100ft Wave, new record?



Garrett McNamara on what is being hyped as the 100-foot wave. Photo: Tó Mané courtesy of Billabong XXL

Surf Mag

MLB Manager's troubles and strength

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was a four-time Gold-Glove catcher over 13 years in the big leagues. But a decade ago, he didn’t figure his future was in baseball.
He was banking on real estate.
One series of failed investments has now ended that dream. Nine days ago, a judge ruled against Matheny on the project, placing the responsibility for more than $4 million in debt on him and his wife. Interest and court costs could drive the price even higher.
But the saga that could ruin Matheny financially is the same one that brought him back to the Cardinals, and a new career in baseball...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

TMQ: Ravens, Patriots

Interesting analysis from the Tuesday Morning QB:

Sweet Play of the Title Round: Leading 14-13 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Baltimore faced first-and-goal on the Flying Elvii 3. The quarters had just changed -- the Ravens had gone from playing with the wind, to against the wind. New England stacked the line expecting a power rush. Flacco play-faked and threw into the 28 mph gusts to Anquan Boldin, who came from the slot and wrestled the ball away from two defenders. Suddenly Baltimore leads 21-13 in the fourth quarter and a reversal of the Ravens' title-game fortunes seems likely. Sweet. 

Sour Play of the Title Round: Ravens leading 28-13 with nine minutes remaining, New England has fourth-and-4 on the Baltimore 19. Having strangely punted three times in Baltimore territory -- see more below -- Bill Belichick decides to go for it.
Tom Brady is flushed from the pocket, rolls left, and has a decent chance to gain the first down by running. But perhaps he knows Baltimore is furious that at the end of the first half, running in the same spot on the field, he started to slide, then raised his foot high and seemed to try to injure Baltimore's Ed Reed with his spikes. The Ravens were furious about that play -- and Brady may know that it means the next time he becomes a runner, the Ravens will reply with no-holds-barred hits. Brady doesn't want to be hit hard, so he throws the ball away. He throws the ball away on fourth down! Sour.

Defending Armstrong

"Why my dad, a former Olympic bicycle racer, sympathizes with the disgraced former Tour de France champion"

A Former Cyclist Reflects: I Would Have Done What Lance Armstrong Did

NBA Tech

The technology was originally developed to track missiles. Now, SportVU systems hang from the catwalks of 10 NBA arenas, tiny webcams that silently track each player as they shoot, pass, and run across the court, recording each and every move 25 times a second. SportVU can tell you not just Kevin Durant’s shooting average, but his shooting average after dribbling one vs. two times, or his shooting average with a defender three feet away vs. five feet away. SportVU can actually consider both factors at once, plus take into account who passed him the ball, how many minutes he’d been on the court, and how many miles he’d run that game already...

Moneyball 2.0

TMQ: Ravens

Sweet 'N' Sour Plays No. 1: Washington trailed visiting Baltimore 28-20, and had third-and-5 on the Ravens' 11 with 36 ticks showing in what turned out to be regulation. Phenom RG III just left the game hurt. Fellow rookie quarterback Kirk Cousins saw a defense that was expecting a super-short pass from a confused rookie. Nine Baltimore defenders were close to the line of scrimmage, just two in the deep field. Washington sent out four receivers; Baltimore rushed four, meaning seven to cover four; both Baltimore cornerbacks were in man-on-man, meaning five Ravens to cover the other two receivers. Pierre Garçon ran a down-and-out, touchdown. Then, a surprise quarterback draw for two, the game heads to overtime and Washington victory. Tout sweet!

Sour for Baltimore was that cornerback Chris Johnson, assigned to man coverage on Garçon, simply stood there and let him run past. Johnson was busy making the high school mistake of looking into the backfield trying to guess the play, rather than staying glued to his man. But check the opposite side! Josh Morgan ran a down-and-in, and also was open -- because cornerback Cary Williams was making the high school mistake of looking into the backfield trying to guess the play. Meanwhile, three Baltimore defensive backs are covering no one at all. Both Baltimore corners acted like they were in short zones, releasing deep routes to safeties; the other Baltimore defensive backs acted like the cornerbacks were supposed to be in man. Whomever screwed up -- tout sour.

Buck-Buck-Brawckkkkkkk: Scoring to take a 27-20 lead at Washington with five minutes remaining in what turned out to be regulation, coach Harbaugh/East faced a choice go for two or do the "safe" thing. A 29-20 lead puts the Nevermores in command. Doing the safe thing creates a 28-20 lead and two chances to stop the Redskins -- stop a touchdown, or if they score six, stop a deuce. But is there much risk in going for two and failing? Then the Ravens lead 27-20. If the Skins score to pull within 27-26 in the closing seconds, odds are they will not go for two to win, rather, will do the "safe" thing and proceed to overtime.

Harbaugh/East did the "safe" thing, took the 28-20 lead, then lost in overtime. If he'd gone for two and failed, he personally would have been blamed for the loss; as it is, Baltimore special teams are being blamed. Reader Michael Kendall of Oneonta, N.Y., points out that Harbaugh could have gone for two confident that even if the Ravens missed, Mike Shanahan would have been afraid to go for two at 27-26, because then he would have been blamed for a Redskins lose.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

TMQ: Notre Dame

There's an important aspect of the Notre Dame season that is being overlooked. Taking into account the latest NCAA graduation stats, last week Notre Dame became the first college football team to be ranked No. 1 in the polls and No. 1 in graduation success.

 Greg Easterbrook

TAS: Inside the NFL

Well said:

The art of informed conversation

What I appreciate about Inside the NFL is not the content but the form. I like seeing people talk with knowledge and passion about a subject they know well. The way they share their expertise is what informed conversation should be like. So often in American life we don’t have informed conversation. We have uninformed conversation, where we know a little and spin this for the purpose of getting along; or we have cheerleading conversation, where we all agree on something and simply state our shared agreement over and over; or we have antagonistic conversation, where we get mad and say personal things of little relevance to the point that we regret later. But we rarely have conversation like that on Inside the NFL–probably because we rarely get people together who know a subject well enough to talk about it in depth—to agree, disagree, compare ideas, close-read small aspects of the subject, and make informed predictions.

The Athlete Machine

TMQ on the NFL playoffs

Baltimore Ravens: Something about Charm City puts a spell on opponents. Sunday, Torrey Smith blew past Oakland's Michael Huff, who was the seventh choice of the 2006 draft: Huff just stood and watched, not even trying to play defense, as Smith went 47 yards for a touchdown. Charming their opponents has helped the John Harbaugh-Joe Flacco Ravens to a 33-5 record in Baltimore. But they are just 23-21 on the road. Unless the Ravens win the first seed, write them off.

Evaluating a crowded playoff race

Baseball--like life--is random

Freakonomics post: Does the “Best” Team Win the World Series?

And in the case of one team’s having only a 55-45 edge, the shortest significant “world series” would be the best of 269 games, a tedious endeavor indeed! So sports playoff series can be fun and exciting, but being crowned “world champion” is not a reliable indication that a team is actually the best one.

TMQ Stat of the Week

#9: According to Gregg Easterbrook, "South Carolina held Florida to 183 yards of offense, and lost by 33 points."

How is this even possible?

Frank Deford, Sportswriter

I have always enjoyed Frank Deford's weekly radio commentary on NPR but I had no idea he has written, or done, so much.

Video: Current Big Wave World Record

On November 1st 2011, Pro Surfer Garrett McNamara set the current world record for biggest wave ever ridden, 78 Ft! And here is the video to prove it:

The Wonderlic Test

Unlike Coach Walsh, genius is not the first thing that comes to mind when describing NFL players.

This post from MentalFloss summarizes the history of how the Wonderlic test became standard in the NFL - but the teams with the highest average Wonderlic scores aren't very good.

On the other hand, I bet for certain positions (quarterback) the score does matter.

Summer Olympics

To begin our coverage of the Summer Olympics in London, here is an interesting analysis of Usain Bolt (my second favorite athlete right now). The recommendations aren't really that realistic but interesting nonetheless.

New Marlins Park

Populus

Smithsonian: Welcome to the 21st Century Ballpark

Adventure videos

Adventure videos from the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour

Bones Jones

Jon "Bones" Jones is my new favorite professional athlete. And it doesn't hurt that his brother is a Raven.

Jones is sweet and vicious

Defense ≠ championships

This is according to  Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim and their post over at Freakonomics.