This Stuff Happened — 3/20/12

Suck It, Rosenthal.

Ken Rosenthal, who has led MLB in interview height discrepancy for five years running, caused a bit of a stir last week when he reported scouts had told him Roy Halladay’s velocity was down and the ace appeared to be laboring much more than usual in his Spring starts.  Halladay and the Phillies dismissed the issue, and given other more pressing injury concerns the interest in Halladay’s start today wasn’t what it might have been, but the radar guns were certainly out.  According to the stadium gun, Halladay was hitting 91-92 in six innings of work against the Orioles.  He allowed one run, walked none, and struck out five against a full lineup of Oriole regulars.  The effort should allow people to relax until Opening Day in Pittsburgh.  

*Phils win, 4-1, by the way.  With a lineup that featured Galvis, Montanez, Fransden and Mikey Mart.  Four runs will be the magic number this year.  Again.

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Waiting for Peyton Manning to take to the podium…announcing a 5-yr/96 million dollar deal.  I guess his arm is OK!  Manning’s average annual value takes him right to the top of the NFL.  If Manning’s neck can survive the first season in Denver, he’ll lock up a total of more than 50 million guaranteed.  How nice it is to be an NFL quarterback.  The demand is always ridiculous.  You can’t be surprised to see Manning get this deal when teams are fighting over Matt Flynn.  As far as Tebow goes, there appears to be some interest.  NFL experts are saying the interest is more owner (business) driven than NFL personnel people driven.  He’ll land somewhere as a back-up.  Peyton’s hitting the bank of mic’s, I think he makes it through this one tear-free.  

**Peyton says he has a lot of work to do, but could go out and play now if he had to.  He also won’t be offering input on personnel decisions–OK.

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President Obama shouldn’t even know what a basketball looks like according to some people, but no pundit or mouthy Republican has been able to keep the Commander-in-Chief from rocking his unique lefty game–and filling out a bracket every single year.  Most years Obama leans on the chalk, misses some upsets and finishes with the rest of us in the 50th percentile.  But, not this year.  The leader of the free world is sitting in the 98th percentile.  Obama has eleven sweet 16 teams left, and his Final Four remains intact.  Before you get too excited…130,000 people are still beating the President in ESPN’s massive tournament challenge.  My best bracket is in 1.3 millionth place.  Around here, the wittily named “Jess Nixon’s bracket” is in the lead, holding off a charge from Big Dub and “Flyers” Kitten Conrad.  I’m in 14th.  Thanks for asking.  

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The movie John Carter is going to lose 200 million dollars for Disney.  Tim Riggins should skip blockbusters and stick to showing up to Panthers practice with a hangover.  In all seriousness, how do you cast Taylor Kitsch get cast in this movie?  I imagine the entire budget was spent on the fancy aliens and explosions?  But, a guy who played in an ensemble cast in a low-rated TV show–how’s he going to bail out this big of a financial commitment?  Would the world be better if we stopped making movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars?  By my quick research, the 200 million dollar loss would be the biggest flop ever.  Some other big losers…remember these classics?

1.  Mars Needs Moms–(136 million)
2. Pluto Nash–(112 million) 
3. Green Lantern–(105 million)
4. Gigli–(66 million)
5. The Postman–(62 million)

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This is one of the more disturbing stories I’ve seen in a while: Oklahoma State had a fund-raising strategy where they took out life insurance policies on some of their biggest boosters.  When the Cowboy supporter passed away, the OK State athletic department would be the sole beneficiary of the policy.  The university was advised to take this path by super booster, T. Boone Pickens.  The school spent 33 million dollars in premiums over the course of two years, essentially hoping that enough of the boosters would die to cover cost and turn a nice profit for the sports program.  The program was called “The Gift of a Lifetime.”  The only flaw in the plan was that none of the 27 chosen ones met their demise in the first two years, and the University finally cancelled the program realizing it was “morally bankrupt.”  At the very least, bad for karma.  And we wonder how they got shut out of the BCS title game…