Congratulations to the University of Alabama for Winning Gymnastics Title

Yes, college gymnastics fans will undoubtedly notice that the headline and the photo of Georgia gymnast Kat Ding, a senior from Sparks, Nev., may not seem to go well, but please read the entry first!

And, before we get to that, I forgot to thank blog readers from Belgium, Portugal and Australia on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire,' in addition to them, I want to thank those of you from Bulgaria and Indonesia who have stopped by here in the last 24 hours.

The University of Alabama did indeed win its seventh NCAA championship in women's gymnastics on April 21, and this was the first time that the Crimson Tide had successfully defended its title.

For Tide senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, it must have been a particularly rewarding weekend for she also won an individual title on the balance beam.

Meanwhile, Ding defender her national title on bars with a 9.875 and she had a 9.995 on floor, which gave her a title on that apparatus as well; Ding edged out Stack-Eaton, the defending floor champ, and Ellyse Hopfner-Hobbs of UCLA, who is perhaps the top Canadian gymnast in the world at the moment.

Kyra Hunter of Florida won both the coveted all-around title as well as an apparatus title on vault. The Gators finished a very close second to the Tide in the team competition with the Bruins of UCLA coming in a close third.

Next year, UCLA hosts the NCAA championships in the sport.

Sports Desk- Baylor Wins NCAA Women's Tournament, etc.

The top sports news story tonight here in the United States is that the Baylor Bears, a school based in Waco, Tex., completed a perfect 40-0 season as the team won a NCAA championship in women's basketball by defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 80-61.

Brittney Griner, the top star in women's college basketball, scored 26 points for the Bears. Defensively, her teammates Jordan Madden and Kimetria Hayden helped stop Notre Dame's star guard Natalie Novoseal, thus assuring victory.

SOCCER (England): The English Premiere League (EPL) had an exciting weekend of play in which most major powers came through with victories. Here is a partial list of scores:

Manchester United 2 Blackburn 0 (goals from Antonio Valencia in 81st minute, and Ashley Young in 86th minutes)

Tottenham 3 Swansea 1 (Togolese national Emmanuel Adebayor score two goals for Tottenham in 73rd and 86th minutes of play)

Newscastle 2 Liverpool 0 (Both Newcastle goals came from Senegalese national Pappis Cisse in 19th and 59th minutes)

Chelsea 4 Aston Villa 2 (Serbian national Branislav Ivanovic scored two goals)

Manchester 3 Sunderland 3, tie

Soccer (Mexico):

Pachuca 1 Tijuana 0 (The lone goal came from Argentinian national Javier Munoz Mustafa in 63rd minute)

Puebla 1 Queretero 0

Monterrey 3 America 2

Santos Laguna 3 Toluca 1

UAG Tecos 1 Guadalajara 0 (Mexican national Edgar Mejia scored the lone goal in the 83rd minute to beat their cross-town rivals.)

COLLEGE GYMNASTICS:

Women's college gymnastics will have six regional meets on Saturday to determine the 12 teams which will compete for the national championships in Gwinnett, Georgia, from April 20-22. The defending national champion Alabama will head all the way to Seattle where they will face fellow Southeastern Conference rival LSU.

Here are three of the regionals; the other three regional meets are listed on "The Daily Vampire:"

Fayetville, Arkansas

1. UCLA
2. Arkansas
3. Boise State
4. Missouri
5. New Hampshire
6. Maryland

Auburn, Alabama regional

1. Georgia
2. Oregon State
3. Auburn
4. Michigan
5. West Virginia
6. Michigan State

Seattle regional

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Arizona
4. Washington
5. Iowa
6. Central Michigan

Quote of the Day/Week-Joe Namath

Today, we quote New York Jets quarterback great Joe Namath who helped guide the New York Jets to a stunning 16-7 upset over the then-Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III
(1969).

Namath was also a star at the University of Alabama, and he also had an acting career that included guest appearances on "The Brady Bunch," "The A-Team" and "Alf."

He retired in 1977 as a member of the then-Los Angeles Rams, shortly before Warren Beatty played a fictinional Rams quarterback in "Heavy Can Wait" (1978).

Here is Namath's bold quote which shocked the sports world in 1969:

"We're going to win Sunday. I guarantee it."

SIDEBAR: Yesterday, we mentioned men's basketball results from the Ivy League. But, there is at least one other smart school conference here in the United States in the Patriot League.

Last night in league play, the Holy Cross Crusaders (14-13, 8-5 in leage play) won a home game in Worchester, Mass., over Army 82-51 with Devin Brown leading the home team in scoring with 24 points.

In other Patriot League games, Lehigh beat Navy on the road 58-41 and the home team Laffayette won over Colgate 84-67.

Tonight, in Washington, DC, the home team American University Eagles are giving away Jeff Jones Bobblehead Dolls, in honor of Jeff Jones, the team's coach, to the first 1,000 fans. American faces a crucial match against leuague-leading Bucknell.

Casulaties of Modern Technology_ Board Games

By no means is Monopoly a thing of the past, as one might infer from my heading. However, it is a safe assumption that most children of today prefer to play advanced video games with their friends as opposed to board games. Monopoly board games are still made today as our the likes of Trivial Pursuit and Clue.

According to Wikipedia, Monopoly was first played in 1904, and it was originally called The Landlord's Game. In 1934, Charles Darrow presented his own version of The Landlord's Game to various executives, and by the Christmas of 1935, Monopoly games were being sold throughout the United States.

Monopoly consists of three Chance spaces, four railroads, including the Reading Railroad, and a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.

Traditional American versions of Monopoly are based on streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since the '30s, the names of several streets have changed including Illinois Avenue which became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1980s.

There are also popular college versions of Monopoly, including ones for the University of Alabama (pictured), Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina.

In addition, there are international versions in many countries including South Korea, Japan and Russia. In the Australian version of Monopoly, a koala bear is one of the silver pieces.

There is also a periodic World Championship of Monopoly, which was last played in Las Vegas in 2009. The tournament was won by Bjorn Halvard Knappska from Norway.

Many parodies, including some that are unauthorized by Hasboro, the company which now makes Monopoly games, have surfaced over the years. Of these, the most recognized and infamous is perhaps Ghettopoly, which was released in 2003.

In Ghettopoly, railroads are replaced by liquor stores and a handgun is among the silver pieces. Hasbro successfully sued to prevent the game from being sold on the open market on the grounds of copyright infringement. The NAACP also found the game to be highly offensive.

As a result, the limited editions of Ghettopoly fetch between $120-300 on the Internet.

SIDEBAR: One of my favorite sports, women's college gymnastics, will be starting again soon. The University of Alabama, which was mentioned earlier in this piece, has the reigning NCAA title-winning team this year. They open their 2012 season at home on January 13th against their arch rivals from the University of Georgia at 7:30 p.m local time (8:30 p.m., eastern time).

The University of Georgia's team, which are also known as the Gym Dawgs (Georgia's athletic teams are officially called Bulldogs), has also won numerous NCAA titles in women's gymnastics, and the meets between the two schools frequently sell out.

Among the standout gymnasts for the Alabama Crimson Tide are junior Marissa Guiterrez and senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, who were key components of the team's national championship effort. For the Gym Dawgs, top gymnasts include senior standouts Kat Ding and Gina Nuccio.

The preseason national rankings have Alabama ranked second behind UCLA; Georgia is ranked ninth. The other SEC team in the top ten is the University of Florida; the Gators are ranked third.