CNATI: Cincinnati OH Sports Journalism

Happy George Brett's Birthday! You know it has to be a big day for me to come back... Well, for now, I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm going to do, can do, should do with the blog and otherwise. But hey, notice there aren't really ads here, so I'm not making money off of this... that's just for the record. * Well, they're no longer the first-place Reds. I blame Dusty for putting Brandon Phillips in the 4th spot. * One of my favorite blogs has a new name --it's Justin Inaz's blog, it's now Basement-Dwellers.com. C'mon Justin, it's the Reds, not the Pirates. They're basement visitors. Seriously, I grew up a Royals fan, I know basement dwelling. (Of course, growing up they were a model franchise.) * The Mets signed former Red Javier Valentin. * I really hope the trend is starting toward stirrups. They just look so much better -- and a million times better than the baggy pjs look. * I gotta say, this is pretty cool -- an illustration on how a curveball works. * The Top 10 recent pitching deliveries. The one I think they missed was the "Balk-sutka" of Akinori Otsuka. All-time best is Dan Quisenberry. * I honestly don't see Marvin Lewis wanting to have HBO's cameras around for all of training camp. Last year it was Chris Henry that Mike Brown forced upon Marvin for training camp, this year it's Steve Sabol. * An interview here with Shaun Alexander. Is anyone still mad the Bengals signed Cedric Benson instead of Alexander? * Are sacks going to shorten Ben Roethlisberger's career? An interesting look with stats here. * I feel kinda bad complaining about this because for so long I just wanted Time Warner (or as a friend always calls it, Crime Warner) to get Versus... But now that I'm finally able to watch the hockey on TV, I wish I could watch it in HD. I'm not sure any sport benefits more from HD than hockey. (And yeah, just get DirecTV -- I tried that. Guy came out to my house and said he couldn't do it. There were too many trees.) * Even without HD, there's nothing as great as Game 7 overtime hockey. Overtime playoff hockey may be my favorite  sports watching there is, but a Game 7 overtime just takes it up a notch. The other day there was one of those stupid ESPN things where people yelled at each other about what had the best Game 7s. I'm not sure how anyone kept a straight face when someone tried to argue the NBA --  I guess all the money ESPN has into the league is how they included them -- but seriously, all the hockey dude would have to say is "overtime hockey." Yep, that's enough. * ESPN's Brian Bennett has the Bearcats as the No. 1 team in the Big East after spring practice. * A look at soccer crests. I have to admit, I'm a fan of Toronto's. * Help save Paste magazine. * An interview with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck * The Hold Steady on Daytrotter * This album by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and many others sounds really cool. * NBC has a list of those who participated in Kidney Now! (but didn't mention Clay Aiken, who wwe learned is Kenneth's cousin. I guess he's related to my buddy Pete, too. Jack McBrayer's brother Pete is a regular at my favorite bar in Athens, Ga. Pete used to tell me about his brother who was a writer on Conan O'Brien's show. And now he's huge.) * Bacon -- good. Vodka -- good. Bacon-flavored vodka? What? * I've got to admit, with no job, it's tempting to go camp out to stand in line for this. * I was really excited a couple of months ago about SlingBox for the iPhone. It's safe to say I'm less excited now * This link says it's 27 Awesome She-Mullets, I prefer the term "femmullet" (notice one of the 27 is from Riverfront/Cinergy/the old stadium) * As for being gone for a while, I gotta say, I'm happy the team I thought was going to win The Amazing Race didn't. That's all I'm gonna say. * USA Today has a story on Simpsons merchandising * Jay Leno may have something funny for his last show (finally!) -- Conan O'Brien * Yet another specialty shoe from Nike * I haven't seen Star Trek yet, but want to -- nevertheless, this makes me laugh.

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