The Raleigh Reds Team

Archive for December, 2008

Ethan D Orman asked:




On any given weekend, one can travel to almost any local park and watch the neighborhood men and women engaged in an exciting game of basketball. This game is more important to those players, more important than the NBA championship because this game directly affects them, their pride, and their bragging rights for the next week. After the neighborhood basketball game, the players will return home to watch their favorite National Basketball Association (NBA) team on television. The two teams with the best record of wins will meet at the end of the season to play for the championship. This game, which fascinates and excited millions of fans around the world, would never have been possible, if Dr. James Naismith had not invented it over a century ago.

When Dr. Naismith began inventing basketball, it looked very different from the game that is played today. It had baskets, but they were wicker baskets without a hole in the center for the ball to drop out of and a back board to bounce a layup off of. So the object was to throw the ball into the basket without it bouncing back out of tipping the basket over. There were only 13 rules which governed the play, as opposed to today, where there is an entire book governing the play. The rules have changed greatly over the years, along with the way the game is played.

The first of the original rules seems to still be an active rule today. It stated that a player could throw the ball with either one or two hands in any direction. The second rule has become outdated in today’s games. It allowed players to bat the ball away but they could never use a closed fist to accomplish this. Today, players can block the ball but must be extremely careful when they do, or they will receive a foul. The third rule has also been done away with because it did not allow players to run with the ball. They had to stay in their spot, throw the ball to a teammate, and then they could move to another spot of the court and have the ball thrown to them again. The fourth and fifth rules are still in effect. The fourth rule mainly stated that the player had to hold the ball with his hands and nothing else. The fifth rule is the modern definition of what a foul is. No player was allowed to harm any other player by any means, which included no tripping, shouldering, striking, pushing, or holding the opponent.

The sixth rule is also in effect today, which does not allow the player to punch or hit the ball with their fist. This is considered a foul. Rule seven is no longer valid today because it awarded points to the other team if the opposing side had three consecutive fouls without the other team fouling. Fouls have changed to personal and team fouls. If a player receives 5 personal fouls, they are expelled from the game. Rules eight and nine have not changed with time because when the ball foes into the basket, it is still a goal and still earns points for the team. A ball which is thrown out of bounds can be thrown back into play. Rule ten has been replaced with Rule eleven as there are no umpires but several referees who keep track of the ball, players, and points. Rule twelve has changed from two 15 minute halves of playing to 4 quarters of play with a half time break in between quarters two and three. Rule 13 is still the same: the winner has scored the most goals.

Sarah H asked:




This article is aimed at giving you gambling online news for sports. While, I enjoy the other types of gambling nothing fascinates me like sports, so I decided to focus on that area of gambling online news, so all my sports fans grab a pen and paper and get ready to take some notes. First things first, if you are a serious sports fan and gambler then I am sure you have visited “Bobby Babowski’s Ultimate Capper. com,” and have utilized it to its fullest potential.

Now let me address those individuals who claim they are serious sports gamblers, if you have never been to this website or to make matters worse have not even heard about this website then shame on you. “Bobby Babowski’s Ultimate Capper. com” is the ideal website which holds a plethora of knowledge when it comes to gambling online news with a focus on sports betting news. This website provides beneficial information which is presented in a user friendly way.

For one, it is easy to navigate through the website as everything is categorized. The next point is it is thorough when it comes to giving details and information about betting on the various sporting events. Also this particular website is a good one to visit if you are looking for gambling online news as its content is varied and covers a wide range of sporting events for instance, horse racing, football, and hockey, even normal online gambling games such as poker and bingo are also available.

An example of how their articles are formatted is as follows, the title of the article states what event they are referring to, then the first couple of paragraphs deal with the event itself, followed by the betting systems for that particular sport and the odds which is very important information to gamblers and then it is finished off by giving links to various websites in which the individual can participate in the gambling. Now as with everything else, it is important for individuals to have gambling online news made available to them as it gives them the upper hand because they are more aware of what is going on and would be able to increase their chances of winning which is what we’re all looking for anyway. So don’t just take my word for it, take a visit to this website and see for yourself what you have been missing out on.

Lance Winslow asked:




Not long ago a retired news anchor reminded me that the news is just what it is and nothing more, it is a pretend world of carefully chosen events making up a created reality, one which straddles between the status quo of perceived realities and current trends that are or interest or ironic in nature. But what is news really? And why do we put news personalities at the top of our celebrity lists?

The reason I ask is I met this gentleman in the Jacksonville Beach area, if you are familiar with the area, I was in Ponte Vedra Beach Country Club. The older gentleman was an older National TV Anchor Man, one I did not recognize, he was very surprised I did not recognize him or his name. We both decided it was because it was before my time. He was apparently quite famous in the 60s and 70s and said that my parents would surely know his name and told me to ask them.

Now we find a dear friend to many and TV Anchor man has died named; Tim Russert. It seems we have elevated his status in our minds because he is familiar and on our TV Sets always interviewing famous people. Many say he as a great reporter, but why do we see greatness this way. I mean there are several “Great Accountants” but they never get the same notoriety or fame? Why is that? Because they are not on TV talking to the rich and famous?

Do we assume that those who are reporters, TV Anchors or news celebrities to be better than all of us? Because if we were in the same profession who is to say we might not have done a better job or had better observation skills. Tim Russet appears to be a genuine nice guy from all the reports on TV about him after his very young and tragic death, but think how many other people died that week in the US and we didn’t even hear about them, while Tim Russert had countless hours of coverage for more than a week.

Tom Billmore asked:




Old baseball cards are collected for fun and as a hobby. Passionate collectors now sell and trade their old cards with other collectors, both, online and offline.

The challenge is starting a collection of these cards and then completing an entire set or collection. The old cards of baseball players of the past are quite in demand these days, and are quite valuable too. People collect these cards and many of the passionate collectors now sell and trade them with other collectors, both, online and offline.

When determining the value of the old baseball cards, both, its rarity and condition are taken into account mainly. Some cards are more sought after because of the status of rookie card (the first published card for a player) or the ones with errors, that is to say, a shell of printing being found only on a few copies. The value is also based on the perception of the player’s career performance. The value of the collectible is usually determined by grading companies – these companies are neutral and trained to evaluate the worth of sports collectibles.

The most famous is the Honus Wagner rookie card from 1909 (Reference T206) whose price rose to $ 2.35 million at an auction February 26, 2007. The first collection of cards, including the old baseball cards date back to 1886-1887: it is a set of 55 cards dedicated to great sports figures published by Allen & Ginter in Richmond (Virginia). Among the players appearing in this edition, we include Cap Anson and Charles Comiskey. The first collections of exclusively devoted to old baseball cards are published in 1888. The Old Judges brand published these unnumbered cards, and no information had been provided on the number of cards constituting the complete set. 172 different cards have been identified recently. They show photographs of players, and not drawings, as in the case of cards of the set of Allen & Ginter. Goodwin & Co, based in New York, also publishes a series on baseball in 1888 for cigarettes Old Judge. This set of eight cards drawn is also known as Kimball Champions.