Weekly Sporties

-Because they own the rights to everything but the Championship game, ESPN has been over-loading us with the Little League World Series this entire week - bumping shows I (and a lot of people) would much rather watch in favor of coverage of an event that I seriously doubt pulls down strong ratings. Here's the thing ESPN apparently fails to grasp: the reason people like to watch sports is because they want to see world-class athletes perform at a level they never could. But the Little League World Series is full of mediocre pitching, bad base running and worse fielding. It is not particularly entertaining. Also, people really only care about kids athletics when it's their kid. I don't know these kids - I don't care who wins. The only people invested in the outcome are probably there watching it live. Also, watching kids sports without knowing any of the participants makes you feel like a pedophile. I thought about it perhaps being a regional pride thing, but even when a local team makes it I don't care. Next year move this thing to ESPN4 where it belongs.

-Because of this weekend's hurricane, the Red Sox have decided to move Sunday's game to Saturday and play a double-header. You know, hurricane or not, I would really like to see this happen more often in baseball. I don't see why you can't schedule more doubleheaders at the start of the season. Maybe if you did that baseball wouldn't stretch into November and the World Series teams wouldn't have to play with three layers and a jacket on.

-One more Red Sox item: when the Cubs fired their GM last week, Theo Epstein became the hot name on the market as his replacement. After all, he was the guy in charge when the Red Sox broke their 86-year championship drought, so who better to try and stop a Cubs' slide which is in its second century? Now, unless they sweeten the pie by offering him the team presidency, I doubt Theo goes anywhere. But, if he was going to leave the Sox, what I would really want to see is him take over some team which is more middle-of-the-pack when it comes to payroll. Let's see how good you can be when you don't have more money than all but two or three teams to play with and you can't just buy the best free agent every winter. Then we'll find out just how talented a baseball GM Epstein really is.

-When the Indianapolis Colts signed Kerry Collins a couple days ago, the Colts said it was just insurance, that Peyton Manning's neck injury should not keep him out of week 1 of the NFL season and that no Colts fans should be panicking. Yeah, if you're team is signing Kerry Collins with only two preseason games left to learn a hurry-up offense that is based on timing, it's time to worry. They can try and tell you everything is ok as much as they like, but you've got to think this is strong sign Manning will not be ready to start the season. That being said, the Colts will be fine if Manning only misses a game or two, so I really hope make sure he's completely healthy before they send him back out there. Necks are not something you mess with.

-So, after weeks of NFL 'experts' saying that Terrelle Pryor was destined to not even be drafted in the NFL supplemental draft, not only was he taken, but the Raiders drafted him in the third round. While that seems really high, I would expect nothing less of the Raiders, who have made so many bad trades the last couple of years that the didn't have a fourth rounder to offer. I think the bigger issue is just how wrong everyone else was on Pryor's draft status. It really kills all their credibility. I mean, why should I listen to how you expect a 250-person draft to play out when you can't even get a 1-player draft right?

-A couple weeks back I told you about Kyle Busch, the NASCAR driver who was pulled over driving his car 128 mph in a 45. At the time everyone laughed and made jokes about how big a ticket that was going to be. That was until Kyle's license was taken away for 45 days this week after he was charged with reckless driving. Now, you would think this would be a problem, considering Kyle drives for a living, but it's not. It won't change his status at all. Because, apparently, you don't need a license to drive in NASCAR. That has to make all the other drivers out on that track feel good. You can drive 200 mph three inches off a guy's bumper, but you still need someone to pick you up when the race is over.

-Rafael Nadal has a new auto-biography coming out later this month and in an excerpt released to the press the other day Nadal comments on how after suffering a sever foot injury in 2002, he thought about giving up tennis and becoming a professional golfer. I like how he throws it out there, like becoming a pro golfer is some easy feat. I'm not sure if I should be more offended that he thinks golf is so easy, or the fact that for him, it probably is.