way, but it's rare for anyone (especially someone famous) to actually admit it. He's just a tough guy not to like. Part of it is just his naturally warm and playful personality. But even when he talked up the 50-point game in Portland and then stunk out the joint, it made him seem more real and human...how many of us have talked big sometime and then didn't come through?
Last night I had the pleasure of watching one of the most thrilling basketball games in recent memory, Texas' double-overtime win over Texas A&M. I wouldn't want to play either of these two teams in the tournament. This game not only featured likely top-2 pick Kevin Durant (30 pts), and unofficial NCAA clutch player of the year Acie Law IV (33 pts, with two 3's in the final seconds of both the 4th quarter and the first overtime to tie the game), but had a hilarious moment that had the guys in my dorm laughing it up at the time - the video is up at Deadspin.
From the world of sports this weekend:
Some guys drove around in circles for a few hours. Lots of the them crashed, and surprisingly, one driver edged out another for the win. People watch this?
The best basketball players on the planet (except the lucky ones with injury exemptions) walked around the court for 48 minutes and missed shots, missed dunks, and played basketball of the "cut-from-the-varsity-squad pickup game" variety.
In one of the nuttiest stories ever, a Liverpool soccer player attacked a teammate with a golf club because he wouldn't sing karaoke on stage with him earlier in the evening.
If Tim Hardaway's homophobia has got you down (that he just keeps digging himself into a deeper hole with, apprently unaware of the irony of a black person being bigoted), prepare to have your mind blown with this video of Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo and Saved By the Bell's Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins in real life) joining the hair band Metal Skool (what, no umlat?) on stage to sign Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Yes, you read that right. The planets must be really well-aligned for this to have happened. Convergence, baby.
[via With Leather]
Former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway once again reminded us how important free speech is. In an interview sparked by the revelation from last week that former NBA center John Amaechi is gay, Hardaway had this to say:
“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States. First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room.”
Predicatably, he later said his comments were a "mistake" and that he "shouldn't have said I hate gay people." That's where you're wrong, Tim. We NEED people like you to say stuff like that, so the whole world can see what a fucking asshole you are. That's what free speech is for.
Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano has caught on to the insane free-agent market and has told the Cubs he wants a new contract before the start of the season or he'll walk away when '07 is done. Before the Yanks and Red Sox get out their checkbooks, the Cubs need to sign this guy to a long-term deal. He's going to be a star for many years to come... and to say the Cubs have been spending money like drunken sailors this off-season is offensive to drunken sailors - they can't stop now.
Zambrano has also has decided to refer to himself in the third person:
"If they don't sign me, sorry, but I must go. That's what Carlos Zambrano thinks."
Despite his relatively high K/BB ratio, Zambrano is the starter the Cubs need to build their rotation around. Unlike Wood and Prior, he's actually durable. And as the icing on the cake, he's one of the best hitting pitchers in baseball (6 HR's in 73 AB's last year!). If everyone else is getting in on an overheated market, then Zambrano should get into it, too.
UNC topped Duke in college hoops tonight, which should be close to pushing the evil Blue Devils out of the top 25. Anybody who cheers for Duke that didn't actually go to Duke deserves to be locked in a hot room with a hungry, sweaty Charlie Weis for the entire month of March and listen to him bitch about how Notre Dame can beat the worst teams in the country yet still not go up in the rankings.
Via lots of people, comes another reason why Gilbert Arenas is, if not the best player in the NBA, certainly the most interesting and entertaining. During a Wizards practice, Arenas makes a $20,000 bet (!) with DeShawn Stevenson that he can hit more one-handed three-pointers from the college arc than Stevenson can from the NBA line with both hands (out of 100). So Arenas drops 73 (!) and wins the bet. And all the while they are each doing their best to distract the shooter, just like any good competitor does in a game of 31 or Horse. Nobody broke out the Star Wars noises, but it was entertaining nonetheless. So check out the video: Guilbert Arenas is good at basketball.
One of the rules you teach a high school basketball team is: don't save the ball diving out of bounds in your own end. You usually end up giving the ball to the opponent right under the hoop for an easy 2 pints or you give them a 5 on 4 as you end up on the floor out of bounds. Apparently, "legendary" Texas Tech coach and all-around prick Bob Knight doesn't teach his players that, or if he does they don't listen. In a move I can't believe nobody is criticising, Tech's Charles Burgess saved the ball from going out of bounds in his own end with a couple of seconds remaining with his team up by 1 with a nice athletic move....and he passes the ball right into the hands of Nebraska's Charles Richardson who simply turned around and drained the three at the buzzer to win the game. This amuses me because Texas Tech gets way too much attention from the sports media because of Bob Knight's infamy, and I really can't stand the guy. Why do we want to watch games where the COACH is the biggest story? Is watching Bob Knight screaming on the sidelines or choking his own players really that interesting?
Filling the lull in the post-Super Bowl pre-March Madness/Spring Training dead zone, welcome to my new sports blog. Expect extreme bias, sophomoric analysis, and nerdy statistics.
