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A minor league baseball pitcher had the ultimate feather in his cap on Wednesday -- when he caught a bird with his glove ... and wore it on his head!!!

The bird collector is Jesus Cruz -- who plays for the St. Louis Cardinals' minor league affiliate, Peoria Chiefs.

Cruz was exiting the mound after pitching 4.2 innings -- when a little bird flew in his path.

The 23-year-old righty snatched the animal on his way to the dugout ... and when it fell to the ground, he scooped it up into his glove and appeared to say a prayer for his new feathery friend.

It worked ... the bird sprung to life -- so Cruz promptly placed it on top of his head!!

Don't worry ... the bird looked all good after the incident (hopefully, he's okay!).

3:56 PM PT -- A rep for the UFC tells TMZ Sports ... Cormier insists he's "fine" and will be okay to fight on Saturday.

Daniel Cormier slipped and fell while leaving the UFC 226 news conference in Vegas moments ago ... and it looked like he came up limping.

Cormier was getting up from the table after promoting Saturday's fight against Stipe Miocic when he slipped and hit the ground. You can see his championship belt go flying.

Cormier eventually got up and gingerly walked off stage. He returned to the stage minutes later to square off and pose with Stipe.

We're making calls right now to check on DC's health ... stay tuned.

President Trump just lost another cabinet member -- Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is resigning after getting a taste of what Sarah Huckabee Sanders went through at Red Hen.

The President announced Thursday he'd accepted Pruitt's resignation and thanked him for doing an "outstanding job" -- but many people didn't see it that way ... including the teacher who confronted Pruitt Monday at a D.C. area restaurant.

While holding her 2-year-old son, the woman told Pruitt he should resign after a slew of controversies. He's been accused of spending too much on personal security, asking aides to help with his wife's job search ... and trying to secure a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel for his own use.

The confrontation clearly got to Pruitt. In his resignation letter he said, "The unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us."

Cristiano Ronaldo could give Kim Kardashian a run for her money ... because the soccer star is reportedly in talks with Facebook for a new reality show.

CR7 is shopping the show to Facebook Watch and could score a $10 MILLION paycheck for 13 episodes ... according to Variety.

And, there's a Tom Brady connection -- the show would be produced by Religion of Sports, the media company that did "Tom vs. Time" for Facebook Watch.

Ronaldo definitely has an interesting life -- he's got 4 kids including newborn twins that were reportedly birthed by a mystery surrogate in the United States.

He's also rumored to be engaged to Georgina Rodriguez -- the mother of his daughter, Alana, who was born just over 7 months ago.

Ronaldo's son, Cristiano Jr., is 8 years old and a soccer prodigy -- could be interesting to see how CR7 is training him to become the next big thing.

The show would be the latest in a strong of Hollywood projects for Ronaldo -- who's launching a superhero series, "Striker Force 7," based on himself, along with a scripted soccer TV drama series.

NY Giants star Janoris Jenkins says the man who was killed at his New Jersey home was a "good friend" -- and it "hurts my heart to know that he's passed."

TMZ Sports broke the story ... officials found a dead body in Jenkins' basement on June 26. The body was identified as music producer Roosevelt Rene, aka Trypps Beats.

Janoris' brother William Jenkins has been charged with aggravated manslaughter in connection to the death.

Now, Janoris is speaking out, saying, "With regret and sadness I wish to inform the fans, and the public a good friend of mine Roosevelt Rene a.k.a. Trypps Beats was found dead at my place of residence."

"Trypps was a good friend and we were collaborating on music production together. It truly hurts my heart to know he has passed away."

"At the time of the incident I was in Florida preparing to finish off my promotional tour. As this is an ongoing incident, I cannot answer any questions related to the investigation."

LeBron James may not be the richest guy floating off the Amalfi Coast right now ... because Jimmy Iovine just showed up!

The music mogul was spotted on a yacht with LeBron on the 4th of July -- as the NBA star continues to celebrate his new $154 million Lakers contract.

Unclear if LeBron is on Jimmy's yacht ... or if Jimmy is on LeBron's yacht -- but one thing is for sure ... they can both afford some sick boats!

By the way, they have a Beats By Dre connection -- Jimmy (who co-founded the company with Dr. Dre) made a fortune when Apple purchased it for $3.2 billion.

Did you also know ... LeBron ALSO made a ton of cash from the sale? He reportedly got a small stake in the company in exchange for promoting the brand back in 2008 and, when it sold to Apple, he made a cool $30 mil!

UFC legend Matt Serra claims some drunk a-hole was threatening the servers at a Vegas cafe on July 4 ... so, he took action -- AND TOOK THE GUY DOWN!

Serra was chllin' at the Grand Cafe at Red Rock Casino -- the night before he's set to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame -- when he saw the alleged a-hole being a jerk to staff.

The former welterweight champ subdued the patron -- while the guy continued to yell at Serra, "I'm gonna f*ck you up."

Spoiler: he did NOT "f*ck" Serra up.

Security rushed to the scene and took over.

Baker Mayfield's former Oklahoma wideouts ain't gonna like this ... the new Browns QB is taking pop shots at ALL of them ... saying he can catch better than any of his ex-Sooner teammates!!

Baker was asked what he thought his Madden 19 rating should be ... and he had HUGE issues with his 38 catch rating, saying, "I can catch better than all my receivers at Oklahoma."

He didn't just stop there ...

"Now [in Cleveland] I have some better ones."

FYI ... Baker did snag a touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl in January ... but his tight end Mark Andrews was a third-round pick and his top wideout, Marquise Brown, is a projected 2019 first-rounder!!

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star Nia Vardalos has filed for divorce from her husband, Ian Gomez.

Vardalos filed divorce docs in an L.A. County court Tuesday ... the couple has one daughter together and got married back in 1993. She lists the date of separation as June 29, 2017 and requests both joint legal and physical custody.

Vardalos wrote and starred in 'MBFGW,' playing Toula Portokalos in the 2002 film along with John Corbett who played the groom. Gomez was also in the movie, but had a smaller role.

Nia's gone on to write and star in 'MBFGW2,' and appear in a few episodes of 'Law & Order: SVU' and a spinoff series, "My Big Fat Greek Life" which only lasted one season.

Gomez's career has included appearances on "The Drew Carey Show," as well as "Fresh Off the Boat" ... and he spent 6 years on the show "Cougar Town."

Several survivors of the Capital Gazette shooting got to spend some time with the Stanley Cup on Tuesday ... thanks to the Washington Capitals equipment manager.

The story is heartbreaking ... Capitals staffer Craig Leydig had just finished a phone interview with the newspaper on June 28 -- and, minutes later, a gunman stormed the place and opened fire, killing 5 people.

Leydig -- an Annapolis resident -- was devastated and wanted to do something to help.

Since every Washington Capitals player and staffer gets a day with the Cup, Leydig decided to use his 24 hours to bring Lord Stanley's hardware to the Gazette's temporary office to help cheer up the staff.

The staff got to spend roughly 45 minutes with the trophy -- and Gazette reporter Rick Hutzell says it's something he'll remember for the rest of his life.

"We want to thank Craig for coming in with the Stanley Cup. It was clearly a big morale boost for everyone, particularly the hockey fans in the newsroom."

G-Eazy and Halsey have officially called it quits on their relationship.

Halsey just announced the split, saying, "I feel the need to inform my fans. G-Eazy and I are taking some time apart. I'm eager to continue the upcoming passage of time dedicating myself to my art and my career and the duration of my tour. I wish him the best."

The two were nearly inseparable after first linking up in the fall of last year. They hit up award shows, music festivals, concerts and collaborated on music together.

In December of last year, they released "Him & I" ... a song that soared up the Billboard Pop chart.

TMZ broke the story ... G-Eazy was arrested in Sweden back in May after he was allegedly caught with cocaine in a nightclub. Halsey was traveling with him at the time of the arrest.

49ers star Reuben Foster was just hit with a 2-game suspension for his 2018 arrests involving guns and weed -- and issued a statement apologizing for his "mistakes."

Foster recently pled no contest to misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon stemming from a February domestic violence arrest.

The domestic violence case went to court -- but the charges were ultimately dismissed when the alleged victim changed her story and claimed she made the whole thing up.

Foster was also arrested back in January for marijuana possession in Alabama.

Tuesday, the NFL punished the linebacker for the guns and weed -- but NOT for anything connected to domestic violence.

He'll miss the first 2 games of the NFL season without pay.

Foster issued a statement, saying he's "sorry that my mistakes have hurt my team."

"I have a responsibility to the 49ers, our fans and our community, and I am committed to learning from this situation and making better choices in the future."

Tim Tebow's bat has been hot lately ... but, his defense -- not so much, 'cause the ex-NFLer and current Mets farmhand took a ball straight to the dome in a minor league game Monday night!!

It all went down in Portland, Maine in a tilt between Tebow's Binghamton Rumble Ponies and the opposing Portland Sea Dogs ... when Josh Ockimey belted a ball deep to Tebow in left field.

The ball hit high off the wall and came crashing down ... right at Tim's head.

It clanked off his head -- rolled all the way to the fence in foul territory ... and ended up as an RBI triple.

Tebow's squad took the L, 5-3 ... but, it wasn't all Tim's fault -- he went 3-for-4 with two RBIs at the plate!!

By the way ... Tebow IS an All-Star this year, getting named to the Eastern League roster last week.

And, hey ... even MLB legends make blunders with their heads in the outfield every once in a while ...

Kristin Cavallari put Jay Cutler on the hot seat -- asking him straight-up ... now that you're not playing football, what exactly do you DO all day long?!

It's all part of their new E! reality show, "Very Cavallari" -- which follows KC as a working mom and Jay Cutler ... as a non-working mom.

No, really ... Cutler even jokes about how his life revolves around picking up their kids from school and beating "all the other moms there."

At one point, Kristin turns to Jay and says, "Like honestly, what do you do all day?"

Kristin also lectures Jay about it's time for her career as a jewelry designer to get priority -- saying, "You have to realize how many sacrifices I've had to make over 8 football seasons that we've been together."

For the record, Jay's 12-year NFL career earned more than $120 MILLION for their family.

Thon Maker is suggesting that CRAZY basketball fight this week could have been prevented if there was better security in the stadium -- insinuating officials should be breaking up fights, and not players.

Maker -- who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks -- was playing for team Australia in a FIBA match against the Philippines when things got chippy and a full-on brawl broke out.

Maker jumped right into the melee -- throwing flying knees at multiple players.

Now, he's apologizing ... saying he's "deeply disappointed" in his actions but justified the violence by saying he was trying to protect a teammate.

"My hope is that this experience provides a springboard for a discussion regarding the security surrounding these games," Maker wrote.

"I take responsibility for my actions knowing that they were a result of MY DESIRE to protect my teammates and myself."

It seems he's suggesting security should be tasked with the responsibility of breaking up on-court fights ... instead of players and team staff.

Maker continued ... "Being from a war-torn country, basketball for me has always been a means to bring people together."

Terrell Owens has finally revealed where he'll have his own Hall of Fame induction ceremony ... and it WILL NOT be in any of the cities where he played during his NFL career.

As we previously reported, T.O. declined his invite to Canton -- the first player EVER to turn it down -- and teased that he'd have his own ceremony somewhere else on the same day.

Well, now, he's let the cat out of the bag ... it's all going down at his alma mater, The University of Tennessee Chattanooga.

"After giving it much thought, I have realized just how much I want to celebrate what will inevitably be the best weekend of my life at a place that means so much to me," T.O. says.

"I have decided to give my Hall of Fame speech at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in McKenzie Arena on Saturday, August 4. The event, which is free and open to the public, starts at 3:17 p.m."

Soooo, why 3:17 PM?

WE HAVE THE ANSWER -- His rep tells us it's because T.O. will be the 317th player to enter the Hall.

It's also about 4 hours before the official HOF ceremony begins ... so, he's beating guys like Ray Lewis, Randy Moss and Brian Urlacher to the punch.

Owens continued ... "I'm proud to be a Moc, and I'm honored to be able to share this experience with my family, friends, teammates and fans at the place that provided me an opportunity beyond high school and where I truly began to find myself as an athlete."