Scarcely a day goes by lately without hearing about more layoffs, buyouts and other dire financial developments in the newspaper industry. The business is getting chewed up by the Internet and other competitors for advertising dollars, and it's only a matter of time before some of the lesser publications become at risk of folding.

But I have a short-term solution to some of their problems on the expense side of the ledger: Quit publishing sports sections, which will save a ton in salary and newsprint.

Unfathomable, you say? Well, think again.

I've been looking closely at sports sections for the last week and all they seem to do is is re-run old stories. To wit:

 

The managers in baseball's All-Star Game more or less ran out of pitchers.

The Washington Redskins acquired a player who has one year (or less) of tread left on his tires.

Michelle Wie failed to complete the full 72 holes of a golf tournament.

Danica Patrick got into a confrontation with another driver on a weekend on which she did not win.

The last five MLS games of the week ended in ties, two of them of the scoreless variety.

Chris Evert looked graceful and lovely on grass.

And, Greg Norman attempted to play the final round of a golf major with both hands around his throat.

See, nothing new ever happens in sports.

This is farewell for The Bottom 10, which made its debut at the beginning of the year. I'm way behind on building out a couple of the Web sites that are supposed to help fund my retirement, plus summer is too slow a time of the year to consistently find 10 slimeballs, screw-ups, scandals and loveable losers to populate The Bottom 10 each week. With that in mind, I offer up a Bottom 10 with a twist - massive misses on my part from among the more than 250 victims I've picked on this year. So without further adieu, here they are:

(10) Los Angeles Dodgers: I all but handed the NL West divisional title to the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 27. Ooops.

(9) Marshawn Lynch: On June 16, I lambasted the Bills running back for not owning up to his role in a hit-and-run accident in late May and suggested that maybe the NFL should consider sitting him down for half a season. What was I thinking? Only Adam Jones or members of the Cincinnati Bengals get that kind of treatment unless guns are involved. A warning from Roger Goodell and a few hours of community service - and trust me that the judge performed a community service by yanking Lynch's driver's license - should be sufficient.

(8) Florida Marlins: I kicked off the baseball season by chewing out the Marlins for spending less on their entire roster than the Yankees are paying A-Rod this year. Turns out they have the right idea. And doing it the Marlins way has the added advantage of not getting hometown newspaper coverage of your team's games hijacked by Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.

(7) Boston Red Sox: Back in February I wrote, "Sure, he isn't going to cost them anything, but can the BoSox brass seriously expect Bartolo Colon to give them as many as two quality starts between now and Curt Schilling's return?" Sure enough, he gave them exactly two quality starts this spring en route to a 4-2 record with a 4.09 ERA. Schilling, meanwhile, is DL'd for at least the '08 season if not for the rest of his life.

(6) Bill Bavasi: In the context of criticizing a couple of managers, I gave the Mariners GM a thumbs-up for cancelling the post-game buffet and making players stand at their lockers after a loss to speak with reporters. I should have been shredding him for assembling a roster so anemic that everyone in the organization has been instructed to take iron supplements retroactive to 2002.

(5) Major League Soccer: I chided the league last month for not clamping down on bad fan behavior, specifically for throwing objects on the field. In retrospect, I should have congratulated MLS for actually having fans considering nearly a quarter of the loop's games (25 of 104) this season have ended in ties.

(4) The Williams sisters: Lamenting the terrible showing by Americans at the French Open, I opined. "Andy Roddick's fine, but the nation's tennis fans yearn for another Sampras, Agassi or anyone named Williams, provided she's focused on tennis instead of outside distractions." Soooooo, John, how'd the whole Wimbledon thing work out over the weekend?

(3) ESPN: I picked on the Bristol boys for hiring Bobby Knight as a college basketball analyst despite his history of sparring with the media. Knight turned out to be the best studio analyst they had for the NCAA Tournament.

(2) C.C. Sabathia: I picked on the portly pitcher on May 11 while pointing out that Manchester United loses money in part because the team is paying 14.25 percent in interest on a portion of the loan Malcolm Glazer took out to buy Man U. "If you've got the scratch to take a controlling interest of a business this large, shouldn't you have met someone somewhere along the way who could have fronted the money at a rate that couldn't be confused for C.C. Sabathia's ERA?" Here's C.C.'s stat line since then: 3-3 record, but a stellar 2.79 ERA.

(1) The Boston Celtics: Like many other people, I wasn't impressed with how the Celts handled the early stages of the NBA playoffs. "The Celtics walked away from their second-round battle with the Cleveland Cavaliers with their title ambitions still intact but performing about as convincingly as Elizabeth Berkley in 'Showgirls,'" I wrote. "I don't want to say Pistons in six is a sure bet, but I hear Steve Wynn is accepting Charles Barkley's $25K ticket on that proposition as payment in full." Can I get a do-over on that one?

 

Catching up with the best of the worst from the past week in sports:

(10) Indiana University: Dare we call it the Curse of Bobby Knight? An Indianapolis Star column was curiously harsh in proclaiming, "(T)he epitaph can be written on Rick Greenspan's reign of (t)error," but Hoosier faithful must be praying that the athletic director's announcement of his impending departure will bring an end to years of missteps by the entire administration since Knight was forced out as basketball coach. It's ironic that Greenspan reportedly was opposed to the hiring a year ago, but now every job interview he ever endures is going to begin with, "How could you have better handled the Kelvin Sampson situation?"

(9) The Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles: Saturday's oddball loss was clearly an anomaly since winning teams have only been no-hit five times in the modern era, but it does speak to the team's bigger issue . . . aside from that hideous franchise name. Though they lead the West Division with the third-best record in the American League and clearly have some pitching, the Angels' lineup lacks punch. They're in the bottom five in baseball in slugging percentage and suffered back-to-back shutouts to the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles over the weekend before salvaging a 1-0 win on Sunday. The front office needs to add a power bat to the lineup or invent a way to start winning games by a scores of zero to minus-one.

(8) Alabama football: Reports of trouble for the Tide just keep rolling in, the latest being Jimmy Johns' arrest on felony drug charges and immediate dismissal from the football team. Fellow LB Prince Hall was already indefinitely suspended during the offseason for unspecified team infractions, DT Jeremy Elder got booted after his own run-in with the law and several players have also racked up disorderly conduct charges. Heck, even color commentator Kenny "The Snake" Stabler was accused of his third DUI this month. Swerve, Tide, swerve.

(7) Shaq's apology: I'm not even going to try to get into the (de)merits of Shaq's beef with Kobe or his diss-ability as a rapper. No, this is purely about the subsequent apology, which concluded with the requisite "If I hurt anyone's feelings, I apologize." Athletes, TV talking heads, celebs and politicians always use that phrase after screwing up, and I can't figure out why they feel compelled to say "if?" Of course you hurt someone, otherwise you wouldn't be apologizing in the first place. The whole phrase needs to die faster than Shaq's music career.

(6) New York Giants: It had to be done because the defending Super Bowl champions just have too many promising young QBs on the roster, but releasing veteran backup Jared Lorenzen was demoralizing to those of us who've ever required two trips to do the job when the coach barked, "Haul your butt down here." Standing 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds, Lorenzen was a move-the-pile, quarterback- sneak specialist worthy of two of the sport's better nicknames: The Hefty Lefty and The Abominable Throwman. Garbage time in Giants games just won't be the same without him.

(5) The latest Adam Jones situation: Critics are understandably slow to cut him a break but the Dallas Cowboys defensive back is entitled to a little common courtesy when he asks now to be called by his given name rather than "Pacman." Is it a superficial PR move to disassociate himself from mountains of trouble for which there is no one to blame but Pacman Jones? Probably. But in a world in which it's David Ortiz instead of Dave or Davy, Donovan McNabb instead of Don or Donny and Patrick Ewing instead of Pat, Jones' wish should be respected. . . at least until the next time he screws up.

(4) Darrell Arthur's reps: Somebody dropped the ball before Thursday's NBA Draft, and it resulted in the Kansas forward's stock falling like Hans Gruber after he lost his grip on Holly McClane's Rolex. Expected to go as high as No. 15, "Shady" fell to 27th and lost as much as $1 million in guaranteed money amidst rumors that he has some sort of kidney ailment. The Washington Wizards put Arthur through an exam last week and reportedly found nothing wrong. That's vital information that the player's reps needed to get into the hands of every NBA team immediately instead of leaving them to scramble for info while the first round was in progress.

(3) Darrel Arthur: Arthur must feel like someone three years into a marriage that wasn't rock-solid from the start - alternately loved and hated every 20 minutes or so. Drafted by New Orleans at No. 27, Arthur was shipped in exchange for cash to the Portland Trail Blazers, who then packaged him with forward Joey Dorsey in a deal with Houston for the rights to Nicolas Batum. The Rockets then sent Arthur to Memphis for a second-round pick and the rights to Donte Greene, who was selected one spot after the Kansas standout. On the bright side, Arthur showed more movement in one night than Joe Barry Carroll displayed in his final two NBA seasons.

(2) Shawn Chacon: When the boss tells you to report to the manager's office, your ultimate reaction can't be to go all Sprewellish on him to matter how badly the conversation deteriorates. The pitcher knew he was about the recipient of bad news and demanded that GM Ed Wade break it to him in the clubhouse instead of adjourning to the office. Chacon is now damaged goods, which in the goofy world of sports means he remains completely employable - but just on a string of one-year contracts and just for $2 million a pop. Where do I sign up?

(1) Ed Wade: The Astros general manager has a bit of a reputation for a short fuse, and the Chacon incident isn't going to help. Wade went into a rant, spiced it up with profanity and was well on his way to creating a very public scene before Chacon took it to a new level by applying his hands to the GM's throat. Wade apparently hasn't been to enough human resources training sessions to know bad news has to be delivered in private. And if the intended recipient refuses to listen to news of his demotion? Call the player's agent and tell him to start earning his 4 percent by passing the news along. Or, at the very least, channel the spirit of Billy Martin and pretend the player is Eddie Whitson. Just don't ever finish second in any dispute, verbal or physical, to the hired hands.

Next week: I recap of six months of The Bottom 10's less-than-greatest hits.

Gosh dang-it. I mutilated this entry today while fooling around with some coding for building tables. I'll try to resurrect it ASAP.

Catching up with the best of the worst from the past week in sports:

(10) Ty Lawson: The North Carolina basketball star has declared for the draft but hasn't ruled out a return to college next fall. Even if he elects to stay with the Tar Heels, Lawson is already making sports' all-too-frequent transition from boxscores to the police blotter. The sophomore point guard was charged Friday with driving after consuming alcohol after being pulled over during the early-morning hours. He was also charged with violating the Chapel Hill noise ordinance and driving with a suspended or revoked license.

(9) MLB managers: Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen returns to The Bottom 10 after nearly a month away, efficiently dissing his boss and throwing his hitting coach under the bus in the same outburst. It was more than enough to fend off Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren's rather uninspiring in a 45-second tirade that had to be bleeped 13 times. McLaren fell short of Bottom 10 honors by failing to name the players responsible for Seattle's miserable season. On the other hand, give GM Bill Bavasi point for creativity. He removed the postgame buffet from the Mariners clubhouse and hid all the towels in the locker room, forcing players to wait around and talk to the media after another miserable performance.

(8) Continental Indoor Football League: The loop lost its best team on the eve of the playoffs when the Rochester Raiders (12-0) dropped out in response to the latest minor-league sports farce. The aptly named Flint Phantoms were nowhere to be seen on Sunday, resulting in a forfeit to Rochester in the regular-season finale. When the Raiders inquired to the CIFL about seizing the Phantoms' $10,000 performance bond in order to pay their arena rent and make good to season ticket holders and sponsors (a $25,000 hit all together), they were told that Flint didn't post one. In fact, it turned out Rochester was the only member of the 14-team league that had put up the money. Media reports said the Raiders asked for their money to be returned and were rebuffed by the CIFL, so the ownership withdrew from the league barely six hours after Flint's no-show.

(7) Mike Milbury: Tiger Woods was joking (but just barely) when he said , "I don't think anybody really watches hockey anymore." Milbury, an NBC commentator, wasn't amused and referred to the world's No. 1 golfer as "Tiger Wuss." Milbury was mocking Woods for taking two months to return from arthroscopic knee surgery, and he finished the thought off with this fine contribution : "Keep your yap shut, Tiger, or I'll send a couple wingers down there - to tidy you up a little bit, meathead." Consider that proof that Woods is mentally tougher than any Don Cherry wannabe out there. P.S.: you gotta love a sport in which guys can make $300K a year with a stats line that reads "2 goals, 6 assists and 225 penalty minutes."

(6) Major Indoor Soccer League: The loop announced that commissioner Steve Ryan had resigned and they were going out of business unless someone can develop a feasible financial plan this summer to justify resuming play. I consider myself to be a pretty enthusiastic fan who keeps up on a lot of what's going on in the sports world, but I have to tell you this: God as my witness, I had no idea the MISL was still in business. I thought they had gone the way of the dinosaur around 2002. There are about 15 sports-related networks available on my cable system and I honestly can't remember running across an indoor soccer game on TV since the Reagan Administration.

(5) Marshawn Lynch: His first-year stats now total 1,115 yards a one hellacious scramble to elude questioning by the police. It's understandable that the Bills running back has lawyered up for more than a week following a hit-and-run accident in Buffalo involving a vehicle registered in his name. Do the math, and you realize it's likely Lynch was the driver, but we won't know for sure until he finally makes himself available for questioning. In the meantime, can't he show some public regard for the victim, making a statement of some sorts expressing relief that the injuries in the incident involving his vehicle were minor?

(4) Cedric Benson: So much for having the court of public opinion tilt in favor of the Chicago Bears running back as he contests a charge of boating while intoxicated stemming from an incident last month in Texas. Over the weekend, Benson was hit with new charges &$151; DWI and running a red light - in Austin. Police say he failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. On the plus side - listen up, Marshawn Lynch - he was reported to be cooperative with authorities following the arrest. And he'll be classy and understanding when the Bears fire his butt in about an hour.

(3) Nicholas Kaczur: Staying with the Bottom 10's NFL theme awhile longer, the New England Partiots offensive lineman gets sympathy for being the first driver in recent memory to get pulled over for doing 76 mph in a 65 zone on the New York State Thruway, where 80 in the right-hand lane often qualifies as Sunday driving. The ticket led to the discovery of the prescription painkiller OxyContin inside his truck, and Kaczur eventually ended up wearing a wire to help police take down his alleged supplier. Based on price and quantity info supplied by police, Kaczur may have dropped six figures on the drug over the last six months. Read my lips Nick: "This is your brain. And this is your brain on drugs . . ."

(2) Rick Dutrow Jr.: The outspoken trainer of Big Brown was having a pretty good spring right up to the point where he projected that winning the Belmont Stakes was a "foregone conclusion." His other nugget for the week was, "These horses just cannot run with Big Brown." And we now know that's a good thing, or else the homestretch portion of the Belmont would have lasted longer than the Chicago Bulls' search for a new coach.

(1) Pitcher Cody Martin and catcher Matt Hill: These guys aren't a battery as much as they are an assault and battery. Playing in the Georgia state high school finals, they combined for a boneheaded moment last weekend in Stephens County's 13-1 loss. Apparently upset with the plate umpire's balls and strikes calls in the game against Cartersville, Martin threw high and Hill ducked low, resulting in Jeff Scott being struck in the mask. The Georgia High School Association responded swiftly with sanctions. Scott was uninjured but apparently was so stunned that he missed the obvious response of ejecting one or both players. Better still, would anyone have blamed Scott if he had charged the mound?