And ‘lo, the ‘cheerleaders’ tag was born. Is cheerleading a sport? Marbleman (a gentleman and a scout) replied, when asked if cheerleaders should get in trouble for sultry dance routines:
“I am in favor of punishing cheerleaders.”
Tag Archive for 'Sports'
Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson won his fourth race in a row, and tenth on the season, extending his point lead to 86 points over teammate Jeff Gordon with one race to go. All Johnson has to do to clinch his 2nd title in a row is finish 18th or better in Homestead. The race at Phoenix saw him take the lead for the final time from Martin Truex Jr, after Truex had stayed out on the last yellow flag while most every other driver, including Johnson, pitted. Truex could not hold off Johnson, and several others, falling to the lower half of the top-10 by race’s end.
Continue reading ‘Title fight all but over with Johnson’s 4th win in a row’
With apologies to Kope, this was one of those games. First place in the AFC North was on the line, and for a time, it looked like the Browns were going to forge a 1st place tie, but then the 2nd half had to be played…
Continue reading ‘One of those Wow games - Steelers beat Browns 31-28′
Although the Rangers scored first, the Pens tied midway through on a goal by Sergei Gonchar. The Rangers got a late powerplay goal on the first half of a double-minor to Gary Roberts, for high sticking and roughing, for a 2-1 Rangers lead after one. The Pens PK, which had been stellar the previous 5-6 games, allowed two goals this night, going back up 3-1 after two. Both teams would add a goal in the third, including Mark Recchi’s 1st goal since opening night, but Lundqvist was stellar yet again, despite the Pens dominating play in the third. Continue reading ‘Pens at Rangers’
The New England Patriots have seared through the competition, finding themselves with a 9-0 record at their bye week, with 7 games left: at Buffalo (4-4), vs. Philadelphia (3-5), at Baltimore (4-4), vs Pittsburgh (6-2), vs. Jets (1-8), vs Miami (0-8), and at Giants (6-2).
How likely is it they can run the table?
Continue reading ‘Mid-Season - can the Pats complete the perfect season?’
Today’s news that Eric Lindros plans to retire begs a review of his career - oft filled with injuries, mainly concussions. Originally drafted by the Quebec Nordiques #1 overall in 1991, he refused to sign with Quebec, so he was traded in 1992 to the Philadelphia Flyers for Peter Forsberg, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Ron Hextall, Steve Duchesne, future considerations and the Flyers’ Round 1 pick in 1993 and 1994. The trade built the team that won the 1996 Stanley Cup for Colorado, their first season after relocating from Quebec.
He had the most hype and expectations of any draft pick of the 1990s, and in the 16 years since his draft, he played 13 seasons but only 760 games, netting 372 goals and 493 assists for 865 points. Those total points barely cracks the top 100 all time in the league - good for 99th - but the question is, does Lindros belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame? Continue reading ‘Lindros retires - does he belong in the HHOF?’
In the end, NASCAR stepped in it big-time in Kansas yesterday. From the two rain delays, the 2 hour 2nd one coming after the official mark, to restarting it knowing they could not get the full distance in, and cutting back the length twice (first from 267 to 225, and then to only 210), and then finally ending under four laps of caution after debris on lap 207, failing to heed the green-white-checker rule. Many of these choices led to Biffle winning - where he ran out of feul, and could not maintain pace-car speed, coming to the end of lap 210. A green-flag finish to 210 would have seen him run out of gas, and a green white checker would have done the same thing.
The debris at 207 was not phantom - Montoya left clear debris on the track - but the way NASCAR called the rest of the race, it would have seemed fitting for the race to have gone green even with the debris. That would have made more sense than the excuses that NASCAR’s Jim Hunter gave after the race, that Biffle “maintained a reasonable pace” and that the “field was frozen at the moment of caution” - by that standard, the October 2006 Talladega race would have been an 8-48-25 finish.
Dale Jr claimed his first pole in 5 years at Pocono last weekend, fell back from the start, managed to lead 8 laps mid-race, and rallied to finish 2nd behind winner Kurt Busch. Busch led 175 laps of 200, so between the extra 5 bonus points, and the 15 point difference between 1st and 2nd, Busch turned a 13 point deficit into a 7 point lead for the 12th and final chase spot.
When is the Winner not the Winner? When NASCAR chooses to enforce its rules differently for one driver than every other. And when Robby Gordon is involved.
NASCAR came down hard against the 24 and 48 teams today, giving them identical penalties that befell the 8 team after Darlington: 100 points (owner & driver) lost, $100,000 fine, and a 6 week suspension for the Crew Chief. This was on top of both teams being unable to practice on Friday, and unable to qualify as well, forcing them to settle for the 41st and 42nd starting spots, respectively. Gordon finished 7th, while Johnson finished 17th in Sunday’s race at Sears Point.
While the COT penalties were identical to that of the 8 team, their effect is not. Gordon had led the points by 271, now it’s only 171. He is still up on 13th place by 700+ points, and still has the same amount of wins bonus at the Chase cutoff as he did before. Johnson falls from 3rd to 5th in points, but remains 366 points behind Gordon, and is up on 13th place by about 350 points. Like Gordon, Johnson also still has the same amount of wins bonus as he had before.
With 10 races until the Chase, barring a major injury keeping either from several races, they will make the Chase. The 8 car is on the bubble - they were in Chase territory when the penalty was applied, and had to climb back into place. The 8 is 96 points ahead of 13th - but would have been 196 and in 10th place.
Fresh Cracks...