Say what you want about the King of Beers. When it comes to making quirky, attention-grabbing advertisements, the folks at Anheuser-Busch know few bounds.

Like, have you seen the Bud Light commercial entitled "Cut the Cheese" that’s making the rounds online? The one the Federal Communications Commission ostensibly banned from this year’s Super Bowl? Since yesterday the ad has garnered more than 8,500 hits on the popular sports blog Deadspin, which -- like other media -- reports that that the commercial was too risqué for television screeners. (Deadspin in turn credits BostonSportz for getting there first.)

Not true, according to A-B’s vice-president of brand management, Keith Levy. “Bud Light’s 'Cut the Cheese' spot was not banned by the FCC and was never intended for TV,” says Levy in a statement to the RFT. “The spot was created as an Internet-only ad and was made available online at budbowl.com to adult consumers who participated in Bud Light’s Super Bowl ad mobile-phone voting campaign.”

The brewery did the same thing last year with an online-only ad titled "Apology Bot."

Okay, now that we got that cleared up, you can check out the “banned” commercial below. Umm, Buttweiser anyone?

Psssst! Here’s a “bonus feature” of our own. The following commercial aired in the U.K. in 2006. Same oeuvre as the Bud Light ad, with a slightly different odour, as the Brits would say. Watch out for the brown trout.

-Chad Garrison

Remember the great St. Louis Cardinals World Series/St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department scandal of 2007? I broke news of the department's internal affairs investigation into the matter here on STLog back in March of '07.

Well, it's back, thanks to St. Louis attorney Albert Watkins, who frequently goes to bat for the blue shirts of the department. Watkins issued the following press release today:

Police officers involved in the 2006 World Series ticket use inquiry have directed the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to cease its unilateral delay in the production of records sought by subpoenas issued by the State's Director of the Department of Public Safety.

The eight officers, seven of whom remain active with the City's police department, learned late last week that the State's POST Commission had for over a year been seeking the Police Department's files on the World Series ticket use investigation but the City Police Department had failed to release the requested records. "The officers are shocked and disappointed that anything less than full and timely cooperation has been demonstrated by the police department and cannot understand the rationale for the secretive delay," said Albert S. Watkins, legal counsel for the officers.

"The officers involved have previously acknowledged their role in the incident and accepted their discipline. They want nothing more than to demonstrate a continuing commitment to transparency and cooperation with the POST Commission," added Watkins.

The POST Commission (Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training Program) is a regulatory agency that is responsible for licensure of peace officers.

Watkins also sent along a copy of one of the subpoenas, sent to Captain John Hayden (click to download in pdf form), commander of the city department's Internal Affairs Division. The POST Commission basically wants any and all records related to the IA investigation. More, certainly, to come...

-Kristen Hinman

Here's the scoop from Matt Leach at mlb.com.

The Post-Dispatch has a story, of course, but they never link to us, so why should we link to them?

The kicker to Leach's story:

[St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony] La Russa, who said he hadn't talked to Spiezio since learning of the arrest warrant, said news of the allegation wasn't a complete surprise.

"I had heard there was an incident in California, but I didn't think anything would come of it," La Russa said.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the Spiezio debacle sheds a new light on the Cardinals' seemingly counterintuitive decision in early January to re-sign utility infielder Aaron Miles.

It was odd, in that the team seemed to have enough infielder-types going into the spring, and that they'd opted not to tender Miles a contract offer in December, making him a free agent. Then they turned around and signed him for $1.4 million.

That move was decried by sabermetricians all over Cardinal Nation. Larry Borowsky, who operates Viva El Birdos, which for my money is the best Redbirds blogs out there -- and one of the best baseball blogs, period -- surely spoke for many on that fateful day.

(Though not for me. I like Miles. I'll concede his defense doesn't hold up to statistical analysis, and that the same goes for his bat. I like the guy's attitude, though, and I like being able to point him out to my kids as an overachiever who makes his bones the hard way. God forbid there turns out to be a warrant out for his arrest.)

Here's what the Post's Derrick Goold wrote about the signing:

"The way we are set up now, we're fully protected in the infield," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said. "You look at the need we had, and there's a comfort level with Miles. ... He gives us added flexibility."

Miles provides depth at both middle infield positions and may be the answer if questions arise with [second baseman Adam] Kennedy, [shortstop Cesar] Izturis or switch-hitter Scott Spiezio, who missed more than a month last season in rehab for substance abuse.

The club also has Brendan Ryan, a young shortstop who turned in a solid performance when called up from the minors late last year.

Also, a few weeks ago Post columnist Bernie Miklasz noted that La Russa had "called out" Spiezio for being late to the team's annual Winter Warm-Up event.

I'm just sayin.'

-Tom Finkel

Here's a link to the Orange County Superior Court Web page that details the charges against St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Scott Spiezio in connection with his alleged DUI in December.

As the courts in OC see it, Speez is a fugitive.

Also, here's two relevant paragraphs from a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's Office:

At approximately 12:20 a.m. on December 30, 2007, Spiezio is accused of leaving a bar in Newport Beach after spending the evening drinking several vodka drinks. He is accused of getting into his 2004 BMW and attempting to drive home while under the influence of alcohol. Spiezio is accused of speeding, cutting across several lanes, crossing through the oncoming traffic lanes, driving over a curb, and crashing into a fence. The crash knocked down a fence pole and blew out the front two tires of the car. Spiezio is accused of getting out of the car and fleeing the scene on foot.

The defendant is accused of running to his Irvine condominium complex and going to a friend’s condo, who lived in the same complex. While his friend attempted to clean up the defendant, Spiezio is accused of vomiting in his friend’s room. When the friend made a comment about the vomit, Spiezio is accused of becoming angry and attacking his friend, punching him repeatedly and throwing him against a wall.

Another spring, another booze-related Cardinals train wreck?

From the Associated Press:

An arrest warrant has been issued by the Irvine Police Department for St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Scott Spiezio on six charges stemming from a crash in late December.

CNN/SI

The warrant alleges driving under influence, driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or more, hit and run, aggravated assault, assault and battery.

According to the story, after the hard-rocking Redbird, who underwent treatment for substance abuse last summer, crashed his 2004 BMW and ran from the scene, a neighbor reportedly told police that "Spiezio had arrived home appearing disheveled and apparently injured. Spiezio vomited in his condo and then allegedly assaulted the neighbor, causing significant injuries."

The AP story can be found here.

Kansas City’s NBC affiliate took hidden cameras into Milestone Christian Academy, the new school that hoped to become a hoops powerhouse, and which drew from KC and St. Louis schools. Regina Taylor Gilbert, mother of former Career Academy and Vashon High School player Marcel Taylor-Smith, sent me the story this morning.

NBC got a look at e-mails from Milestone coach/pastor/principal Peter Flournoy to Regina Gilbert in which he apparently promised to pay Gilbert’s rent, utilities and groceries, and get her a job.

Meanwhile, Second Mile Ministries, which started the school, has suspended Flournoy after learning about his outstanding warrants for bad checks. Here’s a statement from Second Mile:

Having discovered there were misdemeanor warrants in Peter Flournoy's past in Etowah County, Alabama for insufficient checks outstanding, the Second Mile board has taken the following action. Because part of the mission of the church of Jesus Christ is to be redemptive, Mr. Flournoy will be given 90 days to take care of all his outstanding warrants and insufficient checks in Texas and Alabama. During this time, he will [be] suspended as Principal of Milestone Christian Academy. He will be retained as boys basketball coach and will assist in teaching responsibilities.

At the end of 90 days, if Mr. Flournoy has not taken care of his outstanding warrants and insufficient checks, he will be dismissed from the staff of Milestone Christian Academy.

C. Michael Bobbitt, Director
Second Mile Ministries

I did find out that the Kansas City Star will be publishing a related investigative story, but the reporter told me the paper hasn’t yet set a run date.

-Kristen Hinman

My article “Hoop Raiders, Part 2” came out Thursday, and has apparently already reached basketball families in Kansas City. Today I heard from the parents of two former Milestone Christian Academy players, each of whom wanted to share a laundry list of complaints about the school. Their kids, Willie Reed and Cortez Barrett, are two of the ten varsity basketball players that recently transferred out of Milestone.

Reed, who is six-foot-eleven and has signed to play for the Saint Louis University Billikens next year, attended Milestone for one semester before returning last month to Bishop Miege High School. Barrett, a junior, attended Milestone from January through December 2007 and now goes to Center Senior High, a Kansas City public school.

Reed’s dad, Will Reed Sr., says his son didn’t play basketball this past semester at Bishop Miege in order to focus on academics and maintain his NCAA eligibility. Barrett’s mom, Lynn Richard, says her son is currently ineligible but that she is hoping to get that ruling reversed by next fall.

As I understand it, a sports reporter for the Kansas City Star will soon publish an investigative article about Milestone. I've left messages with the reporter but haven’t heard back with confirmation of the story, or when it will appear.

Until I do, I’m going to hold off on looking into the allegations levied by Lynn Richard and Will Reed Sr. As it is, Milestone’s coach/pastor/principal, Peter Flournoy, still has not returned repeated messages that I left for him last week. SLU assistant basketball coach Angres Thorpe also did not get back to me about Reed’s status.

Milestone is still open. But as I was looking around on the Web for more info last week, I noticed that its Web site is shut down. For some reason, I can’t find the cached version either. On YouTube I came across this “testimony” video (in which Cortez Barrett appears) from last school year, as well as this promo video, also from last year. Here’s one that apparently takes a look inside the school.

I’ll post again and link to the Star article if and when it appears.

-Kristen Hinman

At the bottom of this post you can download two pdf documents that contain chunks of the transcript of former Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons' November 12, 2007, interview with officials from the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA).

This portion of the interview pertains to Irons' involvement with brothers Johnny and Bobby Hill, who, prior to enrolling at Vashon in 2002, attended public schools in Alton, Illinois. Irons tells investigators that while the Hill brothers played for Vashon, he personally bankrolled an apartment for them.

If your regular news-reading these days has been confined to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, you might be tempted to believe that St. Louis' Only Daily owns this story.

Truth be told, however, Irons was the subject of a Riverfront Times investigation, "Basketball by the Book," in 2006-'07. [Editor's note: The series went on to garner journalism awards from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Education Writers Association (EWA).]

Though the Post doesn't like to admit it, Riverfront Times readers know that Floyd Irons' recruiting violations have become a story because Kristen Hinman made them a story. (In fairness, some Post columnists have credited Hinman.)

Click below to download the transcript excerpts:

Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons' November 12, 2007, interview with officials from the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), Part 1

Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons' November 12, 2007, interview with officials from the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), Part 2

We'll upload more soon, we promise.

-Tom Finkel and Kristen Hinman

Floyd Irons personally spent between $25,000 and $30,000 to house, feed and clothe two Vashon High School basketball players during a five-year period, according to the transcript of his November 12, 2007, interview with officials from the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA).

The players' names are redacted from the transcript. But documents previously obtained by Riverfront Times indicate that the two players were brothers, Johnny and Bobby Hill. Prior to enrolling at Vashon in 2002, the Hills attended public schools in Alton, Illinois.

Irons told MSHSAA that he met Johnny (Vashon '05) and Bobby ('06) through his then-confidant, Vashon booster Mike Noll. Noll knew of the boys through AAU basketball programs.

Irons went to visit the Hills at their home in the spring of 2002. The boys lived in a basement, Irons said, suggesting it was not a great environment. "[…I]t touched me," he told MSHSAA.

Irons said he and the Hills' father agreed that the boys would move into the Vashon attendance area and play for the Wolverines if Irons could help find the father a job and a place to live.

With Noll's help, Irons said, a job became available for the father at Bartolino's Restaurant in south St. Louis. Irons said he found an apartment for the Hills in a housing complex just a few blocks from Vashon. Because of redactions in the transcript, it is unclear whose name was on the lease.

Irons said the boys' father reneged on the agreement and did not move to the apartment or take the job at Bartolino's.

Irons said he and the Hills' father "went round and round about why he wasn't living up to the portion that he said he was gonna live up to," according to the transcript. "I, you know, didn't feel as though [redacted] should have been penalized totally by that. I got in to the picture, it was my responsibility now."

Irons paid the $460-per-month rent for the apartment, where the brothers, then in ninth and tenth grade, lived alone, according to the transcript. The utilities were registered in the name of one of Mike Noll's friends, Irons said, so that there would be "no connection" to Irons.

Irons also said he paid for the boys' food and clothes, and made sure they had beds and a television set. He also gave them a car, a blue 1985 Cadillac DeVille.

Teachers and others who were close to the basketball program sometimes contributed food and spending money for the boys, Irons told MSHSAA officials. He said he and others would stop by the apartment every so often to check on the boys.

Irons also said that he found a woman who would clean the place and make Sunday dinner for the Hill brothers for the year-plus that they lived there.

Irons said his assistant coaches were aware of the boys' living arrangement, and that former principal Dorothy Ludgood, who died in 2003, knew Irons was helping the Hills with amenities.

Irons said he knew the boys' transfers and living arrangement violated MSHSAA rules. "[I]f I had to do the situation over again the way it was done I would do it again…," he said.

Irons also said he tried to get the boys' father to relinquish guardianship to him but that the father would not agree to it.

Johnny Hill now attends Southeast Missouri State University, where a voicemail was left requesting comment. Bobby Hill attended Illinois State University his freshman year, then transferred to Lincoln College in Normal, Illinois. He is not listed in the school directory. Their father could not be located for comment.

Irons and Noll were later involved in a real estate scam that netted them tens of thousands of dollars. Both pled guilty to federal charges last fall.

Irons was the subject of a Riverfront Times investigation, "Basketball by the Book," in 2006-'07. [Editor's note: The series was recognized with top honors by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Education Writers Association (EWA).]

Check back here for more on Vashon as the MSHSAA investigation continues.

Early next week we'll scan and upload portions of the interview transcript.

-Kristen Hinman

Though in reality SLU lost to 14th-ranked Xavier last night on a last-second tip-in, the game was essentially over before either team took the floor.

As I was walking out of Scottrade Center press lounge and into the tunnel the players use to take the court, both teams emerged from their respective locker rooms at the same time. The Xavier players were focused, intense and confident. They huddled and pumped themselves for the game, jumping up and down and chanting “Are we ready?!” Some shouted “Not tonight!” in the direction of the SLU players.

Coach Rick Majerus' entire SLU squad, meanwhile, stood silently. They were huddled but looked obviously intimidated. A few players exchanged quiet words with each other but were drowned out by the boisterous Musketeers.

At one point, a Xavier player, I believe it was Charles Bronson (who unfortunately is not nicknamed Death Wish), came over and bobbed up and down, shouting “Not tonight!” in Barry Eberhardt’s face. Eberhardt turned away without so much as a whimper, and none of his teammates backed him up.

For the most part, the game was the ass-whipping I, and most everyone else, expected. SLU’s shooting percentage gradually dwindled throughout the first half, from 50 percent to 27 percent. In the second period, the Bills kept cutting lead to a few points before an infinitely more talented and experienced Xavier team calmly called timeouts, got stops and drained threes to increase the margin. Were it not for Kevin Lisch doing his best Teen Wolf impersonation and scoring 12 points in the last 61 seconds, the game would have been a blowout.

While I admit that pregame jawing isn’t necessarily an indicator of a team’s focus and intensity, it is just one of the symptoms of what ails the Billikens. For example, during the announcement of the lineups, the SLU players stand and watch the video highlights of themselves on the JumboTron rather than talk to each other or psych themselves up for the game. It is a team that lacks discipline and leadership, both on and off the floor. SLU ended up giving Xavier a spirited challenge, diving for loose balls, exchanging a few elbows and nearly pulling off the upset. But even as they tied the game with six seconds to go, it was the cardinal sin of failing to box out -- a simple matter of concentration and discipline -- that allowed Xavier the tip-in for the win.

-Keegan Hamilton

I went off on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the other day for not giving credit where credit was due regarding Kristen Hinman's investigative series "Basketball by the Book," which painstakingly provided documentary evidence of residency violations on the part of Vashon High School and its boys' basketball program under longtime coach Floyd Irons.

As I noted, a Post story earlier this week, headlined "Inquiry into player eligibility leaves Vashon's titles at stake," outlined how the Missouri State High School Activities Association (known as MSHSAA) has opened an investigation into the eligibility of more than a dozen Vashon students who played under Irons since 1998. Vashon won five state championships since then, in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006.

MSHSAA officials, reporter P-D David Hunn informed us, are looking into "whether players lived within Vashon attendance boundaries, were registered at the correct addresses or were improperly recruited."

I expressed my, uh, peevishness because the Post somehow neglected to mention that the MSHSAA investigation was undertaken only because Hinman had exposed Vashon's violations in "Basketball by the Book."

Instead, St. Louis' Only Daily attributed its knowledge of the probe to "documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch."

Well, among those "documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch" is this "document," a letter from MSHSAA executive director Kerwin Urhahn that makes clear precisely what prodded the agency to action:

Hunn went so far as to contact the author of that letter, Daryl Rinne, the principal of Kearney High in the Kansas City area, which lost to Vashon in the 2004 state championship game.

A graphical representation of Hinman's investigative labors is available for download right here:

-Tom Finkel

Readers of Riverfront Times who happened upon David Hunn's story about disgraced Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch may have noticed something missing.

Headlined "Inquiry into player eligibility leaves Vashon's titles at stake," Hunn's story outlined how the Missouri State High School Activities Association (known as MSHSAA) has opened an investigation into the eligibility of more than a dozen Vashon students who played under Irons since 1998. Vashon won five state championships since then, in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. MSHSAA officials, Hunn writes, are looking into "whether players lived within Vashon attendance boundaries, were registered at the correct addresses or were improperly recruited."

Hunn bases his story on "documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch."

That phrase has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Always puts you in the frame of mind that you're reading Something of Great Importance.

So what was missing? That would be the part where the Post credits RFT for exposing precisely those eligibility violations. Because what Hunn doesn't say is that MSHSAA undertook that probe as a direct result of Kristen Hinman's 2006 investigative series "Basketball by the Book."

In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that for all practical purposes, Hinman's story -- which went on to garner journalism awards from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Education Writers Association (EWA) -- goaded MSHSAA into undertaking that probe.

[Update 2/7/08 2:30 p.m.]: I neglected to mention that if you want to know which players MSHSAA's investigating, you need look no further than this chart, which we published with the first installment of "Basketball by the Book," way back in November of 2006:

-Tom Finkel

That's right, Unreal said "XXXVI."

As the New York Giants and New England Patriots get set to face off tomorrow in Super Bowl XLII, the Boston Herald reports that on the eve of the Super Bowl in 2002 the Patriots secretly videotaped a St. Louis Rams walkthrough at the Louisiana Superdome. The allegation is attributed to an unnamed "source close to the team during the 2001 season."

As Rams fans are unlikely to have forgotten, the heavily favored Woolly Boys got off to a slow start in the contest and fell behind 14-3 before falling to the Pats 20-17.

-Unreal