In baseball, Davey Johnson was finally fired. Given the multi-layered management structure of the Dodgers, it is surprising they could actually make that decision in only a week. One of the criticisms of Johnson was that he was too laid back and allowed players to perform without passion. Peter Gammons said that one possible replacement might be Buck Showalter who was maniacally involved in every detail of everything in Arizona. Boy, would that be a changeover.

A former Davey Johnson employer, Peter Asbestos was interviewed on a Baltimore radio show and had lots of things to say about the O's. Hearing all this, I wonder if he is too focused on justifying his $250M bill to the state of Maryland for his services in helping to get big settlements from the tobacco companies. Among other things, Mr. Asbestos said:

Albert Belle has a degenerative hip injury that may or may not respond to rehab. But the O's would be willing to trade him if he does recover and if he will waive his no trade clause. Belle makes $13M per year and in a contest for Mr. Congeniality, he is one of the few bipeds who could finish behind Peter Asbestos.

The O's offered Mike Mussina a contract package worth $72M with a lot of deferred money. Mussina balked. Now the O's may change the amount of the deferred money but not the total value. Here is what Peter Asbestos had to say: “We are not in the business of making arrangements with baseball players that border on economic insanity.” I guess he thinks Albert Belle is actually worth $13M a year with a no trade clause then since he is the one that signed off on the deal.

Next year is not a rebuilding year for the O's. If he believes that, then he must expect them to be worse than this year's 74-88 record because they need help in a lot of places.

No rebuilding notwithstanding, he thinks the bullpen needs to be “overhauled”. If that begins with some process by which all of them are fed to ravenous wolves, then he is probably on the right track.

Will McDonough of the Boston Globe said that John Harrington kept a list of people in his wallet who ever expressed an interest in buying the Red Sox and that the list was long and had people with big bucks on it. McDonough also said that Harrington thinks that a media company will jump in and bid because the media rights for the Sox are very valuable and will be up for re-negotiation in a couple of years.

Interestingly, McDonough's colleague at the Globe, Dan Shaughnessy sees this very differently. Dan thinks that it is high time the team was sold and that the “trust ownership” with Harrington as the “man behind the curtain” and pulling levers to make it look like a baseball franchise has been around too long. He says the most nervous guy in Boston should be Dan Duquette who was Harrington's guy and who has been stockpiling enemies and people he has treated poorly over the time that Harrington has been in charge to protect him. Shaughnessy also has no great affection for Haywood Sullivan and Buddy LeRoux who were part owners of the team when Mrs. Yawkey bought it after her husband died in the late 70s. He says that there need to be some guarantees that these two guys are gone. Stay tuned to this story; this could get very interesting.

A Florida paper reported that Alonzo Mourning has a “mysterious illness”. Mourning had been listed as sidelined by an “ankle injury.” However, after the story broke, Pat Riley said that they did not know what was wrong but that it came to light in Alonzo's physical and blood tests. Clearly that is not an “ankle injury”. Riley said that it could be anything from “a viral infection to just fatigue from a possible thyroid condition.” So we have landmarks here of “ankle injury” and “viral infection” and “thyroid condition”. LOTS of things fit within that set of limits!

Gary Barnett has relented and will let the Colorado Buffaloes keep the logos on their helmets when the play Texas A&M this weekend. Good thing because if he did that and they lost - which they should - then what would he do next week against Texas? Make them play without cups? Gary Barnett is an overrated goof. He is not evil like some other college coaches who would cheat on their grandmother if they had the opportunity, but he is kind of like the high school coach that was plucked out of those ranks to coach Notre Dame. He was so far over his head that you have to think for a minute to recall his name; as a hint, he has the same last name as a fictional character who signs a very bad deal - even worse than the one Peter Asbestos signed with Albert Belle. And that seems to be what Barnett is about; he is over his head at a big time football power.

Meanwhile the Saints have stopped paying Mike Ditka. They are obligated to pay him the difference between whatever he earns and $2.5M per year. Mike has not been prompt in sending them accountings of what he earns - reportedly he gets $25K per speaking engagement - outside of his contract to do studio analysis for CBS. He was being paid $104K twice a month by the Saints but they stopped that in August. Seems like Mike needs a good CPA.

Duce Staley may be gone for the year with an injury to his ankle and foot called a “Liz Frank injury”. He is undergoing continuing tests but at the moment the treatment options seem to be surgery or putting the foot in a cast indefinitely to see what kind of healing occurs. Sounds to me like he is definitely gone for the year. And this sounds like it is definitely an “ankle injury” and not a mysterious condition with excess build-up of ear wax.

Finally there was a story in the Metro section of the Washington Post, about a new sport that is catching on in the area - underwater hockey. I am not making this up, people! There is a puck on the bottom of a pool and players with snorkels swim down with short handled sticks and try to move the puck into goals at either end of the pool. One of the people who had founded a team in Charleston SC says, “Ninety percent of people think this is pretty weird.” He certainly got that right! The game is catching on in a wide variety of places including Washington, Charleston, Australia, South Africa and Serbia. How long until this is a demonstration sport at the Olympics? Or the X-Games?

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