The first MLB game played under the lights took place on May 24, 1935, in Cincinnati. This week, 84 years later, a two-game series between the Mariners and Athletics takes night baseball to the extreme—at least for Seattle and Oakland fans on the West Coast who want to watch or listen live as their teams kick off the 2019 season. The games are in Tokyo.
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Category Archives: Sports
Night Baseball
Le Grand Orange
DIY task: Please supply your own color photo of President Trump.
This morning, while watching his Rose Garden speech about the “deal” to end the government shutdown, I wondered, again, if it would be appropriate to recycle former Major League Baseball player Rusty Staub’s nickname when referring to President Trump. With his carrot-top hairdo and tanning-salon-hued skin, the president clearly fits the bill for the third word of the wondrous French phrase Le Grand Orange. He falls short, though, when you consider the true meaning of the second word.
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Posted in Current Events, Government, Sports
Brady and the Pats: An Amazing Stat
While surfing the Internet for something, anything, to convince me there will be a Tom Brady-free Super Bowl this year, a statistic I read makes me think otherwise. At first glance the stat seems to point to a Kansas City victory over New England in Sunday’s AFC championship game. That doesn’t make it any less amazing. Credit for the stat goes to an article by sportswriter Barry Wilner, who, for the record, picked the Patriots to win in an upset.
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Posted in Sports
Baseball Schedule
Yesterday the Valpak mailer showed up in my mailbox. Normally I toss it without opening it. This time I browsed through the offers from various local businesses hoping there might be a coupon for Shur-Kleen car wash. There wasn’t, but the Valpak included something better—the 2014 Seattle Mariners baseball schedule.
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Go Hawks!
The perfect decoration for your Northwest deck
I wonder if the person who designed the Seattle Seahawks logo had a clue as to how widely it would be used this week. With San Francisco playing at Seattle this afternoon in the NFC title game, the logo can be seen everywhere in the Northwest: on buildings, windows, people, cars, clothing, flags, and dozens of other places. But I like the approach shown by a waterfront home along Port Orchard’s Beach Drive (see photo). Proclaim your fandom with a sign big enough to be seen from the Washington state ferries and other boat traffic in Rich Passage.
I just hope the same sign is up in two weeks when I take my usual Sunday bike ride along Beach Drive because that will mean the Seattle Seahawks are in the Super Bowl.
Go Hawks!
Posted in Sports
Super Bowl 48/ /New York/2014/XP
It’s time to lose the Roman numeral designator that’s been part of the Super Bowl’s name and marketing since the game’s early days. Allow me to make a few suggestions on what could replace it.
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Show Your Work
Go Zags!
I have no idea if my entry (shown above) to the NCAA Bracket Contest at West Hills Auto Plex in Bremerton is valid. I picked the Gonzaga Bulldogs to win it all in a relatively low-scoring final game. Like those tiresome math teachers in high school who grade you not just on getting the right answer but also on the steps you took to get it, perhaps the contest organizers will want me to “show my work.”
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Baseball Playoffs: Betting and Pizza
You can’t really win this much.
Betting on the 2012 MLB playoffs and pizza aren’t usually linked unless your wager involves a pizza. Mine doesn’t. In fact I can’t even make a bet via my computer because online gambling is illegal in my state. But notice how it appears to be easy to clean up on a World Series bet if you interpret the sample SuperBook betting card too literally (see graphic). I will explain and also try to resolve the pizza dilemma.
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Sports Illustrated Wild-Card Standings
How good are Atlanta’s chances?
MLB’s new expanded wild-card format ushers in complexities in roster decisions, scheduling, and tiebreaker rules. If your team is the current wild-card leader in its league, there’s also the issue of figuring out how far ahead you are in the playoffs race. The wild-card standings on the Sport Illustrated web site (see screen capture above for the National League) don’t always make it simple.
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A Long Game
Win or lose, a dedicated baseball fan always stays at the stadium until the final out is recorded. However, if you live in Bremerton and depend on a ferry ride to get home, it isn’t always easy to be dedicated. During last night’s Mariners game against the Orioles (a 4-2 Baltimore win in 18 innings), I took the easy way out.
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