Ryan Lochte has fallen into the professional athlete pit of lying about some aspect of their personal life. Nobody but the perpetrators - Ryan and three cohorts - really know exactly what went on that fateful night in Rio, but we know now it wasn't what the boys first reported. There are some people who say that it was no big deal, that no one was hurt or that it was just a boyish prank. Bull roar. 31-year old MEN do not commit boyish pranks. Whether you agree or not about the severity of the "prank," what is terribly wrong about this is that 1) they brought up this story out of the blue. 2) they had to be pinned down for better than two days before confessing that is was "...kind of exaggerated." They lied. Let me say that again - they lied.
In his latest interview, Lochte has said that he didn't abandon his friends and wants to stand up for them. That's easy, Ryan. Get on a plane and go back to Brazil. But he won't.
What will happen to him now? He should be punished severely. A-Rod took PEDs, lied about it, recanted and took his punishment - a one year suspension and lost millions of dollars. Lochte may get suspended from professional swimming - if there is such a thing - and may lose endorsements. Whatever it ends up being, it won't be enough. We have got to stop this practice of lying to the public.
More thoughts on the Olympics
** Usain Bolt is the best Olympic athlete ever. Just ask him and most of the sports writers. But he is not. Oh, he's best in his field, the sprint races, but I didn't see him toss the discus, do the long jump or the high jump. He didn't go near the water (a good thing in Rio) or run any long distances. You want a true athlete, maybe the best Olympic athlete ever, I give you Jim Thorpe.
** Question - why won't Gabby Douglas ever smile? She just didn't look like she was enjoying herself. That's too bad. She is a great gymnast and this is probably the last time she'll ever be on the Olympic stage . Celebrate the team's - and your - accomplishments one last time.
** There were far too many disqualifications in the track events this year. Are the participants (I almost said combatants) trying too hard? Is there attitude - do anything you can to win? I never saw so many elbows flying in the races. Who do they think they are? Basketball players?
** As usual, NBC did a horrible job of broadcasting the Olympics. Since everything is tape-delayed, don't you think they could have done a better job of covering the events? They would show two or three attempts on the high bar or the shot put, for example, which turned out to be an American failing on an attempt and then the gold medal winner. In their defense however, we do know what the grandparents went through preparing the athletes and how they suffered watching then. Please, less dramatics and more sports. Oh, and could we please, please have more commercials.
** We're number one - and maybe number two.
The USA Woman's team won the gold so easily that assistant coaches, Dawn Staley and Cheryl Reeves, could have played in high heels and the team wouldn't have been threatened.
The men's Team plays for the gold today. Vegas has established them as 15-point favorites.
Baseball news.
** The Mets pitching staff, thought to be one of the best in preseason, has fallen apart due to their many injuries. It's been suggested that perhaps the additional strain of the post season contributed greatly to their physical problems. There may be a case for this, since it happened to Kansas City this year and the San Fran Giants a few times. Lets see how there "highly-respected" pitching coaches deal with this one.
[I've noticed that baseball announcers absolutely can't mention the name of a pitching coach without adding the "highly-respected" tag to all of them. If they are all highly-respected, why are so many of them looking for work every year?]
** The Yankees Gary Sanchez is waking up the whole baseball world with his magical appearance. Sports writers are saying they've never seen a rookie begin their career on such a high note, but it doesn't meant he can sustain it. You may remember a fellow named Shane Spencer, who broke in with the Yankees in September of 1998. In 27 games, he .379 with 10 homers and 27 RBIs, including 3 grand slams. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of his career which only lasted 6 more years.
But, in the meantime, you have to admire the ability Sanchez has shown.
** So the Tigers refused to reschedule a start time of a game for the Red Sox. Should we feel sad for the Sox? If they had changed - at the last minute, I might add - I would feel sorry for the thousands of fans who had tickets for the regularly scheduled time. They are the ones who are severely inconvenienced.
** Have we been wrong all this time? Michael Kay announced that it has been scientifically proven that diving into first base to beat a throw DOES get you there faster. For years, they said running through the base is the fastest but now we know differently. Of course, it also increases your chances of getting hurt.
** Gary Sanchez has in effect shown he is the best catcher on the roster for New York and Austin Romine has proved he'd be a more than capable back-up, and since both are much younger than Brian McCann, isn't it time for the Yanks to trade McCann?
Goodbye John
I have to admit that I didn't particularly care for John Saunders when he took over as moderator for the Sunday morning Sports Reporters for Dick Schaap, whom I loved. But over the years, Saunders grew on me. His style was a little different than Schaap's, but he proved to be knowledgeable, friendly and obviously respected by the other panel members. I wasn't really aware of the the number of positions he held and the scope of his activities and I certainly wasn't aware of his long term physical ailments. He became to me, one of those guys I liked to listen too and while I didn't always agree with his point of view, I respected his comments because of the way he presented them and the logic behind them.
Goodbye John,we will all miss you.
***THEY SAID IT***
"The U.S. was striving for its first ever Olympic medal in table tennis. When you consider the roughly 180.5 million ping-pong tables in basements around the country, how is this possible?" -- Brad Dickson
"The closest I ever got to make the track and field team in high school was when they asked me to shag javelins." -- Tony Chong
"US men were DQ’ed in 4 by 100 relay. Thanks to Ryan Lochte for making sure this isn’t most embarrassing American men’s team story of these Olympic games." -- Janice Hough
" From the You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up file comes word that Wednesday’s Twins-Astros game in Minneapolis was rained out — on Umbrella Night." -- Dwight Perry
"There is a new world record in the 100-meter dash. It was set by Ryan Lochte running through the Rio airport to board his plane and get out of town." -- Brad Dickson
" The jockstrap worn by Joe Frazier in the Fight of the Century sold at auction for $10,000. And Johnny Depp thinks he just paid a lot for support" -- RJ Currie
"The last time golf was an Olympic sport was in 1912. NBC showed the replay on tape delay in 1916, due to the games being cancelled that year due to The Great War." -- Tony Chong
" A-Rod signs one-day relationship contract to retire as Madonna’s boyfriend." -- TheKicker.com
" Tom Brady missed tonight’s Patriots Bears game after he sliced his right thumb getting dirt out of a cleat. Gisele: “my husband cannot throw the football and clean his shoes at the same time.”. -- Janice Hough
"The last Olympics that didn’t lose money for the host city?” asked Scott Ostler
of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Los Angeles,
1984. “The last Olympics at which the IOC didn’t
make a ton of profit, even though it doesn’t really do anything except collect
money? Athens, 750 B.C" -- Scott Ostler
"America’s latest gymnastics sensation begs the question: What’s the over-under on how many American babies will be born in the next year named Simone?" -- Janice Hough
"And in fight-memorabilia news, the boxing
gloves worn by Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier in the 1971 “Fight of the
Century” sold at auction for $606,375. Which makes one wonder what Elin
Nordegren’s infamous nine-iron might’ve fetched." -- Dwight Perry
A diver from Russia landed on her back and scored a 0.0. Well, the Russian judge gave her a 9.85." -- Brad Dickson
"I can’t see Aaron Rodgers’ brother Jordan bragging about being chosen on the Bachlorette. The Green Bay QB’s reply? Munn’s the word." -- RJ Currie
CP-
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