Say whatever you want about NASCAR, laugh that some people call it a sport, turn your nose up in disgust that others watch purely for a chance to witness carnage, or be intrigued by the the masses that to gather on the hot pavement of Daytona. However, before you choose to disrespect NASCAR, (or perhaps you too enjoy high speed wrecks) you should be aware that this is a billion dollar a year industry. Like any billion dollar a year industry NASCAR is two things 1) full of conspiracies 2) a boys club, this article deals with both. I’m reluctant to use the word conspiracy here, because people often associate it with delusional lunatics and pure fantasy; however what I am about to right is simply drawn from the cold hard facts.


In 2009 Danica Patrick stunned the world by appearing in a “remake” of the 1980’s film Weird Science for GoDaddy.com’s highly sexualized Superbowl Ads in nothing but a towel (and at other times nothing at all). Although she had also appeared in a 2007 Superbowl Ad, in that one she appeared as a very professional race car driver who only attracted attention for her bad puns. While this may have been her introduction to the World, in 2005 she was introduced to a much closer nit universe, the racing world. She did so by becoming only the fourth women in history to compete in the Indy 500, finishing an unprecedented 4rth place. In 2006 and 2007 she proved herself once again finishing in the top ten along with a third place finish in 2009. From here Danica made another surprising jump, one you likely didn’t hear about; here move to NASCAR (as opposed to the rocket shaped Indy car circuit). While you may be saying to yourself, “of course I didn’t hear about it, it’s NASCAR and I live in the North”, however you would only be partially correct. The real culprit: The Boys Club running NASCAR. Unfortunately for Danica, I found out about her debut a few weeks before it was set to take place. I saw unfortunately not because I want her to fail, but because once word got out that women could be capable drivers, NASCAR panicked and so the conspiracy begins. Now that the world had learned that Danica had penetrated the phalanx (innuendo!) like defense system NASCAR had set up, they only had one option left to retain their “pride”; embarrass Danica. In order to do so NASCAR sought to reinforce the old stereotype that women don’t know how to drive. While this could have been done in a number of ways (most obviously some sort of rouge computer chip), the men of NASCAR went with old reliable. And so on February 13th at the NASCAR Nationwide Series, a yet to be determined number of men collaborated to take out Danica. First up at bat was Trevor Bayne, turning into a wall to make it appear as if his attempts at taking out Danica (who was right behind him) were inadvertent. However Danica escaped and instead Trevor took out six other cars. Next up was Colin Braun who on lap 68 (of 120) turned into John Wise, once again ocnce again this accident occurred immediately before Danica. Sadly this time it worked, with the duo taking out not only Danica but nine other racers in the process, for a total of 19 cars wrecked due to project sabotage. One success wasn’t enough for NASCAR though, so they went at it again at Dancia’s next race, at the Febuary 20th Sam’s Town 300 race. It was lap 83 and Danica had just previously ran a lap in third place. At this point Michael McDowell slowed and turned down into Danica.





Notice how the announcers blame everything on Danica. While some find my arguments utterly insane, I find it entirely unbelievable that a world class racer could be involved in three accidents when she has only been in three races. Luckily NASCAR has until June (Danica’s next NASCAR race) to clean up their act, although I am doubtful and fully except to see McDowell and company sporting some bling and a new set of wheels in the coming weeks as per their (assumed) corporate payoffs.

The term "Iron Man" gets thrown around a lot these days. Sure, you have Cal Ripken and Lou Gehrig, who played in a combined 4763 consecutive games. But was Cal really the # 1 Iron Man to ever play sports? ETS Daily considers...

10. Lou Gehirg

His record of 2,131 consecutive games played lasted for 56 years, and it's a shame he died so young, because the number could have been a lot higher. But "what-ifs" don't quite cut it on ETS Daily.

9. Cal Ripken

Yes, playing in 2,632 consecutive games is very impressive. No, that record will never be broken, but Cal's career was not quite as long as some other members of this list. Plus, baseball is a non contact sport. For the record, Pete Rose holds the mark most for most baseball games ever played, with 3,562.

8. Ted "Double-Duty" Radcliff

Radcliff, who played his entire career in the Negro Leagues, became the oldest person ever to pitch in a professional baseball game, when at age 96, he threw exactly 1 pitch for the Schamburg Flyers of the Northern League. As was a tradition, once he passed his 100th birthday, each year he threw out the first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field for the Chicago White Sox.

7. Morten Anderson

Vikings Fans may remember him for other, more dubious reasons, but we here at ETS Daily like to think of Morten as a true Iron Man. Anderson was an NFL kicker between 1982 and 2007, kicking his last field goal at age 47. Truly, he is one of Denmark's proudest sons.

6. Julio Franco

Franco played from 1982 to 2007, and when he played his last game he was 49 years old. Known for lying about his age over the course of his career, which means he couyld have been even older. Met fans will always remember Franco as a lousy, unreliable pinch hitter, but he accumulated a fine career, and naturally did better once he was traded to Atlanta.

5. Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar

Played 20 seasons in the NBA, all for the Milwaukee Bucks and the LA Lakers. He holds the record for most minutes played, with 57,446, and is second in games played at 1560. Only Robert Parish, long time Boston Celtic, has played more games (1611), but only played 45,704 minutes, keeping him off this list.

4. Chris Chelios

Famous American born defensemen who played in the NHL from 1983 to 2009. Played for the Canadiens, Blackhawks, and Red Wings, and is 10th on the all-time leader boards for scoring defensemen. Chelios, who played his last NHL game to date at age 48, is still playing minor league hockey for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, a farm system team for the Atlanta Thrashers, who say that if someone on their roster gets injured, Chris could very well be called to play once again. His 1644 games played is the most for any American born hockey player.

3. Jesse Orosco

Played his first major league game in 1979, played his last in 2003 at age 46. One of a select handful of players to play in 4 decades. This life-long relief pitcher is best remembered for striking out Marty Barrett for the final out of the 1986 world series, the last championship for the Mets to date. His record of 1252 games played for a pitcher remains the record to this very day.

2. Gordie Howe

Played for the Red Wings from 1946 to 1971. Finished his career for the Hartford Whalers in 1980. His record of 1767 NHL games played (not counting WHA, another legit professionally league he played for from 1971 to 1978) will probably never be touched. He played his final NHL game at age 52.

1. George Blanda

NFL QB and placekicker from 1949 to 1976 en route to a hall of fame career. Played for the Bears, Colts, Oilers, and Raiders. His record of 340 NFL games played was only beaten by Morten Anderson. Blanda gets the nod as our # 1, in the ultimate contact sport.

With spring training now officially upon us, it's time for this year's 2010 baseball season to begin. With every passing baseball season, the drama continues to build. Will a new team make the playoffs this year? Will someone else win the world series? Will the Pittsburgh Pirates finish above .500? Will the Royals draw more than 12,000 fans a game? Will the Braves make the playoffs and still not sell out? Really, the main question is how many games you think this year's Yankees/Phillies world series is going to go. 4? 5? 6...7? Looking back, there hasn't been a 7 game (good) world series since 2002 (8 years ago), when the Angels and Giants went the full 7 games in a terrific world series that I will never forget. Since then, there's been a lot to forget, and baseball has no one to blame but itself. With no salary cap comes no parody, and with no parody, teams will continue to lose fans like Obama loses supporters. Sadly, this lack of competition is not just a 21st century problem. It truly dates back to the 1920s, when the dead ball became the live ball, and the money started rolling in. With that in mind, I'd like to share with you a few facts about some truly pathetic baseball teams that somehow still have enough fans to remain in the league.