Sports
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Chicagoland, Sports And the Least Valuable Player Award Goes To...
Posted by Whet Moser on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:19 PM
If you're a Cubs fan, you probably don't even have to click on this. But the breakdown is pretty interesting.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Chicagoland, Sports Lies, Damned Lies, and Night-Game Statistics
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Honestly, I didn't wake up this morning expecting to spend the day sort-of defending Jay Cutler, but justice demands it. David Haugh:
Between now and the evening kickoff Nov. 22 against the Eagles, can the Park District petition to close Soldier Field after dark so the game can be played at noon? We can call it the Cutler Decree.He is worse at night than a solar watch.
This was mentioned last night during the game or in the aftermath. So I checked his career split stats for day/night QB rating:
09: 80.8/59.9
08: 83.0/103.3
07: 81.9/105.3
06: 93.2/62.3
Career: 83.2/90.5
The problem, clearly, is not that he's bad at night, but that he's bad at night in years divisible by three.
Worth a read: the S-T's Brad Biggs does a fair pick-by-pick analysis of Cutler's very bad night.
Update: Rick Morrissey, in an otherwise reasonable article:
If somebody can explain why he plays poorly in night games, the Bears would love to hear from you. From his four-interception game in Green Bay to his two-interception struggles in Atlanta to Thursday's head scratcher, the guy seems to have an aversion to the darkness. I say this because he has taken to wearing a garland of garlic around his neck.
CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION. I AM GETTING THAT TATTOOED TO MY FOREHEAD.
Chicagoland, Sports In Limited Defense of Jay Cutler
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Football is a ridiculously complicated sport, so when I see a pile-on I try to look for contrary evidence. Here are a couple things about last night.
1. Bears net yards rushing = 43. Bears penalty yards = 75.
2. Cutler threw fifty-two times in a 10-6 game.
3. Football Outsiders, part of the Baseball Prospectus family of stat geeks, has compelling offensive line statistics that suggest the Bears' O-line is below average - whereas Denver's, where Kyle Orton is having a better season than Cutler, is well above average. From my limited observation, it seems like Chicago's left side is particularly weak.
4. If you look at the Football Outsiders stats above, you'll find that Chicago is next-to-last in the NFL in carries (Denver is 10th), which puts a ton of pressure on Cutler. The team with the least carries is Philadelphia; they're much more efficient when they do run. According to the FO stats, Matt Forte is the lowest-ranked definite #1 starting back in the NFL.
So there's a lot broken about this team. Cutler isn't playing well most of the time, obviously, but the other problems make the Bears heavily reliant on him even when he's not playing well.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Chicagoland, Sports This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice
Posted by Whet Moser on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:22 AM
To: Cubs fans, Chicago media
From: A fan of your more sensible Central Division rivals
I realize that the departure of Sammy Sosa was acrimonious, but: YOU MUST CHILL. I HAVE HIDDEN YOUR KEYS.
And while I also realize that Sosa may have looked somewhat odd at a recent social function, and that journalism is expected to, for better or worse, enforce certain social norms by discouraging famous people from violating a (floating) limit of oddness - as a proxy for the behavior of the rest of society - but this continued judgmental obsession with the behavior of a former and formerly beloved employee of the Chicago Cubs is: also extremely unsettling.
You are collectively being the person who is Googling his or her ex years later to see if he or she is doing worse than you, and you need to collectively go to a bar or get a hobby because you are collectively bumming your friends out.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Media, Sports, News Bites If the Shoe Fits Michael Jordan's Son Marcus . . .
Posted by Michael Miner on Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 11:58 AM
The Tribune’s David Haugh tried to do the impossible Saturday. He wrote a column invoking the old-fashioned values to explain why Marcus Jordan needs to knuckle under and wear Adidas sneakers on the basketball court of the University of Central Florida. Basketball, Haugh reminds us, is a “team sport based on unselfishness and sacrifice.” Jordan is challenging the “oldest rule in sports. What the coach says goes for everybody every time.” Haugh is bewildered. “How can the son of the man widely considered the best player ever in a team sport defy such a fundamental team concept?”
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Chicagoland, Sports This week in karma
Posted by Whet Moser on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 6:15 PM
I think it's both just and hilarious that NFL owners think that Rush Limbaugh is too much of an asshole to share their elite club with, say, Dan Snyder. Not everyone agrees. Carol Slezak:
"I happen to believe that pro sports are a bottom-line business. If Limbaugh wanted to buy the company you worked for, you'd be hard-pressed to stop him. The NFL might be more high-profile than most industries, but the same basic rules should apply. You might not like Limbaugh — does anyone like Limbaugh? — but that's not the point. A lot of people don't like Vick, either, but he's back in the league."
Here's the kicker:
"Limbaugh might be a joke, but there's no NFL rule forbidding clowns from owning a team."
Argh. Not exactly true: "Prospective owners must be approved by 24 of the league's 32 teams." This does not prohibit clowns from being team owners, naturally. But it does cause problems for people who say things like "the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons."
Anyone who's followed the No Fun League should be fully aware that it's a rich, powerful media company that's obsessive to a fault about public relations, so the idea that a bottom-line business would be wary of Rush is neither surprising, unnatural, or bad for the bottom line.
Film, Sports The Athlete
Posted by Ed M. Koziarski on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:18 PM
- "The Athlete"
When barefoot Ethiopian runner Adebe Bikila won the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics, he became the first black African Olympic gold medal winner in history. A car crash during a 1969 student protest in Addis Ababa left Bikila quadriplegic, but he continued competing in archery and dog sledding after his injury.
Filmmaker Rasselas Lakew, who came to the US from Ethiopia on a tennis scholarship, plays Bikila in the biopic The Athlete. The film, which Lakew codirected with Davey Frankel, screens Tuesday 10/13 and Saturday 10/17 in the 45th Chicago International Film Festival.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Chicagoland, Sports And la la la la la la la la means I love you
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Pat Ryan's 2016 post-mortem: We lost because everyone liked our bid so much.
And just because:
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Chicagoland, Media, Sports Don't let the door hit you on the way out
Posted by Whet Moser on Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 2:33 PM
Phil Rosenthal: "The U.S. Olympic Committee is like the guy at the end of bar whose counter-argument to being called an angry drunk is always to start throwing punches."
Monday, October 5, 2009
Chicagoland, Media, Politics, Sports Moar 2016 post-mortem
Posted by Whet Moser on Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Below the fold, because we've all had a lot.
