Minnesota beekepers are so buzzing mad about “honey laundering” that they’re holding a press conference about it today at the State Fair. Apparently, cheap honey from China is messing up t…
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While you were sleeping, SportsGrid was up all night watching TV and searching the internet for links to help get your day started. Today, an invading legion of 11-year-olds conquer a small, diamond-shaped area of the northeast United States.
Japan won the Little League World Series yesterday, defeating Hawaii 4-1, thanks to “excellent pitching and defense.” Alas, Hawaii took the loss with a steely-eyed reserve, and there were no waterworks.
Manny Ramirez is most likely going to end up on the White Sox. Here’s how he left his last job: with grace and dignity.
Antonio Bryant was cut by the Bengals, after not playing a down and making $ 8 million. He is now a hero to people who dream of making a lot of money by doing the least work possible.
Your 2010 winner of the Bahhhhclays: Matt Kuchar.
And finally, this:
Check back in with SportsGrid all day to satisfy your sports media-meets-pop-culture sensibilities.
Peter Lenz, a 13-year-old motorcycle racer, was killed after a tragic accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway yesterday. What happened reads like every motorcycle mom’s worst nightmare. From the New York Times:
Peter Lenz of Vancouver, Wash., fell off his bike during the warmup lap for Sunday’s first race at Indianapolis and was run over by another motorcycle, driven by a 12-year-old. Medical workers immediately placed Lenz in a neck brace, put him on a stretcher and began chest compressions while taking him to a hospital.
Several hours later, he was pronounced dead.
The first reaction for most is to wonder why on Earth a 13-year-old child was racing a motorcycle at Indy. Let’s hope the upcoming scrutiny of the sport keeps a few things in mind before people declare that the victim was too young. Surely he was too young to die, but he certainly was not too young to race
At age 11, he earned the “expert” license from the American Federation of Motorcyclists, and in March 2009, Lenz became the youngest rider ever to win an AFM race. This year, competing in the U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union series, Lenz had four wins, five podium finishes and was leading the MD250H classification in points.
From all appearances, the choice to ride the bike was made by Lenz and his parents together. Columnist Bob Kravitz of Clark County, Washington’s The Columbian tries to come to terms with the choices of others:
We don’t understand. We can’t understand. But they will get on their bikes again and they will test the limits again, and they will do it with the uncomfortable knowledge that there’s a chance, just a chance, they may be next.
Exactly – from the outside, it does not make sense. But from the inside – the parents and the kids who race – it is risk that they are willing to take together.
Photo via.
We’ve got our big, fancy universities and our hi-tech marquee names here in the Twin Cities, but it’s not enough, people.
Our neighbors in Rochester, Madison, Ames and Iowa City all made i…
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A match-fixing scandal has rocked the Pakistani cricket team, and a number of players could be banned for life by the International Cricket Council.
The allegations were first made by British tabloid News of the World (usually known for things like this), which published an undercover video of fixer Mazhar Majeed accepting money to cause two “no-balls” during Thursday’s match between England and Pakistan.
A no-ball is caused when the bowler (cricket’s version of the pitcher) oversteps the popping crease – think a foul line/pitcher’s mound. A no-ball usually results in one run being awarded to an opposing team. Thursday’s match, which was characterized as a “humiliating defeat” for Pakistan by the AP, was a blowout, and it’s unlikely that the no-balls effected the outcome.
Still, the charges are serious, and all of the players involved could be banned for life. Majeed the match-fixer was arrested by police after the News turned the video over to police. It’s pretty gripping stuff, especially when Majeed all those Euros out in front of him. Scandalous!
The NFL doesn’t allow its players to use Twitter from the sidelines, but that doesn’t stop some Minnesota Vikings from having a lot to say in 140 characters or less when games and practices…
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When the Detroit Lions took Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh second overall in this year’s NFL draft, they were expecting an instant impact player. In one sequence of Saturday night’s preseason game against the Browns, Suh gave the Lions a little more than they wanted to see with a rather…enthusiastic facemask penalty while taking down Browns quarterback Jake Delhomme.
The play actually started out as exactly what the Lions dreamed of when they drafted Suh – he got through two different blockers with relative ease and made his way to Delhomme in short order, forcing him to throw the ball away. All of that’s good. The obvious facemask penalty Suh committed before putting Delhomme in a headlock and throwing him to the ground, however, didn’t fly.
Since Suh didn’t actually injure Delhomme, it’s pretty funny – the announcers couldn’t tell quite what had happened at first, saying Suh “might have gotten a facemask.”
Then, when the replay showed the facemask, along with the ensuing choke hold, was comically obvious, all they could do was say things like, “…gets inside the helmet, then he tries to take the head with him. You can’t do that; the quarterback needs that.”
Video of the play below. If Suh can just do everything prior to the penalty – and then keep himself in check – on a regular basis, he’ll be a star.
H/T Shutdown Corner