Monday in America was Memorial Day, a day where we celebrate the men and women of the Armed Services that we've lost. MLB typically loads up the schedule with day games and pays tribute to the military before and during each game, and it's something that is a sight to see.

During the Yankees-Mets game on Monday night, Keith Hernandez (a solid, or dare I even say good, broadcaster) made a very unfortunate and (assumingly) accidental slip-up. After Phil Hughes made a nice pitch and broke Daniel Murphy's bat, Hernandez explained what happened, and called the broken bat a "dead soldier". You wouldn't think twice about that on any other day, but on Memorial Day, it's a wince-worthy remark.

[Larry Brown Sports]

Despite a record 68 lead changes, the 2013 edition of the Indianapolis 500 didn't draw viewers. The race's 3.8 overnight rating on ABC was its lowest ever, down 7% from 2012 and 12% from 2011. Since the race began to be broadcast live starting in 1986, this year marks the first year where the overnight has dipped below a 4.0, the previous low set in 2010. This also is the first time in history that the race has drawn under a 4.5 rating in five straight years.

One of the pitfalls of doing a reality TV show is that the cameras record everything. They not only record the good moments, but the bad moments as well. For Ryan Lochte, cameras were present when his girlfriend of four years called him and dumped over the phone. While we didn't hear the actual conversation, the moment the phone rang and the aftermath of the call were seen on "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" Well, we know what Ryan did after he got dumped, he drowned his sorrows with beer. 

The playoffs aren't just a time for the teams to shine, what about the announcers!  That's what we're here to talk about at least.  With the Stanley Cup Playoffs now moving towards its latter stages, we take a look at 5 personalities we'd like to see featured more prominently on NBC's NHL coverage throughout the postseason and beyond...

Things couldn't be going much worse for MLB on Fox broadcasts this year. Heading into this past weekend's primetime contests, all six of the telecasts couldn't draw a 2.0 rating, and three of the six broadcasts all fell below 1.5. Two weekends ago, the slate of games highlighted by Reds-Phillies drew a pathetic 1.2 rating and 1.7 million viewers, down 37% and 42% from Red Sox-Phillies last year in primetime, and 54% and 59% from Red Sox-Yankees in 2011, also in primetime.

But coming out of the first weekend of primetime games, there's good news and bad news for MLB. In the good news department, the league drew 2.2 million viewers for a pretty middling slate of games. In the bad news department, MLB lost the head to head matchup with the NHL. Yeah, that's right: the NHL beat MLB, and it wasn't even close. Saturday night's Blackhawks-Red Wings Game 5 on NBC drew 2.9 million viewers, and picked up a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demo, compared to just 0.5 for MLB in the same demo.

And when you look at the preliminary overnight rating for the NHL (a 2.0), it looks more and more like MLB on Fox has once again failed to crack a 2.0 rating this season. Considering that this week featured matchups in primetime, that's really not a good sign. Perhaps the shuffling of games to Fox Sports 1 isn't an attempt to enhance the new network, but instead an opportunity to dump a franchise that is seeing its rating tank off of the main Fox mothership.

[TV by the Numbers, Sports Media Watch]

The Cleveland Indians concluded a four game weekend series in Boston which marked the homecoming of manager Terry Francona. As you're well aware, Francona won two World Championships as manager of the Red Sox. During his tenure in Boston, Francona became good friends with TV play-by-play man Don Orsillo of NESN. 

So when Orsillo had the first opportunity to say hello to Francona before last Friday's game, Francona pulled him into the Indians' dugout by the tie and tussled Donnie's perfectly coiffed hair. Luckily, NESN on-field reporter Jenny Dell had her trusty cell phone handy to record everything for posterity. The results are seen above. 

All Times Eastern

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

College Volleyball
AVCA Sand Championship, Gulf Shores, Alabama
Playoff -- CBS Sports Network, 8:30 p.m.

Golf
Big Break Academy: Muy Bien Maya -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
Golf's Greatest Rounds: 1971 U.S. Open -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

ESPN's John Clayton threw out the first pitch before Friday night's Rangers-Mariners game. While most of the attention after the game was focused on yet another blown call by the umpiring crew, ESPN released a hilarious training montage of Clayton's preparation for his first pitch.

Clayton, wearing a rainbow headband, performed various strength-related, football-style exercises, including pullups (with trainers lifting Clayton up) and bench presses (with an empty bar). Two things ended up coming to mind when watching the video: A) Clayton's arms more closely resemble pencils than arms, and B) there's no ponytail. Repeat: no ponytail.

After the jump, the video of Clayton's first pitch at the game.

This is one of the weirdest things I've seen in not just NASCAR, but in all sports: Sunday night's Coca Cola 600 was briefly delayed when a rope holding one of Fox's cameras snapped, injuring ten fans and damaging three cars.

What ended up happening was that the camera system, which was used during the Daytona 500 and last week's All-Star race, has three ropes controlling it and that the drive rope (which is what moves the camera) snapped for an unknown reason, causing it to fall to the track and cause all of the damage.

If you'll indulge me, I'd like to tell you a quick story. If not, the bottom of this post has the video you are looking for.

My senior year in high school, I befriended a relocated Japanese student. The reason I did so was because well....he's awesome. 

It didn't take too long for that opinion to spread. Almost every week for a year, I would receive invites to parties and they seemed to always include a strong request to bring my new friend. Why? Because he was awesome. So much so, that I think the trajectory of how much and how quickly he became beloved by the high school could have actually made him our Homecoming King (not that anybody really gives a shit now, but back then....sure), if he became more social a year earlier.