Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Wednesday Sports Extra

"Extra" because there are several sports issues that deserve extra attention and all three of these have extra issues!

Sportsline: San Francisco:Barry Bonds, also known as "Limpy," has been trying to add some extra games to his career, extra homeruns to his stats, and extra sympathy from his fans. This man supposedly had a debilitating knee injury that kept him out of most of the first season where MLB was testing for steroids. Now, he has begun to limp after making plays. He doesn't limp while running for the fly ball in left, nor does he limp while trying to score from first, but as soon as the play is over that knee is suddenly unbearable! You know what's unbearable? That this man has the gaul to continue to play! Anyone wanna bet he's a DH in the AL next year? Barry, you cheated, you admitted it, we don't feel sorry for you. If you are hurt: Stop playing. If you aren't: Stop playing anyway!

Sportsline: MLB Players' Union: Finally, the MLB Players' Union has taken a step to reassure the true fans of the game that they are serious about ridding baseball of juicers. They have agreed to add an extra 10 games to the punishment for first time offenders, making the total penalty a suspension of 20 games instead of just 10 days as was originally agreed to. On behalf of baseball fans everywhere, I say thank you. Keep pressing on toward a clean sport!

Sportsline: Pittsburgh: There has been much talk regarding the Patriots recent 23-20 win in Pittsburgh. Apparently the 4th Quarter had an extra 52 seconds and lasted 15 minutes and 52 seconds rather than the typical 15 minutes. There is some concern because unlike the 33-10 thrashing the Chiefs took this week at Denver, the Patriots won the game on the final drive with only 1:21 left in the game. In fact, as Vinitiari's game winning field goal sailed through the uprights the clock clicked down to 0:01! So clearly if the error had been recognized the Patriots could not have won because they took 1:20 to score! Because they would have gotten the ball with only 29 seconds left, Right? Wrong. Here's the problem with that: 1)The error was made by the Pittsburgh official clock controller with 13:59 left in the fourth. It's not as though the error happened at the end of the quarter, there is no way of knowing what type of clock management would have occurred had the clock been correct. 2) It only took Tom Brady 31 seconds of actual play time to drive down the field. The Patriots allowed 34 seconds to click off the clock before they snapped the ball for the field goal. 3) It's not as though the Steelers were playing with one clock and the Patriots with another. Both teams got the extra 52 seconds and the Patriots took advantage of it, while the Steelers did not. If the Steelers and Patriots are separated by one game at the end of the season, this issue will be huge! Similar to the tuck rule against the Raiders in 2000. But you heard it hear first, this error made little to no difference in the outcome of this game!

5 games left for the Red Sox and Yankees! Go Sox!

3 comments:

Apu said...

i wonder if we would hear as much whining about the clock if pittsburgh had been the ones with the ball at the end of the game instead of the pats.

Marc said...

They did have the ball! The extra 52 seconds gave the Steelers the chance to run the ensuing kick off back for a touchdown. They failed!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Mike Mura and I are both going to the Youth Specialties conference in Pittsburgh next week. We are planning on wearing our Tom Brady jerseys. Yeah, baby!

Hopefully, because it's a conference of Christians, we won't get beat up too bad.