A Standing O: Schwartzel, Landis & Anthony etc.

Alex O is back with some thoughts on a little bit of everything from the Masters to the Knickerbockers with a little baseball in between. Some great notes in there from Alex who I have to apologize for posting this a day late (which is why some of the dates look funny). But it doesn't mean this Standing O is any less awesome. Enjoy!

The Canadian Press

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You gotta love the Masters! I think it is even greater when a relatively unknown player wins it coming from behind. Charl (pronounced Sharl--- I never would have guessed that) Schwartzel, a 26 year old from South Africa won the Masters 50 years after Gary Player (also from South Africa) became the first International player to win the tournament. He was also the first player to win while making 4 birdies in the last 4 holes. It is always awesome to see someone win rather than the others lose. Schwartzel qualified for the Masters by being top 50 in the year end 2010 world rankings. He has been a pro on the European tour for 7 years and in 2011 has his PGA Tour Card. Pretty cool little story below from the AP:

Schwartzel had played in only one previous Masters — he tied for 30th a year ago — but he got a very helpful tutorial from a guy who's won more green jackets than anyone.

After finagling a lunch with six-time winner Jack Nicklaus at a charity function, he deftly broke the ice with one of their shared interests beyond the golf course.
"I've never met Jack. I was really excited," Schwartzel recalled. "I knew he sort of liked hunting a little bit. That's the way I got the conversation going, just by talking about hunting."

Of course, the talk soon turned to Augusta National.

And, boy, did the Golden Bear open up.

"I'm thinking it's going to be just a vaguely quick little thing, and he actually took the time to take me through all 18 holes," Schwartzel said. "The way he used to think around Augusta. The way he used to play it, which flags he used to attack."

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Trivia Tuesday: Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle Edition (with a prize!)

Well it's not exactly our regular trivia, but we're continuing our contest from yesterday: guess Derek Jeter's next contract and win a prize. Click on that link and check out the rules but it's really as simple as that. You don't even have to be right as one random guesser will win a book too. Don't miss out on this great and easy opportunity to take home a copy of the New York Times' Bestseller by Jane Leavy for free. For all those Mickey Mantle, Yankees and baseball buffs out there, this is an opportunity not to be missed. So go on Twitter and let us know your thoughts!

Open Thread: What Is a Sport?

This is a question that Jay, Ben and I used to debate all the time on our sports talk radio show, "Double Overtime", on WBRS. It's also a question I debated with my co-workers yesterday. What is a sport? It's not a question just for water-cooler talk either: as Jay wrote a few weeks back, the courts have taken an interest in this question as well, especially pertaining to cheerleading (the courts said no in this instance).

Are these pictured the only real sports?

So while I think few would argue that the Major 4 sports (baseball, hockey, basketball and football) and probably soccer are sports, the rest seem up for debate. What are the criteria for being a sport? How would you define it (since the web definitions vary quite a bit) Can horse racing and car racing (like NASCAR) be considered sport since the actual physical exertion is non-human? Some people don't consider golf a sport but many others will argue with that.

Is the main requirement that ESPN covers it? So does that put poker in that category or is that more of a "game"? What about pool? Tennis? Ping pong? Beer pong? Flip cup? Darts? The hot dog eating contest? Cheerleading? Gymnastics? Chess? Boxing? Swimming? Wrestling? WWF wrestling? Strongest man competition? Or does it have to by in the Olympics to qualify as a sport?

The subject is open for debate and I'm curious your decision. Where do you draw a line? What is your definition of a "sport"? Let us know in the comments below.

Fox and Friends, Please Stop Talking About Baseball

Fox and Friends is a show that has been reduced to nothing more than a clip producer for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, but at least they've dabbled in areas that I have a passing interest in but don't care a ton about like politics and Hooters. They shove vacuum cleaners in babies faces and once in a while compare Jimmy Buffett to Hugo Chavez. They even compared themselves to being the President once (and got an awesome reaction from Mr. Stewart). Hardy har har. Now, though, they've inserted themselves into the role of baseball experts. Screw you, Fox and Friends (if the video doesn't work on the blog, click here to watch it):



Yuck, yuck, yuck. I mean the assumption is not one that most of America hasn't made already, but them doing it makes it even more annoying in my book. It, of course, has nothing to do with teams focusing more on defensive efficiency and sacrificing offense or teams focusing on developing young pitching or better advanced scouting or any one of the myriad of choices out there (Baseball Prospectus' Jay Jaffe had some ideas, too). Call of the search, though: it's steroids. Thank you, Fox and Friends, for solving that mystery and making us all dumber in the process. What can I truly expect, though, from the same parent company that still employs Tim McCarver?

H/T Gawker

Trivia Tuesday: Javy Vazquez Edition

With his next win, Javier Vazquez will have reached double digit wins for the 11th straight season. Who are the last three pitchers to have 11-season streaks of 10 wins or more?

Bonus question: 3 players all-time have 20 or more seasons of double digit wins. Can you name them?

Put your answers in the comments below and I'll reveal the correct answers later. Good luck!

Quick Review of MLB.TV on the PS3

A few weeks back I wrote about a $20 price mistake for MLB.TV that I was able to jump on. Today, that purchase became even more valuable when MLB.TV made it's way to the Playstation 3. There's a lot of ways to watch the games. But I'll say this: MLB.TV on the PS# is awesome and if you're a big baseball fan (and have a PS3) it's worth every penny to lay down the full price to get it for the rest of the year. Let's give you a quick preview I found on the Playstation Blog:



When I got home from work, I went back and watched the half inning where A-Rod turned the triple play. Maybe in a few months I'll want to go back and watch the near-no-no that Phil Hughes just threw or CC Sabathia threw before him--and I can do that too. It's unbelievably awesome and almost feels like it was silly that it wasn't in place before. They've basically made Neftlix streaming this easy so why would it take so long for MLB's media, which CNET says is the No. 1 most profitable video-streaming service on the Web? It's worth the wait, though. Globe and Mail says that it's a game changer and I totally agree. As a Premium subscriber, I can listen to home or away broadcasts and pause live games. Interactive scoreboard to pick from games. Whatever game you want. It's baseball a la carte and baseball a la mode. It's an iTunes for MLB games. Streaming On Demand--in 720P HD. I love it.

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Too Bad I Was Sleeping

I want to open this post by saying I am not an early-to-bed kinda guy. On work nights I routinely go to bed after midnight, sometimes even later. If there is a big game on I will generally stay up to watch, even when my beloved Mets are on the west coast (I saw ALL their games against the Dodgers, including the extra inning Church-missed-the-bag debacle). So I am pretty committed to finishing up a late night game. But even I occasionally cant make it all the way through - and I bet I have a lot of company on this.

When Johnny Damon came up in the 9th last night and had his (and subsequently AROD's) defining moment as a Yankee I was already catching up on Zs. I watched the game up through the top of the 8th. It was already after 11 pm in New York, and due to the daylight savings change earlier yesterday morning it felt like it was after midnight. A long weekend of Halloween revelry (once again, I am pretty sure I wasn't along on this one) left me totally beat, so I went to sleep, and missed an ending for the ages.

My issue with this is, it didn't have to be this way. Sure, the game ran a bit long (3 hours, 25 minutes), but World Series games, on national television, with powerful and patient lineups ALWAYS run long. So then how is it possible that a game played on the east coast, in my timezone, managed to run past my formidable bedtime (and possibly WELL past the bedtime of most normal people)? The answer is simple, FOX Primetime. FOX chose to start this game around 8:20 pm. Due to the DST change this actually felt like 9:20 pm. The game ran almost to midnight, which felt like 1 AM! Had the game started right after football, say at 7:30 pm, I wouldn't have missed Damon's heroics.

I understand the football schedule left FOX with no option but to start late last night. But that excuse doesn't exist for any of the other World Series games, all of which have begun after 8pm. To ask viewers to stay up after midnight last night, and now come back again tonight and do it all over is a bit ridiculous. Live athletic events do not lend themselves to DVR technology - you really have to watch live. Baseball talks about being America's past-time, and a game of the youth of America. If that is so true then why routinely play games when most of east coast America and its youth aren't awake to see a dramatic two out, two strike comeback ending? The kind of ending that really would solidify that love of the game they are so desperately looking for.

Crazy Baseball Video

I have no clue if this is real or some nice video editing...but it's nuts. Check it out (H/T Paul).



So what do you think? Real or nice video editing? If it's real, that's awesome.

KKK vs. The Hebrew All-Star Baseball Game

Very interesting article from The Atlantic only gets started with that headline. Wow

(H/T Rob Neyer)