Opening day is something special, even for the most casual of baseball fans. It serves to let us know that winter is over, and we can shed our layers and get back outside. For the more die-hard fans, it represents the optimism of a new season and a look at the team you’ll be spending the next eight months with. And for everyone, it means beer and hot dogs until you can’t move. Here are the best cities for their home openers.

9. Arlington, Texas
Now, Texas has never really been a hotbed of baseball passion, but the success of the Rangers has given fans an optimism they’ve never had before. Couple that with the fact that March/April are the only two months that aren’t oppressively hot or cold all year, and the season opener is an event here that might actually be taking on some meaning. Stay tuned.
 
 
 
8. San Diego
San Diego doesn’t have the most engaged sports fans in the US, but that’s understandable. When one lives in a city as nice as SD, it seems a little silly to put too much stock in local sports teams when there’s so much you could be doing yourself. Well, the downtown charm of PETCO Park, combined with the fact that the weather in San Diego is always perfect means that this town makes the list, even if no one in the stadium can name your five-man rotation.

7. St. Louis
A baseball town through and through, Busch Stadium is Mecca for many baseball fans. Bob Costas, can live anywhere in the US, and he chooses St. Louis for the baseball. And if it’s good enough for Costas, don’t you think it’s good enough for you? What? You think you’re better than Costas? You’re dead wrong. I often find all the tradition and pageantry of baseball to be a little annoying, but if it’s your thing, there’s no better place to spend opening day than in St. Louis.

6. San Francisco
Granted, this year might be the best year ever to see the home opener in San Fran. In case you didn’t notice (spoiler alert!), they won the World Series. So a pretty strong baseball town is becoming an insufferably smug baseball town. And it was a pretty smug town to begin with. Of course, if you’re a Giants fan, you’ll be completely fine with the new attitude. And if you’re not…why the hell are you going to the Giants home opener?

Also, the opener will be great as you watch the fans distance themselves from Barry Bonds as his trial begins. “Barry who? Never heard of ‘em.”

5. Baltimore
Almost two decades into the life of Camden Yards and still universally agreed that this is the best place to watch Major League Baseball in the country. Even The Wire couldn’t set back Baltimore from a baseball standpoint. It’s a retro ballpark that isn’t all up in your face about it, it’s got stuff to do should the game get out of hand, and the food is said to be among the best in the country. Granted, they finished 30 games out of their division last year, but isn’t opening day all about optimism? I vote yes. That and getting drunk when you should be at work.

4. Philadelphia
Citizens Bank Park is a pretty good place to watch a game, save for the fact that it’s a little further outside of downtown than I would like. Phillies fans (or any Philadelphia sports fans) aren’t exactly my cup of tea, as they regularly hold contests to see who can project the most vomit on little girls and often beat orphans with socks full of batteries during the 7th inning stretch, but they’ve had a run of luck recently. Further, “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” does the tailgate scene justice.

3. Atlanta
Having clenched the wild-card last year, things look up for the Braves. Like Texas, the weather in the ATL only lends itself to three bearable months per year, so gather ye rosebuds will you can, Braves fans. Granted, they might not have the rotation that they did in 1992, but lightening doesn’t strike twice.
 
 
 
2. Detroit
A .500 team in a city that’s looking more and more like cold-war Warsaw every day. Why would this park make the list? Because when so much is going wrong in Detroit, its residents have done a pretty spectacular job of banding around their sports teams for some semblance of optimism and community. Cause when you’re city is getting overrun with feral dogs, and all your hope is put into a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” a special thing is happening.

1. New York (Yankees)
I know, I know. Red Sox fans, leave your death threats in the comments. There’s something about the first game in New York, when you see all the fans on the train, decked out in their gear that isn’t replicated anywhere in the nation, not even in Boston. Further, Boston, despite being three hours away, is a LOT colder than NYC is this time of year, creating a much more hospitable environment in the Bronx. You don’t have to like the Yankees, but you should probably respect them (if not their fans). Though their stadium is new(ish), they have done a good job of preserving the history of the most storied franchise in all of America’s sports history. Not a bad place to spend opening day.

I would say that this one is for the men, but I am quite certain there are also plenty of females out there that can appreciate a gorgeous booty like the one on this member of the Cardinals dance squad.

It looks like all those years of hitting up the gym and eating right earned this bombshell more than just a scholarship to the University of Louisville and a spot on their dance squad.  It also earned her the NCAA’s greatest rear!

Hat Tip – [Barstool U]

Wife of former Louisville equipment manager Tim Sypher, Karen now faces a combined maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted of the two charges.  It is believed that she planned to used information related to an unspecified encounter between herself and Pitino, in order to extort the coach.  Regarding the incident, ESPN said the following:

“A Louisville source told ESPN.com that Pitino began receiving threatening phone calls in late February from Sypher and possibly other accomplices, and the calls continued throughout the Big East and NCAA tournaments. In late March, Pitino called the FBI and apprised it of the attempt to extort him.” [ESPN]

It is believed that the demands eventually reached $10 million, and included tuition money for their children.  Karen Sypher and her husband Tim probably didn’t attempt to extort Pitino for bail or fine money.  In hindsight, maybe they should have.

Oh, and one more thing.  Don’t mess with the Pitino mob!!!!!.

TMQ’s theory being that teams blitz too much, and, logically, when you blitz you have less players in your defensive backfield, therefore it is easier for the other team to complete a pass, and extend the drive with a first down.

The ideal offense against a blitz is a pass-first offense, with big wide receivers that can break tackles and get yards after the catch, and running backs with good hands to catch the ball out of the backfield.  Essentially a west-coast offense, with a ton of receiving options and a quarterback who knows who to dump the ball off to.

Sound familiar?  It should.  Anyone who watched the Arizona Cardinals beat the Eagles in the NFC championship saw Kurt Warner in action.  Warner may be a statue in the pocket, but with Fitzgerald, Boldin, Breaston and Edgerrin James, to name a few, the Cardinals have numerous great options for him to throw to.  Against Carolina as well, Warner torched the defense almost every time they blitzed.

Larry Fitzgerald romping through a secondary depleted by blitzing might be fun to watch (for must of us) but you would think that at some point the other team would figure it out.  Neither Carolina nor Philadelphia got it.  They kept blitzing and Warner kept completing passes, and lo – the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl!

Thanks to astute analysts employed by ESPN and every other news outlet in the nation, we are all well aware that the Pittsburgh Steelers have a great defense – best in the NFL during the regular season and crucial in their playoff wins so far.

We also have been told why Pittsburgh is so good.

They use a zone-blitzing defensive scheme that allegedly keeps the quarterback on his heels and out of rhythm because he never knows where the blitz is coming from.  Well, I’m pretty sure Carolina and Philadelphia didn’t blitz over and over from the same position, so I don’t see how that’s going to help them.

If the Steelers have been paying attention, they will have seen Kurt Warner putting on a clinic in how to beat the blitz, and they’ll back their defense down.

So far in these playoffs, the Steelers have beat the Chargers and the Ravens, quarterbacked by Phillp Rivers and Joe Flacco, respectively.  Well, no disrespect to them but neither of them has the experience of Kurt Warner, and while they succumbed to the Steeler blitz, Warner tore apart every blitz the NFC’s best could bring.  Not only that, but neither of those teams has a receiving corps quite like the Cardinals.

Let’s be honest, nobody does.  How many other third-string wide receivers broke 1,000 yards this season?

The Steelers may have a great defense but they will have to be careful before they blitz their way out of the Super Bowl.

Via guest reporter Brian at Illegal Use Of Hands

How can a sports fan not love this day?

The Super Bowl, all the gambling that goes on during the game, the food, the beer and those spectacular Super Bowl Commercials that companies pay $1 billion for a 30 second ad spot (Just Kidding).

The animal rights group PETA have gone public with their proposed Super Bowl ad which has been turned down and asked to be reedited because it is to sexual.  The ad by PETA which is named “Veggie Love” shows beautiful almost naked models, fondling their favorite vegetables in a seductive way. I truly enjoyed the part where one of the models was playing with the 10″ zucchini (This didn’t happen, but it would have been funny if it did!)

NBC has said that, “it depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards.”

They have also asked PETA to remove the following from the commercial and be resubmitted for approval.

• licking pumpkin
• touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli
• pumpkin from behind between legs
• rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin
• screwing herself with broccoli (fuzzy)
• asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina
• licking eggplant
• rubbing asparagus on breast

After watching the commercial and reviewing it many times (We watched it at least 20 times for research purposes) we still can’t find the part where NBC says the model is screwing herself with broccoli and the asparagus on her lap appears as if it is ready to be inserted into the vagina.

NBC needs to lighten up because the last time I checked sex with vegetables is the safest kind and these day maybe more people should be trying it out.

Remember Sex Sells!!!!!!

‘Veggie Love’: PETA’s Banned Super Bowl Ad

Check Out The Beautiful PETA Models

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Perhaps he said “We might make the Superbowl and I had nothing to do with it”, or maybe “Coach, why is Larry Fitzgerald better than me?”.  Whatever he said it must have been dumb because at a time when he should have been supporting his teammates, he was selfishly berating a coach.  At least he proved to the Cardinals that they don’t need him to win big games.

It was also reported that while his teammates were celebrating on the field, he left the stadium.  What a team player. I give Boldin credit for his on field toughness, but off of it he is nothing but a big baby.

This year Boldin has played the role of Diva receiver, a role which was invented and perfected by Terrell Owens.  He was unhappy with his contract and did a lot of complaining about it to the media.  It looks like this will be his last year in the desert and for the Cardinals that’s probably a good thing.  The Dallas Cowboys will most likely sign him in the off-season because they love players who act like children, especially wide receivers.

The scariest hit of the night was by Steeler Ryan Clark, who laid out Willis McGahee, who then left the field on a stretcher.  All reports indicate that he has only suffered a concussion and will be fine.

The Steelers played with the lead for the entire game and were not in any real jeopardy of losing until late in the game.  In the 4th quarter Baltimore managed get within two points of the Ravens, thanks to a pair of McGahee touchdowns.  However, late in the 4th quarter Joe Flacco threw an interception to Troy Polamalu, which was returned for a touchdown and sealed the fate of the Ravens.

Although the Ravens playoff run came to an end, they should not be disappointed.  Rookie QB Joe Flacco had a great season and should only get better.  The defense also played well down the stretch and was a big reason for their playoff run.  The future for this team looks bright and they should be among the best in the AFC again next season.

The Steelers will be playing in the Superbowl against the Arizona Cardinals and should be heavy favorites.

The game got away from the Philadelphia Eagles early, thanks to the play of Fitzgerald, who had three first half touchdown receptions. He finished the game with 9 receptions for 152 yards.  The Eagles managed to battle back and even had a slight lead late in the second half, but they couldn’t hold on and the game winning touchdown was scored by Cardinals rookie Tim Hightower.

The Arizona Cardinals will be representing the NFC in the Superbowl, for the first time in their franchises history.  The Cardinals are the Cinderella of this playoffs and the big ball is on February 1st.  I think that Cardinals making the Superbowl is great for the NFL, because it means there is hope for any team to make it to the Superbowl (except the Detroit Lions).

The team that lost the game, the Philadelphia Eagles, are left to wonder about the future of their team.  This season there has been more talk than ever about the possible departure of QB Donovan McNabb, who’s contract is about to expire.  Coach Andy Reid was on the hot seat prior to the teams playoff run, but thanks to his teams playoff run he may have saved his job.  However, Reid should focus this off season on his own personal conditioning because he looks like he is on a 10 Philly cheese steak-a-day diet.

The NFC Championship was a great game and the Cardinals deserved to win it.

I usually don’t like to blame an individual player for a team loss, but in this case I have to say that Jake Delhomme choked, big time.  Throwing 2 picks is understandable, 3 is pushing it, 4 is bad and 5 is just embarrassing.

I feel bad for all those Carolina Panthers fans out there, who had to suffer through the game.  The silver lining behind this difficult loss is that Jake Delhomme has most likely played his last game in a Carolina Panthers uniform.  See you later Jake,  you won’t be missed.

Week: | Preseason | 1 |  

Ending ( Nov 13-23)

Total Pro Sports – We’ve had a taste. Dominating teams, upsets, even a 23 hour college hoops marathon thanks to ESPN. We’ve had a glimpse of what’s to come and what’s in for this years College Basketball Power Rankings. 

UNC manhandling Kentucky, UCLA shockingly upset by Michigan, and a 44 point performance by last year’s talk of the tournament, Stephen Curry.

The best thing is that it only gets better from here.

College Basketball Power Rankings Movers And Shakers

UCLA is the biggest shaker this week in our college basketball power rankings, falling 11 spots after an upset loss to Michigan 55-52.

Xavier is the biggest mover this week jumping to number 17 after being unranked. Two nice wins over Memphis and Va Tech have Xavier rolling.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: College Basketball POWER RANKINGS for week 1.

Rank	Team	Record	Change	Comment
1		6 -0	-	The 15 point win vs The Irish was impressive. Can anyone handle them? Coming Up: Sunday vs UNC Asheville - Buy Tickets
2		2-0	-	Samardo Samuels looks as good as advertised, averaging 21 points. Coming Up: Sunday vs Western Kentucky - Buy Tickets
3		5-0	-	With wins vs Wisconsin and Miami, the Huskies are looking like they are for real. Coming Up: Saturday vs Bryant - Buy Tickets
4		2-0	1	They looked good dropping 100 points on Idaho but somewhat struggled vs IPFW. We’ll get to see the real Spartans when they open up the Old Spice Classic against Maryland on Thanksgiving. Coming Up: Thursday vs Maryland - Buy Tickets
5		4-0	1	The Dukies struggled against Rhode Island, but made up for it with a nice effort vs Southern Illinois and Michigan to capture the 2k Sports Championship . Coming Up: Friday vs Duquesne - Buy Tickets
6		5-0	1	Great match up versus the Sooners on Friday. Coming Up: Friday vs Oklahoma - Buy Tickets
7		5-0	5	Took care of business against a solid UAB team. Can they handle the Boilermakers?Coming Up: Friday vs Purdue - Buy Tickets
8		5-0	1	If you saw him off the court you wouldn’t expect him to be one of the best players in the country, but on the court LaVance Fields is money. Coming Up: Friday vs Texas Tech - Buy Tickets
9		3-0	2	Could end up playing Michigan State this Friday Coming Up: Thursday vs Oklahoma State - Buy Tickets
10		4-1	-	Had a nice one-point win over Texas but then lost in a 15-point blowout to North Carolina. Coming Up: Sunday vs Furman - Buy Tickets
11		4-1	3	This is a team that should get better as the year goes on. Coming Up: Sunday vs Rice - Buy Tickets
12		3-0	1	Tennessee did what was expected, blowing out Tennessee Chattanooga and Tennessee Martin. Woah, a lot of Tennessee’s. Oh yeah and then they beat Middle Tennessee State. How will they match up vs Siena on Thanksgiving? Coming Up: Thursday vs Siena - Buy Tickets
13		4-0	2	Dominic James scored only 8 points in their thrashing of Chicago State where they put up 108, weird. Coming Up: Friday vs Northern Iowa - Buy Tickets
14		3-1	11	Here’s out first big upset of the year. The Bruins lost to Michigan, a 10-22 team last year, in the 2k Sports Semis. Defensively they looked alright, but they couldn’t do much vs the Wolverines 1-3-1 zone. It looks like the Bruins where a bit overrated and will be the rest of the year as they beat up a rather weak Pac Ten. . Coming Up:Friday vs Northern Iowa - Buy Tickets
15		2-1	1	The Sun Devils squeaked out a win over San Diego State.James Harden looks good early on. Coming Up: Thursday vs Charlotte - Buy Tickets
16		2-0	1	The Demon Deacons are in stride offensively averaging 92 points a game. Coming Up: Thursday vs Cal State Fullerton - Buy Tickets
17		5-0	NR	Xavier faults into the power rankings beating Memphis and Virginia Tech in Puerto Rico. Coming Up: Saturday vs Miami OH - Buy Tickets
18		5-0	NR	The Cuse also makes the rankings after wins against Kansas and Florida. Coming Up:Friday vs Virginia - Buy Tickets
19		3-1	1	Lost to UConn but then bounced back nicely with a 35 slacking against San Diego. Coming Up: Saturday vs Stetson - Buy Tickets
20		4-0	2	The Bears are still not on many radars but they will be……  Coming Up: Thursday vs Providence - Buy Tickets
21		3-1	2	They took Syracuse to overtime in a 89-81 loss, and won’t lose again at least until they play Arizona two days before Christmas Coming Up: 11/24 vs Washington - Buy Tickets
22		5-1	2	Stephen Curry scores ZERO points and they still win. I never thought I’d see that. Next two games come against NC State and West Virgina Coming Up: Saturday 12/6 vs NC State - Buy Tickets
23		5-0	2	Came back to beat a solid UTEP team this week. Coming Up:Friday vs California - Buy Tickets
24		2-0	3	We’ll get to see how good the Hoyas are as they travel to Orlando for the Old Spice Classic which includes Tennessee, Michigan State and Gonzaga. Coming Up: Saturday vs Drexel - Buy Tickets
25		4-1	11	Lost by 5 to an up and coming Xavier team. They could redeem themselves vs Georgetown on December 12. Yet I can’t help to think that they might be a bit overrated. Coming Up: 12/2 vs Marist - Buy Tickets

Be sure to check back next week with our College Basketball Power Rankings for week 2.