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Thursday Rundown: Well, If You Needed A Reason To Skip The ESPYs…

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• Aside from Jimmy V’s unforgettable speech at the 1993 ESPYs, I can honestly say that I’ve never tuned into ESPN’s annual awards show — and I don’t expect that to change this year, after hearing who the host will be. Sportsaphile brings us the news that Justin Timberlake will host the ceremony, which is set to air July 20th. Huh? What connection could Timberlake possibly have to the sports world? Why not let an athlete, a coach, or someone in the sports media host the ceremony, which is meant to celebrate…well, sports?
• Awful Announcing serves up a hilarious video promoting the latest video game sensation: WNBA Live ‘08! Of course, there’s no such thing as WNBA Live ‘08, but it made me wonder about how long it will be until a women’s sports video game hits store shelves. My guess: it probably won’t be too long. I mean, I noticed an Arena Football video game when I was in Best Buy recently — and if they’re making AFL games, a WNBA video game couldn’t be too far off, could it?
• SPORTSbyBROOKS reports that President Bush will toss the first pitch at the first game ever played at the Washington Nationals’ new stadium. Nothing terribly unusual about that, right? With the Nats opening their much-anticipated new stadium, it seems only logical that Dubya would participate in the festivities. However, here’s where things get weird: One would assume that he’ll be throwing the first pitch to Washington catcher Paul Lo Duca, but Lo Duca was named in the Mitchell Report a whopping 37 times. So, after strongly denouncing steroid use in his 2004 State of the Union address, Bush will likely throw his pitch to someone who had considerable involvement in the Steroids Era — indeed, it’s yet another brilliant PR move by the Prez.
• Scott’s Shots informs us about an embarrassing screw-up by ESPN.com. Earlier this week, The Worldwide Leader posted this tidbit on its MLB transactions page: (Toronto Blue Jays) “Activated pitcher Cory Lidle from the 15-day disabled list.” One problem — Lidle died in a plane crash in October of 2006. Man, I always knew ESPN maintained some serious power in the sports world, but I never knew they had enough power to restore life to the dead.
• Meet Nate Miller, America’s latest hockey phenom, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 180 pounds and wears a size 16 shoe. Oh yeah, he’s also 12-years-old. Miller was recently selected as a goalie for the U12 USA hockey all-stars, and I can see why — at his size, he’d make a helluva goalie simply because his large stature would occupy most of the goal. Seriously, he must have hit puberty at the age of six to reach that height and weight so early in his life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 4:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.