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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ranting

The following is nothing more than me getting random thoughts off my chest, some about sports, some not:

Read all of Ranting

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

RotoWire Poker Tournaments

RotoWire has added a poker area to our web site. Play poker for free with our downloadable software.

http://poker.rotowire.com

It's free.

To get things started, we're having a a few no-limit, hold-em poker tournaments this week. There is no entry fee.
The winner of each gets a RotoWire T-Shirt.

Here are the upcoming tournaments:

Thursday Oct 1, 9pm EST
Password to enter = RotoWireWK4Th

Sunday Oct 4, 9pm EST
Password to enter = RotoWireWK4Su

Registration is 6 hours prior to each tournament.

It's open to anyone, but we should have a good group of RotoWire members and staffers.

Once you download the software, go to "Tourney" and then "Private" to enter.

We tried to have our first tournament last week on Sunday, but managed to screw up the times and some other issues. We apologize for any problems. Hopefully we'll get a good crowd this time. Let us know how to make it better!

Read all of RotoWire Poker Tournaments

Sunday, September 27, 2009

RotoWire Poker Tournament

RotoWire has added a poker area to our web site. Play poker for free with our download able software.

http://poker.rotowire.com

It's free.

To get things started, we're having a no-limit, hold-em poker tournament this Sunday (9/27 - today) at 8 Pm CT. The winner will get a RotoWire T-Shirt.

The password to enter is:   RotoWireWK3

It's open to anyone, but we should have a good group of RotoWire members and staffers.

Once you download the software, go to "Tourney" and then "Private" to enter.

Read all of RotoWire Poker Tournament

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Ranting

The following is nothing more than me getting random thoughts off my chest, some about sports, some not.

Read all of Ranting

Friday, September 25, 2009

RotoWire iPhone App

RotoWire has released an update to the "Fantasy News Center" iPhone app we first released in August. Version 1.1 cleans up a few things, such as correcting a flaw in the sort order of player updates, adding more info to the players (team designations, etc.) and a color scheme that reflects the web site.

You can download the app at the iTunes Store.

Read all of RotoWire iPhone App

Monday, July 20, 2009

Cotto-Pacquiao Scheduled for the Fall

It looks like this fight between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao is happening.

Read all of Cotto-Pacquiao Scheduled for the Fall

Monday, July 13, 2009

Mad Dog's Meltdown

Last Thursday, Mad Dog Chris Russo ranted about Mad Dog Radio channel's disappointing numbers, fired his programming director on the air and ripped the other channel's hosts (who Russo handpicked) as talentless.

Read all of Mad Dog's Meltdown

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Clearing the Air on Marques Colston and Microfracture Surgery

Mircofracture surgery. No two words are more feared by athletes and fantasy owners. Numerous professionals have undergone this arthroscopic knee procedure, most famously the Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudamire in 2005. Recently it was revealed that New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston had microfracture surgery in the offseason. However before you panic and reevaluate your draft strategy, understand that microfracture surgery can be performed at varying locations in the knee. Here is some basic information to help you better understand what to expect if one of your fantasy players undergoes the procedure.

Read all of Clearing the Air on Marques Colston and Microfracture Surgery

Friday, May 1, 2009

Mayweather vs. Marquez

It looks like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is coming out of retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez in July.

Read all of Mayweather vs. Marquez

Don Tiger's Kentucky Derby Column

Every year we run Don's columns on the Triple Crown races - this year, we'll make them part of the blog. By the way, if you're going to bet on a sporting event, there are few things more thrilling than putting your money on a big-time horse race.

Read all of Don Tiger's Kentucky Derby Column

Thursday, April 30, 2009

MMA Freak Show

Apparently, Jose Canseco is making his MMA debut in a few weeks against a 7-2, 330-pound South Korean.

Read all of MMA Freak Show

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Interview with FakeTeams

I did an interview with Ryan Kaltenbach of FakeTeams if anyone's interested.

Read all of Interview with FakeTeams

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Linked

A batch of links to get you through the weekend:

Read all of Linked

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Dalton Del Don's Foolish LABR Weekend Bets

The last two years, Dalton and I have gone to LABR together, (I draft our AL team, he does the NL). Over the course of weekend, we inevitably end up making some bets. (Last year I netted out $30 despite him winning a $50 bet for picking Tim Lincecum as his NL Cy Young sleeper).

Read all of Dalton Del Don's Foolish LABR Weekend Bets

Monday, March 9, 2009

Sport As Art

Are there any activities considered to be sports that, like bullfighting, should really be labeled as art instead?

Read all of Sport As Art

Thursday, March 5, 2009

College Humor Revenge

Remember the prank where the guy arranges for a JumboTron message at Yankee Stadium that makes it look like his best friend has just proposed to his girlfriend and the hilarity that ensued?

Read all of College Humor Revenge

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mike Patrick's History Lesson

While working on our first draft of Charging the Mound for 2009, I had the Louisville - Georgetown game on in the background. For some reason, instead of the usual Big East announcers, Mike Patrick and Len Elmore were doing the game.

Read all of Mike Patrick's History Lesson

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Is the Big East Overrated?

I don't pay attention to college hoop until the conference tournaments at the earliest, but our own Jonah Keri has an excellent article in the NY Times saying the stats show just that.

Read all of Is the Big East Overrated?

Saturday, February 21, 2009

How You Know the Economy's in Freefall

In the good old days when Greg Ambrosius was still in charge of the FSTA, we used to have our annual pre-baseball season industry business conference in Vegas every year, right during the first week of March Madness. That meant everyone in the fantasy sports industry could write off (and justify to significant others) a trip that would constitute a vacation for them in any other circumstances.

Read all of How You Know the Economy's in Freefall

Friday, February 6, 2009

Kellogg Drops Michael Phelps

The Kellogg company has apparently dropped Michael Phelps from its roster of endorsees, because according to Susanne Norwitz, a spokeswoman for the company, "Michael's most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg."

Read all of Kellogg Drops Michael Phelps

Monday, February 2, 2009

RotoWire Leads Fantasy Award Winners

RotoWire.com won six awards from the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and one award from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association when the yearly awards were announced last week at the FSTA winter conference in Tampa, FL.
RotoWire won the most FSWA awards and the most overall awards at the event.
Last year, RotoWire led the FSWA awards with six awards and I didn't think that could be duplicated again. Luckily I was wrong.

Here's an article on the event:

RotoWire Dominates FSWA Awards

Read all of RotoWire Leads Fantasy Award Winners

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Where Does Rafael Nadal Rank Among the All-Time Greats?

I'll preface this by admitting I don't follow tennis closely anymore, but after Nadal won the Australian Open today, it occurred to me that Roger Federer wasn't the only one chasing history. Nadal has now won six Grand Slams and played in eight finals. He's also won three of the last four, and is still just 22 years old.

Read all of Where Does Rafael Nadal Rank Among the All-Time Greats?

Friday, January 30, 2009

50 Worst Announcers (Updated)

David J. Halberstam's article on the top 50 announcers of all time is nearly as bad as the Matt Lauer-hosted 100 Greatest Americans a few years back. Actually it's just as bad, but the stakes happen to be lower. (For a laugh (or some other involuntary bodily response), see who checks in at No. 6 - six spots ahead of Thomas Jefferson).

In Halberstam's defense, he was trying to list the 50 most *influential* announcers, but anyone that has Joe Buck three spots ahead of Vin Scully for any reason is either brain damaged or not a sports fan.

Read all of 50 Worst Announcers (Updated)

Friday, January 9, 2009

74% of a National Title

Lemme get this straight... we just went through months of regular season, 743 bowl games and a "national title" game... and more than 25% of the votes in the AP poll went to teams other than Florida.

Read all of 74% of a National Title

Monday, December 22, 2008

Adjusting For Contest Size In Single Day Contests

Success at fantasy sports is all about adjusting to context. Sometimes the context comes within the game as its played on the field - for example, adjusting for park or for league strength. Other times, the context is found within the rules of the fantasy game you're playing.

One such example is making adjustments for the size of the daily contest you're playing.

Read all of Adjusting For Contest Size In Single Day Contests

Friday, July 18, 2008

On the Road with the Tour

Don't know if anyone's out there watching the Tour de France, but I'll give you the quick recap in case you get stuck talking to a cycling fan at a cocktail party this weekend. And what a party that must be where cycling fans are invited. You know those parties where the illegal stuff is going on behind a closed bedroom door? Invite a cycling fan inside and you get some serious chemicals going on.

After 12 stages, the pre-race favorite, Cadel Evans of Australia and Silence Lotto is wearing yellow. He survived a Stage 9 crash to ride well in the Pyrenees, overtaking leader Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg, Team Columbia) on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet and Hautacam in Stage 10. He's been in yellow for two days and is expected to keep the lead until the Tour moves to the Alps for Stages 14 through 17 on Saturday. He could keep the maillot jaune through the Alps, but there will be a lot of attacks and several HC (hors category) climbs, including l'Alpe D'Huez. That's like the most revered climb in the sport, though it's not quite the toughest. Still, it will be the third climb on a long day. The last major hurdle will be an individual time trial next week. These are stages where the most time can be made up.

If you haven't been watching the Tour on Versus, they've been pimping American cycling since Stage 1 in Brest. There are two teams based in the States, and they have some good riders, but the overkill is ridiculous. Even the announcers, the wonderful Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, have to hype Team Columbia and Garmin Chipotle. Phil and Paul are fun to listen to. It helps that they have British accents. They're very earnest and knowledgeable about the sport and it shows. They each have favorite phrases and trot them out endlessly to describe the action, which doesn't change for hours. You'd repeat yourself, too, if you had to commentate.

Chirstian Valdevelde of Garmin Chipotle is the highest-ranking American in third place, 38 seconds behind Evans and 37 seconds behind Frank Schlek of Luxembourg and Team CSC Saxo Bank.

It was another day for the sprinters on Friday. These are the flat stages that typically end with the fastest guys on wheels in an all out sprint to the finish line. There have been four pure flat stages so far and all have been won by Brit Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia. He's become the pre-eminent sprinter in the sport today, overtaking Robbie McEwan of Australia (Silence Lott) and Thor Hushovd of Norway (Credit Agricole). Sprinters are only good on these flat stages. Put them in the mountains and they melt. They all fall back into a group and just try to survive a mountain stage. As a matter of fact, there's a name for the group that goes into cruise control and just survives a stage. The French call it the "l'autobus."

Oh yeah, for those of you counting: three riders have been disqualified for the illegal blood-booster EPO. The most recent was Wednesday when Ricardo Ricco of Italy and Saunier Duval was booted. The team immediately withdrew from the race after its leader was arrested. This guy won two stages, was the leader of the polka-dot jersey (for best climber) and the white jersey (best young rider under 25). Yup, it was another black day on the Tour.

But I'll continue to watch. I'm just naive enough to think some of these accomplishments are untainted.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Wimbledon Final Exciting, But Slightly Overrated

Don't get me wrong - it was an exciting match, and both players showed a ton of heart and made great shots. But for a match to be considered one of the all-time greats (John McEnroe called it the greatest tennis match he'd ever witnessed), both players have to be playing at the absolute top of their games. Nadal was close to his, but Federer made way too many unforced errors, and his focus came and went at times.

I was rooting for Nadal, but the entire time, I felt as though Federer could have won the match if he just got it together mentally and focused. Most of the points on Nadal's serve had the players on even footing after the return, while Federer's had far more service winners, aces and winners on weak returns.

It was still a thrilling match for the highest stakes imaginable - Wimbledon Final which could have been Federer's sixth straight (never been done except 100 years ago when it was totally different) or Nadal's back to back wins in the French and Wimbledon - something not done since Bjorn Borg in 1980.

But Federer wasn't at the top of his game, and not all of it had to do with Nadal.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Nadal is a Monster

Nadal lost just four games in his destruction of the greatest player in the history of tennis at the French Open final. Check out the NY Times' photo of Nadal who looks like he's going to star in a Conan the Barbarian sequel.

It's too bad for Federer because he probably would have won a French Open title by now if he didn't have to beat the greatest clay court player in the history of tennis every time he got there.

Still, a pretty impressive beating of Federer on any surface in a Grand Slam final.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is Andre Agassi the only player to win all four slams since Rod Laver?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Bernard Hopkins is Unwatchable

It's amazing that Hopkins was able to coax a boring fight out of Joe Calzaghe. I've never seen so much running and grabbing and leading with his shoulder and head after one punch. And one of the judges even gave the fight to him.

Calzaghe-Pavlik would be a good fight, and even Roy Jones, Jr. would be exciting, though I think Calzaghe would knock him out pretty easily. Would have been cool to see the Jones of eight years ago fight him - that would be sick.

I wonder how much these guys can move up and down in weight. Is Mayweather-Pavlik possible, Mayweather-Calzaghe, Calzaghe/Pavlik vs. Cotto?

Hopkins is the kind of guy you want to see fight someone you don't like. Almost nothing good can come of a fight with him.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Sports Porn Coming to Network TV

I'm a little surprised that CBS and NBC agreed to televise MMA fights.

I could see Fox doing it, but it's basically the male equivalent of porn. What's a woman good for? Sex. What's a man good for? Ass-kicking. It reduces the participants to their most primitive and objectified status.

Not that I'm saying you shouldn't watch MMA or porn - the viewer is like someone who buys cigarettes - it's probably not great for your mind to be taking in too much of that stuff, but it's legal, and you're just an individual consumer. But if NBC starts televising porn or MMA, then they're like the cigarette companies - making an unwholesome product widely available.

I've smoked in the past, and I've watched MMA and porn in my time (if Showtime would get rid of those stooges announcing, I might even watch more), so I'm not judging anyone. Just making the point that the "who can bludgeon who into submission" contest crosses the line between sport and a kind of violence pornography, and apparently CBS and NBC don't see that. (Or maybe they do, but don't care). I guess you could argue boxing is on that line, too - but boxing has far more rules, and those restrictions make it quite unlike a street brawl. It's also not about which is more violent - the NFL is pretty violent, too, but that violence is just a part of the game along with play calling, route running, passing accuracy etc. MMA is purely about the violence. I think you could draw the same distinction for art-house flicks with explicit sex in them - it's not the sex that makes porn pornographic - it's that there's nothing else.

I'm sure MMA defenders will talk about the skills of the fighters, but I don't see it. Some have more than others, but it's usually just a graceless slugfest, or one guy has the other on the ground and is trying to club him to death with his forearms or elbows or whatever else he can get through the guard.

Bring in Bruce Lee or Jet Li, and I'll change my tune. But I don't think the sport has enough art yet to be anything but a human cockfight at this point.

Of course, that doesn't it mean it won't be hugely successful - porn grosses as much as mainstream cinema I think (or at least close to it).

But I'm just surprised NBC and CBS are airing it - they might as well air the network premier of Forrest Hump.

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NFL Notes
A look around the league regarding Week 10:
Week 10 Observations
  • We've beaten to death Bill Belichick's decision to go for it on 4th and 2 in Sunday night's game (the best take on it I've seen is here), but the real takeaway is how much Cris Collinsworth, Al Michaels, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison felt it was their duty to spout the conventional wisdom without even attempting to analyze Belichick's basis for the decision. Throw in Bob Costas, and it's appalling that five guys collectively making more than $10 million a year to interpret the sport for us didn't even consider the issue from a probability standpoint. Sadly, the NBC crew is probably the best one on TV. (Update: Jon Gruden just defended Belichick's call on MNF - good for him).
    • Dominant Offense but Shaky Defense...Barkley and Dirk
    This topic is a spin-off from the Michael Jordan thread of last week.  In the excellent discussion on that thread a mini-debate broke out as to how Charles Barkley compares to Kevin Garnett.  The gist of the brief debate was to question whether Barkley was enough better than Garnett offensively to make them comparable in value as overall players despite Garnett’s huge defensive advantages.  The thing is, though, to me there is a much better comp for Barkley in this generation than Garnett:  Dirk Nowitzki.
    What is Iverson's Legacy?
    What are we talking 'bout? We're talking 'bout *IVERSON*.
    Jennings vs Rose
    Last year Derrick Rose was the NBA Rookie of the Year.  One year later, would you take him over current rookie point guard phenom Brandon Jennings?

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