Those that labored through Labor Day

Hello... hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend.

Today, I'm going to pontificate about sports people who had bad weekends... because there are certainly people who didn't have great weekends or had weekends that could have been better. I mean really... why was anyone working hard over this weekend? It's Labor Day. Oh whatever.


1) Michigan fans

To put into perspective how shameful Michigan's loss to Appalachian State was this weekend at home, I must put it into a comparison to other sports and English sports. It's like 2006 Minor League AAA champion baseball team Tucson beating the Tigers in Detroit. It's like Hamburg (champions of NFL Europa, a sub-tiered football league) beat the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans. But to best describe how egregious this loss was, let me use an English Premier League reference...

It's like Sunderland beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last year before Sunderland ascended to the Premier League.

Top level college football teams schedule these cupcake, mickey mouse type games early in the season, to give their team a guaranteed win, perhaps show some charity to those lower level teams... but rarely has it come back and kick a team squarely in the crotch like this... Unbelievable... at least some teams play in a decent match-up their first game out.


2) Reche Caldwell

He got cut from the New England Patriots this weekend... I think he's still bugging out from January's football game.

3) Maria Sharapova

It's sucks to lose... but it also sucks when your father/coach/control freak, decides to leave before you even finish your match, in which you are losing in the last set... in quite a horrific fashion... good parenting Yuri Sharapova... and good coaching... way to give the impression to your daughter to never give up...

I must admit though... it was a brutal match... but it was your daughter who had to scream, yell, and grunt through that long, hard, exhausting, climatic set... (eat your heart out Danielle Steele)


At least we got to see what she wears during the day as opposed to night... the above picture is her red evening outfit if she was still in the tournament...

4) Notre Dame

Could you at least decide on a quarterback? Do you know what this horrible team is missing... this guy as coach.... again ... I like to think the fans of Notre Dame are as delusional as this guy.

5) Me because of a stupid baseball bet I made...

So back in April, before this baseball season started... I was offered this seemingly harmless bet. Which pitcher would have the most wins... a top guy who just signed for 7 years, 130+ million dollars, or some guy off the scrap heap who was washed up in every sense of the word. A number one pitcher versus a number five pitcher. The loser would have to organize a softball game that I have been known to organize in the past.

How could I lose? I mean really... even though I thought that expensive baseball pitcher sucked, he would surely get more wins than the number 5 guy who eats at In N Out Burger twice a day. Come on!

my guy

the other guy (Mr. Double Double)

So I took up the bet where I bet Barry Zito, #1 pitcher of your San Francisco Giants would have more wins by the end of the season than Russ Ortiz, #5 pitcher of your San Francisco Giants. And even if there was a tie, I would lose, because it's shameful to draw on a technicality when I'm trying to prove even if some guy is overrated, he would at the very least do better than the #5 pitcher.

It seems my friend would be trying to win on some kind of loophole, like wins in AAA baseball or relief appearances... but that was the least of my worries. I like trying to make things as fair as possible and as interesting as possible... to my detriment.

After May 3 (5 games each), the standings were as follows...
Zito 2 wins
Ortiz 2 wins

Not good, Zito didn't start very well and Ortiz was performing better than expected... but then the first monkey wrench was thrown in. Ortiz had to go on the disabled list... So we were at an impasse. I didn't want the bet to end and it was not going to be very interesting for all parties if we just stopped right then and there.... After deliberating for about a month... and seeing how this new rookie was performing for the Giants, I would let my friend use the player who was taking Ortiz's place in the pitching rotation while the other guy was out on injury.... that guy was Tim Lincecum.

the new guy

I was being generous... I didn't want the bet to die... it made me happy to hear him complain about the Giants and I needed a way for him to stay interested. Ortiz eventually came back to pitch but in relief, but my damage had already been done... or so I thought.

After June 5 (13 games each), standings were as follows...
Zito 6 wins
Ortiz/Lincecum 4 wins

At the time, my friend was thinking he could just forget Ortiz and use Lincecum instead, which would have made the standings closer, but it was all about Ortiz vs Zito, to be fair.

What would be fair was to have Ortiz play for the entire season instead of get hurt for the 2nd time on June 5th. So we reverted back to Lincecum for Ortiz instead while he was out.

Ortiz didn't come back until August, but the damage was already done... and thoughts of organizing a softball game would soon haunt me... again. The standings were tied.

After August 7 (24 games each), standings were as follows...
Zito 8 wins
Ortiz/Lincecum 8 wins

So once again, this seems fair... the original bet conditions were on... who would win most before the end of the season... do or die... winner take all... this is Spartaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sorry]

I did fairly well... Zito had 1 win and Ortiz didn't have any... I was pretty happy...

After August 22 (27 games each), standings were as follows...

Zito 9 wins
Ortiz/Lincecum 8 wins

So what would ruin this good run? Save my friend from regretting this horrible choice in a bet? Why that would be a season ending injury to his pitcher... He pretty much conceded the whole thing... he was done... but we went this far... why not just see what happens... his point was made though... Ortiz was better than I thought... or the #5 guy was better than I thought. I think we might just end up sharing this bet 50/50 because there were so many things wrong and unfortunate with the timing of the injuries...

So to extend the bet, to see what happens... I let my friend... actually convinced my friend to take a very favorable scenario... he would take the pitcher that replaced Ortiz... another guy by the name of Kevin Correia who was fresh from lack of work this season.

the last guy (lifeline)

[by the way, if you know nothing about baseball, or find baseball boring, but you are still reading this to see if there's going to be a softball game... I applaud you... but this bet isn't over yet... check back in a month]

It seems that I may have pressed my luck... because now I'm finally losing...

After September 4 (29 games each), standings were as follows...

Zito 9 wins
Ortiz/Lincecum/Correia 10 wins

and with one month to go... I give up... granted that now I feel like giving up because I'm losing... but this bet seems to be flawed ever since the original guy got hurt... I'm more than willing to share hosting/organizing duties for this softball game if the margin of victory stays the same... What do you think? Vote in the poll and help us decide. I think I should be given a lifeline because I threw him 2 or was that 3 lifelines?

Or as he suggested, we could decide this at the batting cages...


So yeah... bad sports weekend for me... this is starting to suck big time.

LeeZy