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
Olympics

Joey Cheek is a good guy


Maybe it’s the spirit of the Olympics. Maybe it’s all those NBA Cares commercials drilled into my brain. But it’s time SC blog didn’t just blog about athletes holding up people outside bars and McDonalds. And this story is as good as they come.

Joey Cheek, right after winning the 500-meter speed skating sprint, said that he would donate the $25k prize money to an organization called Right To Play which funds projects to help disadvantaged kids throughout the world develop via sports. He also asked his sponsors to match his donation for a specific project in Chad.

Cheek understood that this was his one moment in the spotlight and he chose the opportunity to help disadvantaged youth. You can email him kudos at [email protected]

I bet Shaun White is feeling pretty bad about using his to ask Sasha Cohen out.

[SFGate]: Heart of gold to go with medal

Categories
Olympics

What the US Olympic team needs: More Cowbell



I got a fever…

Yes, everything can be improved with more cowbell, even the Olympics. Can’t clap with gloves on? No problem, you can bang away at your $20 official Olympic licensed souvenir cowbell. I think this would be a great way to pick up chicks in the Olympic village. Just bang the cowbell once for yes and two for no.

[Cowbell.com]: Official cowbell supplier for the olympics

Categories
College Basketball

0-242? and you thought the Knicks stunk



4.0 GPA + 47ppg = 0 wins

The Div III Caltech basketball team hasn’t won a conference game in 21 years. 242 games! You’d think some point, they’d have accidentally won a game when the opposing team’s bus broke down or got hit by a meteor. Hell, even the Temple football wins a game every couple of years or so.

They are improving though.

In 2003-04, zero games were closer than 30 points; opponents scored over 80 points 19 times. Last season, the deficit was less than 20 in 11 games with Caltech holding 9 opponents to 65 points or less.

Man, those math geeks sure love their stats.

To be fair to the Techers, they did beat a non-conference team at the beginning of last year — Life Pacific College, a Christian Bible college with about 350 students. Hey a W is a W right?

[KC Star]: Brainy players can’t solve 0-242 puzzler
[Caltech]: Caltech Men’s Basketball page

Categories
MLB General

Oh for fuck’s sake, retire already



Figure it out!

Remember when athletes used to retire with dignity? They’d realize their skills had deteriorated and hold a tearful press conference to announce they were done. I could do without the waterworks but damn do I miss those days. Now, athletes threaten to retire. They don’t come out and do it of course, they find one of their cronies to “leak” the story to some idiot sportswriter and the next thing you know, the fans who are living 10 years in the past get all panicky. Please.

Yesterday, it was Sammy Sosa, begging for a spot on a team by saying he wouldn’t beg for a spot on a team. Today comes news from his agent that Roger Clemens is leaning towards retirement. Is he just trying to hold up the Red Sox and the Rangers for more cash? (By the way, how desperate are the Red Sox. They made a DVD that included Boston fans pleading for the Rocket to go back there. Have some pride, man.) Or maybe he just needs the spotlight for a couple more months.

Of course, no day can go by without retirement talk about John Madden’s personal Jesus Brett Favre. According to his agent, a couple of days ago, Brett said, “If you ask me today, I’d say I’m leaning toward retirement.” I don’t care if Favre leans towards being a a gay cowboy, just make up your damn mind or shut up. Actually, anyone who isn’t firmly planted on Favre’s ass knows that he should have retired 2 years ago after throwing a duck to Brian Dawkins in the playoffs.

[Railbird Central]: Brett Favre’s agent James “Bus” Cook confirms retirement thoughts
[MSNBC]: Agent says Clemens most likely will retire

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Feb 13 2006: TO absurdity show

[Ben Maller]: NFL star Terrell Owens (aka, T.O.) has reached agreement with Banyan Productions for a new reality television series.

[Yahoo]: “Mr. Clarett intends to fight this indictment with the same vigor and resolve he displayed in taking OSU to a national championship.”

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Blogger Suspends Self For Making Us Imagine Sex With Belichick

[Sportshooligan]: Hockey Fight Song Banned for Being “Theoretically Racist”

[Vague Space]: Wow, this guy really hates UConn.

Categories
Olympics

Shaun White’s trying to pick up Sasha Cohen



How’s it going?

Shaun White might be my new favorite Olympian after he reminded us why guys do anything in the first place: to impress chicks. Right after he won his Gold medal in the halfpipe, he started scamming on Sasha Cohen.


I’m hoping Sasha dates gold medalists. Oh yeah, this, I just got it. How’s it going?

He’s even got a line ready. “Hey, you do 1080s, and so do we. How’s it going?” I’m thinking maybe the fact that he’s a gold medalist and multimillionare will do the trick.

This brings up a debate IUfan62 and I have been having. He’s on Shaun’s side but if I had to take a figure skater, I’d go with Tanith Belbin.

[SFGate]: Hey Sasha, meet Shaun, gold medalist

Categories
NHL General

Operation Slap Shot update: Gretzky vindicated



No involvement

It seems the reports that the Great One knew about the gambling ring are incorrect. The wiretapped conversation that has him discussing the ring are only after he was informed of his wife’s involvement on Monday. So I guess while his remark when asked about his wife’s involvement by reporters on Tuesday (“Oh, really? I don’t know, you’d have to ask her that.”) was less than guileless, we can’t really blame Gretz for the implied denial of knowledge. After Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, we have much lower standards on the truth.

Gretzky and his wife are headed to Turino on Tuesday where the international press will have their chance to run roughshod with this story should any new developments occur. Anything short of a gold medal in Turino for the Canadian hockey team will be viewed as a major disappointment but the head of the Canadian Olympic Committee has said that Gretzky won’t be a distraction and that what the Canadian team does will override the scandal. In Gretzky’s favor, if you need any more proof that he does belong at the Olympics, you have to look no further than Stephen A Smith, who opines that “Gretzky needs to skip the Olympics”.

Meanwhile, there’s no news on Tocchet but Guy Junker in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review points out: “When the rumblings started about Pete Rose and his gambling problems, the first thing we heard was that he didn’t bet on baseball. Then we were told he didn’t bet on Cincinnati Reds games. Then we were told he didn’t bet against the Reds.” Interesting point. He’s probably the first journalist not to lemmingly repeat the “no evidence of hockey bets” statement issued by the NHL.

Finally, here is a columnist who feels the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

Categories
Denver Broncos

Elway: Just say NO to TO


John Elway isn’t lonely anymore. In Hawaii as part of the “spend a day with John Elway” promotion, he gave his thoughts on adding Terrell Owens to the Broncos.

The question is Terrell, Terrell Owens, in a position now where he says, ‘OK, I’m finally going to conform, be a team guy?’ I personally don’t think it’s a good fit. But listen, it’s easy for me to draw that conclusion, since I’m not making the call. But personally, it’s just not something I would do. I think there is potential there to poison some things.

Perhaps Elway wants to be the last Bronco QB to win a Super Bowl because there is no way the Broncos can compete next year without adding a top notch wide receiver. Rod Smith is getting to Tim Brown age and Ashley Lelie is a bust. Maybe TO does poison the well eventually but you only need to rent his services for 1 year.

[Rocky Mountain News]:
Elway: T.O. not a good fit

Categories
Soccer

Gay guys love the Tiffin University Soccer team



Who wants to go first?

There’s something about hazing that seems very gay to me (NTTAWWT). Well, the Tiffin Mens soccer team kinda proved that last fall when they had a male bonding hazing event when some freshmen soccer players were photographed tied together in their boxers. The coach and players are all dismissing it as a social event that got blown way out of proportion. Maybe it got blown out of proportion because the photos from the event are being passed around by a gay photo site. And that wiffle ball bat labeled “freshman fucker” isn’t helping either.

Why can’t sports teams just do what gangs do and beat the piss out of new recruits. Why does it always have to include something really homoerotic. At least Tiffin soccer didn’t go as far as the Sierra Vista High School basketball team in Las Vegas, whose hazing ritual included shoving their fingers in a new player’s rectum. I’m pretty sure everywhere outside of a prison league, this is stepping over the line.

[Bad Jocks]: Tiffin College Men’s Soccer Team Alleged Hazing Pictures

Categories
Oakland Raiders

Al Davis hiring like it’s 1989


In a move that had everyone scratching their heads, and Mike Shannahan laughing his ass off, Al Davis introduced Art Shell as the new Raiders head coach. This is after Ken Whisenhunt decided that he’d rather be a coordinator Pittsburgh than work for Al Davis and Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino decided college was a better place.

Poor Grandma Davis, he can’t even hire anyone and now he has to go to Art Shell. This is like calling up your ex-gf from 10 years ago in a fit of desperation and getting married. I think if Art Shell turned him down, Al Davis would have propped Lyle Alzado up and coached the team himself, Weekend At Bernies’s style.

Here’s what the Raider Nation is saying:

[Raidersfans.net]: AutumnWind32: “This hire can be spun and rationalized into what ever anyone wants it to be. If you want to look hard until you find that silver lining then go right ahead. The bottom line is Al went back on his word. He has not done everything neccessary to get this team turned around. Instead he’s settled for a candidate that he projected as his 3rd or more likely 4th option. In other words, his fall back, desperation plan.”

[Raidertake] : While Art Shell hasn’t prowled a sideline lately, neither had Joe Gibbs, and he seems to be writing a fine second chapter for himself in D.C. Art Shell is a presence. Art Shell is a true Raider. Art Shell can anchor this team and instill a winning attitude from the top down. Welcome back to the helm, Mr. Shell.

[Oakland Tribune]: While the Raiders might have been better off with a dynamic individual who could inject a new urgency, they hired a good man who knows, above all, how to get respect, take command and capture the ear.