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The contenders from today:
I’ll take Reali. Really outdid himself this year. TV show host? Get out!
Goes without saying that nobody topped Woody going as Julia Child last year.
Nailed it my man! (Though a pronounced, disconcerting stoop would’ve be a nice touch.)
Larger photos of today’s costumes after the jump. Read more…
• Rick Pitino’s reputation has taken a huge hit, as the Louisville b-ball coach impregnated the woman who’s been trying to extort him, then paid $3,000 for the abortion.
And now Karen Sypher says her marriage to Cardinals equipment manager Tim was all just a sneaky plot by Pitino to keep an eye on her. But hey, don’t blame Rick - blame 9/11!
• The release party for the new Miami Dolphins cheerleaders bikini calendar was quite the spectacle.
• Jay Mariotti denies that he’s going to be writing for the Chicago Tribune. Can’t wait to see Jay’s debut column in the Trib on September 1st!
• Manny Ramirez gets a memorable reception from San Francisco Giants fans - the same kind of reception that Barry Bonds used to get everywhere else except in the Bay Area.
• Engaged Malibu fashion designer Ali Kay may have encouraged Reggie Miller’s unwanted advances by sending the ex-NBA star photos of herself in bed & in a bikini. At least Ali’s still pretty good at making clothes.
After the obligatory round of hedged denials yesterday tendered to outflanked Chicago print media observers over my report that Jay Mariotti will soon join the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, I thought I’d throw up a poll to find out what readers think:
I never thought I’d see Chicago print media members taking Mariotti’s side on anything. But after getting beaten to the story of his local comeback, it appears that’s what’s happened - for now.
In response to my report last night on Jay Mariotti joining the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Ted Cox of Chicagoland’s DAILY HERALD has this wonderfully inappropriate, hyperbolic headline:
(The commenters on the story aren’t buying the FLAT-OUT!!! denials, either)
If you were to read the headline, and not Jay Mariotti’s accompanying comments in Cox’s piece, you would think there’s FLAT-OUT!!! no way Mariotti will be joining the Trib staff when his non-compete with the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES expires.
One problem though, Mariotti did not deny to Cox that he will be joining the Tribune.
Not even close.
I’ve never held a fascination for Jay Mariotti, the Chicago-based columnist made infamous by his RPG-inspired ledes. But as I recently received a tip on his next career move, figured I might as well let you in on it.
(Will history repeat itself for SbB’s Pete Gaines? We can only hope!)
If you live outside of Chicago, there’s a good chance you only know Mariotti from his surprisingly well-reasoned work on ESPN’s Around The Horn. But if you inhabit Chicagoland, you know him to be a chap quite rightly deserving of a slap.
For 17 years, Mariotti made his bones banging pots and pans as a sports columnist for the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES - a perennial underdog to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. But after leaving the S-T for AOL Fanhouse under less-than-pleasant circumstances, it was thought his Chicago days might be over.
Fast forward a year after Mariotti’s move and the Tribune is suddenly, as noted here three weeks ago, bleeding readers to newly-launched ESPNChicago.com. Desperate to breathe some life into its flagging on- and off-line circulation, the Tribune has now consumated what was once considered to be unthinkable. Read more…
• A group of cheerleaders at a Texas high school sock it to a teammate by smearing human feces inside her locker.
• Does the Denver Broncos’ Brandon Marshall like to beat women?
• Every time a Laker visits Colorado, sex accusations are soon to follow.
• Jeff Van Gundy is trying to stay objective in the broadcast booth, but he really wants his brother Stan to beat L.A.
• I know playing in the SEC is tough, but getting death threats from your own fans?
If there’s one person I trust to be an arbiter on classy behavior and good sportsmanship, it’s Jay Mariotti. Our nation’s foremost user of hair products proved that most dramatically in August of last year when he resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times, daggering everyone at the paper on his way out, smearing verbal feces on the walls and doing donuts in the parking lot before speeding away in a cloud of self righteousness. Five months later he was still going on about it. Sample quote: “Roger Ebert can kiss my ass.”
Cut to Saturday’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, as the Cavaliers are eliminated by the Magic. LeBron James exits the arena without shaking hands with his opponents or congratulating anyone. Mariotti, now writing for AOL, is aghast (I believe his monocle popped out), and proceeded to type furiously about how wrong it was for LeBron to act that way, calling him, among other things, a “crybaby.”
Pot, may I introduce you to kettle? And please do try the crab puffs. Read more…
As The Duke was so kind to inform us all of this morning in the Speed Read, Adam “Pacman” Jones was cut by the Dallas Cowboys yesterday after a story on ESPN talked about his supposed involvement in a shooting outside an suburban Atlanta strip club back in June 2007.
According to the story, while no charges were ever filed against Pacman or anybody else for the shooting, an informant told police that it had been ordered by Jones. Apparently he’d been in some kind of altercation with one of the men that was shot at. Well, as you can easily figure out, Pacman isn’t exactly thrilled with ESPN right now for running the story that cost him his job. So now he needs to find a new way to make money to pay for all these lawyers to keep him out of prison, and the only way to do that would be to sue ESPN.
Boston, Cleveland and Orlando were a combined 82-17 headed into yesterday. The North Carolina Tar Heels and the White Gritty Hearty Tyler Hansbroughs, a subset of UNC, were a combined 13-0. And they all lost to the Knicks, Wizards, Raptors, and Boston College. A matching game might be fun, but sadly all winners and losers were listed respectively.
The C’s, Magic and Heels losses were all about the same; great teams had OK days and their opponents rose to the occasion. The Cavaliers game, though, ended in much controversy. Apparently traveling is a rule in the NBA, and an astute referee discovered this deep within the rulebook and called out LeBron James on this very infraction. Were the traveling not ratified and therefore whistled, James’ basket would have counted and tied the game. Perhaps a foul call could’ve made it a three-point play. But it appears ‘Bron got enough calls his way over the years against the Wizards. Call it magi-karma.
I wish I could tell you what the heck this thing is, but it was a float in the Fiesta Bowl Parade this weekend. (Ohbytheway, they do a parade for the Fiesta Bowl. D’ya know that?) Ohio State could probably tell us what that balloon name is — for now we’ll christen it Tortilla Flotilla — but for now we’ll just stare and wonder how the heck Ohio State will hang with Texas, considering the Buckeyes amassed a total of nine points against both Rose Bowl combatants. If there’s hope, it’s in opposing coach Mack Brown’s analysis of how the game will unfold:
“If the teams are even, the team that wants to be there the most and has the edge and is more motivated usually wins.”
Let’s see. They got pulverized by two SEC teams in two consecutive championships. They got nailed by USC and Penn State in back-to-back manhandlings. Todd Boeckman is getting the sentimental senior decision to see time in the game, despite Terrelle Pryor’s messianic performances throughout the year. Yep. I can’t imagine which team’s more motivated.
Just so I have this all straightened out, ESPN considers the above stories “news.” They also notate news as hinging on “sources,” which is information they receive that they cannot divulge. They are completely accurate and news-making. They also like to share “rumors,” which — if you click through — are stories that aren’t reported by ESPN, and since they hinge on someone else’s veracity, cannot be trusted as “sports news.” Jon Heyman said it? Watch out, loyal reader! You could get sourceroll’d!
Or “slapped silly” by Russian hockey players:
Let’s face it: there haven’t been a ton of great decisions made at FANHOUSE lately. Their site portal was a disaster, with tech issues that lasted for weeks, their fantasy football ads were kind of prostitute-y, and then there’s the Fantasy Sports Girls fiasco. That’s where those girls - who, shall we say, weren’t quite SbB material - squeezed into kid-sized jerseys and (poorly) read fantasy sports information off of cue cards. Fanhouse got just drilled by Blogfrica and took the feature down after just one installment (you can still watch it here if you’re in need of a laugh). So you’d imagine that Fanhouse and their AOL overlords would be looking to ring in 2009 with, y’know, a good decision.
(Also a bad decision: making this Photoshop)
The worst decision, however, is the one they made by hiring Jay Mariotti. Yes, that Jay Mariotti. Recall that we last heard from the “outspoken” (read: blowhard) columnist when he was setting fire to every bridge in sight at the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, resigning and declaring sports journalism in newspapers dead. We’re sure the Sun-Times would have loved to know about Mariotti’s wanderlust before they paid for him to cover the Olympics in Beijing, but eh, details.
