Olympic names

I'm not going to do a list of great Olympian names for this go-round, but if i were, Magdalena Neuner would be at the top of the list.

Continue reading Olympic names

Deep thought

What ever happened to Wonderful Monds?

Continue reading Deep thought

Best sports paragraph. Ever.

From the Guardian:

Folk with a mental age of four will be amused to know that Chelsea are going to sign CSKA Moscow genius Yuri Zhirkov. They are also eyeing up Stefan Kuntz, Bernt Haas, Brian Pinas, Danny Shittu and Uwe Fuchs. Oh, and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Continue reading Best sports paragraph. Ever.

Great sports names

Jets owner Woody Johnson made it clear that he prefers to keep football, business and coaching duties separate, so a candidate wanting complete control would be less likely to be hired. Any coach the Jets hire would have to fit into that structure.

We may have an all-time winner.

Continue reading Great sports names

All-Name Olympians

At first base, for team USA:

And playing second, for Team Canada:

Continue reading All-Name Olympians

That was fun

Thanks to my friend, and occasional frequent reader, DF, i ventured into the wilds of Cary last night to watch the Railhawks U-23s take on Burnley FC at whatever it is that they're calling the soccer stadium these days.

Burnley play in the Championship, which is the old Second Division in English football, and are expected to contend for promotion to the top flight this coming season.

So i was quite surprised that the U23s not only held their own, but scored two wonderful goals in the second half to win the match 2-1. Not surprisingly, though, the N&O relied on a press release from the Railhawks for their coverage of the match, while the Herald-Sun didn't even know it happened.

Great pictures and commentary, however, at the Burnley site. I couldn't agree more with this sentiment:

The issue of goal music at Turf Moor remains a moot one. You either love it, or hate it.
However, for travelling Clarets fans I spoke to - and aficionados of the good old days - the musical offerings at the Cary RailHawks game were certainly cause for debate!
During a tuneful 90 minutes we had organ music at free kicks, the Addams Family theme tune at one random moment during play - and even the instantly recognisable score from 1974 film Jaws as the RailHawks lined up a free kick.
The game in America is constantly gaining in popularity and clearly there is a focus on family entertainment, on and off the pitch.
But does providing a constant soundtrack to the unfolding action help to widen the US game's credibility and appeal outside America?
From early evidence in Carolina, the game here is more than good enough to evolve naturally. It's a personal view, but I don't feel it needs these forced gimmicks.

Oh, and add Joey Gudjonsson to the Snickers All-Name Team.

And more photos and video here.

Continue reading That was fun

Euro 2008 All-Name team

In honor of today's Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany here are the players with the names i like most to hear called by the announcers during the introductions and the run of play. As always with my All-Name squads, actual playing time during the tournament, or quality of play when on the field have nothing to do with being chosen for this prestigious honor. The only qualification is whether or not i like the sound of the player's name. We've also got a slight twist for this event.

If i could get corporate sponsorship, i'd call this first list the Snickers team. I think the reason will be obvious. Just try to imagine your local college basketball announcer having to call these names a dozen times a game.

Austria
Emmanuel Pogatetz
Christian Fuchs
Andreas Ivanschitz

Croatia
Jerko Leko

Czech
Daniel Zitka

Germany
Per Mertesacker

Holland
Rafael van der Vaart

Portugal
Quim Silva

Russia
Yuri Zhirkov

Spain
Andres Palop

Switzerland
Stephan Lichtsteiner

Turkey
Tumer Metin

Now, the true All-Name squad. First, the subs.

Austria
Joachim Standfest

Croatia
Luka Modric

Czech Republic
Tomas Ujfalusi

France
Steve Mandanda
Claude Makelele

Germany
Clemens Fritz (Honorary captain for obvious reasons)

Holland
Mario Melchiot

Italy
Gianluigi Buffon

Portugal
Pepe

Romania
Razvan Rat

Spain
Joan Capdevila
Alvaro Arbeloa


Turkey
Gokhan Zan
Kazim Kazim*

And the starting XI

Austria
Juergen Macho

Croatia
Jerko Leko

France
Sebastien Squillaci

Germany
Bastian Schweinsteiger

Holland
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink

Italy
Giorgio Chiellini (Honorary captain for being the most likely to be played by Chico Marx in a scene involving a beer cart, a horse, and a befuddled referee outside a football stadium 5 minutes before kickoff.)

Poland
Dariusz Dudka

Russia
Yuri Zhirkov

Switzerland
Pascal Zuberbuehler
Hakan Yakin

Turkey
Hamit Altintop

And the special Golden "A" award for the best name in the tournament is a tie between Austria's Juergen Macho and Switzerland's Hakan Yakin. Congratulations to our winners.

UPDATE: Congratulations to the following players for "doing the double," being named to both the official UEFA All-Tournament team and the DE All-Name team: Gianluigi Buffon, Pepe, Yuri Zhirkov, and Hamit Altintop. Your medals will arrive someday.
============

*There was much heated debate at the Dependable Ranch over whether to include young Mr. Kazim on the list. The ESPN announcers as well as the British newspapers refer to him as Colin Kazim-Richards which, while interesting, is simply not All-Name team material. Kazim Kazim, on the other hand, rocks. We've decided to keep him on the substitutes bench while we sort this out.

Continue reading Euro 2008 All-Name team

Phuck the Fillies

It shouldn't have taken a baseball genius to predict that the Cubs and Phillies, with one World Series win between them since 1908, wouldn't advance beyond the first round of the playoffs this year. But i'd hoped that the Cubs, at least, would show a bit more spunk instead of rolling over and surrendering.

Fans of great baseball names will be rooting for a Rockies - Indians matchup in the Series, with the possibility of Ubaldo Jimenez striking out Asdrubal Cabrera, or Fausto Carmona retiring Troy Tulowtizki on a pop up to Ryan Garko. Not to mention Jhonny Peralta simply taking the field.

Today's prediciton: Roger Clemens doesn't make it past the fourth inning, but the Yankees come back and send their series to game 4. The Red Sox will finish their sweep of the Angels. Gotta see Coco Crisp in the ALCS.

Continue reading Phuck the Fillies

A great game for name fans

Over on ESPN tonight, the Tigers and Indians had a good one going one.

Fausto Carmona pitched for the Indians, while rookie Jair Jurrjens made his Major League debut for the Tigers. The Indians, of course, have Jhonny Peralta, who always makes my all-name list by virtue of being unable to spell his own first name correctly. Special bonus for Cleveland was Asdrubal Cabrera at second base making the double play combination with Peralta.

One of the best games for name fans in quite some time.

Continue reading A great game for name fans

A great night for baseball names

ESPN is carrying the Tigers - Twins game tonight.

Boof Bonser, who made last year's MLB All-Name team, is pitching for the Twins. Opposing him on the mound for the Tigers is a rookie making his first big league start, Victor Vazquez.

And as Jon Miller, one of the best announcers in the game, just informed us, Vazquez is only the third major leaguer ever to have the initials VV. It's been almost 50 years since Vito Valentinetti (lifetime record 13 - 14) last pitched for the Senators. The only position player with the initials VV was Vince Ventura, who got into 18 games in the 1945 season also for the Senators.

Vazquez got lit up pretty good, and he was going back to the minors anyway. But this was a good day for the name guys on national TV.

Continue reading A great night for baseball names

Great soccer names

Longer term readers of DE will no doubt recall my all-name team posts from the 2006 MLB season, the 2006 World Cup, and the 2005 - 2006 English Premier League season.

I thought i had things pretty well covered.

Until i read today's issue of the Guardian, and learned that Danger Fourpence and Have-a-Look Dube are both playing professionally in Zimbabwe.

But the new, all-time best footballer's name, replacing Junior Agogo and Steed Malbranque forever at the top of any list, is Creedence Clearwater Couto, a Brazilian native who, according to Wikipedia, is currently playing for the Belgian side Lierse SK.

It truly cannot get any better than that.

Continue reading Great soccer names

2006 MLB All-Name Team

Tonight is game one of the 2006 World Series, which means it's time to unveil the All-Name squad for this year.

Here are the rules. All members of the team must be a part of their team's 40 man roster. They need not be active, nor have actually played in any games to be part of the team. The All-Name team will also have a 40 man roster, a 25 man active roster (subset of the 40 player roster), and a 9 player starting line-up drawn from the active roster. The only requirement to make the team is the sound the name makes coming out of the announcer's lips. Alliterative names are good, as are names with an internal rhyme. Having a good Chris Berman nickname (such as Jim "Two Silhouettes on" DeShaies, or Rudy "This Is" Seanez) is only mildly helpful.

Here we go:

40 man (inactive) roster:

Pitchers
----------

Jose Arredondo - California Angels
Kiko Calero - Oakland Athletics
Kirk Saarloos - Oakland Athletics
Ty Taubenheim - Toronto Blue Jays
Macay McBride - Atlanta Braves
Tomo Ohka - Milwaukee Brewers
Yhency Brazopan - Los Angeles Dodgers
Shane Youman - Pittsburgh Pirates


Catchers
----------
Humberto Quintero - Houston Astros

Infielders
-----------
Lyle Overbay - Toronto Blue Jays
Prince Fielder - Milwaukee Brewers
Travis Ishikawa - San Francisco Giants
Alfredo Amezaga - Florida Marlins
Robinson Cano - New York Yankees

Outfielders
-------------
Grady Sizemore - Cleveland Indians


On the bench/In the bullpen

Pitchers
---------

Chris Bootcheck - Los Angeles Angels
Jason Isringhausen - St. Louis Cardinals
Franquelis Osoria - Los Angeles Dodgers
Fausto Carmona - Cleveland Indians
J.J. Putz - Seattle Mariners
Yusmeiro Petit - Florida Marlins
Royce Ring - New York Mets
Ambiorix Burgos - Kansas City Royals
Boof Bonser - Minnesota Twins


Catchers
----------

Einar Diaz - Los Angeles Dodgers
Yorvit Torrealba - Colorado Rockies


Infielders
-----------

Yuniesky Betancourt - Seattle Mariners
Larry Broadway - Washington Nationals


Outfielders
-------------

Ichiro Suzuki - Seattle Mariners
Terrmel Sledge - San Diego Padres
Nook Logan - Washington Nationals


Starting Lineup

Coco Crisp - Center field - Boston Red Sox
Jhonny Peralta - Second Base - Cleveland Indians
Hiram Bocachica - Right field - Kansas City Royals
Jorge Cantu - Third Base - Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Yadier Molina - Catcher - St. Louis Cardinals
Lastings Milledge - Left field - New York Mets
Placido Polanco - Shortstop - Detroit Tigers
Troy Tulowitzki - First base - Colorado Rockies
Merkin Valdez - Pitcher - San Francisco Giants

Continue reading 2006 MLB All-Name Team

World Cup All-Name Squad

While everyone recovers from Italy's last second, controversial victory over Australia today, it's a good time for the All Name squad to be revealed.

Similar to the earlier EPL All Name squad, the sole criteria is that i like the sound of the player's name. Performance, either team or individual, has nothing to do with it.

Given that there are a larger number of teams in the Cup competition than the EPL, i've picked about 35 or so honorable mentions, in addition to the full 23 member team.

Here they are:

Honorable mention

Goal Keepers

Julio Cesar - Brazil
Kossi Agassa - Togo
Shaka Hislop - Trinidad and Tobago
Ali Boumnijel - Tunisia

Defenders

Fabricio Coloccini - Argentina
Jervis Drummond - Costa Rica
Emmanuel Eboue - Cote d'Ivoire
Tomas Ujfalusi - Czech Republic
Jorge Guagua - Ecuador
Rio Ferdinand - England
Abdulaziz Khathran - Saudi Arabia
Ricardo Osorio - Mexico
Mariusz Jop - Poland
Milan Dudic - Serbia and Montenegro
Carlos Puyol - Spain
Dmytro Chigrynskyi - Ukraine
Vladyslav Vashchuk - Ukraine
Carlos Bocanegra - United States
Steve Cherundolo - United States

Midfielders

Ze Roberto - Brazil
Bastian Schweinsteiger - Germany
Torsten Frings - Germany
Thomas Hitzlsperger - Germany
Otto Addo - Ghana
Shinji Ono - Japan
Ho Lee - Korea
Phillip Cocu - Netherlands
Hedwiges Maduro - Netherlands
Xabi Alonso - Spain
Niclas Alexandersson - Sweden
Tranquillo Barnetta - Switzerland
Hakan Yakin - Switzerland
Densill Theobald - Trinidad and Tobago

Forwards

Andre Titi Buengo - Angola
Aruna Dindane - Cote d'Ivoire
Bosko Balaban - Croatia
Alex Tachie-Mensah - Ghana
Atsushi Yanagisawa - Japan
Omar Bravo - Mexico
Boa Morte - Portugal
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Sweden
Daniel Gygax - Switzerland
Moustapha Salifou - Togo
Yassine Chikhaoui - Tunisia

The Reserves

Goalkeepers

Roberto Abbondanzieri - Argentina
Gianluigi Buffon - Italy
Aldo Bobadilla - Paraguay
Quim - Portugal


Defenders

Scott Chipperfield - Australia
Pascal Chimbonda - France

Midfielders

Ze Kalanga - Angola
Petit - Portugal

Forwards

Love - Angola
Fred - Brazil
Roque Santa Cruz - Paraguay
Stern John - Trinidad and Tobago

Yes, there are more goalkeepers on the bench than most teams would carry. But who could i leave off among Abbondanzieri, Buffon, Bobadilla, and Quim?

Finally, the starting XI, the best of the best, the 2006 World Cup All Name Squad

Goalkeeper

Pascal Zuberbuehler - Switzerland

Defenders

Lebo Lebo - Angola
Yahya Golmohammadi - Iran
Massamasso Tchangai - Togo
Oguchi Onyewu - United States

Midfielders

Kaka - Brazil
Yaya Toure - Cote d'Ivoire
Jerko Leko - Croatia
Zinedine Zidane - France

Forwards

Razak Pimpong - Ghana
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink - Netherlands

Continue reading World Cup All-Name Squad

All-Name team, revisited

Last week i mentioned in passing that EPL soccer players have it all over their American baseball counterparts when it comes to great names. I think i said that there hasn't been a great baseball name since Harmon Killebrew retired 30 or so years ago.

Watching the Mets and Cardinals last night, i realized i was mistaken.

Yadier Molina.

He can't hit a lick, but he's got a great name.

Continue reading All-Name team, revisited

EPL All-Name squad

Yesterday was the final day for the 2005 - 2006 English Premier League season. Chelsea, despite losing their final two games, won their second consecutive title. Bolton Wanderers dismal run since March saw them drop to 8th place, and lose out on European competition for next season.

While watching the Newcastle - Chelsea match yesterday, i realized that English football has it all over baseball when it comes to names. Lomana Lua-Lua rolls off the tongue in a way that Tom Glavine doesn't. In fact, i don't think there's been a really great baseball name since Harmon Killebrew retired.

So here's my offering for the best names in the EPL from this past season.

On the bench:

Shaka Hislop   West Ham   Keeper
Gerard Pique   Man U   Defense
Gareth Southgate   Middlesbrough   Defense
Pascal Chimbonda   Wigan   Defense
Muzzy Izzet   Birmingham   Midfield
Harry Kewell   Liverpool   Midfield
Momo Sissoko   Liverpool   Midfield
Nigel Reo-Coker   West Ham   Midfield
Ricardo Vaz Te   Bolton   Forward
Eidur Gudjohnsen   Chelsea   Forward
Collins John   Fulham   Forward
Ole Gunnar Solskja   Man U   Forward
Massimo Maccarone   Middlesbrough   Forward


And the Starting XI:
Jussi Jaaskaalinen   Bolton   Keeper
Sami Hyypia   Liverpool   Defense
Titus Bramble   Newcastle   Defense
Celestine Babayaro   Newcastle   Defense
Sun Jihai   Man City   Defense
Eric Djemba-Djemba   Aston Villa   Midfield
Steed Malbranque   Fulham   Midfield
Papa Bouba Diop   Fulham   Midfield
Xabi Alonso   Liverpool   Midfield
Aiyegbeni Yakubu   Middlesbrough   Forward
Lomana Lua Lua   Portsmouth   Forward

Continue reading EPL All-Name squad