Recent Comments

1. 9 days ago on Tank McNamara

   My third and final nomination for SJOTY goes to Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association and, as owner of Rolf, Russia’s number one used-car salesman.

   In 2023, after Imane Khalif defeated Azalia Amineva at IBA’s world championship, Kremlev made up a lie saying that Khalif had failed a gender test. (He has refused to give any details about the alleged test.) As such, he is responsible for last year’s threats against Khalif and Lin Yu-ting.

   During the Olympics, he repeated the false claims at a press conference and called IOC President Thomas Bach a “chief sodomite.” Kremlev’s claim that the IBA dropped Gazprom as a sponsor was also revealed to have been false.

   His ethics are what one would expect from Russia’s leading used car dealer.

2. 11 days ago on Tank McNamara

   As far as I can tell, Belechick never used drones, so Priestman gets dishonored for her innovations.

   There are so many sports jerks that, in order to get my nomination, they have to do something special to stand out. (For example, one of my 2021 nominations was Kim Raisman, the German modern pentathlon coach who paid homage to Blazing Saddles’ Mongo by punching a horse at the Olympics.)

   I considered Guram Tushishvili for a nomination this year, but decided against it because he didn’t stand out enough.

3. 11 days ago on Tank McNamara

   My second Sports Jerk of the Year nomination goes to Li Tie, former coach of China’s men’s soccer team.

   Li received much criticism for some of his player choices. It wasn’t because he was incompetent. This year, we learned that he had been selling spots on the national team, taking over $7 million in bribes to select patently unqualified players.

   He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December.

4. 12 days ago on Tank McNamara

   My first vote for Sports Jerk of the Year goes to a coach: Bev Priestman for her innovative use of technology in scouting.

   Specifically, as head of Canada’s Women’s national soccer team, she illegally used drones to spy on opponents at the Olympic games, leading to a six-point penalty against Canada in the tournament standings and her later firing.

5. 21 days ago on Tank McNamara

   Post-1900 record – the 1899 Cleveland Spiders still have the all-time record with 132 losses.

   (The worst winning percentage belongs to the 1884 Wilmington Quicksteps, who went 2-16 before folding.)

6. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

   The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134.

   The 1884 Wilmington Quicksteps went 2-16 for the worst-ever winning percentage of .111. They were in the UA, which folded after one season.

   How bad was the UA? St. Louis won the league with a 94-19 record. They joined the NL and finished 36-72 in 1885.

7. 3 months ago on Working Daze

   Was the Peter Principle at work here?

8. 6 months ago on Tank McNamara

   The sport selection for LA2028 was done before the Paris games. A host city can chose several sports to add to the core list; Paris added breaking, while Los Angeles didn’t.Los Angeles will have cricket as a sport, however.

9. 7 months ago on Tank McNamara

   Bill James says the game used to have a clock. “It was called the sun.” Games had to be played quickly for them to end before sunset.

10. 8 months ago on Two Party Opera

    I’ve walked on water. I had to wait for the river to freeze over first.