You may have to go to X to hear the audio. I’m not hearing audio when I play the video here. Yes. This here is the single best video on the internet right now… ???? pic.twitter.com/sSJBnRagCH — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 17, 2024 Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Sports
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Luis Tiant
Luis Tiant won 229 games, with 2,416 strikeouts, a 3.30 ERA, 187 complete games and 49 shutouts. He was a three-time All-Star for and four-time 20-game winner. He was the American League (AL) ERA leader in 1968 and 1972 and the AL leader in shutouts in 1966, 1968, and 1974. In today’s game, where you can win a Cy Young award with zero shutouts and zero complete games, those stats would send you straight to the Hall of Fame but Tiant was not elected to the Hall of Fame. In 1968, Tiant Led the American League in ERA (1.60), shutouts (nine, including four consecutive), hits per nine innings (5.30) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.22), while finishing with a 21–9 record. His .168 opponent batting average set a new major league record, and his 19 strikeout/10 inning performance against the Minnesota Twins on July 3 set the American League record… Read more →
People I Thought Were Dead
Jim Bakker – televangelist Richard Benjamin – actor Joe Biden – U.S. president Jimmy Carter – U.S. president Elizabeth Dole – U.S. cabinet secretary Sandy Koufax – baseball player Kreskin – mentalist and TV host Ralph Nader – consumer activist Richard Petty – auto racer Updates Kreskin, died 12/10/2024, age 89 Read more →
Let’s Play Some Soccer!
"This Is about Biology': New Hampshire Girls Soccer Players Boycott Game over Male Opponent https://t.co/30nbu2XWwT — Paul Epps (@paulepps) October 3, 2024 The team didn’t boycott the game, but several of the players did, which required the coach to fill out the roster with JV players. According to the story, this happens in every game that the Kearsarge Regional High School team plays — multiple girls on the opposing team refuse to play. I don’t blame them. Aside from being unfair, it’s obviously totally unsafe. I’ve seen men beating the hell out of women in boxing and MMA. I read about a high school girl suffering brain damage from being hit in the face by a volleyball spiked by a boy. I’ve heard about high school girls getting their teeth knocked out by boys playing on girls’ field hockey teams. I’ve seen a large high school boy playing girls basketball… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Pete Rose
Pete Rose was the greatest baseball player I’ve ever seen. If I had to explain baseball to an alien from another planet, I’d show the alien a highlight reel of Pete Rose. Rose is baseball’s all-time leader in hits, won three World Series championships, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves, and the Rookie of the Year Award. He made 17 All-Star appearances in an unequaled five positions (second baseman, left fielder, right fielder, third baseman, and first baseman). Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford gave Rose the nickname “Charlie Hustle” after Rose sprinted to first base after drawing a walk, which he did his entire career. (Current players rarely sprint to first base under any circumstances.) Despite, or because of, the derisive manner in which Ford intended it, Rose adopted that nickname as a badge of honor. There’s another version of the story in which Ford bestowed… Read more →
What Has Happened to Major League Baseball?
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Boras Corporation (@borascorp) Blake Snell of the San Francisco Giants, the league’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, pitched the first no-hit game of his career a couple of nights ago, beating the Cincinnati Reds 3-0. Not only was it Snell’s first career no-hitter, it was the first complete game of his career. What has major league baseball come to when a starting pitcher wins a Cy Young award without throwing one single complete game?! It’s not as common as you might think for a reigning Cy Young winner to throw a no-hitter. It’s only happened five times before. Going back to when I was growing up watching baseball, Bob Gibson did it in 1971. As the Cy Young winner in 1970, Gibson pitched 20 complete games. That’s for one season. In his career, Gibson had 255 complete games. Baseball’s a totally… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Jerry West
I’ve always lived in Southern California — mostly in Orange County, south of LA. If you lived somewhere else, it’s probably not possible to describe what Jerry West meant to Los Angeles. It starts with what the Lakers mean to Los Angeles and then what West meant to the Lakers, as a Hall of Fame player, and then as a coach and general manager. Yes, there’s another professional basketball team in Los Angeles but only a few misfits care about them. Quality of life in Los Angeles is determined in large part by how well the Lakers are playing. West was synonymous with Laker basketball for 40 years. You could say that after West retired as a player, the Lakers were synonymous with Showtime, Magic Johnson, Kareem, James Worthy, and later with Kobe and Shaq and Phil Jackson. But West assembled the Showtime teams, acquired Kobe in a draft day… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Chet Walker
Hall of Fame forward Chet “The Jet” Walker, a seven-time NBA All-Star, has died at the age of 84. Although he played with other teams, I remember him as a member of the Chicago Bulls teams of the 1970s, with Bob Love, Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier and Clifford Ray. RIP Chet Walker Read more →
“All These Things That I Believed In For All These Years No Longer Exist”
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Kobe Bryant is My Basketball Teacher
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Kobe: The Statue vs. The Moment
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My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Brooks Robinson
Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, the “Human Vacuum Cleaner,” has died at the age of 86. Robinson played his entire 23-year career with the Orioles. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games and earned the 1964 AL Most Valuable Player award after batting .318 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 118 RBIs. He won 16 consecutive Gold Gloves. He was the best-fielding third basemen I’ve ever seen. Robinson’s most memorable performance came as MVP of the 1970 World Series, a five-game triumph over the Reds, He hit .429, homered twice and drove in six runs. In Game 1, Robinson delivered the tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning. One inning earlier, he made a sensational backhanded grab of a hard grounder hit down the line by Lee May, spun around in foul territory and somehow threw out the runner. Robinson contributed an RBI single in the second… Read more →
Opting Out of Pride Night
Former NBA player Jason Collins, who became the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major North American sports leagues, spoke out this week about the recent wave of NHL players and teams opting out of Pride Night, saying that “religion should not be a cause for division.” — foxnews.com Some Russian NHL players have opted out over fear of reprisals in their home country, but the main reason given for opting out has been religious beliefs. You’ve got to offer some excuse and that’s the one that people seem most willing to accept. It may be sincere in most or all cases, I don’t know. I know that there are some people who believe in a God who frowns on any sort of non-heterosexual activities. Religion is definitely a cause of division in the world, there’s no disagreeing with that. But in this case, I’m… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Vida Blue
Vida Blue was a left-handed pitcher between 1969 and 1986, most notably as a member of the starting rotation with the Oakland A’s dynasty that won three consecutive World Series championships between 1972 and 1974. He won the American League Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award in 1971, the youngest American League player to win the MVP Award in the 20th century. He had a 24–8 record, an AL-leading 1.82 ERA, eight shutouts and 301 strikeouts. Those were the days when starting pitchers throwing a shutout weren’t taken out of the game because of a pitch count. Today, pitchers throwing no-hitters are pulled based on pitch counts. So eight shutouts is more than a current pitcher will likely throw in a lifetime. Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader and a good guy to go to for an opinion like this, said that Vida Blue threw as hard as… Read more →
NPR Issues Correction After Claiming There’s ‘Limited Scientific Evidence’ Men Have Physical Advantages In Sports
NPR didn’t really concede much with its correction. Here it is: Correction: An earlier tweet incorrectly stated there is limited scientific evidence of physical advantage. Existing research shows that higher levels of testosterone do impact athletic performance. But there’s limited research involving elite trans athletes in competition. To me, NPR’s statement is so stupid that “scientific research” is not required to refute it. Let’s look at some anecdotal evidence: Lia Thomas, a biological male, a total nobody as a swimmer in men’s competitions, won an NCAA championship when swimming against women. CeCe Telfer, a biological male, a total nobody as a hurdler in men’s competitions, actually won a national championship by a full second-and-a-half when competing against women. Tiffany Thomas (no relation to Lia AFAIK), a biological male, recently won a New York City women’s cycling race. Thomas is a Category 1 (i.e., elite) women’s cyclist, despite being 46 years… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Willis Reed
Willis Reed is best remembered for Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers in Madison Square Garden, not for his performance on the court (he scored only four points), but for limping gamely onto the court during warmups. Reed hadn’t played in Game 6 because of a torn thigh muscle and was considered unlikely to play in Game 7. Even as a Laker fan, I have to admit it was an all-time iconic moment, so much so that no one (except Frazier himself) remembers that Walt Frazier had one of the greatest Game 7 performances in NBA playoff history: 36 points, 7 rebounds, 19 assists and 6 steals. That game is always remembered as “the Willis Reed game.” RIP Willis Reed Read more →
If God Coached Basketball
Vermont Christian School Barred from Future Competition for Refusing to Play against Male Athlete — nationalreview.com Mid-Vermont Christian School (MVCS) has been excluded from competing in future tournaments sanctioned by the Vermont Principals’ Association after its girls basketball team forfeited a match against an opposing team that includes a male player who identifies as a girl. It’s a human rights violation! Vermont law permits transgender females to compete in the group corresponding to their gender identity and prohibits so-called discrimination based on sex. Since the school in question is a Christian school, let’s ask ourselves what would Jesus do if Jesus were a basketball coach? Better yet, what would God do? Because God is wrathful and doesn’t put up with nonsense. I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I take vengeance on them.… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Dick Fosbury
THE FOSBURY FLOP! Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons are Dying: Franco Harris
I’ve always thought Franco Harris was wildly overrated as a running back, but he was a four-time Super Bowl champion so there’s that. RIP Franco Harris RIP Franco Harris The immaculate reception happened 50 years ago this week. pic.twitter.com/T9FXJPvs3y — McNeil (@Reflog_18) December 21, 2022 Read more →
Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen File for Divorce
I may be ignorant about crucially important details obviously but it seems like the main problem from Ms. Bündchen’s point of view was that her husband had a job. First, I’m super against divorces for people with minor children. Second, there are just few if any people who are as physically attractive as Tom Brady, have the charisma of Tom Brady, have as much money as Tom Brady, and are as good at their job as Tom Brady. So if she’s thinking she’s going to upgrade her spouse, she’s almost certainly deluded or getting bad advice. On the other side, I can’t help thinking that Tom Brady would be able to choose from any number of fabulously attractive women to enliven his social life. Read more →