4:29 PM A week after losing to Temple, Navy is dominating Notre Dame today in South Bend. The Middies lead 14-0 at hafltime. Almost 200 first half rushing yards for Navy, which shutout ND in the first half for the first time since 1974.
4:26 PMKevin Kaduk of Yahoo Sports' Big League Stew points out that not only has Sammy Sosa's skin color changed, but his eye color has too. Can't blame him, the Vlad The Impaler look is red-hot these days.
4:18 PMChad Ochocinco breaks more news via OCNN: God is now overseeing Bengals merchandise sales. "Just left the pro shop at the Bengals stadium to get friends some jerseys for the game n my jersey is sold out except for infants-Gods Work."
4:10 PMKirk Ferentz postgame in Iowa City on Ricky Stanzi's ankle injury: "Only good thing I can tell you right now, the preliminary x-ray, the x-ray was negative. That's good news, obviously. The bad news is it's a severe sprain. My guess is he'll be out of action here the next couple weeks."
You! Yes, you, with the comically small amount of money! Would you like to attend an actual “sporting event” with “nationally recognized teams” and the possibility of seeing a “professional sports superstar”? Fret not! SbB@3 will put you in the cheapest seats imaginable, so you can have the privilege of squinting at millionaires who gave up on their season… often before it even began!
Our first special sporting event comes from sunny Los Angeles, the city where even the ugly people are beautiful. There resides sporting’s pre-eminent international man of intrigue, David Beckham. What would you pay to watch the superstar reinvent the sport of soccer for this great country? $500? $1,000? $55,000? Nay, nay, and nay!
A few years ago, the NEW YORK magazine published a fascinatingly dull piece about a “life coach” named Azra Shafi-Schelierini who had been spending plenty of time with the Mets and Yankees. There were anecdotes about how easy she is to talk to, and how Jason Giambi “won’t go to the bathroom without her,” which seems just plain weird. But it never really addressed what it is she does, or more importantly how she made money. People don’t really charge by the hour for this stuff, right?
(Ooooh, what does she see? She must see things that we can’t see. Oooooooh. Psychics are real.)
And so while we see that Ron Darling’s quotable assessment of her physical attributes is certainly correct - assuming Nostradamus wasn’t some gorgeous ex-model lady, of course - her mental faculties may have been overstated just a tad; she’s now in prison on grand larceny after a series of swindles.
I used to sit in the press box at Shea Stadium for several years, and since I wasn’t exactly the most important guy in the room, my seat was below a large pipe whose purpose I never quite understood. All I know is that it often dripped what I assume was water, though I usually try not to think about the source. I’m just glad they have a nice new stadium there now so this kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore.
(New name, same problems.)
What’s that? Citi Field is already a crumbling mess? FANHOUSE’s Tom Fornelli, citing a NEW YORK POST report, says the new stadium is riddled with structural issues even though the debut season isn’t even over yet. No word on whether the issues are related to a shirtless Tony Bernazard challenging the stadium to a fight.
If I were going to predict the first member of the 1969 Mets to go all the way off the deep end, I would have picked Bud Harrelson, or possibly Ed Kranepool. But the winner is … Jerry Koosman.
(Koosman surrenders to authorities. Not seen: He’s pantsless)
And for being our first official koo-koo Met, Koosman has won six months in prison, which he was awarded today by a federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin for tax evasion. Koosman, you see, not only didn’t pay his taxes, he didn’t think he had to. That’s a couple different kinds of nutty right there.
So before we get all misty and concerned over recent reports that Lenny Dykstra is destitute andsleeping in his car, let’s all take a breath and remember just who it is we’re dealing with here. Not only has the former Mets and Phillies star filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but he’s in a pitched battle with the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company involving coverage on two multi-million dollar homes that he owns. And, Our Hero is in the process of divorcing his wife.
So sure, telling CNBC on Monday that he’s totally broke and unable to live in his own house because all the toilets are missing, well, it sounds rather like something someone in his position would say. Not buying it. Dykstra could probably afford a hotel room by simply selling one of his dress shirts every day. Hey, maybe he IS living in his car, but I’m not believing that until I see him in there wrapped in a sleeping bag, clutching a tire jack and listening to the OnStar lady sing him to sleep. Read more…
Remember when M. Night Shyamalan made good movies? And I’m not talking about the one with the kid seeing dead people. I’m talking about “Unbreakable”. That’s right, I’m the guy who liked that movie. I’ve stuck to my guns over the years on this on the off chance that the film enjoys a resurgence and I can take credit for being a fan all along.
(”One hundred and thirty one die. One survivor. He is unharmed.”)
But a new candidate for our generation’s David Dunn has emerged, and his name is “Punch”. At least, that’s the nickname former hockey coach Ernie McLean has gone by for most of his adult life. McLean coached at the major junior level for 16 years, and led the New Westminster Bruins to four Memorial Cup titles (that’s the biggest prize at that level of hockey).
(Punch once got lost in the pattern of this jacket for three days without food or shelter)
He’s also survived a number of incidents that would’ve killed most mere mortals. The latest came this week, when the 77-year-old endured five days and four nights lost in the wilderness in British Columbia when he fell into a crevice while prospecting for gold (they still do that?). With no food, and subsisting just on stream water, he spent entire days walking and eventually reached higher ground, where he was spotted by a helicopter search team.
Reed credited McLean’s legendary toughness, and a bit of luck, for his survival, noting McLean previously survived a plane crash in Saskatchewan, and walked out of the woods alive a few days later despite losing an eye and breaking several bones.
He’s also survived car accidents, being run over by a bulldozer and being stranded on a frozen lake in freezing conditions for several days.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure if you’ve wandered around without an eye for a few days that being a little wet in the forest isn’t going to really phase you. Perhaps McLean should ditch the gold prospecting in the deep wilderness and do something a little more acceptable for an old guy, like going to the golf course with a big net and fishing out Titleists. See if you can turn that into a weeklong “Blair Witch” debacle, Punch. (h/t to the PUCK DOCTORS)
(I guess being lost in nice scenery is better than being locked in a car trunk for a week)
Perhaps she should be more worried about her husband hanging out with teenagers, but it looks like Danica Patrick has made her decision about where she’ll be racing next year. And while jumping to NASCAR would provide unbelievable marketing opportunities and a much larger audience, both on TV and at the track, it appears that she’ll be hanging around with IndyCar for at least one more year. (I bet the new turbo button had something to do with it.)
(Maybe if she stopped holding the steering wheel like this, she’d win a race or two)
MVN’s Christopher Estradaseems convinced from the tweets of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR’s Curt Cavin that Danica is about to sign a new deal with Andretti Green Racing. But all the L.A. TIMES would say on Sunday morning is that the chances of her staying were “more than 50%,” and an AP story from after Sunday’s race in Sonoma made it sound that while a deal was close, nothing was really finalized.
I suppose there’s not too much to be read into any of this. While Patrick visited several NASCAR teams during the year, it doesn’t sound like any real serious offers have been made for her services. Perhaps she’s using the news of her impending new deal with AGR as a last-ditch call for offers from the left-turn circuit. For now, her line of reasoning is, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.” That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Danica leaving IndyCar would be a huge blow for the series, to the point where viability would have to become a concern. There’s nothing wrong with Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Ryan Briscoe, but could you pick them out of a police lineup? Ratings are hockey-esque as it is, so removing the one bankable star would be a big problem. Would ABC even want to show races other than the Indy 500?
For now, that’s a question that doesn’t need to be asked.
• BASEBALL DIGEST wonders why the Mets acknowledged every other living member of the 1969 World Series championship team during a ceremony on Saturday night (even those that didn’t attend), but completely ignored second baseman Ken Boswell. Boswell played 102 games that year and spent eight years with the Mets, but reportedly didn’t even get an invitation to the celebration.
• A golf course groundskeeper found a 10-pound mammoth tooth on one of the greens at the course he works at in Michigan. Does that count as an immovable obstruction, or do you have to putt around the tooth?
• NESN is freaking out that Ken Rosenthal supposedly suggested that the Red Sox might acquire Billy Wagner to be their closer next year and then ship Jonathan Papelbon up to somewhere other than Boston. The theory being that they’re grooming Daniel Bard for the closer job and just need a guy like Wagner to bridge the gap. Perhaps this is why Paps isn’t too comfortable with the whole thing. And I’m NOT going to post the dance video again…oh, who am I kidding:
(”Nawt Paps! Who’ll do the rivahdance? Wagnah sucks!”)
• Ravens rookie linebacker Tony Fein was arrested last night after he allegedly shoved a police officer. A security guard at a restaurant that Fein was eating at thought that he saw Fein pass a gun to one of his friends. It was a cell phone. Police arrived and then things got testy. This is why I’ve always said that the Glock Blackberry was a bad idea.
• The WIZ OF ODDS says Barrow, Alaska’s high school football team is off to an unfortunate 0-3 start after a 48-13 loss at home on the blue turf on Saturday afternoon. Barrow is the northernmost town in North America and is only accessible by plane. And yes, they start playing in mid-August to take advantage of “summer” temps that soar into the low 40s. For more on Barrow’s team, see this post we did last year.
• The man arrested for stabbing English soccer player Calum Davenport is the boyfriend of Davenport’s sister. Cara Davenport is pregnant, allegedly with the attempted-murderer dude’s child. And now her brother will likely never play soccer again, and her mother is also in the hospital for stab wounds. Yikes.
Of all the weird things that have happened to the New York Mets, from your garden-variety bad breaks of losing guys to various injuries all the way to Omar Minaya’s bizarre confrontation with writer Adam Rubin and Luis Castillo dropping a routine pop-up to lose to the Yankees, perhaps nothing sums up the team’s season better than what just happened at Citi Field about 45 minutes ago.
(Your new hero, Philly)
Trailing 9-7 in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Mets had runners on first and second with nobody out against Phillies closer Brad Lidge, who is pitching more like scared-of-Albert-Pujols Brad Lidge this year than the guy who completely dominated the ‘08 season. New-ish Met Jeff Francoeur stepped up the plate, and on a 2-2 pitch, both runners took off. Frenchy crushed a line drive right up the middle. You probably know what happens next.
It was not a good night to be the noggin of an MLB player last night, as there were two scary incidents that left players with concussions that could have been much, much worse. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that either Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda or New York Mets third baseman David Wright will have long-term issues resulting from their incidents on Saturday night.
The first to go down was Wright, who took a 93-mph fastball from the Giants’ Matt Cain to the side of the head. He stayed down for several minutes but eventually walked off under his own power. The was taken to the hospital where, as Yogi Berra may or may not have said, “they took X-rays of my head and found nothing.”
Video of the incident after the jump, including the sickening sound of ball meeting helmet:
It was just this morning that we said this: “Meanwhile, things may have finally hit rock bottom for the Mets this year.” That was in reference to the Mets’ 9th inning collapse and eventual loss to the Cardinals, a game that saw Luis Castillo likely earn a spot on the DL by spraining his ankle on the dugout steps.
(Niese, seen here not yet writhing around the ground in agony.)
Oh, but rock bottom? Such fools we are! It’s only August, and that end of the season is a looooong way away. So seeing as how it’s been, what, 15 hours since a Met severely injured himself, clearly, they were overdue. Hope there’s more room on the DL for another pitcher!
