The Tax Cheapo

In April, 8 NBA teams from each conference qualify to play in the championship playoffs. The top three teams based on their regular season record are chosen for the top three seeds based on the NBA seeding system. The next five teams with the best records take the other five seeds. The one difference of the NBA seeding system from any other American major league sport is the fact that the division championships are not guaranteed home court advantage in the playoffs. Rather, home court advantage is based on the team’s regular season record and not on who won in the division.

In the NBA seeding system, the team given the first seed will face off against the team given the eight seed; the second seed will face off against the seventh seed and so forth. Therefore, the highest advantage a team can get is to have a high seed so they can face a weaker team. The team with the best regular season record is given the home court advantage.

Once the playoffs begin, they follow a tournament format. The team’s face each other is a best of seven series. The first team to win four rounds gets to advance into the next round. Teams are not reseeded once the playoffs begin therefore the first or eight seed team who wins will face off with the fourth or fifth seed team that wins. The second and seventh winner will face off against the third and sixth winner, therefore keeping the balance between the teams.

The final playoff round is between the top teams in each conference in another best of seven series of games. The NBA finals are typically held in June. Most of the time, but not always, the Most Valuable Player Award will go to someone on the winning team. The exception to this was in 1969 when Jerry West won the MVP award even though his team did not win the NBA Finals.

Our NBA Playoffs Betting Systems are ranked extremely ranked well betting at the sportsbook review at our partner site.

Statistics will tell only a part of the story. What they won’t is how admiring moms and doting daughters will put off their high-heeled afternoon waltz in shopping malls to watch two young men of India weave dreams with their bats. Statistics will never spell how calm men in their mid-70s will pump their fists in the air, and clap thunderously when the two are on song. Statisticsand these two have very impressive ones indeedwill never quite capture the admiration and the joy that two 24-year-olds have begun to bring to millions of Indian homes and cricket lovers across the world.

Neither will they reveal how some of us frequent-fliers will not think much of darting half way across the globe (these days you just don’t go miles to watch them play, but all the way) hoping that one of them would strike up a 50 or 75 at less than run-a-ball. Statistics can also hide so much that is electric, and momentous, they’ll never, for instance, tell us how a President in uniform will shimmy up to one of these smiling assassins, the one with the long locks and the springy walk, and tell him that the young man should keep his hair.

But statistics are important. They tell us that today one man has the highest strike rate (108.73) of all in one-day matches, and also the best batting average (53.95) of them all. They tell us that more often than not when both young men bat well, Team India goes on to win. They are match-winners with a cause.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni from Ranchi with Bjorn-Borg like locks and Yuvraj Singh with the crew cut from Chandigarh are two of a kind. With their stupendous batting that helped India flatten Pakistan 4-1 in the recently concluded one-day series (Hutch Cup) and before that in the 6-1 annihilation of Sri Lanka in India in the one-day matches, the two have become symbols of a surging, confident India. Dhoni was the Player of the Series against Sri Lanka, Yuvraj got the same honour in the Hutch Cup.

They have lifted the spirits of a nation, displaced the Sensex as the number one subject of conversation in drawing rooms and TV channels. They are part of a resurgent India that is telling the world that there is nothing quite as beautiful, and re-assuring as a young man’s self-belief.

They back themselves to the hilt, these two certainly do. One man is often seen stepping down the pitch and hitting a fast bowler out of the ground. Another will milk anything outside off-stump through covers. It’s their style that is refreshing, uncomplicated, winning. They chase down formidable totals on the scoreboards with the same ease with which they turn singles into twos. A few years ago an Indian batting line-up facing an asking-rate of more than eight runs an over at the halfway stage of a chase would collapse like nine pins. Not any more. Time and again in recent weeks, against quality opposition like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the two have not just batted India out of trouble, they have also won matches handsomely for the country.

They are getting so consistent in their batting that it is difficult to see India lose too many one-day matches in the coming seasons. Both have worked hard, Yuvraj has cut down considerably on the high-risk cuts and flicks in the initial stages of building an innings, and is playing straighter than before. He has learnt to shift gears very smartly towards the end, and then lets loose and collars the attack. Dhoni too is playing very straight, mostly. Once in a while he will hook savagely, and cut viciously, but most of his runs are flowing down the ground. Both are good at finding gaps, both score rapidly, and as statistics will reveal, they score more than half their runs in boundaries. The strike-rate and average in recent matches has been fantastic. In fact, Dhoni’s is the best in the world.

Take a look at their records in the last 11 one-day internationals (ODIs) and last five Test matches they have played. The wicket-keeper batsman has scores of 183 not out (highest in the world by a wicket-keeper), 45 n.o., 0, 80, 17, 14, 12, 68, 72 not out, 2 not out, 77 not out. It is clear Dhoni likes to finish matches, or stay till the very end, the high percentage of not outs is an indication that he will protect his wicket with a great deal of passion. In all, Dhoni totalled 570 runs from 502 deliveries at a strike rate of 113.54 and a batting average of 95. In fact against Sri Lanka, Dhoni’s strike rate stood at 119.31 and his average at an astounding 115.33.

The other happy sign for Team India is that Dhoni got 61.05 per cent of his runs (348 out of 570) in boundaries. There were 57 fours and 20 beautifully struck sixes. Also, in the last five Test matches that he has played (out of a total of six), Dhoni has got a hundred, a fifty and a score of 49. He’s certainly looking good for the future. He is the biggest batting gain for India in the last three months.

Yuvraj’s scores are equally impressive. The left-hander sparked up things in his last 11 one day matches with scores of 79 not out, 0 not out, 103, 4 not out, 53, 49, 39, 82 not out, 79 not out, 37, 107 not out. He’s amassed 632 runs from 694 balls with a very impressive strike rate of 91.06 and a world class average of 126.4. It is ability to remain unbeaten in the end, a trait that Dhoni is displaying in ample measure, that’s helping Yuvraj maintain such a fantastic average.

What has also undoubtedly got the turnstiles moving and the cash registers ringing is Yuvraj’s ability to entertain in every big knock he plays. Of the 632 runs, 358 (56.64 per cent) came in boundaries. There were 76 fours, and nine sweetly timed sixes that were such a treat for the eyes that you can watch the replays for the rest of the year and not tire. And for a man who was not considered a Test class batsman till very recently, Yuvraj Singh hit two 50s, a century, and notched a score of 45 in his last five Test matches.

There you are. Two men who wear their confidence on their shirt sleeves, pack tremendous punch in their shots, do not like to throw their wicket away, and importantly, win India matches.

Savour them. The statisticians are delighting. And the world’s acknowledging their presence.

Link: http://www.indiaempire.com/v1/2006/March/coverstory.asp

The one of a kind Upper Deck baseball card featuring autographs from Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner might not be so rare after all. The card was pulled from a pack of 2005 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts and features four of the five inductees into the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame. A great pull – if it was real.

This card (shown here) first attracted attention back in November 2005 when collector Barry Scott of Guntown, Mississippi put the card up for auction and sold it for a cool $85,000. But then (this article surfaced recently. It seems that Kevin Demitros, the 50-year-old airport planner from Milwaukee who purchased the card, was watching an HBO Special on Sports Memorabilia Fraud and shockingly saw his card’s authenticity called into question. The same card that he had figured was a “retirement investment.” And why wouldn’t he? The card WAS from Upper Deck. Upper Deck!

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Demitros watched an HBO special on fraud in the sports memorabilia industry and saw a scan of his card being scrutinized by someone convicted in connection with a federal forgery investigation. The man claimed two of the card’s autographs were fakes

Demitros is now involved in a dispute with the card’s manufacturer, Carlsbad-based Upper Deck Co., which stands behind its products but said it is willing to have an independent third party look at the card to determine its authenticity.

Three authentication companies that studied a scan of it said they believed the Ruth and Johnson autographs might not be genuine.

“It’s a huge question. It’s an opinion,” Fitzsimmons said of trying to verify autographs that old.

First off, I hope that the signatures are real. Any fake memorabilia is bad for the hobby. It certainly seems that Upper Deck will do the right thing here and take care of Kevin if the signatures in fact turn out to be fake (they better or they will have a PR nightmare and probably a lawsuit). There is, however, an important lesson to be learned from all of this – no one can ever say with 100% certainty that an autograph is real.

Hopefully Kevin’s story will draw more attention to the topic. Upper Deck, the premier card manufacturer, a company that has it’s own authentication service that employs industry experts, still may have missed a forgery…on one of their most valuable cards ever!

On the Upper Deck site they claim:

Autograph forgeries make victims out of unsuspecting fans. Upper Deck Authenticated ® became the first company to find an answer to the forgery problem by creating an airtight five-step authentication system that assures fans are getting genuine autographs. Today the company has autograph relationships with the game’s biggest stars and produces some of the finest memorabilia on the market.

And yet arguably their most important card ever, one that sold for $85,000, included 2 alleged forgeries!

This is not a new thing – I was exposed first hand (on a much smaller level of course) to this last year when a buddy of mine obtained a Mike Vick autograph at the Pro Bowl only to be accused by the buyer of the item that PSA said that it was fake, costing him a sale and hurting his reputation. It illustrated to me first hand that you are never going to know for sure, that the best you can do is pay for an opinion. I went on to lay out an argument about the damage that autograph authentication is doing for the industry – not because experts are giving their opinion about the authenticity of an autograph, but because people were being led to believe that they should treat that opinion as a FACT, driving up autograph prices to unreasonable levels for the average collector.

This story just adds to the argument laid out in that piece – the only way to truly know if an autograph in your collection is real is to get it yourself. Anything else – a certificate of authenticity or even a certification from PSA/DNA – does not guarantee an autographs authenticity, it merely increases the likelihood of it being real.

Adam McFarland owns SportsLizard.com – an online marketplace for buying and selling sports
collectibles.

SportsLizard.com recently won honorable mention in the Microsoft Start Something Amazing Awards and was featured in the February 2006 issue of Tuff Stuff Magazine.

A Casa di Tiziana is a bed and breakfast in Rome, located in Via Panaro 14

A Casa di Tiziana in an elegant b&b, located in a classic liberty area building, situated in a charming neighborhood within the prestigious, Trieste area of Rome.

The location of this residence makes for an ideal visit to Rome. It is close enough to the center of town to easily visit the key points of the city (Piazza di Spagna, Piazza del Popolo, Via del Corso, Colosseum and the imperial forum) as well as being in an area that is close to several parks and open spaces that Roman enjoy as part of their daily lives.
These include Villa Ada (Known for its historic significance as the private residence of Count Telfner and as a hunting reserve for the last kings of Italy); Villa Torlonia with its beautiful house of Civette; Villa Borghese (which includes the Galleria Borghese) and the Pincio terrace.

A stroll on the three lined streets nearby, you will find boutiques, great restaurants with indoor and outdoor dining, open air markets, pizzerias cinemas, pubs and for a night of music you can visit the Auditorium.

The rooms are decorated in the XVI Louis style and each has a private bath. Each room has been carefully furnished with periode furniture which blend perfectly. All comforts provided: Air conditioning, independent entrance, TV, internet access and minibar a continental breakfast is serveded in your room. Maid service daily.

How to get here:
From Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci inside train to Station Termini Trenitalia;
from station Termini; bus 38 or 310 to Corso Trieste getting off Piazza Istria, (20 meters from Casa di Tiziana) or bus 92 getting off on the second stop on Via Nemorense after Piazza Verbano or bus 86 getting off the first stop after Piazza Verbano.

Other suggestion for Rome? Wide choice and Low rates on Rome accommodations: compare rates for Hotels in Rome, or compare price for other kind of accomodations in Rome (apartments, Bed and breakfast, Guest Houses,…), or make a reservation for a tour in Rome

Tennis rackets caps, weights, accessories & other sport kits can come attached with a considerably high price fee, however, you do not have to let the cost of the sports items keep you from having fun from the sporting activities that you like. If you are interested in sport, there are stacks of alternative ways that you can try to acquire the items that you need at an amazing price.

The greatest way to save yourself a significant amount of cash is to search through specialised online sportswear merchandise shops as these by & large sell items at extremely low cost. Also, Internet sportswear shops on a regular basis have more than a few particular weekly discounts and sales for you to take advantage off.

Nonetheless, every so often the easiest way to save money on sporting gear is to invest in high quality gear. As conflicting as that sounds, you’ll pay less in the end if you pick gear that will survive a very long time. You can research & save for a key acquisition, & then obtain it simply when it’s offered on the internet at a cheap cost. When you get something that will last you numerous years (instead of gear that will break down in one or two months) you’re actually saving yourself a significant amount of money. Find superb deals on UK tennis equipment.

You should by no means let money to stop you from involving yourself in something different or participating in your much-loved sport. By buying wisely, paying close consideration to sales or saving up to get high-quality equipment, you can save yourself cash on sporting gear of every sort.

ATLANTA HAWKS

The worst franchise in sports is the Atlanta Hawks. The Devil Rays don’t even try so they’re exempt, and the Clippers at least made a profit and are good this year. The Hawks do neither. Atlanta watches the Clippers and Warriors become playoff caliber while they are stuck in last place.

Here are some stats to show how bad they are: 25th in scoring, 22nd in points allowed, 29th in assists, 21st in rebounding, 24th in field goal% and 28th in turnovers to go on top of their worst record in the NBA and worst attendance in the NBA. Atlanta five years ago was old, with Steve Smith, Dikembe Mutumbo and Mookie Blaylock. Since then, they’ve been really young with at least one highly paid veteran. Whether it was Antoine Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Glenn Robinson, it didn’t work out. We shouldn’t be surprised that it’s failing with Joe Johnson.

Atlanta has a ton of young inexperienced players to build on the future. Josh Smith isn’t much more than a highlight reel. Al Harrington is a good contributor but is a high schooler himself. Marvin Williams and Josh Childress at least add excitement (on a blue moon) once in awhile. Joe Johnson is a decent player who happened to have a career year under Steve Nash. Personally I hope Johnson fails in Atlanta, to teach kids that being selfish by leaving the best team for the worst team just for the cash and stardom bring karma.

The Hawks are the youngest team in the NBA, which is one reason they’re so dismal. It’s imperative for a rebuilding team to have a couple veterans to tutor the youngsters through. Atlanta has none, expecting Salim Stoudamire to magically play defense out of thin air. If you’re thinking that the fans will cheer them on to victory, you’re sadly mistaken. The Falcons have the 2nd lowest NFL attendance and the Braves can’t sell out playoff games. Is it surprising the Hawks have the lowest attendance in the League?

Unlike the equally as bad Raptors, the Hawks haven’t learned from past mistakes. Mistakes like trading Antoine Walker for Gary Payton knowing they’d waive Payton in the end. If they can pull Dominique Wilkins and other greats into the organization, maybe these kids can get better. Until then, they have no place to go but straight.

Visit NBA Betting Systems for more expert articles on sports.

Hockey is a tough sport, not only do you have to have excellent skating skills, but you also have to have total puck control. Learning to skate and control the puck simultaneously is not easy and through in a little competition and well anything can happen. It is a sport on the edge of chaos during the entire duration and well, let’s just say it is not as easy as it looks.

It takes years of practice to become proficient and it takes nerves of steel to as the level of play increases. The trick to hockey is to make the basic skills such as controlling the puck, passing and skating so natural and innate that you could do them in your sleep and once you are at that point, you are well on your way. Learning the fundamentals and trick shots is also a major important part of Hockey. Knowing how to fall, hit and bounce off the wall is also important.

I propose using Holographic Technologies, which are getting closer to becoming reality to assist in the coaching of hockey athletes. An full motion image can be displayed of Wayne Gretsky as he skates up for a goal shot and the hockey player trainee would skate along with the image slightly behind it and match the images skating and every movement, line up the shot and fire it into the goal, helping him visualize that perfect shot. Can you imagine the power in using this high-tech new holographic technology in that way? Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

If you’re a webmaster, you know you need to get traffic to your website in order to succeed. You might be selling your own products, or you’re an affiliate for others, or you’re building your lists and want to capture email addresses. Whatever your site’s function, you will have said to yourself at one time or another, ‘I need to drive traffic to my website’.

There are many ways to promote your site in an attempt to drive traffic to your website. One of the most effective ways to get traffic is to try and get in the top ten positions of Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

However, attempting to get your website returned on the first page of search engines is very ambitious. It means that you will have to optimize your web pages extremely efficiently for your chosen keywords and key phrases.

Whilst it’s difficult to get on the first page of Google, Yahoo and the rest, you can find lots of resources on the internet, many free, to assist you in this objective.

I did a search on Google for – optimize website free resources – and it came back with over 68 million hits! So there’s plenty of assistance available to help you drive traffic.

If you’re looking for help, here are a selection of resources which I have found particularly useful:

http://www.sitereportcard.com

Free website analysis, optimization and promotion reports.

http://www.seocompany.ca/tool/free-seo-tools.html

You will find useful optimization free tools here.

http://www.spiderhelp.com/optimize/

An excellent checklist covering the elements of optimizing your site.

These sites will be a good starting point for you if you’re looking for that ultimate of traffic objectives – to appear in a top ten position on the search engines.

If you use these resources wisely and effectively, you will find like I have that you can definitely drive traffic to my website.

Brian McGregor is an internet enrepreneur and author. His most recent product shows how any webmaster can get a top ten position in the search engines. You can read more about this at http://www.first-page-on-google.com

The world wide web is a term that describes the infrastructure of the Internet (in a simplified way). Within the web are several smaller webs and within those webs are yet another layer, the personal layer I call it, or your world wide web network.

A personal web is simply a bunch of your own sites that link to one another in some way, like a mini-web. Web design is what makes it all work.

Using website designs with good SEO formatting helps this to work. Many people use several websites linked like a mini-web to generate and funnel traffic and to optimize the link back systems!

When I started to learn about the web and how to build websites I have to admit I was pretty confused.

A lot of people didn’t want to take the time to teach me what they knew without getting something in return so I had to do a lot of the research for web design on my own.

I came up with this great way to link people and skill sets together by starting a website design club. People who were new could offer skills like building pictures while they others could teach them web-design tactics.

This worked out well as it used the old barter system and everyone got what they needed!

Pitching a baseball game begins long before you even step onto the pitching mound. It is important to prepare both physically and mentally for pitching in a game. Below are some mental and physical steps you can do to prepare for pitching on the day of the big baseball game.

When you wake up in the morning, begin mentally visualizing your pitching experience. Start imagining how your pitching will be that day. While taking your morning shower, think about how you want your pitching strategy to be. Do you want to throw many fastballs? Do you want to vary your pitching a lot in the game? Do you want to try and strike every batter out? Or would you want to pitch each batter in such a way as to try to get them to ground out to the infielders on the first pitch? All of this mental preparation can help visualize how you want to win.

During the day, conserve your energy and keep thinking about how you are going to pitch the best game ever. Your positive attitude will help you win. All of the positive thoughts will get you very excited about pitching in the game.

When you are getting dressed for the game, keep a clear head and positive attitude. If you pitching coach gave you advice on pitching strategy, repeat key concepts in your head. Consider the strategies for each batter. If you did research on the other team’s players, remind yourself of which batters to pitch fastballs to, and which batters to throw curveballs to. You don’t need to quiz yourself, but simply review the concepts in your head.

Before going into the pitching bullpen, gently jog around the field. Get the blood flowing. Gently stretch, and then jog a little more. It’s important to loosen up your arms and your legs. Your entire body is needed for baseball pitching, so be sure to warm-up your entire body.

Once you’ve returned to the bullpen, go to a grassy spot away from other players and gently stretch your arms and arm joints. Focus on your shoulders, forearms, wrists, and elbow.

After stretching for about 5 or 10 minutes, find a teammate to have a simple catch with. Stand about 20 feet apart and simply throw the ball to each other. There’s no need to throw any pitches at this point. Just throw the ball. Catching and throwing the ball will actually help you stretch some more before you even throw a single pitch. After a minute or two, extend the distance to about 50 feet apart. After a few more minutes of having a casual game of catch with your teammate, you should start casually going through the pitching motion. Use your legs in throwing the ball. Do a casual wind-up and lift your leg a little bit in the pitch.

Now that you’ve warmed up, you can start your pitching activities. Have a teammate, preferably a catcher; assume the catching position while you throw some practice pitches. Start with a very slow pitch and practice the pitching motions. Don’t worry about speed. Pay attention to your pitching mechanics. The web site www.2PlayBall.com has books and videos that discuss the mechanics of baseball pitching. Besides reading and watching videos, you can also watch other pitchers and study how they pitch the ball.

Once you’ve thrown about 15 simple pitches while focusing on the delivery, start to warm-up your pitching aim. Focus on inside and outside pitching corners. Practice your aim with each of your pitches. Throw a fastball, curve, change-up, slider, and other pitches.

Ask your warm-up catcher and another teammate to go to home plate and practice with you while you stand on the pitcher’s mound. Your practice catcher should assume the catching position, and your other teammate should stand in the batters box with a baseball bat in hand. The practice batter should not hit your practice pitches, but simply stand in the hitting stance and occasionally swing very lightly at the pitches. All of this will help you visually prepare for real game pitching.

If you have not already done so, go see your pitching coach and say hello. Ask any questions that you may have. If you don’t have any questions, review with your pitching coach any pitching strategies for the game.

Before you enter the game, be sure to go to the bullpen and throw some more warm-up pitches. Also, throw just a few pitches at full speed. Don’t throw too many, but throw maybe 3 or 4 full speed pitches.

If you are not the starting pitcher, be sure to keep your body warm and loose. And remember to keep warm and loose in-between innings even when you are the active pitcher.

And of course, enjoy your pitching experience! After all, that’s why you play baseball…to have fun!