NEWS

NEW YORK — Manny Ramirez walked away from baseball on Friday, abruptly ending the mercurial career of one of the most talented — and tainted — hitters to ever play the game.

The slumping Tampa Bay Rays slugger tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug during spring training, sources told ESPN.com, and informed Major League Baseball that he would retire rather than face a 100-game suspension.

Ramirez served a 50-game suspension for violating the drug policy in 2009 while he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and second-time offenders get double that penalty.”We were obviously surprised when we found out about it today and hurt by what transpired,” said Rays vice president Andrew Friedman, who signed Ramirez to a $2 million, one-year contract in the offseason. “We were cautiously optimistic that he would be able to be a force for us.”

Had Ramirez accepted his suspension, he would have become the first player to be suspended twice for a performance-enhancing drug violation since the program went into effect in 2005. The only previous player to be punished twice for any type of drug-related violation was infielder Neifi Perez, who served two suspensions in 2007 for positive amphetamine tests.

Story courtesy of ESPN

This new EiHill record is sitting strong with me right now. They went ahead and did a freestyle over Kanye’s ‘H.A.M.’ and entitled it ‘Spam’. As you heard me say over and over, Jersey is on a roll. Hit the jump and to find out more about Eihill.

I honestly don’t even want to speak on this. Just read what Fox News had to say:

DECATUR, Ga. – DeKalb County Police say Radric Davis, also known as Gucci Mane, was arrested by the DeKalb County Fugitive Squad Friday.

Davis was arrested while visiting his probation officer at the Georgia Department of Corrections Probation Office on Sylvan Road in Atlanta, say authorities.

Davis is charged with battery, a misdemeanor but as a result of the arrest will be also charged with violating his probation. Davis is on probation for previous unrelated charges.

Police say they arrested Davis on a warrant that stated he intentionally caused visible bodily harm to a female by pushing her out of a moving vehicle.

Davis is being held in the DeKalb County Jail.

Howard Stern replays the Funk Flex radio clip where he defended Mr Cee, and Stern disects the clip making fun of Flex for like 15 minutes. He also throws jabs at the Breakfast Club crew. Oh, and Lisa G was here too; the woman that used to work for both Hot97 and 105.1, and she CONFIRMS, that they used to call Mr Cee a homo thug all over the station.

NBA superstar Lebron James’ mom got cuffed this morning and this time it wasn’t by Delonte West POW! Gloria James was alledgedlly involved in an altercation with a valet this morning at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami. The incident, which began with an argument over some keys, led to the cops being called at approximately 4:47am. She was arrested and taken to Miami Beach police headquarters but was not booked. After her release she will have to go before a judge to face the charge of misdemeanor assault. Mama James had some trouble with the law back in 2006 as well when she was charged with drunk driving and disorderly conduct in Lebron’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. – @nMiddz

The homie Izzar flips his “Hustle Hard” visuals for his bars over the Ace Hood anthem of the same name. Red Cafe finally released his oft-delayed tape Above The Clouds a few weeks back and there is indeed some raw shit on there. Guest include Rick Ross, Curren$y, Talib Kweli, Fabolous and Lloyd Banks. Go check out ATC before you keep it mooooviin! - @nMiddz

Gossiponthis: It’s been confirmed people. Dennis Rodman, the greatest re-bounder in NBA history and one of the league’s best defenders for a decade, will enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Hall, which recognizes players, coaches and executives for their contributions to collegiate, professional and international basketball, announced its 2011 class on Monday (Apr 4) during the Final Four in Houston.

Rodman, who spent 14 seasons in the NBA, won five NBA championships, two with the Pistons and three with the Chicago Bulls after Michael Jordan’s first retirement and comeback.

Dennis was also an incredible re-bounder — the best ever — and a great post defender. Rodman won seven rebounding titles — notable during the era of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson – and currently has the No. 1 total rebounding percentage of all-time.

Dealer: Gossiponthis

Baller Status: 50 Cent always used his own popularity to help push his own G-Unit roster, but over the past year, he’s hopped on remixes for several other artists — including E-40′s “Bitch (Remix)”, and YG’s “Toot It & Boot It (Remix)”, among others.

One of those remixes did more than just make the track more popular. He says he helped one artist from actually getting dropped from his label, just by recording a verse for their remix.

That artist is Jeremih, who got an assist from Fif on the remix to his single “Down On Me,” which the hip-hop mogul claims saved the singer’s career.

In an interview with Hot 97 on Monday (April 14), on the Angie Martinez Show, 50 claimed that Jeremih’s label, Island Def Jam, was very close to dropping the singer due to slow sales … and when they reached out to him to help, he was with it.

“They was counting Jeremih out completely. He was already gon’ be dropped from Def Jam before ['Down on Me'],” 50 told Martinez. “He was definitely gonna be in a position where he was getting dropped, because the first week sales was really low on the record.”
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The Game was surrounded by a bunch of cars in Hollywood yesterday but not one of the rides was his pimped out Corvette reasoning behind that was that car was repossessed a few days ago TMZ learned. Game tells the razzi’ he leased the Corvette about three years ago but he was on tour when the lease expired and was unable to return it. But a few days ago, after Game returned home, Chevy came to the house and took the car away. Click the picture to see what Game has to say about the incident.

Kemba Walker scored 16 points and Alex Oriakhi added a double-double as the University of Connecticut captured the men’s N.C.A.A. championship with a 53-41 win over Butler. The victory gave Huskies Coach Jim Calhoun his third N.C.A.A. championship and his first since 2004.

To get there, his players won their final 11 games, including the Big East conference tournament, transcending from a team with uncertain prospects to national champion.

“I love coaching,” Calhoun, who became the oldest coach to win an N.C.A.A. title at the age of 68, said in a television interview afterward. “I love my team.”

In a game marked by suffocating defense, Butler led, 22-19, at the half, but the Bulldogs endured a second-half slump in which they scored on just 1 of 23 field-goal attempts. Shelvin Mack led the scoring for Butler with 13 points but shot only 4 of 15 from the field.

“They challenged every shot,” Butler Coach Brad Stevens said after the game.

Jeremy Lamb added 12 points for Connecticut, all of them in the second half. Oriakhi scored 11 points, added 12 rebounds and shut down the Butler offense in the post.

Butler shot only 18 percent from the field, breaking the record for field goal futility of 21.5 percent set by Washington State in 1941. - NY Times