RANDOM RANTS

***WHAT HAPPENS NOW?***
"Truth was on my side," says Ryan Braun. Sure, if Truth, Obfuscation and Gobbledygook is the name of your law firm. So he beat the drug suspension. As we have seen with O.J. Simpson, it doesn't mean that people will now think of him as innocent. The Simpson verdict ruined it for those people who are wrongly charged with any kind of wrong-doing, especially if they have a large income that allows them to hire an impressive array of legal representation. That may help you in the courts (or a suspension review board), but it doesn't help you in the court of public opinion.
I hear the words, "...improper chain of custody of the evidence..." and I cringe. Especially when it seems there were two other samples from other people in the same package that came out clean. Ryan Braun, of course, feels completely justified. "It was all B.S.," he said.
What does it all mean? Mike Lupica said it best: "He wasn’t exonerated. He was acquitted. There’s a difference." Maybe our legal system is too fair.

***TORRE DROPS OUT***
Joe Torre's group has notified MLB that they are no longer interested in bidding for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Supposedly the reason they gave was that Frank McCourt refused to include the parking lot in the purchase agreement. I guess Joe figured it was too long a walk from the street.

***A NAME TO REMEMBER***
The 5th spot in the Detroit Tigers rotation appears to belong to Duane Below. With a name like that, he better not make too many mistakes. I have three or four lines all ready myself.

***AND IN TEXAS--***
Yu Darvish says this whole media situation swirling around him, ..."is not normal." For $110 million, yes it is, Yu.

***"THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL...***
who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, And when she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid." This seems to be the mantra of the Syracuse basketball team. Long ago, the book on Jim Boeheim was that he wasn't a good game coach. It will kill this team in the NCAA's if that's true. We saw two different teams playing South Florida on Wednesday. The "very good" and the "horrid." Which brings up the question, who will be going to the tournament?

***THEY SAID IT***
"NASCAR driver Danica Patrick told reporters not to call her a sex symbol: Was it a) during a break in qualifying for Sunday's Daytona 500. Or b) immediately after a bikini change at her latest photo shoot." -- Dwight Perry
"About 6,000 quarters were stolen from a Lincoln car wash. Police are on the lookout for anyone who tries to pay their mortgage in loose change." -- Brad Dickson
"One of the awards at this week's Westminster Dog Show went to Martha Stewart's chow chow named Genghis Khan. If Martha wanted to name the dog after a ruthless tyrant, she should have gone with 'Martha Stewart'." -- Jimmy Fallon

CP-