"It would do good for baseball, like every sport, to have the stars," Rogge said while watching the United States beat Japan, 8-4, in the bronze medal game. "We have LeBron James in basketball. We had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Magic Johnson on the Dream Team. That trend has continued in basketball, and we have all the stars of the NHL. So we would love to have as many stars of the major leagues as possible. I'd love to see Rodriguez." AP

That's good ole Jacques Rogue the president of the IOC on the topic of canning baseball for the next Olympics and the potential for it coming back to the games. I could go on about why baseball is a better game than 10 out of 10 olympic events but lets just skip all that and go straight to the topic of how big a hypocrite Rogge is. If his policy is the best of the best must be there, than he isn't getting the job doen.

He went on in to say that the 'Olympics' have Ronaldinho as evidence that the soccer games bring stars. Oh really? First of all the Olympic soccer teams can only have 3 players above the age of 23, which means that none of the true national teams play. Secondly, each franchise has the right to refuse entry of their player to the tournament. So when Lionel Messi, one of the best players in the world, said he wanted to play for Argentina his club team Barcelona initially refused. Then knowing that they didn't want to piss off their best player they let him play. So because Barcelona let him play they obviously struggled to start the season right? Or they're first Spanish League game is next Sunday. The best soccer players are not in attendance, and if it was the heart of the club season than most certainly players like Messi and Ronaldinho would not be allowed to play.

The second obvious showing of a sport without their best athletes are the fighting sports with Boxing in particular. In order to box in the Olympics you must be an amateur. The professionals do not participate in the Olympics, they are the best of the best, they are the stars yet Boxing stays.

Rogge is just making stupid for what really is a moronic decision. If Chicago gets the Olympics in 2016 and baseball is not returned to the games it will be a disgrace.

I present you with quote from MMQB by Peter King, aka Brett Favre's Ball Buffer:

4. I think I don’t want to hear what great fans the Jets have. Not for a long time. That crowd Saturday night was a disgrace. At least half the stadium was empty for Favre’s debut in a Jets’ uniform. I expressed my amazement to a few fellow scribes Saturday night — emphasizing that N.Y. traded for an all-time-great quarterback, not a broken-down one — and they gave varying reasons for the poor turnout. Like it’s the middle of vacation month for New Yorkers, and it’s a preseason game. Horsefeathers. If you really love your team, and you have season tickets, you should have been at that game unless you were in Tibet. Ridiculous.

First off I would like you raise your hand if you've ever heard mass cry from Jet fans or the media on how the Jets have a great fan base. I'm a huge Jet fan and I've stated how pathetic my fellow fan base can be multiple times and have never said we have a great fan base nor one of the best around. So perhaps Peter is hanging out with vastly different crowds than I am, but I don't think that's very prevalent.

Next, Jet fans are obviously pumped and they've been turning out in record numbers to watch Favre practice. And guess what, if you turned out for a practice you would have seen more of Favre in action than you did during the game. Favre played two series. Two. He scored a touchdown on the 2nd and he was done for the game. I live in lower CT about an hour and a half to the stadium and chances are I would have to be paid the equivalent of my gas + food expenses to go to a preseason game. Sure it was probably the most notable preseason game in Jets history, but its just that a meaningless game where the player you want to watch only plays 10 minutes. I think that is well viewed from the comfort of your living room, local sports bar or local restaurant (where I watched the 1st quarter).

Hat tip to S2N for the notice of King's Douchery

At first when you're reading ESPN's bottom line and the phrase a Shooter was disqualified from the Olympics due to doping you immediately think how the hell could steroids help out a shooter? And without looking into exactly what 'doping' meant, I actually had conversations about how maybe steroids builds strength up and could potentially leave your hand more steady. And then I decided to look up exactly what 'doping' meant and well it all makes sense.

Kim Jong-Su tested positive for Beta Blockers which could be defined as so:

"A class of drugs that block beta-adrenergic substances such as adrenaline (epinephrine) in the "sympathetic" portion of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system. By blocking the action of the sympathetic nervous system on the heart, beta blockers relieve stress on the heart; they slow the heart beat, lessen the force with which the heart muscle contracts, and reduce blood vessel contraction in the heart, brain, and throughout the body. Beta blockers may be used to treat abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac arrhythmias) and prevent abnormally fast heart rates (tachycardias) or irregular heart rhythms such as premature ventricular beats." Medterms

Beta blockers are essentially the clutch time drug. They are meant to keep your heart beat from getting out of whack. They are meant to relax you during the pressure moments. Obviously for a shooter the harder his heart is beating the less likely he will be able to keep his hand steady and hit whatever target they need to hit. So it all makes much more sense than if he had taken steroids.

On another note, can we get Arod some of these?

The Manny Ramirez fallout came to an abrupt end but has been boiling for many a year. Here a 4 main candidates for the the fallout. Manny Ramirez - Manny being Manny only goes so far. When you sit out a friday night against the Yankees complaining of injuries that don't exist then you have certainly crossed the line. Scott Boras - The devil was hired by Manny in the off season. As Tone said "You don't hire Scott Boras if you want your option to get picked up." And well it's true, if Manny doesn't garner a new contract than Scott Boras essentially gets nothing out of Manny. However, if he gets him a massive long term deal than he gets a nice cut. Theo Epstein - The day Theo stepped through the door he seemingly didn't want Manny on the roster. He was the one who was so eager to see which teams were interested in Manny that he placed him on waivers. He was the one that came out to the public saying that if Manny was ok with being traded that he would be interested in hearing offers. Terry Francona - There is at least whispers out there that suggest that Francona just got to a point where he couldn't deal with Manny. He may have given the directive to Theo to get rid of Manny at all costs.

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Even with the Yanks getting the crap kicked out of them last night by the Angels, it was a very good day to be a Yankee fan. For all the stupid annoying stuff that Manny pulls every year and for all the escapades in the outfield, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have combined to be the best duo in MLB for a very long time. And now that duo is dead and we shall rejoice.

Let's just take a quick gander at how much of a Yankee killer Manny Ramirez has been. In 2008 Manny is hitting .417 with an OPS of 1.301, in 07 he hit .392 with a 1.161 OPS, in 06 he hit .556 with an OPS of 1.778 (that's f'n ridiculous), in 05 he hit .324 with an OPS of 1.034, and for his career overall he is at .321 with an OPS of 1.029. He has been nothing less than the bane of the Yankees pitching staff. And in the postseason for Boston he has been extraordinary as well. In 9 postseason series with the Red Sox he has hit over .300 in 7 of them. Most importantly Ramirez hit over .300 in every single series in 2004, in helping the Red Sox secure their first title in basically ever fans life time.

So we opponents shall rejoice in the fact that no longer will Manny be crushing homers off Mike Mussina over the Green Monster. Rather the Yankees shall be facing Jason Bay. A solid player who is a borderline all star, but whom has never even sniffed a pennant race nevermind the postseason. What will Jason Bay do in a Red Sox uniform? Will the pressure eat at him or will he thrive? No one knows. What we do know is that Manny did thrive and that the Red Sox in order to get rid of his headache were forced to take a player of lesser hitting prowess, pay off Manny's contract and give up two players from their roster. Well then that's a pretty good day. Thanks go to Manny for being an unbearable asshole.

You're 4-6 in your last 10 and your 2.5 games out of the division. You need something extra, you need a spark. You have a solid rotation but you need that stud, the pitcher who is going to dominate. And it just so happens you have him stashed away in the minor leagues dominating hitters in every start. So, you leave him there of course.

Seriously, there is nothing more baffling then what the Twins are doing to Francisco Liriano. Coming into this season he could have been considered their most important player, a potential ace on a team clearly lacking one. But he struggled mightily in regaining his stuff post Tommy John surgery so he was rightly sent down to the minors. And he has found his stuff. He's had his stuff for awhile now throwing together 5 terrific starts in a row before having a mediocre start last night. And yet, even with his agent complaining about the franchise, he's sat there in Rochester waiting for the call. A call that is being blocked by 5 pitchers that couldn't hold his jock right now all the while the Twins brass is saying that there is no room for him.

1. Livan Hernandez - 5.38 ERA is bad, but a WHIP of 1.60 and an opposing batting average of .336 is down right terrible. The batting average against of .336 is the worst in all of MLB for qualified pitchers. Why is this man still starting? How in the world is he better than Liriano right now? Why because he has 10 wins? Sir Sidney has 6, does it not mean they both suck?

2. Nick Blackburn - He has a 3.69 ERA and has pitched well, but when he suited up against the Yankee pin stripes in a big spot he was sitting on the bench 6 runs down after 1.2 innings. Do you honestly think he's coming up big in an important spot?

3. Kevin Slowey - Slow is the accurate depiction. He's a finesse pitcher.

4. Scott Baker - Baker has pitched well for the Twins this year and has a 3.36 ERA. But does he have dominating playoff ace stuff? No.

5. Glenn Perkins - Perkins has pitched well for a Rookie with a 4.08 ERA but again the stuff obviously isn't there. With 46 Ks in 90+ innings its obvious he isn't dominating.

How can the Twins seriously say with a straight face that Liriano can not replace any of those pitchers? What the hell are they waiting for? Are they waiting to fall out of the race? Are they waiting to trade one of the youngsters? The time is now, make the move before its too late. And stop being ridiculously cheap based on service time.

Note: If the Twins really can't find a place in the rotation for him, I'm sure a certain team in the Bronx could find a spot for him if pressed into the situation.

So Wachovia goes and loses 8.86 Billion (With a B) dollars in the second quarter. So how are they going to turn it around and make up those losses? By advertising here at SimonOnSports of course. I generate Billions of grains of Rice (perhaps only millions or maybe like 5 full shaped grains) so its certainly a sound strategy.

So you're a new D1 school you went 0-for the season in hoops and you want to find a conference to play in. Sooooo naturally you join the Big West and sign up for a non stop series of cross country flights to the wonderful Dakotas, as well as Texas, Utah and California. Genius.

Man, now I really want New Jersey Nets season tickets.

Just in case you needed extra incentive to root for the underdog Bulldogs, I present you with Kris Tomlinson. If a man is willing to go to such extremes of self humiliation simply in an effort to create luck for his team he deserves nation wide support.

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Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Last year I was one of the many to defend Imus and say that his firing was too extreme, well yesterday he was at it again with the racial controversy.

During a conversation about Jones' run-ins with the law, Imus asked, "What color is he?" Sports announcer Warner Wolf said Jones — formerly known as Pacman — is "African-American." Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know." AP

This time Imus decided he wasn't even going to remotely try to apologize rather he said people misinterpreted his statements.

On Tuesday he said he was following the spirit of that promise by calling attention to the unfair treatment of blacks — in this case the arrests of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones.

"What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason," Imus said Tuesday. "I mean, there's no reason to arrest this kid six times. Maybe he did something once, but everyone does something once."AP

Seriously Don? How do you expect any person to believe that explanation? First of all A) You have no idea what race is so you obviously have no idea what he actually did, his story and whether or not he actually deserved to be arrested.

Right now if I was asked whether or not I think Imus is a racist my answer would have to be yes.

When the White Sox brass decided that it was time to end their time with Jerry Manuel as the manager of their ball club they decided to replace him with a man of intense passion one with a big mouth and a history with the club and thus they chose Ozzie Guillen. In his time with the White Sox Guillen has provided one World Series ring and a whole lot of loud noises and embarrassing quote. Now, less than 5 years later it seems like all Manuel wants to be as manager of the Mets is Ozzie.

After Reyes didn't run out the ball he went Gangsta
"I told him next time he does that I'm going to get my blade out and cut him. I'm a gangster. You go gangster on me, I'm going to have to get you. You do that again, I'm going to cut you right on the field."

And then he went all Bill Parcells on Reyes
"She acted up with me, and she had a day off."

When asked how Heilman handles the boos he equated Shea to a place filled with shit (highly accurate)
"It's very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It's fertile ground for a team's growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer."

"Fertilizer is a good thing. It's a good thing. You get the greatest results—get the most beautiful plants—when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That's what we have the opportunity to do."

Unfortunately for Manuel there are big differences between him and Ozzie. First Ozzie had a long storied background with the White Sox. People in the city of Chicago were both used to his ways and accepted them. Manuel meanwhile has no such history with New York and certainly is not in the good graces with the typical Met fan. Secondly, Manuel has inherited a team with massive expectations mid season. He already comes with a ton of controversy and photoshopped back page covers of him with a knife behind Willie's back. He's taken the job on thin ice and what he's done in the first week is not cute it's embarrassing. So perhaps he should try to act more like himself rather than some big tough "Gangster".

A little bit over two weeks ago I took the media to task, namely Michael Kay, for their completely incorrect criticism of how the Yankees were handling Joba. And I would like to say now only 3 weeks later that I was right you were wrong, I'm smart you're stupid, I'm stunningly handsome you have eaten one too many donuts (probably way more than 1).

In 4 starts since the Yankees inserted Joba as a starter the team is 3-1 with their only loss coming in his first outing against the Toronto Blue Jays. An outing where the Yanks faced Roy Halladay so the chances of winning are incredibly diminished. An outing in which Veras and Edwar gave up 6 runs in the 7th inning. Every fan would sign up for any pitcher to go 3-1 with the lone loss coming against a Cy Young opponent.

Since the first start the Yanks have gone from 2 games under .500 to 7 games over .500, but that's not really the point. The point is that this month Joba has given the Yanks 18 1/3 major league innings and has given 5 earned runs during that period. So instead of having Kei Igawa or some replacement throw those innings, they got a 2.50 ERA over 18 major league innings and in the process have lucked out into training Dan Giese to be the initial filler for the Yankees injured Wang.

So once again Michael Kay baffles with his blatantly wrong opinions and analysis, let's see if he actually admits it for once.

One would think that when you are advertising a series already in progress you would know who was actually involved in the Series rather especially if it was being broadcast on your own family of networks. Yet apparently ESPN could only get pictures of Kobe and KG right but not the teams they play for. I wonder which Superstar is on TEAM 1 and which is on TEAM 2.

If you listened to any media outlet talking about Joba's first night in the rotation than chances are you heard criticism of how the Yankees handled it. You probably heard that its a big distraction or that the Yankees lost on Tuesday because of Joba or that a starter doesn't go 3 innings basically you heard the media throw out a lot of crap.

Before I get into dismantling the arguments of the media I would just like to point back to my post the day after the Yankees announced they were going to move Joba into the starting rotation. This is what I said then:

Basically the only way I can see the Yankees stretching him out is either A) Send him to the minors (this is a miserable idea) or B) Just start him and have him pitch the alloted innings than after his allotted innings just bring in the corresponding long reliever. Will it put your team in some odd spots? Sure. If Kennedy or Igawa or whatever long reliever was any good they would be in the rotation. But at the very least this guarantees that every inning that Chamberlain pitches is a relevant one.

For the purpose of this post I will focus on one man who criticized the move, Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay. Now Michael of course did this on his radio gig because how could he possibly criticize the Yankees during a broadcast but his point was generally that the Yankees should stretch out Joba in the minors and that by doing so in the majors they are taxing the bullpen and creating a major distraction. He also went so far as to say that Joba was the reason the Yankees lost on Tuesday. In typical fashion Michael proves himself to be, well not very bright so let's pick a part every portion of Michael's argument.

By moving him into the starting rotation (which you could argue is or is not a good move) you can't stretch him out in the bullpen. He needs to get used to coming out of the gates in the first inning. He needs to get used to coming into a 0-0 game when the crowd is still entering the stadium. And mostly he needs to get stretched out against live competition and not pitch one inning against at bats and then throw 40 more pitches in the bullpen. That's not simulating a start, that's working out your arm.

Let's undervalue Joba and say that he is currently the 4th or 5th best pitcher on the Yankees roster behind Mo, Wang, Pettitte and perhaps Mussina (who surprisingly doesn't suck this year). Advocating putting Joba in the minors for a month is saying that you do not want one of your best pitchers to contribute to your major league roster for a month because he can't contribute in the typical 5+ inning starters role you would like him to. If he throws 20 innings in the minors that is essentially 20 wasted innings. The Yankees sitting below .500 can not afford to waste innings from one of their best pitchers.

Saying that Joba cost the team the game on Tuesday is simply moronic. The reason why the Yankees lost the game on Tuesday is due to the fact their bullpen sucks. They have no long relievers worth a grain of salt. If they did have any value than the problem would be simplistic. Throw Joba for his specified innings and then bring in that long reliever, think of him as the 5th & 1/2 starter. Saying that Joba should not start is essentially advocating the Yankees to start Kei Igawa instead. He'll give you 3 innings too, just he'll come out of the game down 5.

And finally the distraction that this is all creating. To me this is the only argument with any validity. The media talks about this non stop and perhaps the Yankees are sick of answering questions about Joba. But if it wasn't Joba it would be something else. This is New York City, this is the Yankees they always have distractions. They always have media scrutiny. This is no different than any other year and certainly not more than the A-Rod criticism in its prime stages. To me any one that argues that this is creating a significant detrimentally distraction for the roster is completely blowing this out of proportion.

Argue whether or not moving Joba from the Bullpen to the Starting Rotation is a good idea or not all you want but how they are doing it is the right way to go about it. They need Joba, one of their best pitchers, to throw meaningful innings on the major league level. By starting him every inning, every pitch he throws will be a meaningful pitch for the New York Yankees. The consequences of the decision do not closely stack up to the consequences of starting Kei Igawa instead.

This is Patrick Murphy, he is a softball coach for the University of Alabama, he is a certifiable master of strategery. He got his # 3 seeded Crimson Tide to the semifinals of the College World Series where they faced off against the #6 seed Arizona Sun Devils in a best of three showdown. And after 6 innings the Tide were 1 run away from taking a 1 game lead when Murphy busted out the most brilliant strategic deicision ever. Walk the leadoff hitter intentionally to avoid the game tieing home run.

See Kaitlin Cochran is apparently the Barry Bonds in the softball world only with we can hope less steroids. Over her career Cochran has hit .461 with 48 home runs. So Murphy decided he was going to force the Sun Devils other players to beat him and he told his pitcher to walk Cochran every time up to the plate in game 1.

So up 1 in the 7th apparently Murphy decided that it was better to put a runner on base with no outs than take a .500 chance of actually getting an out. The next batter bunted Cochran to 2nd. The following batter hit a double into the gap tieing the ball game. Three batters later the Sun Devils had a 3-1 courtesy of another double. The Sun Devils shut out the Crimson Tide in the bottom half of the inning going onto take a 1-0 series lead.

The following game Murphy decided to pitch to Cochran and she went 0-2 reaching base once after getting hit by the pitch. The next batter hit a 3 run home run and the Crimson Tide were sunk.

Memo to any coach in America, if you're up by 1 run in the last inning, do not intentionally walk the hitter. Chance of Getting on base if you pitch to the hitter < 100%. Chance of Getting on Base if Intentionally Walked = 100%. There's a simple equation for you to remember next season Mr. Murphy.

If you look at the Home Run leaderboard you'll see some glaring absences but none wider/larger than the absence of the name Prince. And why is that name missing? It's simple, the absence of a delicious cheeseburger is bring down the big man.

The man blasted 50 homers last year eating what I can imagine only raw cattle thrown over a fire. But this offseason he was tainted, tainted of course by a powerful vagina. One strong enough to turn a 5-11 270 pound man/beast into a sappy vegetable eating fool. And who loses? Brewer fans. Brewer fans have to watch a massive man/beast turn from a hunter powerful enough to rip a deer's head off to a lazy man picking berries in a field.

Prince has a wussy 6 homers thus far this season. Jose Reyes has 7. You could fit 7 Jose Reyes' in Prince. Nate McLouth has 12 dude weighs a buck eighty. Friggin Kevin Millar has 8 home runs. You know how Kevin Millar hits 8 home runs without having any skill at all. He eats fucking beef and chicken and raw deer and washes it down with the urine of elk. That's how. Kevin Millar has no talent he hits homers on straight elk piss.

So Prince, kick that bitch to the curb. Side with steak. It's the right decision.

You're going around your local golf course and after downing the tenth beer in your 18th hole journey you have to take a piss. There's no bathroom in site, oh no what do you do. You head to the closest tree or just off the t-box turn your body away from the crowd and let it fly. Or... You could piss in a fake club in your bag.

That's right the Uroclub now can solve all of your uncomfort issues. Just strap a towel around your waste pull the Uroclub out of your bag, unscrew the top and start pissing in your most useful new club. Then you can dispense of the urine in whatever way you see fit later in the day. It could be in the bathroom, in the woods or simply poured into Grutt's half empty can of beer.

Seriously this has got to be the dumbest invention of all time. If you are uncomfortable pissing on a golf course you should hand in your man card. Plus who the hell wants to have a urine soaked club in their golf bag ever or who wants to wash out your urine soaked club on a daily basis. Seriously the only solid reason for having this club is for sneaky urinary pranks that you could pull based on the fact that nobody would ever suspect a club in your bag holding a bunch of your piss.

Via of Sports by Brooks