It's back

You know the business end of the season is here, when the white Nike ball comes back out of the closet. For the last couple of months EPL teams have been kicking around a ball that looks like a lemon. Now with the title race coming down to the wire, its good to the see the traditional white ball back.

Rafa is a Roll and gone by Easter

Wow where do you start with this one, Rafa as a roll, the Special One going gangsta, and Sven is late. This might be one of the best ones of the series .

More awards than points

Mr. Basketball of Michigan, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Naismith College Player of the Year, John R. Wooden Award, NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player, and ACC Athlete of the Year those are all of the awards that Shane Battier has collected during his time. With awards like that he should be a superstar, but instead he is averaging under 10 points a game. That is the reason that Battier has been selected as the next former Duke player in Only Time Will Tell's ongoing series on Duke Players that Stink in the NBA. At least he is a good person.

I do not care if you have a credit card deal, Mike

This sums up the spat between Coach K and Good Ole Roy over injuries. I'm glad that Coach K looks like a gay super hero. Thanks to AOL Fanzone for alerting everyone to this.

Leeds played a huge role in the Carling Cup Final.

Some where the Ellen Road faithful must have been sick on Sunday afternoon. A look at Tottenham's key players in the Carling Cup Final against Chelski shows one thing: the spine of the team was connected to last great period in Leeds United History.

Robbie Keane called the Ellen Road home from 2000 to 2003 and scored 13 goals for the club. Jonathan Woodgate played a104 games for Leeds scoring five goals. Woodgate scored the winning goal for Spurs in extra time giving him his first major honor.

Every time you turned around Aaron Lennon was creating trouble for the Chelski defenders. Just think he was sold to Leeds for a million pounds, when Leeds first started to need money.

Just think if Peter Ridsdale had not sold his soul for playing in the Champions League, that might haven been Leeds walking up the steps to the get the Carling Cup, hey they did have enough former players play a key roll in the game.

Europe's most popular

Zenit St. Petersburgh (above), ZSKA Moscow, and Spartak Moscow are all more popular in Europe then Spurs and Atheltico Madrid, well that is the story that is being told by a recent report released by SPORT+MARKT. It’s a story that I’m very surprised to read.

The report interviewed football fans from all over Europe and found the following clubs to be the most popular clubs:

Barcelona CF
Real Madrid
Manchester United
Arsenal London
AC Milan
FC Bayern Munich
Chelsea FC
Liverpool FC
Juventus Turin
Zenit St. Petersburgh
FC Spartak Moscow
Inter Milan
Olympique Lyonnais
Olympique Marseille
ZSKA Moscow
Wisa Kraków
Ajax Amsterdam
Galatasaray Istanbul
AS Roma
Werder Bremen

A couple of things stand out to me in this report, the number of Eastern European teams that are on the list. As an American, its hard to realize the popularity of soccer teams in the ole Eastern Block and the amount of money that put into the game, which is growing each year. Two teams that I was surprised to see not included in the list was both Celtic and Rangers., I guess outside of Scotland no one cares about the Old Firm.

The Legend

Few mascots have had to deal with the issues that Youppi has had to deal with. Some think that he is gay, while for years he was left team less after his team bolted for another city. To make things worst, Youppi was also the butt of many jokes, few people respected him as one of the great baseball mascots.

After the Expos, left he started working for the Montreal Canadians, according to the some reports the deal between the Expos and Canadians was six figures. But something was not right, he should have made the trip to the Washington, it would have been great to see him in our nation’s capital.

When you talk about great mascots few people mention the big orange mess that was Youppi, which is why he was selected as next member of the Only Time Will Tell Mascot Madness group. Just remember he is one of three mascots in the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is more then can be said about Mr. Met.

Spurs Love their Carling Cup

This video show how much Spurs fans love their Carling Cup victory over Chelski, Sunday afternoon. Just check out the Spurs fans chanting at the Avie Grant as he walks back to the field, I'm sure that was the last name that he wanted to hear yesterday.

The new Number 1

For the first time in their history Tennessee will be the number 1 ranked team in college basketball. Last night the Vols defeated former number 1 Memphis to take their spot at the top of the game.

Here is how papers in the Volunteer state covered the so called "Game of the Year.''

The Tennessean (Nashville)

The Knoxville News Sentinel (Knoxville)

The Memphis Commercial Appeal