Weekly Sporties

-Obviously the biggest story in all of sports this week was when Ryan Braun admitted to using steroids and was suspended for the rest of the season, forfeiting $4 million in salary. I don't think anyone was surprised that Braun used steorids, because even though he may not have failed any tests before everyone knew it was only on a technicality regarding how his sample was handled. But what was surprising it that given all the talk in the past couple of weeks regarding how poorly Major League Baseball was handling this entire affair I honestly didn't think they would be able to get a single player to admit to anything, especially when guys like Braun were refusing to talk to them. I can only assume this means all that evidence MLB wasn't supposed to have, they do. Also, I think the big moral of the story here is that if MLB wants to get you on something they are going to do it no matter what it takes. Reportedly they were very upset when Braun was able to be the first player to get his steroid suspension overturned on appeal and had made bringing him down a goal ever since. But to me a lot of this is stupid because it is baseball biting their own nose to spite their face. They may have saved the Brewers a little bit of money, but they forever ruined the reputation of a guy who has the personality and skills of a big-market player and yet was poised to be the face of baseball in a very small market - those kind of players are extremely rare. On top of that all this was unnecessary because I seriously think fans are tired of all this steroid talk and are ready to just move on with their lives, yet baseball is the one who keep bringing it up. I can understand why they would be so adamant about protecting their clean player, but I have some bad news for them - thanks to the steroid era casual fans are forever going to assume every player who has a good season is getting some kind of synthetic help. They can suspend every player involved in the Biogenesis probe and it won't stop people from wondering about a guy like Chris Davis, who topped his career-high in home runs before the All-Star break. Still, congrats on suspending a guy whose team wasn't going to make the playoffs anyway and who still get the majority of a contract which will pay him over $100 million. I'm sure that will deter anyone from ever taking steroids ever again.

-Now that Braun has the rest of the season off people are expecting more suspensions to be announced any second now and the biggest name left on the list is Yankee's third baseman Alex Rodriguez. This would obviously be great for the Yankees because they could then use his suspension to get out from under the rest of his contract and the team has made it pretty clear A-Rod is not in their future. Even though they are having major problems scoring runs this year they are making it pretty obvious they never want Alex Rodriguez to take the field for them ever again. This was made more apparent later in the week when Rodriguez announced his intentions to play this weekend and the Yankees countered by saying he was too hurt to play, which was news to Alex. Rodriguez had taken himself out a minor league rehab game with a pain in his quad, but he said it was precautionary while the Yankees said it was a major setback to his rehab schedule. To prove to the team that he was fine Rodriguez went out and found an independent doctor who said Alex was ready for action, even though he admitted he has only looked at the MRI and not examined Rodriguez personally. (And because A-Rod can't do anything right it was later revealed this doctor is actually also being investigated for distributing steroids. Also, Rodriguez failed to inform the Yankees he was getting a second opinion, which is required under the collective bargaining agreement. The team is expected to fine him for this.) Eventually, everyone agreed Alex would wait to come back until August 1 which I am sure is the date MLB told the Yankees they would hand out A-Rod's punishment. To say this story has become a soap opera would be a bit of an understatement. Now, as a Red Sox fan I am enjoying watching these two parties, who clearly deserve each other, squirm. But, as an ESPN watcher I am also quite tired of this taking up so much time on SportsCenter, especially when the solution to the whole thing is quite obvious: Alex wants his money and the Yankees have a lot of it. At this point they just need to sit down in a room and figure out what the number is which will allow these two to part company and never have to speak to each other ever again. I know baseball has a tradition of taking way too long to do anything, but if there was ever a time for them to work in the name of speed, this was it.

-Finally getting around to an on-the-field issue in baseball, last weekend Houston Astros pitcher Erik Bedard was on the verge of making history. He had a no-hitting going into the 7th inning again the Seattle Mariners, a feat which would undoubtedly be the highlight for an otherwise dismal Astros season. However, Bedard cut short any talk of a no-hitter when he took himself out of the game in the 7th inning after throwing 109 pitches. As you would expect, most people around baseball couldn't understand why he would do this, especially since we just saw the Giants' Tim Lincecum throw 149 pitches in his no-hitter last week. Bedard calmly explained that he was more worried about his long-term health than the outcome of one game, especially since he has had three shoulder surgeries, is 34 years-old and is pitching on a one-year deal for a very bad team. I mean, if you played it out to the end Bedard would have had to throw around 140 pitches to finish the game and even then would have required his teammates to make some great defensive plays behind him (considering the Astros only gave up 1 hit to the Mariners and yet still lost the game I think you can see how likely that was to happen). On top of that the last two guys who threw a silly amount of pitches while chasing a no-hitter were never quite the same after that (the jury is still out on Lincecum, but he was rocked in his next start). Bedard is an average pitcher with no resume to speak of, so if he got seriously hurt his career would essentially over. And here's the part no one really wants to talk about - no-hitters are becoming kind of routine. Honestly, unless it is happening in a game you were already watching than you just need to watch the final inning, so why destroy yourself for something everyone will forget in a few days anyway? That is why I totally applaud what Bedard did, but I have to admit I did not expect this kind of rational thinking to come from a baseball player. Still, this was pretty much the only time I could ever see an athlete putting himself ahead of the team and most people taking no issue with it so if Bedard signs a long-term contract after this season and finds himself in this position again, he had better see it through to the end. Once is smart and noble, but doing it twice it spitting in destiny's face.

-I know it may be a little early to start worrying about the 2016 Olympic games, but qualifying tournaments have already started and because of the way Olympic basketball roster has been structured for the last couple of years (team officials want the NBA players to understand it is a real commitment), that means players who want to be included have to make their commitments now. Most of the Gold Medal-winning squad from 2012 is expect to be back, but one large name appears to be missing: LeBron James. As of right now James is not on the roster and appears to be done playing Olympic basketball, because this week the team was talking about how Kevin Durant is now the face of the team. Now, because this is LeBron James there are plenty of people out there who think this is an awful, unpatriotic thing for James to do. However, I have absolutely no problem with this. I think a lot of people forget just how much time and effort these basketball player have to put into playing in the Olympics. It may not be as stressful or as taxing as playing in the NBA, but it is still certainly more effort than they would be putting into a summer workout and let's not forget this is supposed to be their offseason. On top of that players who play in the Olympics are almost penalized for having good NBA seasons because of how late the playoffs last. After a while you are almost playing a year-round schedule and I don't care how great of shape you may be, that is bound to wear you out eventually. This is why I was never upset when members of the Celtics were passed over. Also, let's not forget James has already won 2 Gold Medals and played in a third Summer Games, so it is not like he hasn't put his time in. He has earned the right to take opt out of any more International competition. But before we all start to question how we will ever be able to beat Argentina or Spain in a few years, let's also not forget another key piece of information - he could always change his mind. Seriously, if he is still playing at a high level in three years and goes to USA Basketball right before the games start saying that he wants to be on the squad do you really believe they won't immediately accommodate LeBron James? It's a wonderful ideal to insist these NBA superstars check their egos in the name of playing for their country, but not if it costs you a Gold Medal in the process.

-For as long as professional football has had a salary cap, there have been teams trying to work their way around that cap. One of the most common ways to skirt the rules is to offer up an incentives-rich contract where the escalators are easily reached. Give guys a low base salary and then tell them as long as they don't hit a teammate with their car their salary gets bumped up. The player gets more money and only the base salary counts against the cap. A lot of teams use voluntary workouts as the triggers for salary bonuses because the players are going to be working out anyway. Well, this week we were reminded that only works when the player knows about it. San Francisco 49ers cornerback Tarrell Brown didn't attend voluntary workouts in San Francisco, instead opting to workout in Texas and will miss out on a $2 million of salary because of his absence. When he found out about all this missing money (via Twitter), he promptly fired his agent. This set off the age-old debate of who should be responsible for knowing their contract better: the agent or the player. Of course, there is a very good argument to be made for personal responsibility. It's your signature on the contract and you should never sign anything without reading it beforehand. Personally, I think anyone who has ever clicked the iTunes agreement without reading every single line of it immediately loses that argument. Also, I don't know if you have ever seen a professional contract, but it is very long and filled with words the average person has no need to use in every day life. Much like a mortgage, there is a reason players hire lawyers to negotiate them. That is why I feel like this is the agent's fault. I mean, what are you taking 5% for if you aren't keeping track of this exact thing? All that being said, I have no sympathy for Brown and disagree with the people who think the 49ers should give him the bonus anyway. Not only would that violate league rules it would set a very bad precedent. Besides, if you aren't going to make players go through the motions to earn their easily-achieved bonuses than why even bother to put in the effort to have them in the contract in the first place? Otherwise it just makes the entire process seems stupid and the last thing we would want is for the reality of how childish this all is to enter the world of sports.

-I know July seems early to start thinking about college football since schools are still out for the summer, but the games will be here before you know and it that means it is time for coaches to have their conference-mandated media days. For the most part this means the coach has to stand in front of a few dozen media members, none of whom want or plan to ask hard questions because college football coaches are the kind of arrogant pricks that will take a hard question as a personal affront and have that person banned from campus for the next decade, and spout generic platitudes without actually saying anything of value. That is why it was the rare moment of honesty when someone asked Kansas head coach Charlie Weis about how he recruits to a school like Kansas where they prioritize basketball. Weis, whose Jayhawks went 1-11 last year, said his recruiting tactic is very simple: everyone wants to play right away so he points to the team says, "Have you seen that pile of crap out there?" and tells the kid that if they can't start here they won't be able to start anywhere. Almost immediately national media members, who don't like Weis anyway due to the way he restricts access to players and coaches (again, you can't act like mini-Bill Parcells until you've won like Bill Parcells), started calling for Weis to be publicly reprimanded by the school because he was referring to student-athletes in a derogatory way. I guess I would be able to see these sportswiters' point if it weren't for one small problem: most members of last year's Kansas football team agreed with him. Look, unless they are delusional, most athletes know when they aren't good enough. Also, Weis has a reputation of being brutally honest so I am willing to bet this was not the first time these players had heard his evaluation. Thus, this feels like a group of people are using a pre-existing opinion to get offended in the name of people who aren't actually offended. So, until I hear from a player I'm going to take Weis's evaluation at face value. Of course, I hope he realizes that he is the one who assembled this pile of crap, so that criticism reflects back on him as well. If he doesn't have a much better season this will be the last time he has to worry about saying the wrong thing in front of the media.

-If you asked two dozen golfers from various points on the globe to rank the four majors in the order they would want to win them you would probably get two dozen different answers. Some people like the US Open the best because they think it is the toughest test, others prefer the British because of its history while some would put the Masters first due to the course and its exclusive nature. The only thing I can pretty much assure you is that the PGA Championship would be the final spot on most of those lists. It's nothing personal, but one of them had to come in last and the PGA is the relatively newest major with the least amount of tradition. (At least they can take comfort in knowing they are still in every player's top-five list.) Now, for years the people who run this tournament have been adamant this is not the case, but this week I think we finally got an acknowledgement that they know they have to work a little harder to drum up fan interest. A few days ago the PGA announced that this year it is going to allow fans to vote for the Sunday pin position for the par-3 15th hole during next month's PGA Championship. (Sadly, they aren't letting fans place the pin anywhere like in a bunker, just pick from one of four locations.) While I like the idea of getting fans more involved, I have to say this is not the kind of thing which will add a ton of prestige to the event. I certainly can't see The Masters asking fans to vote on anything related to that tournament, so if the PGA wanted to climb its way out of the basement of major rankings they need to look in another direction. That is why I always like the idea of going to something like match-play. That used to be the format for several big tournaments but now it is only used once or twice a year. I know the argument against it is that there is too big a risk every big name will get knocked out early and kill all fan interested, but if you look at the PGA's history it has the reputation of producing the most random champions of all, so it is not like they are taking that much of a gamble. Besides, the reward if it turned out to be a match-up like Phil vs Tiger would be worth all the hours of worry. A couple years of that result and I can guarantee they would definitely not be any fans' fourth choice.