Vin is a Philly boy who shouldn't be invited into your house because he'll judge you on your book and music collection. He owns Dawkins, Utley, Iverson, and Lindros jerseys, which is all you really need to know about him. He can be reached at [email protected].
Maggie the Monkey went 3-1 in the 2nd round, only getting the Ottawa over Sabres pick wrong and leads all the TSN experts throughout the playoffs (7-5). For the conference championship round, Maggie takes Carolina and Edmonton. So far so good for Edmonton but the Carolina pick might be in trouble.
Good luck, Maggie. We got $5 on you.
Links:
[TSN.ca]: Monkey Business 2006
As anyone who has every watched American Funniest Home Videos can tell you, getting hit in the jewels is always funny. Here’s a video of Avery Johnson getting so excited about a basket, he knocks Josh Howard right in the crotch. The look on Howard’s face is priceless. And worth watching four or five hundred times. (Thanks to There’s Your Karma, Ripe as Peaches for the video find.)
Does it surprise anyone that Curt Schilling loves Curt Schilling? He had a video game character created in his likeness for EverQuest II. You know, the video game where dorks play for days at a time and some get so obsessed that they kill themselves after playing it. The only upside to this story is that everytime someone beats the Curt Schilling character (named Major Asshole Curt Schilling), Sony will donate $5 (up to $10,000… quite an underwhelming figure, actually) to the ALS Association. Next up, Schilling will digitally replace John Malkovich with himself in Being John Malkovich. (via Deadspin)
In other news…
[CBS Sportsline]: Ruben Droughs might run into Jake Plummer in court.
[SF Gate]: Fans in SF think baseball tickets are lottery tickets
[Royales With Cheese]: Fixing the Royals attendance problems
[Inside Bay Area]: Oakland A’s owner searching for a place in San Jose to build a soccer stadium. How about this place?
We’re as sick of the media East Coast bias and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry as anyone but you gotta admit that it’s pretty funny when two teams start arguing about hitters staring at home run balls too long. After Manny Ramirez admired his homer off Scott Proctor (he did show him up by the way), A-Rod has been accused of doing the same thing to Tim Wakefield.
A-Rod denies that he would ever do something like that.
First of all, I’d never want to embarrass myself, so I wouldn’t pretend to embarrass myself by saying I didn’t see it if I had. Especially with someone like (Tim) Wakefield on the mound, who I respect as much as any pitcher in the game.I’ve hit a lot of homers and I’ve never pimped one or tried to embarrass myself, my team or a guy like Wakefield or the Red Sox, who I respect so much. I don’t celebrate homers, it’s not my thing. All you have to do is look at my track record.
Meanwhile, Joe Torre said, “There’s a lot of things that go on today that the old-time pitchers wouldn’t put up with. The game has changed a lot. It’s not only Manny Ramirez.” Sounds like Torre wants a beanball at the head of Manny to clear a few things up. We’ll root for anything that results in a bench clearing brawl. And, if somehow, AJ Pierzynski could get socked in the jaw in the deal, that’d be even better.
Links:
[NY Daily News]: A-Rod sez charge an injustice
1. Bailed on by his best friends: Barry Bonds is probably more widely hated than any other athlete. But even he didn’t know it could get this bad–his best friend, ESPN, cancelled his reality show “Bonds on Bonds.” Producer Mike Tolin said it’s about performance. “If Barry was hitting homeruns at Albert Pujols’ pace, then we would continue. Also, there is some fan fatigue.” The latter has been caused by more Bonds-related material on ESPN than any human being could possibly handle. Every Bonds at-bat is aired live on the network, and on nearly every edition of “Sportscenter” there is talk about Barry. By the way, for the few people out there who actually watch the show, it might come back during the All-Star break or for a regular season wrap-up.
2. Fading in May: Greg Maddux was magnificent in his first five starts, starting out the year 5-0 with 1.35 ERA. But in his last five starts he has looked like the 40-year-old he is, going 0-4 and increasing his ERA to a pedestrian 4.28. One of those poor starts came last night against the Marlins, when Maddux allowed 6 runs in as many innings. Miguel Cabrera did most of the damage, going 2-2 with a 3-run homer and RBI double. The 9-3 victory by the Marlins completed a sweep of the Cubs, who should definitely be embarrassed. By the way, last night’s game drew only 7720 people to Dolphin Stadium. Please move this team or build a new stadium, Marlins owners. This is as bad as the Devil Rays a couple years back.
3. C stands for Complete: CC Sabathia started out the year on the DL, but Indians fans are clearly glad to have him back. Last night the ace won again in complete game fashion over the reeling Twins. It was his second straight complete game, and he is 4-1 with a 1.52 ERA. The Indians offense also excelled against Minnesota, crushing 11 runs off of Brad Radke and others. Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez each drove in 2 runs, and Casey Blake led them all with 4 RBIs. Though the Indians are way out of the AL Central lead, at least they are back to .500 on the year.
4. Back in action: Last year Andruw Jones was the MLB home run champion with 51, though this year he has semi-struggled in that department. In fact, Jones hadn’t homered since May 3 until last night, when he hit two blasts off of Padres starter Chris Young. Edgar Renteria also went yard for Atlanta, who beat the Padres 10-6 to move into a tie for second in the NL East. San Diego, though their record (24-23) is identical to Atlanta’s, is tied for last in the surprisingly tough NL West.
5. The Wright Stuff: David Wright is on a tear for the New York Mets, who beat the struggling Phillies 5-4 last night. Wright homered for his third straight game and drove in two. Carlos Beltran also hit it out, for his 13th time of the season. First time Mets pitcher Alay Soler allowed three first-inning runs but then settled down, shutting out the Phils over the next five innings. The Mets improved to 28-17 on the year, five games ahead of both the Phillies and Braves.
Thanks to The Hater Nation for pointing us to MotivationalBuck.com where you can create your own motivational poster spoofs. You know, those lame ass “Success” and “Teamwork” posters you find in offices of people who lack any actual skills. We couldn’t resist creating one. Send us any that you create and we’ll post the best ones.
In other news…
[Miami Herald]: Dolphins still cockblocking the Toronto Argonauts
[Raptor Blog]: Who will the Raptors take with the #1 pick?
[USA Today]: College Football fans: Paul Maguire is ready to ruin your Saturdays
[ESPN]: Duke womens lacrosse team will wear “innocent” bands to support the mens lacrosse team. No truth to the rumor they bought them from OJ Simpson.
We spend most of our time camped out on the couch watching sports but once in a while, we’ll actually lace up the old asics and go for a run. But if Apple and Nike have their way, no run would be complete without an ipod nano and a pair of Nike+ shoes.
The two companies (along with spokesman Lance Armstrong) announced the Nike+Apple Sport Kit today at a news conference in New York. The $29 kit includes a sensor that fits into custom Nike+ shoes (The $100 Nike+ Air Zoom Moire will be the first Sport Kit compatible shoes released.) and a wireless receiver that plugs into the bottom of the nano. The nano displays and stores a bunch of data during your run and when you’re done, will automatically upload your data to nikeplus.com.
The iPod will also have a “Power Song” feature that plays your designated song when you need that extra boost at the end. Is there any question it should be David Hasselhoff’s Looking for Freedom?
Links:
[Business Week]: Nike, Apple team up on iPod running gear
[Apple.com]: Nike+Apple Sport Kit product page
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].
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The Raptors went into the lottery with only an 8.8% to take the top spot and got it. Meanwhile, the Knicks went into the lottery with the 2nd worst record in the league but ended up with the second pick… but whoops, they traded that pick to Chicago for Eddy Curry. Oh, and Chicago has the right to swap picks next year because of the trade for… Eddy Curry.
When the trade happened, Isiah Thomas said that they had to gamble on the type of talent and size that Eddy Curry possessed and that a guy like him comes along every 15 to 20 years. The Bulls got an absolute steal with this deal. They had to trade Curry because he refused a DNA test to determine the likelihood of future heart problems. The Knicks were unconcerned about Curry’s heart problems, and they were right about that — it turns out Eddy Curry has no heart — especially on defense.
Here’s the full first round draft order.
Links:
[USA Today]: Bulls turn Knicks’ pick into No. 2, lottery win
[ESPN]: Raptors claim No. 1 pick for June’s NBA draft
Jake Plummer has been issued a summons for a “road rage type incident” that occured on April 20th. According to the victim, Doug Stone, a man driving a gray Honda van stopped at a red light, got out and kicked the front of Stone’s truck and then got back into this car and backed up into truck for 10 seconds causing minor damage.
A witness got the license plate and reported the incident to the police. The police investigated and the owner of the gray Honda van turned out to be Jason “Jake” Plummer. First of all, why does Jake Plummer drive a Honda? And second, his real name is Jason? That’s going to be confusing when Jay Cutler steals his job. Hmmm.. that’s probably why Jake is so angry these days.
Jake claims that it was not a road rage incident but rather just a minor accident that he didn’t report because he saw no damage on his car. Road Rage or accident? We want the truth, dammit!
[Denver Post]: Broncos QB in hit-run citation
