Video - Phillies Fan Dry Humps NBC Philadelphia's Claudia Rivera [Bob's Blitz]

Contrary to the legends made popular by Yao Ming and the CIA, the Chinese are not a race of seven-foot tall supermen. Some of them are quite short and they like to play basketball against others who are their own size. Unfortunately, Huizhou Qiaoxing of the Dream League signed Chinese Basketball Association slam dunk champion Hu Guang, who was listed in the CBA as 1.95 meters. (The league limit is 1.88m. The metric system will enslave us!) Hu refused to be measured, so his first opponent refused to take the floor and had to forfeit the game. The league finally did measure him and he passed, but some accused him of bending his neck to mask his true height. I didn't realize "standing up straight" could be so controversial.

Qiaoxing's next game went on as planned, but fans became so disruptive that it was called at halftime. So naturally the other fans started a riot.

By the way, all this happened because the league admitted that they had "limited ability and technique in measuring." So we're supposed to be worried about a world-dominating superpower that apparently doesn't own a tape measure?

"Too tall" player sparks fan violence [Yahoo/AP]

Any locals out in the Southland take part in the "celebration" last night? If you have your own photos/stories from the heart of darkness (or if you make it to the parade this week), send 'em in. You too, Pittsburgh. There's must be something left to burn there.

Walking downtown Los Angeles after the Lakers win the NBA championship [LA Times]
At least 25 arrested amid unrest after Lakers victory [LA Times]

I understand some of you are upset over this but I assure you that it's not going to be as life-altering or site-ending as some of you are making it out to be. This is being put in place because some of you — not all of you — kind of abused the privilege.

To put some hard-line rules on this would be, in my opinion, a little counter-productive and not at all helpful at this point when we're figuring this stuff out. So if you get banned and you have no idea why, or absolutely 100% feel this is a completely wrong-headed oversight on the part of the commenting committee, then please refer to the Comment Complaint line outlined above.

This is not being done to deter negative comments about the site, the writers, or anything of that nature — you're all entitled to your opinions and many of you (okay — FOUR) have already emailed those along to me. Thanks.

I know some of you don't see it that way right now, but this is all being done for the betterment of the site in the long run. Just hang in.

Oh, one more thing: Yes, there will still be a DUAN!

And, honestly, who doesn't love the "Hurdy Gurdy Man?" That song's the best.

Stephen Wells—nice name, jerk!—comes from England, the birthplace of soccer riots. These people will shiv you in the back just for wearing the wrong scarf to nil-nil friendly, but somehow he thinks we're the ones with the problem. Even racist Spaniards think the British take things a bit too seriously.

Honestly, where does this guy get off? Yes, occasionally, things can get a little heated out in the bleachers. But it's all in good fun. Yankee and Red Sox fans may profess a mutual hatred that rivals most Mid-Eastern land disputes, but they know that it's all part of the game and they never take it too far. Except for that guy that ran over a Sox fan with his car because he shouted "Yankees Suck." Or the family that was pulled from their vehicle and hit with baseball bats simply because they had New York license plates. But that rarely happens.

The list of "incidents" this guy makes up is ridiculous. Yes, Boston, Philadelphia and L.A. all experienced riots after their teams won (or lost) championships this year, but was that just an excess of community spirit. It's not like they were targeting opposing fans. (Except for the Celtics fans who were targeted.) And yes, Montreal backers nearly burned down their city after a playoff win last spring, but guess what? That's in Canada! Which used to be British! Shows what you know!

Maybe the occassional youth event gets called off because of fighting parents, and pepper spray and tasers are standard issue for most stadium security guards, and a few nine-year-olds got beer poured on them at the World Series, and Wells didn't even mention all the people in Alabama who get shot over Crimson Tide football games—but those pond jumpers are way worse than us. I mean, the people that got beat up at that Columbus Crew game? They were from West Ham! That's English! And they were watching soccer, so what do you expect?

However, I do agree with him on one point. Fans who get angry enough to start fights at a bicycle race? Those people are fucking nuts.

Does Europe really have a bigger hooligan problem than America? [The Guardian]

The riot took place outside of the Palermo vs. Catania game on Friday (Palermo won 2-1, hell yeah). They stopped play inside while police tried to contain a large group of insane Italians outside. A police officer in his car was struck in the face with a small explosive, and the injuries sustained proved to be fatal.

"The decision to block the championships was immediate," [Federation commissioner Luca] Pancalli said in a news conference after the meeting. "We cannot continue like this. What we're witnessing has nothing to do with soccer, therefore Italian soccer is stopping."

No more trouble on the terraces [The Sun]
Police officer killed in riots; all Serie A and B matches suspended [USA Today]

I don't believe that anyone riots over the loss of the 1-AA football championship. If football meant that much to these people, they probably wouldn't have gone to UMass. When someone's looking for a reason to riot, they'll riot. This would've happened with a win or with a loss... in fact, this sort of thing might have happened after the Patriots were only able to beat the Lions by a touchdown a couple weeks ago. It's like people getting drunk on St. Patrick's Day... they're not getting drunk to celebrate a holiday, they're getting drunk because they want to get drunk. The green beer just provides an excuse.

Campus spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said that the cases against arrested students will be reviewed this week and that punishments could include expulsion, loss of this semester's academic record, or having their last names changed to Blaguszewski.

At least one guy isn't going to be surprised by this. Check out this bitter December 5th column from a grumpy gentleman who didn't enjoy some of the language he encountered at a UMass vs. UNH football game.

UMass launches melee investigation [Boston Globe]
Joe Sullivan: No class at UMass [Union Leader]