ill Page 669 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Part IV: Featuring America's Favorite Sports Fella...Bill Simmons
Part 4 of our celebration of all things Leitch begins with a very, very special guest. He just got finished celebrating the Celtics' 17th world title. I can't wait to see it mentioned 83 times in one of his NFL columns 30 years from now. It's Bill Simmons. It really is....

Part III: The Will Leitch Live Blog
One of the most flattering compliments I've received in these, the blog days of my youth, has been from William F. Leitch regarding my live blogs, notably the Super Bowl XLII one. It's made me want to do more, but unfortunately all there is to lively blog these days is baseball, which can get rather...

The All-Star Blogebrity Roast Of William F. Leitch!
Balls Deep by Drew Magary will not be appearing this week. In its place, we bring you this very special presentation....

Who's Sorry Now? ESPN Columnist Edition
I wanted the final Who's Sorry Now? post during Will's tenure to be a memorable one, and this one's a doozy. Jemele Hill's latest column over at the Page Dos includes the phrase "I'm sorry," not once, but three times ... plus dozens of other variations of the term sprinkled throughout. It's a mea cu...

Shaquille O'Neal Won't Mince Words About Kobe Bryant
Gossip scoundrels TMZ have released probably one of the most entertaining videos you'll ever see in your whole entire life, as Phoenix Sun center Shaquille O'Neal revisits his Shaq-Fu roots and burns Kobe Bryant with an impromptu free-style at a New York City club....

The Off-Season Adventures of Orson Swindle
Spencer Hall (aka Orson Swindle), as part of his duties for the revamped Sporting News was sent on assignment to some sort of evil workout camp for college athletes. In addition to the typical combine style drills Spencer requested an "unconventional workout" because that's just how he rolls....

A Little Music For the Late Night Crowd
Thanks to Awful Announcing for providing video of the worst rap in the history of car commercials (and that's a long list). I would have liked to have been in the room when the ad guys pitched this to Lou and Ozzie. I bet it sounded a lot more like the rap we're used to. Well, the vocabulary at leas...

Curt Schilling Will (Most Likely) Pitch No More Forever
Is this the end for our bloody-hosed hero? With his announcement this morning that he will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, Curt Schilling has most likely also announced his de facto retirement. He discclosed his plans on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, and the Boston Globe is confirming it:...

Bloggers Are Half Joe Camel, A Third Fonzarelli
The Boston Phoenix ran a story this week — complete with Simmons quotes! — about that whole mainstream sports reporters vs. bloggers business that we are extremely looking forward to being over. There has already been a ton of discussion about it, but we're not going to get into that this morning b...

Philadelphia's Continuing Misguided Hatred Of J.D. Drew
J.D. Drew's play on the field this past week did nothing to keep Philadelphians from mercilessly, lustily booing him the last couple days, but even if he went 0-for-20 and caught a baby falling from the stands at Citizens Bank Park, he'd still hear it, just 'cuz. Drew, as you may recall, became a ...

Kevin Millar: Word To Your Mother
Because we're video crazy this morning, Bromoblog has uncovered an apparent bet between Jason Varitek and Kevin Millar on the NBA Finals; loser has to come to bat to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby." Apparently Millar lost....

ESPN Is Giving Jemele Hill Some Quiet Time
As you've probably heard by now, ESPN has suspended Jemele Hill for a "period of time" after one of her columns broke Godwin's Law and invoked Hitler. We do hope local Boston sports radio is happy now that they have their scalp....

The Slow Transition Facing The Buffalo/Toronto Bills
This charming little piece of graphic design is the official logo for the Buffalo Bills' games in Toronto this year. They will be playing there twice this year, once an exhibition game August 14 against Pittsburgh, and a regular season game December 7 against Miami. Many Bills fans fear the games ar...

Every Inch Of Justin Miller Tells A Story
Florida Marlins' pitcher Justin Miller has never really proved himself as a top tier major league pitcher, but whatever lacks in strikeout numbers, he makes up for in body art. Lots and lots of body art. The fact that he is paid a major league salary is secondary, as tattoo freak magazine Inked did ...

To Watch Tonight
What to watch after buying high heel shoes for your baby ... • College World Series: in Omaha, North Carolina vs. Fresno State (7 p.m., ET). Party on, Omaha. [ESPN2]. • NBA Finals: Game 6, Lakers vs. Celtics (9 p.m., ET). Game is so late due to media's notorious west coast bias [ABC]. • MLB: Cubs at...

Keith Olbermann Is Not Much Of A Pistons Fan
Keith Olbermann seemed genuinely flustered last night when Al Gore took his sweet time taking the stage at Joe Louis Arena to endorse Barack Obama; so much so that he forgot what team Chauncey Billups plays for. Billups was onstage to introduce Gore, and Olbermann had to go to his notes to identify ...

Media Approval Ratings: Bill Plaschke
While searching for photos of Los Angeles Times columnist (and "Around the Horn" regular) Bill Plaschke, we came across this one. How in the world did Plaschke get on that panel?...

At Last, The Mets Put Willie Randolph Out Of His Misery
We find it fitting, after at least nine months of fervid speculation, Willie Randolph was fired as manager of the Mets at 3:30 a.m. ET. That's too late for the tabloids to slap it on the front page, which is just a tragedy in New York City; tabloids are the reason we have managerial deathwatches....

Naked People Are Stridently Anti-Willie Randolph
We don't deal with a lot of public relations people around here, which is one of the many pleasures of writing on the Internets. (For now.) But for some reason, we are on the mailing list for Rick's Cabaret in New York City — we don't know why! Swear! — and we received the following email today: "RI...
