Sports Archive

Thoughts on baseball, hockey and football.

• The Heist of 2001 — Syracuse v. VaTech

  This is the oldest post that I never completed (until now). I started writing it in 2003, and it was supposed to follow one of my most influential posts: A Case Against Perennially Over-Ranked VaTech. I was going to spend a considerable amount of time going through the entire 2001 football season, game by game, [...]

• 3000 Is Not Important

  Baseball is funny. It elevates its statistics and creates thresholds that are so unrealistic, however sporadically attained, it precludes many of the greatest ballplayers from being considered elite. Unless you discount the numbers altogether, and without numbers, you do not have baseball. The most oft-mentioned statistic as categorically “unfair” is the 300 wins for starting [...]

• White Elephants

  Live, right now, on NBC in the bay area: SF Giants vs. Oakland A’s, played in Oakland. By rule, er, by law, all games of the bay series should be played in San Francisco and their beautiful waterside ballpark, AT&T Park (formerly and still locally known as Pac Bell Park), not simply for the sake [...]

• First Come, First Served

  The A’s have tried almost everything. They offer $2 tickets on Wednesdays (along with $1 hot dogs, although they are not regular-sized hot dogs; I also believe there is a limit of 10 per person per transaction). They have an all-you-can-eat section (a true-blue value of $35). But still their seats remain empty, thousands of [...]

• ReLax

  While I was away, Syracuse repeated as national champions, in historic fashion…

• Sharks

  I’m going to give it a chance tonight. That is, western hockey. Growing up in Buffalo and going to school in Syracuse, I have my obvious biases — Sabres and eastern hockey, Big East basketball, AFL football. But I live in the bay area, and I’d love to watch more hockey. Whenever the Sabres make [...]

• Marching

  I’m biased, what can I say. I’m predicting — boldly — a rematch of Syracuse and UConn in the final for this year’s tournament… Click for complete bracket. For you long-time readers, these picks may seem familiar, and they should. Two years ago, I predicted an all Big East Final Four (it didn’t happen), and [...]

• Syracuse vs. UConn

  I don’t have ESPN anymore, so I listened to the last four overtimes on the radio (over the internet)… Image: ESPN A pretty good birthday gift. UPDATE — And the highlights…

• Gonzo Reilly

  Rick Reilly is not that funny of a guy, but he tries to be in his ESPN column, and I respect that. In his latest column however, Reilly abandons logic when he suggests that the 2001 MVP award should have gone to Luis Gonzales, as well as the home run record, because the actual winner [...]

• Super Bowl

  I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. I’m sure a lot of people did. It was the first game I watched this season. I hadn’t even watched a portion of a game longer than a minute or two. But the game was good, and it was worth it. So was the guacamole. I do not like [...]

• Then, And Now

  This is a skill that I have that I only hope to use for good, and never for evil… “And lastly, the Pro Bowl should be played during the off-week before the Super Bowl. Most players that play in the Super Bowl don’t end up playing in the all-star game anyway, especially the winners. And [...]

• Bisons

  After a fourteen-year run as the affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, my hometown Buffalo Bisons will be a farm club for the New York Mets. Accordingly, the team is ushering in new colors and a new logo… Image: MiLB It’s not that bad; I like the colors, but maybe there is too much emphasis on [...]

• A’s 1, Giants 0

  Barry Bonds hit one hard line drive to left and one relatively deep fly ball to left-center (on a hit where the anti-Giants and anti-Bonds fans suddenly turned into rooting and hollering Bonds home run 714 lunatics) in a two-hit shutout loss handed by the rival Oakland Athletics. With two outs in the top of [...]

• Big East Sheds Dead Weight

  Upon hearing the so-called “devastating” news that the University of Miami, Boston College and hodunk-community college Virginia Tech were leaving the Big East for the likes of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim stated that the Big East had shed dead weight. And have they ever. Yes, the Big East football [...]

• A Case Against Perennially Over-Ranked VaTech

  Virginia Tech is the most over-ranked football team in recent history. This is the overwhelming case against the southern polytech school and its conspicuous place among the elite. On October 10, 2001, Virginia Tech was undefeated with a record of 6-0, and was #5 in the AP poll. Why shouldn’t they be? How they got [...]

• How to Improve Baseball

  Baseball, America’s pastime, is in jeapordy and here is how to fix it. Shorten the season to 154 games (like in the old days). This will re-energize the records of Gehrig, Ruth, Dimagio, Foxx and Greenberg. It will also eliminate countless pointless games that plague the 30-team league towards the end of September. What will [...]

• NFL Predictions

  The NFL season opens up tonight, so in case I am correct (by the grace of god) I make the following predictions. Division Winners: AFC — East – Buffalo Bills; North – Cleveland Browns; South – Tennessee Titans; West – Oakland Raiders; and NFC — East – Philadelphia Eagles; North – Green Bay Packers; South [...]

• The Ideal Big East

  This is a little off topic (from the usual politics) and I am a bit biased (being a Syracuse alumnus), however, let’s take a look at the dire situation in the Big East and propose a fix. First, let’s pretend — that when Penn State asked to join the Big East back in the early [...]

• The Big Four in Eighty-Four

  The story of the 1884 Buffalo Bisons season. Made into screenplay/film.

• Buffalo Bisons baseball club

  Purchase, as a minority owner, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and relocate the team to Buffalo. Rename the team either the Bisons or the Blue Sox.