faultygem84

Josh Hamilton's Journey Reaches New Pinnacle, but He's Far From Finished

If you had predicted a decade ago that Josh Hamilton would be named the American League's Most Valuable Player in 2010, most people in baseball probably wouldn't have had much reason to dispute that contention.

The talent was obvious back then, the potential evident to the trained and untrained eye alike. A year and a half removed from Tampa Bay picking him first overall in the draft, Hamilton at this time in 2000 was about to be tabbed the top prospect in the game by Baseball America heading into the 2001 season.

With accolades like that, it wouldn't have come as a shock to anyone that Hamilton would be leading his team to a World Series as one of the best players in the game before his 30th birthday rolled around. It's the path Hamilton took to get to being named AL MVP on Tuesday that no one would have believed.

"I would say a 99 percent chance that this would never happen -- honestly," Hamilton said Tuesday when asked about his unlikely route to the top. "I think a lot of people would agree with that. But it was 100 percent chance this would never have happened if I'd tried to do it on my own. I think that's the most important thing I want to get across, is that I couldn't do it on my own."

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/11/23/josh-hamiltons-journey-reaches-new-pinnacle-but-hes-far-from/

Natasha Bedingfield Natassia Malthe Nelly Furtado

Happy Thanksgiving from SBI

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoccerByIves/~3/yS9R2WUgqs8/happy-thanksgiving-from-sbi.html

Monica Bellucci Monica Keena Monica Potter

Brett Clark Shoots Puck Through Net

Filed under: Flyers, Lightning, NHL Videos

The Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning combined for nine goals in the first period of Thursday's game -- an 8-7 Tampa Bay win -- including a shot from Tampa Bay defenseman Brett Clark that actually went through the net. Just 14 seconds after Flyers forward Danny Briere gave his team a 5-3 lead with his 10th goal of the season, the Lightning found themselves on an odd-man rush that was completed when Clark unleashed a booming slap shot that not only beat goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, but couldn't even be contained by the net.

Here's the video...

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/11/18/brett-clark-shoots-puck-through-net/

Jessica White Jill Arrington Jill Wagner

Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan Bring Back World Cup Memories With MLS Award

Filed under: FIFA World Cup, MLS, US Soccer, U.S. Men's National Team, United States

TORONTO -- In just a few minutes on Friday evening at a party in downtown Toronto, U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley and star midfielder Landon Donovan reminded everyone in attendance how and why the American effort at the World Cup inspired so many back home.

Each year, at the party that anchors the buildup to the MLS Cup Final, Don Garber presents the Commissioner's Award in recognition of a significant contribution to the development of American soccer. In 2010, there could be only one winner -- the national team.

Speaking to the several hundred guests in attendance, one of whom was this fortunate FanHouse correspondent, Garber said that the team's dramatic run to the second round, highlighted by Donovan's stoppage-time goal against Algeria in the group stage finale, inspired "millions of people back home" to "celebrate the beginning of a new era" in American soccer.

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Source: http://soccer.fanhouse.com/2010/11/19/bob-bradley-landon-donovan-bring-back-world-cup-memories-with-m/

Yvonne Strzechowski Zhang Ziyi Zoe Saldana

Repaved Daytona Will Have Goodyear Tire Test Dec. 15-16

Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup, NASCAR

Goodyear Tire Company will conduct a tire test on the freshly repaved 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway on Dec. 15-16, the speedway announced Saturday.

The NASCAR drivers who will participate in the test will be announced at a later date, the speedway said.

"This test is going to be important for Goodyear as they construct a tire for Speedweeks 2011 and the 53rd annual Daytona 500," said speedway President Joie Chitwood III.

The Goodyear tire test will open to the public with free access to the Oldfield Grandstands through the lobby of the Daytona International Speedway ticket office.

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/11/20/repaved-daytona-will-have-goodyear-tire-test-dec-15-16/

Summer Altice Summer Glau Sunny Mabrey

Tiger Woods Lays Up During ESPN Radio's 'Mike and Mike' Interview

by Milton Kent

Filed under: Sports Business and Media

The true purpose of Tiger Woods' much ballyhooed interview with ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike In The Morning was revealed about five minutes after the interview ended. That's when co-host Mike Greenberg read the first of a number of plugs for Woods' golf event next month.

In other words, just like virtually every other interview on Mike and Mike with an active professional athlete, where the celebrity in question answers a couple of questions about the season to date, then touts his commercial sponsor, Woods got the word out about his event without having to get his hands dirty.

In a roughly 25-minute interview over two segments, Woods broke no new ground from the story he has offered the past year. He declined to provide any details about the Thanksgiving Day accident at his home, he said precious little about whom he has taken advice from and he added nothing to speculation that he might have taken human growth hormones. Woods wouldn't even take a shot at Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne, who famously chided him before the Masters this year about his behavior. As Greenberg rightly pointed out, Woods' answers, in many cases, sounded like he was parroting a therapist.

In fairness to Greenberg and co-host Mike Golic, they were put in a no-win situation. They were asked to interview a man who has notoriously kept a wall between himself and the public, parceling out just enough of himself to say that he made the attempt. Recognizing that, the pair attempted before the interview started to lower expectations, first by saying that they weren't going to try to make themselves into Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace, and then by declaring that they would not explore the salacious details of last Thanksgiving and its aftermath.

To their credit, the two of them, and particularly Golic, the former defensive lineman, pressed Woods to the degree that they were allowed to, both by the limits of time and by the evasiveness of the interviewee.

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2010/11/18/tiger-woods-lays-up-during-espn-radios-mike-and-mike-intervie/

Kristy Swanson Kylie Bax Lacey Chabert