A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
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Please forgive my tardiness in getting the latest episode of the MLB Trivia Challenge Podcast (sponsored by the buyer ready experts at Generational Equity) posted. Scheduling dictated that we could not record until Thursday, and I only would have delayed if I really thought it was worth it.
And it was. Because this week’s guest is well worth the wait: sports blog patron saint, movie reviewer extraordinaire, and die-hard Cardinals fan Will Leitch.
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Stephen Strasburg is making his way back from Tommy John surgery, and this profile about the hyped young pitcher, written by Peter Gammons, makes it sound things are going quite well.
Ever-impressive Strasburg making his way back — Peter Gammons
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Are the big losses that NBA owners are using as a justification for (in all likelihood) locking out their players nothing more than an illusion? Tommy Craggs examines the New Jersey Nets’ financial data from June 2003 through June 2006 and shows how NBA teams play with numbers to make their fiscal circumstances appear more dire than they actually are.
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While plenty of people close to the NFL feel optimistic that players and owners will work out a deal soon, the lockout continues. The possibility remains that negotiations between the two sides will carry on for months, eliminating training camp and
The good news is that, regardless of what happens in the NFL, there will be professional football this September. Actually there will be professional football this weekend.
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Remember Dominique Dawes? She stole the hearts of Americans and the world during the 1996 Summer Olympics by winning a gold medal and by looking just so damn cute doing it.
Seriously, who didn’t think Dominique Dawes was adorable?
Anyway, she came through a great tweet this morning (h/t/ @ryanstephens), and it definitely deserves Today’s Best recognition.
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There are some good ones out there, but this one truly may be the best:
GIF source: Photobucket via Reddit
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Last night, Dwight Howard tweeted out another planking picture, and for the first time this silly phenomenon actually made some sense to me.
Why? In this case, it all has to do with the person doing the alleged planking.
It’s Vince Carter.
“Planking” on a basketball court.
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I love the New York Mets.
In fact, I am watching the Mets bash the Detroit Tigers right now…and it is making me sick.
The Mets broke my heart in 2007. They stomped it so bad, I haven’t watched baseball the same way since.
A year prior, Carlos Beltran watched a bending Adam Wainwright curveball nestle into Yadier Molina’s glove and that was that – the Cardinals won the World Series two weeks later and the Mets have spiraled back into a national joke. The epic September collapse, then another collapse, then two seasons of bottoming out in embarrassing fashion.
It has been an ugly few years to be a Mets fan. Maybe not as bad as being a Royals or Pirates fan, but bad nonetheless.
So I made a promise to myself: I would stop caring so much about the Mets, for the sake of my own mental health.
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Earlier this week I knocked out the first half of the newly expanded Pac-12, and the six teams below will complete my first look at all of the major conference teams. Have no fear ”mid-major” fans, I am compiling a list of other top teams to profile prior to the 2011-12 season.
As I mentioned in Volume I, there is a fairly wide gap between the top four teams in the Pac-12 and the rest of the league. Arizona and Cal, who I profiled last time, are half of that upper echelon. The other two are revealed below along with who I believe will finish in the Pac-12 basement.
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Earlier this month Goshen College in Indiana made the controversial decision to stop playing the “Star Spangled Banner” before sporting events, saying that the practice was inconsistent with the school’s Mennonite heritage. (The school had only been playing the national anthem before athletic competitions for one year.)
Mennonite pastor and Goshen alum Mark Schloneger explains at CNN’s Belief Blog explains his church’s perspective on the national anthem.
“My Faith: Why I don’t sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ “—CNN Belief Blog
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Editor’s Note: Over the last week, MSF writers have been presenting their personal lists of the top 20 NBA players of all-time. Jon Washburn presented his very controversial list yesterday, and we also compiled everyone’s votes into one aggregate list a few days ago.
In this post, Kevin Luljak provides his list and backs up each pick with statistics. He definitely goes out on a limb that no one else did with some of his later choices.
Picking the top 20 players ever to play in the NBA is all a matter of opinion. It’s a topic that could be brought up after each season and a person would change their mind each year.
The measure of who the greatest is is also a debate that would change. Being a casual observer of the NBA since the late 80’s, I know what a great player consists of. Sure, the statistics are important, but it’s the overall importance to a team that measures a truly great player.
So, it’s with that in which I will rate the top 20 players of all time, in my opinion.
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ESPN’s NFL bloggers, probably inspired by MSF’s composite ranking of the top 20 NBA players of all time, voted on the top 10 players in the NFL today. (Actually there are 11 players in the top 10 because Michael Vick and Andre Johnson tied for 10th.) Tom Brady is first, with 6 of 8 first-place votes, followed by Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers. 7 of the top 11 are quarterbacks. (Roethlisberger is #7; Philip Rivers is #9.) Troy Polamalu (#5), Adrian Peterson (#6), and Chris Johnson (#8) round out the list.
“Power Rankings: Top 10 NFL Players”—ESPN.com
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Apparently corked bats and juiced balls don’t help quite as much as they’re reputation purports that they do. The vaunted humidor, however, does have a significant impact.
The Physics of Cheating in Baseball — SmithsonianMag.com
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He now has a remarkable 32-inning scoreless streak. Also, he has five wins during the month of June; the Florida Marlins have three.
Yeah, Cliff Lee is good at baseball.
Lee hurls gem in third straight shutout — Phillies.com
