I’ll defend the paranoia of the Customs agents here. This does sound a wee bit sketch.

According to the AP, 1000 Obama bobbleheads have been held at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection warehouse since May 20. The dolls were en route to Charleston, West Virginia – home of Minor League baseball team the West Virginia Power, Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates who were planning to give them out at their game this Saturday. The Bobblehead is an Obama-likeness in his High School basketball uniform sporting the Punahou High blue and gold.

Power team spokesperson, Kristen Call, told the Associated Press it’s unlikely that the dolls will be released in time for the game, and the fans in attendance on Saturday will be given a voucher to receive their bobble head. While you wait for it to get mailed, I suggest you all open EBAY accounts in the meantime.

Saturday would have marked the first ever bobblehead night for the Power. It also probably marks the largest import operation of a Single-A baseball team not involving kraut for the concession stand.

Not saying we should start lighting these bobbles on fire and see if they blow, it’s just that we’re at Code Red here! (are we?)

Obama Bobbleheads Stalled In US Customs (4029tv.com)
West Virginia Power: website

Good luck making money on this one…

According to The Online Wire, The Belmont Stakes are currently giving Kentucky Derby Champ Mine That Bird 6/5 odds as the favorite to win the last leg of the Triple Crown. Not exactly a long shot herself, Preakness champ Rachel Alexandra is next up at 5/2.

Some of the other’s getting consideration from the handicappers include Dunkirk – 4/1, the highly touted Charitable Man – 9/2, and the R&B sensation Chocolate Candy – 14/1.

Last year, Triple Crown Contender Big Brown hit the gate at Belmont Park as a 4/1 favorite before laying a huge egg, finishing dead last, and costing me $80 bucks crushing my dreams . Mine That Bird won’t get to this level of lopsided, but with Rachel Alexandra’s cachet continuing to slip due to the uncertainty that she’ll even race it wouldn’t surprise me if MTB entered next week’s race with an overwhelming amount of hype to live up to.


Da’Tara loyalists love Luv Gov at 40-1.

Even a cold O.G. like myself has to admit, this is adorable.

Meet Keith “I’m a hustler baby“ O’dell Jr., two-year old pool prodigy.

Junior may spend two, three hours a day honing his craft, but the keyword here is pedigree. The New York native, Keith was recently spotted at billiards halls around Las Vegas while attending the American Pool Associations annual tourney in which his Grandma and Grandpa were competing. Keith himself is the youngest member of the APA.

No word on any sort of potential diaper sponsorship deal with Olhausen, yet.

Learn more about the kid at his website PoolProdigy.com.

Back at my place of business and, unfortunately, a little short on time after a holiday weekend where I thought very little about anything but charcoal heat zones and Blue Point Summer Ale. Not too pressed to pass along something truly unsettling that caught my eye I’m afraid…


(more…)

Last week, I posted a photo of Leo Dicaprio nearly getting taken out by an airborne Brent Barry. Well, I think the results may have been decidedly different if Barry decided to take on Drew Barrymore, who was armed with 17-inch heels and feeling flexible at the May 19th Lakers-Nuggets game at the Staples Center.

Luckily, Drew the Impaler didn’t stick anyone (she just got to’ up on copious amounts of Bud Heavy)

H/T to The Telegraph, keep rolling out these Celebrity Playoff Galleries!

I think I’d rather be suspended 50 games for alleged PEDs usage.

Shoaib Akhtar has been withdrawn from Pakistan’s squad for the World Twenty20 because of a genital infection.

A PCB press release stated that a medical board had assessed the paceman, that he had undergone electrofulguration – a surgical procedure to destroy tissue by electric current – and will be reassessed in the first week of June. (Shoaib to miss ICC World Twenty20)

I think I’d rather snap both Achilles, and tear every ligament in both knees…and look like Hedo Turkoglu.

According to the BBC, Akhtar’s injury (sounds more like a biblical plague of one, right?) comes on the heels of a string of injuries (calf, knee) he’s suffered since coming back from an 18-month ban.

You ever think that being a bowler just might not be your thing, Shoaib, and consider walking away from the pitch?

He’ll miss Pakistan’s next match, scheduled for June 5 against England. Best of luck with the recovery, sir.

Tower, we’re going to buzz the backstop.





Is it a news report? A talk show? Is it child protection PSA? (Not very likely judging from the picture-in-picture graphic laugh fest). I don’t speak a lick of Japanese.

Playing baseball at an airport (Japan Probe)

I don’t even know Briny Baird, son of Butch Baird, but what a guy! He won the whole damn Country P.F. Changs!

Yesterday, while a whole lot of you were sitting at work dreaming about P.F. Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps, B.B. was atop the Omni Hotel in San Diego staring down at a make-shift bullseye set-up in right field of Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres.

The task at hand, take ten shots from the 300+ foot elevated tee. If a single one landed in the center of the bullseye, every man and woman alive in America would receive a free P.F. Chang wrap (the kicker: you have to buy a damn entree. RATS!) Additionally, for every bullseye P.F. Chang’s donated $2,000 to the San Diego Navy/ Marine Corps Relief Society ($1,000 and $500 for the outer rings).

Now this was an elevated tee. It sat Monday on the roof of the Omni San Diego Hotel, 34 floors – 340 feet or thereabouts – above L Street, 268 yards to a flag stabbed into Petco Park’s right field turf and surrounded by a large bull’s-eye. Tough hole, but maybe the most picturesque in the history of golf.

Little wind, but always a threat of tricky gusts. No trees. Possible nosebleed. The only rough was the shot itself. Not since Alan Shepard sliced a few on the moon had we seen anything like it. A David Letterman stunt, perhaps. (SignOnSanDiego.com)

Briny put two in the center, and 8 of 10 in the scoring area – raising $17,500, which Chang’s upped to $25 large. Novel charity work by all (we all lost interest in the chicken lettuce wraps after hearing the damn entree kicker).

Go check out the video on SignOnSanDiego.com

Obama gave the commencement key note at the Notre Dame Graduation on Saturday, and not everyone there was psyched about it. I’ll start this one about 4:20 in, you’ll see why…





They probably limited the students to 2-4 tickets for the family, and some kid had the audacity to invite his/her limo driver. Unreal.

As if he almost predicted the outburst, Obama went were he needed to go to calm the ND crowd – the playing field. But what angle do you choose when you’re dealing with the fact that the once dominant Notre Dame legacy has been reduced to a middling Basketball team and a middling football team? Well, guys, you’ve still got the largest outdoor 5-on-5 tournament in the World. (Did I mention I had the Tarheels come over my house the other day?)

Had Jeeves heard Hallelujah Holla Back roll off Barack’s tongue? Agreed, he still would shouted obscenities from the Upper Deck.

Obama Cites Basketball At Notre Dame Commencement (Baller In Chief)
Obama’s Commencement Address at Notre Dame (Real Clear Politics)

In case you had forgotten how greed works, Don King provided a little refresher this week. His production company, KingVision, sued an American Legion Post in Chino, CA, alleging that they broke the rules when they only purchased the residential pay-per-view package for one his fights instead of the commercial package. Because, when you think American Legion, you think bustling merchantry. The Chino war vets settled with King for a cool 20 Gs, because they can’t afford the cost to go up against a pay-per-view provider’s legal arsenal, not to mention whatever scumbags King keeps as counsel.

Fantastic, we’ve got war vets making a relatively miniscule drop in the bucket of an ex-con’s fortune. Only in America.

One blogger lashed out quite nicely…

I’m a pretty big fight fan who rarely misses a good match on pay-per-view. So, it is with some pain that I make the following pledge: I swear before God that I will never watch a boxing match promoted by Don King until he (a) releases American Legion Post 299 from any obligation in this matter to him and his equally shameful partners, J&J Sports Productions, and (b) grants a free and continuous license to each and every American Legion Post in America for every single fight he ever promotes. And by that I mean that any American Legion Post would not even have to pay even the amount charged for watching a fight in one’s living room. (Rick Ungar of True/Slant)

I like it, I’m on the bus. Plus, personally I can’t remember a good fight that didn’t have the Golden Boy Productions stamp on it. Someone want to enlighten me as to the last time I cared about a Don King fight? (Hector Camacho vs. Julio Cesar-Chavez, maybe?)

Don King Productions Sues American Legion Post Over Pay-Per-View (Fanhouse)