Sports

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USF1 Launches in NASCAR Country

In what might be one of the most unlikely stories in Formula 1 history, a member of the press and a shock specialist are starting a U.S.-based F1 team. More interestingly, this team will be based out of NASCAR country in North Carolina with a testing base in Europe and using (ideally for the team) two American drivers to pilot the cars.

The men in charge are Peter Windsor (Speed Channel reporter, F1 interview room questioner, former Williams team manager) and Ken Anderson (former CART team manager, wind tunnel designer, Indycar designer). Their plan is to create what they call a “Skunkworks.” This name comes from the special ops division of Lockheed Martin which was staffed by the best of the best. By taking this approach and with all the cost cutting measures that the FIA have imposed on F1, they believe they will have a competitive team in a few years for a budget of around $100 million. But can this actually work as well as they hope? Continue reading →

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Canada’s Sexiest Sportscasters

Playboy is following up on their sexiest sportscaster poll (won, of course, by Erin Andrews) with a list of the sexiest international sportscasters.

Canada has two entrants on the ten woman list.  And in case your firewall at work won’t let you click on to Playboy’s complete list, I have the nomination videos for you here.

Martine Gaillard (Sportsnet)


This video of Martine isn’t as flattering as most of the other videos Playboy uses and definitely not as flattering as the next one. On the other hand, she is probably the best of Playboy’s bunch at doing her job. But just to be mentioned with the world’s hottest does Martine justice.

Jennifer Hedger (TSN)


What was I saying about flattering? What was I on about in the first place? Is it too late to mention that YouTube suggests that the video may not be suitable for minors? Does anyone care?

The Lowdown’s Unofficial Honourable Mention: Evanka Osmak (Sportsnet)


I’ll admit, I was surprised she didn’t make the list. But then again, when was the last time anyone saw her on Connected? Do something about it Sportsnet!

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UWO’s Vaughn Martin is NFL bound?

The CIS Blog and the London Free Press are reporting that Western Mustang’s defensive lineman Vaughn Martin has declared his eligibility for the 2009 NFL draft.  This is the sort of move that would tend to find its way on to our “What Were They Thinking?” board.

NFL rules state that a player must be three years removed from high school to be eligible.  The best players at that age are often the subject of rumours and speculation guessing if they will or won’t enter the draft.  CIS players are seldom even mentioned on an NFL team’s draft board let alone part of the media or scouting buzz leading up to the draft.  Hec Crighton (CIS outstanding player) award winners seldom get a sniff from NFL teams.  Jesse Lumsden was the most recent player looked at by the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks signing him after he went undrafted and cut him by the end of training camp.

That isn’t to say the same would happen to Martin.  But having watched him for three months in the fall, he’s one of Ontario’s better defensive linemen, perhaps slightly more adept as a run-stopper than a pass-rusher.  He isn’t, however, the top defensive tackle in Ontario and certainly not in Canada.  Since he’s not even close to the All-Canadian level, I doubt he would even get a training camp invite from most teams.

In two more years, with some more muscle and experience, he has all the makings of an All-Canadian DT.  He might even be good enough to win the Metras Award for Canada’s best down lineman.  Until then, Vaughn should keep his mind on the here and now.  The Mustangs have a legitimate chance to win the Vanier Cup next season and distractions like this can only hurt their chances when their top defensive lineman is more upset about not getting drafted than missing a tackle or losing a game this fall.

Update: Vaughn Martin Drafted

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Last Call: It’s Been an Interesting Day

Well, that’s all she wrote for today’s insanity that is The Lowdown.  Whether or not you liked how things went today, I’d like to hear from you at thelowdown@live.ca.

One last story to send you home with:
Wrestling legend and former-AWA owner/promoter, Verne Gane, has been linked to the death of a 97-year-old man in the memory loss ward of a Bloomington, MN health care facility. An alledged incident between Gagne and the deceased has been blamed by family members for causing his death. If I may be allowed to opine, maybe it was because he was 97.

What’s on tonight?
7:00 PM – Hockey Day in Canada – Montreal at Pittsburgh (CBC)
9:00 PM – CSI (CBS)
10:00 PM – Bullrun (Speed)

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

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NBA D-Day is a Dud

Well, the NBA trade deadline was largely a dud. Three o’clock rolled up and there isn’t much to say about what happened. And no, that’s not because I’m not a basketball guy.

Today’s deals:
To the Celtics: Will Solomon
To the Raptors: Patrick O’Bryant
Analysis: The Raps make another trade. Not that it’ll help…

To the Bulls: Tim Thomas, Jerome James, Anthony Roberson
To the Knicks: Larry Hughes
Analysis: Who are they and why should I care?

To the Knicks: Chris Wilcox
To the Thunder: Malik Rose, cash
Analysis: I’d give the win to the Thunder because cash is king.

To the Kings: Rashad McCants, Calvin Booth
To the T-Wolves: Bobby Brown, Shelden Williams
Analysis: Wait. Wasn’t Bobby Brown a singer and married to Whitney Houston?

To the Magic: Rafer Alston (Hou)
To the Rockets: Kyle Lowry (Mem), Brian Cook (Orl)
To the Grizzlies: 1st round draft pick (Orl)
Analysis: The biggest trade of the day because it had the most teams. Oh, and a former Rap was traded.

So to make up for this, here’s an appropriate re-imagining of a scene of Return of the Jedi. After all, it’s not like there’s any basketball to talk about.

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Red Light District: The Night in Hockey

Not the greatest name ever but it’ll do for now.  Remember, that’s what the comment form is for.

Montreal 3 @ Washington 4 (SO) — Alex Ovechkin decided he was getting bored of the same old, same old goals.  Last night, he stole the puck from Roman Hamrlik, backhand passed it to himself off the boards, broke in, got tripped, and proceeded to score from his back in what is the goal of the year.  Meanwhile, the Habs are struggling to keep pace in the Eastern Conference.  And as a bonus, here’s that Ovi goal.

NY Islanders 1 @ NY Rangers 3 — I don’t know how to summarize a straight-forward game like this one.  Does “The win moves the Rangers one point ahead of the Habs in the standings” work?  How about “Chris Drury had three assists”?

Nashville 2 @ Detroit 6 — A lesson for the Preds and the rest of the NHL: Don’t take penalties against the Red Wings.  The Wings went 5/6 with the man advantage to decimate Nashville.  Nic Lidstrom and Johan Franzen (free agent in the summer) both had a pair of goals.

St. Louis 3 @ Columbus 4 — The Blue Jackets’ win puts them six games above .500 in franchise history and they currently sit 6th in the West.  They nearly coughed it up by giving up 2 goals late in the third but managed to hold on.  The Jackets are the only team in the NHL not to have made the playoffs in franchise history.  Prepare to hear that endlessly for the next two months.

Los Angeles 4 @ Anaheim 3 — Yeah, they’re free… Free fallin’!  The Ducks have gone from contenders to pretenders over the last month and cemented that status with a loss to last year’s cellar-dwelling Kings.  Jonathan Quick had 28 saves for the win.  Look for him to suit up in the red, white, and blue in Van-city next February.

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Behind The Scenes: Rock The Rink

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It’s not often that I feel compelled to write up a random blog post based on a simple occurance in everyday life.  But when I think about it, as a campus radio personality, everyday life for me tends to be fairly different from everyday life for most folks.  No offence, but this is the greatest line of work in the world and I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be able to continue when I graduate in 3 months’ time.

Anyway, back to the story at hand.  Friday night was “Rock the Rink” night at Western’s Thompson Arena.  Any fans who wore purple shirts got in for free and everyone else had to buy a purple shirt.  That made it a packed house at Thompson Arena, which is a pretty unusual occurrence, of about 700 people by most estimates.  Most teams try to do a white-out or a black-out or whatever team colour but I think this is the first time in recorded history that a hockey crowd was a sea of purple.  Add to this the fact that it was “Seniors Night” which meant there was a special pregame ceremony to honour all the graduating players before the game and this was geared up to be a special night. Continue reading →