Various Sports Absurdities of the Week

• And the "Bigot of the Week" Award goes to:  Yunel Escobar of the Toronto Blue Jays!

This jackass decided to take things one step further, and, on what apparently has been commonly-inflammatory eye-black he puts on before every game, he decided, this time, to put a homophobic slur at his opponents, in Spanish.

He's lucky, #1, that none of the apparent opponents knew Spanish.

But he may not be so lucky after his three-game suspension.  Sounds like the Blue Jays' brass wanted their player suspended longer, and, because the game was in Toronto, he can be prosecuted for what he said.

The First Amendment does not apply in Canada at all, Bigoted Sports Fan, and, on top of it, what "Free Speech" does exist up there does not cover this kind of hate speech.

He can be prosecuted, and possibly even deported.

So there may be more on this story.  The forfeited salary (almost $100,000) is being given to You Can Play, an LGBT sports charity in Denver.

• The "Fan Idiot of the Week" Award goes to:  Some Internet fans of the Washington Redskins!

And people wonder why I rail on fans so much.

And I always figured it would come to something like this!!

Death threats.

Joshua Morgan is a fifth-year wide receiver for the Redskins who got an untimely unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (and a place on the second Fine Blotter -- he's already been notified he will be fined) for throwing the ball at St. Louis' Cortland Finnegan in the fourth quarter of a game the Rams would win by three points.

For this affront to human decency, Morgan's life has been threatened on Twitter by various Redskin ultras, all sorts of harm to him and his family have been  proposed, and the team and league security are investigating.

May we all facepalm together.

• The "You Aren't Fooling Me A Bit" Award goes to:  The National Football League and it's assignment of replacement officials!

So it's not bad enough that the officials are, by most accounts, making the league look like an utter joke.

The NFL, in it's infinite wisdom during the officials' lockout, did such a poor job of vetting the replacements that it actually, until realized otherwise, put a known New Orleans Saints fan in as an official in the Saints' loss to Carolina in Week Two.

And it's not like Brian Stropolo, who also worked the Kickoff Game between the Giants and Cowboys, was trying to hide anything -- he attended and tailgated at a Saints' preseason game in Saints regalia!!  Posted the pictures on Facebook, too!  (One is on the article from the New York Daily News linked to above.)

But think of the ultimate STUPIDITY...  Look, Goodell, you ain't fooling me.  It's clear that one of the reasons you're pulling this bullshit is to have officials that are even more in the league's back pocket than the Ed Hochulis of the world.

But to not realize that you might be putting a known fan of one of the teams in a professional regular-season game until hours before kickoff???

Brian Tuohy points out several more on his NFL season page, including a man paid by the Seattle Seahawks to referee regular-season scrimmages (prohibited under NFL rules) doing the Week One game between the Seahawks and Cardinals.  (The Seahags, as well-known, got a bogus extra time-out in the game and STILL couldn't win!) 

And another replacement ref apparently loves fantasy football so much that he walks over to Philly RB LeSean McCoy during the game and tells him to step it up because he's on that referee's fantasy team!

(Links are on Brian's site!)

• And, finally, the "Throwback of the Year (So Far)" Award goes to...  Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig!!

... for apparently STILL being a steroid apologist!!

Selig has basically said that they might look into "at the end of the year" the fact that Melky Cabrera, suspended for 50 games for a positive drug test, appears to be in the lead by a fairly substantial margin (six points over Andrew McCutchen of Pittsburgh) for the National League batting title.

He has only one fewer plate appearance than required for the batting title.  Under the rules, as the article points out, his average would be recalibrated with one more at-bat to his credit without a hit under the Official Rules of Major League Baseball.

His average, under that caveat, would be .34565

McCutchen is batting .34011

In fact, this would be the Major League batting title, as the AL's leader is Miguel Cabrera (no relation -- Miguel is Venezuelan and Melky from the Dominican Republic) at .333 .

So will someone PLEASE explain to me (and, yes, I know it's going to happen -- MLB still recognizes Bonds' achievements while obstructing justice and McGwire's achievements while known on the juice, etc.) how a man who gets a FIFTY-GAME SUSPENSION FOR DRUGS is eligible for any honor, much less the batting title, by RULE...

And, on top of that, let's not forget this was the All-Star Game MVP, helping give the National League home-field advantage in the World Series this year!!

Which the Giants appear to be on a one-way course towards...

Bud, Melky...  You've done something...

You've turned me against "This Time, It Counts..."

How any sane sports league can recognize any of the achievements of Melky Cabrera this year (and, yes, this impacts the upcoming World Series too!) is beyond my sense of comprehension.

So, congratulations, Bud...  Given two chances to do the right thing this year, you've shown you'd rather recognize 'Roids than legitimate play.

• Another football riot in Florida, I see...

And it's time for the NFL to conduct Thursday Night Mass again...  Eesh...  So, "Money", who you got this week???