May 30, 2006

St. Louis, MO (CSTV U-WIRE) -- OK, it's the end of the year and I have a few things I need to get off my chest. My comments are my comments alone and are not intended to represent the ideas of The Current or its staff. Well, now that I have that out of the way, here we go.

There are a few things I want to talk about so I'll start with the highest person on my list, Ricky Williams. The NFL suspended Williams for violating the leagues drug policy for the fourth time. Williams' previous violations for the drug policy were for marijuana, but this time he tested positive for a different substance possibly related to his interest in holistic medicine. He still owes the Dolphins $8.6 million for retiring back in 2004.

Well, since Williams won't be playing next season, maybe he'll just go back to his favorite pastime. It's kinda disappointing; this guy can't get his career on track. This whole situation could have been avoided if Williams just held a press conference telling everyone that he has a problem and he needs help, maybe even shed a tear or two. Then he should have gone on Oprah and cried a little more while Oprah tells him that everything will be OK. Then people would have felt sorry for him and maybe the decision to suspend him for violating the policy could have been overturned.

Now he can just sit back with many other potheads and play Madden. But guess who won't be starting.

Let me just come out and say it, the St. Louis Blues suck. That's right I said it! Come on, even die hard hockey fans should be able to see that the Blues played much better when the NHL was on strike. This is the first time in as long as I can remember that the Blues have not made the playoffs. They never really seemed to do much in the playoffs but at least they made it. Next season, the Blues should just sit out during all of the games and hopefully that can help improve their game play.

I'm not a Cardinals fan. I actually feel sorry for Cardinals fans. This city really loves its mediocre baseball team. The Cardinals have not been able to win a World Series through my entire 23 years on this earth. They do, however, win the NL Central. But how hard is it to win the NL Central? All they have to do is get past Houston and wow, another division championship. My prediction: the Cards win the division and choke in the Championship Series.

I would like to say that all of the players on UM-St. Louis' teams worked hard all year, but one player really stood out to me. Jonathan Griffin was the Kobe Bryant of the men's basketball team. Every time I looked up, Griffin had the ball. I'm not saying that he's a ball hog; I'm saying that he's a playmaker and that his presence will be missed next year. Not to mention his stats.

I want to conclude my random sports ramblings by talking about a touchy subject, steroids in baseball. Let me say this right now, I do not recommend the use of performance enhancing drugs in any way. I know that steroid use is a serious problem for today's youth. I also know that I am tired of people talking about Barry Bonds in relation to steroids. It's kind of ironic, because I am doing it myself. Anyway, let me get to the point. Fans of baseball are worried that Bonds is going to break the homerun record and that some of his homers may have been "tainted."

Look I don't know if he did or didn't take steroids, but I do know that the possibility of breaking records increases ticket revenue. The MLB isn't going to do anything that could possibly lose them money. So what will probably happen is Bonds will break the record and then after the Giants and MLB have sucked every dollar out of the pockets of the fans, Bonds and his stats, records included, will be banned from baseball because of steroid use.

My strategy for the Bonds situation is to give him a drug test before each game and give him another during the seventh-inning stretch. This way when he hits a home run, everyone one will know he is clean. To all of the people who don't like Bonds because he isn't a "fan favorite" I have this to say, "Get off of his jock strap!" The guy is a baseball player, so let him play baseball.

That's about it. I think that my short fuse has run out for this season.

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