As you can tell, we’re real excited about EURO 2008, which begins Saturday in Austria and Switzerland. With 16 European nations in the mix, most of you probably have your rooting interests already set in stone. But what if you’re still looking for a team to cheer for? Well, kensai from Fire Ned Colletti Now has you covered.

16 teams will go into Euro 2008 looking to emerge as the best international side in Europe. Unfortunately, many fans from other countries are left out of this competition because they have no squad to root for. One of the few options available to these fans (including yours truly) is to put traditional loyalties aside and become a bandwagon jumper. Yes, the term “bandwagon jumper” carries a heavy negative connotation amongst fans, but goddamnit, I just don’t care. All I know is that I’m not missing out on the fan experience during one of the best 3 weeks in international soccer, and that’s that.

Anyway, before I get into what countries people should choose to bandwagon, let me give a short public announcement for the following groups of people who need not jump on a new team. These people are:

1) Those who are ethnically linked to a country in Euro 2008. Sorry, but you don’t qualify if you are 1/128th Spanish or some other bullshit like that. At a certain point, your blood is so diluted that even the Spanish would disown you. Come on, you have to be at least 1/4th ethnic blood of that given country.

2) Those who own citizenship to a country in Euro 2008. This is the most common sense one of them all, but people still don’t seem to abide by it much. And yes, I actually mean official citizenship, not cheering for Turkey because you once used a Turkish bath.

3) Those who grew up in, or are a long standing resident of, a country in Euro 2008. Probably the most confused and abused group. Here you’ll find those who claim Italy just because they once went on a vacation there, or those who cheer for France because they “boned a French chick once, dude”. No, those douches do not qualify as real fans; do not believe their lies.

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We?re big fans of College Football here at Sportable. However, we usually don?t jump into coverage until we get to read some preseason magazines and play EA Sports? NCAA Football. This guest article will be part of a new weekly feature on Sportable. Every Thursday until the start of College Football season, Ted Bauer from A Price Above Bip Roberts will discuss college football. If you?d like to submit a guest article, send us an email.

LSU has a lot going for it headed into this season. Most college football pundits are slotting them into the BCS Title game next January - which, coincidentally, will be held in New Orleans - behind their stellar, Glenn Dorsey-led defense and their explosively serviceable offense. There’s also that whole “a few years removed from tragedy, a team must triumph” angle, which definitely helped provide the Saints enough mojo in some games to ultimately propel them to the NFC Championship (albeit in a losing effort). Also recall that the team right before LSU to paste Notre Dame in a bowl game was OSU, and we all know what happened to them the next year (all good things until, er, Chris Leak showed up). Read the rest of this entry »

We’re big fans of College Football here at Sportable. However, we usually don’t jump into coverage until we get to read some preseason magazines and play EA Sports’ NCAA Football. This guest article will be part of a new weekly feature on Sportable. Every Thursday until the start of College Football season, Ted Bauer from A Price Above Bip Roberts will discuss college football. If you?d like to submit a guest article, send us an email.

In the summer of 1997, being the huge nerd that I am, I took part in an “Economics for Leaders” camp at the University of Washington, up in Seattle. I had selected Seattle as the site, despite being from New York, because I thought it would be cool to go really far away. Fact of the matter was, in the one week I was there, I got so homesick (n.b. I was 17) I almost pissed myself.

There were a few good parts to the trip, though: once, during free time, I strolled around campus and - by virtue of no one who worked there really watching me - got to saunter onto the field at Husky Stadium. This was pretty friggin’ sweet, mostly because about six years prior, the national champions had walked on the same sod currently beneath my feet. I didn’t have much time to appreciate it, though; within probably 10 seconds, I heard the whole “HEY KID!” piercing shriek and had to hightail it off said field.

While I was at that camp, generally not giving my fellow economic nerds any credit as people (I tend to do that), I met a kid. His name escapes me at the moment, although I think - somewhat generically - that it was “Joe.” Regardless, he was the “fifth ranked quarterback in the state of Washington,” or so he claimed. “Washington is looking at me,” he would say, flexing his right arm. Some girls would swoon. I resented him tremendously. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, friends. My name is Ted, and I often write over at A Price Above Bip Roberts, although I’ve been known to guest blog a smidge. This weekend, for Sportable, I thought it might be relevant to take a look - via my own eyes, since what other eyes can I use? - at the week in race and sports.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know this about me: from 2003 to 2005, I taught public school in the northeast part of Houston, but very definitely the inner city. I taught second and third grade, which isn’t nearly the most serious in terms of common urban blight issues, and I had a relatively good support structure, both personally and professionally (all things considered).

I taught in the area where Anthony Young grew up - you might know him from such losing streaks as “27 games” as a pitcher with the Mets and Cubs, among others. He actually still lives in that hood, across the street from arguably my best friend on staff, the P.E. teacher. His yard sales were generally subpar, and he spent a lot of weekends washing his car.

I worked not far from where Emeka Okafor eventually caught Jim Calhoun’s eye, not far from where Vince Young danced around defensive ends pre-Rose Bowl, and within spitting distance of T.J. Ford’s adolescence, which is now resulting in a north-of-the-border renaissance in the NBA. Read the rest of this entry »

Sportable is always looking for guest columnists or bloggers? input. We welcome any submissions for guest articles and if we like them, we?ll post them on the site with a link to your blog. Free advertising! This guest article comes courtesy of Ted Bauer over at A Price Above Bip Roberts. It covers all sports and it’s definitely a good one. If you?d like to submit a guest article, send us an email.

The following article is written about Xavier Nady, a player whose jumped around the league the last few years. He’s incredibly talented but for some reason, only feels like playing during the month of April. Thanks for the article Ted.

“And when the game was tight, we always knew he’d come through,” wrote the seriously independent band Kuff and the Buttheads last summer, before continuing:

“… he’d make that pitcher take it… in the butt.”

True poetry, indeed; and written about a man that lyrical wordplay barely does justice to: Xavier Nady. You may know Nady for a variety of reasons: the Pac-10’s all-time leader in slugging percentage; part of the very rare group of “professional athletes whose first name begins with X” (Xavier McDaniel, anyone?); one of a handful of people to go straight into the majors without making a professional debut in the minors (albeit for only a game); part of the trade that sent Phil Nevin out of San Diego (in an effort to make more playing time for Nady); part of the trade that sent eventual NLCS Game 7 starter Oliver Perez into New York; or as a guy who once homered in four straight games.

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Sportable is always looking for guest columnists or bloggers’ input. We welcome any submissions for guest articles and if we like them, we’ll post them on the site with a link to your blog. Free advertising! This guest article comes courtesy of Ed Valentine over at Valentine’s View on Sports, a blog dedicated to New York Sports. If you’re a Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Jets, Giants, Rangers, Liberty(?) fan, definitely take a look at this site. If you’d like to submit a guest article, please contact us.

Spring training hasn’t even begun, and already the Alex Rodriguez circus is in full swing.

The New York Yankees megastar has been all over the news in the last few days, releasing a children’s book, getting in the middle of an incident at a book signing that ended with police intervening and now refusing to quell speculation that he will exercise his option after this season to back out of the last years of his Yankees contract and become a free agent.

So, the storm has already started and A-Rod hasn’t even stepped in the batting cage yet, left a runner on third in a key spot or picked up a grounder and chucked it into the stands.

This guy is one of the most talented players you will ever see, and probably one of its most complex people. It’s always something with Rodriguez, whether he is talking publicly about undergoing therapy, writing children’s books, taking his shirt off in Central Park or disappearing in the clutch he is always at the center of something that doesn’t help his team win. Read the rest of this entry »