The Sports Truth

Melissa Berry is a beautiful linebacker for the Tampa Bay Breeze of the Lingerie Football League.

As you contemplate how hilarious it is that such a league even exists, consider the scandal now surrounding it:

Berry is suing ex-boyfriend Mark Dawson for posting nude photos of his former flame on MySpace; Dawson claims Berry’s enthusiasm for the cell phone pics gives her no cause to object to their public release.

Melissa sees otherwise, of course.

“If I wanted to take my clothes off for a living, that’s what I would do,” she said. “There’s not a photographer that has ever taken those sorts of shots of me. It’s more of a privacy thing. It’s not for everyone else to see…. I am scared of what he will do to my career.”

Berry is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $15,000.

Baseballrumormill.com has identified some fairly blatent plagiarism by Palm Beach Post writer Joe Capozzi. Yesterday, Capozzi wrote an article evaluating the Florida Marlins arbitration players and how the salary increases would affect the team’s 2009 payroll. On August 26th, however, Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinal also wrote an article about the Marlins possible arbitration cases, over a week before Capozzi. Is it plagiarism? You be the judge… Our favorite is point #5 where Capozzi takes Berardino’s stuff word for word and just rearranges it a bit.

With the non-waiver deadline long gone, Pedro Alvarez is quickly becoming the unsung star of the baseball rumor season.

Yesterday, word from the Pittsbugh Pirates was that the #2 overall pick had not yet arrived in Pittsburgh for an introductory press conference and/or physical. His agent, Scott Boras, is now saying that Alvarez will no longer agree to the deal they “signed” on August 15.

How does one not agree to a deal that one signed? Because Pedro Alvarez did not physically sign the contract - he merely agreed to terms. Amazingly, this was good enough to ensure payment of a $3 million bonus.

Hope the Pirates have a contingency plan to “reclaim” that.

Combined with the fire sale of Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, this has been one crazy summer as far as Pittsburgh Pirates rumors go.

We thought the end of the epic Manny Ramirez era in Boston topped all, but clearly, we can only imagine what the Bucs will do next.

Hey, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal has a question for you:

How does his ass taste?

That’s the most frequent lyric in the rap below, as Shaq took the stage at a night club and freestyled his way into controversy.

The Suns center rapped about Kobe’s failure to win a ring without him, while also blaming Bryant for his divorce from Shaunie O’Neal.

We love Shaq, but wish he’d continued to have taken the high road, ignoring Kobe’s failures. They’re being covered enough by critics these days without the big fella chiming in.

Take a look and listen and let us know your thoughts:

Terrible news out of the mouth of Maria Sharapova this weekend:

The tennis beauty that’s known almost as much for her legs as her forehand will be abandoning her short skirts at Wimbledon this year.

“I’m going with the traditional shorts, believe it or not,” said Sharapova, the event’s 2004 champion. “I’ve never worn shorts at a Grand Slam… Call it menswear, obviously. It’s kind of like a tuxedo look, very simple lines, classic.”

Fret not, fans. There’s always this Maria Sharapova upskirt shot to enjoy.

Even in shorts, Maria Sharapova’s cleavage should still be prominent at Wimbledon.

For just the second time in WNBA history, a player dunked in a game this weekend. (And people wonder why the league hasn’t caught on yet.)

Here’s a look at Candace Parker accomplishing this monumental feat. (We apologize for making you watch other WNBA highlights in order to get to the throw down.)

Sorry, ladies, looks like love is more than just a tennis score for Rafael Nadal these days.

The 22-year old has reportedly been dating Maria Francisca Perello, a girl from his hometown of Majorca, for three years now.

“My nephew always maintained he was single,” the Nadal’s trainer and uncle Toni Nadal said. “It was a well-kept secret, but actually his girlfriend is waiting for him in Majorca.”

Maria Francisca Perello embraces tennis star Rafael Nadal.

As Diamondbacks slugger Mark Reynolds gets off to a super hot start, and with few baseball rumors on the horizon this early in the season, we’ve been trying to think of which former baseball player the Arizona star reminds us of.

Then, it hit us: it’s an actor, not a baseball player!

Look at the resemblance between Reynolds and Star Wars star Mark Hamill:

No one liked the movie The Da Vinci Code. But how would viewers feel about The Da Vinny Code?

If the film is as funny as this pretend poster for it, sign us up!

Reggie Bush and LenDale White, former backfield mates at USC, met up with each other last night. But they were away from the football field. Far away from it.

The NFL stars each attended WrestleMania, although they didn’t arrive together. Bush came with girlfriend Kim Kardashian, who was the “hostess” of the WWE event, while White arrived with Snoop Dogg’s entourage.

“It’s always fun hanging out with Reggie,” said White. “He came here with Kim and I came with Snoop but we’ve been hanging with each other going on six years. I’m glad he’s here. This is our first WrestleMania.”