Joe had an interesting bit about Joe Namath being the most overrated player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which actually few people will dispute given his career numbers.
But it got me thinking, with the way people throw around numbers (especially when it comes to baseball), that one day will there be an official "statistical" Hall of Fame for the different major-league sports?
For instance, Hideo Nomo reached the Meikyukai, a Japanese version of a stats hall of fame, earlier this week after winning his 200th combined game between Japan and the U.S. (They also have a "traditional" Hall based on voting.) And the LPGA has a stats-based criteria for entry into their Hall of Fame.
Would going completely to numbers make a Hall of Fame fairer? I suppose it would remove bias (other than from the group determining the statistical milestones) from the selection process, but how do you measure less tangible attributes like charisma, leadership and historical significance (outside of numbers).
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Now that I've started getting nostalgic about ECW, I might as well bring out the video that showed how my buddies could incorporate wrestling angles into student government.
Monday, June 13, 2005
The hardcore nostalgia gap closes in
If a nationally-known retro radio show can have a '90s edition, I suppose we can also be very nostalgic for a wrestling organization that reached its peak about 7-8 years ago and where many of its members are still very active today.
Yes, I ordered the ECW PPV, the first time I've watched a wrestling PPV, never mind order one, in a long while. But when I heard about this event, I was more than happy to find out I was going to be off that evening so I could watch it -- and had JD over to see the festivities. It seemed like the "olden days" of oh, 1996. Not only was the action pretty solid, a handful of the shoot interviews were spectacular, which then prompted the crowd to react in kind.
It was a great show, but I also hope that it lives up to the name of "One Night Stand." While I enjoyed watching the old guys back for another go-around, it seems like it's best appreciated now in short bursts instead of trying to spin it off into a real organization again. I think it'll be hard to match the emotion and passion of this revival on a regular basis. (Plus, you can't be having the Oscar-like "those we lost" montage on regularly, can we?)
Besides, it would take a lot to get some of these guys back into shape, because honestly, some of them just didn't look all that good. On the other hand, bringing these guys back at this time worked better for the combined nostalgia/revival/reunion aspect than the gimmick battle royale at Wrestlemania a few years back.
But it was nice to be "hardcore" for a few hours at least. Now where's that cheese grater?
If a nationally-known retro radio show can have a '90s edition, I suppose we can also be very nostalgic for a wrestling organization that reached its peak about 7-8 years ago and where many of its members are still very active today.
Yes, I ordered the ECW PPV, the first time I've watched a wrestling PPV, never mind order one, in a long while. But when I heard about this event, I was more than happy to find out I was going to be off that evening so I could watch it -- and had JD over to see the festivities. It seemed like the "olden days" of oh, 1996. Not only was the action pretty solid, a handful of the shoot interviews were spectacular, which then prompted the crowd to react in kind.
It was a great show, but I also hope that it lives up to the name of "One Night Stand." While I enjoyed watching the old guys back for another go-around, it seems like it's best appreciated now in short bursts instead of trying to spin it off into a real organization again. I think it'll be hard to match the emotion and passion of this revival on a regular basis. (Plus, you can't be having the Oscar-like "those we lost" montage on regularly, can we?)
Besides, it would take a lot to get some of these guys back into shape, because honestly, some of them just didn't look all that good. On the other hand, bringing these guys back at this time worked better for the combined nostalgia/revival/reunion aspect than the gimmick battle royale at Wrestlemania a few years back.
But it was nice to be "hardcore" for a few hours at least. Now where's that cheese grater?
Everybody's free to steal sunscreen
Oddly enough, I believe this edition of Rhymes With Orange was produced long before this principal was caught plagiarizing two graduation speeches -- including the famous sunscreen speech written by Mary Schmich just days before my own college graudation in 1997. (I've mentioned this before, but I posted that column on the Trib's Web site -- just not in the format linked above -- during my brief internship there.)
While there's usual amount of hand-wringing and "everyone's plagiarizing, so what" reactions, it was interesting to get Mary's reaction to her work being attributed to yet another person besides herself. I am curious that someone could pass that particular speech off as his or her own given it was turned into a book, there was that Kurt Vonnegut urban legend, and last but not least, the Baz Luhrman song which originally reminded me that of the column in the first place.
Then again, awareness of pop culture isn't everyone's cup of tea, as evidenced by the confusion brought about when Napoleon Dynamite invaded the National Spelling Bee.
Oddly enough, I believe this edition of Rhymes With Orange was produced long before this principal was caught plagiarizing two graduation speeches -- including the famous sunscreen speech written by Mary Schmich just days before my own college graudation in 1997. (I've mentioned this before, but I posted that column on the Trib's Web site -- just not in the format linked above -- during my brief internship there.)
While there's usual amount of hand-wringing and "everyone's plagiarizing, so what" reactions, it was interesting to get Mary's reaction to her work being attributed to yet another person besides herself. I am curious that someone could pass that particular speech off as his or her own given it was turned into a book, there was that Kurt Vonnegut urban legend, and last but not least, the Baz Luhrman song which originally reminded me that of the column in the first place.
Then again, awareness of pop culture isn't everyone's cup of tea, as evidenced by the confusion brought about when Napoleon Dynamite invaded the National Spelling Bee.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
The music update
A few disjointed thoughts only connected by musical notes:
-- While at Friday's Braves game, I passed by this guy, which was only a surprise because he was in the upper deck with a few kids and other friends. But no one seemed to bother him, so maybe being up there was a good thing.
-- I'm now part of the iPod world, and now I'm wondering how quickly I'll fill up the 20GB model I've got.
A couple of more notes on the JACK radio format that's now taken hold in Chicago and New York (replacing the beloved WCBS-FM):
-- Eric Zorn over at the Chicago Tribune has a somewhat ambivalent take on the loss of the oldies station there. I guess like Atlanta, the "good times and great oldies" turned into something a bit repetitive. Nuking the format isn't the way to go, but that's the way a lot of radio types think.
-- Speaking of JACK (which in theory is an OK idea), there's now JILL radio? So what exactly makes that broader than a lite-FM station? At least HANK-FM makes some sort of sense -- all country, all time periods.
-- And linking this back to my new iPod -- if JACK were really like my iPod on shuffle, it wouldn't just be classic rock + pop/alternative rock. I'm as middlebrow and mainstream as they get, but even I have a bit more eclectic tastes than even a JACK station can muster. Just thinking of a few songs off the top of my head -- would a station play Lil Jon, Yes, Morrissey, Cameo and a mashup of In Da Club and the Benny Hill theme song in a row?
Finally, I guess I could've easily predicted a very rainy weekend, given it was Music Midtown, which was moved from early May to early June to avoid weather. Whoops.
A few disjointed thoughts only connected by musical notes:
-- While at Friday's Braves game, I passed by this guy, which was only a surprise because he was in the upper deck with a few kids and other friends. But no one seemed to bother him, so maybe being up there was a good thing.
-- I'm now part of the iPod world, and now I'm wondering how quickly I'll fill up the 20GB model I've got.
A couple of more notes on the JACK radio format that's now taken hold in Chicago and New York (replacing the beloved WCBS-FM):
-- Eric Zorn over at the Chicago Tribune has a somewhat ambivalent take on the loss of the oldies station there. I guess like Atlanta, the "good times and great oldies" turned into something a bit repetitive. Nuking the format isn't the way to go, but that's the way a lot of radio types think.
-- Speaking of JACK (which in theory is an OK idea), there's now JILL radio? So what exactly makes that broader than a lite-FM station? At least HANK-FM makes some sort of sense -- all country, all time periods.
-- And linking this back to my new iPod -- if JACK were really like my iPod on shuffle, it wouldn't just be classic rock + pop/alternative rock. I'm as middlebrow and mainstream as they get, but even I have a bit more eclectic tastes than even a JACK station can muster. Just thinking of a few songs off the top of my head -- would a station play Lil Jon, Yes, Morrissey, Cameo and a mashup of In Da Club and the Benny Hill theme song in a row?
Finally, I guess I could've easily predicted a very rainy weekend, given it was Music Midtown, which was moved from early May to early June to avoid weather. Whoops.
Monday, June 06, 2005
24-hour quizbowl people
The following takes place between Noon Friday and 3 p.m. Monday …
I knew this weekend was going to turn into a cross between Insomniac and 24, given the very quick turnaround between the end of my shift Friday night and my very early Saturday morning flight to Chicago for the NAQT high school nationals. But in the midst of the trip, an episode of Airline got tacked on.
After a usual night at work that ended at 2 a.m., I did kill off a couple of hours at a couple of places before an early-morning stop at Waffle House en route to the airport. (Typical Dave Attell-type stuff.)
The tournament itself was, in the Donald's terms, "yuuge" with 96 teams and nearly 500 players (makes giving all-star awards to the top 10 scorers seem a lot more meaningful). It was also good seeing most of the usual suspects, some old foes from my undergrad days and matching names to faces of other people I've been meaning to meet. Oh yeah, I got to hang out for a little bit with $5 million moderator team of Ken Jennings and Kevin Olmstead as well.
I did wonder how they were going to fit 96 teams when there were only about 20 ballrooms and meeting rooms at the hotel. The answer: Converting nearly an entire floor of hotel rooms into game rooms by replacing beds with tables. You usually don't find a need to fit at least 10 people into a regular-sized double, and now we know why. (On the other hand, it wasn't much worse than my Myrtle Beach experience that involved squeezing everyone into an empty administrative office.)
You could call some of this the most boring episode of 24 ever since much of it was just spent reading questions and hanging out with people between rounds. On the other hand, that's what everyone, except Jack Bauer, seems to do during those 24 hours, so maybe just I'm just one of those revolving-door analysts, but unlike Chloe, didn't have a need to fire a gun at a charging assassin.
Saturday night, there was a side trip (just down the street to the former Rosemont Horizon) to see Game 2 of the Calder Cup Finals between the Chicago Wolves and Philadelphia Phantoms. It was nice to see some future Thrashers such as Kari Lehtonen for Chicago (and oddly enough, the Panthers' top prospect Jay Bouwmeester), but it was a sloppy, penalty-filled game that makes you long for the NHL if you cared to miss it. Philly won in the second overtime (we left after the first one).
The finals of the tournament on Sunday were an interesting sight to see as eventual champs Thomas Jefferson (who had slaughtered everyone the whole weekend) negged 10 times and still won the whole thing. Then they challenged a bunch of moderators to a match. With much of the quality moderator corps having written most of the questions, finding those blind to the question were few and far between. I thought I would've been drafted to play (meaning they'd really scraped the bottom of the barrel). But I had a flight to catch -- or so I thought.
My mid-afternoon flight Sunday was delayed when I got to O'Hare. No big deal, I thought. Just more time to grab something to eat (the Billy Goat Tavern has a stand at the airport -- same attitude and so-so food as the original place). But then came a second delay, then the official cancellation about the time the original flight would've landed in Atlanta. Thus came the mad dash from the gate to the United customer service center where my agent seemed to treat it as if everyone had just missed their flight and told us to go standby for the final flight of the day. However, whereas the canceled flight was on a 737, the last flight was on a modernized Buddy Holly plane. It's not a good sign when the gate agent says your chances of getting on are "very slim." Eventually I got a voucher to stay at an O'Hare area airport and got a standby seat on a late morning flight (instead of an early afternoon one I was rebooked on) and finally getting back home about 18 hours later than I expected. The one time I don't fly Delta or AirTran, and this is what I get.
Oh yeah, my cell phone died in the midst of this, but finding an outlet in the terminal was like trying to find the needle in the haystack. Now I know how cool it is that at least one terminal at the Atlanta airport has a bank of outlets designed for people to recharge cell phones and laptops.
The following takes place between Noon Friday and 3 p.m. Monday …
I knew this weekend was going to turn into a cross between Insomniac and 24, given the very quick turnaround between the end of my shift Friday night and my very early Saturday morning flight to Chicago for the NAQT high school nationals. But in the midst of the trip, an episode of Airline got tacked on.
After a usual night at work that ended at 2 a.m., I did kill off a couple of hours at a couple of places before an early-morning stop at Waffle House en route to the airport. (Typical Dave Attell-type stuff.)
The tournament itself was, in the Donald's terms, "yuuge" with 96 teams and nearly 500 players (makes giving all-star awards to the top 10 scorers seem a lot more meaningful). It was also good seeing most of the usual suspects, some old foes from my undergrad days and matching names to faces of other people I've been meaning to meet. Oh yeah, I got to hang out for a little bit with $5 million moderator team of Ken Jennings and Kevin Olmstead as well.
I did wonder how they were going to fit 96 teams when there were only about 20 ballrooms and meeting rooms at the hotel. The answer: Converting nearly an entire floor of hotel rooms into game rooms by replacing beds with tables. You usually don't find a need to fit at least 10 people into a regular-sized double, and now we know why. (On the other hand, it wasn't much worse than my Myrtle Beach experience that involved squeezing everyone into an empty administrative office.)
You could call some of this the most boring episode of 24 ever since much of it was just spent reading questions and hanging out with people between rounds. On the other hand, that's what everyone, except Jack Bauer, seems to do during those 24 hours, so maybe just I'm just one of those revolving-door analysts, but unlike Chloe, didn't have a need to fire a gun at a charging assassin.
Saturday night, there was a side trip (just down the street to the former Rosemont Horizon) to see Game 2 of the Calder Cup Finals between the Chicago Wolves and Philadelphia Phantoms. It was nice to see some future Thrashers such as Kari Lehtonen for Chicago (and oddly enough, the Panthers' top prospect Jay Bouwmeester), but it was a sloppy, penalty-filled game that makes you long for the NHL if you cared to miss it. Philly won in the second overtime (we left after the first one).
The finals of the tournament on Sunday were an interesting sight to see as eventual champs Thomas Jefferson (who had slaughtered everyone the whole weekend) negged 10 times and still won the whole thing. Then they challenged a bunch of moderators to a match. With much of the quality moderator corps having written most of the questions, finding those blind to the question were few and far between. I thought I would've been drafted to play (meaning they'd really scraped the bottom of the barrel). But I had a flight to catch -- or so I thought.
My mid-afternoon flight Sunday was delayed when I got to O'Hare. No big deal, I thought. Just more time to grab something to eat (the Billy Goat Tavern has a stand at the airport -- same attitude and so-so food as the original place). But then came a second delay, then the official cancellation about the time the original flight would've landed in Atlanta. Thus came the mad dash from the gate to the United customer service center where my agent seemed to treat it as if everyone had just missed their flight and told us to go standby for the final flight of the day. However, whereas the canceled flight was on a 737, the last flight was on a modernized Buddy Holly plane. It's not a good sign when the gate agent says your chances of getting on are "very slim." Eventually I got a voucher to stay at an O'Hare area airport and got a standby seat on a late morning flight (instead of an early afternoon one I was rebooked on) and finally getting back home about 18 hours later than I expected. The one time I don't fly Delta or AirTran, and this is what I get.
Oh yeah, my cell phone died in the midst of this, but finding an outlet in the terminal was like trying to find the needle in the haystack. Now I know how cool it is that at least one terminal at the Atlanta airport has a bank of outlets designed for people to recharge cell phones and laptops.
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