By Chris Mottram

After a rain delay, the Cubs' great Japanese hope, Kosuke Fukudome, got his first MLB ups in the second inning. He only needed to see one pitch:



Brent Musburger was so dead set on telling us how similar the one Japanese guy is to the other Japanese guy that he basically missed the entire play, until after the ball hit the wall. But hey, we all just absolutely had to know that Fukudome's leg kick is not quite as high as Ichrio's. Hideki Matsui feels so left out.

UPDATE: Fukudome just hit a three-run bomb off Eric Gagne in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game. Quite a debut indeed.

(H/T: Awful Announcing)

By Spencer Hall

Urban Meyer has put on his P.T. Barnum hat at Florida: anyone currently enrolled at Florida who can run a competitive time in the 40-yard-dash at a spring practice will receive a t-shirt for the effort -- and possibly a scholarship, provided they beat the speed-happy trio of Deonte Thompson, Carl Moore, and Chris Rainey in a race at this year's Orange and Blue game.

One of the best times turned in so far came not from some 19 year-old trackster fresh out of high school, but instead from a 37 year-old business major Gary Bryant. Bryant ran a 4.53, not in the 4.3 range of Rainey, but massively impressive for a guy at an age when most athletic people consider having two knees good fortune, much less being able to rip off a 4.53 time.

[quote="The Gainesville Sun"] Bryant said he was in the ROTC program at Eastside and never played any high school sports. He said he stays in shape now by playing intramural sports (he's a wide receiver and cornerback in football) and working out.

"I just decided to go ahead and come out and try this," Bryant said.[/quote]
Remember that 5.0 is way, way faster than you think: this isn't some amateur pulling a respectable, "aw-shucks" time. This is faster than Vince Young. And it's certainly faster than brave CBS Sportsline columnist Clay Travis, who clocked a whopping 6.16 on his forty time.

Florida's full of impressive people, however. The leader thus far ran a 4.49 after "a night of partying."

By Dave "Large" Larzelere

I’m not going to review the entire Wrestlemania event, because, well, I didn’t watch the whole thing (does anyone in the world actually watch the whole thing?). I came in around the time that Batista was laying a Batista Bomb on Umaga, which saddened me, because I dig Umaga. The whole WWE aesthetic has moved much too far in the direction of these shaven, roid-raging, oiled-up, fake-tanned, pretty-boy slabs for my taste. I just spent a week in San Francisco and let me tell you something – that Cena-Triple H-Orton three-way last night looked like something they would play on a big-screen down in the Castro for general titillation. Increasingly it seems to me like there’s a very thin line between professional wrestling and gay soft porn. Let me have wrestlers about me who are fat and weird-looking. Umaga forever.

[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080331/88285.jpg]

The Ric Flair/Shawn Michaels blubberfest was a little overwrought but on the whole entertaining, the highlight of the evening for me. After an endless seesaw battle (lots of moonsaults and torturous figure fours) Michaels ended the Nature Boy’s career (it was, after all, A Career Threatening Match) with some well-placed high-kicks to the head that looked more real than anything I saw all night. Before dishing out the killing blow, Michaels said to Flair, “I’m sorry… I love you,” and then sha-ZAM, expressed his love in a most curious fashion. At that point, the stadium-wide waterworks flowed like Niagara as ole Naitch basked in the crowd’s love for one last moment of glory. My only complaint was that Brett Favre didn’t appear at that moment to help Flair walk out of the ring. Just imagine the man-weeping at a Favre/Flair double farewell.

Of course, as a boxing guy the main event of the evening for me was the Floyd Mayweather/Big Show showdown, a match that ended up feeling like little more than an afterthought to the onslaught of hype. Money May’s outfit was admittedly ill – a leather-and-fur get-up that was half pimp, half Mad Max, and all ghetto fabulous. His ring entrance was strong, which is important in a sport where ring entrances are almost always infinitely more interesting than the matches that follow them.

True to form, after Floyd actually got in the ring next to nothing happened for about ten minutes. Floyd landed a lot of meaningless fake punches, Big Show picked Floyd up and stepped on him and walked over him a few times. There was a tedious Floyd-strangling-Show interlude that didn’t fool anybody. Money’s posse tried to drag him out of there to save him – Big Show dragged him back. In the end, Floyd used some brass knuckles to knock Big Show out, and that was that. I’m curious to know what WWE aficionados out there thought about this performance, because to me, a wrestling neophyte, it seemed straight-up wackatronic to the nth degree of wack. And I like Floyd. But last night’s mundane walk-through made me hope he gets back into the boxing ring real soon, and that when he does he gets KTFO.

By Chris Littmann

Sports don't start and end with a referee's whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from games to gear.

Over the weekend I caught Pony’s new ad on Dustin Canalin’s blog. I gotta admit, I can’t even remember the last time I owned a Pony shoe, but the ad gave me a laugh and caught my eye.



The ad takes shots at campaigns from adidas, Nike and Under Armour (in that order). Pony has been extremely aggressive trying to reinvent itself in the last few weeks and the rumors have bubbled over that Randy Moss will be the first big-time athlete to endorse the brand since the 1980s. USA Today reported the announcement as imminent on March 16. Just a few days later, the Pony blog dropped more hints about Randy Moss joining the brand, and even gave a first look at a potential logo for Moss.

From a design standpoint, I’ve got to admit that a lot of these look pretty clean. I’m particularly a fan of the Trifecta. The real question – like with any shoe – will be the comfort and performance.

By Chris Mottram

Okay, okay, it's Opening Day, for real this time. The Red Sox-A's series apparently doesn't count because it wasn't on the main land, and last night's Nats-Braves game was the "Presidential Opener," so today it's officially official. And to prove it, there is a full slate of games today and into tonight.

But there's one problem: It's raining, like, everywhere:

[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080331/88282.jpg]

The Yankees-Blue Jays game has officially been canceled. The Brewers-Cubs game, scheduled to start at 2:20 ET, is already in a rain delay. But hey, at least the Royals are getting their game in! And, of course, as K.C. is wont to do, they're currently losing 3-2 to the Tigers.

The other afternoon games may be in jeopardy as well, specifically the games in Philly, St. Louis and Baltimore. I'll take this as further evidence that we should all abandon our posts on the east coast and mid-west and flock to California. It's my understanding that the beer flows like wine, and beautiful women instinctively flock there like the salmon of Capistrano. Or maybe that's Aspen. Whatever.