Blair Miller > THE SHIT SHOW, Oscar Robertson Version (Ep. 14) & Appendix
Recorded Monday, July 7, 2014
It was goddamn humid during The Shit Show this week, but Count Yorga and I (Jerkules) kept the A/C and fans off to give you our weekly scoop on the sports world – uncensored insight, as usual.
In #PROPS & #DROPS we recognize praiseworthy and shameful deeds in the sports world. We tweet several of them throughout the week. Follow Jerkules and TFQ at-large @TFQuarter, and Yorga @count_yorga on Twitter. Here are the ones that require highlights/links to better appreciate.
#PROPS to Rockets rookie Nick Johnson for this mammoth lefty dunk in the NBA Summer League.
#PROPS to Rangers centerfielder Leonys Martin, who got nasty on his former teammate by robbing Oriole Nelson Cruz of a homer.
#PROPS to the Cleveland Indians for turning a crazy-rare 7-2-4 triple play against the Dodgers. We agreed that there should be an inner #DROPS to Los Angeles outfielder Yasiel Puig for squeezing out yet another brain fart to help the Tribe complete the play. Here’s the play.
As always, we did What I Saw, a news section for more discussion-worth shit that happened over the last week.
Yorga saw Jon Maciel, a pitcher for the West Michigan Whitecaps hit a bird in midair with a pitch. Obviously we had to refer to the ridiculous, cartoonish bird-splosion caused by a Randy Johnson pitch back in 2001.
I saw Saints TE Jimmy Graham get his request to be considered as a wide receiver for a franchise tag denied in an arbitration hearing. We talk about this at length – the legitimacy of the decision, the relevance of it. I refer to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight ‘s Nate Silver, which argues that Graham’s success is largely due to QB Drew Brees. I’m not about to disagree with that claim, but I take issue with Silver’s use of ESPN’s Real Quarterback Rating (QBR) to help determine how Graham might fare with more average quarterbacks. To me, QBR stands as an opponent to the traditional Passer Rating. Cold Hard Football Facts has been making a rock-solid statistical argument about the correlation of Passer Rating Differential to wins and losses for a while.
I saw a ton of NBA free agency action – and the superstars haven’t even decided on teams yet!
I have a new hash tag/phrase for what separates some free agents from others this offseason: #walletdontlie, after Rasheed Wallace’s old “ball don’t lie” saying, which he’d use whenever a player missed a free throw after what ’Sheed deemed a questionable call got the player to the charity stripe. In this sense, if players like Dwayne Wade or others opt for more money and hamstring their team’s roster as a result, or Tim Duncan and other Spurs take less money to have a better chance at winning, well, guys can say whatever they want to the media about being committed to winning, but #walletdontlie. By the way, here’s a great way to describe how Duncan’s wallet don’t lie, how he sacrifices cash for success.
Here’s the box score for our Weekly Woodshed, when the Nats whupped the Cubs 13-0.
The Fifth Quarter 