Sports Corner

By MATTHEW HORN

Michigan State
Former Spartan Bryan Smolinski, who last played for Montreal in 2007, still hopes to hook on with an NHL team fro 2009.
Jason Richardson needs to stay out of trouble.
It’s nice to see Brian Hoyer play well in the preseason for New England. It must be quite a treat earning a spot backing up Tom Brady and playing for Bill Belichick.
Chris Baker should enjoy playing for the Patriots as well. Attention paid to Randy Moss and Wes Welker should allow Baker to find openings and be an asset for Brady.

College Football
The postseason started with Boise State’s victory over Oregon on Thursday.
Not the season, the postseason.
With the BCS, every week is a playoff.
The debate will intensify later in the year, but the groundwork can be laid early.
If you want to play in a BCS game, especially the one for the national championship, then you need to avoid losing. And getting noticed for a big win early can go a long way.
Thanks largely to Utah, Boise State wasn’t able to sneak into the party last season despite an unbeaten record and the debate heated up. Boise State, which beat Oklahoma in a BCS bowl two years ago, could have taken an important first step toward being part of the discussion again this year with Thursday’s victory over a ranked Pac-10 team.
BYU, which topped Oklahoma on Saturday and also plays Florida State out of conference, and Utah and Texas Christian in the WAC, could prove tough to keep out of the national championship game if its record were unblemished after the regular season.
Alabama’s win over Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State’s victory over Georgia were also part of a huge opening weekend.

Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount deserves what he got for punching Boise State’s Byron Hout.
Hout, on the other hand, got off way too easily. He should have been suspended for at least two games for going out of his way to taunt Blount, initiating an ugly sequence.

Southwestern Athletic Conference teams will wear a helmet sticker this season to honor Steve McNair, who played at Alcorn State.
McNair, who was murdered this summer, was a strong Heisman candidate despite the fact he didn’t even play in Division I.
McNair was not the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, but he may have had more to do with the dismantling of stereotypes that said black signal callers don’t make good leaders and their athletic attributes translate better to other positions than anybody else.
Most importantly, he helped give kids hope because he broadened the horizon of possibilities.

Nobody is going to want to play Georgia Tech this season.
The Yellow Jackets have a year of Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense under their belts and return running back Jonathan Dwyer. Dwyer ran for 1,395 yards last year.
The two best teams in the ACC are in the Coastal Division as Virginia Tech was the preseason favorite. Don’t sleep on Georgia Tech.
 
Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor reminds me of Vince Young.
They are both tall and lanky, elusive with their feet and can occasionally hurt you through the air.
The big difference: Pryor won’t beat USC.
 
Rich Rodriguez played three quarterbacks in Michigan’s opening game.
Rodriguez actually played four, but Nick Sheridan played only one series and the fourth was called on for mop-up duty during a surprisingly lopsided victory.
After a tough season last year and a difficult week of allegations, the indecisive move only set the coach up for more criticism. There was no reason to complain this time, but it still seems like an odd decision.
It might have been the first time a coach played three quarterbacks in one game by design.
It will be interesting to see if all three again play against Notre Dame this weekend, especially after Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes against Western Michigan in the opener.
Athletes at every school work too much at the game. Coaches at every school don’t play three quarterbacks by choice.
For good reason.

Any player who suffers a season-ending injury knows a great deal about fear, frustration and rehab.
Two such injuries would be hard to take.
Two nearly identical injuries before the season even got rolling would be almost unbearable – mentally more than physically.
You have to feel for Georgia left tackle Trinton Sturdivant who has been shut down with a knee injury the last two years – once before the season started and again during the first game.

NBA
Minnesota draft pick Ricky Rubio, 18, apparently feels he isn’t ready for the NBA.
So he agreed to play for a team in Europe for at least the next two years.
He had no options in the U.S. because he would have been expected to play for the Timberwolves immediately and because even if that weren’t the case there is no legitimate developmental league.
Unofficially, college basketball is the NBA’s minor leagues. The real issue may have been money with Rubio, but some day that has to change.

LeBron James has plenty to be excited about in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers improved their half court options with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal. Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker make them more athletic and stronger in transition.
Cleveland should be able to match up when it needs to and force mismatches of its own.

MLB
The games are great.
The stories are often much better.
Houston’s Aaron Boone returned to the major league’s five months after open-heart surgery.
Enough said.

The non-waiver trade deadline apparently is meaningless these days.
The Yankees got what could prove to be a huge piece to their puzzle in Chad Gaudin.
The Dodgers got Jim Thome.
The Angels got Scott Kazmir.
Boston got Billy Wagner.
Why not make the deadline the same day a player must be on the roster to be eligible to play in the postseason if teams are trading freely regardless?

St. Louis’ Ryan Franklin must be among the biggest surprises in baseball.
Franklin did not start the season as the closer as the Cardinals did not have a firm plan for who would finish games.
Now, Franklin leads the National League with 35 saves.

The Royals extended the contract of general manager Dayton Moore through the 2014 season.
Kansas City is 50-80. Only the Nationals have fewer wins.
Not many of us have bosses like Moore’s.

Quality starts and batting average are the two most overrated stats in baseball.
If you allow three runs or less in only six innings that leaves three innings for the bullpen to cough up a lead or allow the other team to break a tie.
Quality starts quite often lead to no decisions and don’t take into account what the opposing pitcher did that day. Baseball is too unpredictable for the stat to truly reveal very much.
You can hit .220 and still get on base frequently by drawing walks, hit for occasional power and/or hit well with runners in scoring position to help your team.
 
Many people have suggested an asterisk be placed on the Hall of Fame plaques of suspected users of performance enhancing drugs if they’re ever enshrined.
The key word is suspected. You can’t put an asterisk on a plaque because of speculation.
Right now, it doesn’t look like players like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds will be voted into the Hall of Fame, but if they were there is currently no proof they used performance enhancing drugs.
If you don’t want to vote for them, at least your suspicion is justified.
But it would be ridiculous to put an asterisk, or mention they might have cheated, on their plaques.
A better idea would be to have an exhibit near memorabilia from players of the steroid era describing the temptations, offenders who were actually caught and uncharacteristic statistic of the time.

Grady Sizemore deserves respect for playing with an injury that will need offseason surgery even though Cleveland is 15 games under .500.
Sizemore, who was finally shut down for the season last week, could have just played it safe and got paid to rehab getting ready for next season months ago.
 
Seattle’s Adrian Beltre recently returned to the lineup after being out with a bruised testicle from a batted ball.
He says he might wear a cup in the future. His manager is making him wear one right now.
Players like to be comfortable and they don’t like to change.
Just ask an NHL player who doesn’t typically wear a visor, but has to to protect an injury.
It’s hard for people to believe such decisions, but athletes are paid to produce and are likely to adhere to the habits that got them where they are.
 
Texas’ Michael Young has spent entire seasons at second base and shortstop and is winding down his first season at third base.
That type of versatility isn’t common.
And the moving around hasn’t’ hurt him at the plate as he’s batting .329 with 21 homers and 63 RBI to help the Rangers remain in the playoff picture.
Texas needs his current stay on the disabled list to be short.
 
Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki could wind up a Hall of Famer in the U.S. after a late start here.
After a splendid career in Japan, Suzuki is just shy of becoming the first player with 200 or more hits in nine straight years. He also holds the single-season record for hits in the U.S.
Suzuki, who has 2,000 hits here and is a former MVP and Rookie of the Year, should still have several productive years left.
 
Oakland’s Justin Duchscherer joins a list of players who have been treated for depression.
In the past, that’s not something a player would admit to.
The Reds’ Joey Votto and St. Louis’ Khalil Greene are also on the list.
Depression strikes all walks of life, even professional athletes.
It’s a big step in the right direction there’s no longer a stigma attached to the diagnosis.

In a one-week span, St. Louis’ Albert Pujols hit a walk-off solo home run and a go-ahead solo home run in extra innings to lead his team to victories.
Why would you pitch to Pujols with the bases empty in extra innings?

Commissioner Bud Selig said the fact that seven of the top nine highest-paid teams appear headed to the playoffs is aberrational.
Why? Talent costs money and talent wins games.
Teams with expensive payrolls can be terrible and those that don’t spend much can be successful. Still, you need to spend money to win a championship and to think otherwise – or try to get fans to believe otherwise – is naïve.

San Francisco second baseman Freddy Sanchez is about to come off the disabled list.
If he contributes offensively he could be just the run-support catalyst Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum need to carry the Giants to the postseason.
Aaron Cook, however, might vault the Rockies over the top if he returns soon enough to help in the starting rotation.

No team in any of the four major team sports has ever had 17 straight losing seasons.
The Pirates are about to change that.
Imagine how rewarding it would be for fans that stuck by them if they ever turn things around. Such fans could arguably say they withstood more suffering than any others in history.

NHL
Contracts spanning double digits in years are a new trend in the NHL.
The practice is gaining traction because the pacts reduce a team’s cap hit each year and therefore increase financial flexibility.
But there is always a risk for injury or decreased production from the player.
Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, one of the league’s top goaltenders, signed a 12-year contract.
Only time – and lots of it – will tell how often these deals prove to be mistakes, and whether it’s a common practice when the rash of long-term deals are completed.

NFL
Many players cut during NFL training camps had banked on playing professional football.
Plenty of them went to college to play football better, not get an education.
What happens to them?

The Packers were 6-10 last season.
They will be much improved this year, but so will the rest of the division so it might not translate to that many more victories.
If Ryan Grant returns to the form he showed two years ago, Aaron Rodgers will probably be able to help turn some of last year’s close losses into wins this season and Green Bay could easily vie for a playoff spot at the very least.
If things go well on defense, it could remain alive deep into the playoffs.

A slotting system for draft picks should be part of the next collective bargaining agreement.
Rookies should not make more money than proven veterans.
Each spot in the draft’s first round should make a salary within a predetermined range.
The players will still be millionaires with the opportunity to live up to expectations and make more money down the road.
Agents don’t like the idea because of injury risk and the fact that only signing bonuses are guaranteed in the NFL so busts would make significantly less money if the system were changed.
By definition, busts shouldn’t make a whole lot of money anyhow.
A slotting system would also provide teams more financial flexibility to fill out a roster with talent.
 
Denver suspended Brandon Marshall to finish the preseason for conduct detrimental to the team after childish behavior at practice.
He punted a ball and deliberately didn’t catch passes, knocking them to the ground instead.
Marshall wants a new contract after outperforming the one he signed.
Players need to play for the deals they sign. Marshall screaming misfortune is ignorant.
If Michael Jordan never held out – and it could certainly be argued that he was underpaid early in his career – no other athlete should either.
 
If Brett Favre stays healthy the Vikings are a threat to win the Super Bowl.
With Adrian Peterson and a strong offensive line, Minnesota can run the ball, and the Vikings can also stop the run. Those are two of the main ingredients for winning.
Last year, Favre played hurt in the second half and the Jets missed the playoffs with Favre tossing two touchdowns to go with nine interceptions.
It’s difficult to throw a football with a torn biceps that needs surgery.