David Beckham has announced that he is retiring from professional soccer after this season. He has two games left with PSG this season.

David Beckham on his soccer career:

“If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over one hundred times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy. I’m fortunate to have realized those dreams.”

“To this day, one of my proudest achievements is captaining my country. I knew every time I wore the Three Lions shirt, I was not only following in a long line of great players, I was also representing every fan that cared passionately about their country.”

“I’m honored to represent England both on and off the pitch. … I want to thank all my teammates, the great managers that I had the pleasure of learning from. I also want to thank the fans who have all supported me and given me the strength to succeed.”

Beckham made 115 appearances for England’s national team which is a record for a player other than a goal keeper. He has also played for the LA Galaxy and Real Madrid.

Best of luck to David in his retirement.

The following post was sent to author/cartoonist Steph Diorio by her two intrepid Old English Sheepdog reporters, Barnaby and Louise.Now in their second year as sportswriters, they’ve returned to cover the ninth annual Puppy Bowl.

It’s our favorite day of the year! Besides our birthday because they give us presents then. (Photo by Steph Diorio.)

It’s 2013 now and another Puppy Bowl has come and gone. This year’s game was full of local pups doing good, girl power, and the runts coming out on top! We loved it, as usual. Here are some of the best highlights from tonight’s game:

• Sally’s run to the end zone just minutes into the game. (Her budding romance with pal Harry was charming, too!)
• This year was full of girl power, with at least four touchdowns coming from girls and little Marta winning MVP.
• Eli and Tuck, brothers who scored a touchdown together, are from the Bergen County Animal Shelter in Teterboro, New Jersey. We live in Bergen County, NJ, too! It was really exciting to see some local puppies doing so well for themselves!

The cheerleaders this year were hedgehogs. We’ve never seen hedgehogs before except for the strange blue one on the TV when our big sister Steph plays video games, so this was new and exciting for us!

Here’s a few more photos from our watch party:

Barnaby reporting the action live from our family room. (Photo by Steph Diorio.)

Louise taking in the game with her grandfather this year!

Barnaby and Louise Diorio are Steph Diorio’s beloved Old English Sheepdog puppies. They turn two years old on May 24th, 2013 and were thrilled to have the opportunity to write this article. You can find their big sister Steph writing about the Orioles, Red Sox and Stanford baseball when she’s not chasing them around.

How many times did Rex Ryan have an animated reaction in Sunday’s game? According to CBS, Ryan had 8 animated reactions in Sunday’s game, just below his season average of 9 animated reactions per game. I wonder who they made watch all the film to figure these stats out? Stay tuned to the next game to see how many he has.

Australian Taj Burrow won the O’Neill Coldwater Classic, a surfing competition held in Santa Cruz, CA earlier this week. He won over fellow Australian Matt Wilkinson who fell on his last maneuver and missed out on win by four-tenths of a point.

The O’Neill Coldwater Classic is part of the ASP (Association of Pro Surfers) World Tour. This competition was one that will help decide the official world title scenarios.

It’s always fun when fans, celebrities, and athletes dress up for Halloween. Let’s take a look at these gems. Happy Halloween!

Baby Dana Holgerson

Baby Bill Snyder

Baby Derek Dooley

Baby Mangino

Ludacris as Anthony Davis

Mike Pouncy from the Dolphins with his Jasmin

Brian Robinson (Vikings) and his wife

Women’s soccer player Alex Morgan and her teammate Sydney Leroux as USA Gymnasts.

Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade as a muscle man

THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS ARE THE 2012 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!! AHHHHHH.

If you need some motivation to get up after a long night of celebrating, I’m sure Hunter Pence could give you a “pump up” speech.  I hear they are pretty good. » Continue reading “Monday Mid-Day Motivation: THE GIANTS WIN THE WORLD SERIES”

I seriously can’t get enough of the OSU marching band. They have come up with some pretty creative ideas and we can expect nothing less in this video. The Ohio State and Purdue University marching bands performed “End of the World” at their football game on October 20. Watch the video and enjoy!

Brian Wilson plays the piano on his teammate’s head during game 2 of the NLCS.

Nick Swisher is acting creepy in the dugout.

Tim Lincecum’s pickoff attempt. Worst job ever.

Last week we saw the Ohio State University band perform “Gangnam Style” and this week it’s a mash up of video game theme songs. Enjoy!

After doing a MMM a few weeks ago on the Reds and Giants for clinching their divisions, I discovered the dreaminess that is one Mr. Joey Votto, 1st baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.  The Cardinals fan in me doesn’t like admitting this, but sometimes a fact is just a fact…

(Image via Keith Allison.)

You can check out Mr. Votto live and in color Tuesday afternoon as the Reds take on the Giants at 4:30pm CT.  But until then, enjoy…

» Continue reading “Monday Morning Motivation: Joey Votto”