Baseball vs Cricket

Canadiens' History

2005-03-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

This day in Canadiens' history.

March 4, 1981: Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 1,000th point against Winnipeg.

And only a fleeting 23 years later:

March 4, 2004 - Acquired center Jim Dowd from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

I have nothing to say. Everything is put in perspective with those two lines.

Chelsea's first silverware

2005-03-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

First the bad news. We lost to Newcastle in the FA Cup, 1-0, thanks to an early goal by their Dutch import, Patrick Kluivert. We managed to not score the entire game although we had them against the ropes for the entire time. We also lost 2-1 to Barcelona away to them, after some shocking decisions by the ref, sending Drogba off needlessly. But, it's only halftime there, we play the return leg at home on Wednesday, and we're going to be firing.

We did win the Carling Cup, beating Liverpool 3-2 in extra time. After 'pool scored 44 seconds into the match, we pressed and pressed, but it wasn't till Stevie G., their talismanic captain committed his blunder for the New Year by heading into his own net (he couldnt have done it better if he'd planned it) that we drew level. Drogba and Kexman both scored for us in the second half of ET (shambolic prod-ins at the goalmouth) and Nunez pulled one back for the Reds at the death, but it was Chelsea's well deserved victory that day. Fantastic stuff. Long live online streaming feeds of soccer games from Europe. Otherwise, the option was Champs and their $10 cover, which in my current financial state was a non-occurrence.

You Heard It Here First. RIP: The 2004-2005 NHL Season

2005-02-11T03:08:00.000-05:00

Remember, you heard it here first. I'm pre-empting TSN, Sportsnet, the NHL, the NHLPA and all those other organizations by declaring this season over before it ever began. Ashes to ashes, ice to ice.

If ever you asked yourself why they just didn't say it was over in September instead of being puckteases for the last 6 months, I have your answer. If they declared it over then, there would have been no pressure on them to try and get a season underway before September '05. This way, even though they full knew nothing was going to happen, they still maintain the pretence of trying to find a solution, as if saying to us, "Look, we're still trying, we're working hard for you". No, you're not.

Because, at the end of the day, it's not the players who suffer (because they made however many millions they made the previous years, and they're all playing in Europe anyway), or the management (because they're rich to begin with, hell, they own a frigging hockey team), and it's not the average fan (except from a happiness point of view), but the entire support industry, the Zamboni drivers, the beer sellers, the touts, the waittresses at bars and the cabbies who depended on the average fan spending 50 bucks during a game. I personally couldn't give two hoots about the season, I saved about a 50 bucks in hockey related non-expenditure, but for them, I feel truly sorry.

And for my Canadian friends, its going to be a longer winter than you think without the Playoffs. Time to start supporting a Premiereship side whose name begins with a "C" and there's an "helsea" in there somewhere. We're only 9 points ahead of MunchUs now, and we play the Toffees on Saturday, a game I might have to miss in case I go to Carnival in Quebec. Sacrilege, tabernac.

On this day in Canadiens history, February 11, 1971 : Jean Béliveau of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 500th goal against Minnesota. He shoots, he scores!

Robben's Broken Foot and AdSense

2005-02-08T21:59:00.000-05:00

So I apologize for the ads at the top of the page - I just wanted to see how this stuff works, and so I signed up for it.
Robben broke his foot against Blackburn and Chelsea dropped their first points on 14 games when they drew Man. City 0-0. I missed the game, but apparently we pummelled their goal and were dreadfully unlucky not to score, with City defending admirably and David "Calamity" James pulling off some tremendous stops.
In the meanwhile, the Patriots won the Super Bowl (in which you take the Super Dump after the Super Chili) beating the Eagles quite handily in what was a pretty dull affair. The scoreline was close, not the game.
As for hockey, Montreal beat Quebec 5-4 in overtime in the 5th game of the 1993 quarter-finals. Kirk Muller scored the winner (I think). Time warps are for Michael J. Fox and hockey fans in Canada.

Amazing Stuff

2005-02-02T17:25:00.000-05:00

So this is one of the best ads I've ever seen, and also testament to the fame of, and regard with which, Mahatma Gandhi is perceived around the world. Here.
Also, Chelsea won again today, a grinding 1-0 against Blackburn.

The Greatest Story Ever Reported

2005-02-01T01:08:00.000-05:00

This is the greatest story ever reported. It beats news of democracy arriving in a previously dictatorial country by a mile. If you're Canadian, or fond of beer (notice the cultural observation I sneak in there), you should most certainly read this.

Grudge Match

2005-01-31T13:25:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, 3pm ET, is the final instalment of the Premiereship's best Grudge Match. Arsenal plays Manchester United in Highbury, the home of the Gunner scum. A little background: earlier on in the season, ManUre stopped Arsenal's record undefeated streak at 49 games, via a non-penalty after Wayne "I'm such a thug" Rooney blatantly dived in the box, thereby proving that pretty much all professional sports persons are cheats. ManUre also scored a second in the dying moments of the game (or kick-fest since that's what it was), but by then it was all over bar the foodfight in the tunnel, the post-match diatribes in the press, the months of bad blood, and Chelsea running away wih the title in the middle. Ha.
Speaking of Chelsea, I was right to expect a snore win against Birmingham this weekend, and we obliged, turning it on for a total of 10 out of the 90 minutes. But 2-0 to us, and a fifth round draw at Newcastle will do nicely.
Hockey: Lock Bettman and Goodenow in a room, tell them that you'll reopen the door in a week, and if there's no agreement, there'd better be only one man left standing. And once the season restarts, shoot them both anyway.

Carnac quotes

2005-01-28T02:55:00.000-05:00

So Johnny Carson would play the role of Carnac, and one of the games was asking the question to which the answer has just been given. Most of them are hilarious, and here is a lengthy list of them. Enjoy.
Here

Chelsea's resounding victory

2005-01-27T17:46:00.000-05:00

In the Carling Cup semi-final yesterday, Chelsea away to Manchester United (at Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams), achieved a historic victory: the first team to beat Sir Alex Ferguson (United's coach) in a domestic cup semi-final. It was a magnificent game in the second half, the first half being analogous to the Cleveland Browns versus the Chicago Bears, yes, it was that exciting. Well, it was, till Frank Lampard (unanimously the Premiereship's Most Improved Player) punctuated a fluid Chelsea move with a two touch swept shot into the side netting of the goal near the end of the first half. In the second half, things picked up dramatically, as United tried to fashion an equalizer (I love writing like this, makes me feel correspondent-ish), and for the majority of it, they enjoyed the greater possession as Chelsea were content to soak up the pressure. Finally, of course, their efforts paid off, with Gary Neville (for once doing something useful other than kicking the opposition) chipping a long ball into the box that was sublimely helped over Peter Cech, the Chelsea goalie, by Ryan Giggs, Wales' first great contribution to mankind (their second being Catherine Zeta-Jones. If there are others, let me know). After that United pressed on, but were lucky not to go behind on a couple of occasions when Chelsea broke fast and furiously, with Eidur Gudjohnsen (the Ice-Man cometh) and Arjen "The Flying Dutchman" Robben both coming perilously close. Robben is spectacular, he's fast, and seems to waft between players, scintillating to watch, and impossible to defend. Just when both teams seemed to be thinking of Extra-Time, Chelsea got a free kick well outside the box near its left corner, and up stepped Damien Duff, the greatest Irishman to grace Central London since Bono entered the City of Blinding Lights, and he swung in one of those free-kicks that are destined to miss everyone and curl in at the far corner. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen that happen, and Tim Howard, United's 'keeper (who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome would you believe?) need feel only a tiny bit of shame at being unable to keep that out, as he stood transfixed in one spot. Needless to say, Chelsea are the team of destiny at present, and Wayne Bridge's trip on Fortune that went unpunished (although United have it coming that they don't get a few calls, Carroll vs Tottenham anyone?), and his goal-line clearance in the dying moments only served to enforce that.
So we're still on for the 4-tuple, and with a little bit of luck (and a few more injuries to Barcelona), we could be in very good shape for it. In the meanwhile, it's Brum on Sunday.
Also, if you're near a TV with Fox Soccer Channel (the reincarnation of Fox Sports World when they realized that all they ever showed was Soccer anyway) try and catch Man. United vs Arsenal (aka Alien vs Predator, or two bags of scum sling mud at each other) on Tuesday at 3ET. It promises to be a great show, perhaps even with a brouhaha-hahahaha occuring, with only one winner, that's right, you get a cookie, Chelsea.

How Cricket Works

2005-01-25T15:32:00.000-05:00

CRICKET: As explained to a foreigner...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

So, any questions?

courtesy: http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ABOUT_CRICKET/EXPLANATION/WHAT_IS_CRICKET.html

Rants part 1

2005-01-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

Here's a semi-rant about the 1 of the 2 main American sports/games/pastimes. I use the slashes because I can't quite bring myself to elevate baseball above pastime status, and football is a sport for about half the people involved. Basketball will get its own rant later, and probably for this blog, will be the most agreed with.
Football: So how do people with the attention span longer than that of a gnat watch this sport? The action stops every 32 seconds. Why is it even called football, when the only time the ball touches the foot is when either side has royally screwed up (punt vs field goal)? (This is an obvious swipe, not really meriting much discussion; BTW its called football because it's the bastardization of rugby which is also called football).
It also provides an interesting insight into the "everyone is a winner, everyone is special" philosophy that pervades American culture (alongside the "no quarters given business-like philosophy" which provides a fascinating dichotomy). Firstly, the teams are huge, and in the land of optimization and downsizing, more than half of them are off the field at any given point in time (offence/defence + a special team). Moreover, and this is the most incredible thing about the sport, there's a subset of the playing 11 (that are on the field) that, if all goes according to plan, will never touch the ball during the game - the offensive linemen (with the exception of the centre, but really!), and usually the defensive linemen too. Imagine that. You're playing a game where you never get to touch the ball after which the game is named. In any other place, that would be grounds for breach of contract. Whoever came up with that position had only one thing in mind - we need the fat kids to play too. Thus, what is your shortcoming for one position, is your strength in another.
Here's the other cultural insight it leads to: the US is the only place where they manage to turn mistakes into profits - how else would you explain "Super Bloopers..." and all the extra footage of people screwing up on TV and DVDs? It's amazing that we pay for that rubbish, and enjoy it. Damn it, with my record, if I was paid for every mistake, I'd be retired.

The Blues, and the blues of hockey

2005-01-23T14:58:00.000-05:00

Chelsea are 10 points clear at the top of the Premiereship, and are looking great to win after 50 years - we win every fifty years, last 2, 1955, and 1905. Interestingly, 1905 is when Einstein had his rookie year, publishing 3 seminal papers (photoelectric effect, special theory of relativity, and statistical mechanics). Chelsea are looking to go one better, and win all 4 competitions they're in, a feat Einstein can do nothing about (well, he's dead). Barcelona are also 7 points clear, and playing some glorious stuff. Ronaldinho is a bloody magician with the ball, a bit like Lemieux on the puck. You never know what he's going to do next, and when he does, you can't quite believe it.
The hockey lament goes on, I had to get a fix watching the mighty Redmen beat the Concordia Stinkers (or are they Stingers? Who cares, they go to Concordia.), and I was pleasantly suprised that the French-Canadians they have on both teams can actually defend. Something must happen when they make it up to the NHL, they lose all sense of competence for want of a better word, just look at Rivet, Souray, and that complete blithering idiot Patrice f***ing Brisebois. And what galls me even more are those Montrealers who say he's a good player. These people should be voted off the island.