Okay, guys and gals! Only 42 days! Jump on it... or be left out!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Snicky du Jour: Super Bowl Webb
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Night The Lights Went Out In Vegas
Septmber 5th, 2002.
Wisconsin Badgers at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Sam Boyd Stadium.
Thousands of drunken BAEDDDGer fans in town, betting like crazy on their team. Game is an easy cover for Wisky... the the lights go out just 2:41 until the game is "official" in the Vegas books.
We pick up the story, as written by Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Of course, the power outage sparked conspiracy theories, some of which exist today.
Much of the suspicion is due to the heavy betting from the many Badgers fans who made the trip and pushed the spread from between 3 and 4 points to 7 for their favorite team.
When the lights went out, 7:41 remained in the game -- 2:41 away from making it an official result for the sports books. Thus, the Wisconsin fans who put money on their team to cover did not get paid winnings, but were simply refunded whatever they bet.
Major sports books would have lost only between $10,000 and $20,000 on the game, according to a Review-Journal article at the time. Their losses would have been offset largely because Badgers fans also pushed the total from 53 to 58 points.
'It surely wouldn't have gone over the total, and I'm sure there was a lot of parlay action on the total," said Ken White, chief oddsmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Local radio co-host and noted sports bettor Dave Cokin said the theories amaze him.
"There's no way to keep a secret anymore," Cokin said. "It's why local politicians go to jail. So if it was some conspiracy with the UNLV-Wisconsin game, I think someone would've blown the whistle and made a lot of money. It's impossible. It's completely illogical and as stupid as someone believing in a curse on the Red Sox.
"There is no grassy knoll involved."
The early report by UNLV Police of a car hitting a transformer that was later discredited probably increased suspicions.
Sam Boyd Stadium manager Jeff Chalfant said an older cable that was part of "the main Nevada Power feed" burned out. That cable, he said, "burned through another."
And suddenly the stadium went dark.
Okay, let's finely tune the bullshit meter here.
1. Would there have been "motive" to pull the plug. Absolutely.
2. Opportunity? Yes, it's Vegas.
3. So what if OVERALL the sports books in Vegas would have only lost a paltry $10-20K? It doesn't mean that PERHAPS a prominent local Vegas "whale" might have had $200,000 on the hometown Rebels. HE would have a huge incentive to make that game "go dark."
And yes, the police report which was wrong, only adds suspicion. "One cable burned through another?" Do we have pictures of that? Was there a fire? What about backup systems?
Power surges, blackouts and failures happen. I get it. But they are quite rare when it comes to the THOUSANDS of major college and pro sporting events around the country, year after year, after year.
And there is also a misconception, that because a stadium has these BRIGHT LIGHTS that it must be a huge energy hog! Well, to some extent yes. But outdoor stadiums that have limited HVAC units, I bet use less juice than a typical mid-size office building or even an ice rink, or Costco.
Once things start adding up to being very, very fishy. Then get your noses out of your ass, and start sniffin.'
Mopping Up the Mantei T'eo Story
The hoax mastermind, Roniahah "I've Eaten Through A Lot of My Issues Lately" Tuiasasopo came "clean" to Dr. Phil about how he pulled it all off.
Well, sorta clean.
When asked to "do the voice" that Ronaiah purports to have produced HIMSELF as the voice of Lennay Kukua for MORE THAN THREE YEARS, at first Ronaiah balked.
Then he agreed to do it in "Part 2" of the interview. (Cha-ching, ratings hook!)
Then he only did it behind a "screen" and not on camera.
Whatever.
Voice experts claim the wave form matches. So I guess he's "in the clear" on that front. Sort of. I still think it would be GRUELING to keep that up for so long, and to never once slip out of character. Plus, he's gotta think and talk like a girl - ABOUT EVERYTHING!
I think the story has now settled deep into the silty bottom of "Who the Fuck Exactly Knows Lake" and it will take something unusual to ultimately recover the "full truth."
Mantei will be at the combines this month. There will be more questions. More media coverage. I bet however, he has a good set of defensive, evasive, say nothing-lets-move-on answers ready to go.
Consider me placing this one in the "cold case" file. Not closed, just cold for now.
Monday, February 4, 2013
"What's Your Deal?"
At the time, I dismissed it as sore-ass-loser Pete Carroll, who got humiliated by a conference opponent at home, while sitting as a Top-10 team with a future first round QB.
But then last night, after the Harbowl, Jim and John shake hands. It goes something like this...
John: "I love you."
Jim: "Congratulations...."
Really? REALLY. And look at the awkward, arms-length, do NOT BRO HUG ME MAN BECAUSE WE ARE BROTHERS IN DNA ONLY, handshake and chest pat, cheek pat exchange.
Honestly, Jim. What IS your deal?
Catchable
But I know this: do NOT call that ball "un-catchable."
No, no. NO sir. Very, very, catchable. In fact, might have been another PERFECT throw from the kid.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Here are our Top Prime Time Prognosticators’ Predictions:
Mark Benz SF 23 BAL 17 DaveBertsch SF 20 BAL 17 Randy Dean SF 22 BAL 30 Scott Heian SF 24 BAL 27 MikeHoffman SF 14 BAL 24 Daryl Wenzl SF 24 BAL 17Czabe’s Super Scoring Criteria: If no one picks the exact score. The winner will be determined from the following criteria: A. The players who at least picked the right winner, and the player that came closest to the winners score without going over, if there is a tie, B. The next tiebreaker is the player getting closest to the losers score without going over, if we are still tied, C. The final tie breaker is a coin flip. Good Luck Prime Time Prognosticators, but remember just like in Highland... There can be only 1...
King of PrimeTime
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Poll: Super Bowl Party Parasites
The Glutton
This guy sees your elaborate spread of food and thinks: "I'm going to take this entire thing down!"
The Gambler
The guy who rocks back and forth nervously, only to punctuate the room with loud angry expletives at random moments, likely due to heavy prop bets or obscure over/unders.
The Armchair GM
This guy doesn't like a single player on the field for either team, and relishes trying to tell you how only he can spot said player's deficiencies.
The Guy Who Knows Just Enough to Be Dangerous
This guy blurts out half-true things that lead to awkward moments where you think about helping to correct him, only to give up because it would be pointless. Example: "I love how the Harbaugh brothers are twins. I think that's so cool."
The Seat Hogger
This guy takes his place in the perfect "A" position at least 1 hour before kickoff, and NEVER moves, fearing any periphery movement as a possible sneak assault on his couch spot.
The Careless Dad
This guy has two kids with him that run roughshod through the host's house, without any corrective parenting from pops. A guy who is likely a combination of all of the above.
Snicky: Nicole Zaloumis
The NFL's TV morning show is... eh... I suppose. A few too many taking heads, and none of them particularly compelling, but I appreciate that they are out there trying to offer us something - anything - other than the usual Bristol-fed predictable television gruel.
The front-woman, Ms. Zaloumis, appears a bit too "serious" on the show for my likes. But I understand what she fights in the business as a tendency by viewers to "ditz-i-fy" any good looking woman on a sports show.
So it was nice to see her do some "Dancing With the Guests" this week... and BAM! Are you kidding me? Nicole just isn't skinny, she's a wonderfully muscular hardbody!
You go, girl. Well... done.
"Don't Be No Cloud on a Sunny Day, Mon!"
Hilarious.
And course, for the professionally offended: "horrific."
“It’s pretty horrific,” says Ricki Fairley-Brown, president of the multicultural marketing agency Dove Marketing. “Why do they have a white guy from Minnesota faking a Jamaican accent?”
Even more troubled by the spot is Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, chief hispanic marketing strategist at Walton Isaacson, an African-American, Gay/Lesbian and Hispanic agency. “What happens in this ad is that the culture becomes a punch line, and that is offensive.”
Pop cultural guru Barbara Lippert is not amused, either. “It made me uncomfortable to see all of those white people in an office setting doing this,” she says. “I found it offensive.”
They are still booing black soccer players in Europe, for God's sake! And here, we're worried about... this. And the "Rooney Rule."
If this is the state of legitimate conversation in America - the MOST open, free, multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-religious, and progressive minded country in the world - then we are doomed.
Doomed.
Prepare For Humiliation
As you can see from the calendar, the game is coming up this weekend. I'm sure you are as excited for it as I am, as our cities are rivals and have been for quite some time. Your confidence in your team is high, but rest assured, you will suffer humiliation when the sports team from my area defeats the sports team from your area.
When the sporting contest begins, the players on your team will be treated as though they are inconsequential. It will be remarkably easy for my team to accumulate more points than yours. There are many reasons for this, starting with the inferior physical attributes of the players representing your area. Strength, speed, and agility are just three of the qualities that the players on the team from your area lack. The players representing my area, on the other hand, have these traits in abundance.
Underscoring your team's inferiority is its choice of colors. It is ludicrous to believe that your team's colors inspire either respect or fear. Instead, they appear to have been chosen by someone who is colorblind or, perhaps, bereft of sight altogether.
One of the more pathetic aspects of the team from your area is the fact that only people in your immediate area possess an affinity for it. By means of contrast, the team from my area inspires loyalty and affection in individuals who live in many other geographic locations.
Do you still doubt that the team from your area is inferior to the one from mine? Just look at our teams' respective histories. In the past, we have defeated you on any number of occasions. Granted, there were times when your team beat my team, but those were lucky flukes.
The day of the game will soon be at hand. And no matter how hard you pray to a higher power or how many foam accoutrements you wear in support of the team from your area, your team will be defeated. We will win and you will lose. This is your fate.
Prepare for humiliation. It shall be upon you at the designated hour.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Winter Treat: The ENTIRE Sunday Final Round of the 2012 Masters (Bubba!)
YouTube continues to amaze.
I had no idea people could upload 5 HOUR LONG videos! And in crisp HIGH DEFINITION!
And this somehow is OKAY with the "Lords of the Rights Fees" known as CBS and the (/insert Southern Gentleman voice + accent: heavy) "Augusta National Golf Club?"
Shhhh. Enjoy. Before somebody takes it down.
"Grit, Spit, and a Whole Lot of ..... Antler Spray??"
Whattya gonna do? Make a federal case of it?
So what if a triceps tear is relatively rare? So what if a shockingly fast 2 1/2 month recovery to playing speed in MID-SEASON doesn't pass the smell test of an injury that is SUPPOSED to take 4-6 months?
Antler spray. Uh, huh.
Here's what one medical expert had to say about the injury back in October...
A significant force is required to completely tear away the triceps tendon, which typically occurs in a traumatic fall onto the arm or among players in sports such as weight liftingHmm... well, now.and professional football. In the general population, triceps tears are quite rare, but such factors as steroid injections, anabolic steroid use, underlying medical disease (metabolic disorders) and olecranon bursitis can increase the risk of partial or complete tears.
But again, "he has never failed a test!"
Just like Lance.
The whole episode reminds me of my favorite scene from Madagascar.
Alex: "Sixty-nine months?!"
Penquins: "Six TO nine months."
Alex: "Where do you pull that number out of?"
The PGA Tour Takes Corporate Idiocy To A Whole New Level
Meet the geniuses at the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour official Ty Votaw sent an e-mail to reporters on Thursday that said the PGA will "revoke the on-site credentials of all journalists affiliated with outlets that post play-by-play coverage, whether those posts are originating from tournament site or otherwise."
That's right, kids. Stop your damn FREE PROMOTION OF OUR PRODUCT!
/slaps forehead in exasperation
Apparently, the PGA Tour did not like the fact that a certain fan with the Twitter handle @TigerTracker had the audacity to pay for tickets to Tour events with Eldrick in the field, and then meticulously tweet details of every Tiger Woods shot, chip, and putt.
You know, stuff people might actually want to know.
The PGA Tour, no doubt anticipating a future world in which golf fans pay a nickel for every tweet they get about Jeff Overton's 2nd round at the Humana Challenge, is making a heavy play here to tamp down rogue tweeting and (I suppose) re-direct hard core fan interest to their own website, PGATour.com. (Where they may just provide such lush, real time detail of every player from Steven Ames to Y.E. Yang.)
Never mind the fact that the PGA Tour just announced a "landmark" moment by allowing live computer streaming of weekend coverage of Tour events. Like a wayward drive, settling in on a steep cartpath, you know where this thing is heading - toward "All-the-time-and-anywhere" video access to the PGA Tour.
Which is great!
PGA Tour official Ty Votaw sent an e-mail to reporters on Thursday that said the PGA will "revoke the on-site credentials of all journalists affiliated with outlets that post play-by-play coverage, whether those posts are originating from tournament site or otherwise."
That's right, kids. Stop your damn FREE PROMOTION OF OUR PRODUCT!
/slaps forehead in exasperation
Apparently, the PGA Tour did not like the fact that a certain fan with the Twitter handle @TigerTracker had the audacity to pay for tickets to Tour events with Eldrick in the field, and then meticulously tweet details of every Tiger Woods shot, chip, and putt.
You know, stuff people might actually want to know.
The PGA Tour, no doubt anticipating a future world in which golf fans pay a nickel for every tweet they get about Jeff Overton's 2nd round at the Humana Challenge, is making a heavy play here to tamp down rogue tweeting and (I suppose) re-direct hard core fan interest to their own website, PGATour.com. (Where they may just provide such lush, real time detail of every player from Steven Ames to Y.E. Yang.)
Never mind the fact that the PGA Tour just announced a "landmark" moment by allowing live computer streaming of weekend coverage of Tour events. Like a wayward drive, settling in on a steep cartpath, you know where this thing is heading - toward "All-the-time-and-anywhere" video access to the PGA Tour.
Which is great!
So why clamp down on mere bloggers? Because the Tour is a bunch of overpaid bureaucratic idiots.
A recent analysis of the PGA Tour's non-profit form-990 showed that the top-19 pencil pushers in Ponde Vedra took home a collective $23 million in salary! Hell, 10 of them are annual MILLIONAIRES!
Some stuff from the 2010 form-990 which covered the 2010 calendar and fiscal year...
1 TIMOTHY FINCHEM Commissioner 5,227,497
2 THOMAS WADE Exec VP Marketing 1,846,398
3 CHARLES ZINK Co-Chief Operating Officer 1,689,249
4 EDWARD MOORHOUSE Co-Chief Operating Officer 1,688,920
5 RONALD PRICE Exec VP/Financial 1,334,891
6 HENRY HUGHES Former CEO THE PLAYERS 1,322,958
7 THOMAS PERRY SVP Human Resources 1,313,939
8 DAVID PILLSBURY President GCP & Champ Mgmt 1,009,107
9 SID WILSON Former VP Player Relations 1,002,440
10 TY VOTAW Exec VP Communications 997,575
I don't mean to get all "Occupy Wall Street" here, but you have to admire the structure of a
I guess you need two COO's, so one guy can cover when the other is out golfing.
So among the organizations beyond just uber-fans like @TigerTracker who are super pissed off and shaking their heads, are outlets like Golf.com who do a liveblog of Tour events and majors. (Highly enjoyable!)
Look, we get where the Tour is coming from. The official broadcast partners pay big bucks for the rights to live tournament coverage, and the Tour wants to protect this valuable product.
PGATour.com has Live@ streaming video and Shot Tracker and their own live blogs (see that, more promotion!). The Tour also announced earlier this week that it will be live-streaming its weekend broadcasts on PGATour.com and CBSSports.com, and the executives from the Tour and CBS want people to tune in. But it's unrealistic to think they can force people to only tune in to officially sanctioned options for real-time updates.
As proud as we are of our coverage, we realize that our live blog is a second screen, a complementary form of coverage that primarily serves to enhance the viewing experience of hardcore fans. Those who want to banter while they watch TV or an online stream may tune into our blog or check Twitter to get updates and see what our writers think, but few choose us exclusively.
Bans almost never work in sports media, and in this day and age, I guarantee this one has #fail written all over it.
But good job, Ty Votaw.
Take the afternoon off. You deserve it.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
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