Archive for October, 2009

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23
Oct
09

OK, One More Item on Steve Phillips’ Talent Evaluation Skills

By slanch 5 Comments
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , , , , , ,

WrightCruz One of my favorite baseball writers/evaluators is ESPN’s Keith Law who writes extremely well, is smart, witty, snarky and an excellent judge of talent (even if he doesn’t like Anna’s Tacqueria); I trust his eye. During his time as a special assistant to JP Ricciardi in Toronto he witnessed any number of interesting and bizarre choices by his GM, including passing on Troy Tulowitzki in favor of Ricky Romero. Sure, Romero has come on recently and looks to be a good pitcher, but Tulo is a 30 HR Gold Glove shortstop and those simply don’t grow on trees.

Anyhoo, in his chat yesterday on ESPN, Keith Law dropped this little nugget that absolutely FLOORED me:

Eddie (Milwaukee): What was Steve Phillips thinking? Almost trading a 19 year old David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.? Ridiculous.

Klaw: I’ve been asked about that trade rumor for three years but never answered while Ricciardi was still GM. The offer was made, though; I was there when the call came in. It was the first time I’d heard of Wright, since I wasn’t with Toronto in 2001 nor had I followed the draft when Wright was in it. JP’s reaction was, “I’m not trading a major league player for some guy in the Sally League.” And that was pretty much that. We had a chance to trade Cruz after that for Rafael Soriano, but JP refused to do it unless Seattle included Clint Nageotte, who, at the time, was a pretty hot prospect. It’s weird; I can’t remember some things that happened last week but I remember those conversations (over seven years ago now) like they just took place.

This makes BOTH Phillips and Ricciardi look bad. I can’t believe Stevie-boy offered D-Wright for Jose Cruz Jr. who had his best year as a rookie and then never followed up on it. This is the same Jose Cruz Jr. who is OUT OF THE LEAGUE, and the David Wright who is a regular pre-season MVP pick and one of the best young players in the game (if he ever gets his power stroke back.) Wow. WOW. WOW.

[ESPN]

22
Oct
09

Brett Myers Gets Shot Down

By slanch 3 Comments
Categories: Baseball and Douches
Tags: ,

Amidst the celebration on the field last night for the Phillies win, the players’ wives and families joined them out on the field. Noted wife-abuser Brett Myers goes in for a celebratory smooch from his wife to get shot down.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

“Don’t kiss me,” she clearly says to him, probably because he smells like cigars and cheap beer, plus he’s an asshole. Eat a dick Myers.

[The Fightins]

22
Oct
09

One Last Thing on Steve Phillips and His Lady-Love

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball, Douches and Television
Tags: ,

I wish I could take credit for this line, but it comes from commenter Garnold.

brookephillips

Looking at Steve Phillips’ paramour Brooke Hundley all of a sudden Phillips’ talent evaluation “skills” with the Mets make a lot more sense.

22
Oct
09

Please Don’t Be Crabs, Please Don’t Be Crabs

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: College and Football
Tags: , , ,

In 2002 Mike Price was hired in to be the head football coach at the University of Alabama, he coached spring practices but never an actual game after reports of a drunken evening with strippers trickled out. According to Sports Illustrated, Price even took (at least) one of the strippers back to his room and had a free-for-all sexfest. Sounds like fun!

Alabama ditched him shortly thereafter and a year later the University of Texas-El Paso hired him to coach their team. During last night’s game against Tulsa it looks like Price may still be suffering some post-stripper-sex issues.

[Wiz of Odds]

22
Oct
09

Own Your Own Football Team for Under 200K

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Football
Tags: , ,

Iowa Blackhawks Team PhotoBuying an NFL team costs hundreds of millions of dollars, something well out of the reach of most people, owning an American Professional Football League team is significantly cheaper. The owner of the Iowa Blackhawks, Jake Hiffernan, is offering up the team, the home field astroturf, player uniforms, the 2009 APFL Regional Championship trophy and $30,000 of nutritional supplements for the bargain basement price of $195,000. Even in this economy that is a hell of deal to become a professional sports owner.

Iowa Blackhawks in ActionHaving owned the team since 2003, Hiffernan is now looking to unload the franchise so that it can grow and become more successful, something he’s no longer able to do. “They would get the naming rights, team rights — everything that goes with it,” Hiffernan said.

“We need to get somebody in here with some real money so we can start getting a bigger fan base and be a bigger part of our community,” he said.

So far several former NFL players, according to Hiffernan, have expressed interest although there hasn’t been a sale yet.

Just think, you could pair this deal with the upcoming auction for the Pontiac Silverdome and you could go big-time!

[KCCI]

22
Oct
09

Sex Doll Stands in for Michelle Beadle

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome and Television
Tags: , , ,

Remember the fauxmercial Michelle Beadle from ESPN’s Sportsnation made making fun of Brett Favre and his Wrangler ads? Since it was so popular, the ESPN folks released a behind-the-scenes clip showing how they shot the vicious hit Beadle takes at the end of the advert.

I bet it’s not the first time a blow-up sex-doll has been expensed at ESPN…

[Outside the Box Score]

22
Oct
09

Like Running Straight Into a Brick Wall

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome and Hockey
Tags: , , , ,

When I see hits like this one that Vancouver’s Willie Mitchell levels on Blackhawk’s captain Jonathan Toews I am glad that my mom never would have let me play hockey. It’s a clean hit but it absolutely demolishes Toews who can’t pick up his stick, tries to skate to bench and can’t get a few feet without collapsing. Wow.

I love open ice hits.

21
Oct
09

Anvil Shooting is My New Favorite Sport

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome, Other Sports and Random
Tags: ,

I wasn’t even aware that such a thing as anvil shooting existed, let alone that someone as awesome as Gay Wilkinson was the world champion. The sport consists, simply enough, of loading some black powder into an anvil, putting another on top and then lighting the fucker and letting the top anvil fly into the air. Gay says that he gets confused queries from women such as “why would you do this?” while men understand and just want to see it get launched. I know you don’t care about anything else I’ll say, here’s the video!

[Gizmodo]

21
Oct
09

Goalie Masks are the Coolest Part of Hockey

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome and Hockey
Tags:

Ray Emery Mask50 years ago Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante was forced off the ice after a shot hit him in the face, requiring 7 stitches to stop the bleeding. He refused to retake the ice if his coach didn’t allow him to wear the small plastic mask he had made to protect himself. With no backup, his coach had no choice.

If I played hockey I’d want to be a goalie so I could have an artist friend make me an incredibly dope mask (I bet commenter the roomate would make a sick one), of course, I also have no desire for 100+ mph shots to come towards me so I probably wouldn’t make a very good goalie…

Regardless, the folks over at TSN put together a gallery of some of the best masks on the ice this season and are holding a poll to see which one is the fans’ favorite. Here are the ones I like best. Make sure to head over to TSN after to see the rest of the awesome masks and to vote in their poll as well. Some of this year’s entrants include pop culture shout-outs, including Metallica, Heath Ledger’s Joker and Rocky Balboa as well as homages to the various cities the goalies play in and the team’s mascots.

[TSN]

21
Oct
09

Carlos Guillen Wants to Play 9

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , ,

Carlos Guillen Leyland HugJim Leyland and his left fielder Carlos Guillen had a long phone conversation on Monday after Guillen made it known he didn’t want to continue playing left field. After the conversation Leyland told reporters that “We were talking a lot about playing time, about (his) playing 9 innings. There is absolutely no problem there. We talked for quite a while, Carlos wants to play and we want Carlos to play.”

Considering that Guillen has 2 years remaining on his contract and was pretty solid once he finally came back from injury late in the season, the Tigers can ill-afford to not have an effective Guillen on the field. Guillen apparently was dissatisfied with being removed late in games for a defensive replacement and wants to be playing the full game. Of course, since he moves like a 85-year-old three-time hip-replacement person, that doesn’t seem too likely.

Mostly though, I just really love this picture of he and Leyland sharing an awkward hug several years ago. Adorable!

[Detroit Free-Press]

21
Oct
09

I am Not this Smooth

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome, Other Sports and Random
Tags: , , ,

I’d like to be a Cirque du Soleil performer, sure I don’t have anything like the agility, body-control or skills needed to do so, but so what. Here is a rehearsal video from the Cirque’s Dralion show featuring Oli Lemieux and some kick-ass moves on the trampoline.

[Hot Clicks]

21
Oct
09

Jeff Fisher Just Wants to Be a Part of a Winner

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Football
Tags: , , ,

fisherJeff Fisher is the longest currently tenured NFL head coach, guiding the Oilers/Titans since 1994 so his loyalty to the franchise really shouldn’t be questioned. However, he did make the bizarre choice while attending a charity event, Rally for Rocketown at Lipscomb University, Fisher arrived on stage to introduce his friend and former Colts head coach Tony Dungy and wore a Peyton Manning Colts uniform.

While apparently people in Tennessee are calling for Fisher’s head now, I think first everyone needs to recognize that it was a charity event and a joke, even if Fisher told the crowd, “I just wanted to feel like a winner.” The man has ably served the Titans organization and isn’t likely to purposefully embarrass the franchise. That said, I don’t think we’d ever see Bill Belichick, or Tom Coughlin or Bill Cowher ever do anything like this. I’m not sure what kind of message this sends along to the Titans players, although, considering how miserably they’ve played, I’m sure they can appreciate the sentiment of wanting to be a part of something successful. Especially considering this past week’s demolishing at the hands of the Patriots.

fisher1[Last Angry Fan]

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