Category Archives: Non-Baseball

Cool Website of the Undetermined Amount of Time: SABR’s Biography Project

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One of the great places on the baseball-related internet is the Baseball Biography Project run by SABR (the Society of American Baseball Research). It is exactly what it says it is: a project to put up biographies of baseball figures. Most of them are short-but-sweet, but some are longer, more in-depth

They range from the obvious (Babe Ruth and Willie Mays) to the famous-because-they-are-obscure (Eddie Gaedel and Moonlight Graham) to the downright I-haven’t-ever-heard-of-them obscure (picking randomly: Tom Hernon and Pat Purtell).
A good way to waste time while soaking up some sweet baseball knowledge.

Episode 5 of The Franchise is Wives’ Day

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Episode 5 of The Franchise (Miami Marlins edition) is definitely different from the previous episodes. For one thing, by now everybody knows, in the aftermath of the trade deadline, that this team isn’t going to be the paradigm-shifting one that Jeff Loria had hoped it would be for Miami baseball. The opening title sequence, which once had people talking about how this was going to be the Marlins team that was going to go against the best of the best and change everything, now has more reflective quotes about how it hasn’t gone so well and they are trying to fix things. For another, this episode is focused heavily not on the players, but rather their wives. Go below the jump for more, as well as this week’s Ozzie Guillen counter.

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Baseball’s children

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In a bid to combine their powers and increase the chances of returning to the Olympics, baseball and softball’s international federations (the equivalent to soccer’s FIFA or basketball’s FIBA) recently decided to merge. How well this will or won’t work, as well as what effect this might have on things like women’s baseball or men’s softball, remains to be seen. However, it does give a good excuse to look at some of the “children” born from baseball. See after the jump.

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Olympics Continuum: Why not joint hosting bids?

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I stumbled across an article today that caught my eye: a city councilor in Toronto, worried about the gigantic cost that hosting an Olympics brings to a city, has suggested that there be a joint bid between Toronto and an American city, such as Buffalo or Detroit.

I have written of this before back at the Courier, but seeing this news item has brought it back to my thoughts: why not? Why can’t and why hasn’t there been a joint Olympics bid, featuring cities relatively near a national border?

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What type of Olympians would MLB stars be?

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Getting into the Olympic spirit, the folks across the pond at the BBC have created a neat little website that lets you enter your height and weight and it then tells you which Olympian is similar to you. Well, in theory, anyway. I’m sure their bodies are made up of way more muscle than the average Joe. I mean, I certainly am not built like a weightlifter, but it said I’m most similar to one.

However, let’s do a far better use of this already useless technology: find out what type of Olympic sport baseball players would play. Now, as I said, there is a difference between having the same height and weight as somebody and actually having the same type of body and abilities as them, but in general some things hold true: somebody who is smaller is more likely to be a gymnast or a weightlifter, while somebody tall is more likely to be playing hoops.

So, let’s get down to business:

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Ozzie Guillen doesn’t show up that much as the Trade Deadline dominates in the 4th episode of “The Franchise”

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This week’s episode of The Franchise focused on the Trade Deadline, primarily focusing on the front office, the players being traded, and the players being traded for.

Go after the jump for thoughts and the weekly count of Ozzie Guillen’s foul mouth.

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Olympics Continuum: The insane greatness of Michael Phelps

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Throughout the Olympics, the Baseball Continuum will branch out to give the occasional look at the XXX Summer Olympic Games. This is the Olympics Continuum.

Michael Phelps won two more medals “last night” (actually early afternoon EST, but don’t tell NBC that), bringing his total to 19, making him the greatest Olympian of All Time, as he passed Soviet gymnastics great Larisa Latynina for most medals of any kind.

So now is as good a time as any to note just how great Phelps’ accomplishment is, using one of my favorite methods: fun trivia and facts:

  • Phelps first competed in 2000 at Sydney and has had only himself and his relay teammates to gain medals. Despite this, he has only one fewer medals (19) than India, which first sent a competitor in 1900 and has sent them continuously since 1920. Oh, and India has 1.2 billion people. So, yes, it’s entirely possible that, by the end of these games, Michael Phelps will have as many or more medals than the second-largest country in the world has had in history.
  • He already has more medals than Venezuela, Chile, Algeria, Pakistan, and various post-Soviet republics.
  • His now-15 gold medals is as many Golds as such all-time Olympic greats as Paavo Nurmi (9), Jesse Owens (4) and Jim Thorpe (2) have combined, although admittedly they were in different sports and eras.
  • He’s swam 3,500 meters in races that he’s earned a medal- not counting heats and preliminaries. That’s about 2.175 miles. Or about 70 times across the pool.
  • It’s the equivalent of him swimming over 38 football fields (not counting end zones).
  • He’s won a gold in 71% of all of the events he has done in the Olympics.

Amazing, huh?

Olympics Continuum: Samuel L. Jackson tweets the Olympics (Rated R for Language)

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Throughout history, many great men have looked at sports despite being outside of it.

Presidents.
Philosophers.
Poets.
Authors.

But none, perhaps, are more wise, more charismatic or more badass than Mr. Samuel L. Jackson, who has been watching and tweeting about the Olympics. And he seemingly does it in the same persona he has in basically every movie he is in (the man embraces his niche). Is it good? I don’t know. Is it a funny and off-beat look at the Olympics? Definitely.

Note: Not all of these tweets are appropriate for all ages. In fact, most of them aren’t. Cover the eyes of children and certainly don’t say them out loud in the presence of children. Go after the jump for them.

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Off-Topic- Olympics Continuum: Stuff to Keep in Mind (HUMOR)

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Opening Ceremonies are Friday, but already the Games of the XXX Olympiad (which are really going to mess up some internet content filters with those Roman numerals) have begun with some early-round soccer games. While you can find Olympic previews everywhere, only here will you get the unique Continuum perspective. So strike up the John Williams music and go below the jump for the (rather tongue-in-cheek) inaugural installment of Olympics Continuum:

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The fire sale begins and family takes center stage in the oddly low-swearing third episode of “The Franchise”

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It’s time again for the Miami Marlins’ edition of The Franchise. Last time, I noted that there was no reference to Ozzie Guillen’s feud with Bryce Harper over the amount of pin-tar on his bat. Well, that basically opens up this episode. After that, though, it becomes focused on two things: the beginning of the latest fire sale as the Marlins continue to fall out of it, and families. More after the jump, including the latest installment of the “Ozzie Guillen ‘Carlin Words’ Counter”:

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