khandor’s sports blog

On Tuesday, SI.com published its review of owners in the NFL, MLB, NBA & NHL, listing both the top 5 and the bottom 5 in each of these leagues. These are the bottom 5’s, respectively:

[Number Rank, Owner, Franchise, Purchase Year, Purchase Price, Current Value, Winning %, Playoff Seasons, Championship Season]

National Football League
5 Denise DeBartolo York, 49ERS, 2000, N/A, $865 M, .417, 2, 0
4 Mike Brown, BENGALS, 1991, N/A, $941 M, .351, 1, 0
3 Dan Snyder, REDSKINS, 1999, $750 M, $1,538 M, .488, 3, 0
2 William Clay Ford, LIONS, 1964, $5 M, $917 M, .411, 9, 0
1 Al Davis, RAIDERS, 1966, $180,000, $861 M, .569, 21, 4 

Major League Baseball
5 Ted Lerner, NATIONALS, 2006, $450 M, $406 M, .419, 0, 0
4 Jeffrey Loria, MARLINS, 2002, $158 M, $277 M, .502, 1, 1
3 David Glass, ROYALS, 1993, $96 M, $ 314 M, .432, 0, 0
2 Tom Hicks, RANGERS, 1998, $250 M, $405 M, .489, 2, 0
1 Peter Angelos, ORIOLES, 1993, $173 M, $400 M, .486, 2, 0

National Basketball Association
5 R-Johnson/M-Jordan, BOBCATS, 2004, $300 M, $284 M, .417, 0, 0
4 Chris Cohan, WARRIORS, 1991, $130 M, $335 M, .409, 3, 0
3 Michael Heisley, GRIZZLIES, 2000, $160 M, $294 M, .388, 3, 0
2 Cablevision/J-Dolan, KNICKS, 1997, $300 M, $613 M, .439, 7, 0
1 Donald Sterling, CLIPPERS, 1981, $12.5 M, $297 M, .341, 4, 0

National Hockey League
5 Predator Holdings LLC, PREDATORS, 2007, $193 M, $164 M, .499, 1, 0
4 Atlanta Spirit, HAWKS, 2004, $80 M, $158 M, .519, 1, 0
3 Charles Wang, ISLANDERS, 2000, $187.5 M, $154 M, .416, 4, 0
2 Alan Cohen, PANTHERS, 2001, $101 M, $163 M, .443, 0, 0
1 MLSE, MAPLE LEAFS, 1994, $102 M, $448 M, .471, 8, 0 

———-

Now …

Which of those 20 separate owners also happen to have a 2nd franchise in one of the other 3 leagues?

MLSE also owns the Raptors [NBA, 1998, N/A, $400 M, .454, 5, 0].

If you combine the efforts of the Maple Leafs and the Raptors, might it be accurate to say that MLSE is possibly the worst owner of them all?

Current Franchise Value: $848 M
W-L Record: 920-1984
Winning %: .464
Playoff Seasons: 13 [of 26]
Championship Seasons: 0 [of 26]

You make the call.

 Loading ...

A seminal article, by Malcolm Gladwell, for the benefit of team sport coaches everywhere:

How David Beats Goliath
This is the second half of the insurgent’s creed. Insurgents work harder than Goliath. But their other advantage is that they will do what is “socially horrifying”—they will challenge the conventions about how battles are supposed to be fought. All the things that distinguish the ideal basketball player are acts of skill and coördination. When the game becomes about effort over ability, it becomes unrecognizable—a shocking mixture of broken plays and flailing limbs and usually competent players panicking and throwing the ball out of bounds. You have to be outside the establishment—a foreigner new to the game or a skinny kid from New York at the end of the bench—to have the audacity to play it that way. George Washington couldn’t do it. His dream, before the war, was to be a British Army officer, finely turned out in a red coat and brass buttons. He found the guerrillas who had served the American Revolution so well to be “an exceeding dirty and nasty people.” He couldn’t fight the establishment, because he was the establishment.

T. E. Lawrence, by contrast, was the farthest thing from a proper British Army officer. He did not graduate with honors from Sandhurst. He was an archeologist by trade, a dreamy poet. He wore sandals and full Bedouin dress when he went to see his military superiors. He spoke Arabic like a native, and handled a camel as if he had been riding one all his life. And David, let’s not forget, was a shepherd. He came at Goliath with a slingshot and staff because those were the tools of his trade. He didn’t know that duels with Philistines were supposed to proceed formally, with the crossing of swords. “When the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the herd, I would go out after him and strike him down and rescue it from his clutches,” David explained to Saul. He brought a shepherd’s rules to the battlefield.

The price that the outsider pays for being so heedless of custom is, of course, the disapproval of the insider.

===================================

Outstanding stuff, right there.

This is a quote from yesterday’s Toronto Star newspaper, concerning a new sports book titled, “The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching and Life on the Mound”, by Ron Darling.

—————————————
“This book is not a traditional baseball memoir,” writes Darling, who broke into the majors with the New York Mets in 1983 and currently works as a television analyst, a good one at that. “It’s not a wistful reflection on a workmanlike career. I haven’t set out to tell the story of my life or my time in the game. Rather, it’s an attempt to bring readers inside the mind of a major-league pitcher – to break the game of baseball down to its component parts and to offer my take on each piece so that we might better understand the whole. One inning at a time, one pitch at a time – because every pitch is different.”
—————————————

The vast majority of sports fans are absolutely clueless when it comes to understanding exactly how a top flight athlete, and/or a coach, actually “thinks” about the game which s/he plays.

Top flight athletes and coaches look at the game …

One Possession at a time, in basketball
One Possession at a time, in soccer
One Possession at a time, in hockey
One Pitch at a time, in baseball
One Play at a time, in North American football
etc., etc., etc.

They do NOT look at the game in terms of “seasonal averages”, or “career averages”, or “appropriate sample sizes”, etc..

To focus on these types of “measures”, exclusively, or at the expense of actual expertise, when it comes to understanding how exactly a specific sport/game works in real life, is simply a waste of time.

Each and every game in a season has considerable meaning attached to it.

It’s up to each separate observer to ascertain with accuracy what that is.

Those who do that consistently … get it.

Those who can’t do THAT consistently … do not.

It’s as simple and, at-once, as complicated as THAT. : )

[ ... and, yours truly thinks that certain astute individuals like Dave, Scott G., Raps Fan, AltRaps, etc., understand exactly what is meant by those words, right there ↑↑↑, despite THE FACT that numerous others DO NOT. Life's not fair in that sense, either, but ... That's [also] Just the Way It Is. ]

A-Rod allegations: This is baseball’s worst nightmare
[Part I: On telling fibs to Agents of the US Federal Gov't]
It’s not surprising the game’s highest-paid player would try to skirt the system in 2003. What was more surprising out of the SI report was the suggestion that Gene Orza, the players unions No. 2 man, may have tipped off Rodriguez about tests. If it was done once, why not twice? The Major League Baseball Players Association should never be in the position to play sheriff, but it damned straight ought not to be an abettor, either.

“That’s the kind I’d like to buy,” Rush said. “It’s way, way fast. I tested it in Germany and it’s automatically five-tenths of a second faster. What I have is a standard sled. There’s a company in Germany called Dresden and they cookie-cut sleds. You’ll see guys buy those, and then start doing things to them. They know how to do little tricks and stuff. Me? I’m clueless. After four years I know how to do little things to make the sled how I like it, but I don’t know how to make it fast. There’s after-market companies that take your sled and supe it up. But that custom kind of work is expensive. What I have is a stock sled. I want a suped up sled.”

===================================

The need to be suped up in some way is one of the problems plaguing our society today … whether it be in Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, the NFL, Formula One, NASCAR, Bobsled Racing, or just everyday life … rather than having earned one’s own way to the top of the podium, gradually, over time, with authentic blood, sweat & tears.

This corner, on the other hand, much prefers a different course of action … which builds [a home, or business, or otherwise] brick by brick, board by board.

Here it is …

 Loading ...

Use the comments section to explain your views.

Thanks to Graydon Gordian (Hardwood Paroxysm; 48 Minutes Of Hell) for re-introducing this corner to yet another All-Time Classic …

RIP, Mr. Carlin.

18-1. 

Did the better team win the game on Sunday?

Maybe.

http://www.bettorsworld.com/web/forums/showthread.php?t=28484

When your team can (i) run the ball, (ii) stop the run, and (iii) rush the passer … amazing things can happen on a football field.

There were 5 crucial plays in this game which went the way of the New York Giants and, in large part, determined the eventual outcome:

4 featured outstanding deeds by individual members of the Giants …

1. Ahmad Bradshaw’s ‘fumble recovery’ … instead of a created turnover for New England;
2. Ahmad Bradshaw’s ‘batted ball’ … instead of a created turnover for New England;
3. Eli Manning’s ‘miracle sack escape’, on the game-winning drive;
4. David Tyree’s ‘miracle catch’ … holding on to the ball with one hand only, squeezed against the top of his helmut - despite a ‘valiant effort’ by Rodney Harrison to break-up the pivotal play - on the game-winning drive;

1 featured a vital ‘Opportunity Lost’ by an individual member of the Patriots …

1. Asante Samuel’s ‘failed interception’ attempt, that went right through his two hands, on the game-winning drive by New York.

In the end, the ‘Sporting Gods’ failed to smile on the Patriots, this day, handing them a cruel defeat … 1 play short of accomplishing their Dream … whilest staring into the grizzled face of ‘pro sports history’.

http://www.bettorsworld.com/web/forums/showthread.php?t=28511&page=2

What a terrific ballgame!

Three days prior to kick-off, the ’side number’ for this game looks pretty accurate to me … NE -12.5

e.g. if it’s -14.5 or more, I’m all over the G-men, going for their 11th consecutive cover on the road; if it’s -12 or lower, anytime prior to kick-off, I’m gonna have to hit the Pats, hard; and, if it stays between -12.5 and -14, that’s a very dicey call, either way, from where I’m perched, right now … i.e. in the catbird’s seat, +27.7 units on the NFL season to-date.

How have the Giants been able to mask their apparent weaknesses in the Defensive Secondary, against each of the Bays, in their playoff victories?

IMO, the ‘uncomplicated’ answer is … their Front 7, right now, is as good (read, as … super athletic, physical and fierce) as any group in the league, today, anchored by Strahan and propelled by young’ns Umenyiora, Tuck & Torbor (etc.) … as is their Running Game with the tandem backs combo, Bradshaw (speed) & Jacobs (power).

While I can see several different scenarios unfolding in this game … the one which gives me the most pause to tread lightly in assessing this match-up, right now, is the still uncertainty involved with that protective boot Tom Brady was wearing (unexpectedly?) last week, and the effect his injury has had on the amount of reps he’s taken, since then, with his usual ‘Gang of Marauders on Offense’ (i.e. re: the cohesiveness of their ’spread’ & ‘hurry-up’ passing attack vs the Giants pass rush and their situational subs).

Giants defense prepares for dancing Brady

IMO, if Tom Brady is completely healthy, and in his customary rhythm with Moss, Welker, Faulk & Co., I don’t see New England scoring less than 35 pts in this game … which should be enough to win and get the cover, if the number stays where it’s at today (-12.5) and the Giants’ Special Teams don’t return any kicks for TDs …

but, if his timing is thrown off, by his inactivity since the Chargers’ game, even just a little bit, then there’s every possibility for the G-Men’s Front 7 to hold down the fort again, like they did against the respective Bays …

in which case …

it will then fall, once more, at the feet of the Pats’ veteran Defensive Unit, led by Bruschi, Vrabel, Seymour, Harrison and (my 2nd favourite defensive player in NFL history, Mr. Junior) ‘Old Man’ Seau … to play the type of “tough, physical, smash-mouth” football, they are capable of, in the Red Zone, as though this was, in fact, the FINAL GAME of their pro careers! …. hmmmmmm???

… and, thereby, avoid the (cruel?) hand-of-fate which befell the St. Louis Rams, Feb 3, 2002 (6 years ago, to the day) when, as very healthy 14-pt favorites, they succumbed to an upstart team, led by an inexperienced QB, who completed 16 of 27 passes that day - for 145 yards with 1 TD - and marched his team down the field for the game winning score, while being named Super Bowl MVP.

Which way will things play out this Sunday?

IMO, this group of Patriots will only go as far as Tom Brady’s health & Junior Seau’s heart can take them.

In the end, will it be enough?

Only (Father) time can truly tell … but, right now, it seems to me as though Destiny is calling out their names, Here & Now.

19-0.

There are 4 playoff matchups scheduled for this weekend, with the following wagering lines:

Sat Jan 12 2008
GREEN BAY -9 Seattle
NEW ENGLAND -13.5 Jacksonville

Sun Jan 13 2008
INDIANAPOLIS -9.5 San Diego
DALLAS -7.5 NY Giants

Visit www.khandorsports.com to view my results for the entire 2007-2008 NFL season and to purchase a selection for this weekend:

NFL - GAME OF THE WEEK
11-7, 61%
+16.5 Units

NFL - FREE PICKS
18-8-3, 69%
+9.2 Units

NFL - MONDAY NIGHT
7-5, 58%
+1.5 Units