Continue Reading May 9th, 2007
For the first time in many a moon, it is kind of cool to be a Milwaukee Brewers fan. They have the best record in baseball, they’re 6 1/2 games up in the National League Central (and they won again today) and they’re even tossing in an occasional beanbrawl, just for good measure. And because they’re big-hearted, optimistic Midwesterners, rather than assume this is setting them up for some wretched heartbreak, they’re embracing their frontrunner status.
Witness Pee Your Pants For The Brewers, a fan site that implores Brewers boosters to pledge their underpants to the cause. So far, 113 Brewers fans have vowed to urinate on themselves when the Brewers make the playoffs. Of course, one never knows what percentage of that 117 would be doing that anyway.
By the way, the Brewers are clearly getting too big for their britches: They’re gonna be on “The Young And The Restless.”
Pee Your Pants For The Brewers
Tuesday Bullets [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
You can’t quite tell from that photo, because it’s so small, but that guy’s wearing a Brewers hat. The photo was taken in Madison, and is larger after the jump.)
Continue Reading May 9th, 2007
Inspired by the new book Being There, I’ve asked sports bloggers/fans for their favorite in-person sporting moments. The contributions range from heartfelt and triumphant to absurd and mundane, and they’re sure to put a smile on your face. Previous posts focused on soccer, the NHL, MLB, college hoops, the NFL, WWF and NBA, while today’s looks at the leftovers: obscure sports and reader-submitted stories. This is the final edition in the series, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Many thanks to all who participated.
Vin Diec, Sports Column
A few years ago, my buddy invites me to a Warriors - Celtics game in Oakland. They were luxury box seats and I was psyched. So I show up and my buddy says, hey, grab something to eat and then we’re headed down to the floor. Floor seats! Holy crap. So we’re down there and there are these two Warriors fans (I think they are a staple there) who are heckling Gary Payton and Ricky Davis all game long. Gary Payton is yelling back, “Thanks for paying my salary, bitch!” Good stuff.
Anyway…Ricky Davis is wearing these ridiculously ugly green patent leather looking sneakers. And I have the perfect line for him: “Hey Ricky, nice shoes, I didn’t know they made those for men!” And I’m sitting there the whole time ready to bust out with the wittiest line Ricky Davis has ever heard. AND I NEVER SAY IT. To this day I am ashamed of myself. So I guess the moral of the story is: always heckle Ricky Davis if you have the chance.
The Hype, NBA Basketball and Other Unrelatedness and FanHouse
Year: when I was in grade 7.
Scene: provincial (Canadian/U.S. translation: state) high school basketball championships.
What Went Down: Our team was behind 2 points with under 5 seconds left in the semi-finals. I have the ball and without thinking…. I …. passed it to the best player on our team. He threw up an unbelievable back-to-the-basket shot (hoping for a foul) and…
It. Went. In.
Thus began my love for all things sports dramatics.
Tiny Note: we didn’t win the whole thing, but that moment made be believe man. Believe!
Newspaper Hack, Journalism Is for Rockstars
For most of my life, I’ve been an Alabama fan in exile. My family left Birmingham in 1989, and I’ve only seen the Tide play six times in person (one from the press box). The first four times were forgettable.
UT-Chattanooga in Birmingham (’94) – Blowout win.
South Carolina in Columbia (’01) – Fourth-quarter collapse, loss.
Arkansas in Tuscaloosa (’03) – Fourth-quarter collapse, double overtime loss.
South Carolina in Tuscaloosa (’04) – Godawful disgusting performance coming on the heels of Brodie Croyle’s blown ACL, loss.
That’s right. The first four times I watched the Tide, the team was 1-4 and 0-3 in conference. Was I poison? I watched the entire 3-8 2000 season on TV, so that wasn’t my fault, it was definitely Mike DuBose’s.
So, in honor of starting grad school at Bama in January 2006, I bought tickets to watch Carolina in the Independence Bowl and Bama in the Cotton Bowl (Tuscaloosa to Shreveport to Dallas, all on I-20). The Cotton Bowl game was a good bid, but a bit of a letdown after going 9-0. Regardless, I dressed in my finest coat and hat and claimed my seats in the end zone. While the stands were supposed to be 50/50 Big XII/SEC, the unwashed hordes in the end zone was mixed, and I and the Tech fans made nice about what could possibly happen out on the field. Imagine my surprise when Bama started off the game with a screen pass for a touchdown. Ab-so-f—ing-lutely beautiful.
Because bowl games don’t check for booze like SEC regular season games, I snuck in quite a few Fighting Cock minibottles, so that eased the pain of the intense tension that comes from watching a defensive battle. Tide fans, especially that year, knew that tension all too well. But I lucked into something else good – the girls behind me, Bama students, knew people who had seats in the first row on the 30-yard line. So, we took up residence over there at halftime. With the crew was an Auburn fan, but he maintained his courteousness with the help of whatever was in that flask he had. Now, there was some sort of security guy directly nearby, who never saw me nipping from my bottles, but caught the Auburn guy and he got booted at the end of the third quarter.
As the game wore on, we all became more and more paranoid. It was clear that whoever could score would win. Field goals had been blocked, and neither offense could do much of anything. When Tech went down the field to score a touchdown and draw even, my mother called, pissed off. She said she was turning off the game and going to take a shower. I, in the only time I’ve ever done this in my life, said, “Fine!” and hung up on her.
With about 2:30 left in the fourth quarter, Bama set up shop at their own 14, way the hell on the other end of the field. We were pondering overtime, or a soul-crushing loss if the Tide had to punt and give Tech great field position. Then, Brodie worked his magic on third down and several plays later, the Bama offense is directly across from us, as Jaime Christensen set up to kick the game-winning field goal with five seconds left. Jesus – it was 45 yards. He kicks it. The damn thing spins end-over-end, horizontally toward the goal post. It was impossible to see if it was good. I look at the opposite stands. They’re wearing red and cheering, but we’re all wearing red. I stare at the officials for what seems like five minutes. One guy looks at the other, then puts his arms up. Complete bedlam. We’re all hugging. The teams runs out on the field. Jimmy Johns jumps up to the stands and I pat him on the back. Roman Harper’s brother comes down, Harper comes over and we all congratulate him.
I’ve talked about this game, and others, with my girlfriend (who is still at the Capstone). We both agree – it’s better than sex. Like, 10 times better than sex. Wonderful.
Beau Dare, USA Today’s Sports Scope
Contenders: MLS Cup ’97 in cold, wet RFK Stadium. Olympic biathlon in Cesana, Italy, on a beautiful day with buoyant French fans. Swindon Town vs. Nottingham Forest with the visiting fans from Nottingham. Duke’s women’s basketball team ending a long winning streak by national champion North Carolina on an Ali Day shot that bounces around the rim as the buzzer sounds, then finally drops through.
The winner: A small arena in Brunswick County, N.C. A coach is running the old-school Four Corners offense (no shot clock) to take the air out of the ball against a highly favored team. It works to an extent, but the key to the game isn’t the Four Corners. It’s Nine Toes. That would be a player – big guy but considerably shorter than the mid-major prospect he’s guarding – returning to the court for the first time since shooting off one of his toes in a hunting accident. He gets out and bangs against the bigger guy, rendering him a non-factor.
The Four Corners/Nine Toes team rally to a last-second win. In the euphoria, the coach tells me stories about great high school basketball wins through history. I manage to interrupt him long enough to ask if he knows a quicker way back to Wilmington, where I’m facing a deadline. He sends me through a side lot out to a dirt road. I somehow made it back to the office with 10 minutes to write the story.
Ah, the pre-Internet days. Can’t beat ‘em.
Jimmy Cotter, who I worked with at Sandbox
I have few moments of being there that I will never forget. This one is way back in the day. For me it was a life time waiting for the Yankees to be in the playoffs. Finally in 1995 they were in. I was home one Sat watching a game when they mention playoff tickets were on sale. what the hell I’ll give them a call, not expecting to get tickets. I ended up getting 6 tickets for the first 2 games. Game 2 was a classic, when the The King Jim Leyritz hit that home run we all went nuts, But the best part of that game was Don Mattingly HR in the 6th inning. To see Donnie baseball in the playoffs was priceless.
Matt Loede, The Game of Baseball
I cannot ever forget game five of the 1995 World Series in Cleveland, as the Indians were locked in a battle with the Atlatna Braves. It had been a magical year for the Indians, who won 100 games in a short year that included the season not starting on time due to the strike. With Cleveland down 3-1 in the series, it was due or die, and the game got off to a hot start, as Albert Belle hit a two-run homer off of Greg Maddux in the bottom of the first.
The next hitter, Eddie Murray, then got a brush back from Maddux, which did not sit well. Murry pointed his bat at Maddux, and you thought it was going to be on from there. Cooler heads prevailed, and the game went on, but the tone had been set.
A 7th inning Jim Thome long bomb put the game away, and the Indians won the game to send it back to Atlatna at 3-2. Yes, the Indians did go on to lose the series, but that was a great game and one of the great moments in Indians baseball history.
Continue Reading May 9th, 2007
One good thing has come from all of this Roger Clemens hoo-haw; noting that he is only four years older than The Rocket — and a year younger than Julio Franco — Rickey Henderson says that he is considering coming out of retirement. Henderson, now a special instructor for the Mets, last played baseball in 2005, for the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Independent Golden League. He last played in the majors in 2003.
“I’m going to look at it at the end of the year. I might come out with some crazy stuff, a press conference telling every club, ‘Put me on the field with your best player and see if I come out of it.’ If I can’t do it, I’ll call it quits at the end,” Henderson said.
But Henderson’s Thunderdome approach to a possible comeback is not the most surprising aspect of this story. It’s this:
For now, Henderson is keeping busy and fit by maintaining the 455 acres he owns near California’s Yosemite National Park. He hasn’t hit the gym for a while, but he drives a tractor, rides horses and raises cows — and insists he will win a trophy in competitive fishing one day.
Hear that, Versus? How often does an idea for an outdoors series like this just fall into your lap? Rickey as boss on a trail drive, or Rickey on the river bank wrestling a black bear for a trout. That’s a show we’d watch.
Rocket Inspires Rickey To Consider Comeback [MSNBC]
Continue Reading May 9th, 2007
It’s not Manny Ramirez’s grill, but if you have an urge to own a vehicle that has, you know, two wheels, you can now bid on Ben Roethlisberger’s truck. (Link via Mondesi’s House.)
The reserve has not yet been met; bidding is currently stuck on $28,100, with the auction scheduled to end on May 13. It’s a 2004 GMC Yukon, though apparently you don’t get that dog as part of the deal.
Roethlisberger is famous for his big motorcycle mishap last year, but the truck appears to be in good enough shape. Though we wonder if there are some concussion-related dings; we imagine Big Ben occasionally trying to signal left turns with the windshield wiper.
2004 GMC : Yukon DENALI [eBay]
Buy Big Ben’s Ride [Mondesi’s House]
