No word yet on when it will air, but good on Flores for having a sense of humor about it. If we're really lucky, Andy Katz will be able to provide some colorful commentary.
[h/t Awful Announcing, video via Extra Pine Tar]
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Robert Flores Plugs His Own Idea For An ESPN Quiz Show [Video]
Aug 16, 2012 8:20 PM
Did Performance-Enhancing Drugs Actually Help Melky Cabrera? [Melky Cabrera]
Since MLB announced Melky Cabrera's 50-game suspension for testosterone earlier this afternoon, a few folks have been crowing about what a fraud Cabrera is. Evidently Cabrera's sin is worse than the usual steroid stuff because he improved dramatically over the last two years and planned to parlay that improvement into a big new contract. Buster Olney likened him to a bank robber who forgot to gas up his getaway car, and CBS's Jon Heyman went further than that:
Maybe Melky's numbers are nothing but a mirage, anyway.
Maybe he really isn't a .346 hitter on a level playing field. Maybe he doesn't have 11 home runs playing home games in a big ballpark, or 60 RBI. Or even 13 stolen bases.
Maybe he doesn't have anywhere near those numbers without the extra help.
[...]
His career turnaround seemed too good to be true. And so it was.
Heyman couches everything in "maybes" here, but his point is essentially this: Without testosterone supplements, Melky Cabrera is a below-average player, the doughy fourth outfielder he was in New York. With them—and because of them—he's on the verge of winning a batting title.
But a closer examination of Cabrera's numbers suggests an alternate possibility: Performance-enhancing drugs haven't done much at all for his offense.
Yes, Melky's hitting .346, a full 62 points better than his career average. But everything else he's doing is in line with his usual performance. He's walking in seven percent of his plate appearances and striking out in 12 percent of them, which are the same figures he's had all his career. He's hitting line drives on 21.8 percent of his batted balls, only a slight uptick from his usual 19.7 percent mark. The 10.7 percent of his fly balls he's hitting for homers is in line with the 10.3 percent of his fly balls he hit for homers on the 2009 Yankees, back when he was supposedly a loser.
The only big spike for Cabrera came with his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). His career BABIP is .309, but he hit .332 on balls in play last year and .379 on balls in play this year. Good luck explains some of this, and we can explain even more by looking at Cabrera's underlying numbers.
Players who hit more ground balls will have higher BABIPs than players who hit more fly balls. (Derek Jeter, our modern BABIP champion, hits a bonkers 58 percent of his batted balls on the ground.) Cabrera hit more ground balls this year than last year, so his BABIP ticked up. As for the pre-2011 spike, Cabrera got faster after losing 20 pounds during the offseason. In 2011, he set career highs in infield hits—with 26—and bunt hits—with 8. Those balls would have been outs in past years, but because of his new physique they were hits in 2011. His BABIP and batting average increased accordingly.
This year's version of Melky is more or less last year's version of Melky, only with a different approach at the plate: more ground balls. And last year's Melky was more or less the same old Melky he had always been, just a little lighter on his feet. That transformation isn't outlandish for a player entering his prime, and it sure as hell isn't indicative of a player receiving a significant chemical boost.
But MLB only needs dirty urine; it doesn't have to prove that the drugs worked. Easy enough. So the real challenge ahead awaits Cabrera's agent, Dominic Torres. Torres will have to prove to interested teams that the drugs didn't work. He should consider the numbers above a head start.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Specially Contoured Jeans Designed To Combat Scourge Of "Hockey Ass" [This Is So Stupid]
Aug 15, 2012 11:50 PM
So, here's a real product you can buy that I never thought warranted existence. The hockey apparel-minded folks at Gongshow announced this one back in January, but it has just released its new Hustle & Flow jeans, an otherwise ordinary-looking pair of pants that serve a very specific purpose. We'll let Gongshow describe its most recent creation:
Introducing the first ever jeans in the world made to fit a hockey player. Hockey players have massive legs and usually what is known as a "Hockey Ass" – a bit bigger from hours of skating, squats, bedroom games and overall just dominating life.
Beauty Fit Jeans - Built for Hockey Players
Having never played hockey at any significant level of competition, I had no idea this was such an issue for so many players that it warranted a custom fit. They're available for $90 now through Gongshow's Canada site, but they will be in the US online store on Thursday.
Until then, keep dominating life, you guys.
After 75 Years And 25 Matches, The U.S. Men's Soccer Team Finally Wins In Mexico [Video]
Aug 15, 2012 10:45 PM
No one really expected much from the USMNT tonight in a friendly at Estadio Azteca against Olympic gold medal-winning Mexico (and its super-creepy mascot), but an 80th-minute goal from Michael Orozco Fiscal—and some incredible goaltending from Tim Howard—gave the US a historic 1-0 win against its biggest soccer rival. The win improves the USMNT's overall record on Mexican soil to 1-23-1. Afterward, Mexican fans were none too happy with the result, as ESPN's Ian Darke found out firsthand.
Showered with beer by angry Mexican fans as USA win at Azteca for first time I think it was beer anyway.
— Ian Darke (@IanDarkeESPN) August 16, 2012
(Also, Mexican lady who rolls her eyes at the :28 mark? We see you.)
Mike Pereira, Who Hates The NFL's Replacement Refs, Used To Be A Backup Replacement Ref [Nfl]
Mike Pereira has been so outspoken in his role as the NFL's hall monitor for Fox Sports that even Bill Belichick is outsourcing his opinion of replacement officials to him. And if the early returns are any indication, the scabs are indeed going to be a disaster. But remember: Pereira used to work for the NFL as its vice president of officiating. And back in 2001, when the league last had labor issues with its officials, Pereira was more than eager to toe the company line.
CBS Sports's Mike Freeman dug up an old Dallas Morning News story in which Pereira offered praise for the work of some replacement refs. The article also referenced a memo Pereira had written to the replacements that included these words:
"We are using you because of your ability and instincts as an official. The game is the same no matter on what level it is played. You officiate the game and we will guide you through the differences in the rules."
To which Freeman added:
But wait, it gets more interesting. The article states this: "One of the alternate officials was Mike Pereira, whose day job is as the NFL's director of officiating."
So, if the article is accurate, Peirera was a backup replacement official.
Huh. It was only last month that Pereira said "the integrity of the game will be compromised" by the presence of the replacements. Either scabs aren't what they used to be, or Peirera isn't.
[CBS Sports]
Stan Van Gundy On The Magic: "You Get What You Deserve" [Stan Van Gundy]
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Stan Van doesn't sound too sorry about the mess in Orlando.
Stan Van Gundy joined 790 The Ticket in Miami with Jonathan Zaslow and Hoch to discuss feeling badly for the Orlando Magic players who had to deal with the Dwight Howard trade rumors, the Magic locker room not being as bad as it was perceived to be by the media during the Dwight Howard trade saga, making sense of Dwight Howard's urge to stay and then leave the Orlando Magic, his next career move and not wanting to go into broadcasting with Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy.
How do you feel about the fallout from everything that has happened in Orlando? Are you frustrated? Relieved?
"Well I'd like to have a job. That'd be nice. That's not a great feeling. We just got caught up in a bad situation and our organization didn't handle it very well. Because of that I would say we probably deserve a lot of what happened as an organization and certainly not the other players. I thought those guys…I felt badly for them, a group that worked hard and was very professional all year long and didn't deserve everything that happened, but from our organization especially the people at the very top it just wasn't handled very well, so you get what you deserve."
Did you go home and say I can't believe how bizarre this is being played out with Dwight Howard?
"No. Not really. Look there's always something going on in the NBA. I think when you are in the season you are just sort of dealing with things day-to-day and the next practice and the next game and everything else, so no there is always issues. That was our issue this year and we dealt with it. Quite honestly we were dealing with it very well with everything that was going on until Dwight Howard went out and obviously we lost our best player. We were playing very well. We had the 3rd best record in the East and the 5th best record in the league and we're playing well. Then when he [Dwight Howard] went down quite honestly we struggled. He was sort of our guy and we didn't play as well after that, but I thought we were still pretty competitive in everything else. It wasn't as bad inside our team and inside the locker room as it was out in the media."
Can you give us any clarity on why Dwight Howard demanded to be traded and then said he would stay and then after the season concluded he wanted to be traded again?
"Well, I think it confuses everyone. It confuses all of us. I was a little bit surprised at the time. Look I think Dwight Howard is a guy, who likes his teammates, enjoys the camaraderie of the locker room and he's gotta realize you are in season making that decision and the guys you are with every single day are your teammates. It's also…the timing of it is we were also out on the road at that time and just played San Antonio, so it's not like he's going home after practice or something else. He is with his teammates all day and sort of got wrapped up in that and just decided hey I want to…I might as well just finish this season in Orlando and he opted in, but at the same time I don't think his desire to leave at some point ever left him, so it was more I think to finish the year in Orlando.
What's your next move? Are you going to get back into coaching?
"Well I don't know about that. I think there is consideration. I certainly have that itch. No question. But there's also considerations in this business if you are going to do that you are going to have to pick up your family and move them somewhere else in the country. Next year I'll have three in high school. It's a tough time to be moving everybody, so it may be awhile, but we will see."
You would be a tremendous edition to the broadcast booth with Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy:
"Yeah I don't think that is going to happen. I think those guys have got a pretty good chemistry there going on and I wouldn't want to mess with that, but we'll see what opportunities are out there and see if there's something that works and be fun and keep me a little bit busy, but I think those two guys are pretty settled in doing what they do and they do it very, very well."
This post, written by Steven Cuce, appears courtesy of Sports Radio Interviews. For the complete highlights of the interview, as well as audio, click here.
More from Sports Radio Interviews
• The Nuggets got the man they wanted in the Dwight Howard four-way deal.
• Mike Krzyzewski has nothing but good things to say about LeBron.
• Jerry Colangelo is already counting down to the Rio Olympics.
Here's What The Scorecard From Felix Hernandez's Perfect Game Looks Like [Felix Hernandez]
Aug 15, 2012 9:50 PM
Dave Sims, who called a fantastic game today for Root Sports, fully embracing the fact that Felix Hernandez was on his way to history and eschewing any ridiculous notions of superstition during the telecast, just posted a photo of his scorecard, and it's astonishing to see. The three boxes (and no more, ever) representing each Rays inning. Seeing all the green boxes, representing strikeouts, in the later innings. The crazy number of zeros lining the right and underside of the columns. There've only been 22 others like this scorecard in MLB history, so they really don't get much more interesting than this.
h/t @BryanAGraham
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