It’s time to debut a new feature here on Kerrzy’s Notebook: “The Wednesday Worsts” – a nod to the crummy side of sports!
Too often in sports it’s the highlights that tend to hog most of the attention, but I’m here to give a bit of press to the cringe-worthy aspects of the games we all love! I’m talking about the horrid own goals, the cheap shots you have to watch twice and the losing streaks that are so long you hope they continue, just so they set some kind of record!
Lucky for us, there is a lot of that type of thing going on at the moment! Let’s start in baseball, where the Seattle Mariners are chasing history:
The M’s managed just one run in an 8-1 defeat at the hands of the NY Yankees on Tuesday night, giving them 17 straight losses coming into Wednesday’s action! Just how bad is that streak? Well, the American League record is 21 straight losses, held by the 1988 Orioles, and the 1961 Phillies set the MLB mark with 26 in a row!
Can they do it? I hope so…if you’re going to tank as hard as they already have, you may as well tank the hardest, right? Do you really want to go through all that pain just to be the “almost” worst team ever?
Let’s go from losing streaks to a guy who absolutely lost it earlier this week: (AFTER THE JUMP – video of Brazilian soccer jump kick, plus a terrible own goal!) (more…)
For most North American sports fans, the off-season is a fairly boring period where the best you can hope for is a big trade or signing, or perhaps a new collective bargaining agreement.
If you’re a soccer fan though, the off-season apparently just means more highlights! I’m not even sure that there is an off-season for soccer fans, because when your European league of choice closes shop for the year, there is always Major League Soccer, which plays on an opposite schedule!
This year, while NFL & NBA fans sweat their respective lockouts and NHL fans get overexcited about player movement, the “off-season” for soccer fans has been jam packed with action. First, there was the Women’s World Cup, which really showed us all how far women’s soccer has come. Then we’ve got the Copa America, which has featured some massive upsets so far, and finally, the Herbalife World Football Challenge is now in full swing.
I know what you’re saying: “Kerrzy, the World Football Challenge is just a series of money-making friendlies where they make 10 subs at half time!”… (more…)
What a couple of weeks for the Lake County Fielders of the North American Baseball League!
In a series of events that is sure to have people questioning the legitimacy of the NABL itself, the Fielders have gone through a stretch that has seen them lose a manager, an interim manager, 23 players and a play-by-play guy…all since July 9th!
The underlying issue here seems to be money – apparently the team, which is co-owned by actor Kevin Costner, has been a bit tardy when it comes to the paychecks. The Lake County Daily Herald says the first one to go was manger Tim Johnson, who quit the team via email after telling his players that he hadn’t been paid since the start of the season!
Eleven Fielders players refused to play that night against Jose Canseco and the Yuma Scorpions, some out of support for their former manager, others because they hadn’t been paid in a while either. It’s tough to say if this, too, was a form of protest, but interim manager Pete LaCock used pitchers as position players and position players as pitchers on the night, which wound up being an 8-3 loss (and a win for Scorpions pitcher Jose Canseco!). LaCock resigned after the game.
If you think the craziness ends there, you’re wrong! (more…)
The boys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back for another week, running down the top stories in the world of sports! This week: The Oilers continue a busy off season, Matthew Hulsizer is back in the running to be an NHL owner, Jonathan Cheechoo gets another shot and, in football, Anthony Calvillo makes history.
In the GABBYs: Ryan Whitney & Twitter, MLS goalie goals, Jose Cano, the Tour de France and more!
When it comes to sports, they really love their nicknames down in New Zealand, don’t they?
Most people have heard of the All Blacks, the nation’s elite rugby team, and you might have heard of their soccer team, the All Whites (and the Football Ferns), but it doesn’t end there! No sir. They seem to have a nickname, in that pattern, for just about every national team on the slate!
At some point, you had to figure that this “nickname” business was going to go too far…and according to the New Zealand Herald, it finally has! (more…)
As always, the birthday of our great nation also signifies the start of free agency in the NHL! Thanks to smartphones and free/stolen wireless internet, it’s now easier than ever to be social and remain glued to your favorite sports sites…but who is going where this year?
The biggest fish in this year’s free agent market is definitely Brad Richards, who is coming off a 77-point season with the Dallas Stars. Richards is a talented playmaking centre who is going to score big money for sure on the open market. There are plenty of teams lining up to make a pitch for the 31 year old, including the Leafs, Rangers and Kings, but it will be interesting to see who is able to land him in the end.
Tomas Vokoun is easily the best available goalie out there this summer, after a 22-win, six-shutout season in Florida. Will he stay with the Panthers? They certainly have the cap space to make a deal, and they need to add over $20-million in salary to reach the cap floor! Adding Brian Campbell could be the first of many big moves this summer for Florida.
As for defencemen, there are a lot of veterans available at the moment, including the likes of Ed Jovanovski and Bryan McCabe. There are some intriguing restricted free agents on defence that could come into play, like Shea Weber and Drew Doughty, but I can’t see Nashville and LA letting these guys get away.
I can’t wait to see how things shake down! (After the jump: Pro tennis player messes with ball boy, Hilarious ESPN “World Cup Fever” commercial and more!) (more…)
We’re into the fourth day of action at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you’re missing out!
While there haven’t really been any upsets so far, the first three days of the tournament have provided us with some magical moments on the field and a few controversies off of it. From Christine Sinclair’s wonderful strike for Canada on Sunday, to some strange roster issues in Equatorial Guinea, it’s safe to say that it has been a very interesting few days on the WWC front.
Let’s start with the controversy – “sisters” Salimata and Bilguisa Simpore were dropped from the Guinea roster before the tournament started because they were accused of actually being brothers. ESPN reports the two were “key” players on the team at the 2010 African Women’s Championship in South Africa, but these allegations just wouldn’t go away. One of the two was also rumored to have featured for other national teams in the past, which of course isn’t allowed.
As if that wasn’t enough, Equatorial Guinea lost another player on the eve of their opening game due to eligibility issues. Striker Jade Boho was suspended on Tuesday because she apparently played for Spain within the last five years! Do the national footy associations not check for this sort of stuff? (After the jump: More controversy, plus three SICK goals from the first three days of the tournament!) (more…)
When the NHL bought the Phoenix Coyotes back in the fall of 2009, who would have thought it would still own the team almost two years later?
Believe it or not, after two full seasons, the league does still own the team and it appears there is still no end in sight to the Coyotes ownership saga. The Phoenix Business Journal reported on Monday night that another potential owner has pulled out, making it three unsuccessful bids since the NHL took over.
Sources say Chicago’s Matthew Hulsizer is no longer interested in becoming the owner of the franchise, joining Ice Edge holdings and Jerry Reinsdorf in the category of groups that showed interest, but were never able to come to a lease agreement with the city of Glendale. (more…)
There’s a lot of drama on the women’s side of this year’s Wimbledon tournament at the All England Club.
Let’s start with the noise issues – no the athletes aren’t up late partying or anything. Once again, it’s an issue of grunting! The chief executive of the AEC says they’re “uneasy” about how loudly the tournament’s female players are grunting during matches!
Ian Ritchie told the Daily Telegraph that even the fans are becoming frustrated with the loud players, who they say are spoiling the game. It’s actually quite funny when you hear an example of what they’re talking about – Victoria Azarenka was clocked at 95 decibels with a grunt during the first round, with each one lasting over 1.5 seconds.
Who holds the record for the loudest known grunt? Maria Sharapova hit 105 decibels in 2009! (After the jump: More tennis drama, Football Cops and a crazy soccer goal!) (more…)
It’s the one week anniversary of the “Battle of Vancouver” on Wednesday, and police in that city are getting high-tech in their attempts to track down and charge as many of the culprits as they can.
The fallout from the Canucks riots has been interesting, from the public shaming websites started up by Vancouver citizens, to the Facebook/Twitter witch-hunts that outed people who thought they had gotten away with the damage they caused. Personally, I thought the social media side of things would be the most intriguing part of the aftermath of the chaos – I couldn’t wait to see what happens when thousands of people take pictures of thousands of people breaking stuff and setting things on fire.
It looks like I underestimated how far that storyline would go though. If there are pictures floating around the internet of you doing something stupid and you have a driver’s license, you might be hearing from the Vancouver Police Department very soon!
The VPD says it’ll be running pictures from the mayhem through some facial recognition software. (more…)
After back-to-back last place finishes, the Edmonton Oilers will (barring any earth-shattering wheeling & dealing) once again be stepping to the podium before anyone else at the NHL Entry Draft on Friday.
Last year, they nabbed sniper Taylor Hall with the first overall pick. This year, it looks like it’ll be Red Deer Rebels playmaker Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. That leaves the Oilers stacked to the brim with young talent, especially up front, but maybe lacking the guidance of a few veteran players to help steer the ship.
Enter: Ryan Smyth?
Seemingly out of nowhere on Monday night, rumors started to circulate that Smyth had spoken to the LA Kings about a trade back to the team that drafted him in 1994. TSN’s Bob McKenzie was the first to report the story, saying a deal “certainly isn’t imminent,” but that “both organizations are well aware of the existing situation.” (After the jump: Why Ryan Smyth is a good fit for the Oil…) (more…)
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
We saw the best and the worst of things on Wednesday night in Vancouver as the Stanley Cup Final came to an end – on one hand, a phenomenal series threw us another curve ball with the Boston Bruins finally beating the Canucks at Rogers Arena…but then, of course, all hell broke loose afterwards.
Seeing the pictures and video of the destruction in downtown Vancouver after that loss sends chills down my spine – it’s scary to watch a city turn into a madhouse like that, where regular people are flipping (and torching) cars or smashing windows and robbing stores. Let’s get a couple of things straight though – first of all, it was probably going to happen whether or not the Canucks won that game. Secondly, this isn’t just a Vancouver thing – it can (and does) happen in any big city! (After the Jump: More on the riots, Strangest goal of the NHL playoffs, Name That Team and Eric Hassli’s MLS wonder goal!) (more…)
It was quite an end to the NHL season on Wednesday night in Vancouver, riots aside, with the Boston Bruins providing a huge upset at Rogers Arena to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup.
Now, when I say “upset,” it’s not so much that the Bruins beat the Canucks, it’s how they did it. Did anyone honestly predict that Boston, who had scored three times in Vancouver over the first three games there, would come out and put up a four-spot in game seven? I certainly didn’t!
One thing that wasn’t a surprise at all was the awarding of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP to Bruins goalie Tim Thomas – he earned his second shutout of the final in the deciding game and ends up with a 1.14 goals against average against Vancouver. He was absolutely ridiculous during the playoffs and many people were convinced that he would win MVP honors regardless of the outcome on Wednesday.
Here’s the bad news though: that’s it for the season! We’ve got the NHL awards coming up, the draft a few days later, free agency kicks off a week after that and then we’re into the dog days!
Before we completely close the book on the season that was though, I feel it’s only fitting that we look back at the top 10 goals (as chosen by me) of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs… (more…)
It’s time to debut a new feature here on Kerrzy’s Notebook: “The Wednesday Worsts” – a nod to the crummy side of sports!
For most North American sports fans, the off-season is a fairly boring period where the best you can hope for is a big trade or signing, or perhaps a new collective bargaining agreement.
What a couple of weeks for the Lake County Fielders of the North American Baseball League!
When it comes to sports, they really love their nicknames down in New Zealand, don’t they?
NHL Free Agency
We’re into the fourth day of action at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you’re missing out!
When the NHL bought the Phoenix Coyotes back in the fall of 2009, who would have thought it would still own the team almost two years later?
It’s the one week anniversary of the “Battle of Vancouver” on Wednesday, and police in that city are getting high-tech in their attempts to track down and charge as many of the culprits as they can.
After back-to-back last place finishes, the Edmonton Oilers will (barring any earth-shattering wheeling & dealing) once again be stepping to the podium before anyone else at the NHL Entry Draft on Friday.
It was quite an end to the NHL season on Wednesday night in Vancouver, riots aside, with the Boston Bruins providing a huge upset at Rogers Arena to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup.
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