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.

Do I love this week's find?

"All signs point to yes!"

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

I went to the eye doctor's last night for a routine eye examine and the bastard doctor dialated my eyes as part of the examine. As a result, there was no blogging last night, the computer screen was so blurry you'd have thought I was partying with Artie Lange last night.

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.

Syracuse NBA Summer League Update

Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris made their NBA summer league debuts Sunday, playing for the Minnesota Timberwovles in the Las Vegas summer league. The T-wolves fell to the Houston Rocket team 79-65, with Flynn contributing 11 points and Harris adding 5 in an up and down debut.

According to reports Flynn started the game with three turnovers, but did settle down. According to Twitter, teammnate Kevin Love was impressed.

David Thorpe, who live "live tweeting" the games was also impressed with Flynn. The Timberwolves blog Canis Hoopus has a complete and detailed write up on the game as well, noting that Jonny's quickness and ability were balanced out by "sometimes putrid shot selection."

For players like Flynn who are guaranteed to be on the roster, summer league results don't really mean much and we should obviously take the results with a grain of salt, as Donte Greene scored 42 in summer league game last year, however for a marginal player like Harris, these games mean a lot. He's not only auditioning for the Timberwolves, but trying to show the rest of the league he had the ability to play at the highest level.

We will keep an eye on their progress and try to pass along updates - it's either that or write about the MLB All-Star game, and something tells me that's not going to happen.

Curtis Brinkley Update

According to this article in the Philadelphia papers, Curtis Brinkley will be OK. What that holds for his football future is unknown. Get well soon Curtis.

Philly.com - Shooting could delay Brinkley's football career

Fat Guy Friday

Fat professional athletes are wonderful. These are men (and in some cases women, but Fat Chick Friday doesn't sound as catchy) who have reached the pinnacle of their respective sports and done so in various stages of obesity.

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

Some sad news emerging from Philadelphia this morning, former SU running back and current San Diego Charger Curtis Brinkley was shot last night. The good news is that there are reports that the injuries are not life threatening. We wish Curtis and the Brinkley family well during this tough time.

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

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

The three plus games Manny Ramirez has played since returning from his suspension must have taken a toll on the poor little juicer, because after going 2-4 against the team formerly known as the Mets Tuesday night, he managed to get himself ejected.

Courtesy of Fan Dome, here is the video of Manny getting himself tossed. The snazzy music is free of charge.

Times are Tough for Nationals Fans

In news that will surprise no one, the Washington Nationals suck. We're not talking about struggling, we're talking about flat-out suckitude. They have the worst record in the majors with nine less wins than the second worst team, the Cleveland Indians.

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.

Politicians to Save College Football Post Season

The college football post-season is hopelessly broken. Big money special interests that run the bowl games and the conferences that are making millions off the BCS have prevented any kind of a playoff system from being put in place. All we fans get are flimsy, absurd excuses about how bad a playoff system would be. Supposedly it would cause student athletes to miss tests, it would be too taxing physically and blah, blah, blah.

None of these excuses apparently apply to student athletes in all the other subdivisions that actually participate in a playoff system and they certainly didn't matter a few years ago when the college football season was expanded to 12 games.

This thing has been so screwed up for so long, I haven't spent more than 2 minutes thinking about it in years. Much like the fact that you can only get the NFL Sunday ticket if you have a satellite dish, it's something that doesn't make sense for most fans, but it's likely not going to change. I'd rather concentrate my efforts on posting videos of fat athletes on Friday, that at least feels productive.

However, fear not oppressed college football fans - there's hope on the horizon and it's better than anything you could ever hope for. Our politicians are going to save us. Congress, backed by an 18 percent approval rating, is set to hold more hearings on the BCS system.

I'll be honest, until I saw Tim Stephens Twitter post tonight on Tuesday's Congressional hearings on the BCS, I had no idea these things were going on. If you're on Twitter, give Tim Stephens a follow, there's plenty of good stuff coming from him. Besides it doesn't take long to read 140 character posts - unless you're a defender of the BCS.

Stephens has an informative post up on everything you need to know about the hearings. It's a great read and will get you caught up to speed on the issue. Afterward you'll want to beat your head against a wall.

An Unexpected Trip to Yankee Stadium

So Friday my friend Greg calls and asks if I want to go to Yankee Stadium on the 4th of July because he had two free tickets fall into his lap. I have a rule -- any time I can celebrate America's birthday by watching the quintessential American baseball play a team from Canada while starting a guy from Taiwan and subsequently having a guy from Puerto Rico ultimately win the game, I always go. You can never pass that up.

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:

The day was beautiful and sunny, and since the game happend nearly 2 days ago now, there's no need for me to recap it for you. However I did take a few other shots for your viewing pleasure. You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos, I once again forgot my camera and had to rely on the camera phone on blackberry curve.

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.

I'd like to make one point on the Yankees since we don't discuss baseball much on this blog. Wang left the game with shoulder trouble and it looks like Phil Hughes will stay in the bullpen. I understand that Wang has been very good over the prior three years, but the fact of the matter is that this year he hasn't been right. Even when he's marginally effective he's only giving you 5 innings. It's time to get Hughes ready to be a starter again. No one wins a pennant based on how they played the year before.

So the moral of this post is - if someone offers you ridiculously good seats to a great stadium, take them. Especially when the Yankees win it in 12 innings.

Fat Guy Friday

Welcome to the pre-Fourth of July edition of Fat Guy Friday. This week's featured fat athlete is a long time favorite of the T3I - David Boomer Wells. Wells pitched for 10 major league teams over the course of his career and managed to last 20 years in the big leagues, being fat the whole time. Wells legendary shape and longevity are now used as proof that junk food makes you fast.

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.

Let's celebrate this the only way we know how. With the help of some 1980's pro wrestling superstars:

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: