God really does hate LeCharles Bentley, the former Pro Bowl center who was the Brownies’ big free-agent acquisition of the off-season before last, appears to be lost for the season again and may be perilously close to a forced retirement due to a ruined knee.
He has yet to play a down for the Browns, who signed him to anchor a woeful offensive line and counter the strong interior defensive linemen in the AFC North, particularly Casey Hampton, the Steelers’ All-Pro nose tackle.
Uh, maybe not. Read about the warrant in the Pacman Jones brouhaha.Jason Whitlock, columnist for the police presence military personnel.
The mess in In
The team signed Carr to an extension before last year’s NFL Draft because the Texans thought they … well, who knows what they were thinking?
Ditto Reggie Bush.
But now, when Jake Plummer – Jake Plummer? – starts to look like an improvement at quarterback, the Texans must know they're in trouble. Head coach Gary Kubiak reportedly likes Plummer because, well, the ol’ familiarity factor, since Plummer played under for Kubiak when the latter was offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos.
Anyway, the Texans’ troubles -- and Carr’s -- are well-documented. And, as noted over at Rumors and Rants ...
“The Texans' O-line opens up wider than
An enthusiastic female fan of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins expresses her desire for young Mr. Crosby to aim for the "five hole." In hockey parlance, that’s the, uh, open space (?) between the, uh, goaltender’s (?) legs. Goal. Tender. So that’s what the kids are calling it these days. Huh. Who knew?
Photo is courtesy of Deadspin via The Burgh Blog. Make sure to read the Deadspin reader comments.
The young woman's family must be very proud.
It’s Shrove Tuesday, also known as Fat Tuesday or, as an old buddy liked to call it, “Fat-ass Tuesday.” Until Easter, depending on your predeliction, Fat Tuesday represents the last opportunity to get Fat, to indulge, to eat jelly donuts, beignets, étouffée, Shrimp Po’ Boys, gumbo, crawfish stew and jambalaya … plus, of course, your adult beverage(s) of choice. Personally, Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls lament that every day isn’t Fat Tuesday, but that’s just us.
Laissez les bon temps rouler! (“Let the good times roll!”)
“Down south in New Orleans, the prettiest girl I ever seen
Sparklin' eyes, lips so sweet, we make the love to the rhumba beat
Ship's at anchor, my suitcase packed
Got a one way ticket, I ain't comin' back
Life's a pleasure, love's no dream
Down south in New Orleans
“My green-eyed baby, I'm on my way
Back into your arms to stay
I'm tired of work, I want to play
And I love you night and day”
It's baseball season. Well, that is, if you discount the 9oF temperature outside and the ice-encrusted snow drifts that had the dogs thoroughly confused and unpleasantly surprised with every paw-step that cracked the deceptively thin and treacherously slippery sheen of ice caked over the five inches of snow on the football field last evening. Step, crack!, leg sinks into the snow, step, crack! leg sinks into the snow … repeat times four, each step, for each dog, and times two, each step, for my own bad self and … damn tiring work. Anyway … Spring training complexes across
Baseball lends itself to discussion. After all, who says baseball players aren’t just like you and me? Take former Pirates pitcher Jon Lieber, for example. The 37-year-old Lieber, now with the Phillies, has been the subject of trade talk much of the offseason. As noted in the Philadelphia Daily News, Lieber is coming off a poor year and is projected as the Phillies’ sixth starter in a five-man rotation.
None of this seems to be of much concern to Lieber, however, as he drove up to the Phillies’ spring-training complex in a brand new Ford F-650 pickup truck with six doors, a satellite dish and $210,000 worth of accoutrements.
Ford’s off-the-factory-line pickups are F-150, F-250 and F-350, meaning the F-150 will carry a one-and-a-half ton truckload, the F-250 a two-and-a-half ton truckload, etc. So, by extrapolation, Lieber’s F-650 will carry six-and-a-half tons, or 13,000 pounds, in its bed alone, and who knows what it will tow (drag) behind it.
A little ostentatious? Hey, he’s a blue-collar guy, right? He probably needs it to haul stuff around on weekends, mulch and tree limbs and the like. It’s not like he can afford to hire people to do that kind of work or anything, y'know? And it's not like he's trying to compensate for, well, whatever.
Still, lamentably, Lieber has his critics, such as the fine writer at Bugs and Cranks:
***
So much for Mr. Lieber and his Tonka Toy.
We’ll be following the escapades of not just the Pirates, but all of baseball during the next few months. Over at McCovey Chronicles, for example, you can expect to routinely find highly entertaining writing such as …
“When the Marlins were offering nude photos of (team owner)
There’s plenty more where that came from, and many fine Pirates-related blogs to enrich our lives as the weather turns from winter to spring and summer.
Yet another reason to live.
A severe winter storm, computer outage and even more severe inertia and lethargy combined to prevent Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls from posting the entry we had crafted for Valentine’s Day. It’s just as well.
Valentine’s Day was always for other people, anyway. For me, it was usually the day I was reminded that other people do, in fact, do that sort of thing — but only when I’d walk into my favorite neighborhood cocktail lounge in the early evening and see couples canoodling while they waited for their reservations to be called at the overpriced, overcrowded restaurant next door.
And then I’d remember, “Who are these annoying people? Oh, yeah, it’s Valentine’s Day.”
And then I’d go over to the jukebox and play “Dead Flowers” by The Stones.
Oh, well.
Didn’t do that this year. But Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls are glad the extended run of pre-Valentine’s Day commercials is finally over … you know, pretty much the same commercials that ran, pre-Christmas, for overpriced but cheap-ass jewelry store chains like Jared, J.B., Robinson, Zale, Kay’s, J.C. Penney and Sears, for cryin’ out loud, to name the most egregious offenders. At least that’s over.
As Mick Jagger sang, “Say it with dead flowers …and I won’t forget to put roses on your grave.”
Emerging from an extended hiatus are the guys over at The Dock Ellis Experience, one of our favorite blogs. Dock Ellis, in case you didn’t know, was an All Star-caliber pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1970s.One evening in seeing his pitches as multicolored laser trails in a zone. And people wonder why we follow sports.
Anyway, Dock Ellis's trippy no-hitter inspired the blog name, The Dock Ellis Experience, and, as Jimi Hendrix said in his song, “Third Stone From the Sun,” “Not necessarily stoned, just … beautiful.”
Besides, we’ve always liked the following rationale, offered at the end of the first-ever post on The Dock Ellis Experience:
“Will anyone read this? I don't really give a fuck... I'm bored and I always read other people's shitty opinions so I thought maybe it's time to give the world mine, so here it is...”
Words to blog by.
Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski, an empathetic voice of reason, writes sensibly about the Penguins' possible move to Kansas City and efforts to arrange for a new arena in Pittsburgh to replace the aging Civic Arena (yeah, we know what the corporate name is now).
