consistently hit the fair

Posted in IYH Forums by jokergreen0220 at 10:25, Sep 02 2016

"Show me a good loser and Ill show you an idiot. Womens John Elway Jersey ." - Leo Durocher As a child, intellectually limited and over-sure, NHL hockey was my great love and chief tormentor. As much as I kneeled at the feet of Greg Terrion and Kenny Wregget, I loathed following a league trapped in a soccer-spiral, knowing every morning I would have to face the standings page and the inevitable nightly slew of games which ended in ties. My uncle Rolly would say "a tie is like kissing your sister" and though I did not have a sister, and kissing anyone was a wholly unappetizing prospect, I got his drift. Nobody is happy with the outcome. To its credit, in the late 1990s, the spry brain-trust at the National Hockey League recognized this fundamental drag on its product and vowed to improve a flawed system. Various solutions and quirky quick-fixes were considered in the ensuing years, and the League - largely during semi-regular work stoppages - decided on a blended approach. (Unbeknownst to me, despite the coming changes coinciding with league expansion and record revenues, this new approach would trigger the erosion of my interest, until I eventually stopped watching entirely.) Change Number One: Four Skaters and a Goalie The number of skaters were decreased to four-a-side during the overtime period, thereby opening up offensive manoeuvrability and theoretically ending more games with game-winning tallies rather than endless dump-and-chase neutrality. Verdict: Wow. This was a major move, altering the five-on-five structure basic to the sport, and it was a winner. Instead of labouring through increased late game conservatism, skilled players (without the luxury of the Olympic-sized ice rinks) could find themselves able to deke and shimmy and strut their capabilities, particularly in the games most crucial moments. It also encouraged the reversing of a trend which had taken hold across the league, one where teams were playing for a tie point and overtime periods were getting increasingly dump-and-chase, ho-hum. Overtime would be meaningful again! Sha-la-la-la! Success. Change Number Two: If At First You Dont Succeed, Shoot Again The NHL introduced the controversial, internationally-tested shootout as a means of concluding deadlocked matches. Already in use at NHL All-Star Games, the League took a baby step, opting for three shooters per side, rather than the five shooters per side standard in international play. Considering a whopping one in seven games had ended in a tie in 2003-2004, this was going to have a major impact. Verdict: Surprisingly decent move. Fans get a thrill and hopelessly tied games get a victor. Two for two. But the NHL is not in the leave-well-enough-alone business. In classic League fashion, a third branch of tinkering was offered up, one in which the very worth of winning and losing would be altered. It is this final alteration that persists to today, defining the current system, and for this hanging-by-a-thread fan, produces a result which is laughable and has firmly pushed me to the periphery of support. Change Number Three: The Three Point Game Shudder. In the former system, a win was worth two points for the victor, zero points for the vanquished. A tie doled out a point to each side. Two points per game to be won, lost or split. In the current system, two points continue to be the victors spoils, but depending upon how the loser loses, the losing team may be awarded one or zero points. The pertinent extrapolation - particularly in a conference-based playoff system - is to recognize that some games are then worth three points and other games worth two. A black eye on the game which needs immediate attention. The rule change emerged from what some termed the "Dead Puck Era" or "The Decade Hockey Turned to Crap". Overtime periods had become interminable with each side playing for the tie rather than chance going home pointless. So the NHL made tie games at the end of regulation worth one point to both sides to encourage vigorous overtime play for one additional point. The risk-averse playing just starts earlier. Now the second half of the third period is the play-it-safe spot. (For those following at home, the second half of the third period was traditionally also known as the end of the game.) So now this "end of the game" segment is like a Benjamin Moore product demonstration. Not coincidentally, since the current system launched in 2005-06, there has been a major weakening in the "Mike Gallay-watching" to "hockey-on-television" corollary. Whatever, it All Shakes out in the End. If the very nature of consolation points doesnt enrage you, consider this: not only should the Los Angeles Kings not have won the Stanley Cup in 2012, they should not have even been in the playoffs. In 2011-12, the Kings finished the regular season in the eighth seed of the Western Conference. Their record of 40-27-15 really meant they really finished 40-42. In 10th place languished the Dallas Stars (42-40) and in 11th, the Colorado Rockies* (41-41). In any season prior to the three-point game initiative, the Kings would not have been in the post-season. (*I am an indefatigable purist in some regards. I realize if that was truly the case I should refer to them as the Quebec Nordiques.) This is not a one-off situation. It happened to Vancouver and Los Angeles in 2005-2006. To Colorado and Montreal in 2006-2007. To Carolina in 2007-2008. Dozens of teams have received unmerited seedings over the years, all because of the preposterous three-point game. Et tu, Baseball? Whats that gang? You all are expanding to 30 or more teams? ... Hey, we can too! ... Sure weve heard of Atlanta. ... They say theyve never heard of us? Remind them we were totally pals years ago! The NHL has long been a follow-the-leader organization which makes the three-point game more puzzling. It has no precedent in major professional North American team sports. MLB does not allow games to finish in ties and, especially due to its non-contact, non-cardiovascular setup, can play endlessly into the night. Hell, theyll just keep playing tomorrow if necessary. Quite reasonably, the NHLPA would not approve potentially endless overtime periods because it could encourage injury and would foster competitive imbalance (ie. when a rested team plays a team which last night played seven periods). In the NBA, there are no ties and overtime periods are rare and captivating. Naturally, hardwood scoring is far more plentiful than hockey scoring, so the likelihood of limitless overtime periods is slight. In the NFL (AKA "the league that gets things right" surprisingly there is allowance for ties, but league-wide there have been only two in the past five years. The anomaly of the football tie makes it bizarre and accepted as it functions more as a novelty than a drag on competitive balance. If every team averaged even just one tie per season, oh yes, the NFL would have torched it long ago. Dumping & Chasing Dreams I try to get excited for hockey. I remember my youth, endless slapshots against a laundry room wall. I check out the standings to see who is jostling for—nope, cant do it. Right now, RIGHT NOW, of the 30 teams only 8 have losing records. Last year, by seasons end only 7 had losing records. Stop this madness. Its humiliating when grown men playing a grown mans game require the systemic-equivalent of an orange slice and a plastic participant trophy. Are savvy Hockeytown fans sincerely fooled their beloved Red Wings 19-14-10 record doesnt mean their team is a 19-24 loser? The players headed to the locker room showers pissed off 24 times this year. Fact. Deep breath. I have heard all the reasons, some logical, some inebriated, on how to remedy this situation. The League and the PA and the broadcasters all have a say. But the solution is barely a tweak on what exists and would solve everything. Ten minute overtimes with four skaters a-side and a best-of-five shootout. Winner gets two points. Loser gets a Tim Hortons special. Fans get a better reason to spend hundreds of dollars to attend. If you cannot win a game after seventy minutes then you earned the uncertainty of a shootout. The shootout, exciting as it is, might as well be five shooters a-side to give it more weight and the fans more thrills. The League only introduced regular season overtime in 1983-1984. Crucial, fundamental changes like this happen frequently. When the three-point game was introduced it was to be rid of ties, to be rid of the indecision of such an outcome, but we wound up with a greater ingrained indecisiveness. This can be fixed. This should be fixed. This will improve the game. It might even make me forgive what those morons did to the conferences. C.J. Anderson Jersey . LOUIS -- Billy Hamilton had three hits and his first two steals, and scored easily after tagging up on a shallow outfield pop fly to support a strong outing from Mike Leake in the Cincinnati Reds 4-0 victory over the St. Terrell Davis Jersey . He didnt need a whole lot of experience to know what was coming this time. http://www.nflbroncosteamprostore.com/Youth-Derek-Wolfe-Elite-Jersey/ . Russia. When the best players from both countries hooked up for an eight-game series in 1972, a heated rivalry was born.JOHNS CREEK -- The kid standing behind 15-year-old Tiger Woods on the tee at Torrey Pines was two years older and already a hotshot himself on Southern Californias rough-and-tumble amateur golf circuit the first time he saw the look. Chris Riley had played the skinny teenager with the growing reputation a dozen times before. This time, he was 2-up with seven holes to play in the prestigious Junior World Championship. "We were at No. 12, a long par 4 and Id already hit mine 260 yards. He smoked his 310, straight down the middle, then turned around and shot me this little smile. He was just fearless," Riley recalled some 20 years later. "He already knew he had me." Riley first met Woods when he was 10. He beat him to the pro tour in 1996 by a few months. Soon enough, though, every other player on the PGA Tour knew exactly what that look meant. Mired in the second year of the deepest slump of his career, Woods didnt scare anyone at last weeks PGA Championship. He looked lost, not fearless. Not many superstars in the world of sports and entertainment have fallen so far so fast. Woods was knocked off his throne by a self-inflicted sex scandal that erupted at Thanksgiving in 2009 and cost him his marriage. He was quickly -- and unceremoniously -- dumped by sponsors and humiliated by the same TV shows and newspapers that once begged for interviews. Woods went into exile, finally returning to golf in April 2010 at the Masters with a fourth-place finish. He has been steadily losing ground in the golf rankings ever since. Some believe he will never be that indomitable player again; others, including a few who know Woods better, say its crazy to count him out. "Hes always been the best. His dad drilled that into him," Riley said, "But this has got to be the lowest point of his career. Nobody has ever seen him do the stuff hes doing now. It hurts to see it. Honestly, I dont know that hes ever had to struggle. "But I guarantee you this: Hell be back on top. And when he is," Riley paused, "its going to be that much sweeter." Speculation about Woods erratic play the past two seasons zeroed in on his psyche initially. From there, the blame shifted onto his work-in-progress swing and then the very real problem with his legs. "He was the most mentally and emotionally tough athlete of all time, so heres the question Im interested in," said sports psychologist Gregg Steinberg, who was a swing instructor earlier in his career. "Why did Tiger play last week if any or all of those problems were bothering him, or if -- as the results suggest -- he knew he wasnt ready? "Maybe he thought he could catch lightning in a bottle. Thats one guess. The other would be he wanted to measure himself. ... The secret to being great is self-awareness and so whether that was his intention or not," Steinberg added, "he definitely knows now that he needs a good butt-kicking." Last week marked only the third time Woods missed the cut in a major as a professional. It happened at the 2006 U.S. Open -- shortly after the death of his father, Earl -- and the British Open two years ago. More troubling still might have been Woods demeanour over his final few holes. As shots veered left or right of the fairway, and occasionally into a bunker, pond or the Georgia pines lining both sides, Woods tracked their flight with a deflated expression or simply dropped his head into his chest. Absent were the trademark temper tantrums and even a hint of the joyful explosions that once rocketed Woods up the leaderboard at every one of the games biggest events. "Golf is as much art as it is technical, and thats where his genius was. He always had this spirit, this belief he could find a way to do anything he could dream up," said Rudy Duran, who began tutoring Tiger at age four, about the time Earl Woods had exhausted his own teaching repertoire. "I ran into him one afternoon at Heartwell (Golf Course in Long Beach, California, an 18-hole executive course that became Woods playground) and he was standing in a bunker surrounded by 50 balls. Tiger was around 8 at the time. He was trying to hit one out and make it spin left on landing, then make the next one go right, the next one straight and so on. Cheap John Elway Jersey. "I only watched a few of his shots this weekend, but I dont think hes broken," he added. "And only someone who doesnt know a thing about golf would think hes done." Duran handed Woods off to another teacher by age 10, and noted that rather than working on swing technique, his lessons consisted largely of simple tips designed to let the youngster have more fun. "Id say, Try this to make the ball go higher, this to keep it low. Believe me, I wasnt grooming him to became the best player in the world, but I never came close to exhausting his imagination. I dont know enough to guess where his game is, but Ill say this: Hes not walking a tightrope between success and failure. Thats just silly. "He hasnt forgotten how to play. And once he gets a swing hes comfortable with," Duran said finally, "who knows what hes still capable of?" Most of golfs greatest champions collected their majors over 8-10 years and crested the hill by their mid to late 30s. Bobby Jones retired at 28. Tom Watson and Byron Nelson never won another after 33, Arnold Palmer, 34, and Walter Hagen, 36. Gary Player won only one of his nine after 38 and Nick Faldo his last at 39. Ben Hogan was an anomaly, finding his "secret" after a car crash nearly killed him and winning into his early 40s. Jack Nicklaus, whose 18 career majors was the benchmark Woods set himself as a youngster, won all but one of his over an 18-year span; and that last one, the 1986 Masters at age 46, was what people mean when they use the phrase, "catching lightning in a bottle." Woods turned 35 last December and collected his 14 majors between the 1997 Masters and 2008 U.S. Open, where he won effectively playing on a broken left leg. Hes now had four surgeries on that leg and arrived at the PGA Championship after a two-month layoff to rehab the bad wheel -- and a year into his latest swing overhaul with Burlington, Ont., native Sean Foley, the third coach he hired since turning pro. "If he works at it, hell get his game back. Hell either figure out how to put it together or go in a different direction," said Hank Haney, who coached Woods the half-dozen years between Butch Harmon, his first pro coach, and Foley. "Criticizing the method any of us used, frankly, is irrelevant. This guy has so much talent, he can learn to make almost any swing work. And if it doesnt work, well, thats just temporary. Like I said, hes not afraid to go in a different direction. ... "In my mind, what happened this weekend raises two questions: Will his body hold up so he can practice enough to make this swing work? And if his body can take the work, does he still have the passion to plow in all the practice it will take to make it work?" Haney said he and Woods were in touch, either in person or on the phone, some 200 days a year. In the past, after a performance such as this one, he might not have heard from Woods for a week. "If he missed a cut, hed be so mad, he was probably back practising somewhere that Sunday," Haney said. "The problem now is the longer he slides, the tougher it becomes climbing back up the mountain. And now, hes already got a long one ahead of him." Woods has been erratic off the tee since he first picked up a club. Thats why Harmon, and then Haney, provided safe shots he could use to consistently hit the fairways on narrow holes or when a tournament was on the line. With the driver, Woods mastered a cut that moved the ball predictably left to right with a suitable margin for error. On shorter holes, he hit a 3-wood "stinger," a low, boring shot that flew dead straight and rolled out with enough distance to keep him competitive. Since working with Foley, Woods acknowledged he has yet to develop even one consistent bailout shot from the tee box. That has increased the pressure on every part of his game. "Now," Woods said before leaving the Atlanta Athletic Club, "Ill have nothing to do but work on my game." Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China ' ' '