DBD 7.12.10 Let's Build An Army

Dodgers beat down Cubs:

The Dodgers opening day starter pitched like one Sunday as Padilla had everything going for him Sunday. Padilla wasn’t allowed to go for the complete game shutout which was to bad because for eight innings he dominated the Cubs.

You know you are in control when you can throw at your nemesis and not have to worry about it impacting the game. Marlon Byrd had some choice words for Padilla when he was released by the Rangers last summer so either Padilla can read, or they simply had some clubhouse problems. I have to say I loved the smirk by Byrd, and the fact he took the shot, and walked very very very slowly to 1st base. Padilla may have made his point but the problem with him using this method to make his point, is that some other Dodger was going to feel the pain, and sure enough Blake DeWitt took the bullet for Padilla.

NIners Nation discusses Tarrell Brown, apparently a player for the Niners:

So yesterday I took a look at Nate Clements and what your confidence may be in him. He was the first defensive player and previously we have voted on Alex Smith, Glen Coffee, Frank Gore – and many more. Today I’ll continue looking at the secondary, and even more, continue looking at the cornerback position.

Tarell Brown is a player whose current worth is hard to place. He’s shown flashes, and he’s disappeared completely. He’s very athletic, probably the team’s fastest corner at the moment. The past two seasons have seen Brown posting two interceptions in each season, with his tackle numbers going up. He hasn’t been amazing, but he hasn’t seemed like a liability out there, either.

TrueHoop took on SBN basketball blogs in Summer league game:

Yesterday morning, in the wee hours (by Vegas standards) of 8:45am, well before duty called at the 2010 NBA Summer League first tipoff of 1:00pm, a group of eager ballers met outside Chuck Minker Sports Complex. The heat was debilitating as we waited for the staff to unlock the front entrance.

Once inside, the rumble was afoot. I asked BrightSideOfTheSun’s Seth Pollack for a brief rundown of who was from SB Nation and who was from TrueHoop Network. If Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had come through on his email saying he would pass by, I might’ve considered having a quickie draft, but in his absence of what I’m sure was hob-knobbing amongst NBA socialites at some swank hotel (he probably made the right choice), decided against such a method of roster determination.

SilverScreenAndRoll discusses LeBronakkuh:

LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade have all signed for the same NBA team. 3 in-their-prime superstars, all on one team. In order to play together, the big 3 all agreed to contracts which are less than what they could have obtained elsewhere on the open market. They all are theoretically agreeing to share the spotlight, to let their stats fall off. In short, all three have made sacrifices to their individual glory, income, and perhaps even their individual legacies, for the chance to be a part of a special team, a team that has potential we’ve never even dreamed of.

Fans have been begging for this to happen for eons. Since the time when big money and sports became synonymous, we fans have been treated to a constant barrage of players taking the money when faced with the same choice the big 3 all faced. We understand that there is a business side of sports, but it doesn’t stop us from ignoring that side as we fall in love with our players and teams. So, every time a star takes a little bit more money to play on a less successful team, we always fall back on the same old thing “Why couldn’t you have been willing to sacrifice a little cash to play for a winner.” Hell, as Lakers fans, we know this argument better than most. We said it to Trevor Ariza last year, as his agent tried to bluff the Lakers that Ariza was serious about making more money than they were offering. Now, Ariza’s former teammates all have one ring more than he does, and we all think to ourselves “See?”.

SacTown Royalty discusses DeMarcus Cousins:

He owned the paint during the five-on-five drills and scrimmages. A lot of great rebounders do their work with positioning and hands. Guys like Kevin Love, Jon Brockman and even Carlos Boozer move laterally and fight for rebounds which essentially become loose balls once they fall below the rim. Cousins can do that, and came up with plenty of rebounds in what were effectively scrums, especially during a five-on-five drill in which a coach fired up an errant shot and the 10 players fought for possession.

But he can also sky for rebounds few other NBA big men can get.

The dude’s size is remarkable — he takes up so much space in the paint. And when he gets off his feet quickly, he can get some Dwight Howard rebounds. No, he isn’t dunking on a 12-foot rim. And he’s not getting to the ball first every time it’s ripe for the picking up high. But a few of the skying rebounds where breathtaking in that the Kings haven’t had someone to get those rebounds in a decade.

Berkeley Lab h oping to get retrofit:

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will propose a seismic retrofitting plan to the UC Board of Regents at their Tuesday meeting to begin updating the hazardous buildings within the facility, but concerns have been raised by community members over the environmental impacts of the construction.

The proposal suggests retrofitting one building, constructing a new general lab and demolishing two buildings and six trailers. It is part of the lab’s long-term development plan, pioneered in 2006. According to the plan, only 51 percent of the lab’s buildings were assessed as suitable for use and 24 percent of the structures needed seismic upgrades.

Reel Video on Shattuck to potentially close:

Spaghetti westerns, driver’s education videos from the 1940s and instructional videos on how to smoke a cigar in the nude could disappear from the sight of Berkeley offbeat-film aficionados if a local store known for its unusual collection is unable to raise $200,000 to buy its independence.

Reel Video, located at 2655 Shattuck Ave., has more than 81,000 individual video titles, ranging from the familiar to the fantastic and more than 100,000 copies total, but its one-of-a-kind collection could be closed down because the store’s parent corporation, Movie Gallery Inc., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The store was founded in 1997, but was bought about a year later by Hollywood Video, a subsidiary of Movie Gallery Inc.

Store employees and community members are launching efforts to save the store through fundraising and other initiatives, including a website campaign asking for help. The store has yet to be told when it will close.

DON’T FORGET TO RANK THE BIG GAMES OF THE 2000s!

Any part of this video could be a great GIF, but particularly the part from 0:50 to 1:05 or so MUST BE MADE INTO A GIF! I BEG OF YOU!

2:10-2:40 of this video: MAX DOES THE SOULJA BOY!

OK, I can’t believe I’ve never seen this video before: Jerome, Jamal, Max and Jorge dancing to U Can’t Touch This. It’s all GIFable, but the best part is probably about 1:40-1:53 or so.

Somewhere between 1:20-1:40 of this video.

8:15-8:19 of this video

1. D-Jax jump back juke on 07 Tenn PR TD
2. UCLA Bosworth twin KO by DeCoud on D-Jax PR TD
3. Randle hitting a ridiculously deep three
4. Beast Mode tippin’ an injury cart
5. Pic of Seaborg… “Still no Stanfurdium”
6. Best jump into end zone vs. Minnesota
7. U$C two finger thing “Two Year Bowl Ban” (or something similar)
8. Zhang blocking Landry Fields
9. Something “What’s Your Deal?” related
10. Victory Cannon going off “BOOM Roasted” (could also do a lawyer’d, ortho’d, etc"
11. UC Eugene Duck beating up Houston Cougar “Attitude Reflects Leadership” (throw in Masoli, LaMike, anyone of the other paroled players, etc)
12. Something w/ rats leaving a sinking ship, $C players transferring
13. Stoops doing something “Stoops-ish”
14. UA double pass in 09
15. PC and Zhang hand-shake/dance
16. Something Nikola and Michael Cera related
17. Anything with Alison Stoke or Natalie Caughlin
18. Mikey Mo interception
19. Baylor 1st TD pass
20. Stanfurd tromboner getting “The Played”

(I’ll try to add links when I have time)

for converting Youtube.com videos to animated gifs

I love this idea:

Tedford throwing his chart down in 2007 OSU

For a happier Tedford related one, how about at the end of the 2006 Oregon game when he climbs up on the Cal bench to face the student section and applaud them. It’s at the 3:54 mark of this awesome video.

Same video at 3:16 — Marshawn placing the Cal hard hat on Forsett. That might be a good one for something hard-hat worthy happening here.

Maybe a gif on the rope guy, too.

From that ad with Tedford. Just Tedford shouting, with the appropriate text; then the response, once again with the appropriate text. Simple to make, I’d imagine.

The NCAA is looking at whether to ban scholarship offers to recruits before July 1 in the summer between their junior and senior years in high school.

The rule would apply to all sports if passed later this year or next. Some coaches are hopeful it could slow an arms-race mentality that has led to earlier and earlier commitments by unproven prospects.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5372984

I’m guessing verbal agreements can easily work around this. Seeing as the Bears take a slower approach to recruiting than other schools, I can’t imagine this hurting us.

Soni, Coughlin, Hoff win at LA Grand Prix

Rebecca Soni defeated Jessica Hardy to win the 100-meter breaststroke in a showdown between the two fastest women ever in the event at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on Sunday.

Dana Vollmer broke her own meet record in winning the 100 butterfly in 57.39 seconds, a full second under her old time from 2007. Olympic silver medalist Christine Magnuson was second in 58.87.

Two-time defending Olympic champion Natalie Coughlin won the 100 back in 1:00.52, edging Rachel Bootsma.

Economics Degree Is Best Route to CEO Job

A business major’s chance of becoming CEO of an S&P 500 company is 34% lower than an economics major’s, according to a study of U.S. degrees by Patricia M. Flynn and Michael A. Quinn of Bentley University. In fact, economics beats all other majors, including physical sciences and political science, as a path to the corner office, their research shows.

Source: Social Science Research Network

As turkey reports on the front page, Cal alumnus Peter Tomasulo won his second career Nationwide Tour event this weekend. He shot a scintillating 10-under par 61 to rally from 8 shots down to win. He jumped to 9th on the Nationwide Tour money list. Still a lot of golf left on that tour this year, but it’s not too early to remember that the Top 25 get an exemption to the PGA TOUR next year.

On the PGA TOUR, Cal alum Charlie Wi continued to play well, finishing T-15th at the John Deere Classic. Wi moved up to 52nd in the FedEx Cup standings and 64th on the money list.

Future Cal freshman and reigining U.S. Amateur Champ Ben An is playing in The Open Championship in St. Andrews this week. For the first two rounds, he will play with Mark O’Meara (1998 champion) and Stephen Gallacher.

This DBD feels like an awkward date where there’s nothing to say and both people are just sitting there.

“…So….do you like…..stuff?”

[1]

Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a “runaway slave” and that the owner’s comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger.

So I’m going to try and adopt a soccer team a la Simmons in 2006, because my Bills stink and I need another way to spend my Sundays until they get better. I might try for one in each of the four big leagues (Premier, Bundesliga, La Liga & Serie A) if they fit in the criteria below.

1) They can’t be a consistent Champions League outfit. I don’t like bandwagoning onto winners and I’m not going to start now.
2) They can’t suck either. Aston Villa or Manchester City from the Premier League come to mind, but I’m not sure about any other places. What teams constantly finish 7th-14th in their leagues?
3) At least one or two recognizable stars from the World Cup I can anchor myself to. If I have to learn all the guys’s names, this will not last long. (An American would be super nice, but it’s not a given)
4) I’d prefer a team with international flavor. I know how racist soccer can get over there, so I’m probably not going to root for a team with 11 Spaniards/11 Italians/etc.
5) A team with a hated rival. Gives me at least one game to target and watch every year.
6) A cool place to visit. Optional, since I’ll probably be in Memorial most falls, but Slingboxes these days are modern marvels…

I will be making my announcement on a one hour special on Public Access Television at a time yet to be determined, titled Avinash Abandons America. Ray Ratto will interview me and ask me questions about the best fast food joints in the East Bay. Make your pitches so Avinash can talk about it in the third person!

Five Most Acrimonious Athlete Departures in Bay Area History. I’d bet a few jerseys have been burned, although nothing like the exodus occurring in Cleveland.

Did I miss anyone? Who else should I have put up on the list?