Top 5 worst fanbases in sports.

Oh my God I cannot shut up about the Heat! Well admittedly I stopped watching Game 6 tonight with about 1 minute and a half left in it, but I figured with the Heat up by about 2 million I was safe. Basically this post is just going to be listing the top 5 worst fanbases in sports in my horribly wrong opinion in not any particular order.

Miami Heat

So, first is the Heat. For one they have to be one of the most bandwagony franchises out there. I've also heard they regularly show up late and leave early as famously shown last year. Also, the way they were booing Paul George tonight was bushleague as shit.

Ohio State

This one hits home, obviously but I will be the first to admit: Ohio State fans are the fucking worst. Whether they are picking a fight with you or pouring a beer on you or fighting a ten year old for wearing maze and blue Ohio State fans have earned a reputation for being among the most obnoxious on the planet. Seriously, just type ohio state fans into google and look at the results.

This is what happens with all sorts of "entitled" fanbases and the fact that they are so huge only adds to the obnoxiousness level. If I was a parent and a any other Big 10 fan I would never bring my kid to an OSU game. Frankly, even as an OSU fan I would never bring my kid to an OSU game.

Tampa Bay Rays

Speaking of band wagon fans... Tampa Bay Rays fans might be the definition of bandwagonners. Being virtually non-existent for the first 10 years of the franchise's history as evidenced in photos such as the one here, suddenly in 2008 when the team won the pennant they had fans materialize out of nowhere!

Baltimore Ravens

Remember how Ray Lewis definitely did NOT murder anyone? Yeah, neither do I or basically every Ravens fan. This is the perfect example of a fanbase excusing virtually anything a star player does because, "Hey, it's our guy"? This is one of the worst aspects of any fanbase. Seriously, ask how many Falcons/Eagles fans don't really mind that whole Michael Vick dog fighting thing or how many Steelers fans... Roethlisberger... Forget it.

Penn State

I'd be remiss not to mention Penn State fans. Obviously this is almost entirely based off the whole Paterno thing. Like these fans were literally rioting because their head coach/child rape enabler was being removed. How fucked up is that?  I can't really add to anything to that.

I've left a ton of worthy fanbases off this list but there were the first ones to come to mind.

I don't... What?

No, really. What?

This Guy

Just wanted to remember an awesome musician and defining part of my music taste, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

Friday Night Happy Hour

Like last time there's going to be spoilers.

Secret Garden 

This week's drama was 'Secret Garden' which along with last week's 'Miss Korea' I worry that I'm going to use up all the really good dramas by the end of the month.

'Secret Garden' is about a stunt-woman played by Ha Ji Won who ends up falling in love with this rich snobby CEO of a department store played by Hyun Bin. Well, really I guess it's the other way around, he falls in love with her. Anyway as you can probably guess their relationship starts out really rocky but through magic and persistence they are able to end up happily ever after. "Happily ever after" if you consider having three whiny kids a happy ending. Oh and since they're Korean the kids also speak whiny Korean. I guess being a whiny kid doesn't sound good in any language.

The gimmick of the show is that every time it rains they switch bodies. This is all comes about because through some fuckery they both happen to be at Jeju together. During a bike race between Gi Ra Im(Ha Ji Won), Joo Won(Hyun Bin), and Oska(Yoon Sang-Hyeon) Gi Ra Im gets lost in the woods and Joo Won goes out to find her. He finds her and Gi Ra Im says she's hungry so for some reason they decide to at eat this weird restaurant out in the middle of nowhere that was alluded to in a previous scene. That scene reminded me a little of Blair Witch Project I mean why would you go into a creepy ass house in the middle of nowhere even if you are that hungry? So while they're at this restaurant they notice all these bottles of wine and the waitress gives them each one. Through separate scenes we see they each end up drinking it and then it rains and that's when the jokes happen.

The first scene where they switch is probably the funniest in the whole show. In total they only switch three times but I wish they would've done it more. Going in to the show that's really the only thing I knew about it so I was a little disappointed I had to wait until like the 5th or 6th episode for it to happen and then after that it only happened twice more and the third time doesn't really count for reasons I'll get into later.

As the series goes on we learn that Joo Won has a thing where he has really bad claustrophobia caused by a traumatic experience he can't remember. This causes a big thing when during the second time they switch Ra Im, as Joo Won, is on an elevator when it suddenly rains and they switch back to their normal bodies. (Throughout the series, when it's really important what they're saying the series would show them talking as themselves so you're not confused who is saying what to who. Even talking about it now I'm getting confused. I assume if you're reading this though you've already seen the show and know what I'm talking about.) Joo Won flips out and starts having a panic attack and so Ra Im races back to help him. Side note: Ra Im's lifelong dream is to get a major role in an action film and that's what she's doing when Joo Won has his panic attack. In essence she's giving up her life long dream to help him.

Throughout the series Joo Won's mom shows she's the worst fucking person ever. I've never wanted a fictional character to die more than this woman. I thought Se Na from Rooftop Prince was bad but I hate this person even more.

Eventually we find out that Joo Won's traumatic experience was a building fire where he was stuck in an elevator and a fireman came and saved him, killing himself in the process. Oh, did I mention Ra Im's dad died in a mysterious accident a long time ago? You can put together what that means.

In the end Joo Won's mom basically disowns him because he won't give up Ra Im. They get a courthouse marriage thing done and then it flashes forward five years where they all live happily together with big ass portraits of their three annoying kids. I'm not sure why I have this irrational hatred of their kids since they're only screen for maybe 2 minutes but I do. During the epilogue it shows Ra Im and Joo Won taking their kids to see grandmother and while she seemingly likes her grandkids she still won't see Mr. and Mrs. Joo Won. Bitch ass to the end. It was strange because the last time I saw her she played the grandmother's minion in 'Rooftop' where she was unlikable but it was an enjoyable unlikableness. Here I just plain despised her. In 'Rooftop' the grandmother gets pushed down the stairs and dies and I was sincerely hoping something like that would happen to Joo Woo's mom in this show. Or maybe hit by a bus, or eaten by a bear. No such luck.

Unlike in 'Ms. Korea' I didn't really have a clear cut favorite character. I've been a fan of Ha Ji Won since before I really got into kpop and I thought she was pretty good in this. She can play the really cute girlfriend type just as well as the kick-your-ass type of action star. Both give me boners. The movie broke the 4th wall a couple times like when she was given a new script to try out for that was called 'Sector 7'... I guess that's amusing I mean "free" advertising is free advertising. Also this was the first thing I saw Hyun Bin and he's honestly a pretty good actor. That he could go from really stern prick CEO guy to basically gay guy when they switched was pretty cool, same for Ji Won. Oh that reminds me the show also had an openly gay character in it which was really interesting given Korean society.

Well. This is a shit load of words so I'll wrap it up. I liked the show a lot.

Fucking Diablo 3

I had really high hopes Reaper of Souls would fix everything that made Diablo 3 shit. First, Loot 2.0 fixed it so that when a legendary dropped it should actually be useful for you. You wouldn't think "Is this legendary good, but how good is it going to be?" The new act was pretty cool, and the Mystic allowed further customization of gear which even more helped for legendaries to not be shit. Then there was the bounties and rifts which made the game a lot more replayable and gave you something to do other than endlessly running the campaign over and over.

For the first 2 weeks or so all was good, however now that I've sunk 200+ hours into the expansion I realized is the same old shit. The expansion was merely a diversion from the core problems that have been there from the beginning. Perhaps I'm just not cut out for ARPGs.

The main problem in my opinion is that once you get to a certain level of gear, which I have been at for over two weeks now, the game gets cripplingly boring. The legendary problem still remains as well, 95% of everything you get is still shit. There are only a handful of legendaries in the game that are worth anything. That's another thing, Blizzard removed the auction house entirely so now there is no way to trade anything with anyone. So like I said once you get to a certain level in gear you start to specfically look for a specfic legendary or two however those legendaries have such a small chance of dropping you could go months without ever seeing them.

And that's where I am. I've completely lost the will to go on since I've accepted that I will never see the items I want. I realize that is the nature of ARPGs but if there was just someway to know that I could be working for a specific item I would probably play again, and don't know me bloodshards are the answer because those are garbage. So anyway, that extremely flawed game is still flawed.

Crusader Kings 2 - The Book

I just finished this book called 'The Plantagenets' by Dan Jones. If you have any sort of interest in medieval times or British history I would highly recommend it. It covers, obviously, the Plantagenets who reigned from roughly the 12 to 15th centuries. Within that family are some of Britain's greatest monarchs including Richard the Lion Heart, Henry II, and Edward I and III. It also includes some of the most disastrous like Edward II and Richard II. It's so good I'm seriously considering pre-ordering Jones' second book which covers the War of the Roses. Pre-ordering a book? Yes. Crusader Kings 2 is my favorite medieval incest simulator video games ever possibly and this book is basically like the novel of it.

This is possibly the greatest sporting time of the year

There were just three game 7s in hockey and now on Saturday we get three game 7s in the NBA! That's pretty amazing. Too bad I almost don't care about either sport, especially hockey. This is already the best first round ever in the NBA, that's not even debatable. Personally I'm hoping Indiana loses, that'd be funny I guess. Well, if you have any interest I hope you have fun.

Jameis Winston's crab legs really isn't that funny if you think about it for two seconds

Sorry for stealing this whoever made it, please don't sue.

I might just be upset I wasn't one of the those lucky people who, within 1 minute of the news breaking, got to fire off some of those awesome puns on Twitter. I tweeted as much.  I initally thought it was pretty funny, I mean this is a dude making national news for stealing $32 of crab legs, like I said those must've been the most discussed arthropodic appendages ever discussed by man.

Since yesterday there's been several scenarios put forward as to how Winston walked out of a Publix without paying. One is that his girlfriend was in town and like any gentleman he went out to treat her to some awesome crab legs from Publix. I mean that sounds pretty fucking sweet in my opinion. Anyway, he went in ordered the food, left to go to a Hobbit Hoagies for wings (seriously what the fuck is with the names, South?) came back into the store with the car still running in the rain and was mobbed by fans for autographs while on the way to the butter. Again, being the gentlemen he is, he obliged the fans while walking out with the legs and all while not paying. Apparently he was even talking to a police officer while leaving the store, not trying to hide anything. Once Winston got home he realized he forgot the fucking butter and didn't pay for the food but didn't feel like going back out. I mean it was raining, who'd want to go out in that shit? Some claim Winston didn't realize he would be mobbed like that. Seriously? He's the fucking Heisman Trophy winner. Winston would either have to be incredibly stupid or naive to believe that for even a second.

Here's where I think we need to take a step back and realize it's really not that funny... Well as an isolated incident it is a little funny but when taken into context with everything else Jameis Winston has or hasn't done it shows a pattern of fuckery.

Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is last years rape scandal where Winston was eventually free of all charges but then again so was OJ. Since then there have been rampant accusations that the investigation was mishandled in every way. Oh, and let's not forget the time when he stole soda from a god damn Burger King.

The point is this is a guy who clearly doesn't get it and Florida State is enabling him at every step. Because of his most recent theft he was kicked off the baseball team... The baseball team. I'm sure that will really drive the message home. This is the second Heisman Trophy winner in a row who has acted in a completely irresponsible and reckless way, the Trophy which was already sort of becoming a joke is now one hilarious punchline away from becoming a full on joke.

As usual people, particularly FSU fans (just like A&M fans last year) are pulling out the, "But he's only 20 years old") card. I'm sick of that. When you win a Heisman Trophy and are a National Title winner you are going to be held to a different standard than every other 20 year old. That's part of the price you pay. And that's something you've got to be able to deal with. There have been many, many Heisman winners and I don't recall there being nearly as many problems with them as are there have been in the last 5 years or so. This is in large part to social media, but again, that's a reason why hear about it not an excuse for doing it in the first place. It's incumbent for the adults around them to keep them in out of trouble so by that I give them some slack but ultimately these are men we are talking about.

Winston's image looks like shit and I don't blame anyone but him for making it like that.

In a suprising twist of fate Sterling's ban is bad for civil rights, America

Or so I've been lead to believe.

Jason Whitlock a columnist at ESPN has published an article saying among other things that:

"Removing Donald Sterling from the NBA solves nothing. It sets a precedent that will likely boomerang and harm the black players and coaches who are shocked and outraged that an 80-year-old man with a documented history of bigoted actions also has bigoted private thoughts."

 I can agree with parts of what he is saying. I think mob rule is a bad thing. In fact I doubt you'd find anyone out there willing to admit that they like it. I also think it's important to take measured steps when determining how to proceed with cases like this.

However, I think Whitlock's article is at its core flawed. He essentially defends... Well maybe defends is the wrong word. He excuses? Perhaps that is wrong too. He understands that Sterling grew up in a certain "culture" and that that culture sees people of other races as bad.

"I don't want to change the culture because I can't," Sterling says. "It's too big."

Whitlock goes on to talk about his own father's culture and how that shaped his life. I'm not here to cast judgment on Sterling or Whitlock's father or anyone else but I don't think that hiding behind this idea of 'culture' is an excuse.

Many people grow up in cultures that are toxic. But not everyone is a racist, homophobic, misogynistic or anything else.  It is extremely regressive to say that people shouldn't better themselves simply because of how they were raised. Are children born of alcoholic parents more likely to alcoholic themselves? Probably but that definitely doesn't mean shouldn't try to steer their own lives in a different direction. I don't think Whitlock is saying people out there don't come from bad cultures and many of them don't try to better themselves but when are we going to stop letting "old white males" get away with this?

Sterling had to be banned by the NBA. From simply a "the right thing to do" perspective to a financial perspective he had to go. Numerous sponsors had already begun to pull away from the Clippers which in turn meant the NBA as a whole was getting less money. Rather than poo-poo the NBA for acting to quickly I think they and Adam Silver should be applauded for taking such quick action. If Silver only acted because he knew there was about to be a strike that is also good because that means the players have the power. Compare Silver's response to this to Roger Goddell's response to the concussion issue. I know they are entirely separate issues but it is still refreshing to see a commissioner act decisively.

What Whitlock and a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that NBA is not the US government nor is Sterling simply a citizen. This is not comparable to the government coming to your door and confiscating your house. The LA Clippers are in part owned by the City of Los Angeles. That name is on their jerseys, they play in a stadium at least in part owned by the city. For someone who represents such a large part of that community to make such comments cannot be allowed to stand. Especially from an owner who is and should be held to larger standard than a player. The LA Clippers are a franchise of the NBA similar to any other sort of franchise and if it is determined that you are representing that company in a bad light the company has the right as set forth in the constitution of said company to revoke your privilege to own that franchise.

Whitlock raises the point that allowing privately held conversations that are illegally recorded (at least in California) as a reason to take away someone's property is a bad thing. This goes back to my last point. Those conversations would not be allowed in a court of law. But the NBA is not a court of law, it's a privately run business. This is really the low hanging fruit but if you are worried about conversations you say coming back to haunt you, perhaps you shouldn't be fusing racist or derogatory remarks. This is really the chickens coming home to roost. If you have a mistress and then talk to that mistress about how you disapprove of her associating with people of color maybe this what you get? Of course that is an overly simple way of looking at it.

There is a lot of blame to go around for this situation, as Whitlock points out. I agree with his assertion that NBA had ample opportunities to deal with Sterling before. Either during his housing discrimination case of the Elgin Baylor case. According to Silver the NBA acted within the limits of the legal framework but ask anyone in LA and they can tell you Sterling has been a festering scar on the city for decades. The various rewards he has received from the city, including almost receiving a second life time achievement award from the NAACP basically make those organizations out as jokes, giving out awards to the highest bidder. However I really take offence to the way he suggests that all  white people are equally responsible for this.

"White people should be wearing black socks, turning their T-shirts inside out, protesting outside the Staples Center. This is their culture, their Frankenstein. Or maybe they agree with Donald T. Sterling."

Excuse me? So by not dressing a certain way or wearing my clothes a certain way I now agree with what Sterling is saying?  I'm sorry but this is where the article lost all credibility to me. This is a direct insult to the countless number of white people like the Freedom Riders who put their lives on the line for a noble cause. To belittle the sacrifices they made based on what their clothes are like is akin in my opinion to thinking you can know how someone thinks based on their skin color. Whitlock's solution to this problem is that:

"...the NBA power structure cede some of its governing power to men and women who look like the overwhelming majority of the league's players."

Basically affirmative action. Having a more diverse power-structure in the NBA, especially one that reflects the vast majority of the players would be a great thing. However, what would forcing that upon the league do? It would simply be band-aid on a gaping wound.

I have a strong suspicion Whitlock says things simply to say things. The bottom line is the league did what it had to both from a practical and more importantly from a humanitarian perspective. Has has some interesting points but it's a shame it's drowned by sensationalist garbage.

Now if only we could ban Donald Sterling from life for... Life

New NBA commissioner Adam Silver has brought the hammer down pretty hard against infamous scumbag Donald Sterling.

During a press conference today Silver banned Sterling for life from any Clippers games or practices as well as anything else having to do with the NBA. He also fined him 2.5 million dollars that will be donated to charities that promotes anti-discrimination.

I thought it was notable that he went a step further and said he will do everything in his power to force a sale of the team. Sterling is currently the longest tenured owner in the NBA. While Silver cannot outright force a sale of the team I'm sure he can use his considerable influence to pressure the other owners to force a sale. Many owners have expressed concern that although they vehemently condemn Sterling's actions they worry that anything they might say that has been illegally recorded could come back to haunt them and result in their own forced sale of their team. In other words it could be a dangerous slippery slope.

If I was an owner I'd think to myself, "Am I one of the biggest douchebags to other walk to the Earth? Do I regularly say extremely vitriolic and hateful things to my mistress and allow it to be recorded and posted on TMZ? Then what do I have to worry about?"

For now I'm glad that at least some justice is happening. As I said in the last article, Sterling's lawyers are legendarily horrible people so it'll be interesting to see what acts of unmitigated evil they pursue now.