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If you’re like me, you’re totally still shopping for the holidays… and you probably will be right down to the wire. To that end, let me make a quick gift suggestion for the fun loving golf guy in your life.

It’s a unique boxed set called the Perfect Day Club Survival Kit and it’s the invention of a self confessed golf nut who also has a passion for the perfect martini. The set comes in a cute gift box featuring the perfect day mascot, Joy (she’s the little gal in the martini glass). It includes martini glasses, golf balls and other fun Perfect Day paraphernalia, all with the Joy logo. It even includes some very special massage oils. Well yeah, we’ve all longed for a little massage after a round or two of golf, right? Anyway, it’s a light hearted and whimsical and it’s definitely made for the guy who associates golf with laughter and fun… rather than seriousness and frustration.

Another great thing about this gift is that for every Survival Kit purchased, $1.00 will be donated to The First Tee and $1.00 will be donated to Wounded Warriors, two awesome organizations.

Find out more about the Perfect Day Club and the Survival Kit at the Perfect Day website. Oh BTW, note to golf girls: if you give this gift to the guy in your life…he may just want to give you … a really nice massage. Now that’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Source: The Perfect Day Golf Gift

Ashley Cole (r) squared up to Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas

The Football Association says it will examine all the available evidence before taking any action against Ashley Cole for an alleged two-finger salute.

Photographs appear to show Chelsea defender Cole making a gesture during Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Arsenal.

Referee Alan Wiley did not mention it in his post-match report but Cole could still face punishment by the FA.

Reports claim it was directed at Arsenal fans who had jeered the former Gunners star throughout the match.

“Nothing has been reported by the referee and none of the officials saw the incident,” said an FA spokesman.

“If an incident is not seen by the officials it would depend on what other evidence is available, whether there’s any TV footage, any photographic evidence to be considered.”

Cole made an acrimonious departure from Arsenal in August last year and has since criticised his former club in his autobiography.

His move across London to rivals Chelsea made Cole an unpopular figure with Arsenal fans and Sunday’s game was the first time the England defender had returned to his former club.

Cole was on the receiving end of several fierce tackles, with Cesc Fabregas booked for one challenge just before the final whistle.

It prompted an angry reaction from Cole who appeared to hit out at the Arsenal midfielder.

Source: FA to examine all Cole evidence

Federer and Henin dominated the tennis world in 2007

Roger Federer and Justine Henin have been named the 2007 world champions by the International Tennis Federation.

Both are ranked number one in the world and ended the year with wins at the season-ending championships.

Federer, who also won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles to bring his Grand Slam haul to 12, took the award for the fourth year running.

Henin, who won the French and US Open titles, was named world champion for the third time.

Federer, 26, said: “It is an honour to be named ITF world champion for the fourth year running.

“Each year brings new challenges, and I am proud that I have been able to raise the level of my game when needed.

“It gives me great satisfaction to have won another three Grand Slam titles and maintained the number one ranking.”

Henin, 25, becomes women’s world champion for the second year running, having also received the honour in 2003.

The Belgian said: “This has definitely been the best season of my career so far and I still think my best tennis is yet to come.”

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan and the Zimbabwe-US pairing of Cara Black and Liezel Huber are the 2007 doubles world champions.

Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania and Urszula Radwanska of Poland are the junior world champions.

Source: Federer & Henin win accolade

PITTSBURGH — Richard Desrosiers never made it to Heinz Field to watch his beloved Steelers play football, but his widow helped him fulfill his dream in death.

I couldn’t take the tumor away. I couldn’t take the pain away. I couldn’t make him better. But I can do this.

–Kathleen Desrosiers

Thanks to some help from sympathetic donors, Kathleen Desrosiers attended Sunday’s game, bringing an urn with some of her late husband’s ashes, as well as his ring and two pictures of him. He had died in March of a brain tumor.

“I couldn’t take the tumor away. I couldn’t take the pain away. I couldn’t make him better. But I can do this,” Kathleen Desrosiers, 60, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Though he lived in Exeter, N.H., Richard Desrosiers adopted the Steelers at an early age and followed them closely. He named his dog Steeler and his wardrobe, by his widow’s estimate, was 95 percent Steelers gear.

Braving the biting cold and the Steelers’ disappointing 29-22 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Desrosiers waved her new Terrible Towel, showed off her painted face and warmed her head with a Steelers hat.

She called it “an overwhelming experience.”

“It’s sad to think that he got here in death,” she added. “But this is where he wanted to be. It was what he asked me to do. I got to be with him one last time while he did something he wanted more than anything else in the whole wide world.”

Amy Litterini, a western Pennsylvania native who now lives in New Hampshire, was the couple’s counselor during Desrosiers’ yearlong battle with cancer. She arranged for the purchase of the two tickets to Sunday’s game and raised money for Kathleen Desrosiers and one of her sons to spend a night in a Pittsburgh hotel.

Desrosiers was covered with a Steelers blanket when he died, and at his funeral, his two stepsons honored his memory by donning Steelers jerseys.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Source: Wish granted: Deceased Steeler fan attends game

CLEVELAND — The Buffalo Bills charter plane got stuck in the mud Monday, so the team traveled home by bus.

The pilot took too wide a turn from one taxiway to another at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the front wheel of the plane got stuck, airport spokeswoman Pat Smith said. The team was not on board the plane.

“It wasn’t snowing at the time. We don’t know why he did this,” Smith said.

The Bills, who lost to the Cleveland Browns 8-0 on Sunday, decided to take charter buses back to Buffalo. The five-bus caravan is expected to arrive by early afternoon.

“Everybody’s fine and everybody’s anxious to get home,” Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold said.

The Bills spent Sunday night in Cleveland after their flight was canceled by heavy snow, which also was a factor in the game.

Players were given the rest of the day off and not scheduled back until Wednesday, when they resume practice for the game against the New York Giants in Buffalo’s home season finale.

The plane, which got stuck around 8 a.m., was towed out of the mud. It didn’t affect other flights.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Source: Bills charter buses home after plane sticks in mud

The Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday traded MLB’s saves leader Jose  Valverde to the Houston Astros for 3 players in a separate, but connected deal under which the Oakland A’s traded their ace and 2007 All Star Game starter Dan Haren to Arizona for 6 players with the Diamondbacks getting 3 players back from the Astros in a massive 3 team, 12 player pair of transactions.

The other players who went to the A’s, the Astros and the D’backs in the dual deals, aside from reliever Chad Qualls and utility 2nd baseman/centerfielder Chris Burke, are mainly young prospects, although  Baseball Prospectus raves about 4 of the 6 prospects shipped to Oakland for Haren.

However, the aspect of these deals to watch is the impact upon both the D’backs and Astros’ pitching.

Valverde’s arrival in Houston solidifies the closer role in an already potentially strong bullpen.  However, Houston’s starters, after their ace  Roy Oswalt, are adequate at best.

With the acquisition of Haren, the D’backs boast an awesome and imposing starting rotation; Haren, with 18 game winner Brandon Webb, young Micah Owings and lefthanders Doug Davis and 44 year old veteran  Randy “Big Unit” Johnson.
 
In the twin deals, the Diamondbacks also bolstered their bullpen after the loss of Valverde by acquiring Astros’ set-up man Chad Qualls, thus setting up a 3 man battle for the D’backs’ closer role between Brandon Lyon, Qualls and Tony Pena.

Source: Haren From A’s to Diamondbacks in 3 Team, 12 Player Blockbuster Deal

If this is the level of drama that Steve Bruce will have to withstand between now and the conclusion of Wigan’s battle to avoid relegation then the former Birmingham manager would be wise to keep an eye on his blood pressure. Three goals to the good after a “near perfect” first half, Bruce saw Blackburn claw their way back to 3-3 despite being reduced to 10 men before Marcus Bent secured Wigan’s first win in 14 games after a match of two hat-tricks, a missed penalty and another injury to Emile Heskey.

The latest setback to Heskey, who badly twisted an ankle towards the end of the first half, could not have come at a less opportune moment with another new England coach to impress.

Heskey has already missed 11 weeks of the season with a broken foot and Bruce fears he may face another lengthy lay-off. “He is on crutches now and he will have scans over the next 24 to 48 hours to assess the injury but he has gone over badly on his ankle and it looks like he will be at least a few weeks out,” Bruce said.

Happily, Bent made up for Heskey’s loss by matching the three goals scored by Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz as Wigan celebrated their first win since 1 September and left Mark Hughes to contemplate what is going wrong for his team after recording only one win in seven.

Blackburn had to play the last 30 minutes a man short after Brett Emerton was shown his second yellow card by the referee, Mark Clattenburg, and while he thought the dismissal was harsh, Hughes felt it was not the cause of his side’s defeat. “The first yellow should not have been a yellow but we lost because our defending in the first half was unacceptable,” Hughes said.

Wigan, who conceded a goal after 28 seconds in their last home fixture, were two up inside 12 minutes this time. Both goals emphasised their capacity to counter-attack at speed, a quality that Bruce has quickly identified as one they must exploit.

Denny Landzaat took advantage first, going clear through the middle as Bent directed a well-judged lay-off into his path and steering the ball calmly past Brad Friedel. Then Bent, facing one of his former clubs, bustled in at the business end of another direct assault, defying Stephen Warnock and Ryan Nelsen in their efforts to dispossess him before leaving Friedel to pick the ball out of his net for the second time in two minutes.

Blackburn’s joy at welcoming Steven Reid back into their side for his first start in 16 months had already dissipated but the afternoon did not improve for them. Having squandered an opportunity when Benni McCarthy’s feeble penalty was saved by Chris Kirkland, following Heskey’s impeding of Christopher Samba, they conceded a third goal after 37 minutes as Paul Scharner scored at the near post from Ryan Taylor’s free-kick on the left.

Yet first-half stoppage time launched them on a comeback with a piece of individual brilliance from Santa Cruz, beating Kirkland with a fine strike from the left-hand corner of area. That inspired a much more determined start to the second half, in which the Paraguayan hooked home the rebound after Emmerson Boyce had almost put Emerton’s cross into his own net, then completed his hat-trick by heading home Warnock’s centre.

Wigan’s spirit could not be subdued, however, and they took advantage of the extra man in the final 15 minutes as Bent converted two Antonio Valencia crosses to land Bruce his first win in his fourth match in charge.

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Wigan Athletic 5 Blackburn Rovers 3: Bent wraps up victory for Wigan after Santa is gifted a hat-trick

Scotland’s Alex Arthur, who aspires to be Britain’s eighth world champion next year, almost had his dream dashed in his home town of Edinburgh last night, coming perilously close to losing his WBO Interim super-heavyweight belt at the hands of Stephen Foster Jnr.

Arthur was floored in the 11th round by a massive overhand right which sent him crashing through the ropes. The Scot’s ring-name is “Amazing” but what really was amazing is that he somehow managed to beat the count and go on to a close but unanimous points victory.

Hot-foot from Las Vegas, Ricky Hatton was at ringside to cheer on his Manchester mate Foster who, in an epic contest, had himself been felled by a Hatton-type left hook to the liver in the ninth.

Foster’s aggression had troubled Arthur throughout the fight but it was lucky that Arthur had amassed a sufficient points lead to ensure victory.

Arthur was clearly troubled at having to make the 9st 4lb limit and admitted “I was not happy with my performance. I don’t know what on earth I was playing at. I just wasn’t up for it.”

He will certainly have to do better if he is to acquire the authentic title from Joan Guzman but it is likely that the Dominican, who has until February to meet him, will move up a weight division, giving Arthur the title by default.

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Boxing: Arthur’s title credentials put in doubt by ferocious Foster

Mark Philippoussis’ stop-start comeback took another twist with the 31-year-old going through to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open play-offs despite withdrawing from his final round robin match with a knee injury.

Philippoussis, who was 1-1 in matches at the Melbourne Park qualifier, had only remained in contention because of the withdrawal of top seed Alun Jones - who he’d been due to play.

Waiting on the result of a match between Brydan Klein and Sam Groth tonight to see if he’d progress, the two-time grand slam finalist scraped through by the smallest of margins.

With Klein beating the big-serving Groth 7-5 6-4 it left the three players in group A with a match win each.

The group was also logged on the same number of sets won, with the two quarterfinalists ultimately decided on games won divided by games played.

Groth won the pool (0.622) from Philippoussis (0.615) and Klein (0.600). He is now scheduled to play Victorian Rameez Junaid on Wednesday.

Whether Philippoussis, who has a long history of knee problems, can play on, remains to be seen.

A spokesman confirmed he had swelling in the lateral miniscus (cartilage). If he is forced out of this tournament, Philippoussis will need a discretionary wildcard entry to play in the Open

Another comeback gathered momentum as Jelena Dokic won her third-straight match in the play-off tournament.

She beat Victorian Karolina Wlodarczak 6-2 4-6 6-2, but remains far from pleased with her game ahead of the quarters.

“I’m not happy at all with my game, I’m struggling (to put) all my practice work into my matches,” she said.

“That’s expected, so I can get much, much better and hopefully I will already do it in the next match.”

AAP

Source: Poo squeezes through

Rich Rodriguez is one of the college football’s most respected coaches, but is he really the proven star Michigan thinks its getting? Will the Wolverines have to adapt to Rodriguez’s style, or will it be the other way around? He’s an elite coach, but Pete Fiutak wonders if he’s the perfect fit for right now.

West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez Goes To Michigan

By Pete Fiutak   

Yost, Schembechler, Carr … Rodriguez?

West Virginia alum Rich Rodriguez was pulled away from his alma mater to take over as the head football coach at Michigan, one of the top five premier gigs in all of college sports. All he has to do now is win national titles (notice the s on the end). No pressure.

Going 60-26 in seven wildly successful seasons at West Virginia, Rodriguez took an already good team to another level. Don Nehlan had put the program on the map, and even had it in a position to win a national title, but Rodriguez gave the Mountaineers a next-level attitude that they really could compete with the big boys, whether that was really true or not. Helped by the exodus of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC, West Virginia became the Big East’s elite team, complete with a defining win over Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl.

It’s not like Rodriguez was being paid tip money in Morgantown, making roughly $1.9 million a year, but he’s not going to make anywhere near the dough at Michigan he would’ve received had he taken the Alabama job last year, which he was extremely close to doing. However, this isn’t about money; this is about spite, and it’s about Michigan. Rodriguez had a frosty relationship with the West Virginia higher-ups, and at the end of the day, this was Michigan calling. You know, the self-proclaimed Leaders and the Best. The winningest program in the history of college football. West Virginia has become big, but Michigan is Michigan.

The big question right from the start will be how Rodriguez fits in with the personnel. Michigan has a lighter, more athletic offensive line, by design, than it had three years ago after former head man Lloyd Carr switched up philosophies a bit and chose to go to a quicker front five. The building blocks are in place to run the spread offense like Rodriguez likes, but while Michigan always has the potential to come up with a Steve Slaton or two to run the ball, it needs a Pat White to operate the show. And there will be the initial problem.

2007’s top recruit, Ryan Mallett, is a 6-6, 250-pound bomber with 2010 first round draft pick potential if he gets the right coaching. He’s more in the Tom Brady/Elvis Grbac/typical Michigan quarterback mode, and he’s certainly not the right fit for what Rodriguez is going to want to do. The starting quarterback for the 2008 Wolverines might be picking out a tux for his high school winter formal.

And then there’s the pedigree of receivers. While Rodriguez has had a few NFL-caliber targets in Morgantown, can he get the superstar receivers to come to Ann Arbor to play in a run-oriented attack? Sure, he convinced Noel Devine to come to West Virginia in a do-it-all role, but Michigan has been a receiver factory and it might not get all the same playmakers like Braylon Edwards and Mario Manningham if there isn’t a Mallett-like passer throwing to them.

Rodriguez certainly has the name recognition and he certainly has the star power, but he’ll have to win over some Maize and Blue fans right away by proving that either 1) he can coach Mallett and make a passing game sing or 2) convince everyone to be patient by taking a few steps back to potentially take a giant leap forward. After all, if Illinois can go to the Rose Bowl using the spread-rushing attack, then certainly Michigan can do the same with Rodriguez.

But Michigan fans don’t want to go to the Rose Bowl; they want national titles. To get those, Rodriguez has to be an even better overall recruiter than he’s been at West Virginia. Despite being known as a terrific recruiter, West Virginia has had a mere seven players drafted since 2003 and none last year. That might fly in the Big East, and there are several pro prospects on this Mountaineer team, but to be the every year national title power it’s supposed to be, Rodriguez has to up his overall game. By comparison, since 2003, Michigan has had 23 players drafted including seven last year.

Problem two that’ll get the Michigan message boards buzzing: coffee’s for closers only.

Yes, the spread can work at the highest level with the right personnel. Vince Young proved that the right player can carry a great team to something special in the offense, and Urban Meyer showed that the right coach can make all the difference. However, Meyer had gotten it done before going to Florida, going 12-0 at Utah. There are still questions with Rodriguez.

Basically, West Virginia had one phenomenal half in the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, but the Bulldogs came roaring back in the second half with only a fake punt from the Mountaineers holding off the charge in the 38-35 win. The next best win in the Rodriguez era was against … um, uh, Rutgers last year? Louisville in 2005? With everything on the line this year, West Virginia came up with an all-timer of a choke in the home loss to Pitt to go to the Fiesta Bowl instead of the national title. That’s not to say Rodriguez can’t coach, but he’s not necessarily the be-all-end-all proven commodity many might think he is. Then again, neither was Les Miles or Greg Schiano.

Michigan made overtures to Rutgers’ Schiano, but he’ll probably end up in the NFL or at Penn State sometime in the next three years. There was the bizarre dance with Miles, which begs the question of whether or not things would be very, very different right now had West Virginia beaten Pitt and been off to the national championship instead of LSU. Did Michigan actually get the guy it really wanted when pro coaches like Bobby Petrino, John Fox, Lane Kiffin and Sean Payton were supposedly in the mix?

So now the pressure is on. There will be no grace period. There will be no time allowed for adjustments. Rodriguez has to come up with a top-shelf recruiting class, he has to beat Ohio State, and he has to have Michigan in the national championship chase, not necessarily in that order. Did Michigan make the right call? If nothing else, the Big Ten just became even more interesting.

Source: Is Rich Rodriguez The Right Fit For Michigan?