Ryan Howard’s good, but he’s not that good.
The slugging first baseman agreed to a $125 million, five-year contract extension Monday that could keep him with the Phillies until 2017.
…
The 30-year-old Howard will make $20 million each in 2012 and 2013 and $25 million annually from 2014-16. The Phillies have a $23 million club option for 2017 with a $10 million buyout.
There are no escalators in the contract, a source familiar with the details of the contract told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark.
It’s not like Howard is Mo Vaughn, but then again…wow, that’s a lot money. Nothing against Howard, but he’s too flawed a player to be worth this much money. He still has trouble with lefties (.752 career OPS, .653 last season), which leads me to believe he always will. He’s not very good defensively and, oh yeah…he’s 30 fucking years old. So this is as good as he’s gonna be, most likely, and a slugger like him could be awful when he’s pushing 34 or 35. Bottom line, I don’t like this signing.
Anyway, Albert Pujols will now make at least $30 million per year. Easily.
[ESPN.com]
Always a dangerous play and it does occur. Thankfully, Jakubauskas is OK. He suffered from a concussion and head contusion.
In: Other
Click on photo to read more about the Coyotes big win
The Coyotes came up with a big win against the Wings on Sunday and now they head home with a chance to knock Detroit out. So far so good for the NHL playoffs.
The Press
Zahia Dehar, the newest French whore/soccer slut [Barstool]
Boozer’s huge game puts Jazz up 3-1 [CNNSI]
South Alabama Baseball just got super gay [BustedCoverage]
5 Celebrity Chicks currently enrolled in college [CoedMag]
I still don’t get the fascination with JWoww, talk about game saving implants [DonChavez]
Cool Video of Giraffes fighting [Guyism]
The double bicycle kick everyone has been talking about, well no one has been talking about it [TotalProSports]
Seriously one of the best goal celebrations [WithLeather]
Every guy I know likes watching the NFL draft, so it made sense to move the first two rounds to prime time. It worked out pretty well.
NEW YORK — ESPN broadcast of the NFL draft has drawn the most viewers ever.
With the first two rounds held in prime time for the first time, ESPN’s three-day telecast had 3.7 million viewers, up 27 percent from 2009. It also attracted 2.85 million households, second most in draft history and up 24 percent from last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The most households to watch a draft on ESPN came in 2006, when 2,000 more homes than this year tuned in.
I imagine it’s only going to get bigger and more involved from this point out. The point remains, whether it’s the NFL or a mock fantasy league, people go bananas over drafts. Guys used to want to grow up to be athletes or rock stars, but now being a general manager for a pro sports team seems to be up there as a top dream job, too.
I prefer the new prime time format, but it also ensures that I’m not going to watch from the third round on. When it was all in one shot, the inertia of laziness could keep me around for a few rounds, but now there’s no way I jump back in after the first two rounds. Isn’t the draft easier to follow online, anyway? I guess people still like seeing Mel Kiper.
In: NBA
Come on, Kevin – none of this “ole” bullshit. Stand there and take in on the face; it’s not becoming of you to dodge a facial.
For those of you who are familiar with soccer in Europe, this should come as no surprise to you. The fans are fanatical. They are dead serious about their teams, and their players. Mario Balotelli, a player on Inter Milan, recently was booed off the pitch in a 3-1 win after he ripped his jersey off and threw it on the ground. Ok, so he’s not so popular with the fans, and he kind of had a temper tantrum…. Well, it’s not that easy…
Inter’s principle fan group the Curva Nord sent him a personal letter, and now it’s public….
“We wish only that, at the end of this season, absolutely however exciting it will finish, when we will be giving the deserved applause to the protagonists, you don’t dare show yourself.
“We will always remember you, Mario. We will remember you as the simpleton who, first (and we hope the last) in history, at the San Siro, allowed himself to take off the shirt and throw it onto the ground in a sign of contempt.
“This same shirt for which each one of us spends time, money and love to follow it wherever and which you have the fortune to wear.
“For us you don’t exist any more dear Mario, and with this, we bid you farewell.”
This is some intense stuff here. My assumption would be we don’t see Mr. Balotelli next season at Inter. Imagine being part of a group that writes this kind of a letter to one of your favorite players and it goes public… Only in European soccer
In the world of Semi Pro football some teams do what most major companies do when they don’t necessarily have big budgets for in house work. They outsource. So I give credit to the Denver Titans for taking it upon themselves to hire the Motion Explosion girls to do their games. Way to go guys.
The Motion Explosion crew is kind of like a dance studio with various teams that do different events, mostly sports. But I’m sure if you could come up with 500 bucks they’d do a private party for you. The extent to how private? I have no idea.
I just hope I get to hire them for a bachelor party at some point.
Pics after the jump
Nobody likes Ben Roethlisberger. Nobody.
In an eye-opening segment on Sunday morning’s Outside the Lines, the network that initially ignored for multiple days the first allegations of sexual assault against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, several intriguing facts and contentions emerged.
For starters, the report focused on a claim Roethlisberger made to ESPN The Magazine a couple of years ago that he decided to hire bodyguards after someone pulled a gun on him. A friend of a teammate, speaking with the 60 Minutes-style darkened face and altered voice, said that one of Roethlisberger’s bodyguards explained that the gun was pulled by the boyfriend of a girl to whom Roethlisberger was talking outside a bar.
Meanwhile, former Steelers running back Najeh Davenport and former Steelers safety Mike Logan talked about an incident that occurred in the locker room in the season after the team’s victory in Super Bowl XL. Linebacker Joey Porter, in a speech that Davenport described as “powerful” (like, we suppose, the odor from an uncontained turd in a clothes hamper), called Ben out for doing his own thing and going his own way — and for being the last guy to arrive at work and the first one to leave.
So Roethlisberger needs his bodyguards to actually protect him, not just to form walls in front on bathrooms where Ben’s inside with an inebriated girl. Makes sense, since there are a lot of people who don’t like Big Ben. Even Michael Vick had teammates and some celebrities speak up on his behalf, but Roethlisberger’s got no one. I mean, even Chris Brown had some support.
Also, nice job by NBC for pointing out the fact that Najeh Davenport shit in a hamper one time. I think it should be law that whenever his name is mentioned, that fact is pointed out.
