Apparently this kid does his work on the North Side of the city too, as Eamonn assures me this is not some robot programmed to be an awesome little drummer, but rather a real live human being that plays drums outside of Wrigley at Addison and Sheffield as well. He’s seen him before.

Either way, color me impressed. I feel like there’s a Jamie Foxx movie somewhere in here.

This morning, my blogbro Eamonn wrote that he was pretty meh on the latest allegations that Alex Rodriguez took steroids in high school, namely because at this point, nothing should shock us anymore in regards to steroids and baseball.

I agreed.

But the more I’ve thought about it, the more this actually does surprise me. This wasn’t Alex Rodriguez, phenom out of high school, getting mixed up in the steroid game several years later because all his teammates in Texas were doing it and he had to live up to his enormous contract. This, to the best of my knowledge, is the first time sourced, well-researched reporting has pegged steroid use in high school on an MLB star.

That fact alone is a big deal.

But then I thought some more. And this totally fits into the Alex Rodriguez persona. Remember how the first time Scott Boras met A-Rod as a 16 year old, he was taken aback by how professional the kid was? How he wasn’t some shy, oh-my-gosh-an-agent-is-talking-to-me-this-is-so-cool kid? How he was sucking up information from Boras and seemed hellbent on making his mark in the game? He’s always wanted to get to the top, and we’re coming to find he was getting a little bump along the way.

So yes: It’s a big deal an MLB player was taking steroids in high school, namely because we’ve never quite heard that one before. It’s not a big deal, however, that it was Alex Rodriguez.

This picture amazed me when I first saw it. Super Bowls were played here. Three years prior, with about five percent of the world’s population watching, Ty Law ran a game-changing touchdown into the end zone. Right there, right around the spot where a kid is doodling in his coloring book.

A deal has been reached to keep the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome until 2025. This is happy news. New Orleans will be able to keep their football team. Beyond the sentiment, though, this story is a rare example of the sports industry making a responsible venue decision.

The stadium is nearly 35 years old; remarkably, many sports stadiums don’t last longer than this. The American sporting venue paradigm would have allowed the powers that be to take a wrecking ball to the Superdome and build a new stadium next door - after all, the dome suffered heavy hurricane damage in 2005. The city and the Saints opted against this, and whether the decision was made more out of necessity or responsibility, I applaud it.

They decided instead to spend $320 million on renovating the place. That’s a lot of money, but it’s about half as much money as the Indianapolis Colts and friends spent to build their stadium, and it’s about one fifth the cost of the new Yankee Stadium that I keep whining about.

This, I think, should be the new paradigm. Build a stadium, be prepared to renovate it periodically, and try to make it last a long time. Seriously, New Orleans. Well done.

If you’re not familiar with the show “24,” I’ll give as condensed a summary as I can: Jack Bauer is a guy who runs around and kills/tortures people. The story is convoluted by the writers by any means necessary in order to give Jack Bauer an excuse to rip the cord off a desk lamp and electrocute a bad guy’s nipples. His supporting cast is largely made up of sock puppets whose purpose is to make their eventual and inevitable deaths meaningful in some fashion. Jack is saddened by their deaths and becomes even more intent on killing/torturing people. I’ve watched every single episode. It’s the most absurd, entertaining show I’ve ever seen.

There are very, very few characters who have survived since the first season. One of them is a ceramic Chicago Cubs coffee mug.

The mug used to sit on the desk of Jack’s right-hand man, Tony Almeida. It was never specifically referenced throughout the show; it was always just sort of there. The mug’s legend took off in Season 2. It was supposed to be destroyed in an explosion, and Almeida’s actor, Carlos Bernard, threw it up in the air. Remarkably, the mug bounced off the concrete, but did not break. As such, the show’s writers decided that the mug would serve as a recurring “character,” and it has grown into a fan favorite. In fact, the 24 Wiki includes an entry for the mug, “Cubby,” that includes a list of every episode it has appeared in.

The Cubs mug is relevant not only to “24″ fans, but to Cubs fans. I’ll explain.

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Lost Time Is Not Found Again is what the MPS blog crew has been reading today. Maybe.

+ Ron Artest says he’ll take Brandon Roy over LeBron or Kobe any day. {YouBeenBlinded.}

+ Hawks announcer goes berserk on the Heat and Dwyane Wade. {Larry Brown Sports.}

+ Mexican soccer games this weekend will be played to empty stadiums due to swine flu. {Ballhype.}

+ The decline and fall of Kellen Lewis. {Dr. Saturday.}

+ Non-sports: Dude on acid gets tazed at SeaWorld. {NBC Miami.} Flickr hit hard by Yahoo layoffs. {Gigamon.}

Quotable:

“The NFL always has insisted, with good reason, that their age limit keeps players from joining the pro ranks before they are physically ready. We’ve all seen how skinny those teens were when they shook Stern’s hand; we figured it might keep them on the bench for a year or two. What we never figured was that, with the exception of physical specimens like LeBron (but Amare was one of those wasn’t he?), young players’ bodies might need at least a year to transition between high school and the pros. Whether or not they’re getting significant playing time, they go up against grown men in practice, and also have to deal with a far more demanding schedule (and the travel that goes with it). If the rookie wall is real, at least anecdotally, why wouldn’t it be even more serious for kids just out of the 12th grade?

What’s more, what about Greg Oden and Gerald Wallace, one-and-dones who have had problems staying on the floor? Forget about honor, values and dignity; if student-athletes are forced to stick around till age 20, it could very well have more to do with their physical well-being than how polished they can become in the coach-centric environment of NCAA ball. Although common sense would seem to indicate that more time in college means less time in the pros, it might well be the case that the opposite is true.” – Bethlehem Shoals

That’s essentially what I’m supposed to take away from this Celtics Blog post, which linked to my angry screed at NBC yesterday, calling it “bitterness” and “misdirected frustration.” Oh, no you did-uhn’t. Y’all, it is SO ON NOW LET’S DO THIS. Blog War 2009. My name is John Connor. (What?)

Look, I get it.  I understand why KG isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.  He absolutely is over the top.  He does talk trash.  He does get down on his hands and knees for no apparent reason other than to fire himself (and perhaps his teammates and the fans) up.  He did clap in the face of some opponents.  This is all part of who he is and if you don’t like that, fine.

Wait, so why am I bitter and misguidedly frustrated if I think this? You just told me it was fine. So confused now. Should I hate KG? Not hate KG? I’ve been given permission to dislike KG by Celtics fans. So I guess it’s OK?

Just understand that this is the same over-the-top intensity that drove him to be a superstar.  It is the same fire that drove this team to a Championship last year.

All well and good, but a couple of caveats: 1. KG wasn’t nearly as over the top last year as he’s being this year. I watched the NBA playoffs last year. KG didn’t yell “choke” at players, which beyond being unsportsmanlike (whatever) is just plain lame. He didn’t jut his chin out at every play his teammates made. He was still super-insane KG, but there was a certain inward focus to his stupid antics; he aimed them at his team, not the opponent.

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At least, that’s what David Haugh thinks this morning in the Tribune. I tend to agree. When a guy notorious for retiring, unretiring and retiring again says: “At this time, I am retired,” you tend to take that at face value. Meaning, yes Brett Favre is retired on April 30, 2009. That might change tomorrow though, depending on what side of the bed he wakes up on.

Haugh places Favre on the Vikings if he does indeed decide to play another year, and it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Not because Favre is still playing at an other-worldly level, but because the Vikings quarterback situation is meager right now, they were courting him a bit last season and that was supposedly his destination of choice last season too.

Should this make Bears fans squeamish, make them run for the hills?

For three-fourths of last season with the Jets, he was one of the AFC’s best quarterbacks. As bad as his final month was, Favre still made the Pro Bowl team along with Cutler. And he’s also the same age as Kurt Warner, who the Cardinals think can take them back to the Super Bowl.

Without a doubt, Favre would give the Vikings a legitimate deep arm to get the ball to Berrian, something they currently do not have no matter who is the starting quarterback. He would join a team with a better defense than he had in New York. He would be in a controlled indoor environment for home games more conducive to his aging body than the Meadowlands was.

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