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
NBA General

Jim Jackson is the worst player in the NBA



How do I put this, Jim…
you stink

For everyone who loves to argue over the relative value of players, here are the 2006-2007 Hollinger Projections. Created by John Hollinger, these rankings are based on a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) which is a measure of how valuable a player is based on per minute productivity. Granted the ratings are still the work of one guy but at least it’s based on formulas, which makes it just a little more legit than, say, team power rankings.

In any case, here are your top 10 players in the NBA.

  1. LeBron James
  2. Kobe Bryant
  3. Dirk Nowitzki
  4. Amare Stoudemire
  5. Dwyane Wade (lost points on the ridiculous spelling of his name)
  6. Kevin Garnett
  7. Chris Paul
  8. Pau Gasol
  9. Gilbert Arenas
  10. Allen Iverson

Sadly, if you scroll all the way to #330, the worst player in the NBA is Jim Jackson of the Lakers. Above him are (#329) Ryan Bowen, (#328) Rafael Araujo, (#327) Darrell Armstrong and (#326) Mark Madsen. If you’re ranked behind Mark Madsen, it’s seriously time to consider retiring. Jim Jackson is so bad that there isn’t even a comment next to his name.

Can we set up a dance off between Jackson and Ethan Albright?

Categories
MLB General

Oct 18 in Sports History: 3 for 3 on 3



Mr. October

In 1977: Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees tied Babe Ruth’s record by blasting three home runs in a single World Series game. Jackson only saw three pitches the entire evening in Game 6, but he drove each one farther than the last. When it was over, the Yankees had defeated the LA Dodgers 8-4 to win their 21st championship, Jackson was named MVP and became forever known as “Mr. October.”

In 1997: The worst World Series in history opened on a warm, bandwagon-y Miami evening as the Florida Marlins – with a powerhouse tradition all of five years – entertained the suffering-for-eons Indians from Cleveland in cavernous Pro Player Stadium, the football home of the Miami Dolphins. Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga purchased a fine National League pennant winner with the likes Devon White, Kevin Brown, Moises Alou, Gary Sheffield and Al Leiter. With the exception of a fine Game 7 won by Florida, each game tried to top the last in terms of uninspired play, poor pitching and sloppy defense. It was the lowest rated World Series ever up to that point as fans didn’t feel like tuning in to watch two football cities struggle at baseball in snowy weather. Heaping insult upon insult, Hanson sang the National Anthem to open the series. All of the aforementioned players were jettisoned by Huizenga for financial reasons within a few months of winning the series.

In 1920: An interesting little battle which would’ve seriously altered baseball history took place in a meeting between divided American League owners. Wanting American League president Ban Johnson out of office, the owners of the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Tigers threatened to jump to the National League if the remaining owners who wanted Johnson to stay on did not join their movement. Both sides eventually agreed to replace Johnson – who they felt was doing very little to help put and end to the gambling that was destroying the game (re: Black Sox Scandal) – with Kennesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s first commissioner.

Categories
MLB General

Oct 17 in Sports History: an earthquake hits the World Series


In 1989: The third game of the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s was postponed due to the biggest earthquake to hit the Bay Area since 1906. ABC-TV had just taken the air with the game about 30 minutes away when the 7.1 magnitude Loma Prieta quake hit, causing minor structural damage to Candlestick park and major damage to the surrounding area. Over 60 people were killed, but it could have been much worse as a 60-foot section of the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland collapsed; but fans getting to the ballpark or home to catch the early start time of the World Series had the bridge and many other roads which suffered damage uncharacteristically quiet at rush hour. The Series would resume 10 days later with the A’s completing a sweep of the Giants.

In 1971 and 1979: The Pittsburgh Pirates clinched their last two World Series in Baltimore on the same day by taking a pair of Game 7‘s from the Orioles. In Game 7 of the ‘71 Fall Classic, Steve Blass threw a 4-hit gem and Roberto Clemente homered as the Pirates won 2-1. In Game 7 of the ‘79 Series, Willie Stargell hit a three-run homer in the top of the sixth inning to help push the Pirates past Baltimore 4-1. 1979 was the last time a team had overcome a three games to one deficit to win a World Series.

In 2000: Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche cemented his place as the game’s greatest goaltender when he passed Terry Sawchuk on the all-time wins list with 448. Roy defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime to take first-place all time. Roy, who was only the third goalie and 51st player taken overall in the 1984 draft, won three Vezina Trophies as the league’s outstanding goalie and three Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP.

Categories
College Football

Odds and Ends: The OTHER college football brawl


In the all the hullaballoo over the Miami-FIU brawl last week, overlooked was the brawl that broke out after the Holy Cross v. Dartmouth game. After winning the game on an 18 yard field goal, Holy Cross players started dancing on the D at midfield. Understandably, the Dartmouth players were displeased and a melee developed. The two schools proved that they might be Div I-AA in football but they could brawl as well as the D1 schools. While no one brandished a helmet like a battle axe, there were crutches waved about. Police are reviewing the videotape and arrests could be made. Unfortunately we don’t have pics or video of the fight but we do have a photo of Keggy the Keg, greatest unofficial mascot outside of the F&M Fightin’ Amish.

In other news…

[Yahoo]: Fassel fired. Somewhere in New Orleans, Sean Payton is laughing his ass off

[Inside Bay Area]: Macha’s relationship with players and not ALCS loss lead to firing

[Foul Balls]: Mike Tyson Could Be Beating Women in a Town Near You

[MLB.com]: Dominican Republic police issue warrant for Juan Uribe

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Keep your kids away from this mascot

[There’s Your Karma Ripe as Peaches]: Leinart and Urlacher might share the same STD! (How could Tony Kornheiser not mention this?)

Categories
College Football

The 2006 Marcus Williams Award goes to…



Taylor and Houston

Eulas Jerrel Taylor III and Brandon Houston of Ball State football! Both were arrested before the team bus left for the game against Central Michigan for suspicion of burglary and possession of stolen property. Police were responding to a fire alarm when they were told by students that three laptops were stolen from two dorm rooms and that they saw one person throw a bag out the window to another.

The football team has suspended the two players indefinitely until the matter is resolved. Good going guys. Say goodbye to those scholarships.

Links:
[Fort Wayne.com]: Two Ball State football players arrested on theft charges

Categories
Chicago Cubs

Lou Pinella joins Cubs, denies wanting A-Rod



They can get their tips frosted together!

Lou Pinella (stealer of wallets) was officially introduced as the Cubs manager today. He signed a three year contract worth $10M with a club option for a fourth year. His first official act was to deny an ESPN report that he wanted to trade for A-Rod. A lot of speculation has gone into an A-Rod to Cubs trade because of the relationship that Pinella has with Alex Rodriguez that started when A-Rod was actually a good player in Seattle.

That’s right folks. A club with a $95M payroll and 66 wins (that’s $1.4M per win if you’re counting) wants to add a $25M player who went 1 for 14 in the postseason. Brilliant. The Goat Riders of the Apocalypse is going to have plenty of time until the “end of the world”.

Links:
[Chicago Tribune]: ‘Perfect guy’ Piniella agrees to $10 million, 3-year contract
[MSNBC]: Piniella vows wins, denies A-Rod talks
[Cub Town]: Here He Comes To Save The Daaaaaaay!

[Todd Hundley Sucks]: “Lou Piniella is kind of a douchebag”

Categories
College Football

You can take Lamar Thomas out of Thug U…



Get him a body bag!

In addition to the 31 players who were suspended by Miami and FIU, one more piece of crap from the Miami Melee has hit the fan. Former Hurricane Lamar Thomas was broadcasting the game for Comcast Southeast and instead of pulling a Joe Buck, Thomas decided to go the exact opposite route:


You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don’t come into the Orange Bowl playing that stuff. You’re across the ocean over there. You’re across the city over there. You can’t come over to our place talking noise like that. You’ll get your butt kicked. I was about to go down the elevator and get into that thing.

Why don’t they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ball game and get it on some more? You don’t come into the Orange Bowl, baby — we’ve had a down couple of years — but you don’t come in here talking trash… You come in here talking smack, it’s time to get it on.

Well, Lamar Thomas is going to have to get it on somewhere else. Comcast canned him on Monday and will edit out his comments for any replays of the game. Thomas said that he got caught up in the emotion of it and that he was new to this “media thing”. We believe broadcasting 101 specifically says “don’t celebrate a brawl” but Thomas probably had someone take that exam for him.

[Miami.com]: Lamar Thomas fired over Orange Bowl brawl remarks

[All Canes Blong]: Random thoughts on Miami/FIU 2006

[YouTube]: Video of Lamar Thomas’ call

Categories
Arizona Cardinals

Denny Green makes no sense

Now that you’ve seen the video of his press conference, can we ask what exactly Denny Green is saying?


We played them in the preseason. Who the hell plays the third game in the preseason like it’s bull—-? Bull—-! We played them in the third game. Everybody played three quarters.

If anyone can explain this quote to us, please let us know. Who the hell gives a press conference like it’s bullshit! bullshit! This will go into the record books as one of the best post game pressers of all time. It gets funnier with every viewing.

Instead of talking about the Bears being who they thought they were and crowning them, can someone tell Denny Green that he should perhaps concentrate on the Arizona Cardinals who don’t deserve to be an NFL franchise. Can we ship em up north to Canada? Better yet, can we create a broomball league with the Cardinals, the Texans, the Royals, the Devil Rays, and the Raptors and watch hilarity ensue?

Links:
[AZ Central]: Monday Meltdown

[AZ Central]: FanBoy’s game blog (oh the humanity)
[4th and Inches]: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Arizona Cardinals

Categories
Dallas Cowboys

Odds and Ends: TO powderkeg temporarily defused



Dude, I had the curry!

Like they say, winning is the best defuser. (Or was that deodorant?) In any case, a weekend that had the potential for being the one in which Owens blew up quickly turned into a lovefest as the Cowboys got to take on the Texans at home. It was coming folks. After a report that TO got into a verbal altercation with his wide receivers coach Todd Haley because he was late to practice with stomach problems, an upset by the Texans would have sent everyone over the edge. Jerry Jones was quoted as saying that Haley would be disciplined for his part in the argument. TO said the relationship was ruined. Drew Bledsoe stinks on ice. Three ingredients for a meltdown. Instead, a 3 TD performance by the player resulted in hugs for the wide receiver coach, TO being a good teammate and now the Cowboys are denying any discipline for Haley. So for those of you in the Terrell Owens Meltdown Pool, week 6 wasn’t it. It’s coming though. It’s coming.

In other news…

[TwinCities.com]: Stephen Jackson says he was only defending teammates

[BBC Sport]: Baseball’s steroids problem so rampant, it’s now affecting cricket

[STLToday]: Hell, even chess players are cheating now

[People]: Thank goodness, what would we do without more shots of Eva Longoria in the stands

[The Hater Nation]: Ed Hocholi makes Scott Linehan look foolish

[Phillies Nation]: A-Rod to the Phillies is a recipe for suicide watch

[The Pink Seats]: Bet the over on # of athletes bagged by Paris Hilton

Categories
MLB General

Fox fires Steve Lyons for no good reason


Tom Brenneman (unwittingly) makes fun of a blind guy wearing a device that helps him see the game, issues an apology the next day, and all is well. Steve Lyons says something about a wallet after saying something about espanol and gets fired. Nevermind that the two statements were completely unrelated.

After Lou Pinella said something about Marco Scutero’s production being akin to finding a wallet on Friday and expecting it to happen again the next Friday, he added that the A’s were “frio” and needed to get “en fuego”. Steve Lyons said that Pinella was “hablaing espanol” and he still couldn’t find his wallet. From this, Fox made the connection that Lyons was claiming Lou (and other hispanics) steal wallets. If anything, the execs over at Fox are the ones who are racists. Most people watching it took it to be a friendly jab at Lou Pinella, his broadcast partner, not a racial remark. As far as we know, no hispanic leaders complained about the remarks.

For his part, Lyons apologized but said that the comment was not racially motivated and that Fox jumped to conclusions.


My joke was about a wallet. It had nothing to do with race. We were all laughing at the time. I’m being painted as a victimizer of Lou. At dinner later (with Fox announcers and production staffers), we all thought it was one of our better exchanges… I’m happy to apologize to anybody who took it that way. But it seems like a real stretch to lose your job over. It’s hard to understand.

So the moral of the story is this: you can make fun of the handicapped all you want as long as you apologize but don’t even think about linking two statements together if one of them has anything to do with race. Someone at Fox needs to take Logic 101. For example, here are two statements: 1) Tim McCarver sucks as an announcer. 2) Tim McCarver is white. The execs at Fox would conclude that white people suck at announcing. Meanwhile, most people would just conclude that Tim McCarver sucks — which is pretty much just a universal truth by now.

Links:
[Orlando Sentinel]: Fox Fires Lyons for Insensitive Comment
[USA Today]: Lyons defends honor after dismissal by Fox
[YouTube]: partial video of Steve Lyons comments