So I'm facing a ludicrously hectic week ... won't go into great detail here except to say I can't remember a week exactly like it. What this means for the blog is that I have about 15 half-written blog posts and I'm not entirely sure when I will finish them or how I will finish or even which ones I will finish.
But as always, I like to lists off a few blog posts that might be coming up:
-- The remarkable run of Jimmie Johnson.
-- Reading Harry Potter to My Daughter
-- 32 great NFL defensive players.
-- More on the setup man and closers (featuring some Tom Tango data)
-- He Who Shall Not Be Named Returns To Cleveland
-- The Sure NFL Hall of Famers
-- Texpensives; still working on this concept.
-- The long-awaited, much-anticipated, never-likely-to-be-finished iPad review.
-- Why I No Longer Vote for the Heisman
-- The Future of Sports*
*Based on the panel I will be on tonight at Washington University in St. Louis. I will be there with Bob Costas, Gerald Early and Bill James. In fact, Bill should be here in a little bit so we can drive up to St. Louis together. I might need a post on the car rides there and back as well.
-- Listening to the Beatles
-- 32 best all-around baseball players ever
-- 32 best sports books for the holiday season (it was supposed to be a summer-reading post; it may become one yet again)
-- 32 best defensive players in baseball history.
-- Da Bears
There are a bunch of others but let's stop there since I probably won't do most of these.
Three other things:
1. I believe that SI will today post my Sportsman of the Year nomination. I don't think my nominee will come as any surprise.
2. I have two big pieces running in the magazine this week, one I don't think will come as any surprise to blog readers, the other is on Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and some of his friends in sports and the concept of team building.
3. I will be one of the co-hosts on "Live From E Street Nation" on E-Street Radio this Friday, starting at 10:30 Eastern Time. E-Street Radio is available on Sirius/XM, and if you don't have it, well, frankly you should go out and buy it just so you can hear this. You can return the system afterward.*
*I am not sure this return policy would actually work.
Landon Donovan
ReplyDelete...but Hamilton would be good too.
ReplyDeleteIf Joe ever gets a word in, it'll be a major Polish victory.
ReplyDeleteNo love for Roy Halladay?
ReplyDeleteYou do realize some of us are holding off on buying an IPad until your review, right Joe? By the time you tell me to get it, it will be outdated.
ReplyDeletePlease, anybody, give Jon Gruden a coaching job!
ReplyDeleteI won't even complain if he turns Miami back into "The U".
I agree about Halladay, I think he'd be my pick.
ReplyDeleteSportsman of the year - so Joe did you vote for Greinke or Brian Bannister? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI voted for Galarraga in the poll, I just think how he handled everything should be trumpeted every chance we get.
I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on The Beatles Joe. Especially if you have some emotional attachment similar to your genious Springsteen piece from a couple weeks ago. Good luck this week!
ReplyDeleteI think the Joe and Bill James car ride is the clubhouse leader in the new conversation question: If you could drive from Kansas City to St. Louis with anyone, who would it be?
ReplyDeleteBesides, I think that "if you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be?" question is played out.
What's interesting about the NFL Hall of Famers is that with the way the running back position has changed, just how many active RBs will be HOFers? Tomlinson is a lock, and after him you've got someone like Adrian Peterson, where it's still way too early to tell but he's off to a good enough start. Is it possible that we only have one or maybe two HOF RBs active in the game right now?
ReplyDeleteSure NFL Hall of Famers is interesting... off the top of my head, there's:
Manning, Brady, Favre, Tomlinson, Moss, Owens, Polamalu, Reed, Lewis, Woodson, Bailey, probably Roethlisberger because of the two Super Bowls, possibly Brees.
I guess there are a lot of guys that could get in but it's still too early to tell: Peterson, Chris Johnson, Andre Johnson, Fitzgerald, Wayne, Rivers, Revis, Peppers, Urlacher,
Oops... disregard the bottom half of the previous post. Only meant to post the RB part. Everything after "Sure NFL" was just me jotting down some random thoughts. Didn't mean to post that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not generally one to nitpick. But allow me to nitpick:
ReplyDeleteIn your Sportsman of the Year column, as you list the definitions of "sportsman" in the Oxford English Dictionary, you wrote:
"The fourth, and last and least used, is simply someone who participates in sports."
Most people believe that dictionaries list definitions in the order of usage, with most common definitions first. This is generally not true. The OED (along with many other dictionaries) lists definitions in chronological order of their appearance. So the fact that the definition above was listed last does not mean it's the least used. Rather, it's just the most recent definition.
Seconding the guy who said he's holding out on getting an ipad until the review. Granted big ticket purchases tend to take me at least a year of momentum before they happen, but the review has been a detail in my consciousness for over a year now.
ReplyDeleteI'm eating my cookie!
ReplyDeletehttp://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/21112010/76/prairies-duckett-apologizes-cookie-comments.html
Why you will or why you will not renew your Kansas City Royals season ticket package.
ReplyDeleteIf I can't vote for Albert Pujols, can I use my vote to vote against Kobe?
ReplyDeleteIPad review? I heard a rumor long ago that one may be coming but it's been so long I can't swear to it.
Pioli may have missed badly on his first 1st rounder but it looks like he nailed the choice for head coach.
FINISH THE HARRY POTTER ARTICLE PLEASE! Also, I'm looking forward to the best all-round 32 baseball players.
ReplyDeleteDigital Sportswriters........ NY Times article
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28digi.html?ref=media
Joe vs. Machine.
I love the "Do you pass more or are you passed more while driving" poll. Shouldn't the results be roughly 50-50 if everyone is voting accurately?
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing that Joe's audience is thoroughly dominated by fast drivers. His audience is too big for that kind of discrepancy
'I love the "Do you pass more or are you passed more while driving" poll. Shouldn't the results be roughly 50-50 if everyone is voting accurately?'
ReplyDeleteNope. For instance, if one person passes ninety-nine people and those ninety-nine people don't pass anyone, then the results will be 1-99.
Armando Galarraga is a good choice, but why not throw in Jim Joyce as well, because the story of redemption is incomplete without him.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who reads Harry potter every night to his 5 yr old, I'm even more disappointed than I thought possible for missing you in the Lou tonight. Tell me it was recorded . . .
ReplyDeleteBaseball HOF voting needs to be discussed, JoePa =) Every year I wait for your insight...
ReplyDeleteI understand why you probably can't do it, but there are only two ways to improve your blog...
ReplyDelete1. ignore the NFL (worst league in this country, in my not-so-humble opinion). the league can maybe make itself better if they fire all of the refs and just reviewed every play in a real attempt to get it right for those gamblers out there. maybe they can replace the refs with a team of lawyers on the field so every aspect of the last play can be endlessly argued. as if waiting 30+ seconds to get to the next play wasn't boring enough. i guess i don't drink beer and gamble like i used to. no wonder why i don't like football much anymore*.
1a. ignore NASCAR. yeah, it's team of guys, but it's far from what my mind tells me is a 'sport'. then there's a-left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left...
one last thing, Springsteen shouldn't even be allowed to hold the Beatles proverbial jock. don't get me wrong, i know he's got something, but sometimes i can't tell bruce from bob dylan and jackson brown, depending on era. why is he called the boss anyway? i've heard you got to see the live show to understand. i'll probably never really get this guy from jersey.
*football hates guys like me who aren't very big, don't run very fast and have a bad habit of thinking while on the field. from what i see, only the coaches are allowed to think. i returned the favor for all but a 10-12 year run of interest. once i decided i was done partying starting early on saturdays and sundays and eventually stopped betting, i lost most, if not all interest, and reverted to my previous opinion of football. no wonder why i like dealing with pitchers from 60' 6" and keeping opposing players from touching our plate. it might be slow, but there is ALWAYS something happening in baseball, save for offensive/defensive sides changing. it might be contrary to what i've already written, but if any of you football proponents have a well-thought out arguments about your game, i'm more than willing to read why football is so great. i'm willing to give up a little of my dogmatic opinion to listen. you better have one hell of an argument.
let the hateful responces to my VERY against-the-grain opinions begin!
tools of ignorance
He Who Shall Not Be Named Returns To Cleveland
ReplyDeleteWow, Joe... I understand how tortured a sports city Cleveland is, but you can't still be holding a grudge against poor Tom Bladon, can you?
Stupid Reggie Bush giving back his Heisman. The Heisman just lost a good voter.
ReplyDeleteBeatles, Beatles, Beatles!!!
ReplyDeleteBe sure to include Larry Wilson in your list of the NFL's great defensive players, so you can make amends for his absurd omission from the poll on safeties.
ReplyDeleteNo reason for the "Da" part; it's just ... BEARS!
ReplyDeleteIs it wrong that I'd rather read the Harry Potter post more than almost all of the sports posts*?
ReplyDelete* The Costas/Bill James one for example
Send us something, anything...Christmas is coming...
ReplyDelete