Curt Schilling’s Lucky 13

Hours, perhaps even minutes, after the Red Sox had won their second World Series in four years, it seemed Curt Schilling was already thinking about 2008.  The blood had hardly dried from his sock The beer had hardly dried on his uniform, and one of the more famous bloggers in all of Blogfrica was at it again.  Yesterday, on his website, he dropped the 13 teams he might be interested in playing for.  He indicated that Boston would be his “first choice.”  He also left these twelve possible destinations at the end of his Free Agency?  Weird. blog.

Cleveland, Detroit, Anaheim, New York Mets, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A., S.D., Arizona, Chicago Cubs,  St. Louis, Milwaukee

To see what uniform #38 might be pitching in next October, you might as well JUMP! 

Goooo! NBA Eastern Conference Edition

The man to your left is Anderson Varejao.  That Sideshow Bob hair, that lost look in the eyes, and being a flat-out honky* allow A.V. to captain our All NBA Eastern Conference GOOOO! team.

What exactly does it take to get on the All NECG team?  Well, smarmy good looks, a hundred dollar hair cut, and the ability to function like a normal human being in social settings won’t qualify you.  Hit the more to find out who makes the cut and who’s too…well, normal.

MLB vs Boras/ARod: Bitch Fight!!

As I’m sure you’ve heard, or read, or seen on tv, Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract with the New York Yankees last night during Game 4 of the World Series.  ARod’s agent, Scott Boras, went through the process/paperwork/bullshit on Sunday night and let the Yankees know about his client’s departure.  Now, all of a sudden, MLB and many of its famed broadcasters are acting like the moral police because of the timing.  Was Boras intentionally trying to grab headlines?  Of course he was, and people were talking about his leaving the Yanks and his next location all day long.  Apparently the MLB wanted people to talk about the yawn of a World Series more.

Bob DuPuy, MLB’s chief operating officer, had these delightful comments:

“We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement.”

“Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series.”

Wow.  These statements are coming from a guy who runs a league in the midst of a steroids scandal, and he wants to be holier than thou?  Even more ironic than Mr. DuPuy’s comments were those from the talking heads on all the major news stations.  Peter Gammons acted like ARod had shot his dog. He couldn’t imagine why ARod would want to make the sports news about him, on the night of the World Series.  Um, ARod does NOT produce SportsCenter.  However, Pete, you do talk about baseball on TV, and I’m sure if you wanted to, you could have just talked about the Red Sox last night.  Of course, there were about two entertaining moments in the four games… so there wasn’t much to talk about.

Let’s all try to lay off Boras and ARod, if he upsets you that much… you don’t even have to talk about him.  If you do want to talk about #13, let’s start taking bets on where he ends up.  Detroit?  Chicago?  Los Angeles (either team)?

W T F ?

There are times in life that I am glad I’m not a betting man.  Yesterday’s college football results indicate that Saturday was one of those times.  So many games went wacky again this week in college football. 

The SEC East basically got turned completely upside down and on its head.  Or we suppose it was finally righted after being upside down all year.  Virginia Tech pissed away a huge win.  Hell, even Louisville won this weekend.  For a run-down of what surprised us most this weekend, give that more link Hell with a left click.

Sandwich Pickem Scramble – Week 9

Week 8 Recap:  We’ll steer clear of recapping those alma maters who failed to win, or show up, last week, and instead trumpet the ascension of Extra P’s Kansas Jayhawks who are an astounding 7-0, and well on their way to a Big XII North championship and entry into the National Title discussion.  Further winners are Michigan in their renewed efforts for a conference title and the possibility of upsetting the #1 team in the land, ending years of Tressel-induced frustrations.

Smoothron was the man of the week, knocking home 9 picks out of 10 (missing only Mizzou over Texas Tech), yet somehow going 0-3 in HIS GAMBLING COLUMN!  Better luck this week Smooth.  Matt J continues to dominate with another solid 7, along with Eday and 2SL.  Extra P, Burnsy, Peter Bean, and yours truly brought home 6, with our fair heroine back up at even money.  BobWicket, 5, fell off juuust a scotche, (skotche? scoche? scone?). 

On to week T9’s Picks. 

Did the NFL follow through with Breast Cancer Awareness?

UPDATE:  Since the initial posting over at Ladies… yesterday, and subsequent coverage by other blogs, the NFL has updated its site, now offering several more items for purchase to benefit the cause.  Great work TSW and LDDD.  Go by and let them know it!) 

The Ladies… have pointed out that the NFL recently came off an expansive Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, promising, among other things, autographed items to be sold with the money raised going to support the cause.  Apparently, it sold 2.  Two. 

TheStarterWife’s thoughts:

So what happened? Where are the rest of the items? Isn’t fundraising just as important – if not more so – than making sure all the refs are wearing pink wristbands? I took that screenshot on Monday and yesterday the pink ribbon was taken down. So was it really all a bunch of hype for very little?

TSW has put together a list of what the league did (or didn’t do) as well as each of the individual teams.  Did your team do enough?  Check out the rundown.

Rivalries, Why Exactly Do We Hate Those Guys Again?

Duke/UNC, Sox/Yanks, Cubs/Cards, Cats/Cards, Vols/Tide…See a pattern?  Any time these teams play one another the opposing fans absolutely loathe the other team.  Hell, in most cases the teams hate one another. 

In team sports, rivalries do a lot of things.  They rile emotions, set the table for epic battles, and most importantly to The Man, they sell tickets.  But where does all this hatred stem from?

Rivalries stem from one of four places: proximity, competition, tradition, or a moment.  Each of these factors can add up to a rivalry and it is highly debatable which type of rivalry is the most exciting.  Hit the jump to see some examples of each type of rivalry.  Who knows, your team might just be kicking the shit out of Jefferson High (they’re our rivals!)

Edge of Your Seat Plays

Everyone has a favorite sport.  Be it basketball, football, baseball (yes, we still play it in the USA), or an upstart like soccer, everyone has a sport they follow and love.  No matter what sport you watch you can always find an exciting play.  You may have to watch for a while to see it, but eventually you’ll find something to catch your eye.

Follow the jump for the most exciting plays in sport.

Gambler’s Paradise – Gameday Edition

7 University of Kentucky Basketball National Championships.  1985 Villanova upsets Georgetown in Rupp Arena.  2SL goes 1-11 in State Tournament.  All great things that have happened in Lexington, KY.  Nothing, in my lifetime, has ever approached the level of magnitude of hype as ESPN’s Gameday coming to UK.  People are going BONKERS.  APIAS.net friend Madison drove all the way from WFU just to witness the event, and he’s not even a UK fan.  If I were a betting man…. oh wait, what is this column all about again.  I would be willing to wager that this Gameday could set attendace records for the best college football (or only, for that matter) preview show.  It seems like every person in Lexington (except for this horse-racing enthusiast) will be there tomorrow.  Hmm, notice how I haven’t mentioned this yet?  Yeah, that was on purpose.  The introduction of Casino Bobby did nothing to improve my luck; or his for that matter.  An awkward meeting at the track last week led to us confirming we would undoubtedly do this every week until college football is done.  If, for nothing else, to let the world know just how bad of gamblers we truly are.

Two donors to Calvin Ayre’s personal bank account after the jump! 

Sandwich Pickem Scramble – Week 8

Week 7 Recap:  Somehow, with no spread, our expert panel continues to have a member(s) unable to outpick a quarter flip.  At any rate, Matt Jones has proven his consistentcy in picking American College Football games (Note: smoothron, reread that sentence) and our own EdayStat had a great week with both picking 7/10.

The 3am text-messaging wunderkind smoothron, and hot-tub captain extraordinaire (yes he has a hat) 2SL floated 6 correct, and I still think they are copying each other.  Bobbo rocked a fiver.

On the other half of the Mendoza line (read: bottom) came Longhorn PB, our heroine, yours truly, Extra P (whose method of picking basketball games for a football contest proved correct in 2/10 including UK over LSU) and Burnsy (TWO!), for whom I have no excuse, but much respect.

The updated standings are in the sidebar.

If you want to see an incredible thread, and further proof that Cleveland sucks (as I have been telling you for years), check out this week’s happenings over at Ladies…

Onward and upward!