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Via the Memphis Business Journal ...

The Memphis Grizzlies jumped 42 spots to No. 71 in ESPN The Magazine's "Ultimate Standings" list of franchises in the four major North American sports leagues: Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL and NHL.

ESPN says the standings measure how much "franchises give back to the fans in exchange for all the time, money and emotion the fans invest in them." Included in the rankings are metrics like "Bang for the Buck" (wins divided by revenue), affordability, fan relations, ownership, players, stadium experience, title track and coaching.

Back to the MBJ for an explanation:

In 2008, the Grizzlies finished in 113th place. This year, the franchise saw significant improvement thanks to a ninth place outcome in affordability and strong gains in the players, coaching, title track and stadium experience categories.

The Griz's worst showing was in the ownership category, which is a not-uncommon area of criticism.

RELATED: "Your Memphis Grizzlies, the Biggest Losers."

I'm back to blogging after a few days off, so let's get to it ...

A Colorado family vacationing in Jackson Hole, Wyo., found something interesting in pile of melting snow at the ski resort: a silver money clip stuffed with cash, credit cards and business cards. The family tried to track down the owner, and found that the $360 belonged to none other than Memphis Grizzlies guard Marko Jaric. It turns out Jaric dropped the money clip four months ago while in Jackson Hole for his wedding to Victoria's Secret supermodel Adriana Lima. The family intends to track down Jaric, who has been traveling out of the country with his new wife.

NBC2 News in southwest Florida has video.

Jeff Powell of prowrestling.net has the scoop on the main event at Tuesday night's WWE Smackdown/ECW taping at FedExForum: Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy vs. Edge and Chris Jericho in a steel cage match. (Powell cites local advertising, so I hope I'm not hopelessly behind the curve. I haven't kept up with wrestling in many years, I'm afraid.) Also, Jerry Lawler, The King of Memphis wrestling, will make a special appearance as a guest referee. As Powell says, "It wouldn't be a wrestling show in Memphis without some involvement from The King." Powell also is looking for people who will attend the show to help him out with a report. Contact him at dotnetjason@gmail.com if you're interested. Go here to buy tickets for $15.

Speaking of Memphis wrestling, if you grew up watching the Saturday-morning broadcasts from WMC-TV 5 studios, you might remember Bruno Lauer, who was a bad-guy manager known as Downtown Bruno and later Harvey Whippleman. Lauer has a memoir available titled "Wrestling with the Truth" that should be worth a read by wrestling fans.

Lauer shot off an angry e-mail to The Commercial Appeal, which he says ignored a promotional copy of the book that he sent to the newspaper. More than that, what really angered Lauer was all the attention given lately to "$5 Cover" creator Craig Brewer:

this had upset me at the time,but now more-so than ever,due to the almost obsessive exposure and ridiculous amount of attention the ca has been relentlessly providing to craig brewer,the film-maker whose claim to fame is glorifying drugs,pimps,and prostitution...a really flattering glimpse of memphis to the rest of the world,wouldnt you say? instead of giving a loca l author exposure for his(my)first book,you feature this ridiculous "5 dollar cover" project in a prominent position in the ca every day,and have ad nauseum for weeks now.

I'm not much of a fan of any of Brewer's movies, and I'll take Alan Spearman's "$5 Cover Amplified" documentaries any day over the scripted MTV show, so I'm happy give Lauer some props and exposure. I'll close out by offering a couple of classic Downtown Bruno clips here and here.

Mixed-martial arts fans in Memphis might have something to look forward to, now that UFC, the sport's major league, is looking to produce an event here in town. That's according to MMAJunkie.com, citing a story in the Northwest Indiana Times.

A UFC card would be a major step up for the sport's presence in town, as the only sanctioned MMA event in Memphis so far was a relatively small-time affair in April at Minglewood Hall in Midtown.

The stories about Memphis ranking poorly in some survey or another seem to appear with mind-numbing frequency these days. Why, here's one that just came out today: Memphis ranks low on a ranking of city fitness indicators. Forbes in particular seems to have it in for us: Remember the "second-most-miserable city"? and second-most-dangerous city? (Come on, guys, at least give us the satisfaction of dead last!)

Here they go again. Forbes.com writer Monte Burke ranks our very own Bad News Bears, the Memphis Grizzlies, as the most-losing franchise in sports. As Burkes points out, this "honor" comes on the heels of Griz owner Michael Heisley clocking in as the third-worst owner in the NBA. Besides what some people view as stingy absentee ownership, Burkes also mentions the Griz's roots in basketball-averse Canada, and the supremacy of the Memphis Tigers in this market, as reasons for the futility, which includes zero playoff wins in three appearances. Fine, all of it. But then he gets all ign'ant:

Me? I blame the name. Grizzly bears? In Memphis? A more fitting moniker: the Memphis Blues, which would describe the malady the team has afflicted on its fans.

First off, we Memphians have plenty to give us the blues besides a bad NBA team (though a bad Tigers team would definitely worsen our blues). What we don't need is some fancy sports writer denying our sporting heritage! You see, Monty Monte, before the Memphis Hound Dogs, the Memphis Mad Dogs, even before the Memphis Showboats, we had the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League. The team boasted the "Miami Trio" of Jim Kiick, Larry Csonka and Paul Warfield, who had two Super Bowl rings and a perfect 17-0 season on their resumes.  None other than Elvis Presley was a fan of the team. The problem: "Southmen" was an impossibly lame name, so fans referred to -- and now remember -- the guys as the Memphis Grizzlies.

Thus, about 25 years later, when the hapless NBA Grizzlies -- who, by the way, originally were to be called the Mounties -- were moved to Memphis, Memphians of a certain age were able to embrace the name because of the link to the old WFL. At any rate, it was much better than the corporate-naming-rights alternative, thankfully squashed by the NBA: Memphis Express (maybe they could've worn purple and orange!).

So, Monty Monte, blame the owners, the terrible promotions, unmotivated players, bad coaching, an indifferent city -- just don't blame the name!

UPDATE: I got so carried away that I misspelled Monte a couple of times. And how could I forget the Memphis Maniax?

UPDATE: For the record, the Griz story actually appeared on Forbes.com all the way back on May 15. I saw it on Yahoo! Sports, which posted it Monday.