IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

The sun is shining, the dolphins are leaping, a warm ocean breeze is beckoning me outside and Roger Federer lost for the second time this month to Guillermo Canas. Indeed it is a beautiful day. The upset ended Federer’s bid for a third successive Key Biscayne title. Maybe R-Fed should spend more time concentrating on his game instead of lurking around the greens?

PGA TOUR GOES MILE HIGH
The PGA Tour Travelers Championship will make a 150-seat plane available during the 2008 (San Diego) and 2010 (Pebble Beach) tournaments to fly hotties and guests from the U.S. Open in California to its event in Connecticut. The plane was not available Monday for Tiger Woods, Charles Howell or Nick O’Hern, who arrived at the Tavistock Cup at Lake Nona in Florida.

Keeping our sports in the air, JetBlue offers 36 channels of DirecTV on its flights, and a spokesperson for the company said that ESPN is “consistently ranked among the three most-watched channels.” Earlier this week, Setanta Sports and JetBlue reached a deal in which Setanta’s int’l soccer and rugby programming will be available on JetBlue flights! Not missing out on the mile high viewing, a spokesperson for Frontier Airlines also said “ESPN was the most-watched station by far.”

RUDY GAY MILE HIGH

Another mile-high related hottie story comes outta Memphis. The Grizzlies have launched a campaign featuring a “brochure in the form of an airline ticket” to promote Rudy Gay for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. The brochure’s “in-flight services say there will be highlight reel dunks, blocks and game-winning shots featured every flight.” Pictures of his “favorite destinations” highlight Gay’s top performances. A pair of pilot wings attached to an air-sickness bag say, “Rudy Air. Taking flight, every night.” Also included is a luggage tag touting Gay for the award. (Memphis Commercial Appeal.)

PRINCESS EARNS ANOTHER TIARA

This time, PK earns another tiara for his off court activities. Did you know that the Lakers beast has met or scheduled to meet every child who has ever asked the Make-A-Wish Foundation for him? The total number of Make-A-Wish requests that Princess has completed is nearing 100.

ERIC BYRNES ME UP
Saturday at 5:00pm (MT) a new show will be premiering called “The Eric Byrnes Show Presented by Alltel.” And I’ll tell you, that this girl will be setting her DVR for this pending sportastic program. Thanks to FSN Arizona for signing the ultra sexy ML Babe to host the half-hour show. The blond libido tickler will become the first local player to host his own show on the RSN.

BIG BEN WALLACE STEPPING UP

Bull beast Ben Wallace will begin wearing Steve & Barry’s Starbury II shoes for Thursday’s game against his old teammates, the Pistons. Big Ben and his Fro are also launching his own line, called Big Ben, which is set to be released by next season. The kicks will cost $14.98, and like Marbury, Wallace took no up-front money to endorse them. (He will get a cut of the sales.) Wallace: “With something like this, you either feel it in your heart or you don’t. I know the stress my mom felt buying shoes for eight boys, three girls.”

OH GOD NO

First it’s Joumana Kidd. Now it’s Lebron James. In thinly veiled marketing efforts, Lebron James has been selected to host the ESPY Awards show with Jimmie Kimmel. Although Lebron is only the second athlete to host the show, after Lance Armstrong last year, I’m not really buying it. Jimmy Kimmel I’m cool with, Lebron, not so much. Especially after reading an article where Brian Windhorst cites an NBA source as saying that the league office “spoke with the Cavs about Lebron James Jr. sitting in the team bench area with his dad in the closing moments” of Friday’s Knicks-Cavaliers game. The NBA “asked that it not happen again, but the league did not issue a fine or formal reprimand.” Did Joumana ruin it for all courtside offspring? And did I see the Swiss-Miss sitting courtside? (Wouldn’t be surprised)…more King James news. The blueprints for James’ new home in Bath Township, Ohio, call for a 35,440-square-foot structure that includes a recording studio (Oh God NO), two-lane bowling alley (yawn), a casino (Nice!), a 26-by-63-foot theater (awesome), a sports bar, aquarium and barbershop (huh?). He paid $2.1M in 2003 for the now demolished home on the property so he could build his own private universe. With a house like that, I’d expect that Baby James would wanna stay home?

BLOOD CRICKET

Pakistani cricket players spent two days in London before heading home. Hotties should have stayed in the UK a bit longer because the shit hit the fan the second they touched down. A crowd of about 100 psychotic fans told Pakistani cricketers to go to hell and heckled them after they landed at Karachi international airport. The unsolved murder of coach Bob Woolmer and their humiliating Cricket World Cup 2007 exit has set the stage for more than we could have bargained for. And I seriously hope all the players survive. One players has already has his house burned down, but luckily he wasn’t home.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda
delinda@athlebrities.com