Article about Texas goaltenders

[pfibiger]

An article from the Albany Times-Union about Andrew Martin from RPI and Dave McKee, the first ever meeting of D1 goaltenders from Texas.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=SPORTS&storyID=323316&BCCode=&newsdate=1/14/2005

[billhoward]

Nicely written story. McKee has devoted parents:

>>> McKee's parents, Carl and Pat, haven't missed a game since. They've immersed themselves in Cornell's puck-crazed community and spread the hockey gospel at home. They have a rental house in Ithaca and bring friends to David's games at Lynah Rink, the Fenway Park of college hockey.

"The first time I went to a Cornell game, I was in awe," Carl said. "I'm a big believer that sports fans should get out and see everything -- the Indy 500, the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby. I've seen all that, and there's nothing like Lynah Rink."


(Fenway Park of college hockey. So ... why not us?)

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I think I just found a sig line for USCHO.

[RichH]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
(Fenway Park of college hockey. So ... why not us?)
[/q]
Uh...no.  Fenway is my favorite baseball park, and the fan-created atmosphere in Lynah blows it away.  The closest baseball analogy I can think of is the RF bleachers at Yankee Stadium with their pre-game roll call, songs, chants, and organized clapping cheers.  And even that doesn't come close to Lynah.

Here's my list of best baseball fan atmospheres:
1) any Japanese park (they have bands and songs!)
2) RF bleachers, Yankee Stadium
3) LF bleachers, Wrigley Field (best taunting)
4) LF outfield seats, Oakland (with the drum guys and flags)

Hell, the LF at Wrigley is so well organized, they even had a website and newsletter for people to pre-plan their heckles based on what visiting left-fielder was coming to town.  I once watched a guy, armed with only a sign made out of a paper plate heckle Barry Bonds for both games of a double header.  When Bonds trotted out after hitting his 3rd HR of the day, he ripped into him, "Hey, that one didn't go as far as the other 2...whussamatter?   You tired??"  It looks like the old website, http://www.rightfieldsucks.com now points to their humor newsletter, The Heckler.  Pretty damn funny, too.

Edit: the RFS.com main url goes to The Heckler, but other pages on the site are still up.  Check out the "Heckle Zone" http://www.rightfieldsucks.com/hecklezone.htm where users are encouraged to formulate taunts based on "fun facts" about the incoming LF.  "The Daily Suck" is a blog.   And there is a "heckle hall of fame."  http://www.rightfieldsucks.com/hecklezone/heckle_hof.htm

[atb9]

he may not have been talking about the cheers but how close you are to the playing surface.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Gotta diagree with you about Japanese ballpark.  My experience was that there are 30,000 people who politely clap along, but don't shout a single thing at the ballplayers.  They may have bands and songs, but only about 100 people participate.  The rest of the stadium looks at them like they have three heads.  After all it's impolite to stand out.

We took a group of Japanese businessmen to an Orioles-Bluejays game at Camden Yards back when both teams were competitive.  Their reaction:  "It was very...loud."

[billhoward]

[Going further OT] The Japanese thought *our* game of baseball was very loud? The bleeping Tokyo Dome is what's loud. Actually, it's the indoor park that's what's loud.

It was kind of neat, having competing-brand beer girls (I think in Japan that's the term) running up and down with keg-backpacks with hoses on the kegs, and kneepads, because they kneel on the concrete to siphon out the beer. I don't know if that's subservience or for better sight lines, but it is, and the visiting roundeyes often get great merriment commenting on what the keypads might be for. Each team has one group of fans who seem like college students, waving pennants and loudly playing instruments even when their team is down 8-2 in the seventh.

The Japanese ballparks have their share of sad drunks, but I never saw any violent drunks. Also, I think it's safe to order the sushi in Osaka. Don't try that at, say, Wrigley Field.

---

By the way the quote was from McKee's dad about Lynah being like Fenway. I just passed it along.

[Chris \'03]

Is the author of this piece a former writer for The Crimson? The name is familiar.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Chris '03 Wrote:

 Is the author of this piece a former writer for The Crimson? The name is familiar. [/q]

Same name.  Could there really be two of 'em?

[billhoward]

John Paul Morosi is not that common of a name, and the article was very well written for a paper the size of Albany's. For all the J-schools in the world, the Harvard Crimson, Cornell Sun, Stanford Daily Cardinal, Michigan Daily, etcetera, turn out about half the world's journalists. Actually, the colleges do, b/c some of the great ones never worked for the papers.

With all respect to Syracuse/Newhouse School, writing isn't all that hard. Not rocket science. It's five W's and an H. It's finding stuff to write about, digging, and making it interesting, that's hard.

Remember: If journalism was really hard, it wouldn't be journalists doing it.

(Ask me how I know.)

[Jon Morosi]

Right on, Bill. Writing's not rocket science. I mean, if a Harvard guy can do it, how hard could it possibly be?

Thanks for reading ...

Yours in hockey,
jpm

[billhoward]

One can think of Albany as a pleasant enough (in summer) waystation en route to a decently regarded paper such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New York (if you can learn to write real dry and to be shocked, shocked at steroids in sports), or the mother ship of great sportswsriting, the Globe. Seriously, it is nice to see good writing outside Sports Illustrated or the Globe. Meanwhile do some good there. Too bad about no weekends off for the rest of your life.

Tom Wolfe endured a year or two in Springfield, Mass., before being told he was not cut out to be a writer and urged to move on. Such judges of talent. I have friends who have been there 20-years on now (once you have kids it's hard for two people to move on to another paper jointly) and they've done their best to make the paper as good as it can be, but there always have been constraints on money, on (allegedly) what readers want to read, shrinking edit well, competition from weeklies and suburban dailies, etcetera.

[jeh25]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 writing isn't all that hard. Not rocket science. It's five W's and an H. It's finding stuff to write about, digging, and making it interesting, that's hard.

Remember: If journalism was really hard, it wouldn't be journalists doing it.

(Ask me how I know.) [/q]

How about simple math skills? Is that too much to ask for?

I found a glaring math error in a WSJ article from this weekend.

They claimed the break even point for the added cost on the MB E320 CDI is 40k miles.  They're just a bit off; the correct number is 28350.  That's not exactly a rounding error...

[Greg Berge]

Writing isn't hard.

Good writing, on the other hand...

[marty]

[Q]jeh25 Wrote:

 [Q2]billhoward Wrote:

 writing isn't all that hard. Not rocket science. It's five W's and an H. It's finding stuff to write about, digging, and making it interesting, that's hard.

Remember: If journalism was really hard, it wouldn't be journalists doing it.

(Ask me how I know.) [/Q]
How about simple math skills? Is that too much to ask for?

I found a glaring math error in a WSJ article from this weekend.

They claimed the break even point for the added cost on the MB E320 CDI is 40k miles.  They're just a bit off; the correct number is 28350.  That's not exactly a rounding error...[/q]

OK, I'll bite the added cost of what?  The fancy trunk insignia?  For those of us who can barely guess that you're talking about a Mercedes please shed a little light.

Also no short cuts, I want to see all your calculations or I'm only giving you partial credit!;-)

BTW, this reminds me of a local CPA that put out a newsletter years ago in which he "proved" that you could make money by borrowing it at 15% and getting a 10% return on the amount you borrowed.  He and I went back and forth a few times before I showed him that he didn't quite understand the time value of money.  No matter, he replied because most people prefer to have the cash now.

His projected retirement age is..... ::yark::