This incident during the 4th inning summed up Tim Lincecum’s outing against the Colorado Rockies.  Lincecum’s back foot slips as he winds up for the pitch and he falls on his backside and was called for the balk.  Lincecum ended up giving up six runs through five innings and the San Francisco Giants lost to the Rockies 10-2.

[Deadspin]

Indiana Pacers’ Roy Hibbert came away with the huge block on New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony during the 4th quarter of Saturday night’s Game 6. Melo appeared to have the clear path to an easy slam after spinning on Paul George. However, the 7’2” Hibbert came over from his help position to stuff Melo, and give the Pacers momentum before the game’s final push, which Indiana took, 106-99. The Pacers will play the Miami Heat for a spot in the NBA Finals.

Live your logo! @bkravitz @indystar @indystarsports #BlueCollarGoldSwagger twitter.com/bwags77/status…

— Benny Ray (@bwags77) May 19, 2013

Vitor Belfort was taking on Luke Rockhold in the UFC on FX 8 on Saturday night when Belfort rocked Rockhold with this kick to the head.  Nothing like taking a heel to the side of the head to KO you from a fight.

The scariest part of that kick?  That is Belfort’s 12th career 1st round KO.  Impressive.

Official Call: Vitor Belfort def. Luke Rockhold via KO (spinning back kick, strikes) at 2:32, R1. #ufc

— GRACIEMAG (@graciemag) May 19, 2013

With about five minutes to play in the second period of a 1-1 game, Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick showed off why he is one of the best goalies in the NHL.  San Jose Sharks forward Joe Pavelski came out of the corner with the puck and looked like he was going to tuck it short side when he dished off the puck to Andrew Desjardins.  Quick was out of position and looked like he would have no chance to stop Desjardins, but he made a fantastic push off the post and managed to stretch across the crease and make an amazing kick save.  Saves like these help you understand why the Kings won the Stanley Cup last year.

[YouTube]

For the NFL fans that can’t wait to see their teams draft picks in the uniforms, this video from the NFLPA Rookie Premiere gives you a brief preview.  The rookies were at the Rose Bowl Stadium having fun getting to know each other, doing interviews and photo shoots for trading cards and produced some great clips.

And Marcus Lattimore proved to have the most guts of any of the rookies though, doing a Jim Harbaugh impression might not go over so well with his coach.

[YouTube]

It appears that playing with Niklas Kronwall rubbed off on Brad Stuart.  The San Jose Sharks defenseman laid Los Angeles Kings forward Justin Williams with this Kronwall-esque hit late in the first period.  Stuart timed the hit perfectly and Williams could do nothing by the time he looked up and realized what was coming for him.

[YouTube]

After spending most of the year in the AHL and scoring 28 goals in 58 games with the Manchester Monarchs and winning AHL rookie of the year, Tyler Toffoli is finally getting his shot with the big club.  Toffoli has only played five playoff games for the Los Angeles Kings so far, but he has been looking like a seasoned vet.  After San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi left the net to play the puck to Brad Stuart, Toffoli picked off Stuart’s pass, kicked it up to his stick from his skates and then buried a nice backhander past Niemi.  The Kings have been rolling ever since they went down 2-0 to the St. Louis Blues in the first round and are looking like the dominating team that won the Stanley Cup last year.

[YouTube]

This is the type of stuff that the NHL does very well.  They took sound bites from the different playoff series from Round 1 of the Playoffs and put together a clean compilation of the best stuff.  Personally, I’d love to hear the uncut version to hear what the players are saying to each other, but you get a great taste of what goes on during the game with this video.

[Puck Daddy Blog]

The start to the 2013 Memorial Cup on Saturday was a rocky one.  The US National Anthem prior to the Portland Winterhawks-Halifax Mooseheads game was an unmitigated disaster.  If it weren’t for the fans helping her along, I don’t think she would have ever finished it.  You know you’re doing a horrible job when you can see players starting to laugh at you and you are making up verses to an anthem.

The singer Alexis Normand apologized afterwards, but her performance will live on through YouTube forever.

I’m embarrassed and deeply sorry. I wish I’d had more time to learn the American anthem. Thanks so much for the crowd’s help! #memorialcup

— Alexis Normand (@Alex6Normand) May 19, 2013

The Memorial Cup is hosted by the Saskatoon Blades (WHL) this year, and features the Portland Winterhawks (WHL Champs), Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL Champs) and the London Knights (OHL Champs).  Each year one team from the three leagues hosts the league champions and the four teams get together to play a tournament to crown the one champion of the CHL.

[YouTube]

Detroit Red Wings forward Valtteri Filppula has had an up-and-down season this year, but this phenomenal goal showed off just how good he can be.  Henrik Zetterberg dropped the puck off to him at the blue line and rather than Filppula overpass as he has done so often, he pulled the puck to his backhand and drove to the net.  As he was going down he fired a backhand shot between Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford’s legs to give the Red Wings a 4-1 lead.  The Red Wings played fantastically against the Blackhawks in game two and evened the series at 1-1 heading back to Detroit for game three.

[YouTube] [Guyism]

In the third period with a 2-1 lead, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson made an amazing pass, identifying Franzen sneaking behind the Chicago Blackhawks defenseman.  He put the pass right on Franzen’s tape and the Mule walked in and fired a gorgeous shot short-side high glove.  Crawford was playing aggressive to cut down the angle because he knew Franzen has a phenomenal shot, but it didn’t help him.  This shot was literally perfect and couldn’t have gone anywhere else.

[YouTube]

It’s not every day that a pro golfer will let you in on some of their secrets for getting ready before a round, and Miguel Angel Jiminez’s pre-driving range warm up routine is simply outstanding.  Golf Monthly must have given Jiminez a lot of money to show off his routine, while he held a cigar.  The best part of this video?  There will be plenty of regular golfers that start doing this as a warm up hoping to play like Jiminez.  Make sure you practice that “little dancing move” to be warmed up properly.

[Yahoo! Sports]

Eastern Michigan is looking to raise $60,000 to renovate locker rooms, bathrooms, the players lounge, team building and training rooms, the equipment room and the weight room.  Smaller schools like Eastern Michigan have to come up with unique ways to fundraise and for just $5,000 you can go skydiving with Head Coach Ron English or for $2,500 you can go with an Assistant Coach.

In the video English says:

“We want to reach our goal of $60,000 so you can skydive with me at Skydive Tecumseh.  So for three people, for a $5,000 price, we would ride down there, we’d meet in my office, we’d go and talk a little bit of football, watch a little videotape, then we’d drive down there for about an hour, hour and a half, we’d go through the training together, and then we’d fly up in their airplane and jump out. If you’ve never skydived before, you’ll love it.”

There are also spots available for a golf outing and dinner, and spots to be a part of a fan tunnel as the players run on the field, which includes the opportunity to be in the locker room for a pregame speech.  The rest of the details can be found here.

As someone who has gone skydiving before, I’d have to say that if you are an Eastern Michigan football fan, that this would be money well spent.  Hell, if you’re a Michigan football fan you should look into it.  English used to be the defensive coordinator at Michigan and I bet he’s got some great stories he could share with you.  Not only that, but skydiving is simply incredible.

[Facebook]

Tony Mitchell’s 38” on the max vertical beat out the 37” from Blake Griffin at the 2009 Combine

Photo: Twitter/Jeff Goodman 

This Toronto Maple Leafs fan used his Go Pro camera to try and make some fond memories as he and his friends gathered together to watch the Boston Bruins-Leafs Game 7.  Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs epic collapse gave them this depressing video.  Their reactions are pretty expected, too sad and shocked that they lost to even be angry about it. This video pretty much defines what sports are all about, they can make you feel on top of the world one minute and rip your heart out the next.

[Deadspin]

I’m a 6’4 260lb man. Look at this visual.. now imagine being on the court vs Sir Charles & @shaq#GameOverSon twitter.com/TheRock/status…

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 17, 2013

The Rock is 6’4″ 260 and he looks tiny compared to Shaq and Charles.  Just ridiculous.  Imagine going up against them in the low post at your size, couldn’t possibly be any fun.

A photo of Darth Maul skating around during the Tampa Bay Lightning-San Jose Sharks pre-game has been making it’s way around the Internet and inspired the Grand Rapids Griffins to recreate the stick.  Unfortunately, the photo of Darth Maul is a photoshop, but that didn’t stop the Griffins from creating the stick.

The Griffins made a video of their equipment manager creating the stick and giving it to stickhandling wizard Tomas Jurco.  Willie Coetzee did a good job recognizing that the stick was influenced by Star Wars and Triston Grant had a solid suggestion of putting two different curves on it to be an all-purpose stick.  Jurco seems to mesmerized as he begins tossing the puck to himself and twirling the stick like a baton.  The stick obviously isn’t very durable because it breaks in half when Jurco is upset that it won’t do what he wants and he takes a slapshot with it.

[Puck Daddy Blog]