LeBron James is re-goddam-diculous. I would love to hear what all of those Bron-haters on TV have to say about tonights performance in Detroit.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
5 we like, 5 we don't like: SportsCenter Anchors
We do a lot of thinking on the treadmill, and we watch a lot of SportsCenter on the treadmill too. Therefore, we do a lot of thinking about SportsCenter. Today, we got to thinking about SportsCenter anchors.
5 anchors we want to see less.
Stuart Scott
Easiest one on the board by far. In like 1994 he was new, original, really a breath of fresh air on a somewhat stagnate SC anchor lineup (plus we were only 13 at the time so maybe we thought his act was cool). It is now 13 years later, and he is doing the exact same act. He mugs for attention during other anchor’s highlights, and his writing is tired and painfully unfunny and uninteresting. But enough bloggers have taken their shots at Stu, so we will move on.
Kenny Mayne
We actually forgot how much we hated Kenny until he mysteriously re-appeared to do the Sunday night SC with Stu-yah last weekend. What a combo that was. They were practically elbowing each other out of the way to steal camera time. They kept trying to outdo each other with inane blather through every highlight. He just doesn’t understand that he is there to narrate the highlights and provide little stats and tidbits to enhance the viewer’s enjoyment. He is not there to try to be funny and come up with the next stupid catchphrase. He even tries to use a dry, monotone delivery to try to be even funnier. Truly annoying.
Neil Everett
Every time SC starts up and we hear “howZIIIIIT??” we roll our eyes and check to see what else is on. What are “PF Flyers?” And why does he mention them every time a runner gets thrown out at home?
John Buccigross
What Mick Jaggar is to the Rolling Stones, John Buccigross is to annoying sportscasters. Imagine hearing analogies like that 5 or 6 times during a SC broadcast, except with much more obscure bands. THAT is his catchphrase. GUH!
Brian Kenny
We hate sabermetrics. And he has to make some allusion to sabermetrics every time he does a baseball highlight.
5 that ESPN should use to replace those flunkies
Chris McKendry
Very understated, doesn’t get in the way of the highlights, or her co-anchors, and even clever at times. She also seemed perfect for The Big Picture's “who would you do” competition. Right on the fence so there would have been good two-way debate. I think the fact that she constantly makes bedroom eyes at the camera would have put her over the top. But anyway, she is also a very good anchor.
Scott Van Pelt
Funny, but without getting in the way. It is a very delicate balance between an anchor being funny and an anchor trying to be funny and calling too much attention to himself/herself. Van Pelt he never seems like he is trying to be funny. Also, good writing during his lead-ins, and most of all, he gives you good info during a highlight.
Dave Revsine
ESPN has buried this guy because he doesn’t arouse that much passion one way or the other. Ideally, SC anchors should like sports officials, if you hardly know they are there, then they are doing a good job. Revsine does a good job of fading into the background and letting the highlights do the job, while still throwing a quip in every once and a while to keep the viewer entertained.
Linda Cohn
What the hell happened to her? Why has ESPN buried her? She is like the female Revsine.
Josh Elliot
He is new to the anchor’s desk, but pretty good so far.
We do a lot of thinking on the treadmill, and we watch a lot of SportsCenter on the treadmill too. Therefore, we do a lot of thinking about SportsCenter. Today, we got to thinking about SportsCenter anchors.
5 anchors we want to see less.
Stuart Scott
Easiest one on the board by far. In like 1994 he was new, original, really a breath of fresh air on a somewhat stagnate SC anchor lineup (plus we were only 13 at the time so maybe we thought his act was cool). It is now 13 years later, and he is doing the exact same act. He mugs for attention during other anchor’s highlights, and his writing is tired and painfully unfunny and uninteresting. But enough bloggers have taken their shots at Stu, so we will move on.
Kenny Mayne
We actually forgot how much we hated Kenny until he mysteriously re-appeared to do the Sunday night SC with Stu-yah last weekend. What a combo that was. They were practically elbowing each other out of the way to steal camera time. They kept trying to outdo each other with inane blather through every highlight. He just doesn’t understand that he is there to narrate the highlights and provide little stats and tidbits to enhance the viewer’s enjoyment. He is not there to try to be funny and come up with the next stupid catchphrase. He even tries to use a dry, monotone delivery to try to be even funnier. Truly annoying.
Neil Everett
Every time SC starts up and we hear “howZIIIIIT??” we roll our eyes and check to see what else is on. What are “PF Flyers?” And why does he mention them every time a runner gets thrown out at home?
John Buccigross
What Mick Jaggar is to the Rolling Stones, John Buccigross is to annoying sportscasters. Imagine hearing analogies like that 5 or 6 times during a SC broadcast, except with much more obscure bands. THAT is his catchphrase. GUH!
Brian Kenny
We hate sabermetrics. And he has to make some allusion to sabermetrics every time he does a baseball highlight.
5 that ESPN should use to replace those flunkies
Chris McKendry
Very understated, doesn’t get in the way of the highlights, or her co-anchors, and even clever at times. She also seemed perfect for The Big Picture's “who would you do” competition. Right on the fence so there would have been good two-way debate. I think the fact that she constantly makes bedroom eyes at the camera would have put her over the top. But anyway, she is also a very good anchor.
Scott Van Pelt
Funny, but without getting in the way. It is a very delicate balance between an anchor being funny and an anchor trying to be funny and calling too much attention to himself/herself. Van Pelt he never seems like he is trying to be funny. Also, good writing during his lead-ins, and most of all, he gives you good info during a highlight.
Dave Revsine
ESPN has buried this guy because he doesn’t arouse that much passion one way or the other. Ideally, SC anchors should like sports officials, if you hardly know they are there, then they are doing a good job. Revsine does a good job of fading into the background and letting the highlights do the job, while still throwing a quip in every once and a while to keep the viewer entertained.
Linda Cohn
What the hell happened to her? Why has ESPN buried her? She is like the female Revsine.
Josh Elliot
He is new to the anchor’s desk, but pretty good so far.
Monday, March 05, 2007
YouTube Clip of the (last) Week!
Sorry for the re-post, but here is the YouTube clip from last week that we accidently deleted.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
WCT Baseball Preview of the Week
Baseball season is approaching fast, and we here at WCT can’t wait. In order to prepare for the upcoming season (and so that in October we can brag about how right we were in the spring) we will preview each division, and predict the order of finish of the teams.
Today: The Utterly Maddening American League West
The Los Angeles Angels – This team drives us crazy. When you consider hitting, starting pitching, bullpen, defense, managing, this might be, top to bottom, the best team in all of the American League. On paper, they really don’t have many weaknesses. But they go through long stretches when they struggle, and it really must be frustrating for their fans.(Luckily for us, we are Indians fans…nothing frustrating about cheering for that team… but that’s neither here nor there) The Angels have the best pitching rotation in the division, and one of the top three in all of baseball. Colon, is either the worst ace in baseball, or the best bad pitcher in all of baseball, but either way you look at him, he is solid. Figuratively speaking of course. John Lackey is a good #2, and Jared Weaver is only going to get better. Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar are very underrated. The bullpen is also solid, and guys like Orlando Cabrera and Chone Figgens are guys who always seem to come up big in big spots. There is no reason this team shouldn’t run away with this division as long as everyone stays healthy. But inevitably they won’t. They will likely underachieve, again, and let lesser teams like Oakland hang around.
Oakland A’s – we hate sabermetrics (sabremetrics?). We hate Billy Beane. We hate to go all Hater Nation on you, but screw the A’s.
Texas Rangers – The Rangers seem to refuse to try to put together any semblance of a pitching rotation. They have a very good lineup, with Michael Young getting on base and Mark Teixeira and Hank Blaylock driving in runs, but their pitching staff will be, as it always is, awful. Kevin Millwood is decent, but Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, John Koronka, and Kameron Loe aren’t going to get it done in the AL. The only interesting thing about watching this team all year will be seeing if Sammy Sosa and Eric Gagne can stay healthy enough to provide any production. Look for them to finish in third.
Seattle Mariners – The Mariners are not good enough to compete, but not bad enough to be comically bad. They have a few players that make them somewhat interesting, like Ichiro, Felix Hernandex, and Richie Sexson, but in many ways they are like a forgotten team. We can’t see them finishing anywhere other than last place again.
Baseball season is approaching fast, and we here at WCT can’t wait. In order to prepare for the upcoming season (and so that in October we can brag about how right we were in the spring) we will preview each division, and predict the order of finish of the teams.
Today: The Utterly Maddening American League West
The Los Angeles Angels – This team drives us crazy. When you consider hitting, starting pitching, bullpen, defense, managing, this might be, top to bottom, the best team in all of the American League. On paper, they really don’t have many weaknesses. But they go through long stretches when they struggle, and it really must be frustrating for their fans.(Luckily for us, we are Indians fans…nothing frustrating about cheering for that team… but that’s neither here nor there) The Angels have the best pitching rotation in the division, and one of the top three in all of baseball. Colon, is either the worst ace in baseball, or the best bad pitcher in all of baseball, but either way you look at him, he is solid. Figuratively speaking of course. John Lackey is a good #2, and Jared Weaver is only going to get better. Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar are very underrated. The bullpen is also solid, and guys like Orlando Cabrera and Chone Figgens are guys who always seem to come up big in big spots. There is no reason this team shouldn’t run away with this division as long as everyone stays healthy. But inevitably they won’t. They will likely underachieve, again, and let lesser teams like Oakland hang around.
Oakland A’s – we hate sabermetrics (sabremetrics?). We hate Billy Beane. We hate to go all Hater Nation on you, but screw the A’s.
Texas Rangers – The Rangers seem to refuse to try to put together any semblance of a pitching rotation. They have a very good lineup, with Michael Young getting on base and Mark Teixeira and Hank Blaylock driving in runs, but their pitching staff will be, as it always is, awful. Kevin Millwood is decent, but Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, John Koronka, and Kameron Loe aren’t going to get it done in the AL. The only interesting thing about watching this team all year will be seeing if Sammy Sosa and Eric Gagne can stay healthy enough to provide any production. Look for them to finish in third.
Seattle Mariners – The Mariners are not good enough to compete, but not bad enough to be comically bad. They have a few players that make them somewhat interesting, like Ichiro, Felix Hernandex, and Richie Sexson, but in many ways they are like a forgotten team. We can’t see them finishing anywhere other than last place again.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
The End of the Dead Zone
March is FINALLY here. With the end of February comes the end of the worst month on the sports calendar. It also brings the beginning of March, by our count, the third best sports month on the calendar (behind October and September in that order. We are willing to argue this point).
In honor of the beginning of meaningful college basketball games at long last, we bring you pictures of hot college basketball cheerleaders!
March is FINALLY here. With the end of February comes the end of the worst month on the sports calendar. It also brings the beginning of March, by our count, the third best sports month on the calendar (behind October and September in that order. We are willing to argue this point).
In honor of the beginning of meaningful college basketball games at long last, we bring you pictures of hot college basketball cheerleaders!
Whoops!! Sorry... Don't know how that got in there. Lets try this again, Hot college basketball cheerleaders!!
She is a University of Florida "Dazzler." We have trouble containing our contempt for the Florida basketball team, but we do love us some Dazzlers.
UCLA is a team that people seem to have forgotton, we hope they hang around the tournament long enough for their cheerleaders to make an appearance
And we leave you with two Texas cheerleaders. We have no idea what the hell they are doing, but we love it.
Happy March Basketball Fans!
Duke Should Not be Ranked
Last night, as we settled down on the couch with a cold one (and by “one” we mean 12-pack) for a night of college basketball, we were taken aback by something that had apparently completely slipped by most of the hoops-viewing world. Duke is ranked #14 in both
polls.
First, let us say that we were surprised to learn this before the game, as we pretty much assumed that they would be handled by unranked Maryland (UM won 85-77). So this is not a case of 20-20 hindsight. Also, we should preface our comments by letting any new readers know that we previously took great joy in Duke’s struggles in early February.
We were not surprised to see Duke ranked when we tuned into ESPN last night, we were just puzzled as to how they could possibly go from unranked one week, to ranked #14 two weeks later, without any quality wins (BC was laughably overrated as they are just about every year. We aren’t counting that as a quality win).
Lets examine the ACC standings. Coming into last night’s game, Duke was 8-6 in conference, tied with Maryland, and two games behind the leaders. The ACC leaders were, again as of last night, North Carolina, 10-4, and ranked #8, who beat Duke in their only meeting so far (they play again in Chapel Hill on Sunday). Virginia Tech, 10-4, and -here’s where it gets screwy- ranked #21 who beat Duke in their only meeting of the season in Durham. And UVA (we know, UVA??), 10-4, and ranked #25 and also beat Duke in their only meeting of the year. So to recap: that’s two teams ahead of Duke in the standings who hold a head-to-head edge over Duke ranked seven and eleven spots BEHIND them in the polls respectively.
Right, we forgot to mention something. That UVA #25 ranking is in the Coaches Poll. The Cavs are unranked in the AP poll. Right now they are second among the “others receiving votes.”
So back to Duke. After being left out of the polls two weeks ago, wins over BC and Georgia Tech vaulted them to the rankings of #18 and #17 in the AP and Coaches Polls, leapfrogging teams like West Virginia, who was coming off of a win over then #2 UCLA, Vanderbilt, who was coming off of a win over then #1 Florida, and Texas, who we firmly believe is one of the more underrated teams in the nation and would smoke Duke on a neutral court. So in other words, beating BC and GT was more impressive to voters than WVU going to L.A. and beating UCLA, or Vandy giving Florida their first conference loss.
All of this brings us back to last night. If we found someone who didn’t know any better, and told them that one of the two teams we were watching was unranked, and the other was in th
e top 15, needless to say we could have won a lot of money from them. We know there is a bias in the media towards Duke, but this is really getting out of hand. So if the rankings come out next week and Duke is still ranked, we will just simply have to laugh and shake our head. If they come out and Maryland, who has now swept Duke, and beat UNC on Sunday and is really picking up steam, is ranked behind them, we will blow a collective gasket.
Last night, as we settled down on the couch with a cold one (and by “one” we mean 12-pack) for a night of college basketball, we were taken aback by something that had apparently completely slipped by most of the hoops-viewing world. Duke is ranked #14 in both
polls.First, let us say that we were surprised to learn this before the game, as we pretty much assumed that they would be handled by unranked Maryland (UM won 85-77). So this is not a case of 20-20 hindsight. Also, we should preface our comments by letting any new readers know that we previously took great joy in Duke’s struggles in early February.
We were not surprised to see Duke ranked when we tuned into ESPN last night, we were just puzzled as to how they could possibly go from unranked one week, to ranked #14 two weeks later, without any quality wins (BC was laughably overrated as they are just about every year. We aren’t counting that as a quality win).
Lets examine the ACC standings. Coming into last night’s game, Duke was 8-6 in conference, tied with Maryland, and two games behind the leaders. The ACC leaders were, again as of last night, North Carolina, 10-4, and ranked #8, who beat Duke in their only meeting so far (they play again in Chapel Hill on Sunday). Virginia Tech, 10-4, and -here’s where it gets screwy- ranked #21 who beat Duke in their only meeting of the season in Durham. And UVA (we know, UVA??), 10-4, and ranked #25 and also beat Duke in their only meeting of the year. So to recap: that’s two teams ahead of Duke in the standings who hold a head-to-head edge over Duke ranked seven and eleven spots BEHIND them in the polls respectively.
Right, we forgot to mention something. That UVA #25 ranking is in the Coaches Poll. The Cavs are unranked in the AP poll. Right now they are second among the “others receiving votes.”
So back to Duke. After being left out of the polls two weeks ago, wins over BC and Georgia Tech vaulted them to the rankings of #18 and #17 in the AP and Coaches Polls, leapfrogging teams like West Virginia, who was coming off of a win over then #2 UCLA, Vanderbilt, who was coming off of a win over then #1 Florida, and Texas, who we firmly believe is one of the more underrated teams in the nation and would smoke Duke on a neutral court. So in other words, beating BC and GT was more impressive to voters than WVU going to L.A. and beating UCLA, or Vandy giving Florida their first conference loss.
All of this brings us back to last night. If we found someone who didn’t know any better, and told them that one of the two teams we were watching was unranked, and the other was in th
e top 15, needless to say we could have won a lot of money from them. We know there is a bias in the media towards Duke, but this is really getting out of hand. So if the rankings come out next week and Duke is still ranked, we will just simply have to laugh and shake our head. If they come out and Maryland, who has now swept Duke, and beat UNC on Sunday and is really picking up steam, is ranked behind them, we will blow a collective gasket.Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Has the Whole World Gone CRAZY??
Let us be the first (and it would seem like the only) ones to say that we thoroughly enjoyed Pat Summitt’s appearance at the Florida-Tennessee game last night. Even though Deadspin, Awful Announcing, and The Big Lead, three blogs that we read religiously by the way, have all called it a letdown, we thought it was great for several reasons:
It showed school spirit
Not many schools have coaches that are as close-knit as the University of Tennessee. Bruce Pearl knows that it is in his best interests to align himself and his team with the much more famous, and much more successful, Lady Vols squad. That’s why he dressed up like an idiot and cheered at the women’s game last month. And this was her returning the favor. Hell, even Fat Phil was in attendance last night, picking his nose and sitting with Peyton Manning. How many schools have coaches that are that close and that supportive of their colleagues? The Buckeyes could learn a lot from the Vols. It wouldn’t hurt to see Coach Tressell-Vest at some basketball games cheering on Thad and his guys.
It showed a different side of Summitt
We don’t claim to know much about Women’s Basketball, but we know that Pat Summitt has an image of a bit of a curmudgeon. She is sort of like John Thompson in a dress. This display last night showed a completely different Pat Summitt. She showed that she doesn’t take herself too seriously to show up in a damn cheerleading outfit in her mid 50s.
What exactly did you expect?
Did you guys think that she was going to come out topless with her chest painted like Pearl was at the women’s game? I think coming out in a cheerleading outfit singing “Rocky Top” is about as much as I thought she was going to do.
And most importantly, it led, however indirectly, to a Florida loss, and probably the loss of their #1 seed.
Let us be the first (and it would seem like the only) ones to say that we thoroughly enjoyed Pat Summitt’s appearance at the Florida-Tennessee game last night. Even though Deadspin, Awful Announcing, and The Big Lead, three blogs that we read religiously by the way, have all called it a letdown, we thought it was great for several reasons:
It showed school spirit
Not many schools have coaches that are as close-knit as the University of Tennessee. Bruce Pearl knows that it is in his best interests to align himself and his team with the much more famous, and much more successful, Lady Vols squad. That’s why he dressed up like an idiot and cheered at the women’s game last month. And this was her returning the favor. Hell, even Fat Phil was in attendance last night, picking his nose and sitting with Peyton Manning. How many schools have coaches that are that close and that supportive of their colleagues? The Buckeyes could learn a lot from the Vols. It wouldn’t hurt to see Coach Tressell-Vest at some basketball games cheering on Thad and his guys.
It showed a different side of Summitt
We don’t claim to know much about Women’s Basketball, but we know that Pat Summitt has an image of a bit of a curmudgeon. She is sort of like John Thompson in a dress. This display last night showed a completely different Pat Summitt. She showed that she doesn’t take herself too seriously to show up in a damn cheerleading outfit in her mid 50s.
What exactly did you expect?
Did you guys think that she was going to come out topless with her chest painted like Pearl was at the women’s game? I think coming out in a cheerleading outfit singing “Rocky Top” is about as much as I thought she was going to do.
And most importantly, it led, however indirectly, to a Florida loss, and probably the loss of their #1 seed.
Monday, February 26, 2007
WCT Baseball Preview of the Week
Baseball season is approaching fast, and we here at WCT can’t wait. In order to prepare for the upcoming season (and so that in October we can brag about how right we were in the spring) we will preview each divisi
on, and predict the order of finish of the teams.
Today: the spectacularly mediocre National League West
Los Angeles Dodgers – The Dodgers are the one-eyed man in the land of the blind that is, the National League West Division. Jason Schmidt, if he can stay healthy, will be the #1 starter and add some depth to the rotation when Brad Penny has his inevitable arm injury. The lineup enjoyed the addition of Luis Gonzalez, and the subtraction of J.D. Drew. Gonzalez has to feel rejuvenated now that he is out of Arizona. We see the Dodgers winning the division and losing in the first round again.
on, and predict the order of finish of the teams.Today: the spectacularly mediocre National League West
Los Angeles Dodgers – The Dodgers are the one-eyed man in the land of the blind that is, the National League West Division. Jason Schmidt, if he can stay healthy, will be the #1 starter and add some depth to the rotation when Brad Penny has his inevitable arm injury. The lineup enjoyed the addition of Luis Gonzalez, and the subtraction of J.D. Drew. Gonzalez has to feel rejuvenated now that he is out of Arizona. We see the Dodgers winning the division and losing in the first round again.
San Francisco Giants – The most underrated off-season signing was the Giants acquisition of catcher Bengie Molina. Molina, even though he looks he swallowed his brother Yadier, is solid both offensively and behind the plate. The most overrated off season signing was the Giants overpaying Barry Zito. Zito will benefit from a move to the NL, but he has been pretty average since winning the Cy Young in 2002. Look for the Giants to compete for the wild-card. (By the way, that was an entire team preview of the Giants without even one mention of their cross-dressing left-fielder. Take that ESPN!)
San Diego Padres – The Padres acquired Greg Maddux this past off-season, but we are not sure how much he has left. This team has one of the deepest pitching staffs in the NL, but they will struggle to score runs. They simply have no discernable run-producers in their everyday lineup, even by National League standards. Did you know that Brian Giles, the Padres #3 hitter most of last year, drove in 83 runs in 158 games last year? 83? He had a slugging percentage of .397 for crying out loud!
Arizona Diamondbacks – This team could actually be decent this year. The top of the starting rotation, with new/old D-Back Randy J
ohnson joining Brandon Webb, and Livan Hernandez, should be pretty solid. Johnson will likely have a better year after returning to the weak NL, and we expect Webb to have another pretty good year. The problem that will keep this team from competing will be their inability to score runs. Eric Byrnes annoys us. Why does everyone love that douche?Colorado Rockies – This team flat-out stinks. Their roster is comprised almost exclusively of players who were complete failures on their previous teams (Kaz Matsui, LaTroy Hawkins, Javy Lopez to name a few). And many teams take failed starters and make them into closers, but seriously, who takes a failed closer, in this case Byung-Hyun Kim, and makes him a starter? The m
ost interesting thing to involve this team this winter was the trade rumors involving Todd Helton. The Rockies openly shopped Helton to the Red Sox, but couldn’t get a deal done. Then after the rumors passed, Helton said he was “glad to be back.” What? This team tried to ship you out of town, loses 90 games each year, and has pretty much served as baseball purgatory since the franchise’s inception, and you’re glad to be back? Whatever man. Have a great year Rockies fans!Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Why is it that rules don’t apply to Roger Clemens?
He doesn’t have to go to spring training
We don’t know yet if he is going to play this year or not (and if so, for whom), but one thing we do know is that he will not be participating in spring training for the second year in a row. Why is he able to get away with this? Why is it that he can sit on his couch through March and April and field calls from teams ready and willing to throw money at him for two-thirds of a season of work?
Imagine if Brett Favre, instead of announcing his intention to return in ’07-08 on the Friday before the super bowl, went the entire off-season wavering about his intentions. Then in like mid-September, he announced that he was coming back, and ready to listen to offers from teams. Then lets say the Packers stepped up and signed him. He would then take a month or so to get into shape and ride into town on his white horse around week 6. Would we let this take happen? As it is, Favre was ripped for dragging out his decision last year. How would he have been treated if he missed all of training camp and a significant number of games?
He doesn’t have to go to road games if he isn’t pitching
People kill Barry Bonds for being a bad teammate, and rightfully so because this seems to be true. But at least he sits in the dugout on roadtrips when he isn’t playing. Why is it that Clemens doesn’t have to do this? He isn’t the only player in the majors with a family. Wouldn’t just about every player with kids like to just show up at games in which they are scheduled to start in, and spend the other days at home with the family? Not only that, but a lot of guys have pregnant wives and/or newborn or infant kids, and they go on roadtrips. Clemens kids are in high school and college! He has got a kid in the minors for crying out loud!
We realize that Clemens is a legend and has earned a lot of leeway. But enough has got to be enough at some point, right?
He doesn’t have to go to spring training
We don’t know yet if he is going to play this year or not (and if so, for whom), but one thing we do know is that he will not be participating in spring training for the second year in a row. Why is he able to get away with this? Why is it that he can sit on his couch through March and April and field calls from teams ready and willing to throw money at him for two-thirds of a season of work?
Imagine if Brett Favre, instead of announcing his intention to return in ’07-08 on the Friday before the super bowl, went the entire off-season wavering about his intentions. Then in like mid-September, he announced that he was coming back, and ready to listen to offers from teams. Then lets say the Packers stepped up and signed him. He would then take a month or so to get into shape and ride into town on his white horse around week 6. Would we let this take happen? As it is, Favre was ripped for dragging out his decision last year. How would he have been treated if he missed all of training camp and a significant number of games?
He doesn’t have to go to road games if he isn’t pitching
People kill Barry Bonds for being a bad teammate, and rightfully so because this seems to be true. But at least he sits in the dugout on roadtrips when he isn’t playing. Why is it that Clemens doesn’t have to do this? He isn’t the only player in the majors with a family. Wouldn’t just about every player with kids like to just show up at games in which they are scheduled to start in, and spend the other days at home with the family? Not only that, but a lot of guys have pregnant wives and/or newborn or infant kids, and they go on roadtrips. Clemens kids are in high school and college! He has got a kid in the minors for crying out loud!
We realize that Clemens is a legend and has earned a lot of leeway. But enough has got to be enough at some point, right?
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Its all I can Stands and I Can't Stands No More!
Mike Lupica is getting off scot free.
For those of you who do not live in New York or are not familliar with his brand of "journalism," let us fill you in. He is just as self-absorbed, cynical, and douchebag-ish as Jay Mariotti, but he only appears on the WWL once a week to Mariotti's five, so most people haven't caught on yet. Therefore he continues to be allowed to publish his weekly Sunday column in the New York Daily News and make outrageously off-base and meaningless statements. This has been going on for far too long and we can't take it anymore. His ramblings from this morning's column put us over the edge.
Exhibit A - Moronic arguments and baseless statements
"Michael Jordan, at the end, got paid as much by the Bulls for the past as he did for the present. And so should Mo Rivera, an even greater money performer than even Jordan ever was."
First off, the last time Jordan took a paycheck from the Bulls, it was the 1998 season and he was leading them to thier sixth NBA championship in eight years. So they weren't paying him for the past, they were in the midst of a championship run, and were paying him for the present. The Yankees on the other hand, haven't won a championship in six full years.
Second, between 1991 and 1998, the only years the Bulls didn't win the championship were the two years that Jordan didn't play the full season. Rivera however, while an all-time great performer in the postseason for the Yankees, has been at the center of two spectacular collapses in crunch time. The ninth inning of game seven of the 2001 World Series, and the ninth inning of game four of the 2004 ALCS. So to call Rivera a better money performer than Jordan is ridiculous.
And third, how can the closer, who pitches 2 innings max at the end of games after the rest of the team has already garnered a lead, be more important to his team than Jordan, who was one of five players on the court for his team, and played almost every minute and took every big shot?
Exhibit B - Meaningless statements
Mike Lupica is getting off scot free.
For those of you who do not live in New York or are not familliar with his brand of "journalism," let us fill you in. He is just as self-absorbed, cynical, and douchebag-ish as Jay Mariotti, but he only appears on the WWL once a week to Mariotti's five, so most people haven't caught on yet. Therefore he continues to be allowed to publish his weekly Sunday column in the New York Daily News and make outrageously off-base and meaningless statements. This has been going on for far too long and we can't take it anymore. His ramblings from this morning's column put us over the edge.
Exhibit A - Moronic arguments and baseless statements
"Michael Jordan, at the end, got paid as much by the Bulls for the past as he did for the present. And so should Mo Rivera, an even greater money performer than even Jordan ever was."
First off, the last time Jordan took a paycheck from the Bulls, it was the 1998 season and he was leading them to thier sixth NBA championship in eight years. So they weren't paying him for the past, they were in the midst of a championship run, and were paying him for the present. The Yankees on the other hand, haven't won a championship in six full years.
Second, between 1991 and 1998, the only years the Bulls didn't win the championship were the two years that Jordan didn't play the full season. Rivera however, while an all-time great performer in the postseason for the Yankees, has been at the center of two spectacular collapses in crunch time. The ninth inning of game seven of the 2001 World Series, and the ninth inning of game four of the 2004 ALCS. So to call Rivera a better money performer than Jordan is ridiculous.
And third, how can the closer, who pitches 2 innings max at the end of games after the rest of the team has already garnered a lead, be more important to his team than Jordan, who was one of five players on the court for his team, and played almost every minute and took every big shot?
Exhibit B - Meaningless statements
"The Knicks had four days off before they played the first game of their West Coast trip, against the Jazz. Then they didn't play the Lakers until the following Tuesday night.But when they got blown out the next night by Golden State - playing without either Baron Davis or Jason Richardson - we heard how tired the Knicks were."
We have no idea what he is even talking about here.
Exhibit C - Axes to grind
"The Knicks are covered as if the No. 23 - last year's win total, now matched - is more magical now than when Jordan wore it."
Again, for those of you who don't live here, Lupica hates Isaiah Thomas, and the fact that the Knicks are significantly better this year under Thomas than they were last year under Larry Brown really pisses him off. As a result, he makes bizarre comments like the above in the hopes that he can convince himself that there has been no improvement.
We really have no idea why we continue to read the garbage that he writes, its really not good for our blood pressure. But we also get genuine entertainment from his ignorance and the fact that a major newspaper in the largest market in this country is paying him for this.
Friday, February 16, 2007
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue has officially become irrelevant. 
When I was a kid the most exciting time of the entire year was when some kid would steal his dad’s SI swimsuit issue and bring it in to school. Then we would all huddle around his locker and ogle pictures of Kathy Ireland, Vendela, and Elle McPhereson, in bikinis. We couldn’t believe that for one week a year a magazine would actually send a complete issue of scantily-clad women to subscribers’ houses.
Then I went off to college and discovered that a new innovation had been created. The “men’s magazine.” Not quite GQ or Details, not exactly Men’s Fitness, or Men’s Health, and just short of Playboy, and Penthouse. Of course I am referring to the fraternity house shitter reading that is Maxim, Stuff, FHM, Blender, and whatever other clones of these magazines that have been spawned since I began this post 1 ½ paragraphs ago. These magazines do exactly what the Swimsuit Issue does, except they do it every month. And they do it with girls we recognize from movies, TV, and music. In other words, SI takes women who wear nothing but swimsuits for a living, and compiles pictures of them in swimsuits, and makes a magazine issue out of it. Maxim and others take women that men have been mentally picturing in swimsuits and underwear, and print pictures of them swimsuits and underwear. Brilliant.
And you have to believe that SI sees the writing on the wall. Why else would they devote so much of their issues now on stuff like bodypaint,
Strategically placed mp3 players
and give the cover to a Golden Globe nominated, Grammy award winning recording artist and actress?
That being said, the women in this year’s Swimsuit Issue are still ridiculously hot, from cover girl Beyonce,
to Marissa Miller,
to Yesica Toscanini.
And props to SI for having a music theme to the issue, which meant pictures on-location in our native Cleveland, OH at the rock and roll hall of fame.
Hooray for irrelevant magazines!
Have a good weekend perverts!
When I was a kid the most exciting time of the entire year was when some kid would steal his dad’s SI swimsuit issue and bring it in to school. Then we would all huddle around his locker and ogle pictures of Kathy Ireland, Vendela, and Elle McPhereson, in bikinis. We couldn’t believe that for one week a year a magazine would actually send a complete issue of scantily-clad women to subscribers’ houses.
Then I went off to college and discovered that a new innovation had been created. The “men’s magazine.” Not quite GQ or Details, not exactly Men’s Fitness, or Men’s Health, and just short of Playboy, and Penthouse. Of course I am referring to the fraternity house shitter reading that is Maxim, Stuff, FHM, Blender, and whatever other clones of these magazines that have been spawned since I began this post 1 ½ paragraphs ago. These magazines do exactly what the Swimsuit Issue does, except they do it every month. And they do it with girls we recognize from movies, TV, and music. In other words, SI takes women who wear nothing but swimsuits for a living, and compiles pictures of them in swimsuits, and makes a magazine issue out of it. Maxim and others take women that men have been mentally picturing in swimsuits and underwear, and print pictures of them swimsuits and underwear. Brilliant.
And you have to believe that SI sees the writing on the wall. Why else would they devote so much of their issues now on stuff like bodypaint,
Strategically placed mp3 players
and give the cover to a Golden Globe nominated, Grammy award winning recording artist and actress?
That being said, the women in this year’s Swimsuit Issue are still ridiculously hot, from cover girl Beyonce,
to Marissa Miller,
to Yesica Toscanini.
And props to SI for having a music theme to the issue, which meant pictures on-location in our native Cleveland, OH at the rock and roll hall of fame.
Hooray for irrelevant magazines!
Have a good weekend perverts!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Excuses are like Assholes, They all Stink!
schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun: A satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.
The ESPN/USA Today college basketball coaches’ poll was released yesterday, and as you probably know by now it was distinct from every other ESPN/USA Today college basketball coaches’ poll because of one simple fact: it did not contain Duke.
Make no mistake, the Dukies are smack-dab in the middle of a dreaded “down year.” Duke has lost four consecutive games, including losses at unranked Virginia, and at home to unranked Florida State. And if not for some questionable clock operation on January 25th, Duke could have easily lost at home to Clemson, and would be staring at five losses in six games.
In light of these events, the Duke apologists have emerged out of the woodwork with excuse after excuse as to why they are struggling:
They don't have a scorer
This to me is the most puzzling of all excuses. Why don’t they have a so-called “scorer?” Coach K is a pretty accomplished guy, don’t you think he should have had the foresight to say, “Hmm, we are going to need to score to win games. I think we should recruit a scorer!” Its not as simple as “they don’t have a scorer” it’s the fact that they haven’t done well in recruiting, especially compared to teams like North Carolina.
They are too young.
Bullshit. Ohio State usually starts two freshmen, and a third freshman (Dequan Cook) is third on the team in minutes per game. They are #2 in the nation.
North Carolina’s top four players in terms of minutes per game are Tyler Handsbrough (sophomore), Brandon Wright (freshman), Wayne Ellington (freshman), and Ty Lawson (freshman). Sophomore Danny Green and freshman Deon Thompson also play significant minutes. They are #4 in the country.
Again it comes down to recruiting. Kevin Durant is a freshman and is probably going to win player of the year. He could have gone to Duke, but he didn’t. Greg Oden could have gone to Duke, but he didn’t. Wright, Ellington, and Lawson could have gone to Duke, but they didn’t. As a result of the new NBA age limit, every good team is “young” this year, but only Duke is using this as an excuse. Duke used to have a clear recruiting edge over everyone else in the country and it appears as if this edge is disappearing.
Greg Paulus is killing them.
Well, you have a point there.
Bullshit. Ohio State usually starts two freshmen, and a third freshman (Dequan Cook) is third on the team in minutes per game. They are #2 in the nation.
North Carolina’s top four players in terms of minutes per game are Tyler Handsbrough (sophomore), Brandon Wright (freshman), Wayne Ellington (freshman), and Ty Lawson (freshman). Sophomore Danny Green and freshman Deon Thompson also play significant minutes. They are #4 in the country.
Again it comes down to recruiting. Kevin Durant is a freshman and is probably going to win player of the year. He could have gone to Duke, but he didn’t. Greg Oden could have gone to Duke, but he didn’t. Wright, Ellington, and Lawson could have gone to Duke, but they didn’t. As a result of the new NBA age limit, every good team is “young” this year, but only Duke is using this as an excuse. Duke used to have a clear recruiting edge over everyone else in the country and it appears as if this edge is disappearing.
Greg Paulus is killing them.
Well, you have a point there.
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Dead Zone...
This week begins what we call the “dead zone.” You know, the time in between the Super Bowl and the college basketball conference tournaments. Every blogger and wannabe blogger rushes to the keyboard to chronicle this malaise the second the Super Bowl ends, so we will spare you our version of that spiel.
Instead, we will make a suggestion as to how you can pass the time until the first week in March. This is Kim Kardashian. We have no idea who she is, where she came from, what she has done to become famous, or what her general story is at all. All we know is that she is smoking hot, and according to the good folks at The Big Lead she will have an internet sex tape released in the coming weeks. We will be spending the “dead zone” anxiously awaiting this tape from Ms. Kardashian.
Besides that, we will be feigning interest in regular season college and pro basketball (cheering for the Cavs on Friday and Sunday and Kentucky on Saturday night!), while keeping one eye on baseball spring training (pitchers & catchers report in 5 days!). This s
ex tape can’t come out soon enough!
Have a good weekend!
This week begins what we call the “dead zone.” You know, the time in between the Super Bowl and the college basketball conference tournaments. Every blogger and wannabe blogger rushes to the keyboard to chronicle this malaise the second the Super Bowl ends, so we will spare you our version of that spiel.
Instead, we will make a suggestion as to how you can pass the time until the first week in March. This is Kim Kardashian. We have no idea who she is, where she came from, what she has done to become famous, or what her general story is at all. All we know is that she is smoking hot, and according to the good folks at The Big Lead she will have an internet sex tape released in the coming weeks. We will be spending the “dead zone” anxiously awaiting this tape from Ms. Kardashian.
Besides that, we will be feigning interest in regular season college and pro basketball (cheering for the Cavs on Friday and Sunday and Kentucky on Saturday night!), while keeping one eye on baseball spring training (pitchers & catchers report in 5 days!). This s
ex tape can’t come out soon enough!Have a good weekend!
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