Weekly Sporties

-I'm a big fan of people writing messages in eyeblack. I find it amusing, so much so that when I play touch football with my family I often wear eyeblack and put my area code in it for comedy's sake. A couple years ago the NCAA outlawed players writing messages in their eyeblack because they were worried some of them were using it as a method to send out gang messages (reminding us all that the NCAA is run by old white men). Well, expect a similar rule to be in Major League Baseball pretty soon after Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar trotted onto the field with eyeblack which had a gay slur on it. Yep, for reasons known only to him, one of his stickers said (in Spanish) "you are" and the other had a homophobic slur on it. Not surprising in this age of increased sensitivity, MLB quickly stepped in to suspend Escobar for three games. Yunel attempted to explain himself during a strange press conference after the suspension was announce by going to the old, "but I have gay friends" defense while never actually saying why he wrote this message in the first place. Clearly he had to know this was a bad idea. But, whatever his reasoning, I just think this should be a lesson for any player coming over from another country to play professional sports - language immersion works both ways. You may think it is great that people are making more of an effort to speak different languages to make your transition to a new country easier, but it also means the swears you mutter under your breath are going to be understood. You'd better learn to watch what you say around certain people because the days of insulting someone to their face and having it met with a "I don't know what you just said" smile are over.

-I was actually shocked MLB decided to suspend Escobar, because that meant righting a wrong rather than hoping it goes away on its own, which is their normal course of action. Last month I told you about Melky Cabrera, the San Francisco Giants slugger who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and then elaborately tried to cover it up by making fake websites for the product he took before eventually getting suspended for 50 games. What I forgot to mention was that at the time Cabrera was only a couple points behind for the batting title. Since those other players had to keep trudging through a long season they obviously went through some slumps and today Cabrera finds himself with the highest batting average in the National League. Technically he is one at-bat short of being eligible, but there is a rule in place which would allow him to add and 0-1 at bat to his total. Not only would that give him enough at-bats to be the batting champ, it wouldn't lower his average. Commissioner Bid Selig was going to let Cabrera remain eligible despite his suspension, because Selig never knows what to do with the players who have tested positive for steroids. Well, the good news is that there was a voice of reason in this situation - Melky Cabrera, who took himself out of the running for the batting title by saying he wouldn't want to win a tainted award. I find it terribly ironic that Cabrera is able to see how crazy it is that he was still allowed to remain eligible for regular season awards and yet the Commissioner of the sport couldn't reach that same conclusion. Critics are constantly calling for sweeping changes to baseball, but this is just further proof that those will never come until MLB puts someone who can get the easy ones right in charge.

-There was a bit of a controversy at the end of last weekend's Giants/Buccaneer's game when Tampa Bay knocked down Eli Manning while he was kneeling to run the clock in the last seconds of the game. Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano said he was simply trying to get his players to play for the full 60 minutes, while Giants coach Tom Coughlin thought it was unnecessary and dirty. I have to agree with Coughlin - not only did it seem like the kind of thing a high school coach would tell his team to do, it was also dangerous. One team going half-speed not expecting a full pass rush and the other team going full-out is a recipe for an injury. At first it seemed that everyone was on Coughlin's side, but strangely Schiano appears to have found an ally in Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Jones thinks the NFL should eliminate the kneel-down play because it shortens the game and robs the fans, so he feels teams should be forced to run a play in those situations. Personally, I have no problem with the kneel-down play because if you have such a problem with the other team running out the clock you have 58 minutes to figure out a way to make sure the they won't be in that position. However, what this really shows me is how much of a joke the NFL's new emphasis on player safety really is. At that point of the game players are finally able to exhale and while they may be angry they lost at least they can be thankful they weren't seriously injured, yet there are owners insisting that they run one or two more plays, just to tempt fate a couple more times. The odds of a fumble in that situation are incredibly slim, so all you are doing is asking these guys to risk injury one more time. I would be fascinated to see Jones's feeling on the matter if one his players was hurt in that situation, because I feel like his tone might change a bit.

-I shouldn't have been surprised at the way it ended, because that Giants/Bucs game was actually pretty contentious throughout the afternoon. The reason for that falls squarely on the shoulders of the replacement refs, who have started to show that the lights may be a little too bright for them on this stage. After being adequate in week 1, their level of competence took a dramatic drop in week 2. The problem appears to be that the replacement refs are in awe of either the stage or the players, because even though they get most of the rules correct, they don't seem like they have enough control over the game, letting guys scrap well after the whistle has blown. As a result games are much chippier than normal. This is where the regular refs are miles ahead of the replacements - they may not get all the calls right, but at least they have the players' respect. These new guys haven't earned that yet and as such the players are pretty much doing whatever they want. There have been numerous plays where guys should have been ejected but weren't. Last week I said the only thing which was going to get the regular refs a fair deal was if the replacement refs were really awful one week. Well, that happened on Sunday and it still doesn't appear to have motivated the NFL to make a deal. Instead, the NFL sent out a memo essentially telling its coaches to stop being so mean to the replacement officials because it looks bad. This is insane tactic to me, because if the NFL really wants to stop looking bad than they should get the regular refs back and restore some sense of order to the field. Football may be a chaotic game, but at least with the normal refs it was controlled chaos. These replacement refs are letting things get out of hand and someone is going to get seriously hurt.

-In sports there is nothing quite as intoxicating as a hint of potential. Coaches and GMs are always convinced that if they could get their hands on a player everyone else has deemed a flop than they could be the one to finally turn him into the stud everyone once expected them to be. It is all about ego and that is why high draft picks are always able to hang around way longer than guys who may be slightly more talented, but weren't drafted as early. With that in mind I wasn't totally surprised when the Celtics announced on Thursday they had signed Darko Milicic to a one-year deal. Milicic was the second overall pick in the 2003 draft, behind LeBron James and just ahead of a couple guys names Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony. Because of that he has always been compared to his more-accomplished draft class and needless to say the comparisons have not been favorable. Milicic has bounced between a few teams in his career and every place he lands the organization is convinced they will be the ones to finally be able to bring out the talent everyone thought they saw nine years ago, despite mounting evidence that the talent may never have been there to start with. And I'm one of those people because even though I should know better, I actually think this could be a good signing for the Celtics. First off, they need size, you can't teach height and Darko is 7' tall (there is that potential again). Secondly, he's coming to them cheap. The bottom line is that if he fails all it costs them is money and if he succeeds it will be an amazing steal. But even if he fails here, don't be surprised if he gets another shot somewhere else. After all, the Celtics will be his 6th team, which means there are 24 more GMs who haven't gotten their hands on him yet.

-As of Monday morning the NHL is officially in its third lockout in less than two decades and this one is looking as though it will be going on for a while. At the heart of the matter is, as always, money. Namely the owners think they are giving the players too big of a cut of the profits. What is crazy is the recent comment by one of the owners who said they gave the players too good of a deal following the last lockout. What makes that statement so insane is the fact that lockout wiped out an entire season and the owners had all the leverage in that negotiation. After missing a year of their careers those players would have taken just about any deal, so if the owners gave them too much money it is their own damn fault. Still, what makes this lockout different from the NBA lockout last season is that while several basketball players threatened to play overseas, NHL players are actually going to do it. Unlike basketball, which is played in many foreign countries but is largely disorganized and the level of play is several steps down from professional basketball here, hockey thrives in many European nations. On top of that, many of these players are from these countries, even living there in the offseason. Basically, they have legitimate alternatives to the NHL. It may be pretty much the only bargaining chip the players have, but it is a pretty good one and could make this lockout drag on. Still, even as a minor hockey fan I hope they don't lose the entire season to this. I'm hoping that both sides will be motivated to save the New Year's Day outdoor game and get a deal done with enough time to make it happen. Hockey has had a couple great seasons and finally has momentum back, it would be a shame for it to tumble back to irrelevancy now.

-In an interview he gave a few days ago, golf legend Greg Norman said he thinks Rory McIlroy intimidates Tiger Woods. Also, he said that Tiger is friendlier to Rory than he ever was to guys like Els or Mickelson because Woods can see the end of his reign coming, knows that Rory is the next big thing and sees McIlroy as being on the next level more than a competitor. For their part both McIlroy and Woods laughed off the thought, with Tiger saying it is not like Rory can tackle him like Ray Lewis. Personally I disagree with Norman's conclusion that Rory intimidates Tiger as well, because at this point in his life I don't think anything can intimidate Tiger Woods on a golf course. Sure, he may see a guy who he sees as an equal, but you don't get to where Tiger Woods has by letting another man get inside your head. If anything, I would expect the recent dominant run McIlroy has been on to motivate Woods to work on his game even more versus cause him to accelerate his plans to transition to the Champions Tour. Plus, while I no longer think he will pass Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors, I'm not convinced Woods doesn't have another run of excellence in him. It wouldn't surprise me to see him have a year with 5 wins and a Major. However, I agree with Norman that Tiger does seem more friendly to Rory. But I wonder if that is more maturity and finally realizing he doesn't need to keep every other golfer at arm's length rather than being resigned to no longer being the best golfer in the world. All I know is Tiger has a lot of years left on competitive golf and I'm looking forward to those two dueling it out for years to come.