8:01 PM Interesting statistical analysis by the college hoops blog Storming The Floor on the sons of famous basketball players. The apple falls a lot farther from the tree than most people probably realize.
7:41 PMChris Mortensen reports: "As I reported earlier on SC & MNCD, Big Ben is telling teammates and friends he's fine, will play vs. Ravens on Sunday night."
7:20 PM ESPN has announced college football's award finalists. One glaring omission: USC's Taylor Mays not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award given annually to CFB's top defensive back.
TMZ gets its hands on Jamie McCourt’s official divorce filing today, and it’s a doozy.
(We all had the same reaction)
First off, Jamie lists the date of separation as July 6, 2009. Here are some of the things Jamie is demanding in the settle with husband Frank:
- travel by private jet
- 5 star hotel accommodations
- travel expenses - Unlimited
- business dinners 5 nights per week
- business lunches 5 days per week
- making Dodger Legends available for events without charge
- access to team doctors for McCourt family members
- access to the owner’s suite for Dodger home games and non-baseball events at the stadium
- Tickets to All-Star games and playoff games — even if the Dodgers aren’t playing
- a pass to all National League games
Mr. McCourt was living alone at the residence in West Los Angeles and his wife was residing in Malibu. That morning, Mr. McCourt left the house and went jogging. When he returned home to the West Los Angeles residence, he found his wife (Jamie) swimming in the pool and her personal “security assistant” Jeff Fuller, was also at the residence.
TMZ posted photos today it claims are of Jamie McCourt and her new boyfriend, a gent named Jeff Fuller.
(Jeff on the left)
We got these pictures of Jamie yesterday, lunching in Malibu with Jeff Fuller — the new guy in her life. Now, in the awkward department, until recently Jeff was the Director of Protocol for the Dodgers.
We’re told Jamie and Fuller began seeing each other after she split with Frank. Fuller was fired from the Dodgers in omid-October.
So Fuller just “recently” left the Dodgers and only started “seeing” Jamie after her split with Frank McCourt? Their timing is uncanny!
Jamie McCourt is believed to be lining up investors for a possible effort to buy out her husband and gain sole control of the team. In addition, she is believed to have started calling prominent baseball figures, with the intention of arranging meetings to discuss the direction of the team.
It’s been fun following the media coverage of the McCourts’ separation today. Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com broke the breakup while adding that Jamie McCourt is “better positioned” to buy the team outright than her husband Frank.
“Frank McCourt is the owner of the team. He has always been the owner of the team,” Grossman said. “There should be no change at all with respect to anything the public is used to.”
(Let the Dodgers’ inter-office cold war begin!)
Grossman said Jamie McCourt remained the Dodgers’ chief executive officer for now but could not say whether that would continue.
With the NLCS starting today, the Dodgers announced that team Owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are separating. (Nice timing, little narcissistic of them?) Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com has inside details on the separation:
(Will Jamie get the team in divorce settlement? Frank’s lawyer claims, “N-O”)
The divorce will not be amicable, one source said.
“They’ve already ‘lawyered’ up,” the source said. “They’re trashing each other terribly. It’s going to be World War III.”
Let me translate that for you: Jamie McCourt wants the team.
As CEO of the club, Jamie McCourt is the highest-ranking woman in Major League Baseball. Prior to that, she had been club president since Aug. 12, 2005. Community property laws in California provides Jamie McCourt half of Frank McCourt’s share of the Dodgers and his personal assets. The couple’s estimated net worth is $1.29 billion. Read more…
After second-generation ballplayer John Mayberry, Jr. launched a home run in his second major league at-bat in today’s Phillies/Yankees game on Fox, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver lavished praise over John Mayberry, Sr. (a 14-year major leaguer) and expressed how proud he must be. The camera lingered over a man in a World Baseball Classic Panama jersey and his two pre-teen children.
(Huge hat tip to Matt P of THE 700 LEVEL for helping to get this screenshot of a very focused Not Senior)
Which probably should have been a clue, really, to the Fox Sports crew on site. They picked up on their mistake an inning later and announced they had shown two minutes of the wrong man. Hey, it’s an easy mistake, right? Right?
Real men have haircuts level with the earth’s horizon. Real men don’t laugh at Terry Bradshaw’s jokes. And real men become spokespeople for Chevrolet-brand pickup trucks and look down on cars with convenient tailgate steps and heated steering wheels and seatbelts, because seatbelts are for queers and real men can crash through a windshield and jog three miles later that day. Howie Long is a real man. And if the FOX analyst-slash-truck-salesman had his way with the NFL playoff teams, he might be able to sniff out a girlie man or two.
Are those … “man sleeves?” Did Kurt Warner have to cover up his arms in Charlotte’s chilly willy weather, of all places? Wasn’t it, like, 50 degrees out there? Did his mom wife crotchet him a yarn jockstrap? Did you know Long would play in sub-zero temperatures shirtless, if given the opportunity by the league? Also, frostbite builds character, and hypothermia increases sperm count. And don’t even get Howie started on what NFC Championship Game quarterback Donovan McNabb was wearing between offensive possessions:
A fun dilemma brought up by FANHOUSE: Is it ethical for Wake Forest fans to rush the court after a win over UNC? After all, UNC was No. 3, and suffered their second loss in as many Sundays, and Wake Forest was a scrappy 4th in the national polls. Blogger Adam … well, Adam, argues “Court storming is actually an insult to your players. Court storming is an admission that you didn’t think they could win.” Well, sure, but … so what? In Adam’s rules, he mentions it’s OK to storm after any Duke win. Well, isn’t UNC at that same level of animosity? Wake may be No. 4 and even Wilbon called the upset two days ago, but a No. 4 over a No. 3 win means it’s a top-five showdown, and even in the SbB-model-stacked ACC, that’s a couple-times-a-year occurrence, and Wake just won one of those. My alma mater lost to Savannah F’in State this year. Let the Deacons run wild and free, and enjoy this one.
If it wasn’t for HULU.COM, nobody’s watching Saturday Night Live anymore except for drunk people who can’t find anything else on TV. That website might singlehandedly save that show. The cast may not be in its prime, and it could be in a perpetual Kansas City Royals state of infancy, but a few solid clips seem to arise from recent episodes. In this case, it’s Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley, as portrayed last Saturday. (Cue it up to 1:29 in if you don’t want to listen to Seth Meyers.) All in all, a solid skit, although if there was a way to transplant Frank Caliendo’s voice into Thompson’s larynx, that might be the opposite of turrible.
Before you drive away, please observe the following landmarks, which are clearly marked on your TripTik:
RED SOX MONSTER finds a Sox-customized ‘57 Chevy on FLICKR. Expect Sox fans to launch a campaign getting it in the Hall of Fame because, looking back, it was the most feared ‘57 Chevy of its time.
The Eagles beat the Giants to advance in the playoffs. This you knew. But … [puts on John Hodgman spectacles] WERE YOU AWARE OF IT? The final score of 23-11 was the first of its kind in NFL history. This time we can’t blame a certain quarterback for not knowing it was possible for a game to end like that.
Even though Adam Jones is no longer with the Cowboys, if he comes back like he says he will, he can room with defensive end Anthony Spencer, arrested for the pedestrian crime of disorderly conduct. Bonus: his agent was also booked.
Fun little interview with FOX’s Ken Rosenthal over at MLB TRADE RUMORS on what it’s like to be a national baseball reporter in the offseason. While the interview took place, Buster Olney broke three more free agent signings. Snooze and lose.
Wait, Antonio McDyess gave up how much guaranteed money to stay with the Detroit Pistons? Over eight million? Think of how many Silverados you could buy with that.
Biloxi, Mississippi, had a problem with golfers practicing their swing in public parks. It’s almost as if they thought they might hit someone. One law later, that’s no longer a problem.
And finally, what would a good solid Monday be without a dramatic finish in curling?Team Ferbey beat Team Howard in a skins game, banking $70K, but it’s a Canadian $70K so that will only buy, like two Silverados.
In his latest column on FOXSPORTS.COM, Ken Rosenthal has decided to bring up the idea that the Red Sox roster is just full of a bunch of whiteys, except, of course, for David Ortiz, Coco Crisp, Alex Cora, Javier Lopez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and Mike Lowell. I mean, other than that, it’s like Utah in that clubhouse.
Rosenthal claims that Boston’s past issues with minority athletes somehow prevents non-white free agents from wanting to sign with the Red Sox. It’s a provocative claim, one that Rosenthal says is worth discussing — but then he fails to make a compelling argument about why it’s worth discussing, since he concludes that the Sox are doing nothing wrong.
