Categories
General Sports

May 30 2007 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 65 mins) or subscribe to the feed.  

If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.

This week’s topics include:

  • A-Rod busted in Toronto
  • Kobe demands a trade – where could he end up?
  • Michael Vick – The Last Dogfighter
  • NHL Playoffs loses to Bull Riding on Versus / gets preempted by the Preakness
  • NBA playoffs
  • UFC 71: Lidell vs Rampage
  • Charm School
  • David Beckham and MLS
  • Josh Hancock’s father
  • OT: Huge email of the day (this one truly offensive)

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please give us a good rating below so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t, send us an email ([email protected]) and give us some suggestions. Thanks for listening.

Categories
LA Lakers

Odds and Ends: Isiah Thomas to offer next 10 first round picks for Kobe


Now that Kobe Bryant has officially asked to be traded from the Lakers, the multi-million dollar question is: where to? It’s fairly amusing the fan reaction to the Kobe demand. On on hand, you have Bright Side of the Sun which basically says no way. On the other, you have Kickerblogger.net which is trying to figure out how many players they’d need to ship to LA to even out Kobe’s value/salary. And then you have The 700 Level which is asking whether Philly fans want the prodigal son to return.

Nowitzki for Kobe seems to be the most logical trade. You get superstar for superstar and you could move some minor pieces to make the contracts work out. The only problem is that Mark Cuban is hopelessly in love with Dirk. Kobe just made the pre-draft period 100x more interesting.

In other news…

[Enquirer]: Odds on when Barry will hit 756*…

[Sac Bee]: But when he does, Barry Bonds might not give any memorabilia to the hall of fame. No wonder why everyone hates him.

[Sports By Brooks]: Getting knocked out and practically ruining UFC didn’t stop Chuck Liddell from partying

[AdFreak]: Is ballpark advertising still effective if an outfielder is lying unconscious in front of it?

[Our Book of Scrap]: You can party in Cozumel with the Broncos cheerleaders

Categories
NFL General

Get ready for the USFL XFL UFL!


Bill Hambrecth, a Wall Street tycoon, has decided to start a rival football league and he’s planning on doing it by as early as August of 2008. So far, Hambrecth and his partner, Tim Armstrong from Google, have pledged $2M each. They’ve also signed up Mark Cuban is the first owner in the league.

This isn’t the first time that Hambrecht has jumped into the ring against the NFL. In the 80s, he was a minority owner in the Oakland Invaders, part of the USFL debacle, but he has learned his lesson from that failure.

The UFL plans to target the cities that have huge markets but no NFL presence such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. Each franchise will require a $30M investment from the owner for 1/2 stake. The League will own the other half. Eventually, the fans will be able to buy shares and own 1/3 of the team. The end result will be an equal share of ownership between owner, league, and fan base.

The league has pretty good plans on how it will approach a television contract, but most importantly, they have a plan on how to make the level of play somewhat respectable:


Bill Walsh used to tell me that the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team,” Hambrecht says. The new league will hire the best of those last 20 players — along with the best of the Arena players, the Canadian Football League players and so on. Though the U.F.L. will have a salary cap, it will be able to pay those players more than they are making now.

Who knows whether the UFL will play a single snap but it sounds like they have their thinking together and this isn’t just some gimmicky WWF meets NBC desperation for Football league. Getting Mark Cuban on board is key. He is the ultimate self promoter and his involvement makes this venture much more likely to succeed. While we love the NFL and think they can do no wrong, a competitor would only do the fans good.

Links:
[NY times]: First and Long — Very Long

Categories
Chicago Bears

Tank Johnson isn’t a fruit and vegetables kind of guy


If you didn’t know, football players are some big freakin’ guys! And the linemen are even bigger! So, you can imagine how difficult it must be to keep a 6-foot-3, 300 pound monster of a man satisfied in the kitchen. Now just try to keep that same big boy from getting hungry while he’s locked up in jail and receiving slop and bologna sandwiches a couple times a day. We would guess that it’s damn near impossible but we don’t have to guess because Tank Johnson’s 60 day stint in the pokey has produced a calorie by calorie break down of exactly what kind of junk food it takes to satisfy a hungry giant.

While in jail, Johnson received three meals a day but also spent $665 on other goodies to get him through his cravings. Here are some of the highlights:

162 Beef Sticks

40 Honey Buns

35 Summer Sausage Blocks

35 Bags of Chips

9 Jalapeno Cheese Spreads

6 Cans of Refried Beans

Now if that’s not the diet of a pro athlete then nothing is! But, we were kind of shocked to hear all of this considering that our diets consist primarily of beef sticks and sausage. Wait, that came out all wrong. Anyways, after reading this we’re guessing that Johnson headed straight for the right field seats at Dodger Stadium as soon as he was released.

Links:

[SunTimes.com]: Stay in jail not healthy for Tank

Categories
San Antonio Spurs

Dammit SI! There goes the Spurs fourth title


Tim Duncan was having one of the best postseasons of his career. Why did we say “was”? Well, those jerks over at Sports Illustrated decided to slap the Big Fundamental’s mug on the cover of their latest mag. In case you didn’t know, SI cover boys have a slight stigma of being a cursed by the magazine’s front page exposure. But don’t take our word for it; just look at the laundry list of those jinxed by SI! So, basically the Spurs can expect for Duncan to snap his leg by slipping on a candy wrapper before Game 5 tips off in San Antonio.

But, hey, Vince Young is taking on the Madden and Campbell’s curses head-on and he doesn’t seem too worried about it. And nothing happened to that tree that made the cover of SI a while back. So, maybe these crazy jinxes aren’t real after all.

With three rings and five MVPs in his pocket, there really isn’t much about Duncan that could be considered cursed. In fact, the only curse that currently surrounds Timmy is the way he cursed the luck of the Irish for the Celtics organization back in 1997.

I was fortunate — as fortunate as the Spurs — to land where I did,” he says, citing the ownership of Peter Holt, the stewardship of (Gregg) Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford, even the quality of the facilities in San Antonio as positives. “It’s not guaranteed if I did go somewhere else that I would have won a championship. Maybe things being different, I never get to that point, because people don’t prepare, people don’t draft, people don’t put teams together the right way, people don’t coach the right way. So I’m absolutely blessed having the situation that I’m in.

Now, like Duncan said, there’s no guarantee that Boston would be rolling in championship banners if the lottery would have gone according to plan but we’re guessing that they wouldn’t be losing 18 games in a row! So, maybe this SI cover is actually a reminder of the Duncan curse on Boston. If it is then the Celtics will be wasting their fifth pick in the upcoming draft on the spastic Joakim Noah. Now that’s a curse that nobody wants to deal with.

Links:

[WOAI.com]: Tim Duncan on Cover of Sports Illustrated
[SI.com]: All About Winning

Categories
NHL General

Closing the books on the Rick Tocchet gambling ring


A year ago, the Rick Tocchet as head of a gambling ring based in NJ story was huge news, mainly because the Olympics were coming up and hockey is one of the premiere sports in the Winter Olympics. But since then, the molasses that is our legal system (despite what you see on Law and Order) has basically swept the whole story under the carpter.

Not suprisingly, when the news came out over the long memorial day weekend that Tocchet came to a plea bargain in the case, not much was made of it. But, in the interest of wrapping up the case we’ve been following for a year, here’s the final chapter in the Rich Tocchet case.

Tocchet pleaded guilty to promoting gambling and conspiracy to promote gambling. It’s a minor offense that may result in him not having to serve any jail time at all. However, there is no word on whether he will be reinstated into the NHL until the league completes its own investigation. Tocchet helped his cause by emphasizing in his court appearance that he had never bet on hockey.

Links:
[6abc]: Tocchet Pleads Guilty in Gambling Ring Case

Categories
Golf

"Warning. Beware of aggressive otters"



Little bastard isn’t so cute when he’s
biting your leg and chasing you down
the street.

Don’t you just hate when you go to the local course for a relaxing 18 holes but your peaceful afternoon is destroyed by the golfer’s natural enemies of wind, water, sand and otters? Wait…otters? Yup, but not just any otters; we’re talking rabid otters!

Some crazy-ass otter at the Grand Harbor’s Harbor Course in Indian River County Florida went wild a few weeks back and bit three people in one day, forcing all of them to endure the dreaded series of injections to prevent the contagious disease. But this was no simple bite and release for our foamy mouthed critter; this otter was on a mission to infect human blood as it chased a pair of golfers off the course and down the street.

(Lani) Becker said the animal chased her at least 100 yards, onto a neighbor’s porch. No one answered the door and the otter continued to attack until she winged it with a doormat.

“I was terrified,” Becker said. “I had been bit and it just kept coming. You have a creature that’s crazy, chasing you. There’s very little you can do.”

(Anita) Stafford said Wednesday she has one more shot to go in a series of vaccines to prevent her from getting the disease.

“There’s a pond on that hole — it’s a short par 3,” Stafford said. “(The otter) was on the grass. He or she was just staring at me.

“All of a sudden he charged me and bit my ankle,” she said. “There are three punctures.”

Stafford’s golf partner, Max Hughes, was some distance behind her on the men’s tee.

“Max caught up — of course, he had a golf club,” Stafford said. “He was swinging the club at the otter.”

The animal chased them until they crossed a street, Stafford said. The couple then drove to Indian River Medical Center, where Becker already was being treated.

“He broke the skin in 12 different places,” Becker said. “The four big bites that I had all would have required stitches.

And you thought that all you had to worry about was the speed of the greens and the price of the beers when you went golfing. Now maybe you won’t laugh next time you pass the “Otter-Be-Gone” as you head out of the local pro shop.

Links:

[TCPalm]: Three bitten by rabid otter spotted on golf course in Indian River County

Categories
New York Yankees

A-Rod might need a good divorce lawyer


We love that the Yankees have lost 5 in a row, are tied with the Devil Rays for last place and are 14.5 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East yet the biggest story for the NY Post is that A-Rod was caught tooling around Toronto with some busty blonde.

According to the Post, A-Rod was spotted dining with the blonde and two men at a steakhouse. The foursome then proceeded to the Brass Rail, a strip club. After their strip club venture, the couple ditched the two men and went back to the Four Seasons, where, we assume A-Rod upped his stats for the day to 1-for-4.

Now, there are two ways to look at this: either A-Rod is a goddamn idiot or this is a genius move by both A-Rod and the Yankees. If everyone in NY is talking about the tail that A-Rod picked up in Toronto, perhaps no one is talking about the absolute travesty that is the Yankees 2007 season. On top of that, he gets the side benefit of squashing those Gay-Rod rumors. You might have a wife and be gay but you don’t go out and appear to cheat on her with a hot blonde. We suspect that this might have been cooked up with Cashman and the Yankees PR staff — but then again, we are partial to conspiracy theories.

Links:
[NY Post]: HE’S A YANKEE DOODLE RANDY

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Josh Beckett cannot lose


1. Still Undefeated: It appears a trip to the DL didn’t affect Josh Beckett. The ace came back as good as ever in a 4-2 win over Cleveland. Beckett threw seven innings, allowing three hits and two runs. He improved to 8-0 on the year, and is one of only three remaining undefeated starters (Jeremy Bonderman and James Shields are the other two). As the Red Sox won their fifth straight game, the Yankees lost their fifth in a row. Boston’s 14.5 game division lead appears now to be insurmountable.

2. Home Sweet Home: Ervin Santana of the Angels has been one of the most puzzling pitchers in the majors this season. At home, he is the ace many expect him to be, with a 4-1 record and 2.12 ERA. But on the road, he has been horrendous: 0-5 with a 9.30 ERA. Thankfully for the Angels, Santana was pitching at home on Tuesday, and he dominated as expected. With seven innings and one run allowed, he allowed the Angels to win easily 4-1. The division-leading Angels might want to consider something unusual to address their problem with Santana: bench him on the road. They have enough starters to make this work.

3. Dominant Delgado: Carlos Delgado was awful in April, with a .188 average and just one homer. But recently, he’s showed signs that he will return to his power-hitting form. After two homers and five RBIs on Saturday, Delgado was even better on Monday. He almost single-handedly beat the Giants, with a two-run shot in the fourth inning and a walk-off solo homer in the 12th. In his last seven games, Delgado has raised his average forty points in addition to the power surge. This game was a pitcher’s duel for a while, with Tim Lincecum and Oliver Perez each throwing seven innings, striking out eight, and allowing three runs. Closer Armando Benitez allowed the winning runs, giving him a loss in two straight appearances. The Mets have won four in a row to extend their lead to a season-high five games over Atlanta.

Player of the Day: Gary Sheffield, Tigers: 3-6, 2 homers (12), 5 RBIs in a 14-2 win over the Devil Rays. The Tigers out-hit the D-Rays 22-4 as all eleven players with a plate appearance got a hit. Sheffield has 5 homers in his last 10 games.

Walk Off: Justin Morneau received much criticism and appeared on many worst-ever MVP lists after winning the award last year. This year, he’s proved he was worthy and is one of a few majors candidates for the MVP right now. Morneau has played in all the Twins’ games and has 16 homers and 43 RBIs. He’s on pace for numbers that would surpass his 2006 season in nearly every category. In games that Morneau has homered in, the Twins are 9-3, which shows how valuable he is to their lineup. As of now, my AL MVP leaders look like this:

1) Magglio Ordonez, Tigers
2) Vladimir Guerrero, Angels
3) Morneau, Twins
4) David Ortiz, Red Sox
5) Alex Rodriguez, Yankees

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Sorry Detroit; "No soup for you!"



She’s no Jessica Alba, but it’s not
bad for Cleveland.

1. Now it’s a best of three
After falling down 0-2 to the experienced Pistons, the Cavs looked like they wouldn’t be in this conference finals series for long, but there’s a good reason that people say a series doesn’t truly start until the home team loses. Now, that same Cavs team has evened up the best of seven at two apiece and LeBron James is looking like a true leader on the court after Cleveland won Game 4 91-87 on Tuesday. Larry Hughes wasn’t even expected to play but he ended up starting the game; however, it would be his replacement that grabbed the spotlight. An aggressive Daniel Gibson put together another great performance as he finished with 21 points by getting to the foul line 12 times, converting on all 12. But it doesn’t matter if the Cavaliers win all of their home games because they can’t advance to the finals without grabbing a victory in Detroit and there is no better time than Thursday night for Cleveland to do just that.

2. Buss-ted!

So what do you do when you’re old, rich and have a lot of free time on your hands? Well, if you are Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss you stay up way past your bedtime, get wasted and drive your gold station wagon the wrong way down the street. Buss blew at least a 0.08 when pulled over by the cops around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning and was arrested on suspicion of DUI. The old geezer apologized for his actions but we gotta give him props cause when the 74-year-old Buss was pulled over he had some 23-year-old piece of ass in his Mercedes-Benz. Now, we don’t know what the relationship between these two was, but we’re guessing that she wasn’t his granddaughter which makes it a little suspicious. Its amazing how billions of dollars can make that creepy 51 year age difference just disappear.

3. Hey! I’ll trade ya’!
The rivalry between Kevin Durant and Greg Oden has been limited to their on-court skill so far, but now that they are about to become professionals it’s time for their head to head competitions to extend off the court. Because there is more to being an All-Star baller than just points, rebounds and blocks; there’s also basketball cards and shoe deals. On Tuesday Oden signed a three-year deal worth at least $3 million with Topps while his soon to be division foe recently inked a deal with Upper Deck. Both guys will be great spokesmen for their companies but Oden is already getting some serious hype and in his new campaign the youngster is going to be featured with Hall of Famer Bill Russell. Not a bad way to start off your career if you ask us.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: LeBron James vs. Detroit 44 min, 25 pts (FG: 8-19, 3FG: 1-5, FT: 8-9), 7 reb, 11 ast, 3 stl

Buzzer Beater: The games are coming fast and furious in the Western Conference finals with the Spurs and Jazz making a quick one day turnaround after San Antonio took a 3-1 lead on Monday. SA would love to get this series over with so they can rest up for whoever ends up making it out of the East and it’s going to be pretty tough for the Jazz to stop `em considering that the last time Utah won in San Antonio Karl Malone and John Stockton were wearing notoriously short shorts. OK, so it wasn’t that long ago but 1999 was still quite a while back. The wildcard in the series continues to be Manu Ginobili as his play off the bench is overwhelming whoever Utah decides to throw at him. And the Spurs also have another pair of players who know how to put the final nails in playoff coffins. Since Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili became a trio in 2003, San Antonio is 12-4 in series clinching games.