The Chicago White Sox Locker Room, a unique spot for work to be conducted...

Granted most work environments are large spaces filled with desks, computers, TV's, printers, and a fax machine or two. Few "offices" are actual locker rooms... yet the very fine line between a typical locker room and a professional office was crossed on Tuesday. Of course which side of the line the offense falls on depends on who you talk to.

Gist of the deal is someone (no one person has been to blame) placed two inflatable female dolls, propped by bats (you can guess where the bats were placed), inside the locker room. The new "mascots" had signs hanging around their neck that read: "You've Got To Push" and "Let's Go White Sox". It was a petty and cheap display of team spirit with the laughable hope that a few dolls could bring the team out of a losing slump. Hey, we all have our ways of finding motivation. Turns out the cheerleaders dolls didn't work, they still lost. 

Now here's the thing... was the act tasteless? Yeah, pretty much. Offensive? I could see how someone would be. I did not walk into the locker room, so as a woman I can't say 100% that I would or would not be offended by it. Did it completely lack in good judgment? Absolutely. But in the scheme of things, was there any harm meant in it? No way. A bad joke is a bad joke. Beyond someone looking for a cheap pick me up, I don't think there was any bigger meaning beyond it.

I'm not defending the team. This is no Matt Leinart invasion. Displaying it in the locker room where media has access made it fair game to become a big story. On top of that, when the manager has been known for poor taste in past decisions, it's hard to make excuses. 

The real question is should the behavior in the locker room have to change? Is what's acceptable behind closed doors between teammates still ok when visitors aka journalists have access inside those closed doors? Does the set environment have to fit the people who are present? Or should the media recognize that they are only guests in someone else's office and the purpose of their stay is to gather information for the story? The story being the game at hand.

I'd like to think that sometimes our sensitivity gets in the way of humor. Then again, humor can be harsh and repulsive.

In this case, it makes one think. Who knew a blow-up doll could make you do that.

Straight outta the "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" files: No more than 100 yards from my front door there is a wildlife phenomenon happening that is quite cool. A red-tailed hawk has taken up residence in a tree that literally overhangs the West Side Highway. It's a pretty cool sight each day, whilst going for a run in Riverside Park (because these days I'm too lazy to drag my ass over to Central Park), to start out by looking up at Mr. Hawk's nest as if the Upper West Side has suddenly become a scene out of Animal Planet.

I do believe that there has not been a hawk sighting in Manhattan--outside of Central Park--since the 2006 NFL Draft, so this is cool. Of course, rent being what it is in this part of the world, none of us here are surprised that (I kid you not) a few smaller birds have taken up residence in the bottom of the hawk's nest. Yes, Mr. Hawk is sub-letting.

BOSTON - How can the Cavaliers be leading the Celtics midway through the third quarter despite shooting just 30 percent from the field.

Paul Pierce is 1 for 7. Ray Allen is 0 for 3. Boston has 16 turnovers (3 each by Pierce, Allen, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins). Cleveland is 20 for 23 from the line and Boston is 8 for 10.

Lebron James is laboring through a 1 for 9 start himself in his first 20 minutes on the floor but all by hisself he's 8 for 10 from the line.

This is a rockfight.

So Roger Clemens, following in the wake of ex-teammate Jason Giambi, is also now apologizing without providing details? Let me ask you this: Imagine you know a specific manner in which someone is putting themselves in mortal danger. And you simply say to them, "Watch out." But you don't tell them what to watch out for. And then they touch the third rail or forget that the traffic in London is opposite as they're stepping off the curb or whatever. Do you get credit for trying to save them?

"I GOTTA GO PEE!"

Last night I finished writing late, and you just cannot go to sleep immediately after that, so I watched "The Green Mile", which has some outstanding performances by the way (none better than Sam Rockwell as rapist-murderer "Wild Bill" Wharton). Anyway ...

Sorry about my absence here of late, but you know, "It's hard goddamned work doing a blog." 

So I'm still obsessed with last Tuesday's "Costas Now". And the more I watch that 16-minute "Sports Bloggers" segment, the funnier I find host Bob Costas', "Braylon, do you blog?" question. Outside of this one moment, Costas was his typical self, which is to say masterful. I believe that he was actually jazzed by the live format, by the challenge to his intellect to cover five different topics live over 90 minutes while also following the "comic stylings of Paul Mercurio." (our in-studio warm-up comic)

What happened, then, with that question? My suspicion is that the mind of Costas, for just a moment, went blank. The question was a stall, something I've done dozens of times during an interview when I've had a runaway train of thought. As have almost all reporters. The difference is that we were not on live TV. Why did Costas blank for a moment? Maybe he was musing to himself, "Did I just say, 'Good riddance, (bleep)face' on national television?"

John Walters (hey, that's me!) was there for the whole night of HBO's live, 90-minute edition of "Costas Now". He was in the studio audience when H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger took the stage and in the pub when a slightly buzzed Bissinger took his leave (hey, so was Walters). The program, divided into five segments, was devoted to an examination of "Sports and the Media". What follows is a thumbnail assessment of each topic.
 
Part 1: Sports Talk Radio

"The Giants winning the way they won is a nine. The Mets collapsing the way they did, from what we do, is a ten." -- Mike Francesa, WFAN

Champ: Michael Strahan, New York Giants
Punching Bag: Chris Russo, WFAN
Admiral Stockdale "Who am I and what am I doing here?" honoree: Mitch Albom
Best Moment: When Russo attempted to demonstrate that he is fair by noting that when the Giants won the Super Bowl, he praised Strahan. Replied the future Hall of Fame defensive end, "You had no choice."
The Skinny: Apparently, sports talk hosts are misogynistic, two-faced louts who possess all the charm of Louie DePalma. Who knew? Strahan had the best punches landed-per-punches thrown of any panelist the entire evening, noting that Russo may not be the best-suited person to talk football "when the last time you had a uniform on your mom took you trick-or-treating."
HBO Entertainment Rating: "Real Time With Bill Maher"

Part 2: The Internet and the Impact of Bloggers

"You don't have to go to school to say, like, "I think that the Indians should have pulled Carmona in the eighth." -- Michael Schur (a.k.a. Ken Tremendous), FireJoeMorgan.com
  
Buzzsaw: H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, author, rageaholic
Sonny Corleone pulling into the tollbooth: Will Leitch, founder of Deadspin
Stockdale Honoree: Braylon Edwards, Pro Bowl wideout, Cleveland Browns
Best Moment: Perhaps it was hearing the most articulate man in sports, Costas, say (even if he was just reading a commenter's words), "Good riddance, (bleep)-face."
The Skinny: The morning after this show aired I was able to find well-written columns on this fracas (as well as hilarious comments, such as "W.C. Fields > W.C. Heinz") all over the interwebs. Meanwhile, not one of New York's four major newspapers had a word on it. Print is dead.
HBO Entertainment Rating: "The Sopranos"

The Denver Broncos select Ryan Clady of the Boise State Broncos, a school with nearly identical uniform colors that is as close to Denver as it is to any NFL franchise. So much for all the quantitative and qualitative analysis that goes into draft day.

With the selections of Jake Long (Miami), Chris Long (St. Louis) and Matt Ryan (Atlanta) as picks 1-2-3, this becomes the first NFL draft since 1975 in which the first three players picked were white. I don't know how much further you'd have to go back to find a draft in which the top three selections were white but none were named White (Randy White was the second pick), or how far you'd have to go back in which the top three selections were white and none was a quarterback selected by the Falcons (Steve Bartkowski was the top overall pick).

By the way, anyone-anyone? Bueller?-- know the added significance of Bartkowski's selection? That's right, the Cal QB selected as his agent a fellow Golden Bear, a wet-behind-the-ears kid named Leigh Steinberg.

ADAMS FAMILY

Inspired by my John Adams riff, Everlasting, Everglading Blogstalker G.A. proposed a 12-part series on Sam Adams. Thus, counter-inspired, I offer my top ten Adamses we'd love to see HBO devote a dozen painstaking hours to -- with Laura Linney appearing in every series, of course:

1) Pugsley Ad(d)ams

2) Alvan Adams

All right, here's the situation. The wireless wouldn't work out front in the main room so I scurried into the back behind the stage where NBC has a small room set up for 1-on-1's with the six gents in New York.

As I got back here and prepared to blogerate, Chris Long came into the 10x16 room stacked with equipment and staff. We got it done with Chris in two minutes and have since flowed in every one of the six guys in NYC except Vernon Gholston.

They've been outstanding in these 1-on-1 setting that we'll be putting up on-line hopefully before too long.  

Quick impressions from backstage ...

* Chris Long talking to his family: "I got 20 text messages while I was on stage!"

* Jake Long trailed backstage by ESPN and Miami Herald reporter Dan LeBatard.

* A Falcons official talking back to, presumably, Atlanta higher-ups about newly-drafted quarterback Matt Ryan: "He's handling the Mike Vick stuff great

And Mike Mayock on the NFL Network talking about corner Leodis McKelvin taken by the Bills: "I saw him get hit in the helmet three times with passes. Other than that, he's a Pro Bowl player."

You may be hoping to find out who your team selects in the draft. I, on the other hand, am giddy that the wireless just kicked back in for me while people to my right and left are kicking their computers in the groin because of a lack of wireless.

We're about five minutes from the start of this mess. Deion Sanders just came out to warm up the crowd which is fairly frothy (or course they are - you have to be twisted to COME to the draft). Carnival barking like he was born to this stuff, Sanders introduced the six New York invitees.

There was a smattering of boos for the Dolphins first overall pick, Jake Long and a few more for Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan.

With 90 minutes to go before the start of the 2008 draft, the soundtrack has started. The booming organ music is basically the best of NFL Films - Drunken Sailor and that "dunt dahdadiddyduntdihdigdahdahhhh" AKA the Raiders tune (I think).

A few other sights and sounds since I got here.

* On every team table there is a jar of M&Ms with shells in team colors. I personally like the Bucs colors.

* Just talked with Brian Billick who's going to be doing a full slate of games in a two-man booth for Fox in the fall. He's on the set for the NFL Network today.

* Asked Gene Upshaw how things have progressed since the Matt Stover Coup Attempt came to light a few weeks back. The NFLPA head said, "He's a kicker. If it was Ray Lewis, I might have been more concerned..." Ouch, doctor. Not sure how that's going to play with the rank&file special teamers.

* Now we have New York State of Mind piped in on the organ.