Monthly Rundown

It has been about a month since the last time I posted. Time is at a premium these days, but here's a little something something so it can't be said that I've abandoned my blog:

1) Tiger Woods can be defeated. Score one for the senior citizens!

2) So Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids. I still don't quite understand why this is a big deal . . . obviously, these guys are huge. Truthfully, I'd be more surprised if he wasn't shooting up. If I see one more story about how disappointed some writer is that some would-be-Hall-of-Fame-bound baseball player did steroids, I'm going to start writing letters to the editor. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I think these guys are approaching this with a tad too much naïvete. I mean, you've seen that guy who goes to your gym every single day and takes protein intravenously in the locker room - he STILL doesn't look like Mark McGwire!

3) The NBA All-Star game is this weekend. I've listened to the commentators debate over the past few weeks whether all-stars should come from subpar teams. My take on it is this: this is a popularity contest, folks. If you're putting up the numbers, have a top-selling jersey, or are good enough to have one of the Big 3 (now refers to Nike, Reebok, and Adidas) throw piles of money at you to sell their stuff, then you should be on the roster. I don't think the quality of your team should really count for much. This is a celebration of individual play, not the ability to make their bad teammates better. If I have to play alongside [insert names of four other guys who, if not for the right connections, would be playing overseas right now] (I'm turning over a new leaf and not calling anyone out), then I don't think I should be punished for it. That said, I am happy that the Cleveland Cavaliers' Mo Williams finally gets his chance to shine. Of course he was passed over twice (really, three times) and had to wait for guys (Jameer Nelson first and now Chris Bosh) to go down with injuries, but things have a way of working out exactly how they are supposed to.

4) So Plaxico Burress has a history of not paying his bills on time. The folks in the article seem to be blaming this on "he thinks he can do whatever he wants because he's a professional athlete." Except that not paying the bills on time makes him exactly like 90% of the attorneys I know (because they know the laws on debt collection, after all) and probably a solid percentage of the American public. It's amazing how quickly people will forget your game winning Super Bowl touchdown after you shoot yourself in the leg at a night club.

5) Pretty funny.

Endweek Downrun

Long day tomorrow . . . and the rest of the weekend. I received a nice comment on the Kenny George article from someone who works at his school. I hope to be able to follow up on his story at some point down the road.

Unfortunately, the following stories don't quite inspire the same hope (well, I guess that depends on your perspective), but I believe in balance. Jumping right in:



1. Michael Beasley has now been fined $50,000 for unspecified conduct during the rookie orientation program in which his fellow rookies, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers already coughed up $20,000. I had heard rumors about his involvement but nothing was ever substantiated so I certainly wasn't going to write anything unless it seemed credible. (It's tough enough being in the public eye without people writing untruths about you and presenting it as fact.) But it seems something went down, and the punishment appears to be just that - punitive - since Beasley didn't cooperate with the investigation. Something else seems to be going on, though, since Beasley canned his agent last week, too. I'm sure we'll find out more about this shortly . . .


2. The WNBA playoffs have started. What? You didn't know they were in season? Maybe you couldn't find their tab on ESPN.com. It's kind of hard to find under "mixed martial arts." What happened to that big marketing push they started when Candace Parker came to the league? I haven't seen her or anyone else on TV since the night she was drafted. SportsCenter very rarely mentions the league unless a fight or other controversy occurs. Did they even compete in the Olympics? I'm going to tune in to the playoffs, though. I watched them last year and was quite entertained. I just wonder how long the NBA will continue funneling money to this league without doing more to promote it. It's like they don't want to end it and face criticism that they're being sexist, but on the other hand, they want to see it fail so they can say "I told you no one was into this." We'll see who wins.

3. Just a day after talking about both Adrian Peterson and LaDainian Tomlinson (AP and LT, respectively), neither was able to practice today, and it's not clear they'll play this weekend . . .and the fantasy football bust just keeps moving . . .

4. Speaking of busts, the Detroit Lions have been "interviewing" several former high-profile running backs this week who are looking for jobs, including Cedric Benson (da Bears) and Shaun Alexander (Seahawks), among others. The Lions claim that they aren't hiring immediately and are only window shopping in case of injuries. Sure, I buy that. Now, they probably have a greater need at just about every other position, so more RB's may not make sense, but the Lions are at (or past, depending on whom you ask) the point of no return, so I say anything is better than stagnancy. Whoever gets his luggage lifted first has been signed.


5. Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez and his (now former) wife Cynthia reached an amicable settlement of their divorce proceedings. No dirt and public mud-slinging? That's definitely a first, especially considering how the events surrounding their divorce were splashed across the New York dailies for the better part of a month until she finally decided to file. So this relatively quick settlement can only mean one of two things: 1) the prenuptial agreement was air tight, fair to both parties, and contained no terms which could be disputed by either of their lawyers . . . or 2) whatever he's trying to hide is worse than we imagined. I know, I know, this is a tough one.

Have a great weekend!

. . . And Some Guy Named Alex Did Something, Too

First, he upstaged the World Series by (his agent) announcing that he was going to test the free agency waters.

Well, I guess he tested the water and got a chill. Now, he has attempted to upstage another major event - the indictment of Barry Bonds. Although Bonds' indictment is not technically an MLB sanctioned event (or is it?), I am willing to bet that there will be more attention paid to this in one day than there was to all of the World Series games put together.

Back to Alex Rodriguez, whose legal name is A-Rod (not true, but it should be). He and the New York Yankees have "outlined" a deal (read: verbal but not inked) that would give him nearly $280 million over the next ten years. With an incentive to beat Bonds' home run record (or should we start calling it Hank Aaron's again?), A-Rod could get more than $300 million. Some are baffled by this turn of events, but I say that it boils down to money.

Money for A-Rod because the Yankees are one of the only teams with the cash to pay him, and the Yankees uniform brings with it tons of air time, endorsements, ladies, and all that other stuff that you think it means.

For the Yankees, they will make well over $280 million off of this guy in a Yankees uniform, so to them, they get off pretty "cheap." Now, this last statement makes sense only based on the return on investment that A-Rod brings to the Yanks . . . but ONLY from that perspective because in real people terms, that money is RIDICULOUS.

But I digress.

Well, I'm glad that this could work this out amicably. But while A-Rod may eventually beat Bonds or Aaron's home run record, he will not touch the onslaught of the Bonds/BALCO press coverage. I'm tired of writers calling everyting "-gate" (from Watergate scandal, fyi) - Spygate, Coltgate, Bengate. OK, I made that last one up, although that is a village in England. I'm calling this saga BALCO Crest, like the nighttime TV soap opera, Falcon Crest. If you see anyone else using it, remember that you heard it here first.

So A-Rod's looking at second-billing in the sports world for a little while now. Unless, perhaps, he has some secrets of his own . . .

No Deal

While you were enjoying the day before the most awesome day of the week, likely American League MVP Alex Rodriguez, better known as A-Rod to baseball fans (not necessarily of his), opted out of his $252 MILLION for 10 YEARS contract with the New York Yankees to test the waters of free agency. In doing so, he gives up the remaining $70+ million in guaranteed money. He must really want out.

Actually, so says his agent, he had to give the Yankees a deadline to let the Yankees know if he was going to stay or go, and he hadn't heard definitive answers from some of the other key members of the team as to whether they were staying or going. So he's going.

The Yankees were reportedly ready to offer him between $25 and $30 million per year. He had already set records with his original contract, and this would have topped that. $25 million to play a sport for about 5 months (6 months if you're a typical Yankees squad). That's $5 million per month of work, and that's so many more times my salary that it's not even funny.

The happiest people in this story are probably the Texas Rangers, who had been paying the Yankees $3 million a year since they traded him to the Yankees in 2001. It doesn't look like another team will match what he was making with the Yankees (it is the Yankees, after all). You mean he's willing to chance taking a pay cut to win a World Series? What a guy. If he would swap my monthly pay for one week of his "job," I'd think he was even more highly of him.

So now the media will spend as long as it takes him to decide figuring out where A-Rod's going next. That's because the Yankees have said prior that if he opted out, they weren't going to try for him. They haven't commented on this situation just yet. At least we are reasonably certain that he's actually leaving, which beats Kobe-watch any day in my book.

In other news, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. What, you didn't see it?

End of the Yankees Dynasty. . . At Least For Today

NY Yankees' manager Joe Torre will not be returning for another year as manager for the team. When they tried to offer him less money than he was currently making, he said "Next!" and turned down their offer. Well, sort of less money. More like more hoops to jump through to get the same money he earned this year plus $500,000 more, tied to playoff success which he and his players had not been able to deliver in the past few seasons.

No word on where he's going, but it looks like he's attracting interest from several teams. And they're also indicating that the other players may not return if their contracts so allow. That means A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) could be testing the free agent waters, and might even be coming to a city near you.

Be afraid.


Either way, I'm sure the Yankees have enough money to buy themselves a better team in no time. I'm also sure that that day can't come soon enough for the TV execs faced with a Colorado Rockies-Cleveland Indians World Series. Since they may well be giving away advertising slots, maybe they'll let me run my own commercial -- advertising what, I haven't gotten that far yet. But it can't hurt to ask.