C-Cap Recap: Salazar Slays the Rays
April 14, 2016Fun with Lineups: The Cleveland Cavaliers
April 15, 2016It’s Friday. Johnny Manziel got cancelled by his agent. Josh Gordon isn’t re-instated. The Cavaliers are idle as they prepare for Detroit this weekend. The Indians are playing in a way that makes me pretty happy, but let’s just talk about a bunch of other multimedia stuff. Cool?
What happens when you attach a chainsaw to a drone?
The Internet is for answering the questions you didn’t even think you wanted to have about the world.
The cookie cutter retirement of Kobe Bryant and why it didn’t fit…
Much like Bode, I had major issues with the year-long Kobe Bryant retirement tour, marketing and media extravaganza. So, I podcasted about it.
What’s it like to catch knuckleballs from RA Dickey?
Forget about calling balls and strikes. What must it be like to catch the knuckler? This is a year old, but it’s great for seeing how the knuckler “dances.”
I had Albert Belle on the brain this week, so here’s a highlight…
Albert Belle came to mind for me with the whole Kobe Bryant thing. Whether or not you agree with that association, here’s Albert Belle doing the thing that he did that made at least one fan-base love him almost unconditionally. Albert was a monster at the plate and gave us a lot of highlights. This one is against Armando Benitez in the 1996 ALDS.
What an at-bat. What a shot. What a hitter.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
From distance!
Lastly, the League of Legends North American Finals happen Sunday at 3 p.m….
I’m sure a few of you heard me admit that I actually not only play League of Legends, but I also watch professional games. I’m ready to admit it. I not only understand this game, but I get sucked into professional matches. On the podcast I mentioned that I once tuned in because there was a collegiate match between Boston University and Harvard, in which the Terriers smoked the Crimson. It’s interesting to me. It’s hyper-competitive. It’s produced pretty well and they have a really good announcer adding tension and excitement to the broadcasts. Even if you don’t understand it all, maybe check out this video and see what I’m talking about. These are some of the highlights.
The Finals start at 3 PM on Sunday. The Cavs also play Sunday at 3:00 p.m., but I’ll be watching it all on the small screen with lots and lots of others.
24 Comments
When Gordon picks you from a hit and skip, you win the bdag bingo.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3539077/Johnny-Manziel-passenger-hit-run-accident-Drake-s-best-friend.html
But, when Kathy Griffin calls the cops on you, you’ve won the dbag lottery…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3541779/Johnny-Manziel-trashed-4-5million-LA-house-causing-32-000-worth-damage-drug-fueled-night-party.html
This dude is a never ending spewing fountain of idiocy.
Can I hijack and ask a question? Are eSports really sports? What is a sport? I have struggled with this for years. It seems that anything that is competitive and involves some level of skill gets branded a sport.
Poker
Dancing with the Stars
Racing (cars and horses specifically)
now eSports
Can’t brain today.
I have the Fridayz.
Admittedly super confused by the Kobe Bryant-Albert Belle comparison. Attitude-wise, neither was much in the way of a friend-maker, but it stops there. Belle was a power hitter on one of the best teams in the history of the game for a stretch of years, but isn’t even in the top 50 in home runs. Kobe has five championships, an MVP, 18 All-Star appearances, was first team All NBA (effectively one of the top two guards) 11 times, All defensive first team nine times, a two-time scoring champion, and twice named MVP of the finals.
Was there a lot of marketing and planning and pandering over the last year? Sure. But one could argue that Kobe deserved a retirement tour *more* than Derek Jeter (this doesn’t even mention how much Kobe is clearly ahead of Mo Rivera and Orttiz). To put Bryant in the same discussion/tier as Albert Belle seems to short-change what he has done over his career.
M-W defines it as “a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other”. In which case, I would say eSports are indeed a sport. As is racing. And golf. And competitive dancing.
Poker is the one I’m not sure qualifies. There’s no skill involved in the physical activity (unless you want to count controlling your ticks and tells, I suppose). Poker is more a mental game than a sport to me.
Some might scoff at the “physical activity” aspect of video games, but it has been shown that reaction time and “thumb skill” are inherent skills that some people have and some do not. Video games are nowhere near as physically demanding as sports like football, basketball, soccer, hockey, wrestling, boxing, etc. Nobody would claim that. But I would definitely argue that “eSports” are most definitely true sports.
Personally, I think there needs to be some kind of physical component. Poker? No. DwtS? Yes. Racing? Some would say this doesn’t require anything physical, but drivers will tell you otherwise, so I say yes. eSports? Get off my lawn.
I would argue that reaction time and “thumb skill” are just what you say = skills. Not physical activities. Otherwise thumbwrestling would be considered a sport.
separating out the last part. Bryant is clearly ahead of Rivera and Ortiz. I don’t think these year-long things should be for many players and none of those three qualify IMO.
not that it matters, it is going to become the standard going forward.
None of which three?
It’s not about accomplishment. It’s about pure popularity and complexity of image. The whole marketing-driven retirement tour should be reserved for accomplished players who also demand to be celebrated by their universal popularity and appeal. I argue that when a somewhat divisive star like Kobe Bryant – a guy who doesn’t even have friends in the NBA admittedly – is run through the same filter as Derek Jeter that maybe we’re force feeding it to the point that it is completely contrived and loses its meaning.
Kobe, Ortiz, Rivera – I don’t think any deserved a year-long send-off. Really, I wasn’t thrilled with Jeter’s etiher, but I at least understood it to a certain degree being he went beyond the game, was ambassador of the sport, and all.
Kobe never wanted friends in the NBA. He was friendly with certain people, but everyone in the NBA, to him, was competition. Not sure that should be a part of the criteria to decide who gets celebrated and who doesn’t. This day in age, we tend to rip on players who want to buddy up with friends, longing for Bird and Magic and Michael. Kobe was the last glimmer of that generation. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing, especially when the tropes used as support (Shaq, for one) ostracized himself everywhere he went.
I wouldn’t complain if someone called it a sport and someone else called it a skills competition. Even if it’s more like competitive darts than a sport with a ball, it’s something. It’s not a sport. It’s an eSport. 🙂
Matter of opinion, obviously, but you think Jeter meant more to baseball than Kobe to basketball? I couldn’t disagree more.
Fair enough.
Again, I go back to the fact that Cleveland fans didn’t get to watch him much when he was in his prime. I wonder how much different some of the sentiment here would be if he played for the Bulls or Knicks or somewhere in the ET.
We’re losing focus here. It didn’t feel authentic to me. I don’t feel that the world was behind celebrating Kobe to the level that it ended up doing so. Deserve has nothing to do with it. I don’t think anybody’s heart was in this other than some Lakers and specific Kobe fans. I feel a large portion of people were dragged along for the ride.
I watched a ton of Kobe. Wife is from SoCal and she was a Laker fan. I was in Sacramento for “Game 6” I get his on-court accomplishments, called him a Top 10 player of all-time in my post after all. Celebrating his career for a good week after the season like Peyton Manning. No problem. Cheers.
Year-long should be for the guys who went beyond the game and impacted how we think, how people behave, and have gained a certain measure of respect. If Jackie (it is Jackie Day, btw) or Doby were playing. Year-long retirement tours! But, if Pete Rose announced…
I think that’s more a product of the product. When something lasts six months, there’s bound to be a ton of dragging. I agree with you there. The Belle comparison just caught me by surprise as the only similarity I see is that they both played sports.
Not you, specifically, but many Clevelanders who tangentially followed other teams through the prism of the ones they cheer for. (i.e. only knowing Kobe for what he did to the Cavs and off-court headlines.)
See your point about the second part, but then I think you get into a weird grey, subjective area like those who think character should be a factor in the Hall of Fame (which I also feel is insane).
Yeah, I think character should not be any part of HOF discussions (tough to do considering who is already in each).
They’re both better as pure talents than as likeable figures that demand universal celebration.
Many foul words in here.
http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/kobe-bryant-goodbye-to-the-nbas-all-time-asshole-20160413