Larry Brown Sports

When fans rush onto the court or charge the field during sporting events, we typically get the impression that they are either drunk or have a goal in mind — or both. We’ve all seen crazy dudes at baseball games who hop over the stands and try to high-five the superstars before a security guard lays them out, but what happened on Sunday night during Game 4 of the opening round playoff series between the Nuggets and Lakers was a bit unordinary.

As you can see from the video above, a woman who was sitting courtside in Denver wandered out onto the court just before the first half ended, then turned around to head back to her seat. For a second it almost looked like she was going to commit a reach-in foul. As Deadspin shared with us, TNT’s Craig Sager pointed out during the broadcast that the woman was yelling at players before being escorted off the court and removed from the arena. Sager spoke with a couple of detectives who said she has a history of stalking players and was basically supposed to be banned from the arena. She is being charged with trespassing.

She should just be thankful she got out of there before something like this happened.

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The way I see it, there are many types of fans in the world. There are fans who can afford to go to the ballpark or stadium but are content to sit at home on the couch and watch. There are also fans who would take out a second mortgage just to make sure they attend as many games as possible. And then, there are fans who are willing to quit their jobs just to go ballpark-to-ballpark for a full year. Meet Matt and Carolyn LaWell.

According to the Florida Times-Union, the LaWells recently began a 152-day, 26,000-mile tour that will bring them to 38 states to visit 120 minor league baseball parks. Planning for the trip began two years ago, when the couple cut costs by downsizing from an $850 per month, 1,200 square-foot apartment in Ohio to a $500 per month, 650 square-foot place. They also got rid of cable and rarely ate out. Carolyn says she did not buy any new clothes for 10 months. Basically they saved as much money as possible.

The first stop on the tour was last week in Jacksonville, and Matt said he and his wife weren’t thinking about what would happen if the trip turned out to be a failure and left them unemployed.

“You can’t have regrets,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to. A regret would be not even trying. We’re here. We’re in Jacksonville. Day zero. Tomorrow (Thursday) is game day, day one. If everything works out well …”

At the end of the journey in September, they hope to have spent around $10,000. If they do a good job of documenting the trip, the hope is that Matt and Carolyn can make some of the money back via the $3,000 website they purchased to showcase the trip. Matt is a former sports reporter, so he has the necessary experience.

Say what you will about the risk they’re taking, but you can’t fault the LaWells for chasing their dream. They may end up broke because of it, but at least they’ll have seen 120 parks in the process.

There’s good, clean home court advantage , and then there’s shaking the opponent’s basket when they’re shooting free throws. We have very rarely — if ever — seen the latter, but conference tournaments bring out the worst (best?) in everyone. As you can see from the video above that The Dagger shared with us, Montana fans decided to shake the hoop during the second of two free throw attempts by Weber State’s Damian Lillard on Wednesday. Fortunately for Weber State, Lillard realized that the rim was actually moving back and forth and it wasn’t just his nerves getting the best of him.

Can’t blame them for trying to secure their team’s win in the Big Sky title, right? Yeah, I guess you can. Kind of uncalled for.

A young Kansas State fan made news recently for getting in hot water with her kindergarten teacher, and it was all because the fan made a fuss about refusing to color a picture of a KU Jayhawk during a lesson about the state. Now, that is dedication!

The student comes from a Kansas State family and her mom, Julie Burton, wrote about the incident on her blog.

“Emma would not color this Jayhawk today with the rest of her class,” Burton recalls the teacher saying. “She told me she would not color it. She told me she does not like KU and her family likes K-State. She asked me for a K-State picture instead but I told her this was her only option. She took the paper, crumpled it up and threw in the trash can. I asked her to get it out of the trash can and she told me no then refused to speak to me the rest of the day. I told her I would have to have a chat with you about this and she will need to color this tomorrow during recess.”

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If you want to see some strange characters, venture on over to the MLB Fan Cave site and meet some of the 2012 contestants. These people take fanhood to an entirely different level than most of us, and some of the things you see will blow your mind. For example, 28-year-old Benjamin Christensen has a hat from every MLB team, tons of MLB collectible items, and a tattoo of every single team’s mascot on his torso. Seriously. Check out these pictures:

What Christensen calls being a fan, some people may call clinically insane. If the ink impresses you, you can vote for him until Feb. 22. If nothing else, at least Benjamin can say he has cartoon characters drawn on him rather than detailed human faces like this one and this one.

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Some fans in attendance for the fight card at Club Once Unidos in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina Friday night rioted after one of the bouts ended. Filipino Johnriel Casimero beat Argentine Luis Alberto Lazare by TKO to win the IBF light flyweight title. The fans didn’t like the outcome and showed their objections by throwing chairs and other objects into the ring. Some of the people even went after Casimero.

According to Vavel.com, some of the attackers were members of the Teamsters Union. They say the fight was full of dirty moves, with Casimero committing fouls in the fourth and eighth rounds. They also say Lazarte bit Casimero’s ear and hit him in the neck. The product was a fan riot that rivaled Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden. I’m guessing quite a few of the fans in attendance lost major money on the fight and that’s why they went nuts.

UPDATE: Casimero reportedly suffered a concussion and a team member broke two ribs in the fight.

via Dan Rafael

A man delayed the soccer game between Everton and Man City Tuesday evening by running onto the field and handcuffing himself to a goalpost. Police had to use bolt cutters to free him from the post after a delay in the game.

So what kind of person handcuffs himself to a goalpost during a soccer game? Someone with some serious motivation.

The man in question is believed to be John Foley, the same man who staged a protest of Ryanair Airline in 2010. He protested at the airport last August and at a horse racing festival last March. The man apparently was upset with his daughter’s firing by the airline so this was his way of getting back at them.

I will give him credit for creativity, and for getting his message across two continents. Now that’s impressive. Here’s a look at the video:

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Serbian tennis player Viktor Troicki lost his second-round match at the Australian Open in five sets to Mikhail Kukushkin. It probably didn’t help that Troicki was playing on the outer courts where the fans are only a few feet away from the action and have easy access to heckling.

Troicki was especially rattled by one drunk guy who blurted out “How do you say ‘choke’ in Serbian?” after a point.

Upset with the taunt, Troicki immediately asked to have the fan removed.

Even though we don’t see it too often, this sort of thing happens frequently on the outer courts of tournaments where little attention is paid to the matches. I’m guessing that if YouTube and cellphone cameras were around back in the day, my father and his buddies would have been ejected from a Petr Korda match at the U.S. Open.

Thanks to Guyism for sharing the video

Anyone who knows me knows I have always had an enormous crush on Heidi Watney. The former Red Sox sideline reporter — who is now rumored to have taken a job covering the Lakers — recently broke my heart. Every day it gets a little bit easier. While I have always had a thing for Ms. Watney, I don’t think I would have the stones to tell her that if given the opportunity. Ideally I would try to make some small talk with her and play it cool. Greg from Lemont, on the other hand, seems like more of a “tell it like it is” kind of guy. He has a thing for CSN Chicago reporter Sarah Kustok, and he straight up let her know about it after he participated in the “Shoot the Puck” contest during the Blackhawks game Thursday night. Check out this video that CSNChicago.com passed along:

Homeboy threw his hand on her shoulder and everything.  People have been calling this video creepy but personally I ain’t mad at Greg for this move.  He knew this could be his only chance to let Sarah know how he feels so he went for it.  What other choice did he have?

Typically when a hockey player scores his third goal of the night fans will throw hats onto the ice.  That is because scoring three goals in a game is known as a “hat trick.”  How boring is that?  It’s rare that a player score three goals in the same game.  It’s an amazing accomplishment, so I think they deserve more than just a bunch of hats that the refs have to clean up.  That’s why one thoughtful Montreal Canadiens fan thought outside the box and hummed a dildo onto the ice when Lars Eller scored his third goal Wednesday night.

At least it looks like a dildo. If it’s shaped like a dildo and has a bright color, it’s probably a dildo.  And you thought throwing one of these or one of these onto the ice was strange?  Some Montreal fan just blew your mind.

Picture via @geeyee17 and Puck Daddy