Atlanta Braves sign Bobby Cox to one-year contract extension (AP/Yahoo! Sports)

The Atlanta Braves announced that they have given manager Bobby Cox a one-year contract extension through 2008, the Associated Press is reporting.

Cox, who turns 66 in May of this year, has mentioned in the recent past he might be retiring soon.

“As long as the players can put up with me, and the organization wants me, fine,” Cox said. “I don’t know. We’ll see. When I was asked that question in spring training, I was good for ‘07, ‘08. We’ll see.”

Phillies move Myers to bullpen, elevate Lieber to rotation (FOX Sports)

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports is reporting that Philadelphia Phillies manager “Country” Charlie Manuel has made a change to his rotation, demoting starter Brett Myers to the bullpen and returning Jon Lieber to it.

Adjust your fantasy line-ups accordingly, kids.

Shrutebag drop-kicked by Olbermann (The Big Lead)

When not trying to save the world’s greatest democracy on MSNBC’s “Countdown”, Keith Olbermann does a little one-hour radio program called “The Big Show with Dan & Keith” on ESPN Radio.

And in today’s show (which we heard) near the end of the hour, Olbermann opened up a can of whoop-ass on Colin “Shrutebag” Cowherd, whom apparently lost out on the NFL on NBC studio gig that Olbermann landed.

More after the jump »

Woman faces sex charges (Cincinnati Enquirer)

From the article (via Deadspin) –

A Hollywood makeup artist and wife of a one-time Bengals player was arrested Monday on charges she had sexual contact with a high school student during parties at her Cincinnati area home.

Jeni Lee Dinkel, 51, pleaded not guilty Monday to one count each of third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy after turning herself in to authorities. The Class D felonies each carry a penalty of one to five years in prison.

“The Cincinnati Nine” now has a female member; all equal opportunity offenders.

Urlacher fined $100K for wearing hat during Super Bowl presser (AP/ESPN)

According to ESPN Radio’s The Dan Patrick Show, Chicago Bears linebacker was fined $100,000 by the NFL for wearing a hat during a Super Bowl press conference.

Not just any old hat — a hat that depicted a non-sanctioned league sponsor.

More after the jump »

Tomlinson turns down Madden, Rutgers coach cashes in, No Texting & Another MJ (Darren Rovell)

CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell reports that San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson turned down EA SPORTS’ offer of appearing on its high-selling video game, Madden 08.

From Rovell –

More after the jump »

George Washington student Sikh Monty Singh Harika declares himself eligible for the NBA Draft — but he doesn’t play basketball (KFNS/InsideSTL)

Warning: Audio content.

All-sports station KFNS’ “The Morning Grind” interviewed Sikh Monty Singh Harika, a freshman at George Washington who has declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft, even though he doesn’t play basketball.

We admit we had given thought to do something equally as ridiculous as this, but have never went public with it like this kid.

Text messages to be banned from college recruiting? (USA Today)

According to USA Today’s Steve Wieberg, the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) voted to eliminate text messaging as a method of recruiting student athletes, citing it as “intruding on their lives and creating inappropriate relationships with coaches.”

We hope they weren’t making reference to Houston Nutt because he wrote a letter answering his critics you know.

Phillies manager’s frustrations boil over after loss (ESPN.com News Services)

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel doesn’t like it when you question him after a loss.  Despite shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ guarantees that the team would win the division, the Fightin’ Phils have struggled through a 3-9 start and trailing the lowly Washington Nationals in the NL East.

Enter intrepid radio host.

More after the jump »

(From time to time, we’ll post a short blog entry regarding a current topic or something else that catches our fancy. It might be something trivial or something that really makes us wonder what the hell is going on.)

Once upon a time, ESPN gave us a reason to regularly stop by their site. It wasn’t just for any breaking overnight news that may have occurred, the nascent writings of Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) or the free access to anything written by Peter Gammons, baseball’s best insider. Hell, it was a site that was safe for dial-up as it didn’t have annoying pop-ups or shart-your-pants streaming video of Neil Everett screaming “HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWZIT?!?!?!?!”

No, we’re talking about ESPN 3-Play, which launched in March/April 2000.

More after the jump »

News and notes while rolling out of bed and still managing to outhit Chris Iannetta…

Canucks down Stars, take 3-1 series lead (Yahoo! Sports/AP) Roberto Luongo and the ageless Trevor Linden lead the way.

Sens take commanding lead over young gun Penguins (Sportsnet.ca) Anton Volchenkov’s third period marker puts the Senators in the 3-1 series driver’s seat.

Rangers throttle hopeless Thrashers (TSN.ca) Seven goal outburst puts Rangers on brink of landing in the second round. Keith Tkachuk isn’t helping his salary drive for next season with only two post-season points so far.

Wild live to fight on for another game (Sportsnet.ca) Wild avoid series sweep in 4-1 win.

Flames climb back into series after downing Detroit 3-2 (Yahoo! Sports) Jarome Iginla scores game winner at 9:21 of the third.

Dice-K fans ten, but crucial walk costs Red Sox (AP/USA Today) Bases loaded go-ahead walk to catcher Zaun is the difference in loss to Toronto.

Harden’s MRI is ‘normal’ (MLB.com) Pitcher Harden’s MRI shows “nothing major” as team contemplates Milton Bradley’s health status.

Sosa ignores boo birds in Rangers’ 8-1 stomp of White Sox (AP Recap) “The Dominican Dandy” gets cat calls in return to Chicago as teammate Ian Kinsler continues to roll.

Nats hats pay tribute to Virginia Tech (AP/USA Today)