Tragic news out of Los Angeles today: a toddler fell from the luxury suites at last night’s Lakers game to his eventual death.

Police Sgt. Frank Alvelais says early Monday that the boy, believed to be 2 or 3 years old, was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he died. The boy’s name hasn’t been released.

The boy fell from the third-level top tier of the Staples luxury suites several minutes after the Lakers beat the Warriors 117-89 on Sunday night.

The fall was speculated to be about 50 feet. One report said that the parents of the child didn’t realize that their son was missing before it was too late. I’m sure that nobody will make any sweeping generalizations about the state of “safety” at sporting events. Thoughts and prayers are with that well-off couple that spent all their babysitter money on their luxury suite. No, but really, this is sad.

I can’t really add anything to that headline that wouldn’t be redundant, other than that I’m surprised that this kind of thing doesn’t happen to the CEO of Garmin or Tomtom. And just for the record, I prefer the British voices on my GPS navigators. They sound more trustworthy.

Former miner Jimi Heselden, 62, plunged into the River Wharfe while riding around his West Yorkshire estate in Boston Spa on a rugged country version of the Segway. He bought the firm last December and was using one of the machines – which use gyroscopes to remain upright and are controlled by the direction in which the rider leans – to inspect the grounds of his property.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said today: ‘Police were called at 11.40am yesterday to reports of a man in the River Wharfe, apparently having fallen from the cliffs above…”At this time we do not believe the death to be suspicious.” –Daily Mail (UK).

This is where some idiots would say “the jokes just write themselves here.” NO THEY DO NOT. That’s just your lazy way of saying “I think this is really funny and I’m too lazy to infuse my own humor.” Prick. I might be too lazy as well, but at least I’m willing to own it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315518/Segway-owner-Jimi-Heselden-dies-riding-machines-cliff.html#ixzz10k6jHr2O

The President of THE Ohio State University has delivered the death knell to the greatest college football tradition as we know it. E. Gordon Gee has officially gone on record supporting the move of the Ohio State-Michigan game up the schedule, distancing it in time for the Big Ten’s new conference championship game in 2011. While some most of the national landscape remains indelibly scornful of the plight of Buckeye and Wolverine fans everywhere, those two fanbases are well aware of the implications of altering one of the great rivalries in all of sport. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing worse in life than seeing a young person go down with an untimely death, and unfortunately three of them have happened quite recently. We like to glorify gladiator-like athletes as they lay it all on the line to entertain the masses with rippling muscles and extreme athleticism, but at times the journey to fan adulation can end in horrific tragedy.

On Friday a sophomore pole vaulter at Grinnell College, a tiny Division III school situated somewhere in Iowa, was attempting a practice vault when his attempt went horribly awry. Robert Zhongjie Yin died yesterday because of it.

One of his coaches Peggy Brooks gave this play-by-play of the accident: “When he was vaulting he went up, didn’t go up the pole well and went off to the side…he just went up and went past the bar, and went to the side and missed the mat.” -Frat House Sports

Hopefully better safety precautions will be used all over the United States because of this incident, because it’s heartbreaking to think that there’s even a chance that someone could be severely injured while pole vaulting, which is such a controlled environment. At least he got to go out doing something he (presumably) loved.

Michael Kirkham, a 6’9″ 190 pound amateur fighter with a career record of 3-3, made his professional MMA debut Saturday night. Things turned fatal when his frail frame was no match for his thicker built opponent and he was unable to stop the deadly blows that rained down upon his skull. MMA, which has long been maligned for being too gruesome, suffered their second casualty ever that night. Read the rest of this entry »

Sad news out of Nevada today. Pro golfer Erica Blasberg was found dead in her home Sunday afternoon.

Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul said Monday that authorities were investigating the 25-year-old American’s death. It was not immediately clear whether foul play was involved.

Paul said police responded to a 911 call and were dispatched to Blasberg’s suburban three-bedroom house around 3 p.m. on Sunday. Paul declined to say who made the call, saying it was part of the investigation. –Y! News, as reported by GolfWeek.

We love the LPGA Tour (the truck-driving-lesbian image of that promotion has died out, thankfully), and this is just another horrible thing that they’ll have to deal with. There’s no correlation here between Yeardley Love or Dylan Steigers, but I would prefer that we could go a couple weeks without another person in sport suffering a tragic death. Unless it’s Joe Buck. Pretty sure I could handle that one. via Deadspin.

Dylan Steigers (not pictured), listed as a freshman wide receiver on the Eastern Oregon University football roster, died Sunday after suffering a blow to the head during a team scrimmage.

The school said Steigers…was hurt late Saturday. He left the field under his own power, but later vomited on the sideline — a sign of a concussion.

Steigers was transported to Grand Ronde Hospital, then sent to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, where he died. Medical personnel said Steigers suffered an acute subdural hematoma as the result of a blow to the head. –KC Star.

Details on the actual contact with the head have not been made public. Steigers transferred to Eastern Oregon, an NAIA school, from the University of Montana, and would have been eligible to play this fall. He also had a two-year-old daughter.

Steigers was 21.