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
Cincinnati Bengals

Bengals doesn’t want any part of Odell Thurman’s mess


Some guys just can’t help themselves. Take a look at Odell Thurman — already suspended from the league for skipping a drug test and driving drunk, Odell has been accused of assaulting two men at a private residence. Two men claim that Odell Thurman assaulting them early Sunday (after partying till the wee hours of Saturday night) and that Odell’s brother Willie of threatening them with a gun.

No charges have been filed yet but the Bengals are already backtracking on Odell, essentially saying “he aint ours!”


Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan said Tuesday the team had no comment on the latest allegations.

“His situation is controlled by the league, he’s not officially on our roster,” Brennan said. “Since his possible reinstatement is in the league’s hands, we would defer any comment to the league.

Remember, Roger Goodell’s new personal conduct policy allows for teams to be disciplined for the transgressions of their players. Since the Bengals already have Chris Henry in the penalty box under the policy, they’re trying to avoid any more. This assault incident seems relatively minor and could just be a case of two guys targeting a professional football player but the Bengals want no part of any possible infraction. They are already emabrassed enough by Carson Palmer’s odd choices in endorsement deals.

Links:
[Fox Sports]: LB Thurman accused of kicking, hitting

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Pitching rules the day


1. Duel for the Division: The NL West division lead was at stake when the Dodgers and Padres faced off on Tuesday. The game turned into a pitcher’s duel as Chris Young and Jason Schmidt combined for 13 scoreless innings and four hits allowed. Young has now allowed just five earned runs in his last 47 innings. The first and only run of this contest came in the eighth, when pinch-hitter Russell Branyan of the Padres was hit by a pitch, stole second, and scored on a Marcus Giles single. San Diego’s win sent them a half-game above the Dodgers, though Arizona is still tied with them atop the division. Schmidt’s start for Los Angeles was his first in almost two months, and he came back better than ever.

2. Defense beats Offense: A good pitching staff usually gets the better of a good lineup, as the A’s-Red Sox series has proved once again. For the two nights in a row, Oakland won thanks to fantastic starts by Dan Haren and Lenny DiNardo. DiNardo, who was cut by the Red Sox last year and recently moved from the bullpen, shut out the Red Sox through six innings on Tuesday. He walked six batters, but only gave up two hits in Oakland’s 2-0 win. The A’s now have a capable array of barely-known starters in Haren, DiNardo, Chad Gaudin, Joe Kennedy, and Joe Blanton. Their 3.28 staff ERA is second in the majors only to San Diego’s ridiculous 2.89 mark. For the Red Sox, Dice-K lost despite allowing two runs on seven innings and 129 pitches.

3. Home Field Advantage: Two of the majors’ best teams are fueled by absolute dominance at home. The Indians and Angels have by far the two best home records in the majors, at 20-6 and 24-8 respectively. Both won on Tuesday at home behind complete game performances from their aces. The Indians couldn’t get much offense against the Royals, but they won 1-0 thanks to CC Sabathia‘s shutout. Sabathia improved to 9-1, joining John Lackey as the only pitchers with nine wins this year. The Angels beat the Twins again, this time 5-1, after Kelvim Escobar’s second complete game this year. Escobar has been a breakout star for the Angels, with a 7-3 record and 2.76 ERA. Both of these teams lead their divisions, the Indians by 3.5 games over Detroit and the Angels by 5.5 over Seattle.

Player of the Day: Chase Utley, Phillies: 3-4, HR (11), 3 RBIs in a 4-2 win over the Mets. Utley hit a go-ahead homerun in the 11th as the Phils improved to .500.

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: Amanda Beard Playboy cover


The fine folks at Playboy were nice enough to send us this pic of Amanda Beard’s Playboy cover. The cover is standard stuff, nothing too provocative or over the top but you can still see that killer body, even with a strategically placed forearm over the goodies. The blogosphere is going to be exploding with the actual scans of her nude shots soon but we’ll probably just point you in the right direction instead of posting them.

Anyway, if you’re in the NYC area next week, Amanda Beard will be signing her July issue from noon to 2:00 at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. We’ll try to get some candid shots from that event as well.

In other news…

[Rocky Mountain News]: The Braves manager who went apeshit got himself a 3 game suspension.

[CNBC]: Nike re-signs Kobe to a multi-year extension

[Cincinnati.com]: Sheffield’s words just plain racist

[SBS]: Why the UFL will fail

[Larry Brown Sports]: Hmmm… the London Olympics logo does look like two people having sex

[Randball]: How would a riot caused by 10-cent-beer night in 1974 be covered today?

And finally, we really can’t make heads or tails of this post but you can’t deny the sheer entertainment value of two blogs titled “Arcade Fire Stole my Basketball” and “Arcade Fire Didn’t Steal Dude’s Basketball“.

Categories
NHL General

2007 Stanley Cup Finals Game 4 Recap


Ducks 3, Senators 2
The central issue of this game going into it was the Chris Pronger suspension. For the second time this postseason, though, the Ducks won a game without their defensive leader. They now lead the series 3-1, with Game 5 slated for Wednesday night on the Pond (that’s Anaheim, although it’s really called “The Honda Center” now – damn corporate sponsorship).

It’d be easy to discuss the ramifications of the Pronger suspension, but the fact is: it didn’t matter. When you’ve got Jiggy between the pipes, I don’t care if you’ve got two acne-riddled teenagers who weigh 100 pounds soaking wet in front of him. If he’s in the zone, ain’t nothing gonna light the light.

It would also be easy to discuss Dustin Penner, who scored what ultimately proved to be the game-winner, but again, that’s just too easy.

The true story of this game was Andy McDonald. McDonald is the Ducks center, and he’s entirely too small to be playing that role in any type of competitive playoff series. If this dude was staring down Scott Stevens, Stevens might just start cackling. But there he was last night (McDonald, not Stevens – I need to work on my modifiers), deking and out-thinking cockroach-eating Ray Emery en route to two goals in the 2nd period. Once you give Giguere that kind of support, you’re winning the game. McDonald might be the Ducks’ Daniel Gibson for these playoffs, which is to say Dustin Penner might be Daniel Gibson, Giguere might be LeBron, Chris Pronger might be Z, and McDonald might be Larry Hughes. Heck, I’m just trying to make it relevant to a broader audience.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
All Other Sports

Former Rugby player punches man for calling him a poof

Proving once again that women might be the bane of every man’s existence, a former Australian rugby player was put on two years probation after punching a man for calling him a poof. Meli Allen was wearing a purple cashmere sweater because his girlfriend had bought it for him and he didn’t want to offend her.

Allen claimed that he punched Ryan Phillpot last November because one of his friends said, “You poof, you f$@king fag,” to Allen. When Allen approached them, they continued to insult them so he punched one of them in the nose.

The beauty of this news item is that it gives us the opportunity to post one of our favorite segments from Arrested Development, the greatest short-lived show on television.

[News.com.au]: Ex-footy player punched man over jumper

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Hey Ducks fans, don’t forget about the Angels


1. Joining the Elite: The Los Angeles Angels have absolutely dominated lately. They’ve quietly become one of the best teams in baseball, and they continued a four-game winning streak on Monday by pounding the Twins 16-3. The Angels had one of the best offensive performances of the year with 23 hits and two innings with five or more runs. Gary Matthews went 4-5 with 5 RBIs and Orlando Cabrera went 4-5 with 4 runs as seven different players had two or more hits. Jered Weaver also had one of his best starts of the year, with seven innings and one run allowed. Meanwhile, the Twins got little offense except for a Torii Hunter homerun, and their pitching was atrocious. Boof Bonser gave up 12 hits and 6 runs, while reliever Jason Miller had one of the worst pitching lines of the season. Miller recorded only one out while allowing 7 hits and 8 runs. The Angels’ rout improved their record to 37-22, tied with the Red Sox for most wins in baseball. With a deep pitching staff and overachieving hitters, this team could be tough to beat come October.

2. No Lou Needed: The Cubs were without manager Lou Piniella, who is serving a four-game suspension for his ridiculous outburst on Saturday against the Braves. However, they didn’t need Lou, as the Cubs cruised past the Brewers 7-2. Alfonso Soriano went 5-5 with a homer and three RBIs. His batting average has gone from .291 to .316 in two days. Jason Marquis pitched well for the first time in four starts. The Brewers, however, continued their recent turn for the worse in the loss. Besides Prince Fielder’s 20th homer of the season, they were unable to do anything on offense. The Cardinals and Cubs have climbed to within six games of the Brewers, who once were dominating the division.

3. The best pitcher you’ve never heard of: Though he plays in the black hole otherwise known as Tampa, James Shields deserves more attention. The breakout stud is 5-0 despite playing for a last-place team, an incredible achievement. Shields is 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA and .202 opponent’s average in his last eight starts, and his success continued against the Royals on Monday. Shields pitched seven-plus innings with four hits, two runs, and one walk allowed. Though Scott Kazmir has struggled and Tampa’s other three starters have been worse than awful, Shields and a resurgent offense give the team some hope.

Player of the Day: Alfonso Soriano, Cubs: 5-5, HR (7), 3 RBIs in a 7-2 win over the Brewers.

Categories
Olympics

$800,000 for this 2012 London Olympics logo?


The new 2012 Olympics logo was unveiled today and it looks like some kid threw his pink puzzle blocks on the floor, saw that it vaguely resembled “2012” and went with it. And for this, the London 2012 Olympics committee spent $800,000.

Despite all the public criticism of how terrible it is, organizers are defending it as “dynamic” and “vibrant”.


Lord (Seb) Coe, chairman of the London Games organising committee (Locog), told the BBC: “We don’t do bland – this is not a bland city. We weren’t going to come to you with a dull or dry corporate logo that would appear on a polo shirt and we’re all gardening in it a year’s time.”

Tony Blair raised hopes that the symbol would leave people “inspired to make a positive change in their life” while Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, praised it as a “truly innovative brand” that would appeal to the young.

Appeal to the young? They were probably targeting the 18-25 year-old demographic but ended up hitting the 18-24 months target instead.

There’s already a petition with over 10,000 signatures to scrap the logo.

Links:
[Telegraph.co.uk]: London unveils 2012 Olympics logo
[Life Style Extra]: More Than 10,000 Sign Petition To Scrap Olympic Logo

Categories
Soccer

This wasn’t the publicity that MLS had in mind when signing Beckham

Various newspapers around the football world (so virtually everywhere but the U.S.) are reporting that David Beckham might be regretting his decision to join the LA Galaxy for five years and $250M.


He will win his 96th cap in the European Championship qualifier against Estonia in Tallinn on Wednesday — a game England must win to re-establish their chances of reaching the Euro 2008 — before returning to Spain to try to clinch his first league title with Real.

But after the success of his comeback, when he laid on England’s goal by John Terry, he believes he may have made a mistake in switching to the low standard played in America, particularly if he is to make a swansong appearance at Euro 2008.

This is probably just sportswriter speculation (aka pulling a story out of you ass) but it certainly can’t be pleasing to MLS and LA Galaxy officials who are basically betting the future of the league on Beckham.  While there has been plenty of press on the Beckham effect — sponsorship of MLS is up and ticket sales for Beckham games home and away are through the roof — the implication that he is simply slumming it in a minor league for the cash isn’t helping the MLS break through to become a major sport in America.

We hope that Beckham’s MLS contract is iron clad because if he bails and finds a way to buy his way out of it, MLS might  as well just fold up tent and start selling assets on ebay.

Links:
[Daily Mail UK]: Beckham fears he has made a huge mistake with Galaxy deal

Categories
NHL General

The NHL says no to Al-Jazeera

Every time someone mentions Al-Jazeera, we can’t help but think about Mike Wise from the Washington Post’s great line about ESPN evolving into the “Al-Jazeera for Athletes.” Well, it turns out that while ESPN is covering the NHL Finals (barely), Al-Jazeera was denied press credentials.  Who knew the NHL had these kind of standards.

From Rink Side:


Given the paucity of non-aligned (i.e. Southern California) newspapers from the States covering the final between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators — the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, both Denver papers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New York Daily News and the Buffalo News have been spotted through three games — you might have thought the NHL would have been happy to reach a, hmmm, really non-traditional hockey market, but, alas, that didn’t happen. Why Al-Jazeera saw the news value in something that, say, the Detroit News apparently hasn’t is for deeper thinkers than me.
 

At least if Al-Jazeera actually could cover the NHL Finals, we’d know where to find it.

Categories
MLB General

MLB Cost Index for June 4 2007

The MLB Cost Index is one measure of how well your GM did over the course of the offseason and during the season. The Index takes a look at the payrolls for each team and calculates a Cost per Win number. Pretty simple stuff right? But in the wide open world of baseball with no salary cap, it’s the best way we can think of to judge teams on a level (monetary) playing field.

We’re finally into June and after what already seems like a long grinding season, we’re starting to figure out who the chumps are. The Cubs and Lou Pinella are completely melting down and are only above the Yankees in efficiency of their payroll. Their neighbors the White Sox aren’t doing much better either. Meanwhile, at the opposite site of the spectrum are the Diamondbacks, winners of 9 out of their last 10 and sitting atop the NL West. And with a team that costs 1/4 of the Yankees’ payroll. The Angels, 8-2 in their last 10, are also make up strong push up the MLB Cost Index.

The complete Major League Baseball Cost Index after the jump.

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