Archive for July 7th, 2008
Continue Reading July 7th, 2008
The Chicago Sun-Times ran a front-page story today about the firing of Chicago State baseball coach Husain Mahmoud for some egregious resume fabricating, but was it their story? It appears the Sun Times‘ story ran a little late compared to the ones published on June 12th by Babes Love Baseball and College Baseball Blog.
The Sun-Times piece does not mention either of the blogs in the story — so where did they get their big scoop from?
Michael David Smith looked into the matter, politely e-mailing the writer of the Sun-Times’ story, David Newbart, to find out if this man let these blogs do his dirty work for him. He says, “Of course not, you silly typist!”:
I’ve been working on this story on and off since mid-May, well before your blog post. We got the tip from the alumnus (I’m assuming he’s the same one that contacted you) containing references to wikipedia articles, which we had to independently verify. We did our own original research on the topic, including talking to the Cincinatti Reds, Major League baseball, experts around the country who maintain records of the football leagues he mentioned, sources at the university he attended and others with the summer baseball leagues he mentioned. As it turned out, he did play for one of the teams he claimed, but after it had left the Continental Football League.
For a variety of reasons, we chose not to publish this sooner. Part of the reason for the delay was due to the fact that we didn’t want to run the story without speaking to him or getting a statement from the school.
That seems reasonable. But it would also appear that the during some of his research — which included fact-checking Wikipedia articles — that a simple Google search using “Husain Mahmoud” and “Chicago State baseball” would’ve yielded the results of the two blog posts. In the Times’ piece Mahmoud explains his oversights this way: “It’s been 30-some years ago since most of this stuff,'’ said Mahmoud, formerly known as Hallie Buckner. “I may not have been exactly correct on some of the leagues and different things like that because it’s been so long ago.'’
Maybe David Newbart suffered this same temporary amnesia? It appears to be contagious in the Chicago area.
Sun-Times Scoop Broken Weeks Ago By Babes Love Baseball, College Baseball Blog [AOL Fanhouse]
CSU’s Baseball Coach’s Pants Are On Fire [Babes Love Baseball]
Continue Reading July 7th, 2008
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Sports
JoWooD Productions has announced Yoga Wii (not to be confused with Wii Yoga), coming second quarter of 2009 for the Nintendo Wii. The game will support the Balance Board as, according to the press release, “it plays a central role for the exercising (gaming) experience.” No other details or assets are currently available. We expect this to be the first of many no-brainer yoga titles coming to the Wii for the next decade or two.
[Via NWF]
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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/
Continue Reading July 7th, 2008
And by “go to college” I mean commit felonies. Well, Mike Detellier has broken down NFL starters by their college conference. And while there is no big surprise, the SEC leads with 137 projected starters, there are some really surprising positional breakdowns. Coming in second after the SEC? Shockingly, BCS whipping boy, the ACC with 121. Followed by the Big Ten with 105, Big 12 with 72, Pac 10 with 70 and the mighty Big East clocked in with a robust 33. Yeah, but Ray Rice is awesome (and not starting)!
For the record, the entire Big East had fewer NFL starters than Tennessee and Georgia (a combined 39).
Which speedy conference has the most starting wide receivers? The plodding Big Ten of course with 13. Interestingly the SEC most outclasses the collegiate competition at defensive end with 17 NFL starters. But pass rushing in college is overrated. Don’t believe me? Ask Troy Smith.
What conferences are the NFL starters coming from? [HoumaToday]
Continue Reading July 7th, 2008
Professional sports locker rooms are one of the last bastions for gay humor. That’s because there’s never been any gay athletes. So, you see, the very idea of anyone being gay is always funny. Which brings me to the first big scoop of my illustrious Deadspin career: The phrase “No Homo” has taken over NFL locker rooms.
It’s everywhere, on every single team, the NFL equivalent of the late 90’s Macarena dance. No Homo owes its popularity to the remarkably varied and infinitely complicated nature of its use. Or the opposite. One or the other. It’s applied thusly:
LenDale White says to Vince Young: “Vince, you’ve got great nips. No homo.”
Did you catch the subtle twist there? LenDale has said something that on any other day might be considered gay, but, and this is key, he’s inoculated his heterosexuality by appending, no homo at the end. No homo also works at the front of the phrase but then it’s much less enjoyable because the other party has been keyed into the homosexuality of the statement that’s to follow. Hence, “No homo. Vince you’ve got great nips.” No dice there.
Like many great evolutions of the English language, this tidy little appellation can be traced to none other than rapper Juelz Santana. (Not surprisingly there’s an apostrophized genius behind the curtain, Juelz was rapping alongside Cam’Ron).
Right now, you’re shaking your head, giddy with chill bumps, thinking to yourself, this can’t possibly be true. The entire NFL can’t be swept up in a tide of no homo humor. You, my friend, are wrong. Chances are while you’re pretending to work at your desk your favorite NFL player is bringing down the locker room house with a well-placed no homo joke. “Pass me the nuts, Hines. No homo.” It’s locker room work like this that makes Big Ben such a great team leader.
You’re probably lame and white, like me. Which means that most of your friends have never used this phrase or heard it used before. Well, welcome to the future my apple-hineyed friends. No homo. If, perchance, you happen to be so hip that you’ve been breaking cats down no homo style for the past year then consider yourself enlightened and awesome. Like Kordell Stewart.
Otherwise, get studied up on No Homo.
Because if your life is anything like mine, pretty soon all your emails for the next week are going to feature this tidy phrase. It’s probably going to sweep through your profession. Accountants, doctors, Odysseus, engineers, all fall victim to the Siren-like call of no homo. Don’t believe me? Since receiving the no homo tip from several NFL players (no homo?), the Nashville legal community has become fertile ground for no homo talk. Even in the pleadings. “Comes the plaintiff (no homo).” It’s spread faster in the legal community than imaginary billable hours. Clients are even following suit. Pretty soon, no homo is going to be the new making it rain. And once again we’ll all have NFL players to thank for broadening our national jargon. As we begin our 233rd year as a nation, thank god for that. God bless you Roger Goodell’s collection of saints, god bless you every sngle one.
Continue Reading July 7th, 2008
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Sports, Casual
We’ve been covering Schizoid, the first home-grown XNA game to hit XBLA, since this time last year. Now it’s finally blasting bumping its way onto the Marketplace, unique gameplay mechanic in tow. Priced at 800 MS points ($10), the game is entirely co-op centric, tasking players with ramming their ship (or ships, should they feel up to the dual-ship-controlling “Überschizoid” mode’s challenge) into enemies of the same color. Play with another Live user or let the CPU control ship two.
Super Stardust HD developer Housemarque brings Golf: Tee It Up! to XBLA … and an incredible likeness to Sony’s Hot Shots Golf franchise to mind. Endless rounds of this golf game for beginners and seasoned vets alike (dare we say it’s “golf for everyone“?) will set you back 800 MS points ($10).
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