Sports Talk: Where We Talk 'a th' Sport!

(For the uninitiated, "Sports Talk with Guy Guyerson" is a sports radio parody bit from the Ron & Fez show on XM202. For anyone who has ever listened to sports talk radio, the parody is hilarious.)

The Buffalo Sabres are selling "New York State Champs" t-shirts. Buffalo went pretty far in last season's NHL playoffs, beating the NY Islanders and the Rangers before ultimately losing to the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals. As ridiculous as it is to declare oneself "state champs", the Sabres really twisted the knife by including "each defeated team's name and score from their game against the Sabres" on the shirt. That's brilliant! Here's the sales blurb from the NHL shop website:

Celebrate the Buffalo Sabres victory and honor their hard work and dedication by wearing this New York State Champions short sleeve cotton tee shirt from Lee Sport. This officially licensed tee shirt is designed with the Buffalo Sabres New York State Champions graphic, Stanley Cup® logo, and eachdefeated team's name and score from their game against the Sabres
screen-printed on the chest.

TGS appreciates the arrogance of the Sabres and may end up following a bit more hockey this year, since this is a NY Giants website and the Giants are going to blow.

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Dave Law has tickets to the Red Bulls game against David Bekham (and the LA Galaxy) on August 18th. The Galaxy are weak, nestled comfortably at the bottom of the West Conference table. They feature a crew of "has-been's" and "never-were's". The most personally disappointing of the "never-were's" for Dave Law is Chris Albright who pledged Dave Law's fraternity at UVa before leaving school in pursuit of his lackluster professional career.

The Red Bulls, on the other hand, are tied for 3rd in the East. I watched the Red Bulls lose a 1-0 heartbreaker to a less talented New England Revolution team on Bastille Day (July 14th - also the anniversary of the Azzuri's victory over the French). New England is currently in 1st place in the East but the Red Bulls were the better team that day. The Red Bulls have one of the most exciting players in the MLS, Juan Pablo Angel. Angel came from English club Aston Villa and he's a little older (Juan tiene treinta-dos anos) but he's fun to watch. With Angel as a striker and Claudio Reyna running the midfield, the Red Bulls have managed to put an explosive product on the field. Plus Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA were on hand for the coin flip for that Revolution game. They also created an explosive situation. Here are some pics:

I love that first picture because it's likely the photographer said to the beauty queens, in an innocent voice, "Turn around so I can get a shot of your names on the Red Bulls jerseys." He sure made certain the shot framed their asses. This is definitive proof that the photographer responsible for these shots was indeed a man. Anycrap... Of course, all of my pseudo-analysis as a casual fan means nothing because the game will most likely be a Bekham-induced circus with little chance of me enjoying quality soccer.

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Barry Bonds has passed Hank Aaron as the "home run king", but Bonds keeps hitting home runs. I heard a discussion on sports talk radio this morning about how the IRS will value Bonds' 756th home run ball for tax purposes. Will they try to estimate the market value which could be $600,000 and tax the dude who caught it? Or will they value it at $5 until it's sold in an auction or something? Here's an interesting article from the SportingNews discussing the question. From what I remember of the tax code, the IRS has the authority to tax the kid who caught the ball based on the ball's estimated fair market value. The kid could argue with the IRS about what that is.

My question for sports fans and collectors of sports memorabilia is: Steroid investigations and A-Rod eclipsing Bonds in 5 years aside, doesn't the value of the 756th home run ball go down everytime Bonds hits another dinger? Wouldn't the last home run ball Bonds hits before he retires be the most valuable? Maybe someone at our sister site SportsMeat can anwer that.