Plenty of EPL action today, with the featured match at 12:15 (Eastern) Manchester United hosting the red hot Arsenal Gunners. With the Gunners having played a Champions League qualifier earlier this week, methinks a wise play is there to be had on the Red Devils.
UFC102 goes tonight from the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. The main event features Randy Couture taking on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in what is a huge fight for both coming off losses to Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, respectively. Not the greatest undercard, but looking forward to "The Polish Experiment" Kryzsztof Soszynski - Winnipeg's own - taking on Brandon "The Truth" Vera. More on "The Polish Experiment" here.
It'll be a rare occasion today for Toronto FC in that they'll play in front of an MLS crowd roudier than their own. The Seattle Sounders are routinely putting 30,000+ fans in the stands and they've got Q-West Field rocking. What will be even rarer is if TFC can pull of a road win on a huge success story in the MLS on and off the field. 4pm kickoff on CBC.
another game, another home loss for the Toronto Argos. That's 10 straight now dating back to the start of August 2009. Anybody tells you that life isn't good or fair, just point them to that.
strange going to ESPN.com this morning and seeing EPL scores leading the banner at the top. Guess that's what happens when the World Wide Leader gets on board.
that's 11 walkoff wins for the New York Yankees now after last nights 3-run blast from Robbie Cano in the 10th gave them a 5-2 win over the Chicago White Sox.
As we head into UFC102 weekend, the story isn't about the fights on the card today - that is tomorrow - the story is Frank Mir, who when we last saw him was having his face turned to hamburger meat by Brock Lesnar, says Lesnar would crush Fedor Emelianenko in the cages of UFC. Now, either Mir is onto something with his new-found respect for Lesnar after that beating a couple months back, or he's concussed and still reeling. Methinks it is the former.
two things I did not know: (1) Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue is the highest selling mag in the world, year in and year out, and (2) ESPN is rolling out a nude issue in October that will feature, among others, Danica Patrick. That's a helluva start. Seriously?
Here's a quote, guess the source: "The minute our personality gets in the way of what's going on, then we become an entertainer and we're failing ourselves and failing you." Source below.
only 25%, of 2 of 8, CFL teams have scored more points than they've allowed. Even the first-place in the West Edmonton Eskimos are -35 on points for/against.
the Hollywood feature film of the A-Team will cast UFCer Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the role of B.A. Barracus. Other than a young Sam Jackson, I can't think of anyone more fitting
what do John Smoltz and Brad Penny have in common? Both released by the Boston Red Sox, both after getting raked by the New York Yankees.
the Champions League draw was held yesterday and has AC Milan grouped with Real Madrid, and Inter Milan with Barcelona, among the more intriguing groupings. Check out the fixtures here.
answer to the quote above? Chris Berman of ESPN. Seriously.
The AL Central race is about to get a lot more interesting as Jake Peavy looks set to return this weekend to the Chicago White Sox starting rotation. The Sox are also waiting on Alex Rios to show up.
not sure what makes me happier, that it is being reiterated with steam building that the Minnesota Vikes players are not firmly behind Old Has Been and that plenty are behind Tarvaris Jackson, or that they used the word "schism" to describe it. Love that word.
Dany Heatley says that not only does he love playing hockey in Canada, but that he "think[s] there were some Canadian teams on the list" that he passed to the Ottawa Senators when he handed in his trade request. He "thinks"? Okay, Ottawa isn't on the list, Edmonton is clearly not, so he's struggling to remember if he had some of the remaining four teams? Nice try, Heater.
The LA Dodgersare reeling and Manny Ramirez is getting booed. When does Joe Torre start to take some? "Soon" would be the proper thing to happen, but somehow, Teflon Joe always escapes blame. The Dodgers lead in the NL West is now down to 3 games over the Colorado Rockies.
In what may be a crippling blow to hockey fans perceived importance of a captain, which NHL Hall of Famer declared the "C" merely "a symbolic thing"? If you guessed Henri "Rocket" Richard, you win. Thinking he knows a bit more about that kind of thing than the average puckhead who has, for example, said Mats Sundin wasn't worthy of the "C" in Toronto despite every player calling him the best leader they'd ever had.
Good of Hockey Canada to charge $80 to attend three scrimmages of the Olympic team, and no, it is not going to charity. Pathetic. And no, there will be no talk of that camp as though it is all important now, but some things - like the preceding - are actually worth mentioning/trashing.
Jim Balsillie's group has set a September 14th deadline to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes and immediately move them to Hamilton, Ontario. Somehow, I suspect the NHL couldn't be less impressed. What a farce this is - the team is a month out from playing its first exhibition game and nobody has a clue where they'll be, who is in charge, who the coach is. The NHL is a joke...who are now planning to buy the team to sell it privately later. Isn't that admitting that the current owner has control still? So why are we in court, exactly?
what a different world it has become: Pardon the Interruption'sratings now outstrip that of SportsCenter (not a typo, Canadians). Of course, that is south of the border. TSN's version of SportsCentre (not a typo, Americans) will retain top ratings as long as the first eight stories are hockey, which is actually worse. And no, PTI doesn't lead south of the border because the NHL is a non-entity on SportsCenter. Only the thickest of puckheads would believe that.
I know I've spent a lot of time over the years cracking on Derek Jeter as being somewhat overrated, and I still hold a lot of that is true: he's a weak defender to the left, the Yankees have won nothing since he was named Captain, and vanilla thinks he's bland, but hard to argue with these kinds of numbers that speak to consistency, and longevity.
Until the Yankees win on Sunday night in Boston, the Yankees and Red Sox had played 140 times since 2003, postseason included. Each team had won 70 times.
If the Old Has Been won't go down by injury, I'll take this as a close second, and this one is already happening: other Vikings players preferring Tarvaris Jackson because he's outperforming the Old Has Been.
Liverpoollost 3-1 at home to Aston Villa in what can only be called a pretty sizeable upset. I'm sure Liverpool skipper Rafa Benetiz will have more than a few excuses to offer in the coming days.
the NHL looks like it will lose a sizeable portion of its tiny U.S. audience, as DirecTVwill no longer be carrying the Versus network. Is this one of those "if a tree falls in the forest..." scenarios? Will anybody care that the NHL isn't on Versus now, which nobody has? Still, good to see Gary Bettman is still fighting hard to keep Jim Balsillie out of the league.
Peter King at SI.com looks at the potentially uncapped year for the NFL in 2010. He figures that Pittsburgh stands to lose the most. I managed to read this article without hearing about his "coffeenerdness", thankfully.
Cliff Lee is now a perfect 5-0 since moving to the Philadelphia Phillies and proving to be the pick-up of the trade deadline. Lee is sporting an ERA of 0.68 in his five starts with the Phil's.
Roy Halladay was shelled for eight runs, seven earned, in six innings last night as the Toronto Blue Jays went down 12-7 to the Tampa Bay Rays. I don't want to say Halladay has mentally checked out, but it sure seems more plausible than saying he doest have it anymore, no?
Is it me, or does Laura Diakun at The Score look better by the week?
Severely underused on Monday Night Raw: Santino Mirella. Severely overused: Hornswoggle.
Toronto has a champion! The Toronto Nationals- who? - won the Major League Lacrosse championship in their first year.
Another baseball player, another freak off field injury. This time, it is Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez who suffered a puncture wound after - wait for it - catching a steak knife after if fell off his plate.
The New York Yankees have now won 6 of 7 against the Boston Red Sox, including an 8-4 win last night paced by five neck breaking off Josh Beckett at Fenway Paaaahk. That's now a 7.5 game lead in the AL East for the Bronx Bombers and with 6 weeks to go, that about wraps that up. A date with Detroit in the playoffs looks likely.
Liverpool and Aston Villa play today in English Premier League action, with a 3pm kickoff. This past weekend, Tottenham and Chelsea continued their perfect starts with their third wins on the trot.
After his record setting week in Berlin for the World Track and Field Championships, Usain Bolt was given a three tonne chunk of the Berlin Wall. Didn't that come down in 1989? Anyways, maybe they can strap it to Bolt's back when he runs to make things a bit more competitive.
In case you were wondering, from the numbers 0 to 1,000, the letter "A" only appears in 1,000 (one thousand).
The No Fun League is at it again, looking to police the amount of drinking that takes place before and during games. Lame. What's next, they try to limit gambling?
