Michael Vick, Pleading Off The Top Of The First

Batting Around is BC Sports' look back at the week's happenings in the world o' sports, presented in a lineup card format for, um, some reason.

The Lineup Card (Hyperlinks zip right to the corresponding player's news)

(1) QB Michael Vick
(2) SS Phil Rizzuto
(3) M David Beckham
(4) RF Magglio Ordoñez
(5) #8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
(6) RB Larry Johnson
(7) DQ Sergio Garcia
(8) SG Allan Houston
(9) RHP Chris Young
Manager: Pat Summitt

(1) QB Michael Vick — Of course Vick leads us off. It won't be long before he'll be sent down to the minors and up shit's creek. Vick and his crack team of lawyers have until Friday to enter a plea deal pertaining to dogfighting charges, where he'd probably get a year in prison.

This will also sentence the city of Atlanta to a year of watching the Falcons this year. If Atlanta misses the playoffs this year and former backup QB Matt Schaub wins 10 games for the Houston Texans, expect ownership to electrocute Joey Harrington.

(2) SS Phil Rizzuto — The Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop from the 1940s and 1950s passed away at 89 years old. Nicknamed "Scooter," Rizzuto grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan but Casey Stengel said he was too short (5'6) to play pro baseball.

While he was a Hall of Famer, it was largely because he was the starting shortstop of a dynasty team that won seven World Series in a 15-year span. He was a .246 career hitter in the postseason, which back then was just the World Series. In fact, Baseball-Reference.com's "Similar Batters" script says Rizzuto's career numbers are the closest to those of ... Jose Offerman. Youch. Not a good week to notice that little resemblance.

(3) M David Beckham — He's making $50 million this year alone. So far that bought the Los Angeles Galaxy 37 minutes of soccer out of the English midfielder. But in a game against D.C. United, his signature free kick danced around goalie Troy Perkins for his first goal with the Galaxy. Some soccer enthusiasts assert Beckham's more impressive feat was his through-kick to Landon Donovan for the team's other goal, helping the Galaxy win 2-0 in the Superliga semifinal.

Wait ... Superliga? I thought this was MLS. Nobody tells me these things.

(4) RF Magglio Ordoñez — Well, this guy's just playing out of his mind. Last Saturday, he smashed a crucial 2-run home run against the Oakland A's. The following day he hit two home runs—in the same inning. He rounded out his week on Tuesday night, with a 3-run home run in the 10th inning against the division rival Cleveland Indians.

Through August 15, he was hitting .426 in the month with 6 home runs and 20 RBI in 14 games. In that same time span Ordoñez has walked just six times. Respect the Big Tilde.

Article Author: Matthew T. Sussman

Sussman is the sports editor of BC Magazine. He also writes for Deadspin and Toledo Free Press. He and Tuffy can be heard hosting the Treehouse Fort, Sundays at 12 noon ET. Plus, he Twitters. Feed the feedback back to matt.sussman@blogcritics.org.

Visit Matthew T. Sussman's author page — Matthew T. Sussman's Blog