Media Free Sports

Wasn’t it bad enough that dictator, I mean commissioner, David Stern stole the NBA championship from the Phoenix Suns? Now the the Portland Trailblazers and mega-media giant ESPN have to ruin NBA draft day for us too? Do you not believe in “opening your presents on Christmas morning rather than Christmas eve”? Of course, we all kind of all knew that Portland was going to take Oden. But what a buzz kill. It’s a done deal. Oden’s going first. Why tune in tonight? The network that brought you the draft also stole it’s magic. Well I guess there’s always preseason football. And it can’t begin soon enough! Unless of course someone at ESPN the magazine already knows the outcome of the games.

In case you don’t already know, Mars, Venus and Jupiter aligned tonight. The MLB rotations featured seven pitchers, 40-years-old or beyond, starting for their prospective teams today. Even after previewing this 40-plus extravaganza earlier this afternoon, I would have never figured the outcome. Three of the group took no decisions, including one rainout. Three of these long-lived warriors won outright. All of them Atlanta Braves at one time or the other; Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. Wow! This is “vintage pitching” at its best. All of our yesteryear America’s Team heros notched another victory for their ball clubs.  Only one Loser in the group. Well not really a loser. If you prorate the dollar per inning pitched, he earned more than all three Braves combined. But lets get back to the diamond. NY Yankee Roger Clemens lost to the Orioles and, on this night, distinguished himself from his contemporaries.

So what’s the giveaway at the ball park tonight on this “geriatric wednesday”? A viagra, propecia, horny goat weed sample pack? I already knew that 40 plussers Kenny Rogers and Roger Clemens were pitching today. I had this great article all planned out, “Roger vs Rogers” . But in baseball, “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose … and sometimes it rains”. Well this time it rained. Detroit Tiger’s Kenny Rogers scheduled start this afternoon was scratched when the game was postponed due to rain. But low and behold there are seven, yes boys and girls, seven over-forty pitchers starting tonight! So why not take a look at all these guys numbers vs Roger Clemens and his gargantuan salary.

But before we get to that, why pass up the chance to take a shot at Curt Schilling? When I first learned of  today’s “geriatric wednesday”, I imagined Schilling was in the mix. But then again maybe he’s not quite 40. And besides, he’s on the DL with a “bruised ego”, an injury that doesn’t show up on any MRI. 

Here folks are the numbers for the today’s “Plus 40 Night” starters:

1) Woody Williams (Brewers) 93 ip - 5.69 era - 6 mill
2) Greg Maddux (Padres) 98 ip - 3.66 era - 10 mill
3) John Smoltz (Braves) 94 ip - 3.14 era - 8 mill
4) Roger Clemens (Yanks) 17 ip - 5.09 era - 26 mill (Holy Cow!)
5) Kenny Rogers (Tigers) 6 ip - 0.00 era - 8 mill *
6) Tom Glavine (Mets)  96 ip - 4.38 era - 7.5 mill
7) Jamie Moyer (Phillies) 96 ip - 4.13 era - 6.5 mill

Wow, I thought Moyer and Williams where sipping Pina Coladas in Bermuda. But not half-bad numbers. Look at Smoltzee, making 1/3 Clemen’s salary for relatively a million times the production. But don’t look too close at these numbers. New York got their high-maintenance princess, I mean pitcher. All in all that’s what they really wanted. Someone to sell tickets and give the illusion that they are contenders.

*Only one start this year, but recorded several popular country albums in the 70s and 80s.

This just in, at least one of these guys has something left in the tank. Greg Maddux just won his start, number 340. That puts him number 3 all-time for MLB pitchers!

The legal system is still waiting for Tank Johnson’s blood test to come back before taking any actions. However, the Chicago Bears have already reached their verdict, Guilty! The organization obviously cut Tank Johnson over a breach of trust. I’m sure he had made a commitment with the club to stay on the “straight and narrow”. But only one day out of the Windy City, Johnson wrapped up his evening in an Arizona jailhouse. Can you blame the team for releasing him? Not really. However, the timing is more than a little suspect.

It seems lately that the NFL and its teams are jumping to conclusions and becoming a little trigger happy. Unlike the principles of our legal system, the league considers a person guilty until proven innocent. We all know there was a player recently suspended for an entire year. This occurred months before any criminal charges were ever filed against the player. And depending on the outcome, it may have been the right thing to do. However, the point is, no one knows the outcome yet. Maybe the NFL has a high tech “pre-crime” lab, complete with precog psychic computer uplinks and a small army of pre-crime officers.  You have to wonder how far the league is going to take their “minority report” type justice. If this were the standard a few years back, who knows if Ray Lewis would have ever gotten a fair trial. I guess back in those days the NFL didn’t have an image problem. They really had no interest in throwing jurisprudence out the door so they could play judge and jury.

If it turns out Tank was guilty of DUI, sure release the guy. But at this point, no laws have been broken. There was no announced team curfew last Thursday evening. The Bears action had to be premature. Heck, even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his pre-crime unit hadn’t swooped in yet! Maybe the Bears simply wanted to beat the league to the punch.

Earlier this week, former Georgetown standout and NBA Allstar Dikembe Mutombo was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. Throughout his career, the defensive specialist gave opposing teams fits. Don’t get me wrong, when inspired Dikembe could score with the best. More importantly, Mutombo put his superstar mega-dollars to good use back at home in his community, albeit oceans away. On the podium Wednesday, he explained, “The most important thing in our lives is our relationship to humanity. We need to be an example for our children and our grandchildren.” How often we forget this in our day to day lives.