Monday, October 28, 2002

Sports and Growing Up I've been a sports fan for four decades and it is interesting to see how I have changed as a fan. In the first half, I was a football fan. With two parents from Ohio State, this was probably a given. My first team was the Colts, where I gravitated toward my birth city and the running back who bore my name, Tom Matte. Then came Stanford where we had season tickets and watched Indians go to the Rose Bowl on huge passes from Plunket to Vataha. And we can't forget the Raiders, who knocked on the door so many times before finally beating it down. So much for the 70's. The 80s were a grand time to be a football fan. My allegiance moved west from the Colts to the 49ers. This was aided by the 49ers move from dumb butts to Super Bowl champs and the Colts move to Indianapolis. In the 80's, I also discovered other sports. I started playing hockey and volleyball. I started to learn baseball. Now, twenty years removed, I am a baseball and hockey fan. Both provide the daily grind of getting the job done with the extented hype of the post season. It's not slam, bamm, thankyoumam. It's a fight and it takes to the end you your rope. In the end, you cheer or howl, then start the next season. 12:45:21 PM     Comment []

Welcome Giants Fans Now it's time to move on and get back to some semblance of normalcy. Football is easier. The Superbowl lasts a few hours, it's really intense, then it's over. The World Series takes a week-plus if it's a seven game series. There was a point when we thought the Giants had won, in the seventh inning of game six. But it wasn't meant to be. Like the Boston Red Sox in 1986, the Giants gave up the win, and then lost in the finale. For me, 2002 was the year when the Giants got me. Next year I'll be rooting for them. Now it's time to get on with other things. I'm sorry this wasn't the year, I wish we were celebrating a great victory right now, but we'll be okay. [Scripting News] We will take all the fans we can get today 11:54:08 AM     Comment []

Predicting the World Series It turns out that this is very easy to do. Since 1985 the home team in the Series is 16-2. Home field advantage alternates between leagues every year. This year the American League was at home. The Angels won. When the American League has the home field advantage, they can play four games with a designated hitter. American League teams have a player on their roster to fit the bill, while National League teams have to fill the spot from their bench. This year, we saw Brad Fullmer (.289) for Anaheim against Shawon Dunston, Pedro Feliz, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo (.240 combined) for the Giants. When the National League has home field advantage, they get to play four games with their regular line up, while the American League team sits one of their steady hitters. Over a long series, these differences get amplified. While I don't want to take anything away from the Angels, they had an advantage from the start. Hopefully, the Giants can keep the team together for another shot next year, when the National League will have the advantage. 10:28:41 AM     Comment []

Damn The hockey season started in earnest today with the completion of game 7 of the World Series. While the season started a couple of weeks ago, I really couldn't focus on is while the baseball playoffs were going on and the Giants were moving up through the ranks. It was much the same as last spring when the baseball season started, while the Sharks were still playing playoff hockey. Unfortunately, both the Sharks and Giants came up short this year. But the Giants made it into the final round and pushed it to a game seven. The team had a great year. Just a few missed pitches, just a few missed swings. So baseball recedes to the background and hockey comes to front. The boys of winter take over for the boys of summer. Seasons change. But I'm hoping that next summer the Sharks can push baseball from my mind, like the Giants pushed hockey from my mind this fall. 1:57:18 AM     Comment []