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
San Francisco Giants

Barry Bonds’ brother would like to be heard


We strongly believe that relatives of athletes should be seen and not heard (see Wilma McNabb) so it comes as no surprise that by opening his mouth, Bobby Bonds Jr. makes us hate Barry Bonds even more.


Hank Aaron does not even want to support Barry. Being a black man going through what he went through in the past and not supporting my brother, it kind of makes me look at him like, ‘Are you serious, brother? Are you serious?’

Cut the steroids out, just look at my brother as a human being. He stole bases, he ran, he caught the ball. It’s so hard to justify what’s going on with baseball and how they’re treating him.

First of all, he’s actually criticizing Hank Aarons? Is this like black on black crime or something? Why should Hank Aaron support a guy breaking his record by cheating? Most athletes will say that records are made to be broken but they hope that it’s done by someone with more talent than them or worked harder, not by someone who has more syringes.

Second, hate to break it to you bro, but Barry Bonds sucks as a human being as well. Yes, that’s right, he ran, he caught the ball, he stole bases… in the past. Now all he is is a roided up mass of muscle waiting for one pitch to knock over the fence. You’re driving a forklift in NJ while Barry is making $15M this year. That’s insane. That’s just completely insane.

Links:
[NJ.com]: Kid Brother Takes His Cuts

Categories
Golf

Day trader wins first World Series of Golf tourney



We going Sizzler!

A few months ago, we told you about the World Series of Golf, which combines golf with no limit poker style gambling on each hole. Well, the inaugural WSOG took place over the weekend and it was won by Mark Ewing, a 31-year-old day trader who quit his job two months ago to “take some risks in life.”

Ewing is only a 10-handicap but he managed to come up big at the end and make timely bets. Playing like a poker pro (and beating Phil Ivey), he forced his opponents to go all-in on the final hole 16th and made putt to secure first place and $250,000 in prize money. He will split the prize with two friends who each paid 1/3 of the entry fee. They planned on putting $40,000 of their prize money on one hand of blackjack. Charles Barkley would be proud.

Considering the popularity of poker, this type of betting seems to be a lot of fun. But it’d be a little difficult to keep track of during your weekly Sunday outing. Playing a round on the weekends is slow enough as it is, can you imagine having to deal with four jackasses in front of you trying to figure out chip leads and all-ins? Let’s hope this stays a TV sports.

Links:

[MSNBC]: Day trader wins World Series of Golf in Las Vegas

Categories
General Sports

May 16 2007 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI. We’re back to our live format this week with lots to talk about.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 70 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.

This week’s topics include:

  • NBA playoffs: suspensions, the Warriors, the Bulls
  • Michael Vick’s dogfights
  • Brett Favre
  • Amanda Beard in Playboy
  • MLB and the demise of the Yankees

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please give us a good rating below so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t, send us an email ([email protected]) and give us some suggestions. Thanks for listening.

Categories
NBA General

Odds and Ends: More on the NBA ref racial bias study



Should we call it on the black guy?

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a study that concluded that there was a racial bias in foul calls in the NBA. One of the major flaws in that study was that the data was based on box scores and only the racial makeup of the three member crews could be used in the analysis instead of which ref made which call. Well, after the NBA criticized the study, they released actual person by person foul call data to Justin Wolfers, the professor who penned the study.

After reviewing the new data, Wolfers found that the NBA’s data actually confirms racial bias in officiating. Doh! An independent analysis of both Wolfer’s and the NBA’s study confirmed the findings in Wolfer’s study. The NBA is taking an ostrich approach: “It’s done. It’s over. We have nothing to add to what we have said already.”

In other news…

[NY Times]: Some people think an amputee sprinter might actually has an unfair advantae in the Olympics.

[Indystar.com]: Colts say no to car honoring team in the Indy 500.

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]: Hey, Ruben Patterson, don’t forget: you’re a sex offender.

[Off Color Commentary]: Pam Oliver sucks

[One More Dying Quail]: Baseball’s All-Height Team

And finally, we have two stories on why ESPN sucks donkey. First, is Fantasy Fishing. Boy, we can’t wait to get our office ready for this thing. Second, the National Spelling Bee will be hosted by Mike and Mike. How many Golic is so dumb, he can’t spell cat jokes will there be? 200? ESPN really is ruining everything holy in sports/almost sports.

Categories
Denver Nuggets

Tiger Woods and Carmelo Anthony top charitable athletes


The Giving Back Fund released the 2006 Giving Back 30, which lists the top 30 most charitable individuals in sports and entertainment. Tiger Woods was the top athlete on the list, with $9.5M in donations but the next most charitable athlete had most people surprised — Carmelo Anthony sits at #8 with his donations to CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU
Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities, totalling $4.3M.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise because Carmelo Anthony seems to be such a punk, with that sucker punch in the Knicks-Nuggets brawl, and especially because he appeared in that Stop Snitchin video. While a lot of people will cynically think that all the charitable donations are meant to repair his image, we’re going to give Melo the benefit of the doubt and give him his kudos for helping out. If you want to donate money just for the PR, you donate something like $10,000, not $4.2M. It doesn’t matter how big his contract it, that’s a lot of scratch.

Other athletes on the list are: The Rock ($2M), Andre Agassi ($1M), Tiki and Ronde barber ($1M), Tony Stewart ($1M), Mike Sexton ($560k), and Lance Armstrong ($500k). These figures are only the publicly announced donations. There might be athletes who donated privately.

Links:
[The Giving Back Fund]: The Giving Back 30

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

Michael Vick hopes there’s no game tape


Yahoo! Sports seems to be trying to make themselves into an investigative journalism site; remember their pounding the whole Reggie Bush housing scandal into the ground? Well now they’ve set their sights on the Vick dog-fighting case.

In an exclusive, they are reporting that Kathy Strouse, Animal Control coordinator for Chesapeake in Virginia, is claiming that a reliable source informs her that there are tapes out there that tie Michael Vick directly to dog-fighting. Now, we hate Vick as much as the next guy but this evidence seems a little suspicious:


We don’t know where (the tapes) are or if they do indeed exist, but I have been told that they are out there,” said Strouse, who is also affiliated with two other organizations involved in the welfare of animals. “Without knowing where they are, there’s no possibility of getting a search warrant at this point.

So based on this statement which says nothing, Yahoo runs a headline “Videos might show Michael Vick watching dog fights.” Yeah, that’s not irresponsible at all. Oh and there are certain individuals who have identified Vick on the property during matches… but they are reluctant to testify. Well, this certainly seems like a solid case. Great job, Strouse and Yahoo.

Links:
[Yahoo]: Videotapes sought of Vick watching dog fights

Categories
New York Giants

Strahan is not gay


Well this little piece of news from the NY Post isn’t going to help those Michael Strahan is gay jokes:


Giants defensive end Michael Strahan put himself on the charity auction block the other night at Buddha Bar’s first anniversary. He hoped to get a date with a lady, but the male sports fans in the crowd weren’t having it. Two guys outbid 13 gals, leaving Strahan to agree to take both men to dinner for the price of $10,000 each. The dough will go to the Institute for Civic Leadership, a nonprofit educational organization.

Now, we know that Strahan probably isn’t gay and that it was just a vindictive ex-wife talking but it’s still pretty funny that he’d put himself in a charity bachelor auction and end up with two dudes as dinner dates. See? This is what you get for trying to help charities.

Links:
[Page Six]: MEN FOR MIKE

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Carlos Lee earns his keep


1. Lee’s the Man: Many thought Carlos Lee was one of this offseason’s most overpaid players. Right now the Astros are looking like geniuses for signing him to a $100 million contract. He single-handedly led Houston to victory on Tuesday, going 4-4 with 2 homers and 4 of the Astros’ 6 runs. His second homer was a solo walkoff shot in the 10th inning that gave Houston a 6-5 win. Lee’s fifth straight multi-hit game has raised his average from .287 to .336. He is tied for the National League lead in RBIs with 37. Lee’s teammate in the Astros outfield, super-prospect Hunter Pence, has been great since he was called up two weeks ago. Pence went 3-3 with a homer yesterday and is hitting .310 with 14 RBIs in 15 games. The Astros have been playing well lately and at 19-19, they’re second in the NL Central.

2. The Big Unit is Back: After his best start of the season, Randy Johnson proved he could still dominate on any given night. Johnson only pitched six innings against the Rockies, but he shut them out and allowed just one hit. Johnson got his first victory of the season as the D-Backs won 3-0 in Colorado. The 43-year old also struck out a season-high nine. Jose Valverde closed the game for his 13th save, which is second in the NL.

3. Under the radar dominance: Everyone knows the Red Sox, Braves, and Brewers are all having great seasons, but the Dodgers have been a slightly quieter team. At 24-16, they have one of the best records in the majors, and they have a significant three-game lead in the highly competitive NL West. On Tuesday they beat the Cardinals 9-7, as their hitting continued to stay hot. The Dodgers lack a power bat, but they have the speedy duo of Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre, Jeff Kent is back to his old self, and Russell Martin has been the best-hitting catcher this year. Furcal had three RBIs on Tuesday in his third consecutive four-hit game. His 12-14 streak has raised his average from .228 to .297. Martin had two RBIs and leads all catchers in steals, hits, and runs.

Player of the Day: Carlos Lee, Astros: 4-4, 2 HR (9), 4 runs, 2 RBIs in a win over the Giants.

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Gay lacrosse coach fired for sucking


Missouri has declined to renew the contract of their openly gay men’s lacrosse coach because of his job performance. Kyle Hawkins has been the coach for nine years but only out of the closet for one year. Since it’s a club sport, the decision was made by the team itself. Hawkins said he was informed of the decision in a meeting with team leaders, an assistant coach and a university official. Team president Andy Mackley said that the sexual orientation of the coach had no bearing on the decision, rather, it was made because the team did not feel he was the best man for the job.

Hawkins said he would not pursue any legal action but did add that the reasons for his dismissal were “laughable. A week and a half before the meeting, they had sat in front of the ESPN cameras and said what a great coach I was.”

In other news…

[Inside Bay Area]: Santa Clara announcer fired because he’s not funny.

[WCBS]: Dad ran onto Fenway Park to impress his son. Because jail time is totally impressive.

[Star Telegram]: Cuban vs Trump round 2

[Tennessean]: Feeling a little inadequate about something? You can buy the JumboTron from Nashville Arena.

[SI]: Two 6-foot-7 twins. Perhaps they can date this guy.

And finally, here are the 10 most undeserving MVPs. and yes, Dirk Nowitzki is on this list.

Categories
Boxing

Today in fake boxing steroids news


Rocky Balboa has pleaded guilty in Australia to one count of importing a banned substance (HGH) without a prescription and one count of posession of testosterone, a banned substance in Australia. Stallone was busted in February for trying to sneak the PEDs in his luggage and also trying to get rid of more evidence before a customs search by throwing vials out of his hotel room balcony. Unfortunately, the vials just landed in a garden box and were easily recovered.

Even though he did not appear in court via satellite link, Stallone apologized for the incident and his lawyers claim that he was taking both substances for a “medical condition.” Yeah, the medical condition being that he needed to be ripped for the final (please?) Rocky movie. We must accept that he has a serious medical condition that requires these drugs because his lawyer tells us so:


This is not some back-alley body builder dealing covertly with some banned substance in some sort of secret way. This was a legitimate medical condition being treated by doctors of the top ranking order in the west coast of the United States.

We didn’t realize Dr. Nick had moved to the west coast.

Links:
[Steroid Nation]: Sly Stallone sorry for his new black eye