Blog Report

I was playing a lot of poker over at Hollywood Poker today. A lot. (Come and get me, feds!) I switched from Full Tilt to Hollywood in part because I was ice cold over at FT and needed a change of scenery. But I was also intrigued by the fabulous list of C- to B+ celebrities on the Hollywood Poker roster: Kelly Hu, John O'Hurley, Neil Patrick Harris, Kato Kaelin and the immortal Vince Van Patton are just a few of the "celebrities" who are signed on board to play at invitationals. Plus if you earn 50,000 reward points, you can challenge a celeb to a heads up match. Since I'm in LA anyway, my goal is to challenge NPH to a game and then see if afterwards he wants to pick up some trim at a strip club. (The Doogie line always works on strippers.) Laaaapdaaance.

Anywho, my tables were pretty slow, and all that time on the laptop also gave me ample time to catch up on the world of sports according to bloggers. Here's some of what they had to say:

The Hater Nation discussed the freefall of Alex Rodriguez' career:
Congratulations to Yankees fans who have taken Alex Rodriguez from the best player in baseball to the second coming of Kevin Maas and Hensley Mullens. Great job, guys. A-Rod will go down in Yankees history as the biggest loser since Don Mattingly.

The good people over at Bruins Nation are pretty excited that UCLA has landed the #2 prospect in the class of 2007, 6'9" center Kevin Love:
People across America's college basketball landscape (who follow the sport religiously (cough*UNC fans*cough)) are finding out how the sleeping giant is awake and roaring in Westwood. We dominated this sport under Wooden, and Coach Howland is putting us in position to make our mark again.
-In his announcement, Love invoked the names Bill Walton and Lew Alcindor. Any UCLA fan should certainly be excited about the Bruins landing a top recruit who also has an appreciation for UCLA's history. I, however, am a little concerned that he's only 6'9" (tho I have to figure he'll be moved to power forward), and that he's, gulp, white.

Over at The Big Picture, Zach details the best trade the Royals have made in a decade:
The White Sox acquired Kansas City closer Mike MacDougal Monday in exchange for technology that will erase any memory of KC's season.
-Now if only their fans can get their hands on that technology. Sorry, I forgot. There are no Royals fans anymore.

WBRS Sports Blog did a great job in finding Jared Weaver's MySpace page, where they found a little insight into what makes him so successful:
The key to Weaver's amazing success on the Major-League level? Sacrifice. Specifically, Weaver is so dedicated to improving his skills on the diamond that he has given up reading. This isn't a new phenomenon though, rather Weaver has resisted the temptation of literature since he was born. What discipline...
"Books: The only one i even remember reading is Of Mice Of Men in 10th grade not a big fan of books..."
-I'd also recommend that Jared avoid picking up a Baseball Encyclopedia, lest he discover that his brother Jeff once looked like the next big thing too, only to completely self-destruct soon after.

At Complete Sports, Twin15 has handicapped the odds for the Heisman trophy. However he still hasn't told me where his offshore account is so that I may give Troy Smith a run. (Post for entertainment purposes only, of course.)

Fire Joe Morgan did not disappoint. Ken did a tremendous job in breaking down Morgan's chat, blow for blow. There are too many great lines to pick just one. Just do yourself a favor and read the entire post. My only complaint, which is more with myself than Ken, is that he uses stats which I'm not familiar with; meaning that Joe and I now have something in common. Sigh.

The Mighty MJD makes a Blazing Saddles reference in his commentary about a jockey who headbutt his horse. I'll always link to a Blazing Saddles line. Afterall, the Insomniac is only pawn in game of life.

Finally the commenters at Deadspin have been on fire lately. My favorite post of the day was an open discussion of the new NFL broadcasting team for the NBC booth in upcoming Sunday Nights. The in-studio team includes Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Sterling Sharpe, Jerome Bettis, and Peter King. In the booth are Al Michaels and John Madden. Here's what some readers had to say about that cast:

Wes Mantooth says: Happy with the group....except Collinsworth. Why this guy is so well liked I have no idea. At least he scares off the crows from the set....

Phatty says: I think the part that angers me the most is that the idiotic ESPN crew on Monday nights is going to be the last announcers I hear every week. Theisman makes me want to stab my eardrums out.

Big Daddy Drew says: Oh, Peter King will be on the show! Oh, thank God! I was worried no one there would talk about Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Brett Favre. What a relief! I'm also glad because Peter gives us in-depth hunches like, "I think Peyton's gonna have a huge year. Just a gut feeling." I need to know shit like that!

Hercules McAwesome says: What's going to happen if Jerome has to call a game from Detroit? You know, he's from there. Has that ever happened before? Has a person once played a game in their hometown, then later, in a secondary career, also worked there? I don't have the number for Elias Sports Bureau, but I'm hoping that at some point, someone on NBC makes mention of the fact Jerome is: (1) from Detroit, (2) there is an American football team based in Detroit, (3) that someone makes the connection that Jerome is from Detroit AND PLAYED FOOTBALL AS WELL! Then we'll get down to some real learnin' about Jerome, Detroit, and football. Maybe Madden will do some crazy telestratin' about it!

Johnny LaRue says: Forget those tales of how tough it is to get a triple macchiato in the Denver airport, I just hope P. King lets us all know how his second daughter's JV lacrosse team is faring back in NJ. Now that's good writing, Dickie. Is SI paying you by the word again?

...Great stuff by everyone. Thanks for giving me an entertaining way to pass the time while I got myself 1/50th of the way towards getting some burgers with Neil Patrick Harris. Keep up the great work. As a reward, here's a bonus Kelly Hu pic. (I highly recommend clicking the thumbnail for a larger version.)