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Toronto Blue Jays

Oct 23 in Sports History: Joe Carter wins the World Series


In 1993: Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays became only the second player to end a World Series with a walk-off homerun with a 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 at the Skydome in Toronto. The Jays jumped out early on the Phillies by scoring three runs in the first inning and eventually built a 5-1 advantage, only to see Philadelphia retake the lead late in the game on a Lenny Dykstra homer. Trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth, Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams of the Phillies walked Rickey Henderson, gave up a single to Paul Molitor (who was named MVP), and grooved a fastball to Joe Carter which cleared the left field fence and touched off a wild celebration. It was the second straight World Series for the Blue Jays.

In 1988: Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins had one of the best passing days in NFL history in a game against the New York Jets at Joe Robbie Stadium. Marino completed 35 of 60 passes for a third-best all time 521 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately for Marino and the Dolphins (as was the case for most of his career) the defense was awful and the Fish lost 44-30. They would fall to 6-10 in 1988.

Categories
General Sports

Oct 19 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 28 mins) or subscribe to the feed.  

If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.

This week’s topics include:

  • Trevor talks about the A’s and the baseball playoffs
  • Steve Lyons
  • The other college brawl
  • College Football playoffs
  • November Women We Love nominations

Hope you guys enjoy the podcast.  If you did enjoy it, please give us a good rating below so we can rise up in the rankings. If you didn’t, send us an email ([email protected]) and give us some suggestions. Thanks for listening.

Categories
College Football

Oct 20 in Sports History: The first AP Poll


In 1936: The first Associated Press poll ranking the top college football teams in the nation was released. Minnesota was the first no.1 with LSU, Pittsburgh, Alabama, Washington, Santa Clara, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Pennsylvania rounding out the top ten. The AP poll, a collection of sportswriters across the country who vote on the top 25 teams each week of the college football season, determined national champions for years. It is still used today to rank the teams but is no longer considered in the BCS formula to determine who plays in the national championship game.

In 2004: The Boston Red Sox became the first team in baseball history and only the third team in sports history (it happened twice in the NHL) to come back from a three games to none deficit in a seven game series to win. Having been completely dominated by the New York Yankees and down to their final at-bat in the fourth game, the Red Sox began a remarkable comeback by winning the two longest games in postseason history in Games 4 and 5 at Fenway Park, and then going back to Yankee Stadium to take the final two to complete the turnaround. Boston swept St. Louis in the World Series to win their first championship in 86 years.

In 1993: In one of the wildest games ever in the World Series, The Toronto Blue Jays out-slugged the Philadelphia Phillies in the fourth game 15-14 at Veterans Stadium. Already delayed by rain, the game took four hours and fourteen minutes to complete, the longest ever World Series game. The Phillies overcame a three-run first inning deficit with four of their own in the bottom half and eventually carried a 14-9 advantage into the eighth inning, where the Blue Jays scored six times to win. The game featured 32 hits, 14 walks and it set the record for most runs combined in a World Series game and the most runs by a losing team. Oddly, the Blue Jays did not hit a single homerun despite scoring 15 times.

Categories
San Francisco Giants

Everybody hates Barry… well ok two-thirds


Hank Aaron has broken out the old “afraid to fly” excuse to explain why he won’t be there when/if Barry Bonds breaks his 755 HR record.


First, I don’t like to fly. And if I come, there’s going to be some controversy. And if I don’t come, there’s going to be some controversy. I have pride in the record, but records are made to be broken. But the reason I don’t want to get involved is everybody is innocent until proven guilty, and we can talk, we can talk, we can talk, but until there’s proof, I have no comment.

Translation: Barry Bonds is a steroided up cheater and no way do I want to be there to see my record being broken. At least that’s the way we see it.

Meanwhile, an AP Poll found that only 33% of baseball fans want to see Barry Bonds break the all time Home Run record. To which we say, why are you doing most of the polling in San Francisco? That’s about 32% more than we expected.

Links:
[ESPN]: Aaron doesn’t plan to be there if Bonds hits No. 755
[MSNBC]: Only 33 percent of fans want to see slugger break home run record

Categories
NFL General

Stadium threats "non-credible" but you should probably stay away from Oakland anyway

The FBI has deemed the threat against seven NFL stadiums non-credible and is interviewing a “young adult” in Milwaukee who is suspected of posting the message on an internet site called “The Friend Society”. The message said that trucks would deliver radiological dirty bombs on Sunday (it’s the last day of Ramadan) to New York, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland and Clevelend. Perhaps the tip off to the feds was that the Jets actually play in New Jersey. As for the young adult, he’s currently shitting his pants as he awaits his “Code F’ed in the A” in Gitmo.

The poster, handle of “javness”, wrote:

The death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout.

Later, through al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden will issue a video message claiming responsibility for what he dubbed ‘America’s Hiroshima.’

Well, since it’s going to happen at NFL games, wouldn’t the message be relayed through the al-Jazeera for athletes, ESPN?

The FBI warned the NFL and stadium security teams but since the threat is not credible, no increase in security is expected this weekend. So. as always, expect to get your ass kicked a the Oakland Colliseum if you’re in Cardinals colors this weekend.

Links:
[USA Today]: FBI interviewing ‘young adult’ over NFL ‘dirty bomb’ threat

Categories
MLB General

Oct 19 in Sports History: When Kenny Rogers sucked


In 1999: Current postseason hero Kenny Rogers wasn’t so much in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS. With the Mets attempting to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a seventh game, Rogers walked in the winning run in the bottom of the 11th to give the Braves their fifth pennant of the decade. The Mets had fought back with a dramatic game-winning grand slam by Robin Ventura in Game 5 and overcame Braves’ leads of 5-0 and 7-3 in Game 6 to force extra innings. Rogers’ walk of Andruw Jones was the only series in history to end on a base on balls.

In 1981: Rick Monday of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the hero in the NLCS with a dramatic, two-out, solo home run of Montreal’s Steve Rogers to give the Dodgers the pennant in the deciding fifth game. The game was played in what was believed to be the coldest temperatures ever for a postseason game, and it was quickly dubbed “Blue Monday,” due to the facts that the game was played on a Monday and Rick Monday (who coolly stopped two morons from attempting to burn a flag in the outfield a few years earlier) almost single-handedly knocked the Expos out of their only postseason appearance.

In 1987: Billy Martin was hired by George Steinbrenner to manage the New York Yankees for the fifth time. Martin replaced the fired Lou Pinella, whom he had spent the entire season criticizing from the broadcast booth. Pinella, in a strange twist, was named General Manager. Martin lasted until halfway through the 1988 season when he was fired and replaced by
Lou Pinella.

Categories
Boxing

Just when you thought Mike Tyson couldn’t sink any lower


You gotta hand it to Mike Tyson. After hitting bolivia a few times, he still manages to outdo himself and gets to an all time low. You hear about him willing to fight women and you think, ok, that’s the end of the line, but then a story like this comes out and you just have to shake your head. What could you it possibly be you ask? Is Tyson going to fight kids? Kangaroos? Two midgets at the same time? Nope. Mike Tyson is going to become a man whore.

In an interview with the LA Times, Heidi Fleiss said that Tyson would be her #1 stud:


I said to him, ‘You going to be my stud?’ And he said, ‘Heidi I don’t care what any man says. It’s every man’s dream to please every woman no matter how old, how young, how fat, how pretty, how ugly, it’s every man’s dream to please every woman and especially get paid for it.’ And, he goes, ‘Hell yeah, I’ll be your number one stud.’

Actually, we’d prefer Tyson to work a stint at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. That episode of Cathouse would be the highest rated show of all time on HBO.

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.