« Shout-Outs | Main | Requiem »
January 28, 2006
Sporting Thoughts
A couple of random thoughts about some of the past week's events in the sporting world:
1. Barry Bonds withdraws from the World Baseball Classic. What a shocker: Barry Bonds did something selfish, self-serving and self-protecting. Yeah, like no one saw that coming, right? In a move that everyone could have predicted, Bonds bailed out of the World Baseball Classic this past week, saying he owed it to the San Francisco Giants to not play and stay healthy. Which is pretty much BS, since spring training will already have begun at that point, since Bonds would have played DH throughout the tournament, and given that if your knees are so bad that you're worried about them on March 3, odds are they're not going to be any less concerning two weeks later even with rest.
There's only two real reasons, I have to think, that Bonds decided not to play for the USA. First, his self-centered drive toward the home run record that no one outside of the Bay Area wants him to get has become such an obsession with him that he is willing to sell out his country in order to continue pursuing it. Far more likely, however, it simply boils down to this: Bonds figured out that to play in an international competition, he would have to take a steroid & HGH test. And it's obvious to anyone who's looked at before and after photos of Barry that he would have a pretty serious problem passing such a test.
Personally, I'm glad that Bonds won't be representing my country in the WBC. He's an embarrassment not just to the sport but to our country; selfish, arrogant, aloof and convinced the world revolves around him, Bonds is every Ugly American stereotype come to life. But it's still head-shakingly selfish of him to bail on us, even if our team is better for it. (Wouldn't matter anyway... the Dominican Republic is going to walk away with this tournament, with perhaps one of the best baseball rosters ever assembled representing them.)
2. Kobe Bryant scores 81 points in one game. Yawn. Big deal. Kobe got 81 of his team's 122 points. All that proves to me is that the only passes Bryant knows how to make are at women who don't welcome them.
3. Ron Artest exiled to Sacramento Gee, Ron... gonna be kinda hard to become a rap star in the middle of Sacramento, iddn't it? Of course, if you hadn't been such a selfish, childish ass for the last few years, maybe you could have taken your distracting act to LA or New York yourself. Oh well... at least in Sacramento you'll get... MORE COWBELL!
4. Texas A&M Angry With Seattle. Believe it or not, Texas A&M is getting on the case of the Seattle Seahawks -- and the entire city of Seattle -- for their use of the phrase "12th Man" to describe their fans. A&M claims to have exclusive rights to the phrase, dating back to the 1920s. In other news, A&M is also going after Steelers' coach Bill Cowher for using the cliche "the team needs to focus," and ESPN analyst Stuart Scott for using the phrase "Booyah!" in his sportscasts; A&M claims to have owned focus since 1951, and to have been using "Booyah" since 1897.
Freaking stupid.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thechroniccurmudgeon.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/87
Comments
#1 -- Barry *spit* Bonds. I have nothing to say about this MF.
#4 -- Hehehehe. I hear the coaches are having a moustache-off w/ Jason Lee to judge.
#3 -- I got a fevah! And the only preSCRIPtion is more cowbell! Thanks for the link.
Gene, really explore the space this time.
Posted by: eden at January 28, 2006 07:57 PM
Posted by: Linkmeister at January 29, 2006 06:58 PM
