Mike Lupica/Take Your Pick, most recently Derek Jeter.

I would have to go with Tim McCarver and his absolute worship of Derek Jeter. And to give you all a little perspective, I am a Yankees fan and a big supporter of Jeter. But I can openly admit that McCarver takes it to a whole new level.

Howard "the King of Bling" Eskin's blinkie has to be Larry Brown. I would say his kryptonite would be Allen Iverson.

For Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle, it's got to be Bud Selig. Bud Selig is a God who can do know wrong and Justice will remind you of that over and over and over and over and over.

Student -- I suggested to Will in an email that Lupica is more properly regarded as having an "anti-binkie," A-Rod. No matter what A-Rod does, until he leads the Yanks to 10 straight championships, Lupica will minimize his accomplishments and find some way to criticize him ("Sure, A-Rod hit 4 solo shots, but the Yankees won 4-2... shouldn't he have been resting during that 4th at-bat for tomorrow's game?") Oh, and thanks for the shout-out, Will.

Stephen A. Smith and Shaq Stephen A. Smith and Iverson Stephen A. Smith and T.O.

These aren't writers, but what the hell... When the T-Wolves were just getting started (pre-KG, actually even pre-Laettner) their PBP guy was the now nationally-known Mr. Excitable, Kevin Harlan. I know he's not a writer, but he had a weird binky-like relationship to Brad Lohaus (memory aid - 7 foot white guy, HUGE ears, pretty good outside stroke), who was the Wolves center at the time. I know Harlan probably screams in ectasy when he finds the right phone number in the White Pages, but I thought his head was going to explode whenever Lohaus made a shot. It usually went sometime like "Lohaus......BULLSEYE" at a volume level that seemed like it would blow out the speakers on my crappy Magnavox TV. It was unreal. Aside from my own childhood memories that likely mean nothing to anyone else, I'd say McCarver's man-love for Jeter is an obvious binky relationship (I see Jeter posters in McCarver's bedroom), and the other one that comes to mind is Bill Walton's teeeeeeeeeeerrrrrribly intense obsession with Shaq (especially a few years ago when Shaq was with the Lake-show).

PS - Chainz, yes, McCarver's mancrush on Jeter and Simms's's mancrush on Brady.

Man, Chainz, you took the words right out of my mouth. I swear to you, any two random teams can be playing and McCarver will find a miraculous way to insert Derek Jeter's name into the proceedings. It's maddening.

Wilbon and Jordan; Wilbon and Barkley; Kornheiser and Larry Brown (apparently, Brown was Kornheiser's camp counselor when they were kids).

I'm going to go with Jay Mariotti and his hatred of Hawk Harrelson. Look at today's column as an example (http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay01.html). Even when it pains him to congratulate the White Sox on making efficient, smart trades and signings, he still relies on a nice, not-so-subtle rip on him with the last sentence.

I'm not sure Whitlock/George is even the biggest binkie relationship in KC. Joe Posnanski has Buck O'Neil (prominent Negro League ballplayer) as his, resulting in about a column a month about what an amazing guy Buck is.

Speaking of camp counselors, did you know that backup-QB extraordinaire Jay Fiedler was once Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels' camp counselor? That's the type of knowledge I bring.

Bill Simmons' obsession with David Ortiz got to be a little much as the MVP vote was appraoching. C'mon, he's a great hitter, but it's useful to run and throw if you want to be MVP. Not that many of his teammates could.

Not a writer, but how about Dick Vitale's incoherent ramblings about the basketball programs on tobacco road.

Seconding Wilbon's love for MJ the GM. Tom Bosworth refusing to accept the Ripken decline.

Biggest by far: Dick Vitale's obsession with Coach K. No one even comes close.

Not a writer -- hell, probably not even literate -- but it must be said that Tie Domi, the Albanian assassin, is Don Cherry's binkie. I am honoured to be the first person to put Domi, Cherry and Binkie in a sentence. Domi Cherry Binkie. DomiCherryBinkie.

Simmons and Ortiz is good...but Simmons and Larry Legend is better.

Actually, I would go with either Simmons and 90210 or Simmons and the Karate Kid (especially the Cobra Kai).

not to continue to bring this blog to its knees with my lowest-common-girl-denominator comments, but up until Jake Plummer grew that beard, Barry Zito was TOTALLY my binkie.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned anything Red Sox related as the binkie of Peter Gammons.

myself and Kurt Warner

How 'bout Skip Bayless and stupidity? Or Mike Lupica and an inconsistent opinion? Or an anti-binkie: Jim Caple and the Yankees. You'd think George Steinbrenner slept with the guy's wife the way he rips them in every column.

Now, Sour. You know Joe P. is trying to get Buck into the HOF before he dies -- self-aggrandizing, but for a good cause. Can you cut slackage?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Terrance Moore and Hank Aaron, Dave Justice, Brian Jordan, or any other black ballplayer whos played for the Braves over the last 20 years. And Andruw Jones doesn't count because he was born in Curocao. Yes, he has actually said that.

Gammo and the Red Sox is so obvious that no one mentioned it. Peter Gammons is actually an animatronic robot, and the real Peter Gammons died in 1995. I think it's time for "Old Hickory" to put the façade aside, keep on pretending that he's actually a real Hall of Famer, and just come out of the closet and say "I cover the Red Sox, and Major League Baseball as it pertains to the Red Sox. I am not a national columnist." He'd still be wrong most of the time, and largely irrelevant, but I'd respect him more. As a huge Yankee fan (someone with his own Jeter poster in his room) the McCarver-Jeter man crush does get a little over the top. And McCarver joked about it one time during a Fox Sunday game w/ the Yankees, so he knows what he is doing. Does the Amad Rashad-Michael Jordon relationship qualify as a binkie? I haven't seen so many softballs being tossed since the last Jenny Finch gawk-a-thon. Rashad is trying to do the same thing w/ LeBron James too. It's kind of a cross generational binkie.

Oh, I nearly forgot... Leitch and YAYSports.

To add on to the Mariotti comment above, his love binkie is whoever will pique the interest of the Chicago reading public as of that day's release - see Sammy Sosa 1998, Jim Miller 1999 Mark Prior 2003, Jerry Reinsdorf 2005. Must...keep...Around...The...Horn...gig...

How about Alan Grant and Ty Willingham? I know he's only a writer in the loosest sense of the word, but the man CANNOT leave Willingham alone, even after a 2-9 season at Washington.

Much like McCarver's w/Jeter, a bad former jock/jock one is Dan Marino's constantly reminding us how much he influences Payton Manning...even pulling out his cel phone to accept a call from him on "Inside the NFL"...Dan is setting himself up for taking the credit for an undefeated season and a Super Bowl, two things he never got!