Rodman Goes to North Korea; BCS Championship Tonight; Jerry Coleman Dead
BALDWIN: A man who disappeared on New Year's Day has been found alive and his mother is calling this a miracle. A photographer just happened to be walking by, snapped this photograph of Nicholas Simmons trying to stay warm on a heating grate in Washington, D.C. His mother and friends in upstate New York recognized him in the newspaper, found out where the photo was snapped. The family staked out the location for hours on Sunday and Simmons showed up and was reunited with his family. We have pictures now of Dennis Rodman arriving today in north Korea. There he is. As we said, he's taking a team of former ball players to help Kim Jong-un celebrate his birthday. Rodman and Kim, you know the deal. They have got this Bizarro friendship going. And Kim, by the way, turns 31 on Wednesday, birthday coming up. So, having recently executed his uncle, who was considered his father figure, just keep that in mind, background, Kim's dictator include a nuclear weapon and 60 percent of his people exists on communist rations of dry corn and rice. Dennis Rodman, on the other hand, reportedly dined pretty well at his last soiree in North Korea. He maintains no agenda here, none at all, just basketball and his friendship with the dictator, Kim.</s>DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA PLAYER: I'm going over there, do my thing, try to interact with him on that form of love for sports. He loves sports. I like the guy. The guy's awesome to me. And that's about it. No more.</s>BALDWIN: With us now from Shelter Island, New York, sports columnist and NBA analyst Peter Vecsey. Peter, welcome.</s>PETER VECSEY, SPORTS COLUMNIST: Thank you very much for having me.</s>BALDWIN: We want to talk about the band of NBA players in a minute. Dennis Rodman, do you think he the gets the fact that the cross dressing, tattoos, does he get the fact that Kim Jong-un doesn't even let his own people do these things?</s>VECSEY: Probably doesn't enter his mind. He's always been a strange guy. He is what he is on the court and off the court. Who wouldn't want the most decorated player with the tats and the body rings and he's probably ripped up as well, who wouldn't want him representing the United States.</s>BALDWIN: Right, right. Peter, let me take you through some of all stars, Cliff Robinson, Kenny Anderson had a DUI last spring, lost a coaching job for it. Craig sued the NBA for blackballing him. Here's my question to you. Why go to North Korea? What's in it for these guys?</s>BALDWIN: We all know what's in it. It's a payday. I'm sure that's the bottom line here. I don't think they would be going just to see the 38 parallel. Some people would like to see that. I think it's pretty obvious, money.</s>BALDWIN: How much money, do we have any clue?</s>VECSEY: No, I don't know how much. All these guys that you mentioned probably need it. I know for sure some of them do. They haven't had many paydays. As you mentioned about Kenny, he and I went to the same high school in Queens, had the same coach. Very proud of Kenny. He just got let go, as you said, because of the DUI. It wasn't his first. These guys are hurting in many ways. They want to get in the spotlight again, also.</s>BALDWIN: They are in the spotlight. We're talking about it. Who is paying them? Is it Dennis Rodman? Come to North Korea and I'll give you some money?</s>VECSEY: It's the bookmaker that's putting the money behind it. What is it, Patty something, took their name off this whole thing, but he's still living up to his financial obligations. So, he's footing the bill or his company is footing the bill, I'm sure. The good news is, no Madonna on this trip.</s>BALDWIN: No Madonna on this trip. We'll be watching for the photo op. Peter Vecsey, thank you very much. It is the game for all the marbles. Just a couple of hours from now, number one ranked Florida State will take on number two Auburn in this year's college football championship game. It has been dubbed "Dominance Versus Destiny." Florida State has dominated each of its opponents while Auburn has used a couple miraculous endings -- easy for me to say -- to eke out some big wins. Neither team was ranked very high when the season started and because of that fans may be able to cash in if they predict their team's success. Joe Carter from CNN Sports is covering the game for us. And, Joe, betting on a long shot may actually pay off for some of these fans, right?</s>JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS: Yeah, exactly, Brooke. Let me explain the story here. Basically, at the beginning of this college football season, nobody thought that the Auburn Tigers would be playing for the national championship because of how poorly they finished last season. So Las Vegas several sports books gave them crazy odds. It was a 1,000-to-one odds of them winning the national title. So these Las Vegas sports books said that they sold 14 tickets ranging in about a $10 bet to about a $100 bet for them to win a national championship, so that basically means that whoever had those tickets out there could win anywhere from $10,000 if they win tonight to $100,000 on a $10 to $100 bet, which is crazy when you think about it. And Florida State, the number one team in the country, they do come in tonight as the heavy favorite, a 10-point favorite and all that. So there are a few Auburn Tiger fans out there right now very much wanting to see their team win tonight, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: OK, and then what about ticket prices? You think of a championship game, you think that the ticket price should be huge, but I'm hearing it's surprisingly low, right?</s>CARTER: Yeah, and I don't want to make it out that there's no interest in this game. It's because of the size of stadium and the distance of travel, basically. You're looking at about 2,000-miles-plus for each school to get here to Pasadena. And, also, the Rose Bowl is 93,000 people here, whereas last year in Miami, it's about 75,000, 76,000. So ticket prices ranging from about $300 to $800, whereas last year, they were going for about $1,500 a ticket. So, if you're in the Pasadena area and you want to take in the game, you can get a pretty decent ticket.</s>BALDWIN: Come on by! Come on down to Pasadena. Joe Carter, enjoy it. Enjoy the game. Thank you so much. And before I let you go, I just wanted to remember Jerry Coleman today, a Hall of Fame baseball announcer with the San Diego Padres. He was the 1949 Rookie of the Year, won four World Series titles with the New York Yankees. Along the way, Coleman flew 120 air combat missions in both World War II and Korea, the only Major Leaguer ever to see combat in two wars, baseball star, Hall of Fame broadcaster, American war hero. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.