The real season starts then..

I'm predicting

Denver vs New York in the finals with Denver winning it all.

Denver is healthy..nuff said

New York has a loaded lineup.

Knicks open with Atlanta.

Nuggets vs Minnesota.

series is tied 1-1

Denver is a 1.5 pt underdog.

I see the Nuggets winning this behind The Joker.

Note .Warriors will have the oldest starting lineup ever tonight

Pacers 7.5 underdog.

Interesting to see how they mesh..

Adam Fantelli is the new face of the franchise.

1st game Tonite against Nashville.

Steph Under armor shoes .

89 mil a year!!.

Indiana Pacers out run Bucks 117-98

Siakam with 25

Turner .........19

Nemhard......17..

Greek Freak with 36 in loss.

Pacers up 1-0

Myles Turner..... 20-7

Pascal Siakam...19-8-9

Benny Mathurin..19

Looking for Braun to find his touch to make a game of it.

Joker needs his front court partners to take a load off this magnificent player.

"Jusst a bit outside."

"I must be in the front row."

RIP.

Adam Fantelli scored a hat trick against Washington 

He along with his young teammates look to.make them a playoff contender this year

Adam Fantelli scored a hat trick against Washington 

He along with his young teammates look to.mske them a playoff contender this year.

Take the "Immaculate Reception", mixing in some "Fumble in the Jungle", and then adding just a dash of Earl Campbell.

USA was trailing with under 10 seconds to play, and had the ball about 2 yards from their own end zone (not sure what they call it in rugby). Once the clock hits :00, the game ends at the next stoppage or the next time the ball is down. #8 is Alex "Spiff" Sedrick, and she was the last hope when she got the ball with :08 left.

Not sure how to reference a video on YouTube, but if you search for these 2 titles, you'll get the final moments in the first one and a super-slo mo in the second one:

"Alex Sedrick ERUPTS on final play for Team USA women's rugby history"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa7nXjx_Jj4

"Super-slomo of 'Spiff' Sedrick's match-winning breakaway"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJr5Dtoha6M

Definitely worth the watch, IMO.

I am something of a Red Wings fan because they're old school and this has to be one of the most ridiculous & weird fan traditions going:

Also kinda like the Blue Jackets, they've been good but don't seem to get much attention at home.  Olivier's beatdown on Rempe was an instant classic of a vet taking the headhunting young guy behind the woodshed. A bit like Bell laying out JuJu but with more straight up fist meet face. While Goodell's refs are throwing flags every other time a star QB get hit these dudes square up, go have their little timeout in the sin bin after & the game keeps going.

Not to say there aren't bullshit calls and dirty players but a fight like this on an NFL field would get the cops involved. The cry-bully flopper bs football fans have come to expect is mostly absent and that's refreshing. The officials are generally unobtrusive and most of the rules seem clear 

Kinda pulling for the West at this point as Tkachuk is considered the biggest cheapshot artist in the NHL right now.  These Eastern finals remind of how I watch Pittsburgh vs Baltimore for the sake of a back-alley bumfight.  I like Montour as I believe the last indigenous player standing this season (so racist u guys).  Shesterkin is fun to watch as well. Beyond that I admit I'm a degen fan, I'm basically rooting for the bull.

WCF are streaming on "Max" or TNT.  ECF are showing on ESPN - in their tradition of always offering less for more, you don't get FFWD-Rewind shuttle control without ESPN+ but if you get regular ESPN with a cable TV package you can log in with those credentials.

Expect it's going to be Dallas v Florida for the cup.

He loved life, all humans and everything else in between.

His personality and smile were infectious.

He was extremely LOVED by his NBA friends and associates .

Quirky, intelligent and real.

He attended  900 Grateful Dead concerts and they stayed at his house for days when not touring.

Many others stayed at his home for peace and tranquility being around him.

He was an activist for humanity and nature rights.

He once left the 86 Celtics for practices to attend an Indian protest in the Dakotas.

He lived life to the absolute fullest.

What a great genuine human he was.

Id say rest in peace but he found that on earth many years ago.

Run and gun with  little defense (121.7)..

Tyrees Haliburton   24 pts.11.7 assists per game.

Fun team to watch.

Season starts next week. Lets fly with McCarron!

https://deadspin.com/vince-mcmahon-sex-traffic-lawsuit-wwe-janel-grant-1851197938

https://nypost.com/2024/01/25/business/ex-wwe-employee-says-vince-mcmahon-sexually-assaulted-her-with-sex-toys-named-after-wrestling-stars-suit/

Quote

A former WWE employee claimed Vince McMahon sexually abused her — including with sex toys that he named after wrestling stars — in a shocking new lawsuit.

 

Janel Grant broke her silence about their relationship with disturbing allegations including charges that the wrestling magnate defecated on her head during a threesome in May 2020 and sex trafficked her to other WWE executives, according to the complaint filed in Connecticut federal court on Thursday.

Grant alleged in the complaint that McMahon sent her a text message in May 2020 which read: “I’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f— U.”

 

Her lawsuit comes after the Wall Street Journal reported last year that the WWE was investigating an alleged $3 million payment from McMahon to a departing female employee following a consensual affair.

 

“No means yes” and “Take it, b—h” were among the things McMahon and Laurinaitis said to Grant during the alleged assault, according to the lawsuit.

In July 2021, McMahon told Grant to create sexualized content on her phone and send it to Brock Lesnar, a former UFC star whom the WWE was trying to sign at the time.

 

Last July, federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant and served a federal grand jury subpoena to McMahon, according to a regulatory filing.

So much talent in the league .now.

Western Championshps..

Lakers vs Denver..

Denver wins 1st homecourt game..

Jokic is one of the greastest plyers in the NBA..

34pts 21rebs 14 assists..

Murrey adds 31 outside..

Lebron and Anthony Davis put up big numbers.to keep it close..

(James 26 and Davis 40)..

This series reminds me of 

Laker-Celtic ball years ago..

Just tantilizing watching great  players still perform at an elite level..

s..

https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/09/19/xfl-usfl-football-leagues-merger-report

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/08/05/anderson-ram-rez-facing-suspensions-after-fight-6-ejections-in-wild-white-sox-guardians-brawl/70537733007/

And here’s Tom Hamilton’s call. This is epic.

https://www.si.com/.amp/extra-mustard/2023/08/06/down-goes-anderson-guardians-announcer-call-tim-anderson-jose-ramirez-brawl

for2023/24 season..

Man City

Arsenal

Liverpool

Man U

Chelsea..

Manchester City huge favorite to win league.

pitching as well as anyone Ive seen in playoffs and WS..

Something like 36 innings 8 hits and 1 earned run thus far.

Astros pitching vs Phillies hitting.

Interesting matchup.

Aaron Judge is a modern day Babe Ruth. hone run hitter.

62 HRs is the unofficial all time high.

Shashoni Ontanhi. ( excuse for butchering his name)had a year no player

aside from (once again) Babe Ruth..

34hrs for a OF/Starting pitcher is incredible...

15 -9 ..2 33 era...

Judge in the triple crown race.

Who's the AL MVP??

HAS to be Co-MVPs this year..

Has to be..

EDIT - looks like for 2021, they are keeping the name: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30519665/owner-paul-dolan-says-cleveland-indians-keep-name-2021-season

MLB is considering a move in which each league would have three division winners and four wild-card teams making the postseason starting in 2022, sources said. The best team in the league would receive a bye into the division series. The two remaining division winners and the wild-card team with the best record of the four would each host all games of a best-of-three series in the opening round.

The potential changes were first reported by the New York Post.

Once the teams clinch and the regular season ends, the plan gets congested:

• The division winner with the second-best record would select its wild-card opponent from the three wild-card winners not hosting a series.

• The division winner with the worst record would then choose its opponent from the remaining two wild-card teams.

• The final matchup would pit the wild-card winner with the best record against the wild-card team not yet chosen.

All of the selections, sources said, would be unveiled live on television the Sunday night of the final regular-season games.

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/10/27/politics/donald-trump-melania-world-series-nationals-astros/index.html

"Trump was later seen watching intensely during the traditional Presidents' Race, which pits giant caricatures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt in a race. The 45th President did not applaud when Roosevelt won."

Saturday, June 1, 2019  Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid Spain

The last legs of the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League were held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Each match--Liverpool/Barcelona and Ajax/Tottenham--were considered to be basically decided before they were even played: Barcelona won the first leg 3-0, and Ajax won 1-0 at Tottenham--obtaining that precious away goal in the process. 

For Liverpool, it was dire beyond reasonable hope. Their only chance to go past Barca, was a 4-0 win, or some combination of goal differential to net a 4-goal lead. With 3 of its best players injured, and against a veteran and extremely talented Barca side (with arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi), there was virtually no chance of it happening for Liverpool. Except...it did. They ran Barca ragged with second-teamers--one scoring two goals--and were absolutely impenetrable defensively. 4-0 win, and on to Madrid for the Finals.

if that dizzying match wasn't enough, almost the same insane drama occurred the next night in Amsterdam. After the first leg win 1-0, Ajax went up 2-0 in the first half on Wednesday. Tottenham was completely reeling, and apparent to all that Ajax was going to run them out of the building. Then, Tottenham bags a goal about halfway through...then another within minutes after to tie the match. They have 2 away goals, but had to have the third. The match reached the 90 minute mark, and the referee added 5 minutes for stoppage time. For the next 5 minutes, it was a scene reminiscent of a medieval battlefield--bodies flying every which way...most of it in the Ajax end. But an Ajax forward stole the ball at midfield and sped towards the Tottenham goal...seemingly en route to the killer goal. He fires a beauty to the right corner, but miraculously the ball curves just the slightest and hits the post. Tottenham is all but out of time, but gets one last push into the Ajax zone. Incredibly, a Tottenham forward slips behind his defender...the Ajax keeper comes too far out to meet him, and the forward buries a shot in the back of the goal---at the last second of stoppage time. Tottenham wins 3-2 and goes on to Madrid for the Finals. 

I have seen seen a lot of miracle finishes in sports over the years--but have never seen two in back-to-back days. As the old saying goes "ya shoulda seen it" Amazing. 

Dueling proposals from MLB on Jan. 14 and the union on Friday covered a wide range of topics, according to sources. Among them include:

• A three-batter minimum for pitchers

• A universal designated hitter

• A single trade deadline before the All-Star break

• A 20-second pitch clock

• The expansion of rosters to 26 men, with a 12-pitcher maximum

• Draft advantages for winning teams and penalties for losing teams

• A study to lower the mound

• A rule that would allow two-sport amateurs to sign major league contracts

As part of its initiative to improve pace-of-game play, Major League Baseball has approved a change to the intentional walk rule, going from the traditional four-pitch walk to a dugout signal, team and union sources told ESPN's Howard Bryant.

MLB has studied various ways to quicken games.

ESPN's Jayson Stark reported earlier this month that MLB had made formal proposals to the players' union to usher in both raising the strike zone and scrapping the practice of lobbing four balls toward home plate to issue an intentional walk.

Quote

 

Magic to run Lakers Basketball Front Office as part of restructuring.
Posted: Feb 21, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss announced today that the team has named Earvin "Magic" Johnson as President of Basketball Operations. In addition, General Manager Mitch Kupchak has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately. Furthermore, Jim Buss will no longer hold his role as Lakers Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations.

"Today I took a series of actions I believe will return the Lakers to the heights Dr. Jerry Buss demanded and our fans rightly expect," Jeanie Buss said. "Effective immediately, Earvin Johnson will be in charge of all basketball operations and will report directly to me. Our search for a new General Manager to work with Earvin and Coach Luke Walton is well underway and we hope to announce a new General Manager in short order. Together, Earvin, Luke and our new General Manager will establish the foundation for the next generation of Los Angeles Lakers greatness."

"It's a dream come true to return to the Lakers as President of Basketball Operations working closely with Jeanie Buss and the Buss family," said Earvin "Magic" Johnson. "Since 1979, I've been a part of the Laker Nation and I'm passionate about this organization. I will do everything I can to build a winning culture on and off the court. We have a great coach in Luke Walton and good young players. We will work tirelessly to return our Los Angeles Lakers to NBA champions."

Jeanie Buss added, "I took these actions today to achieve one goal: Everyone associated with the Lakers will now be pulling in the same direction, the direction established by Earvin and myself. We are determined to get back to competing to win NBA championships again."

Regarding Mitch Kupchak, Jeanie Buss stated, "We are grateful for the many contributions Mitch has made to the Lakers over the years and we wish him all the best."

With regard to fellow owner and brother, Jim Buss, Ms. Buss said, "Jim loves the Lakers. Although he will no longer be responsible for basketball personnel decisions, he is an owner of this team and we share the same goal: returning the Lakers to the level of greatness our father demanded. Our fans deserve no less."

In addition to the changes made within the basketball department, the Lakers also announced they have parted ways with John Black who had been the Lakers Vice President of Public Relations. Chief Operating Officer Tim Harris will immediately begin a search for a replacement. Jeanie Buss added, "We thank John for his many years of service."

Quote

 

Arnold Palmer, the gentleman golfer from Latrobe, Pa., whose thrilling, go-for-broke style made him the first television superstar of his sport and earned him generations of devoted fans, has died, according to Golf Digest. He was 87. 

The beloved Palmer, who was the first client of Mark McCormack's legendary sports management firm IMG and later co-founded the Golf Channel, the first cable network devoted to one sport, died Sunday. Further details were not immediately available.

Palmer appeared noticeably more frail in March when he served as host of his annual PGA tournament held at his Bay Hill Club & Lodge outside Orlando. A few days earlier, he said he would no longer hit the ceremonial first tee shot at The Masters, which he had done every year since 2007.

The charismatic Palmer captured seven major tournaments during his illustrious career, taking The Masters four times (in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964), the British Open twice (in 1961 and 1962) and the U.S. Open once (in 1960, when he rallied from seven strokes down in the final round to storm past an aging Ben Hogan and a young Jack Nicklaus).

He never won golf's final major, the PGA Championship, finishing second three times, and had spectacular flame-outs, like when he blew a seven-shot lead in the final nine holes at the 1966 U.S. Open before falling in a playoff the following day. It was one of his four runner-up finishes at the Open.

Palmer, though, did win 62 times on the PGA Tour - including 29 times in his heyday of 1960-63, an era when color was coming to televisions across America. Audiences loved watching the swashbuckling Palmer, whose style was to swing as hard as he could on every full shot.

"He was the perfect figure for television, because of his athleticism, his good looks, the way he played the game," his biographer, Jim Dodson (A Golfer's Life), said. "He created the excitement that TV symbolized. It was immediate, it was fresh. It could take people right to the scene in ways media had never done."

His fervent fans became known as Arnie's Army, and he made it a point to sign each and every autograph for them with perfect penmanship. "What's the point of signing something if the person can't read it or later can't even remember who it was?" he often said.

In a game that is often elitist, he was never so.

In 1960, Palmer shook hands with McCormack to become the first client of International Management Group. The two had known each other from college, when Palmer competed for Wake Forest and McCormack played for William & Mary.

In Palmer's first few years with McCormack, his annual endorsement earnings grew from $6,000 to $500,000, and the golfer became a global "brand," one of the first in the annals of sports. He endorsed motor oil (Pennzoil), rental cars (Hertz), automobiles (Cadillac), airlines (Quantas, United), sunglasses (Ray-Ban), tractors, cardigans, after-dinner jackets, aftershave lotions - and much, much more.

Plus, he had his own drink, the Arnold Palmer, a half-and-half combination of iced tea and lemonade that he mixed in his kitchen for years. His company has been selling its own brand since 2001, and a commercial showing him dispensing one in an ESPN cafeteria was a very popular SportsCenter spot.

The Arnold Palmer "goes well with everything from a cheeseburger to a liverwurst sandwich to a cup of soup," he once said.

In yet another savvy business move, the athlete and Alabama entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs secured $80 million in financing to launch the 24-hour-a-day Golf Channel. It went on the air on Jan. 17, 1995, and five years later, Comcast acquired control of the network after Palmer cashed out.

He also had a thriving golf course-designing business and piloted his own plane.

Arnold Daniel Palmer was born Sept. 10, 1929, in Latrobe, a modest suburb in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. His father was a steelworker who became a greenskeeper and then the club professional at the Latrobe Country Club, and Palmer began playing golf at age 4 and driving the club's tractor at 7.

He attended Latrobe High School and Wake Forest - his college career was interrupted by a three-year stint in the U.S. Coast Guard - and then won the U.S. Amateur tournament in 1954 at age 19.

The chain-smoking, up-and-down Palmer was fun to watch even then, as Sports Illustrated described in its coverage of the event at the Detroit Country Club: "Throughout the tournament, Palmer would play four or five holes in a row with great authority. Then he would erase the impression that he is almost as finished a shot-maker as Gene Littler was a year ago by smothering a drive or bumbling unsurely with an explosion shot. He is a sound putter and above all a player of tremendous determination."

A few months later, Palmer made his Masters debut, his first of a record 50 consecutive appearances at the event. When he won in Augusta, Ga., for the first time in 1958, the golfer with forearms like a prize fighter was a big hit with the soldiers from nearby Camp Gordon who had come in for free to help run the scoreboards. It was there that Arnie's Army was born.

"I'm flattered by the fact that people want to talk to me or shake hands with me or get an autograph," he told Esquire in 2014. "I feel flattered that they want that. And I try to do all I can to accommodate."

President Dwight Eisenhower considered him a son, and when Palmer was dominating in the 1960s, the number of players in the U.S. doubled to 10 million and a new course in America was built just about every day for 10 straight years. He was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods.

"The King" also was instrumental in the success of the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) for players 50 years and older. He became eligible in its first year (that timing was not a coincidence) and won 10 times on the circuit before retiring from tournament golf in October 2006.

One of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974, Palmer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

His wife of 45 years, Winnie, died in November 1999 at age 65 of ovarian cancer. He married Kathleen "Kit" Gawthrop in 2005; survivors also include two daughters and a grandson, Sam Saunders, who plays on the PGA Tour. 

 

SAUGET, IL (KTVI) - Gateway Grizzlies outfielder Brandon Thomas experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat Sunday night, all in one swing of the bat.

Thomas hit a grand slam in the bottom the second inning, smashing the windshield of a truck in the parking lot. Only after the game did Thomas realize the truck was his!

Tim is one of my all time favorite athletes who never played for a favorite team, along with David Robinson and Walter Payton.

A new strike zone could be on baseball's horizon and the old-fashioned intentional walk could be a thing of the past after both were agreed to by the competition committee at Major League Baseball's owners meetings this week, sources said.

The potentially dramatic changes could be in effect by next season.

The committee agreed on a motion to effectively raise the lower part of the strike zone to the top of the hitter's knees, sources said. The current rules stipulate that the zone begins at "the hollow beneath the kneecap," but the change is a reaction to a trend by umpires to call strikes on an increasing number of pitches below the knees.

The change in the intentional-walk rule would end the traditional practice of requiring the pitcher to lob four balls outside the strike zone. Instead, a team could signify it wants to issue an intentional walk, and the hitter would be immediately sent to first base, sources said.

The two changes can't go into effect unless they are approved by baseball's playing rules committee, which is chaired by New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and made up of a cross-section of baseball executives. Sources said the changes would also be presented to the MLB Players Association as part of negotiations for a new labor agreement. However, the playing rules committee isn't required to have the union sign off on the changes. So they could take effect next season whether or not the union agrees to them.

Both changes are designed to address concerns by commissioner Rob Manfred and others about pace of play and one of the commissioner's favorite terms, "pace of action." The end of the traditional intentional walk would eliminate dead time. However, the adjustment in the strike zone is designed to produce more balls in play, more baserunners and more action at a time when nearly 30 percent of hitters in the average game either walk or strike out, the highest rate of "non-action" in history.