Obligatory Sports Babe

This morning, let’s go with glamour model Lucy Pinder, who does not qualify here by being a WAG—because, as far as Wikipedia’s concerned, she’s not—but because she “is an ambassador for Kick 4 Life, a charity that uses football to fight poverty and disease in developing countries.”

Surprising Islanders

Islanders Point Blank goes through the twelve reasons their team has been actually, surprisingly, kind of good this year, and decides that “Garth Snow’s acquisitions of Moulson, Roloson and Martin Biron. Including Mark Streit last year, the GM is 3-for-3 in UFA signings – with Moulson as the off-the-charts golden bonus. Charles Wang should have confidence that if he allows Snow to dig deep into the wallet for skill and character at any point over the next two years, his GM has a darn solid batting average.”

“Field Of Schemes?”

That’s the title of the latest fascinating piece from Patrick Hruby for ESPN’s Outside The Lines, who explains that “I definitely thought this would be an elevating assortment of words, a triumph of the human spirit with lots of pretty prose and a bright, happy ending. … But that was before … I ventured halfway around the planet to drink from a half-empty glass of half-curdled joy, before I discovered that a tale too inspiring to be true -- Cambodian refugee escapes the Killing Fields, comes to America, takes hope and baseball back to his homeland (and yeah, someone already is filming a documentary) -- is probably too deranged to make up.”

Football’s Gory Days

In 1909 football was quite a different game, explains NPR.org. “The Chicago Tribune reported that 26 players had been killed on the gridiron that year,” causing the president of Stanford to awesomely call the game “rugby’s American pervert,” which I’m also totally going to start doing from now on.

2012

“Yes, everyone's favorite lizard conversationalist, Darren Daulton, has a website to promote his metaphysics ‘starter kit’ so everyone can be prepared for falling buildings, tidal waves, and John Cusack's erratic piloting,” explains Deadspin of Dutch2012.com, ex-Phillies catcher Darren Daulton’s new front in the war against sanity, offering a surprisingly accurate depiction.

With Profuse Apologies To The Irish…

… and, frankly, to referees, who can’t be expected to get everything right, all the time, at elite-level pace, with a small crew and no replay… here’s the goal that sent France to South Africa… (via Sports Rubbish… at least, as long as it stays up)