Man Bites Blog

• Donaghy: “Games tainted by fraternizing“
• JohnMcG:  Probably not as much as by officials who have money in the game.  But what do I know?
• I look at the tournament theory of extracting the maximum value from all workers in my lastest in Quiblit Magaizine.
• As I mentioned before, officiating bias in NBA games quickly snowballs.  It’s a positive feedback cycle.  Visitors perceive bias in officiating -> visitors play less aggressively -> visitors don’t get to the line as often -> visitors perceive bias in officiating.
• The Lakers were successful in getting to the line tonight; they apparently forgot the second part of that strategy, which is to sink your free throws once you get there.
• The difference between Kobe Bryant and players like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett is what represent an “off game” for them.  Garnett and Pierce combined for 19 points.  Don’t think you’ll see Bryant go below that number in this game.

• Will peak oil be what breaks Moore’s law?
• A couple comment threads I’ve participated in that may be worth checking out — a few on zippy’s blog about voting an moral evil (by the way, how I long for the day when voting discussions concern discerning among competing goods rather than avoiding cooperation with intrinsic evil, and a discussion at my old stamping grounds at wikifray about gender politics and the Clinton campaign.
• Which reminds, me things like Facebook and FriendFeed have managed to bring together many aspects of my online presence, but it would be nice to bring my blog comments together as well. Since most comment sites require me to log in, this shouldn’t be impossible.
• Google reader recently added a function to add notes to shared items. Right now, my notes don’t appear in the widget on the right-hand side (maybe I’ll write a widget to do that in my copious free time), but you can see my shared comments with my notes of questionable added value here.
• If you’re interested in the new JJ Abrams TV project FringeTV, you can get your fill of info at the linked site.
• I’ve got a bunch of thoughts on what the inevitable redefinition of marriage means to fatherhood. That may end up being either a post or Quiblit article. Stay tuned.
• One late hit — I was ready for the primary race to be over, until I realized it would give way to VP speculation and jockeying.  Ugh. Hey, maybe Hillary still has a chance!

Lots to say, so we’re going to go below the fold… Read the rest of this entry »

• My rant against Metro was published as a letter to the editor in Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• Interesting game last night.  If A.J. Feeley can do that to the Patriots throwing to L.J. Smith and Kevin Curtis, I’ve got to believe that Peyton Manning and Ben Roethelsberger have a chance.
• Bad INT on the next to last drive, but I have to disagree with Cris Collinsworth, Al Michaels, John Madden, and Peter King, who thought the play was ill-conceived, and that the Eagles should have essentailly sat on a three point road deficit to an undefeated dominant team.
  That’s an attitude that only leads to defeat.  In order to win, the Eagles had to win it, not hope the Patriots would lose it.  This includes taking shots at the end zone.  They couldn’t play scared.
  The problem was the play wasn’t open, so Feeley shouldn’t have forced it.  And as Madden said, the Patriots made the plays they needed to make to win the game, as great teams do.
• Also worth noting is that Randy Moss never went into sulk mode or starting yelling on the sidelines as he was being shut out last night, as he might have in previous years.
• Just when you thought it was safe to start taking interest in the Rams again…
• Misourri is #1!  I’m unashamedly a bandwagon jumper here, but that was a Heisman-worthy performance by Chase Daniel on Saturday night, and an all-around great football event.  Now, on to San Antonio, and then to New Orleans for the BCS Championship Game! Yeeeeagghhhh!

• I’m not convinced Charlie Weis is the worst coach in the universe,  but that loss to Navy was pretty embarassing.In the beginning of the game, Notre Dame appeared to be dominating, were up 7-0, then inexpicably called a rushing fake field goal on 4th and 15, a play only Gregg Easterbrook could love.  The Midshipmen stopped them, then I switched the channel when actual good games came on.

  As I’ve said before, those pointing to the unequal treatment of Weis and Ty Willingham are looking increasingly correct.

• Speaking of the good games, has a network ever gotten a better series of games than CBS has from the SEC in the last several weeks?Florida-LSU, LSU-Kentucky, Kentucky-Florida, Florida-Georgia, and last week’s LSU-Alabama tilt.  All great, close games between good teams with great subplots.  The Pac-10 looks good here, but their games are never on in the Midwest, and the SEC has been terrifically entertaining.
• Can you believe the Patriots lined up and kicked the extra point after they scored their go-ahead touchdown?  That point turned out to be meaningless to the result of the game, and was a transparent attempt to show up the Colts and their classy coach Tony Dungy.  This has to stop.*
• The McNabb-Reid-Brian Dawkins Eagles are dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.  They’ve gotten old, they’re getting pushed around, and can’t hang with the Cowboys and Giants.  Let the rebuilding begin.
• Sunday’s big game showed that the Patriots are not invincible.  If the Colts played a perfect game, they would have won.  So, there will at least be some suspense to the rest of the year.Also, what else does Rodney Harrison have to do to be considered a villain?  The guy ended Trent Green’s season on a hit to the knees in a preseason game, for crying out loud.  He’s always whining to the officials, and is a confirmed drug cheater.  Andre Waters didn’t do half of that, but that didn’t stop him from being a villain.  But today’s announcers treat him like a wise old veteran.

* Yes, I’m kidding.

• Is there a good reason this guy is still on the team?  It’s not like the Rams’ offensive line could get much worse.  Can we at least start getting the jerks out?
• Ross Douthat passes on whining from fiscal conservatives over how little influence they have compared to social conservatives.ŠThis always blows my mind. Social conservatives manage to delay removing a feeding tube for a couple days, and that’s apparently our big win for the decade.  This impacted one person for two days.  Apparently, this was such an unappealing abuse of power that social conservatives must now hang their head in shame and not ask for anything else.

  But fiscal conservatives spearhead the veto of a popular bill prviding health care for poor children, making the party again look like bunch of Scrooges handing the Democrats a perfect campaign issue in 2008.  And then they get to bitch about how little respect they get.

  There’s a lot more working families with kids than there are people concerned that Tom DeLay is going to make them keep a feeding tube in.

• Is there a worse flaw for a team than having a bad offensive line?  Others might be more hearbreaking, like a bad closer or placekicker.  But with a bad offensive line, you have no hope that you can accomplish anything.  And your quarterback gets killed every time he has to pass.
  It’s especially frustrating when your team has good skill players that could probably be effective if given more protection.
• Hey, Scott — rather than criticize your QB for not responding correctly when the play broke down (especially when the end result — a FG — would have been exactly the same regardless), why don’t you try calling plays that don’t break down?  Maybe he should have had more than one option.    Maybe you could have had your Pro Bowl receivers running routes on the play.  Just spitballin’ here.
• Postseason baseball commentary continues at qublit.
• MORE: TMQ gets into his weekly lather about the Patriots, calling the upcoming game “Good vs. Evil,” with the Patriots in the latter role.
  But does he know that Tony Dungy opposes same sex marraige and Bill Belichek is “a supporter” of Amer-I-Can?  That would have to change his opinion.
• The annoying Boston fan habits are in full force in Bill Simmons’s list of J.D. Drew e-mails.  You would swear that every Boston fan personally paid Drew’s $14 million salary, and that he had completely collapsed during the year rather than being the mild disappointment he has been his entire career(and Cardinals, Braves, and Dodger fans warned Red Sox fans they’d be getting).
  But having a mildly disappointing player unexepectedly come through isn’t enough for Boston fans.  No!  Drew must have been the worst player ever, to the point that everyone had given up on him and it was only a matter of how, rather and if, he was going to fail.  And then the grand slam was some combination of Kirk Gibson’s home of Eck, Bucky Dent’s game winner in 1978 and the Shot Heard Round the World.
  Get. Over. Yourselves.

• The Rams are bad.  Really bad.  And not bad in an interesting way.  Half their offense is injured, and they can’t score points.  They’re going with a 37 year-old quarterback.  Their kicker forgot how to kick. ŠSo I can get why Bernie Miklasz would reach and try to lay some balme on defensive coordinator Jim Haslett.  I mean, how many ways can you say that the Rams are a bad football team? But in divying up the blame, the defense gets a tiny portion.  They haven’t gone out and won any games, but given the way the Rams have allocated their resources, that’s not really their job.   Blaming the defense for the Rams’s record is like blaming a fifth starting pitcher for losing a 3-0 game.  Yeah, he didn’t pitch a shutout.  but that’s not his job.

  Consider this sequence from the second quarter with the Rams down 6-0:

  2nd and 12 at SL 49 (11:04) K.Boller sacked at BLT 40 for -11 yards (L.Little). FUMBLES (L.Little), touched at BLT 40, RECOVERED by SL-V.Adeyanju at BLT 40. V.Adeyanju to BLT 16 for 24 yards (K.Boller).
    St. Louis Rams at 10:53 1-10-BLT 16 (10:53) PENALTY on BLT-L.McClain, Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at BLT 16 - No Play.
  1st and 10 at BLT 11 (10:53) B.Leonard up the middle to BLT 9 for 2 yards (R.Lewis, J.Bannan). Rams #65 Injured on the play Timeout at 10:32.
  2nd and 8 at BLT 9 (10:17) B.Leonard up the middle to BLT 12 for -3 yards (K.Gregg).
  3rd and 11 at BLT 12 (9:37) (No Huddle, Shotgun) PENALTY on SL-A.Barron, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at BLT 12 - No Play.
  3rd and 16 at BLT 17 (9:14) (Shotgun) G.Frerotte pass incomplete deep left to M.Hagans.
  4th and 16 at BLT 17 (9:11) (Field Goal formation) J.Wilkins 35 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Left, Center-C.Massey, Holder-D.Jones.

  If I were Gregg Easterbrook, I would have written “Game over” in my notebook at this point, but I don’t generally watch football with a pen and notebook handy.

  The Rams defense makes a great play, and give its offense the ball on the 11 yeard line.  And the offense runs up the middle and injures a lineman, runs up the middle for a loss, commits a false start penalty, then throws incomplete.  To cap it, the kicker misses what should be an automatic field goal.

  Now, if you’re a Rams defensive player, how much are you going to bust your butt on the next series?  Would you risk injurry to make a play?  Would you throw yourself out there?  Yes, they’re professionals, and they should exert maximum effort at all times, but at some point, human nature plays a role.  When the fruits of your hard work are squandered, you’re less likely to do it again.

  And that’s been the story this year.  If you look at the half-time scores, the defense has kept the Rams in pretty much every game.  But in the second half, the tide turns, and the other team is able to eat up lots of yards in the running game.  The defense is discouraged.

  They say the best defense is a good offense. I don’t know about that, but a bad offense makes for a pretty crappy defense.

• Last night I heard Al Michaels say, “Here comes Mare, kicking with a sore groin.”Which to me begs the question of why he doesn’t just use his foot.
• It was quite the moment last night when now-retired fullback Max Strong raised the 12th Man banner in Seattle last night, as the fans and Seahawk players applauded him.  Man, I wish there could be a moment like that when I retire from my career.
   
• The Patriots must have established themselves as the heels of the NFL, since this Eagle fan found himself rooting for Terrel Owens and the Dallas Cowboys to beat them yesterday.But that is one damn good football team. They lost their starting RB (who was a backup), the Cowboys didn’t play that badly, and they still won going away.

If this isn’t enough John McG commentary, I’ve got a couple items up at quiblit.com:

• A reaction to the Bill Moyers special on the role of the press during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
• I’m part of a baseball roundtable.

• Have been on jury duty the last two days, which was mostly uneventful, so I think I will spare you all the obligatory jury duty post.
• To add to my Metro woes, I was impacted by a MetroLink outage and a bus that broke down mid-trip.  Suffice it to say I am not recommending Metro to my friends.
• If you’re going to get pedantic about grammar in the comments at the Volokh Conspiracy, you better make sure you’re right.
• If I don’t take a position on this Chait-Douthat-Kristol-TNR fracas, will that make later arguments I make less powerful?
• Both the Cardinals and Phillies remain in contention.  Surprises that Kip Wells managed to savs his season.  Guess Duncan and LaRussa know more than me after all.
• Got to catch up on some stuff; blogging may be light.

Getting a few quick items off my chest, and testing out some stuff I’m doing with the forum links and RSS feeds…

• Well, I did my part. Didn’t notice the bus or trains any more crowded than usual, though.

  While I’m here — I notice that pretty much every Metro bus has wood paneling. Exactly who is this designed to fool? Does anybody think that actual wood is being used to put up little walls in a city bus?

  Oops — just realized I was supposed to ride a motorcycle or scooter, not take public transit. Never mind, then.

• This is the type of thing that drives people nuts about Apple. They can’t say that MS’s use of the Maximize button is a different but valid interpretation of what that button should do. No — Microsoft is objectively wrong! How could anyone not think the Maximize button should just size to content! It’s absurd.
• Rick Garnett says some things that need to be said about the coverage of the sex abuse settlement. Of course, it’s hard to say these things without sounding like you’re making excuses for abusive priests or the diocesan officials that covered for them. But it does seem that a lot of the coverage (and the lawsuits) are not purely motivated by compassion for the victims.