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NASCAR has announced the initial slate of candidates for its inaugural Hall of Fame class, and it's tough to imagine that the nominating committee could have devised a more perfect mix of early, classic and legendary drivers, owners and driving forces. The nominees include:

Founders
Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr.

Drivers
Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarbrough (right), Fireball Roberts, Red Byron, Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Tim Flock, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett, Richie Evans, Joe Weatherly

Owners
Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Glen Wood

NASCAR will announce the five inaugural members of the Hall of Fame class in October, and the Hall itself, located in Charlotte, is scheduled to open in May.

It's worth noting that while there are several contemporary drivers who belong in that august company, the nominating committee didn't select any of them. (Other sports halls of fame do induct active members, so it wouldn't have been unprecedented.) By keeping the focus squarely on retired and legendary drivers, NASCAR's Hall of Fame will recognize its roots while making for the foundation that one day should welcome in Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and others.

NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees a who's who of stars [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

It's not often that Oklahoma City is involved with two interesting hockey stories on the same night.

First off, a bombshell: The Oklahoma City Blazers have informed the Central Hockey League that they are suspending operations just as the 2009-10 schedule is being complied. (The CHL also announced the New Mexico Scorpions will not play this season, either.)

The Blazers aren't just some minor league team in a non-traditional market: They led the CHL in average attendance last regular season by a wide margin, and have been an annual success story at the gate, playing in the city for 17 years.

From NewsOK.com, some method to the madness:

The Oklahoma City Blazers have suspended operations after failing to renew their lease with Oklahoma City to play in the Ford Center or Cox Center, a team official said Thursday. The decision comes as Oklahoma City officials have filed paperwork clearing the way to start negotiations with "a prospective AHL franchise afflilated with Express Sports," according to city documents.

The story claims the Blazers declined to renew their Ford Center lease after months of talks. The team has had an odd transition to the larger arena that houses the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder (R.I.P. Sonics), including some scheduling conflicts that sent them back to their old digs at the Cox Center.

But the real intrigue is the AHL angle, as all signs point to the Edmonton Oilers potentially moving their affiliate to Oklahoma City for the 2010-11 season. The Oilers visited OKC in 2008 to tour the city and its facilities.

As the NewsOK.com story reports, the Oilers own the dormant Edmonton Road Runners while their affiliation with the Springfield (Mass.) Falcons runs through 2010. It's complicated, but essentially the Oilers could "restart" the Road Runners in OKC while leaving a franchise in Springfield. The team has expressed a desire to have its AHL affiliate closer to Alberta.

The CHL is feeling shocked and betrayed by all of this, as one of the most successful minor league hockey towns in the U.S. will be without puck for a season; but clearly, the groundwork is there for a more major league to fill the void. Reading the comments on the story quoted above, some of the fans are jazzed about the upgrade.

The other OKC hockey news, which may be just as important: Former OKC Blazers player Robin Gomez was found "not guilty of assault causing bodily harm" for punching Chris Ferraro of the Las Vegas Wranglers during a game in 2008, according to the Victoria News. Ferraro claimed the incident, which happened when Gomez played for the Victoria Salmon Kings, was a sucker-punch; the judge ruled it was "within the scope of the game of hockey."

It's the biggest UFC heavyweight fight in history when Frank Mir meets Brock Lesnar. It's power versus technique. It's midwestern farmboy v. smart talking west coast dude. You've legit heavyweights at a combined 520 pounds going at it. But is it really the best v. best?

Affliction boss Tom Atencio, Kid Nate over at Bloody Elbow and Fedor Emelianenko fans, say no way (I happen to agree -- Fedor has been my No. 1 pound-for-pound since joining Yahoo! in June of 2008). It's still a great but 30-1 Fedor is looming in the background.

Bloody Elbow says there's a rumor that Atencio would like to hand out Affliction t-shirts to those sitting ringside so they can chant "Fedor-Fedor" and a website Fedorchant.com is pushing the story as well.

Bees! Bees! Bees everywhere!  

In a year where we've seen a cat interrupt a Cubs game and some gulls play a decisive role in an Indians win, a Major League Baseball game interrupted by a swarm of bees only makes sense.

And that's what happened Thursday afternoon as thousands of bees — no, not these Killer Bees or even the Killer B's that used to play in Houston — descended upon San Diego's Petco Park in the ninth inning of the Astros' 7-2 victory over the Padres.

Seriously, who ordered a made-for-TV movie in downtown San Diego today? 

From the Associated Press: 

A beekeeper was called to the downtown ballpark and sprayed a chair and a ballgirl's jacket that had attracted the bees. Padres president Tom Garfinkel said a few thousand bees attached themselves to a queen bee.

"The umpires made the right call to stop the game," Garfinkel said. "There's a couple thousand bees there. If they decide to swarm on a person, whether that's a player, an employer or obviously a fan, we could have a real situation."

The beekeeper arrived at 3:56 p.m., quickly did his job to applause from the fans who remained, and the game resumed 5 minutes later.

Honestly, what's next? Packs of wild dogs wandering the nation's ballparks? Stampeding elephants? Tigers leaping from the stands to maul sliding runners?

Ah well, all's well that ends well and let it be said that the bees proved to be less a nuisance than either Manny Ramirez or the horde of media that will arrive in San Diego on Friday night to document his return to baseball after a 50-game suspension. (Sting! Zing!)Read More >>

And I was thinking Michael Bisping was a solid bet at plus-220 or plus-240. Apparently, Bisping's close win against Matt Hamill and tight loss against Rashad Evans proved nothing. Or is Dan Henderson just that good? Showdown Joe Ferraro's MMA Connected show pours a little damper on those of us who like Bisping as a value pick at UFC 100.

So Bisping finishes 0-4-2. Maybe we should take all four Hendo picks with a grain of salt since Patrick Cote said he wants a Bisping fight next while Gray Maynard, Jon Fitch and Sean Sherk, all wrestlers, mentioned that their heart lies with the American wrestler.

Tip via Cagepotato

How in the world does this work?

Seriously, at any point during last year's Finals, was anyone telling themselves, "damn, the Lakers really need Ron Artest" ?!?

Apparently, for whatever reason, the Lakers are close to a deal with Ron Artest.

And it makes no sense.Read More >>

The rumors are hot and heavy around Vitor Belfort. His contract with Affliction is finished after Affliction: Trilogy on Aug. 1. Where we will he land? If he wins over Jorge Santiago, he's done a nice job of rebuilding his reputation and career with a drop down to middleweight. That win is gigantic. A loss against Santiago likely means less money and no shot at UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

"I'm just focused on fighting for Affliction," Belfort told Cagewriter. "We're waiting to see what comes next. I don't handle that. I'm really focused on training. I did that before and it messed up my career. Affliction has been very good to me."

Belfort is flattered that UFC president Dana White has expressed interest:

"I was very happy. We have a history in the UFC too. For sure UFC, has Anderson Silva. Makes me happy to see Dana White pumping my name up."

White spilled the beans in a national television spot during The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale that he wanted to set up a Silva-Belfort fight. He then told The Cofield & Cokin Show on ESPNRadio1100 that he had no interest in Belfort. White started talking about Belfort "a middleweight signing that will blow your minds" a few months ago. On Wednesday, Belfort turned down the chance to speak about a potential Silva fight or joining the UFC:

The former UFC light heavyweight champ did respond to claims by Gegard Mousasi that Belfort was afraid to fight him:

"Everybody has their goals and my goal is to fight at 185 right now. That's not the plan. If he dropped the weight, I'll fight him. If he wants to go up, that's his choice."

Affliction tried to set up a Mousasi-Belfort fight but both fighters refused to move away from their current weight division. Belfort said he thinks he's got a tougher fight against Jorge Santiago. Santiago has more seasoning and is well-rounded. Belfort said Mousasi is a little lucky to be in this position. Mousasi flew up the charts in the middleweight division after knocking off Dong Sik Yoon, Denis Kang, Melvin Mahoef and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to win the 2008 DREAM middleweight grand prix. He just recorded an MMA win over heavyweight Mark Hunt.  

So if you thought all the hype over 16-year-old Bryce Harper was a case of too much, too soon well then does the New York Daily News have a premature prospect story for you!

Thursday's editions of the paper carried an article on the big league dreams of Joe Dunand Jr., the 13-year-old nephew of Yankees star Alex Rodriguez.

Shocked that the spotlight would find a new teenager this soon? The A-Rod to our right certainly seems to be, too.

But apparently Dunand has become used to it. Already standing an athletic 5-foot-9 and weighing 140 pounds, he's currently spending his summer in the Bronx, playing for the same youth team that A-Rod did. He's also said to look so much like A-Rod — read the article for a picture — that Dunand's father jokingly says "he looks more like (A-Rod's) son than mine." (Joe Dunand Sr. and A-Rod are half-brothers.)

From the NYDN's Ian Begley: Read More >>

It's been a long, long time since the NCAA handed down really serious sanctions on anyone, so long that an entire generation of fans -- and player, and most importantly, caches -- has come up more or less in their complete absence. The last BCS conference team kept home from a bowl game by Association fiat was California in 2003, one year after a bowl/championship ban prevented Alabama from claiming the SEC West title it won on the field in 2002. That's five years with no major teams feeling that kind of bite, and you have to go back another decade, to the penalties against Florida, Texas A&M, Auburn and Alabama again, just to name a few, to dredge up notable sanctions prior to that.

Either athletic departments have become remarkably cleaner over the last 10 years -- an unlikely proposition -- or the NCAA has grown so squeamish since dropping the bureaucratic equivalent of a nuclear bomb on SMU in 1987 that it lacks the will -- or the power -- to cause anything in the vicinity of that kind of turmoil again.

Most observers seem to presume the latter. Three weeks ago, when Alabama was slapped on the wrist for its third "major" offense in a little over a decade, Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples wrote that the tepid response proved the NCAA won't hold the heaviest hitters' feet to the fire. Old Auburn hat Pat Dye (who knows from NCAA violations) said essentially the same thing to The Sporting News: "There's no question it has changed. ... They didn't punish them very much. In the past, the school had to pay for their mistakes. This is not going to affect (Alabama) in terms of winning games." Dye's contemporary at Ole Miss, Billy Brewer, told TSN lesser-known schools seem "more susceptible" than bigger programs; Washington legend Don James called the Huskies' stint on probation during his tenure as the NCAA's effort to be "holier-than-thou" with a national power, but he "[doesn't] see that happening much anymore." Other than the residual effects on Bobby Bowden's legacy in the record books, the recent rap against Florida State for "widespread academic fraud" falls into the same category of cosmetic chiding -- and it's not guaranteed to hold up, like Oklahoma's order to vacate wins for fielding ineligible players in 2006 didn't hold up.

TSN's Dave Curtis seems to be thinking along the same lines today about the spitballs lobbed at 'Bama and FSU, but he comes to the exact opposite conclusion about what that recent leniency means for the next behemoth lumbering into the NCAA's sights:Read More >>