The USA Basketball team is now in Beijing getting ready for Olympics tuneups. Before that though, they were in Las Vegas practicing and whatnot. Though this note is a little old at this point, it’s a goodie. It comes to us from the Las Vegas Review-Journal via Ben Maller.
Members of Team USA are keeping an age-old tradition of celebrity aliases alive.
Spies tell me that one of the star players goes by the alias “Bruce Wayne,” the alter ego of “Batman,” and another has taken the name “SpongeBob SquarePants,” the animated cartoon character from the hit TV show of the same name.
Several Team USA players have been using their favorite aliases during their stay at Wynn Las Vegas this week.
In the stands, when the U.S. Olympic squad faces Canada’s Olympic men’s basketball team tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center, could be Michael Jordan, who has been known to use the name “Clark Kent” and “Mr. Sterling” at Las Vegas hotels and restaurants.
Alright, SpongeBob SquarePants? My money’s on Dwight Howard. It’s already been well-publicized that Howard’s kind of a closet-nerd and that he’s a fan of cartoons. Though I would bet on Howard, any player on the team that has a kid is pretty likely to have watched the cartoon at some point. Still, I’ll go with Howard here. Or could Jason Kidd be our culprit?!


The double-coup the Angels pulled on Tuesday was easily one of the peaks of the baseball season. First, things got exciting when reports in the morning said the Angels were warming to the idea of acquiring Mark Teixeira from the Braves. Later in the day, the dream became reality and the Angels all of a sudden had the three-hitter they so desperately have needed the last three years. As soon as I heard that it had happened, I began to worry about who the Angels had lost. It was obvious that Casey Kotchman was gone, but I also figured maybe prospects like Adenhart or Wood, or one of the spare outfielders like Willits or Rivera would be gone, too. I wasn’t too happy to think about life without Kotchman since he’s a solid all-around player, delivering clutch hits and playing a Gold Glove first base. But come on, it’s Mark Teixeira — a guy who can produce the way Vlad did during his MVP years with the Angels. It didn’t take long for me to get pumped up and celebrate like the Halos just signed Jack Parkman.
Alright, so I was watching the Dodger game the other night when a particular giveaway night they were promoting caught my attention. Just like every other team in MLB, the Dodgers do the whole Fireworks Night, back to school lunch bag giveaway, hat night, and of course, the fan-favorite bobblehead night. Now ordinarily the bobbleheads are miniature versions of the team’s superstars. Only the real marquee players get bobblehead nights. Many of them even consider it an honor — like a sign that they’ve arrived. The Dodgers this year have already given away Takashi Saito bobbleheads which makes sense since he was an All-Star closer last year. They also had a Joe Torre bobblehead night, presumably to justify the $6 million they pay him annually to make double-switches. And last month they did a Brad Penny bobblehead to celebrate a pitcher who’s been an anchor in their rotation the last few years (ironically he was hurt during the month of his giveaway). But check this out: the fourth and final Dodger to be immortalized in the form of a bobblehead is none other than Joe Beimel.
In light of the upcoming baseball trading deadline, I came up with a list of the worst (most one-sided) deadline deals of the decade. Hopefully this should serve as a cautionary tale for GMs before they go out and sell off their teams and get nothing in return, or on the flip side, acquire a useless player and give away superstars in the making. The list takes two factors into account. The first is how much the acquired player helped/has helped the team that acquired him. The second is how little was given away in return. Feel free to comment if you disagree with the order or if you would like to add to the list. Keep in mind, this is strictly a trade deadline list since 2000.