1:00 PM St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman is expected to miss 8-10 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right knee Friday.
12:45 PM When he entered the team's locker room Thursday, New York Jets QB Tim Tebow was reportedly teased by teammates with chants of "Lolo! Lolo!" - referring to Olympic hurdler & fellow admitted virgin Lolo Jones.
12:30 PM After being suspended indefinitely on Wednesday, Tennessee Volunteers TE Cameron Clear has been dismissed from the team after he was charged with stealing a laptop from a UT baseball player.
I hate to play the “I was a student sports reporter” card twice in a week, but the WIZ OF ODDS has a story that I just couldn’t ignore.
(TCU Media Relations Director or Mall Cop: What’s the difference?)
The Wiz reports today that TCU’s director of media relations Mark Cohen ripped TCU student reporter Brian Smith off the Mountain West’s TV network, The Mtn., because Cohen didn’t agree with Smith’s on-air opinion about TCU football’s quarterback situation.
On an April 14 broadcast, Smith said that freshman quarterback Casey Pachall, who graduated early from high school to enroll at TCU, is good enough to unseat Andy Dalton as the starter.
“I think it’s going to be tough to tell if Andy’s really as solid a starter as everybody believes he is,” Smith said. “And I think the reason for that is because Casey Pachall, a true freshman who enrolled in January, really looked good during drills and during the Purple and White game, and in my opinion he really could challenge Dalton for that starting spot.
“He can manage a game and he can play not to lose, but I don’t really think he’s the kind of guy who can win you a game. And Casey Pachall is that kind of guy.“
Whoa, the gall of Smith! To actually have an opinion! Thank goodness though order was soon restored.
Mark Teixeirais a Yankee. It’s a crushing blow to, well, just about every team outside of New York. The big fish — Red Sox, Angels — wanted him. The little fish — Orioles, Nationals — wanted him even more. Still, if you thought one of those jilted big fish was about to wade back into the pond for another bite, well, think again.
(Neither Manny nor the LADIES… know where he’ll will end up.)
According to Angels GM Tony Reagins, the team was absolutely, positively, never ever interested in moving on from Teixeira to Manny Ramirez. Let’s repeat that: the Angels were never interested in Manny. Wait, let’s just let Reagins do it himself, in this exclusive audio provided by KLAA 830’s THE SPORTS LODGE show:
Yup, you heard that right. The Angels never wanted Manny Ramirez, probably because he’s, well, Manny Ramirez. And that makes him borderline clinically insane. Or retarded. One or the other.
That’s right, in case you didn’t get the picture, the Angels really, really, really want nothing to do with “Manny Being Manny.” All of which begs the question: Where in God’s name is this guy going to end up? There really aren’t any big market teams interested — the Angels, Mets, and Red Sox (obviously) are all out of the picture. The Cubs and White Sox have absolutely no need for another overpriced outfielder. The Orioles, where Manny loves to hit, say they’re not interested.
So will Manny have to go back to the Dodgers? It’s a real possibility, just because there’s so little competition out there. The Nationals? They claim they aren’t interested, yet that may not be the case now that Ted Lerner has finally been outed by agent Scott Boras as an owner who does, in fact, have bags of money.
Of course, despite losing out on Teixeira, it wasn’t all a bad day for Boston. After all, the Celtics won again. That’s right, Boston won a 19th-straight game. Nineteen in a row. Without a loss. It hasn’t been done since … well, last year, when the Houston Rockets won 22 in a row. (And who stopped Houston’s streak? Yes, the Boston Celtics.) And every team that’s had a streak of 19 or more games has gone on to win the NBA title … except for last year’s Rockets. That’s the kind of stat that’s a little hard to minimize.
In the past week, as Boston’s winning streak careened past the level of “improbable” into solid “something’s got to give eventually” territory, there was a rush to minimize the accomplishment. “They aren’t playing anyone good,” said one Grinch. “They’re healthy when other teams are banged up!” chimed another. Both are somewhat valid points, but they do little to minimize or trivialize what the Celtics achieved by winning a 19th straight game last night, knocking off Philadelphia 110-91, at T.D. Banknorth Garden.
Perhaps more significant is the way that the Celtics are winning these games. Boston isn’t just beating teams, they’re blowing them out. The Celtics are playing better than they did all of last year en route to the title, yet they insist they can get even better.
That’s more than you can say about Boise State. They finally lost — by a point, a crushing point — to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl, which might just be the lowest status bowl to ever host a No. 9 vs. No. 11 matchup. Think about it: The Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day has No. 15 vs. No. 20. This was the stinking Poinsettia Bowl. On Dec. 23rd. Amazingly, it was also an incredible game. It might just be the best game of the bowl season that isn’t part of the BCS (for that matter, it might be better than the BCS, too).
Remember how Shaquille O’Neal — and then the REAL Shaquille O’Neal — showed up on Twitter one day? Well, evidently he’s not alone among athletes in the new technology. In fact, he’s not nearly as good looking as the newest addition, one Natalie Gulbis. Read her early entries here, via our friends over at RANDBALL.
You know, this Devin Harris guy is starting to look pretty good. Just check out the composure. We’ll take one of him and one Brandon Roy in the three-point contest, please.
Wow. Think it’s too late to start a soccer career? More unbelievable photos here.
That’s dedication, homes: Former NBA star and accident victim David Wesleyis a student manager of the Baylor basketball team while finishing his degree at the school. Seriously.
If this isn’t the best thing you’ve seen about Monday night’s Bears-Packers divisional brawl, well, you’ve probably been reading far too much NFL copy.
German soccer superpowers Bayern Munchen are really, really pissed off that their stadium — the Allianz Arena — is being blown up in this clip from a forthcoming movie.
Speaking of soccer, does it look like Arsenal’s Robin Van Persieis getting hugged by a four-armed man in this shot? KICKETTE thought so, and we agree.
Say what you will about ESPN — and we often do — but this ad is absolutely great.
The beards on Billy Mays‘ wife and kids are totally realistic looking. Admit it, you want one.
Thank God we finally have Brady Quinn’s first start out of the way so we don’t have to listen to the speculation every week about when he’s going to get a shot and see that stupid NFL draft footage anymore. Why do so many people care? I mean, great, he played pretty well for Notre Dame against Navy and Stanford but got killed in every big game. Way to go, bud, I guess doing all that and playing absolutely no NFL football is good enough to get yourself a Fathead.
Brady did, however, have the Browns in good position to win last night, leading the Broncos 23-13 after three quarters. But Jay Cutler finally lived up to his own hype and got it done in the fourth quarter, like a certain other Bronco quarterback did a couple of times in Cleveland. (See, aren’t these Cutler-Elway comparisons just ridiculous?) Denver scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and won the game 34-30. Cutler threw for 447 yards in the game, and Quinn put up a respectable 239 yards with two touchdowns. The game was viewed by approximately 39 fans on the NFL Network, and 17 people on a choppy SopCast feed from Denmark.
Speaking of football games nobody could watch, #10 Utah rallied from an early 10-0 deficit and beat #11 TCU 13-10 last night in a game that was on some channel called CBS College Sports. Never did I think I’d actually be complaining that a game wasn’t on Versus. Since this channel isn’t part of my DirecTV package, I assume that it ended in exciting fashion. Actually, there’s proof that it ended in exciting fashion (and a Dan Fouts sighting!).
(”I used to be on Monday Night Football and now I’m calling Mountain West games on some station that 4% of the country gets.”)
Over on ESPN, Virginia Tech took care of Maryland 23-13, plunging the ACC into even more mediocrity. Freshman Darren Evans set a school record with 253 rushing yards. One of the odd BCS rules out there is that a non-BCS team can actually automatically qualify for a BCS game if they finish in the top 16 AND finish ahead of the winner of one of the BCS conferences. And never has this been more possible with the top ACC being currently ranked 19th (North Carolina) and all 12 teams in the league sitting with at least two conference losses. So just because Utah or Boise State loses a game or you think Ball State is too far down to make it, it’s still very likely that we’ll be seeing one of these teams on Fox in January.
There was a spectacular ending in the NBA last night in Portland that most of you on the East Coast probably missed. With the Rockets trailing the Blazers 98-96 with 1.9 seconds left in overtime, Yao Ming hit an 18-foot baseline jumper while he was being hacked to tie the game. He then made the free throw to give the Rockets a 99-98 lead. But Brandon Roy swished a rainbow 30-footer as time expired to give the Blazers a crazy 101-99 win. Check out the video:
• Our favorite Indian pitchers, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, finally had their tryout yesterday. The ARIZONA REPUBLIC’s Jim Walsh has the details. In short, a lot of scouts think they deserve a shot, but nobody thinks it should be their team that gives it to them.
• The SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE quotes Padres GM Kevin Towers as saying that Jake Peavy’s “train has left the station,” which means the ‘07 Cy Young winner is going to be traded soon. He also has a full no-trade clause.
• The University of Oregon is debuting a baseball team this season. And you know what that means — ridiculous Nike uniforms!
The lines in the gray pinstripe uniforms are not actually solid lines — they’re the complete text of the university fight song.
• The Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr. fight this Saturday isn’t really captivating boxing fans. BOXING NEWS says it’s because the fight is such a mismatch in Calzaghe’s favor.
If the Boston Red Sox were a TV show, they would have been canceled long ago, because everyone would agree that the plot twists have just gotten to zany, too unrealistic, too unbelievable. Basically, they would be the second season of Lost or Heroes (or for you uber-nerds, the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
I mean, you expect me to believe that they came back from seven runs down with seven outs remaining in their season? Please. Next thing you’ll tell me the Smoke Monster is David Ortiz.
But, here it is Friday morning, and I’ll be damned if we aren’t going to have some baseball played this weekend. Rarely has a team taking a 3-2 lead back home for the final two games of a series looked so beaten. But that’s what happens when you’re the Tampa Bay Rays and you blow a 7-0 lead and a chance to close out the series.
It’s like they had been under hypnosis since Game 2 and had told that they were the Murder’s Row Yankees. Then suddenly someone snapped their fingers in the seventh inning and woke them up, causing them to realize that they were, in fact, the Tampa Bay Rays, and what the hell are they doing seven outs from the World Series?
Now…if you had told Rays manager Joe Maddon before the start of the series that they be up 3-2, needing to win one of two games at home to go to the World Series, I’m sure he would have taken that offer. But watching Craig Sager conduct the interviews/postmortems in the Rays’ locker room after the game, I have no reason to believe that Tampa Bay has any chance. They looked so shell shocked, it’s going to be a victory just getting on their uniforms on Saturday without putting their jerseys on backwards.
Here’s some other interesting stories from the sports world last night. You’ll excuse me while I try to talk the Fox network executives off of the ledge and convince them it’s safe to come back inside now:
SPORTS CULTURE is starting its own poll, this time for college cheerleaders. First set of cheerleaders under review is the Oregon Ducks, but I’m confused since all these girls shave their armpits, which I’ve never seen in Oregon.
The TELEGRAPH reports that the French have replaced the checkered flag at the French Grand Prix with a white flag, as financial woes have forced promoters to cancel the race next year.
AWFUL ANNOUNCING blasts out news that ESPN has hired Avery Johnson as an analyst. I think this will be “a very” nice move. Ha ha ha, see what I did there! Professional blog writer, people..
