Manny Ramirez's stint in Taiwan with the EDA Rhinos has given us plenty of magical moments, from his 10-foot-shy slide to his distaste for home-plate collisions to his moonwalk out of the batter's box, but he's now even inspiring craziness from his team's announcers. In the clip below, Manny hits a perfectly normal home run and jogs around the bases, but that inspires the play-by-play announcer to switch from Mandarin into broken English and deliver one of the funniest home-run calls ever.

"This ball is long gone, just like the ex-girlfriend who will never return. Home run!" Well, that's an interesting analogy. It's the delivery of it that's the best, though. The random fan holding up a purple helmet with Manny's #99 and what are supposed to be dreadlocks is also pretty great, especially considering that the helmet seems to have a Dallas Cowboys star on it for some reason. It's nice to know that Manny being Manny can still produce bizarre moments from everyone else. 

[Manny Does Taiwan]

SB Nation has continued their trend of impressive hires, bringing aboard David J. Roth. Roth's well-known for his work with The Wall Street Journal, The Classical, The Awl, VICE, Sports On Earth and more, so he'll add another big name to the cast of those SB Nation already has.

An SB Nation source told Awful Announcing Friday morning Roth will be working for them as a full-time staff writer as of this coming Monday.

"As a staff writer Roth will be writing a variety of pieces both long and short, and will also be appearing in studio from time to time," the source said.

Thus, this move could bolster SB Nation's burgeoning video content and their longform section as well as the main site. It's an ambitious hire from SBN, and it will be interesting to see how Roth fits in with the outlet.  

Last night's broadcast of the MLB Draft on MLB Network showed off a lot of good things about the progression of the Draft. The MLB tie-in with Baseball America and their player rankings was a welcome complement to ESPN's usage of Mel Kiper Jr's rankings during the NFL Draft.

The analysis on the main panel by MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo was excellent. Jim Callis, the editor of Baseball America, also did a great job at breaking down picks and explaining the reasoning behind teams' questionable picks (such as the Royals taking Hunter Dozier eighth overall) and the reasoning for the fall of certain players (most notably Arkansas right-hander Ryne Stanek). John Hart wasn't great in his role on the main set, but his extensive experience in front offices provided some unique insight that neither Mayo or Callis could offer.

However, there were plenty of cringeworthy moments during MLB Network's coverage that they really need to remedy. Most notably was, of course, the dreadful performance of Harold Reynolds. Calling the performance of Reynolds bad is an understatement. His commentary on the Draft this year was absolutely horrendous, including the following missteps:

The 2013 NBA Finals kicked off with a fantastic Game 1 between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.  It was everything the NBA could have asked for from an opening game to a series as the Spurs kept Miami close throughout and ultimately registered a dramatic come-from-behind 92-88 victory on the road.

In spite of their success, the Spurs have never materialized into a national ratings draw.  The "boring" label may not be fair to this year's team, but it's clear the nation has never embraced the Spurs.  Since 1982 San Antonio has been involved in the three lowest rated Finals:

Who else could be the guest on the Silver Anniversary edition of the AA Podcast except our first and most frequent guest, the co-author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller Those Guys Have All The Fun - Jim Miller. With several stories surrounding ESPN in the last month, we catch up with Jim and get his take on the happenings in Bristol as well as a few stories he broke on his Twitter page. Topics include...

-TBS hiring Keith Olbermann and where his long-term destination might be.
-The reaction to the hundreds of layoffs at ESPN.
-Whether or not the bursting cable bubble is a myth or reality and the impact on ESPN and other sports networks of rising costs.
-Expectations for the new ESPN ombudsman Robert Lipsyte
-Culture change at ESPN evolving from the Steve Phillips scandal
-The rise and fall and rise of Stephen A. Smith.
-The increasing competition of Fox Sports 1, NBCSN, and CBS Sports.

More great insights from one of the most respected writers in the country on the 50th AA Podcast. I know I'm contractually obligated to say this for every podcast, but this is one you don't want to miss.

In case you've missed any of our podcasts, check out all of our interviews on iTunes or our AA Podcast RSS Page.  For more from Jim, follow him on Twitter @ESPNBook.

Recent Podcasts:

AA Podcast 49: NBC's Will Buxton on Monaco & F1

AA Podcast 48: Ed Olczyk on the Stanley Cup Playoffs

AA Podcast 47: Tom Verducci on MLB

AA Podcast 46: Dan Levy on sports media

AA Podcast 45: John Koblin on Jason Collins and Chris Broussard

While we may poke fun at Dick Vitale for his Duke homerism, crazy schtick, and cheerleading behind the microphone, but he's one of the legit nicest guys you'll ever see in sports.  Vitale has raised millions of dollars for the V Foundation and his unconditional positivity isn't just an act.  That's why I have to think Vitale didn't mean any harm with this tweet during last night's victory for the Spurs over the Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, although it turned out to be one of the inadvertent funniest tweets of the year.

After one of his patented moments of silence for an opposition home run earlier this week, we were treated to another classic example of Hawk Harrelson homerism.  Thursday night the White Sox hosted the A's and went to extras once again.  Down 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th and down to their final out, Adam Dunn stepped up to the plate with a man on and hit a ball high and deep to left field that fell at the warning track for the final out of the game like something out of Major League.  Just listen to Hawk's call...

Dodgers rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig hit a grand slam against the Braves last night, his third homer in four major league games, and the Dodgers won the game 5-0 due in large part to the grand slam. Vin Scully's call of the homer was pretty much perfect, as after he freaked out when the ball left the yard, he let the crowd's cheering take over. We've seen that happen numerous tims with Hawk Harrelson, but Scully wasn't pouting like Harrelson does - he was letting everyone soak in an amazing moment.

You may have missed it what with Game 1 of the NBA Finals and Game 4 of the NHL's Western Conference Finals, but Major League Baseball held their draft Thursday night with coverage on MLB Network.  Of course, you may have also missed it because the immediate relevance of the MLB Draft compared to its NFL, NBA, and even NHL brethren is nil.  It takes a hugely dedicated baseball fan to truly grasp the context of each pick and how they may potentially fit into the structure of a franchise.

The MLB Draft is a night for the hardcore baseball fan.

The hardcore baseball fan does not like Harold Reynolds.

Fans are smart enough to figure out when an analyst is in over his head or out of his depth.  Reynolds' relationship with the online baseball community is already icy at best.  The whole reason Reynolds is on MLB Network's debate show MLB Now is to argue against Brian Kenny's more sabermetric, information-oriented viewpoint.  To throw him onto MLB Draft coverage when it demands an insanely wide depth of knowledge and information and speaks moreso to an already adversarial audience is just asking for a trainwreck.  And a trainwreck is what those baseball fans got.

As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
Essendon Bombers vs. Carlton Blues -- Fox Soccer Plus, 5:30 a.m.
Greater Western Sydney Giants vs. Geelong Cats -- Fox Soccer Plus, 11:30 p.m.

College Baseball
NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament
Super Regionals

Chapel Hill Super Regional, Chapel Hill, NC
Game 1: South Carolina vs. North Carolina -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.

Raleigh Super Regional, Raleigh, NC
Rice vs. North Carolina State -- ESPN2, 4 p.m.

Baton Rouge Super Regional, Baton Rouge, LA
Oklahoma vs. LSU -- ESPN, 7 p.m.

Fullerton Super Regional, Fullerton, CA
UCLA vs. Cal State-Fullerton -- ESPN2, 7 p.m.