This is gonna be kind of a hard TMA. A certain part of what we do here in TMA Monday is to recap the weekend in sports and bring you some choice links to get your week started. It is a job I take pretty seriously, because what I do here on Monday sets the tone for the whole week. Okay…yeah that part is not really true. As a matter of fact, this whole first paragraph is proof that I am full of crap. I am gonna confess instead that I took a weekend away from the tube and spent it on the beach with my two kids catching hermit crabs. Only now, on Sunday night am I able to look around to see what happened this weekend and realize that a lot of our authors and commenters had good things happen to their teams this weekend. We even had another one of our commenters see Tour de Lance Armstrong in action live and in person. The problem is, these things will be getting or needing their own posts throughout the day, so be patient for those and we will get to them.
Before we get to the juicy stuff, I wanted to invite all of you guys to join us on Facebook if you havent already. Why did we start the Facebook account? Well – If you think Sparty and Friends is a kinda cool place to banter back and forth about sports, chances are some of your friends may check it out and think the same thing. This happened to me - as the best man in my wedding looks like he is gonna become a new regular commenter here. We would like you to think of Sparty and Friends as a tool you can use when you have friends that think that the Big East > ACC…you can bring them here and we can gang up on them…Facebook is an easy way to invite your friends here….glad we could help.
I am glad I had that Facebook card to play, because there isn’t a whole lot to go with this morning. Yeah, I know that some “Guy” that writes here is very proud of his turtle…but do I dare turn this TMA into TWTWCBB? We can’t have that dominating the comments. The top story people are linking to, the Calhoun Chronicles…was mentioned in yesterdays TMA. Looks like TMA Invstigative team is gonna have to dig deep this morning.
We can start out with pop culture and mention that a lot of us watched the Oscars last night where Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded best supporting actor award for his portrayal of the Joker..I am guessing I need to see The Dark Knight…also – any one here see Slumdog Millionaire? 8 Oscars? Last movie in a theater for me? Horton Hears a Who….but I did see bootleg editions of Yes Man and Hancock on the internet….man I need to get out more. Speaking of the Oscars…Sean Penn won the Oscar for best actor and beat out Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler…given our affinity for wrestling here at S&F I thought you guys would enjoy this story about Tito Santana from the New York Times (h/t to Cousins of Ron Mexico via The Big Lead).
Sports wise things should start picking up this week as we got spring training baseball starting Thursday…sorry Miz – but everyone else cares. Speaking of baseball – Joe Crede to the Twins and Garrett Anderson to the Braves…Garciaparra to the A’s?
Non Main Streamer News….Matt Kenseth backs up his Daytona 500 win by winning the NASCAR Auto Club 500 in Fontana. Phil Mickletits wins at Riviera the week before Tiger makes his return to the PGA Tour. Sparty and Friends contacted Tiger to get his reaction on Micklesons win…Tiger’s reply…”meh.”
NBA Scores from Sunday…not team or homer specific…Studs and Duds later…Chuck Apologizes redux…And D Ho makes a long one (just watch the first 10 seconds the you tube video stunk)….
Bike racing isn’t huge here at S&F but when you get a chance to peek at Lance Armstrong…well – you do it. We got a post and recap from the Tour Of Cali coming later from Commenter Fiesta Trio..CycleDan will wanna check that out…not to mention Syringe Man.
So again…I am sure I missed some stuff – and I am sure I didn’t mention some stuff. Some of this is by design and some of this is due to it being February. Regardless…thanks for starting your week here at Sparty and Friends…
Popularity: 5% [?]
Not everyone else cares about baseball. I’m with miz, baseball is more boring than soccer and people driving around in a counter-clockwise fashion. knightwhosaysni(Quote)
We planned to go to the beach this weekend but it was -a billion here in Florida. Instead we raked the yard. Yeah! GatorTrey(Quote)
I appreciate the support, kwsn. however, I’m entertained by guys turning left in stock cars. mizerle06(Quote)
we went to the beach saturday. it was fairly cool but still fun. mizerle06(Quote)
i shoveled snow
watched the last 30 minutes of the oscars. was the director on crack? for best movie, they’d start showing a clip of the movie then mix in a bunch of footage from previous oscar winners. and they dragged the best actor/actress awards out like the end of a college b-ball game sae(Quote)
how was christopher nolan not even nominated for best director? sparty(Quote)
Miz
You live 5 mins, I live 40 mins.
Lucky SOB gatortrey(Quote)
which way do you usually go, trey? east towards Daytona or west? mizerle06(Quote)
both of you are dying within the next 40 mins?
I am accepting applications. please email me if you are interested. sparty(Quote)
at least you could have said you would miss one or both of us. mizerle06(Quote)
I think Mikey is the only person on the planet that hasn’t seen The Dark Knight yet. john(Quote)
john – I’m reluctant to admit it, but I haven’t seen The Dark Knight either. I’ve wanted to see it since before it was released in theaters, just never got around to actually going. mizerle06(Quote)
Mickey Rourke was robbed. sparty(Quote)
did the cops catch the jerks who did it? mizerle06(Quote)
yeah, a bunch of ghey’s.
/nttawt sparty(Quote)
Miz,
Cocoa, much closer to my part of Orlando.
Sparty,
No remorse? GatorTrey(Quote)
no time for it, trey. i gotta keep this puppy moving. shoulnd’t miz be dead by now? sparty(Quote)
My wife and I never make it to the movies. We saw Gran Torino a few weeks ago. Before that I think it was the Dark Knight.
I have heard Slumdog Millionaire is good though.
The only person robbed was Larry the Cable Guy for his role in Witless Protection. GatorTrey(Quote)
I’m courageously hanging on.
Larry was brilliant in that role. Git ‘R Dun! mizerle06(Quote)
Rafer Alston has a decent premier, Magic win big. Gordon finishes 2nd. Mickelson struggled. A good weekend for Knightro.
Thanks to mikey, jaco, and fiesta for commenting last night. knightro(Quote)
Pistons suck. sparty(Quote)
Celtics do not. john(Quote)
*nods agreeingly* knightro(Quote)
pistons should have traded McDyess to LA or something. let the guy who gave his all to try and win with you, have one last shot at the championship. sparty(Quote)
…or they could just buy McDyess out and let him sign with Boston. john(Quote)
john- at this point,why not? sparty(Quote)
I’d love that to happen, but no way the Pistons do that, unless they worked out some agreement that he wouldn’t sign with the C’s or the Lebrons. Plus I’m guessing McDyess doesn’t even want to leave…he had the chance before and didn’t. john(Quote)
he established himself and his family in the community around Metro-Detroit, that is why he didn’t leave. he also has a ton of respect for Joe Dumars. Dumars gave him money that nobody else was willing to give him after his knee injuries. I feel for the guy, looks like he is the only one trying out there some nights. Iverson is always playing hard, but he sucks. sparty(Quote)
The impressive thing about Slumdog was that it won 8 Oscars while losing a category and not being nominated for any actual acting awards. Because of the way the story is told, each of the characters are played by three people so nobody could really get nominated. It was a great movie though and was very deserving of those awards.
Yes, Mickey Rourke was robbed of Best Actor. It wasn’t shocking though because I don’t think the Academy wanted to risk his speech. Most people thought that if he lost they would give it to Langella for Frost/Nixon but as Sean Penn said upon winning… (paraphrasing) “You guys are a bunch of homo loving bastards and I wrote this speech in case you were homo loving bastards and you are.”
/nttawwt
//wait a sec
///there is something wrong with that
////people shouldn’t win just for playing gay people
/////not that he wasn’t good
//////gitc’d guyinthecorner(Quote)
Will Smith saying “Boom goes the dynamite,” when he flubbed his line was rather funny. sparty(Quote)
What was he trying to say? It was something like “outstanding sound editing” and he kept saying “outstounding sand editing” I think. When he said “boom goes the dynamite” everybody I was with got it, but it didn’t seem like anybody on TV got the joke. That’s not really surprising though. guyinthecorner(Quote)
i don’t think he ever said “outstanding” right, either. sparty(Quote)
I only saw a few minutes, but why does Sean Penn always look lik such a douche. gatortrey(Quote)
…because he is a douche. john(Quote)
What the hell was with all the crying last night? I realize the Heath Ledger part was sad, but it seemed like every crowd reaction shot the entire night involved someone tearing up. john(Quote)
they’re all actors, those are stage tears sae(Quote)
Penn is a leftist douche, Academy are leftist Douches’. No heroic pro american Movie will ever get props again. Gran torino got shafted along with mIckey. The portrail of Nixon in all honesty was the worst ever if People are being honest, There never seems to be an honest neg movie about the Kennedy’s orthe failure known as Carter jacchx67(Quote)
always got the impression that the oscars went to the people who did the best lobbying (read bribery) sae(Quote)
I love pop culture and fallow it a bit and it lost it for me thae year they decided to give the awards to Sean Penn and Tim Robins over Ken Watinabi for the last Samarai. I’m forean by the way so it makes me kind of biased. These hypocrates always talk about equality and always pic and select the same people over and over again jacchx67(Quote)
Korean I meant jacchx67(Quote)
jacc- but Slumdog just won a ton of awards… sparty(Quote)
I’m back! But completely, utterly buried in to-do’s. 4 weeks went by really, really fast. Hopefully i’ll regain a normal surfing schedule soon. I’ve been so out of the loop, I didn’t know about Varitek signing until like 10 days afterwards.
Babies are fun. Everyone should make a few. marcomarco(Quote)
so what does that mean Sparty, the actors and actresses didn’t win.The best movie is so subjective. When was thae last time a non american or brit won an best actor or actress award or how often. Cruz doesn’t count jacchx67(Quote)
these day’s really, who cares jacchx67(Quote)
welcome back marco! jb(Quote)
MARCO!
/norm’d sae(Quote)
Actually if you skim over the past 20 years of winners, non-Americans have won a decent percentage of the best acting awards. john(Quote)
Marco, A-Rod tested positve for steroids and Favre retired (again) in case you hadn’t heard. john(Quote)
I will definitely check out the report from the Tour of California.
I was on vacation all of last week in Puerto Rico. First time there. I actually felt like I was back in NY City where I grew up except for the palm trees.
I DVR’ed the entire Tour of California and got to watch it (well most in fast motion) when I got back. I got to see Syracuse miss 3 shots at tying Villanova in the last 8 seconds of the game as well.
Also it was a brutal day on the bike for me yesterday. I thought the rain would hold out but about 30 miles into our ride the skies let loose and there was a driving rain storm in 35 degree weather. I was literally shaking when I got back even after changing out of my wet clothes. cycledan(Quote)
john, said american and brit or australian, pretty much along the same lines, like I said these days its not that important jacchx67(Quote)
lol. That I did hear. Completely unsurprised, and don’t care. I actually give Arod a ton of credit for being open and honest instead of taking the McGwire route.
Brady Anderson once hit 50hrs and Luis Gonzales hit 57. Arod on roids should’ve hit 100. marcomarco(Quote)
On another note, Jim Calhoun has proved himself to be one of the biggest assholes in sports. What a self centered jerk. I am glad that blogger asked him about his salary.
The big problem with his attitude is that he sees the team as HIS. He thinks he personally earned $12M/year for the school so he should get $1.6M/year. The question was a valid one and I wish reporters had the balls to ask questions like that more often. Last I checked, the players were the ones playing the game and they don’t get paid unless you consider the scholarship. Calhoun has always been a me first jerk. Of course his response was to threaten and bully the reporter with a see me outside response. Typically bully moron.
I remember a few years ago, St. John’s recruited a PG and he verbally committed. Calhoun recruited him away from a conference rival just so he could possibly play for a couple of months while his starter was hurt. No ethics or morals. cycledan(Quote)
I won’t argue that Calhoun is just a wee bit of a bully, but that reporter/blogger who asked the salary question had some sort of agenda. If you want to talk salary/politics with a coach, you don’t do it during a post-game press conference. john(Quote)
@cycledan – I agree with you that Calhoun is an asshat and I think that the salary question is a valid one and should be on the table. However the amount of money generated by the basketball program is directly related to it’s success. And that succes is directly related to his ability to coach and recruit. If FNCUH was a bottom feeder and blew (as I wish they would) the money wouldn’t be the same. knightro(Quote)
I actually don’t have a problem with Calhoun earning his salary. I just think the way he handled it showed what a jerk he is. Shouting for the blogger to get his facts straight was stupid. The blogger didn’t have his facts wrong. Calhoun is the highest publicly paid employee of the state of Connecticut. If the governor of the state earned $1.6M, I am sure he would be scrutinized as well.
The point that Calhoun doesn’t get is that if the state let’s say, paid him $600k/year, then something like 60-70 extra students could attend UConn this year tuition free.
The real economic question is if UConn hired a different coach for that $600k salary, how much money would the team generate? The answer is probably that Calhoun is worth his salary. I just don’t like the guy. cycledan(Quote)
I wouldn’t appreciate someone telling me how much money I should be earning or what I should be doing with the money I have earned.
The guys who asked that was the asshat. cbh49er(Quote)
wrong forum to ask the question. sparty(Quote)
agreed – not the place or time to ask the question knightro(Quote)
now that Calhoun’s shown what can get under his skin, any opposing fan group for UConn’s away games that doesn’t chant his salary or hold up signs with his quotes is stupid. mizerle06(Quote)
And actually the question should be asked of the school…why do they pay him that salary. If someone offered you or I $1.6 mil to work you’re damn right we’d take it. That question is often asked of the wrong party. The payee should be to be questioned about fiscal responsibility. knightro(Quote)
@ miz – take that little monopoly guy that looks like a banker and put calhoun’s mug on it…or scrooge mcduck knightro(Quote)
All of Comcast Center was chanting DUI at Lawson, that was pretty funny. cbh49er(Quote)
it’s good to be an MLB GM, until you get caught skimming sae(Quote)
I’m not that familiar with Conn. politics, but I’m guessing Calhoun isn’t the only overpaid state employee. john(Quote)
so that reporter basically said that the state shoul regulete how much the free market should pay him in accordance with state employees jacchx67(Quote)