The Cricket, and maybe some other sports as well

[Good Intentions]

Bloody hell, Aus did it. England might as well pack up now and not bother attending the final: the way Australia closed that game out was nothing short of terrifying.

[coldforge]

I would've liked to watch. My coworker is always watching middle eastern soccer games on his computer. I wish/wonder if I could do the same for cricket.

[Good Intentions]

I didn't see it either, just followed the ball-by-ball updates on CricInfo (as you perhaps did). I used to watch the occasional game of football peer-to-peer, but the media companies have slammed down hard on that the past two years or so, so it's gotten rather harder.

It was amazing how quickly that game turned around. Aus lost their 7th wicket at the start of the 18th over, and I thought that was it. Hussey was putting on a brave face scoring runs, but you could see it slipping away from them. And then, in the final over, BOOM! In the last four balls Hussey scored 22 runs, more than 10% of the total, and only 3 runs short of the maximum possible (normally you're doing very well when you score 6 runs from four balls). Crazy. He just swung, connected, and knocked the ball over the heads of the shocked Pakistanis, over and over until Australia won.

[Ignatius]

myp2p.eu lists cricket matches, but I've never tried to watch any so I can't testify as to the quality or number of sources they put up. The number of webstreams that don't require additional software varies from sport to sport, the significance of the particular match, and how aggressively the broadcast rights-holders act to shut down streams. I'm unable to install any of the programs streamers use to put the games up, but I remember sopcast working well for hockey games way back when. And the streams requiring special software seem to be the preferred choice within the community. You could check atdhe.net too for direct links to webstreams but I don't recall ever seeing cricket listed there.

The forums at myp2p.eu are pretty helpful, but most active just before and during matches.

[hannah]

re: the Cavs

The rumor that they lost because Delonte West is sleeping with Lebron's mother is sort of amazing. So weird it's true?

[Ignatius]

Something's been bugging the hell out of LBJ, but I just thought his elbow is worse than he let on, or he's got another injury... Wouldn't the team just send Delonte West home and make up an injury   or illness to cover? LeBron could barely run up court last night and he dribbled off of his own feet and legs multiple times.

Whatever's up with him, all the writers coming out and saying he just doesn't have the will to win infuriates me. The dude crushed the Wizards in '06 and had that ridiculous series against Detroit in '07 to get his team to the Finals (with help from Boobie, sure.) He loses in the conference finals one year and his triple double last night wasn't enough to get to game 7 against a hot team, and all of a sudden they're comparing him to T Mac, who's never even won a playoff series.

If West is boinking his mom, you think that's enough motivation to take a pay cut and sign with another team?

[Captain]

re: the Cavs

The rumor that they lost because Delonte West is sleeping with Lebron's mother is sort of amazing. So weird it's true?

Hahaha!  I hadn't heard this!  Hilarious!

I agree, LBJ seemed off.  His shot wasn't falling, sure.  But his ball-handling was pretty below his typical game.  I'd say it has been that way since after Game 3.

Regardless... I can't tell you how disappointed I am.  Watching Game 5 in a bar full of Boston fans was the most infuriating thing... I guess I can be glad that there was no sound because I'm told Boston started chanting "New York Knicks" when LeBron went to the line towards the end of the game. 

Classy.

[Ignatius]

It's tackier than you think - the chant was not an extemporaneous outburst of cruelty, but rather a scheduled cheer devised days beforehand and disseminated via twitter. That's bad karma.

[Good Intentions]

coldforge might be interested in this: An interview with the head of US Cricket. He talks a big game, and laid out some of the big-picture plans that the administrators are implementing, including bringing more and more top-class cricket matches over. After the interview somebody who actually tried to play club cricket in the US voiced his skepticism, but it was an interesting listen nonetheless.

[RavingLunatic]

Oh, man, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game with two outs in the ninth. One more out and he becomes the 22nd pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw a perfect game. Dude hits a weak grounder to the right side, Galarraga covers first but he's...safe! Perfect game lost. But watch the replay and it's clear the guy was out by almost half a step. MLB umpires very rarely blow a call that badly. This is a real tragedy.

[coldforge]

i was interested in that, by the way. but virtual cricket for iphone got shut down by the official IPL app. it's fucking terrible.

[davy]

Oh, man, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game with two outs in the ninth. One more out and he becomes the 22nd pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw a perfect game. Dude hits a weak grounder to the right side, Galarraga covers first but he's...safe! Perfect game lost. But watch the replay and it's clear the guy was out by almost half a step. MLB umpires very rarely blow a call that badly. This is a real tragedy.

That would've been 3 in a month! What the fuck is going on?!

[Ignatius]

Plus the dude who threw a no-hitter back in April, who has allowed 7 runs through his 11 starts so far. Just that kind of a season?

[dumbfish]

I think they started testing the offensive players for PEDs and forgot to check the pitchers, too.
Alternatively, umps have been told to enlarge strike zones to distance baseball from the homer-happy steroids era.
Mostly kidding with these suggestions, by the by.

[davy]

The second idea is not all that far-fetched, really. I read a book about baseball umpires last year and these things do happen.

[RavingLunatic]

The thing is, pitching numbers in general aren't really up, at least as far as I can tell. Scoring has not significantly declined compared to the past few years or compared to most of the last 100 years (though it is of course down from the late 90s/early 00's). I can't think of any good explanation besides just tremendous luck. The weird thing is that two of the three pitchers to throw perfect games (if we count Galarraga's), are not good. Dallas Braden is not among the top-50 pitchers in the league, and Galarraga wasn't even good enough to make the Tigers starting rotation at the beginning of the year. For pitchers of that caliber to throw perfect games is dumbfounding really.

[davy]

Yeah, one of the oddest things about that story is the fact that Galarraga threw just 3 Ks in the entire game.

[dumbfish]

Well, my real thought on this is to agree with RL. I think it's random, and random doesn't look the way people think it does. We draw random numbers 1-8 for some fish surveys we do, and it's shocking how often the same number comes up 3+ times in a row.

Also: Lakers, yes. That's the team I wanna root for. Made me sad to see KG's leaping ability disappear mid-game, though.

[YojimboMonkey]

I've only within the past few years started watching hockey regularly but I'm starting to enjoy watching these NHL games as much as or more than I enjoy watching NFL football.  And now the Blackhawks are tearing it up, which is great, and I don't mind being considered a bandwagon fan by the old school guys.  I thought about talking some shit on here but I don't know if anybody else is a hockey fan, or if they were whether they'd care about Chicago or Philly at all, and then of course the 'Hawks lost game 3 the other night which discouraged me from the smack talk for a few days.  But game 4 is coming up tonight.

so basically hey is anybody else at all following the Stanley Cup Finals? 

[RavingLunatic]

Yeah, one of the oddest things about that story is the fact that Galarraga threw just 3 Ks in the entire game.

That, more than anything else, indicates what an astounding stroke of luck Galarraga's game was. There's been a lot of breakthrough statistical work done on pitching in the last decade, and one of the chief findings is that the percentage of balls put in play that go for hits is virtually random, i.e. there is no detectable difference between the BABIP (batting average of balls in play) of the league's worst pitchers and best pitchers. The only exception to note is that ground-balls go for outs more often than fly balls, so pitchers that induce lots of ground balls have somewhat lower BABIPs than fly-ball pitchers. The defensive prowess of the team you play for is also a confusing factor in BABIP, but this obviously has nothing to with the pitcher.

The basic moral of the story is that you can discover how good a pitcher is simply by looking at a few stats: strikeouts per 9 innings, home runs allowed, ground-ball percentage, and walks allowed. If you don't strike people out and still manage to get a no-hitter, this is almost entirely the result of very good luck. (This is not to say Galarraga didn't pitch a great game; after all, he didn't walk anybody and didn't allow any home runs.)

[Ignatius]

I am rooting for the Lakers. It's a weird feeling. But I really hate the Celtics and gladly accept the Pau Gasol trade as the more respectable means of attaining instant dominance when comparing the late aughts ascendancy of these two rivals.

I've even forgiven Derek Fisher.

Jim I'll try to watch the rest of these hockey games but you should go ahead and talk about it anyhow.

[Captain]

Much to my chagrin, I find myself rooting for Boston on this one.  I just can't seem to bring myself to back the Lakers.  I must admit, I begrudgingly like Rajon Rondo.  Watching him play is like watching evolution sometimes (not really, but the way he adjusts is pretty dramatic).  I didn't watch game 1... did they have Ray Allen guarding Kobe?  I kind of would like to see Rondo take that assignment... but I think Kobe would still take him to task.

Still, I think a part of me is secretly hoping that Minnesota suddenly pours out of the stands and ruins the game for everyone everywhere.  I want both these teams to lose.

[davy]

I've only within the past few years started watching hockey regularly but I'm starting to enjoy watching these NHL games as much as or more than I enjoy watching NFL football.  And now the Blackhawks are tearing it up, which is great, and I don't mind being considered a bandwagon fan by the old school guys.  I thought about talking some shit on here but I don't know if anybody else is a hockey fan, or if they were whether they'd care about Chicago or Philly at all, and then of course the 'Hawks lost game 3 the other night which discouraged me from the smack talk for a few days.  But game 4 is coming up tonight.

Blackhawks fans are some of the least-suffering fans in the history of sports.

[YojimboMonkey]

that's not true at all actually, they were terrible for about 20 years, broadcast blackouts, an owner who seemed to be trying his best to alienate fans, etc.  Our minor league hockey team, the Wolves, was more popular for a while.  Then old "Dollar Bill" Wirtz, the indifferent-to-antagonistic old team owner, died about 2 and a half years ago and things turned around pretty quick.  He left one son (Rocky) in charge of his entire organization and left another son, Peter, who would be more likely to continue his policies, in charge of the Blackhawks.  Rocky fired Peter and put a former Cubs executive (who might not know how to put together a winning team but at least knows how to maintain a popular brand) in charge of the organization.

This is how much Bill Wirtz was hated--after he died, when they had a "moment of silence" in his honor at the home opener, the entire United Center shook with the boos.

[YojimboMonkey]

I mean, they've won 3 Stanley Cups since 1926, it's not like they're the goddam Yankees or some shit.