And with this poorly scored video, we introduce you to the phenomenon known as Sun Ming-Ming, who is currently with the Dodge City Legend of the USBL. He is seven-foot-nine, which makes him the tallest man in professional basketball and the seventh tallest man in the world.
He also has quite a story: He was forced to have dangerous brain surgery, removing a tumor in his brain that was producing too many growth hormones. (His agent had to raise the money for him to have the surgery.)
He has a long way to go to make it as a basketball player: He played 30 scoreless minutes for the Legend last year. He also is notoriously sensitive about his height.
When we see these freakishly tall human beings, we tend to not think they should be forced to play basketball. Leonid Stadnik, the world’s tallest man at 8-foot-4, once said that “my height is God’s punishment. My life has no sense.”
In case you missed the story — and you probably did — in late 2001, Canadian Border Service agents picked up an unmarked bag of steroids that was en route to the Cleveland Indians team hotel to see who claimed it. The guy who got it was Angel (Nao) Presinal, a fitness trainer and then-aide to slugger Juan Gonzalez. The border folks questioned both Presinal and Gonzalez, who played a little game of Not My Bag, No, and the bag was confiscated. Major League Baseball, suspicious of Presinal, banned Presinal from MLB clubhouses; whenever he was around athletes aftewards, security people informed MLB officials.
Presinal had remained a shady figure around baseball, until this March when he showed up as, of all things, strength and conditioning coach for the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic team. (He was also at the All-Star game in Detroit last year and continues to train several players, including Bartolo Colon.) And now it has been nailed down, by an MLB official report, that he accepted a huge bag of steroids while flying back from a Cleveland Indians game with one of baseball’s top players at the time.
Yeah. We can see why it might be confusing that no one’s talking about this.
So here’s something nifty we didn’t know about: It’s Blind baseball!
Actually, it’s not called blind baseball; it’s called “Beep” Baseball, because the ball beeps as it’s coming to the plate, which makes sense, considering the batter can’t see it. The rules are, well, they’re complicated: “Article 1…In Beep Baseball, each of the two teams is permitted six turns at bat during which it attempts to score runs by having its batters hit the beeping ball into fair territory and reach a buzzing (activated) base before the ball is legally fielded by the defense. The team in the field attempts to end the turn at bat of the opponent by causing three of its batters to be put out.”
Oh, and here’s a brief video — which seems to have been put together by someone who is blind — of the game in action. We encourage anyone in the Cleveland area to drop by and cheer ‘em on.
Well, Boston blogger Chowdaheads has gotten a hold of funeral photos, and we can’t imagine a funeral we’d enjoy more. We’d say we’d like a Cardinals-themed one ourselves, but if it were true to life these days, we’d have to be propped up as if we were throwing something heavy at the television screen.
After much hype and anticipation, Talladega Nights is finally in theatres for a nation of men just waiting to quote its most obnoxious lines from here to eternity. Of course, I’m a man among that nation and will be seeing the movie as soon as I’m able. Hell, anything with Will Ferrell is worth seeing. Anything with Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen is worth bringing a sippin’ seat into the theatre and seeing.
So it was with much delight that I read the Cinematical review which says it’s “even funnier than Anchorman.” That’s right, funnier than Anchorman. Topping that off is the TMZ interview with Cohen where he hilariously describes the process of improvising scenes with Ferrell and then fighting him off from repeated and drunken sexual advances. It’s all done out of character and off the top and reinforces the emerging opinion that this is the most brilliantly funny dude on the planet. Enjoy, and let me know what you think if/when you see the movie.
AOL has done a few things lately that have made headlines, but the one that’s most directly affecting my online experience is the beta launch of AIM Pages — online profiles similar to MySpace but tied into your existing Buddy List, which is nice. I created one a while back that’s basically a place for me to show pictures of the SBL crew and myself, but you don’t really care about that. What you probably care about is cheerleaders, the ones that went to your high school, maybe the ones at your college, too, and certainly the ones that dance on the sidelines for your favorite NFL team.
To that end, allow me to introduce you to one BurgundyGoldPage, which is basically the AIM Page hub for a bunch of Redskins cheerleaders to “social network” with each other and, apparently, even you, Joe Sportsfan. There’s Chelsea, whose favorites include chocolate-covered strawberries and Clinton Portis, Katie from Waldorf and Tiffany, whose favorite player is still LaVar Arrington. Oh, and almost all of them love The Notebook. Makes sense.
Anyway, go check ‘em out, add ‘em to your buddy list and send your AIM Pages to me if you got ‘em. We can be buddies too. Snork!
Also: While we’re here on the Redskins tip, it should be noted that Chris Cooley has crazy hair that’s about to get a lot crazier.
AOL has done a few things lately that have made headlines, but the one that’s most directly affecting my online experience is the beta launch of AIM Pages — online profiles similar to MySpace but tied into your existing Buddy List, which is nice. I created one a while back that’s basically a place for me to show pictures of the SBL crew and myself, but you don’t really care about that. What you probably care about is cheerleaders, the ones that went to your high school, maybe the ones at your college, too, and certainly the ones that dance on the sidelines for your favorite NFL team.
To that end, allow me to introduce you to one BurgundyGoldPage, which is basically the AIM Page hub for a bunch of Redskins cheerleaders to “social network” with each other and, apparently, even you, Joe Sportsfan. There’s Chelsea, whose favorites include chocolate-covered strawberries and Clinton Portis, Katie from Waldorf and Tiffany, whose favorite player is still LaVar Arrington. Oh, and almost all of them love The Notebook. Makes sense.
Anyway, go check ‘em out, add ‘em to your buddy list and send your AIM Pages to me if you got ‘em. We can be buddies too. Snork!
Earlier this year the Beer Belly made quite a splash across the internets – even Rick Reilly embarrassingly picked it up – but along comes Papa Bert’s Sippin’ Seat Cushion and just blows the thing away. For just $29.99 you can sneak three cups of liquor into the sporting event of your choice and soften your seating surface to boot! It even comes in camo if you want tempt fate by mixing cocktails with shotguns. This, my friends, is real genius on display.
Double Play Depth brings up a question we’ve been wondering about ourselves: 
So here’s something nifty we didn’t know about: It’s 
