OFFTOP 11/19 - The Hand of Fraud

 therevd wrote:
Question answered: the two who left Carpenter off were Keith Law and Will Carroll. They are both idiots, but as I surmised on the other thread, they are both swayed heavily by those new, esoteric “metrics” that the so-called experts love: WHIP, VORP, FIP, etc. They both dismiss wins as having any value (an argument I’ve heard before, but just think is plain nuts), and indicate they don’t believe Carpenter pitched enough innings because of his injury to be in the top 3. At least now we know who those idiots are, even if their explanations are pretty lame. Go Cards!

To me it was the Kobe Bryant Elbow on Mike Bibby in the 2002 NBA playoffs. The day the NBA died for me.

Seen here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6rtMtdT-rs

This came up again after the Tim Donaghy stuff

“Referees A, F and G were officiating a playoff series between Teams 5 and 6 in May of 2002. It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be ‘company men,’ always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA’s interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The referees’ favoring of Team 6 led to that team’s victory that night, and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series.”

“My first thought [upon hearing Donaghy’s allegation] was: I knew it,” Pollard said Tuesday night. “I’m not going to say there was a conspiracy. I just think something wasn’t right. It was unfair. We didn’t have a chance to win that game.”

The Lakers went on to win the 2002 NBA championship.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401

Yes, I’m still bitter.

I’m unclear on the rule, as far as whether the ref is supposed to blow the whistle if the guy offside is not the guy targeted with the pass. Either way, I remember seeing two guys behind the last defender.

However I will still go around singing “Dunne Dunne Dunne Dunne” to the tune of Indiana Jones

http://gizmodo.com/5408729/steve-jobs-responds-to-passionate-app-developer-curtly

I think I’m going to go with:

Thai Curried Noodles
Thai Cucumber Salad
Double06’s peanut sauce
Lime Chicken stir fry

Hopefully I don’t create a major public health crisis.

I ran into a guy dressed as a slice of Bacon at the Hurricane tonight, and he said that a guy named Red won one (all?) of the competitions at The Bacathlon. After a short exchange it seemed like we were talking about the same Red, bushy Red beard, semi-pro pro wrestler, huge fan of Adrian Beltre etc. But considering both of our levels of intoxication, and the fact that Fin here is/was a Bacon intern (not sure on your current state, sorry Fin), I thought I’d mention it and see if we can corroborate the story. Because if our friend won a fucking bacon eating contest….well then, that would be fucking awesome.

do I listen on the chance that he actually has put some thought into the team, free agents, recent awards?

The Source. 7.1 million Scoville Units. Seven times hotter than the hottest pepper known to man (Bhut Jolokia). Hotter than pepper spray.

and both thimes he has warned the Seattle fans that although Lackey always smacks the M’s around in Safeco, he doesn’t do that to every other team in the league….

Originally posted 08:26 AM ET 11.20
" had a neighbor that did that about 15 years ago, home schooled and spent 6 – 8 hours a day on baseball. Kid had talent, got drafted in the 3rd round. Too bad his arm was toast by the time he was 20. Never made it passed AA. Now he’s used selling cars."

i believe that is where most of them end up….the obsession with sports in this country is sickening.
                                    ———————————————-
this from someone who has signed into SI in order to comment on an MLB rumor site.

but I had no idea it was three-quarter-pounders-topped-with-12-pats-of-butter bad. Damn.

http://deadspin.com/5409200/this-is-why-anaheim-hockey-fans-cant-have-nice-things

being touted as this young exciting up and coming pitcher.

YES YES YES

he was on ESPN while I was at the gym today, wittering on about the injustice that Ireland “suffered” on Wednesday, and talking about how Henry “cheated” (instinctive action is cheating after the fact, but I doubt he even had time to think about it), how FIFA “has to” replay the game, and how one of the reasons FIFA isn’t considering replaying the game is – I can’t quote him exactly but this is as close to exact as I can remember (I was on the treadmill) – because the head of FIFA (Sepp Blatter) is French and Henry “Might have had a word with Blatter or a representative – not that I’m saying he did, mind you, but the possibility is there and it’s enough to warrant a replay”.

First of all, you moron, Blatter is Swiss. Fact-checking is fun! Secondly, when on earth would Henry have had time to talk to Blatter right after the game? Why would Henry even raise the possibility of a replay at that point? And for Smyth to go on and on about the injustice of it all – he even brought up the children! – was utterly ridiculous when you consider how many handballs have gone unpunished in the history of the game.

The other 21 players on the pitch, whether they said so or not, would have done the exact same thing that Henry did in that situation – and if they got caught they’d be OK with it, as would Henry have been.