The Strike Zone

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

OUTSIDE

The WNBA has been airing diabetes PSAs in which Chris Dudley—he of 3.9 ppg over 16 years—is introduced as an "NBA legend."

Soccer's quirky habit of naming the ball at major tournaments, as in South Africa's Jabulani and the latest, Adidas's Albert, for the '12 Olympics.

The influx of college football bowl names that could be confused with KFC menu items, including the new Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

People who insert the word football into team names, as in Jason Garrett's insistence last week on calling his squad the "Dallas football Cowboys."

Nick Swisher's new children's CD, which, like Dwight Howard's kid-friendly Shoot for the Stars before it, graduated from the motivational-poster school of album naming.

Tough year for the Buckeyes: Casey Anthony surfaced last week, and, yup, she was wearing an OSU ball cap.

Stephen Colbert's daylong experiment running MLB.com's Twitter feed. ("Am I the only person who thought @MLB was the twitter handle of Matt LeBlanc?")

Deion Sanders's do-rag-ification of his Pro Football HOF bust.

Least surprising development of the week: There's now a Lingerie Basketball League, and all four teams play in L.A.

Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy's ongoing Twitter flirtation, which last week was busted up by the golfer's ex. #aaawkward

Woody Harrelson's penchant for basketball-playing roles, as in White Men Can't Jump, Semi-Pro and, most recently, Justin Timberlake's Friends with Benefits.

Seth Rogen (as the legendary Dirty Randy) and Will Forte enlisted for season 3 of FX's The League.

The sad fact that Pee-Wee Herman visited Dallas's training camp last week, and plenty of Cowboys didn't know who he was.

Tony La Russa's escalating orneriness, capped by a loony rant last week in which he accused the Brewers of using video board "lighting inconsistencies" to gain an advantage.

Swifter, higher—but, alas, not fabber. Rumors of a Paul-and-Ringo reunion at the London Olympics prove to be just that: rumors.

It's 2011 and, believe it or not, sundevils.com still takes you to the home page of a West Coast nudist club, not to ASU's athletics website.

Just to be clear, Peter Berg's new Friday Night Lights project will be a movie based on a TV show that was based on a movie that was based on a book that was based on real life. Phew.

LOW

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SCOTT CUNNINGHAM (DUDLEY)

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CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES (FITZGERALD)

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ERANGA JAYAWARDENA/AP (SOCCER BALL)

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DARREN ABATE/AP (HERMAN)

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GLEN WILSON/©SCREEN GEMS/EVERETT COLLECTION (HARRELSON)

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BRIAN ACH/WIREIMAGE.COM (COLBERT)

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DA CAPO PRESS (BOOK)

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AL TIELEMANS (GARRETT)

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KAREN SCHIELY/AKRON BEACH JOURNAL/MCT/LANDOV (SANDERS)

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STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES (ROGEN)

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WWW.SPURSREPORT.COM (LINGERIE BASKETBALL)

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PETER G. AIKEN/US PRESSWIRE (LA RUSSA)

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ITUNES.COM (ALBUM)

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DAVID CALLOW (WOZNIACKI)

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ROBERT BECK (MCILROY)

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STEPHEN CHERNIN/AP (PAUL & RINGO)

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