R.I.P., Evel

Already too much death this week, with the passing of Sean Taylor and Dr. Cade. Unfortunately, we had another great sports figure leave our collection of stadiums, arenas and crazyass ramps yesterday.

Evel Knievel passed away on Friday. He was 69.

Just before his passing he had seemingly ironed out his differences with rapper Kanye West.

Knievel will always be remembered for his successful jumps, as well as his not so successful ones that usually ended in a horrific way.

R.I.P. Evel, your wild, brash, living-on-the-edge attitude will be sorely missed.



And really, when you're the inspiration for a character, Capt. Lance Murdock, in Matt Groening's favorite Simpsons episode that really means something.

What Is Going On With These Ball Related Deaths?

On Monday, I wrote about minor league baseball coach Mike Coolbaugh being killed by a line drive hit into the dugout. Tragically, another person has died as the result of being hit in the head by a ball. This time it involved a 12-year-old girl that was hit in the head by a softball.

"A 12-year-old softball player suffered a brain injury when she was hit in the head with a ball during practice, and died a day later, police and family said.

Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Hilbrands was hit during a routine infield drill on Monday -- a day after the death of a minor-league baseball coach who was struck by a line drive in Arkansas. The Grand Rapids girl died Tuesday at DeVos Children's Hospital.

'She missed the ball. It appears it hit her in the wrong spot. She never regained consciousness,' her mother, Jan Hilbrands, told The Grand Rapids Press.

The ball struck her head, producing a brain injury that caused her heart to temporarily stop, police and family told the paper. Rescuers performed CPR at the scene."

Two freak accidents involving people being hit by a baseball/softball and subsequently dying. Damn, what the heck is going on here? As an attempt to inject a bit of humor into an otherwise tragic event, I'll tell you that I blame Dice-K's gyroball. That thing has screwed something up here in the U.S., and hopefully Simpsonsized Manny and his hairdresser can get to the bottom of it.

Seriously, condolences go out to the Hilbrands family.

Isn't This That Olympic Logo That Causes Seizures?

Will at Deadspin covered the unveiling of the 2012 Summer Olympics logo, but I wanted to post a follow-up.

Apparently, some people have experienced epileptic seizures after viewing the logo.

"Epilepsy Action, a British health charity, said 10 people had complained about the animation and some had suffered seizures from watching images depicting a diver plunging into a pool.

The Olympic group said it has taken steps to remove the animation from the Web site and will now re-edit the film."

Ten people in three days(the report was released on the 7th)? That's a little more than three people per day, and seeing how we're still five years away from the start of these Olympics that could result in over 5,000 epileptic episodes before the Opening Ceremonies. Yeah, great job on choosing that logo Olympic organizers. Though, with the TV ratings trending downward maybe this is a ploy to boost ratings. You know, induce seizures so that you can't change the channel and keep the ratings up.

Somewhere, Homer Simpson is thrilled with this logo choice.