Top 10 animal invasions in sports
Yes, a star was born Monday across the pond when a kitty cat invaded the soccer pitch at Liverpool's Anfield during their EPL game with Tottenham. Don't believe me that a cat can become a star overnight? Just check out the Anfield Cat Twitter account, which now has almost 30,000 followers and growing! That's more than Awful Announcing's Twitter page (insert cheap plug for @awfulannouncing here).
But, as crazy events like this tend to do, the Anfield Cat got us to thinking about other moments when animals invaded our sporting events. Here's 10 of our favorite moments in our most ridiculous, yet most adorable countdown yet. Well... except for the animals who didn't quite survive their moment in the spotlight, they might not see this as an adorable list.
(10) A bear walks the course at the U.S. Senior Open
-One of the best qualities of golf is the enjoyment of nature while playing the game. As an outdoor sport, it's not uncommon for golfers to come across all sorts of critters from squirrels and birds, to deer and aligators. But, at the U.S. Senior Open, a black bear might have caused a bit of panic when it decided to play through. How this clip lead to a Tim Kurkjian breakdown of man vs. bear is beyond me though.
(9) Bird meets its demise at tennis match
-I don't know how old this clip is, or who the tennis players are involved, but it was clearly a bad day to be a bird. The only thing missing is the tennis player saying "Cerrano kill a living thing?!" as he kneels and prays over the bird. Let's hope it got a decent burial! Ah, who cares it's a rat with wings! (If you don't get these references please go watch Major League II... right now, I'll wait.)
(8) Rabbit races for Touchdown at Michigan
-Here's another old clip where it would be great to know more information. A rabbit runs the length of the field at Michigan to score a TD while an unknown announcer calls the action like a modern-day Gus Johnson. Who was that announcer? What ever happened to that rabbit? At least there's a modest tie-in here to announcing.
(7) TPC Turtle takes a dive at Players Championship
-The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass is often called golf's 5th major. But, the most memorable moment from the 2011 version wasn't the golf itself, but this turtle who performed a masterful swan dive on the 16th green. Sadly, we haven't heard from the little bugger in months.
(6) Anfield Cat
-Yesterday's cat that invaded Liverpool's Anfield has to rank as the most adorable animal invasion on our list for several reasons. One, the cat didn't meet its untimely end. Two, isn't it precious? Maybe that's the side of me that was forced to get kittens after marriage, but seeing the little guy/gal run around just warms your heart. Granted, a few years ago, I would have rather seen Brad Friedel kick the cat into the stands... but I'm a man changed for the better.
(5) The bugs invade the ALDS
-Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS will always be remembered as "The Bug Game" when thousands, no MILLIONS of tiny insects swarmed the pitchers mound. Joba Chamberlain ended up blowing his save and the Indians would win the game. Of course, there are no good clips because of MLB's archane video policy, so here's a Youtube compilaiton of pictures that makes it look like a 1950's horror movie promo.
(4) Rally Squirrel rallies Cardinals
-Another playoff baseball game, another invasion that changed the course of a game. The bugs that invaded Cleveland didn't help the Indians advance any further in 2007. But, the now famous "Rally Squirrel" that invaded Busch Stadium multiple times during the 2011 NLDS between the Cardinals and Phillies changed the course of the 2011 postseason. Not only did the Rally Squirrel undoubtedly help the Cardinals win the World Series, but it's become a crossover phenomenon with t-shirts, theme songs, and baseball cards!
(3) Manu Ginobili catches a bat with his bare hands
-I think this is the most self-explanatory clip in our countdown. A pesky bat was wreaking havoc during a Spurs game. That is, until Manu "Van Helsing" Ginobili slayed the beast with one mighty swat of his hand. I wonder if any of his teammates worried about Manu turning in to a blood-sucking vampire after the ordeal.
(2) Randy Johnson kills a bird
-Apparently, birds and sports just don't mix. We've already seen a tennis ball kill one bird earlier in our list. But, I'd like to think it's demise wasn't as painful as this poor bird who was on the receiving end of a Randy Johsnon fastball during spring training. If anything, let's hope the bird's death was instant. In fact, I bet it didn't even feel a thing.
(1) A black cat curses the '69 Cubs
-Perhaps no franchise has seen as much terror come from animal invaders than the Chicago Cubs. Of course, there's the curse of the Billy Goat that hangs over the franchise like a black cloud. There was also Steve Bartman in the 2003 NLCS, although calling him an animal might be a tad bit of a stretch. But, the most infamous instance of bad luck from animals comes from 1969. The Cubs were leading the pennant race late in the season, until a black cat crossed Ron Santo's path in the batting circle. For those of you who don't believe in bad luck, the Cubs went on to choke away their lead to the Mets, who went on to win the World Series. Meanwhile, the Cubs still haven't won since 1908. Apparently, there's not enough animal sacrifices that can take place at Wrigley to overcome their checkered past of animal invasions.
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Jay Walker was a studio analyst for some of the Baseball Regionals on ESPNU on Saturday June 2nd!
ESPNU had it's #2 College Baseball Analyst this year, change from Morgan Ensberg to Jay Payton!
Dave Neal works SEC Baseball Regular Season games and starting this year the SEC Championship game on the ESPN family of network with Kyle Peterson!
Dari Nowkah and Anish Shiroff were the 2 main studio hosts for the networks of ESPN's coverage of the College Baseball Regionals and Super Regionals this year too!
Tonight's 3rd and deciding College Baseball Super Regional between the Baylor Bears VS Arkansas Razorbacks will be on ESPN2 and tonight's 3rd and deciding College Baseball Super Regional between the Kent State Goldenflashes VS Oregon Ducks will be on ESPNU!
After yesterday's game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regionals between the South Carolina Gamecocks VS Oklahoma Sooners was suspended with the score tied at 0 going into the bottom of the 6th inning, ESPNU and ESPN2 both showed the final 3 or 4 innings of game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regionals between the Florida State Seminoles VS Stanford Cardinals!
ESPN2 and ESPNU both showed game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regionals between the Kent State Goldenflashes VS Oregon Ducks last night too!
ESPN2 resumed play in the bottom of the 6th innings of game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regionals between the South Carolina Gamecocks VS Oklahoma Sooners this afternoon at 4;03 ET!
Today's 3 and deciding Super Regional between the Stony Brook Seawolves VS LSU Tigers was moved from 1 ET on ESPN2 to 8 ET on ESPNEWS today due to bad weather, making ESPN2 and ESPNU both show the 1st 2 innings of game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regional between the Florida Gators VS NC State Wolfpack, before that game had a delay of2hours and 23 minutes because of rain and lightning, making ESPN2 and ESPNU have a studio show due that delay this afternoon and when the Florida Gators VS NC State Wolfpack with the ESPNU logo still of the gamebox and due to that game running long on ESPN2, the 1st 15 minutes of game 2 of the College Baseball Super Regional between the Florida State Seminoles VS Stanford Cardinals was moved from ESPN2 to ESPNEWS!
Keith Law was the 2nd studio analyst for ESPNU coverage of the College Baseball Super Regionals this weekend!
tonight during the Dodgers at Mariners game on FOX Matt Vasgersian when sending us back after a gamebreak would say and now back to Collins and Karros!
Due to game 2 of the Stanford Cardinals at Florida State Seminole College Baseball Regional getting rained out today and moved to tomorrow night on ESPN2, ESPN2 and ESPNU both showed the top of the 9th innings of game 1 of the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baylor Bears College Baseball Super Regional and both networks also showed the 1st hour of game 1 of the Oklahoma Sooners at South Carolina Gamecocks Super Regional tonight too!
Due to the 1st game of the Stony Brook Seawolves at LSU Tigers Super Regional playing extra innings yesterday afternoon, they moved the 1st 31/3 innings of game 1 of the Saint John's Redstorm at Arizona Wildcats Super Regional from ESPN2 to ESPNU, before joinging the game in progress in the bottom of the 4th inning on ESPN2 dur to a rain delay before the top of the twelth inning of game 1 of yesterday's Super Regional between Stony Brook at LSU which eventually got suspended untill this morning!
So they showed the final 61/2 innings of game 1 of the Saint John's Redstorm at Arizona Wildcats Super Regional on both ESPN2 and ESPNU yesterday afternoon!
does anybody know what ESPN does if a College Baseball Super Regional runs over it's time and there is a College Baseball Super Regional going on at the same time on ESPN2 and ESPNU???
Do they move the next game to ESPNEWS or do they just join the game already in progress???
The 1st of 2 Regionals from Tucson, Arizona were moved from ESPNU to ESPNEWS due to the 2nd game of the College Baseball Regionals at Columbia, South Carolina going over it's time last Friday and Saturday on ESPNU!
Justin Kutcher went for working the College Baseball Regionals for ESPNU and the College Baseball Super Regionals for the networks of ESPN with Morgan Ensberg for the last 3 years, to working the College Baseball Regionals for ESPNU and the College Baseball Super Regionals for the Networks of ESPN with Jay Payton this year!
Adam Amin is taking over PBP for ESPN"S Coverage of the College Baseball Super Regionals for Dan Mclaughlin who did PBP for the last 4 College Baseball Super Regionals for ESPN,Steve Berthiaume is taking over as PBP for ESPN's coverage of the College Baseball Super Regionals which Mike Gleason did PBP for the last 4 years too!
Danny Kanell is taking over as an analyst at this year's College World Series Super Regionals for ESPN for Nick Belmonte who was an analyst for the College Baseball Super Regionals on ESPN for the last 8 years and Doug Glanville is taking over as an analyst for this year's College World Series Super Regionals on ESPN, after CSN Chicago loaned Frank Thomas to ESPN to be an analyst for ESPN's coverage of the College World Super Regionals last year!
Dave Neal went from working with Frank Thomas on the College World Series Super Regionals last year, to working with Jay Walker on the College World Series Super Regionals this year, while Jay Walker went from working with Dan Mclaughlin on the College World Series Super Regionals last year, to working with Dave Neal on the College World Series Super Regionals this year!
Mike Rooney went from working the College World Series Super Regionals with Mike Gleason for the last 4 years, to working the College World Series Super Regionals with Carter Blackburn and Randy Flores this year!
Paul Lo Duca went from working the College World Series Super Regionals with Clay Matvick last year, to working the College World Series Super Regionals with Adam Amin this year!
Mark Neely went from working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Nick Belmonte last year, to working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Danny Kanell this year!
Clay Matvick went from working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Paul Lo Duca last year, to working the College Baseball Super Regionals with his normal partner Kyle Peterson and field level reporter Jenn Brown this year!
Kyle Peterson went from working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Mike Patrick last year, to working the College Baseball Super Regionals with his normal partner Clay Matvick and field level reporter Jenn Brown this year!
Mike Patrick went from working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Kyle Peterson last year, to working the College Baseball Super Regionals with Nomar Garciaparra and field level reporter Jessica Mendoza this year!
Carter Blackburn went from working the College Baseball Super Regionals last year with Nomar Garciaparra and field level reporter Jenn Brown to working this year's College Baseball Super Regionals with Randy Flores and Mike Rooney!
Nomar Garciaparra went from working the College World Series Super Regionals last year with Carter Blackburn and field level reporter Jenn Brown, to working this year's College World Series Super Regionals with Mike Patrick and field level reporter Jessica Mendoza and lastly Jenn Brown went from working as an field level reporter for the College World Series Super Regionals with Carter Blackburn and Nomar Garciaparra last year, to working as a field level reporter for this year's College World Series Super Regionals with Clay Matvick and Kyle Peterson!
Mark Mulder so far has been a 2nd analyst foi 5 of the 10 weeks with ESPN"S Wednesday Night Baseball crew so far this year!
Does this mean that ESPN is planning on using him as a 2nd analyst for 12 of their 25 weeks of Wednesday Night Baseball this year???
Mike Rooney will also be in the studio for ESPNU's coverage of the College World Series this year too!
Ben Mcdonald is in the studio for ESPN's coverage of the College Baseball Regionals and Super Regionals and ESPNU's coverage of the College World Series this year and Tennessee Baseball Coach Dave Serrano was a guest studio analyst for the College Baseball Regionals on ESPNU on Friday June 1st and Saturday June 2nd this year!
Here are the broadcasters for this year's coverage of the College World Series on ESPN!
Karl Ravech,Kyle Peterson and Jenn Brown will be the field level reporter on Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the afternoon and Tuesday night!.
Mike Patrick, Nomar Garciaparra and Jessica Mendoza will be the field level reporter on Friday,Saturday and Sunday night!
Mike Patrick, Kyle Peterson and Jenn Brown will be the field level reporter on Monday afternoon!
MIke Patrick, Orel Hershisher and Jessica Mendoza will be the field level reporter on Monday June 18th, Wednesday June 20th, Thursday June 21st and Friday June 22nd if neccessary!
Jon Sciambi,Kyle Peterson and Jenn Brown will be the field level reporter on Thursday June 21st during the afternoon and Friday June 22nd during the afternoon, if necessary and Mike Patrick, Kyle Peterson,Orel Hershisher and Jenn Brown and Jessica Mendoza will be the field level reporters for the College World Series finals on Sunday June 24th, Monday June 25th and Tuesday June 26 if a 3rd and deciding game is needed!
It dosen't suprise me that ESPN moved Jon Sciambi from being the #2 PBP voice for 3 to 4 games games to being the #3 PBP voice for 1 to 2 games this year, after having Dave O'Brien doing PBP for the College World Series on the 1st Saturday and Sunday during the day last year!
It also dosen't suprise me that they are using Karl Ravech as the #2 PBP voice for 4 games this year either!
I am not suprised that they moved Kyle Peterson from being the field level reporter for most of the day games for the last 8 years and a 2nd field level reporter for the College World Series finals to being the #2 analyst for the College World series this year and a 2nd analyst for the College World Series final, which Robin Ventura worked for the last 3 College World Series on ESPN!
I am suprised however that ESPN demoted Jenn Brown from being the #1 reporter for most of the night games to being the #2 reporter for most of the afternoon games and from being the #1 to being the #2 Field Level reporter from the College World Series Finals after 1 year and that Jessica Mendoza is the new #1 reporter from the College World Series in her 1st year of working it this year too!
The broadcasters for ESPN's coverage of the 6 College Baseball Regionals this year were Clay Matvick and Kyle Peterson from Columbia, South Carolina and Justin Kutcher and Jay Payton from Tucson, Arizona for ESPNU!
Ducis Rodgers and Chris Burke from College Station, Texas and Joe Davis and Randy Flores from Stanford, California for ESPN3.
Adam Amin and Nick Belmonte from Tallahassee, Florida for ESPN3, with the game Saturday night at 7 ET on ESPN2 and Mark Neely and Danny Kanell from Gainesville, Florida for ESPN3, with the game Sunday at 12 ET on ESPN2!
here are the broadcasters for this year's College Baseball Super Regionals on ESPN!
Dave Neal and Jay Walker will be working the Arkansas at Baylor series, Steve Berthiaume and Doug Glanville will be working the Stony Brook at LSU series, which means that Steve Berthiaume and Doug Glanville will be flying from their Hartford, Connecticut studios to Louisiana!
Mark Neely and Danny Kanell will be working the Oklahoma at South Carolina series, which means that Mark Neely and Danny Kanell are flying from the College Baseball Regional from Gainesville, Florida to Columbus, South Carolina for the College Baseball Super Regionals!
Carter Blackburn, Randy Flores and Mike Rooney wil be working the Saint John's at Arizona series,which means that Mike Rooney will be flying from their ESPNU studios in Hartford, Connecticut for the College Baseball Regionals to being a 2nd analyst for the College Baseball Super Regional in Arizona and Randy Flores wil fly from being the only analyst for the Stanford, Calfornia Regionals to being 1 of 2 analysts for the College Baseball Super Regional in Arizona!
Adam Amin and Paul Lo Duca will be working the Kent State at Oregon Super Regional, which means that Adam Amin flew from the Tallahassee, Florida Regional to the Eugene, Oregon Super Regional!
Justin Kutcher and Jay Payton will be working the NC State at Florida Super Regional this year, which means that Justin Kutcher and Jay Payton flew from Tucson, Arizona for the College Baseball Regionals to Miami, Florida for this year's College Baseball Super Regionals!
Clay Matvick,Kyle Peterson and Jenn Brown will be the field level reporter for the TCU at UCLA Super regional this year, which means that Clay Mavick and Kyle Peterson flew from Columbia, South Carolina for the College Baseball Regionals to Los Angeles, California for this year's College Baseball SUper Regionals and Mike Patrick,Nomar Garciaparra and Jessica Mendoz will be the field level reporter for the Stanford at Florida State Super regional this year, which means that Jessica Mendoza flew from being the #2 analyst and a 2nd analysr from the Women's College World Series from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma the last weekk to being the field level reporter from Tallahassee, Florida and Nomar Garciaparra flew from being the analyst for ESPN2's Wednesday Night Baseball from New York last night to Tallahassee, Florida tomorrow night!
Has anybody else noticed that TBS has had Steve Physioc do PBP for 1 of their TBS MLB Sunday games in June for the last 2 years???
I wonder if this means that they will use him as PBP for 1 MLB game in June of next year???
I figure that they use him than to give Dick Stockton an extra week off after working the NBA Playoffs for TNT!
This also means that TBS uses Brian Anderson for PBP for 12 to 14 games, Ernie Johnson as PBP for 7 to 9 games and Dick Stockton as PBP for 4 to 5 weeks during the last 2 MLB regular seasons and most likely next year too!
Tom Verducci is the field level reporter for the MLB Network game on Thursday June 7th and 21st, while Sam Ryan is the field level reporter for the MLB Network game on Friday June 8th, Friday June 15th and Tuesday June 26th!
