Actor still grappling with pitch
Wrestling is bringing out its heavyweights in its efforts to remain an Olympic sport.
Well … at least it’s got Billy Baldwin.
Baldwin, who wrestled in high school and at Binghamton University before a long career in television and films, has joined USA Wrestling’s Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling as a self-described “Hollywood point person.”
Baldwin needs to work on his pitch, though.
“Wrestling was kind of like my life when I was in 10th, 11th and 12th grade,” Baldwin said. “I ran with this pack of like 15 guys and we were all going through it together. All of the skin infections and the cauliflower ear and the injuries, we all went through it together and we formed a really tight fraternity.”
Baldwin said he’s enlisted fellow actors Ashton Kutcher, his brother Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Mario Lopez, and Mark Ruffalo to help the fight, but hopefully he didn’t try to lure them in with the cauliflower ear story.
Numbers racket
Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times on the 12-team Big Ten replacing their Leaders and Legends division with East and West: “So now that they’ve finally aced geography, maybe they can move on to math.”
Throwing into coverage
Rick Reilly of ESPN.com, crunches the numbers on quarterback Tim Tebow’s season with the New York Jets: “17 magazine covers, 139 Daily News back-page headlines, 6 completions.”
Looks like a Duck
It appears new Philadelphia Eagles Coach Chip Kelly hasn’t quite lost that recruiting touch that left Oregon facing sanctions for NCAA violations.
Teams have to wait until after the draft is over to sign undrafted players, but LSU wide receiver Russell Shepard Jr. says the hurry up expert jumped the gun.
In an interview with Baton Rouge radio station WNXX-FM, 100.5, shortly after the draft, Shepard said “I actually took myself off the draft board during the draft’’ and agreed to terms with the Eagles.
“Teams started calling me probably in the middle of the sixth round, asking me, ‘Is it true that you’ve signed with a team already?’ ” Shepard said. “I actually got it out of the way before the draft was over. I signed [with the Eagles] before the draft was over.’’
Shepard said Kelly called him at the beginning of the sixth round, but the Eagles deny that they came to terms with Shepard before the draft was completed.
The NFL hasn’t decided whether it should take away scholarships or just put the Eagles on probation.
Three strikes
From Brad Dickson of The Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald:
“After the LA Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs, Dwight Howard threw the ball in disgust - oh, wait, that was a free-throw attempt.”
“Pittsburgh Penguins player Evgeni Malkin may have missed a game due to sunburn. How frustrating is that for a coach?
One guy in Pittsburgh gets a sunburn this spring, and he plays for you.”
“[Dallas Mavericks owner] Mark Cuban said he’d possibly draft Brittney Griner. This means either the NBA is ready for its first female player or, more likely, this is Cuban’s 889,000th attempt to generate publicity.”
Take that, Twain!
Score one for Jim Calhoun.
The former Connecticut men’s basketball coach was inducted into the Connecticut Hall of Fame last month and was just glad he got there faster than some did.
“It only took me 26 years,” Calhoun said, “but it took Mark Twain 150.”
Quote of the day “We believe this conference has national appeal. This is a national network. This is not a regional network.” ESPN President John Skipper on the newly created SEC Network, which will debut in August 2014
Sports, Pages 20 on 05/03/2013