Into the weekend: Long bombs to short putts

With winter arriving today, JABS Mansion is into full and festive mukluks-and-corn-starch mode, having sacrificed a perfectly good golf umbrella to the wind this morning and getting soaked to the skin, only The National's Abel blaring in the ears to ward off the chill. We're leaving early, in other words, to get outta these wet clothes and into a dry martini.

But first, a quick look around the week's bits, and to put another Canadian football season to bed, let's start with Sean Smith at sportsBabel, who along with Rod Murray wrote The Narrative of Long Bombs, a provocative, thoughtful look at football's military connection. Here's a taste, but read it all:

. . . What is ironic is that this sponsorship comes at a time when the Canadian military has waived its requirement of a minimum fitness level to join the service. While this is clearly one sign among many that the Forces are on a desperate mission to increase their numbers, apparently general recruitment has little to do with requiring fit bodies. The thrust to recruit soldiers via football suggests that there must be some congruency between military and sport cultures.
(snip)
Of course, the choice of an athlete, or any Canadian, to enlist in our armed forces is a deeply personal one that should be respected. But when the business of sports intersects so dramatically with the decisions of our political and military leaders, we should take pause. Canada should support its soldiers, but if war is a continuation of politics by other means, that support should begin before they are sent off to fight. In other words, when the slick marketing campaign is pulled back, are the right questions being asked? And if so, are the right answers being given?
Pat Tillman's family doesn’t think so.

One last e-mail. Wade Tomlin figures the notion of a Sam Mitchell watch in the media is vastly overrated - at least in the Toronto sports media (the Raptors are en fuego, as they say on the sports broadcasts, zooming up to 5-10 on November since Wade wrote this early in the week):

To me firing Mitchell is as straightforward a situation for Bryan Colangelo as you see in sports. You have a team that everyone seems to accept has improved its roster, yet the team is off to forget about a slow start, but a similar one to the horrible start a year ago (1-11, 3-9, there is no real difference) and you have a coach who is now on the verge of his third losing season, who has no previous track record of success as a NBA head coach, who just last year was voted the worst coach in the N.B.A. by league players.
It is getting embarrassing as a fan to hear this idea that the Raptors have some form of excuse for this sorry start, there called standards and the Raptors organization, and many of the people surrounding the team (the announce team, sportswriters following the team), seem to have none when it comes to winning. Fire Mitchell now or this team will continue with its mantle as the new Los Angeles Clippers.

DICK LOEK/Toronto Star file photo

Ballard warms up for '75 Latvia finals.

One last "Is on fire! Let's NBA!" I don't know who did this, but some wicked wit who goes by the handle of Lockdown on the RealGM board has a pretty take in Sam Mitchell: The Graphic Novel. (Just in: Part II.)

One last invitation. To journalists covering next spring's world hockey championships, from the International Table Hockey Federation (via Babelfish, I presume. Either that or Borat):

"Also it is significant that this tournament will be restored in Riga, Latvia. Latvia is not only famous with their noisy and ice hockey loving fans, but Latvia is the first country in the world where table hockey is recognized by country officials as sport."

Table hockey as sport? Now that's a country.

One last Official Golfer of JABS update. That'd be Miguel Angel Jimenez, he of the lobster arms, ruddy ponytail and pot belly, who headed out for nine holes with GolfMagic and demonstrated admirable sponsor loyalty:

AMY SANCETTA/Associated Press

Jimenez: Give me Ping or give me death.

As we crouched down to read a tricky putt on the penultimate green he was intrigued by the shape of the Elmer M1 putter I was reviewing for Golfmagic. But he refused to handle it.
"No, no I cannot be photographed with another putter. That would be wrong, it would be disloyal to Ping. I've been with them for 15 years. Besides they would kill me!"

Sports around town. One of the more intense college rivalries in the neighbourhood gets renewed this weekend as Humber Hawks hosts Sheridan Bruins at 7 p.m. tonight.

Watching. Super Dogs and Horse Relay (3 p.m., Saturday, TSN). Frankly, I was hoping to take in some Elephant Polo this weekend, but I guess this will have to do. Super Dogs? Are they wearing capes? Do they rescue the horses from a burning building?

Pooch Punts. From Super Dogs to Jinks the Viszla, who promises to go at least 1-4 with his kibbles-or-cookies picks this week and thereby keep pace with the other public handicappers:

CHICAGO (-9) over Minnesota
Tampa Bay (+7) over PITTSBURGH
NEW ORLEANS (-7) over San Francisco
GREEN BAY (+1) over NY Jets
Seattle (+4) over DENVER

Photo(s) of the Day: Beards of the NBA

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

So what do you prefer? Courtside grizzle a la Jack and Morgan ...

KIMBERLY WHITE/REUTERS

... or those charismatic Spurs's neck beard and Parisian ombre d'cinq-heure?

Related: Make your own Pau Gasol beard!

We're waiting (UPDATED - NBA review complete, score stands)

Here we are, nearly four days removed from Friday night's scorer's table debacle in Atlanta. Hello, NBA? Anybody home?

Perhaps the long weekend in the U.S. has something to do with the league's slow response, but as long as the league delays, it amounts to a p.r. disaster. If the checks and balances in place to keep a proper score fail, and during a close game as well, and in a manner in which the game's entire complexion is changed, what do you do?

So far, the NBA's answer is: nothing.

Here's the relevant rule, which would indicate that it's over:

Rule No. 2, section VI (d): Errors which occur in the fourth period or overtime(s) must be discovered and rectified prior to the end of the period.

Replaying the final 4 1/2 minutes next time the Raptors are in Atlanta on Feb. 2, given that the game turned on the missing basket, would be the fairest course. And by then, we can all chip in and buy Sam Mitchell a ticket to the game.

But it's just about a given that the Hawks will be fined. When is the question.

UPDATE: E-mail from the NBA arrived at 3:47 p.m., and I apologize for the slow reply but I was caught in a meeting: According to the league, the review of the play in question and Friday's game is complete: "A mistake was obviously made but the score will remain as is," said an NBA spokesman in an email. I'll try and get more on this and post it here in an update.

UPDATE II: NBA spokesman Tim Frank said no fine would be assessed to the Hawks, whose scorers' table made the error (meantime, the NBA-responsibility referees crew missed it, and so did the Raptors, who can answer only to themselves for their ignorance - total breakdown at all corners) in missing T.J. Ford's basket with 4+ minutes to go, which the NBA agrees was the pivotal play. Frank: "Our philosophy has been once they come off the floor, the score stands ... it's obviously not something you want to see happen."

My take: Either the Hawks have been fined but no one's saying, or the blame can be distributed so evenly by the NBA's basketball operations department (who did the review) that they figured hell, just go with the score.

One thing, though: The score was wrong, and it impacted on the result. Bad call, NBA.
A W-L swing, and it's been sloughed off. Just wondering: How would this have played out if it had have involved New York, say, or the Lakers?

Weekend bits: Video hits and misses

Some flakes here in case you missed 'em while shivering through the Vanier Cup:

Video replay: Sepp Blatter doesn't believe in it - "We have to help referees and have correct control but we must never stop the match with videos or monitors to look at what has happened" - but Ronaldinho surely does after this wonder goal.

It's ski season, John Kucera and Manuel Osborne-Paradis enjoying career best weekends at Lake Louise. But in Europe it's situation critical: No snow.

New word of the day, courtesy of Pistons GM Joe Dumars: Paradocrity.

Their trumpets confiscated, their complaints lampooned, their team humiliated at the "Gabbatoir" - life's rough for a travelling England cricket fan.

The case of the vanishing basket. Courtesy of emailer Andrew Kwong, Here's the video evidence (wait a minute; where were the referees in all of this nonsense?)

One I missed when (too hastily) putting together Friday's post on the gay Leaf movie, so I'll put it up here now: Life in the NHL Closet.

Into the weekend: More Raptor numbers

Wrapping it up for another week, and this one is almost worth its own post, but let’s just make this a little longer than usual thanks to an email gem from Michael Brandon:

I looked back at your Nov. 21 blog entry, referencing 82games.com, a site I appreciate.
Also, I was looking at the stats of minutes played by players that are either rookies or new to their teams, and comparing them to the Raps. Of all the teams the Raps have played this year, new players to the team have accounted for an average of 19% of the playing time, and rookies have only accounted for 5% of total minutes.
In the case of the Raps, 63% of their minutes are played by players new to the team, of which 16% of total minutes are played by true rookies. Anthony Parker, who has not played an NBA minute in years accounts for 13% of team minutes.
No other team the Raps have played come close in new player minutes (Hawks 33%, Bucks 35%).

To me, that underlines the subjective notion expressed here and elsewhere that lack of familiarity is part of this whole debate. But there’s more from Michael:

I also looked at the W/L records of the league for further insight.
As near as I can tell, the East only is winning 28% of their games against the West (in part because the lower-ranked teams by W/L record have been West loaded early), and they only win 54% of their home games against any opposition.
The Raps have won 60% of their home games (3-2), and probably should have won one out west, maybe two if the stars were aligned (or California fell into the ocean).
So, we have people screaming for the head of Sam Mitchell, because a team with 62% of their minutes eaten up by new players, is one game behind the average this early in the season. I thought that consensus was for the Raps to be average this year (41 wins) or less (30-40 wins).
I don't want to quibble with the numbers on 82games.com. There is nothing to quibble about. However, there is more to the story.

Good points. Thanks, Michael.

Early pre-vegetarian pie-eating contest.

One more email. Regular Tim Farrell weighs in with another Raptor-related observation:

Garbajosa suddenly can't shoot . . . could it be . . . the curse of Vince Carter's jersey??

Not only that, Tim, but T.J. Ford is wearing Rafer Alston’s old number and Chris Bosh has Vincenzo Esposito's. You may be on to something.

One more helping. Here’s a sport where expansion is not only encouraged, but inevitable – until this year, that is, the world pie-eating championships, gone from a marathon to a sprint and now including a vegetarian option (from Times Online):

"They’ve taken things too far this year - pies are supposed to be meat and potato and anything else just isn’t normal," said Dave Smyth, 48, a painter from Hindley, who won the first contest in 1992 when he ate an impressive four pies in three minutes.

One more question. Is this the future of newspapers – making ballplayers even richer? Jon Friedman spells it out in DJI's Market Watch (thanks to DD for the linkage):

Your newspaper operations are a mess and your baseball team is a disaster. So, what do you do? Why, invest heavily in the baseball team, of course.
On Monday, Tribune confirmed that it would pay free-agent slugger Alfonso Soriano $136 million over eight years. It's spending more than $200 million total on many players this off-season, as well as hiring a new manager, veteran Lou Piniella.
As the late, great Cubs announcer Harry Caray might shout in disbelief: Holy cow!

One more press release. Don’t know how this was overlooked, but the Detroit Red Wings have been disbanded. VCOE has the release the world missed.

Sports around town. Look no further than the Air Canada Centre Tuesday, and the Metro Hoops Showcase (6:30 p.m. tipoff), apparently the first-ever high school basketball doubleheader to be played on the hallowed, history-laden hardcourt where Negele Knight once trod. Seriously, they'll put on a better show than many of the recent hoop nights the place has seen.

Watching. The Vanier Cup, live from Saskatoon (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., The Score). Saskatchewan vs Laval, and it should be a hooly. And as is the custom around here, Neate Sager’s got the preview (including the weather forecast - cold, very cold).

Pooch punts. Yup, he’s back, tail between his legs after a piddling 0-5 record that puts him squarely in the league of many of the world's best public handicappers – it’s Jinks the Vizsla, scarfing down another set of kibble-or-cookie plays of the week:

Jacksonville –3 over BUFFALO
New Orleans +3 over ATLANTA
Chicago +3 over NEW ENGLAND
Philadelphia +9 over INDY
SEATTLE –9 1/2 over Green Bay

Worst NBA coaching debuts

Dave Feschuk's fine column this morning was missing one piece, so he's sent it along here: This table, from the Elias Sports Bureau, on the worst coaching debuts in NBA history.

It turns out that, while Toronto's Sam Mitchell has the worst start going since Tim (Pink) Floyd, he's not even top-10 material (or should that read, bottom 10) in terms of history. With the beleaguered Raptors coach heading to game No. 175 tonight, he can take heart that some of these names began even worse (Longtimer Bill Fitch and the late Bill Musselman are Mitchell influences, the former having cut him in Houston and the latter giving him his first NBA playing gig; Eddie Jordan is hanging in as the Wizards head coach; Paul Silas may well be back one day soon; Brian Winters is coaching in the WNBA; and the merry-go-round continues):

Worst NBA coaches' W-L records through 175 games
Brian Winters 33-142 (.189 percentage)
Tim Floyd 36-139 (.206)
Ron Rothstein 37-138 (.211)
Bill Fitch 41-134 (.234)
Kevin Loughery 42-133 (.240)
Sidney Lowe 44-131 (.251)
Bill Musselman 49-126 (.280)
Don Chaney 53-122 (.303)
George Irvine 53-122 (.303)
Eddie Donovan 55-120 (.314)
Johnny Davis 55-120 (.314)
Paul Silas 55-120 (.314)
Scotty Robertson 56-119 (.320)
Eddie Jordan 57-118 (.326)
Don Casey 58-117 (.331)
Garry St. Jean 59-116 (.337)
Sam Mitchell 62-112 (.356)

(Thanks to Dave and ESB for this one).

The quick-draw Raptors

The next 11 days or so are going to be critical for the Raptors. Seven upcoming games leading up to Dec. 2 would seem to include some, as Chris Bosh says, of the “winnable” variety. We’ll soon find out if those exist on the Raptors schedule. (If not, well, they're always available for birthday parties and games of pin the tail on the Dinosaur.)

One thing, though. This one pass and a quick-shot approach they've fallen in love with isn’t working - it's actually making last year's Mike James and the Bahamas group look good. Parsing the stats at 82games.com this morning, here’s your numbers du jour noting: # of possessions/game; pts/100 possessions; early shots as a percentage of total shots taken; and early shot percentage:

………………..  Poss….Pts/100p..E shots..E shot pct.
06-07 offence……..97…..103…….67 %……40.4 %
05-06 offence……..92…..109…….68 %……46.6 %

 

DAVID ZALBUBOWKI/AP

Okay, on to those winnable games.

So: more possessions, but doing far less with them. Of all the numbers, this one looks like the biggest dropoff (if you’re wondering about the defence, the 82games numbers actually suggest marginal improvement in most areas, the notable exception being rebounding. But still below-average numbers overall).

Yesterday I was talking to a colleague from a rival publication. He remarked succinctly that the Raptors have no killer shooters.

The Raptors do have gunners, though. Shooters know the next shot they take is going down. Gunners know the last shot they took went down. So when Fred Jones hits a three off a Calderon baseline drive-and-kick, as happened last night, you knew he was going to shoot a 3 next time down off the first pass (and miss) - just one example. He's not alone. And, well, that's what he's been told to do.

Aside from the numbers, there’s a perception problem shaping up as well. The Raptors seemed at least interesting coming into this season, with the new faces, the Eurocentricity and the GM/coach combo's dress sense. In three weeks, they’ve delivered much less than anticipated. At this rate, the only thing they're going to be eligible to win is the Eurovision Song Contest. I think lack of familiarity with each other has something to do with some of their troubles, and that only comes with time. Time, though, is a rare luxury in pro sports. They’re in danger of sliding from all the way from interesting to irrelevant while the waiting continues, as even the casual fans who were looking at them beginning of the month turn away.

Irrelevant. That's maybe the most damning adjective you can throw at a pro sports franchise.

 

Into the weekend: Grey Cup libations

Lots to ponder as we head into a strenuous weekend of armchair sports, chief among it this proposition up on the JABS odds board: Kobe Bryant's points tonight vs. Frank Thomas's RBIs next season vs audience for the MLS expansion draft live on ESPN4.

Shot of beer nuts? Check.

It's the Friday roundup. But you knew that already. And while you mull over that last bet, which is almost lifelike, a little treat arrived in the email basket this week: The Gibson's Kicker, billed as the official cocktail of the Grey Cup: "Part smoke and part fire with a hint of fresh lime and paired with a shot of beer nuts". Sounds a bit like a Flaming Mo. I'll pair it with the fish sticks and get back to you.

Meantime, better make do with that Kobe vs Hurt vs. MLS expansion draft prop, because the government gambling shop has done it again. The Grey Cup line is B.C. -7 1/2 in the books, a little light according to my original reckoning. But folllowing along with the theme of almost lifelike, you won't be able to play it on Pro-Line's Point Spread game. Biggest game of the year, one that even casual fans notice, and there's no betting against the line. They're looking out for us. Everybody, now, raise your Flaming Mo or your Kicker or your Champale and toast 'em. Toast 'em good.

One last read. From the Guardian's Sports Blog, the best thing I've read on world footy since all those Zizou rumours. It's Marcela Mora y Araujo (no relation to Haffa, I presume), hanging with Boca's la Doce:

The thrill of the terraces and the beauty of the display of affection hardcore fans offer their team is not unique to Boca, nor indeed to Argentina. But it has an intensity there that has few equals. I once met a Malvinas war veteran in the Boca terraces and asked him if he thought there was a connection between the intoxication and loss of self of the terraces, and the atmosphere of a battlefield. No, he said. "Nobody hates war more than a soldier," he explained, before surveying the scenes on the terraces and concluding: "This is about love."
Later that same day, after Boca had lost 2-0 to River Plate, two River fans were shot dead. Around the city the following graffiti appeared: River 2-2 Boca.

One last piece of blogosphere news. Congratulations and good luck to Raptorblog ringmaster and footstool regular Scott Carefoot, on the move to Sympatico MSN's Sports Channel. That means, of course, that he'll have access to a press pass, poor guy.

One last curling update. George at the Curling News sends along this on those blog-favourite rockin' Norbergs.

One last view. This has been around a bit, but if you've missed it: Aries Spears does Mike and Shaq. (And if you liked that, check out this one sent over from TBJ.)

One last James Bond namedrop. Not much time for Bond. But I do like this.

One (two) last sponsorship deal. An English footy club has signed a marketing deal with Motorhead which includes an all-black uniform with the skull logo (which is just a cheap excuse, really, to revisit this QT-friendly video). And a link to Tom Benjamin for exposing this new NHL award for the runny nose that it is: "Is there anything Bettman won't do to squeeze out a few extra dollars?"

One last warning. This is pigskin freakout weekend, so if you find yourself on the couch a lot this weekend, do try to build in short breaks between the cheezie nibbling. It all starts with the CIS semifinals starting at noon Saturday. That OSU-Michigan thing goes midday (it'll be DVR'd in my house, so please, no giving away the ending before Saturday night). NFL all day Sunday and of course, the Grey Cup Sunday night.

One last Sam Mitchell laff. Two, actually, from TBJ, who I should just hand over the Friday roundup to, because it seems like every one of these has something from them -Coal Region Recipes with Sam Mitchell, and Searching for Sammy Mitchell. I'll miss this stuff when he's gone.

Sports around town. If you can tear yourself away from the couch - and you really should - U of T got its game on last weekend, and now it's York U's turn to start the party Saturday night. The Lions (got it right this time) host Waterloo up at the arena on the edge of forever, a doubleheader with the women at 6 p.m. and the men at 8. Bring your own pajamas. Honest.

Pooch punts. It's true - Jinks the Vizsla really is just as bad as all the other public handicappers out there. After another 2-3 weekend, here's the latest set of kibbles or cookies picks (bonus points, though, for the Grey Cup gobble):

Montreal (+7 1/2) over B.C.
St. Louis (+6 1/2) over CAROLINA
St. Louis-Carolina OVER 44
PHILADELPHIA (-13) over Tennessee
CLEVELAND (+ 3 1/2) over Pittsburgh

Have a great Grey Cup weekend.

Open thread: Fixing the Raptors

Going to keep this open all day, so let's meet up in the comments. Meantime, here's some observations, links and suggestions to put in the stew, with the Raptors carrying a 2-5 (going on 2-8 at this rate, with LeBron coming into the ACC after the road swing is over) record:

1. Defensive FG percentage. Where all the problems start. They defend with all the passion and commitment of a frog on the dissection table. A little chart, noting their opponents' overall FG percentage, and what they shot against the Raptors (for the first five games, I've used 05-06 final percentages because of lack of data):

AP FILE PHOTO

Mr. Parker, you got next.

Game......Opp FG%..Game %
at NJ..........44.0........51.3
v Mil...........45.3........44.2
v SA...........47.2........50.0
v Phil..........45.8........49.4
v Atl...........45.4........50.0
at Sac........39.9........48.7
at GS..........47.5........43.3

That's but one team they've held significantly under their established norm (that was last night, when the headache du jour showed up at the other end. They were flat outcoached by Warriors' Don Nelson, using a sagging zone to cover up his team's interior problems, and the Raptors took the bait and turned into a bunch of chuckers - not to pick on Fred Jones, because there's plenty of trouble to go around, but isn't this guy's game supposed to be all about slash 'n burn?).

But getting back to the original point, isn't team defence all about coaching?

2. Andrea Bargnani. Surely there's some out-of-work former top-drawer NBA interior defender who wants to coach in this league and has shown a lot of promise (hello, is Mr. Laimbeer in?) they can bring in to school the kid. Bargnani can shoot - we know that - and he's going to be fine, I reckon. But he's clueless defensively and that's one reason why he's not getting more minutes.

3. The 12-man rotation. We've seen this too many times already. Coaching by guesswork.

4. A snapshot. End of first half in Sacramento, inbounds play out of a timeout, shot clock off. Result: No movement, one weak, did-nothing screen (Peterson on Shareef; Garbajosa wasn't on the floor, would've been a perfect time to pick him up by putting him in and do something simple like set a good pick) and after 13 1/2 seconds, a 27-footer from Morris Peterson. No ideas = no execution = toss pen up in the air.

5. Over/under on Kobe. Friday's next, in L.A. First time to see Mamba since 81 last January. Paging Anthony Parker . . .

6. It's not all bad. The numbers guys at 82games.com confirm what the eyeballing suggests: Bosh, Parker and Calderon are playing positively - Bosh, in particular, evolving from best player to heart 'n soul, Parker showing a little more each night out and Calderon making a strong case for more p.t.

Photo of the Day: Heart to heart

RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS

LeBron James and Nate Robinson share the moment.

Related: Romance on the Hardwood: Kobe and Andrew (The Basketball Jones).