The first and second editions of Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge by H. Anthony Medley comprised the fastest selling beginning bridge book, going through more than 10 printings. This updated Third Edition includes a detailed Guide to Bids and Responses, along with the most detailed, 12-page Glossary ever published, as well as examples to make learning the game even easier. Click book to order. Available in all bookstores and on Kindle.  

 

Sports Medley: Baseball’s Continuing Controversies

by Tony Medley

After two decades of doing his best to destroy what made baseball unique, (like desecrating its hallowed records and designating the league that won the uncompetitive All-Star game as the league with the home team edge in the World Series) the game is finished with Bud Selig. So new Commissioner Robert Manfred has decisions to make, some of which are the following:

  1. Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame? Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record but he has been denied the HOF because he not only broke baseball’s hallowed rule by betting on major league games, he went so far as to bet on games his team was playing in while he was managing the team! Rose has always exhibited a keen appreciation for baseball’s history, so he knows that the game was almost destroyed when the 1919 Chicago White Sox threw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds by taking bribes from gamblers. As a result, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was named Commissioner and, even though the accused players were found innocent by a court of law, Landis banned them from the game for life. This included third baseman Buck Weaver who did not participate with the miscreants, but knew about it and did not inform anybody. Rose knew what he was doing and went ahead and did it anyway. A person like this does not belong in anything called the “Hall of Fame,” no matter how many records he broke.
  2. Should the records made by drug cheats continue to be recognized? Bud Selig basically ignored the rampant proliferation of the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED), until forced to take action by public opinion. The result was the disappearance of baseball’s revered one season home run records of 60 in a 154 game season by Babe Ruth and 61 in a 162 game season by Roger Maris by people ramped up on PEDs. When the game finally clamped down on PED’s, the home run rampage disappeared. The last time anyone hit as many as 50 in a season, much less 60, was 2007 when baseball started enforcing drug testing. When mediocrities like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa can hit more than 60 home runs in a season, you know something’s drastically wrong. Barry Bonds hit over 70 home runs in a season many years after he had passed the prime of his career, and has been unrepentant about his alleged use of PEDs. Roger Clemens is another person who has denied using PED’s even though the evidence certainly indicates that he did. All records recorded by people during the PED era (roughly 1990-2010) should not be recognized in the record books. Further, none of the players who used the drugs should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. As a relevant postscript, shame on the Dodgers for employing drug cheat McGuire as a hitting coach, and that shame is not because he’s incompetent, which the record certainly indicates, but because he is one of the poster boys for the use of PEDs and reluctance to own up to it.

Baseball recently announced new rules to speed up the game. Tune in next week for more on that.

 

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