Scott Downs: the type of guy you take home to meet mom…

by Navin Vaswani…My man crush on Blue Jays uber relief pitcher Scott Downs continues to intensify, especially after his marvelous performance last Saturday night down in Texas.

Downs is a straight rudey. I thought, and still think, that he should have been an all star. The guy has been dynamite out of the ‘pen for the Jays all year, and Saturday was no exception.

Downs entered the game in relief of A.J. Burnett and went two and a third innings, facing seven hitters, and retiring them all. He lowered his team leading ERA to 1.37 and hasn’t allowed a run since July 5th. He’s also held opposing hitters to a paltry .202 batting average. The much-maligned J.P. Ricciardi deserves some serious props for locking Downs up and having him become an integral part of the bullpen. Downs has done nothing but deliver.

I fucking love Scott Downs.

I know, the Blue Jays can’t hold a lead for their lives and lost two out of three deep in the heart of Texas, but, well, I don’t want to talk about it. I’d rather focus on the few positives I’ve got left, like my main man Downs. He makes the Jays’ dance with the .500 mark a little easier to deal with.

Guess that MILF Ass

They don’t build them like the use to; this is the best 42-year-old ass you will ever see, really! Just goes to show you that when they named you the first supermodel of the world they new what they were talking about! Okay girls, and you older woman too, start doing assercise and you too could have a fine asset such as this, maybe! But give it the good all college try anyway I say! The Captain indorses this Ass!

NBA: Which Team Would You Rather Play for, the Celtics, or the Blazers?

TJ Zwarych… Well, it would clearly be absolutely awesome to play for any team in the NBA, but what team would be the best to go to? On one hand, you just got your first ring playing with the Celtics as you were the best team in the league last year. You finally got that ring and you have a very legitimate shot at repeating.

Or, you are on a fantastic up-and-coming squad with multiple up-and-coming stars. You don’t have that ring yet, but the future is looking very good. But do you really want to wait?

With the Celtics, you would already have that one ring in the bag. You would have won a championship, and no one could take that pride from you. You would be playing along side three of the best players in the league in KG, Pierce, and Ray Allen.

KG is a Hall-of-Fame lock, being one of the best defenders and best post players to ever play in the NBA. It wouldn’t be like last year would be your only shot at winning it all either. The Celtics are still the exact same team minus James Posey.

Posey was one of their best defenders, but they still have time to replace him. The season is far from starting. They still have time to make their team better, and even if they don’t make any new changes to their team, they still wouldn’t go from best team in the league to missing the playoffs. They still will be a legitimate contender for the championship for the next few years.

The Trail Blazers, on the other hand, look like they have the potential to be one of the best dynasties ever, but no one can predict the future. Some say they think the Trail Blazers will win it all next year despite their youth and inexperience, and can pull it through with talent and athleticism. Although unlike last year I think that they will make the playoffs, I don’t think they will be able to win a championship.

The Blazers look like they have the team that could win a handful of championships in the next few years, but no one can say for sure. No one can predict a nasty injury to a star, or players wanting to go to different cities for money or family reasons.

If you want the championship guaranteed, you would get that in Boston. (In the playing for Boston scenario, you’d have been there last year too)

I think that if you are a young emerging player in the league I would go to Portland, because it seems very unlikely that they won’t do fantastic in the years to come. But if you’re an older player, you never had a ring before last year, and you won’t play many more years, then Boston.

What would you choose?

Can Dwayne Wade pull it off?

by Ankit Bagga… Who says that a king is invincible? They are and more so in the world of sports, yes, even in NBA. Take for example Dwayne Wade. Just 2 years back this player was considered as the best of NBA. However, things have changed for the worse. In the last two seasons has missed more than 30 games because of injuries. Playing in some exhibition games recently for team USA, the performance of this player reminded one of his forms prior to 2005-06.

NBA is paying a huge amount of money to retain Dwayne and he has not justified the same during the past 2 years. However there is still a glimmer of hope if one goes by his performance in some international competitions. It seems as if the Wade of old is slowly coming back to form. Sometimes in early July, Wade was given a amalgamated ranking of 10. There were some persons who believed that he should have been ranked higher, but as of date it seems that the ranking he was given was fair enough.

However, going by his recent performances, it seems that the Wade we know is coming back. He has been averaging 17.3 points per game in about 18.7 minutes. It looks as though he has finally shed off his injuries and is returning back to his pre-injury form. Going by his recent statistics, it can be said safely that if he avoids injury for a full season, Wade can easily pull himself up into the top 5 players. But then again, there are other players too, who also have the talent to be on the top 5 but are not being able to. The simple reason is that their presence on court is not just enough to pull them up to the top 5.

The Best Playoff Beards

by Murray Crafford…

I took the opportunity this past NHL post-season to join many players in the tradition of growing a beard. While neither of the final teams were ones I cheered for back in October I used this as an excuse to fulfill a dream of mine, I like beards.

The playoff beard is one of my favourite parts of the post season, right after the intense hockey, hard fought games and endless overtimes. Nothing represents a long playoff run by a team full of grizzled mountain men.

The tradition isn’t as old as some people might have you think, it really got its pop culture fame in the 1980s when the Islanders Denis Potvin, Butch Goring and Clark Gillies let there chin fuzz go for there four straight titles. Since then it has taken a life of its own. The veterans grow thick and full beards as best they can, the rookies try there best but it shows how young they are. Here are the five best full beards, and the five best attempts.

5. Mike Commodore. While he loses points for growing a ginger beard the fact that he not only let it grow to the point where you couldn’t tell his mouth was moving but he let his curly hair grow into an afro to match. Best remembered for a bet he made with Don Cherry in a bathrobe, if the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup Grapes would have to don the same bathrobe. The Canes did and Don put on an afro wig and the bathrobe.

4. Jean-Sebastian Giguere. He gets it for two cup runs, one that actually resulted in a cup. Another thick beard, but this time the grower didn’t appreciate it, neither did his wife. In fact they both hated it but Giguere stuck it out for the team. The beard did work with Giguere taking home the Conn Smythe in his first cup run and the Stanley Cup itself in the second. It’s the little things that make hockey so much fun, like eccentric goalies.

3. Scott Niedermayer. You get a sense of how old he was when he won his fourth cup. The grey streaks in the beard are enough to show the wears of four cup wins and six long cup runs. But the beard is still among the best it literally starts at Niedermayer’s Adam’s apple and doesn’t stop till the nose. The beard and his skill set led to not only four cups but a Conn Smythe in 2007, a Norris in 2004 and a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics.

2. Todd Bertuzzi. Not only is this one of the best playoff beards Bertuzzi should have kept it full time, since shaving it he hasn’t gone as far as he did before the shave. But it also looked really good on him. He’s one of those guys who should really keep a beard. If he had kept it for the Greg Moore incident Moore would have been cushioned and not broken his neck.

1. Larry Robinson. He isn’t given credit for starting the tradition but very few have looked better than big bird bearded. His was not a playoff beard specifically, he just let it grow and his career never looked back. He managed to win two Norris Trophies, and finished behind Bobby Orr in other years and a Conn Smythe. Oh and he was on six Stanley Cup teams with the Canadiens including the famed 1976-77 season. And he won a Cup as coach with the New Jersey Devils.

Best Attempts (non-shavers who try)

5. Daniel Briere. He couldn’t even get enough to grow on his upper lip to avoid the Abe Lincoln implications. It looked like a 16 year old who still hasn’t learned how to use a razor yet. Still he has had some middling success in attempting to grow it, and attempting to get to the final. When he was a Sabre he made two deep cup runs both resulting in a Conference Final exit.

4. Teemu Selanne. The veteran was a rookie back when the Jets were still a team and he still can’t grow a beard. He’s had his share of success without it. He’s got a cup, a record that may never be broken, 76 goals in a rookie season and he’s still aging. Still having anything similar to Niedermayer or Giguere is out of the question; even Ovechkin has out grown him at this point.

3. Sidney Crosby. Sid the kid tried in both of his playoff appearances and just like the second attempt it went further. It was spotty; it missed several key parts of his face and often looked like a fire that had almost ravaged a forest, just a few trees here and there. But he tried to grow one and when he tried harder his team had more success, coming close in just his third professional season. He may be one of the never able to grow a full beard but he’s got the skill to deserve one.

2. Mike Fisher. Ok the kid can’t grow much; he could grow mutton chops with assistance from Hair Club for Men. But he tries to and was key to the Sen’s cup run. He’s an unsung hero in the NHL and his beard attempts match his spirit. It won’t be long before his beard looks half decent, but it may never by bushy and full, which is too bad because I want to blame the beard for his success.

1. Alexander Ovechkin. Here’s hoping this kid wins a cup before he can properly grow a beard. It may have been his first playoffs but Ovechkin looked like he wanted to grow a bigger one, and I would have loved to see it, I hope I do soon. He can brow more than Briere but still looks like he’s gluing it on from his own head.

Well those are my favourite beards; stay tuned for the best mullets.