This Week In Blog

by Phillips, Rumors and Rants

I really wanted to find a way I could contribute to this whole new "Epic" idea, but I didn't want to take away from my work over at Rumors and Rants. So I decided to start out by doing a weekly roundup of some of the more interesting stories happening out there in the world of sports. So here's my first offering.

The Cubs acquired catcher Jason Kendall from the A's yesterday. Word is the Cubs pitchers were thrilled with the way Koyie Hill has been calling games and playing defense but he's atrocious offensively and that led to the move. Let me get this straight, they needed offense, so they got Jason Kendall? He's currently hitting .226 with a .261 OBP, is slugging .281, and he's only hit three homeruns since 2005. But I guess you have to take what you can get, it's not like the Cubs have a great offensive catcher like Michael Barrett sitting around. Speaking of Barrett, he went 3-4 with three RBIs last night for the Padres. Man, where'd they find that guy?

David Beckham has moved to the United States and will likely start playing for the L.A. Galaxy this weekend. Someone should really be following this story or doing a feature about it or something.

The British Open starts on Thursday morning, and it's back at Carnoustie. That, of course, is the scene of possibly the greatest collapse in golf history, when in 1999, Jean Van de Velde squandered a three-stroke lead on the 72nd hole of the tournament. Well, Jean won't be there this week, he's actually battling some type of undiagnosed disease, and apparently it's pretty serious. In the last five years, the 41-year-old Frenchman has only qualified for one major. So yeah, nothing funny about this story, except for the fact that life is currently raining shit on Jean Van de Velde.

Kobe Bryant and the rest of the U.S. national team will begin a minicamp this weekend in Las Vegas. How long until he demands to be traded to another country? His top choices? Argentina, Spain and Germany.

Michael Vick was finally indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegal dogfighting. Screw holding a trial, for Vick and the three others charged, let's have them fight each other in the pit and let the winner go free. The losers? Well sadly, they'll have to be electrocuted, drowned, hanged or shot. Sell tickets, put it on pay-per-view, and let the world watch. I'd call these guys scumbags, but that would do a disservice to actual bags filled with scum.

It looks like Yi Jianlian will not play for the Milwaukee Bucks next season. Who knew Eli translated to Japanese was Yi?

And finally, it's usually sad when young love falls apart, but in the case of Elijah Dukes, it's damn entertaining. Shockingly, his divorce proceedings are getting ugly. I wonder what the turning point was for his wife NiShea. Was it when he text messaged photos of guns to her, told her she was "dead, dawg" or when he impregnated a 17-year-old? Tough to tell really.