Ducks decline offer sheet for Penner (TSN.ca)

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks have declined the Edmonton Oilers’ offer sheet of five-years, $21.25 million to wing Dustin Penner.

As a result, Penner is now an Edmonton Oiler while the Ducks nab the Oilers’ first, second and third round picks as compensation.

In 2006-2007, Penner tallied 29 goals and added 16 assists for 45 points in 82 games.

And one of our favorite league executives, the loquacious and outspoken Ducks general manager Brian Burke, got his two cents worth.

“I have no problem with offer sheets, they are part of the CBA,” Burke said on a conference call. “I think it’s a tool certainly a team is entitled to use. My issue here is this is the second time this year in my opinion Edmonton have offered a grossly inflated salary for a player, and it impacts on all 30 teams and I think it’s an act of desperation by a general manager who is fighting to keep his job.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves: Kevin Lowe, the club’s general manager, offered Buffalo’s restricted free agent Thomas Vanek a seven-year, $50 million offer sheet not long after the free agent spending occurred after July 1.  The Sabres matched the offer.

Lindsay Lohan drunk driving awareness night (Sandgnats.com)

It was inevitable that some enterprising marketing genius would come up with a promotion like this: “Lindsay Lohan Drunk Driving Awareness Night.”

And as usual, it took a bold and intrepid minor-league team to come up with the wacky promotional night.  Enter the Savannah Sand Gnats, the Single-A affiliate of the New York Mets.

It will be a Thirsty Thursday with half-priced beer and Coke and $1 Papa John’s Pizza slices presented by Connect Savannah, Rock 106.1 and Papa John’s Pizza.  However, the Sand Gnats encourage all fans in attendance to learn from the redheaded actress’ mistakes and plan for safe transportation home from the game.

Hook Towing will have a wrecked car from a drunk driving accident on display on the plaza in front of the main gate.  Savannah Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (HEAT) will also be at the game with its blood alcohol testing van.

The Sand Gnats should’ve handed out copies of “The Parent Trap” to go along with this brilliant promotion. That movie alone would drive someone to drink.

Tip o’the cap to The FanHouse.

News and notes while enjoying some day baseball…

Moss sits out practice (AP/ESPN)  The wide receiver injured his leg during a passing drill on Thursday.

Baseball, StubHub to form alliance (NY Times) MLB and StubHub enter into revenue-sharing agreement on the resale of game tickets.  As per the agreement, MLB will direct its ticket holders to buy or sell them on the online ticket clearinghouse.

Name it Bill Walsh Stadium (The FanHouse) The San Francisco Chronicle’s Nancy Gay throws out a great idea: name the new 49ers stadium after the recently deceased legendary coach.

Adu talks on move to Portugal, MLS swan song (SI.com) Freddie Adu talks to SI.com’s Grant Wahl on his new deal with Portuguese powerhouse Benfica and why he left MLS.

Pedro Gomez has the worst job (Epic Carnival)  ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez gets to follow around Barry Bonds like a lost puppy.  We bet he enjoys asking pertinent questions to the slugger and getting the response “Fuck You” all the time.

Vince Young has no fear of hard surfaces (Deadspin/Winning the Turnover Battle) Winning the Turnover Battle found video of Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young punching teammate Donny Nickey — with his throwing hand.

Quickie: Minneapolis, Cubs in 1st, VY KO, StubHub and more! (danshanoff.com) The news and views of the day in bullet-point style, courtesy of the great Dan Shanoff. And while you’re visiting, be sure to help Dan with his fantasy football draft Thursday evening.

Selig to skip Bonds’ series final vs. Dodgers (AP/ESPN)

MLB commissioner Bud Selig announced that he will skip Thursday’s contest between the Giants and Dodgers at Chavez Ravine.  In his place will be Frank Robinson, who will represent MLB at the park.

Selig originally planned to fly to Minnesota to participate in ground breaking ceremonies for the Twins’ new ballpark, but that event was scrapped due to the tragic collapse of the I-35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday.

He will rejoin the chase in San Diego on Friday.

What does this all mean? Barry likely gets a day off Thursday.

Potty-mouth Pete strikes out at camp for kids (The Enquirer)

All-time hit king Pete Rose — he’d be the first to tell you that — made an appearance at the U.S. Army Reds Legends Baseball Camp last week. And apparently, “Charlie Hustle” isn’t that great of a public speaker when it comes to teaching kids the virtues of baseball and sportsmanship.

“It was a complete embarrassment,” said Staff Sgt. Steven Tischer, commander of the Colerain-Highland Ridge U.S. Army Recruiting Station that sponsored the baseball camp for 7- to 14-year-olds. “You don’t swear in front of kids, that’s just common sense. He dropped the F-bomb and the S-bomb. He told them winning is everything and if you get second place you’re just losers.”

But that just scratches the surface because it appears ol’ Pete forgot who is audience was that day.

More after the jump »

Video the Minneapolis bridge collapse (CNN/LiveLeak)

We prefer not wandering into events out of sports, but in this case we’ll make an exception.

CNN acquired video footage from security cameras in the area of the 1-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota that occurred on Wednesday evening.  The collapse injured at least 79 people and killed four people as of Thursday morning.

[liveleak 1ab_1186054443]

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are affected by this tragedy.

The dismantling of the Yankees empire (Fortune)

According to Jon Birger and Tim Arango of Fortune Magazine, the YES Network is up for grabs at a bargain basement price at $3 billion to $3 billion.

The writer Birger appeared on ESPN’s First Take to discuss the matter.  It appears that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has already moved some equity in the club to his four children.

The highest-rated regional sports network in the country and the cable home of the Yankees and the NBA New Jersey Nets, YES is jointly owned by the Yankees, investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co., and former Nets owner Ray Chambers. Goldman and Chambers would like to cash out, YES and Yankees insiders say, and one source says to expect a deal by summer’s end. Some possible bidders: Cablevision, Comcast, News Corp. and Verizon.

More after the jump »

K.J. Choi issues challenge (The Golf Channel)

PGA golfer K.J. Choi issued an interesting challenge: should he win the Fed Cup, which total purse tallies $10 million, he will donate all of those earnings to charity.

“If I’m able to win it, I want to give it all to charity, 100 percent…I could think of so many things I could do with that money, so many good things,” Choi said through his agent and interpreter, Michael Yim of IMG. “I want to help a lot of the unfortunate kids around the world. I want to set up my own foundation, like Tiger. Thinking about what I can do with that money, it just motivates me.”

A rather noble gesture from one of golf’s more solid players.

Tip o’the cap to SPORTSbyBROOKS for the informational tip.

Dungy now best-selling author (AP/ESPN)

Six months after becoming the first black coach to win a Super Bowl, he’s about to grab the No. 1 spot on The New York Times‘ bestseller list.

Dungy’s memoir, “”Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life” is due to take over the number one slot on the paper’s list of non-fiction hardcover copies sold.  According to the book’s publisher, Tyndale House Publishers, it will be the first NFL tome to occupy the spot.

“It’s really hard for me to believe,” Dungy said. “It’s gone way above and beyond what I expected, and I think part of it may be that people are tired of reading about negative stuff. I guess it’s the right time.”

A great accomplishment for one of the classiest acts in professional sports.

N.Y. AG pulls athletic departments into student loan probe (USA Today)

The attorney general for the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he will be issuing subpoenas to 38 top-tiered NCAA Division-I athletic programs seeking records in potential kickbacks in the student loan industry.

Cuomo’s office said it is investigating whether the athletics departments evaluated UFS’ interest rates before recommending its loans or whether “their endorsement of UFS was based purely on payments from the lender.” Among the records subpoenaed and requested are documents showing UFS payments and any benefits given by UFS to any school employee, “including meals, trips and other perks.”

At Kansas, associate athletics director Jim Marchiony reacted angrily. The school “does not have a relationship with UFS,” he said, explaining that KU’s multimedia rights-holder — formerly ESPN Regional, now Host Communications — contracted with UFS.

The sports world continues to gets ensnared by varying legal issues.

The morning after Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez still sit one short of their goals…

The Chicago Cubs slip into first place after a wild pitch; the New York Yankees clubbed five home runs, including Shelley Duncan’s fifth in 12 days; Mark Teixeira nearly turned out the lights in Atlanta in his debut and the Arizona Diamondbacks approach white-status with their tenth win in their last eleven games.

O’s 4, Red Sox 5 — the Red Sox broke through in the seventh with key hits from Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis to seal the victory after Baltimore’s Steve Trachsel held Boston’s bats in check through six innings.

Tigers 3, A’s 2 — Mark Ellis hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning, and the Athletics beat the Tigers in the fourth straight series loss for the defending AL champions 3-2.

White Sox 1, Yankees 8 — Jorge Posada homered twice, and Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Shelley Duncan also connected to give the Yankees 13 home runs in two games and pummeled the visiting White Sox 8-1. Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-4 and extending his hitless streak to a career-high 21 at bats.

Rangers 9, Indians 6 (10 innings) — Rookie reliever Jensen Lewis failed to get an out on consecutive bunts by Texas and the Rangers took advantage with three runs in the 10th inning to defeat the Cleveland Indians 9-6. The loss kept Cleveland just 1/2 game behind rival Detroit in the AL Central.

Angels 7, M’s 8 (12 innings) — Gary Matthews’ two-run homer off Seattle’s shutdown closer J.J. Putz in the Angels’ half of the ninth inning sent the game into extras, but the Mariners prevailed in the AL West division match-up as Yunsieky Betancourt’s walk-off, one out single in the 12th inning that scored Adrian Beltre gave the Mariners an 8-7 win.

More after the jump »

News and notes while the Minneapolis metro area picks up the pieces after a tragedy…

Bridge collapse in downtown Minneapolis forces postponement (ESPN News Services) The Minnesota Twins have cancelled Thursday’s contest against the Kansas City Royals after a part of the bridge that carries I-35W over the Mississippi collapses.  The club also moved the ground breaking ceremonies to a later date.

EEOC backs NBA reinstatement for Tarpley (AP/SI.com)  The 42-year old former Dallas Maverick is seeking to clear his name and recoup at least $6.5 million in lost monies.

Suspended Thurman violates probation (AP/SI.com) One of “The Cincinnati Nine” gets in hot-water again, this time for violating his drunk-driving probation by failing to appear for a meeting July 24.

Colts to dump Simon (AP/USA Today) Colts owner Jim Irsay said Wednesday night that he expected to release former Pro Bowl tackle Corey Simon within the next few days after the tackle failed his physical.

Wood could return Friday (AP/Y! Sports) The rejuvenated Kerry Wood is set to come off the disabled list and into a middle relief role on Friday.