Categories
College Football

South Carolina fans are Cocks

Harriette Folkers use to be a Clemson fan until her family convinced her to side with South Carolina, but after attending the USC spring football game she might change her mind and start rooting for the Tigers again. The possible change of heart has nothing to do with USC’s on-field performance on Saturday, and it’s not because Steve Spurrier wants to pull the confederate flag off the pole. No, Folkers is pissed that some jerk at the game stole her ride.

Folkers has a degenerative bone disease in foot that caused doctors to amputate it two years ago and while she was enjoying some helmet knocking some fool yanked her wheelchair that was folded and put out of the way by her section’s entrance. Police searched the stadium but there was no trace of the missing wheelie.

Leave it to a Gamecock fan to swipe some lady’s wheelchair; what’s next? Is some old man going to get his walker stolen while he’s in the can? Did this chair grabbing douche even consider how important that chair was to the owner? It just might have been the chair that was destined for stardom on ABC’s newest show “Dancing with the Handicapped Stars.”

Links:

[WISTV.com]: Woman converts to following Gamecocks; wheelchair disappears at USC spring game

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Guess who’s back

1. The Warriors found the golden ticket!
Thanks to an impressive victory over the Trailblazers last night, Golden State snapped the league’s longest current playoff drought as they will make their first post season appearance since 1994. And for all their hard work, the Warriors land a series with the NBA’s best team in Dallas. But if anybody knows how to beat the Mavericks, it’s their old coach Don Nelson. The Warriors have had Dallas’ number over the past couple of seasons but it’s going to be tough for them to pull out four wins against Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and the rest of Mark Cuban‘s boys. Lots of people, espically fans of Utah or Houston, would love to see Dallas go down, but Nelson is known for winning games; winning championships is a whole other story.

2. Professional leap frog

Before last night, Cleveland was set on a course in which they would collide head-on with the Miami Heat in the first round. And with a healthy Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade in the lineup, no team wants to draw them right now; thanks to a 109-96 victory over the Bucks on Wednesday, now the Cavs won’t have to and the Bulls will. With the victory, Cleveland leaped three spots in the Eastern Conference playoff picture and secured the No. 2 seed and a first round series against a Washington team that is missing their two most powerful Wizards. LeBron James wasn’t messing around as he went off for 24 points and nine assists, which made him just the second person in league history to average 27 points, six rebounds and six assists for three straight years.

3. More Crawford aftermath
Tim Duncan came out and said yesterday that he hopes that his team can “get a fair shake” from the referees after Duncan and the Spurs were at the epicenter of the Joey Crawford suspension. The officials aren’t too thrilled about David Stern‘s decision to give Crawford the boot, but hopefully for the Spurs sake the refs will be able to separate Stern from the Spurs. After all, the remaining referees can’t really argue that Duncan deserved to get T’d up and ejected while he sat on the bench; can they? Well, if they don’t want to end up with the same fate as their fellow zebra then they’ll be forced to call the games as usual, regardless of their personal feelings.

Wednesday’s Player of the Day: Pau Gasol @ Minnesota 36 min, 25 pts (FG: 9-15, FT: 7-9), 16 reb, 6 ast, 1 blk

Buzzer Beater: The Clippers were oh so close to grabbing the last playoff spot, but last night against the Hornets the Clippers pulled out their old tricks and dropped the must win game. It’s not surprising to see LA miss the post season, after all they are the Clippers, but it startling to see them fall so far in just one season. Last year at this time most were under the impression that Los Angeles finally had two professional basketball teams and some even believed that Clippers were on the verge of surpassing the Lakers for the domination of Hollywood. But you can scratch that idea now; and all those celebrities that were finally showing their faces at Clippers games will soon start donning the purple and gold once again.

Categories
NFL General

2007 NFL Draft: 3 out of the top 10 prospects admit marijuana use


Calvin Johnson, Gaines Adams, and Amobi Okoye admitted to having used marijuana in standard interviews at the NFL Scouting Combine. Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson is arguably the best player in the draft (though he might not go first because of team needs), Clemson DE Gaines Adams is expected to go #2, and Louisville DT Amobi Okoye is the 19-year-old phenom that just graced the cover of the latest ESPN magazine.

Now, we suspect that most of the players in the first round entire draft have smoked marijuana (isn’t that what college is for?) but only these three have the honesty (stupidity?) to admit it to the NFL scouts.

Whether admitting to using marijuana is going to be a liability depends on the team that’s looking to draft the players. Some will see the admission as a sign of maturity, while some will steer clear because the new emphasis on personal conduct by the commish. If you’re the Cincinnati Bengals, for example, you can’t risk drafting a player with any black marks on his record, not just because Goodell is going to start fining teams but because of the bad PR.

If your team is drafting later in the first round, you are hoping this issue spins out of control so that one of these three will fall to you. There are no sure things in the NFL draft but having one of the top 10 teams pass on any of these players because of marijuana use would be a gift.

Links:
[NFL Fanhouse]: NFL Draft: Johnson, Adams, Okoye Admit Smoking Pot
[Pro Football Weekly]: Three potential top-10 draft prospects admit to marijuana use

Categories
San Diego Chargers

LT smart for turning down Madden cover? Nope, just greedy


EA Sports: LT, we want you to have the honor of being on the Madden 08 cover!
LaDanian Tomlinson: Awesome. How much does it pay?
EA: Well, $200,000 and you get to go to a bunch of personal appearances to promote the game!
LT: $200,000? What’s $200,000 to me? Ain’t s%#$. Next time I might shake my… Forget it.
EA: Vince Young was our guy all along!
Vince Young: I heard you guys sell millions of copies. Isn’t that gonna take a long time for me to pose for each cover?

According to CNBC, Tomlinson turned down the cover not because of the curse but because it didn’t pay his market value. Most athletes are willing to go below their market price because of the prestige of the Madden cover but not LT. He wanted his money. Of course LT didn’t turn it down because of the curse. Professional athletes think they’re invinceable so they’ll be the one who avoids the curse. However, when Vince Young goes down this year, Saints fans will pay Reggie Bush so he doesn’t sign when the EA folks approach him for Madden 09.

Links:
[CNBC]: Tomlinson Turns Down Madden, Rutgers Coach Cashes In, No Texting & Another MJ

Categories
All Other Sports

Video of Andre Agassi hitting Steffi Graf with a racket

Last week, we had a little blurb in the Odds and Ends section about Andre Agassi hitting Steffi Graf in the face with his racket on the follow through. Well, here’s the video of it from a person in the stands. A couple of thoughts: 1) It wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t doing something incredibly gay (we’re taking it back!) like holding hands while hitting; and 2) gotta love the enthusiasm of the PA guy “left handed!” as he hits her in the face — followed by silence.

(via Sports By Brooks)

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Almost Perfect — 27 up, 27 down


1. Surprise of the Year: Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox strugged enormously the second half of last year and wasn’t so great in his first two starts of 2007. But, in a surprising performance to say the least, he tossed a no-hitter against the Rangers, a good-hitting team. Buehrle went the distance ans was only one walk shy of perfection. He struck out 8 and picked off the only baserunner he allowed. The no-no was the 16th in White Sox history but their first since 1991. On the offensive side, Jim Thome hit two homers and Jermaine Dye had a grand slam to supply all of the White Sox’s 6 runs. Another major league pitcher, the Mets’ John Maine, went into the seventh inning with a no-hitter going as well. Maine and the Mets disposed of the Marlins, 9-2.

2. Worst team in the league: Many would be surprised to find that the worst team in the entire majors is the Philadelphia Phillies so far this year. They fell to 3-10 after a loss to the terrible Nationals in 13 innings on Wednesday. Nothing has gone well for the Phils this season. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, their two best offensive players, are hitting under .230. Brett Myers was so bad as a starting pitcher that they moved him to the bullpen. Absolutely nothing has gone right for the Phillies, except for Jimmy Rollins’ surprising power.

3. Star Power: Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds faced each other on Wednesday,. and they both showed why they are two of the game’s most feared hitters. Pujols, who has been struggling, hit his fourth homer of the season and increased his average 40 points via three hits. Bonds, meanwhile, hit a solo homer in the eighth to tie the game, which the Giants eventually won in 12 innings. The Bonds homer was his fourth of the year, and number 738 on his career. He’s had a fantastic start to the season, and ranks first in the NL in slugging and OPS.

Player of the Day: Mark Buehrle, White Sox: 9 innings, no-hitter, 8 strikeouts.

Walk Off: Ryan on Poor Man’s PTI had a great idea: the best snub ever for a sports editor on a major newspaper would be to bury the story to a blurb when Barry breaks Hank Aaron’s record (by now, it’s inevitable) next to some story about womens water polo or something. “And in other news, Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record.”

Categories
General Sports

April 18 2007 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

blog radio

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI. This week we have Eric McErlain from Offwing Opinion and NHL Fanhouse on with us to talk about the NHL playoffs. Lots of great NHL talk this week as we fill up our allotment for the year.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 70 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:

  • Virginia Tech and the media coverage
  • Vince Young and the Madden curse
  • Joey Crawford and Tim Duncan
  • the NHL Playoffs
  • The Boston Pizza Party

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
Green Bay Packers

Odds and Ends: Koren Robinson M.D. (Monitored Daily)

Koren Robinson has some serious issues he needs to take care of, but since the police decided to let him out of jail, for now, they had to go high-tech to keep an eye on their inmate over the remaining 45 days of his sentence while also working at a local hospital. The cop fleeing, drunken driving, substance abusing Robinson was outfitted with an electronic monitoring device and released on April 7. Too bad the Packers don’t have that kind of technology to keep a watch over their investment with.

In other news…

[WWLTV.com]: Pokey Chatman wants to have sex with her players AND get paid for it. Good luck with that.

[SportsbyBrooks.com]: Louis Gossett Jr. likes going to Lakers games; he just doesn’t like to pay for it.

[IHT.com]: The Japanese sure know how to motivate their players.

[Chron.com]: Apparently New York signed some hot shot soccer star, or so we’re told.

[Our Book of Scrap]: Cubs fans like their beer

[Deadspin]: We’d hit it. (The woman, not the 15-year-old boy.)

And finally, we have a perfect example of why kids shouldn’t smoke. Not only will it make you smell bad, turn your teeth yellow and possibly give you cancer, but it could get you thrown in the slammer. Well, that’s what happened to these kids in Iowa after police charged them with the theft of more 500 cartons of cigs. In related news, Vlade Divac wants to know why he hasn’t received his weekly shipment of menthols yet.

Categories
Philadelphia Phillies

Charlie Manuel threatens to kick Howard Eskin’s ass



Someone kick his ass

Things are going from bad to worse here in Philly as the Fightins dropped to 3-9 after losing 8-1 to the Mets. But the story of the night was when things got all John Chaney in the post-game press conference and beyond when Charlie Manuel offered to kick Howard Eskin’s ass.

(For those of you unfamiliar with Howard Eskin, consider yourself lucky, he’s the biggest douchebag in Philly sports. He’s a smug bastard with no redeeming qualities and we are convinced he’s only employed because of the sheer amount of idiots in the Philly area and the photos he has of various people in compromising positions. Just to give you an idea of the level of douchiness, Eskin makes Stephen A Smith look like a decent human being. If Howard was on fire, not only would you not piss on him to put it out, you’d make a beeline for the closest gas station.)

Anyway… according to reports, Eskin baited Charley into a confrontation by asking him why he never got angry and whether it would light a fire under the Phillies if he did.


Good-naturedly, Manuel said, “There are times and ways to do it. For me to just go in there and throw a fit — I can go in there and tear the whole [expletive] locker room up. I can come in here and throw over every chair. I don’t see where that’s going to do any good.

Eskin persisted with his questioning at which time Charley invited Howard Eskin to to his office (along with a Phillies PR person) where everyone could hear him screaming at Eskin from behind the closed door. The two then left the office and Charley said he would kick Eskin’s ass and Eskin responded by telling him to grow up.

If only this were on video. This incident might not or might not turn around an already dismal season but it’s good to see someone take Eskin to task for being the instigator that he is. On the flip side, Charlie Manual isn’t doing the job he’s supposed to do. A team as talented as the Phillies shouldn’t be playing such uninspired ball. They’re leading the league with an average of 9.8 left on base a game. And it’s not just the bottom of the lineup that’s responsible, it’s Utley and Howard too.

Our favorite Phillies blog, Beerleaguer, is doing a great job chronicling all this.

Links:
[Phillies.com]: Manuel confronts reporter after loss

Categories
Olympics

China’s nomination for "Father of the Year"


If you think that parents of young, talented gymnasts or baseball players can be too hard on their kids; just wait until you get a load of Zhang Jianmin. Jianmin is living the tough life in China and so, instead of busting hump to provide for his family, he makes his daughter, Zhang Huimin, run her ass off in hopes that she can become a celebrity runner in the 2016 Olympics. Oh, did we mention that the girl is only 8 years old?

Her dad started making her run at 4 and by the age of 6 she was running eight miles; at 7 she completed a marathon in 3 hours, 28 minutes and 45 seconds. The 42 pounds of little girl has to get up around 2:30 a.m. every weekend to run a marathon (26 miles) before school and she runs countless more miles before school every day during the week.

My plan is that we will have a hard five years,” he said, “and then, when she reaches 12 or 13 years old, she could take part in more national competitions. Hopefully, a professional team will take her.

Apparently, Jianmin used to be a bit of an athlete himself but his dreams never materialized, so we’re guessing that now he’s trying to recapture his glory days through his daughter while looking for a free meal ticket in the process. And we thought that Richard Williams was a crappy father.

Links:

[The Daily O’Collegian]: Going for gold
[Steroid Nation]: Eight year old girl runs a marathon schedule