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The world’s highest paid athletes 25 and under



Highest paid athlete 25 and under

Business week released their list of 27 athletes under the age of 25 who are stuffing their bank accounts. They took the top 3 earners each from nine sports and compiled a slideshow — which means you have to click next 26 times to get the full list. We hate that. So here is the list for you lazy clickers. Note that this list is based on salary and does not include endorsements.

Basketball
Joe Johnson: 25 years old, $12.7M in 2006-2007
Zach Randolph: 25 years old $12M in 2006-2007
Carlos Boozer: 25 years old $11.6M in 2006-2007. (ripped off blind man in 2004)

Football
Vince Young: 23 years old, $9.7M in 2006

Reggie Bush: 22 years old, $9M in 2006
Mario Williams: 22 years old, $9M in 2006

Tennis
Roger Federer: 25 years old, $8.3M in 2006
Justine Henin: 24 years old, $4.2M in 2006
Maria Sharapova: 20 years old, $3.8M in 2006

Soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo: 22 years old, $12.4M in 2006
Wayne Rooney: 21, $11.7M in 2007
Landon Donovan: 25, $900,000 in 2006

Formula One
Fernando Alonso: 25 years old, $20.4M in 2007
Lewis Hamilton: 22 years old, $2.8M in 2007
Heikki Kovalainen: 25 years old, $2.8M in 2007

Baseball
Carlos Zambrano: 25 years old, $6.7M in 2006
Dontrelle Willis: 25 years old, $4.35M in 2006
Francisco Rodriguez: 25 years old, $3.8M in 2006

NASCAR
Kyle Busch: 21 years old, $4.8M in 2006
Brian Vickers: 23 years old, $3.9M in 2006
Reed Sorenson: 21 years old, $3.5M in 2005

Golf
Lorena Ochoa: 25 years old, $2.6M in 2006
Camilo Villegas: 25 years old, $1.8M in 2006
Julieta Granada: 20 years old, $1.6M in 2006

Hockey
Ilya Kovalchuck: 24 years old, $5M in 2007
Rick DiPietro: 25 years old, $4.5M in 2007
Eric Staal: 22 years old, $4M in 2007

It turns out that if you want to get rich quick, the sport to play is basketball. But based on the top earning athletes without age restrictions, the long term smart bet is either Formula One (Michael Schumacher) or golf (Tiger Woods).

Links:
[Business Week]: Highest-Paid Athletes 25 and Under

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General Sports

14 fans banned from Talladega


You probably heard about fans being really upset about Jeff Gordon passing Dale Earnhardt (if you ain’t got a 3 with angel wings on the back of yo truck, you ain’t a real fan!) in career wins after Gordon’s victory on Sunday. Just as they did the week before when Gordon tied Earnhardt, a bunch of debris was thrown onto the field, mostly beer cans, and 14 people were arrested. Well those fans have been banned for life from buying tickets to Talladega.

Buying tickets? So that basically is no sanction at all because those fans can basically get their tickets via a third party. The logical move would be ban those 14 fans from attending races but it’d be impossible to pick out 14 from a crowd of 100,000.


Superspeedway president Grant Lynch said identifying other fans who threw objects was harder than he had imagined.

“At a baseball game where everybody is sitting down, it’s easy to see someone stand up and throw an object onto the field,” Lynch said. “I was looking at a section that probably had 300 people in it, and they were all standing up. Plus they all have mullets.

OK, we made that last part up. But could you imagine picking out 14 mulleted rednecks out of a crowd?

Links:
[Houston Chronicle]: Talladega bans 14 from buying tickets

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General Sports

Michael Waltrip car wreck pics


There have been a lot of questions about the Michael Waltrip crash this week — why did he leave the scene of the accident? Why didn’t he call the police right away? Who was the witness who didn’t want to be identified? Was it a fine young thing he was with? Inquiry minds want to know!

What we do know is that he’s lucky to be alive judging from the photos of the car after the accident. It’s a miracle he walked away with only a few scratches.

More photos of Michael Waltrip’s wreck after the jump.

Continue reading “Michael Waltrip car wreck pics”

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General Sports

Michael Waltrip will not be endorsing No-Doz


Michael Waltrip has been racing cars for some time now, but by the looks of things he really needs to brush up on his handling skills. And he might want to read over the North Carolina laws for operating a motor vehicle while he’s at it.

Waltrip claims that he fell asleep while driving to his home and was less than a mile from his destination when he slammed into a telephone pole on Friday night. Apparently, he lost control of his Land Cruiser on a turn and then rolled the vehicle after he overcorrected his error. There’s no report on if Waltrip lost control while turning left.

After climbing out of the vehicle, a bloody Waltrip left the scene and then never notified the fuzz about his accident. But, believe it or not, the coppers came across the flipped SUV a little while later and tracked Waltrip down. He was issued tickets for reckless driving and failing to report an accident.

I am really embarrassed about the accident, but I feel fortunate that I wasn’t hurt,” the two-time Daytona 500 winner said Tuesday.

“For 25 years I have had a great driving record. I consider myself to be a courteous and safe driver on public roads. I never expected to fall a sleep behind the wheel of a car.

Looks like Waltrip is going to stick with his “fell asleep at the wheel” story, but we have a sneaking suspicion that this is another case of celebrity DUI. Ty Norris, GM of Waltrip’s racing team, said that the reason Waltrip didn’t report the accident was because his cell phone didn’t work where the accident occurred, yet the accident happened just a mile from his house. So, even if his celly didn’t work he could have called from his home phone. Guess he just “fell asleep” on the way to the phone.

Links:

[Charlotte.com]: Waltrip cited after wreck
[FoxSports.com]: Waltrip charge after rolling car in accident

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General Sports

If you ain’t first, you’re last!

Shake and Bake!

“Dancing With the Stars,” meet your twin with an engine, “Fast Cars and Super Stars.” Hoping to mimic the success they had with “Dancing With The Stars,” ABC has unveiled their latest concept show that will team Nextel Cup drivers with B-listers as they compete in a variety of racing related events to work their way into the finals where the three remaining teams will participate in a time trial with the winner being crowned champ.

The celebrity participants come from a variety of backgrounds but most are equipped with some sort of athletic ability. Some of the attention seekers include John Elway, Tony Hawk, William Shatner, Laird Hamilton and his wife, Gabby Reese, WWE champion John Cena, John Salley, Serena Williams, Bill Cowher, and Jewel and her boyfriend, rodeo king Ty Murray. How the hell did the Shat and Jewel work their way into this cast? Guiding the wannabes throughout their experience will be drivers Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson.

Because Gillette could end up being one of the shows sponsors, they have insisted that all contestants “must be well-groomed” and that “stubble or scruff of any kind” will not be tolerated. Yes Serena, that includes you too.

Links:

[NASCAR.com]: ABC TO AIR NEW REALITY SHOW FEATURING ‘YOUNG GUNS’
[Denverpost.com]: ELWAY AMONG SUPERSTARS RACING INTO REALITY SHOW

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General Sports

NASCAR doesn’t care about black people

(…or was that George Bush?)

According to Reuters, “A former African-American crewman who once worked on NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit sued the governing body of the U.S. stock car series on Tuesday for race discrimination and breach of contract”, which brings up he question, “so how long have you ceased being African-American?”

We’ll assume that David Scott is still African-American but used to be a crewman with NASCAR. Scott is suing NASCAR because of an incident where he was harrassed by at least two white motorcoach drivers from other teams with one donning a white pillowcase over his head like a klansman. When the incident was publicized, NASCAR shuttled him away and promised him a future job but after five years and no job, Scott is suing for back pay and compensatory damages.

Links:

[Reuters]: NASCAR sued for racial discrimination

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General Sports

Be very afraid: Scientology is coming to NASCAR

Dear redneck… er… racing fan,

Do you suffer from addictions, arthritis, depression, learning disabilities, mental illness, cancer, or homosexuality? Well, then come on out to the racetrack this SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! Dianetics will be there to give you a FREE personality test!

While watching cars zoom by and going round and round in circles, we’ll make sure your head spins in circles with all the crap we’re going to brainwash you with! Did you know that driver Kenton Gray credits L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings with making him a good driver? Did you know that through `Dianetics’ he’s handled stress and increased his performance and ability to compete–both on the track and in his life? Well, we can help you too!

First, watch the “Ignite Your Potential” car make a left turn, then another left turn, and another left turn… and if you are still with us, then congratulations! You’re ready for step 2, the assist. We’ll have our helpers around to give you a massage to take the stress off from all that neck craning and exhaust fume inhalation! Before you know it, you’ll be privy to the SECRET TEACHINGS where you’ll learn how the Lord Xenu came to earth 75 million years ago, brought billions of people and put them in volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their wayward souls are the reason so much is wrong with your life! It’s not because you don’t have your high school diploma and don’t wake up before 2:00 PM. It’s not that at all. It’s because of the DARK LORD XENU’S evil souls!

But that’s not all! You know those 8 children you plan on having in the double-wide? Well you can learn how to have them during SILENT BIRTH! Just like Tom and Katie did! So, what do you have to lose? (We require a small donation for each level of Scientology that you achieve.) Come join the SCIENTOLOGY/NASCAR event TODAY!

[MSNBC]: Scientology revs up to join NASCAR circuit
[You Tube]: South Park – the history of Xenu

[Wikipedia]: Scientology

Categories
General Sports

The Weekly Sports Roundup Podcast for April 25 2006

Welcome to another episode of the Sportscolumn podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) or you want to suggest a topic, drop me a line at [email protected].

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 40 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.



Kelly Calabrese

This week’s topics include:

  • NBA Playoffs
  • NHL Playoffs
  • NASCAR sucks
  • Naked man stuck in chimney
  • Colin Finnerty’s curfew
  • Keith Hernandez… which of course leads to a discussion on helping people move
  • Celtics Dance Team and what’s wrong with the NBA
  • Women We Love Nominees

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please go to this page on Yahoo and give us a good rating so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t send us an email ([email protected]) or add a comment below. Thanks for listening.

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Tues Apr 25: NASCAR catfight odds

Proving that you really can bet on anything, SportsInteraction.com has put out odds on the next catfight in NASCAR. They are putting 25-1 odds that Nicole Lunders and Eva Bryan will get into a physical altercation. The odds are only 5-1 that Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch will mix it up.

Also, drivers should keep their girlfriends/wives away from Tony Stewart, who is 25-1 odds to have an affair with one of them. Sweet.

In other news…

[Fox Sports]: Is Carmello making a name for himself as choke artist?

[News & Observer]: Because of his assault charge in D.C., Colin Finnerty now has a curfew of 9 PM to 6 AM.

[MSNBC]: Reggie Bush said that family house controversy is blown out of proportion.

[NY Daily News]: 8 out of 15 players on the Knicks blame Larry Brown for piss poor season.

[Armchair GM]: 8 mascots that need to die

[Off Wing Opinion]: NHL Playoff Roundup (’cause we’re too lazy to do it ourselves.)

[Texans Rock]: Another dumb athlete injures himself in a motorcycle accident

Real Odd of the Day: 29-1 Alex Rodriguez will admit to having a love child. (Boston fans wonder shouldn’t this be higher since A-Rod is gay?)