No matter how many home runs Josh Hamilton hits or how many Austrian newspapers refer to him as an ex-junkie for doing so, the story of the 2012 baseball season thus far has and will continue to be the struggles of Albert Pujols.

Some call it a slump. Some call it penance for what he did to the St. Louis Cardinals. Some just enjoy typing their favorite slurs behind a hashtag. Regardless, the Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim et al. have found themselves at the bottom of the AL West with nothing but the hope of a quick turnaround from El West Coast Hombre to save them.

Will it happen? Who knows? Today’s Dugout explores that question. It’s after e’jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

I want to be best friends with this picture.

Back in March, New Era released its latest Major League Baseball “rivalry” commercial, starring The Office’s Craig Robinson and Parks and Rec’s Nick Offerman as feuding Chicago White Sox and Cubs fans, respectively. The ad was, as expected, phenomenal, because Robinson and Offerman are two of the most lovable comedic actors in show business. But it also led me to quickly ponder which MLB teams have the best celebrity fans, not in terms of notoriety, but celebrities that we generally love.

The White Sox have Robinson, the Cubs have Offerman (Bill Murray and John Cusack, among others) and the St. Louis Cardinals have Jon Hamm. That was basically the immediate conclusion that we came to. However, I also made a hypothetical comment regarding Paul Rudd being a Kansas City Royals fan, and of course it turns out that he’s a lifelong Royals fan* and he was at Game 6 of the 1985 World Series.

In fact, he even helped organize a charity wiffle ball game last year with Royals legend George Brett, as well as Will Ferrell, Rob Riggle, Jason Sudeikis, David Koechner and Hamm. I feel like this should have been much bigger news at the time. But the reason I’m bringing this all up now is for our new With Leather Interactive Awesome Celebrity Baseball Fan Tracker, which we will be updating all summer long.

After the jump, check out Rudd talking about his life as a Royals fan, and help us put together the most elaborate and definitive list of awesome celebrity baseball fans this world has ever seen by leaving your suggestions in the comments. They have to be actual fans of the teams. As much as I want to say, “Rachel Bilson and Mila Kunis are Cardinals fans”, it doesn’t work that way.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Phillie Phanatic (a person/bird/thing I legitimately love more than most members of my family) is out for revenge. After traveling home to the Galapagos Islands to learn about his heritage and selflessly building homes for the less fortunate, what does he find? That a recent poll from the celebrity Davie-Brown Index ranked him as only the second-best mascot in the game … behind Mr. Met.

And yeah, I’m guessing the poll was 80% New Yorkers naming the only mascot they could remember, but that’s a travesty. A Jim Henson creation who has set the bar for mascot excellence for almost 40 years finishes behind a guy with a baseball head, because “baseball”. A f**king disgrace.

The Phanatic paid a visit to the New York Mets announce booth to address the situation, if we take “address the situation” to mean “polish Gary Cohen’s head” and make people wear cheesesteak hats. At least he got Cohen to say he likes his with whiz. The Phanatic isn’t as aggressive as I’d like him to be.

Video is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Carolina Panthers backup quarterback Jimmy Clausen is no stranger to controversy, as he had a couple run-ins with the law during his days at Notre Dame. But now, like any good bordering-on-obsolete athlete, he’s using Twitter to fight his biggest battles. This week, Clausen’s main event match is against none other than Supercuts, the place where impatient moms take their kids to look acceptable for yearbook photos. *points to self*

Clausen apparently popped into his local Supercuts yesterday to look sharp for his team photo, which is being taken today, and he was none too pleased with the result. He was angry enough that he vented on Twitter. Sadly, no photo was attached.

Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to point out the obvious.

But shortly after, Supercuts came calling with a formal apology.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never fought professionally, so this video has taught me a valuable lesson — if a guy has his body wrapped around my arm and is trying to break it, I shouldn’t stand up and shake my arm around to make him stop.

By way of Cage Potato comes this clip from ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil’ of Rony “Jason” Mariano Bezerra giving Team Wanderlei its first win, a first-round submission victory over Anistavio “Gasparzinho” Medeiros de Figueiredo. When they’re done ultimately fighting they should have a contest to see who can have the most names.

Anyway, sh*t gets real at the 1:40 mark, and a few moments and horrible noises later, Gasparzinho walks away with a spaghetti arm. Now Jason gets to square off with Hugo “Wolverine” Viana in the featherweight semis, and if I know anything about Wolverine I know it’s gonna take a lot more than that to break his arm. Advice: dismember him and bury the parts on different continents.

Two additional notes:

Read the rest of this entry »

TNT has really stepped its Photoshop game up this year.

With all of their injuries and adversities, the New York Knicks never stood much of a chance in defeating the No. 2 seed Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. But at least they gave it a fighting chance, as they fell 4-1 to the eventual Eastern Conference Champions after last night’s 106-94 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. But what’s a Heat victory without a little cocky showboating at the expense of the underwhelmed opponent?

With less than 5 minutes left in the game, and a deficit of 16-points to Lebron James and Co., Amar’e Stoudemire fouled out with a charge on Shane Battier. To make matters worse more entertaining, Stoudemire reached out to help Battier to his feet only to withdraw his hand and make Battier look the fool. Because nothing says, “Haha, in your face” like pulling a “SYKE!” when your team is getting stomped.

Luckily for Battier, Heat public address announcer Michael Baiamonte had his back. As Stoudemire headed back to the bench to begin planning his summer vacation, Baiamonte shouted to the crowd, “He has been extinguished from the game!” Team employee trolling grade: A+.

Read the rest of this entry »