Usain Bolt thinks athletics will die if drug doping isn't effectively dealt with. The all-time best Jamaican sprinter is correct to identify doper-cheaters as a bane for sports - but is wrong to think that sports will die. Those casual observers that tune in every four years to the Winter or Summer Olympics will, mainly, not be up to date on the degree to which non-allowed drug taking has corrupted various events and disciplines. And, on the other hand, those keen sports fans will have by now grudgingly accepted that their favorite sports have doping - because they know the cheaters are seemingly always one step ahead of the testers - so what are they going to do, stop watching? Despite invidious drug cheating only the sports fan purist will turn away, and there aren't too many purists around... 

In fact for the sprints, many fans believe cheating is rife - and they aren't disgusted. They figure those cheaters are going to have better times, yes, which ironically will lead to more thrills and chills, but they accept the perniciousness because they know the runner still has to run the distance. Drugs are not a magic carpet ride: the steps have to be put in from start to finish.

While fair-minded folks wish doping in sports did not exist, or was a thing of the past, or was lessening - they are realists. They know that cheats will always be with us, in sports and in life. And while it may bug their ass that this is so, they will not quit watching or participating in their sport of choice.

True, the Tour de France has suffered in the wake of Lance Armstrong's sordid story - but this guy was a serial liar who blatantly lied so often that nobody, but nobody, will ever have the balls to BS right to your face like this unlikeable Texan did. He made the whole sport of elite cyclist road racing appear to be made up of 100% A1-jerks. For those cheating now, or in the future, their deeds to mislead will still be deplorable, but in a classier, more refined way - and their sport won't be impugned as being completely filled with dickweeds and deniers.

And let's face it - there are some of us who enjoy the spectacle of dopers in sports because we love to hear the reasons as to why they were found out. We can even put the dopey excuses into categories. From the boring, "Oh, I didn't know this wasn't allowed" to the buck passing "Geez, my medical team said all was ok" to the mind numbing "Really? I thought what I was taking was flax seed oil, not steroids!" to the romancing and heart rendering "I did it for love" to the, chew on this excuse for a bit, fanciful lie...based on feasting "Blame it on the Veal!"

We get the idea: the extent to which athletes, found out as short-circuiters, will prevaricate for their prevarications, is a laugh-riot. Worthy of water cooler talk. And don't we all know any publicity is good publicity?

Now watching sports on TV or via the PC is basically free (not including pay per view.) Perhaps what Bolt is worried about is that sports will lose the lucre, the loot, the dough from the paid consumer to either attend, fund, or sponsor people or events. And that could prove to be a problem, for sure. But has a sport disappeared because of this, to date?

Sports, even quite recently, have survived rotten and rampant institutionalized and mandated drug doping. Do you remember the Sochi Olympics? What a fiasco this fun-and-games show turned out to be. But haven't more than a few of us shrugged this Sochi off our shoulder, rationalizing that such over-the-top skirting of the rules is a hangover from the good old days of bad-old communism - and that things would have been worse if East Germany had run that show, and besides, that's just Vlad being mad - and oh, by the way, have you seen his ludicrous face job? Winter sports will survive Putin's putting one over on us...

In fact, down the road, if sport drug doping continues to increase, the authorities may have to throw up their hands in surrender and pass the baton - saying: do whatever you want competitors - and you the buyer - you the fan - beware.

And many of us will accept that drug doping in sports will be here to stay and some of us - the nerdish and scientific - will marvel at the ability of drug technicians and specialists from the dark side to find some new drugs, with names and ingredients no one can understand let alone pronounce - concocted to super-charge performance or at least stymie looming father time.

Usain Bolt is a great sportsman. One of the best. He could be right. Only the Lord knows how insightful he is about sprinting in particular, and sports in general, when he publicly warns us that drug doping equals the death of sports - but a mortal lad or lass has to think - and Usain - perhaps this is where you should focus on giving us teachable moments  - there is a worse form of cheating in sports that threatened to turn at least one of them into nothing more than an effete form of professional wrestling -
figure skating-in-sequins-wrestling let's call it - through its judges cheating, or its teams colluding, or both happening at the same time - f'ing fixing results. That kind of rule breaking IS beyond the pale.

Success, fame, a winning personality, and a sense of humor can’t insulate one from family tragedy as David Feherty found out. His eldest son, Shey, died of a drug overdose. Befitting David’s popularity as a golfing reporter and TV Host for the Golf Channel, golfing icons such as Gary Player, Ernie Els and others tweeted their condolences.

Twitter, though handy and immediate, seems a poor, somewhat insensitive method to convey feelings of sympathy with the buzzwords “thoughts and prayers” all too commonly used - but times change...and David did tweet the horrible news - so perhaps friends and followers thought tweets back would be acceptable.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the scourge of drugs and the terrible effects their misuse can cause to the taker and their loved ones. Shey was just 29. Apparently he died on his 29th birthday. The Golf Channel tweeted that “Family means everything to David...” and even if true, certainly something wrong happened along the way for his eldest boy to OD at such an early age. The young man had been fighting drug addiction and mental illness for quite some time. Did he feel pressure to live up to Dad’s aura? Or did he, the oldest boy of David’s from his first marriage to Caroline DeWitt, see some rationale for his experimentation with drugs, given that Dad had waged his own battles with depression, a bi-polar disorder - and insomnia - fueled in parts with Whiskey, Weed, Cocaine, and Vicodin? Maybe the young man had a sense of invulnerability. His Dad not only survived, he later thrived, and beat back his craziness and recklessness with drugs and alcohol, so maybe the son figured a little experimentation on his own part, might not only not be a bad idea, but a fun one.

And perhaps things from there spiraled out of control...

At any rate, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has graphs swinging upwards for deaths due to overdoses. (From 2002 to 2015, for example, the heroin graph shows a drastically steep climb of fatalities...)

For his bugaboos, David got help, aside from his wife, from none other than Tom Watson. He had solid companions, in part due to his public persona and in part due to his likability. David’s been sober for 12 years. It’s a shame that whatever help might have been offered and might have been accepted by Shey wasn’t enough to get him clean, on the right track.

Shey wasn’t a loser. He wasn’t a total outsider from society. He was, in fact, entrepreneurial and had his own consulting company named the Sheyco Group. It dealt with data and statistics and would summarize same to make sense for clients. Earlier, he and Christopher Crawford of the Marine Corps had formed an outfit called Sports Concie that specialized in “corporate solutions.” And prior to that he had worked for a Trucking company.

So where will David Feherty go from here? Will Feherty become a victim? Although he has immediately and thoughtfully asked that donations be made to the Center for Addiction and Recovery Studies in Dallas, Texas, he will have, now that the funeral is over, the aftermath and, no pun intended, downtime. It would be expected and understandable for him to step back from the limelight, perhaps to draw nearer to his 4 surviving kids. No doubt, unwittingly or otherwise, some harsh self-judgment and guilt will inflict themselves upon the eminently affable Feherty.

This would be a shame because, despite his tender age, Shey was an adult and was responsible for his own actions. Parents, no matter how well meaning and caring, and well off, can only do so much...It’s also sad that Shey couldn’t have learned more from his father’s willingness to take certain drugs to stem his mental afflictions. At one point Feherty admits he was taking 14 pills per day to help ward off his demons. (He also says that the act of playing golf, because it takes up so much time (especially for us average players) - is a great aid in solving the problem of too much spare time on one’s hands – time to get into trouble with intoxicants.

One never knows with life. It’s too short, with opportunities missed and advantages wasted – and these are but a few sad characteristics prevalent that are far too prevalent for many of us – who don’t suffer from addictions. We - all of us - are usually our own worst enemy. Most of our faults can be laid at our own doorstep. We’re so ashamed, or so proud, we don’t seek help. And again

- many of us -
​
need to “grow up” despite our having crossed the threshold of the 30’s decades ago. More than a few of us keep repeating the same old, same old, mistakes over and over - and over - again...to what end? Then, to add drugs or alcohol into this? Geez, No wonder so many of us, like Shey Feherty, depart far too early.

​Do 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke? Charles Barkley says so. He also thinks family and friends are the biggest financial drains on sports stars going.

And that money can vanish faster than a politician’s iron-clad pledge, whether it is through athletes giving gifts, cash outlays, or through athletes going into the seemingly, apparently, "less risky" ventures of co-signing or guaranteeing a loan without fully recognizing the liabilities and risks involved.
​
There are other reasons for sports stars sinking to nothing while swinging at everything when it comes to dollars: bad money managers; awful agents; terrible luck; rancid macro-economic conditions; pitiful timing; plentiful floozies; gambling on a John Daly or even a Charles Barkley level; lousy decision making...leading some into businesses like bars or restaurants - where the Adonis thinks their name and shape alone will make the venture profitable; bad ideas conjured at 4 in the morning fueled by intoxicants; intoxicants, and their abuse, leading to legal and financial penalties; rehab costs - thanks to those intoxicants; divorce; child support – with the latter ably demonstrated by Big Poppas like Evander Holyfield who, it is believed, helps try to fund 11 kids via 8 women; spending the same kind of bucks after the career is over to the same tune when the career was on; having supposedly hellish parents of the Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario variety...

Or bath tubs. Mike Tyson reportedly spent 2 million on a pure gold tub for wife number 1 and reported his state of bankruptcy in 2003.

Back to Barkley. Besides being pretty much a tub himself, Charles is great copy. He will say anything on almost anything. He’s blunt. He offends not only those with thick skins like us normal souls, he offends airy-fairy-snow-flake groups - most recently exhibited by folks who were pissed that the Pope said communion wafers aren’t, or may not be, gluten-free - - - so when Barkley blathered that some blacks were unintelligent because they favored lingo of the street over language of the educated, some folks went bat crazy. Point being: for barbs such as that...people either like him or loathe him.

But he does have a point when he avers that sports stars don’t owe family or friends anything - porous and/or poor profit-plans notwithstanding? (Ok, maybe these A-One participants owe parents a tithe for the efforts, time, and monies they put forth in getting the kid to practices, games, and tournaments - and buying equipment - and purchasing extra off-season training for the discipline(s) of their choice – and sacrificing their own wants and wishes in the doings - - - and perhaps the friends and family who supported the star - - - before the star became a star - - - deserve financial rewards - but that’s about it.)

Obviously an athlete, with a few million or more, would be cold hearted and emotionally dead to ignore seriously serious and sincerely sincere plights of poverty and problems – but clearly helping those less fortunate can make everyone, even star athletes - eventually, into beggars. Charles, in his inimitable manner and means, says he had to spend a lot of money getting rid of hanger-ons - and that the dough was well spent in the doing.

Perhaps Antoine Walker, who earned over 100 million in his career, and lost it all, now shares Charles’s sentiments. And Walker can partially blame himself and the approximately 30 family-friends for his bankrupt state. And perhaps now, and in the future, we can analyze why boxing, which wielded warriors like Tyson and Holyfield, is particularly prone to its A-listers going bereft, bust, and broke.

Of course, as one wise old owl told me, and probably as smart an old fogey told you...

just because those in your life, who count themselves as friends or family, doesn’t mean they can’t be total jerks.

So, if you want to clean up your life and muck out your stall from the clutter and crap which is your half-assed friends and full-bore family boobs...by all means lend them a few hun or a couple of thou. For sure, weasels that they are, they’ll amscray out of your life PDQ, and though you’ll be down some dollars, you’ll be up in harmony and happiness.

As for whether Charles is correct asserting that 60 to 70% of pro athletes go broke, who knows? Whether Barkley is bang on, or a bit off, it is astounding that so many high profile professional athletes have gone belly up, given the huge amounts of monies they squired up to squander later. Charles Barkley has certainly put the spotlight on the fact that sports stars ARE HUMAN - and can mess up just like the rest of us. They are not infallible. They do stupid things. They should not be role models. They should be treated and analyzed, as the individual they are, with their whole gamut of pluses and minuses factored in.
​
And as for you and me? Let’s not go ostentatiously overboard like so many a sport hero has done.

Ok? That way Charles Barley, and his bark, won’t have a handy reason to bite his bankroll opinions of

US.

​Is the University of Nevada gambling, offering 9-year old Havon Finney Jr., a football scholarship? Isn’t that institution of higher learning worried the kid is past his prime? Seriously, what the heck is going on here?

Perhaps the Nevada Wolf Pack has been blown away by the kid’s highlight reel. He’s amazingly coordinated and has great catching skills. He wears receiver gloves and sports some mighty fine ripped abs. He’s fast – he’s still in the skinny-as-a-toothpick stage, and has a cool haircut with a Mohawk tuft running front to back. Who wouldn’t want to sign the kid up? He’s just finished grade 4. For sure he’s got other-worldly talents and he has the good graces to be grateful. Havon, AKA HollywoodHav, has told his 19.8k Instagram followers: “...I love God.”

Before you wonder of the legalities, if kids, blessed or otherwise, can sign contracts, knowing there are laws stipulating a minimum age for this sort of thing, rest assured these scholarships are non-binding until the recipient signs something called a letter of intent – and for that they’ve got to be a senior in high school. But give the kid some immediate feedback. Make the offering of a scholarship like it is for the Doodle4Google artwork contest, where youngsters from elementary to high schools, if their wares are good enough, can get a $5,000 scholarship. Don’t need lawyers, parents, guardians, or God-parents for that...

Let’s leave the frightful legal mumbo-jumbo aside. Let’s turn to more horrifying facets. Even though many kids skateboard without padding, it seems scarier having little ones so young playing full-gear tackle football. Their bones are still forming...And what of the risk of concussions? Their brains are still forming...And even if Havon and his buddies are fortunate enough to avoid being concussed, if Chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Christopher Whitlow and his team are correct, brain imaging they’ve conducted throughout a football season shows kids brains have been detrimentally altered in the playing. An estimated 3.5 million boys are playing football in America. How many might suffer traumatic brain injury?

But in the here and now, when all is peaches and cream with stardom and an injury-free career in front of him, it is clear the little guy can catch long bombs like nobody’s business. He’s got the football sense and savvy to come back to the ball, come back to the quarterback, break his pattern, when the QB is scrambling. He can catch over his shoulder and snare a pass in, one-handed. (But what is just as jaw-dropping is watching the kid quarterback(s) tossing those long bombs while sprinting out of the pocket...)
If he signs the scholarship, or someone old enough for him does (do kids know how to write their names at 9, or do they still print them?) he could save a bundle on Out-of-State tuition fees. This year they are at $21,775. Lord knows what they’ll be in about 8 years when the gaffer finished high school.

And this finishing high school thing is a small part of why this trend to offering near-babies scholarships is becoming the way of things. They want the recipient to fly right, work hard and study both on and off the field. The rest of the reasons are, not surprisingly, not so altruistic; if a kid is a phenom who looks like he might have staying power, why not get him signed on the dotted line? But (and we’re assuming, just this last once, these scholarship offers do have some serious legal bite) do these scholarship offers have an escape clause which doesn’t involve a buy out? What if Havon decides he wants to be a racing car mechanic, or driver, and thus decides university is not the best way to reach his dreams?

Or say Havon survives football through high school unscathed. He goes to the University of Nevada and blows out a knee in his first game. And doctors can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again to meet football’s exacting standards. What happens to the scholarship then? Does it go the way of the Dodo bird? Or what if Havon goes a bit Aaron Hernandez at the school and gets busted and convicted? Bye-bye scholarship. Even if he stays within society’s legal lines - what if his GPA stinks, doesn’t meet a prescribed minimum? See you, scholarship...

Suppose Head Coach, Jay Norvell, and his 21 assistant coaches (for sure a scholarship should be given to each footballer that makes the team - who can remember all the coaches’ names - and Havon should personally thank the 1 assistant that saw a few of his highlight tapes and recommended a scholarship be offered) remain there until Havon comes to the rescue. But before Havon’s second season is to start the University fires Norvell et al. The new football boss has different philosophies and cuts Havon. Say sayonara scholarship...

But for now Havon’s saying all the right things and is dutifully training his keester off, exampled by his trainer, Mike Evans, having him pushing a huge tire that’s gotta outweigh Havon by 5 times. And Mr. Evans seems to be a foreseer. He describes Havon and another kid: “Genetically they have the size of pro athletes.”
​
And major-league university and NFL football dreams are formed from such pint-sized kids...

​A wet dream of orgasmic proportions is how one announcer described a Cristiano Ronaldo goal.

But what of the dry nightmare tax-evasion accusation the fantabulous Portuguese footballer faces?

Words cannot express Rocket Ronaldo’s greatness but soccer commentators have jobs to do and their truly difficult trick is to NOT use superlatives already in play to describe this guy, this forward, who, in his own words, grew up poor. Thus we hear tributes like:

“Confidence personified. The magic remains. Stunning, absolutely stunning. One of the best goals he’s ever scored. Absolutely sensational. Brilliant. We are witnessing an exhibition tonight. Not many players can do that. An absolute stunner. Oh my word. Top drawer. Can you believe the genius of this man? Unstoppable. Fine individual strike. An invaluable talent. This man can’t stop scoring. Did he really just do that? As outrageous a goal as you are going to see in any league. Not too far out for him.”

But is Cristiano’s being accused of shortchanging Spain some €14.7m (£12.95m) between 2011 and 2014 far out? Or is this just sort of a “misunderstanding? But, if not - if he is guilty – well, why would he ever do such a thing? The superstar had more than enough money during the period in question. Would it be due to greediness, or might it be some deep, dark thoughts of retribution and revenge he harbors towards authorities in that country he’s played in - in trying to “take it to the man” via tax fraud?

He’s to appear in the Pozuelo de Alarcon court this July 31st   to determine if he is charge-worthy.
For sure, if he is eventually found guilty and has to pay a fine, he can shake his Nike piggy bank which pays him, in a lifetime-contract, a cool 1 billion bucks. Or he could dip into his salaried funds of 50 million dollars annually. Or, failing these options, he could hold a raffle: pay my fine – betcha at least 1 fan of his 275 million social media followers would cough up the needed dough.
​
275 million athletic supporters can’t be wrong, because, besides being one of the best soccer players of all time, he seems to be on the right side, on his Twitter account at least, of apparently supporting causes like donating blood (there’s a picture of him with a sign that says donate blood) or apparently feeling angst over global refugees and feeling anxious over not enough Saving-the-Children going on to suit him.
And surely he can’t be nearly as corrupt as your basic, wedded-to-entitlement-and-lucre, money grabbing and grubbing FIFA kleptocrat is, can he?  

Perhaps we should cut him some slack – until we know the complete story. Perhaps Spain’s Agencia Tributaria is charging The Sultan of the Stepover out of bitterness, knowing his net worth, estimated at 375 million as of 2016, is a healthy economic barometer, when compared to the Great Recession that has wrecked Spain and its economic barometers since 2008. Perhaps the state legal service, which is the stick of that country’s tax doings, is shelling tax flack at him because he’s better than all their players. Perhaps one of their tax bureaucrats hates soccer and especially detests how the slightest mishap has a player writhing as though he’s been trampled over by the 3rd Panzer Division. Or maybe the bureaucrat simply goofed in his or her mathematical assumptions and computations.

Or, much likelier still, given Spain’s being ranked (the lower the number the higher the perceived level of corruption) as 58th out of 175 countries being measured – has a tax authority simply looking for a bribe to make this whole unseemly affair go away...

No matter what Spain’s role is, Ronaldo, AKA the little bee “abelhinha”, should look at replacing, or getting, a financial advisor familiar with overt tax laws in Spain which consist of tax regulations (including – and this is a partial list: economic activities tax; personal income tax; and wealth tax), tax agency regulations (including Acts, Royal Decrees, Ministerial Orders, Resolutions, and Instructions) other regulations of interest, international taxation regulations, regulations pending or

Geez, starting to feel woozy here, starting to feel Ronaldo’s pain. CR7 you’d best get a financial fixer and finagler who can deal with Spain’s covert skullduggery and behind the scenes tom-foolery.
That would have saved him from his presently being thought as somewhat of a cad to, if he’s found culpable, of being ultimately found as a criminal.

Should the latter be the case he can compare tax fraud felonies with rival Lionel Messi, who had HIS tax-fraud conviction upheld by Spain’s Supreme Court. Should the former be the situation Cristiano Ronaldo can share boo hoo stories with José Mourinho, who Spanish authorities think burned them for €3.3m (£2.9m) while he was managing Real Madrid, or Ronnie can sip some weak tea and do a whole sob sister oh-so-sad-story thingy with Colombia’s Radamel Falcao, who Spain think hosed them for £4.8m or hey, Cris can share a few stiff drinks and shout a few stronger protestations over the horror of it all with Argentina’s Javier Mascherano, who the tax office in...Spain...of all places - thinks tried to pull the wool over their eyes to the tune of £1.3m or Ronaldo, if you haven’t yet fainted from the tax-impositional indignity enveloping you, could shoot the s—t with Spaniard Xabi Alonso who, Spanish tax authorities believe hasn’t been kosher in minding his Ps and Qs when it comes to remitting to them their considered fair due in duties.
​
Two things are for sure. 1) The Spanish Tax Authorities are taxed to the max in ferreting Euros out of bedroom bureaus and 2) Ronaldo won’t get a decent night’s sleep, or a randy night wet dream orgasmic evening, until this tax fraud caper-case is put to bed.

​Rahsaan Yearwood needs his head read. He’s the father of a once-son who expresses himself as a daughter. The son’s name is now Andraya. He’s got a bit of a mustache, is well built, admits he often wins in track while identifying as a male, and now thinks he’s a female. So he/she is now the best girl track star at Cromwell High School. It’s in Connecticut and its second place finisher in the 100, Kate Hall, who won this event last year, has learned 2 things in her short tenure on earth. 1) Boys can race as girls without undergoing hormonal transplants and/or surgeries and 2) Speak softly to mask your true feelings at such a crazy thing being allowed to happen: “It’s frustrating, but that’s just the way it is now.”

Back to dad. He says (paraphrasing) we are born into a body, we are born into a situation...but we grow into a person we’re going to be (hardly profound thoughts for a math teacher) and when people ask me why is your daughter running with the girls – I answer - because she’s my daughter. As for fairness? He says he doesn’t think of it. How dandy for dad.

Brian Calhoun, the track coach at Cromwell, plays small ball, gushing: “I have a spectacular female athlete, there’s nothing more to say.” Really? Don’t you have a guy who identifies as a girl – but is a guy in physique, running with the girls? He then contradicts himself and goes on to say more. Basically he doesn’t want anyone to take issue with his stance that this situation is perfectly just. He doesn’t want this situation approached in any other way – for that could create an issue or a conversation...and he avers there really is no issue, nor conversation to be had – other than getting Andraya to improve her running times and finishes.

So he wants to preclude large-picture eyes-wide-open contrary views as he myopically and proudly proclaims “we have a great athlete...”

Where does mom, Ngozi Nnaji, fit into all of this? Well, she wants to lash out at comments she doesn’t like...and she says the love she has for her child is unconditional. The latter seems noble but overlooks the travesty of having a girl in a boy’s biological body winning races against girls with girl bodies. It’s not fair. Anybody with half a brain can see that. Ngozi adds: there’s no judgment. Too bad for mom, for what Andraya is foisting is a farce.

Yes, mom casting no judgment is crazy. Tolerance for the intolerable is not tolerance, it is submission, surrender. Instead of parenting she’s a passenger, a passerby, a patron, a potted palm, not willing to instill values of what is right or wrong but is, instead, willing to let the chips fall where they may and is willing to let the train crash without doing anything to stop it. “She can be whoever she wants to be...” (One wonders if mom would accept Andraya if he/she goes all genderfluidy and decides she’s a guy again?)

For Kate Hall, who may have aspired to a college or university scholarship – if she is now overlooked – would this not be a travesty? And how does she feel Cromwell’s motto:
“Placing Students First”
corresponds with her situation? She’s not first. She was beaten by Andraya, a transgender athlete – where transgender means in his/her case...what? If one feels like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole, in matters of sexual orientation and gender identity – but hasn’t yet taken concrete steps to change one’s sex to the gender they identify with, isn’t that just so much posing?

Andraya says she’s used to winning. So victories started when she was a he. So why not really go for the gusto? Announce you’re a girl – and race against boys? Show the world that girls (albeit still in boys’ bodies) can beat boys in the sprints. Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t that be a lot more impressive and courageous than running against girls with a boy’s physical attributes?

In fairness, Andraya, like many young women, is soft spoken, wear her hair long, and is inclusive – hoping her story inspires others. But boy oh boy, her shoulders are ripped – and will remain that way until she begins hormonal treatments.

Apparently a revelation occurred back in grade 1 or grade 2 (she’s not sure which) when the then tyke wore a Cinderella dress on Halloween – to Andraya that was the start of her realizing that she might be entombed in the wrong gender. But could it not have been just another example of a boy being a boy and doing a silly thing to attract attention, shock friends and freak out the folks? Another sign that something was amiss for Andraya was when, in grade 5, she wore pink and purple colored furry boots to school.

Dad, mom, and the track coach are all conveniently overlooking the elephant in the room. Andraya has a huge advantage in track events like the 100 and 200 because she’s got a boy’s musculature and power with a testosterone kick. As a freshman, (“freshman” will definitely have to be carted out to the woodshed and horsewhipped into a more pc word), Andraya may be a good girl, but she isn’t, or wasn’t, the best girl. In the Connecticut outdoor All-State Championship she came 3rd in a time of 12.41 seconds in the 100 meter dash. (Shanea Calhoun has the best State time of 11.82 set back in 2004.)

So dad and mom exude insouciance about the guy who thinks he’s a gal while the track coach exudes ebullience. Many of us exude penitence, realizing our vexations about this story have us, seemingly, sadly, and astoundingly, hopelessly wrong - based on the new "rules" and "mores" of what’s allowed in gender definitions this day and age.
​
Definitely we who disagree, need our heads read.

​Will Chris Froome three-peat this 2017 Tour de France? And is Le Tour still one of the most essential sporting events worldwide, or has it slipped - because of sleazy drugs and slimy cheating - to a b-list happening?

Anyway, down the road, the future of supreme bike road racing may belong to another Britisher, Adam Yates. The guy won the white jersey – defined as the best placed finisher under the age of 26 - in the 2016 TDF. He placed 4th when all was said and done.

But the future is now, and if the 2016 Tour de France was any indication - with Froome front and centre in debate and in anticipation of success - or failure – in this 2017 edition, at least 100 channels will air it to at least 190 countries to be watched by 3 BILLION.

(By the way, in stage 1 of this 2017 Tour, Chris came 6th, and he has happily announced he's signed on for 3 more years with Team Sky.) 

Despite Chris's latest results and news, undoubtedly these TDF numbers would be higher but the stench of Lance Armstrong’s chicanery looms over every facet of the bicycling endurance race and Froome’s Team Sky and British Cycling being investigated by UK Anti-Doping sure hasn’t helped...

Nevertheless, between 10 to 12 million spectators, if not scaring the daylights out of the riders by jumping onto the route waving their arms wildly, will, for sure, loom over the route and press against the edges.

But is La Grande Boucle as edgy, unpredictable, and pressure packed as riders and fans tout? Sure crashes erupt helter skelter, but a glance at previous winners shows, often, repeat, consecutive wins. If it was as iffy and chancy as proponents aver and was truly competitive, would not more individuals have won - with individual cycling dynasties a rarity rather than commonplace?
​
Of course many will retort that cream always rises to the top and that past greats like Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, LeMond, and Froome rose to their natural, expected, excellent level, predictability be damned.

For sure, there’s pressure to piss. Sitting and straining for hours per day, with only 2 days rest over the 21 stages, means riders have to “go” and like “now.” Some pull over en masse to do the deed; others fiddle with their shorts to do it whilst upon the bike! Amazing, that.

Even as amazing is that it is illegal to urinate in a stream or river. Stick to the tree and try to let the riders behind you know that, so they don’t shamelessly pass you by.

Most amazing still, Mark Cavendish admits to pissing himself if the weather is chilly.

For sure, while youngsters adulate these cycling cyborgs, they should know life as a professional bicycle road racer isn’t all peaches and cream. For starters, the starting pay of £35,000 or $45,150 USD - isn’t that great. And life on the road, racing and travelling to races, sounds somewhat monotonous and definitely irksome. You’re not with loving family and best friends, you’re with teammates - some likeable, some loathsome.

But The Tour de France isn’t all agony. Sure this year’s edition promises a climb as steep as sin to La Planche des Belles Filles, but when not huffing and puffing upwards, the peloton will find its members either daydreaming or casually chatting to fellow rivals, talking about Paris, or talking about future events on their racing calendars.

Alas, however, for 3 weeks the casual fan tuning in will, if the TV is mute, be hard pressed to recognize a particular rider, any rider, save for their faves in winning jerseys. Basically, helmets have removed any chance of easy facial recognition. Indeed, apart from stage-winning jersey wearers, the only standout from the crowd might be Alex Howes – because he wears funky sunglasses.

Howes et al will begin the Great Loop in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a did-you-see-that-blur–whizz-by 14 kilometer individual time trial.

But let’s put the brakes, right now, on one trend, shall we? We know the cyclists in the 2017 Tour de France, to a man, will be in awesome shape. But to the casual ballsy beau mansplaying at home, don’t imitate the professionals and don Lycra when you get off the couch to pedal and peddle your wears and wares about town. You’re chubby in all the wrong places and you’re contributing to blight and visual pollution. The Lycra look, for you, is not good. Scrap the spandex and stop MAMIL’s (Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.)

Where were we?

Yes, Froome, the favorite, going for his 4th win in 5 years. This Nairobi born road racer certainly thrives in the suffering of training and racing. He might even admit, to himself at least, that he enjoys it. After all, roads in Kenya, whilst adequate for marathoners, were hardly conducive to a kid dreaming of elite cycling. Conditions there were, to be generous, Spartan – But Chris had no complaints...

To copy the feel of alpine climbing where such terrain didn’t exist Chris would pull his breaks to create the necessary struggle and resistance...He admits in his early days (around 2006 by this point) his technique was terrible “crash Froome” - but he had “an engine” - an engine later stricken with Bilharzia, a parasitic disease harmful to red blood cells – the means to transport oxygen.

He also admits his first TDF back in 2008 was a huge learning experience with the speed seemingly 10 kilometers per hour faster than any race he had been in previously. He was 1 of 4 riders for his 9-man team, to finish. In the 2012 Tour de France he had to take a back seat to teammate Bradley Wiggins, causing some discomfort for himself, Wiggins, and the team. In the 2014 race he pranged up his left knee, left wrist...right thigh, leaving the contest prematurely. He had to fight suspicions of doping...

And just this year, in May, he was deliberately knocked off his bike in a hit and run: the bike was mashed, but Chris was unhurt. (The road rage driver remains at large.)

But, and this is a big but, until finishing 4th in June’s Critérium du Dauphiné, he hadn’t raced competitively since April, and his running of his own schedule has undoubtedly caused  Team Sky some consternation.
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Thus, come this July, the world will watch and wonder again if Chris will be the best bet overall in climbing, descending, time-trialing, and cross wind cycling – blessed with a, oh my, peak oxygen uptake twice that of normal humans - enabling him to hit the breathtaking heights of yet another Tour de France win.
 

Could Justin Smoak be in MLB’s All-Star game? It would be shocking, but not as shocking as his sudden outburst to home run-hitting greatness. He’s got a good glove too, wielding a fielding percentage at .998.

So how did this South Carolinian, who had never hit more than 20 homers in any season in his 10-year minors-and-major league career, bash 20 with this season not at the halfway point? And how long should the Toronto Blue Jays, who spent the first two months absolutely floundering, thank their lucky stars that Smoak has consistently smoked ‘em out of the park since the season opened? Currently he sits tied for second in the long ball behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge.

Smoak may be a late bloomer, but he was an early, first pick of the Texas Rangers in the 2008 draft (11th overall) and got himself a 3.5 million signing bonus after a stellar college career with the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Looking at his stats, this June 22nd, as compared to other first basemen, he shouldn’t make the team as popularity invariably determines those selected. And his 20 homers, good for 3rd place among 1st basemen, have been equaled by 2 others. But a manager could add him to the All-Star roster. However, while he’s batting the heck out of the ball, he’s 9th in RBI’s at 47 – though he has had fewer at bats than 13 others...

But as regards all positions on the Blue Jays the 30 year-old heads and tails above every teammate in homers and RBI’s. Second best Kendry Morales is 5 homers behind and 5 ribbies back. As important, Smoak is a genuine switch hitter with near equal abilities from both sides of the plate. (He’s even hit homers from either side in the same game for the Jays appropriately back on Canada Day July 1, 2015 - against Boston.)

Get this, after Toronto Blue Jay fans invade Seattle to watch their beloved team – to the disgust and disappointment of Mariners’ management – who’ve responded by despicably hiking up ticket prices exorbitantly when the Jays come to play – the latter took Smoak on waivers from the Mariners. Way to go Seattle: you did save a measly $150,000 in not buying out his contract. In taking a chance on Smoak, the Blue Jays look prescient, almost as much as they did when they got Bautista from the Pirates for now forgotten and long gone, catcher Robinzon Diaz, in one of the most lopsided trades in recent history.

Justin’s average has soared from 2016. That year he hit .217; this year, try .303 after 70 games.
Smoak’s hot. If he keeps his heroics up, he could hit 100 runs batted with 42 homers at the end of the day. Moreover he’s cut down on the wasted-at-bat strikeouts. Instead of whiffing every 3rd time at bat, he’s hitting air every 5th time. It’s a something.

And for us folks that love the esoteric statistics baseball is infamous and famous for, get a gander at how Smoak’s 2017 numbers have improved markedly from his 2016 and 2015 ones in eye-glazing mind numbing categories such as, sitting down for this – here goes: WAR; BABIP; xBA; BB%; BB/K; wOBA on BIP; HR/FB%; xwOBA on BIP; wOBA; xwOBA – with anything containing an x needing us pointy heads to know the ball’s velocity after being smacked with its launch angle... And get this - his wRC + is tops among first basemen! How is this computed?  Simply take (wRAA/PA + LgR/PA) + (LgR/PA – (Park Factor x LgR/PA)) over (AL or NL wRC/PA EXCLUDING PITCHERS and times the whole mathematical mélange by 100.

Got that? Me neither. Anyway, enough of this nerd wrestling with numbers.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Put simply, is Justin a jerk or a gentleman? Is he “good in the clubhouse” or a complete pain in the ass? This is certain: he’s been troubled because, until this breakout season, he carried the burden of awesome potential with ho-hum results. Last season he slumped. If he didn’t aggravate his fellow Blue Jays with bitching, he must have puzzled them, trying to change his swing fundamentals with every downturn. That’s a recipe for a lousy product. So coming into this year, there were hopes, but no guarantees he’d be “the guy” at first. This year, given his consistent and continued successes teammates have been spared any steaming and fuming he’d have after lousy at bats. That’s good for the clubhouse atmosphere...And an unnamed Blue Jays source says the team values his great work ethic and his being a great teammate.

Undoubtedly Smoak’s successes this season are due to ample ability and lotsa attitude, a little bit of luck, with heavy dollops of perseverance and patience thrown in – with the latter especially coming into, no pun intended, play - when he’s down 2 strikes. Last year he’s strike out 60% in that count – this year, just 35%. Credit, too, must be given to hitting coach, Brook Jacoby, who has worked with Justin to cut out the “loose” parts of his swing.  Brook can swagger a bit: under his tutelage in 2015 he saw the heavenly heavy hitting Jays score 891 runs tops in Major League Baseball. The Yankees came second with 127 fewer runs.

Finally Smoak’s gotta be feeling some good old-fashioned trepidation as - if he doesn’t produce and show he’s deserving of the 2016 contract, a 2 year deal valued at 8.25 million – well, Rowdy Tellez a dandy first baseman prospect for the Jays, currently in the minors with the Buffalo Bisons, is itching to take his place...
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So the heat’s on for Smoak to continue to smoke. And that smoke's being noticed. He's currently 4th  among American League 1st basemen on the all-star ballot

​Can Jason Dufner, The Duf, win the 2017 U.S Open at the Erin Hills GC in Wisconsin? This laid back man, who looks kinda like the Tasmanian devil with Teddy bear thrown in, is hot, having won the Memorial a couple of weeks back. Now ranked 27th worldwide, Dufner won't feel as much pressure, having won a Major, the PGA Championship in 2013, as will the United States Golf Association, with that body's reputation on the line to tweak Erin Hills as playable, not lamentable, for the pros. The USGA wants the winner to be around par. Golf Digest ranks this venue as the 2nd best of the more than 500 golf courses in that state, behind Whistling Straits.
 
Anyway, if the putting surfaces are as atrocious as the "fine fescue" grasses were at Chambers Bay, back in 2015, all the competitors will ape Justin’s Dufnering (more on that momentarily) - while the USGA crawls into a hole - no matter how great these Erin Hills bentgrass greens are purported to be.
 
Gotta love Duf Daddy because he doesn't put on airs. He gives us ordinary blokes hope. He proves that dedication to his craft (despite his common-man physique) can make a beginner who struggled on the tour, taking nine long years to break into the top 100 golfers in the world - a winner. He's a poor man's John Daly - and like John he's been rumored with life problems of the wife. Specifically, according to the National Enquirer – who scooped the slimy pol, John Edwards and extra-marital squeeze Rielle Hunter, “love child” tawdriness - the Dufner was said to have been part of a not-at-the-same-time sexual tryst between him, ex-wife Amanda, and some guy named Tiger Woods - with Lindsey Vonn an unplayable lie at the time.
 
Sex games and machinations aside, will Erin Hills, just 45 minutes north-west of Milwaukee, suit Jason’s game and deliberations for this 117th edition of the U.S Open? Mike Davis, USGA Executive Director, given the botched job at Chambers Bay, swings for the fences, declaring that this golf course is “...worthy of identifying the game’s very best.”
 
So there.
 
And given that Dufner is at his best right now...he might be able to survive the 608 yard, par 5, 1st hole and the 613 yarder, 14th. Dufner, however, off the tee is ranked around 99th at 290.0 yards. Dustin Johnson, whom Bodog has odds on as winning (compared to its ranking of Jason as 22nd best chance) leads driving length at 319 big ones. Dufner’s putting is even more average. He candidly confesses "I've been putting bad for 17 years...” This week he ranks 112th. So how could he possibly win this U.S Open? His play from the fairways is better, ranking 46th, but his compact, torso-based swing is consistent. Indeed for a man with a soft round belly - when he isn't a Thinny Minnie - and with a physique and musculature, no matter his overall weight, resembling a Sunday duffer, it's amazing the guy plays as well as he does - and it's astounding his torso is running the swing. Heck, he set a 36-hole record in winning Jack Nicklaus's tournament.
 
To continue, there are lots of sand traps, pot bunkerish - which will test Dufner and his 157th sand save ranking - and others who will find themselves sometimes hitting out sideways or backwards – there is lots of fescue grass between tee to greens, fringing the latter, and alongside - and surrounding - fairways to boot.  The course may be relatively new but its foundations of rolling hills were formed by glaciers 10 thousand years ago. And, for the past 7 years, 1,815 tons of sand have been used as top dressing on the 40 acres of fairways...

This links public course features lots of wind. Great ball striking is a must. Dufner, with his cute pre-shot waggles, has that attribute, epitomized by wondrous wedge play. Undoubtedly assistant superintendents Alex Beson-Crone and Adam Ayers and 1 of 3 course architects, Dana Fry, are engagingly concerned – and have been since 2010 when they were awarded the 2017 date, with getting the place “just so.”

For what it’s worth Eric Steimer, Championship Manager, for the 2017 U.S. Open calls it a tremendous property. The USGA believes in the site – lionizing it as a field of dreams...For many players it will be their first time playing this course. For the 35,000 fans following the pros over the 8-mile long course, it will be their first time seeing their stars live. For the 135 million pumped into the local region, it will be their economy on the gravy train. For us watching on TV, it will be panoramic vistas coupled with minimalist design - combining to have the best handle, or mishandle the rough...

Back to Jason. During an interview on the Kelly & Michael show he brought out the Wanamaker PGA Trophy. (The top comes off – and it can hold, 47 beers.) He, of course was amiable, and forthright. When asked to comment on his putt, that if sunk, would have set an ALL-TIME golf record Majors’s score of 62, he called it the worst effort he made all week.

Which brings us to the ALL-TIME coolest move called Dufnering. Asked to explain how Dufnering came about Duf explained he had sat Indian style for 30 minutes, at J. Erik Jonsson Community School in Dallas in a charity appearance, mused that he had already been in the second grade, wondered to himself when this event was going to be over, wanted it to get done – for his body’s sake, and, before the session ended, while the teacher talked about relaxation, breathing, and how to get ready for tests, he sorta “checked out” and relaxed his sore frame via Dufnering, sitting legs straight out, arms draped at the sides, leaning against a wall. He smiled shyly, saying the Dufnering international craze “turned out good.” Dufnering, he added, wasn’t premeditated, wasn’t meant to be disrespectful, was a natural moment, but didn’t impress his then wife one bit – “...because she sees it all the time. Apparently I do it all the time.”
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And Mr. Dufner, The War Eagle from Auburn University, with the Tasmanian devil face and teddy bear countenance, wins big tournaments some of the time. And if he doesn’t “check out” and does keep up with his new military-style breathing regimen to prevent batting and battling the ball around the green, who is to say he can’t become the next U.S. Open winner?

​Ingenuity meets insanity at the Summer X Games with every competitor an artist, acrobat, gymnast, and stuntman. As the X denotes – the very nature of their disciplines dictates they push boundaries to extremes. Or, as the X Games Twitter site proclaims: Spreading the shred in action sports since 1995.
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For Baby Boomers who don’t understand what Generation X or Generation Y see in the Summer X Games stuff, don’t worry: your offspring – all 106 million of them, in 121 countries will, via TV, watch the 2017 Summer X Games coming from Minneapolis and explain same to you.

X Games competitors and wannabees, however, sandwich some wonderful traits between the crusty edges of inventiveness and craziness. For example, in skateboarding kids looked to Tony Hawk’s and Mark Gonzales’s tricks, styles, and mannerisms. They’d try to emulate Tony Hawk’s 900. (But they’d better be prepared for a lot of persistence before meeting excellence. It took Tony Hawk “The Birdman” his 12th time to final successfully land the 900.) They’d try to copy the Gonz’s shoes. They’d assimilate and incorporate the masters’ moves into their routines. They’d extrapolate, synthesize, re-evaluate and - through these processes - come up with new stunts.

Alas, nowadays, given today’s stiff-as-a-board political correctness, they’d be accused of cultural appropriation to be sure, and possibly ageist appropriation too. Thus the X Games must be stopped! And all skateboarders younger than Hawk and Gonzales, who can be shown to have used elements of the former's in their skating – must undergo sensitivity training.

Ok, let’s forget such puerile politics for now (and hopefully for ever) and return to the virile characteristics of the X Games, generally.

Specifically, skateboarders are said to have been “shredding the vert ramp” Basically, they shred here, they shred there, indeed, the word shred has an even more altruistic purpose too, with the Shred Hate campaign to reduce bullying in American schools. Don’t know if bullying equals hate, and don’t know if 10 million kids are bullied each year in schools there, as the website page says, but their heart is in the right place even if their correlation and statistics are both a bit off...
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It should be said: the X Games doesn't test athletes for drugs. This is probably just as well, despite it pissing off the likes of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 90% of these competitors gotta be high on something, or a cocktail of somethings, to even contemplate the stunts they do, let alone put them into practice. Or they could be high on life. It happens.

But let’s taunt WADA with a certifiable, undeniable fact. Didn’t Pierre-Luc Gagnon “PLG” admit after a heavy night partying, that lots of water and a few Excedrin can get him back on the skateboard? So let us have WADA scrutinize PLG’s NOLLIE HEELFLIP VARIAL INDY 540, why don’t we? Or have that body inspect Kevin Robinson’s pulling a Double Flair back in 2006 or study his world record ramp-to-ramp 84-foot backflip at the age of 44.
 
Actually the X Games and its athletes should be examined, not for foreign substances, but for unworldly creativity. For instance, who thought that some competitors would run their bikes brakeless? Moreover, have hockey, baseball, football, or basketball come up with any radical new wrinkles in the past few years?

Extreme sports has, at its core, the seed of imagination wherein whatever happened before can be grown upon, spreading a canopy of daredevilish deeds, more bold and brassy and outlandishly outrageous than ever before. Its trunk has rings, not of ages, but of new ways of doing things on skateboards, bikes, and motorcycles. (And gotta love the names for tricks, though we conventional old fogie types would scoff and sneer at the seemingly endless plethora of over-the-top monikers such as the Topside No-footed CanCan; One-handed 540; Switch-blade flip; Flare Double Whip; Downside Tail Whip...)

Speaking of whip or whippersnappers, what should we say about 50-year old + BMX rider Dennis McCoy? Simply that he is his sport’s equivalent to hockey’s ageless Jaromir Jagr. Didn’t he, smooth and dialed in, pull a 900 at the ripe old age of 49?

And what about Bob? Remember skateboarder Bob Burnquist’s 98 score in ‘99? When he did at least 4 moves the commentators either had not seen, or did not think were possible? And for us largely unfamiliar to X Games and skateboarding, but totally familiar with Olympic greatness and gymnastics, say – let’s equate Bob’s stunning run that X Games, to a stunning routine of the best male gymnast in the world, Kohei Uchimura.

One must quickly look at the downside of this sporting genre. Injuries can be numerous and mind numbingly severe. Let's admit it, some watch X games events for the wipeout factor, as do Indy 500 fans watching car races for crashes. Travis Pastrana once suffered a dislocated spine...18 broken bones...and had 8 surgeries – at a minimum! Can’t forget Jake Brown’s fall from 45 feet up, can we, resulting in a broken wrist, broken vertebrae, a bruised lung and liver, a concussion - and a ruptured spleen?

“Best Trick” has been a great spectacle but at the cost of serious injuries. Heck, even watching promo videos of skateboarders – with no helmet or other padding - gives one the willies. Because they are so amazing they’ll take the risk of crumbling onto pavement, tumbling down stairs, and going ass-over-teakettle over railings. But mistakes do happen: ever seen the video of Chris Joslin flying over 20 steps or so, only to tumble and roll over his tail-bone hard?
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But pains and aches aside, it seems even these setbacks never stop each new X Games from getting better year after year, because every entrant knows the other will be bringing new and freaky-fabulous moves to the table. All will make this Summer X Games, coming up in Minneapolis this July, an extremely excellent exhibition of courage and character to view, where attitude meets amplitude, or put more simply – to be THE BEST SUMMER X GAMES YET.