Whitt's End: 2.24.12
Whether you've reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:
*Yu Darvish is being covered by almost 100 Japanese media in Surprise, Arizona. Only thing that Americans can compare it to is, I think, Lance Armstrong dominating the Tour de France. If an American player became one of the best players in England's Premiership, would we suddenly want wall-to-wall soccer coverage of him? Doubtful.
*So Josh Hamilton began his press conference in Arizona this morning not with an explanation of details of his relapse at Sherlock's, but rather by reading scriptures from The Bible. What about the part about forthright and honest? So when he wants to deflect his sins, Bible handy. But when he craves some alcohol and a romp in a bathroom with a female bartender, Bible nowhere to be found. How convenient.
*Say what you want about Jerry Jones the general manager, but he's hit big time on Tyron Smith. Moved to left tackle officially on Thursday, it might be 10 years before the Cowboys need to make the next switch at that position.
*Sorry, but the biggest waste of time in sports is the NFL Scouting Combine. Does it really matter if a guy runs a 4.38 or a 4.34? And, if it's so damn important, why don't all these NFL scouts have the players run in pads?
*The Cowboys have five titles. The Stars and Mavs have once each. Does that explain why the Rangers have the most touchy fans in our area? And with two failures in consecutive World Series, isn't it time we hold the Rangers to a championship-or-bust standard? Yes, it is.
*HOT
*NOT
*Jeremy Lin, welcome back to Earth. He went 1 of 11 with 8 turnovers in last night's loss to the Heat. Nobody thought he'd be any good in the first place. Surely nobody thought he'd keep up being great forever either. Right?
*Screw pitchers and catchers reporting, the real sign that Spring is about to spring is the fact that the trees in my yard have bloomed. Yep, just like that.
*Watched HBO's Real Sports last night and one of these days I'd love to jump off a mountain – or perhaps Reunion Tower – in a wing suit.
*Robert Griffin is 6-foot-2 and 3/8ths. Whew. Now we can all sleep peacefully again.
*Ryan Braun may be not guilty, but is he innocent? Turns out his whole defense – and the reason his 50-game suspension was overturned – is because his urine wasn't delivered immediately to the testing facility. But when it arrived the seal was unbroken. The question is "Can synthetic testosterone magically appear in urine if it's left refrigerated for 48 hours?" The answer, of course, is "No."
*If you don't watch Tosh.0 on Comedy Central, you aren't laughing hard enough.
*Remember back when Tiger Woods was intimidating? Used to be the world's best match-play player. But these days? Three straight years he's failed to get out of the second round of the Match Play Championship, yesterday losing to Nick Watney.
*Saturday night Terrell Owens makes his debut as an Allen Wrangler. It'll be "televised" on ESPN3, whatever that is.
*First sign of Yu fatigue in Surprise? "It seems like people forget about the rest of the team. We've got a lot of talented players. Yu is a great player but we've got a lot of other guys." So sayeth Derek Holland.
*Former SMU star-turned-failed Senate candidate Craig James says this week that people simply make a "choice" to be gay. Really? Then I assume he somewhere along the line made the "choice" to be heterosexual? Preposterous.
*If Dirk Nowitzki averages 23 points per game another 3 seasons, he'll be No. 6 on the NBA's all-time scoring list behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant. Wow.
*This weekend? Tonight, I know, I'm going to my first Dallas Stars game of the year. Saturday night it's my UFC 144 watch party at Baby Dolls Dallas at 9. And Sunday it's down to the Fan Sports Lounge to watch the Daytona 500. Don't be a stranger.
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