Johnson's Opnion

This past week Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs, which included energy enhancing injections from 2001 to 2003 while he played for the Texas Rangers. The acknowledgement by Rodriguez that he participated in the steroid era was surprising and sad for many of his fans and fans of baseball in general. What was not sad was the reaction by Major League Baseball and their Commissioner, it was infuriating. The league essentially denied all responsibility for the use of steroid in their game during the steroid era.

"I'm not sure I would have done anything differently" at that point in time, Selig told Newsday. "A lot of people say we should have done this or that, and I understand that. They ask me, 'How could you not know?' and I guess in the retrospect of history, that's not an unfair question. But we learned and we've done something about it. When I look back at where we were in '98 and where we are today, I'm proud of the progress we've made."


"Starting in 1995, I tried to institute a steroid policy," Selig told Newsday. "Needless to say, it was met with strong resistance. We were fought by the union every step of the way."

"It is important to remember that these recent revelations relate to pre-program activity," Selig said last week. "Under our current drug program, if you are caught using steroids and/or amphetamines, you will be punished. Since 2005, every player who has tested positive for steroids has been suspended for as much as 50 games."


Selig’s comments are a crock of crap, in 1994 baseball had a work stoppage that forced the cancellation of the World Series. The television ratings fell dramatically after this work stoppage, and there was apathy toward the game. In 1998 the home run chase between admitted steroid users Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was considered the point at which the league’s recovery was completed. It was often wondered by many fans, and media members if the bats were juiced or the balls were juiced, but no one asked if the players were juiced. Baseball had control over the balls and thus knew the balls were not juiced and the league commonly tested suspicious broken bats, so they knew the bats were not corked. With this information, I contend that the baseball had some inclination of what was actually going on which was the players were using the juice (steroids), and turned a blind eye to it because of the money that they were making off of the steroid era. I place the blame squarely on baseball’s shoulders. A-Rod, Big Mac, and Swingin Sammy are just victims of a system that used them and spit them out when it was convenient. So I say Mr. Commissioner step up and accept responsibility, and become respectable. My parents always told me that the truth will always come to light, and the truth of the steroid era is coming to light.



IDIOT ALERT
Andre Smith of the University of Alabama was projected to potentially be the number one pick in the NFL Draft going into the NFL Combine. In the last day and a half of the Combine, Smith’s stock has dropped as if it were being traded on the NYSE. During the weight lifting portion of the combine for the offensive linemen on Friday Smith stood up and said he would not lift because he has not in shape. His reasoning for not being in shape is because he has just picked an agent and he had not been working out until recently. To make matters worse he was a no show for the offensive linemen’s portions of drills on Saturday morning. Players not working out typically show up at their position groups workouts and stand around in a sweatshirt while other players work out. Teams watch these players to see how they interact with other player from their position group. The teams are attempting to gage what type of teammate that the player will potentially be. To put Smith’s mistakes in perspective, the number one overall pick is projected to make $30 to $35 million in guaranteed money. Can we say GONE BABY GONE to that money? Andre is the exact type of player that the old Detroit Lions regime would have selected number one overall and the new regime will not give a second though to drafting. The reason that I mention the Lions is because they have the first selection in April’s draft.

NFL Combine book suggestion:

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which is the story of Michael Orr of Ole’ Miss

Johnson is editor and contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at johnsonthesportsguy@gmail.com

All-Star Saturday

All-Star Saturday could not be any more fun or interesting that All-Star Friday could it? Yes it could and yes it was. The day began with discussions of the previous night’s activities with friends, and everyone wanted to know about the Playboy party, I told them that it was an experience and they should have been there to see. Next my phone started to buzz with request for pictures, and details of the Playboy party. With all the commotion, I just decided to tell everyone the same thing; you had to be there to see it. I was next informed that I was scheduled to attend and cover the Hennessy day party after lunch at the PHX club in Phoenix.


For lunch I attend a local hot spot named the Tilted Kilt in Tempe. This place was full of Irish flavor, as it was designed to resemble an Irish Pub (public house). The public house is traditionally a place where friends come together to fellowship. This was a welcome calm in the sea of electricity known as Phoenix All-Star weekend. While at the Tilted Kilt I met a few people who lived in Phoenix who explained how drastically different this weekend was than the normal Phoenix weekends which they were use to. There were many more parties and people in town than normal, and the parties were priced significantly higher than a normal weekend’s party would cost. I responded welcome to the NBA All-Star weekend. They did not seem enthused with my response, and acted as if the could not wait for all the hoopla to end.

After lunch it was time to head to the Hennessy Party, which was invitation only. This party was geared toward the celebrity crowd. There was everything from hair cutting and massages to $3000 bottles of Hennessy aged 200 years at this party. Some of the celebrities in attendance were Dominique Wilkins, Jadakiss, Akon and Styles P. There was a red carpet full of video and still photographers. The host of the party was one of the Hennessy grandsons who graciously signed bottles of

Hennessy and took pictures with anyone who requested them. The general audience of the party ate a (general) fare of salad meatballs and rice, while sipping drinks made of you guessed it Hennessy. People talked as the D.J. spun the latest tracks from the featured artists Jadakiss and Fabulous. After being at this party for about two hours it was time to go get ready for the basketball exhibition of the night. As I exited the club I realized just how exclusive this party was as some of the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinal football players straddled the barrier which prevented those not on the “LIST” from entering the club. Outside of the Cardinals players which were denied access to the party, there were approximately 250 other people waiting for a glimpse of a celebrity or hoping for entrance into the club, it was crazy to hear people gasp as you walked out of the party.

Now it was time to get down to the business of the NBA, which was All-star Saturday night highlighted by 3 main events, the shooting stars, the 3 point shoot out and the dunk contest. In the shooting stars the team from Detroit won, their teams victory was not a major upset. Next up was the 3 point shoot out in which Jason Kapono of Toronto was favored to win for the third straight time. I personally did not think that he would win, my odds on favorite was Mike Bibby of the Atlanta Hawks. A funny thing happened as the shoot out began, little known Daequan Cook of the Miami Heat began to shoot well. He shot so well that he ended up winning the competition, and when asked afterwards about the significance of his win, he stated that it would now allow him to be recognized as one of the best 3 point shooters in the league.

After the shootout wrapped up we were on to the main event of the night, the Dunk Contest. I think that the Dunk contest is so popular because so few people can do what these athletes do, which is at times defying gravity. The contest featured two former winners tinny five foot nine inch tall Nate Robinson and the defending champ six foot eleven inch tall Dwight “Superman” Howard. Also in the contest were fan elected Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trail Blazers, and J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets. Smith and Fernandez had their moments but the night belonged to Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson. During one dunk Howard disappeared into a phone booth and reappeared as Superman with his cape on, this revved the crowd into a frenzy, but what stole the show for the night was the dunking display of tinny Nate Robinson who during his last series of dunks was dressed in green with a green ball in hand signifying that he was Howard’s kryptonite. Howard was a good sport during the contest allowing Robinson to use him as a prop in his final dunk. During the dunk the diminutive Robinson not only dunked over Howard, but he jumped completely over his head. During this dunk Robinson displayed an amazing amount of athletic ability, while Howard showed a great deal of sportsmanship by assisting Robinson. With this dunk, kryptonite had defeated Superman for the first time that I could remember.




Later on in the evening it was time to head to the Snoop Doggy Dog party, which was being held at the Barcelona night club. This was the same club that the Playboy party had been held at the previous night. The Snoop party began with a lingerie show which lasted for approximately 20 minutes. The models modeled everything from bra and panties to sleep ware. The show added an interesting dynamic to the party, and created a buzz instantly. After the lingerie show a local rap artist named Cashman who was billed as the artist who was going to “put Phoenix on the map” performed. This artist truly proved that there are no good rap acts in Phoenix. The best way to describe his sound is that of cats fighting. His hype man AKA the Phoenix version of Puffy, was even worse than the real Puffy, when he stepped foot on the stage he demanded a microphone but never once said anything into it. The entire performance made me want to throw up; the best word to describe it was disturbing. Cashman had one song in which he repeatedly proclaimed he wanted people to get out of his ear, and believe me, I and other patrons of the club felt the same


way about his lyrics. After Cashman’s horrible performance was over, the crowd was turned over to a D.J. which was fine until his hype man got on the stage and started to sing the lyrics to every song that was played; he also danced like Carlton off the Fresh Prince of Bellaire. This went on for about 40 minutes and then the hype man invited the ladies in the crowd onto the stage. This is when the mayhem started. Many middle aged women began to relive their youth by dancing provocatively on top of the speakers. One of the women was attempting to pull her dress down and in the process took her underwear off. Women, many of which had no business on the stage rotated on and off of the stage for two to three hours as if it was there jobs, guys threw money into the air to “make it rain”, and then it happened. A crowd of approximately 10 to 15 men were rushed through the club into the V.I.P. area. The crowd was buzzing Snoop was in the building, and many of the patrons wondered aloud if he would perform. As Snoop sat in the V.I. P. area people rushed to get a glimpse, and snap a photo, there were so many flashes going off it looked like the 4th of July, the crowd around V.I.P. was 5 deep at the time, and people pushed and shoved to see him. As all this was going on Snoop calmly sipped on what seemed to be a cranberry juice and Belvedere Vodka as he stared back at the crowd. People waited for him to perform but they were disappointed, at some point Snoop snuck out of the club and the party continued, it was packed as many people enjoyed their last experience of Phoenix’s All-star weekend. All in all the party was not as good as the one the club hosted the night before, I even heard some people saying that it was a boring party. I would have to disagree with this point and rate the part an 8 out of 10 because it had star power, energy and a sense of direction.

All in all All-Star weekend was fun and interesting. I think that it is an experience that everyone should have once in their lives, and I hope that I have provided you an insiders view into this weekend, so let’s do it again next year. See you in Dallas where Lebron James says that he will compete in the Slam Dunk contest.

Johnson is editor and contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at johnsonthesportsguy@gmail.com

Random Thoughts From Across Sports…

LPGA:
Michelle Wie finishes second in her first event as a member of the LPGA after earning her way on through Q-School. She had a three shot lead on the back nine and couldn’t hold off a charging Angela Stanford. While most would say this is the latest in a long line of failures for Wie I see it as a positive. While getting bad advice while coming up and ruffling a lot of feathers along the way she needs to get in position to win to learn how and fulfill all that promise. She has one of the best swings in golf for a man or woman and will be a force for years to come. I have no problem with her teeing it up with the men as long as she earns her way in.

MLB:
A Rod, A Rod, A Rod. Just had enough of it already and it has just begun. The last thing hopefully I will say on this is how can MLB just leave him out there like a sacrificial lamb while 103 guilty people sit there unscathed. If I was the Yankees I would want them made public so the heat would die down on A Rod and other teams fans couldn’t boo as loud while guys on their team cheated as well.

Who says you can’t go home again. Ken Griffey Jr. has agreed to go back and play for the Mariners. I loved watching that swing and it will take my back watching him in that uniform again. Too bad the skill level isn’t the same.

NBA:
Tracy McGrady shuts it down. After watching him not be able to dunk the ball a few games ago it was time to quit trying to push it and take care of you. At least he doesn’t have to go to a bad Nets team that was rumored before the announcement. I think he should have told the team before the rest of the world, guess I am old fashioned.

Sometimes I hate the salary cap. As a fan I can’t stand when your team has to get rid of someone not because they can’t help your team but because they make too much. Tyson Chandler was the latest victim of this. The Hornets had to dump him and really hurt their chances of winning the title. Now they weren’t the favorite but they had a punchers chance now that chance is even smaller.

NFL:
Interesting use of the franchise tag by the Chargers. You have LT and you use your tag on Sproles. Now I know that they couldn’t lose Sproles because of the uncertainty of the LT situation but didn’t they just dig the same hole they are trying to get out of? They want to pay LT less, now you go and guarantee Sproles a top five salary and he isn’t even a full time back.

JD is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at jdthesportsguy@gmail.com

A-Rod Reality: The truth shouldn't matter

OK, now that we've had a week to digest this A-Rod admission and his apology, let me say this. Can we just get over this? I don't think that his admission was any big revelation. Everyone was attacking Barry Bonds and hoping that A-Rod would soon pass his HR record since he was "clean" and Bonds was the bad guy. The fact of the matter is many players of various skill levels and positions took PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) during that time span.  Was A-Rod entirely truthful in his admissions at his press conference?  Probably not, but that's besides the point.

If someone were to test positive today for PEDs, they would get a 50 game suspension, not a lifetime ban. Why are Hall of Fame voters (i.e. sportswriters) so intent on not letting ANYBODY that has a positive PED test, or just even has just been linked with PEDs, in the Hall of Fame? Not even getting into the fact that it wasn't even against MLB rules when most of these players used PEDs, but that shouldn't disqualify a player from the HOF. Are we going to remove the many players that took uppers (amphetamines) to increase mental alertness and physical energy from the HOF? They are also PEDs, but don't have the media stigma that steroids has.  NFL player Shawne Merriman from the Chargers was suspended four games for use of PEDs two seasons ago, and it was in the news for maybe a day. We've been talking about Bonds forever, and it looks like it will be the same for A-Rod.

Is the argument because the baseball purists say it will skew the numbers for records (i.e. home run records)? You mean like uppers did? You don't think that helped increase numbers. You mean like pre-integration? You don't think the numbers for Babe Ruth and Roger Maris were better because they didn't play against black players? Do they have asterisks?  If baseball records/numbers really are sacred, why are all ball parks designed differently?  Old Yankee Stadium was 318', 399', 408', 385', and  314' ft from left field to right field.  Tiger Stadium was 340', 365' 440', 370', and 325'.  You don't think the Babe, Maris, Mantle, etc... had an advantage over Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg?  Definitely!  Asterisk?  Nope.  Want to sell extra tickets and bring excitement to your fan base?  Just shorten the fences by a few feet.

A-Rod answered, strike that.... A-Rod was asked if he felt that his numbers were tainted, or if his numbers should be wiped away for the years that he used PEDs.  That's ridiculous, you can't go back and erase numbers.  The NCAA does it, but am I really suppose to believe the Fab 5 never happened?  A-Rod's numbers are his numbers.  Bonds' numbers are his numbers. Bonds is the home run king, period.  A-Rod will eventually become the home run king.  Both deserve to be 1st ballot Hall of Famers when they are eligible.

This should just be another era in baseball, The Long Ball Era.  No different than the Dead Ball Era, the Live Ball Era, Integration Era, and the Free Agency Era.  The only reason this is getting as much media attention is because we now live in a soap opera/tabloid/paparazzi news society. That's what sells.  That's why sometimes we have to turn off SportsCenter.  Do we really need to know A-Rod's cousins name or who transported the substance from the Dominican Republic to the United States?  (BTW... that was actually a question at his press conference.)

DC is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted atdcthesportsguy@gmail.com

Games 2 Watch (G2W) 2/17/09 to 2/19/09:

The G2W section will highlight some of the most interesting match-ups over the next few days. Here are the must watch events from 2/17/09 to 2/19/09:

Tuesday 2/17/09 - NCAAB - Michigan State Spartans at Purdue Boilermakers - 7 pm EST / 6 pm CST on ESPN (*Game of the Mid-week)

The Big Ten leading Spartans face off against the 3rd place Boilermakers.  Both teams should be near full strength, as Raymar Morgan and Robbie Hummel should be in the line-up for both teams.

Wednesday - 2/18/09 - NBA - LA Lakers at Golden State Warriors - 10:30 pm EST / 9:30 pm CST on ESPN

Should be another high scoring affair.

Thursday - 2/19/09 - NBA - San Antonio Spurs at Detroit Pistons - 8 pm EST / 7 pm CST on TNT

Thursday is the NBA trade deadline and there was speculation that Rasheed Wallace may be heading to SA.  We'll see.

We'll also end with the game results from the last G2W.

Friday 2/13/09 - NBA - All-Star Weekend - NBA All-Star Celebrity Game - Rookie Challenge - Rookies vs. Sophomores 

Saturday - 2/14/09 - NBA - All-Star Weekend - Shooting Stars, 3-Point Shootout, Skills Challenge, H-O-R-S-E, Dunk Contest 

Sunday - 2/15/09 - NASCAR - Daytona 500

Sunday - 2/15/09 - NBA - All-Star Game - East vs. West 

Monday - 2/16/09 - NCAAB - Pittsburgh 76 Connecticut 68 - (*Game of the Weekend)

DC is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted atdcthesportsguy@gmail.com