Last night on MLB Network, Bob Costas quoted Ludacris on the air. Aside from providing us with great enjoyment, it reminded us of another buttoned-down sports journalist named Bob who once quoted a popular rap artist on the air: Bob Ley. So who did it better? That’s what we try our hand at figuring out after the jump.

It’s with great sadness that I inform you that Bob Ley’s Twitter account was hacked, and the culprit is using the social media platform for one of sports media’s most distinguished personalities to link to… dirty pix.

Welcome to Top 5 Dead or Alive, a new feature that’s designed specifically to make life hell for our employees. Each week, we’ll ask one of our writers to come up with a definitive list of the five best people, places or things in a particularly subjective category — then, we’ll ask you to tell him who or what is missing from the list. Feel free to be a total dick.

On September 21, 2001, Mike Piazza hit a home run to help give the Mets a 3-2 win over the Braves. This might sound unremarkable until you remember it was also the Mets’ first game at home after the 9/11 attacks, and that Piazza’s homer was just what the home crowd needed to release a whole lot of pent-up energy. (See it here.) That home run remains a defining moment in Piazza’s great career, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that when Piazza looks back on it now, he’s a little overwhelmed.

Someone at ESPN thought it would be a good idea for Bob Ley to read the lyrics to Jay-Z’s “Blow the Whistle” on the air. And you know what? It was the best idea.

It’s been an awfully big couple days for the issue of homosexuality in sports, with the latest piece of news being Will Sheridan, the former Villanova basketball player, announcing he’s gay.

According to ESPN’s Joe Schad, termination for Jim Tressel is not out of the question if it’s found he lied or misled NCAA investigators.

Kyle Turley is known as well for his erratic behavior as he is for his football skills. On “Outside the Lines” recently, Turley was acting a little, well, strange.

Erik Bielderman of the French newspaper L’Equipe today offered an uncomfortable moment for ESPN earlier when he cursed on-air in describing the French soccer team’s disastrous World Cup – video after the jump.