Oscar Gamble Society

Tony LaRussa was arrested for a DUI recently, after having fallen asleep at the wheel in an intersection and subsequently determined to be over the legal limit.  The PTI guys felt like a double-standard was in place cuz the old, white baseball manager was given a free pass - while a young, black NFL player (probably from the Bengals) would’ve been lambasted for the same offense.  I read a separate article by Bill Madden in the NY Daily News which noted that the BAC was 0.093 (just over the 0.08 legal limit) and suggested that LaRussa passed out more from exhaustion than intoxication.  Madden also insists that those who know LaRussa know that he’s not a drinker - and since winning the WS, he’s tried to accomodate all PR/social requests, thus supporting the “exhaustion” theory.

So which is it - was LaRussa “let off easy”, or do folks need to “lighten up”?

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All the talk the past couple days is about Jonathon Papelbon going back to the bullpen to close.  I admit it… I didn’t expect that.  I’m not sure why - but I was certain they were going to give him a year starting.  I was wrong.  As long as he’s healthy, he should once again be terrific (although it would probably be foolish to expect him to meet or exceed last year’s virtuouso performance).

Some talk has gone to who will fill his spot in the rotation - and the answer appears to be Julian Tavarez.  Conventional wisdom seems to be that he’s just holding the spot until (a) Jon Lester is ready, (b) Roger Clemens returns, or (c) he screws up so completely that they turn to the likes of Kyle Snyder and Kason Gabbard again.  I dunno… I wonder if the presence of Julian Tavarez (in addition to assurances from medical staff regarding Papelbon’s shoulder, of course) made the Sox comfortable enough to move Papelbon back to the ‘pen.  Remember, Tavarez made six starts at the end of 2006 - going 3-0.

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Fox News reports that all charges in the Duke lacrosse (non)rape case will be dropped, possibly as early as tomorrow. Excellent. Now where do these guys go to get their reputations back? Or get back the year-plus they and their families spent in legal purgatory?

It seems to me that these odds wildly overestimate the likely efficacy and durability of the Yankees’ pitching staff. Much as it pains me to say it, the Yankees are a short at this price.

Wendy Seltzer posted a video clip on YouTube of the NFL’s standard pre-game copyright warning, in all its fair-use-denying glory. In keeping with the warning’s spirit of ignoring fair use rights, the NFL filed a DMCA claim with YouTube to have the video taken down. That’s usually where such matters end. Well, usually. Unless the pledge in question is a real closet case… like Fred. Or the YouTube poster in question is a law professor and staff attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation… like Wendy. Long story short, the NFL subsequently breached the very law (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and the case has the potential to push back encroachment of fair use rights, making it easier to see and share clips of things like Aaron Boone’s home run, or Bill Buckner’s error, or Bucky Dent’s home run…

A few disparate items and the mosaic they form:

1) Greg Biffle won’t be the only driver to lose a sponsor if Ameriquest fails - another subsidiary of the company sponsors Danica Patrick in the Indy Racing League. I don’t know how the economics of the IRL work but I’d hazard a guess that they’re dominated by that event that precedes the Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, by which time Danica’s primary sponsor may well have gone the way of all flesh.

2) Props to Juan Pablo Montoya for his first Nextel Cup top-5 finish in Atlanta last weekend. Evidence that success in NASCAR is attainable for F1 drivers, and that notwithstanding the affinity of some infield denizens for the Stars and Bars, foreign drivers are welcome. Relax, Juan Pablo, they’re just Skynyrd fans.

3) Defending Indy 500 champ Sam Hornish is toying with participating in the “other” Indianapolis race - NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.

What does it all mean? NASCAR’s higher profile and, more to the point, higher purses, are drawing talent away from other top-tier racing formats. Indy car racing never really recovered from the CART-IRL split that, at least temporarily, took the most famous drivers out of the Indy 500. The less said about the attempt to bring F1 racing the the US, the better. The long and short of it is that while alternate racing leagues may have had a fighting chance to displace NASCAR during the 1990s, they opted for self-immolation and now may be doomed to cede talent, popularity and money to stock car racing. It is easy to imagine the IRL (and to a lesser extent, F1) reduced to the status of developmental programs, if indeed they remain economically viable at all.

Greg Biffle’s new primary sponsor this year, replacing the National Guard, is subprime lender Ameriquest Mortgage. But in the past three weeks the subprime mortgage business has imploded, and lenders like Ameriquest are finding themselves hard pressed to maintain enough credit to stay in business. Ameriquest just bailed out of its 30-year naming rights deal for the Texas Rangers’ stadium, and they were only paying around $2.5 million per year for that. Primary sponsorship of a Nextel Cup team runs about 10 times that figure, so its hard to believe their NASCAR deal will long outlive their MLB deal. The bright side, such as it is, is that this is happening to a driver for Jack Roush, who of course is now a partner of the Boston Red Sox ownership, so their misfortune pleases me mightily. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA

Okay, I’m hooked.  Now let’s get the RV, make the plans, and giturdunn!

If you ain’t first, yer last.

Blown Away. 

That sums up Day Four of March Madness for me and my bracket.  Through the first three days (40 games), I only got seven wrong.  I’m not only feeling good about myself, I’m feeling nearly invincible.  Then Day Four hits.  On Day Four alone, I got five wrong out of only eight games (including Wisconsin, who I had going to the Championship Game).  I feel like Corey Haim cuz I am now officially “Blown Away”.

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couldn’t get to a computer yesterday… so some of this is old… 

Arizona (-2) over Purdue. Arizona went 6-2 on the road in confernce, and also won @ Louisville this year, including a win @ ORegon. Purdue’s only semi-decent win away from home was against a very mediocre (at best) Oklahoma team. Budinger is a lottery pick whenever he wants to come out. Shakur is a very good shooter, and Williams is a good scorer. I think that Landry will give them some problems, but Arizona is too deep and talented.