Who wrote this column about Joe Mauer and what has he done with Jim Souhan?
You know a movie must be awful when Jessica Biel playing a stripper and doing nude scenes can't even stop it from going straight to DVD.
Two years ago Clay Travis trained for the NFL combine alongside college players like Michael Oher and his 10-part series on the experience is easily among the best long-form sportswriting that I've read in years. Travis' writing has a Ball Four-esque vibe that mixes humor and great character development with an inside look at a genuinely intriguing area of sports, and despite being roughly the same length as a book I devoured it in one day. Just an awesome piece of writing.
I'd have preferred Oher, but for all his off-field issuesPercy Harvinwas a worthwhile gamble for the Vikings at No. 22 overall. With that said, NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayockgot off a great line (and made a good point) immediately after praising the pick: "We all think it's a great pick, but if he winds up on the Love Boat smoking a bone, it'll be a different story." That was just one of several billion reasons why Mayock and NFL Network beat Mel Kiper Jr. and ESPN for draft coverage last weekend.
Inside the NBA on TNT has been so great during the playoffs that I've tuned into the postgame show several times after not even watching the actual game. Wednesday night featured Ron Artest doing an insane pretaped interview with Craig Sager followed by Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Chris Webber, and Ernie Johnson goofing on him for the remainder of the show. This three-minute clip doesn't even begin to do it justice, but it's better than nothing.
The whole thing went on for a good 15 minutes and eventually segued into Barkley having bad breath, and at Smith's request the producers started playing "The Bridge is Over" as soundtrack to the goofing.
There hasn't been a new candidate for Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com status in some time, but Diora Bairdpresents a very compelling case.
Amy K. Nelson of ESPN.com is quickly becoming one of my favorite baseball writers and her lengthy profile of Matt Harrington is definitely worth reading, if only as a reminder that "yes" is nearly always the right answer when someone offers you $5 million.
NBC is adding another poker show to a non-primetime lineup that already includes Poker After Dark and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, both of which dominate my DVR.
As an Adam Carolla fanboy I'm thrilled that not only did his new sitcom get picked up by CBS for the upcoming fall schedule, Pamela Adlonhas signed on to play his wife. Adlon is the voice of Bobby Hill on King of the Hill, played Louie C.K.'s wife on the highly underrated Lucky Louie, and was a fantastic guest on Loveline way back in 2002. I'm already looking forward to her first appearance on his podcast.
Earlier this week longtime sports columnists David Steele and Rick Maese were informed by phone of their firing from the Baltimore Sunwhile in the pressbox covering an Orioles game, and the incident was blogged in real-time by a reporter from another newspaper. Yuck.
Friend of AG.com Doogie Wolfsonhas a new gig as the sideline reporter for St. Paul Saints games.
Finally, in honor of the Vikings' first-round pick this week's AG.com-approved music video is Percy Sledge and his ridiculous haircut doing a live version of "When a Man Loves a Woman":
Once you're done here, check out my "Circling The Bases" blog over at NBCSports.com.
