He's the subject of hundreds of Internet discussion groups that compare him to Jesus Christ, ask for his hand in marriage or seek to know him better in language as subtle as spiked heels and a leather bustier.
There are more than 1,700 memorabilia items - pictures, pucks, posters - bearing his image on EBay alone. Books, blogspots and websites dissect the numerological implications of his fascination with No. 87. You can click to find photos of him as a toddler, or see art of the family dryer he dented with the shots of a thousand pucks.
Hockey Nerd Tuesday is a weekly feature on NHL FanHouse that chronicles the stat-heads, gear geeks and fanboys (and girls) who spend an uncomfortable amount of time putting the "fan" in fanatic. Have a hockey nerd you'd like to see featured? E-mail Greg Wyshynski with the details.
No, it hasn't been a banner year for a franchise that hasn't raised one worth a damn since 1967 ... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to take joy in raking the Leafs. Hockey Nerd Tuesday focuses on two puckheads whose hatred of Toronto knows no bounds -- not the fact that the Leafs aren't even playing in the game they're attending in Ottawa, not even the sanctity of the Canadian National Anthem. Check out the 53-second mark and beyond of this YouTube video, as the television cameras attempt (and fail) to censor the vulgar truth about the 2007-08 Maple Leafs.
My feelings on that glorified skills competition that turns a thrilling team sport into a made-for-TV sideshow the overtime shootout have been well-documented. Yet for some critics of the format, its obvious failings as a mechanism for artificially determining a victor can be forgiven by perhaps its greatest virtue: Providing a showcase for the NHL's brightest offensive stars to score highlight-reel goals without such petty annoyances as defensemen and passing involved.
Oh, were it only that easy. As we've discussed here on FanHouse, there are plenty of awesome players who actually suck at the shootout. These "Top 10 Worst Shootout Moments" from TSN (via YouTube) really aren't all that awful -- I'd say "slightly embarrassing" would be a more appropriate term for botched attempts from players like Alex Ovechkin and Peter Forsberg. But the No. 1 worst moment is simply hilarious, and the video does offer a rather rare sight for hockey fans: A shootout that Jaromir Jagr apparently didn't bitch his way out of partaking in.
The 1980s gave the Baltimore Orioles their last World Series victory... and also saw them drop one of the more mind-numbingly bad commercials on an unsuspecting public. We can't quite make out the faces to tell which -- if any -- actual members of the Os were involved in this "all singing, all dancing" tribute to the Egg McMuffin (although we think we see Eddie Murray in there). But that's probably just how they want it.
Here at FanHouse, we're all about politeness: holding doors for ladies, waiting our turn at the microwave, putting our pants on before the really important meetings... stuff like that. But when it comes to snagging a souvenir game ball, all bets are off. Clearly, the woman in this video (at the 40-second mark) was trying to teach her son to do the right thing, but I'm betting all she did was earn herself a ticket to the "bad" nursing home in about 20 years.
The embarassment of getting booed off the mound at Yankee Stadium last week? I'm sure Roger Clemens will be able to shake that off with a little help from his wife and a big-ass plate of meat. But this god-awful commercial from 1986, featuring a dubbed Rocket lip-synching the Zest Soap jingle? Chances are his grandkids will be living this sucker down eons from now.
An intrepid Canadian college football fan has made a great video spoofing the "OMG screen went black!" series finale to The Sopranos. We all know what happened in last year's wild Fiesta Bowl, but somehow this video leaves you hanging just the same. Brilliant and funny at the same time.
Take special notice of the agonizing parallel parking efforts, played back suspiciously at about 3/4 speed.
It's so rare to see a sports league that knows how to use existing Internet tools effectively. Most of them just scream bloody murder about copyright violations and file lawsuits -- especially when it comes to YouTube, big media's favorite whipping boy. The NFL cracked down on YouTube clips. The English Premier League filed a lawsuit against YouTube earlier this month. Even the Australian Football League and the New Zealand Rugby Union are getting into the act. It's as if you're not a real sports league unless you're throwing lawyers at the Google subsidiary over "unauthorized" video clips.
That's why it's a breath of fresh air to see a sports league actually embrace the online video site. Major League Soccer announced yesterday that it has struck a revenue sharing deal with YouTube. The site will host an MLS Channel that features highlights, interviews and clips of Alexi Lalas lovingly kissing the butts of league investors. (Well, maybe not that last part...)
This deal is exactly what MLS needs right now. Soccer gets more run on YouTube than just about any other sport, so putting MLS front and center in that slipstream will only help the league increase its publicity and perhaps get a few more people out to games to watch players not named Beckham. Soccer is still growing as a pro sport in America, and anything that helps MLS reach out to fans will only boost the league's popularity in the long run.
What a shame that only marginalized leagues like the NHL and MLS recognize YouTube for the promotional vehicle it can be. I guess that's what happens when you don't have big-money TV contracts that you think need protecting...
Odalis Perez has his own answer for Dice-K's gyroball.
How on Earth Perez managed to throw a fastball without any spin baffles me. He probably doesn't even know, but something tells me a fastball that doesn't move won't be very successful in the long run. (Courtesy of Deadspin via The Buried Lead)
One problem, though -- the second takedown notice may have been illegal. According to Seltzer:
Since my counter-notification included a description of the clip, "an educational excerpt featuring the NFL's overreaching copyright warning aired during the Super Bowl," it put the NFL on clear notice of my fair use claim.
The DMCA way for NFL to challenge that, per 512(g)(2)(C), would be to "file[] an action seeking a court order to restrain the subscriber from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material," which they haven't. Sending a second notification that fails to acknowledge the fair use claims instead puts NFL into the 512(f)(1) category of "knowingly materially misrepresent[ing] ... that material or activity is infringing."
What? You mean the NFL might have actually broken the law? And they have the nerve to tell the Cincinnati Bengals to get their house in order? Horrible.
The NFL been vigilant -- perhaps too vigilant -- in getting its video clips scrubbed off YouTube, and this time around, they may have opened themselves up to a rather large liability. The only question now is how far Professor Seltzer go in pursuing this matter. Tons of bloggers love to jump on copyright abusers, and the last thing the league needs is someone as loud as Cory Doctorow comparing Roger Goodell to Pacman Jones.
Canadian Press writer Dean Bennett makes the case for Sidney Crosby as "hockey's first superstar of the cyber age":
It's so rare to see a sports league that knows how to use existing Internet tools effectively. Most of them just scream bloody murder about copyright violations and file lawsuits -- especially when it comes to YouTube, big media's favorite whipping boy. The NFL 
