That Mickey Mantle, New York Yankee legend, sure was a funny dude.  In 1973, the Yankees were looking to celebrate 50-years of the previous Yankee Stadium so they asked many players for their personal highlites. Check out the letter requesting his input, and his epic, epic reply, confirmed by Snopes as legitimately his.
 Madden's video game series has run its annual simulation for the Super Bowl, and is on a six of seven run. This year's simulation has Pittsburgh as a 24-20 winner, for what it is worth, on a TD in the final two minutes.

Have to say, I'm utterly stunned that an Associated Press poll in the U.S. found that only 27% of those asked were in favor of expanding the NFL season to 18 games from the current menu of 16.  I'd have guessed it was closer to 100% in favor, quite honestly, than as low as 27.  Then again, maybe they took the poll only to Buffalo and Cleveland?

Deadspin delivers the ten worst men in sports.  Clearly, Ontario Teachers Pension Fund or MLSE don't count as "men" in the traditional sense.

Tom Verducci at SI.com tags San Francisco Giant Madison Bumgarner and San Diego Padre Mat Latos among the starting pitchers most at risk of injury due to the Year After Effect - too many innings pitched in 2010 over the year before, 2009 in this case, while under the age of 25.  He's had stunning success working this formula to predict injuries in the following year, 2011 in this case.

Saw the NHL Trade Centre ad on TSN for the first time last night. Barely slept last night thinking about the horror being inflicted on an unsuspecting public who get suckered into enduring that.

Clyde Drexler sees a day when London, England will have an NBA franchise of its own.  Clearly, concussion issues extend beyond the NFL and NHL.  The chances of that happening ought to drop considerably (sub-zero) when two games are played there shortly between the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors.  Both will be home games for the Nets however, because the NBA figures nobody in Jersey would notice.

One of my all-time fav Yankees is calling it a career today.  Andy Pettitte never threw the hardest or was anybody's first pick to start a playoff series.  But he was as money as it came in the playoffs for so many years, not to mention 240 regular season wins, and I've got so many memories of Pettitte nailing down key playoff wins year after year.  I couldn't care less that he used HGH, whether for a couple times or for years, he was always a class act in my eyes, and I was glad to be at Yankee Stadium to see his 200th win a few years back.  See you at Old Timer's Day, someday, #46.  

Ever wondered how much a Super Bowl flyover costs?  A mere $450,000.  They should charge double when doing it over a domed stadium.

"This is the most illegal thing I've seen in the history of wrestling".  Incredible vid.