Monday, June 29, 2009

Money Makes You Free

If money doesn’t buy happiness, it sure buys freedom.

Ryan Leaf was released on bail and Donte Stallworth will serve only 30 days in jail after killing a man.

Leaf was a man on the run for over a week and after spending just hours behind bars where he has been charged in Texas he was allowed to not only leave the jail, but was also allowed to fly back to his home state of Washington. From my understanding of the law in most cases you are not allowed out of the state you are charged in until after your court date, especially when one of the counts is a burglary.

Stallworth was drunk driving at 7am and killed a man who was crossing the street and Stallworth will be set free after just 30 days. From my understanding of the law if you kill a man, especially while driving drunk, you will serve a lengthy prison term. Also, there is no way that you will keep your job.

Stallworth is suspended indefinitely by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with no timetable set for a return. I bet if it were me I would be fired, not suspended.

Every case in the justice system is held differently because cases are much the same as snow flakes, no two are exactly the same. There is a lot of differing factors in each of these cases, but the parallel is each of the defendants have enough cash to buy their way out of trouble.

Texas authorities were speaking out publicly in the hunt for Leaf, with one even saying "He can run, but he can not hide." Almost immediately after he turned him self in he posted bail and flew out of Texas back home to Washington. The authority, the district attorney for Randall County, Texas James Farren, should have added, "After we find him and he pays us then he can hide, we won't care once we have our money."

That's just how life goes. A normal man in either of these circumstances who could not afford to post bail would probably still be behind bars and would stay there for multiple years because they can't afford to pay a brilliant enough attorney, or an attorney with a good enough relationship with the judge, to get them off.

I don't know if Leaf and Stallworth's money always buys them happiness, but it sure bought them some extra freedom and they can't be mad at that.



Friday, June 26, 2009

You’re All So Dirty!

Steroids have steered our perception in the wrong direction. And by our, I mean ev-er-y-one, from fans, to athletes, to Congress.

It all started in the summer of ’98 when McGwire and Sosa pounded record setting home runs over the fence on almost a daily basis. It brought baseball back from the '94-'95 strike shortened seasons and gave people a reason to watch again.

Then Barry Bonds broke their records,and in came the Mitchell Report, and the scandals, and the testings, and the statements in court. By the way, doesn’t our government have better things to worry about?

Now instead of admiring player’s peak performances we question how they arrived at their skill level to the point that Congress gets involved. And the answer is almost always some type of illegal performance enhancer.

Raul Ibanez, 37, is having the best season of his career and a fellow blogger questioned where the newly found talent came from. Ibanez had a little ‘roid rage episode over the accusations.

Come on Raul, don’t be so naive. This is the drug induced era of sports and when another 37 year old playing some of the best ball of his career, Manny Ramirez, just tested positive you have to expect the question to pop up.

Noticeably the only names I’ve mentioned so far are baseball players, so why does the sports industry, and the government at that, focus so much attention on just the juiced up baseball guys? I guess it's just tradition because baseball is America's pastime.

But, there are plenty of football players who have tested positive and if they haven’t at least look like they should be testing positive. Then there’s LeBron James who’s a freak of nature at 6’9”, 250 lbs., can jump, run fast, and doesn’t get tired. And that’s not even going into the bicyclist and body builders.

Steroids have been around forever. A guy in his 50s told me he took steroids in high school and got them from his doctor. So why aren’t we questioning all the athletes instead of just the ones from the past two decades?

What is the difference between steroids and 5 hour energy drinks, or greenies (caffeine pills baseball players took years back), or lower mounds, or bigger sweet spots on bats, or shorter home run fences? They all enhance performance in different ways so let’s let the games begin and enjoy the iconic millionaire monsters as they entertainment us with their hard hits, home runs, and slam dunks. Who cares if they need that little extra boost to keep us entertained because they give me that little extra boost to get me through my little stressed out and work filled dull days. And shoot me up another performance enhancing coffee while you’re at it so I can focus on my next blog.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Get Over it Glavine!

Tom Glavine just can’t get over the fact that the organization he spent 16 years with, the Atlanta Braves, doesn’t want him anymore.

It’s been reported that Glavine may file a grievance against Atlanta questioning the reason as to why he was released.

The Braves told the 43-year old it was due to the lack of confidence the team had in him making a successful return back from his elbow and shoulder surgery. Glavine thinks the decision was based on financial reasons.

Either way the Braves made the right move because during the same week they traded for ex- Pittsburgh Pirates stud center-fielder Nate McClouth. The trade left the Pirates players frustrated and questioning their organization’s will to win because they were only six games out of first place at the time yet still traded away their best player.

Feelings were hurt on all sides of the wheeling and dealings, but baseball is a business and business tends to get personal at times, especially in sports where your pay is based directly on your performance.

Glavine’s performance wasn’t cutting it anymore. Literally his performance wasn’t cutting it, his pitches had no more cut to them. A huge Braves fan I know told me Glavine’s pitches were looking flat, had no movement, and his fastball topped out in the low 80s.

I don’t care how long Glavine was with the Braves and all he did for the Braves, low 80s with no movement on your pitches isn’t big league material.

By the way, isn’t Glavine the same guy that left the Braves in 2002 to sign a contract with the division rival New York Mets for around the same amount of money Atlanta offered him? I know the Braves didn’t offer him the extension he wanted, but again his performance at the time wasn’t worth it to Atlanta.

So Glavine is a traitor, the Braves still took him back when he was all washed up, and now that the Braves have seen Glavine for the mediocre minor league pitcher that he currently is Glavine wants to file a grievance.

You’re a legend Glavine, one of the top left-handers ever and one of the few pitchers to record 300 wins, which may never happen again. You were part of one of the best pitching rotations ever with Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.

Just take your World Series ring, turn your back to the situation, much like you did to the Braves organization in 2002 when you left for the Mets, and enjoy your millions of dollars before you wind up being placed in the whiny pitchers club right next to Curt Schilling.



Harrison Traditionally Not Making White House Visit

James Harrison, now that you’ve won the Super Bowl, what do you plan to do next?

“I’m going to Disney World!”

Isn’t that how the script is supposed to go? I never heard the one where they ask…

James Harrison, now that you’ve won the Super Bowl, what do you plan to do next?

“I’m going to the White House!”

Harrison refuses to visit the White House just because his team wins the Super Bowl. He skipped the trip in 2005 when he won his first Super Bowl with the Steelers and did the same in 2009.

No one cared about this story when Harrison was a back-up linebacker in ’05 but now that he earned the Defensive Player of the Year award in ‘09 the story gets a lot more attention.

People have the right to have an opinion and I highly doubt his NFL contract mentions a mandatory trip to Washington D.C. after a Super Bowl win.

Still though, its tradition and an opportunity to shake the hand of the President, something most people will never have the chance of doing. But if he wasn’t the guy that returned a Super Bowl record setting 100 yard interception for a touchdown this story would have never surface, and I'm almost positive he's not the first guy to do this.

So let’s bury the story because you never know, he could have visited the White House plenty of times throughout his life and could have a dinner date tonight at 9 pm tonight with Obama in the oval office.

Scottie Pippen at My Work

Last Thursday I’m at my current drag of a work place Broward County where I deal with people late paying their property taxes, and a co-worker emailed me that Scottie Pippen was in the building getting his passport.

The day before I was told that he tried getting into the building but he didn’t have his ID with him. The security guard, an older woman, didn’t even know who he was. Due to government procedure Pippen was not allowed in.

This day he remembered his ID and when I got word where he was, the passport section is down the hall from my office, I walked over.

He was with his family, his wife has got to be no taller than 5 feet. She's about up to his knee cap if that. He also had about five kids running around.

I talked to him for a little, joking with him about how could he manage get his passport without Jordan’s help. Even with his kids there he took time to take pictures with people from our office and to chat with me. Here I am with him.











I was going to try and get an autograph but I was happy he took the picture with me, especially considering he was with his kids. I didn’t want to bother him too much.

Either way he’s a real nice guy who looks like he could still play some crucial minutes for a championship contender.

I then challenged him to a game of one-on-one up to 11 and beat him by five.

One paragraph in this story isn’t true…can you guess which one?

Edwin Bear Status Alert

It’s been a couple of weeks but I’m back on the blogging. I took a week off to Pittsburgh, where I never visited before, and have been slacking ever since.

Pittsburgh’s a nice place, I visited downtown Pittsburgh and stayed in East Pittsburgh, with sights to see and drinks to consume. Below are some pictures of the vacation.































Now I’ll be back on the blogs discussing more topics than ever.

My sports show is back on Sunday mornings from 9-10 am on owlradio.fau.edu. It should replay from 10-11am as long as the equipment works correctly in the studio. This week will have two guests, sports junkies Justin Kostelnik and James Barclay, along side with me in the studio. I’ll post my topics by Saturday.

I’ll try to get the show recorded and put on the blog or onto a link somewhere so you can listen to it whenever you have the time if you miss it. Maybe film it and put it up on You Tube.

Stay tuned and comment your feedback.