K-Rod...Douche of the Week

The details of Francisco Rodriguez beatdown of his father-in-law in the New York Mets family room are starting to emerge.  Seems K-Rod was cursing out his wife when her father intervened and tried to cool him off, at which point K-Rod went off on him like he was charging the mound, and it took a few security guards to pull him off.  Class act, buddy.  And here I thought there couldn't be a bigger douchebag in the closer fraternity than Jonathon Papelbon.



Charles Barkley rips LeBron James.  Another reason to love Sir Charles. But careful, Chuck, LeBitch is "taking notes"  Oh, Chuck don't sweat that:

“I heard about LeBron’s little tweet that he’s remembering everybody who said anything bad about him. He said “everybody.” Well I want him to make sure that he puts my name on that because I thought that was a little…you know his little one-hour special was a punk move. I thought them dancing around on the stage was a punk move, and I thought he should’ve stayed in Cleveland. Him joining Dwyane Wade’s team was very disappointing to me.”

This is just getting good.  Memo to 'bron: don't respond.   You don't have the game to stay with Chuck in a war of words.  Game recognize Game.

Manchester City has spent aproximately $234 million in transfers the past two years - and that doesn't include salary - so they'll be interesting to watch this year. Their latest pickup is Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan, the talented and slightly psychotic striker.  Still, they were very lucky to get the draw at Tottenham this morning, who looked fantastic.

Abbey Clancy, who is a long time fav in this corner and appears above in nothing but body paint, is said to be on the outs with boyfriend Peter Crouch, Tottenham Spurs striker. Crouch, who must not have recognized he was punching way over his weight class as it was, allegedly cheated on Clancy with an underage Algerian hooker. Classy.  Pics of both in that link so you'll know what I'm talking about.



Jackson 5's "Rockin' Robin" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".  Toss the two together, and somehow it works. 

Something wrong with this picture...

Good of the NHL to take the Prince of Wales Trophy and engrave "Washington Capitals" on it instead of "Chicago Blackhawks", particularly when the Capitals, unless they're moving to the Western Conference, can't win the Wales trophy. That, and the Blackhawks did.
As painful as it'll be if he actually does win, I hope Tiger Woods does so we no longer have to hear the arm chair psychologists offer suggestions as to what he should do with his playing career and life. The guy is ending up a sympathetic character.

Crazy read on MLS goalie Jimmy Nielsen of the Kansas City Wizards, who had/has a severe gambling problem. Severe enough to put a bookie out of work.  Oh, and he still wagers occasionally.

Germany went a different route in planning for England at the World Cup in South Africa. They had a group of 55 students at the Sports University in Cologne - I think I might go back to school now! - study how England played and determined it was better to play long and quick passes than their typical shorter and quick passing game. If you recall how they took them apart, they followed the plan to the letter. Incredible read here. 


The English Premier League starts tomorrow and it is shaping up to be a killer season. I'm going to pick Manchester United to win a record 19th title, with the top five rounded out - in order - by Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. Yep, I'm feeling like the champions will slip to fifth. My hate is bold.

Hard to believe, but it is 16 years since to the day that it was announced that the MLB season for 1994 would not be completed.  Not announced that day was that it would begin the death spiral of the Montreal Expos.

Check out this clip of a guy calling 911 for a ride to the liquor store. Incredible.

Toronto FC did plenty to create chances in New York last night, but couldn't find the onion bag and were 1-0 losers. Solid efforts in particular from Dwayne DeRosario and Nick Garcia (no, really). Not a good result for TFC who now trail New York by five points for second place in the East, which also guarantees an automatic playoff birth. Up next is a date with Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul in Champions League play on Tuesday at BMO Field which will make it 12 games in 57 days. Ouch.

Very classy of New York Mets reliever Francisco Rodriguez to beat up his father-in-law in the Mets clubhouse after a Mets loss last night. He was arrested. Is there a guy who leaves the LA Angels and performed that does anything great after?  See K-Rod, Chone Figgins.

100 pictures of the smokin' hot Abbey Clancy. Just because.

In June, word is both Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade hired the same production company to film their visits - which now appear more charade than ever - to other teams during their free agency.  Sheer coincidence, I'm sure.  In other news, Bosh says that LeBron James is using the criticism of his act this summer to fuel his fire.  Nice to see a guy making the money he does needs fuel for the fire.  Guess wanting to win wasn't enough.

It didn't take Cristiano Ronaldo long to jump into the familiar #7 jersey that was long occupied by Raul at Real Madrid.  With Raul gone, CR7 is back.

Four "hidden" pages at Manchester United's website have player profiles for Mesut Ozil, Wesley Sneijder, Sami Khedira and Mario Ballotelli.  Those are links to all of them.  Obviously, that isn't all happening.

New York Mets starter Johan Santana is being sued for raping a woman.  Now, that said, there wasn't enough evidence to press criminal charges so take that with a heavy dose of Salt Peter.  The lady needs some legal advise if she's suing for damages over a rape and only looking for $15,000.  Tough times in Metsland.

Brandon Morrow's story of living with diabetes is getting some run after his great start Sunday.  Wasn't aware he was diabetic, but does explain his less than pleased appearance after getting pied twice.

A great piece from Fox Sports on how the EPL's "big four" are going to face a monster challenge this year.  Have I mentioned I'm jacked for the season?

Kansas City Chiefs wideout Chris Chambers got married in July.  Big deal, right?  Well, it is if you consider that the woman he married was once charged with stalking him and members of his family just this past December.  Weird.

Okay, we've done football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and soccer.  I'll leave next on the target list to the first one to respond in the comments section.  So if you want to crack at a given sport, first one to start on something gets the topic of the day.

Kovy a free agent...will others join him?

So the NHL not only voided Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year $102 million deal with the New Jersey Devils, but are now said to be looking at other front-loaded deals like Roberto Luongo's. Marian Hossa's and others. Ridiculous. Going back after teams have been paying players out and operating through season's under those terms is total bush league.  I'm all for fixing mistakes, but if you allowed ridiculous deals under the CBA, tough to roll them back mid-stream, no?  If you're the Vancouver Canucks, you probably want that deal voided, no?

Chelsea's bid to defend its English Premier League title just took a huge blow with arguably their best defender Ricardo Carvalho off to - where else? - Real Madrid. John Terry is in for a tough year with his saftey blanket gone. In a bit of funny EPL news, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says teammate Joe Cole is better than Barcelona's Lionel Messi. I dig Cole, but that is laughable. Stevie G will have a solid post-football career in comedy if the D.J. thing doesn't pan out.  Oh, wait...

Heard on the Jim Rome Show: there's a slo-pitch team called "The Step Dads".  Why? "We'll beat you and you'll hate us." Only in slo-pitch.


The New York Knicks went into the tank for two years to clear enough cap space to get into a room with LeBron James for a couple hours only to be rejected and subjected to another couple years of mediocrity at best.  The NHL has seen teams run ridiculous deals to circumvent the cap since it came in.  Don't tell me it is the solution to a sports problems when it creates as many.  As Seth Everett of Baseball Today says: the problem in baseball isn't the lack of a salary cap, it is the lack of a salary floor that has let teams like Florida, Pittsburgh and KC profit greatly while taking huge money in revenue sharing and not putting it back into their teams.

An amateur hoops game played in The Bronx on Saturday saw Corey Fisher score 105 points.  Who was guarding this guy?  Jose Calderon?  Yep.  Jose Calderon.  Just not the Toronto Raptors version.  Maybe it is just the name?  Nah.

If you missed Tim Tebow's haircut from the Denver Broncos earlier in the week, look no further than to your right.  That is incredible.  He's since shaved the halo off.


Toronto FC are in New York tonight at beautiful Red Bull Arena to face - who else? - the Red Bulls.  GBVH tells me TFC are +429 for the win.  Awfully tempting, even with their weak road performances for the most part this year.

If you can get a lady to a ball game, good for you.  But at least if a foul ball is headed your way, don't bail away from her leaving her to get cranked with the ball.  Love him saying he lost the ball in the lights.  Seems to me he saw it just fine before alligator arming it.

Wondering what sparked that wild brawl in Cincinnati last night between the Reds and Cards?  Seems the Cards didn't like being referred to as "little bitches" by Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips.

And in today's skewering of a sport, we take on soccer.  I'll get it started momentarily.

Back tomorrow.

$20 million to OHB?

Hard not to love the Sports Pickle in general, but when they produce fine work like at right, it is damn near impossible.  Speaking of the OHB, Jay Glazer at Fox Sports looks at why he went from out last week to now reconsidering it.  Let's just say if he had Terrell Owens old P.R. hack, she'd be saying he may have $7 million more reasons to come back this year, on top of the $13 million he'd be scheduled for.  $20 million?  At least he's not holding the Vikes hostage.  Worst guy in sports.

Well at least this one is new.  Houston Texan Brian Cushing, under suspension for a failed drug test, says the elevated testosterone levels he showed when tested are the result of Overtraining Syndrome, which does actually exist according to some researchers.  How is he going to explain the New Jersey locals who have talked of how he routinely blows up every summer for the last decade or so?  Bonus points for "not knowingly" at least.  Then again, it is the NFL and it'll be forgotten before his suspension is even done.

Here's a solid idea: MLB is going to start its 2011 season on a Friday, and more importantly, not have it end past October.

Interesting article from Joel Sherman at the New York Post on how a pre-game conversation with Alex Rodriguez the day he hit #600 helped A-Rod out.  The cool part: it is about Wayne Gretzky.

Good God, Leafs Fan, the potential move of Tomas Kaberle is hardly sea changing for the NHL or your team.  Cool it with the ridiculous scenarios already.

ESPN SoccerNet has a great transfer rumors blog running that is updated constantly through the day.  Get your fill here.

Not sure I'll hear anything more ridiculous this year than the owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, whose name escapes me - which is fitting - threaten to move the team from Hamilton if they don't get a new stadium.  Where are they going to go to?  Ottawa?  Halifax?  Not sure there are any CFL-ready stadiums in this fair land, nevermind in cities clamoring to get in the league.  Maybe he should threaten Phoenix?  That'd be at least funny.

It warms the cockles of my heart to hear from Didier Drogba that he doesn't think Chelsea are ready to defend their English Premier League title this year.  Methinks DD is right.

In the comments section today, it is hockey's turn to take a fisting, with GHVH's epic blast from a couple weeks back set to be copied over to lead the charge.  Feel free to join in on the fun.  Up tomorrow is one that ought to inspire strong feelings: soccer.

A flight attendant on JetBlue asked a passenger to sit down just after a plane landed and the passenger started grabbing her bags.  When he approached, the passenger cracked him in the head and cursed him some more.  His reaction?  He got on the P.A. and cursed everybody out, grabbed a few beers and dropped the emergency slide out of the door and slid off.  Now that is a walk-off shot.

Speaking of headshots, best concert headshot comes to the mellon of Justin Bieber.  This is awesome.

Guess who's back in circulation?

If you watched last night's Hall of Fame game beyond the first series, you have issues. The Dallas Cowboys downed the Cincinnati Bengals 16-7, but really, it was 3-0 if the only real part of the game is considered. And for this people pay regular season prices.  Lame.

Boston Red Sox starter Josh Beckett has made four starts this year against the New York Yankees and lasted exactly 4.2IP in three of them.  The Yanks now lead the AL East by 2.5 games after beating Boston 7-2 while the second place Tampa Bay Rays were getting swept in Toronto on the strength of an impressive 17k, one-out-short-of-a-no-hitter effort from Brendon Morrow, who might've had it if Aaron Hill makes a play. Funny hearing some Jays fans protest it was Error Hill led by the plank that is Sam Consentino. It wasn't. Period. Former Toronto Star journo Dave Perkins was the official scorer, his first series in that role. Shame with one of the best team's in baseball visiting only 24,000 were in attendance.

Emmitt Smith went out of body for his 24 minute, no notes or teleprompter speech at the Football Hall of Fame inductions on Saturday. His only mistake was a bush league move by him for not mentioning Florida, where he starred before moving to the NFL, though he later called it a mistake which sounds unlikely given his rocky history since leaving as a junior.  Emmitt reverted to old form at half-time of last night's game with a series of crimes against speech. Check this out.

Tiger Woods finished an 18 over par at a tournament he's won over a handful of times in the past.  Ouch.

Chad Ochocinco wonders - rightly - why he and Terrell Owens are depicted as bad guys and pub hounds, but OHB is deified and continually pulls the same shtick.  He's not to the degree he used to be, but he doesn't get routinely hammered like T-Ocho do.

Just days away from kicking off what should be a fantastic English Premier League season with Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa all set to make noise at the top.  Man U beat Chelsea 3-1 in yesterday's Community Shield, the unofficial start to the year.

Toronto FC picked up a big three points Saturday with a 2-1 win over Chivas USA.  With mostly road games left, they're going to need to find some magic away from home if they're to make the playoffs.

If I recall, we were mid-baseball bashing a week and change ago when vacation time hit, so I'll pick that up today in the comments section.  Feel free to join.  GBVH fired up a great hockey one too I'll post over tomorrow to carry on.  Participating is a good idea.

CFL touchdown celebrations are taking on a soccer feel.  Nice work here.