The Sports Curmudgeon

If you are to believe the conspiracy theorists, lots of really good “mid-major teams” were denied a shot at the NCAA tournament in favor of incompetent and feckless teams from the lower echelons of the “power conferences”. So, the logical consequence of that miscarriage of justice ought to be that those worthy mid-majors should do well in the NIT since the power conference schools available to play there must be unable to tie their shoes correctly. So, without peeking, who played in the NIT Finals? I’ll tell you because the conspiracy theorists will conveniently ignore the fact that it was Clemson versus West Virginia. Neither team is “one for the ages” by any stretch of the imagination; between them, they lost 20 games this season. But please take note that two teams from the depths of two power conferences managed to survive the onslaught of all those unjustly ignored mid-majors.

Bob Molinaro in the Virginian-Pilot had an interesting perspective on this year’s NCAA basketball tournament and the way the top seeds have advanced:

“This year, while people where naively looking around for the next George Mason, the tournament failed to deliver on its promise. Upsets were harder to find than a Phi Beta Kappa in a headband.”

Nolan Richardson went from coaching the national champions at Arkansas to getting fired by the Razorbacks and then suing the school for discrimination. Then he sort of disappeared from the landscape for a while. About a week ago, Richardson surfaced as the coach of the Mexican Olympic team; I have no idea how you say “forty minutes of Hell” in Spanish, but I’m sure it will become a catch phrase wherever the team trains. Speaking to reporters in El Paso, Richardson said, “I remember as a young man growing up thinking I would love to coach the Mexican Olympic team.” Obviously, he has to say something positive and upbeat at such a time, but why do I have trouble believing that?

I want to get something on the record now before this becomes a commonplace topic of discussion. I acknowledge that Avery Johnson has done a really good job coaching the Dallas Mavericks this year and that he should get serious consideration for Coach of the Year. The same thing applies to Mike D’Antoni in Phoenix and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. Some folks even say Isiah Thomas deserves consideration for Coach of the Year for having the Knicks in playoff contention this late in the season – even though they are in a dreadful division in a woebegone conference. I won’t allow myself to drink the “Isiah Thomas Kool-Aid” but I stipulate that the other three coaches are worthy. Nonetheless, here is my choice for Coach of the Year in the NBA:

Jerry Sloan – Utah Jazz.

Given the roster he has and the injuries the team has weathered, I think it has to be a feather in the cap of the coach there to win 50 games and it looks as if the Jazz will win 53 or 54.

Towards the end of May, the NFL owners will have their “Spring Meeting”. One of the items on the agenda will be to assign the venue for the 2011 Super Bowl. The usual suspects, the warm weather cities with interesting attractions, will obviously get consideration. Additionally, there will be pitches from Arizona, Indy and Dallas-Fort Worth. Arizona will host the game in its new stadium before 2011 but not before the meeting in May; so, I suspect the owners will want to wait and see just how that one plays out before going back for another game. That leaves Indy and Dallas-Fort Worth as the serious “non-traditional” contenders.

Indy has a domed stadium meaning the February climate in Indianapolis is not an immediate disqualifier. And before the folks in Indy trot out some climatological claptrap about weather in that part of the world in early February, realize that on Super Bowl weekend this year temperatures hovered between -5 and +10 in Indy. That’s without any wind chill tossed in. The weather there is hardly balmy at that time of year so anyone expecting to participate in any water sports better be prepared to go ice fishing. Recently, the city fathers in Indy passed a law making it illegal to scalp tickets and one of the supporters of the measure said it should help the city attract the Super Bowl to the town. If that’s all it takes to get the NFL to bring its showcase event to a town where the weather is likely to stink and where there is precious little to do even when the town is at its liveliest, then maybe Fargo, North Dakota should think about building a domed stadium…

The weather in Dallas at that time of year can be cold too but Dallas has a new stadium going up – this one won’t have a hole in the roof – and Dallas has Jerry Jones to “sell the idea”. Jerry’s new stadium was designed to have the ability to expand the seating capacity to 100,000 – just in case some big event happened to come along. It also has 300 luxury suites available for any and all high rollers to take the plunge on. Since I won’t be going to the Super Bowl game, it really doesn’t matter a whole lot to me where they put it, but I have to admit that there’s a small bit of me that would take a perverse pleasure in seeing Dallas-Fort Worth and Jerry Jones host that game. It would frost Danny Boy Snyder like nothing else…

Danny Boy fancies himself as a rainmaker and a deal closer. He’d probably fire his grandmother if it meant he could be the central focus of Super Bowl happenings and the host of the affair. But he plays in a cold weather venue and he plays in a mausoleum of a stadium with no roof. He’s got a long-term contract to stay out there in Prince George’s County, Maryland where the pockets aren’t nearly deep enough to fund a roof for that concrete block eyesore. So, Danny Boy will have to go to the game and watch his rival, Jerry Jones, strut around and display his prowess at rainmaking and deal closing.

Unless of course, Danny Boy’s Redskins are playing in the game… So, if the game is awarded to Dallas-Fort Worth, look for Danny Boy and his football maven friends to go nuts signing up whomever they can glom onto between now and 2011. That’s his solution to two problems; it’s his way of “producing a winner”; and it’s his way to share in the limelight his rival will get no matter how his rival’s team is doing.

Finally, after Peyton Manning’s successful appearance on Saturday Night Live there was some debate as to whether his show was better or worse than the one that Tom Brady hosted a couple of years ago. Whatever. I think the funniest quarterback in the NFL today might be Michael Vick. I can’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as when I heard his explanation that his “fake water bottle” was his way of carrying his bling.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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I’m sure everyone has noticed/heard that Ugueth Urbina received a 14-year jail sentence in Venezuela yesterday. For those who have not followed his case closely in the Caracas newspapers, let me give you a quick summary. A jury convicted Urbina of the attempted murder of five people who were workers at his ranch in Venezuela. The charges said that Urbina was part of a group of men who attacked these workers with machetes and then poured gasoline on them attempting to immolate them. That would have to qualify as anti-social behavior in just about anyone’s book. Urbina just turned 33 years old and so he’s not slated to be “out and about” until he is 47; that means that it would be a bad idea for any Rotisserie League owners to draft him for their teams - - even they are in a “keeper league”.

Moving from an aging pitcher whose future looks pretty grim to a young pitcher with radiant prospects, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark says that Jeff Samardzia is one of “five young players to remember” based on what Stark saw and heard this spring. Stark said that the Cubs made a good investment paying Samardzia $10M to sign him and keep him out of the NFL draft next month. He said that the Cubs had to send Samardzia back to the minor leagues quickly so that Lou Piniella would not be tempted to keep him on the team as it headed north to start the season; Samardzia showed talent but needs seasoning. Here’s another note for Rotisserie League owners. You may want to think twice about snagging Samardzia’s rights for your “keeper leagues” because, after all, he is with the Cubs…

By all accounts, it looks as if the NFL is preparing to come down hard on miscreant behavior off the field; you won’t find me shedding any crocodile tears for the people who receive punishment here. Perhaps because I am old enough to recall the discovery of rust, I do not understand the mindset of a young and rich athlete who constantly seeks out trouble and frequently finds it. Forget for a moment that they seem to lack any basic grasp of right and wrong behavior; they seem not to be able to go through a mental process that ought to tell them that they are putting their lives and their careers at risk. Even if Broncos’ DB Darrent Williams was not a miscreant and felon, he is dead before his 25th birthday because he was in the middle of a shoot-out after a late night party. Tank Johnson is alive today and in jail; his bodyguard is dead after a shoot-out at an “edgy” Chicago nightclub. Pacman Jones “made it rain” and someone wound up permanently paralyzed. And the list goes on.

Perhaps some of these folks have gotten to the point where they are addicted to some kind of cultish milieu where danger and excessive behavior are necessary. Maybe they have a trace of narcissism inside them and the way they gain the adoration and attention of others that they need is to continue to “push the envelope of outrageousness”? If this kind of reasoning is part of their behavior cycle, perhaps removal from competition for a year will help to cure them. It will remove them from the limelight making them less important on the celebrity lists everywhere and it will remove from them the financial wherewithal to do things like “make it rain” at a strip club. Maybe long-term banishments will work – or maybe they will make these folks even less interested in acting like bipedal beings. I think we’re about to find out; stay tuned…

The schedule of first week games for next year’s NFL season is out. Once again, there will be a double-header for the first week’s iteration of MNF. And once again, it sure looks as if the NFL wants to stick it to ESPN. The Worldwide Leader will do the Ravens/Bengals game as the first of its two games; that should be a good game between two teams who can reasonably aspire to playing into January 2008. Other games on tap that weekend include Saints/Colts, Bears/Chargers and Giants/Cowboys. Did ESPN get one of those games for its “doubleheader game”? The answer would have to be “Hell no!” ESPN will get to do Cardinals/49ers as the second game of a doubleheader; that is an “Ambien Game”; it should put every insomniac east of St. Louis to sleep by halftime.

Now that the game of musical chairs for running backs in the NFL seems to be over, I wonder why no one has made an offer to Michael Turner of the San Diego Chargers. I know he’s a restricted free agent and would cost the signing team some high draft pick or picks, but he sure looks to be as good or better than the guys who have been shuffling around from team to team during this off-season. Matt Schaub was under the same kind of restriction and the Texans worked out a trade for him; so why not one for Michael Turner?

Most NFL teams look to get younger, faster and stronger during the off-season. The KC Chiefs must think they are plenty young, fast and strong already and that what they need is to add some wisdom, savvy and experience. If not, why did they sign 34-year old linebacker, Donnie Edwards, to a 3-year deal with $7.5M of guaranteed money?

After Ron Artest’s obviously heartfelt apology to the fans in Sacramento, his teammates, his family and every other human on the planet regarding his latest anti-social behavior outburst, he returned to NBA play. Now, he says he wants to retire. He wants to spend time with his family – or so goes the story. Here’s my question:

Would that be the same “family” that was the victim of his latest domestic violence outburst and the one that has a court order restricting his access to them?

Look, this is about the third or fourth time that Ron Artest has apologized for some kind of outrageous behavior, asked everyone for forgiveness, and said he has turned over a new leaf. Not only do I not believe him; I’m tired of hearing that precooked nonsense. Ron Artest is a pain in the ass; Terrell Owens is a pain in the ass; Randy Moss is a pain in the ass; Pacman Jones is a pain in the ass; Antonio Bryant is a pain in the ass. Here’s something important for you to remember the next time one of them – or someone of their ilk – tells you that he has “turned over a new leaf” or that he has “moved on in his life”:

A pain in the ass does not morph into Captain Kangaroo overnight.

Finally, Jerry Greene pointed out in the Orlando Sentinel something very important for sports fans and I wanted to be sure that you didn’t miss it:

“Michelle Wie will not play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship next weekend because of an injured wrist. After heated debate, the LPGA decided to play its first major of the season, anyway.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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With baseball’s Opening Day rapidly approaching, let me focus on some baseball matters today. Unless the Cubs’ latest certified phenom, Felix Pie, makes the team and gets a starting role, the Cubs look to start a line-up on opening day with eight position players who did not come from their organization. I understand that there is a tsunami of player movement in baseball today but not even one starter signed with the Cubs because a Cubs’ scout saw him play and then developed his skills through the Cubs’ minor league system? For those of you keeping score at home, that’s not a good thing.

The SF Giants are trying to position themselves as an environmentally aware team. They are installing – and perhaps the installation is already completed – 600 solar electric generating panels at the park. They say this demonstrates their commitment to the rational use of energy. Sounds good until a little science kicks in. The output of those panels is nowhere near sufficient to power the lights at the field – let alone all the other electricity that is consumed there; in fact, the output might be able to power two individual residences. But the only reason all of this happened in order to create a perception of consciousness/care/concern on the part of the team; and in this case, the Giants hope that perception takes hold.

Maybe it’s actually true that “chicks dig the long ball”, but pitching is what provides winners in baseball. And quality pitching is one of the commodities that is in drastically short supply with 30 major league teams. Lately, one of the standard stories during spring training is a team’s search for a “solid fifth starter” in their rotation. There’s usually a grizzled veteran in contention for that spot with a youngster or two from the club’s farm system and maybe even a relief pitcher who is getting a look in a new role for the team. It makes for great copy; it also provides a diversion; it allows fans to ignore the fact that in most cases there aren’t four solid starting pitchers in front of the guys who are “fighting for the last spot in the rotation”. But spring training is about hope and optimism – not reality. Reality usually sets in sometime around June 10.

Look at the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals’ projected rotation. It has two retooled relief pitchers in the #4 and #5 slots. Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper will start games this year. In Looper’s case, maybe the Cards have had enough of him coming into games in tight situations and throwing kerosene on the fire. Whatever. These are the defending world champions we’re talking about here and that is the status of their projected starting rotation. Yowza!

In NY Mets’ general manager, Omar Minaya, was asked about the solidarity of the Mets’ starting rotation. Minaya said, “The guys we could have had as free agents, they’re not better than the guys we have here.” That’s vote of confidence if ever I heard one. And when you think of the Mets’ pitchers, you think of Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez – even though Pedro is injured and probably won’t pitch until the 4th of July. That’s not bad until you get down into the rotation and see names like John Maine, Oliver Perez, Chan Ho Park and Mike Pelfrey. Unless I was hallucinating during the off-season, Dice-K, Barry Zito, Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens were “available”. And Omar Minaya likes his quartet better than that one? He may the only Earthling who does.

Curt Schilling will never carry the label, reticent. In one of his rambling commentaries, he reportedly said that he would go to the bullpen if that was what it took to get Roger Clemens to sign on with the Red Sox this season. That makes for good copy during the six weeks of spring training. But I’d like everyone here who believes that to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to come over to my house this weekend for a 12-hour high stakes poker game. And bring your homeowners’ equity line of credit checkbook too…

A longtime friend – in fact we played on the same Little League team together; he was actually a good player and I was not – noticed that the Phillies will need a strong performance from the right arm of Freddy Garcia this season if they hope to make the playoffs. He saw an omen in the Eagles’ season last year when another guy named Garcia stepped in, used his right arm effectively and led the Eagles to the playoffs. Who knows; it could happen…

In the golf world, the big news of the moment is “loogiegate”; Sergio Garcia spitting into the hole after he removed his ball. Yes, it is nasty and yes, it demonstrates that Sergio Garcia does not live by the adage that you should always behave as if your mother was standing right next to you. But let’s not go off on too great a rhetorical flourish here and say that this behavior needs to be stopped in its tracks because you never know where it could lead. Excuse me, but “loogiegate” is already a step back from where boorish behavior on a golf course has already been. I forget the details but in a tournament within the past year or so, they had to move the pin placement on one of the greens because someone had defecated in the hole. Sergio Garcia demonstrated that whatever class he may possess, it’s all second-class. But let’s not make “loogiegate” out to be the worst thing to happen on the golf tour since its inception.

On a positive golfing note, the LPGA has taken the lead once again in terms of solid public relations. Recall that the LPGA recently and rightfully granted permission to a young woman to use a cart and haul oxygen around with her to play in LPGA events because of her serious medical condition. Now the LPGA has defined a list of prohibited performance enhancing substances and it will test players in LPGA events next season. I believe that reduces to three the categories of competitors who are not subject to testing:

Pro Poker Players

Pro ‘rasslers

PGA Tour golfers

Finally, since most of this was about baseball, here’s a note from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times related to some concerns in the Mariners’ camp:

“First it was the health of his closer, and now a sudden crop of fielding gaffes has given Mariners manager Mike Hargrove two things to stew about.

“In other words, Putz and boots.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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I have to believe that Monday Night Football just got lots better. ESPN announced yesterday that Ron Jaworski will replace Joe Theismann in the announcing booth next year. It’s no secret that I do not like the way Theismann intrudes on the game as a color analyst and it was painfully obvious that he and Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico never developed “chemistry” or “connection” or “camaraderie” or plain old-fashioned “chumminess”. The tension in that booth would not have been heightened significantly had they invited Rosie and The Donald to join them as guests during one of the invasions of irrelevant B-List celebrities that ESPN foisted on us all season long. I do not wish any evil to befall Joe Theismann but I will not miss him for even one minute next year.

Now, can someone at ESPN do something creative and come up with an idea to “go retro” in next years telecasts and get rid of the sideline reporters?

Since I’m talking about stuff related to the NFL, let me say that the mini-controversy that began over Tony Dungy’s remarks to the Indiana Family Institute about gay marriage is way overblown. Tony Dungy coaches football; he is not a legislator, a judge, or a law enforcement officer. His expression of his opinions on gay marriage does not change the status quo. His right to voice his views is one of our inalienable rights; he did not forfeit those rights because he chose to coach an NFL team or win the Super Bowl. The fact that Tony Dungy’s faith would put him in the company of others who oppose gay marriage cannot possibly be newsworthy.

For anyone to criticize Dungy for his remarks at that particular banquet/social function, those critics would also need to criticize anyone who speaks out in favor or gay marriage. After all, those proponents are expressing their strongly held beliefs too. If Tony Dungy draws even a scintilla of criticism, then each and every person speaking favorably about gay marriage deserves an equal measure.

The NFL is poised to develop a new “Code of Conduct” for its players to adhere to in their “off-the-field lives”. Basically, the league is going to come down hard on the knuckleheads. I promise you that there will be people shouting about how this is intrusive on the lives of the players and how this would never happen if the NFLPA were a strong and effective union. Even without knowing neither the details of the new “Code of Conduct” nor how it will be implemented, I want to offer huge congratulations to the NFLPA and to the players who led the union leaders to the cooperative position they took on this matter. My interpretation of the union position is this:

The knuckleheads have every right to be knuckleheads but in expressing their “knuckleheadedness”, they do not have an inalienable right to make every other NLFPA member look like [rhymes with “glass bowls”].

And to that I say, “Amen! And Amen!!”

Soon after the NFL teams played musical chairs with running backs in the free-agency lottery season, the teams seem poised to do the same with fringe quarterbacks. Marques Tuiasosopu went from Oakland – where he could not get on the field because that potent tandem of Andrew Walter and Aaron Brooks was ahead of him – to the Jets. Why?

The Raiders signed Josh Booty – the older brother of USC’s John David Booty – to replace Tuiasosopu. Josh Booty hasn’t been in the league since 2003 and if I’ve read his stats correctly, he has never thrown a pass in an NFL regular season game. Oh, and Booty is 31 years old. How did this bubble up in the Raiders’ front office and become a good idea?

The Texans released David Carr outright. A year ago, the Texans reworked his deal and gave him $8M to show that he was their QB of the future. That meant they could easily pass on Vince Young and/or Matt Leinart in the draft; they did just that. Now Carr is looking for work and those other QBs are on other teams. [Aside: The Texans also said that Domanick Davis, now Domanick Williams, was their featured RB and so they didn’t need to draft Reggie Bush. They cut Domanick Williams this week too.]

The Dolphins were rumored to be on the verge of trading draft picks to KC to acquire Trent Green to play QB in Miami. Now that Carr is on the market and is “free”, that may change plans there. But if the Dolphins sign either one, that could make Duante Culpepper expendable and the rumor is that Oakland might want him.

If Oakland isn’t hot after Culpepper, then other rumors have them courting Jake Plummer out of retirement or maybe taking David Carr if he doesn’t go to Miami. Let me say this about Culpepper and Carr in Oakland:

Unless the Raiders OL gets two hundred percent better, either guy will be a piñata back there. Carr has been sacked almost 50 times a year for his career so he isn’t high on “escapability”; Culpepper used to be able to move and shed tacklers but after his injury he showed the mobility of a fire hydrant.

Maybe I missed a season of NFL football where Visanthe Shiancoe lit it up for the NY Giants and led them to … No, I guess I didn’t miss that season. This guy was a backup tight end in NY; and when he did play, the thing I recall most about him is that he dropped passes thrown his way. Last year he started 4 games and played in all 16 games; he caught a total of 12 passes for 81 yards. So, why did the Vikings pay him $8M?

When Leonard Davis came out of Texas, he was a “can’t miss” offensive left tackle who would dominate for years at the NFL level. After a mediocre time in Arizona, he hit the jackpot in this year’s free-agency madness; the Cowboys signed him for a total of $50M with about $20M of that guaranteed. The Cowboys’ plan is to move him inside to play offensive guard; that may or may not work. In Arizona, Davis developed the reputation for being lackadaisical and not highly motivated. Can someone explain to me how handing $50M (or even only $20M) to a guy who is not highly motivated is going to light a fire under his ample butt?

Now we’ve heard from Michael Vick that his infamous water bottle with the “secret compartment” was supposed to be his way of carrying his jewelry in a safe way. Amazingly, that “logical explanation” didn’t come out when this was a big time story; this information was so sensitive that it took about a month to find the right time to let it out on the sporting public. Color me skeptical. Oh, and just in case the bottle was indeed intended to conceal Vick’s “hash stash”, let me suggest to him that airport agents are on the lookout for fake bottles now. Maybe next time he can jam the weed into the barrel of a gun and try to get it on-board that way. That oughta work…

Finally, Scott Ostler had this observation in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the Raiders’ hiring of Lane Kiffen and the Chargers’ hiring of Norv Turner as head coaches:

“If hiring Lane Kiffen as your head coach is thinking outside the box, isn’t hiring Norv Turner thinking so far inside the box that you might as well have hired Señor Wences?”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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OK, everyone who got their singlets in a knot over the Selection Committee’s actions a couple of Sundays ago needs to offer an apology. The Elite Eight consisted of all four teams seeded #1 and three teams seeded #2 and one team seeded #3. If you thought the Selection Committee was nothing but a bunch of doofuses a couple of weeks ago and said so, you should now say with similar vigor that they may have gotten it right this year. I won’t hold my breath until I hear that chorus.

Man, there was some really good basketball played this weekend. Even the teams that lost played well – except for Memphis who play an undisciplined style all the time and win because they have better athletes than most of their opponents.

Most of Thursday’s games were close and most went to the final minute. UCLA/Pitt was close but it was an ugly game featuring a lot of missed shots and a lot of fouls. Pitt seems always to make it to the Sweet Sixteen with the same kind of team – big and strong with minimal athletic ability and no scorers. I’m not sure how they do that.

Friday’s games featured comebacks – and the Georgetown/Vandy game had some very inconsistent officiating. I’m not talking about the traveling/not traveling call in the final three seconds; I’m talking about how the game was called as it unfolded. There were periods where touch fouls were whistled; then they’d go three or four minutes where it seemed that the officials were waiting for autopsy results before they blew a whistle. But they didn’t seem to favor either team when they went from one mode to the other.

Please notice that all of the teams in the Final Four play strong defense. Even though the college three-point line is too close to the basket and many teams simply try to outrun and out-score opponents, good defense is a very much underappreciated aspect of college basketball. Next week’s games should be very interesting; I’m particularly waiting to see Georgetown/Ohio State; that should be outstanding.

Let me offer an idea here. Every year, lots of folks focus attention on the Cinderella team in the tournament and who will fill that role in any given year. It is a standard theme leading up to the first couple of rounds of play and should a double-digit seed of a team actually get to the Elite Eight, the chorus achieves stentorian status. Cinderella is a bad metaphor; it doesn’t work here.

In the fairy tale, Cinderella escapes her dreary world for a moment; is forced to return for another moment but finds everlasting happiness with her Prince. She goes on to be a Princess – and perhaps a Queen someday. That doesn’t happen in the NCAA Tournament; the “Cinderella” there always takes a seat and watches someone else win. That would be like having the fairy tale end with the Prince putting the glass slipper on Cinderella’s foot – as if no other woman in the kingdom had the same shoe size – and seeing that it fits but telling her something along the lines of:

“Hey it was nice dancing with you last night and I wanted to let you know that I had a good time but I have enough women in my stable of concubines at the palace now. If a few of them decide to take a hike, maybe I’ll give you a call. But in the meantime, if you’re the one responsible for cleaning up around here, you missed a couple of spots over there by the fireplace…”

Will everyone who has watched the CBS telecasts of the NCAA Tournament please invest 5 minutes of your time and 39 cents; write a short letter to the mavens at CBS and thank them profusely for not using “sideline reporters” in all of these games. While you’re at it, thank them for doing the same during the NFL season. Did you really miss having some goof stick a microphone in the face of some parent or “celebrity” in the audience to hear what that non-participant had to say at a random moment? I sure didn’t. In fact, I appreciated that they did not interrupt the flow of the game for such nonsense. The mailing address for CBS is:

CBS Television
51 W. 52nd St.
New York, NY 10019

If they get enough contacts, they just might maintain the “absence of sideline reporters” and the idea might catch on elsewhere. Wouldn’t that be nice…?

As we are all enjoying hard-fought college basketball games, few if any folks are watching whatever games the NBA is putting on TV these days. And it’s getting down to crunch time with regard to the NBA playoffs, too. Maybe there’s a reason for that and maybe the reason is right there in the standings in your morning newspaper. Please focus on the Eastern Conference of the NBA where eight teams have to make the playoffs. If there were ever a reason to think about changing the way playoff berths are earned in the NBA, the standings at this moment should be compelling evidence.

There are only two teams in the East who win more than 60% of their games as of today. There are four others who win more than 50% of the time but less than 60% of the time. Those six teams will make the playoffs even if some might not be “compelling presences”. But the NBA has two more spots to fill. At this instant, Orlando and New Jersey would be the teams in those spots and both the Magic and the Nets have records of 32-38. Should either team falter – who could possibly think that was unlikely – the teams within striking distance of their records are the Pacers at 31-38 and the Knicks at 30-39. Give me a break. Unless you are a charter member of the fan club for one of these four teams you cannot possibly want to see them play out the rest of the regular season let along want to see any of them play on from there. The NBA will represent these teams as contenders for their championship; they should be sued for false advertising.

Finally, a comment from David Letterman:

“Did you know that the vacuum cleaner has been around for 105 years? The only thing that’s sucked longer is the Knicks.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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Rudyard Kipling wrote that if you could keep your head when all about you were losing theirs, you’ll become a man. Well, in the confusion of things happening about now, I’m really going to have to try to keep my head; some of this stuff just doesn’t make any sense.

The “money folks” at Kentucky have managed to get rid of Tubby Smith as the basketball coach there. The home page for “firetubbysmith.com” shows him in a multi-colored fright wig and a red clown nose; that is what Kentucky fans think of a coach who has won a national championship there and has never failed to get the team into the NCAA tournament in his tenure at the school. Tubby Smith is the guy who is a clown in that saga? Give me a break; most of the goofs who have called for his head and the “money folks” who have forced him out wouldn’t know how to organize a basketball practice any more than they would know how to ask a question at a seminar on super-string theory.

Tubby Smith may or may not be a wonderful man in a social situation; I don’t know because I’ve never met him. He may or may not be a great person to have as a next door neighbor; you’d have to ask his neighbors about that. But he can coach a basketball team and any set of fans who think he’s a clown deserve what they get. Were I a college basketball coach of renown, I’d think long and hard about taking a job there. The only guy with a record that would seem to be satisfactory to those goofs is John Wooden; he’s in his mid 90s and isn’t likely to be making any comebacks.

Some folks think Smith’s jump to Minnesota is a shock. I’m surprised that Minnesota landed a coach who has averaged 26 wins a year for the past decade because Minnesota – along with Northwestern and Penn State – is the boondocks of Big Ten basketball. In my lifetime, Minnesota has had two successful runs; the first was in the 70s with Bill Musselman and it ended with three Gophers stomping on the head of the Ohio State center in the middle of a game. Dave Winfield was on that team. The other period of success was the Clem Haskins era and that ended badly when we learned that there was rampant academic fraud ongoing there and that the coaching staff was “not unaware” of what was going on. That program has landed Tubby Smith. He’s resurrected moribund programs before – at Georgia and Tulsa. That ought to be an interesting situation to watch in the next few seasons.

I’m going to try to “keep my head” for a moment here and try to explain why counting championships as the measure for competency in a coach is wrong. Can we all agree – even the Duke alums who read these rants – that Dean Smith was a competent basketball coach? Fine now let’s look at the record… In all his years, Dean Smith won only two national championships; his teams played for the championship five times so his record in final games is a losing record. He lost in the final game to John Wooden in ‘68, to Al McGuire in ‘77 and to Bob Knight in ‘81. If you really want to paint Dean Smith as an incompetent boob, you could say that his two victories came only when opposing players made horrid mistakes at the end of the championship games – Fred Brown for Georgetown in ‘82 and Chris Webber in ‘93. Do you see how that line of reasoning can get you to a point where you could begin to think there ought to have been a “FireDeanSmith” website back in those days – if there had been such a thing as a website? Do you also see how stupid that would have been?

In another completely unsuspected turn of events, Tony La Russa was arrested for “suspicion of DUI”. How that differs from being arrested for DUI is a nuance lost on me, but every report I’ve read makes that distinction. Tony La Russa has been in “celebrity status” among baseball managers for about 20 years now. George Will’s book, Men at Work, lionized La Russa as a baseball genius. Yet, there has never been any association of any kind of wrongdoing with him or his image. He has a law degree – although he never practiced law – and has said that he preferred to ride busses in the minor leagues that to be a lawyer. I’m not sure that is a sign of “genius”, but it shows that he is smart enough to get through law school and smart enough to know what he wanted to do with his life. And now this man was found asleep at the wheel of his car at an intersection. Strange…

Ron Artest will face charges – four of them – related to his domestic violence incident from several weeks ago. One of the charges is “dissuading a witness from reporting a crime”; that’s a new one for me; I guess it is sort of like “jury tampering” before the fact of a trial. Artest had been suspended by the Kings after the arrest but he tearfully apologized for his behavior and said that he had seen the light and that he had changed and that all he wanted to do was to get back with his teammates and make the best of the rest of his life. He was reinstated about a week later. But we’ve heard from Artest before that he’s seen the light and that he’ll change and that all he wants is a fresh start. But every time he gets the opportunity for a “fresh start” he blows it with some new and different form of antisocial behavior. I won’t go through the litany of his record here except to remind those of you who may have forgotten that Artest once applied for a job at Circuit City – while he was with the Bulls as I recall – not for the purpose of working there but in order to get an employee discount on “stuff”. Obviously, he has pled not guilty to the charges in the latest incident; he’s not likely to do jail time even if he were to be convicted – which he won’t be – and we’ll hear from him again about his desire for a “fresh start”. Why will everyone believe him? Can you explain that to me?

And in the Sesame Street tradition of putting some things in juxtaposition that just don’t go together, Don King had a papal audience. That makes as much sense as Dick Vitale studying to be a mime or the State Department naming their new award for demonstrated tact and diplomacy after Howard Cosell. Say what?

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times has shown that he is a man by Rudyard Kipling’s standard because he has kept his head about him in all this turmoil and put the Don King/Pope Benedict XVI business into context:

“Boxing promoter Don King got a front-row seat at Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience Wednesday, calling the two hours in St. Peter’s Square ‘a deep spiritual experience.’

“So moving, in fact, he plans to charge $75 to see it on papal-view.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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As the next phase of the NCAA Basketball Tournament is about to unfold, let me say that Tim Floyd has reestablished himself as a competent basketball coach this year. When Floyd and the Chicago Bulls parted company, Floyd looked like someone who didn’t have a clue what he was doing; his tenure in New Orleans didn’t erase that impression. That was all a mirage; the Bulls were awful; they had just blown up their championship teams and they were deficient in talent; in the NBA, that is a ticket to a disastrous record no matter who the coach is. And Tim Floyd happened to be the coach of that talent-starved team.

Floyd landed at USC in the spring of 2005. USC has been the college basketball stepchild in LA for about the last 50 years; in two seasons, Floyd has USC on the map as a major basketball school within the Pac-10. They have a tough draw this week against UNC; they only have one big kid/inside player and he’s a freshman. Whatever the outcome, Floyd and USC have had a fine season.

ESPN.com ran its Bracketology Men’s Tournament Challenge a few weeks ago. People filled out more than 3 million brackets and exactly ZERO of those entries have predicted all of the games correctly to this point. That’s not all that surprising; here’s what is surprising. Only 45 of the entries (out of 3.3 million) had all 16 of the teams correctly placed in the Sweet Sixteen; meanwhile, 5,404 entries had none of the teams identified correctly in the Sweet Sixteen. It would seem to be as difficult to get all of these wrong as it would be to get all of them right, but notice the disparity in these numbers.

Syracuse lost at Clemson last night in an NIT game. Prior to last night’s game, Syracuse played an earlier round NIT game at home in the Carrier Dome and the crowd was 26,752. That is a record attendance for any NIT game – remember the NIT is actually older than the NCAA Tournament – and it makes one stop and wonder for just a moment. Syracuse was one of the teams on the bubble who did not make it into the NCAA Tournament – much to the dismay of Jim Boeheim and other pundits. So, is it possible that the Selection Committee made an economic decision to put Syracuse in the NIT?

Recall that the NCAA now owns the NIT; it purchased the tournament from its previous owners/organizers in order to settle an anti-monopoly suit brought against the NCAA by the NIT organizers. So the NCAA stands to profit most when the NIT does well. And look at the fannies that Syracuse put in the seats in that game…

Paging Mr. Stone … Mr. Oliver Stone … Please come to the Information Desk…

In addition to the names of baseball players on the customer lists for some of these steroid/HGH distributors, it seems as if the names of some pro rasslers are there too. If anyone is surprised to learn this, he/she might also be surprised to learn:

1. Dr. Seuss did not win the Nobel Prize for Medicine

2. It is not necessary to bring toilet paper to a craps table.

3. Cured bacon has not been injected with penicillin.

Last week, Dallas Cowboy uber-fan, “Crazy Ray” Jones died after a prolonged illness. In the Denver Post, Mike Klis reported that the guy who goes to Broncos’ games wearing only a barrel – Tim McKernan - will do that next year but then would give up that habit. He has had some medical issues stemming from an abdominal aneurism that burst several years ago and his doctors do not want him out in freezing temperatures wearing only a barrel. Fancy that medical advice; I’ll bet he had to pay top dollar to get that kind of insight. And they called the Cowboys’ fan, “Crazy Ray”…?

A year ago, Thomas Jones and Lance Briggs were “demoted” from the top line on the Bears’ depth chart in the spring because both players chose not to participate in the team’s “voluntary” off-season workouts and both opted to work out on their own. Interestingly, Jones has now been traded away and Briggs is definitely not one of the “happy campers” on the team having said he will never play another down for the Bears. This year, Tank Johnson will definitely miss these team workout sessions because he’ll be a “guest of the state” while he models orange overalls as a result of his jail term for violating his probation. As of this morning, Tank Johnson is still listed as the #1 guy at right defensive tackle for the Bears. Interesting…

Speaking of Tank Johnson, one of the really egregious things that came out at his sentencing hearing on the probation violation was the statement he made to the court in his own defense as to why he should not go to jail. You would think that this would be a prepared statement that his lawyers and advisors would have parsed pretty carefully. If so, how did they allow Johnson to say that one of the reasons he should not go to jail is that it would hurt his ability to get endorsement contracts. I’m sure the judge has heard dumber pleas from defendants over the years, but that one has to rank pretty high on the “self-serving scale.”

In MLS, the commissioner handed down a ruling denying a request by the NY Red Bulls that the team be allowed to fly on chartered jets instead of commercial aircraft. According to the NY Daily News, this request was denied because it would provide the Red Bulls with an unfair advantage and might “start an off-field spending race between teams”. Remember, this is the league that just signed David Beckham to a “$250M contract” and is reportedly courting other widely known soccer stars to hype the league. But those won’t start an “on-field spending race between the teams”? Say what?

Finally, Dwight Perry had this “prediction” recently in the Seattle Times:

“Veteran NFL observers predict that free-agent tight end Jerramy Stevens, with his arrest for DUI marking his latest run-in with the law, will likely get two to four years.

“In the form of a Bengals contract offer.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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When the news broke that Pokey Chatman would not be the coach of the LSU women’s basketball team in the tournament this year, there were reports of inappropriate behavior on her part. Stories of lesbian liaisons swirled around. But there were parts of the story that seemed unclear to me at the time. For example, one report that came up several times was that Ms. Chatman had engaged – or continued to engage – in a sexual relationship “with a former player”. Sorry, in the early stages of the story, that wasn’t specific enough. For example:

Was the “former player” no longer associated with the team or the school? That would be a relationship between two consenting adults. In that case, I really don’t care.

Was the “former player” involved in this alleged sexual relationship while the “former player” was on the team coached by Ms. Chatman? That would be a real problem. She is a “university official”; sex with students is out of bounds.

I figured I’d wait until some dogged investigative reporter went and dug up all the relevant names and dates and other particulars before making any comment. But it appears as if that’s not going to happen and maybe that’s a good thing. As I said when the John Amaechi story was front and center, I really don’t care a whole lot about the sexual preferences of people so long as they do not involve predation on children or discussions with me. That applies to Pokey Chatman too. It would seem that her liaison did involve a player on her basketball team (that is not yet proven conclusively but it appears to be the case) and that means her resignation from the job would have been in lieu of firing. In the prepared statement that accompanied her leaving the team, she said she was going to “pursue other opportunities”. I would hope so, because if what seems to be the case is indeed the case, it will be a long time before she is coaching women’s basketball at a university again.

Deep in the recesses of my memory, I recall another incident where a college coach and one of her players had a liaison. This was probably 30 years ago when lesbianism was outrageously scandalous all by itself. I don’t recall the names and the particulars, but I recall that the player was a minor in addition to all the “other stuff” there. Maybe that was before the age of majority was lowered to 18? I don’t recall that coach or player ever “returning to the game.”

One more thing about women’s college basketball… Isn’t it time for the women’s tournament to stop giving home games in the women’s tournament to Stanford every year? Stanford was a #1 seed that lost to a #16 seed (Harvard) on its home floor; this year they lost to a completely unremarkable Florida State team on its home floor. Maybe Stanford’s women’s basketball team is no longer worthy of the special treatment it always gets?

And I’d extend that kind of thinking to the men’s tournament games too. I would like the Selection Committee to assure that no team plays any of its two first round games less than 200 miles from its campus. Duke and UNC should never play in Raleigh; UConn shouldn’t play in Boston; Kentucky shouldn’t play in Louisville; UCLA shouldn’t play in SoCal. The regional finals and the Final Four venues are fixed and the teams that get there do so by winning games; so, there could be situations where teams have a “proximity advantage” in those rounds. But let’s not have it so lopsided in the first two rounds.

TV ratings for the men’s tournament have been good so far. The first round games (last Thursday/Friday) had an average rating of 5.0 which is the highest number posted by the tournament since 1991. If you include the weekend ratings in the average for the entire first week of telecasts, the average rating was 5.9 and that is more than respectable. Those numbers raise an important question though.

Obviously, there is an audience out there for good and exciting basketball and that audience is willing to tune in during March. So, why are NBA games drawing an average rating down around 1.0 for the season over on ESPN? I believe there are several reasons:

The NBA season is far too long; therefore, many games are meaningless at the time they are played

The talent is diluted to the point where there are no great teams any more.

The players do not play hard all the time.

I’m sure some sociologists will point to the culture clash between the “hip-hoppy” NBA players and “mainstream America” as part of the reason the NBA popularity has peaked. That may be part of the equation too; but for me, the three reasons listed above are a whole lot more important.

Another sport that appears to have topped out in its popularity – or at least is on a plateau during its ascension to “major sport status” – is NASCAR. The stands used to sell out frequently; now a sell-out is unusual; attendance is down. TV ratings are no longer going up; for the major races, they are flat; for other races, they are down. I think the reason is that NASCAR was a fad for a while; but like all fads, they go into eclipse. And if fans tuned in to be part of a fad, they will go away when the fad fades AND they realize for themselves that the event is sort of boring when it stands on its own.

I’m sure some sociologists will point to the culture clash between the “good-old-boy” NASCAR image and “mainstream America” as part of the reason that NASCAR popularity has peaked. That might be part of the equation too; but for me, I think it is just a fad that has become passé.

Finally, an observation from Bill Lankhoff in the Toronto Sun:

“The Celtics were fined $30,000 after General Manager Danny Ainge sat next to the mother of likely lottery draft pick Kevin Durant. Ainge was called for excessive contact. Everybody knows that in the NBA that’s only allowed when you’re in the paint, or in Kobe Bryant’s hotel room.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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Yesterday, I closed with a clever line sent to me by a reader. Regarding Louisville’s crushing of Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the reader said: “The Cardinals beat the ‘s’ out of The Cardinal.” I said it was clever and wished I had thought of it. Later yesterday, I got a note from a different reader saying that perhaps the line was unoriginal. I checked the second reader’s reference link and found that exact line in a column in the San José Mercury News last Saturday in a column by Bud Geracie. I don’t know where the line originated; I don’t even know for sure that the reader who sent it to me in the first place isn’t Bud Geracie using a web-name - - although that is highly doubtful. To whomever came up with that line originally – and if it spontaneously arose in more than a single mind then this is to all such folks – let me reiterate that I think it is clever and I wish I had been quick enough to think of it myself.

Can someone explain to me why CBS uses a blimp shot in the coverage of the basketball tournament? Basically, you get an aerial view of a few city blocks and not much more; the games are indoors and there is no way to get a sense of the crowd or the atmosphere. You might get a sense of the parking problems in the area of the game and or some of the other transit choices that might have been available to those attending the game. But what’s the point?

CBS had a good year selling the advertising slots for the tournament. About a month ago, I read somewhere that they had virtually sold out and that the network was happy to fill any remaining ad slots with promotional/public service spots. CBS anticipated $500 – 550M in revenues for the advertisements on the network telecasts alone. The cost for 30 seconds in the final game on 2 April will cost an advertiser $1.25M according to reports. Granted, that looks like a huge bargain when compared to the Super Bowl rates ($2.6M per 30 seconds), but it is still a hefty cost to advertisers and a revenue stream to CBS that amounts to a bit more than “a trickle”.

One more note about the CBS tournament telecasts if I may. Lots of people complain about Dick Vitale and I’m one of them. He can be hugely annoying when he goes manic in one of his verbal tours de force and his shtick has been around for so long that it has passed “tedious” on the “Unpleasantness Spectrum”. But I have to tell you that I am very quickly getting to the point where Billy Packer is even more annoying than Dick Vitale. Billy Packer is a scold with a nit-picking presentational style that used to masquerade as “candor” and “insightful expertise”. I’m not saying Packer does not know basketball; he surely does. I’m not saying Packer doesn’t speak his mind; he surely does. But he has become unpleasant to the eardrums during a game. There are several game analysts doing CBS’ games that I find hugely more enjoyable to listen to than Billy Packer. I wish him no harm but I will celebrate the announcement of his retirement not mourn it.

Quick Quiz: UNC has played 22 NCAA Tournament games in the state of North Carolina in the past. In those games, their record is 21-1. Name the only team to beat UNC in a tournament game in the state of North Carolina. The answer is below. And don’t you dare check Google…

For the moment, there appears to be a lull in the concocted debate over whether or not Kobe Bryant is a “dirty player” and whether or not there is an NBA “witch-hunt” afoot to “get” Bryant. Frankly, I find that debate a bit silly. Bryant does not play dirty but he has landed a few elbows to the face of opponents this year that were “less than accidental”. But he’s not Bill Laimbeer reincarnate. At the same time, the NBA is – and has been for the last 25 years – all about marketing and promoting its star players; Kobe Bryant is a star player; the NBA is not “out to get him”. Regarding Phil Jackson’s $50K fine for bringing up the subject of a “witch hunt”, he certainly has a right to express his opinion and David Stern certainly has a right to fine him for saying something that could hurt the league and its image. That may not be a Utopian free-speech environment, but it is the reality of the NBA; and it is not worth anyone getting his shorts in a knot over.

Quick Quiz Answer: The University of Pennsylvania beat UNC in Raleigh in 1979. That was the year that Penn as the Ivy League Champ advanced to the Final Four and lost to Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team. As a Penn alum, you probably understand why I recall that game…

Viagra will no longer be a sponsor of major league baseball; that five-year relationship is over. Look for lots more broken bats this season…

Mark Prior is having difficulty in spring training. In his first two outings his ERA was 18.30; he walked five batters and struck out no one. Lou Piniella did not want to sound an alarm and said that spring training was the time when players “worked things out” in their game. Going with that theme, I’d say that unless Mark Prior starts getting more batters out, what he really needs to “work out” is what he plans to do with the rest of his life after baseball.

According to the announced “customer list” for HGH from that lab that the Feds raided in New Jersey, Jerry Hairston is on the list. I don’t know if he used HGH or if this is all a mistake, but Jerry Hairston is hardly the poster-child for using this performance enhancing substance. Last year Hairston hit .205 with zero home runs for the Rangers. If he is a user, then HGH isn’t working all that well for him.

Queen Elizabeth will attend the Kentucky Derby this year. She will spend almost a week in “The Colonies”; and according to a report in London’s Sunday Times, she will visit several stud farms in Kentucky while she’s in the area. Insert your own punch line here.

Finally, here’s some useful information from Greg Cote in last Sunday’s Miami Herald:

“The Indy Racing League opens its season next weekend in Homestead [Florida]. The IRL is most well-known for not being nearly as popular as NASCAR.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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Let’s start today with some tournament observations from the first couple of rounds. I know that Butler is in the Sweet 16, but when I look at that team, I don’t see a lot of size or a lot of speed or any great shooters. But they sure do play good team defense and they are good at the foul line; there was a screen graphic that said they shoot 76% as a team. If you check their schedule this year, you’ll find that Butler has beaten Maryland, Notre Dame, Purdue, Indiana, Tennessee and Gonzaga; all of those teams made the NCAA Tournament. Butler may not look like much, but they are a good basketball team.

On the other hand, there are several other teams who look really mediocre when you watch them on TV and they are now over and done with because they actually are mediocre. Va Tech and Illinois played a game that was painful to watch; it was a root canal for the eyes. One of those teams had to move forward to play Southern Illinois and the Va Tech/So. Illinois game was ugly too. I’m not putting Southern Illinois down; they too play excellent team defense. But their style matched against Va Tech was about as entertaining as yet another recap of Anna Nicole Smith’s life.

Even uglier than either Va Tech game was the UCLA/Indiana contest. After 12 minutes of play, the score was 13-10; Indiana had shot 3-19 from the field and they were still only one possession behind on the scoreboard. Indeed the scoring pace picked up, but the game got no more artistic as time went by.

I have never been part of the chorus that chastises the Selection Committee for leaving mid-majors out of the tournament; I think it is an art and not a science to pick those final at-large teams and controversy has to be part of the equation. However, let me offer a hypothesis here. This year we had very few mid-majors put into the field and this year we have had very few real upsets in the first two rounds. Might it be that the last teams into the tournament from the “power conferences” (such as Stanford, Arkansas, Illinois and Georgia Tech this year) don’t show up for these early round games with the same degree of enthusiasm/reckless abandon that a mid-major team would? Just asking…

For the last several months, golf writers have been creating ways to pretend that Tiger Woods was on a winning streak and might challenge Byron Nelson’s record of eleven tournament wins in a row. When Tiger lost tournaments in China or in Europe – or in the Ryder Cup – the writers created the fiction that those losses didn’t count because it was not part of the PGA Tour and against PGA players. When he lost a PGA match play tournament recently, that didn’t count for some of them either because it wasn’t stroke play. Well, he lost last weekend in stroke play in a PGA Tour event. I can’t wait to see how that gets rationalized as not being a loss that should break the streak. I know, it was NBC’s fault. They failed to show Woods on their on-screen leader board. How can he possibly win a tournament when they don’t show his score? Yeah, that’s it…

Speaking of golf, should you want to build a new golf course in China, do not think that you are going to be able to turn any agricultural land into your grassy fairways and greens. Premier Wen Jiabao told the Chinese legislature that the government will protect land that can produce crops and he specifically singled out golf courses as a waste of such land.

This short item from Greg Cote’s column in yesterday’s Miami Herald summarizes very well the pathetic state of tennis as a “sport of consequence”:

“In Miami this week, there will be an 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. tennis tournament played in the dark, under ultraviolet light, by players wearing neon clothing, while loud dance music plays. But only because promoters couldn’t come up with an even sillier idea.”

According to an AP report over the weekend, one of the mushers in the Iditarod was disqualified for abusing his dogs. Get your mind out of the gutter – not that kind of abuse. He allegedly hit the dogs when they refused to get up and get moving at one point in the race. I’m certainly not advocating the concept of beating dogs, but I had no idea that would be against the rules in the Iditarod.

This year’s Iditarod winner, Lance Mackey, has now won back-to-back “long-distance North American sled dog races”. Just a month ago, he – and his dog team to be sure – won the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race over a 1000-mile course somewhere “up there”. There are enough qualifiers in that description of Mackey’s accomplishment that he might be starting a streak like Tiger Woods that will be difficult for people to let go of. Except that most people care even less about sled dog racing than I do about golf…

It wasn’t all that long ago, that London “won” the opportunity to host the Olympics in 2012; at the time, the cost factor was projected to be on the order of $4.5B. At the time, I said that overruns in these kinds of undertakings are guaranteed to happen for lots of reasons and that Londoners should be thrilled if the final total came in under $8 B. I was a piker. The latest projections according to an article on Bloomberg.com says that the Olympic Park project alone is $1.3B over budget and that the construction costs now project to $8.8B. And we are still 5 years away from the start of the Olympics. New York, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago have all tried to lure the Olympic Games in the recent past – and Chicago is still in the running for the 2016 games. Have those folks checked the costs associated with these things recently?

Here’s a public service announcement for everyone. Please do not forget to observe National Memory Day on Wednesday March 21…

Finally, I found this “communiqué” in my inbox this morning from a reader regarding the butt-stomping administered to Stanford by Louisville last week:

“The Cardinals beat the ‘s’ out of The Cardinal.”

Very clever. I wish I had thought of that.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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