8:00 PM CSN Baltimore has video of Marcus Smith, a U.S. soldier who dressed as a minor league umpire to surprise his children at a Bowie Baysox game with a home visit from Afghanistan.
7:45 PM A Japanese Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was swept out to sea during last year's tsunami washed up on a shore in British Columbia last month. The bike's owner asked that the motorcycle be displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee as a memorial to the tsunami victims.
7:30 PM Buffalo Bills receiver David Clowneytweeted the results of his HIV test which came back negative. And to the critics of his decision to share his results, Clowney added: "Some people are Ridiculously stupid ... And can't see the bigger picture about things that are important in this world."
The Tennessee Titans take on the Buffalo Bills in the Hall of Fame Game to kick off the NFL preseason on Sunday, and aside from the always delightful antics of Terrell Owens, viewers will also be greeted by this: A decal on the Titans’ helmets honoring the late Steve McNair.
The Titans, in fact, wanted to honor their former quarterback with a uniform patch, but the league had already committed to patch honoring the 50th anniversary of the American Football League, and they can’t have two. But now comes the question that the Titans probably never thought they’d have to answer: Does McNair deserve such an honor? Many, even including some Titans fans, are saying no. Read more…
We’re now in the toxicology report window of the Steve McNair shooting investigation, and while it’s pretty clear Sahel Kazemi shot McNair before turning the gun on herself, it’s time to get a sense of what state both were in at the time.
(Kazemi, with the drug of choice.)
As for what state that actually was, it doesn’t look too great. As we reported a couple weeks ago, McNair was sleeping when Kazemi shot him to death. Based on blood tests that just came back today, he was even more incapacitated than that.
Steve McNair’s Nashville home mansion is for sale, sadly; just the thing for anyone who’s ever dreamed of having six fireplaces. I wonder if they’ll show it on the next episode of “Property Virgins”? Asking price is a quite reasonable $2,999,990, so I’d act now before Kerry Collins snaps it up.
Kind of lost in the tragedy of McNair’s case is the enormous amount of stuff he leaves behind. I assume that his wife and two youngest children, who were named as beneficiaries of the estate by a judge last week, will get the proceeds from the sale of the house. I wonder if the giant McNair mural stays? I’d pay extra for that. Photo of the exterior following the jump. Read more…
No matter what shortcomings Steve McNair may have had in his personal life, his enduring legacy as an athlete will be his courage and toughness on the football field. In an era where overpaid athletes remove themselves to the DL for the most minor of injuries, Air McNair was never one to let his team down. Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis shared that trait with McNair, and perhaps it explains why the two men were close friends as well as teammates in Baltimore.
It’s understandable that Lewis was distraught over his friend’s untimely death, and it must have been tough for him to speak at McNair’s funeral in Mississippi today. By all accounts, McNair was a decent- if flawed - human being and a great teammate. Still, comparing him to Jesus Christ might have been just a wee bit too much.
Let’s turn to fancypants NBC SPORTS property PROFOOTBALLTALK.COM, where Mike Florio was doing his Florio thing:
Lewis has reportedly had a difficult time with McNair’s passing, and has not been heard from publicly before speaking at the service Saturday. At one juncture, he encouraged McNair’s sons to be proud of their father.
“He left a legacy. The same way when Jesus left, because he had to sacrifice for all of us. Y’all father put out one heck of a sacrifice, young men. Everytime y’all walk out the door, hold your head up high. Because he left something that a lot of men can’t father.”
Again - we understand that Lewis is probably having a tough time right now, so it’s unfair to nail the words of a grieving friend. But let’s be honest - McNair’s death, while tragic, does not really serve as any sort of salvation for all mankind. Making him a martyr or holding up his murder as some sort of selfless sacrifice does no good for anyone, including his now-fatherless children.
Speculation has been rampant that one of the reasons that Sahel Kazemi decided to kill Steve McNair was because she suspected that McNair was involved with yet another woman who was not his wife.
His only source for the story is the former business manager of an unnamed strip club, who asked remain anonymous for the story. This guy says McNair was a frequent visitor to the club and had an ongoing affair with a dancer that lasted for six years. Here’s what he had to say:
“She liked money and athletes,” the former business manager said on condition of anonymity. “She went out with athletes before. She was one of those girls who said, ‘You’re married? You have kids? So what?’ Lets have fun.
“I can tell you that she was very upset when she learned that he had died,” the former business manager added.
I don’t doubt that McNair may have visited this club every time he was in Minneapolis, and that when he did he sought out the same woman. But was there really a relationship here? Maybe he just liked to see the same stripper every time he was in Minnesota? Did he have a different woman in every city he went to?
(What about this city was so alluring for McNair?)
But how often would he have occasion to go to Minnesota? Since he played only for AFC teams, a search of PRO-FOOTBALL-REFERENCE.COM shows that McNair only went to Minnesota to play against the Vikings three times: in 1995 (as a rookie when he wasn’t even a starter), 2001, and 2004. That’s only one game there in the last six years. He was from Mississippi and lived in Tennessee, so I’m not sure why he would be making frequent trips up to Minneapolis, unless he was good friends with some of the Vikings who were on that sex boat.
If there’s anyone out there in Minneapolis, what club would be the choice of athletes?
So while it might make sense for the woman in Minnesota to be sad (perhaps more for the loss of a customer), it doesn’t make sense that she would be completely distraught, unless she traveled to see McNair. Kazemi reportedly saw another woman leaving McNair’s condo days before the shooting, but it’s far-fetched to think that it could be the Minnesota stripper. Which makes you wonder exactly how many women he was involved with in some way.
Moving on, Lenny Dykstra continues to try and keep up with Darren Daulton in the race to be crowned the “looniest guy who played for the 1993 Phillies.” In an interview with CNBC’s Jane Wells that is not done justice by this accompanying article, Dykstra rambled (often incoherently) about his financial woes that has led to him filing for bankruptcy. Here’s the video, and it’s worth all 18 minutes of your time:
Dykstra claims that Washington Mutual perpetrated fraud against him on a mortgage that he can no longer afford, and that he is simply filing in order to deal with foreclosure proceedings (he points out that it is his corporation filing Chapter 11 in order to “reorganize”). He even goes as far as to call out a specific Wamu employee, even mocking his stuttering. Of course, Dykstra also stumbles over his words, so it’s unclear when he’s pretending to be the stutterer and when he’s just being himself. He also claims to not be very smart, and to not really know how all the paperwork works in any of this. So how is he so sure that he was taken advantage of in his mortgage? His attorney says he’s worth around $50 million, but Dykstra won’t go as far as to even give a ballpark figure of his net worth. When Wells informs him that the bankruptcy paperwork indicates his assets are no more than $50,000, he doesn’t really have any answer that would lead you to believe otherwise. This despite boasting that he’s “111-0 in the stock market” (which, if you steal other people’s stock advice, maybe that isn’t that hard).
The only evidence Dykstra could offer of his net worth still being in the millions (it was reported as $58 million in 2008) was that his failed venture at a lifestyle magazine for athletes (called “The Players Club”) was being reorganized into a company that I think is also supposed to help pro athletes manage their money. And, in his words, “will someone be interested in that later, and want to give me $10 million? I don’t know, but what I have is exactly what’s stated.” Oy. So, basically, it looks like he’s got a few businesses that aren’t worth anything or aren’t profitable, like his private-jet airline called Legends Air, and he’s just hoping that someone will want to give him millions for them later.
The interview took place at Dykstra’s home, which he bought from Wayne Gretzky two years ago. Just after the 8:00 mark, when Dykstra claimed that it was his primary residence, Wells starting losing her patience, pointing out that there was no furniture in the house (with a great “wtf is wrong with you?” look), to which Dykstra responded that the house was undergoing a “remodel” as if that was supposed to be apparent.
(The home in question, which is supposedly worth $25 million)
Please, someone get Dykstra and Daulton together for an interview. Or just tape them talking to each other for an hour. That would be better than anything I’ve ever seen on “E:60.”
Alright, before I go on any more Dystranian tangents, let’s get to today’s links:
• You thought Yankee Stadium was expensive? The total cost of the new stadium for the Marlins in Miami is going to run at least $2.4 billion because the county is going to take an insane amount of time to pay back its loans. Because it can’t afford a new stadium. And they’re still going to draw 8,000 fans a night. Has there ever been a worse idea than this?
(This is an early rendering, missing the tarp over the unused top deck)
• Tim Lincecumfinally gave up a run after more than 29 scoreless innings. He actually took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Padres last night, but gave up three runs in the inning. No worries, though, as the Giants still won 9-3.
• FANHOUSE discusses a little-known fact about NBA salaries. Due to a clause in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, all NBA players had to give 9% of their salaries back to their teams. All of this money went into an escrow fund, and is being redistributed to every team equally, in the sum of $6.3 million per team.
• San Diego State fired football coach Chuck Long back in November, but he’s continued to show up for work every day because his contract guarantees him his salary of more than $715,000 per year if he keeps coming to the office. What exactly he’s doing, nobody knows. SDSU can’t force him to leave, but the SAN DIEGO TIMES-UNION says the school is paying a consultant $125 an hour to try and mediate a settlement with Long and get him to leave (thanks the WIZ OF ODDS for the tip).
• A group of Canadians are working on an offer for the Phoenix Coyotes, and they totally want to keep the team in Phoenix. I mean, what group of Canadians wouldn’t want the team to keep failing in when they could be selling out a new arena in suburban Toronto every night?
• The D-Backs were crusing through five innings last night, leading 7-0 over the Marlins. It was still 7-4 after seven. Then the eighth inning happened. 13 hitters, eight hits, two errors, and a passed ball later, Florida had scored a franchise-record 10 runs in the inning.
• The Nats and Astros resumed a game last night that was suspended on May 5th with the score tied at 10. The Nats, the home team on the scoreboard, only took seven minutes to push the winning run across — in Houston. Even stranger, the winning pitcher was Joel Hanrahan, who now plays for the Pirates.
• Ron Artest has worn a different number everywhere he’s gone, so it’s no surprise that he’s changing it up again with the Lakers. According to INSIDE THE LAKERS, Ron-Ron’s going to wear #37 — because it’s the number of weeks Thriller was the #1 album. Top that tribute, Griffey.
• Lakers point guard Jordan Farmar just played poker for the first time two weeks ago, but he’s still alive in the main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Of the 6,494 players who started the tourney, only about 1,500 are left going into today’s play (and 648 will get paid). While it’s still way too early, Farmar would face an interesting dilemma if he were to make the final table. That table won’t be played until early November, which is during the NBA season. Would the Lakers let him miss a game or two to finish a poker tournament? Actually, I’m really rooting for this to happen so we find out. First place, by the way, is more than $8 million — much more than Farmar makes at his job.
• Speaking of poker, ex-WWE star Torrie Wilsonalso played in the main event, but busted out early (and often!):
