Monthly Archives: February 2011

February 10, 2011

What No One Else Will Say About Jerry Sloan

By mceezy

Call Jerry Sloan the anti-Favre. It’s never been a will-he-or-won’t-he situation with Coach in Utah. The man’s been at the helm of the Jazz for the majority of the time they’ve been there, literally. I knew the clock was ticking, but I never expected Sloan to step down midseason. The more I learned what the reasons were, the more I felt upset for him. Word quickly spread that he’s had a tumultuous relationship with Deron Williams that came to a head the other night, leading Sloan to proclaim that he’s “done.” I would’ve thought Phil Johnson would be the natural successor, but he quit too. I know Deron Williams is the best player and all, but if you’re the Jazz ownership, how can you let him drive out your coach of 23 years? Larry Miller wouldn’t have stood for this. But you won’t really hear many sour grapes over this – from Sloan or from anybody. Because that’s how his coaching career went. He didn’t make a big deal out of his himself, and neither did the media. There’s no shortage of ridiculous numbers detailing Sloan’s unparalleled tenure, so I won’t regurgitate too many of those, but the guy had ONE losing season in his entire career. He also took the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice. The knock on him, of course, will always be that he never won a championship, but c’mon, can we honestly say he ever had championship caliber talent? They were pretty much at that level in 97-98, but they ran into Jordan and the Bulls. You know what else Jerry Sloan never won? A Coach of the Year award. Frank Layden won it in 1984 when he had Adrian Dantley and Darrell Griffith combining for 50 points a night en route to a 45-37 record. Sloan topped that record 18 times. Sure he had Stockton and Malone, but didn’t anybody wonder why they stayed in Utah their whole careers? Yet somehow, in Williams’ 6th season, he’s decided he’d rather play for Tyrone Corbin. This really just feels like the beginning of the demise of the Utah Jazz, unfortunately. But you won’t see or read much about it. The world ignored Jerry Sloan for 23 years, so don’t expect anything to change (other than the Jazz’s fortunes). Next weekend I’ll be making my annual trip out to Utah, which is like my second home, and I’m pretty confident it’ll be the first time I’ve ever been there when Jerry Sloan was not the coach. It’s gonna be a weird vibe…….

9 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Sports

February 10, 2011

Daniel Tosh’s Un-Aired Super Bowl Commercial

By chappy81

It’s never in bad taste to poke a little fun at a woman’s sport, and if you’ve seen Tosh.0 ever, you’ll know he’s pretty good at pointing out the shortcoming in anything. This commercial SHOULD have aired last Sunday, it was worth $3M a lot more than some of the other ones…

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Comedy, Sports, TV

February 9, 2011

Sick Day Special

By mceezy

Much like when you watch a baseball game, there’s the possibility that you may witness something extremely rare. Well, the same can be said for Doin Work. Today was a very rare occasion, as yours truly actually stayed home from work. I’m like Brett Favre in the office. Though as bored as I was throughout the day, it gave me some time to catch up on some news. Here’s what I was thinking about……

Might we see Ellison in front of more purple backgrounds soon?

Larry Ellison Can’t Manage To Buy an NBA Team – Well documented was Ellison’s late bid to buy the Golden State Warriors last year. What I didn’t know was that he also tried to buy the Sonics when they were getting ready to leave Seattle. Now I’ve come to find out he supposedly offered $350 million to buy the Hornets, but was rejected, only to see George Shinn sell the team to the league for $300 million. Obviously the dollar amounts can be argued, but the fact remains that Ellison has tried to purchase at least three franchises now, to no avail. So now he is reportedly turning his attention to the Kings, with the intention of moving them to Anaheim. What I don’t understand is why he is widely rumored to want to move the Kings to LA, but his preference for the Hornets would be to move them to San Jose. Not sure why the different destinations for the different teams. Maybe next he can take a shot at buying the Raptors and moving them to Winnipeg.

Athletics Need To Get Michael Young – I know there aren’t many rumors linking the A’s to Young, especially since Young’s no-trade clause only includes 8 teams, of which Oakland, not surprisingly, is not included. If I know Billy Beane, though, the A’s front office is making a serious play for the third baseman turned DH. It’s been no secret that the A’s have been trying to replace Kevin Kouzmanoff at third. For a while they were rumored to be trying to work out a Kouz for Chone Figgins deal, but that seems dead. The Mariners aren’t that stupid. Therefore it’s looking like Young is our best option. They’ll just have to come up with a deal enticing enough to convince the Rangers it’s the best for the team, while at the same time, enticing Young to waive his no-trade clause to come to Oakland. Most experts are seeing the A’s as the most improved team in the AL West, and the most likely to challenge Texas for the division title. I’m sure he’d rather be in Anaheim, but wouldn’t he love to stick it to his old team in the green and gold? Maybe not.

Big East Is Stacked – They’re now the laughing stock of college football’s BCS automatic bid conferences, but they’ve emerged as the premier college basketball conference. The title had traditionally been held by the ACC and/or the Big Ten, but the Big East is dominating now. By my count, they’ve got 8 ranked teams, and are looking poised to send 11 teams to the NCAA tournament. Though they are arguably the best conference from top to bottom, the Duke-North Carolina game is still the biggest one on the day’s docket.

Alex and Cameron don't look so hot after a bag of popcorn and a few drinks.

A-Corn Is Ridiculous – I was as amused as anyone when Fox cut away to Camerom Diaz feeding Alex Rodriguez popcorn in a suite, but I didn’t expect people to still be talking about on Wednesday. True, it was an embarrassing shot, but word is A-Rod went on a tirade, demanding that they don’t show him again. It’s like Mike Greenberg said today, A-Rod is the ONLY guy this could happen to. Anyone else would brush it off and have fun with it, but A-Rod is continuing to amaze by making himself even less likable than he already was. To top it off, I caught some TMZ today, where they showed Rodriguez shopping for clothes while Cameron walked around bored, texting. To make matters worse, A-Corn was caught numerous times checking out his own ass in the mirror. To top it all off, the cameras caught him picking a pretty decent sized booger out of his nose. Apparently, A-Rod is just as tragic off the field.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

February 8, 2011

Pebble Beach Stories Part V: The Celebrities

By chappy81

I was on the road for the past six days visiting family and friends across California. My last stop on the way home was in Monterey. As many of you golf fans out there know, the AT&T Pro-Am is being held this weekend on the Monterey Penninsula. I stopped in to see my old boss at Pebble Beach, and see what condition the course was in. It looked as great as it always does, and made me realize that I haven’t written a Pebble Beach Stories post in a loong time. While I was walking past the putting green I saw George Lopez, and it reminded me of how cool some of the celebrities are, and George was one of my favorites. Since I’ve worked there, I haven’t seen that many celebs nor been able to interact with them aside from Big Papi in Vegas. Going back to the course and seeing some old co-workers re-reminded me of some of those memories. Since the AT&T Pro Am is 25% about the celebs in the tournament I thought I’d make a nice and not so nice celeb list based on my experiences with them while working at Pebble Beach. Granted some were longer conversations or meetings than others, so some people might have just been having a bad day. On the other hand, how can you really have a bad day if you’re golfing at Pebble Beach?!? I already talked about the Caddies in part IV. I rambled about Derek Lee, Adam Dunn, Cory Lidle, and Brett Boone in part III. I talked about Chi Chi Rodriguez in part II. I talked about Chris Berman and Vijay in the inaugural post of this series, so I won’t go into any details on those guys, and you can revisit those posts to see what happened with them in the links provided, Here’s some things that came to me while I was wandering around Pebble Beach Monday morning. I have more, but these were some standouts.

Hmmm, buddies with George huh, one more reason for me to dislike him...

Not So Nice

Charles Schwab – Couldn’t be more of a dick, and has earned a place in the HOF of assholes. If there was a less friendly guy that holds onto his money with a vice grip like he does I don’t think I’ve met him yet. To top it off, he never tips. A co-worker of mine once laughed at me when I helped him for a second time in two days. Helping him culminated in driving him out to his $60M dollar house that overlooks the 18th teebox. I got no tip, he didn’t say more than two words answers when I tried to make some small talk with him. This is a man that could drop $1,000 dollars on the ground and not be worth his time to pick it up, and he can’t even give me a five spot. Even worse he couldn’t make small talk with someone doing him a favor!?! Talk to Chuck if you want your money safe, but you never know he might be stealing it too. Continue reading

25 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Pebble Beach Stories, Sports

February 3, 2011

Doin Super Bowl Lines

By dyslecix

Dyslecix picks Green Bay (-2.5). I just really like the Packers’ playmakers on a fast track indoors. They aren’t a huge run team anyways, and I think the transition is harder for Pittsburgh early, getting use to that indoor turf and style… And by that I mean the Packers got a taste against the Falcons already and as we saw, it suited the team pretty well. 27-21 Packers….with a big 4th quarter push from the Steelers who were down early….

Chappy picks Green Bay (-2.5). There’s  four reasons why I’m picking Green Bay. One, Charles Woodson. He is possibly my third or fourth all time favorite Raider behind Tim Brown, Bo Jackson, and Howie Long. Woodson forced a game winning fumble that should have gotten the Raiders into the AFC Championship game. Yup, still hate the Patriots for that game. Second, I’ve been rooting for Aaron Rodgers since he went to Cal. I’d like to see him with the real Championship belt on.

Third, I just don’t like seeing rapists succeed. If Ben had served a little jail time, I would forgive him a little sooner, but it didn’t really feel like he was ever punished. Four games, whoopity doo-da. I’m sure he found out a valuable lesson about hanging around college kids in BFE. Fourth, I’m no longer liking how good this Steelers franchise is. I get tired of the same teams winning over and over. They do play a fun brand of football though. Maybe I just want there to be another New Orleans type story even though I know it can’t happen. Wisconsin is nice and all, but the storyline isn’t quite as good. Packers win 28-23

By picks Green Bay (-2.5). I’m still uncertain as to why Green Bay is the favorite here, yes the dome and artificial turf can be an advantage to Green Bay’s speed on the perimeter, but we’re talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers here folks, they’ll adjust.  If I do recall, it was the Steelers who just won a Super Bowl two seasons ago.  Not much has changed to their roster since then, maybe except for the fact that they’ve renewed their hunger for another ring.  I’m picking Green Bay here because I’m rooting for them, but in all reality I don’t expect them to win.  I don’t care what the odd makers are telling you, Green Bay is the underdog here, and if I’m a neutral fan, I root for the ‘dogs.  Actually, I’m not that neutral, I’m a big Cal fan and so I’ll be cheering for Aaron Rodgers to equal Brett Favre in Super Bowl victories.  I like pointing that out too.  The fact that if Aaron Rodgers wins on Sunday, he’ll be tied with Favre in Super Bowl victories.  Takes away from Favre’s “legend”.  Also, call me a glutton for pain, but as a 49ers fan, I enjoy how much it hurts to see how successful Aaron Rodgers has become knowing we passed on him for Alex Smith in ’05.  It’s like pressing on a bruise to yourself.  It hurts so good.  The x-factor in this matchup is Green Bay’s defense, specifically their secondary.  For as much hype as Nhamdi Awesome-Muah (yes that’s how I spell and pronounce his name) and Darrelle Revis get for being shut down corners, Charles Woodson is overlooked.  This despite him winning Defensive Player of the Year last season.  Green Bay’s offense is going to struggle for a better part of this game against the vaunted Steelers’ D, but if Green Bay’s D can keep it close, all bets are off and Rodgers and co. have a chance.  Here goes nothing, Pack 21 Steelers 17.

MCeezy picks PITTSBURGH (+2.whocares) No spread needed… I think the Steelers will beat the spread because I think they’ll WIN. Everyone’s real high on the Packers right now, including me, but it doesn’t mean they’ll have success against the Steelers. Pittsburgh’s got too many big game players.  Green Bay’s almost there, but not quite. They’ll be back though. They will need to replace some receivers in the next few years, and they’ll continue to have a revolving door at running back, but they’ve got enough pieces in place to be a perennial postseason threat. This weekend though, will belong to the Steelers. I won’t be particularly thrilled about it, but I see the Steelers pulling away in the second half and winning decisively. Largely because my high school and college, and my beloved Oakland A’s, all donned the green and gold, I’ll be rooting for the Packers, but this one’s gonna be all black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow… Steelers 36 Packers 17

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

February 3, 2011

Some Mike Iuzzolino Highlights

By mceezy

You may have seen this one coming. After Chappy brought up NBA Jam the other day, I can’t stop looking back fondly at all those dynamite duos from the original arcade game. Remember when everyone would fight over who got to be the Lakers, so they could run the floor with Vlade and James Worthy? If you were unlucky, you’d likely settle for the second best team, the Milwaukee Bucks with Brad Lohaus and Blue Edwards. The Seattle SuperSonics were pretty unstoppable, because what says fast break action more than Benoit Benjamin? Ultimately, you were always okay as long as you didn’t pick a team with one of those pint-size players like Tim Hardaway or Isiah Thomas. It was cool for Kings’ Spud Webb to be tiny, since he was, but can’t Mark Price at least look like a man and not a boy?

Speaking of men among boys, anyone who put a quarter into an NBA Jam machine earned themself a date with Mike Iuzzolino. Since the Mavs were arguably the worst team in basketball, the video game Mavs were no different. They were the first team you played, and Derek Harper must have pissed off some teammates since it looked like none of his digital cohorts wanted to play with him. Nonetheless, Mike Iuzzolino was happy to take on the challenge. Apparently Mike will take on any challenge. Check out this highlight reel I found. Not only can he excel on the basketball court while looking extremely mediocre, Iuzzolino also – unless I’m missing something in translation – has tons of skills in the editing room, converted an old run-down prison into a three star hotel, and runs a successful tire conglomerate that puts lots of names on their receipts….

2 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Sports, video games

February 3, 2011

The Death Of Free Sports

By mceezy

Tonight we lost a valuable commodity… ATDHE.net fell victim to the “ICE”. For the last few months we’ve been able to enjoy out-of-market games at no cost on the web, but it was too good to be true – like everything else on the web. No more Warriors games in LA and Sacramento for us.  We invite you to share your favorite ATDHE memories in the comments section….

5 Comments   |  tags: | posted in Sports, TV

February 1, 2011

Whatever Happened to the Two Sport Athlete? Are They About to Make a Comeback!?!

By chappy81

I was reading this Rob Neyer article, and he was talking about how great Bo Jackson was. To this day he is one of my favorite all time Raiders. I loved his Tiger handheld game as well. He dominated Deion in the battle of the best two-sport athlete by a long shot. Unfortunately for Bo, and for us, his career ended far too early. It got me wondering why there aren’t more two sport athletes these days, but if you look at the salaries back then he wasn’t making close to what guys are today. Granted it was the early 90’s, and with inflation money was worth a little more than it is now, but his final year in Oakland he earned $1.6M, and in Kansas City he pulled in $2.6M.  I’m not saying this is chump change, but the crappy players weren’t quite to the point of getting paid ridiculous amounts of money during Bo’s days, and even the best players weren’t completely paid. So my thinking was that as contracts rose in EVERY sport the need to play more than one sport lessened. The last guy I can even think of that stood out in two sports was Charlie Ward being the general for Florida State’s offense in football and basketball, but even he didn’t play two sports professionally, which I think proves my point that athlete’s don’t need to play two sports anymore because the money is so ridiculously good in whichever one they choose. The closest thing we’ve had recently is a Nike commercial with Lebron blocking a field goal for the Cleveland Browns. With the very real possibility of a lockout for two of our sports (NFL and NBA), I wanted to throw out some ideas for guys and types of players that I think would try to make the jump to another sport either out of boredom or the need to support the $500,000 a month spending lifestyle. Continue reading

25 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

February 1, 2011

Wasting Too Much Time on NBA Jam

By chappy81

Well, I’ve been wasting a lot of time on NBA Jam since Christmas. It’s almost a mirror image of he original with a little better graphics, and some added games like 21, remix, and domination. I was excited when they brought it back, and since I haven’t been that into video games much lately it was nice to get into this one that I had a hard time putting down as a kid. I came across this youtube clip, and since it involved Curry, I thought I’d throw it up on the blog…

8 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in video games