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."
After a late night of partying, there’s pretty much nothing better than McDonald’s (which might explain Michael Phelps’endorsement deal with the fast food joint). It’s greasy, it’s bad for you and it’s delicious. But after a night of alleged drinking and pot smoking, perhaps Florida State receiver Preston Parker should have settled for ordering a pizza, or seeing if there were any Ho-Hos in the cupboards.
(Parker dozed off after his “no mustard” request @ McDonalds took 45 minutes)
WARCHANT.COM reports that Parker was arrested on Saturday night and charged with DUI after passing out at a McDonald’s drive-thru. Cops found him slumped over in his car with the engine running, his foot on the brake and the car in drive, where he had been for the past 20 minutes. It turned out that he was under the legal limit for alcohol, but tested positive for pot.
(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.
Florida State has seemingly gone out of its way to let Bobby Bowden walk away on his own terms, but Bowden and the Seminoles will have quite the interesting situation on their hands if he’s not ready to walk away after the 2010 season.
FSU hasn’t been a juggernaut as of late, and even Bowden himself has indicated that he doesn’t think the program will see a major renaissance under his watch. But he’s just two wins behind Joe Paterno on the all-time list, and JoePa is signed up for three more years at Penn State. If Bowden wants to end his career as the wins leader, he’ll have to stick around a while. But is it worth $5 million to the university?
If you think Christmas with your family is awkward, imagine what it’s going to be like at Virginia coach Al Groh’s house. After all, nothing says “Happy Holidays” quite like having to fire one of your sons. And that’s just what the DAILY PROGRESS says has happened: Groh has given his son, Cavalier offensive coordinator Mike, the axe along with two other assistants.
Talk about a Grinch. Receiving a pink slip for Christmas is hardly a Red Rider BB gun - in fact, I suspect Mike would have rather received a set of pink bunny pajamas than that.
Bobby Bowden’s had a good run, but it looks like he’s about to hit his breaking point. After yesterday’s 45-15 loss to Florida that featured an angry Tebow, the Seminoles finished their eighth consecutive season that will see them finish outside of the national top ten.
(Get used to winning this trophy, ‘Noles fans)
And while Bowden has always spoken his mind, a seemingly off-the-cuff remark made after yesterday’s game might indicate that Bobby’s coaching career might be winding down. Why else would he say that FSU’s “revival” isn’t likely to happen under his watch?
When the going gets tough, you can always turn to family to offer some much-needed words of encouragement. Unless you’re Tommy Bowden, in which case you just have your brother Terry tell the world that your recently-fired (OK, “resigned”) behind got what it deserved. That’s what you get for telling Mom about the secret fort when you were eight.
It’s not all so heartless, as Terry Bowden does talk at length about how close he and his brother are. But it just goes to show how cruel the coaching profession can be. In his weekly column for YAHOO! SPORTS, Terry spends most of his time talking about how puzzled he is that Tommy couldn’t manage to get Clemson in position to win an ACC title, and that the university was right to try and find someone else who might be able to.
Remember the beginning of the season, when Clemson was ranked in the top 10 and people thought this was the year they broke free in the ACC? Yes, well, about that… No.
Clemson’s slide back to the familiar territory of mediocrity started in week 1, when Alabama throttled them in front of a stunned Atlanta crowd, 34-10. Any hopes of a resurgence were dashed over the past two weeks, when the Tigers dropped consecutive contests to godawful Maryland and godawful-until-three-years-ago Wake Forest. That’s apparently all the AD needed to see, as according to WYFF in Greenville, SC, Clemson fired head coach Tommy Bowden today:
Andrew Carter of the ORLANDO SENTINEL reports (with a straight face?) that “Florida State placed standout football player Preston Parker on athletic probation, suspended him for two games and will require him to adhere to six conditions after the junior wide receiver pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors Monday in Palm Beach County court.”
The charges? Parker had been accused of “misdemeanor possession of marijuana and with carrying a concealed weapon, a felony.” This news comes after he was caught shoplifting in 2006. Read more…
When the so-called “Nick Saban Rule” went into effect — and put severe restrictions on the amount of time coaches could visit high school prospects during the offseason — the head man at Alabama called the change “ridiculous.”
Now, Saban’s making a different sort of call by keeping ahead of the NCAA on the technology curve. Read more…
