Ladies…Mixtape: Your 2011 Stanley Cup Final Mix

Tim Thomas gets my vote for Playoff Beard of the Year. (Photo: Getty Images)

Hope you had an enjoyable holiday weekend! Let’s get this part out of the way first: CALLED IT!

Talk about a region that is simply torn when it comes to hockey loyalty. On the one hand, this part of Canada is crawling with longtime Bruins fans, thrilled to see the team in the Final for the first time in over two decades (it’s another geographic thing. See Red Sox, Boston.) On the other hand, a Canadian team is thisclose once again to hoisting the Cup, and that means the bandwagon is making room. Vancouver fans have waited nearly as long to get back to the Final: 1994, to be exact.

I’m also torn. It’s the Great Battle of My Hockey Boyfriends: Kesler vs. Thomas! And I realize I am crushing on two American-born players. Whatevs. This is going to be a fun series. It all begins Wednesday (here‘s the sched. Being on Atlantic time, I am grateful for all the 8pm Eastern starts. No need for me to mainline coffee the following morning unless we get subjected to OT.)

To celebrate, I pulled together a playlist featuring great bands from both great cities. So put some beers on ice, dig out your fave retro sweater and crank up the laptop speaker after the jump.

A Ladies… Mixtape: Songs About (and not quite about) Hockey

Sidney Crosby: Stanley Cup winner, Olympic gold medallist and cute and all, but call me when Gord Downie writes a song about him. (Getty Images)

Sports and music go together like nachos and beer, rum and coke, Maggiesox/CuteSports/Lady Bee and red wine (sensing a theme here?) With NHL playoff hockey fever running rampant around these parts, I started thinking about all the music I dig that references hockey. These songs have been running through my head at one point or another these last few weeks, so I thought I’d share them with you. No Stompin’ Tom this time around, but I assure you this list is 100% CANCON.

Know your girls and join the fight!

I know it’s off topic, but can we talk about the girls for a second?

According the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), one in nine Canadian women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. I am quite certain the American statistics are not that far off. There’s 10 of us Ladies… and so many more of you. I don’t know about you but I don’t like those odds at all.

October is generally known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But for many individuals, the awareness isn’t limited to a month – it’s a 365-days-a-year affair, particularly for those who fight the disease, who have survived, and who are advocating and raising funds for better research, education and resources.

Someone call the waaaaambulance.

We here at Ladies…love Twitter. There’s something kind of twisted and voyeuristic and slightly stalkerish about it that we just adore. (There’s also something to be said about the ability to roll our eyes at Ashton Kutcher in real time. Oh, admit it. You follow him, too. There are two million of us.)

Of course,there’s a downside to being a celebrity on Twitter. For one thing, everything you say can be turned around and announced in the mainstream media. (Newt Gingrich’s Tweet calling Judge Sonia Sotomayor a racist went from ill-advised tweet to conservative nutjob talking point almost immediately. Gossip sites ran with the announcement that John Mayer had *gasp* announced his breakup with Jennifer Aniston on Twitter.) There’s no privacy.

But then, there are the impostors. Ohhhhhh, there are impostors. For some ungodly reason, people amuse themselves by making up fake Twitter accounts and pretending to be celebrities. We don’t quite understand it, but some people will do anything for attention. (Just look at Spencer Pratt. Don’t worry, we hate ourselves for making that joke, and for knowing who he is in the first place.) Usually, a celebrity will catch wind of one of these accounts, sign up with their own account and declare that the impostors are fake. No harm done, takes about five minutes, everyone moves on, right?

Tony LaRussa? Not so much.

UPDATED Announcement: Welcome your new Ladies…!

If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve gotten a pretty good idea of things that would not be announced on this site. Now, at long last, it’s time to let you in on what WILL be announced.

We have chosen our new Ladies…! We got a ton of great applications, and it wasn’t easy to choose. Thanks to everyone who applied, and please keep your eyes open to future Ladies… opportunities – we heart all of you! In no particular order, here’s  a bit about each of our new writers.

***UPDATE*** Due to a slight technical difficulty (in my brain), we neglected to include ALL of the new Ladies… in this here post. In addition to the warm welcome you’ve already given our 7 other newcomers, please take a moment to get to know the awesome CuteSports.

1000th Post Countdown…

The Ladies are coming upon their 1000th post as a blog.  To commemorate the occasion, we are counting down 9 Ladies’ Top 11 Perfect 10s, culminating in one glorious post of a unanimous #1 overall pick.  (Because 100 perfect 10s equal 1000… see what we did there?)  Today I bring you the Ladies’ #11s…

Awww, what a cutie.

Games Mistress
Darelle Revis – Darelle’s a rookie, but between his excellent defensive play and his hotness, he’s moving into the running for my all time favorite Jet defender. (Granted, given the Jet defenses of the recent past, this is not that hard.) Also, he looks really good in green — which just makes it sad that he’s had to wear drab blue and gold the last couple of games.

The Ladies Wax On about Waxing Off

Slash fiction... geddit?

This week’s Waxing Off topic at Deadspin was… disturbing. And gross. And demeaning to the women asked to write about it. If you didn’t read it, here’s the email sent to the women asked to contribute:

Michael Phelps Slash Fiction.
The inspiration for this comes from two sources. First, this post, which is pure nightmare fuel. Then there’s this, about how Phelps is being pursued by Lindsay Lohan (equally terrifying). We’d like to follow things to their logical conclusion, and figure that you guys would be the best to do that. Make it read like an excerpt from a steamy, filthy book. Put Michael Phelps in the situation of your choosing … male on male, male on female, Phelps on llama … the aristocrats! Nothing is too over-the-top or depraved; it’s slash fiction. Let ‘er rip. Keep to 250-350 words, if possible. And don’t forget the short graph at the end about yourself, where you can plug your site and/or projects if you wish.

Here are our collected reactions to this request:

Ladies…this week

It’s that time of week again, when the Ladies… shamelessly pimp out their other blogs and share with you what they’ve written. It’s kind of like show-and-tell, only with fewer pet hamsters.

Matthew Mitcham is an Aussie diver who brought home the gold, and Chitown Chick shares something else about him that NBC didn’t mention.

Lady Andrea campaigns hard for Fredbird in the Home Run Derby’s MLB mascot bracket.

Miss Minda ponders the actual importance of sports and finds a  great reason to keep being a sports fan. She needs something inspiring at a time when it’s never felt worse to be a Royals fan.

The Ladies… This Week

Our weekly-ish feature is back from vacation. Pretty simple – it’s what the Ladies… have been up to at their other sites in the last week.

Chitown Chick wonders about the U.S. athletes’ difficulties with weighins. The U.S. Greco-Roman team’s scale was a full kilo off – bad, bad news.

The Dame of Extra Time shares a postgame activity from New Zealand. You’ll want to check this one out; here’s a preview:

Consider this a preview.

Lady Andrea: Albert Pujols plays for the Cubs????

Not all our other blogs are about sports. The Games Mistress edits at Pindelyboz, and they posted a new issue this week.

Miss Minda took a rare break from baseball to share her love of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Happy Sunday!

The Ladies… This Week

Hey all, it’s time for our newish weekly feature: The Ladies… This Week. Pretty simple — It’s new stuff from the Ladies’ other websites this week.

At DeadOn, read along with Lady Andrea as she revisits Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She’s got chapters 1-5 up right now.

Chitown Chick previews two soldier-athletes who have a chance to qualify for the Olympics via the Army’s World Class Athletic Program.

Miss Minda shares what Omaha is like (Hint: it’s awesome!) during the College World Series.

The Dame of Extra Time has been busting her gorgeous booty keeping up with all the Euro 2008 action – way too many posts this week for me to choose from. Check out all the coverage at This Is Extra Time.

SA is sick, and we should really bring her some soup.

The Ladies… This Week

Hey all, it’s time for our newish weekly feature: The Ladies… This Week. Pretty simple — It’s new stuff from the Ladies’ other websites this week.

Lady Andrea‘s town was hit by a pretty fierce tornado. She’s OK, but you can see in the photo she posted that not everyone was so lucky.

Miss Minda’s head is spinning with all the Royals’ roster moves (but she likes them, so it’s all good). She also got a new jersey.

Chitown Chick has a new blog about the Olympics, and will be covering the Olympic trials.

The Dame of Extra Time welcomes back Captain Beckham…and his underwear ads, and notices England’s short memory regarding John Terry.

SA calls out Greg Oden on his very, very obvious observation.

The Ladies… this week

Hey all, it’s time for our newish weekly feature: The Ladies… This Week. Pretty simple — It’s new stuff from the Ladies’ other websites this week.

Once upon a time, on a Sunday afternoon, a lady blogger was supposed to do this post about her fellow bloggerettes’ activities of the previous week. Instead, she disappeared into the wilderness for many hours, and now needs some water, aspirin, quiet, and sleep. But first, here’s the post she owed y’all:

Fantastic news: Arizona State has reinstated wrestling!!! Let’s not let any more programs be canned, shall we? Read more from Chitown Chick.

The Dame of Extra Time uncovers the truth about Didier’s slap-happiness with Vidic; it’s more scandalous than I could have imagined.

SA describes the best five bucks she ever spent. In a few minutes – long enough to get to the nearest store – it will be the best five bucks I’ve ever spent, too.

La M Alana is pretty disheartened with this year’s NBA playoffs.

Miss Minda hasn’t been at her computer a whole lot, but saw a pretty sweet extra-innings game one night last week.

Lady Andrea did the “god-awful” American Idol finale in her usual hilarious fashion, and calls out some “writer” for being a superdouche.

Annnnd…I’m out.

The Ladies… This Week

Hey all, it’s time for a new weekly feature: The Ladies… This Week. Pretty simple — It’s new stuff from the Ladies’ other websites this week.

Sorry for the extremely belated-ness of this post; the intrawebz was being mean to me.

It was TV sweeps week this week, and as many shows– especially of the “reality” variety– came to an end, Ladies… was there.

I scrolled through Lady Andrea’s Survivor Finale Report over at Keeping Up Foreign Relations, and the first phrase I saw? “Pixelated Natalie Side Boob.” Sounds like an… interesting… show. (“Snake. Giant lizard.” and “Big scary bat. James leaps out of the bushes, kills it and eats it.” also stuck out.)

Meanwhile, on the “interviews with athletes we both idol worship and lust after” front, Chitown Chick bestows Gerald Harris with a new nickname over at Chicks Heart Fights. He approves.

And on the ever-popular “atheltes needing therapy but instead getting Punk’d” front, Dame of Extra Time goes to see a psychologist. And some Heroes jokes.

The “this is a sports blog… right?” front presents is with Miss Minda’s musing on the Royal’s bullpen at Baseball and Other Things.

Whew! Well, adios to last week, and let’s all get ready for the week of May 19, 2008. Should be a party.

From Buzz to bleached keepers: The Ladies… This Week

Hey all, it’s time for a new weekly feature: The Ladies… This Week. Pretty simple — It’s new stuff from the Ladies…’ other websites this week.

Lady Andrea is Nuts for Nats over at Bugs and Cranks. (Note: Going Nuts for Nats is similar to, but should not be confused with, going Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.)

Lady Andrea and Miss Minda both weigh in on the now-infamous Buzz Bissinger tirade.

Lady Andrea’s thoughts

Miss Minda’s thoughts

At Chicks Heart Fights, Chitown Chick recaps the week’s Ultimate Fighter episode. Also, sad news: her computer hasn’t been doing too well lately. I hope it gets better.

La M Alana revisits an old post, from her Warrior-fueled jubilation last year.

The Dame of Extra Time puts on her detective hat (which looks totally fabulous) and discovers what really happened to Manuel Alumnia’s hair. She has to be right.

Introducing The New Ladies…

Two weeks ago we made an announcement looking for a few new ladies. And all I can say is wow. We had so many more emails than Wanda, Andie, and I were expecting. And let me tell you guys now that it was a hard decision. We had to turn down some people we really wanted to join. People that were kickass writers. People that would have fit in like a glove. We argued and argued and argued over who should join us. And then we ate some pie. But then it was back to arguing. And in the end we think we got the women who will help continue the Ladies… brand.

Before we get to introducing, let me say how much we appreciated all the applications we got. Seriously, all of you rock. You honestly have no idea how hard it was to pick our final gals. If there was a way we could take all of you we would. For reals. Thank you to everyone who submitted to join this little blog of ours. And please don’t stop coming by and commenting on Ladies… It’s because of you that this is so much fun to do.

Now, the newbies…

Ladies University 1st Annual Screw Your Roommate Dance

October at Ladies U. Summer tans have all but faded away. The air is finally cold enough to pull favorite sweaters out of storage. Too late in the semester to drop Legends of the PGA without getting an “incomplete”.

And it time for the annual Screw Your Roommate Dance. As is tradition, each Lady selected her roommate’s date for dance. Pick someone too perfect and you miss the fun of watching the gal who keeps using your special lavender mint lotion ($36 a bottle! Buy your own bitch!) squirm. Choose someone too heinous and you’re apt to find your macroeconomics textbook being used as a bong in revenge.

We’re This Many!!

Friends, we can hardly believe it ourselves:
Ladies… celebrates its six month anniversary today.

(Artwork, as ever, courtesy of our incomparable Lady J-Money)

And what a ride. We’ve traveled into enemy territory, back to our alma maters, cross country to spring training, back home for Opening Day, seen legendary parks up close and raced to the bottom of too many pint glasses.

We’ve nursed all manner of inexplicable crushes in hilarious fashion.

We’ve taken to the streets and done a little spokesmodeling (step aside, Danbury Mint, and move over, Milano).

We’ve brought in guest stars from time to time, made ourselves at home elsewhere, and even gotten our parents in on the action.

We’ve seen grandiose plans exceed our highest expectations (this happened, right?) and crash in flames (let us never speak of this again).

And we’ve made it our mission to showcase the finest in baseball ass (and forearms!) from across the land, and to see that excellence is duly rewarded.

If you’re feeling indulgent (and who wouldn’t, after that cupcake?), join us after the jump for a highlight reel:

Bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out…

Rocking the Plate started out as a little lark of a post, just something we threw up for our own entertainment, and gave way to one of our most memorable comment threads. Summer being the time for reruns, we’ve posted the best of those propositions after the jump, along with responses we received from the blogosphere’s finest.

Love, Sports, and Dating – A peek into the minds of the Ladies

On any given day, we send each other between 50 and 200 emails. (70% sports, 15% website chatter, 7% pillow fighting and baby oil discussion, 4% on how our lives are going, 4% on how much we hate other blogs that shall remain nameless.)

So in the spirit of the CHEEZE DOODLE BACON PANTS post, here is the thread that took place this week in response to Chris Mottram’s post on Mr. Irrelevant about dating women who like the NFL. The conversation runs from dating guys who didn’t like sports, bar fights, holding your tongue as not to show up your sweetie in front of his crew, and eventually to my new favorite word, “douchesnozzle”.

Leading up to this point, we had been talking about Metschick’s new boyfriend…

Rocking The Plate

You’re standing in the on-deck circle, taking a few practice cuts and watching your teammate at the plate out of the corner of your eye.

Strike three.
Inhale. Grip tightens. Exhale.

You’re up.

36,000 of your closest friends are on hand to watch. Couple million more at home. And you haven’t made the highlight reel all week.

And there it is – that perfect song is blaring out over the loudspeakers.

Now you’re ready to do battle.

Let’s imagine for a moment that all of the Ladies… are major league baseball players. Yes, I know this would present a difficult quandary regarding whether we would ogle our own asses, forearms and eyeblack on this site (maybe we could spin off a “Gentlemen…” blog?). But the more important question is: What song would each of the Ladies… use as her at-bat music?

This is not a simple question- picking just one track to use as your theme music every single time you step up to the plate is tough. Do you go Classic Rock? Hip-Hop? Metal? I’m sure there are some pretty rockin’ hillbilly beats from Tennessee that Holly could use. (Holly’s note: Oh, you want hillbilly beats? I got your hillbilly beats RIGHT DAMN HERE.)

After some solo deliberation (using whatever criteria she chose), each Lady… submitted to me the piece of music that should play over the P.A. speakers when she stepped out of the on-deck circle and into the batter’s box. The other Ladies… haven’t even seen these yet. Take a gander at the lineup after the jump – and try and tell me this wouldn’t be an intimidating bunch to square off against at the plate.

Better Know a Lady: Pyle of List

Jonathan Pyle of Pyle of List has gone completely off-the-rails and undetaken the dangerous and often frightening endeavor of interviewing various “mid-major” bloggers from around the interwebs.  One of his first stops is with the Ladies… (natch), intending to do a great Lady Algonquin Round Table.  However, the awesomeness of eight Ladies could not be contained in one post (or even two or three posts), so instead: Fridays are Ladies’ Day at Pyle of List!  He kicked it off yesterday with an enlightening introductory narrative, envisioning the blogosphere as a row of fraternity and sorority houses at Ebays University.  (EU for short.  Say it out loud, I’ll wait).

Know Your Ladies…

Favorite Sports

Clare: Baseball
Holly: To watch? Foobaw. To do? Snowboarding.
J-Money: Baseball
Lady Andrea: College football & basketball, baseball, the Olympics
Metschick: Baseball
SA: College football, college basketball
Texas Gal: College football, baseball
TheStarterWife: Football, hockey, basketball…baseball last, but they have the most hotties.

Favorite Flicks

Clare: Croupier, Zoolander, American Psycho, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Holly: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Notorious, Good Night, and Good Luck., Grinch Night, The Sandlot, Red Dawn, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
J-Money: The Departed, Wayne’s World, Bull Durham, Waiting for Guffman
Lady Andrea: Jaws, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Fight Club, American Beauty, Pan’s Labyrinth, Clue, Back to the Future, Shag, Ghostbusters
Metschick: Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo, Bull Durham
SA: The Shawshank Redemption, Training Day, Eternal Sunshine, Titanic (yeah, I like it. what?), Carrie
Texas Gal: Top Gun, Clue, Dazed & Confused, Star Wars
TheStarterWife: Night On Earth, The Fountain, Alien, and about 1138 more films

Special Skills

Clare: Editing and proofreading, baking a pan of brownies from scratch without a recipe, acting as consultant and stylist when friends need fashion advice (what can I say, I have excellent taste)
Holly: I can put my foot over my head! And I have this tiny gap between my front teeth. You can’t really tell it’s there, but I can spit through it. Momma’s so proud. Oh, and the cherry-stem-knot thing.
J-Money: Shadow puppets, Photoshop (in case someone would like to hire me), sarcasm, and the confidence that I can beat most of the contestants on Teen Jeopardy. Physically, I mean. Last night’s winner looked weak.
Lady Andrea: Karaoke, dancing, tying a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue
Metschick: I can score a ballgame, and answer a sudoku puzzle in 5 minutes. Other than that, I have no skillz.
SA: Complaining, word searches, thinking up great ideas for stories yet failing to write them (well)
Texas Gal: All of them.
TheStarterWife: I have the memory of an elephant.