Batting Stance Guy...

Check this out:

We're impressed. That's the sign of a pretty big baseball fan. As it says on his website it's "the least marketable skill in America"....but at least it's something.

Check out his site for stances for all MLB teams.

Even Worse Than Bird Flu...

You love sports. We love sports. You know who doesn't like sports? This guy:

That's right. Birds hate sports. They hate golf, tennis, baseball and especially auto racing.

Even the San Diego Chicken hates sports now. (Click here for some classic SDC clips)

We were planning on putting together the best bird related sporting moments but the good people at TSN have surprisingly already done it for us. How nice of them:

Sexson, Sexsoff...

You may have missed the big news last week...Richie Sexson was waived by the Yankees. The move means Sexson's 12 year, 306 home run career could be over.

We really shouldn't like or miss Sexson ... but we do and will.

After hitting 40 bombs with a respectable .263 average in 2006 we picked him up on the cheap in our fantasy baseball team. Sexson struggled on Team Waikiki with only 21 homeruns and a .205 average.

We thought Sexson was going to rebound in 2008 so we grabbed him at an even cheaper price and waited. Nine homeruns and a bottom of the ladder finish (we more than just Sexson problems) and here we are. This is normally where we curse the player and vow never to cheer for them again. Not happening with Richie.

We've always been a distant fan of Richie's ... we're not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with his mashing abilities at the plate (he hit 45 home runs twice) or his giantic stature or because we giggle like a schoolgirl anytime we say his name (this also happens with titmouse). This commercial sums up our feelings on the big fella:

Sigh. It will be hard to find somebody to match Sexson's HR / no average combination. But maybe, just maybe, Sexson will catch on somewhere else next year. We bet Team Waikiki could get him really cheap next year ... he's due.

Holy Cow...

We've looked at some hopeless amateur announcers in our articles "Boom Goes The Dynamite..." and "And That Happened..." so we thought it was the perfect time to look at a professional announcer ... who's just as hopeless but does it with much more style.

The announcer in question is Harold Christopher Carabina or as he's better known....Harry Caray.

Caray got his first gig in 1945 with the Cardinals. In St Louis, Caray developed his taste for Budweiser and gained his reputation of being a big drinker. In 1969, after 24 years of service to the Cardinal organisation Harry was surprisingly fired by owner August Busch Jr. It was rumoured that Caray was let go fired because he had an affair with the owner's daughter-in-law ... although Caray denies it.

He moved on to broadcast games with the Oakland Athletics, but didn't get along with owner Charles Findley and left after only one season.

Next he went to the Chicago White Sox where he quickly became a fan favourite. While working for the Sox he starting singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch which he later became famous for.

When the White Sox decided to switch to a pay cable service (the first team ever) Caray decided to move on to his final destination ... the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs and Caray were broadcast on WGN which was broadcast across American ... for free. Harry Caray fans were now located all across the country.
Harry Caray was a great quote factory ... only problem was most of them were due Harry messing something up. Our favourite would have to be: "Aw, how could he (Jorge Orta) lose the ball in the sun, he's from Mexico."

Caray has as distinctive of a style as an announcer can get:

We love his pronunciation of Isringhausen. Classic Caray. He sounded like he was into the hooch every game which somehow only seemed to add to his charm. His distinctive style encouraged impersonators like:

• Pitchers Ryan Dempster and Will Ohman
• David Draiman from the band Disturbed
• Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live (full clip with audio only and partial clip video)
• A soldier in Iraq
• Comedian John Caponera, who pretty much made a career out of impersonating Harry:
  

As he got older his "Grampa Simpson" moments increased like in this clip where Caray waxes poetically on Cracker Jacks.

Harry passed away in 1998, but his legend lives on. Since his death, the Cubs bring in special guests to fill in for Harry during the seventh inning stretch ... which didn't work out every time. Nobody does it like Harry:

YouTube's Best Sport Videos of the Week - Aug 24th to Aug 31st

Another week, another post of the best sports clips on the net. With the Olympics finished, baseball wrapping up the dog days or summer and the NFL, NHL and NBA yet to start it's a bit of a down time in the world of sport. We had to look extra hard but we found a few nuggets out there for you:

• Not one, but two, sportscasters deciding to dedicate time from their shows to discuss the possibility of Usain Bolt coming to the NFL. Ridiculous.
  
  
• The official trailer for NHL 09 featuring a digitized Dion Phaneuf. We want one.
  
  
• An amazing fight between a female cop and a drunk female fan at Yankee Stadium. We guess tensions are running high with the Yankees close to elimination.
  
  
• Real Men of Genius: Mr. Fantasy Football Manager Guy. We love the line: "You were born with the one skill every manager needs to player fantasy football...absolutely no skill playing actual football." It's funny, cause it's true.
  
  
• In September, Playboy will be sending out their NFL picks directly to your cell phone. We went to their website to see what this was all about but we got side tracked.
  
  
• And this week's Clip O' The Week is from the the Redeem Team celebrating after their gold medal win. All normal until the 50 second mark, where it seems King James is either really drunk or doesn't know his own anthem:

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