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NLL Best of 2008 Photos!

Hey be sure to check out the best Wipe outs from 2008!

NLL best of: 2008 Goals

This week we’re bringing you the top 10 Goal photos from the 2008 season. Have a favorite? Let us know! Photos by Martin Allinson, Stan Huber, Dave Gottenborg and John Mecionis.

Best of 2008 Photos Week 2

    This week’s featured photos category is Biggest Air. Be sure to check out other photos like this one in the photo gallery.

NLL Best of 2008 Photos

Be sure to check out the best  of 2008 NLL and Box lacrosse photos. Each week there will be a new gallery posted; featuring Best Action Shot, Biggest Air,  Entertainment, Fights and more! This weeks gallery features the best Action Shots, be sure and check it out!

Free time not free travel

With an early exit from the WLA play-offs my fellow Victoria Shamrocks and I are off to the golf course to enjoy the last three weeks or so of the gorgeous west coast summer. The golf courses have been calling my name for months, so here’s hoping I can bring my handicap down a few strokes! With all this free time I have now I’ve been able to do a little reflecting on the season that was in the WLA.

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It’s that time of year again; the long, hot days of summer.  What does one do with themselves when there is no NBA or NHL to watch or attend? Hmmmm…. Vacations to the Hamptons, camping trips up north, or maybe a family bike tour just to say you were able to get out of the house for a while.  How about taking them across the border and doing a weekend tour of two MLS or WLA arenas so you and your family can get your lacrosse fix and see some of the big names battle it out for national supremacy!?

Then there is the other option. You could grab the kids and take ‘em to an afternoon baseball game at one of the countless half filled ball parks across the US. Not saying that going to the park isn’t a good time, hell I’d go if it meant getting out of work. The problem is I just can’t figure out how baseball gets away with it. Multi-million dollar contracts, almost every game is televised, no parity- and when I say that I think that one day a team can dump somebody 14-1 then lose 3-0 later that evening and of course playing in front of 7,000 fans in 20,000 seat brand new facilities. I know baseball is a highly driven revenue sharing league, with endorsements and long term TV deals but there are just some major glaring things that stick out whenever I watch highlights.

• 1- Can you name any other league where a player can get right in the refs face for 5 minutes, yelling, cursing, throw expletive after expletive at him acting like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum in Toys ‘R Us only to get ejected by the Umpire and not be reprimanded for it? Then to have his manager come out of the dugout and do the exact same thing, initiating the same result…. If that happened in any other sport the player would be fined and suspended for a few games and any subsequent behavior would result in lengthy suspensions. Here’s my new rule - if you argue a call to the extent that the Umpire feels the need to eject you, it’s an automatic $5000 fine and one game suspension. Any repeat offense the fines double.
• 2- I remember when Gary Gait, who was playing for the Victoria Shamrocks in ‘97, would take an absolute ass kicking from Shaun Springette who was playing for the North Shore Indians. Sure slashing is part of the game but it was to the point where it was quite excessive. But Gary never threw down his stick and gloves and ran after Springette. (yes I know that’s not his role but follow along) So why, when Alex Rodriguez gets hit with one pitch, whether on purpose or not, does he feel the need to charge the mound? SUCK IT UP! Take your free base and your $100,000 per at bat and move on. If it’s on purpose the Umpire should throw the pitcher from the game anyways. So the new rule - You charge the mound $10,000 fine and a 3 game suspension. Again any repeat offenses get you doubled fines and a hearing with MLB.
• 3- When is baseball going to get rid of ‘bench clearing brawls’? Now I know they aren’t really a brawl per say but, lets be honest here. If I’m one of the guys way out in the left field bull pen and I have to run all the way to home to stand around and police a situation the Umpires should be able to diffuse I’m not going to be to happy about it. Is there really a point to having everyone run from the dugouts and bullpens to end up in a giant unnecessary dog pile? Seriously! Hockey has gotten away from it almost completely, when was the last time in the NHL there was bench clear? It never happens in the NFL, College maybe but it’s rare and lacrosse, considered one of the most brutal sports out there, hasn’t seen one since the mid 90’s that I know of. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the team that starts the clearing automatically loses the game but, the players that come from the dug outs and bullpens get 2 game suspensions and the teams are fined $50,000.

While it seems like this is pointless and I may be beating a dead horse, it bothers me to no end that the Heads of MLB are doing nothing to improve the standards of their game. The NLL puts out one of THE best products in the sports market, has generally packed buildings, and the game pretty much sells itself. Yet television sports networks aren’t giving us the respect we deserve - where are our TV deals? And some of the hardest working guys in sport are still fighting for full time pay! Well Mr. Rodriguez, the next time you decide to charge the mound after a pitcher brushes you back, try not to drop your wallet and think of us little guys, battling it out (for a tenth of what you make a year) every weekend, then going back to our real jobs the next day.

Scoop one of a kind

Sports writers hate cliches.
Loathe them, in fact.
You know the ones I’m talking about: We have to play a full 60 minutes; the bounces just didn’t go our way; we have to give it 110% (which never made sense to me because if you’re going to do the impossible and provide more than 100%, why not say something sexier like 6,000%).
However, when it comes to Jim Veltman perhaps nothing rings truer than the mother of all sports cliches: He does all the little things right.
He does everything right, for that matter.

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Check InsideLacrosse.com for Friday’s NLL results

Due to an issue with our server, we will be unable to post any new stories on NLLInsider.com on Saturday, Feb. 16. For results of Friday night’s Colorado-Philadelphia and Buffalo-Toronto games, check InsideLacrosse.com.

NLL Insider and Inside Lacrosse apologize for this inconvenience. But here’s lesson #1 for all you budding media moguls out there: When the nerds tell you the server could blow up at any minute, you back the F up and let them do their thing. Our main man David Dickerson will be throwing the old IL Internet machine up on blocks Saturday and going to town to get us back up and running for Sunday.

Tutka, don’t worry about that Saturday post brother. I know you’ve got a 14-miler to bang out for your marathon training anyway, so this works out perfectly.

NLL Dance Team Pick’ems: Week 8

Lay your duckets down on Minnesota. That’s what the NLL Dance Team Pick’em members have did last week, cleaning sweeping the Swarm through th weekend. It paid off, and they’ve all vaunted out to strong winning records. Allison, who took Minnesota early in the season, still has a lead, but Dance Team members Leah, Emily, Lauren and others are picking up. And again this week, the Swarm walk away with the unanimous vote of self-confidence from dance team voters.
Now, without further adieu, Week 8 Picks:

	Emily	Kim	Leah	Caelee	Allison	Lauren	Dana
Friday
BUF @ TOR
PHIL @ COL
Saturday
MIN @ BUF
CAL @ ROC
NY @ CHI
Sunday
EDM @ POR

Here’s what the Dance Team members had to say: READ MORE »

Busy NLL Schedule in Week 3

After just two games in the first two weeks of the 2008 NLL season, the NLL will be extremely busy in Week 3 with eight games on the slate. All times are Eastern…

Friday, January 11
Rochester at Buffalo - 7:30 PM
Minnesota at Toronto - 7:30 PM
Saturday, January 12
Chicago at Philadelphia - 7:30 PM
Buffalo at Rochester - 7:35 PM
Toronto at Minnesota - 8:00 PM
Edmonton at Colorado - 9:00 PM
San Jose at Calgary - 9:30 PM
New York at Portland - 10:30 PM

Today’s media call hyped-up these games and talked about the match-ups.  READ MORE »