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."
If there’s one thing I hate about the Little League World Series … well, there are a lot of things. But if there’s one thing I love about it, it’s when old Major Leaguers show up and tell the youngsters grouchy yarns about how things were better in the old days. Kids love that! You go, Jim Rice.
Rice was a featured speaker on opening day of the Little League World Series today, and instead of the generic gladhanding that one would expect from someone who was recruited by the staid, conservative Little League organization, Rice proceeded to tell the kids what’s wrong with the game today. Read more…
Are you serious, Minka Kelly? You’re going to get into a tussle with the crazy chick who starred in “Bride Wars”? Apparently there’s some sort of rift brewing between Alex Rodriguez’s celebrity starlet girlfriend, Kate Hudson, and Derek Jeter’s celebrity starlet girlfriend, the aforementioned Miss Kelly. Yankee wives are choosing sides, Page Six is snooping around … New York will be out of first place within the month!
It’s hard to know who to root against here. Hudson starred in “You, Me and Dupree” (minus 12 points), “Almost Famous” (plus 15 points) and “Fool’s Gold” (minus 1,000 points). Kelly has been in “Devil’s Highway,” (minus 10 points), “Friday Night Lights” (plus 15 points) and an episode of the Nickelodeon TV series “Drake & Josh” (minus 45,000 points). Knowing these facts makes me too ashamed to even do the math.
(More photos of the feuding females after the jump.)
Sure, when Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson started dating (and we dutifullylowered ourselves to covering it), we figured it was a matter of “aw look at these kids and their affection” style dating. As most new relationships go, y’know.
(Kate, you’re looking womanly. That won’t work.)
Oh, but this is a story about men and women in their 30s. Specifically, women, aged 30. And when it comes to relationships, there’s one thing they want: BABIES. So incredibly, Hudson has reportedly approached A-Rod about a pregnancy - but as what appears to be a business deal.
Not even back on the football field, and already Michael Vick is winning awards. In a poll I can get behind (although I don’t completely agree with the choices), Vick was voted overwhelmingly as the most hated man in sports. Data was collected by E-Poll, an Encino, Calif.-based marketing research firm, and reported by FORBES MAGAZINE.
As you have deduced from our photos above, Manny Being Manny and Alex Rodriguez placed and showed, and the remainder of the 10-man field is, well, interesting. A couple of glaring omissions, and couple of WTFs? And don’t worry: Isiah Thomas is there. Read more…
Boy, seems like a while since we’ve had any crazy A-Rod news, doesn’t it? Turns out that when the Yankees are actually playing good baseball on the field, the New York media doesn’t need to squeeze back-page headlines out of every move Rodriguez make and every word he says.
The latest rumor to make the rounds about the Yankees’ purple-lipped slugger was that he’d been seen getting mighty close to actress Kate Hudson. But yesterday, it went from gossip page fodder to Real News, and so here we are.
To recap, Albert Pujols does not take steroids — and to prove it, won’t you please accept this tube of scented bath gel and join him in the tub? Our Cardinals hero used the day before the All-Star game to reiterate his contention that his numbers are not chemically enhanced, and in fact he’s getting downright militant about it. Want to check and see? Seriously — Pujols will pee in a cup in front you right now.
Ever since December 2007, when it was reported by several outlets that his name was included in the Mitchell report - since proven to be false - Pujols has waged a one-man campaign to clear his name. And now, with his astronomical numbers at baseball’s halfway point, Pujols is on the offensive again. You may not be taking the juice, Albert, but your quotes are injected with hilarious goodness. Let’s proceed.
So you’re 13 years old, you’re Alex Rodriguez’s nephew, you play for the same youth baseball team that A-Rod did, and you look pretty much exactly like him. Oh, and the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS just did a big story on you. Hey, no pressure kid. Meet Joe Dunand Jr., who seems to be in line for superstardom, or endless, expensive hours of therapy, in the near future (pick one).
As I mentioned in Speed Read on Thursday, I watched the son of former San Francisco Giant Terry Whitfield play in an early-round game of a district All-Star Little League tournament earlier this week. All that Eric Whitfield, 12, was able to accomplish in that game was four home runs in four at-bats — three of the drives completely clearing the creek that ran behind the outfield fence. But that’s a tricky age, where hormones and motor skills kick in at different paces; there’s no guarantee that, by age 16, Whitfield will be appreciably better than most of his teammates. And by all accounts, the biggest thing that Dunand, Jr. has going for him is that he looks like A-Rod. Read more…
The Clippers’ selection of Blake Griffin with the first pick in the NBA Draft last night was a forgone conclusion, so most of the draft drama was centered around Spanish point guard sensation Ricky Rubio. Over the past couple of weeks, Rubio became one of the most fascinating prospects in draft history — he doesn’t want to play in a small market or a cold city, his agent didn’t let him work out against other humans (which led to the strange one-on-none workout in Sacramento), he still has a huge buyout in his European contract, and nobody can really agree about how good he really is (he could be the next Steve Nash or the next Dan Dickau, and neither scenario would be surprising).
In other words, Ricky seems to be rejecting Minneapolis as his future home. Any threat to not come to the NBA isn’t really financial leverage, since his contract is slotted based on his position in the draft. But he could be pulling this stunt to try and force a trade to a city that’s more to his liking, such as New York. He might also be wondering (like a lot of other people) why the Wolves took another point guard (Johnny Flynn) with the #6 pick. Here’s what Mr. Rubio told MARCA (via FANHOUSE):
“We are going to speak with the [staff] of Minnesota and see what’s happening, because, in some hours, we may be in Minnesota or in another place.”
He’s either expressing confusion over the Wolves’ intentions of keeping his son, or he’s basically telling them they better trade because there’s no way Ricky’s coming to play there.
After being drafted, ESPN’s Mark Jones asked Ricky to compare his game to that of a current NBA player. To which he simply replied: “I’m Ricky Rubio” (to the amusement of the MSG crowd). Scroll to the 3:20 mark of this video:
Surely I’m not the only person who thought of this when I saw the interview:
After Minnesota picked Flynn, it looked like Stephen Curry might fall to the Knicks, and it was no secret that he wanted to call MSG his home. But the Warriors didn’t get the memo and picked him, sending the Knicks fans on hand into depressed hysterics. It was only fitting that the boos rained down on Jordan Hill, who had no chance to win over the New York crowd in such a short period of time. At least he’s probably better than Renaldo Balkman.
The other strange development of the night was Brandon Jennings‘ last-minute decision to not attend the draft at the advice of his agent, who seemed uneasy about letting his client end up like Rashard Lewis, who famously slid way down the draft board while TV cameras watched his every emotion. Well, as it turns out, Jennings went 10th to the Bucks, then decided to show up a few picks later to get his photo op with David Stern. Now, if Jennings turns out anything like Lewis, he wouldn’t have cared when he was drafted.
HOOPSHYPE has a good recap of the draft up, and Kings fans are going to need to steer clear of hairdryers and bathtubs after reading that they’ve got the next Larry Hughes on their hands. The suit of the night, without a doubt, belonged to James Harden:
(Mustard suit + bowtie = smooth)
There were some other things going on in the sports world last night, including the resolution to one of the stupidest athlete spats in recent memory. With the Yankees heading to Queens for a weekend series with the Mets, the tensions between Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Bruney once again became back page news. But the NY DAILY NEWS reports that it was all settled last week, when Bruney sent a clubhouse attendant over the Mets clubhouse to apologize to K-Rod on his behalf. I was accused of some anti-Yankee bias in my original post about this matter, but really, c’mon, sending an attendant to apologize for you? How lame is that? I would’ve loved to see that exchange at K-Rod’s locker.
A lot of major league pitchers struggle, and a lot are sent to the minors to work through their troubles. But few actually go to their team and ask to be sent down, like the Pirates’ Ian Snell has done. Snell is 2-8 this year with a 5.36 ERA and awful 1.624 WHIP. He had actually been throwing better as of late, but said he thought it was best for the team to be sent down because he was bringing too much negativity to the team. I can’t decide if this is an alarming lack of confidence and perseverance on Snell’s part or a refreshing selfless decision done in the interest of helping his team and his own career. Regardless, Snell has actually been slightly better this year than last, when he had a 5.42 ERA and even more god-awful 1.765 WHIP, and he threw a full slate of 31 starts. Here’s what Snell told the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE’s Dejan Kovacevic:
“I don’t want to point fingers and make excuses. I just made a better decision for myself, my career and my life.” I asked what he needs to do: “Nothing. You guys don’t understand it unless you played baseball. You don’t understand it, and the people at home don’t understand it. I’m just going down there, get my thoughts together and do well.”
I think he just needs a hug, not a stint in AAA.
Before we get to today’s links, I feel like taking a few minutes to watch the “Smooth Criminal” video again. There’s no doubt that Michael Jackson was a weird dude, and possibly a perv on such a level that he doesn’t deserve our grief. But is it so bad to spend a day remembering why we loved the guy? All that other stuff will come back around soon enough.
Now let’s get on with those links:
• Ever wonder who that lady is who gives the draft picks their hat before they walk over to meet David Stern? Wonder no more.
• Darko Milicic has been freed by the Grizzlies…and is going to the Knicks in a swap for Quentin Richardson. It’s crazy to think that Darko’s still just 24 years old, and Mike D’Antoni thinks he can resurrect Darko’s career (well, his career was never really alive).
• First, the Dolphins sold their stadium naming rights to Jimmy Buffett, and now Gloria Estefan has bought a piece of the team. I’m told there are currently no plans to start calling the team the “Sound Machine.”
• Vijay Singhattempted to bail accused swindler Allen Stanford out of jail, but was told he couldn’t because he isn’t an American, according to CNBC’s Darren Rovell. This is like the first time I’ve ever heard about Vijay being a really generous guy, and it’s to someone who probably stole a bunch of money from him.
• According to this AFP story, “Gay clocks wind-aided 9.75″ at the US Track and Field Championships. Miss California is unimpressed.
• Frank Thomassays he’s “close” to retiring, which will be news to the one person in the universe who doesn’t already think that Frank Thomas is retired. That person being Frank Thomas, of course.
• A man has now been arrested in connection with Karen Sypher’s plan to extort cash from Rick Pitino. Why was Lester Goetzinger so willing to help out in this scheme? Were sexual favors involved or something? Oh, actually, they were.
• Wimbledon’s in full swing, and a rising star you might want to keep an eye on (or both your eyes on, really) is Caroline Wozniacki out of Denmark. She’s the #9 seed and has advanced to the third round. Here she is enjoying some time off the court:
Say what you will about Madonna; at least she had Alex Rodriguez home by bedtime. I wasn’t going to write anything about this brewing A-Rod late night carousing story, because staying out until 2:30 a.m. for a pro baseball player isn’t that big of a deal, even if you have been benched due to fatigue. One man’s 2:30 a.m. is another man’s 9 p.m., depending on when you started your day; it really doesn’t matter as long as you get your eight or nine hours of Sealy Posturpedic Beauty Sleep.
But this is too good to pass up. Our protagonist, apparently still not fully recovered from injecting illegal dr a hip injury, was struggling through an 0-for-15 electrical outage when he was benched for the Yankees’ two weekend games with the Marlins, due to “fatigue.” He was then seen out on the town Saturday night with girlfriend Kate Hudson. And not in the “let’s see a PG-rated movie and have a quick bite of dinner” kind of way, as it turns out. Lap dances, anyone? Read more…
