No Longer An MLB Virgin

This past week I went to the San Francisco area for a wedding and a buddy of mine came up with some Oakland A’s tickets. I have never attended a Major League baseball game for several reasons: (1) I grew up in the country, a minimum five hour drive away from the closest team; (2) I currently live in a city without an MLB team; and, (3) as I have stated before I am not much of a baseball fan. However, I am a huge sports fan and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see my first MLB game and catch up with an old college roommate and his wife (also a college friend). I had a good time and this is my story about losing my MLB virginity after 27 years on this earth.

For a first game, I couldn’t have really asked for much more. The Oakland Athletics were hosting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the State of California in the United States of America (seriously, listening to the announcer introduce the team took thirty minutes). Not a marquee match-up but an ok one. There were seven homers and the A’s won in the bottom of the ninth with two outs on a Frank Thomas walk-off homerun. The game was close throughout and it was an exciting ending.

I had a good seat, only 16 rows up from first base, in prime foul ball territory. A few balls came close but none within reach. It was funny, however, to watch grown men fight over the balls and then get booed when they couldn’t catch a weak pop-up. Being fairly close to the action it was impressive to see how big the Big Hurt really is—he just towered over everybody out there—as well as Vlad Guerrero. Those guys are immense! Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and my buddy’s camera died while we were there.

Probably the funniest moment came in the eighth inning. One guy seated about four rows in front of us and a little to the right had been razzing the players and being somewhat obnoxious for the whole game. Then in the eighth he started to go up the steps to the walkway but he didn’t quite make it. On the last step he hunched over and lost his dinner on the steps and the crowd serenaded him to a nice chant of “Let’s go puker!!! Let’s go puker!!!,” while some random guy took some action photos of said puker. Priceless. After he finished his business, stadium security had to help him stagger up the stairs.

After attending my first MLB game I have a few observations. First, it is much more difficult to follow a baseball game at the ballpark than on the TV. There are tons of distractions like pukers or conversations with your friends, and you don’t get the best views of the plays. Second, somebody needs to help some of these ballplayers with the headshots shown on the big screens. Many look like mugshots and others are just plain goofy (see right). Third, the A’s stadium is absolutely boring. The stadium wasn’t full (although it was a Thursday night) even after the upper deck had been closed off. I would like to go to one of the new parks and see if the experience is better. Overall, good experience, probably better the more you drink unless you get serenaded to “Let’s go puker,” expensive, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

Vacation

Gone until Monday, the 10th. Have fun, enjoy the World Cup, and drive safely.

When Mascots Attack

Add this to the long list of mascot misconduct. Benny the Bull, the Chicago Bulls mascot, was arrested for assaulting an off-duty police officer. Looking at the list, one would think that these mascots are actually athletes because they get arrested just about as frequently as the athletes. The Stanford Tree gets special recognition for getting into trouble often. Maybe it's the whole privileged, upper-class thing that makes them think they're above the law.

Obviously I am not good at prognostication.

One for Four. That's it. A monkey could have done better than I did in picking the teams to win in the WC quarterfinals. Despite my lack of success in picking the knockout winners I am still going to give my picks. Drumroll...France v. Germany in the finals...and let the invasion jokes begin.

I like an in form France over Portugal. Zizou won't let his team lose and the experience will finally bring down the plucky Portuguese. I also will go with my heart and pick Germany over Italy despite the team's lack of success against Italy in the WC. Italy thinks it is a team of destiny because of its recent tribulations but Germany is the host nation and 80 million germans will carry this team to the finals.

Don't be surprised if Portugal faces Italy though because I obviously don't know what I am doing.

Videos, We've Got Lots and Lots of Videos

Here are several videos I have seen over the past few days that I have enjoyed immensely, many of them soccer related:

• Worldcupblog.org posts its 5 best goals of the WC so far. Hard to disagree with the choices, but I might include Beckham's free kick against Ecuador or Ronaldo's juking of the Ghanaian keeper.
• Worldcupblog.org again, here are Ronaldo's 15 WC goals.
• Worldcupblog.org: a couple of video compilations of Zizou, quite remarkable.
• Armchairgm.com: 5 of the craziest goals you'll ever see. I haven't seen that much woodwork since Pinocchio.
• Worldcupblog.org: Torsten Frings' weak attempt at a punch that has him suspended for the semifinal against Italy.
• Deadspin.com: Songs supporting the Three Lions and die Mannschaft. Oops it's three-nil! Not likely considering how England played this year. German blackface? That scares me just a bit.
• Deadspin.com: I, for one, wouldn't be proud to be a Texas A&M alum after seeing this video.

Roger Federer: Fashionable Bad-Ass

Let me preface this post with the admission that I know next-to-nothing about tennis. I’ve only played tennis a few times and I watch matches here and there. By no means am I an expert or really qualified to give any insight. But, I do know that every time I watch Roger Federer play (except on clay) I come away with the feeling that this guy is Superman with a tennis racket.

Federer never seems to struggle, barely breaks a sweat, hits the most amazing shots, and is rather polite. Clark Kent off the court and Superman on it. He just broke the record for number of consecutive wins on grass; he won three majors last year; and he is going for his fourth straight Wimbledon title this year. I’m not the only one in awe. Many commentators, players, former-players, and others have gushed in praise of Federer saying he not only is a great tennis player but also a class act. All of this makes his attire at Wimbledon absolutely awesome.

Federer has been wearing to and from matches a one-of-a-kind cream colored blazer over his tennis outfit. The UK Telegraph describes the jacket and his entrance in a recent match:

The jacket is classically stylish and has a special crest which incorporates a Swiss cross, a tuft of grass, his Leo star sign, an F for his surname and three rackets representing his three Wimbledon titles. After acknowledging the crowd's applause, Federer carefully put the jacket around the back of his change-over chair.

This has to be one of the greatest ways to tell the whole world that I am the greatest and there is no way anybody is going to beat me at Wimbledon. Federer, through his jacket, is saying to opponent, “I am the three-time defending champion see the rackets on my jacket; I intend to win my fourth this year; and, there is no way you are going to stop, just look at my jacket.” What a bad-ass!! But, it says “I’m a bad-ass” in a distinctly Federer way because it is not brash, arrogant, or impolite. Rather, it’s matter-of-fact, simple, and respectful to the conservative tennis club and I think it's great.

Odds and Ends

• Blazer draft reviews are in and Portland did better than the ESPN announcers were claiming during the draft. Here, here, here, Oregonlive.com reports Chad Ford gave the Blazers an A and that the Blazers maybe weren't outwitted in the Aldridge and Telfair trades.
• ESPN ombudsman writes about his network's coverage of the World Cup. Two of the five announcing teams are based in Bristol, Conn. and are not in Germany. I didn't know this but it might explain some of the difficulties the announcers seemed to have in making judgments on air.
• Video clip of Ronaldo's 15 WC goals.
• Grant Wahl writes about the necessity of attending a WC once in your life and not just for the soccer. I concur. Although I attended only one game in '94 and was just a wee lad then, I had a great time and wished I could have afforded to attend more games. That said, I got to see the US play Brazil on the Fourth of July. Absolutely awesome!!!

Quite Frankly, The Funniest Thing I've Seen Today

Thanks to the guys over at Deadspin I've probably just had the best laugh I will have all day. Deadspin has posted a video of people heckling Stephen A. Smith at last night's NBA draft. Quite Frankly, Stephen A. Smith is the most annoying personality, among many, on ESPN, and I wouldn't be sorry to see him go. Go ahead, enjoy.

Big Happenings in the NBA Draft for the Blazers.

Today was the NBA draft and my home-state Portland Trailblazers was THE mover and shaker of the day. Big moves by the Blazers have really changed the look of the team and could mark the turnaround the team sorely needs.

Starting things off before the draft Portland traded Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, a 2008 2nd round pick and cash to the Boston Celtics for the #7 pick, Raef Lafrentz and Dan Dickau. Telfair, drafted in 2004 out of high school, was supposed to be the PG of the future for the Blazers. But, the team drafted another PG in Jarrett Jack the next year in the first round. Telfair was former-GM John Nash’s pick and it looks like nobody agreed with him, and now that he is gone so is Bassy. Portland did take on a big contract in Lafrentz—who has 3 years remaining on his current contract—while Ratliff only had two years remaining.

Then, Portland traded the #4 pick, Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa to Chicago for the #2 pick, LaMarcus Aldridge and future 2nd round pick. Aldridge gives Portland a big man who can eventually replace the losses of Ratliff and Pryzbilla if he leaves in free agency. He won’t be an immediate help because he is still a little raw. It looks like Portland believes the Pryzbilla is gone so they got LaFrentz and Aldridge.

Some of the ESPN commentators think Portland could have sat on the fourth pick and still got Aldridge. Stephen A. Smith thinks that Portland HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!! He doesn’t say really say why though. Let me just say this right now, I think Stephen A. Smith is a Grade A imbecile who can only make his points by yelling and most of his points are usually way off the mark.

With the 7th pick Boston selected Randy Foye for Portland after Minnesota selected Brandon Roy. However, Portland and Minnesota swapped picks and I think Portland got the one guy they really coveted in Roy. In my book, Roy was the best guy in the draft. He is the most polished of all the players selected before him; he is athletic; he can play defense; and, he can play three positions if necessary. He is a great combo guard. Plus, he is a Northwest product and should help sell some tickets. One downside is that he and Martell Webster, last year’s #1 for Portland, play the same primary position and Roy may take time from Webster, who needs to develop.

Before the Roy trade, ESPN was saying that Portland was making a huge error because they didn’t get Roy—the player they coveted. Stephen A. was killing Portland again, saying that he was sorry that Foye was going to Portland. Well, now they have the player they coveted and Stephen A. doesn’t have anything to say.

Sergio Rodriquez, a Spanish PG, was drafted by Phoenix in the 27 slot, but it is reported that Portland is straight out buying the pick. Not sure about this one. Just another small guard. Maybe he can back up Jack, but I would rather see some size. Greg Anthony is puzzled by all of the Portland trades, saying they could have gotten all of the same personnel without the trades. I call bullshit on that one. No way they get Roy if they don’t trade Telfair. Maybe they could have gotten Aldridge but they were probably concerned about somebody moving up to get him.

Joel Freeland is Portland’s 30th pick. He is a 19 year-old 6-10 PF out of England. Who? Nothing good coming from the commentators except that he will probably stay in England for a year or two. With the 31st pick, the first of the 2nd round, Portland selected James White from Cincinnati. He’s an athletic 6’7” guard.

Overall, I would have to disagree with the ESPN announcers. All they could say is that Portland didn’t know what it was doing, except they never supported the opinions with any facts. The one thing I agree with was that Portland may have gotten Aldridge without trading up. No way they get Roy without trading Telfair. Portland was able to parlay the former #13 pick Telfair into a #6 pick in Roy—a good move if you ask me. In all, the Blazers ended up with 4 first round picks and got two studs in Aldridge and Roy. They also have 3 players to bring in and see how they perform. The team is very young now and Steve Patterson said the Blazers aren’t done trading. So be on the watch for more action.

Update 6/29/06 8:15 a.m.: After tiring of the draft and changing the channel, the Blazers traded 2nd round pick James White to Indiana for two future 2nd round picks and the 45th selection who they then traded to Memphis for another future 2nd round pick. So, the Blazers gave up two future 2nd round picks and picked up three more. Not bad in my estimation.

A few notes on the broadcast:

Thank God ESPN let us know that Shelden Williams color coordinates his closet; and, B-Roy drove a forklift for a job after high school.

Vitale slurping Redick again, asking for free tickets for all the publicity he gave Redick over the past 4 years.

Apparently, Stephen A. hates every move, every draft pick, and every organization that is in the lottery because he is ripping just about every selection.

Awesome interview with a Knicks fan during the NY pick at 29. One guy called Isiah Thomas a bum and said he needed to be fired and that NY needed a guy knew how to manage. Frickin’ awesome.

Best name of the draft: Olexsiy Pecherov, 18th pick of the Washington Wizards.

Revisiting the Round of 16 Predictions

With the round of 16 now completed I thought it would be good to revisit my predictions. I got 6 of 8 correct, but my comments were off on some of the matchups. My predictions are in italics below and my re-cap follows those.

• Germany v. Sweden: Should be a good game to see if Germany has a real defense, and I think the home crowd carries the Germans to victory. Germany dominated in part because Sweden played with 10 men and the Deutsch defense wasn't really tested. I'm still wary of the defense but the Argentina game should be a classic with the German offense clicking on all cylinders.
• Argentina v. Mexico: Mexico gets spanked, easy as that. Boy was I off. Mexico played a great game and lost on one of the prettiest goals of the tournament. The Argentina defense appeared suspect on headers and crosses into the box, which may be good for the tall Germans.
• England v. Ecuador: England should win this and Rooney gets more game fit. Ecuador was lucky to be in a weak group. England's finishing woes continued but Rooney looked fit. Woe to the opponent who faces the Three Lions when Gerrard and Lampard can actually get a shot on goal.
• Portugal v. Netherlands: Maybe the best matchup of the round. Portugal will get a real test with the Netherlands, but the Netherlands' defense should be tested by the Portuguese attack as well. Netherlands win this one. This could have been a great matchup if a hockey game hadn't broken out. Portugal will be without a couple of key contributors against England.
• Italy v. Australia: Italy's acting abilities will really test Australia's ability not to go down a man. Should be a physical match but the Italian offense should carry the day. It was Italy who played with 10 men, but the Italian acting definitely came into play at the end of this one.
• Switzerland v. Ukraine: Switzerland is lucky to get one of the weaker teams to advance. Ukraine was utterly miserable against Tunisia in its last match and the Swiss will probably shut down Ukraine's only real weapon--Shevchenko. This was an awful match. The Swiss did shut down Ukraine, but there was no offense for Switzerland.
• Brazil v. Ghana: Brazil in a walk with Michael Essien missing. The 3-0 score makes it look like a walk, but Brazil's defense looked like Swiss cheese and Ghanaian attack just went through the holes. Brazil's offense looked good though.
• Spain v. France: Spain has looked far more impressive than France so far but the Spaniards haven't really been tested. France looked good in the last match and if Zidane can be incorporated into the attack the team had against Togo I will take France. This was the match of the round with the France of old appearing after an old France had shown up in the group stages. Zizou was great, as was Ribery and Vieira. Now only if Henry can have a great game at the same time, then there could be an upset against Brazil next round.

Here are my quarterfinal predictions:

Argentina v. Germany: Tough to go against the hosts on form, but I will take Argentina, who will be the first real test of the German defense.

England v. Portugal: England will win this game because Portugal will be missing a few players. I like England to finally get on track with Rooney putting one in the net.

Italy v. Ukraine: Catenaccio defense of the Italians will keep Ukraine in check.

Brazil v. France: I'll stick with Brazil, but I won't be surprised if an on-form France upsets.

Sacre Bleu!!!

France just played its best game in the World Cup since it beat Brazil in the '98 final. Although that is not tough to do considering how France played in '02 and the group stage of '06, it was truly a great performance. Zidane was his old self, even scoring a goal, and Vieira played like he was 25 and not 30. It pains me to say this but I actually rooted for France today, I wanted to see the team make another run and perform their best, especially with Zizou retiring (allegedly) from the national team after the WC.

To me this was one of the best games so far in the tournament. It had two teams with immense talent. It was experience versus youth. It had excellent execution. And, quite simply it was a magnificent game despite the 3-1 scoreline. It was much closer, with France going ahead only in the 83rd minute.

Ribery was excellent at creating opportunities and exploiting the Spanish defense on the wings and got the equalizer late in the first half. Zidane controlled the game like old times and took the free kick that Vieira nodded in to take the lead. He also had a beautiful stoppage time goal to put the game away. On the Spanish side El Nino, Fernando Torres, showed great speed and worked hard on the attack. But, the French defense held only yielding a penalty kick in the first half.

It was a very hard fought match but there were relatively few cards because the ref prevented dirty play by talking to the players and calling the game very closely. The only blemish was when Henry duped the ref into giving France the free kick that led to the second goal. Henry ran into the Spanish defender and pretended to have been elbowed in the face. The ref only had a look from the back and it could easily have looked like an elbow, but it wasn't.

If France continues to play like this and get Henry involved in the match, Brazil should be worried. The French attack could thresh the porous Brazilian defense, especially with Ribery attacking on the wings.

Beavers Win!!!

Let's take a break from the World Cup action for a bit to extoll the Oregon State Beavers' win in the College World Series. In the championship round OSU had to win two in a row after dropping the opener to North Carolina and the Beavers did. The team was down 5-0 in the second game and came back to win and squeaked out the win in game 3 last night.

I'm not the biggest baseball fan but this was compelling baseball. First, I am from Oregon and spent a part of my childhood in Corvallis where OSU is located. Second, OSU was a big underdog in this matchup. UNC had two first round draft picks on the pitching staff who threw some nasty stuff. OSU really doesn't have much power and grinds out wins in smallball style off of some pitchers who are hard to hit. Third, OSU had faced elimination in six games during the CWS and won all six games under that pressure. Lastly, there were some heroic pitching efforts on the part of OSU. Kevin Gunderson, the OSU closer, pitched 5 innings of relief in game 2 and saved game 3. Even more impressive was the performance of Jonah Nickerson. He started 3 games in the CWS and three over 300 pitches and had two victories. Incredible. I think his arm might fall off. Either that or he has a rubber arm. Nickerson was the MOP of the CWS and deservedly so. That's him below. Congratulations Oregon State!

The Man Hates Little Kid Soccer

The IRS is investigating a youth soccer association for tax violations. Damn! The US government really wants to prevent soccer from taking off.

A Few Words About WC Referees

The referees in the World Cup this year have received a lot of criticism, especially from the ABC/ESPN announcers and supporters of the US team. Some of it is deserved and some is just relocating blame that rightly should be placed on the US team. However, I found this page on ESPN.com that rates the WC referees and, interestingly, the referees the US had are ranked quite low. I don't think there was a conspiracy or anything like that but make of that what you will. Carlos Amarilla, who officiated the USA-Czech Republic game, is tied for 15th out of 22 referees in the WC. Jorge Larrionda--the USA-Italy official--is rated #20, and Markus Merk--the USA-Ghana official--is tied for 18th. It is unclear how these rankings are determined but I assume it is not public opinion.

On the other hand, I have watched every match thus far and must say that the referees have generally performed very well. I tend to agree that the officials have reached for the cards rather quickly to the detriment of the players and games. In some instances the cards are meant to prevent a game from getting too physical that is anticipated to be played that way, but usually I think it has been just antsy refs trying to meet FIFA's demands to the detriment of the games. Larrionda was officiating in this manner in the US-Italy game and the only call I would quibble with was Pope's second yellow, but Pope was playing with fire at this point.

However, there have been some serious blunders this year. Referees do make mistakes and I can't say whether this year has been above average for the WC or not. Here are some the most obvious errors in my mind. Markus Merk awarding the PK in the US-Ghana match; Benito Archundia and his assistants not seeing France's second goal against Korea; Carlos Amarilla in the Tunisia-Ukraine match where he awarded Shevchenko a PK on an obvious flop and missed a clear Ukraine handball in the box for a Tunisia PK (I think this was the worst because it could have cost Tunisia an advancement to the second round); and Graham Poll and his 3-yellows to one player debacle in the Australia-Croatia game.

The officials in today's first knockout games were very good and I expect the officiating won't be as big of an issue from now on. If it is you can go to here to read about an actual soccer referee's view on the performances of the referees. I really recommend this page if you have any interest in a more objective, or at least less impassioned, view of the officials.

Update 6/25/06 2:04 p.m.: I would like to add the list of bad performances by officials Valentin Ivanov, who officiated the Portugal - Netherlands match. He gave out 16 or so yellow cards and 4 red cards (a new record). It wasn't just one or two calls in this match, it was the complete loss of control by the referee from the very outset of the match. Too bad because it could have been a really good game.

Pre-World Cup Predictions

Now that the first round of the World Cup has finished I would like to admit that Nostradamus I am not. Of the 16 teams that advanced I was correct on only 10 teams.

Here's what I predicted and what actually occurred:
Group A -- Predicted: Germany (1st), Poland (2nd); Actual: Germany, Ecuador
Group B -- England, Paraguay; Actual: England, Sweden
Group C -- Argentina, Cote D'ivorie; Actual: Argentina, Netherlands
Group D -- Portugal, Mexico; Actual: Portugal, Mexico
Group E -- USA, Italy; Actual: Italy, Ghana
Group F -- Brazil, Croatia; Actual: Brazil, Australia
Group G -- France, Switzerland; Actual: Switzerland, France
Group H -- Spain, Tunisia; Actual: Spain, Ukraine

Not bad, not great. Definitely some reaches for the second place teams and a little homerism on the part of the US. Oh well. These are the matchups for the round of 16 and my thoughts:

• Germany v. Sweden: Should be a good game to see if Germany has a real defense, and I think the home crowd carries the Germans to victory.
• Argentina v. Mexico: Mexico gets spanked, easy as that.
• England v. Ecuador: England should win this and Rooney gets more game fit. Ecuador was lucky to be in a weak group.
• Portugal v. Netherlands: Maybe the best matchup of the round. Portugal will get a real test with the Netherlands, but the Netherlands' defense should be tested by the Portuguese attack as well. Netherlands win this one.
• Italy v. Australia: Italy's acting abilities will really test Australia's ability not to go down a man. Should be a physical match but the Italian offense should carry the day.
• Switzerland v. Ukraine: Switzerland is lucky to get one of the weaker teams to advance. Ukraine was utterly miserable against Tunisia in its last match and the Swiss will probably shut down Ukraine's only real weapon--Shevchenko.
• Brazil v. Ghana: Brazil in a walk with Michael Essien missing.
• Spain v. France: Spain has looked far more impressive than France so far but the Spaniards haven't really been tested. France looked good in the last match and if Zidane can be incorporated into the attack the team had against Togo I will take France.

Update: I am going to provide my predictions for all of the knockout stages as Complete Sports has done. Above are my Round of 16 predictions.

• Argentina over Germany
• England over Netherlands
• Italy over Switzerland
• Brazil over France
• Argentina over England (Semifinal)
• Brazil over Italy (Semifinal)
• England over Italy (3rd place match)
• Argentina over Brazil 3-2. (Final)