As I had long suspected todays release of the Mitchell report represents a new milestone in wasted time, money, effort and manpower by the MLB to tell us what we already knew.   What is worse is that the report is underpinned by dubious swcond and third hand evidence that does not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.  All that comissioner Selig has managed to do is to reopen a wound that had only recently begun to heal.  The players association will scream bloody murder about the contents of the report, and justifably so.  At his press confrence today Selig said it was time to move on, as did Senator Mitchell.  If that is the case then why comission the report in the first place?  Baseball will suffer more labor unrest and controversy because this report prevents baseball from doing what everyone says they need to do, move forward.  The final fallout will be determined over the next few weeks and months, but it will do more harm to the MLB than if they had simply let the sleeping dogs of the past lie instead.

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     The Cowboys won, that is good, but I nearly died watching them do it.  The NFL needs to put a stop to this timeout right before the snap business, it is getting real old real fast.  Tony Romo looked, well awful, but the mark of a great team is the ability to overcome your mistakes and to find a way to win, which the boys did.  So now to prepare for New England next week in Dallas.  That should be a good game, and hopefully nowhere near as terrifying as this one was at times.

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NFL Week One, In the Books, well almost.

     The first week of the NFL season is over, except for the monday night double header, which should be interesting but some things have been learned that paint an intriguing picture for the rest of the season.

1.  The Eagles are not as good as most people thought.  Green Bay has a good team but Philly was the decided favorite coming into todays game, more troubling for than the two costly special teams turnovers was their anemic offensive preformance, scoring just 13 points, that isn't going to cut it from week to week in a tight division like the NFC East.

2.  The jury is still out on the Lions, the beat Oakland today, and they nearly blew the game to the Raiders so I am still sceptical of them winning more than 6 or 7 games this year.

3.  Brett Favre is ageless.  The Packers should just go ahead and give him a lifetime contract, since he apparently woun't retire until he dies at this rate, so save us the offseason drama.

4. New England is still really good, but they may yet have problems with Randy Moss and no one else at wide out and the injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

5a.  The Cowboys have a lot of offense, running up 45 points on the Giants tonight, but the banged up secondary is a problem.  Overall their defense needs to tighten up against the deep ball.  The 'Boys offense will be frightening once Terry Glenn comes back from his injury next week or the week after.

5b.  Tony Romo is a stud, 4 TD passes, 1 TD run, 345 yds of passing, 11 yds of rushing and 1 Int, come on Jerry, give Tony a long term contract already.

6.  Eli Manning is really good, but even that probably won't save Tom Caughlin's job, the Giants need a playoff win or Caughlin is out the door contract extension or otherwise.

7.  The Steelers are back and are looking to prove that last year was in fact an abberation.

8.  The Redskins are better, but by how much? And ditto their opponent today Miami.  Both of them palyed well with Washington wining in over time but questions remain for both teams.

9.  The Browns suck, pick a QB and stick with him, but don't play the savior from South Bend untill next year.  That year on the sidelines is one of the best ways to teach a rookie QB the NFL game.

10.  St. Lois was complacent and believed a little to much of their own hype and failed to take Carolina seriously and they lost as a result, that should not happen again.  For Carolina they need to keep it at a high level all year and not play down to their opponents level like last year, that cost them 4 games and a playoff spot.

11.  Chicago's offense is their achilles heel, they held San Diego to only 14 points, but managed just 3 themselves, this when Rex Grossman gave a good preformance, givimg up a single Int that was more the fault of the reciever than his own.  If Grossman plays well and they still can't score points they will have a long and dissapointing season.

12.  Vince Young just wins, he did it at Texas in collage and he is doing it in Tennesee with the Titans, look for the Titans to make it to the post season this year.

13.  Kansas City was mistaken in letting Trent Green go.  Green was the best of all their QB's and they will miss him for  quite a while.

14.  The Texans seem to be pulling it together after their fresh start, they convincingly beat the Chiefs, showing a smart, aggresive defense that will keep them in games that changes to their offensive should now be better equipped to capitalize on and bring home some wins.

      Overall the opening weekend played out about how one expected, with a lot of close games and a couple of real blow outs.  Now to see how the teams playing on monday fare to get a complete picture of each division and who looks like the likely winner and loser of those races now that we will have had a chance to see all 32 teams play games that actually mean something.  So on a final note I say:

GO COWBOYS!!

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From Fox News

    

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. â€”  Make it three straight Little League World Series championships for the United States.

Dalton Carriker homered to right in the bottom of the eighth inning as Warner Robins, Ga., beat Tokyo 3-2 in a thrilling title game on Sunday.

The 12-year-old Carriker raised his arms in celebration after hitting a 2-1 pitch from Japan's Junsho Kiuchi over the right-field stands. "USA! USA!" cried the Georgia-partisan crowd.

Columbus, Ga., won the crown last year, and Ewa Beach, Hawaii, in 2005.

Full Story Here

     Congratulations to the team from Warner-Robbins and to the team from Tokyo.  This story is refreshing after several days of seemingly enedless Michael Vick coverage on the sports channels.  These kids play simply for the joy of playing and that is the purest of reasons and makes all of the teams winners in my book.

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      Barry Bonds is now the home run champion, the only real question left is how many will he finish the year with?  And will he be back next year?  who knows, but for now congratulations to Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants your place in baseball history is now even more storried than it already was.

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     Barry is now at 755 and A-Rod (traitor  ) is now at 500.  More impressive is that A-Rod is the youngest to 500 and that Barry is nowed tied for the most homers after turning 40, with 72 over the hill bombs.  So congratulations to Barry and A-Rod.  Also congrats to the Padres fans for being classy and giving Barry a good hand for his accomplishment, you are all class all the way.

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     Barry Bonds put homer number 754 over the fence in the first inning of yesterdays 12 to 10 victory over the Florida Marlins.  Tomorrow the Giants continue their homestand with another game against Florida.  Barry will be facing Dontrell Willis, the best pitcher in the leauge versus left handed hitters, so getting 755 won't come easy.  Game time is 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00pm central and 6:00pm pacific time catch it on ESPN.  Just maybe you will get to see history being made in the City by the Bay.

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Barry Bonds belted homers number 752 and 753 today in Chicago, bringing him within two of tying and three of passing hammering Hank.  Good, I am Barry Bonds fan, I love that he treats the media with the level of respect that they have earned over the years, which is absolutely none.  I have yet to see a sports reporter that can be described as a serious journalist since Dick Schapp.  I, like most baseball fans give a rats ass as to wether or not Bonds used steroids, if he did so where a ton of other players, including pitchers.  So don't bring the tired crap about an unfair playing field.  Steroids don't give perhaps the best hitters eye in the history of the game, ridiculous plate discipline.  Bonds was, and remains a no doubt first ballot hall of famer, the numbers speak for themselves, 750+ home runs, 71 multi homer games, 500+ stolen bases, 7 mvps (4 consecutive), 8 golden gloves, 12 silver slugger awards, only 40-40 player (homers and stolen bases) 2900+(2901 as of now) hits and a life time average near .300 (.299 as of now) and the all time walks record.  Barry has only three seasons where he hit fewer than twenty homers (19, his first year in the leauge, 16 in 1989 and 5 in 2005 when he only played in 42 games because of knee problems)  yet some people acted surprised when he becam a homer hitting machine.  Hell he came into the 2001 season with 498 bombs, and he had 30 or more homers a season from 1992 to 2004.  That I believe is what they call consistent power.  We are lucky to be around to see some of the best ballplayers of all time playing, so why can't people just sit back and enjoy it?  I don't need the negativity and inuendo, much less the fscination people seem to have with wether a player used steroids in the past.  The past is the past, we sure as hell can't change it so why dwell on it. Records as they say are meant to be broken, so Go Barry Go!!

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From AP Sports via Fox News

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegal dogfighting.

Vick and three others were charged with violating federal laws against competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

The indictment alleges that Vick and his co-defendants began sponsoring dogfighting in early 2001, the former Virginia Tech star's rookie year with the Falcons.

Read it all

     This is not good for Ron Mexico Michael Vick, or the Atlanta Falcons.  Roger Godell is left with little choice but to maintain a consistent line on off the field misbehavior and suspend Vick.  The real queation is how long he will be sitting for, my guess is at least ten games, if not the season in light of some of his past problems.  In truth this doesn't surprise me, given the past behavior of Michael Vick and his younger brother Marcus both on and off the football field they have made it abundantly clear that they are not good people.  I can't help but shake my head at how quick sports media was to applaud the crack down on off field violations without waiting for the courts to due their work with Tank Johnson and Pac Man Jones but repeatedly taking the wait and see approach with Vick.  After all where there is smoke there is fire.

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From MLB.com

      SEATTLE -- Everyone seemed to want Ichiro. In the end, Ichiro wanted Seattle.

       Mariners center fielder Ichiro Suzuki signed a five-year contract extension Friday, ending days of speculation about the seven-time All-Star's future in the Emerald City.

       The deal, announced by the Mariners on Friday afternoon, goes through the 2012 season, although financial details were not disclosed per club policy. The Associated Press reported the deal is worth $90 million.

     This is great news for Seattle, we finally managed to keep a superstar rather than watching him head for greener pastures.  but then again I supposs that the Mariners coporate parent (Nintendo) can afford it right now.  This combined with their wild win last night makes me think that the playoffs are in our future, the immeadate future at that.

Link to the full article here Ichiro Re-signs with Seattle

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