The Next Great Basketball Player?

If you haven't heard already, the next basketball superstar is living on the West Coast. Jamie Nared is so skilled, she's having a hard time finding a team to play on. She was recently kicked off a boys' team for being too good.

The 6-1 twelve year old is currently playing on a travel team with high schoolers. The story of this talented girl is told in this NY Times Play article.

Possibly even more interesting is that it took the threat of a lawsuit to clear the way for her to play once again against boys.

Let's see: Division I Coaches; Lawyers threatening lawsuits; leagues resurrecting arcane rules; parents on television. Sounds like a game to me.

Take a look at this video from ABC's Good Morning America to meet a youngster who, at least so far, has stayed away from the chaos being generated by the adults around her.

Officer Un-friendly

Lucky he's wearing his helmet

Watch out kids, not wearing a helmet could wind up costing you your bike.

In Holliston MA, the police are threatening to take bikes away from kids who refuse to wear helmets. The 'School Resource Officer' insists that it's for the students' own safety.

"We're not looking to take bikes away from the kids who forget their helmets," School Resource Officer David Gatchell said yesterday. "This isn't something where we're looking to collect a hundred bikes. We don't want to seize bikes, but for the kids who repeatedly ignore the warnings, it will happen."

The article also mentions that the SRO is standing with the School Superintendent who says, "Officer Gatchell was standing next to me a couple of weeks ago and we both noticed that too many students were not wearing their helmets."

About 700 bicyclists died last year. Over 40,000 died in traffic accidents. Think the Holliston Police are targeting the right problem? While it's absolutely a good idea to wear a helmet when riding, it's not a good idea for this to become a matter for the police. Here's what's wrong:

1. Bike riders will be a lot safer when local traffic laws are enforced (now there's something for the School Resource Officer to do).
   
2. Targeting kids is consistent with too many laws that target those with little power. Who represented the kids when this law was passed? If Officer Gatchall wants to be consistent, try confiscating a car if the driver is not wearing a seat belt.
   
3. Schools and the police are too cozy. The School Superintendent should be standing with a parent, not the police. Schools and the police should be at arms' length with one another and not casually sharing observations and tacitly offering permission to take highly intrusive action.
4. The 'School Resource Officer' is doing what responsible educators used to do: watch the kids, give direction and then - assuming all goes well - get out of the way.
   

This all sounds like a wow-am-I-a-tough-guy "School Resource Officer" who's really saying, "I got nothin' ta do." Maybe Holliston would be better off taking away his toys.

Blowhard

This windbag rivals Democrat VP Nominee Joe Biden for the honor of biggest blowhard alive. He thinks he's really important. He thinks he has more answers than God. He never thinks for a moment of calling into any national or local sport talk show with his blabber. Yesterday, it was to call out New York fans for cheering Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady blowing out his knee. To say the Yankees suck. He was there when the dynasty ended. He thinks he single-handedly took down the Yankees and flushed their 26 World Series championships. His arrival alone to Red Sox Nation brought their long awaited championship. Curt old boy you have a very serious case of the me, me, me's.

Well Curt, I went door to door in your Paradise Valley, AZ neighborhood and they said stay away away as long as you can. They hate you. Checked with a few of your former Phillie and Diamondback teammates. They hate you. Randy Johnson said bring your gloves next time you meet. That's boxing gloves. He hates you. Talked to Pedro and Manny and Big Papi. They hate you too.

Do you ever get the sense as soon as you hang up with one of those sports talk show jocks, the laughs start and you're the brunt of that laughter. Well, you are and it's time you go away, forever. Your time is up. One last thing, the marketing firm of Schilling, Schilling & Schilling has no chance of Cooperstown. Ha, Ha, Ha. So now take that bloody sock and stuff it... in your mouth.

Winners and Losers for the Week

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3 WINNERS:
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Is there a better player in any sport than Roger Federer? Prepared, precise, articulate, athletic. And well-groomed. Should I have said that?

But I'd have to say that Andy Murray was a major winner this week. He survived two days of Nadal (and Hanna) and then acquitted himself admirably in the finals. His stock is rising.
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The Red Sox of course. It's fun to watch the Sox outspend overtake the Rays.
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The Slovakian women's hockey team. They beat the Bulgarian team 82-0. In hockey. One goal at a time. 82. Think about it.

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3 LOSERS
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The PGA. In the post-Tiger era could there be a worse FedEX cup winner / face of golf than the aloof and sometimes surly Vijay Singh? Where have you gone, Phil?

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The Yankees. Actually GM Brian Cashman. The slide towards mediocrity has been going on for years. Maybe signing Manny is the answer. And the fact that the Yankees may be considering signing him is part of the problem.

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The NFL. The league that says it's all about parity is really all about knocking off the latest mini-dynasty. Without Tom Brady, the Pats are ordinary. Who's left to hate? Who will step up? Forget Eli, he was lucky. Opportunity knocks, Payton. Meanwhile, the TV guys are scrambling to re-do the schedule.

March Madness Goes October

Major League Baseball needs to re-invent its playoff system... NOW.

Stop praying and use just a little genius Bud and give all us sport crazies a second March Madness. Just thinking of filling out a bracket twice a year sends thrills to parts of my body that have long ago lost feeling. A single elimination tournament, a match race, call it what you want but it sure beats the hell of watching a month long crawl to crown a winner.

If I were Commissioner:

1. These games are played on weekends - Saturday and Sunday. I don't give a rats ass about going up against College Football and the NFL. Baseball is the National Pastime, start acting like it.
   
   
2. These games start at 1:00PM...Period - For the Kids and for all of us you can't stay awake past 10:00PM


3. No Fox - How about asking NBC to get back in the game. They damn well helped to invent the World Series. And we use local team announcers. Let's have a little fun with the local yahoo's in the booth. They know these teams and players a lot better than pretty boys sitting in a booth like Bob Costas.


4. We seed these teams just like they do with the real March Madness. Use HOF's as a selection committee. And it doesn't have to be an even split of AL vs NL. If the AL has six of the best teams one year, so be it. Best teams get to play and bad teams go home.


5. Pitchers hit. And we also use the DH. That's right we are now batting ten. Sort of keeps the lineups humming and at the same time allows managers to tinker.


6. No Replay. If we need to use a dozen or so umpires to get it right then that's what we do
   
   
7. Finals are played at a neutral site. Big doings. This allows us to make this an EVENT, something those bigwigs at the networks drool over. Bet they can even come up with a snappy new name for the World Series. Insures the best pitchers are on the mound.
   
   
8. Here are my seeds: 1.Rays, 2. Angels, 3. Red Sox, 4. Cubs, 5. White Sox, 6. Mets, 7. Brewers, 8. Yankees (did you think for a minute they wouldn't make the cut).

I'm sure there's plenty more that I'm forgetting, so all you bloggers, send me your list of what you'd do if you were commissioner for a day.

701??

Biking is more popular and probably less safe than ever. According to a story printed on the Rails to Trails website, more than 700 bicyclists die in an average year on America's roads. While the number is tiny in comparison with auto deaths, it's still sobering.

The picture to the left is a "Ghost bike", a memorial to the victim of a biking tragedy in DC this summer. And it's a reminder that there are individual tragedies behind large-number statistics.

The Rails to Trails conservancy is doing great things. Turning abandoned railroad rights of way into multi-use recreation trails are generally welcomed by most communities.

However, there are times when the only place to ride is on a roadway. With more and larger cars on the road (even with the current energy crisis, there are plenty of large vehicles out there), danger is a constant. I live on what was once a country road but is now a busy suburban street. But its evolution hasn't made it any wider. But ironically, it's at intersections where cars slow down that the greatest danger exists.

Cars looking for an expedited path through intersections often pull into breakdown lanes to go around cars ahead of them, cutting off bikers. In addition, right-turn-only lanes create a particularly nasty hazard as drivers look left entering the intersection and rarely to the right where bikers and pedestrians are found. I've had countless near-misses with cars looking to save a few precious seconds by disregarding my presence.

I really don't want a 'ghost bike' memorial in my name.

Coaching and Sports

Yesterday, Rafael Nadal defeated Mardy Fish in the US Open. The four-set match took about 2 hours, forty minutes. Earlier, Andy Murray needed almost 4 hours to win his match against JM Del Potro. No player was allowed a formal visit with a coach during either match. In fact, tennis does not allow in-match coaching during sanctioned events at any time. It's an idea that resonates internationally and should be more widely considered in the US.

In tennis - like soccer - athletes are charged with the responsibility to face their opponent, size up the situation and make appropriate changes based on their own skills and fitness. What a concept. Yesterday the no-coaching rule resulted in two intriguing matches with plenty of ups and downs for each player. In fact, tennis often produces incredible drama and tension during its major events. Tennis coaches, it would seem, have done their jobs very successfully without having to thrust themselves onto the stage with their athletes. Not that they wouldn't, given the chance.

Try watching sports, American-style. A pitcher walks a batter, and now we get to see some manager or coach lumber out of the dugout with the sole purpose of telling the pitcher, "you have to get this next guy out". Really? 50,000 fans in person and possibly millions on television find that compelling drama? Think what it would be like if the managers were forced stay out of the game, except to make lineup changes.

And football? basketball? It's become unusual to see a football or basketball game clock run off even 2-3 minutes without a timeout. The insertion of coaching into the flow of games has gotten to the point of ridiculous. It just seems silly for athletes to be told to "throw strikes' or 'play better defense'. What happened during practices that those messages weren't delivered and received?

Fun with numbers: The East is the Beast

Manny before he left the best division in baseball to go to the worst.

The lack of balance in MLB is clear when you tease apart the records of all the teams. And it may produce - as it has in the past - an unfair end-of-season result.

It's clear from today's standings (Sept 2nd) that the AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, even with the Yankees completing their five-year swoon. They never did recover from Josh Beckett's masterpiece in 2003, did they?

At any rate, the AL East stands at 58 games above .500 (370-312). The only division close is the NL Central, 34 games above .500 (429-395). Each team in the NLCentral averages 6.8 games above .500, while teams in the AL East - a division with fewer teams - average 11.6 wins above .500.

Incredibly, 4 of 6 divisions in baseball are below .500 and the AL Central is only 3 games above even. So excellence is concentrated in just a few teams and a couple of divisions. But while it seems inconceivable to think that the NL wild card will come from anywhere but the Central division, it's possible that the best division in baseball will produce only one playoff team. It hardly seems fair, especially in baseball with its unbalanced schedules. Some credit should be given to the teams that battle at a high level all year. It would be an unfitting end to the year if Boston did not make the playoffs or if the Dodgers, currently just 2.5 half games back in the worst division in baseball, somehow did.

Useless Elements in Sports

On the useless theme, there are inconsistencies, traditions and and anomalies in sports that should be banished to the "ash heap of history" (Thank you Ronald Reagan. Although he MAY have been referring to something a little more serious).

Get rid of:

• Second serves in tennis (a "do-over" in pro sports? C'mon)
• Off-sides in hockey. The most exciting play in hockey - the breakaway - is virtually banned. Why? Do what soccer does, make the last non-goalie defender a moving 'blue line'.
• Offensive goal-tending in basketball.
  
• Time-outs in any sport in which coaches are allowed to talk with players. What were they doing in practice that they need a refresher every five minutes? It's an insult to the players and it's totally changed the game. I think all the time-outs that have been added in recent years only help teams with deeper benches. Which is why the BCS basketball teams love them.
  
• The 'two club-length' rule in golf. How many times have we seen a golfer hammer a drive wide of the rough and behind a tree only to determine the lie to be unplayable. The they get rescued by the two-club length rule which gives them plenty of distance to find a better lie. I seem to remember Ernie Els winning a US Open this way. These guys get free clubs ... hit it where it lies.
  

What do you think?