The big head was only one of the tipoffs that Giants outfielder Barry Bonds might be using illegal substances. Today's No. 15 most-cited news story, from Sports Illustrated, provides the evidence that has everyone saying, "Yup, coulda toldja but never had the proof." The piece provides excerpts from a new book, Game of Shadows, which details Bond's steroid use. "The streak. The juice. The legend"...that's how the blogger at Black Marks on Wood Pulp describes the "revelations." Says Ghost in the Machine: "No joy in Mudville (but plenty of juice)." Barry, take your needles and go home," says one disappointed former fan.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:31 PM

Go ahead. Drool all you want over the speed of the bobsledders, the grace of the figure skaters, the sheer, brazen nerve of the skiers who look down the steep side of a mountain and decide, "Yeah, I wanna jump off and go down this on on two waxed pieces of lumber." They'll be all the rage at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin/Torino, Italy, but a certain subsegment of bloggers will be doing something completely different: Knitting. For the past few weeks, blogger Stephanie Pearl McPhee at the Yarn Harlot (today's No. 8 blog post) has issued a challenge to fellow weavers of yarn: begin a knitting project starting today (opening ceremonies) and complete it by the time the Olympic flame is extinguished. So far, 3,649 knitters will be busy for the next few weeks, crafting everything from baby overalls to a sailor's watch cap, a hoodie to a Viking chicken hat, "one plain sock" to a "Hardangervidda," whatever that is. Maybe it has something to do with downhill skiing. Or the luge? Regardless, the effort has started quite an online conversation.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:22 PM

They're draping the black bunting in Beantown after Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, the beloved Australopithecus of the American League, has agreed to a four-year, $52 illion contract with the rival New York Yankees. (We've got the regular story as link no. 39 and an incisive Buster Olney thinkpiece as no. 34.) This gives the Yanks 5 of the AL's top 12 run-scorers for next season — though, as they showed this past season, a $209 million payroll doesn't mean that aging superstars will necessarily jell as a squad or stay healthy — and means the Sox have to decide what to do to in Damon's absense. Bloggers, as you may've guessed, are stepping up to the proverbial plate: AthleticsNation has some guesses as to what the Sox will try to do next; Gaslamp has some computer-enhanced imagery of what Damon will look like as a Yankee; while JD sums it up for us, writing the trade "makes the point anywhere... everyone's for sale." So it would seem. If we were a Boston schoolchild, we wouldn't believe in nothin' no more.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 10:38 AM

Not since the man who goes by the plausible nickname of The King of the Streets praised the embattled official whose title is President of the United States — and that was yesterday — has there been an equally strange link between a Republican and a controversial non-political personage. In BlogPulse's no. 29 top link today, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Spector, who you might remember from his magic bullet theory, said he believes the Philadelphia Eagles dealt their controversial star Terrell Owens a raw deal. Because he dared speak his mind (and, sure, get in a fight with his teammates) Owens was barred from playing for the rest of the season, and the squad is also keeping him from playing for some other team somewhere. Not cricket, said Spector, and just for good measure said the Eagles decision might violate antitrust laws. 50 Cent and Bush? T.O. and Spector? What's next? Will US. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) appear on TV and announce that he believes No Limit rapper C-Murder was wrongly convicted of his infamous nightclub shooting? Well, you've got to admit, that'd be pretty weird.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 10:19 AM

Remember how, when Ron Artest got suspended for wreckin' shop on some impolite Pistons fans, ere'body was all, talkin' about how "fans aren't really part of the game?" Many a jock on ESPN said somberly that fans and players can never come into contact, that foolish fans sometimes actually think they're part of the game. Enter Scott Harper, or, rather, no, not "enter," (you'll see why) BlogPulse's third burstiest person today. Ol' Scott was taking in a Yankees game the other night with some of his pals when, compelled to be part of the action, he leapt some 40 feet onto the foul ball net behind home plate. He told his friends he wanted to see if it would hold his weight. (The guy's clearly stupid, but, c'mon, who hasn't been at a ball game and wondered that?) Bloggers have gotten a kick out of Harper's Hop, though with varying degrees of acridity: "Scott Harper should be sterilized so he's not allowed to reproduce and potentially contaminate the gene pool we all enjoy," writes a New York Republican. "Not only would he have killed himself, but he would have seriously injured or killed fans below," admonishes Chicagoist. The Catholic Packers Fan also weighs in on the Harper question by creating a new award for him -- one some readers may find offensive -- and further deepening the guy's embarrassment.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 12:13 PM

Baltimore Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro is the first big baseball star suspended under new rules to prevent steroid use, but his explanation for what happened is a little threadbare -- it already has been used by Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others. "Why, I had no idea that what I was using was an illegal substance," each player has said. Even Palmeiro's teammate Sammy Sosa, who has stayed on the periphery of the scandal, claimed ignorance during his Cubs years when cork flew out of his bat. (And refused to take tests for steriods.) The story is all the more maddening because of Palmeiro's sanctimonious speechifying before Congress earlier this year. Does anyone really believe millionaire superstar athletes, guys who monitor every calorie they take in, guys with armies of trainers, blindly swallow whatever pills or rub on whatever creams or inject whatever solutions some vampiric impresario hands them? Bloggers don't: "So we must assume that little steroid fairies, or perhaps leprechauns, since he made his statement to Congress on St. Patrick's Day, injected Rafael while he was unconscious," writes Grouchy. "After he retires, Palmeiro may have a future in the Republican Party." The Daily Brushback has this simpley query: "Can you explain to our readers how one goes about accidentally using steroids? And second, is there anything you'd like to say to José Canseco?"

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:10 AM

Baseball is a really difficult game. Players sometimes get mad. Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers, for example, got frustrated earlier this month and punched a cooler in the dugout, breaking a bone in the pinky of his pitching hand. But that's not why he's BlogPulse's no. 24 bursty person today. No, that would be because he went crazy on a couple of TV cameramen who had the temerity to point their cameras at him, a professional athlete, as he stepped onto the playing field. The sport-blog scene has been almost unanimous in its condemnations: Surviving Grady offers some theories for why it went down: "...[h]e went and gave the videocamera a couple good kicks, because it's a video camera, and it's got to pay for its sins. Plus, it may have been in cahoots with those Gatorade coolers that The K Man had to 'straighten out' a couple days ago." (The ones that attacked him and broke his pinky.) Blogger Dylan laments that Rogers has been one of the best hurlers the Rangers have ever had, but that he'll only be remembered now for being a hothead. But perhaps the most apt commentary on the Rogers flareup is the headline for this piece, which says what we were all thinking.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 01:18 PM