Pedro Gomez Finally Has Someone Else to Harass

You knew it was going to happen eventually. It was too good to be true, with all the pleasantries and mid-game tea times and week-long Test matches. But now, cricket has its Jeremy Giambi.

Ladies and gentlment, meet Shoaib Akhtar. He’s a cricket player from Pakistan, and he holds the record for the fastest ball thrown in a Test match. That ball registered at 161.4 km/h on the radar gun. (He’s also hit 366 wickets in his career, which sounds pretty good, too.)

Alas, according to the BBC, it was too good to be true. This is what Akhtar had to say in his defense:

"I have always played the game fair and I give 100% and do not feel that I need to take drugs to help my bowling."

I'm looking forward to next week's edition of "The Sports Reporters." Mike Lupica probably can’t wait to blame this one on Barry Bonds.