sports

Looking back over the past year of Dodger- and baseball-related posts here on Celsius1414 or, heck, the last couple of weeks, it should be pretty obvious that the subject has become pretty popular 'round these parts. A glance at the tag cloud page confirms it.

I've been thinking of splitting off baseball content into its own website for some time now, and with the Hot Stove League in full swing, this seems as good a time as any to debut trolleydodger.com.

The Trolley Dodger website is a standalone blog dedicated to the Dodgers, affiliated teams, and baseball in general. There are a few posts there already, and while I won't be transferring any existing stories here on Celsius1414 to the new site, I am really looking forward to covering one of my favorite topics in great verbosity over the coming months. Given the events of the off-season so far, there should be a lot to write about.

Celsius1414 will continue on as always, minus the new baseball stuff.

Thanks for reading!

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Will he or won't he? I reckon the potential MLS work stoppage will enter into it.

evertonfc.com: "Chance of Donovan Stay"

David Moyes says there's an outside chance that Landon Donovan's stay at Everton could be extended.

The American international's loan deal from LA Galaxy expires after Everton's Premier League visit to Birmingham City next weekend, but Moyes revealed on Friday that there is a chance that the 28-year-old could remain on Merseyside beyond that date.

UPDATE

Grahame Jones at the LA Times has more, including speculation on Landon's lackluster performance with the US team against the Dutch side on Wednesday: "Everton wants to keep Galaxy's Landon Donovan a while longer"

On Friday, David Moyes, Everton's coach, revealed that the club has been in contact with MLS and with the Galaxy with an eye to extending Donovan's 10-week loan spell, perhaps until the end of the English season in May or perhaps longer.

"I am keen to keep Landon and it sounds initially in America that they might say yes," Moyes told the BBC. "I have not got that confirmed yet. I can't say exactly if that's going to happen. If we can make it happen, we will."

Practice and warmup games for the World Cup start in late May.

UPDATE 2

The official LA Galaxy blog has today's comments from coach/manager Bruce Arena regarding Landon's situation. Sounds like he'll be back with LA unless there's a lockout:

"Arena: Donovan to Return on Mar. 15"

Los Angeles Galaxy head coach and general manager Bruce Arena said the club is not interested in extending the loan of Landon Donovan to Everton of the English Premier League, despite reports that the Toffees will pursue such an arrangement.

Here is some cool stuff, only some of which is tangentially related to American football. ;D

LED Football?!

Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts (now on ESPN LA) points to a nostalgia-inducing awesome thing: LED Football for iPhone, which is, as he puts it,

A replica of the greatest game ever, Mattel Handheld Electronic Football.

It's also free for today only.

The more you know...

Speaking of tweeting and football, Bob Timmermann informs us,

Little known Super Bowl fact: Because New Orleans is playing in the game, the NFL rulebook will be replaced by the Napoleonic Code.

Yes, yes I am!

"Inside the Dodgers" asks the rhetorical yet vital question, "Are you ready for some baseball?":

It's the last official day of football season, so get it out of your system now and get ready to start watching America's pastime.

Good gracious, yes!

Streaking Kings

The LA Kings have reached a franchise-record nine-game wins in a row and are going for 10 against crosstown rivals the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow. They're currently in fourth place in the Western Conference.

Blaming the victims? ;)

bikecommutenews tweets,

Cyclists on busy roads a nuisance http://ow.ly/14NvT #bikenews

which prompted me to reply,

@bikecommutenews Yeah, to me, it seems like the *cars* are the nuisance on a busy road, not bicycles. :)

Noteworthy

Slashdot mentions a blog post by a computer science student who sticks with a pen and paper instead of a laptop for note-taking during class, "My Classmates Are Taking Their Notes Digitally, But I Can’t Fathom How They Keep Up"

I noticed today that as I frantically scribbled to keep up with my philosophy professor’s lecture, there was an audible hum of typing in the classroom. It was the first time I noticed that I could count more students using netbooks than notebooks to take notes in class.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like to take notes with a pen and paper. As I’ve discussed previously, the act of writing helps cement the lecture material in my mind better than passive listening does, and studies have shown that it’s not just me.[...] Still, I know that my old-fashioned ways are quickly going out of style.

The reports have been confirmed: Landon Donovan will be headed to the UK to play for Everton FC, the other Premiership team in Liverpool. ;)

Actually, Everton is the older of the two teams, with something of a splinter group forming Liverpool FC in 1892. The former had some success in the early 20th century, then again in the 60s and 80s.

More recently, Everton won the FA Cup in 1995 and were runners-up in 2009.

The side have several nicknames: The Blues (setting them apart nicely from the Liverpool Reds), The People's Club, and The School of Science. They also have another name with a great story: The Toffees or Toffeemen.

From Wikipedia:

There are several explanations for how this name came to be adopted, the most well known being that there was a business near the ground named Mother Noblett's Toffee Shop which advertised and sold sweets, including the Everton Mint, on match days. This also led to the Toffee Lady tradition in which a girl walks around the perimeter of the pitch before the start of a game tossing free Everton Mints into the crowd. Another possible reason is that there was a house named Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House near the Queen's Head hotel in which early club meetings took place.

Their stadium is Goodison Park, with a seating capacity of a little over 40,000. I understand they have been trying to get a new home lined up recently, but there has been some controversy.

The 2009-10 Premiership season has been challenging for Everton, with several injuries holding them back. (As of this writing, they are in 15th place with 17 points, dangerously close to relegation.) This is one of the reasons they are happy to have Landon, who will help them out immediately. In return, the American midfielder will get good experience against a lot of the English footballers he'll be facing in the World Cup 2010.

This is a loan move, which means Donovan will be back with the Galaxy at the start of the MLS season. He will begin playing with The Toffees in January.

Related news stories:

• Everton FC: "Donovan Deal Done"
• BBC Sport: "Everton sign LA Galaxy striker Landon Donovan on loan"
• NY Times Goal blog: "Donovan and Everton Complete Loan Deal"
• Telegraph: "David Moyes welcomes Landon Donovan loan deal to Everton"

Well, I don't see a true Group of Death* in the World Cup draw this time around, but there are definitely some interesting matchups. USA will be facing the big challenge of England, along with Algeria and Slovenia.

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

With all the French apologizing, torment, and angst regarding Thierry Henry's handball-assisted goal that sank Irish hopes of a World Cup berth, it's hard for me to stay irritated about it.

BBC: "French hand-wringing over dubious win"

For a nation not particularly known for its moral qualms - it once hailed a head-butting footballer as a hero - the French feel surprisingly chastened about their questionable qualification for next year's World Cup.

Reactions to Thierry Henry's handball, which led to the goal that sent the national team to the South African finals at the expense of the hapless Irish, have ranged from embarrassment to outrage.

So perhaps I won't be actively rooting against France after all. I will instead effect a Gallic indifference.