Thursday Blogdome: At French Open this year, it's all about style

* Rafael Nadal wears $525,000 watch at the French Open. Rafa took to the court Tuesday at the French Open with a new timepiece from Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille. The RM 027 Tourbillon was made specially for Nadal and features a carbon-composite case and lithium alloys, which are just fancy ways of saying that it’s really, really light. It weighs just 20 grams (equivalent to about eight pennies) so Nadal can wear it during matches. The watch was given to him as part of a sponsorship deal, so it’s not like Nadal went out to the mall and threw down his Black Card to pick it up. [Busted Racquet]
* Record: Canadian Pro Golfer Shoots 25 On Back 9. Lorne Rubenstein of the TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL recounted (literally) the Tuesday round of pro golfer Jamie Kureluk at the RBC Insurance Alberta Open and the numbers still seemingly didn’t add up. [SportsbyBrooks]

* You Don’t Need Your Glove in the Bleachers. Catching the ball in the beer is already pretty high up there on the degree-of-difficulty scale, but to then have the awareness that it was the perfect time to chug the beer and balance the ball on your face for some pizzazz to finish things off? You, sir, are an absolute legend. [The Sporting Blog]
* A Platoon Of Quarterbacks? Good Or Bad Idea? My proposal is to have a platoon of two quarterbacks. Maybe even three, but for now let’s stick with two. I thought about different ways to rotate, from every other drive to every other game. Here’s the catch: both quarterbacks have to be decent. You can’t execute this strategy with Philip Rivers and Billy Volek. [Second-String Fullback]
* Rashad Evans on the hatred between him and Rampage: ‘That’s All Real.’ “We had gotten into it when he fought my teammate (Keith) Jardine, and after that, he got into it on my personal time. And from then it was just like not liking each other. Then after the show on Ultimate Fighter 10, we got into it. At one point I thought that I was like a little kid again. I would go into practice and be like listen, I’m not getting into this little kid arguing back and forth, and next thing you know I find myself arguing with this fool. I’m like dang, how does he get me every single time?” [Sports Radio Interviews]
* J.D. Drew declared most overrated player in MLB by Chicago Tribune poll. It’s a good idea on paper. I’m sure that Washington has a different view on things than New York does, and that Philadelphia feels differently than Los Angeles, and so on. The execution, though, was not so brilliant. [Red Sox Monster]
* Also … Flip Saunders going a little heavy on the John Wall hype? Slow down, chief … Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore have somewhat amusing SportsCenter commercials … The official North Korea World Cup jersey design is top secret, unlike their nuclear program … Adam Sandler and Kevin James to be grand marshals of Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on June 13th at the Michigan International Speedway. Or did I dream that after a whiskey bender?
***
Contact Rick Chandler at rickchand@gmail.com.