We are proud to honor this week’s OTR Athlete of the Week, Ashley Harkleroad.

We are honoring Ashley for her dedication and commitment to her sport. And when it comes to sportsmanship, I think we’d all agree that none show more class than Ashley.

We aren’t sure exactly what sport she plays, but we think it could be tennis. Or golf. Actually, it could be field hockey. Regardless, when Ashley takes the field or court, she is 100% dedicated to doing whatever it is she’s supposed to be doing. We are absolutely certain that she does a hell of a job.

We also aren’t completely positive of Ashley’s age or what country she is from. But either way, she does her country proud every time she plays her sport.

So congratulations, Ashley! You are OTR’s Athlete of the Week.

LEGAL NOTICE: OTR’s Athlete of the Week is presented bi-monthly and may not be duplicated or reproduced without expressed written consent from OTR or its partners.

American tennis player Ashley Harkleroad and her fiance Chuck Adams welcomed their son Charlie Adams on March 30, 2009. Congrats to Ashley who says she would like to be playing on the tour again in the summer.

Ashley Harkleroad and her fiancee are expecting a baby boy in April! They are now living in a new home in Malibu where she is learing how to ccok and sew, and how to be a Mom. The baby shower is being held on Valentines day, and special friend Michael Chang will be there with a gift for Ashley.

She has been hitting tennis balls at least once a week, and she says that she expects to return to the tour in June, and to look for her at the US Open!

Whether Ashley Harkleroad becomes the Number 1 player in the world, or wins the 2009 Australian Open, (neither is likely to happen), she will always be remembered as the Tennis player who posed in the nude for Playboy magazine in the August 2008 edition.
She said about her decision to pose, “Posing for Playboy was doing something different. I enjoy being in front of the cameras, and I wanted to see where it would take me. It was important for me to showcase my body as the body of an athlete.” She went on to say that she hadn’t received any negative vibes from her fellow players, “They understand what I’m doing,” she added.
Ashley has always been known for her tendency to shock her fans. She wore scandalous outfits at the US Open, that would have banished her from Wimbledon had she decided to wear them there, and she has cultivated her reputation as the ‘American Anna’. A reference to her similarity to the sexy Anna Kournakovia, the famous Russian player whose natural beauty and sex appeal made her a fan favourite wherever she played. Neither player has won a Major event of placed higher than the 3rd. round.
As a talented Junior player Ashley was touted to be the next American star of the WTA tour, so far she has fallen short. A winner of multiple junior singles and doubles events she turned pro in 2000, and rose to an all time high of 39th. in the rankings. She has had a couple of victories over top ten players, but has never been able to string together a series of victories. She is more famous for the buzz she causes around the courts than for her performance on the courts. She is coached by her boy friend Chuck Adams, who John McEnroe reported is the father of her baby. If the report is confirmed it would eliminate her from appearing in the 2009 Australian Open.
For a while Ashley lived in the town of Flintstone Georgia, a town with one stop light and two stores, and she was naturally nicknamed ‘Pebbles’. The name has stuck and her friends use the name constantly when talking about her. She recently underwent surgery for an ovarian cyst, and when Roger Federer took his time to seek her out and ask her how she was, she became his instant fan saying, “He’s such a nice Guy, I’m surprised he even knew who I was. I also think he’s so much better looking than Nadal, a classy man, more my type!”
If Ashley decides to get serious about playing tennis she could easily become a member of the US Fed Cup team along with the Williams sisters, and she has the talent to win a tour event. So far without a win she has earned about $1 million in prize money, and as she herself commented, “Playing tennis is better than having a ‘real’ job!”

Ashley Harkleroad é uma razoável tenista mas um muita boa mulher. Há uns meses tornou-de famosa ao ser a primeira atleta do ténis a posar nua para a celebre revista Playboy.

Pode ver mais fotos desta loira sensual aqui

Ashley Harkleroad, a tennis player who graces the cover of Playboy magazine for its August issue, pulled out of the US Open because she was pregnant, according to her agent yesterday.

Read the rest of the entry here

Everyone’s favorite tennis player gone Playboy is knocked up. John McEnroe reported this groundbreaking story during coverage of the U.S. Open earlier today. I’m guessing this is why she didn’t play the Open. The father is (thankfully) her fiancee/coach, Chuck Adams. Congratulations, Ash, I guess.

American tennis player Ashley Harkleroad looks wholesome and sporty on the cover of the August 2008 issue of Playboy, which has just arrived on newsstands. But rest assured, she’s never appeared on court quite like this. Harkleroad did the photo shoot in May, before getting eliminated in the first round of the French Open.

Harkleroad, 23, is the first tennis player to appear in Playboy. She said the offer came earlier this year when she was recovering from surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. “I was just laying there for three weeks, and an offer came to me,” she says. “I thought, I’m not really doing anything right now. I’m proud of my body. I was representing a female athlete’s body.”

Click here to see more pictures

La tenista estadounidense Ashley Harkleroad, número 72 del mundo, es la primera jugadora que posa desnuda para la revista Playboy. Su imagen ocupa la portada del mes de agosto.

PLAYBOY: La tenista Ashley Harkleroad de 23 años y actualmente ocupando el puesto 61 del ranking mundial, se desnudó para la revista pornográfica internacional Playboy. La tirada oficial sale en Agosto pero como siempre en Internet ya están casi todas la fotos disponibles de Ashley al mejor estilo Victoria Vanucci mostrando todo. Linkealo

REHENES: La FIFA en una actitud desesperada llamó la atención a los clubes europeos para que liberen lo más pronto posible a los jugadores menores de 23 años que fueron convocados para las selecciones nacionales con motivo de los Juegos Olímpicos del inminente agosto. En especial, se apuntó al caso Messi-Barcelona. Lionel sigue alejado del plantel argentino que ya salió rumbo a Asia. Linkealo 

SEGA: Ya salió el videojuego oficial de los Juegos Olímpicos. “Beijing 2008″ es una plataforma SEGA que incluye más de 30 disciplinas en alta definición y bajo un concepto de simulación espectacular que también integra competencias online. Fue lanzado para Playstation 3, la XBOX 360 Live y para PC. Linkealo

Sex, Drugs & Athletes received mixed reviews in its first run last week, so I might make a few changes to try to lighten things up a little bit. But like any good research, more feedback needs to occur before I make any drastic changes.

Besides, you cannot make everyone happy all the time anyway. As long as someone out there gets some enjoyment out of this column, it will be well worth my time. And then Hell’s Kitchen will start a new season, and we all can forget about this train wreck.

By the way, I think I might be the only person to not see The Dark Knight yet. But I do have my tickets for the midnight showing of The X-Files 2 tomorrow night!!!

This week in the roundup: Reggie Bush, Tom Brady, Roger Clemens and Ashley Harkleroad. Enjoy after the jump.

Reggie Bush, New Orleans Saints’ enigmatic runningback, wants his girlfriend Kim Kardashian to lose some of the junk in her trunk.

I know Kim is not endeared by many, but I actually happen to like her just a little bit more than the average guy. She can be pretty sexy and seems genuine on her television show, Keeping up with the Kardashians. Plus she blogs.

I certainly do not like her for her caboose, though, and I agree with Reggie here. That’s just gross.

I know she may be famous — infamous, perhaps? — for all the wrong reasons, but she is dating one of the NFL’s biggest stars at the moment (although that could change very quickly if Bush fails to have a better season in 2008 than he did in 2007). If your man is a ridiculous-looking athlete, the least you could do is keep a nice toned ass.

Tom Brady, the New England Patriots’ pretty boy quarterback, must have read this column here at The Microcosm.

Brady and his love interest, Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen, were photographed surfing recently as the quarterback recovers from the Patriots’ almost perfect season. Brady and the Pats won 19 straight games in 2007 before losing to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.

Bundchen, unlike Kardashian, is smokin’ hot all the way down. You go Tom.

Roger Clemens, former Major League Baseball star turned steroid and human growth hormone (HGH) suspect, apparently received shipments of HGH in the mail according to the New York Daily News.

Clemens has vehemently denied using any type of artificial enhancement since being named in the Mitchell Report earlier this year. His legacy, however, as one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history has taken quite a hit.

Not going to lie, as much as I hated the Yankees and Red Sox growing up (Orioles’ fan), I liked Clemens. I thought he was a good-enough guy, a fierce competitor and an amazing talent in his sport. I felt the same way about Barry Bonds, for a time. But the association with steroid and/or HGH use will forever taint both men’s legacies, even if they never touched the stuff.

Ashley Harkleroad, budding tennis superstar player, appeared in the latest edition of Playboy.

At least she is making a name for herself off-the-court, because I will be honest: Never heard of her before the Playboy spread.

Harkleroad continues a string of female athletes appearing in Playboy. Amanda Beard, American Olympic swimmer, also recently appeared in Playboy.

Harkleroad is pretty darn sexy. If she never makes it on the tennis court, she always has her looks. Sounds like Anna Kournikova, no?

Now if only Kournikova would agree to do a spread.

American tennis player Ashley Harkleroad looks wholesome and sporty on the cover of the August 2008 issue of Playboy, which has just arrived on newsstands. Harkleroad, 23, is the first tennis player to appear in Playboy. “I’m proud of my body,” she says. “I was representing a female athlete’s body.” Harkleroad says she enjoyed doing the photo shoot, saying it was hard work but a real blast. “It was just a completely different experience. It was fun.” Read More

According to Ashley her photo spread in Playboy Magazine was “tastefully done”. I just recently saw the photos and  I have to say.. they are definitely not tasteful. They probably could have done better with all her clothes off. Not with some kind of upskirt/uptop akward pose with a commercial headshot smile plastered on her face. I’m scared of naked girl on the tennis court! They made my worst nightmare come alive! This is the only good shot in that entire spread.

See the rest of the photos here in the comments.

In the words of the immortal Lowetide: this is David Cooper. David Cooper was the first round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in the past June’s draft. Now, at this point you’ve all probably realized that I’m about to waste your time with talk about low-tier minor league baseball, but before you get all huffy and start complaining about how much better this site was when we were giving you T&A, slow down, sit back at the bar and listen up. Sometimes I’ll satisfy your lustful desires with links to 63rd-ranked tennis phenom Ashley Harkleroad’s Playboy shoot (sorry, I would have led with a photo, but it didn’t seem right to start a post about the Lansing Lugnuts with high-heeled tennis shoes), and sometimes I’ll satisfy my sulf-indulgent nature with a long-winded post about minor-league first basemen.

Which brings me back to Cooper. Since being drafted on June 5, Cooper has played in 30 minor league games. The first 21 were for the Auburn Doubledays, the Jays’ short-season A-ball affiliate. Cooper raked that league in a hurry, going 29-85 with 10bb and only 16 strikeouts, 10 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers and 21 RBIs. That works out to a .341/.411/.553/.964 stretch that proved he was clearly outclassing the short-season league. Being a guy with three years of college experience under his belt (and having raked at Cal this past season), Cooper is too experienced for the Auburn league, made up mostly of college underclassmen and second-year players drafted out of high-school.

So instead he gets bumped up to Lansing, the Jays’ Single-A affiliate. Now, Lansing is made up almost entirely of top-level high schoolers picked last year, so Cooper would once again seem to be ahead of the league. And early indications are that he is, as he’s posted almost identical numbers in his first 9 games in Lansing as he did in Auburn, coming out with a .963 OPS after tonight’s game. Again, it makes no sense for Cooper to be in a league against players who are less advanced than those he faced in college. Cooper should have made the jump directly to the team’s High-A affiliate in Dunedin (I know, it’s a little dumb that a team has three SIngle-A affliates).

Dunedin’s current first-baseman is a former Cubs prospect by the name of Brian Dopirak who was a big deal about 4 years ago, but has kind of petered off the map over the last few years, only to find himself back in A-ball where he is killing pitching. Dopirak’s 18 homers are tied for the Florida State League lead, and his 61 RBIs place him in third. Kind of hilariously, one of the two guys tied for first with 62 RBIs is Toronto catching prospect JP Arencibia, who was called up to Double-A like 30-some games ago and has still yet to be passed in that category by anyone. Dopirak’s .869 OPS would lead the team if it weren’t for Anthony Hatch, who’s hit for a 1.595 OPS in the 9 games since he was sent down from Double-A, and it is tied for 5th amongst FSLers with 230 or more plate appearances.

So if Dopirak is so successful at Dunedin, you’d guess there is no room to bring up Cooper, right? Wrong. You see, at 24, Dopirak is too old for his league, and he is deserving of his own call up to New Hampshire in AA. The first baseman there, Kyle Phillips, is sporting a measly-by-comparison .751 OPS and only 4 dingers. It would seem that NH would be in need of the kind of slugging first baseman that Dopirak can be, paving the way for Cooper to head to Dunedin and perhaps face the kind of challenge he needs for his development.

It should be a race to the majors between Dopirak and Cooper over the next two years, with one or the other being ready to take Lyle Overbay’s spot when he becomes a free agent after the 2010 season. Thanks for your patience; I promise not to talk about non-major-league baseball for at least a week.

Ashley Harkleroad is neither Anna Kournikova, Ana Ivanovic nor Maria Sharapova but she is naked in Playboy, and I’d be incredibly remiss to not post the photos of a young sports star naked. I think I’d lose my blogging license or something.

Anyhow, Harkleroad did what those other super hot ladies only tease us with in their Maxim spreads, putting the goods on the table, and for that, I am thankful. These photos have been circulating all around the other blogs (Deadspin, With Leather, The Big Lead) all day, so maybe you’re sick of them by now, but hey, naked tennis player right!

After the jump are a few definitely NSFW pics, so be warned.

A tenista americana Ashley Harkleroad, 23 anos, número 72º do mundo, será capa da revista “Playboy” de agosto nos Estados Unidos.

É a primeira vez na história que uma tenista faz um ensaio nu para uma revista. Em entrevista ao USA Today, a atleta disse que tem orgulho do seu corpo.

Já a tenista Serena Williams disse ao USA Today que respeita a decisão da colega, mas que nunca pensou em fazer o mesmo.

ATP/Yahoo