87 thoughts on “January 31, 2014: Transition”

    1. Our hands are tied there; expectations for February take into account the jerks who "rent" TVs for their Super Bowl parties and then return them. We get very aggressive with Open Box TVs the week before the Super Bowl just to make room. Last night I sold something like six Open Box TVs in the last three or four hours we were open.

          1. Thats how I got a fantastic deal on my refridgerator. Someone bought new, didn't fit so returned, then someone else bought open box, didn't fit so returned, then I bought open box and made it fit: half price refridgerator.

            1. So, go to the store with the neighbor. Tell him to buy the open item and then return it. Then go buy it yourself. Savings.

  2. Well, this is one of the most exciting Friday's of the year - Yahoo fantasy baseball is open! I've renewed last years keeper league, so if you were part of it in the past, you should have an invite in your mailbox.

    2. Do we have a waitlist for new guys? I'm not entirely sure I'm up for running the Lew Ford All-Stars this year.

      1. We don't yet - if you're interested in playing but haven't in the past, drop a note below and I'll start a waitlist!

    4. The player lists for my NL Scoresheet root league just came out. I'm really excited, though my Padres roster is going to require some creative hole-patching.

    1. 'Are you kidding? They owned Louisiana-Monroe most years.' SelectShow
      Spoiler SelectShow

      1. Cosign. I've never minded him (Buck). He couldn't call McCarver an idiot on the air, so his hands were kind of tied.

      2. I'm not going to argue that McCarver helped Buck in any way, but for me, Joe Buck epitomizes the all-business, no-fun attitude that modern media seems to have towards sports and I generally find him to be completely joyless.

        2. I'm with ubes. Watching the old WS, McCarver was better when he wasn't with Buck.
          Perhaps they played into each other's worst tendencies.
          I hated watching the NFL with Buck, too.

          All the smarm of Costas, but none of the insight or excitement.

          1. I think I mentioned this before, but I think the Michaels/Collinsworth booth for SNF is one of the best in all of sport. Any agreement or disagreement?

            1. They're definitely very good. But for the sheer enjoyment they give me, I have to go with Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery. They love their work and they enjoy each others company. Makes for a great combo.

                1. I know I've told this story before, but I met those two at a hotel bar on campus when they were in town to call a game at the Barn. Both of them could not have been more genuine and gracious. (They also paid for my beers.) It was also readily apparent that they had a really great friendship.

                  Anyhow, I asked if they would autograph a bar napkin for my younger brother, a HS hoops coach and English teacher. Instead, Raft asked for his address. About a week later, E-7 got two 5x7 glossies in the mail. Raft had scribbled "Send it in!" on his. And to think I had been a huge fan before all this...

                    1. He's at East, too. What does your brother teach?

                      (FTR, my bro and I share an interest in sports and little else. Good dude, nonetheless.)

                    3. Doubt he's ever heard them. My guess is his taste runs towards the dull end of Dad Rock. Hell, he might as well be from Algona.

                    4. Whoa, whoa, whoa...there's nothing wrong with being from Algona. Voluntarily remaining there after HS maybe...

              2. Kevin Harlan doing Wolves games. Can't be topped in my biased head.

                WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE!!!!!!!!!

            2. I'm also a big fan of Michaels/Collinsworth. But if we're talking all sports, I'm a sucker for any booth with Gus Johnson in it.

                1. I have not. But for my money it doesn't get much better than hearing him go bonkers for college basketball.

                  1. Oh yes, the last minute of the Gonzaga-UCLA game with Adam Morrison is incredible. Unfortunately, if the game isn't that great, he forces his persona on it a little too much.

                2. I gave Gus every chance to impress me calling a soccer game, but I fear at this point he will never get the hang of it.

            3. I agree.
              NBC's hockey team of Doc Emerick/Eddie Olczyk would probably top them, but Pierre McGuire constant chirping really takes away from that broadcast.

          2. Yes, they're both better without each other. McCarver is best when there's three people in the booth, and the others also like to talk.

            Though I was listening to to the 86 NLCS today, and McCarver mentioned how a walk is sometimes better than a home run.

    1. I haven't even gotten to the game or any of the GIFs yet and I'm already giggling like a little kid being tickled.

  6. Imagine taking this woman out on a dinner date. Could be expensive.

    Molly Schuyler, a 5-foot-7, 125-pound mother of four, devoured a jaw-dropping 363 wings over 30 minutes and three rounds to set the record at Wing Bowl 22 on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

    1. That's incredible. I once did the "Blazing" challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings where they give you 5-6 minutes to eat a dozen wings covered in their spiciest sauce. I've got a pretty good constitution when it comes to spicy food, so the sauce wasn't a huge obstacle. But I was just barely able to finish in time. I have no idea how to quickly eat a chicken wing.

      1. I have no idea how to quickly eat a chicken wing...

        1. Tear off the wing tip and throw it away, ain' no meat on dat bone.
        2. Tear the remaining wing in two at the joint.
        3. Insert pieces one at a time lengthwise into mouth, using front teeth to strip meat off as you pull the bone(s) from your mouth.
        4. Chew, swallow, repeat.

        1. While I am slightly impressed by the ability to eat the way the competitors do, it's more than offset by my revulsion at the waste and sloppiness.

          1. I'll admit that I love the Nathan's 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. It's a piece of Americana. But competitive eating as a "profession"? That is a wee bit disturbing.

        2. I'm fascinated / horrified at eating competitions. Like watching a train wreck. When I get home I'll post Errol Morris' short on competitive eating

  9. So a few weeks ago, I pointed out that GW's RPI was up to 20, but that the starting SG broke his foot and complained about the team's historic inability to have nice things. In spite of that injury, they just keep on winning. They haven't lost since and the RPI is 25 (two spots ahead of the Gophers). Of course, in the last game the starting PG reinjured a hip injury that has been nagging him all year. They still crushed LaSalle, but now will have at least a game our two without either starting guard. The last ten minutes of the previous game was beautiful. They had Kevin Larsen, the 6-10, 250 lb center, running the point to perfection. #RaiseHigh

  10. Today is David Stern's last day as commissioner of the NBA. 30 years! I think he's been absolutely terrific as the head man for the league.

    1. I still can't separate my opinion of him from coming down way, way too hard on the Wolves for the Smith thing and for his obnoxious love of "big market teams" to the detriment of smaller market teams.

      1. detriment of smaller market teams? oh rly? from the freakonomics blog

        with the pay of star players restricted, it appears that these players are now producing far more revenue for their teams than teams have to pay the stars in salaries.

        Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation that illustrates this point. Back in 2009-10, the NBA paid about $2.1 billion to its players in salary. And these players produced 1,230 wins. That means the NBA paid about $1.7 million per win. In 2009-10, though, LeBron James produced 21.6 wins for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Had Cleveland paid the average price per win to James, they would have had to pay more than $36 million. Mr. James, though, received less than $16 million in salary that season. So according to this fairly crude calculation, the Cavaliers were able to pocket more than $20 million from LeBron.

        After the 2009-10 season — according to the NBA’s rules — Cleveland could have signed LeBron to a 6-year contract for $128 million. In contrast, without a sign-and-trade (which ultimately did happen) Miami could only offer $99 million over five years. LeBron, though, decided to take less money to sign with the Heat. In response, owner Dan Gilbert of the Cavaliers … well, he expressed some unhappiness.

        This unhappiness, though, wasn’t motivated by a system that allowed large market teams to pluck the best talent from the small market teams. Again, the Cavaliers could pay more than anyone for LeBron. And even at this higher wage, the Cavaliers were still going to collect millions in additional revenue. One suspects that the true motivation behind Gilbert’s unhappiness was that when LeBron left Ohio, millions of dollars also left Gilbert’s pocket.

        1. the point being that small market teams can do very well, thankyouverymuch, in the NBA. Even better with revenue sharing.

          Of course, the stories of LeBron James and Chris Paul are just anecdotes. Such stories, though, are supported by a paper Martin Schmidt and I presented last summer on the link between salary caps, payroll caps, luxury taxes, revenue sharing, etc. and competitive balance. Our research indicates there isn’t a link.

          In the end, what all these plans do is transfer the money the league generates. In general, that transfer runs from players to teams. It also — as we see with the NBA’s revenue-sharing plan — transfers money from large market teams to small market teams. What it doesn’t do is change the competitive landscape of the league.

        2. I don't mean in terms of money making, I mean in terms of my conspiracy theories that teams like the Lakers and Knicks, etc get unfair advantages (scheduling, foul calls, national tv appearances, draftlotterysuccess, what have you) than other teams. And by small market teams, I meant "Timberwolves" and by big market teams, I mean "Not Timberwolves".

          1. Franchises never to have won an NBA title, and therefore definitionally "small market" 😉

            Brooklyn (albeit two ABA titles)
            Charlotte
            Cleveland
            Denver
            *Indiana*
            L.A. Clippers
            Memphis
            Minnesota
            New Orleans
            Orlando
            Phoenix
            Toronto
            Utah

              1. yea, probably why I forgot to include them.

                The Hawks haven't won one since 1958 when they were in St. Louis.
                The Kings won in 1951 as the Rochester Royals

                Charlotte, Denver, Clippers, Memphis, Wolves, N.O., and Toronto are the only extant franchises never to have made it to the Finals.

        3. I won't be joining the praise of the max salary. I think each team should have one player that they can pay off the cap over a given amount (say $20M) and otherwise they have to obey the cap. Allow teams to meaningfully out-bid each other for top players, but make them choose a star. That way star talent gets spread throughout the league.

          1. That might also lessen the push for max salaries for players who maybe haven't earned that kind of money yet.

      1. It might be next year. Thats why this year, teams and the NBA are rolling out the sleeved jerseys. More space for the ads that the traditional jerseys.

    4. Wasn't the draft lottery implemented by Stern? In my book that negates a fair percentage of what good the man has done for the league.

  12. I'm having a hell of a time with Boardwalk Empire's Irish accents. It's almost (but not quite as bad) as if say JFK said "I am frahm Georgah" and we were expected to believe him.

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