Fun with Facebook: The Sky Sports Females

Some people view social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace as a pain, but they can be great fun for sports fan. When large groups of people get together crazy groups usually form and on Facebook that is not different. During the next couple of months, Only Time Will Tell will look at some of the best Facebook Group that are related to sports. Our first group is the ladies of Sky Sports.

Here are some of the best groups on Facebooks about the Sky Sports ladies:

• Sky Sports Ladies Appreciation Group: Its a group dedicated to all of the great women of Sky Sports. From Georgie Thompson to Millie Clode.
• Georgie Thompson (right): The Reason that We Watch Sky Sports: ""Its not just the looks but that really sexy voice and the fact that she knows absolutely everything about the beautiful game!!,'' according to the group description. The group has 1,790.
• Admit it, we'd all love to bang a female Sky Sports presenter: Ya that is the group. ""Those of you red blooded male football lovers who watch Sky Sports news all wonder how the hell they manage to find gorgeous beauties such as Georgie Thompson to appear on their screens. Women who would blatantly be completely foxes in bed but would also chat with you during the post shag fag about the football score and not about how quickly you came.'' according to the group description. The group has 1,677.
• Di Stewart makes Sky Sports Worth Watching: ""Good looking, intelligent and a great smile. An ideal woman for any man. While there may be others on sky sports news that are fit, ( e.g. Georgie Thomson) none come close to Di,'' according to the group description.
• The Campaign to create a Sky Sports news hunnies calendar: ""there too tasty for TV and need there own calendar! so lets do it! ,'' according to the description of the group. Those words say it all.

Check back over the next couple of months for more fun with sports related groups on Facebook

The Gods of the Ball

During the last 15 years, four Brazilians have show their sensational skills wearing the famous blue and red shirts of Barcelona. Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, and Romario have all been stars at the Nou Camp. Here are some of the highlights of the four.

Ronaldinho

Ronaldo

Rivaldo

Romario

A compilation of Romario, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo.

An Ode To Packer's Points

For more then two and half decades the first Monday of April could mean only one thing Jim Nantz and Billy Packer and come that date this year that will not be case. CBS has decided to drop the aging Packer for Clark Kellogg for their coverage of college basketball.

As people in the media continue to talk about all of the negatives things that Packer has said like:

• Calling then Georgetown star guard Allen Iverson a "Tough Monkey."
• Having a fight with 2004 St. Joe's team
• Going after mid-majors for the last two decades.
  

But I will be one of the few people that will miss Nantz asking Packer for his Packer's Points. I know some hate him and for good reason, he is a tough person to enjoy, but for some of us who have just broken into our early 30's Packer was the voice of the tournament.

"They won it on the Dunk,'' was Packer famous words to end the N.C. State vs. Houston final in '83 and after Arizona forward Miles Simon carried his Wildcats to the title Packer said: "Simons says....Championship.''

While Kellogg will bring a young hip voice to the final four, lets not forget Packer and some of his memorable moments.

The season will soon be here

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The unofficial kick off of the English soccer season will soon be here, the FA Community Shield. United take the first step in their quest to win seven trophies this season.

Large and not in charge

Sports contracts say a variety of things and St. Patrick's Athletic midfielder Michael Keane found that out. Keane contract was terminated for being too fat, yes too fat.

Keane received a letter from the club earlier this year instructing him to lose weight and was given a target to aim towards. Failing to meet that goal was the reason offered for his dismissal. In his defence, the player will argue that he hasn't missed a training session during his time with the club,'' according to story Friday in the Independent.

Maybe Chelski can include this provision in Fat Franks new contract.

Professional Tailgating: It's time for the Rodeo

While many in the sports community were enjoying the final couple of baseball games before the all star break, the Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew made their annual summer trip to the Cowtown Rodeo, yes that is correct the rodeo.
Who doesn't love a creepy rodeo clown.

The parade of cowboys is always a special at event at the rodeo.

No cowboy will mess with the official.

Mr. Cowboy gets ready for the steer wrestling

Videos of the fun of barrel racing and bull riding are located here . Full photos of the gangs trip can be found here.

The Spanish Pistol Pete

With the 2008 NBA Draft now a couple of weeks behind us, its time to look forward to next years draft and one man, Ricky Rubio. In Spain, he is know as the Spanish Pistol Pete and come next June he might be know as the number 1 draft pick in the NBA Draft. The world will learn about him during the Olympics.

Scouts love his ability to create his own shot and his passing ability.

Spanish feature on him.

Could Rubio be the best player ever to come on Spain, it might just happen.

Rutgers Football Newest Fan!

The Rutgers Football has a new fan and it's no other then Manchester United own Wayne Rooney. Who would have ever thought that the soccer star would be spotted walking around the Manchester area with a Rutgers hat on top of his ginger head (below).
When Greg Schiano took over Rutgers in 2001 little did he know that the "State of Rutgers" would include the greatest soccer team in the world. I guess Rutgers is starting to go world wide.

What I did on my summer vacation

After the end of the season, many United Players that were not involved in Euro 2008, mostly the English players, went on holiday and they spent it in many different ways.

Rio Ferdinand spent part of his summer in Africa learning about the cultural and dress.

After finishing up what was a disappointing Euro 2008, Ronaldo and all of his Real Madrid rumors spent sometime on the beach and in the water. Check out his classic form getting on this float.

While The Rooney got married and hung out with such stars as LeBron James.

The first day back at Carrington Training Centre, Monday, must have been a blast for the players as they swapped stories about what they did over the summer.

Things are bad when a Guzman is your only All Star

Major League Baseball recently announced its 2008 All Star selection and you know your team, the Washington Nationals, are terrible when your only representatives is Christian Guzman, yes the same Guzman that the Twins did not want a couple of years ago and we overpaid for.

This is how bad the Nationals are at this point, our only representatives is a defense first short stop with a terrible contract, four years 16 million signed in 2005.

I know that he is a having a good year, .316 average with five home runs and 29 RBI, but guess what is career average is: a very respectable .268, yes .268. Last year Guzman was so bad that some Nationals fans were even thinking maybe the Nationals should just buy out his contract and yes he is our representative for the All Star Game this year. Wow I am proud, can you feel my happiness.

As a Nationals fan there is really nowhere to turn at this point, maybe beer, but I turn to that enough. The major league team is an embarrassment and all though I like what they have done over in the last couple of drafts, hope is at least a couple of years away.

Things are so bad this year that we are paying Jose Vidro $ 2.5 million and Rob Mackowiak $1.5 million, yes the same Mackowiak that has a career average of .259.

At least someone gets it

Sometimes American sportswriters do not get it, but at least one of them does: PTI co-host Mike Wilbon

During Monday shows Wilbon and co-host Bob Ryan were talking about their top five moments in sports during the last year. All of the regular moments were talked about including the Super Bowl, Final Four, and the events Sunday at The All England Club.

But Wilbon shocked many watching by saying how one of his moments came from the drama of Euro 2008. Wilbon talked about how the Turks scoring 3 goals in 15 minutes to defeat Czech Republic in Euro 2008 was one of his favorites of the year.

It's great to see an American writer finally talk about the positives of the beautiful game, well done Mike.

It's good to be Spanish

Last Sunday Spain celebrated its win in Euro 2008 and yesterday they celebrated as their favorite tennis player Rafael Nadal beat five time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer in an epic five set battle.

Here is how the papers around Europe covered the action at All England Club.

The Daily Telegraph (UK)

El Mundo (Spain)

Granada Hoy (Spain)

Families should just shut up

Sometimes athletes keep their families to close to them and with the two biggest sports stories of the summer season that is no different. During the last couple of weeks the families of former Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre and Manchester United's Ronaldo have kept their gums from flapping about both players situations.

Rumors have come out during the last week or so that Favre wants to come back to lead the Packers, while Ronaldo has been rumored to leave the European Champions and want a move to Real Madrid, since the start of the summer.

And during the course of the last couple of days family members of each have had their say.

Scott Favre, Brett's brother, told a local TV station that his brother is ready to return.

"There's no doubt he can play," Scott Favre told WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee. "He's in good shape, he's working out, we know he can still play, he's healthy, so, if he did, it wouldn't surprise me."

Then it was Brett's mother chance to voices her opinion on her son's relationship with his former team.

"He's felt like that for the last couple of years, that the Packers didn't really want him back," Bonita Favre told WITI. "But nothing's been said. You know it's just been bits and pieces throughout the last couple of years, things that would come up, and it just didn't seem like they went out of their way to keep him. It was kind of like, 'You're done.'"

On the other side of the pond, Ronaldo family is also making their voices heard on his possible move to Real Madrid.

"Cristiano wants to keep playing at Manchester United," Ronaldo's sister, Elma Aveiro (pictured right with her brother), told the Sun. "Real Madrid keep making very strong advances for him. There is a lot of speculation in the newspapers all the time about where he will go and what he is doing but we know who he really is and what he is really up to. He wants to stay at United."

It's good to be part of a close family but sometimes families should really just keep their mouths shuts.

2008 -2009 in Jerseys: Manchester United

With Manchester United getting ready to report for preseason training in a couple of days, United have released their kits for the upcoming season. The home one will be a traditional red, which will number change. All of the jerseys will have the EPL winners patch on it.

The away one will be white with blue outlines (below).

United have also introduced a blue third shirt that will honor their win in the Champions League in 1968. Around the club badge it says, “May 29th 1968″ and “40th Anniversary” which commemorates the 1968 European cup win over Benfica.
Overall I think that both new jerseys are not that bad and better then some other premier league jerseys.

UEFA makes another mistakes

While one of the greatest European Championships just wrapped up, UEFA is doing their best to make sure the next couples are a disaster. The executive committees of soccer’s European governing body have decided to expand the field from 16 to 24 teams by the 2018 event. By doing this UEFA is going to water down the tournament. The things that make the tournament great is that there are no lite weights, every game counts. Most of the games in the tournament are between top 10 teams in the world, which is something that the World Cup can not even say.

By increasing the number of teams it will devalue the group stages. No more groups of death like Group C this years and lesser teams that should not be at the big show will be there, like most notably England.

Part of the joy of tournaments like the Euros and the World Cup is the qualification process, during every major tournament there is a major country that does not qualify and by increasing the teams you are limiting that chance. So please Mr. Frog do not increase the teams.

Mascot Madness: Those Crazy Italians

Serie A is a great league, but it might have one of the worst collections of mascots in the world. Just check out the girl one.

Finally, Finally

After spending a week on Holiday in Curacao, it's time to get back to work.

The Spanish showed their true class in their finals win over Germany in Euro 2008. Could this be the win that final gets the red and yellow rolling for good. Believe me they were the best team during the month long tournament.

Here is how the newspapers covered the event.

Diario de Burgos (Spain)

La Vanguardia (Spain)

Malaga Hoy (Spain)

Neue Westfalische (Germany)

Euro 2008: Team of the Group Stage

With the Euro group stages ended, here is a look at the team of the group stages:

Goalie: Giggi Buffon, Italy
Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Spain
Defenders: Pepe, Portugal
Defenders: Vedran Corluka, Croatia
Defenders: Gio Van Bronkhorst, Dutch
Midfielders: Wesley Sneijder (right), Dutch
Midfielders: Arda Turan, Turkey
Midfielders: Luka Modric, Croatia
Midfielders: Deco, Portugal
Strikers:: David Villa, Spain
Striker: Nihat Kahveci, Turkey

Subs:
Ronaldo, Portugal
Rafeel van der Vaart, Dutch
Orlando Engelaar, Dutch
Lukas Podolski, Germany
Marco Senna, Spain
Roman Pavlyuenko, Russia

The Mets do it again

By Endy in the Outfield
The tension went on "far too long" according to Omar not even a day after showing the door to Willie, Rick Peterson, and Tom Nieto.

Omar also went on to say how it was hard to fire a friend. So hard that he made it extra hard on Randolph by dragging him out to Anaheim the day after a father's day double header in which they nearly came back and won the first and managed to win the 2nd game. Then makes him fly cross country to sunny Anaheim,has him manage a game that the Mets actually win that started at 10 PM ET (7PT). Still Omar waits until his good friend Willie is out of his uniform and dressed because "it's disrespectful to fire a manager while still in his uniform."

Then of course he calls Willie to his Hotel room along with the Jacket and Notorious Nieto and all are fired the respectful way at 3:15 AM ET after flying 3000 miles and winning the ballgame they just participated in. Like most Mets fans the firing didn't upset me or surprise me, it's the respectful manner in which the Big O went about it.

Willie (right) was never one of US. He was drafted by the Yanks in '72 and made his MLB debut in '75 at 21 years old and went on to make six all star appearances as a Yank, win 2 World Series, and the Silver Slugger award in 1988. After making brief but successful appearances in LA (Dodgers), Oakland, and Milwaukee he finally came to the Mets as the 8th oldest player in the NL. Like his managing for the Mets his playing didn't fare so well. He had the 2nd worst avg. of his career .252, the worst RBIs in a season for his career and one of the 3 worst seasons of OPB% and SL%. When his career was over and he became a bench coach for the Yankees, he once again had tremendous success winning 4 world series and was a part in the great 1998 NYY World Series season. Then, of course, he came to the Mets.

After finishing in 3rd in the division in the "Wait Til Next Year Season", next year finally came and Willie finally helped end the Braves run atop the division and finished first for the first time well over a decade. The time appeared to be now after the Mets went to the NLCS and lost game 7 but started the 07 season hot, but since it's Willie as a Met the season tanked as the Mets blew the division in the last month of the season.

Did I mention Willie has NEVER been a Met?

And the Jacket, oh how we loathe the jacket. Hey Rick (right) baseball is played in the summer, in hot temperatures. Take off the fuckin jacket. We all know that your reasoning for wearing the jacket is for all its useful pockets. Well obviously you have nothing useful in those pockets, nothing that could fix Victor Zambrano in 15 minutes, nothing that could reason with Heath Bell, nothing that could get his starting pitchers to throw more than 6 innings, ABSOLUTELY FUCKIN NOTHING IN THOSE POCKETS. Unless hes smuggling drugs in there or something, if that's the case I don't blame him. Gotta smuggle them into that side show somehow.

And of course the most controversial and most talked about of the three firings, Tom Nieto (left). Nieto played six season in the majors from 84 til, well, when who actually gives a fuk, it's Tom Nieto. The only reason he got canned is now it'll be easier to fill another managerial spot with another latino to make the Mets Latino staff quota.

Now Jerry Manuel, this is your time, a former manager of the year for the White Sox with a .515 career winning avg as a manager is ready for the job I'm sure. All the players should respect a man of his caliber and I'm sure none of them would ever show him up on the field in the first inning of his first game as Mets manager.

Shame on you Jose.

Number 1 with a bullet

With the college basketball season some four months away, the national champion may have already been crowd. Yesterday the trio of Lawson, Green and Ellington gave Roy Williams the best summer gift that he could ever have, they all decided to spent another year in Carolina Blue.

The starting five at Carolina is second to none in America: Psycho-T, Lawson, Green, Ellington, Deon Thompson. There is no team that is even close, not even Kansas or Memphis or even Duke.

So it might be too early to print the 2008-2009 National Championship shirts, but come the Final Four at Ford Field, the Heels should be holding the trophy and painting Detroit a shade of Carolina Blue.