Obligatory Sports Babe
With apologies to the French Open, Total Pro Sports relays to us the fact that WAG Danielle Lloyd—who has undoubtedly nailed one of yesterdays’ Champions League final victors, the Barcelona Unicefs—was in some kind of a bar fight… or something. I don’t know, she’s hot.
The Illusion of the Curveball
Hat tip to Deadspin (er... the Mockingbird) for the link to a post from Illusion Science, which explains the elements of the curveball that make for a nasty optical illusion, if you’re a batter trying to hit one. “The perceptual puzzle arises,” they explain, “because the deflection of the ball should appear gradual, but from the point of view of the batter standing near home plate, the flight of the ball often appears to undergo a dramatic and nearly discontinuous shift in position (this sudden shift is referred to as the curveball’s ‘break’).”
NCAA Shock!
ESPN says that the Memphis Commercial Appeal (which is a newspaper with a name, FYI, that has real commercial appeal, if you ask me) is reporting that “the Memphis men's basketball program has been charged by the NCAA with major violations during the 2007-08 season under former coach John Calipari.” Derrick Rose, last year’s number-one pick of the Bulls, is the player in question. And Kentucky, who now employ Calipari—who also had violations when he was at UMass—pretend they care whether their coach will violate NCAA rules to make them money.
Olympic Stick
I’ve been very up front about how absolutely little I care about the Winter Olympics, but hockey is kind of an exception, and… well… who cares what I think? Here’s an interesting tale from the Toronto Star about a woman who found, in her attic—or possibly her basement—a hockey stick autographed by the Canadian gold-medal winning 1924 Olympic hockey team.
Bob Cole
From Howard Berger: This year, for the first time since the New York Islanders played the Vancouver Canucks for the Stanley Cup, way back in 1982, CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada coverage of the finals will not be called by Bob Cole. He’s disappointed by the decision. Those of us who want to know who just took that hooking penalty, on the other hand…
Comment
Right now I’m listening to Mike Hogan and Mike Toth on the Fan590 lamenting how we’ve become a more "critical" society. Yeah, um… I get that they don’t like negativity, but that’s kind of a bastardized meaning of critical. And I’d hate to tell them, but Critical Thinking is being taught to to everybody’s children. Aaaaand, it's kind of an important tool for navigating the bullshit of the modern world. These guys might be 70.
Huet!
Sure, the Blackhawks lost, and I should probably be giving the Wings their due, but what a save by Cristobal Huet to keep his team in it! You know, Montreal could have really used a goalie like him this year.