- I was on assignment in Las Vegas talent producing "24 Hours of Torii Time"... Torii Hunter gave us an inside, "all-access" look at what his MLB friends do for fun during the off-season. The boys came to town to golf Friday, have dinner at N9NE steakhouse, and partied at a couple of clubs. 

On Saturday the boys played in an all-day poker Tournament at the Palms. Torii, who was a self-proclaimed poker player, was knocked out in the FIRST hand (how could he do this to our feature - he's the BDSSP HOST of the weekend!?!).  While the other guys continued to play throughout the course of the morning and into the late afternoon, T-Hunt's GREAT friend and former teammate, David "Big Papi" Ortiz, also got knocked out fairly early in the tournament.  We had to find fun things to do with T-Hunt around the hotel to fill some time until the tournament ended... hummm, what would make for interesting television???  

Papi and Torii go way back to their Twinkie days.

The stage was set... cameras rolling... Torii rang the doorbell to the suite and hid away from the door as he said, "Housekeeeeeping!"  Big Papi opened the door, looked right and then left... he saw T-Hunt running down the hall and it was as if Big Papi was rounding the bases to home plate... He catches Torii, tackles him to the ground (in a white terry cloth robe and NOTHING ELSE, mind you) and starts pounding him (all playful, of course).  CUT... scene is over!  But WAIT... I proceed to tell Big Papi about the fan on our floor.  He says in his Dominican accent, "What room is he in???"  

On his own, still in his robe with toothbrush and coffee mug in hand, he knocks on the man's door.  Door opens and Big Papi says, "Yo, Bro... do you have any toothpaste?" The man looks at him like he's lost his mind and says, "No, sorry.  I just checked in and my bags are still downstairs."  Big Papi says again, in a louder and demanding voice, "BRO, do you have any toothpaste????"  The man is now slightly irritated and says, "I told you that I don't have my bags yet!!!"  This man obviously isn't recognizing Big Papi as he's dressed (or rather, not dressed)... so Big Papi has to find another way to jar this man's awareness...

He says to the man, "Hey, why do you have that t-shirt on?" (as the t-shirt is red with Red Sox written in large letters across his chest).  Three seconds pass with silence and THEN... as the man has his cell phone in hand (as he had been on the phone when he first answered the door), "Holy s#$&, I have BIG PAPI in my room!!!!"  With that, he hangs up on whoever was on the other line without saying good-bye... and Big Papi says, "BRO, you just hung up on your friend!"  The man says, "Who cares about my friend, I have BIG PAPI at my door!!!"  

And with that, Big Papi never got his toothpaste, but the man got the best surprise of his life!  The moral of this story is... always carry toothpaste with you!

And finally, some hijinks from a Heisman Trophy winner...

- Marcus Allen stole my chapstick. 

A few years ago, Marcus was a guest on our show.  It was unseasonably cold in Los Angeles, so he showed up wearing a black windbreaker, which he left in the green room during his appearance.  Well, the show ends, Marcus grabs his jacket and leaves.  Only he doesn't grab HIS jacket, he grabs MINE.  Now, I'm not accusing Marcus Allen of stealing my jacket, because that would be ridiculous.  He's a Heisman Trophy winner and a Hall of Famer and I'm... well, not.  And, while the prospect of walking around in Marcus Allen's jacket was tempting, I still wanted my coat back. 

So, the talent bookers called Marcus, explained the situation and asked if he could return the jacket.  So, being the nice Heisman Trophy winner he is, Marcus turned his car around, drove back to FOX and the swap was made, his jacket for mine.  But here's the kicker.  I keep only one thing in my jacket pocket at all times - a tube of chapstick.  Not loose change, not breath mints, but chapstick.  Cherry-flavored chapstick.  But, when I reached into my pocket after the jacket swap was made, the chapstick was gone.  I searched every pocket, but to no avail.  Even checked the floor of the green room, in case it had fallen out.  Still, nothing. 

And that's when it hit me.  Marcus Allen may not have stolen my jacket, but he did steal my chapstick.  I guess he likes Cherry.

- Back in February 2004, I pitched a guest named Henry Bekkering. He was an 18-year-old freshman basketball player at Eastern Washington University. A co-worker showed me an underground Canadian High School dunk contest in which Henry literally threw down some of the nastiest dunks I'd ever seen. I tracked Bekkering down and my boss agreed to let him show off some dunks on the show. This was my first chance as a Segment Producer. Sounds harmless, right? WRONG!!!

Fast forward to May 27, 2004, a day which I now refer to as "THE FACIAL." Henry was visibly nervous prior to filming, which in turn put me on edge. The plan was for Henry to throw down three dunks. The first was a Vince Carter elbow through the rim dunk. Henry did not deliver as advertised. I heard murmurs from my bosses calling this guy a "FRAUD." Second dunk was a double pump reverse ala MJ. Henry redeemed himself with a decent rendition. The finale was a bit more complicated. Henry was going to jump over Brian Bosworth (THE BOZ) who was sitting under the rim on a stool.

All I can tell you folks is that Henry never quite made it. His knee slammed into Boz's nose and chaos ensued. Ironically, the dunk did go down. I didn't go near Bosworth for the rest of the day... you wouldn't have either. The production trailer was still buzzing the next day and I was called into the talent meeting by Tom Arnold. As soon as I entered, Bosworth (who was filling in as a guest host all week long) jumped over the conference room table and lunged at me like he was going for blood. My first natural instinct was to put up my fists. The whole room (Bosworth included) begins roaring in laughter, culminating with Herschel Walker (another guest host that day) saying "What the heck do you think those fists are gonna do, son?"

MORAL OF THE STORY... No harm no foul!