-I admit, I am a sucker for any show that has miked-up athletes. I love to hear the trash-talk, probably because I was so very bad at it myself. Plus you get to see what people are really like, as they often forget they are miked. Anyway, this love of inside access is the main reason that while I'm not a huge NASCAR fan, I am a huge fan of "Inside NASCAR" on Showtime. Last week's episode had an all-time great moment. One of the drivers, Brian Vickers, was having an especially bad day at the office as he was involved in an unofficial tally of 8 cautions. One of the guys he wrecked out the race was limping off the track, but waited until Vickers came back around on the caution lap and promptly gave him a hard tap as he was passing by. Over the radio, Kurt Busch was heard to say, "Jees, no one has any sportsmanship out here." This from the same Kurt Busch who pushed the rules to the point he was close to failing pre-race inspection for so many consecutive weeks that NASCAR basically gave him a time-out before a race, just to piss him off? The same Kurt Busch that threw such a hissy fit at this penalty that every other driver on the track wanted to know where he was so they could avoid being near him, for fear he was about to do something stupid? The same Kurt Busch whose brother just got suspended for this weekend's race after running a a guy into the wall after the caution flag was out? That's the guy complaining about sportsmanship? That clinches it: race car drivers are the most hypocritical people on the planet.
-Speaking of hypocrisy: when the Big East started losing members such as Boston College and Miami to the ACC a few years ago, they imposed stiffer penalties for anyone who wanted to leave the conference in an effort to curb a mass exodus. Among them were huge cash buy-outs and clauses which said you had to remain in the conference for several years even after you announced your intention to switch. When Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced they were planning to leave earlier this year, the cash penalties were increased. Now West Virginia wants to leave and while they have no problems paying the larger fees to leave, they want to be able to do it before next season. As you would expect, this has lead to lawsuits between the school and the conference. Personally, I find this very amusing. Not that the Big East is in all this trouble because, at this point, I've given up caring about college conferences. I just find it really amusing the West Virginia agreed to all these clauses when they didn't apply to them, but now that they want to leave they find them ridiculous and illegal. It reminds me of an episode of a teen-drama where all the goth kids make a pact not to go to prom, only then the attractive goth gets asked to go and turns her back on the group. I told you, this conference re-alignment issue has more twists, turns and hurt feelings than your average episode of "90210".
-Count me among those really surprised that Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa retired on Monday, following the Cardinals World Series victory over the Texas Rangers. I know that La Russa is 67, he's probably getting to the point where he feels that if he doesn't get out now he's never getting out and you really can't leave the stage in a better fashion, but I just wonder what the heck he's going to do. He always struck me as a baseball lifer. I fully expect him to take a couple years off, discover that he's pretty bored with retirement and return to the bench. I just hope that if/when that happens he holds out for a good job, because there is nothing worse than seeing a once-great coach slumming it simply because he doesn't know what else to do with his life and the ownership is paying him a lot of money due to his past accomplishments. You won't ever see Phil Jackson coming back to coach a 15-win Kings team and I hope you never see Tony La Russa wearing a Marlins jersey.
-Count me among those really surprised that Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa retired on Monday, following the Cardinals World Series victory over the Texas Rangers. I know that La Russa is 67, he's probably getting to the point where he feels that if he doesn't get out now he's never getting out and you really can't leave the stage in a better fashion, but I just wonder what the heck he's going to do. He always struck me as a baseball lifer. I fully expect him to take a couple years off, discover that he's pretty bored with retirement and return to the bench. I just hope that if/when that happens he holds out for a good job, because there is nothing worse than seeing a once-great coach slumming it simply because he doesn't know what else to do with his life and the ownership is paying him a lot of money due to his past accomplishments. You won't ever see Phil Jackson coming back to coach a 15-win Kings team and I hope you never see Tony La Russa wearing a Marlins jersey.
- Speaking of baseball, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt finally gave up the fight this week, agreeing to sell the Dodgers. Personally, I'm actually annoyed that McCourt is going to run this once-proud franchise into the ground and still make a few hundred million dollars profit from his initial investment thanks to inflation and sports teams being the only thing around here increasing in value. Anyway, one of the first names on everybody's lips for new ownership was that of Maverick's owner Mark Cuban. Cuban has tried to buy the Cubs and the Rangers in the past and met with resistance from other baseball owners who see him as difficult to deal with, but you have to think this time would be different. He has no cash flow problems, his Mavericks just won an NBA title last year and he's exactly the kind of big personality that the Los Angeles crowd would love, immediately putting some juice back into the franchise. I know he can be a bit of a pain in the neck, but he would be great for baseball. As long as he makes the best offer, they should let him in.
-Cuban currently has the kind of time on his hands to run a professional baseball team, as the NBA lockout drags on. After looking so promising last week, all talks have been on hold for the last couple of days. In fact, things may be getting a little worse, as it appears there are cracks forming on both fronts. There are rumors that half the players want to settle and that half the owners agree, but some harder-line owners want to hold out for more and really crush the players union. Meanwhile there is talk of decertifying the players' union, which could very well undo any progress that has been made and really put the season in jeopardy. So, here's my solution: those that are ready for a deal should splinter off and make it happen on their own. Sure there won't be as many big-name players or as many teams, but that could actually be for the best. If there were no superstars then all teams would be closer in terms of competition and with fewer teams the regular season wouldn't be so long, which we all agree would be a good thing. Make it happen, boys.
-One of those hard-line NBA owners is ironically Michael Jordan, who was firmly on the other side of the aisle the last time the NBA had labor negotiations. This gives him unique knowledge of just how desperate the average players are to start getting paychecks again, so he's leading the charge to really swing the deal in ownership's favor. Anyway, because Jordan is currently dealing with his obligations as owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats this week he had to give up his post as one of the assistant captains in golf's President's Cup, scheduled to start in a couple weeks in Australia. This leads to a fairly obvious question to me: why the hell was he an assistant captain to start with? Jordan is a pretty good golfer with a moderately-low handicap, but not to the point he was going to be giving any of these players golf advice. He was an assistant captain two years ago and while he didn't embarrass himself, I never heard anyone talk glowingly about him making the team better or coming up with some amazing strategy - it was pretty much seen as a way for Captain Fred Couples to get some sweet memorabilia. So, I doubt Jordan's absence should be seen a windfall for the International squad. If anything, at least now the American team's clothes won't all reek of cigar smoke the entire week.
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