By Murph
    June 11th, 2008 at 12:15 am

hidey ho, people. a ways back i wrote about how the nba was a b/s league, for many reasons, some of which were more serious than others. but there has benn a clous hanging over the "association" for quite some time, one dismissed by partisans of the sport, and that cloud had a name. its name is conspiracy. the conspiracy theorists basically allege the the nba fixes its games to get ratings and max out ad dollars and generate exposure of its stars via letting them get further in the playoffs and being favorable towards them with the officiating. the people who love the nba say its all b/s, that good hitters in baseball get better strike zones, etc etc, and the theorists had nothing but tapes of shoddy officialting and free throw differentials to support them. not anymore. that cloud is full of water and its about to rain.

a former ref who was nabbed for gambling on games he was working has spilled some serious beans. he alleges that the league does indeed mandate to the refs that they allow star players to get favorable treatment, that they influence games in order for certain teams to win, making up calls against teams, to extend playoff series to make more money, that he was not the only ref engaging in this stuff and basically that the entire thing is a sham designed solely to make money for the league and its corporate sponsors. the ref claims that what so many fans are screaming about is basically fraudulent, that the league wants certain outcomes if they are there to be had, by fixing the games if necessary.
Continue reading A Man's Game, Part III…

    By Jason
    May 29th, 2008 at 12:01 am

Since it's been a while since I bored everyone to tears with sports talk, I figured, what the hell, right?   Here are some random sports-related thoughts from no particular time-period.  (Warning: This is 1300 words.  It's not short.)

 - Brent Barry:  You're an idiot.  No, really.  It never ceases to amaze me. I'm an un-athletic, out-of-shape dude who has a mediocre jump shot with no other discernable basketball skills.  (Hey, if I were a foot taller, I'd be Joakim Noah with a measurable basketball skill!!) Yet, even with that background, even "I" know that when you get the defender off his feet, you HAVE TO lean into him and shoot it!  How do you play well over a decade of professional ball and have no idea that you're supposed to do that?!?!  There is no doubt that there was a foul committed on the play.  None.  This isn't about selling the foul, as the TNT crew suggested, or whether the ref swallowed the whistle.  This is about a guy having absolutely no feel for a game.  Continue reading Random Thoughts: Sports On My Mind……

    By Jason
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Although I'm a little late with the Mid-Day Break (not that we ever work on a time schedule here), I'm proud to say announce that the wait is over!! In what will be a cause for celebration across TDL-land, the Miami Dolphins announced today that they are selecting Jake Long with the first pick in Saturday's NFL draft. This really couldn't be better news for us, and to show our appreciation, I fully expect that all TDL staff members will be running out and getting tribal arm-band tattoos.

Now, I honestly only watched a couple Michigan games, and I'm not going to lie. If you think I ever watch 5 seconds of a lineman's footwork, you're fooling yourself. So really, I guess I'm trying to say that I know nothing about Long other than he has a GIANT tribal arm-band tattoo. But you know what? That's ok. We aren't celebrating because the 'Fins picked HIM, per se. We celebrate because FINALLY, after months and months and months, we are DONE listening to sports-hole radio callers whining, "what are the 'Fins doing with the first pick?!" It's over!! I couldn't be happier! (The only thing better would have been if the 'Fins decided they didn't like anyone and just skipped the first round sending all of Dolphin-nation into a suicidal frenzy. I mean, as a Fin-fan, I'd have been pissed, but I'd take one for the team to see those lunatic fans on the brink. Sigh….

    By Jason
    April 18th, 2008 at 10:06 am

Today's little nugget has been making it's way around various news feeds. This entry is brought to you from Yahoo! News.  Baseball fans will appreciate the injury concern that the losing team's coach showed in his post-game comment. 

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese high school pleaded for a regional game to be abandoned after surrendering 66 runs in less than two innings, local media reported on Thursday.  The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitcher's arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.  The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.  "At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings," Kawamoto's coach was quoted as saying. "There was a danger he could get injured."  Opponents Shunshukan were officially credited with a 9-0 victory, giving the scoreline a tinge of respectability for the luckless Kawamoto school.

    By Jason
    April 14th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Pardon me, if you will, as I step aside from topics that interest whatever readership we actually have to discuss something that really interests, say… 2 people: hockey.  I couldn't decide last week if I wanted to celebrate the firing of Jacques Martin as coach, or run my hand through a meat-grinder at the thought of him actually staying on as GM.  (For those unaware but strangely interested, he's affiliated in some currently-undefined way with your Florida Panthers.)  Instead, I decided to wait to see how things played out.  Of course, that was before I had the misfortune of watching two playoff games featuring four excellent teams (The Devils, Rangers, Sharks, and Flames.  Of them, the Flames appear to be the best of the bunch for no other reason than they're winning despite being coached by a man whose life mission it is to make every hockey fan-base suicidal before he crawls back into the far-depths of hell from whence he came.  I hate you Mike Keenan.  I hate you almost as much as I hate Alan Cohen, but I'll get to that.)  After watching last night's games, I couldn't shake this one feeling: we will never win with this team.  Now, I know Murph would argue that we're a talented team, only a couple wins from the playoffs, etc… (I know this because we talked about it last night.) Thinking about it a bit more, we have some nice pieces, but in the grand scheme of things, this team, even if it DID make the playoffs, it wasn't getting past the first or second round. 

Continue reading On the Soapbox: And Now For Something Completely Boring To 99% Of You!…

    By Jason
    April 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

At first I couldn't believe it, but ineed, it's true!!  According to Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Heat have resigned none other than… Wait for it…  NBADL Player of the Year Kasib Powell!!!!  This is just unbelievable news coming from Heat camp!!  I'm so happy I can just kick myself in the nads.

Continue reading Mid-Day Break: He's back!!…

    By Murph
    April 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am

hello loyal readers. we here at TDL are sports fans, and being sports fans, we often engage in soemthing which would be frowned upon in regular life. we take great delight at the misery and failings of others. people we don't even know personally. we boo them, say nasty things about them, wish injuries upon them, and other such sadistic things.  we do this b/c they whup our favorite teams, or b/c they are part of our favorite team and don't performt he way we want them to, or more importantly, when they abandon out team for more money.

now the dude is a rabid florida panthers fan. he has been caught shaking his moneymaker on the jumbotron at the bankatlantic center more times than i care to recall. he goes crazy while drinking the house chablis over there. its quite funny.  he should and will be happy to know that as of today, his favorite ex-panther, roberto luongo, he of the free agent flight outta town, and the michelin man pads, has failed to carry his team to the playoffs, which in the nhl, is quite sad. and he has done this in a canadian city, so he can look forward to six months of being shat upon by the vancouver media. so sit back and relax, the dude, and google yourself up some links to read all about it. send in your comments on how the guy sucks ass and when they scale the pads down, he'll be letting goals in like paris hilton lets guys into her crease(hockey-sex metaphor…love it !!!!). you have earned yourself this offseason.

    By Murph
    April 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

whatsa goin on, fellow dudes ? if you're like me , you love you some ESPN, the pinnacle of sporting news. not that like that junk on FSN, with the "worst damn sports show", which is total shit by the way. how they get ratings is anybodys guess. ESPN brings you actual sporting news in addition to their self-promoting shows.  i saw a story today that was near and dear to my heart, and i cannot for the life of me understand the outrage that the central figure in this story has sparked.

one of the big stories circulating today was that matt leinart has been photographed at his house partying with some alleged coeds. all the talking heads are going bananas over this saying he needs to "grow up" and be more "responsible" since he's the face of the franchise. yelling at mr. leinart for having a funnel(why they call it a beer bong is beyond me, its a freakin funnel with a tube), splashing about with some bikini-clad girls in a jacuzzi and snugglin up on some college cuties for pictures. what is so bad about this !? i really don't get it. if he's not doing this during minicamp, or training camp or during the season, who gives a shit ? he's 25 years old and having a good time at his house. as far as anyone knows, nothing illegal went on. i guess they'd rather have him make it rain with pacman.
Continue reading Party On, Dude !…

    By Jason
    April 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Normally I write a quick little quip about whatever it is I'm introducing as the Mid-Day Break.  This time, I gotta tell you… I've got nothing.  I mean, I just don't even know what to do with this from FoxSports.com: Continue reading Mid-Day Break: And Here, I Thought By Race They Meant Formula 1……

    By Jason
    March 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am

Why…why…it's the sound of Jacques Martin's career with the Panthers ending!!  Perhaps the greatest thing to happen to the Panthers since they fired Mike Keenan (which would be THE greatest thing to ever happen to them if they were actually smart enough to realize what a fraud he was instead of hiring him right back less than a year later), it looks like the Cats will FINALLY get rid of Martin after laying a 3-1 egg against the defenseless Lightning last night.  Mercifully, I missed the game, as did probably 98% of the South Florida viewership, but apparently Martin threw Jokinen under the buss after it.  You mean your best player didn't try hard enough?  Huh… Effort hasn't been a problem all season right?  We'll just pretend the 98 games that they lost in the final 3 minutes, the february clunkers, the second period brain lapses, all of these things taking place for the third year in a row never happened. 

I'd be even more excited if I thought for just a second that Alan Cohen had the slightest idea what he was doing.  Unfortunately, he'll probably bring in some stiff to run things and keep shoving the team's youth down our throats as an excuse.  NONE of those guys are rookies.  Some are in their second year, but they all have NHL experience at this point.  It took THREE YEARS to finally bring in someone like Wade Belak to be the enforcer? 
Continue reading Does Somebody Else Hear That Bell?…