the new modern media

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher John Axford blew a 3 run lead on Thursday afternoon and allowed the Cincinnati Reds to come back and win their opening day baseball game against Milwaukee.

Axford has become a very public person over this past offseason.  In part of a marketing move, and perhaps it is  John's personality, he has become a must "follow" for Brewers fans on Twitter.

In starting his season with a disappointing loss, I was wondering if John would say something on Twitter tonight, or if he would recuse himself and focus solely on the baseball season.

It looks like I have my answer....

Twitter is an incredible new forum for player and fan interaction.  I am happy that Axford actually sent out a message to his fans tonight.  It doesn't take much to say something out loud when things are going well, but definitely takes more guts to say something when things don't go as planned.

17 minutes times 162 games = thank you

Many people, myself included, are really excited for another 7 months of Major League Baseball starting on Thursday afternoon.  All teams with a 0-0 record, and all having dreams of winning the World Series, no matter how silly that may sound.

Then sometime during that first week, you realize following your favorite team becomes a huge time commitment.

good seats aren't enough to keep this fan's attention

Recently perusing the pages of ESPN Magazine, I came across something that I knew they were working on, but didn't realize they'd actually approved for the game.  College baseball now has a pitch clock.  The college rule is that the pitcher must throw the ball within 20 seconds of receiving it when no one is on base.  In games this year, that rule, combined with a rule about less potent aluminum bats, has trimmed 17 minutes off of college baseball games.  

For baseball fans who work a standard shift of 8AM to 5PM, this development is a huge deal.  Granted, it isn't in the Major Leagues yet, but whenever a game is going after 10:30PM, you have a choice.  You are either going to turn the game off, or decide to stay up and go to work the next day with a large cup of coffee.  

Imagine Major League Baseball adopting a similar rule.  You'd have a baseball game with roughly the time commitment of a long basketball game.  You might even see increased attendance and viewership among fans and casual fans.

The answer to 17 minutes times 162 games is about 46 hours saved.

why no one might win the NCAA Final Four

So we have our Final Four set for Saturday evening.

Butler will play Virginia Commonwealth in the first game.  Connecticut (UConn) will face off against Kentucky following that first game.

So how could no team win this Final Four?  Sometimes scandals follow particular coaches wherever they coach.  Kentucky head coach John Calipari is one of the best coaches around.  He's been to two Final Fours, and somehow, impossibly he has a 0-0 career record in those Final Fours.  You got it, look it up in Wikipedia and other sources.  Those appearances in the Final Four were vacated by the NCAA due to improprieties that occurred under Calipari's watch.  In other words, the games may have occurred, but no one recognizes that they happened.

Kentucky coach John Calipari

Meanwhile, UConn coach Jim Calhoun is ready to start serving a 3-game suspension at the start of next season for giving improper benefits to a recruit.

You never know what the NCAA could dig up on these schools a few years from now, meaning if either UConn or Kentucky wins this whole thing, we might have a record book that looks like this:

NCAA Men's Basketball Champions
.....
2008.  Kansas
2009.  North Carolina
2010.  Duke
2011. (vacated)

starting a new season

One thing that might catch the casual sports fan off guard is the arrival of the baseball season later this week on March 31.  I can't ever remember a season starting for most teams prior to April 1.

With three rounds of playoffs looming in the postseason, my thought is that Major League Baseball wants to avoid the embarrassment of having its games played after Halloween, when the weather could play a big factor.

However, to avoid November baseball, the season has to start earlier.  Early on, the schedule makers do their best to make sure games are played either at an indoor stadium, or in the south.  One can only imagine what a game at Minnesota's Target Field on Thursday and Friday would feel like.

weather forecast for the Twin Cities

Luckily for the Twins, they will be on a road trip to the SkyDome in Toronto and to New York City before they have to play their first game at Target Field on April 8.

adding it up

They say you can judge the strength of the Final Four by adding up the seeds.

This year, we have a #11 seed Virginia Commonwealth, an #8 seed in Butler, a #4 with Kentucky and a #3 seed belonging to UConn.  This adds up to a 26, which is the highest sum I can remember in quite some time.

In 2008, all #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four, which netted the lowest possible sum of 4.

This year is the complete opposite.  Even crazier is when after the NCAA committee originally selected Virginia Commonwealth to participate in the tournament, analyst Jay Bilas claimed that he wondered  "if some people on the committee know whether the ball is round." 

Virginia Commonwealth is considered to have been the last selection of the original 68-team field, and now they're in the Final Four.

Virginia Commonwealth's Jamie Skeen drives past a Kansas defender

Adding up the seeds doesn't necessarily mean that this year's Final Four is weak, but it just means some very unpredictable things have happened for a few weeks.

why do the last 2 minutes of a basketball game seem to take forever?

While watching the BYU-Florida game tonight, it reminded me how good basketball can be, but sometimes how painful it can be.

The end of the 2nd half of the game had great drama as the teams were tied at 68.  Each possession was meaningful and could change the result of the game.  The game ended up in a tie at the end of regulation.

BYU and Florida duke it out on Thursday

Overtime went Florida's way right from the get-go.  The overtime period is 5 minutes long, and about half way through, BYU needed a miracle, and turned to one of the oldest strategies in the book.  BYU started fouling the Florida players.  The hope was that Florida would start missing free throws and that BYU would start making the 3-point shots that would quickly close the deficit.  This strategy didn't work as Florida made free throws and BYU missed their shots or turned the ball over.  When BYU fell behind by 10 points in overtime, they finally threw in the towel and let the game clock expire.

In the end, the BYU fouling strategy probably added only 5 more minutes to the time of the game, but it always feels much longer to the casual fan who just wants the next game to start.

what will you be doing in the year 2022?

If you are Brad Stevens, the men's basketball coach at Butler University, you still would have your job.  Last year, Stevens signed a 12-year deal to stay as coach of Butler.  Stevens is 34 years old.

Butler Bulldogs coach Brad Stevens

This is a classic case of a university seeing a young coach, and wanting to lock him up to an incredibly long-term deal.  Butler certainly doesn't have the history of a great basketball team like Kentucky or Kansas, but with Stevens at the helm, they have a shot at a long run.  Duke was not very good until Mike Krzyzewski came along in 1980.  Now Krzyzewski is still the coach of Duke, and is on the verge of being the all-time winningest coach in men's basketball.

No doubt, if a good job comes up, Stevens probably has an out clause in his contract should he ever want to leave Butler.

The Stevens deal, while being very long, is not even half as long as the deal basketballer Magic Johnson signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984.  That deal was a 25-year contract.  Johnson retired from basketball in 1991.

why baseball players are against safety

Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has something that he wants for every major leaguer.  He wants them to be safe.

Morneau has not played in a baseball game since July 2010, after he took a knee to the head trying to break up a double play.  Morneau has also had multiple concussions as a result of being hit by pitches.  This spring, Morneau has become an advocate for a helmet called the Rawlings S100.  The S100 standing for the speed at which this helmet can give protection for (100 miles per hour).  The standard helmet that is being used by players today is rated to protect players at 70 miles per hour.  The new helmet may have also helped when Morneau took that knee to the head.

Most players have resisted this change because it isn't comfortable, it's too bulky, they might look like clowns, and they're just scared they won't be the same player with new equipment.

New York Mets 3rd baseman David Wright trying out the Rawlings S100 helmet

paying someone to go away

The best part about being a pro athlete in baseball is that every contract is guaranteed.

The New York Mets in 2009 signed a pitcher by the name of Oliver Perez  to a 3-year, $36M contract.  In the first two years of the contract, Perez' record was 3 wins and 9 losses.  Today, the Mets decided to release Perez, and to pay him $12M to do anything but pitch for their team this year.

former Mets' pitcher Oliver Perez

A lot of times when teams sign players to long-term contracts, they expect the first few years to be good ones, but are willing to accept that the player might not live up to their bargain on the back end of the deal.  In that instance, they just cut the player and move on.

This issue of cutting a player they paid big money for is especially sensitive to the New York Mets.  The reason is that their ownership group is struggling because of its close financial relationship with Ponzi scheme organizer Bernie Madoff.  Because of this close relationship with Madoff, the Mets ownership has become subject to lawsuits that might force them to sell a significant portion of the team......as well as paying off Oliver Perez.

watching out for the boss

I was watching the Marquette/Syracuse game on my laptop on Sunday evening, and my wife noticed the "BOSS BUTTON" in the upper right.

This is something that has come about because most workplaces have internet access, and sometimes big sporting events are on during the work day.  Since IT managers can't block the whole internet, you can oftentimes watch live sporting events on your computer.

If you can hear your boss coming while you're watching the game, you need to quickly press the "BOSS BUTTON" which can quickly make it look like you're working hard.

The "BOSS BUTTON" is in the upper right

When you click the button, your screen is transformed into an email that you can pretend you were writing.

After the NCAA Tournament, the next big online event will be the Master's golf tournament in early April.

why are there so many upsets in the ncaa tournament?

No doubt if you've been paying attention to the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, you've seen your share of upsets.  At the time of this blog post, the biggest upset was Morehead State (13 seed) defeating Louisville (4 seed).

Morehead State players celebrating victory over Louisville

In the 2010-11 college basketball season, there were 346 men's division 1 basketball programs in 32 conferences.  The glory of the NCAA Tournament is when a team like Morehead State from the Ohio Valley Conference matches up against Louisville of the mighty Big East Conference.

 I didn't check, but it is very unlikely these teams played during the regular season, simply because they play different competition during the season.

Louisville plays against national powers such as Connecticut and Syracuse, while Morehead State plods along against Murray State, Tennessee Tech, and others.  While Morehead State finished with a record of 24-9, we really don't know how good they are.  Are the teams they beat any good?  Did they simply beat up on soft competition?  They don't have many common opponents with Louisville, so it is really tough to tell how good they really are, until the match up.

These types of small conference/big conference match ups is what makes the NCAA Tournament so enjoyable to watch.

eating like a pro

So I bet most people think that athletes are fine tuned individuals who carefully count their calorie intake and monitor the amount of exercise they get.  After all, they need to make sure the temple that has the potential to deliver millions of dollars in income is running optimally.

Then you hear today about the diet of San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum.  Lincecum is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.

Giants right-handed pitcher Tim Lincecum

When Lincecum goes to the In-N-Out Burger, he told an baseball reporter that he typically orders three double-doubles, two orders of fries, and a shake.

a Tim Lincecum snack

Guys like Tim Lincecum, and a few other pro athletes are just freaks of nature.  They are so good at what they do, that they can get away with less exercise and less healthy food, and still be spectacular.  The average ballplayer struggles to stay in the majors eating a diet of chicken breast, egg whites, and asparagus along with a strenuous weight lifting regiment, while Tim Lincecum heads to the In-N-Out.

filling up the arena

So the first games of the NCAA Tournament started on Tuesday night in Dayton, OH.  The first game was between UNC-Asheville and Arkansas-Little Rock.  The combined undergrad enrollment at these two universities is about 8,700, while the capacity at the Dayton arena is 13,455.  There were a lot of empty seats on Tuesday night.

Then I heard of a great invention that someone came up with to make any arena look full.  It's the Crowd In A Box.  They inflate and can make any arena look full on TV.

could you please pass the popcorn and air hose?

This is the most creative thing I've seen to make an arena look like it is at capacity.  In the past, some arena and stadium owners had multi-colored seats that at a very quick glance were supposed to look like people.  I don't know if the multi-colored seats fooled anyone, but it never looks good on TV when your venue is half full.

the stylin' multi-colored seats at the New Orleans Superdome

and there is your dagger!

Some of the funnest license plates I see are the Green Bay Packer license plates that the state of Wisconsin has been selling to car drivers for probably the last 10 years.

The words that people are able to create are always clever.  At a previous apartment we lived at is Super Bowl 45 MVP "ARODG" (Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers).  I've also seen "3XMVP" which would be the calling card for Brett Favre, the first 3-time MVP of the National Football League.

Today I saw something in front of work that just made me smile.  

and there is your DAGGGR

Whenever the Packers are assured of winning a football game, radio play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee announces loudly "and there is your dagger!"  The "dagger" call comes as the final dramatic blow is delivered, such as when Packer BJ Raji intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown in the NFC Championship Game, or when the Packers stopped Pittsburgh on 4th down in the Super Bowl.

And here you see another dagger.  It looks like a 2005 Saturn Vue.

"use logic and statistics"

So the bracket is out for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

No doubt if you work in any office with more than 10 people, there will be a bracket contest to see who can best predict the outcome of the NCAA tournament.  From today until Thursday, you will be inundated with advice of which teams are looking to pull big upsets and which teams are likely to make it all the way to the NCAA Final Four in Houston on April 2.

The title of this post is "use logic and statistics."  I used that because blogger Darren Rovell has sarcastically chosen that piece of advice as the worst to follow when selecting your bracket.

Last year's overwhelming favorite to win it all, Kansas, was done after the 2nd game of this single elimination tournament (to win the tournament, you need to win 6 consecutive games).  Kansas' loss ruined a lot people's brackets....ruined them so much that they didn't have to worry about winning their pool anymore, and they could just enjoy basketball.

what do conference tournaments mean?

While everyone is getting ready for the Big Dance to start next week, this week is a huge bonanza of basketball tournaments for each conference.

Why do the conferences do this? For one, the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid into the field of 68 teams for the NCAA Tournament.  For the most part, the team that wins the conference tournament was likely to make the field anyway based on the strength of their season.  However, if you are a team "on the bubble," meaning there's a chance you won't make it to postseason play, a strong showing in the conference tournaments can help get you into the NCAA Tournament.

For instance, Michigan State likely won't make the NCAA Tournament, but they won their game on Thursday, and if they win 3 more games, they'll rescue a disappointing season by getting the automatic bid for winning the Big Ten tournament.

Michigan State's Kalin Lucas

Another reason of course is to hold the tournament in a nice city to make some money for the conference.

why they call it the "big dance"

If you're paying any attention to sports now, no doubt you have heard the phrase, "getting to the big dance."

The big dance refers to the men's NCAA tournament, which this year is made up of 68 men's college basketball teams.   The saying "big dance" is not referenced in Google.com, so I will give it my best shot.  

Oftentimes a sleeper team from a small conference will end up doing big things in the NCAA tournament.  A few years ago, George Mason University, a small school from Virginia made an incredible run, and made it to the national semifinals of the tournament, better known as the "Final Four."

George Mason was referred to as a "Cinderella team," much as in the fairy tale when Cinderella was not really invited to the ball, but ended up meeting the prince, which she was clearly not supposed to do.  George Mason was an afterthought team of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, and were supposed to lose their first game and go away (it is a single elimination tournament).  They ended up winning four games before losing in the Final Four. 

If you want to be a Cinderella team, you need to get invited the "Big Dance."  Bids for who gets invited to the ball go out on Sunday night.

avoiding a "death penalty"

On Wednesday, Ohio State suspended their head college football coach, Jim Tressel, for two games and fined him $250,000.  This comes on the heels of Ohio State suspending 5 football players for 5 games in the upcoming season, which starts this fall.  This situation came about when the 5 amateur football players sold memorabilia and accepted illegal gifts while under the watch of the head football coach.

Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel

So why would Ohio State inflict such harm on themselves?  It seems like this would be a huge detriment to their season.

The big reason Ohio State is in a hurry to suspend everyone is because they want to appear tough on their football team.  If they didn't do it, the ruling body, the NCAA, would be doling out the punishment.

The huge example of the NCAA coming down hard on a program happened to the Southern Methodist (SMU) football team in 1987 and 1988.  SMU routinely paid players and broke the rules.

The NCAA infractions committee cited the need to "eliminate a program that was built on a legacy of wrongdoing, deceit and rule violations."

SMU did not play any football games in 1987 or 1988.  It is with this rationale that Ohio State took the pre-emptive step in suspending their head coach for two games.  The two games Tressel will miss are against very weak teams, where it really won't matter who's the coach anyway.  

would you recognize a pro athlete?

There have been some interesting pro athlete sightings outside of the ballpark recently.  

During spring training games, many players see action in a baseball game.  This gives the manager the opportunity to grade up to 30 players per game.  However, if you are a star, you may only play a couple innings, and then you're done for the day.  So what to do?  

On Saturday, Red Sox star 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia played a few innings and came out of the game.  What he did next was interesting. 

“I was hungry,” Pedroia said. “The Red Sox have no food.”

When a staffer offered to get him something, Pedroia said: “I don’t need any help. I’m a grown athlete."

Pedroia simply showered up and changed into his everyday clothes.  He went to the concession stand and purchased three hot dogs for himself.  He went largely unnoticed.

This is a slightly different situation than Chicago White Sox catcher AJ Pierzynski found himself in days earlier.  Pierzynski has a penchant for acting like a big kid, so it was no surprise that he was pulled over for speeding while trying to get to his spring training game on time.  The officer knew he was a baseball player because Pierzynski was already wearing his uniform. 

AJ Pierzynski, always in uniform

why it sometimes doesn't really matter to a pitcher

For baseball's spring training, sometimes a player can have a horrendous spring training, and not have it really matter.

Brewers right-hander Zack Greinke

On Sunday, Brewers right-handed pitcher struggled to get through 2 innings.  He threw way more pitches than he normally would've needed to, gave up 5 hits, and had trouble throwing strikes.  So should fans really be worried?  Not really.

Greinke is one of the top pitchers in the game.  The goal for Greinke in spring training is to continually improve his conditioning and pitching as spring training goes on.  Perhaps Greinke was working on a particular pitch on Sunday, or getting used to working with a new catcher.  In the end, it is likely we will see Greinke get better and better as we approach the March 31st opening day.

This just in, Greinke was working on a new grip for his curveball.

fighting for a roster spot

After four spring training games, we already have a team fighting.

On Wednesday afternoon, after Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Silva had given up six runs in the first inning to the Milwaukee Brewers, a fight ensued in the dugout between Silva and third baseman Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez made one of three errors in the first inning for the Cubs, making Silva look bad, and leading to Silva's outburst in the dugout.

Cubs right-handed pitcher Carlos Silva

While Silva was one of the Cubs best pitchers last season, there is still doubt whether after a handful of spring starts that he will be one of five starting pitchers for the Cubs in 2011.  On a baseball club, there is room for only 25 players on the big league club.  If you don't make the club out of spring training, you can either retire or go back down to the minor leagues, hoping to get called back up.

A while back, major leaguer Delmon Young compared the differences between being one of those 25 guys on a major league team versus being in the minor leagues.  His statement was, "major leaguers shower in Perrier while we get sewer water."

Carlos Silva knows there is no Perrier with the Cubs AAA minor league team the Iowa Cubs.  The only thing in the minor leagues are long bus rides across the Midwest.

it's good to have $80M in the bank

Quarterback Carson Palmer no longer wants to play for the Cincinnati Bengals.  His reason is that he has $80M in the bank, and he doesn't want or need to come back.

How did he get $80M?  Palmer was the first player selected in the 2003 NFL Draft.  As a quarterback, he was viewed as the cornerstone of the Cincinnati football franchise.  His first contract was for 6 years, with the possibility of earning $49M through incentives.  After three years of that contract were completed, the Bengals rewarded Palmer with a contract extension making the new deal in 2006, a 9-year, $119M deal.

Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer

Palmer's comment at the time was, "Hopefully this is the last place I'll end up playing," Palmer said. "That's so rare in this league these days. It's so rare to see a person have a 5-, 8-, 10-, 12-year career in one place. And I feel very fortunate that it looks like that's going to be my future."

In the end, Palmer's Cincinnati teams have not lived up to the amount of money that was being spent on him.  It might be just as easy to pay someone a fraction of Palmer's salary and get similar results.