Archive for April, 2008

A little mindless YouTube action this morning courtesy of NESW Sports, and the Ethanator.

I grew up watching Larry Bird as a kid. I always remember how amazing it was that this geeky looking white guy, who seemed to have a perpetual wedgy while on the floor, could seemingly run circles around the competition and light up the basket like no other. The other thing about Bird was that he never seemed to get frazzled, always played with composure, and never seemed to get into any shoving matches with other players.

All except for this one day …

Nothing like a nice brawl to get the crowd into the game…

Meanwhile, Michael Jordan decides to throwdown on the backboard with authority:

Guess MJ was ticked about the silly uniform…

Finally, this is a good example of why you should never fall asleep in public — especially at a stadium …

By the way, if you’re looking for some good sports videos, make sure to check out NESW Sports, and tell ’em Lawvol sent you…

– Go Figure …

Videos Courtesy of: NESW Sports

Yeah, I admit it, I’m having a hard time getting inspired to write lately …

I have never looked forward to the off-season following the end of football and basketball season (especially when it’s “Spring” but still cold as whizz in the mornings) but now it has taken on a whole new dimension. This is my first off-season as a blogger, and it pretty much stinks. I have always tried to offer up posts with at least a little bit of substance, or — at a minimum — some poorly done graphics. Now, I find myself struggling to come up with articles worth writing. Part of this, I suppose stems from my general lack of interest in the fortunes of Major League Baseball. It’s not as if I dislike the sport — after all, I do coach Little League — it’s just not the sort of thing I have ever been very interested in writing about.

Furthermore, I can write all I want to about spring football practice, but considering I live over 6 1/2 hours from Knoxville, anything I could possibly say has already been said since my thoughts would be based upon what I read on other blogs.

I suppose I could write about politics, but that would require me to take a position on issues which are likely to alienate at least half of the 4 people who regularly read my blog — in short, I ain’t going there (at least not while my little creation is so very new…).

Thus, while I am working on a few new ideas, and creating graphics for a few other sites (my most recent being Uncoached), I am not doing a very good job of delivering much in the way of real content.

I was actually getting a bit discouraged until today when the Knoxville Snooze Slantinel made me feel a lot better by running a story on a lawsuit between the owners of a company trying to sell orange blazers like those worn by Bruce Pearl. The KNS felt this was important sports news.

You know that was awfully nice of John Adams — after all the ugly things I’ve said about him — to try and make me feel better about my ineptitude, by showing that the KNS is as clueless as I am.

Thus, I want to openly decry the ugliness of the off-season. It is a hideous thing which should be abolished.

Oh yeah, I also want to thank the Snooze Slantinel for making me feel better about my inability to say anything meaningful as of late.

So, I guess, now that I have complained about not having anything to complain about and I still can’t think of any “real” stories to write I’ll just have to return to fabricating stories out of the thinnest and most unreliable rumors (many of which are only rumors among the community of voices living in my head).

In the meantime, if you liked my article on the Voice of College Sports back in February (which is unlikely) then you are likely to enjoy Spencer Hall’s article on Larry Munson over at the Sporting News (HT to Joel at RTT for the find). Otherwise, I guess you’ll just have to wait for my 8-part investigative piece on how Tennessee is facing allegations of misconduct over the use of doughnuts as a human growth hormone.

Ugh…

– Go Figure …

UPDATE:

• See, I’m not the only one – Fulmer’s Belly and Pigskin Pathos hate the offesason too.

Even Tiger Couldn’t Get it In…

A few random story lines worth exploring:

Apparently, NBC’s Mike Milbury doesn’t think much of the Washington Crapi … oops … Capitals.

Damn Brother! Don’t believe I’da told that one…

Note to self, don’t ever do anything to piss off Penn State … er … former Penn State Wide Receiver Chris Bell, unless you want to get stabbed – The Daily Collegian

I know my friends over at Bears Necessity are going to be loving these new photos of pole vaulter Allison Stokke. Now I see why everyone likes Berkeley so much – My Chill Pill

Sadly, the Horseshoe in Little Havana is no more … what’s sad about it? The place was a dump. – Busted Coverage

In the wake of her 8th Championship, the guys over at SEC Sports Fan conclude that Pat Summitt is the greatest basketball coach ever, and use statisti-fi-cation to prove it — SEC Sports Fan

The wise and all-knowing MoonDog speaks on Derrick Rose’s Departure (sports news), Why our Economy is Going Down the Crapper (real news), and Discusses the Merits of Adriana Lima (ummm … eye candy) – World According to MoonDog

The eponymous “Sports Fan” has declared intifada it open season for a contest to determine the best blog focusing on the Tennessee Volunteers, and was even kind enough to nominate Gate 21 (I just hope I do better this time than I did during the NCAA Tournament) – UT Vols Football Blog

ESPN and Harold Reynolds settle their differences and decide they can in fact “just get along” – Hugging Harold Reynolds

A rundown on all the great things happening within the University of Tennessee Athletic Department & an invitation to all for a little blogger get-together at the Orange & White Game (sadly, I won’t be able to attend … much to Joel’s delight) – Rocky Top Talk

LSU Freak goes nuts on Tim Tebow — Doogie Howser style – Sunday Morning Quarterback

Finally, from Hollywood comes Ocean’s Fourteen … and this one is guaranteed to be quite different than the first three. Check it out, not what you’d expect:

– Go Figure …

Lead-off Image Courtesy of: Sports Frog

A Little Good News from ESPN 1050 in New York …

The reign of terror is over on sports-talk radio — the powers that be have seen fit to cancel the Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio.

I suppose that this decision is due — largely — to the fact that, after the first three days that “Screamin’ A.” Smith was on the radio, the average listenership for the show was 9 listeners which included:

• “Screamin’ A’s” Mother (Yell-onda A. Smith) who just had to listen to her baby boy;
• Stephen A. himself, while he was broadcasting the show and eating Cheese Doodles because: “Quite Frankly, that guy just sounds soooooo GOOD!“;
• John Adams of the Knoxville Snooze Slantinel who really loved the in-depth analysis and thoughtful observations on the show;
• A Jihadist Army Leader in Afghanistan, who actually believed that “Screamin’ A.” was the voice of his commander sending orders to him in the field;
• Michael Vick, because he could only get one radio channel inside da’ Big House;
• A malfunctioning satellite launched by NASA in the mid-1980’s, which mistook the broadcast for the radioactive waves which follow the birth of a new star; and
• 3 random people across the country who had wandered off from their radio before the show came on, and forgot to turn the thing off.

Good call by ESPN and ESPN Radio — “Screamin’ A.” while not dislikable, remains one of the most annoying figures in sports broadcasting.

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: ESPN Radio.com

Yes, my students, Professor Lawvol is sad to say that these are the times that try our souls…

Now that basketball season is officially over — at least for the college players — we have reached the terrible sports lull that precedes the beauty of football season.

Sucks, don’t it?

Yeah, yeah, I know — there’s baseball. Baseball, however, is my least favorite of the major sports (despite the fact it was the only one for which I ever had any degree of skill), and — unless someone wants to come on board as a writer here at Gate 21 and help to cover it — it is not my intention to try and give any semblance of legitimate treatment to baseball, aside from the occasional side note or observation. I will continue to post regularly throughout the summer. That said, unless something important is going on, weekends are out until the fall gets closer.

Still, we must persevere and press forward with our studies of all there is to learn. Thus, this “off season” period of the year is the time during which I really plan on delving into that “Life, the Universe … ” part of this trash rag blog’s byline. I am going to try and roll out a few new features here in the coming month, and may try a few “off-message” postings. So, be prepared for some seemingly absurd and inane things around here for a while — such as this:

Intelligent Design?

** Note the completely inappropriate and inexplicably off-topic use of scurrilous images to improve readership, and (perhaps) distract readers from the lack of substance in this post

I am hoping to get the old stream-of consciousness brain-barf (see informative graphic for example) going here shortly and start pontificating on subjects so ridiculously above my pay grade that it would make Larry Flynt blush (well, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but you get the idea …).

Either way, I will do my best to find things to help bide the time, until football season gets close. I can’t promise any of them will be worthwhile, but they are a useful substitute for the usual drivel I pour out during Football and Basketball season for the sole purpose of occupying myself when I really should be doing something more productive.

So, there, I have spent several paragraphs writing a rather pointless introduction for the rather pointless things I am going to write later, but which I haven’t yet thought up. This off-season thing is off to a wonderful start!

15 minutes down, 4 months to go, that wasn’t so hard…

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: The Fail Blog

Quality Tested and Superior to all the Rest…

Here are a few links from around the Blogosphere:

• Looks like the price hikes for football at Tennessee aren’t going to be confined to the fat cats, time for the students to pay up as well – Sporting News (HT to Hugging Harold Reynolds)
  

• Cheerleaders Sports Illustrated Won’t Be Profiling – Busted Coverage

• Leitch gives a shout to Joel at Rocky Top Talk in concluding that Pat Summitt Should Be The Next Coach Of The Knicks (the comments on this one are absolute gold…) – Deadspin

• I know this is a little behind the news cycle, but this video is why we have the Internet

• Whoo Hoo! Even the New York Times loves the Lady Vols Lady Vols (that’s a good thing, right?) – New York Times

• A great article on Pat Summitt with some of the best quotes I’ve seen in a while, including:

Think of it like this. If Summitt was on the Memphis sideline on Monday night, don’t you think the Tigers might have had a better chance to hang on against Kansas? Yeah, me too.

– St. Petersburg Times (HT to Professor Falken)

• Tennessee just keeps on winning this week Holly Simmons: SI’s Cheerleader of the Week – SI on Campus

• 100 Headlines We Hope to See During Football Season (Some of these are legendary…) – The O-Zone

• Blank Confirms that The Longest Yard Part Two is being made – Your Mother Slept With Wilt Chamberlain

Finally, don’t forget that you can now get access to the most abysmal greatest links on the web at anytime with Gate 21’s new “Headlines, Links, & Lies … LIVE!” widget over in the right sidebar.

Ain’t Life Grand!

– Go Figure …

As my post yesterday made clear, I am a fan of the Lady Vols. This is hardly a new thing for me. I have been following the Lady Vols for almost 20 years now.

Of course, if you read Gate 21 this past season, you might not realize that.

I was a student at the University of Tennessee during one of the most legendary periods in Lady Vols history: 1994-1998. (Actually, when it comes to the Lady Vols pretty much any time during the program’s history is “legendary.”) During my 4 years at as a student at Tennessee, the Lady Vols went to 4 Final Fours, and won 3 National Championships. I was lucky enough to be present at almost all of their games during this time period, including 2 of their National Championships.

That is one of the benefits of being a member of the Pride of the Southland Band…

Since we Pep Band “weirdos” were always at the games — including the tournament games — we had the opportunity to interact with the team on a regular basis. In the overall pecking order, the Pep Band is fairly low. We were never the reason why people came to the games, and if we didn’t show up, people would notice but the game would go on without a hitch. We were the wrapping paper on the package — sure, we make it look a little nicer, but we really did not substantively change things. The thing that amazed me most about those teams was that — in the end — it was the team that reached out to us. The Lady Vols always took steps to reach out to us and get to know us. I was, admittedly, somewhat surprised that the Lady Vols were so very humble off the court. They were amazingly appreciative of the fact that the Pep Band was always there, and always supported them. What’s more, Coach Pat Summitt and the rest of the coaching staff also reached out to us — just to show that they appreciated our efforts. I sincerely appreciated that.

Those interactions with the Lady Vols and the coaching staff are some of my dearest memories as a Tennessee fan. I can honestly say that, by the time I left Tennessee, I considered several of the members of the team to be personal friends, and one a dear friend. Thus, it is fair to say that I am a huge fan of the Lady Vols.

Again, if you looked at Gate 21 over the past few months that would be hard to tell…

I have always supported the BasketVols but, let’s be honest, for a long time there hasn’t been much to cheer about. This year that changed. This year, I was completely overcome with my enthusiasm for the BasketVols. Bruce Pearl — in one fell swoop — made me a huge fan of men’s basketball once again. I gave 100% of my support to the BasketVols, and in the process became a card-carrying booster of the men’s basketball program at Tennessee.

I make no apology for that.

What I do want to publicly apologize for is the fact that, in the process of supporting the BasketVols, I completely neglected the Lady Vols. Prior to the National Championship game, I think I wrote a grand total of 2 articles discussing the fortunes of the women’s program during the season. That just plain stinks.

When you are running a blog like Gate 21 on your own (while still trying to maintain your life, family, and day job), just getting one good … halfway-decent … semi-crappy … new post up everyday can be a challenge at times. While I would love to be able to write non-stop, that’s just not feasible (unless some kind benefactor would like to start funding my efforts…). As a result of my limited time, resources, and complete lack of skill, I focused almost exclusively on the BasketVols throughout the season.

I do not believe that there is any reason whatsoever why any member of the Orange Nation cannot — and in fact should not — be an unqualified fan of both the BasketVols and the Lady Vols. In this case, “Fandom” is not mutually exclusive. That said, next year (God, I sound like a Bama fan) I plan on spreading the wealth a bit more. Adding another writer to Gate 21 would, of course, help (wink, wink, nudge, nudge to all of you out there in the Blogosphere who ever wanted to publicly speak your piece). Either way, my goal is to do a better job of being loyal to both of the basketball teams at Tennessee.

The future is so very bright for both of these programs, and that is immensely gratifying to me, as a Tennessee fan and alum. I intend to support both of these programs with reckless abandon.

I hope the rest of Orange Nation will do the same…

– Go Figure …