The sporting calendar is overflowing with activity at present. Major League Baseball has finally progressed to the postseason (Go Sox!); the NFL wraps up Week 5 this evening with an exciting Monday night showdown between the explosive Minnesota Vikings and the Reggie-Bush-led New Orleans Saints; NBA squads are hunkered down in training camp, preparing for the long grind ahead; and the NHL season starts in earnest later this week, with a full slate of games scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

As with any new season, there are renewed expectations (optimism is for suckers) and hard questions (reality is a cold bitch). Will the Detroit Red Wings repeat as league champions? Can the Boston Bruins build on their near-upset of the hated Canadians in last season’s playoffs? Will global warming melt rinks everywhere? Do I look fat in this retro jersey? The answers to these questions, and no doubt, countless others, will be determined over the next six months.

Puck heads are a dedicated and somewhat nerdy fraternity — I can personally attest to this, having played ice hockey from the time I was a wee lad until I graduated from high school — and this popular conception stems, at least in part, from arguably the greatest sports movie of all time, 1977’s Slapshot. (R.I.P. Paul Newman, btw.) The story of the Charleston Chiefs, a struggling, bumbling, minor league outfit going nowhere fast (save the penalty box), the movie won kudos upon release for its exaggerated archetypes, preposterous situational comedy and stellar individual performances.

Here at Found Item Clothing, Inc., we sell a classic garment from this movie that any true puck fan will identify with, the Charleston Chiefs tee, which was worn by various players throughout the movie. Channel your inner-Hanson Bros. with this super-cozy, American Apparel-manufactured garment.

For those in need of visual stimulation, I’ve embedded a side-splitting clip from this famed flick.

The baseball season is winding to a climatic end, with several of MLB’s divisional races still to be determined. Last night, my team, the venerable Boston Red Sox, clinched a playoff berth on their home field, by virtue of a 5-4, come-from-behind victory over the Cleveland Indians (that’s 5 postseason appearances in the last 6 years, for those keeping score). At 92-65 and with 5 games to play, no other team, including the rival New York Yankees, who were eliminated Tuesday night from playoff contention for the first time since 1993, can match the team’s win-loss record for the so-called “Wildcard” spot.

The BoSox, who as most sports fans are aware, have had something of a star-crossed existence — Curse of the Bambino, anyone? — until winning the world championship in 2004, and again in 2007. This, arguably, makes them the team of the decade (to date), largely in part to superior scouting, player development and resource management. Between the brainy baseball engineers in the front office and a bevy on young, talented, homegrown players on the diamond, the franchise expects to compete for multiple titles in the next 10 years (at least).

In any case, the victory set off a raucous celebration at Fenway Park that saw the players showering each other (and themselves) with champagne and beer (pictured below), as is baseball custom.

The Big Bopper, David Ortiz.

“Wild Thing,” a.k.a. Jonathan Papelbon shares a moment with proud members of Red Sox Nation.

In the course of the festivities, I noticed that several members of the team were wearing motivational t-shirts. Naturally, this caught my attention and prompted me to do a little online digging.

Peep out the front of this tee, featuring the classic “Socks” logo adorned with dumbbells on the side:

A bit tricky to make out, the text on the back reads: “The Only Talent is Drive.”

As with a coin or a story, there are two sides to every tee. And while I’m not feeling the slogan on the back (it seems a bit forced, nor does it roll off the tongue in a poetic manner), the graphic on the front is simple, clean and easy to grasp (pun intended). All in all, the shirt speaks to the player’s overall sense of commitment to the team (read: diligent, self-improvement is both a collective responsibility and cohesive bond), as well as the take-no-prisoners, get-pumped mind-set that they want to project throughout the season.

Naturally, I’m a bit curious: what do the readers out there think about this tee? Cool design or clumsy execution? Hit me up with an e-mail at travis@founditemclothing.com and let me know how you really feel.

Of course, we don’t sell MLB apparel on our site and I don’t even know if the shirt in question is even available for purchase. I will say that now seems like an appropriate time to remind the hardball fans out there that we do feature a baseball-themed tee at founditemclothing.com. This t-shirt, worn by the Dude in the cult classic, The Big Lebowski, commemorates the career of Karou Betto, one of the premiere Japanese baseball players of his generation. It retails for $21.95, fyi, and it comes printed on a comfy, 3/4-length American Apparel garment.

Amidst quickly spreading rumors of his imminent un-retirement, Lance Armstrong confirmed earlier this week that he will return to professional cycling for the 2009 season. As most people already know, Armstrong is a survivor of testicular cancer, a 7-time winner of the world’s most prestigious and grueling cycling event, Le Tour de France, and a global, Nike-branded icon that transcends sport. That said, he is also a polarizing figure of sorts, beloved in the U.S. for his triumphs, but viewed by some in Europe as a cheat who has thus far eluded testing positive for performance-enhancing substances — allegations of which Armstrong has steadfastly denied — or worse yet, an arrogant, headstrong, American cowboy.

Regardless of how you feel about Lance (or his gold-plated, rock-star celebrity status), it’s hard to deny that he won’t raise his sport’s profile. Indeed, in a discipline desperate to rebuild its credibility with the public after a series of doping scandals that took place at the highest levels of competition, his presence alone is guaranteed to attract additional sponsors, media scrutiny, and fan interest. This, in turn, will generate increased attention for cycling in general, a development we wholeheartedly support here at It Goes to 11, especially at a time when alternatives to gas-powered vehicles are becoming more appealing, popular, and necessary.

Whether Armstrong can come back and perform at his own lofty standards, remains to be determined; his coach and at least one ESPN.com columnist think he will.

Anyways, I pulled up some clips on Youtube of Armstrong at his best. Here he is showing off his incredible handling skills in a Nike-produced clip:

And here he is in another jaw-dropping sequence sporting the maillot jaune (that’s French for “the yellow jersey”), which is awarded at the end of each stage to the overall leader of Tour. It is, without doubt, one of the most coveted garments in the sporting world.

And while we don’t sell this jersey on our site, this is a convenient time for me to remind the cycling enthusiasts reading this that we have recently reproduced a pair of bike-related tees right here on our site. “Rad Racing” was featured in the 1986 BMX movie of the same name, while the “Cutters” tee comes from the 1979 classic Breaking Away, a tender coming-of-age story about a young Indianan teen who finds relief from his pragmatic, but loving father by immersing himself in the finer points of European road racing. It’s a sweet, inspirational flick that has become a huge cult classic in the years since its release.

As with all of our shirts, both of these designs are printed on soft, American Apparel tees; they have been carefully researched, with regards to font and color, and you won’t find a better version anywhere else on the web.

They won’t help you ride as fast as Lance, but they will designate you as a devoted spoke-head and make you the envy of your cycling-inclined friends.

We posted a blog entry last week about the impending Summer Olympics (the Opening Ceremony is actually scheduled for today, August 8th, fyi) and German athletes outfitted with t-shirts designed to spotlight China’s woeful record on human rights (and by extension, its uneasy relationship with Tibet). A secondary controversy, however, about the quality of Beijing’s notoriously polluted air has been bubbling up in the background for the last 8-to-12 months — as detailed by The New York Times in this informative piece — and it now threatens to push all other issues, including one of government-imposed media censorship, to the backburner.

Upon their arrival in China this week, four members of the U.S. track cycling team drew intense media scrutiny with their curious decision to wear specially designed, United State Olympic Committee-approved masks after they deplaned and in the airport. (More details can be found here, but I’ve posted pics of the aforementioned face filters below.) As you might imagine, representatives of the host country and the Olympic establishment were less than pleased with the spectacle, though official response was somewhat muted, if not outright dismissive.

One official explained away the appearance of smog as yeah, you guessed it, simple fog stemming from the region’s severe humidity. Intense backroom diplomacy between Chinese officials and members of the U.S. delegation eventually yielded a face-saving compromise as the athletes in question quickly backpedaled (pun most certainly intended) away from their actions with a formal apology.

What’s ironic, and what most people are forgetting, is that this is hardly a unique or novel situation. In 1984, when Los Angeles played host to the Summer Games, similar concerns about smog and its effect on performance arose, and in great American fashion, and iconic t-shirt making light of the issue was born.

Not only that, this fine shirt was worn in not one, but two ’80s cult flicks produced in the wake of those games: 1984’s Repo Man and 1985’s Real Genius. We sell this very shirt here at the site (a shameless plug, I admit), which you may or may not know about.

Inform us, dear readers? What should we make of this controversy? Do you even care? And, more importantly, should we remake the tee (as one customer has suggested in a spot-on e-mail) to reflect these new times? Would you buy one if we donated a portion of the proceeds to an organization like Amnesty International?

EPILOGUE: More than 3 weeks after the Olympics concluded, the U.S.O.C. has e-mailed an official apology to the (somewhat understandably miffed) athletes in question.

The Tour de France will make a man go to extremes, both physically and mentally. Having lost the maillot jaune — you know, the French term for the yellow jersey that signifies the race’s current leader — this week to his rivals in the peloton, Aussie superstar Cadel Evans takes out his considerable frustration on the media assigned to cover the race. For what it’s worth, the commentators make Evans out to be a nice enough guy, but I’m not so sure. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding…

Still in the lead at this point, homeboy gets just a tad defensive in this video, most assuredly a sign of things to come.

Two days later, he threatens to decapitate — no joke — a reporter that creeps too close to his dog.

Finally, for good measure, he headbutts an overzealous cameraman in this clip: