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Media Approval Ratings: John Feinstein
The first time we ever read a book that had the word fuck in it was in John Feinstein's Season On The Brink. Bobby Knight liked to say that word a lot. It was also the first time we had seen the c-word. We were 14 years old....

Eli Manning And Wife In Desperate Need Of A Queer-Eyeing
The evolution of Eli Manning from underachieving dim-expressioned yokel to high society Super Bowl hero has hit a rough patch, as the fashionistas of the New York Post have lashed out at Eli and his new bride, Abby McGrew, for their questionable fashion sense during the recent snob-infested Contem...

What's More Fun Than Sprinting California Rolls?
It's a lazy, post-Finals Thursday morning, with the sports world mostly taking a deep breath to relax over the next month and a half. We're going to spend most of our day waiting for our parents' plane to arrive and trying to direct them through the vagaries of the New York City subway system. (Hone...

The Beery Nine Over The Siamese From The West
Slate's Robert Weintraub, like many of us, loves the old purple prose of early 1900s sportswriting, the Grantland Rices, the men who painted epic tales of warriors, grizzled combatants and lardywarks too manly to wear gloves. In an occasional series, Weintraub writes about the week's best baseball g...

Media Approval Ratings: David Aldridge
It seems like an extremely long time ago that David Aldridge was on ESPN. He almost seems the exact opposite of what the network wants out of its NBA coverage....

Shirtless Nationals' Fans Are Put On Notice By Team Reps
There are usually three types of people who take their shirts off at ballparks:...

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?...

Media Approval Ratings: Bill Walton
It is easy to forget sometimes that Bill Walton used to stutter. Remembering that little factoid makes his signature BOLD PROCLAMATIONS a little easier to handle; he wouldn't be Bill Walton if he didn't sound uncertain....

And Now For News That Isn't Fair
The gal on the left there, her name is Adriana Lima. (Just in case you wanted a name to go with the wet dream later on.) The guy on the right is some kind of basketball player named Marko Jaric. One of them has about 8½ million Google searches. The other, not even 200 grand. Hopefully Ms. Lima signs...

So, Is Vegetarianism Really Hurting Prince Fielder?
Much has been made out of Prince Fielder's vegetarianism, and whether or not it actually affects his performance on the field. Reporter Pete Croatto investigated the story....

Media Approval Ratings: Jeff Van Gundy
We are pretty sure that most of you would agree that Jeff Van Gundy is an unlikely excellent NBA analyst. We're sure he would have never imagined that's the way his career would go. He's just coachy enough to be a TV preener....

Dance The Night Away With The Ft. Myers Miracle
Time to put down your drink, turn up the music (it''s Shining Star by Earth Wind and Fire, I believe) and step to the rhythm of Minor Enterprise. Come on, who's dancing?...

Media Approval Ratings: Gregg Easterbrook
When Gregg Easterbrook's old "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" initially appeared on ESPN Slate, way way way way back in the day, it seemed like a revelation, and we say that not only because of his consistently amusing (and depressing) "Arizona (CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN FOOTBALL-LIKE SUBSTANCE) Cardinals" ...

The Big Ball Orchard In The South Bronx
Slate's Robert Weintraub, like many of us, loves the old purple prose of early 1900s sportswriting, the Grantland Rices, the men who painted epic tales of warriors, grizzled combatants and lardywarks too manly to wear gloves. In an occasional series, Weintraub writes about the week's best baseball g...

Media Approval Ratings: Sal Paolantonio
ESPN's flashy-suited NFL reporter is the WWL's go-to guy when it comes to the headline-grabbing stories that require an Italian hard news punch. "Sal Pal", as he's wont to call himself, is a Philly boy, who's covered everything from Terrell Owens' driveway meltdown, to Spygate, to Vick's dogfighting...

Media Approval Ratings: Jay Bilas
We would like to repeat our favorite piece of biographical information about Jay Bilas: He once starred in a movie with Dolph Lundgren. The movie was "Dark Angel," and Bilas plays an alien named "Azeck." Man this makes us happy....

The Revolution — And Perhaps The Olympics — May Not Be Televised
Bad news: The Olympics party you had planned, where dozens of your friends were going to come over to watch the 110 men's high hurdles on your big-screen tv, may have to be canceled. China is becoming so paranoid over Olympic security that most broadcasters — including NBC — are beginning to worry ...

Media Approval Ratings: Skip Bayless
It's kind of amazing to think that, at one point, Skip Bayless was one of the top up-and-coming sportswriters in the country. At the age of 25, Bayless was hired as lead columnist for the Dallas Morning News, an amazing opportunity. He embraced this job by constantly claiming Troy Aikman was gay. An...

Media Approval Ratings: Gregg Doyel
We've had some fun with Gregg Doyel around these parts — we'd actually forgotten about all that "glog" business, though we think we and Doyel had the world's best ever Glog Feud — but generally speaking, we think he livens the place up over at CBS Sportsline....

Still Krazy After All These Years
So these three kids in Oakland Athletics Little League uniforms come up to me and ask who the manic little bald man with the drum is. They had seen me talking with him, but hadn't worked up the nerve to approach him themselves. "That's Krazy George, the most famous cheerleader of all time," I say. ...