Author: Vin

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].

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for Wed May 24 2006: Marathon

1. Time for extras: It was the longest game of the season when the Mets and the Phillies faced off at Shea Stadium. The game went to extras and then just kept going as it lasted 5:22. While the contest had been high-scoring in regulation as it was tied 8-8, no one could score in extras until the 16th inning. That was when Carlos Beltran hit a solo homer to finally win this game for the Mets. David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Cliff Floyd went yard earlier in the game for New York, who improved to 27-17 on the season. The Phillies, in a hugely disappointing loss, fell to four games back of the Mets. This was the longest major league game since the Houston-Atlanta 18 inning showdown in last year’s playoffs.

2. The Empire Strikes Back: Coming into Tuesday’s game at Fenway, the Yankees had lost four of five to the Red Sox on the season. But they weren’t going to let the Red Sox take a 4 game lead in the division, so the Yankees defeated their hated rival 7-5. New York won off of homers from Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez, as well as five scoreless innings from Jaret Wright. Though the Yanks were up 7-1 in after 7, Manny Ramirez did all he could to bring the Red Sox back, driving in four runs over a two-inning span. But it wasn’t enough, as Mariano Rivera decided not to pitch as terribly as he has been lately. The victory puts New York within two of the Sox as they look to win the division yet another time.

3. Everyone else is doing it: Apparently the homerun leaders in both leagues decided to distance themselves from the rest of the pack on Tuesday night. Almost every significant player homered, including league-leader Albert Pujols. Pujols hit his 23rd big fly of the season and continues to keep a record pace. In the AL, leader Jim Thome of the White Sox went yard for the 18th time this season. The hitting rubbed off on his teammates too, as Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye each hit their 12th homer. In the Nats victory over the Astros, both Alfonso Soriano (16) and Morgan Ensberg (15) hit shots. And Vladimir Guerrero rounded the bases, giving him 12 blasts of his own on the year. The homerun race in both leagues this season will definitely be a fun one.

4. Calling all Angels: Where have the LA Angels been so far this season? If you said last place in the MLB’s weakest division, then you’d be correct! For some unknown reason, the Angels have not been able to duplicate their success from the past few years despite no significant personnel changes. However, last night brought only good news to the Angels, as they defeated division leader Texas while Seattle and Oakland both lost. John Lackey pitched well to lower his ERA to a respectable 3.50, and struggling Felix Rodriguez picked up his 11th save of the season. The Angels are still five back of the Rangers in the West.

5. At least he didn’t get hurt: Kerry Wood has frustrated just about every baseball fan with his incredible talent marred by nearly constant injury problems. Last night, in his second start of the year, he was unable to defeat the pitiful Marlins. Wood allowed 3 runs in only 5 innings pitched, though he left the game with a 4-3 lead. It was Ryan Dempster who denied Wood’s quest for his first win in 10 months, as he blew a save chance in the 9th inning. The Cubs’ record against the Marlins has fallen to 2-3 on the season, which is rather pitiful considering the Fish are 13-31.

Categories
Soccer

Being a soccer fan finally pays off



More useful than a FOP
window sticker

Sometimes rooting for the right team is a matter of life and death. (Or as we keep telling Raiders fans a matter of being employed or not.) A British guy named Tony Restall working in Yemen was ambushed by Arab fundamentalists and most likely would have been taken hostage if not for his choice of futbol team, the Portsmouth FC.

The would be kidnappers spotted a Portsmouth FC sticker on his car with their crescent and start logo and thought he was a practicing Muslim.


The tribesmen descended upon me like a pack of wolves. They had bloodshot eyes and I was terrified they would kill me.

But they spotted my Portsmouth FC sticker and the mood changed. They thought I was Muslim as the star and moon are Muslim symbols. I was able to convince them that, although I was Western, I was helping Muslims in the area.

How lucky is he that his team isn’t Parma A.C.

Links:
[The Sun UK]: Great save by Pompey

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends for Tues May 23 2006: You know what the problem with old people is?



Perfect game… whatever. His
turn signal is still on.

They’re making the rest of us look bad. Rex Cooper, an 81 year old, bowled a perfect game at the Simi Valley’s Brunswick Valley Bowl. Why are there so many stories of old guys bowling perfect games and hitting holes in one? It’s probably God’s way of rewarding them for living so long.

In other news…

[NY Post] Speaking of old guys… Larry Brown goes to work.

[Miami Herald]: FSU rescinds basketball scholarship from recruit who was arrested for having cocaine “in the crack of his buttocks”.

[YAY Sports]: Why does Dirk Nowitzki have shaved pits?

[NOLA]: NBA awards New Orleans All-Star Game for 2008

[Jes Gobez]: Edmonton fans drinking up all the beer

[The Baseball Journals]: How the $450 million sale of the Nationals equals $100 million

Categories
Soccer

Northwestern Womens Soccer team apologizes for hazing incident

In a statement released to the Northwestern community, the womens soccer team issued an apology for the hazing incident that brought them unwanted national attention.

To the members of the Northwestern community,

We, the Northwestern women’s soccer team, apologize for the negative attention, press, and controversy our alleged hazing incident has caused the University. We never foresaw that what began as a well-intentioned night of team unity and celebration would have such severe consequences, and we are embarrassed that our actions have become the source of such harsh criticism.

We fully accept responsibility for our behavior and understand the magnitude and severity of the current situation. As Northwestern varsity student-athletes, we take extreme pride in representing this school, and this incident does not reflect the values, integrity and qualities we seek to embody.

We hope this incident has not resulted in a breach of trust. From here, we will move in a positive direction toward reestablishing our relationship with the Northwestern community. Let this be a learning experience not only for the women’s soccer team, but for all Northwestern groups, organizations and teams who wish to uphold the honor and prestige of this university.

In addition, we extend our apologies to teammate Kelly Sitkowski, who had absolutely no role in the incident and was not present that evening.

– Members of the 2005-06 Northwestern University women’s soccer team

This is your standard apology statement but at least they didn’t pull the old “we apologize to anyone who might have been offended” non-apology most athletes issue.

It’s always amusing when you have to assure people that light bondage and girl on girl action doesn’t embody your values and qualities. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But the best part of the statement is the apology to the teammate that wasn’t there and still had to answer questions from her friends and family all the time. This is like Duke lacrosse apologizing to Devon Sherwood for being black.

Links:
[Daily Northwestern]: Women’s Soccer Team Releases Apology For Negative Attention

Categories
NHL General

3rd horseman: WNBA outdrew the NHL



Someone save hockey

1st horseman of the sportspocalypse: Red Sox win the World Series. 2nd horseman: White Sox win the World Series. Now the WNBA is drawing more viewers than the NHL. ESPN is reporting that more people watched the WNBA on ESPN2 last year than the NHL on OLN this year. When the United States wins the World Cup, it will be the end of sports days.

We have to point out two things. First, OLN has a much lower subscriber base (21 million less) than ESPN as well as lack of ratings for other programming to shove the WNBA down our throats…er.. promote other shows. As a matter of fact, when ESPN had hockey, they drew 300,000 more viewers on average. (416,000 vs 117,000.)

Second, hockey has always been an in-person draw. Hockey fans understand that the game is much better on ice than on TV, as opposed to football. The average attendance at NHL games was double that of the WNBA (17,000 vs 8,500), setting a record for attendance.

Let’s not forget that ESPN has a vested interest in justifying their decision to drop the NHL by pointing out the mediocre ratings of hockey on OLN and NBC. NBC has countered that ratings are “in the ballpark” of what they expected and they will be profitable in year 1 of the deal. It’s a shame when these kind of statistics come out. When the casual fan sees these stories, they will think, “I guess the NHL is boring now… I’ll watch another rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond.” And that is how we lost Arrested Development.

Links:
[ESPN]: Great hockey, yes, but is anyone watching?

Categories
All Other Sports

Barbaro is more screwed than Britney’s baby

Oh.. don’t get in an uproar over the headline. We’re actually pulling hard for Barbaro here at Sportscolumn. It’s not often anything with Philly ties is a champion. We’re simply referring to the pre and post-surgery x-rays below from the the vet who performed the surgery. Dr. Dean Richardson said that while it would be months before Barbaro can be declared saved but the colt is doing very well.


Every day the risk diminishes, every day that goes by makes me happy if he has no complications. It is better. If we have this press conference in two weeks, and I’m saying the same mundane things, I would be happy, I’d be happier. Every day that goes by that things remain the same is very good.

If you’re trying to count, the official number is 27 screws.

Links:
[Louisville Courier Journal]: Barbaro “doing very well” during recovery
[UPenn]: Hi-res photos of Barbaro x-rays

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for Tues May 23 2006: Reds resurgence

1. How bout them Reds?: Has anyone noticed how good the Cincinnati Reds have been this season? After winning last night they improved to 26-19 on the year, one of the best records in the National League. The Reds victory came as it usually does–through excellent hitting. Adam Dunn’s 16th homer and Griffey’s 3-run shot highlighted an 15-run barrage against the Milwaukee Brewers. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo, who leads the NL in ERA, pitched well again. He only allowed one run, decreasing his earned run average to a stellar 2.29. Meanwhile, the Brewers are just one game above .500 after being in second place for a while in the Central.

2. The Other Series: After a series with the Mets that was more exciting than 24’s finale, the Yankees series against the Red Sox just seems like any other rivalry. Obviously it will still be pretty intense, though last night’s 9-5 Red Sox blowout wasn’t the usual battle we expect from these two teams. The Sox won behind Curt Shilling, who picked up his seventh win of the season and no. 199 on his career. Shilling allowed just one run through 8 innings, though reliever Keith Foulke nearly ruined the game. Foulke allowed 4 Yankees runs in the 9th, including back-to-back homeruns by Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. A-Rod’s homer proved once again that he is masterful at going yard in pointless, blowout situations. For the Red Sox offense, it was the usual suspects. Manny Ramirez homered and had 3 RBIs, while David Ortiz drove in three runs of his own. The Red Sox lead in the AL East increased to 2 games after the win.

3. Glory Days: Frank Thomas had an excellent career for the Chicago White Sox before moving on to Oakland for this season. But in his first return to Chicago, he provided fans with a remembrance of the past. Thomas hit two homeruns for the A’s, but they still couldn’t take down the mighty White Sox. While Oakland had a 4-0 lead after Thomas’ second homer, the bullpen couldn’t hold it. The game eventually went to extras, where Pablo Ozuna’s bunt single scored the winning run for Chicago. But this contest was all about Frank Thomas, who now has an impressive 9 homers and 22 RBIs on the year despite an awful .195 batting average. Thomas is actually on pace for 39 and 96 in the power categories, which would be an unprecedented stat line if his average also holds. Meanwhile, the White Sox are still a game back of the Tigers in the Central.

4. Outlasted: Jake Peavy pitched about as good as any pitcher could in a loss. He pitched 7 innings of two-run ball, which seems just average, but he also had 16 strikeouts. Every inning Peavy pitched produced at least two K’s, including two innings in which he struck out the side. He completely dominated Atlanta expect for one pitch, that Ryan Langerhans took out of the park. The Braves ended up winning 3-1, leaving both teams with a 23-22 record.

5. Who is worse?: Which team is the worst in the majors? The question usually is easy enough to answer, though this year is rather tough to decide between the Kansas City Royals and the Florida Marlins. Last week we likely would have said Florida because of their pedestrian payroll, awful attendance, and terrible play on the field. But this week the title goes to Kansas City, who has lost 10 games in a row after suffering an 8-0 blowout to Detroit yesterday. They rank last in the majors in most major categories, including team ERA and runs scored. Also, at 10-32, the Royals have the worst record in the MLB. Even more embarrassing, they have a third the win total of the division-leading Tigers. Now that’s bad.

Categories
Dallas Mavericks

Odds and Ends for Mon May 22 2006: Cuban likes getting booed



Boo-let proof. (sorry)

You know, it must be good to be Mark Cuban. Not only does he have a huge penis, he also has so much cash that he doesn’t even mind getting booed. (Thanks Offwing Opinion.)


Im looking up there, and Im listening, and it dawned on me. Im getting booed by 18k people, how cool is that ! I didnt know these people. It didnt matter what they thought or why they were booing. It worked for the home team. It got the crowd going, it made it more fun for everyone who came to the game. Someone from the Spurs came over like it was a big deal and apologized for it. I was absolutely fine with it

May we suggest a trip to an Eagles game wearing Cowboys gear?

In other news…

[USA Today]: Danny Almonte is married to a 30 year old woman. They “have been together for years”. Isn’t there a law against that?

[SI]: Fan who caught Bonds 714th homer hates him.

[Phillies.com]: More team hazing… but this time it’s cool.

[WTF-TV]: Bonds says he’s chasing Oh’s 868 home run record. Is this for real? The name of the site is WTF tv.

[MSNBC]: Kicker vanishes en route to CFL team

Categories
MLB General

MLB Cost Index for Mon May 22 2006

Not much change in the MLB Cost Index this week as the Angels and Cubs remain the most hopeless teams in the league with bloated payrolls and lack of wins. Say what you want about the Yankees and their $200M payroll but they will most likely be right in the thick of things in Sept. We’re not so sure we can say the same about the Cubs.

** all $ are in millions.

Rank (Pv) Team 2006 Payroll GP Wins YTD Payroll Cost/Win
1 (1) Marlins $15.0 42 11 $3.89 $0.35
2 (2) Rockies $41.1 44 25 $11.17 $0.45
3 (3) Devil Rays $35.4 44 20 $9.62 $0.48
4 (4) Reds $59.5 44 25 $16.16 $0.65
5 (5) D’backs $59.2 43 24 $15.72 $0.65
6 (6) Brewers $56.8 44 23 $15.42 $0.67
7 (11) Indians $56.8 44 22 $15.43 $0.70
8 (12) A’s $62.3 43 22 $16.54 $0.75
9 (10) Tigers $82.3 43 29 $21.85 $0.75
10 (14) Pirates $40.2 44 14 $10.93 $0.78
11 (8) Rangers $65.5 43 22 $17.38 $0.79
12 (7) Padres $69.7 44 23 $18.94 $0.82
13 (15) Cardinals $88.4 44 29 $24.02 $0.83
14 (9) Blue Jays $71.9 43 23 $19.09 $0.83
15 (13) Twins $63.8 44 19 $17.33 $0.91
16 (18) White Sox $102.9 43 28 $27.31 $0.98
17 (17) Orioles $72.6 44 20 $19.71 $0.99
18 (16) Phillies $88.3 43 23 $23.43 $1.02
19 (20) Mets $100.9 43 26 $26.78 $1.03
20 (19) Astros $92.6 44 24 $25.14 $1.05
21 (23) Giants $90.9 44 23 $24.68 $1.07
22 (22) Nationals $63.3 44 16 $17.18 $1.07
23 (24) Dodgers $99.2 44 24 $26.94 $1.12
24 (26) Braves $92.5 44 22 $25.11 $1.14
25 (21) Royals $47.3 41 10 $11.97 $1.20
26 (25) Red Sox $120.1 41 25 $30.40 $1.22
27 (27) Mariners $88.3 45 20 $24.53 $1.23
28 (28) Cubs $94.8 43 18 $25.17 $1.40
29 (29) Angels $103.6 44 17 $28.15 $1.66
30 (30) Yankees $198.7 42 24 $51.51 $2.15

Categories
Boston Red Sox

David Wells is a blowhard

How is it that the Boston Red Sox have two of the biggest blowhards in the game? Curt Schilling is the biggest media whore this side of T.O. and David Wells will open his big trap to comment on anything.

Last year, Wells blasted Selig on the steroid issue and now he’s dragging ex-teammates through the mud.

You see a little, bitty guy hitting 30 home runs… what, Dellucci, I guess? How many home runs did he hit last year? Twenty-nine. Has he ever done that in his career? How many has he hit this year? So, the numbers have gone down tremendously since all this has come up… I know Dave, I’ve never suspected him of doing them.

Delucci responded that his home run numbers are down because he’s now a bench player. David Wells is such an ass that Red Sox manager Terry Francona and Curt Schilling (there he is again) had to apologize to Delucci on behalf of the entire Red Sox organization.

Today, Wells attempted to sweep the issue under the rug by claiming he was just “making conversation”.


I’ve known David for a long time. I’ve been a teammate. The guy busts his [expletive] in the gym, and he works out hard. We were just making conversation.

I wasn’t accusing him or anything of the sort. So the [expletive] who did it, or the [expletives] who did it, I think they need to [expletive]. And you can quote me on that. [Expletives].

Hey, and you know, when we accused David Wells of being a fat blowhar, we were just making small talk.

Links:
[Philly.com Remarks prompt apology to Dellucci
[Boston.com]: Wells attempts to clear the air