"The Clear" and other cures for Arthritis - 12/08

Drugs, prostitutes and bowling. Sounds like a night in my college dorm room. But in this case, just another week of sports to cover in “The Fifth”.

Let’s get to it-


1) Steroid scandal: Steroids in sports? As Captain Renault said in Casablanca, "Rick, I’m shocked there’s gambling going on in this establishment. Just shocked!” (credit of quote goes to Peter King). Where to begin. Bonds must have known about the steroids. He is so conscious about what goes in his body, I have no doubt he knew. Because it’ll be tough to prove otherwise, I don’t feel the league can punish him. The public though, can and will turn on him, and I feel any good sentiments that people have had toward him have gone out the window. Every time he comes up to the plate now, he’ll be booed endlessly. Giambi is another issue. Because he admitted to injecting himself with HGH, the league is going to fine and suspend him. I don’t see how they can’t. They have to make an example of someone, and right now he’s got a big target painted on his back. Along with baseball we also have David Boston in football being suspended for steroids (shocking I know……..) and rumors swirling around track and field with Marion Jones being “outed”. I admit I’ve always been a big fan of hers so I’ve been following that closely. We’ll see what happens, and follow up as more details come out……. What famous athlete do you think will be next?


2) Denny Neagle – Pitcher for the Colorado Rockies, recovering from arm surgery, was arrested last week for soliciting a prostitute for oral sex (this while driving, lengthening the degree of difficulty… (thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week, don’t forget to tip your waiters and waitress). A few days later, Neagle (who is married with a 4yr old son), was released from the remainder of his contract, which consisted of a $10 million dollar salary next year, plus a $9 million dollar option the following year). Hence, a $19 million dollar blow job! Hope it was worth it. The Rockies say he violated terms of the contract, and it is in their right to cancel. Obviously the players union will step in (as they always do) and protest, so I expect some settlement to come out of this…. I’m now going to play the part of Nostradamous and say that Misses Neagle will be receiving a $4 million dollar ring for Christmas! Ah, the Holiday Season. It’s all about giving!

3) Bowling – The college football bowl season is on us, and while it’s unfortunate for Auburn not to be playing for the National Championship, I do think the BCS got it right this year. USC and Oklahoma have played the best football throughout the season, and it should make for an exciting Orange bowl. Here are my predictions on the major bowls:


Orange Bowl – USC 37, Oklahoma 31 – an old fashioned shoot out.
Sugar Bowl – Auburn 43, Virginia Tech 17 – Auburn takes out frustration
Rose Bowl – Texas 17, Michigan 14 – Saving Mack Brown from being fired. And ruining my prediction of Butch Davies taking over!
Fiesta Bowl – Utah 31, Pittsburgh 17 – statement game for a mid major.
Liberty Bowl – Louisville 65, Boise State 48 – I wanted to throw this one in there as it’s a match up of the 2 top scoring offenses in the nation. Louisville is the best team you’ve never heard of. If it wasn’t for a dropped interception at the end of the game against Miami, they would be undefeated and playing in a BCS bowl instead of Utah. Just a lot of fun to watch. Other than the Orange Bowl, if you only watch one other Bowl, make it this one!

4) Blue / Gray Game – Staying along with college football here, when I was growing up I always enjoyed watching this bowl game on Christmas day. It was an all star game featuring seniors from college teams who weren’t playing in a bowl game (back then there were only about 5 bowls, not the 146 they have today…….). It gave these players one last chance to showcase their abilities before the NFL draft. It was always high scoring, and a lot of great players were there. With the advent of all these bowls now (not to mention scouting combines, agent camps, etc….) they’ve gone by the wayside, haven’t been able to come up with a sponsor and have cancelled it. It’s a shame as this game (and others like it, i.e., the Shrine Game), represented to me what college football was about. Players coming together, having fun, running trick plays and scoring a lot of points. Just enjoyable to watch. It had a hometown feel about it, as it was played in a small town in Mississippi, and everyone there got into it and participated in the event. Hopefully something can be worked out and they’ll be back next year.

5) Love Em/ Hate Em - Last weeks athlete was Peyton Manning and over 85% of you said you loved him. I guess I’m in the minority. This week I’m not going with a player but an Owner. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. As Jack from Will and Grace would say, “Love Him!”. I wish more owners would be like him. Is the team an investment for him? Yes. But at the same time he generally enjoys being out there and winning is the bottom line. He’ll spend the money that’s needed in order to put a winning product on the court. As a fan, you can’t ask for anymore than that. Here’s a link to his web log – http://www.blogmaverick.com/ Let me know, Love him or hate him.


Quote of the week – “You’d put in your ass!” classic quote by Jason Giambi this week when answering a question to where he’d inject steroids into his body. I’m sure they had fun with quote back in Boston!


Following up on a couple of my statements from previous columns. Calvin Murphy was found innocent this week by a jury of molesting his daughters (covered in my article from 11/15). They believed the prosecution in that it was a ploy in trying to get money from him. From my article on 11/07, I mentioned that Nomar would sign a 1 yr agreement with the Cubs, as the big money is not there for him right now. And lo and behold, that’s what he did yesterday signing a 1yr, $8 million dollar deal. For those of you who may not have followed what happened with him back when he was with the Red Sox, at one time Boston offered him a 4yr, $64 million dollar contract. He didn’t sign it because he felt the club was “disrespecting him”. He wanted a contract at least equal to Derek Jeter ($18 million a year). Boston then pulled the contract off the table. Later on, after his current injury, they offered him another contract at $12 million a year. Needless to say, he declined. Now he’s down to $8 million a year. Do you think he wished he signed the original contract??? How can he and Mia feed their family????????


Well that’s it for now. I’m working on a surprise for next week, so please be on the lookout for it.

Until later,

Bill