SPORTS BALL!!! v2.0

[Kyrian007]

I don't disagree; watching all of the judged events, it's hard not to squirm when you see scores you subjectively feel weren't deserved, for better OR worse. But you trust that the judges know what they're looking at/for, that they are impartial, and the athletes have agreed to abide by that judgement, i.e.: they know what they should and should not do for an optimal score. Again, it's a case of not liking a thing for being the thing; the scoring is a part of the whole; that IS the sport.

But as to this instance not bothering you, that's fine, but let me ask you: if there's a statute of limitations on when a challenge can be issued during an event, does it not follow that there should be a similar statute on when a decision can be reversed after an event? Not even just the event, the whole OLYMPICS were over! By this logic, think how many sporting events could be retroactively "adjusted" if we're to be okay in this case. Do we want refs looking at tape days after a football game and deciding that a holding penalty they missed that gave an offense a fresh set of downs to score a game-winning touchdown affected the more likely outcome of the game, and giving the losing team the win posthumously? Hell, that's not even a fitting analogy in this case as at least that's based on performance; same scenario, but upon review of the tape, they see the coach's foot was on the playing field during play, so they negate the play and strip the win? Make sense?

The problem is, it kind of depends on the situation. Again, I don't have a really good read on gymnastics so I'm really not on either side of the Chiles situation. The football scenario, there are rules that govern situations like that in major league sports. Like playing a game officially under protest. And depending on the situation, they generally go with the call on the field or the way the game ended... but sometimes a win can be vacated. And there can't be a statute of limitations. Do you want Lance Armstrong to get all those Tour de France wins back? Now, that's an extreme example. But it is an example that illustrates why something like that is situational and case-by-case.

See, this bother's me too, but for the opposite reason. Sounds like Rutter PERFORMED within the regulations, and was indeed robbed. Unless there's a rule, subjective judgement, or objectively qualifiable score surrounding how much debris is left in remains to constitute a "hit," she did what she needed to do to continue the shootout, and was disallowed. That's not fair. Should field goals be scored differently depending on how "down the middle" they fly? Are we discounting those that bounce in off the uprights?

There's no question that she should have been allowed to continue. That is just what the rules say. It is just... more difficult for me to say something like "she was robbed" when my own eyes tell me who fired better shots that round. To me it isn't like a situation where the wrong person won because of a missed call. It is just harder for me to care that much when the person who I think clearly deserved to win and observably did perform better, did. Even if it was the result of a bad call. As for the football analogy...

There was a point in time when it didn't matter how far away from the basket you were in baskeball. A bucket was 2 points, no matter how far away you were. You wanna change football to make a FG worth 5 if it went between 2 smaller poles about 2 ft apart in the center of the uprights? I wouldn't either, but such a change to the rules wouldn't be "the end of football." It would just be something people would gripe about for a couple of weeks or so. And then accuracy would matter. Besides, trap shooting is more like a kicking contest where two kickers go head to head moving back 5 yards with each kick until one misses. And in such a contest; if both guys miss at 70 and one kicker's 65er went down the middle and would have been good from 75, while the other double doinked his through and it would have missed if it were an inch longer? Ok, maybe both get a shot from 68 for the win... but I know who the better kicker is.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Okay, I may complain about not having any sports to watch between NFL seasons, or during Formula 1's Summer break, but I typically find SOMETHING to watch to hold me over, but I've reached a new low: today I learned that "Roofball" is a thing.. and they're televising the "world" championship... and I'm watching it.

Roofball Federation of America

The official home of the Roofball Federation of America. The sport you wanted to play as a kid is still alive today.

roofball.org

What most likely started out as a pastime for middle-aged men on football Sundays, in their backyard huddled around a grill with Bud Lights in their hands, has actually become a legit sport. Like, it's on ESPN right now.

Basically, you earn points throwing a football at fixtures on the roof of a house, and you score points for hitting a structure, if you catch it when it comes back down, if it hits a smaller target on the roof and you catch it, and you lose 5 points if it goes over the roof completely (and you have to get your own ball afterwards; very strict are the rules of this gentlemen's game.) It's so dumb, it's fascinating. Respect, cornhole; I've talked shit about your "sport" status in the past, but your brain damaged little cousin roofball earns you a seat at the table (the kids' table; let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just know that roofball is eating outside with the dogs.)

 

[Xprimentyl]

Formula 1's Logan Sargeant has been shit-canned by Williams, and they've promoted an F2 driver to replace him for he rest of the 2024 season. Woof, that was a rough ride; can't say I'm surprised though. Sargeant was... not good. And he was VERY costly; he had two really bad and avoidable wrecks this season that likely cost the team hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was a case of a bad driver in a mediocre machine. Still, I feel bad for the kid; a seat if F1 is rarified air and a most coveted dream for racers in motorsports, and he squandered his shot. What's sadder is he never really showed any real promise since his own promotion to F1, so I doubt any teams are interested in giving him a shot as a reserve driver, so he might be done for good.

Colapinto replaces Sargeant at Williams for remainder of F1 season

www.motorsport.com

 

[Xprimentyl]

Watching the US Open, and something really bugs me: the way the tennis players treat the ball people. I won't pretend to be familiar enough with the sport or the expected decorum surrounding being at/working a live event, but it seems a lot of players (and by "a lot," I'd argue "most") seem to treat the ball people like fixtures rather than people. Those folks run their asses off all over that court fetching errant balls and tossing the players new balls, and most of the players don't even so much as make eye contact. And when they've chosen their two balls (one for the serve, another for the pocket,) they hit the rest casually away from themselves, usually behind, to the spot where a ball person is expected to be. No "thanks for the ball," or politely and intentionally hitting the ball towards an expectant ball person; it feels like watching someone litter on the sidewalk with a dutiful sanitation worker 10 feet away. I watched one young woman screw up a return; the ball bounced off the net and started rolling back to her feet. The ball person was on it, and started running towards her to collect the ball, but when it reached her feet, the player kicked it back to the net, and the ball person nearly broke their ankles changing direction to fetch the ball! I about lost my shit, fucking RUDE!

I'm sure it's not as big a deal as it makes me feel it should be, but damn, I'd like to think "please" and "thank you" don't go out the window just because you're working. I watched ONE player just now, Aryna Sabalenka, actually mouth the word "thanks" to a ball person, and tossed him the ball she decided not to use while facing him, and it made me recognize how anomalous that kind of interaction is.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The US Open is coming to a close, and it has been exciting!

Jannik Sinner (Italy) and Jack Draper (Great Britain) faced off yesterday in the semifinal. The latter was suffering the whole time, even puked on the court THREE times, but refused to concede. Draper still made it a contentious match up until the 3rd set where Sinner took his victory handily. I thought for sure Draper was going to call it; even the chair umpire was pleading Draper's case to Sinner when the match stopped while Draper collected himself, but both wanted to continue. It was an amazing show of determination and sportsmanship.

And the match I most anticipated was Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, both American. Whoa, talk about a battle! Went 5 sets, back and forth, each displaying dominance in the sets they won. But the match was captivating, each player's strength exacerbating the other's weakness to the point it felt either could win at any given moment. I really wanted Tiafoe to win, but alas, Fritz pulled off the much earned win in the end. Either way, it was inevitable that an American man might win the Open for the first time in over 20 years. As much as I was looking forward to Sunday NFL football, there's going to have to be a pause while I watch Jannik vs. Fritz; stars and stripes, baby!

 

[Kyrian007]

I'm not sure @Xprimentyl if you are hesitant jinx things by bringing up the 49ers really solid start to the NFL season. But the Jets have a lot of legitimate weapons and a solid defense... and the 9ers pretty handily defeated them even without their own most potent weapon. Its just one week, and it is just the Jets. But San Francisco looks really good so far.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'm not sure @Xprimentyl if you are hesitant jinx things by bringing up the 49ers really solid start to the NFL season. But the Jets have a lot of legitimate weapons and a solid defense... and the 9ers pretty handily defeated them even without their own most potent weapon. Its just one week, and it is just the Jets. But San Francisco looks really good so far.

I don't really believe in jinxes, but neither do I let ONE game set my expectations (Cowboys' fans, d'ya huur me?) I'm happy we won, and I think we played great on both sides of the ball, but I also know that on September 5th, Patrick Mahomes led the league in interceptions, so I prefer to get a few games under our belt before hyping myself up. If nothing else, the most satisfaction came from beating Aaron Rodgers... AGAIN!! My biggest takeaway, though, was how well Jordan Mason did in CMC's absence. He's a stud, and I'm happy we have him in our arsenal.

That said, my best friend texted me Monday morning saying he really wished Christian McCaffrey hadn't been on the cover of Madden '25. Monday night, we learned CMC was out with an injury, and my knee-jerk reaction was to blame the Madden Curse, and was perplexed at how I was legitimately angry about it, going so far as to blame my friend for even bringing it up. We are both highly irrational when our Niners are playing.

 

[Kyrian007]

I don't really believe in jinxes, but neither do I let ONE game set my expectations (Cowboys' fans, d'ya huur me?) I'm happy we won, and I think we played great on both sides of the ball, but I also know that on September 5th, Patrick Mahomes led the league in interceptions, so I prefer to get a few games under our belt before hyping myself up. If nothing else, the most satisfaction came from beating Aaron Rodgers... AGAIN!

Entirely agree. Every season for any good team is going to have at least one setback and maybe a couple game slide due to an injury. And at least one loss to a team that has no business beating them. The path to the playoffs lie in when that happens and how a team deals with those setbacks.

My biggest takeaway, though, was how well Jordan Mason did in CMC's absence. He's a stud, and I'm happy we have him in our arsenal.

Dealing with a key injury like THAT is exactly how a really good team does it. I remember thinking at one point that no one could have predicted how well Mason was going to play... And then immediately realizing, "well, SOMEONE in the 49ers coaching or management obviously did."

 

[Xprimentyl]

Well shit, 49ers at Vikings was a comedy of errors. We looked terrible across the board. The only people who appeared to have played football before were our DB Fred Warner, WR Deebo Samuel, Sr., and TE George Kittle; they looked like the lone three adults trying to facilitate nap time for a room full of 100 coked-up 2-year-olds. I can't list everything that went wrong, because nigh literally, everything went wrong! Blocked punt, interceptions, dropped passes, fumbles, sacks, bad calls on 4th down, avoidable penalties, etc. About the only thing that wasn't a problem was injuries, but we still managed a scare when Kittle was carted off the field; you could hear Niners' fans' collective sphincters unclenching when we learned he would only be out for a couple of plays while he received IVs for some cramping. Sheesh, that was rough to watch. Apparently, we haven't beat the Vikings at their house since 1992?? What gives?!?

BUT, all was not lost! The Saints defied everyone's expectations when they went into the Cowboys' house and not only beat them, but absolutely murdered them, 44-19. I didn't get to watch because it was at the same time I was performing triage on my own team, but every time I checked the score, it was just getting worse for the 'Boys. The look on the faces of pretty much everyone wearing anything Cowboys was priceless.

At least we weren't alone yesterday, a lot of upsets yesterday: Raiders beat the Ravens, Buccaneers beat the Lions, Bengals took the Chiefs the distance, only losing by one point after a last-second Chiefs' field goal; must have been something in the water yesterday. Shaking it off, on to the Rams...

 

[Kyrian007]

Well shit, 49ers at Vikings was a comedy of errors. We looked terrible across the board. The only people who appeared to have played football before were our DB Fred Warner, WR Deebo Samuel, Sr., and TE George Kittle; they looked like the lone three adults trying to facilitate nap time for a room full of 100 coked-up 2-year-olds. I can't list everything that went wrong, because nigh literally, everything went wrong! Blocked punt, interceptions, dropped passes, fumbles, sacks, bad calls on 4th down, avoidable penalties, etc. About the only thing that wasn't a problem was injuries, but we still managed a scare when Kittle was carted off the field; you could hear Niners' fans' collective sphincters unclenching when we learned he would only be out for a couple of plays while he received IVs for some cramping. Sheesh, that was rough to watch. Apparently, we haven't beat the Vikings at their house since 1992?? What gives?!?

BUT, all was not lost! The Saints defied everyone's expectations when they went into the Cowboys' house and not only beat them, but absolutely murdered them, 44-19. I didn't get to watch because it was at the same time I was performing triage on my own team, but every time I checked the score, it was just getting worse for the 'Boys. The look on the faces of pretty much everyone wearing anything Cowboys was priceless.

At least we weren't alone yesterday, a lot of upsets yesterday: Raiders beat the Ravens, Buccaneers beat the Lions, Bengals took the Chiefs the distance, only losing by one point after a last-second Chiefs' field goal; must have been something in the water yesterday. Shaking it off, on to the Rams...

Yeah. When I said, "at least one loss to a team that has no business beating them," I didn't mean they should all try and do it at the same time in week 2. I do feel for 49ers fans today. I can't offer much in terms of positivity... it was the Vikings. But I CAN say, at least you aren't Ravens Fans?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yeah. When I said, "at least one loss to a team that has no business beating them," I didn't mean they should all try and do it at the same time in week 2. I do feel for 49ers fans today. I can't offer much in terms of positivity... it was the Vikings. But I CAN say, at least you aren't Ravens Fans?

I didn't expect the Vikings to be a walk-off win by any stretch, but I certainly didn't expect to get drug by the nostrils up and down the field for three hours. It's a rough day when you go from rooting for a win, to begging for a respectable loss; I was begging Shanahan to take that last field goal so the box score (17-23) might mask how bad it really was.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Aaaaand, we can throw the Eagles on the pile of "those who shouldn't have lost in week 2." I can already see the talking heads pointing back to this week as the season progresses regardless of how individual teams pan out, i.e.: "what did they figure out since week 2?" or "they showed us who they REALLY were in week 2!"

 

[Kyrian007]

Several of the hosts on my station, as well as several of the regular show contributors have a running "picks" contest going. It is picking games against the Vegas line. Last week's winner was .500. No one else had a winning record.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Several of the hosts on my station, as well as several of the regular show contributors have a running "picks" contest going. It is picking games against the Vegas line. Last week's winner was .500. No one else had a winning record.

Do they have to pick like 4 or 6 games to go against Vegas?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Shohei Ohtani of the LA Dodgers just became the first MLB player in the league's history to reach 50 homeruns and 50 stolen bases in a season. I watched the highlights; some lucky fan managed to catch the 50th HR ball, and is likely sitting on a fortune should they ever be willing to part with it. Give the ball back, or hold on to a unique piece of sports history with a story that's never been told before and likely won't be told again for ages? I'd like to think for my love of sports (if not particularly baseball,) I'd like to see the ball enshrined in the HoF or something, but the selfish part of me would covet the opportunity to have something that valuable collecting dust on MY shelf in MY house. Bring the buddies over, crack open some beers, and regale them with the tale of my catching a record-setting ball. And no, they can't touch it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I’ve been out of the loop in the NBA world for quite a few years now (probably for the best), so not sure what all this talk about slandering MJ is about lately, but if it has anything to do with comparisons to LJ, then just lol.




Basically -
@chiligribble8431 7 hours ago
Michael Jordan made people love basketball, LeBron James has made it hard to love basketball.

 

[Xprimentyl]

This is Alabama's 17-year-old (<- read that again) Ryan Williams with one of the most ridiculous catch-n'-runs I've ever seen; it's incredible the way he played those defenders like a fucking fiddle. He doesn't need a resume; just show the NFL this clip, and GMs will kill each other to sign him. Stay healthy, young man; this is the kind of skill that could redefine the wide receiver position.


In other news, my 49ers got a much needed win over the Patriots yesterday *whew*

Oh, and Daniel Ricciardo, arguably the face of Formula 1 for casual/new fans lost his seat at RB to Liam Lawson, a rookie who's shown significant promise where Ricciardo has not. I'd say it's a sad thing, but he's had chances at numerous teams, more chances than most, and mediocrity finally caught up with him.

And still no word on a new contract for Bottas. I saw "rumor" that he'd signed a 1-year deal with Sauber for 2025, their last year in F1 being replaced by Audi in 2026, but that's where the trail ends for now.

 

[BrawlMan]

Detroit Tigers are going to the playoffs!

 

[Xprimentyl]

Detroit Tigers are going to the playoffs!

And they put the Astros (of ALL teams) out of the playoffs. Wow. Saw a stat that said the Tigers are only the fourth team in MLB history to make it to the playoffs with a similar, not-so-promising record going into August, and the other three all won the World Series that year...

 

[Kyrian007]

Something fairly funny happened here yesterday. One of the frequent contributors to the sports show here is our sports betting insider. He called us this year for the first time after the NFL season opener. He's from Baltimore. We're in Kansas. Chiefs beat the Ravens by a toe the night before. We had a laugh about it. Yesterday he was scheduled again. The night before, the Royals put the Orioles out of the playoffs.

We're still good, he's still laughing and joking with us. But if this keeps happening... I mean, chances aren't terrible that Chiefs/Ravens winds up a playoff matchup.