Borderline Fantastic

I decided with my tons of links to split off the sports ones in their own separate post.

Amazing Tailgating Trailer - Only 3 TVs included?

J-Roll’s Sportscenter commercial

Looking back at the Mariners’ futuristic night - You might forget about the original Turn Ahead the Clock game. All sorts of fun facts I wasn’t aware of.

Let’s Play The Feud: The WNBA Edition - The fight in the WNBA game. In case you are the one person that hasn’t seen it.

Please, I Beg You, Make It Stop - A post about the green sticker on the back of QB’s helmets in the NFL. This year they added a graphic.

Agent Aloha - Some great Philly shirts. The best of the bunch.

This year’s Penn State video

There is nothing worse than getting mocked by the Nationals - I hate the kiss cam, but this is funny.

Game of the century The story behind the 1912 Carlisle vs. Army battle

Rare cancer took Ruth, dentist says

Baseball star John Kruk one of many fooled by bank robber

Ticket Stumbler - Pulls together listings from the various ticket sites.

Passing the Torch: An Evolution of Form - The Olympic Torch over the years.

Skip Caray Tributes …
Baseball mourns loss of Skip Caray
Ernie Johnson And Turner Sports’ Tribute To Skip Caray

I’ve been getting sick of worthless baseball lists. Here are some decent ones …
Top 20 Baseball Quotes of All Time
The Worst Seats in the House
THN.com’s NHL Logo Rankings

This week I launched College Football Picks for the 2008 season. It’s a College Football Pickem game that I started last season. Similar to last year you have the option of competing against all ICH members or in a group.

ICH picks includes games featuring Top 25 teams against the spread. Your score will rank you against the other people making ICH picks. It will also add to your Overall ICH Score where you can see where you rank against everyone in all sports.

Groups can be customized in a number of ways so that your group will only pick the games you want. You can select from Top 25, conferences, or individual teams. Any combination you wish. Groups can choose to pick against the spread or straight up. Wager Points allow your group members to place points on games they are confident in. The risk is that an incorrect pick will result in the amount wagered being subtracted from your total.

If you are ready, the rankings for Week 1 are up and you can start making your picks now!

Ice Cream Helmet College Football Picks

Last week’s posting didn’t go as planned, so here is a whole load of links.

Odd News Items …

God accused of selling cocaine near Tampa church

Couple Launched 18-Month Egging Spree - This happened in my area, not exactly sure where it all took place.

British teen finds it pays to swear on exam

Little old ladies or criminal masterminds? Both!

More pop culture type news items …

The Muppets take the Smithsonian

Ken Burns new doc series for PBS - This time, its National Parks.

MR. T’S SNICKERS AD PULLED IN UK

Living stars who you may think are dead - MSNBC must have been really bored. This is a really terrible thing to publish. I either didn’t know the person or knew that they were still alive.

The 10 oddest travel guides ever published.

Funny …

The O’Brien vs. Stewart vs. Colbert three-show throwdown - I realize these are very old. The link slipped through the cracks.

If Your Last Girlfriend Had an IMDb Page

The A-Team Van Rides to Montreal!

First, Circuit City Demands All Copies of Mad Magazine with Ad Parody Destroyed. Then, Circuit City Apologizes for Pulling Mad Magazine, Promises to Get a Sense of Humor.

Chinese restaurant called TRANSLATE SERVER ERROR

Colbert: Canton, KS Not Such a Shithole After All

Interesting/informative things that didn’t fit elsewhere …

Should you recycle an ex? After all, he’s already on the curb

Can’t sleep? Blame all those glowing gadgets

Wake n’ Bacon is most delicious alarm clock ever

Are Revolving Doors More Energy Efficient?

Governor’s Information for each state - Randomly came across this. All sorts of facts about the requirements and rules for the Governors of each state.

Free Coinstar - Apparently I was the only person who wasn’t aware of this. I always thought Coinstar was expenseive. However, there is no charge if you turn it into a gift card. They have places like Amazon and Circuit City. My bank is closer and has a coin machine in the lobby, but still good to know about this.

This week from NPR …

This American Life 361: Fear of Sleep - The first story this week was by Mike Birbiglia about his problems with sleep walking.

Sometimes my travels on the internet wind up taking an unusual path leaving me tracing my steps from my destination back to where it all began. Take today, I started on a baseball blog and it led me to looking into the history of the NBA. I’ll explain …

It all started in my Google Reader where I keep up on a variety of feeds, many of them are the blogs of the ESPN baseball columnists. Rob Neyer is one of those columnists. He had an entry on Friday about Russ Gload (I think you need ESPN Insider to read, but its not too important). For those of you not in the loop, Russ Gload is the Kansas City Royals’ 1st baseman. It’s alright, I didn’t know who he was either, I haven’t kept up with the Royals. In the post he examined if Russ Gload was the worst everyday 1st basemen ever. He found three players doing worse than he has done so far this season. So there is still time for Russ to catch up.

One of those players was Howie Schultz who turned in the worst season ever in 1947 when he played for the Dodgers and Phillies. What interested me was that after the 1948 season Schultz stopped playing baseball and played basketball. In 1949 he played during the 1st season of the NBA for the Anderson Packers. This interested me very much. Who were the Anderson Packers? Where is Anderson? What other teams existed during the first season of the NBA that I’m not aware of?

Who were the Anderson Packers?
Basketball Reference to the rescue. The Anderson Packers did play in that first season of the NBA (49-50). In fact, they finished 2nd in the Western Division. They won their first two playoff series and wound up losing in the semifinals to the Minneapolis Lakers, who wound up winning the title. Despite making the playoffs, that was the only year the Anderson Packers were in the league.

Continuing to Wikipedia for more details, there aren’t a ton. The Packers played 3 seasons in the NBL. Then the NBL and BAA merged forming the NBA. After the inaugural NBA season the Packers moved to the NPBL. A league that almost lasted an entire season. One interesting note about the Packers: Their home court was the Anderson High School Wigwam.

Where is Anderson?
Indiana. Northeast of Indianapolis.

What about the other teams from that 1st NBA season?
There were 17 teams that season in 3 divisions: Eastern, Central, and Western.

Eastern
Baltimore Bullets - Lasted 1947-1954. In NBA: 1949-1954.
Boston Celtics - Still in existence
New York Knickerbockers - Still in existence
Philadelphia Warriors - Moved to San Francisco in 1962. Now the Golden State Warriors.
Syracuse Nationals - Moved to Philadelphia in 1963. Now the Philadelphia 76ers.
Washington Capitals - Lasted 1946-1951. Only 2 seasons in NBA.

Central
Chicago Stags - Lasted 1946-1950. Only played in NBA for 1 season.
Fort Wayne Pistons - Moved to Detroit in 1957, where they still play.
Minneapolis Lakers - Moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where they still play.
Rochester Royals - Moved to Cincinnati in 1957. Moved to Kansas City/Omaha in 1972 and became the Kings. Just in Kansas City starting in 1975. Moved to Sacramento in 1985, where they still exist.
St. Louis Bombers - Lasted 1946-1950. Only played in NBA for 1 season.

Western
Anderson Packers - Talked about them above. NBL: 1946-1949. NBA: 1949-1950, NPBL: 1950-1951.
Denver Nuggets - NBL: 1948-1949, NBA: 1949-1950. Not connected to the current Denver Nuggets.
Indianapolis Olympians - NBA: 1949-1953
Sheboygan Redskins - NBL: 1938-1949, NBA: 1949-1950, NPBL: 1950-1951
Tri-Cities Blackhawks - Moved to Milwaukee in 1951, shortened name to Hawks. Moved to St. Louis in 1955. Moved to Atlanta in 1968, where they still play. The Tri-Cities are Moline, Illinois; Rock Island, Illinois; and Davenport, Iowa. Apparently that area is now known as the Quad Cities, or maybe even the Quint Cities.
Waterloo Hawks - NBL: 1948-1949, NBA: 1949-1950, NPBL: 1950-1951

Out of those 17 teams only 8 still exist in some form. The 2nd season of the NBA only had 11 teams and 2 divisions. 3 teams moved to the NPBL and 3 teams folded.

I learned all this in just a little searching around this afternoon. As with most adventures of this type, it started at a baseball blog. I’d like to learn more about the history of the NBA, I love old teams, leagues and how teams move around. More likely I’ll see something else shiny on the internet and get distracted.

Now that I have an iPhone I realized the need to make my sites easily accessible on them. For my blogs was no problem thanks to the WPtouch plug-in. It takes no effort for you to use on your iPhone/iPod Touch, just visit the site and the correct version will be loaded. Here is how it looks:

This was the first plug-in I found and it seems to do the job. You can even write comments with it. All that needs to be changed are some of the icons. Otherwise I’m happy with the result.

I don’t have an iPod Touch so let me know how it works with one of them or any other comments using either platform.

The last time I posted links was June 23rd. I’ve been online since them, except for my almost two week break of visiting baseball stadiums on the East Coast and California. In order to avoid being over whelmed I’m going to split these into a few posts over the next few days.

Helpful tips …
Making security easier
Google has added a setting to that you always access your GMail over a secure connection. I’ve been access GMail via the secure site for a long time now and while I would hope everyone else does too, I highly doubt it. This security isn’t automatic so be sure to go in and change your settings.

Reducing Junk Mail
Yes, actual paper mail that comes in that box out front of your house. I still get tons of credit card offers. Oddly, most of the credit card offers are from companies I already have cards from. They have my email, why not just send me an email I can delete?

The usual LEGO links thanks to Gizmodo …
Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego
Lego Beijing Olympics

More fun from Gizmodo …
BuzzBall Brings the Rollercoaster Experience to Your Backyard
Jet Skiing in a Jacuzzi Is Half Crazy Half Sad

Things you likely already heard but just in case …
Court: Girl can’t be called Talula Does The Hula
Borgata Gambler Asked To Leave Because Of Body Odor
World’s fastest man: Tyson Homosexual

Things I heard on NPR …
Cooking Up Characters From Old Grocery Lists
This person takes old grocery lists and concocts characters based on the items on their lists. She started doing them on stage and has now released a book.

I was away for the first half of the month and getting things back in order the second half. While nothing was posted, there were still some visitors. I’m curious to see what was popular.

1. Will I become a Safari User? - Likely still popular from earlier in the month from a link I had in a comment on TUAW.
2. Everywhere I go I keep her picture in my wallet - This was a post about some Gym Class Heroes songs. I think they have a new album coming out. Maybe that’s why this became popular.
3. Baseball Picks on Ice Cream Helmet - I talked about this one last month. No new sign-ups on Ice Cream Helmet but this post keeps getting views.
4. Skimboard in your yard - Same spot as last month. No surprise its still here. It was posted in June.
5. Top 5 Things I secretly miss about the 80s - This might be the most popular Fives. Kathleen came up with it back in December 2006.

I’ll get back in to things for August. Likely lots of iPhone talk but I’ll try to mix in some non-iPhone talk to keep everyone happy.