Ignore me

Hey, so not really a real post, but I don't have access to my google docs at work so this was the quickest way for me to have a regularly accessible version of my regular watch list I make each week. So yeah, just ignore this, it's just for my personal reference without having to log in anywhere.
Missing: baseball, CFL, wrestling, pre-season Everton if any, Olympic events, rugby, if any; lacrosse.

Tuesday, 8/2
7p CCL: Central v Vancouver Whitecaps FC

7p Miami Marlins @ Chicago Cubs

7p Smackdown! Live-USA

9p CCL: Pachuca v Olimpia

Wednesday 8/3
4:14a Fighters v Marines-TBS JP
5a England v Pakistan 3rd Test Day 1
5:30a NJPW G1 Climax Day 11
10a Ireland W v South Africa W 2nd T20

11a 2016 Olympics-Women’s football-NBC

1:20p Miami Marlins @ Chicago Cubs

6p CPL: Amazons v Tallawahs
7p CCL: W Connection v UNAM
7p CCL: NY Red Bulls v Antigua

7p NXT-WWE Network

7:30p Hamilton Tiger-Cats v Winnipeg Blue Bombers

8p CWC-WWE Network

9p CCL: Portland Timbers v Dragon
9p CCL: Don Bosco v Monterrey
11:30p Sri Lanka v Australia 2nd Test Day 1

Thursday 8/4
4:15a Fighters v Marines-TBS JP
5a England v Pakistan 3rd Test Day 2
5:30a NJPW G1 Climax Day 12

11a 2016 Olympics-Men’s football-NBC

6p BC Lions v Montreal Alouettes

6p CPL: Zouks v T&T Riders
7p CCL: FC Dallas v Real Esteli
9p CCL: Plaza Amador v Herediano
9p Sasketchewan Roughriders v Calgary Stampede
10p NJPW on AXS
11:30p Sri Lanka v Australia 2nd Test Day 2

Friday 8/5
4a Marines @ Buffalos-TBS JP
445a Ireland W v South Africa W 1st ODI
5a England v Pakistan 3rd Test Day 3
7:40p Miami Marlins @ Colorado Rockies
11:30p Sri Lanka v Australia 2nd Test Day 3

Saturday 8/6

12a Marines @ Buffalos-TBS JP

2:35a Super Rugby-Hurricanes v Lions-ESPN3
5a England v Pakistan 3rd Test Day 4
5:30a NJPW G1 Climax Day 13

9a 2016 Olympics-Women’s Rugby 7s Day 1-NBC Live Extra

9a 2016 Olympics-Men’s boxing Day 1-NBC

11a 2016 Olympics-Women’s football-NBC

3p Florida Launch @ Boston Cannons-

6p Edmonton Eskimos v Ottawa RedBlacks

6:30p Le Impact Montreal v Houston Dynamo

7:10p Miami Marlins @ Colorado Rockies

9:30p Andre Ward v Alexander Brand-HBO/BoxNation

11p Marines @ Buffalos-TBS JP

11:30p Sri Lanka v Australia 2nd Test Day 4

Sunday 8/7
445a Ireland W v South Africa W 2nd ODI
5a England v Pakistan 3rd Test Day 5
5:30a NJPW G1 Climax Day 14

9a 2016 Olympics-Women’s  Rugby 7s Day 2-NBC Live Extra

9a 2016 Olympics-Men’s boxing Day 2-NBC

11a 2016 Olympics-Men’s football-NBC

3:10p Miami Marlins @ Colorado Rockies

11:30p Sri Lanka v Australia 2nd Test Day 5

Denial of Sound and Basketball in Absentia

"Who's your favorite basketball team?" I have friends that are pretty into basketball. Inevitably it rolls around. "Who do you follow. You write a lot about sports, but not basketball? Why not? Who's your team, who do you like?" Basketball is to me as baseball was to others. I played it some as a kid. But I never really got that interested in watching it. I can appreciate the skill, no question. But I can't sit through a game, not sit through it and be interested. No offense to anyone. I talked with a friend the other day. "Help me find a team. I'll try. We hammered out a few options, but it really doesn't sound like anything that easily fits my kind of team. Oh sure, those teams are out there, but not a huge fan of the teams for the two cities I latch to the most (Miami and Houston), and I know less these days about most of the players. It's hard to figure out, no question.

Who's my favorite team? At the point I tried to follow every major sport, I had an answer. Technically this is my response these days. "The Seattle Sonics. They still play right? That's my team." I know they moved to Oklahoma City. I find it bizarre. Good for that community, they have a team. I find the story as to how that was even an explored market extremely interesting. But I'm not following that team. I carry that transferred anger of serious Seattle sports fans from when I found out. Totally unjustified, I never had strong ties to the team. I sound like one of those people that refused to say Washington Redskins, calling it "The Washington Football Team," in my case, "That team in Oklahoma City." Nice try with the name by the way, a passing semblance of the previous nickname. "I'll follow basketball when they bring the Sonics back. Keep me up to date."

Team affiliation and loyalty is such a funny thing. We attach ourselves, often to teams in cities we don't live, as fervent fans. This is OUR team. Year by year the team makeup, the players shift, the molecules turn to different elements. We lose, our favorite player is traded, our team is relegated. We win a championship. We go back to losing. We go back to heartbreak. And the dedication, still. I lived on the other side of the country from Seattle. No real reason to follow them other than I kind of liked Shawn Kemp at the time. But other teams, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte, Houston, were all significantly closer to me but that's the one I said I liked. Purely aesthetics. The colors, the design, the Sasquatch mascot. That was my draw, not a dedication to locality and all sports within.

And that's not weird. That's not odd, there are quite a lot of people in fact, with that level of dedication. That's sports. That's all part of it, whether we're there or not, we're willing to either be that one lone fan or the one fan in the mass, whoever our dedication of fandom is set to. That's okay. Some people just want to watch the good games. That's okay too. For me I find that somewhat harder, I need that attachment or else I'm just not that interested. So yeah, i could watch some fantastic game between the Bulls and the Warriors, but I won't. I'm still waiting for the Sonics to come back. Someone give me a call when it happens.

Escaping the Event Horizon of the Super Bowl

Here we go, ladies and gentlemen, are you prepared? As each of us leaves work this weekend, it begins. It is Super Bowl weekend. Sure, there are other sports that will be on. Hell, ESPN is running two back to back basketball games with some of the best teams in the league.NBC is daring enough to air a Flyers/Capitals game ON game day. Even if we watch these, we know the truth. The Super Bowl will encapsulate all.

I looked at the schedule, there's an entire day of events (and fuck if I know what they actually are, probably nothing actually important) that will consume the CBS network. "We have the Super Bowl now," the say, "nothing else matters!" It's true. There are TVs that will be prepped to go, never leaving the station starting at 9am. Food being bought and prepared full days ahead of time. The call's going on out. The party, are you coming?

It's a great game. It's going to be portrayed Cam vs. Peyton but come on. We're gonna see Cam going up against the Broncos defense, and it will be a sight to see. That will be the game. It's probably one of the better matchups of teams, and barring the unseen and not taking the halftime show into account, it should be pretty fantastic. But, no, I'm not coming to the party.

For me, there's a brief moment in my childhood where outside of social activity, I followed the Super Bowl. My best friend was a huge football fan, i was in 8th grade, and so I became a football fan too (sort of, anyway). So when our friendship faded, so did my football interest. Later, at one of my jobs where football was a regular topic, I became interested insofar as it was an adaptive technique. And, since we were all watching Sportscenter in the cafeteria of the casino we worked at. But still, it was highlights and me talking at the seat of my pants. I never watched games. I wasn't at the party.

My father-in-law is my tie to football, in general. When me and my wife first started dating and we moved back to my hometown where her family also lived, we'd go over on Sundays and watch football with him. He's a soccer guy, played soccer and was part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia to the US to play and go to college. Whenever he brought his kids and his American wife back to the American South, football is everything. So he adapted. And he loves the game, and I love watching it with him.

It's not standard football fair; he doesn't drink, we do have chips and salsa, though, mixed in with hummus and occasionally dried dates. Both of us constantly falling asleep (the man hardly takes a day off), we always made a giant pot of REALLY strong coffee. Coffee, chips, salsa. Football. That's how I imagine it. So otherwise for me, football, it doesn't really matter. And now, with us in Texas and him still in Mississippi, I will not be watching. I actually scheduled myself to work. And he's not going to miss it, I'll give him a shout out. I'm sure it'll be a great game. Drink a cup of coffee for me.

I Seem to Have Fallen and Lost My Match

Timing can be everything. You in sports, you there are so many times you are waiting for that exact moment. For that right ball to drive, that opening in the defense to run, that opening in the swing to capitalize on. It's no different in sports journalism, especially if you want something to have impact. Some of things are important, if you wait for the wrong time, it can be buried. So when tennis started off the year with one of their first big events, the Australian Open, the BBC decided to release a report they had been working on regarding match-fixing in the world of tennis, and how parts of it had been overlooked by the Association of Tennis Professionals, who had requested the original inquest about ten years back.

BBC News-Tennis match fixing: Evidence of suspected match-fixing revealed

Now right now, they're not the only organization grappling with this. Sri Lanka Cricket had suspended the Sri Lankan bowling coach for alleged match-fixing bid. This is not the only recent issue that cricket has had with match-fixing, as an investigation is under way by Cricket South Africa regarding the possibility of match-fixing surrounding player Gulam Bodi in the recent South Africa T20 cricket tournament, the Ram-Slam T20. The problem seems to be even worse when you look at the fact that ESPN's cricket only website, espncricinfo.com, has its own section solely dedicated to the subject of "Corruption in Cricket."

Cric Buzz-Sri Lanka's Bowling Coach Suspended Over Alleged Fixing Bid
ESPN CricInfo-Former SA cricketer Bodi charged under CSA's anti-corruption code
ESPN CricInfo-In Focus: Corrruption in Cricket

Baseball has probably fended off many potential problems with the way they've overbearingly treated those accused in the Black Sox scandal, as well as Pete Rose, basically leaving Hall of Fame quality players outside the fence.

Baseball's most recent non-HGH/steroid related game fixing related discussions have mostly come out of the Asian baseball organizations. In Taiwan, the Chinese Professional Baseball League or CPBL nearly saw its death with the scandals surrounding players and teams in terms of game-fixing. 

Wikipedia-Corruption in the Chinese Professional Baseball League

One of those players, Chin Hui Tsao, has mysteriously only been able to play baseball in the MLB, signing a minor league deal with the Dodgers after previously having been released from an Australian league team per the request of the CPBL's ban notice (they expressed their disappointment with the signing by the Dodgers).

Likewise gambling is (apparently) illegal not just on Korean soil, but also abroad, and has recently resulted in the extended suspensions of these two Korean players, with hefty fines. One of which will be pitching for the Cardinals this year. Now it's not like they were betting on games, they were just gambling in another country. But the point being is the followup and taking these matters seriously. 

Yahoo! Sports-Korean Pitchers Suspended for Overseas Gambling

Even more recently, the brother of Rangers' ace Yu Darvish was arrested in Japan for running of a gambling ring. Sho Darvish, arrested in October, is subject now to investigation of any involvement with regards to MLB. While initial reports from the majority of sources noted the investigation was to clear Yu Darvish of any invovlement, Yu has made his own statements, as have the MLB, that the investigation soley is focused on Sho Darvish.

Japan Times-MLB confirms probe in Darvish gambling case
Texas Star-Telegram-MLB not investigating Rangers’ Yu Darvish for gambling

Just as the ATP has denied any wrong-doing, with the BBC report stating, 

"Chris Kermode, who heads the Association of Tennis Professionals, rejected claims evidence of match-fixing had 'been suppressed for any reason or isn't being thoroughly investigated.'" 

These statements are always hard to take seriously, as you don't expect an organization or individual to just hold up their hands and say, "you got me." The ATP and ICC need to take these matters very seriously, it's still coming through the cracks because there haven't been results in a way we can see. When you have years between accusations and the resulting fines and suspensions, you might as well not done anything. No one's paying attention still. And so if tennis doesn't look these accusations and address them properly, they only risk their continuance.

The Best Lacrosse Game of 2016

At least so far. It helps that it's the only one so far. For lacrosse fans, the NLL season means its finally time for box lacrosse. A game where we come off the field, into the arenas, where we have a smaller confine, faster pace, and yet, a more padded netkeeper. Now, aside from my eccentric taste in sports, most people would probably say a guy from Mississippi and even now living in Texas doesn't seem to be the type to follow lacrosse. And you're right, I'm fairly alone in that, though there are plenty of players and some fans scattered throughout both areas. My interest started along with when I'd watch whatever came on ESPN2 at 2am. Which once a week would be an MLL game. I loved the pace, and the challenge to the players. I stayed a bit away from the NLL at first, but after missing the 2014 MLL season, I caught the 2015 NLL season instead. And I was hooked. In fact, I found myself kind of bored with field lacrosse after that. It wasn't the same. Boxla was my favorite now.

So I was definitely eager to tune in on New Year's Day to the first game of the 2016 NLL opener between the Colorado Mammoth and the Georgia Swarm. Both the Mammoth and the Swarm I had not been terribly impressed with before in the few games I saw them in, but aside from it just being the opener I've always really liked the Mammoths' logo and with the very interested move into Georgia from Minnesota for the Swarm, I thought this could produce an interesting result.

I came in right after the first goal of the 3rd quarter. Yeah, a bit late to the game, but I was putting my kids to bed, and family always comes first spartsfans. So at the time the Swarm were down by 2 to the Mammoth. It was hard to tell how this had happened, the Mammoth looked very sloppy in their passing, in a few instances the ball finding no one and richocheting around the edges of the arena. Whereas the Swarm looked very tight in their approach and not making lose shots on net that had no chance in the first place. One player stood out to me in particular with the Georgia Swarm, and that's Onandagan Lyle Thompson, who scored 3 goals in the second half of the game.

The Swarm used their efficiency to  maintain a back and forth with the Mammoth, getting to within one goal, then a tie, the lead, a tie, and so on. It made for a far more entertaining game than I ever expected. The game literally came down to the last seconds, which is what you always hope for in a great game. John Grant, Jr scored Colorado's last goal, putting them in a winning position with 45 seconds left to go. The Swarm made every attempt to not only reclaim possession and get on the offense, but to try and find some way to score and tie everything up. However, the opening wasn't there. In the end, a ball that would never find the net was saved by netkeeper Alex Buque to end the game. Regardless, both teams looked much better than I expected, and it should fair for a good season.

This game was hosted on Fox Sports Go, which I was apprehensive about, since Fox Sports has a tendency to get broadcast rights and then do nothing with them or bury them on some exclusive channel. However, like with the Women's World Cup, I was rather impressed, and I didn't even have to log in to anything on my Amazon Fire stick to be able to watch the game on their app. It was nice to see the players faces as I often find myself pulling up a radio broadcast or perhaps something on my phone. Hopefully we see a consistent product in broadcasting from both them and those running the WatchESPN side of the broadcasts, which will handle a weekly Saturday broadcast each week. 

In the meantime, rejoice boxla fans, the NLL is back! And if you're not a fan? Come join us! You might be surprised at how much fun you're having.

A Test: Spartspage 10/14

Holy pow: Cubs in NLCS, make Wrigley history!

Clayton Kershaw tosses 7 innings on short rest as Dodgers force Game 5

Uchikawa saves day for SoftBank in PLCS showdown

Tim Howard thrives in retun, while Brek Shea disappoints for US.

Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia experience highs and lows in Euro 2016 qualifying.

Karunaratne ton steers Sri Lanka on dominant day

Dhoni, spinners lift India to 22-run win



Malik and Shafiq grind England down

Patriots LT Nate Solder has torn right biceps, report says

Former NBA star Lamar Odom fighting for his life after being found unconscious

And we're back

Or we will be. The focus will shift a bit as I do want to have a place to ramble about pretty much anything spo/arts related and this will be here. One of which I wanted to do (and include pictures!) is the teams involved in the Cuban National Series playoffs. The second phase just ended yesterday. The reason why the pictures is important is from the coverage we've been providing of the Cuban National Series over at the subreddit, /r/InternationalBaseball.

We're trying to make an effort to be one of the primary sources for international baseball news and scores/summaries around the world (hoping to cover some European leagues this year) and so if you're looking for some updates in the International Baseball community, you can find my content and others' there.