Franchise Relocations

Apparently the New Orleans Hornets are considering changing their name to the Pelicans. And because of this possibility, Michael Jordan has stated that he wants to change the Bobcats back to the Charlotte Hornets. (I assume there was no interest in Utah to allow New Orleans to have the "Jazz" back.)


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Now all we need is the Arizona Cardinals to create a new name, so St. Louis can have the Cardinals back. Then this will allow the new team in Los Angeles to be the Rams, like they used to be. By the way, those Rams also used to be in Cleveland, and the Cardinals used to be in Chicago.. Thank goodness St. Louis still has its baseball Cardinals!

As far as the Colts go, they moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, keeping their name. Then the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens. Then when the new team was created in Cleveland, they jumped at the chance be the Browns again! That Cleveland team is the only one in all of this who had any sense! And remember the Houston Texans had every opportunity to become the Oilers, since that team changed its name to the Titans when they moved to Tennessee. It's also important to note that probably 99% of all Houston Texans fans don't even know the Kansas City Chiefs used to be the Dallas Texans.

Speaking of Kansas City, the origin of the Royals has some crazy history too, but it's actually an original franchise. However, there was once a team in Philadelphia called the Athletics, who moved to KC and were the Kansas City Athletics for 13 seasons. But that team is now in Oakland.

No wonder the Athletics decided to move in the first place. Philly also had the Phillies. What on earth could be the significance of baseball's Philadelphia Phillies? They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. (Source)

But what sucks about the New Orleans Hornets is that they were forced to play a season in Oklahoma City before the Seattle Supersonics came to town. So lots of OKC basketball fans, who became attached to the Hornets, suddenly had no team again. Very soon, however, they would be rewarded, to the chagrin of everyone in the city of Seattle, with the Supersonics - and called themselves the Oklahoma City Thunder. Had the Hornets simply decided to just stay in OKC, the Supersonics could've gone to New Orleans, and then we'd have the New Orleans __?___ Thunder? But then, the Charlotte Hornets (being in OKC instead of New Orleans) may have not wanted to change their name to the Pelicans, and I wouldn't have written this blog post in the first place.

But wait.. We all know that Salt Lake City is not known for its jazz music. But are there any Grizzlies in Memphis? I presume there must be at least one.. at their zoo. Same with the lakes of Minnesota. Once upon a time, Minneapolis had a basketball team called the Lakers, formerly the Detroit Gems, who are now in Los Angeles, and the rest is history.

Now that the New Jersey (formerly New York) Nets are in Brooklyn, I assume New Jersey is just flat-out screwed.

But at least you're not a D.C. baseball fan. The original Washington Senators decided to move to Minnesota, and became the Twins. Then after being granted a new franchise (also called the Senators), 11 years after the original Senators moved to Minnesota, the second Senators moved to Arlington, TX, and became the Texas Rangers.

Oddly enough though, I don't think any teams have anything on the Sacramento Kings. They began in Rochester, NY as the Rochester Royals. After 37 years, they moved to Cincinnati, and were the Cincinnati Royals for 15 years. Then they moved to Kansas City and changed their name to the Kings to avoid confusion with their baseball Royals.
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(What! Why?? Two St. Louis organizations obviously didn't have a problem both being the Cardinals in both baseball and football!)

Anyway, thirteen years later they moved to California, and became the Sacramento Kings. Now this Sacramento Kings team is seriously considering moving to Norfolk, VA to become either the Virginia Kings or the NorfolkKings. I seriously hope they choose the former rather than the latter. Yeah I intentionally left no space. That pronunciation is just not nice at all.

I won't even get into hockey or soccer. Nor will I mention any of these:

∙ Buffalo Braves - San Diego Clippers - L.A. Clippers
∙ Baltimore Orioles - New York Highlanders - New York Yankees
∙ Milwaukee Brewers - St. Louis Brewers - St. Louis Browns - Baltimore Orioles
∙ Boston Braves - Milwaukee Braves - Atlanta Braves
∙ Seattle Pilots - Milwaukee Brewers ..(Seattle Mariners)
∙ [Brooklyn Dodgers --> L.A. Dodgers ~&~New York Giants --> San Francisco Giants]
∙ The Redskins used to be in Boston. Hmm...

I know one thing. If Tottenham ever decides to move its soccer team to San Antonio, we might be in trouble!

Sources: Wikipedia's "Relocation of Professional Sports Teams", and Philly's, and Cincy's

The 2012 Masters Leaderboard

(Through Friday completion)


Source

Click the image above to go see the complete leaderboard!   Or, here is the Masters homepage.

Go Freddie!!!

Tiger & Waves at Pebble Beach

CTE!                                                                                                               Via

Possible Sources

Same Ol' Timmy

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And he looked GREAT in his first action of the season last night! Stay healthy, Tim!

Are You Ready For Some Basketball?

Yep! It's time. It's also only pre-season games, but hey - we've got pro basketball to watch, and first up for my Spurs are the Rockets in Houston tonight at 7.

This could very well be Tim Duncan's final season, and that's enough reason to get it started already. This should get you pumped up:

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NBA Lockout Risk: Public Ridicule

Nothing else worked. Maybe the owners and players will react to the scorn of the fans. -- Michael Wilbon, ESPN.com

The bond market indicator that has predicted every recession since 1970 is forecasting a 60 percent chance of the economy having another contraction within the next 12 months. Moody's Analytics says there's a 40 percent chance the U.S. will tumble back into the depths of a recession within the next six months. The unemployment rate, some analysts say, is likely to remain above 6 percent until 2015. The hourly pay of people who are employed can't keep pace with inflation. The most recent drop in household income is the largest in several decades and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has caused a "significant reduction in the American standard of living."

So with that as the economic backdrop, the NBA has decided to sit it out for a while because the owners and players can't agree on how to split up $4.3 billion. It's difficult to imagine that folks who live in constant fear of losing their jobs, of not being able to make their mortgage payments or pay their kids' tuition or do anything with their money beyond what is absolutely necessary have the stomach for this self-indulgent behavior. The country is in no mood for the NBA's stupid dispute; and if the lockout lasts past Christmas and into the time when people expect to see professional basketball, which is quite possible, the bet here is the owners and players are going to face a level of disdain that could embarrass the two sides into a settlement and haunt the league for years.

Right now, it's clear that what anybody, even their patrons, thinks of them is of next to zero concern for both sides. Each side is right, don't you know? Each wants to win. There are owners who would rather miss most of the season than settle now. There are players, millionaires, who are convinced they have some mysterious leverage that will dissuade owners who are billionaires. For now, neither is budging. Two weeks of games have already been canceled and very likely another month of games, at least, will be kicked.

So what pressure, in addition to loss of money, is going to move one side or the other off its position?

Click here to continue to the rest of the article.. (with video)

Source

These Guys Are Incredible

CTE! (Source)

When was the last time you shot 6 consecutive nines in 33-33-31-33-30-33?

Blows my mind.

9 Most Hateable Teams In Pro Sports

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It’s fun to hate sports teams. We LOVE to hate sports teams. If there weren’t hateable teams out there, every game would be the equivalent of the Seattle Mariners versus the Sacramento Kings. No one would care. Sports consist of compelling stories, and every compelling story needs an antagonist. And no one is more antagonistic in sports than the residents on this list. So take a giant shot of whiskey, chuck the empty bottle against the wall, and snarl your lip as we visit the 9 most hateable teams in pro sports.

9. Boston Red Sox
Yankee fans were way ahead of the curve on this one. While the NYY-BOS rivalry has always been in full affect, the Yankees dominance during the Jeter era found the whole country rooting for the lovable underdogs to the north. It turns out that America ONLY loved the Sox in the underdog role. Massholes are a scrappy, lovable bunch when they’re down in the dumps. When they’re winning, they’re like Yankees fans with less bearable accents. Further, the underdog status vanished pretty quickly when Red Sox Nation developed a payroll that surpassed the GDP of several Latin American countries, second only to you-know-who in the majors.


8. Dallas Cowboys
Jerry Jones. The figurehead of the Dallas Cowboys encapsulates everything that America hates about their own damn team. He’s got hubris, bravado, arrogance, and a pretty strong track record during the 90’s. The Cowboys were a phenomenal team in the 70’s and again in the mid-90’s, so everyone stepped up their game. In the NFC East, every division game is a rivalry game, so right there, the Cowboys lost votes in DC, Philly, and NYC. Then there were the regular conference rivals in the playoffs in San Fran and Green Bay. Now that Houston’s got a team, they’re a rival too. And that’s before we even discuss the impact of Michael Irvin, Nate Newton, and the other members of Bizarro Ocean’s 11. There was a time when the Cowboys were repped by Tom Landry and Roger Staubach and were loved. That ain’t gonna happen again as long as Mr. Jones is still kickin’.


7. Miami Heat
Welcome to the list, Miami. A lot can happen in a summer. Every sport has an evil empire (though hockey’s is harder to peg down) and Miami just left Boston and LA in the dust. If you listen carefully, you can hear LeBron James’ PR team screaming as the jump off the roof of the tallest building on Collins Ave. They WERE a cute enough team, with the gentlemanly Dwayne Wade leading the way. They won a championship that appeared to be handed to them by the refs, and America STILL didn’t hate them. But then they land this decades Judas and spend the rest of bank account on Chris Bosh, who has all the charm and personality of a sack of doorknobs. Even the league's biggest optimists are vocally hoping for a train wreck in South Beach, and why wouldn’t they? Things are boring when they go the way they should.


6. New England Patriots
Oh, Boston. You used to be cool. Then you started winning. The Pats were met with the developments on this list. They got Tom Brady, the most handsome man in the history of handsome men. Not good. Sports fans hate good looks. That’s why Joe Namath was so popular. They got Bill Belichick, who smiled once in 1983 when he ran over a chipmunk. Those two acquisitions led to the third development: lots and lots of success. Accusations of cheating rocketed them up this list, and Brady started banging Giselle, which pissed off everyone cause she was supposed to be saving herself for us. When Wes Welker, a 4’8” white wide receiver can’t sway popular sentiment, you know that they’ve passed the point of no return.

Continue to the rest of the list..

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Super Bowl Interruptus

The NFL made a huge, monumental mistake scheduling the Pro Bowl the week between the league championship games, and the Super Bowl. Every player in this league wants to be in the position that players who play for Indy & New Orleans are in. Probably 95% of them would give up ANY trip to a Pro Bowl, for a trip to the big game.

Guess who the voted-in starting QBs are? Right, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning.

These two NFL teams had 14 players voted into the Pro-Bowl (7 each) - a super honor for any team, given that only 2 other teams had more of their players voted in (Dallas & Philly, both 9).

Now, back to the Super Bowl. Wait.. We can't because the NFL is mandating those 14 players to make a Pro Bowl appearance - whether or not they choose to play in the game. At this point I have no idea what that number is. I would guess it's close to zero. And it should be.

And that's a shame for everyone involved - except certain guys who may have otherwise been snubbed. All 14 of these guys would much rather not disrupt their team preparation for the BIG GAME (hello?), and have to make that commitment this weekend. So they lose out on an otherwise fun, career-rewarding trip to Hawaii, and the honor of playing in a star-studded game ...if they want. Most of them do, you know.

The game itself suffers because 14 of it's 120 players can't be forced to participate! While the Pro Bowl might attract a significantly larger number of commitments due to the earlier date, it's also guaranteeing itself that those who are on Super Bowl teams won't be there.

And shame on you for doing that to them!

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Wikipedia's entry for propofol

Dr. Odd's "Cooking With Disease"

Johnny Carson: Tonight Show First Time Stand-Ups
and
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A few fun games I've recently discovered: Gimme Friction Baby, DeepLeap, and an all-time favorite: DigDug