It is being widely reported that Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey, is in very poor health following a recent stroke. The public statements from his children indicate that he may not recover. In the spirit of honoring one of sports’ all-time greats, Keith Olbermann shared some of his memories this week:
I didn’t expect the opportunity to write another post about an ESPN SportsNation poll to arise so soon after the last one, but rumors of a $300 million contract for Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton have ESPN asking its totally equipped to answer this question audience whether they think the potential contract is a good idea.
Here’s how the responses look:
While we could discuss angsty West Virginia’s inability to make up its mind on this question, the interesting twist, for our purposes, is that Montana and Vermont have entirely declined to weigh in. Their silence leaves us with a void into which we are left to impute existential meaning (or, in Vermont’s case, ice cream). Are Montanans and Vermonsters so disgusted by the very asking of the question that they refuse to dignify it with any response? Or, in an act of humility, have they recognized their own shortcomings with respect to the ability to analyze the relative merits of a long-term arrangement fraught with numerous physical, financial, and psychological components, a task that escapes mastery by even the leading minds in the field, and decided to refrain from acting beyond the scope of their limited, though completely normal, faculties? Or, to consider yet a third alternative, are they already out skiing and/or loaded up on Heady Topper and thus too busy to be bothered to respond?
Based on my hypothetical polling of my actual friend, a Vermont native who lived in Montana, I suspect these two electorates simply may not have an opinion on the matter. As we now have seen, such a posture so confounds ESPN/SportsNation’s “embrace debate” mentality that their reaction is to wipe you off the map.
UPDATE: Montana and Vermont have broken their silences, unanimously agreeing that this contract is a really bad idea! As always, click the map above to see the latest results.
While the idea of writing about the cartographic results of ESPN SportsNation polls long has percolated in my mind, it (obviously to you, erstwhile ALDLAND reader) never took off. In part I suspect this is because there’s little categorical variety in the types of conclusions we ordinarily draw from these maps, those being 1) the one state associated with the obvious minority view holds out, probably irrationally, against the weight of a nationwide majority and 2) shoot, there really aren’t too many people with internet connections in Mississippi are there? After a very short time, this would become boring to read and write.
We are living in the post-peak-SportsNation world, though, which means that, if this thing’s going to work at all, we’ve got to try it now, but with a slightly different angle of approach. Instead of focusing on the people who supported a poll choice, we’ll look at those states where the voters were not able to reach consensus.
For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of these voting maps, ESPN assigns colors to each of the poll options and presents each state as the color of the option most popular among that state’s voters. Where there is a tie between leading options, however, the state appears grey. These indecisive states are the focus here.
ESPN (I assume from the existence of this poll and Norm Macdonald’s late-night tweeting) has been televising the World Series of Poker this week, and SportsNation, in a totally happenstance, non-marketing-driven poll, casually asked, “How would you rate your poker game?” Here are the results:
While we could postulate that Louisianans spend too much time playing Three-card Monte and Arkansans are just people who picked up the rudiments of poker as a post-hoc character alibi while on the run from an out-of-state murder rap, but we don’t really know any of that for certain, and it’s more– though still, extremely mildly– entertaining to note that Nevada, home to the nation’s largest casinos, has no opinion on the matter.
UPDATE: A plurality of Nevada voters now say they do not play poker at all. Click the map above to see the very latest results.
In honor and memory of Tom Magliozzi, here’s a comfortably familiar Jam:
If you’re so inclined to follow along with the show, the fun (occasionally) continues, albeit now with a more somber bent, at CarTalkTalk.
The new “complete” set, in its semi-scholarly presentation, in no way robs this music of its power and peculiarity; it clarifies it, and puts it in a context that is simultaneously aesthetically and historically meaningful. The narrative of The Basement Tapes is easy and enjoyable to follow, but it has never before been so fully and conscientiously laid out. … Read More
(via Wondering Sound)
I still don’t like Halloween, but I still can’t let the day pass without sharing this jam, all the more salient in this space today as the holiday falls on a Friday. Enjoy this new (to me) version of Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s canonical feature, now with the new (to me, as of today) knowledge that Pickett’s band for the special occasion, the Crypt-Kickers, featured the great Leon Russell on the B side. Enjoy the A side now before heading out for an evening of tricks and/or treats, and say hello to Bobby, Leon, and Dick if you happen to spot them in the great crypt tonight:
Former NBA and Atlanta Hawks star pleaded guilty Monday to killing a mother of five in a May 2013 crash rather than face a jury.
Blaylock was sentenced to 15 years for vehicular homicide and other charges in the death of Monica Murphy in a head-on collision in Clayton County on May 31, 2013.
According to the plea, Blaylock will serve seven years in prison followed by eight on probation. Four of the seven years will be suspended, attorney Amanda Palmer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Updates are available here.
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Last week’s Sports Illustrated closed with a remembrance of Adam Dunn’s career that included the following information:
While hip-hop paeans name-checked Jeter, the only tune anyone ever composed about Dunn came from his Reds teammate, and part-time musician, Bronson Arroyo. The pitcher reworked a song to reflect his friend’s typical late September demeanor. Says Arroyo, “The lyrics were like, ‘I’m Adam Dunn, I’m so glad the season’s over, I just want to get home and be sipping on a beer by the pool and get away from this b.s.'”
Yeah, I don’t know either.
Detroit football fans living in Atlanta were treated to a fleeting moment of excitement upon the release of the 2014 NFL schedule, which showed the Lions and Falcons meeting in a Week 8 home game for Atlanta. That moment of excitement fleeted as those fans noticed the kickoff time, 9:30 am, and further investigation revealed the location of the game to be London, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom. Remind me again why we fought the Revolution?
After a hot start, the Falcons aren’t looking too good lately. Up in Motown, it’s the Lions who are looking like the UGA Bulldogs, putting together the pieces and winning with their best player on the sidelines. The Lions still should consider the Falcons a dangerous opponent this week– that is, assuming the Falcons even make it to the game:
The truth is, after their team’s disappointing start, Falcons fans probably are less worried about their team showing up in Spain for a game in London than they are about the fact that there apparently are no direct flights from Hartsfield-Jackson to Heathrow.
(HT: Deadspin)
With news that Archie Manning is leaving his role as a Selection Committee member, the College Football Playoff © has taken another credibility hit. Despite his personal and familial ties to Ole Miss and the SEC, Manning actually was one of the less-concerning members of the Selection Committee from a conflict-of-interest standpoint. From that perspective, his departure will serve to magnify the already significant conflicts existing with the remaining committee members.
Read more about the potential problems with the new College Football Playoff, including conflicts of interest, here.
The committee will issue its first rankings after this week’s games.
ALDLAND 