The silhouetted figure on the NBA logo is modeled after Jerry West, a long time guard and coach of the LA Lakers.

I don’t mean guard as in bodyguard.  Although, nowadays that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

All teams should have a shooting guard.  To prevent shootings.

A study performed by social psychologists in 1995 showed that participants awarded bronze medals were happier than competitors that finished with silver medals.  They were happy just to medal, while second place finishers were disappointed they didn’t win.

Thus, I refer to those who receive the bronze medal as “participants,” and those who get the silver medal as “competitors.”  I bet the fourth place person is less happy than every one though.  Except for the second to last place finisher.  I would rather get dead last than second to last.  At least if you are second to last, you can say that you are the first winner.

Bronze medals for third place first started being awarded in 1904 at the Olympics in St. Louis.  Before then, only first and second places were awarded.  Before 1904, we didn’t praise losers.

The word “rookie” likely derives from “recruit.”

A Wookiee, like Chewbacca, likely derives from “wecruit.”

In one game in 1957, Phillies center fielder Richie Ashburn managed to hit the same fan twice with different foul balls.  The first foul ball broke the woman’s nose.  Once play resumed, he hit her with another foul ball as she was being carried off on a stretcher.

To me, that’s cooler than the Babe calling his shot.

Recently I have heard people use the expression “jump on the bandwagon” a lot (thanks to the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs).  Literally a bandwagon was a wagon that carried the band in a parade, circus, or other similarly silly event.  Supposedly, the idiom, “to jump on the bandwagon,” was coined in 1848 when Dan Rice, a clown, used his bandwagon to attract attention for his political campaign.  Other politicians saw the attention he was getting and also wanted to “jump on the bandwagon.”

This seems kind of odd to me.  You would think a clown aspiring to be a politician would try to downplay his clownliness.  Not ride around on a wagon blasting clown music.  

Clownliness.

It has been estimated by the U.S. Soccer Federation that, on average, the World Cup referees run 12 miles (19.31 km) in a soccer game.  That’s 5 miles (8.05 km) more than the average player.  They also get less rest too.  For example, a soccer player from Ghana can lie on his back delaying the game for minutes…the refs don’t have this luxury.

I’m over it.

Maybe a lot of people know this, but I didn’t.  In baseball, if a fielder intentionally catches or even touches an in-play baseball with his hat, all runners and the batter advance 3 free bases.  I didn’t know this because I grew up in Kansas City with the MLB bottom-feeders, the Royals.  I thought every runner would advance 3 bases every time anyway.

The first Olympics were the 1896 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.  The event was organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat and historian. I found this interesting and hilarious:  Hungarian Alfred Hajos was the first Olympic champion in swimming, AND he later became the first of two Olympians to win a medal in both athletic and artistic competition.  Yes, Hajos won the silver medal in architecture in 1924.  I kid you not.  Between 1912 and 1948, there were sport-inspired art competitions in five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.   Luckily the art contests were abandoned before the Olympics were widely televised because we wouldn’t have TiVo to fast-forward through 75 hours of a guy writing a book.

In honor of the Super Bowl, I figured I should do a football fact. We always hear about the line of scrimmage, but I really never hear the word scrimmage used outside of sports.  Scrimmage is related to skirmish- a contest between disputing parties.  Scrimmage and scrum (in rugby) are also related, as scrum is just a shortening of “scrummage.”  It’s pretty straight forward.  More straight forward than why we call it “football.”  Actually, it’s pretty much the same reason-  American football derived from rugby, where “football” is a much more fitting name.  What doesn’t make sense is that the New Orleans Saints are actually in the Super Bowl.  Or the fact that we may see more of Peyton Manning on commercial breaks than actually during the game.  Over/under 10— how many times will we hear the commentators say that Peyton Manning is a “student of the game”?

From 1960 to 1969, the NFL had an additional game at the end of the season.  The Playoff Bowl, officially named the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, featured teams playing for 3rd place.  The game is named after Bert Bell, who was the NFL Commissioner from 1946 until his death at a Eagles-Steelers game in 1959.  Why did they feel fit to name the 3rd place game after him?  I can imagine the eulogy.  We will always remember our good friend Bert Bell.  Not a best friend, or even a great friend.  But a pretty decent friend, who we would call if everyone else was busy.

The average NBA player has a vertical jump of 28 inches, slightly smaller than the rims on the average NBA player’s Escalade.

The Mendoza Line.  It’s not a political border between the United States and Mexico.  It’s the threshold of batting incompetence in baseball.  Batters who hit below the Mendoza Line (.200) are smacked with the label of being inept at the plate.  The player unfortunate enough to symbolize crappiness is Mario Mendoza, a now retired shortstop.  To his credit, he actually averaged above .200, but not by much.  I feel bad for this guy.  I bet it’s rough when his kids ask him why the family name is associated with sucking.  It’s like being the person to discover a hideous, tragic disease.  I need to go to the store and pick up more adult diapers and wart medicine…I’ve got the Mendoza Disease.