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
Minnesota Vikings

You can BuyDaunteCulpepperNow for $8M

Looks like Daunte has also alienated the fan base as he forces his way out of town. I think he’s been taking lessons from TO on this tactic. A ebay auction has the starting bid for Daunte at $1M with a buy it now price of $8M.

Appropriately, there are currently no bids for Daunte’s services, though he is described as having “outstanding leadership qualities. He leads morale and team building tours of Boats on Lake Minnetonka.”

There are already 94 Questions & Answers in the auction. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Q: Would you consider a trade for Stephon Marbury? -Isaih Thomas


A: How big are Marbury’s hands. Can he hold on to the football?

Q: Does the uncanny ability to fumble on critical plays come with this Dante or is that sold separately?

A: Sorry it comes with him.. But I am including Stick um in the selling price

You know ebay is going to shut down this auction any second now so here’s a snapshot of the auction page.

[Twincities.com]: Buyer beware: Daunte for sale

Categories
San Francisco Giants

MC Hammer weighs in on Bonds


I didn’t even know MC Hammer had a blog but he’s giving his 2 cents on the Barry Bonds situation. In an open letter to Bonds, Hammer basically calls everyone a hater and tells Bonds to not to walk away from the game before breaking Hank Aaron’s record.

They want to discourage, pressure you and stress you out, literally. Barry don’t let them fool you. You are loved by many. I love you. You have brought me so much joy in your mastery of the game of baseball. Don’t let the bloodhounds win. Finish the mission. Do it for San Francisco, do it for baseball, do it for your kid’s, do it for your Dad (R.I.P.), and do it for yourself.

Do it for the kid’s? The kid’s what? Someone give MC Hammer a grammar lesson. Then someone tell MC Hammer to shut the hell up. I’m not sure who the millions of fans who are rooting for Barry that Hammer talks about are. Every poll I’ve seen has a majority not wanting Bonds to break the home run record. Wait, why am I even talking about what MC Hammer has to say. This is the guy who went gangsta after his career was failing and made a song called Pumps and a Bump.

Well, Hammer, Bonds might not get a chance. According to this LA Times article, Selig could use his “best interest of the game” powers to suspend Bonds. I don’t think he has the stones but it would be the right thing to do.

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Friday Mar 10 2006: Team USA tries not to choke

I haven’t seen any of the WBC yet but I imagine that as it closes in on the finals, I’ll actually watch a game. Good thing for ESPN that the USA team can get into the second round by beating South Africa, a team with exactly 0 MLB players on its roster.

In other news…

[DaveWinfieldHOF.com]: Winfield’s video tribute to the late Kirby Puckett. Better than anything we could write.

[Boston.com]: Patriots release Willie McGinest

[NY Post]: Paul Tagliabue might call it a day and step down as commish of the NFL

[Miami Herald]: San Antonio is trying to steal the Marlins. Tampa Bay can’t give away the Devil Rays.

[Sports Pickle]: (SATIRE) Sports Illustrated Scoops BarryBonds.com on Barry Bonds Steroids Story

Categories
Soccer

Major League Soccer hits an all time low


We thought having to change the name of the Houston 1836 about two days into its existence was bad but the New York/New Jersey Metrostars did them one better by selling out completely.

Ladies and gentlement, your MLS soccer team — Red Bull New York. For over $100 million, you too can buy a crappy soccer team and change the team name to the most awkward one in sports. It could be worse, they could play in Dish, Texas.

You know, when MLS was first announced, I was really excited. It was right after the US National team started to be respectable in international play and they were getting a lot of press. Unfortunately, stunts like this don’t make me want to watch more soccer. Say what you want about the NHL’s strike last year, at least their history prevents them from ever having say, the St. Louis Budweisers. I hope.

[NY Times]: Red Bull Is New Owner, and Name, of MetroStars

Categories
All Other Sports

The Next Jennie Finch?


If you listened to our podcast this week, you would’ve heard Ryan alerting us to Ashley Van Boxmeer, outfielder for Cal State Fullerton. We’re not usually into softball players…well, because they sometimes look like men, but Ashley is a little hottie and judging by her myspace page, she likes to have fun and has a lot of hot friends.

Other than the fact that her father has his name on the Stanley Cup and is now an assistant coach with the Kings, I don’t have much else to add. You’ve stopped reading by now anyway because you’re too busy checking out the photos on her page. You bastards.

Categories
San Francisco Giants

More on Bonds: Playing the race card



Who is this guy?

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for someone to play the race card, although it was from an unlikely source. My money would’ve been on Stephen A Smith (who only surfaces in baseball land to play race cards) or Scoop Jackson, but it was Hall of Famer Willie McCovey who cried foul.


Knowing what I have gone through in sports, there are always those little, you know, racial overtones. I don’t think it would be this big a deal if McGwire was still playing and was in the same shoes chasing that record. I don’t think they would be spending all this time to dig all this dirt up on him.

Perhaps people aren’t so much out to get Barry because he’s black but rather because he’s a world class asshole. Ironic that Barry originally started taking steroids because he was angry that a white guy would be considered a better hitter than he was.

Meanwhile, David Wells has to open his big fat mouth and say that he doesn’t want Barry to break Babe Ruth’s record. First of all, why is David Wells talking so much lately, shouldn’t he be stuffing his face with Krispy Kremes while stealing paychecks from the Red Sox?

Second, I know Wells has a obsession with Babe Ruth but you know someone is already finishing up a column on why we don’t want Bonds to break Babe Ruth’s mark because he’s white. (Nevermind that Hank Aaron owns the record and he’s black.)
I realize the race card is easy to play if you want to avoid actually writing something with substance but can we get off of it already?

If you still insist on maintaining that Bonds didn’t do steroids, check out this photo gallery of Bonds throughout his career.

[Reuters]: Hall member sees racist tinge in Bonds allegation
[MSNBC]: Wells doesn’t want Bonds to pass Ruth

Categories
College Basketball

Just in time for March Madness: Point shaving

Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, claims that about 5% of all college basketball games with a large point spread are fixed. College basketball is the easiest target because one or two people can easily shave some points and win the game but not cover the spread. Easy money for gamblers and as long as the team wins, no one is going to question the players for only winning by 9 instead of 10.

Smaller favorites — teams favored by 12 or fewer points — beat the spread almost exactly 50 percent of the time, showing how good those oddsmakers are at their jobs. But heavy favorites cover in only 47 percent of their games. There is little chance that the difference is due to randomness.

There is a strange dearth of games in which 12-point favorites win by, say, 13 or 16 points. And there are a lot of games that they win by 11 points or slightly less. There is just no good explanation for this.

So here’s the lesson here – unless you know the fix is in, don’t bet on the heavy favorites, especially if the point guard looks like he owes someone money.

[NYTimes]: Sad Suspicions About Scores in Basketball

Categories
Minnesota Vikings

Culpepper pissed off about email, demands trade


Culpepper got an email from the Minnesota Vikings on Monday and decided he’d had enough. He told the Vikings to either trade him or release him.

Daunte won’t say what was in the email but we imagine it’s one of two things. Either Zygi Wilf forwarded him the ghetto prom email he got from the Warriors PR guy or they said something along the lines of “hell no we are not paying you more money for sucking last year with Randy Moss”.

In Daunte’s defense, he was assured that he would not get traded so it’s understandable that he was upset when he found out he was being shopped around. Still, Daunte has to be some kind of moron to ask for a contract renegotiation after having a terrible injury filled year.

I think Daunte is perhaps the second most overrated QB in the league (behind Vick) but do the Vikings really think they can contend next year with Brad Johnson for 16 games?

[Twincities.com]: Culpepper to Vikings: Trade me or cut me
[Twincities.com]: Statement from Daunte Culpepper

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Thursday Mar 9 2006: Killing your fans



gutbuster

I think the Gateway Grizzlies are trying to kill their fans. They just introduced “Baseball’s Best Burger” which is a burger topped with sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon, all between two sides of a Krispy Kreme donut. That’s either a bypass surgery waiting to happen or a colon blow.

[Ben Maller]: Why in holy hell does Terry Bradshaw have a nude scene?

[Fox Sports]: Canada upsets US in the WBC.

[Rocky Mountain News]: Patterson registers as a sex offender in Colorado

[YouTube]: Video link: Rocky VI teaser trailer

Categories
NFL General

The Golden Goose is saved

In the end, the owners weren’t stupid or arrogant enough to kill the NFL as we know it. The owners voted 30-2 to extend the CBA for another six years. The only votes against came from Buffalo and Cincinatti.

Details are filtering out about the new extension but here’s what we know so far:

  1. Salary cap will be $102M in 2006 and $109M in 2007.
  2. The players union apparently got at least some of what they asked for because Paul Tagliabue said about $900M will be added to players’ salaries over the life of the deal.
  3. The extra $900M for the player pool will be funded by the top 15 revenue teams.

How quickly things change. As of last week, teams who were under the salary cap stood to make out big in the offseason because of the glut of veteran free agents expected to be on the market. However, with the new deal, teams find themselves with extra cap money and will be able to sign some of the players they were expected to cut.

All is right in NFL land again but this should be a very anti-climatic free agent season. Maybe LaVar Arrington can predict the future. There’s a lot more cap money now for him to sign a great deal somewhere else.

[NFL.com] : Owners approve six-year CBA extension