Jose Canseco, interviewed as part of the A&E Network’s one-hour documentary “Jose Canseco: The Last Shot” says that he is sorry he wrote his book “Juiced”, which focused attention on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball and led to congressional hearings on the subject. Conseco says that he “regrets mentioning players [as steroid users]. I never realized this was going to blow up and hurt so many people.”
Yeah, sure he didn’t. Even this pathetic glory hound knew exactly what he was doing. He said that he was trying to “get even” with baseball because he believed that he had been forced out of the game. Forced out? He was a juiced-up, straight fastball hitter who couldn’t play the field anymore. Even in the American League with the DH, Canseco had become a laughing stock. So, petulant, and, according to him in this television show, “living check to check,” the man who squandered millions of dollars playing baseball while being a hard-core user of performance-enhancing drugs for more than two decades, now wants us to feel sorry for him?
In all honesty, I believe that he spent all of his money, which is the reason he is doing the television show. But the only thing that Jose Canseco is sorry for is that more people didn’t buy his book, a group of which I proudly am a member.

I have never been into this “extreme fighting.” I am a life-long fan of boxing, but The Indignant Wife doesn’t like boxing, so I don’t watch much and have lost touch with the sport for the most part. But while boxing has lost some of its luster; extreme fighting, which to me, is a televised “Thunderdome” from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, has gained in popularity. Based on all of the publicity and attention, I thought that the money was flowing like water, but I guess I was wrong.
The parent company of EliteXC mixed martial arts is closing its doors for good, according to multiple reports. One website reported that the company would close this week, and file for bankruptcy protection. But if the doors are closing forever, this would mean Chapter 7 bankruptcy which ends in final liquidation. SI.com reported that ProElite told its employees and fighters yesterday that it was shutting down, effective immediately.
What happened? Was it that the fights may have been rigged? An EliteXC card televised by CBS on Oct. 4, in which the circuit’s biggest star, Kimbo Slice, suffered a 14-second TKO at the hands of a relatively unknown last-minute replacement, Seth Petruzelli is under investigation by the Florida State Athletic Commission, following comments Petruzelli made after the fight suggesting that he had been promised monetary incentives to trade punches with Slice, rather than employ a more technical game plan. The problem with this argument is that everyone knows by now that “Professional Wrestling” is nothing but show, not real competition, so can this be the reason for the end of EliteXC?
Showtime Networks filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its intention to enter negotiations to purchase the company outright. Showtime already owned a 20 percent stake in ProElite, but according to a source inside ProElite quoted by SI..com, the negotiations failed and ProElite’s funding disappeared, forcing it out of business.
So, what’s next for EliteXC? My prediction: Showtime will come in and bid for the rest of ProElite; get it for pennies on the dollar and all will be back on the air by January. It’s too bad; I thought perhaps Americans’ thirst for blood sport may have slackened, but I have a feeling that’s not the case.

With the economy sinking faster than the Titanic; no leg to stand on in foreign affairs; John McCain and his running mate, female bulldog Sarah Palin (that would make her a “bitch” by definition, wouldn’t it?) have done nothing more than go on the offensive, trying to link Sen. Obama with Bill Ayers, whose Weather Underground engaged in domestic terrorism when the junior Senator from Illinois was 8-years-old.
Many of his supporters have urged him to get even more offensive, going after Obama in Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko and others. Of course, many of them including McCain himself may be falling into Obama’s trap; he basically said that McCain didn’t have the balls to bring those things up in last Tuesday’s debate to his face, and he still have the “Keating Five” to pull out on Sen. McCain. As the article on McCain in the latest Rolling Stone shows, this may bring the raging, petulant McCain to the fore. A reporter for Newsweek who appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night said that he spoke with someone from McCain’s team who replied about this week’s debate, stay tuned.
So, in case you don’t have time to watch the third debate Wednesday night, October 15th from Hofstra University, I can save you time. McCain is going to walk to the edge of the stage; look into the camera and tell the American people “I can’t believe that you are going to pick a n#@@er over me. I’m as white as the day is long, and while I have the same plans and agenda as that prick Bush, I spent five years as a POW. I am as much a blue-blood, nare-do-well as Bush. His daddy greased the wheels for him to go to Yale, Skull and Bones, and ‘serve’ in the National Guard and avoid Vietnam. My daddy and granddaddy were both admirals in the Navy, and they greased my way though flight school, but I went to ‘Nam dammit. Sure, maybe GW was a better pilot (at least he didn’t crash four planes), but I’m much smarter and you elected him 1½ times.”
At this point, the moderator tries to interrupt and begin the debate as though nothing has happened, but the former Navy pilot, his face red, sweat running down his face, McCain continues, “Sure, the economy sucks, but me and my billionaire friends are doing great. Tough up. Get another job; stop whining. And, for the love of God, don’t vote for this skinny, well-heeled N#@@er.” At which point, Sen. McCain just starts yelling “N#@@er, N#@@er, N#@@er,” over and over again like the old Richard Pryor standup bit. No one can get him to stop. His handlers rush to the stage to grab McCain.
At this point, my crystal ball is fuzzy. Either McCain’s people drag him off the stage yelling “N#@@er” at the top of his lungs; or Obama finally snaps and starts choking the old bastard to death on national television. If the former happens, conservative reporters on television and radio compliment McCain on his candor and his poll numbers go up. If it’s the latter, McCain wins the election outright despite being in a coma, but dies as a result of the beating and Palin becomes President; Obama is protected from mobs who want to see him hung from the nearest tree, his political career all but over.
The nation goes into civil war between the fascist Jesus States of America against the East and West Coasts. Eventually, nuclear weapons are used and the former U.S.A. is a smoking ruin, straight from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” or the Mad Max movies. China becomes the world’s superpower; nukes North Korea as an object lesson; man pollutes the world into oblivion and the world ends. Faithful Christians waiting for the Rapture are disappointed because Jesus doesn’t return – we all just go into the void while the bees and cockroaches take over the Earth.
See what I’m willing to do for you to save you time and aggravation? Don’t you feel better?

The current venomous speech promulgated by talk radio is not limited to the Rush Limbaughs and Bill O’Reillys of this world. Now, two lunkheads are accusing NBA great Magic Johnson of faking AIDS.
KTLK’s Chris Baker and Langdon Perry made the remarks during Baker’s conservative talk show last Wednesday. The context for the remarks wasn’t clear. Apparently, a caller complained about demands on workers. Perry responded by asking about treatable diseases that a person can live with for a long time “if you just get some basic drugs,” and Baker responded, “Like Magic Johnson?”
Perry reportedly replied, “Like Magic with his faked AIDS. Magic faked AIDS.” Baker said, “You think Magic faked AIDS for sympathy?” Perry replied, “I’m convinced that Magic faked AIDS.” “Me too,” Baker said.
Johnson for his part issued a statement Thursday saying he was “outraged that Chris Baker and Langdon Perry would minimize such a serious and deadly issue. “Millions are dying from HIV/AIDS, and the fact that they would make jokes about my status is unbelievable. Chris, Langdon and KTLK should use their power in a more positive light by encouraging people to get tested for this disease instead of making up such ridiculous lies.”
Obviously, these two idiots don’t understand what Johnson lost when he retired after being diagnosed as HIV positive in 1991 at the age of 32. What would have been his motivation to fake this disease of any? At the time, AIDS was still very much a “gay” disease in the minds of most people, and as I’ve stated several times before, black people are harder on gays than most people, which is why so many gay men maintain straight relationships but have gay trysts “on the down-low.”
Black athletes have always been the personification of macho, of physical perfection, and to have his promiscuity paraded before the world for all to see, took a lot of courage. He gave up a multi-million dollar basketball contract, and in the fear and ignorance of the disease back in 1991, he lost millions more in endorsement income.
So, we are to believe that Magic Johnson gave his whole life away because he is a liar. And by default, since he is male and black and plays basketball, and Barack Obama is male, black and plays basketball, they are both liars and not to be trusted. You know that the conservatives are desperate when they try a link this thin. They must think that there’s a lot of stupid people around. Unfortunately, they may be right.

There is nothing sadder than an athlete who doesn’t know when his or her career is over. You feel for them as they struggle to do the things that came so easily in their youth. Any number of examples come to mind: Muhammad Ali against Trevor Burbick; Willie Mays in his last two years with the Mets; Bobby Orr playing for the Blackhawks.
There is one sport in which the stakes are higher: boxing. In the ring, you risk more than your legacy; you’re life is at risk, which is why often, state athletic commissions and governing bodies have to stop fighters past their prime by not sanctioning their fights. Unfortunately, the world is a big place, and other countries have much less compunction in stopping a man from getting himself seriously injured or killed. Evander Holyfield, former heavyweight champion and a man who has already declared bankruptcy, has been offered a fight with WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev in December. Obviously, the soon-to-be 46 year old Holyfield needs the money, but he has not fought since losing a unanimous decision a year ago to then-WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov.
Since Holyfield can’t get a license to fight in the U.S. because, in a rare instance of concern from the boxing hierarchy, should the fight happen, it likely will be staged in either Switzerland or Germany according to Sauerland Event managing director Chris Meyer. But there is a likely chance that this time, Evander Holyfield may not make it out of that ring. The champion is 7-feet tall, weighing in at 300 pounds. Valuev (49-1, 34 KOs) won an unanimous decision over John Ruiz in August to regain the WBA title and Holyfield, who was never known as a top puncher, could have real problems. Still, he does have a puncher’s chance, and if he won, he would become the oldest heavyweight champion in history, but let’s be honest – Holyfield hasn’t looked good in the ring in six years or so, having difficulty putting away fighters he would have mopped the ring with in his prime. Against this behemoth, he could end up like Ali, or worse.
Maybe that’s what Holyfield wants. Maybe he feels that it would be honorable to go out fighting. If he’s seriously hurt or killed, his financial problems are no longer his worry. I’ve never been much of an Evander Holyfield fan; I always thought that he should have remained a light-heavyweight; I call him “the father of our country” because of all of the children he has fathered out of wedlock. But no one deserve to be beaten to death; million dollar payday or not; boxing does not need another “black eye” on its already shady reputation; and Holyfield has been a honorable warrior and champion. We don’t need another death in the ring just because Evander Holyfield can’t say no.

Of course, everyone knows that the path to this year’s World Series Championship is not running through Chicago. On the North Side, fans are taking this year’s choke job in the playoffs worse than usual. (Also refer to “”Monumental Hubris” from a couple of days ago on this site.) A couple of Cub fans have sold their baseball loyalties on eBay. One of them told one of the newspapers that unless the auction is won by another Cub fan, he would burn all of his Cub paraphernalia on video for the winner to own; would obviously support the winner’s team of choice; and vowed that he would never watch or follow the Cubs ever again.
The Cub Nation is trying to find answers where there are none. Do they need more pitching? Not really. What about hitting? The only thing they need in my opinion is a true leadoff hitter. Alfonso Soriano is not a lead off man, no matter who fast he can run. He is too undisciplined at the plate and strikes out too much. The main level of the fans’ ire this year appears to be the man they had expected to run away with the Rookie of the Year Award in mid May, Kosuke Fukudome. I thought that he had just “run into the wall” meaning that he was tired from playing many more games with much more and longer travel than in his home leagues of Japan. (It’s similar to college basketball players who are used to playing 35-40 games for a season, running out of gas halfway through the NBA’s 82 game schedule.) But Fukudome, who was hitting the ball like a Hall of Famer in the first two months of the season, looked more like 60-year-old comedian Billy Crystal over the last three months of the season. He didn’t just not hit; he looked bad, flailing away at off speed pitches with futility. What Cubs fans don’t understand is, the whole team when into the toilet, not just Fukudome.
Meanwhile the White Sox showed incredible determination winning three consecutive win-or-go-home games against the Indians, Tigers and Twins just to make the playoffs. But, this was not a championship caliber team. Their best player, Carlos Quentin was out of the year after hurting himself with a bat. Certified All Star Joe Crede went down with back problems and never returned and so did Jose Contreras. Even with them healthy, the team was much too slow – forcing them to play station-to-station baseball. And this was the weirdest thing – they never seemed to drive in runs with runners in scoring position with singles or doubles. They hit homers, or didn’t score. Against a young, fast, hungry Tampa Bay team; they couldn’t keep up.
But the White Sox were playing with the house’s money. No one expected them to seriously contend, much less with the AL Central. The division race was certainly one of the most exciting in recent memory – the Twins and Sox were never further than 1½ games in front of the other from June on.
Baseball is over here is Chi-Town yet again. White Sox General Manager Ken Williams knows what he needs to do to improve the team. Cubs GM Jim Hendry is still trying to sift through the shock of being swept by the Dodgers. The Sox will be a very different team; the Cubs may look much the same in players, but with the sour taste of yet another playoff failure and a full century of ineptitude hovering over them like a shroud.

As the 2008 Presidential election comes around the turn and heads for home, the rhetoric is getting stronger and the attacks from the four candidates are getting dirtier and more personal. And the Republican Party is tops at dirty campaigning, name calling, and outright lying to get elected. Even with the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain falling behind in his contest against Barack Obama, I didn’t think we would get to the ugliest precipice of racist behavior. But we have.
Both McCain and his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin have begun to try and link Senator Obama with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground that tried to bomb government institutions in the 1960s when Mr. Obama was 8-years-old. In New Mexico yesterday, Senator McCain asked: “who is Barack Obama?” and someone in the crowd shouted “terrorist.” Mc Cain paused; the audience laughed, and McCain continued his speech – not correcting, not admonishing the person. At a Florida rally, someone is heard shouting “kill him” and at another Palin rally in Florida, a black man on the sound crew for a local television station is told “sit down, boy.” Trust me, if a black pol suggested that his white opponent was a terrorist and had someone shout “kill him” without admonishment, the polls would swing in the opponent’s direction so fast, your head would swim.
By law, this is inciting violence, and the Secret Service could investigate and arrest numerous people, including Senator McCain and Governor Palin. But they won’t: Senator McCain is about to have his second debate with Senator Obama tonight; and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sen. Obama doesn’t even mention the incident. And that is the implied threat that America has held over black America for centuries – we have the guns; there’s more of us; and if you get “uppity” we will kill you. I don’t need to recount the number of black leaders, wrongly accused black men, and others trying to defend black people who have ended up on the wrong side of a shotgun, or at the end of a noose. We all realize that, bs aside, the Republican Party is the party for the disenfranchised white person. The Party gives them a chance to blame everyone but themselves for their lot in life. But this time, if they continue to incite violence, McCain and Palin deserve jail, not public office.