The 10 most overrated things in sports

I cannot claim ownership of what follows. I discovered it, of all places, on Time-Warner Cable’s web site. But, for the most part, I agree with the thoughts. The items are not listed in any particular order, so regard them as all equally overrated.

The Olympic Games: Without even bothering to mention the festering cesspool that has been FIFA and international soccer for the last few decades, it's important to bear in mind that the International Olympic Committee bears all the same hallmarks of corruption and ludicrous overspending on facilities that will never be used again. The Winter Olympics are a more egregious culprit in this, as the events require a remote location with snowy mountains for skiing and alpine tracks for bobsledding and such. The shocking $51 billion price tag on the 2014 Sochi Olympics led to a dearth of bidders for the 2022 Winter Olympiad. Sweden and Norway, which already have all the necessary facilities, both dropped out of the gambit, leaving only China and -- wait for it -- Kazakhstan, land of superior potassium. The Olympics are fun to watch on a non-annual basis, but they're also outrageously wasteful.

Sliding Head-First into First Base: If it was quicker to slide into first base, then you would see Olympic sprinters diving across the finish line. They don't, because it slows you down. Yes, head-first slides look cool (bonus points if you're batting helmet comes tumbling off), but it's a stupid tactic unless you're trying to avoid a tag.

Floyd Mayweather Boxing Matches: Never, ever pay to watch Floyd Mayweather box. You're buying a ticket to 12 of the most boring rounds in existence. The prime minister of Cambodia was so convinced Manny Pacquiao beat him, he refused to pay up on a large bet he had placed on the long-awaited bout. Also, Mayweather is a human slug, as proven by googling the term "mayweather domestic abuse."

Mock Drafts: Mock drafts are among the most pointless, tedious, speculative, and unjournalistic exercises in sportswriting, and yet, the NBA and NFL drafts launch repeated mocks beginning months before draft night and culminating in crescendo of rumor and misinformation. Sports fans devour these and bicker over the merits of each imagined selection. Immediately after the draft is done, all mocks are useless. Here's the secret: No one knows! It's really just a vehicle for Mel Kiper and Todd McShay to argue over how high to draft a quarterback.

Televising the NBA Draft Lottery Selection: The NBA lottery selection program is televised (because money), but it's a silly, contrived exercise in staging. This year, it seemed to exist solely as a showcase for New York Knicks general manager Steve Mills' devastation at landing the No. 4 pick. The entire lottery selection has already been picked earlier in day under watch of an independent auditor, so the league could simply have a press release about the draft order.

MLB Draft: The first-year player draft lasts for an exhausting 40 rounds, plus compensation picks. Compare that to drafts in the NBA (two rounds), NFL and NHL (seven rounds each). Baseball's lengthy amateur draft is also known as the "rule 4 draft," and of course there is a separate rule 5 draft as well, though this is a brief affair during the winter meetings aimed at preventing teams from hording too much young talent. Moreover, if you ever see any of the players from the draft in the MLB, it'll be several years later.

Silence: When you watch tennis and golf, you have to be silent most of the time, and we have only decorum to blame. If a baseball player can hit a round ball traveling 90-plus miles per hour using a round bat as tens of thousands of fans roar with anticipation, then Novak Djokovic should be able to get his racquet on a tennis ball regardless of noise. Smart fans know when to be quiet, like when the home football team's offense is operating, so they can keep a lid on it during a golfer's backswing. Other than that, go nuts! The Big 12 already encourages cheering during their conference's college tennis matches, partly due to youth tennis' plummeting popularity.

Men's College Football and Basketball: Yes, college football and basketball are very exciting, and that will only increase once the agonizing 35-second shot clock drops to 30 seconds. But the NCAA is one of the most hypocritical, exploitative, money-grubbing organizations in all of sports. Between heavy time requirements each week for the "student-athletes," their miniscule chance of going pro, and the deplorable graduation rates across the board, major college sports are very hard to root for with pangs of guilt. It's no wonder that Northwestern football players voted last year to unionize. While football and basketball do fund many smaller college sports in certain aspects, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran pointed out last year that a head coach of a sports team was the highest paid public employee in 40 different states -- 27 football coaches and 13 basketball coaches, as noted by Deadspin. Those are your taxes at "work."

All-Star Games and the Pro Bowl: From the non-contact farce that is the Pro Bowl and NHL All-Star Game to the excruciatingly long and cripplingly boring Home Run Derby and Slam Dunk Contest, every single All-Star affair is simply terrible and a waste of everyone's time. And the fan voting could be the worst part of all, because we're responsible. Aside from hoops fans voting an injured Kobe Bryant an NBA All-Star starter, Kansas City Royals fans have Omar Infante currently leading the balloting at second base. (He's hitting .227 with only three walks in 62 games, so literally every other AL second baseman is a worthier choice.) Either way, the winning league will have home-field advantage in the World Series -- for no logical reason whatsoever.

NASCAR: As Forbes reported in 2012, NASCAR "has become the No. 1 spectator sport, and 17 of the top 20 most attended sporting events in the United States are NASCAR events." Formula One fans around the world think that's hilarious, because instead of the myriad intricacies of road racing, each event simply involves a few dozen cars turning left and occasionally getting a tire change.

New York Times sports pages focus on Metroplex

Saturday's New York Times had a decidely Dallas/Fort Worth feel to it. The lead story focused on Dallas' Tyrone Davis (left, with the ball), who is currently the star of the Georgia basketball team. This is not the Georgia that goes to war with Southeastern Conference foes but the Georgia team that recently went to war with Russia.

The second lead story was about someone more well known hereabouts, Gary Patterson, and how he and his defensive minded philosophies has guided TCU to the brink of a BCS bowl. (It also mentions that Patterson is an accomplished singer/guitarist who could have had himself a successful career in Nashville had he not gone into coaching football).

Both stories are worth a read.

Texas-OU and other hits

Just to keep the record straight, I am a diehard Texas Longhorn supporter, having graduated from UT-Austin way back when with a journalism degree, spending a large part of my time there on the sports staff of the Daily Texan. Then, when I came to Dallas to work for UPI, I used to spend many pleasing moments on the telephone with then Texas football coach Darrell Royal when he called in his ballot for UPI's weekly coaches football poll.

So, having said that, my feelings from watching yesterday's Texas-OU contest are:

• Overall, a rather boring game.
• I didn't get the feeling that Texas defeated OU, only that the Longhorns were ahead when time ran out.
• Keeping OU to a minus 16 yards rushing was an astounding achievement and probably contributed more to the final score than any other factor.
• Colt McCoy's chances of winning the Heisman Trophy are zero.
• I salute the Oklahoma brain trust that came up with the defensive game plan and the OU athletes that executed that plan.

Having been confined to a hospital bed for the last week (possibly more on that later), I have had the opportunity to watch more sports than I would have otherwise. Some observations:

• Neither Florida nor Tim Tebow impressed me that much yesterday and I agree with the AP for putting Alabama at the top of its poll. Right now I consider the race for the Heisman wide open with no clear leader.
• Alabama looked efficient, but really not that dominant against South Carolina. It did not come across as a great college football team, only as the best one out there right now.
• Last night's Yankees-Angels baseball game was a classic thriller. If New York can win one in California, which it should, this series should be over in six games.
• I'll give you Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, because after watching today's Saints-Giants game, I'll take Drew Brees as my starting quarterback any day.

Scattershooting while wondering what the hell happened to...

Forgive me, Sir Blackie, but am I the only one wondering why sportswriters Rich Gosselin and Eddie Sefko have been missing of late from the pages of the Dallas Morning News?

ESPN to challenge Morning News sports

ESPN plans to inaugurate a Web site devoted entirely to Dallas area sports sometime "in the fall," presumably timed to cash in on local football fever. ESPN ran a test of the local Web site concept in Chicago and, according to the New York Times, "In less than three months, ESPN Chicago has become the city’s top sports site, attracting about 590,000 unique visitors in June ... Second place went to The (Chicago) Tribune’s online sports section with 455,000 unique visitors."

The Times also said "Once ESPN establishes itself in local markets, it plans to move deeper into local sports — down to the high school level and perhaps beyond — by using social networking and other technology to inform its journalism."

I'd be willing to bet ESPN wouldn't be trying this if a certain legendary sports writer was still working today.

The Chicago Cubs have a new owner and he's not Cuban

I'm not sure how much praise this is, exactly, but Mark Cuban is the best owner the Dallas Mavericks have ever had. I would also say Cuban is a superior sports franchise owner than anyone individual or group of individuals who have ever owned the Texas Rangers. Maybe that speaks more the quality of owners more than anything else, but there you have it.

From a number of items I have read (admittedly, I never addressed Cuban himself on this subject) I gathered he also wanted to own the Chicago Cubs baseball team. There were all kinds of questions that grew out of this interest. Was he too flamboyant for the staid image of baseball? Would other owners even grant him admission into their country club? If he couldn't produce an NBA championship, what makes him qualified to produce a World Series winner? Did he have the bandwidth to devote the required attention to the Chicago Cubs, the Dallas Mavericks, HD Net and what-have-you?

I actually thought those questions and others were being debated until I read this Associated Press Story which (1) announced the sale of Cubs to one Tom Ricketts, a member of the family that founded TD Ameritrade and someone who met his wife in the bleachers at Wrigley Field, and (2) said that Cuban was not even one of the finalists considered for the purchase. In fact, nowhere in this story does the name Mark Cuban even appear.

Did I miss something along the way? Did Cuban withdraw his offer? Was the Tribune Company, the current Cubs owners, just toying with him? Whatever, I'm personally happy that he is still just the owner of the Dallas Mavericks -- not that he can make them contenders anytime in the near future, but at least he restored some semblance of competition and excitement to pro basketball in Dallas.

But, hey, Mark, if you want to get a WNBA franchise for these parts, I'm behind you 100 percent.

Ian out

It's not like te Texas Rangers were in the thick of a pennant race or something, but it's still a shame when a team loses its second best hitter.

SMU to sponsor, host Special Olympics basketball clinic

SMU basketball coaches and players will offer tips on ball handling, passing and shooting during a free basketball clinic for area Special Olympic athletes Saturday, Sept. 13, between 9 and 10:30 a.m. at the Crum Basketball Center on the SMU campus.

Although I have been inside Moody Coliseum, where the Mustangs play their home games, on many occasions for everything from athletic contests, to rock concerts to high school graduation ceremonies, the Crum Center is this $13 million, 43,000-square-foot state-of-the art practice and training facility adjacent to Moody designed, among other things, to attract a high-profile coach like Matt Doherty to SMU and to help him recruit athletes. It just opened its doors last year. It will be neat just to see this facility.

In addition, there will be a limited time after the clinic when the Special Olympians can get autographs from the instructors.

Boston will win the NBA title

I've finally come around. After watching this game last night, I must admit that the Celtics are a better team than the Los Angeles Lakers and that Boston just seems to want to win the title more than the Lakers do. The only question now is whether the Celtics will win it on their home court or in Paul Pierce's hometown. Last night's improbable comeback by the Celtics has got to be a gut punch to the Lakers (similar to the one L.A. delivered to the San Antonio Spurs earlier in their playoffs), so that it's very likely this series won't extend beyond Father's Day.

A radical idea for basketball

A foul is supposed to be bad thing in sports, something for which the team that commits it is assessed a penalty. You wouldn't think that, however, watching the NBA playoffs. The last couple minutes of your typical NBA game often features the exciting prospects of one team deliberately fouling another in order to gain a competitive advantage. Then there's what has come to be known as "Hack-a-Shaq," named in honor of Shaquille O'Neal, a notoriously poor free throw shooter. The technique involves the team behind in the score fouling the other team's worst free-throw shooter, counting on him to miss his free throws.

This may be strategically sound for a trailing team but I don't think it works with fans of the sport. So in the interests of basketball purity and fan enjoyment of the game I am going to offer the following proposed rule changes.

1. A team may designate any of the five players it has on the court to shoot fouls. It doesn't necessarily have to be the player who was fouled. That's the way it works in soccer penalty shots and the way it works when basketball teams shoot technical fouls.

2. In the last two minutes of a game, any team that would normally be awarded two shots for a foul would be awarded three.

If these rule changes were implemented, then fouls would be closer to what they were intended to be -- something to avoid.

The best pitcher in major league baseball

For my money, it has to be Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks. No one else even comes close. Take that, Johann Santana.

Was Brett Favre really serious about all this retirement talk?

Apparently so. The Green Bay Packers announced yesterday (in a move that was virtually ignored by most of the media) that they had officially placed Favre on the reserve/retired list and plan to retire his number during their season opening game Sept. 8 against the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, this not does preclude him from playing for another team but, c'mon folks, that would be like seeing Joe Montana in a uniform other than the 49ers or Emmit Smith playing for someone other than the Cowboys. Well, err ....

This came yesterday from Packers General Manager Ted Thompson: "Both (coach) Mike McCarthy and I have have spoken to Brett over the last several days. Brett knew this change in his roster status was coming, and he fully understood our need to make a move in advance of (today's) NFL draft."

Nice words for George Karl

Steven A. Smith, the bombastic NBA analyst for ESPN really tore into Denver Nuggets coach George Karl during one of the breaks last night in the network's coverage of the NBA playoffs. Smith said if the Nuggets continue playing like they are against the Lakers, Karl should be toast. "The Nuggets will be looking for a new coach if they get annihilated in Denver," Smith said.

I have always been Karl admirer, especially during his tenure with the Seattle Supersonics, a team he coached to the playoffs all seven seasons he was there, won three division titles and won 50 games all seven seasons. He made it to the league finals once, losing to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, a team coached by Phil Jackson, who is also his coaching opponent in this current series with the Lakers. In 1998, he went to the Milwaukee Bucks and steadily made that team better.

So it was nice to see this story today in the Los Angeles Times, of all places, that had some very nice things to say about Karl.

Dale Hansen on the Pacman Jones Trade

Let me spare you the suspense: He's not a fan of the deal as you can see for youself here. Dale is gotting a lot of heat over this commentary. Somebody named Michael David Smith posting on a blog called Fanhouse really goes after Hansen. After admitting he knows nothing about Channel 8's sportscaster, he then goes on to say "based on this video clip, I'd have to conclude that he's unhinged." No he's not. He's an informed commentator who doesn't hedge his bets when he speaks. And speaking of "unhinged," Smith's headline on his blog says Hansen "Compares Pacman Jones to Osama bin Laden." That's not true. If Smith had been paying attention he would have heard Hansen say something to the effect that as long as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has signed Pacman he might as well try to get bin Laden to play wide receiver because he "obviously can't be caught." I thought it was a funny line and typical Hansen. I remember one time he was he was the master of ceremonies at a Dallas Press Club roast when the night's honoree received the obligatory congratulations from the governor, who at the time, happened to be one Bill Clements. The message was contained in one of those 8-by-10 manila envelopes. Hansen tore open the top, looked inside and quipped "Hey, it's the keys to a new car." That line also struck a lot of nerves, but it was also a very funny quip.

As for Hansen's opinion on Pacman, I gotta say "Dale, buddy, you nailed it!"

The Avery Countdown, Chapter 2

Hey, Mark, did you see this? Don't waste a second. Go for him! Now! It's the only way your aging Mavericks can hope to regain any respectability going into the 2008-09 season.

Mavericks need to make radical changes

Everybody realizes the Mavericks have looked horrible, old and tired in their first two playoff games against the Hornets. I'm convinced the Mavs lost this series many months ago when they traded Devon Harris, the only person on this team with the speed and the defensive capabilities to guard Hornets superstar Chris Paul. I was a fervent critic of the trade when it was first talked about and my mind has never wavered on this subject.

But this is not "I told you so," it's about what the Mavs must do before Game 3 Friday night. Now, there's nothing they can do to win this series. All hope of that is gone. But at least they can make the Hornets work a little harder for their wins. But, in order to do this, Mavs coach Avery Johnson must make two changes in his starting lineup. First, he needs to start Jason Terry in place of Jerry Stackhouse. The Hornets are speeding around and through the Mavericks. Terry has the quickness to nullify some of that, at least some of it on the perimeter. He didn't earn the the nickname "Jet" because he makes loud noises.

Starting Terry probably can't be described as "radical," but my next suggestion will be viewed that way in many circles: start Brandon Bass in place of Josh Howard. That noise you might have just heard is the sound of me leaping off the Howard bandwagon. Howard has been described for too long as a player with a huge upside, a lot of potential. However, it is long past time that he lived up to that potential. Besides, Bass knows a lot of the players on the Hornets, knows their tendencies, knows how to guard them and knows how to get around them for good shots. The bottom line is Brass scored 19 points in last night's loss, Howard scored 10.

The playoff axiom is that a series really doesn't begin until one team beats another on the losing team's home court. By starting Terry and Bass, perhaps we can wait at least one more game before this series starts.

Think we can get Catherine Zeta-Jones to sing this?

Come on Deron, why don't we knock the Rockets down
With all that Jazz
We're gonna make McGrady disappear and roll through Houston town
With all that Jazz
Start the car, I know a friendlier spot
Where the hometown advantage makes us really hot
It's just a noisy hall where we'll take 'em in four
With all ... that ... Jazz

The Avery Countdown

This means Larry Brown is still available. Are you listening, Mark?

What Tiger does is impressive, but ...

... one should not overlook this accomplishment, winning four tour championships in as many weeks. Only Mickey Wright accomplished this 45 years ago. Kathy Whitworth and my favorite golf pro Annika Sorenstam won four tournaments in a row, but they took off a week during their streaks.

Was the Stars series win over Anaheim a surprise?

Not really since the series pitted a four-seed against a five-seed and seedings in the NHL don't really mean anything anyway. Unlike the NBA, an eight-seed beating a one-seed in the NHL doesn't really surprise too many people.

Not only that, the Mighty Ducks were the defending NHL champs, and the holders of the Stanley Cup have lost in the first round of the subsequent playoffs the last five years.