- SPORTSbyBROOKS says the “Zen Master” Phil Jackson is returning to the Lakers full-time after mulling over the idea of either only coaching home games or retiring.

- DEADSPIN has word that loudmouth Jay Mariotti is going to hop back into the newspaper world (after bashing it to join the blogosphere last year) again by joining the Chicago Tribune after his no-compete clause is up in August.

- SONS OF STEVE GARVEY wrote an ode to Manny Ramirez as he’s set to return to action tonight after serving his 50-game suspension.

- YARDBARKER has this shocker: Apparently Stephon Marbury wants more money.

- TONY BLOGS.NET wants to know if anyone else thinks that PETA will get involved after thousands of bees were killed after a swarm of them managed to engulf PETCO Park during yesterday’s Astros-Padres game.

- Over at YARDBARKER, Brendan Haywood calls out LeBron for failing to shake hands or do interviews after losing Game 6 in Orlando.

- THE LEGEND OF CICILIO GUANTE lists the Top 10 Sports Quotes to Use While Watching Sports.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has photos of a pregnant Royals fan drinking a little brew at the game. So sad. The site also finds it funny that Jay Mariotti lectured LeBron on good sportsmanship.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS reviews “Tyson” (the movie).

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the story of how a hot high school athletic trainer, Hope Jacoby (right), had an affair with one of the students at the school. Is it just me, or is this happening more and more? (And there’s definitely a double standard based on the sex of the offender, right?)

- CUZOOGLE had a great idea — to take every team in the NBA and assign a picture of a woman to them based on their level of hotness. (Get it? The Lakers are hot, Wizards…not so much.) Hilarity ensues.

- Wondering why ESPN paid Rick Reilly all that money? Well, they might be too. They now have him writing a blog, GO FISH, which means we can get a taste of Reilly’s lame pop culture references on a more regular basis. Hooray!

- WITH LEATHER describes why NFL fans who play Madden are smarter than NFL fans who don’t.

- DEADSPIN has excerpts from Jay Mariotti’s bitchy interview with Real Clear Sports where he details why he left the Chicago Sun-Times.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS describes how the Minnesota Vikings are using the NFL-to-L.A. fantasy to convince their fans to build them a new stadium. Classy.

In one of the coolest features I’ve seen compiled in a long time, RealClearSports.com put together a list of the top 10 erroneous columns of 2008.

1. Pats Can’t Lose

“Crown them Now. Pats Can’t Lose” – Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times

“…[I]f you’re expecting a Super Bowl…please be aware that the New England Patriots already have won their fourth Vince Lombardi trophy in seven years. They clinched it Sunday, while sitting around their TV sets, watching the only team that possibly could have beaten them, the Indianapolis Colts, lose at home to the San Diego Chargers … Beyond a mass kidnapping, nothing will stop the Patriots from their destiny. They’ve overcome close calls with great escapes, and now, just two wins short of the greatest season in American team sports since the Bulls’ 72-10 title year, no opponent in this solar system will beat them … Crown them. We know exactly who the Patriots are: the perfect football team.”

Sorry, Jay. Take solace in the fact that you were one of millions who was very, very wrong. Unfortunately, your words got printed.

I love when Jay Mariotti is called out. I don’t know, it just makes me feel all warm inside.

Some of the other erroneous columns discussed:

“Mets Won’t Collapse Again” – Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
“Rays Won’t Make Playoffs” – Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
“Picking Ryan ‘Highly Debatable’” – Terence Moore, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Lakers Will Win Title” – Michael Ventre, NBC Sports
“McNabb’s Reign Likely is Over” – Ashley Fox, Philadelphia Inquirer

Columnist and resident I-love-to-hear-myself-talk sports personality Jay Mariotti has abruptly decided to quit the Chicago Sun-Times.

Mariotti told the Chicago Tribune he decided to quit after covering the Olympics in Beijing because newspapers are in serious trouble, and he did not want to go down with the ship.

“I’m a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn’t compete,” he said in the Tribune story. “Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers.

“To see what has happened in this business. … I don’t want to go down with it.”

His comments sparked a pointed response from his former employer.

Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke said in an e-mail to CBS 2: “That’s Jay’s opinion. He has plenty of them. But the facts, of course, say something different. I’m going with the facts. Well, it’s turning nasty … and that’s typical of Jay to throw a bomb on the way out of a place that cared for him, nurtured him, paid him well for 17 years.

“The reason Mariotti showed up the Sun-Times 17 years ago was because the paper had the best sports pages in town. That was true then, and it’s true now.

“And as in all sports, when the star leaves, some other young star-to-be skates on to the ice. The Sun-Times has a deep bench of talent, and we’ll be using that depth.

“I am not hearing from grief-stricken fans,” Cooke said.

Cooke pointed to e-mails that he received from readers, including this one: “I wish to inform you that due to recent developments on the Jay Mariotti front, I will now read your newspaper. In fact, I picked one up on the way to work this morning. Not a half-bad rag, I must say. Bully on you.”

Mariotti said he plans to pursue opportunities on the Web, and continue his regular appearances as a panelist on ESPN’s “Around the Horn.”

You have to love this comment by Cooke: “That’s Jay’s opinion. He has plenty of them.” The Sun-Times is going to do just fine without him. People read his stuff because they liked to disagree with him and anyone who watches “Around the Horn” knows that he just likes to stoke the fire.

I will say this about Mariotti, however – the guy doesn’t back down from players, coaches or GMs. (In his columns at least. Apparently he never goes into the White Sox clubhouse because he fears for his safety.) Sometimes he hits the nail on the head when he’s criticizing (i.e. Bears’ GM Jerry Angelo).

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti recently took aim at Bears’ GM Jerry Angelo, ripping him for drafting OT Chris Williams in the first round of April’s draft when he knew he had a herniated disc in his back.

Now, Jackhammer Jerry is embarrassing himself publicly and making me wonder if the clock has started ticking on his Halas Hall employment. Sunday, he hastily summoned reporters for a conference call that turned into a mass scolding of the media, always the first sign that a sports executive is feeling heat. Never mind that he is the one who drafted left tackle Chris Williams in the first round while knowing the player had a herniated disc in his back, not the kind of injury risk worth taking when: (a) the Bears have an offensive line constructed from dental floss and marshmallow treats; and (b) Angelo has a woeful record of drafting during his seven years in power.

Jerry Angelo, you are ridiculous. What happened is that the Bears fell in love with Williams, who filled a desperate need, while underplaying the possibility that a herniated disc could burn them. Sure enough, they were scorched on the second day of training camp, when Williams suffered a new injury to the same disc. It led to surgery that will sideline him for most, if not all, of his first season. Granted, anyone who suggests Angelo wasn’t aware of the injury isn’t being fair. On draft day, he pointed out that the team’s medical staff examined the back “once, twice and a third time’…”But where Angelo blew it is when he shrugged off those three examinations as if they were frivolous when, in fact, the necessity of three exams only screamed potential trouble.

Point is, Angelo never has manufactured enough credibility as a drafter to allow himself the benefit of doubt to gamble. When Williams finally spoke up the other day about the injury, and delivered the news with matter-of-fact bluntness, it exposed the Bears as having taken a nonchalant risk. “I had a herniated disc before I got here,” Williams said. “We knew that. Everyone knew that…

Mariotti is right. Angelo screwed the pooch this offseason when he didn’t at least make an attempt at free agent offensive linemen Alan Faneca, Justin Smiley, Jake Scott or Travelle Wharton. He pigeonholed himself into taking Williams in the first round because of his inactivity during the offseason. Not only that, but Williams was a reach considering Branden Albert and Jeff Otah (two linemen rated higher than Williams) were still available. The Bears’ offensive line looks like a mess.

It might be a long season in Chi-Town.

Chicago Sun Times columnist and everyone’s favorite bigmouth Jay Mariotti called out Tiger Woods for not backing up his words at this year’s Masters, won by Trevor Immelman on Sunday.

In one disjointed sense, this truly was a piece of history we should tell the grandkids about. Never before has Tiger Woods been so fantastically presumptuous — and so gloriously wrong. Without prompting from any source but his own inner voices, he had the temerity to suggest that a calendar-year Grand Slam was “easily within reason” for him.

While we applaud him for manufacturing drama that otherwise wouldn’t have existed in April, do note that unkept promises usually aren’t part of a sports legend’s resume. What does it say when Plaxico Burress nails a Super Bowl prediction but the extraordinary Woods, never known for outlandish boasts of any sort, instantly blows the forecast and loses the Masters by three strokes to the worthy but previously obscure Trevor Immelman?

It tells us that Tiger, who made the comments on his personal Web site as the season began, might want to withhold such bold opinions if he can’t take the heat. As dusk fell over Augusta National, he clearly wasn’t happy that his self-fueled Slam talk had become such a hot-button topic — and a major letdown Sunday. What, when Eldrick Woods interjects “Grand Slam” into the discussion, people aren’t going to listen and react? Um, aren’t we talking about the world’s biggest sportsman, the first billion-dollar athlete?

Tiger can’t take the heat? After one bold comment on his personal website that wasn’t even that bad to begin with? Stop stirring the pot Mariotti – Tiger has nothing to prove and he’s always been a class act. And the comparison to Plaxico Burress was a reach to say the least.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

While perusing Jay Mariotti’s latest inflammatory article in the Chicao Sun-Times (the man is nothing if not a lightning rod), the lastest target being the lowly Chicago Cubs, I noticed that Mariotti made the following statement regarding Cubs GM Jim Hendry’s offseason moves:

Hendry left them two bats and two arms short.

Which is funny, because in late March, I wrote the following in my BE Baseball Preview:

…they did make some good moves, getting a legitimate leadoff hitter in Juan Pierre and bolstering the bullpen with Bobby Howry and Scott Eyre. But they’re still two bats and three arms short of being competitive…

I’m flattered, really. But would it kill you to give credit where credit is due, Jay? But I’m not one to throw stones, so I will simply say, you’re welcome, Mariotti. Now quit copying off of my test.