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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Kovy a free agent...will others join him?

So the NHL not only voided Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year $102 million deal with the New Jersey Devils, but are now said to be looking at other front-loaded deals like Roberto Luongo's. Marian Hossa's and others. Ridiculous. Going back after teams have been paying players out and operating through season's under those terms is total bush league.  I'm all for fixing mistakes, but if you allowed ridiculous deals under the CBA, tough to roll them back mid-stream, no?  If you're the Vancouver Canucks, you probably want that deal voided, no?

Chelsea's bid to defend its English Premier League title just took a huge blow with arguably their best defender Ricardo Carvalho off to - where else? - Real Madrid. John Terry is in for a tough year with his saftey blanket gone. In a bit of funny EPL news, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says teammate Joe Cole is better than Barcelona's Lionel Messi. I dig Cole, but that is laughable. Stevie G will have a solid post-football career in comedy if the D.J. thing doesn't pan out.  Oh, wait...

Heard on the Jim Rome Show: there's a slo-pitch team called "The Step Dads".  Why? "We'll beat you and you'll hate us." Only in slo-pitch.


The New York Knicks went into the tank for two years to clear enough cap space to get into a room with LeBron James for a couple hours only to be rejected and subjected to another couple years of mediocrity at best.  The NHL has seen teams run ridiculous deals to circumvent the cap since it came in.  Don't tell me it is the solution to a sports problems when it creates as many.  As Seth Everett of Baseball Today says: the problem in baseball isn't the lack of a salary cap, it is the lack of a salary floor that has let teams like Florida, Pittsburgh and KC profit greatly while taking huge money in revenue sharing and not putting it back into their teams.

An amateur hoops game played in The Bronx on Saturday saw Corey Fisher score 105 points.  Who was guarding this guy?  Jose Calderon?  Yep.  Jose Calderon.  Just not the Toronto Raptors version.  Maybe it is just the name?  Nah.

If you missed Tim Tebow's haircut from the Denver Broncos earlier in the week, look no further than to your right.  That is incredible.  He's since shaved the halo off.


Toronto FC are in New York tonight at beautiful Red Bull Arena to face - who else? - the Red BullsGBVH tells me TFC are +429 for the win.  Awfully tempting, even with their weak road performances for the most part this year.

If you can get a lady to a ball game, good for you.  But at least if a foul ball is headed your way, don't bail away from her leaving her to get cranked with the ball.  Love him saying he lost the ball in the lights.  Seems to me he saw it just fine before alligator arming it.

Wondering what sparked that wild brawl in Cincinnati last night between the Reds and Cards?  Seems the Cards didn't like being referred to as "little bitches" by Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips.

And in today's skewering of a sport, we take on soccer.  I'll get it started momentarily.

Back tomorrow.

5 comments:

TB said...

-diving. Not all do it, but those that do are an embarrassment to sportsmanship. Review post game and give yellow cards for obvious dives. See enough guys suspended and coaches will take care of getting it out of the game.
-lack of video replay on goals. This is easy to fix. Just do it.
-off side rules. How about no off-side in the final 18 yards. Why not open it up? What could happen? More goals with players spread out more and not trying to perfectly time a moving line? Sounds terrible.
-the Canadian Soccer Association. Absolute hacks.
-MLS officials. Absolute hacks.
-lack of throw-in violations being called. Blatant moving up field, feet off ground, balls thrown into ground...pretty much every element to a proper throw-in is violated in plain view of the ref. Maybe do away with them too and allow kick-ins as well?
-no more than three men in a wall. I know it is smart defensive strategy but fouls around the box should give an edge to the attacking team more than they do.
-the jersey tugging in the box. Way out of hand. That shit needs to stop bad.

Unknown said...

- Martin O'Neil:...Oh wait, this is the "what's wrong with soccer" section, not the "what's wrong with the world championship of teddy throwing"...

There's a point to be made about managers throwing their toys out the pram when they don't get the funding they want or they need to sell players. Is it their money? No. So shut up!

gbvh said...

-- diving
-- that games don't use stop time
-- the time-wasting is ridiculous, as are those who treat it like an art. play 70 minutes, stoppage time, and you won't have that shit going on.
-- it's not a huge thing ... but i find it really annoying that they call the ball "out" when the ball is only "out" (or isn't) in the air. a) it's next to impossible to tell and b) what would the harm be in calling it out only if the ball actually hits the grass out of bounds?
-- that most european leagues are merely two-, three-, or four-hor$e race$ ... $ame team$, year in year out.
-- the offside rule. often impossible to call accurately in fast motion. pretty darn hard a lot of times on replay.
-- that in a game where scoring is so low, penalty kicks (which are almost sure-shot goals) are handed out so easily
-- that teams can park 10 guys in the box and be successful in "getting a result."
-- that less-meaningful games are more exciting than hugely meaningful ones. not from a "tension" standpoint, but from an "exciting play" standpoint.
sad statement, but true . . . and it says a lot.
-- penalty kicks to decide games. absolutely asinine.
-- the stupid, asinine "away goal" rule in home-and-home matchups

Anonymous said...

T.O. is +492!!

Still not sure I can . . . haha.

gbvh said...

^ me