Lots of stuff to catch up on so let me get right to it… Leo Mazzone was fired as the pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles. Mazzone had previously earned a cult-like adoration as a pitching genius when he was with the Braves for something close to an eternity. Obviously, this man knows something about pitching; but just as obviously, his staff will have more success when it contains Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine year after year after year. The only place where coaches can turn significantly under-talented teams into heroic winners is in the movies – - cf The Bad News Bears.
The Paul Byrd/HGH business is a difficult one. On one hand, it does appear that Byrd has/had a medical condition related to his pituitary gland for which HGH is a known and proper medical treatment. On the other hand, when he got his prescription for HGH, he took it to some Internet vendor – - who is also under investigation for various and sundry legal transgressions related to selling drugs/meds to people who should not have them. I don’t know about you, but when my doctor gives me a prescription for something, I send it off to the prescription service that is associated with my health insurance company and they mail me back the pills to take. If I need it quicker than that – say if it is a pain medication – then I go to the local pharmacy and get it filled there. More info is needed on this matter.
One thing is clear however. If Paul Byrd has/had such a condition and a reputable doctor did prescribe HGH for treatment, then MLB really has no option other than to extend a “therapeutic exception” in that case. No player should be asked to put his health at risk just to stay “legal” in the baseball sense of the word.
Chris Chambers was a Miami Dolphin; that team is 0-7 stands a better chance to go 0-16 than it does to make the playoffs this year. Just before the trading deadline, Chambers is traded to the San Diego Chargers; that team is 3-3 at the moment but looks to be in good position to make the AFC playoffs. So, who says there aren’t Fairy Godmothers out there?
By the way, those Miami Dolphins who don’t need Chris Chambers any more also didn’t need Wes Welker during the last off-season and Welker is now in New England. Compare Chambers and Welker with the receiving corps that the Dolphins trot out on the field routinely. Then ask the Dolphins’ braintrust a simple question:
How’s that working out for you?
Why do I think that the Chargers at 3-3 are in a good position to make the playoffs? Just look at the AFC West standings. KC leads at the moment at 4-3 but the Chiefs have been outscored by their opponents. Nine AFC teams that have had a bye this year – the Chiefs have not – have scored more points than the Chiefs. Elsewhere in the Division, Denver is also 3-3 but has been outscored by 58 points cumulatively this year; and then, there are the Raiders…
I have managed to see the last three games that the Philadelphia Eagles have played. One was that nationally televised debacle against the Giants; the other two games happened to be shown in the local market I was in on the last two Sundays. I know I picked the Eagles to make the playoffs in my pre-season analysis, but I’d like to assume the privilege granted to US Senators and Congressthings to revise and extend my remarks. The Eagles are not a good football team at the moment. Here’s why:
Donovan McNabb is not nearly recovered from his knee injury last season. You can see that the instant he tries to run with the ball.
McNabb’s passing is very erratic this year and probably that is related to his knee rehabilitation status too.
The Eagles have only one running back who is worth more than the league minimum salary.
The defense is good but not dominating.
The injury to Brian Dawkins has been devastating.
After the Bills beat the Ravens last weekend, one of the talking heads said that Trent Edwards had solidified his hold on the starting QB job in Buffalo over JP Losman. I understand that the bottom line in the NFL is wins and losses, but Edwards stat line for the game was meager at best. He was 11-21 for 153 yards with 1 INT and zero TDs.
Did you happen to notice in last night’s Colts/Jags game on MNF that the stadium in Jax still has some upper deck sections covered with black tarps? Even a winning record can’t seem to stir the interest of fans in Jacksonville sufficiently to sell out the stadium the way it was built. The Jags need to pray that David Garrard is not hurt seriously because if Quinn Gray has to be their QB for the rest of the season the Jags will be out of contention by December 1st and home attendance might begin to look like a WNBA game.
The Saints and Falcons met in a game where the cumulative records going into the game were 2-9. The game lived up to its advanced billing…
If you are an aficionado of the punting game, you had to love the Raiders/Chiefs game last weekend. There were 17 punts in the game – and the Raiders gave up the ball on downs one time meaning there could have been 18. Those 17 punts produced a total of 79 yards of punt returns or an average of 4.6 yards. How did those fans stand all that excitement?
Bad as the Miami Dolphins are, the St. Louis Rams could be worse. No, they don’t play each other later this year; if they did the ACLU might be in court today asserting that such a game would violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments for NFL fans. But the Dolphins and Rams will both share a bye week in early November. Maybe the NFL can market that as “Product Improvement Weekend”?
Do you think that David Boston’s NFL career may have come to the end of the line just yet? Boston has run afoul of league rules/policies in the past; he has been a problematic teammate in the past; he had been trying to make the Bucs when he got himself arrested for DUI and subsequently tested positive for GHB. Now, he’s been arrested on a domestic violence rap where he allegedly pulled the phone cord from the wall while his wife was calling 911. Current charges include domestic battery, false imprisonment, resisting a police officer and “culpable negligence” – which sounds like a charge that could be added on to just about every arrest that’s made.
Finally, an observation from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“Just saw a guy wearing a sandwich board that read
‘Jesus Saves!
Why Can’t Armando Benitez?’ “
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…