I’m going to talk only about football just as soon as Spurs start winning, and for exactly as long as they do. Otherwise, I like these topics that take my mind off disappointments. SOS, I’ve thought the one I should have watched is Anderson Silva. I understand he was the master, at his peak. I also agree that MMA will look better and better as the sport matures. LDL, Great song, and a noble sentiment. I was working in Manhattan when the Rangers broke Lemieux’s wrist in a playoff series. Got to hear lots of Lemieux-hoo-hoo. Then the Penguins won the series. It was sweet. I’ve heard two great hockey songs. One was a canuck break up song with the lyric: "I do all the work. You get the glory. You’re the great one. I’m Marty McSorley." Okay, you need to know who Marty McSorley is, but if you imagine the biggest goon on Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton team, you’d be right. Exactly--for seven of the nine positions. They spend half the game sitting on the bench, and the other half standing around on the field---with, as you say, four or five bursts of the death defying effort needed to run 60 feet. A baseball catcher has it much rougher, though, since he spends half the game in a very uncomfortable crouch, not to mention getting dinged by rock-like missiles going 90 miles an hour from time to time. They mostly slam into protective equipment, but picture it going off your throat guard or the protection for more vital soft parts, not to mention a bare arm, hand, or ankle. It’s no picnic. Pitchers now only pitch every five days. It used to be four, then three, then two. They aren’t getting any softer. (Well, sure they are, but that’s not the basic problem.) A proper baseball pitch, performed by a professional, rips his shoulder apart a little. Pros are good for 100 or so, then need four days to heal. Many, many pitchers destroy their arms and careers even pitching on four days rest, and many more would do so if they pitched more frequently (though surgery is capable of ever greater wonders--sometimes pitchers surgically rebuilt arms are better than the ones nature provided them with. In the old days, when pitchers pitched more often, they simply didn’t throw as hard, and selected themselves for easy, smooth motions to a much greater extent.
Diego Costa has been charged for one of his stamps in the game last night. Not sure what made that different to the other stamp or to Cahill's offences against Kane when we played Chelsea. He should get a ban, but there's no consistency being applied with these retroactive decisions.
RWAEB, The Hextalls are Canadian and named themselves after the ice hockey player Ron Hextall. They poke fun at a lot of things in their songs - ice hockey being a recurring theme.
I remember Hextall. One of the Broad Street Bullies, I think, from the days when the Flyers won a few Cups. That Philadelphia team was hockey’s answer to Leeds in the Don Reeves era.
(edit) Not exactly. Ron Hextall did play most of his career for the Flyers, but a decade after the Broad Street Bullies era. But there were many Hextalls. His grandfather played for the Rangers, his uncle played for the Penguins, and his dad played for a few teams.
I am a New York Rangers fan too, form afar.Please don't ask me why.They didn't do much until Captain Marvel joined them and won the Stanley Cup!!!!! By the way.If baseball players could play every day,and some nearly do,that's,what? 161 games,mostly in summer and they've got to concentrate all the time,in between running off and running on for 9 innings (3 hours +!). Not as easy as it seems....and they aquire many injuries too.... I remember when we had ever presents at Spurs....didn't seem to worry them much!......and I've never seen so many hamstring injuries as they get today.I'm trying to remember if Cliff Jones ever had that problem.I can't recall....and he ran like a hare,got lots of goals and was brilliant with his head.
The oddest thing about baseball is that it’s not that far off a regular job, in terms of the hours worked. Players are supposed to show up, believe it or not, four hours before the game. Throw in a 3 !/2 or 4 hour game, and a half hour to shower and leave, and it’s a regular work day. 162 games starts to approach a regular work year, when you add spring training, travel, etc. And there are plenty of players who spend lots of extra time practicing. A game does involve a lot of concentration. It’s not surprising many games turn on one lapse in concentration, in the field or on the basepaths. One of the vintage era Baltimore Orioles remembered the manager would fine any player who ever got caught in off base on a line drive. The strange thing, he said, was that it was just barely possible to avoid at all times, even when running on a pitch, but you had to concentrate very hard. If you did you could sense when the batter was going to line out the moment he swung and get back to the base in time. Pete Rose may have cared more about winning than anyone. Ernie Banks may have cared more for playing. "What can be better than being outdoors and playing this wonderful game?" was a typical quote. He was famous for wanting to make his eight hour day a twelve hour day by playing a doubleheader. Every day. "Ernie makes you proud to be part of the game," one-time Cubs general manager Dallas Green once said at Wrigley. Standing nearby, Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn reacted thusly: "He makes you proud to be a human being and happy to be alive."
Have you all seen who and how many we have to play in the build up to the final? Normally when a team reaches the final they are so happy that play and results improve, let's hope so because the thought of losing to West Ham and Arsenal daunts me. We have to be good fettle for the final. Can see us losing to Arsenal as they are in very good form.
I think its clear from his selections that Kane is his first choice no.9. Ade has been utilised during the recent busy period to enable rotation and give Kane a rest. Kane is still a youngster, although sometimes its hard to believe watching him. Similarly Bobby is coming on as a sub, and getting subbed off if he starts.
Ade is so frustrating. When he's in the mood, on form etc, he's almost unplayable. Unfortunately, nobody knows which day of the month that's liable to be!...
Two things in today's BBC Gossip column made me want to put my foot through my monitor... Chelsea are preparing an appeal after the Football Association charged striker Diego Costa, 26, with violent conduct for an alleged stamp on Liverpool midfielder Emre Can in their League Cup semi-final second leg (The Times) Referees must help Costa cut out his alleged stamping on opponents or someone will get seriously hurt, says former official Mark Halsey. (The Sun) When there's footage of it happening from several camera angles, it's not "alleged" in the slightest. When did missing the ****ing point become a desirable quality for journalists in this country?
Surely, you must realise that the U.K. Is becoming more and more litigious - just picking up all America's bad habits, as usual. I'm sure they're just covering their arse with the wording. Once he's found guilty, then he's fair game.
The BBC didn't have a problem saying that Cliff Richard was a sex offender last year with no evidence, which is far more likely to get them slapped with several lawsuits than saying a footballer stamped on an opposition player with plenty of video evidence to back it up. Besides, Sky Sports' website didn't play the "allegedly" card in relation to Gary Cahill going Ong Bak on Harry Kane, did they?
I haven't read the actual report. Could be that the Beeb is just using Chelsea's own words, which of course, would use the word allegedly. I don't remember them saying outright that Richards was a sex offender. Merely, that he was being investigated for ossicle offences.
Doesn't stamping imply it was deliberate, and until there is a hearing it has to be allegedly. His defence would be that it was accidental. It wasn't, but Mourinho already said they were accidents.
Thousands of players seem to be able to avoid stepping in their opponents every week, yet Chelsea's have struggled recently. Perhaps they need some new boots or a trip to Specsavers? Speaking of boots, Arda Turan wasn't too happy with his yesterday in the Atletico v Barca game: That's a yellow card offence, apparently. Good to know.
