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March 20, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, Second Round (32 teams).

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 8:44 am

2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, First Round upsets…
Thursday, March 18, 2010-
#14 Ohio Bobcats over #3 Georgetown, by 14 points (!).
#13 Murray State Racers over Vanderbilt, by 1 point.
#11 Old Dominion Monarchs over #6 Notre Dame, by 1 point.
#11 Washington Huskies over #6 Marquette, by 2 points.
#10 Florida Gators over #7 BYU, by 7 points in 2nd OT.
#9 Northern Iowa Panthers over #8 UNLV, by 3 points.
#9 Wake Forest Demon Deacons over #8 Texas, by 1 point in OT.
Friday, March 19, 2010-
#12 Cornell Big Red over #5 Temple, by 13 points.
#10 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets over #7 Oklahoma State, by 5 points.
#10 Missouri Tigers over #7 Clemson, by 8 points.
That’s a lot of upsets. March Madness almost never ceases to surprise and amaze. I heard on the radio Friday that 4.8 milion people had entered brackets online at ESPN, and only 56 of those entries had picked the first 16 games on Thursday correctly. That’s awesome.
Now you can watch games, live online, free. Just go to ESPN/ College Basketball, Scoreboard…scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard. [ Note: sometimes the games get jammed, sometimes there is a nice feed, and sometimes you can only get one of the live games...I guess they haven't got the glitches out yet. ]

Thanks to CBS Sports…CBS Sports.com/College BK.

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March 17, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, the 64 team field, with 2009 average attendances.

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 8:26 am

The 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament begins on Thursday, March 18. Three games will start just after noon, ET, and by midnight on Friday, all the first round games will have been played.

This map includes all 64 teams attendance figures from 2009 (the NCAA won’t release 2010 figures until later in the spring). Again, the Kentucky Wildcats boasted the nation’s highest attendance for college basketball, drawing 22,239 per game. Only this year, the Wildcats qualified for the tournament, and look like a genuine threat to win it all, propelled by stand-out play from the freshman and 2009-10 SEC player of the year John Wall, a 6′ 4″ point guard from Raleigh, NC.
At the bottom of the average attendance list of teams that qualified, again, are the Robert Morris Colonials, from suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Colonials have made it to the tournament 7 times, but have never progressed past the first round.
In terms of the longest gap between tournament appearances, this year it is the Houston Cougars, from the University of Houston in Texas. The Cougars return to the tournament after a 17-year absence.
Speaking of Texas, that state has the most teams in the 2010 tournament, with 7…Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Sam Houston State, Texas, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas-El Paso (aka UTEP). The list of states with representation in the tournament, {here}.
Thanks to the NCAA site, for attendance figures, ’2009 National College Basketball Attendance” [pdf].
CBS Sports.com/College BK, CBS Sports-College Basketball page

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March 15, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament (aka March Madness), the 65 teams.

Filed under: NCAA Men's Basketball — admin @ 7:25 am

Defending champions North Carolina topped the sizable list of traditional powers that didn’t receive spots in this year’s tournament. That list also includes Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, and all-time titles leader UCLA (11 titles, last in 1995). Arizona’s streak of 25 consecutive appearances was broken (although the NCAA had retroactively vacated their 1996 bid because of recruiting violations, so technically that streak was over a long time ago). The current longest-consecutive-appearances streak is now the 21 straight made by the Kansas Jayhawks.
Kansas goes into this tournament as the top #1 seed. The other three #1 seeds are Duke, Kentucky, and Syracuse.

Play-in game Tuesday night is Winthrop versus Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

Brackets, NCAA College Basketball Brackets, at CBS Sports.com.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Thanks to the Bracket-ville site, for a head-start on possible entrants (before the selection), BRACKETville.
Thanks to CBS Sports, CBS Sports College Basketball.

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March 11, 2010

2009-10 UEFA Europa League, Round of 16.

Filed under: UEFA Cup / Europa League — admin @ 6:37 am

The 2009-10 Europa League’s Round of 16 will have it’s two-legged matches on Thursdays 11th and 18th March.
Fixtures, Europa League Round of 16 fixtures.
Europa League page at UEFA.com, UEFA.com/Europa League.
Still alive in the competition are 3 German clubs, 2 Belgian clubs, 2 English clubs, 2 French clubs, 2 Portuguese clubs, 2 Spanish clubs, and 1 club from Greece, Italy, and Russia.
Kudos to Roy Hodgson’s Fulham, who ousted de-facto reigning champions Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine. Unlike some English clubs in recent seasons (like Bolton and Aston Villa), Fulham have taken this second-echelon competition seriously. Their reward is a high profile draw versus Italian giants Juventus, who are one of 5 clubs in this round who have in the past won titles in Europe’s first-echelon competition, the European Cup (1956-1992)/UEFA Champions League (1993 to present). Those 5 are: Liverpool (5 titles, most recently in 2005), Juventus (2 titles, most recently in 1996), Benfica (2 titles, most recently in 1962), Marseille (in 1993), and Hamburg (in 1983).
As for winners of the Europa League’s predecessor, the UEFA Cup, 4 of the 16 clubs here have titles: Liverpool (3 titles, most recently in 2001), Juventus (3 titles, most recently in 1993), Anderlecht (in 1983), and Valencia (in 2004).

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March 7, 2010

Poland: Ekstraklasa, 2009-10. With UEFA Euro 2012 venues.

Filed under: Football Stadia,Poland — admin @ 10:42 am

The Polish Ekstraklasa returned from it’s long, November to late February winter break on the last weekend of February. Leaders are Wisla Kraków, who won last season’s championship, and have won 6 of their 12 titles in the last decade. Wisla Kraków draw around 12,000 per game. Three other clubs have a shot at the 2009-10 title. They are the low-drawing (~6,000-per game) Legia Warszawa (who have 8 titles, their most recent from 2006); Lech Poznan, who are the current highest-drawing club in Poland, at around 16,000-per game, and who have won 5 titles (most recently in 1993); and Ruch Chorzów. Ruch Chorzów, from the Silesian Voivodeship (a voivideship is like a province), are joint all-time titles leaders in Poland. Ruch Chorzów have won 14 championships, but the club has not won the crown for 20 years now. Ruch Chorzów drew 8,900 per game last season. They share the most titles with another Silesian club, Górnik Zabrze, who were relegated last May. Górnik Zabrze have the second largest fan base in Poland behind Lech Poznan, and drew 14,600 last season. Górnick Zabrze are drawing 11,000 per game in the second division this season, but the club might not bounce right back to the top flight, as they are in 6th place there (2 or 3 clubs are relegated/promoted each season between the Ekstraklasa and the second division, which is called the Polish First League).

Poland’s Ekstraklasa, fixtures, results, and table, at Soccerway.com, Ekstraklasa matches and table.

The long and drawn-out corruption scandal in Polish football is still casting a pall. The corruption began being exposed in 2005, and the investigations and arrests are still ongoing. The culture of corruption there was pretty widespread, in terms of referees being paid by club officials to control outcomes of games through favorable calls to one team, and of players being paid to throw games. Eight clubs have been implicated {see this}.
Here is short article from August, 2009, from The News.pl-The News from Poland site, ‘Two more netted in football corruption scandal’.

The roots of the Polish corruption scandal go back to the early 1990′s, centered on the-then 4th level club Amica Wronki, from the small (~12,000 population) town of Wronki in western Poland, which is 50 km. (30 miles) north-west of Poznan. A man who ran a local barbershop became associated with the club, helped create a merger between them and another club, and began managing the new club, using his contacts throughout the lower divisions…players, club officials, and referees…to manipulate outcomes. In other words, this individual who became known as The Barber “took care” of referees. Amica Wronki rose through the league pyramid, and won the Polish Cup title three years straight, from 1998 to 2000. To say that there were some very “friendly” calls that benefitted Amica Wronki when they won these three successive national cup titles would be understating it.
Meanwhile it wasn’t just Wronki that were benefitting from the bent refs. As the Barber’s corruption network became more widespread, clubs throughout Poland began relying on the Barber’s help, whether they were battling relegation or competing for the title. Amica Wronki had gained promotion to the top flight in 1995. The club wanted to distance themselves from the Barber, so they sacked him in in 1998, but his dire influence over the Polish game remained.
Finally, in 2005, someone’s conscience got the better of him. Piotr Dziurowicz, the 29-year old owner of then-top flight club GKS Katowice, decided to collaborate with the police. He had inherited ownership of the club from his recently deceased father. The latter, known in his time as the Magnate, had taught his son all he knew about fixing games. Piotr admitted to having “bought” several matches, but had come later to regret the hypocrisy and corruption of his position. Sting operations ensued, first resulting in two arrests…of referee Antoni F. (full names not allowed due to Polish law), who had accepted a 16,500-pound payoff to fix two league matches; and the arrest of Polish FA official Marian D., for collusion. Information from the suspects led to more arrests… over 70 arrests by May, 2007.
Here is an article from The Guardian.co.uk, from 6 February, 2007, by Jonathon Wilson, “Backhanders, bullets, and bent refs as Polish football reaches a crisis’.
It’s interesting to note that when you go to the Wikipdeia page of Amica Wronki, not one iota of this is mentioned. Most of the above details were gleaned from an article in the May, 2007 issue of World Soccer, written by Dariusz Kurowski.
Amica Wronki merged with Lech Poznan after the 2005-06 season, and maintains an amateur squad. The Barber has been detained since 2006. By April, 2009, over 200 people had been detained in connection with the corruption scandal, and there were only 15 referees left in Poland who could still work top flight matches…see this, from Reuters.com ‘More arrests likely in Polish corruption probe,’(27 April, 2009, by Patryk Wasilewski and Gabriella Baczynska).
By September, 2009, over 230 people had been charged for being involved in martch fixing in Poland. Those charged are from a group comprising players, club officials, referees, and members of the Polish Football Federation (PZPN). See this, from a Belarussian blog called Polish Police and Administrative Corruption, ‘Footballers get prison in match fixing scandal’,(26 September, 2009).
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Here are clubs who have recieved penalties and/ or relegations since the corruption investigation began in 2005. [Note- clubs who have regained promotion to the Ektraklasa, or who have remained there, are highlighted in bold...
Penalized clubs after the 2006-07 season...
Arka Gdynia-relegated to 2nd Level in 2006-07 as result of corruption scandal/ -5 points for 2007-08. {Since have regained promotion.}.
Gornick Leczna- relegated from 1st to 3rd Level in 2006-07/ -6 point for 2007-08.
Gornick Polkowice- relegated from 2nd to 4th Level/ 70,000 zloty penalty [100,000 zloty=around 17,000 pounds]/ -6 points for 2007-08.
Ostrowiec Swietokryzynski- relegated from 2nd to 3rd Level in 2006-07/ -6 points for 2007-08.
Penalized clubs after the 2007-08 season…
Zaglebie Sosnowiec- after 2007-08, were relegated from 1st Level to 3rd Level (one relegation by finish, plus one relegtion as punishment for corruption).
Korona Kielce- after 2007-08, were relegated to 2nd Level for corruption. {Since have regained promotion.}
Zaglebie Lubin- *Polish champion in 2006-07.- after 2007-08, were relegated to 2nd Level for corruption.
Club penalized after 2008-09 season…
Jagellonia Bilaystock- started 2009-10 season at -10 points/ fined 300,000 zloty.
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I have included a list of all-time champions, but take it with a grain of salt, because there is no way you are going to get me to believe that the widespread corruption in Polish top flight football only began in the mid 1990′s, and ended around 2007. And even if it did only begin with the Barber, in the mid-1990′s, in Wronki, that still ends up smearing around 11 or 12 seasons of Polish football at the very least (when you factor in the fact that Amica Wronki got to the first division in 1995, and serious investigations into the corruption scandal began in 2006). This basically calls into question, at minimum, the legitimacy of all those titles won betweeen 1995-96 to 2006-07. In fact, one of the champions during this time period, Zaglebie Lubin in 2007, were caught for corruption, and penalized one season after their title.
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Let’s focus on the present, and the future, of Polish football. And since that immediate future includes a co-hosting with Ukraine of the UEFA Euro 2012 competition, my hope is that the glare of the media spotlight will help to prevent a return to corruption in professional Polish football.

Below are the 4 Polish venues for the UEFA Euro 2012 competition, to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
The first venue shown (Warsaw) will become the primary home of the Polish national football team, once the Euro 2012 competition is finished. The other three venues, post-Euro 2012, will become the homes of three different Polish clubs…Lechia Gdansk, Lech Poznan, and Slask Wroclaw.
Warsaw…

Here is the site connected with the construction of the Polish National Stadium, which in Polish is called Stadion Narodowy, Stadion Narodowy w Warszawie .
‘Progress of works at the National Stadium- pictures from 1st March’

Gdansk…

Pitch Invasion.net, ‘Stadium Spotlight: Gdansk, Euro 2012′, by Tom Dunmore.

Poznan…

www.amazing-architecture.com, ‘Euro 2012 stadiums- Lech Poznan’.

Wroclaw…

At forums.soccerfansnetwork.com , thread: ‘Stadiums, Wroclaw (Slask)’, submitted by Rozsbisurmaniony on Dec, 1, 2009, Wroclaw stadium: architectural renderings, photos, and info.

From the Voices In Football site, here is a nice article illustrated with photographs, of a trip to a Lower Silesian/Upper Silesian derby between Slask Wroclaw and Ruch Chornów, the match being held in Wroclaw [no date given on this, but I believe this is from December, 2009, by Damon Main]… ‘Slask Wroclaw v Ruch Chornów’.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org and pl.wikipedia.org
Ekstraklasa page at en.wikipedia.org ;
Ekstraklasa w pilce noznej.
Thanks to World Soccer magazine World Soccer.com.
Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance figures European-Football-Statistics.co.uk.

Thanks to Demis World Map Server, Demis World Map Server.

Thanks to aerofotos-kaczmarczyk.com, for the aerial photo of the Poznán Stadion construction aerofoto-kaczmarczyk.com [transl.].

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March 4, 2010

England: 2009-10 FA Cup, Sixth Round Proper.

Filed under: 2009-10 FA Cup — admin @ 11:53 am

FA cup news, fixtures, results at BBC.co.uk , FA Cup news.

Just one of the Big 4 (Chelsea) is still alive in the Sixth Round of the 2009-10 FA Cup. And with Aston Villa and Tottenham still standing, represented are two of the three clubs trying to gate-crash the Big 4. Three other clubs here are from the category of Premier League clubs in good form…Fulham, Birmingham City, and Stoke City.
That leaves two unlikely members of this group of 8…2nd Level, and relegation-threatened Reading; and the-just-entered-into-administration Portsmouth, whose very existence has been under threat of late. Portsmouth, of course, were the winners of this competition just two seasons ago, and their overspending on salaries of players who helped them win the 2007-08 FA Cup is part of the reason the club is now in such a mess. Nevertheless, Pompey is but one win away from a return trip to Wembley Stadium, where the two Semi-Finals matches that make up the following round will be played.
On the map for this round, I have added profiles, which include photos of 2009-10 home and away jerseys. Thanks to these sites for the photos… The Onion Bag.com . UK Soccer Shop.com . Subside Sports .

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February 28, 2010

Japan: Nippon Professional Baseball, 2009 average attendances, listed with teams’ titles.

Filed under: Japan: Baseball — admin @ 11:06 am

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[Please note: I have a more recent post [from 2012], on baseball in Japan (NPB), here, Japan: Nippon Professional Baseball, 2012 – location map, with titles list, and 2011 attendance data / Plus an editorial on Japan’s baseball stadium deficiencies / Plus a short article on Japanese-born players in MLB.]

Official NPB site, translated, here: NPB/english.

First off, I must point out that some of these figures, especially pertaining to the lower-drawing teams, might be inflated. On the message board at Japanese Baseball.com, where I found the figures, two of the total four forum participants insisted that the Orix Buffaloes’ figure of 17,680 per game had to be grossly inflated, even to the point of being almost double what they probably really were (!). One of the forum participants said he went to around half a dozen Orix home games in 2009, and at all the games the crowd looked more like 8,000 to 10,000, and not even close to filling half the stadium (the Osaka Dome capacity is 36,000). On the other hand, at least for the top drawing ball club in Japan, the Hanshin Tigers, it certainly does not appear that they are inflating their large, 40,000-plus-per-game attendance figures. They don’t have to. What is most likely going on here is that maybe one or two of the low-drawing teams in the NPB are probably jacking up their horrible attendance figures for the sake of not making the whole league look bad. Well, like I said re: the Argentina attendance figures I used earlier this year, sketchy figures are better than no figures at all.

Below: Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium, opened April, 2009. Home of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp…

Some other points on the 2009 NPB attendance figures…
Hiroshima Toyo Carp just moved into a new ball park in 2009, hence the 34 percent upswing at the turnstiles there. [Here are more photos of the stadium, from the Marinerds, etc. site: photos of Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima.]
The 7.2% attendance increase that the Seibu Lions saw in 2009 can be attributed to the fact that Seibu were reigning champions last year, having won the 2008 Japan Series, thus seeing the inevitable attendance increase the following season. On-field success leading to increased attendance can also be seen with Hokkaido’s ball club, the Nippon Ham Fighters, who won the Pacific Division and fittingly saw a decent uptick at the turnstiles of 6.3%. [By the way, this team's nickname is not "Ham Fighters". Nippon Ham is a big meat packing company in Japan. This mistake was made by me and my brother when we were were kids, and I have seen others comment on how they made the same error. To compound the confusion, the Nippon Ham Fighters used to feature a goofy mascot that was a pterodactyl whose head was a giant pink, meaty ham bone named 'Fighty'...so there actually was an aggressive, anthropomorphic pork product associated with the ball club.] Tohuku Rakuten are a poor drawing club that had a good season, finishing in second in the Pacific League, so their 4.7% attendance increase looks kosher.

Chiba Lotte Marines’ 8.5% decrease from 2008 can be seen in light of their poor 2009 season, when they were the third-worst team in the NPB. But what kept many fans away from the Marines’ ballpark was the fact that widely popular American manager Bobby Valentine was the victim of a season-long smear campaign by the Chiba Lotte Marines’ management. Valentine was the first foreign-born manager to win a championship in Japanese baseball, when he led the perennial basement-dwelling Marines to their first Japan Series title in 31 years, in 2005. But Valentine had worn out his welcome by constantly boasting to American media that he had a contract for life with the Chiba Lotte franchise (the owner had said as much to Valentine, in the euphoria immediately after the 2005 championship, but it was thought it was generally understood that that proclamation was to be taken with a grain of salt…evidently Valentine never got the memo for that; in other words, just one more example of how easily things get ‘lost in translation’ between Japanese culture and the American mind-set). Valentine’s high salary ($3.9 million a year), and the high salaries of several people who Valentine had brought into his inner circle at the ball club, contributed to the Marines’ top brass feeling they were justified in forcing him out. They basically put him into lame-duck status overnight, first by firing those in his inner circle. Then all the trappings of Valentine’s presence within the Marines’ stadium were removed…no more prominent video loop of Valentine at the stadium, no more giant Bobby V. murals, no more Bobby Valentine lunch boxes, beer or sake, and gone was the nearby street named after him…all this while Valentine was still manager in ’09. Fan protests took the form of banners criticizing Lotte management, and a petition campaign. Lotte management responded to this by doing everything in their power to make life miserable for Valentine, including demanding that reporters criticize Valentine’s managerial decisions, and having high ranking Lotte officials countermand Valentine’s instructions to players during games. They also started a whispering campaign, spreading the word that Valentine accepted kickbacks and sexually harassed a female employee (both untrue). So you can see why attendance was down at Lotte. Sheesh. If you want to read more about this sordid affair, see the Japan Times Online’s four-part series by best-selling baseball writer Robert Whiting, ‘Clandestine campaign led to Valentine’s demise’.

The Chunichi Dragons’ 5.3% drop in gate figures is harder to understand, seeing as how the Dragons finished 19 games above .500 and were the third-best team last season. Maybe the worldwide economic downturn has been particularly bad in the central Honshu Island city of Nagoya, where the Chunichi Dragons are located.
One other attendance increase is hard to pin down…the Yokahoma BayStars’ 10.4% upswing. As the BayStars are near the bottom of the average attendance list, maybe the official numbers-fudger at the BayStars was ordered to pad the gate figures even more. [Note, see bottom of this post, at NPB Tracker.com address, for potential explanation of Yokahoma BayStars 10% attendance increase.]

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Below: Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers…

The best drawing ball club in Japan is not the county’s most popular team, which is by far the Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo, but the Hanshin Tigers, who are often called the Boston Red Sox of Japan. This comparison is apt, because not only do the Hanshin Tigers field a competitive, yet ultimately under-achieving team (like the Red Sox were, for around 80 years), but the Hanshin Tigers also boast a large and fervent following. And like Boston’s venerable Fenway Park, Hanshin has one of the nicest ball parks in the country, the Hanshin Koshien Stadium. Like Fenway, the Hanshin Koshein Stadium is old (built in 1936), and with the seating very close to the field. The Hanshin Tigers are from Nishimoya, which is located right between the cities of Kobe (to the west) and Osaka (to the east). This is part of the Kansai region, in south-central Honshu Island (which is Japan’s main island), and contains the second largest urban area in Japan, called Keihanshin {see this}, which is the combined region of Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. So you can see where the name Hanshin comes from…a shortening of the Keihanshin region’s name. The Hanshin Tigers, for all their populatity at the turnstiles, have won but one Japan Series title, in 1985.

Thanks to Japanese Baseball.com…this site was where I found the 2009 figures,
Japanese Baseball.com ;
forum thread with 2009 NPB attendances, at Attendance figures for NPB .

Turns out I wasn’t the only one wondering about the Yokohoma BayStars’ attendance figures. I think I found somewhat of an explanation of Yokohoma’s gate increase at the NPB Tracker.com site site…there was a promotion in 2009 featuring cheap beer in the cheap seats at the BayStars’ Yokohoma Stadium. See this, NPB Tracker.com, ‘Attendance Rising’, from 29 August , 2009 [see comment #2]: NPB Tracker thread, attendance figures 2009

Thanks to Yakyu shop for the photos of the ball caps NPB merchandise. Thanks to NPB site for small logos, NPB, english. Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org , Nippon Professional Baseball page at en.wikipedia.org. Thanks to Thanks Aaron Shinsano at East Windup Chronicle.com , eastwindupchronicle.com. Thanks to Demis.nl , Demis World Map Server (Public Domain).

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February 19, 2010

Korea Baseball Organization: the 8 teams, with teams’ parent corporations listed, and baseball stadium photos.

Filed under: Korea: baseball — admin @ 12:55 pm

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From Reuters, October 27, 2009, ‘South Korean series a corporate playground’, {click here}

From the JoongAng Daily site, August 4, 2009, ‘Korea’s love affair with baseball stronger than ever’, {click here} .

The Korean Baseball Organization was established in 1982, and began with 6 teams. There are now 8 teams in the league. The KBO has seen a surge in popularity in the last couple of seasons, and in 2009 the league had it’s highest-ever attendance numbers. The 2009 Korean Series was won by South Korea’s most successful baseball club, the Kia Tigers. The Kia Tigers have won 10 of the 29 Korean Series titles that the KBO has played. The Tigers are from Gwangju, which is in the south-west of the Korean peninsula, and is the 6th largest city in South Korea, with a population {2006} of 1.4 million. The Tigers, like all teams in the KBO, are not named after their home-city but after their parent corporation, in this case, the automobile manufacturer Kia Motors. Kia Motors bought the Tigers ball club from the Hatai Corporation in 2001.
Last year, the Kia Tigers were powered by both of their allowed two foreign players. One was pitcher Rick Guttormson (USA-born, and a former NPB player who threw a no-hitter for the Yakult Swallows in 2006), who went 13-4, with a 3.24 ERA. The other was 2009 wins and innings-pitched leader Aquilano Lopez (Dominican Republic-born, and a former Detroit Tigers player), who went 14-5, with a 3.12 ERA. Offensively, the Tigers relied on former Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Hee-seop Choi, who hit .302 with 32 home runs.

For the 2009 regular season, the Korea Baseball organization had a cumulative average attendance of 11,138 per game.

2009 KBO teams’ home average attendance-
Lotte Giants (Busan)- 20,597 per game.
Doosan Bears (Seoul)- 15,731 per game.
LG Twins (Seoul)- 14,778 per game.
SK Wyverns (Inchon)- 12,556 per game.
Kia Tigers (Gwangju)- 8,314 per game.
Samsung Lions (Daegu)- 5,782 per game.
Hanwha Eagles (Daejon)- 5,691 per game.
Heroes [now called Nexen Heroes] (Seoul)- 4,996 per game.

As you can see, South Korea’s second-largest city, Busan (population, 3.5 million {2008}) has the ball club with the biggest fan base, the Lotte Giants. The Lotte Giants averaged 20,597 per game at their 28,500-capacity Sajik Stadium. The Lotte Group also owns the Nippon Professional Baseball team the Chiba Lotte Marines. The next two highest-drawing teams in the KBO are both from Seoul, the capital and largest city in South Korea (population 10.4 million{2007}). The Doosan Bears drew 15,731 per game and the LG Twins drew 14,778 per game last season. Both ball clubs play in the 30,000-capacity Jamsil Baseball Stadium. Fourth-highest drawing ball club in Korea are the SK Wyverns of Inchon which is South Korea’s third largest city (population 2.6 million {2005}). The SK Wyverns averaged 12,556 per game in 2009. [A Wyvern is a mythical winged dragon.] After these 4 ball clubs, there is a significant drop-off in fan base size, with the fifth-best gate figures being the Kia Tigers’ 8,314 per game. The other three KBO teams do not average higher than 6,000 per game.

[Note: I am not covering KBO attendance on a team-by-team basis on the map here, but I will post a KBO attendance map in mid March, a few days before the 2010 KBO season starts on March 27th.]

The KBO initially went through a period of slight growth and then sudden rising popularity with a spike in attendance in 1995, boosted by the exciting 1995 season which saw three teams, the OB Bears, the LG Twins, and the Lotte Giants, go neck-to-neck for the pennant (the title in ’95 was won by the OB, now Doosan, Bears). The KBO had its then-peak attendance in 1995, of 10,727 peer game. This figure wasn’t surpassed for 14 years. After 1995, the KBO began to see dwindling fan interest that lasted for a decade. What first helped reverse the gradual slide in attendances from 1996 to 2004 was the good showing the South Korean national baseball team had in the first World Baseball Classic, in 2005, when they finished in third. Another boost to the game here came three years later, when South Korea narrowly lost to Japan in extra innings in the second World Baseball Classic, and then six months later, the South Korean baseball team won the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. These results convinced many South Korean sports fans that KBO baseball was a product worth supporting. And there is no doubt that the calibre of Korean baseball players has improved in the last 25 years. There is a large number of South Koreans playing in Japan, in the Nippon Baseball League. In the United States, in Major League Baseball, there are currently two Korean players: free agent pitcher Chan Ho Park (who in 1994 became the first Korean player in Major League Baseball) and Cleveland Indians’ right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, who hit 20 home runs and batted .300 in 2009 for the Tribe. These days, KBO ball games, and South Korean high school baseball games, are attended by a considerable amount of MLB scouts.

Here is a good site for KBO news, called True Stories of Korean Baseball {click here} .

KBO attendance figures, KBO attendance figures from KBO official site [list of teams at the top is only partially in English, so here are the teams as they are listed in order of left to right at the top of the attendances list...SK Wyverns, Kia Tigers, Samsung Lions, Hanwha Eagles, LG Twins, Doosan Beras, Lotte Giants, Nexen Heroes].

Thanks to lockerroom.co.kr , for the ball caps photos… KBO team caps, here .
Thanks to Panoramio.com. Munhak Baseball Stadium, by Youngmin Park
Thanks to CW at OOTP Developments message board, for the circular KBO logos Circular cap logos of baseball teams .
Thanks to Baseball Fever.com message board thread, ‘Possible future locations of MLB games abroad’ {click here} .
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org Korea Baseball Organization

Below, key players for the 2009 KBO champions, the Kia Tigers…

Thanks to Aaron Shinsano (who is a part-time scout for the Chicago Cubs in Korea), at East Windup Chronicle, a KBO and Asian baseball blog, {click here} .
Thanks to Jeremy at Albion Road [on the blogroll here at 'Football Club Guide'], for showing me how to add links in code. Albion Road, here .

Thanks to commenter John, who put in a request for a KBO map and a CPBL (Taiwan) map last November.

Thanks to Demis World Map Server, Demis World Map Server .

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February 14, 2010

2010 Copa Libertadores, Second Stage.

Filed under: Argentina,Copa Libertadores — admin @ 5:05 pm

Note- I still am having a few problems with my admin. I have got a handle on inserting images via code, but I can’t figure out how to make links to other sites.

Below are two sets of images relating to the Cup-Holders, Estudiantes de La Plata…

Estudiantes de La Plata. La Plata, Buenos Aires state, Argentina. 4-time Copa Libertadores champions.

Estudiantes won 3 straight Copa Libertadores titles, in 1968, 1969, and 1970. This squad featured Juan Ramón Verón. His son, Juan Sebastián Verón, a midfielder, began at Estudiantes, where he helped the club return to the Argentinian top flight in 1995, before moving on to Boca Juniors in 1996, where he played 17 games (3 goals), and was a team-mate of Diego Maradonna. Verón had always dreamed of playing for Sheffield United (his uncle Pedro Verde played there). However, it was to Italy he went shortly after making his international debut in the summer of 1996, when he was signed by Sven-Göran Eriksson at Sampdoria. After two seasons in Genoa with Sampdoria, Verón signed with Parma, with whom Verón helped win the Coppa d’Italia and the UEFA Cup in 1998-99. Sven Goran Ericksson again sought the talents of the playmaking midfielder, and brought Verón over to Lazio. With Lazio, Verón helped the Roman side win the Double in 1999-2000 (this was Lazio’s second and last national title).

Juan Sebastián Verón then tried his luck in England, but he didn’t have nearly the success he had in Italy, with tepid stints at Manchester United and Chelsea. The pace basically got the better of Verón in England. In 2004, Chelsea manager José Mourinho loaned out Verón to Internazionale, and after two years in this situation, Verón decided to return back to his and his father’s original club, in a sort of prodigal son role. Estudiantes were undergoing a giant disruption, because they were homelesss following the government ruling that banned wooden stands, and Estudiantes had 2 wooden stands at their ‘Estadio 1 y 57′ (aka Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi). A waiver on the wooden stands ruling, which would have allowed Estudiantes to continue to play in the ’1 y 57′, was overruled by the mayor of La Plata, and this started the feuding between the local government and Estudiantes over the whole stadium issue.
Meanwhile, in his first year back with Estudiantes, Verón helped the club win it’s first national championship in 23 years, as the Pincharattas (the rat-stabbers) claimed the 2006-Apertura title. In the intervening 3 years, Estudiantes have played their home matches in 3 different venues, and currently are playing at the stadium of second-level club Quilmes (who are located in the southeast of Greater Buenos Aires, which puts them around 35 kilometers away from Estudiantes’ La Plata home). In spite of all this, in early 2009 the Estudiantes squad were able to keep their composure and progress through the stages of the Copa Libertadores, and after dispatching Uruguay’s Nacional 3-1 aggregate in the semifinals, Estudiantes were set to face Cruzeiro of Belo Horizonte, Brazil in the finals. Throughout the tournament, Estudiantes were powered by the field general Verón, and the goals of striker Mauro Boselli. And it was these two who were instrumental in the outcome, when, after a nil-nil draw in the first leg in La Plata, Mauro Boselli scored the winning goal in Brazil in the 78th minute, on a header, from a corner kick by Verón. Verón won MVP for the competition, and Boselli was top scorer, with 8 goals.

The stadium had began being rebuilt in August, 2008, and as the last photo (taken in August 2009) shows, most of the main structure is up. Verón has contributed some of his own funds toward the new stadium’s construction, as well as to the club’s nice new training facilities just north of La Plata. Observers note he is positioning himself as the future president of the club, after retirement. The stadium is projected to be ready for play in a not-completely-finished state in late 2010. So soon Estudiantes will be back home, playing in a new 30,000-capacity stadium, on the site of their old and distinctive ground, with the luxurious canopy of trees which flanks the exterior still intact.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at es.wikipedia.org; I found the photo of the new stadium under construction there. There is also a nice blog covering the construction progress at the Estadio Tierra de Campeones’ , at estadiopincha.blogspot.com http://estadiopincha.blogspot.com/
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Thanks to Sam Kelly for help on this post. Sam’s work can be found at his excellent Hasta El Gol Siempre site, which covers the Argentinian scene (click on it at the Blogroll in the sidebar at right, at ‘hasta el gol siempre’), and at The Engache.com site (at the Blogroll on the right under ‘the engache.com’). Plus there is the Sam Kelly archive at ESPNSoccernet.com (on the Blogroll at ‘Sam Kelly @ ESPN soccernet’).

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February 12, 2010

England: 2009-10 FA Cup, Fifth Round proper (the 16 clubs).

Filed under: 2009-10 FA Cup — admin @ 1:59 pm

Note…I am having problems with my site’s admin, and half the time I can’t even insert the images or the links I want to insert. I had to switch my server from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. At the same time (or slighty before that), the WordPress dashboard has changed, and there is no toolbar for inserting images oir links, and writing and illustrating new posts can now only be done via code, and not through a copy-and-paste procedure. If anyone out there has a WordPress platform for their site, or is familiar with WordPress, I would really appreciate some help.

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