DUMB MOVES NOT RELEGATED TO NEW JERSEY

Yasiel Puig has been stopped twice for speeding, once at over 100 MPH. In the category of "Idiotic Things Professional Athletes Do," Puig has effectively put A-Rod's antics on page two. Now Puig has said he has hired his cousin to drive for him. They never learn. We saw how hiring cousins worked out for A-Rod.

I read that LeBron James claim to be Johnny Manziel's mentor. I don't think LeBron realizes that Manziel doesn't get to pick his team, which eliminates a one-hour special, "The Decision - Part II."

Dan Le Betard, who writes for the Miami Herald, turned his BB HOF vote over to Deadspin, a sports blog. Deadspin polled it's readers on who to vote for, and Le Betard followed the results. While somewhat unorthodox, it doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me, the Baseball Writers of America, have taken away Le Betard's vote for a year, maybe as long as five years. Yeah, we can't have the uneducated, uninformed American masses involved in such a complicated activity as voting players into the hallowed grounds of the Hall of Fame. No, it takes the expert, analytical thought processes of the baseball writers to screw, er, make that determination. And a fine job they've done so far.

Interesting note, Tom Glavine, just voted into the Hall, was the NL player Union representative during most of the "steroid era," and was one of those people who argued against steroid testing. Just think, if he had lobbied FOR testing, maybe guys like Clemens and Bonds might have been standing on the podium alongside Glavine this summer.  

Buster Olney, whom I respect, has listed four suggestions to help repair what he calls a flawed voting system for the HOF. All the suggestions are designed to open up the voting, allowing more players to get elected. I disagree in principle. The selection should be more stringent. Half the players that writers mention when they discuss who wasn't elected,don't belong in the Hall anyway. I firmly believe that Hall should contain outstanding, exceptional players, not those who were just good, or even very good. Don Mattingly is a perfect example. He had a career that was certainly going to put him in the Hall, but was cut short by injuries. How can you vote for a player based on what you THOUGHT he was going to do? So Mattingly won't ever be elected. Sad, but proper, in my humble opinion.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Roger Goodell says the NFL is open to expanding the playoffs from 12 to 14, possibly as early as 2015. Will be interesting then to see how the Dallas Cowboys will manage to finish 15th."  -- Janice Hough
"A man donated a testicle to science in exchange for $35,000 to buy a new Nissan 370Z. I'd hate to think what he would have had to donate if he wanted a Porsche."  -- Brad Dickson

"Figure skater Brian Boitano has admitted he is gay. Really? There’s a guy who didn’t even have a door for his closet."  -- TC Chong

"At Major League Baseball's winter meetings, two player agents got into a fistfight. So, home-plate collisions are gonna be banned, but it's OK for agents to throw down at the winter meetings?"  -- Brad Dickson
"What's with that 49ers’ timeout when the Packers tried a field goal to end the half in the Wild Card? It was about -23 Celsius with wind chill; do you really need to ice the kicker?"  -- RJ Currie
"Hall of Very Good opens across the street from Baseball HOF in Cooperstown to very good reviews."  -- Sportspickle.com
"Why did FIFA chose Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup? Because Death Valley was busy."  -- Jerry Periso
"The weather forecast calls for a 100 percent chance of rain for the Seahawks-Saints playoff game.  Or, as we call it in these parts, Saturday."  -- Dwight Perry
"Johnny Manziel is headed to the NFL. Through force of habit, he wants $65 to sign his name on the contract."  -- Brad Dickson

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