Police arrested a man yesterday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport accused of making lewd videos of ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews. Michael David Barrett faces multiple federal charges: interstate stalking, violation of privacy, attempting to sell the videos, and posting the videos on the Internet.

The charges against Barrett were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based and where Andrews first became aware of the videos. She is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.

Andrews’ attorney, Marshall Grossman, said he called her Friday night with news of the arrest. She was greatly relieved, he said.

“I think she’s probably sleeping more soundly tonight than she has since these videos surfaced,” Grossman said.

FBI agents said seven of the eight videos posted online were taken through a modified door peephole while the 31-year-old Andrews was alone and undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn., in September 2008.

FBI agents said they believe Barrett called many hotels to find out where Andrews was staying and requested a hotel room next to hers. Investigators said the eighth video was likely taken at another hotel, which Andrews couldn’t identify.

Barrett tried to sell the videos to TMZ, but an employee there informed Andrews’ attorneys, according to the complaint.

FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett, and also examined telephone records and credit card charges from Barrett’s Nashville hotel stay. Agents also concluded that the videos of Andrews were likely recorded from a cell phone camera.

Barrett sought to place Andrews under surveillance to harass and intimidate her, and to cause substantial emotional distress, the federal complaint said. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.

Without a doubt, this has been one of the most unsavory stories of the year. With recent news of Ted Williams’ cryogenically frozen body being desecrated, I never want to turn on the news again. Just when you think American society has its act together, somebody pulls a vicious stunt on someone as harmless as Erin Andrews. At least they caught the creep.

The Little League World Series finished today in dramatic fashion.  Now I can finally get new episodes of PTI.  A come from behind win brought the Chula Vista, CA team to the top of the boys’ baseball pile, defeating a tough team from Taipei.  I got this off of Sports Illustrated:

With the U.S.-partisan crowd on their feet, Garcia closed out the victory by striking out Yu Chieh Kao, completing a comeback from a 3-0 deficit. The California fans yelled “USA! USA.”

“We knew we could come back,” said the 13-year-old Garcia in between laughs with his teammates. “We always do.”

They’re surely celebrating in the San Diego suburbs after California secured the fifth straight Little League championship for the United States.

After a wild celebration around Garcia, the Californians invited Taiwan to accompany them on the customary victory lap around Lamade Stadium on a sun-splashed afternoon.

It’s a nice display of sportsmanship from the Americans and overall it was a hard-fought tournament and there was some real great plays to see. But here’s my question, does anyone really care?

I’m a big baseball fan, but the only reason I was aware of this was because it was all over ESPN this week. How is it that I can’t escape Little League baseball every year? While it’s understandable that the parents are all completely into this stuff, what about this should I, a busy average joe, find compelling?

Here’s an unusual request from Mercer Island’s Brandon Lawler, who had just given up the tying and go-ahead runs against Georgia in the top of sixth inning during a recent Little League World Series game.

Kids, they’re adorable!

Considering the amount of pressure and expectations that are on these kids, I might ask to plunk the next batter too if I had just given up the go-ahead run in the final inning. After all, if I’m on national TV, I’m hoping to make news this way instead of crying and wanting out.

There’s a pretty cool article up right now over at IndyStar.com, detailing Peyton Manning’s views about signing autographs. Given his popularity, he’s had to deal with some interesting fans who want his signature, and Manning has a couple funny stories to tell.

“I was at a charity golf tournament, and this guy came up to me and I could tell he had a prosthetic leg,” Manning said recently. “He said, ‘I want you to sign my leg.’ I’m like, ‘C’mon, man, you don’t want me to do that, do you?’

Another time at UT, the doctor examining him asked Manning to sign his X-rays.
“I said, ‘Before I sign those, could you tell me if I’m going to be out the whole season?’ ”

“My dad always said, ‘It takes the same amount of time to smile as it does to be a jerk, so you might as well be nice.’ I used to watch him and how good he was about signing when he won and when he lost.”

“I know that’s what bothers a lot of the big-name guys, Tiger and others,” Manning said. “The dealer pays these kids money to stand on line and get things signed. Then the dealers sell it on eBay or wherever. I saw a kid a little while ago, I said, ‘Hey, man, surely you have enough by now? How much are you making on eBay? Now seriously.’

“The kids always say, ‘No, I’m not selling, I’m not selling.’ But I know they are because when I sign, I ask, ‘Who’s this to?’ They’ll say, ‘Just sign it, just sign it.’ Then it’s memorabilia.

Interesting stuff. I had never heard about the practice of sports collectors hiring young kids to get autographs for them. I wonder if I would have done that when I was a youngster, trying to scam an autograph off of Mike Piazza to make a buck. Needless to say, my desire to collect autographs has practically vanished over the years. I don’t have many, as my dad and I never went to games early enough or stuck around after, waiting and waiting for a humble player. Still, I remember being at the age when getting an athlete’s autograph would have been a big deal. So, I decided to send a couple baseball players a trading card of themselves, with a brief letter, to the appropriate addresses. Funny enough, at age 10, I was already becoming jaded. Though I really wanted signatures from Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., and Barry Bonds, I aimed low. I contacted Barry Larkin, Rod Beck, Jeff Blauser, and Chipper Jones, who was just starting out. Rod Beck and Chipper responded. They both had signed their card and I was ecstatic. Now if I were to see an athlete out and about, I’d probably ask them if they’d want my autograph, just to see their expression.

It’s just unfair. Sprinters already receive little national coverage as it is, so the IAAF World Championships and the Olympics are really the only times millions can witness their ability. In Beijing, Usain Bolt set world records for both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. Going into the world track and field championships in Berlin, Bolt’s record time in the 100-meter was 9.69 seconds. Still, many assumed his time would have been faster in Beijing if he hadn’t pumped his chest towards the end. His main threats going into this race were fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay. If you listened to the television commentary, Bolt was heavily favored to win.

He did just that, setting a new world record in the 100-meter with an unbelievable time of 9.58 seconds. Bolt, Gay, and Powell all got great jumps, but Bolt never surrendered his lead. It’s interesting how far .12 seconds separates two individuals when they are running at such a speed as Bolt clearly wasn’t in danger of losing. Gay, who took second, ran a time of 9.71, which is the third fastest ever recorded in this race. Still, Bolt’s performance overshadowed everything. He is the first man to run under 9.6 seconds in the 100-meter and simply continues to break his own records.

Both Gay and Bolt will compete in the 200-meter at the IAAF World Championships. Round 1 begins Tuesday.

In the same way Michael Phelps has rejuvenated interest in swimming, Usain Bolt’s world record-breaking 100 and 200 meter runs at the recent Olympics gave track and field a needed shot in the arm. Since American favorite Tyson Gay was unable to compete, many have waited to see if he can hold his own against Bolt, who is currently at the top of his game. For those who follow the sport, even minimally, the 2009 IAAF World Championships are what they’ve been waiting for.

Assuming the field holds to form and body parts hold up, they should go head-to-head for the first time in more than a year at the world track and field championships, which start Saturday in Berlin and run through Aug. 23. The 100 begins with two rounds Saturday and the semifinals and final Sunday.

The Bolt-Gay showdown never materialized in Beijing last year after Gay pulled a left hamstring muscle in the U.S. Olympic trials the month before the Games. His training and acceleration compromised, he was a non-factor, faltering in the 100 semifinals. The last time the two met was May 2008 in New York, where Bolt shocked the track world with the first of his two 100 world records, 9.72 to Gay’s 9.85.

In Beijing, Bolt made a mockery of the sprints despite being a neophyte in the 100 after years as a 200 specialist. He set a world record of 9.69 in the 100 and won by 0.20 despite thumping his chest, looking around and coasting the final 20 meters. In the 200 he broke Michael Johnson’s supposedly untouchable mark of 19.32 from 1996 with a 19.30, winning by 0.66 seconds.

Just when Bolt, 22, appeared to make every other sprinter in the world irrelevant, Gay, 27, has produced a comeback season.

Gay rates himself “in the best shape of my life,” despite a nagging groin injury that could require postseason surgery.

Word is both Gay and Bolt easily won their quarterfinal races. They will race in different heats in the semis tomorrow. Granted they both advance, they will meet in the anticipated final later in the day.

Some of you may remember Usafa Powell, also from Jamaica, who was once a world record holder in the 100. The Jamaican team originally wanted to cut him because he did not attend a mandatory training camp earlier in the year. Thankfully, as those realize he is the only legitimate threat to Bolt and Gay, the IAAF insisted Powell compete. He has advanced into the semis as well.

You can catch the championships, including other track and field events, today on Versus at 7 PM ET.

- Bullz-Eye.com reviews the latest Madden NFL 10 game, which they gave four (out of five) stars.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS calls out Giants fans for being hypocrites in how they treated Manny Ramirez during last night’s San Fran-L.A. game (i.e. they booed Manny, but cheered for Barry Bonds). Of course, the author fails to mention that Dodgers fans are hypocrites themselves for booing Bonds, yet cheering for Manny. Just sayin’…

- DEADSPIN tries to explain and evaluate SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett’s pet phrase, “Hotter than a fox in a forest fire.”

- TONY BLOGS.NET shares the news that Jay Mariotti will write for the Chicago Tribune on September 1.

- YARDBARKER discusses whether or not Cubs’ starter Carlos Zambrano is the most overrated player in baseball.

Before we delve into this, let me just say: granted badminton is not exactly popular in America, nor is it even considered much of a sport by many. However, while the sport itself may not be too important here, the implications and precedent delivered by the event occurring within it very well could be. Anyway the story: The Team England has pulled out of the World Badminton Championships in Hyderabad, India after receiving terrorist threats. I found this story off the BBC News page:

Performance director Ian Moss said: “It is a disappointing outcome, especially after we had enjoyed a very good preparation at our holding camp in Doha, Qatar, last week.

“Our athletes were extremely well prepared for these championships but, at the end of the day, personal safety must take priority over performance.

“This was a unanimous squad decision and is not reflective of the efforts made by the organising committee to create the safest environment possible for all athletes.”

Is not reflective of the organizing committee? Well, it seems to me that if a team containing last year’s Olympic silver medalist (Nathan Robertson, he’s in the picture) cancels their trip to your tournament because of terrorist threats, it might mean you need to get your security a bit more in order.

That aside, it’s not often, if I may use a cliche here, that “The terrorists truly win.” I mean, Team England bowed out and down on this one (BTW Team Scotland and Team Wales plan to represent at the tournament). They have most definitely given into terrorist demands here. Hell, they even got someone in a market with basically no interest in the sport to write a story about it. I certainly am not helping their cause either, though you’ll need to go to the link above to find out who the group was.

But let’s not be too harsh here, would you feel like hitting a shuttlecock if you thought you might be bombed out of your hotel room that night? Wait a second, have I made a new double entendre? Anyway, one’s personal safety should be their biggest concern.

Getting the gold is one thing, but returning home to your family is another. I’m not bashing them for their decision, but I’m still not happy with the situation. In the end, of course the terrorists are to blame, but the organizers of the event need to be able to supply the competitors with a safe arena of play.

Paul Lukas of ESPN recently spent some time at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland.

So I’m speaking from experience when I say the key to a happy collecting life is the moment when you accept that you can never collect everything in a given category, because there will always be at least one thing out there that you can’t afford, can’t find or don’t know about. The feeling of completism will always be out of reach. Once you admit that to yourself, the world becomes a fun museum and you can cherry-pick some nice items that push your buttons without the pressure of having to acquire all of them.

But most of the collectors at the National didn’t appear to have experienced that epiphany. This was especially true of the baseball card collectors (by far the largest contingent of attendees), a disturbing percentage of whom seemed to fit all the worst collector stereotypes: nerdy, overweight, socially awkward. As I watched these guys — and believe me, all of them were guys — feverishly flipping through bins and albums of cards, trying to cross out items on their want lists, it occurred to me that they seemed to take very little pleasure in the act of collecting. They were more like addicts trying to cop a fix, and I found their frantic, joyless movements from dealer to dealer rather depressing.

Lukas has also put together a nice set of photos from the event. The piece is worth reading, if only to get a sense of the kind of ephemera that are sold at these things. For example, the 1999 Yankees championship trophy was on display along with a bunch of championship rings. Pretty cool.

I used to collect cards for many years when I was younger. It’s easy to stop as you get older and need to conserve your money. These days, I’m more into seeking out rare LPs than sports memorabilia. Simply put, it’s just expensive to get into this stuff. I’d still love to go to a convention, but it won’t be a while until I’m buying Robin Ventura’s gold glove off some nerd.

This breaking story comes from the Kansas City Star. I’m sure this will come as a surprise to all, but apparently dyed-in-the-wool sports fans have terrible eating and exercise habits.

Daniel Sweeney and Donna Quimby, professors at Arkansas Little Rock, conducted the study in which 515 people on campus responded to an e-mail survey.

The survey found that 26 percent of sports fans ate vegetables only one to three times a month, compared with 19.2 percent of non-sports fans, while 11.9 percent of sports fans have four or more drinks when they consume alcohol compared with 3.2 percent of non-sports fans. Additionally, 21 percent of fans almost always ate high-fat food compared with 13 percent of non-sports fans.

Sports fans had an average body-mass index of 27.4, while non sports fans were at 25.09. A BMI between 25-29.9 is considered overweight, while 30 or higher is considered obese.

“Knowing something is there is good, but it’s not enough to affect change. The next step is why is this happening? What is going on there?”

Why is this happening? I’ll tell you why. My opinion is that most “die-hard” sports fans typically run from their mid-twenties onward. This is because they’ve had a considerable amount of years to gain a proper knowledge about sports and have grown to truly love their favorite team. I find that, as these fans get older, they either get married or care so little about getting married that the idea of looking good can become insignificant. Let’s face it, if you can find a mate that is also a crazy sports fan, or can at least tolerate your addiction, snatch them up right away.

I also think the problem lies in both the number of sports and their scheduling. It’s rare these days to find a fan who only follows one sport. At any time of year, there are at least two college or professional leagues running. As fans become attached to their favorite teams, they may have more than one game to watch a day. This makes setting aside an hour or two for the gym after work nearly impossible. Obviously, it can be done. It’s all about discipline and setting a schedule for yourself that balances both an exercise and sports intake.

I suppose a step towards better living would be to eat a healthy meal while you’re watching sports. Still, I’ve never seen a buddy have a salad and a Diet Coke while a game is on. If you’re really serious about it, you could eat when you’re not in a sports setting, so as to avoid the temptation of unhealthy foods. But being a sports fan is all about the experience, which has proven to be more enjoyable than a regular job. So, what will a be? A nice beer, some chicken wings, and fries after the daily grind? Or a low-carb alternative and some lemon water?