Archive for December 30th, 2006

Ball Hog

Saturday, December 30th, 2006

Welcome to another addition of Ball Hog. Today’s subject is none other than the league’s biggest leather-hoarder, Kobe Bryant.
Kobe scored 58 points in the Lakers’ 133-124 triple-overtime loss to the Bobcats Friday night, his third-highest career points total. He shot 22 of 45 and would’ve had at least 10 more, but fouled out with less [...]

Conventional Wisdomology

Saturday, December 30th, 2006

In the new year, we’ll be debuting a few new features at criticalsportsblog.com. One of those will be the Saturday morning power rankings, in which I take on the absurd notion of ranking a team’s chances in March based on what they’re doing in November. In fact, I take it one more step [...]

Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

Saturday, December 30th, 2006

After winning the World Series, Tony La Russa urged Jeff Suppan to clone a Mini-Suppan for the Cardinals bullpen, to ensure strong pitching in 2007. When we asked Jeff how he felt about LaRussa’s simple request, last year’s NLCS MVP had this to say:
“It’s wrong. I’d rather pitch for the Brewers than be subjected to [...]