Lance Armstrong, at the ripe age of 37 and after having taken three years away from the sport, stands in second place in the early going of this year’s Tour de France. Armstrong is nearly even with Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and it seems like it is his race to win, long before the racers reach the mountains, which is where Armstrong used to destroy the field in his previous victories.
This is not news to me. What I want to talk about is that I’m tired of athletes in the prime of their careers retiring, just to come back. It started in boxing. Joe Lewis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, the recently departed Alexis Arguello, and so many more all retired and then found themselves back in the ring. For many of these men, boxing was the way out of poverty, and when the money started running out, either through spending or other problems like the IRS, many of these men were forced to get back into the ring.
The 21st Century version, begun late in the previous century, is for athletes who are still at the top of their respective “games” retire for various reasons, then come back, not for money or fame, but to continue to stoke their competitive fires. This began, like so many things in sports these days, with Michael Jordan. Jordan left basketball, maybe due to his father’s murder, maybe as some sort of punishment for gambling by NBA Commissioner David Stern; played baseball for two summers, then faxed the team a two word reinstatement: “I’m back.” The Bulls won another three consecutive titles; Jordan retired again, then returned for a third stint, this time with the Washington Wizards as player and executive. The last return didn’t go as well with the Wizards remaining adrift and Jordan was fired from the team.
Since then, it’s regular for people to retire and then “change their minds” and come back. Sammy Sosa was out of the game, then returned, then left again (under steroid allegations). Personally, I think that players should keep playing until they can’t anymore. Why? Because the “athletic time expectancy” is very short, and you should keep it going if you can, while you can, because when Father Time strikes, your time is up.
Of course, the current leader in retiring for the summer is Brett Favre. He is making every indication that he is preparing for the upcoming NFL season. He has had surgery on his injured throwing arm and, at this point, it seems only a matter of time before he signs with the Vikings.
So, I’m tired of players making their “farewell tours;” get presents and heartfelt goodbyes from teams and their leagues, only to have them return 1, 2 or 3 years later. It should be stated that there is little sadder than the athlete who doesn’t see the “writing on the wall;” Willie Mays’ final years with the Mets come to mind. At the same time, however, it is sad to see someone like Bjorn Borg who tired of the tennis circuit at the age of 27 and never played on the ATP Tour again.
Retirement for athletes is more than an art than a science. It seems like people are quitting either too soon or too late, but I understand that Athletes may want to take a breather. As such, they shouldn’t “retire,” they should say that they are “taking time off” and that way we can avoid the “farewell tours” for when they’re genuine, and of course, teams need to retain their rights if players take time off, so that players don’t retire to get out of contracts or to get away from coaches they don’t like.

I think that everyone is shocked over the early death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, apparently murdered by his 20-year-old mistress who then committed suicide. It’s the age old scenario: a man married for a long time with lots of kids, is bored with his marriage, finds some young woman, and sets her up in an apartment. In this case, something goes bad, and McNair ends up with two gunshots to the chest and two to the head, and the young woman with a single gunshot to the head – an apparent murder-suicide.
Barry Bonds, Wade Boggs, and so many other athletes have had mistresses, and its so easy for them. When I worked at the old Chicago Stadium, it was funny and sad to see these women dressed for attention, if not sex, hoping to get the eye of one of the athletes. For some, it’s just to bask, short-term in the athlete’s fame and money. For others, it is a trap to goad the athlete into marriage or pregnancy in which they act as though they hit the lottery.
For McNair, his career was over, but it seems that he didn’t want all of the athlete’s perks to end, so he found a 20-year-old, paid for a place to stay and to have sex, and then can go back to his wife and kids. This young woman, Sahel Kazemi, reportedly told her family that McNair would be divorcing his wife, which is among the oldest lies in the world, right up there with “the check’s in the mail.”
I may be reaching, but the mistress was a young Arabic woman and it’s easy to demonize Arabs or Muslims. I was just watching the Liam Neeson movie “Taken” in which Albanians are one set of villains and the ultimate villains were an old, fat, stereotypical Arab sheik and his band of henchmen.
We will probably never know what actually happened that night between McNair and Ms. Kazemi, but it would be interesting if this was some type of “honor killing,” something that does regularly occur in some societies.

The Chicago Cubs, 101 years and counting since a World Series title, have been rumored as being cursed. The goat curse; the Bartman baseball, were things “beyond” the norm that caused the Cubs’ century-long draught. But it is also stupidity.
The team has done stupid things: the Cubs were among the last to integrate with African-American players. Like the Red Sox, the Cubs built a team to win in a small home ballpark, but didn’t play well in larger parks – couldn’t generate runs and were poor defensively. The Cubs have spent money on the wrong players and refused to sign future all stars.
But maybe, just maybe, Cubs players aren’t very smart either. One of the 2009 Cubs’ best pitchers, Ryan Dempster, broke the big toe on his right foot jumping the dugout fence after Sunday’s victory over Milwaukee. “We were healthy for a day,” manager Lou Piniella cracked, adding: “Actually, Dempster is sick about this, and so am I. It’s something you never expect to happen. Just a freak thing.”
The “freak thing” occurred when Dempster was trying to go on the field with a flourish, as he often does after victories by leaping over the dugout railing. This time, unfortunately, the result wasn’t very funny. Dempster has a non-displaced fracture and he eventually will have to lose the toenail as well. He will miss about four weeks, an estimated 6-7 starts that will be important as the team tries to overcome the poor first half of the season and win their division as expected.
Only The Cubs have things like this happen to them.

When I first heard that French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt died, I thought that some gambler may have had him killed. That’s the first reaction I have when I hear about athletes who are banned for betting on matches die suddenly. The 24-year-old player was found dead by his girlfriend in the stairwell of his Paris apartment.
That is until I heard about what he had been banned and fined for. In May, Montcourt was handed a five-week ban and fined $12,000 for betting on other matches. Coincidentally, the ban took effect on the day he died. Montcourt rightly complained during the French Open that the punishment was too harsh, saying that he never bet more than $3 at any time, and never on his own matches. This was confirmed by the ATP, which oversees the men’s Tour.
The ATP, I guess, was trying to send a message by delivering the 399,900% fine, but I don’t see it. This would be like fining someone $20,000 for buying a $5 lottery ticket.
I don’t think poor Mathieu Montcourt died as a result of his wagering, but the ATP didn’t help the young man’s stress level by coming down on him like Godzilla on Bambi.

I have tried very hard to avoid much of the hoopla over the life, death, and the world’s reaction to Michael Jackson. It has been difficult with wall-to-wall media coverage by the “straight” media like newspapers and magazines, along with the tabloids and television networks.
And, I wasn’t particularly sad about it other than the usual vague feelings when anyone famous dies, but for me, I did feel sadness when Jackson’s oldest daughter Paris made her comments at the public memorial service. I was struck by the young lady’s appearance, and was reminded that while Jackson was strange, may have been a pedophile, and had financial difficulties, he was the only father this young girl and her brothers knew. No matter what the DNA may be, Michael Jackson was these kids’ day-to-day parent and their loss is the greatest of all.
I’m not sad for the fans – the music is still available. I’m not as sad for the rest of Jackson’s family – they lived with Jackson for most of, or all of their lives. But these kids deserve a life of their own and they are missing their father. To me, that’s the story that moves me most, and should be the final word on this subject. Let’s let these kids alone and let them grow up – that is Michael Jackson’s true legacy.

At the outset of the NHL free agency period, for the second consecutive year, the Chicago Blackhawks came away with the number one free agent on the market. Last year it was defenseman Brian Campbell; this year it is forward Martin Hossa. Yes, Martin Hossa, the scapegoat from this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.
Hossa, you may remember, turned down a large, long-term contract from the Pittsburgh Penguins last summer to sign a 1-year deal with the Red Wings because they had a better chance to win the Cup. Well, the Penguins went out and beat the Red Wings in the finals, holding Hossa scoreless in the final series. I suggested here that the Penguins should parade the Cup in front of Hossa’s house until training camps open in September.
Now he’s on my favorite team. The price: the team won’t resign Martin Havlat, the team’s leading scorer last season. While I am sorry to see Havlat go, it was a calculated bet – Havkat has played 80 games in a season just once, last year. Every other season, injuries has held him back. Giving long term money to a player with such a history is a risk. And Hossa is a 40 goal a year scorer, doesn’t get injured often, and best of all, hurts the Red Wings with his defection.
Some are asking this morning if the Blackhawks are the team to beat in the Western Conference of the NHL? Not so fast, bucko! Nikoli Khabbibulin, as expected, was not resigned; he moved on to Edmonton, but he is 38 years old, and again, it doesn’t make sense to sign someone that old to long term money. But we can’t be absolutely certain Christobal Huet is a Stanley Cup caliber goaltender yet. Again, there is considerable reason to feel good about the Blackhawks, but the proof will come next Spring.
Hossa is a big time scorer, and I sincerely hope that he breaks his string of two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals on the losing team. But, all I can say is; after spending most of this season hating Hossa, it’s going to take some time for me to root for him.

There are just so many Michael Jackson stories flying around. There’s more press about the singer than he’s had since his child molestation case. Here are my thought on the latest:
• The people that live around Neverland Ranch will never let it turn into Graceland West. They already nixed allowing him to be buried there, and plans to have Jackson lying in state at the ranch starting tomorrow have died as well.
• Jermaine Jackson has been interviewed saying that he wished he had died instead of Michael. There’s something very sick in that statement, unless you admit that the family’s money situation would be stronger if the older Jackson brother had died? I think that some members of the family would have sacrificed Randy Jackson rather than have Michael die.
• Who really cares about the DNA make up of the Jackson children? Jackson was “raising” them (or at least feeding, clothing, and keeping shelter over them). Isn’t that parenting?
• The main concern should be for those children’s well-being. Not for whatever inheritance they get, but for them. I hope that they go to a secure stable home, but I’m not sure that’s possible.
• Speaking of lack of sentiment, Joe Jackson, father of the clan, is reportedly upset that he wasn’t named in Michael’s will. Considering that Joe put his children through rigorous rehearsals and reportedly beat his children, forcing them to be terrified of him, he should be lucky they didn’t grow up and have him arrested. The senior Jackson is the poster boy for abusive, live-vicariously-through-your-offspring parenting. Joe Jackson should be glad that he didn’t die first – I have a feeling his reception in the hereafter is going to be very WARM