a roof overhead

This past weekend, the Madison Mallards, a baseball team consisting of college athletes, revealed what their new stadium will look like.  The stadium is in the same location, will be called the same (Warner Park), but since it is a smaller venue, they were basically able to redo the whole thing in one offseason.

The new stadium will have a concourse where people can walk without disturbing other fans, stadium seating, and a roof.  A roof?  No, not the roof you might see at a major league baseball stadium.  This is just a small roof to cover about 25% of the seats, giving those fans relief from the sun and potential summertime rains.

the roof behind home plate

Many major league teams now have stadiums with retractable roofs.  Retractable roofs have the ability to be either open or closed, depending on the weather conditions.  A roof is valuable because it can guarantee a game will be played rain or shine.  If it's raining, just close the roof.  They do that at Seattle's Safeco Field.  Since the Seattle market covers such a large area, it helps you sell tickets to a Seattle baseball game to someone from Montana, because that person can drive to Seattle knowing they will see a game.

I'm not sure having a roof behind home plate at Warner Park in Madison, WI will make much of a difference.

Safeco Field in Seattle (at bottom)

off my webpage

To my regular readers, you've noticed there weren't any posts for the week of Feb 21 - 25.  That was due to a glitch in service from our internet service provider.

So in thinking about professional athletes and their internet sites, I was thinking about last week's Daytona 500 race winner, Trevor Bayne, and his website.  When Bayne, who is 20, won the race, people wanted to find out more about him.  When they went to his website, they found the message "Full Site Coming Soon."  They had obviously not expected Bayne to win anything this year.  Even a week after the race, we still get the same message.

Bayne's webpage still has no links

Perhaps Bayne's internet hosting provider was TDS.

This might be the glory with Facebook and Twitter, in that athletes could in very little time set up a fan club.  Since being such a small name in the world of racing prior to last Sunday, Bayne's Facebook has over 10,000 "likes," meaning fans are find their way to his page.  His Twitter page has over 37,000 followers.  Maybe he really doesn't need to get that webpage done.

rivalries

This blog is based in the midwest, where some of the best sports rivalries are football's Green Bay/Chicago rivalry and the Green Bay/Minnesota rivalry.....and probably baseball's Chicago Cubs/St. Louis Cardinals rivalry, as mentioned in the blog about Albert Pujols a few days back.

However, it could be argued that in those rivalries, there is a sense of respect for the opponent.  In college football Southeast Conference (SEC), the rivalries go far beyond.

Whenever SEC football's Auburn Tigers team wins a big game, fans celebrate by throwing toilet paper into the oak trees at Toomer's Corner.  This is a long standing tradition.

the toilet papered tree after an Auburn football victory

Recently it was noted that the health of the trees is not doing so well.  During a call in radio show, an apparent Alabama Crimson Tide football fan claimed to have poisoned the 130-year old trees with something called Spike 80DF.  The trees are likely to not survive the poisoning, and yes, the man has been arrested.

In college football, the biggest rivalry is the Alabama/Auburn rivalry because of the close proximity (2 hours), and that each team has won a national title recently.  Alabama won theirs in 2010, while Auburn just won their's in January.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban is due to receive a statue in his honor prior to the start of this year's intrasquad spring football game on April 17.  It is likely this statue will be an ongoing target of retribution over the poisoning of the Toomer Oaks at Auburn.

get well car at the base of the Toomer Oaks

being the topper

Baseball player Albert Pujols is attempting to become the highest paid player in baseball history.  With one year remaining on his contract, his agent has demanded a 10-year $300M contract.  Pujols, who has one more year remaining on his contract, wants this contract by noon on Wednesday, or he will take the risk of playing out the season and become a free agent at the end of the year, possibly signing with the hated Chicago Cubs.  This makes St. Louis all the more nervous.

St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman Albert Pujols

The contract Pujols wants would become the largest in Major League Baseball history, eclipsing the New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez' 10-year, $275M contract.

As time goes on in baseball, it seems like every player that comes along needs to top the highest contract, and it becomes a giant game of leapfrog.  Today the game of leapfrog has arrived at 10-years and $300M.

When Alex Rodriguez was looking to become a free agent at the end of 2007, the joke was that a team such as the Pittsburgh Pirates may just give him their franchise, in lieu of signing him to a contract.  The value of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010 was $289M, maybe at the end of this season, Albert can be the player/owner of that team..

how to be number 1

This past weekend, the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team was upset by the Wisconsin Badgers 71-67 in Madison.  The fans stormed the court afterwards to celebrate.  It was a big deal because Ohio State had been the #1 rated team by the Associated Press (AP).  The last time Wisconsin beat a #1 ranked team in men's basketball was in 1962

The AP rankings come out weekly.  The new poll will come out on Monday afternoon.

The top 10 teams for the week of Feb 7

Since Kansas was the #2 ranked team this week, and did not lose either of their games the preceding week, they are likely to be rated #1 for the week of February 14.

But you may want to know, how is the ranking compiled?

The rankings are the result of a poll taken by 65 sportswriters across the country.  Each of these writers submits their Top 25 to the AP.  They give 25 points to their top rated team, 24 points to their 2nd rated team, 23 to the 3rd rated team, and onward until they have ranked their Top 25.

As you can see in the February 7 rankings above, Ohio State had received all 65 first place votes, for a grand total of 1,625 points (65 x 25).

With Ohio State losing, it is likely that Kansas will have the most points, and will be ranked #1 for this week's AP poll.

the three-pointer

On Thursday night, Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics became the all-time record holder for most three-point shots made in the National Basketball Association.

Ray Allen's record is 2,561 three-pointers made (and counting) has come since turning pro in 1996.  For the simple math, Allen has accounted for 7,683 points on three point shots alone (Allen has over 20,000 points scored for his NBA career).

The great part about having a terrific outside shooter such as Ray Allen on your team, is that when Allen is making that long outside shot, someone has to go out and defend it.  When the defense needs to play way out on the perimeter, it can make it easier for Ray's teammates who play closer to the basket to score since they don't need to worry about defenses collapsing on them.  If defenders are out 24 feet away from the basket, it makes it tough for them to simultaneously help in a double team closer to the basket.

winning on the road

All basketball courts of an NBA arena are the same.  The hoops are 10' high, the free throw lines are 15' from the backboard, the three-point distance is the same, as well as the length of the court being 94'.

On Wednesday night, the Washington Wizards basketball team defeated the Milwaukee Bucks to improve their record to 14 wins and 37 losses on the season.  On their home court, the Wizards have 14 wins and 12 losses.  Their record away from their home court is 0 wins and 25 losses.  How can this be?

No doubt, the Wizards are not a very good team, but certainly good enough to have at least won a single road game. Some factors working against the Wizards is that they are a young team that doesn't handle a hostile road crowd well.  They may also be less experienced in close games on the road, meaning instead of eeking out road wins, they end up losing.  There may also be differences with the arenas.  The Wizards are certainly good enough at home, but aren't comfortable shooting a basketball at the various road arenas.  You could also make the case that when you play at home, you are living at your real home and can come to the game well rested, instead of a road game when you have more distractions when travelling or living out of a hotel.

On February 13th, the Wizards who have not won a road game this year will face the Cleveland Cavaliers who have currently lost 25 games in a row.  On Sunday, fortunately one team will win.

how many people watched

Before this blog steers into the direction of basketball and baseball for the next few months, I want to visit the topic of the estimated number of people who watched Super Bowl 45.

Nielsen estimates that 111 million people watched the Super Bowl.  It was the most watched TV program ever.  In the US, a country of 300 million plus people, that number just doesn't seem right.

In thinking about writing this blog today, ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd completely had my thoughts in mind in doubting that 111 million number.

Here are the basics about the Nielsen ratings

1. The ratings don't count children under the age of 18  (this dismisses 75 million people from the rating)
2. The ratings don't count people at bars, casinos, or restaurants (Cowherd estimates 25 million watched at one of these three)
3. The ratings only count one person per house.  If you have a family of four, they only count 1 for the television that was on.

Now if you could include the people omitted on that list, you can see that there are way more than 111 million who watched the game.

the big game and the super bowl

Do you ever wonder why some commercials refer to Sunday's football game as the "big game" and some commercials refer to it as the "Super Bowl?"

as you can see above, Best Buy is not an "official" NFL sponsor

It all comes down to money, and who pays to be an "official" sponsor of the NFL.  You'll see plenty of beer commercials for the football game on Sunday, but only Anheuser-Busch, which is paying the NFL $1.2B over the next 6 years to be the official sponsor can utter the phrase "Super Bowl" in their advertisements.  By being an official sponsor, Anheuser-Busch (think Budweiser and Bud Light) can also use NFL images and trademarks that other companies that can't.

Here are some official sponsors:

Pizza - Papa John's
Soda - Pepsi
Shipper - FedEx
Bank - Bank of America
Wireless Provider - Sprint
Credit Card - Visa

As you can see, the list can go on and on.....

the cold weather and future super bowls

The cold weather that much of the country is facing will not affect Super Bowl 45, as Cowboys Stadium is an indoor stadium.  However, it is causing some logistical problems as the airport was briefly shut down on Tuesday and a city like Dallas doesn't have equipment to deal with icy roads (I also heard that the rental cars didn't have ice scrapers).

The reason I am writing about cold weather is because the NFL is in a game where they are trying to get owners to build new stadiums to increase revenues for each individual team.  If a new stadium is built, there is an increased chance that city may host a Super Bowl.  The next two Super Bowls are in cold weather cities.  Next year's game be in a dome, Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Field, a new stadium completed in 2008.

However, in two years, the Super Bowl will be held at a new outdoor field used jointly by the New York Jets and New York Giants.  This was a controversial decision when the Super Bowl was granted to New York because it will be an outdoor football game where the elements could play a significant factor in the outcome.  If the game is a success, we may see more colder weather sites hosting the Super Bowl.

an image of the new New York stadium at left (old stadium at right)

Historically, cities such as Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, and Los Angeles have hosted many Super Bowls.