40 thoughts on “June 7, 2015: Triple Crown”

  2. Any interest in finding somewhere for getting together for the WNT at 6:30 tomorrow evening?

    1. Well, there's a Frontera which has Revolution on tap as well as the best food in the airport. But it was packed. So now I'm sitting at a bar dining a Boston Lager out of a plastic cup waiting for my $13 burger.

      Flying sucks.

      1. That's a bummer. The one time I was at O'Hare it was under tremendously lousy circumstances. The torta I had from Frontera almost made it worth it.

        1. Nothing will ever make O'Hare pleasant, but you're right, Frontera at least makes it an almost.

  7. The Minor Details post which ideally would have been up this morning is up now.

  8. Was mentioned the other day on the post game, but Dozier is the first Twins 2nd baseman to have three (consecutive? ) double digit HR seasons...if I heard it right

    1. Carew and the Chuckster were not power guys. The only other 2Bs to be the primary starter for 3+ seasons were Bernie Allen, Bobby Randall, Rob Wilfong, Steve Lombardozzi, and Luis Rivas.

      Lombo hit 20, 19, and 15 in 1986-88. So Dozier would be the second to do it, unless Lombo hit a LOT of HRs in the dozen or so games he started at SS in 1988.

      Knoblauch went 11, 13, 9 in 1995-97.

    1. Late here, but I've heard audio recordings of Teddy.
      That sounds nothing like him. He had a high-pitched (for a man), barking voice, with a upper-crust New-York accent.
      Or maybe the Victrola was wearing down when it recorded.

    2. Cleveland controlled the tempo all night. I'm not so sure they can do that 3 more times and depend on GS to shoot so poorly, but you have to be impressed by their defensive effort and pacing tonight. They did what they had to do to be in a position to win despite being so short-handed.

      Also, I would have put Mozgov back in for Thompson down the stretch. He's proven that he's a big-time player, and he's much more of an offensive threat. If GSW wants to play small, Cleveland should try to punish them inside. And Mozgov is a good FT shooter.

      I'm not buying the "LeBron got hacked over and over again with no calls" crap I've seen elsewhere, however. Dude pushes off almost every time he bulls into the lane. He gives at least as much as he gets.

    2. the gif doesn't include LeBron's push-off to clear space a moment earlier. I agree, no-call seems appropriate all considered. He got hit a little, but not exactly mugged.

      JVG opined at the time that he got hammered, but traveled before that non-call. I didn't see the travel.

      1. I was being sarcastic. That is absolutely a foul and should have been called. He pivoted out of a double-team and Iggy hammered both arms on the shot.

      2. He got hit a little, but not exactly mugged.

        Let's see Curry get hit like that and have you say, hey, no call seems right.

        1. So, you think it's just fine that he can extend his off hand on pretty much every drive and shove the defender away to make space?

          LeBron is a great, great player. But he also gets a lot of NBA star-system calls.

          I disagree that he got "hammered" on "both arms" on that. Yea, maybe it was a foul. And maybe he committed an offensive foul right before that. Refs swallowed their whistles.

          I'm watching with GSW fanboy eyes, but damn, there were any number of b.s. calls that went against GSW on their home floor last night. LeBron doesn't have anything to bitch about.

          props to Cleveland, however. Like I said, they controlled the tempo all night. They got lucky with GS having an off shooting night, but they also played great, aggressive defense, which disrupted the Warriors' flow. Doing it short-handed and with JR Smith making several bone-headed plays down the stretch...they earned the win.

          1. I think it was a terrible call, you think it was a proper non-call and that LBJ got plenty of star treatment. How to decide? I know, let's go to the paper of record:

            With both teams missing the net in the extra period, the game came down to foul calls, no-calls and free throws.

            James drew two fouls in the overtime, making three of four free throws. But he was also the victim of a few no-calls, most egregiously when Andre Iguodala came down hard on his arm as he went up to shoot with about a minute and a half left. The whistle blew, but it was for a shot clock violation on the Cavaliers.

            James also could have had a call when tangling with Green with 45 seconds left; it was called a jump ball instead. And on the jump, Green grabbed James’s shoulder. No foul was called, and James caught the ball without tipping it, leading to a turnover.

            These decisions were highlighted when Curry craftily leaned into Smith near the 3-point line with 30 seconds left, working a foul. He sank the two free throws to give Golden State the lead for the first time since the first half.

            So, the New York Times asserts that James did have something to bitch about, especially when Curry got a call. That the Times would actually put that in print says something about how the game was called. I'm willing to wager that specific non-calls are rarely discussed in game stories in the Gray Lady. But, what do they know? They have to cover the Knicks.

            1. Heh.

              The Green thing on the jump ball? Definitely a foul. Conceded on that.

              the Curry thing? Bullshit. Curry jumped in, but Smith did as well. That call always goes to the shooter. Always.

              1. Zach Lowe:

                LeBron missed every shot he took after drilling what appeared to be the dagger that put Cleveland up 11. The misses included a tricky left-handed layup at the end of regulation, two Draymond Green blocks, and a half-dozen maulings at the hands of Andre Iguodala. LeBron traveled before one such mauling, an especially blatant karate chop, but Iguodala committed uncalled reach-in fouls on almost every LeBron drive in crunch time. (That’s not a shot at Iguodala. It’s just a fact. LeBron would make his move left, and Iguodala would stick his forearm into LeBron’s chest, slow LeBron’s momentum, yank his forearm away, and slide backward stride-for-stride with LeBron. Iguodala discovered that the officials weren’t going to call those old-school forearm-checks, and he responded with the optimal tactics.)

                The point about the Curry play is that he got a call. I agree it was a foul. What Iguodala did (after LeBron traveled) was blatant. That was the point. LeBron was "mauled" a half-dozen times according to Lowe. Find someone not writing in their mother's basement that supports your assertion that LeBron got calls.

                    2. and of course, let's not leave the Big Rooskie out of the mix. Even I might be able to score occasionally given this liberal interpretation of the traveling rule:

                    3. The thing is that NBA "rules", at least in practice, are such a mishmash of subjectivity that there's no clear definition of what's a foul and what isn't. It's all just in the referee's discretion.

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