The Drubbing

Any hope of Lance Armstrong dawning a yellow jersey and claiming his 8th Tour championship in this years race is just about gone. Armstrong has made good on his word and done the right thing over the last three weeks. Fellow Astana teammate Alberto Contador has shown that he is without a doubt the most prolific rider in the 2009 version of the Tour.
Continue reading “Tour de Lance update, Stage 20 Mont Ventoux” →

Weekly poll recap:

Who is the worst GM?

60% of you said Elgin, while 40% said Isiah.

for flash in the pan i gotta go Isiah, he was like the Priest Holmes of horrible GMs but Elgin was so consistent over so long, he’s like Emmit Smith.

Another reminder of the King, Elgin Baylor.

Now on to the links:

Amateur video of the craze that made young white suburban kids want to throw money in the air onto scantily clad woman.

Cool story about Gatorade bringing back 2 high school football teams who, 15 years ago finished in a tie to play out a full game.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the U.S. landing on the moon.

Big Ben should be jailed for hooking up with this girl, consensual or not.  Good lord, what was he thinking?

Sure the Pitcher will go down as getting credit for a perfect game, but Mark Buehrle’s buying Dewayne Wise a car because of this help.

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

Since 1980, these three players are the only ones to do something. First one to name the connection wins points in my new random and sporadic trivia game.

Bill Russell, Charlie Hayes, Juan Uribe

Much of my time these past few weeks has consisted of listening to ESPN radio commentators discussing Xavier’s Jordon Crawford dunking on Lebron. Nike apparently confiscated and censored said video. Upon hearing this, I assumed that this must be one of the most embarrassing incidents ever experienced by a professional athlete.

Video of this incident finally surfaced yesterday showing Lebron a step slow at moving out of his zone position to defend against Crawford’s drive to the basket. James was not defending Crawford 1 on 1. Crawford did not go directly over or even at James. James did not go down. See for yourself.
Continue reading “Much ado about a nothing dunk” →

The WWE is about as popular as the MLS, and the people that run it are about as big of whiners as the Lakers or Spurs. The bumbling idiots that manage the Pepsi Center in Denver, home of the Denver Nuggets, were foolish enough to schedule a WWE event on the same night as a potential NBA playoff home game. Instead of taking it like a man, trying to reschedule for another day or rearrange the time of the event, the chairperson of the WWE, Vince McMahon, decided to throw a public tantrum and cry like the little woman that he is.
Continue reading “Vince McMahon just as childish as the basement-dwelling man-boys that watch the WWE” →

I want you, not the guy next to you, you. Stop acting like one of the Night at the Roxbury guys and get out here

Near the end of my last column on the pitchers I have been tracking since before the season, I wrote the following about Ramon Troncoso:

“In the article before the season, I said that Ramon’s worst enemy was Joe Torre. I worried that he might blow out his arm. Currently, he has pitched 53 innings in 82 Dodger games. That’s on pace for more than 100 innings. Here is my prediction: Either Troncoso gets injured in August or he gives up a devastating hit in the Division Series because his arm is shot. Write it down, its a lock.”

After writing that, I got to thinking about whether or not Joe Torre was bad on relief pitchers. Everyone seems to say that he is, and as you know all to well now, once I start thinking about something I have to know if it is true. So, once again, lets start with an explanation, show you a chart, and then talk about what it might mean.
Continue reading “Does Joe Torre ruin relief pitchers?” →

The festivities outside Toronto's Rogers Centre

Saturday, June 6th Rodney, Nate and myself all took in a Blue Jays vs. Royals game at the lovely Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome).  Yes, that is Centre with an “re” not an “er”.  Let me first say that for the most part, Canadians are very nice.  Throw in a french accent and its downright joyful to talk to the locals.  The stadium itself is right downtown near the lake.  There were a lot of festivities going on outside, and since the weather was in the mid 80’s and sunny, we got to enjoy the dome roof being open.  All and all a great day to catch a game (would have been better if we were not so hung over, but that is for another post).

The stadium itself is very nice, and extremely clean.  Since the Royals and Jays do not exactly have a huge following we were able to get tickets the day of, and sat about 20 rows directly back of home plate.  Good times all around.  I purchased an old school Blue Jays hat to add to my collection of hats from stadiums visited (its up to 9 stadiums and 8 hats.  Sorry old Yankee stadium, i think an NYY hat will burn in my hands if i purchase it) and we then hit up the food vendors.
Continue reading “Toronto, where even the polite heckle at Baseball games” →

Recent weeks haven’t been kind to the celbrity ranks. There was Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Steve McNair and most recently Walter Cronkite. Last week boxing lost one of it’s own, Arturo “Thunder” Gatti. Aside from a brief mention on SportsCenter and the replay of some of his matches on ESPN Classic, it appeared that despite the odd circumstances of his passing, the death of Arturo Gatti went largely unnoticed. Much of the sports world was steel reeling from the untimely death of Steve McNair. And the average sports fan may have never heard of Arturo Gatti.
Continue reading “Farewell to Arturo Gattii, a boxing great” →

Weekly poll recap:

What is your favorite fantasy sport to play?

60% of you liked Fantasy Football, while baseball and basketball each got 20%.

Now on to the links:

If a WNBA player gets a DUI, and no one pays attention to the league does it still matter?  Also, what is “extreme DUI” ?

Hey Kobe, besides no meaning no, what will never happen at one of your camps?

Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey… Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now. Save yourself the embarrassment of losing with these losers in Las Vegas, La Fleur.

Looks like Antoine Walker’s 3point shot wasn’t the only thing that is suspect.

Your Weekly Chuck Norris Fact:

.

* Please note that Chuck Norris is in no way affiliated with The Drubbing or its writers. If he did find out we were using his name in a gimmick he would roundhouse kick all of us to death.

A couple of weeks ago, I looked back at the article I wrote about last year’s rookie hitters. So for today’s treat, we’ll check in with those rookie pitcher’s from last year that I previewed before the year. If you missed last year’s article, you can find it here. So without further ado, here we go first with the chart I included in the first article, followed by the chart showing this year’s stats:
Continue reading “Last year’s rookie pitchers revisited” →