Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show

FINALLY!!! It’s something I’ve been begging for for years. As yet another big middle finger to the hypermasculinity of football, Lady Gaga is set to perform the halftime show in this season’s Super Bowl. You may remember she had already sung the national anthem at this past Super Bowl, but this is the real deal. It comes after two years of other such high profile events: her duets album with Tony Bennett, multiple awards show performances, the aforementioned national anthem, appearing in American Horror Story, and now this.

Gaga is another in a string of recent acts like Katy Perry and Beyonce, twice really for the latter, that you’d think no typical football fan likes. But they are all beloved by many and fitting for the show. There’s just so much she can do with this though. Will it be a medley of old tracks? Mostly stuff from the soon-to-be-released new album? Likely it’s going to be both. I mean you don’t go to a Britney Spears show in Vegas just to see everything from her cd Glory, right? No.

If you had to ask me, her best cd was by far The Fame Monster, the EP deluxe addition to her first album The Fame, so that’s the stuff I want to see. Though since it will more than likely be a complete medley, I say start out with an opening of Bad Romance, transition into Paparazzi or Poker Face, something from her next album Joanne, and end it with The Edge Of Glory or Applause. The great thing about Gaga used to be that you don’t know what to expect with her though. You can never forget the meat dress, her male alter ego Jo Calderone, or arriving on the red carpet in a giant egg. That stuff is classic her and nobody can ever match that level of randomness and artistry, aside from David Bowie of course. There’s been no details about the setlist or what will go on, so it’s all up in the air.

Regardless of what goes down, this will be the spectacle of 2017. There is nobody like Mother Monster. Long live the queen!

Serena Subdues Swede, Surpasses Slam Success

Serena Williams is truly the greatest athlete of all time. Among all her achievements, she now holds the record for most grand slam match wins by a woman at 307, just edging out Martina Navratilova at 306. The only player she has to best is none other than Roger Federer, also at 307 grand slam match wins.

Williams is the current Wimbledon champion, after losing in the finals of the French and Australian earlier in the year. Her title count stands at 22 singles grand slams, tied with Steffi Graf for the Open Era record. Only Margaret Court has more at 24 total.

So how did the queen do it? Ms. Williams handily beat Swedish player Johanna Larsson 6-2 6-1 in an evidently one-sided affair. Barely able to match Serena’s power, Larsson lost it in exactly 1 hour. Serena next plays Yaroslava Shvedova in the 4th round.

Regardless of the outcome of that match Serena will always be one of my favorite players and one of the ones who inspired my love for the game. I’ll always root for her on and off court and it’s amazing what she’s doing at the age of 34 on tour, an age when most would have been retired ten years ago. Here’s to the rest of the tournament girl!!!

25 of the Best Gameday Signs

It’s College Football Season again which means another year of College Gameday on ESPN which means more hilarious signs. Here are 25 of the funniest Gameday signs from over the years.

Shake Weight jokes are always funny.

The only good thing about Oregon.

Savage.

They have a point.

Classic Bama fan.

Anyone else miss Denard?

B definitely made this sign.

Creative.

Fetty Wap Prediction.

WHAT ARE THOSE?

Everyone loves Smalls.

Merica

Saban.

The Big Ten Welcomes You.

Most likely being held by the Irishman.

Urban Crier.

Sparty On.

Chaos.

 

The truth hurts.

I hope not.

Young Love. Winston and his crab legs.

A sign I would most likely be holding up.

Kanye 2020.

Make America Great Again.

-The Rabbi

All Time Steroid Team

It took my awhile to compile this list. Sadly there are many MLB legends that all juiced up so coming up with a lineup of legends was pretty hard.

SP – Roger Clemens

One of my least favorite MLB players of all time. I loved how Roger Clemens denied steroid use about 1000 times before finally admitting it. One of the most obvious HGH cases in the history of baseball. Clemens was 45 and still winning 20 games a season, no doubt he was on steroids.

CP – John Rocker

This Atlanta Braves hurler used to cause nightmares for New York Mets fans not because of what a great reliever he was but the fact that he or a Mets fan always did something chaotic every time he came to New York. It was always an electric atmosphere when he would run out of the bullpen at Shea Stadium. I’ll never forget the time a fan jumped onto the field in LA and mooned John Rocker. Chaos. Oh yeah by the way he also juiced up.

LF – Barry Bonds

Barry was one of the most clutch hitters I have ever witnessed, incredible how he could jack a homer out pretty much whenever he wanted. Too bad he juiced up. I love how Barry is the hitting coach for the Marlins now. Definitely has to be encouraging steroid use from Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna. Dee Gordon already got caught, I blame Bonds.

DH- Jose Canseco

Canseco straight out of Cuba was one of the craziest people to ever put on a MLB jersey. Just google Jose Canseco crazy and you’ll find stories that will make you laugh for hours. Unreal stuff this guy did on top of taking steroids. My personal favorite crazy story Canseco ever told was saying he ran the 40 in 3.9 seconds. It’s impossible bro just like you acting like a normal human being for more than 30 seconds.

1B- Mark McGwire

McGwire has one of the greatest nicknames in sports…Big Mac…Everyone loves a ginger who can smack 60 home runs a year except when that red head is on steroids. McGwire is still involved in the game much like Bonds most likely encouraging steroid use from the San Diego Padres players.

RF – Sammy Sosa

Slammin Sammy always was a fun guy to watch. He had a great baseball name too. I use to have a Sammy Sosa poster in my room because I was just a fan of his name alone. Sosa had a great career and has to give George W. Bush depression every night. The biggest mistake Bush ever made was trading Sosa to the Cubbies. Sammy, great player. Cubs, bad organization. #AnyoneButTheCubs

CF – Manny Ramirez

Manny just seems like the classic MLB bad guy. If he is on your team then you love him but if he isn’t you hate the guy. Ramirez had some great moments in the Red Sox organization with David Ortiz still one of the best 3-4 hitters I’ve ever seen. Ramirez already admitted to steroids will Ortiz be next?

C – Ivan Rodriguez

I spent most of my childhood bashing this guy because everyone always said that he was the best catcher in the MLB. Nothing used to trigger me more than hearing that Pudge was better than Piazza. That’s absolute chaos one was a steroid user the other unified America with bashing a two run dinger against the Braves after 9/11. Getting back to Pudge he had a great career and brought a second title to Miami and basically resurrected the Detroit Tigers who were irrelevant for over 20 years.

2B- Dee Gordon

As I said earlier definitely blame Barry Bonds for Dee Gordon taking steroids. Up came Dee Gordon from AAA a good guy with a bright future but here comes Barry wanting to ruin someone else’s legacy. My advice to you Dee leave Miami and stay away from Barry.

SS- Miguel Tejada

Miguel Tejada took steroids and was a good player. Don’t really have much to say about Miguel, a pretty boring athlete in my opinion. I did enjoy watching the Tejada/Mora infield with the Orioles but that was because I was a Melvin Mora fan. Needed a shortstop so it was either Tejada or Johnny Peralta. I chose Tejada.

3B – Alex Rodriguez

I never had anything against Alex Rodriguez. Yeah he took steroids which is terrible but the guy got a lot of unnecessary hate especially from the New York Yankee fans. Everyone’s favorite A-Roid moment had to be when he got beat up by Jason Varitek. Great fight, wish we saw more like that in the MLB today. Congrats on the great career A-Roid have fun in retirement.

-The Rabbi

Caution: Don’t Dance By The Pool

Famed Olympian, liar, and Milo Yiannopoulos hair double Ryan Lochte is possibly going to appear on Dancing With The Stars, as reported by Bleacher Report.

You may know the idiot as a slow-speeched story fabricator, or as a gold medal toting champ, but we’re all wondering why this of all career choices. Sure, he may want the money after losing sponsors like Ralph Lauren related to the fake robbery story in Rio. I got that. But is he THAT desperate? Other famous athletes like Kristi Yamaguchi, Meryl Davis, and Shawn Johnson, and Misty May Treanor, but all of those were at or near retirement. Lochte may have another Olympic season or two under his belt so I don’t get it.

How good will he do anyway? If you want to know, athletes have won the show 8 of 22 times. 4 of those times have been from Olympians who compete heavily on their feet with choreography and quick movements., automatically giving them the edge. Others athletes like Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova have crashed out of the competition in the first week. There’s also the matter of injuries, which happen alot on the show. Does he want to possibly risk his swimming career by dancing on a show? Withdrawals have happened by both the pros and contestants and it’s a sad sight for all fans.

Who knows, only time will tell if he goes on the show. He won’t have my vote though.

-The Irishman

From Fortune To Flounder: 2016’s Biggest Bust

Oh how the good ol’ days are gone. Just forget my first post about my favorite team. Our season is over. The White Sox were second in all of baseball at 23-10 back in May (only trailing their crosstown rivals), but where are they now? A paltry 59-64. There have still been a few highlights in this dumpster fire of a season, but here are some of the worst moments this season so far, from a quick scan at least.

Chris Sale’s Antics

Everyone expected great things from this guy. He consistently ranks high in Cy Young Award voting, has made the All-Star team the last five years, and set a franchise record for strikeouts in a season last year. But while he started the season 9-0, it’s been the drama around him that’s caught more attention at times. Preseason when Adam Laroche quit after management said he couldn’t bring his son into the clubhouse anymore, Sale was one of the ones most pissed off. Months later, you probably heard about when he sliced up the throwback jersey and got suspended. Let’s just hope the presumed face of the franchise can keep it together here on out.

The Quintana Who Cried Run Support

Oh Jose, you’re too good for us. Often called the most underrated pitcher in the game, he just cant seem to get the offense going behind him. Mind you, this is also the first season he could even get to 10 wins. Somehow though the bats still always stay quiet when he’s on the mound and it’s hard to watch him either lose or get a no-decision when his stuff is that good.

#FireRobin

Not even explaining this one. Ask any Sox fan. We hate him.

Abreu Baby

Kinda going back to the point made with Quintana, Jose has been in his own offensive slump. He went 32 games without hitting a homer, after hitting 30+ in each of his first two seasons. Nobody knows what went wrong. But he’s back at it now. Every player has those off years anyway.

————————————————————————–

That’s really just the big four glaring parts to me, because i can’t even begin to complain about the bullpen and injuries. But hey, we’ve at least gotten a few triple plays, that counts for something, right? No? Ok.

Just leave me to my sorrow now. There’s always next year.

-The Irishman

Summer 2016 Top 10 Moments

 

#10- The Cubs Are Still Annoying.

The Cubs might be in first place right now but no chance they win it all. This team is cursed and quite frankly I love it. The boys at Gardens Website are officially starting an internet sensation.. #AnyoneButTheCubs… Merchandise will be coming soon. It’s times like these where baseball fans have to come together as one and root against the Cubs. Together we will Make Baseball Great Again by witnessing another Chicago Cubs collapse.

 

#9-Selena Gomez Roasts Justin Bieber

I only put this story on the list because I know Madhatta and the Irishman would be pissed if I didn’t. I’m #TeamSelena all the way in this feud. She could do so much better.

 

#8- Brady Accepts NFL’s Suspension

Roger Goodell finally did what he’s been wanting to do for the past two years. Suspend Tom Brady. Congrats Roger you finally did it. You might have won this battle but the Patriots will win the war. #FireGoodell

 

#7- Chad Johnson Emerges on the Bachelorette

I have always dabbled in the Bachelor and Bachelorette. I haven’t been a huge fan but I’ll watch an episode here and there for the entertainment but this year there was a new contestant that was unreal. Chad Johnson might not only be the biggest bad guy in Bachelorette history but maybe in the history of television. My all time favorite quote from the Chadelor was, “If I can’t workout I’m going to murder somebody.”

 

#6- The World Finally Realizes How Much We Will Miss Harambe

RIP in Peace to the greatest American resource. We will all miss Harambe. Why did Hillary Clinton have to do this to us?

 

#5- NBA Free Agency

KD is the GOAT. Respect the move. When you’ve had to put up with the same BS from Russell Westbrook and your front office for 9 years, you deserve to go play for a real organization. RIP OKC.

Also the second shocking move of the offseason was D-Wade taking his talents to Chicago. Still questioning why D-Wade would do this. Definitely going to get traded to Cleveland sometime during the season.

Last free agency move that I will talk about is the Detroit Pistons signing Boban Marjanovic. Funniest looking dude in the NBA so glad he’s in Detroit. He’s going to do big things on and off the court. I mean Skip Bayless loves him. The Bad Boys are back.

 

#4- Donald Trump Saying “Titties” in one of his speeches

 

This is one of the main reasons I’m Trump guy. Love when he does stuff like this. No doubt he said this on purpose but it’s okay because he’s the Donald. #BuildThatWall

#3- Ryan Lochte

Ryan Lochte is pretty awesome. Just all around typical jock, straight out of University of Florida. Go Gators. This is one of my favorite sports stories of all time. “I put my hands up and was like whatever.” Legendary lie by Lochte. He will always be remembered for that and JEAH!

#2- Tim Tebow decision to play baseball

As much as the #1 story on this list surprised me, this definitely surprised me the most. Tim Tebow who should have retired years ago from football just finally put up his helmet to pursue a career in professional baseball. Unreal. I wish Timmy the best but don’t see him hitting over .050 in single A. Absolute chaos that people say he has the same swing as Mark McGwire.

 

#1- Draymond Green’s Big Pic

Just rattling. No one expected this to happen. I remember logging onto to Twitter and saw that Draymond Green was trending. I clicked on it and will forever be scarred. Love the controversy that Draymond causes. Keep being yourself bro.

 

 

How Do You Appeal A Doping Ban Like Maria?

Oh Sharapova, just let it go. Recently the 29 year old 5-time grand slam winner appealed her two year ban due to failing a drug test for the then-newly banned meldonium. The status of her ban was actually in question until recently it was confirmed she couldn’t come back for two years. She hopes she can overturn it before the Rio games, but otherwise I don’t really see her coming back when it ends. Initially I thought Maria would be retiring when earlier this year it was mentioned she was holding a career changing press conference, but it was revealed otherwise.

You really have to look at this two ways. She got away with this for so long at such a high level when meldonium was legal, but why do we really care when she wasn’t even THE best? She first won Wimbledon in 2004, and most recently won the French Open in 2014. Her claim was she first used the substance in 2006 for health issues, and doesn’t see why a ban is necessary when you could assume she still needs it for those issues, but because the substance was banned at the beginning of the year she can’t play anymore. Alot of this doesn’t make sense, and it goes beyond tennis. Players in any sport may need a medicine that’s on their sport’s list of outlawed drugs, but unless they go through paperwork and rigorous tests, things go way wrong in a hurry.

Things need to change here because you don’t know the full details of it and if she still needed that medicine so maybe a two year ban wasn’t the most appropriate course of action.

-The Irishman

French Open Men’s Final Review

 

He finally did it. In a battle of two of this generation’s greatest players, Novak Djokovic finally won the French Open over Andy Murray, 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-4. He has won all four grand slams in a row now and is the first to do that since Rod Laver in 1969, also becoming only the fourth player in the Open Era to win all four grand slams.

Until now it’s been only disappointment for Novak on the grandest of clay courts, losing in the finals in 2012, 2014, and 2015. He was even the overwhelming favorite but still lost to Stan Wawrinka. Not this time though. Opponent Andy Murray beat Stan in the semifinals. This time around people questioned how much Djokovic was the favorite by, and just like I predicted, he won it all. As much as I hate to say it, he is indeed one of the greatest of all time.

Two questions now follow:

Will Murray ever win another grand slam? His tally stands at two. (2012 US Open & 2013 Wimbledon) He’s one of the older guys on tour but his group of the Big 4 (Murray, Djokovic, Nadal, Federer) are still the guys to beat so anything goes, but his best chance is definitely if none of the other Big 4 are playing him on their best surfaces.

Will Djokovic surpass Federer’s grand slam total? Hopefully not. I’m far from a fan of this guy so I hate seeing him win anything but I give credit where credit is due and he is indeed one of the best ever. He’s got plenty of time to match and surpass Federer’s total of 17 grand slams and with no real challengers to his level of power, I don’t see why he won’t win at least 18.

That’s all for my French Open coverage now people. It was a great tournament and can’t wait until Wimbledon now.

-The Irishman

French Open Women’s Final Review

It went exactly how i expected sadly, aand thus we have a new first-time grand slam champion. Garbine Muguruza beat Serena Williams 7-5 6-4. Serena has now been upset three tournaments in a row and failed to match Steffi Graf’s open era record of 22 grand slams. Muguruza is the third first time grand slam champion in a row after Flavia Pennetta won the 2015 US Open and retired right after, followed by Angelique Kerber winning the Australian Open this year.

Both ladies traded breaks towards the end of the first set. Muguruza first went up 4-2, and then Serena broke back and went up 5-4, with her opponent then holding serve and breaking to win the set 7-5. The second set was a tad more straight forward, where Muguruza broke to go up 3-1 and they both held service games there on until she won 6-4 and thus the match.

Alot of credit goes to Garbine here for her game, her rising talent at still a young age, and taking advantage of Serena’s “ish” day, but it was again Serena’s match to win or lose. She was attempting to match Steffi Graf’s grand slam record and failed. Playing four days in a row obviouslt didn’t help her fitness level or any such injuries related to that. Sadly these upsets of her in the biggest tournaments are becoming more frequent and you have to wonder how much longer she’ll be #1 in the world or if she’ll win another major. As for now, we just have to enjoy what we have left of her glorious career.

-The Irishman