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].

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All Other Sports

Well, stop changing your national anthem then!


Whenever we see a story like this, we always think about Team America and the song “America – Fuck Yeah!“. Yesterday a Russian woman won the Boston Marathon but the organizers played the wrong national anthem.

To be fair to the race organizers, the Russian national anthem had been replaced in 2000 by new lyrics to an old national anthem which was used pre-1996. From 1996 to 2000, there was an entirely different anthem. On top of that, the anthem is ok for presidents but not for athletes. What? Confused? Us too. Still, for one of the most prestigious marathons in the world, a little research probably is in order, especially since this is the second time it has happened.

Spokeman Jack Fleming from the Boston Athletics Association must have been learning his trade from pro athletes as he offered this pseudo-apology:


If we did, then that’s a mistake on our part and we are sorry.

He might as well have said, “hey, you’re lucky we didn’t just play the Kazakh national anthem to the tune of the Stars Spangled Banner” and given the finger.

Links:
[International Herald Tribune]: Boston Marathon organizers play wrong Russian anthem — again

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All Other Sports

$1000 for a mint julep wasn’t high enough?


The people who brought you the $1,000 mint julep last year (no, sorry, does not come with hand relief) at the Kentucky Derby didn’t think the $50,000 they raised for charity was enough so they’re stepping it up this year. Not only are they offering more of the cocktails (132 vs 50), they’re letting Christie’s handle the auctioning of 13 jeweled cups.

The gold cups in which the cocktails will be served will feature the engraving of the name of a previous Derby-winning horse. Eleven of the cups will have three rubies and two will have diamonds. The two with diamonds will feature the first derby winner Aristides and Barbaro. Barbaro? Shouldn’t the most prestigious cup feature Secretariat? That’s like picking Dwyane Wade over Jordan just because he was more recent. And no, we’re not suggesting that Wade be put down like Barbaro.

The auction start today so get your credit cards out.

Links:
[SignOnSanDiego]: Want to toss back jeweled mint julep?

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NHL General

Maggie the Monkey picks the 2007 NHL playoffs – round 1


We love Maggie the Monkey around here. Even though she picked the Oilers to win the Cup last year, she has done an overall excellent job picking the NHL playoffs. She basically proves what we all know: that a monkey spinning a wheel could do just as well as an expert in picking games and series. We actually have no problem with the TSN folks so it’s too bad a monkey consistently beats them out. We wish Maggie would pick NFL games too because we are convinced that she would beat Merrill Hoge easily.

Well, without further ado, here are Maggie’s picks for the 2007 NHL playoffs:

Detroit vs Calgary: Detroit
Anaheim vs Minnesota: Minnesota
Vancouver vs Dallas: Vancouver
Nashville vs San Jose: Nashville
Buffalo vs NY Islanders: Buffalo
New Jersey vs Tampa Bay: New Jersey
Atlanta vs NY Rangers: Atlanta
Ottawa vs Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh

The Minnesota over Anaheim and Thrashers over Rangers isn’t looking very good right now but keep the faith, Maggie gets stronger as the playoffs go on. And the playoff beard is impressive.

Links:
[TSN]: NHL Playoff Picks

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MLB General

The Full Count: Go ahead and ask Barry (Zito)


1. 18 million dollar man: Barry Zito, who is making $18 million a year as part of his new contract with the Giants. In his first two starts he looked like a terrible investment, but on Monday he showed he could still be an ace. Zito shut down the Rockies lineup at Coors Field with a 6-inning, 3-hit, no-run performance. He got his first win of the season as the Giants dominated 8-0. San Francisco’s offense helped out too with two homeruns and a 4-5 performance from Omar Visquel. The Giants are still last in the NL West at 4-7.

2. Who wants the West?: The NL West division is up for grabs this week as its top two teams play: the LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. On Monday the Dodgers took a half-game lead in the division as they won 5-1. Brad Penny improved to 3-0 in seven solid innings. His ERA is 0.89 in three starts, and he’s pitching even better than last year, when he started the All Star game. Nomar Garciaparra led the offense with his first homerun of the year and two RBIs. Unfortunately this series is only a two-gamer, with the finale Tuesday that will decide who leads the division, at least for a day.

3. Beckett is Back: Josh Beckett was shaky last year, his first in the American League. But so far this season, he has regained his 2003 form, when he led the Marlins to a World Series. Beckett improved to 3-0 as his Red Sox topped the Angels 7-2 on Monday. He pitched 6 innings and allowed only one run, which kept his ERA at 1.50 in three starts. Also, the Red Sox’s David Ortiz has broken out of a start-of-the-season slump with three multi-hit games in a row, including two straight with a homerun. Manny Ramirez hasn’t hit a homer yet this season, though he did have two RBIs yesterday. The Sox lead their division by a half-game over the Blue Jays at 7-4.

Player of the Day: Pudge Rodriguez, Tigers: 2-5, grand slam, 6 RBIs in a 12-5 win over the Royals.

Walk Off: Two strong starts by a pitcher could be an anomaly. But three in a row to start the season could mean a breakout performance. There are four pitchers who struggled last year that will make the All Star game this year, at least based on what we’ve seen so far. Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Penny, and Beckett all seem to have shrugged off the difficulties that gave them 4.00+ ERAs last year. They are all great fantasy players who I would trade for if I needed pitching. Other pitchers who have surprised so far are Nate Robertson, Rich Hill, Ian Snell, and Chuck James. I think all of these pitchers will keep their ERA below 4.00, win at least 12-to-14 games, and be considered aces going into next year.

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NFL General

Odds and Ends: You know who Chunky Soup should sign? Jesus


Chunky Soup has announced their latest lineup of “Mama’s Boys” and fans are hoping that their players aren’t affected by the Chunky Soup Curse. The eight man roster of LaDainian Tomlinson, Matt Hasselbeck, Vince Young, Larry Johnson, Jonathan Vilma, DeMarcus Ware, Devin Hester and Todd Heap is the largest that Chunky has ever had.

In a completely unrelated bit of info, we’ve previously stated that Jesus shouldn’t have any part in sports, especially in the Masters, but apparently some people don’t agree. And apparently he plays for the Dallas Cowboys.

In other news…

[Our Book of Scrap]: Speaking of curses, some Chargers fans are so concerned about the Madden Curse that they’ve started a petition against having LaDanian on the cover.

[10,000 Takes]: Cedric Griffin kicked out of a nightclub for not pulling up his pants. Hey, at least it wasn’t for pulling down his pants.

[Yahoo]: Oh sure, Agassi, go to the ‘I accidentally hit my wife with a racket during a fundraiser’ excuse. Jason Kidd sure does wish he’d thought of that one.

And finally, we’ve seen elephants playing soccer and puppies getting flagged for pooping in the Puppy Bowl but this might take the cake. Check out this video of a bunch of crazy Japanese drivers in some sort of weird demolition derby/soccer game.

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Miami Dolphins

Daunte Culpepper’s Madden cover curse will not take no for an answer


Most Madden cover lasts a year or so. Daunte Culpepper’s strain (2002 cover) is the first to make a reappearance after a few years off. For someone that arguably was the league MVP in 2004 if not for Peyton Manning, Culpepper’s career has just absolutely deteriorated in the past couple of years.

It wasn’t bad enough that he lost his starting job to Joey Harrington last year, this year he just might lose his job entirely — to Trent Green of all people. Rumors are swirling that the Dolphins will try to trade Culpepper but in all likelihood will release him to save $5.5M in base salary and cap money.

The Dolphins surely regret taking a chance on his surgically repaired knee last year (over Drew Brees and costing a 2nd round draft pick) and won’t take the chance that he’s not healthy going into training camp.

Don’t feel too bad for Daunte though, there’s always someone willing to take a chance on a veteran QB and we suspect that someone might be Al Davis.

Links:
[Miami Herald]: Another QB scramble for Dolphins

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College Football

Pete Carroll is ripped but USC Song Girls in bikinis steal the show


We’ve never heard of BeatSC.com before but they’ve just put themselves on the map with some fine fine investigative photojournalism. The guy from BeatSC (UCLA fan) went over to the charity swim off between Pete Carroll and Will Ferrell to raise money for USC’s Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund.

Firt off, for an old guy, Pete Carroll is pretty damn ripped but that’s not why you clicked on this story.

From BeatSC (who needs to run a spellcheck):


It was amost like they had a bunch of supermodels that they used as ringers. The girls in the bikinis were head and shoulders above the SAME girls in sc song girl outfits, and we’re not talking about shampoo. Maybe it was the stylish designs of Pom Pom’s niece, but whatever it was, it was hard to hate trojans… at least until AFTER the Charity and Modeling Event was over.

Our favorite pics and video of the race between Will Ferrell and Pete Caroll after the jump. Go to BeatSC.com for more photos. They’ll be posting them all week.

Continue reading “Pete Carroll is ripped but USC Song Girls in bikinis steal the show”

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MLB General

The Full Count: Dodgers doing it right


1. Honoring Jackie: 60 years to the day after Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Dodgers, the entire team wore his number 42 and many Hall of Famers were present at Dodger Stadium to honor him. After a pregame ceremony celebrating Robinson and his achievements, the Dodgers honored him on-field with an impressive win over the Padres. Three Dodgers had three hits as San Diego starter Chris Young lasted only two innings. Randy Wolf was the winning pitcher with a quality start that improved his record to 2-1. The Dodgers’ 9-3 victory broke a tie with the Padres for second in the NL West. Arizona still leads the division.

It’s a good thing the Dodgers moved to the west coast as more than 1/3 of the games were canceled due to heavy rains on the eastern seaboard.

2. Only one hit was needed: The White Sox must have been puzzled after allowing only one hit against the Indians but still losing 2-1. Sox starter Jose Contreras allowed two unearned runs in 5 one-hit innings to take a loss. The Indians took advantage of two errors in the win, and got some incredible pitching of their own. CC Sabathia, who was one of numerous non-Dodgers wearing #42, pitched 8 innings, allowed one run, and struck out ten. He’s 3-0 on the year with a 2.14 ERA. The Indians are now first in the division at 6-3.

3. Breaking out the Bats: Albert Pujols may be struggling this year, but at least he’s good on Sundays. The 2005 MVP hit his first homerun of the season on Sunday, April 8, which was his only homer until Sunday, April 15. Pujols led the Cardinals with 2 homers, 5 RBIs, and 2 runs as they crushed the Brewers 10-2. Chris Duncan and Preston Wilson helped out with four hits and three runs, respectively. Braden Looper pitched well to earn his second win of the year for the Cardinals, who are now tied with the Brewers for second in the division. Pujols is still hitting just .183 on the year, though.

Player of the Day: Kyle Lohse, Reds: 8 innings, no runs, 12 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over the Cubs.

Stat of the Day: Chris Young’s loss to the Dodgers ended his streak of 25 road starts without a loss. Young had been 9-0 with 16 no-decisions during the streak.

Walk Off: The Yankee aren’t in good position right now. Three of their best starters (Ming-Wang, Mussina, Pavano) are injured right now, leaving Andy Pettitte as their only starter with experience. However, Mariano Rivera blew a save to waste Pettitte’s excellent start on Sunday. Pettitte has a 1.50 ERA in four appearances but only one win. Without the pitching to carry their dynamic offense, I think this is the year the Red Sox will takeover the division from the Yanks.

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MLB General

MLB Cost Index for April 16 2007



Attention K-mart shoppers

The MLB Cost Index is one measure of how well your GM did over the course of the offseason and during the season. The Index takes a look at the payrolls for each team and calculates a Cost per Win number. Pretty simple stuff right? But in the wide open world of baseball with no salary cap, it’s the best way we can think of to judge teams on a level (monetary) playing field.

Here’s week 2 of the MLB Cost Index. The Yankees have settled into the bottom slot where they’re likely to stay all year because of their monster payroll. However, they are joined by the Phillies, Giants, and Cubs who are playing well under expectations.

The Marlins and Devil Rays are where they usually are because of dirt cheap payrolls but the surprise here are the Arizona Diamondbacks, leading the NL west and 3rd in the Cost Index with 9 wins, paying $0.46M per win. The Indians and Padres are also relative bargains.

The complete MLB Cost Index after the jump.

Continue reading “MLB Cost Index for April 16 2007”

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NHL General

Odds and Ends: The NHL gets its very own Heidi game


If you’re a struggling network who is probably the NHL’s sole hope of getting popular again, you can’t afford to screw up the way Versus did. The finish of the instant classic 4 OT game between the Canucks and the Stars wasn’t seen in some markets because some affiliates inexplicably switched to an infomercial.


Versus has received reports that last night’s Dallas/Vancouver game was switched to an infomercial in the fourth overtime,” the network said in a statement. “We are obviously very disappointed to hear that some fans in a few select markets have reported that they did not see the end of this great game.

The game did run in its entirety on the Versus network feed, but based on the information we have received we are currently working with our affiliates in the affected markets to find out what caused the problem.

Sadly, we don’t even get Versus so we couldn’t even see the infomercial.

In other news…

[Mainichi Daily News]: Japanese fans tune in for Matsuzaka-Suzuki showdown

[Scatter O’ Light]: Reebok might want to fire some copyeditors

[Our Book of Scrap]: Has Major League Baseball Watered Down Jackie’s Honor?

[Sports By Brooks]: SHEFFIELD’S WIFE SEXED UP R. KELLY; FEDS SEIZED VIDEO

[Sports Review Magazine]: Larry David, New York Jets Consigliere?

[Steroid Nation]: The most famous player in NFL Europe