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Favre: less young, more restless

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Written by Andrew Ottoson Tuesday, 29 July 2008 14:34

I've been trying to come up with something to write about the Brett Favre soap opera for the better part of a month, and I've got nothing to say. Except this:

No matter where he plays this season, Favre's “best case scenario” statistically is Rich Gannon's 2002.

With Jon Gruden’s offense geared around his talents, Gannon signed with the Raiders in 1999 and immediately started putting up Pro Bowl numbers.

Then, in ‘02 Gannon posted a few unholy fantasy football stats, ran away with the MVP and led the Raiders to the Super Bowl.

That’s has to be the best case scenario for Favre, doesn’t it?

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While we’re here, let’s not forget that Gannon and the Raiders were more than a little unlucky...

Pedro's pitching transcends eras

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Written by Andrew Ottoson Tuesday, 15 July 2008 15:04

The Major League Baseball all-star game is, year after year, the most memorable of the season. But thinking back on the last decade's worth of all-star games, it's amazing how many times Pedro Martinez stood head and shoulders above every other pitcher in either league, and how few times he actually pitched in the Midsummer Classic.

Let’s put it this way: If Mount Rushmore had been dedicated to great Steroids Era pitchers instead of great Presidents of the United States, Pedro Martinez's stone visage would be getting credit for at least a fourth of the tourism dollars flowing into Keystone, South Dakota.

Look back at the 1999 game, when Martinez struck out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell. Matt...

Tiger more than won—he sent a message

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Written by Andrew Ottoson Wednesday, 18 June 2008 08:12

It took most of six months and hundreds of thousands of man-hours of borderline idleness, but 2008 finally produced one of those pure “sports moments” that fans will think back on a decade from now. Tiger Woods came through in the clutch with a 12-foot lead-tying birdie putt on the 18th hole at the US Open on Sunday night and reminded us why sports matters.

More than simply sending a Nike-branded piece of pockmarked plastic arcing around the outer limits of a PGA-sanctioned black hole, Woods’ shot caused something of a distortion in the space-time continuum. Now, every time a U.S. Open is played at Torrey Pines, Tiger’s latest will come back to us in an HDTV time capsule, a moment transmitted to us from beyond the event...

Fighting the comparison between ice hockey and MMA

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Written by Andrew Ottoson Thursday, 05 June 2008 03:56

With any luck, the Stanley Cup final between Detroit and Pittsburg will go down in the annals of hockey lore for something besides the fact that Saturday's game got kicked right in the Nielsen ratings by the network television debut of mixed martial arts fighting on CBS.

Hockey has a history of fighting, so it was certainly no accident that CBS scheduled its exhibition to coincide with the NHL on NBC.

No doubt many, if not most, MMA fans have little interest in hockey, but CBS wagered that many, if not most, NHL fans were only interested in fighting.

CBS was wrong.

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I read on a blog by some guy named Mark Berman that 150,000 fewer people watched the Detroit-Pittsburg game than watched Saturday’s CSI rerun, and that only...

Celtics-Lakers would be a dream matchup

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Written by Andrew Ottoson Wednesday, 21 May 2008 09:02

Watching Boston close out the Cavs was a real treat for my dad, and he and I will probably be watching just about every Celtics game from here on in together.

Just having the opportunity to jabber back and forth with him was a real treat for me. Without my brother around to keep us from jumping off the deep end, there’s no one to keep our running commentary within the realm of the realistic.

Thankfully, he and I aren’t the only ones who make over-the-top observations about professional basketball.

One of the Sports Sunday guys actually compared Rajon Rondo—22 year old Boston Celtics point guard—to Isiah Thomas.

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Before I get lost in that ocean of silliness or drown in a sea of lousy analogies, I should point out the...