Just because we all know that it’ll just be all about Maria Sharapova once again.

Yep, the grand slam season of tennis starts with the 2008 Australian Open tennis tournament. And just because it’s only the biggest tournament to date this 2008, we can’t help but to anticipate Sharapova’s skirt to fly open on the tennis courts once it’s time to play ball.

And in case you were wondering, yes, the hot and sexy Maria Sharapova will be playing in the 2008 Australian Open at Melbourne starting January 14 - 27.

And if the sexy screaming Russian siren’s first practice session for the tournament at Melbourne Park was to tell us anything, it would have to be the fact that we might see more of Sharapova’s itsy bitsy skirts longer. (Don’t worry, ‘LONGER’ has nothing to do with the length of her lower apparel…)

Maria Sharapova seems determined to play all the way to the final match in Melbourne. In her first practice session for the Australian Open, Sharapova was keen on improving her trademark powerful serve and her return.

Sharapova was chatty as she prepared for next week’s…

Read More » Maria Sharapova in 2008 Australian Open Tennis Games

Heeere we go again… Another chapter in the life of that duck-eating phenomenon known as Manny Pacquiao.

For all ya’ll who didn’t now, or just blinded by the shit-load of stuff we get from the 2007-08 NFL football season every single week, Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao will resume their rivalry that started way back in 2003.

On October 6, round 2 of this Barrera - Pacquiao saga will be fought for the super featherweight championship of the world. (Forgive us, we’re STILL trying to hype you up for this one…)

It was in 2003 when Manny Pacquiao probably got lucky (I just know somebody will contest that already…) and won the featherweight title from Marco Antonio Barrera.

It was at that instant when everybody, that includes yours truly, started getting bombarded by all these silly stuff about how Manny Pacquiao is the ‘’best pound for pound fighter in the world'’ or why he is the most exciting fighter in boxing today.

Puh-lease… I know Manny Pacquiao won a few title fights already but…

Read More » Barrera to knock the Duck Fetus out of Manny Pacquiao

Oh wait… THAT was not the case when a Duke lacrosse team started their season.

When the Duke Blue Devils opened their 2006 lacrosse season against Butler, only 425 people came out to support the team. When they went up against Dartmouth, fans were lining up to enter Koskinen Stadium. Go figure.

Yep, a lot of people sure wanted to see the Duke lacrosse team that game alright. And mind you, that was still more than two hours before Duke and Dartmouth took the field. When the gates opened, the 425 people Duke got for the 2006 season opener easily became 6,485. Just a few hundred short of Duke’s home record.

What happened? Why the interest for this team all of a sudden? Oh yeah, these guys were banned for 10 months before making their debut this season. Figures. The buzz surrounding the game was closer to a North Carolina-Duke basketball rivalry game than a season opener for the sixth-ranked Blue Devils, who easily dismissed unranked Dartmouth, 17-11.

Duke lacrosse head coach John Danowski, in his first game on the Blue Devils sideline, was not the only one making a debut appearance during that game. For the first time at a Duke lacrosse game, the pep band was there to entertain the crowd.

The Duke bookstore was…

Read More » The Duke Blue Devils lacrosse team returned with a loving student body to start the season

FC Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard is aiming to knock out Liverpool FC, the club he enjoyed watching as a boy, when the two heavyweights meet at Camp Nou.

Rijkaard is relishing the prospect of tackling the current Liverpool team as the last two winners of the competition go head to head in the opening leg of their last-16 encounter. But it was the team that lifted the European Champion Clubs‘ Cup three times in eight seasons, between 1977 and 1984, that really caught his imagination.

Despite his admiration for the Premiership outfit, Rijkaard is keen to ensure they do not add to their five wins in the tournament. So the holders cannot afford another defeat in this two-legged encounter, having slipped up against Chelsea FC in the group stage.

Samuel Eto’o will sit out the game, having missed Sunday’s 2-1 league defeat at Valencia CF in order to continue his recuperation following a knee problem. Lionel Messi is approaching full fitness having recovered from a broken toe and Rijkaard is pleased to have the Argentinian back.

Lilian Thuram is also available following a thigh complaint, but Edmílson, Santiago Ezquerro and Sylvinho have been omitted from the squad.

The last two champions come together at Camp Nou for what home president Joan Laporta predicted could be an ‘extraordinary tie’. Barcelona’s 13-match unbeaten run at home in the competition makes them clear favourites but spearheaded by Rafael Benítez, the Reds’ sizeable Spanish contingent will be keen to spring a surprise.

This heavyweight contest carries added appeal because of Liverpool’s Spanish contingent, spearheaded by a manager in Benítez who will aim to maintain his team’s unbeaten record at Barcelona.

Read More » Barcelona vs Liverpool: Champions League heavyweights collide at Camp Nou

Yep, the unthinkable happened.

For the first time in ten years, Australia lost four one-day matches in a row. Australia, the defending world champions, was in ruins following a five-wicket defeat in Auckland last Sunday.

Yep, just like the stupid defending NBA Basketball champions, Miami Heat, these Cricket champions are stumbling down. The setback resulted in them relinquishing the top spot to South Africa for the first time at the Cricket World Cup rankings.

Rival New Zealand reached 337 for four to achieve the second-highest run chase in history with eight balls to spare to secure the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. The Kiwis (yep, they actually named their team, ‘’Kiwis'’) won the first match of the series in Wellington by 10 wickets, the first time Australia lost THAT much.

‘’I think that’s just where international cricket is at the moment, we’re going to a World Cup with teams beating each other,'’ New Zealand team captain Stephen Fleming told reporters after their epic win.

‘’I guess that’s the exciting thought, and the scary thought, that on any given day one of eight teams could win this World Cup.'’

As for the new kings of the…

Read More » Slumping Australia relinquishes No.1 ranking to South Africa as the 2007 Cricket World Cup draws near

It means an Australian homo named Adam Gilchrist will miss the Cricket World Cup, and it will be a damn day for Australia for sure.

That’s Australian slang for ya’ mate. Yep, Australia’s World Cup plans have been thrown into further disarray with the news that Adam Gilchrist is to miss the first three weeks of the tournament to attend the birth of his third child. Gilchrist’s wife, Mel, is due to give birth just days before the squad flies out from Sydney on February 28.

This is after the Australian Cricket national team lost Andrew Symonds to injury and losing to England in the CB Series finals in an unsettling fashion. Australia will have to make do without their wicketkeeper and opening bat at least until their final Group A match against South Africa in St Kitts on March 24.

Brad Haddin will replace Adam Gilchrist as the team’s resident wicketkeeper, at least for the warm-up and opening matches of the Cricket World Cup tournament. If Haddin, for some reason, gets injured, Mike Hussey will replace him.

But what if the guy replacing the guy who will replace the guy who won’t be available for Australia’s opening games gets injured? Who will replace the guy replacing the guy replacing the guy replacing the guy who won’t be available for Australia’s opening matches? (He he…)

THEN, Australian Steve Irvin will play. Oh wait, that guy’s already…

Read More » Shit mate, poofter Adam Gilchrist will miss the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Australia will have a damn die!

David Coulthard sure feels like it, and if Red Bull falls flat on their asses once again, it won’t be his fault.

That’s what he’s saying anyway. Well, not exactly but it sure sounds like it. ‘’We have to achieve more, otherwise people will have to be replaced,'’ said the feisty Scotland driver, David Coulthard.

David Coulthard is one of the best drivers in the history of F1 racing. But the David Coulthard we see now is nowhere in comparison to the David Coulthard we saw back in the day, when he was this cocky apprentice to the legendary Mika Hakkinen, both driving then for McLaren Mercedes.

Back in those days, Coulthard was learning from one of the, if not the best, in the business. As Mika Hakkinen were going toe to toe with Ferrari and their German ace driver, Michael Schumacher (without a shadow of a doubt, the best years of Formula One racing…) David Coulthard was patiently waiting, waiting for his turn to take the mantle Mika will leave for him.

When Mika Hakkinen finally called it quits, David Coulthard resumed McLaren’s classic rivalry with Ferrari. Coulthard made life difficult for Schumi for a while but the legendary Ferrari star was simply more experienced and…

Read More » Can David Coulthard be the Raging Bull for Red Bull Racing in the new Formula One Season?

Many popular TV hot moms aren’t actually mothers but some are real MILFs. Now the search is on for their real-life versions. MILF or not

“Do you vacuum in high heels and pearls? Are you a taskmistress with the filofax or a shopper extraordinaire?” Thus asks a promo page for Are You a Real Housewife?, the new contest by Bravo TV, which brought us reality TV hot moms, The Real Housewives of Orange County. [TV show page here.]

Another new contest, Hottest Mom In America, makes this invite to wannabe MILFs: “We’re looking for Moms that turn heads wherever they go — the supermarket, the football stands, or Kindergarten.” [Contest page here.]

Having two new TV hot mom searches to welcome 2007 is no coincidence, and a long time coming. They, and reality TV sexy moms, are natural offsprings, as it were, of popular TV shows the likes of Desperate Housewives, which brought to light a formerly unthinkable idea: Womanly hotness does not halt at age 24, or the first onset of pregnancy.

Read More » Hot Moms Wanted, real Desperate housewives for TV!

Super Bowl XLI: The Chicago Bears won the coin toss. Hmmm, sounds like a good sign as rookie sensation Devin Hester awaits Adam Vinatieri’s kickoff.

Then suddenly. the Bears fans jumped out of their seats, opened their arms toward the big screens and yelled in unison as Hester caught a kickoff and sprinted 92 yards into the end zone.

And that was only the first 14 seconds of Super Bowl XLI. But a coronation was unavoidable, and the great Ringless One is ringless no more. Yes, Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl winner at last.

Without Rex Grossman, this could have been a pretty good Super Bowl. Don’t crown their you-know-whats. In the end, the Bears were what Dennis Green - and so many other critics - thought they were: REX is really GROSS, man!

For Chicago, it’s a case of déjà vu. Remember Tedd Ginn, Jr. and the so-called “Super Bowl coin toss curse”?

Hester’s runback matched Ginn’s feat in the Bowl Championship Series title game a month earlier. Ginn took the opening kick back 93 yards for a touchdown against Florida, but the Buckeyes wound up losing 41-14 to the Gators in college football’s national championship game.

Another bad sign for the Bears may have come before kickoff. Chicago won the coin toss; over the last 11 years, the coin-toss winner has lost the Super Bowl nine times.

Leaving the Miami stadium afterward, many Bears fans said the best team — with the best quarterback — had won.

It was a nice Super Bowl dream while it lasted.

In retrospect, maybe we should have seen it coming. Or maybe we did and didn’t want to admit it.

This is how I’ll remember the day.

Read More » Bears wallow in the what-might-have-been muck and mire of Super Bowl XLI

Fact: The Oscars yearly breed more losers than winners.

The 2007 Oscar Awards are that predictable. We knew it as sure as Helen Mirren and Leonardo DiCaprio were nominated recurrently at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards. We knew it as sure as Sacha Baron Cohen, of all people, repeated himself.

“I want to thank everyone in America who decided not to sue us,” quipped the Oscar-nominated Sacha more than once. Thankfully, redundancy is to the favor of proposition betting. Never mind the losers, we know how to win by betting at the 79th Academy Awards, to be held on February 25th, hosted by Ellen Degeneres.

Best Motion Picture of the Year is arguably the least foreseeable of the lot, based on trends seen at the year’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards. At Bodog film betting, The Departed has 2/3 odds to win Oscar Best Picture while Letters from Iwo Jima has 7/2. Little Miss Sunshine has odds of 3/1, Babel has 4/1, The Queen has 10/1 odds.

As far as movie performance goes, note that Dreamgirls, while neither an Oscar Best Picture nor Best Director nominee, has garnered the most number of 2007 Oscar nominations, at eight. It is followed by Babel, with seven Oscar nominations, then Pan’s Labyrinth and The Queen, with six Oscar nominations each.

Best Achievement in Directing is also fobbing off the expected: After all, Marty has certainly never won an Oscar before. If he wins, we doubt he will be repeating any past impromptu speech, and we might even extend hopefulness the Oscar Best Supporting Actress curse will soon be broken.

Martin Scorsese for The Departed has 1/6 odds to win Oscar Best Director at Bodog online betting while Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima has 4/1 odds, Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel has 9/1 odds, Stephen Frears for The Queen has 13/1 odds, and…

Read More » Betting at Oscars 2007: So predictable you can’t lose? (2 of 2)