Sports broadcasting's King and saviour

Or as they spell it south of the border, "Savior."

Tyler King is knocking people out with his exuberance, his raw power — and his punctuality.

Calling an AHL game on short notice, well, I guess that's more than most 22-year-olds can handle, but our friend Kinger literally pulled it off with aplomb on Saturday. Tyler did play-by-play of pro hockey for the first time, calling the Syracuse Crunch's 6-3 win over Albany for SportsRadio 620 WHEN. You may take aplomb as a fancy way of saying he slipped his patented "holds it ... holds it" into the broadcast at least once.

Granted, Bob Costas also called minor-league hockey in Syracuse when he was roughly the same age and look what happened to him.

Calling it a professional debut is technically right but seems like a misnomer. Tyler was born professional. Seriously, someone is not doing her/his job if Hockey Night in Canada does not have him on their radar screen.

As an added bonus, former Belleville Bulls star Mike Murphy was in goal for Albany, so Tyler finally got to cover a team which Murphy did not dominate. It's well-deserved reward after a couple frustrating seasons of following the Kingston Frontenacs.

Zen Dayley: About that college pitcher who threw 12 hitless innings

Texas Longhorns pitcher Austin Wood was so awesome the state capital has been renamed after him.

It's been Deadspinned. Nevertheless, it is impossible to resist passing along word about the longest college baseball game ever player, a 25-inning marathon between Texas and Boston College in a NCAA Regional game on Saturday Wood (pictured), Texas' senior closer, threw 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball on a night when the game-time temperature was 95 F. He came on in the seventh inning and was pulled in the 20th after Boston College finally reached him for two hits. Austin Dicharry threw 5 2/3 innings of one-hit ball to earn credit for the 3-2 win.

"With the game tied 2-2 in the 20th inning, the Longhorns finally decided it was time to lift Wood, who was visibly trying to stretch out because of cramps in his leg. But when he left the field, the 5,000 or so fans still at UFCU Disch-Falk Field gave him a standing ovation. Even the Boston College players got into the act." — Rivals.com

That's pretty cool, for lack of a more profound word, to see that kind of sportsmanship.

Wood threw 169 pitches (John Gibbons joke goes here), 120 for strikes, fanning 14 Boston College hitters. Guys on basketball message boards were hanging on every out. Rivals.com's Kendall Rogers called Woods' performance "one of the best ever by a UT pitcher," and before you spout back, "Gee, ya think?" please keep in mind that Roger Clemens is a Texas alumni.

The game was played a couple thousand miles away, in another world, really (Texas), but it was easy to imagine what it must have been like. It scarcely matters that college baseball, at least to a Canadian, has always seemed like a foreign curiosity.

There's that unsettling ping when someone makes contact with those metal bats that help entire teams hit .340 and lead to games being decided by football scores such as 19-10. That backdrop throws Wood's performance into even sharper relief. Throwing 13 shutout innings in high-run conditions such as that is like throwing back-to-back no-hitters at the new Yankee Stadium, on consecutive days.

Regardless, Austin Wood gave Seamheads everywhere something to marvel over. He's not a big-time prospect. He was a 36th-round draft choice by the Houston Astros last spring. Left unsaid is that major-league clubs are often wary of pitchers from top-ranked college teams. A big reason is that a head baseball coach (not manager, what's up with that?) will do something like letting a young pitcher throw close to 200 pitches in a weekend, since they put winning ahead of the health of young arms. (Wood threw 30 pitches in Texas' win Friday.) Who knows, perhaps Wood's performance shouldn't even be celebrated, but criticized.

Meantime, as Chris Lynch pointed out at A Large Regular, people should not forget this was made possible by some great pitching by Boston College. Reliever Mike Belfiore pitched the equivalent of a complete-game shutout, entering in the ninth and coming out after the 18th with the score still tied 2-2. He struck out 11 with no bases on balls.

However, there are times when you have to let up a little on the wonder-why and just get into the spirit of the thing. It was such a game that Boston College's head baseball coach, Mik Aoki, didn't even seem too bummed that his team lost. It was as if he realized a 25-inning game was bigger than anyone on the field.

Vees: Eastern Ontario hockey related-humour

It would be remiss not to pass along this gem from venerable Kingston sports scribe Pat Kennedy about the hometown Voyageurs vying to host the RBC Cup, the national Junior A championship, in some future spring:

"One obstacle to scale might be the availability of the K-Rock Centre, which is contractually obligated to save springtime ice time in the event the Kingston Frontenacs make the playoffs someday and — this is really stretching it — advance throughout."

(later on)

"... Cornwall hosted the 2008 RBC, prompting (Voyageurs owner Gregg) Rosen to remark that 'if Cornwall can host it, we can certainly host it. We have more to offer than Cornwall.' "

Cornwall-bashing is the ultimate low-hanging fruit, but that's neither here nor there. Here is hoping a bid by the Voyageurs for the Dudley Hewitt Cup (Central Canadian championship) or RBC Cup wouldn't get the boot before any other team's, which has been known to happen.

There is the potential to have a lot of cheap fun with the shinny study-in-contrasts, Champs vs. Chumps, which is unfolding in K-town.

Coach Evan Robinson's Vees, by reaching the semi-final at the RBC Cup, finished as the fourth-best Tier II Junior A team in the country. The Frontenacs finished with the fourth-worst record of any major junior team in Canada.* Oh, and the Frontenacs' floundering has contributed to the $43-million arena becoming a political pandora's box for city council and Mayor Harvey Rosen, the brother of the owner of the other junior hockey team which has won the hearts of some many sports likers. Good stuff.

To be fair, Harvey Rosen is great compared to other eastern Ontario mayors one could name.

As previously noted, the Vees' Ontario Junior Hockey League is realigning again, so next season they'll have Buffalo, New York, in their conference but not the significantly closer Wellington Dukes. The new Ontario Conference will consist of:

• Buffalo, the league's lone American entry;
• The cottage country teams: Aurora, Collingwood, Couchiching, Huntsville;
• The NOT teams (as in North of Toronto): Bramalea, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Mississauga, Oakville, Vaughan, Villanova (located in King City)
• Trenton, which used to be in Port Hope
  

Don't go looking for any geographical logic. The subtext is the OJHL has tension between franchises which are run more like a Junior A team in the West and a few which have Toronto-itis. The latter are loath to straying too far away from the GTA to play and/or are bankrolled by some rich hockey dad so his son and his buddies can play close to home. The teams in the new conference also want to use fewer 20-year-olds, as a selling point to get younger players who are going for NCAA scholarships (as the Kingston Whig-Standard reported, the Vees only used six 20-year-olds this season, three less than the max; one wonders if they wouldn't take advantage of this by recruiting overagers who would then play for Queen's the following season).

Robinson and his players have been thanked more than enough for their run. They don't need to be told that they renewed a lot of hometown pride which had lain dormant during Doug Springer and Larry Mavety's decade of dismalness. The hope, speaking as an expat, is that one day the Vees' success won't be a jumping-off point for to make light of the Limestone City's Light Brigade. Wait 'til next year, eh?

Related:
Vees' league takes on new look (Kingston Whig-Standard)

Blog blast past: But will the computer know what Stan the Man hit?

There is overlap between sports nuts and trivia nuts, so some of you lot probably heard about Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings challenging a computer.

The notion of a computer trying to buzz in and answer questions before Jennings has already been Gawkered — "But what if they only ask abstract, soul-searching questions?" Levity aside, there is a serious issue about how well the computer will handle any sports question.

The sports trivia nut is a breed apart from one of your church-picnic trivia buffs, but not a superior breed. It is a joy for them to meet up with one of the similarly afflicted who gets why your PIN for your bank card is 4256 or understands why Bob Costas once left a $3.31 tip when he ate at St. Louis restaurant owned by baseball legend Stan Musial.

However, the kicker is that it takes no ability or creativity to be sports trivia nut, just a real good memory. They can't forget this stuff even if they tried, so there is no pride in knowing it, and no desire to share that gift/curse with the world, since it is the only thing people will associate with you for the rest of your days (especially if you show up for an event that's for teams of four with only three people and still win going away, like someone associated with this site most definitely did not do at The Toucan in Kingston one night in late 2002).

This sense of shame can manifest itself in jealously lashing out at Ken Jennings, as it did back in the wild and nutty days of late 2004. Read on.

JENNINGS A GENIUS? ASK HIM A SPORTS QUESTION
(Simcoe Reformer, Dec. 3, 2004)

This soft-spoken software engineer pulled off one of the most overrated feats in recent memory.

Who is Ken Jennings?

As you probably heard, Jennings' record run of 74 days as Jeopardy! champion ended Tuesday. By all indications, Jennings captured the public imagination. Ratings for Jeopardy! were up. As the wins mounted, rumours and reports percolated across the Internet about when Jennings would be defeated. On Wednesday, Jennings was the top Hot Search on Netscape, a pretty impressive feat for someone who has never publicly exposed a nipple.

Yes, Kenny is a smart cookie, if not a smart dresser. Before he came along, who knew there were so many possible bland shirt-and-tie combos?

But as a 19th-century British prime minister — who was Benjamin Disraeli? — said, there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

So what if Ken Jennings was on Jeopardy! for 74 days? Until recently, the show limited contestants to five appearances. Given the chance, wouldn't a few of those know-it-alls and lucky guessers have kept winning and winning?

Sure, he won $2.5 million. That's a lot of cabbage, even after the IRS takes its half out of the middle.

Of course, Jeopardy! doubled the dollar values for each question a while back. Does anyone claim Mike Weir is a better golfer than Jack Nicklaus since Weir is 15th on the PGA's all-time money list and Nicklaus isn't in the top 100?

The most damning indictment against Ken Jennings, though, is that he handled sports questions like a live cobra. Around Day 25 or 30, Alex Trebek lobbed up this softball: "This team won four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983."

You could hear crickets chirping as the contestants groped for an answer.

Jennings: "Who is New York?"

Trebek: "Be more specific."

Jennings: "The Rangers?"

If that's correct, what were the decades of "Nineteen-forty!" chants and the guy back in 1994 waving the "Now I can die in peace" sign about?

Thus the curtain was pulled back, revealing the wizard was just a man. Jennings had a lot going for him, namely his DSL-fast buzzer-thumb and producers who fed him cupcake contestants to keep the streak going. By Day 60, some of his opponents seemed straight from Saturday Night Live's Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.

He knew his potent potables, but on all things sporting, Jennings didn't know his elbow from second base. Put in a room full of sports nuts who can rhyme off Ernie Whitt's birthdate (June 13, 1952), jersey number (12), given name (Leo), the year he played in the All-Star Game (1985) and his career high in RBI (75), the dude would have been eaten alive.

Many of these same sports nuts can't pick their member of Parliament out of a police lineup, but that's neither here nor there.

Is Jennings the genius he was hyped up to be? No, he's just a guy who cashed in on his knack for buzzing in quickly on questions which aren't all that hard.

Those of us who are steeped in sports and other essentially unhistoric trivia — like knowing the same guy played the sportswriter in Slapshot and the diving coach in Back To School — knew it all along. (Who is M. Emmet Walsh?)

Collectively, we're on guard to keep the word "genius" from being abused. As ESPN's Joe Theismann once said, "The word genius isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."

The story behind Theismann's oft-quoted malaprop is the ex-Washington QB had a high school classmate named Norman Einstein.

If you actually knew that, chances are you might end up on Jeopardy! as the answer to this:

"Who needs to get a life?"

(Writing this today, mocking Ken Jennings' wardrobe would be out of bounds. Other than that, every single word stands.)



Related:
Jeopardy! Smackdown (The Atlantic)
A Computer That Answers Questions! What Will They Think of Next? (Gawker)