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All Other Sports

Plot to poison race horses uncovered


Remote control devices and poison darts were found at the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Happy Valley track. Staff there found long metal tubes filled with poisoned darts buried beneath the turf on the track. The tubes were wired together and linked to a wireless receiver. It is believed that someone wanted to use a remote control device to set off the darts and affect the outcome of races.

This is the most technologically advanced yet stupid plot we’ve ever heard of. According to the club’s chief executive, the darts were designed “to cause destruction and injury”. Now we’re probably not talking about a Barbaro-like collapse on the track but wouldn’t someone notice a dart hanging out of a horse? And wouldn’t it be a little suspicious when that horse eventually keeled over? And wouldn’t that render the race results void? Good luck collecting on that ticket.

To make it more moronic, the plot was planned at a race course with top security and which made almost $13 Billion last year. Not surprising that it didn’t work.

Links:
[Guardian UK]: Poison darts found at Hong Kong racetrack

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: The Human Torch


1. He did it again!
Only three players in the history of the NBA have scored 50 points or more in three consecutive games; make that four players. Last night Kobe Bryant joined Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain in annals of the league after he scored 60 points against Memphis last night to give him a three game total of 175 points (65 versus Portland; 50 versus Minnesota). Nobody has scored more points in a trio of games in the last 40 years and that was his second 60 point game in his last three outings, giving him four for his career which ties Michael Jordan for the second most ever. Only Wilt the Stilt has more with 32 games of at least 60. Bryant was on fire as he drained 20-of-37 from the field and 17-of-18 from the line as he scored 24 points by the half and 43 after three quarters. It’s a disgrace that Bryant probably won’t sniff the MVP because he’s not on the best team in the league.

2. One day closer to the slammer

Some predictable news was handed down to Ron Artest on Thursday as a Placer County Superior Court judge ordered Artest to stay at least 100 yards away from his wife and children until further notice is given. That should be more than enough space to keep his old lady out of slapping range. One of the only things that Artest said during yesterday’s official proceedings was “no” to the question of if he owns any firearms. You do know what being “under oath” means, right Ron? And talk about a bad day, after getting out of court Artest had planned to meet up with his team in Phoenix for a game against the Suns but his plane was diverted because of thunderstorms. Then after some more delays, Artest was told to just go home by Kings GM Geoff Petrie. The team found out shortly before tip off that they would be without Artest and then promptly got blown out by 18 points.

3. Looking for a top pick or just crappy?
Milwaukee needs some victories; they just don’t want to get any until next year. In a late season lottery push, the Bucks have sidelined two of their most important pieces for the remainder of the season. Andrew Bogut has been told his season is over because of a sprained left foot while Charlie Villanueva will have to have surgery on a nagging right shoulder injury. There’s not a lot you can do about needing surgery, but automatically benching a player for the remainder of the season based on a sprain is a bit odd. Currently only Boston and Memphis are more pathetic than Milwaukee, but not by much. In fact, the loss of two starters could be just the thing the Bucks need to slide all the way to the bottom of the list.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Amare Stoudemire vs. Sacramento 37 min, 33 pts (FG: 12-17, FT: 9-16), 21 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk

Friday’s Game to Watch: Detroit (43-24) @ San Antonio (47-20) This is the third time that the Pistons will be playing a Texas team in their last four games with losses to both Dallas and Houston. But Detroit is still playing some great ball and they have won six of their last eight games as they enter into the rematch of the 2005 Finals. But the Bad Boys are going to have their hands full against the Spurs who are 23-9 at home this year. After winning a season-high 13 straight games, SA has been on a bit of a slide losing two of three since. But Tim Duncan is in playoff form as he is back to his old ways with great post play and defense.

Buzzer Beater: If Phil Jackson is turning down the services of his old superstar as the team enters the end of the season, then it’s probably time for Scottie Pippen to give up his dream of ever playing professionally again. Seems like Jackson would know better than anybody whether Pip was in game shape, after all he did win six rings with guy. Somebody out there still might give Pippen a shot, but the decision by Jackson will probably be a big factor to look at for all the other interested franchises.

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All Other Sports

Jamaican police confirm cricket coach was murdered


The Jamaican police have officially ruled the death of Pakistan’s circket coach Bob Woolmer as murder. The are searching for one or more attackers and that was killed by “manual strangulation.” (No word on whether there was a liquid explosion on his stomach.)


Bob was a large man. It would have taken some significant force to subdue him… I have to say at this stage that it looks as if it may be somebody who’s somehow linked to him, because clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was

Woolmer’s murder came hours after Pakistan lost to Ireland in the cricket World Cup. Initially speculation was that a crazed fan was responsible but now theories abound that the murder was tied to gambling cartels and possibly an upcoming book that Woolman was working on related to match fixing. (Remember Andres Escobar, the Colombian soccer player who was shot after scoring an own goal vs the United States?)

While some have called for the cancellation of the world cup, the International Cricket Council said that the show must go on to “demonstrate that cricket cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act”.

Links:
[BBC]: Police hunt for Woolmer killers

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

I suppose you can tell me of a better place to keep my bling?


Michael Vick finally spoke publicly for the first time since his suspicious bottle incident at the Miami International Airport two months ago, and frankly his story doesn’t hold water. Vick says that the bottle which was confiscated for having a secret compartment that stunk of the sticky-icky-icky was actually a jewelry box. OK, Mike, we believe you. It was a jewelry box that you hid your marijuana in.

We went through all of this because there was a little water at the top,” Vick said. “I told them it was my stash box for jewelry. That is what I told everybody, but that wasn’t written.” He then went on to say that, “As for the smell and where that came from, I sat in the airport for another hour and 30 minutes. If there was something wrong, we could have handled the situation on the spot.

Vick also said that he’s been doing this for years but he’s never run into any trouble before.

I have had that bottle for years, for a long time,” said Vick. “If you had seen the bottle, you would have never known there was any jewelry in there,” he said. “I have had things stolen out of hotels. But I had never checked it through the airport.

Oh, now it’s all making sense. So, the smell came from your expensive weed scented jewelry that you keep in an Aquafina water bottle jewelry box that you’ve been using for years. Rumor has it that Levi Jones is using the same security system.

Links:

[AJC.com]: Vick: Water Bottle Place to Keep Jewerly
[The Smoking Gun]: Vick in Airport Water Bottle Incident

Categories
General Sports

High school coaches of America take notice



Come here son, I’ll show
you the wrath of a coach.

If you thought that America was full of frivolous law suits, just wait until you get a load of what is going on in France. Jean-Louis Montero is a defender on the Troyes soccer club and a French cry baby who is suing his coach, Jean-Marc Furlan, because he was mean to him.

Montero claims he has been “subjected, for several months, to the wrath of my coach”, who has “called into question my honour and seriousness”. Now, we’ve never heard of having your seriousness questioned, in fact, we don’t even know what that means but this guy is definitely trying to act like this law suit has nothing to do with being benched by Furlan. But we knew the truth after he slipped up and revealed a little bit of insight into why he filed for defamation.

This has nothing to do with the fact I’m no longer playing. He has called my honour into question on numerous occasions,” Montero said.
“In an artical written on November 28, he (Furlan) said that I was no longer good enough to play in the first division. I have played 200 matches in that league.

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes of all-time but it doesn’t mean that he didn’t suck at the end of his career. Take your benching like a man and don’t try to act like your coach being a prick is what got you there. Geez, what a baby; this guy wouldn’t last five minutes in a room with The General Robert Montgomery Knight.

Links:

[Yahoo]: Montero sues Troyes coach for defamation
[TeamTalk.com]: Troyes defender in coach complaint

Categories
NBA General

Bill Walton goes overboard, again

HBO recently produced a documentary on the UCLA Bruins basketball team back in the day when John Wooden was roaming the sideline entitled “The U.C.L.A. Dynasty.” And you can’t even mention the letters UCLA without the Bill Walton chiming in with one of his overly enthusiastic and dramatically drawn out rants about the beauty and grace of the game. Well, would you expect anything less from the Big Red Head as he described his UCLA team in the early 1970’s in the movie?

That ball was put up to decide the fate of Western civilization. The game itself was a celebration of life — such a joyful explosion of youthful enthusiasm, just racing up and down this court, celebrating the dream and the vision, a harmonic convergence of the highest
order.

Yea, OK, Bill; we think you might still be seeing colors and tracers from the typical ingestion of substances that goes along with thousands of Grateful Dead concerts. But, still, the guy is entertaining as hell once you can accept his shtick. Here’s a clip of Walton’s commentary from one of his more memorable games. Enjoy.

Links:

[NY Times]: Lights! Camera! But Where’s the Action at U.C.L.A.?

Categories
Cleveland Cavaliers

We want to see you risk $90 million, Nader



I hate high priced shoes.

Ralph Nader is sick and tired of Nike and their damn sweatshops, so what does he do? He goes to Nike endorser LeBron James and asks him to shift the balance of power at corporate headquarters. In the second letter from Nader since LBJ joined the league in 2003, he asks the Cavs superstar to stand up for the workers in developing nations.

Mr. James, as someone who enjoys unsurpassed commercial influence and with it, great negotiating power, you are in a unique position to stand up for the people who make the products you endorse. We urge you to let Nike know that you support the rights of those workers by demanding that:

– Nike insist its contractors pay a living wage, under safe working conditions, that allows workers to meet their basic needs, and that Nike pay contractors enough to do this;

– Nike insist its contractors recognize independent unions and that factory management collectively bargain with these unions in good faith; and

– Nike agree to a program of factory monitoring through international unions and human rights organizations that are credible and completely independent of Nike.

You have a chance to make an impact around the world not just with your basketball playing ability, but for your generosity as a human being in helping to improve working conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Sounds great, and all James has to do is bite the hand that is feeding him $90 million for simply smiling at the camera. Somehow that doesn’t seem like a good deal for King James’ empire.

But the best part of the letter is when Nader says that it’s cool for Stephon Marbury to benefit from “sweatshop factory conditions” because he is selling his sneaks for $15 instead of $150. Is it also all right for some coffee company to exploit workers in Columbia as long as you can get a cheap cup of joe?

Links:

[Infoshop.org]: Nader asks LeBron James to help workers in Nike factories

Categories
General Sports

This sounds like the worst reality show ever


ABC has a new reality show called “Fast Cars and Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race”. The show puts all the NASCAR drivers who pimp Gilette into teams with random celebs. The professional drivers were the teachers in classroom and on-track training.

The list of celebs are: Bill Cowher, John Elway, Serena Williams, William Shatner, Krista Allen (of some ABC show), Jewel and her boyfriend Ty Murray, John Salley, Tony Hawk, John Cena, Laird Hamilton (surfer) and husband Gabby Reece.

Details are hazy since ABC won’t comment on the show but do the couples (Jewel/Ty and Laird/Gabby) have to drive together? And why exactly is Jewel anywhere near a racetrack? We expect this show to have terrible ratings because 1) it sounds god awful, and 2) everyone came out of it unharmed. Why would you watch a celebrity driving reality show (or NASCAR for that matter) except to see spectacular wrecks. Now we’re not saying we want to see any celebrities harmed but knowing that we won’t see William Shatner running out of a flaming car in his underwear takes away from the fun of it.

Links:
[Mondesi’s House]: CowheReality
[Post-Gazette]: Cowher rides onto reality show

Categories
New York Rangers

Another day, another NHL fight video

You don’t even have to go to the archives to find hockey fights anymore. It seems like there’s a new fight everyone is talking about. Next up: Todd Fedoruk of the Flyers vs Colton Orr of the Rangers. Knockout. This one is extra special because it happened 21 secs into the game. Those hockey players sure do hold a grudge.

Categories
College Basketball

E-E-F-G-C-A-G-G: It’s gold, Jerry, gold!

Usually the only music we notice during sports telecasts are snippets of pop/rock songs that we suspect are picked out by interns and floated up the flag pole. Sometimes you get cool stuff (Seven Nation Army) and sometimes you get the latest nickelback song (more on this below*). In any case, the song that’s been drilled into our brains for four days last week, and will be for another four days starting today is the CBS college basketball theme song.

In case you can’t think of what it sounds like, here’s an mp3 file:

Bob Christianson wrote the theme back in 1992 and, according to this article, composers can make as much as $100,000 per year of such a song from royalties. $100k! For something he did 25 years ago.


Christianson said he doesn’t tell many folks that he composed the NCAA theme, but occasionally he can’t resist a moment of self-promotion when he enters a sports bar during March and hears the theme blaring on TV.

He may tell the nearest patron: “I just made another two dollars.

This is rather amusing as everytime we hear the opening theme music to a basketball game, we’re about to lose $100.

*Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens were hanging out backstage with Nickelback. We’ve never liked Clemens but Tiger Woods just dropped out of our Top 10 athletes for having terrible taste in music.

Links:

[Baltimore Sun]: The perfect score