Children Wearing Shirts Made By Other Children.

From the NYPost:
Nicaraguan children from the community of San Gregorio, Diriamba, Nicaragua receive 2008 Super bowl apparel of the losing team, the New England Patriots, from World Vision organization.

The paper fails to mention that the shirts were likely sewn and stitched by Taiwanese children about a month ago.

Pants not only on fire, but bleeding, apparently.

Clemens testimony to Congrefs includes a series of questions about how, on a certain occasion, possibly more than once, people in his clubhouse noticed that his ass was bleeding through his uniform pants. To wit:

From the blog of the formerly mustachioed Jayson Stark:
11:41 a.m. ET
Curt Schilling had the bloody sock. Roger now has the bloody pants.

Rep. [Tom] Davis reported that McNamee had testified that Mike Stanton once noticed that Clemens was bleeding through his dress pants -- which caused him to start carrying band aids around, presumably for his bleeding butt. Yikes.

Prompting the following surreal exchange:

Davis: "Mr. Clemens, do you recall bleeding through your pants in 2001?"

Clemens: "I do not."
End Quote.

So the duly elected representative (Republican) of Virginia's 11th Congressional District —who will not be seeking re-election — spent this morning asking the Rocket if he remembered his ass bleeding seven years ago. At which point Clemens maintained that he didn't.

I have decided that Roger is the liar here. He has more to gain from lying than McNamee does, in my estimation, and more to lose if the truth is damning. Because at this point, if he falls on his sword, he only does it to try and reduce his perjury penalties, and really he's even gone past THAT point of no return.

Three points for discussion amongst the group:

1) After all this, and the possible fallout in which anything could happen to Clemens including jail time, will he still beat Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame? Will he get in there ever?

2) What tarnishes his legacy more, the fact that he took steroids, or the fact that he straight-up, bald-face, lied directly into a camera about it, then did so again under oath, AFTER he was caught?

3) Who benefits most from Clemens being hung out to dry?

My submissions:
1) I think at this point, he doesn't beat Pete in, cause he gets stuck on the outside with him for eternity.

2) I can forgive someone for cheating if they're at least somewhat remorseful once they get nailed, but I don't sense that from Rog (or from Pete Rose, frankly), and that just makes them seem like they think they're above the law. So to Hell with that.

3) I don't think anyone is as happy about these ridiculous proceedings as Barry Bonds. For the time being, at least.

Beta Club

I've said it before (in Mrs. Schmitz' 8th grade classroom after a Beta Club meeting).....

"Don't do Milford"

I just wish these boys would have had the same advice.

What a despicable act. I hope justice is served in this investigation.

I'll File This Under "Not At All Surprising."

The New York Post apparently has video of Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal gleefully participating in cockfights in the Dominican Republic, the most recent example of professional athletes love of 1) gambling, 2) animal cruelty, 3) getting caught participating in one or both of these things.

Also interesting, the article says: "The event shown in the video takes place in the Coliseo de Gallos - Rooster Coliseum - in Santo Domingo, the country's biggest cockfighting venue."

Is that like "Kitchen Stadium" on Iron Chef? Do they really need that? Apparently the bloodsport is so popular in the DR that the crowds were starting to overwhelm the previous largest cockfighting venue, known as "the cardboard box behind a strip bar."

The article also states that Martinez and Marichal pitted their trained fighting birds against one another (Marichal won, for those of you who are as grimly curious as I am).

It is legal there, so it's not like either of these guys are going to take any litigious flack for this, but my question is this: If guys like Pedro, Vick and Marichal are participating in this, definitely for gambling purposes, what's our estimate for the total number of players across all major sports and *shudder* NASCAR that push the envelope because of their crazy competitive desire?

We've watched steroids get out of hand because players are so crazy for competition that they'll even try and chemically alter the playing field within their sport, and I defintely think there's something to the "Jordan played baseball because he was secretly suspended" theory, I just want to know whether you guys think stuff like gambling and participating in the fighting and killing of [dogs, roosters, hookers in Jell-o, beta fish, etc.] is the exception or the rule?

Retirement of a Legend

With the retirement of the General, 2 questions arise.

1st: Is Bobby Knight the Greatest College basketball coach of all time?
2nd: Do his transgressions tarnish his career/legacy?

1: I say no, but he is in the top 3. He won games with sub-par talent, and does more with less than anyone else. He graduates his players, has a clean program, and is respected by al his peers, even if they hate him. Hell, he made Texas Tech a solid program where nothing existed before.

2: Yes, but unfairly. He is from a different era, and a different background than todays coaches and players. Most of his major gripes are that he was too harsh on his players, but all but a handful love him, and speak highly of his intense loyalty and support. While I would never want to go Hunting with him, I would have loved to watch him coach.

Other than Huggins, I was exposed to Knight the most gorwing up, and going to school in Indianna, I grew to understand the psychotic loyalty his diehard fans had for him. Eventhough every kid in indianna could recite his famous rants by memory, they all loved him and dreamed of playing for Bobby Knight one day. And if you think the backlash of UC fans over the Huggins firing was intense, the backlash over the Knight firing was 10 times worse. And you do not get that without being a great coach.

Hey, Matt Belisle...where do I get in line?

People say kids should play sports because it teaches life lessons...Here's quick lesson in math:

The Reds re-signed Matt Belisle today for $1.25 million. Last year he made $390,000. He went 8-9 with a 5.32 ERA. That's a 300% increase.

What other job in the world gives you a 300% raise for what any rational person would describe as a mediocre season at best?

Just askin'...

Here come the CATS!!!!

Living in Big East country gives me the unique ability to get multiple looks at the Cincinnati Bearcats from many different national and home announcers, translation: no Cincinnati bias. (Can you honestly think of one media outlet or personality outside of Cincinnati who actually likes Cincinnati basketball except for Digger Phelps, is like the anti-Duke) Anyway, what I have found is the ‘Cats are poised to regain their former glory. The only thing against them right now is youth, which has admittedly lost them 8 games this year, but look out.

Here is their case.

1. COACHING: They have an up and coming coach in Mick Cronin, who is from the Huggins and Petino coaching tree. Huggins was great, but everyone knows it was time for a change, and Kennedy was done before he even started. Cronin is just the type of hard nosed, energetic guy that works best in Cincinnati, and he is by far the best recruiter Huggins ever had. He is inexperienced in coaching big games, and the more Big East games he plays, the better he gets.
2. YOUNG TALENT: Their best player (Vaughn) is a sophomore, but not good enough to go pro. They have 5 other Freshmen who all contribute, including a legit scorer in Alvin Mitchell, and a true Center in 6’11” Anthony McClain. And they have a talented power forward and true point guard coming next year.
3. YOUNG MISTAKES: All the mistakes they make are for 2 reasons, either their freshmen are stupid, or their veterans are bad. The amount of lay-ups and open jumpers the veterans have missed is astounding (Hrycaniuk cost us the Uconn and Xavier games) Next year, those are gone…. Theoretically.
4. GOOD HOME FANS: Cincinnati fans know how to cheer, and know how to create a home court advantage. As a visitor, ‘The Shoe’ is one of the worst places to play in the country, and now that the huggins hangover is past, I am positive it will regain its former glory.
5. RECRUITING: Cronin was Huggs best recruiter, and in Cronin’s first real recruiting class he already has 2 top flight recruits coming in, including the top player from Cincinnati, Yancey Gates. One of Huggin’s biggest recruiting strengths was his ability to get the best players from the city and state year in and year out, and since he left Xavier and OSU have been wining. But with the arrival of Gates from Withrow, the flood gates will be reopened. That, coupled with the success of the Football team, and their national TV contract with the Big East, players will want to come to the Queen City again.

I may be a crazy UC supporter, but I have watched 10 games this year, and in every game they have looked better, and every announcer and opposing coach in the conference has had nothing but good things to say. Although I am not sure I will now how to react when my team isn’t the most hated group in the conference. I will just have to call Stan and have him refer to them as the convicts again.