Archive for February, 2010
From time to time, and only as a service to my devoted readers, I take a moment to check on the life and times of Michelle Wie on her blog, Black Flamingo. And while I enjoy reading about the things that she randomly loves right now, I have to admit I have been left a bit disappointed as of late. Don’t get me wrong, I found her post containing a recipe for dairy-free and egg-free cookies immensely fascinating as well as informative (she’s “allergic to dairy and eggs among ALOT of other things,” don’t ya know), Miss Wie’s recent blog posts have caused me to reminisce about when I first discovered her blog way back in September of last year and first feasted my eyes on the provocative photo below:
Wait, what?
Alright, alright. That doesn’t mean what you think it means. What really happened is that Dan Patrick was fortuitous enough to have the gang from DIY Network’s hit show, Man Caves, customize and trick-out his studio space. The episode will air on DIY at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday.
Great find by Jamie Mottram over at Mr. Irrelevant: above is a portion of the profile for Washington QB Stan Humphries from the 1991 Redskins press guide. In the “up close” section, it highlights one of Humphries’ charitable endeavors: a golf tournament that benefits the “Retarded Citizens of Prince William County, Virginia.”
Yeesh.
We now understand that referring to people as “retarded” isn’t the most politically correct way to address mentally-challenged people. Remember, in 1991, it was also considered socially acceptable to wear flannel shirts and Doc Martens. So I guess what I am saying is, at least he was doing something to help, and as Mr. Mottram points out, Humphries is still a guiding force behind charitable golf tournaments, although now the event is hosted by Drew Brees and there is nary a mention of anything regarding retarded citizens, which is good in its own right.
Back in 1991, Stan Humphries Had a ‘Golf Tournament to Benefit Retarded Citizens’ [Mr. Irrelevant]
Wake N’ Blog is the Sportress of Blogitude’s morning link dump. The hipsters like to refer to it as the cat’s pajamas.
• Jail officials who intercepted a cantaloupe that was among food items donated to the Chelan County Jail in Washington discovered that the top had been cut off and tobacco and a baggie of oxycodone pills had been stuffed inside. And despite the melon in question being a cantaloupe and not a watermelon, I’m standing behind by Gallagher reference. [MSNBC/AP]
• Erin Andrews is rumored to be co-hosting an after-Super Bowl party with Diddy. Considering the low profile she has kept lately, it is nice to see her back out on the scene. Good for her. [Guyism]
• Some guy who must be a huge Dodgers fan has a glass eye with the Dodgers logo on it. [Out of Bounds]
• The Top 10 Super Bowl Fails of all-time. [Ranker]
• One of the great existential questions of our time: Can Manny Ramirez still be Manny Ramirez? Far out, man. [Los Angeles Times]
After the jump, even more juicy linky goodness, including why Nick Nolte digs through other people’s garbage and video of a skateboarding face plant, which is always entertaining in my estimation.
Setting aside for a moment her incredible skill and the near certainty that she will completely dominate the Alpine Skiing events when the Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver in a few weeks, that Lindsey Vonn is one piece of ayse. What I wouldn’t give to pack her slopes, if you catch my drift.
Ha. Drift. Also, by “pack her slopes,” I of course mean I would like to ensure that the racing conditions during her events are the most pristine they can possibly be.
Ah man, I’m just schussing ya. In all likelihood, if I were ever given the opportunity, I would overshoot, catch an edge and end up totally humiliated due to my prerelease.
Wait, I know you are probably asking yourself right now: is this goofball talking about skiiing still or something else entirely. And to be perfectly honest with you, I’m not so sure myself anymore.
Lindsey Vonn, SI poster girl [The Seattle Times]
It’s 4:19, You Gotta Minute? (February 3rd)
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• Australian newspaper speculates that Tiger will be back on the golf course in less than two weeks. Crikey. [Out of Bounds]
• Brilliant: No Reservations: Super Bowl Edition. Anthony Bourdain rules. You know that, right? [Kissing Suzy Kolber]
• The real winners of the Super Bowl are going to be schoolchildren in Indianapolis. [Shutdown Corner]
• Even the media gets in on the partying during Super Bowl week. [The Sporting Blog]
• He demanded it and people responded. Punte is very pleased with this Tim Tebow commercial spoof. [With Leather]
For about the 100th time in recent memory, a sports apparel manufacturing company is electing to do some good with championship paraphernalia that could not be used because, you know, the team ended up losing.
This time it is clothing and hats that were made in anticipation of a Texas Longhorns victory in their January showdown with the Alabama Crimson Tide in the BCS National Championship Game. As you may recall, Texas QB Colt McCoy was injured early on and that was about all she wrote as the Longhorns lost 37-21, despite freshman quarterback Garrett Gilbert’s gutsy relief performance. Unfortunately, fourteen thousand burnt orange Texas Longhorns shirts and hats emblazoned with “BCS National Champions” were left unused.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, the University Co-op, who is working with Kids in Distressed Inc., will send all of those unused clothing items to Haiti.
“With the terrible tragedy and loss the Haitian people have suffered and are still experiencing, we do realize this donation may not be a very high priority for them,” said George H. Mitchell, the University Co-op president. “However, we all need clothing and this is a small contribution we can make to assist in their recovery.”
All kidding aside, it is nice that all the clothing that would have been otherwise thrown away or left to sit in some warehouse can be put to good use. On the other hand, all the Haitians who will benefit from the donated Texas Longhorns apparel will never truly understand the brilliance and majesty that is Alabama head coach Nick Saban and accordingly will not look upon him with the appropriate amount of reverence and respect he ultimately deserves. And that, my friends, cannot stand.
ROLL TIDE!
College Sports blog: Texas’ unused BCS national champions gear to go to Haiti [The Dallas Morning News]
You know how it is when you are having difficulty coming to terms with how you feel about something but then someone comes along and articulates it perfectly? Up until today, that was me. I was having great difficulty trying to figure out how I truly felt about the Tiger Woods fiasco and have struggled to ascertain what was the meaning behind it all at its essence. Thankfully, there are people like John Mayer in the world.
You see, the brooding, deep and some might call talented musician, provided his thoughts on Tiger Woods by the British newspaper The Independent, although I cannot tell if he was asked to or not. Mayer, who has frequently been the subject of tabloid fodder himself due to his high-profile romances with Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jennifer Aniston (he must really girls with “J” names), among others, offers this up as the main reason why Tiger’s infidelities have set off a media firestorm that shows no signs of cooling off:
Tiger Woods’ problems come from him being married. The end.
If the motto above “The Competition Is On” didn’t mean something before, it certainly does now. Oh, it’s on – it’s on like Donkey Kong.
A word to ESPN: you might as well put SportsCenter out to pasture because the media behemoth that is Versus is about to take a run at your quint little nightly highlights show. And when all the dust settles and the carnage is assessed, the head honchos over at ESPN will quiver and shake every time they hear the name – uh, well, the show doesn’t have a name yet – but when it does, tWWL will rue the day it elected to take Versus and its yet unnamed nightly highlight show lightly.
“My rods and cones are all screwed up!”
Above in the only photo I could locate on the internet of Joe Mauer’s motion capture session for MLB 10: The Show. The Twins catcher will grace the cover of the 2010 version of the video game which is scheduled for release March 2nd.
Mauer donned a skintight, high-tech suit dotted with dozens of sensors to have his motions recorded during a session Tuesday at Sony Computer Entertainment America’s San Diego Motion Capture Studio.
The sensors were placed on all his flex points so dozens of cameras, shooting at 120 frames per second, could correctly capture his motions.
Mauer says it was weird putting on the tight suit, but otherwise he had a good time.
“It was uncomfortable at first, but as I started doing it more and more, it started feeling more comfortable,” he said.
Yeah, I know how that goes. I felt the same way when I had to wear a skintight body suit so they could capture my movements for my role in the upcoming video game, Blogger Wars: The Quest for Bagel Bites. It’s still in early development, but my guess is it’s going to be a pretty kick-ass game, although I wonder why a big video game developer would need to operate his business out of his van and use one of those old Polaroid instant cameras. But hey, who am I to argue? From what I understand, I was only unconscious for a couple of hours.
Mauer goes through motion capture for video game [Sporting News/AP]
MLB 10 The Show Joe Mauer Mo-cap [PlayStation.Blog Flickr]
Wake N’ Blog is the Sportress of Blogitude’s morning link dump. If it’s a temporary lull, why am I bored right out of my skull? Man, I’m dressin’ sharp and feelin’ dull. We’re always looking for tips and suggestions on how to half-ass our way through a blog day, so lemme know.
• After crashing his lumber truck into a Massachusetts home, driver Eric Gremm alleges that he passed out after choking on some Wendy’s chili which forced him to pass out. After losing consciousness, Gremm’s truck veered off the road and struck the home of a 59-year-old who had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries. I guess the ads are right, you know when it’s real. Real crappy food. Nah, I’m just kidding – Wendy’s is alright. I’m sure that plug will get me lots of free Wendy’s now. [MSNBC/AP]
• Are you dying to know who are going to be the big winners in Miami this weekend? Hookers. [The Big Lead]
• Colin Montgomerie hopes Tiger Woods plays in this year’s Ryder Cup. Why? Hookers. [Devil Ball Golf]
• The New York Islanders intend to hold part of training camp next season in China. Why? Hookers. Okay, that bit is played out. [The New York Times]
Lots of good stuff follows the jump, kids, including a portrait of Conan O’Brien done entirely in Cheetos.
I know this will break the hearts of those of you who stop by the Sportress on Tuesdays for Last Call, but I have no good last call tale for your amusement. To be frank, between you, me and the lamppost. And the desk, this whole bit was feeling a bit tired and played out anyhow.
So, fend for yourselves, kiddos. I got nothing.
It’s 4:19, You Gotta Minute? (February 2nd)
Posted by:• The gators are moving in on where the media hang out leading up to the Super Bowl. [Busted Coverage]
• Jim Nantz is quite the actor. [The Sporting Blog]
• The Top 10 sexiest Super Bowl commercials of all-time. [Ranker]
• Huh? Phil Jackson believes that Dennis Rodman is a Hall of Famer “without a doubt.” Let’s just see if he can make it through Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew first. [Larry Brown Sports]
• Charles Barkley, much like me, loves his Taco Bell. [The700Level]
• Sweet Fancy Moses, recently traded Olli Jokinen is one ugly sucker. [Tirico Suave]
• Nick Swisher was on How I Met Your Mother, too? Jebus. [Walkoff Walk]
Seriously, the resemblance is uncanny, isn’t it?
A hearty congratulations goes out to Jon Miller, who has been honored as the 2010 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, which is awarded annually to a broadcaster who has made major contributions to baseball. By receiving the award, Mr. Miller will be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Perhaps best known as the voice of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball as well as the main play-by-play voice of the San Francisco Giants on KNBR radio, Miller’s broadcasting career has spanned nearly 40 years, beginning in 1974 when he was the play-by-play man for the Oakland Athletics.
“I was obviously very excited to get the phone call and the first people I thought of were Lon Simmons and Russ Hodges, who taught me the game as a kid growing up,” Miller said. “They called games for the great Giants clubs at the time, and that was the team I grew up with and learned to love the game.”
“It’s astounding to me that I’m the recipient of the same award they received,” Miller said. “They were people larger-than-life to me, as big as the biggest movie stars. I idolized both.”
To be honest, I have no problem with Jon Miller. He’s knowledgeable and seems to be a nice guy who truly loves and cherishes the game in which his voice and style has become synonymous.
I do, however, have one wish: when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, could they have some Hispanic guy introduce him and horribly over-enunciate his name? That’s the one thing that gets me about that guy. I understand he is only trying to pay proper respect to Latin ballplayers by pronouncing their names with a little flair, but he goes a little bit over the top sometimes.
Actually, on second thought, scratch that. The guy has been through enough. Let him enjoy his moment in the spotlight. For crying out loud, the poor bastard has had to suffer the indignity of working with that douchetard Joe Morgan for twenty goddamn years.
Giants’ Miller honored with Frick Award [MLB.com]
The NHL Doesn’t Care About Black People
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In one of the most insensitive moves I have seen in some time, the National Hockey League has horned in on Black History Month by designating the month of February as Hockey Is For Everyone Month.
I mean, come on, right? Why did the NHL have to pick February? Couldn’t they have left February well enough alone and allow Black History its own month?
For shame, NHL. Read on:
For the 12th year, the National Hockey League, in honor of Black History Month, has designated February Hockey is for Everyone Month to celebrate and promote the growing diversity of the game of hockey.
Throughout the month, the NHL, its member clubs, current and former players and affiliated youth organizations will host numerous activities to raise awareness of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone initiative and its commitment to offering children of all backgrounds opportunities to play hockey.
A second PSA celebrates Black History Month and showcases the history of black players in the NHL, from Willie O’Ree’s debut in 1958 to current players such as Kane, Los Angeles Kings forward Wayne Simmonds and Chicago Blackhawks forward Dustin Byfuglien.
Uh-oh, SpaghettiO’s. I guess I might have jumped the gun with this one. Maybe next time, I’ll read the entire article instead of just the headline before castigating the wonderful organization that is the National Hockey League.
But it sure made for a provocative headline, huh? And to be honest, I knew the facts all along, I was just trying to be intriguing.
Nevertheless, that little headline is sure to generate some page views without a doubt. And it’s not like it matters – no one reads this drivel anyway.
February designated Hockey is for Everyone Month [NHL.com]
