CAT | Sportsness
I set up a company softball game for this afternoon, but it looks like it might get rained out. I might give the city a call and get them to close the roof @ Labbatt Park.
How’s this for an article header? I post a screenshot in case it gets removed at some point. 
It’s going to burn when they actually need to use that header for someone ACTUALLY going in for Chemo.
Nice work, Sportsnet.
UPDATE:
The headline has been changed to the less-objectionable-but-now-sort-of-boring “Will Oilers prey on Timonen?” Good thing I took the screenshot. Interestingly enough, the URL above still works, which uses the wording of the old headline.
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Andrew Raycroft invents verbs
4 Comments | Posted by SockBoy in General Tomfoolery, Sportsness
Read this quote, laughed to myself. Funny part bolded.
“I can’t explain how hard it is to stay sharp and keep your focus when you don’t face a lot of action,” said Raycroft, who saw only eight shots in the first 40 minutes of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ important 3-2 victory over the Lightning.
“You try to follow the action in the other end,” Raycroft added. “You do a little play-by-play to keep from getting bored. I really had to Harry Neale it in the second period.“
I, too, will invent verbs. Check this one out:
The other day I saw my cat David Thuss it while talking on the phone to his birth mother. I immediately brought him a cup of orange juice to replenish his vitamin C.
And just like that, I am the new authority on the English language. Wizzam!
I like this Sean Avery quote in regards to Chris Simon’s crazy face slash:
“Let’s just see if Colin Campbell finally does something about this stuff and doesn’t give him three games like he gave that other meathead from New Jersey,” Avery said, referring to the suspension handed out to Cam Janssen after his hit on Toronto’s Tomas Kaberle. “I think that’s just as bad as what Marty McSorley did to Brashear. You can’t just two-hand a guy in the face with your stick.”
Not a big Sean Avery fan in general, but I like it when people call other people meatheads. Especially jerkfaces like Cam Janssen. Good work, Sean!
Mandie and I are heading into Buffalo country with a few friends of ours. We are there to watch a hockey game! I am bitter about hockey in general, so I don’t know if I’ll be so fun. The Poop Faces are in shambles, the Leafs are doing badly, and to top it all off… I don’t know how to skate. Woe is me!
Speaking of the Poop Faces, we’ve pretty much written off the season. We tried some last ditch trades to secure some help in between the posts, but injuries and stupidity have gotten the better of us. We may try and pull off a couple more trades, but… things don’t look good. Fear not, Poop Face Nation! The way things are going, we will have first pick in next year’s draft!! ;)
I like surprises. Especially ones that I’m not expecting. Case in point: Vista Media Center. When I turned it on today, there was a new item in the main menu:
This ‘Sports’ menu item just showed up today out of nowhere. And it is all sorts of fantastic. Now, there’s some parts that I can’t take screenshots of due to the limitations of my super-shitty Media Center PC locking up when I try to view live video directly on it (but mysteriously works fine through the XBox 360 Extender…). I will do my best to explain what each sub-item does.
First of all, the ‘On Now’ will show a little bar at the top of the screen with the games that I can watch right now, with their current score. I scroll to the game I want to watch, click it and it shows up underneath the bar. Works great! ‘On later’ just shows me the games that are coming up. Pretty straight-forward. Now, on to more screenshots.
The Scores section, at first glance, looks pretty bare bones:
Highlighting an upcoming game will show you the team’s current record. Clicking on the item brings up some interesting stats about the two teams, like current goals/assists/points leaders, pretty standard stuff.
Clicking on that little Fox Sports item on the side, however, brings up a whole world of fun:
It starts off with a little pre-game synopsis. Very nice!
You can compare a LOT of stats between the two teams. Scoring (even divided up by period) powerplay / penalty kill stats, OT info, shots info… it’s crazy in depth.
Injury info…
You can even compare depth charts, with handy little player graphics. Reminds me of NHL 96. Or something like that. Anyways, all of this is available BEFORE the game starts. What happens if the game is actually in progress? Well, you get some different information. 
You can see the current score, and a shot-tally at the bottom of the screen. Handy for quickly checking how your goalie is doing in the game. Now, no one has scored in this game yet, so I move on…
There is also a ‘Players’ menu option which is HUGE for anyone participating in a fantasy sports league. As GM of the Poop Faces in LBFF, this is exactly what I need to get us over the hump and into 6th place.
There’s support for the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL. I’m actually pretty surprised by the level of support for NHL stats in this app. I thought it would be treated like a second-class sporting citizen, but everything works great.
Anyways, I went ahead and added my favourite Poop Faces to my roster:
It’s pretty easy to find all your players here, just type in the first few letters.
And then you’ve got your roster all set up. You can see their current season’s stats in several important categories.
I thought this was pretty cool. Now, none of the Poop Faces are playing tonight since there’s only the one game between LA and Edmonton on right now. I wondered what would happen if one of my players WERE playing right now. So, I added an ex-Poop Face, Petr Sykora. Check this out:
Yeah, live fucking stats. For my whole team. In one spot. StatTracker can eat it. This is heaven.
No one has scored yet in the Edmonton / LA game, so I’ll post an update when there’s some actual stats to view. Until then, maybe go set up Windows Vista and bask in the glory of this wonderful piece of technology.
Also, while this surprise was pleasant, there was an even better surprise over the weekend. I want to scan a couple things before I post about it, but it’s coming.
UPDATE:
Stoll managed to score a goal, so here are some screens when there are some stats to look at:
The Team Canada game today was crazy intense. Through the magic of TSN Broadband (appreciation for which is shared widely) we were able to watch the game at work today. I had to give Price a call during that shootout to let him know he should stop letting in goals after Toews would score, since it’s my birthday and I don’t want to be depressed. He said ‘I had no idea!’ and then proceeded to shut down the last American attempt after Toew’s third shootout goal and win the game. Much joy was shared. I then proceeded to lose at Euchre, but I’m used to that by now so was unphased.
Anyways, I’m amazed that TSN’s live stream was able to hold strong without requiring a single rebuffering and maintain some fantastic quality. I don’t know what sort of infrastructure they have running on the backend, but it will be put to the ultimate test at 1pm on Friday. Or maybe everyone should just take the afternoon off? Ah-yesssss.
You can relive the game through Dave’s semi-live blogging over at the formerly-named Raw Rhubarb. There’s some gaps, but that’s where you use your imagination. I’m capturing the replay of the game tonight @ 4, maybe I’ll upload it to YouTube in 30 separate parts
It looks as though being dropped from the Poop Faces was only the start of Ian White’s misery. From TSN:
The 22-year-old rookie had his licence suspended for a year in September when he was convicted of impaired driving.
The Winnipeg native was stopped and charged Saturday with the latest infraction.
If I would have known this was going to happen, maybe I would’ve said something different when I let him know he was being dropped. The standard ‘here’s a bottle of scotch for the drive home’ probably didn’t help the situation.
Speaking of being 22, I remember the age well. I, like Ian White, was just breaking into the line-up of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately a security guard grabbed me by the neck and threw me back into the stands. That effectively ended my short NHL career.
I should write headlines for sports websites.
Looks like Dave is holding off on posting about our trip to Columbus, too. I, too, will probably blog about it sometime soon… when it feels right. Currently, I’m watching the Maple Leafs suck ass against Ottawa. Poop Face goalie Andy ‘I only get shutouts when you bench me’ Raycroft has decided to suck tonight, so I’m thinking we’re on the express train to last-place ville. *sigh*
I’m going to link over to Dave’s post again because it looks like he’s started playing NHL 2K7 on his recently acquired XBox. He’s surprised that Cam Ward sucks so much. But I was watching a Carolina game on TV the other day, and saw this:
Cam Ward loves his snacks! I didn’t think that goalies were allowed to eat that much during the game, but I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t think the snack food was being rendered in NHL 2K7 for the XBox, but I hear it shows up on the XBox 360. I applaud Kush’s effort to make the game as realistic as possible.
Speaking of tasty snacks, we ate a lot in Columbus. At least I know I did. Before the game, we went to this Mexican-esque cafeteria-style restaurant called Chipotle. It was located right beside the arena, and the service was quick. The tacos were very very tasty. And the beer was cheap. Yum!
Jordan the Gomez has some pictures from the trip posted on his PhotoBucket account. It seems as though he gave up on the camera after the drive in. I had our camera with us, but with all the pictures that Dave and Scotty were taking, I left it in the camera bag. Unfortunately neither of them have posted anything yet, so I will show you what we saw using other people’s pictures:
Nationwide Arena! Hooray!
Somebody else at the Red Star Tavern!
That is all for now. I’ll wait until some real pictures are posted so I can steal them.
Oh, one more thing. Scott posted a commercial that Sony had put together for one of their TVs. It reminded me of my trip to the bathroom after eating so much in Columbus.
