Dream Team Dominance - Weekly Trivia!

Say what you will about the television coverage, the 2012 Olympics were immensely entertaining, and the American competitors did our country proud. Even the inherently unlikeable men's basketball Flawed Squad rose to the occasion and won the gold. While head-to-head comparisons are never easy when considering temporal differences, there is quite a gap between the original Dream Team and the 2012 edition when it comes to smallest margin of victory. For the latter, it was 5 points. The former: 32 points.

Unfortunately no one picked more than 26 points as the smallest margin of victory. Oh ye of great underestimation. Better luck with this week's question, which is of course about football as I prep for multiple fantasy drafts:

Which of the following players rushed for the least number of yards last year?

• Darren Sproles
• Tim Tebow
• Shonn Greene
• DeMarco Murray
• Adrian Peterson

Good luck with the trivia and any drafts on the horizon.

TDZ's Fantasy Football Draft Primer 2K12

Contrary to what Macy's would have you believe, this is the most wonderful time of the year: fantasy football draft season. Last year I provided some expert insights on draft day bargains at most positions, including Matt Stafford's 5,000+ yard, 40+ TD season, 1,000 yards and double-digit TDs from Beanie Wells, and Bengals uber-rookie A.J. Green.

With such a track record, it would be selfish for me to hoard all my fantasy football know-how. Click below for some of the best players to target in 2012.

Young'ns - Weekly Trivia!

Well, it's been almost a month since our last trivia question, so I suppose it's about time I came back from "vacation" and resumed danger-posting.

In all that time, there was only one response, but it was the correct one: Jimmie Foxx was NOT an All-Star as a teenager. If you'll indulge my Wire lexicon: he was aight, though. Congrats to Spaldawg on the trivia dub.

The rounder your face was back then, the more home runs you hit. Exhibit B.

This week I've got to talk about the Olympics. The U.S.A. men's basketball team narrowly escaped eternal ignominy recently with a 99-94 win over Lithuania. The former eastern bloc squad exhibited a fluid offense while packing the paint defensively, keeping our shooters on the perimeter. And you know shooting from long-distance should be a last resort when most of the team can't even see the glasses they put on in the morning. Someone put their lenses back in and give them a mirror, please, they need to see how ridiculous they look.

Without further ado: what was the SMALLEST margin of victory for the original Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics?

• 5 points
• 19 points
• 26 points
• 32 points
• 45 points

Good luck, and welcome back to reading my blog.

Mamma Mia, It's Villa - Weekly Trivia!

We have another winner this week! David Villa is the all-time highest scoring player for Spain's national team. I thought this was a tricky one - Raul was "the guy" for Spain for so many years growing up that I assumed he had accrued the most, but Villa has scored at a solid 0.62 goal/game clip for la Roja.

He's got the best soul patch in soccer. Not that that's a good thing.

Congrats to this week's winner, whoever you are. Withhold your modesty and tout your winning ways in the comments.

This week, folks, you know it's got to be about the MLB All-Star break. We've got some major story-lines going into this year's game: guys getting injured and dropping out, other guys pretending to be injured and dropping out, and of course home field advantage will be decided by this exhibition no matter who's there. It will be a magical time.

My question is the following:

Which of the following players did NOT make the MLB All-Star Game as a teenager?

• Bryce Harper
• Dwight Gooden
• Bob Feller
• Jimmie Foxx

Good luck, and have a splendtasterrific week.

Tricky: The Story of R.A. Dickey

When Tim Wakefield retired, I lamented the end of an era: another knuckleballer calling it quits after a long, slightly above average career. No sooner had he retired this off-season than a new pitcher picked up the torch as the most baffling slow-tosser in the game: R.A. Dickey. A mere 37 year old king in Queens, may his reign last for decades more.

How does he do it?! I'm thinking it's the crazy eyes.

But what's the key to his success? We're not talking about your momma's knuckleballer, or even your grandmomma's or great-grandmomma's. What Dickey is doing now flies in the face of about 100 years of knuckleball tradition. For starters, he's winning on a consistent basis, and in dominating fashion.

In a special investigative segment, TDZ chases down Dickey's fluttering butterfly pitches to find out how they are so elusive. The answer just might shock you.

The Baltimore No's - Weekly Trivia!

There was only one reader intrepid enough to hazard a guess for this week's question, but it was a correct one: the Baltimore Orioles are the team that has gone the longest without pitching a no-no. If you don't believe me, just ask Sporcle.

Worst of all, Jamie Moyer will not be attempting to end that streak for the O's. He was 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA for AAA Norfolk in 3 starts, but he never got the call up, so he used his considerable star power to kindly request a release in the hopes that he would play in the bigs for another team. The power play totally worked as another AL Beast team signed him, the Toronto Blue Jays. Nobody puts Jamie in the corner!

There goes the best player in Norfolk Tides history.

For this week's trivia question, we're turning back to soccer. Spain will meet Italy in the Euro 2012 championship (go Roja) as the Azzurri knocked out Germany in a real stunner. Not exactly the tournament I predicted, but it's been awesome stuff.

Thinking about national soccer teams, my question is the following:

Which of the following players is the all-time leader in national team goals for Spain?

• Fernando Torres
• Lionel Messi
• Raul (Gonzalez)
• David Villa
• Fernando Morientes

The Danger Zone.br

TDZ is going south of the equator this week in search of top notch futebol and bossaball. Certainly there's nothing worth my time to blog about back in the States these days, so I had to take drastic measures to find content. Y'know, for the good of my readers. It's selfless, really. You're welcome.

Enjoy this fun Brazilian track and have a boa fem de semana.