Archive for July 11th, 2006

July11

I Wish They’d Just Kill Barbaro

By: the mighty mjd

Recent news reports have Barbaro “responding well in his sixth cast.” His sixth cast? That seems a little excessive. I mean, I’d have my only child put to sleep if he or she required six casts for the same injury. This is getting absurd. I wish they’d just put a bullet in him and be done with it.

I’m not sure if I can take it if the thing lives for five more years, and we’re still getting constant updates on his health. It’s just that time… there’s talk of “potentially serious” complications, the vet says it’s in for some rough times ahead, it’s had surgery after surgery, it’s got an abscess on his left hind hoof, and… well, I think it’s annoying as fuck.

I realize that that’s not a very good reason to kill a horse, but hey, it’s horse racing. They’ve killed for less. I wish Jayson Williams would hire Barbaro to give him a ride home, or that Barbaro had an affair with OJ Simpson’s current love interest, or someone hired Isiah Thomas to oversee Barbaro’s recovery.

Posted in: Things That Aren't Sports12 comments

July11

Carmelo On LeBron’s Contract: Hey, Good Idea

By: the mighty mjd

Seeing that LeBron James is about to sign a contract with the Cavs that would allow him to opt out after three years, Carmelo Anthony is now thinking that he’d like to do the same. Deals can’t be signed before tomorrow, and Carmelo had previously agreed to sign a five-year deal with the maximum $80 million… but he may have had a change of heart.

By signing the deal with the opt-out possibility after three years, LeBron gives up some guaranteed money, but gives himself the option of seeing what the Cavs are going to look like in three years, and also the ability to cash in a little bit more if the salary cap goes up (as I’d expect it would) in three years.

And I am not one of the people who believes that it’s automatic that the Cavs are going to be winning titles soon. They’re not that close yet… it only appeared that they were, in part because the Pistons team that they pushed turned out to be wildly overrated. So I think LeBron has the right idea, but I don’t know if it’s the right road for Carmelo… LeBron will certainly make up for the lost money in endorsements, and Carmelo won’t have quite the same opportunities. And Carmelo doesn’t live in that same “make any team he’s on an immediate contender” neighborhood as LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Darko.

And speaking of Wade, I think he’s the one with the most to gain from a shorter contract. What if Shaq retires after next year… and Wade’s on a team with no Shaq, no Alonzo Mourning, no Pat Riley. The present looks good for the Heat, but I don’t know about the future. That’s not to say that they can’t make some moves in the next three years, but if I was in Wade’s shoes, I’d make them prove it to me.

Posted in: NBA2 comments

July11

All In All, A Pretty Good Way To Go

By: the mighty mjd

After Italy’s victory over France in the World Cup finals, a 77-year old man in Rome decided to head to raise an Italian flag in celebration. He didn’t make it all the way up the ladder, though, and fell to his death. He died instantly, and was clutching the flag to his chest when he passed. The fall is being reported as an accident, though I wonder if the man’s dive was an imitation of the Italian style of play.

But, you know, if I went out like that… I couldn’t complain. It’s still sad that he died, obviously… but he was 77 years old, and if the victory was stirring enough to move a man that age to climb a ladder and raise a flag, then he probably died pretty happy. If I died in the midst of celebrating a Chargers Super Bowl victory, or something of that nature… that wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, that would be pretty high up on the list of ways I’d want to go.

Posted in: Sad, Soccer7 comments

July11

Bode Miller To Play Minor League Ball

By: the mighty mjd

It’s just for one game, and is a charity thing/publicity stunt. Bode will be suiting up for the Nashua Pride. From the ESPN.com news services article…

Downhill skier Bode Miller, who won two silver medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 but was shut out in a disappointing showing in this year’s Torino Games, has signed a one-game contract to play for the Nashua (N.H.) Pride of the independent CanAm League.

Disappointing? What was disappointing about Bode Miller’s performance in Torino? How soon we forget that he partied at an Olympic level. These are the screwed-up expectations that the oppressed Bode Miller has to deal with. People expect winning, results, trying hard, competing, and reaching his full capability… all that bullshit. What’s important is that he partied at an Olympic level, no matter what the squares and hypocrites in the media would have you believe.

It is to raise money for charity, though. $5,000 of the ticket sales will go to Bode’s Turtle Ridge Foundation, which will in turn give the money to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It’s nice that some money is going to a worthy cause, and Bode gets a round of applause for that. But I kinda thought that Bode and Lance had some beef. Once upon a time, Bode intimated to the media (who I’m sure twisted his words and is incapable of truly understanding the depth of his character) that Lance was using steroids, and Lance was none too thrilled about it.

Anyway, good luck to Bode in his new efforts to party at a minor league level.

Posted in: Baseball, Torino2 comments

July11

If You Have Some Time To Kill Today…

By: the mighty mjd

…I think you’ll enjoy this. It’s three YouTube clips, totalling about 25-minutes in length. It’s from some kind of Japanese television show, and the premise seems to be that there’s one guy who has instructions to go about his day, like any other day. In the meantime, five or six other guys in black robes follow him around and pelt him with cream pies.

I realize that that doesn’t sound all that funny, and hey, you might not find it to be that amusing. Cream pie humor does have its limitations, but… the Japanese have taken it to a whole new level. The Japanese are so far ahead of us.

On a related note, if you’re going to make a similar post on your blog, and you’re looking for a picture to put with the post, and you do an image search for “cream pie”… the results might not be what you expected. I didn’t even know that “cream pie” had an alternate meaning. Good Lord… live and learn, and I suppose.

Posted in: Things That Aren't Sports5 comments

July11

LeBron And His Endorsement Money

By: the mighty mjd

In light of LeBron’s contract extension in Cleveland, David Sweet at MSNBC.com wonders if LeBron has cost himself a lot of endorsement money by staying in Cleveland, and also that the NBA will suffer for it.

It’s an interesting point, and I’m not a businessman, but… I can’t say I agree. It’s not like this is 1960, and if you wanted to see LeBron James play in that far outpost of Cleveland, the only way to get there was a 9-hour train ride, and then an 18-mile hike through snow-covered mountains inhabited by man-eating woolly mammoths. Basketball is on TV, there is this crazy thing called “the Internet,” and ABC, ESPN, and TNT, I do believe, will find their way to Cleveland to get this LeBron character on television. SportsCenter might even have a segment or two on him.

There may have been reasons that it was a bad idea for LeBron to sign in Cleveland, but I don’t know if I buy the major media market thing anymore. I don’t see Jamal Crawford and Channing Frye pulling in huge endorsement deals because they play for the Knicks. Brett Favre does pretty well with the endorsements, and he plays in Green fucking Bay. It’s just a smaller world now, and stars are going to be stars, no matter where they play. LeBron has more of an effect on Cleveland than Cleveland has on LeBron.

Posted in: Media, NBA3 comments

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