Bay Area Sports Blogging

The Olympics are set to begin in Beijing, China later this week.  In the past, I have not cared too much about the Olympic games, neither summer games nor winter games.  But something about this year's games has piqued my interest.  It probably has something to do with the Olympics being held in China, and the expansive high definition coverage of the event.

I remember watching the commercials for the Fathead wall stick-em posters when they came out about two years ago.  Back then, I thought they were a great idea.  Giant, life-sized reusable wall posters of athletes in action poses!  My walls were a bit empty, and I was looking for something to fill up space.  I should get a Fathead!  Then I saw their price.  Friggin $150.  One hundred and fifty dollars.

A couple of days ago, I saw a forum posting saying that some Fatheads are $19.95.  $150 for a wall poster? No way.  But $20? That sounds reasonable.  I go check out the website and see that they are clearing out older versions for $20.  If you want a Shaquille O'Neal / Miami Heat Fathead or a Ray Allen / Seattle SuperSonics Fathead, here's your chance.  The regular price of the Fathead has dropped to around $100.  Much better than $150, but still way above what I'm willing to spend.

That familiar sizzle of meat hitting a smoking hot grill.  The weather starting to warm up.  A bunch of damn kids running around the streets.  That means summer time!  And what is summer time without the annual Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest at Coney Island in New York.

This will be the 93rd Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest.  Joey Chestnut will be there defending his mustard belt while former six time winner Takeru Kobayashi will be gunning for the championship.  Also competing at the event is Pat Bertoletti and Sonya Thomas.

Soccer is not America's favorite sport by a long shot, but it is very popular around the world. While soccer has not been in the spotlight in this country, it is slowly gaining momentum. The premiere professional soccer association in the U.S. is Major League Soccer, or MLS. With games televised on ESPN, ABC, and various local networks, soccer is increasing its exposure.

But what fun would it be if you don't know what's going on? Because soccer is not a common game in the U.S., most people do not understand the rules of the game. Watching a soccer game and not knowing the rules is about as exciting as watching a foreign film without subtitles. To alleivate that problem, we're going to explain one of soccer's infamous calls: the offsides.

If you were the coach / general manager / owner of a professional sports team with a losing record, do you tank the rest of the season in hopes of getting a higher draft pick? And by tanking, I mean intentionally losing games. If it were me, I would definitely tank the season.

There are multiple criteria before I would tank a season. The team would need to be completely eliminated from the playoffs, with no hope at all. Take the NBA Eastern conference this year for example. Teams with a losing record still have a chance at making the playoffs. If there's still a possibility of making the playoffs, you would be crazy to tank games.

The 2008 season opener for the San Jose Earthquakes is on Thursday, where they will play against David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The new look Quakes are an expansion team this year, with the old team moving to Houston and forming the Houston Dynamo.

Even as a new expansion team with a completely new roster, they are not ranked the weakest team in Major League Soccer. Out of the 14 teams in MLS, the Quakes are ranked 11th by Yahoo! sports. Cheers for not being the suckiest team in the league, unlike those awful San Francisco Giants.

The 2008 season of Major League Soccer is set to begin this Saturday, March 29. Bay Area soccer fans will once again have a reason to watch MLS this season; the San Jose Earthquakes are back! Ignore the terrible open tryouts from last year.

What? You didn't know the MLS was starting the new season? Yeah, marketing and advertising for MLS is on the low end. It lacks media coverage from the major networks. You probably have to start watching ESPN Deportes to get MLS updates.

Saw this last night on ESPN SportsCenter. While in Tampa playing the United States soccer team, five Cuban football / soccer players have defected Cuba. That means the players have left the Cuban team to join a USA team. The players are said to play for Miami FC, a professional soccer team.

I don't follow soccer that much, but this was surprising news. Also note worthy is the fact that this isn't front page headline material. I had to dig through the news stories to find more information on this. Maybe this sort of thing happens all the time and I'm just not aware of it.