You Can Own One of CC Sabathia's Balls (For a Good Cause)

And really, what more could a Yankees fan want?

SUBWAY Baseball DeSIGNS tour is a collection of baseballs decorated by Little Leaguers and signed by professional athletes and celebrities. The display has been making tour stops across the country and is currently set up at the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, PA. The 40+ baseballs are also viewable at SubwayKids.com and the Official SUBWAY® Facebook page.

The auction of the baseballs is live and ends Sunday (29th). All proceeds benefit the Little League Urban Initiative

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Annie Duke Talks BwB Charity Shootout & Ante Up For Africa with Dan Levy

From On the DL Podcast:

What started out as an idea to have a bunch of people from Blogs with Balls and Blog World network over the felt, turned into one of the best charity events any of us could have imagined.

Annie Duke was gracious enough to let a bunch of bloggers use her name to promote a poker game we decided to run in Vegas -- and of course, turn the event into the Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout where we raised $10,000 for Ante Up for Africa.

Dan catches up with Annie to recap and promote the event and charity, and talk politics and poker On the DL.

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Blogs With Balls 2.0 Shuffles Up and Deals

We have a lot of pictures, videos, and other blackmail-worthy media to post in the coming days, but first, we'd like to start with a thank you to the people who came out to Blogs With Balls 2.0 at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. We made a giant request of you all: that you trust us to make it worth whatever you sacrificed to make it here; be it vacation days, a plane flight, hotel, or part of the Phillies-Dodgers game, everyone put life on hold to meet up, share a lot of useful information, and to take on Vegas. Raising $10,000 for Ante up For Africa as part of our first ever Blogs With Balls Charity Poker Shootout with Annie Duke (and 10 other pros) was a fitting way to end it all.

We are especially grateful to our sponsors - Track Sponsors FoxSports and Yardbarker, as well as ESPN, Sports Illustrated, SB Nation, Carbon Poker, and Diageo Liquors. Each contributed something unique, and all are heavily invested in seeing the quality of online sports writing supported and rise to what we are capable of. Dan Levy, Beryllium Pictures, and Kabimba Media represented a special group of our sponsors - good friends who came on to work at the event, making sure BwB 2.0 was an amazing experience to have and to share.

Speaking of which, we've got a lot of footage to share - including every single panel in its entirety - but let's start at the end. Below, take a look at a few shots from the Blogs With Balls Charity Poker Shootout benefitting Ante up for Africa. Sure, we raised $10,000, but we also got to party with Captain Morgan himself (the actual guy from the commercials), wear funny Cuervo hats, and go chip-to-chip with some of the world's best poker players (in a post-tourney side game two bloggers, Ufford and Jimbo, outlasted and took down 5 pros). Take a look!

Spencer Hall and PUNTE have a very serious discussion about strategy (specifically hat strategy).

Dan Levy, Annie Duke, Don & Chris from HHR.

JoeSportsFan interviews FanDuel (who just learned to play that night & made the final 20 out of 100)

Of COURSE he's one of the Gunaxin guys.

Spencer and the Captain.

Ufford's hat, AJ of Deadspin, Poker Pro Gavin Smith, Jimbo,
Poker Pro Jeff Madsen, and Dan Levy before the carnage really began.

Big Winner: Adam Best of Fansided.com. Outwitted and outlasted 100 other players.
Well definitely outlasted, anyway.

Did Ufford win Jason Mraz's hat earlier in the night?

A full Blogs With Balls gallery will be up this week.

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Announcing: “Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout”

Top Sports Bloggers and Poker Celebrities, Including Annie Duke, to Join Up For Charity
BLOGS WITH BALLS CHARITY POKER SHOOTOUT SET FOR OCTOBER 16TH IN LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas, Nevada (September 28, 2009) – On October 16th, many of the top sports bloggers and poker players in the world will get together for the Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout, held in conjunction with BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

Each table in the 100-person Shootout, generously underwritten by Carbon Poker, will feature sports writers from the leading sports media companies, including ESPN, Fox Sports, Yahoo, AOL, Sports Illustrated, Gawker Media, Yardbarker, SB Nation and more. In addition, each table will feature one of the best professional poker players in the world, including Annie Duke – a WSOP bracelet winner and runner up on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.

The Shootout has been organized to raise money and awareness for Ante Up for Africa, a charity founded by Duke and award-winning actor Don Cheadle to aid relief efforts in Darfur through poker events. In the last three years, Ante Up for Africa has raised more than $5 million dollars to help support human rights work in Darfur.

In addition to raising money for charity, the event will have both cash and prizes for the top finishers, as well as knockout bonuses and other fun and valuable giveaways from sponsors. An announcement with additional sponsors and full list of professional players signed on to play will be forthcoming.

The event, taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s new poker lounge, begins at 8pm. For more information on the Shootout, including sponsorship opportunities and media/interview requests or to get a seat in the tournament visit blogswithballs.com or email info[at]hhrmediagroup[dot]com.

About Blogs with Balls

Blogs with Balls is a series of social sports blogger and new media gatherings featuring speakers and panelists specifically focused on sports fans, writers, sites, teams, athletes and companies; and their ability to maximize new media outlets for promotion and advancement.

In addition to writers and executives from the largest online sports outlets on the web, speakers at BwB 2.0 at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo include former NBA star Jalen Rose, television, web and print personality Kevin Blackistone, representatives from ESPN and The Sports Illustrated Group, Sacramento Kings VP of Communications Mitch Germann, and many more.

For a full list of speakers, panelists and scheduled discussion topics, please visit blogswithballs.com/panels-20. For more information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo, please visit blogworldexpo.com.

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Randy Cross Hosting Golf Tournament to Aid Ronald McDonald House

Randy Cross will be hosting his 25th Annual Fundraising Golf Tournament next Monday on behalf of the Ronald McDonald House in Stanford.

They are selling raffle tickets for a chance to win 8 big prizes, that includes a Maserati, and a all expenses paid trip to the Super Bowl.

The tickets are $100 each and only 2,500 have been printed.

For more information, visit Eye on Sports Media (who will also be posting an interview with Cross later today) or the Ronald McDonald House web site.

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Have You Gotten Your BlogsWithBalls Tickets Yet?

Former NY Giant Bruce Smith Headlining Jaws' 25th Anniversary Golf Tournament

Lord knows how much film Jaws had to watch to pull out this factoid:

Click to enlarge

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Have You Gotten Your BlogsWithBalls Tickets Yet?

Golf, Golf, Golf

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently finished reading Motley Crue's The Dirt. Amidst the raunchy tales of shameless groupies, unadulterated sex, ODs and DUIs, police run-ins and spousal abuse, was a seemingly out-of-place chapter written by front-man Vince Neil chronicling the illness, surgeries and subsequent death of his four-year-old daughter Skylar.

In honor of his daughter, Neil set up the Skylar Neil Foundation "to honor Skylar by raising money and awareness through unique charitable events and activities it sponsors, and, grant and award the money raised to medical, research, and educational institutions/groups/individuals who are doing breakthrough work to find cures for cancer, AIDS, and other diseases."

I love the Crue's music, but I wouldn't give one dime to bail any of their asses out of prison. Skylar's story, however, was heartbreaking to read, and as much as anything in his life, Neil's devotion to his daughter, and later helping others while preserving her memory, is touching and commendable.

It's been no secret to any fan that Neil is an avid golfer. On May 2, 2008, the Foundation will host the 12th Annual Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament at the Pete Dye & Fred Couples-designed Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley, CA.


For 500 bucks a golfer, if you can afford the fee and are in the area, why not give to the cause and get a round in on a gorgeous course?

You can sign up here.