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.

88 in for $55,000

After complaints of small crowds from Evan Longoria and David Price, the Tampa Bay Rays are giving away 20,000 tickets to tonights game. Get the feeling it won't matter, and they'll still have under 20,000 in attendance?  I suppose the fact they clinched a playoff spot last night won't help the cause, although the AL East remains up for grabs.

Had some suggest the crack about "Thank you Cito" night seeing the giveaways extended into next season was a bit out of line, and you're right. There's a good shot they get 35,000 tonight. After all, the Yankees are in town, although they'll be likely playing a heavily loaded with back-ups squad after clinching a playoff spot last night and no doubt tearing it up.  In news relating to the playoff spot, Losers are mobilizing to simultaneously cheer on seven teams.

If ML$E thinks those empty seats at Toronto FC's Champions League game are about a cool, rainy day, they're begging.  John Molinaro at the CBC says they've reached the crisis stage.

Finally Delonte West asked about sex with LeBron James' mom and he said he absolutely didn't sleep with her because they were up all night.  Something like that..And for all the times LeBron has talked, how is it that not once has he referenced his former teammates in any way?  Doesn't that strike you as odd?


In retrospect, guessing Dallas Cowboys rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant is going to wish he carried Roy Williams pads when asked at camp a couple months back.  Why?  Seems RW goes his revenge, as instead of just having DB pay for a dinner for the team's offensive players, RW invited the defense as well to a swank steakhouse.   The bill?  $55,000.  Ouch.

What a turnaround for Michael Vick. After an off-season shooting at his birthday party that almost saw him off the Philadelphia Eagles and out of the game, he's not only starting for the Eagles and playing as good as ever, but he's also selling a pile of jerseys.  Vick will face Donovan McNabb and the Washington Redskins this weekend. No storylines there.

The Jacksonville Jaguars appear to have picked up Buffalo Bills castoff Trent Edwards. Yeah, that'll fix it.


Check out this shizophrenic split for AJ Burnett that happened in early May:  "through May 6 — six starts — Burnett was 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA. His strike out totals — just 28 in 40.2 innings — were down, but he was keeping both runners off base and the ball in the park. Just one of the first 164 batters to face him homered. Since then, Burnett has, with the exception of a few good starts in July, been utterly abysmal. He’s 6-15 over his last 26 starts, and he’s averaging just over 5.1 innings per start. After [Monday's] 2.1-inning, seven-run fiasco, his ERA over those 140 innings is 6.30, and he’s allowed 23 home runs and 64 walks while striking out just 111 guys. Opponents have an OPS against him of approximately .860. In other words, A.J. Burnett’s opponents are putting up better offensive numbers than Mark Teixeira."  Ouch.

Have a great Wednesday.

The Cups runeth over

Where's the arena to the left, you wonder? That's what Jim Balsillie is hoping to shape Copps Coliseum into. More here. And nice touch here having the hot ladies ogled by the creepy looking dude in the shades...the Toronto Blue Jays stopped their losing streak from reaching double digits with a 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. Mix in a New York Yankees win over Cleveland and the Bronx Bombers are alone in first place for the first time since the last day of the 2006 season...the LA Lakers are back in the NBA Finals after dispatching the Denver Nuggets. Have to say, I'm a bit surprised they turned it around as they did. They'll await the winner of Orlando and Cleveland's series, which sees game 6 tonight at the O-rena, or whatever they're calling it these days...Setanta Sports is carrying the FA Cup this morning, with Chelsea facing Everton at London's Wembley Stadium. Can't imagine Chelsea doesn't win this one comfortably. I'm in on the split line of -0.5 -1 -110 on Chelsea...Toronto FC star Dwayne De Rosario visits his former team - the Houston Dynamo - tonight. I'm guessing a very motivated DeRo puts on a show and TFC take three very key points on the road. Kickoff is 8:30 on SportsNet. I'm in on TFC at a great-value +383..not only is the Real Madrid at Toronto FC game happening, it will not be offered to season ticket holders as part of their one international friendly, for which they're already holding tickets. Ticket prices have not been announced, but my guess is MLSE is consulting with the New York Yankees about appropriate pricing models, starting with arm/leg and moving up to first born child and so on. Nice of MLSE to put a grass field in to accommodate Real, that has to make Toronto FC's players who've been begging to have grass installed for years feel great that it is good enough for an exhibition game, but not for the guys it pays every week. MLSE sucks, and we the fans swallow it all...the Stanley Cup starts tonight, and hard not to like the Pittsburgh Penguins at +134 for the series, I'm in on that too. Get down at Pinnacle. Pitt in 6 is my call, against the odds..today, I have gambling issues...have a great Saturday. May the winners be ours, and if not, at least mine.