It appears the next Avalanche coach might be born out of that same nostalgia.

Patrick Roy, the co-owner/GM/head coach of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, will be the next coach of the Avalanche, as his brother told Adrian Dater of the Denver Post on Monday.

Via Dater:

"They're discussing the final details of an arrangement. Colorado is going to be very happy. Patrick is looking for a new challenge," said Stephane Roy, the younger brother of his famous sibling.

The Avalanche would not confirm a deal is in place. Patrick Roy could not be reached for comment, and neither could Avalanche vice president of hockey operations Joe Sakic.

Stephane Roy, who played briefly in the NHL, posted on his Facebook page Monday night, "For all my friends I'd like you to know before the official news spreads that my older brother will be the new coach of the Colorado Avalanch(sic)."

Patrick Roy was traded to the Avalanche in 1995 after a contentious split from the Montreal Canadiens. He would win 262 games from 1995-2003, along with two Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe in 2001.

He was previously offered the head coaching gig for the Avalanche in 2009, before the team fired Tony Granato and hired Joe Sacco. He turned down the job, citing “family reasons.”

Sakic wouldn’t confirm nor deny Roy was a candidate this week in a radio interview with 104.3 The Fan, but said:

“I love Patrick. He was probably the greatest goalie that ever played. There’s a guy who was a winner. That’s all he wanted to do. I know he’s done a tremendous job with his junior team in Quebec and for sure he’s a guy that you would consider, yeah.”

Is he the right man for the Avs?

Some will see this as another shameless nostalgia trip by a franchise that needs to recapture the confidence and excitement of the fans. But Roy is a well-respected junior coach -- albeit a controversial one -- with no less than Scotty Bowman having endorsed him as a future NHL coach.

If nothing else, the Avalanche would have an immediate personality transplant.

It used to be “Patrick Roy and the Avs”; it would be again.

For the second straight game, Howard was able to withstand the Chicago Blackhawks' attack, though he was a little busier in Game 3. Making 39 saves, Howard backstopped the Red Wings to a 3-1 victory to take a 2-1 series lead. One of his biggest saves was early in the third period when Patrick Sharp came in on a breakaway:

No. 2 Star: Drew Miller, Detroit Red Wings

Miller was part of the 1-2 punch Detroit gave Chicago in the second period as his goal put the Red Wings up 2-0 and came 31 second after Gustav Nyquist opened the scoring. Miller was also credited with four blocked shots.

No. 3 Star: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings

Datsyuk's goal gave Detroit a 3-1 lead and came two minutes after Patrick Kane cut the lead to one and a minute after Andrew Shaw's goal was waived off.

Detroit has won nine straight games in which Datsyuk has scored a goal.

Honorable mention: The Blackhawks killed off all five Detroit power plays. They've yet to allow a power play goal through their first eight playoff games ... Detroit won 37 of 66 faceoffs.

Did You Know? "Mike Babcock won his 77th postseason game, matching Quenneville for the most among active coaches and trailing Pat Burns by one victory for 8th place on the NHL's all-time list." (AP)

Conn Smythe Watch: 1. Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins; 2. David Krejci, Boston Bruins; 3. Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings; 4. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins; 5. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins; 6. Craig Anderson, Ottawa Senators. 7. Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks; 8. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers; 9. Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings; 10. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings.

Dishonorable mention: Corey Crawford has allowed seven goals his last two starts. He'd allowed eight total in his last six starts entering Game 3 ... Should Andrew Shaw's goal have counted?

First, it was the referees. Now, it's the play of the Detroit Red Wings, who took a 2-1 series lead with a 3-1 victory Monday night. Just take a look at the penalties called in the third period -- all five on Chicago. Detroit did their part, killing off four Blackhawks power plays and putting the game out of reach in the second period.

The Red Wings took the game by the neck midway through the second period and never let go. Gustav Nyquist and Drew Miller scored 31 seconds apart to give Detroit a 2-0 lead. Nyquist's goal was a thing of beauty:

In the third period, the Blackhawks woke up after a questionable hit from behind by Niklas Hjalmarsson left Johan Franzen down on the ice, and Patrick Kane scored on the ensuing rush. Just over a minute later, Andrew Shaw's goal was waived off for goaltender interference and the momentum swung back in the Red Wings' favor for good.

Jimmy Howard (39 saves) was again solid and the Red Wings continued to receive contributions from their depth, a reason why teams succeed this time of year.

While the Blackhawks will need to quickly move past Game 3, the Red Wings -- halfway to the Western Conference Final -- know there's still work to be done and their next two wins will be the toughest to come by.

"We won tonight, but we've got to be back at it on Thursday," Patrick Eaves told NBCSN's Pierre McGuire afterward.

"Let's be honest, we haven't done anything yet," said Mike Babcock.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

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Andrew Shaw thought the Blackhawks had knotted the game, moments after Patrick Kane scored to cut the Detroit Red Wings’ lead to 2-1. But a split-second after the puck bounced past Jimmy Howard and over the goal line, referee Brad Watson waived off the score on account of goalie interference.

Watch it again. If there’s any interference, it’s minimal, and occurs after Jakub Kindl bumps Shaw deeper into the crease. It’s close to being a complete phantom call, wiping away a goal and changing the momentum in the game – Pavel Datsyuk made it 3-1 Detroit just over a minute later.

The rule, via the NHL rule book:

69.1 Interference on the Goalkeeper - This rule is based on the premise that an attacking player’s position, whether inside or outside the crease, should not, by itself, determine whether a goal should be allowed or disallowed. In other words, goals scored while attacking players are standing in the crease may, in appropriate circumstances be allowed. Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. The rule will be enforced exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgment of the Referee(s), and not by means of video replay or review.

... If an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with the goalkeeper, such contact will not be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

What made the call even a bit more specious: The Kane goal was scored with Johan Franzen down in the Wings’ attacking zone after a cross-check from behind by Chicago defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, which was un-penalized. Was this a makeup call? Hooray for "game management!"

We’ve banged this drum more frequently and fervently than Dave Grohl recording “Nevermind”, but once more with feeling: There’s absolutely no reason why goalie interference isn’t a reviewable play via a coaches’ challenge.

Unless your reason is that referees’ blown calls will be made more obvious through this check and balance from the War Room. Because they would be, and rightfully so, because sometimes they steal goals from a team due to their incompetence. Whether that's the case here is your call.

RENTON, Wash. -- Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll may have been happy to have most of his players back on the field for the start of the team's 2013 series of voluntary OTAs, but that was not the first thing on his mind on Monday. Nor should it have been. Instead, when Carroll addressed the media after a spirited two-hour non-contact practice, his thoughts went immediately -- and comprehensively -- to the fact that six different Seahawks players have been suspended for violations of the NFL's substance abuse policies since 2010, and to the increasing perception that Carroll is leading a team that can't get out of its own way. Carroll was forced to address the situation this time because defensive end Bruce Irvin, the team's first-round pick in 2012, was recently suspended for the first four games of the 2013 season for reported Adderall use.

"This is a challenge -- it’s a challenge for us, and it’s a challenge for the league," Carroll said during a five-minute statement at the beginning of his press conference. "The league is doing everything they can to help guys make it through these young careers that they have, from teaching, to instructing, also the punitive side of it. They're doing a really good job and they’re in it for the right reasons, and we are too. We go beyond with what the league does. We go well past with what the guidelines ask us to do as far as working with our young guys trying to give them the direction, trying to give them the counseling. We have people on staff that are here specifically to work with our individual guys because I really see this as an individual challenge."

Right now, it's a collective challenge for the organization. Irvin's suspension followed the suspensions of cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner in 2012 (both for Adderall, though Sherman's was later overturned on appeal), and the earlier suspensions of guard John Moffitt, offensive tackle Allen Barbre, and defensive back Winston Guy. The NFL does not release the reasons for these suspensions, but Moffit admitted that he took Adderall before he knew he needed a medical exemption. Not even counting the overturned Sherman suspension, that still puts the Seahawks in the NFL lead when it comes to such suspensions since 2010.

And it's worth wondering, as some jokesters might, whether the Seahawks are now an Adderall team with a football problem.

Carroll is now saddled with the perception that he's lost control of the ship. Right or wrong, a team that many experts believe could represent the NFC in the Super Bowl has been pegged as a loose cannon. It's not something that he wants to deal with, especially when these perceptions are added to the scandals that contributed to his departure from USC in 2009. Can Carroll can maintain order in these more difficult circumstances? Can any NFL head coach, and how is that best done?

"We try to bring each kid as far along as we possibly can to make them available for the opportunity that they have," Carroll said. "Each one of them is a different story. Each one of them, there is a different road that they traveled. Even though we go together, they have to figure out how to do this right. [We want to see] why guys make choices and why guys will jeopardize their opportunity and their future. The league understands that, we understand it and have been working with it for years and years with young people, and we continue to still face issues that we want to try and deal with in a better way. It’s a very important opportunity in a sense for us to go ahead and figure it out, and then help these guys so that they can get what they deserve. Unfortunately if you go wrong, you get popped and that’s how this thing works, and I’m really disappointed that we have to deal with anything like this. But there are going to be other issues too, and we have to deal with them."

Irvin's suspension is particularly inexcusable, because he was in that locker room when Sherman and Browner were dealing with their suspensions last year, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that no matter how many concentration-based benefits one may derive from the drug, the NFL is clearly on the warpath when it comes to this particular substance. Irvin did not speak to the media on Monday, but Carroll certainly had a lot to say about him.

"We're going to try and help him along as best as we possibly can. He made a mistake, and he admitted to it, and he owned up to it to his teammates, and he owned up to it to the staff, and he owned up to it to everybody. He wants to do right and show that he can, and we’re going to see that through and see if we can get that done for him. It’s no different than I would do with my own son. I do everything I can to teach them, to prepare them, to let them understand what the pitfalls are that are out there, and you hope and pray that your kids make the right decision when they’re faced with options. And when they make a mistake, you take them back under and you try to lead them along again and show them and hope that they can learn from the issues that they had to face."

One would of course wonder if this sensitive approach is the best way to go -- perhaps the Seahawks need to implement a bit more "tough love" in ways that players will understand. For whatever reason, the message is not getting through. Veteran fullback Michael Robinson, a longtime player rep and one of the most respected voices in that young locker room, put the problem on two causes -- the players' own lack of sense, and the NFL's incomplete message when it comes to what's illegal and what the consequences are. Robinson didn't excuse Irvin's mistake, but he did say, as he's said to me before, that the league's communication on these issues is frustrating at best.

"I think that definitely in this part of the year, they need to come in and talk to us. Don't wait until training camp. We get tested year-round, why don't we get educated year-round? The league will say, 'Well, we put lists out there, and you guys are still responsible.' We have a hotline we can call, but my only problem with that is that when you call that hotline, they don't really tell you what you can and can't take. They just say, 'Nobody's failed for it.' What does that mean? I think they could do a better job of giving us definite answers."

Robinson said that while an NFLPA representative does come in every year around training camp time to explain banned substances, he and other players wish that the NFL would do the same. "The league hands down the suspensions; maybe the league should do more education."

In the end, it may be up to the players in that locker room -- the ultimate safe haven for all NFL players -- to implement enough peer pressure for everyone to understand just how serious this issue is.

"I'm an older guy on the team, and the younger guys come to me and talk to me about a lot of different things," Robinson said. "And you know that guys aren't perfect. They make mistakes. We're a very, very young team -- still. I know people are picking us to do this, that, and the third, but we're still a very young team. You can't crucify a guy for one mistake.

"You have to know that when you walk outside this building, people are going to try and paint a picture of what this locker room is. We know what it is, and guys know they can talk to anyone about anything."

The league has the option to take additional measures against the Seahawks and other teams with multiple violations. NFL Spokesman Greg Aiello told NFL.com's Steve Wyche on Monday that per the league's remittance program, teams can be fined a portion of the fines given to the players based on a specific formula.

"There are financial consequences for a team that has multiple players suspended in a season under those policies," Aiello said.

In the end, that's small potatoes. The real problem for the Seahawks is that they're losing this war of perception and discipline, and if something doesn't change quickly, a gradually increasing issue could spiral out of control. The 61-year-old Carroll may see it as a parent-child issue, and that's admirable on a certain level, but things don't always work with that approach. Mike Holmgren, who coached the Seahawks from 1999 through 2008, took the same sensitive but indulgent tack with problem kids like Koren Robinson and Jerramy Stevens, and the results were less than ideal. Both players (and other players under Holmgren) failed to fulfill their athletic potential, and proved to be huge distractions along the way.

Robinson clearly understands who needs to be more responsible. But the ideal method for making that responsibility a consistent team focus seems to elude the Seahawks organization.

"It comes down to the player at the end of the day, and the player's responsible for what he puts into his body. Guys have to be smarter."

Brighton & Hove Albion have apologized to rivals Crystal Palace for the excrement that was smeared in the visitors' dressing room before the second leg of their Championship playoff semifinal. Despite the welcoming gift left by a mystery poo smearer, Crystal Palace went on to win the match 2-0 to advance to next week's final against Watford.

From the Guardian:

An angry Ian Holloway told his opposite number Gus Poyet what Palace had found as they shook hands on the touchline after the teams had emerged from the tunnel.

Poyet was apparently so disgusted to learn of the incident that he sent an email to staff demanding that the culprit be found and sacked. He and his coaching team have since been suspended by the club, apparently partly because the hierarchy were annoyed by aspects of Poyet's emailed complaint. It is not suggested that any of the trio were involved in the dressing-room incident.

Brighton, who have confirmed no players were involved, insist security will be tightened at the Amex.

According to The Sun, Poyet's email read:

“When Crystal Palace players and staff arrived to the Amex and went into their dressing room, they found themselves in a very uncomfortable situation.

“For some reason, someone had access to the away dressing room and done something terrible, trying to upset everyone related to Palace. To say it in clear English, someone had a ‘poo’ all outside the toilets, over and around the toilets.

“I am angry that someone within this club could endanger our good reputation and stoop so low. I would like someone to accept responsibility and resign.”

But since the mystery of the poop smeared in the visitors' dressing room wasn't enough to hold Poyet's focus, he also decided to criticize Brighton's marketing team for handing out 28,000 paper clappers to fans in the stadium. “Would someone like to admit it was their idea to hand out stupid pieces of noise-making paper?" he wrote, adding: "Whoever you are, you let the club down very badly."

So, just to be clear, smearing feces in an opponent's dressing room is only slightly worse than 28,000 paper clappers.

In an email to Brighton's season ticket holders, the club's chief executive Paul Barber confirmed that "We apologised to Crystal Palace as soon as the vandalism in their dressing room was discovered, and again more formally a few days after the match. As a result of what happened, please rest assured we have reviewed our internal procedures to guard against this ever happening again."

It's unclear what they plan to do to guard against it, though. Walls resistent to fecal matter? Cops in riot gear stationed near the dressing room toilets? A strictly enforced no No. 2 policy within the stadium?

The local police, meanwhile, are investigating the incident.

Before the walkoff, came the muff.

Seattle Mariners closer Tom Wilhelmsen, messing up a play that pitchers and first basemen across the league work have worked on time and memorial during spring training, muffed a flip from first baseman Justin Smoke in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday afternoon, dropping the ball for an unbelievable error that allowed the Cleveland Indians to score the tying run.

It was right of Smoak to throw the ball, after a grounder came his way, and not try to beat Carlos Santana to the bag himself. Smoak's flip didn't have too much on it, or not enough. It wasn't too high that Wilhelmsen had to reach, and it wasn't too low that he had to stoop. Wilhelmsen wasn't late covering the bag, and Smoak didn't lead him too much. The ball hit him right in the leather. Everything about the play was right — except for the catch. Wilhelmsen, who came in 11 of 11 converting saves and really had pitched as well as anyone in ninth innings this season, just didn't catch it. After time was called Smoak bent over at the waste in apparent disbelief.

The Mariners re-took the lead in the top of the 10th, but manager Eric Wedge chose not to use Wilhelmsen for another inning, and they lost on a three-run home run by Yan Gomes — Cleveland's backup catcher — in the bottom half. It was an exhilarating ending to one of the more entertaining games of the season. For one side, anyway.

Wilhelmsen spoke matter-of-factly about his error, via Geoff Baker's Mariners Blog in the Seattle Times:

“Smoakie made a great play and threw a perfect ball right to me,’’ Wilhemsen said. “I simply took my eyes off it and it fell out.’’

The Smoak homer nearly made everyody forget about that. But then the Mariners couldn’t get anybody out in the bottom of the 10th and all their efforts went for naught.

Smoak said the late loss clearly hurt in a clubhouse where many of the players seemed stunned and angry.

It was a total capsizing by the M's, who probably won't endure a tougher loss this season. M's fans might disagree, but this might be one of their 10 worst losses ever — though they've been creative enough through the years to maybe make it a top 20 instead. Instead of averting a sweep, the Mariners dropped their fifth straight. Three of the four losses at Cleveland came in the last at-bat. All gut-wrenchers, but this one was the hardest to stomach.

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That's a weird set-up for two weird tidbits: (1) Phil Jackson might want to be a baseball coach. (2) He's already an adviser to a couple MLB managers.

The New York Times' magazine detailed at length how NBA teams are still chasing Jackson and how he can't really leave the game. One passage reads: "Jackson will almost certainly return to basketball. One of his other great talents is coming out of retirement."

But about three-fourths into the story comes this baseball-centric nugget:

Jackson has been serving as a kind of intersports guru, giving informal advice to an Israeli soccer coach — “All soccer involves triangles,” Jackson says — as well as to a couple of baseball managers. He grew up playing baseball and still thinks he would make a good coach. He has told the owner of the Chicago White Sox — his former boss with the Bulls, Jerry Reinsdorf — that he’s available. He seems to be only half joking.

Phil Jackson, baseball coach. How crazy would be if the guy all these NBA teams are chasing made the jump — like a certain star player of his did — to baseball? Maybe Jackson could take over the Dodgers. L.A. fans could get behind that, right? I mean, they've already accepted Magic Johnson as their savior.

OK, so Phil Jackson in baseball probably isn't not going to happen, but it is interesting to learn that Jackson is giving advice to MLB managers. Who do you think they are? I dunno, but it sure would be funny if it were Jim Leyland. Let's hope it's not Don Mattingly. That wouldn't bode well for Jackson's coaching prospects.

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This offseason – or recruiting season, if you will – we’ve seen coaches from various schools (mostly Mississippi State) send recruits ridiculous letters in an attempt to get them to commit to their program.

That’s why it gives us great pleasure to highlight Michigan State, which celebrated in-state tight end recruit Mike Sokol for giving his verbal pledge to the Spartans in a normal manner.

There was no ridiculous propaganda, no offers or Swag soda or calling the kid a "Baller," just simple expressions of excitement in a handwritten note from several of the coaches.

"We are now a better team." — linebackers/special teams coordinator Mike Tressel.

"Welcome Matt - We have great things in front of us here.” — offensive coordinator/running backs coach Dave Warner.

It’s always nice to see a team do something nice for a recruit even if that recruit hasn’t officially signed yet and could still be poached by Urban Meyer at Ohio State.

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H/T Coaching Search

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Ultimately, I accepted you were right. We moved the Jimenez file to the storage area and everyone moved on.

And now, shockingly enough, we have to discuss Jimenez again. That's what you get with this enigma. Just when we thought we were out, we get pulled back in.

Jimenez has been terrific over his last four starts, collecting three wins and posting a snappy 1.90 ERA. He's walked just eight batters over 23.2 innings and he's struck out 29. There's been a little batted-ball fortune here (.259), but nothing crazy.

It's been a moderate slate of opponents: two favorable ones (Royals, Mariners) and two difficult ones (Tigers, Athletics). Jimenez outpitched Justin Verlander in the Motown turn. Here's some zesty Jimenez video from the win over Seattle.

Okay, Ubaldo, where's this coming from? We know it's not velocity related; his readouts haven't changed much from April to May. Here's what he said to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Saturday (Hoynes with the Q, Jimenez with the A):

Q: What are you doing this year that you were unable to do last year?

A: I've been repeating my delivery with every pitch. Last year when I threw one pitch, I couldn't do the same thing on the next one. That's why I couldn't throw a strike. I couldn't be around the strike zone. I couldn't execute my pitches.

Q: Is there one thing that you corrected in your delivery that's made the biggest difference?

A: I can't say there's only one thing. I had way too many things to improve. My mechanics were all over the place. I was wide open too much, I was leaning too much to the back, my arm was showing too much. But I got it together.

Q: What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?

A: This year I go to the mound and just think about getting outs. Last year I'd go to the mound and say "where are my mechanics going to be today?" I'm using all my pitches, whatever feels good in the bullpen, I use it in the game. Last year I wasn't in the right position to let the ball go. Right now everything is good.

Maybe Cleveland pitching coach Mickey Callaway is a miracle worker, succeeding where so many others have failed. Callaway is just 38 and doesn't have an extensive record as a coach. It's a tidy thing to believe in, I suppose; Mike and the Mechanics. And it's reassuring to see Jimenez inducing a heavy chunk of ground balls again.

I can understand why Jimenez's ownership has jumped to 30 percent in Yahoo! leagues. That glorious 2010 season in Colorado is still fresh in everyone's mind. When Jimenez was at the peak of his powers, the Coors Field environment didn't trip him up. Alas, when he's been off his game in recent years, no cushy environment seems capable of saving him.

It's a shame the schedule doesn't play nice for the next few weeks. Jimenez has to face Verlander and the Tigers again Wednesday, and after that he's up for this run of hell: at Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, at Detroit, at Texas. All of those opponents are in the Top 7 in runs scored, and obviously the ball jumps at Cincinnati and Arlington.

How are you playing the Jimenez revival, gamers? Is this mixed-league worthy, or fool's gold for someone else to chase? I've added Jimenez to my Friends & Family roster, but I'm stalling for time. I haven't made a full commitment yet, and esteemed opponents are daring me to use him.

Your witness, pitching coach. Your turn to predict the future (or at least shake the 8-ball). Get out the clipboard and share your wisdom in the comments.

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In the world of professional sports, it's common for draft prospects to throw themselves at the mercy of their prospective employers. With most players having dreamed of making the NBA for as long as they can remember, their natural inclination is to do everything possible to please any team with a chance at drafting them. Any question or request is suitable. It's the best way for a player to prove he's ready to buy into the franchise's culture and long-term plans.

These actions are so prevalent that any example of a player pushing back against a team request deserves notice. Such is the case with forward Deshaun Thomas, who left Ohio State after his junior season. From Jason Lloyd for Ohio.com (via PBT):

If the San Antonio Spurs choose Deshaun Thomas in next month’s NBA draft, they might have a hard time reaching him to tell him. That’s because when the Spurs asked the former Ohio State star for his phone number Wednesday night, he refused to give it to them.

Thomas said teams asked him plenty of difficult and interesting questions during his interview process at the combine. But the most interesting, he said, was the fact the Spurs’ first question was for his cell phone number and his e-mail address. He gave them the e-mail, but not the phone number.

“I can’t go around giving it out to everyone,” Thomas said Thursday with a laugh. “Now if they want to draft me, I’d be happy to give it to them.”

There are a few ways to look at Thomas's refusal. By one view, he's being foolishly protective of a largely unimportant personal fact, something that professionals willfully put on business cards. DraftExpress.com rates Thomas as the 45th-best prospect available, which essentially means he's not even guaranteed of being selected in June's draft. Logically, Thomas should accede to any request a team makes, whether that involves handing out a phone number or answering more personal information. If he really cares about getting a job, he'll submit to the process no matter what.

Yet, from another perspective, there's something very respectable about Thomas's decision. The draft process is structured to give players very little control over their futures, with teams essentially allowed to divide them amongst themselves according to set salary levels and a fairly bizarre lottery process. Thomas, in his own small way, is attempting to inject some level of personal control into a system that turns him into a commodity at every opportunity. By agreeing to email communication but withholding his phone number, Thomas has told the Spurs (and presumably any other team that asks the same) that he's an individual with his own professional needs and desires. If he's going to enter into a business partnership with a team — this is employment, after all — he needs some assurances that his bosses will respect some aspects of his privacy. He's setting limits without refusing any communication of any kind.

It may seem odd to deny the Spurs' request given the standard NBA operating procedure, but Thomas has merely expressed a very basic human need for respect. It might hurt his chances at being drafted, but at least he's willing to stand up for his principles.

This offseason we will count down various topics from Monday through Friday, bringing you the top five of the important and definitely some not so important issues in college football. It's the Doc Five, every week until we will thankfully have actual games to discuss.

PLAYERS WHO COULD KEEP JOHNNY MANZIEL FROM ANOTHER HEISMAN

NO. 5, JADEVEON CLOWNEY

We'd like to put South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney higher. He's likely the best player in college football regardless of position. Anyone who really understands football appreciates how good he is, and how he impacts games.

But let's be honest. History says voters are incapable of giving the Heisman Trophy to a purely defensive player.

Charles Woodson would not have won the award without playing some offense and returning punts for Michigan in 1997. We don't think Clowney will be doing either in 2013 (though he did have that catch in the spring game ... ).

The first Heisman Trophy was given out in 1935, and since then there hasn't been one winner who has played exclusively on defense.  It's literally inconceivable that through all those decades, not once was a defensive player the most outstanding in the sport over a season. But not one has ever gotten enough votes to win the Heisman.

It's a shame. So while Clowney is probably the best player in the nation, or at least second to Johnny Manziel, ranking him higher on the list would probably be foolish. He's not going to win the award unless he does something really special this season.

That said, if anyone is capable of something really special, it's Clowney. His famous hit in the Outback Bowl (and the incredible season that led up to it) gives him more Heisman momentum going into a season than any defensive player has ever had. That helps.

Clowney would have to put up a statistic that forces voters to really consider him over all the quarterbacks and their easily sortable numbers. The best guess is Clowney has to hit 20 sacks for that to happen. If he can tie or break Derrick Thomas' record of 27 sacks in a season, you'd imagine he'll break that Heisman drought for defensive players. But that's quite a leap considering he had just 13 last season. Sacks are hard to get and they're not the only way to measure how good a defensive end is. Clowney could have a bigger impact, by drawing way more attention in blocking schemes and rushing quarterbacks who are well aware of his presence into bad throws, and never get close to 20 sacks. And without a milestone number, voters will be forced to judge Clowney's candidacy on things that are hard to quantify.

We'd like Clowney to get a real shot at the Heisman Trophy. It would be a great story and long overdue proof that, yes, the best player in college football can be found on defense. And he is obviously one of the handful of players in college football this season who has a very good chance at keeping Manziel from winning his second straight Heisman Trophy. We're just not betting on it happening, no matter how great Clowney is.

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Bill Self already landed the nation's most coveted high school recruit last week. Now the Kansas coach has also received a commitment from one of the most prized transfers on the market.

Tarik Black, a 6-foot-9, 260-pound big man who played at Memphis the past three years, has chosen Kansas over Duke, Oregon and Georgetown, among others, CBSSports.com reported Monday. The rising senior has graduated from Memphis and will be eligible immediately for the Jayhawks.

It's a testament to the laws of supply and demand that Black had all these powerhouse programs pursuing him considering he lost his starting job at Memphis last season and averaged a modest 8.1 points and 4.8 rebounds off the bench.

One reason he was in such high demand is there simply weren't many available big men with size and athleticism that teams could plug into their rotation right away. The other is that teams felt he has untapped potential he was never able to fully utilize at Memphis.

Once projected as a potential NBA draft pick early in his college career, Black fell out of favor in Memphis because his production plateaued after his freshman season and he was often foul-prone and inconsistent. His NCAA tournament performance was a microcosm of his Memphis career: 12 points and seven rebounds on perfect 5 of 5 shooting against Saint Mary's in a round of 64 victory gave way to six points, two rebounds and four fouls in a loss to Michigan State two days later.

Nonetheless, Black may yet be a significant addition for Kansas if a change of scenery and Self's history of success developing big men can help.

With all five starters from last season graduating or turning pro and a wealth of young talent set to play immediately, Kansas had a clear-cut need for a veteran big man it can plug into its rotation. Black will team with promising sophomore Perry Ellis, reserve Jamari Traylor and shot-blocking freshman Joel Embiid to form a talented and versatile frontcourt nucleus.

It's a bit surprising Black would choose Kansas over Oregon or Duke simply because those programs appeared to have a greater need for him. The Blue Devils are lacking a true back-to-the-basket big man and Black would only have had to beat out Waverly Austin to start alongside fellow transfer Mike Moser for the Ducks.

Credit Self for being able to persuade him to come to Kansas anyway. Now the Jayhawks are even better positioned to start the season in the preseason top six and to make a run at another Final Four.

Pending free agent J.R. Smith has been an enigma since entering the NBA in 2005. On the basis of pure talent, he should be one of the top wing producers in the league, and he often looks like exactly that. Yet Smith has never managed to put together a consistent string of performances to prove himself worthy of making him the cornerstone of a franchise.

He got closest this season with the New York Knicks, earning Sixth Man of the Year honors and receiving standard-issue statements from media and team officials regarding his improved maturity. In true J.R. fashion, he followed that career peak with a sort of greatest hits compilation of his worst tendencies, to the point where many Knicks fans begged for head coach Mike Woodson to bench a player who only a few weeks before seemed essential to fulfilling their postseason aspirations.

Nevertheless, Smith has the chance to parlay his award-winning season into a significant deal this summer. Despite the troubles this postseason, J.R. wants to stay with the Knicks for as long as he can. From Peter Botte for the New York Daily News (via SLAM):

Whether Smith, 27, gets a chance to redeem himself in New York is uncertain. He is expected to opt out of the final year of his below-market value contract ($2.8 million per year) and test free agency this summer. The most the Knicks can offer the Jersey product is an “early Bird” exception starting at $4.9 million per year over four years, but there might be a team with more salary-cap room willing to pay Smith substantially more.

“I want to retire a Knick. I don’t want to go anywhere else,” Smith said. “I love my teammates, I love my coaches. I was standing in the locker room looking at my jersey after the game and just knowing that I don’t want to be anywhere else except in the orange and blue. We’ll see.”

Still, when asked if he’d be willing to take less money to remain in New York, Smith hedged and added, “I haven’t even thought about all that, that far. I still have to talk to (agent) Leon (Rose) and see where we’re at.”

The sentiment of this statement is perfectly acceptable. Smith has enjoyed his time with the Knicks and thinks he can build on this season's successes. There's no better way to profess one's belief in a franchise than by saying it could be a permanent home. The logic of Smith's statement only means so much — it's more of an emotional thing.

Nevertheless, it's interesting to consider what would have to happen for J.R. Smith to retire as a Knick. Smith will turn 28 before the start of next season. A conservative estimate says he has approximately six more season in the NBA. If Marc Berman's report that he is ready to sign a four-year deal with New York is correct, then a conservative estimate would require Smith to sign at least one more contract after this one to reach the end of his career. Or, who knows, maybe he'll retire at 30 to become a professional golfer. Weirder things have happened to less bizarre people.

J.R. has already spent two seasons in New York, which means he'd have to play roughly eight years in all with the Knicks to reach the fairly early retirement age of 34. Smith spent five seasons with the Denver Nuggets, so he has proven some ability to stick with a single franchise for a protracted period of time.

Yet the Nuggets stuck it out with Smith through many different disputes and unfortunate incidents largely because he was a young, developing player who might eventually mature. In this postseason, he proved that he is most likely never going to be that guy, either just because he's wired to self-destruct or just because teams tend to get frustrated that he's not the star he seems he could be. The NBA is not the sort of league that's inclined to commit to players who could ever inspire the headline "J.R. Smith Says He's Not Worried About Rihanna's Insults."

This doesn't mean that Smith is a useless player and shouldn't have a job. To the contrary, he absolutely earned his Sixth Man trophy and can do a lot of good for a team with title aspirations. However, Smith may not be a player best committed to over long periods of time. Given the shape of his career up until this point, it's possible that he should enter into short-term agreements. In other words, he's the kind of player who may never be able to sign a contract that ensures him of retiring with one franchise.

All this means, really, is that every player can't be approached with the same kind of contractual logic. Like anyone, he must be engaged on his own terms.

The Brooklyn Nets just about define the superficial experience. The team was put together by a billionaire owner that promised a championship in spite of a lacking basketball resume, before tossing tens of millions of dollars at a general manager in Billy King who has long made a habit of going after the biggest names available. Part-owner Jay-Z helped shape the team’s look and image, despite only owning a small percentage of the team, and not even making it out of the franchise’s first year before selling his shares. And the team’s arena, the Barclays Center, followed the latest trends with its exterior look in spite of some quizzical glances from Brooklyn natives.

Perhaps they were reacting to the smell of the place.

On Monday Leslie Albrecht at DNAInfoNewYork.com put together a great piece on the canned smells the Center wafts in through its ventilation system. It’s not an offensive or even obtrusive odor, nor an obvious one, but it’s … something. And definitely noticeable. From Albercht’s piece:

As the last few fans rushed through the arena's front doors, the brisk breeze that followed them gave way to a distinct aroma: a fresh-smelling fragrance with citrus notes that some call the arena's "signature scent," in the words of one Twitter observer.

What is the smell? A source familiar with the matter said it's the work of ScentAir, a company that manufactures custom fragrances pumped into the air at theme parks, stores and hotels around the world. The odors function like mood music for your nose. They're meant to enhance the consumer experience and build brand identities.

[…]

Members of the Prospect Nights meet-up group spent a recent evening puzzling over why the Barclays Center "smells like perfume," according to one member. Members weren't complaining about the scent, but it definitely tickled their curiosity.

"It became a topic of conversation and something they wanted to get to the bottom of," said the local resident, who didn't want his name used. "You have this stadium and it's big and metallic and industrial looking, and you have this smell of perfume coming out of it, so it was kind of amusing."

Everything about this Nets team is “kind of amusing,” from the team’s massive payroll, underwhelming style, and presence of both Andray Blatche (NBA-level “amusing”) and Kris Humphries (US Weekly-level “amusing”) working alongside Joe Johnson’s giant contract and Deron Williams blasé “superstar” play.

The canned smells are nothing new, according to Albrecht. Not only do various tourist spots in New York City utilize the work of ScentAir, but teams like the Atlanta Hawks, St. Louis Rams, and Dallas Cowboys have also become clients. I wasn’t aware you could bottle the smell of indifference, but apparently that hasn’t stopped the Hawks from trying.

The Nets have declined comment on the fragrance, and for good reason – even the best of press release mavens would have a hard time accurately describing why, exactly, one would decide to pay to have scented air pumped into Barclays Center, much less describing the scent in un-mockable terms and explaining why it’s fit for the team’s arena.

A new arena at that, one somewhat famous for its high end menu and high class clientele. The natural smell coming from Barclays isn’t going to be like the one I experienced climbing the concrete steps of Chicago Stadium as a kid – all cheap lager, worn in cigarette smoke leftover from a previous era, and the natural odor that tends to emanate from humans when they consume several cups of cheap lager.

No, the Barclays Center should naturally smell like the high end artisanal pretzel rolls and craft brews it offers its patrons, and not some imperceptible, “citrus” (which is a descriptive word all of us go for when we have no idea what a certain wine, cigar, or perfume smells like) odor that the Nets are paying for on top of the four years and $89 million they’ll pay Joe Johnson between last summer and 2016.

It’s their arena, their money, and their ventilation options. We’re just wondering why this ownership group even bothers, for just a first round team.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
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The road to the Stanley Cup is fraught with peril, and much of that peril happens in and around the mouth.

Hockey players earned the gap-toothed stereotype fair and square, so it's never all that surprising when a player takes a puck, glove or stick to the mouth and loses a few teeth in the process -- but this postseason has been off the charts. The Montreal Canadiens/Ottawa Senators series alone stole seven teeth from the mouths of four players.

And it didn't end there. Players have been losing teeth all over the place. It's almost too much to keep track of.

But we have to try, friends. We must. And with that in mind, we introduce NHL tooth watch, our running tally of who's losing teeth and how many they're losing.

Total Teeth Lost this postseason: 16

And here are the incidents that got us to where we are:

BRENT BURNS - May 16

Brent Burns came into the 2013 season looking pretty close to homeless, and after taking a punch to the face at the bottom of a scrum late in Game 2 of the Sharks' series with the Kings, he looked even moreso. He lost two teeth in the fracas.

But hey, it could have been worse. Heck, it has been worse for Burns. He lost four teeth after taking a helmet to the face in December of 2010.

Teeth lost: 2

***

JOHN MOORE - May 16

The New York Rangers' defenceman lost 6 teeth -- 4 upper and 2 lower -- in Game 1 of the Rangers' series with the Boston Bruins after taking a puck to the face.

His quote, just prior to playing Game 2 like nothing had happened: "It feels fine."

Teeth lost: 6

***

DEREK STEPAN - May 12

At the end of Game 6 between the Rangers and the Washington Capitals, Stepan was involved in a minor scuffle with a number of other Rangers and Caps. The fight had no winner, but Stepan was the big loser: he lost one tooth.

Teeth lost: 1

JEAN-GABRIEL PAGEAU - May 5

Pageau's first playoff goal was unforgettable for a number of reasons. It turned out to be one of three he would score on the night, for one thing. For another, he traded a tooth for it. Just as he shot the puck, P.K. Subban's stick caught him in the mouth.

Pageau celebrated the goal by spitting out blood and enamel. Welcome to the playoffs, kid.

Teeth lost: 1

***

CAREY PRICE - May 3

One night after his opponent at the other end, Craig Anderson, lost a tooth, Price accidentally one-upped the Senators' netminder by losing two.

When Jarred Tinordi fell headlong through the crease, his skate caught the Canadiens' goalie in the mouth, chipping two teeth. In a moment of sheer badassery, Price casually skated over to his trainer and handed the teeth to him:

Teeth lost: 2

***

CRAIG ANDERSON - May 2

Anderson took a shot to the mask in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals between his Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. The force of the shot was enough to knock one of his front teeth out.

Anderson was all smiles after the game, which gave us plenty of opportunity to see where the tooth used to be.

Teeth lost: 1

***

LARS ELLER - May 2

Eller was hit by Senators' defenceman Eric Gryba after taking a breakout pass midway through the second. Gryba was suspended 2 games for the hit. Eller suffered considerably more, with a concussion, a broken nose, and what sounds like three lost teeth.

Teeth lost: 3

As reported by the San Jose Mercury News, Strem tossed a perfect game in a 2-0 victory against Monta Vista (Calif.) High, leading Mountain View (Calif.) St. Francis School on to the second round of the California Interscholastic Federation Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

Incredibly, Strem retired the 21 batters he faced on just 66 pitches, an average of just more than 3 pitchers per batter. According to the Mercury News, 48 of Strem’s offerings were strikes, with the St. Francis ace finishing the game with a total of 8 strikeouts.

As it turns out, it’s an awfully good thing that Strem was so effective. If he wasn’t, his team wouldn’t be playing anymore. The game remained a 0-0 stalemate until the sixth inning, when a single by St. Francis batter Mark Cardinalli drove in the game’s two runs with a single through the infield.

Naturally, Strem isn’t the first high school ace to toss a perfect game. Still, to spin the gem he did in the playoffs, with the efficiency of his pitch count is some achievement.

Of course, given the competition ahead of St. Francis, he may have to spin some more magic if they are to keep advancing. Given what he pulled off against Monta Vista, one would be wise not to doubt Strem’s effectiveness.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: Young Braised's SoundCloud. This appears to be nearly four months old, but it's new to me, via my associate Eric Freeman and our pal Bethlehem Shoals — a rock-solid 2 1/2 minutes of hip-hop references to former Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning. There's NSFW language in there, so listener beware, but for those of listening age, this is simply glorious. Bless you, Young Braised.

PF: For the Win. Charting the expansion of Manu Ginobili's bald spot. Soon, it will encompass the Earth.

SF: Grantland and HoopSpeak. Smart and kind gentlemen Zach Lowe and Brett Koremenos review Matt Bonner's four-3-pointer performance in the San Antonio Spurs' blowout Game 1 win and try to figure out whether the reserve big man's breakout was the result of dynamite San Antonio execution or porous Memphis Grizzlies defense. The answer, it seems, is "Yes."

SG: SB Nation. Picking up on that great offensive execution/poor defensive reaction theme, Mike Prada looks at how some trickery in the Spurs' bigs' screen-setting sent the Grizzlies spinning time and again.

PG: DraftExpress. With days of measurements and testing at the 2013 NBA draft combine now in the books, Matt Kamalsky looks at the results and tries to figure out which prospects' prospects were hurt and helped most by all that running and jumping.

6th: Forum Blue and Gold. With Dwight Howard's impending free agency already — already — a topic of conversation, Darius Soriano considers the inevitability of the 27-year-old center receiving a full-length maximum contract offer from multiple teams and wonders whether or not the Los Angeles Lakers — who can outspend fellow suitors by about $30 million for Howard's services, thanks to the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement — should be one of them.

7th: Posting and Toasting. With the 2012-13 New York Knicks season now complete, Seth Rosenthal looks back at the team's somewhat surprising small-ball identity — Carmelo Anthony at the four, two-point-guard starting lineups, all that ball movement, all those shooters — and wonders, success aside, if Woodson ever really wanted it in the first place.

8th: Sports Illustrated. A fantastic read from Chris Ballard about the rise of "Floor Spacers" — the knockdown 3-point shooters who tilt defenses, stretch the floor to create space for their star scoring teammates and, to some extent, are the NBA's answer to field-goal kickers.

9th: LeBronJames.com on YouTube. It's cool to watch LeBron James and Chris Paul tell college players at a camp what it means to not only get to the NBA, but to be successful in the league and become a star. It's even cooler when you realize that two of the people they're talking to are undergraduates Stephen Curry and James Harden. It's the coolest when you realize another is Hasheem Thabeet.

10th: Hardwood Paroxysm. Some Hamed Haddadi-themed poetry, prose and best wishes in honor of the inimitable Iranian center's 28th birthday.

Got a link or tip for Ball Don't Lie? Give me a shout at devine (at) yahoo-inc.com, or follow me on Twitter.

While retiring defender Paulo Ferreira spoke to the Stamford Bridge crowd after Chelsea's final match of the season, backup goalkeeper Ross Turnbull's two-year-old son Josh became one of the highlights of the year. Wearing his full kit, Josh dribbled a ball towards goal all by himself. He stumbled on top of the ball at one point, but continued on as the crowd urged him to shoot. When the ball finally passed the goal line, a cheer erupted and after a brief hesitation, Josh turned back toward the players and their families in the center of the pitch and raised his arms in triumph.

The moment was reminiscent of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic's young son Stefan scoring a similar goal at the end of the season two years ago...

Then there was also the Chelsea mascot who pulled a prank on Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard before a match several years before that...

Finally, there was the three-year-old girl from Japan who sang "Blue is the Color" outside Stamford Bridge in a full Chelsea goalkeeper's kit...

And with that, we have reached cuteness overload.

More Chelsea video from Yahoo! Sports:

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Pedersen, who is 38 years old, has trained in MMA for the past four years. Like many fighters, he originally tried out the sport for fitness reasons only. But once MMA was allowed in his state, and Cheyenne was set to host fights, Pedersen couldn't help but say yes to an offer to fight on the CFS card.

"This is not something I normally do," he said to the Wyoming Star-Tribune. "But I really believe in the sport."

He served for six years in the Wyoming state legislature. Now a financial consultant, he plans on making this both his debut and retirement bout. The weigh-ins will take place at a familiar venue for Pedersen -- the steps of the Wyoming State Capitol Building.

Pedersen is taking the fight seriously, as he drives an hour and a half daily to Easton Training Center in Colorado, the training home of UFC veteran Eliot Marshall.

"I have a goal," he said. "Without a goal, you wouldn’t do it. It creates a sense of urgency and panic. Because every day I’m not training, my opponent is probably getting better. And I’m not."

He's the latest government official to set his sights on the cage, though Pedersen appears to be taking his fight more seriously than the two mayors in south Florida who are planning a bout. Perhaps MMA should become part of the legislative process.

In one half of the bracket, it’s Marty Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils against Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings; on the other half, it’s New York Islanders star John Tavares against Columbus Blue Jackets Vezina favorite Sergei Bobrovsky.

Datsyuk barely beat Joffrey Lupul in the quarterfinals. Tavares ousted Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers. Brodeur beat out James van Riemsdyk, while Bobrovsky eliminated Taylor Hall.

Were we to wager on the final two: Datsyuk vs. Bobrovsky. Although an all-goalie final would be aces.

Fans can vote an unlimited number of times at NHL.com/CoverVote. The round closes on May 26 at 11:59pm ET. This year fans can double their voting power by using these player specific hashtags on “Twitter Vote Thursdays.” Each player specific hashtag used on Twitter on Thursdays will be counted as two official votes. Fans can join the conversation about the cover vote every day by using #NHL14CoverVote on Twitter and Instagram.

Finally, here's a ramble screed about how the NHL 14 vote is fixed.

Paging Mr. Mulder ... Mr. Fox Mulder.

Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports wrote a column Sunday with the ominous headline, "Ax soon to fall for LA's Mattingly," citing a scout and his own baseball instincts.

The Dodgers, however, are denying that. The Los Angeles Times reports the team has "no plans" to fire Mattingly "when the team returns home Thursday or any time before then." That comes from an unnamed club official, spoken with Sunday night after the Dodgers lost to the Atlanta Braves 5-2, completing a three-game weekend sweep.

It's funny, though, because when was the last time you heard, "Oh, yes, we DO have plans to fire our manager and we're going to do it on Wednesday?" Having "no plans" could mean they just don't have the press conference scheduled yet. Or haven't gotten around to ordering the "goodbye" cake.

Here's more from Bill Shaikin of the Times:

There has been some thought about whether the Dodgers should dismiss Trey Hillman, the bench coach picked by Mattingly. It is uncertain whether removing a coach would be considered the best solution at this point, or whether the Dodgers' plans would change if the team does not fare well in a series that starts Monday in Milwaukee.

So, in essence, Don Mattingly isn't on the hot seat ... but he is totally on the hot seat. Should we start a what-day-will-he-get-fired pool? I'll take May 27.

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What does it take for Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds to blow a save for a second consecutive appearance?

How about Chapman being bloated from binging on "18," he said, of the yummiest Cuban pastries anyone could stuff in their face Sunday before the Reds faced the Phillies? And it was one of the Phillies announcers, also a Cuban expatriate, who sabotaged Chapman by bringing him the goodies!

That's the story Phillies' Spanish-language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told the 94-FM WIP morning show Monday. Friends with Ricardso since he came to the U.S., Chapman had asked him to pick up two boxes (100 total) of flaky Cuban pastries filled with cream cheese and guava from a place down in Union City, N.J. — described by Ricardo as a "Cuban stronghold." Two or three of these things would clog your arteries and send you into a food coma. Only, Chapman didn't stop at two or three, Ricardo said:

“Could you imagine cream cheese and guava on a baked pastry? Well Chapman asked me for a box of 100, two boxes of 50. When I saw him on Sunday morning before the game, he was in the clubhouse, he had just eaten about 18 of them. He couldn’t breathe! I looked at my partner, I said, ‘he’s ripe for the taking today.”

The "Ripe Guava," or the "Flaky Pastry," is now the Philadelphia nickname for Chapman, who had come in with a 2.41 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.

Chapman, who can hit 100 mph on the radar gun with no problem, and not only while driving, was in the 95 mph neighborhood as the Phillies rallied for 3-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park. That 5 mph could mean a lot. It's up to the rocket scientists to formulate an equation as to how much each pastry cost Chapman from his 100 mph heater.

Big BLS H/N: Deadspin

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With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Golden State Warriors.

In spite of the fun – the team turned out to be one of the NBA’s more entertaining watches this season – the Golden State Warriors’ worries ended up right where things started last summer. Yes, the team made the playoffs; hitting the postseason for just the second time since going out in the first round in 1994, but Golden State’s health is still the team’s biggest obstacle. The Warriors will only go as far as Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut’s ankles will take them.

This was evident in October, when Bogut was being pushed back into action by a Warrior front office that purposely failed to accurately disclose that he had career-threatening microfracture surgery on his ankles the March before. This was apparent last week, when Stephen Curry could barely get off the ground while firing desperate three-pointers as the San Antonio Spurs closed out their series against Golden State.

For a while there, things clicked. The Warriors looked like potential Western Conference finals material while dismissing the Denver Nuggets and stealing home court advantage against the Spurs, all with Bogut and Curry working at near full-strength. By the time Stephen tweaked his left ankle in Golden State’s Game 3 loss to the Spurs, though, the reality had set in. The Warriors are only as good as the health of their best two players.

Bogut is the team’s second-best player, mind you. David Lee may have (weirdly) made the All-Star team ahead of Curry, and Klay Thompson is a real comer, but a healthy Andrew Bogut gives the team defensive relevance and go-to option offensively (with his interior passing) when a play goes pear-shaped. That isn’t to say that he’s played like the team’s second best player since being traded to Golden State in March of 2012 (despite some marvelous flashes in the first round last month) but ideally the two-way big man should be Golden State’s Number Two.

Part of this has to do with the team’s cap situation. Because the team made some incredibly daft moves in the months following the release of Don Nelson as the team’s personnel and coaching maven, the Warriors are set to pay the luxury tax with this same roster in 2013-14.

Given the ability to waive either Andris Biedrins or Stephen Jackson with the amnesty provision in December of 2011, the Warriors instead used it on guard Charlie Bell, who was set to make less than the league’s average salary in 2011-12. Bell was not in a good place back in 2011 – he showed up drunk to his own DUI hearing, and allegedly assaulted his girlfriend earlier in the year – but choosing his middling contract over Jackson or Biedrins was a huge mistake, as Biedrins is set to make $9 million in 2013-14, and because the Warriors (instead of just asking Jackson to leave the team, while paying his salary) eventually dealt Jackson to San Antonio.

The price for dumping S-Jax was taking on Richard Jefferson’s ridiculous salary, over $11 million in 2013-14, all because Charlie Bell was a bad dude and the team was worried about its center position because DeAndre Jordan probably was never going to become a Golden State Warrior. This limits the team’s ability to work up either sign-and-trade options, or use capped-out exceptions.

Luckily, the team is also working with more of the better bargains in the NBA.

Stephen Curry will start his second contract next season, but it’s at the very-reasonable rate of four years and $44 million. Only crippling ankle injuries and/or bad luck will get in the way of that being a smashing success on GSW’s side of things. Meanwhile, young wings Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes will be working on rookie scale contracts for the next two years, with Thompson not hitting restricted free agency until 2015, a year before Barnes. All of this comes after Biedrins and Jefferson say goodbye, and with Bogut (who could re-sign at a reduced rate) hitting free agency next summer.

Which means the Warriors, as you loved them in 2012-13, will be back next season.

The team has little choice, and it probably likes it that way. In the pre-Twitter days, a meme resulted when former Warrior general manager Garry St. Jean was widely ridiculed for pointing to “internal development” as a way of taking his team from the lottery to the playoffs for the first time in years. St. Jean’s words are on point some 15 years later, though, as a healthy summer and plenty of motivation following that too-swift second round exit could be enough to spark enough internal development amongst this young crew to make the third round a possibility. Jarrett Jack clearly wants to stick with the Warriors as a free agent this summer, and the team’s owners have enough in the bank to pay the luxury tax and shoot for a 16 or 17-game postseason run.

Best of all? Nobody is sick of these names yet. It’s only been a few days, and yet we can’t wait to see the Golden State Warriors play basketball again.

Healthy basketball, that is. Get lots of rest this summer, ankles.

Have a baseball road trip coming up? Well, in a bid to help you with your upcoming journeys, Big League Stew has solicited the help of the locals. Over the next month or so, we'll be hitting up our usual guest blogger crew to feature 10 tips for enjoying each of the 30 ballparks like the locals do. Have a suggestion in addition to the ones listed here? Make sure to list it in the comments below.

Planning a trip to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington? First things first, we just call it “the Ballpark” around these parts, and we never agreed to call it Ameriquest Field for those few years a while back, but I digress. The home of the two-time American League champion Texas Rangers is a beauty of a stadium, blending Texas tradition with architectural elements reminiscent of bygone eras, most notably a covered porch in right field that echoes Tiger Stadium and old Comiskey Park. The past three offseasons have included extensive technological upgrades and stadium renovations, enhancing the game day experience for fans and players alike. Pack your warm weather clothes and join me for some tips about my home away from home:

1. Location, location…location? While many other entries on this list can boast a vibrant downtown or quirky neighborhood full of unique characteristics surrounding their stadium, the same cannot be said for our fine establishment situated at 1000 Ballpark Way. Take a stroll down Randol Mill Road and you’ll find yourself at either Cowboys Stadium or the Wal-Mart Supercenter, both emitting an equal sense of despair.

Deciding where to stay on your trip basically depends on who you are and what you want to do — are you a family looking for an easy few days of baseball games and amusement parks? Keep it local and stay in Arlington. Rangers Ballpark is in close proximity to both Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor, so gather up the kids and the sunscreen and go say hello to Bugs Bunny and his pals.

Not into roller coasters or water parks? Opt for Dallas or Fort Worth. What Arlington lacks in amenities that aren’t chain restaurants, it makes up for in geographical convenience. Sandwiched right in between Dallas and Fort Worth, you can easily book your hotel stay in either city and fill your days with superior sightseeing, and then hop in the car to make the drive to Arlington at night for the games. It might not sound all that convenient, but let’s face it; if you’re in Texas, you’re driving everywhere already.

2 But what If I’m not driving? No, you’re probably driving. Unless you’re in a cab or hotel shuttle, your trek to Rangers Ballpark will be in your own hands as Arlington does not have a public transportation system. Really, we don’t.

Once behind the wheel, it’s not too hard to get in and out of Rangers Ballpark, but there will be traffic. Numerous parking lots surround the stadium in all directions, with most of the cash parking lots located on the north and east sides of the Ballpark, accessible from Interstate 30. Don’t be fooled by the Arlington Convention Center lot that is also on the north side of the Ballpark, unless you feel like spending $20.00 instead of the $15.00 charged in Rangers lots. Slightly cheaper options can be found at various restaurants and office parks nearby, but having parked there myself on a few occasions, saving a few extra bucks isn’t necessarily worth the extra effort even if you do snag the “Employee of the Month” parking spot.

Do you own a Lexus? Can you borrow someone’s Lexus? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you can valet park for free at Rangers Ballpark. These spaces tend to fill up quickly, especially for a big series and on the weekends, so take that into consideration when you head out the door. If you don’t own (or can’t borrow) a Lexus, you can still choose to valet, but it’ll cost you $40.00.

3. Where (not) to sit: Whether it was suffering the last-place Rangers teams of yore, or bathing in the glory of attending a World Series game, I’ve sat just about everywhere you can sit in Rangers Ballpark and have nothing but good things to say … for the most part. You’ll run into some obstructed views due to safety rails and the like, but the only place I would tell you to actively avoid is all tiers of left field. Not because the sightlines are bad, or because the fans or ushers are rude, but because it’s entirely possible that you will catch on fire while filling out your scorecard. What I’m trying to tell you is that it’s hot under the sun in left field. Very, very hot.

If you’re attending a night game, you will eventually find some relief once the sun sets over the first base side of the Ballpark, but for a day game in a North Texas summer? That sizzling sound you hear isn’t a nearby concession stand grilling up some food, that’s your skin. Unless you’re the biggest David Murphy or Jeff Baker fan in the world and just HAVE to sit in left field, select your seats elsewhere and thank me later. And if you are in fact the biggest David Murphy or Jeff Baker fan in the world, we may need to have a talk.

4. I’m here and I’m hungry Come for the two-foot-long hot dog, stay because you just ate a two-foot-long hot dog and can’t get out of your seat. Rangers Ballpark offers not one, not two, but several different food items measuring in at a whopping 24 inches all ready for you to consume as soon as you come through the Home Plate entrance gate. We’ve got the classic Nelson Cruz tribute in the form of the “Boomstick” (a hot dog covered in chili, nacho cheese, jalapenos and grilled onions), the “Sausage Slugger” (Polish sausage that can be topped with onions or sauerkraut), and last but not least, the “Murph-a-Dilla”, a dystopian interpretation of a quesadilla named after David Murphy, featuring flatbread topped with brisket and nacho cheese Doritos.

Are you worried about the difficulty of cradling a food monster like a baby while you maneuver to your seats, but still want to eat a ton? Check out the “All You Can Eat” seats in the Upper Home Run Porch in right field. For $51.00 ($58.00 for premier games) you can fill yourself with unlimited grilled chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and sodas. You can eat in the air-conditioned grill at the top of the porch, or take your bounty down to your seat.

If you’re looking for quality over quantity, you can find all sorts of goodies in the rest of the Ballpark. Head out to the center field concourse to Smokehouse 557 for smoked brisket and turkey legs, get a gourmet burger at the Ryan’s Express stand, or you can visit the Centerfield Market for veggie-friendly choices and gluten-free snacks.

Your primary options for tastiness are going to be located on the lower level, so if you want to grab some street tacos, garlic fries or a Food Network Signature Sandwich, you won’t find it in the upper deck. You will find a churro vendor in the upper home plate area who hands out vintage baseball cards with a purchase, so it’s not all bad up there. Who doesn’t like a Montreal Expos player card that ends up covered in sugar?

Rangers Ballpark does allow you to bring in your own food and beverages, but metal cans, glass bottles and alcoholic beverages are not allowed.

5. I’m here and I’m also thirsty: Throughout Rangers Ballpark you’ll find stands specifically dedicated to Texas brews (Rahr & Sons, Saint Arnold, Shiner, Lone Star) as well as stands with premium selections (Shock Top, Hoegaarden, LandShark, Abita, Goose Island, Leinenkugel).

Full bars are available in certain areas of the Ballpark, which we’ll get to next.

6. Air-Conditioned escapes: Need to step inside to beat the heat or wait out a rain delay? The Captain Morgan Club in center field is open to all ticketholders before, during and after games. They have a food menu as well as the aforementioned full bar if you want to have a drink and beer isn’t your thing.

Also in center field (but lacking in alcohol) is the Kids Zone, featuring an indoor playground and video games. This area of Rangers Ballpark is open before and during the game, but closes down before the game is over.

7. Free Stuff: Promotional giveaways usually occur on Tuesdays when it’s an item that’s given to all ticketholders or on Sundays if it’s a kids-only item for children 13 and under. Every Friday night home game is followed by a fireworks show that is worth sticking around for.

If you find yourself sitting in Sections 201-208 on a Thursday or Saturday game (even though I told you not to), you’ll be rewarded with a spot in the Kia K-Zone. What’s the Kia K-Zone you ask? Earlier this season it was called the “Yu-niverse” and bore a striking resemblance to a little thing called The King’s Court up in Seattle. For reasons unknown to me it’s now no longer exclusive to Yu Darvish starts, but you’ll still end up with a free yellow t-shirt and “K” card to hold up when a Rangers pitcher records a strikeout.

8. Behind the scenes: Tours of Rangers Ballpark are available on game days (night games only) as well as non-game days, and will take you to the batting cages, dugouts, press box and much more. Chances are if you’re reading a local’s guide to a baseball stadium, you might care enough to see the stuff you wouldn’t normally get to see as a fan, so I definitely recommend taking the tour if it fits into your schedule.

9. Baseball Town: Did you hear that thing that Josh Hamilton said about Arlington not being a baseball town? Well, Rangers Ballpark PA Announcer Chuck Morgan certainly did and took it as inspiration to create the “Baseball Town” video montage that plays on the jumbotron before the start of every game, highlighting great moments in Rangers history. A certain play from last season’s final game involving a dropped ball in Oakland’s O.co Coliseum didn’t make the final cut, however.

10. Darvish:If you trust the Baseball Gods and your every-fifth-day counting skills enough, try to buy tickets for a game started by Yu Darvish. What emerged last season as required viewing for Rangers fans when Darvish began to adjust to the majors has now become required viewing on a national level. Think of the pitchers you’d list as worthy of the price of admission alone (Verlander, Kershaw, etc.), and then add Darvish to that list. I’ve attended two of his starts this season and became spiritually bonded to a 61-mph curve from my seat in section 323. Trust me — you need to see this man in person. You also need to set your DVR to record what you may miss when you turn to your companions and try to process the pitch you just saw while deciphering what that strange tingling feeling inside of you is. Is it love? Is it lust? Is it fear? It’s Darvish.

Holly Hollenbeck tweets about Rangers baseball and Stars hockey at @holly_holl

What are your favorite tips for attending a game at Rangers Ballpark?

Previous parks: Citi Field, Marlins Park, Great American Ball Park, Petco Park,Comerica Park, Progressive Park, AT&T Park, Rogers Centre, Wrigley Field, O.Co Coliseum, Yankee Stadium, Coors Field, Minute Maid Park, Fenway Park, PNC Park,U.S. Cellular Field, Safeco Field, Target Field

The Red Wings return home for Game 3 on Monday night. Except it’s the Blackhawks that have owned their house for the last four seasons.

“It’s a fun place to play. There’s a lot of history here,” said winger Patrick Kane on Monday.

Here’s the history for the Hawks in Detroit’s home barn: 9-1-1 in their last 11 visits dating back to Oct. 9, 2009. That’s the last regulation win the Red Wings had at home against Chicago, after defeating them three times in the 2009 Western Conference Final.

Chicago has scored 33 goals in that 11-game span to Detroit’s 19. But the games were mostly well contested: The Blackhawks had three shootout wins and an overtime victory, while Detroit added an overtime win of its own.

So why do the Blackhawks play so well in Detroit (outside of our working theory, which is that Patrick Sharp stays beautiful through octopus gunk facial treatments)?

Great Ice

Joe Louis Arena is always mentioned among the best in the NHL when it comes to quality of ice.

Kane said that plays right to the Blackhawks’ strengths, with the speed and skills they have up front.

“You’re not really worried about looking down at the puck, or the puck rolling on you,” he said.

Lively Boards

Coach Joel Quenneville cited the “lively boards” at the Joe being something the Blackhawks use to their advantage. From the Freep:

“There’s an awareness,” Quenneville said. “We’ve been in their building a lot of times and we’ve seen what the puck is capable of doing. Whether there’s the unpredictability of their end boards or side board, there’s almost a spring to the puck. It’s a livelier game in certain areas and an awareness on both sides of the puck is something we have to be ready for.”

As he indicated, it’s a two-way street: The Blackhawks can use to boards to their advantage, while understanding what a weapon they can be the Wings.

The Measuring Stick

It’s the Detroit Red Wings. It’s the measuring stick of all measuring sticks for the Western Conference, with or without Nicklas Lidstrom on that blue line. As Quenneville said, a visit to Joe Louis means a mandatory top effort from the road team.

“It’s always an important game. It’s always a tough building in the past to pick up points, and you had to play your best,” he said, citing Chicago’s 7-1 win during the regular season as perhaps their best effort of the season.

“That’s kind of the pace we have to expect from each other.”

The Blackhawks Are a Pretty Darn Good Road Team

Chicago was 18-4-2 on the road this season, after being just a .500 team away from home in 2011-12. Patrick Kane led the NHL with 30 points on the road. Jonathan Toews has scored more away points than home points in each of the last four seasons, and was an NHL best plus-21 on the road this season.

So the Blackhawks have done well away from home this season.

And they’ve been anything but humble guests at the Joe for the last four seasons.

“It’s just a great place to play hockey,” said Kane.

While we hold out hope that the path charted by newly hired general manager Ryan McDonough will produce a winner sooner rather than later, there wasn't much to celebrate about the Phoenix Suns this season, we're sorry to say. In lottery-bound times like these, with the present a bummer and the future uncertain, it's understandable for fans (and the media who serve them) to harken back to more successful days gone by — like, for example, 1993, which was both the heyday of the Charles Barkley/Kevin Johnson/Paul Westphal crew and a nice, round 20 years ago, which makes for easy commemoratin'.

With the members of that team reminiscing about how they came together and what they accomplished, it's only natural to check in with the man who signed the checks — Jerry Colangelo, who'd been with the Suns since its inception in 1967, put together a group that purchased the franchise in 1987 and, after years of fits and starts, built a winner in the desert.

In a chat with Paola Boivin of azcentral.com, Colangelo recalled the Suns' path to the 1993 NBA finals against the Chicago Bulls, the franchise with which the Chicago Heights product had gotten his start in the NBA as a scout and marketing director and the juggernaut that had won back-to-back titles in the previous two seasons. In the midst of all that recollection, the former Suns owner (he sold to Robert Sarver in 2004) and current director of USA Basketball shared a surprising story from the Chicago Stadium stands:

Michael Jordan’s 55 points led to a Bulls victory in Game 4 and left the Suns on the brink of vacation. An incident during the game left Colangelo with a double-dose of ill feelings.

He was sitting with his son, Bryan, when he heard a commotion behind him where his wife, Joanie, and mother were.

“What’s going on?” Colangelo asked.

“The guy behind us told your mom to shut up and sit down,” Joanie said.

Colangelo was livid and told the man to apologize. He wouldn’t. Colangelo sent his wife and mother away from the seats.

“You don’t want to do this, Mr. Colangelo,” a security guard told him.

As the game ended, the fan gave Colangelo the finger. Colangelo leaped over a row of seats and grabbed him. He got a punch in before security pulled him away.

“It’s a Chicago story,” Colangelo said, smiling.

They yell at your mom, you punch them in the face — that's the Chicago way. Just like Sean Connery said.

No doubt inspired by their owner's pugilistic prowess, the Suns bounced back with a 108-98 Game 5 win to make it two wins in three tries in Chicago, stave off elimination and send the series back to Phoenix. (OK, the 74 combined points from Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson and Richard Dumas might have played a bigger factor than Colangelo's dust-up.) Unfortunately for Suns fans, their squad's bid for a comeback from double-digit third-quarter deficit came up just short thanks to John Paxson and Horace Grant, sending Chicago to its third straight NBA title and the Suns home empty-handed after the best season in franchise history.

While the season's ending was disappointing, hundreds of thousands of Suns supporters still turned out for a post-playoffs parade to celebrate the Western Conference champions' achievement; clearly, they appreciate the fighting spirit shown by a team that took its lead from ownership.

According to Boivin, the ill-mannered heckler wasn't the person who'd purchased those season tickets, and later, "the man who owned the seats occupied by the culprit called Colangelo to apologize." Of course he did. He didn't want to get five across the eye from a close personal friend of Joe Garagiola Jr. Who would?

Hat-tip to azcentral.com's Paul Coro.

The NFL and NFLPA are closing in a deal that would make significant alterations to the league calender over the next three years, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports.

According to the report, the union is close to signing off on a deal allowing the league to move the start date of the new league year to before the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. Historically, the new league year has begun in early-to-mid March, nearly two weeks after the final day of the combine.

An even bigger change, and one that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell does not need union approval for, is pushing the date of the annual NFL draft from late April to May. While the collective bargaining agreement allows for the commissioner to set the date at his or her discretion, Goodell would like to the NFLPA's approval before taking that step.

Schefter adds that the tentative dates for the 2014 draft are May 15-17, with the 2015 draft taking place from May 7-9 and 2016 draft on May 5-7.

In March, Albert Breer of the NFL Network reported that the NFL had sent a proposal to the NFLPA that would have pushed the combine back to March, the start of free agency to April and the draft to May. The period after the Super Bowl would focus on regional combines with the goal being that those events would increase the interest and viewership of the national combine in Indianapolis.

Veteran players, and their agents, were not too keen on the idea of delaying free agency until April since that financial frenzy is essentially their Super Bowl. Starting free agency earlier would be good news for veterans (and their agents), which should make it easier for the NFLPA to sign off on date changes for the combine and draft.

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The 2012/13 Premier League season is over and, to be honest, it wasn't that great. We were definitely spoiled by the dizzying last-minute climax of the 2011/12 season, but watching Manchester United trudge to a 20th title while the rest of the league floundered and groaned had all the excitement of bingo night at Gareth Barry's house.

Until it became clear that four of the top six clubs in the table (including each of the top three) would have new managers next season, the league was feeling decidedly stale with the same old stories (even Luis Suarez biting an opponent was a rerun from his Eredivisie days) and all of its representatives crashing out of the Champions League. But the good news is that all of that is over now and next season has the elements necessary to be bananas. Here are some things to look forward to...

Sir Alex Ferguson is retired -- It's always sad when a legend of the game moves on, but change can bring the reinvigorating elements of doubt and uncertainty. After 27 years and 13 Premier League titles, Ferguson's stronghold on the league is suddenly gone and it's up to David Moyes — a man who has only ever won the old Second Division with Preston North End in 2000 — to fill the void at one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world.

For many Man United fans, Ferguson's reign has been all they know/remember. They've spent years wondering how other clubs could burn through a new set of managers every season or struggle to contend for trophies. Andi Thomas recently summed up their new plight for Football365:

It's not that Ferguson never made any mistakes; it's that when he did, it was okay because Ferguson was there to fix them, and he was able to do so in large part because he was Ferguson. Now they, like every other poor sap in the world, have to spend time worrying that their manager might not be any good, or might be good but unlucky, or might be good and lucky but end up on the wrong side of a power struggle, or might be good and lucky and have the backing of the board but bugger off after two seasons for somewhere sunnier.

Adding to the intrigue is that Ferguson will still be around the club in some capacity as director and ambassador like a phantom of more certain times. If Moyes falters, will Ferguson be summoned back to his full gum-chomping glory? Of course, it's very unlikely that Man United will instantly disappear from contention, but those new feelings of doubt and uncertainty could make even a second straight Man United title far more entertaining.

Jose Mourinho will (probably) return -- One grizzled manager with the fury of a thousand vengeful gods departs and another one (probably) returns, far more grizzled than when he left. When Jose Mourinho was shuffled out of the Premier League in the middle of the 2007 season, he was simply a great manager with a massive ego. Now he's a great manager with a massive ego and a fresh bruise on his record.

Mourinho is used to accomplishing two things: winning trophies and having his players adore him. At Real Madrid this season, he accomplished neither of those things and he's not taking it well. "This has been my worst season because it's the first season in which I have not won an important title," said Mourinho after losing and getting sent off in the Copa del Rey final. What's more fun than Jose Mourinho? Jose Mourinho in a conducive environment with something to prove.

Man City in flux again -- After winning their first top-flight title in 44 years, City became a little complacent. They went from spending ludicrous amounts of money to just massive amounts of money, they sold off Mario Balotelli and their once delightful YouTube channel became as bland as every other YouTube channel in existence. But going winless in the Champions League group stage, finishing a distant second to Man United, and losing the FA Cup final to Wigan (yes, Wigan) prompted them to sack manager and scarf model Roberto Mancini with two matches still to play in the season. Now the possibilities are once again endless. They can bring in manager with a more exciting style of play and resume throwing money out the door like it's covered in anthrax.

Wayne Rooney -- Will he again turn back on a transfer request and try to prove that he can still be one of the best players in the world while supporters again try to reconcile his fits of disloyalty or will he move on and attempt to start fresh somewhere else? Either way, he has a fascinating journey ahead of him and maybe another hair transplant too.

Season two of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and Andre Villas-Boas at Spurs -- No matter how you feel about Liverpool, you'll probably agree that the league was more interesting when they were a contender rather than an also-ran floating around the middle of the table. Brendan Rodgers' time at the club started with a preseason documentary that earned him the sticky tag of being football's David Brent and his results didn't prove revolutionary enough to shake it. Liverpool went from finishing eighth the season before to seventh in Rodgers' first campaign with his initial crop of signings proving largely underwhelming.

But midseason acquisitions Daniel Sturridge and Coutinho showed promise and provided a spark that could be a sign of more substantial improvements to come. Rodgers could still turn out to be less David Brent and more Donald Trump — someone lacking self-awareness who spouts cringe-worthy soundbites, but actually built an impressive empire to sit atop.

As for Villas-Boas, he delivered Spurs' best point total ever in the Premier League, but still finished one point shy of a Champions League spot. Retaining Gareth Bale for a little while longer is a major success (perhaps even equivalent to winning a trophy, as Arsene Wenger might say) and if he can convince the club to make a fresh investment while cutting off some of the fat in his squad, further improvement seems almost certain.

Luis Suarez returns from his biting ban -- Two seasons ago it was racial abuse, this season it was biting another human being (again), so what awful thing will Luis Suarez do next season to keep his streak going? Will he play every match with a machete tied to his head? Will he start an identity theft ring that targets his opponents' grandmothers? Will he help North Korea develop nuclear weapons? And will we finally learn what it takes for Liverpool to start believing that his many controversies are ultimately his fault and not purely the product of a massive conspiracy against him? The anticipation is almost too much.

No more QPR moralizing -- They paid way too much money for a group of talented players who didn't seem to care and now they're gone. The weekly pompous handwringing can be aimed at something else now.

Jose Mourinho will (probably) return -- There's a good chance Mourinho and Suarez will bite each other at the same time.

In the three years since Oregon launched the trend of jazzing up basketball floors with creative designs, there have been plenty of hits and misses.

Long Beach State's palm trees? A smash hit. Florida International's beach towel-themed court? A tacky miss. Towson's pale orange tiger stripes? Ehhh, not bad. And Cal State Bakerfield's dark blue floor? Yikes.

George Washington is the latest school to enhance its floor with a design, and credit the Colonials for getting it right. The school announced Monday the floor of the Charles E. Smith Center will include silhouette images of The White House, the Capitol building and the Washington Monument, a subtle yet distinctive design that sends the message to fans and recruits they're watching a Washington D.C. program.

"Unveiling this spectacular new floor design today further emphasizes our campus setting in the heart of D.C.," George Washington athletic director Patrick Nero in a press release. "When people around the world are watching our games, we want them to immediately recognize and understand the university’s unique setting in the middle of the action in this world-class city."

The other unique touch to the floor is the "#RaiseHigh" hashtag behind one of the baselines where the university's name would typically be. The slogan, originally coined during the 2011-12 basketball season, has developed into a campus-wide rallying cry featured on T-shirts and billboards.

Since George Washington's court isn't as gaudy as other new designs have been, it likely won't get the same nation-wide publicity Oregon or FIU did. No matter, though. The classy court design will be a source of pride for years to come.

(Thanks, D.C. Sports Bog)

The only problem? Well, Ohio State has never heard of Giovanni Strassini.

Of course, that's where the story gets weird.

Strassini (or whoever he is) saw his story start to unravel on a message board thread at BuckeyePlanet.com. The posters on that site easily figured out there was no Strassini who wore No. 89 for the Buckeyes. He wasn't the third basemen for the baseball team in that era either, as he had also claimed. He definitely didn't score an 8-yard touchdown in the 1976 Rose Bowl, one of the more easily verifiable facts to look up. The Buckeyes' only touchdown that day was a 3-yard touchdown run by Pete Johnson.

The Rose Bowl ring Strassini posted on Facebook didn't look exactly like the actual Rose Bowl ring from the season he claimed it was from. And he wasn't drafted by the Cleveland Browns either, blowing up another one of his stories.

Yet somehow, Strassini pulled this scam off for at least a couple years before anyone noticed.

His Facebook account under the name "Giova Stroh" has been deleted but here's a screen shot from the cached page:

And here's a Twitter account:

Here's what Ohio State spokesman Jerry Emig said about Strassini in an email to Dr. Saturday:

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Larry Bird has not been a member of the Indiana Pacers, technically, since sitting in on the team’s observance of the NBA’s summer leagues in 2012. Citing health reasons and a need for a break after nine years of running the team, Bird stepped down from his position as Pacers el jefe last year, handing the keys over to longtime Pacers boss Donnie Walsh. Bird’s imprints are all over this rugged Pacer team, and his insistence on sticking with hybrid guard Lance Stephenson helped put Indiana into the conference finals on Saturday night, their first appearance in the third round in nine years.

Excited at the thought of his no-name Pacers taking down the rife-with-names New York Knicks, Bird reached out to Indianapolis Star Pacers beat writer Mike Wells in the moments following Indy’s conquest:

My phone went off again early Sunday morning. It was Bird, who has kept a low profile since stepping down as a president last June. Bird was offering up nothing but praise this time about the team he put together.

“Those who play together stay together!” Bird wrote in the text.

Bird is right, the Pacers stuck together all year. They stuck together when Danny Granger was ruled out at the start of the season. They stuck together when they got off to a slow start. They stuck together when Granger came back and then went down again for the rest of the season. And they stuck together when they opened the second round of the playoffs as the underdogs against the New York Knicks.

You can easily picture someone like Larry Bird – with a flip-phone, Dad-style – pushing hard on those numbers, finding the right letters, tossing in a few exclamation points after locating the digit that gives you the potential for punctuation.

This sort of image, however inaccurate, is part of Indiana’s problem.

Bird, the team’s biggest star, may someday return to these Pacers, once again working in tandem with Donnie Walsh to sustain a winner in Indianapolis. For now, though, the player with the biggest Q score on the team is Roy Hibbert, only by way of a lone All-Star appearance during the lockout year, and several cameos on a television show that not nearly enough people are watching in real time. The Pacers may be well known to the basketball cognoscenti, all full of wonderment about where Orlando Johnson’s minutes went and why Gerald Green is allowed to wear shoes that don’t match his uniform, but the viewing public knows precious little about the team that is about to attempt to knock Miami off its perch.

All of which is bad news for the NBA’s viewing numbers. The league’s ratings improved this season, but a combination of unfortunate factors – injuries, Miami’s quick and cable-based run through the first two rounds, the Lakers’ suckitude, poor timing when it came to which teams were available for Sunday afternoon – has led to declining ratings for the national TV broadcasts.

The NBA threw another batch of unknowns onto ABC on Sunday, those grinding Memphis Grizzlies, alongside a San Antonio Spurs team big audiences have historically been averse to. And though the NBA has spaced out the Eastern Conference finals, it’s hard to anticipate a massive national audience tuning in for Game 3 this weekend, in Indianapolis. On basic cable, no less. Up against a litany of shows (your men that are mad, your thrones that are involved in other games) that the basketball cognoscenti is years behind watching, mainly because they’ve been paying attention to Orlando Johnson.

Maybe if Larry Bird decided to make a late May visit to Indiana’s Game 3, this could change. What would really make a ratings difference is if Indiana stole the home court in Game 1 or Game 2. They’ll have Bird to thank if such a steal happened for the second year in a row.

NFL owners have gathered in Boston this week for their annual spring meetings. A focal point of this week's meetings will be the announcement of the host cities for Super Bowl L and Super Bowl LI, votes on which will take place on Tuesday.

Owners will choose between presentations from South Florida and the San Francisco Bay Area for the 50th Super Bowl, which will be played in February 2016.

The Bay Area is the favorite to host Super Bowl L as construction is well underway on the San Francisco 49ers' new $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara, located about 40 miles south of San Francisco. Completion of the new stadium, which has seating capacity of up to 75,000 and will be named Levi's Stadium once a naming rights deal is approved, is expected in time for the 2014 season.

San Francisco hosted the Super Bowl in 1985 and was tentatively awarded Super Bowl XXXIII, but could not reach a deal to finance renovations to Candlestick Park and lost the right to host the game.

Meanwhile, the current bid out of South Florida is considered a long shot to host either Super Bowl after the Florida state legislature recently defeated a bill that would have granted public money for renovations to Sun Life Stadium.

A three-quarters majority, 24 of the 32 owners, are required on the first ballot Tuesday. If neither San Francisco or Miami receives 24 votes on the first ballot, then a simple majority would win on the subsequent ballot.

The losing bid will then compete with a presentation from Houston to host Super Bowl LI in February 2017. Houston has two Super Bowls, the latest being Super XXXVIII between the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots at Reliant Stadium in 2004. If San Francisco wins the bid to host Super Bowl L, Houston is considered the heavy favorite to host the following year.

Super Bowl XLVIII will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on Feb. 2, 2014. Super Bowl XLIX will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Two Florida cities — Tampa and Miami — were finalists in bids to host Super Bowls XLVIII and XLIX.

Well, it's happened. Soccer finally has taken over the heart of the United States. The rest of the world's favourite sport is coming to Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Thursday and it is flattening the pitcher's mound in order to make it happen.

With the host baseball team having vacated the stadium on a road trip, Manchester City and Chelsea of the English Premiere League move in to play a "friendly" (exhibition) on the same field where David Freese won a car for leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series championship in 2011.

EPL's season ended Sunday, with Man City and Chelsea taking second and third, respectively, in league play. So these are two of the best teams in the world, a good matchup for the first soccer game of any sort in Busch Stadium III history.

But, as fans of soccer would tell you, big mounds of dirt and clay on the pitch aren't conducive to a good showcase, so the pitcher's mound has to go, as does a layer of dirt elsewhere on the infield. The Cardinals tweeted a photo of work being done to that end Monday. Of course, they'll put the mound back in time for the Cardinals' return (right? RIGHT?). Hey, the crew in St. Louis used to be expert at knocking down the pitcher's mound at Busch Stadium II for the St. Louis Football Cardinals. The mound always went back up, did it not?

But the rest of the field's condition will depend on the weather. It's supposed to rain a lot before Thursday which, MLB.com reports, could lead to more divots being left behind. That worries some fans:

Prediction: Carlos Beltran twists knee in first game back to Busch Stadium; every soccer ball in St. Louis is summoned for obliteration.

— Matt Sebek (@MattSebek) May 20, 2013

One other note about the ground's crew, from MLB.com:

Baseball is in full swing! Interact with @AnswerDave, @MikeOz, @Townie813 and @bigleaguestewon Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page!

Sure, Prep Rally knows that White is a talented skateboarder as much as he’s a snowboarding phenom. Still, he’s never pulled off what the 15-year-old Brusco accomplished while skating in the X Games in Barcelona; he landed a 1080 during the MegaRamp event (i.e., skateboarding's Big Air), becoming the first skateboarder to ever land the trick in an X Games competition.

That means that neither White, Bob Burnside, Bucky Lasek, Paul Rodriguez Jr. or anyone else has successfully achieved what a 15-year-old from Kirkland, Washington has already done.

To see Brusco fly above the ramp is to watch greatness emerging far faster than anticipated. Action sports have always been a realm where great young talent can rise through the ranks at a pace that stuns. With no minor league circuit or anything similar, when a skater is ready, he or she just gets the push up to the X Games.

That’s precisely what’s happened with Brusco, who has responded with an abundance of confidence. The high schooler earned his two medals at the Barcelona X Games, including a silver for his run that included a 1080.

Given his age and his rapid improvement, it seems likely that those medals are just the first of many to come.

Hear that Flying Tomato? You may have company on the summer circuit and the action sports marketing front. Brusco looks like he’s here to stay.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Perhaps the Stanley Cup Playoffs have you feeling flush. Or stopped up. Perhaps you’re bowled over from a steady stream of action, or a swirl of emotion that you can’t just seem to put a lid on. Fear not, fellow puckheads: The Hockey Toilet is your throne of games …

Currently available for $17 on eBay, this “Unique Ice Hockey Design Acrylic Resin Oval Toilet Seat” is exactly as we just described it. It’s a standard round toilet seat that fits all manufacturers round and oval commodes.

It features a seemingly ancient (given the equipment) game scene in which a goalie appears to be looking through the net on his hands and knees at an offensive player (in an old Team USA jersey perhaps?) with the puck. This is not a traditional butterfly, that’s for sure.

But what makes this crapper unique? How is this any different from a custom-made NHL toilet cover like this Red Wings one? Behold the seat:

Yes, you poop in the goal. Pretty much on the goalie. All of those nights when that sieve lost the game for your team? Scatological vengeance is yours. (“Scatological Vengeance”, incidentally, being the best punk band name never used.)

OK, so it’s not a $5,300 Maple Leafs Gardens toilet. But you try finding a Unique Ice Hockey Design Acrylic Resin Oval Toilet Seat for less than $17, buster.

The Jack Hoffman promotional rookie card that was auctioned off to help benefit pediatric cancer research is still waiting to be claimed.

Upper Deck made a handful of promotional cards for the 7-year-old cancer patient, who scored a touchdown during Nebraska’s spring game, in an effort to raise money for Hoffman’s charity, The Team Jack Foundation. Hoffman signed four of them (three in silver and one in gold) and auctioned one of the silver signed cards on ebay.

The auction received a lot of attention and the final bid was $6,100.

Only the man who supposedly made the bid has no plans to pay up, according to Beckett.com.

Prep 2 Pro Sports owner Mike Schnoor, who is selling the cards on behalf of the Hoffman family, said efforts to contact several other bidders also have failed.

So what should have been a continuation of the heartwarming story that had touched the nation this spring has actually turned sour.

“It’s a pretty sore subject around here,” Schnoor told Beckett Media. “The guy who ended up winning said a guy logged into his account and bid on it as a joke. It goes from a great story to kind of sobering.”

Schnoor told Beckett.com he was thinking of other ways to auction the card, including relisting it as a “Buy It Now” or auctioning it off locally.

It’s just unfortunate that it’s come to this. Hopefully, Hoffman and his family won’t be too disheartened by the uncouth tactics of a few people. Hoffman’s 69-yard run in front of 60,000 people watching Nebraska's spring game remains one of the most inspirational stories of the year.

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H/T @SoozOnSports

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"Show me in the rulebook where it says I can't emit a high-pitched squealing noise on my way to the basket. Go ahead. I'll wait." — Jerryd Bayless, probably.

Best caption wins ear plugs, which Boris Diaw probably could've used. Good luck.

In our last adventure, undertaken nearly one Earth month ago: Ronny Turiaf wants the ball. (Miss you, Ronny.)

Winner, Capn_Stache: Ronny Turiaf: Journeyman. Cheerleader. Twister champion.

Runner-up, Art: When it finds itself far from its familiar sideline habitat, the Turiaf is known to freeze in an effort to avoid detection.

Second runner-up, Big S: Ronny Turiaf doesn't just chase a loose ball. He pursues a soulful connection and proceeds only when both are at peace with the relationship.

• Wondering how Daniel Alfredsson was so open for the game-tying goal last night? The photo above pretty much explains it, but here's a full breakdown. [Pensburgh]

• Good news for Boston: Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden are back at practice. [Boston]

• The Buffalo Sabres have signed up for another year of John Scott. [Sabres]

• Led by Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Sweden took home the gold medal at the World Hockey Championships. They celebrated with a bunch of gold helmets. [PITB]

• With the gold medal, Sweden moved from fourth to first the IIHF's world ranking. And Switzerland moved up to seventh. [IIHF]

• Viktor Stalberg and Michal Handzus will be in the lineup for the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3. [Chicago Tribune]

• AHL president David Andrews thinks NBC should mention the impact his league has had on the Bruins' young defensive guns. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]

• Speaking of the AHL and the Providence Bruins, the league has announced that Graham Mink has been suspended 2 games for the match penalty he earned in this brawl. [AHL]

• Are the Washington Capitals losers or chokers? According to the data: chokers. [Washington Post]

• There weren't a whole lot of positives for the Sabres this year, but the play of Kevin Porter was one of them. [Rant Sports]

• Wojtek Wolski heads to the KHL. [Dmitry Chesnokov]

• The Anaheim Ducks have signed William Karlsson to his ELC. [Ducks]

• Ales Hemsky's days as an Oiler are numbered. [Edmonton Journal]

• Handing out some alternative awards, such as the best sitter for the guy that served the most penalties for teammates. [On the Forecheck]

• Gary Bettman does an interview on CNBC, and explains why you should buy a hockey team. [CNBC]

• Vote for Joffrey Lupul for the NHL 14 cover, or this could be your groin. NSFW for language.

College football players rapping on the side is not a novel idea, but it’s rare when one of those players has actual rapping talent.

Cornerback Jabrill Peppers of Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High School is the nation’s top cornerback, according to Rivals, but he’s also an aspiring rapper. And unlike former Michigan State signee Jay Harris, who amicably parted from the school to pursue his rapping career, Peppers actually has talent.

Peppers released a music video Sunday for his new single “Don’t Take It Personal” under the rapper name of “J. Reall.” The song is a calibration with another rapper named “Knew Era.”

The music and flow are good as are the lyrics. The entire video looks professionally done and unlike Harris, Peppers doesn’t say anything that would prohibit one of his collegiate suitors from recruiting him.

Despite his musical talent, Harris appears to be making college football his priority. He’s set to choose his collegiate decision among Michigan, Penn State, LSU, Rutgers and Stanford on May 26.

Let’s hope he stays on the path of getting college education while pursuing his music.

- - -

H/T Lost Lettermen

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The Sacramento Kings need a new general manager. They also need a new arena, a new vision, and possibly a trip to a greasy diner while dealing with the hangover resulting from the party that came after Vivek Ranadive’s recent purchase of the team. Even before they decide between sausage and bacon, though, the Kings need a new GM.

The problem is that they have a GM, Geoff Petrie, already in place. And though Petrie is a former NBA Executive of the Year, creating the Kings’ golden era by fleecing teams in trades while drafting smartly, Petrie’s approach has been curious at best and disastrous at worst in the years since. Sacramento hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006, the team has been through seven coaches since then, and there is precious little to show for years of lottery appearances and cap-conscious planning. The influence of the outgoing owners has quite a bit to do with that postseason-less streak, but Petrie has done his own damage as well.

And yet, a day before the NBA’s draft lottery points toward Sacramento’s rookie fate, Petrie is still in charge, still running the team he’s been behind since the Clinton Administration. From Jason Jones, at the Sacramento Bee:

Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie is interviewing prospects for next month's NBA draft while questions about how decisions will be made going forward remain unanswered.

In recent months, there had been little if any communication from the Maloofs about the future of the front office amid the proposed sale and relocation to Seattle that league owners voted down last week.

"I haven't had the opportunity to talk to anybody yet (from Ranadive's group)," said Petrie, whose contract expires at the end of June. "But my understanding is the sale probably won't officially close for a couple more weeks. How that plays into communication, I really don't know at this point."

Because of that paperwork, the final dots and crosses on a major sale for a basketball team somehow valued at $535 million (that’s not a shot at the Kings nor Sacramento, just the spiraling costs for NBA franchises in general), it appears as if the Kings have no choice but to let Petrie finish out his contract, and select his final draft choice.

They're lucky they'll get one. A few more wins, here and there, and the team could have lost out.

Odds say Sacramento will wind up with the sixth pick in next month’s draft, but if the team won 33 or so games and bad luck reared its head once again with these Kings in Tuesday’s lottery and their pick fell to 14th in the draft, it would be forced to hand its pick over to the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s the price for a forgotten Petrie trade that sent Omri Casspi to the Cavs in exchange for J.J. Hickson. Hickson has long since moved on, but that conditional draft pick could still go to Cleveland if the Kings reach the low end of the lottery (the pick is top 12 protected next season, and top 10 protected in 2015, 2016, and 2017) in upcoming years.

That’s a killer for any new GM, one that could spearhead a plucky, 38-win season (hey, this would be an improvement), only to lose out on a potential contributor in the first round because Geoff Petrie wanted 644 minutes of J.J. Hickson some years before.

This is all part of the everlasting pall created by the Maloof brothers, a miserable set of owners that hamstrung the Sacramento Kings for years not only by making terrible decisions with their own finances, but by remaining indifferent to the basketball end of things at the worst times (they still meddled with some coaching and personnel decisions) and letting Petrie have his way. And that’s not even getting into the whole part about how this crew tried to, y’know, move the team away from Sacramento.

It’s a bad draft, and all indications point to Petrie having a pick in the second part of a top ten that won’t change the fortunes of the franchise all that much. The real work for the next GM will come in the form of figuring out what to do with all of Petrie’s previous lottery picks – Tyreke Evans is a restricted free agent this summer, DeMarcus Cousins is perhaps the NBA’s most unkindly-regarded big man with size and skill – and determining what can be spent on potential free agents as the team changes hands.

What’s certain, unless the Ranadive group has a basketball mind in place to quickly take over the minute the ink dries, is that Petrie’s regime is on its last legs. A shame, because this is the man that smartly took chances and showed patience with players like Predrag “Peja” Stojakovic, Jason Williams, Hidayet “Hedo” Turkoglu, and Gerald Wallace years before, while securing both Chris Webber and Vlade Divac in the same offseason all for the price of Otis Thorpe, Mitch Richmond, and some free agent bucks. He hired Rick Adelman even after Rick flamed out in Golden State, and constructed the NBA’s second best team for a good two or three-year stretch – only felled by the dynastic Los Angeles Lakers, and a poorly-timed knee injury to Chris Webber.

Time is running out, though. Sadly for all, the only thing that’s getting in the way of Petrie running his last draft for Sacramento is the red tape inherent in the sale of a franchise worth $535 million.

Related NBA video from Yahoo! Sports:

Related NBA coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
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Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators, Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks are the three finalists for the award, which is presented to “the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season,” the National Hockey League announced today.

According to the NHL:

“Mark Messier solicits suggestions from club and League personnel and NHL fans to compile a list of potential candidates. However, the selection of the three finalists and ultimate winner is Messier’s alone.”

We’re rather enamored with the idea that Mark Messier has a lemonade stand-like booth outside of NHL regular-season games with a handwritten “ASK ME ABOUT MY LEADERSHIP AWARD” sign above it. Typical conversation goes like this:

MESS: “So who is your pick for the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season?”

FAN: “I think Ryan Callahan might be one the Rangers' greatest captains and leaders.”

MESS: [Laughs dismissively] Yeah, I supposed he's OK ... if you like guys that have never guaranteed a victory in the Eastern Conference Finals and on his way to breaking a 54-year curse to bring the Stanley Cup to New York. Also, not bald enough, sorry. NEXT!”

Who wins this Mess?

Why Daniel Alfredsson Deserves The Mess

Via the NHL:

Alfredsson, the NHL’s longest-serving active captain, leads the Senators in numerous categories, including games played, goals, assists and points. He has taken a leadership role off of the ice as well, working with the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health and the Sens Foundation. Alfredsson has supported the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa for the past 10 seasons, purchasing tickets and suites for club members to attend Senators games and serving as title sponsor of Ringside for Youth, the club’s primary fundraising event during the season. Since 2008, he also has been the spokesperson and champion for the Royal’s “You Know Who I Am” campaign, leading the way to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues. In addition, Alfredsson has supported the Royal’s “Do It for Daron” campaign to assist in raising the profile of youth mental health issues.

Alfie’s off-ice credentials for this award are really inspiring, but so is the way he helped keep the team on track during a season of injury adversity. He’s bridged the gap between the vets and the young players for the last two seasons. A captain worthy of the ‘C’.

Why Dustin Brown Deserves The Mess

The NHL says:

Brown has spent his entire nine-year NHL career with the Kings, serving as their captain for the past five seasons. He was selected as the Kings’ Most Popular Player this season and is known for his physical playing style, which consistently places him among the League leaders in hits. Capitalizing on his aggressive style of play to help others, Brown makes a $50 donation for each hit he delivers to his opponents – a contribution he has made since the 2008-09 season. Those benefiting from this charitable initiative include the Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and KABOOM!, a relationship that has raised $60,000 and culminated with a special playground built in Carson, Calif., in September 2010.

If Brown played in Minnesota, he’d be flat broke based on the number of phantom hits he’d be credited for making. But we digress – Brown deserves a ton of credit for his leadership by example and in the room during the push for the Cup last postseason. Also, he embarrasses the Canucks, much like Messier did.

Why Jonathan Toews Deserves The Mess

The NHL says...

Toews was named captain of the Blackhawks in 2008 when he was just 20-years-old, making him the third-youngest captain in NHL history at the time. While his leadership on the ice is undisputed, his role off the ice with various children’s charitable causes makes him an undeniable role model to fans. In his spare time, Toews volunteers to grant wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and visits with patients at the local children’s hospital and Chicago’s Misericordia. Last fall, he returned home to join the Winnipeg Patrolmen Hockey Club and other NHL players for the “Goals for Dreams Hockey Challenge,” which helped raise $80,000 for the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Dream Factory, a charity that grants dreams for critically and chronically ill children.

Odd they didn’t include his greatest charity case, Patrick Kane …

Without question, a player that personifies everything one wants out of a captain in the NHL, even when he’s whining about the officiating.

Who Should Win The Mess?

Alfredsson. For all the adulation Paul MacLean receives for keeping the Senators in line during adversity, shouldn’t the captain get a pat on the back as well?

Who Will Win The Mess?

Toews, because he inexplicably hasn’t won it yet despite being the best captain in the NHL.

Tiger Woods doesn't mince words with the media much. His answers are usually short, to the point and without much fluff behind them.

During his AT&T National press conference, Woods was asked about the recent spat with Sergio Garcia at the end of his time with the media and put simply, was asked if he ever gave thought to just making up with Garcia and moving on.

"No," Tiger answered bluntly to the chuckles of the assembled media, and there you have exactly how Woods feels about Garcia, a man that called him, "not the nicest guy on tour" at the Players Championship earlier this month.

Can we please get a Sergio-Tiger pairing at Merion, USGA? Do it for us!

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Nicolas Colsaerts hits shot in hazard, has to take ‘relief’ in a bathroom
• Jason Dufner holes out for second straight week
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• Tiger Woods inviting a cloud of suspicion with rules controversies

Derrick Nash seemingly had everything going for him.

The Carrollton High School (Mich.) senior was the state’s top rusher with 1,967 yards and 27 touchdowns and he had a full scholarship to Central Michigan.

But in April all of that changed. Nash started to feel tired and had a high fever. He was rushed to the hospital where he learned news that no one ever wants to hear.

“I went to the emergency room, and that’s when everything broke loose,” Nash told mlive.com. “They did some blood work. My white blood cell count was three times as high as it should be, and my platelet count was three times as low as what it should be.

“It was leukemia."

Nash began chemotherapy on May 6 and while he was worried about his health, he also was worried that his dream of becoming an FBS player would never come true.

“It was my dream come true,” Nash told mlive.com. “Playing Division I football … I never thought I would get the chance, but I was getting the chance. Signing that letter of intent was the greatest moment in my life. It was something I thought would never happen happening.”

But Central Michigan coach Dan Enos didn’t give it a second thought and told Nash not to worry about losing his scholarship and that he was welcome on campus whenever he felt up to it.

“One of the first things we told him was that he was going to play football again and that he was going to play for CMU,” Enos said. “Keeping him on scholarship was a no-brainer. It’s the right thing to do. That’s the philosophy from the president through the athletic director to the coaches. You do the right thing.”

Nash will not be able to play this season as his body recovers from chemotherapy, so he plans to take a medical redshirt. Nash hopes to start working out again and be ready to compete for playing time in 2014.

“The doctors said I’ll be able to recover,” Nash told mlive.com. “I can’t wait to get back and get to work. A couple days ago, I couldn’t stand up without getting tired. Now I’m ready to go. I’m going to work to become stronger than I was before, faster than I was before.”

Added Enos: “There is a reason you go through tough things. I am confident Derrick is going to come back to CMU and to our team tougher and stronger than before.

“I can’t wait until he can run onto our field before a game wearing a CMU uniform. That’ll be a great moment for a lot of people.”

- - -

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Some lauded Bello's potential, posting high school highlight reels in which the 6-foot-4 wing showcased an explosive first step to the rim, impressive length and athleticism and an array of high-flying dunks. Others wondered why Missouri would want a player who averaged a modest 2.4 points and 1.4 rebounds last season for a Baylor program that wasn't exactly loaded at the shooting guard and small forward spots.

So, which side of the debate is right? Well, in a lot of ways, both of them.

Bello is a classic boom-or-bust transfer because of his elite talent but lack of production. Missouri has to hope that a change of scenery, more playing time and a year to sit out and develop his game will help Bello tap into the immense potential that made him a top 60 recruit in the Class of 2011.

Hailed as a key piece of Baylor's future when he arrived along with high school teammate Quincy Miller two years ago, Bello made minimal impact in his two seasons in Waco. He averaged just over 10 minutes per game both seasons, occasionally injecting energy with hustle plays and highlight-worthy dunks but shooting too poorly from the free throw line and the perimeter to justify a greater role.

With veterans Brady Heslip and Gary Franklin returning for Baylor and incoming guards Allerik Freeman and Kenny Chery set to contribute right away, it's unlikely Bello would have seen more playing time as a junior. As a result, he announced earlier this month that he was leaving Baylor in search of a school where he'd receive more playing time.

Missouri has become a destination for elite transfers under coach Frank Haith, but the question will be whether the Tigers are the appropriate fit for Bello.

He could have dropped down a level and ensured himself ample opportunity to play for a mid-major program from his native North Carolina. Instead he's risking that he'll develop enough to crack Missouri's lineup as a junior, a starting five that could feature the likes of Tulsa transfer Jordan Clarkson and Oregon transfer Jabari Brown at the wings if both are still around.

Missouri's up-tempo style fits Bello's knack for defending the perimeter and finishing in transition, but he needs to develop a more well-rounded game between now and the end of the summer of 2014.

If he does, his transfer could be a coup for Missouri. If not, he could get lost in the shuffle the same way he did at Baylor.

It's official! Pitchers playing catch with kids in the stands during batting practice is the hottest craze in baseball — sweeping the game faster than a team playing a three-game series with the Dodgers. (Sorry, Dodgers, but you have been swept three times in May).

Actually, it's a trend that started with those Los Angeles Dodgers, when Hyun-Jin Ryu played catch with a young fan named Deuce last week. Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals was next to get caught on camera doing it. Now we find Bruce Chen of the Kansas City Royals, who did it over the weekend when playing the Oakland Athletics.

Of course, the third time something happens it isn't as cool anymore. Just like with movies and Nas albums, the first one is still the best. But in this case, we'll point out two noteworthy things about Chen's effort: He's tossing the ball with A's fans, not Royals fans, which is a nice show of bi-partisan catch-playing. And he's playing with two kids, not just one.

This tell us it won't be long before the kids are lined up to play catch during batting practice like they line up for autographs.

BLS H/N: 7000 Coliseum Way via Cut4

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Follow @MikeOz and @bigleaguestew, on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page.

The job of a rookie quarterback was never what you'd call easy. But the sudden, meteoric splash of young talents like Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick have meant that for new QBs, the learning curve is a ten-foot-high wall, and patience with their development is nonexistent. So it's got to warm the chilled hearts of Bills fans to hear that their latest prize acquisition, rookie E.J. Manuel, is acclimating well to the team's new offense under Doug Marrone and OC Nathaniel Hackett.

“The funny thing is it's easier to learn than the offense I had at Florida State,” Manuel said on SiriusXM. “It's a true West Coast-type progression offense. That's really what I wanted when I was coming through the pre-draft process. I wanted something that I could just go in and say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, check it down and run it. That's it, it's that simple. I love it."

Now, the way that Manuel related it, the Bills' playbook sounds only slightly more complex than the "everybody get open" method of Thanksgiving Day football. We're betting there's a bit more to it than that. Still, Manuel is doubling down on the idea that he's got this thing knocked.

“The learning curve for me is a lot shorter simply because of what I had at Florida State," Manuel continued. "[FSU's offense is] more complex and a little bit harder to catch on and learn. This offense is very simple. I've done a great job with it.” Confidence, right?

Of course, understanding the playbook is only half the battle, if that much. Execution is key, and that's where Manuel will need to step up. As our own Doug Farrar wrote in previewing Manuel for the draft, "There are questions about his on-field decision-making ability, his ability to read defenses at an advanced level, how well he throws under pressure, and how able he is to throw with a sense of anticipation." Knowing what you have to do and actually doing it are two very different tasks, and perhaps it's to Manuel's benefit that he can get the sequence of plays in mind quickly in order to focus on, you know, actually running those plays.

Now, the Hot Sports Take here would be oh, the Bills offense is easier than a college one so the Bills must be worse than a college team!!! Wrong. Complexity is not necessarily a sign of genius, and simplicity does not necessarily equal simplemindedness. And yes, the Bills would destroy Florida State or any other ACC team they played.

SEC? Totally different story. Buffalo would be lucky to finish third in the SEC East.

Here's Mike Florio's take from Pro Football Talk:

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

A trip to the MLB Fan Cave in New York City to play Wiffle ball must have been fun enough for 13-year-old Nick D'Annibale, a seventh grader who happens to also be a survivor of leukemia. Just getting a chance to play in the street, semi-Willie Mays-style — to hit and pitch, with other baseball fans — some 18 months after being diagnosed, that alone made for a happy Friday.

And then the ice cream van showed up, announcing its presence with the appropriate music box soundtrack. Car! Ice cream delay — those are the best.

But then, instead of the Ice Cream Man, none other than Robinson Cano popped out of the van, wearing the same No. 24 that D'Annibale wore on his back.

"I thought it was just going to be ice cream," D'Annibale said.

On his own free time before the New York Yankees hosted the Blue Jays in the Bronx, Cano played Wiffle ball in the street with D'Annibale and the Fan Cave Dwellers.

"I love Robinson Cano and he's one of the best second basemen in the league," D'Annibale said.

Cano and D'Annibale traded swings, with the Yankees star giving a high-five and saying, "Whoa, you're better than me!"

And the kid, who sports a Roger Maris 1961 haircut, did seem to put some good swings on the ball. Watch.

Nick's father, Joe D'Annibale, said the first year of his son's treatment was "really rough," but he's been better lately (Nick has been in school this year), even though there might be two more years of treatment ahead. Whoa, again.

Send some good thoughts Nick's way, won't you? He's still got a long way to go. And the same to Robinson Cano. Visits like these make a big difference in another person's quality of life.

Baseball is in full swing! Interact with @AnswerDave, @MikeOz, @Townie813 and @bigleaguestew on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page!

And it seems very silly because, as we know, by the time players get to the pros they know all the fundamentals in and out, right? Not so fast.

Michael Vick, the 32-year-old starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, has played 10 seasons in the NFL, played two seasons at Virginia Tech, started three years for his high school team and probably played youth football for many years before that. And throughout those thousands of practices and hundreds of games, Vick says nobody taught him how to properly carry a football.

It is absolutely mind-blowing that Vick didn't know the correct way to carry a football before new Eagles coach Chip Kelly pulled him aside at a recent practice and taught him, but that's what he told PhillyMag.com:

“Chip told me how to run with the football the other day,” Vick said. “He taught me how to run with the football and how to carry the football, and I think it’s something that you just have to work on.”

The PhillyMag.com writer seemed to think Vick was being facetious, or putting him on, but he wrote that Vick answered a follow-up question earnestly:

“The other day, I broke out in the pocket, and the first thing Chip told me was to tuck the football,” Vick said. “So I showed him how I was running with it, and he looked at it and he knocked the ball right out of my hands. And he was like, ‘Hold it like this.’ And what he told me felt comfortable. I had a tighter grip on the football. That should secure that problem as long as I work on it. Like I said, you’re always a work in progress, and even when you think you know it all, sometimes you don’t. The people who feel like they know everything, they don’t.”

Vick has 791 rushing attempts in his NFL regular-season career, another 235 at Virginia Tech, and nobody ever thought to teach him how to properly carry the ball so he wouldn't fumble it. It's even more amazing considering Vick has been prone to fumbles through his career. He has fumbled 87 times in his NFL career, losing 39. He fumbled 32 times in the last three years alone, and turnovers are the major reason his star dimmed after what looked like a career rebirth in Philadelphia a few years ago. Maybe a simple "high and tight!" would have prevented some. Or Vick is exaggerating it all, because it does seem implausible that a 32-year-old who has played football nearly all his life had never been taught how to properly tuck the football when he runs.

But then again, there's a reason Lombardi began his Packers tenure by introducing his players to a football. You can't assume anything.

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Wyoming coach Dave Christensen in March decided to take over the play calling duties in the wake of offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon’s departure to New Mexico State.

In doing so, Christensen assured anyone who was listening that the 2013 Wyoming Cowboys would be the “fastest” team in the country.

We’re not talking 40 times, we’re talking amassing a lot of plays similar to the offense Christensen directed while the offensive coordinator at Missouri.

"We have been a no-huddle offense, but I felt that, in the last few years, our tempo has slowed down drastically," Christensen told SiriusXM College Sports Nation. "It's unacceptable for what I want to do what I have in mind as an offense. We're trying to get back to a tempo that's maybe a little greater than when I was at Missouri."

To make sure there was no confusion about Christensen’s intentions, Christensen tweeted out a makeshift movie poster with his team starring in “FastNFurious 13” thus joining the ranks of coaches with a Photoshopping fetish.

Christensen, who spent 11 years as the OC at Missouri, ran 1,112 and 982 plays in his final two seasons with the program. In contrast, Oregon, which is widely considered the nation’s fastest team, ran 1,058 plays last season and ran 1,.024 in 2010 when they played for a national title.

Nevada led the Mountain West Conference in play run last year with 1,080. Wyoming ran a paltry 852, which ranked seventh in the conference.

- - -

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Here's what Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said after his team won Game 6 against the New York Knicks on Saturday night to earn an Eastern Conference finals matchup with the top-seeded Miami Heat, who ousted Indiana in the second round of last year's postseason:

"This is not about getting back at Miami," Vogel said. "If you're in the final four, you're competing for a championship. You're competing for a championship. And they're just the next team that's in our way."

Here's how that quote was misrepresented to Heat star LeBron James after Miami's practice on Sunday, according to FOX Sports Florida's Chris Tomasson:

Reporter to LeBron: “Vogel kept saying last night that you guys are just another team."

And here's how LeBron responded to that (which, again, is totally not what Vogel said):

“We’re not just another team. I don’t understand what he’s saying. But we’re not just another team. It’s not true. [...] We’re not just another team. We’re a great team. We’re very confident. We’ll be ready for them. But if we’re just another team, you really don’t prepare for just another team. We’re not just another team. You got to be prepared for us."

Here's how Vogel responded to James' response to something he never even said, as related by Pacers.com's Scott Agness on Monday morning:

"Sorry sports world, the words 'just another team' never came out of my mouth," he said. "Great respect for LBJ and the champs. Looking forward to [a] great series."

So, naturally, we're probably mere moments away from the MVP being told about Vogel's "blatant disrespect for El BJ and the chumps," because Game 1 doesn't tip off until Wednesday night and dangit, people have to talk about something, even when it's nothing.

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This was the case for Catherine Farish from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Originally from Boston, she moved south because her husband is a sergeant in the Marine Corps. She's also a big Boston Bruins fan. Working Sunday night at a local Buffalo Wild Wings during the Pittsburgh Penguins/Ottawa Senators double overtime game, she encountered a customer who would end up making her day.

Here's Catherine:

Last night during my shift this young man came in alone and sat at my table. He was quiet, but friendly and very easy to take care of, he came in to watch the Penguins/Senators game. As we all know it went into double overtime, so he was there from beginning at 7pm to the very end around 11:45. After I congratulated him on the Senators win, I stepped away and during that time he left and when I returned to clean off his table, I picked up his credit card receipt (pictured below) It absolutely made my night and even though I may be a Bruins fan, completely restores my faith in humanity. It was such a kind gesture. Hope this brightens your day!! Thanks for reading!

What she found was a $50.33 tip and this message:

(The "KCCO" stands for "Keep Calm and Chive On", a reference to the recently revived "Keep Calm and Carry On".)

Farish added that the generous customer said he was born in Ohio and raised to dislike all things Pittsburgh (Browns fan, perhaps?). We wish could have seen his reaction after Colin Greening's goal Sunday night.

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Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

Beyond the usual Twitter beefs, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio and Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were two media pros who seemed especially irritated by the whole thing.

Dan Steinberg, the Big Kahuna over at the Washington Post's indispensable D.C. Sports Bog, got all investigative instead, and actually reached out to the fans who bought those gifts to see why they did it. As you'd expect, Steinberg got some interesting responses.

Patrick Dibert, a 24-year old Redskins fan who works in the non-profit sector for a Virginia group that fights hunger ... bought Griffin and his fiancée, Rebecca Liddicoat, a set of Brita water filters for $30 (including shipping), and he isn’t about to apologize.

“It’s not like that was money I’m not going to donate to charity; I’m just not going to go out to happy hour one time during the week,” Dibert told me on Monday. “I mean, it’s just kind of funny to say I bought RGIII a present.”

Wes Taylor bought RG3 and Ms. Liddicoat a pair of spoon holders for $8, and seemed surprised anyone was taking this so seriously.

"It was kind of a goof," Taylor told Steinberg. “I just saw something on there that wasn’t that expensive and was like ‘You know what, I might as well send that.’ It was off the wall, it was goofy and no one else had bought it.’”

And for John Short, buying a simple wedding gift was more about the goofiness inherent to the hardcore Redskins fan than any sort of "give to the rich" mistake.

“Everybody knows Redskins fans are crazy optimists who love RGIII,” he said, explaining why he and his wife spent $35 on a chip-and-dip set for a quarterback. “I think it’s just an indication of the way Redskins fans feel about the team. Yes, it’s crazy and illogical, but it was kind of a no-brainer once we thought about it. We love this team, and this is a unique way to support them; why wouldn’t we do it? You don’t see Jaguars fans buying their draft picks anything; that’s something that makes Redskins fans unique. It IS weird, but it’s something uniquely Redskins."

Some have criticized Griffin for not giving the gifted items to charity instead of keeping them, and in the long view, that's legitimate. However, 24-year-old Danny Kolta pointed out to Steinberg that while he spent seven bucks on a dish towel for the happy couple, he's also put down over $500 for an RG3 jersey at a silent auction for charity.

Kolta explained his thought process thusly:

“I’m only 24 years old, but he just gave me the most exciting Redskins season I’ve ever seen. He’s a normal person. Just because he’s rich he shouldn’t be able to receive gifts? That’s kind of stupid….With all the bad quarterbacks we’ve had, now we actually have something to be excited about. I just wanted to thank him. That’s the least I could do.”

And that's what this seems to be about -- a simple series of appreciative gestures for a player who has given Redskins fans hope they haven't had in a good, long while. it's also a way for the fans to feel involved, it seems. Dibert joked that the water filter he bought will help keep Griffin hydrated, and John Short advised Griffin and Liddicoat to use their new chip-and-dip set while watching the Dallas Cowboys lose during the Redskins' 2013 bye week.

“Congratulations, hope you have many happy years together, Hail to the Redskins,” Dibert wrote in the card that was sent with his gift.

What's so economically evil about that?

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Elisha Shaw, one of the top defensive line prospects in the nation, is expected to be a big-time college player come fall 2014. The rising senior at Atlanta (Ga.) Tucker High is considered one of the top 50 overall prospects in the Class of 2014 and is being recruited heavily by the likes of Alabama, Texas, Florida State and a handful of other top programs.

Still, Shaw has not been given a 5-star rating, and he considered that quite a slight. In fact, as reported by the blog Outkick the Coverage, Shaw was so upset that he hadn’t given given a fifth star (he’s currently considered a 4-star recruit by Rivals.com) that he tweeted out a screenshot of his computer looking at the top player rankings for 247Sports.com, with the appended caption “Man, I need that fifth star.”

There was just one issue that Shaw hadn’t consider. Shaw was looking at the 247Sports rankings on one tab, but had two other browser tabs open on his iPad. One of those other tabs displayed a “Cannot Open Page” error message; the other showed a ‘Pornhub.com’ search for a well-known porn star.

Now we can officially add screengrabbing proof of one’s own porn watching activity as a recruiting social media snafu.

The specific star of pornographic movies in question is a 23-year-old young lady named Isis Taylor, who is a well-documented (or at least photographed) USC fan. In fact, as soon as Taylor heard that Shaw was searching for some of her past work, she took the opportunity to reach out to him on Twitter herself, encouraging him to head to USC.

That may very well mark another first in student social media snafus: A porn star soliciting a football recruit to try and influence his collegiate pick.

So far, Shaw has been quiet about the entire incident. No schools have backed off the 6-foot-5, 295-pounder yet, though that may not last the longer that he lets the Isis Taylor story linger.

Then again, maybe he’ll just pick USC. The Trojans weren’t on his radar before, but maybe now that he’s got wind of one very notable star, they might want to reconsider their odds.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

According to Chris Daniels of Seattle NBC affiliate KING5, Kent police said the 25-year-old Williams "waved a gun" during a scheduled visitation session. The Seattle Times has more details:

The incident happened around 1:55 p.m. Sunday in downtown Kent. The victim is a woman who told police she has a 10-year-old son whose father is Williams.

The woman told police that Williams had a scheduled visitation exchange with the boy on Sunday, and during the exchange in a downtown Kent parking lot, the two began arguing. The woman told police that Williams brandished a firearm and made threats. He then left the area.

Police later found Williams and took him into custody "without incident," terming the situation "a domestic violence case under investigation."

Williams has largely underwhelmed in his four-year professional career, failing to live up to the significant promise the 6-foot-6 combo guard possessed when the then-New Jersey Nets selected the tantalizing Louisville product with the 11th pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

After a relatively quiet start to his career in New Jersey, Williams came on strong late in the season, earning more minutes on the struggling club and showcasing an intriguing all-around floor game, averaging just under 12 points, six rebounds and 4.5 assists per game after the All-Star break. The honeymoon didn't last long, though, as Williams spent Summer League and preseason gunning, started the 2010-11 season by showing up late for practices and testing the patience of Nets coach Avery Johnson, earning a two-game suspension that was followed by a first-of-its-kind D-League demotion. Shortly thereafter, the Nets shipped him off to the Houston Rockets in a three-team deal; Williams would struggle to crack Houston's rotation, making only 23 appearances over two seasons for the Rockets before being waived in March 2012. He finished out the 2011-12 season with the Sacramento Kings, but was let go after a relatively nondescript 18-game stint in Northern California, and headed off to China after failing to catch on with any club heading into this past season.

Their roster decimated by injuries — especially in the backcourt, where they lost both starter Rajon Rondo and reserve Leandro Barbosa to season-ending injuries — the Celtics gave Williams another shot after he'd wrapped his stint with the Guandong Southern Tigers, signing him to a 10-day deal in February and offering him a chance to work his way back into the NBA. Williams performed well enough in limited duty as a backup point guard, averaging 4.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 13.3 minutes per game in 24 regular-season appearances for Doc Rivers' squad. Boston signed Williams for the remainder of the 2012-13 season and the 2014 season following the expiration of his initial 10-day deal, but his '13-'14 veteran minimum contract is wholly unguaranteed, according to ShamSports.com's salary database.

In an April interview with CSNNE.com's Jessica Camerato, Williams expressed gratitude at getting another NBA chance and having the opportunity to dispel the league-wide notion that, despite his skill-set and athleticism, his character issues make him the kind of prospect best viewed from a distance.

"I have to prove everything," he said matter-of-factly. "What have I proved? Nothing. I just proved I can wear number 55 and some funny looking shoes. I feel like I’m starting over. I feel like I’m turning 21 again on Draft Night and just getting drafted. To me, to be honest, I feel like I have to prove everything."

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Rookie move, KA.

This past weekend, Allen was trying a little social-media outreach, recording himself on Vine visiting an In-N-Out Burger. And, as so often happens when athletes get unfiltered access to the public, things turned ugly.

Now, it's generally good form not to in any way endorse your competitors; if you're a Coke spokesman, you don't want to get caught drinking a Pepsi, for instance. But you can figure that Allen, who went to college at Cal, might be a Raiders fan from way back, and almost surely owned the hat before he was drafted in the third round by that bolt-oriented team to the south. Reasonable mistake, right? We can all agree that it was a simple oversight, can't we?

Of course not. This is NFL fandom we're talking about here. Chargers faithful saw the hat and absolutely went ballistic. Lob Shots compiled a few of the best Twitter responses. Some of the lines we can actually share:

"if that's post draft, that kid is an idiot. I won't be rooting for him." -@habitualistic

"Typical San Diego! If he wore that in Denver he would get destroyed!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -@dnel0780

"Welcome to San Diego. Now burn that Raiders hat" -@crackpotjack

You get the idea. Allen deleted the Vine and took to Twitter to express his regrets:

I apologize!

— Keenan Allen (@KAAdeuce1) May 18, 2013

I get it fans!!!! Won't happen again!

— Keenan Allen (@KAAdeuce1) May 18, 2013

Of course, the fans didn't let it go that easily, with one replying, "Shouldn't have happened in the first place." Another fanned the flames of the grassroots burn-the-hat movement, which would win Allen pretty much the entire city of San Diego but put a price on his head in Oakland.

Fun stuff, huh? When do we get to playing actual games again?

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Little did he know he would be calling it in a dramatically different way when an on-ice official was accidentally injured.

In the first period of a game between the Newcastle North Stars and Melbourne Ice on Sunday, linesman Casper Russelhuber was crunched by two players, receiving an accidental spin-kick from Chris Frank of the Ice that lacerated his index finger.

Along with the sliced digit, he suffered a mild concussion. You can see the injury at the 53-second mark here:

The game needed a replacement official.

They found one in the commentary booth.

According to The Age, White had experience as a referee in lower levels of hockey. He also had his gear with him, as he was due to play in a “reserves match” after the game. Alas, he didn’t have an officials’ uniform that fit, so he “borrowed” one from a half-conscious linesman.

Yes, they stripped a concussed man of his clothes and gave it to a hockey announcer. Such is life in the AIHL.

From the Age:

The result wasn't a snug fit for White, who says he looked like something out of "South Central LA" in the bigger man's outfit.

ATC boss James Morgan said the commentary crew was highly amused by White's “baggy pant” look, and hoped he would trip over his pants whilst on screen.

White said the players were also amused by his promotion, - “it's all on you to get in there”, chided Ice star Matt Armstrong - but they remained supportive. White says he made one or two errors, but was satisfied overall with his performance. But that was after an "adrenalin dump" when he first stepped on to the ice.

“I suddenly got out there and realised 'oh [crap] there's 2000 people here, I'm on TV. this is my first AIHL game ever and the home team is down 2-0!'”

The North Stars defeated the Ice, 2-0. White had this to say after the game:

Went from @aihl commentator to linesman in the same game yesterday, madness! Thanks @themelbourneice @newnorthstars for kudos #twojobsinone

— Stephen White (@StephenWhite83) May 19, 2013

White is a national commentator for Fox Sports Australia’s coverage of the AIHL, so this is a bit like Doc Emrick putting on the zebra stripes. But could you imagine this happening on a local level in the NHL, given our sport’s proud legacy of homer announcers?

Could Jack Edwards call an icing on the Bruins? Would Sidney Crosby ever be offside if Paul Steigerwald had the whistle? Would Chico Resch officiate the game while double-fisting Premio Sausage sandwiches?

s/t Reddit

How is Taiwan ever going to repay the Western Hemisphere for Manny Ramirez?

As Manny continues to hit like Manny, (he has seven home runs), he also provides Taiwan's nightly news with hysterical video clips. Now, it's hard to tell what is happening in this clip in total because of the language barrier and the overgrown graphics that make CNN or ESPN on NFL Draft day look spartan by comparison. It must be like "Blade Runner" in Tapei City.

But here's the gist of Manny's Moonwalk:

Manny takes a big swing on a foul ball, loses his balance, and prevents himself from falling on his bottom by walking backward until he finds his bearings. And it looks like he's moonwalking like Michael Jackson. (OK, it's kind of a stretch. But they did a nice job with the video cuts and "Billie Jean" sound clips.)

It's just Manny being ... Michael. As showmen go, and as kinky hair goes, they are not dissimilar.

There's also something going on with a foul ball and a fist bump and a broken bat that smells scrumptious to Manny. I've seen players smell a freshly broken bat before, but ... I don't know either. Just keep the highlights coming until Dennis Rodman figures out a way to get Manny home.

Big BLS H/N: Manny Does Taiwan

Baseball is in full swing! Interact with @AnswerDave, @MikeOz, @Townie813and@bigleaguestewon Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page!

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