This NY Times article floats the proposition that Barry Bonds and other alleged customers of accused steroid dispensing BALCO were unwitting consumers of steroids.
H’mm.
Meanwhile, this Reason Online piece addresses the issues in the medical community regarding steroid use.
This San Francisco Chronicle article follows this earlier post here and reports that federal investigators have been told that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, New York Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield and three other major-league baseball players received steroids from a Burlingame nutritional supplement lab.
I have had season tickets to Houston Astros‘ baseball games for going on 20 years now. My family and I have a great time going to the games, and I enjoy giving tickets to my friends and clients, who also love attending the games. Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston is also a wonderful place to watch a game.
At this time of the year, I traditionally purchase the annual edition of Baseball Prospectus, which I then take to each game that I attend throughout the baseball season. Bar none, Baseball Prospectus 2004 is the best resource available for understanding and analyzing Major League Baseball. Prepared by disciples of Bill James‘ statistical analysis of baseball, Baseball Prospectus 2004 includes a thorough analysis of each Major League Baseball team, its minor league system and front office operation. Also, the book includes a capsule profile of every Major League player and most key minor league prospects of each Major League team. The writing is sharp and witty, and includes none of the dense traditional writing about baseball that one has to endure in the sports pages of major daily newspapers. Indeed, Baseball Prospectus will debunk many of the traditional baseball notions that we all hear and read in traditional news sources and, in so doing, provides a far superior basis for understanding this grand game.
To provide a flavor for Baseball Prospectus’ clever writing, the following is an example of one of the player profiles from last year’s Baseball Prospectus:
Pat Meares
Position: Insurance Scam; Born: 9/6/68 Age: 34 Bats: R Throws R
[statistical analysis excluded]
After conflicting medical opinions about Meare’s hand injury, a bizarre farce ensued between the Pirates and Meares last year that could have served as a plot line on an episode of “The Sopranos.” Meares actually filed a grievance in September, claiming he was healthy enough to play and wanting to be released so that he could find another team. Even if his hand really was healthy, the Pirates could have claimed that Meares was so delusional that it wasn’t safe to allow him near sharp objects again, never mind on a baseball field. A negotiated settlement ensued: Meares will get his 3,750,000 claims in 2003 that he never deserved, and the club will keep him as a phantom on its roster to collect the insurance money on his contract.
If you enjoy baseball, then the best $12.57 you can spend is on Baseball Prospectus 2004.
Dr. Denton Cooley is one of Houston’s many legendary doctors who have helped build the Texas Medical Center into one of the world’s great medical centers. Dr. Cooley founded The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, and he performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States in 1968 and the first involving an artificial heart in 1969.
As Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz writes in this column today, Dr. Cooley was a starting basketball player at the University of Texas at Austin in the late 1930’s, and UT is honoring Dr. Cooley by naming its new basketball practice facility after him. The entire column is worth reading, but this part is essential for all fans of legendary former UT football coach Darrell Royal:
Among the speakers in Austin the other night were Mack Brown and Rick Barnes, who coach the marquee men’s sports at UT. But the one who stole the show was Jody Conradt, the Hall of Famer who gave the Longhorns a national championship in women’s basketball.
“They built the Erwin Center 21 years ago,” she said, “and obviously it never occurred to anyone that the women would need a separate locker room. So every room in this place had urinals in it.
“Now we have one of our own. Before one of our games, coach Darrell Royal was kind enough to speak to my team. Before he left, someone asked what the biggest difference was between our locker room and all the ones he knew from all his years of coaching. Coach Royal said, `Offhand, I can’t remember anyone ironing anything before a game in one of our locker rooms.’ ”
Baylor University announced today that Dave Bliss, its former basketball coach, made improper payments to students, allowed major NCAA infractions to occur in his program and then tried to cover up the improprieties. A school-appointed committee made the findings in a report that was made public today. The committee was appointed last fall to study the university’s basketball program after player Patrick Dennehy was killed last summer and another player was charged with his murder. The major infractions will result in either self or NCAA imposed penalties on the Baylor basketball program, which is another severe blow to an athletic department that has struggled to compete in the major sports of football and basketball ever since the creation of the Big 12 Conference in the mid-1990’s.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Cassius Clay‘s (subsequently Muhammad Ali) spectacular upset of the notorious Sonny Liston in their 1964 world heavyweight championship fight. Here is a Times Online piece on the historical impact of that memorable fight, and another article on whether that match and the subsequent Clay-Liston rematch were fixed. Very interesting reading.
This Washington Times article describes a movement among certain National Football League owners to revise the NFL’s Trust, the master business agreement that maintains that shared national revenue structure that has propelled the NFL into a multi-billion dollar industry and makes the NFL the envy of virtually every other professional sports league.
Now, this is my kind of law review article!
LeBron James is an 19 year old phenom (his favorite breakfast food is Fruity Pebbles) who signed a $19 million contract out of high school with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. This Forbes article explains why James is a bargain, even at that price:
By the time the 19-year-old James turns 25, the muscular 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward will have earned upwards of $200 million from playing basketball and sponsoring sneakers, trading cards and soft drinks. That’s a record for an NBA rookie: Not even Michael Jordan made that much in his first seven years.
Could one player be worth so much? Actually he’s a bargain. By James’ seventh season, FORBES calculates, he’ll have generated $2 billion in revenues for his team and all his sponsors. Not a bad return.
Previous posts on Coach Bobby Knight’s latest run-in with his employers are here and here. Now, the Smoking Gun has posted the Texas Tech Chancellor’s memorandum to file regarding his argument with Knight at the local salad bar.
Frankly, my daughters have more sophisticated arguments than the one between Knight and the Chancellor.