On 12/02/2009, In News, Video Games, By Luke Plunkett
As is customary at this time of year, Google have released their "Zeitgeist" lists for 2009, highlighting the fastest-growing and fastest-falling search trends over the past year. As you'd expect,...
On 12/02/2009, In NHL, Sports News, By Greg Wyshynski
Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.
Preview: Vancouver Canucks at New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m. EST. Canwest: "It's Roberto Luongo(notes) versus Martin Brodeur(notes), which in Canada during an Olympic year may be the Jersey equivalent of a Bruce Springsteen-Jon Bon Jovi double-bill." See, there's your problem, Canadian media: Everyone in Jersey knows that without the rest of the Jovi, Jon is just a country singer and a bad actor. Analogy Fail.
Preview: Colorado Avalanche at Florida Panthers, 7:30 p.m. EST. Craig Anderson(notes) returns to Florida, no doubt to taunt the Panthers about what might have been. Adrian Dater has solid video on Tomas Vokoun(notes) (not starting) and Keith Ballard(notes), while wondering what the reaction to Ballard is going to be after the stick incident. Watch The Game Live Via Hockey Night on Y!
Check out previews and updated scores for all of today's games on the Y! Sports NHL scores and scheds page.
Evening Reading
• The Chicago Blackhawks have a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, and Chicago Now is reporting that the Patrick Kane(notes), Jonathan Toews(notes) and Duncan Keith(notes) contract signings will finally become official. Can't wait to see the final numbers. [ChicagoNow]
UPDATE: Bob McKenzie's contract figures for the deals: "Sources tell TSN that Toews and Kane will sign identical five-year contract extensions worth about $6.3 million per season. Meanwhile Keith's deal is worth $72 million spread over a whopping 13 years at an annual average of $5.5 million."
• Big League Screw believes Larry Brooks of the NY Post lifted an idea from a fan on a message board, but it struck us as two observers of the New York Rangers arriving at the same conclusion in the same way. [BLS]
• Presenting the $1,200.08 Alex Ovechkin(notes) hand-painted jersey. This thing is so nutty, we're not even sure if there's a category of Foul for it. [First Cuts]
• Darren Elliot on the growing college connection for the NHL. [SI]
• Chris Osgood(notes) acknowledges that the loss of Jiri Hudler(notes) hurt the Detroit Red Wings more than expected. [Snapshots]
Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: From Jibblescribbits on Twitter comes the re-tweet of the year and one of the most well-timed "CSI: Miami" meme jokes we've ever seen:
Miami PD Spokesman: "Ballard will have to (takes off glasses) cut another Czech" YEEEEAH!!
Epic.
Bold Prediction: Timmy Thomas shutout in Boston.
AFC East rivals are set to clash in Toronto on Thursday night, as the Bills prepare to play their second game in a five-game series at Rogers Centre. The last trip north of the border didn’t fare very well for Buffalo, as the Bills were easily handled by the Miami Dolphins 16-3. Here’s hoping the Bills’ second trip to Toronto works out much better.
Earlier this season when these two teams exchanged pleasantries, the Bills pulled out a 16-13 overtime victory thanks to Rian Lindell’s 47-yard field goal with 2:49 left to go in overtime. The Jets lost despite having a tremendously huge statistical edge. New York outgained Buffalo 414-296. The Bills had arguably their worst game on defense, giving up 318 yards on the ground. Jets running back Thomas Jones set a franchise record with 210 yards rushing on 22 carries. In the second quarter alone, Jones rushed for 135 yards including a 71-yard touchdown run. Leon Washington nearly joined Jones in the 100-yard club on the day, rushing for 99 yards.
But as big a reason as Lindell was for Buffalo winning the game, Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez shoulders certainly helped the Bills out. Sanchez had a miserable day passing, completing just 10 of 29 passes for 119 yards and a whopping five interceptions. He finished the afternoon with a quarterback rating of 8.3. Buffalo collected six interceptions in all and since then the Jets haven’t been able to mind the magic they had at the beginning of the season when they started 3-0. The Jets are 2-3 since losing to the Bills and their playoff hopes are on life support.
Buffalo will look somewhat differently the second time around, with Perry Fewell now at the helm. Fewell replaced Dick Jauron as the Bills’ head coach two weeks ago in Jacksonville, and last week he recorded his first ever victory as a head coach against Miami, 31-14. For the first time since their win over Tampa Bay in Week 2, the Bills finally gave their fans reason to celebrate. Buffalo blasted Miami with 24 points in the fourth quarter, including a 51-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Terrell Owens. It seems as though Fitzpatrick and Owens have sparked one another the past two weeks. The duo has hooked up for two touchdowns in as many weeks, breathing life into what’s been an otherwise lifeless offense.
Whether or not there’s still enough time for the Jets to collect themselves and seriously push for a coveted wild card berth remains to be seen, however, chances are they’ll sink or swim on the arm of Sanchez. The Bills defense hasn’t changed much since the previous meeting, but with four more interceptions last week against Miami, Sanchez could be facing a similar miserable outing against the Bills defense that boasts 25 takeaways, good for third in the NFL. Sanchez has continued to struggle, throwing seven interceptions to only two touchdowns in New York’s last three contests. Sanchez is fourth among quarterbacks this season with 17 interceptions.
What the Bills should do: Stay aggressive. It’s worked the past two games, so here’s hoping Perry Fewell doesn’t allow the Bills to revert back to their conservative, close-to-the-vest ways. The last time the defense registered six interceptions, five from Mark Sanchez. The best recipe for rattling a young, inexperience signal caller is get in his face and knock him on his rear early and often.
What the Jets should do: Run, run and run. I know, I know it sounds like a broken record by now, but the Bills’ run defense hasn’t improved much or at all since the last time these two teams met. Thomas Jones nearly won the game by himself, rushing for 210 yards while New York rushed for 318 yards as a team. With Sanchez struggling, look for the Jets to try to establish their rushing attack early on to relieve Sanchez.
Prediction: Jets 24, Bills 23. Something tells me the Rex Ryan has been preaching revenge all week and I fully expect New York won’t give this game away to the Bills like the previous meeting. I believe that the Jets absolutely need this game more. Lose this game and the rest of the month they’ll be talking about next year in the Big Apple. Look for a rejuvenated Jets defense to be the difference in the game.
On 12/02/2009, In Money, By Finance: Currency Trading Articles from EzineArticles.com
Automated forex trading systems are growing in popularity and importance with every passing day, as more and more traders discover the benefits they bring and rely on them for assistance. And by saying traders, we are not talking only about individual investors - although these are present as part of an important segment of the forex population, the vast majority of trading operations are performed by corporate entities.
On 12/02/2009, In Sports News, By Matt Hinton
If there's one thing the BCS knows, it's tangled convoluted finishes that leave about everyone unhappy, which makes this a strange year precisely for its lack of drama. By contrast, six of the last seven years -- with the notable exception of 2005 -- have produced some level of mystery about the top two teams right up until the moment the final standings were released. In 2006 and 2007, the championship landscape changed completely overnight, with eleventh-hour upsets by UCLA and Pittsburgh over apparently title-bound rivals USC and West Virginia, respectively, in the dying moments of the season.In fact, since the BCS first rose from the formless mire in 1998, five different teams have punched their tickets to the BCS Championship game only after wild upsets knocked out one of the frontrunners on championship Saturday. From that perspective, Nebraska throwing the system into utter chaos by upsetting Texas in the Big 12 Championship isn't much more far-out than Texas A&M emerging over undefeated Kansas State or Miami undercutting UCLA in 1998, or LSU rolling over Tennessee in 2001, or UCLA and Pitt in their more recent spoiler roles. These things happen, even to undefeated, two-touchdown favorites destined from the beginning of the season for a spectacular collision with another unbeaten powerhouse in a gala championship in the Rose Bowl.
Perish the thought. But if the Longhorns do somehow fall short against the 'Huskers, the new pecking order for filling the 'Horns' slot against the Florida-Alabama winner out of the SEC looks like this:
• TCU. The Horned Frogs are the default upstart going into the weekend, sitting at No. 4 in the latest BCS rankings for the fourth week in a row, just waiting for a UT fall to make their move. Though they're first in the line of succession at the moment, there's still a potential hang-up with the computers: Even if the human voters responded by moving the Frogs to No. 2, the gap between TCU and computer favorites Florida and Alabama is too wide to make up even if the Gators and Tide lose; human pollsters will have to break overwhelmingly for the Frogs to overcome even a one-loss SEC team's advantage with the machines.
• Cincinnati. On that note, the computers like Cincy, collectively ranking the Bearcats ahead of Texas already and putting the Bama-Florida loser in sight as UC prepares for the perfect opening to impress the human voters: On national television, against a ranked opponent with the conference championship on the line. TCU can't do anything to offset another Cincy air show in Pittsburgh, which could earn the 'Cats enough human converts to lift them above TCU and on to Pasadena if Texas bites it.
• S-E-C! S-E-C! The riot-in-the-streets scenario, as mentioned here Tuesday, is a close enough, dramatic enough classic between Alabama and Florida in Atlanta that leaves that pundits calling for an encore. It wasn't a majority, but plenty of people were arguing for an Ohio State-Michigan rematch after the Buckeyes' season-ending win over the Wolverines in 2006 and the subsequent void created by USC's stunning loss two weeks later. Then, voters had another equally attractive, powerhouse option (Florida) to match up with the Buckeyes instead, and everyone seems to generally agree the rematch idea was a terrible one.
Obviously, neither TCU nor Cincinnati fits the description of an "attractive, powerhouse option." Interlopers from the Mountain West and Big East don't tend to inspire visions of pageantry and clarion calls and enormous ratings we expect from the game's biggest stage, and there's a good chance the computers will still favor the loser of the SEC Championship over one of the unbeaten small fries. If enough human voters turn their noses up at the Frogs and Bearcats, too, or if there's a significant split between which Cinderella the voters favor, the Return of FloraBamageddon: Pasadena is very much on the table, unfortunately.
But that's only if Texas creates that void by losing to Nebraska, which it won't. Of course it won't. That would ruin everything. Just take care of your business, 'Horns, and we can finally cast the vagabonds aside, once and for all.
On 12/02/2009, In MLB, Sports News, By 'Duk
I still can't decide what's the most unbelievable aspect of this old Nike clip:
1. Don Mattingly's cross-country blast that is not ruled a homer after leaving the park.
2. Ken Griffey's cross-country throw that nails an unidentified Yankee at the plate.
3. Bobby Ayala playing a role in a national ad campaign.
At any rate, the commercial makes me feel like an awkward teenager clomping around the halls of my high school, all while wearing these beauties on my rapidly-growing feet.
On 12/02/2009, In MLB, Sports News, By 'Duk
Meet Michael Weiner. He officially becomes head of the players union today and he's replacing Don Fehr, who is retiring after 26 years. You may know Weiner from such appearances as last summer's David Ortiz steroid press conference, when he showed up looking like a business man who had just spent a sweaty morning pulling fellow passengers off a wrecked train.
But exactly who is this man we're destined to see frequently in the future? Who is this guy who's set to become one of the most controversial men in sports, whether he likes it or not?
A short bio would look like this: He's a Harvard Law graduate who will turn 48 in a few weeks. He has worked for the MLBPA since 1988 and was one of the lead negotiators during the 2002 and 2006 labor agreements. His previous title was the union's general counsel — a relatively anonymous but very powerful position — and he'll be only the fourth union head in 43 years.
Described as "a stunningly regular guy," Weiner spends his weekends teaching fourth and fifth graders in Jewish Sunday school and was such a Yankees fan growing up that he rooted for the Orioles over the Mets when he attended the 1969 World Series with his grandparents.
Here are a few more takes on Weiner:
Tom Singer, MLB.com: "In his 20-plus years with the union, Weiner has cultivated a close rapport with players through his understanding of their complex issues and ability to discuss these issues with them in plain terms."
Alan Schwarz, NY Times: "An anchor role in baseball's often nasty pastime-or-business identity crisis will almost certainly test Weiner's reputation for being a stunningly regular guy. He wears blue jeans and Chuck Taylor All-Stars to all but the most solemn of affairs. He is the son of a New Jersey construction worker. He suspects that the last time he combed his unruly and increasingly occasional hair was before his sister's 1998 wedding"
Bob Nightengale, USA Today (2007 article): "He just happens to be as responsible as anyone, players union chief Don Fehr says, for the new labor agreement being struck two months before the expiration (in 2006). Weiner ... is the point man between the union and agents. He talks regularly with the players. He deals with the pension and insurance plans. He also was instrumental in the 2002 labor agreement. He fought off contraction. And not a single player's contract is finalized without his approval."
A lot, of course, will be expected of Weiner. In his 26 years at the top, Fehr increased the average player's salary from $289,000 to just under $3 million. The players will want Weiner to perform similarly. The current labor contract, meanwhile, expires after the 2011 season and Weiner will have to navigate another maze of issues that will include drug testing, luxury taxes and maybe even a salary cap. Throw in the fact that the owners might elect a bulldog rep of their own when if Bud Selig steps down after 2012 and Weiner will have his hands full.
Like Fehr and Marvin Miller before him, Weiner will become one of the sport's most divisive figures. But that's a big part of the general job description and the players won't be paying Weiner to win any popularity polls. They'll be paying him to sweeten all of their paychecks.