THE PREAKNESS & RACHEL ALEXANDRA

Well, here goes the second leg of the Triple Crown and up steps the filly, Rachel Alexandra.

With all her prior dominance, the inevitable comparisons to Ruffian and Secretariat have been put on the table. No pressure at all--comparison to arguably the best filly and the best colt of all time. Good thing the horse can't read the papers.

I just pray that if she does compare favorably it ends up being to Secretariat.

She is clearly superior to anything the distaff side can throw at her as illustrated by her 20-length demolition of the Kentucky Oaks field. Jockey Calvin Borel has stated that he hasn't had to go to the whip to motivate her to win. Against a field of colts, that may no longer be the case.

Racing aficionados still debate whether fillies should even run against colts. That they are not strong enough or capable enough. When this racing mind-set has opportunity to manifest itself, inevitably human emotions run high. It's easy to pit feminist against neanderthal-man in an effort to promote the race or match.

I remember the quote of Foolish Pleasure's handlers after their horse emerged victorious against Ruffian. As Ruffian was carted off in the veterinarian's wagon, FP's handlers gloated in the winners circle.

FROM THE BOOK Ruffian : Burning From the Start by Jane Schwartz

"His father, however, was exultant. Two years ago Moody Jolley had picked out this son of What a Pleasure for $20,000 up at Saratoga, and now he could not refrain from gloating. When asked what he thought of the turn of events, the senior Jolley grinned. Away from the television microphones, but loud enough for those around him to hear, he exclaimed, "First time they threw some speed at her, and the bitch comes unbuckled!" Reporters who thought they had heard everything were shocked. A great racehorse had just broken down. They didn't expect Moody to be gracious, but they didn't expect such ugliness either."

One of the most classless, insensitive quotes in the history of sports. But this was the way of the world in 1975. A woman dared not ply her trade in a man's world. It was unthinkable. Title IX was law, but it really hadn't taken hold the way we see it today. Billie Jean King beat Bobbie Riggs in a "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, but that was dismissed as a joke.

The times they are a changin', right man? Maybe not as much as we think sometimes. Interestingly enough some of the pre-race drama centered around "the boys" and their handlers conspiring to keep "the girl" out of the race entirely. As if they were afraid of her. Now that's CHANGE.

And so, with the pre-race melodrama and the memories of Ruffian, Barbaro and Eight Belles as an unfortunate backdrop, Rachel Alexandra attempts to run her way into history.

My hope is she runs with the champions heart of Ruffian and the strength and determination of Secretariat. And that she finishes. On four healthy legs. VICTORIOUS.

As race fans, we can only bear to see records broken here, not our hearts. Not again.

Godspeed Rachel Alexandra. GODSPEED!!

RUFFIAN AT THE ACORN STAKES:


"She had done what no horse had ever done and was buried where no horse was ever buried. The great wings were folded about her and Pegasus flew no more" - Gene Smith

A-ROD, ROCKET, MANNY AND FAVRE

BRETT FAVRE - WHAT PART OF GOOD-BYE DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?

OMG, Brett Favre is coming out of retirement!!! Didn't see that coming. We're going to have to get Roger Goodell to change the name from NFL to NWFL--the Not Without Favre League--because apparently we can't play a season anymore without Brett Favre in it.

Now John Madden, another fossilized icon, will have to come out of retirement and
do all the Minnesota Favre's broadcasts.

And kudos to Minnesota for giving Brett this opportunity to get this petulant, childish, "I'll-show-you-Green-Bay" vendetta out of his system before he actually DOES retire.

I feel bad about it, but at times I feel a career ending injury is in order. Some people don't understand the meaning of the word retire.
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MANNY RAMIREZ TESTS POSITIVE - WHO SAW THIS COMING?

Apparently not George Mitchell, whose famed report has now been turned into a 400+ page doorstop. See-no-Red Sox users, hear-no-Red Sox users, speak-no-Red Sox users is that correct Senator Mitchell?

THE MITCHELL REPORT POLICY RE: RED SOX PLAYERS




I mean, what was to see here? Manny's body type certainly didn't change much from his Indians days throughout the Red Sox era. It's not like his head, obscured by the dreads, didn't grow right before our very eyes.

I'm sorry, those are not valid criteria anymore? Hard to keep up with the changes in the spin from the media acolytes. More flips and spins than in a Flying Walenda circus show.

On-deck, as he was for many years with the Red Sox during the Sox nation glory years, David Ortiz. He already presented his "maybe I took PED's by mistake in one of those Dominican milkshakes" excuse.

Where are all the stat-heads and roto-heads with their pocket protectors now? Care to run a before-testing vs. after testing look at Ortiz's power numbers. That's OK, you can wait until he hits his next HR this season, which will be his first HR this season, by the way.

But this fits in with the owners strategy of throwing selected players under the bus, taking no responsibility themselves for the culture that they and theirs turned a blind eye to on the one hand, while gleefully ringing the cash register and fleecing the taxpayers for low-cost stadiums on the other hand. Not once have they taken responsibility for their role in the "steroid era".

MLB POSITION RE: THEIR ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STEROID ERA



The same media hand-puppets who have always aided and abetted the owners in shaping the agenda and public perception also continue to profit on both ends of the deal.

These guys will pen glowing autobiographies on the one hand--as Lupica did for McGwire--and when the tide turns, they simply pen tear-down books about A-Rod or Barry or Clemens.

Seems rather scummy to me and it comes as no surprise that the same newspapers that these guys and gals work for are seemingly going bankrupt by the day. When you are morally bankrupt as a business person, it doesn't take too long before you become economically bankrupt as well.
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A-ROD IS A USER? - WOW AND THE MSM LOVES HIM SO MUCH


And still does, don't kid yourself. At least the New York centric media hacks and the ESPN crowd seem to be falling in line BEHIND A-Rod and against Selena Roberts, the reporter who broke the story.

Remember how the Game of Shadows authors were held up as potential Pulitzer Prize winners? That is until the Pulitzer prize committee took an unbiased, critical look at the book and spit on it.

Where is the pathetic daily whining from the panty-waisted crowd now that their self-selected Savior of the Game has been stained? Isn't A-Rod tainting the legacy of Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio? Where are Costas and Lupica now? How about Yankee acolyte Olbermann and his sidekick Little Danny Patrick?

The spin changes now that one of their own is caught. And the media is so good at identifying cheaters aren't they? They are going to put a guy or two into the Hall of Fame, who it will later come out conclusively cheated and then they will be stuck right in the middle the problem.

Baseball had its chance to get out of this mess from a PR standpoint around the time of the Mitchell Report by adopting the Giambi solution and having all parties, ALL PARTIES apologize to the fans, draw a line in the sand and say "From this day forward, if you test positive...God help you". But they didn't, they went to their separate corners and came out swinging, undoing years of cooperation between the players and the owners. The next labor negotiations ought to be a real doozy.
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CLEMENS AND HIS FORMER BFFL ANDY PETTITTE

And now a book about the rise and fall of Roger Clemens. Couldn't see that one coming either. To be fair, I have never understood why there has not been a parallel story to the Bonds - Griffey conversation regarding Bonds' jealousy of McGwire - Sosa as the motivation to Bonds getting all geared up.

The Clemens story would revolve around the infamous quote from then Boston Red Sox GM Dan Duquette that Clemens was "in the twilight of his career". This was justification for the Sox not re-signing Clemens and led to his subsequent rebirth with Toronto-the Yankees-Astros. Wouldn't shoving Duquette's very personal words up his butt qualify as motivation to get jacked up?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see why MLB chooses to blackball Bonds and now Clemens, while Tejada still plays on as if nothing happened.

And we're spending $12 million dollars and counting to prosecute Bonds, in a case that seems to be heading to the same level of cultural disappointment (or higher) reached after the O.J. verdict.

TEJADA'S LEGAL PROBLEM-RESOLUTION (from Wikipedia):

On February 10, 2009, Tejada was charged with lying to Congress about performance enhancing drug usage in Major League Baseball.[14] On February 11, Tejada pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to Congress in 2005. He faced up to one year in federal prison and deportation.[15]. On 26 March, 2009, he received a one year probation.[16]

So let's review. One year probation for lying to Congress. Not sure what Bonds would get for lying to a federal grand jury, Clemens would have been lying to Congress as well.

That just seems like a lot of money, time and effort to prosecute a case where the penalty falls in the "spitting on the sidewalk" category. Again, maybe it's just me.
Sort of like trying to kill a housefly with a hammer.

MOVING ON UP....????

FUTURE GIANTS STARTER - RHP TIM ALDERSON

The Giants moved future starters RHP Tim Alderson and LHP Madison Bumgarner to AA Connecticut last week, along with SS Brandon Crawford.

Alderson pitched 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball in an early outing. Crawford is handling the bat well and Bumgarner has shown no signs of being in over his head at this level.

So for now, Giants fans can have visions of a starting rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Alderson and Sanchez. You can win some titles with that. What about Mr. Zito, you ask? Beer league softball is my guess.

Ideally, all three of the prospects (along with 3B Conor Gilaspie, RF Roger Kieschnick and C Buster Posey) should spend the entire season at the AA-AAA level. All three are likely September call ups if the Gigantes are out of the playoff picture by then.

Eventually, if Crawford continues to hit, Renteria can join Zito in the BLSB circuit.

If I'm looking at the Giants hitting stats correctly, the guys at the top of the productivity scale (using OPS), are the lower paid, younger prospects like Sandoval, and Freddie Lewis. Ishakawa is the only one struggling.

The big money guys like Renteria, Winn and Rowand are abysmal. Bengie Molina is the exception to the rule. Ironic isn't it that the Giants system would produce a Molina clone in Pablo Sandoval.

And can anyone, ANYONE in the organization not see that Rich Aurilia is DONE?

At what point do some of these decisions reflect poorly on GM Brian Sabean's personnel decisions and his colossal waste of payroll dollars that has set back this franchise? In the past his poor decisions were obscured because of having a guy named Bonds who made chicken salad out of chicken poop. But the flushing of payroll dollars has been going on for over a decade.

Recently, Giant fans have seen progress in the standings only to the extent that the Rockies and Padres have been equally inept personnel-wise. The top of the division has to come down to the Giants rather than the Giants becoming good enough to compete. The recent Dodgers/Manny-as-the-Octo-Mom fiasco comes to mind.

Maybe time for a change to put the franchise on a new course. It shouldn't be good enough for this once proud franchise to be content with being the prettiest girl in the bar at last call. While that may get you some lovin', you still have to wake up in the morning and face the consequences of your choices.

KENTUCKY DERBY - 2009

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby held today. Still "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports".

It seems like the way that pre-race favorites are dropping off that it does not bode well for the chances of the Derby winner following through and winning the Triple Crown, but that's why they run the races. The contenders who dropped out can regroup and rest up and take on the Derby winner in the Preakness or the Belmont.

My pick to win the race is Dunkirk. No Benjamins were put at risk as a result of this race but if I were there, I would plunk a few on Dunkirk.