Friday, November 25, 2011

Excerpts from the Guy Next to Me

Recently, I attended the Husky-Oregon State game.  Yes, it was a rather depressing time to be a Husky fan, but not only because we played so terribly.  It just so happens that the worst kind of fan decided to sit next to me.  While not complaining about the weather, he took time out of his busy schedule to complain about how terrible the Huskies are.  Later, he started throwing things at the polite Beaver fans sitting a row or two in front of us.  The following is a transcript, from memory, of his various comments.  For the sake of our younger readers, all expletives have been replaced with the slightly less offensive "Bobby Ayala."

"God [Bobby Ayala] it, Nick Montana sucks.  It's an embarassment, why do we even keep him on the [Bobby Ayala] team?" (Editor's Note: This was at about the 3rd play of the game.)

"Nick Holt is such a piece of [Bobby Ayala], fire his [Bobby Ayala]!  If they don't fire him right now, the whole athletic department should get [Bobby Ayala] fired."

"Come on 31, you're so [Bobby Ayala] bad.  It's Nick Holt's kid, what a [Bobby Ayala] disgrace.  Look, where's 31?  Didn't make the play again!  He's [Bobby Ayala] worthless!" (Editor's Note: Cort Dennison is not Nick Holt's son, nor is he expected to make the tackle on 30 yard pass plays.)

"Hey! [Bobby Ayala] you, [Bobby Ayala] the Beavers, you [Bobby Ayala] are a disgrace! (Throws cup at friendly OSU fans in front of us who haven't said a word despite a 20 point lead) [Bobby Ayala] you!"

"This weather is [Bobby Ayala] terrible, [Bobby Ayala] this the game is almost over let's leave.  [Bobby Ayala] Nick Holt." (Editor's Note:  This was with about 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, when it wasn't raining at all.)

In short, I love the Huskies but great googily moogily, people like this make me not want to.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Seahawks are Their Own Worst Enemy

Open your eyes! that was clearing illegal contact, not pass interference!

The Seahawks season has been turbulent and unpredictable so far. Going into each week we never know how the team will play or what the outcome will be. They have lost games they were supposed to lose (Steelers), won games they were supposed to lose (Giants). The Seahawks have been close against teams only to lose at the end (Falcons) and pulled away early and cruised to a win (Rams). Basically they have been a very inconsistent team. However, the one place the Seahawks do have consistency is in their ability to hurt themselves with penalties.

You know how it appears that the Seahawks have an important drive stalled because they end up facing a 3rd and 30 caused by penalties in every game? Well it isn’t your imagination, they do. Throughout the season the Seahawks have been their own worst enemies, as they consistently find ways to hinder themselves through untimely and stupid penalties. Table 1 shows the total number of penalties the Seahawks have committed and the total numbers of yards surrendered because of penalties in each of their 10 games. With 96, they rank second in the league in total penalties (It should also be noted that only counts accepted penalties.) Only the Oakland Raiders have more penalties, coming in with 103 (I know it is probably just coincidence, but the Oakland Raiders old head coach Tom Cable is now the Seahawks Assistant Head Coach.) That is 96 times that the Seahawks have given the other team free yards or taken away yards from themselves. To put it another way that is 96 times that Seahawks have essentially done the other team’s job for them. So, why is there such a penalty problem?

The first and most obvious reason is probably directly related to Coach Carroll. The style of play that he preaches to his players is a fast paced athlete driven one. He wants his players to run around the field and use their speed, strength and general athleticism to make plays rather than on a complicated system or play package. He is not there to out coach the other team with strategy. To steal a cliché, he likes to let the players play. This style of play also leads to more penalties as guys rely more on muscle and adrenaline than hours of study and practice. Watching the Seahawks you can tell that lots of their penalties are caused by this hyped up athletic playing style. They struggle with personal fouls, pass interferences and illegal contact penalties, which can all be attributed to aggressive and athletic free flowing style of play. With big physical corners, the secondary has been especially suseptible to this kind of penalty.


The Head Coach also attributes to the penalty problem with his general demeanor. NFL analysts always say that coach’s hate penalties more than anything, especially stupid penalties like false starts and delay of games. Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll is different. In week 10 the Seahawks penalty problem was especially visible as they committed 13 penalties for 100yd and barely hung on to beat the Ravens. During his post-game press conference Carroll had this to say, “[Penalties] could have lost us the football game today, but it didn’t.” Hearing it live you could tell he was irked but not as upset as many coaches. This is a similar theme at all his press conference when penalties come up. You can tell that he is clearly frustrated with the lack of discipline on his team, but it is more of a secondary issue. From the outside looking in it appears Pete Carroll just doesn’t put the kind of emphasis on minimizing penalties that other coaches do.

The final reason I see for the Seahawks penalty problem is their general lack of experience. It has been widely noted that the Seahawks area very young team. According to the CBS broadcast last week the Seahawks are the second youngest team in the NFL. Prior to recent injuries, the Seahawks offensive line exhibited this youth and lack of experience more than any other group of the roster. Their five starters were included two rookies, a second year player and third year player and Robert Gallery. This youth has led to lots of growing pains. As they learn about the NFL style of play, the O-line has been struggling with false starts and holding penalties.

The first two reasons for the Seahawks large amount of penalties are built right into the design and build of the team. Pete Carroll wants a fast, strong athlete based team, which is going to increase penalties, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Additionally, Pete Carroll doesn’t appear to put an emphasis on decreasing penalties like other NFL coaches. Neither of these is likely change. The third reason should get better as our players age and gain experience. However, the Seahawks front office has made it their goal to keep a young team, so we should always have some problems with inexperience. As long as Pete Carroll and his staff stay in charge of the Seahawks we should expect to see the Seahawks get flagged for a higher amount of penalties than the league average. As fans we are just going to have to get used to it.


Sources: Yahoo Sports

Thursday, November 17, 2011

2011 MLB Season Recap

Way back in March we made some predictions about the MLB's five best and five worst teams for the upcoming season. Now, another MLB season is in the books and the World Champions have been crowned. However, between our preseason predictions and the final out in October a lot of baseball happened.

Despite his teams overall lack of success, LA Dodgers CF Matt Kemp made a serious push for the NL triple crown. He finished the year in third for batting average (.324), first in HR (39) and first in RBI (126). This was all good for a wRC+ of 171. Surprisingly, Kemp's awesome season wasn't even the best in the league. He finished second in the NL and fourth in baseball. The most impressive offensive season belonged to Jose Bautista who finished the year with a wRC+ of 181. His season would have been even greater had he not cooled off in the last two months and batted only .260 with 12 HR. You will notice that neither Kemp (NL HR leader) nor Bautista (AL HR leader) managed to hit 50+ HR. Their seasons helped to prove that the steroid era has officially come to an end.

On the other side of the game, pitchers continued to dominate. In the off season the Phillies set up one of the best rotation in the history of baseball by adding Cliff Lee to the existing rotation of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and a fifth starter. This dream rotation didn't disappoint. The Phillies starter's had a 2.86 ERA and 932 Ks. Even with the Phillies awesome starters they didn’t have the best individual performances. Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw led the charge, as each won their respective leagues pitching triple crown. At only 23 Kershaw had probably the best season in the bigs and added his name to a growing list of young aces.

Probably the most exciting moment of the season happened on the last day when there were four teams (Red Sox, Rays, Cardinal and Braves) that had to win on the 162nd day to make it into the playoffs. The Red Sox (a pre-season favorite) and the Braves lost on this final day showdown finishing epic collapses and letting the Rays and Cardinals into the playoff. After earning there unlikely playoff berth , the Cardinals bested all comers in the MLB playoffs and took home their 11th World Series Title. So, before the off season free agent frenzy and front office shakeups kick into full gear lets take a look at the USTN preseason predictions and see how we did.

Table 1 shows our predictions for the five best teams and who the actual five best teams were. We managed to get 3 out of the five teams correct. The Rangers, Yankees and Phillies all dominate the league as we predicted. The Yankees and Rangers with their bats and the Phillies with their arms. If it hadn't been for a final month meltdown by the Red Sox we would have gotten a fourth team correct, but as we all learn the BoSox just love fried chicken and beer too much. Really, just our prediction of the White Sox sticks out as bad. However, if you read the pre-season post you will see that they were a kind of throw in. We really only picked them because we need a fifth team. This isnt a great excuse, but I still think it is a valid one.

 Table 2 shows our predictions for the five worst teams and who the actual five worst teams were. Overall we did a pretty crumby job on this one, missing on three of the five picks. We only managed to get the Mariners and the Royals right. Royals just barely squeaked in as they finished in a three way tie for fifth worst. Luckily the Mariners easily met our expectations. The biggest glaring mistake of all the preseason predictions was the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only did they finish out of the bottom five but they actually finished the season in the five best. I suppose I should have known that bullpens are very volatile and that they couldn’t be as terrible as they were in 2010. However, as far as I am concerned this one really came out of nowhere.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Why I Hate You: A Simple Guide

No one likes Nickelback.  More specifically, no one with a soul likes Nickelback.  They can't even spell nickle correctly.  They embody everything douchey in the world really, and everybody knows it.  However, when you stop and think about it, it's often hard to think of just WHY you hate them, or really anything else.  I mean, why are such things as greasy long hair douchey?  The same applies to sports: how can one be sure they hate any specific team?  While I certainly can't give you a reason for all your unfounded hatred, let me at least try.  Because without hatred, what is sports other than a fun past time that doesn't cause health problems?