Soccer club rivalries

Real Madrid vs Barca

The rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, in Spain, is generally considered to be the biggest in football, and is similar in context to Celtic – Rangers. From the start the clubs were seen as representatives of two rival regions in Spain, Catalonia and Castile respectively, as well as the two cities themselves. In the 1950s, the rivalry was intensified further when the clubs disputed the signing of Alfredo Di Stéfano, who finally played for Real Madrid and was key in the subsequent success achieved by the club.

As Barcelona and Real Madrid are the two biggest, and most successful, clubs in Spain, the rivalry impacts the league championship on an almost annual basis. The flash-points of this rivalry are the twice-a-season clásicos, which draw vast audiences from around the world. Real has won

Airplane disasters involving sports teams

Marshall University Football Team

1970

The year 1970 was to prove a grim year for college football program travel. Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered commercial jet flight from Kinston, North Carolina, to Ceredo, West Virginia. At 7:35 pm on November 14, 1970, the aircraft crashed into a hill just short of the airport, killing all 75 people on board. The plane was carrying 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football squad, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, four flight crew members, and one employee of the charter company. The team was returning home after a 17–14 loss against the East Carolina Pirates. At the time, Marshall’s athletic teams rarely traveled by plane, with most away games within easy driving distance of the campus. The team

Worst sports moments

Dave Dravecky

To survive cancer is a miraculous event. To return to your job on national television after surviving cancer is something else entirely. Dave Dravecky was an outstanding pitcher for the San Francisco Giants when doctors discovered a tumor on his arm. He had it removed and, after recovery time, he appeared to be healthy again. After some rehab he seemed ready to return to the mound, and did so on August 10, 1989. He pitched 8 solid innings and got the win in what appeared to be the feel good story for every baseball fan. In his second start a few days later, Dravecky went five innings until, in the sixth, his humerus bone snapped in half while throwing a

World's worst boxing moments

Death of Duk Koo Kim 

A superstar in South Korea, Kim had risen all the way to the number one lightweight contender and earned a world title shot against the famed Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, on November 13, 1982. The bout was extremely brutal, especially for Kim, who had begun to wear down in the latter rounds after absorbing tremendous punishment from the champion. In the early part of the 14th round, Mancini hit Kim with a crushing right hand that caused him to fly toward the ropes and hit his head on the canvas.

Kim managed to rise but the fight was stopped by the referee. Minutes later Duk Koo Kim collapsed into a coma and was carried out of the ring and taken directly to the hospital.

Yogi Berra Quotes

Lawrence Peter Berra played Major League Baseball for 19 years for the New York Yankees. He played on 10 World Series Championship teams, is a MLB Hall of Famer and has some awe-inspiring stats. His name is consistently brought up as one of the best catchers in baseball history, and he was voted to the Team of the Century in 1999.

Amazing accomplishments aside, they probably aren’t how you know Lawrence. You know him as Yogi, a nickname given to him by a friend who likened his cross-legged sitting to a yogi. Yogi is famous for his fractured English, malapropisms and sometimes nonsensical quotes. He’s closing in on 86, and there seems to be no end to his fan’s love for him.

In honor of the beginning of the US baseball season, here are 25 Yogi Berra quotes that will make you shake your head and smile. Naturally, add your favorites in the comments, there are many more out there!

Quotes 1-5

1. “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

2. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”

3. “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Outdoor Gym Class

Gym class can be both a beautiful and dreadful thing: beautiful in its celebration of health, competition and physical fitness, dreadful in its Darwinian grading system, embarrassing requirements (come on, even real gym locker rooms are outfitted with private shower stalls), and failure to inform you correctly. Yes, gym class is prone to frequent misinformation, such as the fact it’s okay for a real teacher to be hungover on the job, or that a majority of the sports, games and activities that are played in gym class don’t really have a place outside of grade school. At least in any conventional sense.

For instance, there is no jump rope league, and the closest thing to lacrosse having a place in our day-today lives is using a pooper scooper to pick up some dog crap, followed by a wrist-guided flick into a trash bag. Sure there are informal organizations and such but there are only a handful of major sports that are given any serious or passionate consideration, and they are so for being national past times. Here we’ll take a look at some past times that never end up being carried into the present.

Handball

AKA “gatorball,” “Z-Ball,” etc. This game went by many names, depending on your gym teacher, which shows the games lack of universality. Handball, was essentially soccer, but with the ability to kick the the ball up into your own hands, or someone else’s, and pass the ball around as if

Great athletes who never won the big one

Jimmy White

Snooker

Never won: World Championship

Nicknamed the ‘People’s Champion’, Jimmy is one of the most popular snooker players in the history of the sport. The left hander was known for his attacking style of play that enticed fans. He made it to an incredible six World Championship finals, including 5 in a row between 1990-94, but lost on every occasion. Four of those defeats were at the hands of Stephen Hendry, the most successful snooker player of all time. His most agonizing defeat came in 1994, in the last of his six finals. Needing to pot just a few more balls in the final frame of the match, he missed a routine black off the spot, allowing Hendry an opportunity to steal an 18-17 victory. Some will say that

Baseball's worst moments

George Steinbrenner

Steinbrenner was the majority owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 to his death in 2010 at the age of 80. During those 37 years, he made the players, coaches, assistant managers, and fans hate his guts. His nickname was “the Boss” which, by the bye, was also Josef Stalin’s nickname among other Soviets.

Among his more ridiculous tyrannies was forcing the players to shave their beards and keep their hair cut military-style. This was during the 70s and 80s, when The Big Hair was in. Players were allowed very thin mustaches if they wanted. He once told coach Yogi Berra to order Goose

Haircuts featuring Michael Jordan

Do you know the latest hair style trends and want to cut your hair? Then visit Joe Barber of San Antonio based barber shop Razor Sharp Cutz. The artist barber Joe can shave haircuts featuring Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and 
even George Lopez on the back of your head with a reasonable price of $75.

Wonderful Triathlon sport

A triathlon sport is about endurance, about correct timing of your speed and proper fueling of your body. Like all the endurance sports, its about your motivation and about excellent training and preparation all over the years. The most famous triathlon is the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. This year will take place on October 13, 2012. The last year winner wasAlexander Craig with the total time 08:03:56 – 2.4 mile (3.8 km) swim for 51:56, 112 mile (180 km) bike ride for 4:24:05 and finally marathon (26.2 mile/42 195 m) for 2:44:03. So do you think that you can do it? Think twice;)

Bobby Petrino went against university

Bobby Petrino was so desperate to have his mistress Jessica Dorrell as part of his football staff he went around University of Arkansas protocol to get her hired, according to documents obtained by SI.com

Petrino requested a waiver to go around the school's affirmative action policy requiring every job opening to be posted for at least 30 days before interviews can begin, the report states.

Here's what SI.com's Freedom of Information Act request revealed:

The job opening for a football player development coordinator was posted March 4.

An Alabama running back

With less than two weeks to go until the 2012 NFL Draft, you would understand if Trent Richardson was declining all requests in preparation for the biggest night of his career.

But even though most project Richardson as a top-five pick, and with millions of dollars on the line, Richardson will take one night off to escort a young lady with Leukemia to her senior prom.

Shon Coleman, a senior at Hueytown High School in Alabama, talks about how she was diagnosed with Leukemia as a junior and was unable to attend her junior prom and was without a date for her senior prom.

That's when her uncle, who apparently has some connections at the University of Alabama, asked around to see if anybody would be interested, and Trent Richardson accepted the offer.

Good for you Mr. Richardson, good for you.

Famous sporting heroes

It’s a common fact, although some will deny it, that most people favor their own nation, or even continent, sometimes to the extreme. America for example, awards Oscar, Grammy and Emmy trophies to mainly Americans, yet they claim that these are international awards.

One would expect this to only apply in the entertainment industry, however this is also the case in the sporting world. For example, Football, which is, without a doubt, the most popular international sport, completely gets ignored by the US, due to America’s lack of achievements (this also applies to Rugby, Cricket, Formula 1 and many other international sports).

Football giants such as Diego Maradona, George Best, Zinedine Zidane, Michel Platini and Lev Yashin, might be famous worldwide, but they are widely unknown in the US. Likewise, American football is only known mainly in America (hence the name!), the vast majority of the players are American, yet they are known in the US, as “world champions.” The same could also be said for baseball, even when other nations beat the US, for example during the Olympics (Japan, Korea, and Cuba beat the US regularly), yet American national champions are still known as world champions… slightly ironic!

Of course, there are many American global greats such as Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Michael Jordan, Jim Thorpe, Rocky Marciano, Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Pete Sampras, Jesse Owens, Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Larry Bird, Lance Armstrong, Oscar De La Hoya, Greg Louganis, just to name few, but one does wonder when he sees names (mainly in the American media) such as Tom Brady, Reggie Bush, Jerry Rice, Derek Jeter and many more, being labelled as “the best in the world” if that really is a valid title. How can you be the best in the entire world, when you are competing in a sport that is predominantly played by one nation?

Note – there are already many lists about all time great legends from soccer, rugby, cricket and F1, so for the purpose of this list, these sports have been excluded. Special thanks to Katie the “Ainglish,” without her help, this list wouldn’t be half as good.

“Iron” Mike Zambidis

World's best boxing moves

There is a lot to learn about the sweet science if you want to be a part of the fistic world. If you are serious about the art of pugilism, a boxing trainer is highly recommended as you learn the basics and improve your technique as time flies. This is a list comprising of some of those moves you may hear about as you get into boxing, or you already know them by heart as I’m sure is the case with consummate boxing fans.

The Straight

Not to be confused with a jab, a straight is a power shot. You deliver it by crossing over your dominant hand to deliver the blow, and hence it’s also called the “cross.” For orthodox fighters who have a left foot forward stance, the left hand is best used for jabbing, with the right hand for a straight shot. It’s vice-versa for southpaw fighters, who have a right foot forward stance. While

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has never been one to shy away from taking a shot at rival schools and coaches. Ole Ball Coach was up to his old tricks.

When asked about having South Carolina's game against Georgia moved to later in the year, Spurrier explained why he was against the move...

"I don't know. I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended."

And later, he took a shot at the success Nick Saban has enjoyed at Alabama, and even Kentucky's John Calipari gets caught in the cross-fire...

"He's got a nice little gig going, a little bit like (John) Calipari. He tells guys, 'Hey, three years from now, you're going to be a first-round pick and go.' If he wants to be the greatest coach or one of the greatest coaches in college football, to me, he has to go somewhere besides Alabama and win, because they've always won there at Alabama."

Former girl friend Veena Malik

Veena Malik Former model and ex girl friend of Mohammad Asif has revealed the hidden secret that Asif is a ‘seriel match fixer. In a news channel she fuelled the fire of match fixing scandal when Pakistani players are already in the center stage of the biggest scandal in cricket history.

She said Asif was was telling that Pakistan will not win a series until 2010.

Asif gave bribe to an indian doctor at IPL during his dope test. Once he told “stop praying…..we will not win a single match during the tour to Australia”.

“He went to Bangkok to meet some bookmakers within a notice of 24 hours. This is when we were in a relationship. The conversation on the phone before the tour of Australia was specifically about fixing.”

Indian bookie’s incoming SMS: Asif used to send texts to Dhiraj Dixit (a photo journalist) from his servant’s numbers.

Conversation: Dhiraj says: “I can give you 40,000 dollars for this deal. Asif says: “No I want 200,000 dollars.” Dhiraj says: I would like some more team members for this deal.”

She also adds: “After this Asif disappeared for a day. After some checks I found out he had gone to Bangkok and returned within 24 hours. Upon returning and finding out that I had discovered something, Asif became a little shady and we started having fights.”.

Lastly Veena Malik told that she has enough evidences to testify.

Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson

Both Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson revealed that during the last year tour of England they were approached by the same Mumbai Gangster-suspected fixer who tried to entrap Shane Watson and wicket keeper Brad Haddin. The Confirmation came just after Watson and Haddin came out first time that they were approached by a Mumbai Gangster with links to illegal bookmakers.

Lee, Watson and Johnson were approached in the bar of the team’s hotel in West London while Haddin was contacted in the hotel room in the night at around 11pm.

Marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie

Haile Gebrselassie was born in Ethiopia on April 18, 1973. He grow up in family of ten children. What is the best on his life story and what every marathon runner know, is that he everyday ran 10 km to school with books in his hand and evenings runned back the same distance long. That has still impact on his left hand movement technique. But be honest, when I would have at least 50% of such pose running technique like he has, I would be overall happy.

Because Haile won so many championships, I will mention just the most impressive ones. If you preffer Olympic games gold medals, than he won two on 10000m long distance run – in Atlanta (1996) and in Sydney (2000).

If you preffer world records than all you have to remember is the following: Year 2008 – Berlin Marathon and magic time: 2:03:59.

That is half of mine time. But that is good news, I have a lot of space for improvement;)

Haile annouced retirement after New York City Marathon in 2010 because of problems with his knee. I assume that he has reconsidered his opinion and we can meet him on Vienna City Marathon 2011 on 21.1K (I am already training to catch him;) and on 2012 London Olympics. Keep running.

Fitness running

If you search the net for any kind of images you will match many results. But to find good image of a running girl that is a magic. So girls, please, its spring outside (on my side of globe), go out and run. I know that you like fitness, don’t be ashamed and run.

Best golf women player

Yani Tseng is a professional golf player which won the 2011 LPGA Championship. LPGA meansLadies Professional Golf Association. Yani Tseng won this championship in 2008 too. Yani Tseng is from Taiwan and is the youngest golf player (born in 1989) which won 5 major championships and she is ranked as the number one in the Women’s World Golf Rankings chart. She is currently living in Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida. With Yani Tseng talent even Tiger Woodswould look like amateur golf player.

The three-time major champion Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova’s slow start almost turned into an early exit at the U.S. Open.

The three-time major champion picked up her game in time to avoid an upset against 102nd-ranked Heather Watson, rallying for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory Monday in the opening round.

After being thoroughly outplayed in the first set, third-seeded Sharapova let a 4-1 lead in the second slip, as well. She shored things up at 5-all in the second to pull out that set. She also led 4-1 in the third, but gave back a break. After that, Sharapova broke right back then served out her match against the 19-year-old Brit, who was making her first appearance in the main draw at Flushing Meadows.

Sharapova improved to 12-0 this year in third sets.

“In the end, that’s kind of where it counts,” she said after a match that lasted 2 hours, 34 minutes. “No matter how tired or whether you’re playing your best tennis or sometimes your worst, you keep fighting for it.”

Not showing the same kind of fight was fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who became the first reigning Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open. She made 52 unforced errors in a 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss to Alexandra Dulgheru and has won only two matches since hoisting the trophy at the All-England Club last month.

“After I made some mistakes, I was mentally down,” Kvitova said.

Last year’s U.S. Open and Wimbledon runner-up, second-seeded Vera Zvonareva, defeated Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France, 6-3, 6-0.

Other women’s winners included No. 13 Peng Shuai, No. 19 Julia Goerges and No. 27 Lucie Safarova.

But Sharapova-Watson was the best match of the afternoon.

With Watson nimbly covering a court that players say is playing slower than usual this year, Sharapova had to fight, and the match turned into a showdown of styles — the Russian’s punishing, aggressive baseline game vs. Watson’s grinding, retrieving relentlessness. The final stats were no surprise: Sharapova finished with 41 winners and 58 unforced errors, compared to nine winners and 30 unforced errors for her opponent.

“There’s no doubt that she’s a great up-and-coming player who showed some of her best tennis today,” Sharapova said. “She played really smart in the first. I was making too many errors. Consistency at the end helped me get through the match.”

The early headliner for the men was American Mardy Fish, who at No. 8 is the highest-ranked U.S. player in the tournament.

Fish lived up to his billing, opening his stay at Flushing Meadows with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tobias Kamke of Germany.

Notable deaths

In August we said farewell to many noteworthy individuals, including a controversial reality show husband and a concentration camp survivor. Read on to learn more about them and the others who passed away this month.

Stetson Kennedy

1916-2011

A human rights activist, Stetson Kennedy is best known for infiltrating a well-known racist group and authoring a book about what he witnessed. Kennedy’s legacy is also left behind in the folklore group he founded.

Esther Gordy Edwards

1920-2011

Edwards transformed an old recording studio into a museum as a way of preserving the Motown sound. Edwards’ nickname says it all about how much she meant to the Motown music community.

Nick Ashford

1942-2011

With his wife, Nick Ashford wrote and produced several hit songs, including this Marvin Gaye hit. Ashford and his wife were also successful as performers themselves and had a hit with their song “Solid”.

Michael Showers

1966-2011

Known for his role in a hit HBO show and for his appearances in “Breaking Bad, ” “I Love You Phillip Morris” and a vampire TV show, Michael Showers’ untimely death shocked fans of his work.

Mike Flanagan

1951-2011

A star baseball player (what position?) for this team from the’ 70s through the early ’90s, Flanagan was known for his incredible talent (what prestigious award did he win?) as well as for his quick wit.

Jerry Leiber

1933-2011

With his songwriting partner, Jerry Leiber wrote many rock ”n’ roll hits, including “Stand by Me” and this classic Elvis Presley song. Leiber was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Contestants on this TV show performed his songs for one episode.

Scotty Robertson

1930-2011

Throughout his life as an NBA coach, Robertson head-coached the New Orleans Jazz, the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons. He went on to be assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns, the Miami Heat, the Indiana Pacers and this Texas team.

Pete Pihos

1923-2011

A native of this holiday destination, Pihos was an All-American football player at this university. Pihos went on to play in the NFL for this team from 1947 to 1955. Pihos died from this degenerative disease, which was the focus of a documentary film produced by his daughter.

Russell Armstrong

1964-2011

Russell Armstrong was an investment banker and venture capitalist in this California city. He is known for being the estranged husband of a reality show cast member, and he appeared on the Bravo show several times.

Albert Brown

1905-2011

Albert Brown was the oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March. A former dentist, Brown and 78,000 other prisoners of war were forced to walk for dozens of miles a trek that killed more than 11,000. During the war, Brown also survived malaria, dengue fever and a broken neck.

Ernie Johnson

1924-2011

Ernie Johnson was a Major League Baseball player in the ’40s and ’50s. He played for the Boston Braves, the Milwaukee Braves and the Baltimore Orioles. Johnson later became a commentator for the Atlanta Braves, working with his son.

Zachery Tims

1969-2011

A co-pastor of this church  and a televangelist commonly appearing on this TV program, Zachery Tims died nearly four years after he publicly asked for forgiveness for his extramarital affairs.

Jani Lane

1964-2011

The lead singer of -glam band Warrant, Jani Lane wrote six top 40 singles. Lane was also a cast member on this reality show.

Ray Anderson

1934-2011

Ray Anderson was a successful entrepreneur and the founder of Interface. He was also known as an outspoken advocate for industrial sustainability.

Mike Barrett

1943-2011

Mike Barrett was a basketball player for the 1968 U.S. Olympic basketball team. He also played professionally for this basketball organization.

Mark Hatfield

1922-2011

Mark Hatfield was a prominent politician in Oregon, serving 30 years as a U.S. senator and later elected Oregon’s secretary of state and then governor. Several Oregon buildings that have been named in his honor, including the Mark O. Hatfield Library at his alma mater university and the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in this “Rose City.”

Charles Wyly

1933-2011

With his brother, Charles Wyly founded Michaels Stores. Wyly is also known for his large contributions to public art projects in this Texas town.

Hugh Carey

1919-2011

Hugh Carey was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 13 years before he was elected this state’s 51st governor. In addition to his work as a politician, Carey was an attorney who earned his law degree from this university.

Nancy Wake

1912-2011

A British agent during this war, Nancy Wake was a highly decorated servicewoman in the Allied forces and was given the United States Medal of Freedom as well as several other awards from Britain, Australia, France and her home country.