MetaFilter posts tagged with Sports

Car Washing = NCAA Violation? Asking Who Texted You Too?

theichibun — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:46:30 -0800

An unnamed West Coast Conference school has a golfer who received extra benefits. Washing her car with a hose not available to all students. And on Wednesday we learned from Portland basketball coach Eric Reveno that a WCC coach committed a violation by texting a recruit. The message? "Who is this?"

Well I walk into the room, passing out hundred dollar bills

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:09:42 -0800

When We Held Kings: The oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which an amateur named Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million and the poker boom was born.

The Best Hitter You Never Heard Of

klangklangston — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:09:00 -0800

Héctor Espino landed in Florida on Aug. 6, 1964. A helicopter reportedly flew over Jacksonville, Fla., trailing a banner with the words ESPINO HAS ARRIVED.

Cameras, Cartography and Competition

Groundhog Week — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:27:51 -0800

PITCHF/x and SportVU data analysis shows... 1. Pitch framing, once nebulously understood, can be quantifiably measured and taught. 2. The secret dead spot on the NBA floor, along with the hidden advantage of low percentage, long range shots. [Bonus Kirk Goldsberry analysis of Golden State Warriors' coach's claim that Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry are "the greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game."] Further analysis can be found by combing through the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

The Author of Pro Wrestling's Weekly Bible

The Gooch — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:21:14 -0800

Frank Deford, a 50-year veteran of Sports Illustrated, once labeled Meltzer the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism. “You could cover the Vatican or State Department,” Deford said recently, “and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling.”

For nearly 30 years, Dave Meltzer has published the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, featuring weekly behind the locker room door insight into the business of professional wrestling. How far reaching has Meltzer's impact been? In one famous incident, Hulk Hogan, frustrated by what he perceived as consistently negative coverage in the publication, burned a copy of the newsletter during a live Pay-Per-View event.

Putting big numbers in perspective

payoto — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:09:59 -0800

An LA Times infographic lets you compare any two MLB teams' salaries by position.

Looking back at Hunter S. Thompson's classic Kentucky Derby story

AceRock — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:26:19 -0800

Director's cut: "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved": An annotated look back at one of Hunter S. Thompson's greatest hits. Part of the Grantland "Director's Cut" series, in which they "look back at classic works of sports journalism and give the writers, athletes, and other figures involved in making the articles an opportunity to reflect on their work and recall some deleted scenes." Previous entries:

Down Great Purple Valleys John Lardner's 1954 True profile of legendary middleweight Stanley Ketchel. Bringing It All Back Home Tony Kornheiser's 1980 Inside Sports profile of Nolan Ryan. Silent Season of a Hero Gay Talese's 1966 Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio. The Making of a Goon Johnette Howard's 1990 piece from The National. Back in Play David Remnick's New Yorker piece on the return of Michael Jordan. How Jacksonville Earned Its Credit Card Paul Hemphill's 1970 piece on the greatest, strangest NCAA title run in history. The Man. Amen. An annotated look at Charlie Pierce's illuminating GQ piece on a 21-year-old Tiger Woods. Oh, No! Not Another Boring Interview With Steve Carlton How columnist Diane K. Shah turned the tables. The Disciples of St. Darrell on a Wild Weekend Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins's famous portrait of Texas football fandom.

Sportsfilter!

troika — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:18:39 -0800

The first round of the 2013 NFL Draft was held yesterday, leaving two of the most-talked-about players undrafted: QB Geno Smith and Linebacker Manti Te'o. The Kansas City Chiefs, with the first pick, chose OT Eric Fisher. The Buffalo Bills drafted the only QB so far, FSU's EJ Manuel, who opened up about his mother beating breast cancer. The league honored Joe Andruzzi, a former New England Patriot who carried a young woman to safety immediately following the Boston Marathon bombings, even though the Patriots traded their pick to the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions' choice, Ziggy Ansah, wore 3D glasses with the lenses popped out. Here's a whole NFL Draft fashion roundup. The Giants drafted Justin Pugh, who was watching the draft at home. The Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, and Jacksonville Jaguars debuted new uniforms (these three links via Uni-Watch, more draft uniform notes here). And here's a little something for the Jets fans.

Life is a little like lion-taming, wouldn’t you say?

eenagy — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:44:32 -0800

Joe Posnanski, 2011's National Sportswriter of the Year, has an incredible portfolio of work. He also wrote 'Paterno', and writes for Sports on Earth. Previously, we addressed our tremendous respect and adoration for renowned film critic, courageous fighter, and man-about-town Roger Ebert. Today, on Posnanski's personal blog, an incredible treat: Roger Ebert's Opening Sentences. More fantastic Posnanski here, here, here, and here.

Ronaldinho Flip Book

Rumple — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:58:01 -0800

The Best Skills of Ronaldinho: a flip book. Previously.

Real Madrid Fan's Good Luck

Ideefixe — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:57:37 -0800

Grant Wahl tells the story of a devoted fan and José Mourinho, manager of Real Madrid. Abel Rodríguez, who works for the LA Metro system, has volunteered for Real Madrid soccer practices in Los Angeles. Last February, he traveled to see the Real Madrid-Barcelona Clásico, without a hotel reservation or even a ticket. The training facility's security guard wouldn't let him in, so he sat outside for 5 hours. What happened next sounds like a fairy tale.

Tiger or Cheetah?

fairmettle — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:17:56 -0800

Controversy struck the exalted Augusta grounds of the Masters golf tournament on Friday as Tiger Woods put himself at risk of disqualification. It all began with a situation in which Woods had the extraordinarily bad luck of bouncing his ball off the flagstick on the 15th hole into the water. Instead of dropping his ball "as nearly as possible" to it's original position, Woods dropped it a couple of yards back. In an interview after the round, Woods said: "I went back to where I played it from, but I went two yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit and that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back." Woods signed his scorecard without assigning himself the two shot penalty the rules of golf require for an improper drop. The following day, the Masters Rules Committee ruled that Woods would not be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard, justifying it by using a new rule that allows tournament committees to waive rules infractions called in by TV viewers, even though the intention of that rule was to prevent disqualifications based on tiny movements of the ball or sand imperceptible to the golfer but visible on close-up HD shots. Many in the golf world were outraged at both the ruling and the fact that Woods didn't withdraw himself from the tournament. Nick Faldo suggested it would be "the manly thing to do." Observers are already arguing the pros and cons of the impact this situation will have on golf's fabled sportsmanship in which player's have traditionally called penalties on themselves. Masters founder Bobby Jones famously demonstrated his own stand on sportsmanship in the 1925 US Open: "Jones was not only a consummately skilled golfer but exemplified the principles of sportsmanship and fair play. In the first round of the 1925 U.S. Open at the Worcester Country Club near Boston, his approach shot to the 11th hole's elevated green fell short into the deep rough of the embankment. As he took his stance to pitch onto the green, the head of his club brushed the grass and caused a slight movement of the ball. [No one but Jones himself witnessed this occur.] He took the shot, then informed his playing partner Walter Hagen and the USGA official covering their match that he was calling a penalty on himself. Hagen was unable to talk him out of it, and they continued play. After the round and before he signed his scorecard, officials argued with Jones but he insisted that he had violated Rule 18, moving a ball at rest after address, and took a 77 instead of the 76 he otherwise would have carded. Jones' self-imposed one-stroke penalty eventually cost him winning the Open by a stroke in regulation, necessitating a playoff he then lost. Although praised by many sports writers for his gesture, Jones was reported to have said, 'You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.'"

Just a bunch of athletes competing for the sweetest kittens

koeselitz — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:38:13 -0800

Sports Balls Replaced With Cats.

Team Hoyt Immortalized!

zizzle — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:59:55 -0800

Team Hoyt has been honored with a bronze statue! Team Hoyt is a fixture of the Boston Marathon. For 30 years, Dick has pushed his son Rick the entire 26.2 miles. Rick has Cerebral Palsy and decided in 1977 that he wanted to participate in marathons and other sporting events around the country. And thus, Team Hoyt was born! To date, Dick and Rick have participated in over 1,000 sporting events around the country and have inspired an entire generation of people with disabilities to participate in sports. (Indeed, they have started a nonprofit dedicated to it!) Real Heroes segment from the Today Show.(Previously on Metafilter.) Team Hoyt's Iron Man video. For the 2013 Boston Marathon, Team Hoyt, a team comprising now of 30 additional charity runners, has raised over $62,000 for the The Hoyt foundation. In 1977? They had raised $5,000.

o

Fizz — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:03:44 -0800

Rutgers Fires Basketball Coach After Video Goes Public: [New York Times] Rutgers fired Mike Rice, the coach of its men’s basketball team, on Wednesday, a day after a video [ESPN] surfaced showing him berating his players during practices, throwing balls at them, kicking them and taunting them with slurs.

“The important thing,” he said, “is moving.”

Fizz — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:28:14 -0800

Becoming the All-Terrain Human: [New York Times]

"Kilian Jornet Burgada is the most dominating endurance athlete of his generation. In just eight years, Jornet has won more than 80 races, claimed some 16 titles and set at least a dozen speed records, many of them in distances that would require the rest of us to purchase an airplane ticket. He has run across entire landmasses (Corsica) and mountain ranges (the Pyrenees), nearly without pause. He regularly runs all day eating only wild berries and drinking only from streams."

So much more sense this way

Iridic — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:29:37 -0800

"Our brackets have culled out all of the superfluous information and reduced the [NCAA] tournament to what matters most: colors and logos."

Bright Futures

Artw — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:59:12 -0800

Steubenville and the misplaced sympathy for Jane Doe's rapists

Absolutely No Busts, Though

Copronymus — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:31:50 -0800

The Sporting Statues Project maintains a list of statues of sportspeople in the UK and has just added one of baseball statues in the US. Everything from 18th century strongmen and still active players to fans and little leaguers can be found in their directory. They also have some links to abstracts of papers they've presented on their research into sports statuary.

Transgender soccer player makes history

Bulgaroktonos — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 07:29:47 -0800

In November of 2011, Jaiyah Saelua, a center back for American Samoa, became the first transgendered individual to participate in a World Cup qualifier. Jaiyah is a Fa'afafine, a recognized third gender in Samoan culture that consists of individuals born biologically male but who identify as women. She helped her team, previously best known for losing 31-0 to Australia, to its first ever win.

"But they would ask you with a straight face."

Cool Papa Bell — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:46:25 -0800

It's the NFL Combine! Where NFL teams size up the year's top prospects; where sportscaster Rich Eisen runs the 40; and where at least one team wants to know, "Do you like girls?" The league says its looking into it. In case you were wondering, yes, it's illegal. But the NFL has both a collective bargaining agreement and an antitrust exemption, so don't hold your breath.

The Last Man Up

vidur — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:13:46 -0800

"Like a lot of things in Alaska, the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward is famously brutal, even dangerous. Which is precisely why Michael LeMaitre ran it--the last day he was seen alive."

starring Puck Fronger

mannequito — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:39:44 -0800

Twenty-three of hockey’s weirdest and most inappropriate fan signs

People Are Awesome 2013

quin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:03:21 -0800

Here's a compilation of video clips of people doing ridiculously amazing things. [slyt]

Soccer match-fixing probe: 680 suspicious games worldwide ...

ericb — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:21:45 -0800

"Organized crime gangs have fixed or tried to fix hundreds of soccer matches around the world in recent years, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two Champions League games, Europol announced Monday. The European Union's police agency said an 18-month review found 380 suspicious matches in Europe and another 300 questionable games outside the continent, mainly in Africa, Asia and South and Central America. It also found evidence that a Singapore-based crime syndicate was involved in some of the match-fixing."*

"This is a sad day for European football (soccer)," Europol Director Rob Wainwright told reporters. He said criminals were cashing in on soccer corruption "on a scale and in a way that threatens the very fabric of the game." Europol said 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals from at least 15 countries were involved in fixing European soccer games dating back to 2008.*