Anyone going to see The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at midnight? I had my doubts when I first heard about it (Indiana Jones is pushing like…100?)… And the response at Cannes was just a bit warmer than Medaillen received… Either way I’ll be checking it out before the weekend is over… One theater in my area will be showing it 26 times tomorrow…

Happy birthday to Mr. T….

The Robert Parish/Bill Laimbeer “incident.” (The Commission)

Red Lasso may be in trouble. (FanHouse)

This is a legitimate sport. (Japanese Bug Fights)

With the first pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the Chicago Bulls select… (Chicago Bull)

Is it just me or could a collection of dumb e-mails take off? (Real. Stupid. Emails.)

Did Cartoon Carl Crawford drop Cartoon Derek Jeter into the real SI jinx? (Rays Index)

An early look at the NL Cy Young candidates. (Major League Jerk)

Wheelchair athlete doping scandal. (The Canadian Press)

Poor New Orleans sports fans. (Hakim Drops the Ball)

Dock Ellis needs a new liver. (LA Times)

Glad I don’t live in California. (Freakonomics)

Scott Brosious is going back to the World Series. (Portland Tribune)

“Apologize this retard, he’s making 16 this year WITH an option for next year @ 16 or a buyout @ 4. Nice research by you but then I guess that whole concept of fact finding escapes you huh? They didn’t teach that on the short bus did they?”

Not that we were on the MLB beat when we bolted from newspapers years ago, but dealing with agents like this on a daily basis was something we had zero interest in. We can handle all your hate mail, but if nailing down a ballplayer’s contract particulars is like pulling teeth, we’ll pass, thanks. We emailed Graziano about this yesterday around lunch-time, but didn’t hear back. Dan, if you’re out there and read blogs – what’s the protocol on publishing emails? Does there have to be consent?

BREAKING NEWS: Delgado’s agent is insane (Star Ledger)

Anyone that will be following along all weekend…You will get Rick Rolled…I promise…

With the combination of Elisha Cuthbert’s reemergence as being flawless and the TBL community starting to appreciate Mila Kunis, I thought it would be a great time to use this picture from 5(!) years ago…. For what it’s worth, ESPN wants you to know Miguel Tejada was 30 when this photo was taken… Onto the links…

I don’t remember where I saw it first, but apparently one of the Bush girls is a puck bunny. (The Big Picture)

Remember to be nice to guys sporting turtle necks – they could be DJ Gallo. (It’s about the Playoffs)

A bunch of half-naked dudes weighed what they expected to weigh. Who cares!? (MMAjunkie.com)

In the defense of the Yankees, even I have fond memories of Paul O’Neill. Seriously. I have a temper myself. (Why Don’t We Get Drunk And Blog?)

Shawn Marion and some chick with big…(The Dirty)

If Greg Maddox were involved in The Contest, he would have been out faster than Kramer. (Home Run Derby)

This is up there with that idiot who got the Patriots helmet tattooed on his head. (YouTube)

Some announcer thinks Cubs fans are stupid. I swear I’m not being inflammatory. (Bugs & Cranks)

Some tips for ESPN The Magazine’s Website And Other Capitalized Words. (Fan House)

High fives aren’t the only thing A-Rod blows – He also likes bubbles. (Fire Joe Morgan)

This is probably my favorite song right now – besides this – Long Road To Ruin. (Foo Fighters)

PERILS OF IDIOCY
How come you guys take people’s blogs without their permission? I.e. your stealing of espn’s live blogging of the Masters
Learn to do some work on your own.
This was in regards to Cousins of Ron Mexico live-blogging ESPN’s Masters live-blog, which was read by ESPN’s blogger, and referenced. Ass.

CLASSING UP THE MASTERS
I haven’t seen any screen grabs or vids but my roommate told me that during the masters yesterday there was a guy in the background making the “two fingers to the mouth and sticking the tounge between” gesture. He thinks it was during a Steve Flesch interview after his 3rd round. So it was closer to the end of the telecast i’m guessing.
We tried like hell to search for this video. Anyone want to give it a shot? Might be funny.

LEBATARD CAN’T QUIT US
Q: Have you read the Fire Joe Morgan blog? I think you’d like it.
Answered 04/14/08 13:20:54 by Dan Le Batard
A: i haven’t …but heard it is great….trying not to read blogs anymore….hard because i love thebiglead.com and think they do a good job sometimes….but some of them are just cruel….there’s a place for them, though, absolutely…..i love that we finally have some media watchdogs….we don’t deserve the sanctimonious perch we’ve been given, and it is good that there are people now shining the terrible light on us that we shine on others

A large portion of our readers seem to read his chats and listen to his radio show, but we’re still perplexed about the definition of “shining a terrible light.” Our light is clean and refreshing, like a Cheryl Cole fart, thanks.

POOR STEPHEN A. SMITH
one-year contract? trust me–he’s done at the end. you NEVER sign a one-year with them. NEVER.
This probably should have been a full post, but we’ve been a tad relentless on the guy lately, and let’s face it – having a TV show fail and a radio show fail has got to be difficult. But come next March/April, we hope to re-visit this potential powderkeg.

Here’s Michael Strahan looking like he just won the Special Super Bowl. He’s probably saying something extremely moronic and obnoxious along the lines of “stomp it out.”

After the jump, a quarterback as Borat and yet another return of the infamous Tebow Girl.

This is supposedly Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon. It was sent in by a reader and I have no way of verifying. Mostly because I had to look up Sean Glennon to figure out who he was. How did I get put in charge of a sports blog?

Finally, the Tebow Girl again. This time sent to Imig and forwarded along.

If we took ourselves seriously, we’d try to refute each point (fine, just one: a playoff system in college would be a mess? WTF?), but we’ve got a Lost post to put together for this afternoon, plus, we’re getting a haircut today.

Sir:
Are you okay? Seriously, what is wrong with you? Your site has such great potential but:

* comparing Grossman to Eli Manning. Insulting to your readers and Eli
* thinking the Raiders will take McFadden. Are you remotely familiar with the current rb’s on their roster?
* being fascinated by the Transformers and Cloverfield. Did you play Dungeons & Dragons as a kid?
* Sharapova is 2006 or 2007? She was the IT girl in 2004 when she won Wimbledon.
* the whole ‘does New England have a running game’ nonsense.
* living in NYC and not knowing that the DAC was closed six years prior.
* the impact of Moss’ court case. How does that transfer to the field exactly? Did you even watch the game?
* questioning the Nantz/Imus thing. Obviously true – he is a guest every week and if you heard Nantz say it the context was perfect.
* Aping Artie Lange’s ‘waaah’ five years later when nobody listens to Stern anymore.
* Linking to hideous Knicks and Rockets cheerleaders calling them ‘cute’
* The Chuck Norris and Brett Favre non-sense. How original
* Sacrebleu. One word. One a.
* Quoting comScore figures. What a joke – the same methodology used in radio and television. This is the internet, accessed by computers…you can accurately track everything that is clicked/visited. Two million people with participant packages as an excuse for server limits and deleted cookies. Wool successfully pulled over the eyes.
* Failure to recognize that a playoff system in college football would bring up the same mess as the BCS.

At least you have it right on Ana Ivanovic. Other that that, clean it up please. Thank you.

You have mentioned THE Pass by flutie.

No one ever mentions THE tackle. The steelers were going in for a short yardage touchdown when Jerome Bettis fumbled. Ball recovered and going the other way for a winning touchdown. Rothlisberger was the last man and he made THE tackle by barely grabbing the runners foot.

That tackle made the superbowl win possible for the steelers and also saved Bettis from disgrace since it was to be his last game. That disgrace might have negated his career as a color man on TV as well.

It was the greatest tackle ever.

Bob xxxxxx
Newport Beach, CA

It’s us again. Hi. We have no idea what this email is about, but are there humans who actually believe this tackle saved the broadcasting career of ebullient, charasmatic, Jerome Bettis? For the love of fruit roll-ups, the man had a guest spot on The Office! Furthermore, was Bob under the impression that Chris Berman was running the show here? Fact: Bob added his phone number to the bottom of this email, as if maybe Chris Berman would give him a ring in between taking a peek at Salisbury’s cell-phone and slapping Emmitt Smith around. Further proof our readers are slightly off-kilter: three people sent us this email, all with the subject ‘WTF’ – Man sues hospital over unwanted rectal exam. On the plus side, one reader sent us this video of Rachel Bilson at that GQ shoot, and for that, we are eternally thankful. The things women do to promote movies.

“You people are TOTAL LOSERS, why else would you be doing something like this with your time. The only reason I feel the need to respond to the blogs that I read is because his girlfriend is a dear friend of mine and my husbands, he coached her in softball and she is one of the greatest, hardworking, ethical woman I know. Their tryst into Ktown for homecoming was a hard decision for her and now I understand the repercussions that come from that decision, she only wanting to visit former roommates (who by the way are all athletes, thus the bruises). Unbeknownst to us, the couple honored us with a surprise visit, not knowing she was dating our favorite baseball player. We had 2 hours of general conversation, never once acknowledging who he was, just introduced himself as Ryan, never once bringing up that he was a Pro Baseball Player for our hometown Phillies and that he is the best hitter of all time, Ryan Howard. Nor did we pry into his life, just casual conversation about college days in Ktown. He is a VERY HUMBLE, QUITE, HONORABLE, RESPECTFUL HUMAN BEING, not boastful at all, to say the least. We were extremely honored to have him in our home and hopefully will have them a guests in the future. I think THEY deserve respect and unfortunately the general public feels the need to putdown people that are talented, attractive and have made a successful living for themselves. This type of SHIT should not be allowed, however, it did let me tell you how I feel about your BLOG. I bet there is a job out there that might actually be worthwhile, productive and maybe make you feel like you have accomplished something for the good of man, instead of giving people an avenue to BASH people who work hard for a living, try promoting positive feelings from people.”