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
Miami Heat

Coming to a falsely accused child pornographer’s house near you: Deputy Shaq


Shaq has always had an interest in law enforcement and is actually a Miami Beach reserve officer but his latest foray into kicking perp ass went a little sideways.

The Bedford County (VA) Sheriff’s department confirmed today that Shaq was part of a raid last month on a farm house of a man suspected of being a child pornographer. Shaq is the spokeman for The Safe Surfin’ Foundation which protects kids from online predators. The owner of the farm has filed a formal complaint because he was held at gunpoint, taunted, and his house was ransacked as officers seized computers, cameras, dvds and tapes. However, it turns out that the sheriff’s department had the wrong physical address of the suspect because they were given the wrong IP address by the Internet Service Provider. Oops.

Hey look, at least you can say that Shaq has been in your house. That’s gotta be worth 30 minutes of terror and a false accusation right?

Links:
[Miami Herald]: Deputy Shaq was part of a bungled raid
[ars technica]: Faulty IP address data leads to Shaq attack on innocent family

Categories
NFL General

Woman wins $444,186 on a $5 football bet



Our new picks system

A 21-year-old bartender named Sarah Mabee won the Ontario (that’s Canada) Pro Picks Pools lottery game by picking all 13 games correctly last weekend. Mabee knows nothing about the NFL and it was only her second time playing the lottery game.

So basically what this tells you is that no matter the amount of research you do, it doesn’t beat just throwing a dart at the wall or picking the team with the prettier uniforms/hotter cheerleaders/cooler mascot. Or picking the Oakland Raiders over the Arizona Cardinals because it was her grandfather’s favorite team.

Mabee won enough money to quit her job and we’re still trying to figure out how we picked the Cardinals to beat the Raiders. That’s it, from now on, we’re going with the team with the hotter cheerleaders. That means Pittsburgh and Green Bay will lose every game.

Finally, why isn’t a Pro Picks lottery game available in the US? Isn’t it safer for us to go to the store and put this bet down instead of finding the shady fat guy at the end of the bar?

Links:
[Toronto Star]: Bartender’s NFL picks net $444,186 prize

Categories
Boston Red Sox

Oct 25 in Sports History: Bill Buckner Day!


In 1986: Until 2004, the 20 most hated words in Red Sox Nation: “Little roller up along first
behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!” Buckner was universally blamed for the Red Sox 6-5 defeat in Game 6 of the World Series, but it was a rickety bullpen, two other Red Sox errors, a wild pitch which scored the tying run and horrible managing by John McNamara that led to their demise. The Sox blew leads of 2-0, 3-2 and 5-3 before the Mets won what is probably the most famous World Series game in history. Boston also blew a three run lead in Game 7, as the Mets won their second World Series.

In 1964: In one of our favorite NFL Films clips ever, Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall picked up a San Francisco fumble and rumbled 66 yards to the end zone for the score. Problem was, he ran the wrong way. Marshall is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, played 20 seasons without missing a game as an anchor of the famed “Purple People Eaters,” all the while being an average of 20 to 30 pounds smaller than his opponents. But he will mostly be remembered for taking the longest safety in NFL history. As he threw the ball into the stands after he crossed what turned out to be his own goal line, some 49ers players came up and tapped him on the helmet to say thanks. The Vikings did win the game, however, 27-22.

In 1998: Even though – much like Mike Ditka – we don’t recognize kickers as real football players, Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos tied Rick Dempsey’s record by booting a 63-yard field goal in a 37-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Mile High Stadium. Only five times in history (including this past Sunday) has a kicker converted a field goal attempt of 60 yards or more.

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: The Sport of Kings


Hunt organizers are accused of plying a tame bear with vodka-drench honey so that the King of Spain, Juan Carlos would have an easier time of killing a bear during a recent hunting excursion. Apparently, Russian hunt organizers have done this before as they used to ply animals with booze or tie them to trees so that former Soviet leader Brezhnev could still enjoy hunting even as he got older and his aim got worse.

Now Dick Cheney might shoot his friends in the face but he never had to resort to having hunt organizers ply quail with booze. America! Fuck Yeah!

In other news…

[Slate]: The physics of baseball’s most popular illegal pitches

[High and Tight]: Kenny Rogers no stranger to cheating

[MSNBC]: Backup punter surrenders on attempted murder charge for stabbing first string punter

[Hoops Addict]: Hey! Whatever Happened To John Starks?

[Fanblogs.com]: Ohio State #1 selling “Team Colors” paint

[TrojanWire]: Ivy League Mascot Wars: More Entertaining Than Ivy League Football

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: PETA Takes Credit For The NBA’s Much Maligned New Ball

Categories
Soccer

Too bad this wasn’t Tony Siragusa

There are two things you can watch over and over: someone getting hit in the crotch and someone falling down unexpectedly. Well, from The Offside comes this video of a soccer sideline reporter taking one for the team.

Can anyone translate what the anchorman is saying?

Categories
College Football

Louisville Cardinals WRs hunt… The Most Dangerous Game


It never ceases to amaze us how stupid athletes can be. (Yes, we know that even laboratory mice learn after 300 shocks of electricity…) Anyway, two University of Louisville wide receivers were arrested and charged with second degree assault after shooting a woman with paintball guns outside one of those Haunted House things that spring up around Halloween. Chris Vaughn and Scott Long were suspended after the incident on Sunday.

From the obvious file comes this statement from coach Bobby Petrino: “It’s definitely something we don’t condone in our program.” It’s a shame too because if it was something that the Louisville did condone, jersey sales would have skyrocketed. Ahh… missed marketing opportunities.

[The Courier-Journal]: Two U of L reserves arrested, suspended

Categories
All Other Sports

Sports Father of the Year


Don’t even bother with more nominations folks, the 2006 Father of the Year is Philadelphia’s Wayne Derkotch. Derkotch pulled a gun on the coach of his son’s pee-wee football team because his (now psychologically scarred son) wasn’t getting enough playing time. According to witnesses, Derkotch started arguing with the coach and the two started fighting before Derkotch pulled out a .357 Magnum. Everyone hit the ground and Derkotch took off in his truck.

The referee of the game, Shawn Henwood, tried to write down the license plate number when another upstanding citizen by the name of Paul Derkotch knocked the paper out of his hand and started fighting with the ref. By now, cops were on the scene and they saw Henwood hit Paul Derkotch in the jaw and arrested Henwood. (Ironic that a ref would get arrested for the retaliation and not the initial blow, isn’t it?) In any case, police also tracked down Wayne Derkotch and arrested him.

So now the junion Derkotch, in addition to sucking at pee wee football also has a lunatic for a father. We’re gonna go ahead and guess that he’s not going to grow up to be a Supreme Court judge.

Links:
[Philly.com]: A dad and the ref are charged

Categories
MLB General

No one is watching the World Series


The numbers are in and they are not good. The opening game of the World Series was the lowest rated in history. The Saturday night opener got a 8.0 rating and a 15 share. To put that in perspective, that wouldn’t even have made it into the Top 20. Game 2 fared a little better with a 11.5 share. Overall though the two games still average the 5% lower than the lowest in history.

Now, the folks at Fox will declare the Series a success because both game still won their time slots but this is the World Series folks. Shouldn’t more people be watching it than, say, Two and a Half Men? St. Louis vs Detroit? Nobody on the coasts really cares about that matchup. Meanwhile, NY vs Oakland and all of the sudden you have your east coast/west coast rivalry and tons of people tuning in to root against the Mets. When the only controversy is whether Kenny Rogers had a smudge of dog crap on his hand, you’ve got problems. Either they need to drum up some controversey or rig the playoffs somehow for a better matchup. Bud Selig, David Stern is awaiting your call.

Links:
[AZCentral]: World Series ratings down once again

Categories
MLB General

Oct 24 in Sports History: Albert Belle goes storm chasing



Be verrrry quiet, I’m hunting reporters

In 1995: Albert “Don’t call me Joey” Belle, who had his own legacy of douche baggery, went on a pre-game tirade and chased NBC reporter Hannah Storm out of the Indians dugout. He was fined $50,000. Belle, who was one of the best sluggers of the 90’s, was more well-known for drilling a fan in the chest with a baseball, being suspended for seven games for using a corked bat, chasing kids down for egging his house, throwing another baseball at a photographer, and being suspended for three games for chucking an elbow at tiny Fernando Vina for standing in the base path. Other than that he was a pretty class guy.

In 1972: Almost exactly 27 years to the day he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson died of heart disease at the age of 53. Robinson was the first black player in the 20th Century, and he played his first game in 1947. In 1997, his number was retired throughout baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig and in 2001, April 15 (the day of his debut) was declared “Jackie Robinson Day.”

In 1987: The Minnesota Twins, powered by a Kent Hrbek grand slam, overcame a 5-2 deficit and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 11-6 to tie the World Series at three games apiece. It was the last afternoon game ever played in a World Series. Each home team won all seven games, with the Twins winning their first ever title.

Categories
Boston Celtics

Sebastian Telfair got into a fight with Denny Terio and shot Fabolous in the lips?



Should’ve worn a Celtics jersey

According to reports, two men robbed Sebastian Telfair of his $64k chain at gunpoint and ran off. Telfair then saw the men inside of a club owned by P. Diddy and realized they were part of Fabolous’ crew, “The Street Family”. One cell phone call from Telfair and 23 minutes later, Fabolous gets shot in the thigh. Coincidence? Telfair says yes but the NYPD are saying no and that he is being investigated for the shooting.

Tefair says that he’s being painted as a bad person when he merely was having dinner with his fiancee. His lawyer called him a lovely young man so, you know, he couldn’t have anything to do with the shooting.

Meanwhile, Stephon Marbury, who is trying to shop around a talk show, got a little testy when asked about it.


He’s my little cousin. That’s my little cousin. That’s a stupid question. That’s my little cousin. You don’t ask me (expletive) like that. Somebody put a gun to him. If somebody put a gun to one of your family, wouldn’t you be concerned? You don’t want to ask that.

Marbury then made a cell phone call and half an hour later, the reporter was shot in the leg.

Links:
[Boston Herald]: Telfair saga lengthens
[Hip HopDX]: Sebastian Telfair Robbery and Fabolous Shooting Linked?
[ESPN]: Celts’ Telfair denies role in shooting of rapper Fabolous