Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

 

I was jolted awake at 5:30 am on Sunday because it sounded as if the house had exploded. Just as I was trying to figure what had happened, another peal of thunder – even louder than the last – shook the house.

In the echo afterwards, I heard the pounding rain.

So my wife rolls over and groggily says, “I turned off the alarm. You won’t be golfing today.”

My wife – so naïve.

We teed off at 7:12 am.

On time.

I wish I had stayed home, though. It didn’t rain at all, but it was sooooo humid it was like trying to hit the ball through a curtain. And with the steam coming off my face, I couldn’t keep my glasses from getting fogged.

Wow, what fun.

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The recent allegations of NCAA rules violations at Fairfield University is less astonishing than it is saddening. If true, I think it simply proves my own convictions (right or wrong) that cheating goes on, in some degree, in every university in the country.

It’s just a matter of being caught.

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I find it hilarious that not only is Alex Rodriguez anxious to get out of Texas, but the Rangers are also anxious to unload him.

A-Rod is still owed something like $180 million and there is no way on Earth the Rangers will be able to pay him and still be competitive – not if they are losing $30 million a year. How come owner Tom Hicks didn’t see this back when he signed A-Rod?

Just about everything wrong with baseball can be summed up in this deal – a gullible owner (Hicks), a greedy ballplayer who wanted the money rather than the championship (A-Rod), and the agent who wanted to make the historic deal (Scott Boras).

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If George Steinbrenner figures out a way to pick up A-Rod, it will be the beginning of the end of the New York Yankees.

Not only is there no way A-Rod ($22 million per season) and Derek Jeter ($15.6 million per season) can get along in the same infield (with Jeter moving to third, no doubt), it just blows your mind that a team can handle those contracts along with the contracts of Mike Mussina ($12 million), Jason Giambi ($11.4 million per year), Alfonso Soriano (which will end up in the $15 million range), Bernie Williams ($12.3 million a year), Andy Pettitte ($11.5 million a year) and Mariano Rivera ($10.5 million) – even with the YES Network.

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The National Basketball Association already labors under the perception that it is a league filled with thugs and criminals. Now Kobe Bryant, one of its most marketable and likeable stars from its most popular team, is on trial for rape.

It can’t get much worse than that.

But Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and a pretty smart businessman, says this whole thing will end up being good for business.

Notoriety sells.

Kind of makes you feel clammy, doesn’t it?