I love reading the newspaper. I get a lot of things out of it. I get "current events" information out of it for my students. I get to read what is going on in the world around me. I read it and am then able to make my own, hopefully, somewhat informed opinions on what I read. I use a lot of it in school and some of it I just like to mull over in my head and use it to make conversation. My favorite section is, not surprisingly, the Sports section. Well...lets just say it has been my favorite section...until now. After reading the news in today's sports page I promptly threw the entire paper into the trash.

In the last month I have had to endure news about Roger Clemens' apparent current...and not so current...affairs. This is why we in education need to use "current events" instead of "current affairs" because...well...the meaning is often not in line with what is appropriate for school. So Clemens is not the saintly vision of the good husband. Oh, well. Sorry, Debbie that your husband, apparently, hasn't been faithful to you. Equally sorry that this information has been shared with the entire world through a media gone mad. Sorry that your husband put himself in a situation that your family could be put up in ridicule by some merciless #### attorney who needs this information to defend his equally #### client in a defamation suit brought about by your husband...who...at this point in time...may or may not have used PED's and HGH during his playing career but who, apparently, is a bit of a #### himself. Actually...I need to correct myself. I'm not really sorry about all of that. More than sorry...I'm a bit po'd that some newspaper man/woman deemed all of this newsworthy and proceeded to beat us to death with it. In my Sports page...my favorite section of my local paper.

I got to hear about how a future NBA superstar (cough, cough) made no qualms about his intent to play in the NBA in as quick a time as he could and was dealing with an agent...while playing B-Ball at USC. Excuse me...my fault...while he was in high school. I got to read how a friend spurned by the agent got so po'd that he started singing to officials louder than the lead singer of a rock band (insert your choice) screaming the lyrics to a song to be faintly heard over the lead guitarist screeching lingering cords that attempt to make the hearing impaired able to hear the faintest whisper. OJ Mayo did what has been done before by a large number of athletes. And the blame is falling everywhere. The agent, the institution, the coach, the player, the NBA's age policy, the friend. etc., etc., etc. They took up space in my favorite section of my local paper...the Sports section...to rail me with all of the sickening accusations and rambling finger pointing that I do so detest. Sadly, they will keep beating me into the ground with it and, yet, they will never offer a remedy to the problem. Just more rambling and finger-pointing.

I got to read how bloggers are evil and are ruining sports. This made me burp up my breakfast because it sounded more to me like a paranoid sportswriter worried about his job than it did anything that made much sense. I don't really think bloggers carry all that much power out there in the "real" world. I think we do a lot of responding to what these simple minded morons write than we do posting things that make any kind of a difference. Personally, I don't think anything that I post here is anything of great value to the world as a whole and I think that holds true for most people that blog...here...and maybe at other places. Maybe I'm being a bit naive but I just don't think we hold the great power some sportswriters seem to think we do. I wish we did because then we might be able to do something about all of the aforementioned rambling and finger-pointing...and wasting space in my Sports page...the favorite part of my local paper with accounts of player's mis-deeds based on reports from "anonymous sources."

I picked up the paper and read about another NFL player breaking some kind of law. I get to read about Marvin Harrison and his gun that was used to SHOOT someone but we don't know who shot it or how...I guess...it ended up back in Marvin's hands after he reported it stolen. In my Sports page I read about former Viking Darrion Scott assaulting his 2 year old son with a plastic laundry bag. The police on some lake in Austin, TX are apparently a bit overzealous in discharging their duties when it comes to boat safety and black NFL players...or maybe it is just Cedric Benson. Or...maybe Benson is the one who has problems when confronted by authority figures. Who knows? Had to wait three days to hear from one of the 15 people on-board Benson's boat to tell us she had to call her dad...on her cell phone...to have him call 911 (the police)...because a "black" friend of hers was getting beat up by police...presumably from the same force that would send out new police once dad got ahold of them. Ryan Perriloux (and if I spelled it wrong...I don't care) has the world at his hands and throws it all away because he can't follow a few simple rules...like stay out of the way of law enforcement officers...go to class...quit smoking dope...follow team rules, etc., etc., etc. As has been posted here on a few occassions the Cincinnati Bengals off-season is generally spent dealing with police blotters and rostered players. Pick almost any college football program and you are sure to see that the Compliance Department of the school has to not only comply with the NCAA...but with the local law enforcement agencies as well. I get to hear about all of this in my Sports page...the favorite part of my local paper.

Today I picked up my paper to see that Barry Bonds had been charged on 14 felony accounts...only to see it changed to 15 later in the day. This was in a headline...in the Sports section...the favorite part of my local paper. I read it because I thought 14 felony charges was a lot. But after reading the article I came to the conclusion that...as has been a lot of the problem with this story from the beginning...there is a bit of grandstanding going on...by the government and by the media. Seems Bonds hasn't been charged with anything he wasn't already charged with. It is just that the judge at Bonds' last hearing ordered the prosecution to re-write the charges. In doing that they were to write them more clearly. Apparently the government can be very clear with more charges. So...instead of the original 4 charges...they threw it up to 14...oops...my fault...now 15 charges. And what happened? Media outlets everywhere jumped all over the new charges. Bloggers went crazy with the news. And it started for me when I picked up my paper. People...!!! Of course they increased the number of charges. This is standard procedure...at least from my limited experience with the judicial system. Prosecutors throw a whole slew of charges against the accused because they need to have something to lose in the negotiation with the defense in pre-trial negotiations. If they go after Bonds on 4 measley charges and lose they have all of that egg on their face and the argument for having the government stay out of stuff like this picks up steam. With 15 charges they have some negotiating power. Now when they whittle it down the original 4 charges may stick around and they will still have to hope that Bonds admits to doing something wrong. But I got the gyst of this story in my Sports section...the favorite part of my local paper.

My local paper has a section titled, "News of the Weird" that reports strange goings on around the world. I suggested that they include all of the mis-doings (new word?) of any and all people associated with the sports world. They said they didn't have enough space to write it all in that section on a daily basis. Well...no real surprise there...is there? But now that I have ranted a bit would you like to know why I really threw my paper away today?

It is because with all of the #### (BLEEP) I have to read in my sports section on a daily basis I search hard for anything good. Generally reading about sports personalities that aren't problematic away from their chosen arena of competition are considered a good thing...in my Sports page...the favorite section of my local paper. And today two of those "good things" retired. Annika Sorenstam has been as strong a competitor as the LPGA has ever seen...and there are a lot of great women golfers past and present. OK...more so past than present...but the point is made. She is retiring after this season. Justine Henin...is also hanging it up. She no longer has the desire to compete at the level she has played at for so long. While she is not my favorite female professional tennis player I have always admired the tenacity with which she attacked her opponent. This is the stuff that sport is about. The things these two accomplished on their respective fields of endeavor are what sports are to me and these are the things I want to see in my Sports page...the favorite part of my local paper. The Sports page...the favorite part of my local paper...often gives recognition to high school athletes in a ####-hum, half a page, we need to say something about them, sort of way. While bombarding me with criminal activities and cheating athletes and all of those horrible coaches who are to blame for all of the criminal behavior of their rostered players.

This kind of stuff belongs in the entertainment section or the regular news section. This isn't about sports coverage anymore. It is in the sports section because these buffoons make their living playing sports. But these aren't sports stories. They are ridiculous fodder for the scandal pages. Sportswriters need to write about people who deserve the ink and give credit where credit is due. Stop inundating us with the latest misdeeds of Mr. NFL Dipstick or MLB Bozo and the great pitcher who has problems with infidelity or PED's or the extremely talented player who can't stay out of fights at strip clubs. Go beyond the obvious...do a little digging...and write a decent sports story. About something decent...and sports/newsworthy. Or...get the hell out of the way and let us bloggers have a whack at it. We probably couldn't be any worse...even with all of the so called hatred between bloggers that is out there. But that is for a different post...maybe! Give me back my Sports page...and make it my favorite part of the local paper...again.

And if they won't...like I said earlier today on a comment to Lisa...a lonely cabin on a remote mountain somewhere is starting to sound really good to me.

And that's the bottom line...

BOOMER SOONER!!!