The Reds had a team last year where lots of folks had career years. It seems that the brass there thought that all of them would be repeated - or maybe even built upon - and so when they traded for Griffey, the expectations were astronomical. Two things happened this season. Several Reds' players did the natural regression to the mean of their performance levels and Griffey showed a pettiness and selfishness that is extremely unhealthy. Is Jack McKeon the one responsible for all this? Unlikely.

Anyone who had limited their ingestion of substances to those that are legally acceptable and normally available in your neighborhood grocery store would not have had the hallucinogenic experiences that would foretell a 90 win season for the Pirates. Now that the Olympics are over and General McCaffrey has lost that stage for his pontifications, he ought to head to Pittsburgh and find out what those folks were smoking.

The Diamondbacks underachieved compared to last year but they were injured too. Matt Williams drove in about 120 runs last year and this year he was below 50 in the final week of the season. Part of that was injury; part was an off year. Reports from Phoenix said that Buck Showalter's fanatical attention to details had alienated some of the players. Maybe so; maybe not. I do not believe that Buck really does have a tee shirt that asks, "Does 'anal retentive' have a hyphen?"

Still in jeopardy are Davey Johnson in LA (he has an infield that plays like the family reunion of Edward Scissorhands.) and Jimy Williiams in Boston (he has Carl Everett and Dan Duquette to deal with.). And by the way, what is the deal with Dan Duquette? In the Carl Everett/Jimy Williams contretemps he clearly sided with Everett to the amazement of the players. If Williams has to leave, that will be another departure from Boston that can be hung around Duquette's neck. My good friend, Festus, is a Red Sox fan and historian - and I am not - so I will defer to him on the exactitude of this, but my recollection is that Duquette has also alienated former Red Sox such as Mo Vaughn, Roger Clemens and John Valentin. I know that Mike Greenwell's exit from the Red Sox family was less than totally amicable, but I can't recall if that happened during the Duquette regime. Around the trading deadline, I heard an interview with someone on ESPN where it was reported that other GMs in the league had problems with Duquette in that he would place calls and then not take the return calls from them. I'm beginning to wonder if he is worth the trouble that seems to follow him around.

In another baseball story, Juan Gonzales supposedly has told his agent that the bulging disk in his back is "not serious" and that it "won't be a problem" and that the agent should be sure that teams know that as contract negotiations commence. Back problems or not, Gonzales is not exactly a 162 game player anyway. My guestimmate is that he is good for about 130 -140 games a year with a few extras where he shows up to pinch hit and then sit down. And by the way, how did he have time to go to med school given his baseball career and his five marriages and divorces? This guy must never sleep.

Baseball games are now longer than ever - as measured by the Elias Sports Bureau. I have to thank those folks for verifying what lots of baseball fans knew from a "seat of the pants perspective" - namely that they were getting calluses on their asses from sitting and watching games. Average game now is 2 hours and 58 minutes. The commish says that things will be done and there are lots of things to do. If history is a judge, the first thing he will focus on will be to worry about whether to have brie or camembert at the opening reception/cocktail hour for the upcoming owners' meeting.

Two or three weeks ago, the media was falling all over itself pronouncing Mike Shanahan as a certified game-plan genius and a person who had invented the infallible system. Remember the argument? Terrell Davis - low round pick - becomes a star rusher behind this small and mobile OL that blocks differently than other Ols; then Olandis Gary does the same; and then Mike Anderson looks unstoppable too. Well, Mike Anderson seems to be stoppable and so maybe the system is not infallible and maybe Shanahan has not found a way to square the circle just yet. Anderson rushed for 26 yards last weekend.

The latest twist in the saga of Diedra Lane and her murder indictment is that she is being indicted for a bank fraud scheme. We talked about that before. But in the classic debate about nature/nurture, her case offers yet another conundrum. Her brother is being indicted separately for 5 bank robberies in the local area. Now is that genetics or upbringing or what???

If I have done the calculation correctly, Brian Mitchell handled the football 10 times against the Falcons; 2 rushes, 3 receptions, 2 punt returns and 3 kickoff returns. The yardage associated with those 10 events totaled 331 yards. The Falcons total offense for the whole game was 200 yards. Tim Dwight had a pretty good night also. He had 3 receptions and 3 punt returns and 7 kickoff returns for a total of 282 yards. This game was 6-0 at the half and so almost all of these fireworks happened in the second half.

One of the men who founded the ABA back in the 70s and brought us the red-white-and-blue basketballs is part of another group that will form another American Basketball Association. It will be an 8 team league. In a statement he said that the new ABA will "capture the essence of the old ABA, the outlaw league with its innovations and excitement." If this new league is going to be the "outlaw league" compared to the NBA, then they need to be recruiting players from prison leagues around the country. The NBA has really come a long way in terms of having outlaws associated with it. Actually, it seems the new league is already going to the dogs. George "Ice" Gervin will coach the Detroit Dogs and Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins will coach the Tampa Bay Thunder Dawgs. I wonder who will be the GM for the Peoria Pooches? And by the way, what the hell is a Thunder Dawg?

NBA training camps are open. Michael Jordan has signed with the Boston Celtics. No, not THE Michael Jordan; I mean the one that went to Penn and led them to the Ivy League title last year. THE MJ, is still the GM of the Wizards and in a press conference a couple of weeks ago he said that this year was a year upon which he should be judged. He said this was a playoff team. Supposedly, he has found a way to motivate Rod Strickland but that has been reported before and whatever the technique was, it never seemed to last. But that is a key to significant improvement. MJ made major advances by getting rid of Ike Austin and Tracy Murray. The players the Wizards got in return need not do much to make this a better team; and if Popeye Jones can stay healthy, he is what Les Wiz have not had for a long time - a big strong defender/rebounder who plays hard every night and who does not pout when he does not get the ball.

A couple of weeks ago, I said here that the Warriors were going to invite Yinka Dare to their camp. Well, they signed him yesterday. I can only take that to mean that they have worked him out and believe that if they throw him the ball in the post he will catch it with his hands more often than with his face. For Yinka, that would be progress.

NHL season starts this week. Here is my prediction for the year. I'll take Colorado to win it all on a TKO in the 5th round.

Speaking of TKOs, Mike Tyson and Andrew Golotta will get it on in just about 3 weeks. Since this will be World Series time too, there are some interesting proposition bets:

Will there be more bases on balls in the World Series or boxing gloves on balls in the fight? (Over/under number is 7.)

Will first blood be drawn from a cut or a bite? (I mean in the fight, not the baseball game, of course; in baseball it would be from a spike at second base or a pitch that hits between the eyes.)

Will there be some kind of "outside interference" in the fight? (Does anyone know just where the guy who flew the glider into the ring in the Bowe/Holyfield fight is these days? If he is not doing anything important, maybe he could liven up one of the "Presidential Debates"?)

Will either/both fighters assault the referee? (This would go a long way toward bringing about the ultimate merger of boxing and rasslin.)

Will any player or manager assault an umpire? (This could begin merger talks between MLB and the NHL. Talk about leagues run by the clueless. If you had them change jobs in the next minute and everyone kept doing exactly what they have been doing for the last several years, who would notice the difference?)