Degenerate Bet of the Day

Another season. Another empty spot on the Mavs’ mantle. The basketball season officially ends tonight, when the Celtics beat the Lakers in Boston and win the NBA Championship. In a tense, low-scoring game, gimme the Celtics minus the five, under the 191. For entertainment only, of course. Then, finally, we…

Mark Teixeira: Grade the Trade.

Somehow, the Rangers don’t miss this guy’s big bat. The Rangers have trotted out Ben Broussard, Chris Shelton and maybe soon even Hank Blalock to his old position. And in last month’s draft they picked the next him. But dig a little deeper – just a level or two down…

Sooner or Later You Knew I’d Get Around to Pro Rasslin’

Now, and only now, I’ve earned the right to call this joint The Sportatorium. Just got my grubby little hands on Gentleman’s Choice, a new documentary by Dallas film producer Mickey Grant. Better late than never, those of you who stumbled onto this site looking for professional wrestling vignettes will…

The Texas Rangers’ “Dead Money”

A $4-Million Frank That’d be one Frank Catalanotto, says Forbes today on its list of sports’ “Best-Paid Bench Warmers.” Why come? Well, first off: He’s making $4 million this year. And he’s had all of 144 at-bats. And, notes Forbes, “Catalanotto has never reached 500 at-bats in a season during…

NASCAR = Nincompoops And Scoundrels Carousing Amidst Racism?

See here, I been to a race or two. I’ve been to the Daytona 500, attended several races out at Texas Motor Speedway and even penned one of my first Dallas Observer columns about racin’. It’s always been a little fascinating/unsettling seeing all the white faces, red necks and confederate…

Father’s Day: The Extended Re-Mix

The U.S. Open trophy will reside in Dallas. Sorta. Since Father’s Day is all about eating and sleeping and not mowing the lawn and eating some more – oh yeah, and watching golf – doesn’t it officially spill over into today? Thought so. No one in sports delivers more dramatic…

A Mavs Post that has Very Little to do with Basketball

Almost 10,000 career assists, yet somehow Jason Kidd couldn’t pass on her. Mavs fans, you think this blog item is going to be about how good you should feel, considering you purged your sorrow six weeks ago as opposed to waking this morning to the grief of blowing a 24-point…

Wounded Tiger?

Guy on the right: Good golfer. Guy on the left: Great job. Dallas golf guru Hank Haney called the U.S. Open set-up at Torrey Pines in San Diego “the easiest I’ve seen in 30 years.” So far, his star pupil with the surgically repaired knee doesn’t agree. Update: Tiger just…

Crack of the Bat

Milton Bradley and another emotional dust-up. Geez, whoda thunkit? At the risk of Milton Bradley catching a flight to Dallas this morning to come kick my ass, I’m going to re-affirm what we all already know: He’s a nut. (Quick timeout while I go double-bolt the door.) If you’re surprised…

Lost and Found

As first impressions go, this one sucked. On a dreary Saturday in late January, a couple hundred baseball fans packed a theater at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington to listen to the team’s latest and potentially greatest center fielder. But the last thing Josh Hamilton wanted to talk was baseball. First…

Rewinding the 2005 Mavs-Rockets Series

Below, a video getting a lot of play on the YouTube today, in light of former NBA ref Tim Donaghy’s allegations that league officials had a hand in the outcome of certain games — including the Houston Rockets-Dallas Mavericks playoff series in 2005. “Go look at the tapes,” Mark Cuban…

See, I Just Knew Dwyane Wade Wasn’t That Good

On second thought, this wasn’t a foul. Wait, that was our first thought. With only a 1.7 percent chance of winning, the big-market Chicago Bulls stole the NBA Lottery. Pushing the NBA Finals back to relevancy, the league got lucky enough to have the Lakers and Celtics this summer. And…

Classy Reunion

Now, where’d we put that embalming fluid? If you sense a light blogging day, you’re very perceptive. 1. Not a lot of stimulating sportsiness in the air. 2. I’m chin-deep penning a cover story about you-know-who. So, in a very transparent attempt to be both dismissive and productive – I’ll…

NFL Officially Suspicious of Terrell Owens’ Ripped Body

What, you mean most 34-year-olds don’t look like this? According to this story just posted on ESPN.com, Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has been placed in the NFL’s “reasonable cause” testing program for performance-enhancing drugs. Which means? Owens, who recently botched some telephone calls to set up off-season drug tests, can…

Romo Breaks 100; Doesn’t Break Up with Jessica. Yet

Yep, him again. This item pinged to me from Sportatorium superfan Clay Swartz (hey, us former UTA Shorthorn sports editors gotta stick together), who kept tabs on Tony Romo’s attempt to break 100 on the U.S. Open golf course in Torrey Pines, San Diego over the weekend. Romo and his…

Cuban and the Cubs: One Step Closer

At the bottom of this bad-news story concerning cutbacks, on staff and actual news, at Tribune Company-owned newspapers, among them The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune , it also mentions the Trib’s impending sale of the Chicago Cubs. It notes that the books will be sent to prospective…

Smoak ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

The sooner he gets here, the better. My in-depth analysis of Rangers’ first-round draft choice Justin Smoak goes something like this: Can he be here by 7:05 p.m.? By most accounts, the switch-hitting first baseman from South Carolina is the next Chipper Jones or Mark Texeira. For damn sure he’s…

Your Dallas Mavericks Were Almost Playing in Tonight’s NBA Finals

Squint hard enough and you can see these two in Mavericks’ blue. Well, not really. But we can dream. And, as nightmares go, how’s this? The Mavericks almost made three separate trades for guys who will figure prominently in what should be a scintillating, fascinating NBA Finals between the Lakers…