For most of us most of the time sports fandom is a world of entertainment if not happiness and occasionally joy.
So what do we feel this late April evening? What captivates us in the world of sports here in the great Puget Sound?
Welll, half the world seem enthralled if not aroused by the NFL draft. C'mon, are you serious? The NFL draft as a sporting event?
Geeeeez!
This IS baseball season, the best game there is. Yeah, I know.
Ya know the one about the guy who can't hit his weight? Well the Mariners currently have SIX players (Andino, Bay, Ibanez, Montero, Morse and Ryan)
who literally are not hitting their weight. Want to REALLY get depressed? Those six players make up 40% of the Mariners at-bats through 23 games.
Actually we should be happy the M's have so many heavy weights on the team.
With a team batting average of .228 it is socking only six are not hitting their weight.
I know, it's early.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
M's - It's Early? So What!
OK, let's have a show of hands; how many of us
were throwing an absolute tantrum (or some furniture) four Marinerbatters into game one with the Oakland A's? C'mon, you know who
you are. After the fourth Mariners batter became the fourth Mariner
for one featuring a different digit...didn't ya?
nine runs scored, surrendered 2 runs total on 6 hits.
And the pen looks nice
It is about hitting, running bases, scoring runs.
It is about pitching, minimizing base runners, defenders
making plays. And with all those pieces, we real baseball
fans almost always have things to to upset us. In a good world
we have things to bring us joy as well.
So let's keep this brief...two games in to this infant 2013 season we are feeling the joy.160 games to go with plenty of joy and pain to come.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
"Super" Bowl Makes Me Feel Guilty
Full disclosure(or at least partial): I LOVE Major League Baseball, I LOVE college football and I really, really like college basketball. I like NFL football and NBA hoops. Like most good fans ever since I turned 30, got married, became a parent and started aging, my capacity to be truly fanatical ("fan") about four sports has deteriorated. I used to have my own season tickets for Husky and Hawks football. Used to buy a partial Sonics ticket package as well as shared season tickets for the M's. I would attended 40 or more games annually, not counting high school hoops. Over the years, my weekly interest in regular season NBA and NFL games has cooled. I find it all interesting, but not particularly exciting, let alone arousing.
So every year, I sit and watch the NFL playoffs with interest, mild interest. I don't watch every game, unless the Hawks are playing. But I watch. And usually attend one of those low level Super Bowl parties that pizza, beer, chips and big screen TV peddlers love so much. We throw $25 each into some barely understandable quarterly, half and full game pools. We eat like pigs, slobbering and spilling food all over the floor and ourselves. Everybody gets very quiet, shushing each other every time one of those incredibly creative and artistic TV commercials comes on. AND....as the kids eat, get bored and go outside to damage toys and each other, many of the females enjoy their third drink, arguing happily over whose husband is the laziest, sloppiest pig. A small handful of men focus on the screen and actually watch the game. I find myself struggling through this because (as I will with the 49ers / Ravens) I usually have little or zero interest in who wins the Super Bowl.
I feel kind of bad as I nod when several of my neighbors high five each other after a particularly well executed 4 yard run off tackle or a crushing hit by a line backer blowing up a bubble screen. As a running back is helped off the field all of my pals seem to have detailed knowledge of the entire career of his back up, a fourth year guy from SouthWesternNorthCentral Puerto Rican State College. Again I nod, yes I have heard he is a pretty good north south runner. I silently ponder the possibility that the Super Bowl football field actually runs east-west. WIll north-south runners simply run out of bounds every carry? And God forbid, what if a running back is a "down hill runner"? I tell myself, relax, this all must be meaningful, look how interested everyone else is!
The stars of a Super Bowl are the 160 players and coaches from the two teams. We better believe these guys have real star power. There aren't over 33 credentialed media people for each of them (over 5,000 total) there for nothing...I guess. Don''t let the fact that most reporters at Super Bowls spend 98% of their print and air time writing and talking with and about, other media members. Saturday, February 2nd I watched an ESPN "analysis team" with the sound off obviously talking about the big game. They were wearing those fancy dark banker looking suits. They all had really neat looking haircuts. They were perched on some miniature fake football field, green with fake turf and real advertisements. They were sitting in those high director chairs in a semi circle. They all looked very serious, gesturing with face, arms and hands with great animation. And there were NINE of them!!! NINE! I recognized Gruden and Dilfer and a few other guys whose names I don't know. The rest could have been Men's Warehouse salesmen for all know. Again, I feel guilty. There is a large crowd of fans gathered around these experts in a live audience. Those fans obviously know who these experts are and cannot get enough of them. There appeared to be no current players or coaches there at all.
The attention grabbing TV advertisements at $4 million per 30 second spot took up 47 minutes of the 2012 Super Bowl. In contrast, at about 65 plays per game there is around 11 minutes of actual football played in a Super Bowl. I know. Don't act like the pregame, half time and post game shows along with sideline reports, "cheer leaders" and TV crew analysis aren't really gripping, even riveting!
And the game itself is very important to all involved. Not only do winning players and coaches receive the biggest, heaviest, tackiest rings ever produced, they get a winner's share of $88,000! Incredible! On average an NFL player is paid a base salary of about $1.9 million per season or $118,750 per regular season game. So that $88,000 is like a 4.6% bonus, pretty cool. Boeing had a great 2012 and all its non-executive workers were given a mere 4% bonus. This is real folding money! And I know that this is true, pure capitalism, at work all this money. Never mind that more than 33% of all attendees for Super Bowls are doing so as a corporate tax deduction. I don't feel really connected to the Super Bowl? Wait a minute!!! I am actually subsidizing the attendance of a third of the crowd! I am a contributor! I am feeling more a part of things now.
As Rosanne Rosannadanna used to say, "Never mind!" Have a great Super Bowl anyway!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Stan - Truly The Man
Timing is everything and sometimes timing just stinks. This past weekend the "world of sports" was dominated
by Notre Dame LB Manti Te'o fictitious (or blow up doll) girl friend and Lance Armstrong's Oprah moments.
Under those banner headlines, even on second and third pages of our sports pages did we find the sad news
of the passing of two baseball icons. Earl Weaver, the fiery and winning manager of the Baltimore Orioles was known
for his big inning strategies and for having the foresight to move Cal Ripken Jr from third base to shortstop despite his tall lanky build.
But Stan Musial was a treasure, truly one of the three or four greatest baseball players in the history of the game.
It is a challenge to define greatness but the following Stan The Man numbers do the job:
-1948 Musial was 1 HR short to lead the NL in batting, runs, hits, doubles, triples, homers, & RBI's.
He lost a HR in an August rain out in Brooklyn
-Only Hank Aaron had more total bases than Musial. According to Bill James's formula,
only the Babe and Bonds created more runs.
-Stan Musial (1942-1958)16 years of PRIME TIME (1945 - Military Service)Stan Musial becomes a starter in 1942.
In the next 16 years he NEVER finished below 5th in the league in Batting Average Batting Champion -
7 times, 2nd - 2 times, 3rd - 3 times, 4th - 3 times, 5th - 1 time
Then, just for fun, at the age of 41, a year before retiring, he hit .330 (3rd in the League)
Batting Title Finish
1942 - .315 (3rd) (Leader: .330), 1943 - .357 (1st),1944 - .347 (2nd) (Leader: .357), 1945 - Military Service1946 - .365 (1st),
1947 - .312 (5th) (Leader: .363), 1948 - .376 (1st),
1949 - .338 (2nd) (Leader: .342), 1950 - .346 (1st), 1951 - .355 (1st), 1952 - .336 (1st)1953 - .337 (3rd) (Leader:.344)
1954 - .330 (4th) (Leader: .345)1955 - .319 (3rd)
When one examines The Man's 22 years of baseball the numbers tell a story that belongs in a book occupied by only The Babe, Ted Williams
and...maybe that's all. In addition, Stan the Man was a jewel, a gentleman respected by all who knew him. So read and reread these numbers.
Go find a book and read more about Stanley Frank Musial, all you can get your hands on. You will better understand his greatness,
his historical mastery of the game of baseball. As you digest that, try and avoid being distracted by doped up bike riders and linebackers with fake girlfriends.
Cling to everything that was Stan Musial. e will not see another like him, maybe ever.
Stan was truly and always will be THE MAN.
by Notre Dame LB Manti Te'o fictitious (or blow up doll) girl friend and Lance Armstrong's Oprah moments.
Under those banner headlines, even on second and third pages of our sports pages did we find the sad news
of the passing of two baseball icons. Earl Weaver, the fiery and winning manager of the Baltimore Orioles was known
for his big inning strategies and for having the foresight to move Cal Ripken Jr from third base to shortstop despite his tall lanky build.
But Stan Musial was a treasure, truly one of the three or four greatest baseball players in the history of the game.
It is a challenge to define greatness but the following Stan The Man numbers do the job:
He lost a HR in an August rain out in Brooklyn
-Only Hank Aaron had more total bases than Musial. According to Bill James's formula,
only the Babe and Bonds created more runs.
-Stan Musial (1942-1958)16 years of PRIME TIME (1945 - Military Service)Stan Musial becomes a starter in 1942.
In the next 16 years he NEVER finished below 5th in the league in Batting Average Batting Champion -
7 times, 2nd - 2 times, 3rd - 3 times, 4th - 3 times, 5th - 1 time
Then, just for fun, at the age of 41, a year before retiring, he hit .330 (3rd in the League)
Batting Title Finish
1942 - .315 (3rd) (Leader: .330), 1943 - .357 (1st),1944 - .347 (2nd) (Leader: .357), 1945 - Military Service1946 - .365 (1st),
1947 - .312 (5th) (Leader: .363), 1948 - .376 (1st),
1949 - .338 (2nd) (Leader: .342), 1950 - .346 (1st), 1951 - .355 (1st), 1952 - .336 (1st)1953 - .337 (3rd) (Leader:.344)
1954 - .330 (4th) (Leader: .345)1955 - .319 (3rd)
When one examines The Man's 22 years of baseball the numbers tell a story that belongs in a book occupied by only The Babe, Ted Williams
and...maybe that's all. In addition, Stan the Man was a jewel, a gentleman respected by all who knew him. So read and reread these numbers.
Go find a book and read more about Stanley Frank Musial, all you can get your hands on. You will better understand his greatness,
his historical mastery of the game of baseball. As you digest that, try and avoid being distracted by doped up bike riders and linebackers with fake girlfriends.
Cling to everything that was Stan Musial. e will not see another like him, maybe ever.
Stan was truly and always will be THE MAN.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Arena -Build it! Fill it?
Since the new Arena in Seattle appears headed for a live birth we need to look closely at what we are bringing into our world. Ya know, there is "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" and then there is the agony of victory.
Anybody out there take one of those Logic 101 classes in college? You bit on that logic class because it seemed manageable AND maybe a babe you knew was taking it. In that class you learned that if A was greater than B and B was equal to or greater than C then A was greater than C. Extending that train of thought to The Great Seattle Arena Adventure one could easily conclude;
-Seattle has no NHL or NBA teams because there is no suitable arena here or ....WAITAMINUTE!...is it the arena does not exist because those teams aren't here? Doesn't matter, just get it built and those franchises will flock to Seattle like pigeons to a statue.
It appears the time has come, the involved parties (city, county, sidewalk musicians) have agreed that this is a can't miss opportunity. The moment may never again present itself to construct such a facility with minimum direct public money or public risk or exposure. Therefore, finally we can move forward. But is that a sigh of relief or a big gulp we hear? Let's talk about what makes this little adventure gulpworthy. As my favorite guy Bill Clinton said this past Wednesday night at the Democratic Convention it is one word: ARITHMETIC.
Here are the numbers that count. Both NBA and NHL teams play 41 regular season home games each season. Let's assume each of our new Seattle franchises draw AVERAGE attendance and charge AVERAGE ticket prices for the NBA and NHL.
Attendance Ticket Price / Revenue
Avg Total Avg per game Total season
NBA 17,500 717,500 $48.48 $34,784,400
NHL 18,500 758,500 $$57.10 $43,310,350
Digest those numbers if you can. Over 1.4 MILLION tickets at a cost of $78 MILLION dollars belly flopping into our Puget Sound pool of sports spectator consumer wallets. And those are INCREMENTAL dollars and tickets. And yes, I know that you know the Dawgs have a new Husky Stadium going up out in Montlake with 67,000 seats to sell, many at higher than ever club seat type prices. And yes, I know that you know the Mariners attendance at 22,000 per game will get to about 1.7 million for the season, a good 500,000 under where they would like to be.
Even the Sea Hawks season ticket waiting list has disappeared and the games are not longer completely sold out for the season.
And we have neglected the biggest single success factor in big time sports: Luxury suite sales. If there is a single issue slowing down revenue growth luxury box sales is an area of extreme concern to all sports. Frankly the NFL TV money is so huge and player expenses are so low by limited roster sizes that most NFL teams could sell no tickets and make money. But the rest of Sports are really dependant on on those revenues they don't have to share, luxury box sales. The Mariners sales are way down as we would expect. But how will the new NBA and NHL teams peddle those high priced boxes while the Huskies are out selling their new offerings at the same time. Where is all this big money coming from? C'mon, why cant we be more positive, why all the black clouds?
Well here is some breaking news: The economy still sucks. Yes it is getting better but a generation of fans are now used to NOT snapping up tickets regardless of price or quality of the team. The Huskies and Mariners have both learned painfully how easy it is to lose the base and how difficult it is to get back. There is no money more discretionary than sports tickets. For the price of parking, TYEE donation and two season tickets you can get a pretty nice big screen flat screen delivered to your TV room / home tailgate cave. And for the future even the most die hard young fans are not as prone to buy $40-$75 tickets at we older folks were. Add to that the possible change in tax deduction rules and things could get more, not less challenging.
All is not lost, all is not bleak. I am confident a new NBA team here would command great attention and following. And if the team can be somewhat competitive in a few years success should make for a stable franchise. I am much less sure about NHL success. The few hockey fans we have in the area have been paying less than $25 for most of the tickets in Kent and Everett. Whatever comes to town owners will have to figure out how to get the relatively well paid Puget Sound middle class to provide a solid foundation of ticket sales for both teams. Our region's economy while recovering has lost some significant headquarters and with it anchor companies. Qwest is gone, Safeco is gone, WAMU is gone,even Boeing headquarters is no longer here. Selling high priced events and boxes to fat cats is getting tougher.
So all of you who have been clamoring for this to happen now have the opportunity to step us, as they say. No more savings bonds for for graduation and Bar Mitzvah presents. No more cash donations to Head Start and homeless shelters. Nope, starting in a few months we will be expected to fill those little gift cards with NBA and NHL game tickets, or concession vouchers. For that matter some of us might need to siphon donations from our church to our new teams. We will all be in this together. Our new rallying cry:
If they build it, they will come. If we pay, they will stay. Now, take a really big gulp.
Anybody out there take one of those Logic 101 classes in college? You bit on that logic class because it seemed manageable AND maybe a babe you knew was taking it. In that class you learned that if A was greater than B and B was equal to or greater than C then A was greater than C. Extending that train of thought to The Great Seattle Arena Adventure one could easily conclude;
-Seattle has no NHL or NBA teams because there is no suitable arena here or ....WAITAMINUTE!...is it the arena does not exist because those teams aren't here? Doesn't matter, just get it built and those franchises will flock to Seattle like pigeons to a statue.
It appears the time has come, the involved parties (city, county, sidewalk musicians) have agreed that this is a can't miss opportunity. The moment may never again present itself to construct such a facility with minimum direct public money or public risk or exposure. Therefore, finally we can move forward. But is that a sigh of relief or a big gulp we hear? Let's talk about what makes this little adventure gulpworthy. As my favorite guy Bill Clinton said this past Wednesday night at the Democratic Convention it is one word: ARITHMETIC.
Here are the numbers that count. Both NBA and NHL teams play 41 regular season home games each season. Let's assume each of our new Seattle franchises draw AVERAGE attendance and charge AVERAGE ticket prices for the NBA and NHL.
Attendance Ticket Price / Revenue
Avg Total Avg per game Total season
NBA 17,500 717,500 $48.48 $34,784,400
NHL 18,500 758,500 $$57.10 $43,310,350
Digest those numbers if you can. Over 1.4 MILLION tickets at a cost of $78 MILLION dollars belly flopping into our Puget Sound pool of sports spectator consumer wallets. And those are INCREMENTAL dollars and tickets. And yes, I know that you know the Dawgs have a new Husky Stadium going up out in Montlake with 67,000 seats to sell, many at higher than ever club seat type prices. And yes, I know that you know the Mariners attendance at 22,000 per game will get to about 1.7 million for the season, a good 500,000 under where they would like to be.
Even the Sea Hawks season ticket waiting list has disappeared and the games are not longer completely sold out for the season.
And we have neglected the biggest single success factor in big time sports: Luxury suite sales. If there is a single issue slowing down revenue growth luxury box sales is an area of extreme concern to all sports. Frankly the NFL TV money is so huge and player expenses are so low by limited roster sizes that most NFL teams could sell no tickets and make money. But the rest of Sports are really dependant on on those revenues they don't have to share, luxury box sales. The Mariners sales are way down as we would expect. But how will the new NBA and NHL teams peddle those high priced boxes while the Huskies are out selling their new offerings at the same time. Where is all this big money coming from? C'mon, why cant we be more positive, why all the black clouds?
Well here is some breaking news: The economy still sucks. Yes it is getting better but a generation of fans are now used to NOT snapping up tickets regardless of price or quality of the team. The Huskies and Mariners have both learned painfully how easy it is to lose the base and how difficult it is to get back. There is no money more discretionary than sports tickets. For the price of parking, TYEE donation and two season tickets you can get a pretty nice big screen flat screen delivered to your TV room / home tailgate cave. And for the future even the most die hard young fans are not as prone to buy $40-$75 tickets at we older folks were. Add to that the possible change in tax deduction rules and things could get more, not less challenging.
All is not lost, all is not bleak. I am confident a new NBA team here would command great attention and following. And if the team can be somewhat competitive in a few years success should make for a stable franchise. I am much less sure about NHL success. The few hockey fans we have in the area have been paying less than $25 for most of the tickets in Kent and Everett. Whatever comes to town owners will have to figure out how to get the relatively well paid Puget Sound middle class to provide a solid foundation of ticket sales for both teams. Our region's economy while recovering has lost some significant headquarters and with it anchor companies. Qwest is gone, Safeco is gone, WAMU is gone,even Boeing headquarters is no longer here. Selling high priced events and boxes to fat cats is getting tougher.
So all of you who have been clamoring for this to happen now have the opportunity to step us, as they say. No more savings bonds for for graduation and Bar Mitzvah presents. No more cash donations to Head Start and homeless shelters. Nope, starting in a few months we will be expected to fill those little gift cards with NBA and NHL game tickets, or concession vouchers. For that matter some of us might need to siphon donations from our church to our new teams. We will all be in this together. Our new rallying cry:
If they build it, they will come. If we pay, they will stay. Now, take a really big gulp.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Hands Off Safeco Fences !!!
There are two subjects that seem to have Puget Sound sports fans excited, almost aroused these days. The first, get that new basketball / hockey arena built I kind of understand. That is, I really get the bring back the NBA angle. The NHL talk baffles me. But, the need and desire for a new arena makes sense. The second is the blather regarding moving Safeco Field's fences in. What is that supposed to accomplish?
Yeah, we know the M's are currently struggling to produce offensively in every way. But shorter dimensions, closer fences? Really? Bringing back Junior and Bone are you? Fact is out of 30 teams the Ms are still 26th in batting average. They have improved slightly, at 14th in runs scored and 15th in extra based hits. But the team has the second worst record in the AL.
Looking at the full 2011 seasons reveals little. The .233 hitting M,s exploded to .244 on the road. In the friendly confines of the other guys' ball parks in 2011 the M's ranked an astonishing # 13 in doubles but sadly last in OPS and 29th in runs scored. One additional key stat in 2011 the M's were 39-45 (.464) at home and 28-50 (.359) away from those menacing Safeco fences. So far in 2012 the M's are 10-13 at home and 17-20 away. Many of us think WINS is a key statistic. And the winning percentages don't excite me to fire up the ole table saw.
I like Safeco. Most baseball guys will tell us that Safeco is a fair ball park. I know it would be cool to slide the left field fences in and out depending on the wind, temperature, pitching match ups, barometric pressure and DOW Jones Average,but this is baseball, not golf. Solutions for the challenges the M's face will NOT come from the ground crew, maintenance guys or Carpenters Local 1144.
I don't have the answers, but there are clues out there. Ya know that really big wide outfield? Try hitting line drives to the fence. They work almost as well as trying to hit balls OVER the fence. And it doesn't require any building permits.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Things I Don't Get
Every day I wake up, get going, shuffle to, through and back from my day at least a little more baffled than I was when I finished the previous day. This has nothing to do with how gripping or riveting my typical day is. They mostly aren't. My days are not real complex either. The work part of my day is pretty much as expected, unsurprising. The news, weather and personal business stuff is usually expected stuff as well. I, like many others out there look to my sports as source of if not drama then certainly entertainment.
I have to admit that as comfortable as I am with my spectator sports of choice, there are a few details I just don't get. Most are so minute in significance that I tend to blow by them as fast as I notice them. But nonetheless, over time these elements of my favorite, most relaxing times keep stacking up. The questions come at me at a rate doubling the answers. So I struggle to come to grips with these life altering, intellectual stumpers. I need help, and the only way to get help is to share. So this is the basketball edition of a few things I REALLY don't get.....
1) Why does EVERY single college basketball coach wear a suit? At a recent UW-Stanford game every non player on both benches wore a black or dark gray suit. The Cardinal appeared to be coached by pall bearers. And maybe if coaches wore Khakis, polo shirts and Adidas they wouldn't have to be paid $2.5 million per year. And don't they have, ya know, managers anymore? If they do, they are all wearing suites too!
2) Why do basketball players slap the shooters hand after he shoots a free throw, even when he misses?. Husky watchers see a tremendous amount of hand slapping. This slapping (kind of a very cool, sloppy mid level five) goes on endlessly. The hand slaps appear equally uninspired regardless of whether they follow a made or missed free throw. Why slap at all? Maybe it is just out of sensitivity to Aziz N'Diaye.
3) Do the stats guys at hoops games really try to keep track of turn overs? The USC-Husky game was as sloppy as they get and with 6:30 left they had the Dawgs with 14 TO's. Really felt like that many in the first half. Had to be some reason the Dawgs had 29 in the first half against a really weak team.
4) Does anything really constructive happen during a time out in a college hoops game? Hard to believe it if it does. No less than 2-3 guys in those suits (see above # 1) , waving their arms all talking at the same time (see any family dinner scene in any Woody Allen movie) directing these blustering, bombasting ravings at five young men. Those five young man are so exhausted they can hardly sit up let alone listen to the rantings of the suits. Oh, and if they tried real hard it is doubtful they could actually hear anything anyway. But watch those coaches, every time out they go off like Indian reservation Roman candles.
5) Coaches also often spend much of the time out time talking to each other. As silly as this seems it may well be to the benefit of the players for the coaches to just stay away during these breaks.
Whatever the reason and regardless of what they are talking about, I really don't understand this either.
6) I do NOT get at all why a foul committed by an offensive player while dribbling or shooting the ball is called a "player control foul". The player who commits the foul is obviously NOT in control. So yes, the correct term would be "player OUT of control foul".
7) Why oh why do some referees put their arm around a player's waist when he is talking to the player during a break in the action? I am sure the ref is explaining some nuance of officiating but I have never watched this with any comfort. In this day and age I would think these guys would just strive to keep their hands off each other. I am sure it is a harmless gesture of respect and friendship but the two inevitably end up looking like badly mismatched prom dates. I don't get why they cant talk face to face. Hands off.
8) Male cheer leaders
9) With today's technology why do cameramen (or women) have to sit on the baseline two feet from the action putting their equipment (personal AND camera) at serious risk? EVERY single game I go to involves at least one occurrence of a 6'8" 240 pounder stumbling out of bounds under the basket jamming a camera through the eye and into the frontal lobe of the camera man. It is really surprising serious injuries don't result from these collisions on a regular basis. During the timeouts the cheer leader close ups are plenty, avoid those flying power forwards.
I guess that covers it for now. There is so much I DO get that this little stuff is really of no consequence. But after 50+ years of watching and participating in hundreds and hundreds of games it seems I should really get everything. I don't.
I have to admit that as comfortable as I am with my spectator sports of choice, there are a few details I just don't get. Most are so minute in significance that I tend to blow by them as fast as I notice them. But nonetheless, over time these elements of my favorite, most relaxing times keep stacking up. The questions come at me at a rate doubling the answers. So I struggle to come to grips with these life altering, intellectual stumpers. I need help, and the only way to get help is to share. So this is the basketball edition of a few things I REALLY don't get.....
1) Why does EVERY single college basketball coach wear a suit? At a recent UW-Stanford game every non player on both benches wore a black or dark gray suit. The Cardinal appeared to be coached by pall bearers. And maybe if coaches wore Khakis, polo shirts and Adidas they wouldn't have to be paid $2.5 million per year. And don't they have, ya know, managers anymore? If they do, they are all wearing suites too!
2) Why do basketball players slap the shooters hand after he shoots a free throw, even when he misses?. Husky watchers see a tremendous amount of hand slapping. This slapping (kind of a very cool, sloppy mid level five) goes on endlessly. The hand slaps appear equally uninspired regardless of whether they follow a made or missed free throw. Why slap at all? Maybe it is just out of sensitivity to Aziz N'Diaye.
3) Do the stats guys at hoops games really try to keep track of turn overs? The USC-Husky game was as sloppy as they get and with 6:30 left they had the Dawgs with 14 TO's. Really felt like that many in the first half. Had to be some reason the Dawgs had 29 in the first half against a really weak team.
4) Does anything really constructive happen during a time out in a college hoops game? Hard to believe it if it does. No less than 2-3 guys in those suits (see above # 1) , waving their arms all talking at the same time (see any family dinner scene in any Woody Allen movie) directing these blustering, bombasting ravings at five young men. Those five young man are so exhausted they can hardly sit up let alone listen to the rantings of the suits. Oh, and if they tried real hard it is doubtful they could actually hear anything anyway. But watch those coaches, every time out they go off like Indian reservation Roman candles.
5) Coaches also often spend much of the time out time talking to each other. As silly as this seems it may well be to the benefit of the players for the coaches to just stay away during these breaks.
Whatever the reason and regardless of what they are talking about, I really don't understand this either.
6) I do NOT get at all why a foul committed by an offensive player while dribbling or shooting the ball is called a "player control foul". The player who commits the foul is obviously NOT in control. So yes, the correct term would be "player OUT of control foul".
7) Why oh why do some referees put their arm around a player's waist when he is talking to the player during a break in the action? I am sure the ref is explaining some nuance of officiating but I have never watched this with any comfort. In this day and age I would think these guys would just strive to keep their hands off each other. I am sure it is a harmless gesture of respect and friendship but the two inevitably end up looking like badly mismatched prom dates. I don't get why they cant talk face to face. Hands off.
8) Male cheer leaders
9) With today's technology why do cameramen (or women) have to sit on the baseline two feet from the action putting their equipment (personal AND camera) at serious risk? EVERY single game I go to involves at least one occurrence of a 6'8" 240 pounder stumbling out of bounds under the basket jamming a camera through the eye and into the frontal lobe of the camera man. It is really surprising serious injuries don't result from these collisions on a regular basis. During the timeouts the cheer leader close ups are plenty, avoid those flying power forwards.
I guess that covers it for now. There is so much I DO get that this little stuff is really of no consequence. But after 50+ years of watching and participating in hundreds and hundreds of games it seems I should really get everything. I don't.
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