With the upcoming March Madness tourney about to start, I thought I’d do a “what if” post. What if college basketball players were like their football counterparts and had to stay in college for all four years!?! Think how much different the brackets would be! Would it be a no brainer to pick the Texas Durantulas? Probably not, but I’m going to run through the teams that I think would be in mix based on guys they’d still have. I’m not completely sure who the champ would eventually be, but it’s always fun to debate, and I’d have to give it to Senior Kevin Durant!
Memphis – No they wouldn’t have Derrick Rose, because he would be deemed ineligible from that whole cheating on his SAT thing. They would still have Tyreke Evans and Shawn Taggert though. Having both of these guys back would improve their defense. They already showed they could score without them, but they’d just be that much better by being able to shut down the opponents key players. I’m 99.9% sure they would’ve added to their impressive winning streak, and pushed it over 70 games. Continue reading
Oregon Ducks quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was arrested for 2nd degree burglary. He stole a couple laptops and a guitar from a fraternity house. Chip Kelly, Oregon’s football coach, said that Masoli would be suspended for the entire 2010 season. The once Heisman hopeful, can redshirt for a season while he is on suspension and won’t lose his scholarship or waste a year of eligibility. It will be up to him if he wants to return in the 2011 season. It’s a big blow for a team that had high hopes for the Pac-10 title, with no clear front runner in the conference. Without any extra investigation on my part whatsoever. I like it, it shows that Oregon isn’t slipping him a bunch of money under the table to their players as he would be an obvious beneficiary. He definitely wouldn’t have had to rip a laptop off. He’d already have one, and some other “gifts” to swap for some cash. I guess there’s a slight possibility that he may have done it for “fun” because he didn’t like that frat, but I’ll assume he committed the crime for financial reasons. I wonder if Masoli is wishing he went to USC, and at least got paid!
Over on the Boston blog Barstool, they have a segment where every morning they post a hot chick and tons of pictures of her and title it Waking up with so and so. Today I wanted our readers to wake up with Forehead Tittaes! I guess this product would work, but mostly because it looks so ridiculous on thier heads, and not because our attention is turned away from their chest… I’ve been struggling with youtube lately, and can’t seem to get this damn video embeded! So here’s the link to the video funny stuff if you haven’t already seen it!
I know basketball season isn’t quite wrapped up, but the Warriors have had the most injury plagued season I’ve ever seen them go through in my lifetime. Nearly all NBA teams have close to 12 guys suiting up for every game, and the Warriors have had 9 or fewer players suit up for 31 of their 63 games thus far. It looks like this trend will continue to for the remainder of the season as even the D-Leagues they’ve called up are somehow getting hurt too. Being a die hard fan of everything that is Oakland sports, it’s tough to watch my team go through these kinds of problems. Anyone that follows the A’s would know that they’ve had their fair share of injuries over the past few seasons, and it got me thinking what team had the worst injury riddled season of all time in Oaktown!?! It wasn’t hard to pick a team to match up with the Warriors this year. The Oakland A’s had a ton of injuries last year (17 times they used the DL), but not quite as many as the 2008 squad (25 times they used the DL, and a team record). So my question is, who had the worst injury plagued season the 2009-10 Warriors or the 2008 Athletics?
Both these guys were supposed to see huge minutes this year.
2009-2010 Warriors
This Warriors season has had lots of lots in just one box season. It’s worse because it’s been mostly the players we thought would be starting. I remember watching a post game interview with Stan Van Gundy, and he was saying that having 8 guys isn’t a huge deal, but which 8 you have is the most important. Truer words have never been spoken. Not that I was thinking that the Warriors were going to have a great season, but I figured we would be better than this! It was announced that Andris Biendrins will getting season ending surgery. He had a terrible year that will come to an end before most knew it even started. They have a pretty long list of guys that are out for the season including three guys that might have been starters such as; Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, Brandon Wright, and the guys they traded for are even out for the season like Raja Bell and Vlad Radmanovic. Even the guys who were there as expiring contracts have gotten into some games like Deavan George. It’s amazing how inconsistent their lineup has been. Five games ago the Warriors had three healthy centers and no backup point guards, On Monday they had four eligible guards and only one center. A summary of this season was in a game against the Bucks in mid-January. They didn’t even have enough players to finish a game! The refs didn’t even know what to do when the healthy body, Stephen Curry, received his sixth foul. They had to confer and ended up giving the W’s a Technical foul, and let Curry keep playing so they had the five guys to finish the game.
Will Chavy ever play more than four or five games at a time?
2008 Athletics
The 2008 A’s were a perplexing team. At the time I felt that they were good enough to make a run at a division title around the All-Star break being 3-5 games out of first, but those hopes were dashed around the trade deadline when we sent our proven players like Blanton and Harden off in trades. We essentially were waving the white flag for the season right there. Maybe I wasn’t looking at the overall picture enough at the time, because they had a ton of guys getting hurt, and maybe management felt that they didn’t have as good a chance as I thought they did at making the playoffs. Especially since the Angels traded for Texiera as the premier trade deadline splash. Anyways, they used the DL an amazing 25 times with those players missing a total of 877 games. Sure you have the often injured Eric Chavez type guys on there, but that’s beside the point.They obliterated every other team in the league in that category by 10. They didn’t even recovery that well in 2009 using the DL 17 times, and was second in the league in that category. Maybe it’s not The Curse of the Wash after all that is bringing them down, maybe it’s just the injuries!
All in all, Oakland fans have been getting used to hearing, so and so is having surgery. So and so, is day to day. So and so got in a moped accident. Ok, that last one was a cheap shot, but you get the point. Maybe these past couple of years will make them upgrade their training staffs. Maybe karma will kick in and give them a clean bill of health for the next three years! My pick for the most injured team, goes to the 2009-10 Warriors, they’ve been more banged up than Charlie Sheen the last couple months!
I had to steal this picture from Anthony over at Drippet. I think I’m going to have to get my hands on some of these, because it looks like endless fun even if you get pulled over! Well worth the $38 price tag to get them!
I’ve never been a fan of watching athletes hang on like reality stars do when they reach the 29th second of their 30 seconds of fame. They hold onto their glorious lifestyles as long as they can, and it’s not my call to make, but based mostly on the bad taste it leaves in everyone’s mouth. I’d much rather see some guys out of the league at this point, but there’s always some owners that will pay. It’s sad to watch the best of the best fall into mediocrity. Yeah, they can still play, but they aren’t helping their teams like they think they are. Unless you are a freak like Dikembe Mutumbo there’s a big chance you won’t be playing into your 40’s. Every team has at least one guy that the fans, the media, and the players know that it’s time to call it a career. In the wake of the AI gambling and seeing his production drop off the map over the last two years, I guess it’s as good a time as any to scan through the league rosters, and pick out some guys that may as well apply for the AARP. I’m sure it was a nice ride no matter how long or short it was! I don’t really blame any of them for holding on as long as possible, but at some point enough is enough. Adam Morrison almost made the list after the convincing argument MCeezy made on his future RFP of the day eligibility. Alas, I’m going to keep this list to guys that have had their shot, and either aren’t cutting it or aren’t good anymore.
Lindsey Hunter – Chicago
What!?! He’s still in the NBA!?! I was kind of shocked to see that he was on the Bulls roster. At 39, it will be hard to find an older guard in the league. He makes Jason Kidd look like a baby. He’s only started a total of 13 games over the last 7 seasons, and has blistering ppg averages of 3.5, 3.8, 2.9, 4.9, 2.4, 2.6, 1.0. Clearly it’s about that time to move on Lindsey. Be an assistant coach or something. Continue reading
I won’t be one of the people purchasing the Pacquiao vs. Clottey on PPV this Saturday the 13th, mainly due to the ridiculous price of the event, and paying for a fight that could be over about as fast as it started isn’t appealing either. It should no doubt be Manny and Floyd squaring off, but unfortunately that’s not the case. I probably won’t buy another fight until that match up happens, but who knows if it will ever happen. What if one of them loses!?! Would that make it impossible for the match up to happen!?! I’m sure I’ll catch Pacquiao and Clottey on HBO when that’s released. I’ve always liked boxing since one of my old roommates got me into it. His grandpa was none other than Denny Moyer. These days the sport isn’t what it used to be. I wish MMA never came around. I think that took a lot of true warriors out of the boxing pool. If Manny loses this fight it, would be as big of an upset as Buster Douglass over Iron Mike. I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Here’s my list of reasons why Manny will destroy Clottey this Saturday.
Hand speed – Manny has the quickest hands of any fighter I can remember. Clottey has never seen anyone close to the speed of Manny, and will struggle against it. The only way to slow down speed is to go to the body, or get him on his heals early, and I wouldn’t count on either of those two scenarios.
Work Rate – Clottey has been known in the past for taking periods of time or even a complete round off during fights. Pacquiao on the other hand never seems to take a second off. He’s always attacking, and if for some reason Clottey decides to take a round off, he may not ever catch up on the scorecards. Pacquiao will surely take advantage of any lapses in Clottey’s attack.
Chin – Pacquiao had a questionable chin when he broke onto the scene. He hasn’t been knocked out since 1999, so those rumors have been put to rest facing sizable opponents like the last man he fought Miguel Cotto. If Clottey is counting on attacking the chin, he might need to rethink his strategy.
Power – Manny is the smaller of the two, but packs the bigger punch. Manny has 38 KO’s in his 50 wins. Clottey only has 20 KO’s of his 35 wins. Clottey has never knocked out a top tier fighter, while Manny has knocked out three guys that had never been knocked out before (Jorge Solis, Erik Morales, and Marco Antonio Barrera).
Big Fight Experience – This is by far the biggest stage that Clottey has ever seen. Pacquiao has been there tons of times, and with nearly everybody in the boxing world watching he usually destroys the lesser opponent.
This is how most of his opponents end up... I don't see it being any different this weekend...
I’m probably beating a dead horse with this post, since most don’t really belive Clottey has a shot, but I’ve never really written anything about boxing since we’ve had the blog going, so I thought I’d see how it went… All in all it’s pretty improbable to see any kind of upset. Manny is flat out the better fighter, and in reality, is the best fighter on the planet right now. I guess we can’t be 100% sure of that until he and Mayweather stop squabbling about blood testing, and get in the ring, but if Mosely beats Mayweather on May 1st we may never get the chance to see it.
I ran across this article on Friday, and still can’t really understand how this vaporizer gizmo works. It’s the new rage at the club scene in the UK, and is an alcoholic vaporizer, that is used in the same way as a hookah. I’m not sure how effective it would be in getting you drunk, but I can see this replacing bottle services at clubs. Maybe AP knows what they’re all about since he’s from the UK. For some reason I don’t see it being very potent, since it doesn’t give you a hang over. Maybe the quick buzz doesn’t last nearly as long as drinking alcohol, and is truly meant for those who like to cut a rug all night long while just having a mild buzz. I’ve never come across a booze that you can drink endless amounts of without feeling the effects the next day. There seems to be some that think it is bad for your brain to snort the vapor, but since I’m not going to do that if they ever make it to the U.S. I’m not worried about it.
The thing I’m most skeptical about is that hard booze doesn’t really taste good straight up, and to vaporize it you’d need to heat it up, which feels like you’re making it taste even worse. I can’t imagine what a lung filled hit of vodka or gin would taste like, but I don’t foresee it tasting good. It’s actually the complete opposite of my favorite whiskey on the rocks. Hot whiskey in vapor form, doesn’t sound like something I’ll be wanting very often, but if it somehow doesn’t give you a hangover then maybe I’m down to try. Another thing I don’t like about the idea is I like carrying a cup around. For some reason holding my drink, and sipping it with my friends. There’s something about the social aspect of drinking from a glass that I feel like I’d be missing. There’s a good chance I just like the way it tastes too…
I’m not much of a movie buff, but I did catch a few of the flicks this year including Avatar. I was actually slightly disappointed with the 3D as I was hoping they would’ve made it more Disney style. You know, like in Captain EO and the parts when the stuff in the film feels like it’s flying at you, and you find your self flinching or wanting to grab something that isn’t there. Avatar was more 3D from the screen and back. I want it to come at me! Maybe I had too high expectations, but all in all it was a pretty good movie. I think it’s ridiculous that some people want to join the Navi culture, but if anyone would fit in with them it’s probably the tallest of our species, NBA players. I remember when this clip first came out, I thought this has Nash inspiration written all over it. If you were a player, how could you not like playing in Phoenix!?! You have Nash, the most ridiculous man in the world, great weather, a free flowing offense to pad those stats in, and you don’t even have to play defense. Even the fans are pretty good sports like this guy who got a face full of iron! Then you get Barbosa dressing up on the plane and scaring teammates (Lopez’s reaction was priceless). I most likely won’t catch any of the show tonight, but I’ll predict that Avatar gets at least six awards, and one will be best spinoff, by the Phoenix Suns.
I found the celebration kinda cool. A bowling ball knocking over his team mates (pins). I guess this isn't the NFL though.
Prince Fielder was plunked by a heat seeking 80 mph fastball in spring training today by the Bay Area flamethrower, Barry Zito. I think this is the first moment I’ve truly felt baseball is REALLY starting. There’s something about the competitiveness of this incident that makes it feel like they are starting to care about the games. The retaliation beanball was for a choreographed team celebration after Prince hit a walkoff in the 12th inning of a game in early September last year (pictured above). It pretty much killed the Giants season as they were holding onto a very slim playoff hope. I guess they still had a chip on their shoulders about it. There was no previous bad blood between the teams, and that’s what makes this one of the greatest parts about baseball. Most sports when you retaliate for anything you get called for a foul, whether it’s a technical in basketball or an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the NFL. The only sport you can really retaliate in is baseball. A sport that is built on traditions and history, never forgets a time when the team was slighted or given a cheap shot. Zito and the Giants didn’t forget when Prince strolled to the plate today. Zito helped them get some of those pent up feelings out in one pitch for things that happened long ago. It’s cool that a team can feel some kind of revenge 6 months after the fact, even if it was during a spring training game. I didn’t really see it as showboating in the walkoff, but I guess this is a sport that pitchers get mad when hitters stroll to first admiring their homers going out of the park. It’s not the Lebron and company doing their sideshow pregame. Regardless of how meaningless it is in the scope of things, I love how one beanball got me excited about the upcoming season!
Thank you Fanhouse! You’ve given me the inspiration to do some power rankings. I couldn’t believe what their power rankings looked like, I mean really!?! I’m as big of a Laker hater there is out there, but putting the Mavs at numero uno over the Cavs and the Lake show is a little bold!! I’m not sure what Brett over at Fanhouse is smoking, but I need to get some! Anyways, here’s how I see the top 16 teams in the league at this point in the season.
#1 Los Angeles Lakers – They don’t have the best record in the league, but having Kobe sit out for a little will help them. Not missing a beat in the win column keeps them atop these rankings. They will most likely cruise to the Western Conference finals before they are truly tested. John Canzano at the Oregonian might have convinced me that they could be tested by the Blazers in the first round, but I won’t get my hopes up at this point of an early Lake Show exit.
#2 Cleveland Cavaliers – Best record in the league, and a very close 2nd to the champs. Is it a big deal that Shaq is out? No, but in case anyone forgot, they have Lebron. You could put him on the Bucks right now, and get through the first couple playoff rounds, so I’m not buying that the loss of the Diesel is that big of a deal at this point. If he ends up missing more time than expected, that might be another story. Lebron is playing in a different league than everyone else, he doesn’t need Shaq.
#3 Orlando Magic – Vince looks like he finally is fitting in, and the Magic are playing their best basketball of the year. If they keep playing like they have, they could be just as scary as Cleveland in the Eastern Conference. Stan Van Gundy reminds me of Rex Ryan in the NFL. He’s a little unpredictable and unstable, but if you were caught in a fight you would gladly take them on your side.
The 8th at Pebble is my favorite hole on the course. There isn't a better over the cliff 2nd shot anywhere I've played!
Here’s the third installment of my stories from working at Pebble Beach. If you missed PART I or PART II click on the links to view. The baseball players are easily the most entertaining group of characters that I saw stumble their way the through the golf course. The best part about the baseball guys is that they show up to the first tee smelling like booze at 8-9AM. No other professional sports group drinks nearly as much as them. They will often ask you to grab them a bloody mary to cure the hangover before their round. It’s pretty funny when the mini-store they have at the resort runs out of booze EVERY time they come to town. The only times I saw the store sold out was during tournaments or when the baseball players were there! Another fun part is watching the baseball guys BOMB their drives. They are one of the groups that plays a lot of mini golf games while at the resort such as scrambles/best ball/elimination games throughout the week. I always would volunteer to be a judge for the events and got to most of the time. Anyways, with spring training in full swing here’s my most notable memories from the always fun, MLB players.
Brett Boone – Easily the winner of the biggest drunk guy maneuver. Although there were complaints of someone leaving fecal matter in the elevator on this very night, but nobody owned up to that one, so it will be a mystery forever. We just know it had to be one of the ball players. It might be a coincidence, but the two times that Boone came to Pebble, I saw him occasionally over their week, and about 6 of the 7 times I saw him, he had a cocktail in hand. I remember helping him in the morning of the particular day of the “incident”, and he was dropped off in the front area where the bag drop is. He had a cocktail in hand, and already had that drunk lazy eye look at 8:30 in the morning. Not surprising by any means, but he was slightly ahead of pace on this particular morning if you know what I’m saying.
Anyways, fast forward 16 hours to a little after midnight. Brett Boone and another player that was never identified to me decided to start a bonfire just outside his hotel room at Spanish Bay. A good chunk of landscape got burnt luckily not any fairway, and also a little of the building had some charring on it. This extremely smart idea no doubt came from some heavy drinking, and earned Boone a $20K fine for fixing up the damages. He also received a ban from the resort. In case you were wondering why so many athletes go broke, this could be another good example of why…
Adam Dunn – He holds the title for the best golf shot I’ve ever seen by a non-golf professional. We were doing a scramble, and I was the judge for the six pairings (twelve players overall). Basically, the game was; the two worst scores are eliminated on each hole, each pair had players alternating shots, when there were three teams left it went to a single elimination for each hole. I can’t remember who Dunn’s teammate was for this mini game, but there were only three teams left at the time of the shot. We were on the par 4 15th hole at Pebble. Dunn was hitting his fourth shot, and it looked like the other two teams had VERY make-able par chances(Neither groups made them). He was about 45-50 yards out, and he hit his shot a mile up in the air. It bounced on the green once with a little backspin slowing the balls speed after it touched down, and on the second hop it went into directly into the hole. His 50 yard chip in saved them on the hole, and they eventually won the scramble. It very well could be the only time I’ve really seen Dunn win! Sorry Reds and Nats fans, pun intended.
Derek Lee – The longest drive I’ve ever seen on the 18th hole came from Derek. I’m not sure exactly how far it traveled, but it went close to 400 yards. It was past the trees that are supposed to give you trouble on your second shot. It was a shame he wasted that monster drive by shanking his second shot into the water to the left of the green, but hey, most of us would be happy with just having that first shot… A side note on DLee, my buddy in guest services wouldn’t accept any of his money/tips from him all week while “hooking” him up with upgrades to his room and things of that nature. At the end of the weekend, he sent my buddy to the pro shop to get fitted for clubs and sent him a brand new set of Nike golf clubs. My friend couldn’t turn that down! I’ll always root for him no matter how much he struggles or how much Chicago fans rip him, he just made that good of an impression on me!
Cory Lidle – I was debating whether putting a negative on the deceased was in bad taste, but essentially I’m just telling a story. Also, it’s been two years since the plane crash, so I figure enough time has passed. It’s a shame my memory of Lidle was the most horrid display of putting I’ve seen. I could really see two year old throwing a ball at the hole and getting as close as him. He missed so bad on one putt he was slightly off the green after it. He took his time setting up these putts, and seemed to put some genuine effort into the shots which made it more perplexing. Something just wasn’t clicking, I felt bad for the guy. He ended up four putting that green, and the one that actually went in, was a rocket that he was lucky it stayed down. Maybe he didn’t care or was just THAT bad at putting.
The NFL announced today that they are looking into changing the rules for overtime. It’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned, since we have nearly all the game decided by opening coin toss, and the team that gets the ball winning about 99% of the time. There definitely should be a more fair way to do things in deciding critical games. The proposed plan would give only playoffs games the following scenario in a tie score at the end of regulation.
Team A receives the ball. If they score a TD, they win the game. If they are held to a FG, then team B is given the ball, and has one chance to either tie or win the game.
I think it’s a start, but I have a few problems with the proposed solution. One, this will give team B the knowledge that they will be going for it every 4th down thus changing offensive strategy. It just feels like the NFL is putting a band-aid on the problem instead of fixing the debate completely. I guess giving both teams the opportunity to have the ball will appease the masses, but shouldn’t we get an overtime that will will get everyone excited about. I understand some owners won’t want all the those extra chances that one of their players can get hurt on, but who cares if it improves the game, right!?!
In my mind the NFL should change OT to one of these two possible solutions.
1) They change it to the same as the NCAA, but I’d like to see teams start from midfield in the pros at a mimimum, so it’s truly a scoring drive.
2) They add one extra period that ranges from 8-10 minutes, and is more like basketball. Whoever is winning at the end of the OT is the winner. This would give both teams at least enough time one drive each.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to make a rule change. Especially a rule that has caught a ton of flack over the years for being supremely outdated and unfair. I mean you can argue that the defense of team B should stop the other team, but on the same token defenses are pretty winded by the time OT rolls around.
I know that this clip is pretty old, a lot of times when I hurt myself I revisit this clip, and think, well at least I didn’t do something this stupid… When this stunt was thought up, I’m not sure why they thought it was a good idea. Jumping over the car would be cool in itself without the ramp moving.
With the upcoming March Madness tourney about to start, I thought I’d do a “what if” post. What if college basketball players were like their football counterparts and had to stay in college for all four years!?! Think how much different the brackets would be! Would it be a no brainer to pick the Texas Durantulas? Probably not, but I’m going to run through the teams that I think would be in mix based on guys they’d still have. I’m not completely sure who the champ would eventually be, but it’s always fun to debate, and I’d have to give it to Senior Kevin Durant!
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Doin Work 