Focused Rambling

Huge Upset at the Derby

Mine that Bird, a 50 to 1 longshot, won the Kentucky Derby today . That's a big payday for some, but mostly means a lot of people lost a ton on almost every other horse that was actually expected to win... unless you read Phil Simms article in the Online Wire Monday . Simms was amazed that Mine that Bird was such a huge underdog, and made a good enough case that his readers should have benefitted from his expertise. Of course, at this point, they're probably just happy that they didn't have to destroy a horse after this years race, like Eight Bells tragic end last year .

Lakers Fans "We Want Tacos" chant... Sign of the economic times?

Yesterday's Lakers-Jazz Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs was not as close as the final score ended up , but that was not the most interesting story of the game. After the Lakers began their title run by dominating Utah throughout the game, they led 113-98 with very little time left in the game. Lakers fans get free tacos if the Lakers hold their opponent under 100 points... so the crowd started chanting "We Want Tacos" through the last minutes of the game. And when the Lakers turned the ball over and Deron Williams hit a driving layup to get to 100 points, there were some audible boos and groans from the crowd. First of all, you'd think the crowd would be cheering their team's great performance in the game instead of rooting for some 50 cent tacos. Second, if these people can afford tickets to an LA Lakers playoff game, they have to be able to shell out a buck or two for tacos afterwards. So this is your next true sign of the state of the economy, when fans that pay gobs to watch sporting events then can't afford to feed themselves...Watch the scene below

Ouch, Greivis Vasquez learns that silence is golden...

Maryland's star basketball player Greivis Vasquez ran his mouth , but his team couldn't back it up... I'm betting GV's teammates wish he had consulted with them before declaring that Memphis couldn't have had a winning record in the ACC (obviously forgetting that his own team didn't have a winning record in the ACC, 7-9). Man, don't talk the smack if you don't have the smack-backers, son.

Ping Pong Dancin' Machine...

Watching this, you're left to wonder just how bad a sport this guy really is... until you see the score at the end. Only in Ping Pong would his opponent not have knocked the living crap out of him for this. Nice dancing, though...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Old guys want to hoop too...

Ken Mink just wanted to play some College basketball... but the 73-year-old is going to cost his team a game because he failed a Spanish class. Nice recruiting job, maybe next time you should screen your older pick-ups for fluency and such.

Greatest football trick ever?

Somebody get me a rule book, how the heck is this legal?

Ollie over the car bomb...

It's not the first thing I would have thought of, but evidently skateboarding is popular with Afghan youth . Oliver Percovich has raised money and supplies to build a skate park, called Skateistan there... The article is also interesting for it's description of the future of young girls in Afghanistan. Young girls in this story are enjoying the sport before they reach puberty and must wear a veil. Also, there is a young girl in the story that quietly states that it is her brothers' "right" to beat her for skating.
Perhaps the next thing to export to Afghanistan is the World Poker Tour... a burqa, above all else, would probably provide a heck of a poker face. But it's really not funny that women have to dress like this to ensure that men can control themselves.

VCU wins, but Larry Sanders gets dunked on...

I went to the George Mason/VCU game this weekend, which VCU pulled out in the end 76-71 to stay tied with Northeastern atop the CAA... but the play of the night was this dunk by Cam Long over Larry Sanders. Earlier in the game, Long had gone up for a rebound, and both my dad and I commented that his head was above the rim. Then came this sick throw-down...

Mason Dunks on VCU from Jamie Mottram on Vimeo.

Start a new streak...

The New Jersey Institute of Technology ended its 51 game losing streak tonight against Bryant. NJIT had not won since they defeated Longwood (right here in Virginia) back in 2007. I guess it doesn't really matter that Bryant has only won 3 games all season... give it up to NJIT just for showing up the last 2 1/2 seasons...

Finally, a hockey conspiracy theory... and it involves "sloppy seconds"!

Hey, hockey sucks, don't get me wrong. But indulge me for a minute... because Hockey is trying to manipulate US perceptions through media strangulation! Conspiracy is afoot... please tell me conspiracy's afoot, and not that we've become this sensitive to words. There's this guy, Sean Avery that is the quintessential overblown prima donna. He's done several ridiculous, and to me, completely boring things, including calling a guy boring. He's also well known for standing in front of a goalie and waving his hands so that the guy couldn't see to stop pucks, forcing a rule change. But that's not why I'm posting this... Avery recently made some pretty lame and irrelevant comments about some other hockey schmo that's dating his ex. Again, yawnnnnn, who cares? But then I noticed this... Articles written about his comments change what was said by paraphrasing. He said that guy's were falling in love with his "sloppy seconds", but everyone is paraphrasing with (former girlfriends). Look at this story , and this one , or this one , that discuss Avery's recent comments. Almost all other attempts to find this link back to the AP story by Jaime Aron that is linked first. I only found one news article that included the unvarnished truth: and it was from Canada !! The Canadians think that there citizens can handle the term "sloppy seconds", but we must be protected from it lest it soil our tender ears!!! Hilarious, ridiculous, meaningless, it's HOCKEY... Oh, and here's the video of Avery saying it... it doesn't look at all like he rehearsed this in front of a mirror for 20 minutes before walking over and asking if there was a camera nearby.