#this was even in the last even-numbered year before the championship 4 era!

[sortanonymous]

HE WARNED US

[batsplat]

always am obsessed with motorsport champions that decide to run the number 1 plate vs those who’ve stuck with their number. because it reveals so much of each of their inner philosophies, whether they are deeply superstitious, or seek a tangible everyday proof of their victory, or concerned with branding/legacies, or trampling the inner critic that believed deep inside of them that they were cut out to be a champion. just so interesting to parse through possible motivations

you're so right anon!!

of course, a big part of it is historical context... you can't really disentangle the choice of whether to run the number one plate or not from the era within which they made said choice. until fairly recently, it was entirely the norm to pick the number one plate - and beyond that, even those who didn't finish in first tended to just adopt the number that represented the place they had finished in during the previous year's championship. so for instance in 1987, gardner was first, mamola second, lawson third, haslam fourth, macckenzie fifth, and so on. in 1988, gardner ran the number 1 plate... mamola 2, lawson 3, haslam 4, mackenzie 5, etc etc. the only champion who broke with tradition was british racer barry sheene (500cc champion in 1976 and 1977), known for being a rebel - and even the styling of his iconic number 7 was apparently a wee bit controversial:

sheene stuck with the 7 both after his formula 750 title and then after his two 500cc titles:

there's some ways in which sheene is kinda the prototype of the modern rider, and he was the first to reap the benefits of having a distinctive number associated with him

in the eighties and nineties, it was all back to number one plates - but then of course another rider decided to break with tradition

incidentally, the generally purported story for why valentino took the number 46 is that it was his father's number. if his autobiography is to be believed, the truth is a little different:

I am Valentino. Graziano chose that name for me because he wanted to honour the memory of his best friend, who drowned at sea, near Pesaro, at the age of eighteen. The fact that St Valentine's Day is just two days before my birthday was also a reason. Number 46 originated when I raced minibikes. I was on a team with two kids from Gatteo a Mare, Marco and Maurizio Pagano. They are the brothers who lent me the Aprilia 125, which I used for my debut at Misano. All three of us had number 46 because we raced in three different categories. They too loved Japan and Japanese riders. One day we were mesmerised by a wild-card entrant at the Japanese Grand Prix who pulled off the most amazing tricks and seemed to have no fear whatsoever. He was number 46. And from that day on, so were we. For me, that lasted until I moved up to the Italian championship and, later, the European series. But when I finally made it to the world championship, I was asked to choose a number. I discovered that 46 was Graziano’s number when he won his first Grand Prix on a Morbidelli 250cc, back in 1979. Which was the year I was born. That’s why I decided that I, too, would be number 46. For me that number represents my career and, partly, my life. It certainly symbolises my massive, incredible, adventure. 

so valentino was only the second premier class rider who stuck with his number. the norm of just following the previous year's standings to choose your number was kinda starting to die out in the late nineties anyway. by 2002, when valentino was defending his title for the first time, if you look down the list it's basically personal numbers all the way. still, valentino was the one to break tradition for champions - the first to do so in a couple of decades. valentino did also know sheene personally as a result of the link through his father, who was a friend of sheene's and had raced him:

^valentino with sheene, valentino wearing a tribute helmet with the iconic '7' on it after sheene's passing (also with the rainbow helmet colours and the word 'pace' or 'peace' on the back during the 2003 invasion of iraq), and valentino's 2005 championship celebrations for his seventh title, his shirt again featuring sheene's seven

hayden didn't follow valentino's example and instead went for the number one plate in 2007. casey made the same choice for the 2008 season, then jorge in 2011... so for a hot moment it really did look like valentino had been just another blip. if anything, the trend was going the other way, with a couple of high profile instances of riders who hadn't won the title rejecting their established numbers:

this particular trend didn't catch on, and from 2010 onward dani decided to just stick with the 26. because all the non-valentino aliens just couldn't stop faffing about with their numbers, 2010 is the only year in which all four aliens are actually concurrently running the numbers we most commonly associate them with

then, by 2012 apparently people were starting to get a bit superstitious about the number one plate. here, from an interview with casey:

the idea is that you can't defend the title if you're sporting the number one plate. which is true! in the 21st century, three guys chose the number one plate, and they defended their titles a grand total of zero times. one bloke stuck to his number, and he defended his title five out of seven times. so yes, it is technically correct that nobody with the number one plate had defended their title, though it is equally true that nobody not called valentino rossi had defended their title. I suppose we'll never know what the bigger factor was

anyways, if picking the number one plate was already a sure thing before, I reckon this sort of silly talk about 'jinxes' would have made casey even less likely to change his mind for 2012. not only is he stubborn, but he also takes an extremely dim view on superstitions

That race was the twelfth in a row that had been won by a rider not starting from pole, which was a new record. People were making a big deal about it and questioning whether, psychologically speaking, it wasn't a good thing to qualify on pole position at all. Maybe to the superstitious riders out there it had become an issue but I have never allowed myself to be affected by outside influences like that and I put an end to the stat by winning from pole in the next round at Laguna Seca in California. It is amazing how many riders have superstitions, which to me are completely ridiculous. Pretty much every one of them has a little mascot or a lucky pair of undies that they once had a good result in and have been stuck with ever since (so to speak!). Superstition is basically just fear and as an athlete my view is that by allowing it to enter your mind you are effectively handing over control. My approach has always been to deliberately tackle it by doing things differently to the last time, just to make sure I don't get into a restrictive habit. Some riders look at their qualifying position and think, I never go well from fifth position, or arrive at a circuit thinking about past results there and say, 'I've never done well here before, it's not my favourite circuit.' You have to be in the mindset that every day is a new day, a new set of circumstances. Every corner is different, every situation is different, and if you are not prepared to open your mind to that then you will always struggle more than necessary. You might have been through one particular corner a thousand times before but with a slight change in temperature, a new bike, a different tyre or a rider trying to pass you on the inside it becomes a completely different challenge and you have to be ready to deal with that.

given that casey is like, neurotically anti-superstition - well, he was probably always going to do the same thing as he did in 2008, but now he definitely would never just stick with his number. unlike jorge... who did change his mind, having run the number one plate in 2011 - but decided against making the switch in 2013. funnily enough, this did not help him defend the title. the eventual 2013 champion ended up also opting to stick with his number... and, well, marc's title defence went a little bit more smoothly. after jorge's 2015 title, he once again stuck to his 99, while marc has used the number 93 throughout his career. by the time you get to 2020, it's easy to have a warped perception of how common it is to keep your number. if you're born in, say, 1997 or later, you think it's basically the done thing to stick to your number, and it's really only a few outliers who use the number one plate. but even in the 21st century... it's really just valentino and marc who were doing it, plus jorge two out of three times. but between the two of them, they sure were winning enough of the titles to make it feel like the established norm

by this point, there really was a bit of a superstition about how the number one plate was 'cursed'. obviously, this wasn't actually a 'curse' as much as it was 'the dominant force in the sport in the noughties decided this number one plate thing wasn't for him and the dominant force in the 2010s who also happens to a massive fan of the other guy also decided not to make the switch either so that probably explains it'. it's not 'you won't defend your title if you're sporting the number one plate', it's 'you won't defend your title if your name isn't valentino rossi or marc marquez'. but obviously, sports drives people insane, so it was always going to be something that prompted a lot of speculation until someone finally managed to defend the plate

following his 2020 championship, mir didn't depart from the new tradition, with a suzuki video to announce his decision:

and fabio did likewise after his 2021 title:

obviously, sticking to their numbers didn't actually help joan and fabio defend their titles, and after his 2022 championship it was pecco's turn to make the choice. pecco went about this in the most pecco way imaginable, with just a touch of public hand-wringing about the whole thing:

just as a quick reminder, before pecco there had been 28 premier class champions. five and two thirds decided against the number one plate - sheene, valentino, marc, joan, fabio, and jorge twice. "I have always been fascinated about riders with number one" describes something that until very recently had been completely normal. not even remotely noteworthy. cheers valentino

eventually, presumably after some extremely extensive introspection, pecco decided to go for the number one plate:

and also this:

and also this (look he's got a lot of thoughts on the matter, please allow him):

and talking about defending the number one:

pecco has continued talking about it sporadically since then. he's spoken about it in the context of defending his title, which as he points out he can only remember marc and valentino doing:

and then the pressure inherent to sporting that plate, from after he'd successfully completed his title defence:

hm. right. let's unpack

the thing about this whole 'running the number one plate' business is that in motogp, each rider's individual choice has to be read with that history in mind. for many years, this wasn't even really a question... it's just what you do when you win the title. sheene was the rebel, the one who decided to do things differently, who wanted to be associated with his very own number. and valentino, who himself knew sheene and was already attached to his own number and has always had a good sense for personal branding, decided to stick with 46. of course, valentino being valentino, he's inescapable enough within motogp that ever since he made that choice, every single champion after him has had to actively make a decision one way or another

so you've got jorge, who had used the number one plate in his title defence during his 250cc campaign in 2007 - and also used it in 2011 as motogp defending champion. he ended up changing his mind for his following two campaigns... remember, he only started using the number 99 in 2009 after his fractious split with his manager during 2008 (see more on numbers lore here). here was what he said about his decision in 2011:

versus his decision in 2015:

jorge in particular does of course have a bit of a complicated relationship with the numbers he's used during his career - and unsurprisingly he's clearly put quite a lot of thought into the whole matter. he's determined to still have the number 99 represent him in some way even in 2011, while also thinking about how he can integrate the number one into his initials - and since it's jorge, of course it's particularly important that his fans approve. he "won't forget" his 99, it was still on his leathers because it's still 'in his heart'... but he explains it by saying he has "earned the right", that it's a "unique opportunity". then, a few years later, his main cited reason for sticking with the number 99 is how it 'represents' him

very much a question of identity, then, something about how jorge made the choice to use the 99 and how it was an expression of liberation for him... he was tempted by the number one once and only once - a statement in itself, following on from jorge's title win in 2010 where the oppressively popular defending champion had been taken out of contention through injury. jorge says he's 'earned the right' because he feels like he deserves it and he wants to tell the world as much. did his failure to defend the title play into his decision not to run the plate again or did he just decide it wasn't really for him after all? did he realise he had grown so attached to the number 99, what it symbolised to him, that he didn't want to give it up again? or did he just realise it was better for personal branding?

last year, here's what casey had to say:

it's fun how the perception of it has changed so drastically, hasn't it? now it's kinda the brave decision to take it... and that's mainly the legacy of two blokes who happened to monopolise this century of racing and decided to make their numbers their own (you may have noticed that there's considerably less material out there on why they made the choice they did). it's gone from something that you just sort of did automatically to something that puts a bit of a target on your back. because that's the subtext, right - everyone wants to 'take the number one plate'... which obviously they do anyway, but all this talk of curses and jinxes attempts to give it a bit of extra weight. is it presumptuous to take that number? valentino and marc made the call to stick to their numbers - and years later it's become a statement to deviate from that path. in that fabio quote above, in context he's really just trying to say he feels like he's the number 20 and nothing other than that - but "I feel like I'm not number one" is still a teensy bit loaded. how did marc's injury affect the choice made by those in his absence?

casey is unsurprisingly very firm on the whole thing, "you are world champion and you should be wearing number one". as if doing anything else is shying away from this duty. defending the title is another "challenge" that he says he likes - almost like a way of putting extra pressure on himself. though in a different interview, casey also says this:

just a number after all, then? it's also interesting how they frame it in different ways, isn't it? for casey it's "recognition" of an achievement, for jorge it's something you've "earned"... and for pecco, it's something you "need to respect". it's about something that puts "pressure" on you... perhaps that's partly because so much of the discourse about the number one plate has become about defending the title (or failing to do so), but pecco discusses it more as a responsibility than something he deserves. you can tell that it's clearly preoccupied him for a while - it's something he's "fascinated" by, he's "admired" people who have done it, he's "always loved it". for both casey and pecco, part of it seems to be about respecting the history of all the blokes who have used the number in the past, like it's an act that pays tribute to that heritage. you'd think this shouldn't have been such a tough choice in the first place, wouldn't you? goes to show how much of a break with tradition it's become - tradition, of course, that was really started by pecco's own mentor. would it be that surprising if that's part of the reason for the reticence? and, at the same time, would it be that surprising that his mentor's long shadow might make him feel like he needs that big and bold number one? what does pecco think it's saying that he went a different way? all this public hand-wringing just because he's breaking a trend

for jorge, the number one plate was a public declaration that he'd made it, naysayers be damned. to pecco, "the number one plate means you need to demonstrate you are number one". it's like giving yourself a point to prove... is it mainly a matter of pride or giving yourself something to live up to? both of them go to great pains to stress their continued attachment to their original number, how they're continuing to integrate it into all their cute designs... and that is something that has changed pretty definitively - not entirely as a result of valentino, but around the same time as valentino emerged as the figurehead of the sport, and he's certainly a big part of it. even the riders who go with the number one still want to have their number and to be known by it. the numbers have become such an integral part of branding and rider identity that riders want to make clear how important they are to them, whether they stick with the number as defending champions or not

at the same time, the fact that taking the number one plate has been de-normalised means that this decision places extra focus on the challenge of defending the title. pecco might not frame his choice in opposition to valentino and marc's to keep their numbers, but he does repeatedly link it to how they alone had been able to win successive titles. for him, then, it becomes an indirect way of living up to a legacy - counterintuitively by doing the opposite of what they did. "since I remember, was just marc and vale have repeated the title" “I thought about it many times this season in all the races we were struggling that the only two riders able to win two years in a row were marc and valentino"... that's what he's trying to live up to, this simultaneous source of inspiration and insecurity. are you lacking confidence if you need to see the number one to believe yourself that you are the number one? or is it conversely shying away from something you have rightfully earned if you can't bring yourself to take the plate? is it an expression of ego if you think your personal number is more meaningful than the number one could ever be? personal branding decisions aside, wouldn't manufacturers much rather you display the number one plate proudly on their bikes?

kind of remarkable, isn't it? it should be such a simple choice... and yet. not only is it now a question of branding and identity, but within motogp it's also become one of how you relate to the legacy of two specific riders. maybe it'll gradually become more common again to take the plate - after all, the curse has now been broken. or maybe it will be the source of much hand-wringing forevermore... we shall see. we shall see

[mecachrome]

https://www.tumblr.com/mecachrome/755898222862548992/httpsxcomthisisformu1a1status181200033146074?source=share

This anon reminded me how last year Jenson said that Oscar lacked personality (around the Mexican GP) and then blamed Oscar for the Imolia incident in qualifying even though Tom said it was his mistake. He seriously has a problem with Oscar.

As for the second part, McLaren has a serious operational problem because Oscar was unable to complete a clean lap in qualifying due to a team error. I know that McLaren last fought for regular victories in 2012 and that returning to the top costs many mistakes that have to be made during this process, but these mistakes must end quickly. Especially now that Mercedes has joined the group of teams that fight for something bigger than only points. I'm really curious about the next two races.

hi anon! LOL yes i recall having thoughts on that incident but i don't remember the exact quote, would you happen to have it somewhere? i don't want to get too tinhatty on this but i do feel like jenson sometimes doesn't really know how to feel about oscar... to be clear he's definitely been complimentary before and obviously isn't constantly lambasting him or anything but it's true that a lot of his quotes about oscar tend to be somewhat... measured + occasionally veering into critical??? personally it amuses me a little because a lot of people (incl jenson's colleagues) compare him and oscar personality-wise and constantly talk about oscar's "maturity" & he and oscar have similar contractgate lore except between the two of them oscar is the one who came out on the better side, and it makes me think of how jenson kind of enjoys being the Unaffected Mature guy around younger drivers and is used to being an object of idolization so he's kind of just like .....? what am i supposed to do with this one. but that's just how i see it hlsdkfh i totally get if people are put off overall 🙇‍♀️

anyway re: more important point!!! i totally agree with you, so many of oscar's biggest "what-ifs" have come off the back of mclaren compromising his qualifying performance instead of his own lack of pace which is deeply frustrating as an oscar fan. speaking of their previous competitive era though it's kind of funny that that was literally with jenson AND that tom was on his side of the garage during his entire mclaren tenure (also andrea was race engineering nando at the time... that man is immortal) 😭 but yes, overall the personnel in the team has changed massively since then so it's not really the same "team" anymore and it makes sense that they're struggling with the transition, but as you said there's a lot of urgency behind getting to the other side as quickly as possible now that mercedes have found better form. the thing is that coming into the season the goal from leadership was always cautiously structured around "fighting for wins," so in that sense we've accomplished the goal and are in a good position, but obviously we now need to push toward "winning the championship" with much more insistency and there are clearly still pieces missing. i don't have many hopes for the wcc this year because the fact that there are always teams duking it out in the top 4 (ferrari were stronger than us at the start of the season, but now that they've fallen off we're still getting points taken away because of merc's competitiveness) means it's difficult to meaningfully make up those numbers on red bull so i'm not very optimistic about that 🤷‍♀️ but that being said i'm still excited and intrigued by how the next few races will go!!! especially since spa is 2nd and we all know how oscar feels about it 🥺

[vetteldixon]

Sebastian Vettel hybrid era stats:

Wins: 14

Podiums: 60

Pole Positions: 12

Fastest Laps: 16

These are the numbers of a guy in an era that is supposed to be a failure for him... mind you, numbers that are better than the entire careers of many retired legends of the sport.

I don't know why Seb fans are surprised by the blatant disregard he's shown time and again. It's been years of the media gaslighting against him. The guy was supposed to be the next big thing after 2008, but when he started doing what a "next big thing" should it was suddenly because of the car. And Seb has mentioned before how he wasn't made to feel exactly welcome in the paddock because he was so young, and part of his career problems are also the fact that he was so good so young, the narrative simply changed to "Sebastian Vettel needs to win everything with a car that shouldn't be championship capable for us to take his achievements seriously because we can't wrap our heads around the fact that someone could be a 4 time world Champion at the age of 26, how could he be so good, he's too young for that, it has to be the car", because clearly that's what other champions have done lmao😂

Oh and fun fact, the 2013 red Bull had a smaller pace advantage to the second quickest team on the grid, than the 2017 Mercedes had to the 2017 Ferrari, yet we live in a world where one season is considered dominant because of a rocketship, while the other became a championship fight and was lost by the slower car because the team didn't know how to use spark plugs and have race strategies. Ferrari were also using a 2016 speck engine...

I have also seen some people here and on Twitter who claim to be Seb fans take Fernando Alonso's words spoken purely out of jealousy after losing two championships to a kid as words of gospel, and the remainder of his fans just busy hyping the grid dad, bee collector image. The FOM also plays into that... For them Seb was the villain until the end of 2019, the frail former champion last year to milk a sob divorce story with Ferrari. But now that he is not in competitive machinery it's suddenly oh look how wonderful and wholesome Seb is, heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes...

I don't know what Aston are doing for this year, and where the car would be in the pecking order, but rest assured if the team is competitive in the slightest, the FOM will forget their grid dad Seb and be back to making him the villain, but only the villain, never a hero.

Also, a request for people here if you haven't carefully followed the 2017&18 seasons including how the development work went on with the teams and especially the political turmoil at Ferrari since the end of 2017 that got amplified mid season in 2018 because of Marchionne's death, refrain from commenting on Seb's season, we don't really need your half-arsed stories on how Seb got beaten by Mercedes, when he was busy with a championship fight and trying to deal with idiots in his own team mocking him, and the teams higher ups being involved in an in-fighting which everyone's beloved Mattia Binotto himself has described had reached a point where the aerodynamics the power trains department weren't even communicating correctly to each other that led to massive issues with car development.

anon you sent me this at just the right time because i'm so sleepy that i'm willing to just publish this without comment

[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 40, 2046-2047

The final season of our sim dynasty with Western Illinois in College Hoops 2K8 is here.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April 2020 for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 40, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Western Illinois entered Year 39 trying to three-peat as national champions for the first time in program history. We lost two starters early to the NBA coming into the season, but still had enough talent to be ranked No. 10 overall in the preseason polls.

We ran through the regular season schedule, losing only one game to UCLA during the non-conference season and sweeping Summit League opponents once again. We entered the NCAA tournament at 29-1 on the year and earned a No. 4 seed to the big dance.

We beat Brown in round one, knocked off Georgia Tech in the round of 32, beat Indiana in the Sweet 16, and lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. We know enter the final season of my career tied with John Wooden with 10 national championships.

We added three players in our last ever recruiting class: five-star JUCO SF Jerald Obasohan, four-star SG Erwin Walls, and four-star PF Kenny Butler.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 40:

It feels like only yesterday that a fresh-faced, 25-year-old came to the small town of Macomb, Illinois with big dreams. Coach Rick was hired by Western Illinois to do the impossible: win a national championship with arguably the worst team in college basketball. After 39 seasons at the helm, our tiny program has accomplished that and so much more. Now it’s time to hang it up.

Our journey at Western Illinois is finally coming to an end. In literal terms, College Hoops 2K8 forces mandatory retirement upon coaches in dynasty mode after 40 seasons. All good stories need closure either way. As we start our final season, we have some big stakes attached to our swan song.

Western Illinois has won 10 national championships in the Ricky Charisma era. That ties us with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most in history. What started as a mission to win a single national championship has now left us with a different goal: to become the undisputed greatest program in the history of the sport.

While we failed in our bid to three-peat last season — falling to Florida in the Elite Eight — we did bring back all four breakout juniors for this season. We only lost starting center DJ Foster to graduation. Yeah, it’s been a while since we last published Year 39 (thanks for your patience), so let’s go over the roster:

PG Christano Ngounou, junior, 89 overall: Ngounou made major strides after being forced into the starting lineup last season, and now looks like a rock solid contributor going into our final year. An international recruit out of Cameroon, Ngounou is a fast 6’3 guard with lockdown defensive ability and a slightly above average three-point shot. We have bigger names on this squad who will be expected to carry the scoring load, but Ngounou is going to play a huge role because he’s way better than every other point guard on the roster. We need quality minutes from him in the tournament. Former five-star international recruit with B potential.

SG Bernie Doyle, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Doyle is an incredible talent who enters his senior year looking to fully blossom into a superstar. The 6’9 shooting guard uses his immense size on both ends of the floor. He’s elite at getting into the passing lanes and forcing steals (a team-high 1.8 per game as a junior) on the defensive end, and has a sweet three-point stroke offensively. Doyle is such a smooth scorer and dominant defender that it feels like he has the natural talent to develop into an all-great in his senior year. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge. Former No. 36 overall recruit from Detroit with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Floyd Keller, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Keller checks every box for a small forward. He has good size at 6’7. He has a three-point rating in the mid-80s. He’s the best dunker on the team. He’s an elite offensive rebounder for a wing with a rating in the low 90s, which helps equip him to play minutes at the four. After a tough shooting night in our Elite Eight loss last season — he went 1-for-7 from three — we’ll need Keller to be consistently great if we want one more run through the bracket. Former No. 101 overall recruit out of Dallas with C+ potential. Projected second round pick.

PF Oscar Fray, redshirt senior, 88 overall: Fray enters his third year as a starter with a fascinating combination of size and skill that could set him up for a breakout senior year. The 7-foot power forward is a great three-point shooter for his position with a rating just below 80. Defensively, he’s the top-rated shot blocker on the team, and also does a pretty good job on the glass. Former No. 118 overall recruit out of Lynn, MA with C potential. Projected second round pick.

C Brody Munoz, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Munoz finally gets the spotlight as a senior after backing up DJ Foster — a one-time NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player — for his entire career up to this point. We’re expected big things, and not just because he’s tied for the highest rated player on the roster going into the regular season. What Munoz lacks in elite size at 6’11 he can make up for with strength, agility, and rebounding. We expect him to be really good at forcing turnovers, grabbing putbacks, and helping fortify the paint. Former No. 169 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Nashville with B potential. Projected lottery pick.

We have an incredibly deep bench for our final season. Center Logan Polk (85 overall) will be our sixth man, and should be able to form a three-man front court rotation with the two starters in the tournament. After that, we have a lot of options but not a lot of good options.

Here’s the rest of the bench: wing Jaycee Queen (80 overall), wing Jerald Obasohan (79 overall), guard Archie Howell (78 overall), wing/guard James Haranga (74 overall), guard Edwin Walls (74 overall), and power forward Kenny Butler (74 overall).

This is really it. Year 40. The last dance. What a ride it has been. We start the season at No. 4 in the polls.

How did the regular season go?

For our final regular season, we tried to schedule a good mix of local schools and historic big conference rivals with a couple in-season tournaments thrown in for good measure.

Here’s how the regular season went:

Win over Bradley

Win over Nebraska

Win over UTEP

Loss to Southern Illinois

Win over Florida

Loss to Northwestern

Win over New Mexico

Win over DePaul

That sets up a rivalry game against Illinois. We’ve played the Illini in almost every season, and we don’t want to end this dynasty without one more dub. The losses to Southern Illinois and Northwestern were a real bummer, and we need a palate cleanser. Let’s go!

Big win, 102-68. Look at Cristano Ngounou hanging 17 points and six assists on the Illini. Love seeing both starters in the front court — seniors Oscar Fray (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brody Munoz (18 points, 11 rebounds) — each dropping a double-double, too. And how about our new five-star JUCO addition Obasohan chipping in 12 points off the bench? Really promising performance from the boys.

We get a big win over Kansas in our next game. That sets up another marquee game with a program we don’t like very much out of the state of North Carolina: Duke. We’ve battling with Duke on the court and on the recruiting trail for 40 freaking years. Can we end this rivalry with a dub?

Ugh, loss, 88-83. Nice games from Bernie Doyle (19 points, four assists) and Oscar Fray (14 points, 12 rebounds), but it isn’t enough. That’s our third loss of the season. Get bent, Duke.

We end the year with three more non-conference games.

Win over Illinois-Chicago

Win over American

Win over Arizona State

While we may have lost the final battle to Duke, I won the war over Coach K with a significantly better career by any measure (more on that in a minute). Now it’s time to jump into conference play in the Summit League.

Did we go undefeated in conference season?

Yes we did, another perfect 18-0 stretch.

Now we enter the conference tournament. Can we punch one more automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?

Win over UMKC

Win over Southern Utah

Win over UL-Calcutta

We’re going to the NCAA tournament for the last time, but that isn’t even the headliner after winning the Summit League. Im taking home the conference tournament championship, I won game No. 1,171 of my career. That currently puts me ahead of Coach K for the most wins all-time.

We have built a great legacy at Western Illinois. Before we enter the NCAA tournament, let’s take a look at our statistical leaders:

What a year for Munoz. Dude sat on the bench for four seasons before finally getting a starting spot, and all he did was lead our team in scoring at 17.2 points per game. Fray was awesome, too, averaging a hair under 15 points per game while chipping in nearly two blocks and six rebounds per game. It’s good to see Keller and Doyle both hit double-figures in scoring. I’m a bit surprised Cristano couldn’t even put up seven points a night after his big game against Illinois, but the assist and steals numbers are solid. We’re going to need him in March.

The Leathernecks are heading into the NCAA tournament at 32-3 on the year. I can’t wait to see what seed we get.

2047 NCAA tournament

Well, we couldn’t end this dynasty without getting swindled by the Selection Committee one more time. We’re a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. I thought we should have been a top-four seed without question.

We’ll open the tournament with a game against No. 11 seed Syracuse. Sheesh. Before we get to the game, let’s check in on our roster one more time:

I’m loving the way this group progressed through the year. We have two awesome wing scorers with an elite combination of size and shooting in Keller and Doyle. We have plenty of beef up front with Munoz, Fray, and Polk. Ngounou entered the program as a 77 overall and shot up to a 92 in three years without a redshirt. The bench also really improved during the season and should give us plenty of different lineup options in March.

This is going to be a tough run, starting with Syracuse. The Orange have knocked us out of the big dance before, and consistently put together really strong teams.

Our last dance starts now. As always, we’re simulating every game, I’m not controlling the ‘Necks.

Let’s go!

Win, 105-73! What an absolute beatdown. We’ve moving on to the round of 32.

Long-time followers of the series will know that our Leathernecks have always been known as a second half team. It happened in a big way in this game. Syracuse ended the first half strong to cut our lead to nine points, but we quickly turned it into a blowout out of the break.

I thought this was a tremendous all-around team effort. Six players hit double-figures in scoring with no one putting up more than Floyd Keller’s 15 points. Everyone who played recorded an assist. I loved this play from the first half when we set two screens for our five-star JUCO Obasohan that helped get him an easy layup.

Our bench is a big question mark coming into this tournament, mostly because it’s filled with a lot of fresh faces who haven’t played big minutes in clutch spots before. I have to say, the performance of our reserves in our tournament opener was super encouraging. Obasohan in particular looks like a keeper after scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and knocking down a three. We always need wing depth, and he should be able to provide that on this run.

The clear highlight of Obasohan’s night: this sick two-handed dunk in transition for an and-one.

We love to turn defense into offense, and Ngounou and Doyle’s ability to get into the passing lanes really helps us out there.

Speaking of Ngounou in transition: he had a beautiful finish on the break to put the game fully out of reach. That’s what you want out of your point guard.

The win sets up a second round game against Colorado State

The Rams have been a solid program throughout this sim dynasty, regularly making NCAA tournament appearances. We have a decisive edge in talent heading into this game.

We are one win away from going to the Sweet 16 and extended our run in the big dance. One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

Win, 109-79! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

We didn’t need to be a second half team in this one. Our ‘Necks blew the doors off Colorado State from the opening tip-off. I thought we played a great game offensively thanks to our inside-out ball movement.

We had five scorers in double-figures in this one, but it was senior starters Bernie Doyle and Oscar Fray leading the charge. We know Doyle is capable of taking over a game at his best, and he was awesome in this one: 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three. The real story was Fray, though.

Fray was probably the least appealing long-term prospect of our recruiting class when he entered the program alongside Doyle, Keller, and Munoz. That was mostly because of his 74 rating and C potential grade. While he’s always been rated a few points lower than his classmates, Fray’s skill set on the court is so important to us. He’s a massive 7-foot power forward who can protect the rim and shoot threes. What more do you want?

Fray went off in this game: 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals on 9-of-11 shooting. I love watching the big man shoot from deep. This was from NBA range.

Here’s one more catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

Fray might get slept on a little on this team, but he’s absolutely critical to our success if we want to win it all.

I also want to shout-out the bench for another solid performance. I liked what I saw out of Obasohan (11 points) and Howell (10 points). Since we already have two Obasohan clips in this post, why not make it three? Love him hitting this triple in the first half to help us open up the lead.

We’re rollin’.

The win sets up a Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama

We’re now four wins away from ending this dynasty with a national championship. A Sweet 16 game against Bama is going to be an absolute battle.

In our simulated future, the Tide have become a basketball school. This program seems to make the tournament every year, and they’ve given us plenty of trouble in the past.

A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 112-69! We’re onto the Elite Eight!

Say it with me: SECOND. HALF. TEAM. After a tight first half left us with a six-point lead coming into the break, our ‘Necks absolutely torched the nets in the second half to come away with the blowout win. Seriously: we scored 66 points in the final 20 minutes. That was an offensive clinic at its best.

I had a good feeling about the second half when Cristano got this three hit the rim like 50 times before falling. Sometimes you need some good luck on your side.

A couple possessions later, Floyd Keller came down a ripped another three. We finally had a double-digit lead, and we’d never look back.

It was great to see Keller (15 points) get going from deep. He hit all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.

While we don’t have any clips of the front court from this game, they absolutely deserve credit for the win.

Fray turned in another incredible performance, this one somehow even better than his last. He ended the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks on 10-of015 shooting. He didn’t attempt a three (booooo) but he dominated the game on both ends. His front court mate Munoz was almost as good. The senior center finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. We kept going inside — Munoz and Fray combined for 35 (!) field goal attempts — and they were making the Bama defense pay.

Not the best Bernie Buckets game (9 points on 3-of-10 shooting), but I clipped this shot from the first half, so I might as well embed it here.

Elite Eight, here we come.

The win sets up an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Indiana

Our run in the NCAA tournament has been a breeze up to this point, but I fear things about to get a lot more difficult. Our plucky No. 6 seed is about to run into one of college basketball’s blue bloods: the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The Elite Eight has been something of a bugaboo for us. We lost in this round last year. We’ve lost in this round many times before. I don’t want it to happen again.

A Final Four trip is on the line. As always, we’re watching a simulated version of this game; I am not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

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Loss, 96-86. Oh my gosh. And just like that, our dream of ending this dynasty with a national title is over.

I am devastated. I really thought this team was good enough to send me out on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Hoosiers’ outside shooters did us in. Indiana’s guard-heavy lineup caught fire from deep (10-of-21 for 47.6 percent), and our perimeter attack couldn’t keep up. We only hit 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) attempts from three.

What happened to our second half team this time? We were only down two going into halftime, but we were outscored by eight over the final 20 minutes. Tough scene.

There were some solid individual performances. Munoz went out strong with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Bernie Doyle dropped 21 points and hit this three-pointer to keep us in it early.

Floyd Keller just didn’t give us enough on the wing. He shot 1-of-8 from three in the loss. He did give us a little juice in transition, at least.

Cristano played all 40 minutes, and had eight points and nine assists. I really wish I got another year with him as a senior next season.

Unfortunately there is no next season. After 40 years at Western Illinois, our sim dynasty is over. Here are some final numbers on the series:

Final record: 1,177-213

10 national championships (tied with John Wooden for the most in men’s college basketball history)

15 Final Four appearances

25 Sweet 16 appearances

Final NCAA tournament record: 113-27

38 Summit League regular season championships

35 Summit League tournament championships

38 seasons with 20+ wins

61 players drafted

The thing I’m most proud of? After we made the NCAA tournament for the first time in Year 3, we didn’t miss it again the rest of this dynasty.

Is Ricky Charisma the greatest men’s college basketball coach ever?

I think so. Here’s how we stack up to other top coaches in NCAA history in important categories.

Total wins

Ricky Charisma: 1,179

Mike Krzyzewski: 1,170

Jim Boeheim: 1,083

Roy Williams: 903

Bob Knight: 899

Dean Smith: 879

Jim Calhoun: 877

Adolph Rupp: 876

Bob Huggins: 828

Eddie Sutton: 806

Tournament wins

Ricky Charisma: 110

Mike Krzyzewski: 94

Roy Williams: 77

Dean Smith: 65

Jim Boeheim: 57

Tom Izzo: 52

Jim Calhoun: 49

John Wooden: 47

Final Four appearances

Ricky Charisma: 15

Mike Krzyzewski: 12

John Wooden: 12

Dean Smith: 11

Roy Williams: 9

Tom Izzo: 8

Rick Pitino: 7

Denny Crum, Adolph Rupp, John Calipari: 6

Consecutive tournament appearances

Western Illinois: 36

Kansas: 31

North Carolina: 27

Arizona: 25

Duke: 24

Michigan State: 23

Gonzaga: 22

Winning percentage

Ricky Charisma: 84.7

Mark Few: 83.44

Sam Burton: 83.33

Clair Bee: 82.444

Adolph Rupp: 82.1

John Wooden: 80.3

National championships

Ricky Charisma: 10

John Wooden: 10

Mike Krzyzewski: 5

Adolph Rupp: 4

Roy Williams: 3

Jim Calhoun: 3

Bobby Knight: 3

Who is the best player in Western Illinois history?

That’s the big question within the fanbase right now. Before we get to it, let’s look back at our greatest recruiting wins.

We landed five five-star recruits out of the domestic high school ranks during my time at Western Illinois. We also signed nine five-star JUCO recruits, and six five-star international recruits from places like New Zealand (shout-out Dave French), Montenegro (anti shout-out Vitor Andrisevic), France (what up, Kim Kone!), and Cameroon.

The highest-rated recruit in program history was Sammy Yan at No. 10 overall in 2032. He was pretty much a disappointment. The program’s all-time leading scorer was center Vinnie Harmon with 2,452 career points during his career. He was the No. 122 overall recruit and the No. 8 center (those that followed the series or played the game know that centers are always weirded underrated on the recruiting trail).

Here are some more numbers during tournament games only (aka, the games we streamed), from the amazing Leathernecks Database maintained by our fans:

The highest rated player in program history is a tie between small forward Nic Cummings and point guard Duncan Martinez, who are the only players to reach 97 overall. Cummings in particular is a great choice for the GOAT. He ended his career with three national titles, though only one as a starter. He’s top-10 for me, but not No. 1.

The people’s choice for the GOAT is Deke Van, the legendary center who helped carry us to our first national title in Year 8. Deke’s turn from from Year 7 goat to Year 8 GOAT is the most memorable we’ve ever had. We couldn’t have done any of this without you, Deke.

When Coach tell you youre guarding @deke_van https://t.co/RDhmDAPRA8 pic.twitter.com/fm2udgvMZT

— Ryan Thomas (@RTtheSID) May 10, 2020

As the series went on, other great players emerged who finished with gaudier stats and better resumes.

My personal favorite might be Bert Draughan, Mr. Basketball out of Chicago (No. 29 overall recruit), who went on to win a title with us in Year 13 and also starred for our Year 11 team that began the season 35-0 before losing to Michigan State in the Final Four. Harmon is another fine choice. Skip Clemmons helped us win three national titles in Year 23, Year 24, and Year 26. Albert Jagla, Clemmons’ former teammate, played a big role in our first back-to-back championship squad, and is arguably the greatest perimeter bucket-getter in program history.

All-time favorite moment? Impossible to say. The first one that comes to mind is Kim Kone’s go-ahead corner three in the 2024 tournament. Najeeb Goode’s steal vs. UCLA in the Final Four to help us win our second title in Year 13 also stands out. There was also the time superstar power forward Allen Cunningham took off his pants mid-game.

Thank you to everyone who read, watched, and interacted

I started this series on April 11, 2020, a few weeks after the pandemic had shut down all ‘real’ sports. At the time, I was gearing up to cover the 2020 NCAA tournament. That never happened. I had college basketball on my mind, and I always wanted to write something on ‘College Hoops 2K8’, probably my favorite video game ever. This project is what came of it.

I had no idea if anyone was going to read this. I definitely did not think I’d finish out all 40 years like a complete lunatic. I didn’t think I’d write the equivalent of multiple books in terms of total word count.

Just before I dropped the first post in the series, I tweeted this:

Got a real dumb blog post coming

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) April 11, 2020

I wrote around 70 posts in the series, counting the inaugural Hall of Fame induction (read a big Deke Van retrospective at that link) and two posts of my Deke Van x Seattle Supersonics spin-off. I’m estimating I wrote 200,000 words in this series. That’s about the length of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I still can’t believe everything that came from this series. The Washington Post wrote a profile on it. I went on WGN TV and did a few radio spots promoting it. We sold a Deke Van t-shirt with Homefield Apparel. Our series inspired a new friend in Japan named Thanh Nguyen to write a pair of e-books adding greater depth to our story. Friend of the program Mike Rutherford did an amazing hype video for our first championship run. When I moved the series to Substack for a few months, more than 7,000 people signed up for email updates and still remain. Our first Twitch stream for the Year 8 Final Four drew more than 7,000 total viewers, and had 2,500 concurrent viewers on it at as we were closing out the win. On SB Nation, the series has been viewed more than 500K times.

What really made the project special was always the community around it. Some quick shout-outs:

The Leathernecks Database is an amazing companion to this series. You can lost in there. Thank you to the diehards to helped maintain it, and reader Evan for starting it.

Thanks to my guy who started the Leathernecks Nation instagram fan page and whoever is behind the wondrous fake Deke Van twitter account.

Thanks to everyone in the Discord who maintained ‘Necks discussion always and forever.

Thank the diehards that came out for every Twitch stream. I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget someone, but you know who you are. I love you all. I also want to thank the readers for keeping up with the recaps, and everyone who emailed me feedback throughout the series. I also want to thank my buddy Scott for introducing me to the game and running through multiple 40-year dynasties with me way before I ever considered blogging through it like this. This series would not exist without him.

What a ride it’s been. As I sim through to the end of the calendar, I’m greeted with this message.

Thank you, everyone. Go ‘Necks.

[fromtheringapron]

WWE WrestleMania XXVI

Date: March 28, 2010.

Location: University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. 

Attendance: 72,219.

Commentary: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker. 

Results:

1. WWE Unified Tag Team Championship Match: ShoMiz (The Miz and Big Show) (champions) defeated R-Truth and John Morrison 

2. Triple Threat Match: Randy Orton defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. 

3. Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Jack Swagger defeated Christian, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Montel Vontavious Porter, Matt Hardy, and Shelton Benjamin. 

4. Triple H defeated Sheamus. 

5. Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk (with Serena and Luke Gallows).

6. No Holds Barred Lumberjack Match: Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon. Bruce Hart was the special guest referee.

7. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Chris Jericho (champion) defeated Edge. 

8. Layla, Alicia Fox, Maryse, Michelle McCool, and Vickie Guerrero defeated Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres. 

9. WWE Championship Match: John Cena defeated Batista (champion) to win the title. 

10. No Disqualification Career vs. Streak Match: The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels. Per stipulation, Michaels retired.

My Review

WreslteMania XXVI is a difficult show to sum up. It’s a pretty good WrestleMania, but also one that happens to be all over the place in tone and focus. Perhaps its reflective of how indeterminate the future of the WWE felt at the start of the 2010s. The roster was such a mishmash of eras that you’d be forgiven of not having a clue where the hell the company was going. John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton were at the top of the card after their rise to superstardom in the 2000s, but the spotlight was still shared guys who rose to stardom in the ‘90s like Triple H and The Undertaker. Then there was a new generation of talent—The Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, etc. — bubbling in the undercard who seemed poised to rocket into the top at any moment. But wait! Time was also given to  . . . the 13-year-old feud between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon?!? Suffice to say, with the show splintering off in so many different directions, it’s not surprising it has some misfires.

Let’s start with the good stuff, though. The main event between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels is fantastic and I’m gonna throw it out there that I like it more than their match from the previous year. The stakes feel higher, the suspense level feels higher, and there’s more of a story here than just Shawn needing to beat Taker. He puts his entire career is on the line here, for heaven’s sake! And speaking of his career, like many at the time, I didn’t have a clue this would be Shawn’s last match. Most on-screen wrestling retirements are never legit, so there was plenty of basis to believe this one would be no different. But alas, this one was different, and we get about as good a sendoff as we could’ve gotten for someone who’s been dubbed Mr. WrestleMania.

On another show, the WWE title match between John Cena and Batista would’ve been the main event. Their match here is great fun. It’s actually an end of an era for the two men who were crowned as the leaders of the next generation at WrestleMania five years earlier. Batista would move on to Hollywood shortly after this and, while certainly not his last WWE run, it would mark the end of his career as a full-timer. Interestingly enough, Batista was really coming into his own as a heel at the time of his departure, even winning over fans who previously couldn’t stand him. He would resurrect his heel run in 2014 and 2019, again only for a short spell. A shame we haven’t been able to spend much time with arrogant heel ‘Tista and his impeccable designer fashion, but then I guess that’s what makes it so special.

As for what doesn’t work, I probably don’t need to go into much detail about the Bret/McMahon clash. The basics of the story are solid — Bret gets his long-awaited revenge on McMahon, with his family right by his side. It’s just not super fun to watch in execution, however well-meaning it may be. They match is dragged out much longer than it should and it takes the crowd completely out of it. Another misfire is the Money in the Bank match. This would be the final iteration of the match at WrestleMania before it becomes its own pay-per-view. It’s clear the concept needs some rejuvenation by this point as it’s now a lazy, bloated affair where everyone gets in their allotted number of spots and there are way too many participants. To cap it all off, the ill-advised decision is made to push Jack Swagger into the main event scene, an idea which would run out of gas in a matter of months.

The show seems to have some weird pacing issues as well. In the era of the Network, I’ve grown so accustom to Manias being stretched to the point of exhaustion, so it’s always little odd to go back and watch one that feels like it doesn’t have enough time. It’s almost like it’s struggling to figure out how spread out time across a card so stacked. The tag opener and Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk feel like abridged versions of the matches we would’ve otherwise gotten, while Bret vs. McMahon gets more time than either combined. Even Money in the Bank feels somewhat rushed. I’m definitely not a huge fan of WrestleMania becoming a seven-hour event, and WWE has proven they struggle with time management on longer Manias, but this is one show where it seems an extra hour absolutely would’ve been to its benefit.

At its best, WrestleMania XXVI is a nice sampler plate of eras, even if struggles to give you equal portions for all of them. The multi-generational makeup of the card ensures there’s a little something for everyone and even closes the books on a couple of legendary careers. You’re bound to dislike some it but for better or worse, and this is a cheeseball thing to say, it definitely puts the “showcase” in the Showcase of the Immortals.

My Random Notes

No joke, I really did not think this would be it for HBK and even seriously thought Taker’s streak was in jeopardy. Am I a fool for thinking that? Maybe, but I like that wrestling conned into believing it in a way it hardly ever does anymore.

I feel like the temple entrance set is something that should’ve been more impressive than it is in actuality. They just stacked LED screens on top of each other and just rolled with it. It looks like something from Minecraft.

Ah, this show reinvigorates my fond feelings for Matt Striker. Such a handsome chap! Not surprising at all he would appear on a Bachelor ripoff a whole decade later.

I chuckled at Bruce Hart being the special guest referee for Bret vs. McMahon. You just know he huffed and puffed his way into that one, much to Bret’s annoyance.

I also chuckled at Diana Hart-Smith walking down to the ring with her best “evil, vindictive femme fatale on the cover of a pulp novel” look. God bless her. She needs to write another book.

I know Rey singing Happy Birthday to his daughter is meant to be a heart-warming thing but if I were a kid in the same situation, I would be traumatized. Just think of how uncomfortable it is when a room full of people is signing at you and then think of enduring that in an arena filled with thousands of people. CM Punk did her a huge favor by crashing the moment, as far as I’m concerned.

Not saying anything new here, but the whole Spear thing with Edge is cringe as hell and it’s for the best that it’s been forgotten in the annals of his career.

I know some people like to mock Vickie Guerrero doing Eddie’s frog splash, but I personally thought it was a sweet moment while staying true to comedically heel Vickie.

The official theme song to this Mania is “I Made It” by Kevin Rudolf. A time-period appropriate choice, I must say. I feel like the dawn of the 2010s is the only time a Kevin Rudolf could be a success.

I identify myself as someone who will always be more embarrassed by John Cena haters than Cena himself and I gotta say him posing next to the guys in the front row hating his guts is fucking hilarious. Cena is funny sometimes when he just straight-up trolls.

On the Legacy fallout: The storytelling for this was weird as hell. Am I the only who remembers that one time on Raw where they teased Ted turning face and the crowd was actually kinda into it? Then they completely abandoned it for whatever reason and just had Randy be the breakout face (as if he needed it) and dunk on both Cody and Ted at WrestleMania. I feel like Cody’s AEW origin story more or less began here.

Awwwwe, this show has little baby Drew McIntyre. It’s so interesting watching this with the benefit of hindsight. I remember a lot of people Not Feeling It when he was anointed as the Chose One, and truthfully I wasn’t feeling it at the time either, but watching it back really makes you appreciate how much hard work he put in to get to where he’d be a decade later. A lot of folks were dreading the inevitable Drew world title run in 2010. The title run did happen, but it was much later and much more welcome than anyone back than anyone could’ve imagined.

[thegeneralsnotebook]

July Feature: History of Colours Part 3 -- Purple

One of the things that I was a little afraid of going into this series about the histories of each of the main colours was that after the first few entries, the series would start to get a bit dry. I would have already talked about the big decks and so the later colours wouldn’t have a whole lot left to mention that hadn’t already been said. So far at least, I’m glad to say that this hasn’t happened, and now it looks like maybe it’ll be okay. After all, we’ve got a lot of important cards to mention when we get to Pink, and again when we get to Orange, and again when we get to Blue. So I don’t think that we’re going to run into any problems on that front at all. In any case, this month is about Purple, and it’s a colour that has its own narrative to tell.

That, by the way, is another thing which has surprised me so far in my research. Each of the colours so far has had a relatively nice theme emerge around their history as I pulled it together. Yellow’s was a tale of a brilliant beginning, a long period of loss, and then a slow but strong rebirth. White’s was a surprisingly thematic tale of a colour that, while it had given up the spotlight, had never given up the stage. For Purple, things are a little different, but no less appropriate, especially given the colour’s new royal connotations. Purple, I’ve found, has been a colour all about establishing dynasties, lines of decks passing a torch from one generation to the next, traceable back to a touchstone concept from older times. It was impressive how far back some of these lines reached, and indeed a few decks that I had thought emerged from whole cloth were actually perched on the shoulders of past giants that I had never even heard of before. 

Before we get started, I want to again extend heartfelt thanks to my source on all matters of the predate my experience with the game’s competitive scene: the one and only Emperor Bugle. This time I really would have been up the creek if not for him, though we’ll get to that particular event in its due time.

For now, come along with me, as we unveil the saga of the Dynasties of Purple.

Two big cards with big effects, but generally used for slightly different things.

Formative Days

As with all of the colours, the story of Purple has to begin at the beginning, at the dawn of Premier. There were three major decks featuring Purple at the time, but I have covered Royal Guidance and Taxes in the Yellow and White articles respectively, and I won’t be going into further detail on them here. Instead, let’s focus on our first touchstone, though in this case the torch first lit by Big Bombs was not to be picked up by Purple, and instead was eventually passed to a different colour, which we’ll talk about in its due time.

Now, I would not be surprised by a slight sense of deja vu encountered when first clicking on that link, because indeed this early deck does bear a striking resemblance to some Harmony Purple Farming decks that have been active as recently as this year’s Winter Store Championships. The modern versions have significantly less Friends, different Epics, and some useful Resources in them, but the basic idea is absolutely still the same. PR Twilight contributes well to fighting Epics when paired with a lot of extra flip Events and a high-flipping deck in general. In addition the deck features a good host of what Purple control tools existed at the time, capped off by the brilliant Ursa Vanquisher, a card which may or may not be showing up again in this article a little ways down the page. Indeed, this was Farming before the term “Farming” was even part of the CCG vernacular. And, your eyes do not deceive you where that Full Steam in the upper left is considered. Once upon a time, a 4/0/4 vanilla actually did deserve to be a Rare, and especially in a deck so focused on its flips it was an excellent card to have.

As we move along into Canterlot Nights, we come to a deck that I’ve mentioned before, in the moment that it came during White’s article. I gave it little more than a footnote at that time, but I don’t believe that this time I can get by without giving it a full treatment. Unfortunately, I am also not qualified to properly discuss the minutiae of its construction, so for that I will defer to my source, who has written rather extensively on the topic. I refer of course to One Pace (and seriously do block some time from your schedule if you intend on clicking that link; when I said Bugle had written extensively I wasn’t kidding). One Pace is an important deck for a lot of reasons, and probably could serve as the basis for a whole article all on its own. From my research I can confidently enough say that what you see in there is the foundation upon which combo was built, a formulation of reduced-cost Events and deck-thinning that rings eerily recognizable even today. History may not repeat itself, as Mark Twain said, but it sure does often rhyme.

Finally, we close off these early days with a little list that may not have ever captured much in the way of tournament success, but certainly captured a fair few hearts and minds in its time in the public eye. This being the Antisocial Luna Farming deck that first came at the concept of building a deck with no Friends, and was a popular-enough topic of discussion.

The times, they were a’changin, and Purple was finding its stride.

The Great Realignment

Every one of these articles, I’ve realized, is going to contain a section that could plausibly be headlined by DJ and Maud, even in the colours other than Orange and Pink. Simply put, Rock & Rave was such a momentous and seminal event in the history of the game that the time before and the time after it must be kept separate from each other.

In Purple’s case, however, there was at least a small amount of time before the Great Pink & Orange War fully took hold where one new dynasty was able to be laid down, and what an important dynasty it wound up being. At this point, we have advanced to the 2014 NA Continental Championships, and within the Top 8 of that event there were two important Purple decks.

The first was the winner of the whole thing, a deck named Maudlike, notable for being one of the very first competitively successful tri-colour lists, and itself a harbinger of things to come with its relatively slow, Farming/Control oriented playstyle. Indeed, while Maud was to become best-known in a pure Farming context, her strengths in a Control deck willing to use her Power to consistently confront Problems have also been broadly recognized throughout history. And yes, here we see Ursa Vanquisher again, still devastatingly effective at defending Troublemakers in a world so lacking in other ways of dealing with them.

But in actuality I think that it is the other Purple list that appears in the Top 8 that is the more important one to take note of. It’s a deck that I personally had never heard of before doing this research, but it appears that it may be the progenitor of the Vinyl/Purple control dynasty, which as we all know eventually led to brilliant success. Unfortunately the original primer for the deck has since been removed from Reddit, but here again Bugle saved me, and so I can present to you Charlotte’s Tower. The key theme that I would pull from this deck is repeatability, as so many of its key control features are repeatable, and especially difficult to deal with in an era where Resource removal was not always considered quite so essential as it is today. It’s easy to see the hallmarks of features that we would come to expect in a modern control deck, with targeted answers against opposing Troublemakers, limited but effective removal, and so much value generation, whether it be AT with All Team Organizer, or cards with DJ. It’s an important piece of history, so I was very happy when this decklist surfaced.

Now, as we move on to the Absolute Discord era, it is true that Purple’s fortunes fade somewhat. Pink and Orange rose to the fore, and there will be more to write about this time as we get to those colours. But I do want to make two important notes here.

The first concerns Princess Luna, The Setting Moon, a card which entered the game in Celestial Solstice and left an indelible impression, particularly in the field of combo. I don’t believe that I’ve managed to avoid mentioning Dragon Express in any of the previous articles, but I’ll save the full writeup for one of the most infamous decks in history for the Orange article.

The second is about a deck that I discovered while hunting around for decklists of the other items on this list. It hadn’t come up in my discussion with Bugle, but the contemporary sources mentioned it as a “meta” deck of the time period, so I thought it was probably worth including. It went by the name of Dusk Radiance Mastery, and is mostly closely viewed as an evolution of the ideas first expressed in Royal Guidance, though with a few key updates. Most notable at the time was the inclusion of Twilight Sparkle, Friendship is Magic as the Mane. It also included some fine tech to deal with the meta, like Critter Stampede to crush One Pace’s needed 6 AT to play its Element of Magic. A fine inheritor of what was at the time a flickering flame. Not to fear, though. Unlike Yellow, Purple’s time in the shadows turned out to be very brief.

Stride found.

EO Block: The Age of Legends

EO Block is where the modern Purple story really starts. All at once, the colour got a lot of amazing cards. And then it got even more in HM. And then even more in MT. The result was a colour that was a juggernaut in competitive play, with multiple viable archetypes, and a foundation for a dynasty that was set to last a long time.

Before we talk about decklists, there are a number of individual cards that need to be mentioned. The first is the new Mane Character that the colour received in EO: Princess Twilight Sparkle, Ambassador of Friendship. It didn’t take long for people to realize that Purple’s new keyword in the set, Meticulous, was an excellent ability for Control, and this card’s ability to start making it happen on Turn 2 when paired with Ancient Research as a starting Problem was a great starting point for any Control deck. Plus, Twilight got you extra AT too, a theme that was going to keep building as more sets came out. HM granted the colour Princess Twilight Sparkle, Cover to Cover, an absurd value generator that quickly earned a reputation as an automatic inclusion in virtually any Purple deck. And finally, there is the Purple EO Event suite, backstopped by the card that eventually got banned, Interdimensional Portal.

Portal, by the way, was already doing unfortunate things as soon as EO released, though at the time everyone was blaming the new Pink/White Bulk Biceps. All Tied Up, which made a strong impression on the scene before being quite swiftly banned, offered only a taste of what was to come. In addition to using Portal for its more traditional Control roles, that deck was able to take advantage of a fortuitous interaction with Bulk to create an infinite supply of 2-AT Immediate speed removal.

HM and MT were where the colour really hit its stride though, with HM offering us another touchstone, Zipporwhil and the dynasty of classical Purple/X control that followed it. By the time MT hit and gave us Purple/White multicolour cards for the first time, White was cemented as the dominant secondary colour for Purple, and the combination became a mainstay in tournaments all over the world. The two colours admittedly suffered somewhat from being incredibly slow when paired together, and often failed to win within the allotted time limit even if they would have theoretically pulled ahead if given infinite time. But Purple had established one of its most successful dynasties, and one that would continue right up to the establishment of Core.

However, Purple/White was not the only important multicolour combination that we got from MT. Indeed yet another dynasty was going to be founded, this one utilizing Orange, and blazing a trail for classical Chaos Control, best typified by Grand Pause’s Waking Nightmare, here depicted in its 2016 NA Continentals T8 form. Similar to how archetypal Purple/White control relied on Eff Stop to replay control-oriented Events, so too could these make use of cycled Chaos effects to frustrate an opponent’s attempts to break down its walls. This also maintained its form for quite a while and inspired many successors, including (one assumes) the Chaos Control that New Dawn seems likely to bring us.

Oh, by the way, Tantabuse was somewhere in here too, and included some Purple, but I will get to it in its own due time.

Finally, rounding off the EO Block, there was another entry in the 2016 NA Continentals worth mentioning, Too Spoopy, placing in the T16. This Blue/Purple combination was something of an oddity for its time, playing Purple at an extremely anomalous speed. Even so, its combination of large amounts of frighten synergy and strong Events from both of its colours proved potent.

Some dynasties are built to last.

The Modern Era

The start of Defenders of Equestria, even though it wasn’t actually the beginning of the Core format, is still the point I use as the beginning of the current “Modern Era” of the CCG. And from this point forward, most of the decks being covered here should be relatively familiar to most of the readership. Essentially through this era Purple remained the King (or should I perhaps say Princess) of value, though Ambassador began to fall off somewhat in favour of a resurgent DJ Mane. While DE may be remembered generally as the era of Hot Wings, and of Pink in general, Purple still managed to feature on both sides of the 2017 NA Continental Final.

Bugle’s eventual winning deck Vinyl’s Bag of Tricks was already mentioned in the White article, and will get its full credit in the Pink article. Instead, I want to dedicate this space to discussion of the deck that got 2nd, the one simply and poetically called Butts.

In some senses, as a DJ/Purple control deck, Butts appeared superficially similar to the broad direction that Purple was going in around this time. Indeed, watching the Finals match between these two offered a… qualified form of thrills, but I can personally attest that it was a grand thing to watch. When we dig closer into Butts though, it becomes plain that this is a deck absolutely going its own way. Most obvious is the 53 card total, even now an extreme anomaly, and quite a bit more so in an era where consistency was absolutely everything when playing control. But probably even more important than that is the fact the deck is only playing two colours, and bucked the by-then nearly-universal trend of splashing White for Eff Stop and point acceleration. Instead, eminently_sensible committed to making it work with only two colours, and it’s a testament to his own skill that he was able to make it work so well. Per usual on these important and highly-technical decks, I defer to the author himself, in the link above.

Now, that brings us to the Beyond Block, and, thankfully for me, brings the end of this article into clear sight. Not so quickly though, because no sooner did Seaquestria get started than we saw another dynasty laid down, its echoes and heirs still making themselves felt in the present day. That deck was BRB, here depicted in its 2018 NA Continentals incarnation, reaching second as piloted by George Z. Purple and Pink yet again come together, but in the new Core format and so decidedly changed from their past allegiance. BRB was a cornerstone deck in the realignment of the Control playstyle that was happening in the aftermath of the first Core rotation, and while honest debate persists as to whether it can be correctly referred to as a Control deck, I personally fall on the side that says it is. This simply was what Control had become in the new era, no longer so reliant on Troublemakers but much more keen on removal and taking its points from confronts and faceoffs when they were available. It’s even perhaps somewhat fitting that it passed its torch on to the same three colours that Bugle had won with in 2017, completing a thematic loop as Tempest Pink/White emerged as the Control standard-bearer in a meta that was getting swamped by the resurgent Yellow. Notably, there was a Blue variant as well that managed to reach 2nd Place at the 2019 EFNW tournament.

Finally, rounding out the notable modern decks, we do have one more that could form a dynasty all its own, that being Alicorn Tribal as popularized by i8Pages in an Everfree Northwest T4 from 2019. Certainly it’s an open question for the future to see if that style of deck will see any heirs, but in a world where tri-corns are going to keep being a thing it’s a reasonable guess to make that there exists some potential for it.

New Dawn: Looking Ahead

Purple has enjoyed an amazingly storied history over the course of the development of the game’s meta. Many trends and larger arcs owe their beginning to an idea that was originally expressed with a Purple deck, and in the present day the colour has a well-earned reputation for being very good at the things it does: control, Troublemakers, and value through AT generation. What this means though, is that New Dawn is shaping up to offer an exciting, if uncertain future. Current signs point to some novel directions to the colour, with a firmer eye toward farming, and some legitimate arrows pointing in the direction of aggro. And if there should be any theme that jumps out about the history of Purple, it should be the relative lack of effective aggro. Thus the onset of New Dawn appears to be precisely that where Purple is concerned, and who knows if next year we will even recognize the colour that it has become. Yet even then, I think we can rest assured when we look back on this era, we’ll be able to trace a line of decks owing their inspiration and substance to an important foundation that emerged somewhere in the mists of the new set.

[pbwsports]

The all-time starting five for every NBA Western Conference team

What if the Splash Bros. had Wilt Chamberlain playing center? How many titles would the Lakers have won if Magic Johnson was running the break with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal? Imagine Hakeem Olajuwon and James Hardenteaming up in Clutch City.

We asked our NBA writers to come up with an all-time starting five for every current NBA franchise, along with one additional blast from the past. Only a player's contributions during his time with that franchise were considered. (So, no, LeBron James doesn't crack the Lakers' all-time list ... yet.)

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In this era of "positionless" basketball, traditional positions don't matter quite as much as they used to, so we allowed some flexibility in choosing a lineup -- but you won't see teams with four centers or three point guards. The idea was to dive into each team's history and create a group that could at least potentially share the floor together.

We rolled out the Eastern Conference on Wednesday. Here is the Western Conference:

Dallas Mavericks

G: Derek Harper G: Jason Terry G: Rolando Blackman F: Mark Aguirre F: Dirk Nowitzki

Terry joins Nowitzki as the only players on both of the Mavs' Finals teams and was the second-leading scorer on both squads. There's a reason Harper and Blackman, the backcourt for some good teams that just couldn't get past the Showtime Lakers, have their numbers in the American Airlines Center rafters. Aguirre's jersey probably won't ever be retired in Dallas because of his bitter departure, but you can't dismiss his 24.6 points per game in eight seasons with the Mavs.

The toughest cuts: Michael Finley and Jason Kidd, one of whom helped a young German kid find his way in the NBA and the other who helped Nowitzki finally deliver a title to Dallas.

-- Tim MacMahon

Denver Nuggets

G: Fat Lever G: David Thompson F: Alex English F: Carmelo Anthony C: Dikembe Mutombo

You're probably asking yourself the same question I debated for roughly 48 hours: Wait, no Nikola Jokic? There's a good chance Jokic eventually becomes the greatest player in franchise history, but he's just 25 years old.

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Mutombo, on the other hand, is a Hall of Famer and produced probably the most iconic image in franchise history, celebrating the historic upset of the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the 1994 playoffs. Mutombo is the defensive anchor behind a pure scoring lineup that could outgun just about anybody.

English, Anthony and Thompson all averaged better than 20 points a game for their careers, but at their peaks were pushing 30 PPG. Add in a floor general like Lafayette "Fat" Lever to pull the strings, and it could work. Between Fat, Melo and Dikembe, the Nuggets can outname just about anybody, too.

-- Royce Young

Golden State Warriors

G: Stephen Curry G: Klay Thompson F: Kevin Durant F: Draymond Green C: Wilt Chamberlain

Adding Chamberlain to the Durant-era Warriors teams that won back-to-back titles would just be unfair. Can you even imagine how dominant that team would be? Curry, Thompson, Durant and Green already have won titles together -- and now they have one of the greatest big men of all time to drop the ball to down low? Unbelievable. The defense is great, the offense is otherworldly.

It's tough leaving Hall of Famers Rick Barry and Chris Mullin out of this group, but who would come out? Curry and Thompson form the best shooting backcourt of all time. Durant is one of the best players of his generation and Green provides the defensive intensity and glue that has propelled them for years -- plus those four already have played together. There is no stopping this team. A juggernaut for the ages.

-- Nick Friedell

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Houston Rockets

G: James Harden G: Calvin Murphy F: Tracy McGrady F: Rudy Tomjanovich C: Hakeem Olajuwon

Apologies to Hall of Fame big men Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Yao Ming, but it's hard to get one center in the Houston lineup these days. Of course, there's no debate about the candidacy of Olajuwon, who remains the best player in franchise history, even after Harden's run of historic offensive production.

Harden is 22 points away from passing Murphy for second on the Rockets' career scoring list, so for now the flamboyant, 5-foot-9 Murphy continues to be the only player who ranks among the franchise's top two in points and assists.

Rudy T is best remembered as the Clutch City-era coach and for the brutal punch that interrupted his playing career, but he earned his spot here with five All-Star appearances during a career spent entirely in a Rockets uniform.

-- MacMahon

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LA Clippers

G: Chris Paul F: Kawhi Leonard F: Blake Griffin F: Elton Brand C: Bob McAdoo

Paul and Griffin authored the greatest and most exciting era in Clippers basketball with Lob City. Paul spent six seasons with the Clips, was first-team All-NBA three times and led the league in assists twice during that span. Griffin was Rookie of the Year, a five-time All-Star and the exciting, above-the-rim player the franchise sorely needed.

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Brand spent seven seasons with the team and made both of his All-Star appearances as a Clipper. McAdoo started his Hall of Fame career when the franchise was in Buffalo, where he led the league in scoring three straight seasons and was MVP in 1974-75.

Leonard is just 51 games into his Clippers tenure, but his elite production already puts him on this roster. Averaging 26.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists, a healthy Leonard can further validate this choice if he can get the Clippers to the conference finals for the first time.

-- Ohm Youngmisuk

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Los Angeles Lakers

G: Magic Johnson G: Jerry West G: Kobe Bryant F: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar C: Shaquille O'Neal

Four of these picks were no-brainers. Johnson (fifth in career assists) teamed up with Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's career scoring leader, to win five championships. Bryant (fourth all time in scoring) paired with O'Neal (eighth in scoring) to win three.

The fifth pick was harder. Is it Elgin Baylor, the greatest small forward in franchise history? Or how about LeBron James, the greatest small forward in NBA history? How about James Worthy, who teamed up with Magic and Kareem and won a Finals MVP?

Ultimately, the pick is West. Baylor never won a ring. James hasn't been a Laker long enough. Worthy would have to play the 4 and you already have Shaq and the Captain on the blocks. The Logo brings shooting and toughness and leadership, and he is extremely important to the franchise as a whole for his post-playing days in the front office.

-- Dave McMenamin

Memphis Grizzlies

G: Mike Conley G: Tony Allen F: Shareef Abdur-Rahim F: Zach Randolph C: Marc Gasol

The question with the Grizzlies: Who should be the final player to fill out a lineup that features the Grit 'n' Grind mainstays called the Core Four? (I'd make a joke about Chandler Parsons' max contract, but I want to be welcomed back to Memphis.)

Based purely on merit, Pau Gasol would be the pick, but he doesn't fit alongside his brother Marc at center and Randolph at power forward. So we will go with Abdur-Rahim, who was a really good player for some really bad teams in Vancouver, averaging 20.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game over five seasons in which the Grizzlies went a combined 86-292.

-- MacMahon

Minnesota Timberwolves

G: Ricky Rubio G: Sam Cassell F: Kevin Garnett F: Kevin Love C: Karl-Anthony Towns

The three best players in franchise history just all happen to be big men: Garnett, Love and Towns. Garnett is the franchise leader in points, rebounds, steals, assists and blocks; he's the only player in NBA history to lead a team in all five categories. Towns (22.7 points, 11.8 rebounds in 358 games) and Love (19.2 points, 12.2 rebounds in 364 games) each put up monster numbers, even though playoff success never came.

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(Side note: Towns is only 14 3-pointers away from becoming the franchise's all-time leader. Seriously.)

Rubio trails only Garnett in franchise history in steals and assists. Since Wally Szczerbiak and Andrew Wiggins were primarily listed as small forwards, the other guard spot goes to Cassell, who played only two years in Minnesota but had a career year and was a second-team All-NBA selection in 2003-04.

-- Andrew Lopez

New Orleans Pelicans

G: Chris Paul G: Jrue Holiday F: Jamal Mashburn F: David West C: Anthony Davis

(Just a reminder: The Pelicans' franchise history starts in 2002, when the team moved from Charlotte to New Orleans. Anything before that belongs to Charlotte, even though it's the same franchise. Got it? Cool, let's move on.)

First, the locks: Davis, Paul, Holiday and West. Now once you get to the wing ... oof. This spot came down to four players -- Mashburn, Peja Stojakovic, Eric Gordon and, yes, Brandon Ingram.

Mashburn, in the franchise's first season in New Orleans in 2002-03, made the All-Star team and was a third-team All-NBA selection. The Pelicans didn't get another All-Star selection from a wing player until this year, when Ingram made it. But with only 56 games under his belt, Ingram falls off this list. Gordon's time in New Orleans always seemed underwhelming. Stojakovic was a key cog on the 2007-08 team that won a franchise-best 56 games, but he struggled with injuries.

Mashburn was limited to 101 games for New Orleans, but his impact in Year 1 was unmistakable and he still sits second on the team's career scoring average list (21.5), behind only Davis.

-- Lopez

Oklahoma City Thunder

G: Russell Westbrook G: James Harden F: Kevin Durant F: Paul George F: Serge Ibaka

There's an irony to the Thunder's all-time starting five, because it features their best sixth man. The baggage of Harden's role looms large, whether he wanted to come off the bench, whether starting impacted his contract negotiations and ultimately facilitated the breakup of one of the greatest organically built superteams ever. That's a lot to unpack.

Hindsight and what-ifs aside, the Thunder's all-time group can stand with almost any in NBA history, and most certainly is among the most stout in the past 20 years. The Thunder have been around for just 12 years and boast a remarkable cupboard of talent: three MVPs (Durant, Westbrook, Harden) and piles of All-NBA and All-Star nods. Maybe one of the best examples of how deep they are is in showcasing who didn't make the cut: Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. Not a bad bench.

-- Young

Phoenix Suns

G: Steve Nash G: Kevin Johnson F: Walter Davis F: Charles Barkley C: Amar'e Stoudemire

No Shawn Marion? No Paul Westphal? No Alvan Adams? No Larry Nance? No Jason Kidd? You can make a solid starting five from the next group of Phoenix legends.

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The franchise's two MVP winners, Nash and Barkley, were locks. Westphal split time as a point guard and shooting guard during his six seasons, but we give the nod at the other guard spot to Johnson, who spent 12 years in Phoenix, and had three consecutive 20-point, 10-assist seasons and five All-NBA nods.

Davis vs. Marion was a tough battle. Both made a pair of All-NBA teams (two second-teams for Davis compared to two third-teams for Marion), but Davis gets the edge as the franchise's leading scorer. At center, Stoudemire stands supreme as his four All-NBA honors best Adams' longevity.

-- Lopez

Portland Trail Blazers

G: Damian Lillard G: Clyde Drexler G: Brandon Roy F: LaMarcus Aldridge C: Bill Walton

As with any conversation about Blazers history, their starting five comes with plenty of introspective sighing and deep what-iffing. Injuries to Walton and Roy abbreviated what would've been legendary Portland careers. But at their best versions, Walton was a transcendent big man with unique skills, and Roy was a gifted scorer with a knack for the moment.

Drexler is a Hall of Famer who led Portland to its best sustained run of success in franchise history. Aldridge is one of the dominant scoring big men of his era, and Lillard will likely go down as the franchise's all-time best. The Blazers are haunted by history and a compulsion to live in the anguish of what could've been, but there is also a beauty to their all-time five. It represents who they are, and forever, what they might've been.

-- Young

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Sacramento Kings

G: Oscar Robertson G: Tiny Archibald F: Peja Stojakovic F: Chris Webber C: Jerry Lucas

A Hall of Fame backcourt of Robertson and Archibald knocks Kings great Mitch Richmond out of one of the two guard spots. Lucas, another Hall of Famer, averaged 19.6 points and 19.1 rebounds in six seasons with the Cincinnati Royals. He gets the center position.

For the forwards, we look at two Kings from the early 2000s, when Sacramento was a perennial playoff team. Stojakovic is still the franchise's leader in 3-pointers made, and Webber averaged 23.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks in 377 career games in Sacramento.

It feels weird not to have DeMarcus Cousins on the all-time Kings squad, but when you look back at the franchise's history -- which dates back to the Rochester Royals and their first year in the NBA in 1949 -- it becomes clearer why he doesn't make the cut.

-- Lopez

San Antonio Spurs

G: Tony Parker G: Manu Ginobili F: George Gervin F: Tim Duncan C: David Robinson

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It took about as long as the average Gregg Popovich sideline interview to come up with this squad. These were all easy decisions, considering each player's combination of greatness and longevity with the Spurs. (Kawhi Leonard would have been in strong consideration if not for the lack of the latter.)

Duncan and Robinson are on the short list of MVPs who played their entire careers for one franchise. Ginobili and Parker were essential parts of a dynasty. Gervin was a must-see superstar whose presence made sure that pro basketball stuck in small-market San Antonio.

-- MacMahon

Seattle SuperSonics

G: Gary Payton G: Gus Williams F: Detlef Schrempf F: Shawn Kemp C: Jack Sikma

Payton, Kemp and Sikma, the three players to make at least five All-Star appearances in Sonics uniforms, are the three certain selections here. At the other guard spot, there are strong cases for Fred Brown (who's second in career scoring) and Ray Allen (a four-time All-Star in Seattle), but Gus Williams' key role in the Sonics' 1979 championship and pair of All-NBA picks give him the nod.

Spencer Haywood reached greater heights and Rashard Lewis had more longevity, but with the last spot I'm going with Schrempf, whose versatile and efficient game was ahead of its time in the 1990s.

-- Kevin Pelton

Utah Jazz

G: John Stockton G: Pete Maravich F: Adrian Dantley F: Karl Malone C: Rudy Gobert

The Jazz's arena is located at the intersection of Stockton and Malone, with statues of the legends prominently featured out front, so we figured those guys should make the cut. Dantley was a historically elite scorer for the Jazz, averaging 29.6 points on 56.2% shooting and winning a pair of NBA scoring titles during his seven-season tenure in Utah.

Gobert gets the nod over fellow dominant defensive anchor Mark Eaton because he's a far superior offensive player and rebounder. It was difficult not to include Darrell Griffith, aka "Dr. Dunkenstein," but Pistol Pete was too productive (25.7 points and 5.7 assists per game) with the New Orleans Jazz to be left out. Source - ESPN

[thesportssoundoff]

Sometimes Good Enough Just Ain’t Good Enough: 10 Challenges For The Yankees Going Forward

Joey

October 21st

At the end of the year, 29 teams will head into the latter stages of the Fall simply saying they weren't good enough. On Saturday night, it was the Yankees turn to stand up, look in the mirror and say "Not good enough" as they bowed out of the ALCS in the deciding sixth game of the series. When you win 100 games, survive countless injuries, win with a sweep in the ALDS and lose on a walk off in game 6 of the ALCS it's normally a successful season but this is New York where expectations aren't the same as Milwaukee, Oakland, St. Louis or any of the teams who played into October before finally saying "Not good enough!" as they hung up their hats. The Yankees expect championships and it's sometimes mutant fanbase (of which I am firmly a member of) are now going on 10 years of no ticker tape parades. Still let's not lose ourselves to delirium and point out that this is a damn good team with a deep core and plenty of organizational depth to take the next step. The Yankees aren't falling off or in a rebuild; they have a team that guarantees every October, they'll be talking about the chase for 28 in earnest. With the season in the rear view mirror, let's chit chat about ten things the Yankees have to do or figure out as they continue that chase for 28.

1. Fire the training staff

Easy enough! Injuries can sometimes be fluky but good lord, the Yankees were besieged with them. All three starting outfielders (Judge, Stanton, Hicks) saw IL time, their back up OFs saw IL time, their starting catcher saw IL time, starting 1B saw IL time, pitchers both high on the totem pole and in the jabroni ranks went on the IL. Clean house!

2. The same ol' same ol' scramble for a lead starter

Since the end of 2016 when the rebuild was officially over, this team has been chasing  the #1 starter you normally need in the post season. At the end of the day, it's just easier to win in the playoffs when you have a game 1 starter you have endless confidence in. While Boston got away with it in 2018, they also had Chris Sale who maybe didn't pitch like an ace but was clearly one of the top 5 starters in the AL that year.  The big myth is that the Yankees don't have good starting pitching and that is for the most part a lie. The Yankees pitching after the All Star break was pretty solid and in the playoffs they got quality enough from guys like Severino, Paxton and Tanaka on an inconsistent basis. The Yankees pitching rotation is NOT awful and plenty of teams would kill for a 1-2-3 of a healthy Louis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka in big games and James Paxton after the All Star Break where he went 10-3 with a 3.59 ERA and an 11 K/9. In the playoffs, Paxton was more good than bad and Tanaka shoved in two of the three games he pitched in. That said those three have all battled injuries (Paxton admittedly pitched with a knee he never quite felt great about) and all three of them weren't good enough in the playoffs. Maybe that changes with Severino healthy, Paxton more comfortable and Tanaka staying his usual course but it would be difficult to return with the same rotation in tact and say you feel confident about your chances against the Astros. This has been a chase that has spanned three years now as the Yankees tried with James Paxton, Sonny Gray and J.A Happ, were outbit on the likes of Carlos Quintana, Yu Darvish and Gerritt Cole and allegedly never tried for the likes of Marcus Stroman, Patrick Corbin, Justin Verlander and countless others. 2019 will be yet another year where they'll enter Christmas hoping to have a starter locked up.

The two obvious names will play next week when Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg take the bump for Houston and Washington respectively. In the Yankees of old, George Steinbrenner would hand Brian Cashman a blank check and tell him to pay for one IF not both. Time's have changed for better and/or worse with the Yankees. Brian Cashman is a man of due diligence and a man with the longest leash in sports. The Yankees didn't spend on Corbin, didn't try on Harper and made a modicum of effort for Manny Machado last year. In the free agent market, they're likely to not play heavily unless Hal Steinbrenner pretty much demands it.  Paying for Cole and Strasburg is the easier fix but it's an avenue they've shied away from recently plus there are teams who "need" those guys more. The Yankees probably aren't as desperate as, say, the Angels are to win in the Mike Trout era and they've got money to play with so why not? The solution may be the trade market where the Yankees can make some hay in their search for a #1. Brian Cashman has parlayed his farm system (which is still plenty deep) into the opportunity to trade for arms in the past which figures to once again be the case. Conversely in the trade market, the farm is thinner than it's been in recent years AND Cashman prides himself on not losing trades. Also there's not much TO trade out there. Obviously it's his job as a GM to go out and find a potential solution that maybe the public hasn't heard is available but right now who is the best starter knowing that the Mets and the Yankees won't trade? It's not a robust market.

So your solutions are to pull a rabbit out of your hat or pay or hope Severino becomes an ace again after an injury plagued season. I suppose the only potential opt out route would be to sign a Hyun Jin-Ryu or a Jake Odorizzi and hope you can just build a deep rotation of names and faces that will give you quantity (while not high end quality) at the end of it.

3. Figure out Luke Voit

Let's play a game.

Player A- .333/.405/.689 195 wRC+ 14 HR 26.4% K rate Player B- .280/.393/.509 140 wRC+ 19 HR 25.8% K rate Player C- .238/.348/.368 95 wRC+ 4 HR 32.3% K rate

Player A is Luke Voit during his 2018 run with the Yankees Player B is Luke Voit up until he got hurt in the London Series Player C is Luke Voit from July 12th to the end of the year

Voit will never be the guy who took over the MLB in 2018. The sample size was bound to even itself out over time and Voit was bound to cool off when pitchers got to know him better. Player B though is a borderline All Star level first basemen. A power hitter who could hit for average, got on base at a solid clip and play a somewhat manageable first base is an asset for any team but especially a Yankees squad that has been hungry for competent first base play since injuries robbed Mark Texeira of his ability. Then? Voit got hurt. Back issues limited down the stretch and as you can tell by the numbers, Player C was awful. He just looked timid and afraid like he had been sapped of his confidence entirely. Luke Voit got left off the ALCS roster and had to watch as the offense struggled without him. Imagine a confident and healthy Luke Voit at the DH spot instead of Edwin Encarnacion when he went ice cold in the ALCS and maybe the series is a bit different. The Yankees are saddled with determining which half of the Luke Voit story is the real one. The Yankees are a better team when DJ LeMahieu is freed up to play 2B where he's an insanely elite defender and Luke Voit could help in that regard. At the same time? The Yankees have been burnt in the past by gambling at 1B (like when they kept thinking Greg Bird would finally put it together) and options would help. Even if he ran out of gas, Edwin Encarnacion did some good work when he was healthy and few dudes hit dingers the way he does when he's locked in. There's also Greg Bird I guess? Which reminds me....

4. MAYBE chase better balance

I don't believe a team gets better by marrying itself to letters next to names ie: we have to have x amount of leties in our pen. I do think that the Yankees righty heavy lineup could use some better balance. The team was batting Gardner 3rd in the playoffs despite his inability to do much of anything for stretches because they felt like they needed someone to break up the righties at the top of the bill. With two lefties about to hit free agency, maybe the Yankees need to flirt a bit with shaking things up in their lineup. Getting back a healthy Hicks would help of course but in general, this team could benefit from having maybe one more competent lefty bat especially if Did is out of here. It's not the sexiest name alive but given Voit's struggles down the stretch and the fact that they could probably use a more competent 1B defensively, maybe Mitch Moreland (former Red Sox 1B) as a back up/defensive replacement could make sense. Coming off an injury plagued season where he was still pretty damn productive vs righties. Maybe this is even where Mike Ford (who caught on late) fits as a future part of the team.

5. Figure out your free agents

Dellin Betances- There's some serious rebound value in bringing Betances back at fair market value. The Yankees just never had a replacement for what Betances could do as a pseudo fireman; a guy with low contact rates who can K a side and come in the middle of an inning to calm things down. Betances at a multi year deal would be a fair and modest investment.

Brett Gardner- There's a group of mutant Yankee fans who hate Brett Gardner and I feel like people forget Gardner was supposed to be at the very most a part time 4th OF. Injuries forced Gardner to continually play and he answered the bell quite well every time. He'll likely take a step back next year BUT he'll also be asked to play less.

Edwin Encarnacion- Was absolutely brutal in the ALCS but hits for power and usually has composed at bats. Was always a hired gun who the Yankees were probably gonna buy out when the time was right.

Didi Gregorios- Ugh. Didi went from being one of Brian Cashman's biggest steals and a potential cornerstone to a guy who will probably be allowed to test the open market. Didi's strengths are his defense, his clubhouse presence and his better than advertised bat but the Yankees have been waiting on him to take a firm step into top 10 SS for about two years now and it's not coming. He deserves a lot of credit for battling back from injury but he was brutal outside of games vs the Twins. I also sort of feel like his approach is all wrong for the Yankees as its constructed. For a team that preaches patience at the place and commanding the strike zone, Didi's approach often gets worse the more pitches he takes so he often swings at the first pitch and often does so when it's the wrong time. Defensively it looked like he took a step back as well although that may have been due to injury. The Yankees are better with DJ at 2nd and Gleyber at short and a competent 1B manning that spot but they love Didi so much (and he's so valuable when he's right) that they kept forcing him into the spot.

Austin Romine- Catching across the league is bad and Romine, noodle arm aside, is a solid back up catcher. Those tend to get signed for decent coin and normally for multi year deals. As such the Yankees need to maybe consider their options at the BUC spot because they won't have Romine.

Cameron Maybin- I'm not entirely sure Maybin's got a real fit here now. If Stanton, Judge and Hicks are healthy then it's probably him vs Gardner because Mike Tauchman has a long term future here. I wish Cameron Maybin well, he was a breath of fresh of air in the locker room and he deserves to have a good spot on a team somewhere.

6. Figure your outfield situation out

We know Judge, Stanton and Hicks are going to be here. Mike Tauchman was a star and a half for a month and change before injuries finally sapped him of his super powers. Gardner is a free agent but I'm betting the Yankees will bring him back comfortably so. Beyond them you have Estevan Florial (a former Yankees top prospect on a slide), Clint Frazier (a borderline toxic fit for the Yankees) as well as pseudo OFs Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada. The Yankees OF depth tends to get tested throughout the year but is Clint Frazier better suited to be a trade piece for some team in desperate need of an outfielder?

7. Settle the 'pen out a bit.

Yankees have four tremendous bullpen arms tied up with Britton, Ottavino, Green and Kahnle comfortably under wraps. Aroldis Chapman will probably opt out in a so-so closer's market and the Yankees will probably re-sign him (they took the PR smear after trading for him and then brought him back so clearly they value him). If not? Britton was an ace closer but in general the bullpen needs more arms. Remember the CLOSEST they got for a trade in July was for Bluejays closer Ken Giles so I'd imagine they'll poke around there too. If you can't find a starter of high quality and won't trade for one then you need one more big arm in the pen. It'd be pretty cool to both a) get a stud reliever and b) hurt your primary rivalries by signing either Joe Smith or Will Harris from under Houston.

8. Find a role for whatever J.A. Happ is.

The Yankees got ace level production of J.A. Happ when they had him in 2018 and even including his playoff bust vs Boston, bringing him back in some form or fashion seemed like a can't miss concept. Well it done missed. Pick whatever metric you want and Happ was genuinely bad for a Yankees team that desperately needed him to ONLY be a competent arm. He did improve as the season went along (imagine how awful he had to be that his last five starts with a 2.33 ERA that it managed to ONLY finish at a sub 5 ERA) and a lot of his game felt like it was just blitzed by the juiced ball and a lack of adapting to that. Happ is still under contract for 2020 and it's going to be hard to shake his deal so you're stuck with him. Figure out I guess if he's a long man, a 5th starter or a really overly expensive LOOGY type.

9. Battle royal the 5th spot

Keeping with that, the Yankees were roasted for their lack of SP depth and it showed up big last year. The fact that this team turned to an opener and wound up riding the likes of Chance Adams and Nestor Cortes as long men suggests they got got by the lack of options in the rotation. Turn the 5th spot into a battle royal position. Jordan Montgomery, J.A. Happ, Johnny Lasagna, a few retreads on other teams who are a tinkered arm angle away from being a competent 5th starter etc etc etc. Don't go into the year just figuring your minor league depth options are going to be enough because it probably won't be.

Unless you want to sign Zack Wheeler or Jake Odorizzi and be done with it.

10. Accept Gary Sanchez

I guess this is more for Yankees fans than anybody else. Gary Sanchez is a good catcher. Offensively when he's healthy, he's among the game's best and defensively? He's actually improving really well to be one of the better catches in the AL. He has a crazy throwing arm and while stolen bases are becoming less frequent, he's still got the ability to further mitigate that.  Sanchez is a good player who plays the most physically demanding position in baseball and does a good job at it. His playoff numbers were abysmal this year but I still have faith.

[kyogos]

Ferrari era Vettel

Oo baby time to get JUICY - idk if you’re gonna believe me or not, but this is truly just looking at everything like I would for a driver I don’t care for. Please at least try to read it from an unbiased perspective before you @ me

Let’s start this with some straight FACTS. He is the number 1 and favoured driver, at least up until the start of this season, but we will get to that later. So really, the raw numbers are meaningless but on we go

2015 - Out scored Raikkonen by 128 points. Which obviously speak for themselves. He was favoured by the team which helped but achieved most of that gap on merit alone. (That and I genuinely remember nothing from this year)

2016 - Out scored Raikkonen by 26 points. A much closer gap than both he and the team would have wanted. Of course, Kimi is not the champion he once was but he is by no means a push over. He was and still is a strong fighter. I can’t think of a time where he was allowed to actually fight Vettel for position

2017 - Out scored Raikkonen by 112 points. A gap the team can be truly proud of. A much better season but still ultimately no title. Now lets talk that Baku race. Whether you’re a fan of his or not, we need to talk about this from an unbiased point of view. He drove into the side of another racer deliberately. And got away with it. This wasn’t a dangerous overtake or defensive move. It was a deliberate swerve under safety car conditions. He may have the points gap and the stats and records behind him. But I think that is pivotal moment in his career. (x)

2018 - Oh boy what a season. Out scored Raikkonen by 69 points. Close. Too close for comfort for the team. His season was all down hill after that crash in Germany. He was favoured by so many team calls from the very start of the season (ahem China anyone?). He made rookie errors, or at least, errors a 4 time world champion should not be making whilst racing for Ferrari. He wasn’t even a good team player. There’s a lot that went against him last year and it’s showing this year which moves us on

2019 - He’s currently 5th in the championship. FIFTH. 6 points behind young Leclerc and only just scores his first win in over a year. He is not a happy boy. He’s made mistakes and errors all over the shop, and has shown his disdain for not beating Leclerc. Canada talks. So does Spa. Italy. Singapore. - What does it say exactly? That his confidence is lacking. That he’t not as comfortable as he tries to seem in front of the media. 

Whether the penalty was fair or not isn’t the point, the point of Canada is he made the mistake that led to it. If you take away him getting the penalty, he still made that mistake. 

Spa? To the media he played the helpful team mate card but the reality is he just didn’t have the pace or tyres to win that race. Sure, he did hold off Hamilton but he was never in a position to win. 

Italy? He was so mad about not receiving a tow which under normal circumstances would be fair, but given the chaos I think he’s petty to lay the blame at Leclerc. If he had just gone for it and stuck close to Sainz when he went, he maybe just could have made the line and got a lap in. That session was a hot mess by the teams and drivers combined and I don’t think it’s fair for anyone one driver to get more blame than another. 

Singapore? Well qualifying he fucked his own lap with 3 mistakes. And he shouldn’t have made errors like that given his love and record on that track. And well, as for the race. Ferrari’s strategy helped him win that race instead of the Ferrari pole sitter. Sure, there were no direct “do not overtake Vettel” team orders, but anyone who’s been around long enough knows exactly what “bring the car home” means.

Sure, you all know I’m not Vettel’s biggest fan. But just look at the history objectively. He’s beaten team mates but always with the support and backing of the team. I can’t think of a time where the Ferrari drivers where allowed to truly battle it out for position. I mean, the whole reason he went to Ferrari was because he hated being beaten by his team mate at Red Bull. That was basically the clause in his contract. I know other drivers have had similar and having a favoured driver is normal (trust me, I know) but this feels like something else. This isn’t just normal team politics. I can’t even explain what this is because I honestly don’t think I can liken it to anything else I’ve ever seen. It’s like the team are afraid of being brutally honest with him and instead have to manufacture results and reasons as to why his team mate is beating him instead of just saying his team mate is quicker. 

~ Send me a team/driver for peak analysis on what I think of them + their history ~

[emblem-333]

The Third Bronze Medal Game

Super Bowl VII

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Dallas Cowboys

What changes: Don Shula does not give the reins back to Bob Griese and sticks with Earl Morrall. The Dolphins offense continues to struggle against the Steel Curtain and fall 17-10, thus ending their perfect season. Another alternative for Pittsburgh is what-if Terry Bradshaw wasn’t knocked out of the game with a concussion?

For Dallas, Tom Landry turns away from Roger Staubach after his heroics versus the 49ers erased a fifteen-point deficit. Craig Morton held the job as starter even after the ‘71 Super Bowl season because he didn’t break away from the designed plays. Roger was a loose cannon and at times could not be trusted. In his two games against division rival Washington, Morton compiled a respectable for the time, 21 of 44 passing, 235 yards, two touchdowns and the same number of interceptions, and a rushing touchdown. Dallas also averaged 27 points in two games against the NFC’s best defense.

The Morton-Staubach controversy is one of those quandaries at the time you could’ve seen yourself on either side. With the hindsight of history, Staubach obviously is far and away the superior option. Except, even after his Super Bowl winning stint as Dallas’ starter, the reliability of Morton, the known quantity enticed Landry more than the high ceiling of Staubach. Morton was a carbon copy of previous Cowboys great Don Meredith. No really! Look at their statistical outputs:

Craig Morton ‘69, ‘70, ‘72

(Morton started just four games in 1971 before Staubach usurped him)

Win/Loss: 28-9-1

Yards: 6,834

TDs: 51

INTs: 42

Cmp%: 53.07%

Attempts: 846

Completions: 449

Don Meredith ‘66-‘68

Win/Loss: 27-9-1

Yards: 7,139

TDs: 61

INTs: 40

Cmp%: 52.4

Attempts: 908

Completions: 476

In ‘71, the ten-games Staubach spent as starter he threw the ball just 211 times. His throws were brilliant, long range and electrifying contrasted with the methodic Morton. But to put into context how little trust Landry had in Staubach, Colin Kaepernick in the 7 regular season games he took over for Alex Smith in 2012 he attempted 218 passes.

The Cowboys never fancied themselves a team who did their damage in the air anyhow. The speedy backfield tandem of Calvin Hill (1,400) and Walt Garrison (1,174) accumulated 2,574 yards from scrimmage combined. More yards than Miami’s Larry Csonka (1,165) and Mercury Morris (1,168) mark of 2,333.

Staubach laid the biggest - maybe his only - egg of his career against Washington in the NFC Title Game. George Allen’s “Over The Hill Gang” mercilessly punished Roger sacking him three times, Dallas offense completing just 8 first downs. Washington would go on to be Miami’s final victim in their 17-0 season in the subsequent Super Bowl.

Dallas arguably, with Morton win against Washington and we have a rematch of the previous year’s championship game. Staubach needed the setbacks of ‘72 and ‘73 as learning curves. Morton, however, was already experienced enough.

For Pittsburgh, it was the first year of the Steel Curtain reshaping the identity the Steelers had of being a bunch of bottom-dwellers. Chuck Noll was hired in 1969 the Steelers from their inception in 1933 up until that point made the playoffs just once, in 1947. Noll inherits the worst team in the NFL. Many fans wanted a quarterback heading into the ‘69 draft where Pittsburgh occupied the fourth pick. Cincinnati product Greg Cook was tagged by many as a Steeler in waiting. Instead, Noll opted not for a quick fix and selected linebacker from North Texas Joe Greene. Fans were irate. Greg Cook is a story for another day. For the sake of brevity, Cook was described by Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh as the greatest quarterback he’s ever seen. This is the man who worked with Joe Montana. Cook dazzled in his rookie campaign leading the NFL in passing. Playing the second half of the ‘69 season with a partially torn rotator cuff, Cook only played one more game after his rookie year before Paul Brown told him to “get on with your life.” Perhaps if Kansas City Chiefs defenseman Jim Lynch hadn’t tackled Cook his bust would be in Canton, Ohio today.

Greene is the first player drafted in the formation of the Steel Curtain. Mel Blount, Mike Wagner, and Jack Ham followed. In 1972, only Miami’s “No Name Defense” held opponents to fewer points and by the slim margin of 4. The Steelers created an aura of being a team of destiny after their miraculous last play victory over the Oakland Raiders, dubbed “The Immaculate Reception.” Heading into the forth and final period, the Steelers lead Miami 10-7 and were a quarter away from the Super Bowl. Bradshaw had left the contest giving control to Terry Hanratty, he completed and attempted the same as Bradshaw, 5 of 10, but for fewer yards, 57 to the Blond Bomber’s 80. Bradshaw did throw a touchdown, though he also tossed two interceptions. Hanratty put Pittsburgh’s kicker Roy Gerela had his attempt blocked, the score stayed 14-10.

Shula pulled the struggling Morrall and Griese lead the Dolphins downfield, thanks to a 52-yard completion to deep threat Paul Warfield set the stage for one of Jim Kiick’s touchdowns putting them back in the driver's seat. Bradshaw heroically returned in an attempt to resurface the fledgling Steelers. Down 21-10, Bradshaw completed four consecutive passes for 71-yards, hitting Al Young (who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page) for the touchdown. The ensuing Dolphins possession ended in a punt. Life was back in the Three Rivers crowd. Perhaps they really are a team of destiny.

Turns out, there’s no such thing. Bradshaw threw back to back costly interceptions icing the game for Miami.

The loss wouldn’t be the only thing weighing heavily in the hearts of Steelers fans. Later that day, Pirates all-time great Roberto Clemente in the prime of his life and career perished in a plain crash in route to Nicaragua. Through all the despair hope remained on the horizon. But outside of 1976, I’d say this is the one Pittsburgh fans who were fortunate to live through their era of dominance wish they hadn’t left on the table.

So what-if they haven’t? What-if we had a Steelers vs Cowboys Super Bowl three-years before we actually got it?

The makeup of both these teams are different, for one. There is no Lynn Swann or John Stallworth to throw to. Ron Shanklin was Pittsburgh’s leading receiver with 38 catches. Frank Lewis lead the wideouts in touchdowns with 5. Though unglamorous, the Steelers offense got the job done thanks to thousand yard rusher rookie Franco Harris.

The Cowboys most prominent receivers were their aforementioned running backs. Ron Sellers lead the wideouts with 37 receptions. Veteran stalwart Mike Ditka was at the end of his rope and only caught 17. 1972 was his final year in the NFL.

Dallas on defense were lead by Pro Bowlers Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, and free safety Cornell Green. These two teams met earlier in the season back in October, a game Dallas won 17-13 thanks to Landry’s trickery. Calvin Hill threw to Sellers for a 55-yard touchdown for the go-ahead score. The Steelers offense did much of nothing that day. Excluding the 55-yard play, the Cowboys didn’t do much better.

The contest starts slowly, as expected. Neither defense budges one iota. Flashbacks to Super Bowl V replay in Landry’s mind as he watches Morton wear black and gold. The Cowboys offensive line can’t maintain themselves in the face of the Steel Curtain. The Cowboys are scoreless at the end of the first half of play.

Pittsburgh fares better. Bradshaw marches his team up the field twice for two Gerela short range field goals and right before the end of the first half, Harris punches it in from the 5-yard line to give his team a commanding 13-0 lead. Landry contemplates handing the reins back to Staubach. His stinginess wins out this time and he sticks with Morton.

His faith in his quarterback is rewarded when Morton hits Sellers for a 15-yard pass to give the Cowboys six-points. After a Steelers three-and-out, Morton picks up right where he left off. On a 3rd & 10 at the Steelers 38, Morton hits the aging Ditka for a 13-yard gain. Two plays later, riding high off the momentum, Morton again Hits Sellers for surrounded by Steeler defenders for a 14-yard gain. Hill accepts the handoff a play later in red zone territory and passes the goal line. A Toni Fritsch extra-point gives Dallas their first lead 14-13.

In desperate need of answers the Steelers are left puzzled as another three-and-out gives the ball right back to the surging Cowboys who waste no time in trying to deliver the decisive blow. The red hot Morton manages to hit Sellers for 22-yards positioning Dallas well in Pittsburgh territory. At the Steelers 15, it was all or nothing at this point for both sides. Landry knew the next few play calls would define this game. Garrison is stuffed on back to back rushes, and Morton finds little options rolling out before being tackled for a gain of just two. Fritsch manages to extend Dallas’ lead 17-13 meaning Pittsburgh would have to drive the length of the field in order to squeak out a win.

Accepting the ball with 6:18 left, the Steelers again go three-and-out. Angst defines the best of the Steeler sideline. On forth & 12 the length is too long to contemplate going for it. Noll elects to punt in hopes Dallas fails to both take time off the clock and score. Garrison gets the ball and runs up for twelve-yards near midfield. The Cowboys look ready to silence every demon they’ve ever conjured through past playoff failures. Instead, they come right back. Morton’s intended pass to Sellers is picked off by defensive end Dwight White, and just like that, the Steelers get the ball back with prime field position to boot.

Marching to Dallas’ fifteen, the pocket collapses on Bradshaw forcing him to scramble. He scurries for the score diving at the last second before Super Bowl V MVP Chuck Howley could stop him. The Steelers regain the lead for which they wouldn’t relinquish this time and capture their first world title.

2nd

PIT - Roy Gerela FG 37 yd

PIT - Roy Gerela FG 38 yd

PIT - Franco Harris 5-yd run TD

3rd

DAL - Ron Sellers 14 yd pass from Morton TD

4th

DAL - Calvin Hill 4 yd run TD

DAL - Toni Fritsch FG 32 yd

PIT - Bradshaw 15 yd run TD

Pittsburgh 20-17

Morton - 16-26, 176 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT

Bradshaw - 15-20, 186 yds, 1 rush TD *Super Bowl MVP*

Pittsburgh: 286 total yards

Dallas: 283 total yards

In what would turn out to be Morton’s last stand as QB for the Lone Star team, Landry learned to make his peace with the rowdy Staubach and gave him full autonomy of the offense the following season and wouldn’t live to regret it. Meanwhile, jubilation overcomes the Steelers who scurry on the field embracing any person within arms reach. From the laughingstock of the NFL to becoming the envy of all, Pittsburgh overcame all of the odds mounting three straight come from behind victories en route to their championship.

[all-hail-mono-onion]

RA RA RASPUTIN LOVER OF THE RUSSIAN QUEEN

The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and is the official world championship of the game of snooker.[1] The sport of snooker was founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India.[2] The sport originated by players from the United Kingdom, and later players from Europe and the Commonwealth. In more modern times, the sport has transferred to being played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations, such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.[3]

The world championship sees 32 professional and qualified amateur players compete in one-on-one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several frames. The 32 players for the event are selected through a mix of the world snooker rankings, and a pre-tournament qualification round.[4][5] The first world championship in 1927 was won by Joe Davis, the final being held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England.[6][7] Since 1977, the event has been held in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.[8]

Stephen Hendry is the most successful player in the modern era, having won the championship 7 times.[9] The previous year's championship was won by Wales' Mark Williams, who won the event defeating Scotland's John Higgins in the final 18–16.[10][11] This was Williams' third championship, having won in 2000 and 2003 previously. The winner of the 2019 event earns prize money of £500,000, from a total pool of £2,231,000.[12]

Format

The 2019 World Snooker Championship was held between 20 April and 6 May 2019 in Sheffield, England. The tournament was the last of twenty rankings events in the 2018/2019 season on the World Snooker Tour. It featured a 32-player main draw to be played at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 128-player qualifying draw which took place at the English Institute of Sport from 10 to 17 April 2019, finishing three days prior to the start of the main draw. This was the 43rd consecutive year that the tournament was held at the Crucible, and the 51st consecutive year the championship was contested through the modern knockout format.[4][5]

The top 16 players in the latest world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players.[a] Defending champion Mark Williams was automatically seeded 1st overall. The remaining fifteen seeds were allocated based on the latest world rankings (revision 10), which were released following the China Open, the penultimate event of the season. Matches in the first round of the main draw were played as best of 19 frames. The number of frames needed to win a match increased with each successive round, leading up to the final match which was played as best of 35 frames.[4][5]

All 16 non-seeded spots in the main draw were filled with players from the qualifying rounds. The qualifying draw consisted of 128 players, including 106 of the remaining 112 players on the World Snooker Tour, as well as twenty-two wildcard places allotted to non-tour players. These invited players included the women's world champion, the European junior champion, and all four semi-finalists at the amateur championship. As with the main draw, half of the participants in the qualifying draw were seeded players. Players ranked from 17th to 80th were allocated one of 64 seeds in order of their ranking, while all of the other participants were placed randomly into the draw. To reach the main draw at the Crucible, players needed to win three best of 19 frame matches.[13][4]

Participant summary

Eight former world champions participated in the main tournament at the Crucible. They were Ronnie O'Sullivan (five titles: 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013), John Higgins (four titles: 1998, 2007, 2009, 2011), Mark Selby (three titles: 2014, 2016, 2017), Mark Williams (three titles, and defending champion: 2000, 2003, 2018), Shaun Murphy (one title: 2005), Graeme Dott (one title: 2006), Neil Robertson (one title: 2010), and Stuart Bingham (one title: 2015).[4] This was O'Sullivan's 27th consecutive appearance in the final stages of the World Championship since his debut in 1993, equalling Stephen Hendry's 27 consecutive appearances, and three short of Steve Davis's record of 30 total appearances. Four other former world championship finalists also competed: Ali Carter (twice: 2008 and 2012), Judd Trump (once: 2011), Barry Hawkins (once: 2013), and Ding Junhui (once: 2016).[13][4] The youngest player to participate in the main stage of the tournament was Luo Honghao at 19 years of age,[14] while 46-year-old Mark Davis was the oldest; both players entered the main draw through qualifying.[15]

Three former world champions participated in the qualifying rounds: Ken Doherty (1997), Peter Ebdon (2002) and Graeme Dott. Of these, only Dott succeeded in qualifying for the main tournament at the Crucible. Also, four former world finalists participated in the qualifying rounds: Jimmy White (six times: 1984 and 1990–1994), Nigel Bond (once: 1995), Ali Carter, and Matthew Stevens (twice: 2000 and 2005).[13][4] Of these, only Carter qualified for the main tournament at the Crucible.[13]

Tournament summary

Qualifying rounds

James Cahill

became the first-ever amateur to qualify for the World Championship main stage at the Crucible.

The top sixteen seeds automatically qualified for the main competition.[4] The defending champion Mark Williams is seeded first, whilst other seeds are allocated based on the world rankings following the 2019 China Open.[4] All the other players competed in the preliminary qualifying rounds, and were required to win three best-of-19 matches to reach the finals.[4]

The qualifying rounds took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield from 10 to 17 April 2019, with 16 players progressing to the finals. 128 players competed in the qualifying stage, including those tour players not automatically qualified for the main competition and invited amateurs.[16]

James Cahill became the first amateur player ever to qualify for the Crucible main stage of the World Championship, defeating fellow amateur Michael Judge 10–6 in the third qualifying round.[17] Seven players – the highest number since 1999 – made it through the qualifying rounds to make their debuts at the main stage of the tournament. Besides Cahill, they were Scott Donaldson, Michael Georgiou, Li Hang, Luo Honghao, Tian Pengfei and Zhao Xintong.[18] 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott and two-time finalist Ali Carter also qualified for the main stage.[18]

First round

The draw for the first round of the championship was made on 18 April 2019, the day after the conclusion of the qualifying rounds and two days before the start of the main event; the matches were drawn by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn, and 1991 World Champion John Parrott.[19] The first round of the championship took place from 20-25 April 2019. Each first round match was played over two sessions as best-of-19-frames.[20]

Top half

The tournament began with defending champion Mark Williams (seeded 1) drawing Martin Gould.[21][22] Gould took the first frame of the match, with a break of 64, before Williams won the next five with breaks of 55, 54 and 129 to lead 5–1.[23] Gould won both frames 7 and 8, before Williams took the final frame of the session with a break of 97 to lead 6–3.[23][24] The second session was also played on the opening day of the event. In frame 10, Williams opened up a lead, before Gould made a clearance to force a respotted black, but it was Williams who potted the black to lead 7–3.[25] Gould won frame 11, to trail 4–7, before Williams won the next two frames to go ahead 9–4.[24] Gould fought back with breaks of 70, 87 and 76, to trail 7–9, before Williams won the match 10–7, clinching a "nervy" 17th frame.[24] After his victory, Williams complained that World Snooker had not allowed his child backstage before the match, which the governing body denied.[26]

Shaun Murphy

(seeded 13) completed the second ever whitewash at the World Championship main stage at the Crucible.

Shaun Murphy drew event debutant Luo Honghao. The match would be only the second whitewash ever at the Crucible, and the first since John Parrott defeated Eddie Charlton in 1992, finishing 10–0.[27] Luo scored the lowest number of points scored in a World Championship match, scoring just 89 during the entire match, more than 100 points lower than the previous record low of 191 scored by Danny Fowler when he lost 1–10 to Stephen Hendry in 1993.[27] Neil Robertson met Michael Georgiou in the first round; Georgiou trailed 0–9 at the conclusion of the first session, having scored even fewer points than Luo in those frames. However, Georgiou won frame 10 on resumption of play in the second session with a break of 90, to avoid both the whitewash and low points total. Robertson later won 10–1.[27]

Fifth ranked John Higgins played Mark Davis, with Davis having defeated Higgins in six of the pair's last seven encounters.[28][29] Higgins gained a 6–3 lead after his initial session, before spending the night in Royal Hallamshire Hospital because his brother Jason had fractured his kneecap by falling down the stairs at the venue. Higgins then won the match the following day 10–7.[30]

Two former winners of the event, Graeme Dott (2006 winner) and Stuart Bingham (2015 winner), met in the first round of the competition. Bingham led 8–1 after the first session, and later 9–4, before Dott won five frames to level the match at 9–9. Bingham won the deciding frame after Dott missed a simple black ball shot.[31] Following the match, Dott stated that "serious sleeping problems" had caused him issues playing.[32]

Bottom half

Qualifier

Gary Wilson

won the longest ever World Championship frame at the Crucible in the first round decider against

Luca Brecel

.

The match between Gary Wilson and Luca Brecel, which featured a large amount of tactical play, had to be suspended when the afternoon session overran with Wilson leading 9–8.[33] When the match resumed in the evening, Brecel won frame 18 to send the match to a deciding frame. This frame first required a re-rack, then set the record for the longest frame ever played at the Crucible, at 79 minutes and 31 seconds.[b][33] After leading 6–3 overnight, Ding Junhui defeated Anthony McGill 10–7.[34]

Having lost in the first round eight times in his previous 15 appearances at the Crucible, Stephen Maguire played debutant Tian Pengfei. In frame 17, Maguire was 7–9 down and needed a snooker on the colours to stay in the match. He won a snooker on the blue, then missed a risky pot to a baulk corner, which he missed, but the blue hit the cue ball again and went into another baulk pocket, a shot later called "an outrageous fluke" by Maguire.[35] He added pink and black to steal the frame, and then took the next two frames to win 10–9.[36] Former three-time winner and world number 2 Mark Selby played debutant Zhao Xintong. Despite having been behind 1–5 after the first six frames, Selby won nine of the next eleven frames with two breaks of 131 to win 10–7.[15]

Amateur player James Cahill drew the world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had been in the final of both Triple Crown events earlier in the season. Cahill took the final frame of the first session to lead 5–4, and took an 8–5 lead in the second session, before O'Sullivan tied the match up at 8–8.[37] Cahill made an early break in frame 17, but fell apart on a simple red; O'Sullivan simply needed the final pink and black to win the frame, but missed the pink, allowing Cahill to take the frame. Cahill won the match 10–8 with a break of 56 in the final frame.[38] The win was Cahill's second win over the first ranked player in the season, having defeated Mark Selby in the first round of the 2018 UK Championship earlier in the season.[39] O'Sullivan commented after the match that he had been unwell during the match, however former champion Ken Doherty accused O'Sullivan of "playing too casually".[40]

Second round

The second round of the championships was played between 25 and 29 April, with matches being competed over three sessions as best of 25 frames. The initial session of the match between Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson featured a maximum break attempt by Murphy.[41] With just the last two reds remaining, Murphy asked for the divider between the tables to be removed to allow all spectators to see the break attempt; however, Murphy would fail to finish the break.[42] Robertson won the initial three frames of the match, without Murphy attempting a pot, and led at both 5–3 and 10–6 after the first two sessions.[43] Robertson later won the first three frames of the final session to win 13–6.[44] Post match, Murphy called Robertson "just too good" and "unplayable".[44]

16th seeded

David Gilbert

defeated the defending champion

Mark Williams

in the second round. He went on to reach the semi-finals.

Defending champion Mark Williams played David Gilbert. After the first session, with Gilbert leading 5–3,[45] Williams stated that he had suffered chest pains post session.[46] He was taken to Northern General Hospital overnight, but returned for the second session of the match, the following day.[46] Williams later tied the match at 7–7, but trailed 7–9 after the second session.[47] Gilbert then won the first four frames of the final session to win 13–9.[48][49]

Amateur player James Cahill drew fifteenth seed Stephen Maguire. Maguire led 5–3 and 9–7 after the first two sessions.[50] Cahill took three of the first four frames in the third session to draw level at 10–10. Cahill then won frame 21, to take the lead for the first time in the match, with Maguire drawing level in the following frame.[51] Frame 23 saw both players miss shots, with Cahill looking to win the frame before being penalised for a waistcoat foul, and later going in-off from a cannon, allowing Maguire to take the frame. Cahill won frame 24, after Maguire missed a green ball by a wide margin.[52] In the deciding frame, Maguire won the match 13–12.[51][53]

Three-time champion Mark Selby played qualifier Gary Wilson, but trailed 3–5 after the first session, before winning four out of the first five frames in the second session to lead 7–6. Wilson, however won the remaining three frames of the session to lead 9–7.[45] Selby later tied the match at 10–10, before Wilson won the next three frames to qualify for the quarter-finals.[48][54] 2013 runner-up Barry Hawkins won the first four frames of his match with Kyren Wilson,[21] with the first session finishing 6–2 to Hawkins. Hawkins made four century breaks of 105, 130, 111, and 137 including a maximum break attempt.[42][55] Wilson also made a century break in frame 5, with four frames being won with a century in a row for the first time since Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry in 1999.[55] Wilson, however, won the second session of the match 5–3 to trail 7–9, before drawing level at 9–9 in the final session.[56] Despite Hawkins taking leads at 10–9 and 11–10, Wilson won the last three frames to progress, winning 13–11.[57] The match saw a record equalling 9 century break for a second round match at the world championships.[58]

Zhou Yuelong played Ali Carter in the only all-qualifier tie of the second round. Zhou took four of the first five frames to lead 4–1, then led after the first session 5–3, and held the lead at 9–7. On resuming the match in the final session, Carter won six straight frames to win 13–9.[57] Two former finalists, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui met in the second round. Trump lead 5–1, with Ding winning eight of the next ten frames to lead 9–7. Trump won the next 6 frames with breaks of 93, 79, 54 and 103 to win 13–9.[59]

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were played on 30 April and 1 May, and similar to the previous round, matches were played as best of 25 frames across three sessions. In an all-qualifier match, Ali Carter played Gary Wilson. Despite playing in his first world championship quarter-final, and losing the first three frames of the match, Wilson won five straight frames to lead 5–3 after the first session.[60] The pair shared the next session, with both players winning four frames, with Wilson leading 9–7 into the final session.[61] Carter won two of the next three frames, including a break of 128 to trail 9–10, with Wilson winning the next three to progress 13–9.[62][63] Post-match, Carter said "You have to take your hat off to [Wilson]. I did not think he could play that good," commenting that despite his low ranking of 32, Wilson "has to be the favourite to win it now, the way he has been playing."[60]

2019 Masters winner Judd Trump played 15th seed Stephen Maguire. Trump had won six straight frames to win his second round match against Ding Junhui, and won the first six frames of this match scoring breaks of 131, 67, 106, 78 and 101, to lead 7–1 after the first session.[64] In the second session, Trump looked set to win the match without needing to play the final session, extending his lead to 9–1, however, Maguire won four of the remaining frames to trail 5–11 by the end of the session. Trump won the match after just three frames of the final session 13–6.[65][66] Post-match, Maguire was fined for swearing in a press conference after commenting his performance was "shit".[65][67][66]

4th seed

Neil Robertson

, lost in the quarter-finals to

John Higgins

.

David Gilbert played Kyren Wilson. The two had met in the 2019 German Masters final earlier in the season, with Wilson winning the tournament 9–7.[68] The two players shared the opening session 4–4, and Gilbert won six of the eight frames in the second session to lead 10–6 overnight.[65] Wilson won two of the first three frames of the final session to trail 8–11, but Gilbert took the final two frames to win the match 13–8.[65][69]

Four-time world champion John Higgins played Neil Robertson. Robertson took an early 3–1 lead, but Higgins tied the match at 4–4. Robertson pulled away to 7–4, with Higgins winning five frames in a row to take a 9–7 lead.[65] Higgins won the match 13–10, after sharing the final session, with a century break of 101 in the final frame to win.[70][71]

Semi-finals

John Higgins

reached his third consecutive World Championship final, his career eighth.

The two semi-finals were played from 2 to 5 May, and were best-of-33-frame matches spread over four sessions. The first semi-final pitted four-time champion John Higgins against David Gilbert, who had never progressed past the second round previously.[72] Higgins took the first two frames of the match, with Gilbert tying the match at 2–2 with a break of 94.[73] Higgins led 3–2, before Gilbert won the next three frames, including a maximum attempt, potting 15 red balls, but failed a double on the black to lead 5–3.[73]

The second session saw Gilbert increase his lead to 8–3, by winning three more frames including a 125 break.[74] Gilbert was also ahead 56–17 in frame 12 but missed a frame-ball pink into the middle pocket, before Higgins cleared the table to trail 4–8. Higgins also won the next two frames with breaks of 67, 52 and 58 to trail 6–8.[74] Gilbert, however, won the final two frames of the session to lead 10–6.[75] Pundit John Virgo said "[Higgins] is not with it", with six-time champion Steve Davis calling Higgins' performance "ridiculous".[75]

On the return of the match for the third session, a member of the crowd was removed after just the break off shot in the initial frame, which was won by Gilbert to increase his lead to 11–6.[65] Higgins won two of the next three to stay at four frames behind at 12–8.[76]Frame 21 saw Higgins make a 143, the highest of the tournament, and the 86th tournament century break, tying the record for century breaks in one world championship, first set in 2015.[76] Gilbert won the next frame, falling short of a century, with a break of 91.[76]Despite this, Higgins won the final two frames of the session to trail 13–11.[77]

The final session saw Gilbert take frame 25, but Higgins won the next four frames to lead for the first time since leading 3–2 .[78] Gilbert won the next two frames, to lead 16–15, before Higgins scored a 139 break to send the match to a deciding frame at 16–16. The deciding frame was won by Higgins, after Gilbert missed the black ball from the spot.[78] Post-match, both men gave emotional press-conferences, with Gilbert commenting "I have never won anything, I have come close but this is the best couple of weeks I have had in my snooker career by a mile. It might be the closest I will come to winning the World Championship."[79] Higgins, however apologised for his poor play during the match, and bringing Gilbert "down to [Higgins]' level in the first three sessions."[80]

The second semi-final was played between Judd Trump and qualifier Gary Wilson. Trump and Wilson shared the opening session, 4–4, with Wilson later took the lead at 6–5, thanks to a break of 65. Trump won the next three frames with breaks of 73, 123 and 75 to lead 9–6 before Wilson scored a 77 to bring the score to 9–7 after two sessions.[81] The third session was "nervy" from both players.[82] Wilson won frame 17, with a break of 50.[83] However, Trump won the next three frames, including a break of 114, the 87th century of the championship, the most of all time at a world championship.[84] Wilson and Trump went into the final session with Trump 14–10 ahead.[63]

The final session of the semi-final saw Wilson win the first frame, but Trump won the remaining three frames to win 17–11.[85] Post-match, Trump suggested that despite appearing in the final, neither himself or Higgins had played particularly well.[86] World ranked 30, Wilson commented that "Judd deserved to win", but commented on the playing conditions being poor saying: "I wasn't good enough yesterday, but I've got to say that table is disgusting. It's running off all over the place, you're getting square bounces, kicks every other shot".[87][88]

Final

In a repeat of the

2011 World Championship

final,

Judd Trump

captured his maiden

World Championship title

. By doing so he also completed a career

Triple Crown

.

The final was played over four sessions, as a best of 35 frames match. The final was a repeat of the 2011 World Snooker Championship final, between John Higgins and Judd Trump, which Higgins won his fourth championship, winning 18–15.[70] Higgins defeated Mark Davis, Stuart Bingham, Neil Robertson and David Gilbert to reach the final, whilst Trump defeated Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ding Junhui, Stephen Maguire and Gary Wilson. In reaching the final, Higgins is competing in his third straight world championship final, having been defeated by Mark Selby in 2017, and Mark Williams in 2018. This was also Higgins' eighth final, one short of the record held by Stephen Hendry, having won four previously in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011.[89] This was Trump's second final, having only played in the 2011 defeat prior.[89]

The first session opened with the first two frames being won by Trump, with breaks of 51 and 63.[90] Higgins replied with a break of 139 to trail 1-2, before Trump scored a century of his own a 105 in frame 4. Brakes of 69, 34, 40 and 101 saw Higgins score 244 unanswered points and three frames on the bounce to lead 4-3.[90] Trump tied the match at 4-4 with a fourth century in the eight frames.[90] Post-session, Trump commented on the temperature of the arena, calling it too cold to which tournament officials denied.[91]

Frame 9 saw Higgins score a break of 125 to move to 5-4 ahead, the third century in a row for the match.[92] Trump won the remaining frames of the session, eight in a row, including breaks of 135 and 114.[93] Trump finished the session leading by seven frames overnight, leading 12-5. Six time champion Steve Davis commented on the session saying "I've seen some astonishing snooker here, a lot of it from Ronnie O'Sullivan, but that was a different type of astonishing. I am a little bit in shock. He is making a lot of very difficult shots seem very easy."[94]

The third session opened with a maximum attempt from Higgins, who potted 14 reds and blacks before running out of position for the red ball. Higgins played a full table double, but missed the following black. Higgins also won frame 19, to trail 7-12, but Trump would win the next three to extend his lead to 15-7.[95] Higgins won the following two frames, to prevent the match from being won a session early. Frame 23 saw Trump attempt a maximum break of his own, but overcut a red ball into the middle pocket.[95] Leading 16-9 going into the final session, Trump won the first two frames of the evening session to win 18-9.[96] The win was the biggest margin of victory since 2009, when Higgins defeated Shaun Murphy by the same score.[97]

With 11 centuries between them, the final set the record for the most 100+ breaks in one match, one more than the previous record held by Alan McManus and Ding Junhui in the semi-final of the 2016 event.[98]

[tomonokazuki]

Kazuki’s interview from the Team Japan Fanbook 2018. This took me a lot longer than I intended, but it’s finally done! (Adulting gets in the way of everything fun)

Usual Disclaimer: I’m not a professional translator, just a fan with basic Japanese language skills and a whole helluva lot of tenacity. Any mistakes are due to stupidity rather than malice

Warning: This is a long boy, like really really long. so so so so so long.

At last season’s World Championships, the name Kazuki Tomono appeared to the world when he had a lively 5th place finish at his Worlds debut. This season he’s taking on ambitious programs and aiming for the top of the senior stage. Stronger, and Higher. The skating world is gathering it’s expectations for one of Japan’s premiere entertainers.

That’s a Colantotte necklace sparkling on your chest today, isn’t it?

Kazuki: Yes (laugh). Shoma gave it to me at an ice show. He said “if it’s ok, have this”. It’s cool, and I really wanted one, so I’m happy.

Are you matching with Uno-senshu?

Kazuki: Maybe, I think Shoma is like a model. He’s stylish and always has his on.

This off season you’ve been busy with ice shows, haven’t you. Which performances have you participated in?

Kazuki: Prince Ice World, Heroes&Future in Nagano, Dreams on Ice, and THE Ice. My “Daft Punk” ex has been very popular. I really feel that it’s a good program.

How did you choose the song?

Kazuki: From the start I loved Pentatonix, but above all I love their “Daft Punk” cover. When I was searching for an exhibition number, I suddenly remembered this song, I thought “this has to be it!” and decided on it.

What is the reason that you added in the robot dance?

Kazuki: The promotional video has a near future feel, and Daft Punk itself is also a group with that sort of concept. I watched the robot dance of video sites, and studied it on my own. The way muscles are used is difficult and I had a hard time, but while watching videos aimed at beginners I desperately memorized it

You debuted it at Prince Ice World Yokohama, right? How was it when you watched the footage?

Kazuki: I was worried, but I danced better than I thought I would (laugh). The audience also received it well, and I was relieved that I was able to make it lively. Even though I’ve always had good exhibition numbers, this one has become a particular favorite.

Since you flourished last season, do you feel the audience’s reaction to you has changed?

Kazuki: I began to feel that was expected and I thought I should give a performance that was fitting of someone who was 5th place at Worlds.

Has your awareness changed in practice?

Kazuki: Yes. I want to become more of a skater who can compete at the world level, so my awareness has changed in practice, and my goals have become more defined.

During ice shows this summer, I think you were able to practice alongside Olympic medalists and legends in the skating world, did that have an effect on you?

Kazuki: The Nagano show was really like a dream. I admire Candeloro, and I was really happy to see his performance up close. Also, I was overwhelmed by Elvis Stojko’s technical prowess. Legendary skaters have a wealth of knowledge and experience, sort of an aura, I really couldn’t get out any words but “amazing”. I sometimes forgot I was in the show too (laugh). Plushenko was also amazing, I couldn’t take my eyes away for a second at this ice show. It was the most fun I’ve ever had.

Have you seen footage from Candeloro, Stojko, and Plushenko’s competitive days before?

Kazuki: Yes, I love skaters from around the time of the Nagano and Salt Lake City Olympics.They made history in the skating world, for me they’re the people of legends. I think that now there are many very skilled skaters, but I feel like the style and aura of skaters from that era is really amazing. Now, while I’m aiming for the top of the skating world, I’m thankful to see legends perform, and I want to make the best of this precious experience.

Looking back, what do you think was your turning point?

Kazuki: When I went to Junior Worlds as a substitute. That season I had my first Junior Grand Prix event, and that was very big, but I don’t think my awareness was enough yet. If I hadn’t had that experience at Junior Worlds, I definitely feel that I wouldn’t be the me I am now.That competition gave me the thought “I really want to take skating seriously”. After that, the final competition to select for the Pyeongchang Olympics, last year’s Japanese Nationals is a competition I won’t be able to forget. I still have that regret because of the fact that my abilities weren’t enough. Because accepted that situation, and started looking ahead 4 years to the Beijing Olympics with a feeling of “I have to work harder”, I think I was able to have a good placement at March’s World Championships.

In what areas did you think “My abilities aren’t enough”?

Kazuki: Everything, every little movement was rough, there were parts that were still unrefined, things that stood out.I think “senior-like” refined movements are necessary, and I feel like my basics weren’t enough.

This off season you started working on improving your skating very early on.Are you feeling the effects?

Kazuki: Honestly, no. I think I’ll become confident when I get results in a competition, the feeling hasn’t come yet. Now I’m just desperately trying to practice. I don’t want to waste even a little bit of time, so even if it’s just a short time I try to concentrate on practice.

What is the division of coaching between Taijin Hiraike and Akio Sasaki?

Kazuki: There’s no particular arrangement. Day to day they both see me, I have my time with Hiraike-sensei and my time with Akio-sensei. I practice jumps by sorting out what I’ve absorbed from what they’ve taught me.Even though my axis tends to be slightly off, I’m aware of it and aim for efficient jumps.

Based on your results at Worlds, what are your plans with Hiraike-sensei looking towards the future?

Kazuki: Hiraike-sensei was very pleased with Worlds, I think I worked hard to skate well and I feel I wa able to pay him back a little bit. But, he and I are aiming higher, though I feel like the result at Worlds changed our awareness.

Sasaki-sensei was a pioneer of skating to Misao Sato’s choreography, does that help polish your programs?

Kazuki: It’s very helpful. It's big to have a coach like Akio-sensei who understands Misao-sensei’s ideas watch me every day. He’s able to teach me many things.

Earlier, you said you want to aim for more efficient jumps, how is your new quad toe loop coming along?

Kazuki: I’ve recently been able to land it, but the probability isn’t there yet. At this stage I can’t really say if I’ve acquired it, but I’m thinking positively. I can say I’ve landed it, so I think I’ve made progress. To say I can jump two types of quads, the salchow and the toe loop definitely makes me happy.(laugh)

That’s good, isn’t it?

Kazuki: Well, yeah, practicing 2 types of quads is really difficult, but I think “Skaters who can jump many types of quads are really amazing” while I practice. My salchow is also kind of iffy, so I think I have to focus on both and practice.

Right now do you feel like the quad toe loop and the quad salchow are completely different? Or is one just an extension of the other?

Kazuki: The way I use my body is pretty much the same. Therefore I think I was able to pick it up fairly quickly.When I first jumped the salchow I thought “I can definitely do the quad toe” seeing other skaters around me jumping it was the main thing that gave me a strong feeling that “I absolutely have to jump it”

How do you plan to use it in competition?

Kazuki: Since I want to focus on expression in my performances and it can lower the quality, I just have one quad, the salchow in my short program.If I can I think I’d like to have 2 quad salchows and one quad toe loop in my free skate.Right now because the probability on my toe loop isn’t very good, that will depend on how my practice goes from here. I’d like to try it in a competition, and because I still don’t know what effect the new rules will have, while watching what’s going on around me, I think I can make a good strategy.

Under the new rules, your strongest element, the triple axel has had his base value lowered, how do you feel about that?

Kazuki: It has, hasn’t it. (laugh) But I don’t mind because it’s the same for everyone. If you think of position, you have to receive high GOE.Though there are difficult things, I think it will improve quality. I primarily seek out high quality in all aspects of figure skating, so I’d like to pursue that.

Please tell me about your programs for this season.

Kazuki: My short program is “Cinema Paradiso”, choreographed by Misha Ge.

You connected with Misha at Worlds, didn’t you.

Kazuki: Yes. When Worlds was over I thought “I want Misha to choreograph for me”, and I discussed it with people around me and made it happen. Misha didn’t just do choreography, he helped me with my basic skating skills and taught me many essential things.

How did you pick the music?

Kazuki: Misha brought two scores, and I chose “Cinema Paradiso”. Last season I saw Jun Suzuki’s free skate and thought the music was good, so it was a quick decision. Misha also told me “I wanted you to choose this one too!” (laugh)

You became friendly with Misha at Worlds, and talked with him, how was it having him choreograph for you?

Kazuki: It was more overwhelming than I could have imagined. I thought “He really is someone with amazing technique”. Both his basic skating skills and his expression are wonderful, him just standing on the ice changed its beauty.

Are those things what made you want choreography from him?

Kazuki: Yes. He has many intense exhibition programs that can entertain the audience and I thought they had a lot of the things I was lacking.I felt like he has knowledge of the expressive power needed to move people and have grown up performances, that’s what attracted me.

What sort of performance do you want to give with this short program?

Kazuki: I want to express “friendship” and “love”. It’s new territory for me, but I think it would be good to show a “senior” side in this new, grown up program.

What about your free skate?

Kazuki: It’s “Riverdance” choreographed by Misao Sato. The choreography is complete, but it still needs some fine tuning. This music is very regal, and many wonderful skaters have used it, but I think I want it to be a performance that can’t lose.

Who chose the music?

Kazuki: I decided on it while consulting with Misao sensei, the teacher who always arranges the music for my programs Hiraike-sensei and many others.

You do well with music that has a climax that says “This is the main event”

Kazuki: That’s true. Riverdance is a score that really builds up, so I think it suits me. But, it has the tap dancing element, which is very difficult to incorporate into figure skating. With the rule change bringing the performance time from four and a half minutes down to four, it’s troublesome because I can feel how difficult it is to put together the configuration, but talking with Misao-sensei, I think I can make it a good program.

The competitive season will be here in no time, how do you feel about it?

Kazuki:I definitely still have quite a few worries. Expectations are high, so I think my worries have also gotten very big. I think as the competitions pile up I’ll gain confidence.

For the Grand Prix series, you’ve been assigned to Skate Canada and then Rostelecom.

Kazuki: The me of a few years ago wouldn’t be able to believe that I have two Grand Prix assignments. If I can strengthen areas that are lacking with hard work, and make better better us of my strong points, I think that will lead to good results. Even now when I look at the entries, I’m still at a stage where I’m thinking “Wow, they’re amazing”,by the time of the competition I have to have the ability not to be worked up by seeing the skaters around me.

What is your goal for this season?

Kazuki: Because I want to have better results than last season, the big goal I have is to put all my strength into each and every competition with the feeling that I want to get a medal.

Your goals are always clear,and you expressed strong feelings to carry out this season.

Kazuki: After all, I learned how to discilple myself from watching Tatsuki Machida’s way of carrying out his promises during the Sochi Olympic season up close. It’s nothing to do with fancy speeches, but in a manner of speaking, as I try to encourage myself, I feel like I’m steadily getting closer to those words.

So you’re driving yourself with purposeful words.

Kazuki: Yes. But, because I’m thinking seriously, and speaking firmly, I’d like to practice with strong feelings of being able to realize those things.

You were with Machida at Prince Ice World’s Yokohama performance, right? Did he have any words for you?

Kazuki: He said “You really worked hard, didn’t you” (laugh) I was happy just to be participating in an ice show with him, but I was really happy to hear him say “You really worked hard at Worlds, didn’t you”.

This season, Daisuke Takahashi announced his comeback. There’s a high probability that you’ll compete together at Nationals, how do you feel about that?

Kazuki: I have half happy half complicated feelings (laugh). I know very well that he’s a living legend. I think after he took up dancing his range of expression has been ever expanding, and since he always puts together amazing programs, I’m both excited and scared. However, the privilege of competing with him is the strongest feeling. This will become a very special season for me.

Thank You very much. Finally, please give a message to your fans.

Kazuki: Thank you for always supporting me. I feel like last season I was able to get close to the image of the figure skater I’d imagined. This season I’m going to polish myself and become able to give the kind of performance that will surprise all my supporters.

[beersfromthebleachers]

2019 Top Ten Fantasy Baseball Draft – Show Me the Money Edition

This is a year that my fellow leagues and I took a different approach and started analyzing roto-style along with head-to-head formats for fantasy baseball this year. We also took into  consideration the players that had huge incentives from their season last year, so the favoritism’s are to the players that received an award or had a big payday over the offseason. A lot of these names are superior in their position in players, and it is not a coincidence that some of these players are going to be drafted in the selection of the top ten averaging at the exact draft position. Let’s see if your draft ends up the same way this season.

1. Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels) Outfield – No matter how many times you start over or join a new league, Mike Trout is number one pick in EVERY single fantasy baseball draft BECAUSE he is the GREATEST baseball player alive. Trout capitalizes his 2019 campaign with a brand new contract estimated at $430 million over the next twelve years; if that payday does not tell you that he is the best player in baseball, and then let the numbers talk for you. Trout hit 39 home runs, had a .312 batting average, and crossed home plate over 100 times doing it for the sixth time in his career. Trout is on pace to have the highest career WAR in the WAR-stat baseball era, and we hope we never see him take a tumble in the greatness he has yet to achieve.

2. Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox) Outfield – The franchise torch officially was passed down from David Ortiz to Mookie Betts. His campaign in 2018 was a huge step up from the year prior bringing a World Series championship to Boston along with an American League MVP. Betts is a necessary draft. It is not a rare circumstance to see him go before Trout in most draft formats. Realistically, he has a more complete team built around him compared to Trout. Betts led the league in runs (129), batting average (.346), and slugging percentage (.640) which gave him full merits for his MVP title. Expect the same great expectations for Betts as he defends both titles for the 2019 season.

3. Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals) Pitcher- Scherzer is the only man on this list that does not have an incentive from a big payday or an award for the 2018 season. However, do not let that dismiss the fact that he is the wealthiest pitcher in the game still being paid by the Washington Nationals.  Scherzer led the league in strikeouts with 300 and in innings pitch with 220 in his losing bid for a Cy Young to Jacob deGrom; which was snapped after winning it two season in a row. Scherzer this season will go against more difficult hitting in his division with all stars like Robinson Cano to the Mets or J. T. Realmuto to the Phillies, even more interesting that he will face his old teammate, Bryce Harper. Strategically, he is a great long-term pick to have and building a team around great pitching starts with the best pitcher in the game.

4. Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers) Outfield – Enter the National League’s current reigning MVP champion. Christian Yelich took advantage of the heated competition in his first year of his new division after being traded from the Miami Marlins, and he is just getting started in Milwaukee. After rallying the Brew Crew to stealing the division from the Cubs in Game 163, Yelich displayed a fantastic resume of production after finally sealing his right as an All Star. He led the National League in batting average with .326, slugging with .598, and a perfect on base percentage with 1-flat. Yelich is comparable to Mookie Betts and where he is in his position; he has all the right pieces around him that makes him a better player, and even more effective as a leader on and off the field. An alumnus of the United States’ first WBC Championship team, he looks to also bring the Brewers first World Series title to the franchise; that makes him a true champion.

5. Chris Sale (Boston Red Sox) Pitcher – Chris Sale just earned a huge payday with an extension with the Boston Red Sox for five more years at $145 million to keep him as the ace of that rotation. He also recorded the last out the 2018 World Series and earned his first championship and is aiming to earn more if he is looking to stay in Boston until 2025. The only issue is that lingering injuries kept Sale from finishing the season strong and cost him another chance of winning a Cy Young award. In his age 30 season, perhaps we might see some minor regression from what Sale does on a regular basis for the 2019 campaign. Hopefully he has enough in the tank to actually grab that Cy Young he has had his eyes on for some time now.

6. Nolan Arenado (Colorado Rockies) Third Base – The Rockies have chosen the face of their franchise with Nolan Arenado. Right after Manny Machado was given his grand payday, Arenado was extended thru 2025 with a $260 million contract. The four time All-Star and Silver Slugger has finished close to the top five in the MVP races over the past three seasons in the National League. Full of youth and power, Arenado is seizing the ranks of becoming the best third baseman in the game. In his four All-Star resume building years, he has collected over 100 RBIs, leading the league in his 2015 and 2016 seasons. He has everything you need to build a quality team around him, do not sleep on this pick if he falls into your lap.

7. Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies) Outfield – Welcome back to my top ten drafting list for fantasy baseball, Bryce Harper. May I also welcome you to the “City of Brotherly Love” as you prepare to lead a team that will be ready to win big in the near future. The young phenom is coming off one of his best career years since his MVP winning season in 2015. Harper leaves the Washington Nationals after collecting 100 RBIs, 137 hits, and 34 home runs, not to mention winning the Home Run derby in his former park last season during the All-Star break. With a fresh new league talent and a supporting cast of seasoned veterans on the Philadelphia Phillies, Harper has his eyes set on his next goal: World Series. After all, getting paid $330 million for thirteen years will give you all the ambition in the world to do so.

8. Blake Snell (Tampa Bay Rays) Pitcher – A new face that has all the right stuff to be competing with names that have graced this list before. The 2018 AL Cy Young winner displayed an insane year with a Tampa Bay Rays that were robbed short of competing in the playoffs last season. Snell led his league with a 1.89 ERA and complimented that with 211 strikeouts. He also led the entire majors with 21 wins in 31 starts out of all pitchers. Snell’s well-deserved Cy Young also gained him a payday of $50 million over the next five years until 2023. A tough notch pitcher that took everyone by surprise last season will be more than willing to display the same stuff this season in a more than competitive American League East. We will be keeping a watchful eye on Snell over these next few years to see if his stuff will give him even a bigger contract down the road,  maybe even with a more prestigious ball club.

9. Manny Machado (San Diego Padres) Third Base/Shortstop – The other All-Star following Harper that was expected to have a big pay day. Manny Machado felt a more comfortable presence in the National League West and signed a huge long term contract with the San Diego Padres valued at $300 million over the next ten years. Following his performance with the Los Angeles Dodgers and their deep run into the playoffs, Machado decided not to stay on an over crowded and talented Dodgers with a team that is on the rise of being competitive in the short time coming. Machado will serve along side a former World Series winner Eric Hosmer and the Padres number one prospect, Fernando Tatis Jr. Tatis’ position is at shortstop, so it is in expectation that Machado will be playing more games at third base. With the utility asset at two positions, Machado will be ringing in a new era with the San Diego Padres.

10. Jacob deGrom (New York Mets) Pitcher - This is reaching, but you cannot pass on the 2019 Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom after the season he had last year. In 32 appearances for the New York Mets, deGrom had the lowest ERA in the Majors last year leading all pitchers with 1.70. He also got paid before the season began with an extension with the Mets worth $137.5 million over the next five years. In the past, I have had his team mate in the rotation, Noah Syndergaard on this list some years before, however injury has riddled this rotation over the past few seasons . Still, deGrom has made his way back into being a commanding leader of this pitching staff and team. The Mets have made some interesting moves for a supporting cast to help deGrom gain more wins than he did last season. Expect another dominating year from deGrom and the New York Mets.

[fromtheringapron]

WCW Halloween Havoc 1999

Date: October 24, 1999.

Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Attendance: 8,464. 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan. 

Results:

1. WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match: Disco Inferno (champion) defeated Lash LeRoux. 

2. Street Fight for the vacant WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) defeated The First Family (Hugh Morrus and Brian Knobbs) (with Jimmy Hart) and The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Konnan) to win the titles. 

3. Eddie Guerrero defeated Perry Saturn via disqualification. 

4. Brad Armstrong defeated Berlyn (with The Wall). 

5. WCW World TV Championship Match: Rick Steiner (champion) defeated Chris Benoit. 

6. Lex Luger (with Miss Elizabeth) defeated Bret Hart. 

7. WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting (champion) defeated Hulk Hogan. 

8. WCW United States Championship Match: Goldberg defeated Sid Vicious (champion) via TKO to win the title. 

9. Strap Match: Diamond Dallas Page (with Kimberly) defeated Ric Flair. 

10. WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Goldberg defeated Sting (champion) to win the title. 

My Review

WCW was rapidly spinning out of control by the time of Halloween Havoc 1999, but a new beginning seemed to be on the horizon. Vince Russo, the man who spearheaded the Attitude Era in the WWF, joined the writing team right before the show, with hopes he’d add a spark to a product that’d become convoluted and stale. Russo certainly did bring a spark; the only problem is that he wound up burning down the whole house with it. Halloween Havoc 1999 may have only just been the start of this new era, but it’s got Russo’s fingerprints all over it and, holy shit, does it go off the rails in a hurry.

In a way, Halloween Havoc and Russo’s swerve-laden booking seem like the perfect match. If there’s one event where he could go balls to the wall with crash TV and gimmickry, it’s gotta be Havoc, and heavens knows the depths of absurdism WCW reached at the event in the years before Russo anyway. Unfortunately, the ‘99 Havoc features one of Russo’s worst booking caveats⏤the worked shoot. This would happen several times throughout his tenure in WCW, each more embarrassing than the last, but his obsession with “going off the script” starts here.

The show starts conventionally enough, but it takes a hard left turn into near indescribable chaos. Midway through, we have a match between Hulk Hogan and Sting, a main event match that’s bound to draw no matter how many times it happens. But, alas, there’s a twist: Hogan “lies” down for Sting and the match ends in 3 seconds. It’s then given zero explanation or follow-up for the rest of the show, leaving the audience confused and downright angry. Even when you look past they just pissed away a match people were paying money to see, it feels like a desperate attempt to create controversy just to pop some interest in the next night’s Nitro. I don’t think Hogan “lying down” was ever explained on WCW TV though, which just makes the whole thing worse.

If that weren’t enough, the commentators and performers are constantly bringing up “the writers from up North” and the “powers that be.” It’s deliberately meant to be a wink at the audience, who are likely rolling their eyes so hard that you can practically hear it. It’s all just a way of saying “Get it? This is a bunch of fake shit. You’re watching a bunch of fakers. But this right here? This is real.” The reality is that it’s actually just embarrassing, not that Russo ever caught on. There’s still plenty of other swerves throughout the night, including a surprise Sting vs. Goldberg main event. The crowd in Las Vegas seems to dig it, at least. Too bad it’s practically impossible to connect the dots on how we even got the damn match in the first place!

Halloween Havoc 1999 is exactly the kind of madness you can expect from WCW’s annual schlockfest, but it’s even more confounding and inexplicable this time out. I guess the nicest thing I can say is that the show certainly isn’t boring. The bad part is that the fun often gives way to frustration, filling this Halloween Havoc up with more tricks than treats.

My Random Notes 

On WCW Nitro for Men Cologne: Okay, I’m completely befuddled by this. I can’t imagine a grown ass adult actually purchasing it, let alone a 14-year-old. Beyond that, they have a segment on this show where Medusa and Bobby Heenan basically tell us it’s shit?

Lash LeRoux, in his ongoing quest to carve out an identity for himself, wears a dreadful Lash Vegas shirt to the ring. I’d like to think he immediately discarded it after this show and never wore it again.

Buff Bagwell takes one of the worst guitar shots I’ve ever seen. It just kinda bonks over his head. I do wonder what level of craft goes into creating a gimmicked guitar, though.

The Halloween Havoc graveyard in this outing features a headstone shared by The Boston Strangler and Jack the Ripper. Yes, folks, that’s right: The Ripper was not only identified, but also shares the same grave with another serial killer at MGM in Las Vegas. The more you know!

I haven’t seen enough of them to judge, but Revolution are pretty much like the Radicals just without Eddie, no?

Eddie stealing Ric Flair’s Rolex was a storyline at this time, apparently. It’s another example of Russo stuffing in too many storylines, but I do low-key appreciate it’s not the only documented time Eddie has stolen from Flair, must we not forget the time he stole Flair’s number at Royal Rumble ’05.

We get a quick shot of a Hogan WWF wrestling buddy in the crowd, which reminds me that I have the Warrior and Macho King ones smoldering up in my attic somewhere.

Shoutout to the show’s poster, which gives me strong Animorphs vibes and Scholastic Book Fair memories. There was also the Nickelodeon show I barely watched? I just remember there was some dude named Tobias on it.

In Russo’s obsession with confused sexual analogies, DDP delivers a promo where he winds up landing on him and Flair jerking off together. Um, okay. Not gonna try to unpack that. Happy for you tho. Or sorry that happened.

Pretty crazy to think Bret vs. Luger would’ve been an absolutely money program just five years earlier when both were headlining WrestleMania X, and now they’re here just in this 7-minute drivel of a match. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, as both were at a radically different point in their respective careers by this time, but I find their showing here depressing as fuck.

[jrpneblog]

The games just keep on coming....

When I said in last weeks preview that I would take four points from the games against Luton and Rotherham I wasnt really thinking that the win would come at Luton. Consequently the draw on Tuesday evening was therefore doubly frustrating after the exploits of the boys at Kenilworth Road. That is the nature of the Championship, though, in that nothing is a given and every points must be played for and won. It certainly doesnt get any easier this week with the visit to Deepdale of newly relegated Watford followed by a trip to Premiership Wolves on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup 2nd round. This would be the same Wolves who have just confirmed the signing of Portuguese midfielder Matheus Nunes for a club-record £42.2m fee. Talk about the haves and the have nots of those inside and outside of the Premiership.

In the burning heat of deepest Bedfordshire, last Saturday, we gained our first league win of the season with a wonder goal from Brad Potts. It was always going to be a tough game on paper at Luton and so it proved but North End executed the game plan superbly and were more than good value for the three points with an all round performance of the highest quality. From back to front and with a packed midfield, North End stopped Luton from over-running us and delivered the kind of goal that players can only dream about. If Ronaldo or Rooney had done this then the National press would have been talking about it for years. Massive credit also to the 895 fans who cooked inside the worst away facilities in the Championship but still sang from first to last and gave the boys a fantastic reception at the end.

On Tuesday evening it would be fair to say I was reasonably confident of a second league victory but our visitors from Rotherham just hadnt read the script. To be fair to the Millers they played well but it was North Ends finishing that cost us the two points and not the ruggedness and game management of the opposition. Perhaps Ryan Lowe left the subs a bit late to have any major influence on the game but poor finishing and bad luck saw North End fail to capitalise on a great away victory the previous Saturday. Having said all that we are only three points from the top in these very early days and a couple of wins puts you right up there with the early front runners. More importantly, at this early stage of the season, it gets the points on the board.

Saturday sees Watford visit Deepdale for the first time since their 0-1 victory in February 2021 during the final days of the Alex Neil era. In fact the Hornets did the double over us the season before last, thumping us 1-4 at Vicarage road in the middle of the Covid epidemic. Just doing a bit of research on Watford and I was astonished to read that since Sean Dyche left in July 2012 they have had 16 different managers not to mention two caretaker spells! Anyway we will soon see what sort of shape Rob Edwards (no not that one) has got them in and what sort of threat they will pose to North End. They have won two and drawn two of their four games so it wont be easy but I have a little fancy that the style Watford play might suit North End and it could be a cracking encounter. Hopefully the game should attract a decent crowd and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that there will be over 16,000 in Deepdale on Saturday for what should be a great game.

Next Tuesday North End travel to the Midlands to play Wolves in the second round of the League Cup after disposing of Huddersfield in the first round with some style. This is a game where Ryan Lowe gets a free hit and I can possibly see a team similar to the one that played at Huddersfield being asked to do the job again. Wolves have a decent squad so I also expect them to make a number of changes but I still think this will be a very tough test for North End. It is really a no lose situation so that should ensure that we get a decent game with plenty of free flowing football and perhaps it might be our night to cause a little shock in a competition that the Premiership side sometimes take a little lightly.

And finally this week:- I wanted to give a shout out to a couple of people not normally associated with my musings. Last Saturday, for several reasons, I travelled to Luton on the official coach from Deepdale with Harry Billington. For those who dont know Harry he is 87 and requires a trike to help his mobility. I wanted to say a huge thanks to Leanne Naylor, who was the PNE steward on Coach 1 and to Dave, the driver from Tyrers. Both Dave and Leanne could not have been more helpful to Harry helping him with access to the coach and tucking his trike in the luggage hold before and after the game. They are both a huge credit to both the club, in Leanne`s case, and to Tyrers, in Dave`s case.

.

JR`s HIGH FIVES

Ipswich to beat Shrewsbury 21/20

A £5 Stake returns £10.25 on bet365

SEASONS STATS

Returns £35.00 Stake £15.00

percentage profit+/-loss + 134%

Predictions 3 won 3 lost 0.