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!