Ronald Bailey

When most people consider of the odd-brother-out in NFL family triumvirates, they think of Cooper Manning, brother of Peyton and Eli. While the latter are first overall NFL picks and Superbowl MVPs and Champions, injury forced the former's football career to an early end. But, injuries are a part of football and considering that Cooper shared the same ex-NFL QB dad, Archie, as Peyton and Eli presumably he had the same opportunity to succeed in professional athletics as his younger brothers.



What's not cool to DBSF is when it's clear that parents favor a subset of the brothers. Case and point: Ron Bailey. You probably never heard of him (he used to play college football at Georgia). Do you know who you have heard of? His younger brothers, Champ and Boss Bailey. Yeah, somehow the two kids named "Champ" and "Boss" ended up becoming 1st and 2nd round NFL picks, respectively, but not ol' Ron. No, Ron (or, Ronald, actually) somehow didn't garner the confidence from his parents to receive a cool name, like 'Winner', 'Mustang', or 'Ultra'. Instead he's the one Bailey brother with the normal person name and no NFL experience.

Dan Uggla & Inner-ear Dan Uggla

Atlanta Braves' second baseman Dan Uggla is in the midst of a 31-game hit streak. (For those unfamiliar with baseball this is a good thing; like finding out Anne Hathaway and Rachel McAdams are going to compete on Dancing with the Stars and/ or a reality-based cooking program.) But, what's most impressive is that Uggla was batting a Rob Deer-esque .173 before the streak started, and as of last night is only batting .224 (i.e., the producers of the aforementioned programming replaced Anne Hathaway--with either Chloe Kardahsian, Amber from Teen Mom, or Heidi Montag--not good).

DBSF is highly suspicious of this streak. Or, perhaps suspicious isn't the right word; maybe something more paternal, but definitely emotionally remote. Knowing Uggla's desire to be a career .240 hitter, DBSF is more 'concerned' for the second baseman, psychologically speaking.

It's like Uggla recognizes the importance of the feat, and superficially takes pride in the cheering from fans every time the announcer mentions the streak over the loudspeaker and in seeing his name in bold print even after the Braves' lose to the National's by a half-dozen runs. But, internally--and he must protect these true feelings as they are antithetical to the core interests of his profession--he is conflicted because deep, deep, inner-gut down he's in agony over the thought of potentially raising his career .258 average. Further, the thought that every season he raises it causes exponentially greater consternation because he must play that many more years of baseball to lower it to the career .240 he so greatly desires.

It's a common struggle that individuals face every day--professional verse personal goals; the good of the community verse the good of the individual; acceptance v. contentment. Very yin and yang. Presumably before every at-bat Uggla has a conversation with his own personal inner-ear Uggla that goes something like the following:

Uggla: Crud. They're cheering. Name's on the scoreboard? Sheesh. 31? 31, now? Double crud.

Inner-ear Uggla: If they could assure us that this thing would go 16, 17 innings at least and we could get 8 or 9 at-bats, maybe 10 with a double-switch I'd say put it in that hole in right-center. Heck, we could even run to second--that doesn't change a batting average . . .

Uggla: They said when Rose went for 42 after 20 he was so nervous that he'd wake up each night with a pool of blood in his mouth. He'd have chewed through the inner-lining of his cheek. Every night.

Inner-ear Uggla: Swinging is a purely subjective phenomenon.

Uggla: Every strikeout only makes the opposing pitcher look better. Puts food on his family's plate that's for sure.

Inner-ear Uggla: Rose is baseball's anti-hero.

Uggla: How many batter's timeouts can I take? Is it like filibustering or . . . ?

Inner-ear Uggla: McGwire, Sosa, Bonds . . . they killed us. The beauty of the game used to be in its defense.

Uggla: Pitching duels. Roger Clemens. Doc Gooden. 20-plus strikeouts in less than 8 innings of work.

Inner-ear Uggla: Golf got it right. Less is more.

Uggla: Swinging is subjective. A strike is a beautiful thing.

Michael Beasley, on par for Michael Beasley

At a Dyckman Park playground game, Timberwolves' PF/ PG County native Michael Beasley (inevitably) "shoved a heckler in the face" (translation: "punched"). Security intervened and separated Beasley and the heckler, and the two supposedly shook hands after the game.

For Beasley, who achieved notoriety back in 2008 for getting caught 'smoking the pot' at the NBA rookie camp, punching/ face-shoving a pedestrian represents a relatively harmless transgression. Considering other NBA Prince Georges County'ians penchant for mid-afternoon fully-armed, route 50 three-wheel motorcycle rides Beasley almost deserves approbation for exhibiting such reserve.

In other news, Beasley's former team, the Heat (the ones who levied the fine for the rookie camp pot smoking sesh), are rumored to be targeting Shane Battier, Tayshaun Prince, and Grant Hill to fill a void created by everyone on the team not named LeBron, Dwayne, or Chris. If the Heat can't land Battier, Prince, or Hill then they are expected to focus on Michael Redd or Tracy McGrady, which would be like trading Mike Miller for three Mike Millers.

DBSF's Thursday Afternoon Review

Former NBA player (but more importantly former star of MTV's The Perfect Score and supporting actor of Van Wilder) Darius Miles was arrested this week at a St. Louis airport for attempting to bring a gun on board a plane. This comes as quite an achievement for Darius considering the post-9/11 cultural anathema associated with weaponry and airports as well as the countless pictorial, audio and televisual reminders (usually highlighted by a circle with a cross-bar or an an X through an anonymous firearm) that bringing such ware is inappropriate.

AROD was involved in a high stakes poker game with other celebrities where apparently cocaine was consumed. Word is that AROD could face sanctions from MLB for his involvement. Sadly, AROD will likely avoid censure for steroid use, last season's .270 batting average on a quarter-billion dollar contract, and his acquiescence to this photo.



Miami Dolphins' quarterback Chad Henne is disturbed with fans for boo'ing him at the team's training camp this week. DBSF is disturbed that there are individuals in this fine country that would take time out of their day to watch a Dolphins' training camp in person. That's the only camp in the NFL where the defense routinely outscores the offense during 7-on-7 no-pad scrimmages.

The NBA is suing the NBA Player's Union for "being uncooperative in negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement". Over the past few centuries it would be interesting to see the number of times that young black men were successful--much less attempted--to sue exceptionally wealthy, older white men on account of "being uncooperative in negotiations toward [the interests of black men]".

With the exception of Michael Jordan and a few nominal, celebrity minority owners it is pleasing to see the economically advantageous owners experience and possess little influence over "uncooperative negotiations". Whites might own the stadiums and the teams, and dole out fines for trash talking, but blacks own the brand and the game. Pro Turkish ball is about to get a whole lot more exciting next year.

Samaki Walker, Handling the Situation

Al-Jalaa Aleppo power forward Samaki Walker (formerly of Dallas Maverick's lottery pick fame, and later Spurs, Lakers, Heat, Wizards and Pacers anonymity) recently found himself in a tight spot when he was pulled over with a baker's dozen grams of pot, pills and liquid steroids.



Contrary to what his late career Player Efficiency Rating (PER) suggests, Samaki became a man of action once he saw the sirens. (Note: that -6.2 PER his final season with the Pacers indicates more harm than good--like having Shawn Bradley's perimeter offense combined with Seth Curry's low-post defense in one inefficacious life form.)

Move one. A la a the opening scene of Super Troopers, Samaki attempts to eat the pot. Presumably downing any dried out plant-good of modest amount with an enabler, like milk or gatorade, is feasible. Absent such liquids and under the duress of police summons, makes what amounts to approximately two hand-fulls of dried goods a challenge, to say the least.

Upon accepting his inability to consume copious amounts of pot, and with other illicit substances on board, Walker's move two was wisely defense--legal defense. Did, he inquired, the arresting officer understand that steroids were legal in Syria where he, Walker, played pro ball?



Unfortunately, Samaki disregarded some essential tenants of sovereignty, the primary one being that a country's laws apply only as long as you are in fact in that country. Regardless, Samaki deserves approbation for his pot-eating efforts and trying to make lemonade out of lemons.

Post-lockout Acquisitions: Infinitely Qualified (to the point of arbitrary) Reactions & Analysis

With the NFL's lockout ending this week, players have been getting traded, signed, cut, and ignored like its Friday night at the Leather Palace. DBSF feels it appropriate to weigh in . . .

Albert Haynesworth to the Patriots for a 5th round pick: For every New Englandophiliac proclaiming from the top of their fashionable jersey-tshirt of Carl Crawford or Adrian Gonzalez or John Lackey or whatever recently purchased free agent that Belichick pulled out another 'Randy Moss', consider two things. First, in light of the omniscience and omnipotence that Pats' fans grant him, DBSF is highly suspicious of Belichick's ability to control a 6'6" 335 lbs (note: that's his media guide wieght; i.e., round up to the next hundred, so 400 lbs) individual who has spent this decade and the latter part of the prior decade illustrating that he possesses a most tenuous grasp on rationality/ reality/ sanity. Second--and by far most important--last time DBSF checked Boston has bars and liquor stores too. Redskins made out on this one.

Titans release Vince Young: The more important story here is that the rest of the NFL's reaction to his release seems to be: "Who gives a salami?" Yeah Young has the winning record and the two Pro Bowl selections, but he also has a commensurate amount of dedication to his trade as that of pizza delivery men if the job forbid taking bowl hits between deliveries.

Bill's sign Brad Smith to 4-year $15 million: In the last three seasons Smith has 21 catches for no touchdowns. Grant it he emerged as a kick returner with two kicks returned for TDs, but this contract definitely looks like the result of an Excel data entry error on the part of some intern on the Bills' talent evaluation staff. Like, some SUNY grad student in sports management, who had like 9 miller lites the night before, strolled in and just cut and pasted with abandon. Seeing as the team lead for the talent evaluation staff moved straight into the front office after 9 years as a back-up LB for the Jets or something probably leads him, the team lead, to accept talent spreadsheets form the aforementioned SUNY grad student at face value considering that his, the team lead again, first experience with Excel resulted in a very embarrassing mishap where he attempted to fill out the cells on the computer screen with different colored markers, which resulted in the Bill's front office needing to procure him one new Dell 19" monitor.

Saints trade Reggie Bush to the Dolphins: Reggie Bush--phenomenal flag-football, mediocre tackle-football player. Whether it's Kyle Orton or Chad Henne throwing to him next year, both better recognize that Bush only takes passes far into the flats and will be out of bounds within 8 yards of the line of scrimmage. Throw it to him across the middle and he will return to the huddle and accuse you of misunderstanding the play you called; ironically the play you did call entailed Reggie running to the flat on the side of the field with the fewest defenders.

Kevin Kolb to the Cardinal for Rodgers-Cromartie: This will work out well for both teams, and then in week 6 Michael Vick will get injured on his 13th carry of the game and be out for two weeks. At that time Andy Reid will turn and look to either Vince Young, who will be so engrossed in his Nintendo 3DS game of Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 that he will fail to notice that his jersey is on backward so it looks like he plays for 'Young' and his last name is 'Eagles', or to Matt Hasselbeck, who will be 5-years-old-Christmas-morning-eager to get in the game and believe, fully 100% no doubt/ the earth circles the sun/ gravity bears us down to earth/ carbon is a critical, critical element to existence that he will lead the team to victory on 400 yards plus of throwing. While Andy Reid will no doubt admire these hallucinations, Reid knows punting or kneeling the ball would be preferable to the inevitable 'batted down pass-batted down pass-interception-overthrown screen-interception-batted down pass' combination of Hasselbeck's next 6 drop-backs.

Dennis Rodman--Ed Hardie'd Out; Yao's Parturition

Last night the Seattle Mariner's lost their 15th straight game. This came as big news to most sports fans, who didn't know that Seattle still had an MLB team. If Felix Hernandez ever leaves the Mariner's then they should be required to play at least a quarter of their games in double-A Southern League.

Yahoo! Sports covered Dennis Rodman's 50th birthday party (threw it two months late; why not?). DBSF is just glad to see that--even at 50--Rodman is still going full house in Ed Hardie couture--hat, shirt, sunglasses, fashionable bracelet (presumably).



The Minnesota Timberwolves are supposedly interviewing Bernie Bickerstaff to replace Kevin McHale. Considering that Bernie hasn't coached a winning team since the 1998 inaugural Washington Wizards team, and that he finishes above .500 about one-third of the seasons he coaches this should come as great news to every team in the NBA not called 'the Minnesota Timberwolves'. DBSF feels like Bickerstaff is perennially coaching either the Wizards, the TWolves, or some derivation of the two--the kind of team that wins as many games as the Patriots do in the regular season and playoffs combined, and remains dedicated to drafting 6'9" ultra-athletic UNC power forwards that don't like to bang, and don't/ won't/ can't develop a jump shot.

And finally, an homage to Yao with what represents perhaps the best birthing-recreation scene followed by the best "Yao Ming in a business suit, jet-skiing on a shark in a psychedelically pink East China Sea" scene.

Javier Bardem--NFLPA not Tied to a Deadline; et al

The labor negotiations between the formerly unionized NFL players and team owners either are or aren't close to ending in a deal. Interestingly, the NFLPA sent its President, Javier Bardem, to broker a deal on behalf of the players. On the plus-side it looks like he left his cattle gun at home; but, on the minus side it also looks like he left Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz at home :(



Some good news about the lockout is that for every week negotiations drag on it becomes more and more likely that Albert Haynesworth will be able to make the start of training camp. The mathematical formula is something like + weeks of lock-out = - days of training camp Haynesworth misses.

In the NBA, Delente West announced that he wants to return to the Celtics. Clearly, Delente doesn't subscribe to the 'beggars can't be choosers' philosophy seeing as his Desperado-stint, alleged turmoil with the James family, and fist sights with teammates qualifies his appeal to teams. Then again his drive-thru free-styling game is pretty on point.



Celtic teammate, Avery Bradley, announced that he wants to play overseas during the work stoppage. So do NBA teams, Avery. 6'2" shooting guard that weigh a buck-eighty with a dump in them don't have much shelf life in the NBA unless they're Mormon.

In golf, Tiger announced that he fired his long-time caddy, Stevie Williams. No real story here except that apparently there is a grown man who still goes by "Stevie". (Hopefully, the FBI already has a file.) In fact, there is no news in golf until Tiger starts winning. Until then golf is Men's tennis with better panoramic shots. You think Americans are going to spend their Sunday afternoons watching a couple Northern Irish battle it out somewhere in upstate New York for a million bucks? Considering virtually all Americans have no concept that Norther Ireland is not, in fact, a part of Ireland suggests this to be highly unlikely. (Vijay Singh could always have a resurgence. Yes, Vijay, who possesses the likability of a Ryan Leaf-Amber from Teen Mom Siamese twin.)



In baseball, Adam Dunn is 0-23 on the season when down 0-2 in the count (20Ks), is batting juuuuusst under .144 with runners in scoring position, doesn't have a hit in 25% of the stadiums he's played in this season, and just got his average against lefties up to .031. Fortunately, although he's thought about quitting baseball it won't be until he stops having fun; not, of course, because he's only in the first year of a $56 million contract.

Dwight Howard--not sayin' too much, James Harrison--pretty much saying whatever he wants

Dwight Howard made news this week when he announced that he is entertaining the idea of playing abroad next season. In true Dwight Howard fashion, the center exhibited the reserve and deliberation NBA fans have come to expect.

"The big thing for me is not giving too much information away . . ." Huh? "I'm not at liberty to talk about it . . ." Really? "but, there's a huge possibility about me going to China or me going overseas to play basketball." Bombshell. There it is. But, DBSF even did some editing to build excitement. Dwight's actual quote went "I'm not at liberty to talk about it, but there's a huge possibility about me going to China or me going overseas to play basketball." DBSF is so appreciative that despite not being at liberty to discuss the matter that immediately following--in the same sentence--he 100%, dead-on, was in fact at liberty and willing to pretty much give away all information.

At the same time, some folks seem to be getting worked up that James Harrison insulted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, his teammate QB Ben Roethlisberger, fascism, neo-fascism, opponents of childhood obesity, the cast and crew of Blossom, linux-based operating systems, diuretics, polytheism, one-year MFA programs, and a range of other unrelated--save to one James Harrison--topics/ life forms/ carbon-based matter.

Some have questioned whether or not the Goodell and the NFL should punish Harrison once the collective bargaining agreement is reached (sans CBA trash-talking and senior-year beach week amounts of pot smoking are totally kosher). DBSF's response--you gonna be the person to tell this guy he's getting fined or suspended?

Kurt Rambis: Looking Back

Earlier this week it was announced that the Minnesota Timberwolves had fired their head coach, a very normal looking Kurt Rambis. Now, you might ask why DBSF would use such a descriptor, like "very normal looking", to identify an individual (as Kevin Costner-esque pictured below). Therefore, DBSF feels compelled to provide visual documentation of Rambis from his playing days in the 1980's and early 1990's with the LA Lakers (as well as intermittent play with the Hornets, Suns, and Kings).



Phase 1--the standard 'grabbed a rebound, turned for the outlet pass, found/ took a date to Chuck E Cheese' (or, the arcade . . . it was the '80s) look. 1980's LA Lakers are fair game for pedophilia jokes seeing as they spent a decade pulling like Aaron Carter would have at a moderate-income, northern Florida white high school in the early 2000s.



Phase 2--laid-back Kurt Rambis. This picture makes DBSF think of a mix between the 1985 Chicago Bears' "Superbowl Shuffle" music video and Weekend at Bernie's.



Phase 3--Milton Waddams. If it weren't for Rambis's being white it is possible that a glitch in the NBA's HR system allowed him to stay in the league for 14 seasons (otherwise known as the "Brendan Haywood" glitch). Regardless, Rambis definitely looks like he wants his stapler back.



Phase 4--the 'I'm-going-to-kill-everyone-here' look. Rambis doesn't have that violent, wanton disregard for others/ inherent malevolent look of mass murderers; rather, it's more of a "today's a good day for everyone in the cult to die" blank stare. Optimistic mass suicidism, if that's a phrase. This look, this exact look is why agencies, like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, keep suspicious persons' lists.



And, finally the 'you're probably going to be a smoke-show in 3 years look' from KR (DBSF, has, at last, resorted to initializing Kurt's name like KG or B2K). Rambis had a recurring role on 7th Heaven as a coach. This picture doesn't do much for documenting KR's odd style and facial hair but there's something camp/ hipster-ironic about an ex-NBA player staring down a 14 year old Jessica Biel. That and KR kind of reminds DBSF of a taller, skinnier Randy Quaid in this picture for some reason.