Larry Brown Sports

Count me as one of the people who believes the December fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao is a farce. I’m never going to knock Oscar for the simple fact that he fights everyone and anyone, bringing the fans the match ups they want. At the same time, let’s not confuse the fact that he’s a businessman and a very good one at that. Why else would he try to make a fight with Pacman happen? Manny usually fights around 130 lbs. Oscar around 154. Think there’s a size difference? So much so, that Oscar De La Hoya apparently must pay Pacquiao $3 million for every pound he’s over 147 — the agreed upon weight limit for the fight — if he’s too heavy.

“I have already talked with Bob Arum and he told me that Oscar has agreed that the penalty will be $ 3 million for every pound or a fraction thereof in excess of 147 lbs (during the weighin),”said Pacquiao lawyer Franklin Gacal yesterday.
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“Oscar is the bigger boxer, is taller (at 5-10 as to Pacquiao who is 5-6) and has the reach advantage,” said Gacal, noting that the Golden Boy will have to sweat it out to make the welterweight limit.

Now the question is, does Manny try to slip Oscar some Caltene bars Regina George-style to make a quick buck, or avoid that strategy because it could be hazardous for him in the ring? As for the fight, the size disadvantage makes it a mis-match, and for that reason, I’m tempted to go with the much bigger and stronger De La Hoya. He might not be the sharpest fighter around, but he’s still pretty tough and packs a strong hook. This isn’t the fight that makes sense in the purist notion, but it sure will be one heck of a draw at the box office.

Major props to Rick at Deadspin for uncovering and sharing a sportscast delivered by Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, back when she was an anchor in Alaska, under the name Sarah Heath. Check out the video:

No surprise, merely hours after its posting it’s already the top story on Ballhype. I mean, what’s not to like about her for sports fans? She studied journalism, was a sports anchor and beauty queen, and she loves guns. She’s a total man’s woman.

I just don’t even know what to do with this. I’m not so sure that the outcome of a sporting event really impacted my life to great levels for longer than like an hour, but I know there are some who live and die with each win or loss. It is for them that the term “fan” was developed. Anyway, here goes nothing:

Nearly 30 percent of U.S. men think sex is better after their football team wins and 10 percent say they have bad sex after a loss, a survey indicates. The survey says 1-in-4 male sports fans would be willing to give up sex for at least a month if their favorite team were guaranteed a Super Bowl win. Of them, 11 percent would give up sex “for however long it takes.”

Bengals fans were unable to participate in the study citing “lack of empirical evidence to make such a conclusion.” The poll results remind me of that line Happy said in Blue Chips, telling Pete Bell, “I don’t know about you, but I **** better when we’re winning.” I guess there really are people like him.

(From UPI via Fark)

Not too surprising for a coke head. I’m not sure about the extent of Jones’ ignorance towards the team’s playbook, but the words come from a pretty reliable source — John Madden via the fine folks of Rotoworld. As the top fantasy source on the net puts it:

NBC’s John Madden said during Thursday’s Jaguars/Redskins game that WR Matt Jones didn’t know the team’s plays last season.
It’s not exactly surprising as there have been whispers about Jones’ commitment level for quite some time. Madden got the goods from David Garrard, who told him that Jones was on the right page this season and could emerge as the team’s go-to receiver.

I’m not shocked to read this either considering Jones’ off-season habits. This strikes me though as one of the comments that’s supposed to be taken as off the record. I’m guessing David Garrard won’t be too happy to hear that Madden said that over the air, but I could be wrong. Perhaps it’s best that this piece of info got out since it explains why Jones has been such a flake on the field. I’m also figuring Garrard told that to Madden to give them an example of why they should expect big things from Matt Jones this year, saying as a throw-away “Yeah, he didn’t even know the plays last year.” Still, with all the practice squad and college guys out there dying for a chance, it’s sad to see Jones wasting his talent like that. It’s an insult to the game.

The headline is self explanatory.

Umph, that musta hurt. Kid was probably mortified afterwards, not to mention Mike Pelfrey who had the misfortune of being there for it. Much like Jake Brown, the kid somehow walked away from the accident. The best part of course is when the shoes go flying after they hit the ground. How funny is that? Oh yeah, hope the kid wasn’t hurt.

(via Mullet’s 7 at FanHouse and The World of Isaac)

Shawn Johnson did not make the All-Hottest Olympians at Beijing Team. Does that deserve a do-over?

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luikin in bikins [Egotastic] via the legendary SpinMax

Shawn Johnson talks about her taco [Sports by Brooks]

Stephen A. Smith sees race as a factor in fantasy football [Deadspin]

How did the Tampa Bay Rays become this good? [Baseball Mastermind]

Tiger Woods putts a Rubik’s cube and makes it [You Been Blinded]

Ted Turner laid the wood to Jane Fonda? [Mouthpiece Sports]

When Kimbo Slice trains LT, weird things happen [Hard for the Yard]

ASU’s new indoor practice facility got destroyed by winds [Pitchfork Nation]

Uh oh, Ed Reed’s injury could be career-threatening [Blogimore Ravens]

Manu Ginobili out of commission for a while [FanIQ]

Nobody ever accused Yankees GM Brian Cashman of deflecting blame; he’s always been a stand up guy. There was the time in Buster Olney’s book where it’s said Cashman wanted to sign Vlad but Steinbrenner insisted upon Sheffield, but aside from that, Cashman takes responsibility for everything. So much so, that he straight up took all the blame for the Yankees’ failures this season and protected manager Joe Girardi.

Asked how much of this is on his shoulders, Cashman said: “All of it. I’m the general manager. So if you want, we can clear this out of the way. This is not a Joe Girardi issue.”
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“I think Girardi’s done a tremendous job given what has occurred,” Cashman said. “And he continues to try to remain upbeat with this coaching staff to try to keep these players up and to try to perform up to their abilities.

“That’s frustrating for all of us, but the buck stops right here with me. My job is to put it together. My job is to fix what’s broken. … I just believe we’re better than this.”

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I was watching Jim Rome Is Burning Thursday and noticed a familiar guest on the program — Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir — a guy who has been on Jim’s show the last few years. Thing is, every time in the past that Kazmir’s been on, it was early in the year before the Rays were a non-factor in the standings. This time around, it’s a different story; Kazmir’s just as good as he’s always been, but the Rays are one of the best teams in baseball. That’s why when asked about the lack of attendance at home games, Kazmir did not stop himself from calling out Rays fans who should be supporting the team. Kazmir said:

It’s kind of disappointing I guess you could say, coming back home from a road trip and you see maybe 9, 10 thousand fans at the games when we’re in first place and at one time the best record in baseball. It seemed like every home stand there was some type of excuse of why we didn’t get our fans here. If we really had a good fan base that cared about baseball and was a good baseball town, I think they would come out and support us. From what we’re doing right now I think it’s pretty special and I think it would be nice to have that 10th man out there to support us when we get home.

That quote is actually a condensed version of what Kazmir actually told Rome (I didn’t have my DVR to pause and transcribe at work, so I snagged the version SportsCenter played at night). Kazmir went into more detail about the excuses fans had for not showing up. Point is, Kazmir’s right — they should have more fans showing up at their games considering how well they’re playing. If it were May or June, I could understand fans still questioning the legitimacy of the run and being hesitant to show up. But now it’s almost September and there’s no doubt that the Rays are for real. By now the fans should have awakened. At the same time, I jumped on Rockies fans for becoming bandwagoners last year when the Rox got hot. In the end, I suppose it’s much better to have bandwagon fans who at least show up late to the party than to have nobody there at all.

Thing is, if those fans need some baseball tickets, all they have to do is go to Ticket Solutions. They can easily hook up Tampa Bay Rays tickets for anyone interested in jumping on the bandwagon, which I would highly encourage.