Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

Almost by definition, the Most Valuable Player is the player who most helped his (or her) team accomplish more than it normally would have accomplished. Thus, an MVP cannot play for a last-place team.

The Texas Rangers finished in last place with Alex Rodriguez and would have finished last without Alex Rodriguez.

Or would they have? With the $25 million spent on A-Rod, the Rangers could have purchased two or even three good pitchers.

In that regard, Rodriguez may be the Least Valuable Player or the Most Detrimental Player.

It is time to stop the madness and to split the MVP into two awards – Player of the Year (which A-Rod certainly would have won) and MVP (which should have gone to Carlos Delgado of Toronto).

Man, this stuff makes my head hurt.

1 1 1

There may be nobody at ESPN more annoying that Sean Salisbury.

It is more than his obnoxious I’m right because I played pro football and you didn’t attitude. On Tuesday morning, he was telestrating the San Francisco-Pittsburgh football game and going on and on and on about how Terrell Owens made the critical block on a TD run and earned the respect of his teammates when he took out two defenders … except T.O. achieved that simply by getting in the way and falling down and took out two defenders who were two far back to make a play anyway.

And then on a pass play from Pittsburgh QB Tommy Maddox to WR Hines Ward, Salisbury goes on an on about Ward being one of the top receivers in the league and if he doesn’t drop that pass it would have been a potential TD … except the replay clearly shows that Ward was on his way down to the ground and whether he caught it or not, a TD was out of the question.

This stuff makes my head hurt, too.

1 1 1

In case anyone was interested, my brief stint as a basketball coach is at an end … with only modest results.

The head coach of my son’s YMCA basketball team had to leave at halftime the last two weeks to finish up on some class work, leaving me in charge.

About two minutes into the game two weeks ago, our best (and by that I mean “tallest”) player gets ejected (from the game and from the league) for slamming the ball on the court and shoving a player on the other team.

Ooops.

And then on Monday, I took over with the team down 25-10 at half and helped them rally back to within 12.

Like I said, modest.

Hey – I’m no Gregg Simon.