d Page 7534 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Indianapolis' Belushi Solution
If you happen to find yourself in Indianapolis for the Final Four this weekend, the city wants you to have an excellent time all around. It's Indy on the biggest stage of all, and after St. Louis' rousing success last year, the sleepy burg hopes to follow up with a party-filled weekend of its own....

Julian Tavarez Is Crazy, Man, Crazy
As Cardinals fans, the level of enjoyment we derived from having Julian Tavarez on our team the last few years is exceeded only by the relief we felt when he left. Tavarez was an excellent setup man, but every relief appearance was fraught with peril: Is this the time he's going to snap? Every tim...

About Last Night ...
What you missed while searching for your car ... • NBA: All Hail Nenad Krstic! His 21 points and 10 rebounds help Nets to ninth straight win, 110-72 over Suns. Bow, you dogs! • MLB: We are shocked to learn that it was mild-mannered Red Sox pitcher Julian Tavarez who touched off a benches-clearing br...

George Brett's Bloopers And Practical Jokes
Baseball players, you see, they're pranksters. Whether it's the hot foot, the rookie hazing or just a cream pie in the face during a television interview, those ballplayers, they like to fool around. Spend six months out of the year with the same 24 guys, hey, what's a little tomfoolery from time ...

To Watch Tonight
What to watch as you choose a nice Zinfandel to go with that roast squirrel ... • NCAA Women's Tournament: Regional finals: Utah vs. Maryland, at Albuquerque; LSU vs. Stanford, at San Antonio. The Cardinal has a player (Brooke Smith) who transferred from Duke, so you gotta love that. [ESPN] • NHL: D...

Steroids ... The Musical!
People are taking this steroid stuff too seriously, we think. We're in the midst of reading "Game Of Shadows" right now, and even though it's damning and impeccably sourced and all those Big Serious Important Things, we're also finding it awfully funny. We love Victor Conte, with his stoner musici...

Leftovers: Yeah, This Is Totally Going To Work
• Alfonso Soriano, outfield matador. [The Sports Frog] • Randy Johnson, in a child support snafu. We believe the tabloids call them "love child." [The Smoking Gun] • Honestly, there's not much better than a good NASCAR fight. [SI.com] • Magic sign up Howard and Nelson to another year on their contra...

Johnny Damon's Adjusted Swing
Via the brand new and most entertaining blog The Big Lead, we were pointed to an interview new New York Yankees Johnny Damon gave to New York Magazine's Stephen Rodrick. The story itself is a good read — we love the analogy of Damon sent to the Yankees to remove the collective stick from their col...

Colin Cowherd Comes Clean, Spurring World Peace
As The Mighty MJD initially reported Saturday, ESPN's Colin Cowherd, after stealing a bit from blog The M Zone last week, finally did apologize today and point out that he swiped the material directly....

Roger Clemens Hates His Crotch
You might think that Peter King's gruesome description of the preparations he took to prepare for his colonoscopy would be the most disturbing thing you'd read all day. It would seem like a good bet; Peter, we love the freedom you have online, but there is such a thing as decorum and good will to ...

Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Cardinals
We're only about a week away from Opening Day, so it?s time to start previewing the season. Inspired by an old feature on The Black Table, we?re going team-by-team and distributing Four Things You Don?t Know about them. If you have suggested oddities on your team, send them to us at tips@deadspin....

Blogdome: Man, You Ugly
• The five most unattractive players in the Final Four. [The Coffeys] • Should they really have continued that race yesterday after Paul Dana's death? [NBX] • Couldn't they have done something to save Tiger Stadium? Anything? [Detroit Wonk] • Will college basketball be the same, post-George Mason? [...

Mike Anderson Will Vanquish All Foes
Over the weekend, the Missouri Tigers, hoping to finally rid themselves of the horror that was Quin Snyder, hired Mike Anderson, the former head coach at UAB, to take over their head spot....

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?
Wasn't that Bill Walton in the stands grinning during the final moments of UCLA's win over Memphis on Saturday? What was he smiling about? Was it the Bruins' 35 percent shooting from the field? Was it their 51 percent shooting from the free throw line? Ironically, it was in the 1973 NCAA champions...

Getting Your Kicks
It's a beautiful Saturday here in Manhattan; think we'll take a walk down Delancey Street, and turn onto Eldridge and ... what's this? Dozens of young men camped out on the sidewalk? Sleeping bags and folding chairs ... is there a fourth Star Wars prequel we didn't know about? Another Harry Potter...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • Noon. NBA with Marc Stein: Drawbacks to those new ESPN phones — your head doesn't fit on the screen and your annoying high-pitched voice scares my dog. • 4 p.m. Baseball with Gary Gillette: Your 2006 Baseball Encyclopedia makes a great...

George Mason's Win, From The Nosebleeds
From the guy who brought you that gruesome video of Iowa fans reacting to Northwestern State's victory over them in the first round comes an even better video: Footage from the George Mason student section as the final seconds ticked off the clock yesterday....

NCAA Roundup:All GMU, All The Time
• As exciting as the LSU-Texas and George Mason-Connecticut games were, the Florida-Villanova and UCLA-Memphis games were dogs. Particularly that last one; it had been a long time since we'd seen a team back into the Final Four. Not supposed to work that way. • One of the more underpublicized fact...

George Mason Makes The World A Better Place
Obviously, we'll be talking about this all week, but we'd just like to start off by saying a world in which George Mason can beat Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut in the span of a week is a world we feel newly invigorated about living in....

About Last Night ...
What you missed while giving your office pool bracket sheet a viking's funeral ... • NCAA Tournament: Holy crap! Father of the Bill of Rights knocks off UConn in overtime, mercifiully silencing Jim Calhoun's whining. • NBA: Vince Carter — remember him? — leads Nets over Pistons for eighth straight w...