The Lead

It’s a holiday Monday today where I happen to live my friends, so posting will be just a tad lighter than usual (leave me alone slavedrivers!). So that means no podcast today. However there will be a few goodies for you including the final entry of this season in our beloved Diary of Love/Hate.

News. News news news. Well hey, some bad stuff happened in Italy. Start there. Or good things if you’re a Milan supporter or you hate justice.

Elsewhere, England believe they can be as good as Germany by dressing the part apparently. Sharpish!

Hey MLS fans! Toronto FC lost again, but remember, DC United is worse. Okay? Happy? No hate comments? Good.

Finally PSG have told Real Madrid to seriously do one over Carlo Ancelotti. The nerve.

Is that enough for you? Alright children, enjoy the day.

Philadelphia’s bottom of the ninth inning Sunday against Cincinnati is, without question, the leader in the clubhouse for Inning of the Year 2013.

First, Aroldis Chapman walked Delmon Young on four pitches. And then Cliff Lee pinch ran for Delmon Young. Cliff Lee is a pitcher. Delmon Young plays right field.

But the move makes some sense. Lee has hardly been incompetent on the basepaths. He had never been picked off, he had two steals in three chances, and he had scored from first on a double twice out of two tries — precisely what the Phillies probably thought they needed if they were going to break Chapman. Plus, with Young still fresh off an ankle injury, the Phillies probably didn’t think he could put on the burners like usual, and usual is bad enough.

Of course, the Phillies probably weren’t expecting much from Lee. Just two things: don’t get hurt, and don’t get picked off.

At least he managed the former.

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Sunday Funnies is a feature brought to you by Stevie Roxelle, because hockey is actually a pretty fun game and we run enough “here’s a terribly violent hit” posts here at Backhand Shelf.

Stevie Roxelle is a talented illustrator, cartoonist and biologist that currently lives in Sharks territory. You can find more of her work at the webcomic Biscuit Fox and at her online print shop, and you can follow her on twitter @stevieroxelle. Captions are her comments, enjoy!

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(Click to enlarge)

On Friday we learned from Doug Smith that the Raptors have until Monday to decide whether or not to pick up Bryan Colangelo’s option for next season. Smith also reported that Tim Leiweke and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment have hired a search firm to narrow down a list of potential Colangelo successors. Two names mentioned in that report were Pacers General Manager Kevin Pritchard and Thunder Vice President and Assistant GM Troy Weaver.

Saturday morning, Adrian Wojnarowski hit us with something that most Raptors fans surely considered once or twice when news emerged that Colangelo’s days may be numbered, and that’s that Toronto is reportedly targeting Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri.

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Remember earlier this morning when I wrote about the great Rob Gronkowski problem of 2013? Now that his fourth forearm surgery is officially scheduled for next week, there was optimism that he’ll be fine for your fantasy drafts in August. Even though there’s still significant risk that comes with a Gronk pick, it’s balanced by the far more significant reward.

Yeah, about that.

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On Friday’s episode of “The Fix” x “The Overdose,” The Jones preview and predict the Western Conference Finals before discussing George Hill’s injury, Woodson finally playing Chris Copeland, guys that have boosted their free agency stocks, whether Paul Pierce has played his last game in a Celtics uniform, the Kings staying in Sacramento, and the NBA’s best and worst mascots.

All that, plus swirling winds, “The Office,” tiny “Baby Birdman,” and more on crepes.

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It’s times like these when sports and social media come together to make something awesome happen. Pro Golfer, rapper and avid Twitter user Ben Crane is participating in the HP Byron Nelson Championship and decided to give his regular caddy a day off and look for a replacement on Twitter:

Thinking of giving my caddy @joelstock the day off tomorrow at the HP Byron Nelson Champ ProAm. Anyone want to carry my bag for the day?

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 14, 2013

He got some good responses, but in the end, Twitter user Morgan Johnson, a former ACU golfer who was celebrating his birthday won.

@bencranegolf former acu golfer. Just graduated from college and live in Rowlett. Oh and my birthday is tomorrow. #caddyforcrane

— Morgan Johnson (@MojoGolfNG360) May 14, 2013

The pic and the tweet to prove it.

New tagline for @twitter: “Instantly connect to what’s most important to you…& hire a ProAm caddy” @mojogolfng360 twitter.com/bencranegolf/s…

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 15, 2013

During my summers off while I was in university, I had a range of horrible jobs: laborer at a gun factory, framer for a residential development, junior member of a concrete cutting crew. During breaks from the often exhausting and always demoralizing duties, I would sit around with the other workers, and together, we’d remind ourselves of the virtues of working with our hands and being able to work toward a visible accomplishment on a day-to-day basis.

While there is certainly some merit to believing such traits to be beneficial, we mostly elevated the glory of our menial tasks for the purpose of justifying our current state and forgetting the bad decisions that led us to physical labor as a livelihood. In addition to fooling ourselves in this manner, we’d mock office workers, imagining their professions to be less honorable than our own.

“How can they feel any measure of self-worth?” we’d ask ourselves.

Ten years later, as part of my job, I would embed a YouTube clip of a Callaway Golf executive putting a golf ball down two sets of staggered stairs and into a cup. If my former co-workers could only see me now.

A seat at the 19th hole for Shane Bacon of the Devil Ball golf blog.