Caution, this video courtesy of the New York Post is not for the faint of heart.

Yesterday, Greg Howard reported on an injured dolphin that was trapped in the filthy waters of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, attracting crowds of spectators to the vicinity of the Union Street Bridge in the maritime industrial neighborhood just west of Park Slope.

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Marvin Miller, who died early yesterday of cancer at age 95, was more than what Red Barber once called him: "along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, one of the three most important men in baseball history." He was, for almost four decades, one of the most important men in all of sports

He was the man most responsible for hammering the old players union (essentially a company union maintained by the owners for their own benefit) into the most successful union in America. But he also had an enormous influence on all of sports. Just two quick examples:

DeMaurice Smith, the toughest leader the NFL players union ever had, was an admirer of Miller and spent several hours at Marvin's Upper East Side apartment discussing the strategy which helped the NFLPA finally kick the owners' butts in the 2011 lockout.

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Wikipedia

Yankee skipper Joe Girardi

Sad news to report on the Yankees front: Jerry Girardi, the father of Yankees skipper Joe Girardi, died today.

Meanwhile, the Yankees face the Baltimore Orioles tonight in the Bronx in a game that could seal up the American League Division Series and propel the Bombers to the ALCS.

Girardi reportedly still plans to be in the dugout during tonight's game following a press conference he's holding right now.

The elder Girardi had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

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Steve Sabol: 1942-2012

I first met Steve Sabol - actually, I talked on the phone with him - early in 1985. I was at the old Voice office at 842 Broadway, sitting in the cubicle that belonged to the sports editor, who was almost never there. The voice at the other end said his name was Steve and that wanted to talk football.

He was coming up to New York from his office in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, the next day, he said, to meet his sister Blair. Blair Sabol was one of the wittiest writers the Voice had - later I would hear her described as "the Abby Hoffman of fashion." Would I like to go to lunch with them, he asked?

Well, yeah, I guess so, though I didn't understand why some businessman from Mt. Laurel whose sister wrote for the Voice wanted to take me to lunch. For some reason I didn't make the connection that his name was Steve, that Blair's last name was Sabol, and this meant I was talking to Steve Sabol, the head of NFL Films.

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In what can only (and extremely sarcastically) be described as a staggering loss for humanity, "Celebrity Rehab" alum Joey Kovar has reportedly died from a drug overdose outside of Chicago.

This puts the tally of dead Celebrity Rehab "stars" at three.

If you're unfamiliar with "Celebrity Rehab," it's a reality show where former "Love Line" host Dr. Drew Pinsky exploits the addictions of washed up celebrities to get ratings. Considering those on the show are all drug addicts -- and ego-maniacal ex-celebs -- it makes for some entertaining, mindless television.

Simply put: it's like watching one train wreck after another -- and it's awesome.

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Gay-bashing gone wrong: Michael Leisner nearly setting himself on fire while protesting gay marriage by burning a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, the "treat" of homosexuals.

Remember a few weeks ago when a Minnesota man nearly lit himself on fire while protesting gay marriage by burning a box of Honey Nut Cheerios in front of the General Mills factory? Regardless, he's dead.

Michael Leisner suffered a "massive heart attack" on Saturday while sitting in his car waiting for his two sons to finish playing tennis. He died on the spot, according to local media reports.

Leisner achieved Youtube (ahem) fame a few weeks ago when he posted a video of himself lighting the Cheerios on fire with a blowtorch.  

"One out of every eight boxes of cereal in this country is Cheerios. This is really the treat now for the homosexuals," Leisner said in the video uploaded to YouTube.

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After mistaken reports of his death last night Joe Paterno died this morning, the AP reported. Paterno was 85, and had been suffering from lung cancer. With 409 wins, Paterno had the most career victories among Division I coaches, according to the New York Times obituary, but was fired this past November when the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal hit the campus.

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Here's another name to toss into the hopper as we ponder the memory of the late George Steinbrenner III. One of those missing from this morning's massive obits is Patrick Cunningham, the former Bronx Democratic chief who played as big a role as Reggie Jackson in making Steinbrenner's career on River Avenue such an enormous success over the decades.

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via Cleveland Plain Dealer

Harvey Pekar has died at the age of 70. As Rob Harvilla writes on Sound of the City,

Comic book icon, brief Hollywood star (via 2003's American Splendor, coming soon to thousands of Netflix queues near you), thoughtful jazz critic (here he is on free-jazz deity and fellow Cleveland native Albert Ayler), and Voice contributor, Pekar was the living embodiment of that most durable of American archetypes: the Lovable Curmudgeon. He was found dead by his wife, Joyce Brabner, early this morning; an autopsy is pending, though it's hard not to note -- as does the Cleveland Plain Dealer's excellent, thorough obit -- that their signature artistic collaboration was called Our Cancer Year.

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Oh, sad. Elizabeth Post, Emily Posts' granddaughter-in-law, has died. The elderly etiquette maven was 89.

Poor Libby, who revised and modernized Emily Post's classic Etiquette six times, had been "appalled by the state of manners in recent years," according to her daughter-in-law Peggy Post -- especially, we imagine, by website commenters and the audacity of certain bloggers, not to mention all those hoochies slutting around and revealing their bra colors on Facebook.

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