I was getting worried. My David Puddy inspired 8-Ball jacket has been getting a lot of wear. This week's Ebay Item of the Week comes just in time.Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Ebay Item of the Week: "You're with me, pleather."
I was getting worried. My David Puddy inspired 8-Ball jacket has been getting a lot of wear. This week's Ebay Item of the Week comes just in time.Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Random Rants and Ramblings
What is going on people? Wait, don't answer that, in the world of sports we already know the answer -- not much. So as I sit here, watching the AL win another yet another All-Star game and trying to get the image of Poncho dancing out of my head, let's rant, ramble and create a post with no coherent theme.
- It's not a topic worth debating, but having the winner of the All-Star game get home field advantage for the playoffs is flat-out retarded. If you play games, keep score and record standings, the obvious answer should be the team with the better record gets home field advantage. If you are a fan of a good NL team did you really want to rely on a Met to help you try and break the AL's winning streak? I didn't think so.- Orange Chuck, Sean and I got into a nice Twitter discussion last night over the absurdity of SU retiring the number 44. The question wasn't resolved, so let me toss this out - is retiring 44 worse than:
- Nazis
- Being forced to watch a talk show featuring Mike Lupica, Skip Bayless and Jay Marriotti
- Georgetown winning the national championship (in anything)
- All of the above
- Feel free to discuss that below, I am too lazy to actually create a poll.
- As someone that initially hated it, I really enjoy Twitter far too much. Now that I'm in my mid 30s, I'm wondering at what point I'll refuse to adopt any new technology and become an old stubborn idiot. Will I still be clinging to Twitter in 30 years like the NYPD is to typewriters? The answer - maybe.
- Prince Fielder won the home run derby and he's a vegetarian. He's also really fat. What people sometime fail to realize, donuts are vegetarian - well except these.
- Did you know Gary Bettman made $7 million last year? That's the equivalent of giving Governor Paterson a couple million a year. If those guys flipped jobs I don't think anyone would notice.
- The MLB All-Star game was shorter than the HR derby - you're not far behind Bud Selig.
- NFL training camps open in 10 days for some teams. This makes me extremely happy and violently pissed off at the same time, given the fact that its the middle of July and the summer in upstate NY has been worse than Michael Strahan's new sitcom is bound to be. I've turned my central air on three times all year. Thanks for nothing summer - go F yourself.
- It will be interesting to see who has a better rookie season in Syracuse, Doug Marrone or Brandon Triche. I have high hopes for both.
- In order to make sure players are rested and to prepare for a brutal out of conference schedule, Rutgers has built a "recruiting lounge" - it will undoubtedly be filled with Aquanet, Bon Jovi cassettes, and the keys to a used 1987 Camaro IROC.
- There are no sports on Wednesday, but the photo above is courtesy of manofest, enjoy the site.
Syracuse NBA Summer League Update
Anyway, here's a quick update of NBA Summer League happenings featuring former Orangeman:
- Chuck has a wrap up of stats here.
- About three quarters of the way down this article there is a mention of Jonny Flynn, saying he gets whatever he wants.
- Jonny gives himself a C in this Niagara Gazette article.
- Here is the official recap from the T-wolves game NBA.
- And for everything you want to know about the T-wolves, you should check Canis Hoopis often. They are a dedicated bunch over there.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Syracuse NBA Summer League Update


Saturday, July 11, 2009
Curtis Brinkley Update
Philly.com - Shooting could delay Brinkley's football career
Friday, July 10, 2009
Fat Guy Friday
The average sports fan would kill to be in their position, earning vast amounts of money to play a kids game, while still being able to eat 10 cheeseburgers a day. Think about it - athletic success without all that pesky working out. It's everyone's dream - or it should be. So with the weekend just about here, let's celebrate another Fat Guy Friday.
Since July is the heart of baseball season, there are plenty of overweight baseball players to choose from - most of which seem to be pitchers. So without further delay, this week's Fat Guy Friday feature is Bob "Sticky" Wickman.
Wickman pitched in the major leagues for a remarkable 16 years, mainly out of the bullpen. He finished his career with the Arizona Diamondbacks, after being unceremoniously waived by the Atlanta Braves earlier in the year. Wickman must have some friends at Baseball-Reference.com because they generously listed his vitals as 6'1" and 212 pounds. There is ample visual evidence to dispute this:

There has to be a couple thousand cases of beer in that gut:
Here are a few quick fun facts about Bob:
- His pants were once for sale on eBay.
- He broke in with the NY Yankees and actually went 14-4 as a starter in his second year in the bigs.
- He is the all-time saves leader in the history of the Cleveland Indians franchise.
- Mariano Riveria once earned a save on a Wickman victory.
- Chuck Norris isn't the only one with facts, Bob has some too.
- You can get all the latest Wickman news at the Wickman's Warriors web site.
And we'll close with a few video clips on the big man in action. When Bob is about to enter a game, you should be ready for a good time - as the theme music tells us:
And here is Wick signing some autographs:
Breaking: Curtis Brinkley Shot
Here are a few news links as details on the story are still emerging:
- Syracuse.com - Former Syracuse University running back Curtis Brinkley is shot.
- Philly.com - NFL Player Shot in Montco.
- The ABC TV affiliate in Philly says the injuries are not life threatening - Former Phila h.s. football star shot.
For more information, watch the usual news sources like Syracuse.com. I'm sure Sean will be all over this today at nunesmagician as well.
In additon, the Axeman and Matt McClusky are both posting links and updates on their Twitter pages. Give them a follow:
Axe on Twitter - @AxemanBlog
Matt McClusky - @McsSportsFix
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Ebay Item of the Week: Those are some big pants to fill

Are you man enough to fill the pants of Orange center Arinze Onuaku? This week's Ebay Item of the Week gives you that opportunity.
Welcome Back Manny, Now Sit Down
Courtesy of Fan Dome, here is the video of Manny getting himself tossed. The snazzy music is free of charge.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Times are Tough for Nationals Fans
They are so bad they are actually one of the top drawing road teams in the majors - because fans of the opposing team are almost guaranteed to see a victory if the Nationals are in town. As you can imagine, things are a bit rougher at home, where on an average only about 23,000 hearty souls show up to watch the home team roll over and play dead.
Of course, that's a minor miracle considering this may be their actual theme song (I'm not 100 percent sure it is their theme song, but it's bad enough to believe that it is).
Things are so bad that a Nats fan was actually poked fun at on one of my favorite web sites - Don't Even Reply. The site consists of one man replying to want ads posted on-line and pranking the people who placed the ads. Hilarity ensues. It is seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Fair warning to the faint of heart and those at work - the site contains a ton of foul language, so if that's something that could cause a problem, you've been warned.
A couple of weeks ago a Nationals Fan posted an add looking for tickets to their game against the Red Sox, and let's just say things didn't go well. Check it out for yourself.
The good news for Nationals fans, Greg Robinson isn't your coach and the All-Star break is just around the corner - you can't lose if you don't play.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Politicians to Save College Football Post Season
Sunday, July 5, 2009
An Unexpected Trip to Yankee Stadium

Allow me to share my experience with you.
The day started just fine, we were rolling down 87 South making small talk in my fuel-efficient Jeep Cherokee when I realized something was horribly wrong. With the game set for a 1:05 start, that would mean one thing - I'd miss the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.
Now I love the hot dog eating contest like David Duchovny loves free porn and I immediately became distraught. A quick phone call to the girlfriend at least ensured she'd DVR the event for me. With my mind at relative ease, our trip continued uneventfully, although I was pretty sure there would be no way I'd be able to avoid learning who won the mustard belt before I could watch it for myself.
Once the vehicle was parked we were off on a mission to buy overpriced souvenirs for Greg's wife and son so he could make up for abandoning them so we could drink beer and watch baseball. Being men, this took 2 minutes, which meant we had time to duck into Stan's to slam a few cold ones before the game started.
Before we continue, I've been in Stan's many times but just went on their web site for the first time and let me just say I'm shocked. The site is about 100 times nicer than the actual bar and due to my line of work, I'm familiar with how much it costs to develop a web site. Let's just say Stan's sunk some money into a web presence. I'm flabbergasted.
This is where the story takes a turn for the good - being a great American bar, Stan's has the hot dog eating contest on. With beer in hand, we settle in to watch Joey Chestnut set records and keep the mustard belt in the USA. Greg got the whole bar involved by starting the U-S-A chant with 2 minutes to go. God bless this country.

After Joey's inspiring victory, we were fired up to check out the new stadium. For anyone that's been, or anyone that's interested in this type of thing, I'm not about to break any new ground here, but the new place is really nice. Like most of the new parks being built these days, you can see the field from most of the concourse areas, which is great when you're paying for $9 Coors Lights and $6 Nathan's hot dogs (actual prices). A fun fact, if Joey Chestnut had to buy every hot dog he ate at the contest at Yankee Stadium, it would have cost him $408.
So, we get to our seats and low and behold, they are really, really good. In fact, you know you have good seats when you see this on the seat in front of you:

Everyone's favorite - Alex Rodriguez - I really don't like the red hats.

Robinson Cano had another tough day:

Jeter, looking bored. You would be too if the person to your right constantly talks in cliches and leads the league in blank stares.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Fat Guy Friday
He is one of one 17 players in Major League history to pitch a perfect game, which he did after partying hard the night before.
Boomer's legendary partying and disdain for exercise has inspired others to use career to develop lifestyle regimes.
Since retiring, Wells has taken up poker, here he is talking about the difference between poker and baseball.
David Wells LA Dodgers Poker Interview - cardplayertube.com
by tweedenleann
In this clip Wells totally rocks the open shirt, gold chain and admits that he didn't read his own book.
Some interesting facts about Wells include:
- He was almost involved in a trade for Mariano Riveria back in 1995.
- He passed on Jose Canseco's offer to get him HGH
- The Babe Ruth cap he supposedly tried to wear during a game in 1997 is for sale
If you can't get enough Wells, tune in to TBS on Sunday, he'll be on the broadcast team that announces the American League All Star selections at noon.
Happy Birthday U.S.A.
1. For the "Real Americans" out there:
2. All American "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan has few words for Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji:
3. Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher makes an appearance on Piper's Pit:
4. Lex Lugar makes us proud on the July 4th:
5. Iraqi defector Bill Cowher faces Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania:
