09/26/2008 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Rockets forward Shane Battier will miss most of the preseason due to inflammation in his left foot, the team announced on Friday.
Battier underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove bone spurs in May and was undergoing rehabilitation when he suffered the setback. He is expected to miss the next four weeks.
He averaged 9.3 points and 5.1 rebounds in 80 regular season games, including 78 starts, last season. The seven-year veteran, who played his first five seasons with Memphis and the past two with Houston, has averaged 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 558 career games.
<< Roddick lands in semis; Gonzo falls in Beijing
Beijing, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick snuck into
the semifinals, while defending champion Fernando Gonzalez was among Friday's
quarterfinal upset victims at the $524,000 China Open.
The second-seeded Roddick
<< Astros host Braves in final home series of year
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of clubs riding two-game winning streaks get
together tonight, when the Houston Astros welcome the Atlanta Braves to town
for three straight contests at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros have won two straight
<< Falling White Sox aim to get on track versus Indians
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago White Sox try and get themselves back atop the
AL Central standings this evening when they host the Cleveland Indians in the
first of three games at U.S. Cellular Field.
Chicago blew a five-run lead on Thursday
<< Arroyo leads Reds in series opener with Cards
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bronson Arroyo will attempt to close out an outstanding
second half with another victory when he takes the mound for the Cincinnati
Reds in tonight's opener of a season-ending three-game series with the St.
Louis C
Benitez hopes to continue success in Merseyside derby >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has had
plenty of success against Merseyside rivals Everton since becoming manager of
the Reds as he has seen his side win six of the eight meetings between the two
teams.
Bayern hopes to recover at Hannover >>
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juergen Klinsmann's debut season at
defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich has not gone exactly as planned
with the team winning just two of its first five games.
Bayern is still only three
Ronaldinho set for first Milan derby >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan enters the first Milan derby of
the season on top of the Serie A table, while AC Milan has won its last two
games after a slow start and sits four points behind the Nerazzuri entering
Sunday'
Sporting Gijon braces for another heavyweight >>
Gijon, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sporting Gijon's first season in La Liga in 10
years has not gotten off to a very good start, and it doesn't figure to get
any easier on Saturday when the club hosts Villarreal.
The schedule makers have no
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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