Categories
NHL General

August 9 in Sports History: Great One sold to the Kings


In 1988: In a move that shocked the hockey world, Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers (where he had just recently won his fourth Stanley Cup), to the Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky, along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, came to L.A. in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three first-round draft picks and cash (it was rumored that Edmonton was in serious financial trouble). It was arguably the biggest trade in sports history. Gretzky’s arrival in Tinseltown signified an increase (albeit temporarily) in the NHL’s popularity, as teams began popping up in non-traditional markets such as Anaheim, San Jose, Florida and Nashville. Two years after the trade, however, the Oilers got the last laugh by winning the Cup without the Great One in 1990. Gretzky’s Kings reached the Finals in 1993, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens. He retired in 1999 as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer by more than 1,000 points.

In 1975: Almost 30 years to the day it was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints played their first-ever game in the Louisiana Superdome. The Saints lost the exhibition game to the Houston Oilers, 13-7. After not playing there the entire 2005 season because of the damage, the Saints plan on returning in 2006.

Categories
General Sports

Aug 8 2006 episode of Poor Man’s PTI

Welcome to another episode of Poor Man’s PTI. This week we have RJ Warner joining us to talk sports.

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 40 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:

  • Paul Tagliabue’s reign
  • Entourage and splitting 10s
  • basbeball talk
  • Cincinatti Jerk Line
  • Fantasy Football QBs
  • USA Basketball

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
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Kobayashi sets World Bratwurst record


Kobayashi broke last year’s record of 34 1/2 brats by a whopping 23 1/2 and setting the new record at 58. Those 58 brats = 16,820 calories, 1,450 grams of fat and 45,000 mg of sodium. It looks like American Joey Chestnut continues to be his main competition. Chestnut almost beat Kobayashi in the Nathan’s hot dog eating championship on July 4 but lost to Kobayashi in the brat eating competition by 13 brats.

In other news..

[USA Today]: USA barely beats Brazil in warmup to the world basketball championships

[AL.com]: Alabama HS football team beats heat by practicing at midnight

[Hawks Suck]: If you want to laugh at a team worse than yours. (Knicks fans need not click.)

[The Futon Report]: Matt Leinart’s holdout starting to look kinda silly

[MSNBC]: Jet’s Curtis Martin might miss entire season

[ESPN]: WSOP contender would give his millions to charity

Categories
New York Mets

Hey, at least she didn’t say he was gay


It’s not easy being Paul Lo Duca right now. He’s going through a divorce and his wife claims he was unfaithful during their marriage. Of course, as a professional athlete, most people don’t even blink at the suggestion of infidelity. However, there is growing rumor that Lo Duca has a gambling problem.


The sources said Lo Duca also had gambling debts, accumulating a big enough tab that Mets management was aware of it. The morals clause within Major League Baseball doesn’t prohibit a player from gambling at casinos or race tracks, but the league becomes concerned when one of its players runs up unmanageable gambling debts.

That’s because unmanageable debts lead to some guy saying “hey, throw this game and we’ll wipe out 10% of it…” and then all hell breaks loose. Lo Duca insists that he only gambles on horses and that all his wagers were legal.

His estranged wife said, “I just want my privacy. I want what’s best for my daughter.” This is a little odd consider she and Paul are expected to go on WFAN today to discuss their divorce. Perhaps someone has changed the definition of privacy and didn’t notify us.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Mets star: You bet it’s legal!

Categories
Cincinnati Bengals

The Jerk store called…



Big Bengal is watching

and they’re out of Bengals fans! (Not exactly sure what that means but we like to use Seinfeld references whenever we can. )

The Cincinnati Bengals security team have set up a hotline called the Jerk Line (513-381-JERK) for people to report unruly behavios duing Bengals games. The security cameras will then zoom in and offenders will be kicked out and possibly lose their season tickets.

What’s funny about this article is that they interviewed a woman who took her 12 year old son to a game.


We told him beforehand, ‘You might see some drunk people, you might hear some F-words and swearing.’ But at the game, I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m going to mar my son for the rest of his life by having him come to this game.’ It was so bad.

Taking your son to a football game with drunks and F-bombs aren’t going to mar him for life. That ridiculous sheltering attitude is going to mar him for life. (And possibly that breastfeeding till he was 10…) A couple of drunks and curse words? So what? That’s just the extended family over for Thanksgiving.

A bunch of fat obnoxious slobs yelling out “Ben Roethlisberger is a fucking cocksucker” will do no harm. Hell, you read it on the internet everyday. Just like right now. You’re lucky no one dropped a C-bomb.

Oh, and in the same shit different day category, another Bengal gets arrested — this time for boating DUI.

Links:
[Cincinnati Enquirer]: Bengals call out jerk fans
[Cincinnati Enquirer]: Bengal charged with DUI

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Cardinals open a can of whoop ass


1. One team show: The St. Louis Cardinals showed yesterday that they aren’t ready to give up their stranglehold over the NL Central division. Playing on the road against the second place team, the Reds, St. Louis blew them across the Ohio River. They won 13-1, knocking out Reds starter Elizardo Ramirez in two innings. Ramirez allowed 7 runs, while St. Louis starter Jeff Weaver had his best start since joining the team. Weaver had an 8.68 ERA coming into the game but held Cincy to one run. The Cardinals offense gave him all the support he could get. Scott Rolen went 3-3 with a homer, while Pujols added three runs and two RBIs. The rout extended the Cardinals lead to 4.5 games, and their overall winning streak to 3 games after an eight-game losing streak crumpled the team.

2. One man show: For some reason, the Giants’ Jason Schmidt just knows how to defeat the Diamondbacks. After getting the win last night over Arizona, he is now undefeated in his last 15 starts against the team. The streak dates back to 2003. Last night Schmidt improved to 9-7 while hitting his first homer of the season. That was one of 5 dingers on the night for San Fran, including two by Pedro Feliz and one by newly acquired Shea Hillenbrand. The loss for Arizona coupled with a Dodgers win knocked them back to third place in the NL West, while the Giants are still in last. It’s worth noting that LA has won 10 straight games while the rest of the division is on snooze control.

3. Make it double digits: Somehow, someway, the Tigers just keep finding a way to win. The team even could beat Francisco Liriano of the Twins. Liriano had allowed two earned runs or less in 11 of his 13 starts on the season, but the Tigers got to him and knocked him out in four innings, his shortest start of the year. In all fairness, “Fan”-cisco was hurt. He missed his last scheduled start due to forearm soreness, and he said that he wasn’t feeling well by the second inning. Either way, Detroit ousted their divisional rivals 9-3, while the White Sox lost again. Chicago is now 10 games off their divisional rivals’ blistering pace.

4. Road-sick: Who has the worst home record in the majors, you might ask? Is it the Royals? Nope. The Pirates? Na. The Cubs? Wrong again. It’s the Braves, whose struggles at home have highlighted their downfall from divisional power. They are 22-29 at Turner Field after losing there last night to the Phillies. The Royals (23 wins) and Cubs (25) are both slightly better than Atlanta at home winning. The Braves are now tied for 9th in the NL Wild Card standings, and after a hot end-of-July run they have stumbled back to their June struggles. Meanwhile, Philadelphia has looked very good as of late. They have won 7 of their last 10, and last night Ryan Howard hit his 39th homer and 101st RBI. Both lead the National League and are just off David Ortiz’s major-league best pace.

5. Comeback Nominees: The nominees for the MLB Comeback Player of the Year award were announced yesterday. The finalists ranged from the highly publicized to a few unheralded players. For the American League, Jim Thome, Corey Patterson, Magglio Ordonez, Curt Schilling, Frank Thomas, and perennial All Star Rafael Soriano were the nominees. Thome, who has 34 homers, 85 RBIs, and a .304 average, appears to be the far-and-away favorite. The National League finalists include Carlos Beltran, Nomar Garciaparra, Johnny Estrada, Edgar Renteria, Scott Rolen, and Joe Borowski. This one’s a little tougher. Beltran has blown everyone away with 33 homers and 97 RBIs, but Nomar had been among the batting average leaders the entire season. Don’t count out All Star selections Rolen and Renteria either. Our choice would be Beltran right now.

Categories
NBA General

August 8 in Sports History: The Dream Team brings home Gold


In 1992 The U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball team clinched the gold medal with a 117-85 win over Croatia. The Dream Team, led by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley (to name a few) was simply the greatest basketball team ever assembled. The addition of Christian Laettner secured their place in basketball lore (kidding). They steamrolled their ridiculously overmatched opponents with victory margins averaging 44 points per game. It was funny to hear players such as Karl Malone and Johnson trying to be diplomatic when discussing opponents such as Angola (won by 68), Brazil (by 44) and Germany (43) by saying, “we have to be careful,” and “we don’t want this to turn into an all-star type game.” Barkley put it better by saying, “They in trouble. They in trouble.” (www.usabasketball.com)

In 1931: We all know how rare a perfect game is in baseball; as there have only been 17 such masterpieces (including one post season) throughout the history of the game. No-hitters, on the other hand, are a little different; and it seems almost every starting pitcher has a chance to catch lightning in a bottle – including forgettables such as Joe Barney, Ed Head, Jose Jimenez and Hod Eller (I swear I didn’t make those up). It was an obscure left-hander named Bobby Burke of the Washington Senators who accomplished the feat on this day in 1931. Burke shut down the Boston Red Sox 5-0. Burke had just a 38-46 career record with a 4.29 ERA, but will always be remembered in baseball legend for one brilliant afternoon. (baseball-almanac.com)

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Bizarre fringe sports injuries



Sausage doping scandal!

From Fringe Sports Central comes this hilarious story about weird sports injuries.

Rugby produces some messed up players, and it produces a lot of them. However, my favorite is the hooker with the extra tooth. Shane Millard, a hooker (it’s a rugby position, pervert) for the Widnes Vikings, had an opponent’s broken tooth stuck in his head after a game. Doctors had to douse it with saline solution in order to remove it.

In other news…

[China View]: Beijing Olympic pictograms released

[The Hater Nation]: The fraud that is the Raiders 70’s dynasty.

[NY Post]: Chad Pennington is going to be the Jets starter

[Detroit Free Press]: Cops give seized scalper tickets to fans

[Newsday]: James Dolan added to Isiah Thomas sexual harassment lawsuit

[Baseball Musings]: Funny but sad: The Floyd Landis of sausage racing

Categories
Pittsburgh Steelers

Another idiot Steeler riding a motorcycle without a helmet



Rocket scientist

Shouldn’t a team have one motorcycle incident per season? After Kellen Winslow tore up his knee in a parking lot stunt accident, you didn’t hear about any other member of the Browns with a motorcycle. But not the Steelers! Why just have one incident when you can have two. On early Sunday morning, tackle Barrett Brooks was arrested when he tried to flee from the police on his motorcycle. Bill Cowher should seriously consider banning motorcycles.

Brooks was charged with fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, driving at an unsafe speed and other traffic violations. He took the police on a 5 minute chase before dropping his bike in an intersection. According to the police, Brooks was not legally intoxicated (although they don’t mention whether he had a few drinks) and wasn’t wearing a helmet.

There’s so much we can say about Barrett Brooks and his level of intelligence. Instead, we just shake our heads and walk away. Is there a anti-Darwin Awards for people like this?

Links:
[Pittsburgh Post Gazette]: Steelers lineman arrested after motorcycle chase

[ESPN]: Steelers’ Brooks charged after five-minute police chase

Categories
All Other Sports

Landis: It’s a conspiracy! C-O-N… spiracy



Ugly ass uniforms caused
my high testosterone

By now, you know that Floyd Landis’ second blood sample came up positive for synthetic testosterone and he’s been stripped of his Tour de France title and his career is over. Well, Landis is now grasping onto the railing of the Titanic of excuses. In addition to naturally high testosterone. thyroid medication, cortisone cream, Jack Daniels, and dehydration, you can add conspiracy to the list.

There’s some kind of agenda there. I just don’t know what it is. I put in more than 20,000 kilometers of training for the Tour. I won the Tour of California, Paris-Nice and the Tour de Georgia. I was tested eight times at the Tour de France, four times before that stage and three times after, including three blood tests.

Only one came back positive. Nobody in their right mind would take testosterone just once. It doesn’t work that way.

Or, Floyd, perhaps another way to look at this is that you didn’t get caught during the Tour of California, Paris-Nice or Tour de Georgia. We shouldn’t be asking whether there’s a conspiracy but what’s wrong with the testing system in those three races. Man, you got caught. All this protestation in the media isn’t going to help your cause at all. Just slink away and let us get back to real sports.

Links:
[MSNBC]: Landis claims ‘agenda’ behind test results
[Reuters]: Landis begins campaign to win hearts and minds