Uncommon Sportsman: FanPosts

Who will be voted off tonight's episode of survivor?

2010-03-12T01:24:59Z

If it's the villians that win i say that james and his big mouth with toungue lash everyone and piss everyone off and he will be voted off. If the heroes win i say that russell can either get coach or boston rob of the show. I have supreme confidence of russell getting his way and swaying the women''s vote in his favor. This is turning out to be the best survivor so far. Keep up the good work cbs. I have not checked out the nubers this season for survivor but i'll guess they are up and will climb as the season wears on.

Curling In Kalamazoo

2010-03-11T22:45:49Z

It's a BIG Deal! The U.S. Curling Nationals are going on now at Wings Stadium. The debate continues...is Curling a true sport? Does it require athleticism to participate? Or, is it a glorified frozen version of shuffleboard? I feel it's a 'sport' much like golf and bowling. Drinking is essential. If you're an out of towner, it's mandatory to head over to Bell's Brewery in downtown Kalamazoo. The best microbrew in the Midwest!

Who is the next to get voted off Survivor?

2010-03-01T03:24:51Z

i'll take a long shot and say boston rob or coach will be voted off. i think their will be a power struggle on the villain team and i think Russell can outmaneuver either one of those guys. I think he could get the backing of the women he needed to get either one of those guys off. I already said that i think Colby or Amanda will win this season. I just think a hero will win and it will be someone who came in second place. If their was one villain i would pick it would be russell.

33rd America’s Cup Race 1 Open Thread

2010-02-07T21:19:28Z

Author's Note: Because the first race was delayed for a second time on Wednesday, Race 1 will begin Tonight/Early Morning Friday 3am Pacific (This is yet another postponement of 2 hours from the 1am start time). The best coverage state side is espn360.com

Today the Vince Lombardi Trophy will be hoisted by the greatest professional football team in the world. But the Lombardi Trophy is nothing compared to the oldest sporting trophy in the history of mankind.

History has shown what those will go through and sacrifice to capture the cup. Yachtsmen have failed and even died in attempts to win. It defies logic to dedicate so much time, money and livelihood to just a sport. The Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, British royalty are the type of characters who chase this holy grail. The 2010 America’s cup is undboubtably the most maddening edition of a yacht race that spans three centuries.

In one corner you have a team that hails from Switzerland… Team Alinghi. Alinghi is backed by gizllionaire drug lord Ernesto Bertarelli. Team BMW Oracle, now known as USA-17 is headed by yet another gizllionaire Larry Ellison.

In short only these two teams, rather than the more than ten we are used to, are foolish enough and egotistical enough to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a single event that could be realistically decided in the first 10 minutes. The technology being applied to these two boats is ridiculous. These boats move more than three times the speed of the wind… defying all traditional science. USA-17 doesn’t even have a mainsail, it uses a wing! A wing so massive it dwarfs that of a Boeing 747

We’ve never seen, nor will we ever see again in our lifetimes such infuriated amounts of research, time and money being thrown at a sailing race. The next edition of the America’s cup will most likely turn back the clock to traditional monohauls and sails. So this is it! If you don’t follow the America’s Cup there is no better time to start. And if you do, this is the race you tell your grandchildren about. The resources dedicated, along with the ludicrous soap opera between these two team makes this perhaps the most single important sporting event of all time. And the 33rd America’s Cup Starts Tonight!

Are you going to do anything related to competitive eating?

2010-02-09T03:06:32Z

I was reading the krispy creme challenge and thought of this. Joey Chestnut vs Takeru Kobayashi (and others)at nathan's hot dog eating contest comes to mind. i think they show it live on espn now. I know Chestnut won last years title. Also would you consider the WSOP an uncommon sport b/c there are over 8000 participants with a grand prize of a bracelet and 6 -10 million dollars in cash. It depends on how many entrants. Just curious.

San Diego Derby Dolls Bout!

2009-12-15T04:29:56Z

Last week, SD Steve and I were at the Tilted Kilt for an event with 619 Sports. In addition to the San Diego Sockers Indoor Soccer team being in attendance, the local roller derby team was there -- The San Diego Derby Dolls. Lucky for Steve and I, the girls were nice enough to give us free tickets to attend their next bout (yes, they really call it a bout) at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

And with that, we have the following report, complete with blurry action pics and some video!

For those who aren't familiar with it or who didn't see Drew Barrymore's Whip It, roller derby is an awesome sport where girls race around a track on skates and beat the crap out of each other while doing it. Seriously, it rules. Speaking of rules, you can view the rules of the game here at the Derby Dolls website. They do a much better job of explaining it than I ever could.

The event itself was very well-attended, with people supporting both teams sitting at floor level or in VIP bleachers. There was never a dull moment with some sweet music pumping coupled with the nonstop action of girls skating and getting all kinds of nasty with each other. Very un-ladylike. Below are the blurry pics I promised.

Warming up before the craziness begins

via lh4.ggpht.com

A view of the hot buttery action from the floor

via lh5.ggpht.com

Late in the bout, the Derby Dolls came back from a double-digit deficit. This really got the crowd going and the Dolls were able to capitalize on that energy and secure the victory over the visiting team from Silicon Valley. Here's the last jam in video form, it's a fun 2 minutes:

When it was over, members of both teams mingled and shook hands, showing off the camaraderie that comes with such an intense sport. Here's a pic of both teams looking sweaty, scary, and sexy all at the same time:

via lh6.ggpht.com

I also was able to finagle a pic with one of the combatants, a very nice Derby Doll named Slamurai. She is best-known for her butt block, according to her bio. If that doesn't get you excited to go see roller derby in person, I don't know what will.

I'm now Slamurai's #1 fan

via lh6.ggpht.com

The next bout for the Derby Dolls is January 23rd against Arizona, again in Del Mar. Buy some tickets or I'll sick Slamurai on you and she'll butt-block you to death (not kidding).

Why Isn't Badminton Popular in America?

2009-09-29T23:58:24Z

via www.nysun.com

"My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular" said Adlai E. Stevenson (quotationspage.com). Unfortunately, badminton has been unpopular for a long time in America the land of freedom. However, the United States of America (USA) Badminton team put in a good effort at the 2008 Summer Olympics. But, they went home empty handed without any medals. Part of the reason why the USA Badminton team lost was because they do not have a huge talent pool to pick from to develop a Olympic team. In addition, badminton is considered more of a backyard sport in America. It’s not a hugely popular sport in the USA such as in China, Malaysia, Denmark, and Indonesia. But, why isn't badminton popular in America?

First, badminton isn't even the most popular racquet sport in the USA. Tennis is the most popular racquet sport in America and its drawing tons of interest in young athletes that could be competing in badminton. No one really dreams about being a badminton star in America. One reason is because there has not been any star badminton players in America like there are tennis stars such as Serena Williams, Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi. Star athletes help bring exposure to the sport and that increases young people’s interest in playing it. There are a few good USA badminton players such as Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan. But, they do not get the media attention needed to become well known in America.

America is not one of the best countries in the world at badminton. Since USA is not dominating and consistently winning events this is keeping the media from providing any attention to American badminton. The 2008 Summer Olympics the USA team in Beijing did not end the competition ranked highly. To illustrate, the highest ranked teams were China, Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia. These countries that finished in the top ranking in the Summer Olympics is continually dominating the sport. American sports fan do not like to see their country gets beat by other countries. And until America gets more competitive at Badminton the USA will continually overlook the sport.

Another issue in drawing America interest in badminton is the salary for badminton athletes are substantially lower when compared to professional athletes in other sports. For example, Datuk Lee Chong Wei won the Super Series Finals on January 11th and he took home a 15,000 dollar check. The compensation for that win is a lots lower than the amount that other athletes get paid such as basketball players, football players or tennis players. For instance, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras both made over 30 million dollars in their careers. It’s very rare for a badminton athlete to make that much in their career. That has hurt the amount of American athletes that are drawn to the sport especially when most people equate a professional athletic career as a way to become wealthy.

Thus, badminton hardly draws any interests even though it’s a Olympic sport in America. But, if the USA team keeps improving and eventually starts winning medals in the Olympics. Then that will increase exposure and bring much needed attention to the fun and enjoyable sport of badminton. There are definitely young athletes that would make the needed sacrifices to become part of the USA badminton team so that they could possibility accomplish the great feat of becoming a gold winner for their country in the Olympics.

Works Cited

26 Sept. 2009 http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1383.html

USOF TOP AMERICAN MIDDLE DISTANCE QUALIFIER!

2009-08-24T13:53:41Z

via www.us.orienteering.org

It is a huge feat to represent your country in competition. Sandra Zurcher did just that. As an accomplished orienteer from Colorado Springs, Zurcher found herself in Hungary last week, competing in the World Orienteering Championships.

Middle Distance Qualifier

Qualifiers — August 16
Finals — August 19

Sandra Zürcher has qualified for the Middle Final race, to be run on August 19th! Sandra finished 13th in her heat of 28 runners (the top 15 qualify), 7:54 behind the leader Lea Muller of Switzerland.

USOF TOP AMERICAN FINISHER IN INT'L COMPETITION

2009-08-24T13:51:07Z

via www.us.orienteering.org

It is a huge feat to represent your country in competition. Samantha Saeger did just that. As an accomplished orienteer from Boston, Saeger found herself in Hungary last week, competing in the World Orienteering Championships.

Long Distance Qualifier

Qualifiers — August 17
Finals — August 23

US Team member Samantha Saeger has qualified for the Long Final race, finishing 14th in her heat, 8:36 behind Minna Kauppi of Finland. (Louise Oram of Canada finished 21/29 in the same heat.) Good luck to you in the final, Samantha!

Tour of Carlton Only Two Weeks Away

2009-08-22T04:06:37Z

The Tour of Carlton, the premier and most prestigious event of scooter racing, will begin in just two weeks. The event is hosted by South Carlton Scooter Club, and it includes 21 stages of racing over two days, racing a total distance of almost 40km.

The favourite for the event is Kit Harvey, winner of the Giro d'Carlton and the Australian National Championships. He'll be up against the duo of Mitch Clemens and Max Wilson, both scooting for Murchison Test Team. Wilson and Clemens were 2nd and 3rd respectively to Harvey at Nationals and at the Giro. Wilson has one win, a solid performance at the Carlton-Nice stage race, where Clemens finished second. Wilson and Clemens have the benefit of a stronger team than Harvey: they have Liam Hood, the best young rider from the Giro and the Carlton-Nice; and Hector Thomson, a renowned time trial specialist and stage winner at the Giro. This will give Harvey some woes, especially in the team time trial where his team will be weak. He will get some quality support from Jesse Wilson, a strong young rider. Harvey and Jesse will be joined on the Carlton Gardens Racing Team by Brendan Hood, who is a talented climber, and another person yet to be named.

Stage list

Tour de Carlton Promo (via TeamSCSC)

Stumbled Across A Hilarious/Intresting Movie Trailer About Chicago's Fan Rivalry

2009-08-18T18:20:28Z

I thought the Uncommon Sportsman community would appreciate this!

A good friend of mine posted a video of us on You Tube buzzed at Wrigley Field during the Crosstown Classic a few months back. I was surfing the Tube, in search of our debaucherous day at Wrigley when I came across a few trailers for an upcoming short documentary titled "A Crosstown Classic Story". I seriously almost pissed my panties! I did a little research and found the filmmakers website . According to the website, the movie is narrated from Chicago's baseball fans perception about each other without the filmmaker injecting his own thoughts. (hope I'm not in the movie..lol) In fact, he is not even a baseball fan which makes it even more interesting (I found the link to the press kit and read an interview...whoops). Anyway, I wanted to share this with everybody. Check out the trailers below, they're absolutely hilarious!

Nichole

The art of the text commentary

2009-07-08T12:06:09Z

Sometimes you can't make it to a sporting event, sometimes there are stupid restrictive broadcast issues so you can't watch it on TV, sometimes your cable doesn't have the right channel, sometimes you are actually meant to be working.

What do you do?

If it's time for the Ashes Cricket series then you turn to the BBC for their live text commentary.

Opening day of the Ashes

The beauty here is that nothing much really happens and you have to fill in time with funny comments, strange observations of the crowd and well basically anything you can think of. Sprinkle liberally with made up cricket words like googly, nurdle, silly mid off add in breaks for lunch and tea and what you have is sometime the most entertaining read on the internet.

What other sports go on for hours with very little happening?

How about some Tour de France

I would also have mentioned tennis, but Wimbledon is done for now.

Can the UFL make it where so many others have failed?

2009-07-07T02:51:44Z

The UFL has been in the news a little bit lately. For those not in the know the UFL is the United Football League created by William Hambrecht a Wall Street Investor who was once a minority owner in the USFL’s Oakland Invaders football team, and Tim Armstrong a former executive at Google, and now the Chairman and CEO of AOL.

These men have hired Michael Huyghue as the Commissioner of their League. Huyghue previously worked for the NFLPA, the NFL management council, served as Vice President of the Detroit Lions, and was the General Manager of the Birmingham Fire of the old World league of American Football. Hr was also a sports agent who clients included one Adam “Pac man” Jones.

The biggest piece of news out of this league is that William Mayer, founder of Park Avenue Equity, ids the leagues latest investor and owner of the league’s New York franchise. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks is also a rumored investor but his role for 2009 seems to be as of yet undefined. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi is also reported to be an investor in the league.

The leauge will field only four tams for its 2009 inaugural season, one each in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York. The league has gone all out to hire big name head coaches and football fans will surely recognize these next three names Dennis Green will coach in San Francisco, Jim Fassell will coach the Las Vegas Franchise, while Jim Haslett will coach the Orlando team. Ted Cotrell, previously the Defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, and San Diego Chargers will be the Head Coach of the New York team.

Keep Reading

Gator Ball rule?

2009-05-23T02:26:54Z

Maybe some of you have heard of Gator Ball. It is basically soccer, but if you can kick the ball in the air, then someone may touch it with their hands. I have Googled it up and it is played around the nation, mostly at high schools. But if you have heard of it, I have a question.

See, the Gator Ball championship was recently played at my school, and the score was tied 2-2 going into the fourth sudden death overtime. The ball was run downfield, and the player jumped and bounced the ball into the goal, which I thought was legal. Not so fast. Apparently, if you jump, it is an automatic turnover. The opposing team promptly scored to end the game. If it matters, we were using flags.

I may be completely dumb to post this, as the game may not be played nation-wide as I thought, but does anyone know the official ruling? Or as official as it can get? Thanks.

Street biking is easy

2009-05-01T18:17:06Z

I was turned on to this from Lance's Twitter posts. Lance called it a "must watch", so all you uncommon sportsman out there better oblige.

The video takes a little while to get going..some dramatic setup stuff and then some fairly common street free riding stuff...but then it gets to be, well, awesome.

Rider's name is Danny MacAskill and he's riding around Edinborugh

Do yourself a favor and check it out

Amazing Race Season 14 Episode 8

2009-04-13T22:43:00Z

Amazing race season 14 episode 8 recap

Jbox asked me to post the recap for this episode, I think because he was too busy with some ladies of the night (which he gave up for lent). He didn't miss much this episode, because in my opinion it was the same old crap. Team Midget Stuntmen broke the rules again and Team Sistas are so dysfunctional.

This one starts out by the teams leaving Phucket and headed to Bangkok Thailand. It must have been nice to take a 1 hour flight instead of taking 15+ hours to get anywhere, but it sucked for the first teams that had to spend the night in the airport to catch a 7am flight. After arriving they all took taxis to the first road block, and that's when hot red head cheerleader's anger came out again. I was curious why Luke and Margie didn't wait up for Cara and Jaime, unless Deaf Kid already got some and it wasn't that great. The roadblock was one of the easiest ones to date with the propeller, but it shows had bad Asian Lawyer Victor is at putting things together. Things quickly got complicated after some teams decided to grab their gear and head by boat to the next clue, while others left their stuff waiting at the dock or in the cabs. For some strange reason ugly sister Kisha decided to leave her shoes and their passports at the dock thinking they would come back to get them. Of course the midget brothers disagreed on whether to take their stuff or not and it cost them in the end. At the detour teams had to decide whether to ride in karaoke cabs or fit dentures in some old folks' mouths. Both of these ended up being really disturbing to watch. All of the teams but one decided to go with the karaoke taxis but had to ride with Thai party chicks that were seemed to be trannies. Luke and Margie chose the dentures, and Deaf Kid just kept moaning the entire time. I couldn't tell if he was moaning because he was frustrated or because he was so disgusted. Margie was methodical about the whole thing and completed it in no time to get them to the pit stop first. Team NFL Cheerleaders were second to the pit stop, and then Team Asian Lawyers third.

Team Sistas technically got to the pit stop third, but Phil broke the bad news that they had left their passports behind at the dock and could not be checked in until they got them. I kept thinking that they're screwed since last season the stupid college frat dudes left their shoes at a previous detour and couldn't retrieve them at the end of the pit stop. So they had to take a cab back to the dock, grab their backpacks, shoes and passports and get back in time. Meanwhile, Team Midget Stuntmen argued what seemed like hours trying to decide whether to go back to get their backpacks or complete the detour first. They opted to take a cab back to the docks, and had to drop a ton of money doing so. They finally met up with their first taxi and had that guy take them back to the city for the detour. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough money and Mark offered a flashlight and something else (I think a HJ) to pay for the cab. They did the karaoke and Michael loved the trannies and probably had no clue they were dudes. When they took the last taxi to get to the pit stop, they were short on cash and Mark paid with his watch. They made it to the pit stop before the sisters made it back. Then Phil dropped a huge bomb on them reminding them that they had illegally paid for taxis with items other then cash, and incurred two 2-hour penalties... four hours in total they had to wait. Stupid midgets. Finally Kisha and Jen showed up to finish fourth and had a tender moment when they cried about how stupid they are for not taking two minutes to grab their crap. Phil waited a good ten minutes and then finally decided to check in the midgets. Good news for them is that it was a non-elimination race. Bad news is that not only do they have a speed bump in the next leg, but they also have to wait out the remainder of their penalty (~3 hours) in the beginning of the next leg. Too bad they didn't know that in advance, because they could have asked Phil to wait out the delay before checking-in.

In a preview for next week's episode, Jen and Luke get into a scuffle twice and someone gets called a bitch. I can't wait.

girl fighters?

2009-03-25T21:37:08Z

I'm totally new to the subject and wanted to know whose everyone's favorite girl fighter? curious me. send me some links maybe to whats going on out there?

who else loves girl fighting? boxing? are there any girls in MMA? i'll have to google. I think that girl fighting is hot. just curious whose everyones favorite! Where can a girl in LA find girl fighting live? does anyone know about this?

Holler at me!

yay yay!

Jim Lampley replaced as Olympic Announcer

2009-03-07T00:42:28Z

I'm not sure if anyone saw this today but Jim Lampley has been replaced by AL MICHAELS of all people as the daytime host of NBC's olympics. This will end Lampley's world record of 14 straight olympic broadcasts which ended with Jim having the highest ratings of all time for an announcer in the 2008 Beijing games. I think all the Lampley fans out there should take some time to let Dick Ebersol, the President of NBC Sports know your thoughts on this decision as the newspaper quotes him as saying that "he can't imagine an Olympics without Jim Lampley" and neither can I. These are the only email adresses I can find. If anyone else knows about any contact info for NBC Sports, post it below.

nbcsports@nbcuni.com

nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com

Tennis in the East Village

2009-03-04T04:07:33Z

[Note by the tennis junkie, 03/03/09 8:05 PM PST ]

Sometimes, I find myself playing tennis on the public courts underneath the Williamsburg Bridge. This is the East Village. It's a different game down here. This is gritty tennis, in a tough park. This is tennis with a layer of grime. Sometimes, there's a group of players who come out on Sundays and play "old school tennis," with old wood racquets and long hair and seventies tennis attire. Replicating the golden years of the tennis player, dressing up as Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, and Vitas Geralaitis, all rock stars of tennis, from a different era. I think it's a group of gay men actually, who usually dress in drag, adding some theatre and drama into playing tennis on a Sunday afternoon. Getting into costume and playing adds a nice slant to the game. Something you will only find underneath the Williamsburg Bridge, playing tennis in the East Village. Surrounded by the smell of traffic and garbage, and just tough, city life. www.nyctennisblog.blogspot.com

World's Worst MMA fighter!

2009-02-27T13:50:07Z

I challenge you to listen to this podcast and not laugh. This guy could be the Detroit Lions of MMA. He is 0-13 and thinks he has a shot at being champion of the WEC or UFC one day. Wait until you hear about his NC that he says is a true win......

The audio can be found AT THIS LINK, Scott Blevins Interview.

When asked who he idolizes he says Shonie Carter. This home trained fighter talks like he is the pride of Indiana MMA, but didn't know what a Hoosier is...

This is a hilarious interview, especially since the hosts truly try to be professional.

The fighter is Scott Blevins. He recently did an interview on Cage Potato too.