Cocaine's A Helluva Drug...

Keep it short and sweet today just before the Madness begins. This one is from the "Just When You've Seen It All" department: Texas Rangers Manager Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine last season. Washington is 57 years old, which is hardly a typical age of someone who wants to "experiment" with cocaine, nevertheless he maintains that was the only time he's used the drug (I have a feeling his nose was growing when he said that). There's a couple of different questions and issues that come up with this one. The most obvious being Washington's credibility and judgement. Other issues would be how can Washington maintain any respect in the clubhouse, particularly a clubhouse with long time drug abuser Josh Hamilton in it? So far everyone seems to be coming to his defense, which isn't too unexpected since everyone who's ever met Washington seems to rave about him. I would just think it's a little hard for a player to take him serious whenever he asks them to focus or maintain discipline while Washington would be doing his best Tony Montana imitation.

Sizzle Huh?

*Ed. Note: Thanks to Mike Silva's NY Baseball Digest for providing the links.



Normally I don't pay too much attention to the Cubs, or their media coverage, however this little nugget from The Mad Leprechaun AKA Chicago Tribune scribe Paul Sullivan caught my eye. Hey look, there's nothing wrong with pointing out a teams winning record in spring training, if that sort of thing excites you. That's not what caught my attention, nor why I'm writing this blog post. It did get me curious however, to see if there is any link between a having the best spring training record, and whether or not a winning record indicates strong odds of winning the World Series. I decided to check it out. Please use the following links to look at the record books for yourself here and here.

Going back to 1984, there have only been two teams that had the best record in spring training and won the World Series that season. They are the 1991 Minnesota Twins, and the 1997 Florida Marlins. So there goes that theory. Also, as Silva points out, the Kansas City Royals have had the best record in the AL in three of the past ten spring trainings. Somehow I haven't noticed the Royals even make the playoffs, let alone win the World Series in the past decade, have you? Also in the past ten years the 6 out of the 10 teams that won the World Series had winning records, so no discernible, or concrete link there either. One of the teams that won the World Series despite a losing spring training record happens to be the 2005 Chicago White Sox.

Anyway, hope always springs eternal, but I just thought it was cool to actually have hard data to compare spring training versus regular season performances. Enjoy.

Whooopee...

Goliath is returning, and apparently he's been missed by his sycophants. Eldrick decided to not only play golf professionally again, but has chosen one of the four biggest stages the PGA has in which to make his 2010 debut. "The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect..." the Sex-Addicted One shared in a statement released today. The Masters also happens to allow Eldrick the best of both worlds. On the one hand, Augusta National is one of the more controlled environments on the PGA Tour. On the other hand, it also provides a golf course that has been modified over the years to specifically challenge him.

I will say this for him...even though they haven't seen much action since Thanksgiving, Eldrick's Balls are still pretty damn big, and they haven't lost any fortitude. He could have eased into this by playing in Arnold Palmer's Invitational this week, gotten the B.S. plus nerves out of the way, and come into the Masters more relaxed/focused. Obviously that's not good enough for him, since he's deciding to retake his spot on the top by playing his first round in one of the four major tournaments of the year. While his testicular fortitude is admirable, and will no doubt only enable his posterior-kissers in the media (looking at YOU Rick Reilly) to pucker up once again, it's no guarantee that he will succeed. Just ask Rod Blagojevich.

Putting aside my longstanding vitriol of Woods, and the people who (still) love him for a moment, let's look at this objectively. People can point all they want on how Woods has always blocked out whatever hardships he's had to deal with in the past. They can (and already have in some cases) almost celebrate the fact that whatever Woods has had to deal with never affected his game until their hearts are content. The fact of the matter is none of that matters now because this is the first time ever that Woods' actions have caused people to dislike him. He's never had to deal with that before. He's never had to deal with the possibility of (god forbid) being heckled on the golf course before. His status as a role model was never questioned, or blasted before. He's never let anyone down before, and it will be interesting to see how he handles that on the golf course.

Maybe he comes back and plays like he never missed a beat. The Beard won't deny that possibility. But what happens if he isn't the same golfer? At least not right away? What if he actually IS rusty? What if he does lose his composure a little more frequently than he did before? There's plenty that could go wrong for him that he may not be fully aware of, or not really care about, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't care about it. He certainly didn't mind acting like that during his marriage, and look where that behavior got him.

One thing that is for sure is that his actions are that of someone who is unafraid of betting on himself. It will get even people like me who hate his guts, watching with interest on April 8.

Here's hoping that some brave woman dresses up in a Perkins Waitress uniform and stands in front of him in one of the galleries...

Dirty?

NHL Senior Executive VP of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell thought it was and promptly suspended Washington Captials star Alex Ovechkin for 2 games for his Boarding of Chicago Blackhawks Defenseman Brian Campbell on Sunday afternoon. The hit resulted in Campbell suffering a broken clavicle, and broken ribs. His status for the rest of the season is in serious doubt.

Watching the play, The Beard's first reaction was that it was a clean play with just a bad luck result, and obviously his coach agreed. The Beard has never been much of a long time hockey expert however, and has found others who believe that the suspension wasn't long enough.

One issue that leads to denying Ovechkin the benefit of the doubt, is that this isn't the first time he's done something like this. Ovechkin is officially considered by the league to be a "repeat offender" with three game misconducts this season. He was kicked out of a game for Boarding in a November contest at Buffalo, and he's also been suspended for two games for a knee to the head of Carolina Hurricane Defenseman Tim Gleason.

The other tricky issue is that Ovechkin is one of the poster boys of the NHL, and is considered one of the most bankable faces in the game today. Does the league benefit long term by punishing one of it's biggest marketing pieces for being too aggressive, or does it draw the line in the sand with a stiff punishment for reckless play that endangers the careers of others? It's a fine line, no doubt about it. In this case the league decided to play it safe by splitting the difference suspension length-wise.

Still, it will be interesting to see how Ovechkin responds to this. His past history, is that he probably has no plans to ease up his play.

Well, Well, Well...

It's been quite a year for Kyle Orton. Not only was he the key piece in the Chicago Bears acquisition of Jay Cutler last April, but Orton also surprised many by having a pretty productive season-at least for Orton Standards (62% Completion Percentage, 3,802 yards, 21 TD's, 12 INT's, 86.8 QB Rating). Kyle was "rewarded" by the Broncos for his production, by watching his team trade for former Cleveland Browns number one draft pick Brady Quinn. Officially, Broncos Head Coach Josh McDaniels hasn't said anything regarding who will be the starting QB next year, but it's pretty obvious he's not all that thrilled with Orton, despite Josh's earlier praise for him. McDaniels is apparently so dissatisfied, that he's blatantly opening the door to a huge QB Controversy/Hornets Nest, which always ends with the same equation of, "Two QB's = No QB's".

So what's wrong with Orton? After all, certain former teammates consider him a "winner" despite Orton never...repeat NEEEEVER, starting a playoff game in his entire career. That zero playoff start streak continued this past season, when after starting with a 6-2 record, Orton led the Broncos to a nosedive 2-6 record to once again end any chance of a playoff spot for Denver.

On the surface, that was enough for McDaniels to bench Brandon Marshall during the last game of the season, fire defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, and now decide to have a good old fashioned QB Controversy going into training camp. Is there a chance that McDaniels is just a lunatic? Certainly. He's been no stranger to looking like a complete moron on more than one occasion. Still, I don't think Orton exactly did anything last season to quell McDaniels' insanity. To further illustrate my point, just answer this question:

How good could Orton have been, if McDaniels thinks underachieving at best, lost at worst, Brady Quinn looks like a better option?

Wonderlic Fun

I'm side-stepping the whole Milton Bradley-Cubs feud, as well as the Ozzie Website Shutdown garbage since neither story has much to do with baseball and are only news because there's nothing else going on.

With that in mind, I would like to discuss my least favorite quarterback ever Tim Tebow's recent Wonderlic Test score. Small preface/disclaimer here, The Beard isn't claiming to be the smartest guy in the world, and normally wouldn't make a big deal out of Wonderlic results. However, I do feel they are somewhat significant, specifically in Tebow's case because one of the reasons he's gotten unrealistically favorable scouting reports from numerous analysts was due to his supposed and perceived "intelligence".

Tebow scored a 22 out of 50. Not exactly mind-blowing to put it conservatively, and hopefully should stop all this talk about how smart, people want to think Tebow is.

Sam Bradford scored an impressive 36 for what it's worth, plus Jimmy Clausen and Colt McCoy did a couple points better than Tebow but not really. I was curious about other Quarterbacks scores over the years, and decided to look it up. Here is a list since 2006 (click on "the scores") of all the QB's Wonderlic scores and there are some notable scores attached to some interesting names on this list. Readers Digest List includes:

1. Jay Cutler = 26
2. Vince Young = 15
3. Alex Smith = 40
4. Marcus Vick = 11
5. "Winner" Kyle Orton = 26
6. Eli Manning = 39
7. Phillip Rivers = 30
8. Ben Roethlisberger = 25
9. Tony Romo = 37
10. Rex Grossman = 29
11. Carson Palmer = 26
12. David Garrard = 14
13. Drew Brees = 28
14. Tom Brady = 33
15. Donovan McNabb = 14

In case you're wondering how you would do on the Wonderlic, here's a sample for you to try.

Ummmmm...Take A Pass This Time Bears.

Thank goodness for Deadspin, otherwise this might have eluded us. The man pictured to your left is Abeline-Christian's Offensive Tackle Tony Washington. He's listed at 6'7", 311 lbs. He performed very well at the combine, putting up 225lbs 33 times, and ran well during the drills particularly the 3 cone. His performance was significant enough for NFL Scouts, that's he been projected as a potential third round pick. The Chicago Bears have never been above scouting players from Abeline-Christian before as evidenced by Danieal Manning and Johnny Knox, and they have needs on the offensive line, particularly at right tackle.

So what's the problem? Well...Tony here is a registered sex-offender, and it's not of the Christian Peter variety. Tony is a registered sex-offender because he was convicted in May of 2003 for having sex with his 15 year old biological sister....yeah....his sister...(Feel free to make the lemon face I'm making right now).

To call that situation a "lapse in judgement" would be the equivalent of calling the Grand Canyon, "just a hole in Arizona". There's no mincing words...that's just really f*cked up! F*cked up enough for not only the Bears, but for every NFL team to hopefully run for the hills from this guy. This isn't a guy who likes guns too much, or deals/uses drugs too much. Hell even Christian Peter knew there's a difference between raping your sister and a woman that's not related to you, and Christian Peter's one of the biggest cretin's to ever walk the earth!

So thank you to Deadspin for finding this, and lets please make sure that this information is enough for Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo to take a pass on Washington in the third round.