Archive for July, 2011
Katy Perry? Caroline Wozniacki? Other attractive women I am unfamiliar with but are nevertheless quite fetching? Good enough for me.
From vlogger sneakerqueen, who also appears in the ad:
Don’t miss the women of adidas as they go all in for the FW11 campaign. Watch the new video, check out the latest collection & more at adidas.com.
The new adidas women’s video features Caroline Wozniacki, Katy Perry, Ballerinas of the Staatsballett Berlin, DJ Baby G, chinese Superstar Li Bing Bing, Wei Qiuyue, photographer SNEAKERQUEEN and more…
From the court to the catwalk, from the stadium to the street — whatever the game, they play the same way. Heart over head. Inclusion over ego. United by passion, they go all in.
Go all in, you say? Sounds good enough to me.
GIRL POWER, Y’ALL!
[H/T The Slanch Report]
Excuse me for a moment. I think I must have got a little dust in my eye.
Her name is Lily Anderson from the Rally Foundation and the rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” she performed before Thursday night’s Pittsburgh Pirates-Atlanta Braves game at Turner Field is utterly and completely beautiful. What a precious, brave and inspirational little girl.
UPDATE: Big League Stew has even more information on Lily:
According to PrayforLilyAnderson.com, Lily was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in 2009 and has had to go through difficult rounds of chemotherapy and surgery.
But as is apparent from the video, there’s much more to Lily Anderson:
(Lily) thinks peace signs are really cool, loves turtles and playing with her friends. She loves to ride dirt bikes with her Dad, and looks forward to the weekly Sunday visits with her Grandma and Grandpa. Lime green is her very favorite color and as with most girls her age, clothes are really special; in fact she is often known by her nickname “Style Anderson.”
Plenty more on Lily over at the Stew. Well worth a read.
[H/T @JerodMorris (via @WorldofIssac)]
Okay, the tweet starts off well enough. Vitale is referring to Reggie Bush taking his talents to South Beach to play for the Miami Dolphins, then he mentions LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, but unfortunately, he doesn’t use the correct Twitter handle for Wade @DwyaneWade). Instead, Dickie V uses @DewayneWade, which belongs to somebody apparently named Shaquile Jackson and hasn’t been used since 2009. And what’s going on at the end there? Something about Jennifer Lopez and Club Liv? I’m corn-fused.
Seriously, that tweet is pretty much the equivalent of a person having a stroke and simultaneously describing it in 140 characters or less. Not awesome, baby.
[@DickieV]
It was a brilliant idea from the great hockey minds over at Puck Daddy: with defenseman Mike Commodore signing a free agent contract with the Detroit Red Wings, it was the perfect time to pair a hockey jersey number and a new start into a perfectly executed reference to an antiquated piece of 1908s home computing. Given that no one on the Detroit Red Wings has ever wore the number 64, wouldn’t it be brilliant if Commodore wore that number in honor of the Commodore 64? Sure, some of you young whippersnappers out there in Internetland probably have no idea what the Commodore 64 was, but to old fuddy duddies like me remember the home computer-gaming system with great reverence and nostalgia.
PD’s Greg Wyshynski eloquently and persuasively laid out all the compelling reasons as to why this would be a brilliant idea in a post published earlier this month. He even offered up $64 to be donated to Commodore’s favorite charity if he decided to wear the number 64 to pay homage to obsolete computer system. Sadly, it was not to be: in a series of tweets yesterday on Wednesday, Commodore regretfully put the kibosh on the “Mike Commodore 64 Drive” and will instead wear number 22 (via Puck Daddy):
I guess word is out that I will be wearing 22 this year. It was a really tough decision that I went back and forth on many times … wearing 64 would have been neat and cool, but I just didn’t feel like this was the right year to do it. In my opinion getting an … opportunity to play in Detroit is a special thing, and I felt like I needed to wear a # that is special to me. 22 is that # for me … I really appreciate the interest and support the #64 generated, I wish @Commodore64 all the best with there computers, as a matter a fact I … am going to order one when I get to Detroit, and I will get in touch with @wyshynski about the $64 pledges, and I will match it and donate … money to charity. Which charity that is I don’t know yet, but I will figure it that out in sept when I get to Detroit.
It’s a shame, but I respect Commodore’s decision. It appears he put a lot of thought into it and made the call that he felt was best for him and the Red Wings organization. I guess we will just have to wait patiently for the next opportunity to make a killer reference to present itself. Who knows? Maybe there is some kid named TRS strapping on his first pair of skates as we speak, dreaming of one day wearing the number 80 in the NHL. Better yet, perhaps some young hotshot is toiling in the minors named TurboGrafx who would be open to wearing number 16.
What’s that? How about a player named Nintendo who would want to throw on a hockey sweater bearing the number 64? Please. Don’t be ridiculous. Like there is anyone out there with the name Nintendo. That’s kooky talk. Let’s try and be realistic here, people.
Mike Commodore 64 update: The dream ends as Commie picks 22 [Puck Daddy]
(image courtesy of Deadspin)
Guardian sports columnist Harry Pearson is quite the cad when it comes to ‘nads. I mean, look at the headline and lede of Pearson’s 902-word opus on the whimsical nature and the joy elicited by witnessing a nut shot:
Joy of a blow below the belt (someone else’s): There is nothing more guaranteed to elicit laughter from a man than seeing another man get banged in the testicles
Pearson’s central premise for why he has such a passion for crotch shot comedy: (via the Guardian):
Yes, there is nothing more guaranteed to elicit laughter from a man than seeing another man banged in the nuts. It doesn’t matter who the recipient is, or the force of the blow.
I don’t know, isn’t Pearson’s attitude some kind of violation of the man code? Should a guy really enjoy nut shots to such a degree? Where’s his compassion? His empathy for the suffering of a fellow member of his gender? A sympathetic squirm when witnessing another man’s suffering? On the other hand, while Barney’s movie had heart, “Football in the Groin” did in fact have a football in the groin. So there’s that too consider, too.
After thinking about it, I don’t know which way to go on this one. Sorry to leave you all dangling here, but I’m going to have to hit the sack and sleep on this one.
Joy of a blow below the belt (someone else’s) [Guardian]
(click to enlarge)
Above is a screencap from my Google Reader page which illustrates how Twackle managed to document a tweet by ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose before he wisely deleted it (here’s the page I arrived at when I clicked through on the hyperlink). What drew Rose’s ire was the fact that all the “haters” who have been criticizing him on Twitter are simply not famous enough for their comments regarding his DWI conviction on Wednesday and the speeding ticket he got shortly after his court appearance to warrant any worth. You see, in Jalen’s world, unless you have “2k” followers on Twitter, your opinions are inconsequential and without merit. And stop tweeting so damn much if you don’t have a lot of followers, losers. I mean haters.
I have to agree with Jalen, it certainly is #ironic. Don’t ya think?
Um, that’s just a garbage can. Filled with ice and water. Yep.
The caption:
Daniel Ianus of Romania’s national rugby team took an ice bath after a training session at the Poiana Brasov mountain resort for the Rugby World Cup, which starts in September.
Jeez, by the looks of the ice baths available to its players, my guess is the Romanian rugby team would find Rocky Balboa’s training facilities in Rocky IV to be state of the art and his regimen incredibly sophisticated. Hearts on Fire, yadda yadda yadda.
Well, best of luck to the Romanian squad in the upcoming Rugby World Cup. If they can somehow get their hands on a boxing kangaroo, they might just win the damn thing.
[image via]
In a poll conducted of 1,528 New Yorkers by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, “The Captain” Derek Jeter tied the “Sultan of Swat” Babe Ruth as the greatest New York Yankees player ever, with each receiving 23% of the vote. While Jeter’s contributions to Yankee lore should never be estimated, and in light of the immediacy of said contributions, one should not be surprised that Jeter would receive a lion’s share of the vote. But given Ruth’s monumental and otherworldly career statistics, not to mention his larger-than-life persona, which achieved mythic proportions during his life and still resonates today, to most baseball traditionalists, Ruth is easily the greatest Yankees player who ever lived in a landslide.
So, how could this happen, you ask? The reliability of polls as a means to adequately ascertain the true opinions of a population aside, the answer is a relatively simple one. The chicks can’t help themselves: they can’t get enough of the handsome Jeter.
Via the New York Daily News:
In the Derek Jeter versus Babe Ruth contest, women voted overwhelmingly in favor of the current Yankees captain (30% to 16%), whereas men still gave the deceased Baseball Hall of Fame star the top honors.
A more thorough rundown of the results of the poll is available here. But insofar as the favoritism displayed by the ladies towards Derek Jeter over Babe Ruth is concerned, I have to ask: have they taken a good look at the Bambino? Portly, yes, but when we’re talking about possessing all the qualities and attributes of the quintessential lady-killer, Ruth had it all. Further, I always thought chicks dug the long ball, and consequently, the men who hit them, not pretty boy Lotharios. Lesson learned.
New York Yankees’ greatest player? Derek Jeter and Babe Ruth tied in poll of NYC voters [New York Daily News]
Yesterday, for the first non-Wake N’ Blog post of the day, it was Carmelo Anthony hanging out with a panda. Today, it’s Carmelo and CP3 letting their theatrical freak flags fly by taking part in a Chinese Opera Mask dance performance thingy during their promotional tour for Nike in the Far East. While unfamiliar with the techniques, tradition and subtleties of a Chinese Opera Mask dance, I have to say the two NBAers, with their nifty choreography, put on an entertaining, if not nuanced, performance.
Next up: a hop across the East China Sea for some Geisha training in Japan. That is, if I was planning their travel itinerary, as it sure would be a hoot, wouldn’t you agree?
[H/T The Basketball Jones]
Wake N’ Blog is the Sportress of Blogitude’s morning link dump. Send tips, link submissions, etc. to weedagainstspeed@gmail.com.
• In Michigan, taking the first step into getting involved in the political process is like, totally far out, man. Officials, including the state’s attorney general, are crying foul over the Your Healthy Choice Clinic in Lansing offering free marijuana to its patients in exchange for registering to vote. The clinic wants to raise awareness of its support for upcoming city council elections and the city’s medical marijuana ordinance. Hey Michigan, stop harshing the clinic’s mellow, man. I can dig what they’re trying to do here. [azcentral]
• Pro tennis player (and outrageous dresser) Bethanie Mattek-Sands backed out of a match with my pal, Larry Brown of Larry Brown Sports. Actually, it has been postponed due to injury, but I think we all know what’s going on here. [Larry Brown Sports]
• Tiger Woods will make his triumphant (?) return to competitive golf will be next week at Firestone. [Devil Ball Golf]
• This young Red Sox fan’s reaction to receiving a ball from Josh Beckett is priceless. [Off the Bench]
• Vince Young is now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. [Shutdown Corner]
• Hoo boy, this photo of a bent over David Beckham with a teammate standing behind him is awkward with a capital “A.”. [Busted Coverage]
• Here’s video of a mascot getting kicked in the balls. [Bob's Blitz]
• Former Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead in his California home. [Big League Stew]
• That NASCAR preacher’s invocation has been auto-tuned. [Outside the Boxscore]
• Hulk Hogan’s brilliant idea for 2011 can be summarized in one word: midgets. [With Leather]
• Awesome, KSK Sex/Fantasy Football Mailbag time! [Kissing Suzy Kolber]
• Where in the world is our favorite NBA player? [TAUNTR]
• The 10 worst trades in world history. [Sports Pickle]
• I have to agree: this is one remarkable basketball photo. [Midwest Sports Fans]
• The Onion Headline of the Day: Emergency Team Of 8th-Grade Civics Teachers Dispatched To Washington
To be honest, I was starting to get worried, secretly believing I was going to be snubbed and miss out on the social event of the season: the Kris Humphries-Kim Kardashian nuptials. But I kept telling myself, “Be patient. Maybe the invite was lost in the mail or something. There’s no way a fellow Minnesota boy will do you wrong.” Well, my patience paid off now that I received the above invitation in the mail this afternoon, and let me tell you this: I am elated.
I am, however, somewhat worried about the “Black Tie” condition. Does that mean I have to wear a collard shirt, too? Because that’s not the kind of attire that I feel most comfortable in.
What’s that? A TMZ watermark on the photo? Huh. I don’t see it. I guess it must be some kind of optical illusion that only other people like you can see. Might want to get your eyes checked.
Oh, man. That’s just harsh.
A mere hours after ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose was sentenced to nearly three weeks in the pokey for his drunken driving arrest, the police pulled him over in Clawson, Michigan last night and issued him a speeding ticket. Jeez, when it rains, it pours.
Via SI.com:
Rose was clocked going 46 mph in a 25-mph zone shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, Clawson Police Chief Harry Anderson said. He was given a citation for going at least 10 mph over the limit.
Yeah, um, Jalen: maybe it’s time to stop driving for a spell. It appears nothing good can come from you getting behind the wheel. The next thing you know, you’ll be backing out of your driveway and you’re going to run over your neighbor’s dog or something.
Rose gets speeding ticket shortly after sentencing [SI.com]
To answer the question posed above, I have no freaking clue. But according to Twitterer @usbzoso (via PSAMP), the above photo is evidence that the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar is now somehow involved with this extremely comely young lass. And even if turns out that she is not Evgeni Malkin’s new super hot girlfriend, what harm can come from the irresponsible speculation? She is quite attractive and what guy would complain about rumors swirling on the interwebs regarding the possibility that she might be their new girlfriend? No harm, no foul, I say. I mean, look at the photo: she is sitting in close proximity to Malkin. That’s gotta mean something, right? Maybe.
As you puckheads out there are well aware, Malkin went down with a serious knee injury way back in early February and did not play in another game this season after sustaining it, playing in only 43 games during the Pens’ 2010-11 campaign. One can only hope that if in fact this gorgeous gal is his new girlfriend, her mere presence probably makes any rehab Malkin might still doing to get his knee back in shape is that much easier to tolerate.
Geno Is Still All Russian-y, Has A Hot Girlfriend (?) [PSAMP]
Apparently, Rory McIlroy does not respond to criticism too well, especially when it is directed at his caddie.
After an opening round at the Irish Open, a round which saw McIlroy hit his ball into the drink on the 18th hole which resulted in a double bogey and dropped his score to a one-under 70, BBC Radio commentator Jay Townsend, who is also working for the Golf Channel this week) made some critical comments regarding the golfer’s course management, calling it “shocking”, and placed at least a lion’s share of the blame upon McIlroy’s bagman, JP Fitzgerald, tweeting that Rory “should hire Stevie Williams, as I thought JP allowed some SHOCKING course management today.” Rawr.
As you can see above, McIlroy’s youth once again reared its ugly head (much like when he whined about the playing conditions at the Open Championship), as he immaturely responded to Townsend’s critique with a personal attack on the commentator’s relative worth and failures as a golf professional. After all, Townsend, a commentator, had the audacity to, you know, comment on what he was covering. The nerve of some people.
For what it’s worth, after McIlroy’s Twitter-based outburst of petulance, Townsend replied, “Sorry, but I stand by my comments” to which McIlroy retorted, “well, I stand by my caddie.” The online spat appears to have been wrapped up with Townsend tweeting, “As you should, I respect that.”
Wow, writing that was a lot like how a high school girl tells a story about two of her friends bickering. All that was needed was some a “like” sprinkled here and there in the text, as in, “So, Rory was all like ‘Shut up,’ and then OMG, Jay was totally like, ‘Uh-uh,’ and so Rory was all like, ‘What–ever, Jay.’”
Ouch. Now my brain hurts.
McIlroy makes wrong kind of splash in Ireland [Reuters]
Ouch. Man, isn’t there an ESPN intern or someone who could take the scant few moments in would require to set up something a little more appealing to the eye for the possibly technologically-challenged John Clayton? I mean, look at that, it’s just his avatar. The guy is one of the best in the business and this is how his Twitter page looks? Sad.
On the other hand, perhaps Clayton is simply a minimalist. He’s much more about substance than style, you see. But if I had my way, I would change his background image to this:
In tile form, of course. Now that would look snazzy. Simple, but snazzy.
[H/T SB Nation]
[@ClaytonESPN]
