V

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Brewer Fans Stuffing The All-Star Ballot

In the latest All-Star voting update, Brewer players are ranked either one or two at every single position:

CATCHER

Yadier Molina, Cardinals. 451,368
Jason Kendall, Brewers, 383,773

FIRST BASE

Albert Pujols, Cardinals, 842,058
Prince Fielder, Brewers, 427,284

SECOND BASE

Chase Utley, Phillies, 675,596
Rickie Weeks, Brewers, 401,918

THIRD BASE

David Wright, Mets, 454,449
Bill Hall, Brewers, 371,950

SHORTSTOPS

J.J. Hardy, Brewers, 403,269
Hanley Ramirez, Marlins, 365,746

OUTFIELD

Ryan Braun, Brewers, 663,164
Alfonso Soriano, Cubs, 545,354
Carlos Beltran, Mets, 476,843
Manny Ramirez, Dodgers, 442,763
Mike Cameron, Brewers, 432,034

Beastie Boys on Jimmy Fallon

So What'cha Want, featuring The Roots.

Unbelievable Comeback By Indians

Cleveland.com: The Cleveland Indians trailed 10-0 in the 4th and 10-4 entering the bottom of the 9th before mounting a furious comeback by scoring 7 runs to win the game 11-10 over the Tampa Bay Rays.

A Camp

Featuring Nina Persson of The Cardigans on vocals.

Times Square Closed To Traffic

NY Times: On Sunday, the Bloomberg administration put a plan into effect to reduce traffic congestion in Midtown by closing two sections of Broadway to vehicles, from 47th to 42nd Streets and 35th to 33rd Streets. The idea is to eliminate the crosscurrents Broadway traffic creates on nearby avenues.

Dwight Howard Makes His Free Throws When It Counts

Chris Sheridan/ESPN Daily Dime did an unbelievable job blowing up the spot on Dwight Howard. Dwight's homie told Sheridan that Dwight stays up late at night practicing his free throws. He tries to make at least 300 before quitting, and has to make the final 20 shots in a row. And if he misses any of the last 20 shots, he has to start again from zero. Whoa.

"Usually, practice ends at noon, he goes home and chills, then at 8 o'clock we all meet at the complex and get to work," Kirkland told ESPN.com. "We stay there until he makes 300 of them, and he has to make the final 20 in a row. And when he misses, the count starts all over again."

Cavs Win Cavs Win Cavs Win!

This is priceless. Cleveland's ABC 5 11PM news broadcast team reacts to Lebron's game winning shot in Game 2 live on the air.

Smooth

Great article about Chauncey Billups by Tom Friend/ESPN. It's extremely long but well worth the read.

Chauncey even moves into the locker next to Brandon. He asks him how he knows when to shoot and when to share, and Brandon tells him to simply move the ball. He says his job as a point guard is to make teammates blissful, to get KG 20 shots a game and Wally Szczerbiak 15, to have no ego. He teaches Chauncey how to watch film, how to spend the first half reading how the defense is playing the pick-and-roll … and how to adjust in the second half. He tells him that if KG doesn't have double-figure points by mid-second quarter to start feeding him the rock. He tells him if KG still can't score, then you start scoring. He tells him to know everyone's foul situation -- on both teams -- to know who's already been hit with a technical foul, who's ripe to lose his cool.

Wow

Football Giants Season Tickets Available For 2010

Neil Best/NY Newsday reported that NY Giants PSLs are still available for the taking as long as you have a wad of cash to spend. This is brewing up to be a Yankee Stadium fiasco part II in the event that the football Giants don't sell out all their seats by opening day 2010.

Over the years, the Giants season ticket waiting list had ballooned up to 140,000. However, that waiting list was meant for the Meadowlands, which didn't require you to pay b/w $5,000 to $20,000 for your personal seat licenses. In this economy, they'll have a hard time finding people willing to shell out that kind of money for 8 football games per year, with at least half of the games being played in the freezing cold NJ winter.

Method Man & Redman To Appear On Jimmy Fallon Minus The Roots

Method Man and Redman are scheduled to be on Jimmy Fallon's show to perform their single "A-Yo". But unlike most of the other rap performers that have appeared on the show, they specifically requested The Roots not to be the backup band when they perform, preferring to keep it old school and just have the 2 MCs and a DJ.

?uestlove was disappointed with this decision and took it a little too personally in my opinion. I don't see what the big deal is. ?uestlove should know that hiphop was built on the foundation of the DJ, and that not everybody in the world is going to want to have a live instrumental version of their songs. While I greatly admire The Roots as a hiphop group, I don't necessarily think they are the greatest house band in the world. Their live instrumentals of hiphop beats sound significantly different than the original versions. For me, while I find it amusing to hear The Roots do their instrumentals, it definitely doesn't trump the originals because it is impossible to replicate the sonic qualities of the sample and drums.

I Love The NBA Draft

Despite what many critics have said about how much they hate the NBA draft, I happen to love the NBA draft. This year's draft lottery was rather low key because nobody could really get worked up over Blake Griffin, the college player most likely to get picked number #1. This year's winner was the L.A. Clippers, which probably means that ten years from now, we'll look back on the player they drafted who turned out to be a complete bust. Their last number 1 pick in 1998 was Michael Olowokandi, who was such a complete bust that he ended up having a worst career than Kwame Brown.

Still, the actual process of deciding the seeding of the NBA draft is truly exciting. I love it when they go live to the NBA studio in Secaucus, NJ. I don't know anything about that city except for them hosting the annual NBA draft lottery. This is the famous studio where legends such as Larry Bird, 90's NBA star Chris Webber, and baseball hall of famer Reggie Jackson are milling around in front of the cameras, having bullshit conversations prior to the main event.

Then, they get to the brief introductions of each of the 14 representatives from NBA teams that didn't make the play-offs, a two-minute commercial break, and then on to the show.

The countdown from 14 to 1 is one of the television highlights of the NBA season. The rules are simple, only 3 teams get the chance to move up to 1-3 slots, with the remaining 4-14 picks being decided on team record. There's so much tension because each time a team's name is announced, each of the remaining teams alive cling to the hope that they might be the one. It's akin to a beauty pagent, in the way they dwindle the contestants from say 50 to 10 to 5 to 3 to 2 to 1.

Oh The Pain

The Mets lost to the Dodgers in L.A. 3-2 in 11 innings. Long time suffering Met fan Joe Benigno was at Dodger Stadium tonight for his very first time, no doubt moaning, "Oh the pain" while witnessing the most disgraceful Met lost of the season. The Mets defense played as if they thought Santana was pitching for them. Although another more likely reason could be all those defensive players playing out of position. However, this does not excuse Beltran's drop in the 11th.

Carlos Beltran is so afraid of outfield collisions that he just gets mental jitters during in-between outfield hits. There's no way he should have dropped that ball today. Pagan was calling for it so either let him catch it or Beltran should have caught it.

And Ryan Church. How do you forget to touch third base? Pagan's drive with two outs was hit so far that Church could have just jogged home.

Going through the post-game quotes by the Mets, I didn't get the sense that any player took any responsibility for their mental mistakes. Beltran blamed his drop on Pagan, and Church thought that he nicked the side of the bag. What a bunch of bull.

"I called for the ball like six times," Beltran said. "But Pagan stood in the middle and I couldn't put my glove on the ball. On a ball like that, I have priority. If Pagan would have called for that ball, my job is to get out of the way. He's been in center field before, so he knows that when the center fielder calls for the ball, everyone has to get out of the way." [WFAN]

Church thought he touched the side of the bag.

"I felt like I nicked something, and that's why I kept going," he said. "I was walking back to the dugout and I heard the crowd scream, so I turned around. I mean, what can you do? When they call you out, they call you out. They're not going to reverse it." [WFAN]

“That’s unbelievable,” Jerry Manuel said about Church missing third base. “I can’t explain why or how or anything. He actually missed the base. … It’s just hard to miss third base. I’ve noticed guys have missed first because they’re looking for the ball, that type of thing and a misstep. But I have rarely — I don’t know I remember a guy ever missing third base in a situation like that. I don’t have any explanation.” [WFAN]

MLB Postseason Games On FOX Moved Up To 7:57PM ET

Ken Rosenthal/Fox Sports: MLB and Fox agreed to push up the start of MLB postseason games from 8:28PM ET to 7:57PM ET for all the weeknight games broadcast on FOX. Whoopie do. Is it really going to make that big of a difference if games end at 11:30PM ET, rather than 12:00AM ET? If they really wanted to make a statement, they would have moved up first pitch to 7:30PM ET.

No regularly scheduled World Series game has started before 8 p.m. on a weeknight since at least 1975, according to MLB.

Postseason games on FOX last year started, on average, at 8:28 p.m. ET. In the early 1990s, the first pitch was sometimes as late as 8:38 p.m.

"For kids on the East Coast, the games will now end somewhere between 11 and 11:30," said Ed Goren, president of FOX Sports.

"In the Central time zone, it will be between 10 and 10:30. On the West Coast, it obviously will be very early. It can have a positive effect on ratings, maybe create a younger demographic."

Darius Miles Busted For Pot Possession

ESPN/AP: Whenever a professional athlete gets busted for drugs, I'm always curious about the specifics, such as what kind, how much, and how was he caught? In Darius Miles' case, it seems he was a bit unlucky, or maybe he was just being profiled by racist cops.

The cops originally pulled him over for failing to make a turn signal. How often does that happen to people? Was it a racial thing? And after getting pulled over, how did the cops find the stash in his car? How do you go from pulling someone over for a turn signal violation to searching his car for weed? Is it possible that Miles had some really icky sticky weed that smelled so strong that it permeated throughout the car?

I honestly think his arrest was pretty ridiculous, considering he had less than an eighth on him.

The 27-year-old Miles was alone in his car Wednesday night in suburban Fairview Heights, Ill., when an officer pulled him over for allegedly failing to use a turn signal, police Sgt. Steve Evans said. During a search of the car, Evans said police found a small amount of marijuana in a plastic bag in the passenger compartment.

Miles was ticketed for driving with a suspended license and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession because the amount of the drug was less than 2.5 grams, which would have been a felony. He was later freed on $100 bond.

SF Giants To Confuse The Heck Out Of Its Fans

SF Examiner: Boy, in this bad economy, marketing people will do just about anything to make themselves useful. Case in point, SF Giants announced a supremely complicated ticket pricing system next season that will go up and down, depending on the opponent, weather, shwag, pennant contention, winning/losing streaks, or just about any other darn reason that you can come up with. Whatever they try to do, don't charge $2,625 for your front row tickets.

The franchise plans to introduce “dynamic pricing” next season, which would have ticket prices on 500 bleacher seats and 1,500 view-reserve seats fluctuate between $8 and $40, depending on a game’s expected popularity, according to Giants Ticket Services Vice President Russ Stanley.

The plan involves a computer program that will regularly recalculate ticket prices by analyzing variables that affect demand, such as the day the game is played, the weather, the starting pitchers, whether bobbleheads will be handed out, the team the Giants are opposing and whether the Giants or their opponent are on winning or losing streaks or in playoff contention, according to Stanley.

3 Balks by Pelfrey

NY Times: Man, this is a typical Met game to me. They lost the game tonight because their starting pitcher got called for 3 balks. He actually got caught on camera committing a fourth balk but the umps let that one go. Final score, Mets 0, SF Giants 2.

Jazzy Jay

Red Bull Music Academy, "The Original Jazzy Jay- A Time Before Crack"

$30 For Yankees Grass Seeds

Gary Dunaier posted this photo of a bag of Yankees grass seeds for sale at the new Stadium. And for $30? What else do you get besides a little bag with a bunch of grass seeds? Am I missing something here?

Phillies versus Cubs

Wow, what a crazy looking boxscore. Tyler Kepner/NY Times did a great job reminiscing with former players about a game at Wrigley Field in 1979 that ended with the final score of Phillies 23, Cubs 22. It was the second highest scoring MLB game since 1900, behind only another Phillies/Cubs affair at Wrigley Field in 1922. That one ended up Phillies 26, Cubs 23. [My personal sarcastic note: We do not know for sure if these contests were the results of performance enhancing drugs.]

Rick Versus Phil

Houston Chronicle: An interesting side plot to the Lakers/Houston series is that this is the 5th time that Rick Adelman has matched up against Phil Jackson as head coaches in an NBA play-off series. Dating all the way back to the 1992 Finals, Rick Adelman's teams have never beaten Phil Jackson's teams in a play-off series. Sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to happen tomorrow either because the Lakers are the heavy favorites.

Johan's ERA Balloons to 1.36

NY Daily News: In an utterly comical performance by the Mets defense, they committed 3 errors for Johan Santana on their way to a 9-6 victory over the SF Giants. Errors by Castillo, Wright, and Cora were perfectly executed by them to keep the game much closer than it should have been. The Mets offense had a pretty good day, scoring 7 runs in 7 innings. If they had played a perfect defensive game, there's a chance Santana only gives up 1 or 2 runs tops. Santana final numbers were not great, 6 R, 4 ER, 7 IP. Although you got to give it up to Santana for consistently pitching 7 innings almost each and every start.

WCF Game 1, Tuesday at Staples Center/Pepsi Center

Inside The Lakers: Elliot Teaford scooped up information on NBA's Western Conference Finals schedule. I was curious about which conference would get the Tuesday night game. This means that Wednesday must be game 1 at Cleveland.

Judging by his information, the Lakers must have already won game 7 behind closed doors. Does this mean tomorrow's game is now canceled?

Here's the Western Conference finals schedule:

Game 1, Tuesday at Staples Center, 6 p.m., ESPN.
Game 2, Thursday at Staples Center, 6 p.m., ESPN.
Game 3, Saturday at Denver, 5:30 p.m., Channel 7.
Game 4, May 25 at Denver, 6 p.m., ESPN.
Game 5 (if necessary), May 27 at Staples Center, 6 p.m., ESPN.
Game 6 (if necessary), May 29 at Denver, 6 p.m., ESPN.
Game 7 (if necessary), May 31 at Staples Center, 5:30 p.m., Channel 7.

Stern's Crazy World

Daily News: Bob Raissman takes David Stern to task for scheduling two game 7s on Sunday. Stern scheduled the west coast Houston/Lakers game for 3:30PM EDT, and the east coast Orlando/Celtics game for 8:00PM EDT. Wouldn't it have made more sense to start the Laker game at 8PM EDT/5PM PDT and avoid the early noon start for them? And why even put two game 7s on the same day? For some reason, Stern decided to leave Saturday's schedule completely empty and squeeze both games on Sunday.

Yankee Execs On The Hot Seat?

In what may be a bit of welcoming news for many Yankee fans, Yankee COO Lonn Trost and President Randy Levine may be fired over the new Yankee Stadium ticket pricing fiasco [1050AM ESPN]. They may end up being the fall guys for the swaths of empty seats at the new Yankee Stadium.

Now in their third home stand of the year, Yankees are still not selling out their games [NY Times]. They drew only 43,856 for last night's game against the Twins on a warm Friday night in May. Compared to last season, the Yankees drew over 52,000 fans for a Friday night May game against the Mariners.

I know a lot has been made over the swaths of empty seats at in the premium seats behind homeplate and the dugouts. But the truth is that even the non-premium seats are not selling well at all. More than 75% of the empty seats for the games are actually the non-premium seats, which means that the brilliant genius of Lonn Trost and Randy Levine has priced out both the average joe and the super rich joe. Simply put, they screwed up royally.

Is McHale Really Going To Decide His Own Future?

Marc Stein/ESPN: The headline for Marc Stein's ESPN column suggested that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor is letting McHale decide for himself if he wants to return as the coach next season. I don't really buy it honestly. McHale doesn't have a contract for next season and Glen Taylor only wants to commit to one year, while McHale is looking for a two year commitment. So if McHale decides he wants to come back for 2 years, and Taylor won't budge and give him the extra year, then McHale might decide to not return at all, although who's going to give him a multi-million dollar job at this point?

Further complicating matters is the fact that the Timberwolves don't have a GM. Are there any good GMs out there that could be talked into keeping McHale on as a head coach? This scenario would only scoop out a bunch of under qualified GM candidates desperate for a GM job, under any crappy circumstances.

New York Chevvies

NY Times: I'd file this story under bizarre or completely out of left field category. Who knew that Jack Kerouac had such a wild imagination involving fantasy baseball? No, not the same kind of fantasy baseball that we play on the internet today. In Kerouac's fantasy baseball, he made up names for imaginary teams and played imaginary games with them using cards or throwing stuff at walls to determine the result of the pitch.

It was some sort of secret that Jack kept from his friends, because apparently many of his closest associates had no idea that he was a closet fantasy baseball geek.

MLB Night of Comebacks

Tampa Bay Online: Rays overcome a 7-0 deficit to beat the Indians.

NY Times: Mets come back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Giants 8-6.

NY Daily News: Yanks score 3 in the 9th to beat the Twins.

Seattle Times: Mariners beat the Red Sox, after being down 4-0.

BS Report w/ Dave Dameshek Parts 1 & 2

Part One: Lots of NHL talk in the first 50 minutes. Gary Bettman sucks, NHL should contract to 24 teams, 12 in USA, and 12 in Canada.

Then towards the end, BS and Dameshek get going on a really strong topic about the deficiencies of DVR/TIVO. Just why the hell are they so dumb that they can't extend the recording on its own when the game goes into overtime? And why the hell do they record the show from 4:00 to 6:30 for an NBA play-off game, when we all know the games really go from 4:00 to 6:48?

All really great points and reasons why the DVR thing has a lot of bugs.

Part Two: BS and Dameshek rip Kobe and consider whether he is a top 10 player of all time. What is Kobe's legacy if he never wins a title as the best player on his team? Is he just another Scottie Pippen, Kevin McHale?

Is L.A. the most forgiving town in America? First Kobe, then Manny? Should California and Nevada be its own countries?

BS calls Top Gun one of the 5 best comedies of the 80's. They both agree that 80's in general is kinda gay.

Joba Changes Pre-Game Bullpen Routine

NY Times: In an effort to change his bad first inning luck, Joba Chamberlain is doing a new bullpen routine prior to the start of the game. He's going to have batters stand next to home plate while he's throwing his warm up pitches in the bullpen to simulate a real game situation. Pretty intriguing, but I doubt that it's going to work. We'll see the results after Saturday's start by Chamberlain.

Mets Online Survey

Metsblog: The Mets sent out an online survey via email to a select group of fans asking them for their opinions about the Met uniforms. As you may or may not know, the Mets have a ridiculous number of uniform combinations. There's the home pinstripes, home whites, road grey, black (used for both home and white), blue cap w/ orange button, blue and black hat, and all black hat. Whew.

Wikipedia:


I'm super curious about the results of this poll. Personally, I hate the black and wish that they would just get rid of it.

Mos Def "Case Bey"

Video starts off pretty fresh for the first 30 seconds, but then you suddenly realize that the whole video just stays like that. Song is not bad, it makes me definitely want to check out the original sample.

There's IMAX, and then there's fake IMAX

This great image explains the difference between full sized IMAX dimensions, versus the fake IMAX films that are advertised in movie theatres such as the one visited by Azizisbored. Basically, he got tricked and didn't get his $5 back. Guy was pretty pissed.

Catching Up With Michael Chang

Man, I had totally blanked on Michael Chang until reading this amazing article about how Michael Chang almost quit in the French Open 1989 against Ivan Lendl, the number 1 player and one scary looking dude. Excellent read, I didn't realize he was such a good tennis player. [LA Times]

"I was this close to going up to the chair umpire and saying, 'I can't play anymore,' " Chang, 37, says during an interview near his Mission Viejo home, holding his right thumb and forefinger millimeters apart. "I actually walked to the service line and the umpire was looking at me -- and Lendl was looking at me -- and it crossed my mind to say, 'Who am I kidding here? I'm playing against the No. 1 player in the world, I'm throwing these lob shots and I can't move worth beans.' . . .

"And I started to think to myself, 'I'll get into the locker room and people will pat me on the back. I'll get to the press conference and people will say, 'Great effort today.' "

But even at that age -- before he forged his reputation as a dogged competitor who refused to quit on points, much less matches -- Chang knew he had to carry on.

"So when I got to that service line," he says, "I had an unbelievable conviction of heart like, 'Hey, what are you doing?' It was almost as if God was saying, 'You fought this hard to win the third and fourth sets and now you're going to call it quits?' It dawned on me that if I were to quit then, it would be that much easier to quit every other time I experienced difficulty.

Dom DiMaggio Career .298 Hitter

Nice NY Times tribute to Dom Dimaggio's 34 game hitting streak in 1949. They have quotes from Dom that set the record straight about the famous Joe Dimaggio catch that ended his streak. He has his regrets, though, about not being a career .300 hitter.

It would have meant so much. Enos Slaughter hit exactly .300 in his career — and he’s in the Hall of Fame. Why? Did he hustle any more than I did? Did he have a better arm than I did? Did he run the bases any better than I did? Did he play defense as well as I did? Who knows? All I needed was 12 more hits — only about one per season — and I would have had a .300 average.

LAL, Serene or A Sense of Urgency

Mark Heisler / LA Times gave a little history lesson on Phil's comments after famous Laker losses. Phil has seen way too many crazy comebacks in his career to ever tell reporters that he thinks his team is totally out of it. This may not bode well for concerned Laker fans but I don't get the sense of urgency in Laker comments today. Not that it really matters, because 100% of people are still picking the Lakers to win this series. I honestly haven't read one person that's predicted a Houston victory over LAL.

Jackson, content to let events unfold over the season, remains serene.

Reporter: "Do you feel you're saying the same stuff after every game -- we played OK, Pau Gasol was great, but nobody else stood out?"

Jackson: "You know, I thought Fish [Derek Fisher] played very well. Maybe I should mention that. His defense was solid. He made some steals. I like that."

Reporter: "But do you sense repetition?"

Jackson, smiling: "Maybe I'll put it on tape and just run it right here on the podium so you guys don't have to ask me questions."

* April 24, 2009, after the Jazz comes from 13 points down to win Game 3: Jackson actually welcomed reports Utah center Mehmet Okur would return in Game 4.

"We need to have a [Utah] lineup out there that challenges us and makes us play the way we should play," Jackson said.

Mets 1995-97 "The Glory Years"

I will always be fond of the 95-57 Mets if for no other reason than the fact that they wore the sharpest looking Met uniforms in my era. Let me be clear about where I stand on the current Met uniforms, I think they are absolutely terrible. At some point during each and every Met game I've watched over the past 5 years, I think back to the 95-97 seasons when the Mets went throwback and switched to their original uniforms. It was almost an exact replica of the 69 Mets with the exceptions being the LOBs, bigger NOBs, bigger Mets script on the chest, and wider blue pin stripes. I was a huge fan and tuned in to watch a bunch of horrible Todd Hundley led Met games on TV. They looked gorgeous. Then came 1998 and all hell broke loose. For some ungodly reason, they decided to follow the 90's black color trend and add black to their color scheme.

Here are some nice pictures of the Met uniforms from 95-97. I so wish they would go back to these outstanding unis.

Sunday NBA MLB

Houston 99, Lakers 87 [LA Times]: The Rockets did the impossible and completely blow away the Fakers. The game was never even in doubt as the Rockets built a 29 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.



T.J. Simers/ LA Times:

"So how come you guys failed to show up?" I said to Derek Fisher, a question a lot of folks in L.A., who were wasting their Mother's Day in front of a TV, might've asked if given the opportunity.

"I'm a man," Fisher told me, and the things you learn traveling with a team.

"You don't address me," he said. "You don't wait until I'm done dressing. You throw something out like that."

I know this will come as a shock to some folks out there, knowing the problems that so many athletes have these days, but I've found for the most part that most of them can dress and talk at the same time.

Fisher had only one shoe left to tie when I dared ask him the obvious question, and if he can't keep up with an inquisitive 58-year-old sports columnist, it's no wonder he's struggling with an energetic young pup like Aaron Brooks.

"You should have known better," Fisher said, while ticking off the names of other Times reporters who know he can't talk and dress at the same time.

Celtics 95, Magic 94 [ESPN/AP]: Big Baby Davis hits the game winning shot. Unbelievable.



Bill Madden/ NY Daily News: Mets win their 7th game in a row. Could it have something to do with Citi Field? But if you ask me, I'm thinking maybe the real edge for the Mets may be Citi Field, looking and playing like one of the all-time pitcher's ballparks. Jerry Manuel's beginning to think so, too.

Lori Rubinson interview w/ Mark Vaccaro [WFAN]: Lori and Mark sound off on the autograph restrictions at new Yankee Stadium. It's built with a moat around the field level so that most fans can't even get access to players for autographs.

The Street Stops Here

Looks pretty good. It's a documentary about Bob Hurley's incredible high school program in Jersey City, and the strong possibility that a lack of finances might just end it all.

Hawks Try To Lose By Less Than 15

The game was such a blowout, it was more fun looking at the celebrities in attendance.

ESPN:

Keyshia Cole,


Nelly and Jermaine Dupri,

Kirk Hammett on Guitar Hero

Kirk Hammett, A.V. Club:

AVC: Are you aware of the online petition to re-engineer Death Magnetic?

KH: Yes! A lot of people say the Guitar Hero mixes sound better than the CD. I haven’t really sat down and done much comparison, but our fans are always gonna find something they’re not totally satisfied with, and they’re going to pick it to pieces. That’s fine with me, because it tells me they want more from us. They just want more, and they’re going to do anything or say anything to get more.

AVC: Was hearing about the preference for the Guitar Hero mix another moment when you realized how much things have changed? People prefer this digital version that came through their game console over the physical product of the CD.

KH: It’s amazing. I don’t know how it happened, but it just happened, and now that’s the way it is. You really can’t fight it. I tell everyone once upon a time there was this thing called analog recording, and it sounded really, really great—it sounded much better than anything you hear these days. I really can’t understand how I could come to a point that I can say that CDs sound so much better than MP3s. There was a time when I would say “CDs sound like fucking crap compared to vinyl!” Now it’s come to a point where I’m saying CDs sound better than the newest format now. It’s just wacky.

Good Evening (Dream Big)

Song is fresh. Video is kinda wack, though.

There Goes Houston's Shot Of Pulling Off An Upset

It was going to be pretty unlikely in any event, but losing Yao for the remainder of the play-offs sealed the fate for Houston. No way now that the Lakers are going to lose the series. Obviously, w/ the outcome all but determined, the ratings for the next two games are going to be stink-o-roonie. Game 4 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? I'd rather go shoot hoops. Game 5 Tuesday night? Unless it's 2-2, the ratings will be horrible, and might not even beat the NHL ratings.

LA Times: "The difference is if he doesn't play, we're in trouble," Adelman said. "He's such a main cog for us.

Inside The Lakers: Yao Ming's season-ending foot injury might be good for the Lakers post-season hopes, but it's bad for basketball.

ESPN/AP: But the Rockets announced later Saturday night that further examination of Yao's injury revealed a hairline fracture. The Rockets say Yao will need 8-12 weeks to recover, though no surgery is required.

Mets Do Something Classy For Once

Spotted this at Gary Dunaier's Flickr, it's all that's left of crappy ol' Shea.

Yankee Stadium Moat

Gary Dunaier posted excellent photos on Flickr of the infamous Yankee Stadium Moat. At the new Stadium, they've cordoned off the super expensive seats behind home plate and around the dugout by a concrete barrier. Unlike the old stadium, you can't access the area behind home plate or dugout in the new Stadium unless you have tickets to the moat area. This moat is an island of its own and you can't jump off it unless you leave through the "moat-only" entrance.

Bun B With His Air Yeezy's

Bun B - Keepin' Air Yeezy's Clean from zachwolfe.com/live on Vimeo.

Artest Ejected From Game 3

WTF? Flagrant 2, are you kidding me? The ref should be suspended for making a horrible call.

Outrage

Up

Mannywood

Bill Simmons/ ESPN: "Then, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a season, and that was like the turning point. We realized that things had gone too far. We blamed him for cheating and looked the other way with dozens of other guys who might have been doing the same thing. Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996; we didn't care. Bret Boone had 141 RBIs in a season; we didn't care. Big Papi went from 10 homers to 41 in four seasons; we didn't care. Roger Clemens was washed up, but suddenly he could throw 98 miles per hour and win Cy Youngs again; we didn't care. Eric Gagne saved 84 straight games and threw 120 miles an hour; we didn't care. Good players started blowing out tendons nobody had ever heard of; we didn't care. Pitchers blew out elbow tendons and shoulder ligaments routinely; we didn't care. This was the deal. They cheated; we pretended they didn't. It's really hard to explain unless you were there."

ESPN: "I was wrong thinking he was a pure, natural hitter and that he would never use anything that would help a player do better," Marichal told ESPN. "When I read Jose Canseco's comments [saying Ramirez almost surely used banned drugs], I thought Canseco was wrong. Now that Manny was suspended 50 games, I was wrong in thinking he was clean." "I'm very sad to hear a player of his caliber could be involved in such a thing. I consider it cheating the game to have a positive test," Marichal added. "They should not be in the Hall of Fame, anybody who tested positive. Testing positive today is crazy."

Sweetspot/ ESPN: You know what's really interesting about all of this? Manny's suspension might be a good thing for the Dodgers. At the moment, they've got a huge lead in the National League West, and it's not at all apparent that anyone else in the division is going to finish appreciably over .500. So the Dodgers can live without Manny for 50 games and they're going to save nearly $8 million in salary and Manny figures to be exceptionally well-rested for the second half of the season and (presumably) the postseason.

NY Times: And in an era when more than 100 players have been linked to banned substances, are the Red Sox simply lucky to have avoided having any significant players named in the Mitchell report or suspended?

Bill Plaschke/ LA Times: Ramirez is the kind of player who would appeal a three-day timeout for throwing a helmet, yet he willingly accepts nearly two months on the sideline and the loss of nearly $8 million? That's all I need to hear. He was caught red-handed, but now it's the Dodgers who are blushing.

LA Times: Dodgers lose their first game without Manny, lose their first home game of the season.

NY Daily News: "Your testicles shrink after excessive steroid use," said Maharam. "(Ramirez) probably went to the doctor for impotence. HCG helps re-start testosterone production and testicular hormonal production. That's why Viagra is also a popular drug among steroid users.

Manny Suspended 50 Games For PED

LA Times: I can't say that I'm too surprised. It'll be interesting to find out exactly what he was taking. Is it going to be a J.C Romera GNC type suspension or was it an actual steroid?

Artest Postgame

Tons of good ish from Artest, plus reaction from Ernie, Kenny, & Charles. Thanks, NBA.com.

Lamar Did The Coolest Thing

LA Times: On TNT's pregame show, they followed Lamar Odom as he walked from his downtown loft all the way to Staples Center to play game 2 against the Houston Rockets. Odom decided to take the 2 mile walk after learning that he was going to be a starter for Game 2. This has got to be one of the coolest things that I've heard a pro athlete do before a big time play-off game.

He just wanted to be with the people, he said, his bald head covered in sweat, his white shirt drenched as Odom walked among business folks, tourists and the homeless from an apartment just off Hope -- and how fitting is that -- to Staples Center.

Two more games in Houston, back here on Tuesday, and the way the Lakers played Game 2, the line has to form behind Moses just off Hope once again, doesn't it, if only for superstitious reasons?

"People don't get to see us a lot because we're treated like celebrities and stars," he said, shouts of encouragement coming at him from car after car. "So you change that by letting them see you and maybe touch you."

He tried it once before, Easter Sunday, but security had to be called to keep the mob from swallowing him. The Lakers told him never again, but he was going to start this game, people energize him and when he chooses, he's unstoppable.

And so he walked, at one point joined by TNT's CraigSager and Sager's lilac shoes -- and try walking a mile in downtown L.A. in those things.

MLB Wednesday

LA Times: Dodgers remain perfect at home (13-0). Maybe they'll actually go 81-0 in Chavez Ravine in 2009.

Globe & Mail: Blue Jays (20-10) have the best record in the AL. Roy Halladay (6-1) notched up his 6th win against the Angels.

NY Daily News: Johan Santana (4-1) continues to be brilliant, and the Mets continue to not score runs for him. Santana won by the final score 1-0 for the second time this season.

NY Times: Yankees lose for their 4th in a row at home, despite a clutch 3 run double by Teixeira to tie it in the 8th.

ESPN: I asked him what he thought about the "We Want Torre" chant in the ninth inning as New York lost the last of a two-game set against the Red Sox. The Yankees are now 0-5 against Boston. He smiled and said, "Those fans are impatient. I was there 12 years, and at the end, they weren't happy with me."

Dallas News: Texas Rangers (15-12) win their 5th in a row and take first place in the AL West.

If You're Really Pissed About MLB.TV

Welcome To Give Us Baseball posted the contact info for Jim Gallagher, Senior Vice President of MLB Advanced Media. I'm sure he'll love to hear all about your wonderfully bad experiences with MLB.TV 2009.

Corporate number: 212-485-3444.

Jim Gallagher, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications: 212-485-3182

Lakers Game 1 Postgame Analysis

J.A. Adande/ ESPN: Except for Kobe and Fisher, this current Laker group has never come back from an 1-0 series deficit.

The good news for the Lakers is Jackson is 6-8 when losing the first game of a playoff series, a success rate that's more than double the overall winning percentage of Game 1 losers. But that can't match perfection; he's 42-0 when winning Game 1 (24-0 in Chicago, 18-0 in Los Angeles). Phil Jackson's taking the first game of a series makes the outcome even more of a lock than Tiger Woods' holding the lead entering the final round of a golf tournament.

That's how critical Game 1 was, the difference between inevitability and doubt.

So much is subject to change. The Lakers' outside shooting won't be as woeful. Yao Ming might not be as dominant as he was in Game 1, when he scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He couldn't sustain that output in the Portland series, and if Andrew Bynum can avoid the early foul trouble that limited him to 15 minutes in Game 1 he might have a hand in slowing Yao -- or at least attacking him at the other end and perhaps drawing some more fouls on him. The mercurial Ron Artest might not have a line as efficient as his 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting, with seven assists to boot.

Inside The Lakers: Bynum is only 85-90 percent.

Lakers.com Basketblog: Quotes from today's Laker practice as they prepare for Game 2.

Shaq and Krispy Kreme

The Story Of Anvil

What The Hell Is Craigslist?

Dallas News: A Texas couple had their possessions offered on Craigslist without permission by their neighbor, who happens to be a police officer. Kinda messed up situation that's pretty darn disturbing. The police officer posted an ad on Craigslist for a free basketball goal and a free tethering pole, with the only caveat being that you are asked not to knock on the door, since all of the free items are already placed outside the house.

Huwitt had never heard of the advertising Web site and hadn't posted any such ad. Someone else did: Free basket ball goal and tether ball pole. At dead end of roadway beside my home...(address) dont knock its placed out there for you to come get. will delete when gone. thanks.

The e-mail address Craigslist identified as the sender of the ad belongs to one of Huwitt's neighbors, Chad Lee Hickey, an Arlington police officer. Arlington Police Department spokesman Blake Miller will say only that the department is conducting an internal investigation of an employee.

Hickey, 29, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Richard Carter, said Arlington police rules prohibit him or Hickey from discussing the allegations.

Meanwhile, Mansfield police and the Tarrant County district attorney's office are trying to determine whether a crime has been committed.

Blue Note Inspired Wu-Tang Covers

Loganmills [Flickr] posted some really nice Blue Note inspired covers of Wu-Tang LPs. They're really dope.

Sunday MLB

The Seattle Times: Thriller in Seattle. Mariners win in the 15th, after over coming a 3-run 13th inning deficit and a 4-3 9th inning deficit. "That's a game we could easily have folded up and went home, and we didn't," manager Don Wakamatsu said.

NY Times/ AP: Carl Crawford steals 6 bases in a game, ties an all-time record. “I found that out late,” Crawford said of his accomplishment. “I wish I had known during the game. I probably would have broken it if I knew. I’d have definitely tried.”

Ben Shpigel/ NY Times: Another, more likely possibility for Oliver Perez is to send him on the DL with a knee injury. But which one? When he came out, Perez said that his knee had been bothering him all season. Asked which knee, he paused and looked down. The right one, he said.

LA Times: The Dodgers remain undefeated at home (10-0). The won their 10th today w/out Manny. The exclusion of four starters from their lineup didn't prevent the Dodgers from becoming one of only four modern-day National League teams to start a season 10-0 at home, a distinction also held by the 1983 Atlanta Braves, 1970 Chicago Cubs and 1918 New York Giants, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

College Baseblog: Is this kid Stephen Strasburg for real? His coach Tony Gwynn sure things so. "He's further along at 20 than any young pitcher I've ever seen," said SDSU coach Tony Gwynn. "I didn't see some of the great, great ones, but for a 20-year-old junior to be out there recognizing that they're cheating on the fastball and just drop that slider right on them, then a change-up and then a 99 (mph fastball) on the black . . . ."

NY Daily News: Catching up w/ former Met Ed 'The Glider' Charles. "My only regret of my career is that I didn't get here (to the Mets) earlier in my career," says Charles, who celebrated his 76th birthday on Wednesday. "I really loved my time in New York."

A-Rod Was Calling Pitches, Not Tipping Them, Got It?

Texas Rangers 3B/ ex-A-Rod teammate/ A-Rod's best friend Michael Young came out in his defense against Selena's Roberts' allegation that A-Rod tipped off pitches to opposing batters [Star-telegram.com]. In fact, it wasn't his pitch tipping that infuriated his coaching staff, but his pitch calling. With neither the Manager nor the pitching coaches permission, A-Rod took over the pitch calling duties from catcher Einar Diaz by directing the catcher from his SS position. Not surprisingly, A-Rod best friend Michael Young also defended A-Rod on his pitch calling duties.

"I played beside him for three years here, and never saw anything close to him signaling opposing hitters on what was coming. It’s crap. All crap," said Michael.

Based on what I was told Friday by three other members of the Rangers when Alex played here, Young is right.

These people asked to remain "unnamed," for a variety of reasons, one of them being my favorite:

"I never saw anything like that, and believe me, I would have eventually picked it up if it was happening," he said. "But Alex is the kind of person, I wouldn’t put anything past him. So I don’t want to say publicly he didn’t, and then the proof come in that he did, and I’d look naïve and stupid."

Another of the three said he "definitely" thinks there has been pitch tipping to the opposition in the majors, for the very reasons associated with A-Rod in the book, but he never had a reason here to think Alex was involved.

In Alex’s Texas days, the closest thing associated with any of this involved a controversy that swirled around him in 2003. But it was pitch calling, not pitch tipping. Without informing manager Buck Showalter or pitching coach Orel Hershiser, Rodriguez told new catcher Einar Diaz he would call the pitches for him.

"Buck and Orel caught on in a hurry, and a big blowup happened, particularly between Alex and Orel," said one person. "That story hit the papers, but it was bigger than even reported. Buck and Alex totally split because Alex wanted Buck to fire Orel and Buck didn’t."

Young: "I backed Alex on that. Heck, yes, I did. We had a catcher who was struggling. Alex was trying to help the team. He knew more about it than the catcher. If the pitching coach didn’t like it, he should have been on top of it."

I want to give you a hand job with my mouth

Amazing story about a young 23 year old woman Kari Ferrell appeared in The New York Observer She's a total psycho, and is on the most wanted list of the Salt Lake City Police Department.

A few days later, one of Ms. Ferrell’s new colleagues came by her desk. “I said, ‘Excuse me, miss, is [her boss] downstairs?’” the 29-year-old told The Observer. “She thought that was very polite that I said, ‘Excuse me, miss,’ and after that she started talking to me, instant-messaging me. She asked if I was from the South. I told her no. It escalated from there.”

Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history—how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work—but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’” He Googled her. Up popped a photo of his flirtatious new co-worker on the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Most Wanted list, wanted on five different warrants, including passing $60,000 in bad checks, forgery and retail theft.

Roof Collapses at Dallas Cowboys Practice Facility

Mockbuster, The Terminators (2009)

Wikipedia:

The Asylum was founded by David Michael Latt and David Rimawi in 1997.[1] The company focused on producing straight-to-video low-budget films, usually in the horror genre, but were unable to find a market due to competition from major studios, such as Lions Gate Entertainment.[1] In 2005, the company produced a low-budget adaptation of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was released in the same year as Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the same material. Blockbuster Inc. ordered 100,000 copies of The Asylum's adaptation, a significantly larger order than any of the company's previous releases, resulting in Latt and Rimawi reconsidering their business model.[1]

The Asylum became known in 2007 when similarities between the distributor's titles and those of major studios were reported. For example, the film Transmorphers, bears a number of similarities to the film Transformers, which was released theatrically two days after the release of Transmorphers.[1][2] According to Latt, "I'm not trying to dupe anybody. I'm just trying to get my films watched. Other people do tie-ins all the time; they’re just better at being subtle about it. Another studio might make a giant robot movie that ties into the Transformers release and call it Robot Wars. We’ll call ours Transmorphers."[1] In 2008, 20th Century Fox threatened legal action against The Asylum over The Day the Earth Stopped, a film believed to capitalize on The Day the Earth Stood Still.[4]

A Child Of The Canseco Era

Selena Roberts did a 45 minutes interview with Bob Costas about her A-Rod allegations. MLB.com posted a condensed 5 minute version of her interview accompanied by an article summarizing her major points.

Roberts also spent a portion of the interview defending the existence of her book, which critics have derided as an unnecessary attack on Rodriguez's character. Yankees manager Joe Girardi vocally denounced the book prior to Sunday's scheduled game that was rained out against the Angels, saying he does not "understand why someone would write a book like that, anyway."

Roberts said that she began her work under the assumption that Rodriguez was clean, and that the book grew more negative due to the nature of what her reporting uncovered.

"To say that he's not worthy of the book would be to say that he is not worthy of inspection, when he is one of the greatest players to play the game," Roberts said. "He's the richest player to play the game. He's somebody who's certainly been polarizing."

Rodriguez opted out of the final three years of a record $252 million contract during the 2007 World Series, only to re-sign with the Yankees for 10 years and $275 million.

The money, according to Roberts, hints at his psychological insecurities, which she says stem from a father that abandoned him and a "Joe DiMaggio" complex that made him yearn for the public spotlight. Much of the book details Rodriguez's personal life, particularly his relationship with pop icon Madonna and his resulting divorce.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Whoa, special effects look pretty darn amazing.

Tetro

Troubleshooting MLB.TV

Subscribers to MLB.TV premium service have been utterly disgusted with the lousy streaming video feeds of MLB games. Things have gotten outright nasty on their support forum. The inundation of complaints may have caused the support forum's moderator to quit. An advertisement in NY's Craigslist offers the chance to work as an MLB.TV moderator. There's quite a bit about the qualifications needed for potential candidates, but nowhere in the ad does it say that you need to deal with extremely pissed off people who just paid over $100 and can't watch any games without problems.

Responsibilities:
• Answering questions about the services available to MLB.TV subscribers.
• Troubleshooting MLB.TV and Gameday Audio.
• Giving real time technical instructions on how to use all of the features of MLB.TV.
• Escalate site problems to the proper contacts
• Reports summarizing the amount of activity on the forum, key topics, and unresolved issues.

Dance Flick

Judging by the trailer, this movie could possibly be brilliant, and possibly contain blatant racist humor.

In Japanese custom, it is very important, the toilets

Remember when the Seibu Lions received $51,111,111 from the Red Sox as part of the posting fee for Dice-K? 2 years later, NY Times investigated what they did with all that loot.

Whereas the old facilities were dingy concrete latrines, state-of-the-art urinals line the men’s rooms along with high-tech hand dryers built into the bright blue and white tile — the team colors. But the main attractions are the new toilets with TotTo’s Warmlet seats in stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors.

Each stall in the women’s bathrooms holds a Toto Washlet, a toilet and bidet in one unit. These $1,500 fixtures provide a luxurious experience for fans, who may spend their time in the restrooms contemplating the full extent of Matsuzaka’s legacy with the Lions.

“It looked like a women’s room in a nice hotel with the vanities and sinks,” said Tere Garcia-Pena, visiting from Manhattan with her husband, Miguel. “It was just so nice and clean, I felt like I just wanted to keep going in there.”

Takahashi, who studied English in Philadelphia and used to visit Veterans Stadium, said most of the money the Lions received from the Red Sox in January 2007 was used for the renovations the last two seasons.

Forty percent — more than $20 million — went to taxes. Of the rest, $25 million paid for stadium upgrades and $5 million was used to sign players who helped the Lions win the 2008 Japan Series.

MLB Cartel

Steve Malanga/ Real Clear Markets explains why pro sports can get away with charging exorbitant ticket prices ala Yankee Stadium.

Even though the Yanks have been forced for the time being to cut their top prices, time and demographics are on the side of the Yankees--and most other teams, too. Even the worst U.S. recession in more than a generation, even here in New York, the home of our sickly financial markets, isn’t likely to moderate the upward spiral of ticket prices. Why? Because for decades now major professional sports leagues, and especially Major League Baseball, have used certain cartel powers tolerated by government to restrict supply, even as we as a country have grown more populous and richer (the current recession notwithstanding). Pro sports aren’t retailing, where every economic uptick finds businesses elbowing each other for prime locations. Instead, the leagues have divided the country nicely, and short of some kind of major court decision or legislation in Washington that drastically reshapes the way leagues must do business (which would probably disconcert the very fans who abhor rising prices), the cost of attending games just about everywhere is likely to continue growing at a faster rate than most prices. The Yankees are merely leading the way.

To understand what I mean about sports and demographic trends, just take a look at the way the New York metropolitan area has changed in the last 47 years, and the way baseball hasn’t. Since 1962, when the Mets joined the Yankees in New York, MLB’s capacity in the area hasn’t grown. The teams both play a home-season schedule of 81 games, as they have since ’62, and their stadium capacities are actually somewhat smaller today than 47 years ago.

But since the last time the league added capacity in New York, the population of the metropolitan area has grown by some 3 million, or by nearly a fifth. More important, the wealth of that population has increased robustly. Per capita income, after adjusting for inflation, has nearly doubled in the region. All of those extra people and the additional wealth per person mean total income in the region, after adjusting for inflation is up by 115 percent. That’s a marketplace you’d love to have more or less to yourselves, as the Yankees and Mets do.

Obama's $100 Million Budget Cut

What's $100 Million out of $3.52 Trillion? Not a whole heck of a lot.

Jayson Williams' Cocktail Recipe

When the police busted Jayson Williams earlier this week, they found all kinds of psychiatric drugs in his possession [NY Daily News]. It was probably not a good idea for Jayson to mix them all together.

Two sources said the ex-NBA star had bottles for Celexa, an anti-depressant, and lithium, used for manic-depression - along with the sleeping pill Ambien, human growth hormone and two other drugs.

But when police arrived he couldn't even talk. He was crazy and out of it. Maybe the interaction of the drugs helps explain that."

Reputable medical Web sites say lithium and Celexa together can cause a toxic condition - serotonin syndrome. Agitation, delirium and even death can result.

Now that Williams is at St. Vincent's, he's on the mood stabilizer Depakote, which is used to get bipolar patients out of the manic phase of their illness, another source said.

So now that he's in a hospital, they put more drugs into him? That's some good doctoring right there.

ShamWow Is Low On The Wow

Cute little review by Consumer Reports on the ShamWow product

Land Shark Stadium, Sorry Dolphin Marlin Fans

Dolphin Stadium is set to be renamed Land Shark Stadium [Miami Herald], as part of a corporate naming rights agreement b/w Land Shark Beer and cash hungry Dolphin owner Stephen Ross.

Today, it's Dolphin Stadium. But get ready soon for Land Shark Stadium, named for a brew that's obscure now but has big aspirations: Land Shark Lager is a joint project of Anheuser Busch and Key West icon Jimmy Buffett.

Dolphin Stadium president Bruce Schulze confirmed Friday that a naming rights deal with Land Shark Lager is likely. The Dolphins are expected to unveil the new name at a news conference next Friday.

The deal's payoff for Land Shark Lager is marketing. The payoff for Dolphins owner Stephen Ross -- just like it is for the owners of U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Petco Park in San Diego, Safeco Field in Seattle, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. -- is money, although no one was saying Friday how much the deal would bring the team.

Buyer's market for baseball fans

Looks like the resale market for premium seats at Yankee Stadium has plummeted [ESPN/AP]. The super expensive seats are selling for less than half of its face value on places like Stubhub.

"We're seeing an unprecedented number of season-ticket holders selling. The market has been flooded. It is a buyer's market for baseball fans," said Mike Janes, chief executive officer of FanSnap.com, an Internet search engine that finds tickets on resale sites.

Rain on Friday afternoon might have depressed the price of tickets for that night's game, and more rain was possible later in the weekend.

For Saturday's game, seats that originally sold for $500 were available for $150 Friday on StubHub and $850 seats could be had for $225. Field level seats the Yankees sold for $325 behind the plate were listed at $60.

There were similar prices for Sunday's game.

"The market has flipped," Janes said. "Supply has totally exceeded demand. That's why you see this downward pressure on ticket prices."

In a lot of ways, it's worse than steroids and HGH

Ex-teammates of A-Rod on the Texas Rangers respond to allegations of pitch tipping [SI.com].

That explanation wasn't sufficient for Glanville or Dickey, who said "There's no situation that would ever justify him doing that on any level. That's somebody's ERA that's somebody's livelihood, that's somebody trying to provide for their family. I'm holding on to the belief that it's not true. No one with a conscience could do that. Blows me away."

Dickey does, however, have first-hand knowledge of Rodriguez's involvement with calling pitches. "My first year there (2001) there were a couple of games where he called the pitches from shortstop or helped the catcher called pitches, in a couple of my starts I know he did that," he said. "Einar Diaz was our catcher and Alex did that on occasion on a couple of my starts. I never knew it until after the fact but he helped [our] catcher out a couple times. But as far as giving away pitches I couldn't speak with any amount of knowledge on that subject."

Dickey pitched in several blowout games with the Rangers during his years there but said he had no recollection of anything like this happening. "I can't recall any of those games and even if I could I would never be thinking along those lines that my teammate could be giving away pitches" he said. "I could never think 'For sure he must have done it then.' That's just so far off the radar dude."

Glanville suggested that perhaps A-Rod's mannerisms that led to suspicion were actually a way to alert his fellow defenders what pitch was coming next, something the shortstop often does during a game. But Roberts' sources said that the key difference is when Rodriguez would signal. "The thing Alex would do, and this is the critical difference between signaling your infield as quarterback and giving away the pitch to the hitter, is when you flash the sign," she said. "This was done to give the batter plenty of time to see it and figure what to do about it. What would usually happen would be for Alex to do something as the pitcher is in the windup; that way the batter is focused on the pitcher. These signs Alex would flash came before the windup and that made it even more noticeable."

Nas show @ Hunter College

Nas is doing a show at Hunter College tonight at 7PM.

Each student with a valid Hunter ID can purchase *two* tickets. Non-Hunter students may be brought as guests, but a Hunter student must buy their ticket.

I’m telling you he did not do it

Former A-Rod teammate Jeff Brantley doesn't buy that A-Rod tipped pitches to opposing batters. Excerpts of his Chris "Mad Dog" Russo interview can be found over at Watchdog.

Host, Chris Russo: “It says here in the excerpts [of the book] today [in the New York Daily News], that the opposing team, in a blowout game, a friendly [player] would tell A-Rod what pitch was coming to help break him out of a slump. How about that?”

Brantley: “No, no, no. That’s b.s. There’s no way. There’s nobody that is going to do that, not in this game. Not even the worst of the worst.”

Russo: (reading from the NY Daily News article) “’In one shocking disclosure, the book accuses A-Rod of “pitch tipping” when he was with the Rangers – letting a friendly opponent at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games.’”

Brantley: “That did not happen. There’s no way that happens.”

Russo: “So there’s no way A-Rod could tip off a friendly opponent batting against Jeff Brantley in a blowout game one way or the other? That could not have occurred?”

Brantley: “Now, I’m not going to say that he couldn’t do it but I’m telling you he did not do it.”

Russo: (reading from the NY Daily News) “’Rodriguez expected players he helped would do the same for him when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up and it would not affect the outcome of the game.’ You’re saying that is not accurate?”

Brantley: “No way. No way.”