The best college pitcher

ESPN Page 2 writer Jim Caple went up against the best pitcher in all of college.

No, it's not Stephen Strasburg who might command a $50 million salary before ever pitching in the pros. Instead, it is Danielle Lawrie, a softball pitcher from the University of Washington.

What are her credentials?

Lawrie went 38-7 with a 0.84 ERA and 477 strikeouts in 315 innings. While Strasburg generally pitched only once a week (wimp!), Lawrie pitched 12 consecutive complete games in the last three weeks of the season, starting and finishing every game for the Huskies during the regionals, super regionals and College World Series. She threw 395 pitches and two complete games in one day, including a 15-inning game in which she struck out 24 batters.

Watch the hilarious results of the 'battle' below (and read the accompanying story as well):

Maybe they should move Royal Pains to NBC

I'm not sure how good Royal Pains is. The first two episodes were entertaining, and it seems to be a good match with their other Thursday night hit, Burn Notice.

So NBC should sit up and take notice, because it is beating their network TV show in the same slot. And the parent company of NBC also owns the USA Network.

From Broadcasting & Cable:

Royal Pains drew 2.35 million viewers 18-49 Thursday, up 2% from last week, and 2.6 million P25-54, up 3%. The episode drew 5.6 million total viewers, on par with last week’s premiere.

USA also continues to dominate its broadcast sibling NBC in that timeslot. At 10 p.m. NBC aired a new episode of its drama The Listener. The Listener drew just a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demo, and only 4.38 million viewers (according to Nielsen Fast Nationals).

USA Network is a juggernaut. Between their original programming (Psych might be the best comedy on TV, and Monk is pretty damned good too) and wrestling (WWE still gets super high ratings), no network comes close to the numbers that USA gets.

Short guys can play sports too

Though usually you see tall athletes, there are some shorter guys out there who can play at a high level.

One such player is Danny Herrera, a relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He is 5'6" and the left-handed specialist (that is, he is put in to pitch to left-handers) "has a 1.96 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 23 innings" according to ESPN's Tim Kurkjian.

That got me to thinking about other short athletes who have played at a high level.

Barry Sanders, one of the greatest running backs of all time, was only 5'8" tall. He is still has the third-most yards rushing of any running back, despite retiring early.



Diego Maradona, who was either the first or second best soccer player of all time depending on who you ask, was only 5'5" tall.



In the NBA, a sport where height is definitely an advantage, Spud Webb, a 5'7" basketball player, played for years -- and even once won the NBA slam dunk contest:



Back to baseball, the defending American League MVP Dustin Peroia is listed at 5'7" tall.

Any other short athletes that played at a high level that you can think of?

South Africa excited about the Confederations Cup

Somewhere past midnight last night, I caught a friendly match between New Zealand and Italy* in advance of the Confederations Cup.

The Confederations Cup is a tournament held every four years in advance of the World Cup. Eight teams are invited -- the winners of the six FIFA regions (Egypt representing Africa, Iraq representing Asia, Spain representing Europe, New Zealand representing Oceania, the United States representing North America and Brazil representing South America) along with the winner of the last World Cup (Italy) and the host country (South Africa).

And South Africa is extremely excited about the event, even if many around the world aren't dropping everything to watch the games.

While previous competitions may have been greeted with apathy by local fans, the same cannot be said of South Africa's devoted football supporters.

"The best thing is that we're going to see lots of people coming to South Africa and we're going to gain in lots of areas, particularly business," says Lebo, one of South Africa's many female fans. "Bafana Bafana are going to do well but I'm also thrilled about seeing the likes of Spain and Brazil."

In the grand scheme of things, it isn't a big idea except that it gives the best teams from each region a chance to play competitive games against each other.

Oh, and the United States have an absurdly hard task ahead of them just to make it to the second round -- they have to play Italy, Brazil and Egypt in their opening group.

*One weird thing about the friendly: New Zealand, nicknamed the "All Whites" because their as a response to the nickname "All Blacks" that their rugby brethren are known by (because of their uniforms), were wearing black. Itally, known as the Azzurri because of their blue uniforms, were wearing white.

The voice of Tiger Woods 10

I found this video amusing, starring Tiger Woods and SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt. Sort of.

Ukuleles look to be recession proof

A good friend of mine is back in New Mexico for the summer after spending the last six months in Hawaii. At the end of the summer, he will move back to Hawaii.

One thing that he brought back with him to New Mexico, besides an impressive tan and a surgically repaired knee, was a ukulele. But it appears, according to NPR, that ukuleles might be recession proof.

Stan Werbin owns Elderly Instruments in Lansing. He sells ukuleles, among other instruments. During the holidays, he says, he sold out of ukuleles. This year, he estimates that his sales are up by 10 to 15 percent — a big deal, given that overall, instrument sales are down by around 20 percent.

Ukulele sales are up nationally as well as locally. Mike Upton, president of Kala Ukulele in California, says he's selling ukuleles faster than he can make them. Upton says ukes don't cost a ton of money — you can pick up a decent instrument for $30. His best-selling ukulele goes for $100. He says his sales of ukuleles are up 76 percent from 2007 to 2008 and he expects that trend to continue this year

The reason this caught my eye was because my friend's dad was playing the ukulele while my friend played bongos and his mom played the spoons last night after watching Game 7 of the NHL Finals.

And yes, it was as weird as it sounded.

We are small and insignificant

Watch in HD if possible.



Via Bad Astronomy

In seven years you'll have different friends

Via the Freakonomics blog.

Utrecht University sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst surveyed 604 people about their friends and again seven years later, and found that only 48 percent of people’s original friends were still part of their network after that time period.

However, the size of your friend group will probably stay about the same, if the Dutch study is any indication.