Category: Sports

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Haters please do something else

The Internet is a good thing when all things are considered. It has done a lot to improve the world and to make it smaller for all of us. The Internet also has a dark side especially if people attack something you like. Those kind of people I call “haters”. They don’t like something so much they spend their time online letting everyone know it. I can’t understand why they must tell me they are a hater. I just wish they would go do something else.

I was watching the Cleveland Browns vs the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football and decided to do something different and read tweets during the game. I had to stop. I know the Browns suck this season (oh man do I KNOW) and MNF games are usually boring but this game was better than some of the others this season for the Browns. Tweet after tweet cracked on the Browns and the game. I understand tweets complaining about certain plays or ref calls but most were just mean toward the team itself. One person tweeted that the Browns shouldn’t be allowed to play on Monday night.

Why waste time typing a tweet to tell all of us you hate the team? Shut up and do something else.

The haters also seem to show up in comment sections of web site articles.

I am a fan of Saturday Night Live and have been since the 1st season in 1976. There are times the jokes are flat, the host stinks, and other times when it is laugh out loud funny. For a live show the cast and crew do a good job overall.

There was an article this week complaining about the previous week’s host and to be honest the show was flatter than usual. Fine, offer some complaints and others will defend or support those comments. Instead there were many who posted comments along the lines of:

Is that show still on? I stopped watching in 1988. Thanks for the recap letting me know it still sucks.

or

Mad TV did the same thing in season 8 and it was funny

Basically if you are not a fan or have never watched the show why waste time posting a comment.

I can think of many things to do if I don’t like something. One is to avoid it. Telling everyone how much I hated it would be wasting time.

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Why real life sports reporting is like my fantasy football team

This past week the Cleveland Browns traded Braylon Edwards to the Jets. Edwards was formerly the 3rd pick overall in the NFL draft and was a Pro Bowl selection is 2007. It seems some experts in sports reporting let that fact cloud their analysis of the trade.

Bob Hunter, a sports columnist for The Columbus Dispatch wrote in his Friday column:

Many of the Browns were concerned about how trading a potential game-breaking receiver, who was a former No. 3 overall draft pick, for a so-so receiver, a special-teams player and two draft picks, believed to be third- and fifth-rounders, makes a bad team better.

Bob Hunter commentary: Rumblings 

Those of us who follow the team on a regular basis know why he was traded and this fan is glad they did something with Edwards. In 2008, he had the league top spot in dropped passes at 16. It was excruciating watching time after time Edwards drop a pass. This season he seemed to be improving but he still lacked the supposed game-breaking potential and he then got into trouble at a nightclub at 2:30 in the morning the day after the team lost their last game.

I’m glad Edwards had time to party after the loss…. 

It reminded me of a long bus trip home when I was on our high school football team as a senior. We had just lost the game but from the laughs and high jinks by the lads on the bus that night you wouldn’t think we did. One of the coaches had enough he stood up and yelled “You just lost a game! Act like it…”

So how is the Edwards situation and Hunter’s reaction to it like my fantasy football team?

Well I have a habit of drafting big names from the previous season who then do squat this season and then I can’t bring myself to dump them because “they scored 10 TDs in 2008!” as if their lack of stats this season will turn around. I can’t waste time on dead weight. Its “what have you done lately” that most coaches operate on and Edwards had his chance through the preseason and 4 games to show he could do better. He didn’t and the team decided to get what they could for him on the market.

Such tunnel vision can effect even TV people paid to watch the games.

During one Browns game one of the CBS commentators complained when Brady Quinn was pulled from the game – “he’s 6 of 8 for 34 yards!” seeming to forget that 6 of 8 for 34 yards before half time is almost the same as being 0 for 8 for a quarterback. Those stats aren’t going to win the game and the coaches were right to pull Quinn from the game. The team still lost the game but Derrick Anderson seemed to spark the team a little bit more than before.

Sometimes, changing teams is better for the player. If Edwards returns to his game-breaking potential we saw in 2007 while on the Jets then good for him, but I still wouldn’t feel bad for the Browns because he wasn’t the same player he was in 2007 and it didn’t look like that Edwards was going to show up this season either.

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Findlay Youth Baseball always a fun time

A friend of mine posted a note on his blog about the upcoming youth baseball season in Findlay. It gave me a chuckle. Like the youth soccer program, the baseball program was something we did when I was a kid. All my friends were in it so I did it too. It was also a good low cost way to have fun in the poor economic times my family lived in.

I played in the junior league for my first time out at organized baseball. I had a new mitt not even broken in when I went to the try outs. Being a youth league the try out was a mere formality as if you showed any skill they put you on a team.

When I was 13 I moved up to the Major Youth League. I was drafted into the GM Red Sox. Many on the team were classmates and friends I had known since elementary school. Our coach was the Phys Ed teacher at Glenwood Jr. High – Mr. Nichols. I played outfield and batted 9th and even then I stunk. My fielding was good. I could throw the ball to the infield but I couldn’t hit for crap. During my two seasons I had two base hits. Now why wasn’t I on the All-Star team at the end of the season…..

The funniest bit happened the year i found out I needed glasses.

Mr. Nichols was trying to help me in my batting. During practice he called me over and held a ball in his hand.

“Hit this out of my hand,” he said.

“What?”

“Hit the ball out of my hand.”

So I took my stance and swung away, smashing the bat into his hand. I heard some curse words I never heard before. What he forgot to tell me was not to take a full power swing but to go slow and so he could see my swing. Instead I nearly broke his hand and I wanted to fall over dead right there.

Ahhh, memories.

As Mark says in his blog post:

I would hope that you will encourage your kids, grand kids, nieces & nephews to join in the fun that is Findlay Youth Baseball. And, it isn’t just for kids. Adults can volunteer to help out as well. Umpiring, coaching or keeping a score book for the team of your little ball player are ways you can positively impact the life of a youngster. I promise you that it is very rewarding.

FYB: a new season

Yes, indeed.

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