Long live the Beez

The Birdman did not look like this during his time in Fargo.

The Fargo-Moorhead Beez live on in the NBA Playoffs. Don’t pretend like you didn’t know that.

I mean, it’s common knowledge that the franchise jumpstarted the pro careers of current Miami Heat forward Chris Andersen and San Antonio Spurs assistant Ime Udoka. In fact, they played for the Beez in the same season: 2000-01.

The team was in the International Basketball Association at the time, a league below the Continental Basketball Association. Yes, there was such a thing. Among the better IBA stories that I can remember: A player running off the court and out of the gym in an attempt to avoid arrest and a franchise relocation from America to Canada while the team was on a road trip.

Extra, extra

So I made my music video acting debut over the weekend. But don’t worry – I didn’t gyrate atop a yacht or anything. Kept it classy. I’m not trying to be just another Joe, all up in the videos.

All joking aside, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the video-extra experience. A friend asked on short notice if I could fill a spot. I didn’t have anything else planned and got the OK to include my 9-year-old daughter – it would be good blog fodder and some temporary hero status at home, if nothing else.

It wound up being more than that – not the part, but the idea. 

The Tapes: May 10

* Mount Union’s Larry Kehres is retiring after going 332-24-3 with 11 national titles. Not too bad. His son Vince, the longtime defensive coordinator for the team, will take over. This also means that the career victories record for John Gagliardi will almost certainly never be broken. Gagliardi won 489 but Kehres was winning 15 games a year so could have had a shot if he had stuck around.

* The Columbia football team is in the news, but not for good reasons. A defensive player is accused of a hate crime and several other players had their racist/homophobic/anti-Semitic/asinine tweets revealed. That Ivy education really paying off. The CU Lions Blog has more information.

* The Great Gatsby is opening to less-than-stellar reviews. Here’s Wesley Morris’ for Grantland. No matter how bad the reviews I’m looking forward to seeing it. Team Leo.

* Not everyone loves The Great Gatsby the book. In fact, New York Magazine’s Kathryn Schulz absolutely despises it. Is she just being contrarian or are there some good points? Or both?

* Why don’t superheroes work on television?

* Oh-oh. According to The Wrap, American Idol might dump all of its judges for next season.

* Sad newspaper news. The Daily News got rid of numerous employees this week and some of the big names in sports include Tim Smith and Sean Brennan. But the biggest name was the legendary college hoops writer Dick Weiss, whose nickname is actually Hoops.

* Short first names mean bigger paychecks. Plan accordingly.

* The horrific case of former Minnesota State Mankato football coach Todd Hoffner took another turn this week when he left the school, though it’s not known if he was fired or left on his own. Hoffner was arrested and charged with possession of child porn last year before being totally exonerated. He was innocent. No technicalities, nothing like that. Wrongfully arrested. Unfortunately he lost his coaching job and now his reassigned position at the university.

* Rolling Stone has a profile on popular rapper Macklemore and his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. It feels unusual to read about an artist trying to avoid chemical excess at the height of his powers rather than embracing it.

* From the department of nonsense, Late, Late Show host Craig Ferguson recently declared TV’s town – Sioux Falls, S.D. – as the booty shaking capital of the world. Um … what?

Podcast: NBA Playoffs – Round 2

Another week, another podcast. This time, TV and Fury discussed the early goings of the NBA’s conference semifinals.

But don’t worry, NBA haters, it’s not all pro basketball. No, the guys also break down the thrilling Season 1 finale of Splash on ABC. … You know, Splash. The celebrity diving show. Yes, that’s a real thing. And, yes, we watched parts of it.

Just listen to the podcast. Here’s the link.

Serenity now

Bill Walton must be spinning in his grave at the level of earnest overreaction that seems to be sweeping the nation. And by the nation I mean the people who yammer about sports in the media, social or otherwise.

The Tapes: May 3

I’m going to Minnesota in two weeks. If there is snow on the ground I’m going to be upset. But Shawn, you’re saying, what about the poor Minnesotans who have had to live with this horrific winter? They get my sympathies. But they live there, it’s part of the deal. They’re used to it. I’m going there on vacation! Anyone feel bad for me? Anyone?

Okay, on to the links.

* Grantland’s Michael Weinreb looks back at the game of the century — one of them anyway — when Notre Dame and Michigan played to a tie in 1966. And take a look at Dan Jenkins’ original story in Sports Illustrated on that famous game.

* Courtesy of David Grann’s invaluable Twitter feed, “World’s Biggest Rubber Duck Debuts in Hong Kong.”

* There were cannibals in Jamestown. Please note: This Jamestown is not Terry’s lovely hometown in North Dakota (although maybe there were cannibals there too). It’s the Jamestown you grew up reading about in elementary school.

* From Aaron Gleeman, what’s the deal (Seinfeld voice) with Twins pitcher Kevin Correia?

* A League of Their Own is one of my favorite baseball movies. But what would it look like as a musical? You never wondered? Huh. New York Magazine puts together what such a show would look like. “Is That General Omar Bradley? (Marla’s Song)” — Comedic pas de deux between cloddish baseball scout Ernie and mooselike prodigy Marla.”

* First clip from the new Arrested Development episodes has been released.

* I put this link in my Q&A with Peter Richmond, but it just appeared online this week so want to highlight it here. Deadspin’s The Stacks section has put Richmond’s famous story on Tommy Lasorda and his late son online.

* From The Onion: After checking your bank account, remember to log out, close the web browser, and throw your computer into the ocean.

* Tech News Daily looks at how everyone from Gawker and Fox News to Buzzfeed would cover Tony Stark — Iron Man — if he was real.

* Crazy story about some athletic department members who came to the aid of a reporter who was having a stroke during a phone interview.

* The Portland Timbers of the MLS did one of the all-time good deeds in staging a miniature game (replete with crowd) for an 8-year-old fan with cancer. It’s a must-see video.

* In other soccer news, a couple of players did the Jason Collins thing long before Jason Collins. Their story is here.

* In other Jason Collins news, Bill Simmons captures podcast of the week honors for his sit down with the NBA free agent shortly after the world found out that he’s gay. Honestly, this might have been the first time I’d ever heard Collins interviewed in his college or pro career.

Injuries. Boo!

Free time is scarcer than ever right now. My wife has returned to work meaning I’m running a daddy daycare – starring three kids under the age of 3 – for a month, while keeping up with my jobby job at night. Needless to say, I’m back off the wagon when it comes to energy drinks.

To the point, I made sure to be able to catch a chunk of the Oklahoma City-Houston game in the NBA playoffs the other night – sleep be damned. But, here’s the thing: I didn’t watch for the sake of watching; I watched to see what the Thunder would look like without one of their stars – newly injured point guard (and askew fashion plate) Russell Westbrook.

The Tapes: April 26

Welcome to spring upper Midwesterners. And welcome to this week’s links.

* Grantland’s Brian Phillips went to the Iditarod and the result is this epic piece that is well-written but also notable for the design.

* Don Van Natta Jr. takes a look at one of the most famous SI pieces ever, William Nack’s Pure Heart.

* Speaking of SI, Jack McCallum has a great story in the new issue on Gregg Popovich. It’s not online yet but McCallum wrote about just what it took to get an interview with the famously private coach.

* Charlie Pierce’s writings are always must-read but they were particularly so during the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings. Here’s Pierce the day after the city was locked down.

* Deadspin wonders why the San Diego Chargers’ team doctor — a drunk quack in their words — is still allowed to work with the team.

* Here’s one of those dumb surveys that determines dumb things. This one looks at worst jobs in the country. The verdict? Reporter. Last year it was a lumberjack. Ok.

* Not safe for work but here’s Michael Shannon reading the insane sorority email from last week.

* Gwyneth Paltrow is the most beautiful woman in the world, and the most hated celebrity.

* Johnette Howard on what Kobe might have tweeted if he had been forced to watch Game 2.

* This week’s podcast of the week is pretty highbrow by comparison. On the Media, a production of New York Public Radio, tackles the subject of how the media handled the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent manhunt from several different angles.

* Bonus multimedia link: This week, an animated Web short called “Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse.” Apparently, it’s been in the works for a long time and may or may not have been held up by some legal issues. It’s … insane. And probably true. Probably.

This weather is garbage

The fine people at Weather.com tell me (and anyone else with a computer) that there’s a 50-percent chance of rain and/or snow today in Sioux Falls.

It’s April 23. Oy.

I don’t know the exact numbers, but we’ve gotten a bunch of snow this month – too much. Yet on Saturday it’s going to be 73 degrees. What the what?

There’s an old saying in the Dakotas: If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute; it’ll change. But this is ridiculous.

The day Twitter took over

I almost went to bed on time Thursday. Almost. But then I checked my Twitter timeline, a move that’s become as much a part of the nighttime routine as brushing teeth.