Rick Reilly is an idiot

I wrote before that Rick Reilly is a horrible writer. He also is an idiot because he has no idea why people dislike Kobe Bryant.

And talking about the fact that people dislike Kobe, Reilly writes, "John Stockton makes Bryant look like a stand-up comedian and nobody hates on him."

That's because John Stockton wasn't unlikable -- he wasn't likable either, but he wasn't unlikable. He was (not talking about his skin color, I promise), vanilla.

People is actively unlikeable. He's hateable. That's why nearly everyone who isn't a Lakers fan isn't happy that Kobe won his first non-Shaq title.

If only Reilly, arguably the biggest sports columnist in the United States, would realize this. But in addition to being such a very successful columnist, Reilly is an unabashed and unrepentant Kobe lover and apologist.

YouTube is popular, but a horrible business

From Business Insider:

Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell projects that both the iPhone and Kindle stores will generate more gross revenue than YouTube this year. And Apple's net revenue -- the 30% it takes from transactions -- could overtake YouTube in 2010, he predicts. (And that's not even including the hardware sales these products generate, which is a major reason these stores -- especially Apple's -- exist in the first place.)

In other words, though YouTube is an insanely popular website, it isn't so successful as a business.

Lakers win championship; fans riot, loot

While there is rioting going on in Iran, there was also some unrest going down in Los Angeles, but for a vastly different reason. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic and the fans went around lighting fires and looting in celebration.

On one hand, I have to wonder what point it is for people to light things on fire when celebrating. On the other hand, I want to be in a city when they win the championship just to witness it.

But some people in the city surely wish they weren't in the city -- like this sneaker shop owner.

Torres and his girlfriend entered through the back door and saw the storage room all but empty. Fewer than 20 pairs of shoes were left out of the 800 pairs they had in stock. The floor was littered with receipts, price tags, tissue paper and crumpled-up shoe boxes.

Torres’ eyes grew teary at the sight. Neighbors told them the revelers had gone to the back of the store, and pulled and pulled at the white metal door until it broke open, all the while chanting: “We want shoes, we want shoes.” Glass display cases had been shattered. Two computers, cash, sunglasses and hats were also looted.

“It makes me not want to be a basketball fan,” Torres said, adding that he opened the store near the Staples Center in November 2007 because he was a fan and thought the post-game crowd would be the right clientele for his consignment sneakers.

I'm a better writer than this guy

I don't consider myself to be a great writer. I just start typing on my keyboard while leaning back and looking up at my monitor and hope that it comes out as something other than gibberish.

But, man, this guy's tribute to his dad on his dad's birthday ten years ago sounds like something written for a children's book:

Dad loves the outdoors. He often took me fishing when I was a kid. We'd go fishing for bluefish off the coast of Maine. I learned the skills of fishing from listening to him, and the joy of fishing from watching him. Dad's a good hunter, too, and one Christmas he gave me a shotgun, a .410. I would go with him to Louisiana to shoot ducks. Those are fond memories.

So who is it? Former President George W. Bush writing about his father, former President George HW Bush.

Top 7 most expensive bottles of alcohol

I'm just sayin' -- my birthday is coming up in a month.

The most expensive bottles of alcohol:

$75,000 - The Macallan Fine and Rare Collection, 1926, 62 Years OldOriginally listed at $38,000, a bottle was sold to a South Korean businessman in 2005 for $75,000.

The oldest and most sought-after of Macallan’s revolutionary Fine & Rare Collection is now sold out. It is still possible to taste this totally unique Scotch whisky at the Old Homestead Steakhouse in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J. However, it sells for a nosebleed-inducing $3,300 per dram (1/8th of an ounce/shot). I could create a separate list of better things to do with $3,300.
And I thought I was crazy when I bought two lowballs of Johnnie Walker Blue for $30 each…

And that's just number five.

Via @peter770

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.