Beard-A-Thon

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Addressing an Issue of Great Proportions

Sports for the most part are tough. The games are rough, and why shouldnt they be in competition? Like they say, no blood-no foul, no pain-no gain. It seems like in every sport, every player pretty much understands that they run the risk of injury. Pretty much all sports are physical to some degree for God's sake. NFL players understand that they could get their head knocked off potentially (especially if you are Dustin keller and are running across the middle against the Ravens...see video). BYW, Dustin Keller returns to his feet by his own power after the hit....and he didnt complain because hes a respectable professional athlete who understands its the nature of the game.



And what about hockey? These guys fight all the time and its part of the game. They lose their teeth and it isnt a big deal. Do any of them complain about getting hurt or fouled? Nope, not really, unless you are Sidney Crosby or Mario Lemieux.

Even basketball is rough and tough, with intentional fouls, face masks, and stitches on eyes because of hard fouls (take a look at Chris Paul right now for the New Orleans Hornets if you dont believe me)

But, there seems to be one major sport which continues to not understand yet that contact is part of sport and rough play will happen so suck it up. This sport is as you all probably could guess because its so obvious is soccer. The unbelievable amount of fake injuries and dives that soccer, its culture and its players have incorporated into the legitimate context of the game has made soccer laughable and quite frankly embarassing. Im sure you all have seen your fair share of these idiots flailing around on the ground holding their face or foot, when in fact nothing is wrong with them at all, they feel just great, all in the name of trying to cheat their way to a free kick. Pathetic. Dont get me wrong, its a great sport, it has just lost my respect greatly due to these actions that the players take.

Heres an entertaining yet aggravating look at these pansies who call themselves professional athletes.

BUCK

No, I'm not talking about venison burgers... June 25: Get out of the cellar and flock to The Yard for Buck Showalter bobble head night.

OPERATION PASS THE BUCK commences 25JUN11 2305Z.

Ignite

2011 Orioles - a haiku by Baltimore Bisk:

Fly out of the nest
Into cellar
Yankees
Hit homeruns
To the moon


We Didn't Start the Fire


"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33

Happy Easter!

"May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds."

I Will be Watching on Comcast

This commercial was aired yesterday during the Flyers/Sabres game on Versus. For you who have been watching any of the playoffs on Versus this season have seen these "history will be made" commercials. But up to this point they have all been past "great moments" in the history of the NHL. For those of you who do not know, this clip is from Sundays match (one day before the commercial), where the Rangers beat the Caps 3-2, and are currently losing the series 2 games to 1 to Washington.



WTF Versus?

Maybe I'm a little pissed because it was against the Caps, but I think in all fairness I have a point. Why would a TV station that is not suppose to have any bias make a commercial using footage for a game just played Sunday entitled "history will be made." They couldn't dig up anymore Lemieux or Crosby "greatest" moments of those two DBs hoisting the cup? They have to revert to Brandon Dubinsky, and that ridiculous molesteresk mustachio? That is the best playoff moment they could come up with so far this playoffs? Give me a break! It was game 3! the Rangers are still losing! It wasn't even an overtime goal!

I hope the Caps use this commercial as motivation to go out and pummel the Rangers. And would someone (Hendricks or Erskine) please slap that mustache off Dubinsky's smug face!

Game four @MSG, Wednesday 7pm, on Comcast. Be there!

The Draft

So the NFL draft is not too far away, I believe April 28th is the date. Becauae of the whole lock out thing, we havent heard too much about it. But it still is going to happen, although the singing of the players and other things will be different due to the lockout. Im not sure really what those differences are. But anyway the Ravens pick number 26. There has been speculation as to who they will take. The different names which have popped up are Muhammad Wilkserson, DL from Temple, Cameron Heyward DE from Ohio St., Torry Smith WR from UMD, Brandon Harris CB from Miami, Jimmy Smith CB Colorado, Tyron Smith OT from USC, and Akeem Ayers LB from UCLA.

Obviously these things are kind of dumb because who knows come draft day. I dont know what direction the Ravens should go honestly. We need pash rush so a D lineman would be good, but what if Sergio Kindle is cleared to play? We clearly need a CB so maybe thats the best choice, but we also want a WR to grow up with Joe. Also, Ray wont be here too much longer so we need a LB.

Either way, Ozzie and company usually just take the best player available. My feeling is that since there are a lot of very good defensive lineman that one of those guys will be the best available player so we will take a defensive lineman.

Orioles play tonight against the struggling Twins at 7. I think baseball is baseball and patience is key. The O's will turn it around. Tillman is on the mound tonight, hopefully he can have command and really pound the strike zone.

Pitch f/x

Head over to Cubs f/x to see some cool visualizations of the Cubbies upcoming pitching match-ups. Using Pitch f/x data obtained from the MLB servers, this guy is putting together some pretty cool graphics. Check out his entry on Jason Hammel here. It's pretty cool that an Average Joe, can now put together those fancy graphics you see on ESPN.