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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 11, 2024 17:43:40 GMT -5
I couldn't 100% decide where to put this. Here. History thread. Somewhere else. So here it is. The 2016 documentary The Boys of '36 which appeared as an episode of American Experience on PBS. The documentary came out of Daniel James Brown's best-selling book The Boys in the Boat, which chronicled the 8-man crew from University of Washington that ultimately won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. What's unusual is that in a sport dominated by the Ivy League and to a lesser extent Cal and Stanford, the University of Washington team, made up of kids from lumber, mining and farm towns in Washington and Idaho beat not only the privileged schools, but also Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. While not on par with that Jesse Owens and and the rest of the American track and field team, it's still a damn fine story. I highly recommend that book. I've not yet seen the recent movie.
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Post by emilyhlib on Mar 22, 2024 17:22:20 GMT -5
I really liked watching documentaries about sports. Thanks to this and also the article, I really wanted to start taking care of myself and my body. I've been eating right and going to the gym for a month now and I'm seeing big changes in myself. It's really cool and I will continue to work on my body
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Post by berkley on Mar 27, 2024 23:37:49 GMT -5
I have half a mind to start a rugby thread but I'll put this comment here anyway: the Hurricanes are off to a great start this year in "Super Rugby" (still don't like that name*), top of the table with 5 wins out of 5 games. It's especially impressive because they lost some key players, international; player of the year Artie Savea, for one. Not only that, but in their last match they brought in an almost completely different team, sitting out the guys who have started in the first 4 games, and all the new guys looked fantastic - mind you, some of them were returning veterans, like Brad Shields, Perenara, and Jordan Barrett, who had missed the last game for a red card.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Six Nations finished last week with Ireland clearly the best side, though they didn't get a Grand Slam (i.e. win all their games in the round robin format of this tournament). Lots of interesting developments, with France looking confused but still with loads of talent, Wales on a bad down swing, Scotland playing a little above their heads, England up and down but I think still heading in the right direction and capable at any time of beating any team in the world, and, perhaps most encourgingly, Italy showing real signs of taking the next step and showing they are on a level with the rest of the 6N sides.
*actually, they're now calling it "Super Rugby Pacific", so I'm thinking they should drop the "Super" and just call it Rugby Pacific or Pacific Rugby. And if SA clubs ever come back they can change it to something else.
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Post by commond on Mar 28, 2024 17:29:42 GMT -5
There's a lot of talk in New Zealand about the Crusaders start to the season, but thank God another team has a chance this year.
Ireland's success is putting even more pressure on NZ Rugby to change the eligibility rules and let coaches select overseas players.
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Post by berkley on Mar 28, 2024 20:52:22 GMT -5
There's a lot of talk in New Zealand about the Crusaders start to the season, but thank God another team has a chance this year. Ireland's success is putting even more pressure on NZ Rugby to change the eligibility rules and let coaches select overseas players.
Yes, the Crusaders' dominance was becoming a little tiresome. I liked them at one time - back when guys like Justin Marshall were there - but for a long time now I've usually found myself cheering for the other team whenever I happened to be watching one of their games, at least when it was another NZ club.
I think NZ Rugby should relax that rule too. I think Australia and SA have done so in recent years have they not? Guys like Kerr-Barlow should have had a chance to make the team, though I imagine he'll soon be hitting the declining years of his career.Most of the guys who left after the RWC to play in Japan and elsewhere were still near their prime, though I suppose they won't be by the time of the next WC. But if young talent like Roigard continue to be shut out of the All Blacks they could start loosing players overseas at a younger age. BTW, in his head to head battle with Finlay Christie when the Hurricanes played the Blues it was no contest: Christie had a solid game and made no glaring errors but Roigard was at another level entirely and I still think it was a big mistake not having him available to come off the bench in the final rather than Christie.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 28, 2024 23:21:25 GMT -5
It's opening day for MLB! Go Sox!
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 28, 2024 23:24:25 GMT -5
And new Red Sox OF Tyler O'Neil just set an MLB record by homering in his fifth straight opening day.
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 1, 2024 22:05:51 GMT -5
Houston Astros SP Ronel Blanco tosses the season's first no hitter against the Blue Jays, giving Houston it's first win of the season.
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 8, 2024 19:32:00 GMT -5
April 8, 1974, 50 years ago today, Hank Aaron hits HR 715 to break the Babs' record.
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 9, 2024 13:01:26 GMT -5
Prince HalTests show that Red Sox SS Trevor Story, who injured his shoulder trying to make a diving stop on a Mike Trout liner towards short, has a dislocated left shoulder and damage to the rim of the shoulder socket that will require surgery to repair. He will miss at least 6 months, so is out for at least the rest of the regular season (and without him the Sox already slim chances of making the post season are even slimmer). On the same day they also announced the only veteran starter in their rotation, Nick Pivetta, is going on the 15 day IL with an elbow flexor strain. The Sox, who started 7-3 on the opening west coast trip despite dire predictions for the season, had a big hill to climb to be competitive in a stacked AL East this year, and that hill just got steeper for them. -M
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 10, 2024 13:28:25 GMT -5
MRPs_Missives"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?", or reactions to yesterday at Fenway. The first time I've ever been to an Opening Day. The park looked beautiful. We had grandstand seats pretty far back on the 3B side, but the view of the field was still pretty good, with the exception of the LF corner; thus I knew Duran dropped the fly ball b/c of crowd reaction. Bello was solid if not dazzling, but that's fine; he was indeed victimized by lousy defense. Still, he has to learn to settle down and get that third out after a miscue. Only two errors according to the scorers; I would have recorded four. I was giving Devers the benefit of the doubt having seen him only on TV, since they say the camera adds ten pounds. But he looks heavy and slow; he needs a strong SS to look halfway decent. Hamilton (credited) and Gonzalez (uncredited) made errors on at'em balls. Valdez dropped a nice relay from Rafaella that would have been an out. O'Neil threw wild from RF on a worthless Hunter Renfroe-style "showin' off my arm" throw and Devers nearly let it get past him (second time that happened, too). Henderson made the infield look slow and unaware on his steal of third, which since it was entirely unnecessary as a tactic, looked more like he was trying to show them up. Duran muffed that two-out fly in left that cost two runs. Might have lost it in the shadow, might have taken his eye off it. By all accounts he was a mess in the clubhouse afterwards, and given hius state of mind last year, it bears watching. I am pulling for him, because of all that and because he has improved, but he does not impress me as a smart player. Sox had two hits, both in the first. O'Neil's bomb to left and a Casas seeing-eye single. Sox went 18-up, 18-down from fourth through ninth. So many weak automatic outs oce you get past Devers, and even he is waaay too streaky to be an anchor in the lineup. Burnes righted himself after the O'Neil clout and the Sox had no chance with his slider. Or anything else he threw, for that matter. Couldn't have hit him with a cricket bat. Cora must have left Winckowski in there so long to get him ready to step into the rotation. Also because even a two-run deficit was going to be too much yesterday. He was whacked around and was also a victim of that crappy defense. In another year with another team, you might chalk this up to a hangover from a long road trip, the chillier temperature here (though it was a gorgeous day, especially for an opener), or the loss of Story sinking in, but this team does not give you the confodence you'd need to fall back on that reasoning. After the game Cora sounded like he wanted to be a dead man walking, throwing guys under the bus when he said, "We have a lot of young guys playing." And you know, he really doesn't. What he has are a lot of bargain-basement types who can pnly do so much no mater how hard they try and a wafer-thin pitching staff that is only getting thinner. It was a nice trip to start the season, but they played a real team yesterday and all the sentimental hoopla in New England couldn't push the up to the Orioles' level. Sox looked like Oakland yesterday. And today, they're bringing up Holliday. Yikes. Tribute to Wake was heartfelt and sincere. 2004 video kinda went on forever, but it gave fans a chance to boo both ARod and Schilling. And "Sweet Caroline" absolutely has to go. So does the hyped-up slide-whistle effect they set off now when an opponent strikes out. It's bush league, and self-defeating when you're losing 7-1 in the ninth. Fans were leaving after the seventh. Granted, it was an Opening Day crowd, but that's not a good sign. More than a few O's fans there, too. Tickets were still available before the game, btw. And the new uniforms inhale swiftly.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 10, 2024 15:50:37 GMT -5
I've only been able to catch highlights and box scores, and assessments from beat reporters on social media, so my impressions are skewed and likely out of touch. But my read on the team after the road trip and the home opener is that the team will be more competitive than most were willing to give them credit for coming into the season, but they are not contenders. They might be able to eek out a .500 season but losing Story and possible Pivetta for the season (after losing Giolito) makes that unlikely (and I don't think Montgomery or Snell would have moved the needle on that and Yamamoto never wanted to play in Boston so they were never really in on that no matter how much money they had offered).
Story is turning into another Chris Sale situation-great player who can't stay healthy long enough to be on the field and contribute, making what seemed like a good signing a bad one. This offseason was a very thin and top heavy free agent class so any talent was going to get overpaid and make the risk for a bad Story/Sale like deal much greater, so I am not upset like some they didn't go heavy on what talent was there-the problem is that it follows a couple of off seasons where there was talent to get and they didn't. The Sox have been pitching thin as an organization as a whole since Lester moved into the majors from the minors and they've done little to address it internally choosing instead to go all in on trades and signings that some have worked out in the short term but none have worked well in the long term. Bringing in Breslow and Bailey is the first real step they've taken to address that since '04. They're drafting and development of pitchers has been terrible, most prospects fizzling unless they came form other organizations and even the ones they ship out in big deals don't often pan out for other teams. You cannot build long term sustained success at the major league level without a reliable pipeline of pitching talent to draw from and the Sox haven't had that in two decades. They've gained frequent bursts of short term success by buying established pitchers via trade or free agency to win more WS in the 21st century than any other franchise, but those peaks have come with deep valleys of last place finishes in between because its not a model for sustainable success.
Bello looks like he has a positive future, but I don't see him as a future ace. He's a #2-3 guy in the rotation as a ceiling, and being called to anchor the rotation this year may hurt his long term development if they're not careful. No issues with the extension, but tapping him to be the Opening Day starter may have been decent PR but not a good one in terms of setting him up for long term success. He's not consistent enough yet, when he's on, he's good not great, and when he's not, he's bad. Reminds me a lot of Eduardo Rodriguez in that way, who never found the groove he needed for steady consistent success while with the Sox, it was all peaks and valleys, which is why he never emerged as an ace, and why I don't think Bello will either. A good pitcher and a solid contributor who can occasionally dazzle, sure, but not an ace. Aces cannot only occasionally show up big, they need to be consistently there.
Still, overall the pitching has been better than expected. O'Neil is off to a hot start, but he's currently suffering Mike Trout disease. He hasn't driven in anybody except himself. His HR and RBI totals are the same and he only hits HR with nobody so far (Trout has the same issue this season).
They need to address the middle infield. Grissom's return should help, and Refsnyder's return might allow them to move Cedaene to SS, but I don't think Abreu is ready to be the real deal regular contributor in the OF, so I don't want to move Raffe if it means having to rely on Abreu out there. Duran is better in LF than CF, especially in Fenway despite the dropped ball last night, but moving Raffe to SS means having him man CF, and that's not good long term.
They certainly still have a lot of questions. They need to find an available glove first veteran infield option on a 1 year deal to take the pressure off the pool of replacement level talent they have there now. If Grissom can handle SS, they need a reliable 2B option, if not, they need a solid fielding SS (maybe checking in with the Mets for someone like Julio Iglesias who is languishing in their minor leagues) whether they can hit or not.
It's going to be a long season f they don't improve their defense, and I expect they will be sellers as the trade deadline emerges.
-M
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 10, 2024 16:35:14 GMT -5
They are mediocre on their best day, and as you say, so thin in terms of reserves and replacements. They're not even a AAAA team
Again, it's early, but from what I've seen so far, Abreu is at best, at best, a work in progress. Like Valdez, Raffaela, Devers, Wong and almost the entire time, he's undisciplined at the plate. In the field he's still enamored of his "cannon," which is highly inaccurate and used unadvisedly. You don't try to throw out runners going to third from the RF corner allowing the other guy to turn his single into a double.
For whatever reason, we're supposed to accept that strikeouts are now just something we have to live with, which is why all teams' pitching staffs have enormous strikeout totals. And the Sox PR machine loves to push that.
I hate moving too many guys out of position. Given that the team is going nowhere, I'm for leaving Rafaella in CF, Duran in left and O'Neill in right. Thye can gut it out at SS. Reyes is as reliable as we've got now, and they can't carry him, Hamilton, Valdez and Gonzalez on the roster. Maybe Grissom can handle it when/if he gets going, but man, Valdez is a butcher at second. Maybe they can find a journeyman rather than a utility guy to do the job at SS. Thank the gods they're not talking about moving Mayer up.
Bello is unspectacular, despite the hype. Glad they signed him, too, but his ceiling should be "reliable." And that will be fine.
The focus soon may be on the Bailey-Breslow philosophy of throwing more sweepers/sliders/ than fastballs and the damage that may do to arms. Not saying it's fair, just that it will surface. So far, though, the pitchers seem good with the approach. It's not like the fastballs at 100+ for as long as you can throw them is a smart approach either.
FWIW, Pivetta did not follow Sox' off-season program, opting instead to come in at full speed rather than ramping up. Thus they held him back in spring, worrying that he was doing too much too soon. Hoping this is just a temporary setback for him... but when is it ever these days?
Story may well be done here, depending on Mayer's progress. Honestly, I don't see it as much of a blow to whatever chance Sox had to be even respectable, b/c he is not a game-changing player. Certainly not the guy to protect Devers in the line-up. Made some beautiful plays this year, but he just can't stay on the field... and he either doesn't heal quickly or doesn't want to come back till he's 110%. He would be an excellent cog/piece/solid glove-first in a good team's lineup...think Cabrera and Mientkiewicz in '04.
Rafaella has a lot to learn in CF, too. Mixed in with his several fine plays were a few big mistakes, mostly on taking less than sharp angles to balls and being caught way out of position as a result. He also jaked it on a gimme catch in Anaheim that led to a helluva mess in a game the Sox came back to win only b/c the Angels also can't hit their way out of a cardboard box. A lot to like there, but I would have liked to see Cora register a complaint with him at the least.
Sellers in July, yes. Cellar in October, also yes.
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Post by berkley on Apr 10, 2024 22:10:06 GMT -5
And "Sweet Caroline" absolutely has to go.
This habit of playing recorded music at full blast over the PA system kills the mood for me at live sporting events these days. I didn't mind the organ at hockey games - it was much less in your face that this stuff and also there was an in-the-moment give and take with the the audience: often the organist would try to stir something up but often he or she would respond to the audience or to somthing happening on the ice. And even better was the crowd being left to itself to sing its own songs, chants, etc. But now it's this piped in music - and it's the same songs everywhere: Sweet Caroline is played routinely at the rugby games in NZ that I watch on tv.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Apr 13, 2024 1:30:14 GMT -5
Looks like the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes are relocating to the Utah. No official announcement yet, but their players leaked the team informed them of the move today.
-M
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