Sports On Earth

Bergs

funky and cold
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2005
21,612
I am blown away that they still don't have a "print" button on SoE. Don't these people realize that 90%* of all sports reading is done in the can at the office?


*That's using B-Ref's metric, not FanGraphs'
 

timlinin8th

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 6, 2009
1,521
I am blown away that they still don't have a "print" button on SoE. Don't these people realize that 90%* of all sports reading is done in the can at the office?


*That's using B-Ref's metric, not FanGraphs'
Isn't that what smartphones are for?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 23, 2009
20,676
Maine
I am blown away that they still don't have a "print" button on SoE. Don't these people realize that 90%* of all sports reading is done in the can at the office?


*That's using B-Ref's metric, not FanGraphs'
Printing things out is soooo 2009. As has been pointed out, most sports reading on the can these days is on some sort of mobile device, and SOE is quite mobile-friendly.
 

weeba

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
3,537
Lynn, MA
I am blown away that they still don't have a "print" button on SoE. Don't these people realize that 90%* of all sports reading is done in the can at the office?


*That's using B-Ref's metric, not FanGraphs'
Just use instapaper for your bathroom reading
 
Good article from Mike Tanier yesterday on the Raven's deep-ball passing attack: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/40971108

Speaking as someone who has only a basic understanding of defensive coverage schemes, I thought he did an excellent job explaining the different defensive gameplans by the Broncos and Patriots against the Ravens long-ball passing offense this year (and also helps to explain how Flacco was able to make what seemed at the time to be an unlimited number of short-range completions in the Week 3 game.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2008
4,263
New England
SoE recently published two outstanding Patriots-related articles.

"When Peyton Met Tom," from October. It's a story on the first Patriots-Colts game of the Brady era...

Manning was already burdened with another label, one he carried with him from college. He was the guy who “could not win the big game,” who could never beat Florida, who had already played poorly in two playoff losses in his young NFL career. The stereotype of the statistical giant with feet of clay was as much a cliché as Brady’s fiery-eyed, any-means-necessary unknown. They had always been football’s yin and yang, and always will be, and facts will never be allowed to get in the way of the enduring story.

But for a few years, Manning and Brady played their roles in the morality play perfectly, Brady nurturing the mythos of the underdog, Manning powerless against his greatest rival, Brady becoming Starr to Manning’s 1960s Unitas, Manning finally answering back with his own victories and championships. It’s a story that played across the decade and continues on Sunday, the fiery nobody now a crowned prince, the clay-footed hero now a battered legend trying to build a new legacy.

And it all started in a forgettable game on a forgettable afternoon in September of 2001.
"A Bit of Bledsoe," from Wednesday. It's an insightful piece on Bledsoe's role on -- and departure from -- the 2001 Patriots, as well as how he can "feel Alex Smith's pain:"

[Bledsoe] was afforded one more chance at redemption in New England, when Brady twisted an ankle in the AFC title game against the Steelers. Bledsoe rallied the Patriots, threw for 102 yards and the winning TD, slightly opening the door for a debate that never came. Belichick stuck with the plan and the rest was an epic for the Patriots and a quarterback now married to a supermodel and worth millions.

But that game against the Steelers, it rejuvenated Bledsoe, breathed life into him, made him understand he was simply a victim of a freaky and yes, harsh fate. He left the field in tears.

“That moment stands out for me and makes that Super Bowl ring more satisfying,” Bledsoe said. “At least I know I was on the field at a pivotal time of the season. When I had that chance to come back and play, it was an outlet for all that emotion I kept inside.”
The Powell piece is particularly well-done. It's been years since I've read Michael Holley's Patriot Reign, and I'd forgotten most most of these details. The quote I excerpted is more reflective than the real driving force of the piece (which is Bledsoe's current quotes), but I chose that excerpt because that's one of the better moments of this incredible era in New England sports.. right up there, in my opinion, with any of Vinatieri's field goals, Brady's drives, or even The Walk or The Steal. Enjoy!
 

nattysez

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 30, 2010
8,429
i hope and assume he's making significantly more money at each stop.  Otherwise, this is kind of erratic behavior.
 

JBill

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 17, 2001
2,028
Weird news. Good for Pos I guess, assuming he's making more. Really sucks for SOE, they have some good writers so I hope it doesn't fade away.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 26, 2006
14,181
I'd noticed he'd been absent the last few days after being pretty much daily for a while.
 
I can't imagine SOE wasn't capitalized enough by USA Today/MLB to have more rope than this, so it must be Pos just being lured away for a better gig/bigger payday. And it's hard to blame him for wanting to be with NBC, which is being very aggressive with its comcast stations, etc., but I really did think SOE was a terrific platform for him. Easy to find his work, seemed to have a ton of leeway to do whatever he wanted, but still fairly high-profile.
 
Who goes to the NBC Sports web site? I'm not sure I've ever been there, except for olympics coverage.
 

Dehere

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2010
3,143
Mike Tanier continues to blow me away. For me he's gone beyond being the best football writer out there. Right now he's probably the best working writer covering any one sport regularly. He seems equally comfortable writing about stats and writing like a scout and he does it with a great sense of humor. I always thought his NY Times game previews tried to hard to get the yuks. I couldn't have guessed he could be this good.

Kinda bummed about Pos because it suggests to me that SOE is in trouble and it would be a shame to see it go.
 

JimD

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2001
8,681
Joe hasn't been on SoE since the news broke but he's been writing like crazy on his personal blog, so it sure looks like he's out pending an official announcement.
 

LogansDad

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
29,053
Alamogordo
Just came in to post the Roberts story. 
 
"Flash's son, Dee, came up to me a few springs ago, and told me: 'Man I never saw my dad as nervous as he was when you were on first base in that Game 5,'" Roberts said.
The steal does not lack for recognition. It never will. Padres prospects want to hear Roberts relive the moment that unraveled Rivera. When Joe Torre saw him years later, before a Dodgers-Giants game, they winked at each other and Torre wagged his index finger at the bandit who cost him a seventh Yankees pennant. "He said 'I remember  you,'"Roberts recalled with a little laugh.
 
The last paragraph (I will let you guys read it) is why you miss having guys like Dave Roberts on your baseball team.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,533
Thank you very much for linking to this story, it was awesome.
 
Since Poz left, I haven't been hanging around SoE as much, I knew that I was missing something.
 

Leather

given himself a skunk spot
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
28,451
It's crazy; I read that story on Roberts, and I'm STILL terrified he's going to get called out.
 

bbc23

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 6, 2009
993
Will Leitch just announced that he will soon be officially joining SoE as a full-time writer.  
 

JimD

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2001
8,681
Good to hear - his writing has been really good on the site.  Glad to see that SoE seems to weathering Posnanski's departure.
 

Dehere

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2010
3,143
Wow, that is a pleasant surprise. Every time this thread gets bumped I expect to read that SOE is closing up shop. Leitch's stuff for SOE has been good, his stuff for NY Mag isn't really the best use of him, and he seems like a pretty good dude. Good news.
 

PedroKsBambino

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 17, 2003
31,187
drleather2001 said:
It's crazy; I read that story on Roberts, and I'm STILL terrified he's going to get called out.
 
You and me both---I would guess I've watched that replay or seen that still about a thousand times by now, and I worry each and every time that Joe West will Knoblauch it.
 
Of course, then I get to smile when I catch myself and realize that this one time, that is not how the story will ever end
 

PC Drunken Friar

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 12, 2003
14,540
South Boston
SoSH "sorta" makes it into a Sports on Earth article on baseball-reference.com player pages nicknames.
 
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/47136970/
 
If only for the confluence of weirdness, Lord Peaches remains my favorite (at least since my own sponsorship of Denard "no relation" Span's page lapsed -- it was $10 then, but $275 now, a testament to his success and the site's). Rising prices have cut down a bit on the number of silly sponsorships. But you still stumble on some great and odd ones out there -- all kinds of fans leaving signs and messages to each other, and to players, for all kinds of reasons. Bronson Arroyo, forinstance, does not strike me as an especially Hemingway-esque figure, yet:

 
(Baseball Reference also claims that Arroyo's nickname is "Saturn Balls." I refuse to believe anybody ever actually calls him that).
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

Guest
A nice little piece for catching up with Pedro Martinez.
 
Highlights:
- The team was taking sips of Mama Juana rum before games in the 2004 playoffs, starting with ALCS Game 4 when Ellis Burks tried some and then the team won in epic fashion.
- He is now coaching the Red Sox' young pitching talent, on a consulting basis, and is a big fan of Rubby De La Rosa
- He loves Matt Harvey, Jose Fernandez and Stephen Strasburg as young pitching talent around the league
 
Not a huge boatload of content there, but any quotes and stories from Pedro brings a smile to my face.
 

Fred in Lynn

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 3, 2013
4,905
Not Lynn (or Ocean Side)
I'm going to be the dick who mentions how much he hates when someone mentions the good ol' days when they walked to the bus stop both ways uphill, unlike in contemporary times, i.e., his reaction to the Scherzer pitch count. People tend to recall yesteryear as if it was all bunny rabbits and rainbows, and it annoys me. Other than that, nice story.
 

StupendousMan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
1,909
 From the article on Seaver:
 
 
Tom believes young pitchers today hurt their arms because they throw not too many pitches in a game, but too few. Pitchers strengthen their arms by throwing. He mentioned Joba Chamberlain and Stephen Strasburg as examples of pitchers who were babied and still hurt their arms. Who's to know why a pitcher hurts his arm? A mystery.
 
I'll second Fred in Lynn's comment here.  It's like reading an interview with a doctor who claims that the Haitians who blame UN aid workers for the cholera outbreak a few years ago are crazy, and then seeing the interviewer add his own comment, "Who's to know why people get cholera?  A mystery."
 
When an interviewer leaves his common sense behind so that he can agree with everything that his beloved subject says, the story goes south.
 

JimD

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2001
8,681
Glad to see Leigh Montville is continuing to write for the site after getting the Globe gig.  He could follow a random person walking their dog and turn out a must-read piece.
 

JimBoSox9

will you be my friend?
SoSH Member
Nov 1, 2005
16,667
Mid-surburbia
Papelbon's Poutine said:
This site has gone to absolute shit. I don't know if it can be attributed to Pos leaving or not, but the articles are awful; their facts are incorrect half the time; and their analysis is blog worthy. I would cite examples if I weren't on my phone but anyone checking there now and again probably knows what I'm talking about.
 
Meh.  It's not all bad.  Tanier and Leitch are legitimately excellent.  Dick Hayhurst has been a surprise success poking holes at MLB.  I'll even like the occasional Colin McGowan or Tomas Rios coming-down-the-mountain article such as http://therotation.sportsonearthblog.com/fifa-springs-into-action/.  They make a sincere effort to hammer away at some of the real shitty problems in the current state of sports*, and I give them real points for that.  
 
Unfortunately, that's more the signal within the noise.  The majority of their content just makes my eyes glaze over.  Other than Leitch, I don't think they have any writers capable of making me read about a subject I don't already care about.
 
 
*Side note on the linked article: With all due respect to our esteemed journalism-mafia counterparts in London, I'm not sure anyone truly wants the American press corps start to sucking from the teat of FIFA corruption.  We can be such assholes when stuff offends our propriety, and we'll cover that shit forever just to milk the ratings. 
 

riboflav

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 20, 2006
9,579
NOVA
I don't know much about soccer, but I thought this article was good at pointing out how ESPN (finally) got out of the way of their international broadcasters and allowed them more rope in analyzing the WC. And how America could use more of the kind of honest takedown that Darke and McManaman had for Brazil (think: Barkley and Bill Walton). But the author loses me when his one example of how soft American sports' broadcasters are is when they don't rip Tom Brady for all his playoff failures. You know, the guy who has been to three consecutive AFC title games with average to below average WR talent. Anyway, here it is.
 
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/84175972/world-cup-espn-television-broadcast-ian-darke#!bc6uki
 

Spacemans Bong

chapeau rose
SoSH Member
While reading that article I kept thinking about what a shame it's going to be when his golddigger wife and him go broke. He seems to be persona non grata in the game and he's got zero future in broadcasting since he can't talk. Also, it's ironic that Giambi taught him to party yet Giambi is still playing - probably because he has more sense than God gave a grasshopper.
 

Dollar

Member
SoSH Member
May 5, 2006
11,086
 
 
We went inside the mansion into a huge kitchen, which led to a living room the size of a banquet hall in Westeros. There were big flat-screen TVs, a massive bar and barbecue, an arcade room, a wrestling mat, a ping-pong table and a painting that mimicked Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" -- Damon takes the part of Christ, and his Red Sox teammates are the 12 disciples. 
 
Wow.  That almost rivals the A-Rod Centaur on the pantheon of narcissistic artwork.
 

riboflav

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 20, 2006
9,579
NOVA
Dollar said:
 
Wow.  That almost rivals the A-Rod Centaur on the pantheon of narcissistic artwork.
 
At least there's a joke behind Damon's artwork as he was referred to as JC around here based on his look. That said, the da Vinci painting is a bit much.
 

Leather

given himself a skunk spot
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
28,451
If he only had a modicum of self-awareness.

It's such a shame, because he was so fortunate to have the great career he did, but he can't quite seem to appreciate it for anything more than an excuse to party for twenty years.

It's like it all passed him by.
 

timlinin8th

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 6, 2009
1,521
riboflav said:
At least there's a joke behind Damon's artwork as he was referred to as JC around here based on his look. That said, the da Vinci painting is a bit much.
The concept has existed basically since the Sox won it: