I love watching Ochocinco in interviews and on the field- you can never guess what he’s going to do or say.
The three Bengal fans that caught Ochocinco after his touchdown in the third quarter had apparently been ready and praying for that moment all game long.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Ochocinco wrote on his Twitter account last week that he wanted to jump into the crowd at Lambeau Field if he scored a touchdown. Mike Bergs, a 31-year-old Bengals fan in Illinois, told the newspaper he responded to the post by saying he’d be willing to make the trip to Green Bay to catch the receiver.”
Ochocinco then sent 4, front-row tickets to the loyal fan who caught him safely during his celebratory leap into the crowd.
“That was one of the most pure, fun moments for us as Bengals fans,” Bergs said.
from TSN.ca:
With a new Yankee Stadium on the way, the Yankees just keep on spending to put the best possible team on the field.
According to a report on ESPN.com, the New York Yankees have signed coveted free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira to an eight-year contract worth $180-million.
Teixeira, 28, had 33 home runs, 121 RBI and a .308 batting average with the Angels in 2008. In six major league seasons, with the Rangers, Braves and Angels, Teixeira has slugged 203 homers and 676 RBI while batting .290.
Reports had the Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals both as finalists, after the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Baltimore Orioles had bowed out, in the Teixeira sweepstakes before the Yankees, apparently, swooped in at the last minute.
“We would have loved to have had the player, who appealled to us because of the special circumstances of where he’s from and where we are. We diverted from our plan to try to get him,” Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told the Associated Press. “But at the end of the day, it was just too much to pay for one player.
“It would handicap our ability to go forward.”
If this deal is completed, the Yankees will have the four highest-paid players in baseball, with Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and C.C. Sabathia joined by Teixeira.
Phew! from ABC News:
AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support, ABC News has found.
Read the rest HERE
The $1.1 billion stadium, in Arlington, is now 3-for-3 in bids for mega-sporting events!
Then announced Wednesday that it willhost the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four. The stadium, which opens in 2009, is already home to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and the 2011 Super Bowl.
from Yahoo! Sports:
TORONTO - The New York Yankees will miss the postseason for the first time since starting their run in 1995. Mike Mussina pitched five shutout innings to earn his 19th win, Jason Giambi homered and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Tuesday night.
ADVERTISEMENTIt wasn’t enough to keep New York’s slim postseason hopes alive as Boston beat Cleveland 5-4 minutes before the Yankees win. The Red Sox win clinched at least the AL wild-card and eliminated the Yankees from postseason contention.
New York shortstop Derek Jeter didn’t start because of a sore left hand, but came on as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. This will be the first October that the Yankees missed the playoffs in 13 years — a remarkable run, which included four World Series titles.
The Atlanta Braves still hold the big league record by reaching 14 straight postseasons. No one team in the majors has currently made the playoffs more than two years in a row.
Mussina (19-9), who also won 19 games with Baltimore in 1995 and 1996, will try for a career-high 20th victory when he faces Boston at Fenway Park on Sunday in the final game of the regular season.
With his 269th career victory, Mussina moved past Jim Palmer into 33rd place on baseball’s career list. Mussina has the most wins of any pitcher never to have a 20-win season.
The right-hander allowed four hits, walked none and struck out six.
Marco Scutaro hit a one-out double off Mussina in the first, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
Mussina was struck on the right elbow by Travis Snider’s line drive single in the third, with the ball ricocheting into foul territory between home plate and third base. Trainer Gene Monahan and manager Joe Girardi came out to check on Mussina, who declared himself fine after two practice pitches, then ended the inning with a 4-6-3 double play.
Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his 38th save in 39 opportunities.
Blue Jays right-hander Jesse Litsch (12-9) allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out a career-high eight.
New York opened the scoring in the second when Giambi singled, went to third on Xavier Nady’s double and scored on Robinson Cano’s grounder.
Giambi hit a one-out solo drive to right center in the fourth, his 32nd.
The Yankees made it 3-0 in the seventh when Cano doubled, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Gregg Zaun’s passed ball.
Toronto scored a run in the seventh on Scott Rolen’s RBI single, but Joba Chamberlain ended the threat by striking out Gregg Zaun and Snider
Time Warner takes a page from the book of “give people what they want”
Enter SI Vault. If you are wondering what SI Vault is, as the name would imply, it’s 54 years of Sports Illustraded’s covers, images, stories and much more. If an image is worth a thousand words, what would 54 years’ worth of images be worth?
Here’s a story dating back to 1992, for example, on Christian Laettner and Duke. Hmm… Laettner? Duke? Pardon the shameless plug, but enjoy WatchMojo.com’s classic college programming:
Duke in Top College Programs:
And Laettner in Top College Careers:
All right, enough shameless promotion, now go and enjoy 54 years of SI at SI Vault.
Seattle city officials filed a lawsuit Monday to keep the SuperSonics from leaving town. The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court was a counter move to a Sonics’ attempt to be released from their lease on KeyArena.According to the complaint, “The Sonics promised to ‘play all home games … exclusively”‘ at the arena at the Seattle Center through Sept. 30, 2010.
“The city, with the help of some fine lawyers, is standing up to a pro sports team,” city attorney Tom Carr said at a news conference. “Too often, pro sports teams have run over local governments.”
Sonics chairman Clay Bennett said Friday the club has requested an arbitration panel to rule that the NBA franchise does not have to play the final two seasons of its lease at KeyArena, arguing that the contract allows a negotiated buyout.
Such a ruling would allow the Sonics to relocate after this coming season unless the club secures a new arena in the Seattle area by Oct. 31.
Read more.
Check out this cool run down of the 101 things all sports fans must experience before they die. It resembles more of a everything there is to do if you find the Fountain of Youth type post though. Still has some great information in there.
1. Summer Olympics (every four years in a different city). With 10,000-plus athletes from 200 nations, this is the world’s biggest party (did I mention the 130,000 condoms they give to the athletes?). The host city is almost always worth the trip itself (well, maybe not Atlanta) but the 17 days of exhilarating sporting performances will provide memories that will last long after the $24 souvenir T-shirt has faded. Guaranteed, you will see something that makes you proud to be human and call yourself a citizen not of one specific country but a citizen of the world.
BEIJING, May 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — More than 230,000 orders for 1.09 million tickets to attend the Beijing Olympics have been received since the ticketing sales kicked off a month ago, according to the BOCOG Ticketing Center.
Describing the sale process as stable, the center said the orders have been made through the official website of the center ( http://tickets.beijing2008.com ) and through designated Bank of China branches. The website has seen a registration number of 886,000.
Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are reported to be in great demand, followed by tickets for basketball, diving and other competitions.
On the overseas market, a total of 130 countries and regions have submitted their orders to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The center announced previously that about 75% of the tickets will be sold in China, while the rest will be available for the overseas public.
Late last year, BOCOG announced that ticket prices for the Games would be in keeping with its efforts to make the Games accessible to the greatest number of people.
BOCOG is unfolding a three-phased ticketing process for domestic sales. In each phase, residents on the Chinese mainland are able to order tickets through the official ticketing website, or through designated Bank of China branches.
For overseas sales, the procedures will be determined in each country and territory by its National Olympic Committee and selected ticketing agents.
I got to see a lot of ballgames at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and indeed, that was a bad experience, though some games in the magical 1994 and 2003 seasons (1997 also not to bad) were memorable… in 2003 I was also hosting a radio show on a local sports station, so that added to the effect, but indeed, if that crapbox of a stadium - built for the 1976 Summer Games - was any indication, indeed, they’re concreto non grata.
Read more here.
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