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Monday Rundown: Hideki Matsui Is Rather Creepy

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• So, remember the Marlin Manatees? The Florida Marlins’ cheerleading squad comprised of fat dudes? Well, as Deadspin informs us, the team has been assembled and the “dancers,” ranging in weight from 225 to 435 pounds, are now busy with rehearsals for the 2008 Marlins season. Whelp, of all the possible things that could cure the Marlins’ attendance woes, “fat people dancing” isn’t exactly at the top of my list…but hell, if their 20 season ticket holders enjoy the Manatees, more power to them.
• SPORTSbyBROOKS reports that Hideki Matsui is a strange/creepy guy. First of all, he held a press conference to announce that he’s getting engaged — but rather than actually introduce his fiancee or even display a photo of her, he brought a rough sketch of her to show the assembled media. Also in the article, it’s mentioned that Matsui is apparently a pornography aficionado…indeed, he supposedly has “55,000 distinct items in his porn collection.” Anyone else picture his porn collection looking kinda like this?
• Mark Cuban discusses lifting his ban on bloggers in the Mavericks locker room, saying that he “can’t wait to see the results” when the ‘pros’ (the folks from newspapers, radio, and television) are given the same access as the ‘joes’ (the bloggers). I love the point he makes about those who have raised objections towards allowing bloggers into the locker room — the loudest critics of giving credentials to bloggers are people in the mainstream media. As Cuban says, if bloggers are given the same access that the mainstream media is given, “who knows what could happen to the balance of power in the sports media world.”
• FanIQ serves up video of a Dodgers-Red Sox exhibition game at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday. The game was played before an announced crowd of 115,300 — the largest crowd to ever to attend a baseball game — and ended in a 7-4 win for the Red Sox. I would’ve loved to have been in attendance…the sight of a routine fly ball soaring over the 42-foot screen in left field was simply classic.
• Greg Oden got himself into a bit of trouble with Nate McMillan and the Trail Blazers’ organization when it was discovered that Oden played in pickup basketball games at a Portland fitness club. As it turns out, doctors have only cleared Oden to participate in light drills at team practices. Well, looks like Oden’s gotta adjust to the fact that the NBA is indeed a business, and health matters are thus taken very seriously by teams. This should serve as a solid learning experience for him.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 4:57 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.