Categories
NFL General

Hey… where’s Sean Salisbury?



I suck

We’re a little heavy on the ESPN news today but ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that Sean Salisbury was recently suspended for a week but is now back on the air. No one really noticed but the smug-terrible-ex-athlete quotient was down all last week owing to the absense of Salisbury.

Michael Irvin was suspended for a week last year for failing to tell ESPN about his arrest on chages of possession of drug paraphernalia but no one knows why Salisbury was suspended. Excessive smirking into the camera perhaps?

By the way, how is it possible that Salisbury didn’t make this list of Worst Sportscasters on TV?

Categories
Dallas Cowboys

Drew Bledsoe is really bitter


We actually thought the first clever(?) “Tony Homo” reference would be at a game at the Meadownlands or FedEx Field but it’s hit the internet first. Welcome to TonyHomo.com!


Sam Madison picks off my, otherwise flawless, pass, tip toes his way outta bounds. One foot in. Two feet in. Shit. Three feet in. Four. Okay stop showing off, dickface, I get it. Five Feet in. I wanna puke.

…So this is it. My first of many blog entries. I think it’ll keep me entertained and alive… I know I’ve got pretty much nothing else to live for. I hope you stick around.

Oh, and as for the name, TonyRomo.com was taken, so I just chose this one. Also, that faggot stole my starting job.

(Thanks to FlashWarner.com for the link.)

Categories
General Sports

Harold Reynolds wants at least $5M

The Smoking gun has a copy of the Connecticut lawsuit filed by Harold Reynolds against ESPN where he’s suing for breach of contract. According to Reynolds, he was never told why he was fired and in response to the allegations of sexual harassment, he claims that he gave a “brief hug” to the intern and she never expressed any discomfort and they even went to dinner at the classy Boston Market that evening.

Reynolds said that in March he signed a new six year contract with ESPN that paid him $1M per. “During negotiatons for any contract, ESPN raised no specific concerns about any past conduct or performance, and ESPN indicated no reservations whatsoever about Mr. Reynold’s continue employment with it.” Reynolds also claimed that ESPN did not adequately investigate the alleged misconduct and still has not given him a copy of his personnel file as required by CT law.

All this adds up to “at least $5 million, including interest and lost past and future earnings.” Ouch.

As one ESPN insider told us, interns can be related to pretty powerful people in the sports community, so we have to wonder who this intern was whose complaint will result in ESPN losing a decent baseball announcer and at least $5mil.

Links:
[The Smoking Gun]: Announcer Sues ESPN Over “Hug” Firing

Categories
NHL General

Crashing the Zamboni: Feeling at Home on the Road

[Editor’s Note: Welcome to “Crashing the Zamboni”, a daily blog by Eric Caterina. Eric will be covering the NHL this year for Sportscolumn.]


1. Road Ice Advantage?
After losing the first two road games of the season, the Nashville Predators are feeling comfortably at home while away from the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. With their 3-2 win last night over the Vancouver Canucks, Nashville has now won five straight road games, and seven of their last eight overall. None of their road victories have been overly dominating performances; four out of those five wins came in one-goal nailbiters. So what is the key to the Predators’ road ice advantage? Tomas Vokoun. The goaltender from Czechoslovakia is in his eighth year with Nashville (his fourth as a full-time starter). Even though the offense on this road stretch wasn’t tremendous, Vokoun picked up four of the five victories, never letting the puck slip into the net any more than two times. He’s given them a chance to win, and they’ve done just enough to walk off the ice with a W. This stretch of games could help Nashville tremendously in the longrun — it looks to be a two horse race in the Central Division between the Preds and the Red Wings.

2. Sharks Edge Panthers
Christian Ehrhoff’s last-minute goal gave the Sharks a 2-1 victory over the Panthers last night in Florida. The Power Play tally kept San Jose from slipping to third in the Pacific Division — where it’s possible that the Sharks and Stars could be playing catch up to keep pace with Anaheim for the year. Ron Wilson’s club has arguably the best special teams in the league, with an NHL best 28% on the Power Play this season. San Jose’s win put them at 7-0-1 in their last eight against the Florida Panthers (who eventually could get into the thick of things in a packed Southeast Division). This kind of dominance is similar to what we’ve seen in the Toronto-Atlanta series, as posted yesterday on Crashing the Zamboni.

3. Grinding It Out
Pure passion is hard to find nowadays in professional sports, where money is tossed around like a rag doll and the only basis for your expectations is your contract. That’s why it was refreshing to find this story on Florida’s veteran journeyman, Gary Roberts. In reading, it’s clear that this man is actually enjoying his time in professional sports, taking on an attitude unlike so many other big-time athletes. While the T.O.’s of the world are relishing in front of cameras and signing new shoe deals, sports’ real heroes continue to work hard just to spend that extra day in a big league jersey. Kudos to Gary Roberts for grinding it out, staying under the radar, and still going out and performing every night–he could teach some of today’s athletes a thing or two, if only they were patient enough to watch and listen.

Check It Out
It was hard not to laugh at this ridiculous report that Alex Auld got hurt “horsing around”. Not sure what’s funnier: the story itself, of Ed Belfour’s lame excuses as to why it happened.

Game of the Night: Nashville at Edmonton
Oilers look to stay undefeated at Rexall Place; Nashville has won five straight on the road.

The Last Shot
Montreal’s Chris Higgins scored his third shorthanded goal of the season last night, taking the NHL lead in that category.

Categories
Arizona Diamondbacks

Nov 1 in Sports History: Groundhog Day for Byung-Hyun Kim



Bad case of deja-vu

In 2001: How would you feel if you gave up an improbable, game-tying, eventual series-tying, heart-wrenching, expletive-inducing homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning of a World Series game with millions watching? How would you feel if it happened again almost 24 hours to the minute? Ask Byung-Hyun Kim, who fell victim to the Yankees again in the bottom of the ninth of Game 5 in New York in almost exactly the same fashion as the night before. This time, third baseman Scott Brosius did the honors with the Yankees trailing 2-0 in their last at-bat. Kim’s blank stare was replayed just as much as Brosius’ amazed, arms-in-the-air celebration. Once again, the game went into extra innings and well past midnight (don’t they all nowadays?); and once again the Yankees won it, taking a 3-2 Series lead back to the desert.

In 1959: Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens became the first full-blown sissy-girl in the NHL. Ah, we kid, we kid here. Plante was actually the first smart goaltender in the NHL to regularly don a facemask for protection. After he was nearly decapitated by a shot from New York Rangers’ hall of famer Andy Bathgate, Plante returned to the Madison Square Garden ice with the plastic headgear amid taunts, jeers and the objections of his coach Toe Blake, who felt the mask impaired his vision. The Canadiens won that game 3-1 and 10 of their next 11, so the mask stayed. The Canadiens also later captured their fifth consecutive Stanley cup behind the girly goalie (we kid again…sort of). (espn.com/classic)

Categories
New York Knicks

We should be so lucky as to work for the Knicks



Genius

Do you want to make money for doing nothing? Would you like to sit at home all day and watch the cash rolling in? Then apply now to be part of the Knicks organization! It’s simple. Just convince Isiah Thomas and James Dolan that you have what it takes to be a Knickerbocker and then do a horrible job. They won’t simply fire you, they’ll pay you money to go away! Brilliant.

Today, the Knicks bought out Jalen Rose’s contract for $15M. Jalen Rose is such a waste of space that the Knicks would rather pay him $15M than have him in uniform this year for his $16.7M salary. We’re not sure what that says about the Knicks or Jalen Rose.

Meanwhile, David Stern also negotiated the settlement of Larry Brown’s contract. Remember Larry Brown? He was fired for doing a tremendously shitty job with $40M left on his contract. Instead of taking his firing as a defeat, Larry decided to ask for $52M. To paraphrase Nick Hornby, that’s like getting rejected by a girl attempting to reach second and trying for third base instead.

Part of the settlement required that neither side discuss the dollar amount but legal experts think LB will get over $30M. So there you have it folks, the Knicks probably paid at least $45M today to tell two people to stop working for them. Hey New York fans, how’s your cable bill these days?

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Larry, Knicks bury hatchet

[NY Daily News]: Rose: $15M to walk away
[Miami Herald]: Heat eyes Jalen Rose

Categories
Orlando Magic

Now why would you call Mutombo a monkey?


The NBA season starts with two games tonight but Orlando Magic fans have already jumped out to an early lead in the “obnoxious/racist fan” standings. A Magic season-ticket holder named Hooman Hamzehloui has been banned from every NBA arena this season because he called Mutombo a monkey. By all accounts, Mutombo is a good guy who builds hospitals in his homeland and happily mangles sayings like “it’s no walk in the cake”, so why would you mess with him?

Hamzehloui sent Mutombo a letter of apology and promised $5,000 to the charity of Mutombo’s choice.


I am by no means a racist, and if you only knew me better you would never begin to have those thoughts. What I am guilty of is poor judgment in the use of words while doing what I do to many of the visiting team’s players, ‘heckle them.’

I thoroughly respect you as a player and as a human being and my only motivation when I have my fun at the games is to ‘get under the player’s skin’ no matter what color that skin happens to be.

Hamzehloui also said he would not attend any NBA games until Mutombo gave his blessing. Uhh… jackass, you’re not allowed to attend any NBA games this season anyway. Mutombo, for his part, said he has already forgiven the man. He also added, “C is for Cookie!”

Links:
[SI]: Magic fan banned for racial slur

Categories
NHL General

Crashing the Zamboni: Malkin is as good as promised


1. Malkin Rockin’
Lots of hype has surrounded rookie phenom Evgeni Malkin’s debut in the NHL, and — through five games, at least — he’s lived up to it quite nicely. The 20-year-old Russian was the second pick of the 2004 NHL Draft, behind only Alexander Ovechkin. The center has hit the twine in every game he’s played thus far, making him the first player in 14 years to score a goal in each of his first 5 games. His +7 rating ties him for tops on the Pens, with teammates Sidney Crosby and Colby Armstrong. It doesn’t take long to realize just how good this guy is when watching him on the tube. He is superb on the skates, twirling around the ice, always near the action. The kid can shoot as well, with quick, accurate bids that ring off the post if they don’t hit the net. Having played just over half of the Penguins’ games, he’s already the rookie leader in goals. Simply put, Evgeni a goalie’s nightmare. Malkin is an extremely well-rounded athlete that looks to be following in the footsteps of the kid he followed in draft. If early indications count for anything, Pittsburgh has a gem on their hands.

2. Atlanta Thrashed by Leafs
Last night at the Air Canada Centre, the Maple Leafs wiped the ice with the Thrashers yet again. After the 4-2 victory, which happens to be the eighth in a row for Toronto in this series, it has become safe to say that the Leafs have Atlanta’s number. You have to date back over three years– all the way to October 27th, 2003–to find the Thrashers’ last victory against Toronto. In that three year span, the boys from Canada have outscored Atlanta 37-9. It is tough to say why the Leafs have been so dominant in the series, seeing that Atlanta is a pretty tough team to beat nowadays. The only thing that is for certain about last night’s game: it was over by the end of the first. Within a stretch of 1:26 in the first period, Toronto had netted three goals. That was all she wrote for the Thrashers, who are left to continue scratching their heads over how to solve the puzzle that is Toronto.

3. Numbering the Greats
Check out this interesting article from Brian Cazeneuve of SI.com. He listed the best players all-time by their numbers, starting from double zero and going all the way to 99 (take a wild guess). It is truly an amazing list–full of recognizable names past and present–but it does leave room for argument…

Check It Out
Winging It: Off Wing Opinion’s Eric Mcerlain talks with the director of hockey operations for the Wild, and gives his thoughts on the Sabres’ hot start.

Game of the Night: Nashville at Vancouver
Preds looking for fifth straight road win.

The Last Shot
In Arizona: a job search website, Jobing.com, just acquired the naming rights to the Glendale Arena. We think somebody was trying to send a message to Wayne Gretzky…

Categories
New York Yankees

Oct 31 in Sports History: Byung-Hyun Kim Part I


In 2001: The Yankees gave a still-grieving New York something to cheer about in Game 4 of the World Series. Trailing in the series two games to one and 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Tino Martinez forced extra innings with a two-run shot off Arizona Diamondbacks’ reliever Byung-Hyun Kim. The game went beyond midnight and beyond October, where Derek Jeter’s solo homerun in the bottom of the 11th inning tied the series for the Yanks and earned him the nickname “Mr. November.” If New York, Arizona and the rest of the country who bothered to stay up that late thought they saw an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime comeback, they had no idea what was in store the following night.
(…to be continued)

In 1988: The Hoosier Dome hosted the first-ever Monday Night game in Indianapolis between the Colts and the Broncos. In a strange, Halloween-charged atmosphere, the Colts raced out to a 45-10 halftime en route to a Monday Night record 55 points in the 55-23 victory. Eric Dickerson ran for 159 yards and tied another Monday Night record with four touchdowns while John Elway and the defending AFC champion Broncos turned the ball over six times.

Categories
Soccer

Odds and Ends: Soccer stories

We have a couple of soccer stories for Odds and Ends today. The first is a story of a Bulgarian club that is ordering one of its players to get married so that it will curtail his wild living. Ivelin Popov parties too much and has too many girlfriends so the team has ordered him to get married. This has got reality TV show written all over it.

Second (via The Offside) comes this video of a fan who pants an assistant referee during a game. Ed Hochuli would’ve kicked his ass.

In other news…

[Live Science]: Key to hockey goalie success is… watching the puck

[SI]: Second dancer in Duke rape case says the accuser was “talking crazy”.

[Mirror UK]: BERBICK: A TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN

[Boston Herald]: Cardinals are the worst World Series champs in history

[10,000 Takes]: They really should be in the Castro for Halloween