Ice Machine - Icicle Bicycle

June 13th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (utter nonsense sandwich with a side of WTF):

• We thought he looked familiar yesterday.  We hope he still looks familiar next week.  (’Cause you don’t want the Poles to be mad at you.)
• The world’s first Olympian and Paralympian.
• That Olympic story’s not counterfeit, but this one might be. 
• Babes Love Mullets.
• And just in case you can’t tell the difference, these are the real thing:

We didn’t know there was a Chinese version of Rockapella.

Our Question of the Day (cheating out on a Friday): Speaking of, where in the world *is* Carmen Sandiego, anyway?

And, you know, is she lefty?  The Tigers could use an arm.

Posted in ice machine, question of the day | 1 Comment »

Ice Machine - Frozen Eurology

June 12th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (going for the cup):

• We mentioned it to the right, but it’s worth bringing up again: We had no idea there was a Swiss pro soccer team named “Young Boys”.  The Swiss concern us on a number of levels.
• Speaking of moving to the right, we’ve done some very silly things over the last few days at SPORTSbyBROOKS and Big Tilde.  Please take a peek to the right to see odd photo manipulation, unique video selection, and that time we tried to get politics and baseball to have an unholy baby.  (Well, another one, anyway.)
• We’re not sure we agree with the tenor, but… yeah.  That’s enough.  
• Stop adding to our list of reasons to want a Wii when they start selling them in the United States.
• Sorry, Olympic torch relay; you’ll have to hang out here for a few days.  We’ve got final exams.
• Sam Mendes is pissed he used the plastic bag in American Beauty instead of this.
• Classic movies for kids, hosted at Turner Classic Movies.  Hawesome.
• Yeah.  So.  The 80s?  We wonder sometimes if you kids didn’t miss anything.

Benny Hill meets Duran Duran.

Our Question of the Day (asking frequently and sometimes having the urge to ask when we really don’t have to): If the Cubs are stepping into the Wayback Machine today, can they step back about 36 hours to when Alfonso Soriano was whole?  What are the readings on that, Mr. Peabody?

UPDATE: The afternoon post got called up to the bigs.

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Ice Machine - Slush, Little Baby

June 11th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (drowning in a sea of love):

• Thank heavens we were saved from this.  The children were thought of.
• Please buy us the hardcovers of both of these books for our birthday.  Thanks.
• No.
• An Australian athlete caught in a bar brawl?  That’s unpossible!  (Actually, the fact that he was reprimanded at all surprised us.)
• Consider this our follow-up link to the clubhouse attendant story yesterday: groundskeepers.
• Man, candidates can’t get away with anything anymore.
• This totally explains why Jason Taylor wants to get out of Dodge as quickly as possible.
• And much love to News From Me for this mashup between “Avenue Q” and “Fiddler on the Roof”. (Warning: adult themes, language, and participants.)

Naughty!

Our Question of the Day (wildly flailing towards the answer): Can even Fred Rogers save Dontrelle Willis?  We vote yes; we don’t put anything past the spirit of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

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Del Full Monte Circle Gets the Square

June 10th, 2008 by Tuffy

(What, you thought we’d go with a “My Cousin Vinnie” or an “African-American” joke?  We enjoy a higher degree of difficulty in our dick jokes.  Dick joke diving, if you will.)

Yeah.  So.  Let’s talk about this.

We were rather stridently against the Doug Collins near-selection because of what it represented: an utterly unoriginal mindset built to withstand failure but not to procure success.  This would rather be the opposite on a superficial level.  It shows bravery by John Paxson to take on an unknown quantity to lead his last charge up Eastern Conference Hill. 

Except, of course, it doesn’t.  If we had to guess at this early juncture, we’d take hubris and control for the block.  

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Posted in basketball, nba | No Comments »

Ice Machine - Overflowing

June 10th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (drowning in a sea of love):

• Thanks to everyone that joined Chitown Chick for UFC 85.  
• We won’t be able to travel to Vegas like said Chick de Chitown to see the U.S. Freestyle Wrestling Olympic Trials, but we recommend she take some time to visit Las Vegas Chinatown.
• We regret we didn’t have time to take a picture of the golf course we passed in Holland, MI, that received so much rain that its flagsticks were barely visible above the water line.  We don’t know how any sports were played in the upper Midwest last weekend.
• We will be buying the MLB.tv app for our iPhone in about a month to show off shamelessly at the Big Tilde gathering.  We will be the belle of the ball.  We will be drunk.
• She’s Keith Hernandez…’s daughter.  And she’s drunk.
• The Mexican soccer/Chicago Tribune/blogger version of Nelson Muntz.
• The Canadian sports television version of Nelson Muntz.
• The Sports Economist’s version of … oh, you know.
• And since Chitown Chick provides all the content for this blog while we’re away, we steal from her again:

We can’t stop watching it.  We don’t even like Usher.  It’s too much awesome for safe consumption.

Let us make love in this blog post to the Question of the Day (dirty Upper Midwest edition): Have you booked your ark reservation yet?  We’re regretting putting this off now.

Posted in ice machine, question of the day | 2 Comments »

Chitown Chick’s Bedlammic Liveblog of UFC 85

June 7th, 2008 by Tuffy

Posted in mma | No Comments »

Ice Machine - Mojitos for Everyone!

June 6th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (not fussing in the slightest about that silly malcontent Castro):

• We’re going off the reservation for a few days starting tomorrow, but we’ll be back Tuesday.  We will not be at the Deadspin shindig, sadly; please make sure Leitch doesn’t have to buy a single drink the whole weekend.  However, we have purchased an all-silk ensemble for the weekend.  
• Please do us another favor; we’re leaving the back gate open for Chitown Chick to host a live blog for UFC 85.  It’s yet another event we’re sorry we’ll miss this weekend, but we encourage you to check back in Saturday starting at 3 pm ET.
• Speaking of, we don’t care about Evander Holyfield’s latest money woes, but check out the link itself.  When did SI reorganize its site to create an “MMA and Boxing” category?  When did boxing slide behind the UFC et al?  The world, she is different than when she first nursed me, non?
• We love ”I Spy”.  The article downplays some of the show’s strengths to make its point, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
• Look, if Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney can be a hit, why not Sandra O’Connor: Jammin’ Justice?  (We’ve already assumed it’s a rhythm game since the Supreme Court is now desperate to bring back the rhythm method.)
• Texas Gal always knows the real scoop behind Red Sox antics.
• Fascinating photo of a Korean airliner shot down by Soviets 30 years ago and new details therein.
• We didn’t get to play with underwater robotics when we were in high school, grumble grumble.
• A Friday doube-dose of vidiosity.  First, a fascinating peek back into television sports journalism and a long-ago time that the Royals did not blow:

• And now how we hope to spend our weekend:

Let us shuffle our feet to the Question of the Day (visiting us on a humanitarian visa today): How will you put the lime in the coconut this weekend?

Posted in housekeeping, ice machine, mma, question of the day | 1 Comment »

Weighty Problem with NBA Coaches

June 5th, 2008 by Tuffy

Color us dense, but we noticed something recently on Pro Basketball Reference while researching The Fall of Flip that we found rather striking: Flip Saunders has a height and weight listing under his coaching profile.  (5′11″, 175 lbs. for those of you counting at home.)  We couldn’t believe it.  This is important information about the coach?  Is there a weigh-in day for coaches where George Karl strips to his boxers and wiggles onto the scale?  (”Okay… minus the 12 oz of Schlitz in his hand, he’s 6′2″, 185 lbs.… George, put the other foot on the scale.  Seriously.”)

We kept checking randomly.  Only some coaches have measurements.  Allan Bristow, Kevin Loughery, John Lucas, Bill Fitch - yes.  Frank McGuire and Jim Boylan - no.  Okay, we figured: it’s bleeding through from their player profiles when they were pros.  Except, of course, Fitch and Saunders never played in the pros.  So maybe college stats?  But why track college stats of men that never played in the pros? We’re not sure.

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Posted in basketball, nba, nonsense | No Comments »

Ice Machine - Pumpin’ Ice

June 5th, 2008 by Tuffy

Here’s a clear shot from the daily Ice Machine, with crystal blue linkage of stories that will refresh you during your lunch break (as you gnaw on cardboard to save money and raise the glue quotient in your body):

• A tip for Tuffy stalkers: We post in the morning for SPORTSbyBROOKS, give you a nooner here, and try to toss in an afternoon idea each week day.  Tuesdays and Fridays, we cast pods.  Fridays are also Voodoo Sabernomics days.  Tildes and golf posts come as we may.  (For example, see today’s Question of the Day.) We hope this helps you schedule your bathroom breaks accordingly.
• More on the RBI Baseball comeback.  We hope it goes better than Rickey’s.
• Chicago moves on in the 2016 Olympic competition that has absolutely nothing to do with sports and everything to do with money.  Just like how the IOC likes it.
• Mike Gottfried doesn’t owe us such a raw explanation of his charitable activities, but it’s refreshing nonetheless.
• Joe Posnanski boils down the problems with Presidential election coverage into one burning question: whatever happened to that apple salad I liked so much at Applebee’s? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the best insight into the mind of a sportswriter you’ll likely ever see.
• We’ve been wondering this same question: why bother trying to be drafted into the NBA’s second round when you can go to Europe instead? Except we’ve been wondering, “why bother with one-and-done when you can get paid in Europe and skip college entirely”?
• Baseball nerds will enjoy this.  We watched the video at MLB.tv after reading this piece and agreed completely.
• Michael Kay interviews Snoop Dogg.  The cameras at YES must be industrial-strength to handle both stunning talents in the same shot.  We’re not sure if this blog has been rated as such by OSHA, so no video today.

And the Question of the Day ( ____ in ______ ): Can you fill in the blanks?

Posted in housekeeping, ice machine, question of the day | 2 Comments »

Days Numbered for Google’s Challengers in Sports Realm

June 4th, 2008 by Tuffy

Dan Shanoff is completely right.  (Dan Shanoff now owes us a Coke.)

(This one’s for you, Dan.)

Google’s getting into the sports information business and Shanoff notes the true value of doing so:

When my Gmail email app and my Gtalk IM app and my Google Alerts and my Google Docs and my Google News updates are all working seamlessly in a fantasy app, that’s It.

Which, honestly, someone could do (for the most part) right now with Google APIs, but it’s not quite the same as Google doing it for us.

Beyond that, though, Google’s jones for extensibility will push the envelope on fantasy automation and change the face of fantasy sports.  Imagine this:

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