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
MLB General

Rickey Henderson getting senile in his old age


What’s the first thing you thought when you heard that Roger Clemens signed with the Yankees? If your answer was “Man, that just means Rickey Henderson is due for a comeback!”, then your name must be Rickey Henderson. Rickey Henderson thinks that Rickey is ready to kick some ass on the field again.


Seeing Roger come back, all the seed that it plants is ask me to come back one time. I’m going to look at it at the end of the year. I might come out with some crazy stuff, a press conference telling every club, ‘Put me on the field with your best player and see if I come out of it.’ If I can’t do it, I’ll call it quits at the end,

Is Rickey talking about a steel cage match? A dance off with the mascot from Tampa Bay? That would be something worth watching. Rickey is the best base stealer ever but there’s a reason he’s been out of the majors since 2003.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Rickey: Clemens? Sign me!

Categories
New York Yankees

Odds and Ends: Yankees fans aren’t delusional at all

ESPN had an interesting poll on how the addition of Roger Clemens affects their postseason chances. A majority of voters (48%) said they’d miss the playoffs while 17% though they will be World Series Champs. What’s interesting is that only in 3 states do a majority of folks feel that the Yankees will be champions at year’s end: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Delusion in a powerful force. (via be Recruited)

In other news…

[Jacksonville.com]: Goodell’s personal conduct policy claims another victim

[SI.com]: Mets fan who was crushed by a fat man is suing the Mets

[The Offside]: It’s a good thing he didn’t get a hot beef injection

[Wizard of Odds]: Our favorite entry into the Wiz’s great billboard competition

[Larry Brown Sports]: His soul probably still stinks

And finally, Malaysian officials are planning on dumping 196,00 cans of confiscated beer down the drain. It’s as if a million sports fans cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

Categories
General Sports

The world’s highest paid athletes 25 and under



Highest paid athlete 25 and under

Business week released their list of 27 athletes under the age of 25 who are stuffing their bank accounts. They took the top 3 earners each from nine sports and compiled a slideshow — which means you have to click next 26 times to get the full list. We hate that. So here is the list for you lazy clickers. Note that this list is based on salary and does not include endorsements.

Basketball
Joe Johnson: 25 years old, $12.7M in 2006-2007
Zach Randolph: 25 years old $12M in 2006-2007
Carlos Boozer: 25 years old $11.6M in 2006-2007. (ripped off blind man in 2004)

Football
Vince Young: 23 years old, $9.7M in 2006

Reggie Bush: 22 years old, $9M in 2006
Mario Williams: 22 years old, $9M in 2006

Tennis
Roger Federer: 25 years old, $8.3M in 2006
Justine Henin: 24 years old, $4.2M in 2006
Maria Sharapova: 20 years old, $3.8M in 2006

Soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo: 22 years old, $12.4M in 2006
Wayne Rooney: 21, $11.7M in 2007
Landon Donovan: 25, $900,000 in 2006

Formula One
Fernando Alonso: 25 years old, $20.4M in 2007
Lewis Hamilton: 22 years old, $2.8M in 2007
Heikki Kovalainen: 25 years old, $2.8M in 2007

Baseball
Carlos Zambrano: 25 years old, $6.7M in 2006
Dontrelle Willis: 25 years old, $4.35M in 2006
Francisco Rodriguez: 25 years old, $3.8M in 2006

NASCAR
Kyle Busch: 21 years old, $4.8M in 2006
Brian Vickers: 23 years old, $3.9M in 2006
Reed Sorenson: 21 years old, $3.5M in 2005

Golf
Lorena Ochoa: 25 years old, $2.6M in 2006
Camilo Villegas: 25 years old, $1.8M in 2006
Julieta Granada: 20 years old, $1.6M in 2006

Hockey
Ilya Kovalchuck: 24 years old, $5M in 2007
Rick DiPietro: 25 years old, $4.5M in 2007
Eric Staal: 22 years old, $4M in 2007

It turns out that if you want to get rich quick, the sport to play is basketball. But based on the top earning athletes without age restrictions, the long term smart bet is either Formula One (Michael Schumacher) or golf (Tiger Woods).

Links:
[Business Week]: Highest-Paid Athletes 25 and Under

Categories
NHL General

Tuesday Morning NHL Roundup


Red Wings 2, Sharks 0

Most people who’ve seen my ramblings on the Internet know my Sharks connection, but I’ll summarize it here: I’ve never even set foot in the city of San Jose, but in August of 1999, a scant two weeks before I went off to college, my dad and I were shopping for potential room posters. I came across a Sharks poster in the bargain bin and, liking the colors more than anything, I purchased it. I threw it up on Move In Day, and sure enough, the token “Awkward Kid Who Lives on Your Hallway” (everyone has one) was from San Jose in my floor’s case, and came in all atwitter. Over that year, we bonded – we once got absolutely hammered watching a Sharks game, which might have been the first time he ever got drunk – and actually became pretty good friends. It’s entirely based, at least initially, on the Sharks. I’m intrigued by the power of sports to bring people together in an almost religious way, and the Sharks were the first team I saw it with, which is utterly random but also fun in many ways.

So, I’m a “Sharks fan,” at least as much as one person can be without ever really watching an entire game of theirs sober. So, it hurt me last night when they got bounced from the NHL’s postseason boogie in favor of the Red Wings, especially knowing they held a 2-0 lead on said Wings at one point. A 41 year old goalie, Mr. Hasek, looked like he was 25 last night in stoning virtually everything the Sharkies threw at him. ‘Twas depressing, and yet again, the Sharks will not compete for Lord Stanley.

With the Red Wings win, the Conference Finals are set: Anaheim vs. Detroit, in a rematch of an interesting rivalry; and Buffalo vs. Ottawa, in a rematch of an utter bloodbath. I’ll write more about that later today for Sportscolumn. For now, I have to drown my Sharks tears with some Starbucks Coffee, which is roughly equivalent to sticking a hot brick of dirt in your mouth.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
All Other Sports

How not to bet the Kentucky Derby


We love betting the trifecta. For a buck or two, you can win hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a race. Hell, sometimes we’ll even go crazy and go with the trifecta box. However, we also know enough about statistics to know that you can’t bet every single permutation in a race and expect to come out on top.

But that’s exactly what a man in Rochester, NY did. On the day of the Kentucky Derby, a man walked into an OTB and asked how much it would cost to buy every possible trifecta combination. And now we break for a quick math lesson–

If you have 20 horses in the field, the possible outcomes for the first three horses would be 20! / (20-3)! = 6,840. Likewise, a superfecta (first 4 horses) would be 116,280. And now back to your regularly scheduled programming–

The man was told the answer and came back to place the wagers. It cost him a total of $13,680 for his $2 trifectas and he wound up winning… wait for it… wait for it… $440. If you’re gonna make a bet like this, you better know what you’re getting yourself into. And since the payout odds are terrible on favorites, you should just eliminate those trifecta combinations. But alas, the man had more cash than math skills so now he’s $13,240 poorer for his trouble.

This story would only be better if he does the exact same thing in the Preakness.

Links:
[Democrat and Chronicle]: Encore: Yes for Street Sense; no for Oscar

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Exceeding expectations


1. A Penny Earned: Brad Penny has exceeded everyone’s expectations this year in being one of the best pitchers in the majors. On Monday he had his most dominant start of the season against the Marlins. Penny had 14 strikeouts in 7 shutout innings. Amazingly, he only had 15 strikeouts the whole season up until this game. Now Penny is 4-0 with a 1.39 ERA, good for second in the majors behind John Maine. He has reeled off seven straight quality starts this season, and has yet to give up a homer. The Dodgers won 6-1, helped offensively by Jeff Kent and breakout catcher Russell
Martin. They have a one-game lead over San Diego in the NL West.

2. Best vs. Worst: The best team in the league played the worst one on Monday, and the result was basically what you would expect. The 22-10 Brewers shut down the 9-23 Nationals as Chris Capuano gave his best start this year. Capuano went 8 innings, had 9 strikeouts, and played a huge role in the 3-0 shutout of Washington. Capuano is now 5-0 and has a 16-inning scoreless streak. As the season goes on, Milwaukee is starting to look less and less like a fluke and more like this year’s Detroit Tigers.

3. Other unbeatens: Penny and Capuano are among a multitude of pitchers who have not lost this season. Most notably is 6-0 Josh Beckett, who has won the most games in the majors this year. CC Sabathia and major league ERA leader John Maine are 5-0. At 3-0 there’s resurgent Bartolo Colon of the Angels, who’s pitching better than he did in his Cy Young season. Also, Mike Maroth is 2-0 despite a 5.35 ERA, Jeremy Bonderman is 1-0 with five no-decisions, James Shields of Tampa is 3-0, Baltimore’s Adam Loewen is 2-0, and Milwaukee’s Claudio Vargas is 3-0. All those undefeated pitchers combined with the 24 who have an ERA under 3.00, and it’s no surprise that pitching has been dominant this season.

Player of the Day: Bengie Molina, Giants: 2-3, 2 HR, 5 RBIs in a 9-4 win over the Mets. Both of Molina’s homeruns and all of the Giants’ runs came in a 9-run fifth inning.

Stat of the Day: Roy Oswalt is 19-1 in his career against the Reds. He beat them on Monday to improve to 5-2. Only four other pitchers in major league history took 19 of 20 from the same team, according to Elias Sports.

Categories
General Sports

Vote for May’s Woman We Love

The Adriane Palicki fan club made sure that she won the woman we love contest last month. We’ll see if any of the fan clubs of these six nominees step up for May.

Here are you nominees:

– Amanda Seyfried : “the hot chick in Mean Girls that isn’t Rachel Mcadams or Lindsay Lohan or Lacey Chabert.”

– Amy Smart

– Edyta Sliwinska – Dancing with the Stars hottie

– Katherine Heigl from Greys Anatomy

– Maggie Gyllenhaal

– Rachel Bilson

Vote Now

Categories
Golden State Warriors

Odds and Ends: Everybody on the Warriors Bandwagon



When did Snoop adopt 2 white kids?

There’s still time to jump on the ever expanding Warriors bandwagon folks. Their second round series begins tonight against the Utah Jazz. Don’t be ashamed, folks, the Warriors barely register in NBA rivalries and nobody actually hates the Warriors so it’s ok to front run with the boys from the city of Golden State. You can join notable bandwagoners as Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson and Snoop Dogg! We’re gonna give Jessica Alba a pass as she can do no wrong and her boyfriend went to high school with Baron Davis. Game 1 is in Utah so expect no celebrities to show up but Game 3 will be chock full of em. We wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Nicholson showed up.

In other news…

[Seattle PI]: The unwritten rules of sports — in writing

[YouTube]: Nerf Dunk Contest… some people have way too much time

[The Age]: Eight-year-old gets hole in one. Damn kids.

[Our Book of Scrap]:Royals Fans Loves Them Some Bagels

[WBRS Sports]: Brady is a Chump

[Steroid Nation]: Florida: Home of dirty elections and clean high school athletes

And finally, don’t forget to register for the 2007 World Egg Throwing Federation Championships.

Categories
Houston Texans

Pick the final Texans cheerleader or rocket scientist


We don’t give the Texans much credit around here (would you?) but we think their latest promotion to pick the last Texans cheerleader is pretty damn smart. You can check out the four contestants (will the winner be treated as “last one in” by the other cheerleaders?) here. Based on the photos, we’re going to have to go with either Amanda or Kristen.

What that site is missing is a bio of the four girls trying out for the last spot. We need to know if any of them are rocket scientists. You think we’re kidding but one of the Texans cheerleaders, Summer Williams, is actually a rocket scientist. There is nothing hotter than a chick in hot pants shaking her pom poms while reciting Pi to the 100th digit. Smart girl. She probably could have picked better than Charley Casserly in last year’s draft.

Categories
NHL General

Monday Morning NHL Roundup


Sabres 5, Rangers 4
First, because – in the words of Fiddy – this is “how I do,” here’s a personal anecdote from this game: I had just played a spirited contest of touch football, and after said game, I had returned to the same house at which I imbibed on Cinco De Mayo. We still had a large quantity of beer and some meats to grill, so we got all tossed up on a Sunday afternoon for no reason. The boyfriend of the hostess, an amiable young Rangers fan, kept departing for long stretches of time. Finally, as the event was nearing its conclusion anyway, he came outside to the back – where I was polishing off my fourth Harpoon – and said, “Yo, last 2 minutes. Come check this out.”

Sure enough, the Rangers were down 1 at The Garden – the same place where so much magic has happened, and yet, so much defeat has been wrought – and across the final 2 minutes, they got about 9 looks at Ryan Miller. The problem was, none of the looks was actually legitimate; he stoned them on every ill-conceived shot along the way. However, with about five seconds left – as my friend’s boyfriend screamed “This is it, gentleman! This is your season!” – Miller was sweating profusely, reminding me of Game 7 of the Eastern Finals last year.

Speaking of the Eastern Finals, this year’s edition has a chance to be the series that “saves hockey,” in much the same way that De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was supposed to “save boxing,” or this past weekend’s Nationals vs. Cubs series could have “saved Washington, DC sports.” Uh, scratch that last one. The Senators and Sabres friggin’ hate each other. This series will go seven – mark my words – and there’s a good chance Chris Drury, the Golden Boy of the entire thing, may not make it through unscathed. These two teams had the most epic NHL brawl of the past five years in February of this season, and Lindy Ruff – who is certifiably insane – has delivered so much venom at the Senators in post-game pressers over the years, you’d think a holy war was about to break out. Also, the fact that it’s two cities a geography major might not be able to explain the relevance of makes it even more interesting; it’s literally a battle for redemption, and there’s gonna be a lot of red on that ice.