The financial straits of the Arizona D-Backs are something that they would dearly love to keep secret. The D-Backs had a payroll last year of $87M and may have lost as much as $45M. They are seeking to trim $10M in expenses other than payroll and are rumored to be looking to cut the payroll by at least $20M. So they began by firing 15 people who work in the front office. If they seek to save $30M, how much were these people making such that they are the first cuts made in the budget draw down? Even if the average salary of these 15 workers is $50K per year (not bloody likely!), that saves $750K which is about 2.5% of what needs to be saved.

Darryl Strawberry has been released from jail and ordered back to his substance abuse treatment center with an electronic ankle bracelet. Other people in the rehab program are under direction from the court to report him if he tries to leave the facility again without permission; Strawberry is also under court order to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings and to meet with a minister whose outreach specializes in prison religious counseling. Given the concept of "separation of church and state", I wonder how a judge can order someone to meet with a specific minister. I wonder if the members of "Atheists Springloaded to Seek Horrendous and Offensive Legal Entanglements" (check the acronym for yourselves) will be in court to challenge that part of the imposed sentence.

This is the time of the football season when people look ahead to see what the various teams have to do to make the playoffs. Rather than get into all those possibilities and probabilities that can number in the quintjillions after you assume nineteen different things, I'd rather focus on one good team that looks like it can really go on a roll, three bad teams that could become candidates for toe tags and one team that looks good now but may have trouble ahead of them.

Baltimore is 7-4. Their next 4 games are against Dallas, Cleveland, San Diego and Arizona. The combined record of those four teams is 10-31 as of today. Granted the Baltimore offense is - well - offensive, but these games look like a way for the Ravens to go into their final game against the Jets with a record of 11-4 and a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.

The Saints are looking good now; they are 7-3 and riding a 6 game winning streak. However, they have lost Ricky Williams for at least the rest of the regular season and have signed Terry Allen as a RB. Allen has been out of football since he was let go last winter by the Pats; I don't think he was in anyone's training camp this summer so he has a bit of rust to clear off. And the Saints schedule gets a bit more dicey than it has been up to now. Their next three are Oakland, at St. Louis, Denver. The Raiders come into New Orleans as a 3 point favorite; that could be one of the best games of the week.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Dallas Cowboys are 4-6 and they are facing a final 6 games against teams with a combined record of 42-19. Worse yet, as of now, all of these opponents have defenses that are in the top third of the league. The Cowboys play home games against the Vikes, Skins and Giants; the Cowboys are on the road against Baltimore, Tampa and Tennessee. There are no "gimmes" on that schedule and the Cowboys should be thrilled if they win 2 of those games; they could easily lose them all.

And of course there are the San Diego Chargers who are 0-10. They travel to Denver, Baltimore and Carolina; they are at home to play KC, SF and Pittsburgh. Clearly, the SF game is their best shot at a win because it is at home but they could get lucky because by the time they play Carolina, the season will be over in Charlotte and they could catch the Pantloads just playing out the string. Remember, no team has ever gone 0-16 since the NFL went to the 16 game schedule in 1978.

Speaking of the Chargers, they have the QB situation from Hell at the moment. Jim Harbaugh is the Elder Statesman; he has been around; he has seen it all; he is yesterday's news; he is finished. Moses Moreno is the Undiscovered Talent; he is the personification of hope; he is the kid who might just get to go to the prom with the cheerleader in the last reel; he is fragile; he is confused; he is several years away from being average. Ryan Leaf is the Prodigal Son; he has the arm; he has the legs; he has the reputation; he has no work ethic; he has no fire in his gut; he has no support from his teammates; he is a mess. And when you look at that situation you have to recall from the distant past that the San Diego Chargers drafted a QB about 6 years ago named Trent Green. They never played him and eventually cut him so they could hold onto Jeff Brohm. Chris Berman calls the Chargers, "the Bolts"; maybe they should be "the Dolts".

Speaking of QBs who came into the league with a lot of hype who are currently a mess, Akili Smith has been replaced in this week's starting line-up for Cincinnati by Scott Mitchell. If that is not a wake up call for this kid, then his career is headed in exactly the same direction as Ryan Leaf's. Scott Mitchell is a loser; when you are benched so he can come in to lead the team, that should tell you what your performances to date have said about your skills. The next time Akili gets into a game - and it should not be long until Mitchell makes it clear that he won't get much business transacted in there - Akili Smith better be on top of his game.

Of course, all the offensive problems in Cincy are not the fault of Akili Smith as will become brutally apparent when Scott Mitchell leads the way. Peter Warrick is beginning to come under the microscope in Cincy. Remember, Peter is the guy who fired his agent because he was drafted as low as 4th - ignoring his own identification with special shopping discounts in Tallahassee. So far this year in 10 games, Warrick has caught 30 passes and has dropped 12.

Another team that is ready for a toe tag is New England. There was no logical reason for them to play Drew Bledsoe last week against Cleveland since it was clear that Bledsoe's thumb is hurt and he cannot throw long. Cleveland brought everyone up to the short defensive area and the Pats got nothing done. And there are "rumors" that Bledsoe's thumb may be seriously hurt to include a piece of bone being broken off at the base. Now if you are an Oliver Stone devotee, you might think that they are playing him because they want to get his numbers down so that they can restructure his contract next year in a very "gentle" way. Bledsoe's "cap number" for next year is $9M and the Patsies are going to have to blow this team up and start from the beginning. They would really like to find a way to get that "cap number" cut in half.

It turns out that Brian Griese's right shoulder was separated in Monday night's game against the Raiders and the team medical staff shot it with something to numb it and he finished the game. Griese already has a cartilage tear in that shoulder and this injury is described as a separation of the AC joint. Don't ask; I have no idea if there is a DC joint. But if there is a DC joint, you can be sure that Marion Barry knows where it is. At the moment, it is not clear if Griese can play on Sunday against the Chargers or if he can play at all for the rest of the year. You may want to question his judgment and perspective, but you can't question his determination.

Along the lines of "how the mighty have fallen" it appears that the USC/UCLA game will not even be telecast locally in LA. It has been a while since this game has had a sufficient national importance to be a "feature game", but now even the locals won't get to see it unless they head on out to the Coliseum.

News from the NBA is that Paul Pierce has hired a full time bodyguard because there is some concern that the same folks that attacked and slashed him back in the summer might come after him again. The Celtics even have a seat for the bodyguard near the bench during home games. I guess that is what happens when you aren't a championship team. Can you imagine what would have happened to people in Boston who slashed John Havlicek or Bill Russell or Larry Bird and then made it such that he thought he was in danger and had to hire a bodyguard? I suspect those people would have paid a visit to the "Back Bay area" wearing concrete corsets and lead jockstraps and the police would have had about 200,000 suspects to interview.

The Portland Trailblazers are now 5-4 but last night they lost to the Atlanta Hawks giving the Hawks their first win of the season. With the score tied and 8 seconds to play, Jason Terry took an inbounds pass and drove the length of the floor to put up a jump shot from 8 feet to win the game. Damon Stoudamire chased him all the way down the floor and made his typically feeble defensive attempt to disrupt the shot after giving Terry access to exactly any spot on the floor that Terry may have wanted. There was no meaningful help from anyone else in a Blazers' uniform to stop Terry or to try to block the shot. From the replay I saw, it looked like the Blazers did not care or were in some kind of coma. If the Blazers are going to be serious championship contenders, they cannot lose to teams like this. The Hawks stink; even with Mutombo, this is a bad team. (Aside: Mutombo had 6 points in 31 minutes last night.) The Hawks may be as bad as the Bulls and the Clippers - and maybe they are even worse.

The Bulls are 1-6; they have played 5 of those seven games at home; their next 6 games are on the road; they have a few young players who might develop into something valuable but they are not real valuable now. If this team gets off to a 1-12 start, the "who gives a rat's ass attitude" may not be far behind.

You knew it had to happen but you just could not say when and where and who would make it happen. After Tiger Woods' complaint about how he was being used by the PGA Tour and that they were the beneficiaries of his wonderfulness, the question was who was next in line. Enter Richard Williams - father of Venus and Serena - to say that the Women's Tennis Association is taking his daughters to the cleaners and that they should get a piece of the TV revenue. After all, it is the players that generate the revenue and his daughters are the ones that people watch the most. Of course, what Mr. Williams conveniently ignores is that at least some of the TV revenue is put into the purses of the various tournaments that his daughters compete in. So the players actually do get a share of the revenue, but to hear him tell it, they get nothing.

Tiger Woods managed to stay clear of this controversy by going to Thailand to prepare to play in the Johnnie Walker Classic. While there, he had some spare time while the check for his "appearance fee" was clearing through international financial networks, and so he picked up an honorary Doctorate of Sports Science. Don't ask; I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. As that ceremony was going on he was confronted by pickets who protested the working conditions imposed by Nike on various folks in Thailand. These people wanted Tiger to intercede on behalf of over 60,000 Thai people who are workers for Nike. They want him to get the company to improve working conditions. You would think that Tiger would appreciate these cries for help from these oppressed workers; it is exactly analogous to the whining that he did just last week. But Tiger has a $100M deal with Nike that lasts for 4 more years so my message to these poor workers is, "Don't hold your breath!" Tiger isn't going to storm into the Executive Suite at Nike and pound his fist on the mahogany table and demand justice for the Thai workers. That goes way too far beyond the whining he did last week.

Rarely do I have anything to say about NASCAR - other than it could be renamed the "Left Turn League". However, you might have missed the announcement that NASCAR poobahs have fined Scott Pruett $10K for "intentionally running into the car driven by Robert Pressley" after the NASCAR race in Phoenix earlier this month. In the NBA you get suspended for a game if you fight with another player costing you a lot more than $10K; in NASCAR you can ram a 3000 lb vehicle into another one on purpose and draw a $10K fine. Where is the justice?

Finally, I was perusing the Washington Post this morning and read a column by Tom Boswell where he tried to associate sporting events with the hoopla in Florida related to the Presidential election. The column was cute but not much more than that. But it did have me thinking about politics as I reached the end of the sports section and checked out the entries at Laurel for today. And so I present to you a two horse parlay from Laurel that is a tribute to our current President who, I am certain, would volunteer - if he were allowed - to stay on the job for as long as it takes to hand count every vote in the US - twice. Here is that parlay:

In the second race:   He Touched Me

In the fifth race:   Miss Hornblower