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 Thursday Mar 23 2006: Womens soccer league…again

Remember the WUSA? Neither do we. But despite crapping out in 2003, the new president of the US Soccer Federation thinks that another womens soccer league is a good idea. Perhaps another XFL deal is a good idea too. If womens soccer couldn’t capitalize on the momentum provided by Brandi Chastain and her sports bra, I’m not sure what investor would back a league now.

In other news…

[Washington Post]: Soriano decides to stop being a little bitch and plays left field.

[NY Post]: Posada fractures his nose playing catch.

[AP]: Condoleeza Rice won’t apply for NFL commissioner job.

[Need4Sheed]: Bill Walton is a tool.

[Sports Pickle]: Newly acquired Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has been feverishly studying Dallas game film since signing with the team on Saturday, intent on learning his new team’s system as soon as possible, but mostly so he can learn his quarterback’s weaknesses and use them to destroy him once the season begins.

Categories
General Sports

Nine athletes disappear from Commonwealth Games

No, this isn’t a Scooby Doo episode, seven athletes from Sierra Leone, one from Tanzania, and one from Bangladesh are missing from the Commonwealth Games in Australia. The seven from Sierra Leone make up about a third of the country’s team in Australia.

Technically the athletes haven’t defected yet because their visas are good until April 26th. However, is there any question they’re not going to go back to Sierra Leone, land of 9 year civil wars, corrupt officials, and lowest average income in the word? Good luck fellas.

Related Links:
[Sydney Morning Herald]: Seven more athletes vanish

Categories
MLB General

More names come out of Game of Shadows

Game of Shadows comes out today and more details of the book are coming to light. And by more details, we basically mean more people are being thrown under the bus for steroids use. However, the athletes named aren’t really a shock to anyone. Gary Sheffield, Jason and Jeremy Giambi, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and Bill Romanowski. As the onion headline quipped “Bonds used steroids reports everyone who has ever watched baseball”.

BALCO founder Vic Conte told his clients to claim they were taking flaxseed oil if asked by authorities whether they used “the clear”. Barry Bonds apparently can follow instructions because that’s exactly what he told a grandy jury in 2003. How much time did Lil Kim get in jail for perjury?

We’re waiting for Canseco’s sequel to Juiced where he promises to name even more names.

Related Links:
[AP]: Book: Bonds wanted out of BALCO scandal

Categories
Minnesota Vikings

Love Boat trial part one: Daunte and Moe

Homer Simpson got pulled over by Chief Wiggum for drunk driving once and told him “I wasn’t drinking. I was… out buying porn!” Culpepper is using the same logic folks. I wasn’t involved in any lewd behavior because I was violating gambling laws! Smart.

Culpepper claims he is not guilty of indecent conduct and lewdness because he was playing dice the whole time and turned away dancers that approached him. Moe Williams claims that he did not touch a dancer’s breast as a crew member claimed. His lawyer contended that the woman’s breast was covered so even if he did, it wouldn’t be lewd behavior. As any teenage knows, if you don’t get under the shirt, it doesn’t really count as second base.

I like that the prosecutors are giving us this appetizer before the main course. Lap dancing? Touching a breast? That’s just the set up for the trials of Fred Smoot (charged with using a sex toy on a stripper) and Brian McKinnie (charged with and performing and receiving oral sex.) Good work boys.

Related Links:
[Pioneer Press]: Dance, dice … discrimination?

Categories
Oakland Raiders

Raiders decide winning is not for them, sign Aaron Brooks


There’s no ifs ands or buts about this — Aaron Brooks stinks. Think about this, Raiders fans, Brooks was benched last year for Todd Bouman. When you get benched by the New Orleans Saints, something is terribly wrong. Oh I know you Raiders fans are thinking, ‘Aaron Brooks stunk because he was on the Saints.’ Aaron Brooks stunk because he is a terrible quarterback with no decision making abilities.

Aaron Brooks is Kerry Collins with some mobility. Great. That just means he can scramble around before throwing an INT. And if you think he was brought in to tutor Vince Young or Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler until they are ready to play, then you’re going to be severely disappointed. What exactly is Aaron Brooks going to teach them? How to smile after throwing an interception? How to throw lateral passes to your lineman? How to not lead your team into the playoffs?

Good luck Raider Nation. It’s going to be a long year.

Related Links:
[SFGate]: Raiders sign ex-Saints QB Brooks

Categories
General Sports

Sportscolumn.com Weekly Sports Roundup Podcast for March 21 2006

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:

  • TO signs with the Cowboys
  • March Madness discussion: Nova-BC, Gonzaga-UCLA
  • World Baseball Classic
  • Alfonso Soriano refuses to play left field
  • Adam Vinatieri signs with the Colts
  • Women We Love nominees

If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) drop me a line at [email protected].

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think of this episode in the poll to your right.

Categories
NFL General

Shocking news: Marcus Vick is an idiot

This story probably won’t get the press that it deserves. Mainly because Vince Young set the bar so low with his incredible 6 on the Wonderlic test. NFL Draft Almanac is reporting that Marcus Vick only scored an 11 on the wonderlic test (via Badjocks.com).

Vince Young is a singular talent that teams will take high in the draft despite his low score. Marcus Vick on the other hand, will be lucky to get a job at the McDonald’s drive-thru window by this time next year.

You know, maybe he wasn’t guilty for serving alcohol to underage girls. Maybe he simply didn’t know that 18 was less than 21.

Categories
NFL General

Five NFL player moves you should know about

The beginning of the NFL free agency period created quite a splash with Edge going to Arizona. However, this week there were plenty of moves. Here are five important ones.

Categories
College Basketball

Predicting the 2006 NCAA Tourney champs

The Bradley Braves advancing to the sweet 16 is a good story but the eventual champions will be the team that has at least one or two top NBA draft picks on the team. This has been the conventional thinking in picking NCAA champs for the last 20 years or so.

Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle takes the NBA picks theory and runs with it. He ranks the remaining 16 teams based on the likelihood of which spot in the draft their star players will be taken.


One way to predict which team will win the national championship is to total the number of likely first-round picks each of the 16 remaining teams has. In our rating system, three points are awarded for each player expected to be a top-five pick, two for a likely first-rounder, and one for a player who has a chance to go in the first round.

His system has UConn beating Duke in the finals. Three teams (Villanova, Memphis, Texas) are tied in 3rd place. If he’s correct, then in the games this weekend, take Connecticut over Washingon, Villanova over BC, Florida over Georgetown, Duke over LSU, Texas over West Virginia and Memphis over Bradley. George Mason vs Wichita State and Gonzaga vs UCLA are tossups.

Related Links:
[SFGate.com] : Projecting pros, NCAA champs

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Wed March 22 2006: Selig happy with WBC

So it seems we were too cynical and pessimistic about the WBC. According to Bud Selig (who is somewhat biased, I know), the WBC was a tremendous success. Attendance at the games was 737,000 and television ratings were decent in the United States and very good overseas. More than 1/3 of all television sets in Japan were tuned into the WBC finals. This means WBC 2009 is a virtual certainty.

[Reuters]: Cuba donates its cut from the WBC (7% of net tournament revenue) to Katrina victims.

[Pittsburgh Live]: Someone stole Bill Leavy’s golf cart.

[ESPN]: Hamburg is building a temporary hooligan jail for the World Cup. Philadelphia Eagles fans ask where the stadium courthouse is.

[Pittsburgh Live]: Well, this is just stupid. Steelers Safety Tyrone Carter’s brother had an additional 4.5 years tacked on to his 6 month sentence because he went to the Super Bowl instead of reporting to jail on time. Tyrone Carter said, “I would have done the same thing.”

[NY Daily News]: Steve Francis says that he better be in the starting lineup next season. Well, that worked out well, Isiah.