Dock a player pay for a Funeral?

Minnesota Viking's Wide Receiver Troy Williamson recently had a death in the family. His maternal Grandmother died earlier last week in the hospital so naturally, Williamson left the team to attend the funeral on Monday which caused him to miss the team's game vs. the San Diego Chargers on that Sunday. Maternal Grandmother doesn't sound like that big of a deal but Troy Williamson would be the first person to let you know that that statement is not true. He was very close to his Maternal Grandmother. In fact, she helped raise him in his home state of South Carolina. I'm sure many of you are thinking that he should have just played in the game Sunday then just flew home to be there on Monday but he had to make travel arrangements for himself and many of his siblings who are currently in the Armed Forces. But the most surprising part of this story is that the Viking's Organization decided to dock him pay for that game so he lost $25,588. (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3100835) This is absolutely ridiculous. Do teams and organizations have any heart anymore? If it was a regular job and this happened, the worker would not have been docked any pay at all. Most employers would have sympathy with the situation and would understand that it was a tough loss for them. But I guess the Minnesota Vikings think otherwise. They know first hand how death can affect players with the Korey Stringer incident that occurred a few years ago so if any team would have sympathy for Williamson's situation, I would think that it would be the Vikings but I guess not.

Stringer Still Angry

C. Vivian Stringer is widely known as the head basketball coach of the University of Rutgers Women's basketball team. Most know her not from leading her team to the Final Four last year and a Big East Title, but for the situation with Don Imus and him calling her players a bunch of "nappy-headed hoes." 7 months after these comments were made, she is still very angry at Don Imus. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=3091087 Why is she still angry? Does she have the ability to forgive? But don't misread me. I do not condone what Don Imus said about her players at all. It was wrong, racist and worst of all, said on a national radio broadcast. But what I am getting at is that she should forgive the man. He messed up and he realized it. He came out with a public apology to the Rutgers Women's Basketball team and even after that he was fired from his broadcasting job. I would say after all of that, that Imus has learned his lesson. But no, Stringer can't give forgiveness which I think she should do. She has even used this situation to give her opinion on other subjects. She openly criticized Isaiah Thomas after his sexual harassment case. Why can't athletes and coaches just mind their own business and stay concentrated to their own job? What is Stringer now the African American Female Advocate of Sports now? I could see why she was angry about the Imus comments but after he apologized and was fired, at least give him the decency of forgiveness since it seems that he has learned his lesson.

David Stern to allow limited gambling among Referees'.

Everyone knows about Tim Donaghy and his gambling troubles and how he bets on NBA games. He was suspended indefinitely and was viewed as a disgrace to the league for awhile. David Stern was all up in arms about the whole situation and I think he handled the situation very well. But now he has said something that seems a little odd to me. In a recent internal review by the National Basketball Association, all of the 56 referees in the NBA said that they have done some sort of gambling and over half of them saying that they placed wagers in different Casinos all around the world. He has said that limited gambling is going to be allowed which seems pretty farfetched to me. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3079309 I know the gambling is limited which means it is like placing a bet in a casino or buying a lottery ticket but I still do not think it was a smart move by Stern. You let them gamble a little bit and it seems ok, then a little more sever gambling seems to be acceptable eventually leading into another Tim Donaghy situation. Why would you want that happening again? I say that David Stern should just not allow gambling at all. In my opinion, it would lower the risk that the referees would bet on games since even a little bit of gambling can lead to an addiction. In today’s world, money is a very desirable asset and if some of the Referees get addicted to gambling, betting on NBA games that they essential can control, seems very appealing and we all know that we don’t want another Tim Donaghy situation.

Race plays factor in Coach's Fireing?

Jerry Baldwin was the coach of the La. Lafayette Football team from 1999-2001. Over that time, the Football team did not far so well. They went 6-27 in those years and the attendance for the home games were also terrible.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3070227 Shortly after the 2001 season, Coach Baldwin was let go because of the team’s poor performance. Or was it because of his race? Baldwin was the first Black head coach of a major Louisiana University Football team. Baldwin claims that he was fired because of his race, not because of his team’s performance in which they lost 80 percent of their games. In fact, Baldwin took the University to court over the matter. After the jurors deliberated for over ten hours, they decided to award Baldwin with 2 million dollars in damages. Also, reportedly, Baldwin and his team had to use used equipment to work with his team while white coaches before and after him used new equipment. Now, even with all that evidence or lack there of, I don't think that Baldwin was justified in saying he was fired because of his race. I mean, he lost over 80% of his games and failed to keep attendance high. Almost every coach, white, black, Hispanic, etc would be fired for those types of numbers. If he wanted to keep his job, he should have found a way to keep his team winning, or at least win more than 20% of their games and show some progress for the future and then the chance of him keeping his job would have been much higher.

Mitchell's Report to Reveal Big Names

About 18 months ago, Former Senator George Mitchell launched an investigation into the steroid issue in Major League Baseball (MLB). http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3060689 Apparently, after all of his research, Mitchell has found some huge news. A 30-team Major League Baseball conference call was held mid day Friday to talk about his findings. From what came out of this meeting, the amount of players reveled in his report and the magnitude of the players is huge. One Lawyer for the MLB called this report, “Salacious.” Another source familiar with what was said at the conference said that, “This is going to be enormous.” But my question is what evidence can be pulled out of this report? I mean he might have found a great deal of players that have taking steroids over the past few years but how can he prove it? I know that people will go into great speculation after hearing about this report and all the players named in the report, but I can only think that nothing will happen to the players since there is no way that Mitchell could have gotten sufficient enough evidence to put these players away or at least get them suspended unless Mitchell got a blood or Urine sample form each and every player named in the report. The players named in the report will be frowned upon after the report comes out and looked at in a whole new way but I don’t think that is far. My opinion is the Steroid issue is simple; I need to see scientifically proposed evidence before I believe that a player used performance enhancing drugs. Until I see someone come out with that report, I’ll still think all of the players that are going to be named in the report are innocent.

Secret Substance?

Since when does water or Gatorade help a pitcher effect the movement of his pitches? During the Rockies Phillies game on Wednesday, the Rockies were winning 4 to 2 in the 9th inning when the Rockies closer, Manny Corpas, came in to close the game. But before he did, video caught him doing something very suspicious. The video showed him drinking out of a cup and pouring the substance down his back and chest. While pitching, he kept padding his chest and rubbing his fingers between pitches. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/specials/playoffs/2007/10/04/bc.bbn.rockies.corpas.ap/index.html Sports Illustrated made it seem like he was using this substance to gain an advantage in the game. Are you kidding me? He drank out of the cup ladies and gentleman. Tell me what substance that would help a pitcher gain an advantage that they would also drink? This just doesn’t make sense at all. These accusations of similar occurrences are getting out of hand. He was probably just overheated and poured some water on himself to cool himself off. Sure sometimes pitches use foreign substances such as Vaseline and pine tar to gain an advantage in games but the fact the he drank the substance that was on his chest makes me think that there is no way that he was using the substance to gain an advantage in the game. Also, it is a common thing for pitchers to grab their jersey and rub their fingers in between pitches. Just because he poured it on his chest, people got suspicious of his actions. I just think that there is no justification to this. He drank out of the cup!

More Strict Drug Testing in the Tour de France?

How could someone in the Tour de France not be banned by the Tour de France for having traces of Dynepo in their blood? That would have been the case for Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen who was in the Tour de France when he tested positive for showing signs of having traces of Dynepo in him. http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3040786 In fact, Michael Rasmussen was even in the lead of the Tour de France before he was kicked out. The fact that he was caught with a product like this in his body, could provide some evidence to why he was in the lead of the Tour de France. But luckily his team made the most ethically correct move and was kicked out of the Tour de France by his team. But since Dynepo is not banned under World Anti-Doping Agency, his case would not be considered as a positive test and would not get in trouble. Dynepo is an EPO like substance made from human cells which makes it a synthetic product. Riders shouldn’t have loop holes like this, it seems too unfair. I think that the World Anti-Doping Agency needs to have a more strict testing policy and needs to finally clarify what is legal and what is not. If the drug or product seems to give the Rider any kind of competitive advantage, it should be banned, no question. At least this should send a message to other Riders thinking that they have found a loop hole since these allegations will be sent to the UCI who heads the Tour de France. Hopefully the World Anti-Doping Agency will make a change about Dynepo and other “loop-hole” drugs or products.

What to do with Bond's HR Ball?

Marc Ecko bought Barry Bond's 756th homerun ball, which made Barry Bonds the all time leader HR hitter, for $750,000. You'd think he would want to hold on to that ball for the rest of his life, wouldn't you? Well apparently he does not want to which seems ridiculous to me. On his website, http://www.vote756.com/marcecko/, he gives the public 3 options for what to do with the ball. First option is to send it to Cooperstown and let it forever be in the Hall of Fame. Second option is to put an asterisk on it then send it to Cooperstown so everyone will know that the ball is not really a record breaking ball. The third and final option is to banish it and, "Put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into orbit, a moon shot for ages." Shouldn't this ball go to the Hall of Fame regardless? I mean he wasn't proved of taking steriods and I don't think that this record should be questioned. Bonds pretty much summed up my feelings on the whole situation, "He spent $750,000 on the ball and that's what he's doing with it? What he's doing is stupid." http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3026654. If I was owner of that ball, I would do one of three things, sell it for more money, making a profit for myself, send it to the Hall in respect for the game and Barry Bonds, or finally keep it with me for the rest of my life in a trophey case making my house a small tourist attraction. I would never even consider shooting anything I bought for $750,000 into space for no reason, no matter what importance the object had behind it.

Women Officiating in Sports

Women have been making great strides in sports as of late. For instance, the final game of the WNBA is coming up and expected to have the highest ratings its had in many years. Also, the Women's World Cup is currently going on and receiving great publicity as ESPN and ESPN 2 are airing them at the moment. But tommorrow, Women in Sports will make a huge advancement as there will be a woman official will be officiating of college football game. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3019618. Her name is Sarah Thomas and she will be the first woman in college football history to officiate a game when she covers the Memphis-Jacksonville State of Alabama game. The question I have is, why aren't women officials more common in professional and intercollegiate sports? Most will say because they don't know as much as men or aren't trained well enough or have enough experience to do so. I think that is a little unfair seeing as their are classes that you can take to become professionally trained to be an official. The first NBA women official didn't come until the late 1990's and she really only got the job since she worked her way up in the WNBA as an official and was the 1997 WNBA Official of the Year. http://www.womenof.com/Articles/sp071297.asp I think they can do as good as a job if not better than males at officiating but due to society and other factors of the world, I don't ever see women becoming equals in the officiating world. In fact, I'd be very surprised to see them make up 25% of officials in any sport seeing how the MLB or NFL does not even have one female yet. But I could see why not for the NFL since that is a very physical sport and sometimes the Ref's have to break up fights.

MLS and its Popularity

The Major League Soccer (MLS) was founded in 1994 and brought to the US to try and spark the popularity that soccer drew in Europe and other countries. Soccer is always a popular sport to play in the US but watching, not so much. This is something I never got. I personally love watching the MLS and the World Cup and it makes me angry that soccer doesn’t get the same respect it does in Europe. Although I do think it is getting more popular due to stars coming from overseas such as David Beckham’s arrival to LA, I do not think that it will ever be as popular as football or baseball in terms of people who watch the sports on TV. The MLS have signed TV deals with ESPN/ABC family, but hardly anyone watches it unless they are die hard fans or basically, there is nothing else on TV. In fact, MLS ratings as of June 11th, 2007, was a .2 average housing cable rating (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551559). That is equal to the WNBA according to bigsoccer.com and we all know how popular the WNBA is. To add an even more staggering stat, the MLB is sporting a 1.53 household cable rating. But I think the reason that the MLS is not that popular is that they lack stars. They made a huge advancement we Beckham came from England to play for the LA Galaxy. If they continue to get popular stars like that such as Thierry Henry and Ronaldo de Assís Moreiraa (Ronaldinho) then I think it could become vastly more popular, but I do not foresee that occurring.

How do you feel about writing and why?

Writing is something I can enjoy very much, but just as easily loath. The way I feel about writing is that if I am writing about a subject I am familiar with and enjoy writing about, then the writing becomes easier and much more enjoyable for me. Typically I would write more if I was writing about a topic that interests me. But, if I am writing about Romanticism and Literature concerning the 1800's then I am not going to be to psyched about writing on that topic. Overall, I'd say writing is a fun aspect of school for me because of the sense of accomplishment I feel when I finish a writing assignment.