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scandals
scandals
Roger Clemens: Baseball's Eliot Spitzer
Here on day two of the Roger Clemens Infidelity Scandal And Schadenfreude Festival Of '08, it's becoming more clear that the brawny former Yankees ace pitcher and full time jerk did in fact cheat on his wife with the wild country singer Mindy McCready. Because now she's admitted it! McCready said the two did have an ongoing affair, although the sex didn't start until she was of legal age. They first met when she was only 15, (Miley Cyrus joke). But the most entertaining aspect of this scandal is how Clemens—heroic, honored, self-righteous, dismissive of critics, a King of New York—is turning into an uncanny baseball version of another recently fallen hero: Eliot Spitzer. More »
roger clemens
Baseball's Meanest Star In Alleged Affair With Country Version Of Amy Winehouse
Roger Clemens, the recently retired former Yankees ace pitcher and full time Class A jerk, has used his commitment to his wife (pictured) and family as a defense of his own character, which has been impugned by steroid allegations. And, you know, by his own general asshole demeanor that causes him to do things like throw a fastball at his own son. But today the Daily News says that Clemens carried on a ten year affair with train wreck country singer Mindy McCready—although they never trot out any real proof. And their lead, which seems to imply Clemens is a statutory rapist, is a little problematic: More »
things we actually like
Improv Everywhere Gives Little League Team Their Best Game Ever
Improv Everywhere is the cosmic balance to Gawker: a group of real-world performance artists who generally make people feel like the world is a magical place. And in this clip that's been making the rounds, they turn a little league baseball game into a major league match, with an NBC sportscaster, a Jumbotron, and I won't ruin the rest. See below. More »
resurrection
Chris Farley Returns To Earth For Yankees Game
Some AP photographer was roaming around Yankee stadium during the rain delay, and who did he stumble upon but overweight deceased SNL comedic maniac Chris Farley! Farley, who passed away in 1997, apparently assumed human form once again in order to take in the historic final opening day in the classic ballpark. The identity of his female companion remains unknown. Click to enlarge the pic, via the WSJ.
Play Ball!
It's opening day of baseball season at Yankee Stadium, y'all! And you know what that means: Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe? Whether you KNOW, or you don't know, click through to watch the video, then buy your Yankees tickets before they tear down the House That Ruth And Cotton-Eyed Joe Built! Sports fandom minute over. (WATCH IT)
loss of innocence
New York Scandal Of Shame Video: Billy Crystal Bats
The shameful scandal that has engulfed New York over the past week to the outrage of one and all has finally come to a close. That's right: comedian Billy Crystal has now had his single at-bat in a Yankees spring training game. The ballclub's decision to offer Crystal a one-day contract as a promotional stunt threw a pall over the entire Empire State. Video from the stands of the funnyman's game appearance (not a bad swing!), which the New York Post suspects may have destroyed baseball's integrity, after the jump. Hopefully we can all now move forward with our lives. More »
josh booty
Drunk And Tased Superathlete Broadcaster Thought He Could Handle Anything
Athlete and sportscaster Josh Booty thought he could drive just fine, even though he was drunk, and then he thought he could take on taser-wielding Orange County Sheriff's deputies, who of course tased him right before he cracked his head. But is it a surprise the 32-year-old thought he was invincible, or that he was acting out? First he was "the most highly recruited high school quarterback in the country," according to the New York Times. Then he drew a record-setting $1.6 million draft bonus to play for the Florida Marlins' minor league franchise. When he got bored of that, he went to college for a year, until he was drafted into the NFL. He was a quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, then the Cleveland Browns, then the Oakland Raiders. The free-agent quarterback parted ways with the Raiders in 2007 and has been killing time as a sportscaster for Fox, ESPN and the NFL Network. So why the self-destructive behavior? A possible answer, plus a larger shot of Booty's booking photo, after the jump. More »
have you no sense of decency, sir?
Politician Disappointed The Media Is Covering Huge Story
Congressman Dan Burton today, at the vitally important Congressional hearings on Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens' alleged steroid use, was all, "Damn this trial-by-media thing is so messed up, innocent until proven guilty, everybody point your camera at me as I drone on about the outrageous media circus here." Click to watch the video, in which he comes off entirely like a greasy small-town lawyer who just landed a big case and is trying to act like everything is normal. But our question is, what's up with his teeth? The top row just looks like a porcelain mouthguard in there.
scandals
Mets Jock Fights Cocks
Potential tabloid sports shocker! The Post stumbled onto a YouTube video of Mets' pitching ace Pedro Martinez presiding over a cockfight in the Dominican Republic. In a sinister twist, the video has now been pulled, and the owner of the blog that posted it did not immediately respond to the Post's emails. WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? The Daily News was lagging on the story as of early this morning, meaning the Post is bound to hype it up as much as possible while they still have the competitive advantage. Just look at how much mileage the Atlanta papers (and everybody else) got out of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal. But ask yourself, before the hysteria strikes: Is this story really a big deal? More »
EXTENDED BASEBALL METAPHOR EXPLAINS EVERYTHING TERRIBLE ABOUT RUDY GIULIANI! "For most of Giuliani's life, the Yankees have been the richest, most powerful, and usually winningest team in baseball. Yet the ultimate fan of baseball's biggest overdog thinks he's a brave, oppressed partisan of an underdog. Giuliani won back the city from the mongrel hordes—the descendants of Brooklyn Dodgers fans—and now he's proposing to win back the world for America." [NYM]
inside baseball
Rudy Giuliani Stands By Boy-Fondling Priest
While Rudy Giuliani keeps demonstrating his craven willingness to sell out each one of his scant few "principles" for a chance at the Republican nomination for the presidency, his sudden waffling on gay and abortion rights is utterly dwarfed by his recent announcement that he's supporting the Red Sox in the World Series. But to give the man a little credit, he can occasionally be counted on to stand by his friends when it counts. Like accused child-molesting priest Monsignor Alan Placa. More »
inside baseball
Women Consistently Underrepresented In Media... Softball
Today's WWD goes deep on the unexamined story of lack of women on media softball teams. Seriously. (Well, you try putting out a column on July 5! Go on! No seriously, please do, because we'll write about anything today.) Apparently the "New York Media Softball League," in its official capacity as People With Too Much Time On Their Hands And Not Enough Concern About Their Publications, has instituted a rule that insists that at least one woman be on the team for every five men. Vanity Fair and the New Yorker have not joined, so will not be subject to trying to find more women. "No knock on those guys, but they don't want to play on the same level, apparently," scoffs the editor of High Times. In fact, at our most recent game, we noticed an extreme, near-total lack of women on the New York Observer's softball team. (Makes sense: Of their six or so most recent editorial hires, only one was a woman.) Of course, if all women bat like our Doree or like Gawker Intern Kaila, we wouldn't want to hire them either. How could they possibly be any good at their jobs if they can't rock the diamond?
Batter Up [WWD]
blogs
Internet People Dine At Balthazar, Talk Trash
A summit of angry internet types took place last night; it may have ended in a lasting peace. Not since Yalta have three leaders as large as Lockhart Steele (who is at least technically our boss) and Ben Leventhal from Eater and Abbe Diaz, the Koreshian mercurial leader of PXthis (the forum-land for nightlife, hospitality, and seedy underbellyness) been in the same place at the same time. Diaz, who bears a grudge against Gawker ranking somewhere between Mayweather v. De La Hoya and Red Sox v. Yankees, met the two for a late dinner at Balthazar. Later she triumphantly reported on the evening to her minions. More »
new york times
'NYT' Goes Three-For-Five In Asian Illo
Here's the image that the Times got when it hired Bob Kessel to illustrate an article about "kantoku shou," the Japanese tradition of rewarding baseball players with gifts (including cash) for superior performance. It's pretty good: Rising sun? Check! Bowing? Check! Slanty eyes? Check! In fact, the only bit we're missing is a bowl of rice and a samurai sword. Nice! Click to enlarge.More Than a Handshake Deal for Japanese Baseball Players [NYT]
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World Series Wager: Just Happy To Be Here
You may recall our World Series wager with Will Leitch of Deadspin: Should Leitch's Cardinals win it all, we'd do a full day of his posts on the sports site in addition to our duties here, while if our Tigers prevailed Will would be forced to do twenty-four posts in a day across the sites. Well, after last night's 5-4 Cardinals victory, it's looking increasingly likely that you're stuck with us. Yeah, you gotta believe, anything could happen, teams have come back from bigger deficits before, etc.; barring inclement weather the whole thing will be over one way or the other by Sunday. We're reminding you of this bet not to elicit any sympathy for our plight (don't worry about us, we've got a shoebox full of crank and a copy of The Sporting News) but as a warning: Should we, in fact, be manning both helms on Tuesday we have a very strong suspicion that Deadspin's commenters will be following us over here and, to be frank, those people are animals. Be prepared. More »
baseball
Detroit Tigers Offer You Opportunity To Be Free of Us For a Day
So if you're a New York baseball fan of any variety your last remaining postseason hopes died last night on Carlos Beltran's called third strike. But fear not, New Yorkers: Much like walking angioplasty advertisement Tommy Lasorda, we're here to tell you that even though the Mets and Yankees are out of the playoffs, you still have a reason to watch the World Series. As it turns out, an editor of this site is, for reasons too complicated and extensive to go into here, a longtime fan of the Detroit Tigers. The editor of Deadspin (pictured above), Gawker Media's sports blog, is, for reasons of geography, a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, Motown's Series rival. Much like publicity-seeking big city mayors who engage in jerkoff bets in the hopes of favorable news coverage, these two editors have also engaged in a wager, the terms of which are this: The editor whose team loses the Fall Classic will, on the Tuesday after the competition's conclusion, be forced to cover not only his own site's post requirements, but additionally pick up the other guy's posts for the day. So if you hate our guts and would much prefer to have the dynamic Mr. Leitch guest here for a day, you'll be rooting for the Tigers. Conversely, should you wish to see how we handle pictures of drunken backup QBs, you'll be pulling for the Cardinals. Who will prevail? Will it be Balk and human chimney Jimmy Leyland of the Tigers or Leitch and Tony "My only World Series win required an act of God" LaRussa of the Cards? Ultimately, the only real losers are the readers. More »
britney spears
