John Clay’s Sidelines

We’re going to start a new feature here. Once a week or so we’ll link to recommended reads I’ve stumbled across over the internet.

Here goes:

• If you watch American Idol, you must read the blog written by ex-MASH, ex-Cheers writer and moonlighting sportscaster  Ken Levine. It’s hilarious.

• The most powerful man in basketball isn’t David Stern, or Mike Krzyzewski, or Kobe Bryant. It’s World Wide Wes, says the New York Times.

• Dusty Baker, now in a Reds’ jacket, makes his return to Chicago.

• The Bay Area Sports Machine blog spent the day with Colin Cowherd, something that Cowherd talked about on his show last week, but said he couldn’t give out the URL for fear of blowing it up. Don’t worry. We found it. And the guy who runs the blog admits he is not a Cowherd fan.

• John Feinstein thinks the NCAA Tournament could use a touch-up. And he’s right.

• Bud Withers of the Seattle Times says it has been a strange off-season for the Pac 10.

• Tate Forcier, a highly-recruited quarterback from San Diego, is posting his recruiting letters on the web.

• While the rest of we media types had to wait on John Calipari to get to the interview room for our Sunday questions, the day before the title game, Mike Lupica got to have breakfast with Coach Cal.

• My friends over at A Sea of Blue can’t bring themselves to forgive Rick Pitino.

• But if you missed Rick Pitino’s farewell to Mr. Bill, YouTube has the clip.

• In case you missed the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke’s column saying that Ben Howland was a vastly superior coach to John Calipari, you can read it here. Then when Memphis beat UCLA, Plaschke wrote this.

• You have to love a post entitled Stephan Curry Kirkpatrick, from my friend John Walters.

• John Gasaway, who used to write for his Big Ten Wonk blog, but now contributes to Basketball Prospectus, breaks down the Kansas-Memphis final.

• The master Bob Ryan on Pat Riley’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Great story about Riley running into Kevin Garnett over the summer and spending eight hours with him.

• Tim Keown thought John Calipari handled losing the right way. Yeah, maybe.

• If you want to see ideo of Dick Vitale’s teary Hall of Fame interview with Jim Nantz, you can find it here.

• I’m heading to Louisville to see Kathleen Edwards on Thursday. I recommend her new, third album "Asking for Flowers."

• Frank Deford thinks this may finally be the year the Olympic facade cracks.

• If you miss the Tony Kornheiser radio show, and don’t have XM, you can download it here.

• This is what happens when the team you blog about  becomes national champs.

• For a sport that many think is dead, Major League baseball is way ahead of the digital game. Anybody out there have the MLB.tv digital package that lets you watch every out-of-market game?

• The Onion reports that Yao Ming’s injury shows that cheap Chinese players  fall apart after just two seasons. (It’s a joke.)

• With the World Equestrian Games slated for Lexington in 2010, you might want to read this New York Times story about how recent deaths in the sport have made people uneasy.