Remember that video I posted of TBS reporter Craig Sager's flaming orange suit getting doused because Jonathan Papelbon is kind of an ass? Well, before I went with the whole "the Red Sox and their fans are dickheads" angle on that post, I considered focusing more on Craig Sager, and how he has an uncanny ability to pop up in strange and unexpected ways during great moments in American sport, and has several bizarre connections to what I can basically only call various crazy shit.

For example, in the picture above, that's him behind Hank Aaron, after Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. The at-bat starts at 1:50 of the clip below, and you can see Sager at 2:15, in the white suit with the long coat, joining the Braves who've clustered around the plate before Aaron even crosses. At 1:20 of this clip there's another angle of him behind the Home Run King.

Now, it's remarkable enough that the guy in that clip went on to become the flamboyant-suit-wearing dude who routinely gets dissed for his suits by guys like Kevin Garnett, or has Steve Nash defile his handkerchief, but that's just the tip of the iceberg...

Over a year ago a USA Today piece by Michael Hiestand revealed a few nuggets that did more than just hint at Sager's awesomeness-- assuming they're true. And frankly, I don't want to live in a world where any of this is bullshit.

Apart from the Hank Aaron stuff, from the USA Today article it became known that:

- Sager knew the guy who cleaned Seattle Slew's stall, and wound up sleeping in the barn with the legendary horse on the night before the 1977 Preakness-- which Slew won, to complete the triple crown. Sager was there because he "had no place to stay and not enough money for a hotel," and he took a souvenir with him before he left: a turd from the great horse, which is now shellacked and on display on his basement trophy case.

- Sager posted bail for Morganna the Kissing Bandit (NSFW) after she was arrested for jumping on the field during the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle. The two became friends and she gave him a bra as a gift, which is now on display alongside the "Slew poo".

- And there's more: "Sager got a bench pass to sit with Larry Bird's Indiana State team in the 1979 NCAA tournament — 'I was friends with an assistant coach but the NCAA kicked me off.' He was a Tampa area TV weatherman when the Buccaneers snapped their record 26 consecutive losses in a game against New Orleans, and says both teams autographed a ball from that game for him 'because I'd gone to all the games.' And when Sager was getting $25 per game for freelance radio broadcasts of a Pop Warner football team, he says the team's star happened to be 10-year-old Deion Sanders."

Uh... and there's even more.

A Washington Post interview with Sager came out during the Beijing Olympics where Dan Steinberg plumbed the depths of Sager Canyon, and, uh... yeah. There's totally more.

- Sager is quite fond of blondes, and was particularly taken in Beijing by the ReD Foxes, Ukranian cheerleaders. Of course, I'm sure they pale in comparison to his wife-- who he notes is a former Luvabull (the Chicago Bulls dance team) and 21 years his junior.

- He has "been to probably 250 Hooters across the country and world" and was "very disappointed" with the one in Beijing, because of its lack of blondes and Bud Light.

- As part of the NBC team covering the Olympics, he was forced to wear an outfit that didn't quite meet his usual standards, so what did he do? Why, naturally, the same thing any friggin' weirdo would do: he bought a matching belt and thong to wear with it.

- He was mascot "Willie the Wildcat" during his college years at Northwestern, and would do dunks off his "mini-tramp" (which I assume is a trampoline, but with this guy, who knows?) during breaks in play. Unfortunately, he wasn't this Willie the Wildcat, which is also the name of the mascot for Kansas State, who probably deserves his own post, but what the hell...

And there's still more!

Sager's family has ties to Al Capone-- as in, his aunt was the gangster's personal nurse. And here Sager recounts the time that he was with Ted Turner when the call came in that Jane Fonda wanted to meet with him. "I always wanted to fuck Jane Fonda," Turner said, so Sager was ditched at the airport and left to cover for him while the Southern Gentleman sped off to his Montana ranch to nail Hanoi Jane.

Oh yeah, and most awesome of all, Sager doesn't do "Jägerbombs" he does "Sagerbombs"...