Larry Brown Sports

Jackpot. For whatever reason, Diamondbacks pitcher Brad Ziegler recently decided to hand out packs of Justin Bieber cards to his teammates in the Arizona locker room. Ziegler acquired the goods at the Panini headquarters, a company in Arlington, Texas that sells officially licensed collectibles and memorabilia. In one of his packs, closer J.J. Putz happened to find a card that was personally autographed by Bieber. I know, he’s lucky — don’t make me more jealous than I already am.

As Ziegler wrote in the tweet he sent out with the photo above, Putz was “stoked.” It may sound crazy to those of you who don’t appreciate the power of the Biebs, but the card is actually a very valuable item. According to the official blog of Panini America, another autographed Bieber card recently sold for $4,500 on eBay. Either Putz is a big Bieber fan or he knows his collectibles and can identify a rare item when he sees one. We’ll go with the former. It’s more fun.

Thanks to Big League Stew for the story

There were rumors all day Saturday that Justin Bieber was going to accompany Floyd Mayweather Jr. to the ring for his fight with Miguel Cotto, and that proved to be true. The singer and entertainer carried Mayweather’s title belts to the ring in one of the most awkward pairings we’ve ever seen. Rapper 50 Cent also accompanied Floyd to the ring as usual, but Bieber just didn’t seem to fit in.

As you can see in the picture above on the right, Bieber also joined Floyd in the ring to celebrate the win. Yup, Bieber, Lil’ Wayne, 50 Cent, and Floyd. The strange thing is Beiber is not the most awkward member of Floyd’s entourage we’ve ever seen. That award goes to this man.

Since winning the Masters back on April 8, Bubba Watson has been a popular man. In between appearances on David Letterman and interviews with sports writers and gossip reporters, he has undoubtedly been flooded with congratulatory calls from friends and family. At some point, you just have to shut off your phone and deal with it later — especially when you have a wife and a one-month old son at home. Before he did that, however, Bubba says he fielded one important phone call.

As you can see around the 1:05 mark of the video above that Geoff Shackleford passed along, Watson claims the only phone call he answered the night he won the green jacket was from Justin Bieber. Based on the conversation, it sounds like Bubba and Biebs are tight. Be jealous, Cam Newton. Be very jealous.

H/T Eye on Golf

Justin Bieber attended the Lakers-Spurs game on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, but he didn’t just sit in his expensive seats and watch the game. Oh no. Bieber got in a little work as a broadcaster on Lakers radio.

The singer and entertainer joined John Ireland and Mychal Thompson on the 710 ESPN Radio broadcast. At first he started off in an analyst role, but he was so eager to call the game he took over play-by-play duties after a few seconds.

Bieber struggled through his first minute of action and said “this is harder than it looks.” He spent about three minutes calling the action and worked in a few catch phrases.

On a basket by Stephen Jackson, he said “boom goes the dynamite,” and he used the phrase two more times during his call. When Pau Gasol recorded a block, Bieber said “get out of his face.”

After he was done with his brief stint as a play-by-play broadcaster, Bieber returned to his second-row seat where he was featured on the kiss cam along with girlfriend Selena Gomez:

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Not even star players from foreign countries are immune to a little rookie hazing. Timberwolves forward Kevin Love tweeted Sunday that teammate Ricky Rubio would be wearing the Justin Bieber backpack seen above for the rest of the season. It’s a funny idea on the surface, but how about a little originality, guys. We’ve seen that exact same backpack used before for rookie hazing.

While this may be embarrassing, Rubio got off easily — at least he didn’t have to dress up as Lady Gaga.

Picture Credit: Kevin Love

Not only can Carolina Panthers quarterback and recent top overall draft pick Cam Newton dominate SEC defenses, win a Hesiman Trophy and place his name in Auburn history, he can also sing. Check out this video of Cam Newton singing Justin Bieber’s baby, as shared with us by Marc Kohn on twitter:

That video shows exactly what the Panthers drafted: An outgoing, charismatic quarterback who wants to be more than just a football player. For better or worse, the rookie quarterback will not shy away from the spotlight for the Carolina Panthers.

In Fort Myers Florida, so called “Bieber fever” has struck a Class-A Advanced minor league ball club.  The Fort Myers Miracle baseball team, a Minnesota Twins affiliate, has seen their bullpen inherit a rather peculiar ritual involving 17-year-old singing sensation Justin Bieber. As a form of punishment, any relief pitcher who gives up a home run has to don a flamboyant Justin Bieber backpack to and from games until the next relief pitcher gives up a homer.

The practice is unusual and out of the ordinary but develops solid team chemistry according to pitching coach Steve Mintz who claimed, “It’s something that keeps the guys laughing and together. I don’t think anybody’s pulling for anybody to give up a home run. Like I told Pugh, I hope he’s the last guy to carry the backpack this season.”

We’ve seen athletes in the past play Bieber’s music before an at-bat or mimic his trendy hair style, but never rock his gear in humiliation.  The backpack was brought in by relief pitcher Blake Martin. “I went to Target the day before the season started,” Martin said. “I was looking for a backpack. I saw Justin Bieber and decided to get it.”

The unusual antic certainly provides an added incentive to pitch well and, if you’re a Fort Myers Miracle player, how could you complain?  Unless, of course, you give up a homer and the rest of the staff becomes lights out.  That would suck a little.

Photo Courtesy Fort Myers Miracle via Fox Sports Florida