Weekly Sporties

-After a couple of seasons which saw them make it to the World Series and an offseason where they added even more talent to the roster, the Texas Rangers had big expectation for this year. But instead of finally capturing a championship they blew a huge division lead in the last month of the season and then lost a one-game playoff to the Baltimore Orioles. Since the season ended earlier than expect, people have plenty of time to try and figure out what sent the Rangers, and in particular star player Josh Hamilton, into such a funk at the end of the season. Rangers owner and President Nolan Ryan has an idea - he thinks Hamilton picked the wrong time of the year to quit chewing tobacco. Hamilton, who spent the better part of a decade battling various addictions which nearly ended his career before it ever really got started, stopped dipping a couple months ago and Ryan thinks that led to his end-of-season slump. Now, baseball players have always been a superstitious bunch and suggesting that one guy changing a habit could impacted his play on the field is not the most insane theory ever uttered in professional baseball. Also, I've never dipped, but I would assume quitting isn't easy on the body or nerves. The problem is that theory doesn't account for the rest of the Rangers, because from the games I saw it certainly looked like they failed as a team. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Hamilton is a free agent after this season and was looking for a large contract from the team. Given his shaky history and the danger he could relapse at any moment, reports are the Rangers weren't in a hurry to sign Hamilton to a long extension. This is starting to look like the Rangers know he isn't coming back, need a scapegoat for their September collapse and want to drive down his value on the open market. And here I thought only the Red Sox pulled that move.

-Speaking of former Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez was not having a good series against the Orioles, going 2-16 including a strikeout to end game 2. (It was the 4th time Rodriguez struck out to end a playoff game, most in MLB history. The lesson? Baseball keeps too many records.) It got so bad that Rodriguez was pinch-hit for in games 3 and 4. It worked out for the Yankees in Game 3, not so much in Game 4. Still, even with his struggles I don't think anyone was expecting A-Rod to get bench for the 5th game of the series, but that is exactly what happened. It was a bold move for manager Joe Giradi and the good news for him was that it worked as the Yankees won. Still, you have to wonder about Rodriguez going forward, not just for this playoffs but for the upcoming seasons. When he signed a second massive contract with the Yankees, everyone seemed to be in agreement that eventually he would have to move to DH. Well, you certainly can't do that if he can't hit for power or average. Worse for the team is he has 5 years and roughly $114 million left on his deal. Now, this this the Yankees so we know money is no obstacle for them. But even for them this is a lot of cash invested in one player who doesn't appear to have much left in the tank. They could always try to move him and offer to pick up most of his salary, but I'm honestly not sure who would want him. This isn't a young guy having a bad year trying to justify a contact, A-Rod is 37 with a lot of wear on his body, so finding someone to take him could be a monumental task. (I wouldn't call the Dodgers - I think their deal with the Red Sox probably made them gun-shy.) Their only hope may be to hold on to him through this offseason, hope he has a bounce-back year and then sell once the market on him is high again. Either that or figure out a better way to disguise his HGH use.

-One person who doesn't appreciate the way A-Rod is being treated is Lakers' star Kobe Bryant. Bryant, who considers himself friends with Rodriguez, doesn't think A-Rod should have been benched because it could mess up team chemistry. Bryant said it didn't matter that it worked, A-Rod should have been allowed to play because of what he has accomplished in his career. First off, the fact that those two are friends is beyond funny to me. I imagine they sit around and just compliment themselves. Secondly, this appears to be one of those situations where the speaker is involuntarily revealing more about himself than the subject he is supposed to be speaking about. During Lakers' training camp Bryant was asked if this was now Dwight Howard's team, since the new center is several years younger and regarded as the best player at his position. Bryant vehemently denied that assumption, saying the Lakers are still his team. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Kobe, but I'm not sure that is the case anymore. At some point the Lakers are going to have to be handed to Dwight and the offense is going to have to flow around him. It's the nature of professional sports - everyone's time comes. Just look at Lakers' history - at some point Kareem ceded control to Magic. But, if Kobe has problems with handing what he still thinks should be his team over to a younger, less accomplished teammate, the good news is he can always call someone from a more recent era who has gone through it themselves... like Shaquille O'Neal. I'm sure Shaq would love to hear Kobe's thoughts now that the shoe is on the other foot.

-When an independent arbitrator ruled that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had over-stepped his authority while suspending current and former Saints players regarding their involvement in a pay-for-hits program, I figured he would take the slap as a reality check and reevaluate his position. I should have remembered who I was talking about. This week Goodell reissued the penalties to the players involved and while he slightly lowered the punishments, with most suspensions getting reduced by a game or two, the sentiment behind them remained. Linebacker Jonathan Vilma is still suspended for a year, only now he gets paid for six of those weeks. However, this story, which I was tired of six weeks ago, still isn't over because the players have filed yet another appeal. You may be wondering why, since we're getting to the point that most of the suspensions will be over by the time there is a ruling. The big difference with this filing is that it asks for the Commissioner to recuse himself from the matter, as the players think he is simply too invested in saving his own ego. To me this makes a lot of sense. Everyone knows these players participated in some kind of program because all the coaches copped to it. The only thing they are fighting about is the severity of the punishments and most players aren't going to respect anything Roger Goodell has to say about that matter, regardless of what he says. At this point, it would make a tremendous amount of sense for Goodell to let someone else rule on it, just to get the matter over with. The problem is that could potentially be seen as the Commissioner relinquishing some power and Roger Goodell doesn't seem like the type of person to give up any authority. I feel like we still have a couple chapters left in this story.

-Again, the entire bounty scandal was supposed to be about the NFL getting serious on the issue of concussions. But if you want to see a sport which appears to be taking its concussion policy seriously then, surprisingly, you should look to NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who suffered two concussions in the last couple of months, including one last weekend during a nasty, final-lap 25-car pile-up, has been parked for the next two races. This is especially tough for Junior because he was in the Chase for the Championship (NASCAR's version of the playoffs) for the first time in years and missing these races will effectively end any chance he had of winning a championship. Still, you have to applaud NASCAR. Junior is unquestionable the most popular driver in the sport and having him be a non-factor in the Chase will definitely cut into some of their ratings. I'm sure it was not a happy day around the NASCAR offices, but at least they got it right. If this was the NFL they would have asked him what day comes after Monday and as long as he said a word which ends in y they would have said he passed the concussion test. We joke all the time about how these drivers aren't serious athletes, but there is no denying the fact that if they mess up the consequences are much greater for a lot more people than if a linebacker misses an assignment. That is also why NASCAR has one of the most strict drug policies in all of professional sport and the drivers are very quick to back the decision to park a guy if he fails a drug test. Considering this sport's roots come from bootlegging, you wouldn't expect them to be the most rigid of sports organization, but in this case it appears the outlaws have become the responsible ones.

-As the NHL lockout drags on with no end in sight (as of right now just the first two weeks of the season have been cancelled, but expect that number to go up soon), the number of players who are fleeing to play overseas is steadily growing. But, unlike NBA players who could go over and dominate European leagues who would be thrilled to have them, hockey is a more mainstream sport in that part of the world and the leagues aren't starved for talent or stars. So what I'm interested in is which players are garnering the most interest from these teams, because it can be a good indicator of how the talent level on the NHL level actually stacks up. For example, stars like Alex Ovechkin and Zdeno Chara have had no problems landing with top-level Russian squads even though those teams' level of play is either equal to or just below the NHL. However, then you have guys like Islander's goalie Rick DiPietro who had to sign with a second-level German team just to be able to play. Now, I know the situation isn't totally comparable because teams can only play one goalie and often they lock up that position as early as possible. Still, it can't be a good sign for your organization when the players who are supposed to be your stars can't get work at what is essentially the AAA level of hockey. The only good news for NHL fans is that this is the situation for the majority of players and once they start missing game checks and can't fill the void with a job overseas they aren't going to be so happy to support the lockout, which will hopefully lead to a deal sooner rather than later. So maybe we'll have hockey back before too long, even if it is (apparently) mostly played by guys who aren't good enough to get a job in Europe.

-This time of year is affectionately called golf's "Silly Season". It gets that name from the fact that the season is officially over, but the schedule keeps chugging along with different events. Most of the higher-tier golfers are taking a few weeks off, so the majority of tournaments are filled with less well-known players fighting for a job next year and are sponsored by companies you may not be as familiar with. But this is also the time of year when the super-famous guys fly overseas to play in money-grab tournaments. One such exhibition was taking place in Turkey and featured guys such as Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Most of these guys were paid tons of money just for showing up and it didn't matter where they finished, so the golf wasn't the highest quality. But what made this exhibition noteworthy was the fact that they allowed players to wear shorts. This led to a revival of the oldest of golf debates: should professional golfers be allowed to wear shorts during tournaments? The old guard say shorts don't look professional while the new-school people think it is more about style than anything. As a guy who plays 90% of his rounds of golf wearing shorts I don't have a problem with it, but I am willing to concede I probably don't take my golf seriously enough to be an authority on this subject. Still, during some tournaments, like the Viking Classic in Mississippi in August when it was almost 110 degrees, it does seem like a no-brainer. How about saying it is allowed above a certain heat index and never during majors? But if the PGA is going to take my suggestion and make a change they need to do it early, because some of these guys are going to need time to expose their lower legs to a little sun before they are exposed to national television.