RANT OF THE DAY
CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL RON WILSON TO SHUT THE BLEEP UP
I am so tired of hearing the Leaf coach bray on about something that is wrong with his supposedly perfect life. Get off your arrogant couch and go out and meet the real world. I really hate it when athletes and entertainers moan about constantly being in the public eye and bemoaning the fact that they just can’t find private time. Oh, freaking boo hoo.
A DISINGENUOUS MCGWIRE TAKES THE FIRST STEP ON HIS FRUITLESS PATH TO REDEMPTION
At some time in the past year Mark McGwire decided it was time to end his hibernation and publicly admit his steroid usage. Accepting the position as Cardinal hitting coach gave him the impetus and the reason to come forward but he needed to meet with lawyers and friends and representatives, anybody who had an opinion, on how to best approach it. McGwire wanted redemption, for himself and his name, and hoped that even a modest admission of guilt would prompt the restoration of his image and put him back on the road to Cooperstown.
THE TOP NINE STORIES IN 2009
There are all types of end of year lists and best ofs when the calendar flips. This is not necessarily a list—these are the sports stories of 2009 I believe to have been, in no particular order, the most prominent of the year. The top nine in ’09.
…This was definitely a year where superstar athletes paid dearly for their sexual indiscretions. From the benign, Alex Rodriguez who lost his marriage, to the embarrassing, Tiger Woods who is about to, to the tragic, Steve McNair who lost his life, the newspapers were filled with the stories of those who fell because they couldn’t harness the advantages of being a famous athlete. It seems as if the wives knew of their husbands’ extravagances and had accepted it as part of their lives—as long as it was done discreetly and did not affect the children. A-Rod had a fondness for strip joints and seemed to have a stripper in every town. When he was photographed with one in Toronto it, and he, became a public joke. This was obviously too much for his wife who filed for divorce. Tiger seemed unable to turn down the advances of any of the women he found attractive which proved to be too much for his wife to take. The worst, of course, was McNair who had a predilection for young women and eventually became involved with one who wanted him for herself and couldn’t accept his dismissal—killing them both. These examples should give other millionaire athletes pause before they engage in extramarital affairs. They could be making a life changing, or even a life ending, mistake
…Don Sanderson was seemingly just another hockey player—a member of the senior league Whitby Dunlops and, at 21 years old, not prepared to give up his dream of being a professional. He was an aggressive player who had earned ejections for fighting through the first eleven games of the season, but on Dec 12, 2008 Sanderson lost his helmet during a fight and then crashed head first into the ice. 20 days later Don Sanderson was dead. It was hoped that professional hockey leagues would enact stricter rules to ensure that such an accident would not happen again, but most of those involved in the game still, like ostriches, have their heads stuck in the sand and maintain that fighting has a role in hockey. There is no reason, at this point, to think that an accident such as Sanderson’s won’t happen again.