Revised Sports Thinking

So, there was a great post on the Puck Daddy Yahoo Sports blog today about the way NHL fans (and probably most other fans of major league sports in North America) overvalue the end of year tournament (playoffs) instead of the long haul through the ebb and flow of the season. This was the key quote:

There's this illogic in North America that places the importance of a season not on the 82-game, six-month slog of a schedule, but rather on a 28-game-at-most, needlessly drawn out crapshoot of a lottery. One which rewards luck rather than an ability to win, a lot, for more than half a year. I'm not sure what it is that makes people think the playoffs are so much more important than the regular season.

I agree with this. Sure, the Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize in the sport of hockey, but let's not short-change the President's Trophy. It's a significant accomplishment. The best team over the course of six months may not be the best in the six (or more like ten) week tournament in the Spring. Vancouver fans find themselves saying the same thing this year that I did last year: President's Trophy nice...Hoping for Stanley Cup.

What's interesting to me is that this isn't the case in the sport of soccer. Ask a Manchester United fan if they would rather win the Barclay's Premier League or the League Cup (which is somewhat akin to a tournament) and I am pretty sure the Premier League title is the one they want. Maybe the better example in England is the FA Cup, but I think the result - what they prefer to win - is the same. This is the same in Spain's La Liga, or the Dutch Eredivisie, or any other league around the world.

Again, I get that all North American sports crown their champions in a post-season of some kind. But that phrase is telling: post-season. We should put a little more value on the "season." After all, it is where the fans spend more money - 41 home games versus a max of 16 in the post-season.

Dust Bunnies Be Gone! Maybe?

For most of the last year or so, I have been enjoying the lower profile, simpler interface of my Posterous blog. Once in a while, I think about writing longer form posts and maybe that this blog is the forum for that. I should probably get back in that habit. There are plenty of things to talk about:

Like what does the future at work hold, given the whole transformation thing a happening?

Or

What about the future of Crystal Palace Baltimore which announced in December that they will not be fielding a team during the NASL 2011 season?

Or

Will the Capitals break their season-long funk in time to make the playoffs memorable, or will I be destined to watch, yet again, as another team skates Lord Stanley's Chalice around a rink in June?

Or

Is it really true that some people don't appreciate the all-time, epic, awesomeness of this song?:

We'll see if I can figure it out.

#raco Chicago is underway.

via twidroid

Posted via email from Briefly Mused Upon

Spain 1 Netherlands 0 aet

In my mind, BBC Sport's Alan Hansen summed up today's World Cup Final the best.

"I'm all for teams going into matches with a gameplan, but I just don't think there is any place in football for the way the Netherlands approached this match. They kicked the opposition up and down the pitch for 120 minutes - but in the end, Andres Iniesta ensured World Cup glory went the right way, to Spain."

Posted via email from Briefly Mused Upon

2010-2011 Calder Cup Champions

 

The Hershey Bears won their second consecutive Calder Cup as champions of the American Hockey League tonight. It's their third tittle in 5 years. One day, this success has to pay off for the Washington Capitals. Right?

Posted via web from Briefly Mused Upon

Robotic Avatar for Meetings

via neatorama.com

I think I can really kind of use this. You connect to the internet and this guy leaves the charging station and goes to the meeting you aren't able to attend.

Posted via web from Briefly Mused Upon

Caps Clinch President's Trophy

There is one week left in the 2009-2010 NHL regular season. There is also truth in the whole "we'll see how good we are once the playoffs start" that players, fans, and hockey writers all tend to focus on. Especially towards the end of the season. However, this moment for the 2009-2010 Washington Capitals is too important to pass up. With four games left in their schedule, the Capitals have clinched the NHL President's Trophy, awarded to the team that compiles the best record during the regular season. This trophy is coming to Washington:

So it's not the historic and shiny one that NHL teams and fans really want. That comes later. And yes, I know that NHL seasons are ultimately judged on how the next few weeks play out. However, we should pause for a moment and acknowledge that teams are as good as their record says they are. Since that's the case, nobody has been better than the Washington Capitals this regular season.