Live Tweeting NASCAR's Hall of Fame

May, 21, 2013
May 21
2:00
PM ET
ChildressJamey Price/Getty ImagesRichard Childress is among the many nominees up for induction in NASCAR's Hall of Fame.
Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick and Dale Jarrett will be up consideration for the NASCAR Hall of Fame along with 22 other nominees when the selection panel meets to deliberate and vote in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday.

For the first time, NASCAR will be live-tweeting highlights from the Hall of Fame selection committee meeting, which begins at 1 p.m. Eastern. Fans can follow @NASCAR for live updates. Twitter users can chime in with their own opinions using the #NASCARHOF hashtag.

But NASCAR officials stress that nothing posted on Twitter will in any way compromise the debate or the voting. “We pride ourselves on how accessible we are,” NASCAR vice president and chief communications officer Brett Jewkes told Playbook Tuesday. “But we will not taint the process. This is to give the fans a flavor for what’s happening. We won’t post anything about any individual debate or positions. That’s sacred ground.”

Jewkes said the Twitter updates will “paint a picture” of what’s going in the room.

“We’ll have a ton of legends in the room. We believe people will have a lot of interest in this," he said. "Our fans are passionate and have an unquenchable thirst for content. It’s a wide open class. There doesn’t appear to be any lead-pipe locks.”

(Read full post)

John, Mario AndrettiAP Photo/Darron CummingsJohn Andretti and Mario Andretti will be coaching children in this weekend's Hot Wheels event.
With the help of racing legends Mario Andretti and John Andretti, Hot Wheels returns to the Indianapolis 500 track on Saturday as four toy-size cars will race in a one-mile, four-lane oval -- the longest toy track in the world.

The Andrettis will coach four children who will control the cars head-to-head at 5 p.m. ET. The winner will take part in the traditional Indy 500 honors of drinking milk and kissing the bricks.

"This will be a great event as it gives a younger audience an understanding of the tradition of racing at this track," said Mario Andretti, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. "I was so glad to be involved because I want to show these children the essence of what all this tradition is about."

Two years ago, Hot Wheels, with driver Tanner Foust, set a world-record jump by a four-wheel vehicle a day before the Indianapolis 500, and last year Foust and Hollywood stuntman Greg Tracy set a world record by driving two Hot Wheels cars through a Double Loop Dare track at X Games LA.

Andretti is glad the event is back in Indy, though.

"This is the ultimate excitement of racing. Nothing compares to the Indianapolis 500," Andretti said. "There are so many elements to love: drivers, sophistication of the cars, the speed. It's the fastest racing cars on the planet."

49ers' Marcus Lattimore talks trading cards

May, 21, 2013
May 21
11:00
AM ET
San Francisco 49ers rookie RB Marcus Lattimore discusses receiving his first Panini trading cards and tips for collectors hoping to receive an autograph from him.

video


Up-and-coming rapper Jake Miller is in Syracuse, N.Y., tonight on his national tour promoting his "The Road Less Traveled" EP.

It wasn't that long ago that the 20-year-old from Weston, Fla., would buy tickets to a Miami Heat game and take stacks of his mixtapes down to the front row and pass them out to famous musicians.

"Making music in my room wasn't enough. I was feeling down. I had to get it in the hands of people who were in the business," said Miller, who taught himself to play guitar. "I printed up about 10 mixtapes, and at halftime or at breaks, I would run down amid the chaos and hand out my music."

Miller said he would give his CDs to Lil Wayne, Birdman, DJ Khaled, T-Pain and Chris Brown, among others.

"It cost a lot of money to buy tickets to get in, and I wouldn't even care at all about watching the game -- even though I'm a huge sports fan," he said. "My main focus was to get my music to them."

It worked, as he became a YouTube sensation with millions of views for his songs "A Million Lives" and "Like Me." In 2011, he opened for Snoop Dogg. Then Mac Miller. Then Flo Rida. Then Ne-Yo. He even played at halftime of the Heat playoff game last year.

Now he's on a national tour and he's working on his full-length album to be released at the end of the year.

Playbook had a few minutes to talk with Miller.

Pretty brave to run down to hand your stuff to big-time musicians.

"Growing up, I started making music, but I didn't think I had a future. It was just a hobby. I was going to go to college at FSU, but then I started to get a little buzz around my school about my music, and it turned into something bigger than I ever thought it would be. I decided not to go to college and take a year off. Well, that was two years ago."

(Read full post)

Take a shot at writing a cartoon caption. Playbook cartoonist Kurt Snibbe will offer up a blank cartoon each weekday morning, and he will fill in the blank with our favorite reader submission at the end of the business day.

So please, by all means, share your humorous stylings in the comments section.



Earlier Monday, we posted a blank cartoon, and readers offered their captions. Our favorite was by bobbyc65. Check your ESPN.com profile message center for an email.

Thanks for participating. Check back Tuesday for another cartoon.
Aly RaismanAdam Taylor/ABC/Getty ImagesAly Raisman and Mark Ballas are in the finals of "Dancing with the Stars."
It's down to the final four on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," and Olympic gymnastics champion and Season 16 competitor Aly Raisman summed it up best:

"Everyone wants to win, but at the same time it's not life or death. It's more about having fun and enjoying the experience and having a good time."

The 18-year-old Raisman, who is teamed with professional dancer Mark Ballas, is joined in the final four by Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones, singer Kellie Pickler and Disney Channel star Zendaya Coleman. The two-part finale begins Monday, with the mirror ball trophy winner crowned Tuesday.

Playbook had a few minutes with Raisman, who won two Olympic gold medals last summer, before she prepared for this week's shows.

What would winning mean to you?

"It's hard to put into words, but it would mean everything. It's been the most amazing experience of my life. I've made so many amazing friendships. I feel so lucky to be on this show. Mark and I have worked so hard together. It would mean a lot to win."

(Read full post)

Take a shot at writing a cartoon caption. Playbook cartoonist Kurt Snibbe will offer up a blank cartoon each weekday morning, and he will fill in the blank with our favorite reader submission at the end of the business day.

So please, by all means, share your humorous stylings in the comments section.



Earlier Friday, we posted a blank cartoon, and readers offered their captions. Our favorite was by ask111. Check your ESPN.com profile message center for an email.

Thanks for participating. Check back Monday for another cartoon.
Reggie JacksonAP Photo/Matt SlocumReggie Jackson and a host of other baseball legends are playing a game in Rochester, N.Y., Saturday.
Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, Frank Thomas, Fred McGriff and Ozzie Smith -- all past greats of the game -- will highlight the 2013 Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game in Rochester, N.Y., on Saturday.

It's fairly obvious that they are African-Americans, and right now, Major League Baseball is having a problem attracting blacks to play the sport. Only 8.5 percent of the players on the Opening Day rosters this season are black. In fact, MLB announced last month that it was forming a task force to address the issue.

"All these players you'll see Saturday from Rickey to Frank to Ozzie are great players, not just African-American players," Jackson said. "I think these days it's tougher for minorities to play baseball because they are more worried about helping the family with food and shelter."

Jackson, a Hall of Famer who played 21 years in the majors, said that it is important to see the percentage of participation increase.

"You look at the heritage of this game: Jackie Robinson, Henry Aaron and Bob Gibson. And then you realize that it's not just in Little League that you see the numbers down. It's everywhere," Jackson said. "In African-American and Latin American families these days, they are there to help their mom put food on the table. So they don't have the time or money to participate in club leagues. Of course, I'd like to see more in the game."

Playbook had a few minutes to talk with Jackson about baseball and his projects.

You not only want more minorities in baseball, but your Mr. October Foundation for Kids is hoping to boost the numbers of minorities in education.

"It's called STEM -- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math-related jobs. We have to make minorities aware that if you want to be involved in the workforce, technology is important. Minorities make up more than half the people in the United States but we're not focusing enough on education. You need that for any kind of business you're hoping to get into. We're very behind. We need them to understand if they want to participate in our economy."

(Read full post)

Dirk Nowitzki is highlight of new NBA ad

May, 17, 2013
May 17
11:00
AM ET


The NBA Finals' 2013 campaign, "Forever is Big," is the first to celebrate current NBA players who are on their way to becoming legends because of successful Finals moments. In this commercial, which begins airing Saturday, we see Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki make his incredible signature fadeaway jump shot in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.
Take a shot at writing a cartoon caption. Playbook cartoonist Kurt Snibbe will offer up a blank cartoon each weekday morning, and he will fill in the blank with our favorite reader submission at the end of the business day.

So please, by all means, share your humorous stylings in the comments section.



Earlier Thursday, we posted a blank cartoon, and readers offered their captions. Our favorite was by jefshago. Check your ESPN.com profile message center for an email.

Thanks for participating. Check back Friday for another cartoon.

Caveman with a van: Black Lips

May, 16, 2013
May 16
6:00
PM ET
BreamRonald C. Modra/Getty ImagesClassic Braves moment: Sid Bream's slide.
Editor’s note: Drummer Stefan Marolachakis is traveling the country in a black van with tinted windows, touring for his band Caveman’s eponymous second album. Every week, Marolachakis will hunt the nation to gather musicians and athletes to discuss the link between the two clans. This week, our caveman speaks to die-hard Braves fan Jared Swilley, bass player and singer of Atlanta’s own Black Lips.

Our bass player, Jeff Berrall, hails from Atlanta but, as a legitimate longtime New York resident, has welcomed the New York Knicks into his life with open arms. And with his hometown Hawks having been ousted in the first round, he is left saddened like the rest of us by the way the Knicks have been playing recently. But while we’re all in the doldrums, the big league baseball team from Jeff’s hometown has started its season with a bang. Forty games into the year the Braves sit atop the NL East, a game ahead of last year’s division winners, the Nationals. One man particularly pleased about this is Jared Swilley, bass player and singer of Atlanta’s own Black Lips and die-hard Braves fan since childhood.

“I think anyone who was alive and watching baseball here in ’91 became a lifelong fan, because it was just so epic. The way I look at that Braves team is almost like the way you look at Paul Bunyan stories or something because it was so incredible. It was like a movie. Otis Nixon’s catch and Sid Bream sliding into home plate -- you can’t make that s--- up. Sid Bream was injured, and he was a horrible player, but he got it done.”

(Read full post)

Jean-Sébastien Giguère and Logan PizCourtesy of DiscoverJean-Sebastien Giguere and the NHL granted a wish for cancer patient Logan Piz.
Logan Piz, a 13-year-old cancer patient in Denver, thought it was a normal Wednesday, heading to Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children to get treatment for Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer.

Instead, through Make-A-Wish, Piz got the chance to spend the day with the Stanley Cup and then meet his favorite NHL player, goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Colorado Avalanche.

"It was amazing. I have been a hockey fan my whole life," Piz said. "Jean-Sebastien was really great. The hockey players are such regular guys. They don't have a big egos."

Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Discover, the official credit card of the NHL, learned of Logan's unique wish to see the Cup and then did it one better, bringing along Giguere.

Giguere, who lost his father to cancer five years ago, has three boys and can't imagine a child going through cancer treatment.

"I'm just happy to be able to come here and be part of a fun day for Logan," Giguere said. "We're very definitely lucky as hockey players, getting paid to play a game. How can you say no when you're asked to make a child's dream come true?"
BACK TO TOP

SPONSORED HEADLINES