You can end up in rehab from Redbull?

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 This story is hard to believe but here it is in The Sun.  I know my Scouser friends will never talk to me again for admitting that I clicked on The Sun.

Now, from everything I’ve read, I gather that Gazza is a super high strung guy in the first place.  So why is he downing 55 Red Bulls a day?  How can that be something that ANYone would want to do?  Yeesh.   

He’s just a man, and not a freak…

Nothing much new today. Seeing the oil refinery explosion and realizing that oil isn’t going to pull back below $90 anytime soon. My strategy is to wait for the next big pullback, hopefully into the mid 80’s and then, assuming that that pullback pulls down MRO Marathon Oil to a nice, sub-45 price, I load up on some Marathon Oil and am pretty certain I’ll see it at 60 sometime in the next 12 months. Remember though, I’m no Jim Kramer.

Also trying to figure out a way to see Liverpool-Inter tomorrow at 2:45pm here Eastern Standard Time or Daylight Time or whatever. Options now are to see if Fox Soccer Channel will air it and tape it while at work. The other option is to go to work at 5am and not take a lunch (mostly don’t anyway) and then ride down to the Bronx at 2:30 and go to Rory Dolan’s and watch it. That’s where I saw them win the European Cup in 2005. Which reminds me. I had thought to list my “top greatest sports thrills” list, for anyone who cares. Here goes:

And this is just me, ok?

Detail Oriented Stadium Meister

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http://www.majorleaguemodels.com/about.asp

This is something interesting I found while looking for the little plaster model of Yankee Stadium for 93-year-old-Max’s grandson. This man builds huge, tabletop scale models of old ballparks from scratch. You know, the exacto knife and the balsa wood and a thousand other things. I can relate to this man because of what I do with the wood products and all and will even admit to having built a cardboard model Shea Stadium in 1976 that was pretty darned good.

I love this kind of wacky, I’m-going-to-build-this-thing-in-my-cellar-and-sell-it-for-150k attitude. Take 5 minutes and visit the guy’s site. Look at the original wooden 1888 Polo Grounds model and see how baseball was just after the Civil War. It’s amazing work.

It also points out that I need to do better on my website. But now, we’re 7 minutes from the kickoff of Liverpool-Chelsea. The first league encounter of the year was way back in August, on the day we had our boy christened. I left for the church at half up 1-0 only to come home and find out that the ref called a silly PK and GIFTED the point to Chelsea. So strange was the call, that the next day, the ref PUBLICLY stated that he was wrong to point at the spot! I’ve never heard of such a thing but when taking points from the Reds, the refs have done some funny things. I think it’s because they all grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Liverpool won every darned thing and I think there is some lingering resentment. Kind of like if I worked the plate at a Yankee game.

To give you an idea of how big these things get (he does different scales), take a look at the Old Comiskey Park. Old Comiskey is my favorite of the 38 ballparks I’ve been to. It was a real timewarp to go there and the place just felt right. They say that Jimmy Foxx hit two homers completely over the roof in left between the two light towers. Double-X was the best hitter no one’s ever heard of.

If the first 10 minutes of Liverpool Chelsea are any indicator, then Chelsea will get the points. They seem a whole gear faster than Liverpool and more confident and more creative. Liverpool look slow and I think it’s only a matter of time. Chelsea’s defense is so fast and shuts everything down so tightly, that I don’t see Kuyt and Crouchy cracking it. What we need is the pace of Fernando Torres.

Well, at least ManU lost their derby to City today. No points for Alex. That’s what you get for ripping your boss, Sir. With United coming away with none…if Chelsea could be beaten…oh stop dreaming. Wake up!  And I have to say: After watching only 25 minutes: Dirk Kuyt shouldn’t be in the first team.  Really.  He looks slow and lost.  Zero confidence.  And his play on the right is atrocious.  He can’t beat his man deep and he can’t do anything on the cut inside–every posession that reaches him, goes awry.  Perhaps he can be productive in the middle, but Crouchy is there now.  Play another midfielder and let them go forward.  Kuyt should come off.  Caragher has more mojo going up the right wing than this guy.  Oy.  Rafa.  Help. (Of course Kuyt till make an a** of me and score the winner but I’ll take it and eat my words if that is so).

Premiership to play games abroad

This was just announced yesterday and I want to take credit for calling for this years ago.  The quality of American soccer is so low and really has light years to go to get up to Pship levels, that I felt the Pship should do more to bring their product to us.  These days, with the cable and the satellites, it’s not a stretch to have Americans follow and enjoy this league.  It’s the highest quality ball in the world right now (sorry Italy and Spain). 

I have followed it since about 1992 and it isn’t a problem–going to matches IS a problem and if they tour the states and play matches here, I think their cash registers are in for a pleasant surprise.  Finally, a sports league is not stuck in 1969 or stuck trying to schedule more playoff games than the NHL!  Finally, they are thinking outside the box and globally, which is, after all, what any savvy bizman is supposed to be doing now, no?  I just figured it would be the NFL leading the pack and in a way, you can say they have already done this and lead the way and I can’t argue with that.  But the stodgy English game?  THEY are getting their creativity hats on?  I wouldn’t have thunk it with them. 

I was only hoping for pre-season tours like the one Liverpool did in 2004.  Little did I know they would bring league matches over straightaway.  My vision was more like having them plant teams in the USA that could fight their way up the promotion ladder from division 2 or even 3.  Travel expense for the small clubs would make that hard, but that was the logical place to start.  Then, in 14 years or so, you might have New York promoted to the Pship for real and to have truly earned it.  THAT would be amazing.  But this is good too.

Anfield Road End 1998

This is why I quit the EPL fantasy league

I just checked the live scores and Adebayor just bagged 2 to go even with Ronaldo. Also, Spurs 1-0 over ManU. That’s a woo hoo if it holds.

You Hafta Try It

Click here to launch the Brazilian Football name generator in a new window

I got this off of one of the the blog sites.  Anyway, you plug in your name and get out your dopey Brazilian name, for instance, George Bush yields: “Georgildo”.  And it puts in on a little yellow national jersey and you can put in your number.  All in all, it’s about 2 minutes worth of work-procrastination but not for some~

In the 1970’s, when my family had season tickets to the NY Cosmos at Giants Stadium, (when mystery men were hitting pennant winning homers for the Yankees), the Cosmos had a player named “Rildo”.  We thought that was funny.

So I had sent this link to some guys and one of them was at it long enough to plug in “Ron Swaboda”.  How many names he plugged in before this is anybody’s guess.  A dozen?  More?  I mean, Ron Swaboda?  That’s random.  Anyway, he figured out that Ron Swaboda will yield “Rildo” in the name generator.  I mean, what are the odds? 

***

Rildo Menezes – Head Coach (Right)

Rildo Menezes is the Head Coach of the Bridge USA Soccer Academy, and is world renowned in his coaching ability and knowledge of socccer. Rildo was born in Brazil, and started his professional soccer career when he was a teenager, playing for Botafogo and Santos in Brazil gave him the opportunity to play for the Brazil national team, where he teamed up with Pele, for the 1966 and 1970 World Cup. Rildo played 9 years for the Brazillian national Team.

Rildo continued his career in Brazil, and in Europe and finally in the US with Pele for the New York Cosmo’s. Rildo has spent the last 30 years coaching professional soccer clubs and teams across the USA, and now coaches exclusivley for the Bridge USA Soccer Academy. With a FIFA International A class licence and his experience Children of all ages are learning a higher level of soccer to help them become the next World Cup Soccer Star for the future.

 

Career:

Former Brazilian National Team Player(played 65 games), Played World Cup in 1966 & 1970 with Pele, World Cup Champion Team Member, 5-times Brazilian Club Team Champion,

FIFA Int’l A class Coaching License.

1959: Ibis-PE
1960: Sport Recife-PE
1961-1966: Botafogo-RJ
1967-1972: Santos FC-SP

1973-1976: CEUB-DF

1977: New York Cosmos - USA

 

Backstreet Boys? Menudo? Oh, Celtic through on PKs

Who says the Premiership isn’t strong? Pot #1 contains: 2 Italian, 3 Spanish and 4 EPL teams. Any questions? All 4 EPL teams are in the top pot. Wouldn’t it be weird if Liverpool was in a group with Celtic and Rangers? I’ll take Porto, Bucharest and Fenerbache…but it won’t happen that way. Watch.

(And how far has the Bundesliga fallen?  No Bundesliga teams until Werder Bremen in pot 2 and 2 in pot 3.  And France with only Lyon and Marseille)

***

Seedings for UEFA Champions League draw:

Pot 1
AC Milan - Ita
Barcelona - Spa
Liverpool - Eng
Inter Milan - Ita
Arsenal - Eng
Real Madrid - Spa
Chelsea - Eng
Manchester United - Eng

Pot 2
Valencia - Spa
Lyon - Fra
Porto - Por
Sevilla - *Spa
PSV Eindhoven - Hol
Roma - Ita
Benfica - Por
Werder Bremen - Ger

Pot 3
Celtic - Sco
Schalke - Ger
Stuttgart - Ger
Steaua Bucharest - Rom
CSKA Moscow - Rus
Sporting Lisbon - Por
Lazio - Ita
Marseille - Fra

Pot 4
Rangers - Sco
Shakhtar Donetsk - Ukr
Besiktas - Tur
Olympiakos - Gre
Dynamo Kiev - Ukr
Fenerbahce - Tur
AEK Athens - *Gre
Slavia Prague - Cze
Rosenborg - Nor

Rob Styles: In Cahoots with Chelski

Click here to read original story

 

 

[I love the reactions. Carragher wigs out while Gerrard just has that look that sort of says, "...you ******"]

 

I love this stuff. Only the Brits could get this INTO a story. And, well, it does have a potential whiff of something, I suppose.

Billy Bean Watches Fox Soccer Channel

Click to read story on Billy Bean’s EPL obsession

Interesting:

For a man paid to unravel the mysteries of baseball, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane spends a lot of time thinking about soccer for free.

There are as many as five – count ‘em, five – hours each day spent listening to soccer podcasts (”on long walks with my dog and during my commute”). There are TiVo’d Premiership games and the heartache that comes with a devotion to Tottenham Hotspur.

Then there is the nightly tug-of-war with his wife.

“She wants to watch the baseball highlights on (ESPN’s) SportsCenter. I want to watch Fox Soccer Channel,” Beane said.