This whole BALCO thing is absolutely about to snowball beyond control.
Yeah, I know I just wrote a column a couple days ago, but then I heard the news last night that Time Montgomery, the gold medal favorite for the US at the upcoming Olympics, is about to receive a lifetime ban from US running because the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has decided they’ve heard enough rumors to make their decision.
With no proof, mind you.
Even Carl Lewis, perhaps the most famous US Olympian of the last 50 years, didn’t exactly give Montgomery a ringing endorsement on SportsCenter this morning, when he responded to a question about Montgomery’s guilt by saying “He’s not exactly doing anything to disprove the allegations, especially not on the track”.
Wow.
What ever happened to “Innocent until proven guilty”? This is still America, right?
But just a moment ago, I caught a “SportsFlash” on WEEI radio that left me with my jaw hanging open and no words coming out. All I could think to do was hop on here and type away.
Tim Montgomery is reportedly ready to flip on Barry Bonds and others implicated in the BALCO scandal. He’s ready to sell out to save his own skin. Something is terribly wrong here.
I’m not going to pretend that I ever really believed that Barry Bonds was steroid-free through the whole scandal; like I said earlier this week, take a look at his rookie card and then look at him now; it’s like Mary-Kate Olsen suddenly realizing “Hey, maybe I should eat”, then binging on First Bite and Guinness for years on end (hmm, sounds strikingly like my college years, minus the anorexic part…)
Anyway, all joking aside, this whole BALCO thing is getting out of control. If the government has to step in and simply start naming names to really clean up the sport world, then so be it. I’d much rather know that someone either was or wasn’t juicing than to speculate that every home-run hitter or world-class sprinter had a little extra edge.
Finally, one last point. If, in fact, it is revealed that certain MLB players were using THG to “help their workouts”, there should be no asterisk next to any records set during the past five years. THG wasn’t banned by MLB; hell, it wasn’t even illegal until very recently.
But until anything is proven, I’m willing to take it on face value that everyone is innocent. Call me naive, but I still believe that it must be proven before it is true.
The dynasty is over before it ever really had a chance to begin.
The Lakers are no more.
(Wait for it…)
AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
That didn’t take too long now did it? Lose the title, then lose the best player in the game, the most dominant player in the game, one of the best coaches ever, and one of the most consistent power forwards ever, and the only thing that this Los Angeles team has left to show for the season is Gary Payton. They assembled what was supposed to be “The best team ever in the NBA”, a team that was supposed to flirt with 70 or more wins, a team that was supposed to go 16-0 through the playoffs and earn a first ring for Malone and Payton, a fourth for Shaq and Kobe, and a ridiculous 10th for Phil Jackson, and yet somehow they stumbled into the playoffs, then almost unbelievably made it to the Finals where they were exposed for the mediocre, aging team that they were by a younger, more talented, better overall team in the Detroit Pistons (you remember Detroit, right? You know, the team THAT ACTUALLY WON…)
I’m actually not sorry to see the dismantling of this particular team. I’m excited about the fact that the Eastern Conference has regained a modicum of respectability, small as it may be. I’m positively salivating about the idea of Shaquille O’Neal returning to the Eastern Conference, although I know there’s no chance that he would end up on a team I actually care about. And the two hottest rumors going around the league late last week and into this week center around Kobe Bryant ending up either in Orlando or Boston via sign-and-trades with T-Mac or Paul Pierce plus draft picks, assuming he doesn’t stay in L.A. How great would that be to have the two best players in the league in the same conference, and for once, it WOULDN’T be the West?!
I don’t see it happening; Orlando will part with T-Mac if necessary, but not T-Mac AND the #1 overall pick, which is what it would take to get Kobe. Boston would gladly give up Pierce and 2 or even all 3 of their first-rounders, but they don’t have the cap space. Kobe will remain in L.A. – the only question is, Lakers or Clippers?
Shaq, on the other hand, would have to take a serious pay-cut for any team to afford him. And although he would be a nice fit back in Orlando, the Magic have no way to afford him unless he took the pay cut, or the Lakers agreed to absorb either Grant Hill or T-Mac’s contracts, preferably both. Shaq is owed $60M over the next 2 years, meaning that if the Magic took him without unloading either Hill or McGrady, Orlando would only have the cap space to have about 6 players on their roster. Something tells me that’s not happening…
So anyway, congratulations to the Detroit Pistons for beating the unbeatable. And best of luck to them next year; we all know Boston ain’t got a chance in hell…
RUMORS AND LIES
Very hot rumor coming around the greater Boston area today involving a three-way deal between the Sox, Royals, and A’s. I don’t know how I feel about this deal, but anyway, it goes like this: Red Sox give up either Kevin Youkilis, Kelly Shoppach, or both to K.C. and Scott Williamson and Curtis Leskanic (whom they plan to sign by tomorrow) to the A’s, Oakland gives a couple of low-level minor leaguers to the Royals, and the Royals give Carlos Beltran to Boston.
Here’s the problem. The Red Sox don’t look like they’ll be catching the Yankees anytime soon (yes, I admitted it. But if you ever bring it up again, I’ll deny everything). So that means they’re playing for the wild card, and their primary competition is… Oakland. So why in hell would Theo and the Trio want to help a team whose only major weakness seems to be it’s closer situation? That is beyond me.
Another rumor has an even bigger deal involving essentially the same players, except Boston would also include Johnny Damon (and his remaining salary) to Oakland, who would then flip Damon (and half of his salary) to the Royals, and the A’s would send Barry Zito to Boston, with K.C. still sending Beltran to the east coast. I like this one a bit more…
Finally, the hottest name other than Beltran involved in early trade talks is Freddy Garcia from Seattle. It seems EVERYONE wants this guy, and it looks like the Yankees, somehow, are putting together the best package for Seattle. Apparently this is the precursor deal so that later in the year New York can absolutely rape the Mariners when they essentially steal Bret Boone at the deadline (c’mon, you know its coming…). Anyway, the Yankees are probably going to send Jose Contreras, whom the Mariners front office loves for some reason that no one else can comprehend, along with a minor league catcher to Seattle for Garcia. Dunno, seems like Seattle is getting killed here too…
Other thoughts…
Not many other thoughts this time around, but here goes…
The rubber chickens that San Francisco Giants fans hang every time Barry Bonds draws a walk are perhaps the funniest and most creative things I’ve seen in baseball in a long time. Maybe opposing fans should hang pictures of a scrawny, string-bean looking Bonds in his rookie year every time he hits a ball nine-thousand feet…
I am dumbfounded by the barrage of reporters questioning Phil Mickelson and saying that he choked in the U.S. Open on Sunday, but more so at the people calling his Masters win a fluke. A fluke?! Are you serious? Oh, it’s a shame he only finished SECOND at the U.S. Open. It’s unbelievable how much we have become a country that focuses only on results, not on the entire scope of the event. Mickelson should, and probably will be ranked #1 in the world very soon. Let’s see the detractors them…
I’m not sure which dismantling is more disturbing to me, the 2003-04 Lakers’ or the 1997 Florida Marlins. I guess I’ll have to go with the Marlins, although they at least got enough young players to build a team that was able to win it all again within six years. Only time will tell how the Lakers recover from this debacle…
Last Lakers point: How funny is it that Gary Payton, a man who openly complained that he didn’t want to be in L.A., now looks like the only one of the big five personalities that will be staying around? Now that gives me a chuckle…
Finally, I promised pictures. Click here to see a few pictures of the two newest additions to the Big D family. I adopted Toby and Tucker over the weekend, and I couldn’t be happier. Stop by sometime and say hi to The Boys.
That’s it and that’s all folks. Until next time, I’m out.
Man, I’m starting to feel old. And not just in the “every joint in my body creaks when I wake up in the morning” sort of way. This past week I played golf with a kid who looked kind of familiar; turns out he’s the younger brother of a kid who was a couple years behind me in high school; now he’s about to graduate from college. Man, time flies, regardless of how much fun you’re having.
Think about this, those of you in my generation. Before 9/11, what was the one moment in time that really stuck out for you, in terms of the whole world being drawn into one single moment? I would wager that for about 7 out of every 10 people out there, it was the O.J. Simpson trial. 10 years ago.
Yes, it has been a decade since The Juice went on trial for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole, and Ron Goldman - the guy caught in the ultimate “wrong place, wrong time” situation.
Obviously, 9/11 is the single day that will define our generation, for better or worse. That is, at least until something bigger and more awesome (I don’t use that word in the good way) happens, which it undoubtedly will. But before that day, the California jury coming back with a “Not Guilty” verdict was the single most recognizable moment in our generation. I know I remember exactly where I was during the actual verdict: Mrs. George’s freshman year Geometry class (a class I absolutely despised), when they rolled in the television to watch the verdict be handed down. I remember that Mrs. George, a woman who used to force us to pay her every time we swore in class (at the end of the year I handed her a twenty and called it even) actually sat at her desk with a blank stare for a full minute before muttering, “The son-of-a-bitch got away with it”. We were too young for the Challenger disaster (although I remember exactly where I was for that one too), or for the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The first war with Iraq wasn’t exactly a single defined moment, as much as it was about a month long excursion into the desert that ended up taking almost 15 years to finally finish the mission.
Yeah, I’ll admit. I was about 12 years old in 1994 when the whole OJ case unfolded. And I remember watching the Bronco chase thinking, “Damn, he really must be guilty”. But when they passed the “Not Guilty” verdict, I, along with most of the guys in my class, cheered; we wanted to see a football hero go free, regardless of whether or not he did it. To us, it was all the same; we didn’t know him, we didn’t know her, we didn’t know the other guy. Who cared if he went to jail or not?
I now realize that I was just a naïve idiot. I’m still an idiot, just no longer naïve. The Juice belongs in jail, not doing interviews about how he’s “still looking for the real killer or killers” on every golf course in America, but in the mean time he’s got enough time to do his own reality show (I shit you not).
So that’s my time on the subject. I just look back on the big moments in the world during my life, and I can’t believe that so far, my generation is going to be defined by a group of 19 crazy terrorists and one single crazy obsessive ex-football player. Something seems out of whack there.
Switching gears a little. Well actually, switching gears entirely…
Congratulations to that hotbed of hockey, uh, Tampa Bay?! Yes, in what was a fitting end to the NHL season, and the NHL - period, Tampa Bay defeated Calgary in 7 games to claim the Stanley Cup. And Gary Bettman did a fine job of keeping the Cup out of Canada in order to promote the league in the US for the next season; not that he had ANYTHING to do with the blown cap in Game 6 that cost Calgary the Cup (yeah, right).
So say “adieu” to the game fans, because in about a month or two, the league will shut its doors, and probably won’t resume until about, oh, I don’t know, let’s just say 2008. It’s been a great ride guys; don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
As for the basketball playoffs… Dear God, they’re not over yet?! How in hell are these things still being played? More importantly, how in hell does Larry Brown NOT foul ANYBODY at the end of Game 2 and let Kobe get off a ridiculous game-tying shot? There’s a theory in baseball that about 3-5 times a season out of 162 games, a manager can win or lose a game for you. Well, in basketball, there are only 82 games, so figure 2-4 times. Guess that counts as one of them. And you thought I didn’t watch the playoffs this year…
Finally, my personal sports life, which consists of BlackJack, Poker, and the occasional sit-up or 100yd jog…
Nothing new to report about the games; made a lot of money in about two hours at Mohegan Sun last weekend, then forgot to leave and gave it all back. Still not fully recovered from that one, but let’s just say that I probably could have paid for about ¼ of the new car I desperately need, but I wanted to pay for ½. Oops.
As for the reason I was at Mohegan in the first place, well, I got an opportunity that only comes along once in a very long while. I was given free tickets to go see Bob Dylan perform live in the Connecticut Sun’s Arena (A WNBA team), and you can imagine my surprise. I mean, I didn’t think the WNBA still existed, let alone had an entire arena…
In all seriousness, it was a great show. And although Dylan, whom I consider to be a living legend, and one of the best songwriters ever, sounded like a cartoon character for most of the night, the show was still very enjoyable. I mean, no one goes to a Dylan show expecting to understand the lyrics anyway…. The final encore was “All Along The Watchtower” which I was very happy to hear, because I love the version he performed.
And, best of all, during the show my mother, who actually got the tickets and just decided that I’d want to go too, gave me more fodder for my “Quote of the Week”:
During the show, they turned on the smoke machines to give the stage more ambiance. My mom, always right on top of the situation comes out with this gem…
“David, I think something is on fire. There’s a lot of smoke up there, and this is a non-smoking arena…”
Sometimes, she just makes it too easy…
Oh, one last note. By the next time I post something, there will be two new additions to my family. Decided to adopt, so I will have pictures of the boys up here by then.
