Monday, July 16, 2007

Monday 07/16 A.M. Quickie:
Phillies 10K, Ichiro, Kobe Trade, NBA Summer, More!

Phillies reach 10,000 all-time losses: Call it today's Stud AND today's Dud. Ignominious milestone or glorious celebration? I'll take the latter.

For a city of fans seemingly consumed with sports self-loathing, it's a perfect fit. The irony is that no sports fans in the country might want a championship more than Philly fans.

And yet, here is a title that is likely to go unmatched in baseball history. Forget Ripken's Ironman streak or DiMaggio's hit streak or the Yankees' number of titles or even the Home Run Record.

Other teams might yet reach the magical "10,000" mark, but by then, the Phillies will have extended their dominance. Congratulations.

MLB Stud: Dodgers win 11th straight. (YES, YES: IN SAN FRANCISCO. Thank you to all the people who pointed out the lack of clarity on this. As one Dodger fan emailed, "If only...")

MLB Dud: Ichiro pegged in the knee by Verlander (unintentionally). The downside of that bajillion dollar deal he signed last week is the hold-your-breath status for every at-bat that he might get hurt.

MLB Roids: Jason Giambi wasn't asked about other players. Or so they're leaking.

Sheffield vs. Torre, Cont'd: There is a middle way through this thicket of racial tension. Sheffield could have FELT like Torre was treating him differently because he was black without Torre actually being a racist.

Joltin' Joe's Journal: Steiner Sports will put 2,500 pages of DiMaggio's journal writing up for auction. What would you pay for a random, insignificant page? (Probably not enough.)

Kobe Blockbuster? Nah. The hot rumor is that an announcer's slip of the tongue means that Kobe will be traded to the Grizzlies for Pau Gasol and Mike Miller. I think it's bunk, and Kobe would never agree to it. If he goes anywhere, he has got to go to the East. (Now that they've got Vince Carter locked up, why don't the Nets dangle Carter and Krstic for Kobe? Oh, they're too busy turning down other deals.)

More Non-Trades: The Nets reportedly passed on trading Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic and Jason Collins to the Pacers for Jermaine O'Neal. Hmm...

NBA Summer League: Well, the fantasy matchup between Durant's Sonics and Oden's Blazers happened without either guy taking the court. But Jeff Green used the stage to make his own impression: 32 points and 12 rebounds in a Sonics loss. Maybe Durant should be the team's "other" rookie sensation...

More Sunday stars from NBA Summer: Demetris Nichols 23 pts, Dominic McGuire 18 pts (Von Wafer: 42 pts)

As the Vegas Summer League closes up, my top storyline wasn't the pro debuts of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. (If anything, Durant seemed to have trouble scoring at anything close to a reasonable FG percentage.)

The story I always enjoy is about the second-round draft picks who already look like absolute steals. A few stood out: DJ Strawberry, Demetris Nichols and Dominic McGuire.

However, other first-round picks did look great. In this order, my First-Team All-First-Round-Pick Summer All-Stars: Aaron Brooks, Marco Belinelli, Rodney Stuckey, Al Thornton and Javaris Critteton.

(A few younger non-rookies foreshadowed breakout seasons ahead, including Randy Foye, Amir Johnson, Rudy Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge and Von Wafer, who ended the Vegas summer league with a 42-point explosion.)

NASCAR: Tony Stewart wins, finally.

Copa America: Brazil upends Argentina, 3-0.

Double-amputee track star DQ'ed: Not for using prosthetics against fully able-bodied runners, but for leaving his lane, an ironic ending to a wild story.

WNBA All-Star Game: The WNBA East can now claim to be better than MLB's National League, snapping a six-game losing streak to the West in WNBA All-Star Games.

WNBA signs TV deal with ESPN through 2016: I wonder if part of that includes a clause where ESPN talking- (or writing-) head talent won't dis the league?

-- D.S.

49 comments:

Unknown said...

MLB Stud: Dodgers win 11th straight.

Really????

Clinton (Indianapolis) said...

I know it's not a sport per se, but I used to provide these updates in Shanoff's old MQ chat on ESPN, so here goes: The final table of the Main Event is now set, with only 9 players remaining from the field of 6,358.

ESPN is once again offering the final table on PPV on Tuesday (players have today off), but expect this thing to last 12 hours OR MORE.

Unknown said...

Yeah, the ESPN 'talent' will only bash soccer and hockey now. WNBA is a prime sport, doncha know!?

jhawkjjm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jhawkjjm said...

Durant did play, but he was so awful its probably better he didn't. (from cnnsi)

"Durant had 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting in what was supposed to be a matchup of the two top picks from last month's draft. However, Portland center Greg Oden left last Sunday after two games to have a tonsillectomy."

If you're going to bash him for poor shooting each time, you have to give him credit when he does well. You're also having a very bad run of getting simple facts correct, I'm starting to think you may still work for ESPN.

Mike said...

seriously dan, this is getting a bit embarassing. you're averaging at least one mistake a day. Durant did play and had 28 points. 11 for 13 on free throws. not bad.

CMFost said...

Dan,
The Dodgers have now won 11 straight at AT&T Park. They have actually only won 4 straight games. You really need to hire a stat boy or girl.

CMFost said...

WSOP Final Table
Seat one -- Raymond Rahme -- $16,320,000
Seat two -- Alex Kravchenko -- $6,570,000
Seat three -- Lee Childs - -$13,240,000
Seat four -- Jerry Yang -- $8,450,000
Seat five -- Lee Watkinson -- $9,925,000
Seat six -- Tuan Lam -- $21,315,000
Seat seven -- Philip Hilm -- $22,070,000
Seat eight -- Jon Kalmar -- $20,320,000
Seat nine -- Hevad "RainKhan" Khan -- $9,205,000


The favorite in terms of being on a big stage and handling the pressure of a final table has to be Lee Watkinson.

Unknown said...

cmfost, thanks for the update. IT takes amazing luck to make the final table in such a huge tournament. Sure, if you are not a good player, you have no chance. At several points though, you will have to be willing to call down or get called in a race type situation and get your cards. In the last few years, Moneymaker, Raymer, and Gold all knocked out several players and built huge chip leads by repeatedly catching cards they needed when they were 50/50 going into the flop.

Geoff said...

Ugh, I think this mornings Quickie needs to be edited, fast.

Brian in Oxford said...

the WNBA's optimistic if nothing....signing anything that far into the future?!

can I recap last Saturday's game of hearts, too, here? I shot the moon to lower my score to 5, but then the 3rd chair mooned again, taking me back up to 31 and a third place finish. (My inherent sarcasm towards "poker" intended)

Kevin said...

And while you're fixing your post, can you please take out this sentence:

And yet, [the Phillies' 10,000th loss] is a title that is likely to go unmatched in baseball history. Forget Ripken's Ironman streak or DiMaggio's hit streak or the Yankees' number of titles or even the Home Run Record.

Come on...I know you're Mr. Instant History, but this is ridiculous.

Unknown said...

Tour update,
It has been a crazy wild open Tour de France this year similar to last year. There are no dominant teams to control and pull back breaks. An amazing climber, Rasmussen, finished about 4 minutes ahead of everyone else after attacking out of a break.
He is an insanely skinny Dutch rider from the Rabbobank squad. He was won the polka dot jersey for being the best climber the last two years.

He really hasn't been considered a contender since he is not a great time trialist. There are still two long relatively flat time trials where each rider sets off separately against the clock. He will lose a few minutes to the other top contenders in those stages. However if he can just gain a couple more minutes in one of the remaining mountain stages, he could do it.

One main contender, Mick Rogers crashed and had to leave the race yesterday. Kloeden and Vinokorov from the Astana team are both banged up from crashes so it is wide open.

Today is a rest day. Tomorrow is the last day in the Alps but there are still 3 days in the Pyrenees. Riders can lose large amounts of time if they have a bad day in the mountains so the race is still wide open for a number of contenders.

Unknown said...

I meant he "has" won in the previous post.

Also, Rasmussen's nickname is chicken legs since he has such skinny legs. Now how can you not root for a guy with a nickname like that?

Boomhauertjs said...

"The irony is that no sports fans in the country might want a championship more than Philly fans."

43 years and counting here in Cleveland.

TBender said...

99 years and counting in Wrigleyville.

verbal97 said...

What's the big deal with 10000 losses. I guess it's a cool milestone. Not dissimilar to a grocery chain getting their 1 millionth customer. But all it proves is that the Phillies have been around for a long, long time. Does anyone know the franchise winning pct?

Also, if Simmons can't make fun of the WNBA, he'd have NOTHING outside of Boston sports left to write about. He should leave, but given the fact that his workload is getting less and less while his salary, presumably, goes up, he probably won't.

Unknown said...

Just for stats' sake, club leaders in all-time losses:
1. Philadelphia Phillies - 10000
2. Atlanta Braves - 9681
3. Chicago Cubs - 9425
4. Pittsburgh Pirates - 9342
5. Cincinnati Reds - 9341
6. St. Louis Cardinals - 9158
7. Los Angeles Dodgers - 8932
8. San Francisco Giants - 8684
9. Baltimore Orioles - 8629
10. Minnesota Twins - 8557

For the flip side, all-time wins:
1. San Francisco Giants - 10151
2. Chicago Cubs - 9947
3. Los Angeles Dodgers - 9846
4. St. Louis Cardinals - 9806
5. Atlanta Braves - 9662
6. Cincinnati Reds - 9637
7. Pittsburgh Pirates - 9596
8. New York Yankees - 9334
9. Philadelphia Phillies - 8810
10. Boston Red Sox - 8499

So, I very much doubt the Phillies will be the only ones to ever get 10000 losses.

Looks like the Cubs could hit 10000 wins this year, if they go on a ridiculous hot streak (or make the playoffs and win 11 games there...)

CMFost said...

The Phillies all time record is 8,810-10,000

Unknown said...

This whole 10,000 loss thing is so overblown. Baseball has been played for over 100 years now and they play 162 games per year. So of the oldest teams, the team with the lowest winning pct. will be the first to lose some number of games. Who cares?

I am curious which statistician raised issue to begin with. It seems all the mainstream media picked up on it. Do we know which NFL, NBA or NHL team is the team with the most losses? Do we care?

TBender said...

The Braves should get to 10000 losses by 2012. (And that's losing only 60 games a year.)

I just noticed an oddity. If Cincinnati is the oldest team, shouldn't they have played in the most games? They're 400 short of Chicago.

Mega said...

Philly and Cleveland fans have been wanting a championship more than fans of other cities for longer, there is absolutely no doubt about this in my mind at all.

Some fans of some teams (example, the Cubs) may have been waiting longer, but showing up at a ballgame to drink the country's most foul smelling stadium (Wrigley) doesn't constitute loyalty. It constitutes buying into the Tribune Co's hype machine about being "lovable".

Brian in Oxford said...

With the Phillies, we're really celebrating the fact that humans have 10 fingers and toes (well, except for that double-amputee runner there).

If humans had 8 fingers and toes, our math would all be base-eight, and the Phillies would have lost 23,420 games at this point.

And Hank Aaron would have hit 1,363 homers.

CMFost said...

I believe the Blackhawks have the most NHL losses.

Big D said...

@ cycledan:

Thanks to Sportscenter, yes, we now know which NBA/NHL/NFL teams have the most losses:

Warriors, Blackhawks, Cardinals.

Warriors & Blackhawks were both somewhere in the 2500 range (with a winning % of about .465), Cardinals were at about 650 losses (with a % of about .408).

Cool stat though - If you combine all the losses, total, for all NFL teams, it's 10,911. The Phillies are closing in on eclipsing the total losses of an entire league. Now THAT'S some futility.

(No, I do no count fake leagues like the USFL, AFL, XFL, WNBA, NBDL, etc.)

Luke Bell said...

Also, when you talk years without a championship, Chicago is out of the running, what with the Sox a few years back and those Bulls teams you might remember. I would give the nod to Cleveland myself, but maybe I am just partial to Major League.

Big D said...

Also, thanks to Clinton in Indy and cmfost for those WSOP updates. The firewall at the office blocks out all poker sites, even "news" types. I was disappointed to see that Scotty Ngyuen didn't make the final 9 though.

Let me say from my own (modest) WSOP experience that weaving through 6400-ish players in a tournament like that is ridiculous.

Even if the tournament is broken down with staggered play so you "only" have to play about 3/5 of the field at any given time, you're still going to have to play nearly perfect poker, and still get lucky 3 or 4 times, minimum.

I didn't even try this year. Sadly.

Michael said...

i thought Cleveland won a title in the 80's with Vaughn and Taylor and Hays. Didn't they make a movie about it. What a wacky misguided group of wannabees they were were but some how they pulled it together and beat the odds!!

Anonymous said...

Just another stat correction, but I am pretty sure the East beat the West last year in the WNBA all star game.

The heroin sheik said...

In honor of the Blunts 10000th loss sportsnation has a poll to see who is the next biggest loser. Ok I can understand how you can put the Rangers or the royals on there as they have been around a while but it isn't fair to put the devil rays on that list. It is only our tenth year. We haven't sucked long enough to truly be losers. Granted we get compared with the the Marlins and the Diamondbacks who won titles quickly. Still historic losers like the Cubs are way worse than we have been. Oh yeah and Alaska can kiss my ass.

CMFost said...

Hey Sheik did you know that the Devil Rays have the lowest winning percentage of any pro team?

The heroin sheik said...

Yeah I know they suck but still it is only our tenth year. If in ten more years we haven't started winning then you can call us losers. I look at them as being little kids compared to the other teams in our division being adults. Who would be better at a job someone just starting out or someone who has been doing it a long time. Three years from now we will be the best team in our division. Hell if the Bucs sorry ass could win a Super Bowl and the Ning Stanley's cup there is hope in St Pete.

The heroin sheik said...

According to one of my friends who is into this sort of thing the Rays are the worst team in any major sport worldwide over the last ten years. He said he didn't count soccer though since they have ties. I find this hard to believe but I have better things to do than check up on that stat.

Big D said...

@ the heroin shiek:

I'm just happy to have finally met the Devil Rays' biggest supporter. And posibly the only person (D-Rays Players & employees included) who refers to the team as "us" and "we"

I'm just happy the D-Rays are in Boston's division. It's like 10 gauranteed wins a season, minimum...

Luke Bell said...

The Rays will be scary good if they can keep all their studs. Still, everything about that franchise seems goofy. Ugly stadium, ugly uniforms, even an ugly nickname (they should just be the Rays, or get rid of the Bay and just be the Tampa Devil Rays). It's like they never even got going off the right foot, and are just now slowly catching up.

The heroin sheik said...

Supposedly the name is getting changed to rays after this season. The stadium is good for two reasons. You can always get a cheap seat and walk down closer to the field and the food is actually really good and cheap. You can also bring in food and drinks. You have to call them Tampa Bay since they play across the bay in St Pete. I wish they would be called the St Pete Rays or bring back the old St Pete Saints but that won't happen because you have to market to everyone in the bay area. I am only the Rays third biggest fan after my older brother and my best friend. We have had season tix since day 1. Oh yeah the Trop is better than either shithole here in Chicago. How many MLB stadiums give you dollar dogs, and 50 cent cokes all as a charity to local schools every game. They really are a class organization doing things the right way and developing from within as all small market teams have to do. Y'all will see in a few years and remember my words.

Unknown said...

i hate to beat a dead horse but the title of the story over on espn was 'Durant, Green break out' dont think that'd have happend were he not playing

Brian in Oxford said...

One caveat, though, Sheik....

Let's say the Trop does start getting 40 thou every night. I would guess that the dollar-dog nights become fewer and further between. Those would seem like gimmicks to get folks in the ballpark.

I'm just sayin', Fenway and the Stadium don't give it away at those prices under any circumstances....because they don't have to.

How much would it cost to convert a dome into a retractable opening? Oh wait, Miami would have a shitfest if St. Pete got THAT paid for, huh?

Having said all that, it *was* nice to get affordable terrific seats to see Sox-Rays a couple of years ago, by walking up the day before the game....and be completely surrounded by Red Sox fans right behind the 3rd-base dugout.

CMFost said...

Sheik, Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play has charities run all there concession stands and a portion of all the money made at that stand goes to that charity.

Poseur said...

You left out the quirky bit in your Tour update. Patrick Sinkewitz collided with a fan, sending both to the hospital. Ouch. McEwen failed to finish in time, Freire didn't start Stage 7, and O'Grady had a spectacularly awful crash in which he suffered broken ribs and a collpased lung. Who knew the sprinter's title would be decided in the mountains?

Past the top three, none of whom can be considered real threats to win (Mayo and Rasmussen because they can't time trial and Gerdemann due to his age), there are about 12 riders all within one minute of each other. All are real contenders. It's a real tight race right now. Seriously, people. Turn on Versus. This is a great Tour.

I'm happy for the Phillies. I like that they don't think losing is cute, and they hang onto that anger and do things like boo Santa Claus. As my buddy from Philly always likes to point out, "Santa was drunk". Philly's got standards.

The heroin sheik said...

I am pretty sure that part of the Rays' lease with the city is to allow a charity for public schools the full 30 years. I think the Rays should implode the Trop and move to the waterfront somewhere and recreate Al Lang field. Only allow local restaurants to serve food. They should move half the games to noon to cater to the bluehairs. Sternberg is spending money but he could do a lot more.

Unknown said...

Poseur, didn't Sinkewitz collide with a fan after the race while riding his bike back to his hotel? I think the fan was in his 70's or 80's so probably couldn't move that fast.

Australia had a rough day. They had 6 riders in the Tour to start with and lost 4 of them on Sunday. O'Grady's crash was severe. He broke like 5 ribs and punctured his lung. Ouch! Rogers dislocated his shoulder but still rode on for a while until he realized that he couldn't. McEwen has been riding all week with injuries from his crash in stage 1 and couldn't make the time cut.

For those non-cycling fans out there (hard to believe isn't it?), riders have to finish within a certain percentage of the stage winner's time. That percentage is determined by how fast the stage was ridden and how difficult the stage was. I think if I rode as hard as I could, I would miss the time cut by 2 or 3 hours. On a mountain stage the time cut is typically around 45 minutes.

Unknown said...

A fellow Yankee fan at work was talking to me today about the TB Devil Rays. Watching them play, it is hard to believe they have the worst record in baseball. Their mid relief is awful. If the Rays had just a few more quality pitchers, they would be a .500 team at least.

What cost them the game yesterday were the little plays. Getting thrown out at 2nd base when making too large a turn was awful. The blown play in centerfield gave up a triple as part of a 4 run inning instead of being an out. Also the error by their shortstop didn't help but wasn't the worst error.

The Yanks did the little things right. A-Rod let that bunt roll foul and grabbed it before it could hook back. Cabrerra's throw to 2nd to get the runner was also key to that play. In a 1-run game, it is those little things that decide the outcome.

chitown italian said...

MLB Dud: Bonds

Let's hope it stays that way while he's in Wrigley. The Cubs love having records posted against them! Boo Bonds, Boo!

chitown italian said...

Don't pick on the Cubbies just because we have the best looking fans in baseball. That is unless you sissy's don't like girls!

And Old Style kicks ass (at least since Hamm's went out of business)!

Poseur said...

Yup. a post-race crash. Sinkewitz broke his nose and has some chipped teeth according to news reports, and the 78 year old fan is in a coma. Which is pretty horrible news.

Oh, and to be Ameri-centric, Levi Leipheimer is still very much in contention.

Melbye said...

Dan, for those of us that are not big time NBA'ers, please explain the "bigness" that is summer league? They are not playing against all the normal guys, its like a normal summer league, kind of pick up stuff against other 1st, 2nd & 3rd year players (the not good ones). I just don't see the importance of it for everyone to get all ooing and ahhing about?

Run the develpment league from the time the finals end until the beginning of the regular season and have these new guys go play in that league for a month or so...let them get beat up and worn down and then they might attract a little buzz with their play and understand themselves what the grind of an 84 game season is like...

Anonymous said...

Watch the events you "cover". Jeebus.

Summer League is garbage.

Durant hit on what, 9 of 18? 50% shooting is no good? Really?

This just in LA beat Chicago in their WUSA match this weekend. Oh wait, that league's defunct? News to me.








(s)

Unknown said...

Hey Shanoff I hate to disagree with you but Curt Schilling through a complete game 1 hitter before getting injured. Last time I checked complete game 1 hitters (with the last hit coming in the 9th with 2 outs) is better than a 3 hitter.