Mandy Block is the young lady who was racing in the “sausage costume” last year when she got whacked by Randall Simon. To her immense credit, she did not sue him or the Milwaukee Brewers or the people who cut down the tree that produced the wood to make the bat that hit her during the sausage race. Now, she is going to milk that moment of fame one more time because she just announced that she will no longer participate in “competitive sausage racing”. Ms. Block will attend the University of Wisconsin to study psychology.

In the aftermath of the dastardly attack on her person as she raced to beat the bratwurst in one sausage race, she was presented with a certificate of bravery by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Ms. Block said, “I'm proud of it. I didn't even know there was a hot dog council.” I have a question or two here. Given the existence of a “hot dog council”, why is it issuing certificates of bravery? Why would a hot dog council have any such things to hand out? Maybe you have to be brave to eat a hot dog if you work for this council because you know what goes into a hot dog?

Another “scandalous” sports situation from last year is going to wind up in the court system. You may recall that jockey José Santos was “accused” of using an “illegal device” on Funny Cide in last year's Kentucky Derby. The Miami Herald showed a photo and wrote stories about this matter; it was a big deal for about a week. Stewards determined that Santos did nothing wrong in the race. Now, Santos is suing the Miami Herald for libel and is asking for $48M in damages. I don't think this one will make for riveting television; I wonder if Court TV will even try to cover it…

I've made snarky references to the NHL final series being a Calgary/Tampa match-up and how that would not be a happy thing for ESPN. Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic is more direct in his analysis:

“Snail racing would get better television ratings than Tampa Bay playing Calgary for the Stanley Cup.”

Memo to Dan Bickley: Of course it would; you can play the trifecta in snail racing.

Something strange is going on in Cincinnati. Two weeks ago, the Bengals signed Kurt Kittner as a free agent QB. Kittner had been with the Falcons and played his college ball at Illinois. Signing free agent QBs for the purpose of having them compete for the #3 slot on your roster is not an exact science nor is it a particularly expensive thing for a team to do. The signing bonus would be meager and there are some moving expenses that might be incurred, but this is not something that tilts the entire annual income statement from black to red. Even so, it has to be a bit unusual when a team signs a free agent QB and then releases him two weeks later. What happened in the two weeks he was with the team that was unapparent during the scouting and negotiating phase of this process? Enquiring minds want to know…

Pat Kennedy coached Florida State when they entered the ACC and got them to the NCAA tournament. Later he coached DePaul and then he moved on to Montana. Normally, coaches seek to go in the other direction with respect to the hierarchy of coaching in college basketball, but what the heck? Now, Kennedy has left Montana to become the head coach at Towson State. That is yet another step down the coaching ladder; the Colonial Athletic Association is a bit player in terms of collegiate conferences; Towson State has been at or near the bottom of that conference for a while and has not been to the tournament in about 15 years. Last year, Towson won 8 games. I'm positive that I do not understand this career progression.

Scott Ostler was commenting in the San Francisco Chronicle on high school phenom, Sebastian Telfair, jumping directly to the NBA and announcing that he has a shoe deal with Adidas worth $15M:

"So, he's pretty much got the prom expenses covered.”

The Expos played to a crowd of just over 12,000 on Sunday. That is a major upgrade over many of their previous crowds; some were down in the 4,000 range. If attendance drops just one more notch, the Expos will not merely announce the attendance figure in the eighth inning of their home games; they'll introduce everyone by name. Drop attendance two notches and they'll give a short bio on everyone.

Last Saturday, the Rangers and Tigers played a game where the pitchers gave up 21 walks. The next day, these same teams played and there were only four walks in the game. What's up with that? Maybe the umpire in Saturday's game had a strike zone the size of a coffee cup? Maybe the pitchers all decided on Saturday night that there was no reason to give that degree of respect to these line-ups? You make the call…

Finally, Michael Bozeman was named the women's basketball coach at Fordham University. Somehow, I see him having a position at Montana State sometime in the future…

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

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