Is it just me or did it seem like a Freudian slip by Bud Selig during a 
recent episode of "Real Sports" on HBO?
What I'm referring to is his answer when he kept trying to evade the fact 
that the owners had removed the ability for the next commissioner to be able 
to invoke the "Best interests of baseball" clause as was done by many of the 
former commissioners. He said "I wouldn't do it that way." Hmmm, does Bud 
think that he's got the job already sewn up? :-)
                                   ****
BTW, Chuck Johnson in USA Today wrongly accused Peter Ueberroth of calling 
small-market owners "semi-fools." He used the term BUT in reference to what 
kind of *future* owner might be needed with the small markets if baseball 
continues as it does.
                                   ****
The big talk is about how the WNBA has next but the fact is, the ABL has 
BEST. Despite having all that money (or maybe because of it), the WNBA has 
lost many of the best players to the ABL. Don't let Lobo, Swoopes, etc. give 
you the wrong impression - the ABL is well above them in talent. The WBNA 
pays 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of money to the best players as the ABL (Though 
there are some like Lobo that are getting more through endorsements) and 
their minimum is laughable. In the meantime, the ABL recently signed a few 
deals that wiped out their first year debt and as more people begin to look 
at both groups, they're going to see the vast difference in talent.
                                   ****
Oh and speaking of those "geniuses" in the NBA, they're looking pretty stupid 
these days. Look at the rosters of most teams and you'll see the Vagabond 
Class (Or to be more accurate, Sterno Class) that was created with the last 
bargaining agreement that Stern shoved down the players' throats. Nearly 
every team has a player that has become so valuable that they will be forced 
to leave their team next year because unlike the previous agreement, the 
players aren't able to get more than a 20% raise from their *current* teams 
(The Sonics should be hiring a hit man to take out Stern because the 
agreement kept them from making Kemp happy and thus, has kill their chances 
of making it back to the Finals. But, when you think about it, they deserved 
what they got since they were such idiots to sign McIlvaine to that kind of a 
contract. For 1/2 the money, they could have re-signed Johnson) so it would 
be economic suicide for them to be "loyal" when they can get a hell of a lot 
more on the open market. Fans should take this into consideration this year 
when they start putting down some of these players from being "disloyal" when 
they sign a contract for 5-10 times as much as they made this year.
                                   ****
The biggest laugh that I've gotten in the past couple of weeks came when the 
"All Seeing" Peter Vecsey looked into his crystal ball and thought that the 
reaction of Kevin Johnson's mother meant that she *didn't* think that KJ was 
retiring. All I could think of when I heard that was "Well, you know, Pete, 
the Sonics haven't exactly established that they're capable of beating 
Phoenix two games in a row and maybe KJ's mom thinks that they just might 
have a chance of winning that 5th game." So far KJ's stuck to his guns but 
stranger things have happened. If it is the end of his career, I think it was 
far too soon for him to retire.
                                   ****
I really think that while Bird's real calling is as a GM/Personnel Director, 
he's got the best advantage of any of the new coaches next year (If Orlando 
throws out their coach, it might be the second best advantage). He isn't 
taking over a club that's in disarray and all it really needs is to stay 
healthy and it's a 50-win club (The only one who could really screw them up 
would be M.L. Carr).
                                   ****
Didn't you just laugh until you spit out your drink through your nose after 
Pippen dunked the ball while Mutumbo was playing up to the crowd?
                                   ****
Oh and weren't the Heat more than a bit screwed up with their recent price 
increases *during a series*. The cheap seats went from $20 in Games 1 and 2 
to $50 for Game 5 and the $90 seats were upped to $130. Yeah, that's showing 
the fans how much the owners appreciate them. Of course, the owners will 
probably blame it on the players and some of the fans will probably buy that 
excuse (and a little swampland).
                                   ****
Fuzzy talked about how we had become so sensitive in this country but the 
fact is, I think that some people have become LESS sensitive and they think 
that it's ok to throw around racial slurs as if they're blessings from the 
Pope. Calipari's "Mexican idiot" and Isringhausen's "Yes, Jew boy" comments 
(as well as those by Zoeller) only show just how easy it has become for 
people to publicly say these kind of things these days. I've heard words and 
phrases said around the office that weren't even uttered 5 years ago and 
frankly, it seems like it was in my youth when a person would call a black 
man "Nigger" to his face and not give a damn if the rest of the office heard 
him say it. Their response to people who condemn their actions is shout 
"Politically Correct" when they should be feeling shame. PC has nothing to do 
with it, wrong is wrong and until people see that, they're never going to 
understand why the Black coaches feel that racism keeps them from nearly all 
head coaching or upper management jobs. I find it funny that Al Campanis 
talked about how blacks didn't have the necessities when black owners were 
making money during the depression when a lot of white teams were struggling 
to survive (and to add insult to injury, the SMARTEST of them was a woman. 
Note that I don't personally feel that it's an insult but some of those 
owners probably would have) and black coaches, managers and scouts, were 
doing quite well at their jobs in the Negro League.
I just hope that the people of Kentucky give Tubby Smith half the chance that 
they'd give Rick Pitino. Tubby's done a hell of a job in Tulsa and Georgia 
but this is probably the toughest situation that he's stepped into. I hope 
that the fans can look past his race and give him a fair shake because he's 
as good as ANY coach in the game.
--- TrekEd 1.00
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