Countdown To Inside Pulse V3 – Tailgate Crashers Preview

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On Monday September 18th, Inside Pulse will usher in a new era of diehard pop culture coverage for diehard pop culture fans. For the next 2 weeks, one per day, Inside Pulse is giving you a sneak peek of what we have planned for the big day. These are just previews to give you a taste, with a sample of the type of articles you will see on each zone. When we launch fully on the 18th, you’ll see the full new layout and zone sites.

You’ve pulled into the stadium, fired up the barbeque and tapped the keg. And just when you’ve gotten comfortable, we knock your grill over, throw a beer in your face, and smash your car windows in with a baseball bat. We’re the Tailgate Crashers, and we throw the rulebook out the window with a potent lineup of features, podcasts and biting analysis of the only sports news that matters. TailgateCrashers isn’t afraid to kick you in the balls and laugh at you. Are you fan enough to keep coming back for more?

What You Can Expect:

Theo – The Real Reason The Sox Are In The ER

It’s no secret that I am a huge Yankee fan. Diehard, as they say, which is a stupid title in and of itself, but whatever. But I am here to make a plea to the good people of Boston and more specifically, Red Sox fans.

This season the Yankees lost a good portion of their team to injuries, including big injuries to big sluggers, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield. There were immediately two things that people thought: A) They’re screwed, Bah-stun wins the pennant or B) They had more issues last year and still won the pennant.

The injuries kept piling up, taking out relievers and pitchers who have pitched in less games than I have been to during their contract. Yet the Yankees, with a group of youngsters thrown into the mix and some savvy trade deadline maneuvers, have run away with the division. That’s called gutting it out.

The other end of the Yankee bloodline is the Red Sox. They too, have been beset by injury. However, they have not adapted and overcome. They have become a shell of their former selves. Trading for Javy Lopez who, coincidentally, has caught less games over the past two years than I have been to, to replace Jason Varitek was just a dumb move. You never take a bat over defense, especially with Papi and Manny in the line-up.

Speaking of, Big Papi almost becomes Big Coronary. It seems like everyone in the Sawx locker room comes down with some sort of injury/illness…including cancer! All my best to Jon Lester. Baseball is one thing, but when a player is younger than me and that happens, you feel for him. Back on point: The Sox had the same myriad of injuries as the Yankees. But they should be able to pull through and make a run right? Of course! With Theo “Wunderkind” Epstein running the show and talking about the big prospects and future, they’re a call-up or so from spanking the Yankees…or not.

See, Boston dropped like a dancer in a Justin Timberlake video. Why did this happen? Because Theo is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is. That’s right. THEO EPSTEIN is not God. Let’s review the positives of Theo:

– Nomar Trade

– Getting Shilling

– Getting Foulke (AT THE TIME)

Now the negatives:

– Coco Crisp

– Getting Edgar Renteria instead of keeping Orlando Cabrera

– Getting rid of Edgar Renteria

– Pick your poison in the bullpen

Now that’s off the top of my head because I don’t feel like doing research.

So, with that, I make an open plea to the people in Boston, from Yawkey to Hahvahd Yahd: Do not give him a free pass. If you do, you will ruin your organization.

Time and time again, Theo has held back or made things too complicated in getting trades done to help your team. Abreu and Lidle? Could have been yours. It could’ve been the Yankees turning Jacobi Hospital into their new locker room. But it’s not. Theo is too busy trading players he doesn’t even have yet to sit down and figure out what is good for the team.

Yes, your front office is crazy too, but the buck has to stop here.

You see, Yankee fans DEMAND greatness. Brian Cashman knows this. So at the very least we get the playoffs, year in and year out. But we always have a player to blame for us losing. A-Rod, Unit, Jeff Weaver. NEVER can the blame be thrown at our GM or our owner. They put a product on the field that is capable of winning every day. The front office in Boston talks about the future in a place where it took 86 years to win a World Series. Patience isn’t a virtue in Boston. Patience represents failure. That, my loyal Sox fans, is what you are being sold. That is the inherent difference between our two clubs. We are sold greatness. You are sold failure. And for some strange reason, both of our ballparks are packed equally. How does that make sense?

Do something about it Sox fans! Take the pride you have and demand wins NOW! Prospects are just that until they get to big leagues. You never know what will happen. But you do know what you’re getting with proven people. It doesn’t take “Moneyball” to understand that.

So for now, enjoy the Pats and when you see Bobby Abreu drawing a walk that leads to a run that leads to another pinstriped ring, just remember that the great Theo is working hard to make sure you might win the division in 2012.

Posted by Dan Hevia in
MLB
(09.05.2006) | Full Link

Farewell to a Legend
At long last the career of Andre Agassi has come to an end. It’s hard to parallel careers from era to era, but as far as the metal racquet era goes, Andre was the poster boy. One could argue with great success that Andre was able to hammer down the final nail in the coffin for serve and volley tennis. His success with his ground strokes inspired an entire generation of baseline players that we are seeing now. The style of play we see today is straight baseline, which has led to Andre having such tremendous success in the final part of his career. He was pretty much playing all these kids who are trying to imitate was he had been doing before their voices had lowered. He was able to keep in better shape than any of the young upstarts and able to stay at the top of the game. Consistent success at the age that Andre is will be hard for anyone else to achieve. But I’m just saying what everyone else has already said. I’m gonna rock out one of my classy top fives, with my top five Andre Agassi matches.
Posted by Raul Colon in
Tennis
(09.05.2006) | Full Link

NCAA Football Week 1 Roundup
After going 15-8 with the spread on the first full weekend of games (not including the yet to be completed FSU/Miami game) I was debating whether I should brag about the 15 wins or tackle my 8 losses. Obviously I decided to go with none of the above and chose to just discuss some Week 1 happenings (click here where I posted my picks prior to the weekend’s games).
Posted by Neil A. Bisman in
NCAA
(09.04.2006) | Full Link

REAL Football Match Report: Brazil vs. Argentina
American “football” (covered very nicely by our own Nick Pomazak) starts up next week, but we all know you came here for some commentary on REAL football…
Posted by Will Cooling in
Soccer
(09.04.2006) | Full Link

East Coast Bias: What Might Have Been

I touched on this a bit last week and the Boston fans didn’t really appreciate it, but I have to expand on it. The New York Yankees went into Fenway Park last Friday with a tenuous, at best, 1.5 game lead on the Boston Red Sox. Four days and five games later, the Yankees left Boston for the West Coast leaving a shattered Red Sox team in their wake. Not only did the Yankees walk into Boston and decimate the Red Sox, but the Yankees walked into Boston to remind the baseball world just who the f*ck they were. They left a Red Sox team not only crushed out of the division (6.5 games back with six weeks to play) but pretty well crushed out of the wildcard race, too (5.5 games back against 2 teams who both are putting on a dogfight down the stretch and showing no signs of fading).

The Yankees have put up with, as they do every year, with people writing them off as soon as they fall under .500 or whenever they start to have injury troubles. When Matsui and Sheff went down, they called for the end. “Without those 200 runs, the Yankees are finished,” folks said. Whenever Mariano blows a save, “has he lost it?” dominates the headlines. The Yankees then proceeded to turn around and do what they do every year, much to everyone’s continued surprised, which is go down the August/September stretch playing what feels like .800 baseball. The Braves used to do this, too, when half their team wasn’t on the DL.

Posted by Daniels in
MLB
(09.04.2006) | Full Link


Who Are The Tailgate Crashers?

Dan Hevia (editor; general sports commentary) – Dan is editor of TailgateCrashers and bleeds pinstriped blood. There is no arguing against Dan, only agreeing with him. From baseball to rugby, Hevia’s is the opinion with no boundaries. He’s also a badass MC.

Daniels (general sports commentary) – Most of Daniels’ writing is entitled “East Coast Bias” despite his contention that East Coast Bias doesn’t really exist. He just feels his teams are better than yours. Daniels writes at TailgateCrashers to convince his girlfriend that, yes, he really does have to watch sports all the time.

Aaron Cameron (general sports commentary) – Aaron has spent the last several years writing about the ridiculous and absurd. His primary influences are obscure ’80s pop culture references such as Autobots, Decepticons and the greatest fictitious electronic warrior of them all, Tecmo Bo. When he writes, you react. Look for his unique sports perspective only found in feature articles here at TailgateCrashers.

Steve Price (general sports commentary) – Just because he’s TailgateCrashers’ resident NASCAR expert, it doesn’t mean Steve isn’t quick to chime in with his thoughts on hot topics from around the world of sports. From autoracing to the art of the zamboni, and everything in between, it’s always happy hour when Steve crashes the party with his opinions.

Allen Noah (NCAA) – Shortly after his friends tired of him constantly throwing his two cents in, Bisman fled to the one place where the entire world can tire of him throwing his two cents in, Tailgate Crashers. Here, Bisman covers college sports: Where athletes only make in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Will Cooling (European football) – TailgateCrashers’ resident ‘soccer’ expert, Will Cooling brings you all the hotest action from Europe each and every week.

Omar Padilla (NHL) – A long time suffering Kings fan, Omar has been an online presence for 10 years covering wrestling and hockey for several top sites. TailgateCrashers is now the permanent home for Omar’s knowledge (and back and forth razzing with Patrick N.) of the sport of hockey.

Phillip Ciprotti (NBA) – Basketball vagabond and rapscallion, PTC joined TailgateCrashers because he thought it was a beer-drinking, kielbasa-cooking organization. Apparently, it IS that, but he has to work too. He sticks around now because he gets paid huge money and TGC has a great medical/dental/free hooker program.

Raul Colon (Tennis) – Tired of seeing a lack of coverage for the one sport that covers ten months of a year, Raul sought out TailgateCrashers and begged them to let him keep you informed on the who’s who of tennis in a style that anyone who follows sports can understand. While this often leads to Raul creating impossible parallels between sports that leave even him confused, you’ll learn to shut up and deal with it.

Slayer (NCAA) – Slayer has an odd fetish for sadomasochism, with his writing resembling a motion picture filled with twists, turns, heroes, villains, and always… happy endings. Those that dislike him call him David Goldberg. Most of these people are dead by no fault of Slayer’s.

Eugene Tierney (MLB) – Make sure your pencils are out for note-taking when you read contributions to TailgateCrashers from Professor Eugene Tierney. A cross between Jerry Seinfeld and Peter Gammons, Eugene often uses statistics to defend his claims and appeal to your intellect, while never afraid to add his own brand of subtle humor to his writing.

Nick Pomazak (NFL) – Nick’s pro football career peaked at the age of 17, his best season in a 6 year career working summers and weekends in the Chicago Bears equipment department back in the halcyon days of Da Coach. Now, he vents his frustration accumulated over a misspent youth of washing jockstraps by giving you uncomfortably prescient football information each and every week throughout the NFL season.

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs