Mid-Week Sporties

-Just one day after the conspiracy theory concerning NASCAR allegedly rigging qualifying so that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would win the pole went world-wide (meaning ESPN even mentioned it), Junior goes out and wrecks his car in practice, meaning he'll start from the back of the pack. While you and I might assume that means it is now a dead issue, crazy has a way of powering through logic in certain people. Now those same people are saying he intentionally wrecked the car because too many people caught on to the conspiracy. Sure, because slamming a car into a cement wall at 250 mph is a much better alternative to being caught cheating.

-Speaking of cheating, I'm not sure how to digest the news that both basketball star Diana Taurasi and cyclist Alberto Contador were cleared of their failed tests for performance enhancing drugs in two separate incidents this week. Either they both ate tainted food, meaning I should never eat anything from Europe, or those lab technicians are idiots. If it's the second one, athletes can just start taking whatever substance they want because now they can point to those two and blame the lab should they ever pop positive. The idea that guys have a built-in excuse to start blatantly doping again concerns me. But, on the plus side, we're back to seasons with 70+ homeruns and chicks dig the long ball.

-Yesterday, Celtic great Bill Russell was awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the highest achievement a civilian can receive. During the speech, Obama mentioned he hoped the city of Boston would build a statue to Russell. Let me just say I am on board. Seriously, 11 Championships and he's got nothing around here -it's bullshit. Ted Williams didn't win jack and he got a tunnel.

-Albert Pujols picked an arbitrary cut off date of noon today to end negotiations with the Cardinals and the deadline passed without the two sides reaching an agreement. His agent says that he will not talk to the Cardinals again until November when Albert hits free agency. Now, I get why Albert wouldn't want to keep talking, because it would distract him from playing baseball, but what the hell else does the agent have to do? Is he really that busy for the next 9 months? So, this agent pretty much tried for three weeks to hammer out a new deal, now he's taking most of the year off and after that he'll sit back and wait for the offers to roll in (still not doing any real work) and for the combined month of work, he'll get 10% of the $300 million deal Pujols will eventually sign. I should have been an agent.

-Last night Hickory, a Scottish deerhound, won Best In Show at the Westminster. (Alright, most people don't consider dog shows a sport, but I needed a fifth.) Judging from pictures, I would assume she has a great personality. Now, I'm sure she is very well-bred and a lovely dog. However, normally there is a big run on the breed of dog that wins this event and all I'm saying is I don't expect to see people rushing out to bring one of these home. Give me an English bulldog any day of the week.