The Drubbing

While most people either took a night off from sports, or watched the Home Run Derby on mute (Berman, Morgan, McCarver, Buck…yikes a quad of annoyance).  I DVR’ed the derby and strolled down a few blocks from my Chicago condo to see a new Gatorade commercial.  It was actually pretty cool.  The setting is an old run down basketball court underneath the El tracks (that is the elevated train tracks to you non-Chicago-ans).  There were about a thousand Gatorade bottles arranged to display Michael Jordan doing his split legged dunk.  They used different flavored bottles to project a different color.  When a train passed from overhead, the producers got the crowd clapping and cheering, as the crew that assembled the picture jumped up and down and congratulated each other.

See the attached pictures below which i captured with my iPhone.  They lit up the lights when the train passed by, which really made the outline of MJ pop out:

The cycling world, and those following the action to see what Lance Armstrong does, have been treated to some great racing through the first eight stages of this years Tour de France. Armstrong riding with team Astana is currently in third place after stage 8 which concluded today in Saint Girons in Southern France. Armstrong’s rival, and teammate, Alberto Contador is two seconds ahead in second place.
Continue reading “Tour update – Armstrong not in yellow, yet” →

Weekly poll recap:

Given the chance which race would you participate in?

80% said the Sausage race, 20% the Triatholon, and the Boston Marathon got zero love.

Now on to the links:

This is BIG news, regarding the World Cup.  But what i want to know is, who at the AP did the numeric write-up? We got dollars per hr, week and month all compared to each other as well as a wage increase of 13% compared to a 65%.

Last weekend was the anniversary of one of the greatest baseball speeches ever.  The original iron man.

One of the Drubbing’s favorite Eastern European tennis players has undergone some reduction surgery.  To quote Seth from Superbad, “That’s like slapping God across the face for giving you a beautiful gift.”

Anthony Kim hits a 1 and a million shot.

Vote for Pablo.  Not just because he is on my fantasy baseball team, but its a great video.

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

Chuck Norris’s blood type is D.O.A.

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

May 2010 “Mr. Torre, it looks like you broke another one”.

A couple of weeks ago, I looked back at the article I wrote about last year’s rookie hitters. So for today’s treat, we’ll check in with those rookie pitcher’s from last year that I previewed before the year. If you missed last year’s article, you can find it

here. So without further ado, here we go first with the chart I included in the first article, followed by the chart showing this year’s stats:

Continue reading “A look back at the rookie pitchers we previewed before the season” →

Nope, this show isn’t on Fox, nor is it on the World Wide Leader.  Now that the TNT Crew is hibernating until the start of he next NBA season, the best show on TV is the MLB channel’s MLB tonight trifecta – Batting Practice, 1st and 3rd, and Round Tripper.  I am not a spokesman for Direct TV, but if you are a sports fan and you have the option, there is no reason you shouldn’t get the Dish.  It is worth it for the NFL package alone, but the addition of MLB TV makes the service that much more enjoyable.

I won’t lie, i enjoyed Baseball tonight on the World Wide Leader back when they had Karl, Kruk and Harold “motorboating” Reynolds.  John Kruk would have Harold laughing so hard with his commentary that good ole Ravech would have to use fillers until Harold got control of himself to add in a few comments.  A few weeks ago after work i stumbled upon the MLB channel and instantly fell in love.  The format is priceless.  There are 3 shows.  Essentially all are the same, showing highlights of the nights action, adding in some commentary, live look-ins, plays of the night and even some baseball tips.  But what makes the format so great, is that because this is basically 3+ hours of just updates it can get very boaring and old if you had the same people talking.  MLB uses 3 different lineups of commentators, so they come at you in waves, each fresh and ready to just talk baseball.  The lineup includes such former players as Billy Ripken, Mitch Williams, Harold “motorboating” Reynolds, Sean Casey, Barry Larkin and others.

Now, to tell you the truth, this is the only thing i knew about good ole Billy Ripken.  And man alive did i try to collect that sucker when i was younger.  Apparently Billy has a lot more to offer than an infamous baseball card, he is actually pretty entertaining and knowledgeable.  The other night i watched Billy root on as 2 managers got tossed out of their respective games.  It was great.

I have no rooting interest in the Phillies, but it is nice to see Mitch Williams alive.  I felt bad for the guy after game 6. A few nights ago Mitch was showing how to throw a knuckleball, and he was tossing perfect, no-spin balls in the studio.  Key to remember boys and girls, do not follow through like you would a fast ball.

Lastly, I now understand why everyone in baseball likes Sean “The Mayor” Casey.  The guy is hysterical.  On the show it looks like he has an IV of Red Bull, as he is bouncing off the walls.  A few nights ago the Marlins were playing and during the highlights they showed a fan in the outfield stands wearing a full on Chewbacca outfit.  Showing that fan multiple times like they did made me chuckle, having Sean Casey mimic Chewy’s roar every time they showed the fan had me crying with laughter.

Easy Harold, no means no.

So i implore you to switch to Direct TV if only for the MLB Channel.  Whats not to like about great commentary from former baseball players who are excited to be on the air and know what they are talking about? Nothing.  So as long as the network can keep Harold away from Hazel Mae, they should be in good shape.

As noted before, there’s no doubt that LeBron James will be going to New York Knicks when his contract in Cleveland is up. No other city can offer LeBron what New York can. Between basketball, business and celebrity, New York was made for James. But as we’ve seen with other premier athletes, one sport can only keep them occupied for so long. Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson and the 45, Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

So how long will the NBA, Nike, Coke, Microsoft and State Farm be able to keep LeBron occupied. If recent history is any indication, we may not have long to wait. Jordan needed a break once he got to 30. Which gives LeBron six more years until he needs a change.
Continue reading “Only six more years until LeBron suits up for the New York Giants” →

How do you teach a young man how to be a responsible member of society and be accountable for your actions? By suing Duke University when they get kicked off the golf team of course. But I guess that’s what we should expect from a “student athlete” that embodies the stereotypes often associated with the Duke University student body.
Continue reading “Want some cheese with that whine?” →

Would this man force more errors if he could make contact with the ball?

Perhaps more than any other sport baseball is subject to the cliché. With so many games a year and so many hours of radio/television coverage for each of those games, things get repeated a lot. As with anything else, once something gets repeated enough people begin to accept it as true. It is an amazing thing about the human mind, once we hear something a few times, as long as it seems logical, we accept it. One of them has been bothering me for a while, and until now I didn’t have a way of looking at it. Thanks to the magic of baseball-reference.com, now I can.

Whenever someone like Ichiro, Torii Hunter, or Jose Reyes reaches first on an infield error one of the announcers will inevitably say “That shows you how speed forces defenses to rush which creates more errors”. This sounds perfectly logical. If I am at shortstop and Usain Bolt is running to first I know that I have to hurry the throw. However, because I tend to overthink things I always wondered if it was true.

Before I explain the methodology I used, let me first admit that it is not perfect. I took two different sets of data and looked at the statistics as best as I could. It is rudimentary statistical analysis at best, and would not qualify to be published in any scholarly journal. However, it can give us some illustration of what is going on So here goes.
Continue reading “Does speed force more errors?” →

Chuck’s links will now contain our weekly poll recap results:

Who will be the MLB Home Run leader at the end of the season?

5 votes for Pujols, 2 for Howard 1 for Carlos Pena.

Now on to the links:

MJ & MJ.

Binoculars, soccer, and an Asian game show = hysterical.

This is tremendous.  TO gets cursed out by a model and has zero comeback.

Big man fall hard.  Poor Houston.

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

Stan Van (or SVG if you prefer) is never one to shy away from controversy or put his nose where it doesn’t belong. His latest victim, the NCAA. In a post-game interview after an NBA Finals loss, Van Gundy called the NCAA “about the worst organization going.” And called the NBA’s age limit “a sham.” Every organization has their own set of problems, some more than others, but Stan has gone a little far here, as usual.

I have my own issues with the NCAA, several of them in fact. But the NBA (flagrant fouls), MLB (steroids), NHL (Gary Bettman), NFL (protecting quarterbacks), NASCAR (Chase for the Sprint Cup), PGA (FedEx Cup) are no gems themselves. So to label the NCAA the worst organization out there is just a slight exaggeration.
Continue reading “Stan Van Gundy hates the NCAA” →