General: The KKK, David Wells, cheerleading and more

So many topics for me to cover, so I guess I'll start with the KKK.

* The good ol' Triple KKK has a splinter group that has reportedly got a permit to protest during the Masters against their policy of not allowing women into their club. A battle about who belongs to a 300-person's rich people club is one of the dumbest and most pointless debates in sports that we have seen for awhile, but now with the Triple K involved it has made it serious.

I didn't want to take either side of this debate because neither the Augusta National Golf Club, nor the women's group represented by Martha Burke would ever like to accept me for who I am -- a middle class young male. But, who wants to side with anyone that has the KKK on their side? And doesn't the KKK know that Augusta National doesn't really like them?

Yeah, the KKK has discriminated against women and minorities too, but Augusta is made up of rich white people discriminating against women and minorities, while members of the KKK, for the most part, are poor white trash.

* David Wells is disputing his own autobiography, which is about as intelligent as Americans disputing their own Constitution. Wells says in his book that when he pitched his perfect game for the New York Yankees back in 1998, he was half drunk.

Dave you said it. You let the book get printed. You never told your ghostwriter not to write it. But, you have taken that statement back and have said you were only partly hung over. Well, that makes it all better.

Hopefully, you haven't just inspired other lazy over talented pro and aspiring pro athletes to play drunk like it was beer league softball or hockey.

I actually dispute Wells' claim that he was drunk. Yeah, he has had a drinking problem in the past, but with the level that pro athletes are at these days, it is doubtful some could play a perfect game while being under any influence of any depressants.

Wells has made a name for himself by talking about such things as growing up with members of a motorcycle gang, but this latest thing sounds like nothing but a tall tale, which probably happens to be what his book is based on. The book is probably nothing but exaggerations that guys tell in bars to impress their friends, or ladies that they might hit on.

Some sports historians might note that Bobby Layne, a Hall of Famer and former Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, was known for his night-before-the-game drinking binges as much as his playing style, which was a total abandonment of his body that would lead to victories. The difference is that Layne played in the '50s, long before a professional athlete's only job was to be an athlete.

* That recent game show segment on "SportsCenter" called "HearSay," in which "SportsCenter" anchors Stuart Scott and Rich Eisen each have a team of athletes competing against each other, is nothing but a "$20,000 Pyramid" rip-off. They should have just called it "SportsCenter's $20,000 Pyramid Rip-Off." They also should have used Dick Clark, the former host of the "$20,000 Pyramid."

* Continuing on with ESPN, they have a fishing show called "Fish On." I don't care much about fishing, but what they have done to make fishing more interesting is pure genius -- they added three pairs of breasts. It is a show where some guy, who is a fishing expert I assume, takes three lovely ladies on fishing trips with him. The catch isn't the fish, it is that these three hot babes are scantily clad, and how could hormonally raging twelve-year-old boys, and me, not tune in.

* Georgia men's basketball coach Jim Harrick is in a world of trouble. Tony Cole, one of his former players, told ESPN and many other media sources, about the many things deemed illegal by the NCAA that were provided to him from Harrick and his son Jim Jr. while he was at Georgia. Cole was given Harrick Jr.'s credit card to pay for a $300 dollar phone bill and purchase a TV. He says he was also given passing grades in a class taught by Harrick Jr., and had other grades fixed by him. Harrick Jr. has admitted to paying the phone bill.

Cole revealed this after he felt he was wronged by the Harricks, and, presumably, by the rest of the coaching staff when they suspended him from the team after he had sexual assault charges brought against him. Cole felt like they didn't come to his aid like they should have. The charges were later dropped against Cole, but the team did not reinstate him when the charges were dropped.

Cole doesn't look all that dignified himself by coming forward with these charges though. While they might be true, and he might be fulfilling a moral obligation somewhat by coming clean, he revealed himself as someone that had low moral standards himself during his years at Georgia. However, if these charges are true, the Georgia coaching staff are in some big trouble themselves. In business, they say that if you are doing anything illegal or immoral to get by, you better not have any disgruntled ex-employees because it could come back to haunt you. Major college athletics is a business too, and if Cole's allegations are true, that same rule should have applied.

It is well noted that Harrick Sr. continues to recruit players that don't meet the NCAA eligibility requirements on a yearly basis. He is an aggressive coach that will try anything to get an edge, and here he might have used very bad judgement on many stages.

* Minor league players will be tested for the drug ephedra. This ruling comes after Baltimore Oriole pitcher Steve Bechler died in a recent spring training practice. The Washington Times reported that he used a nutritional supplement that contained the drug.

Minor leaguers are being tested, but not Major League Baseball players. This is because the minor leaguers aren't technically in the MLB union. This stinks for them. I guess they have to wait to get to the big leagues before they will be allowed to use "health hazardous," yet "performance enhancing" drugs. Oh yeah, and can use white balls for batting practice in the "Show." Had to get in a "Bull Durham" reference.

* Competitive cheerleading is probably not talked about a lot on eSports, but I'll reach into the subject. The young ladies in this "sport" are very talented and athletic, but what does their purpose really serve? The only people that care about what they are doing are the same people that watch "Fish On." But, if they don't mind being unglorified strippers, who is to stop them?

* Sergei Fedorov admits he was married to tennis star Anna Kournikova for a brief period of time. Not only does this kill my dream of running into Anna at a Red Wings game, but why it was kept a secret, when it was more than obvious, is a mystery.

A lot of Red Wing fans have theorized that their relationship hurt Fedorov's play on the ice at times. I never bought into this. The former Hart (NHL MVP) Trophy winning Fedorov has showed up when he wants to his whole career, long before anyone knew of the blonde tennis vixen.

If anyone's performance has been hurt by the relationship it is Anna's. She has never won a tournament as a pro, but has never had to worry about being invited to any tournaments because of her sexuality and star appeal, generated by dating famous people like Fedorov. A free pass like that doesn't help improve anyone's athletic performance.

* On a final note the easiest Hall of Fame in the world to get into has to be Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. They are inducting Detroit News and AP sports columnist Jerry Green.

Green wrote a column that said the Lions should actually keep Marty Mornhinweg, thus coming to the aid of a coach that was 5-27 in his two seasons at the helm. This is the same coach that, in an overtime game last year, won the coin toss and then gave away the ball to the opposing team and lost the game. In his pro-Mornhinweg column, Green said something like: let the people that make their opinions known by way of the pronoun do the judging.

That, this, there, thing that he said is the dumbest thing that I have heard in a while.