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Mon Nov 29 12:17pm EST
Photo: Disco Demolition Night, before the storm
The fine folks over at South Side Sox direct our attention toward a nice time-waster on a slow offseason Monday: Diane Alexander White's gallery of 35 photos taken in the hours before the Chicago's infamous Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979.
The shots aren't that revolutionary, but I really like them in a candid "wow, these people are clearly going to end up storming the field once Steve Dahl starts blowing up records" sort of way. They also depict what is inarguably epicenter of the golden era of men's hair (Chicago's South Side at the end of the decade) and one picture features a guy who looks an awful lot like the Chicago White Sox version of Dwight Schrute (upper left hand corner). One of the most interesting parts is that if such an event happened today, we'd be seeing photos from the night posted across Twitter and Facebook within minutes. When you consider that, it's kind of cool to see these somewhat mundane shots surface on a similar medium more than three decades later.
Finally, the set also made me think of a pretty good baseball debate. If you could jump in a time machine and attend either Disco Demolition Night or Cleveland's 10-Cent Beer Night five years earlier, which would it be? Ten beers for a buck seems like an automatic decision-maker, but there's also something to be said for explosions in between games of what was scheduled to be a doubleheader. Which one would you dare to attend?
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Mon Nov 29 12:03pm EST
Video: Top eight men's players talk about fears, kisses and actors
Sky Sports caught up with the eight competitors at the ATP World Tour Finals and asked some in-depth, probing questions about fears, future casting decisions and first kisses. Each of the eight players quickly shows their true personalities (which isn't necessarily a good thing, BERDYCH) so it's a fun way to spend a few minutes:
Observations:
• "Really? OK, spiders."
• Federer definitely remembers the name of the first girl he kissed. He either doesn't want Mirka to know or it's Mirka and he doesn't want us to know.
• Also, it's no surprise that David Ferrer remembers so quickly.
• "Toothbrush." /falls asleep
• Good to see they wedged in a clip of Tomas Berdych. Just imagine how boring his other answers were.
• "John."
Racquet clap to Forty Deuce
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Mon Nov 29 11:55am EST
How good are the Indiana Pacers?
The honeymoon, of sorts, is over. Everybody knows about the Indiana Pacers, now, especially since they knocked off both the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers in less than a week. And with that knowledge comes scrutiny, and with that scrutiny comes hard realizations, and I'm here to tell you that Indiana's 8-7 record is a mirage. Because they're actually better than 8-7.
I don't know how much better, because properly finishing close games still has some value in this league, but this team's point differential is eighth in the NBA, ahead of teams in Utah, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, and Atlanta. And point differential, not win/loss records, has long been the most telling statistic when it comes to ranking teams. You might not like the idea of the Pacers playing as this league's eighth-best team over the first five weeks of the season, but points are points.
And Indiana is winning by stopping the other team from piling them up.
Members of both the Heat and the Lakers chatted up the stereotype of Indiana's pell-mell offense following their losses to the Pacers, but Jim O'Brien's team held the Heat to a miserable 82.8 points per 100 possessions in last week's Pacer win, and the Lakers to a terrible 98 points per 100 possessions last night. Considering that Milwaukee is last in the NBA (by a fairly wide margin) in offense at around 100 points per 100 possessions, and the Lakers entered Sunday night averaging nearly 116 per 100 (tops in the NBA), this is some strong work.
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Mon Nov 29 11:55am EST
White continues to call out Jackson camp's strategies
The message coming from the head honcho of the UFC is loud and clear - fight aggressively or you could be on your way back to the minors.
Recently, Dana White has called Nate Marquardt a choker, suggested that Lyoto Machida needs to attack more and dumped Gerald Harris, a fighter with a 3-1 mark with the promotion, after he failed to go for the win against Maiquel Falcao.
White calls it "safety first" fighting and is calling out camps like Jackson's Submission Fighting as a big culprit. Trainer Greg Jackson was in the corner of Marquardt, who fought a measured bout against Yushin Okami at UFC 122.
"I have a lot of respect for Greg Jackson. It's not like I don't like him or I'm trying to say something bad about him, but there's a pattern there. The game plans they come up with and a lot of the corner work is very weird," White told CSN Washington.
White still can't understand how a guy as explosive and powerful as Marquardt is involved in a boring fight.
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Mon Nov 29 11:46am EST
With Presidents Cup invite, are Michael Jordan's priorities right?
This is a golf website, and we know you come here for news on that little white ball, but give us a second to report something about the other roundball. Michael Jordan, Hall of Famer, best basketball player ever, and golf enthusiast, has been named to his second Presidents Cup team, as a vice-captain for Fred Couples in 2011.Last year, Jordan was part of a winning squad that took home the cup that pits Americans against an International squad for the third straight time, and Couples, a good friend of Michael, decided to add him again.
Jordan is now 47, long retired from his athlete days, but is still involved in a lot of opportunities, including a majority ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats. Now, nobody can dog the way Jordan played basketball, he will most likely go down as the best ever, but as an owner, he's left plenty to be desired. So, this raises a simple question; should Jordan continue to put himself in these types of situations when his team, the Bobcats, continue to struggle?
Since MJ has been involved with the Bobcats, they've had one winning season, in 2009, and are 6-11 this season. Their roster gives them little chance to do much past the first round in the playoffs if they even make it that far, and that seems to be a trend that will continue. If you're a Charlotte fan (all six of you), aren't you a little perturbed when you see that Jordan is again going to be partaking in a golf event that, let's face is, is more exhibition than exhilarating (and that's not to say we don't love the Presidents Cup, but it will always be Donnie Wahlberg to the Ryder Cup's Mark)?
Maybe it's a reason to let Jordan and Couples hang out a few times a year without much excuse. When Jordan played in the U.S. Open Challenge, Freddie caddied for him, and I'm sure having friends around that get competitiveness and can fire up a squad is helpful, and honestly, Jordan can do whatever he wants, but the Presidents Cup is in the middle of November next season, right when the NBA is heating up.
Wouldn't the Bobcats rather have Jordan around firing them up than in Australia, at some golf tournament? You'd have to think so.
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Mon Nov 29 11:39am EST
First Down: Stewart, Goodson are Week 13's ultimate stress relievers
Follow the Noise on Twitter. Your questions, comments and verbal jabs are strongly encouraged.
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure …Across Fantasyland backs are pressed firmly against the wall.
Only one week away from the fantasy playoffs tension is noticeably high. Owners wallowing in mediocrity over the past 12 weeks are tinkering on the brink of elimination. One loss, and the blood, sweat and tears put into this season will be for naught. One win, however, and dreams of tonguing a championship bobblehead in a kiddie pool filled with Dom Perignon could still be realized.
It’s do or die time.
Chances are owners who drafted a Carolina running back in August are one of millions frantically making last stand preparations. Hampered by injuries and ineptitude, DeAngelo Williams, now on IR, and Jonathan Stewart have wreaked havoc on rosters. Unless the afflicted unearthed gold off waivers (e.g. Peyton Hillis) or consummated a tide-shifting deal, the burdensome void created by the tandem has been unbearable. Just to stay competitive, their investors have needed to employ resourceful tactics each week.
Now, during the fantasy season’s most desperate hour, a pair of running Panthers should be trusted once again.
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Mon Nov 29 11:39am EST
Novak Djokovic goes pirate with eyepatch at World Tour Finals
Halloween was a month ago, the fourth "Pirates of the Carribbean" movie isn't out until May and there were no Sammy Davis Jr.-related milestones during the ATP World Tour Finals. So why did Novak Djokovic come out onto the court wearing an eyepatch this weekend? Before his final round-robin match against Andy Roddick, the world No. 3 emerged from the locker room wearing a novelty eyepatch. It was a cheeky nod to Djokovic's previous match against Rafael Nadal, in which the Serb struggled with his eyes and frustrated Nadal with long delays to tend to the problem.
Djokovic said something lodged into his eye during the first set against Nadal and that he was unable to see for much of the match because of the "irritation."
After the match he said:
"Playing with one eye, especially against Nadal, is not enough. I feel sick even talking about it to be honest. It's just incredible that this happened to me because it never happened in my life. I was feeling great.
He went on to lose that match, but still had the good sense of humor to reference his ocular troubles before playing Roddick. Djokovic wore the joke-store eyepatch during his entrance and handed it to a small child before warming up.
They don't call him The Joker for nothing.
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Mon Nov 29 11:28am EST
Why Eric Staal will be a 2011 NHL All-Star Game captain
When the NHL announced that its 2011 All-Star Game squads would be drafted by two captains rather than determined by conference affiliation, many fans voiced their anticipation (or dread) of a seemingly inevitable Team Sidney Crosby vs. Team Alex Ovechkin faceoff.
Then came the alternatives; like when Kevin Allen of USA Today theorized that legendary Detroit Red Wings defenseman (and captain) Nicklas Lidstrom could get the call, or perhaps Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks in a career achievement honor.
But the more we've thought about it, and asked around, the more it seems we've overlooked the obvious: Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, logically, will be one of the two captains for the 2011 All-Star Game on Jan. 30.
Which should go over well in Raleigh.
"We'll see what happens, but I think they want to make it real fan-oriented," Staal told us on Sunday, after the Hurricanes' 3-2 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals.
"I would be a wise choice, with our fans cheering for our side."
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Mon Nov 29 11:07am EST
2 Live Crew rapper now assistant coach for nationally-ranked team
Luther Campbell is not the first man you'd guess would wind up on a high school football sideline. The former longtime rapper known as "Uncle Luke" of the equally reviled and revered group 2 Live Crew is most famous for sexually gratuitous lyrics on Tipper Gore-attacked smash hits from the '90s like "Me So Horny," and a brief career as a producer in the porn industry after his music career ended, but has always harbored a passion for football. That's what occasionally finds Campbell at University of Miami games, and what eventually led to his current position at nationally-ranked Miami Central (Fla.) High, where Campbell is perhaps the most surprising linebackers coach in the country.
That's right, Uncle Luke -- who has also gone by the rap pseudonym Luke Skyywalker -- is now known simply as Coach Luke, an assistant coach and youth football league operator in his late 40s who claims to have left his past of raunchy entertainer and porn impresario behind him."I'm happy and proud of what we accomplished but that part of my life is over," Campbell told the Miami Herald's Linda Robertson. "The entertainer - I left him on stage. ... The garbage man picks up the trash but he doesn't bring the maggots home. I don't bring my music career to football practice. If Hugh Hefner was out here coaching, he wouldn't bring his Playboy bunnies.
"I don't tolerate cursing or the N word. I tell them, ‘Don't ever disrespect a girl because that makes you less than a man.' And ‘Pick the girl who is responsible, not the one with Fs on her report card. Easy to get in, hard to get out. I've lived that life.'"
While it might seem a stretch for a man who was once best known for parading around with a gaggle of thonged women in public -- a man so controversial his interview on NPR's Diane Rehm show almost led sponsors to pull all funding from the program -- to emerge as a deserving teenage role model, Campbell's cohorts on the Miami Central coaching staff said he deserves plenty of credit for helping mold the team's defense into a powerful unit that has backboned the team's rise up the RivalsHigh 100.
"He knows football," Miami Central coach Telly Lockette told the Herald. "We call him the information man.
"[The players] relate to Luther very well. We joke with him about his past, but, you know, everybody deserves a chance to grow up. He's like a father figure to these boys. He understands the streets and how they're trying to find their way."
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Mon Nov 29 11:00am EST
Texans' coach gives Andre Johnson a game ball despite ejection
Andre Johnson(notes) did enough with the football in his hands to deserve a game ball on Sunday. It was what else he did with those hands that will make his post-game reward controversial.
The Houston Texans receiver was awarded a game ball from coach Gary Kubiak despite getting ejected during the game for engaging in a vicious fistfight with Tennesee Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan(notes). [Watch the clip and read about the incident.] Kubiak insists he gave Johnson the ball because his nine catches for 56 yards and a touchdown put him over 60 catches for the eighth-straight season, but the coach also led with a joke about the fight and appeared to relish in his star receiver's scrape.
Texans owner Bob McNair said afterward that he awarded the fight to Johnson "on points" and the team's website even boasted about Johnson's exploits on Twitter.
[Video: NBA player hits opponent with chair during brawl]
But though his team delighted in the fight with Finnegan, Johnson was apologetic about it after the game:
"I really don't have anything to say about Cortland. I would like to apologize to the organization, our owner, and my teammates. What happened out there today was not me. I just lost my cool and I wish that I could take back what happened, but I can't. It's over and done with now. I'm pretty sure that I'll be disciplined for it. When that time comes, I'll find out what it is and have to deal with it from there ... I hope that I'm not suspended for the next game."
That's a man's apology right there. No qualifiers, no "if I offended anyone" caveats: Johnson knew he was wrong, took responsibility for it and will accept his punishment without complaint. He'll doubtlessly be fined and will be hoping to avoid a suspension that would cause him to miss Thursday night's game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
I don't blame Johnson for fighting Finnegan. As I wrote in Sunday's post about the fight, Finnegan prides himself on dishonorable play and is a bully on the field. He instigated the fight and got the result he deserved. Everyone knows that, even the Titans.
[Photos: See more images of Andre Johnson]
So there's no need for Kubiak to draw attention to it. It's a classless move made more for the press than for his locker room. Praise Johnson behind closed doors for getting the best of a bully, give him a pat on the back and take the high road in public. Save the game balls for one of those games when Johnson earns it both with and without the football. Given that Johnson is one of the top receivers in football, there are plenty of opportunities to do that. For his sake, let's hope that includes this Thursday night.
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