Sour Grapes

Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden resigned over the signing bonus skimming arrangement that saw some in the club take huge chunks of bonuses paid to signees from the Dominican Republic. With the U.S. government investigating, that might be the least of his problems. For his part, Bowden made the Cincinnati Reds worse in his days there, and took over a .500 team their first year after moving from Montreal and turned them into a joke...speaking of the Expos, did not know that among the banners hung from the rafters at the Bell Centre is one saluting the Expos time in Montreal and a few of their players...it may be just over the Ontario border but Quebec is a far better place for a sporting event. As I walked up to grab a beer, I noted no sign for a limit. So I asked how many I could get and the answer was "you're the boss, as many as you want." You could also still get beer in the third period. Amazing...I'm contemplating taking up a collection to close the mere $1.5 million gap between the LA Dodgers and Manny Ramirez so it can be over and done with. Four months of this talk is too much when neither have better options...SI.com's Don Banks says Ray Lewis is the big loser of the first weekend of NFL free agency, having talked of interest in the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets. Problem is neither have made any moves his way and now the Ravens have him at their mercy. Sounds a lot like Manny Ramirez plight, no?...Manchester United took their second title of the season, adding the Carling Cup to their World Club Championship in January. Still to come: the EPL title, looking a virtual certainty with a soon-to-be 10 point lead assuming they beat Newcastle United Wednesday, plus the FA Cup and Champions League...Don Cherry is anti-Alexander Ovechkin, and Ovechkin gave Cherry the best reply you give an old curmudgeon like that: he treated him as irrelevant. Good for Ovi...the Denver Broncos may move QB Jay Cutler, and Cutler is livid about it and refusing to meet with the team to discuss the matter. So if you're scoring at home, he's sour about the idea of leaving, and making it impossible to stay...the Detroit Red Wings have one fighting major in three months. Yeah, fighting is "part of the game" so they must really be suffering in the standings. Or not. They have eight fights all year, 13 lower than the second lowest team in Washington. Since 2005, they have 50 fights. The Anaheim Ducks have 66 this year...you bet two women you can have sex with both for 12 hours. They bet you can't. You pop a few Viagara to enhance your performance. You make it past 12 hours. Then, you die...back later with your PTP.

Shut it, Sid

Jerry Jones once again is saying the information about Terrell Owens being released is "misinformed". Nice touch dropping a gag order on your coaching staff too, Double J. That'll do wonders for the perception Wade Phillips is merely your puppet...the Toronto Raptors must be wondering how it is possible Shawn Marion grabs 15 boards in a game. For most of them lightweights, that's a good week's worth of games...are the Oscar's done yet? After Saturday's Spirit Awards, even if Mickey Rourke won the Oscar for best actor, my bet is they changed it after seeing this incredible speech. Honestly, if award shows were like this, they'd be worth seeing. Not for young ears!...PGA ticket sales and TV ratings have been down significantly since Tiger Woods went out. Guessing the PGA and the sponsors will be glad to have Eldrick back this week...Marvin Harrison is said to be ready to ask the Indianapolis Colts for his release. This is what is commonly referred to as a "face saving measure" when you're about to be cut...the Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby feud took a great step up yesterday as a chirping Crosby received a nice wave goodbye from Ovechkin in a 5-2 Caps win. The talk continued post-game where Ovechkin, like most of the NHL it seems, cracked Crosby for his constant whining, and Crosby said he didn't like Ovechkin's style. What Alexander The Great failed to mention was that the Pittsburgh Penguins might be the first team to have the top two in scoring players on the defending conference champions to not make the playoffs the year following. That would've been real good. Shut your mouth, Sid...the off-the-record talk in Montreal says there is rampant drug use and prostitute use in the Montreal Canadiens camp, says Gabe Morency at Drive This, a guy with deep ties in Montreal...it is pretty funny that all this talk of how certain Habs - Chris Higgins and Carey Price most notably - are partying a bit much comes around when the team is struggling. One thing for certain: they are partying no more or less than they were than earlier in the year when they were tearing the league up but it becomes an issue when the team is losing and some stop turning a blind eye and look to stir the pot...still minus internet service thanks to those D-Bags at Rogers who are showing their ineptness extends beyond baseball. Fortunately, have access at the office...back later with a crucial PTP...wanna hear what senility sounds like? Check out Don Cherry on Saturday night. Interesting comment at 6:39, too...have a great Monday.

The Price is wrong, bitch

See Alexander Ovechkin's 42nd goal last night? Wow. All I can say. Watch it here...Jay Mohr filled in for Jim Rome earlier this week and offered this beauty on former NBAer Jayson Williams wife filing for divorce saying she doesn't feel safe around him - he's the guy who manslaughtered his limo driver years ago - because he urinates in the sink and takes Cialis: "how can you take Cialis and pee in the sink? Things are not going the same way! Maybe you do 'the ski jumper'?" Amazing...sounds more and more like Terrell Owens will be staying with the Dallas Cowboys if Jerry Jones hints are to be believed at face value. Get it? "Jerry Jones" and "face" used in the same sentence. Only at RM do you get this kind of stuff for free...Manchester United put on an absolute clinic yesterday in downing Fulham 3-0, adding to 'keeper Edwin van der Sar's clean sheet total which now has the all-time European mark in site, and adding to the PTP totals with the cover. United now sit five points clear of second place Liverpool in the EPL table with 13 games to go...Toronto Raptors coach Jay Triano get booted with five minutes to go. Surely I'm not the only one who saw that and figured he did it to go write a resignation letter. All kidding aside, the February 9th issue of ESPN The Magazine says "word out of the executive suite says Triano has a great shot at keeping the job" and that he and Bryan Colangelo "have a great connection" and "see the game the same way"...the NBA trade deadline is 3pm today. What, no 12 hour shows on our sports networks?...Al Strachan tells Hardcore Hockey Talk that Alexei Kovalev's issue is a simple one: a single guy enjoying the night life on Crescent Street far too much. Guessing leaving him behind on a road trip then might only increase his partying if he's not wise. But seriously, Strachan says he'll be back on the weekend and a decision will be made in the two weeks leading up to the deadline on whether to move him, knowing right now they're not likely to get value for him...Sir Charles Barkley has - finally - apologized publicly for his DUI earlier this year and returns to the TNT crew tonight. He also publicly thanked Alex Rodriguez and the NBA trade deadline for giving him great cover and keeping this off the front pages of all papers. The latter part isn't true...how to spend $1.3 billion, in under three minutes...folks, ignore the baseball will get a salary cap mental midgets talking. It will not happen and here's a slight clue as to why: league revenues last year were $6.5 billion. Say the players demand 55% of that - a slightly low number relative to what other leagues are doing - teams would need to spend $3.6 billion total to achieve that (rounding up slightly here). That may not seem daunting to you, until you realize the league's teams spent $2.669 billion on salaries last year. There are 30 teams. That averages to $120 million per team. You think that is going to happen? Even assuming that the floor is $80 million, that would give you a ceiling of somewhere around double that. Fine, have it, but expect about a dozen teams to close up shop in short order. That arrangement hurts those at the bottom end FAR more than it hurts the top revenue teams. Look no further than the NHL - you think the Toronto Maple Leafs care about the cap being in place? Hell no. They're more profitable than ever, save for missing playoff dates. But teams like Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa, Florida are DYING because of the salary floor. Great idea, if you want to see a third of the teams disappear. Moreover, a cap in baseball will never happen because not only does the union not want it to - though they should if they could get that 55%, the owners that matter don't want it either...have a great Thursday, back later with your PTP.

Time to bat clean-up

If Alex Rodriguez is at all smart, or has even paid a bit of attention, he'd best come clean now and say that he used in 2003, that he's sorry, and it has never happened since and never will again - even if he never used at the time. The way things went for Roger Clemens in his denial in the face of (some) evidence is nothing he wants any part of. I'll repeat what I said years back: baseball should have declared amnesty to everyone who came forward with the promise of no punishment, with the understanding you'd be treated far more rashly if you were later implicated. The whole "secret" tests of 2003 was a sham, and Bud "$18 million man" Selig should lose his job for presiding over such a mess...shame about that Atlanta Hawks pick when Mike Bibby ends up getting scratched at the last minute, but finally back to .500 on PTP for the year, and off to a strong start for February. Today, playing Manchester United at -0.5 -155, kickoff at 11am as the leaders travel to London to face West Ham, coverage on The Score (in HD!) at 11am...Chelsea dropped points at home again yesterday in a scoreless draw with Hull, and look nowhere near the side that was dominating in August through October. Liverpool won 3-2 at Pompey to jump well ahead of Chelsea...the Toronto Raptors scored all of 70 points in their latest loss at not-so-mighty Memphis. That they're not blowing away the field in the latest poll question is shocking...can't say I saw the Toronto Maple Leafs performance coming last night, a 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs just don't seem right at the moment...if you can figure out why the LA Lakers deal Vladimir Radmanovic to the Charlotte Bobcats for Adam Morrison - other than they fear what he'll do around snow the coming all-star break - I'd love to hear it. I know the Lakers are looking to get bigger, but Morrison?...it took Alexander Ovechkin a mere 296 games to score his 200th goal of his career. That is damn impressive, fifth fastest all-time...for my money, Ste-rod is a far more clever nickname than A-Roid...today's picture comes courtesy of one of Raptorschat's finest posters, well done Scully... Have a great Sunday. Go Man U!

Chickens are athletic

Any guesses as to which two numbers are retired by the Miami Heat? If you had Michael Jordan and Dan Marino - yes, THAT Dan Marino - you are correct...ESPN The Magazine on hockey in its January 26th issue: "goals are only a bit more common than broadcast deals."...Michael Vick thinks chicken are clever and agile. I predict cock fighting in the future...good to see former Major Leaguer and full-time white trash John Rocker hasn't learned to keep his hate to himself, going off about a Jew...the Cleveland Cavs are 20-0 at home to start the season. Of course, now that we're talking about it, you can bet they'll lose in the next week...at the NHL Skills Competition, how awkward was that standing ovation for Vincent Lecavalier and then prolonged wait for the introduction of Alexander Ovechkin to egg it on?...last night's Prime Time Pick went sour as easily as the previous two nights went sweetly. Today's pick comes between 3 and 4pm...having trouble deciding what is more lame: All-Star weekends including skills competitions in general, or people who buy All-Star jerseys of their fav player...one week from a fantastic sports weekend with UFC 94 with a BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre main event on Saturday, and then the small matter of the Super Bowl Sunday. Will beat this weekend's washout...is it just me, or does Cristiano Ronaldo look really uninterested this season?...that the NHL asks people to pay to watch that Young Stars game is a joke. That was the most awful sporting event you'll see this year, and a half hour of my life I'll never get back...4-1 underdog "Sugar" Shane Mosley whipped Antonio Margarito in the first big boxing matchup of the year. Expect some serious gloating from Cam Stewart on Drive This on Monday - he was pumping up what a great value play Mosley was at 4-1...have a great Sunday.

PRIME TIME PICK: A bit earlier than anticipated. Playing the Boston Celtics today at -9 to crush the Dallas Mavs. Enjoy. Get down with Pinnacle.

In a move that would more than likely fix all of the Dallas Cowboys discipline, accountability and divisiveness issues by his sheer presence, the squad might be hotly pursuing Baltimore Ravens free agent Ray Lewis. Wonder if Terrell Owens will do his Lewis dance impression again if that happens? Hell, if I'm Jerry Jones, I make the offer, and give him the head coaching job while he's at it...the Super Bowl coverage has yet to start, but one thing for certain: nobody else will be publishing a Top 10 Quarterback WAG's - Wives and Girlfriends - list like this...the Atlanta Braves are looking to add Andruw Jones after he was released by the L.A. Dodgers. Frankly, for a mere $400k, with the Dodgers picking up the other $20 million and change, I'm shocked more teams aren't looking to gamble. Word is Jones has shed a few pounds, that's a start...if anybody can figure out why Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban, in keeping his tradition of matching fines received by the NBA with donations to charities, is looking to make a donation to the NHL Players Association Goals and Dreams Fund in the names of Steve Moore and Todd Bertuzzi, I'd love ti hear it...in a five month period ending last year, 41 WWE wrestlers tested positive for marijuana. Well, if you can't pop painkillers like candy anymore, what else are these busted up guys to do?...interesting English Premier League stat: if you take away the final five minutes of the game, here's how the standings would look with the points on 85 minutes, with the actual position and points in parenthesis. 1. Arsenal - 45 (41, 5th); 2. Chelsea - 44 (45, 3rd); 3. Manchester United - 43 (47, 1st), Liverpool - 43 (47, 2nd), Aston Villa - 43 (44, 4th)...interesting point about the idea salary caps promote parity: in the last 30 years, there have been 20 champions in Major League Baseball. In the NBA, with a cap? 9...Washington Capital star - and one of the world's most electric players in any sport - Alexander Ovechkin has taken over 100 shots on goal more than the next player in the league...quick poll at the right, enjoy...have a great Wednesday.