Brokeback Yankees

[Enzo]

Damon knows who signs the checks......

Philly fans throw batteries on the field at opposing players and gave a standing "o" to Michael Irvin when he got hurt one year....I believe they'd kill if given the chance....

How about in the Giants opener....a fan threw a syringe (sans needle) at Bonds!! He's going down for perjury.

[Gleb]

wtf!? a syringe? Attempted assult with a deadly weapon and he's in 5-10.

I know one time someone threw a potato with razors in it during a Patriots game a long time ago. People do stupid things.

[Enzo]

From what I read...there was no needle. Bonds is a phony and a liar. The Feds are investigating his statements regarding steriod use for perjury. Baseball fans have all been punk'd. He deserves to be heckled and abused. Burn Baby Burn.

[skatha]

Don't get me started on Bonds...

I had an argument with dear old dad in 98 about McGwire and Sosa....my allegation-he was using 'roids and so was Sosa. He admitted to that crap andro but I was convinced he was on the needle, too. Reason-EVERYBODY's peak muscle mass is achieved at age 35, after that, it goes downhill, along with performance and stamina...

No way can you get more performance after 35, unless you turn to alternative strategies...either refine your technique or cheat....

Ken Caminiti admitted to using 'roids, well, to me, that means Jeff Bagwell did too, since they were big buddies on the 'stros. I don't think Biggio did, but, then again, he looks like a regular Joe. Bags looks like Pop-Eye....

But you won't hear about possible 'roid use 'round here....

I buy the argument that Bonds used. I buy the argument he's getting the heat because he's close to toppling the record of a baseball icon, Babe Ruth, and because he's involved with Balco. But I think we should hear about other players, too, especially when the press starts buzzing about possible Hall of Fame...Gary Sheffield comes to mind, Bagwell.....

Selig appointing his buddy for this investigation is both a joke and an incredibly poor PR decision. What is this guy going to find? No cooperation...no history of positive testing...no way of retroactively enforcing anything....If he finds nothing, people will disbelieve and if he finds something, what will baseball do? Delete the records? To what time? 85? According to Canseco, 'roids have been a long term fixture...

And you know baseball was hurting bad after the walkout in 94....McGwire and Sosa's summer of 98 saved them. Now it's bad? Why? People finally figured out they were cheating? The owners have known for a long time and have laughed all the way to the bank....

okay, rant over....

[willywhit]

i dont understand why anybody would be upset with a pro sports athlete moving to another team. they are business men first, athletes second. they have no loyalty except to the $. its not like the players are even from boston so what does it matter? your applying emotion to a business decision.

I guess you don't understand the heart and soul of Boston.Many things in life are much more important than $$$.JD's dip**** wife prob told him it was a good idea.

[Jack M]

http://www.kickina.com/chokeback/ChokebackYanks.wmv

[ncermak]

now thats funny...

[willywhit]

bless you, Jack...that is priceless

[Gleb]

amazing....

[Justin A.]

Damn, batteries? thats pretty crazy. You crazy philli people with your Pat's and Geno's and stuff.

welcome to philthydelphia. ;)

________

Silver surfer vaporizer

[Justin A.]

Nothing to do with the yankees or sox, but this looks like a good movie

________

Dodge Aspen History

[Gleb]

wow i think i'd even wanna see that. Damn!

[kipstar]

Well someone not from the Commonwealth guessing cricket is pretty good :-)

FIrst up, have to understand that Pakistan and India have massive political disputes already; and both are pretty much only good at one sport - cricket. Cricket is like a religion for these people.

For most others, it can be a bit like watching grass grow. I played it, and I think it sucks! But anyway, for Americans and others who don't understand it, here is a slight sidetrack on how the game is played.

2 versions are played, a one dayer (which each team gets 50 'overs' each of which is 6 throws of the ball or whenever 10 of their players (total of 11 of them) are bowled out (the equivalent of striking out) whichever comes first), or a test, which lasts 5 days and each team gets 2 innings (whenever all 10 players are bowled out) to get more runs than the other team.

At any one time, the batting team has 2 players on the field, one who is standing at the equivalent of first base, and the other at home plate. Each batter has 3 sticks behind him, called whickets (or stumps), and on the 3 sticks rest two small sticks horizontally, called bails. The aim of the bowler is to try to hit the sticks by fooling the batsman; similar I guess to a strike out. The other aim is to make the batter hit the ball into the air and get caught on the full. The last way is to hit the batter's leg when it is in a direct line before the stumps which is also out and called a LBW or leg before wicket. There is a final way that a friend at highschool would employ; if you can get the batter to knock over his own stumps, he is also out; my friend used to fast bowl (which is around similar speed to a baseball fast pitch) directly into the batter's head or body, and cause him to fall onto the stumps, once concussed. This is totally legal, but not used that often for some reason.

The aim of the batter is to either hit the ball all the way out of the ground - a homer in baseball on the full in cricket is worth 6 points/runs, bounced out is worth 4 points/runs, and anything else, the batter must run and swap ends with the second batter. They can do this as many times as they want, but they must be within about 2m of the stumps at their end they are running to when the ball is thrown back; otherwise the fielding team can 'run out' the batsman in the same way as baseball. Each end to end run is worth 1 point/run. There are a few minor other ways to make points, but they are to do with fouls, bad bowling and so on.

Now it starts to get a bit more complex, so let's start with the one day game. Coin toss, and a team can elect to either bat or field first; decision is made on the basis of ground conditions/wind/light; there can be a major advantage in being first (or second) e.g. if the ground is rock hard in the morning, then the team might elect to field, as they will be able to hurl super fast bowls (which you would call pitches) to the batter. If the ground is hard enough, they might bowl very very close to the batsman, and reverse spin the ball so it will jump up into the batsmen's face area. They bowl exactly like baseball, fool, scare and so on to drive the batsman bonkers. It is also perfectly acceptable to sledge or verbally berate the bowler. Typically, there are several bowlers in the fielding team out of all 11 players, a few specialist batsmen, and a few allrounders plus the whicket keeper who is similar to the guy at homeplate.

They will start with fast bowlers, and immediately try to start tearing up one side of the ball, which must last 50 overs (300 balls) at the most. This is so the ball gets lopsided. As the ball gets more and more damaged, they can bend the ball more in the air, and so the slower spin bowlers start bowling at about ball number 150 onwards. Each bowler bowls 6 balls one after another. At the end of each 6 balls, the next bowler starts and bowls from the opposite end. Then the first bowler can bowl the next 6 after that and so on.

The batting team will put their best batsmen up first, and their dregs last, hopeing to get as many runs as possible without their players getting out.

The fielding team will try to limit the number of runs and or try to get the batting team out.

AFter the batting team have done 50 overs or get bowled out, which takes maybe 3 hours max, then the teams switch after lunch and continue. Like baseball, it is partly physical and a lot strategy; knowing oponents, unsettling them and sledging them (verbally abusing them) into submission. Typically a team might get something like 250 runs, and then the other team comes in, and must score 251 or more to win. As soon as they do, that's it.

For the other type of game, the test, it goes on for 5 days. Both teams must have completed both innings (all out twice) for there to be a result, so many teams will just stand around and avoid getting out, and thus force a draw. The team with the most points wins. A team with a very big score can choose to forfeit their remaining players playing (called declaring) and hope to try to bowl the other team out, a team might do this if they had say 600 runs over the first 2 days, and decide that the ground is hardening a lot, and that they can bowl the other team out twice in a row. Weather is a major factor. Most of the games played on TV are not tests, they are one dayers, because in a few hours like baseball there is a result. Tests take days and days, and usually end in a draw.

There are some more complex factors than this, but this is a good start point. Confused? Good :-) So am I!

Home team has a major advantage, preparing the grass where the ball is bowled to favour their team; Indians and Pakistanis are really good batters and spin bowlers; West Indies and Australia are really good fast bowlers; England are really useless usually (as is the case with most sport) and NZ is right there with them.

[tex1230]

wow...I'm impressed that you were able to do that in one page.

(And I thought it was all about the all white outfits)

[Gleb]

wow that is impressive. I get most of it and it really explains alot. Why do the tests end in a draw after so much time?

[skatha]

wow that is impressive. I get most of it and it really explains alot. Why do the tests end in a draw after so much time?

Sound like a good excuse to drink.....

[willywhit]

http://www.kickina.com/chokeback/ChokebackYanks.wmv

http://www.woot.com/ click on the media player, too funny

[Allee]

That's the best summary of cricket I've ever seen.

AFter the batting team have done 50 overs or get bowled out, which takes maybe 3 hours max, then the teams switch after lunch and continue.

Actually, a one day game takes a bit longer than this. Skatha is quite right, cricket is a great excuse to drink, and I have had many great days out at the one dayers. Drinking commences with the start of the game at 11am, lunch occurs around 3pm, and then the game is finished under lights around 8pm, assuming that it goes down to the last few overs and you get to maximise drinking time. All this time you're baking in the sun because it's the middle of summer, and you will have heatstroke and sunburn for days afterwards.This passes for great entertainment in Commonwealth countries.

I thought that New Zealand managed to win a couple of games last season and are now ranked slightly above Bangladesh in the world rankings.

I rather like your friend's approach to bowling people out. Unfortunately such tactics are illegal in real games, as cricketers are not hard men and find the prospect of being collected in the head by a small cork-and-leather orb, travelling at somewhere around 100mph, rather unappealing. At that speed someone estimated that you have about 3/4 of a second to decide exactly how you're going to deal with the ball before it hits you.

FYI, a cricket ball is harder than a baseball. I've copped enough of them across the end of my fingers to know. And it has a really nasty seam stitched into it that stings like mad if you catch it the wrong way.

And Gleb, Kip could have summed up test cricket as "this is the world's most pointless sport". That's all you need to know.

[kipstar]

wow that is impressive. I get most of it and it really explains alot. Why do the tests end in a draw after so much time?

sorry for the slow reply!

Both teams within 5 days have to bat two times, and the team with more points wins.

So typical tactics of team to win the coin toss are to decide if it is a batter's wicket, or a bowler's wicket. By this, it means does the condition of the ground favouring the people throwing the ball, or the people having to hit it.

Super hard ground means very fast bowling. Very finely cut grass can be good for spinning. Typically, wet ground is quite dead AFAIK and therefore favours batters.

Assuming they bat first, the team batting will try to get the biggest possible score in a fairly short time, then try to bowl the other team out twice (the rule is that the team with the lower total from the first set of each team battnig has to bat again). Then they have the last day or more to get a higher total themselves. They might even forgo the chance to bat all their guys, if they can get a big total - a big total for a test is in the region of 400 or more per innings (round of people batting).

If they field first, then the team bowling and fielding will start off with high speed bowlers typically. These guys will hurl the ball hard and fast. And they WILL punish people who are slow with yorkers and the like where the ball will hit the batter (quite legally), but not so much directly in the head, more like it will bounce up and catch them in the shoulder, leg that sort of thing. There is a reason why cricketers wear pads. They will also impark on a campaign to try to start damaging the ball as much as possible around the seam and dull one side, while polishing the other. The fast bowler aims to mentally dominate and scare the batter, and will use extreme pace and some wild shots sometimes to do so. Regarding my friend's 'tactics' he employed this in NZ at a national schoolboy level, the level directly below our national team, and it was allowed at that level, I assume the rules may have since changed, as this was 20 years ago now.

As the ball starts to get a little worn on one side, it starts to fly differently, and move in the air. Then the medium pacers may start bowling; these guys can start to make the ball twist and move in the air, similar to baseball, except there is the added element of the bounce. They can make it do a moderate number of things, at reasonable speed.

As the ball really starts to get out of shape, then the spinners come in; the Indians and Pakistanis used to be the masters of this, but there are a few Aussies who are legends at it too. They can make the ball move all over the place, it can swing inwards, then bounce up and outwards; all sorts of moves. They confuse and set the batter up in slow motion.

Throughout all of this, it is perfectly acceptable to abuse the batters within some limits. For instance, Australians have agreed to stop severe abuse, but making sarcastic commentary about the crud job the batter is doing non stop for 4 hours has the effect of grinding them down. That is called sledging.

Now the reason why it will often end up a draw is if the wicket isn't prepared to favour bowlers, then the batters can take it easy, and just ensure they don't get out. Easier said than done, but if the 2 innings aren't completed by the losing side, then there is no winner, even if one team had 600 runs in their first innings, and the other team only had reached 100 in their still uncompleted 2 innings.

Additionally, if the weather causes the test to be reduced in length, there is a high likelihood that the innings won't be completed. Teams may play to get a draw, rather than risk and lose.

yet another reason why cricket tests are dull as watching the grass itself grow. However, one good point is the ability to abuse the individual players when they are fielding, they love it, and are often willing to abuse back.

I still think a one dayer is about 3 hours each side; maybe as much as 5, each side, but the ones I've been to are usually done in what feels like a total of 8 hours including the breaks. However, test cricket involves massssssiiiiiive amounts of beer drinking (in the crowd) so it feels longer or shorter than this depending. There is some maths model some guy from Mckinsey showed me proving that cricket is the world's most exciting game.

Strangely, after shooting down said model, I didn't end up working a McKinsey. Go figure ?!

Rugby is the best team game, and Muay Thai and boxing are great TV spectacles. But cricket is the best for having a nap.

At the moment, test cricket, the pure version of the game, is dying, so they have tried introducing various ways to make it more exciting. The one dayer is the best solution, but pretty much it is like polishing a turd.