Thursday, January 31, 2008

Random thought from last night's Terps game vs. UVA

Hey.

Can someone tell me if Sean Singletary was hurt?

It didn't really come up during the ESPN broadcast...
 

A bone to pick with the media, re: Plaxico's "guarantee"

By now you've probably heard, Plaxico Burress said he thinks the Giants will beat the Patriots, 23-17, in the Super Bowl.

Here is what annoys me about the media attention it's getting:

It was a prediction. Not a guarantee.

There's a difference. A big one.

Stop making this out to be Joe Namath all over again.
 

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

DC Sports Box: Canadiens Blank Caps

Here's my latest recap for DC Sports Box.

Canadiens Blank Caps


I always feel a little silly doing recaps for road games since I don't travel, don't get quotes and don't really see anything more than anyone else watching the game on Comcast SportsNet sees, but for a startup Web site I think it's important to get as much coverage as you can.

Some thoughts that weren't in the recap:

The Canadiens are a GOOD team. They have the second most standings points in the East, and the second best power play in the entire league.

So if you're:

A) Not going to capitalize on a 5-on-3,

and

B) Going to take stupid penalties like delay of game penalties for shooting the puck over the glass (John Erskine ... twice),

you're going to lose to Montreal. End of story.

I'll be in the land of the free popcorn for the second half of the home-and-home on Thursday. Hopefully it goes better.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Orioles Hangout shoots itself in the foot

Someday someone is going to have to explain to me how Tony Pente and the Orioles Hangout crew gets press credentials from the O's front office every year.

Sure, it's great that they have Roy Firestone writing and posting in the forums, but if anyone needed more proof that the site's ONLY value is as a discussion board for O's fans and NOT as a reporting outlet, yesterday provided just that.

Wednesday morning I'm doing my usual Web surfing to get my sports updates, and I see some pretty surprising news: Brian Roberts has been traded to the Cubs!

Not, "We think Brian Roberts will be traded to the Cubs."

Not, "We're hearing that a deal has been finalized."

Not, "This deal is ALMOST done."

No. No disclaimers. It's done. Pack away your #1 jerseys.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeech. Not so fast. The same link that just a day ago said it was only a matter of time before the announcement now says "Roberts Trade Denied by Orioles" and has a lot of backpedaling to try and keep you from being outraged, because after all, Pente really really really thought it was true. And even that link is nowhere to be found on the homepage. Instead the lead story is "Trade Rumors heat up," including everyone's favorite already-been-traded second basemen.

And of course you go to the forum and everyone says COME ON NO ONE CAN BLAME TONY HE IS THE BESTEST THING EVER with a general sentiment of "Tony would not run with information he believed to be untrue." (That's a direct quote.)

Well here I go blaming Tony.

Because if you're going to cover a team and put on your journalist hat and claim you're doing real reporting and say that you're a legit news outlet, simply believing it to be true isn't good enough. You have to KNOW it's true.