Gabe Kapler our as manager of the Phillies.
81-81 this past season.
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Oh, oh! Mr. Kapler! Me. Kapler!
Thursday, October 10th, 2019Your loser update: week 5, 2019.
Monday, October 7th, 2019I didn’t think there was a whole lot to say this morning, but:
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
New York Jets
Miami (bye week)
(Edited to add) Cincinnati (I think I accidentally deleted them when I was deleting Denver: thanks to Lawrence for pointing that out.)
Washington
As I was pulling this together, I started seeing reports that Jay Gruden is out as head coach of the Redskins. The reports are all “sources say” but there’s a press conference scheduled for 1 PM EDT.
Worth noting: next Sunday is this year’s edition of the “Who Cares?” bowl, in which Washington plays at Miami. I’m halfway tempted to watch this, as I kind of expect epic ineptitude on display.
Firings watch.
Friday, October 4th, 2019Mickey Callaway out as manager of the Mets. 163-161 over two seasons.
Lawrence tipped me off to this last night, but since it was cop shop night, I didn’t have a chance to blog: Sports Illustrated fired everybody just as hard as they could go.
Obit watch: October 3, 2019.
Thursday, October 3rd, 2019Bill Bidwill, owner of the Arizona (formerly St. Louis) Cardinals.
I’m wondering if we’re going to see an NFL team for sale soon, and if that’s going to result in a possible relocation. LA and Las Vegas are off the map…but with the St. Louis Rams gone, and a past history for the Cardinals there…?
John Rothman. Kind of an obscure figure, but interesting: he pioneered electronic access to the NYT archives.
…
In 1972, Times staff members began testing the Information Bank as a research tool. It would soon augment the paper’s archives, known as the morgue, where file cabinets are packed with clippings dating to the 19th century. In Times Talk, the paper’s in-house newsletter, Mr. Rothman assured colleagues that “once the basic methods” of searching the Information Bank were mastered, “retrieving the information is quite simple.”
In late 1972, the first installation of the Information Bank outside The New York Times was made at the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library. Within six months, its 14 customers included NBC, The Associated Press, the State Department, the C.I.A., the Library of Congress, Exxon and the Chase Manhattan Bank.
I’ve been running behind, so for this historical record: Jessye Norman.
Your loser update: week 4, 2019.
Tuesday, October 1st, 2019NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
New York Jets (bye week)
Miami
Cincinnati
Denver
Washington
In other news about minor sports, it looks like I was wrong in thinking there wasn’t going to be a historically bad baseball team this year. At least, depending on how you define “historically bad”.
The Detroit Tigers finished 47-114 (one game towards the end of the season was cancelled and they didn’t have a chance to play a make-up) for a .292 average. Wikipedia’s cutoff for “worst Major League Baseball season records” is .300 or below, which puts them 16th on the list for the “modern” era. (Wikipedia has them at .291, or .001 better than the 2018 Baltimore Orioles. I’m not sure why they give different numbers than MLB.com, but I’m going to blame floating point math.)
Speaking of Baltimore, they finished 54-108, with a .333 winning percentage. 108 losses is kind of pathetic, but…
Orioles GM Mike Elias finds positives in rebuild after 108-loss season
“Hey, we stank. But at least we weren’t the worst team in MLB this year! And we didn’t lose as many games as we did last year!”
Take me out of the ball game…
Sunday, September 29th, 2019Joe Maddon, the manager who finally won a World Series for the Cubs, out. Tribune. Sun-Times.
Clint Hurdle out as manager in Pittsburgh after nine seasons. He was 735-720-1.
Your loser update: week 3, 2019.
Tuesday, September 24th, 2019NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
New York Jets
Miami
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Denver
Washington
I’m liking the Jets and Dolphins chances, but it is still early.
It looks like the baseball season is still going on, so next week’s loser update may include some commentary. I don’t think there’s a historically bad team this year, but Detroit could come close.
Obit watch: September 23, 2019.
Monday, September 23rd, 2019Christopher Rouse, Pulitzer prize winning contemporary composer. I confess that I don’t know very much about his work, but he was a favorite of several close friends of mine.
(Edited to add: NYT obit.)
Davo Karnicar, a man who skied down Everest. He wasn’t “The Man Who Skied Down Everest” in the documentary (that was Yūichirō Miura, who is still alive at 86), but he skied non-stop from the summit to base camp – a 12,000 foot descent in four hours and 40 minutes. (Mr. Miura only descended 4,000 feet.)
His brother Andrej lost eight toes to frostbite during their descent on Annapurna in 1995. A year later, Davo lost two fingers to frostbite during a storm that killed eight climbers — a disaster detailed by Jon Krakauer in his book “Into Thin Air.”
And in 1997, Karnicar’s brother Luka and four other members of his rescue team died when a safety line connected to a helicopter broke during a training exercise.
…
According to the NYT obit, Mr. Karnicar was killed in a tree cutting accident at his home.
John L. Keenan, chief of detectives with the NYPD. He was most famous for leading the manhunt for the “Son of Sam”. There’s also an interesting historical side note:
…
When Chief Keenan was honored at a retirement party at Antun’s restaurant in Queens in the summer of 1978, Mr. Salinger came down from his home in rural New Hampshire, where he zealously guarded his privacy, to join in the tribute.
Departing from the focus on police work, which had attracted some 300 officers to the party, Mr. Salinger told the crowd that Chief Keenan had been “a great comfort,” especially in a foxhole.
Obits and firings: September 21, 2019.
Saturday, September 21st, 2019Andy Green out as manager of the San Diego Padres. 274-366 over basically four years, during which the team never finished above .500. And they lost at least 90 games in the first three seasons. (They’re 69-85 right now.) ESPN.
Obit: Barron Hilton, son of Conrad Hilton, grandfather of Paris, and last survivor of the original AFL team owners. Sadly, the team he owned was the worthless Los Angeles (at the time) Chargers, but that was hardly his fault.
Marko Feingold. He was Austria’s oldest survivor of the Holocaust, and died at 106.
New York Post at its very best pic.twitter.com/ZSNNXSvFMh
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) September 21, 2019
(Hattip on the Feingold and Green stories to Lawrence. Hattip on the de Blasio obit to Mike the Musicologist.)
Your loser update: week 2, 2019.
Tuesday, September 17th, 2019Well, things are shaping up. The Jets are using a practice squad quarterback as their starter, Pittsburgh lost their starting quarterback for the season, the Saints lost theirs for six weeks…and the Browns won. Even with the Browns winning, I’m excited about the prospects for an 0-16 team this year.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
New York Jets
Miami
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Jacksonville
Denver
Washington
New York Football Giants
Carolina
Your loser update: week 1, 2019.
Tuesday, September 10th, 2019Welcome back, folks. Another year, another tie in the first game of the season, which means that the Lions and Cardinals (per our policy) are out of 0-16 contention.
Fortunately, there are a couple of teams that we think have a good shot at going all the way this year. In honor of the late great Manhattan Infidel, though, we plan to avoid jokes and snark at the expense of the Giants. Well, mostly.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
da Bears
New York Jets
Miami
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Pittsburgh
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Denver
Washington
New York Football Giants
Carolina
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Obit watch: August 23, 2019.
Friday, August 23rd, 2019NYT obit for David H. Koch, for the historical record. (Edited to add: Reason.)
Russ Conway. No, you’ve probably never heard of him, but I think he’s noteworthy.
Mr. Conway was a reporter for the Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Massachusetts. He covered the Boston Bruins for the paper. And, while doing so, came up with evidence of serious – indeed, criminal – misconduct by the head of the NHL Players Union, Alan Eagleson.
Mr. Eagleson, he wrote, had, among many things, skimmed money from players’ disability payments; lent union funds to friends and associates at favorable rates; and billed the union for personal expenses, including a London apartment and Wimbledon tickets.
He also reported that Mr. Eagleson had promised that the N.H.L. players’ pension fund would profit from the Canada Cup — which was held five times between 1976 and 1991 between teams from Europe, the United States and Canada — but that little was left after subtracting questionable expenses.
His reporting was published as a series in the paper, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer. It was later expanded into a book, Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey.
Even better, his reporting led to investigations in the US and Canada, and a 1994 Federal indictment on 32 charges. Mr. Eagleson pled guilty to three counts of mail fraud in 1998, and was ordered to make restitution to the union. He was also convicted on fraud charges in Canada, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. (He served six months.) In addition, Mr. Eagleson was disbarred and forced out of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
What Mr. Conway uncovered about Mr. Eagleson occasionally disgusted him. He recalled one player, Ed Kea, who suffered a brain injury when he was checked into the boards during a game in 1983 while he was with a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Blues.
“Al Eagleson didn’t even have the common decency to go visit the family,” Mr. Conway told Maclean’s. “He wouldn’t aid them in the insurance process. He was gone. Crush up the cigarette pack, throw it out. Next!”
Obit watch: August 20, 2019.
Tuesday, August 20th, 2019Obit watch: August 18, 2019.
Sunday, August 18th, 2019Cedric Benson, former UT and NFL player, was reportedly killed in a motorcycle accident last night.
He was 36. Reports are that a passenger on his motorcycle was also killed.
TMQ Watch: August 2019.
Monday, August 12th, 2019Looks like the NFL is getting fired up again.
Yes, the loser update will return this year. We haven’t sat down to consider which teams are likely candidates for the Owen-16 trophy, but maybe we’ll get some time to do that between now and the start of the regular season.
But we are sure everyone is asking this question: what of Gregg Easterbrook and “Tuesday Morning Quarterback”? Has he found a new home, since the “Weekly Standard” folded up their tent and headed into the long dark night? And what of “TMQ Watch”? Will that be a recurring feature next year?
To answer the last question first: sadly, no. No “TMQ Watch” in 2019. Why?
To answer many inquiries from Tuesday Morning Quarterback aficionados – just finished novel #4, researching nonfiction book #7, there are only so many hours in the day. So no TMQ this season. Not ruling out for future. pic.twitter.com/sKkPielXIM
— Gregg Easterbrook (@EasterbrookG) August 11, 2019
Not our choice, Easterbrook’s. We may try to keep an eye on his Twitter feed for noteworthy items relating to the NFL. But we’ve found that Easterbrook’s Twitter feed is a reliable way of pressure testing our cerebral arteries, so we don’t recommend making bets on how much and how often we’ll be doing that.