Fantasy Sports Outlook

This lady got a divorce settlement to the tune of over $40 million dollars even though she admitted having affairs with her rock-climbing guide and a man she met on a flight to China.

In addition to a $24 million payment, Susan Sosin will keep the couple’s $3.6 million Manhattan apartment, $2 million Utah ski house and $800,000 home in Wallkill, N.Y. But she has to vacate the couple’s two mansions in Connecticut and three desert properties in Arizona. In the divorce granted Wednesday, she also gets to keep $6 million in her brokerage accounts, eight cars and $2.9 million in jewelry, including a ruby piece her husband had bought for her but hadn’t given to her prior to their divorce.

While she wanted half of the estate she only ended up with about 27 percent. Hubby is worth about $168 millon dollars. And he does get to keep among other things, $89 million in bank accounts, 10 of the couple’s 18 cars, $960,000 worth of private club memberships and $22 million in fine art.

Sports Mix

I still don’t know why the NFL and Paul Tagliabue are set on having a franchise in Los Angeles. Magic, NASCAR chief discuss putting NFL franchise in L.A. NASCAR chairman/CEO Bill France says, “I can’t tell you that we didn’t inquire (about) the (NFL) ownership structure. … But believe me when I tell you, theres nothing coming. You’re not going to wake up in a month, or a year, or whatever and see that I’m owning, or my family’s owning, any NFL team. I would be stunned if that were the case.”
The NFL has done great for the past 10 years without having a franchise in Los Angeles, even though it’s the #2 media market in the country. Which means what exactly, that we’ll have movie stars hawking the latest drug of choice to the NFL masses? Do we need the latest Desperate Housewife telling us of the wonders of Botox.

There is enough going on in Los Angeles without the need for a NFL team. Move on and away from L.A.

Fantasy Football

Best place to start todays post has to be Top Ten Questions Congress Forgot To Ask Baseball Players. My favorite is #2 “We should have invited David Wells–at least he’d bring beer.” It would have been funnier watching the committee get juiced up for 11 hours than what we saw. Okay I’m not going to join in the Barry bashing. If you want more of that try out these spots. First one is F@%K You Barry Bonds. If that’s not enough try Barry, Barry Tired. It’s time to move away from him, let him rehab and sound off to the media to his hearts content. The NFL has announced the opening weekend games for the 2005 season. The Thursday night opener with the Oakland Raiders at New England is a great way to start the season.

Fantasy Baseball

Now that was a very interesting day. Right now the committee members are patting themselves on the back. My problem with all of this is why take on MLB? If the problem is a national problem as the committee members say, why not start at the bottom? Why not start at the state level? Start with the school districts across the country. I’m thinking it’s all about money. With school districts everywhere having problems funding programs, paying teachers what they deserve and meeting budgets, who would pay for a testing program in the schools? Everyday you can read about a school district that has to cut programs because of the lack of money. What gets cut in order to test for steroids? This is where the effort and time should be right now. Do I think MLB has a role in this, yes. But so does every other sport that is in the public eye. I agree MLB got caught dragging their feet on the steroid issue. The blame can be put on both sides, the owners and the players. You really have to wonder why before this latest agreement the players were so set against steroid testing. I’ve never been in a union before so I don’t know how collective bargaining works, but I served 22 years in the US Army. When I first came in drugs were still widespread, before the urinalysis program started. I can state with proof positive that the Army was better after the testing started. I never worried about the testing because I knew I was clean. Others hated it because they weren’t. But it was a part of our life and we knew at any time we could be tested. Did it stop the use of drugs? No, but it cut the use down to where those that didn’t care were caught. It changed a lot of lives for the better because now soldiers had to make a choice. Fall in and conform with the rules or suffer the consequences. As far as what should be done about the records, how can you go back and find out if a player was taking steroids during a certain time frame? I found the comment by Jim Bunning that when he played the players got worse as they got older, they didn’t get better. I remember watching Willie Mays after he was traded to the Mets and thinking he should retire. He had lost so much of what made him a great player. Just to throw this out, what would he have been like at the end of his career if the advancements in nutrition (not steroids) and training since then would have been available to him?

Fantasy Baseball

Watching the hearings right now and a couple of things, first it’s always a terrible thing when someone loses a loved one. The parents that have appeared are taking their grief and using them for positive gains. You have to commend them for that. They have brought to light a problem that should be under attack more than the MLB drug testing policy, parent awareness and our high school programs. That’s where the beginning of the problems seem to be. Win, win, win is what it’s all about. When you have coaches telling kids they have to get bigger and then leaving it to their own means to accomplish that, it leaves the door open for them to take steroids. You can’t blame MLB for that. Something I really hate more than the glut of reality shows on TV, is the amount of drug commercials that are on television. There is a drug for everything. And they continually get hawked to everyone that turns on the television. But big money rules and that’s another thing that needs to get changed. Players are getting ready to take the stage. This should be fun. Jose Canseco is up first. Reading his opening statement. Saying all the right things at this point. Working with the parents to get the word out. Of course now he is covering his bases about not getting immunity. Says he will invoke his rights under the fifth amendment. Also stated he has nothing to hide. Sammy Sosa is having his attorney read his statement. Life history. Never taken steroids. Also willing to work with everyone to get the word out about the dangers. Sammy speaks. Makes statement about parents that have lost their children. Mark McGwire is up now. Reads his own statement. Emotional about parents that have lost their children. Performance enhancing drugs are dangerous. Says he won’t name names or implicate friends or teammates. Takes a jab at Canseco and his book (actually a very good strong shot!). Says that asking who took steroids won’t solve the problem. Rafael Palmeiro. Brief remarks. “I have never used steroids, ever.” Very emphatically stated. Says remarks by Canseco were false. (Canseco is on the mat, todays whipping boy) Curt Schilling is here because he has been put on the Zero Tolerance task force. Talking about his visit to Walter Reed hospital. About Canseco, “so called author.” (I think Canseco has already had a couple of knockdowns, but since there isn’t a knockdown rule today he is going to get slapped around quite a bit today). Good point about players that test positive being labeled as steroid user will be a big detriment. Makes statement about the marketing of drugs. (Yes!) Frank Thomas by way of satellite. On the task force with Schilling. Never used steroids. Questioning will start soon. General theme, sympathy for the parents and their grief and using their different foundations to help with this issue. I have to say that at first I was very leery of having a congressional hearing on this subject. More specific having the main focus be on MLB. Up to this point I still feel the same way. The hearing should be on steroids and the dangers involved with using them. About how the problem needs to be fixed in our school systems. We need prevention programs, and to educate the coaches that have the earliest influence on our young athletes. How many times have you heard a professional player thank a coach from their early years about helping them develop into the player they are? Those early coaches are a big influence. But the bottom line is, would ESPN be covering the hearings if it wasn’t about MLB? Would there be the amount of press coverage that this is generating? Of course not. With the exception of the parents that have lost loved ones, would the general public even care? Yes I understand that it’s the celebrity status of the players that has put this in the spotlight, but isn’t that one of the problems we have in our country. Where we can’t address a problem without it having a celebrity status? Maybe at this point we need to take MLB out of the equation so some real work can be done on this subject problem. This is not a new problem and it won’t go away with one hearing on the hill.

Fantasy Baseball