Thursday Headlines

Leo Mazzone to Orioles
At first, this retrograde move seemed a bit baffling. Why would Leo Mazzone, the most respected position coach in baseball history, leave the most successful National League franchise of the past 15 years to go to a Baltimore organization that has been an unqualified mess for the better part of eight seasons? It didn't make any sense.
Some light was shed on the curious relocation when an AP wire story mentioned Mazzone and new Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo are best friends. It appears Mazzone wanted to spend his final years as a pitching coach alongside a good buddy, which is nice. Then again, Mazzone is only 57, so it's not exactly like he is running out of time.
Perhaps Mazzone figured Perlozzo's time as Orioles manager would be a lot shorter; he is the fourth O's skipper in seven seasons and the impatience of Peter Angelos is only growing by the year.
Either way, this move can't please the Red Sox or Yankees. For the past two seasons Baltimore's offense has been solid but the team has been held back by its horrible pitching staff. With Mazzone, the Orioles figure to greatly improve their rotation without making a roster move.
It's no coincidence the O's snatched away Mazzone the year after their stranglehold on the Washington D.C. market was stolen by the Nationals. After years of putting out an inferior product to try and keep baseball out of D.C., Angelos finally figured out he needs to field a contender if he wants to make money. He might have killed The Oriole Way, but with the signing of Leo Mazzone, Peter Angelos might have managed to make the Orioles relevant for the first time since 1997.

Astros Advance to World Series
When can we begin discussing how overrated Tony LaRussa is? He has just one World Series title in his 28 years of managing and is just 8-19 in the NLCS and World Series during his stint in St. Louis.
Even though Joe Torre has five rings, he is far-less revered than LaRussa who recently had a book dedicated to his “genius”. His micromanaging ways have produced scores of admirers in the media who all fail to recognize the playoff shortcomings.
I always say the baseball playoffs are a pitching crapshoot and teams with magnificent records during the year still deserve credit even if they don't win a championship. LaRussa's Cardinals are no different. But, if you watch their playoff runs over the past decade, you'll see a team managed by a man who tries to win the game by managing instead of winning the game on the field.
Astros in 6, by the way.

Michelle Wie Is a Cheater
Say what you will about Michael Bamberger and whether it was right of him to turn in Wie at last weekend's LPGA Tournament. What's lost in all the attention the Sports Illustrated writer is getting is the fact that Michelle Wie knowingly tried to cheat and got caught.
The Wie apologists in the media (and that's pretty much all of them) insist Wie made a mistake by taking a drop closer to the hole, but the video suggests otherwise. Wie's illegal drop gave her a slightly better angle to the hole. Had she dropped 12 inches back, as the rule allowed, she would have had to play a slight draw into the hole. By moving up a little, she was able to hit straight.
Think I'm being ridiculous? Consider this: On Friday Wie asked for, and received, a free drop out of deep trouble in the woods when she complained that a nearby beehive presented inherent danger. The rule official was disbelieving at first, but Wie said she didn't have to play a ball if there was any perceived danger. She got the drop. A few PGA players admitted they didn’t know the “inherent danger” rule until they heard about it this weekend.
For someone who knew the rulebook so well on Friday, Wie seemed awfully ignorant of it on Saturday.

Dennis Dodd Still Whining
Five days have passed since Notre Dame and USC played a classic in South Bend, but the supposedly impartial Dennis Dodd is still throwing cheap potshots towards the Trojans. In yesterday’s column he writes:

Best game: Do you have to ask? USC 34, Notre Dame 31.

The Bush Push (of Matt Leinart) will live forever.

Really Dennis? You’re still mad about the football equivalent of jaywalking? Why aren’t you focusing your anger on the fact that “The Bush Push” happened at all.
Maybe Notre Dame should have stopped USC on 4th and 8. Maybe they shouldn’t have made Reggie Bush look like he was playing against the J.V. level on NCAA 2006. Maybe the Irish should have wrapped Leinart up before his goal line spin. And maybe you, Dennis Dodd, should take a cue from Charlie Weis and handle last weekend’s loss with dignity. (How cool was Weis’ post-game speech in the USC locker room? Between that and running the dying boy’s play, Weis is managing to keep me from totally hating him. Dodd, on the other hand, is a different story.)
The Wolfman wrote Dodd his third e-mail today. This time, thankfully, he CC'd me:

The Bush Push, waaa waaaa, I love notre dame and I can't let it go. 1988 I saw my first game there, I love notre dame waaaaa, just shut up already. They lost and you're a columnist for cbs, not nbc. Stop someone on 4th and 9 and you don't have to worry about the bush push, USC made a play, Notre Dame could not. Weis said he wished his running back would do the same thing Bush did, but it if Notre Dame won like that you'd say it was divinely inspired. When is the last time you saw that called? Honestly, I want to know Dodd when was the last time you saw it called? I bet it hasn't been for years, if ever, so stop your bitching already.

Jeez, I'm just glad Dodd doesn't cover Packers games.

Jordan Admits Gambling “Stupidity”
In his new autobiography Michael Jordan admits he made some “stupid decisions” in regards to his gambling. Previous unauthorized Jordan tomes have suggested Jordan’s gambling problems were a little more serious than that. The real answer probably lies somewhere in between.
Authors looking to sell books might have exaggerated MJ’s gambling habits a bit, while Jordan would likely downplay them an equal amount. Either way, everyone agrees Jordan liked to gamble… A lot.
So, if that’s the case, what are the odds that Michael Jordan never bet on pro basketball? This is a guy who would put $10,000 bets down on half-court shots during practice and half-a-million on the golf course. How could he pass up wagering on the NBA, especially on himself? He was a sure thing, and if there’s one thing gamblers don’t pass up, it’s a sure thing.
I’m not saying he did, but for someone who was so fond of the action and competed in every aspect of life, it must have been hard not to pass up putting money on himself (and maybe against himself in those throw-away Finals games on the road when the Bulls would be up 3-1 and seemed to be going through the motions before winning the title at home in Chicago).
Maybe there are also some truth to the persistent rumors that Jordan’s first retirement wasn’t as much of a retirement as it was a forced vacation from David Stern. Some have suggested Jordan’s season-and-a-half sabbatical from the game was actually a form of suspension. Maybe it’s a crackpot theory, but nobody believed Watergate was a viable story for ten months either.
If I had to put money on it, I’d probably guess Michael Jordan didn’t bet on the NBA. But that’s far from a sure thing.

Ron Artest On Cover of Sports Illustrated and Penthouse
Artest becomes the first subject to achieve the historic double since Jake Plummer’s mustache pulled it off in April of 1974.