Larry Brown Sports

There’s nothing wrong with hating a team or a team’s players.  Laker fans have grown to despise Celtic fans over the years and vice-versa.  That will happen when two teams face each other in the NBA Finals 12 times in 40 years.  For the most part, the hatred that accompanies a rivalry like this one brings fun and excitement to the game.  However, an LA Times blog post that was published briefly on Monday morning represented an example of how even writers can get caught up in a heated rivalry and forget that at the end of the day it’s just a game.

LA Times columnist Ted Green got completely carried away in a blog post he wrote on Monday morning.  In his thorough compilation of reasons to hate the Celtics, Green slipped in a comment that poked fun at Paul Pierce for having been stabbed at a night club back in 2000.  Here is what Green said about Pierce, courtesy of The Big Lead:

“By the way, Pierce’s idea of a fun night is going clubbing and getting stabbed. Good times!”

I don’t know if Ted Green forgot his morning coffee or what, but I can’t figure out how he would think that publishing a comment like that is appropriate or funny in any way.  Even if he thinks it’s funny — and that would be pretty disturbing — you’d think he’d have enough common sense to realize that he’s taking things too far by saying something like that. The LA Times certainly realized it was out of line; they edited that line out of the article.  There are plenty of things to make fun of the Celtics’ captain for, and Green hit on a couple when he criticized Pierce for taking flops and being a drama queen.  He could have even taken a shot at his arrogance, which was on display two years ago when he claimed to be the best player in the world.

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No one likes to lose. There isn’t a feeling that is quite as horrible as losing. You can’t forget losing — it stays with you. You wait for that chance to get your revenge and do everything in your power to make that happen. Well, the basketball gods have heard the wishes of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers — they are going to get their chance at revenge against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

The last time the Lakers and Celtics met in the NBA Finals was two years ago. Celtics fans made it hard for the Lakers to forget that they had lost. As the team sat on its bus, Celtics fans started shaking it and throwing rocks at it. There’s no question the rowdy Celtics fans are on the minds of the Lakers — just look at what Lamar Odom said:

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After losing star first baseman Kendry Morales to a broken leg as a result of a rowdy celebration at homeplate following his walkoff grand slam Saturday, the Angels vowed to change their ways. Manager Mike Scioscia said, “It’s going to change the way we celebrate.” Pitcher Jered Weaver shared the sentiment, “Obviously, we’re going to have to change the way we go about celebrating something like that.” As hard as it is to contain raw emotion and pure joy in moments of success, one had to wonder if curbing their celebrations was realistic. Well, 24 hours later the Angels were tested and proved they were committed to making a change.

Second baseman Howie Kendrick homered twice to beat the Mariners 9-7, including a game-winning walkoff 3-run home run in the bottom of the 9th. When he reached homeplate, there wasn’t the typical mob scene we’re used to seeing but rather a group of teammates ready to hug him once he was done making the round trip. They definitely congratulated Howie and got into it, but things weren’t as wild, crazy, and physical as usual. And you know what? The moment wasn’t any less exciting. Hopefully the Angels will keep winning games and nobody will be hurt during the celebrations. Maybe other teams will follow their lead to avoid having players land on the infamous list.

Sources:
Morales breaks leg celebrating slam [Orange County Register]
Images via KCOP

Talk about your ultimate ironies. A guy who gets paid to drive at speeds consistently over 200mph on the racetrack was busted for speeding going down the highway. Driver Tomas Scheckter got a speeding ticket only two nights before the Indy 500 on Sunday:

Scheckter got a speeding ticket Friday night on Interstate 65 in Indianapolis, where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour. Police say it was difficult to clock Scheckter accurately because he was weaving in and out of traffic.

Scheckter could have been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving but was instead given a ticket for driving at an unreasonable speed. The ticket carries a fine of $175 to $500.

Scheckter on his twitter page actually says he got preferential treatment: “they know who i am said normally i would be arrested but just gonna give me a ticket.” I guess it pays to be a racecar driver nobody outside of Indianapolis has heard of. In case you were wondering how he did, Scheckter finished 15th at the Indy 500.

Sources:
Indy 500 driver gets speeding ticket before race [AP/FOX Sports]
Tomas Scheckter on Twitter

I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s some sort of schadenfreude type of deal, that makes it so much fun to discuss and categorize injuries. We’ve broken down some of the most ill-timed sports injuries, talked about pitchers who have been hurt batting, and we’ve shared stories of some of the weirdest injuries in sports. And now, because of Angels first baseman Kendry Morales who broke his leg during a celebration following a walkoff grand slam to beat the Mariners, we have a list of athletes hurt while celebrating in sports. Let us know if we missed anything.

The Angels had just beaten the Mariners 5-1 thanks to Morales’ walkoff grand slam to center field. After rounding the bases, Morales headed for home and leaped to the plate. Somehow he managed to fracture his leg and he may be out for the season. He was leading the Angels in batting average, home runs, and RBIs at the time of his injury.

The mother of all idiotic celebrations to cause injuries, Gramatica tore his ACL jumping for joy after making a 42-yard field goal for the Cardinals against the Giants. The torn ACL knocked Gramatica out for the rest of his rookie season. Bill was never the same after injury, going from making 16 of 20 field goals his rookie year to being out of the NFL three years later.

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Three years ago, I was pretty incensed that Giants fans had created a computer program to vote Barry Bonds into the All-Star game at AT&T Park. Because of the program, Bonds overcame a 119,000 vote deficit in the final days to overtake Alfonso Soriano by around 123,000 votes. There isn’t much question that the computer program had a major impact and helped stuff the ballot box in favor of Bonds who otherwise wouldn’t have made it in. If I was so upset over the perceived cheating by Giants fans in that situation, why am I less bothered by what the Marlins are doing with their fans? Probably because they’re encouraging fans to vote for their hometown Marlins the old-fashioned way — by punching 200 ballots all by hand!

As I was tipped off by Hardball Talk, the Marlins are encouraging fans to vote their players into the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim with bribery. The team is giving away two tickets to an upcoming game against the Brewers to fans who vote for all Marlins on 200 All-Star ballots. As if that’s not enough, the team is also giving memorabilia away for people who take home ballots and vote anywhere from 1,000-20,000 times. They’re also providing ticket vouchers for those who vote online 25 times.

Initially I was on board with all of this, thinking that the Marlins needed all the help they could get, and that some support from their few fans would be a good thing. Howeva, if I start seeing Gaby Sanchez leading at first base over Albert Pujols, then I won’t be happy. I’ve always felt that All-Star selections should be based on merit and I’ve prided myself on making my selections as an informed fan. This reeks of ballot box stuffing and there’s no reason MLB should have approved it. Then again, anything that will increase the traffic to their website and they’ll be happy, so what do they care? It’s not like “doing the right thing” is ever high on their agenda. Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Josh Johnson should be representing the Marlins at the All-Star Game in Anaheim. Probably only two of them will make it.

Sources:
The Marlins are trying to stuff the ballot box or something [Hardball Talk]
Florida Marlins resort to ‘bribery’ to induce All-Star voting [Palm Beach Post]

The buildup and hype for UFC 114 in Las Vegas centered around the main event between Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans. Evans won that fight by unanimous decision in a bout that failed to live up to expectations. Two fights before the main event however, we had some serious action. Todd Duffee, he of the 7-second UFC record knockout punch, was obliterating Mike Russow the first two and a half rounds of their fight. Midway through the third, Russow, the part-time fighter/part-time Chicago cop, caught Duffee with a punch squarely in the face. The result was Russow taking home the bonus for KO of the night. Here’s the Mike Russow knockout punch video of Todd Duffee:

That punch truly was a Hail Mary knockout if I’ve ever seen one. As Brent Brookhouse of bloodyelbow.com said on my radio show, that fight was the football equivalent of Florida leading The Citadel 70-0 and The Citadel scoring a 71-point touchdown to win. Duffee kept Russow at a distance the entire fight, peppered him with a variety of punches and uppercuts, and had things on cruise control until that knockout. That’s the crazy part about MMA — it only takes one punch to change everything. It’s really a shame for Duffee because he really was dominating the 12 minutes prior to that knockout.

It’s been an unbelievable year for pitching accomplishments in MLB this season. Things got started with Ubaldo Jimenez’s no-hitter for the Rockies against the Braves. That was only the start of things to come as A’s pitcher Dallas Braden then tossed the 19th perfect game in modern MLB history against the Rays on Mother’s Day. Then on Saturday night, Roy Halladay threw a perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Florida Marlins, the second perfecto in Phillies history and the 20th in MLB history.

Halladay of course retired all 27 batters he faced, doing it by throwing 115 pitches, 75 of which were strikes. Doc struck out 11 batters, got eight groundouts, and six flyouts in the win. Halladay’s perfect game obviously stands out on its own, but it’s just another example of Roy’s all-around brilliance. Halladay has made 11 starts this season and this was his third complete game shutout. While the chances of Halladay winning 25 games is slim since he’s 7-3 on the year with about 23 starts left to make on the season, there’s no doubting his brilliance. Roy’s breaking ball was sharp, his sinker was dropping like a mofo, and everything he threw was moving. You know what? Things really weren’t all that much different for Halladay on the hill this time around from every other time he makes a start.

Halladay is one of the best pitchers in baseball and he’s been that for a long time now. I’m glad he now has a perfect game on his resume to go along with his numerous other accomplishments and I’m glad he got the closure he hasn’t had since his rookie season. MLB Network explained that Halladay came within an out of tossing a perfect game against the Tigers in his rookie year but Bobby Higginson burned him with a home run. This time around, Halladay got Ronny Paulino to ground out to third to finish off the job. Roy Halladay now has a Cy Young Award, six All-Star selections, two 20-win seasons, and a perfect game on his resume. There’s no debating his greatness.