SportsGrinder

Bob Burnquist + 50,000 balloons + Cinematographer Ty Evans = Awesome



Manny Ramirez signed a two-year deal with the Dodgers; a surprise to no one except Scott Boras, who thought there was going to be a biding war. Page 2 has a collection of Manny's different looks though the years. Sadly, there's no picture of him throwing the Red Sox traveling secretary to the ground. Also, on P2, Jim Caple explores why fans, even in a recession, shouldn't get worked up about outrageous salaries in sports.

Sure, he says, Jim Calhoun is a jerk, but at least he didn't rob a bunch of charity organizations. Yes, Kevin Garnett "earned $174 million for running up and down courts in his gym trunks since 2000," but no one loses a job when KG misses a shot. Richard Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, "received $484 million during the same time period even though he led his company into bankruptcy and helped spur the current economic crisis." Good points. But we still get pissed about anyone, like Manny, whose making eight figures a year to play baseball and thinks it isn't enough.

Sign o' the Times in College Hoops: Last night was Senior Night in College Park, Maryland. The Terrapins, who got beatdown by Wake, had precisely one four-year player to honor; Dave Neal. Stay in school, kids. You know, unless the NBA offers you millions to leave.

The NHL is flooding all of creation with live coverage of the trade deadline. It's nice to see hockey bringing their marketing efforts into the 1990's.

We were thinking it would have been fun to hit the NASCAR race in Las Vegas last weekend. Now we are deeply, deeply depressed we didn't go. Because of the East Coast snowstorm Sunday, none of the drivers and crews were able to get out of Vegas and back to Charlotte. That means that pretty much all of NASCAR hit the strip. Including, TMZ.com reports, hometown boy Kyle Busch. The Shrub celebrated his win in that day's Cup race, the Shelby 427, by blowing $5,000 on champagne for fellow revelers at a Hard Rock Café.

Dang. "Fellow reveler" sounds like just the kind of gig we've been looking for.