What men will give up to own other men’s clothing.

A uniform worn by Joe Dimaggio in the 1951 World Series was sold for $195,500 yesterday at an auction of some of his memorabilia.  Other items sold were a jock strop, socks from game 26 of his hit streak, and a used condom that he may or may not have used with Marilyn Monroe.

I truly hope that everything sold at the auction went to a store that sells collectables but knowing Yankees fans, it’s quite possible that Tony from the Bronx sold his pizza joint in order to walk around at his son’s tee ball games pretending to be the Yankee Clipper.

To me, collectors are just weird. It’s one thing to be at ballpark hounding players for autographs when you’re young, but it’s totally different when you are paying outrageous sums of money to own game-worn clothing.  Stuff like that is meant to be in Cooperstown.

Nobody’s wife will be happy about dusting the Joe D. jersey hanging in the living room.

 Uniform from DiMaggio's last World Series sells for $195,500

Times have most definitely changed.

The sound of balls being ripped off aluminum bats or the swish of a 15 footer going in nothing but net has been replaced by the shuffling of card decks and twirling of chips.  The term “check raise” has taken the place of “ghost runner.” What used to be a game of sandlot baseball or pickup basketball is now poker for this generation.  My generation.

It’s pitiful...really…I mean even watching it on television is captivating.  Norman Chad has become the new Jack Buck. Even those that don’t enjoy the game tune in, if for nothing else than to understand why the hell everyone else likes it so much.

One thing ESPN should do however, is televise ordinary home games.  Take away the pros for once and just catch a bunch of guys sitting at a kitchen table playing a low stakes, one table tournament.

Regular people trying to imitate what they see on TV. That’s where the real characters are.

Live blogging a card game would just kill my street cred, and maybe get me beat up, so I didn’t take it that far but I came up with a list of people you need at your home game. If you can relate to any of these, you’re probably a total clown, but I’d love to laugh at you on television. If you can’t, well, you’re more respectable than I am.

Guy that wears sunglasses
Man, that lamp you’re sitting next to must really be bright.  I think you’re getting sunburned.  Seriously, you should kill yourself if you’re wearing sunglasses. It’s not like any of the people you’re playing with want to look at your pupils to see if you’re bluffing anyway. 

Guy that says all-in every hand
I’m not even talking about the guy that raises all-in every hand.  I mean the guy that mucks his cards and then sees the flop and says it.  And he doesn’t do it once either. Like that has the slight chance of being humorous.  Nope he does it every five hands until everyone wants to punch him in the face.

Guy that thinks that he’s a pro
He’s probably wearing sunglasses and listening to his iPod, waiting to yell at someone for calling his raises with marginal hands.  The problem with “pro guy” is that it seems like the only pro he’s trying to be is Phil Helmuth – meaning he’s just waiting to lose and cry.

Guy that legitimately needs to win the 50 dollar prize
Sure he had the $10 dollar buy in, but if he loses, he isn’t going to be able to buy lunch or beer at the end of the week.  That’s the closest thing you’ll see to a degenerate before it goes from amusing to downright sad. 

Guy that reads poker books and refers to the pros as if he knows them.
“Doyle would have played that hand, but I don’t think Chan would have.”  It’s nice to see teenagers reading, but when it’s about how to gamble better, I feel like it’s not that healthy.

Guy that says his “style” is playing every hand
You’ll spot this guy quick. He’ll be the first person to bust someone with his “favorite hand.”  It will probably be something like 4-5, black off suit and he’ll he think, “Man I always gotta play that hand.”

Guy that say “but they were suited.”
He calls raises with anything suited, or connected for that matter, and then hits. This is probably the guy who wins often, and at the same time the last guy you want to invite because he’s probably a ####.

Guy that doesn’t want to play
He only plays because the rest of his friends play and probably says he doesn’t like poker because “it’s boring and he’s not patient enough.” He also spends most of the game text messaging his girl friend and is probably the only one of the group with the chance of getting laid later that night.

A team that has one guy who refers to himself as “Starbury” and another who’s known as "Franchise” isn’t the problem. Apparently, Larry Brown is what’s wrong with the New York Knicks.

Various New York newspapers are reporting that Madison Square Garden Chairman Larry Dolan is considering buying out the rest of Brown’s contract after an embarrassing 23-59 season.

It’s as if the Knicks have spent the last year on tilt, making one ridiculous move after another to try and compensate for their previous ridiculous moves.

They’ve traded what seemed like a guaranteed lottery pick for the weak hearted Eddy Curry.  They also acquired a player that earlier in the season was suspended for refusing to enter a game in the fourth quarter.   

Now they want to get rid of the one gem they have.

Better yet, The Post says they are considering handing the job over to Isiah Thomas so they don’t have pay $5 million for a new coach. To me, it seems pretty inevitable that he will take over the team at some point.

That's just the punishment he deserves.

Drew Henson was once both a Heisman candidate and the next Mike Schmidt.  Now he’s stuck playing in front of crowds that can’t understand why American’s stole the name of their game.

Henson is currently playing in NFL Europe with the Rhein Fire and keeps a blog hosted by the Dallas Morning News.  His latest entry came yesterday when he announced that he had a sprained MCL and was questionable for this Sunday’s game with Hamburg, who apparently is always dangerous and has the heart of a lion.

“They are a much better team than their record shows, and with nothing to lose, they will probably throw everything they have at us. We may have up to four starters out on offense, but regardless, we have to fight and find a way to win this game, no matter how pretty it may or may not be.”

The one positive about Henson being down means that record breaking college quarterback Timmy Chang might get a chance to play.  Remember him?  The guy that threw for 100,000 yards for Hawaii a few years ago.  I just love him.

After rambling about some trip that was ruined by his therapy, Henson goes on to explain that he can’t wait to come back to the United States and lists the things he misses most about this country:

“Mi Cocina
Nobu
Patrizio
Baseball Tonight (Cable)
Golfing
Having a car to drive
Speaking the local language
AMERICANS”

Maybe he forgot that he’s hated by half of New York for being the Yankee’s position playing version of Brien Taylor. Maybe he doesn’t realize that he now gets the honor of handing Terrell Owens water (without receiving a high five) after touchdowns. Maybe he thinks Bill Parcells knows his name.

On second thought, maybe he’d be better off staying in Germany.

What I miss most – Drew Henson’s Blog

Baseball fans in the northeast are usually guaranteed of one exciting rivalry each summer. From the looks of things, they’d better prepare for a double dose.
 
A pair of three game sets begins tonight in New York and Philadelphia between the Yankees and Red Sox and the Phillies and Mets. In terms of the big picture, each series has relatively no meaning…being that it’s May 9th… but when it comes to bragging rights, it might as well be the final week of the regular season.
 
Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees
On the American League side, the Yankees and Red Sox have that hate-hate thing going on so fans tend to get a little rowdy for these matchups.  From what I notice, it’s always a little more important to Sox fans that their team take two of three from these early season meetings than it is to Yankee fans.
 
It’s not even that they care more; it’s just that their obsession with beating New York has no calendar… and every single win is just as good as the one before it – except for game seven of the 2004 ALCS. That was probably a tad better.
 
Yankee fans meanwhile, prove that despite the rumors, they are pretty decent counters. At least up through 26. That’s makes for an annoying argument before, during and after any of these games.  You can’t even have a conversation with those guys because they all start with -in terrible New Yorker accents mind you- “How many World Series have you won in the last 88 years?” 
 
And yes, they all have terrible New Yorker accents. As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t at least fake the New York voice, you’re probably just a Cowboys, Bulls, Duke, Nebraska, Brazil fan.
 
New York Mets/Philadelphia Phillies
The NL East is a little different. I’m not even sure that I would call the Phillies and Mets rivals.  They’re almost like the Nets and the Celtics.  When’s the last time fans were pumped for one of those games?  Nevertheless, both sides’ fans can and will be brutal.
 
Fans in Philadelphia are genuine thugs. In fact, it’s debatable as to whether or not they even support their home teams. Whereas most people go to the game expecting to watch, these guys go expecting to fight, torture and potentially kill. They get all loaded on their cheese steaks and booze and then you can’t control them. 
 
And they have plenty of fuel too.  Billy Wagner, who still uses “reckon” in place of “think” or “suppose” called out his former teammates over the weekend, noting that he felt as though the team didn’t like him.  Saying “we ain’t got no chance” to make the playoffs last July probably did it.
 
The Mets are starting to get plenty of those “man, I’ve always be a Mets fan,” guys as their wins pile up.  Expect that the bandwagon to continue to grow throughout the summer making for a dangerous combination with real Mets fans. That of course, is because any true Mets fan must really be off his rocker.  Being second best in your own city for so long will do that to you.
 
Divisions aren’t won or lost in May.  This series is all about the fans gaining an upper hand on one another.
 
At least until next week.

Charles Barkley became the second high profile athlete this week to admit having a serious gambling problem. Barkley estimated that he had lost $10 million at the casino, which pales in comparison to John Daly who said he has lost $50-60 million, but I guess it’s still fairly substantial.

During halftime of the Piston/Bucks game, Barkley changed his tune denying that he had a problem and offering this priceless gem:

"It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."   

Good call from Sir Charles.  With what he spends on a single hand of blackjack, crack heads and boozers could have enough money to get their fix for years.  But no, gambling’s not a problem.  I get his point, but it was in bad taste.

Anyway, I’m with MJD on this one… There’s a huge difference between what Barkley does and what Daly suffers from.  Barkley’s habit or problem or whatever seems like it would make for an entertaining reality TV show.  Maybe him, Michael Jordan and one of those MIT kids playing $20,000 per hand at the Mirage… Challenging dealers to fights when they flip over a five after being forced to hit on 16.

For Daly, there’s a very real chance that he will go flat broke as soon as he is done with golf and I don’t think his life stories would fit as well into a Masters’ broadcast as Barkley’s do on TNT.

Barkley claims gambling problem has cost him $10M – ESPN
“Hey, Look At Me! I Have A Gambling Problem, Too!” – The Mighty MJD