Rapid fire again

It's been released to the press that the pedestrian struck by Donte Stallworth was not in the crosswalk at the time of the accident, nor was Stallworth driving excessively fast at only ten miles per hour over the speed limit. In spite of reports of intoxication, those two facts might be enough to keep Florida authorities from pursuing the most serious of possible charges - vehicular manslaughter, and it's likely those two facts will keep the wide receiver our of jail.

Anyone else see OLB Clay Matthews III, as a strong candidate for the Pats' first pick in the draft if he's still around at the 23rd pick? The guy's a 6' 3" 246 pound outside backer with sterling blood lines, being the son of former NFL linebacker Clay Matthews, Jr (19 seasons for the Falcons and Browns - including time playing for Bill Belichick), grandson of Clay Matthews (four seasons in the 1950's as an offensive tackle and defensive end for the 49ers), and nephew of former offensive lineman Bruce Matthews (Oilers/Titans, 19 seasons).

It's just a hunch that we'll see him in a Pats uni this year, but I also thought there was a fair chance that the team would make a run at Zack DeOssie given Belichick's familiarity with the family. So, who knows?

Scouting reports from the WBC say that Daisuke Matsuzaka was pounding the strike zone with his fastball and pitching less tentatively than he did during last season. The Diceman wasn't the most dominant pitcher in the tournament, but he wasn't far off in posting a 2.45 ERA over 14.2 innings. He gave up only four runs on 14 hits along with five walks and 13 strikeouts (making his WHIP 1.30). Not bad for going against (theoretically) the best that the world has to offer.

Should Matsuzaka build off of this, and stay aggressive during the season, the Sox likely have at least four starters that will win at least 12 games between Dice, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Wakefield. If Penny can stay healthy and return to pre-Dodger form, we could be looking at a staff that has four starters winning at least 15 games and a fifth winning at least 12. My guess is that Beckett, Dice and Lester all end up between 16 and 20 wins, Penny between 14 and 16, and Wake at around 12 or 13 (assuming the staff remains reasonably healthy). That means that from the rotation alone we could be looking in the range of 80 wins.

I liked what I saw of George Kottaras in last night's preseason match up against the Yankees.

It looks like Lance Armstrong's come-back bid has been slowed down severely. Armstrong, the single most dominant force in the sport of Cycling - ever - broke his collar bone during a recent stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon race in northern Spain. Some had speculated that this might keep him out of the sport's premier event, the Tour de France.

He'll ride in it, I just don't know that he will be in top form and that he will be able to compete for the yellow jersey.

According to literature, his injury will take six to eight weeks to heal. That would put him on schedule to possibly be healthy, but not particularly competitive in the Giro d'Italia on May 9th - the last major race he can possibly use as a tune-up before the grueling TdF.

Given I thought he, despite his age and the time he had taken off, was the likely favorite going into the Tour before the accident, I think this makes the race more compelling.

Panic in Patriot Nation

There are a lot of Patriots fans out there that don't seem to pay close attention to what's going on around the league, or that even know their history. I know that, for the most part, if you're reading this, I'm preaching to the choir, but I still have to get this off my chest.

After the beat down the Pats suffered at the hands of the Dolphins this weekend, a lot of the fans on the message boards, particularly at the Boston Globe and Yahoo, are calling for the Pats to sign Duante Culpepper. Yeah, the same Culpepper that was having trouble playing his way out of a paper bag when he had the Baltimore power running game behind him. The same Culpepper that is failing to generate interest from Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland - all winless teams suffering from poor quarterback play as much as from anything else.

Consider since 2001, as a starter, Culpepper has a record of 30 wins and 44 losses, has started 16 games only twice during that time, has averaged 11.1 interceptions per season (but 17 per 16 games), 15.5 touchdowns per season, and has been sacked 3.2 times per start (to put some of that into perspective - Tom Brady has been sacked an average of 1.8 times per start, or an average of 22.4 fewer times over every 16 game season; and 12.5 INT's per 16 games).

Sure, people aren't clamoring for him to replace a struggling Brady - they're clamoring for him to replace what they perceive as a struggling Cassel. Before you go calling for the head of the Pats back-up, think about this -

Culpepper is not the answer - if you think he is, if he was such an answer, why aren't any other team's looking at him? he's done.

As for Cassel -

a) That game wasn't his fault. he didn't give up 38 points. The defense seldom stopped a team that couldn't win more than one game last year. With the Dolphins far out in front, they were able to load up against the running game and basically dare the Patriots to win on the arms of Cassel.

b) A look at Brady's second game? a 30-10 loss to the dolphins in which he passed for a total of 86 yards, no TD's, no INT's and was sacked 4 times for 17 yards of losses. Cassel passed for 131 yards and a TD (1 int), and was sacked 4 times for 19 yards. additionally, the Brady led pats in that 2001 game lost three fumbles. The Patriots lost only one turnover this past Sunday.

Back in '01, after the team got shellacked, Pats fans just saw another losing season ahead of them with a back-up slogging his way through the season in place of his more accomplished predecessor.

No - Cassel is no Tom Brady, but Brady didn't light it up his first two games as a starter either -

Brady's line through his first two NFL starts...

25 for 47 (53.2 percent completion rate), 254 yards, 5 sacks for 26 yards, no TD's, no INT's.

Cassel -

35 for 54 (64.8 percent completions), 296 yards, 7 sacks for 28 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.

If anything, Cassel has had a slightly better first two games than Brady. Be patient.

This and that...

Make no mistake, I want the Red Sox to repeat as World Series champs. However, given Hank Steinbrenner's whining about how divisional play and the wild card give other teams an unfair competitive advantage (yes, the same Steinbrenner whose payroll is roughly $70.4 million higher than the next highest team and $90 million more than the Dodgers that he singled out) I would be perfectly happy seeing the Rays, who carry a payroll roughly a quarter that of the Yanks, walk home with this year's championship.

I would be happy to see the Brewers win, even at the expense of the Sox (not thrilled, mind you), but it would be a nice FU to the way the Steinbrenner family has done business.

Anyone else waiting for the Ford Family to say April Fools, no we really still have Matt Millen as our GM. The fact the man set a new standard for futility as a GM is impressive - particularly in an era that has seen the likes of Carl Peterson of the Chiefs, Jay Zygmunt of the Rams, Bill Bavasi of the Mariners, and, of course, Isiah Thomas of the Knicks. The fact he finagled a contract extension during that stretch is nothing less than puzzling. It never fails to amaze me that Lions fans didn't march on the stadium with torches and pitchforks.

Speaking of puzzling - how did Omar Minaya manage a contract extension in the middle of a second consecutive collapse?

Finally, with all the hits cycling has taken in the last two years, all the suspensions of many of the sport's top talents, am I the only one out there thinking that Lance Armstrong, in spite of his age, should be considered the favorite to win next year's Tour de France? I also suspect, considering he's riding gratis, that this is, more or less, a BIG FU to the French.

Into the Woods

I would like to offer a little perspective on Tiger Woods latest accomplishment.

It's impressive - it really is.

But it really isn't everything the pundits are making it out to be. Maybe they're offering a bit of hyperbole, but they're talking about Tiger's latest win as though it's the most incredible accomplishment in professional sports - winning the US Open on a bad knee and a leg with stress fractures. While impressive, when you do some research, it doesn't even crack the top ten in overcoming injury.

For golf it's likely number one, but in the pantheon of sports accomplishments while injured...it's a little bit down the line.

Before I get into some of the accomplishments that are more impressive, let's remember one thing - people don't play hockey, football, or basketball, or ride a bicycle to relax, they do it to stay in shape. A lot of people golf to relax. Hell, you have professional golfers playing competitively long past the age that the vast majority of athletes retire in other sports. Can anyone out there picture John Daly excelling in any other sport? Even David Wells would beat him in a footrace. Or even Casey Martin, who would not be able to compete in any other sport.

Don't get me wrong - I respect what golfers are able to do...within the context of their sport, but let's stop anointing Tiger as one of the greatest athletes of his generation.

To put a little perspective on the whole situation -

Yes, Woods walked 91 holes with stress fractures and damaged ligaments. And yes, it was for a Major. However, he went into it knowing, he told an ESPN reporter, that he would be in no worse condition at the end of the tournament than he was at the beginning. He went into it not worrying about doing additional damage to a "walking" injury.

Here are eleven more impressive feats -

11. Pedro Martinez (1999 Divisional Series) - In game one against the Indians, Martinez strained his back - to the point that Dan Duquette, the Red Sox brain trust, and pretty much all of Red Sox Nation figured he was done. In the fifth and final game of the series Martinez entered the game in the third inning with the teams tied in an 8-8 slug-fest. Unable to throw his fastball and having difficulty throwing his change-up, Martinez threw six innings of no-hit ball in a Boston win, allowing the Sox to move onto the next round. It was, arguably, Martinez's finest moment.

10. Keri Strug (1996 Olympics) - Strug suffered a severe laterial ankle sprain with tendon damage. Due to the difficulties of teammate Dominique Moceanu, the injured Strug was the American Women's last hope at achieving the team gold. Strug sprinted down the vault approach on the damaged ankle, sticking the landing on one foot and posing for the judges before collapsing in pain. Strug was famously carried to the medal podium by coach Bela Karolyi.

9. Jack Youngblood - (1979, Los Angeles Rams) - Playing with a stress fracture in his left leg for two and a half post-season games, Youngblood remained a difference maker, propelling the Rams into the Super Bowl.

8. Kerry Jenkins (2002, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) - Left guard Kerry Jenkins cracked his fibula in September of 2002. When his back-up, Kenyatta Walker went down with an ankle sprain, Jenkins returned to the starting line-up. For the season, Jenkins ended up starting 15 (regular season) games for the eventual Super Bowl winners.

7. Reggie White (1995, Green Bay Packers) - With four games left in the regular season White tore his hamstring badly enough that the Packers announced that White was done and would be having surgery to repair the damaged muscle. White missed one game, and played in five subsequent games (including three playoff games), starting four of them, in which the Packers went 4-1 (losing only in the NFC Championship Game).

6. Dick Butkus (Chicago Bears) - Butkus played his final three seasons on a bad knee. With loose tendons, the Bears' feared middle linebacker had surgery to repair the loose tendons in his leg during a time-period when knee surgery tended to be a career ender. The surgery was considered botched, and the man continued to play at a high level, including a season in which he made 117 tackles and 68 assists, recovered three fumbles and intercepted four passes.

5. Sean Avery (2008, New York Rangers) - Avery suffered a lacerated spleen in the first period of a playoff game. He continued to play through the injury, notching a second period assist before being rushed to the hospital at the conclusion of the game and admitted to the ICU.

4. Drew Bledsoe (1998, New England Patriots) - Often questioned for his toughness (god knows why), Bledsoe played through a separated shoulder in 1995, and returned to the field during the infamous game against the Jets while hemorrhaging blood in his chest cavity. In neither of those cases did Bledsoe play at a high level, however, in 1998 Bledsoe shatter the tip of the index finger on his throwing hand on the helmet of a Miami defender while engineering a comeback. The index finger, integral to accurate passing, was held together by a screw that protruded from the end of his finger. Including the injury game, Bledsoe went 3-1. He still passed for almost 1200 yards in those four games and had only one game where his completion percentage was below 66.

3. Tyler Hamilton (2003, Tour de France) - Hamilton crashed during the first stage of the 2003 Tour de France, suffering two breaks to his clavicle. Hamilton completed the three-week race, supporting his weight on the broken collar-bone for 2081.58 miles, often along France's cobble-stone lined city streets. What's more, Hamilton didn't just complete the race, he won a stage.

2. Lawrence Taylor (1988, New York Giants) - With the Giants standing at 7-5, Taylor played in a game against the New Orleans Saints with a torn pectoral muscle (and in the subsequent games that season). In that game, Taylor recorded seven tackles, three sacks, and two forced fumbles, in spite of an injury that keeps most from even lifting items, let alone trying to move 275 pound linemen.

1. Curt Schilling (2004, Boston Red Sox) - With the Red Sox post-season hopes on the line, Schilling had radical experimental surgery to repair a ligament in his ankle. The surgery, which involved the use of the same ligament from a cadaver, allowed Schilling to turn in, arguably, the greatest post-season clutch performance in the history of Major League Baseball. With his surgically repaired ankle, Schill pitched 13 innings, giving up only one run in a dominant two-win performance.

A couple of honorable mentions - Ken Anderson and Dan Fouts playing through frostbite in the 1981 AFC Title game in Cincinnati, and of course the following who overcame obstacles both physical and of illness to get places they were never expected to, or were told they would not get to -

Jim Abbott - one armed pitcher who had a solid, if unspectacular ten-year major league career.

Rocky Bleier - told he would be lucky to walk, let alone run or play football after losing half his foot to a grenade in Vietnam.

Wilma Rudolph - when diagnosed with polio as a child, the Olympic multiple-gold medalist was told she would never run, and spent pretty much her entire childhood in bulky metal leg braces.

Lance Armstrong - After being, literally, at death's doorstep with cancer that had spread aggressively throughout his body, including his brain, Armstrong recovered to win the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times, and complete the Boston Marathon in two hours and fifty minutes.

Like I said, what Tiger did was impressive, and it might even make the top 25 in regards to performing with a bad injury - but there's no way he was putting the physical stress on his injury that any of the above did, nor was it overcoming what that last handful did. And most of this was identified with almost no research.

And before anyone blasts me for not having Willis Reed on the list - yes, his playing through the knee injury was impressive and inspirational to his team, but if you look at his stats, it wasn't actually a great performance overall, scoring only four points for the game. Sure, it's probably top 25 just for what he did for his teammates, but he himself didn't excel, as these others did.

Heroes

Lately I have been feeling old...like something of a dinosaur, really.

Growing up, I remember coaches and fathers alike used to point to Pete Rose, a player with limited ability and unlimited hustle, as someone to emulate. "Look at the way Charlie Hustle plays the game - that's what hard work and determination will get you." Now he's a punchline...a sad joke at which no one laughs.

We used to play youth sports in order to learn the value of sportsmanship, teamwork, and hard work.

Now I hear sportscasters at the nation's single largest sports media outlet proclaim a cheater the best hitter ever in the wake of the home-run record being broken. Who cares if mounds are lower, and stadiums are smaller then when Hank Aaron did it. Who cares if the man who did it utilized drugs banned by federal law in order to allow his muscles to recover faster, in order to allow his strength to grow, who cares that he took a huge short cut.

Is it something that starts from the top? We have a president who lost the popular vote...twice, and pardoned a crony that compromised national security by outing a CIA agent.

Does it start with fraternity? We have a baseball player's union, possibly the most powerful union in the nation, which did everything it could to preserve the steroid era of baseball until bullied by Congress into adopting a testing policy.

Maybe it's just me.

I have always had a soft spot for the guy that goes undrafted, or is called too small - Tedy Bruschi, Troy Brown, David Patten - none of those guys were supposed to make it. Bru was too small for linebacker, Brown was drafted in a round that no longer exists, and Patten was undrafted and a cast-off.

It is, I realize, the Underdog Syndrome - I liked watching Greg Harris pitch, I am a fan of Dustin Pedroia. My favorite Sox player of all-time isn't Yaz, or Rice, or even Fisk - all of whom I enjoyed watching - no, mine was always Evans. The guy who played the position that the worst were relegated to in little league. I looked up to him because that is where I first played in little league.

I liked the scrappers like Wally Backman, Trot Nixon, Tim Goad. I liked the guys that got their jerseys dirty and wore it like a badge of honor.

Lately honor has seemed like an empty word in sports.

Franchise faces like Drew Bledsoe and Mike Minter, guys who literally bled for their teams and dragged their teammates out of the dregs of one win seasons are walking away. We are left with things like the Tour de France and the legion of riders expelled this year for doping. We are left with the ongoing saga of an Emperor and his new clothes in baseball, and all the pundits that are telling him how beautiful his new outfit looks. We are left with a criminal minority taking the thunder away from the rest of the NFL with shootings, assaults, and dogfighting (and lord only knows how pervasive that really is).

It all makes me feel a little old, a little out of date, and a lot disappointed with where this has all gone.

Fortunately, for as bad as it seems, there are things that come up like the IronMan Triathlon, and the stories of the amateurs that run in it. Thankfully there are still some athletes out there who can still be heroes.

In honor of Friday the 13th - 13 Thoughts...

1. Halfway house - The Yankees won last night to get to .500 with a 43-43 record. Right now, at ten games behind the Red Sox, they are halfway between first place and last. The Devil Rays are 20 games back.

With 76 games left the Yankees would have to go 47-29 just to get to 90 wins and 52-24 to get to the commonly acknowledged number of 95 for a legit shot at the post-season. That's a .618 winning percentage from now until the end of the season.

To put it a different way - on a team where the starting pitching has accounted for 30 of the team's 43 wins and 30 of the team's losses, the Yankees need their starting pitching to come up with quality starts in three out of every five starts, bare minimum, and enough offense to win those starts. Is there anyone who doesn't have pinstripes seared into their minds that believes the Yankees can do this?

2. Smells like...desperation - The Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez an ultimatum...promise not to opt out of your contract and we'll work out an extension with you. If you don't, we won't be part of the off-season A-Rod sweepstakes. Yeah, I wouldn't have accepted that either.

In essence, the Yankees have told one of the few bright spots in their otherwise moribund season to give up all negotiating leverage. The bottom line is that the Yankees were willing to pay more while Texas was picking up part of the tab and they're not so sure they want to spend gobs o cash on their third baseman.

Unfortunately, they're over a barrel. They have no one in the minors, and right now their other option would be to overpay for Mike Lowell if the Sox don't extend him. Who else will be on the market this winter that the Yanks would be interested in?

3. Fed up - I have been cycling since I was in high school. When I say cycling, I'm talking water bottles, Trek, Cannondale, Biancchi, spandex, and the Tour De France.

I have even followed le Tour with more than a passing interest in a number of years, but this year there's a bad taste in my mouth. That bad taste has to do with the Tour, and the last three American winners which make up, in toto, half the winners of the last 20 Tours - Greg LeMond (2 X's, three if you go back 21 years), Lance Armstrong (7 X's), Floyd Landis (once).

LeMond, who to this day, had one of the greatest single days in the history of sports when he came from almost two minutes down in the final time-trial in 1986 to beat Laurent Fignon of France seems to have his own agenda. Armstrong and Landis have both faced doping allegations - Armstrong from teammates that had nothing to gain by outing him, and Landis with a failed test during last year's Tour.

All might be guilty of something, and it's possible that none are guilty of anything. Let's face it, if the Tour really wanted to clean up the sport, they wouldn't rely on an incompetent lab, and they certainly wouldn't let the rag of a newspaper, L'Equipe, have access to "anonymous" test samples in order to discredit riders. And all this is just a tip of the disorganized iceberg that is the mess the Tour has going, and it makes it hard to take anything that the Tour officials claim as being the truth since the newspaper appears to have an agenda - and treating the riders fairly does not seem to be part of that agenda.

4. Depth Charges - Listening to ESPN Radio's Sports Bash on the way home yesterday, the host made an interesting...and accurate point about the Red Sox this year. Last year the team had a better record and the team had "better balance."

It's hard to argue that the line-up was better last year - Nixon was better last year than Drew has been this year, shortstop has been a down-grade, and both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have been scuffling at the plate. However, Varitek is having a better season, as is Youkilis, Mike Lowell, and even Coco Crisp, not to mention Pedroia has been an upgrade at second.

The real key, however, has been that last season the team didn't weather injuries to the pitching particularly well, and other than Jonathan Papelbon, had a pretty mediocre bullpen. This season Okajima and DelCarmen have been spectacular on a Papelbon-like level, and others like Kyle Snyder and Brendan Donnelly have been solid. To top it off, the Sox have starters ready for the Pawtucket to Boston express a-la Kasson Gabbard for whenever the Curt Schillings of the world are done.

It's unlikely that the Sox will experience a late-season skid like last year when inning-eater Tim Wakefield went down with a rib injury.

5. The Boomer and Moss- David Wells recent suspension getting him in the news reminded me of what I thought when the Sox signed him. I realized that when I heard the Patriots had traded for Moss, that I emotionally had the same reaction...I really hate this guy, did my team really need him that badly?

6. Just a couple of weeks - While I am a Red Sox lifer, I have to admit, I am first and foremost a football fan. I was that guy watching NFL Europa. I am happy to remind everyone - pads get strapped on for two-a-days in just about two weeks.

7. Predictions - I don't generally like to do preseason predictions, except for in the NFL. However, I did some for bitterfans.com and predicted that the Brewers would finish in first in the NL Central. While they have struggled of late, the team still holds a 4.5 game lead in the division after the All-Star break, and has a legitimate shot of winning what's a fairly weak division.

In all honesty, the Brew-crew was my dark-horse pick. I'm just as surprised as anybody else.

8. Of human Bond-age - Will some pitcher just bean this man already? Nobody outside of San Francisco or ESPN's Connecticut campus wants to see the non-stop Bonds coverage by ESPN.

And on that note, ESPN and their on-air personalities should be ashamed for taking Hank Aaron to task over his choice to not attend the grotesque charade that is Bonds' pursuit of Aaron's record. If anyone has earned the right to do something for his own reasons, it's Aaron, and who the Hell are we to question him? For that matter - why should Bud Selig be present? If the man thinks Bonds cheated, isn't that then just sending the message that he continues to condone the cheating in the sport.

Maybe it is a little disingenuous of him to turn his back on Bonds after years of turning a blind eye to the problem, but wouldn't it be worse if after committing to cleaning up the game he did something that could be construed as condoning one of the league's biggest cheaters?

9. Meet me in St. Louis - I've seen championship teams take a dive following their championship season, and heard all the questions that accompanied the fall, but this one is amusing to me. People are talking like St. Louis has had the precipitous fall from last year, but this team went 83-78 - the third worst record in the history of the sport for a play-off team.

What we had was a team that got hot for the post-season. Think long and hard about the fact that they got quality starts out of Jeff "Let's Throw Some Batting Practice Every Fifth Day" Weaver in the post-season, and then tell me whether or not they were the best team, or just the best at the right time.

This right now is no surprise to me.

10. Hey baby, what's your sign - Can anyone out there tell me what's going on with ESPN and the sexual harassment suits? Anyone?

Who wants to place bets on how long it will be before Isaiah Thomas works there?

11. 20,000 Leagues under the Seahawks - Anyone out there know what the over-under is that Vegas is putting on the two new professional football leagues that are supposed to start up over the next couple of years? With the United Football League already attracting investors such as Mark Cuban, and the fact that they are looking to play ball in the Fall, my money is on the UFL to be the one to show any sort of longevity.

You know...get into the second half.

12. Tennis anyone - Wimbledon has come and gone and the most I saw were some highlights of matches featuring the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, and Daniella Hantuchova. All told, I watched less than ten minutes of tennis.

Growing up I used to watch Wimbledon and Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. I even watched when it was Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl, and Boris Becker.

It occurred to me that I couldn't name a single men's player on the current tour without some sort of hint. Yup, I'm one of pro tennis' lost viewers. Oh well.

13. Better for some sports - Throughout the years, Hollywood has often looked to sports to provide storylines. There have been so many sports movies that they are sometimes considered their own genre. I have addressed the movies before, but what I have never asked here is why some sports seem to generate better movies than others?

For example, cycling has produced the classic Breaking Away and the well received Flying Scotsman, but it has also given us American Flyers and little else. Football has given us Remember the Titans, North Dallas 40, and the original Longest Yard but it has also given us Necessary Roughness and Little Giants.

I put it to you, my readers - other than baseball (Field of Dreams, The Natural, The Bad News Bears, Bull Durham, A Soldier's Story, Bang the Drum Slowly, Major League, Eight Men Out, Fear Strikes Out, and Cobb off the top of my head), can anyone come up with a top ten of movies for any given sport? Football? Basketball? Hockey?

Or at least explain to me why sports like basketball end up with more films like Juwanna Mann and Air Bud, than like Hoosiers?

A Look at Landis from Both Sides...

As someone who has spent years as a professional journalist, I try very hard to remain neutral when it comes to certain things related to reporting...even when I am a fan. If you search my site, knowing I am a big Patriots and a big Red Sox fan, you will find articles that are often critical of my favorite teams. I'm a fan, but I understand reality.

I don't give players or the team a pass when I think they have screwed up.

Shades of guilt?
I have to admit...in all the doping scandal involving Floyd Landis, I think he screwed up. I don't know that he actually doped...he might not have, he might have. I do know that his initial reaction is problematic in the court of public opinion.

In the immediate aftermath of the first test Landis, a former teammate and domestique of perennial accusee Lance Armstrong launched into a variety of excuses for why the tests came back positive for elevated levels of testosterone. I freely admit to being no doctor, but the lines about ingesting the alcohol and the line, “now there's also the possibility, and it's an argument that has been used by other people. At this point, I don't know if it's somehow or some way I ingested something that caused the tests to be that way,” that he gave Jay Leno both ring hollow.

This led Landis to fall back on the stand-by of pointing the finger at the lab, which typically smacks of desperation.

Reasonable doubt...
Let's look at some of the surface issues here, I won't even delve too deep.

Landis has been able to fall back on the lab because, let's face it, this lab has had a history of mishandling samples.

Landis finds himself caught in a "perfect storm" type of scenario. Consider the following - cycling as a sport in recent years has garnered a reputation as a haven for the performance enhanced, particularly blood dopers. Cycling's governing body decided it was finally time to crack down hard on suspected cheaters - bouncing some of cyclings' biggest names, including Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso, before the Tour even got underway last year. Couple that with the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Dick Pound's), profound and even slanderous contempt of Lance Armstrong and a growing resentment of American riders dominating the French event (wins in 10 of the last 20 years - Greg LeMond twice, Armstrong seven times, and Landis once) and what do you have? A situation in which being able to disqualify the winner gives the IOC the biggest trophy of all in cleaning up their sport.

I'm not saying this is what has happened, but I don't believe this is outside the realm of possibility.

Even those believing in Landis' guilt - which I admit is a possibility - I pose to you the following questions -

If WADA was convinced that there was no possible way that the test on the A sample was wrong, then why require representatives of USADA to be present when Landis' representative is present?

If the USADA rep couldn't be present, then why not reschedule?

In 2004 two riders were kicked out of the Tour after doping investigations. Is there some reason that the IOC's and WADA's people were unable to complete an investigation with enough time to prevent Landis from crossing that finish line? They were able to do it in 2004.

Also, with historical issues with the lab, would it really have been so difficult to farm the test out to a different lab that both parties could agree on?

Due process has been negligible at best throughout the course of this affair, and I am only scratching the surface here. And I think it's safe to say that it doesn't look like he will get a fair hearing from doping officials.

Clearing out the recesses of the mind...

And those are lonely places. Lonely, lonely places...

Dissecting labs...
According to the French newspaper L'Equipe, Floyd Landis' B-sample has tested positive for epi-testosterone. This of course is the same paper that has led witch-hunt after witch-hunt against American riders and the same French lab that has repeatedly bungled the testing of Tour-de-France riders.

Landis has of course responded, making some very valid points about the potential invalidity of the test results. I am not defending him, nor any other American rider, as I honestly don't know what to believe. I do have to say that something smells very wrong about the process here and the term "railroaded" pops into my head.

Pushing the panic button...
Brian Cashman must really feel Steinbrenner breathing down his neck at the moment. The Yankees are off to a great start offensively, but have been horrible on the mound (I think the longest any starter has gone has been 6 innings). Cashman will be promoting top pitching prospect Phil Hughes to start Thursday's game. The Yankees GM has been loath to do this in light of the fates of other top prospects rushed to the bigs such as Kerry Wood.

Dropping three straight to arch-rival Boston and then a fourth to Tampa Bay must really be eating at The Boss...and Cashman I'm sure knows it, otherwise Hughes doesn't go any higher than AAA before September of this year. The move smacks of desperation which is kind of funny when you think about it - do the conversion to a football season. This would be like management panicking somewhere around the early fourth quarter of the second game of the season...say with 13:45 left on the clock in the 4th quarter.

Early returns looking good...
My other sports gig, Bitterfans, asked its writers to submit predictions for this year's baseball season season, and right now I'm looking good in my picks for each division winner (hey, I know it's early and anything can happen between now and October). Here they are along with current standings -

AL East - Boston 1st
AL Cent - Minnesota T-1st (with Detroit)
AL West - Oakland - 1st

NL East - New York - 1st
NL Cent - Milwaukee - 1st
NL West - Los Angeles - 1st

I fully expect to be wrong on a couple of these...but hey, I need to give credit where credit is due while the standings still fall in favor of my predictions. Yay me.

Bright lights, big city...
This weekend marks the biggest holiday in football fandom for anyone whose team is a perennial bottom feeder...Saturday is Draft Day. It is the day that is meant to give hope for the turnaround, give belief that what was once bad can become good in a hurry. Fans gather in Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan to see who the future of their franchise is going to be.

The draft was created and designed on the premise that it favored the worst teams, giving them first shot at the top talent in the draft. It hasn't exactly worked that way - ask a fan of the Arizona Cardinals, a perennial bottom feeder. Of course that is no fault of the draft. The draft itself is sound as long as the organization picking has all of its front office and coaches on the same page.

To wit; the Cardinals, Lions, and Browns are consistently picking in the top ten. Theoretically those teams should be amassing an immense amount of talent. The Colts, Patriots, and Chargers typically are picking in the late 20's of the first round, amassing what should be lesser talent.

All teams work with the same salary constraints - and in spite of a reputation as being "cheap" the Patriots usually spend to the cap as does most of the league. What has been the difference between the bottom feeders and the cream of the crop? Management, talent evaluation, and coaching.

Bad luck does play a part (injuries, sudden retirements, etc), but even that can be overcome; the Patriots won a Super Bowl with a defensive backfield so decimated that one corner was a street free-agent, a safety was a career corner, the other safety a career linebacker, and the nickel-back was a career wide-receiver; the Philadelphia Eagles made it past the NFC Championship, getting that monkey off their back, sans the wide receiver who was supposed to be the missing piece in the previous seasons.

To put it a different way - If I told a Colts fan that Matt Millen was going to be their general manager, the Colts fan would probably go all Oedipus and claw his eyes out before killing himself. If I told a Pats fan that Dan Snyder was buying the team from Bob Kraft...let's just say what they would do would make the Boston Tea Party look tame by comparison.

For some reason it's like playing kick-ball when you're little, but the kid picked for team captain somehow finds a way to always pick the kid that everyone else would pick last. That's what it has come to for those bottom-end teams.

Management for the successful teams have set rules and prices and often will part with a highly talented player who thinks they are worth more than the team has budgeted for the position. The teams at the bottom? They're the ones who pay the big bucks thinking that the free-agent is the missing piece. Ask Redskins fans how well that has worked out, or Raiders fans.

The problem isn't the system...the problem is human, and the system wasn't made to account for human error.

The Year in brief review

I'm going to keep this short. With a thanks ahead of time to Chuck Dickens...

It was the best of times (talk to the fans of the Cardinals, Steelers, Heat, etc.), it was the worst of times (see Floyd Landis, Duke Lacrosse, the Oakland Raiders), it was the age of wisdom (Jim Leyland), it was the age of foolishness(Dallas Cowboys signing Terrell Owens), it was the epoch of belief (fans of teams everywhere as their teams' seasons began), it was the epoch of incredulity (can't help it, back to the TO thing)...

It's been a busy year in the sports world - Let's handle this in Clint Eastwood fashion...

The Good...
Paul Tagliabue retired as commissioner from the NFL beginning a new era in pro football.
The Detroit Tigers gave fans of any team everywhere reason for hope with their worst-to-first Cinderella story.
The Steelers became the first 6th seed in the playoffs to win the Super Bowl, becoming a Cinderella story of their own.
George Mason making it to the final four.
The New Orleans Saints.

The Bad...
Red Auerbach passed away and the NBA began its first season in its history sans the man with the cigar.
Basketbrawl in Madison Square Garden.
The passing of Kirby Puckett at a young age.
Isaiah Thomas and Matt Millen in charge of professional sports franchises.
Terrell Owens continued need to have the spotlight on himself, even if its for the wrong reasons.
The way in which Joe Paterno's coaching career might end.
The Cincinnati Bengals.

The Ugly...
As mentioned previously, the Duke Lacrosse scandal.
The doping throughout cycling which saw some of cycling's biggest names banned from competing in the Tour de France and the incompetent way in which testing and storing samples continues to be done by international anti-doping authorities, which have now cast doubts on their implication of Floyd Landis, and the way in which the appeals process is being stalled while his career is on hold pending the hearing.
Italian soccer officials implicated in match fixing still being allowed to oversee World Cup matches.
The mess that is the Raiders entire organization.
Same for the Knicks.