Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: The Mamba goes cold as the Clippers explode

1. Hollywood comeback story
The Clippers looked like a team that was ready to start the off season early as fell down to the Lakers by 17 points before ripping off a huge fourth quarter to give the Clips an unbelievable 118-110 victory that breathed life back into their season. Kobe Bryant put up another 50-point performance but he was ice cold in the final quarter to give the Lakers their third consecutive loss. Bryant has now put together nine separate 50-point games this year which matches Wilt Chamberlain’s nine 50’s in the 1964-65 season. But Corey Maggette’s career-high 39 proved to be more important in the contest, and with the win, the Clippers jumped over Golden State to grab the eighth and final spot in the West.

2. Mrs. Ham tried to bring home the bacon illegally

It’s not uncommon for an athlete to smile and wave into the lens of a camera when someone puts it in front of their face. And the two most common words that accompany such an opportunity of national exposure are most certainly “Hi Mom.” Well, former NBAer Darvin Ham might be reduced to buying courtside tickets and dropping the camera guy a 20 dollar bill in order to get a little face time if he wants to converse with his momma after she was charged with arson and insurance fraud. Apparently, instead of trading in her 1986 Mercedes-Benz to the dealership, she decided to torch the car and make a false insurance claim. If that’s not bad enough Darvin’s mom, Wilmer Jones Ham, is the former mayor of Saginaw, Michigan. Hopefully she has a couple of friends who are lenient judges.

3. Cleveland rocks Jersey
The Cleveland Cavaliers might have the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, but thanks to a 94-76 victory over the Nets last night, the Cavs locked up home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Oh, yea, and they have a pretty good player on their squad in LeBron James which lifts Cleveland’s fan’s spirits even higher. LBJ put together a 35 point performance that included a 15 point outburst in the third quarter of the Cavs blowout. The Cavaliers might have been to the post season last year but that doesn’t mean they are familiar with the territory. This will only be the team’s second playoff appearance since 1998.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Corey Maggette @ Los Angeles Lakers 43 min, 39 pts (FG: 10-15, 3FG: 2-3, FT: 17-24), 8 reb, 9 ast, 4 stl, 1 blk

Friday’s Game to Watch: Detroit (51-27) @ Toronto (45-33) It’s a battle between two of the top clubs in the Eastern Conference and a possible second round preview with a great power forward match-up thrown in as well. The Pistons have won three straight and captured the top seed in the East, giving them home-court advantage all the way through the East finals. Chris Bosh has led the Raptors on a four game winning streak but he will have to contend with the pesky defense of Rasheed Wallace before claiming a fifth straight victory. Toronto is hungry, like Detroit a few years back, but completely inexperienced in playoff situations. Hopefully they can use this big game, late season atmosphere to mentally prepare for what’s to come. Otherwise, this might be a serious make up call to the Raptors that they still have a lot more to prove than simply winning a division crown.

Buzzer Beater: It’s going to be a bittersweet goodbye for the New Orleans Hornets tonight as they host the Denver Nuggets in the final game to be played by the franchise in Oklahoma City. There’s still a slight chance that the Hornets could fill the arena in the postseason but the odds are not with them. So, in all reality, this will be the final game played in a city that took in a team that had no where else to turn. Nobody would have ever considered that Oklahoma could handle a professional sports franchise, but if any good has come out of the relocation of the team it is that it became crystal clear that Oklahoma City loves them some B-ball. And now they are getting mentioned with Las Vegas and St. Louis as possible future franchise destinations. Geez, who woulda thunk it?

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Devil Rays do their best Bad News Bears

Crawford tagged out

1. This is Tampa Bay baseball: If you ever wanted to see an example of why the Devil Rays have always sucked, go back to their game last night. They get a good start from Casey Fossum of all people, they have a rally going and are tied 2-2 with the Twins, and then some stupid mistake occurs. This one was actually by their best player, Carl Crawford, who hit it to the outfield and motored toward third. However, his teammate got held up at third, and was then tagged out. But Crawford compounded his mistake by then heading back to second base, where he was tagged out for a double play. Tampa’s rally was killed, and then they lost in the ninth on a Justin Morneau solo homer. Is anyone actually surprised by this? But tune in Friday anyway for a fantastic pitching matchup: Santana vs. Kazmir.

2. Hammerin’ Hafner: The Indians’ Travis Hafner had a slow start to the season. However, it took him one game to regain his 2006 form. The Tribe was down 2-1 in the eighth inning when Hafner launched a deep three-run homerun, his first of the year. The homer came off the usually reliable Scot Shields of the Angels, who gave up his first runs of the year. 24-year-old starter Jeremy Sowers for the Indians had his second straight quality start, and Joe Borowski came on for his third save. Cleveland won their “home” series in Milwaukee and are 4-2 this season.

3. Three-way tie: I’ve already covered two wins by teams at the top of the AL Central. Why not go for a third? The Tigers won their third straight game yesterday in a pretty even contest with the Blue Jays. Detroit won with their usual formula: solid starting pitching (Mike Maroth had a quality start), overachieving hitting (Brandon Inge had 3 RBIs), and a great bullpen (Joel Zumaya had two shutout innings to close the game). The Tigers are now 6-3, tied with Minnesota and Cleveland for the AL Central lead. This team will be even better once Gary Sheffield actually does something. He snapped an 0-16 hitless streak yesterday and is just .125 on the year.

Player of the Day: Jason Bergmann, Nationals: 6 innings, one hit, no runs, 8 strikeouts in a surprising 2-0 win over Atlanta.

Stat of the Day: The starting pitchers in the Phillies-Mets game, Jamie Moyer (44) and Tom Glavine (41), are a combined 85 years of age. They are the oldest combined lefthanders ever to have faced each other and the second-oldest overall.

Categories
Vancouver Canucks

Odds and Ends: Watch out for the crackers!



Endorsement deal coming up

Vancouver Canuck Brent Sopel enters the stupid injury hall of fame after he got a back spasm while bending down to pick up a cracker. He missed the morning practice and the epic 4 OT game last night between the Canucks and the Stars. That’s gotta be the weakest injury since Marty Cordova missed a game because he spent too much time under a tanning bed.

What? Were you expecting a Chris Rock joke?

In other news…

[AOL Sports]: Jason Whitlock: “I’m calling for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the president and vice president of Black America, to step down.”

[Sports by Brooks]: So that’s what Elizabeth Shue has been up to

[Flash Warner]: Would it really make a difference if the Raiders had an easy schedule?

[AOL Fanhouse]: Super-Gangsta Stu Scott says calling a woman a Ho is “affectionate”. And when we call Stu a douchebag, it’s a term of endearment.

[Egotastic]: Will Ferrell + Jenna Fischer in a corset = awesome. (via Mr. Irrelevant)

And finally, two different takes on Drew Bledsoe’s retirement. This one is nice. This one is just mean.

Categories
College Basketball

Top 10 Most Gruesome sports injuries: #3 Allan Ray

[Sportscolumn is running down the ten most gruesome sports injuries. Here’s #3]

During the 2006 Big East tournament, everyone in the arena and everyone at home were ready to see Villanova and Pittsburgh get it on inside Madison Square Garden. But what nobody saw coming was one of the nastiest and oddest injuries ever caught on camera.

During the beginning of the second half of the game, Nova’s Allan Ray and Pitt’s Carl Krauser both went after a loose ball and as Krauser reached out he appeared to have inadvertently poked Ray’s eyeball out of his skull. Ray lost vision in his eye briefly but would quickly bounce back from the stomach turning injury to play in the team’s opening game of the NCAA Tournament.

Turns out that the injury wasn’t nearly as bad as it appeared on TV, or in person for that matter, as doctors revealed that the eye had not been dislodged from its socket, but, instead the eyelid had been pushed behind the eyeball which gave the appearance that it had popped out. The diagnosis was simply a soft-tissue injury.

Still, while it turned out to be a minor ordeal, to the millions who were watching that game live, it was just like watching a scene from a Warner Bros. cartoon come to life. Only this scene made them want to puke.

Back to #4 | Forward to #2

Categories
All Other Sports

Rony Seikaly is a beach volleyball-aholic


So, what do you do for fun when you’re a seven-foot tall retired millionaire? Why you start competitively playing beach volleyball, of course. Or at least that’s what Rony Seikaly is doing.

Since retiring from the NBA, Seikaly has apparently been brushing up on his digs and kills because he’ll be teaming up with one of Florida’s top players tomorrow in the qualifier for the AVP Cuervo Gold Crown Miami Open. The pair will be ranked 20th amongst the 50 teams competing.

Gaston Macau is the lucky fellow who gets to partner with Seikaly, but their chances are probably not all that good. Sounds like Seikaly is too busy to practice and what’s worse, the two haven’t even met each other yet. But that’s not diminishing any of Macau’s excitement about playing with one of his childhood heroes.

Can you believe it?” Macau said. “To be able to play with a star that I looked up to as a kid is an opportunity I know I will never have again. I am very excited.”

“I am looking to have fun but at the same time I like to compete. Once I get over the whole thing of meeting him and having fun, I want to win.

Now, we have no idea if Seikaly can play volleyball worth a damn but the big man is certainly hanging out in the right places. After all, he was married to the smoking hot Elsa Benitez.

Pics of Elsa Benitez can be found after the jump.

Links:

[Sun-Sentinel.com]: Former Heat star Seikaly attempts pro beach volleyball

Continue reading “Rony Seikaly is a beach volleyball-aholic”

Categories
College Basketball

It’s time we stopped talking about Imus



BORRRRRRRING!

Now that MSNBC has pulled the plug on the Don Imus show (but you better believe they’ll continue to mine the issue for ratings on their cable network), are we halfway to ending this ridiculous media story already? A board member at CBS Radio has also expressed hope that Imus would be fired from his radio show as well. So when that happens, is it over? Can it please be over?

Well, of course not. Someone is going to hire Imus because his name is more recognizable now than it has been in years, if not actually reaching the highest brand awareness it’s ever been. So all this wasted outrage is just going to be more eventual ratings and more money for a washed up shock jock who has no redeeming features. Shouldn’t we just let useless people fade away? We are sick of seeing his shriveled mug already. So that’s it folks, we promise no more Imus on this blog. Unless he kills himself.

But before we go, feel free to email the idiot who thinks that redirecting nappyho.com to the Rutgers womens basketball team site is hilarious. He can be reached at [email protected]. We don’t know anything about Form.tv but this isn’t clever. It’s just lame.

Links:
[Washington Post]: MSNBC Drops Imus’s Show
[Duece of Davenport]: NappyHo.com Redirect

Categories
NFL General

Goodell’s conduct policy already having an effect



Joey Porter is listening

Joey Porter may be a blowhard and a tool but he’s no fool. A day after Roger Goodell announced his new conduct policy and dropped the hammer on Pacman Jones and Chris Henry, Joey decided he better make nice to Levi Jones for (according to Levi) ambushing him out in Las Vegas.


I wish it never would have happened. I don’t know how Levi feels, but the faster we can get this behind us, (the better).

I don’t mind calling him. If he truly believes, if he feels like I was wrong, I’m sorry. I can apologize. I am reaching out now.
…
At the end of the day, none of us is going to get anything good out of this.

You see Joey working here? By “none of us” he means himself. Having your posse ambush another football player and being charged with misdemeanor battery falls within the personal conduct policy. It’s amazing how a threat of losing paychecks immediately puts everyone in line. Goodell got exactly the reaction he was looking for.

Links:
[Cincinnati Enquirer]: Porter sort of says sorry to Bengals tackle Jones

Categories
New York Mets

Fat guy tumbles down stairs at Shea, crushes lady


Anybody who has ever been to a baseball game knows that fans are required to be active and aware at all times. You never know when a foul ball or even a bat could come flying into the stands. And you might want to even keep an eye on those crafty vendors who will try to sell you last week’s unsold hot dogs. But, the last thing any dedicated fan could possibly be prepared for would be a 300-pound monster of a man to come tumbling down the bleachers and blindside you while you enjoyed an ice cold brewski. Well, now you’ve been warned because that is exactly what happened to Ellen Massey during the Mets home opener on Monday.

I only know he came flying,” Massey, 58, said Wednesday from her bed in Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. “I was literally not able to breathe for about half-a-minute or so. The first thing I was aware of was not being able to breathe, and then when I was able to breathe I was aware of the pain in my lower back.

Luckily, Massey is a lawyer, so she’ll probably sue his fat ass if she ever finds him. The human cannonball got up and left the scene quicker than Michael Waltrip after he wrapped his ride around a telephone pole.

Massey is scheduled to have surgery on her back as a result of the incident and admits that she would have never expected anything like this to happen at her beloved Shea Stadium.

I have to say that in going to a baseball park, the only fear that has ever entered my mind is that I’d get hit by a hard ball,” she said.

“I didn’t expect a 300-pound human missile to hit me in the back. That doesn’t come up on my list of fears.

We’re wondering if it could have been this guy as he was taking a day off from his training to enjoy America’s pastime.

Links:

[NewsDay.com]: 300-pound man crushes fan at Shea

Categories
All Other Sports

Prosecutor: On second thought, nevermind about that Duke rape case



“Rogue prosecutor” Mike Nifong

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed all criminal charges against the three Duke lacrosse players who were accused of raping a stripper from nearby North Carolina Central University. Cooper took over for former District Attorney / overzealous idiot Mike Nifong after Nifong was charged with ethics violations in his handling of the case. Finding nothing to collaborate the stripper’s case, Cooper concluded no attack occurred.

The three lax players accused are breathing a huge sigh of relief but they must also feel a lot of anger at a “rogue prosecutor” that used their case as a means to further his own agenda. They have every right to be angry, and we would be too in their shoes. (It is estimated that one family spent $3M on legal fees.) But in the end, justice was served. They were not convicted and sent to jail. Whether they were unfairly tried in the papers shouldn’t change the fact that the legal system worked. This isn’t the first time that someone has been unfairly accused and it won’t be the last. Let Bob Dylan tell you the story of the Hurricane.

This is an ugly ugly story. So much so that the Attorney General isn’t going to charge the accuser of any crime because she “may actually believe” the stories she told. He wants to just put this in the rear view mirror, and who can blame him? Everyone is a loser in this case.

Finally, an article in the Baltimore Sun said that some news outlets leapt to conclusions. Some? We would guess more like ‘all’. Everyone loved this story. It had sex, race, and class. Throw in some drugs and it would have hit for the cycle. Plus, it was Duke of all places, the southern bastion of white privilege. And on top of that, it was a lacrosse team, a sport aligned closely with prep school wealth. It was a story we all ran with, not quite presuming guilt but highly skeptical of innocence nonetheless. Well, in the end, we were all wrong — journalists, reporters, and bloggers alike. So David Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty, we (at least here on SC) apologize.

Links:
[AOL]: Prosecutors Drop All Charges in Duke Case
[CNN]: Duke lacrosse players: Case closed

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Not so fast on the Cy Young Award


1. Can’t beat the King: Dice-K Matsuzaka got all the attention in his Fenway debut start against the Mariners, particularly for the matchup with Ichiro. However, he got overshadowed by the other starting pitcher, ace Felix Hernandez. Through 7 innings, Matsuzaka had allowed 8 hits and 3 runs, while King Felix had a no-hitter going. While the no-no bid was broken up by JD Drew in the eighth, Hernandez still finished with a complete-game shutout and allowed just one hit. Hernandez’s first two starts have been as good as humanly possible: he’s 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, .47 WHIP, and .075 opponent’s average. As for Dice-K, at least he won the matchup with Ichiro (0-3).

2. Back down to earth: The Mets’ makeshift starting pitching had been quite effective this season. Until last night, that is. Oliver Perez, who had a great first start of the season, couldn’t make it out of the third inning against the Phillies. He allowed 3 runs and issued 7 walks. He threw more balls than strikes, and issued the majority of 11 walks by the Mets’ pitching. The Phillies scored three runs off bases-loaded walks and got some good pitching from Adam Eaton in a 5-2 win. The victory was just the second of the season for the Phillies, while the Mets lost another game to the division-leading Braves.

3. State of the Central: Before the season, it seemed as though the AL Central would be the MLB’s toughest division, with four playoff-caliber teams. Right now none of those teams have separated themselves, but they’ve all looked pretty good. The Tigers are 5-3 and are once again relying on their pitching. Justin Verlander and Nate Robertson have combined allowed only 3 runs this season in four starts. They are tied with the division lead with the Twins, who swept the Orioles to open the season but have gone 2-3 since then. The White Sox, a team likely to confound all year, sit at 4-4 after a series win over the A’s. The 3-2 Indians are also in the mix, but they’ve been snowed out so much that it’s hard to tell what they have.

Player of the Day: Felix Hernandez, Mariners: 9 IP, 0 runs, 1 hit, 6 K’s in a 3-0 win

Walk Off: Toronto leads the AL East right now by a game, and they’re actually a pretty solid team. However, their last two series have been against Tampa Bay and Kansas City, the two worst teams in the AL. Now they begin a stretch against Detroit and Boston, which should tell us more about this team. MY prediction right now for the AL East is the Red Sox will win it, the Yanks in second, and the Jays back to third.