HARD TO BELIEVE

Sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder --

## The Red Sox dumped a pretty good manager in part, because he was "too soft." In reality, I think everyone knew that the Red Sox had too many arrogant players, who didn't think they had to follow the rules. So Boston went out and hired a strong personality, a disciplinarian, who would set things right.  Their choice: Bobby Valentine. How's that working out?
Not well. Valentine was willing to pick on the newcomers, the less senior players. The ones who weren't the leaders of the team. Oh, he talked a good fight, but in the end, that's all it turned out to be: talk. You have Pedroia, criticising the manager, an issue that Valentine never even addressed. Now you have Beckett, playing golf after missing a start because of injury, and insisting that he was in the right. First, Valentine claimed ignorance of the situation, then he downplayed it and finally did nothing. 
The Sox are playing badly, have no leadership and obviously, no discipline. You're doing a fine job, Bobby.

## Speaking of Beckett, his main argument is that he can do whatever he wants on his "off-day." He says he only gets 18 of them, and no one should question how he uses them. He gets only 18 days off?  Now wait a minute. The regular season lasts about 180 days, give or take a few,and he gets 32 starts a season. In my math classes, we would say that leaves 140+ days when his only responsibility is to do a little throwing, do a little running, drink beer and eat fried chicken. I'd call that an off-day.  He doesn't get the fact that his sin is not in actually playing golf, but that he played a sport when he couldn't perform his regular, well-paid job, because he was "injured."  Of course, Valentine is nowhere around to explain it to him.

## It's official now. The Yankees can all go home now. They're out of the chase to make the playoffs. Nomar Garciaparra has declared that New York has no chance to make the playoffs because Mariano Rivera is done for the year. Sorry, Yankee fans.  Joe Morgan, Stephen Smith, Tim McCarver and Skip Bayless, move over. There's a new member of the "Clueless Club."

## This one's really hard to believe. Mesa Prep was declared winners of the Arizona State High School Baseball Championships, when their opponent in the final game, Our Lady of Sorrows, forfeited. Why, you ask? Because Mesa Prep had a (gasp!) girl on the team. A pretty good one, too.  Apparently, it's a school rule at Our Lady of Sorrows, that there can be no co-ed sports teams. To quote Danica Patrick, "It takes a lot of ovaries to stand up for your principles like that."  Ovaries, maybe. Brains, nope.

On a bright note, Happy Birthday to Yogi Berra, who is 87 today. He supposedly said a lot of crazy things in his time, but nothing was as dumb as the people mentioned in this posting.

***THEY SAID IT***
"A woman who interrupted Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets series. She had no business being on the court during an NBA playoff game. Of course, a couple days ago they were saying that about the Knicks."  -- Brad Dickson
"The judge in the Roger Clemens case told lawyers to pick up the pace. Good thing Mike Hargrove isn't on trial."  -- Bill Littlejohn [For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Hargrove, his baseball nickname was "The Human Rain Delay" because of the amount of time he took to get ready to hit - before every pitch.]
"John Marinatto resigned as Big East commissioner on Monday. Marinatto knew it was time to go the instant he awoke in a cold sweat and couldn't remember whether he was heading up the Big East, Mountain West or Conference USA."  -- Dwight Perry
"Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels was suspended and fined for beaning rookie Bryce Harper on purpose. On the plus side, the New Orleans Saints have made Cole an honourary captain.’’  -- TC in BC
"Local Hastings Park BC Jockey Mario Gutierrez won the Kentucky Derby this past weekend. Us racing fans here in BC celebrated by Having Another, & Another & Another. I left just before it was my round.  -- Tony Chong"Canadian Jolene Van Vugt set a speed record in Australia by driving 75 kph on a motorized toilet. The lady isn't kidding when she says she's really gotta go."  -- RJ Currie
"Pitcher Josh Beckett missed a start for the Red Sox due to a golf related matter. The Boston Bruins wouldn’t let him play through" -- TC in BC

 CP-