What the signing of Antti Niemi Means to the San Jose Sharks and the Western Conference

After some time, former Chicago Blackhawk goaltender Antti Niemi finally found a new home, and it’s San Jose.

It’s hard not to say that this deal will somehow affect the Blackhawks, now that they have a very good chance of competing against Niemi, given he wins the number one spot against Antero Niittymaki.

San Jose is, no doubt, trying to bolster their roster to make that deep run into the playoffs that always seems to just barely escape from their grasp. Very few teams look as good as the Sharks during the regular season. However, once postseason starts, they become an underachieving  mess.

So will Niemi be that piece that puts San Jose on track to beat other playoff favorites, such as Detroit and Chicago?

I wouldn’t get too excited.

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Fantasy Football Tip of the Day: Don’t be scared about Jamaal Charles

I’ve heard a lot of grumbling about whether or not Jamaal Charles is really a stud fantasy RB in 2010 because he now must compete with Thomas Jones for touches. Heck, I’ve even wondered about it myself.

This morning, I’m here to tell you to stop the grumbling.

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An Excruciating Rundown of The Worst Commercials on TV: Part 2

After the success I had with my first Excruciating Rundown of The Worst Commercials on TV, and considering the fact that companies are still airing horrible commercials, I have decided to do a part 2 of this series.

I was very surprised that it got so many hits. A few days after it was posted, I went to check how many views it had and my reaction was similar to Warren the Ape’s was when he saw Chauncey the Bear’s manhood.

I am now more experienced this time in the department of bad commercials, and I have done more research than in my last post.

I have also been listening to my readers comments and some of their requests. Oddly enough it seems like 60% of those comments were about how hot people thought Flo from Progressive was.

Lets just leave that as that.

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There is only one Cuban Missile…and it ain’t Aroldis (so let’s give him a new nickname!)

Aroldis Chapman is currently taking Major League Baseball by storm. We haven’t been treated to two debut innings this spectacular since…Stephen Strasburg’s first two innings against Pittsburgh earlier this year.

And though this may seem sacrilegious to say considering the Strasburg mania that has swept America, our initial glimpses of Chapman have somehow been more impressive than the man for whom Strasmas was eponymously named.

Still, no matter how dominant Aroldis Chapman may be, he is definitively not the Cuban Missile, as so many are claiming. That title belongs to White Sox SS Alexei Ramirez, and I hereby issue this blog post as a cease & desist to all of you disrepsectful, unoriginal, non-contributing zeroes (thanks Louis) who think it’s okay to take one man’s nickname and slap it onto another.

You disgust me.

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10 Marquee NFL Games to Watch this Season

With the NFL season quickly approaching, opening night is just over a week away, Noontime Sports has decided to list our 10 marquee matchups to watch this season.

And the first one should be pretty obvious, since it’s the one that kicks off the season and reprises one of last year’s most memorable games.

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The Collapse of Basketball (as we knew it…and loved it)

I remember it like it was yesterday – the first time I realized that life wasn’t always fair.

Reggie Miller had helped me experience the highs and lows of sports just a few months earlier. I remember him exploding in The Garden in the fourth quarter against the Knicks in the playoffs, and his 8 points in nine seconds is permanently ingrained in my mind.

Reggie was my hero, he embodied everything I loved about basketball, and he had turned me into a diehard sports fan.

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Infamous Elizabeth Lambert returns to action, but lack of controversy means few took notice

Quietly, University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert made her return to the pitch this past weekend with a brief 11-minute appearance in the Lobo’s 1-nil win over nationally ranked Marquette University.

In case you had forgotten (and Lambert no doubt wishes that everyone has), Liz was the player who gained internet notoriety and Ron Artest-like infamy with her actions during a Mountain West Conference semi-final playoff game last year, which was shown on the conference’s television network.

There’s no need to embed the video link to the highlights, it’s been too well chronicled. But here it is if you missed it.

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Aroldis Chapman and His Mind-Numbing Fastball Impressive in Debut

[Editor's note: this post was only allowed to be published after I picked up Aroldis Chapman in every one of my fantasy leagues.]

Turns out urban legends just might be true after all.

Bigfoot is very much alive and well. Area 51 indeed exists. Los Chupacabras is a threat to suck the blood out of your family pet in the middle of the night. Somebody can offer one a drink at the pub and next thing he knows he wakes up neck deep in ice in a bathtub with a note nearby that his kidney has been harvested.

And Aroldis Chapman really does throw well over 100 miles per hour…

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Hungry Hippos baby…it’s on!

If I were a student at the University of Texas, I would be making shirts that say this right now.

If I went to school in Tuscaloosa, I’d also probably be making shirts that say “Wow, I thought my second national championship ring was gonna get in the way on that one” with hang making a Hook ‘em sign.

Why? Because both are lines from a terrific new college football ad from ESPN featuring Alabama coach Nick Saban, Texas coach Mack Brown, and Chris Fowler. No, this isn’t “Follow me! Follow me to freedom!” funny, but it definitely made me chuckle.
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Congrats to MSF’s own Kurt Fraschetti…now USA Today’s “Fantasy Joe”

We interrupt your regularly scheduled fantasy chit-chat to honor one of MSF’s longest tenured featured writers.

You know him as Kurt Fraschetti, Senior Fantasy Football writer for MSF as well as the Managing Editor of Pro Football Insight…but now you can also call him Joe, as in Fantasy Joe.

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Wait, some Americans actually dislike football?

Believe it or not, absolutely yes.

Despite the incessant and often annoying summer hype from ESPN and other media that whets all our appetites, I know folks who truly find the game oversaturated and dull.

Below is what a friend emailed me a few days back. A lot of it makes sense when you think about it logically, without emotion (or alcohol or gambling):
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NFL Week 1 Picks, Point Spreads, TV Schedule, and Announcer Lineup

Unlike college football, which I commented earlier tonight snuck up on me, the kickoff of the NFL season will as always be a loooong time coming.

The difference, of course, is that college football doesn’t have a preseason nor fantasy football to suck up our attention during August. The NFL does, however, which makes it seem like we’ve been paying attention to the NFL for a long time without it really meaning anything.

Well next Thursday, when the Vikings and Saints reprise their titillating NFC Title Game from 2009, the games will start to mean something; and if you’re like me, it can’t come soon enough.

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NCAA College Football Week 1 TV Schedule and Point Spreads

Holy crap…did the college football season sneak up on anyone else?

I mean, I knew that Ohio State and Marshall were playing on Thursday because KVB posted his preview about it yesterday, but for some reason it hadn’t dawned on me yet that there was a full slate of games this weekend.

After getting a few emails from people clamoring for the TV schedule and spreads, I realized I needed to get my ass in gear and get this posted. So my apologies for the delay, but without any further ado here is the college football TV schedule and point spreads for Week 1.

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Don’t trade Calvin Johnson for Arian Foster (plus buy-low, sell-high advice)

Christmas came on August 30th for me this year. Well, fantasy football Christmas did anyway.

Last night, right before I was ready to call it an evening, I got an automated email from my fantasy league informing me of a trade proposal. Figuring it was one of the typically ridiculous trade proposals people send (Kyle Orton/Kellen Winslow for Ray Rice!) I begrudgingly clicked on it so I could hit delete and clear it from my inbox.

But then I saw it. And it was beautiful.

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Fantasy Football Deeper Sleeper: RB Rashad Jennings of Jacksonville

Your draft is complete, and like most everyone else you’re probably feeling pretty good about your team.  So it’s time to just sit back and wait for the regular season, right?

Wrong.

Do the names Miles Austin, Jamaal Charles, and Pierre Garcon mean anything to you?  All of these players were major fantasy contributors last year, and all were available in nearly every league before the season began.

Imagine if you could have identified these players before their value became obvious to everyone.  Here are three players who have the ability to have a huge impact this fantasy football season, and are most likely available on your waiver wire.

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