Archive for December 8th, 2009

08
Dec
09

Gammons is Leaving ESPN

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball, Boston and Television
Tags: , , ,

After 20 years, Peter Gammons has decided to leave ESPN following this week’s Winter Meetings. In a statement he released through ESPN, Gammons said that:

My decision to leave ESPN and move on at this point in my life has been conflicted. I owe a great deal of my professional life to ESPN, having spent more than half of my 40 years in journalism working for the network, and the choice to move on was made with nothing but the strongest feelings for the people with whom I worked. ESPN gave me a great deal more than I gave it, and will always be a huge part of who I am.

First, I have to imagine that ESPN didn’t fire Gammons, because let’s face it, the dude is a legend and should be able to work as long as he wants. So, why is he leaving? Is he still feeling unwell from his stroke a few years ago? Could this be a precursor to a move to MLB Network? If they don’t go after him incredibly hard it’s just foolish.

Regardless, Gammons remains one of the best baseball men out there and from reading his column every Sunday in the Boston Globe to today, he’s always been one of my favorites.

In the meantime, what does this do to ESPN’s baseball coverage, they’ve now lost Gammons and Steve Phillips and I’m guessing Ravech leaves as soon as his contract is up to go to MLB.

[ESPN]

*(UPDATE)*

Gammons is joining BOTH MLB Network and NESN!

08
Dec
09

Yankees Trade for Granderson, Tigers Make Out Well Too

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

The Curtis Granderson to the Yankees rumors turned out to be true, when just a few hours ago the Tigers, Diamondbacks and Yankees agreed to a three-team 7-player deal. Granderson heads to New York, Detroit gets Arizona starter Max Scherzer and reliever Daniel Schlereth as well as NY’s Phil Coke and OF prospect Austin Jackson. Arizona takes home Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from NY.

I LOVE this deal for the Tigers, sure, losing Granderson’s defense and lead-off ability hurts, but considering for his career he has an OPS+ of 50 against lefthanders, it’s not a gigantic loss. The Yankees are going to ultimately need to platoon Granderson with someone who can actually hit lefties sooner rather than later. However, his defense is going to be huge in Yankee stadium, especially if they bring back Damon to play left. Meanwhile, I think Austin Jackson has a decent chance of being nearly as good as Granderson (with less HRs) within a year or two at a significantly cheaper cost. Add in Scherzer’s power arm, Schlereth and Coke upgrading the bullpen and all of sudden the team has fixed one of their biggest weaknesses while replacing two important starters with serviceable replacements.

Me, personally, I’d much rather have Scherzer than Edwin Jackson because he’s younger, has better breaking pitches and has a chance to have better command, unlike Jackson who has yet to string together a full season that matches his talent.

What I don’t understand is what the hell Arizona is doing. They take on Jackson and Kennedy, two pitchers who are OK, but with less potential than Scherzer, plus Jackson is more expensive and has less years of control remaining. What is the plan there? Justin Upton is about to become a monster on the major league level, plus MVP-candidate Mark Reynolds help drive the offense, presumably players like Stephen Drew and Chris Young can’t be as bad as they were last year but the pitching staff still has holes and they just gave up two young power arms, because, you know, those aren’t needed. The NL West is a weak division, I simply don’t get why you make this trade that weakens your team.

Also, now I’m super sad because I always really liked Granderson and now he’s a Yankee…(Incidentally, I won’t be surprised when he records 35 HRs next season in Yankee Stadium.)

[ESPN]

08
Dec
09

Alana Blanchard, Too Hot for Words, Pictures Must Suffice

By slanch 2 Comments
Categories: Awesome, Hot Women, Other Sports and Random
Tags: , , ,

I’m not as up-to-date as I should be with the latest happenings in the surfing world. For instance, I have been INCREDIBLY remiss in not highlighting the talented Alana Blanchard. The 19-year-old from Hawaii has been surfing since she was a child and winning professional competitions since she was 15. In 2003, while surfing with her best friend Bethany Hamilton, a tiger shark swam by and bit off Hamilton’s arm. Along with her father and brother, Alana helped get Bethany to shore and then to the hospital where she was operated on and three weeks later was back to surfing. So, not only is she incredibly hot, but also a good person too! And handy with a tourniquet which is always useful.

Even more useful, how hot surfer girls wear incredibly small bikinis all the time and love to show off their bodies. Thank you surf gods.

08
Dec
09

Ochocinco Needs a Couple Bucks to Pay Off His Car Loan

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

Maybe Chad Ochocinco needs to slow up his antics on the field a bit because it seems like money is a bit tight for the gregarious Bengals receiver. We already saw how earlier this year he bounced a check to a hooker, but now the receiver, who has accumulated over $40,000 in fines this season alone, is being sued for not paying for one of his cars.

On Friday Daimler Chrysler Financial Services brought a suit against Ochocinco for not following through with his loan agreement payments for a 2008 Dodge Challenger. When he purchased the car on August 12, 2008, Ochocinco (then Johnson) put down $20,000 and received a loan for the remaining $37,975 from Daimler. The suit alleges that he has since paid a total of $3,200 on the car in 13 months.

Daimler meanwhile claims he still owes them $34,709.72 plus interest and are eager to collect.

I also hope you haven’t become too attached to the Ochocinco name because on his UStream broadcast Sunday, Chad announced that he is going to be changing his name AGAIN before next season.

“I’m not sure how Mr. Goodell is going to take it,” Ochocinco said as he held up the jersey with his intended new name “Hachi Go” which is Japanese for “85.”

[Cincinnati]

08
Dec
09

Hines Ward Shows a Bit of Hypocrisy

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

A few weeks back when Ben Roethlisberger was forced out of the Steelers lineup with concussion symptoms, his top receiver, Hines Ward questioned Ben’s toughness.

“I’ve lied to a couple of doctors saying ‘I’m straight, I feel good,’ when I knew I’m really not straight. But I don’t think guys really think about the future when they’re playing currently in the NFL,” Ward told Bob Costas, “Trust me, the players, they wanna go out there because these games, you don’t get back. You’re never gonna get this Baltimore-Pittsburgh game back.”

Fast forward to this week and coach Mike Tomlin’s announcement today that Ward is “very questionable” to play this Sunday.

I thought every game mattered Hines….

[NFL and NFL Fanhouse]

08
Dec
09

Kain Proves Himself Able

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

Kain Saul is an Australian freestyle motocross rider and a few weeks back he attempted something that had never been done before, a backflip using a Harley Davidson. Of course, an actual Harley bike is far too heavy to be flipped in the air and so with some help from a local Harley dealership they installed a giant Harley engine onto a motocross bike frame. Checking in at nearly 570 pounds the bike still retained plenty of that Harley heavy bike allure. All set, Saul gets the bike in place, engages the 100 HP engine and let’s her rip.

08
Dec
09

Derek Jeter Gets a Girl Fired

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball, Douches and Random
Tags: , ,

Back in town, at least for the moment, Derek Jeter the other night decided to order in some food from one of his favorite restaurants, Nino’s Positano right around the corner from his apartment. After taking the order over the phone, the hostess at the eatery was extremely excited at having spoken with the Yankees captain.

She even convinced the delivery guy to let her go with him on the order; although he made her promise to stay outside the building. When they arrived there though, she grabbed the food and tried to bring it up herself. After trying to charm the doorman and yelling out that she was “Derek’s #1 fan!” the doorman escorted her out of the building, taking the food up to Jeter himself.

When Nino found out about the incident he wasted no time and had the hostess fired. Showing himself a man of the enlightenment, Nino told the NY Post, “I’ll take Jeter over that bimbo any day.”

[NY Post]

08
Dec
09

Surf is Up in Hawaii, C’mon Down

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

Surfers from around the world have been making their way to the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii in the hopes of competing in the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau event, which hasn’t been held since 2004. The event is only held in perfect conditions, and requires waves to be at a minimum of 40 feet high. With record surfs, this might be the year to resurrect the competition and so hundreds of top surfers from around the globe have been flying in to Hawaii. While the contest hasn’t officially started that hasn’t stopped everyone from getting out on the waves and letting loose.

And I have another very aesthetically pleasing surfing post coming later today that will knock your socks off.

*(UPDATE)* The Quicksilver will start today at 10:00 PST

[Daily Mail]

08
Dec
09

McEnroe’s Blazes New Trails

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Pop Culture, Random and Tennis
Tags: , , ,

There is nothing more infuriating then when one goes to a meeting to talk about marijuana reform held at a restaurant in the W Hotel in Miami only to have someone spark up a joint in the middle of the meeting. But that’s EXACTLY what happened the other night when art dealer Vito Schnabel held a fact-finding meeting. Failed talk AND game-show host John McEnroe and his rocking wife Patty Smyth were the sparks behind the loose joint and were apparently indifferent to the fact that blazing a j is generally frowned upon in hotel lobbies.

“They were talking about grass reforms and the next thing you know they were lighting up,” laughs an attendee. “No one seemed to mind, though.”

[NY Post]

08
Dec
09

Mark Cuban Gets Tossed Through a Table

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

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stopped by WWE’s Monday Night Raw last night as the guest host, in a shocking development, his night was not limited just to hosting duties. When the unnecessarily enraged Sheamus was in the ring with Cuban he just couldn’t help himself. First Cuban takes a knee to the groin (something I’m sure that delighted NBA commissioner David Stern) and then found himself picked up by the fiery(crotched) Sheamus and then thrown through a table. Pretty standard Monday night for a billionaire.

I just hope Cuban learned his lesson, NEVER TRUST A GINGER, us redheads be dangerous and easily roused to anger. You’ve been warned.

08
Dec
09

Jesus Saves (Old Betting Slips and Makes $45K a Year)

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

In 1999, Jesus Leonardo placed a bet at an OTB window in Manhattan, when the race was over he had lost and threw the ticket on the floor in disgust. But then, all of a sudden there was announced that there was an inquiry and soon the results were changed; now he was a winner, $900 to be exact. Alas, he’d already tossed the ticket into the garbage, and after fruitlessly searching for it, couldn’t find the winning ticket. Despite tearfully pleading with the manager, Leonardo was told there was nothing that could be done. However, the manager suggested that if he wanted to take the trash home and look through it, he was welcome to do so.

Taking her up on the offer, Leonardo took the bag home. He never found his winning $900, but did find 2 other tickets worth a combined $2,000. Ever since he’s been a stooper — “a person who hangs around racetracks and betting parlors picking up tickets thrown away by others.”

“This has become my job, my life,” he said. “This is how I feed my family.”

On average Leonardo makes anywhere from $100 – $300 a day, feeding ticket after ticket into the scanners looking for winners. With the help of some friends, he has branched his operations out, getting the garbage from 5 OTB locations which he then digs through on the lookout for lost treasure. Leonardo says that he makes on average over $45,000 a year, which he pays taxes on. Back in 2006 he had his best single ticket finding a Pick 4 that someone had tossed worth $9,500, not too shabby. According to the New York State Racing and Wagering Board nearly $8.5 million in racing bets go unclaimed each year, meaning that Leonardo is only getting a small slice of the larger pie.

“At first, my wife thought I was crazy, but then she realized I was finding a lot of money in winning tickets, sometimes $200 a day,” he said. “After a while, she didn’t think I was so crazy.”

[NY Times]

Follow The Slanch Report

 Subscribe to RSS Feed

twitter / slanchreport

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 19 other subscribers

Sign Our Petition!

The Slanch Report has started an online petition asking the MLB Network to air the Dock Ellis no-hitter he threw on June 12, 1970 against the San Diego Padres. The moment was a seminal piece of baseball history and is certainly worthy of being rerun.

Please join us in this cause and sign the petition below so we can all share in this special and fantastic moment of baseball history. THANKS!
SIGN THE PETITION HERE! AND PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PASS THIS ALONG!

December 2009
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Categories