Good morning everybody; happy hump day…or happy birthday if your name happens to be Dr. Dre…or happy Gambian Independence Day if you’re reading from Gambia.  In celebration of Dr. Dre’s b-day and Gambian independence, here’s some sweet steel as a gift from us at Sparty & Friends.  What do steel drum melodies have to do with Dr. Dre and Gambia?  Nothing as far as I know; but there they are anyway, so enjoy.

 I’ll spare you my mindless drivel and get on with the links:

By the way, I know a big, pink elephant is standing in the room of the sports world today, but I’m avoiding all direct linkage to it.  I’m sure we’ll adequately address it at some point.  Anywho, on with the interesting stuff…

Every now and then, a nice story of sportsmanship comes out.  I’m all for more of these in the face of gamesmanship.

It’s not often that a successful coach doesn’t have his contract extended periodically.  Texas Tech’s Mike Leach has allowed his contract extension deadline to pass again.

The MLB Players Association passed around a memo yesterday at training camps, coincidentally almost during the pink elephant’s press conference.

Perdoo did a number on Sparty last night. 

Looks like the highly anticipated battle between iFart and the Pull My Finger App has finally begun.

Floyd Landis is back on his bike.  Been a while since his last race and previous jersey, huh?

D-Ho blew up last night…Gatortrey was there.  Does he care to comment?

Speaking of the Magic, they’re borrowing $10 million from the NBA to cover operating losses.  How is one of the hotter teams in the Association managing to lose $15 million a year over the last six years and projecting the same fiscal result for this year?  Can somebody smarter than me explain this?

There’s still a few high profile college football recruits that are as yet unsigned.  Bryce Brown recently visited Tennessee…cookie to the commenter(s) that find the latest recruiting violation(s)!

A fat and out of shape guy calls another guy out for being fat and out of shape.

Zach Randolph of the Paperclips got a little testy; then got ejected.

The official start to NFL Draft season begins with the Combine in Indianapolis; it begins today and the Navy won’t let one of the invited participants attend.

For all of you that keep bugging me about the life and times of Jason Witten’s older brother, you can leave me alone now…he’s accepted a head coaching gig at John Battle High School.

Count my vote along with this guy’s regarding Shaq heading back to the Lakeshow.

In addition to being hump day, Dre’s b-day, Gambia’s Independence Day, and Combine day, today also happens to be the 8-year anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death.  I know some of you have no interest in anything or anyone that turns left for a living, but The Intimidator’s death was a monumental event in the history of stock car racing.  The moment contains what is probably one of the most bittersweet calls in sports as Darrell Waltrip was on the horn and cheering his brother Michael Waltrip through the final lap and onto his first Daytona 500 victory, all while having missed seeing the wreck that would kill his friend and alter the stock car racing landscape from that point forward.  Pour one out for #3 today; I sure will.

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