PED's or Should They Now be Referred to PE's

Ok the most recent round of athletes being accused or outed as users of performance enhancing drugs (PED's) or in the case of S.W.A.T.S., performance enhancers (PE's?,  because really negatively charged water and hologram stickers cannot be called drugs) really has us thinking:  What's the big deal?

It is pretty much a given that athletes striving to become the best at their profession will go to great lengths to improve their performance.  It should not really surpise us that this would include, well, just about anything.

Deer antler spray?  Does it work?  Possibly?  Sure give me some.

There are millions at dollars at stake here.  If you don't think a player is going to try to gain every possible advantage, you're delusional.

What is most comical to us is the voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame who will never, ever, ever, ever, never.  Ever.  Vote for a player who used PED's

Why?

Because we wish every player currently enshrined who ever used any typed of PED would come out tomorrow.  We think the results would bathe the sanctimonious in hypocrisy.

But that's just speculation.

Professional sport entertains us.  Nothing less, nothing more.  And quite frankly, we are entertained by dudes hitting 500-foot blasts and 6'4", 280 pounders running a 4.4 laying out someone.  To be disgusted at how they achieved this level of performance while at the same time marveling at  every home run and big they make is very hypocritcal.

Super Bowl XLVII

There seems to be some sort of big football game coming up this weekend that involves Roman numerals and is supposedly a huge deal.

There are some great story lines to go along with this Super Bowl.  The Harbaugh brothers coaching against each other.  The Colin Kaepernick thing.  Ray Lewis' last game. Randy Moss looking for his first ring.

That's all great.  But for some reason this game does not intrigue us.

Will we watch?  Of course.  It is the Super Bowl, for crying out loud.

Super Bowl Sunday has become an unoffical national holiday.  Second biggest day of avocado/guacamole consumption and all.

But the game itself?  Not excited.  That can all change once the ball is kicked off and it turns into a nail biter.  Then we're all in.

But as for the all the hype and buildup?  We can leave it.

The game?  Oh, yeah.  There's that.  The Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

We would normally be pulling for the underdog and/or upstarts, in this case the 'Niners.  But being Dallas Cowboy fans (yeah, it's brutal right now), we just can't root for San Fran.

Baltimore?  Nothing about them is likable to us.

So, without any kind of rooting interest, we go to our fallback and just root for a good game.

Music Find: Corey Smith

One of the joys of life is discovering new (or at least new to us) music.  We had that joy recently.

While listening to our local Texas Country station, we heard the song "Twenty One" by Corey Smith.  Which was quite confusing as he is neither from Texas nor (in our opinion) country.

Corey is a native of Georgia.  His music is more of a Jim Croce/Billy Joel hybrid than anything resembling country music, even in its current state of Southern Rock and pop delusion (and that, my friends is a whole 'nother post).

Smith is a master storyteller. His delivery is very southern and his voice unique.

For  fans of good music, we suggest checking out the video below of  "Twenty One".  For fans of crappy music, we also suggest checking it out in hopes of changing minds.

Decidedly NON Sports Stories

Lance Armstrong.

Manti Te'o.

Two names known in the circle of sport.

Two stories not about sports that have taken the sports talk and twitterati worlds by storm.

The Armstrong thing is beyond sport at this point.  The Te'o thing is just beyond ridiculous.

There are conference championship games to be played this weekend in the NFL.  The Australian Open (which may now be known as the yellow slam) is in full force.  There's the whole Chip Kelly to the Eagles thing.  We believe basketball is being played on both the college and professional levels.  We think there's something going on with the NHL.

There's Oprah and TMZ for the other stuff.

Baseball Hall of Fame: How to get it wrong

Let's get one thing straight right out of the gate:  The latest MLB Hall of Fame vote was a travesty.

No one gets in?

NO ONE?

Really?

What a sanctimonious, self-righteous, Pharisee-like lot the BBWA is.

We can throw out all the known and suspected PED users and the result is still baffling.  There were no real right answers in this round of balloting, but they somehow managed to get it totally wrong.

Now we will address the issue of the "Steroid Era".

Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, one the most respected national baseball writers on the planet has taken the Taylor Swift approach to those of the steroid era.  Never, ever, ever.  Never.  Ever.

While reading his stance on these players, you can't help but nod your head in agreement.  Verducci makes very valid points and states them eloquently.  We, however, tend to disagree.

Another respected voice, ESPN's Jayson Stark, asks whether the baseball HOF should be a shrine or a museum, while leaving the answer up for debate.

Here is our take.  How can you discount an entire decade of baseball?  No matter what happened, there were Hall of Fame caliber players playing the game during that time.  Sure, the numbers for baseball have been skewed for the rest of time because of that era.  But you know what?  In the words of Stark, it happened.

There are at least two no-doubt Hall of Famers in the current class, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, with or without steroids.

To be fair about our position, we don't have the highest regards for the Baseball Hall of Fame anyway.  Without "cheating the game" in any way during his playing career, Pete Rose is not in the Hall.

Explain this:  Well yes Joey, this is the Hall of Fame which pays tribute to the best baseball players of all time.  However, the all-time hits leader, all-time home run leader, pitcher with the most Cy Young awards are not honored here.  You're right.  Now, how far is Canton anyway?

Owning It

Recently we were picking up someone from DFW airport flying internationally.  All international passengers must go through customs and exit through the same door that enters into a common area where those waiting for the passengers are gathered.  The exit is lined with short fence-like barricades on both sides with people lined up waiting for their party to arrive.

This creates a kind of red carpet scenario.  Most people just look for their party or look down and proceed through.  But one individual owned the moment.

She walked through the doors and upon seeing all the people lined up began waving and blowing kisses in both directions.  We thought it was awesome.

This got us to thinking.  We really should all start owning more.  Not just moments.

You're a fan of wrestling?

"Wrestling is fake."

"Oh yeah?  Let me jump off the top rope and land on you.  Scripted?  Definitely.  Fake?  Let's find out."

Own it.

Your favorite TV show of all time is "Charles in Charge"?

"Worst show ever."

"Really?  Apparently you just didn't get it.  And the awesomeness of Jennifer Runyon was totally lost on you."

Own it.

You think mullets are cool?

"That was the stupidest look ever?"

"Business in front, party in back?  We'll see how well your faux hawk holds up 20 years down the road."

Own it.

Whatever it is.  Own it.  It is part of the sum.  It is what makes the whole.

Don't be sheepish.  Own it like a boss.  Detractors be damned.

BCS Trophy Game: Farcicle

Alabama and Notre Dame will play for the BCS trophy on Monday night, farcically labeled the National Championship.  Good for whichever team prevails.  But if you watched the Cotton Bowl, you saw the best team in the country right now.

Texas A&M is the best team in college football right now.  Were they the best throughout the entire?  Probably not.  But this was a team that started the season with a new coach and and a redshirt freshman at quarterback.  It took some time to gel.

The postponement of their season opener hurt, as we discussed earlier.  And the coming four-team playoff would not remedy the situation, as we broached that subject as well.

Congratulations to the Aggies on a great season.  Johnny Manziel comes back.  But not all of the starters do.  Don't expect a BCS trophy game contender next year.  Not that it can't happen, just don't expect it.

The college football post season is broken.  Steps are being made in right direction. But we aren't there yet.

The Demise of New Year's Day

New Year's Day used to be one of our favorite days of the year.  And it had nothing to do with a new year, but all about the college football bowl games.

Multiple games being played at the same time.  For at least 12 straight hours.  It was nirvana for fans of college football.  Then, it all changed.  Sure, there are still some good games on NYD.  But there is not that sense of accomplishment from switching channels, trying not to miss a scoring play or turnover from any of the two, three or four games being played simultaneously.

Now, we get four or five games on January 1, then the rest of the BCS games spread out over the next week until it all culminates with the BCS trophy game. Meh.

We understand television and television money rule the game now.  So much so that game attendance doesn't even matter.  It's all about household viewership and advertising money.

So far, we have not seen much of the two games played after January 1.  Some by design, some by circumstances.  But we would have been glued to our TV sets had these games been played a few days ago.

Yeah, we're getting older.  Pining for days past.  Doesn't mean we resist change.  Just change that is more of a regression than a progression.  Looking forward to the 2014 season and the end of the BCS and the beginning of a new playoff system for CFB.

In the meantime, get off of my lawn, you kids.