Hotdog & Friends

Call me Karabell.

As of Wednesday morning, none other than Hotdog currently stands in sixth place overall in ESPN’s Euro Challenge 2008. No big deal.

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My heart goes out to Romania striker Adrian Mutu. With the hopes of his country riding on the result, Romania’s leader stepped up to the penalty spot against Italy. A goal would all but send Romania through to the knockout stage, to the surprise of all the pundits. But it was not to be.

You have to have huge balls to take that penalty and he never hesitated. He picked his spot and drove the ball. But Gianluigi Buffon, acknowledged by many as the best goalkeeper in the world, outfoxed him. Noticeably distraught, Mutu had to be taken off the field.

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Sager Bombs

So… remember those “man possessed” emails Clay Bennett made?

Well, today Clay testified in the Sonics trial that he was possessed to keep the team in Seattle.  Seriously.  Only, a few questions later he made it clear that, well, that’s not actually what he meant:

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Sager Bombs

As we head towards a pivotal Game 6 in the current NBA Finals, it seems like a lot of the fire and brimstone over the Tim Donaghy allegations (in case you missed it) has already died down.   Frankly, that’s probably deserved.  Donaghy is a desperate man with zero credibility.  The allegation that the NBA is in on the fix strikes mostly as a swing for the fences, an attempt to take down the whole league before he goes away.  HOWEVUH, unless he has hard evidence, Donaghy’s second hand allegations are about as believable as the hippie who swears he only wants pot legalized for the hemp clothing and medical benefits.

End result?  Free press for the league.  In the words of Jay Mariotti, “All you’re doing is making me more famous.”

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Behold the awesome power of Hotdog & Friends. Since our first-ever post, we have been lobbying for the dismissal of one Mr. Bill Bavasi. Finally, the club has bent to our awesome will.

Longer post to follow (maybe). Please comment below.

Fig Jam

If you go to ESPN.com right now you will be immersed in US Open coverage.  I love it.  My favorite headline right now is: “Double Bogeys Hurt Tiger.” 

Now, once you click on the link, the actual article has a more respectable title, but nonetheless, the lead-in is to point out that double bogeys = not good in major championship golf.  Well played sirs at ESPN.com.  I tried to think of a few scenarios where a double bogey would not hurt ones scoring in any golf scenario.  I struggled.  Here is what I can think of:  “Double bogey welcomed by golfer averaging triple bogey.”   The same could be said for quadruple bogey, and so on.  It is unlikely that such headlines would appear in conjunction with the Open Championship however (unless it was about that guy who repeatedly tricked his way into British Open qualifiers, only to then shoot like 150 in the first round.  I believe he passed away last year). 

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Fig Jam

Sometimes I want to talk about serious stuff. Not usually, but sometimes. This is one of those times.

On June 5, 2008, University of Washington head football coach Tyrone Willingham skipped a scheduled alumni golf function to attend a charity golf tournament for wounded Marines. Apparently this is controversial. Let me preface the rest of this by saying it is not a condemnation on “crazy” UW alumni and boosters. I believe this would be the case at any University where fans are unhappy with their coach. However, UW just happens to be the University where this is happening.

The thread on containing a link to the story is here. (may need to be a scout.com member to view).

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Four days into the Euro 08 Fantasy Challenge, and one man towers over the standings like a Colossus. That man…is Hotdog.

Humility has never been my thing, so I feel compelled to communicate a few tips and tricks that have boosted me to 69th place in all of ESPN.

• Shuffle your roster: ESPN allows you 15 transfers in the group stage. Use them!The group stage is already one-third over. The posting deadline occurs only 15 minutes before first kick of every game - this morning I added Petter Hansson of Sweden and he rewarded me with a goal and a shutout.
• Change your formation: You don’t have to play the standard 4-4-2 formation. You can switch it up and play a 3-4-3, 4-5-1, or whatever else you can think of. I find midfielders have the most value, so I generally trot out a 3-5-2.
• Play the matchups: Any attacker playing against Russia is a good bet; any defender/goalie playing against Austria is free money.

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Echelon

Our friend Sunny has started a new blog entitled Mei Guo Ren, which I imagine means something.  He’ll be in China this summer for the Olympics.