When last we left pitcher Shawn Chacon, he had “accidentally” choked Houston Astros general manager Ed Wade, and threw him to the ground. As would happen to you or me, that got him released and banished to the Newark Bears, where he played until signing a Single-A contract with the Oakland A’s on June 18.

Well now, more fun! Chacon was arrested on Monday night at a bowling alley in Colorado in connection with $50,000 in unpaid gambling debts in Las Vegas. Let those who have never been arrested in a bowling alley for Vegas gambling debts throw the first stone. Read more…

When going to watch your favorite baseball team in an opposing team’s stadium, there are a couple things to keep in mind as an away fan. If you’re wearing your team’s jersey, expect to be heckled. Your reaction to the heckling determines whether you’ll have a fun time or end up with a beer spilled on you or worse. It’s generally a good idea to keep the massive drinking down to a minimum as well - if the home team’s fans are famously hostile, you’ve gotta keep your head on a swivel, just in case. Stay aware of these things and you’ll have a great time in any city, even if your team’s the enemy.

These helpful guidelines unfortunately come a day late for one Texas Rangers fan who attended last night’s A’s-Rangers game in Oakland. Being drunkenly belligerent to the home team’s fans is asking trouble in and of itself - taunting Oakland fans is always a dicey proposition. But taunting the police who show up to escort you from the premises? Yep, that’s a Tasing.

(Video after the jump.)

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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.

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Alfred G. Rava, the Grinch Who Stole Mother’s Day, is $50 richer this week after winning a discrimination lawsuit he brought against the Oakland A’s. Rava was miffed after the A’s gave out floppy Mother’s Day sun hats during a 2004 promotion, and he didn’t get one. Oh, did I mention that Rava is a lawyer?

A judge has given preliminary approval to a $510,000 settlement for those who can prove that they were among the first 7,500 fans attending that game, and didn’t get a hat. Claimants will receive $50 each, two-for-one A’s tickets and a $25 Macy’s coupon — plus the comforting knowledge that ESPN’s Rick Reilly has written a column about the whole thing. That latter is as good as currency in El Salvador and Maldives.

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I don’t know who has a more miserable Father’s Day: Jelena Dokic or the kids of former big leaguer Troy Neel. Sure, Dokic’s dad might have been overbearing, insane and quite possibly abusive, but at least he was there. Versus Neel’s two children, whose father has not only not been around, but has been hiding out living on a Polynesian island to avoid making more than $760,000 in child support payments.

But the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS says that Neel has finally been caught, and will plead guilty today in a San Antonio courtroom. Neel played for three years for the Oakland A’s, and then moved on to make a nice career for himself in Japan. But as part of a settlement from a divorce in 1997, Neel was ordered to pay $5,000 a month in child support for his two children.

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In the wake of Nick Adenhart’s tragic death, tonight’s game between the L.A. Angels of Anaheim and Oakland Athletics has been postponed.

After conferring with Angels owner Arte Moreno, MLB commissioner Bud Selig decided to cancel the game after Andrew Thomas Gallo allegedly ran a red light & slammed his minivan into Adenhart’s car, causing a crash that killed the 22-year-old pitcher & two other passengers.

Upon announcing the cancellation, Selig released the following statement:

“Major League Baseball is in mourning today upon the news of this tragedy that has taken Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others. Nick was just 22 years of age, with a wonderful life and career ahead of him.

“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my sincere sympathy to the families and friends of all three victims and to the entire Angels’ organization. I send my deepest condolences to Nick’s parents, Jim and Janet. The hearts of everyone in baseball are with them at this most difficult time.”

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While Phillies fans spent their opening night at Citizens Bank Ballpark coming to blows while the team raised its 2008 World Series Champions banner, at least nobody in that fight ended up in a casket. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for a spectator at the Angels’ home opener on Monday night in Anaheim.

As fans were leaving Angel Stadium after Monday’s game against Oakland, 27-year-old Brian Powers got into an argument with another fan in attendance. They began pushing and shoving in a stairwell in right field before a fight escalated. Then a third man entered the fray and hit Powers in the head from behind. It was a punch that would end Powers’ life.

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• The boat carrying missing NFLers Corey Smith & Marquis Cooper has been found, and one survivor was rescued. However, the two players and another passenger still haven’t been found.

• Does Bill Belichick treat all his ex-assistants-turned-NFL-head-coaches the same way?

• Speaking of, Eric Mangini is making drastic changes with the Browns - such as moving the video room up one floor at a cost of $500,000.

• DC Comics’ lawyers come down faster than a speeding bullet on the NBA for marketing “Krypto-Nate” T-shirts without their permission.

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As regular readers know, we at SbB are quite certain that a bloodbath looms for many, many franchises out there. The combination of a history of outrageous salaries and a worsening economic climate means that all of a sudden, there probably aren’t 30 teams in any sport (with the possible exception of the NFL) who can all be both competitive and profitable. In instances like hockey, it may not even be close.

(Ruh roh.)

But though our earlier musings have focused primarily on the NBA and NHL, it’s definitely worth noting that the largest economic disparities in major sport occur in baseball, and while those small-market teams haven’t historically shown major signs of distress (unless they’re, say, the Expos), these are unprecedented times for major sports, and even in the hallowed ranks of the nation’s oldest professional sport, someone’s probably going down. And if the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS is right, two such someones are the Oakland A’s and Florida Marlins.

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This year’s NCAA basketball tournament is apparently going to be the first one played without any #1 seeds, because nobody seems to want to claim any of them. This week, Pitt decided to be the latest top-ranked team to tank it, trailing by as many as 20 points in the second half in an 81-73 loss to Providence. The Friars are suddenly looking pretty good for an NCAA bid, with 9 Big East wins and 17 overall. This was their first win over a #1 team in nearly 33 years. Luckily for all involved, Jonathan Xavier was not at the game.

Professional golf, which ceased to exist last June when Tiger Woods got hurt, will finally resume today. Nobody’s happier for this development than the other golfers who Tiger will be competing against, whoever they are. Tiger’s first round match at the Accenture World Match Play Championships tees off at 2:02 Eastern time this afternoon. His opponent is someone named Brendan Jones, who just learned how to play golf last week. How confident is NBC that Tiger will make it to Saturday’s semifinals? They’re airing ads promoting Tiger’s appearance on the NBC broadcast this weekend.

(He didn’t win anything. This is just the trophy he gets to carry around every day for being Tiger Woods)

Do you have World Baseball Classic fever yet? Does anyone? This WBC seemed like a good idea a couple of years ago, but this year’s rosters are devoid of many of the sport’s biggest stars. Your U.S. roster features such giants of the game like Chris Ianetta, Jeremy Guthrie, and Matt Thornton. The Dominican team is without Albert Pujols and Manny Ramirez (who’s from New York City, mind you), but now gets to deal with the distraction that is A-Roid. It’s all moot, of course, since the powerhouse Italians are winning the whole thing. Who can stop Val Pascucci and Nick Punto?

As a reward for winning the title last year, the Celtics get to have 29 players on their roster. Case in point: the C’s have signed the recently waived Mikki Moore, who was playing for the Kings. And now the long-rumored acquisition of Stephon Marbury is about to happen, since Steph was finally bought out by the Knicks. Shockingly, New York was not successful in swinging a trade for a guy whose salary is $21 million and has spent his season hanging out at bus stops and buying tickets to see his own team play.

 • TMZ says that Charles Barkley might have to don a pink prison uniform during his five-day stay in the same jail that houses rapper DMX. Although, it appears as if Chuck has been given “work release” and only has to be in jail from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. So, basically he’s staying in a crappy hotel for five nights and wearing a pink snuggie.

• Charles Goldberg of the Auburn blog THE GOLD MINE writes that highly-regarded high school running back David Oku has moved from Oklahoma to Lincoln, Nebraska to be closer to some girl he met while on an official visit to Nebraska. And his parents are OK with their kid taking off to go live on his own and date a college girl. This seems like a great idea.

• Speaking of Stephon Marbury, the poor guy had to accept a buyout of around $2-3 million less than his salary for “playing” this season for the Knicks. But Darren Rovell of CNBC says that Marbury earned enough that he could’ve bought a pair of his Starbury sneakers every nine seconds.

• The CFL isn’t recognizing there’s a recession, according to the VANCOUVER SUN. Four CFL cities (all of which are home to teams called the Roughriders) are in the process of securing funds for new stadiums or improvements to their current facilities.

• Former major league pitcher Rick Helling on steroids: “There is this problem with steroids. It’s happening. It’s real. And it’s so prevalent that guys who aren’t doing it are feeling pressure to do it because they’re falling behind. It’s not a level playing field. We’ve got to figure out a way to address it.” When did he say this? 1998. TIME has the story of a guy who went ignored way too long.

• The SPORTS HERNIA points out that the Mets’ Fernando Tatis missed Monday’s intrasquad game with a rather unusual injury:

• PRO FOOTBALL TALK says that Eric Mangini and the rest of the new Browns staff is “lukewarm” on Brady Quinn. Which is rather insulting, considering Quinn won all those national championships in college.

• As if there aren’t enough Shulas running around, Dan Shula — son of David and grandson of Don — has been hired as an assistant coach at Illinois State.

• The Supreme Court may be hearing a case that results in a ban on public school coaches participating with members of their teams in prayer or other religious expression, according to the TENNESSEAN. Current precedent doesn’t allow coaches to initiate prayer, but doesn’t necessarily ban them from participating.

• The Oakland A’s have scrapped plans to build a new ballpark in the East Bay suburb of Fremont. San Jose has now apparently emerged as a new contender to rip the team away from the Mausoleum.

• WITH LEATHER says that Jason Giambi has aspirations to be a bouncer at a strip club after he retires from baseball. And Rick’s Cabaret in New York City is first in line with a job offer (link somewhat NSFW).