From the Bleachers

ESPN has gone to great lengths to report on how Michael Jordan had it all wrong, LeBron James can dribble left, or right, or something. Here's an exclusive sneak peek at their forthcoming follow up report on which side of the bed LeBron likes to get out of in the morning. Let's find out!!

Bruins goalkeeper takes care of business in the crease during the Boston versus Toronto playoff game seven last night
 

Incredible comeback by the Boston Bruins last night. Playing game seven against Toronto, for a place in the conference semi finals, they were absolutely dead and buried down 1-4 late in the game. The Maple Leafs were completely dominant to that point, and their fans were celebrating like maniacs on the streets of Toronto.

Previously we brought you the story on the new poster child of the Miami Heat, an angry, ugly woman who thought it was OK to aggressively flip the bird at the Bull’s Joakim Noah. As it turns out, the media got hold of her pretty easily. Her name is Filomena Tobias and let’s just say, she has priors.

Obnoxious woman and man at Heat versus Bulls game captured for eternity giving Joakim Noah a ‘Miami farewell’

World Series champion San Francisco based team consider new name options less wildly racist than ‘Chinatown Yellow-Faces’ as country continues to be divided by Redskins debate. Other equally racist-named teams also considering change. 

Great drama across the NBA today as first Jason Collins and then LeBron James 'come out' as gay. Word from the James camp is that LeBron is 'way more super gay' than Collins.

Last night Anibal Sanchez struck out 17 Braves. As he shines for the Tigers, Redsox followers have to consider, was the 2005 trade that sent him and Hanley Ramirez to Florida worth it?

Mention Jeff Bagwell and Redsox fans old enough to remember shudder involuntarily. Bagwell was a hot prospect in the Boston minor league system until he was traded for the somewhat-less-than-immortal relief pitcher Larry Anderson in 1990. Anderson played but one season in Ye Old Towne. Bagwell went on to smash 449 home runs in a glittering Major League career. That trade has quite literally haunted an entire generation of Redsox fans.

Before last night's game, Bruins regular Rene Rancourt gets the anthem started and then a passionate crowd takes it to the bridge (and further!)

The city of Boston was struck by tragedy on Monday, on a day normally set aside for the celebration of sports. Patriots day is a huge day in Boston, one of the greatest sporting cities in the World. You all know about the New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics and indeed the Boston Bruins. Those legendary teams are but the tip of the ice berg. Boston is also home to the world’s oldest and some say the most prestigious marathon, and it is also home to some of the finest collegiate teams in all of the United States.

The 77th Masters continues to be a magnet for controversy, as first Guan Tianlang is penalised with a little used 'slow play' penalty while second, Tiger Woods avoids disqualification for a much more serious offence.

Caroline Wozniacki takes a tee shot for her boyfriend Rory McIlroy during the festivities to open the Masters. Results were not awesome.

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe they are not. The famous old ball player and movie star were an all-star couple with a dramatic, star glazed quality that we couldn’t resist. Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki? What can you say, really, bar, Jokin’ Joe and Marilyn will not be challenged for ‘athlete couple of all time’ for some time yet.

Nevertheless, Rory and Caroline are being gleefully rammed down our collective throats at every possible occasion. Thankfully, we still get a chance to laugh at their antics on occasion, perhaps unintentionally, and definitely not as planned out in advance by their seemingly rabid PR teams.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will be getting all sorts of Karma points for this classy act, where they organised for 7 year old cancer patient Jack Hoffman to score a touchdown in their spring training game
 

Enjoyable rugby trick-shot video created by young Irish lad gains the attention of All Blacks legendary outhalf Dan Carter
 

You may remember the brilliant ‘trick shot’ video we talked about some time ago by Håvard Rugland in Norway. Håvard is now working on an NFL career while his video is up to an incredible 2,750,229 views. Ireland now has its own trick shot star on YouTube. Step forward George Morgan. His enjoyable video centres around his rugby skills. Check out the lads ability to hit a lamppost at will.

The Red Sox showcase surprisingly effective youthful talent and a diverse, powerful range of bullpen arms in shocking 8-2 opening day win in New York

Believe it or not, Manny Ramirez is now plying his trade for the EDA Rhinos, a Taiwanese team in the Chinese professional baseball league.
 

This is not a dream. This is reality. Manny Ramirez, yes, that Manny Ramirez, is now playing professional baseball in the Chinese baseball league. He is playing for the EDA Rhinos, one of the four Taiwanese teams that ply their trade in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Ramirez is earning the equivalent of approximately $25,000 a month to play, although you can bet there are other benefits. For example, we doubt he is paying for his accommodation and there appears to be some sort of ‘daily stipend’ involved, which is probably bigger than you or my monthly salary anyway.

Put it this way, we highly doubt Manny Ramirez is playing baseball in Taiwan and China for $25,000 a month alone.

Boston sports media and fans on Twitter left with proverbial egg on face as Jarome Iginla goes to the Penguins, not the Bruins as so many expected (and so many announced).

Florida Gulf Coast drop a load of dunks on, well, everyone, on their way to the Sweet Sixteen.

First Harvard knocked out number 3 seeded New Mexico. Then Wichita State bonked out number 1 seeded Gonzaga. Make no mistake however, the underdog story of March Madness thus far is Florida Gulf Coast. The tiny college which only reopened for business in 1997 has blasted aside first the 2nd ranked Georgetown Hoyas and now 7th ranked San Diego State.

English Rugby continues its streak of embarrassing moments by crying about referee after a 3-30 bashing

The Public, Press and Players in the USA all have a part to play in Team USA's failure to advance in the World Baseball Classic

Fans and writers wailing about loss of Welker to the Broncos seem to have forgotten how the Patriots deal with high priced free agents

Fantastic highlight video of Brian O’Driscoll’s glittering career created as some urge for statue to be erected in his honour

Kaspars Daugavins attempted a crazy 'circus shot' attempt in penalty shootout last night against the Boston Bruins

There may be more to the omission of Ronan O'Gara from the Irish Six Nations squad than at first meets the eye.

Most sporting media entities appear to be buying that line without question and Rory's apology, issued today, is being taken as a humble 'mea culpa' with most commentators advising us to move on and leave the young lad alone.

Wait one second now.

Everybody is doing the Harlem Shake. Sports teams, clubs and other organisations are taking it upon themselves to perform their version of the viral Internet dance/pop song combination now being referred to as 'The Harlem Shake'. Effectively The Harlem Shake is an Internet meme in the form of a video of various groups of people performing a comedy sketch accompanied by a short excerpt from the song "Harlem Shake"

Here's the Miami Heat version. ESPN and other major sporting sites have been drooling all over this since it arrived late last week. They, including the Heat, are all missing the point entirely. If there was such a thing as a 'Harlem Shake' review team, they would take one look at this and shout 'wrong, wrong, wrong!'.

Normally 'tripping' in hockey costs you two minutes in the sin bin. For one delinquent Dad it is costing him 15 days in the slammer.

Martin Tremblay of Vancouver will serve 15 days in jail for assault, an incident where he tripped an opposing player after his son's youth hockey game.Tremblay (48) swept out the leg of an opposing player while the teams were going through the age old youth hockey ritual of lining up to shake hands after the game. Two players, a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old, fell to the ice.

For the second time in his career, Brady has restructured his contract with the New England Patriots in a manner beneficial to the team, not the player. The restructuring is dramatic in terms of numerical value, and means primarily that the Patriots have all sorts of ‘wiggle room’ to play with in terms of keeping players (Welker, for example) or bringing in new free agents.

Let’s immediately swat the nay-sayers out of the argument. Sure, Brady can physically afford to take a pay cut. However, he did it. He put his money where his mouth was. In this day and age, how often do professional athletes actually give out hometown discounts? Put simply, they don’t. it is very rare. Look around you, Justin Verlander is demanding to be paid over $200 million. No hometown discount for Detroit. Dwight Howard certainly didn’t offer Orlando a hometown discount. Joe Flacco is looking for mega bucks from the Ravens, absolutely no sign of a hometown discount there.

All too often we are let down by those in authority when it comes down to quotations on the 'heavy' topics in life. Life, the meaning of same, the universe and such. Do you recall we had a US presidential candidate that once said; "Space, is a very big place."

On the flip side of that coin, all too often we are also let down by our sporting heroes, in that absolutely all they want to talk about is themselves.

Let's face it, the life perspective and World view of many of our athletes is nothing short of pathetic.

Of course, none of us were in the house when the tragedy, or murder,  occurred, so until justice has its day, we can’t really pass final judgement, tempting as it may be. However, Pistorius’s pre-planned and calculating statement at the bail hearing today had some massive holes in it.

Add to that the hint that a motive may have been found, and Pistorius would appear to be skating on extremely thin ice. Before we delve into this possible motive, a quick look at Pistorius’s statement from earlier today.

You may have noticed the Boston Red Sox are doing their utmost to change their club house environment for the better. They have been bringing in ‘high character’ type players all offseason long. The team is clearly trying to send a message, move on together, and get away from the ’25 guys, 25 cabs’ mentality that prevailed over much of the last two seasons in Boston.

This apparent change to in-house culture obviously hasn’t been completely finalised as yet, as one massive, glowing, shining neon light of potential disaster is still emanating from one of the lockers in the Sox clubhouse. Alfredo Aceves is no stranger to controversy in Boston (or anywhere else, for that matter). He apparently simply refuses to toe the line of a ‘team first’ mentality, and seems to have a burning desire to stand out via the medium of outlandish actions and incidents.

The Champions League is a beautiful thing. The knockout stages of the competition provide some of the most dramatic, endearing moments in sports anywhere in the World. The international element, combined with the quality of play make for pure dramatic tension, wonderful entertainment. To sports lovers like myself, this section of the sporting calendar is a fantastic time. Baseball is coming, the Six Nations, the NHL (Just!), the NBA, the Premier League and La Liga are all in action. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Champions League nights, have a special aura about them.

With Real Madrid set to host Manchester United tonight at the famous old Bernabeu stadium, memories have come flooding back from their dramatic Champions League encounter which took place, that’s right, ten years ago.

Ireland were pretty much knocked flat on their face on Sunday by a powerful (if stupefyingly boring tactically) English team. Perhaps worse yet, the legend of great Irish fans support took a serious body blow, inflicted by none other than our own.  One of Irish rugby’s most endearing features, and indeed one of its proudest traditions, was the veritable silence afforded the kicker, even opposition kickers, during play. Sadly, English outhalf Owen Farrel was subjected to boos, whistles and cat calls on almost every one of his six kicks on Sunday.

It was ugly.

Patriots Tight End Rob Gronkowski is a living legend on many levels. His ridiculous tangible success to date, the combination of his athletic size and talent and his charming, cheeky, Dexter like grin have combined to basically carpet bomb the hearts and minds of Patriots and other NFL fans to the point where he is a superhero after just two seasons in the league.

A feature of his personality that doesn’t sit as well with the Patriots front office and indeed some fans, is his Peter Pan like party animal persona. Gronkowski likes to pary. After last season Gronk embarked on a General Sherman like assault on the summer, partying, drinking and dancing to the point where Patriots fans were referring to the summer of 2012 as ‘The Summer Of Gronk’.

There are those who watched as the lights went out last night in the Louisiana Superdome and thought, 'oh well, that's crazy!' Then there are those who saw it and thought, 'Wait a second, what's going on here?' This article is geared towards the latter. The Superbowl last night was basically one or two big plays away from being one of the best, if not the best, ever played. If San Francisco had managed to bury the rock in the end-zone with those two minutes to go, it would have been the greatest comeback of all time. Instead we are left with a pretty memorable event anyway, partially because of that power outage that happened just after the start of the second half.

Essentially, as we said in the opener, your interest in that crazy event, the lights going out, can go one of two ways. Either, ‘Gosh that was funky’ or ‘Wait a second, this is a bit odd’.

So, I guess we know why the New York Yankees really signed Kevin Youkilis. Perhaps they knew something other than regular injury was up with their third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Turns out A-Rod has been abusing the juice, again. Yes, one of the greatest frauds to have ever walked on a Major League Baseball diamond, has once again, been caught with his pants down, and with a giant steroid needle stuck firmly in his backside. A Miami paper has published the results of a three month long investigation and A-Rod is the biggest name on the list. Judge for yourself, but the evidence certainly looks compelling.

The happiest people in the World right now are the Yankee beat reporters who suddenly have much of their Spring Training copy practically written for them

Just beautiful.

The Superbowl itself? Are they actually going to play the game? Is there any point? I would assume they could really make this whole process of 'The Superbowl' more efficient and more commercially viable for the networks by simply having Ray Lewis dance in the middle of the field roaring, screaming and posing for 60 minutes wearing a jersey emblazoned with 'I am going to be on ESPN next season!' while the Harbaugh brothers dance and roar with equal vigour and oh-so-honest passion on their respective sidelines.

We will leave you to trawl through the facts and fiction and instead point you in the direction of one pretty damning comment on the unfortunate young man's part.

When asked by ESPN why Manti didn't once visit his dying girlfriend in her time in hospital, Te'o responded, and we quote;

The BCS bowl game Monday night sadly was not what you would call compelling viewing. For Notre Dame fans the writing must have been on the wall as the teams came out of the tunnel, and they suffered that scary moment of realisation that hits all teams from high school up through college. ‘Damn, those guys are huge!’.

The game was such a non-contest that the commentary team’s minds and mouths wandered. Brent Musburger and his broadcast partner Kirk Herbstreit decided to add some commentary to camera shots of AJ McCarron's girlfriend Katherine Webb. You know what, you be the judge. Here’s the video.

Rejoice! The NHL is back. This column often strikes a sarcastic pose so we should clarify, we do think that is actually a good thing.  A great thing, in fact. The return of the NHL is terrific sporting news. Word on the street is that once the suits finish crossing and dotting their proverbials, we should have hockey on or between the 15th and 19th of January. As far as the NHL is concerned at that point the NHL fans, casual and loyal both, should dutifully put on their jerseys and make way in orderly fashion to their closest Ice Hockey rink to pay their hard earned money to watch the NHL product.

The NHL thinks it can basically slap whatever it wants on your plate, and you are going to gobble it up without any reservations. And you will be thankful. Although those within the league, extending from front office execs to heavy set ‘enforcers’ on the ice, are all striking the right conciliatory tones, you can bet that once the season starts and once their precious stadiums fill up, we will be back to square one.

The LA Clippers however provide perhaps the most fascinating value to punters looking to get in on the NBA title or just Western title action. Now, let's print a Blake Griffin sized disclaimer here, we're not saying 'The Clippers will definitely win the NBA title' - what we are saying is, they represent serious value to do same!

The Clippers just tick a lot more boxes than many of those ahead of them in the current NBA betting. Form? Yes Sir, the Clippers are in seriously good form. They are just finished a 17 game winning streak where they routinely pounded the opposition into the court. With a winning percentage of .781 they are just behind Oklahoma and ahead of everyone else in terms of pure wins.

However, if you actually watched the game, there was a number of aspects that didn't sit well after the fact. Certainly not with this column anyway.

To summarize, Kentucky interim coach Lance Guidry watched as his team drove down field into field goal position with a minute left in the game, trailing by, you guessed it, three. Instead of kicking a relatively simple chip shot, Kentucky went for it on fourth and two, and didn't make it.

Sadly, it’s not.

Before the game, NBC showed the President of the United States, Barack Obama, deliver his moving speech at the Newtown memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Considering that one of the teams about to play football were wearing a decal on their helmets in memory of the victims, and considering that the tragedy has permeated all levels of US society, including sports, you would have imagined this was a safe enough decision by NBC (to show The President’s speech before the game).

The game was to all intents and purposes over before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots offence had its way with the much ballyhooed Texans defence and J.J. Watt (no sacks and no passes batted down) while the defence, led by the incredible Vince Wilfork, destroyed almost everything Houston tried to do. The Texans ran nine plays that went for negative yardage. Nine! Worse yet for Texans fans, their team appeared to raise the white flag very early. Instead of running a hurry up offence or showing any urgency to even cut into the lead, Houston huddled up after every play and ran running plays to backup Ben Tate before bringing on the punting team.

The signature play of the night? There are a few you could choose from, including Brady’s beautiful play action fake, touchdown toss to Brandon Lloyd, however the funniest was J.J. Watt forcing a fumble off Danny Woodhead only for the ball to roll to Lloyd in the end zone for a Patriots touchdown.