New Lakers Coach

Luke Walton the new coach of the Los Angle Lakers

The Los Angles Lakers head coaching job was one of the most coveted jobs in the NBA, until the Lakers decided to hire the Warriors assistant Luke Walton as their new head coach. The Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said "He's one of the brightest young coaching minds in the game, and we feel fortunate that he'll be leading the on-court future of our team."  Kupchalk had a bold statement for a coach that has never coached on his own before, because when he was filling in for Steve Kerr he got to talk to him everyday about coaching.  The Lakers invested $25 million dollars over 5 years for Luke Walton to lead the Lakers hopefully to the promise land.  So when next year comes around Luke Walton is going to be the youngest coach in the league, but I believe he has a great mind for coaching, and if given the time he can lead the Lakers to good things.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2633705-luke-walton-to-lakers-latest-contract-details-comments-and-reaction

Free Tattoos

When you get a tattoo it can cost anywhere from $50 to way over $1,000 depending on what kind of tattoo you get.  The Sacramento Kings recently changed their logo to go with the new arena they are going to be moving into in the 2016-2017 season.  The Kings with this new logo decided to run a promotion for its fans, the Kings decided to offer their fans a free tattoo of the Kings new logo.  The Kings didn't expect the turnout they got for the free tattoos, the line was outside the door and around the curb before the tattoo place was even open.  So now the Kings logo is all over the arms, legs, back, and who knows where else the fans got the tattoos, so that was great branding and marketing by the Sacramento Kings.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2635926-sacramento-kings-will-pay-fans-to-get-tattoos-of-their-new-logo

Security Guard Challenges MLB All-Stars

Stanley Anderson in the Batting Cages

Many of us hit the batting cages and pretend we are like MLB All-Stars Bryce Harper or Mike Trout and could only dream about competing in the MLB.  Stanley Anderson believes he is that guy that could be like Harper or Trout,  the normal distance between the mound and home plate in 60 feet 6 inches well Stanley stands 22 to 17 feet from the pitching machine.  When Stanley stands that close to the pitching machine the ball travels at 266mph when he is standing 17 feet away from the machine.  Stanley called out MLB All-Stars: Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Miguel Cabrera to out hit him at that distance.  Who knows if the All-Stars will accept his challenge, but I know next time I'm at the batting cages I'll stand the normal 60 feet 6 inches away and enjoy the cages that way.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15311326/security-guard-challenges-mlb-all-stars-batting-cage

30 Year Old High School Baller

30 Year old Jonathan Nicola playing High School Basketball

Jonathan Nicola is 6'9" and 202 pounds and he is a dominant force on the high school basketball scene.  Jonathan has one big allegation facing him, and that us the fact that he might be a 30 year old playing high school basketball.  Jonathan has been posing as a 17 year old 11th grader at Catholic Central High School in Windsor, Ontario.  Well attending that Central Catholic High School Jonathan was living with his schools basketball coach through the Canada Homestay program for six months.  Jonathan was recently arrested for violating the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, it's not clear what Jonathan is being accused of, but he is going to have his hearing next week.  So Jonathan's second act as a high school basketball was cut short because he finally got caught for being a 30 year old high school basketball player.
 

Batting Gloves for Shoes

Josh's signed shoes he got back from Kike Hernandez

Kike Hernandez a utility man for the Los Angles Dodgers was asked for his batting gloves from a young fan named Josh.  Kike responded to the request by the young fan Josh by asking for the shoes off of his feet, so Josh took his shoes off and gave them to Kike.  Well big surprise the shoes didn't fit Kike's feet, so Kike ended up signing Josh's shoes and gave them back for Josh to keep.  With the MLB season being 162 games and players signing thousands of autographs during that time players have to find ways to relax and have fun with the fans, and Kike did just that.

Josh receiving Kike's batting glove in exchange for his shoes 

100 Dingers for Harper

Bryce Harper's Homerun Batflip

Bryce Harper is one of the MLB's superstars and he just reached his 100th career homerun only at the age of 23 years and 181 days old.  Harper was the 8th youngest player ever to reach that feat of 100 career homeruns this early in his career.  Harper's 100th career homerun was also his first career grand slam homerun, and that's hard to believe that it's only his first career grand slam with the amount of homeruns he's hit in his career.  The 7 players that beat harper to 100 career homeruns are: Mel Ott at 22 years and 132 days old, Eddie Matthews at 22 years and 197 days old, Alex Rodriguez at 23 years and 16 days old, Andruw Jones at 23 years and 63 days old, Miguel Cabrera at 23 years and 127 days old, and Johnny Bench at 23 years and 161 days old.  So Harper is in company with some elite Hall of Fame type of talent, which is a good sign he will continue to hit homeruns and have a Hall of Fame type career.

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/116688/bryce-harper-is-8th-youngest-to-reach-100-home-runs

"Story" Book Begining

Trevor hitting one of his 2 homeruns he hit versus the Padres Friday

Before this week if you asked anyone who Trevor Story was, they would have no clue who he is and let alone that he played professional baseball in the Colorado Rockies organization.  Trevor made the Colorado Rockies opening day lineup after a good spring training, but nobody could've predicted the way he started his major league career.  Story got his big league career off to a bang when he hit a homerun in his first major league at bat off an ace in Zach Greinke, but to follow up his first at bat  he homered again in his second at bat versus Greinke.  So that got peoples attention because this rookie nobody knew about got 2 homeruns off Zach Greinke in his major league debut.  Trevor wasn't done there, he hit one homerun in each of his next two games versus the Diamondbacks.  So coming into Fridays game versus the Padres he already had 4 homeruns, so you thought the Padres would learn how to pitch to Trevor.  That wasn't the "Story" Trevor ended up hitting two more homeruns versus the Padres on Friday, so Trevor has 6 homeruns through four games, so if he keeps this pace up he would his 243 homeruns this season.  We all know Trevor wont hit that many homeruns this season, but I wish him the best of luck on his MLB journey.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25548305/trevor-storys-plate-coverage-fueling-historic-power-display

Ballpark Food

Atlanta Braves and the Bugerizza

St. Louis Cardinals and the Hill Meatball Cone

Cleveland Indians and the Slider Dog

When going to a baseball game you usually buy a hotdog, bag of peanuts, and a soda to wash it all down.  Well in the past couple of years ballpark food has gone through some major changes with teams coming up with all new different and exciting food.  2016 was no different when it comes to teams coming out with new and crazy types of ballpark food for the upcoming season.  Some of the foods teams came out with this year are: the Atlanta Braves and their Burgerizza (20-ounce patty, five slices of cheddar with bacon, served between two 8-inch pepperoni pizzas), the St. Louis Cardinals and the Hill Meatball Cone (Four meatballs and marinara sauce, served in an Italian bread cone and topped with shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheese), and the Cleveland Indians with the Slider Dog (A hotdog covered with mac n cheese, bacon, and fruit loops).  These are just a couple of the crazy ballpark foods that teams have come up with for the 2016 season, I can only imagine some of the food teams will come up with for 2017.


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/01/2016s-craziest-new-mlb-stadium-foods.html

Kobe Signing a pair of shoes for Devin Booker

Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest basketball players of all-time, and this is his last season in the NBA.  So as you can expect this season hasn't been the same as the past 19 season, all boos Kobe received have now turned to cheers and thanks for being one of the best.  With this season being his last ever; games he has played in has been a sellouts, he is shaking hundreds of fans hands, and than after the games celebrities and opposing players lineup outside of the Lakers locker room looking to obtain a pair of signed Kobe sneakers.  Kobe Bryant has signed over 30 pairs of shoes thus far each with a personal message to whoever he is signing the shoes for.  Kobe has signed shoes for players like Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Tony Allen, and even Lebron James.  NBA athletes aren't the only people receiving a signed pair of Kobe shoes, Larry Fitzgerald received a pair of Kobe shoes with a personal message on them as well.  So for Kobe to keep up with all of these autographed shoe request he brings about 5 pairs of shoes to ever game to keep up with the request.  Congrats on a great career Kobe Bryant!

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15086829/nba-players-turn-fans-seeking-kobe-bryant-autographed-shoes

Snoop Dogg to the Hall

Hulk Hogan and Snoop Dogg at WWE Wrestle Mania

Snoop Dogg is mostly known for being a world famous rapper, but he also has a huge love for sports!  His son was a 4-Star recruit to the Pac 12 powerhouse UCLA, and along with his love of football he is a huge WWE fan.  Snoop Dogg is finally getting recognized for being a huge WWE fan by getting elected into the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame.  Snoop's connection to WWE started awhile ago with his cousin Diva Sasha Banks a former WWE wrestler.  Along with being cousins with a WWE wrestler Snoop has made appearances at several WWE events over the years, made guest appearances at Raw 31 with Bill Simons, and he also guest hosted a Raw episode back in 2009.  So congrats to Snoop Dogg on making the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2628308-snoop-dogg-to-be-inducted-into-2016-wwe-hall-of-fame

RG3 to the Land

Ever since Robert Griffin III won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2013 he has been on a downward trend with injures and constant coaching changes.  So what does a smart QB do when they hit rock bottom, they sign with the Cleveland Browns in hope that they can be the one to revive this franchise.  RG3 signed a 2-year deal worth $15 million dollars which included  a $3.5 million dollar signing bonus, and $6.75 million dollars guaranteed two years to RG3.  So with RG3 due to be the Browns 25th QB since 1999, we as Browns fans hope that means he will be lucky number 25 for the Browns!

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15058201/cleveland-browns-sign-robert-griffin-iii#

"Steph-on" Curry

Can you imagine how much bigger a shoe company Nike would be if they would've signed Stephen Curry instead of letting him sign with Under Armour?  Well Stephen Curry signed with Under Armour and is making a lot of money for himself and Under Armour.  Under Armour is the first three months after giving Curry a signature shoe made $154 million dollars.  So how did Nike really end up loosing Curry?  Well Nike should've doubled checked on how to pronounce Curry's first name, because they pronounced it Steph-on in stead of Steph-en.  Curry was used to that happen, so this didn't bug him to much, but what put the cherry on the sundae was when Nike accidently left Kevin Durant's name on a slide show that supposed to be for Curry.  So now for Nike all the can do is watch Curry dominate the shoe game and wonder what could've been.


http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/the-story-of-how-nike-lost-stephen-curry-is-unbelievable

Sadness in Cleveland

Siri is a helpful feature on the iPhone where you can ask it almost any question you can think of and it will come up with some sort of answer.  Now Siri is taking shots at Cleveland Browns fans, because when you ask Siri "Where is sadness," it takes you to a picture of FirstEnergy Stadium home of the Cleveland Browns. 

We get it as Browns fans that people are going to find this funny and make fun of Browns fans for this, but we don't let it phase us. Browns fans are used to being made fun of for the constant coaching changes, losing seasons, and the fact they can't even find a good QB.  So this is just another laughable moment for us as Browns fans.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14994878/sadness-cleveland-siri-finds-browns-home

Madness of March

Every year millions and millions of March Madness brackets are filled out in hope that you are the one who can fill out a perfect bracket.  The odds of filling out a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 QUINTRILLION, to put that in perspective you are more likely to hit 8 half-court shots in a row, or flip heads on a coin 30 times in a row.  So the real question is why do so many people try to get perfect brackets when the odds are so stacked against them.  People fill out the brackets in hope they are the one that has the perfect bracket and win the money, and go down in history as being that guy that has the perfect bracket.  Even though most of the world fail at the perfect bracket challenge they still have a lot on the line because most people create their own pools and bet money along with bragging rights.  USA Today estimates that about $9.2 Billion will be bet on in this March Madness tournament alone.  So even though the odds of getting a perfect bracket are not in your favor you can still win some money out of the bracket challenge.  I am willing to bet all of the money in my bank account that none of you guys will have a perfect bracket, so good luck to you all.

Pylon Camera

The NFL is hands down the most popular sport in America.  The NFL uses replays on so many of the plays to determine is it was a catch, fumble, in/out of bounds, or a touchdown or not.  So how can the NFL help the replay officials in New York to make the calls easier?  Well the NFL debuted the pylon camera this year to make plays on the goal line and the back of the end zones easier for referees to call.  A lot of time during the NFL games you see plays happen right on the goal line and the referees don't know if the ball crossed the goal line or not, and they don't have a good enough replay angle to make the call.  Now the NFL brought the pylon camera into play, this camera gives the replay officials the ability to see if the ball did or did not cross the goal line before the player was down or out of bounds.  This change the NFL is making is a change that is better for the game, this camera determines if it is a touchdown or not which could be the call that determine if a team wins or loses a game.  So unlike the robot umpire behind the plate for baseball, the pylon camera for football is a change that is needed for the game and makes it better.

Robot Umpires

Umpires are the most scrutinized people in baseball, so why don't we just eliminate them completely?  Baseball has expanded replay to help the base umpires make the correct out or safe call, fair or foul ball, and homerun or not.  We can't go to replay to review a strike or ball call though, so the Pacific Baseball Association has a robotic strike zone for each player with an umpire making the call based on what the robot calls.  This is so that players know a strike is a strike and a ball is a ball, so now the players can't argue the strike or ball calls.  The idea of a robot calling balls or strikes is the worst idea ever!  What is a sport without human error, human error is a part of every sport and it's what makes the sports interesting.  Take for example Jim Joyce who blew Armando Galarraga's perfect game for the Tigers,  of course the Tigers were upset and furious with Jim Joyce, but its a part of the game and human error is what makes it special.  So taking out behind the plate umpires ruins the game, and gives an obvious advantage to the pitchers which they don't even need in this day and age with the ability to throw 100mph pitches.  So lets keep the replay system we already have in baseball and keep the human error the behind the plate umpires bring to the game.

Introduction About Me

My name is Bryce Baxter, and I am a freshman at Slippery Rock University.  I am majoring in Sports Management with no declared minor at this point.  I'm from a the small town of Albion, PA.  and as long as I can remember I always had a love for sports.  Sports have always been a big part of my life from playing them, to being a ref/umpire, and even in some cases coaching a sports team.  When it comes to rooting for pro sports teams I only root for Cleveland based teams, I know you're thinking this man must be an idiot for liking Cleveland sports teams, and it might actually be true.  My life wasn't all about sports, growing up I grew up on a large dairy farm so when I wasn't doing different activities with sports, I was working on the farm or showing cows.  On the farm no two days were the same, one day I could be plowing the fields and the next I could be bailing hay, so everyday was different and exciting on the farm.  So my path is different just like everyone else's in life, but I am very happy to be where I am at in my life right now.