How the racist depicted Blacks playing football in 1920

This is a painting of a all-black Harvard-Yale football game in 1920. It’s up for auction, and who wouldn’t want this hanging in their house to show all their friends how progressive on race relation they are?

Here’s a closeup of some of the players

So according to the artist African-Americans played the game of football like this

1. Instead of a normal looking pigskin, they played with someting that looks more like a watermelon than a footall
2. Submission moves can be used in place of a tackle
3. Axes can be used to assist in tacking
4. You can bite the leg of the kicker to mess with his game, but keep an eye out for any players with guns shooting you.
5. The kicker can carry a butcher knife to prevent biting
6. You can use a gun to deflate the ball/watermelon to end the play

After seeing this portrait, the artist has taught me a lot about how football was played back then. I also have concluded that the artist was a fine upstanding member of his community (and his local klan chapter)

Animal New York

Deadspin

75 million pieces of silver

Clay Bennett finished his defacation on the fans of the Sonics today with an assist from the city itself which allowed Bennett to leave the city for 75 million dollars.  Even though Bennett said he would stay in Seattle if they gave him a new stadium, his first words after the settlement revealed his true intent (as if Seattle didn’t already know what it had been)

“We made it,” Bennett said after stepping to an Oklahoma City podium featuring the NBA logo and the letters OKC. “The NBA will be in Oklahoma City next season.”

The Judases in Seattle have justified their betrayal by saying the money will be used to get a new NBA team. Of course David Stern has already said there will be no expansion team in Seattle. While Stern made some noises to contrary today, this was just said to ease the consciences of the city. The legislature has said to no stadium help to the CEO’s of both Microsoft and Starbucks, which are probably the two most powerful forces in Seattle commereace. The legislature will never help build a new stadium, the fans of Seattle are screwed.

Clay Bennett proved how easy it is to steal a franchise from a city as long as you don’t have a thread of decency in you.

Pray for Chris Snyder

The Diamondbacks put Eric Byrnes and Chris Snyder on the DL. Byrnes has a hamstring injury from trying to steal third base. Snyder got fit by a foul ball while at the backstop and sustained a fractured left testicle.

I assume you can fix a fractured testicle, but that medical treatment would hurt like hell. Out of any injury that didn’t threaten a player’s life or career, I’ve never cringed as much as I did when I read that. In fact the only thing that comes close would be Felix Pie’s testicular torsion (sensing a trend?). And with Snyder you can’t make references to The Venture Brothers.

International Baseball Federation to prevent extra innings from dragging on

The International Baseball Federation (or IBAF) is launching a new baseball league in Europe and having the 2009 Baseball World Cup there in order to get European support for admitting baseball back into the Olympics. I’m not the slightest bit interested in that, but something that the IBAF is going to try out is very interesting. The rule would change the manner of extra innings, in order to not have the game drag on.

When the game enters the 10th inning, the next players on the roster are placed on first and second base and each team starts with one out,” he said. “We feel that this proposal will help bring the game to an end in a timely manner.

This is a fantastic idea for many reasons.

1. After watching 9 innings of baseball some people might be burnt out and not willing to watch anymore unless something interesting happens. With 2 men on and 1 out at the start of every inning the bored viewer might not be so bored anymore
2. If the game takes place at night,  extended games will keep you up which will fuck you over if you have to be somewhere in the morning
3. When a team has to use its pitchers for 12+ innings, its bullpen will be taxed. The next day you had better hope your starter goes 7 or 8 innings because your bullpen will have few arms ready to go.

Traditionalists will certainly oppose this, but I’d take this modfication any day then having to see each member my team’s bullpen have to pitch 2 innings and have the game last until 3 AM.

Ian Thomsen reports that Celtics are trying to trade out of the 1st round

On WEEI a few moments ago, Sports Illustrated writer Ian Thomsen reported that the Celtics are trying to trade out of the number 30 pick, preferably for a future 1st rounder. Thomsen says that the Celtics are in a win now mode, and that they need cash to re-sign James Posey.

If the Celtics do keep it they seem to be looking at more foreign players than college players (so that they can stash the draft pick overseas until they are ready to help). Two college players the Celtics could go after at if they fall are Kansas State’s Bill Walker and Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert. The Celtics were high on Hibbert before he opted out of the 2007 draft and could be interested if he falls to 30 (and Ian Thomsen has the Celtics taking him in his latest mock). Andy Katz  has said the Celtics feel that Walker could replace either Posey or Tony Allen in the rotation if he gets to them despite his knee problems.

Shawn Chacon gives a well deserved beating to Ed Wade

Ed Wade was a horrible choice to be the Astros GM. There were much better options. Logan White of the Dodgers and Jed Hoyer of the Red Sox were just some of the up-and-coming GM prospects that could have helped Houston.  Still becuase everyone else realized the Astros would have to rebuild, owner Drayton McLane hired Wade because he thought they could contend. Wade traded prospects in an already weak system for Miguel Tejada one day before the Mitchell Report named him as a steroid user. Despite expecting to contend, Wade’s Astros are in 5th place and 12 games out of 1st place. While Tejada has been better than expected, he still cost vital prospects and he isn’t going to be leading the Astros to the playoffs.

Thus, I imagine that Astros fans  were thrilled when they heard that Shawn Chacon grabbed Wade by the neck and threw him to the ground. It seems Wade went up to Chacon while he was eating and demanded that he go with him to the managers office right then and there(to tell him he had been demoted to the bullpen). Chacon told him he could tell him what he wanted right there which angered Wade who screamed and cussed at Chacon. Chacon stood up and told Wade to stop yelling, but Wade persisited. When Wade told Chacon to look in a mirror (perhaps Wade should have taken his own advice) Chacon did the deed.

Chacon deserves his indefinite suspension, but Wade’s conduct was also unacceptable. Let the man eat, and don’t scream and curse at him in person.

Ed Wade once said of Curt Schilling “Every 5 days he’s a horse, and the other 4 he’s a horse’s ass”. After this it looks like if you take out the first part of that quote, it can be applied to Wade.

J.P. Ricciardi got pranked

The Toronto GM has now joined the likes of Mitt Romney and OJ Simpson after apparently being prank called by someone claiming to be Adam Dunn.

Since JP blasted Dunn on the radio, he has tried to apologize only to have Dunn tell him to fuck off.  However Riccardi claimed that over the weekend Dunn called him and they worked it out. Adam Dunn however says that never happened.

So someone had pranked Riccardi and managed to make an even bigger fool out of him.

With the 5th pick of the 1995 NBA draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select Kevin Garnett

It was with this pick that changed the way GM’s approached the draft. The number one overall pick was Joe Smith who had performed in college but was not considered a potential superstar. Kevin Garnett didn’t do well on his SAT’s and ACT’s and thus was ruled ineligible to get a division I scholarship. Garnett then decided to go straight to the NBA where he became the superstar that Joe Smith never could be in the NBA. In 1996 Kobe Bryant also jumped straight from high school to the NBA. In 1997 Tracy McGrady followed Kobe and KG’s path.

Even though today players can no longer go straight from high school to the pros, picks in draft take into consideration what the player can be (rather than what they are now) more than they did before Garnett came to the NBA

Donaghy’s lawyer whines that NBA is trying to “take out” his client.

And why is that a bad thing?

The disgraced ref’s lawyer is complaining that David Stern is trying to “seeking to destroy” his client financially and that Stern is just being vindictive. The lawyer also states that it wasn’t the game fixing that pissed the NBA off so much as Donaghy’s cooperation with investigators (the lawyer conveniently leaves out that the so called cooperation is just Tim Dongahy doing anything he can to reduce his amount of time getting raped in the shower)

Granted, Stern is demanding money back for everything right down to the sneakers Donaghy wore on the court. However if Donaghy didn’t want financial ruin then maybe he shouldn’t have thrown games.

Donaghy deserves to pay every cent of the 1.4 million, no matter how long it takes to pay it off.

Celtics pick rumors: Trade, go foreign, or will Hibbert drop?

The Boston Celtics will be picking 30th in Thursday’s NBA draft and Danny Ainge is trying to figure out which path to go down. Marc Spears writes today about 3 potential possibilities.

1. Trade the pick. This could bring 2 second round picks and considering the fact that Ainge has been superb at drafting in second round this could bring much better results than one player at 30.
2. Draft from overseas. Since Boston’s roster will be crowded next year, a foreign player makes sense because they could have him develop in Eurpoe for a few years (while still controlling his rights) then he come to the Celtics with much more polish.
3. If Roy Hibbert falls to the Celtics (a scenario Spears says is likely) then the team might have to reconsider their game plan and take him. Hibbert could end up being an upgrade over Kendrick Perkins in the long run, and could serve as the backup center for the Celtics if PJ Brown retires. Remember before he exited last year’s draft, Hibbert was going 5th overall in some mock drafts. To get him at 30 would be a coup.