Manny being Clemens

Not exactly sure how to react to the Manny Ramirez saga.  One thing I do know, I am tired of this story and this era.  The drip drip drip nature of the steroid revelations is horrible to endure and generally disgusting.   

The only good thing about this story is that a major star like Ramirez was caught and received such a lengthy, meaningful and expensive penalty. Manny will lose more than $7 million in salary.  Hopefully the suspension, shame and lost wages will discourage other players from taking performance enhancing drugs.  

The worst part of this story is the nature of the drug, basically a masking agent to hide the steroids Manny took.  Instead of saying "These drugs aren't worth it" the only thing Manny learned from the experiences of Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod et. al. was "Use a masking agent."  

Depressing stuff.

Also depressing is the all star team of cheaters.  Look at this lineup: Clemens, Maguire, Palmiero, A-Rod, Giambi, Bonds, Sosa. Who can you trust anymore?  Certainly not any player over 35 who continues to hit like Ramirez had.  I trust Griffey, Frank Thomas, Pujols, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero.  And it makes you respect guys who age and decline, players like Griffey, Jeter, and Jeff Kent.   At least those guys are natural.

 NBA Playoffs

Nothing seems to be slowing down the Cavaliers' march to the NBA Finals.   And George Karl's Denver Nuggets, actually Chauncey Billups' Nuggets, look like legitimate contenders in the west.  But the other two second round series' have been pretty interesting.  

Even with KG on the bench I expected the Celtics to calmly dispatch the Magic.  But despite an incredibly weak backcourt, that series is now the Magic's to lose after their win in Orlando on Friday night.  Dwight Howard is dominating, as is Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.  On the other hand Ray Allen and Paul Pierce look tired.  Outside of Rondo and Eddie House the Celtics look pretty bad on offense.  

I did not think the Rockets could hang with LA at all, but they stole game 1 nonetheless.  Tonight's game three will be huge, and expect the Lakers and Kobe Bryant in particular to have a big game.  One weird stat in this series - after dominating game one Yao Ming only took 4 SHOTS in game two.  You can't win like that.

QUICK MOVIE MINUTE

Hadn't seen many good movies lately, until this week when I got to watch The Wrestler, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire on DVD. I was really touched and impressed by all three. 

Mickey Rourke should have won the Oscar, and I cared about his character as if he were a Tar Heel. Yeah, he was Tar Heel good in The Wrestler.

Kate Winslet deserved her Oscar for The Reader. She did a great job portraying a complex character, one who is vain, naive, ruthless, kind, mean, and oblivious. It's a great movie about human nature and guilt, going along with the crowd, among other things. 

Finally, Slumdog Millionaire was about as satisfying a movie you will ever see. A great story, with details that unfold similar to The Usual Suspects and Training Day, and great acting and characters. There's a love story, a brother/buddy movie in there too.

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