A Call to the Nation

This is a contest, kind of. If anyone out there will be in attendance of a major event such as the Series, college football or anything else, we want your digital camera or crappy cell phone pictures of these people.

Pink Hatters, Band-wagoners, Weak Sauce Fans, whatever you want to call them. Any team, any stadium. The weirder, funnier and lamer, the better. I want to see these people choking on their lattes and garlic fries. Figuratively, of course.

Pretty much anything will be posted, and obviously you'll get a shout out, plus some brief (and HIGHLY coveted) blog-fame.

Just click on Dave H, and shoot it over. This might be fun.

Images of Sports Things that Happened Recently

UCLA upsets Cal. How did these guys lose to Notre Dame?


Everyone hearts Kobe!


PJ Carlissimo, still sporting the casual blazer look.


Mark Mangino and Kansas, undefeated and hungry for a BCS berth.


Brokeback Brady in his new Stetson ad.


Charlie Weis aka Mega Maid has reversed the Notre Dame football program from "Suck" to "Blow." These games are really fun to watch.


Auburn chokes one away at the end to LSU, despite the good karma generated by a kitten in this chick's brazier.

At Least They Keep It Interesting

Just like the Goonies, Red Sox never say die. Well, maybe Manny does, but the rest...not dead yet.

The end of an era

Nobody likes the Yankees (except their millions and millions of fans) but most people can agree Joe Torre is a classy guy. He must also be an adept ringleader, as he managed the Yankees to four world championships and a remarkable 12 straight playoff appearances in the circus that is Bronx baseball. Today he turned down the Yankees' insulting one-year, $2.5 million paycut offer, ending his tenure with the club. Good for you Joe, and good luck. You deserve more respect than that. And hey, anything to ruin Derek Jeter's day, right?

Ugh

Just what you want to hear from your prized slugger before a potential elimination game:

“We’re just going to go, play the game and move on. If it doesn’t happen, so who cares? It’s always next year. It’s not like the end of the world.”

- Manny Ramirez

The Perils of being a Wallflower

In baseball, players like to call the fans the tenth man. Its nice way of paying lip service to the people who bankroll their salaries, but most fans take it to heart. We like to think that even though we’re not on the field or in the locker room, the fact that we’re standing at key points in the game, wearing our lucky hats and chanting a player’s name, we’re contributing.

Just how little power fans actually have is never more apparent than when you’re watching your team collapse. You’re short stop seems to hit into double plays when the bases are empty and no amount of screaming at your TV screen will motivate him. Your manager keeps sticking with a black hole lineup when he’s got sparkplug players on the bench and all the emails and radio call-ins in the world won’t make him change his mind. You want to grab your lackluster left fielder, shake him by the shoulders and holler, “You make $14 million a year! Can you not find the time to look at tape and take batting practice to get your postseason average above .260?” But you can’t.

Because you’re not really part of the team. You own a replica jersey and a replica hat but you’re not on the field and you’re not on the locker room and you’re certainly not in the batting order. Maybe fans can push players to better heights at big moments, but ultimately it comes down to what the nine guys between the chalk lines are doing and this is both the best and worst part of following team.

(This is all generally speaking of course. Any similarities between situations described above and the current state of the Boston Red Sox is purely coincidental).

Playmaking 101

"Hey Beavis, look, I'm a Fart-ist. Get it? Hehehe."

Intereseting article by Frank DeFord today on NPR, about the lack of respect that sports in general receives from academia. Princeton athletic director Gary Walters argues that sport is onpar with traditional intellectual endeavors such as painting, dance and music. If an actor can major in acting, then why can't a football player major in football? And minor in weed smoking?

"Online courses are for bitches like Kobe"

You hear that, Ivy League Elitisits! Take your lofty, pointless intellectual persuits like "science" or "literature" and stuff all of it. I'm going to learn the Icky Shuffle drunk, in my socks on a hardwood floor. Now THAT'S brilliant.

Mr. Woods and his Shuffle revolutionized interperative dance in the 1980s.

Enter the Chambers Of Doom

Hell yes, now that the Chargers acquired Chris Chambers from the Dolphins, we have a real deep threat!

Here's what the Sun-Sentinel Dolphins blog thinks, as the Phish wave their tighty-whities in surrender after an 0-6 start.

Time to rewind the clock CC, just let the ghost of John Jefferson take over.

People I'm Very Disappointed In (Vol. I)

God's Team

At this point, the Red Sox and/or Indians haven't got a chance. God loves the Rockies too much. Matt Holliday is the second coming of Christ. And the Padres are officially the second best team in the NL.