Unabashed

In the world of women’s sports, for me, softball is the best to watch. I do like soccer (football to you Euros), but I’m not into women’s basketball at all, nor golf. The thing that makes it fun for me is primarily that it’s just a little bit different from baseball. And if you’ve ever seen one of those girls pitch and you weren’t impressed, you and I clearly are of different minds. They don’t wear hats, like the men do, they usually have long hair pulled back in a pony tail, often with little ribbons or bows (cute). And the fact is that these girls have skill.

In soccer, the game is just a carbon copy of the men’s, ditto for basketball (Okay, in basketball the 3-point line is closer to the goal. But that’s about it). But softball is just different from baseball. The pitcher is closer to the batter (43′ compared to 60′6″ in baseball) and the outfield fence is a lot closer in, the ball is bigger, the pitchers pitch differently (and it is frickin cool the way they pitch), and I don’t care how big the ball is, when it’s coming from just 43′ away at 67 MPH, it’s dang hard to turn on it… it’s just a different kind of game, and it seems like a game tailored better to fit the athleticism of ladies.

I would support a professional softball league before any other women’s sport. Soccer, maybe, but I just can’t get into the WNBA. I’ve tried. I hate it. It just doesn’t seem like a sport that’s made for women. But give me a local pro softball team and I’ll buy a hat (so long as it isn’t pink, aye?) and maybe a jersey as well. And with athletes like Taryne Mowatt (pictured) who’s a phenomenal, record-setting pitcher, it seems a shame they have no opportunity to become professional players.

I want a pro girls softball league.

Give it.

I also like to watch women’s tennis. More than the men’s. There aren’t many sports like that; the athleticism of the men is just too phenomenal not to watch. But men can be gross, too, I agree, so… at least girls aren’t gross, eh? :-)

Um, just a final note that Alabama just knocked off Taryne and the Wildcats to advance in the CSWS. Roll Tide!

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Alabama, Arizona, crimson, football, girls, ladies, league, mowatt, pro, roll tide, soccer, softball, sport, taryne, tide, wildcats, women

This was originally published on my sports blog, Real Men Wear Houndstooth, but its a topic that’s getting a lot of press these days, and, since my opinion differs from the majority of fans, I thought I’d cross post this here as well. Please to enjoy.

“Chris” has left a particularly inflammatory comment on my post “How to Fix College Football” wherein he rants about the wrongs of the bowl system and raves about my psychotic, dumb, “bass ackwardness.” For those of you who are wondering, including you, Chris, this is as close as you can come to getting banned without actually getting banned. I’m all about disagreements, but hold back the reins on the ranting insults, and realize that your opinion makes as much sense to me as mine does to you. But I’m not going to call Chris by the name I think he deserves for this tidbit of drivel he’s shellacked onto my blog, I’m going to respond, and I’m going to give it a full post, because I know there are many, many people out there who have all jumped onto the playoff bandwagon and believe it would do something it’s not capable of doing. First, Chris’s prattle:

Are you psycho? Why does everybody think the bowls are good? Most are about as boring as a knitting competition. If the bowl system was so great and ‘voting’ on a paper ‘National Champion’ was the way to go why aren’t the other NCAA sports doing it as well. Why isn’t the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. clammoring to go that way? Why? Because it is the dumbest most bass ackwards way of determining a champion! Let’s all pull our heads out and get over the super 6 conferences wanting all the money and give the fans what they want!!! A PLAYOFF!!!

Okay, Chris, here’s my answer: you’re wrong. As far as I can tell the only question you raised in your irrational squawk was “why aren’t the other sports clammoring to go that way?” (note that the incorrect spelling of clamoring is Chris’s, not mine). There are dozens of reasons, but historically it’s because, other than the MLB, boxing and horse racing there were no other major sports than college football around when it started up, and guess what? Until 1907 MLB didn’t have a playoff either, and they only did it then because there were two separate professional leagues of teams: the National and the American. Before that those teams had never played one another. And up until 1969 there was no divisional playoff, either. The two teams with the best records played for the championship: that’s it. And neither horse racing nor boxing have playoffs, either. Sure, horse racing has it’s triple crown, boxing has multiple titles, things that make them unique in the world of sports, just like the bowls do for college football. And as for “the super 6 conferences wanting all the money,” well, that again is nothing but drivel. Why do you think MLB instituted the playoffs? Money grubbers, that’s why. And as far as that goes, college football would make more money with a playoff, so that argument is asinine right out of the gate.

And as for the NFL, they, too didn’t begin with a playoff. From Wikipedia:

NFL post-season history can be traced to the first NFL Championship Game in 1933, though in the early years, qualification for the game was based solely on regular season records. The first true NFL playoff began in 1967, when four teams qualified for the tournament. When the league merged with the American Football League in 1970, the playoffs expanded to eight teams. The playoffs were expanded to ten teams in 1978 and twelve teams in 1990.

The NFL chartered its rules in 1876–without a playoff.

So why shouldn’t college football adopt their own playoff system like the other sports have? Because none of the other sports had a system already in place like college football does. They didn’t “playoff” at all, they just named a champ or had one extra game to see who it was. They had to do something to determine the champ, and college football already had the bowls. Where do you think they got the name for the Super Bowl? It was their shot at mimicking what college football had already done with great success.

But even more than this, more than the history and tradition of the game, the greatest reason of all (other than the fact that we don’t need a playoff), is because the regular season still matters in college football. You’ll never see a team in college football with a guaranteed playoff bid running its second stringers out onto the field because the win is meaningless. Every loss has significance. Not so in any other sport.

And besides that, to institute a playoff you’d have to add games to the season. Even if it’s only one or two, you’d still add games, and these are still students who are trying to make the grade. There are enough games.

Look at it this way: The first kickoff of the first game in a college football season is the start of the playoffs. And every team approaches every season with the same attitude: Must Win. NCAA basketball started their own playoff system, and now look at it. It doesn’t become a popular sport until March. Everything leading up to that is filler.

Really, Chris, if you want to make an argument, make one, but throwing insults at the blog host isn’t going to get you anywhere. Give me a good reason for a playoff and I’ll listen, but I’ll tell you right now, because the fans want it isn’t a good reason. Herd mentality does nothing for an argument.

In closing, I’d like to add that I don’t believe the current system is working. I’ve come up with an alternative plan that I believe would fix the situation nicely. We could keep the bowl structure intact, keep the conferences as they are, and even keep the BCS in place. My plan would fix college football. Tell me what you think, or how you would fix it, if you’d do anything at all.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: College, football, playoff, rankings, tradition

This is a great series of games, of which I have owned almost (if not) every version that’s been released. But there always seems to be something getting in the way of my full enjoyment of the games, so I thought I might write a bit about what’s wrong with them in the hopes that the EA folks might happen by here one day and possibly consider making a few modifications to the next release version.

First, the good, and there’s a lot of good. This game is consistently my favorite and most-played game. These are some of the main points, but rest assured gameplay is fantastic:

1. ’08’s front room (or main screen, or front screen) is a vast improvement over many of the previous versions.’(The Gameday crew of the ‘07 version on the game lead-in screen was absolutely laughable and horrendous and I’m glad they dropped it. It wasn’t all that bad an idea, but the application was just bad.)
2. I love being able to set my own schedule. Trading UL Monroe for USC or Michigan or Clemson or West Virginia is a treat and a great feature.
3. The stadiums look great. The field looks great. The players look great. Visually this game is awesome. Sometimes the shadows are tough (try playing OSU at home wearing the black uniforms on a day game. You can’t see the players on the shadowy portion of the field) and often the crowds and the sidelines look ridiculous. It would be nice if they gave a bit more effort to the sidelines, made them look more realistic.
4. Thank God they changed the kickoff difficulty. It was outrageous that a kickoff or punt was so extremely hard in previous versions when the difficulty setting was Heisman. It should be no more difficult to kick a field goal, from a controller perspective, on Heisman as on Freshman. So thanks for changing that.

And now, the bad:

1. The playbook design option is great, if only it worked. I spent a lot of time designing my own playbook and then found that, once I’d saved it, I couldn’t access it. I couldn’t choose it to use during a game. This was infuriating.
2. It takes no less than six option screens to get from the main page to your saved Dynasty screen, and then another three or four to get to play a game. There’s got to be a better way. Why do you have to choose the file, okay the load, then choose the file and okay the load again? The repetition is infuriating every time I load my Dynasty. Put a link to saved files on the main screen so we can click straight in for cripe’s sake.
3. I’ve never been able to create a recruit and actually recruit him to my team. There should be an option for ‘Recruit normally’ and ‘Recruit to my team.’ Yes, this would be an easy way for someone who has a Dynasty to fill a void, or multiple voids, with great players, but it’s a game and I want to be able to do that. Otherwise the ‘create a recruit’ is a big, fat, stupid waste of time.
4. Different difficulty levels. I want to be able to score points, but at the same time I want to play in competitive games. This is almost impossible with a single difficulty level. They somewhat managed this by allowing you to change difficulty settings during the game, something you used to be penalized for in the game, but it would be much easier and nicer if I could set my offense to ‘Varsity’ and my defense to ‘All-American’ or something like that. I like that I can change the user and the CPU’s difficulty settings individually, but I would like to be able to do that with the overall difficulty setting as well. a. If my gameplay is advanced enough to compete at the Heisman difficulty setting, I want to be able to do that and still be able to recruit enough quality players to keep my Dynasty going. Give me a different difficulty setting for recruiting that from the game portion, and if I set it to ‘Freshman’ then my team should by God be the number one recruiting class every time.
5. Recruiting is too difficult and too convoluted, which is fine for some folks. Sometimes I want to spend time looking at recruits and analyzing them, but usually I just want to play the games. Give us an auto-recruit feature so we can pick which one we’ll do, and if my difficulty is set to Freshman my team should by God be the number one recruiting class every time.
6. Each year there should be an amazing recruit with mad skillz in the recruiting pool, but usually there isn’t. He should be a stand-out super recruit, and if my difficulty is set to freshman my team should by God be able to recruit him. Period.
7. It’s just irritating to spend recruiting time asking a recruit who wants to go pro to stay another year. Worse, when the answer is, “I don’t know coach. I’m undecided.” And you have to do it over again. And sometimes for a third or fourth time. Sure, it might work that way in real life, but this is a game. Give me an answer one way or the other right off the bat. I’ve got recruiting to get to.
8. Why should you only be able to change a player’s position on one screen during the pre-season options? And that option comes before the depth chart setting screen. How can I know where I’m deficient for next year like that? I need to be able to look at my depth chart, see where I need help, and then change positions to fill holes.
9. Also: when you change a players position he immediately sucks at the new position. This is not like real life at all. True, a three year cornerback might not catch as well as a wide receiver, but many of the skills are there. Sometimes running backs are moved to DE in the real world, OL to DL, TE to MLB or OLB, but in the game this is virtually impossible. Real life scenario: This season Alabama moved Jimmy Johns from RB to LB. I tried that on my game and his rating dropped from the 80s to the 50s. That’s bull. JJ is a phenomenal athlete with a broad set of skills, he can play better linebacker than that. Sure, he may not be upper 80s, but he still should be able to play.
10. Let me delete games from the ‘Great Game’ screen. I lost 17-14 to LSU on the last play of the game on the Heisman difficulty setting and manned up and saved the season. But now that game is recorded infinitely as one of my ‘Greatest Games.’ You know what? Nobody considers a loss, no matter how great the game was, to be one of their greatest games. Penn State probably doesn’t cherish the ‘79 Sugar Bowl like Alabama does. Don’t make me stare at my failures like that.
11. As for gameplay, as I’ve already stated it’s remarkable. But it could be better. If a well thrown ball is lobbed up to a receiver who has the lead on a DB to the corner of the end zone, the DB will invariably jump some fifteen feet into the air and swat it away or pick it. To which I say, huh? This is a mainstay play in football, and if a WR has a DB beat, the well thrown ball is caught probably 90% of the time in real life. Fix it.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: ea, football, NCAA, playstation, ps3, Sports

LSU won the college football national championship, which comes as no surprise to me. I predicted a 2-loss national champion way back on October 7th, which might make me a better college football analyst than Lee Corso. For more sports commentary from me, refer to my sports blog: Real Men Wear Houndstooth.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: College, football, LSU, National Champion, NCAA, Tigers

FIFA: David Beckam his done. Send him out to pasture. Now that the U.S.A. is out, GO Great Brittain, or England, or United Kingdom or whatever they call themselves. I find myself a fan of Wayne Rooney. Nasty little mutant of a man. I’m ready to see what he will do in the next round, now that he’s returned from injury. It’s possible we could see Germany vs England in the final. If that happens the Hooligans will be out in force… see picture at right.

TV: I just saw a commercial for “So You Think You Can Dance” in which the show was introduced as a “smash hit.” I honestly have never even heard of the show. What kind of numbers does it take to have a “smash hit” nowadays? Or is that something that is unregulated and networks can say just to see if they can drive their numbers up? This brought to you by the Utterly Invincible Greatest Blog on Teh Internets: Unabashed.

Baseball notes: As a sports fan, I hate Pat Burrell of the Phillies. I cannot explain it; it is inexplicable but absolute. I don’t hate the Phillies, just Pat. I have always hated him. Last year was the only year he ever really did anything, but I even hated him for his mediocrity. It’s nothing personal, I’m sure he’s a really great guy, I just hate him. So it was with particular relish that I just saw him strike out on three straight pitches of 96, 97, and 96 mph with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning. Also: He’s hitting .056 with RISP on the year. Additionally: Barry Bonds is hitting .242 with 10 HR this year. He is currently 9th on the All-Star ballot for outfielders. Pathetic. Welcome to the post-juice portion of BB’s career. I hope he and Pat Burrell get into a slap fight the next time the Giants and Phillies play. Also: I hate Scott Rolen, too.

I do like some players: Jim Thome is one of my favorites. I also like Todd Helton. I wish the Braves would unload some of their current slackers (i.e.: Marcus Giles and Adam LaRoche) and pull in either one of these guys. I’m sick of watching Marcus Giles, who recently was full of energy and looked like someone who was really happy to be playing, trot down the first base line when he doesn’t drive the ball to the outfield. It makes me want to see him get into a slap fight with Pat Burrell.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: barry bonds, baseball, football, hooligans, pat burrell, soccer