I've seen a lot of things in Baseball, but I can safely say that I've never seen this before. Watch closely as Jim Edmonds tries out his version of the hidden ball trick at Wrigley Field....

That's pretty wild, but I was thinking it would have been even more awesome if it was someone's hand. How crazy would that have been? Jerome Walton's hand just falls on Jim Edmonds head and everyone in the stands turn to each other, nods and says, "oh THAT's what happened to him!" (sorry it's still early and the video pretty much spoke for itself)

Watching Football the other night it was pretty weird to hear Collinsworth call himself a "friend of Bob", but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Your newest friend of Bob will be Matt Lauer as he'll co-host with Costas for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics this Friday night....

NBC Olympic primetime host Bob Costas will host the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony alongside co-host Matt Lauer, NBC's 'Today' co-anchor, this Friday, August 8, 2008 – 8.8.08 – at a special early start time announced yesterday, 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. Costas and Lauer will be joined by reporters from NBC Sports and NBC News: NBC Sports reporters Andrea Joyce and Bob Neumeier and NBC News' Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent; and Peter Alexander, Correspondent. The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Executive Producer of NBC Universal's Beijing Olympic coverage.

"In addition to the off-the-charts spectacular Opening Ceremony that the organizers have planned, what will become immediately apparent to an American audience is that these Olympics are so eagerly anticipated here in China."- Bob Costas

"In many ways the Opening Ceremony sets the tone for the two weeks of competion and celebration that will follow. There is obviously a lot at stake for the Chinese, and I'm I thrilled to have the chance to be a part of a broadcast that will bring this story back to all the viewers at home."- Matt Lauer

I don't think I'm going to go out of my way on Friday night to check out the Opening Ceremony, but I am a little intrigued by its potential weirdness. Nothing can top the crazy flipping guys from Super Bowl XLI, or the closing ceremony of Euro 2008, but I'd love to see the Chinese try.

(Via NBC PR)

Really odd happenings going on over the past few days. First it was Joe Morgan disappearing (below) and now Mike Golic is the topic of discussion. A few people emailed me this morning about Golic leaving the set of Mike and Mike this morning but I didn't really pay any mind. A few more people sent in questions this afternoon so I decided to check it out.

Normally it wouldn't be a big deal if a host had to leave, but Golic left suddenly and Greenie refused to talk about why the rest of the show. At first he had just left "for a moment" but then a little while later that turned into "the rest of the morning...

The whole thing was just really weird and included awkward camera angles of just Greenie (see above) the rest of the show. He also seemed very reserved and awkward after Golic left but that's kind of par for the course. Hopefully everything is okay and nothing serious happened this morning. If anyone knows anything let me know.

Update: ESPN just emailed me with the answer and unfortunately his absence was due to his Father-In-Law passing away. All the best to the Golic household.

I'm not quite sure when Soccer pregame ceremonies turned into the Cirque Du Soleil but in case you missed it here is the rather odd one before the Euro 2008 Final today...

Ummmm, yeah....that was special. It also went on for about another 20 minutes too, so you're welcome for trimming it down. That really was like a bad acid trip, but also kind of entertaining. Add to that Enrique Iglesias and I'm ready for some Soccer!

I think this ritual ranks second behind Moises Alou and his urine trick, but it's equally as creepy. Via Fanhouse....

Ha...candle factory! Get it? Not funny, but great reporting Matt Steinmetz.

Monta's Pregame Handshakes: Awkward (Fanhouse)

Nothing against Courtney B. Vance or Marlon Wayons, but through what rigorous process were they selected to read a tribute to Jackie Robinson off of friggin' clipboards? What did they do, pull them out of the stands five minutes before this thing got started, shove the clipboards in their hands and say, "Read this"?

Somebody, please explain this to me?

Update, 8:20 - For the past few days, I've struggled with the "Jack" vs. "Jackie" thing. You might've noticed that much of the time, I refer to Robinson as "Jack" - that's because I vaguely remember reading something about how much he hated being called "Jackie".

Well, Rachel Robinson has settled it - she just called him "Jack" twice in a row, so "Jack" it is.

Update, 8:36 - Fire Joe Morgan has the official transcript of the meeting where the decision to hire Wayans was made.