Simona Halep is a 17 year old Romanian young woman who is also the current Junior French Open Champion. Her masterful work on the court baits many tennis afficionados into becoming fans of her…work.
Archive for April, 2009
Barry Zito has a Cy Young award, a ridiculous $127 million contract and lots of free time; so it should come as little surprise that he takes the time out of his day to take a photo of, and share via twitter, him playing with his food and making gingerbread animals hump.
"These are real ginger bread pigs from an upscale pizza joint in LA. They got frisky, luckily I had the phone cam."
Of course, those are clearly both DUDE gingerbread pigs, which is totally not cool. It’s an abomination dude…
28
Apr
09
In the Wild Stokke’s Run Rampant
I don’t have much to say here, I know at least one reader who will be beside himself at this post…
Via Coed Magazine comes all new photos fresh off Allison Stokke’s facebook page, because you know, that’s the world we live in. In addition, here are some photos from a meet she had recently so you can see the pole vaulting champion in action. OMG, she’s just like us! She takes pictures with awkward white dudes too! She eats! I eat! We’re meant for each other!
I like the glasses…
27
Apr
09
Your Kentucky Derby LOCK
If you’re looking for a good pick for next week’s Kentucky Derby, we’ve got a great inside tip for you; go with Musket Man.
Now, I’m already biased towards this horse because I have an affinity for Revolutionary War soldier art (don’t ask) but if your own innate patriotism isn’t enough for you there are other, very worthy reasons to pick him.
First, Musket Man has won 5 of the 6 races he’s participated in, including victories in the Illinois and Tampa Bay Derbys this year. Also, Derek Ryan, Musket Man’s trainer has loads of confidence in his steed, “Best temperament of any horse I’ve ever had. Nothing bothers him. He goes with the flow.”
Secondly, as part of his daily training routine, much like you might have a beer after work to relax, Musket Man has a Guinness. Why you ask? Because, according to Ryan, it “…mellows him out I hope. Nah, it gives him a good appetite. They say a Guinness a day is good for you. So far it’s worked.”
I can’t think of a safer bet than a drunken horse.
[WHAS]
27
Apr
09
This Ovechkin Guy is Pretty Good
I don’t know what is going on in the Rangers/Capitals playoff series, the Rangers took a commanding lead early on, but now the Capitals are storming back, thanks in large part to the play of all-world superstar, Alex Ovechkin. I don’t care particularly who wins this series, although if the Rangers do, they then get the chance to be crushed by the Bruins, and I don’t mind that too much…
Anyhoo, here’s Ovechkin doing everything he can to take his team deep into the playoffs. He’s better at hockey than you or I, or pretty much everyone.
27
Apr
09
Eckstein Scores
If you were to walk into David Eckstein’s home in San Diego it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see the 5′ 6″ scrub baseball player and mistake him as an actor on children’s television. Alas, you’d be wrong, it’s actually Eckstein’s super cute wife, Ashley Eckstein who is the star in this household.
Commuting from San Diego to LA, Ashley has recently been recording new episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated show, for which she voices Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi in-training. Ashley has also been in several That’s So Raven episodes so David should move that World Series MVP award off the mantle for her, after all she has won a much MUCH more valuable prize; Ashley won SILVER on Nickelodeon’s Guts. Now THAT’S scrappy.
As part of an advertising campaign to raise awareness about bowel cancer — the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK, killing 44 Britons a day — several members of the English national soccer team participated in a high-tech photo shoot.
The campaign, “There is Moore to Know” is sponsored in part by the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, after the former English team captain who died of bowel cancer at age 51. The unique images were created using cutting edge technologies to draw attention to the inner workings of the body, in particular the bowels. Because you can never pay TOO much time to the bowels. Taking the images that sports photographer John Davis shot, a 3d visualizations company added in the anatomical layers.
Stephanie Moore, Bobby’s widow and founder of the Bobby Moore Fund: “The support of the current England squad means so much to me and to the Bobby Moore Fund as a whole. Through this campaign, the players will help raise awareness of bowel cancer.”
David James (above) commented: “Lives can be saved if more people know about bowel cancer and can recognise the symptoms of the disease.”
24
Apr
09
A Special Souvenir to Bring Home
I’ve never caught a foul ball at a baseball game, once when i was really young a ball from my then favorite player Wade Boggs came near me, but it hit off my hands and some older dude grabbed it and I got nothing. Another time at a spring training game a ball off the bat of a then Single A’er named Chase Utley rocketed towards me and my friend caught it, but that’s the closest I’ve come.
At the St. Louis Cardinals game on Tuesday one fan caught something even more impressive than a ball or crabs at the ball game, another fan! A man in the mezzanine level sitting in the front room somehow fell and landed on top of a woman 18 feet below him. Medical personnel rushed to treat both people before they were transported to a local hospital.
“Everybody was looking down on the ground between the aisles,” said John Goodman, a long time Cardinals season ticket holder and former EMT and nurse, who was sitting just a few rows away from where the man landed. “And the next thing I know the paramedics were there putting this lady on a back board. It took them so long to get her up that I was concerned somebody was more seriously injured at that point.”
The man was treated and released, but as of Thursday the woman remained in the hospital. With their reputation of being the friendliest fans in baseball, I bet the woman was very polite about the whole thing.
24
Apr
09
Andre Arshavin Saving the Day
Andre Arshavin was transferred to Arsenal in February, but he really made his mark in Tuesday’s match when he took out Liverpool nearly single-handed. Becoming only the 6th player in English Premier League history to score 4 goals in an away match, Arshavin and the rest of Arsenal won, 4-3, preventing Liverpool from winning the EPL.
All four goals are really pretty but the first one and then the one at about 4:40 in are incredible. The last one is nuts, look at how far Arshavin runs and how ridiculously fast he is overtaking the defenders who are like 20 yards ahead of him.
Well, it’s finally happened; Master Yogi Berra, a bat and ball carrying dog for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Single A affiliate of the Marlin, was ejected from the game for “relieving” himself on the field.
In-between innings, as he regularly does, Master Yogi was chasing down a ball sent to center field, after picking up the ball, on his back he stopped and took a brief break, leaving his essence on the field. Home plate umpire Jason Hutchings was NOT amused and tossed Berra.
Team owner Donald Moore said Yogi was suffering through a stomach virus and then took a more sanguine approach to the accident, :
“When you gotta go, you gotta go. Yogi’s had a tough start to his season, and I hope this doesn’t get him down. He clearly couldn’t control himself out there. He’s such a competitor and he wanted to do his duties as he’s been trained. We all hope Yogi feels better soon and he returns to us ready to entertain our fans. You know, he’s volunteering his time out there, so I hope he doesn’t get fined too much (for his ejection). I don’t know the Rulebook like the back of my hand, but apparently a dog can’t do his business on the field. Let’s hope this is an isolated incident, and Yogi can learn from this experience.”
The Grasshoppers have since listed Yogi as day-to-day on the team’s injury report. I could have sworn Lenny Dykstra got ejected once for the same thing…
23
Apr
09
Oh What a Day for Darren O’Day
The old adage in baseball is that you can NEVER have enough pitching, unless you’re the New York Mets and your pitching rotation after Johan is a mess and so you drop two useful pitchers over a couple days. First, the Mets put Darren O’Day on waivers; now O’Day isn’t going to remind anyone of a young John Wetteland, but he was a serviceable bullpen arm, and had pitched solidly in the spring and to start the season.
O’Day, after being picked up by the Texas Rangers off waivers had quite the day yesterday, at home in Panama City, FL, he received a call from his agent that the Rangers had picked him up and wanted him to make his way to Toronto to meet the team. Getting onto a flight to Memphis and then a connecting flight to Toronto, O’Day landed around 9:45 pm, expecting to go to the hotel and meet up with the team after their game. The plans changed though, “The travel secretary was texting me back and forth,” said O’Day. “The original plan was to go to the hotel, but he said, ‘Go to the field, we might need you.'” As the game went into extra innings O’Day arrived at the stadium at the beginning of the 10th, except there was another problem, the team didn’t have a jersey waiting for him.
Apparently, the club’s equipment manager doesn’t bring blank uniforms with him, but does maintain a stash of uniforms for players who MIGHT be called up. So, O’Day donned a spare Kason Gabbard uniform — who is currently in AAA — and headed to the bullpen. Alas, O’Day only got the chance to face one batter, Kevin Millar, who promptly welcomed O’Day with a hit to the left-field gap, winning the game.
Then, to show that the Mets are the smartest team in baseball, today they designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment, I guess because he was too useful in his role as a spot starter on Sunday. Don’t worry though, come June the Mets won’t be desperate for pitching… Blech.
[MLB]
23
Apr
09
Steve Nash Wants That Oscar
Phoenix Suns have a lot of free time right now, since they couldn’t make the playoffs this season, so it makes sense that Steve Nash is moving off the court and behind the camera, directing a short film for the Suns website.
Fortunately, he has an accomplished thespian, and legit movie actor in Shaquille O’Neal (star of such films as Blue Chips, Kazaam and Steel) on the roster and having that kind of professionalism on the set always leads to excellent results. Alando Tucker clearly has a lot to learn about film-making, but he turns in a solid performance as the Billy Ray Badger, the sidekick to Shaq’s Thaddeus Thundercastle.
Not too shabby boys, definitely made me laugh multiple times, maybe next year try and translate some of that effort OFF the court ONTO it?
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