Google is acting up for me periodically, so this to JAB128:

Because I really wanted to respond to the concept of a comment I got on the South Carolina shooting near the baseball situation...

However, I don't know why, but Google's comments are a bit on the borked side, so I do apologize -- this is not, as some would suppose a "living rent-free in the head" motif, but I do have a response to this -- a counter-conspiracy point JAB128 brings up on the subject of guns:

"I don't know. Smells like another false flag to me to try to take people's guns. If the people don't have guns, they will be systematically taken out:

Innocents Betrayed - The History of Gun Control"

I have several problems with this stand, on a very real ground:

1) I believe that, if the people would be systematically taken out in that manner, that the only question of a systematic population reduction would be manner and timing, not that one would take place.

There are those who believe that the "clot shot" is part of the fake nature of the COVID-19 situation, for example -- and that the vaccines themselves are meant to take out a significant fraction of the population.  This is probably one of the reasons I believe the government is deliberately underreporting deaths by the virus by a factor, now, of about five.  With 40% of this country adamantly never getting vaccinated, etc. and so forth, admitting the true death toll of the virus itself would be used to further stoke the theory that the country is, in fact, doing that same "systematic take out", just under a different method.

2) I would think, at that point, you'd probably also be one of those who deny the existence of most school shootings, etc. and so forth -- as a function of taking guns.

If that's the case, then I would openly ask the following question:  Since you all-but-certainly believe that your guns are the centerpiece of and sole ability for the people's ability to have any rights at all (most of them, you do not have, but that's a separate post)...  (I've even read one ZeroHedge conservative commenter who believes the actual carrying of a loaded gun should be REQUIRED TO VOTE...)

Question:  Let's assume for a moment that you are one of those (I am not saying you are or aren't, I'm just wanting to put this out there as a 2nd Amendment consideration, because the courts erroneously declare the people to be a "well-regulated militia" under 2A...) who believe Disney to be pedophilic.

If that's the case, why is no one literally blowing Disney World and other Disney properties to shreds, under color of war and the authority granted by courts under 2A?  If you state, for example, that it's because you'd be thrown in prison for doing so, you can't be a "well-regulated militia", because, especially in right-wing America, it would be an easily-defensible military/militia action to "Save America", as Trump would want them to do?

Especially that we have, now, in Florida, a "Please Shoot And Kill Them" Sheriff (in short, save the county money in incarcerating robbers of your homes and just shoot them to kill), what defensible concept would you have in that degree of a red state not to obliterate Disney properties clear off the map and out of the state on grounds of support of pedophilia, and the color of the Second Amendment to take the action the Federal Government will not take because hair-sniffing, Pizzagate, Clinton, etc. and so forth??

There's a simple answer:  You aren't a militia, never should've been declared one, and the guns SHOULD BE TAKEN.  But you're scared of that, because (and there are many on the Left who agree this far) your gun is the sole power you have.  The power to kill is the centerpiece of all rights, in both conservative and "Gangsta" America.

Just a thought...

Well, the weekly extensions are over...

Trevor Bauer has been banned from baseball for two further calendar years for his rampant sexual assault record.  He gets no credit for time served.

He is appealing.

He will not pitch for the Dodgers again under his current contract.  He will be eligible to play again in 324 games, meaning about a month (the Dodgers have played 18 games) into the 2024 season, but his contract with the Dodgers only extends through 2023.

Of the 3-year, $110M contract he signed with the Dodgers, he gets just over a season.  The fraud by Bauer gets him about $50,000,000 from the Dodgers.

He is the sixteenth MLB player, and by far the longest suspension, under the domestic violence policy.

It is believed this is the longest suspension in history.

----------

Son, IF you ever pitch again in MLB, be lucky that this was only under the domestic violence policy.

Because, between that and the basically known record that you were peddling illegal foreign substances and the like, you should be banned for life under Best Interests of Baseball.

I do have a feeling that if he ever pitches again in professional baseball, it will be in another country.  And, sadly, I think he will dominate in any league he pitches, sans MLB and maybe Japan.

IF he ever gets another MLB stint, it will not be with a contending team.  No one is going to want to deal with that who has any degree of serious intent of winning a World Series.

But the fact is, he should never pitch again -- and, barring something we don't know, that the guy is walking around is yet another example of the necessity of crime for the sustenance and sustaining of American sport.

Do I believe that the Bauer signing was part of why Manfred has been fucking the Dodgers except for COVID year?  Not really, though it is probably one on the list of a more general over-spending motif.

-----

And thanks to my anonymous baseball-fan friend, we now have word of a third accuser whom Bauer choked unconscious...  (With note that one of the reasons justifying the two year suspension was that MLB found NUMEROUS others...)

There is a third Trevor Bauer accuser, per the Washington Post.

"The first time Trevor Bauer choked her unconscious without her consent, in 2013, a woman in Columbus, Ohio, said, all she remembered afterward was waking up on the floor of his bathroom."https://t.co/OhoWyTrGph

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 29, 2022

Day 778

• Another indication sports are basically completely impossible without crime.  Boris Becker has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in a German prison.  Money laundering, bankruptcy asset evasion.  So what ELSE do we now know about, Mr. Becker??   
• Anyone who thinks the Packers had a bad Draft last night don't get it.  That was as much of a give up as the Love pick was...  They are NOT going to the Super Bowl:  Now, soon, or perhaps ever again.  Brady for the now, the urban big-money realities of the NFL for the rest.
• And that goes double for Tennessee.  You win in the NFL (in kayfabe) through the air and stopping through the air.  No team in this reality is going to win a Super Bowl when it's only relevant and marketable player plays running back.  So a big-money soon-to-be FA WR who Tennessee knows they are not going to pay basically gets traded as a salary dump.  And then FIVE MINUTES LATER, the Eagles announce 4 years $100 million to keep him.
  
• Tonight is probably going to be the fourth NBA Playoff PETA protest against the owner of the Timberwolves for slaughtering chickens to prevent the wholesale obliteration of meat in this country.
• You want the reality of the NFL right now?  Here you go:

1. First five picks were all anti-pass defense.
2. The next seven picks and 12 of the next 14 were either pass protection or wide receivers.
3. First round quarterbacks?  ONE.  And it was an obvious and correct call for Pittsburgh to take one, so no complaint on that.
4. Nine of the final 12 were defense, the other 3 O-line.
5. Want evidence of that Tennessee comment?  Number of first-round running backs this year?  ZERO.  ESPN has only two RB's graded in the top EIGHTY. 

• And to tell you how much I haven't been watching Jeopardy! lately...  We have our FOURTH ultrachamp of the season!  The biggest winner in the history of the show from Canada, Mattea Roach, a tutor from Toronto -- though pushed hard last night!! -- won their eighteenth game Thursday night and now has the sixth-highest winning total in the history of regular play on the program:  $438,183.
• Their average is $24,344.  Because of the low average, Andy Saunders' metrics have the streak ending on any given game now (I think the average is somewhere between 21 and 22).
• Their main strength is Daily Doubles:  22-4 in those.
• 12-6 in Final.
• The post-Mania cuts are starting.  10 NXT talents, most prominently Dakota Kai, were cut today.
• First no-hitter of the season -- five Mets pitchers combine to no-no the Phillies -- six walks, but no hits in the 3-0 Mets win.  Edwin Diaz (dammit, I can't call him Edlose tonight, can I??) struck out the side in the ninth to finish it.
  
• Mattea Roach pushed again, but rock solid in Final tonight as well, and it's nineteen for the Toronto tutor -- another $22,001, $460,184 total.
  

Day 777

• What we feared has become confirmed:  Lauren Bernett of James Madison University has become the third high-profile women's Division I athlete to kill herself in the last 14 months.
• Sage Steele has sued ESPN.  She questions vaccine mandates, tried to identify Barack Obama as bi-racial, and feels women were getting inappropriate comments, etc. from men in sports for how they dressed.  Stupid question, Sage -- on that last one:  How else do you think the men who make the decisions have women journalists around athletes at all?    
• Tonight is the NFL Draft in Vegas.  Joy. 
• A brawl Wednesday after a retaliation after another HBP to the Mets was the last straw:  The Mets are going to directly meet with an MLB executive tomorrow regarding the number of times they've been plunked in the first month of the season. 
• Three reminders from the world of pro wrestling that we are nowhere near the end of COVID yet:  AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page, former IWGP World Champion Will Ospreay, and Japanese legend Tatsumi Fujimami have all tested positive in the last several days.
• Two boys in Kansas are being accused of trying to poison the drinking water of the Kansas Wesleyan baseball team during a doubleheader.  Paint was apparently the idea here.
• Wesleyan actually broke a school record during that doubleheader.  They won the second game over Bethany (after Bethany won the first) with a school-record 33 runs!
  

 

If you want to see how finished we are as a civilized country due to guns...

South Carolina park in which a number of youth baseball games were played.

This happened at the park near one of them...

This shooting at a children’s baseball game in Charleston, South Carolina, isn’t an anomaly. This is America’s new normal, enabled by greedy gun lobbyists and lawmaker allies. And if they have their way, no one will be safe anywhere.

Video by @ABCNews4 pic.twitter.com/H7GOyoKkbx

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 26, 2022

That was a 36-second video.

I counted SIXTY-TWO shots.

Somehow, no one got hurt of the kids (or anyone else).

No arrests -- three weapons and some bullet casings.

There is a $10,000 reward for information on the perpetrators.

#RepealThe2nd or be killed by it.

The Letter's A Nothingburger, The Balls Are Another Story

Two stories from baseball today:

First, the Yankees letter is out.

All That For THIS???

SNY, who broke the Yankees letter story, finally has revealed the letter in earnest.

And if this was what all the fuss was about...  Hmmmm...

I know a lot of us did feel this would be showing Yankee preferential treatment.  If it does, could someone please show me exactly WHERE it does?

The letter basically says the Yankees were fined $100,000 for using the video room (and the phones in the dugout) in the 2015 and 2016 seasons to decode sign sequences, which were then relayed to runners on second, who then signalled the batters.

(It does also state that MLB asked the Yankees to send the fine to Hurricane Irma relief, but what's the problem with that -- knowing fines are usually sent to charity in the first place?)

But THIS is what all the fuss was about?

Seriously?

First off, the biggest (relevant) concern of any team is that a runner on second would steal signs -- so, before the "mound visit limit" era, the first runner on second would usually mean a mound visit to switch up sign orders, etc.

Second, the team was fined six figures for the scheme -- and the letter, additionally, does NOT accuse the Yankees of any further sign-stealing, especially when the Commissioner said he would increase penalties (2017 season).

So unless people can identify the penalty being out of line for the situation (and the pre-2017 timeframe), what the fuss?

Why ask this letter not be put out?  Yes, it basically states the league caught them doing something illegal -- they were fined (unless the penalty is light, and I am not aware of other precedent in that regard -- some help would be nice).

So, any help from the helpful commenters on why all the fuss here?

(Reddit, where I found this, commenters basically state that the fuss was actually to prevent someone using precedent from this case to deal in a hypothetically more damaging case.  OK.  I can get that.)

And then, some discussion on why scoring is down in MLB this April...

We have an admission...

That .232 batting average?  It's partly due to a de-juiced ball.

The Athletic reports today that two balls were used last year -- the first of them was designed to reduce hitting distance by at least two feet.

That ball is the only one in use now.

One purported top-five player is reporting that it actually feels like trying to hit a rolled-up pair of socks, in a comment to Will Middlebrook.

So now, how long before Manfred switches to the juiced balls...

May need to.  Word is that, much more of this in Oakland, there'll be more feral cats in the stadium than fans!

Day 775

• Only two weeks -- but the MLB-wide batting average?  .232
• Vice-President Harris has tested positive for COVID.
• It looks as if Amazon's venture into broadcasting NFL games is going to include a Black Friday game.  To no one's shock.    
• The right-wing People's Convoy decided to show up in the upscale Oakland neighborhood of Rockridge (where I landed with a friend after I was released from Riker's)...  They got egged out of the city.
• They got lost trying to find Pelosi's house.
• Two more stories of the realities of non-revenue women's college sports:

1. Sarah Shulze of the University of Wisconsin track team committed suicide over last weekend.  She was Academic All-Big Ten the last two years in track and cross-country.
2. And a probable (at least by the call by the university toward mental-health resources) second:  Last week's Colonial Athletic Association conference women's softball player of the week, Lauren Bernett of James Madison University, shockingly passed away today.  She was part of James Madison's run to the Women's College World Series last year.

• Mark Emmert is stepping down as head of the NCAA after next school year. 
• Another week, another National Women's Soccer League male head coach suspended for misconduct allegations.  This one is Houston Dash coach/GM James Clarkson -- the fourth NWSL coach suspended or fired for misconduct against the female athletes.  I am fully aware that there are male coaches who do wonderful work for female athletes, but isn't it time we understand they are the exception rather than the rule -- enough that the practice should be abolished?  
  
• That is now four of the ten teams in the league to fire or suspend their coaches.
• Perhaps as a protest to all of this, I present The Sports Bra Bar and Grill in Portland.  Opened first of this month, showing only women's sports on the televisions.  In an ABC News piece this week, the owner says:  No women's sports playing?  TVs are off!
• Interesting moment in Memphis tonight:  Ja Morant's father Tee was at the game -- and so was Usher.  The two are basically look-alikes, and even one of the referees came over to try to figure out which was who.  Memphis beat the T-Wolves on a game-winner at the buzzer.  Game 6 (and another PETA protest???) in Minneapolis later this week.
• According to a local San Francisco newspaper website, the protests are being led by a Bay Area group, Direct Action Everywhere.
• It is now illegal to live in the state of Oklahoma as a non-binary person.  The Governor, today, signed the first bill disallowing all birth certificates with non-binary options -- meaning that the state will no longer recognize, in any form, non-binary personhood.  Before people ask:  Remember that you can also ask, as part of gender affirmation through the courts, for your birth certificate to be changed -- and it may be required for various purposes.    

 

Day 774

• Elon Musk's power play to own Twitter has won.  He will own the company 100% for $40B and take it private.
• The Attorney General of Virginia wants an inquiry into the financial dealings of the Washington Commanders.  Better things to do?  But Goodell might wanna get a handle on this, or someone's going to find something that blows this league up good and proper.   
• A Michigan KKK candidate for state office actually believes families should be all-White, and condemns the likes of CBS and Turner for allowing college basketball tournaments to air multi-racial ads...  Shhh.  No one tell the stupid racist bitch that the only reason he has basketball to entertain him is Black people.  Shhhhhhhhhhhh....    
• Brooklyn, now, is not satisfied with the Ben Simmons timetable.  And, as about anyone who had a pulse on the situation could've guessed, his mental health is the holdup.
• A Washington state football coach, fired for a private prayer before every game at midfield (started alone, a few players did join him, but there was no indication anyone required it) took his case to the Supreme Court today.  It appears he will win recovery, six Conservatives to three Liberals.  Sotomayor, for example, wondered if the coach was making an open spectacle of himself, and wonders what other religion would do it...  (Justice Sotomayor, have you SEEN some of these mega-church services??  Spectacle is the entire MO of these jerks.  That and fundraising as a function of holiness being defined by the wealth God gives you.)

Day 773

• For the third time this postseason, PETA protestors have tried to stop an NBA playoff game involving the Timberwolves.
• The fact that their owner had to put down millions of chickens with the avian flu in farms his company owns is the situation.
• And let's make zero mistake about this right now:  PETA and it's supporters would rather see a meat-wipeout situation of the absolute elimination of all foodstock meat due to avian flu and similar than the disease be dealt with.  They believe the multi-state avian flu outbreak is a signal to force the American population off of meat -- VIOLENTLY IF NEED BE!  There are far more reasonable vegans out there (Tara Strong being one), but, being an old ex-Wisconsinite myself, I take, more the Shawn Michaels approach that the humane and controlled use of animals for meat also allows for the flourishing of those who remain.    
• It appears Coach K's retirement is leading to an exodus:  At least FOUR Duke Blue Devils have declared for the 2022 NBA Draft.
• There is already taunting of one of the Cleveland Guardian outfielders in today's series finale between the Yankees and Guardians.  Security has been increased, and, if you access MLB.com, the game is available to watch for free.  The Yankees are trying to keep their fans happy with an early offensive outburst.
  

Day 772

• Ugly night last night in the first Dodgers-Padres game of the season.  At least one fan threw a beer can at center fielder Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers, and appeared to throw it from several rows back.  It missed, probably due to the amount of beer the moron had already consumed.
• At least one Padre-Dodger fan fight in the concourse was also found on video last night.
• 7,012 at the A's game last night in Oakland.
• In contrast, 44,482 attended in San Diego last night -- more than the first five A's home games COMBINED (35,395).
  
• In a situation which I can believe is of zero surprise:  The man who threw the water bottle at and got decked by Mike Tyson on the airplane this week is a habitual felon.  So, one question...  WHY WAS HE ALLOWED ON AN AIRPLANE?  ANY AIRPLANE?    
• Several days after a Boston Celtic was fined $50,000 for flipping off courtside fans of the Brooklyn Nets, Chicago White Sox player Tim Anderson has been suspended a game for Le Finger du Middle as well.
• A number of anonymous NFL executives are saying to avoid this year's quarterback draft class like the plague.  This is what happens when the entirety of relevant college football can be distilled down to Alabama and maybe one or two other schools...    
• Miguel Cabrera has become the seventh MLB player to reach 3000 hits and 500 home runs with his 3000th today.  He is only the fifth, and the first since Pujols in 2018 (still waiting on the Jack Clark words -- if Pujols was on roids, then the clean list is just Cabrera, Murray, Mays, and Aaron, and the last one to do it clean was Murray in 1994), to do it without steroids.
• ESPN+ was covering the game, and had technical difficulties at the game's start -- right up until the VERY PITCH Cabrera hit #3,000. 
• Interesting stat from the Detroit/ESPN+ broadcast:  Cabrera has recorded a major-league hit in a now-impossible forty-one different ballparks.
• Another week, another extension of Trevor Bauer's leave.
• In another example of the complete out-of-control nature of the young MLB season...  Yankees fans pelted the Cleveland Guardians with debris after a walk-off win for the Yankees today.  There was also at least one face-to-face confrontation at the fence, and another fan throwing obscene gestures.  It's about to go off.  Hard.  To the Yankees' credit (or, alternately if you are a cynic like me, to prevent this or tomorrow's game from being forfeited...), they went out to try to stop the situation.    
• In a semi-related note, the new head of the NBPA has demanded Adam Silver stiffen the penalties against misbehaving fans at NBA venues.
  
• I'd make a comment about the Cubs' 21-0 win today, but that would require it being a Major League Baseball game, and not against the Pittsburgh Pirates. 
• 9,120 today in Oakland for the 2-0 Texas win over the A's.
  

 

Day 771

• Stephen Colbert is COVID-positive.  Only costs one show, though, yesterday's.  Reruns were planned for today and next week anyway.
• Sadness in the Canadian hockey world today.  Guy LaFleur has passed, age 70.
• As has Daryle Lamonica, former quarterback of the Raiders.
• Once again, residents get screwed in the name of noise and money.  Residents in the area of next month's Miami Grand Prix got the "wear earplugs" situation from a judge....
• And the continuing saga of the Yankees and that sign-stealing letter from MLB has reached another milestone.  An appeal to not release that letter has been denied.
  
• New abilities to re-review targeting calls (in games with instant replay, targeting suspensions can be re-reviewed by the conference by request) and to further penalize faking injuries are among a number of college football rules changes approved this week.
• Derby County today became a team relegated out of the Championship to League One for the third consecutive year due to club malfeasance.  When is the FA simply going to go auto-relegation for that kind of a situation, especially when it was 12 for administration AND 9 for accounting?    

 

Day 770

• If you are on Second Life and love dragons, wizards, and raising money for the American Cancer Society, the largest-scale event of the virtual world's Relay For Life event begins today:  Fantasy Faire.
• And it sounds like the Oakland A's are done, and FUCK ROB MANFRED may have to seriously consider contingency plans just to get the A's through this season.  

Oakland only drew 17,503 for Opening Day against Baltimore.

The next day, 3,748.

Game Three?  TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND THREE.

And a 12:35 Pacific game today to finish the series.

Which drew 4,429.  (All figures are from MLB.com .)

This is "They are not going to be able to afford to keep the stadium lights on." territory.

Hell, they want Vegas so badly?  They could probably play in former minor-league ballpark Cashman Field (capacity:  10,000) and be able to fill that except when the Yankees and the like come to town!  (Cashman Field now is used strictly for soccer -- the area minor-league team now plays in Summerlin, in Las Vegas Ballpark -- also seating 10,000, opened in 2019.)

• Novak Djokovic has come out against the expulsion of Russian and Belarussian players from Wimbledon, but more for asking what the players had to do to keep Putin in power.
• Villanova has announced the retirement of 25-year men's basketball coach Jay Wright.
• Oscar de la Hoya has had two lawsuits filed against him for sexual assault on his part which allegedly occurred in 2020.
• The rumor given around the time of Dwayne Haskins' death appears to be true.  His wife said Haskins had run out of gas and was trying to cross I-595 to get to a gas station so he could get some.
• Pam Shriver has stated an inappropriate relationship with a tennis coach (in his 50's) when she was 17.  And she says it's rampant throughout the tour.
• Production on the new Searchlight Pictures movie Being Mortal has been stopped -- inappropriate conduct investigation into it's star, Billy Murray.  Assume appropriate conduct from no man.    
• AND THIS IS WHY WE PENALIZE TAUNTING!!  Owen Woodward faces expulsion from Weatherford Junior College in Texas after being suspended for four games -- and then thrown off his school's baseball team entirely -- for tackling North Central Texas College's Josh Phillips after Phillips hit a home run and let Woodward know about it around third base.  Phillips banned two games for taunting.
• Four Weatherford players were banned two games.  The ENTIRE North Central Texas College team was banned for two games.  As a result, the game involved, the first one game of a series the two schools are having was double-forfeited, and North Central Texas forfeited the next two.  A scheduled game between the two is still on for Saturday.  There you go -- that's a START!    
• Why the FUCK would you harass MIKE TYSON?  Police at SFO had to detain Mike Tyson and an aggressively-harassive passenger against him after Tyson decked the latter after one try too many and he threw a water bottle at Tyson!
  

Day 769

• Players from Russia and Belarus have been thrown out of the 2022 Wimbledon tournament.  This ousts world #2 Daniel Medvedev.
  
• Charlie Blackman of the Rockies has become the first active player to endorse a sportsbook.  By MLB rules, he cannot endorse betting on baseball (in addition to the long-standing prohibition on betting on the game by MLB players), but he can endorse the sportsbook in general.
  
• Jerry West didn't care for the portrayal of him in the Lakers series Winning Time, and demands an apology and a retraction.  Barring a successful lawsuit, I don't see either happening. 
• MTK Global is done.  The boxing management company's originator is a wanted gang kingpin in the USA and Ireland, Daniel Kinahan.
• One of the most bizarre streaks in NBA history continued last night as the Phoenix Suns were upset by the New Orleans Pelicans, evening their first-round series.  Scott Foster was one of the officials, and Chris Paul, who plays on the Suns, now has his teams 0-14 in the playoffs in games Foster officiates.  In this particular case, the injury to Devin Booker may be of larger concern, at least with respect to this series.
• Oops Moment of the Day:  The Washington Nationals had a military group to parachute into the stadium before their game with Arizona tonight.  The bad news:  Their stadium is about ten minutes from the Capitol building, no one told the Capitol this was happening, and the plane was circling, waiting for the cue to come in.  The Capitol was evacuated until it was realized, with egg on face, that there was no threat to the Capitol.
  

Day 768

• Monmouth University had an interesting thing come out of it's law school a few days ago.  16 students and the professor in one of the courses in the law school have submitted a nearly 90-page brief to FUCK ROB MANFRED to get Armando Gallaraga his perfect game.  Both my baseball fan anonymous friend and I agree:  Good luck.  Though we both think you're right -- this is FUCK ROB MANFRED we are talking about.   
• Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner have revealed the death of one of their newborn twins.  So, today at Arsenal (Ronaldo plays for Manchester United), for Ronaldo's #7, the crowd stood and sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" during the 7:00 minute of the match between the two sides.

Day 767

• Especially given all the sports competition, ratings for the first week of the USFL do appear encouraging...  But that's been true of every spring sports league attempt Week One...   
• Evans Chebet of Kenya and Peris Jepchirchir won today's Boston Marathon.
• The next "The Match" will be an all-NFL quarterback affair on TNT.  Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers will, for once, be on the same side.  Opposing them in the charity match:  Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.  Gee, you don't think that's about the Final Four next year -- and I'm not talking men's college basketball, ifyoucatchmydrift...   
• "The Match" will take place June 1, 12 holes, at the Wynn course in Paradise, NV.
• At least three mass shootings this weekend.  Sounds like everyone wants to settle it by putting people in the ground.  Just remember, asswipes...  That can cut both ways in any such situation.   
• Methinks the bigger story in this is probably NOT going to be the six-month drug suspension.  Dryden McKay, heading to the pros after winning the 2022 Hobey Baker Award, has been suspended from hockey for six months by WADA after a pre-Olympic drug test (he was a backup/alternate for Team USA) showed an illegal substance in his blood in enough quantity to trigger a positive test.
• One large problem, though:  McKay was able to find all the supplements, etc. which he had been taking at the time, and took them to a USADA-certified laboratory for testing.  He found that a natural Vitamin D supplement he'd taken for 10 days to protect against the Omicron COVID variant had been contaminated with Ostarine.  The illegal substance was not on the ingredient label of the supplement.
• Given this, USADA and WADA have stipulated a complete lack of intent on the part of McKay, who accepted the six-month ban.  So who contaminated it and WHY??????????????   

ESPN and Paterno: This One Got Through Me

Thanks to my anonymous friend for picking this up.

Deadspin picked this up in the name of following up the ESPN Special Report on Todd Hodne.

ESPN E:60 is asking about Joe Paterno's legacy, ten years after his removal and death.  The program is supposed to air Monday.

You know, this is the same ESPN which has done more to protect Penn State University from being rightfully BURNED INTO MOTHERFUCKING ASH.

As I said to one commenter, there is a certain...  vibe...  about Happy Valley, PA and the university which resides therein.

I can give you Penn State's and Joe Paterno's legacy -- and I don't even need to get into the concept of Jerry Sandusky, who had just founded Second Mile to groom little victims in the name of access to Penn State Football, the only thing of any real value int Happy Valley, PA for the thirty years Sandusky assisted Paterno and even beyond.

And if ESPN has it's way, even to today!

So let me take a few swings at this.

Everything on this list is fact which comes from the Todd Hodne story.

• Attacked a fellow freshman player at school camp for the football team on Long Island.  Four years before he came to Penn State.  With a knife.
• At least sexually assaulted, if not raped, a girl at the freshman dance in his school -- making his reputation as FOOTBALL MAN (reg tm) and undoing hers for not just submitting to the only real reason their private school even fucking existed!  This was also in 1973!!!
• Beat a senior with a deadly weapon when the senior tried to haze him.  Again, 1973, maybe early 1974.
• A coach was fired from the school for not protecting Hodne, and trying to warn his parents about what was going on.  Both the head coach and the AD of the school only wanted to know how hard this monster could hit...
• The fellow freshman from the first incident was too intimidated by Hodne to leave him, even though there were further violent incidents between the two over 1973-1977.
• Food robbery and record store robbery after his first year at Penn State.
• And then the rapes which we know about started in September of 1978, after Hodne had been suspended for the 1978 season by Paterno for those robberies.
• The article even admits the abject FALSITY of "Things like that don't happen in Happy Valley", when the truth is no one has the guts to say anything about it, Because Football.
• Another Fall 1978 binding and rape by Hodne, after one of an interminable number of drunken binges on the part of the PSU Football Team.
• Another investigated rape, the night Hodne was suspended from the Nittany Lions team!
• The article states that Hodne, to the Nittany Lions, had two other girlfriends to begin with -- probably raping them too, but no one cared to notice and neither reached out to ESPN.
• Hodne, at this point, is expelled from Penn State and homeless, living in his car.

At this point, Hodne is convicted during Spring Break 1979 of 12 felonies, including the rapes.  The judge, unbelievably, allows him home with his parents to await sentencing.

And it's at that point the shit REALLY hits the fan:

• Followed his high school "girlfriend" (almost certainly having been raped already by Hodne -- the article expressed she had relief at his convictions) TWO THOUSAND MILES to Florida to attack her again just days after the guilty verdicts!
• One victim April 23rd, 1979.
• Another victim May 12th.
• Another May 22nd.
• ANOTHER May 31st.

He's finally caught again, pleads guilty to two of the five rapes, and when everything is put together, gets 7-21 years in prison.

That's five victims (and more -- see below!), by the way, completely responsible to the county because Hodne, even though HE WAS NO LONGER IN THE SCHOOL, was protected because he was Football Man!

• He admits, in jailhouse interviews, he raped for the same power he had on the football field.
• He also admits he has no other coping mechanism of any kind except for football, and the injurious level of hits even NFL scouts were beginning to look for in that day and age!
• There was a sixth victim, a grandmother of a family -- 79 years old -- completely obliterated in her home during the spree.

The New York State Parole Board, as if they wanted to see Hodne commit more violence, including murder, unanimously let him go on parole on May 2, 1986.

• Within nine months, he's doing crack cocaine.
• And then he finally does it:  After being evicted for being undesirable, he murders a Long Island cabbie on August 11, 1987.

And that's just Hodne.

Here's some more the ESPN article reported:

• A 1975 "jock frat house" gang rape, reported to PSU authorities, almost-certainly by the football team in another of their drunken runs.
• The University was openly covering up the number of rapes which were already happening on the campus from freshmen female students.
• Even though the student paper reported 12 rapes/sexual assaults in Happy Valley from January to September of 1978 -- the true number was THREE TIMES THAT, at the very least!
• One student dressed up as a female police officer and pistol whipped his victims.
• One snuck into the girls' dorms and had his way with them in the shower!
• One of the women at the rape crisis center said that all investigation pretty much went stone cold stop if the perpetrator was believed to be a Nittany Lions football player.
• And then, even by the article's and probably Paterno's admission, he lost the team in 1979, including one player who should be lucky he was not shot before the Liberty Bowl by heading to the wrong part of Memphis to start trouble.
• 2002, Penn State, after an investigation, expels a player from the school for sexual assault -- Paterno demands he be allowed to play in the bowl game anyway!

===================

There's your answer, ESPN.

No E:60 necessary.

Joe Paterno, jointly and severally with the entire Football Man Network built in and around Happy Valley, Pennsylvania and Penn State University, has a legacy of broken female minds and bodies at the feet of the only people relevant to that institution.

And ESPN is covering it up because, even by their own admission, without this kind of violence, there is no football -- and, without football, there is no ESPN!

The entire university needs to go, and there's no other acceptable penalty -- and the fact is that not only did ESPN ensure that didn't happen, it allowed the football program to survive and win at least conference championships since.  And the only GODDAMNED reason they haven't won a national title yet is because they don't have SEC-level recruiting and can't compete with the SEC!

I still remember, as a freshman boy myself, literally watching in the middle of phy-ed, IN PUBLIC, a football player (a senior) putting a floor hockey stick up a girl's skirt.

And by the time I was 19, I was well and full aware that this was considered NORMAL BEHAVIOR and ACCEPTABLE -- except for one thing.

You had to have Legitimate Purpose FIRST.

Hence, I was ruled that I had a sexual charge every time I tried to hug somebody, and that cost me one college.

The belief of what I was going to do two years later should've cost me a second.

And the fact of the matter is, Paterno and "409 Club":  All that does is basically indicate I was not welcome at either of those universities AND NEVER WAS.  Because if I was FOOTBALL MAN, then every depravity believed that I would have committed/was committing (which, even though it makes no difference, I deny -- but I recognize the law doesn't care (UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, or Deborah Gibson)) would've been swept under the goddamn rug.

Hell, given this country and the fact we've elected two pedophile rapists (one of each party, before anyone gets any ideas -- Clinton being the other one!) to the Presidency in my adulthood, perhaps I might well be qualified to be President.

... if only I had the Legitimate Purpose of Todd Hodne, right???

This world better thank Deborah Gibson -- she and the positivity message she echoes are the only reasons I didn't become another Todd Hodne, another monster like so many men are allowed to be, because it's too inconvenient because "WE MIGHT LOSE ON SATURDAY AND NOT WIN A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!"

ESPN, THAT IS JOE PATERNO'S LEGACY.  He is not, in any way, shape, nor form, alone in this regard -- nor is ESPN.

But that IS his legacy -- AND YOURS, since you are so married to football.

Day 764

• Mike Bossy has passed away, the long-time NHL legend.
• Sounds like they're all getting out of Brady's way again!!!  Jerry Jones cannot control his fucking team.  Now you've got police looking for Cowboy cornerback Kelvin Joseph in conjunction with a March 18th shooting murder.  He is only of a group of people who confronted a 20-year-old on that night and one of that group apparently shot and killed the 20-year-old.
• Someone had bought the final touchdown ball of Tom Brady before he announced his retirement for $518,000.  That transaction, with Brady's return, has been voided.
• Hopefully good news again:  Dick Vitale announces himself cancer-free and "rings the bell" to signify the end of his chemotherapy treatment.  Next on his plate, his annual high-end fundraiser for the V Foundation in Sarasota, FL.
• Today is Jackie Robinson Day in MLB -- every player wears #42.  And this is a special one -- this year is the 75th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in MLB.
• And for that 75th anniversary, all the 42's are in Dodger Blue.
• Apparently, after much consternation and pushback, Greg Norman will proceed with his alternate tour -- but, at least for this year, it will be a high-end entry-level league with NIL deals.  There will be $25 million in eight events for entry-level professionals.
• In an unfortunate situation which might eliminate the Clippers from the playoffs, Paul George has tested positive for COVID and will miss the elimination game tonight.
• The Ukraine-Scotland UEFA playoff match has finally been scheduled for June 1st.  That match winner, played in Scotland, will play Wales in Wales on the 5th for the 30th Qatar spot.

Day 762

• The USFL begins play this weekend.
• The XFL is filling out it's coaching ranks, including Bob Stoops, as the coaches of their eight teams for the third attempt at the league -- if the trademark dispute with Megan Rapinoe doesn't torpedo it first!
• Apparently, a Giants coach who got ejected in San Diego claims that a Padres coach used a racial epithet against him.  Great...  MORE to stoke the fire in the first week of the young season!   
• The ejection caused the Giants to replace him with bench coach Alyssa Nakken at first base.  Nakken becomes the first on-field female coach in MLB history.  If there's ONE POSITIVE about this...   
• There is a Congressional investigation into possibly misappropriation of funds by the Washington Commanders.  And I'm not sure how much Congress actually aids in running Washington, DC itself, but this does reek of "better things to do", even if Dan Snyder needs to be in orange real good and quick!   
• However, the NFL does also have jurisdiction...  And has expanded their investigation of the team to include this and another financial improprities the House Oversight Committee has announced.
• Nikita Mazepin has had a $114 million mansion in Italy seized as part of Russian sanctions.
• Do you just get the impression they want Trevor Bauer to just go away??  His leave has been extended again, yet another week into the 2022 season.
• An animal-rights activist interrupted last night's 7 vs 8 play-in game between the T-Wolves and the Clippers -- by trying to glue her wrists to the floor to force the game stopped because the owner of the T-Wolves is not a PETA vegan or whatever.

Day 761

• Oh, I'd never have guessed, $Cam.  Women need to make you a sammich and shut up...  Open mouth, insert entire leg on the "Million Dollaz Worth of Game" podcast -- criticizing women who can't cook and need to be quiet.
• Stupidest part of this shit, this might make it MORE likely he gets another NFL gig!  
• The final round of The Masters was the highest-rated TV golf round in over three years -- the one round of the weekend Tiger wasn't in the time zone of contention at any point!

ESPN Blows The Lid Off Of Another Penn State Predator, And Why We Need To Put Football On Trial NOW

Why has someone not just blown up Penn State University, in the name of what it's football team has done to the entire community, and to human decency???

ESPN just laid one of the darkest stories about Penn State ever put to print.  And the only thing it has to do with Jerry Sandusky is that he might well have been the person to recruit him as the defensive coordinator.

Todd Hodne is a name you should know.  He was a second sexual predator from Penn State University, this one more a rapist of the female students during the national championship run of the Nittany Lions in 1978.  In fact, an ESPN story on the man calls him the "most dangerous sexual predator ever to play college football".  It was so bad that one of the officers who helped prosecute him said that, in 30 years on the job, if he wasn't the most dangerous man ever to "grace" the courtroom as a defendant, he was in the top three.

There were a number of other rapists on Penn State University -- but what made Hodne was that even his family knew he was far too "dark" and out of control to be anything else.

In short, at least 12 raped, another man killed, and that's just the endgame.  Basically threw a knife at a hazer at a football camp at 14.  Because Football, nobody said anything.

Basically raped a girl as a freshman in high school at a dance.  Because Football, nobody said anything -- the entire team was around the table.  (It is unknown, in the article, as to whether the other players encouraged Hodne.)

And one reason I have to believe they did not was that Hodne was already of serious mens rea -- criminal mind -- as a freshman, loading his fist with a roll of quarters to knock out a senior who wanted to try his luck.

A string of robberies as a sophomore was reported by one of his teammates to the police -- the two became mortal enemies, but, Because Football, he was never thrown off the team.

Because Football, one of the coaches was actually fired for trying to be a Required Reporter to Hodne's parents.

Because Football, the AD deliberately does not remember any of this -- he just loved how Hodne could hit and not have the human instinct to let up a moment before contact.

Because Football, at least one teammate could not get away from him for fear of him.

Because Football, Hodne aided the school in winning a state championship in 1975.

By the time he got to Penn State, was robbing steaks from a local store, records and rolls of quarters from another...

Hodne was suspended for the 1978 football season because of the incident, and he was placed into a room with a senior who Joe Paterno thought could make a good influence out of him.

His roommate remembers one thing about Hodne:  His knife.

The one he used to back up raping a woman seeking a roommate in mid-September 1978 -- Hodne somehow had gotten into her apartment and was waiting for her return.

Hodne's alcohol habit was legendary -- he down an entire Jack Daniels bottle in 30 minutes.  He robbed a fraternity of one of their kegs of beer from a party early in his freshman year.

Hodne's second prosecuted rape was shortly after the first -- dark alley, nothing to draw him to her specifically, came up behind her and nailed her.  And the only reason she was able to believe it was him was because the build matched up.

A third, and his greed thereto, was his undoing.  Fingerprints all over the place -- and they were on physical file (it would take time, but the match would be known).

He was arrested and lied about everything -- but that was when they started believing there could be far more than that.

By the time several football players had attended Hodne's first preliminary hearing on the first rape charge, several openly took up for the victim.

The story relates to former Nittany Lion Bob Mitinger -- Penn State's fixer by 1979.

It wouldn't help, obviously -- 12 guilty convictions on March 3, 1979, but the judge decided to release him to his family before the sentencing!  Convictions felt unheard of for a Nittany Lion.

But out on bail, Because Football.  Even the judge himself, with 12 convictions for rape, robbery, etc. ...  Had to let him out on his $25,000 bail.

And that was when the real problems began.  He jumped bail, and it was figured he would never be seen again.

Four other people tried to free his high-school girlfriend by taking her on a trip to Florida.  And she bumped into Hodne, who had found her and followed her two thousand miles.

April 21, rape in Long Island.

Two days later, another -- a 53 year old woman.

April 30, another in Bethpage, a woman who could've sworn she had died because of it.

May 22nd, a broke woman on the North Shore of Long Island, in a parking lot.

May 31st, he finally gets caught again, raping and tying up a 16 year old.

And why did he do all of it?

Because he wanted to feel the way he felt when he played football.

Yes, Hodne is responsible for his acts.

It is inescapable, from the man himself -- not only in what he was allowed as Football Man but what being Football Man.

Especially because, in an inexplicable decision, ESPECIALLY under the guise of what he did after jumping bail in Pennsylvania, Hodne was released after the minimum 7 years of a 21 year sentence.

Even though all sane parties wanted parole denied, the board gave it to him.

Two months later, questioned for a rape in his area.

Two more later, admitted to his parole officer he was smoking crack cocaine.

A month after that, his first murder -- a cab driver he tried to rob.

------------

By 1979, Joe Paterno had lost control of the team, and there were numerous rapists on the squad.

I did this for two reasons...

Someone needs to end this entire football culture.  They got Hodne for one murder.  I'm almost certain he's committed more.

The fact is, this is an object lesson as to Football Man and what Football Man is allowed in this culture.  ANYONE who wants to pooh-pooh Football Man needs to read this story.

The other reason?  Far more personal.

This (type of person) was the man two colleges-full of women thought I was to become.

And if not for a very special woman (one you all know of), they would've been correct.

If you or anyone around you needs help regarding the aftermath of Rape, Incest, or other sexual abuse, contact RAINN at www.rainn.org or 1-800-656-HOPE.

Day 760

• A youth basketball tournament in Georgia at a local church was disrupted Sunday when one of the teams jumped one of the officials, leading to him needing 30 stitches to close the thugs' handiwork.  Police are investigating.
• Frank Vogel is going to be BEYOND FIRED today as coach of the Lakers.
• Apparently, Vogel found out he was being fired on social media.
• Alec Bohm had to apologize to Philly fans -- probably more for his two errors than his "I hate this fucking place!", caught by lipreaders.  Well, if they're going to boo him, what do they expect?   
• At least two NFL reporters, Gil Brandt and ESPN's Adam Schefter, have been forced to walk back and apologize for insensitive comments regarding the death of Dwayne Haskins.

Day 759

• Another object exercise in how I think we are being lied to as to the true death toll of the first two years of COVID:   

United Nations projection for 2020, sans COVID:  78.93, effectively 79.

From the CDC:  77.3 -- 2% lower due to COVID.

It would appear to me this would indicate a death toll somewhere approaching 2% of the entire United States population, and perhaps more.

But, to me, this is another piece of evidence indicating the anti-vaxx anti-mask death cults are winning.

Have a nice day.

Day 758

• Well, if there's one blessing of all of that, we won't have to worry about Tiger actually WINNING The Masters...
• Dwayne Haskins was seen as a possible replacement for Captain Fatfuck in Pittsburgh this season.  He's gone at the age of 24 -- taken out by a dump truck near a home of his in Florida while he was walking up the highway.  He was trying to cross I-595 for some reason -- and that's ALWAYS trouble.  Hoo boy...  Was just about to post that I thought the truck driver was at fault...  Now, CTE at 24?  Drugs??
• Second beanbrawl incident so far this season -- this one in Chicago. 
• Luka Doncic can play tomorrow if he wants.  The league rescinded the technical penalty from Friday night's game, which would've meant a 1-game suspension under the Rasheed Rule of 16 T's in a season.
• University of Denver has won the NCAA men's collegiate hockey championships.

Day 757

• Very interesting lottery story today.  A Tarzana, CA woman wanted to spend $40 on the lottery.  A "rude man" bumped in to her, causing her to purchase a $30 ticket of a game she didn't wish to play.  But, as the rules go, she's stuck with it, so she scratched the ticket...
• ... A TEN MILLION DOLLAR WINNING TICKET!!!

Some more Thursday Opening Day attendance numbers:

• 35,052 (supposedly) in Washington.  After a 1:16 rain delay, there may have been about 500 people left by the time the Mets won the game.
• 44,723 in Anaheim to see Ohtani pitching.  We'll see what tonight holds...
• 35,508 in Arizona.

13 games today, the full slate starts Saturday.

• Ronald Acuna has already started the feud with ex-teammate Freddie Freeman, now with the Dodgers -- saying Freeman was a clubhouse problem...  Hoo boy...  
• It appears the sanctions are in for Will Smith:  He is banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years, but will keep the current Best Actor Oscar and will be allowed to be nominated and win, should he do so.  No word on what happens as far as the presenter of next year's Best Actress Oscar.  (The tradition is that the previous year's Best Actor presents that year's Best Actress, and vice versa.)  I guess the Academy is so fucking attached to Harvey Weinstein, John Wayne and Roman Polanski that it can't do the right thing regarding any of these men!
• Yes, The Duke gets included.  When Marlon Brando won a Best Actor Oscar many years ago, he sent -- in protest -- a Native American woman to accept it.  John Wayne nearly stormed the stage to physically take her out -- once and for all!  Brando never attended the Academy Awards afterward.
• We have our first MLB ejection, and it's apparently a pitcher for the Nationals, who beaned a Mets batter -- the fourth such beaning of the young season, which caused the benches to clear.
• Luka Doncic will be suspended from the Dallas Mavericks' season-closing game on Sunday -- he has reached the Rasheed Wallace Rule of 16 technical fouls.  Karl Anthony-Towns of the Timberwolves has also been recently suspended for reaching his 16th technical.  Two players have 15 entering the final weekend, four have 14.
  
• Scottie Scheffler may save us all this weekend.  He has a five-shot lead through two rounds of The Masters -- take him out, however, and Tiger would be in striking distance at +1 -- second place is -3.  So the +110 on the cut actually cashes.  
• Dabo Sweeney of Clemson has basically said to get ready for a Power 5 Division in football -- that the problems of the Power 5 are not solvable by the NCAA.  I think it's too late for any such national sanctioning body of any kind, given some states' bigotry and Federal law, myself.   

More Opening Day numbers, as more teams open for the first time on Friday:

• Of course the Yankees got 46,097 -- and it was against the Red Sox.  Which means you damn well know what ESPN's game Sunday night is...
• Detroit drew 43,490
• Philadelphia, 44,232
• Tampa...  25,025.  That experiment is deceased, people.  It is time to move that team.  And far past time.  
• Colorado got 48,027
• 35,462 for the Twins opener in Minnesota
• And the Giants got 40,853

So most of the Friday openers look to be half-decent.

• And Florida Man strikes again!  A middle-school teacher was arrested for disrupting his class taking their state exams in junior high with loud music, ripping off his shirt, and yelling.  It makes me wonder what else this teacher was doing this school year!   
• He apparently was protesting the state exams, but made the stress on the kids worse with his actions, including eventually invoking security procedures and putting the school on lockdown!

Day 756

•  Aw shit, here we go again...  On a day where Augusta was especially unkind, Tiger Woods won his first victory on Thursday -- he made it through 18 holes.  
• The bad news for the rest of us is the media is getting the drums together.  He shot 71 and is tied for 10th after the first round.  Im of Korea somehow extracted a 67 out of Augusta today for a one-shot lead.
• Oh boy...  If today's Opening Day crowd in Washington is any indication, look out.
• Now, I must premise this by saying there's a breakout of BA.2 Omicron in Congress:  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and at least one US Senator have tested positive for COVID.  The spreader event appears to be an ultra-high-end dinner last weekend in Washington.
• That said, if tonight's crowd in the game I'm watching between the Mets and Nationals is any indication...  This lockout did some serious damage to the game.  Again.  FUCK ROB MANFRED!   
• At least two more coaches are joining in the Brian Flores lawsuit against the NFL.

Here are some official attendance figures -- remembering, people this is OPENING DAY:

• 35,112 at Wrigley, Cubs vs. Brewers.  (Capacity, about 41,600)
• 25,459 in Kansas City, the first game of the Guardians vs. the Royals.  (Capacity:  about 38,000)
• St. Louis, at least, got 46,256 against the AA Pirates.  (But that capacity is about 60,000!)
• The defending World Champions (barf) Cobb County:  They at least pretty much sold out the stadium, 40,545 for a stated capacity of just under 41,000.

Day 755

• Cue the gnashing.  The Lakers are eliminated.  Would NOT be shocked to see LeBron headed elsewhere this year, then waiting to see where his son lands a year or two down from that.  But Russell Westbrook?  Really?  
• Can we please fucking stop with the Tiger jocking for Augusta?  If that guy makes it 36 holes at all, it's a victory.  First tourney in 18 months, but we've got an ESPN cocksucker thinking Tiger will win because he's the GOAT.  One betting site has Tiger +110 to make the cut.  THAT is reasonable.   
• And will you motherfuckers just give me that money if you're going to throw it away so blatantly?  With a charge of bets just this week, Tiger Woods is now the leading golfer, in both bets and money, to be wagered on for The Masters.
• Fan Controlled Football, which already has had Johnny Manziel on it's games, has just added...  Terrell Owens.  Good God, the arenas won't be able to contain the size of their egos!!!!   
• The judge in the DeShaun Watson lawsuit says Watson must disclose how much sex he's tried to have with massage therapists.  That shit gives people who need actual muscle work a bad name -- as someone with a racked back (and who remembers how we, as a family, had to beat and bang Dad back into shape so he could go to work the next day almost every school night!), I speak of it.   
• Tomorrow's Opening Day will bring two new technologies to MLB:  First, when there's a replay review, the umpires will actually verbally, over the PA, give the result.
• Second, pitchers and catchers can use a particular signaling system to do pitches, rather than risk signs being stolen.  It was tested over the course of the last number of months for efficiency.
• Six different attorney generals are about to consider going after the NFL for sexual harassment and similar claims.  When.  Is.  Someone.  Putting.  Football.  Itself.  On.  Trial!!!???   
• And you can probably add professional wrestling to it!  WWE is going to have to crown new NXT tag team champions and somehow eep, oop, and ark their way out of that they had to fire Nash Carter because of a credible claim of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, a professional wrestler herself.
• There are also apparent claims some pro-Nazi statements may have had a role in this.

Day 754

• Kansas, with a huge comeback, wins the 2022 NCAA men's basketball championship. 
• So now we get ready for The Masters on Wednesday and Opening Day on Thursday.
• And the Tigers and Orioles have scrapped their Wednesday spring finale -- lack of available pitching.  I guess that makes sense.  Why expend the pitching you may need as early as Thursday for games that count?
• In a move that the pro-death cult of NFL fans will almost certainly slam, there is now word that the NFL is actually pushing for flag football to be added to the 2028 Olympics in Australia.

Day 753

Starting with Wrestlemania stuff:

• LOLROMANWINS.  Once again, as in the Saturday Ronda-Charlotte match, the match and especially the finish looked disjointed.
• Orange Man Bad has been defeated again, by his best friend Vince.  For the worst Stunner sell in history!  I know you're 76, asshole...  But if you can't do the spot due to age, don't do the spot!
• Pat McAfee is too good at this for what he actually does.
• Word from knowledgeable sources says there's a very real chance at least one night of Mania didn't get much above 65,000 fans (via WrestleTix), even though the attendance was listed at over 75,000 for both nights!  WWE is known to exaggerate that -- badly.
• A running rumor is that, when Ronda Rousey found out Stone Cold Steve Austin was main-eventing Night 1, she almost walked then and there!  Might explain the Charlotte victory... 

Other stuff:

• South Carolina is the women's NCAA basketball champion.
• If Kansas wins tonight's NCAA men's final, "ronnieg9513" will have the highest score in the ESPN pool, outright.
• If North Carolina does, "JacobWylie24" will technically win over "WinItForRoy", as the latter did not submit a tiebreaker score.
• That wins nothing, mind you, but I would think some bragging rights and maybe ESPN will come up with something because there will be, regardless of result, one clear winner.
• 
  

Day 752

• And, as if March Madness fate wanted to hit, there goes BOTH my selections for the title game.
• Could this be the NCAA basically admitting they are a relic of the past and not bothering?  Because that was one of the most obvious rigging situations in history, if you ask me...  
• As of right now, there is no LSU men's basketball team.  The controversies and NCAA violations have sent EVERY SCHOLARSHIP PLAYER from the university.
• Six more sacrifices to the NRA -- rampage in Sacramento about bar time Saturday night!  And this one was apparently a clean getaway.   
• And ANOTHER mass shooting earlier Saturday night:  11 shot at a Dallas concert, one taken out.
• Will Smith has quit the Academy.  He can give back the Oscar anytime now.   
• No one, however, is going to stop (Kan)Ye (West) from accepting awards at the Grammys tonight, should he win any.
• Fuck Ye.  Disgrace to his race AND his profession.  
• WWE finally gets it's turn.  Wrestlemania Night One last night:

1. Off to an auspicious start.  First match had to be cut short because of a knee injury.
2. On balance, once again, WWE takes an underwhelming Mania build and makes something out of it.
3. Cody Rhodes has just started the road to his funeral.  As in, I believe he will be Owen Hart-ed by a very angry Vince.  But on HIS timetable.  The bastard tends to work that way.  
4. Sounds to me as if the Seth Rollins-Becky Lynch couple MAY be taking more time off to raise the kid?
5. Ronda Rousey is NOT a sports entertainer.  Not able to dial things back to "fake fighting" levels, the match with Charlotte (Flair) came off clunky, and the booking was shit.  You have her escape two different Charlotte finishers, do the ref bump false finish, and Flair wins clean with a kick?
6. Of course, you could be New Day and Sheamus, who had a tag match scheduled, and had it cut (and hopefully moved to tonight!).
7. One of the reasons for that was the Hall of Fame presentation, which, of course, quickly became one more tour de force for The Undertaker.
8. And the other, probably, was that massive cheer, still echoing in many ears in Dallas today, when Stone Cold Steve Austin finally came out for his first (and admittedly last) match in nearly 20 years.
9. Nice touch, though:  Kevin Owens, his opponent, was arrested for badmouthing Texas by two real Texas Rangers after the match.  In kayfabe (AKA storyline).  Anyone who knows Texas and Texans realizes that they had to have an exit strategy to take the Stunnered Owens from the ring and get him out of there any degree of safely.

Day 750

• Doing this late, and refraining from all April Foolery...
• Hope Solo has been arrested on DWI and child abuse charges.
• The World Cup Draw occurred today.  United States actually gets a good draw -- England, Iran, and the Ukraine pod winner from June -- and then they face the A group in the R16, which is headed by the Netherlands, who haven't been up to their usual standard lately.  Damage can be done with this draw, but the USA has to be ready.  They are favored to advance, second with England.
• Brazil open as betting favorites.
• OK, I guess it's time for Wrestlemania Week Stuff:

1. To give you an idea of how far the WWE has cratered the last couple of years, the winner of the 2022 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (previously won by the likes of The Big Show, Cesaro, and others of more repute) was Madcap Moss, a low-end tag-team partnership guy.
2. Who was promptly destroyed seconds later when his partner, Baron Corbin, had his Wrestlemania 39 opponent, Drew McIntyre, show up.
3. Hall of Fame tonight.  They gave Scott Steiner a live mic and he actually behaved!!!  (Doing his brother Rick and his nephew, NXT star Bron Breakker (who inducted The Steiner Brothers), proud.)
4. Also inducted, Booker T's wife, Sharmell.
5. And when they inducted Warrior Award (yuck) winner Shad Gaspard, I don't know if it was Warrior's wife or the other woman, but at least the last line was right, with Shad's son -- whose life Shad saved, trading his own to a Southern California riptide in the process -- next to them:  "Women are known for who they are.  Men are known for what they do."
6. Vader's wife and son accepted the honor for Leon White.  
7. Vince McMahon is going on...  and on...  and on...........  about The Undertaker.  The crowd, after one too many Steve Austin "What?"s, was warned that one more would bring Taker out -- not to accept the Hall of Fame, mind you -- but to kick everyone's ass before he does.
8. Another 30 minutes later, Mark Calloway left with three words:  "Never say never."  There is word that Cody Rhodes is backing out of going to WWE (good call if that's right!!!!) and Seth Rollins would need an opponent.  But no, Taker...
9. In the ring:  Most interesting card of the weekend was and is going to be the first Ring of Honor card with Tony Khan at the helm.
10. It does appear that Khan will be intermingling ROH and AEW, but, with the number of people he has, that's probably not a bad thing.
11. Minoru Suzuki finally has an American wrestling championship, for the first time in his career, snagging the ROH World Television Championship.
12. The WWE is going to have a hard time topping -- with anything!!! -- the bloody brawl for the ROH Tag Team Championships between AAA titlists FTR and GCW and ROH champions, the 2022 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Cup champions, The Briscoe Brothers.
13. However, after FTR won the ROH titles, The Young Bucks had to ruin it, setting up an AEW Dynamite match for Wednesday between the two for both the AAA and ROH titles.
14. New Japan Young Lion on excursion Wheeler Yuta won the first championship of his career, winning the ROH Pure Championship in an upset victory.
15. And Jonathan Gresham unified the ROH Heavyweight Championship he won the Interim belt of in December, but was stopped with Jay Lethal and producer Sonjay Dutt turned heel...
16. Only to have the long-awaited in-ring return of Samoa Joe to blow all that up.
17. Lince Dorado was on Renee Paquette (FKA Young)'s podcast to explain the beef between himself and Izzy Silyagi's father -- and we still aren't sure exactly what happened Thursday night!  A number of Dorado's supporters are saying it did get violent.  It APPEARS Dorado and Cody's beef about the chokeslam Cody's daughter took in the match discussed in this blog several years ago came to blows Thursday night -- as well as possibly Dorado's purported ties with pedophile Chasyn Rance.
18. Various independent cards have also peppered the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the last two days, and will tomorrow, leading up to tomorrow night's first night of Mania 38 at AT&T Stadium.