Archive for April 5th, 2007
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
These two handsome gentleman were once called “athletes,” fairly recently, which is kind of funny, when you look at them.
We keep forgetting that TBS is going to be showing a ton of baseball games this year — along with the Division Series and the NLCS — and Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn are going to be the main analysts. Gwynn and Chip Carey are the lead broadcasters, and Ripken’s gonna be the studio guy with Ernie Johnson. We suspect he will dial it down somewhat from Charles Barkley.
Who’s not listed here, by the way? Harold Reynolds! We were hoping Harold would find a spot on the roster, but apparently, he’s been put in the Do Not Call list. We don’t know about you, but having baseball back reminds us how much we kinda miss him.
TBS Lands Ripken, Gwynn [SI.com]
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
We’re a bit late on this, but no matter: When the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Triple-A baseball team changed its affiliation from the Phillies to the Yankees this year, their mascot, The Grump, decided to celebrate in his own special way. Jay S. Hastings, who wears the mascot costume for the Yankees (formerly the Red Barons), was arrested on Saturday during a police Internet sting on charges that he solicited sex with a boy who actually was a police decoy. And Hastings’ mode of transportation that night left no doubt that minor league baseball mascots are the wiliest of all criminals.
Hastings told police he had access to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees van because he is the Grump and attends special appearances mainly at functions involving kids.
Even in light of these troubling events, job seekers should not rush to Scranton thinking that The Grump position is open. We could easily see Carl Pavano wearing that suit by May.
Baseball Mascot Arrested In Internet Sex String [The Times Leader]
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
Like pretty much anyone who loves the game of basketball, we are distressed to hear that Gilbert Arenas is going to be out two months and miss the playoffs. There was no player we were looking forward to watching more; it has been a blissful, breakthrough season for Agent Zero, and it really shouldn’t have ended like this.
We look to Wizznutzz to guide us through the darkness:
I should have known. No juice is tuffer than the fresh-squeezed brine of inevitable defeat. And that is the brine in which we shall pickle for the next six months, until fruitless hope worms up its bare Ruffinian head once again next October. …But until then we have two more weeks of futile spasming, like a still-beating heart torn from a disbelieving man-breast.
It’s gonna be hard.
Gilbert Arenas Out At Least Two Months [ESPN’s True Hoop]
Mothering Hut Fashions Make It To Prime Time [Wizznutzz]
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
Notes on Wednesday’s games in the National Basketball Association …
• GA On The DL. Ouch. It’s hard to picture the NBA playoffs without Agent Zero; he makes everything so much more fun. But his knee injury on Wednesday may be serious enough to end his season; he’ll have an MRI today to determine what’s what. “I’m hoping that it wasn’t as bad as mine,” said forward Antawn Jamison, who missed 12 games earlier this season with the same injury; a sprained knee. Charlotte beat the Wizards 108-100, as Washington has lost both of their All-Stars in a four-day span. Forward Caron Butler broke a bone his hand on Sunday. Well, on the bright side, Arenas will now have more time to blog about Skip Bayless.
• Falling Down. Let us watch as the Clippers rise and the Lakers set in Los Angeles. Strange. Corey Maggette’s 22 points led the Clippers to a 90-82 win over the Lakers, the Clips’ seventh win in eight games, and the Lakers’ fourth loss in five games. The Clippers (37-37) trail their crosstown rivals by 1 1/2 games, and have a 1 1/2-game lead over Golden State for the eighth and final playoff berth in the West.
• Who’s Got JR? But the Warriors are closing fast, Jason Richardson scoring 27 points (with seven 3-pointers) in a 110-99 win over the McGradyless Rockets. McGrady left the game with a back injury in the first half. Golden State has won 11 of 14.
• Woke Up This Mornin’, Got Myself A Gun. Bostjan Nachbar had a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 26 points to lead New Jersey’s 101-86 win over Atlanta.
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
Notes on the day in baseball:
• Giants Fans Pumped For Barry. Here’s something to warm the cockles of your heart: Barry Bonds wants to wear Jackie Robinson’s retired No. 42 on April 15th; baseball’s observance of the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the sport’s color barrier. Hmm. To celebrate his announcement, Bonds clouted his 735th career homer on Wednesday, which turned out to be an empty gesture in a 5-3 win by the Padres. Giants fans cheered madly for their hero. But the organization itself is at least showing a twinge of conscience. According to the Washington Post, the Giants are acting like: “Bonds? Aaron? Home run record? This is the first we’ve heard of it.” (Scoreboard above notwithstanding). Here’s Giants Vice President Lary Baer on the subject: “You’re not going to see us overdo [the celebration for Bonds], or overwhelm people leading up to it, or even when it happens. We just want to have a proper sense of proportion. We’d be shirking our responsibilities if this was all Barry, all the time.” Or, as Mrs. Gotti used to say, what’s the point to planning an elaborate birthday party for John when they could be hauling him off to prison any minute? San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez had a two-run homer in the eighth that proved to be the difference. Plus, there was a delicious helping of Trevor Hoffman relief goodness for dessert.
• Mr. Met Puts The Hammer Down. OK, now that this ugliness is behind us, we can all go on with our lives. No, the world did not end with the Mets’ 10-0 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday, even though it marked a three-game sweep, causing us to awake this morning with the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. (Or it could just be our flu.) We could go on and on here about who struck out who and who hit what over where, but what good would that do? Instead, we’ll just say “Hello, Houston,” and go from there.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing At The Hairy Monk. Mike Lowell, three errors. Didn’t matter. Josh Beckett led the Red Sox to a 7-1 victory over Kansas City, striking out five five for Boston’s first win. J.D. Drew and Lowell had back-to-back doubles in a three-run first inning and Kevin Youkilis added a two-run homer in the seventh.
• True Blue. Hey, speaking of Jackie Robinson, you probably know the story about how he was traded from the Dodgers to the San Francisco Giants. But rather than end his career with his hated rival, he decided to retire instead. How times have changed. Former Giant Jason Schmidt got his first win for the Dodgers, 5-4 winners over the Brewers. Schmidt signed a three-year, $47 million contract in December. And didn’t Orel Hershiser make the rare Dodgers-Giants-Dodgers move in 1998-2000?
• Hey, I Can’t Feel My Nipples. Many empty seats at Jacobs Field, as temperatures dipped to 31 degrees during Cleveland’s 8-7 win over the White Sox. Grady Sizemore’s two-run homer in the seventh was the difference. All hail Aaron Fultz (1-0), who went two-thirds of an inning for the win.
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
No matter what the silly Miami Heat team thinks.
If you already quit thinking about how the Miami Heat will get back in shape, or maybe when will Dwyane Wade rejoin the godforsaken team, then you’re ready to get your ass back to the real world.
And in the real world, the Detroit Pistons are getting ready for yet another title run. How? Well, Detroit during the last couple of weeks, proved again just how deep they are, that any player can carry the team any given night.
Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Chris Webber, Tayshaun Prince and my man Rasheed Wallace showed the NBA that each one of them is still capable of carrying the Pistons towards a ‘W.’ And guess what, the Pistons found out that this premise stretches even further to the Pistons bench.
During the last couple of weeks, we saw Flip Murray virtually carry the scoring load for Detroit. When Chauncey Billups went down with a groin injury, Flip Murray took over the scoring load in the second half of their game against the tough Phoenix Suns. Flip dropped a season-high then, proving just how deep this Detroit team is this season.
How about Jason Maxiell? Yeah, Detroit sure misses the services of Ben Wallace but if you just look how Maxiell plays, I’m sure you’ll see the similarities between him and the former Piston who went to the Windy City. He plays defense and has a knack for the ball as if it was his girlfriend’s pus…
There’s also Carlos Delfino, probably the biggest weapon the Pistons discovered in the 2007 NBA Basketball season. Delfino came out of nowhere from being a nobody deep in the Pistons bench to a consistent part of…
Continue Reading April 5th, 2007
We’ve been burned a couple of times on this, so we’re still in cautious, believe-it-when-we-see-it mode (it’s still not up on our Time Warner system, for example), but it appears Major League Baseball finally came to its senses extorted itself the best possible deal: Extra Innings will be available on cable systems, effective immediately.
M.L.B. and InDemand — a consortium that is owned by the cable operators Comcast, Time Warner and Cox — agreed last night to restore Extra Innings swiftly to their systems as a free preview through sometime next week, after which it will cost a discounted $159 for a short period. … The crucial part of the negotiations for baseball was InDemand’s agreement to carry the MLB Channel, which is to make its debut in 2009.
We still think it’s crazy this whole thing came down to a channel that won’t launch for two years (minimum) and will likely have half its programming hosted by Tommy Lasorda … but whatever! Out of town games are available again for those outside DirectTV’s clutches, and this is a good thing. We all remain indebted to Major League Baseball for, at last, allowing us to give them a bunch of our money. Thanks!
And just in time to see the Cardinals at 0-3! Fantastic!
Extra Innings Is No Longer Exclusive [New York Times]
