Man, time sure does fly. It seems like just yesterday I was praising Drew Brees. Actually, it was just yesterday, but I was referring to when I named Brees and the New Orleans Saints winning Super Bowl XLIV the top Sports Moment of 2010. And you know what? That was a boring, predictable pick and it left nothing to the imagination of you, our beloved readers. You deserve more than just the run-of-the-mill year end list, because With Leatherites are smarter than the average sports blog reader, and I know that because I was called an idiot by you guys plenty this year.

You also have a better sense of humor than the average sports blog reader, so when I was entering the qualifications for this year’s Best Sports Moments into my sophisticated super computer (read: old yellow notepad) I wanted to kick the sentimental crap to the curb and really focus on what makes us all tick – namely, poop jokes and hot models. But mostly fun sports moments. As always, I don’t expect everyone to agree, and I’m sure that I left out a few moments here and there (sorry hockey). So feel free to school us on your biggest moments of the year, and let’s all hope that 2012 is a little more sex scandal free…

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I assume he tried to take Kate behind the middle school.

As we prepare to wow you with our analysis of stuff that already happened in our Top Sports Moments of 2011 next week, I figured that the best place to start with our annual year end celebration is our heart. And not one person meant more to our hearts this year than Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton. Not only is she easy to look at, but she was also one hell of a sports fan in her own right, so we are honoring her as the first ever With Leather Celebrity Sports Fan of the Year. When reached for comment, Upton’s lawyer said: “Seriously, you’re going to jail.”

If you follow Upton on Twitter or whenever she leaves her apartment, you’ll know that she’s an avid fan of New York sports teams. Just the other day, she was one of thousands of New York Knicks fans who booed Kris Humphries every time he stepped on the court at Madison Square Garden. And since her sister works for the New York Jets, she attends many of their games as well, and when she can’t make it she at least allegedly offers Mark Sanchez helpful late night pointers (*cuts arm*).

Upton is also a New York Rangers and Yankees fan, as you can see after the jump in photos of her fanfare from the past year.

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Bobby Valentine has been named manager of the Boston Red Sox. The report, with just the right amount of snark, from the New York Post:

The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry took on an entirely new dimension last night when Boston reached a verbal agreement with Bobby Valentine — who never met a spotlight he didn’t try to outshine — to become the 45th manager in franchise history.

Valentine, according to a source, was flying last night from Japan, where the former Mets manager participated in a charity event and made personal appearances, to Boston to sign a contract. A news conference is expected to be held tomorrow.

Two important things you need to know:

- Keeping in mind that the only real quantitative success the Boston Red Sox have had in the last 100 years was through thinking outside the box with a roster of eccentric personalities, an eccentric personality who thinks outside the box like Bobby Valentine is a great fit at manager. Also, he’s not Terry Francona, who can be be singularly blamed for every Boston-related problem to happen over the last 2-5 years.

- Bobby Valentine doesn’t just give the thumbs up or thumbs down to sandwiches, he invents them. According to Bobby Valentine, Bobby Valentine invented the wrap sandwich when a customer at his Bobby Valentine’s Sports Gallery Cafe ordered a club and the toaster was broken. You can thank today’s Hot Clicks for that little chestnut. Bobby Valentine also invented the chestnut when a hungry squirrel wandered into his restaurant and they were out of tater skins.

Personally I think the best part of the story is that it was broken by Tommy LaSorda, as all good stories are.

[Ed. note - In celebration of this week's theatrical release of The Muppets, here's our thing about Muppets. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat.]

We’re still a few months away from the release of The Muppets, starring and written by Jason Segel, but my excitement couldn’t be higher. Hold on, I’m receiving a breaking news message… *squirrel in a hot air balloon drops a note tied to an acorn on the table* … it appears that The Muppets also stars Rashida Jones and Mila Kunis, so I may have an awesome heart attack soon. In the meantime, it’s Friday and now I’m all Muppety, so what the hell can I do to resolve this?

Thankfully, while looking for something completely unrelated yesterday, I stumbled across the Muppets Wiki site and started perusing the history of the happiest shows of my childhood – The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. Eventually I realized that a lot of athletes have been told how to get to, how to get to Sesame Street over the past 42 years, and it all started with Jackie Robinson in 1969. From there, children and adults who are still children at heart watched with glee as their favorite athletes stopped by to teach us about the alphabet, sharing, numbers, living in garbage cans, depression, being a giant bird, same sex partnerships with bottle cap enthusiasts, and building motor skills, among others.

After the jump, I’ve compiled an extensive history of athletes making appearances on Sesame Street and with the Muppets. If you don’t enjoy this or smile the whole way through, then I’m afraid we’ll never be friends. And that would make Big Bird very sad.

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The St. Louis Cardinals won Game 7 of the World Series on Friday to secure the franchise’s 11th title (11 in ’11 is not ironic, despite what Shane Victorino thinks) and they had a whopping 48 hours or so to enjoy it before the entire world crumbled around them. Yesterday morning, Tony LaRussa announced his retirement after 33 years of managing and three World Series wins (16 and 2 with the Cardinals, respectively). Instead of celebrating an incredibly improbable championship run, Cardinals players and fans now wonder, “Who will be the next manager and will it affect whether or not Albert Pujols stays?”

Only one man – St. Louis GM John Mozeliak – knows the answer to that first question, and only one man – Albert Pujols – knows the answer to the second question. Granted, his agent, wife and kids probably know, but he’s the only man who matters for right now. That doesn’t mean, though, that every sports writer, blogger and Internet commenter on Earth won’t make predictions, some of them accurate and most of them way off base. First up, former Cardinal and the grittiest shortstop ever, David Eckstein.

“Albert would stay if (Jose) Oquendo got the job.”

“My initial reaction (after learning of La Russa’s retirement) was, ‘It needs to be Jose Oquendo,’” Eckstein said. “When you played for Tony, you didn’t want to disappoint him. When I was playing infield for Jose, I didn’t want to disappoint him. I know how much he has put into this. When you can get a player to play outside of himself, for someone else, that’s when you get the best out of a player.”

(Via Fox Sports)

LaRussa has long lobbied for Oquendo to get his shot at managing a big league ballclub, and he certainly has a nice foundation and situation in St. Louis. He makes sense as a replacement, as the fans and players love him. But that really doesn’t mean much of anything.

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Despite a rumor that had him pitching for a team that doesn’t make me want to kill myself, New York Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia jumped on the Internet on Halloween night to post a YouTube video announcing his brand new — and dare I say, fat — contract extension. The particulars of the deal, from Rumors and Rants:

The New York Yankees have reportedly agreed to a new deal with left-handed hurler CC Sabathia that will add $30 million to his existing contract. Sabathia had the opportunity to opt out of his deal this offseason and this move ensures that he will be in the Bronx for the near future.

Sabathia had until midnight to opt out of his current pact, which had $92 million remaining over the next four years, as he was scheduled to make $23 million each of the next four seasons. The new deal will add a year to the deal (2016) at $25 million, and gives the Yankees a $25 million option year in 2017, with a $5 million buyout. So basically the Yankees guaranteed Sabathia an extra year and at least an extra $30 million to convince him to stay.

C.C., the guy who took out a big ad in the newspaper thanking Cleveland Indians fans for not completely turning on him until he’d left the room, didn’t mention how the contract makes 2017 guaranteed if he spends x-amount of time off the disabled list or any of the particulars you might scan the wire for … he just wished us all a Happy Halloween, thanked the Steinbrenner family for making his literal and figurative never-ending buffet of financial success a reality, and said how excited he was to see everyone (even Greg Golson?) at the ballpark next year. I know he plays for the Evil Empire and all, but I feel like if you hate C.C. Sabathia, you might be doing it wrong.

You can watch the video below. Warning: It is a blonde wig and some karaoke song lyrics away from being a Shaq video.

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