(pic taken from Telstar Logistics’ Flickr page, link swiped from Boing Boing.net)
The next time we hear about the crap quality of the modern wood bat, just remember that Louisville Slugger is wasting valuable sticks on dubious works of conceptual art.
Mike Mussina would like it known the same point could just as easily have been made with an aluminum bat.
Radar Online (link swiped from Defamer) on Val Kilmer’s Paul Newman-esque line of organic foodstuffs.
In Kilmer’s case, the revenue would be earmarked not for charities but to support his lavish lifestyle. “It will all be 100 percent organic, 100 percent profit,” he says. “Here’s why: I like my GTO convertible. And if you’ve got a vintage car, you’ve got upkeep. I have two gorgeous children. My son’s school costs more per year than my four years at Juilliard, plus rent and airfare back and forth.”
I can sympathize. So much so, that after David Pinto gets his cut from CSTB’s advertising revenues, I’m going to send an additional 5% to Val. Based on the video evidence below, he needs the money far more than I do.
The Examiner’s Mychael Urban submits that Don Nelson’s 2nd tour of duty as Warriors coach will have one of two results for Mike Dunleavy, “with Dunleavy either having finally validated the Warriors’ decision to make him the No. 3 overall draft pick in 2002, or with him having made Chris Mullin look like a fool for giving him a five-year, $44 million contract extension last fall.”
(AP photo by Dino Vournas, SF Chronicle, 10/04/04)
Dunleavy, despite a combination of size and all-court skills that seem to scream NBA success, did very little in his first four seasons in the league. In fact, his greatest contribution to the basketball world over that time was in adding fuel to the fire of every Duke hater who likes to point out — with plenty of supporting evidence — that Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski runs a system that almost never produces a four-year player who can thrive at the next level.
Nellie’s run-run-run system, designed to create and exploit mismatches all over the floor, is built for multi-dimensional players like Dunleavy. So it’s possible that, with time, Dunleavy will flourish in this system and develop into a star worthy of his lofty draft status.
If that happens, he’ll either be a valued contributor here for a long time, or he’ll be shipped out at the February trade deadline while his value is high enough for a one-complementary-piece-away contender to willingly take on his salary.
If it doesn’t happen, Dunleavy will be here a long time — or at least until the Nellie Era II ends — without contributing, because (a) Nellie doesn’t dole out playing time based on cap figures (right, Adonal Foyle?) and (b) no team will want a seemingly prototypical “Nellie player” who can’t actually play for Nellie.
The Association’s Craig Kwasniewski would prefer to “wait until AK-47 and Boozer put in 30 games before we count the Jazz as contenders,” surely a reasonable stance. But 13 double doubles in 16 games isn’t what anyone expected from the previously statuesque Carlos.
Gilbert Arenas writes that he and Adam Morrison hung out all night playing video games. Anytime Agent Zero wants to keep that kind of thing private, it’s ok with me.
The New York Daily News’ Frank Isola, along with mentioning that Steve Franchise expects Nate Robinson to carry his bags, pays homage to the Knicks’ Quentin Richardson.
Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford look up to Richardson because he is an unselfish, tough-nosed player who doesn’t make excuses and actually cares whether the team wins or loses. It’s all about having credibility and nights like last night when Richardson out-plays a superstar like LeBron James, he earns the respect of all his teammates.
The dilemma the Knicks now face is when Jared Jeffries returns from right wrist surgery in three to four weeks. Jeffries is a good defender and can handle the ball on the perimeter. However, Jeffries is not an accomplished shooter and one of Richardson’s strengths is that he stretches the defense because of his ability to shoot threes.
Unless Thomas is thinking about using the weak rebounding Jeffries at power forward, the best move would be to keep Richardson as a starter and bring Jeffries off the bench.
Plenty of (lousy) seats available for December and January Knicks games at MSG, $10 each.
Ever wondered what former Hoosier PG Isiah Thomas and his old Indiana coach Bobby Knight might talk about if they got back together? Me neither, but the conversation would probably go something like this.
From Reuters’ Michele Gershberg :
Market research conducted by the NFL found that women sports fans want marketing addressed to their interests but don’t want to feel like they are being treated differently from men, Goodell told the Reuters Media Summit in New York.”It’s a very big initiative,” he said. “(Women) fans want to be treated as real fans because they love the game and they understand the game and they want to have the opportunity to experience the game just as anyone else does.”
Leave The Man Alone’s Head Chick In Charge welcomes Goodall’s sentiments, and has a number of suggestions, amongst them, “Give Us A Little Eye Candy”.
If the NFL is going to shamelessly stick their cameras up cheerleader’s skirts, then they can make sure the women have a little something to look at too. I don’t want a bunch of Tony Reali clones, but this can range from just making sure the male on-air talent looks their best all the way to giving the ladies a few shots of the guns and some close-ups of the handsome guys.
H.C.I.C., if it is eye candy you want, eye candy you shall receive. CSTB is all about giving the lady humans what they want.
From the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman and Tony Massarotti.
The Red Sox have signed Japanese relief pitcher Hideki Okajima to a two-year contract with an option for the 2009 season.
Okajima, who will turn 31 on Christmas, is a 12-year veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball. He has been a quality setup man in the Japanese leagues, playing 11 years for the Yomiuri Giants and last season for the Nippon Ham Fighters.
Last season, Okajima went 2-2 with a career-best 2.14 ERA in 55 appearances for the Ham Fighters. In his career, he is 34-32 with a 3.36 ERA. He has pitched 642 innings in 439 games, recording 41 saves while striking out 681.
Although primarily used as a set-up man, Okajima did save 25 games for the Giants in 2001. That year he appeared in 58 games, striking out 70 in 62 innings of work. The year before, he struck out 102 in 72.1 innings.
Though not said to be a hard thrower, the word is that Okakjima has a devastating curveball.
Boston has also signed the 178th Scrappiest Human Alive, Super Joe McEwing (above) to a minor league contract. Having watched Joe’s heroics for the Round Rock Express this past season, I can say to the people of Pawtucket with full confidence…you’re a very short drive from Providence.
I don’t spend a lot of time trying to find nice things to write about Derek Jeter, but I’ll give the Captain a little bit of credit : I’ve not read any complaints from the Yankee shortstop that he was jobbed out of the MVP Award. If Prince Albert can’t take some solace in a measly World Series ring, he might want to consider how close the Cards came to missing the playoffs altogether.
The New York Daily News’ Adam Rubin spoke with Tom Glavine’s agent Greg Clifton, who claims the Braves have yet to make a bona fide offer to his client. Clifton says Atlanta’s hesitancy is making a Glavine return to Flushing more likely, and at the risk of imitating Steve Keane, make up your fucking mind, already.
Please note that the Dow rose 90 points, or nearly three-quarters of a percent yesterday. This can’t be a coincidence. (thanks to Repoz for the heads up)
(funny, the sort of things that pop up when you type “wild, cocky, brash QB” into Google image search)
C’mon, why won’t anyone just tell us exactly what Rex Grossman said to the Vikings’ Darren Sharper? The Chicago Sun-Times’ Bradd Biggs, despite doing such great work for Slash Records years ago, totally falls down on the job.
”I’ve never had a quarterback say the things he said, and I’ve been playing 10 years,” Vikings strong safety Darren Sharper said Wednesday of the September meeting at the Metrodome in which Grossman threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Rashied Davis with 1:53 to play. ”I’ve gone against some wild, cocky, brash quarterbacks. I felt like he stepped over the line a little bit.”
‘He was running his mouth pretty much the whole game, and especially when he threw that last touchdown. He came over and said some things to my fellow safety and a couple of our defensive players. … It’s one of those X-rated things where I can’t say it.”
”When we finally got the touchdown pass, I probably went overboard a little bit with some of my emotions, some of the things I said,” Grossman said. ”But it was in that moment.
”I never talk trash. You don’t want to get them pumped up. But at that point … maybe that was the only situation where I could let it go. It was pissing me off. I couldn’t help but say something.”
It’s Round 2 of bad blood for the division rivals. Bears center Olin Kreutz shot back at Vikings defensive tackle Pat Williams last season before the teams’ second meeting. Williams had called Kreutz a ”joke,” and his agent suggested Kreutz had blackballed his client in Pro Bowl balloting. Kreutz replied by labeling Williams a ”fat slob.”
The consistently solid No Mas — the folks responsible for the no. 1 blog headline of 2006, “Claire Huxtable, You Are So Fuxtable” — reminded us that yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of free agent Reggie Jackson signing with the New York Yankees.
Good luck to the producers of the mini-series version of “The Bronx Is Burning” if they think they can tell their tale (Oliver Platt, gimme a break) without reenacting the above advertisement. I know the commercial was shown a year after the events in the book, but who is going to complain? Tom Sizemore? Barry Pepper?
I hate to pick on Isiah Thomas for no reason whatsoever, but the heck with the EEOC. The FBI oughta be called in to determine just what Zeke did with the real Eddy Curry. Some hulking imposter with an orange headband totally beat up on Zydrunas Ilgauskas in New York’s unlikely 101-98 dispatch of Cleveland. Perhaps the Cavs might wanna have someone else taking the big shot when the game is on the line other than Donyell Marshall or Damon Jones. Just an idea. Not sure if they have anyone else on their roster who might fit the bill for that sort of assignment.
Quentin Richardson (27 points, 9 boards) continues to bounce back from his miserable ‘05/06 campaign, and if half of Jamal Crawford’s shots keep going in, his almost pathological inability to dish off to an open man won’t be nearly as galling.
Nate Robinson badly botched a dunk attempt on a bounce pass to himself during the 2nd quarter. In Nate’s defense, at least he only missed this try once.
From Dave D’Alessandro’s Star-Ledger mailbag :
Dave: When this season started, did you ever think the Nets could be the first division winner to fail to make the playoffs? It’s not that far fetched right now. It’ll all be better by mid-January, right?
Eric
Big E: No, and yes. And you better hope I’m right, or you’re going to read nothing but realignment pieces throughout March and April.
Big E. can rest somewhat easier tonight — despite an underwhelming 6-9 record, the Nets are atop the Atlantic Division after erasing a 15 point 3rd quarter deficit en route to tonight’s 106-103 win in Boston. Jersey withstood a combined 56 point outburst from The Truth and Wally World, with a terrific night from Jason Kidd (19 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds) and 16 4th quarter points from Vince Carter. Richard Jefferson’s 3-pointer with 22 seconds remaining was the killer blow, as Paul Pierce came up short with a subsequent 3 point attempt a few seconds later.
Though he came awfully close to a triple double (24, 9 and 9) Baron Davis failed to sink what would’ve been a game-icing jumper with 15 seconds left tonight in Oakland, giving the Pacers the ball, trailing 106-105. Stephen Jackson, who knows a thing or two about shooting sprees, drained a 3 with a tick remaining to give Indy the 108-106 victory. Mike Dunleavy threw the Warriors’ last gasp possession to….Al Attles? Tim Hardaway? Sal Bando?
Utah’s AK47 (9), Carlos Boozer (16) and Matt Harpering (12) combined to outrebounded the entire San Antonio squad as the Jazz won their 13th out of 16, 83-75. They’re not handing out MVP hardware based on November alone, but no one in the league has made a bigger impact this month than Boozer.
DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg reports that Gilbert Arenas’ eBay affliction has graduated from vintage jerseys to rare Sports Illustrated covers. I wanted to get Wizznutzz’ take on these revelations and was greeted with the following message for my trouble :
Between the above disappointment and the sudden disappearance of Baseball Think Factory, I’m running out of places to steal material from.
One of the more annoying commercials of late hasn’t escaped the notice of Stay Free! Daily’s Matt Ransford.
Dwanye Wade pulls up to an urban basketball court in his Navigator, replacing the hoops, flooding the kids with balls, and tossing the keys to the coach. He then squeaks away in the shadow of a tractor trailer on a child-sized bike. The obvious point here is Wade is making such a tremendous sacrifice that he’s got no option other than to ride a shitty little bike home. Put aside the ridiculous idea that Wade doesn’t have the cash to call a cab (or that it’s somehow more virtuous to suffer along with those you’re helping) and you’re left with the notion that people who ride bikes to get anywhere do so because they can’t afford a car. Or a properly-fitting and well-oiled bike, for that matter.
I can’t stand the ad, either, but for entirely other reasons. I found nothing weird about D-Wade on a bike — I see guys on bikes that are too small for them all the time, and besides, he’s a damned athlete. He oughta be cycling home (in fact, so should Shaq. This would’ve been a perfect ad for the Diesel).
My hangups with the spot are two-fold. If Flash is really such a terrific guy, dolling out hoops, balls and Navigators-to-the-kids, I’m happy to hear about it. But the whole staged, highly stylized exercise is less about about giving-something-back and all about selling Navigators. I wasn’t likely to purchase a one anytime soon (having already bought an Escalade from Eddie Griffin —- other than some mysterious stains, it was in perfect condition), but if I was, I’d think twice if I saw D-Wade on TV giving them away so easily. It just makes the rest of us feel like suckers.
The advert’s biggest flaw is the scene that Matt describes as Wade “tossing the keys to the coach.” How do we know he’s a coach? He’s not identified as such, and for all we know, could just as easily be some homeless dude hanging around the playground. Nice work, Dwayne, you’ve just given a $50,000 SUV to some random guy on the street. After the shot of Wade peddling away from the basketball court, we’re shown the Navigator zooming up the same street. Surely I’m not alone in thinking the “coach” is behind the wheel with no passengers in the Lincoln’s roomy seats.
ESPN Radio’s Eric Kuselias was agog over the Manny Ramirez trade rumors this afternoon, insisting, over and over again, “there has to be more to this,” as though there’s some incredible secret about Manny’s disruptive behavior the Red Sox have covered up to maintain his trade value.
Boston Sports Media’s Bruce Allen claims WEEI’s Glenn Orway went down a similar path Monday (”He said all the fans and websites out there who have been blaming the media for Manny bashing will then be amazed at the ‘hair raising’, ‘off the chart’ stories that will come out after he is traded. (Sounds like the leaking has already begun.)” but also highlights some sage words from Touching All The Bases’ Chad Finn.
It’s not like I don’t understand why the Sox would consider shopping him. He’s going to be 35 next season; the decline has to begin sometime, and his aching knees may already be a harbinger. And if you believe the whispers – certain to be a full-fledged smear campaign once the deal is consummated – the home clubhouse may not be such a welcoming place for him anymore.
of all the rumors floating around out there right now, not one of them strikes me as particularly beneficial to the 2007 Red Sox. Scot Shields and a prospect from the Angels? Throw in Brandon Wood and Howie Kendrick and we’ll talk. James Loney and Matt Kemp from the Dodgers? Intriguing, especially if Theo’s goal is to bolster the Pawtucket roster for the summer. Scott Linebrink from the Padres? C’mon, Theo, don’t get pantsed by Kevin Towers again.
There’s one question that every Red Sox fan should be pondering right now: How in the hell does trading Manny make the Red Sox better?
Will they get an equal talent in return? Highly unlikely, unless Albert Pujols should suddenly get caught looting Tony La Russa’s office or Texas foolishly parts with Mark Teixeira after a down year.
I’d feel better about this if only they were doing it for baseball reasons. Instead, they seem intent on trading a diamond for three cubic zirconiums, just to rid themselves of the Manny Melodrama. Heck, noted baseball historian Hazel Mae attempted to sum up that mind-set tonight on NESN: “Getting rid of Manny might not be as great as it sounds,” she bleated. I don’t even know what the hell that means. It’s like she was channeling McCarver.
Even with the headaches and midsummer vacations, he’s been worth every single Benjamin of his $160 million contract. You want reliable? Despite missing 42 games with a busted finger in 2001, he’s averaged 142 games per season with Sox, a number his supposed successor in the cleanup spot, the infamously indifferent J.D. Drew, has surpassed twice in his nine-year career.
Though I suggested in an earlier entry that Rod Barajas had flunked his physical with Toronto, according to the Blue Jays, it’s the catcher’s spine that needs some fixing up. From MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian.
On Tuesday, Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi (above) said that Barajas and the Jays had “more than a handshake,” regarding the two-year contract the catcher was offered. On Wednesday, at a press conference to announce the re-signing of catcher Gregg Zaun, Ricciardi acknowledged that Barajas actually signed before backing out two days earlier.
“Where I’m from, that’s done,” Ricciardi said. “If your word doesn’t mean anything any more or your signature doesn’t mean anything, what kind of world do we live in? It’s all right, though. This worked out for the better. “The original two agents agreed, and they did a great job — a super job,” Ricciardi said. “Your word is supposed to mean something. What does that say to the agents you just did a deal with? You’re going to get a new agent and start renegotiating? No.”
Afterwards, Riccardi pissed away most of his remaining credibility by paying Royce Clayton $1.5 million dollars.
Reliever Joe Borowski, coming off a 36 save campaign for the Marlins in ‘06, has apparently flunked his physical with Philadelphia. The Phillies’ doctor advised against a multi-year pact, but refrained from comment about Borowski’s pending entry in the upcoming Wing Bowl.
In addition to ranking the 5 Worst free agent signings (so far) this offseason (Gary Matthews Jr., Juan Pierre, Carlos Lee, Adam Eaton, Nomar), Fox Sports’ Dayn Perry pays homage to Omar’s thrifty pick-up of the Man With The Pissy Hands.
In this overheated market — and when you’re the deep-pocketed Mets — a one-year, $8.5-million pact is basically free. Alou has poor fielding range these days, and he’s gimpy. However, he can still rake (.304 AVG/.371 OBP/.548 SLG over the last three seasons). The Mets badly need better production from the outfield corners, and they also badly need help against left-handed pitching. Alou betters them — by a lot — on both counts. This deal is further evidence that Omar Minaya has developed into one of the smartest GMs in the game today.
I didn’t think there was a lamer nightspot on Earth than Blondie’s, but it would appear as though A-Rod and Derek Jeter have found it.
Dodger Thoughts’ Jon Wiseman reminds his lucky readers that today marks Vin Scully’s 79th birthday. This seems as good a time as any to mention that I was really underwhelmed by the performance of Scully impersonator numero uno Harry Shearer in Christopher Guest’s disappointing “For Your Consideration.” Later, however, I saw Will Arnett on “TRL”, at which point, I had to give Shearer and Guest just a tad more credit for realism.
The Wilmington Star’s Andrew Jones listens to Gary Barnett’s sales pitch.
In a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, Barnett said nobody from N.C. State or representing N.C. State had called. But he’d be willing to discuss the position, vacated when Chuck Amato was fired this past weekend.
“I am interested in getting back into coaching,” Barnett said. “But, it’s got to be the right school.
“N.C. State would be a great job and I’d be interested in it.”
Barnett believes the ACC is a great league for coaches and that it’s the right time to enter.
“With the ACC being in the position it is in, not a dominant conference this year, this is a good time to get in there,” he said. “Butch Davis is now down at North Carolina, and he’s a great coach, but (Wake Forest coach) Jim Grobe may be in position to move.”
Barnett says former Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato did a great job generating enthusiasm for football and increased its importance among the fan base and university. He doesn’t see N.C. State as a basketball-first school.
“It’s tough any time you’re the second sport,” he said. “It’s got to be the right fit.”
Jones is careful to point out that Barnett was “exonerated of all wrongdoing” at Colorado.
Using linked jpgs of Jeff Van Gundy’s skull, Tom DeLay and Paris Hilton, the Houston Chronicle’s John P. Lopez takes dead aim at the Rockets’ most unsuccessful free agent acquisition of late.
If Bonzi Wells cared, he’d be on the floor by now. If he was unselfish, he’d take four minutes a game and not complain. If he had any sense whatsoever, he would walk into coach Jeff Van Gundy’s office with hat in hand and apologize for showing no class, no ambition and no sense of professionalism.
Trading Bonzi gets complicated, because there are restrictions on recently signed free agents. There also is the whole complex issue of showcasing him for other teams that might be interested.
In order to showcase him, he needs to get onto the floor. But if he gets on the floor, he’s hurting the good thing the Rockets have going.
Talk about a dilemma. Still, the guy is a bust. Flat-out. A big, embarrassing bust. Somehow, someway, the Rockets need to ditch this guy. The only thing he can do from here is hurt the team.
(Current) Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley takes great offense at the notion Pau Gasol is on the trading block, telling the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Ronald Tillery, “I’m going to contact Cleveland to try and get LeBron James. So put in the paper that Cleveland’s interested in getting rid of LeBron James.” Ha, ha. Funny stuff, but shouldn’t these executive decisions by all rights, rest with incoming Director Of Basketball Operations Christian Death?
Bad enough there’s another Stephon Marbury disappearing act to analyze ; the Sun-Times’ John Jackson claims former Bulls center Eddy Curry is held accountable by some for Chicago’s suddenly notorious headband ban.
After plowing his Escalade into a parked car while beating off to a pornographic DVD last Spring, the T-Wolves’ Eddie Griffin was assigned the most qualified of guardian angels, Vin Baker. Presumably, Mark Chumura and Isiah Rider didn’t return Kevin McHale’s phone calls.
Former Syracuse PG Gerry McNamara has left Olympiakos B.C. after a dispute over playing time. The Syracuse Post-Standard’s Mike Waters suggests McNamara is bound for the NBDL, which will surely come as a crushing blow to the ABA’s Rochester RazorSharks. I don’t wanna say the ‘Sharks are desperate for an attendence boost, but how would you describe their employment of the kid from “Love Monkey”?
The bad news is the Nets have hired two women in their (early) 80’s for their new senior citizen dance squad. The good news is, there’s very little chance either one of them will hit Patrick Ewing with a paternity suit in the future.
“I’m done talking…and I’ll see you Thursday.” (mp3 audio from WFAN)
The video footage is even better. We’ve seen countless athletes throw a fit with reporters, but how many of ‘em did so while eating a doughnut? Beat that, Ryan Leaf.
The Yankees’ controversial posting bid of $25 million for Kei Igawa is the main topic of discussion for WFAN’s Mike & The Mad Dog today, with the hosts expressing great skepticism about the relative worth of the Hashin Tigers’ left-hander.
“You don’t know what you’re getting with these Japanese players,” warned Mike Francesca (as opposed to say, All-Americans like Carl Pavano). After one caller opined that Igawa was a poor option compared to Ted Lilly, Francesca surmised “so he’s more like Kaz Ishii than (Chien Ming) Wang”.
Wang was born in Taiwan. Igawa might also have more in common with Horacio Ramirez than he does with Barry Zito.
Kings race relations expert Sean Avery suffers a) “a masticating hit” and b) the indignity of hearing Chumbawumba while he’s trying to regain his senses (link swiped from Offwing Opinion)
Bobby Holik (above, left) returned to MSG last night and had a pair of late goals, including the OT game-winner in Atlanta’s 5-4 decision over the Rangers last night. The New York Daily News’ John Dellapina, perhaps ignoring the fact Holik is wearing another team’s sweater, wonders “what, exactly, did Bobby Holik do to deserve Garden booing?”
He signed a ridiculous contract (five years, $45 million). But nobody forced the Rangers to offer him that kind of money. And do New Yorkers really resent somebody hitting the lottery — or at least being fortunate enough to hit the open market at precisely the right time — the way folks in other NHL outposts seem to? I never thought so, but apparently we do.
Was he outspoken and critical of the team? Absolutely. But he had always been precisely that as a Devil. So the Rangers knew exactly what they were getting. Besides, he was usually right on in his criticisms — the Rangers WERE “fundamentally, the worst team in hockey” when he made that proclamation following the absurd 9-1 thumping at Ottawa in Jaromir Jagr’s Rangers debut on Jan. 24, 2004.
And his reaction that astounding morning when Jim Dolan and Steve Mills wobbled onto the ice in Anaheim during a Rangers practice — he disgustedly stormed to the other end of the ice to pound a puck against the boards in embarrassed frustration — was perfectly appropriate.
Bobby Holik was the least of the Rangers’ problems while he was here and could well have been part of the solution had he been deployed properly. Alas, he was just one more player whose talents were wasted during the Reign of Error from 1998-2004. And now, he gets booed for it as well.
(fuck those Wendy’s ads, sometimes being stuck in the middle is the worst place to be)
In the wake of Michael Strahan kinda-sorta-maybe calling Plaxico Burress a quitter after the wide receiver gave up on an overthrown Eli Manning pass Sunday, WFAN’s Joe Benigno-Gazingo is reporting there’s been some type of spat at Giants practice this morning.
Even a football neophyte like Shea Hillenbrand could tell you the ship is sinking, and with each passing day, Colonel Coughlin seems headed for a Douglas Niedermyer ending (ie. shot by his own troops). Though it seems as though Burress would have an unfair advantage if forced to go toe-to-toe with the injured Strahan, keep in mind that Dr. Ian Smith might have the latter’s back.
(UPDATE : You’ll have to go to ESPN.com or WFAN.com to hear the lovely soundbites from Strahan in severe Kill The Messenger Mode. “Look a man in the eye before you kill him and make up something…if you’re gonna talk to me, don’t stand in the back with ten other people. I’m glad ESPN is listening to WFAN, that’s a good thing, at least we listen to each other and read each other’s newspapers around here. I read you guys every day..I’ve been reading you guys for ten years. If you’re gonna be negative, be negative, I don’t give a damn.”
Apparently, Strahan’s rebuke of Burress on the Benigno-Gazingo show qualifies as veteran leadership, but the media asking Burress to respond earlier today, is dirty pool. I’ve not heard a Swampland resident have such a WTF moment with the local media since Chad Pennington insisted the scribes were privileged to be covering the Jets.)
(UPDATE DOS : Mike Francesca has weighed in on Strahan’s public implosion : “Move on, it’s not that big a deal.” Always the team player that Francesca, way to piss all over Benigno-Gazingo’s moment of glory. At the moment, Francesca and Russo are discussing a truly big deal : New Cannan’s 49-14 defeat of Coventry in the CIAC Semi-Finals.)
While warning that Boston’s pending deal with J.D. Drew is a prerequisite to shipping Manny Ramirez elsewhere, the Globe’s Gordon Edes is a little more specific than most about what the Red Sox might expect in return.
The Sox remained deep in Manny Ramírez trade talks with the Padres, with San Diego sweetening its original offer, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks. The Padres are offering major league players for Ramírez, a package that presumably would have to include one of two pitchers: prime setup man Scott Linebrink or ace Jake Peavy. The Sox also have coveted Adrian Gonzalez, a lefthanded-hitting first baseman who put up outstanding numbers in his first full season in 2006: .304, 24 home runs, 38 doubles, and 82 RBIs.
The Dodgers, because of their wealth of appealing young talent — outfielder Matt Kemp, first baseman James Loney, third baseman Andy LaRoche, reliever Jonathan Broxton — and their paucity of power are becoming a popular choice among industry speculators as a Ramírez landing spot. But their position is still somewhere on the periphery, as they weigh whether they want to part with their kids. There were strong indications yesterday, however, that the Sox would pay at least a portion of Ramírez’s salary.
In addition to the other teams that have been identified as potential trading partners (Rangers, Phillies, Giants, Orioles, Mets), there may yet be a team or two that has not surfaced publicly. A team mentioned as a possibility should the Red Sox insist on a slugging bat in return: the Mariners, who are not shopping third baseman Adrian Beltre or first baseman Richie Sexson but might be persuaded to part with one or the other in a Ramírez deal.
Reminding us that “it’s still November and the Orioles already have bought four relievers for more than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ projected budget,” the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly applauds the O’s “moxie” in fixing their bullpen, but would prefer to see the free agency shopping come to a halt.
Basically, the Orioles must abandon the dream that they are the Detroit Tigers 2.0 and everything will miraculously mesh in 2007. They must acknowledge that this team is headed for fourth place again and there are no big league-ready reinforcements in the minor leagues. Then they need to spend the next 10 months identifying, acquiring and developing a few players who will be under the club’s financial control for several years and who can complement the existing core of players signed through 2009.
The Orioles can’t repeat the sins of the past, when they thought they were a couple of players away, became desperate when they lost their top choices and stuffed their roster with overpaid, second-tier free agents.
You think Houston’s payout of $100 million over six years for Carlos Lee is a waste of money? Consider that, in the past six years, the Orioles spent roughly $100 million total on free-agent busts David Segui, Marty Cordova, Omar Daal, Rafael Palmeiro, Sidney Ponson, Javy Lopez and Steve Kline.
Each year, the Orioles seemingly arrive at this point, and then proceed to steer their ship into the iceberg once Plan A melts. Alfonso Soriano and Lee, their top target, were too pricey. Starters Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt are still available, but the word within baseball circles is that neither has the slightest interest in coming to Baltimore. No matter the money, no matter the years.
What’s left is a bucketful of Plan B’s and C’s on Desperation Aisle, where the Orioles end up using their rich uncle’s credit card every year. Free agents such as Jay Payton, Aubrey Huff and Trot Nixon likely will get multi-year deals. The Orioles shouldn’t be joining those parties.
The truth is that for the Orioles to replicate the success of this year’s Tigers, they probably need to strip down the organization to its skivvies and start again. Trade off anyone over 30 and rebuild for 2010, when most of the organization’s best prospects could be ready to emerge.
The Pirates, along with having inked reliever Damaso Marte to a two year extension, are amongst those sniffing around starter Jeff Suppan, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic.
While their Guardian colleague John Brodkin focuses on the poor value for money provided by slumping Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko (above), the Fiver’s Barry Glendenning and Mike Adamson turn their attention to the Blues’ nefarious fund-raising efforts around the world.
Living as they do under an authoritarian and notoriously censorious regime, Chinese citizens have long been fed a steady diet of propaganda. But as if being subjected to the particular doctrines and principles of an evil Communist Party isn’t bad enough, the lives of 1,306,313,812 people are about to get a whole lot worse now it’s emerged that Chelsea are to produce a Mandarin-language website in a move to build the “club’s brand” in the Far East.
“Clearly we are becoming more popular and this is the right time to take that to the next level,” droned the club’s business affairs director Paul Smith, suggesting the Premiership champions are the object of far less derision in China than they are at home. “The real winners of this co-operation are the fans themselves who will now have far easier access to the world of football,” declared Charles Chao, chief executive of Chinese internet portal Sina, no doubt referring to fans whose only previous access to the world of football involved long hours in the sweatshop sewing footballs and replica shirts.
….and dingers!
(a loyal but possibly unintelligent animal. In the foreground, a cute doggy)
Cards skipper Tony La Genius spoke with the AP yesterday and offered a staunch defense of Hall Of Fame candidate Mark McGwire.
“I’ve believed in him from day one. I still believe in him,” La Russa said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
“I’ve watched him for years and years and years work out and take care of himself, and if any of us do that, we get bigger and stronger,” La Russa said.
For La Russa, it’s hard to gauge whether McGwire is being treated unfairly because of his refusal to answer questions at the congressional hearing.
“I know people are struggling with how to put it in perspective,” he said. “I don’t know where it goes. I don’t know how people weigh. I don’t know how the public feels. To me, the issue is the player that I saw for years and years. I believe in him. And that’s where I leave it.”
This isn’t the first time La Russa has stood up for McGwire ; in August of ‘05, he claimed Big Mac’s prowess was the result of work and nutrition, along with blaming McGwire’s embarrassing showing before Congress on the ballplayer having been “over-coached.”
When the inevitable ESPN mini-series rolls around, I’d still like to see Jim Belushi playing La Russa, with the role of McGwire tackled by one of the more intense thespians of this or any generation, Val Kilmer.
On the other hand, reuniting Henry Rollins and Kilmer after their triumphant pairing in “Heat” might be too great a temptation for the producers to resist.
Following Manny Acta’s hiring in DC, there’s a whole bunch of openings in the Mets organization that Gary Carter might be able to choose from, writes the Palm Beach Post’s Eric “Don’t Call Me Kembra” Pfahler (link taken from Baseball Think Factory)
Gary Carter said he is one of three internal candidates interviewing for the New York Mets’ third-base coaching job.
The other two candidates include Ken Oberkfell, who last year managed the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, and Hobe Sound resident Howard Johnson, who was the Tides’ hitting coach.
Carter said he has been offered a job managing the Mets’ Double-A team in Binghamton, N.Y., but the Eastern League is not tempting.
“I think (the pay) would be actually less if I went there because of the tax implications,” Carter said of the New York income tax rate. “And, really, to be honest with you, I just don’t know if my body can hold up to those bus rides — nine, 10 hours.”
Carter said he might consider coming back as the St. Lucie manager, but he could be promoted to the Triple-A manager if Oberkfell is named the major-league team’s third-base coach.
Metsblog’s Matthew Cerrone floats a rumor the Braves have offered Tom Glavine a one year deal worth $8 million. Considering Glavine’s performance over the last season and a half, along with recent tremors in the marketplace, it sounds like Atlanta are expecting the pitcher to honor one heck of a hometown discount. Given what it would cost to replace Glavine in the starting rotation, the Mets can easily justify blowing the Braves’ offer out of the water.
In the midst of crazed grandstanding surrounding Mark McGwire’s inclusion on the Hall Of Fame ballot (is anyone else troubled by the thought of Wally Matthews having a vote?), the Daily News’ Adam Rubin writes the Red Sox are actively campaigning on behalf of Jim Ed Rice.
(video link taken from WFMU’s Beware Of The Blog and Ken Freedman. For the first and hopefully last time, the Beware Of The Blogs’ comments have dropped below those of Deadspin on the nitwit scale).
The last time I watched a maroon wearing visiting team do-their-thing in Austin, Colt McCoy left the building in an ambulance. From the looks of the grey meat being sold by one of the city’s lamer barbeque emporiums, they might need an entire fleet tonight.
I’m gonna have to watch the replay of the Knicks’ rematch with Big Ben’s bandless-skull (not to mention Duke/Indiana) later on. At the moment, I’m surrounded by snowcones and talcum powder (I assure you, that’s not a euphamism for anything) at the Frank Erwin Center, watching Texas’ Kevin Durant lay waste to a hopelessly overmatched Texas Southern.
Durant, oft compared to Kevin Garnett (and hopefully he’ll hook up with a point guard that we cannot compare to the professional version of Stephon Marbury) has 15 points in limited duty, as the Longhorns are up 47-20, with 4:32 remaining in the first half. A week ago, Texas allowed the Aussie-heavy Nicholls State to hang around for about 15 minutes, but there’s been no such hospitality this evening.
(UPDATE : Texas 90, Texas Soutern 50, finale! 22 points, 7 rebounds, one block and a pair of 3’s for Durant without breaking much of a sweat in 23 minutes).
Terrific. I spend a couple of days making fun of Baltimore’s big offseason signings being Roger Cedeno and Danys Baez, and this happens. From SI.com’s Jon Heyman.
Reliever Chad Bradford has agreed to a $10.5-million, three-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, SI.com has learned.
Baltimore also reached a $900,000, one-year deal with Scott Williamson, who can earn an additional $600,000 on performance bonuses. He was scheduled to take a physical Tuesday.
Heyman’s report attributes Baez’ ‘05/’06 stats to Bradford, but that’s ok. I’ve made worse mistakes. That whole Nelson/Francisco Liriano business, for example.
St. Louis’ signings for Tuesday include 2B Adam Kennedy (re-united with former Halo teammate the World’s Scrappiest Human), P Kip Wells, backup backstop Gary Bennett and C Eli Marrero.
The Journal News’ Peter Abraham is reporting the Yankees have won the negotiating rights for LHP Kei Igawa, paying somewhere in the ‘hood of $25 million to the Hashin Tigers. Never mind Barry Zito, even Gil Meche and Vicente Padilla are getting text messages from Ferrari salesmen.
Lance Armstrong isn’t merely a world class cyclist, budding marathon runner, aspiring stand-up comic and platonic friend to Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s also, allegedly, just as big a hacker as, uh, Matthew Lillard.
From Cycling News’s Tim Mahoney (link courtesy Sam Frank)
Although French investigators from the cybercrime unit of the Gendarmerie have yet to find the culprits who hacked the computer system of the anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) in Châtenay-Malabry, sending fake e-mails that were allegedly sent by a “close associate” of 2006 Tour De France winner Floyd Landis, according to French newspaper Le Monde, another American cyclist may be a suspect in the cyberspace tomfoolery: Lance Armstrong.An article published last week in Le Monde by French journalist Stéphane Mandard contained a claim that Lance Armstrong might be the mystery hacker of the LNDD lab, according to allegations by Betsy Andreu in her deposition of January 17, 2006 in the Armstrong/SCA Promotions arbitration case. When Armstrong’s attorney Timothy Herman deposed Mrs. Andreu, asking “did you already tell anyone that Lance Armstrong has hacked your computer”, Betsy Andreu, the wife of former professional cyclist Frankie Andreu said “I think [Armstrong] has hacked my computer and we are currently suing America On Line to find the IP address of who hacked my computer.”
Betsy Andreu had already filed a complaint with the Dearborn, Michigan police department on March 31, 2005 when she tried to sign on to her AOL account and found that someone else had already signed on to her account and that the same thing happened to Frankie Andreu’s computer the next day.
Betsy Andreu told Le Monde’s Mandard that “Lance wanted to control everything; anything anyone might say about him and he was ready to do anything to do it.” According to Mrs. Andreu, her computer wasn’t the only one Armstrong had hacked. She claimed in her SCA deposition in January 2006 that former Oakley sports marketing manager Stephanie McIlvain thought that Armstrong had hacked her computer and had placed a bug in the computer of his ex-wife Kristin as the couple was going through their divorce.
“Stephanie told me that [Armstrong] told her he put a bug in Kristin’s computer and every word she typed was sent directly to him. Stephanie was scared that Lance had also hacked her computer.” Although AOL refused to cooperate with Ms. Andreu, she told Mandard the she next intended to take the matter up with the Justice Department.
When Cyclingnews reached Lance Armstrong at his home in Austin, Texas to ask him about the accusations in the Le Monde article, the seven time Tour De France winner was incredulous. “Oh boy… Just when I thought I had heard it all”, exclaimed a surprised Armstrong. “What’s next? Saddam Hussein’s WMD’s are out at my ranch in Texas? ‘Ridiculous’ does not even begin to describe this latest insinuation. These accusations are not credible in any sense of the word. Are we supposed to believe anything Betsy Andreu says? However, I do wish her all the luck in the world with her lawsuit against AOL, one of the largest ISP’s in the world today.”
Asks Sam, “is this more or less plausible than Harrison Ford in “Firewall”?”
Charging that Isiah Thomas “went out of his way to embarrass Stephon Marbury in the home loss to Houston,” the New York Daily News’ Frank Isola hopes the NBA’s Self-Proclaimed No. 1 Point Guard can get a fresh start elsewhere.
Marbury and the Knicks would both be best served by a trade. As a third or fourth option on a good team, Marbury would excel. Plus, I feel at this stage of his career he needs to get out of New York. If he played for Miami, Houston or Dallas he would help those teams.
On some level, I feel sorry for Marbury because I believe there are people in the Knicks organization that have taken advantage of him and allowed his surly behavior to take over the locker room. When Marbury arrived in New York, Thomas gave him the keys to the franchise which only alienated the entire locker room.
Marbury was then told by executives which media members to avoid so instead of using the media to build his image, he acted like a creep and went to war with the press. It was wasted energy in a battle he can’t win. And yet no one in the organization had the smarts to tell him otherwise.
I’m one of those media guys that Marbury has zero use for. Our relationship has come a long way since he was an 11-year-old kid and would call me regularly to talk about high school basketball. Over the years, I’ve established professional relationships with Ewing, Oakley, Harper, Houston, Ward, Larry Johnson, Latrell, Van Gundy. But Marbury was told by the Knicks petty organization to avoid me at all costs.
Unfortunately, it could end badly here for Marbury and when it does those same people who are “protecting” Marbury will be the same folks who will bury him behind his back. That’s the MSG way.
I don’t know if this backs up Isola’s claim that Stephon is overly contentious with the media, but the Journal News’ Mike Dougherty was on hand for the following exchange between the former Coney Island product and the AP’s Brian Mahoney.
SM: “We’re better than what we were last season right now.”
BM: “The record is about the same.”
SM: “We are?”
BM: “Yep, 5-10.”
SM: “At this time? Serious?”
BM: “Yes.”
SM: “This is a better 5-10 than last year.”
Da Bulls’ Ben Wallace tells the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson that it was the Nets’ Uncle Cliffy who got him started on the slippery slope of headband-wearing.
“He told me I should try it and that’s a reminder not to let my head get too big in this league,” Wallace said.
The Orange Country Register’s Art Thompson III, along with covering Chris Kamen’s ankle injury, notes the Clippers might send Yaroslav Korolev to their Anaheim D-League affiliate. The Arsenal are visiting the Austin Toros this Friday, and this news will certainly generate frenzied ticket sales amongst Austin’s Russian community. Unless there’s something good on TV Friday night.
The Warriors have knocked off the Jazz and Spurs within 48 hours. If I want to see someone who sneered at Golden State’s hiring of Nervous Nellie, all I have to do is look in the mirror. I’m more recognizable without the snorkle and mask, however.
From the Kansas City Star’s Jeffrey Flanagan :
Bret Saberhagen doesn’t hold any illusions about his chances of making it into the Baseball Hall of Fame now that he’s entered his first year on the ballot.
But Saberhagen had some startling words for Hall voters about what he’d do if he got in.
“I’d have to decline,” Saberhagen said by phone. “I wouldn’t accept it unless the Hall decides to put Pete Rose in, which is where he belongs. You’re talking about the all-time hits leader. It’s never been proven that he bet on baseball while he played.”
Saberhagen said he isn’t a close friend of Rose’s.
“We talk when we run into each other,” Saberhagen said, “but it’s not like I’ve got his number or he’s got mine. We don’t hang out. But I just feel there’s a problem with the Hall and him not being in there.”
I totally know where Sabes is coming from. In the unlikely event CSTB ever wins a Weblog Award, I’ll turn the fucker down, in solidiarity with Pete Rose.
A classified ad that offered a free baby boy on the Craigslist Web site was under investigation by police Friday although the posting was believed to be a hoax.
The ad was posted to the “free stuff” section of the site early Thursday alongside offers for free turkey dinners, a set of crutches and an electric stove.
The writer, who said he was in San Diego, claimed that his ex-girlfriend had the baby a few weeks ago.
“Now he just sits in my closet and cries,” the ad stated. “I’m not too sure how to deal with it.”
The posting added: “Batteries not included. Transaction final. No returns.”
Craigslist removed the ad shortly after it appeared.
“This is most probably a hoax,” site founder Craig Newmark said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Friday.
San Diego police said the matter was referred to investigators in the child abuse unit and another department that investigates Internet crimes against children.
I’m no Curtis Sliwa, but I can promise the San Diego authorities that if they’re looking for something really interesting on Craigslist, “free stuff” isn’t the section.
Drew Brees’ Hail Mary to Terrance Copper the other day against the Falcons was already cited in this space as one of those “how the fuck did that happen?” moments. Thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter, we now have an explanation.
Cornerback DeAngelo Hall said he went for an interception on the Hail Mary pass that gave the Saints a 21-6 halftime lead. New Orleans’ Terrance Copper came down with the ball between Hall, Derrick Johnson and Lawyer Milloy.
“I was trying to make a play,” Hall said. “I was kind of being lazy. I probably should have been a couple yards deeper in the end zone instead of trying to fade back.
“Then just being greedy in my mind, wanting to pick it. Then knowing that I can’t pick it and then trying to tip it down. Halfway up in the air, my arms are still at my chest. … The ball goes a little bit to the left.”
The Washington Post’s Howard Bryant writes the Redskins might be holding kicker tryouts today. Surely I’m not alone in thinking this could be Tony Meola’s big break?
Since I’m really having a hard time finding anything positive to say about Eli Manning of late, how’s this? If his 4th quarter decision making was nearly as savvy as his reluctance to take the bait when invited to bury Plaxico Fantastico, the Giants wouldn’t be staring up at the Cowboys in the NFC East standings.
The SF Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reports Oakland are looking to replace Frank Thomas’ production with that of Mike Piazza.
the A’s began talks with Padres catcher Mike Piazza last week about becoming the team’s DH. While negotiations are continuing, according to a source, Oakland is unlikely to sign Piazza, a Type-A free agent, until after the Dec. 1 arbitration deadline so that the team does not lose a draft pick. Piazza, who also was an A’s target last offseason, probably is looking for a two-year deal.
Then there’s the spot that will be open when left-handed starter Barry Zito opts for free agency: On Monday, the team put in a bid for the rights to Japanese lefty Kei Igawa, according to a major-league source. As many as 10 other teams also were expected to put in a bid with Igawa’s Hanshin Tigers, including large payroll clubs such as the Yankees and Mets, so it’s a long-shot that Oakland would acquire the 27-year-old, who went 13-9 in the Central League last season.
ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, completely ignoring the appeal of Amoeba Records’ vast selection Savatage rarities at their Berkeley location, surveys the possible move on purely baseball terms.
Oakland is stacked with left-handed hitters such as Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay, and Thomas provided the right-handed balance. Piazza would serve this purpose, as well — he hit .359 against lefties last season, with a .421 on-base percentage. And in an offseason when the best offensive players are getting six-year deals or eight-year deals, Piazza would probably require only a one- or two-year deal, which would better fit Oakland’s modest payroll.
Olney also stresses Piazza’s low batting average last year at the place Pets Fly Balls Go To Die (.233) compared to a none too shabby .332 away.
Slusser’s colleague, Henry Schulman, along with reporting the Red Sox are insisting on more than Armando Benitez + an unidentified position player in exchange for Manny Being Manny, writes the Cubs have offered free agent P Jason Schmidt $44 million over 3 years.
With Randy Wolf moving to the Dodgers, the Phillies have signed P Adam Eaton to a 3 year, $24 million pact. Apparently, that’s the going rate for a hurler who has never won more than 11 games, and is coming off a short stint for Texas where he compiled an ERA of 5.12 (albiet in a hitter’s park).
It seems as though free agent C Rod Barajas flunked his physical in Toronto. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’ve always had trouble with the coughing part.
OF David Dellucci, identified earlier this year by baseball expert Tom Hicks (above) as a paragon of toughness and leadership, has signed a 3-year, $11.5 million contract with Cleveland.
OK, perhaps the CSTB line of actionwear is selling worse than Bobby V. muscle tees. There’s no cause for panic, not when your 13th or 14th favorite spurts blog has joined forces with T-Mobile to introduce the Ltd. Edition CSTB Sidekick III.
(photograph by Sally Crewe)
Bill Simmons’ recent critique of Celtics coach Doc Rivers not only failed to escape the notice of David Roth, but stuck firmly in the craw of the Globe’s Bob Ryan, who holds the Sports Putz accountable for the anti-Rivers chants that have filled the TD Banknorth Garden of late. David Scott quotes Ryan’s remarks from a Sunday night appearance on Bob Lobel’s “Sports Final”.
From 3,000 miles away, someone who has got some influence on I’d say at least 25 percent of the people who are after Doc Rivers, Bill Simmons. . . UNBELIEVABLE, has written a column last week at ESPN.com assaulting and just killing Doc Rivers.
And I’m telling you that the emails I get reflect the fact that people are paying attention to him from 3,000 miles away, as if he knows what’s going on with the Celtics.
While Scott’s Shots is primed for “a potentially simmering feud between two of Boston’s most influential sports columnists,” a subsequent reply from Simmons is of the taking-the-high-road variety. That aside, I mean no disrespect whatsoever (ok, maybe a little) in observing that the other 75% of Celtics fans that aren’t under the Sports Putz’ magic spell are perfectly capable of reaching a negative conclusion about Doc all by themselves (as Simmons as noted, he’s had about 200 games to get it right). And the 3000 miles dig does Ryan few favors, as Simmons has already cited the “he doesn’t matter, he doesn’t come into the clubhouse card,” along with the somewhat provocative (if you work for a daily newspaper) “I can’t remember a single time when somebody with “inside access” helped elucidate something about the Red Sox, Patriots or Celtics that I couldn’t have figured out myself.”
Seriously, if Boston-area residency is a prerequisite for being allowed to offer an opinion on the state of the Celtics, perhaps Ryan should petition the NBA to limit their League Pass package to those with a Massachusetts zip code. In his recent interview at Sports Media Guide, Ryan refers to the “intimidating” level of access modern technology provides today’s fan, but depending on your point of view, that sort of availability could also be considered helpful, liberating, or even lucrative.
It’s pretty late in the day for Ryan or any other old-schooler to bitch about the suddenly level playing field — not unless they wanna give up their cable TV gigs or ask their newspapers to restrict their compositions to the print editions (and declining readership). If Simmons’ musings are resonating with a larger audience than those of Bob Ryan, whose fault is that? The latter had a pretty gigantic head start, and you’d hope he’d have it in him to let the quality of future work stand up to comparision. I mean, I know who I’m rooting for, but this 3000 miles away bullshit is a pretty weak defense for what might be too close a relationship with the coach in question.
And not just because I almost rented a film co-starring Scarlett Johansson and Darius Miles.
No, my friends. There are far more terrifying options. Val Kilmer IS Moses. (Or, he was). “Ten Commandments : The Musical” IS a digital versatile disc available right now for your purchase or rental. And no matter how poorly received the stage version might’ve been, the results of this inspired combination have been documented for all time. Long after Val Kilmer’s detractors have left this mortal coil, his most triumphant moment since “Top Secret!” will live on and on.
Hands up, everyone who thought Terrell Owens’ tenure in Big D would outlast that of Mike Vanderjagt?
While I don’t know what the future holds for Peyton’s least favorite former teammate, I do hope he does a better job of paying his bandwidth bills than Billy Cundiff.
Braylon Edwards has apologized for flipping out on Charlie Frye during the Browns’ 30-0 loss to the Bengals yesterday. Those waiting for Colonel Coughlin to admit wrongdoing for publicly dogging his charges, however, had better not hold their breath.
Marvin Harrison’s been getting some grief on TV and radio today for his early exit just prior to intermission last night against the Iggles, and it’s all my fault. If I was more reliable, Marvin wouldn’t have to send a last minute text reminding me to Tivo “The Wire” at 9pm.
Mike Shula hasn’t been out of the job in Tuscaloosa for more than a few hours, and already the Miami Herald is speculating that Dolphins coach Nick Saban will be amongst ‘Bama’s targets.
Texas defensive co-coordinator Gene Chizik was introduced as Iowa State’s new head coach earlier this evening. I don’t want to say the folks at Burnt Orange Nation are slightly overzealous, but they seem to have figured out the identity and exact location of Chizik’s likely successor.
Of Billy Birmingham’s impersonations, Richie Benaud once said the Australian journalist turned satirist “shouldn’t give up his day job.” And despite the devestating vote of no confidence from one of his favorite subjects, things have worked out pretty well for Birmingham, profiled by the Sydney Morning Herald on the occasion of Australia’s rather brutal dispatch of England in the first Ashes test (link courtesy The Corridor).
Richie Benaud is so peeved with Eddie McGuire’s cost-cutting decision to sack the entire Channel Nine commentary team – and hire Billy Birmingham to do all their voices and cover the Ashes series himself – that he forms a band called Richie and Da Boyz who do a remake of Birmingham’s song Marvellous in a bid to get their own back against a man who has forged a career out of taking the piss out of them.
Benaud does a round of radio appearances to drum up interest in the song and when he’s asked to introduce Marvellous, he tries to get all hip and funky and says something along the lines of: “A big hello to all my homos out there.” When it’s pointed out that he probably meant to say a big hello to all his homies out there, he admits: “Yup. My bad.”
Boned! is Birmingham’s first album in five years. It will sell like hot cakes. Or, more accurately, it will sell like all his other The 12th Man albums.
“I’m all over the place like a suicide bomber’s sandshoe,” he tells The Sun-Herald.
The 12th Man’s catalogue stands at almost 2million units sold. Have no doubt about Boned!becoming the biggest-selling album at Christmas. All six previous albums from The 12th Man have reached No.1 on the ARIA chart, making Birmingham the only Australian recording artist to have reached top spot with every one of his releases.
“It couldn’t have happened in any other country,” he says. “We’re a nation of sports nuts and piss-takers and all I’ve done is combine the two.”
“I don’t know what Richie really thinks. It all just started with an idea to take the piss out of Richie saying, ‘Welcome back to the SCG’, and then they throw to an ad break and the idea of him breaking wind, perhaps, as soon as the microphones are turned off.”
Simmons Media’s 1530-AM, a station whose few listenable, non-play-by-play moments consist of programming syndicated from ESPN Radio, has long engaged in the most desperate sort of baiting of crosstown sports rival KVET. Recently, the slagfest has turned downright nonsensical.
As KVET is currently broadcasting games for Austin’s D-League entry, the Toros, KWNX/KZNX is running spots mocking the competition’s coverage of “pee wee basketball”, with the voiceover dude (the same one that provides the leering tones for about 90% of the sports stations in the country) sneering “Bakersfield? Sioux Falls?”, then reminding us that 1530 brings the exploits of “Shaq & Kobe” to our transistor radios, courtesy of their Spurs games.
There’s only about a half dozen problems with this particular sales pitch. For one, unless you live next door to their transmitter, 1530’s signal completely disappears after sundown. They could be broadcasting a one-on-one game between Michael Jordan and Jesus Christ, and no one would be the wiser.
For another, it’s kind of amazing that ESPN Austin would go out of their way to mock a competitor for devoting airtime to minor league sports. For much of the spring and summer, the only thing worth listening to on 1530 is the Triple-A Round Rock Express, yet we’ve not heard KVET bragging they bring us Roger Clemens and Lance Berkman while the other guys have to settle for Joe McEwing.
On a similar tip, there’s no use in calling anyone else bush league when 1530 features the Texans every Sunday.
Then again, this is a station whose only original weekday programming consists of the afternoon drive time “Beat Down”, which mercifully replaced the excruciating “Happy Fun Ball Show”. The hosts of said program, Gregg Henson and Dave Tepper, have no doubt moved on to bigger and better things (NPR, teaching careers, selling blood, etc.)
John McCain might no longer be the state of Arizona’s Great White (Political) Hope (link courtesy True Hoop)
Mired in 4th place with a 7-12-2 record, the Chicago Blackhawks have fired coach Trent Yawney and promoted assistant Dennis Savard (above) as his replacement reports TSN.
Sources say the firing of Yawney was attributable to his cautious, defence-first approach and that Hawks’ management is looking for a more aggressive, offensive mindset in terms of how the team plays.
“The bottom line is wins and losses and we needed to win more,” said Blackhawks General Manager Dale Tallon. “We’ve had some injuries, but in spite of that we’re a better team than our record shows. We’ve won three of our last 15 games and we decided to go in a different direction. We want to play a more up-tempo style game.”
An OT goal by Buffalo’s Chris Drury put a halt to the Rangers’ 3 game winning streak last night, but without the intervention of the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau, I cannot tell you if this is the first or merely the last time a contest at MSG was ended by a former Little League World Series MVP.
(UPDATE : Mr. Koteas has telephoned. Though Pierre Turgeon and Stephane Matteau-Matteau-Matteau were each LLWS participants, of NHL players, only Drury was the tournament’s most valuable player.)
(something really needs to be done about ugly headwear)
As noted yesterday, Chicago’s Ben Wallace was MIA for much of Saturday’s win over the Knicks, a benching that had something or other to do with his coach’s distaste for headbands. Amongst other things, writes the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson.
Sources said Wallace became upset early in training camp when Skiles enforced a team rule to tape ankles. Wallace never taped his ankles when he played for Detroit.
Wallace left practice to get his ankles taped and, unaccustomed to being constricted, had trouble running and sat out most of the practice, the sources said.
Less than a week later, Wallace hooked his MP3 player into a docking station to play music in the locker room before the first home exhibition game. Asked then if he now allowed pregame music inside the locker room, Skiles said he was unaware any was playing.
By the next home exhibition game, Wallace had headphones connected to his MP3 player. The headphones hung from a hook in his locker, with the volume turned up so loudly that music clearly emanated from them throughout the locker room.
Several people within the organization, including players, theorized Wallace was marking his turf for what perhaps was an inevitable clash between two strong-willed men.
George Steinbrenner doesn’t allow the Yankees to wear facial hair. The Knicks demand players wear suits while traveling. And White Sox and Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who is believed to be behind the no-headband rule, asked catcher A.J. Pierzynski and Joe Crede to get haircuts during last spring training.
What annoyed Wallace, a source close to the player said, is that he wasn’t informed of the no-headband rule until after he signed his four-year, $60 million free-agent deal.
Less than three weeks after being hired in 2003, Skiles uttered this classic quote in regard to a standoff with Eddie Robinson: “I’ve never lost a battle of wills in my life. And I don’t plan on doing it now.”
Wallace, who called himself “stubborn” in the preseason, clearly viewed his decision to wear a headband as payback.
I realize a holiday weekend has just concluded, but I am very surprised Hard Wood has been unable to collect Ben’s iPod playlist. So far, anyway.
Color me bitterly disappointed that Jay Mariotti had nothing to say about this burning issue in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, instead, choosing to crucify the overmatched Rex Grossman. I realize the Bears’ loss at New England is a big story, but if anyone could be counted on to defend Big Ben’s civil liberties, I’d think it would be someone who has been a pioneer for men wearing mascara in the workplace.
You’d think a Stanford educated guy like Mike Mussina would realize there’s little to be gained by a pitcher shilling for an aluminium bat company in today’s climate. From the New York Daily News’ Lisa Colangelo (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory).
“I can unequivocally state that non-wood bats are no more dangerous than their wooden counterparts,” said Mussina, speaking as a member of the board of Little League Baseball.
“Though less dangerous than many other sports, baseball is not without risk,” the pitcher added in a statement distributed by a public relations firm that represents a metal-bat manufacturer.
“However, if New York City were to ban nonwood bats for high school players, those kids would be no more safe than when they take the field today.”
City Councilman James Oddo (R-S.I.), the chief backer of the ban, criticized the veteran hurler for entering the fray with a reference to the broken nose Mussina suffered in a 1998 game.
“Had the ball that hit Mike Mussina come off an aluminum bat, he probably wouldn’t be around to make such a ridiculous comment,” said Oddo, a die-hard Mets fan.
Mussina’s endorsement of aluminum bats also disappointed Debbie Patch, a Montana woman whose 18-year-old son died after being hit in the head by a baseball two years ago.
“Brandon was such a Yankees fan,” said Patch, who testified at a City Council hearing on the legislation last month.
“Someone should ask Mike Mussina if he would pitch against Barry Bonds using a high-performance bat,” Patch said. “It’s like suicide out there.”
It would appear as though the powers that be at Bristol University are eager to put Michael Irvin’s latest public embarrassment behind them with as little fanfare as possible. And with the possible exception of Rush Limbaugh, the person who should take the greatest offense at the network’s inaction…is Dan Patrick (above).
The speed with which ESPN sought to disassociate itself from Limbaugh following the hate fucker’s ill-advised remarks regarding Donovan McNabb left no doubt the Disney subsidiary knew what was at stake. Their NFL pregame show was under tremendous scrutiny and a perceived cavalier ‘tude towards Limbaugh’s controversial statements would’ve been seen as the height of corporate irresponsibility.
Conversely, a moroic, unfunny joke from Michael Irvin on a radio show so unpopular, it took the blogosphere to bring this story to national attention (take a bow, Pro Football Talk and The Big Lead) was probably the sort of thing the network figured no one of consequence would notice.
I’m sure Dan Patrick will accept an apology in writing.
We’ve read time and time again that for all his prodigious hitting talent, Barry Bonds is a clubhouse cancer. So with that in mind, who better to replace the Sultan Of Surly than the ultimate team player? From the SF Chronicle’s Henry Schulman.
Sources on Sunday confirmed that the Giants are among the teams talking seriously to the Red Sox about their disgruntled, temperamental yet unquestionably talented slugger. Ramirez, 34, is a .314 career hitter who has swatted at least 33 home runs with at least 102 RBIs in each of the last nine seasons.
If the Giants can pull this off, they would have one of the game’s premier offensive forces in the middle of their lineup. They also would have no room for Barry Bonds, as both are left fielders.
There are many obstacles to such a deal, although money might be the least of them. Ramirez is owed $14 million and $16 million, plus a total of $8 million in deferred salary, over the final two seasons of the eight-year, $168 million contract he signed with Boston.
One source said the Giants and Red Sox have discussed a trade between the teams and possible three-way deals. The talks were described as preliminary. Boston is unlikely to move Ramirez before sewing up free-agent outfielder J.D. Drew, whom the Giants are not pursuing.
Baltimore, having already invested $12 million on reliever Jamie Walker, has reportedly sunk a further $19 million into a 3 year deal for righty Danys Baez. Baez, who toiled for the Dodgers and Braves last season (5-6, 4.53 ERA), made no further appearances after being shelled by the Pirates on August 22.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and NHL’s willingness to lend their names and logos to the production of the upcoming film “Breakfast With Scot” was mentioned in this space Saturday ; the movie was described by the producers as “a thoughtful comedy,” about a gay ex-Leaf and his partner, the team’s lawyer, whose lifestyle and relationship are turned upside down when they become the guardians of ‘a budding queen of an 11-year-old boy.’”
Slam Sports’ David Unkle consults Columbus’ Anson Carter (above), as well as a retired player who curiously, prefered not to reveal his identity (link courtesy Jason Cohen)
When asked about whether the use of the Leafs’ logo in a film of questionable content was appropriate, Carter commented, “That’s a tough call.”
“You’re talking about a lifestyle—homosexuality and heterosexuality—it’s a choice…but people are people from my personal standpoint.”
“We have 700 players (in the NHL) and if we have one gay player in the league, I wouldn’t be that surprised.”
Carter went on to say that it wouldn’t bother him if a teammate was openly homosexual, “as long as you’re a good teammate and a good person…that’s all that matters to me.”
At least one former NHL player (who preferred to remain anonymous) commented that the film “tarnished the sacred icon of Canada and the Maple Leafs’ organisation.”
“What do you expect when you have a former basketball guy running the league,” the player stated, in reference to Commissioner Gary Bettman’s previous tenure in the National Basketball Association.
At the risk of regurgitating an earlier point, indeed, it would be very, very sad if anything was done to tarnish the Maple Leafs’ good name.
(who knew the Aaron Brooks Fan Club would be allowed to display their own banner in San Diego?)
Isn’t it enough revenge for the league, watching Al Davis slowly die while his franchise sinks into further irrelevence?
While taking zilch away from Vince Young’s most impressive day as a pro, the Giants blowing a 21 point lead with 10 minutes left against the Titans was a choke job for the ages. Rookie DE Mathias Kiwanuka seemingly had VY in his grasp on 4th and 10 with 2:48 left and Big Blue clinging to a 21-14 advantage, but the former must’ve momentarily thought he was playing touch football. Colonel Coughlin promptly went apeshit ; the next time the Giants lose their composure, there are no prizes for guessing who set the terrific example.
While it is far too early to pronouce Eli Manning a total bust, he’s having a crap second half of the season for the 2nd year in a row. The second of his two passes picked off by Pacman Jones could only be characterized as something other than ill-advised if Eli had bet money on Tennessee. Congrats to the current generation of Giants fans, you’ve now experienced your very own Joe Pisarcik moment.
Milwaukee has garned the services of an NL All-Star receiver (circa 2004) in a deal broken down by the Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt.
The Brewers acquired starting catcher Johnny Estrada, right-hander Claudio Vargas and reliever Greg Aquino from Arizona in exchange for left-hander Doug Davis and minor-leaguers Dana Eveland and David Krynzel.
The key to the deal for the Brewers is Estrada, 30, who batted .302 with 11 home runs and 71 RBI in 115 games last season. Damian Miller, who began the year as the Brewers’ No. 1 catcher, was banged up throughout the second half and played sparingly, hitting .207 with one homer and 10 RBI.
Estrada, who batted .329 left-handed and .272 right-handed last season, is a free swinger who doesn’t walk much (13 times in 414 at-bats) but also puts the ball in play (40 strikeouts). The Brewers have been one of the top strikeout teams in the league in recent seasons, and GM Bob Melvin cited that factor in his interest in Estrada.
Melvin said he was not looking to trade Davis, but the Diamondbacks were short of left-handed pitching and asked for him in any deal for Estrada. Melvin, in turn, asked for a starting pitcher back, and Vargas was included in the trade.
Davis, 31, was a fixture in the Brewers’ rotation since late in the 2003 season. He went 37-36 in 111 starts, never missing a turn while surpassing 200 innings in each of his three full seasons with the club.
6-4-2, as their practice, reports that today marks the 44th birthday of Chuck Finley. Though I neglected to send Chuck a card this year, it is probably consolation enough knowing that Tawney Kitaen might soon be incarcerated.
If you’re a Pirates fan bummed out over your team’s recent inactivity, buck up. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dean Kovacevic ID’s a number of players that oughta be on the club’s wishlist, including Adam Dunn (too expensive), Aubrey Huff (supposedly, not on the Bucs’ radar) and Kip Wells (said to be unwilling to return).
Barry Bonds’ agent Jeff Borris, as quoted by the New York Times’ Murray Chass.
“Teams I’m having discussions with are having their managers and players call Barry to urge him to play in their cities.”
The above statement leads me to conclude one of the following :
1) Borris — whose Beverly Hills Sports Council is strangely without a web presence — is suffering from the same delusional thinking as the guy who claims he’s leading an invisible posse of anti-CSTB zealots.
2) he’s totally full of shit.
3) both of the above.
I’ve neglected to check out Bobby Valentine’s site for a few weeks, so I missed the introduction of Bobby V’s new line of actionwear.
I don’t wanna be mean, but even David Wright would think twice before wearing this.
I’ve got to give Atlanta’s embattled Michael Vick a ton of credit. Another QB in his situation, after having been let down by his offensive line, Algie Crumpler missing an assignment, Roddy White dropping a couple of passes and the ATL defense proving more porous than ever, would’ve sulked up a storm in the wake of a 31-13 defeat to New Orleans.
Vick, however, took the opportunity, not once, but twice, while leaving the field today, to let his fans know, “We’re Number One.”
Either that, or he was waving to the coach’s dad.
From Phil Mushnick in Sunday’s New York Post,
Although Wednesday was Nov. 22nd, the anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and although WFAN programming included somber recognition, WFAN also continued to run an for “Seinfeld” DVDs, one that carried word that George Costanza getting married is even “bigger than the JFK assassination!”
Even worse, Friday marked the anniversary of the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, and Phil has nothing to say about the Nike logo that’s been superimposed on the left jacket sleeve of Jack Ruby.
Like clockwork, every Monday I receive an email from a polite gent representing AOL’s Fanhouse section, requesting that I link to an item or two. Though I generally try to link to stuff I read (though not necessarily endorse), I do understand the Fanhouse is trying gamely to build an audience.
So with that in mind, here’s some linkage. The Fanhouse’s Ira Cohen has what we in the bloggity blog trade like to call a hard on for Virginia Tech, so much so that his laundry list of VT atrocities includes a lengthy summary of Marcus Vick’s track record. Along with dubbing ‘Lil Vick “Ron New Mexico” (no need to attribute the nickname to whoever came up with it), Cohen helpfully suggests “for the sake of the Virginia football and the world at large, keep your legs closed next time, Mrs. Vick.”
Tremendous stuff. By all means, Mrs. Cohen, keep your legs wide open so that you might continue to produce offspring capable of writing that is as witty as it is timely.
A responsible blogger would be paying closer attention to Chester Taylor imposing his will on the Arizona Cardinals. I, however, am far more consumed with the question of whether or not Childress Mustache.com is any more or less terrifying than Sal’s Pals.
There’s a fascinating clash of offensive styles taking place in the Georgia Dome. New Orleans’ Drew Brees (9/12, 201 yards, 2 TD’s) had a monster first half, while the Falcons’ most impressive running threat, for better or worse, remains QB Michael Vick. Nice grab by the Saints’ Terrence Copper on a Brees Hail Mary at the end of the half, but there’s no way that ball should’ve been caught. 30 defenders camped out in the end zone and nobody can bat the pass down? The words “coach killers” come to mind.
Baltimore’s Bart Scott knocked Ben Roethlisberger out briefly, though the Steelers’ Biker Rock Loser might wanna stay down next time. The Ravens seem well on their way to winning their 5th in a row, proving that good things happen to those who part ways with Jim Fassell. Other than the Giants.
The Rams’ Steve Jackson is narrowly ahead in his 1pm duel with SF’s Frank Gore, and while St. Louis have been decidedly average thus far in ‘06, there’s no reason they can’t run the table the rest of the way, save for a Dec. 11 meeting with the Bears.
The only drama remaining in Cleveland today is whether or not the Browns keep Ocho Cinco out of the end zone. Well, that and whether Charlie Frye attempts fewer than 25 passes in the 2nd half.
Jay Culter will supplant Jake Plummer as the Broncos starting QB when the Broncos play Seattle on December 3. Keep in mind, however, there are far more important things in the world to worry about.
1) Nicholas Anelka, in Bolton’s 3-1 home win over Arsenal (as mentioned yesterday)
2) Ronaldinho, long in the long teeth, but still capable of dazzling, in Barca’s 4-0 defeat of Villareal (link courtesy The Offside)
A 29th minute strike from Louis Saha off a through ball from Wayne Rooney has Manchester United in front of Chelsea, 1-0, with the 2nd half having commenced a few moments ago. While I’m enjoying FSC’s relay of the Sky Sports feed, I’m deeply troubled by the idea Lamar Hunt might not be able to watch in the hospital.
After his skull-smashing collision with Chelsea keeper Peter Cech last month, Reading’s Stephen Hunt reports that in addition to death threats and widespread press criticism, someone looked at him funny in the supermarket.
While I mentioned the Knicks’ 106-95 loss to Chicago in passing last night while covering a far more crucial sporting event (a battle between two D-League titans — and by the way, before it was over, Ryan Hollins was blocking or changing every shot he faced. Unless his showing against Austin was a weird abberation, I can’t see any reason he’ll not be earning real money somewhere. Not the United States, mind you), I only briefly touched on what seemed to be an unusually quiet night for the Self-Proclaimed No. 1 Point Guard in the NBA. The New York Post’s Marc Berman elaborates.
Stephon Marbury denied he pulled a Kobe in not looking to shoot, although it sure looked that way.
But he didn’t deny one thing – he’s furious at Isiah Thomas.
Marbury got benched to start the second half, finishing the night scoreless, shotless and deep in Thomas’ doghouse as the Knicks last night started to resemble last season’s Team Titanic soap opera.
Marbury disputed Thomas’ claim that he was not fit to play. A ticked-off Marbury said, “I wanted to play. I was feeling sick this morning but I was fine when I got to the arena.”
Incredibly, Thomas waited until the team was on the court to start the second half before telling Marbury he was sitting.
Of his no-shot performance, Marbury said, “I just didn’t have no openings. I was trying to move the ball and get the ball the way he wants us to play.”
It’s a stunning turn of events, these past six days. All along, it was thought if anyone would get the most out of Marbury, it would be Thomas, his neighbor and “father figure.” But they appear at the same crossroads that Marbury faced with Brown. But Marbury’s trade value is depleted.
“I hope it’s going to get better,” Marbury said, his voice sounding hurt. “The way it’s looking, it doesn’t look like it’s going up. It looks like it’s going down.
“I don’t know what’s going on, to be honest,” Marbury added.
Asked about their reputed great relationship, Marbury said, “This is business. Personal is personal. I can separate the two.”
I’m tempted to use the expression “coach killer”, but would prefer not to pay royalties to Jim Mora Sr.
In addition to Quentin Richardson suffering from a hamstring injury, the Knicks will be without Channing Frye for the next 3-6 weeks after the latter hurt his ankle landing on PJ Brown’s foot.
Starbury wasn’t the only megastar keeping a low profile at the Garden last night. The Chicago Tribune K.C. Johnson reports Ben Wallace was benched for most of the game for violating Bulls coach Scott Skiles’ team rule forbidding headbands.
After Friday’s drubbing of the Celtics, Newsday’s Alan Hahn has a (backhanded) compliment for Boston’s city planners.
I’ve been to Boston more times than I can remember over the past 12 years and I can remember the city when “The Big Dig” was just a concept under discussion. They’re still only putting the finishing touches on it, but moving I-93 under the city made a dramatic aesthetic difference to the city. Instead of being shadowed by rusted, dirty elevated highways, you can now stand outside the Garden and see the city skyline. And if you look toward the Garden, you can see a lot of perennially-disappointed Celtics and Bruins fans.
In his recent interview at Sports Media Guide, the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan described bloggers cutting and pasting original material the use of one sentence paragraphs as his “pet peeve”, calling the practice, “an easy device.”
So with that in mind, here’s some snippets from Bill Plaschke of the LA Times leaning heavily on the carriage return, in homage to USC’s Dwayne Jarrett.
Two months ago, the idea that USC could play in the national championship game was as wild as a John David Booty pass to Dwayne Jarrett that …
Wait! He caught it!
One month ago, the notion that USC could be one of the nation’s top two teams was as off-target as a Booty pass to Jarrett that …
Whoa! He caught another one!
Throughout this strangest of autumns, USC’s chances of winning a national title remained as remote as the idea that the Trojans could beat Notre Dame on Saturday night with Jarrett catching a pass with one hand, catching another pass on one toe, and catching a touchdown pass after crushing a safety.
Which he did, and did, and did.
Thus whittling weeks of convoluted paragraphs into a single sentence:
If the Trojans beat UCLA next week, they will deserve to play Ohio State for the national title, because they just crushed Notre Dame.
Indeed, they did.
However, Michigan crushed Notre Dame earlier in the season.
Just as convincingly.
Apparently, USC’s one loss to unranked Oregon State isn’t nearly as damning in Plaschke’s eyes as Michigan’s close call visiting the number one team in the land.
There’s no way we can work a negative reference to Paul De Podesta into this entry?
Well done, young Wayne. Not only are you amongst your nation’s most well-compensated sportsmen, but you’re already a free agent. I’ve called Rooney a moron and worse, but he’s successful smashed the space-time continuum. Beat that, Juan Pierre!
Fort Worth Flyers 27, Austin Toros 24 (end of the first quarter)
Austin’s entry to the D-League have made some major improvements to the in-game presentation since the last time I paid to attend a pro hoops contest at the Convention Center. For one thing, the scoreboard hasn’t malfunctioned yet. Then again, there are still a few minutes left in the first quarter.
There’s also no sign of any US Army recruiting or induction ceremonies taking place, which is very encouraging. On the other hand, the University Of Phoenix has set up shop in the lobby, so, y’know, pick your poison.
KVET’s broadcast of the game konked out when the opening lineups were being introduced, which is fair enough seeing as the company dude on the microphone claimed this game was close to a sellout. While the attendence is more than respectable for Thanksgiving Weekend, there are at least 750 empty chairs in the 3000 capacity room.
$10 for the cheap seats seems a fair enough price (especially when you can easily move wherever you want, save for courtside) but I’m not sure what’s up with the $2.50 service charge being tacked onto walk-up sales. I realize they have to spring for Brad Buckman’s meal money, but c’mon.
I’m also happy to report Toros coach Dennis Johnson, 52, doesn’t look a day over 60.
F Scott Merritt (above), a former teammate of D-Wade’s at Marquette, has 10 points for Austin. After hitting an early 3, drug test casualty Brad Buckman took a seat with two fouls.
There’s a guy a few rows in front of me who is quickly filling a memory card with a few too many shots of the Toros’ dance team. Either he’s related to one of ‘em or is working on a very interesting web site. Then again, given the state of the economy, I wouldn’t bet against a combination of the two.
(UPDATE : Flyers 32, Toros 31, 6:14 remaining, 2nd quarter. Much as I’d like to claim Buckman’s been whistled two more times for breathing, on each occasion he’s been rung up for pretty blatant loose ball fouls. I don’t know what kind of crazy rules you learned during your 36 hours in Greece, Brad, but they play a different kind of ball in the NBDL. I’m not sure what kind, mind you, but perhaps we’ll both learn simultaneously)
(UPDATE DOS : Flyers 57, Toros 53, 7:35 remaining, 3rd quarter. Fort Worth’s Ryan Hollins has blocked 4 shots and altered at least as many — he’s not super smooth with the ball in his hands, but he’s causing all sorts of problems for Austin in the paint. Anthony Fuqua, begining his 2nd tour of duty with the Toros, has had a couple of highlight-reel worthy dunks, but accomplished little to speak of on defense. Then again, he’s always got the directorial credit for “Training Day”, and that’s more than the rest of us can claim.
On the matter of celluloid history, Toros G Brock Gillespie, above, formerly of Rice and the Listado De Jugadores respectively, supposedly had a bit part in “Glory Road”. Not, presumably as one of the West Texas starting 5.
Biggest cheer of the night : when the score “USC 21, Notre Dame 3″ was announced. Fuckin’ football town.
I’ve been trying to follow the Bulls/Knicks game via NBA.com’s in & out video feed, with limited success. Unless you’re impressed by Stevie Franchise and Jamal Crawford’s accuracy from the foul line, there’s not much for a NY fan to be happy about. There’s nothing like a visit to MSG to make Luol Deng look all studly. A 14-6 run by the Knicks late in the 4th quarter narrowed Chicago’s lead to 7 points with 2:12 remaining, just in time for Eddy Curry to shoot an airball from the charity stripe. Trailing 100-93 with about a minute left, the Knicks’ David Lee was called for charging Andres Nocioni while driving to the hoop. Lee tried arguing that Nocioni is unsuccessfully rocking the Martin Donovan look, but nobody wants to hear it).
(UPDATE X 3 : Bulls 106, Knicks 95. Zero points, zero shots for Stephon Marbury in about 19 minutes of play. Even worse, the brooding, towel-over-the-head thing was done to death by Taz and Sabu back in the day, and unless Steph’s getting career advice from Bill Alfonso, there’s really no excuse.)
(UPDATE FO’ YOU : I spoke too soon regarding the Austin Convention Center scoreboard. With the Flyers up, 92-84, the board read 112-84. Perhaps someone is really eager to see the end of that Notre Dame/USC game.)
