Quick Hits 8/15 #2: Couple of updates

• One thing to note on the new Commissioner:  My baseball-historian friend notes that we all need to keep in mind (before we draw the conclusion I did as to "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...") that it was Jerry Reinsdorf who installed Bud Selig, and Reinsdorf (and the president of the Toronto Blue Jays) who were most vocal in not wanting Rob Manfred voted in/installed at the new Commissioner of Baseball.  A battle ensued, in which several owners accused Reinsdorf of acting in his own best interests, and not that of the game.  They're probably right -- Reinsdorf wants a hard-nosed labor hardball-ist who will probably send the sport to another strike.
• NASCAR, predictably, has installed new rules against going out onto the track, in wake of the Ward death.  And I, rightly, have taken some heat for my comments yesterday.  The sheriff has said there's no indication of criminal intent or wrong-doing, and that, for now, is what we have to go by.  I need a much closer look at the video than what I've had so far, it seems.
• So, Joe Mixon is charged with being a homophobe, a punk, a thug, AND a pussy.  Homophobic slur to a friend of a woman, woman tries to stand up to Joe Mixon, gets knocked out and four bones broken in her face, and then he leaves.  Charged with one count of "acts resulting in gross injury", but, because he's a Sooner, they'll probably acquit him so he can redshirt this year...  It's cases like this that make me glad I have an external bullshit detector from time to time, because it gets really hard to keep in mind "innocent until proven guilty" when I read of stuff like this...

And, from the "Cold Day in Hell" Department...

• Does anyone recall how that one Notre Dame announcer got suspended for actually proposing that maybe Notre Dame needed to bring in a lesser type of person to actually win?  Sounds like he may have gotten his wish -- Notre Dame has just suspended four players in wake of an academic fraud scandal!

And, if this is true, kiss that entire 2012 season goodbye - they will vacate the entire she-bang if it's proven that they were ineligible at the time the 2012 season took place.


Three of the four are starters on the 2014 team as well.  Apparently, this is an off-shoot of the same investigation which felled Everett Golson from the team for a season.