By Jim Coffman

I’ve got nothing profound to say about the Bulls at this point. I don’t like the Celtics’ chances, I know that much, but who knows what to say about the home team at this point other than they are very good but will need to be better to beat the Heat.
They are coming home, there is that, having completed a nine-game road trip with six wins. And they still have the best record in the Eastern Conference despite having played 20 of their first 30 games on the road – more than anyone else in the NBA so far. The Bulls’ lead over the Heat is small but real (they are 23-7, while Miami is 21-7).
But it’s all about the man’s back isn’t it?

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Posted on February 13, 2012

By Thomas Chambers

* The coin on the toss hit a Giants player on the foot. Is that legal?
* Kelly Clarkson wore a little black dress and did not bare her midriff. But in doing the due diligence I should have done before placing that prop bet, I learned she doesn’t really have the tummy for it. Her rendition of the anthem was less than two seconds past the over. I had the under. And did we need all that twang on “God Bless America?” How about giving the great Glen Campbell a chance at it?
* When Victor Cruz scored the first touchdown, I was already profitable for the day.

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Posted on February 10, 2012

By Network A

“Brian Kachinsky has converted an old Chicago bakery into one of the biggest, baddest private BMX facilities in the country. After 90 years, Corey Martinez and Seth Kimbrough bring the place from bread to shred, but where this secret sweet spot is, they’ll never tell.”

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Posted on February 10, 2012

By The Beachwood Fire Todd Ricketts Desk

“To me, baseball is better with tradition, baseball is better with history, baseball is better with fans who care, baseball is better in ballparks like this, baseball is better during the day. And baseball is, best of all, when you win,” Theo Epstein said the day he was announced as the team’s new president.
A marketing slogan was born.
But Theo only got it partly right. We’ll fill in the rest of the picture.
* Baseball is better when your flat beer doesn’t cost $8 a cup.
* Baseball is better when you’re left fielder doesn’t hop.
* (To the Sox: Baseball is better when pitchers don’t take the bump, infielders don’t glove two-hopper, double-choppers, and outfielders don’t catch cans of corn.)

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Posted on February 9, 2012

By Dan O’Shea

After taking a crack at my preseason overall fantasy baseball top 10 last week, I’ll kick off position rankings this week with first basemen. The 1Bs list tends to be the easiest because four or five of them are usually among the top 10 or so players in baseball, but 2012 should be an interesting year, as a few veteran 1Bs get acclimated to new surroundings or new situations, and some young upstarts try to break into the top ranks of the position:
Miguel Cabrera, DET: The No. 1 1B probably will play very little at that position this season, but should still get enough games to keep his 1B/3B eligibility. Lack of speed is his only weakness.
Albert Pujols, LAA: As noted last week, the numbers say he has dropped off slightly, but I think the new scene will do wonders for him.
Joey Votto, CIN: I’ve toyed with ranking Votto ahead of Pujols, but also behind Fielder and Gonzalez. He hits better than the first two, and has better OBP and SB potential than all three.

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Posted on February 8, 2012

Life Isn’t Just About Dogs, Cars And Douchebags

Blown chances.
1. The next revolution in beauty.

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Posted on February 6, 2012

Platinum Lip Synching

From the beginning @BeachwoodReport:
The #SuperBowl is already over in Australia.
*
Madonna shooting up with Toradol just about now.
*
Next year: Bud Light Plutonium

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Posted on February 6, 2012

By Jim Coffman

Wes Welker, meet Asante Samuel.
When fans look back at the Giants’ victory over the up-until-then undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl XLII four years ago, they remember Eli Manning’s refusal to be sacked during the final drive and David Tyree’s amazing fourth-down catch, secured with one hand pressing the football against his helmet. It was the injury-plagued Tyree’s last catch in the NFL.
But perhaps even more important was Samuels’ dropped interception. Earlier in what eventually became the game-winning, last-two-minute drive, Samuel had a championship in his hands and couldn’t bring it in.
In the second half of the fourth quarter Sunday, Welker had the championship in his hands. Tom Brady had thrown him a 25-yard pass down the seam and Welker turned, left his feet and put up his mitts. The ball was in both of his hands before he failed to secure it and it bounced away. What would have been a huge first-down reception on the edge of the red zone instead became an incompletion and soon the Patriots were punting the ball back to the Giants with plenty of time for Manning to lead yet another game-winning drive.

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Posted on February 6, 2012

By Thomas Chambers

It is so sacred, so sovereign, that you must pay a large royalty to speaks its name in any kind of affinity.
Like William’s and Kate’s vows, the actual purpose for all the dearly beloved takes up an infinitesimal moment in an orgiastic half day of classically overdone spectacle and consumption.
And as for the sporting proposition of crowning a champion on the field of competition, the Super Bowl is American sports at its worst.

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Posted on February 3, 2012

Honoring Angelo Dundee

“I did a fight once in Chicago when Angelo was working the corner of a heavyweight named James ‘Quick’ Tillis,” Barry Tompkins writes for CSNBayArea.com. “Tillis had a tendency to be a bit lazy in the ring and gave some fights away that he could have won with relative ease. On that night, Tillis was being – well, Tillis – and at one point Angelo took the fighter’s head in his hands and turned it toward the crowd. ‘You see that woman right there?’ Angelo said. ‘That’s your mother, and you’re embarrassing her.'”
*
“Angelo Dundee died Wednesday in a Florida rehabilitation center, where he was being treated for a blood clot found after a flight back from visiting Muhammad Ali in Louisville for the fighter’s 70th birthday, son James Dundee said,” the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 90.

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Posted on February 3, 2012