NBA Playoffs Preview – Part Two
[Note: This is Part II of our NBA Playoffs preview with special guests Eric Oberland and Steve Hainlen. You can find Part I here. Most disastrous Finals matchup for TV Ratings purposes? Eric: Any ratings catastrophe scenario starts and ends with the Indiana Pacers. I don’t think the casual NBA fan has seen anyone in a Pacers jersey on television since Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson declared a jihad on the fans in the Palace, and the league certainly hopes it stays that way. I...
NBA Playoffs Preview – Part One
[Note: With the NBA Playoffs starting this weekend I had to bring Eric Oberland and Steve Hainlen back in for a Sport Hole-style Playoff Preview. As with our Midseason Awards, if you want to read about X’s and O’s head over to ESPN or NBA.com for their playoff coverage. If you want to know which player is most likely to get arrested the night before a playoff game, however, continue reading.] Who is the single shakiest starter on a playoff team? Evan: There are a...
Can the 2012 NFL Draft Top the Hipster Class of ’11?
In hindsight, rookie sensation QBs Cam Newton (a hothead) and Andy Dalton (a ginger) may have been the big stories out of last year’s NFL Draft. But if we study the game tape, another trend emerged: hipster footballers. A quick recap of the hip fashion hits of the ’11 Draft: Von Miller, LB – 2nd overall to Denver Blaine Gabbert, QB – 10th overall to Jacksonville Nick Fairley, DT – 13th overall to Detroit Cameron Jordan, DE – 24th overall to New Orleans Da’Quan Bowers,...
Philip Humber: a Sentient, Perfect-Game-Tossin’ Middle Finger
Last fall as he surged mightily in the playoffs for the division rival Detroit Tigers, we brought you Delmon Young: a Sentient, Dinger-Smackin’ Middle Finger. Young was part of the botched 2007 Matt Garza Trade; the Twins didn’t have anyone to replicate his production. Enter: former Twins pitcher Philip Humber. Yesterday against the Seattle Mariners, the division rival Chicago White Sox starter became the 21st big-leaguer in history throw for a perfect game. Humber, of course, was part of the botched 2008 Johan Santana Trade;...
Meet Buzz: The World’s Most Unnerving Mascot
Hey everyone. I’m Buzz, the Minnesota Swarm mascot. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. According to my parents, the Swarm, I’m a local boy raised in St. Paul with a passion for lacrosse. I was born three years ago; I’m 6-2, 190-lbs. It’s worth noting that I’ve graduated college and am already a professional NLL player. I know what you’re thinking: Buzz is just a human in a sinister human suit. His back story is full of holes. Does he look stoned?...
Grading the 2012 Twins Walk-Up Music
Last week I blew the lid off the 2012 Minnesota Twins’ walk-up music, the player-selected tracks that play prior to at-bats. Because paper – god bless the ol’ format’s soul – doesn’t allow YouTube embeds and unlimited space for commentary, I decided to flesh-out a bit of baseball minutia that I find infinitely interesting. Without a further ado, here’s rock-snobbery applied to your Minnesota Twins. Denard Span: “Round of Applause,” Waka Flocka Flame Grade: B- The single off Wacka Flocka Flame’s forthcoming sophomore effort, “Triple...
FYI: The NHL Playoffs Started
I’m currently in the tail end of a two-week work trip to Jacksonville, Florida. And since being a business traveler in Jacksonville for two weeks falls somewhere between “Long Haul Trucker” and “Lou Bega’s Booking Agent” on the excitement scale, I’ve found myself with a lot of time on my hands. The end result: I’ve spent approximately 97 hours in my hotel room watching playoff hockey and drinking beer I bought at the CVS across the street while I’m finishing up my work. For the...
THE GRILL ZONE ft. the Tangential’s Becky Lang
The Sport Hole needed a branded interview segment, so here’s the debut edition of THE GRILL ZONE. First up is Becky Lang, co-creator of our parent blog the Tangential. Ol’ Beck isn’t much of a sports buff, but we put her feet to the searing, in-your-face flames regardless. Enjoy! (Also, if any grill companies wanna sponsor the GRILL ZONE, we’re all ears). What’s your earliest sports memory? I remember being on a soccer team and being disappointed in my teammates for choosing the name The...
Ozzie, You’ve Got Some ’Splainin’ To Do!
Ozzie Guillen is a moron. Twins fans have known this for years, but I don’t think we quite knew how big of a moron he was until this Fidel Castro fiasco (not to be confused with Lupe Fiasco). I’m not questioning his intelligence on the basis of his political beliefs or his choice of role model, but on his disastrous brand management. In his latest inflammatory rant, Mr. Guillen expressed his “love” and “respect” for Fidel Castro because “a lot of people have wanted to...
What I Learned From Running My Company’s March Madness Pool
– An amazing number of people still use Hotmail. - My self-prescribed goal from the start was to get 100 entries. I became obsessed with this goal to the point that, when we were at 99 with about 5 minutes to go until tipoff I briefly considered making a bracket for my dog before finally convincing someone to fill out a second one. - Hotmail accounts send a lot of emails with nothing but links to virus sites. Some even say “Your Payment” in the...
The Injury Power Rankings
People get injured. As long as people play sports, they will get injured. It’s a fact of life. The nature of those injuries, however, has changed significantly as sports have evolved. Baseball pitchers tear things now. They used to not tear things, they used to just pitch so many innings that their arm would “die” – a casual way of saying the nerves were so fried the guy couldn’t feel his arm anymore. Basketball players had similar “wear and tear” issues, only with the feet...
Why Don’t the Twins Re-Sign Minority Players?
The Minnesota Twins rarely re-sign minority players. The trend does not reveal overt racism living within the organization, but rather illuminates the effects of institutional racism fueled by the fact that people subconsciously discriminate against people who are different from themselves. As the Twins are a business and the fans their main source of capital, the continual drive to push profit margins in the right direction are often built on these realities to maximize financial returns while turning a blind eye to the discriminatory side...
