I like this fight between Pittsburgh’s Bill Guerin against Carolina’s Tim Gleason because both sides get their chance to get some shots in. There’s no doubt that Gleason wins the early part of the fight but when Guerin piledrives him into the ice and then throws a few forearms to the face, it evens the score.
Archive for December, 2009
Coming off their first 2-loss streak in 57 games, you’d hope that the Patriots were dedicating themselves to rediscover their swagger. Instead, with snow swirling around Boston today 4 players arrived late to an 8 AM meeting and were sent home. It’s not like Wednesday is one of the most important days of practice or anything, so I can see why they didn’t show on time. It’s also not like these are professional athletes with limited responsibilities beyond SHOWING UP TO PRACTICE!
Of the players in question, I’m not astonished that defensive end Derrick Burgess was no-show, after all, that’s exactly what he’s done on the field all season. Has he even been playing, because I feel like I have nearly the exact same stats as him for the season. Among the other players missing was Adalius Thomas, the highest paid defensive player on the team who has never lived up to the contract he signed and the expectations that came with it. He won’t be with the team next season for certain, but at least pretend like you care. Middle linebacker Gary Guyton was another of the tardy players, and from a young player like that, who was an undrafted free agent I expect more. This is a guy who has had to bust his ass to get where he is, don’t get lazy now!
And lastly, the final late player was one Randy Moss. Yes, Randy has been a model citizen in his time with the Patriots, yes the weather IS bad but there is simply no acceptable excuse for him to be late unless he has video footage of him singlehandedly pulling a school bus full of children out of a snowbank. This is the same Randy who put up little effort to prevent an interception in the end zone on Sunday, and who has been dominant for stretches and then non-existent in others. C’MON RANDY, you’re better than that.
[ESPN]
Chris Kaman is a 7 foot, 265 pound man, he’s quite a big person to just push around like it’s nothing; Dwight Howard on the other hand is a mere 6′ 11″, 265 pounds and quite the physical freak and he turns on Kaman and dunks over him like it was nothing.
Oh my indeed.
09
Dec
09
If You Hit Me Will I Not Grimace
We’re still 3 months away from pitchers and catchers reporting, but that doesn’t mean we have to forget about baseball. Let’s take a minute to enjoy the joy of players getting hit by fast-moving balls; sure it hurts, but these pictures capture some of the more awkward looking faces and grimaces these guys make.
[UPI]
The New Orleans Saints pulled off a compelling overtime victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday, much to the chagrin of one Saints fan. It seems that this Livingston Parish resident figured the game was lost and so, he did what any rational person would do, he posted on Facebook that if the Saints won the game any of his friends could shoot his television.
After the Saints pulled out the win, a myriad of friends poured out of the woodwork, all packing heat and ready to destroy a beautiful 60 inch flat-screen. These guys aren’t fucking around either, sporting giant pistols, shotguns, and rifles (scoped and non-scoped) multiple 30 racks and dangling cigarettes, they then set up on the guy’s lawn and let ‘er rip.
I can’t decide what is more amazing with this video: how incredibly redneck-y this whole incident is, the fact that multiple people MISS the TV, the fact that everyone gets out of their cars holding a beer or a case of beer or that all these people are on Facebook.
BTW, these are the people that are considered part of the “real America.”
I’m OK not being a part of that.
09
Dec
09
Brady and Gisele Birth Out a Son
Earlier this morning, according to People Magazine, Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady welcomed the newest little bundle of joy into their family. Prior to the birth, Gisele had told Brady she didn’t wish to know the baby’s sex, preferring to be surprised; well, it’s a BOY!
The lucky, as yet unnamed lad is the first child for the happy couple and Tom’s second son, joining 2-year-old Jack. Just 9 more and he’s got his own offensive squad!
Both mother and baby are doing well.
Congrats Tom and Gisele!
Need a babysitter?
[People]
08
Dec
09
Gammons is Leaving ESPN
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!
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]
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.
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.”
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
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.
The Slanch Report 
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