schlagging.com

You’re a Towel!

Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

After last night’s Territorial Game, the students rushed the field.

I criticized the action, because kids rush the field way too often these days. A few weeks ago, the Wildcats fans rushed the field after a homecoming victory over the UCLA Bruins. It was by no means an upset. Last night, the ranked ASU football team beat a - let’s face it - mediocre at best U of A team. Yet the kids rushed the field!? Are you kidding?

Rushing the field should be reserved for games that you don’t expect to win. Games that you are the heavy underdog. The way all those kids were talking, and the way that people were betting in Vegas, that certainly was not the case last night.

The only way I could have seen it as justifiable last night, is if ASU had clinched a Rose Bowl berth. That sure didn’t happen, either!

Anyway, the point isn’t that ASU students are stupid football fans. As a whole, they are. But the same could be said of Wildcats fans, or many other colleges across the nation. The point of this is that after I had made my point to my friends, the guy in front of me starts getting hostile. He starts to defend the kids, and starts ripping into my school and our bad luck in football. He ends his mini-rant by calling me stupid. “You’re the stupid one,” is what he said. Wow. He owned me, for sure. Nice job, old man. Put your headphones back on. I’m sorry if I yelled too loudly behind you at the football game.

0 comments.

National Spotlight

Posted on November 15th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

Tonight, the Wildcats are in the sports national spotlight, as they host the BCS #2 Oregon Ducks.

To commemorate the event, I’ve quickly thrown together another graphic, in hopes of an upset:

See you at the tailgate!

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Baseball replay

Posted on November 7th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

A Word doc I deleted this morning contained a post about the current talks revolving around the idea of adding instant replay to Major League Baseball.

Continuing with the laziness trend, I’m not going to retype the whole thing.

But in short, I think a limited version of instant replay would be beneficial to the sport, the umpires, and to the fans.

Umpires should be able to use their own judgment in implementing replay for close calls, including questionable home runs and close tags. In addition, each team should be allowed one challenge per game. This system would allow fans to stop whining about bad calls, and improve the integrity of the game.

That way, if - oh, I don’t know - let’s say a Rockies player slides into home and doesn’t actually touch the plate, he won’t be given a run and a playoff berth.

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FeAr Homecoming

Posted on November 4th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

I made this graphic for my cornhole game that we play at tailgates, but never made it to Tucson for the game yesterday. And since we won, I thought I’d share:

Bear Down!

Up next: Oregon, in the national spotlight, on Thursday night.

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Embarassed

Posted on November 2nd, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

That’s what happened to the Suns tonight, in their home opener against the Lakers.

We lost by 21, and were at times down by as many as 35. Absolutely horrible.

But you know what? The Suns had a rough start last year, too.

And you know what else? I’ll let Coach D’Antoni speak for Suns nation:

We’re good. We’ve got three more games.

Yeah. Bitches.

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2050

Posted on October 29th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

Boston 4, Colorado 0. Swept!

My checking account breathes a sigh of relief.

0 comments.

About last night…

Posted on October 12th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

Last night, I attended game one of the 2007 NLCS, where the Diamondbacks played host to the Rockies. Yes, those Rockies.

Well, going into the game, all the talk by the national media was about how terrible Arizona fans are, and how embarrassing it is that thousands of tickets to the game were still available in the days leading up to it. There is some validity to their statements - there were a few thousand empty seats in the upper deck last night. So what, though?

The Valley of the Sun is a relatively new metropolis. The population has nearly doubled since 1990, from 2.1 million to 3.8 million in 2006. Though I don’t have the numbers to back it up, a large percentage of that growth comes from people moving to Phoenix from another state. Hell, I’m included in that. I moved here with my family in ‘92.

The problem this presents for the local sports teams is a lack of long-term loyalty to them. I’ve been a Diamondbacks fan from the beginning, but I’ve only recently put them alone at the top of my favorite MLB teams. I’ve been a fan of the Padres (my former home team) for as long as I can remember, and it took some time for the new hometown loyalty to overtake them in my mind. Now, if it’s a problem for me - just think how it is for all the Chicago and Boston and New York fans who have moved here. I am confident that the next decade or two will see a change in the tides, and a loyalty will be built.

Going back to last night, though, the local fans showed signs of life in the seventh inning, by reacting to a call that the umpire made. From ESPN.com:

The play that drew fans’ ire started with runners on first and second with no outs. Arizona’s Augie Ojeda hit a grounder to Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins, who promptly threw to second. Justin Upton slid hard into Kaz Matsui to break up a potential double play, but Upton hit the second baseman’s leg with his shoulder. Second-base umpire Larry Vanover ruled that Upton interfered with Matsui and called both him and Ojeda out. Chris Snyder, who had advanced to third base, was forced to return to second.

This one call by the umpire transferred the team from “no outs, loading the bases, getting ready to rally” mode to “WTF just happened, we have two outs and are running short on time” mode. In my opinion, and for lack of wanting to use more eloquent words - the call was utter horse shit. Referees and umpires are part of the game, only so much to make sure that things are done right and there isn’t any funny business. They should “just let them play the game” and not be sticklers when it comes to rules. A referee or umpire should not have a major impact on the outcome of the game. But that’s a whole other argument.

The call was questionable, at best, and had a major impact on the momentum that was building - and put the Rockies in a very favorable position late in the game. The crowd as a collective could sense it, and we did our best to let the umpires know that what they just did was “not cool”. Other choice words may have been shouted, and bottles rained down from the stands into the outfield. I felt like I was in the middle of a WWF flashback, among the chants of “Rockies suck! Rockies suck!” Say it out loud a couple times, and you’ll get it.

Now, I’m not one to support what is typically viewed as poor sportsmanship, but in this case I’ll make an exception. And I’ll make that exception for one reason. Events like this will be talked about among Arizona fans for years to come. These are the events that show that we as a collective care about our teams and are loyal to them. I walked away from that game last night disappointed, obviously, because of the loss. But I also had a sense of pride, in that being a Diamondbacks fan is starting to mean something.

1 comment.

No Sportscenter

Posted on September 12th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports, tv.

Both ESPN and ESPN2 are playing Women’s Soccer this morning in lieu of SportsCenter and Mike & Mike. This disappoints me.

2 comments.

Bear Down and beat the Cougars!

Posted on August 30th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports.

Or, as a commenter on azcentral puts it:

Beat Brigham Young back to polygamy!

I just had to share because I LOL’d and figured someone else might, too.

The season opener for the Wildcats is this Saturday. I am looking forward to an over .500 season and a bowl game berth!

0 comments.

1337

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by Josh.
Categories: sports, internet.

So I was on the ASU football homepage, trying to figure out what shit team they’re playing this weekend because my friend invited me to go tailgate and have some beers. I’m not opposed to this, as long as I’m not missing the Wildcats game. Anyway, on their site, they ask visitors how many games ASU will win. Of course, I am obligated to choose the lowest possible answer. I don’t know if they’re that bad, but the results were funny to me. If you don’t get it, don’t worry. That just means you’re not uber l33t h4xxor5.

1 comment.

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