Just a bit more on the ridiculously stubborn attitude of FIFA regarding video replay. There's been no comment on either of the poor decisions that marred Sunday's games. But there has been an immediate decision related to in-stadium video replay. In each venue, there is a video screen that shows the television feed. If you are watching the games, you will have noticed that fans that themselves on the screen and act accordingly. FIFA has a policy, however, of cutting away when a controversial call is replayed. Well, during the Argentina-Mexico game,...
Monday, 28 June 2010
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Just two days ago I posted that the officiating in the World Cup wasn't that bad. I take it back now. For the Uruguayan referees to miss such an obvious goal is inexplicable (I am talking about England's disallowed goal when the ball clearly bounced over the line and back out). I am not saying that England would have won if the goal had counted; they were clearly outplayed by Germany. Nonetheless coming back from 2-0 down with 2 quick markers may have changed their strategy or given them some life.At this level to have such a mistake that cannot...
Friday, 25 June 2010
South America Shows OffWell, the first round is over after 48 games in 15 days. It was a fascinating ride with the world watching. Both Korea and Japan advanced which puts Asian soccer firmly above that in Africa for the time being, especially given the tournament's location. But the big winners are the South American squads, who went a combined 10-1-4 and had all 5 participants advance to the knockout stage.Europe saw only 6 of their 13 nations go through with a combined record of 10-9-10 against other confederations. I wonder if the higher altitudes...
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Yesterday was a perfect day for baseball. I had already arranged to meet a friend for the evenings Giants-Swallows game at Jingu so I decided to make it a doubleheader by biking down to Ota Stadium to watch a Tokyo Industrial League tournament game in the afternoon.There were two games scheduled, but with the World Cup games going on overnight here (yay Japan!), mornings are not an option, so I only made it for the afternoon game featuring JR East...
It's been a couple of weeks since the MLB Draft and several players have come to terms and are already assigned to short-season teams. I mentioned that I would follow a few players, and was checking out Toronto's top picks to see if any had played. Turns out that their 4th pick (41st overall) Randall Wojciechowski signed and is already playing for the Auburn Doubledays of the NY Penn League. He made his first start yesterday and threw 4 scoreless innings against Mahoning Valley. Interestingly, he went by his middle name Asher while at school but...
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
The NHL released its schedule for the 2010-11 season yesterday and as usual, I've put together a possible road trip. I didn't spend much time on it but it works out fairly nicely, with exactly 3 months on the road. No visiting team is seen more than twice and there's no difficult drives on game days. I won't be making this trip, but it's always nice to think about. Here's the schedule:October 23 Montreal at OttawaOctober 25 Phoenix at MontrealOctober 28 Toronto at BostonOctober 29 Montreal at NY IslandersNovember 1 Chicago at NY RangersNovember...
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Facebook has an application called "Stadium Tour" that allows you to quickly tally how many sporting venues you have been to. They cover all the major sports plus minor league baseball, some minor league hockey, and even college games. After spending a couple of hours going through my past schedules online, I totaled 209 stadiums that I have been to. Some of these are counted multiple times; for example I saw the Phoenix Suns, Coyotes, and Roadrunners all play in the US Airways Center, so that adds 3 to the tally.Unfortunately, Stadium Tour doesn't...
Thursday, 17 June 2010
I've been talking about checking out the Japanese Industrial League tournaments around town and when Thursday turned out to be hot and sunny, I decided to venture back up to Omiya to watch a couple of games in the South Kanto playoff.The TournamentThe industrial leagues are run by the Japanese Amateur Baseball Association (JABA) and every year they have a nationwide competition known as the Intercity Baseball Tournament. It takes place at the Tokyo...
Monday, 14 June 2010
I was recently asked to put together some minor league roadtrips for an American publication. The general rules were that the trip had to take place in August, be two weeks long, and involve real minor league games every day if possible. It also had to be realistic and enjoyable, so no stupidly long drives between games. Interesting promotions or giveaways were to be sought, or perhaps a great stadium experience. Given the time constraints, it was a challenge to put together several of these trips but it was also a lot of fun checking out the different...
Saturday, 12 June 2010
With the World Cup underway, Japan's J League is taking a 1-month break. This weekend saw the last action until mid-July with a round of games in the second division. One of these matches was held at Komazawa Stadium in southern Tokyo. I used to play road hockey right next to it and had always wanted to see a game there, so couldn't pass up the chance to catch Tokyo Verdy and Kataller Toyama fight it out Saturday afternoon.Komazawa StadiumBuilt in...
Thursday, 10 June 2010
This week sees the Japanese equivalent of the College World Series being played in Tokyo. There are 26 teams playing a single-elimination tournament over 6 days. Most of the games are held at Jingu Stadium, but a few of the early round matches are held at the Tokyo Dome, which is just a 15-minute bike ride from my apartment.There were three games on Thursday, with the first starting at 9:00. But I had to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, so...
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Last September, I noted that the World University Baseball Championship would be held in Tokyo this summer. I wasn't sure at the time if I would be here, but the baseball gods have smiled on me and I will be back from the next road trip on July 27th, just two days before the tournament starts. The schedule is out now and Canada is in the same group as the USA, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka, while Japan gets Cuba, Korea, and China. A round robin format is used for placement as all 8 teams will make the quarter-finals. Expect a Japan-USA final, which would...
Monday, 7 June 2010
MLB DraftToday was the first day of the MLB first-year player draft. I watched the first 41 picks on-line, accompanied by the Baseball America draft preview issue. It was quite interesting as teams strayed from the expected order rather early and several top prospects weren't even drafted in the first round. The studio announcers were quite detailed in their analysis, but much of what they said was taken almost verbatim from Baseball America. Now the fun begins as teams try to sign their selections and assign them to minor league teams. The short...
Sunday, 6 June 2010
The MLB season has 162 games, which divides neatly into three 54-game segments. The first of these has just completed and I wanted to post the standings here. I'll compare them after 108 games, and then near the end of the season.These standings show each team's record after 54 games. Of course, some teams reach 54 games before others due to scheduling differences, but for comparison purposes, this version works well.AL East W L GBTampa Bay 36 18New York 34 20 2Boston 31 23 5Toronto 31 23 5Baltimore ...
Thursday, 3 June 2010
The NHL and NBA playoffs are underway and keeping me at home most mornings. The weather here is great, so I do try to get out in the afternoon, but haven't had the time to catch a game since Monday.In the meantime, I noticed an interesting article about my favourite local basketball team, the Tokyo Apache. Seems like they have been bought by Evolution Capital Management, an LA-based investment management advisor. I'm not sure how they will run the team or what particular expertise they might have in pro sports, but the new GM did play college ball,...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
