9999

.

In Ball Four, Jim Bouton liked to reminisce about the early-60's Yankees.  1964 was "the year the Yankees stopped winning pennants," but they won it that year, with 99 victories ahead of the White Sox' 98 wins and the Orioles' 97 wins.

Bouton talked about the fact that the lineup, by that point, was Mickey Mantle and baling wire.  Which it kind of was, at least compared to the great Yankee lineups of yesteryear.  On the mound, there was a ramshackle three-man rotation consisting of Whitey Ford and two no-names.  The Yankees won "because they were the only team that KNEW HOW to win a pennant," insisted Bouton.

I can sort of buy that.  Part of this knowledge was manifested in the fact that they rode their Big Three as hard as they possibly could (leading to Bouton becoming a knuckleballer, for example).  The 1964 Yankees had a few players left who still owned the league, and they squeezed the sponge dust-dry.

..............

You hear this all the time in sports, that the Patriots or the Spurs or Justin Verlander or Joe Shlabotnik or somebody "just knew how to win."  Michael Jordan lost in the playoffs several times, and then later, he was unbeatable.  LeBron James lost in the playoffs several times.  The Sonics lost before they won, in the late 70's. In the NBA, it used to be axiomatic that you had to make a run or two before you'd win it all.

There IS such a thing as knowing how to win, and it has reference to avoiding common blunders at common moments.  Why do you avoid common blunders at key moments?  Because you have made those mistakes before, and been burned by them, and next time around -- you just know how to step around the land mines.

This is the case with Felix.  He'll be in a 1-1 tie, eighth inning, against the Angels ... and he'll know exactly how that game is lost, because he's lost it before.  Maybe it's throwing a certain kind of pitch that the umpire is likely to rip him off on, to get behind 2-0 -- so he throws a pitch he knows the ump will give him.  It can be a million things.

..............

The 2013 Seahawks played like a talented, and heroic, and young, and stupid, team.

Russell Wilson took a sack at the end of the first half that would have been a field goal.  It was kind of understandable, because the Seahawks wanted a touchdown, down by that many points.  Next time, Wilson might have had more confidence that a field goal was enough for that situation.

The defense allowed two 15-yard type completions on the last, 30-second drive, when they might just as well have allowed a Hail Mary.  They needed to be denying the 15-yard pass even at the risk of a ball over their heads.  A more mature team would have known that Matt Ryan did not have the field presence to adjust his pre-set script.

All y'all could list dozens of little mistakes like this.  The late time out, on the last field goal, was galling.  It gave their kicker the range on the kick.  No way the Patriots make that mistake.

............

Still, it was nice to see Russell Wilson light it up for 350+ yards.  Correct me if I'm wrong:  he hadn't had a 300-yard game, had he?  He had to throw in this one, and he added the Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers 400-yard ballgame to the repertoire.  That last little evade, and flip to Marshawn, down the sideline, that play was worth the price of admission all by itself.

The Seahawks weren't ready in 2013.  If they hadn't lost this week, they would have next week.  But next year?  Abandon all hope, ye who enter CLink.  They'll probably have the home field for the whole playoffs, and they'll probably have a difference-making receiver, and they'll be soooooo good they won't be subject to this or that bounce of the football.  Starting in 2014, the Seahawks will be that dark shadow under the NFL's beds when they wake up at night.

How long until training camp?!  This is gonna be a sick ride, bab-eh.  The Seahawks are, in fact, the sports franchise that we all wish the Mariners even wanted to be.

............

I'd be interested to hear G's, and others', thoughts on Peyton Manning's legacy.

BABVA,

Dr D

Get the Target Exclusive Hunger Games 3-Disc Set for $20 today, a savings of 20% off. This package includes free shipping when merchandise totals $50 or more. Set includes exclusive Tribute interviews, interviews with cast and crew, the making of the movie, and more.

Barnes & Noble is offering an online-only winter sale on craft and DIY books. Buy one, get one 50% off. Popular TV series are on sale, buy two, get one free. Several other sales also available.

I’ve only casually played the Halo games, so while I have a decent idea on the overall background I’m not entirely invested in the franchise like many other fans. That’s the main context I had before watching this, so I was interested to see if this stood alone on its own merit as well as being a nice addition to the games.

Halo-4-Forward-Unto-Dawn-Part-One.jpg

As heavily funded promotions for video games go, this sucker kinda takes the cake. The overall production quality and directing were sharper than anything that I expected, making the entire series very engrossing. I didn’t see it as episodes, and while I’m sure I would have been fine with that format I’m afraid Netflix streaming and DVD packages have spoiled me. As one complete film, the episodes join up pretty well and it was fairly seamless.

Halo-Forward-Unto-Dawn-Movie-2.jpg

On the acting side, it was nice to see a group of fairly unknown actors (at least unknown to me) get plenty of exposure. Some of them were a little annoying though, but I suppose that made it easier for the eventual bloodbath towards the end of the film. It did turn into the usual game of guessing who dies in what order, so in that respect chunks of the film are predictable. The overall scripting though was fine, and the pace of the story and sub-plots worked well.

Halo-Forward-Unto-Dawn-Mater-Cheif-640x420.jpg

I was really impressed with the overall special effects and the costuming for Master Chief. Once the action really started and the aliens started popping up, things really did pick up in pace and paid off well. Hell, I was just happy to see how well they translated the needler crystals.

Halo-4-Forward-Unto-Dawn-Trailer_7.jpg

Then you have the extra features with the costume designs and bloopers and all that jazz, which were all interesting and fun. Plus, if you are a Red VS Blue fan there’s a little something there for you as well. I would have to imagine that unless you’re an extraordinarily picky Halo fan you’ll enjoy this, because I can’t really think of anything that bugged me or was too contradictory in any way. If you’ve never played the game at all this is just a quick but enjoyable sci-fi/war story. The only thing that might bug you is how open ended the thing is due to it being the prelude to the fourth game, but I’ve seen more vexing cliffhangers. Worth checking out if your in the mood to see aliens kill humans.