Archive for June, 2011
Obviously, the interwebs have been ablaze today due to the potshot Dwight Howard took at LeBron James on Twitter regarding the Heat star’s receding hairline. Quite the zinger, indeed.
Well, lo and behold, I came across a “Rare Photos Of LeBron” photo gallery over at SI.com and I have to say if the NBA would allow LeBron to sport the above piece of headwear, all of his hiding-his-balding problems would quickly go away. Which would be nice for him. He’s got enough problems.
One more photo from the archives: it looks like at some point in time, James was better at preventing a beatdown in Connect Four than he was at stopping the Dallas Mavericks:
Technology…what can’t it do? Besides create a good toaster, but that’s another story.
In response to numerous complaints by fans (and harsh criticisms courtesy of All England Lawn and Tennis Club chief executive Ian Ritchie) who cannot stand listening to tennis players scream, grunt and otherwise make noises akin to those one would hear emitted out of a dungeon during the Middle Ages any longer, the BBC has introduced a new technology which allows individual users the ability to alter the sound of a broadcast to reduce the ambient on-court noises in order to better hear the announcers. Called Wimbledon Net Mix, the free download is available on BBC Radio and is sure to be a delightful and handy little tool for those who prefer to only hear the kind of grunting typically heard during a tennis match when they are watching their favorite adult films. You know, stodgy types.
Via The Telegraph:
Rupert Brun, the head of technology for the BBC’s Audio and Music department, said that they had come up with the new player after receiving lots of complaints from listeners about the sound balance when listening to sports matches on the radio.
“Having known for a long time that broadcasters have a problem with balancing the ambient sounds of a sports match with the commentary, we felt we had to develop a tool which put the control back into the hands of the audience.
“The BBC receives lots of complaints from the public regarding sound balance – with many of them wanting the sound of the commentators turned up and the noise for a match turned down. Wimbledon was a clear choice to launch this product for as there are always so many comments about the amount of grunting from the players.”
While it seems like a nifty idea, no word on how BBC Radio’s feed syncs up with a live television broadcast, so I’d be interested to hear how well it works in that regard. Because any delay between the actual grunting noises, no matter how tuned down they are, and Maria Sharapova’s mouth moving would be a total turn off. You know, for those stodgy types again.
BBC launches tool silencing Wimbledon players’ grunts [The Telegraph]
Word on the street is that after a couple of Double-A rehab games on Saturday and Sunday, Derek Jeter, who has been out since straining his calf on June 13th, will make his triumphant return to the New York Yankees on Monday when the Bronx Bombers take on the Cleveland Indians, which also just so happens to be the 4th of July. Crap, Oliver Stone couldn’t have scripted Jeter’s return from injury any better, mainly because he’s terrible, just terrible.
Via FOX Sports:
”I feel good now,” Jeter said after working out at the Yankees’ minor league complex. ”I feel a lot better. I’m ready to get out of here.”
Funny, I believe that’s the same way Tom Cruise’s character in Born on the Fourth of July, Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, felt just before he was critically wounded in a firefight. I hope things go a bit better for Jeter. We don’t need to see him strolling up to the plate in a wheelchair all crazy-looking.
Jeter slated to return from calf injury [FOX Sports]
Get it? You see, that’s a riff on some lyrics from a song by U2 and since LeBron James still hasn’t found what he’s looking for, it makes sense. Sort of. You know, as in an NBA championship. Or worldwide adulation. Or something to halt his receding hairline. It’s a potpourri of possible things, really.
This photo, reportedly taken backstage at a U2 concert, features Bono, LeBron and James’ longtime girlfriend, Savannah Brinson, who I imagine is thinking that sitting between these two is like having smarmy and stupid in stereo. But who knows? She moves in mysterious ways. Okay, I’m done.
[H/T SB Nation]
Ouch. That ain’t good. Sad times, indeed.
Oh, I keed, I keed. Maybe.
Fine, he was alright on News Radio, I’ll give him that. I figured I could at the very least throw Joe Rogan a bone for his participation in that show.
Dreamed I was a fireman, I just smoked and watched you burn…” – Jawbreaker, “Fireman”
And they said it could never happen. “You’re a trophy, for goodness sake. How can you fight fires?” they would say. “You have no arms. How are you going to hold the fire hose?” others would taunt. “Maybe you should try the Coast Guard instead,” people would insist. But Lord Stanley’s Cup persevered, never allowing the nattering nabobs of negativity to get it down and deter the revered trophy from achieving what most thought to be impossible. Lord’s Stanley Cup: Firefighter. And you know what? It looks damn good in that fireman’s uniform, thanks to the Boston Bruins, who made it all happen.
Finally, since this photo, as alluded to above, reminded me of Jawbreaker’s “Fireman,” I’m embedding the video for the song below. Just doing my part to instill some good taste in music in the nation’s youth.
[via NHLBruins, yfrog]
Hey, that’s not how basketball courts are supposed to look!
Leave it to those Germans to do something completely crazy and come up with this totally whacked out basketball court which juts up in lumps in several spots and has lamps scattered about its surface. Weird stuff.
Details regarding the court located at the Occupational School Center in Munich, Germany, from Inges Idee (via Ball Don’t Lie):
A regulation-sized basketball court was erected on the grove-like forecourt of the school building of the occupational school. The court consists of a soft orange-red tartan covering and two normed baskets and seems to be forced over the grid of the lamps that have been set up. The playable court has been “morphed” as in a 3D program on a computer and looks like the grounds of a rollercoaster, with heights and depths and calm and dynamic zones. The resulting paradox, which moves between a normative set of rules and pleasurable, anarchic change, requires creative engagement for its use.
Man, I imagine playing a game of basketball on this court would create the same sensations as playing on a normal basketball court while tripping on acid. Not that I would know, but I bet if we asked, Bill Walton could fill us in on the trippy similarities. Keep on truckin’, Bill.
[H/T Ball Don't Lie]
Egad! Now, just looking at that photo without doing any further research on the topic, I am willing to bet that the final result of the costume for the Amarillo Sox’s new mascot did not jibe with the original design. Or maybe he simply got overly excited during his debut at a June 24th game. Not surprisingly, my original suspicion turned out to be accurate, or at least the one that is currently being reported.
From an Amarillo Globe-News report (via everywhere):
Things turned sour for [Amarillo Sox general manager Mark] Lee as the Sox mascot was supposed to look like a sock but looked nothing like Lee had requested. Instead of a soft looking sock-type mascot from nearly head-to-toe, the foot portion of the sock stuck straight out about 2 feet at the waist.
“It was not the way I wanted it,” Lee said. “I’m very disappointed in the lady who did it, and I’ve told her so. She is going to fix it to the changes we want. I want to say on the record, if we offended anybody, I apologize.”
Oh, I see how it goes. A mascot appears to have a massive erection and it is blamed on some lady. Usually, it’s the other way around. If the mascot had shown up flaccid, not up to snuff, as it were, that would have been because of a woman not doing her job correctly. Doesn’t seem fair.
Either way, what’s done is done, the team expects new mascot uniforms by July 3rd or 4th, and it looks like the situation will be rectified. Or in this case, would that be derectified?
An additional, extremely inappropriate photo of the mascot follows below.
Hoo boy. So, so, so wrong.
Sox to get new mascots [Amarillo Globe News] [H/T Deadspin, Big League Stew, Off the Bench, everyone]
Wake N’ Blog is the Sportress of Blogitude’s morning link dump. Send tips, link submissions, etc. to weedagainstspeed@gmail.com.
• When Don and Brenda Hoch were looking for a pet five years ago, they didn’t go with a conventional choice like a dog or cat. Instead, they opted for a skunk they saw at a pet store. “Spike” was later joined by 14 other skunks who share the Hoch’s home in Hudson, Florida. While it may seem odd, given the noxious odor skunks can emit, these skunks were de-scented at three to four weeks old. [msnbc]
• Robert Garrigus said that he and other golfers used to toke up in between holes on the Nationwide Tour. [Larry Brown Sports]
• White Sox slugger Ryan Dunn, who hasn’t been doing much slugging this season, is seeing a psychologist. [Foul Balls]
• Debunking Charlie Sheen’s claim that he took steroids prior to the filming of Major League. [Busted Coverage]
• Did a guy in a banana suit start the Vancouver hockey riot? [Off the Bench]
• Check out the MC Hammer bobblehead that will be given out at an upcoming Oakland A’s game. [Sharapova's Thigh]
• Terrell Owens accused of not paying child support. [Rumors & Rants]
• Here’s Harold Reynolds getting jacked up by Eric Brynes. [Outside the Boxscore]
• Rory McIlroy’s U.S. Open scorecard was up for auction. [Wei Under Par]
• Holy happy male Chinese cheerleader, Batman! [Bob's Blitz]
• Bob Costas and Al Michaels to team up for an MLB Network broadcast. [Awful Announcing]
• Herm Edwards completely stole the show at the NFL Rookie Symposium. [PineRiders]
• The 9 worst stadium giveaways. [Sports Pickle]
• The Onion Headline of the Day: Kent State Basketball Team Massacred By Ohio National Guard In Repeat Of Classic 1970 Matchup
Well, I guess this is video promotion featuring Rickie Fowler for PUMA is really nothing more than the golfer hitting golf balls slathered in paint at multiple canvases. And if you ask me, Rickie’s use of color is shallow and pedantic. That’s right. I said it. There’s no baring of his soul in his work. No guttural cries for understanding. No primal expressions of emotion. But hey, his hair looks nice. No way in hell Ed Harris pulls off that hairstyle, I’ll tell you that much.
"I'm not kidding you. It was this big around."
You know your life isn’t going great when the frequency and odor of your bowel movements are the topic of discussion on a satellite radio program. Don’t believe me? Ask Dwight Gooden, who just suffered the indignity of having his proclivity for persistent pungent pooping addressed on Howard Stern’s radio show.
If you don’t follow reality show programs featuring washed-up celebrities halfheartedly dealing with their chemical dependency demons for publicity, first of all: good for you. Secondly, you probably were not aware that Dwight Gooden was a patient (contestant?) on season five of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, although I must add the term “celebrity” is used pretty liberally in the show’s title.
Gooden’s roommate, Jeremy Jackson (see what I mean?), who apparently appeared on Baywatch, was discussing his experiences on the show with Stern and here’s what he had to say about Gooden (transcribed by Hardball Talk’s Aaron Gleeman):
He poops a lot, that guy. I had to share a room with him. It was a very stinky room.
There you go. Dwight Gooden, everybody!
Dwight Gooden wasn’t a great “Celebrity Rehab” roommate [Hardball Talk]
To be honest, I had no intention of writing about sumo wrestling today, or any day for that matter. I guess you could say I never got into the sport much. Maybe it’s the outfits. Maybe it’s because I got kicked out of sumo wrestling college. Who knows? But sometimes, a story comes along that needs to be passed along, like this one regarding how Japan’s sumo wrestlers have been placed under tight restrictions by the officiating body which governs the sport as the sumo wrestling attempts to return to its noble past after a match-fixing scandal wreaked havoc on its integrity.
How have sumo officials tightened the reins on the wrestlers, you ask? How about this: no more golf, cell phones have been banned for the upcoming Nagoya tournament in July and perhaps worst of all, the insistence that they obey all traffic laws (sumo wrestlers were previously banned from driving years ago after a serious accident) lest they get their car keys taken away and get sent to bed without supper. No, seriously. It’s like these grown men have been grounded.
Via an Reuters report on Yahoo!:
“This is really the start so I want the wrestlers to be braced for it,” Japan Sumo Association (JSA) chairman Hanaregoma told Wednesday’s Japanese media.
“I want them to go into battle feeling the nerves. There will be no playing golf and they will be told to adhere to the rules of traffic.”
“Gosh! That’s so not fair! You’re ruining my life, Mom and Dad Japan Sumo Association! I’m the only one of my friends who doesn’t get to go golfing!! This is totally bogus!“
/storms upstairs to room, slams door, comes crashing through floor due to immense weight
Golf courses deemed out of bounds for top sumo wrestlers [Yahoo!]
Okay, technically, I cannot say for certain that the Rampage Fitness Academy is housed in a suburban strip mall, but by all appearances, that certainly seems to be the case. And isn’t that what all great MMA fighters/actors aspire to accomplish: owning a gym? You better believe it, bud. As you can see, the Rampage Fitness Academy is nearing completion, and my guess is, if we are to use the gyms featured in the film DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story as a baseline (and frankly, why wouldn’t we?), Rampage’s fitness academy will lean more towards the style of Robo-Gym as opposed to Regular Joe’s. And that’s a good thing to know going in for prospective members.
So, best of luck to Mr. Jackson in all his future professional, gym-owning endeavors. And one last thing: Rampage, if for some unknown reason you happen to be reading this post, please don’t make it your goal to beat the ever-living snot out of me. Your gym looks awesome.
[image via]
Holly Mangold became a bit of an internet sensation many, many moons ago, way back in the Leitchian Era of Deadspin, mainly due to her relation to New York Jets offensive lineman Nick Mangold, the fact that she played high school football and the “girthiness” she shares with her NFL star brother. Holly now tips the scales at a whopping 370 pounds, outweighing her brother by an astounding 60+ pounds. Wow.
Unfortunately, Holly became the butt of a lot of internet jokes but she appears to have come out unscathed by the mockery and looks to be headed in the right direction to change the world’s perception of her, as she is currently training to be an Olympic weightlifter, a journey that is the topic of an upcoming episode of MTV’s Real Life series, entitled, “I’m the Big Girl.”
Video preview follows.
