The other sports thread

[Thorny]

90 dubs.

Jays 16-3 vs the Red Sox this season 😆 

[mjd1001]

-Toronto Blue Jays, sneaky good season. I haven't followed MLB too closesly this year but earlier in the year I though they were in trouble, they look better now.

-Formula one.  Too many rules and too many penalties. I know, it is different than Nascar, but figure out how to do it differently. Too many engine penalties, Cost cap penalties.  Track limit penalties during the race. Safety car violations for being too close or too far from the safety car (in Nascar I have seen drivers bump the 'pace car') Multiple investigations for incidents during the race.  Time penalties assessed AFTER the race. Again, I'm not saying it is easy, but figure things out!

-Nascar.  medium length ovals are boring.  Change all those tracks to the new Atlanta layout or just replace them.

-Hockey.  Just can't wait for it to start.

[Thorny]

If Judge doesn’t hit 62, 61 isn’t that big of a deal.

Sorry

 

Not sorry. But I do hope he does it 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Thorny

[Weave]

20 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

-Toronto Blue Jays, sneaky good season. I haven't followed MLB too closesly this year but earlier in the year I though they were in trouble, they look better now.

-Formula one.  Too many rules and too many penalties. I know, it is different than Nascar, but figure out how to do it differently. Too many engine penalties, Cost cap penalties.  Track limit penalties during the race. Safety car violations for being too close or too far from the safety car (in Nascar I have seen drivers bump the 'pace car') Multiple investigations for incidents during the race.  Time penalties assessed AFTER the race. Again, I'm not saying it is easy, but figure things out!

-Nascar.  medium length ovals are boring.  Change all those tracks to the new Atlanta layout or just replace them.

-Hockey.  Just can't wait for it to start.

I haven’t followed NASCAR in probably 15 years.  What did they do to Atlanta?

I still remember when they changed it from a true oval to a tri-oval and hated it.

I do follow F1 somewhat and def prefer it to NASCAR these days.  I think the primary difference is that in F1 the teams can not so readily outsmart the league officials.  NASCAR historically has had some dumb XXXXS policing the rules and were readily outsmarted by the teams.

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Weave

[mjd1001]

11 minutes ago, Weave said:

I haven’t followed NASCAR in probably 15 years.  What did they do to Atlanta?

I still remember when they changed it from a true oval to a tri-oval and hated it.

I do follow F1 somewhat and def prefer it to NASCAR these days.  I think the primary difference is that in F1 the teams can not so readily outsmart the league officials.  NASCAR historically has had some dumb XXXXS policing the rules and were readily outsmarted by the teams.

 

I get frurtated with all the rules in F1, but at the same time I follow it more.  Races last no more than 2 hours and zero commercials during it.

They redid the entire track in Atlanta, added a lot more banking and made the track narrower.  It now drives more like Daytona or Talladega than it does other mid-sized tracks. Traditionalists hate it but I love how it races now.  To me, it is 90% of the way to superspeedway racing, drafting matters, cars drive in packs, but it isn't quite to the level of Daytona or Talladega.  Its hard to describe exactly.  Just to me the races there became a LOT better and not like any other track at all.

If you want to take a few seconds and see what it looks like:  

 

[Weave]

The 1.5mi tri-oval was overdone anyway.  Too many tracks that were essentially the same configuration.  Anything different from that would probably get my approval.

Traditionalists unhappy with the new changes?  LOL that track was completely reconfigured 30 yrs ago. They can’t be that much of a traditionalist if they want the previous tri-oval returned.  Up until about 1995 that track was a 1.5mi oval with huge, banked turns.  There was as much corner as there was straight away.  It was an awesome, unique track that they ruined when they made it a tri-oval.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Weave

[Sabel79]

Gotta say, watching the Mets absolutely piss the NL East title away over the past few weeks had been more painful than being a Mets fan usually is.  

[Sabres Fan in NS]

11 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

Gotta say, watching the Mets absolutely piss the NL East title away over the past few weeks had been more painful than being a Mets fan usually is.  

At least you have The Gunners working out okay.  So far ...

[Thwomp!]

12 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

Gotta say, watching the Mets absolutely piss the NL East title away over the past few weeks had been more painful than being a Mets fan usually is.  

In true Mets fashion.  Getting swept by the Cubs was almost as good as getting swept by the Braves over the weekend.  I watched parts of all the games and it was obvious who was going to win the game, regardless of the score at the time.  Braves knew the Mets were gonna fold the whole time.

[Sabel79]

2 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

At least you have The Gunners working out okay.  So far ...

[Sabres Fan in NS]

3 minutes ago, Sabel79 said:

At least we can agree that it's awesome that Man U has dropped out of the top 5.

[Sabel79]

Just now, Sabres Fan in NS said:

At least we can agree that it's awesome that Man U has dropped out of the top 5.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer club… 

[Thorny]

Series win vs Baltimore locks up 4th seed and home field in WC round 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

Series win vs Baltimore locks up 4th seed and home field in WC round 

90 (+) wins is very good.

#1 WC and home field in the WC against either Seattle or the Rays for 3 games in The Great Satan likely gets them Houston in the Divison Series.  Yikes.

What a dumb way to do it, but it's MLB.

[Thorny]

6 minutes ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

90 (+) wins is very good.

#1 WC and home field in the WC against either Seattle or the Rays for 3 games in The Great Satan likely gets them Houston in the Divison Series.  Yikes.

What a dumb way to do it, but it's MLB.

Trip to the ALDS meets the expectation for me, but I think they have the lineup to go further tbh. If Gurriel gets healthy I don’t know that there’s a deeper lineup in baseball. 

Springer

Bichette

Guerrero

Kirk

Chapman

Hernández

Gurriel

Jansen

Merrifield

...a guy like Gurriel, who was leading the Jays in batting average (.291) before his injury, in the 7th spot in insane depth. The thing about the bats is they are almost to a man catching fire right now right when you want them to. Whit Merrifield took a while to get going, but could frankly hit lead-off right now and they’ve got him 9th.

 

[LTS]

23 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

-Toronto Blue Jays, sneaky good season. I haven't followed MLB too closesly this year but earlier in the year I though they were in trouble, they look better now.

-Formula one.  Too many rules and too many penalties. I know, it is different than Nascar, but figure out how to do it differently. Too many engine penalties, Cost cap penalties.  Track limit penalties during the race. Safety car violations for being too close or too far from the safety car (in Nascar I have seen drivers bump the 'pace car') Multiple investigations for incidents during the race.  Time penalties assessed AFTER the race. Again, I'm not saying it is easy, but figure things out!

-Nascar.  medium length ovals are boring.  Change all those tracks to the new Atlanta layout or just replace them.

-Hockey.  Just can't wait for it to start.

What exactly are they supposed to figure out? I get your list of complaints, are you saying there shouldn't be track limit rules?  The cost cap and engine penalties are related.. it's a salary cap, we're used to those.  Track limits is a lot easier, don't go over the white line with all 4 wheels.. anywhere.  If they didn't tell you about the investigations you'd likely not be complaining. Most of them result in no further action. It's the broadcast making you aware of them.

Now, coincidentally and quite interestingly.. I came across this: https://www.si.com/nascar/2022/09/27/kevin-harvick-aspects-f1-that-nascar-needs-cameras-under-investigation-shorter-races

 

[Thorny]

 

[mjd1001]

2 hours ago, LTS said:

What exactly are they supposed to figure out? I get your list of complaints, are you saying there shouldn't be track limit rules?  The cost cap and engine penalties are related.. it's a salary cap, we're used to those.  Track limits is a lot easier, don't go over the white line with all 4 wheels.. anywhere.  If they didn't tell you about the investigations you'd likely not be complaining. Most of them result in no further action. It's the broadcast making you aware of them.

Now, coincidentally and quite interestingly.. I came across this: https://www.si.com/nascar/2022/09/27/kevin-harvick-aspects-f1-that-nascar-needs-cameras-under-investigation-shorter-races

 

Figure out a way to not make penalties such a big part of the sport and so influential to the viewer of the races.  You want some ideas that may not be perfect but would be a starting point to doing this...

-Too many "5 second penalties" issued during the race or even worse, AFTER the race.  Someone does something terrible in the race, black flag them (or whatever the F1 equivilent is) and make them do a pass-through down pit lane, right away. Issuing a 5 second penalty 'after' the race is awful.

-Some drivers suggested this one a month or two ago.  You want drivers to stop cutting the corners too short, someone brought up a 'coated gravel' right on the edge of the racing surface.  Drivers CAN drive over it without crashing or causing gravel to go all over the track, but it will give them a terrible vibration and going over it just a couple times might even lead to excess tire wear (but likely no blow-outs)

-In place of some of the in-race penalties, start issuing HEAVY fines and take away point after the race.  If its not a driver error but a 'team' error that causes a penalty, start supsending guys from the team.  Start suspending and banning team principals from a race or two, with some hefty fines on the team, and I'll bet a lot of the garbage stops pretty quick/

[Sabres Fan in NS]

16 hours ago, Thorny said:

Trip to the ALDS meets the expectation for me, but I think they have the lineup to go further tbh. If Gurriel gets healthy I don’t know that there’s a deeper lineup in baseball. 

Springer

Bichette

Guerrero

Kirk

Chapman

Hernández

Gurriel

Jansen

Merrifield

...a guy like Gurriel, who was leading the Jays in batting average (.291) before his injury, in the 7th spot in insane depth. The thing about the bats is they are almost to a man catching fire right now right when you want them to. Whit Merrifield took a while to get going, but could frankly hit lead-off right now and they’ve got him 9th.

 

They are finer than fine offensively.

The starting 3 will be very good.  I doubt they will do a 4 man rotation even in a 7 game series.  You want your 'ace' pitching a possible game 7 on 3 days rest.  Have to do it.

The bull pen has had issues this season and if they can get it going with some guys that can give an inning or and sure out in tough situations they will be fine.  They will have, I think, two starters in there too.

If this all works and it should (??) the Jays have the talent to win the WC.  The only team that can match them pretty much position for position and pitcher for pitcher is LA and maybe Houston.

I will not be at all surprised if we see LA and The Great Satan still standing in November.  With the Jays winning a 6 game WC.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Sabres Fan in NS

[LTS]

18 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Figure out a way to not make penalties such a big part of the sport and so influential to the viewer of the races.  You want some ideas that may not be perfect but would be a starting point to doing this...

-Too many "5 second penalties" issued during the race or even worse, AFTER the race.  Someone does something terrible in the race, black flag them (or whatever the F1 equivilent is) and make them do a pass-through down pit lane, right away. Issuing a 5 second penalty 'after' the race is awful.

-Some drivers suggested this one a month or two ago.  You want drivers to stop cutting the corners too short, someone brought up a 'coated gravel' right on the edge of the racing surface.  Drivers CAN drive over it without crashing or causing gravel to go all over the track, but it will give them a terrible vibration and going over it just a couple times might even lead to excess tire wear (but likely no blow-outs)

-In place of some of the in-race penalties, start issuing HEAVY fines and take away point after the race.  If its not a driver error but a 'team' error that causes a penalty, start supsending guys from the team.  Start suspending and banning team principals from a race or two, with some hefty fines on the team, and I'll bet a lot of the garbage stops pretty quick/

How many 5 second penalties are issued though?  It's not that many.  Everyone knows they were issued too, so you plan for that during the race. Just like Red Bull assumed Perez was going to get a safety car penalty and managed to get a 7.5 second lead over Leclerc before the end of the race.  I understand about the post race penalties and I do agree that F1 should have figured it out while the race was happening.  If you want the black flag or even the drive through you are no longer talking about a 5 second penalty. You are now talking about a 20+ second penalty given the pit lane speed limit.  In addition, by requiring more pit stops you increase the risk to the pit crews.

I think the gravel aspect is interesting but many tracks operate in different configuration for different racing series, so it's not possible to have gravel in ALL corners.

The heavy fines won't impact that top tier teams.  Taking away points is already something that can happen and effectively does with a 5 second penalty issued after the race. I'm not sure what violation warrants suspension however.  I think they probably have something for that if the violation committed was severe enough.

Overall I understand where you are coming from. I just don't think, because of the way operates a race, that it's possible to implement some of the items you are suggesting without there being larger impacts, especially when it comes to 5 second penalties.

[Thorny]

10 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

They are finer than fine offensively.

The starting 3 will be very good.  I doubt they will do a 4 man rotation even in a 7 game series.  You want your 'ace' pitching a possible game 7 on 3 days rest.  Have to do it.

The bull pen has had issues this season and if they can get it going with some guys that can give an inning or and sure out in tough situations they will be fine.  They will have, I think, two starters in there too.

If this all works and it should (??) the Jays have the talent to win the WC.  The only team that can match them pretty much position for position and pitcher for pitcher is LA and maybe Houston.

I will not be at all surprised if we see LA and The Great Satan still standing in November.  With the Jays winning a 6 game WC.

Excited to get going. 

Will be interesting to see what happens with the scheduled doubleheader tomorrow. 

[Thorny]

JUDGE DOES IT

[Eleven]

I'm just going to remind everyone that Sosa, McGwire, and Bonds were hitting against pitchers who also were roided up.

 

Aaron Judge, thank you for finally winning the whatever prize in the whatever league.

[ubkev]

David Cone had my favorite take on the issue during tonight's broadcast. He basically said the numbers are what they are and that all eras are tainted. Pre-integration numbers are wack. Guys in the 40s-the 80s were on amphetamines/coked to the gills. And guys from the late 80' thru the early 2000's were jacked up on 'roids. Pitchers have been doctoring baseballs since the game was invented. It is what it is. 

That said... definitely a fun regular season. 

[JujuFish]

58 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I'm just going to remind everyone that Sosa, McGwire, and Bonds were hitting against pitchers who also were roided up.

 

Aaron Judge, thank you for finally winning the whatever prize in the whatever league.

If it makes you feel better, Judge himself says the real record is 73.

 

I'll be over here enjoying history being made, even if it is a Yankee.