Tag Archives: sports

Maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t move to Fort Collins

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First, there’s this:

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State forward Xavier Kilby was arrested after he was accused of pointing a gun at teammate Ronnie Aguilar’s head, police said Monday.

And now, there’s this*:

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A 4-year-old boy who was [...] blitzed by a college football player during a game has 30 stitches in his head[...]

Best Place to Live in the U.S. my left butt cheek.  Your college athletes are a bunch of gun-toting, child-beating thugs!  Mr. Greenwood, you’ve got some splainin’ to do.

* Excerpt intentionally and misleadingly edited to make my faux outrage seem real.

Edit: Of course it was only a matter of time until someone YouTube’d it:

Damn.

Edit 2: YouTube video dead.  Double damn.

One and done

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Heh.  That was fast.

Eric Musselman was fired as Kings coach after one season on the job, Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie announced Friday.

“I want to thank Eric for his engery [sic] and effort,” Petrie in a statement. “I wish him the best of luck in the future. There is no particular joy in making this decision. However, I feel it is in the best interest of everyone going forward.”

I think it was the right decision.  Once Musselman got that DUI at the beginning of the season, I had a hunch that the players would lose respect for him, and, by all appearances, they did.  Of course, only the players and Muss himself know what really happened during the 2006-2007 implosion.

Ah, well.  Let’s hope that Petrie can find us a good coach, and fast.

Wonder what Rick Adelman is up to these days?

Artested

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Great:



Sacramento Kings star Ron Artest was suspended indefinitely following his Monday morning arrest on domestic violence charges at his Loomis home.


The Kings announced Monday afternoon that the star forward has been excused from play indefinitely, though the team said it would continue to monitor any updates in the case. [...]


Deputies who responded to Artest’s home found a woman who had called 911 and, after interviewing her and Artest separately, arrested the Kings player.


Artest was arrested on a charge of domestic violence and of using force or violence to prevent his victim from reporting a crime, officials said. 


I don’t even know what to say about this, except, ship him the hell out of here.  NOW.

LeBron James is good

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That is all.  Carry on.


Edit:  Given how poorly the Kings played in the second half last night, and disregarding LeBron’s basketudinal prowess, I suppose the highlight of the night was the fight in the stands about 3 rows in front of us. 


Some young guys who, I’m guessing, came down from the nose bleeds and sat in these empty seats, were pounding beers the entire game.  In the fourth quarter, LeBron made a particularly good play, prompting one of the guys to jump up and down, spilling beer all over the guy in front of him.  I guess this had happened a couple times throughout the evening.  Anyway, the spillee just popped.  He was a big dude, too — probably 6’4″, and well over 200 lbs. 


The drunk guy never had a chance.  He either sat down or was pushed down into his chair, and the big guy stood over him, just wailing away on the drunk guy’s face.  He probably got in 5 or 6 uncontested shots before he stopped.  I didn’t get a look at the damage to the drunk guy, but I’m sure he’s got a shiner or two this morning.


As for the big dude, well, I’m sure he’s still in the pokey right now.  All he had to do was get the usher to kick these guys out, but instead, he decided to be Sheriff Vigilante T. Justice, and now he’s going to have a criminal record.  Dumbass.

Bye-bye, Kings

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From an interview with Kings co-owner Joe Maloof in today’s Sacramento Bee:



Question: Yet you still seem committed to the market?


Answer: We are, we are. But it all comes down to a facility, and in small markets like Sacramento, that means there has to be a public/private deal. Arco is the second-oldest building in the league. It doesn’t work anymore, not if you want to stay competitive. So if we look at 2008, something has to get done. Someone has to bring us a project. And do people still want us here? We don’t want to be anywhere people don’t want us. We just can’t keep stringing along. We have to get something done. 


The problem is that the Maloofs want to take in the lion’s share of profits from a new arena while paying virtually $0 to fund its construction.  Couple that with tightwad Sacramentans (whom I can’t really blame for not wanting to get stuck with the entire bill) and the prospect of moving the team from Cow Town to Sin City, and you have a team ripe for relocation.


Call me pessimistic, call me paranoid, but I just don’t see the Kings being here in 5 years.

Great job, Coach

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Ok.  You're new in town.  You've got a new job, a new boss, and a whole bunch of new fans to win over.  Plus, you preside over a group of overpaid, oversexed millionaire crybabies with egos the size of Texas.  You insist on hard work, smothering defense, and maximum effort for the duration of each 48-minute game from a group that is used to playing offense-only basketball.

So far, things are going great.  It looks like the whole team is buying into your bullshit system, saying they like how hard you work and how much they respect what you bring to the game.  And let's be honest — without that respect, you're going nowhere with these guys.

You're 3-1 this preseason, with palpable excitement starting to build among the fans that this team could be the real deal.  Defense.  Scoring.  Hustle.  This team – your team – just might be something special to watch this season.  Your future in Sacramento couldn't be brighter.

And then you go and do something like this:

First-year Kings coach Eric Musselman was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said.

Musselman was arrested on K Street in midtown Sacramento around 2:15 a.m. after cutting off another motorist, according to officer Jasper Begay, a California Highway Patrol spokesman. Musselman [...] failed a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit of .08 percent, Begay said. 

Well played, sir.  In one fell swoop, you've simultaneously made yourself look like an ass and lost any moral high ground you had amongst your players.  You can no longer demand their respect.  You're worse than many of them.  You're a common criminal.

I hope you have some magic up that always-over-prepared ass of yours, coach, or else your stay in Sacto could end up being a very brief one.  And while you're up there spelunking in that magic crevice, try to locate a clue.

He’s a gamer

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From MLB.com:

[...] Dustin Pedroia and Gabe Kapler made dazzling defensive plays in the eighth inning to help Boston to a 6-4 win over Toronto at Fenway Park. [...]

The eighth inning featured a 4-6-3 double play started when Pedroia dove to his right on a hard smash off the bat of Gregg Zaun. The inning ended when Russ Adams hit a sinking liner to right and Kapler dove to make the catch.

"Pedroia made the play of the night," Francona said. "If he doesn't make that play, it's first and third with no one out. We're swimming upstream again. Because he makes the play, we can go to [Jonathan Papelbon] where we did and close it out." [...]

The wild ending capped a day in which the Red Sox traded David Wells to San Diego, acquired right-hander Kevin Jarvis from Arizona and received the news that David Ortiz was released from the hospital and could return to action as soon as Saturday.

"It was very gratifying. We got deep enough in a game where we could do what we did. [Mike] Timlin coming in and getting a couple of outs, watching Pedroia make that play, letting Pap finish it out. I felt a lot of emotions today. Saying goodbye to Boomer [Wells], seeing guys [Jon Lester] in the hospital and then coming out and watching our guys play their fannies off. It was very gratifying to see how much they cared about winning one single game."

Why do I keep posting about this?  It's exciting to see a Woodlander get a shot in the big leagues.  Out of all the guys I have seen over the years, few have actually made it to the big time, and when they did, they choked.  I believe Dustin has a very good shot at holding onto his spot in the lineup, if only he can get his hits to start falling.  He may just be the next Eckstein.