Sad End to a Football Career

Tight End Brian Mandeville’s career has already come to an end. He hails from Northwestern University (which also produced Dan Ross and Sean Jones). It is a rare occurrence for someone from Northwestern to be called up to the combine to continue their football career, being that the Huskies have not had a winning season in 5 years. Unfortunately, for Brian, when the time came for him to show what he had the doctors told him it was time for him to retire. The reason being an issue with a heart valve that will pretty much ensure his career is over.

A-Rod’s Steroid Yarn Continues

In 2003 Alex Rodriguez tested positive for the anabolic steroid Primobolan. Recently, he admitted to this but his story has changed twice in the last week. On Tuesday A-Rod spoke at Steinbrenner field to his teammates, the media and Hank Steinbrenner about why he “unknowingly” used steroids in 2003. In short his excuse is that he was young and stupid. He was persuaded by an unnamed cousin to receive injections twice a month for three years to boost his energy. Neither A-Rod nor his cousin knew what the substance was. All they knew was that it was sold over the counter in the Dominican Republic and goes by the street name “boli” or “bolan”. A-Rod also said he didn’t know how it affected his performance and that the added energy he experience may have all been in his head.
A-Rod also made the claim that had he attended college he may have been smarter about steroids. Unfortunately, other steroid users that did attend college such as Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds and they never received extra credit for being more intelligent.
A-Rod also claimed he was naïve because he was young, even though in 2001 when the steroid use began he had already been in the big leagues for seven years.
Rodriguez stopped the steroid injections in 2003 because of a spring training neck injury.
A bright note in all of this is that A-Rod agreed to advance the cause of steroid education at the request of Don Hooton whose high school son committed suicide with using steroids.

Maddux to Retire Monday

Four-time Cy Young award winner Greg Maddux will be announcing his retirement, after 23 years in the majors, on Monday during the baseball winter meetings.
Maddux played out his final season with the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he made three relief appearances during the playoffs. He ranks eighth on the career wins list with 355.
Maddux finished one win ahead of Roger Clemens for career victories and will likely be considered a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible after five years.
Before throwing his final pitch, Maddux won the Cy Young Award from 92-95 and 18 Gold Gloves with the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta, Dodgers and Padres.

Lincecum wins Cy Young Award

Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum has won the 2008 Cy Young award, making the 24 year old only the second Giant's pitcher to claim the honor. It is hard to pick a peak performance during amongst his 34 appearance in 2008 because he sustained such a high level of excellence. Lincecum received 23 of 32 1st place votes contributing to his overwhelming 137 points. Other notables were Arizona's Brandon Webb (73 points), Mets' Johan Santana (55 points), Philidelphia's Brad Lidge (10 points), Milwaukee's CC Sabathia (9 points) and Cubs' Ryan Dempster (4 points)

America's Favorite Dancer Crowned!

Last Wednesday the final four competed for the crown of America's favorite dancer! In the running were Courtney, Twitch, Joshua and Katee. After a night of every body pairing with everyone else for a routine the votes were in and we had a very special 3 hour finale on Thursday.
For the finale each judge got to pick their favorite routine to be performed again. And it was very exciting to see Will and Katee perform their Pas de deux. We also got an encore of Bollywood, one of my favorites of the season.
Nigel and Mary also gave us a special treat, we got to see them dance (not with each other of course). The finale also brought a dance off- popping between Phillips and Robert, Robert was crowned the winner.
And the end of the night saw Katee to the top femail spot and third overall, and Joshua as the champion!!!!

So You Think You Can Dance Top 10

Last Wednesday the top 10 Dancers took the stage minus Jessica plus Comfort. Turns out Jessica has some broken ribs and can't dance for 4 weeks. She will be missed.
But back to the performances... All the couples were split up and new couples formed. Each couple performed 2 routines and each dancer performed a solo.
Teaming up were Gev and Chelsea. They performed a contemporary routine choreographed by Sonya where they played the role of soul mates and how they feel when they are apart. They also did a Jive. I thought it was super fast and super fun to watch. The judges gave B-Boy Gev a hard time for this one and judge Lil'C thought Chelsea could make a manachin look good.
Will and Katee also were paired up, 2 of the best dancers so this has to work out. they performed a Broadway routine in a boat and another first for the contest, a Pas de Deux (Ballet). Both routines were done well and the Pas de Deux was thought to be the best routine ever on the show by the judges. katee was like little rubber girl.
Twitch and Comfort were paired up, what are the odds of two hip hoppers being paired to do Hip Hop. They also did a smooth waltz which was not good at all... Good thing they had the Hip Hop.
Another new couple was Joshua and Courtney. Courtney says the following about Joshua "he's a man"... after their Rumba routine. Joshua can move, that's for sure. They also did a hip hop routine, Courtney was the Bride of Frankenstein. Joshua killed it!!! It was probably the most fun routine to watch of the night!

Last, but not least, Kherington and Mark were paired up. They performed a country two-step. I think that even had they performed it well, it still would have bombed. Was not a fan at all. They also did a jazz routine to "canned heat" which i enjoyed. they werent given a story for this routine and Mark seemed to struggle with that, he does better with a character.

Results:
In this results show we saw 3 group routines. one for the whole group which was a bollywood routine, a contemporary routine for the girls choreographed by Mia, and a routine for the guys done by Nigel!!!!
We were also given the news that the show was nominated for Emmy's for dances as well as makeup. Very exciting.
Now on to the unhappy business... the dancers voted off were Gev and Kherington. Both will be missed. I especially will miss Gev, he was becoming a favorite. i think we ca now see the dancers who will make the finals forming, this is the first time i wanted to predict. i think we will see Will, Joshua, Chelsea and Katee make the finals.

So You Think You Can Dance- Breaking News!

So I am sitting on my couch watching House and a commercial comes on with a message to all fans of So You Think You Can Dance! Apparently Jessica is out of the competition due to an injury and Comfort is back to compete with the top 10. First, bummer, I really liked Jessica. Second, does Jessica still get to the compete with the top 10? I hope we find out Wednesday! I would be unfair, I think, if she didn't get that chance.