WILLY AYBAR UPDATE

Remember when I asked “Where The Hell Is Willy Aybar?”? Well, we have our answer.. And it’s not a good one. According to Aybar’s agent, Luis Valdez, Willy is in Boston battling substance abuse and trying to get his life on track. Initially Valdez had said that Willy Aybar was fighting drinking and drugs. He changed his story up a bit, saying he didn’t know if his client was involved with anything outside of alcohol. Valdez went on to say:

“It’s a situation where he doesn’t want anybody to help him. He’s embarrassed for himself, for his family.”

I don’t have anything witty or sarcastic to say about this situation. I just hope Willy Aybar can get off or over whatever he’s dealing with and on the Braves bench again.

Where The Hell is Willy Aybar? Swacked from You Been Blinded

Agent: Suspended Aybar Has Substance Issue. Swacked from the Atlanta Journal Constitution via the Baseball Think Factory’s Baseball Primer Newsblog by way of Ball Hype

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FREE THROWS

Steve Spurrier wants to help the Confederate Flag get off the pole. Courtesy of Larry Brown Sports

Michael Jordan is one of the most competitive people on the planet. Did you really think he would let Neil Diamond beat him at anything? Courtesy of the Washington Post

The (inconvenient) truth is, Mother Nature hates sports. Courtesy of the Ap by way of Post-Gazette.com

David Wright’s 23 game hit streak postponed due to rain. Courtesy of Metro Canada

Leigh Steinberg arrested for DUI. Rumor has it Roger Goodell will take away his Blackberry for a year. Courtesy of The OC Register

Speaking of losing Blackberry privileges, Charles Taplin is gonna lose his for contacting LSU football players. Courtesy of the AP by way of The Town Talk

Tim Duncan get’s ejected for laughing. I was just as shocked by the ejection as I was at the fact that Tim Duncan can laugh. I didn’t think his model was programmed with emotions. Courtesy of Fan IQ

Purdue..The Cincinnati Bengals of college football. Courtesy of Covers.com

If Eagles fans give Donovan McNabb a hard time, what would they have done with Akili Smith or Ricky Williams? Eagles offseason talk here. Courtesy of The Burlington County Times by way of PhillyBurbs.com

De La Hoya forces Mayweather to fight with bad gloves? Courtesy of The Grand Rapids Press by way of MLive.com

And finally…. Props to everybody that has left a number in the Can You Help A Brotha Out?? post. I’m accepting your numbers up until midnight Pacific on Wednesday. It doesn’t matter if you repeat a number that somebody already posted. So, again, please click here  and leave any number from 1 to 16 in the comments.

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SMUGGLING CUBANS VS. CUBAN SMUGGLING

Sports agent Gustavo “Gus” Dominguez was convicted of smuggling Cuban baseball players to the United States. The penalties include up to 5 years in jail for conspiracy to smuggle and up to 10 years in jail for each of 20 different smuggling convictions. So worst case scenario ol Gus risked 205 years in jail to transport 5 players 90 miles north to Florida.

A federal jury found him guilty of conspiracy to smuggle five ballplayers from Cuba to the Florida Keys. According to trial evidence, he then had the illegal immigrants transported to California, where they were harbored pending an expected windfall from lucrative future sports contracts. Evidence against Dominguez included $225,000 in payments to purported drug trafficker and Cuban smuggler Ysbel Medina.

Dominguez denied breaking the law at his trial.. Hmmm you don’t say.. There’s no mention of which teams were interested in the kidnapped exported players, but after a week and a half it looks like the Giants, Nationals, and Phillies could really use them. The Royals belong on that list too but they’re small market and all of there money is tied up here.

When I hear the term “smuggling cubans” I automatically think stogies. Gustavo should have been thinking the same thing. While you won’t neccesarily get off lightly for smuggling a large quantity of cigars, fines and the possibility of jail time trumps 205 years in lock up.

Sports agent convicted of smuggling Cubans swacked from Guardian Unlimited

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