Grant Wahl has another excellent article on SI.com - this one focusing on Heather Mitts. Who knew that she ran with the bulls at Pamplona? … and from the St. Petersburg Times, another take on this evolving USWNT - this by John Romano. He offers a nice summary of the challenges faced by […]SHARETHIS.
Cleveland Browns safety Gary Baxter, attempting a comeback from two freak knee injuries, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday. Baxter, who tore both patellar tendons on the same play in a 2006 game against Denver, had loose cartilage removed during the procedure at the Cleveland Clinic, coach Romeo Crennel said.
Scottish side Glasgow Rangers bowed out of the 2nd qualifying round of the 2008-2009 UEFA Champions League after a 2-1 loss to Lithuania side FBK Kaunas. An 87th minute goal from midfielder Linas Pilibaitis crushed Rangers’ European chances.
In a twist of fate, the most recent Scottish Cup winner is now out of Europe while runner-up Queen of the South remains in UEFA Cup play.
Soccer City FC has moved HQ from the Keystone to the Granite state. The boxes are now unpacked and global soccer coverage will be returning shortly.
Thank you for your patience.
We haven’t updated you lately on indy wrestler and ECW fantasy draft pick Tara Bush. Since we interviewed Tara in February, she’s been keeping busy with wrestling and fetish modeling. Here she is in a shot taken for the female wrestling site SleeperKidsWorld.com:
Most recently, Tara announced her brand new MySpace profile - BalloonsByTara - devoted to her balloon, beach ball, inflatables, and bubblegum fetish custom video and photo modeling. Tara will also be appearing at FetishCon 2008 in Tampa from August 14th - 18th, and she’ll be available for shoots throughout that time. She’ll be traveling with fellow fetish model Morgan Lei aka Princess Sweet Sugar Feet, who is also available for shoots (with or without Tara.)
For more on Tara Bush, including links to her many Web sites, check out our Tara Bush interview.
The La Liga outfit now sports four Dutch internationals after today’s official announcement concerning the acquisition of midfielder Rafael van der Vaart. The 25-year-old has penned a five-year contract. Along with winger Arjen Robben, forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, midfielder Wesley Sneijder, and youngster Royston Drenthe, Real Madrid looks prepared to field an Oranje-centric squad.
(Summary is not available.)
The heat is on MMA ref Steve Mazzagatti (pictured w/stache) in this week leading up to UFC 87. The formerly mustacheiod Mazzagatti’s competence has been called into question more than few times by media, fans and most importantly Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar spoke with ProMMARadio’s Larry Pepe and basically called Mazzagatti a clown for his actions early on in the loss to Frank Mir. Lesnar grazed the back of Mir’s head with just one punch. Instead of issuing a verbal warning, Mazzagatti stopped the fight with only 25 seconds elapsed and deducted a point from Lesnar.
"It’s just an consistency in the reffing by that particular referee. Every fight that I ever watch him ref there’s a lot of inconsistency. I’m not naming any names."
CLICK BELOW TO HEAR PART OF THE LESNAR INTERVIEW (w/Pepe on ProMMARadio):
Listen to the entire Lesnar conversation here. Brock questions the legitimacy of Kimbo Slice, talks about his training and say that his opponent at UFC 87 Heath Herring is a poor wrestler. There’s also much discussion of Jake O’Brien’s wrestling domination of Herring.
It’s not easy being an MMA official. You’ve got to protect the fighters’ safety but also let fights reach their legitimate conclusion. The real problem with Mazzagatti’s Lesnar point deduction was the fact that he strayed from his normal reffing philosophy. He’s generally known as a guy who lets action go. New Jersey-based Dan Mirgaliotta has his critics, but more often that not when something goofy happens, Mazzagatti is at the center of the storm. A quick search of the internet indicates that Mazzagatti may be the most highly criticized official in MMA.
1. Jamie Varner v. Rob McCullough @ WEC 32
Varner loses his mouthpiece and actually stops fighting then signals his own timeout. Varner, who looked wobbly, is actually granted a stoppage by Mazzagatti.
2. Kevin Burns v. Anthony Johnson @ UFN 14
Burns clearly poked Johnson in the right eye. Johnson went down in a heap. Mazzagatti stopped the fight awarding a TKO victory to Burns.
3. Gray Maynard v. Rob Emerson @ TUF 5 Finale
Maynard slammed Emerson but in the process knocked himself out. The win is initially given to Maynard before ringside officials cleared things up for Mazzagatti and the fight was ruled a no-contest.
4. Jamie Varner v. Marcus Hicks @ WEC 35
This is the type of fight where Mazzagatti scares some people. Hicks was knocked down and out with 3:12 left in the first round. He then took 19 additional punches and three knees to the face before the fight is stopped 20 seconds later.
5. Mike Whitehead v. Vernon White at IFL - Las Vegas
Whitehead had White’s back and rained down punches. He then told Mazzagatti that White had tapped. Mazzagatti clearly didn’t see it but honored Whitehead’s ‘official’ call and stopped it. Coach Ken Shamrock is seen on the ring apron screaming at Mazzagatti, "that was a horrible f**kin call!"
6. Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Santos @ Elite XC
Santos knocked down Baszler with 1:31 left in the first then prematurely celebrated her victory by jumping on the top of the cage. Santos carried on for 13 seconds while Mazzagatti stood in the middle of the ring and screamed "hey" in Santos’ direction to keep fighting. The Portuguese-speaking Santos had no idea what Mazzagatti was saying. Instead of a disqualification, Santos was allowed to come back down from the cage and the action was restarted around 1:08. Santos went on to finish Baszler.
7. Babalu v. David Heath @ UFC 74
The pre-fight included a war of words between the fighters. Babalu got in position for an anaconda choke finish. Mazzagatti stopped he fight and Heath held onto the choke for an extra three seconds. Some think Mazzagatti didn’t do all he could to force Babalu to stop.
8. Thiago Alves v. Karo Parisyan @ UFN 13
Alves stopped Parisyan with one big knee and then two punches on his arm. Parisyan was beside himself and actually pushed UFC fight booker Joe Silva several times in the cage as he protested the Mazzagatti stoppage.
Mazzagatti seems like a nice guy and showed a good sense of humor during this 2007 interview with MMAMania.com. Although this guy is a little crazy with his top 45 reasons he hates Mazzagatti. The ref does need to tighten things up or he’s going to become an unfair target for many fight fans.
The heat is on MMA ref Steve Mazzagatti (pictured w/stache) this week before UFC 87. The formerly mustacheod Mazzagatti’s competence has been called into question more than few times by media, fans and most importantly Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar spoke with ProMMARadio’s Larry Pepe and basically called Mazzagatti a clown for his actions early on in the loss to Frank Mir. Lesnar grazed the back of Mir’s head with just one punch. Instead of issuing a verbal warning, Mazzagatti stopped the fight with only 25 seconds elapsed and deducted a point from Lesnar.
"It’s just an consistency in the reffing by that particular referee. Every fight that I ever watch him ref there’s a lot of inconsistency. I’m not naming any names."
CLICK BELOW TO HEAR PART OF THE LESNAR INTERVIEW (w/Pepe on ProMMARadio):
Listen to the entire Lesnar conversation here. He questions the legitimacy of Kimbo Slice, talks about his training and say that his opponent at UFC 87 Heath Herring is a poor wrestler. There’s also much discussion of Jake O’Brien’s wrestling domination of Herring.
It’s not easy being an MMA official. You’ve got to protect the fighters’ safety but also let fights reach their legitimate conclusion. The real problem with Mazzagatti’s Lesnar point deduction was the fact that he strayed from his normal reffing philosophy. He’s generally known as a guy who may the let action get out of control too often. Dan Mirgaliotta has his critics but more often that not when something goofy happen, Mazzagatti is at the center of the storm. A quick search of the internet indicates that Mazzagatti may be the most highly criticized official in MMA.
1. Jamie Varner v. Rob McCullough @ WEC 32
Varner loses his mouthpiece and actually stops fighting then signals his own timeout. Varner, who looked wobbly, is actually granted a stoppage by Mazzagatti.
2. Kevin Burns v. Anthony Johnson @ UFN 14
Burns clearly poked Johnson in the right eye. Johnson went down in a heap. Mazzagatti stopped the fight awarding a TKO victory to Burns.
3. Gray Maynard v. Rob Emerson @ TUF 5 Finale
Maynard slammed Emerson but in the process knocked himself out. The win is initially given to Maynard before ringside officials cleared things up for Mazzagatti and the fight was ruled a no-contest.
4. Jamie Varner v. Marcus Hicks @ WEC 35
This is the type of fight where Mazzagatti scares some people. Hicks was knocked down and out with 3:12 left in the first round. He then took 19 additional punches and three knees to the face before the fight is stopped 20 seconds later.
5. Mike Whitehead v. Vernon White at IFL - Las Vegas
Whitehead had White’s back and rained down punches. He then told Mazzagatti that White had tapped. Mazzagatti clearly didn’t see it but honored Whitehead’s ‘official’ call and stopped it. Coach Ken Shamrock is seen on the ring apron screaming at Mazzagatti, "that was a horrible f**kin call!"
6. Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Santos @ Elite XC
Santos knocked down Baszler with 1:31 left in the first then prematurely celebrated her victory by jumping on the top of the cage. Santos carried on for 13 seconds while Mazzagatti stood in the middle of the ring and screamed "hey" in Santos’ direction to keep fighting. The Portuguese-speaking Santos had no idea what Mazzagatti was saying. Instead of a disqualification, Santos was allowed to come back down from the cage and the action was restarted around 1:08. Santos went on to finish Baszler.
7. Babalu v. David Heath @ UFC 74
The pre-fight included a war of words between the fighters. Babalu got in position for an anaconda choke finish. Mazzagatti stopped he fight and Heath held onto the choke for an extra three seconds. Some think Mazzagatti didn’t do all he could to force Babalu to stop.
8. Thiago Alves v. Karo Parisyan @ UFN 13
Alves stopped Parisyan with one big knee and then two punches on his arm. Parisyan was beside himself and actually pushed UFC fight booker Joe Silva several times in the cage as he protested the Mazzagatti stoppage.
Mazzagatti seems like a nice guy and showed a good sense of humor during this 2007 interview with MMAMania.com. Although this guy is a little crazy with his top 45 reasons he hates Mazzagatti. The ref does need to tighten things up or he’s going to become an unfair target for many fight fans.
In tennis, you should set a minimum bar, lets say, seven majors. Anyone at or above seven should be averaged out to determine who the most efficient player was. Some play longer than others, but does it really matter?
Like Jordan scored fewer baskets than Karim but it’s the average per game that determines who was better at it. Even when comparing Kobe with Jordan, don’t they resort to the averages to make their point?
Don Bradman, the cricket master, averaged 99 runs per outing. Beyond that does it really matter how many centuries or half centuries he made and if someone has more of them now? As long as you are below 99 you are not in the running. Simple as that.
Of course there are various factors leading to one player playing more years than others. If you do play longer than others and manage to accumulate more hardware, you deserve props for it, but that shouldn’t get you to the top of the chart?
It’s like playing darts. It’s not how many times you hit the bull’s eye that matters, it’s in how many attempts that determines how good a player you are, isn’t it?
It’s the purest form of calculating true greatness by eliminating the calendar altogether.
Bonds may have hit the most home runs, but even if you ignore the steroids BS, shouldn’t the next obvious question be “In how many games?”.
Longevity of your career and the subsequent increase in spoils shouldn’t blindly elevate you to GOAT status. There could be so many reasons for that to happen like with Kareem Abdul Jabbar. If Magic hadn’t joined the team and taken the pressure off Karim, he wouldn’t have had the long run he had at that level. While your staying power is an attribute in itself despite what sustained it, it shouldn’t be the sole reason to put someone on that hallowed pedestal of a GOAT.
So who is the most efficient gatherer of Grand Slams? Is it Borg?
Gerard?
