Nickname earns him a bonus game
LeBron James' fantasy-type performance against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals earned the Cleveland Cavaliers star a new nickname.
After he torched the Pistons for 48 points, including 29 of his team's last 30, teammates dubbed him "Video Game James."
"I don't like it better than King James, but I'll live with it," the 22-year-old phenom told the Detroit News.
James is an acknowledged video-game junkie who often takes on the persona of others when he sits down to hoop it up.
"I play with Phoenix [Suns] a lot," James said. "They shoot the ball extremely well, and three-pointers are definitely hard to come back from in video games."
Trivia time
Since the summer of 2004, when Kobe Bryant re-signed with the Lakers, spurning an offer from the Clippers, which team has posted the better record?
Terrific tirade
Minor league manager Phillip Wellman got major league media exposure for a post-ejection tirade on Friday that generated endless play on television and the Internet.
"Once again, my mother is very proud of me and my wife and kids are creeping around in disguise," Wellman, who manages the double-A Mississippi Braves, told the Chattanooga Times/Free Press.
Wellman, upset with the umpire's strike zone, covered home plate with dirt and drew a bigger plate outline. He also removed third base and threw it into center field, then dropped to his hands and knees and crawled military style toward the pitcher's mound. Wellman picked up a rosin bag and tossed it like a grenade at the home-plate umpire's feet.
He finished by removing second base and blowing kisses to fans as he exited through an outfield gate.
"That's the best I've seen anywhere by far," Chattanooga Manager Jayhawk Owens said. "He has the ability to keep himself cool and have fun with it when most managers like myself just get mad."
Brothers in arms
Sounds like Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett kissed and made up after last week's fight that started in the dugout and continued in the clubhouse.
"It's all my fault," Zambrano told reporters. "That's all I can say. I feel bad for that."
Barrett, who needed six stitches, said he thinks of Zambrano as a brother and the scuffle resulted because the batterymates are "so close."
"I love Carlos. I know he loves me," Barrett said.
