The Strike Zone

Tracking the week's news both inside and outside the confines of cool

OUTSIDE

The Carnegie Deli's $22 Melo-themed sandwich uses Russian dressing. Take that, Prokhorov!

Romeo and Juliet, Blanche and Stanley ... Magic and Bird? A Broadway play about the NBA duo is in the works.

Uncanny.

The shrieking set off by Tim Tebow's being cast back into the dating pool, a fact he confirmed last week.

When Mascots Attack, Part—well, actually, we stopped counting a long time ago.

Canadiens goalie Carey Price's latest mask, which creepily evokes The Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill—but which is really just a nod to Jacques Plante. Phew.

The letting out of Michael Beasley's braids, which is becoming something of an event, like, say, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Just in time for spring training: Nike's Hairitage tees, honoring MLB's hirsute heroes.

TMI to the nth: an ex-coach revealed that Ronaldo used to wear diapers during games due to weight-loss medication he was taking.

A private screening of Major League at which attendees got to try on Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series ring: very cool if it were a Bar Mitzvah; less cool when you learn that it was a Charlie Sheen bash.

This touching Twitter love letter from Mo Williams to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert upon the guard's being traded. (And that, LeBron, is how it's done.)

Mike Tyson's Oscar chat with Leonard Maltin on Funnyordie.com, especially his line about fighting Mark Wahlberg, which ended, "He might get obliviated [sic] without the Funky Bunch."

$@#% yeah!

Psst ... there's a guy who suffers from premature celebration, and his name rhymes with Shmouisville Shmeerleader.

Ben Affleck's movie about the '72 Yankees' wife swap has hit a wall because—duh!—no one wants to talk about it.

Gillette's fluid 20-foot-wide Derek Jeter billboard in NYC, which sees his mug go through a stubble-lather-shave rotation every three days.

Kobe and Kanye's six-minute Black Mamba ad for Nike: coulda been done in three, but stupendous nonetheless.

LOW

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DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES (PRICE)

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CARNEGIE DELI (SANDWICH)

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JESSE JOHNSON/US PRESSWIRE (BEASLEY)

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CHUCK LIDDY /MCT/LANDOV (KRZYZEWSKI)

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ROVIO MOBILE (ANGRY BIRD)

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CHARLES GUERIN/ABACAUSA.COM (JETER)

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DARREN DECKER/EPA (BALE)

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PAUL BUCK/EPA (LEO)

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NIKE (KANYE WEST, T-SHIRT)

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BARRY KING/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES (WAHLBERG)

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AJM/EMPICS ENTERTAINMENT (TYSON)

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JAMIE MCCARTHY/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES (AFFLECK)

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PHIL COLE/GETTY IMAGES (RONALDO)

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JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA/US PRESSWIRE (TEBOW)

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GREG NELSON (MR. COMMODORE)

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RICHARD MACKSON (MAGIC AND BIRD)

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JIM OWENS/ICON SMI (CHEERLEADER)