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
NBA General

NBA Power Rankings Roundup for Mar 30 2006

Most agree the Spurs are till the top team in the league except for NBA.com which has them as #2. As for movers and shakers, the Nets are on a tear, winning 10 straight for the second time this season. Accordingly, they were rewarded in most polls. The highest they are ranked is #4 in the Fox Sports power rankings. The Kings are the biggest losers in most polls. After flirting with the top 10, the Kings are nowhere to be found this week after losing 3 of their last 5.

Here are the NBA Power Rankings by top sites this week.

Rank NBA.com ESPN FoxSports Sportsline SI TeamRankings
1 Pistons Spurs Spurs Spurs Spurs Spurs
2 Spurs Pistons Mavericks Pistons Pistons Pistons
3 Heat Mavericks Pistons Mavericks Mavericks Mavericks
4 Mavericks Suns Nets Suns Suns Suns
5 Nets Nets Suns Heat Heat Heat
6 Nuggets Nuggets Nuggets Clippers Grizzlies Nets
7 Nuggets Nuggets Nuggets Clippers Grizzlies Nets
8 Cavaliers Grizzlies Grizzlies Grizzlies Nuggets Clippers
9 Grizzlies Clippers Cavaliers Nuggets Clippers Nuggets
10 Clippers Cavaliers Clippers Cavaliers Lakers Cavaliers
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
NHL General

NHL Power Rankings Roundup Mar 29 2006

Sometimes dealing with various sites’ power rankings is like looking at the old boxing champions. This week, we finally have a unified #1 in the Red Wings. Everyone also agrees the Sens are the #2 team in the league. Also, despite the Flyers winning 5 of their last 6, they couldn’t even crack the top 10 in the ESPN poll. Yet, they are in every other poll, ranked as high as #4 by TSN.

Here are the NHL Power Rankings by top sites this week.

Rank TSN.ca ESPN FoxSports Sportsline SI Yahoo
1 Red Wings Red Wings Red Wings Red Wings Red Wings Red Wings
2 Senators Senators Senators Senators Senators Senators
3 Stars Stars Hurricanes Stars Stars Hurricanes
4 Flyers Hurricanes Stars Hurricanes Hurricanes Sabres
5 Rangers Sabres Sabres Rangers Sabres Stars
6 Ducks Ducks Predators Flyers Predators Predators
7 Predators Rangers Rangers Predators Flyers Rangers
8 Hurricanes Predators Flyers Ducks Rangers Flyers
9 Sabres Flames Ducks Flames Flames Flames
10 Sharks Canadiens Flames Sabres Ducks Avalanche
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
NFL General

No Fun League at it again


The NFL is cracking down on freedom of endzone speech by banning any celebrations that include going to the ground or using the football as a prop. NFL owners voted 29-3 on the measure. The three teams to vote against it were Dallas, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay. It’s obvious why Dallas voted against it but who in Philly or TB has any TD celebrations?

The Cincinnati Enquirer ranked Chad Johnson’s TD celebrations last year. According to the new rules, 4 of his top five (reviving the football, the proposal, Santa Chad, and the putt) would be illegal. Only the Riverdance (which is definitely his best one) would still be allowed.

Other rule changes approved are: expansion of the no horse collar tackle rule, tightened restrictions on hitting QBs below the knees, and, the most imporant, allowing down-by-contact plays to be reviewed. The referee will also only have 60 seconds to review a play instead of the current 2 minutes.

Links:
[San Jose Mercury News]: Owners set limits on TD celebrations
[NFL.com]: NFL curtails end-zone celebrations

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Thur March 30 2006: Videos

We have two great videos for you. The first video is of a player pulling the soccer equivalent of the “pretend to give the ball back to the pitcher” play. We have no idea what they’re saying but the video is amusing. The second video is a classic – Randy Johnson absolutely obliterating a bird that happened to pick the wrong flight pattern.

In other news…

[Click 2Houston]: Coach refuses to stop a team bus and forces student to defecate in a bag and urinate into a cup. I asked you if you needed to go before we left the house! (via badjocks.com)

[Railbird Central]: Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed that quarterback Brett Favre is under no deadline to decide his future with the Packers.

[flashwarner.com]: Julian Tavarez Punches like a bitch.

[Kevin Nye]: Cavs make it to the postseason in 8 years. The first step in the LeBron era.

Categories
General Sports

The Weekly Sports Roundup Podcast for March 28 2006

Here’s the latest Sportscolumn podcast.  This week, we have DJ Gallo of Sports Pickle joining us as the special guest.  If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) drop me a line at [email protected].

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 34 mins) or subscribe to the feed.  

If you use iTunes, go to the advanced menu, click on “Subscribe to Podcasts” and enter this url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/scweeklyroundup and iTunes will take care of the rest.

This week’s topics include:

  • March Madness discussion
  • DJ Gallo talks about writing sports pickle and for ESPN
  • Our favorite Sports Pickle stories
  • Top hockey players in video games of all time
  • The best off field fights
  • Ryan’s Jeopardy test… which of course leads to a discussion on Cheers episodes
  • Women We Love nominees
  • Fez on Howard Stern talking about starlets he’s slept with

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please go to this page on Yahoo and give us a good rating.   We’d appreciate it. Thanks.

Categories
College Basketball

Live Blogging the Final Four

Just a reminder that we’ll be live blogging the Final Four this weekend. Come add your comments or hop into the chat room.

The latest entry is on the Front Page.

Categories
General Sports

Lois Griffin is the new Woman We Love


In a stunning victory, Sportscolumn users selected Lois Griffin as the new Woman We Love. And really, who doesn’t love the long suffering Lois for being married to a retard like Peter. Here are some facts on Lois:

  • She’s about 40 years old.
  • She dated J. Geils, a member of Whitesnake, and Gene Simmons.
  • She made a plaster cast of Hall’s equipment but refused to do Oates’.
  • “Women are such teases, that’s why I went back to men.”
  • She’s a great lounge singer and a model.
  • She know taijitsu and can kick some ass.
  • She once asked Brian to spank her.

Did we really just pick an animated woman? Man you guys need to get out of the house.

Categories
New York Yankees

Randy Johnson’s love child blasts the Big Unit

You might have heard that Randy Johnson, who makes $16mil a year sued his baby momma for $100,000 in back day care expenses. This was mainly out of spite because she asked him for money to buy his daughter a car and pay for community college.

His daughter, Heather Roszell, says that she has never spoken to him and that he never returns his letters.

I’m not sure I even want to see him after what he’s putting my mom through,” said Roszell, a willowy, 6-foot-1 blond. “And I just don’t think it’s fair for children not to have a relationship with their parents.

Heather, you might want to talk to Isiah Thomas’ son about dealing with absent famous fathers.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Brushback pitch

Categories
Olympics

Preparing for the Olympics: Communist China style

The Chinese government’s busy printing up etiquette guides for the citizens of Beijing in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics.

The “Basic Reader in Civility and Etiquette” tells residents how to cross the street, order steaks, how to dress (do not wear pajamas in public), and how to greet foreigners.

Beijing’s audiences will represent the spirit and style of the city and the entire country,” mayor Wang Qishan writes in the introduction to “Rules and Propriety.

Along with the athletes and others, they will be like ‘actors’ appearing on billions of television screens around the world. It goes without saying this is a big problem!

According to the article, “A July 2005 basketball game between China and Puerto Rico in Beijing deteriorated into a brawl, with fans hurling insults and missiles at the visiting team.” I think the Chinese might be stockpiling too many missiles if they can afford to just hurl them at the Puerto Rican basketball team.

Links:
[Reuters]: Games hosts try to polish Chinese manners

Categories
All Other Sports

More on the Duke lacrosse team scandal



I’ll take the rapists for $500, Alex

Yesterday, we told you about how members of the Duke lacrosse team had to give DNA samples to investigators after 3 members were accused of sexually assaulting and beating a dancer at a house party.

Well, this story is getting thornier as the school has announced that instead of just a two game suspension, the team would be suspended indefinitely. Apparently, more evidence has come to light, including police finding one of the dancer’s fingernails, makeup bag, cell phone, and ID. The charges being investigated are first degree rape, kidnapping, assault by stragulation, and robbery.

One part of the story we didn’t know about was that the two dancers were black and that when they started to perform, the men in the house started yelling racial slurs at them. Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. According to a neighbor, when one of the young women ran outside, one of the team members yelled to her “Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt.” Boy, his parents did a fine job of raising that kid.

Speaking of which, this blog has pictures of various members of the lacrosse team and their parents names. Now some people might think this is overboard but somehow you can’t help but look through the pictures and play “spot the rapists/racists/assholes”.

One last item of note. The lacrosse team told the dancers they were members of the baseball and track teams. Way to try to throw your fellow athletes under the bus.

This is going to get really ugly, folks. And rightly so. I really don’t understand why anyone would think rape, sodomy, and racial slurs are ok. I imagine Al Sharpton has already got his plane ticket to Durham.

Links:
[News & Observer]: Dancer gives details of ordeal
[News & Observer]: Frustrations boil at Duke