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I was watching the Stanford 36-28 victory over Oregon State last evening when I got a text message from Un-Pseudo Stoops (we’ll often text back and forth during Cardinal sporting events):

Wow. I’m a Jim Harbaugh fan. This team actually looks tough. Not ready to say good, but I’ll give them tough.

I couldn’t have agreed more (of course, immediately after that Stanford let OSU march up and down the field on two consecutive drives to almost tie the game up, but let’s just put that aside for a moment). The other word that popped into my head as I watched us run up 200+ rushing yards on a Pac-10 team for the first time in (probably) years was ‘prepared’. However, ‘prepared’ isn’t the same type of compliment as ‘tough’. Being excited about your team being ‘prepared’ is a backhanded compliment if I’ve ever heard one. After all, to be excited about good preparation implies your team has previously been decidedly ‘unprepared’ in the past (read: 2004-2006).

‘Tough’, though, is a real compliment in sports. It implies a certain grit and iron that we love in our athletes. At its core, toughness in sports indicates an acceptance of (or even interest in?) giving and receiving physical punishment for the purpose of winning. The other indicator is a complete unwillingness to complain or whine. At the end of the day, this is why Favre’s legacy has been tarnished, not because he decided to un-retire – we can all understand still wanting to play, just not crying about being unwanted.

In many ways, ‘tough’ is the greatest compliment that can be paid to an athlete who is, on balance, less physically-talented than his competitors. That’s why I was so excited, as a 49ers season ticket holder, to read Michael Silver’s article on JT O’Sullivan’s lack of sympathy for Alex Smith and Shaun Hill.

I’ve been lukewarm on O’Sullivan, mostly because it’s been hard to get a read on what kind of a guy he is. It turns out that he’s quite the surly athlete, hardened by years of bouncing around the NFL. Even today, he’s by far the lowest-paid QB on the Niners roster, yet he’ll be the one running out as QB1 to open the season next week. A great bit from the piece:

Harkening back to his college days, O’Sullivan recalls, “I loved it when we’d play a school from a more prominent conference. You had a bunch of guys who thought, ‘I’m pretty sure I was good enough to play at this school, but they didn’t want me.’ You get a whole group like that, all of us with chips on our shoulders, and it’s pretty powerful.”

Eight employers later, does O’Sullivan still carry that chip?

“Oh,” he said, “the chips have turned to boulders … to mountains.”

At the end of the day, toughness really can’t be proven with some words in an article, it has to be shown by doing things like diving into the stands at full-speed to make an outrageous catch (Jeter). Those are the types of moments that can make even me, a guy who hates the Yankees, acknowledge the legend of Derek Jeter.

But to me it’s a good sign that O’Sullivan’s bitter and angry. It’ll make him that much hungrier to not lose his job after all these years of waiting.

Let’s go, Niners.

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The baseball season is in full-force and with it comes the yearly refrain of “baseball is boring.” I’ve heard it, in some form or another, at least three times this week:

“hey, are you gonna come to the a’s game tonight?”
“no, i can’t really get into baseball. it’s just too slow.”

My first reaction is to always scoff at these people and call them cruel, unsavory names. After all, what IDIOT doesn’t recognize the beauty of America’s pastime? What are these people, NASCAR fans?!

But I’ve been doing some thinking and I realize there’s a very objective/logical reason that many people find baseball to be boring – it’s the subtlety of the sport (stay with me here).

In most popular spectator sports, the average sports fan is drawn in by either a) the consistent fantastic athletic prowess of the participants, or b) the very obvious strategy of the game that is exposed to all. Basketball players consistently perform seemingly super-human feats. Football games are marked by a plethora of constant strategic decisions that are actively pointed-out by commentators between plays. Soccer (futbol) is a constant symphony very athletic plays and fluid tactical moves. These are all easy to see and appreciate, even for those who barely understand the rules.

But what about baseball? Well, in an average baseball game, a non-fan will probably “see” 2-5 incredible feats of physical prowess in a 3+ hour game. A home run here, a double-play there. Whoa, that guy made a diving catch! Simply put, the volume and consistency just isn’t very high. For comparison, in basketball, a 2-hour game can provide 40-50 fantastic physical feats.

So that leaves the strategic aspect. Any fan who truly understands baseball knows that the most interesting part of the game is the pitcher-batter strategy. The changing of speeds and spins of pitches. The careful (or not-so-careful pitch placements by the thrower). The effect on the pitcher of a baserunner on second. Basically, the whole “setup”. It’s a beautiful, intricate strategic battle… And for the casual sports fan, it is completely lost. To the uninitiated, it looks like the pitcher rears back and throws the ball as hard as he can, followed by the batter swinging as hard as he can. Does he hit it? Maybe, maybe not. Who cares!

The problem is compounded when the most interesting strategic decisions by coaches in baseball (hit-and-runs, fielding shifts, etc.) are so rarely examined on television.

When you compare the obscurity of baseball strategy to football strategy, the difference is apparent. Even casual football fans now understand the concepts of run-pass balance, 8-men in the box, zone blitzes, and double moves. On every play, the commentators are constantly analyzing routes, pulling guards, and wide receiver blocks. And even when a viewer doesn’t understand all that… well, people are getting hit! Hard! Woohoo!

So the next time you think about calling baseball boring, think about this: maybe you just don’t understand it. That’s not a knock on you, it’s a knock on the sport, the television productions, and the game’s ability to explain itself to you. Maybe it’s like art museums, operas, reality tv shows, and rap music: you can’t stand it until you “get” it.

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Buster Olney, not surprisingly has written the best on the Mitchell report that I’ve read: "Mitchell lacked critical insight". Jayson Stark, whose writing I don’t usually enjoy, had some great analysis as well.

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Mitchell Report came out today. I have a tremendous amount of dislike that I’d love to spill towards Bud Selig (esp. after hearing his press conference), but I’ll save you the boredom. I’ll just say, this was one of the seminal sports news days of my lifetime.

Instead, regarding the Mitchell Report’s list of juiced up players today, I’ve got a few top five lists:

Most Obvious Users (not named Bonds, Giambi, etc.)

1. Roger Clemens: C’mon, don’t kid yourself, you knew it all along. The interesting story that I’m waiting for a prominent sportswriter to write in the next few days is: “Why isn’t Clemens getting torn apart like Barry was? Does it have something to do with his endearing Texan attitude or is it really just because he’s white?” I almost never go with the race card, but I really feel like it’s just that this time.
2. Bobby Estalella: Do you remember what this guy looked like? 5’6″ humans aren’t supposed to be 317 lbs. of pure muscle. It’s just unhealthy.
3. Miguel Tejada: As an A’s fan, I have to be honest, I knew this the moment they let him walk after his MVP season. He played so amazingly that year that you had to know letting him go was a sign of his steroids guilt – Beane didn’t want that on his team.
4. Eric Gagne: Is it possible to make a switch from a below-average starter to a great closer? Sure, I guess. Is it possible to do that an somehow miraculously start hitting 98 on the gun? Um, probably not.
5. Kevin Brown: There was just something otherworldly bulky about him, wasn’t there? As he got older he started to look more and more like the Hulk, like he was popping out of his own body. Just remarkably awkward.

Most Satisfying Steroid Users

1. Roger Clemens: He was always so cocky and arrogant. Spiteful, mean-spirited, stand-offish. Sound a bit like a certain black Giants slugger you know? That whole bat-throwing incident with Piazza takes on a whole new meaning now.
2. Andy Pettitte: Not only because he was one of THE yankees, but also because he and Roger were always so snotty about “how hard” they worked. I remember watching one of their taped workouts once and thinking, “Sure doesn’t seem like they’re working out that hard.” Now we know why they didn’t have to.
3. Jose Guillen: This guy was just a jerk everywhere he went. At least now he has an excuse for it.
4. John Rocker: Pretty obvious.
5. Paul LoDuca: see Guillen, Jose.

Most Shocking and/or Disappointing Steroid Users

1. Jack Cust: As an A’s fan, I just have to be disappointed.
2. David Bell: I always had a tremendous soft spot for guys who just played really hard and did the best with what God gave them. Apparently Bell was playing really hard with more than what God gave him.
3. David Segui: The shocking thing isn’t really that he was taking the roids, but more that he was apparently the league-wide ringleader of all this steroid stuff. He’s like Rome of the Steroids Scandal – all roads lead to him.
4. Brian Roberts: In retrospect, this shouldn’t have been so shocking. Tiny guy, suddenly belting home runs non-stop? Actually, he shouldn’t even be in here except for the fact that I liked him so much.
5. Rick Ankiel: I even wrote a blog post about how great of a story his comeback was. Just disappointing.

Funniest Steroid Users

1. Jose Canseco: We already knew all about him (he wrote a book, for crying out loud), but he’s by far the funniest user because we’ve now come full circle to realize the ridiculously-written (sounds like the stupid bully from your 3rd grade class) piece of fiction that he wrote is actually NON-fiction. Woodward, Bernstein, and Jose Canseco!
2. Chuck Knobloch: When you think back to the mental and physical breakdowns he had at the end of his career (missing throws by 40 feet), you no longer have to cringe for the guy. He deserved all that embarrassment and he probably brought it on himself.
3. Ryan Franklin: Franklin should really belong also in the most surprising category. I mean, if you were hitting 85 on the gun post steroids, what were you throwing before you started on it? And how did he fool so many people when he started taking them? What, did he start in 7th grade?!
4. Denny Neagle: see Franklin, Ryan.
5. Kevin Brown: All those wild gyrations in his pitching motion that looked like his body was going to explode? Yeah – roids. It must be tough when your muscles outgrow your ligaments by 2x.

Most Surprising Omissions

1. Bret Boone: Career 10-homer guy suddenly belts like 40+ with a BA of well over .300? Couldn’t Mitchell have just written his stats into the report as evidence?
2. Luis Gonzalez: Remember Barry’s record year, when this guy was keeping pace with him for 2/3 of the season? Yeah.
3. Mark Prior: Just seems like he was on something for the injuries to pile up so fast and his career to fall off so quickly. I mean, the Cubs cut him yesterday. I just thought it was a sign.
4. Rich Aurilia: Didn’t he hit 37 one year? How the hell did that happen? Also, see Boone, Bret.
5. Mark McGwire: The guy that I expected to see the most of on the report, besides Bonds, only showed up for his Andro controversy. It just makes you wonder: do we all owe him an apology? Was he just trying to not implicate other players when he was on Capitol Hill? Or has he just built up so much good will with other baseball folks by being a nice guy that they just won’t throw him under the bus. I’m betting on that one.

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All I could do while reading this article was begin to open my mouth in objection and then stop, realizing that Caple’s entirely right:

Baseball is the most individual of sports, and all that really matters is what a guy does on the field. And what A-Rod has done is average 124 runs scored, 45 home runs and 128 RBIs per season the past 10 years…. It’s wonderful if every teammate is like Mike Lowell or Jason Varitek, but it’s hardly necessary as long as a player produces. For crying out loud, Curt Schilling’s ego is so monstrous it’s an official stop on the Boston duck boat tour, while Manny has repeatedly asked to be traded. Talent matters, not personality.

ESPN Page 2 – Caple: Defending A-Rod

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Since 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series and my hatred of “ultra-market AL East teams that buy championships” began to spread between two different teams, I’ve started hating the Yankees less and less. Yes, I know.

A byproduct of this change is that I now get to objectively appreciate the few quality personalities in the Yankees franchise.

One of these is Jeter, who you really can’t help but like (c’mon, admit it). He plays his ass off, he shuts his mouth, and he, in Peter Gammons’ words, doesn’t care about anything but winning:

[Jeter] was asked what he thought was his best year in the major leagues. “I’ve had four great years,” he said. “1996, ’98, ’99 and 2000.” [Note: those are all Yankees championship years] In Jeter’s mind, VORP and OPS and Runs Created cannot determine great from good and bad seasons, only rings.

I mean, be honest, have you ever heard a better answer to question like that? In a world where I often cringe at the inability of athletes to provide the most obvious of neutral cliche answers to questions, it’s refreshing to see a response that demonstrates real engagement to ‘just winning’. He’s the Tom Brady of baseball (or maybe Brady’s the Derek Jeter of football) – he plays on a team you hate, but you can’t help but wish he was on your team.

The other two guys from those Yankees teams that I can really no longer hate are Torre and Rivera. For that reason, it is actually fun to see Steinbrenner take it on the chin from one of the players most responsible for their past success, as Rivera sticks up for his manager.

Rivera’s contract also is expiring and he is eligible to become a free agent. He said whether Torre returns will help determine whether he remains with the Yankees.

“It might do a lot of it,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been with Joe for so many years, and the kind of person he has been for me and for my teammates. It’s been great. The thing is that I don’t see why they have to put him in this position.”

You don’t see this kind of thing in sports every day. The message? “You can get rid of Torre, but you’re going to have quite the PR nightmare as I tie myself to him.” My guess is Torre still goes and the team effectively is blown up.

The best part about that? Maybe all of these guys that I like will be on other teams next year and I can start hating the Yankees again.

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I don’t know what the reaction is like elsewhere in the country, but the buzz on local sports radio last night and today is all about Barry Bonds’ last game as a Giant.

I’m not a Giants fan, but if you watched the game last night as any kind of a sports fan, you couldn’t help but get a bit emotional, even with all of the controversy the past few years. For several years, watching Barry Bonds was watching a baseball circus: amazing and, at times, absurd. Unfortunately over the years, it just became more absurd.

I think my overwhelming reaction to last night is, "What might have been." I wrote about this last year when ‘Game of Shadows’ came out, but I don’t think it’s been possible for me to watch Barry in the last year or two without thinking that he missed out on a great opportunity. As I look back on the memorable exits of so many baseball stars in my lifetime, it’s impossible not to note that Barry’s should have been the most triumphant.

He is the greatest baseball player of my lifetime. He (pretty much single-handedly) saved baseball in San Francisco. He is synonymous with Pacbell Park. He has 7 MVP awards. He was the second man to go 40-40 in a season. He has the single-season and career home run records (that, 15 years ago, seemed unbreakable).

But more than that, he was dominant like no baseball player since, probably, Babe Ruth. There is statistical dominance and then there is real live "Whoa, watch this because something insane will probably happen" dominance.

It was a bizarre ending for Barry and the Giants. McGowan was forced into shuffling Barry out the door by the team’s horrid play and the city’s increasing lack of appetite for Barry the villain. In many ways, it says a lot for McGowan that he would make it known before the season ended, so that Barry could get his last goodbye – when you compare that to, for example, how Emmitt Smith left Dallas, it leaves a decent taste in your mouth.

But Barry’s 15 years in San Francisco deserved better. From him, from the team, and from the Giants management. He deserved a triumphant exit that was fitting of one of the 5 greatest baseball players of all time – last night was nice, but it wasn’t enough. What might have been indeed…

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… and then there are stories that really warm the heart, like Rick Ankiel’s (re-)debut tonight. Maybe I’m being over-dramatic, but Ankiel’s home run tonight in his major league debut as an outfielder gave me a slight tinge and smile, even as I read the brief headline in my start page.

For those of you that don’t remember (or maybe didn’t see it), Ankiel was the object of public laughter and then, subsequently, horror and humiliation years ago as every baseball fan watched him completely implode on the world’s largest stage.

In 2000, after a promising rookie season, Ankiel was pitching in the playoffs when he started having some control issues. And then suddenly, he was firing pitch after pitch to the backstop. 7 yards outside. 10 feet over the catcher’s head. 5 feet behind the batter. Bouncing fastballs 6 feet short of the plate. It went on and it was funny and then frightening to watch.

It started to become apparent that this wasn’t just a physical tweak in his delivery, but a psychology tweak in his ticker. He was benched and then sent down to the minors after continual disaster during Spring Training the next season. It was sad and, frankly, a bit scary.

Years later, here he is back in the Majors as a power-hitting outfielder no less, after completely reinventing himself. And in his first game up? Nothing much except a three-run homer and a win:

The drive merited a standing ovation and a curtain call for the once-troubled left-hander, who walked away from a pitching career in frustration more than two years ago. Manager Tony La Russa was misty-eyed at his postgame news conference and compared Ankiel’s return with Adam Wainwright striking out the Tigers’ Brandon Inge for the final out in the World Series.

“Short of winning the World Series, it’s the happiest I’ve seen our club,” La Russa said. “I’m fighting my butt off to keep it together.

In a week when baseball’s most storied record was passed by (at best) a sour man who cheated right along with his contemporaries, it’s great to see a truly heartwarming and all-positive story.

Congratulations, Rick Ankiel. We (baseball fans) were all rooting for you…

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i had to reply in a comment to this particular blog post by henry abbott on truehoop because… IT IS INSANE and it is the perfect example of how the Media as a whole (even effective bloggers like abbott) are completely losing their f___ing minds with this whole donaghy scandal.

in the past week or two, i’ve read articles and columns that have been based on such ridiculous premises as:

• one ref bet on the nba. the nba is doomed, no one will ever watch again
• the nba has a referee database that they use to evaluate referees? they should open it up so everyone can see it
• we need ultimate transparency in the nba
• phoenix lost the nba championship because of donaghy

there are news stories where the scale of the media coverage is equal to the public interest and outcry. this story is not one of them.

and to speak bluntly about the whole “we need transparency into the referees,” that is one of the more idiotic ideas i’ve ever heard. these are not elected officials. they are highly-trained and scrutinized private employees who are (of course!) evaluated heavily by their employers. why in the world should they disclose which refs did better or worse? doesn’t that just lead to public roasting of non-corrupt referees that perform worse than their peers?

and why the hell does it even matter? what are we going to do, assume that all bad refs are corrupt and gambling addicts?

every nba fan that i’ve talked to is fairly confident that donaghy really was a single, rogue official. i don’t think there’s anyone, besides the overreacting media, who think we need to out every referee and their performance.

i think sportswriters are blowing this out of proportion, particularly when they insinuate that david stern would trade this for baseball’s steroid crisis. that’s absurd. they need to get their heads on straight and put down the peace pipe.

in one case you’re talking about one single referee calling games to manipulate the point spread (maybe) and in the other you’re talking about the complete undermining of more than a hundred years of records and history by widespread usage of dangerous chemical products, culminating in and represented most effectively by this complete farce of a home run chase that barry bonds is finishing off this week. i’d take one illegal gambler every day of the week.

donaghy? he’s going to blow over. bonds and mark mcgwire? i’m going to be explaining that one to my grandkids.

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life goal #117: sit in the first row of the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field for a day game, snag a ball, watch a brawl, eat a hot dog, and drink Old Style… Check!

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