Archive for July, 2006
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
Big Papi hit his third walk-off bomb, knocked his 36th and 37th home runs and drove home his 102nd, 103rd, 104th and 105th RBI of the season tonight, the last night of July, which prompted Stuart Scott to say, “David Ortiz is just stupid” and got me to thinking about what kind of magnificent season he’s having.
Right now, he’s on pace for 57 HR and 162 RBI, or 219 HR-plus-RBI (a meaningless stat I just made up that is easily more digestible than VORP). To put that in perspective, only seven guys have combined for over 200 HR-plus-RBI in the 28 seasons since George Foster did it back in 1977 with the Big Red Machine. Here’s the full list…
224 — Sammy Sosa in ‘01 and ‘98
219 — David Ortiz in ‘06?
217 — Mark McGwire in ‘98
212 — McGwire in ‘99
210 — Barry Bonds in ‘01
209 — Manny Ramirez in ‘99
204 — Sosa in ‘99 and Ken Griffey Jr. in ‘97
203 — Griffey in ‘98
201 — Juan Gonzalez and Albert Belle in ‘98
Made-up stat or not, that’s pretty unbelievable. What’s even scarier, for AL East pitchers at least, is that this may not even be Big Papi’s career year. Sure, it’s far exceeding his highwater marks of 2005, but there’s no reason to believe he won’t be even better next season. Dating back 2001 in Minnesota, Ortiz has increased his runs, hits, homers, RBI, walks and on-base and slugging percentages with every new campaign. All in all, the man is the best hitter going and I hope you’re enjoying it, despite Stu Scott’s best efforts.
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
Alongside the DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5 theme coloring the event, a women’s bout between Misaki Takimoto and Wakako Sunayama is scheduled to take place on Club DEEP’s 8/12 card.
1-1-2 in her last four outings, Misaki will attempt to more clearly define her place in the pecking order of women’s MMA.
Misaki’s career began much like many ‘Joshi’ fighters, winning some and losing some, before handing then rookie ace MIKU her first career lost via armbar in the first round. A major step up in competition came in the form of a loss to Megumi Fujii in the second round of a competitive match which was the first women’s bout to be featured on a major Shooto card. Misaki then drew with G-Shooto Straweight Tournament Champion Masako Yoshida as well as journeywomen Yuko. A win over Maho Muranami put her back on the winning track, and no doubt Misaki will wish to continue her winning ways against Sunayama who will be appearing in only her 2nd career fight. Sunayama defeated Madoka Ebihara in her debut on G-Shooto’s 6/11 card.
The card itself will be split into two parts with the first part, ostensibly reserved for competitors over age 35, occuring earlier in the afternoon while the second part, which so far features the bulk of the card, will begin well into the evening.
DEEP Executive Offince Presents Club DEEP Hakuba
August 12, 2006
Hakuba47
Nagano, Japan
Doors Open: 14:30
Part I Begins: 15:30
Part II Begins: 18:00
Tentative Fight Card (Card Subject to Change):
PART I - Father DEEP (Age 35+ Limitation)
Grappling
71kg, 2R 3M
Yoshinori Fukumoto (Club BARBARIAN) vs. Shujii Kuroda (Karate-Do Zendokai Matsumoto)
PART II - This Game
DEEP Women’s Rules
50kg, 2R 5M
Misaki Takimoto (Karate-Do Zendokai) vs. Wakako Sunayama (Wajyutsu Keisyukai Toyama)
95kg, 2R 5M
Shinichiro Arai (Karate-Do Zendokai Iruma) vs. Yuichi Nakamura (Mamushikai)
70kg, 2R 5M
Isamu Konishi (Karate-Do Zendokai Aran) vs. Naoki Tajima (S-KEEP)
92kg, 2R 5M
Ryosuke Kojima (Sogokakutougi Dojo Bumonkai) vs. Yujiro Kakizawa (Minetsue Goshin Budo)
DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5
72kg, 2R 5M
Kei Nanyo (Karate-Do Zendokai Matsumoto) vs. Shingo Matsuda (Sogokakutougi Dojo DOBUITA)
DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5
70kg, 2R 5M
Kenta Okuyama (Karate-Do Zendokai Matsumoto) vs. Kazuhide Terushita (Club BARBARIAN)
DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5
92kg, 2R 5M
Mitsuro Yamamoto (Karate-Do Zendokai) vs. Andrei Watanabe (Team Alliance)
DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5 - Semifinal
76kg, 2R 5M
Teruhiko Kubo (Karate-Do Zendokai) vs. Hiroki Nagaoka (Sogokakutougi Dojo DOBUITA)
DEEP vs. Zendokai 5-on-5 - Main Event
72kg, 2R 5M
Takaaki Aoki (Karate-Do Zendokai Headquarters) vs. Kim In-Suk (KPW CHANWON FIGHT FACTORY)
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
All right, the little timer on ESPNews has expired, and apparently the trade deadline is now over. Beware: Sometimes trades sneak through past the deadline; the Randy Johnson-to-Houston trade from about 10 years ago — Gawd, we’re old — wasn’t announced until a few hours past the then-midnight deadline.
But here’s what’s happened so far. Most noteworthy, by the way: Alfonso Soriano, it was just announced, will remain a Washington National. Which is awesome. Bowden’s drunk again!
Here goes:
• The Mets have traded Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez. Remember Oliver? You do not want to know how much he destroyed our fantasy team last year. All kinds of activity in Pittsburgh: Sean Casey was shipped to Detroit, which, amusingly, sent Sloth to the minor leagues, and Craig Wilson to the Yankees for Shawn Chacon. Oh yeah, and Kip Wells went to Texas. This now concludes any obligation to discuss the Pirates until next March.
• Fox Sports says Greg Maddux is going to play for the Dodgers. It seems really weird that Greg Maddux was traded. Speaking of the Dodgers, they picked up Julio Lugo from the Devil Rays, which gives them about 10 veteran infielders.
• Todd Walker, one of the jerks who swept the Cardinals this weekend, is going to San Diego
• The Reds, who are still leading the wild-card, we might add, picked up Kyle Lohse from the Twins and Rheal Cormier from the Phillies. No, they did not trade Adam Dunn and Bronson Arroyo for them.
• Hey, the Royals made a trade! It’s Matt Stairs is going to Texas for some guy named Joselo.
The best news of all comes from Baseball Musings: Peter Gammons continues to improve. We missed him today.
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
Little known rule around Deadspin world headquarters: When a hitting streak — one of our favorite baseball occurrences — reaches 30 games, we are obliged to honor the achievement with its own post. Therefore, congratulations to Phillies second baseman Chase Utley — his name sounds like one of the pilots in Top Gun — for his 32-game hitting streak. (He singled in the sixth inning today to keep it going.) It’s the longest streak since teammate Jimmy Rollins made it to 38 earlier this year.
If you’re into the counting stats, here’s every hitting streak over 30 games coming into this season. There’s some fun names on the list, including:
• Benito Santiago hit in 34 straight games in 1987. Imagine if they’d have had steroids for him back then.
• A bunch of people got stuck right at 30, illustrious names too: George Brett, Albert Pujols, Tris Speaker, Stan Musial, Nomar Garciaparra, Eric Davis and the immortal Jerome Walton.
• Pete Rose is the closest anyone has come in the last few decades with 44 games; no one’s been above Rollins’ 38 in 20 years.
So go go, Chase. We do love a good hitting streak.
Marlins-Phillies Box Score [Yahoo Sports]
30 Game Hit Streaks [The Baseball Page]
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
A reader sends in this picture from Sports Illustrated’s All-Star Game photo gallery. In case you can’t tell by the personalized jersey, that’s Harold Reynolds giving a big ole hug to Sarah Silverman, extremely funny comic and reason every Jewish single male in the country has a dart board with Jimmy Kimmel’s face on it. Here’s hoping Silverman got away from Harold faster than she got away from Joe Franklin.
In Case You Missed It … [SI.com]
Quiet Depravity [The New Yorker]
Sarah Silverman Rapes American Comedy [Slate]
(Photo by: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
Yesterday, the NFL announced its final five candidates to succeed Paul Tagliabue as NFL commissioner. The list includes the favorite, Roger Goodell, who started as an intern in 1982, as well as lawyers and executives. Tagliabue is retiring in August.
One of those five finalists is Mayo Shattuck, CEO of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group and one of the people who helped organize the move of the Browns to Baltimore. If you thought that was his most loathsome quality, man, you got another thing coming. Shattuck recently made the news because of his trophy wife, Molly Shattuck, who is the oldest cheerleader in football. She’s 39 years old and actually claims with a straight face the only reason she’s on the Ravens’ cheerleading team is her talent and spirit, even though her husband is one of the five people who have a chance to run the NFL for the next decade.
Cross your fingers Shattuck doesn’t get the job; otherwise, we’re sure his wife will get the sideline reporter job on Monday Night Football. Entirely on merits, of course.
Five NFL Commissioner Finalists Announced [Bloomberg News]
The Sagging Cheerleader [Deadspin]
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
Jeremy Shockey just wants you to know that he won’t be letting up this season … he plans to party as hard as he did in 2005. Man, where would be be without Shockey? With Terrell Owens minding his manners in Dallas and Marcus Vick having not brandished a weapon in months, we are truly blessed that Shockey is still around. At Giants press day on Sunday, Shockey did not disappoint:
Everyone knows I drink here and everyone knows I go out and party, but I take good care of my body. I play hard. In life, I live life hard. I play hard on the football field. That’s just my mentality.
Oh, and Shockey also talked about Eli Manning’s inability to get him the ball and called Tom Coughlin “an ass.” Outstanding! We just wish that more NFL players acted like Dom from Entourage. Although a little Clinton Portis dress-up wouldn’t hurt next time.
Shockey Says His Partying Hasn’t Slowed At All [MSNBC]
Continue Reading July 31st, 2006
This week’s winner of the Asshole Who Ruins Everything For Everyone award goes to Charles Humphrey.
Humphrey, represented by the law office of Gardy and Notis, is suing ESPN, Disney, CBS, The Sporting News, Viacom and anybody else who has ever uttered the word “fantasy” in a non-porn context, claiming their fantasy football games are “gambling,” which is apparently illegal in the state of New Jersey (along with most of the other states too). He is demanding that the sites cease their fantasy games. Humphrey, by the way, is a resident of Colorado, not New Jersey, and he points out in the suit that he, in fact, has never played any of these fantasy games, unlike you, you heathens.
The full PDF of the report is right here. Humphrey is like the guy who sued because Hooters wasn’t giving men equal opportunity to be hired as servers. He’s probably right … but man, just shut up, would you?
Fantasy Football Complaint [Tech Law Advisor]
(UPDATE: Here’s this guy’s personal Web page explaining himself.)
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