The Patriots and 49ers will win today and meet in Super Bowl XLVII. No further analysis needed.
(Oh, crud, that’s two sentences. Sorry, everyone!)
One-sentence prediction for the NFC and AFC Championship round.
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Category Archives: Other Sports
The Lone Man to play in MLB and the NHL (and other MLB/NHL connections)
Hockey is back!
(Crickets)
Well, anyway, there have been far fewer two-sport athletes in baseball involving hockey than there are basketball or football. In fact, there has been a grand total of one player who has spent time in the Major Leagues and the NHL. That player is Jim Riley, who spent some brief time with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators in the 1920s and spent a brief time with the Chicago Black Hawks (note the space) and Detroit Cougars (not yet the Red Wings) in the 1926-1927 season. Here’s what his top league statistics looked like:
In MLB:
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB | Pos | Awards | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1921 | 26 | SLB | AL | 4 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .000 | .083 | .000 | .083 | -78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | /4 | |||||
| 1923 | 28 | WSH | AL | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | .400 | .000 | .400 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | /3 | |||||
| 1931 | Did not play in major leagues (Did Not Play) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 Yrs | 6 | 17 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | .000 | .176 | .000 | .176 | -52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 162 Game Avg. | 162 | 459 | 378 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 81 | .000 | .176 | .000 | .176 | -52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| WSH (1 yr) | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | .400 | .000 | .400 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| SLB (1 yr) | 4 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .000 | .083 | .000 | .083 | -78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
In the NHL:
| Season | Age | Tm | Lg | GP | G | A | PTS | GC | +/- | PIM | EV | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI | ATOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1926-27 | 31 | TOT | NHL | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |||||||||
| 1926-27 | 31 | CBH | NHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 1926-27 | 31 | DTC | NHL | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |||||||||
| Career | NHL | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
Of course, Riley also played in the minor leagues in both sports. You can find his baseball minor league stats over at Baseball Reference, and you can find his hockey stats over at hockeydb.com.
Now, although Riley is the lone man to have played in both MLB and the NHL, he is not the only player who played both sports. Not even close. Take a look after the jump for other connections between America’s pastime and Canada’s pastime:
Russell Wilson probably made the right decision
Russell Wilson plays for the Seattle Seahawks today, but he once played in the Colorado Rockies organization.
Looking at his career .229 BA, I’d say he probably made the right decision.
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | Lev | Aff | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 21 | Tri-City | NORW | A- | COL | 32 | 143 | 122 | 18 | 28 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 16 | 36 | .230 | .336 | .377 | .713 | 46 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2011 | 22 | Asheville | SALL | A | COL | 61 | 236 | 193 | 40 | 44 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 15 | 2 | 35 | 82 | .228 | .366 | .342 | .708 | 66 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 Seasons | 93 | 379 | 315 | 58 | 72 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 26 | 19 | 8 | 51 | 118 | .229 | .354 | .356 | .710 | 112 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
Off-Topic: Short NFL predictions for the weekend
Okay, here we go:
Ravens at Broncos: It will be cold, yes, and Peyton Manning doesn’t do well in cold. However, I still think he’ll do well enough, barring the Ravens defense taking the ball away multiple times. In other words, Broncos win.
Packers at 49ers: This is a tough one, but I think the Packers have the advantage of momentum (they haven’t been sitting around for as long), and I’d rather have Aaron Rodgers playing at QB than Colin Kaepernick. Packers win.
Seattle at Atlanta: Okay, Seattle’s sleep cycles will be messed up, and Marshawn Lynch missed much of practice this week with an injury, but the Falcons have done about as well in the playoffs as the Braves did most of their years during their grand run of NL East title: losing early. Seattle wins.
Texans at Patriots: The Patriots will slaughter them. They are clearly the better team, by leaps and bounds. New England wins.
Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: George Carlin talks about the differences between football and baseball
(If the video doesn’t work, go here)
Short Predictions for the NFL Wild Card Round
Nothing too deep, just quick predictions:
- I see the Bengals upsetting the Texans, as Houston basically backed into the playoffs, which doesn’t exactly seem like a good omen for them, even if they are playing at home.
- The night game on Saturday between Green Bay and Minnesota is tougher to predict. It’s only a week since their last game, which saw the Vikings win in overtime. This game, however, will be in Green Bay. Advantage: Packers.
- I was until a few days ago thinking that the Colts could upset the Ravens. And then Ray Lewis announced he would be retiring. Given that, I feel like the Ravens are not going to be caught napping, and the defense will take advantage of Andrew Luck’s youth to make a few key turnovers to give them the win.
- The last game of the weekend, Seattle vs. Washington, is probably the toughest to predict, so I’m going with my gut… and my gut says Seattle.
Number 12s for 12/12/12
It’s 12/12/12! So in honor of 12/12/12, perhaps it’s a good idea to note that two number 12s have seen their numbers retired in Major League Baseball.
The more notable of them is Roberto Alomar, who’s number 12 has been retired by the Toronto Blue Jays. Interestingly, Alomar is getting married today, so he must really like that number.
The other player to have number 12 retired is Wade Boggs. The reason this isn’t as notable as Alomar is because, well, Boggs had the number retired by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Rays). Boggs was from the Tampa area, and he had his 3000th hit in a Tampa uniform, so his hometown team honored him by retiring his number. Boggs wore 26 during his time with the Boston Red Sox, and switched to 12 when he went to New York.
Number 12, it should be noted, has far more retirees in the NFL: Jim Kelly, Joe Namath, John Brodie, Bob Griese and Seattle’s “Twelfth Man” have had it retired. Just a random thing I found that I thought to note.
The Strangest Stadiums: Weird Parks Themselves
One of the reasons why baseball is different is because of how the playing field’s dimensions are different in essentially every ballpark. However, this can also lead to some weird stadiums. I mean, we’re talking utterly bizarre, stadiums or fields that almost certainly didn’t have baseball in mind when they were created, or parks that are extremely different from the usual image we have in our minds of what a baseball stadium should look like. And, of course, there are also ballparks that have really weird stories behind them (those will come later).
Take a look (after the jump, of course):
Football Continuum: The Seattle Screwjob
Sports has had many blown calls in history: Jeff Maier, Hull in the crease, the 1972 Olympic Basketball mess (I’m still reasonably sure that Doug Collins is forming a Ocean’s Eleven-style team to go steal the gold medals back from the Russians), and, of course, the epic tale of Joyce and Galarraga. But, with the possible exception of the ’72 games, none have been as surreal as what happened last night. Given how Twitter was busy comparing the NFL’s current replacement ref-a-palooza to the WWE, I decided to do some research on pro wrestling to find a inspiration for the name for this incident (thanks internet!). I found my inspiration in something called the Montreal Screwjob, where Vince McMahon intervened in one of his fake wrestling spectacles to ensure that Bret Hart, who had announced he was about to leave for another wrestling company, would not “win” a title at McMahon’s company.
Now, admittedly, there was no vast fake-wrestling conspiracy to take out the Packers last night. Instead, it was just utter incompetence on the part of the replacements, the NFL owners, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. But, c’mon, Seattle Screwjob rolls off the tongue well.
(jump)
Other Sports Team Names derived from Baseball
Given that baseball is the oldest professional team sport in America, it is hardly surprising that other sports teams often derive their names from baseball teams, usually those that they once shared a city with. In general, they fall into a few different categories:
- Those that just plain copied or used the name of the baseball team.
- Those who made a name that played off of the baseball team’s name.
- Those that have a history with a baseball team but have since sort of morphed into something else, while keeping a vague link.
- Names that actually aren’t connected, but everyone thinks they are.
Take a look after the jump:
The Baseball Continuum 
