1:03 PM NASCAR CEO Brian France: "We have to have people within the sport openly just criticizing as we go along but maybe that's something very unique in NASCAR that no other sport has to sort out. We'll sort it out." In other words, announcers should be NASCAR p.r. flacks on TV broadcasts. Sad.
12:46 PM The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports Joe Montana is asking $49M for his 500-acre estate in Sonoma County, California. The estate includes a 10,000 square-foot home, but no property in the neighborhood has been sold for more than $15M, so Montana's asking price could be wishful thinking.
12:30 PM Boxer Pedro Fernandez thinks Manny Pacquiao's weight gain isn't natural: "I just think that? I honestly think that he is taking something, because a lot of fighters coming up in weight like that, 40 something pounds? he just looks ripped like Bruce Lee."
If you’re anything like us, you were probably devastated to learn that the Moneyball movie had lost its funding at the last second, mainly because the idea of Brad Pitt as a general manager who uses Bloomin’ Onions to seduce waitresses is spectacularly hilarious. Luckily, we have good news.
(A little yonic, don’t you think? No? Maybe we’re just perverts.)
As FILMDRUNK reports, the movie’s back in the works, albeit with some changes. For example, instead of being about baseball, it’s about the financial aspects of midget wrestling instead. Okay, no it isn’t. But it should be.
Movie fans were no doubt grief-stricken at the news over the weekend that Sony Pictures axed Money PitMoneyball, the Billy Beane biopic that, for some reason, was to star Brad Pitt. Maybe it was because they figured there’s no way a movie about sports stats would draw people to the theaters. Maybe it was because they figured there was absolutely no reason for it to cost $50 million to shoot since it’s a movie about statistics. Maybe they’re not big Oakland fans.
(So wait, the ball’s not actually made of money? Then the title makes no sense.)
So now we’re all missing out on what what was sure to be one of the finest cinematic treasures in baseball movie history, the best baseball movie since, like, The Sandlot 2. Lucky for all of us, the script (or at least one of the earlier drafts, anyway) is available online for your perusal(PDF, pops to new window). Quick hint: it gets good when they go to Outback.
With steroids now dominating the headlines in baseball again, the sport needs a new public relations makeover. Could a salary cap be just the gesture the sport needs to get back in the good graces of the American people? The idea has been knocked around for years, but now even big market teams like the Red Sox are throwing support toward the idea.
(No, no, not that kind of salary cap)
Of course, the Sox are only interested these days because of the new stadium down in New York, which is going to put massive amounts of cash in the pockets of the Steinbrenners — and allow them to spend even more on salaries. It’s not insane, even, to think that the Yanks would run their payroll up to $300 million or more in the next few seasons.
(This wood shack in Manitoba is where you can find Barry for the next six months)
The news came as authorities raided the house of trainer Greg Anderson’s mother-in-law in an effort to put pressure on Anderson to testify against Bonds, which he has thus far refused to do. Anderson has been in prison for more than a year for contempt of court. Much more on this to come today, I’m sure.
The Internet was abuzz when Mickey Rourke called out Chris Jericho on the red carpet at the SAG Awards the other night and said he would participate in April’s Wrestlemania, presumably as his Randy “The Ram” Robinson character from The Wrestler. Well, that excitement lasted all of three days.
The last thing anyone wants to be these days is the #1 team in college basketball. For the third straight week, the top-ranked team went down. This time, it was last week’s #1 Wake Forest taking down Duke, which rallied from a 13-point deficit in the 2nd half but forgot to play defense on the last play of the game. James Johnson’s virtually uncontested layin with 0.8 on the clock gave the Demon Deacons a 70-68 win. Here’s the end of the game. If you want to see the last play, skip to about the 3:50 mark:
• SI.COM isn’t bowing to the liberal media, as they’ve brought conservative pundit (and vaguely Palin-esque) S.E. CUPP (yeah, that’s her name) on board as a columnist. Her first subject? Bull-riding, of course. THE BIG LEAD has more.
• Everybody thinks they can run an MLB team. Now, 2K Sports is giving you the chance to prove it. Billy Beane is the pitchman for MLB Front Office Manager, which lets you run a franchise as a GM and see if you can screw up as badly as Steve Phillips. There are some other titles out there along these lines (I like Baseball Mogul), but this still looks like it could be pretty cool for all the seamheads out there. CNET’s GEEK GESTALT blog has a story on the launch.
• The OKLAHOMAN says that Oklahoma City sports anchor and former ABC sideline reporter Dean Blevinsfell and hit his head on some ice on Monday, causing him to miss the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game. He says he actually was laid out unconscious for at least 45 minutes in broad daylight before a neighbor noticed. Yikes.
• Iowa radio broadcaster Ed Podolak, who resigned after photos of him enjoying himself a little too much in Tampa before the Outback Bowl hit the web, is seeking “professional treatment,” according to THE WIZ OF ODDS. If everyone who’d ever had pictures taken of them drunkenly hitting on a questionable girl sought treatment, half of America would be in rehab.
• PRO FOOTBALL TALK reports that Jon Grudenfinally spoke out after getting thrown under a entire fleet of buses over the last two weeks by his former players. He called himself “Chucky,” and didn’t outright deny interest in the Notre Dame job. He probably would’ve been better off just staying disappeared.
Billy Beane, Oakland Athletics general manager and winner of… let’s check… zero World Series rings since taking over in 1997, has been rumored to be leaving the post for the last few months in search of greener pastures. Those pastures, however, are likely to still have leftover football markings or deflated pitching mounds on them.
