Speaking of Pedro, his ERA this year is 1.68. The next lowest ERA in the AL is Roger Clemons (believe it or not) at 3.65. The second best pitcher in the league is giving up more than twice as many earned runs per game than Pedro is.

You know what is sick? If Todd Helton does not hit .400 this season, some goofs will talk about what he did wrong is some at bats to miss the mark. I get the sense that people are expecting a .400 hitter this year. If no one does it, there is nothing wrong with that. Remember, it has been 59 years since it has been done and there have been some fine players that have played out their careers without coming close to doing it.

Supposedly, John McEnroe said that any player on the senior tennis tour could beat either of the Williams sisters and Serena apparently has taken offense.

Memo to Promoters: This has already been done. Bobby Riggs may be dead, but he already did this about 25 years ago.

And speaking of tennis, have you seen the new ad campaign for pro tennis? The “slogan” or “theme line” is: “New balls, please.” While I appreciate the proper punctuation used there, I wonder if this might suggest that the current line-up on male players is less than wonderful. Just a thought.

I said that I would look over the NFL cut lists and comment. The Arizona Cardinals cut five guys and I was surprised that they had that many guys in camp who were not injured.

The Falcons cut CB Michael Booker who was a top draft choice from Nebraska about 2 years ago. Unless he's been injured and has not recovered, I thought he could play.

Cincy cut G Brian DeMarco and I thought he might be one of their starters. They also cut Sedrick Shaw, which probably means that his odyssey about the NFL is at an end.

The Broncos cut T Melvin Tuten who looked good to me when I saw the Broncos play the Cowboys in pre-season. I noticed him because I wondered if he were related to the ex-Redskins punter, Rick “Bootin' “ Tuten. He's not.

Cris Dishman was released by the KC Chiefs. He must be closing in on 40 at this point and looked like he was ready for the Assisted Living Center when he was with the Redskins two years ago.

The New England Pats released Raymont Harris. They have no running game to speak of and so this decision means that Raymont is no longer considered a player with potential. He may have a stop in Cincy or Cleveland before he goes on to his life's profession of selling cars. Another running back cut was Patrick Pass; how come he wasn't a QB? Since the Pats have re-signed him to the practice squad, maybe that is part of their master plan for him?

New Orleans released Billy Joe Tolliver and hopefully that will relegate him to the expanding Arena League. They also released a DE named D J Cooper and it is very possible that he will now become as difficult to locate as his near-namesake, D B Cooper.

The Jets released S Omar Stoutmire and he was then signed by the Giants. The interesting thing here is that Omar was probably the weakest part of the Jets' secondary and he could start for the Giants before long.

The Steelers released Gabe Northern. Once again, unless he has been injured and has not rehabbed fully, he can still play.

The Redskins released Punter Rodney Williams and this guy has a very good leg. After a productive season in NFL Europe, Williams was still able to pound out some 60+ yard punts in pre-seasons games. He would be worth picking up around the league. Also, CB Tim Denton was cut and he was a victim of a numbers game where Deion, Champ Bailey and Darrell Green hold down three spots and veteran Tyrone Drakeford had the inside track on a fourth. Denton is a kid who can make an NFL team.

It was a bad day for the letter “D”. Among the cuts were WR Darryl Daniel, WR Damon Dunn and OG Damon Denson. Dermonti Dawson managed to dodge the bullet.

The Redskins are 10.5 point favorites over the Panthers in the opening game on Sunday. I don't like the Panthers much but you need to look out for the public stampeding to the Redskins this year and inflating the line there. While I pick the Redskins to coast to an NFC East title there could be a lot of games where they do not cover inflated lines.

Samaki Walker of the San Antonio Spurs was arrested last night for driving over 100 mph while being chased by the gendarmes. Oh, yes there is one added factoid here; the 6' 10” 265lb power forward was riding a motorcycle at the time.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...