tcraggs22 Page 103 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

For A Brief Moment, The College Football World Was Turned On Its Head
Our thanks to all 8,358 of you who sent in this screengrab (click to enlarge), which depicts Bruce Feldman, ESPN The Magazine's college football savant, fearlessly forecasting the Florida Atlantic Owls into the national title game....

Leitch-Hating Matador Records Co-Owner Loses Home In Fire
Gerard Cosloy, indie-music maven and proprietor of sporty blog Can't Stop The Bleeding, posted the photo you see here, writing: "This was a hell of a way to get out of hoovering the living room." Condolences. [CSTB, via Steady Burn]...

Deion Sanders' Mom Is A First Amendment Hero
The amazing thing about this isn't that cops stupidly slapped handcuffs on a sportswriter apparently for the crime of doing his job in casual wear. The amazing thing is that he was arrested because he tried to interview Deion Sanders....

Nationals' Unexpected Success Sends <em>Washington Post</em> Into A Fugue State
The lede to yesterday's game story: "In the coda of the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, composer Johann Sebastian Bach repeats the same chord sequence over and over again, leading the listener to anticipate one resolution ..." [Washington Post]...

Scoring At Home: Your <em>SportsCenter</em> Catchphrase-O-Meter (UPDATE)
An occasional feature in which we explain and evaluate a SportsCenter anchor's pet phrase. Today's phrase: "Hotter than a fox in a forest fire."...

Alert: Whitlock, Leitch, Daulerio Sharing Pleasantries On Popular Radio Program
Go listen now. UPDATE: It's over. The nation returns to DEFCON 4. Leitch's verdict: "That went well. He didn't yell at us at all." [DanPatrick.com]...

Kenny Williams' No Good, Very Bad Day
First, the White Sox GM finds a moldering, $60 million fourth outfielder on waivers. Then he gets popped in Seattle for jaywalking. Only one of these things is criminally stupid....

Colorado Gives Football Player A Blog, Takes It Away When He Blogs About His Libido
Colorado's athletic department recently gave Ben Burney a blog, ostensibly to provide a glimpse into the life of a college football player. Which was a fine idea until Burney provided a glimpse into the life of a college football player....

Jack The Skipper
Vaguely tragic Jack Clark, hired last fall to manage the Springfield Sliders, has already missed 10 home games because of "commitments to Fox Sports Midwest and various other duties." They should give the job to Andre Dawson instead. [State Journal-Register]...

UFC 101: Beating Pipes, Disgusting Bloggers And Gerard Butler's Furiously Shaken Pud
By now you know that Mola Ram Anderson Silva ripped out Forrest Griffin's heart and flambéed it before 17,500 fans in Philadelphia. What you (hopefully) do not know is this: Gerard Butler plays with his haggis at the urinal....

Mina Brees Died As She Lived: Inexplicably
Drew Brees' estranged mother died last week in Colorado, though as of yet it's not known when, how or where exactly....

Johnny Narron: His Tongue Deviseth Mischiefs
On Friday, I spoke with Johnny Narron, the Rangers' special assignment coach and Josh Hamilton's devoutly religious "accountability partner." He was gracious, forthright and apparently full of crap....

Josh Hamilton's Mentor: "I'd Be Shocked" If Photos Are Real
"I don't put a lot of credence in someone saying they have photographs of Josh in a bar," says Johnny Narron, a special assignment coach with the Rangers and Josh Hamilton's "accountability partner" since 2007....

Is This The End Of John Smoltz?
The 42-year-old was DFA'd a day after he gave up eight runs and nine hits in a loss to the Yankees, raising his ERA to 8.33. Theo Epstein flew to New York to deliver the news in person. [Boston Globe]...

Why Your Stadium Sucks: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
This is a weekly feature in which I (and maybe you, too, readers) detail the various reasons for hating your ballpark. This week: The Minnesota Twins' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome....

UFC 101: Hipster Warriors, Chest Hair And The Return Of Sanctioned Violence To Philly
The UFC descends on Philadelphia this weekend. Which means that hordes of Tapout-clad drunks from the East Coast will fill the Wachovia Center and howl like gibbons as they work themselves into the Blood Frenzy. Well, bully for them....

Sportswriters Continue To Safeguard Our Delicate Sensibilities
Reports the San Francisco Chronicle: Jeremy Affeldt nearly walked onto the field Wednesday for batting practice wearing "a camouflage cap bearing a play on his name not suitable for print." Who let all the schoolmarms into the press box? [SFGate]...

Newspaper Shoves Legally Blind, Much-Beloved Baseball Writer Into Retirement
Dayton Daily News pushes Hal McCoy out the door and next season will join everyone else in pretending the Reds don't exist. McCoy: "My miniature schnauzer, Barkley, is looking at me wondering why his old man is sniffling." [Real McCoy]...

Status Of Reilly-Simmons Rivalry Captured By Mediaite's Portentous Colored Arrows
The oracle at Mediaite has spoken. The green-arrowed Rick Reilly is on the rise. The red-arrowed Sporting Fellow is in decline. Reilly is squirting grapefruit juice in Bill Simmons' face! [Mediaite, h/t HabsFan29]...

You May Be Taller, But You're Still Beneath Him
Mike Lupica's ego is to sportswriting what Milton Berle's cock is to comedy. It is an occupational totem, around which colleagues spin fantastical-seeming yarns that just so happen to be true. Here are a few such tales....