Three And Out For June 9th 2012

Professional Sports Returns To Kansas City: Kansas City hosts the MLB All Star Game Tuesday June 10, 2012.

• Not since 1985 World Series has there been this much professional sports talent in Kansas City for any sport! Enjoy it while it lasts. . .

This Recession Will Last 7 years: According to latest research; when a recession is accompanied along with a financial crisis, it lasts – on average – as long as the preceding economic boom.

• The good news, we are half way through the slump!

Get Paid For Just Showing Up: Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Greenbrier Classic Golf Tournament this past weekend.

• They still got paid $1 Million and $1.5 Million in “appearance fees” by the tournament sponsors. Not bad for playing 2 days of golf.

NFL Championship Trivia And Chia Pet Seeds!

No predictions, just some interesting NFL Championship and Super Bowl Trivia.

Oh, and if you don’t believe the tie in to Chia Pets, read on!

• The Giants Are Undefeated In Conference Championship Games

• Rob Gronkowski ALONE has just four less touchdown catches (17) than the Ravens (21) … the ENTIRE Ravens

• The Ravens have never allowed 300 or more yards in a playoff game. Surprisingly, Tom Brady has only thrown for 300 yards in 3 of his 20 playoff starts.

• Ed Reed has 143 career starts. The Patriots starting secondary has 93 combined

• Joe Flacco has won a playoff game in each of his four seasons in the NFL

• Tom Brady is 9-2 at home in playoff games, and 4-1 against the Ravens in his career. But that one loss to Baltimore came at home in the playoffs in 2010

• The last time that both Ravens and Patriots missed the playoffs in the same year was 2002 (in the NFC, both the 49ers and Giants missed the playoffs last year)

• The Ravens run the ball and the Patriots throw it, right? Not exactly, Baltimore only has 21 more rushing attempts than New England this year

• Ray Lewis (age 36) is the oldest player on either team’s roster, but he was the Ravens’ top tackler with 95 this year. Pats’ leading tackler Jerod Mayo (age 25) had the exact same number of tackles

• The 49ers’ much-maligned receiving corp actually has three top-10 picks (Crabtree, Davis, Ginn), while the Giants’ receiving corp has just one first-rounder (Nicks)

• Both NFC QBs (Eli and Smith) were first-overall picks, making this just the fourth playoff game ever with two overall #1’s

• The 49ers have LOST more NFC Championship games (7) than the Giants have played in (4)

• The 49ers had 11-1 odds to win the Super Bowl before the playoffs while Giants had 18-1, now they’re both at 13-4

• New York’s defense let up 8 more points per game than San Fran’s, but the Giants offense only scored 0.8 more points per game than the Niners.

• Giants coach Tom Coughlin (age 65) was an NFL head coach while 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh (age 48) was an NFL quarterback in the 1990s

• If the Giants win, the combined record of the three NFC teams they would have beaten in the playoffs would be 38-10

Last Ten Super Bowls:

• Only 4 AFC Teams make up the entire roll call. Dominated by the big 3 – Steelers(3), Patriots(4), Colts(2). Raiders (1)

• The NFC has had a different team each year: Packers , Saints , Cardinals , Giants , Bears , Seahawks , Eagles , Panthers , Bucs, Rams

Yet the overall match up is surprisingly close. AFC 6 wins, NFC 4.

And last, but certainly not least . . .

Ray Rice keeps in shape by eating Chia Pet Seeds!

These seeds, which are known as Salvia hispanica, or chia seeds, have a long history that dates back to the ancient Aztecs. Today, however, they’re better known as the main ingredient that gives Chia Pet models like Chia Pet Elvis, Chia Shrek and Chia Obama their thickets of lustrous green mossy hair.

Chia was a staple of the diet of the Aztecs, who are thought to be some of the fiercest warriors of all time. According to the 2009 book “Born To Run,” they were a preferred food of the Tarahumara Indians, who are able to run hundreds of miles barefoot without resting or eating all that much. “There’s a history behind it,” Rice said.

 

A survey of Baltimore’s locker room after a practice this week turned up another chia devotee—star linebacker Ray Lewis. “I put them in my shake every morning,” he said.

 

Check out the full article and video on the WSJ

Enjoy the football this weekend.  It should be worth watching.

Good Things Come in Threes…

I know, this has nothing to do with sports or stocks, but I felt compelled to publish a second post today. If for no other reason, even though my first post did have one saving charitable virtue, this one might be less offensive to some….

13 Facts About Friday the 13th
By LiveScience Staff

If you fear Friday the 13th, then batten down the hatches. This week’s unlucky day is the first of three this year.

The next Friday the 13th comes in March, followed by Nov. 13. Such a triple whammy comes around only every 11 years, said Thomas Fernsler, a math specialist at the University of Delaware who has studied the number 13 for more than 20 years.

By the numbers
Here are 13 more facts about the infamous day, courtesy of Fernsler and some of live science own research:

1. The British Navy built a ship named Friday the 13th. On its maiden voyage, the vessel left dock on a Friday the 13th, and was never heard from again.

2. The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date’s digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, however.

3. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor.

4. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

5. Quarterback Dan Marino wore No. 13 throughout his career with the Miami Dolphins. Despite being a superb quarterback (some call him one of the best ever), he got to the Super Bowl just once, in 1985, and was trounced 38-16 by the San Francisco 49ers and Joe Montana (who wore No. 16 and won all four Super Bowls he played in).

6. Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.

7. Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13, 1926.

8. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

9. Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

10. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. “It was bad luck,” Twain later told the friend. “They only had food for 12.”

11. Woodrow Wilson considered 13 his lucky number, though his experience didn’t support such faith. He arrived in Normandy, France on Friday, Dec. 13, 1918, for peace talks, only to return with a treaty he couldn’t get Congress to sign. (The ship’s crew wanted to dock the next day due to superstitions, Fernsler said.) He toured the United States to rally support for the treaty, and while traveling, suffered a near-fatal stroke.

12. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

13. The seals on the back of a dollar bill include 13 steps on the pyramid, 13 stars above the eagle’s head, 13 war arrows in the eagle’s claw and 13 leaves on the olive branch. So far there’s been no evidence tying these long-ago design decisions to the present economic situation.