Manny Ramirez went on irrevocable waivers and passed them like a cow passes gas. All you had to do was wait out the standard time period. If you are a baseball fantasy player – and therefore a stat geek – you might have been surprised by this turn of events. If you are still a bit confused, I suggest you read Bob Ryan's column from the Boston Globe on 1 November. You can go to Bob Ryan's stuff with the link on the website under “The Pros”.
Joe Paterno has been under more scrutiny and more pressure this season than ever before. Lots of pundits are taking the time and energy to suggest that he ought to retire and do something else with his life; they think that Father Time has overtaken JoePa. They must not have seen him sprint to catch that referee last year, but that is another point. Bill Conlin has known and covered Penn State sports and JoePa for about 40 years; Conlin has a column in the Philadelphia Daily News on 30 October that offers an articulate perspective from someone who actually saw the past and sees the present. You can go to Bill Conlin's stuff with the link in the website under "The Pros" as well.
While I am sending you to read great stuff written by others, let me send you to a column written by Jason Whitlock for ESPN.com. If you watch The Sports Reporters on ESPN, you will easily recognize Whitlock. He is the very large black man who writes for the KC Star and who appears about once every six weeks. He was an offensive lineman in college and a high school teammate of Jeff George. George's current state of unemployment by any NFL team is the only subject on which Whitlock and I hold unwaveringly opposite opinions. But this column – fortunately – has nothing to do with Jeff George; rather it has a different slant on the Kobe Bryant situation and why Kobe needs to get out of LA.
Before anyone asks, I have not signed a promotion deal with anyone to recommend columns to you. I just happened to run across three really good ones in the last couple of days and decided to share them with you.
Sportsline.com reported that FBI Director, Robert Mueller, will visit Greece to review the security plans/preparations for next year's Olympics. Maybe I missed this part of my civics class in high school, but I thought that the FBI was a law enforcement organization whose responsibility was focused on violations of US Federal laws. I understand that preventing some kind of terrorist incident at the Olympics in Greece is a worthy goal, but how is this the job of the FBI? When the games were in Salt Lake City or in Los Angeles, that would make this part of the FBI bag of responsibility, but these games are in Athens, Greece and not in Athens, Georgia. I'm getting a faint whiff of “boondoggle” here. You'll know that it is full “boondoggle” season if there is a Congressional delegation that heads on over to “check things out” and have some meetings with “officials on the ground”. And if there are any “high level” trips to Greece to confer on Olympic preparations anytime in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, just consider that you – the taxpayer – have funded a Holiday Shopping Trip.
Checking out some stats from Sunday's NFL games, I saw that the Packers gained 261 yards rushing against the Vikes Sunday night. Yet, the Pack only won by 3 points. That is unusual. But the message for the Vikings is that they have to figure out how to stop a running attack a whole lot better than that. On Sunday night, it looked as if half the defenders all forgot how to tackle on the same night. But I am not ready to start worrying about the Vikings just yet. Their next three games are against San Diego, Oakland and Detroit.
The Redskins had 213 yards of net offense for the day against the Cowboys. The Cowboys' rushing offense was 208 yards. Everyone is focused on the inability of the Washington's “Fun 'n gun” offense to move the ball and protect the QB; that is a serious problem indeed. But maybe there needs to be a lot more scrutiny and criticism leveled at the defense. Dallas also had the ball for 35 minutes on Sunday even after they gave the Skins four turnovers.
The 49ers ran the ball 35 times for 165 yards against the Rams on Sunday. The Rams ran the ball 8 times for a total of 9 yards. Ouch!!
The Bears beat the Chargers and one telling stat is that the Bears had 63 offensive plays while the Chargers had only 45.
I did not watch all of the FSU/Notre Dame game last weekend because FSU was comfortably ahead when I tuned in and it was clear to me that the outcome was a foregone conclusion. However, I did hear the announcer make a lame apology for Ty Willingham's coaching this year. I don't know who it was who said this and I do understand that there is an implicit need for him to be nice to Notre Dame football on the telecasts, but he said something to the effect that Willingham needs to be given some slack because he has not yet been able to get the players he has recruited on the field. That is true. And he deserves some kind of grace period until he can do that. However, does anyone remember how Willingham was being lauded as a football genius last year when he won with the “leftover players”? Look, if he was a genius last year, then he is a dumbass this year. Or maybe, he was overhyped last year? Time will tell…
Karl Malone is trying to sell his house in Utah and it will probably take a while to move it. The house lists for $6.1M and the annual tax bill is $28,500. The house is 17,230 square feet with eight bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, a six-car garage and three guest suites on a two-acre lot. I gotta say that if I were in the market for a place of that size and price in the wide-open West, I'd be looking for it to be on something a lot bigger than two acres!
Finally, it was reported by AP that high school cheerleaders in Berwick School District (eastern Pa) will not be permitted to wear their uniforms to class because the skirts are much shorter than is allowed by the dress code. That is unusual enough to merit mention here but then one of the local school board members had to chime in with some commentary on the dress situation in the schools. He thinks the cheerleaders' uniforms are less “outré” than some of the things that girls wear to school and maybe he is right. But he must have gotten his tongue wrapped around his eyeteeth so he couldn't see what he what he was saying with this remark:
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“When I see some young ladies, I have to turn my head or I might be accused of groping.”
Memo to School Board Member: Just keep your hands at your side and you will not be accused of groping. Leering or ogling or drooling is another matter…
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