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 life of a retired NBA benchwarmer is a rough one. You’ve blown most of your career earnings on bad business deals and overpriced houses, you’re not well known enough to make any money endorsing things, and nobody appreciates the years you spent putting up 10 points per game for an awful expansion team. What’s a forgotten cager to do?
Well, if you’re former Minnesota Timberwolf Pooh Richardson, you while away your days looking out for the well being of your friends. Seems like a worthy and wholesome way for ol’ Pooh to spend his time until you find out that his “friends” are drug lords and “looking out for” means “tipping them off to a raid by the feds.” Oops.
Think about that for a second: If the reports about Simmons getting 15,000 emailers supporting him are correct, there would be more email supporters than fans at your average Minnesota game in 2008-09. Not hiring someone based on that fan backing would seem almost ludicrous from a financial planning and marketing standpoint.
Leave it to Mark Cuban to slyly drop a bomb deep down in an interview about the changing role of media in the NBA. In an interview with Jonah Ballow, the Timberwolves writer for NBA.com, Cuban defended players’ freedom to send out tweets on Twitter during halftime because, “… Before I took over for the Mavs back in the day they used to drink and smoke in the locker room, so I can think of worse things.”
(He’ll tell you the joke on Twitter later … after he finishes smoking a joint)
That’s right, evidently before Cuban owned the Mavs, players used to sit around puffing ganja in the locker room at halftime, while sipping a 40. Or so he says. Making matters more amazing is that Ballow, somehow, doesn’t follow up with another question about drinking or smoking weed. How, in God’s name, does he not follow up when the most outspoken owner in professional sports says his team used to drink and smoke weed before he got there? How can that man be a reporter?
Candace Parker might be the best women’s basketball player in the world. She’s also pregnant, and got hitched in a shotgun marriage to a guy nicknamed “The Landlord”. But perhaps most importantly to her, she fills out a C cup bra. At least that’s the story, according to ESPN’s Allison Glock.
Just how fond is Parker of her bra size? Fond enough that Glock felt she had to mention it twice in the first paragraph of her ESPN The Magazine feature about marketing Parker, both domestically and overseas. Or maybe Glock is just jealous of the C cups herself? Whatever the reason, ESPN is typecasting Parker as a potential female Michael Jordan, which, of course, is impossible. Then again, it’d also be impossible to mention Parker’s breasts or her “endless legs” more prominently in the article.
Remember when the NBA had a reliable stable of guys who looked like they didn’t belong? The gangly, balding dudes who are your nemesis at the YMCA? You know, they don’t really have much game but they’ve got some goofy up-and-under move that you can never stop and they always seem to find every loose ball even though they’re about as agile as Stephen Hawking.
Luckily, there’s still one guy carrying that torch in the NBA, complete with the dual knee braces and everything. That’s right, according to the brilliant NBA blog THE BLOWTORCH, your Dad is playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Some people thought that Tiger Woods would find a way to make it back from his rehab in time to play at the Buick Championships this week at Torrey Pines in San Diego. After all, he’s won the tournament six times, and it was the site of his epic victory over Rocco Mediate in the U.S. Open last June - his last tournament before having season-ending surgery.
But he didn’t, and that’s probably a good thing: the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE reports that his wife Elin Nordegrengave birth to their second child on Sunday, a brother to go with their daughter Sam. Put the new Woods scion along with his champion golfer niece, now the Woods gene pool can pretty much dominate both tours for at least the next 40 years.
As we mentioned when news of his wife’s pregnancy first broke, it took real courage to have sex with his Swedish model wife while dealing with an ailing knee. But to deal with a pregnant wife while rehabbing, with only the help of a team of nannies, servants and personal assistants? He should be canonized right now. Of course, it would help his case if he bothered to show up for this child’s baptism.
One place Tiger Woods probably won’t be showing up is anywhere with Snoop Dogg there, lest his reputation be sullied by some scallywags discussing nefarious topics such as pimps and hoes. But LenDale White has no such problems, inviting the rapper/actor/youth football coach to his 24th birthday party back in December, just after they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to clinch the best record in the AFC.
It might seem odd that Snoop Dogg would be at the party, since he is a professed Steelers fan. But he and White go back to White’s time at USC (White even threw Snoop Dogg a ball after a TD while the rapper was standing in the end zone), and White has cameoed in Snoop Dogg videos.
YOU BEEN BLINDED has the video of the night, and you can expect, the language makes it pretty NSFW - there are more N-bombs being dropped in the course of five minutes than at the University of Mississippi in 1962. And make sure you watch until the end for LenDale’s own bit of “freestyling”:
Point of fact here: I’m white, which means I have no idea what “I don’t flow, I just pull hoes” means, but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with yardwork. I’m also pretty sure that Snoop Dogg was a Raiders fan when my roommate had a copy of “The Chronic” in college, and now he’s a Steelers fan but he’s hanging out with the Titans? This guy is the most fickle sports fan since LeBron James.
FOOD COURT LUNCH wants to give you a heads up about the latest movie: “Black Mamba, The Helpful Assassin.” Sounds like something Quentin Tarantino would be involved with, co-starring Jim Brown and Pam Grier.
Who would want a fat outfielder who was one of the biggest (literally) free agent busts in recent memory? Andruw Jones, welcome to the Texas Rangers! RUMORS & RANTS breaks down the freefall that is his career - at the very least, it will be fun to see if he can still be a tub of goo while dealing with Texas summers.
ARCA racing: it’s where they put inexperienced drivers on super speedways and wish them Godspeed. Needless to say, a lot of this sort of stuff happens:
MOTORSPORT.COM says that Patrick Sheltra, the driver who was T-boned in the crash, remains hospitalized with a compression fracture in his back, but the majority of medical tests so far have been negative.
SLATE gets down to the truth of the matter: the SI report that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids changes absolutely nothing.
The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports that Colts DE Darrell Reid was arrested after refusing to leave a nightclub parking lot in Indianapolis early Sunday. The best part is his reason: “I don’t have to because I am a football player with the Indianapolis Colts.” I understand that Jim Sorgi uses that line all the time as well, but usually it’s when security tries to kick off him the sidelines of Colts games.
NESW VIDEO found this gem on YouTube: A scintillating video Kevin Garnett put together for a Web site called AthetesDirect.com back in 2001 when he was playing for the Timberwolves. The topic? How he gets dressed. And yet somehow AthetesDirect.com is now defunct.
What do you get when you combine billiards, poker and mixed martial arts? Either a typical Saturday night at my house, or one of the goofiest ideas for a reality TV show ever, as tracked down by DEUCE OF DAVENPORT.
If can’t stalk the one you love, stalk the one you’re with (or at least near): the INDIANA STATESMAN says that a creep who served five years in prison for stalking Olympian Sheila Taormina has been arrested after apparently harassing an Indiana State female athlete and violating a restraining order to not step foot on campus. Because they really thought that was going to work?
Everyone get out your tissues, because one of the creepier pseudo-celebrity couples just broke up: As of Saturday night, North Carolina turned Minnesota shartshooter Rashad McCants and Khloe Kardashian are no longer an item.
(How anyone could feel comfortable with that guy around is mystifying.)
We know, it’s a shocker. Everyone thought they were made to be together. After all, Khloe loves the spotlight almost as much as her sister Kim, and McCants, well, he loves Apple Bottom jeans, boots with the furrrrrrrr and, you get the idea. But there’s no doubting the dissolution of this romantic union, which we first reported on back on Jan. 1, because it comes from the horse’s mouth. No, she doesn’t look like a horse, it’s just an unfortunate phrase. The following excerpt comes directly from the younger Ms. Kardashian’s personal blog, KHLOEKARDASHIAN.COM
“Hey guys. I wanted you all to be the first to hear the news that as of last night Rashad and I are no longer together. Relationships are hard enough as is when you live in the same city, and he’s in a different city everyday for games. Our time together was just so limited because of both of our schedules that we decided it is best not to be in a committed relationship.”
It’s so, so true. Relationships are hard, and schedules can get so hectic, particularly when one half of a couple is a constantly travelling professional and the other half sits on her ass being the famous sister of a girl who became famous for a sex tape.
Those Kardashian women sure like their men on the sporty side. Kim is running around with Saints RB Reggie Bush. Mom Kris has jumped in the sack with former Olympian Bruce Jenner. And now sister Khloe is bouncing her way toward an NBA player.
The NATIONAL LEDGER informs us that Khloe has hooked up with Rashad McCants of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Apparently Reggie was the one playing matchmaker in bringing the two together. Ain’t love grand.
