Speaking of Sports... and "Scrubs"

Well geez, I already had a lot I wanted to talk about today, and then bam, Manny Ramirez goes and gets suspended for 50 games. Guess I obviously have to lead with that one.

When I first saw Manny's statement about taking a medication that his doctor thought was okay, I wanted to give Manny the benefit of the doubt. Love him or hate him, I would think he certainly would not want to do something to jeopardize his career or his good name in Los Angeles. However, as the day progressed and we saw what he got pinched for, I'm kinda back on the fence on this one. He tested positive for a substance found in female fertility drugs... so maybe Manny is using Octomom's doctor. All kidding aside, this is used for athletes primarily when they are coming off a cycle of steroids. The question is if he's passed 15 tests in 5 years as he said in his statement, how do you sneak in a cycle of steroids?

Obviously there's a lot we don't know about this, but that certainly hasn't stopped many from passing judgment. Considering Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and most recently A-Roid, we don't really get surprised when something like this happens now. It's just another baseball player from that era getting caught. All the same, when noted Manny-hater Bill Plaschke of the LA Times comes on ESPN and says, "I had no idea the guy was a druggie; I had no idea the guy was a cheat," I put on my Com Law hat and think that Plaschke better be rooting for a legit instance of Manny trying to evade the drug policy. Otherwise, Plaschke's comments are borderline libelous. But then again, what do you expect from a guy (one of many, unfortunately) who gets paid by ESPN to be obnoxious on television?

And this idea that Manny was stupid enough to get caught when Bonds, Clemens, and A-Rod never got suspended is ludicrous. All 3 used before there was a testing or suspension policy, THAT'S why they never got suspended. I still think A-Roid should get 50 games, but that's a pipe dream. A-Roid went 5 years without saying anything and was outed by a Sports Illustrated article, Clemens is suing anyone who thinks he did it, and Bonds is defying the U.S. Justice Department. Not exactly model citizens. I guess we'll have to see where this goes, but it certainly is not a good day for baseball.

And now for the story I was going to lead with but has now been rightfully bumped off the top spot... a hockey story. The Phoenix Coyotes are going Chapter 11 and one of the guys behind the Blackberry (a Canadian, eh?) is making a bid to buy the franchise and move them to Southern Ontario. Apparently, this has raised hackles in NHL Commish Gary Bettman's office because they don't like the idea of a publicity hound like Jim Balsillie having a NHL franchise. My question is this: why the hell not? Every league NEEDS a Daniel Snyder or Mark Cuban; they keep life interesting. You can't tell me that it doesn't benefit the NBA or Dallas every time Cuban gets into his little tiffs with David Stern or does some other crazy stunt. There is no such thing as bad publicity for this guy. Sure the NHL probably fears another Harold Ballard, but last I checked, Balsillie's no Harold Ballard.

The NHL claims that since they have been operating the team since last fall, they can stop the Coyotes owner from going into bankruptcy. Here's my problem with this: if they really wanted to take over the franchise, they should have TAKEN OVER THE FRANCHISE. Like Major League Baseball did with the Montreal Expos. Instead they have nominal control over a team that still has an owner who is still losing money. They further contend that they want to keep the team in Phoenix and are trying to sell the team to Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of the Chicago Bulls and White Sox). Bettman explained this by saying, "We generally try to avoid relocating franchises unless you absolutely have to. We think when a franchise is in trouble, you try and fix the problems. That's what we did in Pittsburgh and Ottawa and Buffalo... We fixed the problems. We don't run out on cities."

Here's the difference: Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and Buffalo are dyed-in-the-wool hockey cities with rabid fan bases. Phoenix is not a hockey town, and probably never will be. I'm not sure whether Wayne Gretzky was brought in to be the coach of the Coyotes or the NHL ambassador to the American Southwest, but the fans aren't showing up and the team hasn't won since 2002. Admit you made a mistake, Bettman, and let the future Hamilton Bulldogs (or London Monarchs or Waterloo Napoleons or whatever they're gonna be called) play to full houses and make money.

Enough of sports... on to television. "Scrubs" ended last night with a one-hour finale that was nothing short of excellent television. If you're a fan of the show and missed it, you have to watch; the last 15 minutes will make you cry and I'm not ashamed to admit it got me. I also feel like (going back to an earlier entry) this could be the end of good comedy. "How I Met Your Mother" (more on that in a minute) is now carrying the banner for the TV sitcom. "Scrubs" is gone, and even the Canadians are SOL since "Corner Gas" also wrapped this season. I know there have been rumors that "Scrubs" will continue in some form next season without many of the stars, but I don't think that's gonna happen. At least I hope it doesn't. Have we learned nothing from "Mayberry RFD"?

Back to "How I Met Your Mother"... we had the big "reveal" this week about who the long-awaited "mother" really is: Stella, played by "Scrubs" star Sarah Chalke. Of course, she's already been a major character in this show for the past season-plus before she left Ted at the altar to go back to her ex-husband. Forgive me for going into sitcom conspiracy theories here, but it seems to be that they introduced Chalke as the Stella character last season when many thought "Scrubs" was facing imminent cancellation on NBC. However, ABC picked up the show, and not being able to do 2 shows at once, "Mother" wrote Chalke out of the show. But now "Scrubs" really is over, so she can go back to "Mother" and bingo, Stella is destined to be Ted's soulmate. So on the one hand, we got one more solid season of "Scrubs", but on the other hand, they had to delay telling us who the "mother" is by a full season. Yeah, I read into this stuff too much... I'm in Media Studies, it's what I do...

And on top of everything else that's going on right now... we have a wallaroo on the loose near the Thruway in Madison County. The obligatory jokes have started, such as he got on the Thruway through the toll booths (my joke), he's already being treated as a high-occupancy vehicle so he'll have to pay higher tolls, etc. Given a choice between Manny coverage and wallaroo coverage... I think I'm enjoying the wallaroo coverage more. Stay tuned...