Will Bill Simmons leave ESPN?

I just finished reading a very interesting post on The Big Lead discussing whether Bill Simmons will leave ESPN when his contract is up later this year.

For years, the Sports Guy has been my favorite sportswriter.  That's not to say that he is necessarily the best sportswriter, or the most knowledgeable, or the most connected to the athletes.  He is just my favorite journalist to read and to listen to.  His columns really are written from the fan's perspective, so he doesn't pull punches and he throws in pop culture references that usually make you laugh.  And besides, where would we be without such Simmons staples as the Levels of Losing, the Tyson Zone, the Ewing/Tiki Theory, the Peyton/Eli Manning Face, and of course his omnipresent mailbags (which, in my opinion, were the foundation for Deadspin's funbags)??

That's not to say Bill Simmons is perfect.  Far from it.  His obsession with basketball has become so dominant (especially in light of his NY Times bestselling magnum opus "Book of Basketball") that he has strayed from his MLB and NFL coverage that made him so popular in the first place.  He has abused pop culture references from Rocky, the Shawshank Redemption, Hoosiers, and Beverly Hills 90210 so much that he is left with The Bachelor, The Hills, and Battlestar Galactica -- which fly far over the heads of the majority of his audience.  And lately, he has relied so heavily on his podcast that he writes barely one column per week on ESPN.com -- way below his previous output.  In fact, his work on 30-for-30 and the podcasts and Twitter makes you question if he is primarily a writer anymore.

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Hal Steinbrenner, Phil Hughes, Jack-O and Other Yankees Links

• Peter Abraham on Hal Steinbrenner: "The Yankees once had the most outspoken owner in sports. Now they have one of the quietest. Widely respected within the organization, Steinbrenner emerged as his family’s leader and the caretaker of an empire."
• Joel Sherman on Hal Steinbrenner: "Obviously, winning is the strongest inducement for fans. But part of that four million going through the turnstiles annually was about George Steinbrenner's penchant for making his organization must watch."
• Rob Neyer and Marc Craig both agree that Phil Hughes has been brilliant as a reliever but should ultimately be a starter. And Neyer says something I've been harping: "With all due respect to all the fine and wondrous relievers out there in Baseball Land, isn't Hughes yet another nail in their coffin, value-wise? Good relief pitchers are merely failed starters"
• According to Buster Olney the Yankees have the fourth hardest road to the playoffs in the American League. The good part? The Red Sox have a harder schedule. The bad part? The Rays have an easier schedule. The hardest part: "The Yankees actually have two West Coast trips remaining, including one more visit to their own private hell in Anaheim."
• Chop-n-Change has an interview with Jack-O of Bill Simmon's B.S. Report fame. Heeeerrrrre's Johnny! "The attention I've received from appearing on the BS Report has been kind of surreal, but very, very fun. As Bill and I have commented to each other, the conversations that we have are ones that we would have anyway (although there would probably be more swearing and political incorrectness) so it's funny that people seem to enjoy listening in."
• Erik Boland of Newsday says that despite injuries and inconsistencies, the Yankees are actually in good shape. "For a team that has suffered significant injuries to the lineup (Alex Rodriguez), the rotation (Chien-Ming Wang) and the bullpen (Brian Bruney) and a horrendous early-season slump of one of its three prize free agents (Mark Teixeira), the Yankees enter the second half with the second-best record (51-37) in the American League and lead the wild-card race. Really, that's the bottom line."
• Jon Heyman doesn't think that the Yankees are going to get Roy Halladay because the Blue Jays won't trade within the division. Even if they did, Heyman doesn't think the Yankees want to clear out their farm system of the best prospects: " and/or The Yankees are reluctant to "gut their system,'' according to one rival executive. The Yankees could easily form a nice trade package by including one of two young talented right-handers -- Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes -- plus catching prospect Jesus Montero and outfield prospect Austin Jackson."

Can't Fall Asleep So Why Not Some Links

I have a lot of these and I figured that sleepless time was when to post them...

-Release all the inmates!
-I'm excited to get totally LOST again tonight!
-I didn't want to gauge my eyes out so I didn't watch the A-rod/Gammons interview, but it seems Gammons was no Katie Couric (nice job there by Shysterball) according to The Big Lead. More here from Baseball Musings and Doug Glanville in the New York Times. Also ESPN on whether those other 103 names will be released.
-With the New York Rangers free falling or freefallin' (however you want to say it), and have assigned Sean Avery to Hartford of the AHL. This whole situation is very, very odd. The reason he is on the Rangers AHL affiliate is not because he's been traded to or claimed by the Rangers. Rather, the Stars have no AHL affiliate and they need to get him in game shape to get rid of him so he's being assigned to the Hartford team...but because he's not property of the Rangers, none of the Rangers executives can comment about him so we don't know if they'll every actually get him in the end. So confusing!
-Big Ben's legend continues to grow: he played the Super Bowl with broken ribs
-It seems like we can say good-bye to John Carney. My dad and I knew for about 8 weeks that Carney was going to fail once playoff time came. Glad to see he enjoyed his Pro Bowl time, but maybe he could have actually made some kicks against Philly.
-Lane Kiffin!
-Some people have WAYYYYY too much time on their hands. Fack Youk I would put on that list. Though the faces of A-rod (not be confused with The Three Faces Of Eve) are pretty funny.
-So Simmons doesn't hate Kobe? We couldn't have cleared that up in a podcast? We need to waste an article on it? Torre, Phelps, A-rod, and everything else going on...and his feelings about Kobe is what we talk about?
-If this projection is right, the Yanks finish one game out of first but make the Wild Card. I could live with that (H/T Rob Neyer). Glad to see the Yanks give up the least amount of runs in baseball. I would love to see more, but you need a subscription. I may need to spring for the $40 a month this year. Thoughts?
-I think that Cashman made a good decision in not offering Abreu arbitration. Looks like he's goint to sign with the Angels for WAY less.
-Not good news for business schools
-Well at least Obama is trying to sell his ideas instead of Dubya who just went ahead and implemented them. I know there's a different level of approval needed, but still...
-Pete Abraham has some good stuff...as always
-Want free shit at Fridays? Here you go. (H/T Slickdeals). Though you probably already knew that one if you read my primer on deal finding.

Oh...an update because I just found this link about the idiot cop who arrested 8 people in relation to the Michael Phelps "marijuana incident". Think he's going to try to get them to talk and turn on Phelps? Oy.