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
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Wed Apr 26 2006: Soccer is very gay

Is it just us or are a disproportionate amount of soccer stories tinged with homoeroticism? NTTAWWT… In Brazil, a coach was suspended for 60 days for saying that a referee was flirting with him.


He was flirting with me. He blew his whistle and looked at me with every decision he made….Maybe it was because of my pink shirt.”

Probably not the best idea to imply that a ref is gay. Blind is ok. Gay is not.

In other news…

[Denver Post]: Kenyon Martin suspended for sitting out the 2nd half of Monday’s game without injury.

[TrojanWire]: Matt Leinart is already setting himself up to be the 2009 Madden cover jinx.

[The Hater Nation]: Why Kobe chose new jersey number

[CBS Sportsline]: Shocking! Man behind Reggie Bush house scandal has shady past.

[SI]: Well, there goes SI.com’s credibility — Jenn Sterger (you know the FSU ho-or… er… cowgirl) has a column.

[Columbus Dispatch]: This is what happens when you don’t supply strippers to lacrosse teams — they start sticking fingers up players’ rectums. Damn near killed him.

Real Odd of the Day: 9-5 that Lynn Swann is elected governor of Pennsylvania

Categories
Boston Bruins

Bruins reality show coming in November



Xbox skills are transferable!

We knew the Bruins were bad but they’ve reached a new low: looking for players through a reality show. NESN must be desperate for hockey related ratings. Filming has started for “Be a Bruin”, a competition where anyone who pays $100 can try out to be a Boston Bruin. Former Bruin greats Brad Park, Terry O’Reilly and Gerry Cheevers wll play the Simon, Paula and Randy roles.

Yesterday, about 200 people showed up for the first round of the tryouts. Out of those, 36 contestants will be invited to an all expenses paid week of competition in July where the field will be whittled down to one goalie, one defenseman, and one forward. Those three will be invited to the Bruins training camp with a shot at making the team. Everything will be filmed and there will be 8 episodes on NESN.

It’s a longshot but hell, for $100, you can tell everyone that you once tried out for an NHL team. That kind of story pays for itself many times over in “interesting-facts-about-me” you can tell chicks in a bar. Or to Alex Trebek if you ever get on Jeopardy.

Links:
[Boston Herald]: Wanna be a Boston Bruin? Now’s your chance
[Be A Bruin]: Official site

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for April 26 2006: Barry inches closer


1. Bonds on Babe: Barry Bonds is now only 4 homeruns behind the one and only Babe Ruth after his shot Tuesday night. Bonds took a pitch from Steve Trachsel into left field and even received chants of “Barry! Barry!” from the home crowd. His second home run on the season turned out to be the only San Francisco run in their 4-1 loss against the Mets. Xavier Nady and Cliff Floyd both homered for the 13-7 Mets, and Floyd’s shot reached McCovey Cove.

2. 14 innings, 14 wins: The Astros NL-leading 14th win of the season was much harder to obtain than their previous 13. Though they lead through 8 innings thanks to Preston Wilson’s run and RBI, Brad Lidge blew his second straight save for Houston, sending the game into extras. Of course, extra innings are nothing unusual at Minute Maid Park, as two playoff games there last year went at least 14 innings. Anyway, Preston Wilson proved to be the hero, with a 14th-inning sacrifice fly to end the game. The game lasted 4:41.

3. A new trend has started: On Monday night, Nomar Garciaparra hit a game winning grand slam in his second game off the DL. Last night, in his first game off the DL, Atlanta’s Chipper Jones hit a 2-run homer against the Brewers. However, those proved to be the Braves only runs of the night in a 4-2 loss. Geoff Jenkins homered for the host Brewers, and Prince Fielder hit a go-ahead RBI in the 6th inning. The Braves fell to 9-11, four games behind the division-leading Mets. The two teams will play at Turner Field over the weekend.

4. A baseball shootout: In a matchup of two of the best offenses in the majors, the Red Sox prevailed over the Indians by a score of 8-6. The Indians had a 4-2 lead after 3 innings thanks to Travis Hafner’s RBI double. But the Red Sox big bats proved to be too much, as both David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez homered. Ramirez’s 3-run blast in the 8th gave Boston a lead they wouldn’t give up. Curt Shilling was hit with his first non-win of the season, with 5 allowed in 6 innings. Keith Foulke was the one who picked up the win, and Jonathan Papelbon got the save.

5. Show us the money!: Minor league umpires have begun a strike, and major league umpires are protesting with them. These umpires are upset because AAA umps only make around $15,000 a year, while major league umpires make from $92,000 to $375,000, according to USA Today.com. The strike, which began March 24, has resulted in college and some high school umpires calling minor league games.

Categories
Green Bay Packers

Lions, Vikings and Bears fans rejoice: Favre will be back!



Yes! Another INT closer to 277

Fans all over the NFC North are celebrating today. Brett Favre has announced that he will be back for the 2006 season. After sitting on the pot for 4 months, the gunslinger is back to break the all-time INT record. Like all competitive athletes, Favre is back to prove that he is in fact the best — the best interception thrower in the history of the NFL. Take that, George Blanda!

They are going wild in the streets of Detroit, Minnesota and Chicago today because they are guaranteed easy victories over one of their division rivals and any coach or player with INT incentives will be able to reach them. Hmmmm… perhaps not all over the NFC north — they can’t be celebrating in Green Bay. All this does is delay the development of first round draft pick Aaron Rodgers so that the Packers will be a bad to mediocre team for at least another two years.

Fans will argue that Favre has earned the right to play another season in the NFL. Yes, we agree. But that season was 2002.


Links:
[Green Bay Press-Gazette]: Favre tells Packers he’ll be back
[Sportscolumn]: Even Packers fans are sick of Favre

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
Miami Dolphins

Ricky Williams loses drug test appeal

So Ricky has lost his appeal… and nobody really cares. Dolphins fans are sick of the soap opera, Nick Saban has Ronnie Brown, and the other players won’t have to answer any questions about Ricky after training camp. Hell, not even Ricky cares. In what is apparent to almost everyone, this is how Ricky wanted it. He got the $8.6M monkey off his back, played the full 2005 season and now can be free to smoke all the pot and practice all the yoga he wants.

In every interview since he left the team in 2004, it was evident that Ricky Williams didn’t like football and didn’t want to be a football player. Sure, he said all the right things about bring re-energized and enjoying his time with Nick Saban and the Dolphins, but in between the lines, you could read his desire to just get back to Australia or India or Marin County. He says he’ll be back in 2007 but the odds on that are about the same as Vince Young joining Mensa.

So this is the end of the Ricky Williams saga. A can’t miss athlete whose legacy will be more for pot smoking and posing on the cover of ESPN in a bridal dress with Mike Ditka than anything he did on the field. But it’s not a tale of wasted talent. Ricky just did what he wanted to do. Who are we to judge?

Links:
[Miami Herald]: Dolphins must run without Ricky
[Miami Herald]: Now Ricky has time to find himself
[Miami Sports Dudes]: Debating the effect of Ricky’s suspension

Categories
General Sports

Vote for the next Woman We Love

Here are the newest nominees as discussed in the podcast. If you have a woman you’d like to nominate, post it here.

Maria Sharapova
Kellie Pickler
Katharine McPhee
Monica Bellucci
Kate Bosworth
Amanda Righetti

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?)

Categories
NHL General

Lindy Ruff vs Ken Hitchcock


After getting pasted 6-0 in the first period of last night’s playoff hockey game against the Sabres, the Flyers started getting a little chippy as they say in hockey and took a bunch of penalties in the second period. Of course, Flyers fans will say they were just sending a message for the next game, which is one of the great things about hockey.

After the game, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said that the Flyers were playing “like idiots”. When told about Ruff’s comments, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said, “That’s Lindy’s opinion. I’ve seen his teams do the same things. Lindy ought not to talk about that.” OK…no news so far… then as he was walking out of the presser, Hitchcock added:


Tell Lindy to fuck off, to mind his own fucking business.

Sure, it was a calculated move to deflect attention from his own team but you gotta love hockey coaches for saying stuff like this.

Links:
[Philly.com]: Ruffly speaking, Hitchcock offers fighting words

Categories
MLB General

Full Count for April 25, 2006: Rick Monday is the man

1. God Bless America: 30 years ago today, Rick Monday made the “greatest heroic act that’s ever happened on a baseball field”. After a man and his son jumped onto the field at Dodger Stadium and spread a flag out so they could burn it, Monday ran over, grabbed the flag and ran off with it. The crowd was shocked but then broke into a spontaneous rendition of God Bless America. Major League Baseball and the NFL try to manufacture this kind of patriotism all the time post-9/11 but nothing will ever come close to that one night in 1976. Monday has been offered $1M for the flag; “But the flag is not for sale. What this flag represents, you can’t buy.” (from USA Today)

2. The streak is over: Coming into last night’s White Sox-Mariners matchup, the game just didn’t seem fair. The White Sox had won 8 in a row, and the Mariners were a four-game slide. Both streaks are now over and done with, because the Mariners bested the Sox in an 11 inning brawl. Both teams had excellent games from their pitchers. Chicago starter Jon Garland allowed 3 runs over 8 innings, while Seattle’s Jamie Moyer gave up just 1 in 7 innings work. With the game tied 3-3 in the 11th, unheard of Mariners pinch hitter Yuniesky Betancourt hit a bloop single to left to score the winning run for Seattle. Chicago’s streak was the highest in the majors so far this year, and if they had won this game it would have been the team’s longest streak since 1977. They still share the MLB-best 13-5 record with the Astros.

3. The surprise of the season: Just about everyone wrote off the Reds coming into this year. Some said they had no pitching, others that they played in a murderous division. Well, they don’t, and they do, but they are still getting the job done so far this year. Last night, they scored 4 runs in the first two innings against the Nationals in a winning effort, and starter Elizardo Ramirez picked up his first career victory. This improved the Reds to a hard-to-believe 13-7 record on the year. They are tied with Houston and Chicago as the teams with the most wins in the MLB, though the Reds have one more loss than those teams.

4. And the team right below them…: St. Louis, one of the top five teams in the majors on anyone’s list, has suffered through a semi-slow start so far this year. Their record is a decent 12-7, but that puts them in 3rd place in the riotous NL Central division. Anyway, they have showed signs of their usual excellence, including in yesterday’s 7-2 win over the Pirates. Guess who homered for the Cardinals? Albert Pujols, what a surprise! It was his league-leading 12th slam of the year. Chris Carpenter continued his dominance against the Pirates as he pitched 6 strong innings to get the win. Pittsburgh has the worst record in the NL at 5-16.

5. Mr. DL wins the game: Nomar Garciaparra has joined Ken Griffey Jr. and Jeff Bagwell as players who are more often on the DL than off of it. Well, Nomar’s back, and in his 2nd game for the Dodgers, he won the game for them. With a 2-2 game coming into the 9th, the Dodgers loaded up the bases against usual stud closer Brad Lidge. Then Nomar came up, and hit a big-time grand slam off Lidge to win the game. These were his first RBIs as a Dodger. Lidge was hit with his first blown save and loss of the season.