May 14, 2013

Bryce Harper learns the purpose of the warning track

Bryce Harper learns the purpose of the warning trackWashington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper slammed into the outfield fence at Dodgers Stadium last night in Los Angeles trying to make a play on a fly ball off the bat of Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis. Harper went face-first into the scoreboard resulting in a laceration to his chin that required 11 stitches to close.

Harper didn’t suffer a concussion, at least that’s what the Nationals and Harper’s agent Scott Boras are saying. Watching a replay of the incident, it’s hard to believe Harper’s brain didn’t concuss even a little bit. I think I got a slight concussion just watching it.

Check it out:

harperhit2_medium

Maybe Harper thought he was catching a train to Hogwarts. That actually makes more sense than not knowing what the warning track is for. Then again, although he’s a gifted athlete, Harper’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

{ 0 comments }

May 10, 2013

Stay classy Miami

miami_heat_finger
Palm Beach socialite Filomena Tobias, widowed wife of CNBC analyst and hedge fund manager Seth Tobias, shot Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah the bird as he was leaving the court after being ejected in Wednesday’s game against the Miami Heat. The Heat went on to win the game, 115-78.

Noah ignored the finger in his face and continued his sad and lonely trek to the locker room. He’s a better man than me. I don’t think I could just ignore something like that. I hope I could, but until something like that actually happens to you, it’s hard to know for certain how you would react. I have a feeling I wouldn’t react very well.

The series between the Bulls and Heat is tied 1-1. They play Game 3 tonight in Chicago.

{ 0 comments }

May 8, 2013

Why don’t pitchers wear helmets?

Why don't pitchers wear helmets?
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ took a line drive to the head off the bat of Desmond Jennings in last night’s game against the Tampa Devil Rays. The ball bounced off Happ’s head and went into the bullpen area in foul territory. Jennings got to third base for a triple while Happ left the field on a stretcher and was taken to a nearby hospital. He was admitted and is reported to be in stable condition.

Why don’t pitchers wear helmets?

The batter wears a helmet. So do the first and third base coaches. Ball boys and ball girls wear helmets. The pitcher stands out there on the mound with his noggin fully exposed to the ball coming off the bat, and all he wears is a $35 cap made of simple fabric. It seems ludicrous to me that pitchers don’t wear some kind of head protection, especially when you consider how much some of them make. If for no other reason, you would think Major League Baseball teams would want to protect their investments. What’s it going to take for baseball to do something about protecting the heads of pitchers, will someone have to die?

The Blue Jays went on to win the game, 6-4.

Photo: Getty Images

{ 0 comments }

May 5, 2013

How is horse racing not animal cruelty?

How is horse racing not animal cruelty?The 139th Kentucky Derby was held yesterday, and I now have to read about it on all the various sports websites I frequent on a daily basis. If I didn’t know better, I would assume that horse racing is some kind of an athletic contest between, well, athletes. It’s not an athletic contest, and it’s not a sport. The only athlete involved in any horse race is the actual horse, and they’re not even people.

No horse in a horse race chooses to complete, they are forced into it by whoever owns them. They’re not athletes, they’re property. A horse is no more an athlete than Jeff Gordan’s Chevy SS is an athlete.

If the horse isn’t the athlete, how about the jockey? No, they’re not athletes either, unless beating an animal on the rear-end with a ridding crop is somehow an athletic activity. That’s all they really do, that and making sure they’re still sitting on top of the animal at the end of the race. Then again, they can’t beat the horse with a ridding crop if they’re not actually ridding the horse. They also have to work hard at making sure they weigh no more than 126 pounds. That’s for the Kentucky Derby. In most horse races, they can weigh no more than 110 pounds.

Horse racing isn’t an athletic sport, it’s animal cruelty. It’s no more a sport than dog fighting or cockfighting. The only real difference between horse racing and dog or cockfighting is that in dog or cockfighting, the losing animal usually ends up dead. That’s usually not the case in horse racing. Then again, horses are killed all the time in horse racing, some never even leave the track before they are killed by their owners. Horses are killed even in pretend horse racing. That awful HBO drama Luck was mired in controversy over the fact that horses were routinely abused, resulting in the death of three different animals.

One day, horse racing will be banned, much like other forms of animal cruelty are also banned. It may not be anytime soon, but one day, it will join the ranks of dog fighting, cockfighting, and bull fighting.

{ 0 comments }

April 29, 2013

Jason Collins announces that he’s a basketball playing gay American

Jason Collins announces that he's a basketball playing gay AmericanNBA journeyman center Jason Collins shocked the world today when he announced that he was gay. He made the announcement by appearing on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Collins played for the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards this season. He’s currently a free-agent and wants to play next season. He just wants to do it while being true to who he is, a proud gay man.

I have nothing but respect for Collins. It took a lot of courage to come out and announce to the world that he was gay. I look forward to the day when telling people you’re gay is no different than telling people your’re left-handed.

If Collins coming out on the cover of Sports Illustrated has made it a little easier for even a single young person to come out to their friends and family, than Collins is a hero.

{ 0 comments }

April 26, 2013

Manti Te’o not drafted in the first round

Manti Te'o not drafted in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft
The first round of the 2013 NFL draft took place last night, and Notre Dame linebacker All-American, Heisman Trophy runner-up Manti Te’o didn’t hear his name called. Thirty two teams picked players last night and he wasn’t one of them.

If Manti Te’o's (fake) dead girlfriend were real, she’d probably be really sad right now.

Though having a fake girlfriend battling cancer undoubtedly helped him garner Heisman Trophy sympathy votes, it didn’t do much in the first round of the NFL draft. Then again, he only ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine and he looked pretty inept and over-matched in the national championship game against Alabama. Roll Tide!

Let this be a lesson to colligate student-athletes everywhere. If you’re going to pretend to have a dead girlfriend to score sympathy with gullible members of the sports media, make sure you’re actually at least half-way decent at the sport in which you play. Before the national championship game and the NFL combine, Manti Te’o was expected to be a top-five pick.

{ 0 comments }

April 12, 2013

Wild fight breaks out at Dodgers, Padres game

la-sp-dn-greinke-surgery-20130412-001
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres participated in a wild fracas last night in San Diego after Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke hit Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin in the shoulder with the pitch. Quentin charged the mound and Greinke received a broken collarbone as a result. Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp got mad, really, really mad.

Check out the video:


I blame Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis for Greinke’s broken collarbone. When Quentin takes off for the mound, Ellis appears to be jogging after Quentin. When a 235 pound outfielder is charging a pitcher your team is paying $17 million to this season, you must have a little more pep in your step when you go to the mound in defense of your pitcher. If Greinke meant to hit Quentin in retaliation for a pitch that came close to hitting Kemp in the head in the first inning, it would appear nobody told Ellis it was going to happen. He appears in the video to be too unprepared for the melee.

Oh yeah, the Dodgers went on to win the game, 3-2.

{ 0 comments }

April 5, 2013

Greatest photo I’ve seen all week

carson_palmer_cardinals
Seeing Carson Palmer in an Arizona Cardinals hat and matching golf shirt must mean the trade between the Los Angeles Oakland Raiders and the Cardinals went through.

Good.

I wont miss seeing Palmer in the silver and black. Not one bit. His tenure with the Raiders can be best summarized as someone who would throw a costly pick to cost his team the game, and then when the game was all but decided for the opposition, he would spend the rest of the game completing meaningless passes that contributed nothing other than to his own personal stats.

Carson Palmer played 25 games for the Oakland Raiders. He threw 30 interceptions and fumbled the ball six times. Whatever else he did as a Raider isn’t really important. It’s his seemingly disregard for protecting the ball that I will remember about Palmer.

Carson Palmer stinks and I don’t like him.

{ 0 comments }

April 2, 2013

Raiders to trade Carson Palmer to Cardinals, acquire Matt Flynn from Seahawks

matt-flynn
Oakland Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer is scheduled to make $13 million this upcoming season and when he was asked to renegotiate his contract to something more salary-cap friendly, he refused. The Raiders have responded to Palmer’s unwillingness to renegotiate by trading future draft picks to the Seattle Seahawks for the football services of perennial backup quarterback Matt Flynn. The Raiders will be sending the Seahawks a fifth-round pick in the 2014 and a conditional pick in the 2015.

Palmer supposedly will be traded to the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals apparently have a thirst for Heisman winning quarterbacks from USC that cannot be quenched. Good for them.

If Flynn becomes the Raiders starting quarterback, it will be the first time as a starter since high school. He was a backup at LSU behind JaMarcus Russell and he served as Aaron Rodgers’ backup at Green Bay. He was brought into Seattle last year to be the starter, but rookie Russell Wilson was named the starter in the preseason.

The fact that the Raiders are hoping JaMarcus Russell’s college backup will be their 2013 starting quarterback should give even a casual Raiders fan reason to pause.

If this trade for Flynn ends up working out for the Raiders, it will be the first time in franchise history a quarterback trade has worked out in their favor. To say they’re due for a positive quarterback trade is an understatement.

{ 0 comments }

April 1, 2013

Louisville guard Kevin Ware breaks leg on national TV, CBS shows it over and over

Duke v Louisville
Louisville guard Kevin Ware suffered a horrific injury last night in the Men’s NCAA Basketball Midwest regional finals game between Duke and Louisville. Ware jumped in the air in the attempt to block a Duke jump shot and when he landed, his right leg buckled and his tibia bone could be seen protruding from his skin.

Needless to say, the game came to stop.

CBS immediately focused on the Louisville players reacting in shock to the gruesome injury of their teammate. They then showed the injury again, this time in slow motion. Then, they showed it again, as if anyone needs to see a person’s tibia bone violently leave their body on national broadcast TV three separate times.

It’s a basketball game, not a live production of Hostel.

CBS may have played it again, but I wouldn’t know. I turned the channel and never turned the game back on. Louisville went on to win the game in commanding fashion, 85-63.

I don’t understand why it’s acceptable to show a horrific injury on broadcast TV and then show it again and again in slow motion. Nine years ago during the half-time show for Super Bowl XXXVIII, Janet Jackson’s boob was accidentally, momentarily exposed on CBS and the FCC fined the network a whopping $550,000 for indecency. The fine was eventually thrown out by an appeals court, but the fact remains that CBS was accused of indecency for accidentally showing a second of an exposed boobie on national TV. I don’t understand how showing a woman’s exposed breast can be considered indecent, but showing a man’s tibia bone break the skin, isn’t.

CBS shouldn’t have been fined for showing one second of Janet Jackson’s exposed breast, but they should be for showing Kevin Ware’s injury over and over again. They won’t, but they should be.

Photograph by Streeter Lecka/Getty

{ 0 comments }

Previous Posts