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•The Brew crew will be short an integral part for a while. Brewers center fielder Bill Hall badly sprained his right ankle while leaping to try to catch Ryan Doumit’s solo home run for Pittsburgh in the second inning Thursday and will be out indefinitely.

•Cubs broadcaster Bob Brenly said he hasn’t heard from the Reds about their managerial opening, despite a report in Cincinnati saying the former big-league catcher and World Series-champion manager was on a short list of candidates.

•Isiah Thomas isn’t finished revamping the Knicks’ starting lineup and he is now focusing his sights on a small forward.

Thomas, the Knicks’ president and head coach, already has had discussions with Seattle free agent Rashard Lewis. Toronto’s Morris Peterson is also a free agent and there is a possibility that Thomas could make a run at Sacramento’s Ron Artest.

That should work well having Artest in the Big Apple. He is crazy enough to actually fit right in.

•People are literally begging for Kobe to stay in LA. The lastest is Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers. He writes similar to e.e. cummings.

dear kobe,

i have been a huge supporter of you since the moment you first put
on a laker uniform
i have stood by you and defended you against your detractors
throughout every moment of your professional basketball career
i have always respected your work ethic
your unrelenting desire to give your all night in and night out
and your creative and exciting basketball game……dope!!!
i have sincerely hoped the best for you at every turn
i have also been a laker fan since i was a boy
i am now 44 and i love the lakers the same as when i was 11, but deeper

It goes on quit a bit more. We now can see why he hasn’t been writing lyrics for the band.

•The Chinese standoff continues in Milwaukee.

“[We] won’t sit here and do nothing just because he was picked by Milwaukee,” Zhao Gang, one of Yi’s representatives, told the official China Daily newspaper Tuesday. “We are considering Yi’s future at the Bucks and are looking at trade possibilities.”


Harris has no plans to comply.


“We’re not trading him,” Harris told SI.com. “We like him and we think this is a great opportunity for him. He’ll get a chance to play a lot of minutes right away for a good team.

•Is the NFL trying to cash in on the mania of Japanese baseball players?

The Atlanta Falcons went long-distance shopping when adding a wide receiver Thursday.

The Falcons signed Noriaki Kinoshita, a native of Osaka, Japan who played the last three years with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europa.
Kinoshita, 5-foot-10 and 179 pounds, ranked fourth in the league in kickoff returns with 532 yards and added 21 catches for 308 yards and two touchdowns.

In 2006, Kinoshita led the league in kickoff returns with 19 for 530 yards, an average of 27.9 yards per return.

Kinoshita is the second player from Japan to sign with the Falcons. The first, tight end Nachi Abe, lasted 10 days in the 2000 preseason.

•Here is a Detroit Tigers Blog written by an 11yo kid. Makes some of the posts in the Swamp look shameful.

•Oswalt replacing Smoltz as All-Star.

•Chris Young of the Padres and Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox are the selections in the sixth annual All-Star Final Vote.