• Elton John is a huge fan of the Atlanta Braves. Really.

• John Schuerholz doesn't seem to know who Elton John is. And there was no way they were dragging Bobby Cox to this thing.

• Christ, what the hell happened to Mark Lemke?

• MLB.com's video editing capabilities appear to rival those at Six Flags, the ones where you could make your very own music video, complete with "special effects."

• Any baseball player who claims "Bennie And The Jets" is his favorite song probably loses any right to talk about anything else, ever. We'd give good money to see someone use this as their at-bat music, though.

• MLB.com has great ad copywriters: The whole thing is meant to promote Elton's — sorry, Sir Elton's — new DVD, which they call, "the most anticipated Elton John DVD release in recent memory." Well, jeez, if you can't remember any better, shucks, let's get it!

• Other than that, it was great. Totally about baseball, relevant and timely.

Elton John Goes To Bat With The Braves [MLB.com]

Not to get music nerdy on you here, but even though we like some of the other bands on the game — we are helpless against Death From Above 1979 — we have just enough of that "come on, Nirvana was different" stupid early '90s idealism to be depressed by this. We wonder how the music will be used; if it's Jeter's batting entrance music, we're going to throw the controller against the wall.

Nirvana Sountracks Baseball Video Game [Pitchfork Media]

Okay Charlie, at this point I am going to assume that you haven't spoken to the Giants' organization about their 'potential coaching job.' But LEAVING NOTRE DAME, your alma mater, without having achieved really anything of monolithic proportions like you've promised us, is absurd and unfair. So at this point, I will get on my knees and beg. Don't do it, coach. Don't do it! Stay and do what you promised; your team, your school, the fans, the legacy deserves to be taken to the promised land. Your recruits, Charlie, who are just beginning to trickle in, came to play for you. You!

Oh, and also, kids? Don't do crack.

Velvet Revolver Frontman Issues "Open Letter" To Charlie Weis [Roadrun.com]

Yankee fans are kind of dicks ... No, I mean, I don't know, I just think they're kind of mercenary.

We like the idea of rock stars hating the Yankees, screaming at the television while snorting lines of blow off three groupies' tan lines. It makes it seem so glamorous. Particularly after doing an interview with a baseball blog.

Interview: Julian Casablancas [Yankees2000: Promote The Curse]

When a representative of the rock band Nickelback requested four tickets last week, Ohio State associate athletic director Steve Snapp replied, "If you were John Lennon and you needed four tickets [for] the Beatles, I couldn't help you."

For the record, after looking at this picture, we suddenly have this urge to go pro-landmines.

Five Days And Counting [Chicago Tribune]

(UPDATE: We'd like to thank commenter duketime for providing this link, by the way.)

They limit themselves to professional singers butchering the anthem, which disqualifies the brilliant and infamous warbling from Carl Lewis — whom we like to think of as "Sports' Zoolander" — but it's still an enjoyable smattering of YouTube goodness.

It's hard, anyway, to come up with a solid list of awful singers than Scott Stapp, Michael Bolton and Jimmy Buffet ... but hey, how'd Liz Phair get in there? Though Steven Tyler's song to kick off the 2004 World Series did make us wonder whether, if possible, the city of Boston could give him back.

By the way, any predictions on singers this week? Maybe they'll sneak Eminem into Comerica!

Hey, It's Enrico Palazzo! [Idolator]

But Idolator has found something even better, a song about the 2002 New Jersey Nets — completely with Keith Van Horn-related freestyling! — by rapper Khia called "The Nets Are Back." The song is bad enough, but Idolator points out that the original version of Khia's song is called "My Neck, My Back" and has a bit more going on than praising Van Horn's jumper.

All you ladies pop your p***y like this
Shake your body, don't stop, don't miss
All you ladies pop your p***y like this
Shake your body, don't stop, don't miss
Just do it, do it, do it, do it, do it now
Lick it good suck this p***y, just like you should
Right now, Lick it good
suck this p***y just like you should
My Neck, my back
Lick my p***y and my crack

Though, all matters considered, it does have a certain Van Hornian flair.

What A Good Sport: Khia Gives It Up For The Nets [Idolator]

(UPDATE: From The Smoking Gun, we learn we are causing trouble with the wrong female rapper.)

Today, they gleefully — everything there is done with glee, we're told — have launched Idolator, which is about "music" in the same way that we are about "sports," except they'll do it in a much more intelligent, openhearted way (though we do have a distinct advantage in jokes about prostate cancer). They've got a big manifesto that sums it up splendidly.

The editors come with legit bonafides too: Editor Brian Raftery has been all over the pages of Blender and Spin, and associate editor Maura Johnston is a bit of a blogging legend — as much as such creatures exist — and even did a tour of duty at MLB.com, for which, jeez, she deserves a freaking medal. We welcome them and — dork alert — happily add them to the old RSS.

We eagerly await their expose on our hometown favorites of REO Speedwagon; the boys from Champaign are comin' back, dawg, you watch.

Idolator