Manny Ramirez suspended for substance abuse: Of all the stars that had been linked to substance abuse, Manny Ramirez had not been one, until he was suspended for fifty games today for violating baseball's substance abuse policy.

posted by boredom_08 to baseball at 11:49 AM - 104 comments

Dominating: The UConn Huskies (of the female variety) finished off their unstoppable run to the national championship last night with a 76-54 dismantling of Louisville. According the the linked article (from SI.com), this team is the first team in the history of college basketball to win every single game in their season by double digits. They did this in a conference that got seven teams into the NCAA field, with four making it to the second weekend and two to the Final Four. So now, is this team the best women's college basketball team ever?

posted by boredom_08 to basketball at 09:25 AM - 7 comments

Diplomacy by sport?: Two of Iran's top club soccer teams, Persepolis and Esteghlal Tehran may be traveling to the United States for a tour culminating in a match between the two clubs. The tour is still to be approved by the Iranian government, but should it occur, it could mean a large step towards peace between the two countries.

posted by boredom_08 to soccer at 06:21 PM - 5 comments

Six.: - overtimes, before the Big East tournament game between Syracuse and Connecticut could be decided. Not quite the longest game in NCAA history (seven OTs), but certainly close.

posted by boredom_08 to basketball at 01:56 AM - 6 comments

Sacking Day: Two more Premier League managers have bitten the dust, with Big Phil Scolari getting sacked at Chelsea and Tony Adams losing his job at Portsmouth. Is it surprising that these two lost their jobs, or surprising that it's taken this long for the management to do the deed?

posted by boredom_08 to soccer at 11:38 AM - 18 comments

Arshavin, finally, joins the Gunners: After two weeks of negotiations, deals falling apart and being remade, and one big snowstorm, Andrei Arshavin has actually left Zenit St. Petersburg to join Arsenal. In other news from the closing of the transfer window, Robbie Keane rejoins Tottenham from Liverpool (and Harry Redknapp is excited), and Charles N'Zogbia leaves Newcastle for Wigan.

posted by boredom_08 to soccer at 11:05 PM - 27 comments

Holyfield, in a shocker.... loses?: SI.com's Graham scored the fight at 118-110 to Holyfield, but the judges speak otherwise, giving the win to Valuev by majority decision.

posted by boredom_08 to boxing at 05:57 PM - 5 comments

Questionable Call: Near the end of the Broncos-Chargers game today, there was a very curious call on the fumble/incompletion by Jay Cutler near the end of the game. The play was clearly a fumble by every replay, but because referee Ed Hochuli had blown the play dead, the ball returned to the Broncos at the spot of the fumble instead of going to the Chargers by way of recovering the fumble. The Broncoes went on to score a touchdown, a 2-point conversion, and win the game 39-38.

posted by boredom_08 to football at 09:39 PM - 22 comments

Olympic Traitor?: Chris Kaman of the Clippers, a US citizen, obtained German citizenship and plays basketball for the German Olympic team in these Olympics. He is three generations removed from his great-grandparents who came here from the motherland. There's some dispute about whether a US citizen playing for another national team is kosher. Opinions?

posted by boredom_08 to basketball at 01:00 PM - 29 comments

Sidney Crosby = the new Larry Bird?: "Some even suggest that having Crosby in the Cup finals could give the NHL the same enormous boost in popularity the NBA received way back in 1984, when Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics met in that league's championship series." Well then.

posted by boredom_08 to hockey at 06:43 PM - 26 comments

Crunch these numbers...: A website calculates the odds of when Barry will hit number 756. Place your bets now.

posted by boredom_08 to baseball at 04:44 PM - 6 comments

And so it ends...: Roger Federer ends Rafael Nadal's dominance of the clay court.

posted by boredom_08 to tennis at 06:43 AM - 7 comments