Bob, stop it ... you're killing me ...

Ready for a good laugh? No, I mean a REALLY good laugh ...

Take a look at what Oakland A's manager Bob Melvin said about his team's signing of two-time drug cheat Manny Ramirez:

“He can be a great example with his work ethic,” Melvin said. “We have some young kids and, who knows, maybe something will rub off.”

Well, yes, something could rub off — an illegal substance, perhaps; a bit of his selfish personality, maybe. They can learn how to feign injury, certainly.

Work ethic?

Earth to Bob: this is the same guy a former manager — Terry Francona, who knew him well — called the "worst human being he'd ever met."

Say, "Maybe his hitting will help us." Say, "Maybe the kids can look at his mechanics and patience at the plate." But "He can be a great example with his work ethic?"

You've just lost all credibility, Bob ...

Talk about a loose cannon

That would be Pat Knight — Bobby’s son — who was slightly perturbed by his team’s effort in Wednesday’s 62-52 loss to Stephen A. Austin.

"We've got the worst group of seniors right now that I've ever been associated with," he said minutes after the loss. "Their mentality is awful. Their attitude is awful. It's been their (custom) for the last three years. To come out in a game like this, with no emotion and flat, it's terrible."

That may sound harsh, but Knight, in his first year at Lamar after being fired from Texas Tech, was just getting started.

He also said:

* "These [seniors] are stealing money by being on scholarship with their approach to things."

* He inherited an “infestation” of players that are difficult to coach.

* "We've had problems with these guys off the court, on the court, classroom, drugs ..., If you act this way in the real world, you're going to be homeless, without a job."

Maybe his players would have a better shot at a good job if they had a famous dad. It’s hard to see how Pat Knight would have gotten the gig at Texas Tech — even a short-loved one — without his father arranging that his son would succeed him.

Pat Knight might be right about his players, but its’ hard to see how such a public and spontaneous trashing of them will do him or them much good. It would seem to speak of a coach’s frustration, and his inability to contain it. It smacks of a coach sending the following message: These players aren't mine, so I'm not responsible.

Lamar’s three remaining regular-season games and the Southland Conference tournament should be quite interesting.

Don't worry about Lin

Recommended reading:"The Evolution of a Point Guard" by Howard Beck of The New York Times, detailing how Jeremy Lin became an "overnight success."

Not surprisingly, it has to do with tremendous persistence, study and hard work.

There were reasons Lin was overlooked coming out of Harvard: He had had a slight build, which meant he could be pushed around on the court and he lacked a decent outside shot, among other things. And there are reasons he overcame all those deficiencies: He's outworked and outstudied everyone else.

Wrote Beck on Lin's arrival in New York: " ... the same traits Lin showed in Golden State quickly emerged. He was the first to arrive every day, and the last to leave. He sought and devoured game tapes. When he requested his own clips, Lin asked to see his turnovers and missed jumpers, not his assists."

What the Beck story tells me is not to worry about Lin's recent poor game against the Heat. Said one of Lin's Harvard coaches before the Miami game: "I’m sure in the next couple weeks, someone’s going to figure out how to slow him down and stop him. It’s a chess match. He’s going to figure out how to beat that. That, to me, is a kind of a testament of who he is.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/sports/basketball/the-evolution-of-jeremy-lin-as-a-point-guard.html?_r=1&ref=basketball

Follow the money?

Recommended reading: Sarah Ryley's story in The Daily about business ties involving former Penn State coach Joe Paterno and board members of The Second Mile that may have played a role in the decision to not call the police about the alleged sexual crimes of Second Mile founder Jerry Sandusky, Paterno's former defensive coordinator.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/12/05/120511-news-paterno-business-1-5/

Let the parade of excuses begin

So.

It was all a misunderstanding.

It was just horseplay.

Jerry Sandusky is innocent of those 40 charges of child sex abuse.

He just shouldn’t have showered with those kids, he said. Gave the wrong impression.

Right.

Meanwhile, of course, eight people have come forward to charge Sandusky with the sexual abuse, and another 10 suspected victims reportedly have gone to police.

Whatever little sympathy I had for Sandusky — and it was damned little — just vanished.

Bye-bye, Hank

Am I OK with Hank Williams Jr. losing his Monday Night Football gig for using an analogy between President Obama and Hitler?

Sure.

In fact, I propose a general rule:

Anytime anyone compares anything or anyone to Hitler and/or the Nazis, he or she loses their job immediately.

Not for lack of taste — though that could be sufficient grounds, too — but for lack of brains and for laziness.

The Hitler/Nazi analogy — whether coming from Hank Williams Jr., or Congressman Steve Cohen or anybody else — is meant as an argument clincher. All it indicates is that the person is incapable of making an intelligent case for his/her position.

It’s meant to be a show-stopper; instead, it’s a think-stopper.

Of course, it’s nothing new: Academic ethicist Leo Strauss coined the term Reduction ad Hitlerum, a play on reductio ad absurdum, when?

1953.

Bye-bye, Brett (I wish)

Brett. Brett. Brett.

He can’t help himself. I know. Still, it’s unseemly for Brett Favre to be damning his Green Bay successor with faint praise.

In case you missed it, Favre said he wasn't surprised Aaron Rodgers won this year’s Super Bowl, adding “the biggest surprise to me would be that he didn't do it sooner” and that Rodgers “just kind of fell into a good situation.”

Of course, Brett, one of the reasons Rodgers didn’t “do it sooner” was that you wouldn’t leave the stage.

On the other hand, now that I consider it, Rodgers won a Super Bowl in his third year as a starter. You, Brett, won a Super Bowl in your fifth year as a starter.

Rodgers being Rodgers, he deftly deflected Favre’s implied criticism.

“I'm just going to say that I was really proud of our team," Rodgers said. "It takes 53 guys to win a championship and we had the right recipe last year and we're trying to do the same thing this season.”

Ultimately, Rodgers may have more success than Favre. Or me may not. But the question of who has more class is already decided.