About 40 years ago, there was a kid’s show on PBS called Hodgepodge Lodge. Given the motley assortment of things to talk about today, I feel as if I should broadcast this from the set of the old Hodgepodge Lodge program.
Alexander Ovechkin recently signed a multi-year contract with the Washington Capitals with a total value of $124M. There’s no doubt that Ovechkin is a hugely talented player and that his youth – he is only 22 years old – will allow the Capitals to promote him as the image of their squad for a long time to come. I do wonder, however, if it makes sense to pay a single player an amount of money that may just be in excess of the value of a half-dozen franchises in the NHL.
Bodog.com is an Internet wagering site – among other things. They have odds posted already regarding who will win next year’s collegiate football championship game. At the moment, USC is the favorite at 3-1. However, right behind them are Florida, Georgia and Ohio State at 6-1. If this is a portent of yet another Ohio State presence in the BCS Championship game, can I suggest that Ohio State take a sabbatical from that grind for at least a few years to let the memory of its recent shellackings fade ever so slightly from memory? Three or four years in the Independence Bowl ought to do it…
Here is your term-paper assignment for your course in NBA Happenings. Keep this to 5-7 pages of text please…
Compare and Contrast:
The Knicks team votes to suspend Stephon Marbury because he went AWOL on the team because he heard he would not be starting a game but Isiah Thomas overrules the vote and plays him anyway.
The Bulls coach suspends Joakim Noah for a game because he yelled at an assistant coach; then the players vote to suspend Noah for an additional game and the coach goes along with that vote.
Speaking of those Chicago Bulls and their interim coach, Jim Boylan, there is more than a mild uproar in Chicago over the fact that some of the Bulls’ players were caught on camera laughing and joking on the bench in the midst of a game where they were being blown-out by 20 points. After the game, Boylan said that the team offense is anemic and the team defense is soft. This guy would like to be the long-term coach of the Bulls so imagine what he really thinks of their on-court performance/effort.
For extra credit on that term paper assignment above, give me 250 words or less on the following:
What did the firing Scott Skiles as coach of the Bulls accomplish? Recall, he was too intense to relate to this squad…
As the Roger Clemens PR process continues to unfold, I become more and more confused. Maybe someone can explain to me how I am supposed to reach the conclusion that Clemens is the victim in all of this and not a steroid user when his carefully scripted statements and events start to contradict themselves. For example, he started out with the position that he did not know anything about what was or might be in the Mitchell Report until it burst forth on the sporting landscape on December 13. He was shocked – SHOCKED – to find his name associated with unseemly behavior; it was a dark moment in his life.
Then later, we learned from Clemens lawyer that Brian McNamee had called an associate of Clemens agents – the Hendricks brothers – on December 5 “to apologize” for what he had said to Mitchell and his cohorts and that call had been brought to Clemens’ attention on December 9. All of this was a prelude to Clemens’ lawyer sending a couple of his investigators to talk to McNamee prior to the release of the Mitchell Report. I can’t imagine how he was shocked by the Mitchell Report.
There is still plenty of time to determine just how much of what Brian McNamee said is true and just how much of it is false. But one does have to wonder just what “Team Clemens” is thinking in terms of trying to build support/sympathy for its client with these kinds of contradictions.
About that 17-minute phone call that was covertly taped by “Team Clemens”, am I the only one who thinks the act of doing that was underhanded/sleazy at best? Moreover, what in that taped conversation was supposed to convince me that McNamee is the only bad guy in this whole mess? Just asking…
Here is what “Team Clemens” has succeeded in doing so far. They have made Barry Bonds look good. And Bonds is not paying the folks on “Team Clemens” – - as far as we know.
Now that Congress has called on the DoJ to investigate the veracity of statements made by Miguel Tejada to Congressional investigators with regard to Rafael Palmiero’s assertion that Raffy tested positive for steroids after he got a Vitamin B-12 shot from Tejada, you have to wonder how Astros’ GM, Ed Wade, feels now. Wade just concluded a trade for Tejada in which he gave up five players/prospects.
During the Congressional questioning of Donald Fehr earlier this week, did you notice how Fehr answered lots of questions? He’d begin by saying something along the lines of “Well, if the question was whatever, then my answer is …” How come none of the Congressthings asked a follow-up question along the lines of:
“That wasn’t my question. Let me ask it again much more slowly so that you can understand it, Mr. Fehr, and then you can answer it truthfully – - since you do recall that you are under oath…”
There was a report in the Orange County Register that 22 of the college football Bowl Games are tax-exempt entities despite corporate sponsorship and huge payouts to the participating schools and fat salaries to organizing staffs. Here is my question:
Which publicity-hungry committee of the US Congress will notice that one and run with it? Talk about a way to increase tax revenues…
Finally, here are words of wisdom from Steve Rosenbloom’s blog on the Chicago Tribune website:
Congress wants the Justice Dept. to find out whether Miguel Tejada lied about using steroids. Congress also wants the Feds to find out who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…