Game Face

Deadspin

Unbelievable. (This picture may be a bit too good to be true, but, in all fairness, as a former competitor in the Miss Alaska contest, she likely has worn such outfits in the past... perhaps not with an automatic weapon in hand...)

Oh, and she was an intern and weekend sportscaster at a TV station in Alaska, video of which you can see here. So for all of you 24-year-old former beauty pageant winning sportscasting interns out there, keep the hope alive!

-Click here to see photos of Sarah Palin and family campaigning

-Click here for 19 family photos of Sarah Palin growing up

-Click here for 13 photos of Sarah Palin's daughters, sons, and husband

-- Tim Fiorvanti

(Photo illustration by Nick Stark)

It's Obama over McCain — (Baron Davis over Andrei Kirilenko). This being another partisan work of art created by my friend Nick Stark.

CORRECTION (11:33 a.m. Wednesday): Nick didn't create this image.

— Max

Beware a new USTA policy. Apparently fearing for plastic explosives stuffed into the tubes of bicycles, U.S. Open officials are working with NYC Parks Department in Flushing Meadows to remove all bikes locked in the vicinity of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
I have this from an NYPD officer who told me this as I unlocked my bike to ride back to the amNewYork office yesterday afternoon.
The officer said had I come 30 minutes later, I would have found that my locks had been clipped, a summons issued and a $50 storage fee levied.
Today, on that officer's advice, I parked and locked my bike near the bike rentals trailer about 500 feet from the USTA East Gate. No incidents.
But be careful where you anchor your wheels if bike to the U.S. Open you do.

— Max

LPGA player Ai Miyazato chips onto the green at the seventh hole during the second round of the LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace. (Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox / June 6, 2008)

Our Newsday colleague Mark Herrman posted an excellent column about the LPGA's new "speak-English-or-you're-out policy", which gives its heavily-international golfers two years to learn English, or get suspended.

Herrman makes the point that although the Ladies Professional Golf Association--facing a tough fight to get sponsors in a declining economy--may be implementing the policy out of a sense of necessity, the way they're forcing this on their players is just bad PR.

Not to mention un-American--and, unnecessary.

How international are LPGA players? See photos from the 2008 LGPA championship

My friend Nick, an avowed Obama supporter who respects of the accomplishments of the San Antonio Spurs, offers this bit of photo research:

— Max

Pittsburgh-based writer/host Mark Madden was taken off the air permanently this week at Pittsburgh's 1250 ESPN radio, following some off-color comments he made on the air last week.

Madden was playing off of the recent commotion involving Senator Hillary Clinton's comments relating Bobby Kennedy's assasination and her refusal to pull out of the Democratic race before June, which many took as her saying that Barack Obama would be assasinated. Madden related this to Senator Ted Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor when he said he hoped Kennedy "would live long enough to be assassinated."

Here are some of the more memorable incidents involving sports and people who like to put their feet in their mouths.

Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder gets fired from CBS

Snyder was a prevalent sports gambler, and a football analyst for CBS' NFL Today pre-game show for 12 years. Despite the illegality of gambling in almost every state, Jimmy the Greek had a prevalent role on the show, picking games every week.

Jimmy the Greek got the ax in January of 1988, following "racist comments" he made about black athletes. He said a black athlete was better "because he's been bred to be that way... this goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner — the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid."

Jimmy the Greek spent most of his remaining days in anonymity, except for penning a betting column for a Las Vegas newspaper. He died in 1996.

Don Imus gets fired by CBS Radio

Imus broke into the radio business in the 70s, and was never one to shy away from controversy. Starting in 1988, he was heard locally in New York on WFAN, whose programming was otherwise completely based on sports. While sports did not play a very big role on Imus' show, one foray into a sports discussion got him into some seriously hot water.

While discussing the Women's NCAA basketball tournament in April of 2007, Imus and his producer Bernard McGuirk were watching highlights of a game between Rutgers and Tennessee. The discussion turned towards the Rutgers women, who had tattoos and a "tough look". McGuirk called the women "tough ho's", which Imus turned into "nappy-headed ho's."

Imus was fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC, who simulcast the show on TV. In December of 2007, Imus returned to the air on WABC 770 in New York, and is currently carried in 17 markets around the country.

Steve Lyons gets fired by FOX

"Psycho" Steve Lyons was a journeyman baseball player who played the majority of his career with the Chicago White Sox. Following his playing career, he got a job with Major League Baseball on FOX in 1996, where he would remain in some capacity for more than ten years.

Lyons made his fair share of controversial statements leading up to his firing in October of 2006. One of his most famous comments involved Lyons lashing out at Shawn Green for sitting out a game that took place on Yom Kippur in 2004. Lyons accused Green, who is Jewish, of not being a practicing Jew.

The comments that ultimately led to Lyons losing his job at FOX took place during their coverage of the 2006 American League Championship Series. That night, Lyons shared the booth with Lou Piniella, who made comments about the A's Marco Scutaro and his unlikely contributions to the team, likening it to "finding a wallet". Lyons then made a comment about being unable to find his wallet, and feeling uncomfortable sitting next to Piniella, which ultimately led to his firing.

Lyons is currently the color commentator for the Los Angeles Dodgers for away games.

Kelly Tilghman is suspended by the Golf Channel

Kelly Tilghman managed to avoid a figurative hangman's noose, but she almost joked her career into oblivion this past January.

During a broadcast on January 4, 2008, Tilghman's co-anchor Nick Faldo joked that the younger players on tour needed to "gang up" on Tiger Woods. Tilghman took this several hundred steps too far, and added that they should "lynch him in a back alley".

Though Woods came out publicly and said that there was no ill will behind the comment and it did not offend him, outrage from the media and from civil rights groups helped lead to Tilghman being suspended. She returned in late January, and is still on the air.

-- Tim Fiorvanti

There's a special profile in today's paper about Major League Baseball's Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, which is helping kids learn both study and baseball skills at places like the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx.

Check out about ten photos of Sergio Cruz, a right fielder for the Kips Bay RBI Mustangs and the team's best hitter, who says the program helped keep him off the streets and out of trouble, after his mom died.

Photo of Sergio and Kips Bay Athletic Director Neil Jeter taken by Dennis Ho for amNewYork.