The New Year brings with it a bevy of resolutions, crippling cold, I guess, and most importantly, to your resident college basketball guru, the advent of conference play. Most major and mid-major conferences play only intra-league games from now until March. Plenty of time still exists for teams to play themselves into or out of the tournament, but at this milestone, let us break down the biggest winners and losers of the non-conference season.
The doors have opened.
Yesterday afternoon, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first quartet to be voted in by the writers since 1955. I’ve written a lot about what I thought would happen (and would like to think that I called this one), and I now have thoughts on what actually happened, and what it means for the future going forward.
The Winter Classic kicked off the 2015 half of the NHL season. We’ve seen a few surprises in 2014 — the Sabres aren’t in the bottom two, the Flames are currently a playoff team, and the mumps can’t stop the Ducks — and now we look into the new year.
How will the playoff spots shakeout by the time the season ends? Here’s one set of possibilities, from an inexpert prognosticator (i.e., me). [Read more…]
Courtesy of wikipedia.org
All righty. So – I’ve broken down the Holdovers on the Hall of Fame Ballot. I’ve broken down the Newcomers. I’ve debated which ones I think are Hall of Famers, which are getting in, and which are deserving. By my count, of the 34 names on the ballot, there’s about seventeen or so names of players who deserve to hear their name called on Election Day. I’ve gone into detail about the worthiness of the cases of each player, and now it’s time to reveal whom I believe is getting in, as well as which of the players I voted for the IBWAA “symbolic” Hall of Fame vote.
But first, let’s talk about some of the early results we’re seeing, as they are quite interesting…
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…because we come here to finish a college football season that I have fucking hated. But it’s time for the best teams in the country to face off to ring in 2015, so here we are again. I’m happy to join all of you again, but my brain is mainly occupied with the news that IT’S HAPPENING.
YASSSSS!
The time of election is drawing nearer, and baseball junkies are growing nuts with anticipation. What presents will Santa Selig leave under the tree for us on his way out the –
You know what? I can’t continue that metaphor. The visual image is just too…I can’t guys. I’m sorry I brought it up.
Happy Holidays!
I’ve been really busy this season, so I still haven’t finished my Christmas shopping. I have no idea to get folks on my list. I started looking yesterday afternoon, and it is an utterly daunting task. Totally unrelated, I’ve been making a list of things I could get various NHL teams, if I had unlimited resources. As I run around looking for last-minute gifts for real people, I’d like to share with you the fake gifts I would give to these teams.
“A Stanley Cup, eh? Ho ho ho! Don’t you think you need some better Fenwick numbers before Santa tries to get you past the Blackhawks?”
Everything we have ever done or will do, we are going to do over and over and over again. One might say that a puck is like a flat circle…
Okay, technically a puck has height, so it’s not actually flat, but the point is that this week has seen a lot of recurring events in the NHL. Break out the Lone Star beer and let’s talk about eternal recurrence… on the ice.
It was all the same dream. A dream that you had inside a locked box. A dream about being the first star. And like a lot of dreams there’s Pierre McGuire at the end of it.
Last year’s Hall of Fame class.
It’s time for that annual holiday tradition wherein I take 34 famous baseball players and analyze their careers and chances at enshrinement them for your observing pleasure. (Down from 36 last year – that’s what happens when players actually get voted in, you see…) Once again, there’s a multitude of interesting discussions, a few near certainties (more on them in Part II), and several candidates who will most likely get their ray of sunshine through simply being on the ballot before falling off and into obscurity/trivia answers. (Did you know that somebody actually voted for Jacque Jones last year?)
The NHL season is one-third over, and after the twists and turns, we still have a few surprises sticking around. One thing that isn’t a surprise, though? The Blackhawks are again looking like a Stanley Cup finalist.
Hooray!
Since we last looked at the ‘Hawks, they’ve put up another flawless week, winning three of three games. One against a solid Eastern team (Montreal), one against a dangerous Western team (Nashville), and one against their archenemy (rookie goaltenders, in the form of New Jersey’s Keith Kincaid). [Read more…]