Much of America may be ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ right now, but there’s no forgetting Sarah Spain’s commentary on the Bulls’ prospective new coach. Because he’s a name and face that we haven’t forgotten: Doug Collins.

An excerpt-

“You may remember that Collins used to man the sidelines for the Bulls from 1986-1989, coaching them to their best record in 15 years during the 1987-88 season. They made the playoffs all three years and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in Collins’ last year at the helm. Despite his success, the Illinois native (and former summer camp basketball coach of yours truly) was fired by Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and replaced by his assistant, the legendary Phil Jackson. After leaving Chicago, Collins coached the Pistons and the Wizards, then took to the mic as an analyst for TNT. Through it all, he’s remained close with Bulls management.”

http://theloveofsports.com/index.php/site/comments/bulls_welcoming_a_familiar_face/

 

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By Seth Grunlode 

Below is the intro to Seth’s full season review/final preview column. The entire piece is a great read and a must-click for the geekiest of Lost geeks.

http://sethislost.com/2008/05/29/recap-of-season-4-well-except-the-finale-of-course.aspx

I know some of you are upset with me for not being active on this site over the last two weeks. I had good reason. 2 weeks ago when I appeared on the Bob & Brian show I mentioned that some A-hole leaked the secret plot twist in the Lost finale, better known as the frozen donkey wheel. I promised that this site would remain spoiler free, and so it has… no thanks to another major A-hole who tried to ruin the surprise for me. As we predicted on the morning show someone emailed it to my comments section, fortunately I was able to avert my eyes before getting to any information and the surprise is still safe.

 
But the close call did force me into an internet ban as not to further risk exposure. So without the aid of the internet to prepare for the season finale, I decided to turn to my DVR. I barricaded myself in my living room with a bucket of Mr. Cluck Fried Chicken and a case of Apollo Bars (ok, so it was Popeye’s and Milky Way bars) and watched Season 4 from start to finish in one day… all glorious 12 hours. Below you will find an episode by episode recap of all of the questions that [More …]

By Paul M. Banks and The Soxman 

 When Carlos Quentin hit his second home run in the ESPN Sunday Night Game, it was a walk-off winner. And the Cell was electric. Pandemonium. A madhouse…pick your cliché to describe it…should we just give him the MVP award now? Obviously Josh Hamilton will have something to say about it.
 
 (SM) Soxman was there, as you know Mr. Banks.  The Cell was electric.  Our energy was building before that however when “Mr. Hold ‘Em” Scott Linebrink kept the game tied in the ninth.  Soxman improved his record to a 5-0 in games attended on the season with that win.  One other thing before we talk about the 2008, Comeback Player of the Year, let’s not forget to give HUGE props to Jose Contreras.  Over the last month, he’s dipped himself in the magical waters of 2005.  Jose is 3-0, with a 1.61 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and 21 Ks in 28 IP.  I couldn’t be happier that he’s found his stride.
 
Carlos Quentin?  Despite ALL THE CRITICS, I said all along he could be the offensive difference on this team if he’s healthy, and he has done just that!  Quentin has been carrying an anemic offense for a first place team.  That gives him a huge advantage over Hamilton at this point in the season.  If Quentin keeps this up he could very well win the AL Comeback Player of the Year, be named an All-Star, and win the [More …]

By Andy Rosenberg 

It was considered the “perfect storm” for New Zealand born driver Scott Dixon. He pulled through with a victory at the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, but the treacherous plight of the drivers around him made the day of rest extremely restless. The variety of drivers, leader switches, team betrayals and disheartening crashes gave the day more plot twists than an M. Night Shyamalan thriller. The race was very diverse, with 33 racers (including 3 women) hailing from 6 different continents. The personalities of these drivers could be seen in the way they raced and the sheer disappointment or happiness that resulted. Both the diversity and the results at Indy contributed to the extreme excitement of the day.

Two factors provided this excitement: the crashes and the final laps. Ten drivers totaled their cars during the race, including two projected frontrunners, contributing to some unexpected finishes. In the last 50 laps of the race, Brazilian driver Vitor Miera and American Marco Andretti quietly slipped by many frontrunners to achieve the 2nd and 3rd place spot. Both drivers gave Dixon some heavy competition in the last 20 laps, when the full-out sprint for 1st place reached its peak.
 

 
But it was the events leading up to this final sprint that might have left viewers glued to their TV set. The first major twist of events came about halfway through the race, when Brazilian speed freak Tony Kanaan suddenly accelerated into first place, only to be [More …]

By the TSB Staff

If and when the Cubs win the World Series, do you think it will be fixed? Seriously, we know at least one World Series in Chicago was fixed…and yes, it was 80 years ago, but do you think the Cubs’ next triumph will be scripted and pre-arranged? Is that the only way it could actually happen? Why or why not? If it happened this October, exactly 100 years to the date, would that affect your answer?

 
All I’ll say is this- 1908 to 2008 seems like a nice story…perhaps a little too nice to be as they would say in an economics course, “pure competition.” So it might seem a little fishy this season if they hoist the World Series trophy this October. Then again, to go over a century and NOT close the deal seems even more unlikely than any possible scripted ending. So my heart, mind and hunch says “Eamus Catuli” and if they win it all this fall (or whenever they do it again finally), it will occur under a “free market” system and not under pre-arranged conditions.

–Paul M. Banks  
 

Sarah Spain: Today’s baseball landscape is far too media-saturated for game fixing or scripting of any kind to be pulled off successfully. These days, Roger Clemens can’t keep decades-old extramarital affairs with 15-year-olds a secret and Tony LaRussa can’t fall asleep at the wheel without the resulting police video reaching the interwebs. If the fix was on, [More …]

By Paul M. Banks and the Soxman 

Let’s start by discussing the analogies you came up with last week (great job by the way filling in for me while I was away on business/pleasure, the “triple-threat” Sox exchange was quite impressive!) In the last Sox exchange you, Bruce Wayne-Parker and Batboy compared my personality to three members of the 2005 champion White Sox, Kenny Williams, Bobby Jenks, and Ozzie Guillen.
 
(SM) On behalf of Bruce and Batboy, we are glad you liked it.  Filling in your shoes wasn’t easy but it was fun.
 
As anyone who has ever attacked a TSB columnist, a member of my immediate family, or my cat Bastet has learned, I certainly do have an Ozzie Guillen side to my personality. I will unleash the dragon on any and all foolish enough to deride those closest to me. I feel all good leaders should make their enemies feel their wrath when necessary (Ozzie seems to enjoy doing this a bit more often than I do).
 
(SM) While you are a lot like Ozzie, where you are different is that you have never ripped on your fans.  He’s done that a couple of times now: saying that Sox fans unfairly bash his team.  As a manager yourself, you are not afraid to admit when the fan is correct or has a right to be angry with a sub par performance.  After all, without the fans, we don’t exist.  
[More …]

By Paul M. Banks

Fun with search strings

According to the most recent site stat reports…here are the search terms recently driving traffic towards TSB.

-“Deron Williams” 33.2%                  –My Man-Crush! Love it!

-“NBA Mock Draft Net” 17.7%         –Dave, you rock

-“Oakland Athletics” 13.1%              

–Kane County Cougars parent club

-“NBA Mock Draft” 11.5%               

–See #2. It’s your time to shine!

-“Chicago” 6.3%                       

 –Like Kanye says “feels good to be home baby”

-“Trenni Kusnierek” 5.4%              

 –this is why you should write more often!  : )

-“Trenni” and “Trenni K” 4.5%       

 –she’s a force that can’t be stopped!

-“Billups” 4.4%                                      –ugh

-“Sarah Spain” 3.3%                   — surprisingly low        
                                       

-“Billups injury” 2.1%                        — we’re big in Michigan

-“Milwaukee Bucks theme song” 1.4%   

–I guess that would be Beck “Loser”

-“fuk me” .7%                                          –go fuk yourself! fuk off.

Gone are the days of ’07 when terms such as these attracted site visitors (I’m not making any of these up, all appeared in the top 5 for a given month) 

“big booty”                         –ok, they got this one right

“reeboks with the straps”    –“turned around and gave….”

“shorty got low”                 –they’ve obviously seen me karaoke

“low low low low”             — she hit the floor

“fergie”                               –this is not tmz.com

“fergie boobs”                    –this is not playboy.com

“fergie butt”                        –this is getting offensive                   

“fergie sex”                         –I am NOT LARRY FLYNT!

“fergie hott”                        –Have I ever even written about Fergie?

“brady quinn”                     –I haven’t written about Quinn much either

“brady quinn girlfriend”      –I hate ND [More …]

By Sarah Spain

If Chicago Bulls GM John Paxson had known his team would hit the jackpot in the NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday night, he may have elected to be there in person. Instead, a surprised Paxson spoke to reporters via conference call about the unlikely, but welcome dilemma he and the Bulls now face.

“I certainly understand this was pure luck.” Paxson said. “Now it’s our job to make the most of it.”

Luck is right. Chicago had just a 1.7% chance of landing the top spot and fans of the team certainly didn’t think they had much of a shot considering the luck they’ve had this season. The Bulls went through two coaches—neither of whom will return next season. They went from being projected Eastern Conference winners to hopeful playoff qualifiers to draft lottery participants. They didn’t act quickly enough—or offer enough money—to get the new head coach they desired, Mike D’Antoni. (I betcha the draft has D’Antoni re-thinking that Knicks deal now).

Now, with their lineup in flux and no head coach, the future is in the Bulls’ own hands. Chicago will without a doubt take Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose with the first pick. Let’s take a quick look at how these two guys could help get the Bulls back to the promised land (or at least past the first round of the playoffs).

Michael Beasley averaged 26.5 points and an NCAA-leading 12.5 boards in his one and only collegiate season. He can put [More …]

“News from WAY Outside the Beltway”

By Paul M. Banks

-It’s that time again: a special on-the-road edition of Week in Review. Welcome to “The Capitol” of all sports-related (and some not so sporty) links, jokes, observations, etc. The non-Maryland / D.C. / Virginia news you want to choose is towards the end…’cuz that’s how we roll when we do the location-themed WIR. Posting it on an election primary night doesn’t hurt either.

-In case you missed it, here’s the HBO segment on Barack Obama’s basketball ability and love of the game. Or, “Basketball Jones,” as Bryant Gumbel said…sounding so Caucasian.

-The Nationals have major attendance issues, despite having a great new ballpark. The author describes Oriole Park at Camden Yards being a “transcendent experience.”  Of the parks I’ve visited, this is one of my favorites, but I think calling it “transcendent” is a bit much…

-How can you have trouble selling tickets when you have the “Racing Presidents” promotion going for you? Click on these links to learn more on the races themselves, and why poor Teddy Roosevelt can’t win. At least he speaks softly and carries a big stick! http://blog.letteddywin.com/

Special thanks to my friend and colleague R.B. Moreno for the behind-the-scenes tour of NPR. Yes, that is the new official TheSportsBank.net t-shirt that I’m rocking and representin’ at the National Public Radio headquarters

-This story warms my heart: the Nats’ stadium is the first eco-friendly ballpark. It [More …]

By the TSB Staff

In this week’s panel question, Soxman, Seymour Pennants and I break down our favorite sports towns, not just the teams, but the culture and people who live and die by those teams. We all ended up in the Eastern Time Zone, and Seymour took a shot at a rival sports city that will not likely inspire many positive comments from Cleveland.
 

Paul M. Banks: Boston

My fascination with “America’s Athens” started a couple years ago when the NFL Draft Webzine I write for reassigned me to columns on the nation’s highest profile team, the New England Patriots. http://www.nfldraftblitz.com/patriotscolumn.htm This life long Bears fan was first introduced to the Pats as the comic foil in Super Bowl XX, the biggest sporting event in Chicago’s history. As I’ve researched and written about the Patriots, I’ve see the current team develop into a juggernaut comparable to the legendary ’85 Bears. During a holiday family gathering, my cousin and I came up with a game: naming cities with reputations reflecting the personalities of our family members. Boston was mine. At the interactive quiz http://www.findyourspot.com I verified this choice.

I love Chicago, my home for most of my life; but if there were one place where I would choose to relocate, Boston would be at the top of the list. The allure is multifaceted. Ironically however, it wasn’t a visit to Boston but actually one to Orlando, Florida, that inspired me to write this essay. I [More …]