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February 23, 2006
March Madness comes early for local teams
The regular-season conference championships won last week by the the Aquinas and Calvin men's teams, and the Aquinas and Hope women's squads, were considered major accomplishments.
This week those achievements won't even make the four favorites in their respective Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournaments.
That includes Hope, which is 24-1 overall, ranked fourth on the latest NCAA Division III coaches poll, and rolled through the MIAA regular season with a 16-0 mark.
"Obviously, everyone around this area wants to point toward a Calvin-Hope showdown in Saturday's championship game, but I think there's five teams that can win our tournament," said Hope coach Brian Morehouse. "And we've stumbled as a favorite the last two years, which cost us a chance to go to the (Division III) tournament, so we have a monkey on our back because of that."
The Calvin women (21-3) are 14th in Division III. The Knights lost just twice in conference competition, as both setbacks came against Hope.
According to both Morehouse and Calvin coach John Ross, it's imperative to win the league tournament crown to get an automatic bid to the Division III tournament, rather than hope for an at-large berth.
No guarantees
"We can't rely on anyone but ourselves to make sure we get back to the national tournament," said Ross, whose Knights upset favored Albion College in last season's league title game, then reached the Elite Eight in the national tournament.
That is especially true with the WHAC tournaments.
Over the years, the WHAC men traditionally have had their league tournament champion and one or two at-large teams head to the NAIA II tourney.
Posted by admin at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2006
Disappointed Gretzky says team must step up!
TURIN — If it works once, work it again. But will it work again?
Wayne Gretzky went back to the well yesterday, serving himself up to the Canadian media to take the focus off his hockey team like he did when Team Canada was in trouble early at Salt Lake 2002.
Gretzky watched practice from the bench with his son and then, with an assist from assistant coach Ken Hitchcock, went to work trying to talk Team Canada’s way out of its Olympic crisis.
Only four of Canada’s players were sent out to deal with double defeats, back-to-back 2-0 shutouts to Switzerland and Finland.
But unlike when he did it four years ago in Salt Lake City, where Gretzky forced the focus elsewhere to take the pressure off his players, he may have managed to do the opposite this time, effectively adding more pressure, particularly on his young players whom he identified as being the problem.
The Team Canada executive director, who picked the players, told the young ones to pick it up, then aimed his comments at the entire team. He said this should be one of the greatest experiences they’ll ever have, not an excruciating, horrifying, panic-attack-producing nightmare.
“This should be the greatest week of their lives,” Gretzky said. “Just enjoy this. When you’re not enjoying the game and having fun, it’s hard to make a five-foot pass.
“We need to raise the intensity level, raise the energy level and raise the enjoyment level. We need to get our guys re-energized and refocused.’’
Gretzky said Canada has to carry more pressure from home than any other country, and more this year than four years ago when our nation won its first Olympic gold in 50 years.
“I thought in 2002 the Olympics were huge, but this year it even seems to be more enormous,’’ he said.
The pressure is turning his team into 23 Jeremy Wotherspoons. “You can feel it in the locker-room and see it in their eyes. We need to loosen the hockey club and have some fun out there.’’
Gretzky admitted this is not the way you want this to work. The plan is to get better every game. That clearly has not been the case for Canada in this tournament as they head into today’s final round-robin game against the Czech Republic and into the quarter-final sudden-death crossover game, which follows the next day.
“The success of the Canadian teams has always been to start slow and get stronger,’’ Gretzky said.
“We got thrown for a bit of a curve,’’ he said of playing well enough for openers against Italy and Germany before losing one of those run-into-a-hot-goalie games against Switzerland.
“What became alarming was not the outcome of the game against Finland but the whole (aspect) of the game. Our emotional level was not at the level of the Finnish hockey club. They were better than us in the first period. They just dominated us. That’s what becomes alarming. We weren’t ready to play that hockey game at the start of it.’’
Gretzky said “I’m shocked,’’ then downgraded it to “disappointed’’ when his team “didn’t play with more urgency’’ in the game against Finland.
“We just have the sense that our team is too tight. The Finns looked just like they were enjoying the game and playing hard. That’s what we have to do.’’
Hitchcock said it’s a case of “a lot of young new players to the Olympics learning an on-the-job lesson. It’s a whole new level of intensity and tenacity they’ve never experienced before.’’
The key as they head to the crossover quarter-final, which could send them home early and, considering they’re Canada, in disgrace, is to prevent pure panic at this point.
“I think there’s a sense of desperation, a sense of realization that a lot of our players have never seen these players play like this in North America. When they play for their own country with their flag on their sweater, in the Olympics, we’re learning the lesson that they take it to a whole other level.’’
Hitchcock said there is panic.
“It’s in trying to catch up to the emotional level. We learned those lessons early in 2002. Our wake-up call came against Sweden in the first game. Here we caught our lesson a little bit late.’’
But did they catch it? Will there be a ‘Gretzky Effect’ from this day like there was in Salt Lake? Or is this a home-of-hockey horror story to be continued?
Posted by admin at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)
2006 Nextel Cup Schedule
02/12/06 Budweiser Shootout Daytona International Speedway TNT/4 p.m.
02/16/06 Gatorade Duel 1 Daytona International Speedway TNT/2 p.m.
02/16/06 Gatorade Duel 2 Daytona International Speedway TNT/-- MRN/--
02/19/06 Daytona 500 Daytona International Speedway NBC/1:30 p.m.
02/26/06 Auto Club 500 California Speedway FOX/3:30 p.m.
03/12/06 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway FOX/4 p.m.
03/19/06 Golden Corral 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway FOX/1 p.m.
03/26/06 Food City 500 Bristol Motor Speedway FOX/1:30 p.m.
04/02/06 Virginia 500 Martinsville Speedway FOX/1:30 p.m.
04/09/06 Samsung/RadioShack 500 Texas Motor Speedway FOX/1:30 p.m.
04/22/06 Subway Fresh 500 Phoenix International Raceway FOX/8 p.m.
04/30/06 Aaron's 499 Talladega Superspeedway FOX/1:30 p.m.
05/06/06 TBA Richmond International Raceway FX/7 p.m.
05/13/06 Dodge Charger 500 Darlington Raceway FOX/6:30 p.m.
05/20/06 NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge Lowe's Motor 7 p.m.
05/28/06 Coca-Cola 600 Lowe's Motor Speedway FOX/5 p.m.
06/04/06 MBNA 400 Dover International Speedway FX/1:30 p.m.
06/11/06 Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway FOX/1:30 p.m.
06/18/06 3M Performance 400 Michigan International Speedway FOX/1 p.m.
06/25/06 Dodge/Save Mart 350 Infineon Raceway FOX/3 p.m.
07/01/06 Pepsi 400 Daytona International Speedway FOX/7:30 p.m.
07/09/06 USG Sheetrock 400 Chicagoland Speedway TNT/3 p.m.
07/16/06 New England 300 New Hampshire International Speedway TNT/1:30 p.m.
07/23/06 Pennsylvania 500 Pocono Raceway TNT/1:30 p.m.
08/06/06 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Indianapolis Motor Speedway NBC/2 p.m.
08/13/06 TBA Watkins Glen International NBC/1 p.m.
08/20/06 GFS Marketplace 400 Michigan International Speedway TNT/2 p.m.
08/26/06 Sharpie 500 Bristol Motor Speedway TNT/7 p.m.
09/03/06 Sony HD 500 California Speedway NBC/7 p.m.
09/09/06 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Richmond International Raceway TNT/7 p.m.
09/17/06 Sylvania 300 New Hampshire International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m.
09/24/06 Dover 400 Dover International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m.
10/01/06 Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods Kansas Speedway NBC/1:30 p.m.
10/08/06 UAW-Ford 500 Talladega Superspeedway NBC/1:30 p.m.
10/14/06 Bank of America 500 Lowe's Motor Speedway NBC/7 p.m.
10/22/06 Subway 500 Martinsville Speedway NBC/12:30 p.m.
10/29/06 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway NBC/2:30 p.m.
11/05/06 Dickies 500 Texas Motor Speedway NBC/2:30 p.m.
11/12/06 Checker Auto Parts 500 Phoenix International Raceway NBC/3 p.m.
11/19/06 Ford 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway NBC/2 p.m. MRN/--
Posted by admin at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2006
Daytona 500
1. J. Johnson Chevrolet
2. C. Mears Dodge
3. R. Newman Dodge
4. E. Sadler Ford
5. T. Stewart Chevrolet
To all the haters, 48 winsCheater or champion? Such is the stigma that Jimmie Johnson has to bear after winning his first Daytona 500 just 10 days after his crew chief was kicked out for illegally altering his car.
Johnson won a two-lap shootout Sunday to claim the victory, capping a roller-coaster week that saw NASCAR kick his crew chief out of competition for cheating.
Johnson stayed calm and avoided trouble in a wild race that saw Tony Stewart eliminate three contenders: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and himself. Then Johnson worked his way to the front, staying in line and waiting for his chance to pounce.
It came with 14 laps to go when he squeezed past teammate Brian Vickers to grab the lead just as a caution came out. Johnson was at the front of the field on the restart, the lead driver in a single-file pack of cars sprinting toward the end.
Lap 203: Checkered Flag/Yellow Flag: Jimmie Johnson as the caution flies for a last-lap crash
Lap 201: Green Flag: Jimmie Johnson leads
Lap 200: Preparing for a green-white-checkered finish
Lap 197: Caution: Jamie McMurray is pushed up by Jeff Burton. McMurray then hits the wall
Lap 195: Kyle Busch black-flagged for aggressive driving
Lap 190: Green flag: Jimmie Johnson leads
Lap 189: Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Jeff Burton to pit road
Lap 187: Caution: Jamie McMurray gets into Kurt Busch, putting Busch into wall. Just before the caution, Jimmie Johnson takes the lead from teammate Brian Vickers
Lap 180: Green flag -- Brian Vickers leads
Lap 178: Pit stops. Jamie McMurray overshoots his pit. Brian Vickers wins the race off of pit road after a no-tire stop. Mike Wallace also took no tires.
Lap 176: Caution: Travis Kvapil hits the wall. Matt Kenseth is the Lucky Dog
Lap 167: Penske is 1-2, as Kurt Busch moves to second
Lap 163: Ryan Newman takes the lead
Lap 159: Green Flag: Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads
Lap 156: Leaders to pit road. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the race off of pit road. Michael Waltrip penalized for too fast exiting and Jimmie Johnson goes into the grass to avoid contact with Ryan Newman
Lap 155: Caution: Debris on frontstretch
Lap 144: Brian Vickers takes the lead
Lap 141: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead back from Mark Martin
Lap 130: Jeff Gordon is 23rd, Tony Stewart is 27th after his penalty
Lap 129: Green Flag: Mark Martin, with a two-tire stop, leads.
Lap 128: Tony Stewart penalized for running over equipment in his pit stall. Stewart will go to the tail end of the longest line.
Lap 125: Field to pit road. Mark Martin comes off first with Dale Earnhardt Jr. second. Bill Elliott stayed out and takes the lead.
Lap 124: Caution: Robby Gordon loses a tire and hits the wall
Lap 122: Jimmie Johnson takes the race lead from teammate Kyle Busch
Lap 117: Matt Kenseth will not be scored for one lap for not answering the black flag
Lap 116: Kyle Busch takes the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Lap 114: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead back as Matt Kenseth serves his pass-through penalty
Lap 113: Greg Biffle takes the lead
Lap 112: Green flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads
Lap 111: NASCAR race control black flags the Kenseth team for tapping Tony Stewart
Lap 110: NASCAR sends Tony Stewart to the end of the longest line for aggressive driving
Lap 108: Field to pit road. Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the race off. Greg Biffle gains 16 spots after a two-tire stop.
Lap 107: Caution: Matt Kenseth hits the wall and says, "The 20 hit me."
Lap 104: Mark Martin shoots into the lead
Lap 100: At halfway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads and all 43 cars are still in the race.
Lap 96: Green Flag: Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads.
Lap 93: Field to pit road -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the race off and takes the lead.
Lap 91: Caution: Debris on the backstretch. Joe Nemechek is the Lucky Dog
Lap 89: Matt Kenseth gets a push from former teammate Kurt Busch and takes the lead.
Lap 87: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead.
Lap 86: J.J. Yeley treated and released from the infield care center.
Lap 85: Kevin Harvick takes the lead from Matt Kenseth
Lap 85: Green flag. Matt Kenseth leads
Lap 84: Kurt Busch pits and Matt Kenseth assumes the lead
Lap 82: Field to pit road -- Kurt Busch leads after pit stops. Meanwhile, Jeff Gordon ran over a piece of debris from the earlier wreck and was forced to pit a second time for repairs.
Lap 80: Caution: Not really the big one, but more like a medium one -- Carl Edwards, Kyle Petty, J. J. Yeley, Jeff Green and Joe Nemechek are collected on the backstretch.
Lap 73: Jamie McMurray, since restarting 38th, is back up to ninth
Lap 58: With drafting help from a bunch of cars, Matt Kenseth takes the lead
Lap 52: Green Flag: Ryan Newman leads. McMurray to 38th after his car fell off the jack.
Lap 50: Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon both stay on pit road to repair damage
Lap 49: Field to pit road. Ryan Newman wins race off of pit road.
Lap 49: Caution: Jeff Gordon slides into Tony Stewart after Jamie McMurray took the lead. Both Stewart and Gordon have damage
Lap 48: Jamie McMurray takes the lead from Jeff Gordon, who then gets tangled with Tony Stewart
Lap 42: Jeremy Mayfield back to pit road, now five laps down
Lap 40: Tony Stewart continues to lead with Jamie McMurray second
Lap 38: Jeremy Mayfield back to pit road after a tire goes down thanks to a fender rub.
Lap 34: Jeremy Mayfield heads to pit road after contact
Lap 28: Tony Stewart comes back strong and takes the lead. Jamie McMurray is second.
Lap 27: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes lead as Tony Stewart bobbles in second and falls to third.
Lap 25: Matt Kenseth passes Jeff Gordon for lead. Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets behind Kenseth and moves up to second.
Lap 24: Jeff Gordon takes lead; Sadler to fourth
Lap 23: Dale Jr. gets freight-trained. Now off of lead pack
Lap 21: Green Flag: Elliott Sadler leads
Lap 20: Dale Jarrett, Kirk Shelmerdine penalized for too fast off of pit road
Lap 19: Biffle pits, giving lead to Elliott Sadler
Lap 18: The field hits pit road. Elliott Sadler wins the race off pit road. Greg Biffle, who stayed out, takes the lead
Lap 17: Caution: Martin Truex Jr. brushes wall
Lap 14: Jeff Gordon back to second place as Jeff Burton keeps the lead
Lap 9: Kevin Harvick has gone from 26th to 10th. Meanwhile, Kyle Petty has gone from 10th to 27th.
Lap 3: Jeff Green is back on the racetrack
Lap 2: Jeff Burton gets the first five bonus points of the season.
Lap 1: Jeff Green loses a tire and heads to pit road. No caution.
2:45 p.m. -- Green flag: Jeff Burton leads.
2:42 p.m. -- Kevin Harvick heads to pit road to get a bag taken off of his roof-cam.
2:30 p.m. -- James Caan -- looking a lot like Dennis Hopper -- gives the command to start engines.
2:21 p.m. -- Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas sings the national anthem. Not one person in our office had ever heard of her.
2:20 p.m. -- Jack Roush apparently told Carl Edwards that Edwards was "one of his dumbest and bravest drivers."
2:07 p.m. -- Bon Jovi takes the stage, as Jon Bon Jovi shamlessly wears a Philly Soul t-shirt, plugging his Arena Football team.
1:55 p.m. -- Michael Waltrip again refuses to say the word "Dodge".
1:48 p.m. -- Mike Helton : "The best way to do this is for you to have respect for each other." Words to live by.
1:43 p.m. -- The first TV story about "The Big One" rears its ugly head.
1:37 p.m. -- Jeff Burton: "I think the end of this race could get pretty wild." Ya think?
1:36 p.m. -- Asked about why they didn't practice yesterday, Jeff Gordon tells Marty Snider, "I think today's weather proves why we didn't do it."
1:33 p.m. -- NBC is on the air. Bill Weber is waxing poetic again.
12:26 p.m. -- The weather is cold and cloudy at Daytona as the green flag is about two hours away.
Posted by admin at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
Show Time!
This Valentine’s Day, we wanted to give you the gift that keeps on giving—lingerie. Why? Because we love you, man!
Basic Black
(from left) Red and black satin bra, thong, and garter belt set by Agent Provocateur; boots by Petit Peton.
Red and black lace bra and thong by I.D. Sarrieri; shoes by Petit Peton.
Posted by admin at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2006
Superbowl ads
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SUPER BOWL XL MIRED IN CONTROVERSY
This year's Super Bowl is shaping up to be the most controversial since Janet's mammary made a surprise appearance during the halftime show two years ago. With NFL officials still reeling from the embarrassment of the blown interception call two weeks ago in Indy, a large shadow of doubt has been cast across the offices of Mike Pereira, NFL Director of Officiating.
Charges of favoritism and trying to orchestrate the "ultimate" Super Bowl by having the media darling Colts advance over the lunchbucket Steelers have been called "absurd" by league spokespeople. Other charges of referees having a vested interest in the game by placing wagers with offshore sportsbooks in Costa Rica were dropped due to a lack of evidence. Nonetheless, the whole incident has raised the hackles of league commissioner Paul Tagliabue who has vowed to uphold the integrity of his officials and promised fair and unbiased officiating at this year's main event.
Others are not convinced and say that this has become typical in recent years as the NFL tries to maximize viewership of the game by having 'marquee matchups' such as last year's Eagles vs. Patriots game.
An enraged Doug Krikorian, a columnist for Press Telegram was quoted as saying: "…the NFL officials, indisputably the most incompetent in professional sports, will flash the same awful form in the Super Bowl that they do during the regular season, too often making ridiculous calls that make sense to no one but themselves and their Park Avenue enablers in New York, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFL Director of Officiating Mike Pereira."
Pereira has acknowledged that Pete Morelli had made a mistake although no disciplinary action has been taken. Krikorian went on to say, "When you have a bunch of guys who have 9-to-5 jobs during the week and suddenly find themselves on weekends working important NFL games in front of 80,000 passionate folk, you're going to wind up with guys like Pete Morelli who freeze up in crisis moments.".
Not everyone is upset with the NFL's bumbling officials. A caller to a sports radio talk-show in New York expressed his opinion on the game this way. "I'm disappointed the Colts lost because I put a ton of money on them with my bookie. When Morelli made that call I could have kissed him, they should run that bum Vanderjagt out of town!"
Offshore sportsbooks like www.nine.com located in Costa Rica have posted the smallest pointspread on the Super Bowl contenders in recent memory, which has left many gamblers scratching their heads. Instead of looking at stats and matchups, many are focused on how the game is going to be called. If you want a sure winner this year you may only have to ask the ref's bookie which side he bet on.
Posted by admin at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2006
What if we had a Super Stanley Bowl Cup?
In the week leading up to the big game between the Red Wings and Senators, the radio reporter squeezes his microphone through the pack in the hotel ballroom. If he's fortunate, the station's call letters on the mike flag might show up on "SportsCenter," earning him praise from the program director. But that's just his secondary goal.
He smirks and asks Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios: "What's the stupidest question you've been asked this week?"
Chelios glares at the reporter. "That one," he says.
Nearby, a television reporter carefully positions himself to be in the shot with Detroit winger Brendan Shanahan, then grins and asks, "How're you holding up to the hype?"
Shanahan says, "As if you're not part of it?"
A couple of hours later, in another hotel in the Chicago Loop, a diminutive VJ from a music video channel asks Ottawa defenseman Zdeno Chara, "Wow, how tall are you, anyway?"
"It's in the media guide," snaps the 6-foot-9 Chara.
A minute later, undeterred, the VJ holds up a copy of the Senators' postseason media guide and smiling at the camera, says, "OK, I looked at the media guide. So now explain to me: What's the difference between Slovakia and Czechoslovakia, anyway?"
No, that didn't happen.
That didn't happen because, as in baseball and basketball, the NHL's championship is decided in a best-of-seven series that isn't as conducive for such silliness as Super Bowl week. Members of the media -- the term must be loosely applied, because that's the tack the NFL takes in issuing credentials -- spend most of the week leaning right into the punch. They are there for trivia, for overkill, for silly questions and for boondoggling that rivals a Congressional fact-finding junket to Bali. (Actually, the most ubiquitous question of the week is, "You got an extra ticket to the commissioner's party I can use?")
The media is too often there covering the coverage, rather than searching for significant angles on the game -- angles that don't necessarily have anything to do with blocking schemes or the zone blitz.
There are good stories to be told, and many of them are. Yet it requires both a willingness to wade through the silliness and, just to pick an example, to ask Seahawks defensive end Bryce Fisher what it was like to serve in the Air Force, rather than asking him what kinds of questions he has heard this week, or how often he expects the tight end to line up on his side. Of course, start that line of questioning, and someone from an all-sports station somewhere will sit down and cleverly ask Fisher, "So Bryce Fisher, which Carrie Fisher movie was the best: (a) 'Star Wars'; (b) 'The Man with One Red Shoe'; or (c) 'The Blues Brothers'?"
I've often wondered what it would be like if we had a similar phenomenon in the NHL, if the Stanley Cup was a one-and-out tournament -- now that's pressure -- with a one-week lead-in to the championship game at a preselected, neutral site.
Heck, it could even be held in a city without NHL hockey. Chicago, for example.
The folks at the William Morris Agency, which just signed on to help with NHL marketing, might even go along with this -- right after saying, "We gotta do lunch." They could even come up with revolutionary concepts, such as promoting the league's individual stars.
What might it be like?
• During the coach's interview session, a writer stands and asks Ottawa coach Bryan Murray: "At first, people said you should have stuck with being a GM ..."
Murray cuts him off.
"Who were 'people'?"
"Excuse me?" asks the flustered writer.
"You guys always ask questions about what 'people,' or, 'so-called experts,' or 'they' say. This is about the 300th time in the last three days someone has asked me a question like that. So for once, I'm asking you, who said I should stay a GM?"
"Well, I did," said the writer.
"That's what I thought," says Murray.
• Senators goalie Dominik Hasek is asked repeatedly about his days with the Red Wings, including the 2002 championship run. Finally, he says, "I think I was an important part of that."
Later in the day, reporters ask members of the Red Wings, "What do you think of Hasek saying he won the Cup single-handedly?"
• Along radio row in the media hotel, retired players and entertainment figures slide from talk show to talk show, ultimately getting around to actually talking about what might happen in the game.
Patrick Roy talks about the Quebec Remparts and major junior hockey. Mario Lemieux -- if the slots license hasn't yet been awarded and a sale hasn't gone through -- lobbies on the air for a new arena in Pittsburgh. Mark Messier discusses his night in Madison Square Garden and his future.
Michael J. Fox picks the Red Wings. Dave Coulier confesses that long before he was Nancy Kerrigan's partner on "Skating with Celebrities," he never could tell apart the Olsen twins while filming "Full House." The Barenaked Ladies, the easy choice to perform both national anthems, explain how they came up with the band's name. The members of ABBA, in addition to saying they like both Daniel Alfredsson and Nicklas Lidstrom, brag they're at least younger than Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones. They then defend increasing the break between the first and second periods to 45 minutes. Otherwise, they'd have to leave out "Waterloo."
• At the news conference unveiling of the latest NHL-endorsed video game, a 7-year-old plays a sportswriter in a simulated Red Wings-Senators matchup.
The kid's Red Wings team wins, 352-0.
The sportswriter walks away, still amazed that Gary Thorne and Bill Clement could sit down and tape seven billion hours of play-by-play.
• A Canadian tabloid reports that "a source says" the Senators and Wings "are talking about a future deal" that would send Patrick Eaves and Jason Spezza from Ottawa to Detroit for Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen. Of course, as the story details, it can't happen until the trading period reopens. It won't happen, period, but it's a fun dart to throw and causes a lot of discussion.
• At the "State of the Game" news conference the day before the game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman actually fields some probing questions and the atmosphere isn't similar to being granted an audience with royalty.
Sure, as is his usual practice, Bettman adroitly reworks the questions to enable him to give preprogrammed answers, but this is no NFL-style, slow-pitch softball game.
Finally, he loses his cool.
"Now having said that," he says, "how come you don't treat me like those football writers treat Tagliabue? He's a New York lawyer, too! Didn't you have fun at my party?"
Terry Frei is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He is the author of "Third Down and a War to Go" and "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming."
Posted by admin at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2006
Indians They Ain’t
Three blondes were walking in the forest one day. They saw a set of tracks and started arguing over what kind of tracks they were.
The first blonde said, "I think they’re deer tracks!"
The second blonde said, "I think they’re dog tracks!"
The third blonde said, "Well, I think they’re cow tracks!"
They were still arguing when the train hit them.
Posted by admin at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)
One for the thumb! Steelers win
MVP Ward scores on trick play in 21-10 victory as Bettis goes out in style
DETROIT - Paint this Super Bowl black and gold. With a whole lot of satisfaction for Jerome Bettis, Bill Cowher and his Pittsburgh Steelers.
The final Bus stop featured a little trickery starring MVP Hines Ward, a bunch of help from the Seattle Seahawks and a huge boost from the Terrible Towels, a handful of football fortune that added up to One for the Thumb.
The Steelers’ 21-10 victory in the Super Bowl on Sunday was their record-tying fifth, but the first since 1980 and the first ever for Bettis and Cowher.
“It’s been an incredible ride,” Bettis said.
Moments after the Rolling Stones rocked a Ford Field that could easily have been Heinz Field — or Hines’ field — Willie Parker broke a record 75-yard touchdown run. The Steelers earned that elusive ring and completed a magic Bus ride that made Bettis’ homecoming — and farewell — a success.
“I’m a champion. I think the Bus’ last stop is here in Detroit,” Bettis said. “It’s official, like the referee whistle.”
On this night, satisfaction was more than Mick Jagger’s signature song that closed the halftime show.
It was sweet validation for Cowher with a title in his 14th season as their coach, the longest tenure in the NFL. The tough guy, who lost his only previous Super Bowl 10 years ago to Dallas, teared up as he walked to midfield to embrace Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren.
“A lot of people tell you you can’t do it, but you know what, it doesn’t mean you don’t go out and try,” Cowher said. “History was not going to determine our fate. Our effort today decided this game and that’s what’s great.
“It’s surreal. I’m going to tell you, this is a special group of coaches, a special group of players. I was one small part of this.”
Posted by admin at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2006
Super showdown
Launch the slide show
Check out the best images from before, during and after Super Bowl XL.
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February 03, 2006
SawStop - The Wolrd's Safest Table Saw
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More info visite sawstop website
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