The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy recently caught up with Bobby Orr, and the Hall of Famer revealed that, at his age, three overtimes is a little too much to take in.

“I was in Vancouver, which was great because the game started at 5 in the afternoon out there,” said Orr. “I stayed up for the first and second overtimes, but then I fell asleep and got up in the middle of the night and checked the sports channel, and the Hawks had gotten that overtime goal.

“I tried. I’m an old man now. We’ve got to get our sleep.”

Fair enough. For the record, the 65-year-old did attend Game 3 at TD Garden in person, and despite representing players on both Chicago and Boston as an agent (and playing for both teams, himself), Orr is making it clear he’s rooting for the Bruins. He also had some high praise for the current group of Boston hockey players.

“The great thing with the Bruins is that they not only have great offensive players, they have tough players,” said Orr. “And when I say ‘tough,’ I’m not talking about fighting. If they have to fight, they will, but I’m talking about body contact and skating to the dirty places. That’s what the Bruins are.

“Anything this team does doesn’t surprise me.”

It’s unclear precisely how these photos leaked onto the Internet, but some time on Tuesday photos of a new Nike LeBron James shoe began to be widely distributed. The hook with these shoes? They feature an inscription that reads “2-Time Champion” inside them.

After losing Game 5, James and the Miami Heat are down 3-2 in the NBA Finals to the San Antonio Spurs. As of Tuesday, James has earned just one championship in his otherwise-illustrious career.

Check out a photo of the knock-on-wood shoes below.

Photo via Twitter/@TX_tootsie

On Monday, a TMZ report said that the former Philadelphia 76ers star was essentially on the lam, having kidnapped his five children and living at a Sheraton hotel in the Atlanta area. According to the report, Iverson had failed to get the kids back to his ex-wife, Tawanna Iverson, who wanted him thrown in jail.

Since that story first broke, at least two updates have come in from different sources. First, a reporter from Atlanta’s WXIA-TV actually went to the hotel where Iverson was staying and ran into the former NBA player in the parking lot. Iverson was with his kids and indicated, through cryptic language, that he had not kidnapped them, and was being unfairly targeted.

Early Tuesday morning, TMZ ran another report which essentially contradicts their earlier claim. According to the updated report, Iverson and his ex-wife were in court last Wednesday, where Iverson told a judge that Tawanna had full access to the children while he was staying at the hotel. Tawanna also said that she just didn’t want to drive the 45 minutes to their location to pick up the kids.

The judge decided that Iverson did not deserve to go to jail for whatever happened. Meanwhile, the TMZ report states that “Allen and his ex have worked out some of their issues … and she has already allowed Allen to spend more private time with the kids.”

Check out a video of WXIA-TV’s run-in with Iverson below.

The Orioles’ third baseman is making a name for himself after arriving on the scene last year, leading the league in doubles (32) almost halfway through the season despite being just 20 years old. As a result, he’s thoroughly put himself in the discussion with Mike Trout and Bryce Harper as to who’s the best young player in baseball.

Apparently, Machado’s prolific talent is also driving opposing managers to the bottle. Not that Jim Leyland necessarily needs any coercing.

On Monday, Baltimore and Detroit began a three game set, and before the game the Tigers’ manager was asked about Machado. His response was probably the best quote you’ll hear all year in Major League Baseball, according to Jon Morosi.

“Machado leads the league in doubles,” said Leyland. “I’m second in doubles — double vodkas, double scotches.”

No word on whether or not Leyland has a private stash at Comerica Park, but it would make sense. Back in 2010, Leyland was banned from smoking at the ballpark due to a new Michigan law that went into effect. Hey, you’ve got to have at least one vice, right?

So perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that Robinson apparently likes jumping every chance he gets — even when he’s not on the court. Robinson showed off another use for his jump when he posted a video to Vine on Monday that included some low-budget special effects.

So far, the best use someone has found for Vine has been Lolo Jones, who used a six-second video to trash the small paycheck she received for her bobsledding efforts. However, that got Jones in some trouble, so we turn to Robinson for the best example of how to use Vine. Really, it’s the simplicity of Robinson’s video that makes it so great.

Check out Robinson’s magical jump through the looking glass in the Vine video below.

Kate Murphy and Sean Dwyer were married on March 30 at Gardner Veteran’s Arena in Gardner, Mass. Of course, the initial suspicion of anyone would be that a hockey-themed wedding would be the husband’s idea, but not so, according to Puck Daddy.

“She knew I was a diehard Whalers fan,” said Dwyer. “It was her idea. I joke with everyone that this was her way to get me commit.

“I was like, ‘Alright, I want a mascot.’”

And get a mascot Dwyer did. In fact, Dwyer somehow acquired the Harford Whalers’ original mascot for the day — Plucky the Whale. But that was really just one of the many, many points of attention to detail in the event.

Murphy had a Whalers logo on her train, while her now-husband wore a green tuxedo with a Hartford logo. The bridesmaids wore Whaler blue, while the groomsmen wore jerseys.

The wedding cake was made in the shape of the Stanley Cup, while a beer vendor actually worked the stands while the couple was married on the ice at the arena. A referee presided over the ceremony.

Best of all: the ceremony featured player introductions rather than a procession.

Check out pictures of the Whalers-themed wedding >>

Photo via Facebook/Hartford Whalers Wedding Kate Murphy and Sean Dwyer

That scenario may not be so unlikely, as the Phillies languish four games below .500 and are forced to consider whether or not to blow up an aging roster. For his part, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has continued to insist he won’t begin a rebuilding project this year, but some of the organization’s actions may suggest otherwise.

The Phillies are said to be scouting the Red Sox, Tigers and Cardinals’ farm systems, as Philadelphia believes those teams may have interest in Papelbon by the trading deadline, according to The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo. While the Phillies still don’t want to move ace Cliff Lee, the team believes that trading Papelbon could get a good return in prospects.

“It’s no secret the Phillies are scouting those teams with Papelbon in mind,” says Cafardo.

Just over a month ago, Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan was diagnosed with a torn flexor muscle tendon, and shortly after underwent season-ending surgery. Since returning from the disabled list in late May, now-closer Andrew Bailey has gone 1-0 with a 5.00 ERA and three saves in four opportunities in nine innings of work.

Papelbon has at least $26 million and two more years remaining on his contract after this season. He also has a vesting option for 2016 at $13 million based on total games finished in 2014 and 2015.

Commissioner Bud Selig created a commission to study the problems surrounding the Oakland A’s inability to get a new stadium and help the organization attain that goal. However, four years later that commission has yielded no public results.

Is raw sewage seeping out of the showers the wake-up call that the A’s really, truly need a new stadium?

After Oakland’s Sunday 10-2 win over the Seattle Mariners, both teams were forced to shower in the Oakland Raiders’ clubhouse due to raw sewage seeping into both the home and visiting baseball clubhouses, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The problem was due to a plumbing blockage on the first floor of the stadium, which has been a known problem for years. The Raiders’ clubhouse is on the second floor, which is why it was not affected.

“Kind of a weird thing,” A’s catcher John Jaso said. “The ups and downs of the Coliseum. Did you hear how loud it got in the stadium when Josh Reddick hit his triple? It was booming. Then you come in here and you’ve got to find another place to shower.”

Since both teams were forced to use the same facilities, they showered at the same time and had to trudge up and down stairs in towels to get to the Raiders’ locker room. The umpiring crew and most of both coaching staffs left without showering. Luckily for the A’s, it didn’t affect any fan facilities.

“It’s clear, right?” said A’s president Michael Crowley, when asked about the need for a new stadium. “This isn’t the first time this has happened.”

As a matter of fact, the Angels once filed a formal complaint with Major League Baseball about the conditions in the visiting clubhouse at the Coliseum. They said conditions were unsanitary, and that they were worried about E. coli.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons/O.co Coliseum

Although the former Philadelphia 76ers star had an impressive career that earned him millions upon millions of dollars, nowadays he’s basically broke. There were also stories about Iverson being negligent towards his children (including one where he left them at a hotel during a trip to a water park), and he has reportedly missed every single child-support payment due his ex-wife, Tawanna Iverson.

Now, Allen is being accused by his ex of kidnapping his children, who range from ages 3 to 16, TMZ reports.

Tawanna has filed papers with the court, claiming that Allen said he was taking the children on a vacation to North Carolina and agreed to bring them back May 26. However, when that date rolled around the children were not returned, and Tawanna has not seen them since.

According to the report, Tawanna tried to set up an exchange with Allen on June 4, but he did not show up as promised. Tawanna, who has sole custody of the children, believes they were never actually taken to North Carolina, but are at a hotel in Georgia.

Tawanna says she’s also concerned about the fact that Allen is an alcoholic, who drinks around the children.

On Sunday, Shawn Carter — otherwise known as Jay-Z — did just that, announcing his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, via a longform ad that almost upstaged LeBron James and Tim Duncan. What’s more is that the album represents a fairly revolutionary business model for the music industry.

Although Jay-Z has been in the news far more for his sports agency, Roc Nation, of late, apparently his mind has been divided among marketing strategies. While he’s been busy allegedly courting athletes like Geno Smith and Robinson Cano, he’s also been negotiating a deal with Samsung, as well.

The mobile giant has already bought 1 million copies of the album — earning Jay-Z $5 million before it even hits shelves — which it will give away for free, three days before the record’s formal release date, to Galaxy smartphone users. Although Jay-Z certainly isn’t the first musician to partner with a corporate entity for distribution, this may be the most massive deal of that ilk.

Check out the commercial announcing Magna Carta Holy Grail — which also features Timbaland, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz and Rick Rubin — in the video below.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Jay-Z

Photo of the Day

Justin Rose had the names of his children embroidered on the shoes that he wore for Sunday’s U.S. Open win.

Photo via Twitter/@cjzero

Tweet of the Day

And he doesn’t mean the players.

If there is a sequel to Moneyball, they have the perfect opening scene, with sewage flowing through Oakland's clubhouse.

—
Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 17, 2013

Video of the Day

Tim Duncan: Father of the Year.

‘Doc,’ as he is known, apparently has a way with the English language. Really, the beautiful thing about language, in general, is how you can have multiple different words that mean the same thing, yet have slightly different connotations.

As with all sports, hockey has its own lexicon, and Emrick certainly put it to the test during NBC Sports Network’s broadcast of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday. In fact, according to one fan who wrote down every single instance, Emrick used 50 different words for “pass” during the game.

I’ve personally never heard of a hockey player “spiriting” the puck to a teammate, but, hey, whatever gets the point across. Check out a photo of a list of Emrick’s colorful language below.

Photo via Twitter/@HarrisonMooney

Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@MikeEmrick

Johnson is currently residing in Broward County jail, serving a 30-day sentence for a probation violation revolving around an altercation involving his ex-wife, Evelyn Lozada. Johnson was originally going to get off without a jail term, but after patting his attorney on the backside during a court hearing, a judge basically gave him the jail stint for insubordination.

As of Sunday, Johnson still has 24 days to go on his sentence, but at least Owens stopped by to say hello. Who knows what they talked about, but the pair are both former star wide receivers in the NFL who are still not yet retired, and both hoping for (very unlikely) comebacks.

The overlooked story in all of this? The deplorable conditions for inmates’ hair while in custody. Check out Owens’ tweets about his visit with Johnson below.

Just visited the homie @ochocinco. He's in good spirits, he needs a haircut already tho. Lol. He sends his best regards to everyone.

—
Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) June 15, 2013

That was the 1st time ever visiting someone in jail & hopefully the last. That's not a place anyone wants to be regardless of how many days.

—
Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) June 15, 2013

I really didn't know what to expect but to see the homie locked up is a very humbling experience, to talk to him via vid conference let me

—
Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) June 15, 2013

know that's not where anyone wants to be. I know he's only in the county jail but to someone that has never been locked up...Jail is Jail!

—
Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) June 15, 2013

Garcia began his day at 6-over par after shooting consecutive 73s on Thursday and Friday. Garcia started on the 11th hole Saturday, and before even taking his tee shot, the ribbing began.

As Garcia was about to take his tee shot, someone in the gallery yelled “Fried chicken!” as soon as things got quiet, so the comment was clearly audible.

Check out the heckling in the video below.

Now, Barney is going a step further, saying he doesn’t think the sport will even exist in 20 years due to its violent nature, according to The Associated Press.

”The game is becoming more deadly today,” Barney said at Sound Mind Sound Body Football Academy. ”It’s a great game. I think it’s the greatest game if you like gladiators. It’s the greatest game for yesteryear’s gladiators. But I can see in the next 10 to maybe 20 years, society will alleviate football altogether.”

Coincidentally, camp co-founder Curtis Blackwell plans to conduct neurological tests on about 600 high school players this week in an attempt to determine a baseline for cognitive function if they should sustain head injuries in the future. Concussion awareness, in general, is part of the camp’s program.

As for Barney, he says that he suffered multiple concussions during his NFL career that were only discovered well after he retired.

”I found out after I was out of the game that I had seven, maybe eight concussions,” he said.

Photo via Twitter/@detpkc

From Robert Kraft‘s perspective, he should probably have some gifter’s remorse.

Back in 2005, the Patriots owner met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Russia as part of a meeting with several other prominent American businessmen. At the time, it was well-known that Putin ended up with Kraft’s Super Bowl ring, and Kraft himself called it a gift.

“I showed the president my most recent Super Bowl ring,” Kraft said in a statement. Putin “was clearly taken with its uniqueness. At that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin.”

However, seven years later, Kraft is reversing his story, saying that Putin basically stole the ring from him, according to the New York Post.

“I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,’” Kraft said to the crowd at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala. “I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”

Where this story gets even crazier is in the apparent importance of the ring to international relations. Kraft says he got a call from a very high place, asking him to not make a fuss about the apparent theft.

“I really didn’t [want to give up the ring],” Kraft said. “I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it. I don’t want to see it on eBay. There was a pause on the other end of the line, and the voice repeated, ‘It would really be in the best interest if you meant to give the ring as a present.’”

That voice on the other end of the line? Kraft says it belonged to then-president George W. Bush. As to what happened to the ring, the Post says that it is kept in the Kremlin library.

No word on how, precisely, Putin would kill a man with a Super Bowl ring. However, considering his martial arts skills, willingness to track and shoot a Siberian tiger and desire to go back to Stalin-era physical fitness tests, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he could. You know, if he wanted to.

Photo via Twitter/@er_orenburg

There are few people who seem completely beyond redemption, but the former Phillies and Mets outfielder is probably among them. Remember, this is a guy who was not only sued several dozen times (all by different business partners) for basically being a con man who never made good on his business deals, but once allegedly borrowed $23,000 from his own mother that he didn’t repay when he said he would. Dykstra also freely used the racial slur “spearchucker” in an interview with ESPN’s Mike Fish.

As it turned out, that ESPN profile, which first ran on ESPN.com in April 2009, was the beginning of the end for Dykstra. While most of the people “Nails” ripped off will probably never see the money they’re owed, all that litigation finally caught up with the false-prophet financial genius. It also didn’t help that — beyond all the bad business deals — Dykstra ransacked a mansion that had been taken from him in bankruptcy proceedings, stole a car and was charged with exposing himself to women he met on Craigslist.

The grand theft auto charge was what finally did Dykstra in, as he was sentenced to three years in California state prison for the crime after pleading no contest.

However, now it appears that, as bad of a person as Dykstra may actually be, he’ll be released early from prison. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dykstra is set to be released Sunday, after serving 15 months of that three-year sentence.

“I was surprised they let him out before the three years, to be quite frank with you,” said Christopher Frankie, who wrote Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra. “Because he blatantly disobeyed the court, and a lot of the stuff was very brazen. He was doing it in the full view of law enforcement.”

We’ll see what Dykstra does after his release, and if he’s learned his lesson. However, if there’s one person that probably doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt, it’s Lenny Dykstra.

Photo via Twitter/@WPIX

Photo of the Day

Oakland’s Chris Young juuuuust missed taking a home run away from Seattle’s Mike Zunino.

Tweet of the Day

It just means that you’re old, Jose Canseco. But, hey, at least all that steroid use hasn’t caused debilitating side effects, yet.

25tj anniversary of the first 40/40 season this year. Wow. How time flies.

—
Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) June 15, 2013

Video of the Day

Little-known fact: The original script to The Matrix trilogy featured a back story where the fall of humanity began with an air hockey-playing robot.

Going back to Lester’s final four starts of the 2011 season, however, Lester just hasn’t been very good — nowhere near the consistency he achieved before that. But it was that long-term consistency (65-32, 3.33 ERA from 2008 through 2011) that made most people believe that 2012 was the fluke, and with a little work Lester could get back to his old form in 2013.

Early in the year, Lester obliged, going 6-0 with a 2.72 ERA over his first nine starts, just once allowing more than three runs. Since that point, however, Lester has gone 0-3 with a 6.90 ERA in five starts.

So, the obvious question  becomes why is Lester so bad now, when he was so good to start the year? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t very straightforward.

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Buster Olney spoke with WEEI to talk Red Sox, with Lester foremost among the topics. According to Olney, internally the Red Sox are concerned with Lester’s mechanics, which was much the same problem which plagued the southpaw last year.

“The Red Sox really think he is fouled up mechanically,” Olney said. “It was interesting when we had a conversation with John Farrell before we did the Sunday night game about 10 days ago. He was fairly circumspect when he was talking about [Clay] Buchholz and he was talking about Lester and he made sort of these references to Lester’s mechanics, and his concern is that he tries to draw his arm back a little bit farther and get a little bit extra and that is when he begins to lose it.

“I know that going forward what their plan is with him is to get him back to doing what he was doing in spring training in the early part of this year in standing tall on the rubber and throwing downhill. But they have felt all along that he is someone who tends to drift in and out of his mechanics, and I think that is what is going on right now with him.”

So, is it that simple?

The answer is that mechanics are probably the best explanation for Lester’s struggles at this point. Likewise, it’s not easy to look at Lester’s numbers and pinpoint one trend or outlying statistic that would be affecting his effectiveness either way.

The only corollary among Lester’s peripherals seems to be his ground ball rate, but even that isn’t a very strong trend. Over Lester’s first three starts of the season, the percentage of in-play balls on the ground was 45 percent or below. Of course, Lester’s never really been a ground-ball pitcher, either, as he’s only had one season (2010) where he had significantly more fly balls than ground balls (putting up a 1.17 ratio that year).

Basically, Lester has tended to do better in games he has induced more ground balls, but that isn’t necessarily a foolproof predictor.

The other downward trend for Lester has been his walk rate. Through those first nine starts, Lester had only two outings in which he walked three or more batters — in fact, in five of those games he walked one or none. In the five starts since, however, he’s walked three or more four times, including Tuesday’s seven-walk effort.

But is Lester just losing control, or is he nibbling too much to compensate for something else that’s going on? This is where we return to the discussion of Lester’s mechanics.

Though Olney didn’t elaborate too much on what, specifically, is wrong with Lester’s mechanics, here’s betting that it has a lot to do with his arm slot. In short, the reason that Lester was so effective for so long against left-handed batters was because of his dramatically over-the-top motion. Lester utilized the kind of ultra-textbook mechanics that every Little League coach should be teaching their players.

However, last season Lester’s arm slot was clearly lower than it ever was before. What that did is flattened his pitches, and took away the natural horizontal break on his cutter, specifically, which mitigated his overall effectiveness.

Looking at the image above, the picture at the left is of Lester in 2006, while the picture on the right is this year. At first it’s subtle, but once you see it you can’t un-see it — Lester’s arm slot is undoubtedly lower than it was earlier in his career. Lester actually looks to have better balance in 2013 over his center of gravity, but it’s that lean to his right in years past that allowed him to get on top of the ball so well.

So, it seems that Lester’s lack of control may not be due to factors beyond his control. To the contrary, it’s a reasonable inference that he’s trying to live on the edges of the strike zone even more often, to compensate for stuff that isn’t quite what he’d like to have.

All in all, Lester should still have the physical gifts to be a very good pitcher. However, far more talented pitchers than Lester have succumbed to an inability to repeat their delivery, which is what is so concerning for him. The fact that he was so good for so long begs the question if there isn’t an injury behind his dropped arm slot, but that would be pure speculation.

Either way, for the Red Sox’ sake, they’d better hope that Lester can find his delivery again. The fate of 2013 may depend on it.

June represents LGBT pride month, and to celebrate, the NFL Players Association has released a line of seven faux-vintage, LGBT-themed T-shirts. What’s more is the shirts feature actual NFL players lending their names and numbers. Chris Kluwe, Brendan Ayanbadejo, Chris Gocong, Scott Fujita, Terrell Suggs, Steve Gleason and Donte Stallworth are the players featured, each of whom have spoken out for gay rights in the past.

To top it all off, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each shirt go to Athlete Ally, “a leading nonprofit resource dedicated to teaching all individuals involved in sports to respect every community member, regardless of perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression,” according to the NFLPA’s website.

So, if you have $25 to spare and a penchant for civil rights, you can pick up your T-shirt by clicking here. Check out a picture of Kluwe’s shirt below.

Photo via Shop.NFLPA.com

The Biebs has been seen wearing just about every cap of every American pro sports team imaginable, most recently a Miami Heat hat while attending Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. So, we won’t confuse him for being an actual fan of any one team. But, hey, at least he’s paying attention to who’s doing well in sports at any given time.

Over the weekend, Bieber was spotted by TMZ hanging out with fellow celebrity Miley Cyrus at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. The two left the building together after 2 a.m. (we’ll let the tabloid speculate), but what’s relevant to Boston sports fans is what Bieber was wearing.

Bieber was sporting a Boston Bruins cap, appropriate timing given that Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final begins on Wednesday. Check out a photo of Bieber repping the B’s while hanging out with Cyrus in the image below.

Photo via Twitter/@avonsboobs

One June 5, Goodell responded to them, calling the perceived slur “a unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride and respect.”

Goodell’s letter is largely a retread of many of the arguments those in favor of keeping the name have peddled before. He cites the team’s former coach, William Dietz, as the source of the name, saying the team took on the moniker to honor him (Dietz claimed to be a Native American, although that has been disputed). Goodell even included Redskins.com interviews with two Native American chiefs who claim not to be offended by the name.

Members of the Native American Caucus, however, were not so impressed by Goodell’s words. Congresswoman Betty McCollum even released a full statement, which reads in part:

Unfortunately, NFL Commissioner Goodell’s letter is another attempt to justify a racial slur on behalf of Dan Snyder and other NFL owners who appear to be only concerned with earning ever larger profits, even if it means exploiting a racist stereotype of Native Americans. For the head of a multi-billion dollar sports league to embrace the twisted logic that ‘Redskin’ actually ‘stands for strength, courage, pride and respect’ is a statement of absurdity.

Check out the entirety of the packet that Goodell sent to Congress in the document below.