First, I'd like to welcome Ken Socrates' hockey blog, Hockey Gone Wild, to the sidebar. Do go read!
(update - oh, yeah... helps to include the link. Fixed now.)
Second, I'd like to show off a little. I've been harping on the pity points in the NHL... it reduces competitiveness at the end of games, doesn't eliminate the "boring" ties (games still are even after 65 minutes), artificially makes teams look better than they are, and makes it harder to catch the teams ahead of you in the standings.
Tiresome? Well, you'll notice I haven't run the Real Standings for a while. But check this out from The Hockey News' Edward Fraser. Essentially, it's a pithier and better-written version of all of my harping over the past few months.
I'd like to take credit, but I've just discovered Mr. Fraser's work, and way back in December 2007, it turns out that he invented the Real Standings, with a twist - he eliminated ties entirely and went to a 2-0 system. In recognition, the next Real Standings here will be named the Fraser Standings. (I'm not changing the tag, though.) And yes, I will actually try to run them sometime over the weekend. It takes a little while to catch up if I haven't updated it regularly.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A programming note
Haloscan, which has been the commenting service here at the Hive for a few years, is officially going kaput. In its place, the company js-kit is offering a service they like so much they've renamed themselves after it: Echo.
No, your comments won't be sent to the attic. It looks like there will be a lot of cross-platform compatibility, so people with existing OpenID or other accounts can just log in, and use whatever avatars, profile pics, and online info they already have. Whether or not the actual commenting will be worth anything remains to be seen, though js-kit did a good job with Haloscan and I had no complains. One difference straightaway is that the Echo comments can be threaded. I'm personally not a fan, because it can be harder to find new comments that way; but I get so little comment traffic in general, it's not likely to make a difference one way or another.
This post is the first to feature the Echo system. Try it out and let's see what we've got.
No, your comments won't be sent to the attic. It looks like there will be a lot of cross-platform compatibility, so people with existing OpenID or other accounts can just log in, and use whatever avatars, profile pics, and online info they already have. Whether or not the actual commenting will be worth anything remains to be seen, though js-kit did a good job with Haloscan and I had no complains. One difference straightaway is that the Echo comments can be threaded. I'm personally not a fan, because it can be harder to find new comments that way; but I get so little comment traffic in general, it's not likely to make a difference one way or another.
This post is the first to feature the Echo system. Try it out and let's see what we've got.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Marco!
Rubio!
For the first time, Quinnipiac finds the former state House Speaker Marco Rubio leading the formerly very popular — and still well-known — Gov. Charlie Crist by a margin of 47% to 44%.As per Drew at AoS HQ. Oh, wait, there's more?
The survey is also chock full of bad news for Democrats. President Obama is seen unfavorably in the Sunshine State these days by 49% of the people, versus 45% who still see a positive leader.If Obama actually stumps for Meek, he may not even carry his own district.
And in the Senate horse race, Rubio now tops Rep. Kendrick Meek 44% to 35%.
There's the 24 hours at LeMans...
...and then there's the 24 hours of urine.
At the VA hospital I was given a gallon-sized brown plastic jug and instructed to save my urine for a 24-hour stretch. That jug is in the office refrigerator as I write this.
I've done this before, about 16 years ago. I and my brothers were in completion to see which of us would donate a kidney to our sister. (The Chief won). The hospital in Philly handling this wanted me to save a day of my urine and bring it in. The Center City hospital had minimal parking, so I parked in the Vet lot and took the subway uptown. There I was, on the Broad Street Line carrying a jug of my own urine, which probably happens every day on the Philly subway.
I get to the hospital with my jug, and the first thing they ask me is for a urine sample. I pointed to the jug and said, "Get it out of there." Not good enough for these folks.
At the VA hospital I was given a gallon-sized brown plastic jug and instructed to save my urine for a 24-hour stretch. That jug is in the office refrigerator as I write this.
I've done this before, about 16 years ago. I and my brothers were in completion to see which of us would donate a kidney to our sister. (The Chief won). The hospital in Philly handling this wanted me to save a day of my urine and bring it in. The Center City hospital had minimal parking, so I parked in the Vet lot and took the subway uptown. There I was, on the Broad Street Line carrying a jug of my own urine, which probably happens every day on the Philly subway.
I get to the hospital with my jug, and the first thing they ask me is for a urine sample. I pointed to the jug and said, "Get it out of there." Not good enough for these folks.
If I had a brain...
...I'd smother it. I don't have a brain, but for the sake of argument let's say I did. I would smother it. I might play with it for awhile, but eventually I'd smother it.
Remember that space heater I got a few weeks ago? Remember how toasty and warm I was in the Spider Cave? I got up close to that heater because I wanted my feet to feel toasty warm. I forgot that my feet will never feel toasty and warm because my feet will never feel anything because I have @#$%^&*&^%$ neuropathy!!!
So when I showed up at my doctor's office with a burn blister on my right big toe I was surprised that my doctor didn't schedule me to get my head examined as well a a trip to the wound care center.
It's a tiny blister. No infection. Taking antibiotics until my trip to the wound care center next Thursday. I was at least hoping for the podiatry clinic, where reside the most beautiful doctors in the entire VA hospital. Oh well.
Remember that space heater I got a few weeks ago? Remember how toasty and warm I was in the Spider Cave? I got up close to that heater because I wanted my feet to feel toasty warm. I forgot that my feet will never feel toasty and warm because my feet will never feel anything because I have @#$%^&*&^%$ neuropathy!!!
So when I showed up at my doctor's office with a burn blister on my right big toe I was surprised that my doctor didn't schedule me to get my head examined as well a a trip to the wound care center.
It's a tiny blister. No infection. Taking antibiotics until my trip to the wound care center next Thursday. I was at least hoping for the podiatry clinic, where reside the most beautiful doctors in the entire VA hospital. Oh well.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Recent baseball transaction
I'm not talking about Gary Matthews going to the Mets, or Rick Ankiel to the Royals, but Athletics prospect Grant Desme going to the Padres.
Not the San Diego Padres. The real Padres.
Desme is leaving the game at a time when his fortunes seemed to be rising fast. He batted .288 with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs in 131 games last year. Then he starred in the Arizona Fall League, where some of the game’s top prospects compete. He likely would have started this season at Class AA.
“Here’s a kid that’s on the brink,” Fai said over the phone from Vancouver, B.C., where he works as the assistant general manager for the Oakland affiliate there. “This would probably be an easier decision for someone who was maybe going through the motions in the minors. “But if you know Grant, the spiritual side of his life has always been a priority. I don’t know if there was a tipping factor that made him wake up and say, ‘Today’s the day.’”
Regardless, today is the day: As first reported by FOXSports.com, the 23-year-old star prospect has informed the A’s that he will retire and become a priest.
As the article said, this would be an easier decision if the kid stunk on ice. But Desme may be giving up a legitimate shot at the bigs. That's renouncing the world for you.
Not the San Diego Padres. The real Padres.
Desme is leaving the game at a time when his fortunes seemed to be rising fast. He batted .288 with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs in 131 games last year. Then he starred in the Arizona Fall League, where some of the game’s top prospects compete. He likely would have started this season at Class AA.
“Here’s a kid that’s on the brink,” Fai said over the phone from Vancouver, B.C., where he works as the assistant general manager for the Oakland affiliate there. “This would probably be an easier decision for someone who was maybe going through the motions in the minors. “But if you know Grant, the spiritual side of his life has always been a priority. I don’t know if there was a tipping factor that made him wake up and say, ‘Today’s the day.’”
Regardless, today is the day: As first reported by FOXSports.com, the 23-year-old star prospect has informed the A’s that he will retire and become a priest.
As the article said, this would be an easier decision if the kid stunk on ice. But Desme may be giving up a legitimate shot at the bigs. That's renouncing the world for you.
It's my fault, Part 1
Sports and news talk radio are running ads about the Gasparilla Pirate Fest next Saturday. The closest I can compare this to in style and temperment is Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
These ads are reminding attendees that, for the first time, local laws concerning underage drinking and public winoism will be enforced. You see, the parade runs down Bayshore Blvd, where there are many very nice homes owned by folks with the money to buy them. Well, last year there was one too many guys pooping in the front yard bushes, and complaints from homeowners have begotten a renewed effort by cops to crack down.
And it's my fault. It's also my fault that beer sales are cut off after the seventh inning and the fourth quarter of sporting events. Most of you reading this have no problem going to the game, drinking a few beers (not as many as you like- what are they $50 a piece at the ballpark?) and going home. But because of guys like me who couldn't control themselves the rest of you have to be treated like eight year olds.
New Jersey raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 back in the 1980's? I own that one, too.
Okay, maybe I share some responsibility with the law firm of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, since fear of litigation is probably motivating some of these ballpark rules. ("My client was held down by concession employees and had MGD poured down his throat.")
That's not the only thing that's my fault. But that's for Part 2.
These ads are reminding attendees that, for the first time, local laws concerning underage drinking and public winoism will be enforced. You see, the parade runs down Bayshore Blvd, where there are many very nice homes owned by folks with the money to buy them. Well, last year there was one too many guys pooping in the front yard bushes, and complaints from homeowners have begotten a renewed effort by cops to crack down.
And it's my fault. It's also my fault that beer sales are cut off after the seventh inning and the fourth quarter of sporting events. Most of you reading this have no problem going to the game, drinking a few beers (not as many as you like- what are they $50 a piece at the ballpark?) and going home. But because of guys like me who couldn't control themselves the rest of you have to be treated like eight year olds.
New Jersey raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 back in the 1980's? I own that one, too.
Okay, maybe I share some responsibility with the law firm of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, since fear of litigation is probably motivating some of these ballpark rules. ("My client was held down by concession employees and had MGD poured down his throat.")
That's not the only thing that's my fault. But that's for Part 2.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sleepyblog
Awwww.... the Hive is so CUTE when it's just curled up so peacefully, doing nothing! So innocent and trusting. I wonder what it dreams about...
(Content soon, folks. Unless, y'know, there isn't.)
(Content soon, folks. Unless, y'know, there isn't.)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
What I learned this week...
...is what I already know.
The local head of the NAALCP was on radio in Tampa insisting that she wasn't giving Harry Reid a pass, and then proceeded to give him a pass. You see, one can be patronizing and condescending to black people if you support the right issues. How quickly the NAALCP defends their white masters in the Democratic party.
Reid's remarks aren't that bad, but we know that if they can from someone on the right the racebaiters would be wetting themselves.
99% of the time, a charge of racism is merely a club in which to beat conservatives.
Reid went to Revvum Al for absolution. Revvum Jesse must be furious.
There was talk of the Congressional Black Caucus holding press conferences to highlight the voting records of those who criticized Dingy Harry. I'd like to see those freaks and criminals of the CBC call people in favor of restraining the size of the federal government racists. That's a winning strategy. NOT!
To say I lost respect for the NAALCP and their ilk would assume I had any respect for them in the first place.
The local head of the NAALCP was on radio in Tampa insisting that she wasn't giving Harry Reid a pass, and then proceeded to give him a pass. You see, one can be patronizing and condescending to black people if you support the right issues. How quickly the NAALCP defends their white masters in the Democratic party.
Reid's remarks aren't that bad, but we know that if they can from someone on the right the racebaiters would be wetting themselves.
99% of the time, a charge of racism is merely a club in which to beat conservatives.
Reid went to Revvum Al for absolution. Revvum Jesse must be furious.
There was talk of the Congressional Black Caucus holding press conferences to highlight the voting records of those who criticized Dingy Harry. I'd like to see those freaks and criminals of the CBC call people in favor of restraining the size of the federal government racists. That's a winning strategy. NOT!
To say I lost respect for the NAALCP and their ilk would assume I had any respect for them in the first place.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Because it worked SO well last time...
Obama is doubling down on his sterling coattail record...
Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine are frantically speed-dialing Martha Coakley's HQ right now. Unfortunately, the phone lines are a little tied up with questions about her record as the Massachusetts district attorney, or with angry Red Sox fans, to say nothing of the mysterious voices from inside the walls crying geeeetttttt ouuttttttt!
(One of those items may be slightly embellished.)
If it works the way his November push did, you know what you'll hear next, right?
Sir Obama ran away
He bravely ran away, away!
When voters reared their ugly heads
He bravely said "I won!" and fled
Brave, brave, brave Sir Obama!
Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine are frantically speed-dialing Martha Coakley's HQ right now. Unfortunately, the phone lines are a little tied up with questions about her record as the Massachusetts district attorney, or with angry Red Sox fans, to say nothing of the mysterious voices from inside the walls crying geeeetttttt ouuttttttt!
(One of those items may be slightly embellished.)
If it works the way his November push did, you know what you'll hear next, right?
Sir Obama ran away
He bravely ran away, away!
When voters reared their ugly heads
He bravely said "I won!" and fled
Brave, brave, brave Sir Obama!
Saturday, January 09, 2010
The Winter of Our Discontent
Update: If I hadn't found a space heater, this would have been an option.
At 8 am Saturday morning it was 35 degrees in Tampa, FL. It will get below 30 tonight and tomorrow night. It took me three days of calling and visiting Walmarts before I found a space heater. I am now toasty warm in my little cave in the 'hood.
The county fined my boss for watering his fruit trees on an unauthorized day of the week. He doesn't have an orchard. Many folks down here have fruit trees growing in their yards. It is not uncommon to yank a few grapefuit off a tree in the backyard and eat them for breakfast. And they didn't need water for the ordinary reasons. By spraying water on the fruit trees and letting it freeze helps save the fruit from being killed off in the deep cold. Tonight, strawberry farmers in Plant City will be flooding their fields for the same reason.
And if you have a late night flight out of Tampa International it may be delayed. TIA doesn't have the means to de-ice aircraft wings. You just have to wait till the sun comes up.
These temps may be normal up in New Jersey, but folks are freaking a little down here. There is even talk of it snowing here like it did 33 years ago.
I will have to go out today eventually. I'll be wearing every stitch of clothing I own.
At 8 am Saturday morning it was 35 degrees in Tampa, FL. It will get below 30 tonight and tomorrow night. It took me three days of calling and visiting Walmarts before I found a space heater. I am now toasty warm in my little cave in the 'hood.
The county fined my boss for watering his fruit trees on an unauthorized day of the week. He doesn't have an orchard. Many folks down here have fruit trees growing in their yards. It is not uncommon to yank a few grapefuit off a tree in the backyard and eat them for breakfast. And they didn't need water for the ordinary reasons. By spraying water on the fruit trees and letting it freeze helps save the fruit from being killed off in the deep cold. Tonight, strawberry farmers in Plant City will be flooding their fields for the same reason.
And if you have a late night flight out of Tampa International it may be delayed. TIA doesn't have the means to de-ice aircraft wings. You just have to wait till the sun comes up.
These temps may be normal up in New Jersey, but folks are freaking a little down here. There is even talk of it snowing here like it did 33 years ago.
I will have to go out today eventually. I'll be wearing every stitch of clothing I own.
Friday, January 08, 2010
First entry for Line of the Year
From Matthew Archbold of the Creative Minority Report:
Secular progressives won't tolerate any mention of Christianity in public. In short, Jesus is the new smoking. And the fear of secondhand Jesus is even more intense than the pungency of nicotine in a restaurant."Fear of secondhand Jesus" is pure win.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
I'll be gone this weekend..
...to visit the Chief in Jacksonville. He has been featured here and here on this blog.
I may even go to Mass with them. I can count on one hand the number of times that I have been to Mass. The first time was Christmas Eve Midnight Mass @ Lackland AFB, TX during USAF Basic Training. Why should the Catholic guys be the only ones who get to stay up past lights out?
Twice was with the Nightfly. Once was a Spanish language Mass in Tampa, and at his wonderful wedding to the Ladybug.
I was visiting the Chief for the Super Bowl that was in Jacksonville and we went to Mass that day. I didn't recognize any of the music, but I had no trouble picking it up. During the homily, the priest got on his congregation for not reading their Bibles. (Preach it, brother!)
It will be a great time. There will be feasting Christmas Eve. Mrs Chief has a large family on her side and when they all come over it's a great time.
I may even go to Mass with them. I can count on one hand the number of times that I have been to Mass. The first time was Christmas Eve Midnight Mass @ Lackland AFB, TX during USAF Basic Training. Why should the Catholic guys be the only ones who get to stay up past lights out?
Twice was with the Nightfly. Once was a Spanish language Mass in Tampa, and at his wonderful wedding to the Ladybug.
I was visiting the Chief for the Super Bowl that was in Jacksonville and we went to Mass that day. I didn't recognize any of the music, but I had no trouble picking it up. During the homily, the priest got on his congregation for not reading their Bibles. (Preach it, brother!)
It will be a great time. There will be feasting Christmas Eve. Mrs Chief has a large family on her side and when they all come over it's a great time.
We've already established what kind of Senator you are...
... now we're just haggling about the price.
Bill Nelson, though, is a cheaper whore that Ben Nelson and Mary Laundry.
This site is not allowing me to cut and paste. Unlike Ben, who got a Medicare payoff for his whole state, Bill could only get an exemption of Medicare cuts for three Democratic counties. The other 2 million old-timers in Florida are screwed.
The phone line to Bill Nelson's Tampa office is busy. He's not up for re-election until 2012, so he's counting on short memories.
I know it's not Laundry, but I can't spell her name.
edit by the 'fly - it's Landreau, I believe. And the new Blogger post editor/creator makes the cut-and-paste a bit of a hassle. I grabbed the money graf for you:
You have a good point about the size of Bill Nelson's particular bribe compared to the others. Ed Morrissey (courtesy of the Ace of Spades) gives a fine rundown of the pay-to-play largesse Harry Reid is funneling from the public purse, even while the Senate debates raising the debt ceiling.
There's a reason why consumers can't raise their own credit limits with most lenders - they'd go more broke, more quickly, and in enough numbers to risk the solvency of the banks doing the lending. It takes a special brand of willful blindness to scold banks for going along with it, vote for a government bailout to that problem, and then turn around mere months later and try to commit the same mistake; akin to a parent who pulls his kid out of a fire and then dives back into the building to prove how hot it is.
Bill Nelson, though, is a cheaper whore that Ben Nelson and Mary Laundry.
This site is not allowing me to cut and paste. Unlike Ben, who got a Medicare payoff for his whole state, Bill could only get an exemption of Medicare cuts for three Democratic counties. The other 2 million old-timers in Florida are screwed.
The phone line to Bill Nelson's Tampa office is busy. He's not up for re-election until 2012, so he's counting on short memories.
I know it's not Laundry, but I can't spell her name.
edit by the 'fly - it's Landreau, I believe. And the new Blogger post editor/creator makes the cut-and-paste a bit of a hassle. I grabbed the money graf for you:
Many pundits wondered how Nelson could justify supporting a health care reform bill that cuts Medicare by $500 billion when his home state has so many seniors. Now, we know. He is having the heart of his base exempted from the worst of the cuts.When you try to paste now, you have to click the "allow access" button, and then Blogger should permit it. Who knows why they do it.
You have a good point about the size of Bill Nelson's particular bribe compared to the others. Ed Morrissey (courtesy of the Ace of Spades) gives a fine rundown of the pay-to-play largesse Harry Reid is funneling from the public purse, even while the Senate debates raising the debt ceiling.
There's a reason why consumers can't raise their own credit limits with most lenders - they'd go more broke, more quickly, and in enough numbers to risk the solvency of the banks doing the lending. It takes a special brand of willful blindness to scold banks for going along with it, vote for a government bailout to that problem, and then turn around mere months later and try to commit the same mistake; akin to a parent who pulls his kid out of a fire and then dives back into the building to prove how hot it is.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Musical Monday, hockey edition, again
There's something about Dylan and the Lord's Own Hockey that inspires me.
Slapshots ring out in the October night
Enter the head coach from the player’s bench
Sees the goaltender sittin’ in a pool of red light
Calls out, “Get the backup in there now!”
Here comes the story of the Hurricanes
The ones the media have come to blame
For all those games they never won
Sittin’ in the box when they coulda been
The champions of the world…
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Erik Cole and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
A top contender for the Eastern Conference crown
Then they dropped the puck and the losses started comin’ down
Refs whistlin’ them for all those bogus calls
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Carolina that’s just the way things go
You might as well not even show up on the scoresheet
‘Less you wanna draw the heat
Jim Rutherford built this team from scratch
Got him some defensmen and a couple of scorers
Said his goalie was one of the best that there was
But the team kept gettin’ worse and he had to face the reporters
He said “All my guys are hurt and they’re on the IR
Ain’t gonna fire my coach or bench my star
We’ve just gotta have a little time
Get our team into a little climb
Just last year we won two playoff rounds!”
Two months later and the Hurricanes are still dead-last
Bloggers sayin’, “Hey, isn’t this the new NHL?
Everyone’s above .500 now, how can this pass?
We’re looking like the ‘75 Capitals!”
This is the story of the Hurricanes
Out of the playoff race by Christmastime
They’ve gotta hope the ping-pongs run
So they can at least draft #1
But they used to be champions of the world!
This one, much older, started life as a comment Chris Botta's Islanders Point Blank blog, in January 2009.
Isles are in the basement, tankin’ on the season
I’m on Point Blank, thinkin’ ’bout the reasons
Bad drafts, dumb trades, front-office charades
Fifty games played and an injury parade
Look out, fans! Nothing getting done
Waiting on a new trend while riding out the old one
Snowie in a three-piece suit on the telephone
Wants a first-round pick, but they don’t wanna give him one
New coach, new kids, old vets, prospects,
Twelve third-liners and eleven second-round picks
Looking for a rebuild, tired of the quick-fix
Playin in an old barn in the middle of the sticks
Trying to save face, want to build a new space
Town drags its feet so they may be movin’ someplace
Look out, fans! It’s feeling old
Fifteen years with the same tale told
Feeling down, can’t get a shovel in the ground
And the town of Hempstead keeps jerkin’ us around
It's not so odd. Dylan is from Minnesota dere, ya know?
Slapshots ring out in the October night
Enter the head coach from the player’s bench
Sees the goaltender sittin’ in a pool of red light
Calls out, “Get the backup in there now!”
Here comes the story of the Hurricanes
The ones the media have come to blame
For all those games they never won
Sittin’ in the box when they coulda been
The champions of the world…
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Erik Cole and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
A top contender for the Eastern Conference crown
Then they dropped the puck and the losses started comin’ down
Refs whistlin’ them for all those bogus calls
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Carolina that’s just the way things go
You might as well not even show up on the scoresheet
‘Less you wanna draw the heat
Jim Rutherford built this team from scratch
Got him some defensmen and a couple of scorers
Said his goalie was one of the best that there was
But the team kept gettin’ worse and he had to face the reporters
He said “All my guys are hurt and they’re on the IR
Ain’t gonna fire my coach or bench my star
We’ve just gotta have a little time
Get our team into a little climb
Just last year we won two playoff rounds!”
Two months later and the Hurricanes are still dead-last
Bloggers sayin’, “Hey, isn’t this the new NHL?
Everyone’s above .500 now, how can this pass?
We’re looking like the ‘75 Capitals!”
This is the story of the Hurricanes
Out of the playoff race by Christmastime
They’ve gotta hope the ping-pongs run
So they can at least draft #1
But they used to be champions of the world!
This one, much older, started life as a comment Chris Botta's Islanders Point Blank blog, in January 2009.
Isles are in the basement, tankin’ on the season
I’m on Point Blank, thinkin’ ’bout the reasons
Bad drafts, dumb trades, front-office charades
Fifty games played and an injury parade
Look out, fans! Nothing getting done
Waiting on a new trend while riding out the old one
Snowie in a three-piece suit on the telephone
Wants a first-round pick, but they don’t wanna give him one
New coach, new kids, old vets, prospects,
Twelve third-liners and eleven second-round picks
Looking for a rebuild, tired of the quick-fix
Playin in an old barn in the middle of the sticks
Trying to save face, want to build a new space
Town drags its feet so they may be movin’ someplace
Look out, fans! It’s feeling old
Fifteen years with the same tale told
Feeling down, can’t get a shovel in the ground
And the town of Hempstead keeps jerkin’ us around
It's not so odd. Dylan is from Minnesota dere, ya know?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Christmas @ The Spider's Church
The top pic is our music team (along with some other volunteers) singing some special music last Sunday. That's me on the right with the other tenor. Most of the folks in this pic are real musicians; I'm just bluffing me way in. This pic makes it look like I can actually read music. NOT!
Actually I can read a little music. For example, there are two melodies to "Away in a Manger". I can tell which melody I'm singing by the sheet music.
In the next pic you can see that I haven't cut my hair since May. Well, it's coming off after Christmas. Too high maintenance. The beard wasn't gray until the 2000 election. The need for bifocals make glasses more practical (and cheaper) than contact lenses.
This pic also shows the difficulties that I have finding a dress shirt that fits. I am a laundry bag with legs. A shirt with a neck big enough for me to wear a tie will be a dress on me. But then the occasions of my tie-wearing are rare.
I wanted to end this by talking about the place these pics were taken, Hope Bible Church in Tampa. Sure, the preaching is standard evangelical. Our pastors just open the Bible and talk about what's in it.
But good preaching is a waste in a place that is unwelcoming. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 that if he had all knowledge and all faith but no love he was nothing. This place and these good people are a sanctuary for me.
I really couldn't tell you how I am staying sober. Many have studied God's Word more than I, have prayed than I, have gone to more AA meetings than I and have stumbled. In this area I am totally at the mercy of the Almighty. Maybe the fact that these good people have taken me in as one of there own has something to do with it.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Fun with goalie numbers
In a long-distant post, I remember discussing goalie stats, and how the standards changed historically from the old, pre-expansion NHL, through the expansion and scoring boom of the 70's and 80's, and into the "dead-puck" era and beyond. I can't find that post at all, sadly - it's not tagged. But I do remember that in the comments, someone suggested that links to the pertinent numbers and goalies would have helped.
Well, this is that... kind of. (I'm full of met expectations in this post, aren't I?)
The NHL's official stat pages for the keepers is a great resource for tinkering with numbers and comparing/contrasting.* The guys I found and linked below, I've picked for particular reasons. For example, you'll have heard that Martin Brodeur has won more regular-season games than any other goalie to play in the NH, and that he tied Terry Sawchuck's all-time-best mark for shutouts. You may also know that after last night's game against Montreal, he is tied with the former Canadien, Patrick Roy, for most regular-season appearances by a goalie. (If you click that first link above, you'll see it for yourself - at least if you click before the Devils play Ottawa on Friday, when Brodeur will pass Roy.)
*With one exception - they don't sort the career numbers based on any minimum number of games played, so the "all-time leaders" for the rate stats are pages of guys who played one game in net for their careers. It can be a hassle to page through those and try to find the actual career guys.
Brodeur got his 103 clean sheets by allowing 2.21 goals per 60 minutes (the goals-against average is the goalie equivalent to a pitcher's ERA). Sawchuck permitted 2.51. Does that make Brodeur clearly better? Is that more a function of the Devils' excellent system? It's hard to say. No complete records exist for the numbers of shots Sawchuck faced; we can't be sure what percentage of those he saved. And from there, it's another step to compare his average to the league average. Carl Yaztremski hit .301 in 1968, which sounds terrible to us, but he led the AL that year; it's possible that's more impressive than anyone who hit .335 in Coors Field during the steroid era. To take Roy as an example: he led the league in GAA in 1991-92. He saved 91.4% of shots against him, and surrendered 2.36 goals per full game; the league averaged 3.48 per team, per game. Bob Sauve led the league twelve seasons earlier with an identical GAA (save percentage not recorded), with teams averaging 3.52 goals per game. But nearly overnight, the game changed - in 1999-2000, Roy's 2.28 GAA (and identical .914 sv%) was only good for ninth, in a league where teams only scored 2.75 goals per game. Was Roy actually better in 2000, or in 1992?
But the data get better every day, as do the tools used to understand them. Tom Awad at Puck Prospectus has developed something called Goals Versus Threshold, for example. In brief, it takes offense, defense, and goaltending, separates and quantifies each, and translates it into how many goals that contribution is worth to a team. It's not easy to calculate, but it's a substantial move forward. Folks also like the Corsi rating, named for its inventor, former goalie coach Jim Corsi, though like any stat, it's not perfect.**
** I have a book on goalkeeping which has contributions from Corsi, and it's excellent, much like the article on Corsi you can reach by clicking his name above.
As far as the basics? Start with the unassuming, yet wonderfully-named, Doug Soetart. Soetart finished his career with a winning record... but his GAA was 3.97. It's the largest GAA I could find for any keeper who won at least 100 games, and more than he lost. Even during the superball scoring of his time, it was rare for a guy with much worse numbers to keep playing.
You'll notice that in the few years Soetart's sv% was recorded, it was fairly unremarkable. Ken Wregget, the longtime Flyer and Penguin (among others), was one of the first keepers who played an entire career with shots and saves officially recorded, and you'll see that he never reached .900 until 1995, and never got under 3 goals per game until three seasons after. Not coincidentally, these were the beginning of the lower-scoring environments following the loss of half the '94-'95 season. Wregget only recorded 9 shutouts for his career, and six of those were beyond this cutoff.
There's a lot of examples like this that suggest that a goalie is often dependent on the team in front of him to put up the sorts of statistics that catch attention; it's also part of why a number of people don't automatically call Brodeur the best goalie in history, just because he tops so many all-time lists. Had the Islanders drafted him in 1990 instead of the Devils, for example, he wouldn't have played behind Scott Stevens, Scott Neidermeyer, Ken Daneyko, and Colin White, but behind Kenny Jonsson, Scott LaChance, Rich Pilon, and Radek Martinek. Jonsson was a fine defender, but I don't think there's much of a comparison. (Didn't pick those names at random, either - they're the four defenders who played the most games for those franchises since 1993, when Brodeur came up for good. And fifth/sixth are Brian Rafalski and Tommy Albelin vs. Eric Cairns and Roman Hamrlik. Oy.)
The most stark example I could find was old-time Charlie Gardiner, a Scotsman (aye!) who finished his career way back in 1934 with a 2.02 GAA... and a career losing record. He was one of the last goalies to be named a captain (the NHL forbade it for many years, but recently permitted Vancouver's Roberto Luongo the honor); and won the Stanley Cup his last year while suffering from an illness that eventually killed him; he was named to the Hall of Fame in 1945. That 2.02 is eye-popping, but the league's teams only scored 2.41 times per game in his last season. He began his career before forward passing was permitted. He also played for the so-called "goalless wonders," the Chicago Black Hawks.***
*** The 1906 Chicago White Sox were known as the Hitless Wonders... the '59 AL pennant winners weren't much better. Maybe it's the city?
At least Gardiner won a title. More modern (and less successful) examples include:
Doug Favell - 123-153-69, 3.17 GAA. Started with the expansion Flyers, moved to the dreadful mid-70's Maple Leafs, and ended with the expansion Colorado Rockies. Played from '67-'79.
Gary Smith - 173-261-74, 3.39 GAA. A victim of one of the worst squads in NHL history, the late, lamented Oakland/California Seals. Went 19-34-12 in '69-'70 despite a respectable 3.11 GAA; moved to Vancouver and went 32-24-9 with a 3.09 GAA and six shutouts in '74-'75. Played from 1965-1980.
Tommy Salo - 210-225-73, 2.55 GAA. Favored whipping boy of his own GM, "Mad" Mike Milbury (may his name be razed). Won a gold medal in the 1994 Olympics, then moved to the Islanders, and eventually the Oilers; good enough to shut out 37 NHL opponents from 1994-2004.
Jamie Storr - 85-86-23, 2.54 GAA. Seventh-overall pick in the 1993 entry draft, and tossed into action too soon behind some mediocre LA Kings squads. Went 0-8 in his last NHL season to sneak under .500, and now plays in Germany. Played exactly the same years as Salo.
Ron Tugnutt - 186-239-62, 3.05 GAA. Another fine example of how the game changes: in 1990-91, Tugger had a 4.05 GAA in 56 games for Quebec; in 1998-99, in the midst of the dead puck era, he led the NHL with a 1.79 GAA in 43 games for Ottawa. During that 1991 season, he faced 73 shots in a single game against Boston, stopping 70, for one of the greatest ties in league history. Played from 1987-2004.
On the other end, there's Michel Larocque, who backed up Ken Dryden on the Montreal dynasty teams of the 70's. He finished 160-89-45 with a 3.33 GAA from 1973-1984; but more accurately, he had two careers: Montreal ('73-'81: 144-48-31, 2.83 GAA,17 SO) and everywhere else ('81-'84: 16-41-14, 5.56 GAA, 0 SO). Nobody could blame Larocque for playing second fiddle to Hall-of-Famer Dryden, but he failed to beat out Denis Herron in 1980; was supplanted by Richard Sevigny in 1981, and was moved to Toronto. There he was outdone by backup Vincent Tremblay (out of the NHL by age 24!) and then lost his job to the underrated Mike Palmateer. His last year was as the third goalie for St Louis, who had Mike Liut and Rick Heinz (who only played 49 games in his career, but now runs a goalie school). At every stop Larocque was usually a half-goal or more worse per game than his fellow keepers. The W-L-T record is wildly misleading when compared to his other stats and his teammates.
Two other notables are John Vanbiesbrouck, the all-time winningest US goalie, and Oilers/Sabres/Blues stalwart Grant Fuhr. Both Hall-of-Famers from the 1981 draft class, with numbers which may pale next to modern keepers, but which were considerable when measured against their peers. VBK played for mostly forgettable teams and won 30+ games only once, leading the league with 31 in 1985-86; Fuhr was the keeper for the Oilers dynasties in the mid-late 80's, and thus won more often; but his career GAA and sv% were worse and he had fewer shutouts (3.38, .887, and 25 SO against 2.98, .889, and 40 SO for Beezer). He also had two fewer cool nicknames, though that wasn't his fault - "Grant Fuhr" is simple and memorable, and no reporter wants to spell "Vanbiesbrouck" five times, especially in the days when "cut and paste" involved an X-acto knife and Elmer's glue.
Well, this is that... kind of. (I'm full of met expectations in this post, aren't I?)
The NHL's official stat pages for the keepers is a great resource for tinkering with numbers and comparing/contrasting.* The guys I found and linked below, I've picked for particular reasons. For example, you'll have heard that Martin Brodeur has won more regular-season games than any other goalie to play in the NH, and that he tied Terry Sawchuck's all-time-best mark for shutouts. You may also know that after last night's game against Montreal, he is tied with the former Canadien, Patrick Roy, for most regular-season appearances by a goalie. (If you click that first link above, you'll see it for yourself - at least if you click before the Devils play Ottawa on Friday, when Brodeur will pass Roy.)
*With one exception - they don't sort the career numbers based on any minimum number of games played, so the "all-time leaders" for the rate stats are pages of guys who played one game in net for their careers. It can be a hassle to page through those and try to find the actual career guys.
Brodeur got his 103 clean sheets by allowing 2.21 goals per 60 minutes (the goals-against average is the goalie equivalent to a pitcher's ERA). Sawchuck permitted 2.51. Does that make Brodeur clearly better? Is that more a function of the Devils' excellent system? It's hard to say. No complete records exist for the numbers of shots Sawchuck faced; we can't be sure what percentage of those he saved. And from there, it's another step to compare his average to the league average. Carl Yaztremski hit .301 in 1968, which sounds terrible to us, but he led the AL that year; it's possible that's more impressive than anyone who hit .335 in Coors Field during the steroid era. To take Roy as an example: he led the league in GAA in 1991-92. He saved 91.4% of shots against him, and surrendered 2.36 goals per full game; the league averaged 3.48 per team, per game. Bob Sauve led the league twelve seasons earlier with an identical GAA (save percentage not recorded), with teams averaging 3.52 goals per game. But nearly overnight, the game changed - in 1999-2000, Roy's 2.28 GAA (and identical .914 sv%) was only good for ninth, in a league where teams only scored 2.75 goals per game. Was Roy actually better in 2000, or in 1992?
But the data get better every day, as do the tools used to understand them. Tom Awad at Puck Prospectus has developed something called Goals Versus Threshold, for example. In brief, it takes offense, defense, and goaltending, separates and quantifies each, and translates it into how many goals that contribution is worth to a team. It's not easy to calculate, but it's a substantial move forward. Folks also like the Corsi rating, named for its inventor, former goalie coach Jim Corsi, though like any stat, it's not perfect.**
** I have a book on goalkeeping which has contributions from Corsi, and it's excellent, much like the article on Corsi you can reach by clicking his name above.
As far as the basics? Start with the unassuming, yet wonderfully-named, Doug Soetart. Soetart finished his career with a winning record... but his GAA was 3.97. It's the largest GAA I could find for any keeper who won at least 100 games, and more than he lost. Even during the superball scoring of his time, it was rare for a guy with much worse numbers to keep playing.
You'll notice that in the few years Soetart's sv% was recorded, it was fairly unremarkable. Ken Wregget, the longtime Flyer and Penguin (among others), was one of the first keepers who played an entire career with shots and saves officially recorded, and you'll see that he never reached .900 until 1995, and never got under 3 goals per game until three seasons after. Not coincidentally, these were the beginning of the lower-scoring environments following the loss of half the '94-'95 season. Wregget only recorded 9 shutouts for his career, and six of those were beyond this cutoff.
There's a lot of examples like this that suggest that a goalie is often dependent on the team in front of him to put up the sorts of statistics that catch attention; it's also part of why a number of people don't automatically call Brodeur the best goalie in history, just because he tops so many all-time lists. Had the Islanders drafted him in 1990 instead of the Devils, for example, he wouldn't have played behind Scott Stevens, Scott Neidermeyer, Ken Daneyko, and Colin White, but behind Kenny Jonsson, Scott LaChance, Rich Pilon, and Radek Martinek. Jonsson was a fine defender, but I don't think there's much of a comparison. (Didn't pick those names at random, either - they're the four defenders who played the most games for those franchises since 1993, when Brodeur came up for good. And fifth/sixth are Brian Rafalski and Tommy Albelin vs. Eric Cairns and Roman Hamrlik. Oy.)
The most stark example I could find was old-time Charlie Gardiner, a Scotsman (aye!) who finished his career way back in 1934 with a 2.02 GAA... and a career losing record. He was one of the last goalies to be named a captain (the NHL forbade it for many years, but recently permitted Vancouver's Roberto Luongo the honor); and won the Stanley Cup his last year while suffering from an illness that eventually killed him; he was named to the Hall of Fame in 1945. That 2.02 is eye-popping, but the league's teams only scored 2.41 times per game in his last season. He began his career before forward passing was permitted. He also played for the so-called "goalless wonders," the Chicago Black Hawks.***
*** The 1906 Chicago White Sox were known as the Hitless Wonders... the '59 AL pennant winners weren't much better. Maybe it's the city?
At least Gardiner won a title. More modern (and less successful) examples include:
Doug Favell - 123-153-69, 3.17 GAA. Started with the expansion Flyers, moved to the dreadful mid-70's Maple Leafs, and ended with the expansion Colorado Rockies. Played from '67-'79.
Gary Smith - 173-261-74, 3.39 GAA. A victim of one of the worst squads in NHL history, the late, lamented Oakland/California Seals. Went 19-34-12 in '69-'70 despite a respectable 3.11 GAA; moved to Vancouver and went 32-24-9 with a 3.09 GAA and six shutouts in '74-'75. Played from 1965-1980.
Tommy Salo - 210-225-73, 2.55 GAA. Favored whipping boy of his own GM, "Mad" Mike Milbury (may his name be razed). Won a gold medal in the 1994 Olympics, then moved to the Islanders, and eventually the Oilers; good enough to shut out 37 NHL opponents from 1994-2004.
Jamie Storr - 85-86-23, 2.54 GAA. Seventh-overall pick in the 1993 entry draft, and tossed into action too soon behind some mediocre LA Kings squads. Went 0-8 in his last NHL season to sneak under .500, and now plays in Germany. Played exactly the same years as Salo.
Ron Tugnutt - 186-239-62, 3.05 GAA. Another fine example of how the game changes: in 1990-91, Tugger had a 4.05 GAA in 56 games for Quebec; in 1998-99, in the midst of the dead puck era, he led the NHL with a 1.79 GAA in 43 games for Ottawa. During that 1991 season, he faced 73 shots in a single game against Boston, stopping 70, for one of the greatest ties in league history. Played from 1987-2004.
On the other end, there's Michel Larocque, who backed up Ken Dryden on the Montreal dynasty teams of the 70's. He finished 160-89-45 with a 3.33 GAA from 1973-1984; but more accurately, he had two careers: Montreal ('73-'81: 144-48-31, 2.83 GAA,17 SO) and everywhere else ('81-'84: 16-41-14, 5.56 GAA, 0 SO). Nobody could blame Larocque for playing second fiddle to Hall-of-Famer Dryden, but he failed to beat out Denis Herron in 1980; was supplanted by Richard Sevigny in 1981, and was moved to Toronto. There he was outdone by backup Vincent Tremblay (out of the NHL by age 24!) and then lost his job to the underrated Mike Palmateer. His last year was as the third goalie for St Louis, who had Mike Liut and Rick Heinz (who only played 49 games in his career, but now runs a goalie school). At every stop Larocque was usually a half-goal or more worse per game than his fellow keepers. The W-L-T record is wildly misleading when compared to his other stats and his teammates.
Two other notables are John Vanbiesbrouck, the all-time winningest US goalie, and Oilers/Sabres/Blues stalwart Grant Fuhr. Both Hall-of-Famers from the 1981 draft class, with numbers which may pale next to modern keepers, but which were considerable when measured against their peers. VBK played for mostly forgettable teams and won 30+ games only once, leading the league with 31 in 1985-86; Fuhr was the keeper for the Oilers dynasties in the mid-late 80's, and thus won more often; but his career GAA and sv% were worse and he had fewer shutouts (3.38, .887, and 25 SO against 2.98, .889, and 40 SO for Beezer). He also had two fewer cool nicknames, though that wasn't his fault - "Grant Fuhr" is simple and memorable, and no reporter wants to spell "Vanbiesbrouck" five times, especially in the days when "cut and paste" involved an X-acto knife and Elmer's glue.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sharp-saving
This started ten days ago... I read about Hawerchuk's quick item here at Tango's site. It's devoted mostly to baseball and sabermetrics - excellent for fans and students alike. The art of recording and analyzing hockey data is jumping forward, and Tango posts a couple of times a week on it.
In any case, I stuck a comment out there... and, like most of my comments in places like this, it made no visible impact. I don't mind that, actually, since what I don't know about advanced statistics could fill a typical introductory textbook on the subject, no matter what the real standings posts may say. But I do find it interesting to follow the topics as they develop and see other people who may have thought along similar lines, and see what they post about it.
If all this puck talk bores you, I do apologize. I haven't the energy to risk much more right now.
In any case, I stuck a comment out there... and, like most of my comments in places like this, it made no visible impact. I don't mind that, actually, since what I don't know about advanced statistics could fill a typical introductory textbook on the subject, no matter what the real standings posts may say. But I do find it interesting to follow the topics as they develop and see other people who may have thought along similar lines, and see what they post about it.
It is not surprising that winning teams tend to have higher save percentages, but this save percentage split is much larger than normal (this year goalies have averaged .939 in all wins and .873 in all losses). Even though these teams outshot their opponents by a 2-to-1 margin on average, they still lost 40% of the time. This indicates that often a goalie does not have a low save percentage because of a low shot total, but rather that he has a low shot total because of a low save percentage.Emphasis mine, just to highlight the similarity to what I'd written last week:
Those two trends seem to suggest that stopping a high percentage of shots is what pushes the totals higher, not the reverse. In his four worst save % performances of the year, [Cam] Ward was yanked every time, meaning that he didn’t play well enough to be allowed the chance to face a lot of shots - in much the same way as a pitcher getting smacked around doesn’t get a lot of IPs.Incidentally, the author of that Puck Prospectus piece, Phil Myrland, blogs at the provocatively-titled Brodeur is a Fraud. Many of his sidebar links go to other worthy, puck-oriented writers (haven't checked them all). At this rate I may need a separate hockey section of the blogroll.
If all this puck talk bores you, I do apologize. I haven't the energy to risk much more right now.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Clone cars
I was glancing through this slideshow and, when I saw Honda's P-NUT concept car, I felt something... a presence I'd not felt since...
It's a trap! We can't repel mileage of that magnitude!
It's a trap! We can't repel mileage of that magnitude!
Whose Idea Was This?
Was Joan Baez booked?
There's no reason to apologize for supporting U.S. war efforts, American country singer Toby Keith said Friday, just hours before performing at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert.
Keith, whose 2002 saber-rattling hit "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" was inspired by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said he stands by President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Keith's appearance at the downtown Oslo Spektrum arena, scheduled for 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST), has been questioned by Norwegians dismayed that a performer known for a fervent pro-war anthem is playing at a show focused on peace.
Toby Keith is one of the most politically incorrect country singers around. He would be the last guy I would expect to be invited to play at the Nobel Peace Prize concert.
I guess Europeans like country music because, Toby played there last year as well.
There's no reason to apologize for supporting U.S. war efforts, American country singer Toby Keith said Friday, just hours before performing at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert.
Keith, whose 2002 saber-rattling hit "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" was inspired by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said he stands by President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Keith's appearance at the downtown Oslo Spektrum arena, scheduled for 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST), has been questioned by Norwegians dismayed that a performer known for a fervent pro-war anthem is playing at a show focused on peace.
Toby Keith is one of the most politically incorrect country singers around. He would be the last guy I would expect to be invited to play at the Nobel Peace Prize concert.
I guess Europeans like country music because, Toby played there last year as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)