Tag: Washington

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

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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.

 

Zdeno Chara is Leaving the Bruins, But He’ll Always Be a Boston Legend

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NBCSports Boston – In a stunner on Wednesday afternoon, Zdeno Chara signed a one-year, $795,000 deal with the Washington Capitals. “We are extremely pleased to have Zdeno join the Capitals organization,” said Capitals GM Brian MacLellan. “We feel his experience and leadership will strengthen our blueline and our team.”

Originally reported by Ken Campbell, Chara confirmed the move with a tribute video to Boston fans on his Instagram page.

“My family and I have been so fortunate to call the great city of Boston our home for over 14 years,” his caption reads. “Recently, the Boston Bruins have informed me that they plan to move forward with their many younger and talented players and I respect their decision. Unfortunately, my time as the proud captain of the Bruins has come to an end.”

Zdeno Chara is carved into the Mount Rushmore of Boston Athletes in the 21st Century right alongside Tom Brady, David Ortiz, and Paul Pierce. Chara will be forever beloved by Bruins fans because he chose to come here when he was at the top of his game and the B’s were coming off a last place finish. I still vividly remember sitting in my buddy’s living room that July day in 2006 when Chara (and Marc Savard) signed a massive 5-year contract to come to Boston, which was something the Bruins never did when I was younger. So it was monumental for a guy like Chara to even sign with the team, let alone become a franchise legend, a 14-year-captain, and of course bring the Bruins their first Stanley Cup in 30+ seasons. Not to mention anchoring the defense to two more Stanley Cup Finals appearances.

Chara was an elite defenseman, played the powerplay and the penalty kill, was a captain for over a decade, had the most terrifying slap shot in the league, and he was a physical force. Hell the Canadiens legitimately tried to have him arrested up in Canada for nearly decapitating Max Pacioretty back in 2011. He was also the most intimidating enforcer in the NHL well into his forties with 30 fights in his Bruins career alone.

Chara will be remembered for a lot of things, primarily this iconic photo with the Cup.

He’ll be remembered for his dominance on the ice as one of the best defensemen in the NHL (3x First Team All-Star, 4x Second Team) and then while in Boston becoming the best in the league when he won the Norris Trophy in 2009. Chara will always be the center of some hardcore Boston sports bar trivia too as the owner of the hardest shot in the entire league at 108.8 mph.

Aside from all of the personal accolades and team success though, it was the absolute grit and determination of Big Z that made him a fan favorite. He was always the hardest working guy wearing the spoked B and was routinely setting the bar during the Bruins annual conditioning tests even as he was the oldest player on the team.

The one sight I’ll never forget and one that will be played in his Hall of Fame reel is the ovation Zdeno Chara, with his jaw wired shut, received before Game 5 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, less than two days after breaking his jaw. Chara took a puck to the face in Game 4 and needed surgery to insert metal plates into his jaw and he didn’t even miss a game.

It seemed like the writing was on the wall for Chara this offseason unfortunately, as the Bruins appeared ready to move on after his playing time had started to dwindle. With a bunch of young defensemen the Bruins want to develop or at least evaluate at the NHL level, the team was likely less concerned about the money they’d have to pay Chara and more concerned with kickstarting a youth movement. The Bruins may have also wanted to avoid the optics of having their captain playing 3rd or 4th line minutes assuming Don Sweeney and Cam Neeley didn’t want to stick Chara out there as a Top-4 defenseman at this point in his career.

This is the worst part of getting older as a sports fan; watching your idols get older with you. They get older, sometimes they break down physically, sometimes they move on to other teams, and eventually they all retire. I’m over 30 so Chara has been a pillar of the Bruins for nearly half of my life, which is insane to type. He may not have won as many championships as Tom Brady or Big Papi, but he was just as monumental in changing the culture of an entire franchise and putting yet another Boston team on the map after years of mediocrity.

For that Big Z will always be remembered as a Bruins legend.

The Patriots Could Be in for a Bit of Rebuild…

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This really has just been a disaster of a season. The Patriots just got dunked on by the Buffalo Bills after going 29-3 against them between 2001-2019 with Tom Brady under center. It was a blowout, it was a changing of the guard, but to say it was embarrassing would imply that the end result was surprising. It was not. In the infamous words of Trent Dilfer, the Patriots aren’t good anymore. It’s the first time the Patriots have been swept in a season by a divisional opponent in 20 years, they are dead last in the NFL in passing TDs with 8 (one of which came from WR Jakobi Meyers), and the team is uncharacteristically undisciplined, which was only exacerbated by that head scratching challenge flag Belichick threw on what was clearly a catch directly in front of him and his son.

Someone clearly told Bill to throw the red flag though so Ernie must be going blind up in that fucking lighthouse.

Fire Flames Hat Alert From the Washington Nationals Double-A Team; Harrisburg Senators

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Fire flames cap that could burn down the diamond. As an unabashed hat guy I have far too many random hats to even count at this point. My team’s hats, random team hats, Cape Cod Baseball League hats, Chicago Cubs bucket hats, but I think Minor League Baseball hats may be my sneaky favorite. Besides their oftentimes ridiculous names (looking at you Rumble Ponies), they take chances that major league teams simply won’t take. For example, I own a New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays Double-A) hat, but it’s not even their actual hat. It’s a hat for the team name they *almost* went with and actually quite timely; the New Hampshire Primaries.

Or my Osos Polares de Pawtucket hat.

Give me all the ridiculous hats, keep em coming.

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

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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 scheid 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.

 

Nationals Fan Sacrificed the Body to Save His Beers

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Shoutout to this guy for sacrificing the body to make sure his beers stayed upright, cool, and crispy. He took it off the chest like it was a lob pass in soccer. Except it wasn’t, it was a goddamn rock hit 330+ feet. Do you know how fast that baseball was moving? I took a sabermetrics class in college under the guise of a Math and Economics class so please excuse the baseball nerd jargon. According to Fangraphs, the mean exit velocity of a home run in the MLB this season was 103 mph. 103! So this guy took a triple digit baseball off the chest all so he could maintain the dignity of his Bud Lights. God bless him because that shit is gonna leave a mark, but hey at $13 bucks a beer he really had no other choice.

This dude even got free tix to Game 6 out of it courtesy of Bud Light. What a time to be alive.

Brock McGinn Should Get the Key to the City After Willing the Hurricanes to Game 7 Win

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Playoff hockey really is bananas. Brock McGinn single handedly saved the Hurricanes seasons when the Caps were just bombarding them with shots. Saving your team’s season would be enough for most men, but Brock McGinn ain’t most men. He pulled a Happy Gilmore and figured why wait?

Uhh I’ll just beat em now.

Get this man the key to the city!

Washington Wizards to Offer Sports Gambling Broadcasts. Will My Attention Span Allow It?

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ESPN – The future of sports-betting-infused game broadcasts will be on display Friday, when the Washington Wizards host the Milwaukee Bucks. NBC Sports Washington Plus will produce an alternate broadcast for the Bucks-Wizards game that will feature a free-to-play predictive contest with a $500 prize, along with real-time sports-betting data and statistics that will be displayed on-screen throughout the broadcast. 

The predictive contest, “Predict the Game,” will ask approximately 30 questions throughout the game, such as: “Will Wizards forward Trevor Ariza score 10 or more points in the first half?” In addition, odds, point spreads and over/unders will be shown on broadcast graphics.

Inject this into my veins.

The only problem I can see with this is I already spend 75% of my time watching a game looking at Twitter. I can literally be looking up stats about the game, chirping opposing fans, or just tweeting out videos like the one of the Bears mascot literally dying on the field.

But that speaks to a larger issue with people as a whole; massive fragmentation of attention. This is the one area where Millennials really *are* the worst, albeit with good intentions.

We all try and do as many things as possible at once. We are masters of multitasking. We grew up with video games that required you to sneak past 20 armed guards, snipe a moving target’s face off from half a mile away, then escape an enemy base, all while collecting the necessary pieces of intel and disabling communications for enemy reinforcements. So anytime someone’s mom tries to tell me that video games are bad for kids I tell them to KICK ROCKS. Video games are the REASON I am able to focus on so many different objectives and deliverables all at once.

However, the downside of that is with my attention being pulled in so many directions I simply cannot sit down and do just one thing anymore. I can’t even tell you the last time I sat down and watched an entire game without picking up my phone or laptop. I guess high school? But even then you were IM-ing your buddies. It’s honestly like I graduated to better drugs because while in hindsight AIM wasn’t that great, I *still* get a rush of dopamine to the brain when I see this:

So am I excited for a gambling focused broadcast? Hell yes, in fact I’ve said for years that NFL games need to have alternative broadcasts featuring just a couple of guys f-bombing the coaches for bad decisions in between play-by-play. It would be like watching a game with your buddies, provide a little levity to sporting events that are already too serious at times, and ratchet up the entertainment value all at the same time. Would you rather watch that or Dan Fouts trying to remember where he left his keys?

I Very Much Would Like to Hang Out With Mark Sanchez

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For as much as we poke fun at Mark Sanchez here because he used to be the de facto leader of the Jets, he does seem like a genuinely good dude. Imagine if someone asked Peyton Manning this question? He would have had his father’s goons beat the shit out of the guy’s legs before he left the room.

But Sanchez handled that like a buddy was just busting his balls and laughed it off. Life’s too short guys, be more like Mark Sanchez.

Return of the Sanchize: Mark Sanchez is in at QB

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In just his second start since replacing the injured Alex Smith, Colt McCoy went down with an injury of his own (Update: McCoy fractured his fibula so he’s likely done for the season). Hate to see the Colt .45 get knocked out of the game. It seems like every time this guy gets ready to shine he gets injured, whether its the BCS National Championship or Monday Night Football against the defending champs.

But, the good news is that means MARK SANCHEZ IS NOW UNDER CENTER!

He just completed 5/7 passes to end the first half, so watch out world, the Sanchize is back. I’m glad to see Sanchez’s time on the bench hasn’t taken away his flair for the dramatics either.