Get goosebumps.

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Also, check out this piece by ESPN’s Jeff Bradley, brother of USA coach Bob Bradley and uncle to the crazy man in the picture above.

I love me some Chris Andersen. His energy off the bench for the Denver Nuggets has made him a fan favorite in the city, and his patented “birdman” celebrations and signature style, tattoos and hair all over the place, have endeared him to both the casual and die-hard NBA fan. His 2010 averages of 5.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game don’t do justice to the energy and attitude he brings to the floor every night.

And now, he gives us this. The most obvious tattoo for someone nicknamed The Birdman.

Check out the neck. That’s a “Free Bird” tattoo. So awesome.

A pretty uneventful weekend in the world of sports. Oh sure, there were two days filled with World Cup action, the final rounds of the 110th U.S. Open had both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson teeing off, as well as blast from past (which is also what she said) Ernie Els, and interleague play in major league baseball, but there was a distinct lack of drama in the events that transpired. Some dude named Graeme McDowell won the U.S. Open (it’s O.K., we haven’t heard of him either), in one of the more boring final rounds in recent memory. A ho-hum weekend indeed. Unless you’re French. Or Jemele Hill. Or the Redskins. Or British.  Or Italian. Or Lady Gaga? Yeah, it was that kinda weekend. Let’s hope for better things this week.

Courtesy of ESPN and the AP:

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates are down a pierogi.

The team fired one of the people who races in the dumpling-shaped costumes because he criticized the contract extensions given to general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell on his Facebook page.

Andrew Kurtz of New Brighton participated in the Pirates’ in-game pierogi race — a knockoff of the Milwaukee Brewers‘ racing sausages — about four times a month.

The Pirates said the 24-year-old Kurtz was already under suspension because of a previous violation of team rules.

An independent minor league team, the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things, immediately offered Kurtz a job as one of its racing hot dogs.

Well, somebody had to win that one right? In a game with some god-awful offensive statistics (I mean…GREAT DEFENSE!), the Lakers beat the Celtics in game 7 on their home floor, winning 83-79, and collecting banner #16 for the franchise and for the city of Los Angeles (and Minneapolis). The funny thing about this game is that the Celtics executed their game plan to a T: force Kobe into difficult shots all night by playing straight up man-to-man defense (Kobe went 6-24, with many shots coming out of the flow of the offense), play Rasheed Wallace on Pau Gasol and use Sheed’s length to stymie the big Spaniard, and let Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher and the rest of the Lakers role players try to save their season and win the title.

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We usually like to start the day here with stories that are snarky, sarcastic, or humorous. There’s no need for that today, as there is enough actual sporting material to make any true sports fan happy.

• In World Cup action, Argentina faces South Korea, in what should be the match of the tournament so far. Actually, as I’m writing this, the score is 2-1 Argentina at halftime. The three total goals are the most scored by halftime of any game so far, and for a tournament in which games have mostly ended with scores of 1-0, 0-0, and 1-1, this game should act as shot of adrenaline. Later today, Greece faces Nigeria in sort of a clunker (neither side is that talented nor expected to advance very far), and France kicks off against Mexico, which should also be extremely entertaining. Mexio and France both reside in Group A and have earned a point a piece from their opening game draws, so each team should be putting forth quite the effort in order to secure a win to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament. Uruguay has most likely done enough to advance to the second round, drawing (0-0) against France, and winning yesterday (3-0) against South Africa.

Read more »

Everyone knows it by now: Pedro Alvarez has been called up and will start at third base tonight against the Chicago White Sox. The city is abuzz with excitement because of the potential this guy has. The ball flies off his bat when he makes contact. However, strikeouts have been a problem (68 Ks in 242 ABs at Indianapolis in 2010) and he has struggled early upon promotion in the past. The front office assumes Alvarez can work out those issues here in Pittsburgh – he has at every other level so far. The main point of this post is to stress that patience should be practiced even with someone with this much talent. Expecting 20 HRs from the kid and a medium miracle on the side may be asking a bit much. On the other hand, seeing the young talent slowly infused into the Bucs lineup is exciting. As of today, the three big bats; McCutchen, Tabata and now Alvarez are here. Hell, even Neil Walker has done extremely well upon his promotion and subsequent move to second base. The chances of a winning season in 2010 are slim but there is certainly more reason than recent memory can conjure to be legitimately excited about the Pirates future.

That's not Dwayne Johnson...it's Pedro Alvarez!

Of course the vuvuzela has a twitter page:

And in more moral malarkey, this sign appeared yesterday during the Brazil-North Korea match (Brazil surprisingly only won 2-1), which apparently was attended by a lot of Chinese volunteers.

The sound vuvuzelas make is annoying. Their constant, buzzing drone over the 90 minutes of World Cup games makes my ears bleed a little bit, and I’m just watching on television. I can’t imagine what it’s like in person. Anyway, the significant backlash against the noise-making instruments caused FIFA to issue a statement that the vuvuzela would in fact, not be banished because doing so would be un-African or something. Along those lines, someone of course created a t-shirt. I couldn’t be prouder.

This about sums it up.

I hate to throw a baseball post in here amongst the anticipation of USA/England but as the residents Pirate expert I thought this was too interesting to pass up. I typically don’t like Pirates bashing because a lot of it, nay, most of it is illogical. However, when I saw this post on Sabernomics, (one of the best sabermetrics sites of all time – although it has evolved a lot since inception) I had to chuckle. In light of the inevitable ‘Pirates Skid’ in which we are now fully entrenched, I figured this is as good a time as any to poke some fun. The study reported on in the post says that the odds of winning back-to-back baseball games against the same team (described in the article as ’similar circumstances’) is just slightly better than 50/50. So, ordinarily the odds of beating a major league baseball team twice in a row is pretty much a crapshoot. Certainly, that is, unless you’re playing the Bucs. It has to be easier. They defy ordinary. After a quick glance and calculation (that sounds like something you get at a seedy casino in Vegas), seven times this season the Bucs have lost back-to-back games to the same team.  That’s not the worst though. Kansas City has done it 12 times, Houston 11, and Baltimore, ugh good God are the Orioles bad, have done it 17 times.  Food for thought on a World Cup Saturday mornin’. Let’s go Yanks…er hem…these Yanks:

U-S-A!

I really love what I refer to as real football. Ya know, the football played with your feet. I’ve never been super into international football, but as a Yank I vociferously pull for the Stars & Stripes for as long as they are alive in the tournament. I will be at my highest volume this Saturday when the US takes on our old imperial big brother, England…but not because I have lingering anti-Red coat sentiments that still echo within my personal ether from ancestors that fought for our independence. No, I dislike the English national team because many of their players are reprehensible douche bags. Despite this the United States mural from ESPN below works for me. It gets me pumped. I love seeing thousands clad in red, white, and blue screaming for our boys. And nothing fuses Yank fans more than Yank fans coming together, just like we did 234 years ago to boot these red coats (shirts this time around) right back onto the boat (plane this time around).

Then we have the French mural highlighting what appears to be my favorite footballer of all time’s left hand with a glorious Batman *WHAP* style bolt. Obviously, this was done because Mssr. Henry used that very hand to help ensure French qualification. I say ‘to help ensure’ because if the Republic of Ireland really wanted to make it to the World Cup they would have scored more goals over the two legs. He cheated. We know. He admitted it, which is more than any Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian diver has ever done. Get over it.

Hand of A God

Well, now even preachers have gotten into the mix. In Hilton Head, South Carolina, Reverend Christopher Benek of the Providence Presbyterian Church had a few choice quotes about God, and yes, LeBron.

“I think God wants LeBron James to be something of a modern day king. I think God wants the best for LeBron James. I think God even wants LeBron to win. And the way LeBron can do this is to simply do, at this most important time in his life and in sports history… LeBron James, at this time of immense importance, should humble himself publicly before the Lord, and put God first, and I can tell you how… LeBron James should agree to a three-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for $1 for each season. Not $20 million a season, $1.”

I imagine the preacher is referencing Steve Jobs’ famous $1 salary as the CEO of Apple. I’m not really sure why Reverend Benek has chosen to speak out about LeBron, but Lord help us all if more choose to do so.