Rafael Palmeiro is crazy (and the saddest story ever)
Seriously the guy has lost his mind. Why? Because he thinks "the door is open" for a return to baseball or so he tells the Baltimore Sun . Really Raffy? Open? I doubt it buddy. You burned to many bridges with the whole "I didn't take steroids" in front of Congress followed by the steroid suspension. It saddens me too Raffy but its not going to happen. Who would want you? Its not like you are in your prime buddy. You were close to washed up before you got suspended; there's no reason to think you all of a sudden are a 30-100 guy now. The guy is 41 years old for god's sake.
And tossing out teammate Miguel Tejada's name out there, after you got busted? I'm sorry Raffy but your Jason Grimsley before there was Jason Grimsley. This is how sad its gotten for Raffy (and this is one of the saddest little stories we've ever heard), from the Sun piece:
Palmeiro said the only former Orioles teammate he has spoken to recently is second baseman Brian Roberts, whom Palmeiro called last weekend after Roberts had inadvertently text messaged Palmeiro instead of another friend.
"It was like a two-minute conversation," Roberts said. "But it was good to see how he was doing."
How pathetic is that? He called Roberts thinking the guy was saying "what up?" but it was really just a slip up. Talk about awkward. Really Raffy, you had a good run, you might still make the Hall of Fame, but its over buddy. I'm sorry but it really is. It broke my dad's heart when you got suspended and it shouldn't have ended the way it did but only time will heal these wounds Raffy. Only time.
The best take yet on Ozzie vs. Mariotti
Jason Whitlock is one of the best around and he proves it once again with his take on the whole Mariotti/Gullien deal . Check out this lede:
Rosie O'Donnell can't stand Star Jones for pretty much the same reason Ozzie Guillen hates Jay Mariotti.
Seriously, there are some similarities between the Star Jones-Rosie O'Donnell feud and the Jay Mariotti-Ozzie Guillen showdown. And this goes way beyond the fact that in terms of locating a more unpleasant foursome, you'd have to catch O.J. Simpson playing 18 holes with Barry Bonds, Rush Limbaugh and Mike Nifong.
And it only gets better from there. We try not to say "just go read it" often but seriously, just go read it. Any writer who can tie in The View is gold in our book.
More draft stuff
There is a ton of draft review stuff out there. Most of it is pretty cookie cutter, the standard winners/losers pieces. What are you going to do? Seems like most people think the Trail Blazers, the Grizzlies and the Bulls did pretty well for themselves and everybody thinks the Knicks blew it. Anyway here's some links to the reviews I found that are kinda worth while to check out.
- FoxSports.com's Mike Kahn gives us the classic team by team report card.
- Dime Magazine gives the usual winners/losers format.
- SI.com's Marty Burns does team by team report card.
- SI.com's Kelly Dwyer sticks to his patented chumps/champs column style.
- SI.com's Luke Winn gives a behind the scenes look at the draft .
SI.com's Ian Thomsen managed to find out the weirdest piece of info about the draft we've seen so far: Randy Foye, stud combo guard now with the T-Wolves, has something weird going on with his heart. To be more specific, his heart is on the right and not the left. No offense Randy, and we think you are going to be a very good NBA player, but thats a little odd. Apparently its not a problem and doesn't/won't effect him but still, its kinda weird. Thomsen says a docter tried to measure his heartbeat once but couldn't find it because, well, his hearts on the other side. This is the kind of reporting we like, good job Ian.
And also, about all those mock drafts people put up before the draft. How'd people do? Not very well is the short answer. Truehoops.com compared the real results to the predicted and had ESPN's Chad Forde on top with 13 of 30 first round picks correct for a 43.3% success rate. He only got one second round pick right though. What can we learn from this? Either this was a very hard draft to predict or the so-called experts don't know jack. The answer's probably a little of both frankly.
And last but most definitely not least, the one and only Dick Vitale. Dick was a frequent guest during the draft, providing his usual genius commentary but what does Dick think about the draft now, after calming down and taking a step back from the evening. Well lets find out :
Brandon Roy will ultimately be a star out of the gate and Portland will be a good place for him. I was impressed by the job Nate McMillan did getting LaMarcus Aldridge, Roy, Sergio Rodriguez and Joel Freeland in the first round.
Wait, did you catch that? Brandon Roy will "ultimately" be "a star out of the gate". Does that make sense to you? Me either. Read the rest of his takes but its a lot better if you use his voice in your head. Its a lot funnier that way. He even writes "baby", his signature call. He's quite the character. By the way, reason #123,456,765,000 it would be awesome to be an NBA rookie: most teams have a summer league team in Vegas.
Odds and Ends
SI.com's Michael Silver, one of the best around, ranks the NFL owners . Bob Kraft of the Patriots and the Cowboy's Jerry Jones get top billing.