Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .
Major league baseball's 37-year experiment - the designated hitter - might be around to stay after all. MLB announced Thursday that the DH will finally be used by both the American and National League teams in every All-Star game. It had previously been used in just the years when the All-Star game was in an American League park. It's about time the DH has gotten the respect it has deserved. The DH hasn't ruined the game. It hasn't eliminated strategy from the game. It hasn't turned baseball into a D-League basketball game (or a Wolf Pack football game) with a point every 6.5 seconds. The next step is to use the DH in the National League in the regular season and in both stadiums in the World Series.
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Don't let the National League fool you. The reason the N.L. doesn't use the DH is not because they are purists and couldn't imagine a game without a thrilling double-switch in the lineup. It's because the cheap owners don't want to pay a run-producing slugger to hit in the middle of the batting order instead of a minimum wage-earning middle reliever. Everything is always about money in professional sports.
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Nobody really knows how good the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team will be in 2010-11. But we do know one thing. Coach David Carter is going to have plenty of options on his bench. Carter is collecting new pieces this season faster than you can say Olek Czyz. A year ago, the rookie head coach was afraid to go to his bench. That won't be the case in 2010-11. We might see 10 players average 15-20 minutes each next year. That will mean one of two things. It will mean that the Pack has 10 very capable players who deserve playing time or it could mean that nobody on the roster deserves to play more than 30 minutes a night.
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Why didn't the Oakland Raiders grab quarterbacks Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy in the NFL draft? Don't the Raiders know that they don't have a quarterback? And, no, Jason Campbell, Kyle Boller and Bruce Gradkowski are not the answers. Also, can you really be excited about the San Francisco 49ers picking offensive linemen from Rutgers and Idaho in the first round? Another boring draft by the Bay area teams.
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Have you noticed how impressed the Raiders must have been by Maryland's 42-35 victory over the Wolf Pack in the 2008 Humanitarian Bowl? Last year they picked Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey (four catches vs. the Pack) in the first round and this year they picked Terrapins' offensive lineman Bruce Campbell in the fourth round. Campbell was part of the Maryland offensive line that paved the way to 258 yards rushing against the Pack. Campbell has to be a better value than Heyward-Bey (9 catches in his rookie year). Right?
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My favorite picks of the draft? Stanford running back Toby Gerhart by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round, Illinois wide receiver Arrelious Benn in the second round by Tampa Bay, Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate in the second round by Seattle and Florida State safety Myron Rolle in the sixth round by Tennessee. Cincinnati Bearcats' quarterback Tony Pike in the sixth round by Carolina is also intriguing. Carolina also picked Clausen in the second round, meaning the Panthers added two quarterbacks in two days better than anyone the Raiders have had in the last five years combined.
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Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland is deservedly getting grief over asking Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant in an official interview before the draft whether or not Bryant's mother was a prostitute. What difference does it make what a player's mother does with her life? Ireland is extremely fortunate that Bryant didn't smack him in the mouth. That much restraint, alone, leads me to believe that Bryant is a strong young man mentally. It's time the NFL does away with all of its so-called character and intelligence tests for college players -- or maybe they need to give the same tests to the general managers.
Joe Santoro is a freelance writer for the Sierra Nevada Media Group.
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