Categories
NHL General

Wednesday Morning NHL Roundup



And you thought that Steve Nash took a nasty
check!

Red Wings 5, Ducks 0
The postseason in both sports currently experiencing it can get many titles – “Not that interesting” and “Lacking Individual Stars” come to mind – but here’s one I’d like to go with: “Men Behaving Badly.”

Nary a night after Robert Horry made Suns vs. Spurs Game 4 look like a hockey game, Chris Pronger whips out a nasty hit in the middle of Anaheim just getting laughed off their own ice in Game 3. Now the Wings are up 2-1, Pronger could get some type of disciplinary action, and here’s the aftermath for you, dear fan: out of all the potentially interesting Cup Finals Matchups – say, Buffalo vs. Detroit (Hasek), or Anaheim vs. Buffalo (two really good teams) – we’re likely going to get Ottawa vs. Detroit.

Now, I have no problem with this, per se: Ottawa’s first line is redonkeyballs, and there’s some good storylines there within. But, can the brothers on the ice and the hardwood just start being civil so that we can play these games full strength and see who really deserves a shot to lift the hardware? I hate tainted outcomes, unless I’m the one that cheated and did so successfully. But that was once – third grade dodgeball – and never again.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
NFL General

Mark Schlereth shows TV land why people call him Stink

We don’t usually talk about soap operas here at Sportscolumn, but when one of our favorite talking heads from ESPN decides to join the cast of Guiding Light, it tends to grab our attention.

You probably know him as the guy with the great hair on NFL Live or you might know him as Stink from his days with the Broncos. But regardless of how you know Mark Schlereth, you can now start to refer to him as Roc Hoover. Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourself.

What’s next? Is Barry Melrose going to join the crew of Laguna Beach?

It’s probably safe to say that Roc is going to be looked at a bit differently by his co-workers and ex teammates now. But who really cares? After all, Schlereth could be sharing the set with the next Eva Longoria. Perhaps they’ll even twist his arm and get him to hop in the sack with one of the daytime divas for a cheesy love scene. And, if you ask us, that’s not too bad of a way to earn a few extra bucks.

Categories
New York Mets

Lastings Milledge is bringing sexism back



L Millz might sound like a rapper, but does he
have one of these?

Lastings Milledge has been in and out of trouble and controversy since he was in high school, so his latest troubles shouldn’t be anything new to “L Millz.” But that’s doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to further piss off a Mets front office that is already getting sick of Milledge’s actions.

Milledge is the CEO of Soul-ja Boi records, but instead of letting his talent spit rhymes while he rakes in the dough, Milledge had to open his big mouth and let some typical rap lyrics come flying out. During the song entitled “Bend Ya Knees,” in which Milledge is featured alongside his boy Manny D, Lastings uses phrases like “rich (N word),” “wealthy (N word),” a “top-notch ho” and even mentions how he has “a different bitch for every night.” Oh, Tupac would be so proud; but unfortunately for Milledge, Tupac is dead (at least that’s what we’re told) and with the whole Don Imus thing fresh in everyone’s minds there are tons of people ready to pounce on potty mouthed rappers. Like city councilmen, for example.

He’s lost his mind,” said City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), who sponsored the Council’s resolution that condemned use of the N word. “I don’t understand how he could, in the spirit of Jackie Robinson, put out music that’s so vile, using . . . some of the worst words in music.

Or the bigwigs who sign his checks.

We disapprove of the content, language and message of this recording, which does not represent the views of the New York Mets,” a statement from the Mets front office said.

But, hey, this is honestly a step up for L Millz, believe it or not. It definitely beats the hell out of allegedly having sex with 12 and 13-year-old girls.

Links:

[Newsday.com]: Milledge offensive player on a CD
[NYDailyNews.com]: Lastings’ latest bad rap

Categories
Denver Nuggets

Tiger Woods and Carmelo Anthony top charitable athletes


The Giving Back Fund released the 2006 Giving Back 30, which lists the top 30 most charitable individuals in sports and entertainment. Tiger Woods was the top athlete on the list, with $9.5M in donations but the next most charitable athlete had most people surprised — Carmelo Anthony sits at #8 with his donations to CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU
Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities, totalling $4.3M.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise because Carmelo Anthony seems to be such a punk, with that sucker punch in the Knicks-Nuggets brawl, and especially because he appeared in that Stop Snitchin video. While a lot of people will cynically think that all the charitable donations are meant to repair his image, we’re going to give Melo the benefit of the doubt and give him his kudos for helping out. If you want to donate money just for the PR, you donate something like $10,000, not $4.2M. It doesn’t matter how big his contract it, that’s a lot of scratch.

Other athletes on the list are: The Rock ($2M), Andre Agassi ($1M), Tiki and Ronde barber ($1M), Tony Stewart ($1M), Mike Sexton ($560k), and Lance Armstrong ($500k). These figures are only the publicly announced donations. There might be athletes who donated privately.

Links:
[The Giving Back Fund]: The Giving Back 30

Categories
Ottawa Senators

Another stupid song takes a city by storm

Every time the playoffs come rolling around in any sport, it can only mean one thing: it’s time for some opportunistic musician to exploit the occasion by making a crummy song about some team that attempts to unify a city’s dreams. In Ottawa that opportunistic musician is local rapper Belly and that crummy song is cleverly entitled “Go Sens Go.”

I’m a Sens fan like everybody else,” Belly says. “I just wanted to get the team hyped every time they got out on the ice.

We don’t know if the song is actually hyping up the players necessarily since it has only been played inside the arena once, which was during Monday night’s win in Ottawa that gave the team a 3-0 lead in the East finals, but it certainly appears to be mesmerizing the locals. Since debuting the song last Thursday, as many as 50 calls per hour have been flooding the Hot 89.9 station. So, without further ado, we give to you “Go Sens Go;” crappy voiceover by Ray Emery at the beginning and all.

Did we just see Snoop sporting a Senators jersey? Damn, talk about a jumping on the bandwagon! Last month Snoopy was rooting for the Ducks and now this. And what ever happened to being purple and gold through and through? This guy jumped on The City’s postseason wagon as well. What’s next? Are we going to start seeing The Dogfather in the stands in Salt Lake City during the West finals?

Links:

[Canada.com]: Rapper psyched for Sens

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

Michael Vick hopes there’s no game tape


Yahoo! Sports seems to be trying to make themselves into an investigative journalism site; remember their pounding the whole Reggie Bush housing scandal into the ground? Well now they’ve set their sights on the Vick dog-fighting case.

In an exclusive, they are reporting that Kathy Strouse, Animal Control coordinator for Chesapeake in Virginia, is claiming that a reliable source informs her that there are tapes out there that tie Michael Vick directly to dog-fighting. Now, we hate Vick as much as the next guy but this evidence seems a little suspicious:


We don’t know where (the tapes) are or if they do indeed exist, but I have been told that they are out there,” said Strouse, who is also affiliated with two other organizations involved in the welfare of animals. “Without knowing where they are, there’s no possibility of getting a search warrant at this point.

So based on this statement which says nothing, Yahoo runs a headline “Videos might show Michael Vick watching dog fights.” Yeah, that’s not irresponsible at all. Oh and there are certain individuals who have identified Vick on the property during matches… but they are reluctant to testify. Well, this certainly seems like a solid case. Great job, Strouse and Yahoo.

Links:
[Yahoo]: Videotapes sought of Vick watching dog fights

Categories
New York Giants

Strahan is not gay


Well this little piece of news from the NY Post isn’t going to help those Michael Strahan is gay jokes:


Giants defensive end Michael Strahan put himself on the charity auction block the other night at Buddha Bar’s first anniversary. He hoped to get a date with a lady, but the male sports fans in the crowd weren’t having it. Two guys outbid 13 gals, leaving Strahan to agree to take both men to dinner for the price of $10,000 each. The dough will go to the Institute for Civic Leadership, a nonprofit educational organization.

Now, we know that Strahan probably isn’t gay and that it was just a vindictive ex-wife talking but it’s still pretty funny that he’d put himself in a charity bachelor auction and end up with two dudes as dinner dates. See? This is what you get for trying to help charities.

Links:
[Page Six]: MEN FOR MIKE

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Carlos Lee earns his keep


1. Lee’s the Man: Many thought Carlos Lee was one of this offseason’s most overpaid players. Right now the Astros are looking like geniuses for signing him to a $100 million contract. He single-handedly led Houston to victory on Tuesday, going 4-4 with 2 homers and 4 of the Astros’ 6 runs. His second homer was a solo walkoff shot in the 10th inning that gave Houston a 6-5 win. Lee’s fifth straight multi-hit game has raised his average from .287 to .336. He is tied for the National League lead in RBIs with 37. Lee’s teammate in the Astros outfield, super-prospect Hunter Pence, has been great since he was called up two weeks ago. Pence went 3-3 with a homer yesterday and is hitting .310 with 14 RBIs in 15 games. The Astros have been playing well lately and at 19-19, they’re second in the NL Central.

2. The Big Unit is Back: After his best start of the season, Randy Johnson proved he could still dominate on any given night. Johnson only pitched six innings against the Rockies, but he shut them out and allowed just one hit. Johnson got his first victory of the season as the D-Backs won 3-0 in Colorado. The 43-year old also struck out a season-high nine. Jose Valverde closed the game for his 13th save, which is second in the NL.

3. Under the radar dominance: Everyone knows the Red Sox, Braves, and Brewers are all having great seasons, but the Dodgers have been a slightly quieter team. At 24-16, they have one of the best records in the majors, and they have a significant three-game lead in the highly competitive NL West. On Tuesday they beat the Cardinals 9-7, as their hitting continued to stay hot. The Dodgers lack a power bat, but they have the speedy duo of Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre, Jeff Kent is back to his old self, and Russell Martin has been the best-hitting catcher this year. Furcal had three RBIs on Tuesday in his third consecutive four-hit game. His 12-14 streak has raised his average from .228 to .297. Martin had two RBIs and leads all catchers in steals, hits, and runs.

Player of the Day: Carlos Lee, Astros: 4-4, 2 HR (9), 4 runs, 2 RBIs in a win over the Giants.

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: The West is almost set


1. No Mailman needed for this West finals delivery
The best story in the NBA postseason is finally over as the Jazz put together a late run and sent the league’s version of Cinderella packing for the offseason with a 100-87 victory in Game 5, but, more importantly, the win put Utah into the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1998. But just because Golden State is out of the picture doesn’t mean that there are no true heroes left. At least that’s what the media keeps shoving down our throat about Derek Fisher. Handling the rock in all the critical moments and knocking down his shots with a sharpshooters’ precision (7-10 FG, 4-5 3FG), Fisher left his fingerprints all over this game. Now the Jazz are left to practice, watch, wait and repeat until the dramatics over in the other half of the West bracket finally get hashed out. But GS can still be proud of what they did this year and how they played. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too raw for the refined playoffs and while it was rabid emotion that carried the Warriors over the Mavericks, it was that same enthusiasm which would eventually be their downfall. There was a whirlwind of whistles directed at The City ballers toward the end of the third quarter and the Warriors just began to slowly unravel over the final 12 minutes. We all knew that the Golden State run would eventually end but it still doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye to Jessica Alba.

2. Who’s getting Bull-ied around now?

Two games ago, the Bulls were beaten up, thrown around and left for dead on the side of the road after falling down 3-0 to Detroit. But unlike those bloated deer that get blasted by speeding SUVs on streets across the nation, these guys rose from the dead to win two consecutive games against the Pistons. Never seen road kill do that before. Ben Gordon was obviously alive and well as he scored a game-high 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field that included a 5-of-6 performance from behind the arc. Kirk Hinrich didn’t resemble a dead armadillo or opossum either as he dished out 13 helpers to go with 17 points in the 108-92 Chicago victory. The Pistons are known for blowing comfy leads in the postseason but they are also known for winning the games that they have to have. But if they want to end this series quickly they are going to have to take care of business on the road. And Chicago is where Ben Wallace has had his biggest games of the series. In the two games in Chi-Town, Big Ben has pulled down 29 rebound while he only has 20 boards in the three Detroit contests.

3. The commish shows no love for Amare
We all knew that there would probably be suspensions handed out by David Stern after Robert Horry sent Steve Nash flopping flying into the scorer’s table. The incident had Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw hopping mad, and unfortunately for the Suns they hopped off the bench and onto the court which earned each of them a game suspension. Guess the whole “I was checking into the game” strategy didn’t work out for Amare. On the other side of the series, Horry’s actions earned him a two game suspension. It would seem that the Suns just lost Game 5 but now there is a ton of extra pressure on the Spurs as the suspensions have put them in a must-win situation that they must capitalize on. But, hell, we think it’s pretty safe to say that any coach in the league would rather be in Gregg Popovich‘s loafers instead of Mike D’Antoni‘s in this pivotal Game 5.

Tuesday’s Player of the Day: Andrei Kirilenko vs. Utah 34 min, 21 pts (FG: 8-12, FT: 5-5), 15 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl

Buzzer Beater: Dwyane Wade had to be feeling like a total idiot as he started putting on that stupid paper garment before going under the knife to repair both knee and shoulder. This was a surgery that he could have done back in February but instead opted to skip the procedure and rehab his way back into shape for the playoffs. And we think everybody knows how productive that decision turned out to be for Flash. Turns out that Dwyane’s pains were primarily coming from his knee and not the shoulder that sent him sobbing from the arena in a wheelchair. The recovery will probably take the entire offseason and possibly longer. Unfortunately, for Miami the “jumper’s knee” condition is nothing new to the franchise. Jason Williams had a similar operation performed last July and he was still in pain for half of the season.

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Gay lacrosse coach fired for sucking


Missouri has declined to renew the contract of their openly gay men’s lacrosse coach because of his job performance. Kyle Hawkins has been the coach for nine years but only out of the closet for one year. Since it’s a club sport, the decision was made by the team itself. Hawkins said he was informed of the decision in a meeting with team leaders, an assistant coach and a university official. Team president Andy Mackley said that the sexual orientation of the coach had no bearing on the decision, rather, it was made because the team did not feel he was the best man for the job.

Hawkins said he would not pursue any legal action but did add that the reasons for his dismissal were “laughable. A week and a half before the meeting, they had sat in front of the ESPN cameras and said what a great coach I was.”

In other news…

[Inside Bay Area]: Santa Clara announcer fired because he’s not funny.

[WCBS]: Dad ran onto Fenway Park to impress his son. Because jail time is totally impressive.

[Star Telegram]: Cuban vs Trump round 2

[Tennessean]: Feeling a little inadequate about something? You can buy the JumboTron from Nashville Arena.

[SI]: Two 6-foot-7 twins. Perhaps they can date this guy.

And finally, here are the 10 most undeserving MVPs. and yes, Dirk Nowitzki is on this list.