Category: News

On the Road Again? No Better Place to Be for Game 7

By on • ( Leave a comment )

NOTE FROM BIG Z: I wrote this piece almost five years ago. Tonight is the first Game 7 in any sport since I wrote this piece. I think it holds up quite well. One nugget to add – road teams across the NHL, NBA and MLB have won six straight Game 7’s going back to the 2014 World Series. The road team has won the last three Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s. The last home team to hoist the Cup after a Game 7 was the 2006 Hurricanes.

As I’m sure you heard last night, this 2019 World Series was the first best-of-seven postseason series in the history of major North American sports where the road team won all seven games. Pretty remarkable. What’s also remarkable is how well road teams have fared in winner-take-all Game 7’s over the past decade. Not all that long ago you could bet your house on the home team in Game 7. Not any more.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final they were the first team in any of the North American major men’s sports leagues to win a Game 7 of a championship round on the road since, fittingly, the Pittsburgh Pirates won Game 7 of the World Series on the road in 1979. For nearly 30 years, no road team won a championship round Game 7 on the road.

For the Penguins, they were the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 on the road since 1971. During the 38 years in between, road teams were 0-6 in Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s. Since 2009, road teams are 3-0 in Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s.

The San Francisco Giants got Major League Baseball road teams off the Game 7 schneid in 2014, when they defeated the Kansas City Royals in Game 7 of the World Series in Kansas City. In between the 1979 Pirates and 2014 Giants, road teams were 0-9 in World Series Game 7’s. Since 2014, road teams are 4-0 in Game 7 of the World Series.

More recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers got NBA teams of the Game 7 schneid when they defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The last NBA team to win Game 7 of the Finals on the road had been the Washington Bullets in 1978. In the 38 years between, road teams went 0-6 in Game 7’s. The 2016 NBA Finals was the last NBA Finals to go seven games.

Across all three leagues (because the NFL, obviously, does not play series), no road team won a Game 7 in the 1980s (0-for-7) or the 1990s (0-for-4). Road teams were nearly blanked in the 2000s (1-for-8), too, until the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup in Detroit. That means road teams lost a mind boggling 18-straight winner-take-all Game 7’s. They’re 7-3 this decade, and have won the most recent Game 7’s in all three leagues. That includes the last NBA Finals Game 7, the last three Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s and the last four World Series Game 7’s.

After losing 18-straight Game 7’s from 1982-2006, road teams in all three leagues are 8-3 in championship round Game 7’s since.  So what changed? Some ideas:

  • Air travel is much easier today than it was in 1984 when the Lakers had to fly to Boston for a Game 7 in the (presumably 94°) Boston Garden (the NBA still followed a 2-2-1-1-1 format at that time). The Cleveland Cavaliers probably had a bit of an easier time flying to the Bay Area in 2016 when they defeated the Warriors on the road in Game 7.
  • With more players changing teams more frequently, there may be less of a home-field advantage. Justin Verlander didn’t pitch in Game 7 on the road in in 2017, but hear me out. He got traded from Detroit to Houston on August 31st that year. If he had pitched in Game 7 of the World Series in LA, would it have been much different for him than if he had pitched in a Game 7 in Houston? He was traded there less than two months earlier. I know that athletes don’t live like us, but his pad in Houston in October 2017 was probably more like Ryan Bingham’s condo than he would care to admit. He probably wasn’t rolling out of bed in a mansion in Houston at that time before he rolled up to the ballpark. Derek Jeter, on the other hand, had quite the home field advantage. In 80 career playoff games at home he hit .332 in with 12 home runs and 29 RBI in 322 at bats. In 78 road playoff games, he hit .284 with just 8 home runs and 27 RBI in 328 at bats. Playing for one team for 20 years gets you a really nice routine, I suppose.
  • It seems as if home teams have been awfully tight at home in Game 7’s recently. The Bruins at home against the Blues just four months ago seems like a pretty good example of that. I don’t know how/why the psychology of playing at home would change over the last decade, but maybe fans tweeting on their phones all game and taking selfies has changed the energy levels in these venues? That would certainly seem to hurt the home teams more than the road teams.
  • A combination of point #1 and #3. With air travel being easier (and cheaper) than ever, maybe more fans are following their teams on the road for Game 7? I bet the Boston Garden was 98% Celtics fans in 1984’s Game 7. What percentage of Minute Maid Park last night was Nationals fans? I’m not sure, but I bet it was substantially more than 2%. That could certainly change the vibe of a building, too.

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain. Boy am I glad I don’t bet on baseball.

 

RIP Jessica Walter

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Sad news this afternoon as we learned that Jessica Walter, a.k.a. Lucille Bluth, has passed away at 80 years old. Reading her obit in Variety, it’s obvious she did a lot more than just play Lucille Bluth and I will definitely have to brush up on many of those performances. Still, to a generation of television viewers, especially early-middle millennials like myself, I can’t see her and not think of some of the best comedic lines ever spoken on broadcast television.

I’ll be sure to make myself a vodka rocks and a piece of toast for breakfast this weekend in her honor. Until then, I’ll be rewatching some of her best moments from Arrested Development.

Cam Newton Is Coming Back

By on • ( Leave a comment )

How’s it going today, Patriots fans?

The longer the Patriots were on the market for a quarterback, for a second straight year, and as they continued to dawdle, the more this move felt like a possibility. Not exactly a home run move by Bill Belichick. More of an opposite-field single with no runners on base and two outs in the 8th, down by three.

First, let’s consider the upsides. This move comes on March 12. Last year, the Patriots didn’t sign Cam Newton until July 8. In addition to already having one season with the Patriots under his belt, this gives Newton four more months to prepare for the 2021 season than he had to prepare for the 2020 season. Additionally, with COVID-19 hopefully on its way out, maybe a more regular offseason will benefit Newton and his teammates as they prepare for the 2021 campaign. (Let’s also not forget that Newton had COVID himself during the season. Fewer in-seasons disruptions and health scares will help, too.) And among his teammates this season will be all eight of the Patriots who opted out last season. That should be a big boost for the team on both sides of the ball.

Now the downsides. Newton is a former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP, but that feels like ages ago. Here’s how he closed out his 2020 campaign:

Also, what types of weapons will Newton have to work with? Even before Julian Edelman went down last year the Patriots cupboard seemed bare and the offense felt slow. Edelman’s status for 2021 is up in the air at this point but even if he came back Week 1 healthy as horse, how much can you expect out of a 35-year-old wide receiver who isn’t Jerry Rice?

With that in mind, my ambivalence about today’s move is less about Newton and more about Bill. It seems like Belichick is afflicted by the same condition that afflicts Danny Ainge, which causes him the strong desire to only make trades when he can bury his trading partner. That would explain why he won’t play ball for Jimmy Garoppolo. I’m not advocating for a Matthew Stafford-like deal, but at some point you have to spend money to make money. How many times has Belichick traded down or out of the first round (or had other high-round picks seized by the league office)? Why not package some of the picks you were just gonna use on a guard from Navy or a lacrosse player from Penn and get the guy you really want?

The Patriots have a lot of blank spaces to fill in and questions to answer as they build their roster for the 2021 season. While this move fills in a blank space, it doesn’t answer many questions. In fact, it accentuates the other questions that were already there. What is the plan (or is there a plan) at running back, tight end, and wide receiver? I’ll be rooting for Newton, but unless the Patriots surround him with a better supporting cast, 2021 could be a rerun of 2020.

Dog Days of January Grab Bag Blog – 1.28.2021

By on • ( Leave a comment )

“Dog Days” is a term generally used for summer and I believe (completely assumed with zero context or sources) is a reference to a dog’s preference to just kind of lie there when it gets unbearably hot in the summer; a practice humans enjoy taking on as well. However I feel like that sort of mood applies to the January/February time-frame as well. It’s cold out. You don’t really want to go anywhere. Sometimes there’s a global pandemic you want to avoid. You’re wearing comfy clothes and relaxing on your preferred comfortable chair/couch. It’s just a lazy time of year.

With that said the blog don’t sleep, so Joey B. can’t rest. There’s a number of things worthy of touching on in the sports world and beyond. So let’s do just that, perhaps over a cup of hot cocoa.

Conor McGregor Dominated By Dustin Poirier

There are six COMMON outcomes for an MMA fight. Not total, but common. Each fighter can win by decision, KO/TKO, or submission (3×2=6). Going into last Saturday’s main event I would have said “Poirier-KO/TKO” would have been the fifth most likely outcome, only edging out McGregor by sub. Boy howdy was I wrong. He threw hard calf kicks to McGregor’s lead leg and he threw them often. He was flowing with his boxing and beating McGregor up. The Irishman never looked comfortable and didn’t seem totally sure of himself. This all culminated in a finish in Rd2. A big question before the fight was what Conor McGregor’s next would move be if he lost? Now that we’ve arrived at that scenario the answer is all the more fleeting. Speculators like myself have long said the third Nate Diaz fight would always would be there. I guess it is, but after watching the unsure, rigid version of McGregor we saw last Saturday, it just doesn’t seem as exciting of a prospect. The man himself angled for a third fight with Poirier, and somewhere down the line that has to happen. McGregor dominated the first, Poirier dominated the second. But in the immediate future Poirier gets to call his shot, be it a “money” fight with Nate Diaz or a title fight, for Khabib Nurmagomedov’s presumably vacated belt, against Charles Oliveira. Re-matching a man he just soundly defeated and is 3-3 in his last six MMA fights and 1-1 at 155lbs in the UFC doesn’t make any sense. It is a tricky conundrum indeed at this time to determine a match up could keep McGregor at the top of a PPV card while not finding him the vast underdog.

Deshaun Watson Officially Wants Out

As reported by Adam Schefter today, Deshaun Watson has officially asked for the fuck out of Houston and the Realm of Littlefinger Jack Easterby. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean his time in Houston is definitely over, but I can’t be the only one that feels like there is no turning back for the team or the player. This begs the question of what kind of package Houston wants for Watson. A lot of folks on twitter are saying it’s going to take an absolute haul of picks + talent from the trade partner + possibly some extra bodies for cap/contract reasons. That does indeed make sense. But what I don’t think can be overlooked is what Houston is losing here: their starting QB. What that makes me wonder is whether or not the Texans see some value in, or quite possibly were once enamored with pre-draft, a few of the young QBs that have fallen out of favor with their current team. There will be an unprecedented, to say the least, amount of starting/starting caliber QB movement this off-season. It’s not just Deshaun Watson seeking a new home. So rather than just looking at usual suspects when evaluating who may go after Watson, think of teams that may have both an interest in the Clemson product and a player to offer who could possibly take a shot at replacing him: Chicago (Mitch Trubisky), Denver (Drew Lock), New York-B (Sam Darnold), San Francisco (Jimmy Garoppolo), Philadephia (Carson Wentz). You get the idea.

Bradley Beal Becomes First Player To Lose Ten Straight 40-Point Games

What a brutal fucking stat and reality. I’m not the most gigantic hoops fanatic, but I’ve felt for awhile that Bradley Beal was a phenomenal player playing in the wasteland that is D.C. His talent is completey overshadowed by the ineptness of his franchise. Yesterday simply put an exclamation point on the end of that sentence. Ten straight games of scoring an absurd amount of points only to fucking lose. That just has to hurt. And we know it hurts, because it has become one of the internet’s favorite things to get a laugh out of poor Bradley Beal’s body language. Just head in his hands on the bench, thinking “what the fuck did I do to deserve to be here?” This has of course brought on heaps of trade speculation and knowing the Wizards he’ll probably get moved. Let’s hope the man can find some greener pastures. And some happiness.

Nerds On Reddit Defeated And Possibly Ended A Couple Of Hedge Funds In The Name Of GameStop

I don’t know nor care as much about this as I should but I’d be a dick if I didn’t mention it so here we are. Basically, a couple of large hedge funds (boutique investment firms that take big risks HEDGED (wink wink) by betting other money elsewhere in the investment world….or something like that) bet huge money that GameStop’s stock would tank. That makes sense because GameStop is failing and has lost money for something like 12 consecutive quarters. However betting that this will happen actually causes the stock to drop because, stock market. In comes Reddit and the whole crowdfunding thing and “investors” all over started betting ON GameStop, both to be dicks to the Wall Street dicks and also because if they could get the GameStop stock to go up so that THEY’D make money instead of the hedge funds. And Reddit won. One of the hedge funds might even have to close shop which is hilarious. Overall just a chaotic, wacky thing to have happen. Lots of nerds and woke people saying THIS IS WHY THE STOCK MARKET IS BAD. (Calm Down). It’s kind of like playing poker against someone who has no idea what they’re doing. You should be able to wipe them but with ignorance of the game comes their inability to know what a bluff is etc. and they kill you, much to you and your liver’s chagrin.

Drake Pushes Back Album Release Due To Torn ACL

I have no idea why I am so fascinated by this story. There will be no touring for the foreseeable future so it isn’t like Drizzy was smartly avoiding a loss of income. Was he going to celebrate the release of “Certified Lover Boy” on a trampoline? Has having a home gym + quarantine brain actually made him believe he’s a pro-athlete? I’m not sure. I just know that with the fluidity with which music is created and release these days it doesn’t make sense that Wheelchair Jimmy had to delay his album release for a bum knee.

-Joey B.

Woman Clings to Hood of Speeding Car to Stop Couple From Stealing Puppy

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Click2Houston – A frightening scene on a Houston highway. A woman clung to the hood of a speeding car while trying to get back a stolen puppy. Police said they are now searching for one of two suspects they believe was involved after an arrest was made Tuesday…James said on Nov. 4, a couple came into her store to look at different breeds of dogs. They decided to buy a $10,000 exotic bully, according to James. Then as she went upstairs to grab paperwork for a nearby UPS driver, the couple left the store, the woman had the dog in her arms.

Surveillance cameras caught the couple leaving.

Then James bolted after them. She said her only concern was the 7-month-old bully, who just had surgery days earlier and needed special medication.

“My mind is focused on her health, I obviously didn’t care about my wellbeing,” James said.

She chased the couple to their car. James said she demanded they give the dog back, instead, they hit her with the car, then threatened to run her over.

“Next time I heard the gas go, he went very aggressively and it (the bumper) kind of like slapped me on top of the car,” James said.

She clung to the car as they sped throughout the area.

This young lady can drink from my canteen any day. You have to watch the video to understand how crazy this scene really was. This wasn’t even her dog! She just worked at the pet store that this scumbag couple decided to rob.

Everybody bitches about their job, complaining about the horrible working conditions AKA your apartment. Meanwhile this woman is narrowly escaping death in the middle of her shift and laughing it off with Channel 2 later that week. I imagine her as Dante in Clerks when all this shit goes down and she’s on the hood of the car bombing down the highway just thinking to herself how she got into this situation.

The crazy thing is, I think every dog owner can relate to this situation. You better believe I’m jumping on the hood of that car if it’s my pup someone tries to snatch. I’ll throw hands with a nun if she’s trying to take my dog. This woman essentially turned into the T-1000 from Terminator 2 when these two dognappers tried to make away with the pup.

You can run, you can fight, but you ain’t getting this dog without adding Assault With a Deadly Weapon to your rap sheet. So for that I tip my cap to this pet store employee. Hopefully the owner gives this girl a raise for laying her life on the line for a part-time job.

PS – Don’t spend $10,000 on a puppy. There are tons of dogs you can rescue and adopt for 1/20th of that cost while saving a dog’s life and at the same time not supporting puppy mills.

COVID Vaccine Getting the NBA on ESPN Intro Treatment is the Funniest Video You’ll See All Day

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Florida Man Wrestles Gator to Save His Dog

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Chubbs over here never even lost his cigar! This man is my spirit animal and is the perfect embodiment of old guy tough. This dude has seen some shit and was not about to let some wannabe dinosaur steal his best friend right in front of him.

If you’re a dog person you watched this video and just nodded your head in agreement. I’d throw hands with all kinds of wild life to protect my pup. I literally bought, what I termed, a “coyote knife” in case one of those little bastards is feeling froggy while I’m walking my own dog. Not today, coyote.

But all the credit in the world to this guy. He didn’t even hesitate, went right in and grabbed this goddamn thief. Probably made the alligator apologize afterwards. That is, if he didn’t take a souvenir as restitution.

Remembering Alex Trebek

By on • ( Leave a comment )

It’s a sad day at The 300s as we mourn the loss of Alex Trebek. He was a television legend, a first-ballot game show host hall of famer, and a prominent face on the Mount Rushmore of game show hosts. Trebek had been on U.S. television since 1973, and behind the Jeopardy! lectern since 1984. He fought pancreatic cancer over the last year and a half with courage, candor, and dignity. He passed away today at the age of 80.

It goes without saying that Alex Trebek was one of the greatest television game show hosts of all time. In 2014, Guinness World Records presented him with the world record for most episodes of a game show hosted, with 6,829 at the time.

Trebek was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host a record 31 times. His seven Emmys are second only to Bob Barker’s whopping 14. He is one of only two people ever nominated for this Emmy for two different game shows. The other was the undisputed Dean of Game Show Hosts, Bill Cullen. In 1990, he was the only person ever to be nominated for this award for two shows in one year (Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration). In 1991, he became the first person to host three American game shows simultaneously (To Tell the Truth, in addition to the aforementioned Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration).

As a game show fan, this is a very sad day. As a television viewer, it’s also sad for me to say goodbye to another person who has been on television every weekday of my life. With David Letterman’s retirement in 2015, and Bob Barker, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw all retiring in the 2000s, I can’t think of many people left on television who have been on television my whole life. Pat Sajak and Vanna White may be the only people left on that list for me.

While game show hosts aren’t members of our families, and we don’t root for them the way we root for athletes and our favorite sports teams, they do come into our homes on a regular basis and can make profound impacts on our lives, as recent champ Burt Thakur shared:

Yet another cruel side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was the sidelining of Alex Trebek during the last few months of his life. The man was itching to get back behind the lectern, but it simply wasn’t feasible in the early stages of the pandemic. That’s not to sound greedy, as if I needed even more from him, but I know it was something Trebek loved to do. Maybe, for thirty minutes at a time, it allowed him to focus on something other than his health.

And unfortunately, as is all too common with game show hosts, his final words on television may very well be “we’ll see you tomorrow.” It’s not often game show hosts get to hang ’em up on their own terms. Barker in 2007 was more the exception than the rule.

But today we pause to remember Alex Trebek, are reminded of the indelible impact he left not only on television but on this nation, and are thankful for all of his contributions. We love you, Alex.

The Price is Right Returns Tomorrow Night, Sans Audience

By on • ( Leave a comment )

It will be quite a site tomorrow night, when The Price is Right returns from its coronavirus shutdown for a primetime special but without it’s rambunctious crowd. How will contestants know the prices of cars and lawn mowers, when to bid one dollar, or whether or not to spin again with 50 cents without the advice of 300 strangers? That all remains to be seen, but credit to the producers and staff of The Price is Right for their willingness to accept this challenge head on.

On Jeopardy! all the producers had to do was move the furniture around. On Wheel of Fortune they’ve just asked the contestants to stand an extra few steps apart behind the wheel. The Price is Right has been on for nearly fifty years, and Drew Carey has been host for the last 13 years. It would have been relatively easy for them to ride this out in reruns. But they recognize that in times of trouble and uncertainty, America needs The Price is Right.

People will come, Drew. They’ll come to Hollywood for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up at the Bob Barker Studio not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at the big doors as innocent as children, longing for the past.

They’ll walk out into the studio; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect morning. They’ll find they have seats somewhere behind Contestants Row, seats they saw when they watched with their grandmother as children and cheered contestants. And they’ll watch the games and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.

People will come Drew. The one constant through all the years, Drew, has been The Price is Right. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But The Price is Right has marked the time. This stage, these games: it’s a part of our past, Drew. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh…people will come Drew. People will most definitely come.

SNL Returns Tomorrow Night

By on • ( Leave a comment )

In welcome news, Saturday Night Live will make its return tomorrow night with its first live broadcast from Studio 8H since March 7. The return of SNL will hopefully give at least a small sense of normalcy back to the country tomorrow night, and help lift the spirits of a beleaguered city.

Even before the pandemic and the shutdown, it wasn’t too often that I found myself out past midnight on a Saturday night (though, unlike Red, I refuse to use the term “washed”). Speaking for myself, I need this and am ready for this. Considering that in many parts of the country you still need to order a full meal of food in order to drink in public, there should be lots of people home tomorrow night and this episode should do monster ratings.

While I don’t like to make any comparisons to 9/11, this episode could have a similar vibe to the show’s first episode back after the terrorist attacks in 2001. With all that has happened over the last seven months, over the last week, and in the last 24 hours, I’m sure the cast and writers are still trying to figure out what to lead with and what tone to strike. But I’m certain that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will still be front and center…

It doesn’t hurt to have a former cast member, and one of the best stand-up comics of all time, Chris Rock as host this week. Whatever tone the episode strikes, I’m confident that Chris Rock will hit it out of the park. It also looks like the show will have at least a limited studio audience based on tickets being made available. Free tickets AND a COVID test? If I lived in New York City I would sign up for that deal in a second. Probably still easier than getting a test at CVS.

Based on tickets possibly being made available, it looks like there could be episodes each of the five Saturdays this month, leading up the election the first Tuesday of November. While SNL usually doesn’t do that many new episodes in a row, and the fact that no other hosts or musical guests have been named for this month, it could be a chance to strike while the iron is hot. Maybe they’ll see how things go this week?

The path to reopening the country, getting back to work, and regaining some sense of normalcy is going to be long and challenging. We could all use a few laughs to relieve some anxiety along the way. So practice social distancing, wear a mask, and stay home and tune in Saturday night. That’s what I’ll be doing, and rooting for SNL to help bring back even just a little bit of normalcy to my weekend routine.