1. All of this loose talk about Brett Favre’s possible “un-retirement” and, perhaps, a stop in Baltimore has me thinking. Yes? Or no? I say, “Sure, why not?” Three words come to mind when I ponder #4 in purple. Those three words? Boller. And. Smith. Favre’s helmet has won more games than those two ever will.
2. From the desk of “I-told-you-so”. It was me about six weeks ago that said, “whatever you do, don’t let Adam Loewen come back and pitch this season, unless you want to just give him a few starts in September so he feels OK about returning to the mound in spring training, ’09.” Here it is early July, they allowed him to rush himself back to the big leagues (is the per-diem that good?)…and then, BAM!, there goes his arm again. Sad.
3. While I’m at the desk of “I-told-you-so”, it was also me that told you Anthony Kim was going to be a rock star on the PGA Tour after his win in Charlotte earlier this year. Now, with his win at Congressional yesterday, he’s basically on the Ryder Cup team. And don’t be surprised if he contends at one of the final two majors of the year with the greatest player in the history of the game rehabbing his knee injury and out of the picture. “A.K”. is the real deal.
4. There’s another desk called “I missed that one” and I just happened to sit down at that one for a second. I was the guy who told you the Rays would collapse in August. It’s not looking like that’s going to happen, although they’ll be entering unchartered territory if they have a 5-game lead in mid-August with 40 games to play. Let’s see how they handle it.
5. It all started to unravel when Matt Albers went down with his shoulder injury.
6. C.C. Sabathia won’t make the Brewers into a playoff team this year.
7. So there’s this guy and he’s on vacation on a resort island and he comes back to his hotel room and when he opens the door, there’s a genie on the edge of his bed, completely naked, holding two of his neckties. She dangles them and says, “tie me up and you can have anything you want. Anything.” He says, “Anything?”. She says, “That’s right. Anything.” So, he proceeds to tie her hands to the bed post and then says, “OK, I want the Redskins to go 0-16 this season.”
8. You think we have internet problems at WNST? The Orioles computers have been down since the season started. I haven’t received ONE return e-mail from them since April 4.
9. I’m in the camp that says Nadal has Federer’s number and that the only way Roger wins major titles now is if someone upsets Rafa along the way. Not saying “Feds” is going to be stuck on 12 major titles forever, but he’s not going to breeze through the field anymore like in year’s past.
10. You have to look at trading-deadline moves like a stock broker looks at the market. What value did the Orioles have in, say, George Sherrill and Aubrey Huff, BEFORE the season started? What value do those two have right now? Will it ever be higher than it is today? There’s your answer then. Move them and look at it as nothing more than a short term investment. You bought ‘em for a price, sold ‘em for a higher price (assuming you can) and you’ve improved your portfolio with those deals. And I’m a guy who thinks Sherrill is the team’s MVP at the halfway point. But…if you can improve the club, make the move.
11. Someone “in the know” tells me Troy Smith can’t win in the NFL on a consistent basis. “Too easy to game plan against” is what I was told. I hope he’s wrong.
12. What’s the big deal about those two fools eating 60-some odd hot dogs on July 4? Paul Newman ate 50 eggs in one hour in “Cool Hand Luke.”
13. Over/under on the Orioles winning 73.5 games. Right now. You HAVE to bet $1,000 of your money on the total. Which way do you go? It’s YOUR money. A grand. Make the bet.
14. Baseball sure has some funky scoring rules. Freddie Bynum commits a fielding blunder that essentially opened the floodgates for Texas in the 8th inning on Sunday and he’s NOT charged with an error because it wasn’t a certain double play? Dumb.
15. Speaking of shortstops, why not just give Brandon Fahey the job and see what he can do with it for a 20-30 game stretch? I’m guessing under those conditions he’d hit .240…which isn’t very good, obviously…but he’s reasonably reliable with the glove and his attitude seems refreshing. What the hell, they’ve given three other dudes a shot and none of them panned out. Can Mark Teixeira play shortstop in a pinch?
16. So we tracked down a “man of the cloth” today and talked about the O’s Sunday dilemma and I asked him to come on the air and pray for them with us this Thursday. His response? “I guess you didn’t hear. Greg Bader of the O’s front office called God on his cell phone last Wednesday to try and have him personally intervene but God was in a meeting. God called Bader back three times and e-mailed him twice and Bader never returned the inquiries.” Now I don’t feel so bad.
17. Towson men’s basketball has St. Joseph’s University at home, along with a cross-town shoot ‘em up with UMBC at the RAC Arena (both in December). Good stuff.
18. Drug-testing on the PGA Tour started on Thursday, July 3. The first two guys tested were Charles Howell III and Davis Love III. Weird, huh? (Both were clean, by the way.)
19. Will someone over there at OPACY re-sign Dave Trembley and give him the contract extension he deserves so he can stop being so snippy with the media after every loss? The man deserves some piece of mind. Or is that "peace" of mind? I never know. I'll e-mail the O's and ask them. Never mind.