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
College Basketball

Correctly picked the Final Four this year? New York Times says BFD


You know that annoying guy in your office or the blogger who is flexing his muscles this morning because he correctly picked all four teams in the Final Four? Show them this little article from the New York Times.

Last year, of the 3.1 million entries in the ESPN bracket pool, only 4 people had the correct Final Four teams, this year, with 3.3 million entries, 161,869 have it right. (Roughly the same number of people as had sex with Paris Hilton.) Picking last year’s Final Four was either genius or stupidity. Picking this year’s Final Four is just boring.

So when someone brags today about their awesome picking prowess, just tell them so did your grandmother. (We’re a little bitter this morning because there is no way Florida should have covered 7 points against the Ducks. The end of the game was absolutely fixed for points. Damn you Adam Zahn, damn you to hell. )

Links:
[NY Times]: So You Picked the Final Four? Join the Club

Categories
All Other Sports

Shaving another man isn’t gay right?

We can imagine the questions asked by UFC fighters Mark Coleman and Wanderlei Silva before agreeing to do a Shick commercial for Japanese television:


“This is definitely not airing in the United States right?”
“I only have to shave his… face… right?”
“Can there be a UFC Fighters are not gay disclaimer?”
“How much are we getting paid?”

God bless the Japanese and their crazy commercials.

Links:
[Ad Freak]: Ex-UFC fighters in a shave to the death

Categories
College Basketball

You thought North Carolina choked? Check out Winona State

We have no idea where Barton or Winona State is but they provided an incredible finish to the NCAA Div II basketball championships yesterday. If the D1 boys could pull off a finish like this, we’d be talking about it forever.

Not only did they come back from being down 7 points with 45 seconds left, Barton ended Winona State’s 57 game winning streak that spanned 2 years. Anthony Atkinson is the man of the hour after scoring 10 points in the final 39 secs. We haven’t seen that kind of one man show since Reggie Miller did it to the Knicks in the 1995 playoffs.

Links:
[West Coast Tribune]: Winona State falls to Barton in title game

Categories
NHL General

Odds and Ends: Time to ask whether fighting belongs in hockey?


Is Colin Campbell insane? He told the Canadian press that “it’s time to ask the question” about whether fighting should be banned in the NHL. The only reason why hockey even registers as a major league sport is because of the fighting. Now for those who love hockey and not just hockey fights, fighting is still an integral part of the game. The enforcers, defending your superstars, having the back of your teammates, hell, even goalie fights are a big part of hockey tradition.

Sure it’s fun to see Sidney Crosby or Ovechkin do their thing but it’s also fun to see two goons square off. The problem with hockey is the cheap shots and the swinging of lumber. The old fashioned dropping of the gloves should never go away. That’s one on one man stuff that we love… in a purely heterosexual way of course.

In other news…

[MSNBC]: Kobe angrily denies contacting Durant for Nike… takes it out on the Grizz.

[Myspace]: Pro Wrestler (Edge) admits steroids use on myspace blog

[AJC]: Police deny Vick had any jewelry in water bottle. What they don’t know is that “jewelry” is the new street slang for weed

[Slam Sports]: Former Sixer Todd MacCulloch is the 208th best pinball player in the world. Falls 207 places behind deaf dumb and blind kid.

[The Big Lead]: Don’t worry USC, Tim Floyd isn’t going to Michigan

[Boton Herald]: ebay tells Manny to take his grill and shove it… but Jenn-Air wants Manny to do a commercial

And finally, don’t forget to watch everyone’s favorite awkward quarterback, Peyton Manning on Saturday Night Live.

Categories
MLB General

Major League Baseball doesn’t care about kids with cancer



Ain’t hurtin’ nobody

[Update: According to Lopez@Large, backlash against MLB/sympathy for Sunshine Kids has increased donations today.]

Bud Selig and his minions aren’t doing a very good job of making MLB look good. First there was the whole DirecTV exclusive deal fiasco. Now they’re pissing off baseball fans, Craig Biggio, and basically anyone who has a heart.

The commissioners office told Biggio, the national spokesman for the Sunshine Kids foundation, that he has to stop wearing a Sunshine Kids logo pin during Spring Training.


I’m not a disrespectful person and I don’t disrespect the game. But I’ve been wearing this pin for 20 years because it puts smiles on 20,000-something cancer patients’ faces. Major League Baseball does a lot of good things, but this is one of the stupid things.

We understand the need to maintain uniform integrity (because next thing you know Manny Ramirez will be putting his ebay listings on his hat) but this is spring training! How much harm is Craig Biggio doing by having a small pin on his hat. From MLB’s reaction (they told him the umpires would make sure he wasn’t wearing the pin), you’d think Biggio had stitched a Nazi flag on his lid.

Look, we realize that baseball can’t just allow players to wear whatever they want. We certainly don’t want to see nine different colored ribbons out on the field for each players’ pet projects but did we mention this is spring training! Just let it slide.

Links:
[Houston Chronicle]: MLB bars Biggio from wearing pin

Categories
NHL General

Clark the Canadian Hockey Goalie

Another day… hey no hockey fight video. But we do have this great short film from 2003. This is pretty damn funny. “Screen! Screen!!” (thanks to Off Wing Opinion)

Categories
All Other Sports

Plot to poison race horses uncovered


Remote control devices and poison darts were found at the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Happy Valley track. Staff there found long metal tubes filled with poisoned darts buried beneath the turf on the track. The tubes were wired together and linked to a wireless receiver. It is believed that someone wanted to use a remote control device to set off the darts and affect the outcome of races.

This is the most technologically advanced yet stupid plot we’ve ever heard of. According to the club’s chief executive, the darts were designed “to cause destruction and injury”. Now we’re probably not talking about a Barbaro-like collapse on the track but wouldn’t someone notice a dart hanging out of a horse? And wouldn’t it be a little suspicious when that horse eventually keeled over? And wouldn’t that render the race results void? Good luck collecting on that ticket.

To make it more moronic, the plot was planned at a race course with top security and which made almost $13 Billion last year. Not surprising that it didn’t work.

Links:
[Guardian UK]: Poison darts found at Hong Kong racetrack

Categories
All Other Sports

Jamaican police confirm cricket coach was murdered


The Jamaican police have officially ruled the death of Pakistan’s circket coach Bob Woolmer as murder. The are searching for one or more attackers and that was killed by “manual strangulation.” (No word on whether there was a liquid explosion on his stomach.)


Bob was a large man. It would have taken some significant force to subdue him… I have to say at this stage that it looks as if it may be somebody who’s somehow linked to him, because clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was

Woolmer’s murder came hours after Pakistan lost to Ireland in the cricket World Cup. Initially speculation was that a crazed fan was responsible but now theories abound that the murder was tied to gambling cartels and possibly an upcoming book that Woolman was working on related to match fixing. (Remember Andres Escobar, the Colombian soccer player who was shot after scoring an own goal vs the United States?)

While some have called for the cancellation of the world cup, the International Cricket Council said that the show must go on to “demonstrate that cricket cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act”.

Links:
[BBC]: Police hunt for Woolmer killers

Categories
General Sports

This sounds like the worst reality show ever


ABC has a new reality show called “Fast Cars and Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race”. The show puts all the NASCAR drivers who pimp Gilette into teams with random celebs. The professional drivers were the teachers in classroom and on-track training.

The list of celebs are: Bill Cowher, John Elway, Serena Williams, William Shatner, Krista Allen (of some ABC show), Jewel and her boyfriend Ty Murray, John Salley, Tony Hawk, John Cena, Laird Hamilton (surfer) and husband Gabby Reece.

Details are hazy since ABC won’t comment on the show but do the couples (Jewel/Ty and Laird/Gabby) have to drive together? And why exactly is Jewel anywhere near a racetrack? We expect this show to have terrible ratings because 1) it sounds god awful, and 2) everyone came out of it unharmed. Why would you watch a celebrity driving reality show (or NASCAR for that matter) except to see spectacular wrecks. Now we’re not saying we want to see any celebrities harmed but knowing that we won’t see William Shatner running out of a flaming car in his underwear takes away from the fun of it.

Links:
[Mondesi’s House]: CowheReality
[Post-Gazette]: Cowher rides onto reality show

Categories
New York Rangers

Another day, another NHL fight video

You don’t even have to go to the archives to find hockey fights anymore. It seems like there’s a new fight everyone is talking about. Next up: Todd Fedoruk of the Flyers vs Colton Orr of the Rangers. Knockout. This one is extra special because it happened 21 secs into the game. Those hockey players sure do hold a grudge.