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
Soccer

Odds and Ends: Could you shut up, Lionel Richie is trying to work here


Lionel Richie performed at English soccer player John Terry’s wedding this week and he wasn’t too happy about some of the players reactions to his songs:


A witness said: “It was really embarrassing. Toni was looking very anxious about the lads making a real fool of her. When he started singing Hello the boys started chanting back to him as if they were on the football ground terraces. They had downed so much champagne at the reception the guests became really lairy and started shouting over his set.

“In the end he asked the crowd to be quiet and said, `I’ve only got two more songs, please stick with me.’

“When he came off stage he moaned to one of the organisers, `I imagine this is what it’s like at a working men’s club’.

Maybe Lionel is just on edge because his daughter has been knocked up by some dude from the worst band on the planet? (Via The Offside)

In other news…

[USA Today]: Duke lax: alls well that ends with a cash settlement

[RGJ.com]: Golfer’s bad swing sparks brush fire

[Inside Bay Area]: Kyle Petty to drive, broadcast at the same time. Why not have a cup of coffee while he’s at it.

[Newsday.com]: Vin Baker arrested for DWI

[NY Daily News]: Yankees sign 2 players from China

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Even REM bassist/keyboardist/singer fed up with Braves fans

[The Big Lead]: Elijah Dukes calls radio station to confirm that he is insane

And finally, can you idiots stop congratulating Tiger Woods on the birth of his daughter? He doesn’t really give a shit what you think.

Categories
All Other Sports

The sweetest mop fighting action since Coming to America

This sounds like some ridiculous scene out of a movie:


Provo Police Capt. Cliff Argyle said distance runner Kyle Perry, 23, was traveling east on Center Street when he reportedly struck a pedestrian in a crosswalk with his car.

Argyle said after hitting the pedestrian, who was pushing a mop bucket, Perry is accused of getting out of his vehicle, grabbing a mop from the bucket and striking the pedestrian with the mop. The pedestrian reportedly grabbed another mop to defend himself, Argyle said.

Perry is accused of then shoving the pedestrian over a planter box and getting back into his car and attempting to leave the scene. But the pedestrian reportedly stood in front of the vehicle and didn’t allow Perry to leave until police arrived.

Which of course leads us to this scene:

Really, there was no need for Samuel L to shoot up the ceiling.

Links:
[Deseret News]: Y. runner arrested in mop-swinging assault

Categories
LA Lakers

$1.99 to see Kobe rant against the Lakers organization?


I know that pretty much everything is wide open in the sports blogging world but the owners of “The Kobe Video” seem so shady. While they purportedly have been offered “a lucrative offer” to destroy the tape, they feel to need to make it public because information wants to be free… or $1.99.

The big story in the tape apparently is that Bryant rips on the Lakers organization for not trading for Jason Kidd because they wanted to bold onto Andrew Bynum. OK cool. And Kobe probably curses and bunch and talks about all the assholes in the Lakers organization. For this, I’m supposed to part with $2? Especially since someone will watch the video and post it or the transcript of it anyway?

What I’m afraid of is that these opportunists will actually benefit from this and then athletes will no longer talk to fans candidly for fear of being videotaped and posted on the internet.

The video was taken around June 10th which means it’s already old news. I don’t know what it is but it just seems like this is a mildly interesting story that’s getting a lot of play for no reason. And these guys are trying to make a cheap buck out of it. I don’t begrudge people who try to make a fast buck but it should be at least clever or amusing. This is just a guy talking to Kobe while Kobe was clearly agitated about his situation. I’m not here to defend Kobe but this whole thing is cheap.

Here’s an interesting take on the Kobe video on Sports Law Blog.

Links:
[Lakers Blog]: Obviously, there are worse “amateur videos” to pop up in
[Hoops World]: Lakers: Video – Bryant Frustrated

Categories
Soccer

Alexi Lalas calls Premiership "inferior product"


We know that Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas is trying to drum up publicity for David Beckham’s arrival in the United States but this is just sheer lunacy:


There’s no accounting for bad taste. That a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business. English football now has the haves and the have-nots. It’s just that the Premiership have become so skilled in presentation. They took a page out of American football and so now they have Saturday Showdowns and Super Sundays. I love it. This is high-calibre marketing – taking an inferior product and improving it through packaging.

The experts in England talk about David Beckham as if he’s going into semi-retirement. It’s insulting to say Beckham is on his way to Hollywood when he’s coming to play in one of the most competitive leagues in the world. There are a lot of stars who would struggle here.

There’s this delusion that if it’s English then it’s great. But a whole world exists outside of England. That’s reflected in the difficulties they had when everyone ran to the Premiership. Maybe it’s OK for the fan but, for the average development of the players, their game is struggling.

This is tantamount of the Canadian Football League calling out the NFL. Here are five reasons why MLS is not one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

Links:
[Guardian UK]: Premiership inferior, says Lalas

Categories
Cincinnati Bengals

Getting arrested is no way to make the Bengals roster


Let say you’re a second year running back who was on the Bengals’ practice squad last year. Let’s say you were signed to the offseason roster and trying to make the active roster this year. Wouldn’t the absolute last thing you do is get arrested? Well, not Quincy Wilson.

Wilson was arrested around 3 a.m. Sunday morning and charged with disorderly conduct. He was with a large wedding celebration that spilled outside of a bar in downtown Huntington, West Virginia. Police came by and told the crowd to disperse because gunshots had been reported at another bar up the street. The crowd refused to do so and 14 people including Wilson were arrested.

Wilson is the 10th Bengal arrested in just over a year. Considering that the Bengals are very wary of their image (and possible fines) under the league’s new personal conduct policy, expect the news headline “Bengals RB Wilson released” any second now.

Links:
[Cincy Post]: Wilson latest Bengal arrested

Categories
Tennessee Titans

Pacman Jones needs some new friends


So much for that full page ad that Pacman took out apologizing to the NFL, the Titans and the fans. Not even an entire summer has gone by and Pacman already is involved in another shooting.

Police are looking for him after a shooting following a fight involving his entourage at an Atlanta strip club at 4 a.m. Monday morning. Police say that Jones and crew got into a fight over a woman with three other people. After everyone left, a member of the entourage shot at the car with the three people who were involved in the fight.

Jones wasn’t present at the time of the shooting and police only want to question him as a witness in the incident (isn’t that how the Vegas incident started out?) but clearly this is an indication that Pacman hasn’t learned a damn thing about being more responsible and making the right decisions. Being at a strip club till 4 a.m. on a Sunday night is clearly the wrong decision. The good news for Pacman is that there are plenty of strip clubs in Canada when he has to play for the CFL.

Links:

[AJC]: ‘Pacman’ Jones sought for questioning about shooting incident

Categories
All Other Sports

Memphis car show accident video

Cars for Kids is a good charity that raises money for children in need but they made a terrible mistake by having a car race down a highway with no guard rails performing a stunt. Six people died and 20 more were injured in the small town of Selmer as they gathered to watch a driver do a “burnout” – spinning the tires until they smoke – in a drag car.

The car was driven by pro drag racer Troy Warren but he lost control and the car flew into the crowd. Here’s amateur video of the accident from WMC-TV in Memphis.

Links:

[WMCTV]: Car show disaster kills 6, injures 20 in Selmer; press conference Monday morning
[KETV]: No Charges Yet After Dragster Deaths

Categories
General Sports

Nobody wants a numb penis or a sore labia


We’ve seen a lot of weird ads for workout gear in the past but this one absolutely takes the cake. Descente, which manufactures cycling, isn’t holding back in their ads for their new cycling shorts. In the print ad, Dr. Frank wants to talk to you about cycling and your scrotum.


Compression of arteries in your perineum restricts blood flow. That’s the space between your penis, vagina, and anus. AKA, the “t’aint.”

And the results aren’t pretty. A numb penis. A sore labia. An erection that points to the left or right. (Which looks silly, by the way). Or, in some really extreme cases, impotence.

Well, damn. If the buy these shorts can help us prevent weird pointing erections and impotence, then they’re worth every penny. But is it really necessary to put the word t’aint in an ad? Too bad Descente doesn’t make football gear, Eli Manning sure could use something for his sore labia.

Links:
[Ad Freak]: Truth in advertising: Descente bike shorts

Categories
NBA General

Nobody watched the NBA Finals


I felt a little guilty because even though I’m a huge sports fan and I blog about sports, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the NBA Finals. It wasn’t like forgot the games were on, I even checked the scores now and then between checking on baseball scores — I just couldn’t even reach over two feet to get the remote. Instead of watching the television equivalent of Ambien, there were just so many other things to do, like watching the cars go by or defragmenting my PC again.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one who had better things to do. The 2007 NBA Finals were the lowest rated finals in history. The four-game sweep finished with a 6.2 rating and an 11 share, which means only about 7 million people watched the games. Now, this isn’t nearly as abysmal as the paltry 1.6 rating for the NHL Finals but do you really want to compare yourself to the NHL to feel better?

I’m not really sure what the NBA can do to fix this problem. First, the Spurs are just a boring team to watch with absolutely no one with a personality. Even trying to make a villain out of Bruce Bowen didn’t help. I expect that next year, the refs will be “guided” to let more play go so that a running fun team like the Suns or the Warriors will get into the Finals from the West. As for the East, they are completely screwed. The Cavaliers were about the only watchable team in the East and they screwed the pooch in their Finals appearance. Perhaps next year, it’s the Bulls turn as the young guns and perhaps they’ll be able to represent the JV conference a little better.

Links:

[AP]: NBA finals suffer record-low TV ratings

Categories
MLB General

MLB Cost Index for June 18 2007

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.

Who are the biggest bargains in baseball? Well, from the Cost Index, you would have to point to the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Indians. All three teams are in the ten lowest payrolls in the majors while being either on top of their division or only one game out. The Brewers are also a pretty good bargain with a $72M payroll and leading the NL Central by 6.5 games over the Cubs and their $100M payroll.

The complete MLB Cost Index after the jump.

Continue reading “MLB Cost Index for June 18 2007”