If Spygate has legs beyond today, it will require new evidence, new witnesses, new something.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with former Patriots employee Matt Walsh and said that whatever Walsh told him did not add to what the league already fundamentally understood to be the circumstances of the Patriots' violations of NFL policy regarding video recording opponents.

According to Walsh (according to Goodell) there was no taping of the St. Louis Rams' walk-through prior to the Super Bowl between the two teams which was won, of course, by New England.  Walsh is speaking with Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter presumably this afternoon and it remains to be seen whether Specter's concerns are allayed as a result of his questioning of Walsh.

My guess is that the senator will not be as ready to put the issue to rest as the commissioner but we'll see on that score.  Regardless, unless Specter wants to throw the weight of the federal government behind a further investigation -- a prospect I'm reluctant to handicap -- this marks the end of the inquiry.

All of which means that arguments about whether or not the Patriots' legacy is tainted will be consigned to bar stools, and the 21st century version of the bar stool -- Internet message boards and chat rooms.  People who are predisposed to dislike the Patriots will say New England have forfeited comparisons with the Steelers of the 1970s or the 49ers of the '80s or the Cowboys of the '90s because they "cheated."  Patriots backers will say that everyone in the NFL is an angle-shooter given the chance and the Patriots deserve their Super Bowls.

If this is the end of Spygate, my bet is that in 10 years or so, this chapter in NFL history will be couched in much the same way as the debate over whether the Giants' Bobby Thompson had the pitch signal when he hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" off Brooklyn's Ralph Branca.  Somewhere down the line, Spygate will make a historical transition from being divisively scandalous to merely being colorful.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Macho Again helped save his three-year-old season with a surprise win in the Derby Trial about a week before the Kentucky Derby. In that race, he outran the favorite, Kodiak Kowboy, and paid $14.20.

Macho Again, a Florida-bred, has three wins in eight career starts but he disappointed with a seventh-place finish in the Lane's End Stakes. But that was a synthetic surface and Macho Again appears to be one of those horses who doesn't run well on synthetic. Of course at Pimlico, he'll be on dirt.

The gray colt has been training at Churchill Downs and is scheduled to fly into BWI Marshall tomorrow night along with Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness favorite Big Brown. Julien Leparoux is the jockey. We have a video of Macho Again's trainer Dallas Stewart talking about his horse's Preakness preparations followed by a workout at Churchill.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Kentucky Bear was the first Preakness challenger to arrive at Pimlico and has been working out at the Baltimore track. Kentucky Bear's trainer Reade Baker said that he wants his horse to become as familiar as possible with the track, the paddock, the starting gate. He'll be ridden by Jamie Theriot.

The colt was a bargain buy at the Keeneland auction going for just $40,000 after he broke through some fences just before the sale and got a little nicked up. Kentucky Bear has had three races with one win in his maiden at Gulfstream. His last outing was the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland where he finished third ahead of another scheduled Preakness entrant, Stevil. In the Blue Grass, Kentucky Bear is No. 2 (the video clears up after the first second or two).

Posted by Bill Ordine at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The much-anticipated meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and former Patriots employee Matt Walsh is being held today and afterward, Goodell is scheduled to hold a press conference in New York apparently to disclose what he learned.

The widespread belief is that the NFL wants to put the matter behind it with the conclusion that Goodell had previously arrived at -- that the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick (left) derived negligible advantage from the practice of taping opponents' signals. And no wonder.  To conclude the opposite puts a virtual asterisk next to those Patriots' Super Bowls, which make up a significant portion of the league's legacy.

In a column today, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio suggests that Goodell's questioning of Walsh should focus on understanding something about Belichick's intentions and before-the-fact knowledge of wrong-doing (the New England coach's defense is that he didn't realize what he was doing was against NFL rules and the whole episode was merely an unfortunate result of misinterpreting the regulations).

It's an interesting point made by Paolantonio, a former news reporter and the author of a book on former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo.  However, I'm not sure that Walsh's recollections -- after all, he left the Patriots in an unhappy parting more than five years ago -- and Wash's own interpretations of events and second-party motivations will represent definitive evidence of further Patriots' guilt.  Raise suspicions, perhaps, but not necessarily present Goodell with a smoking gun. Unless the league wants to continue peeling this onion by bringing in more people for more depositions (which could mean more grants of indemnification from civil liability).  And, of course, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter is still out there certainly available to stir the pot.  He gets his crack at Walsh, as well.

See, this is the difference between real life and sports.  Sports has nice neat endings called final scores with the issue settled in a couple of hours.  Real life is not nearly so accommodating.

Photo: Julie Jacobson/AP

Posted by Bill Ordine at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

For Terrell Owens non-fans who always labeled the Cowboys receiver a clown, here's some validation of that opinion.

Owens will be making a guest appearance on the MyNetworkTV's situation comedy "Under One Roof" tomorrow night at 8 p.m.  The premise of the show is that ne'er-to-do and star of the show, rapper-comedian-reality show goof Flavor Flav, is living with his well-to-do relatives.  In tomorrow's episode, the Owens character introduces himself as a long-lost brother who Flavor Flav suspects is a con artist looking for cash for an Internet venture. 

Owens, who had a small part in the Oliver Stone football movie "On Any Given Sunday," is hoping  he may have a career after football in show business.  You can be the judge.  This link has a couple of Owens moments from tomorrow's show.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It was a weird evening for the Cleveland Indians.  In a double-header against Toronto, Cleveland pitchers held the Jays to zero runs over 18 innings and got an unassisted triple play and still managed to just split.

In the first game, the Indians' Fausto Carmona threw a five-hit complete game shutout and in the second, Cliff Lee was doing his impression of Bob Gibson (circa 1968) as he lowered his ERA to 0.67 in nine innings of scoreless work.  Along the way, Lee got some help of historical proportions when second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera  turned an unassisted triple-play in the fifth inning.  It was just the 14th unassisted triple play in Major League history.

The Blue Jays -- struggling to score runs -- had runners on first-and-second and tried a hit-and-run.  Toronto's Lyle Overbay poked a line to Cabrera's right.  The second baseman made the diving snag and both runners were committed, one had reached third base and the other second.  Cabrera touched both the bag and the runner at second and he was in the history books.

Cabrera then committed an oops when he tossed the ball into the stands as he trotted to the dugout.  Cleveland's flawless evening came undone in the top of the 10th when Toronto scored three runs off relief pitcher Rafael Betancourt to salvage the split.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Hey Byrn has been running in Florida where he won the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream about a month ago and finished fourth behind Big Brown in the Florida Derby. The colt failed to run in the Kentucky Derby after failing to earn enough money to quaify for the field.

So why the Preakness?

This quote from trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. on the Thoroughbred Times Web site: "The decision to run in the Preakness was made by his owner Mrs. [Beatrice] Oxenberg. She has family up in Baltimore and there's no reason why we shouldn't come. She said she wants to come and taste the crab cakes."

Hey Byrn has three wins in four starts (all at Gulfstream) as a three-year-old and one win in four outings (all at Calder) as a two-year-old.

Here's Hey Byrn (No. 2) in the Holy Bull.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

As part of our walk-up to the Preakness, we're going to profile the field that will challenge Kentucky Derby winner and prohibitive favorite Big Brown.

The first colt we'll take a look can be called something of a favorite son candidate, Icabad Crane. Although a New York-bred, Icabad Crane trains at the Fair Hill Training Center -- the northern Maryland facility that was home to Barbaro -- and furthering Icabad Cranes' claim to some local status is that he won the Tesio Stakes at Pimlico last month. And finally, he'll be ridden by Jeremy Rose who was aboard triumphant Afleet Alex for the 2005 Preakness. Icadab Crane has just four lifetime starts -- three as a three-year-old -- with three wins and a third.

In the Tesio Stakes (below), you'll see that Icabad Crane (No. 3) had a bit of a rough start, was back in sixth and then weaved his way through traffic to catch the leader at the wire.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Superstar Tiger Woods and journeyman pro golfer Paul Goydos don't have a lot in common other than they both make a living hitting a little white ball around a big backyard on weekends.

Woods has won more tournaments in a single month than Goydos has won in his 16-year career. But yesterday, when Goydos' hopes of winning his third-ever PGA tour title sank with his ball into the water in front of the trademark 17th at Sawgrass, Woods would have been sympathetic. 

The hole, which is famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) for its keyhole island design has been described by Woods as being too "gimmicky" to be either the 17th hole of a round or the 71st of a tournament.   Well, yesterday, it was even more decisive as a sudden-death playoff hole that determined the duel between Goydos and Sergio Garcia for the Players Championship.

After Goydos' tee shot hit the water, Garcia put his on the green and parred the hole for the win.

Photo: Harry How/Getty Images

Posted by Bill Ordine at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

I know that sports is supposed to be about the best team winning but if the NBA Western Conference finals winds up being the Utah Jazz against the New Orleans Hornets – two franchises who lacked the simple creativity to change their nicknames when they relocated – the sports public outside of those two places will absolutely go to sleep.

In a New Orleans-Salt Lake City series, the only story line will be about how one team comes from a city that has built its reputation on great music and free-flowing booze against a team from a city that, well, hasn’t. Quick, other than New Orleans’ Chris Paul, name me a player from either team.

Both Utah and New Orleans are tied, 2-2, in their respective conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz beat beat the Lakers in OT and the Spurs pummeled the Hornets yesterday to even things up.

In contrast, consider a possible L.A.-San Antonio series. In this corner we have the league MVP, Kobe Bryant, now an almost sympathetic figure playing gingerly with a bad back, and the Zen master, Phil Jackson. And in the other corner, we have the NBA defending champions and the current original Big Three – Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

There's even more star power in the stands. When such a series would be in L.A., at courtside, we have the menace of Jack Nicholson and the cool of Ice Cube. In San Antonio, it’s the glamour of Mrs. Tony Parker -- Eva Longoria (right).

Guess who the TV people are rooting for.

Photo: Eric Gay/AP

Posted by Bill Ordine at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

The next three weeks will decide for Orioles fans whether they will have a baseball season -- or at least be convinced that there's a reason to keep their minds on baseball instead of counting the days until the Ravens open training camp in Westminster.

The O's salvaged what could have been a disastrous road trip by beating up on their cousins, the Kansas City Royals, and taking three out of four to finish the 10-game swing at 4-6. They return to Camden Yards at 19-19. If told in spring training that this team would be .500 in mid-May, I would have taken it.

Now, comes the crucible of an 18-game stretch where 12 are at home. More importantly, 15 of those 18 games are with divisional rivals -- the Yankees, Red Sox and suddenly  threatening Tampa Bay Rays. Sandwiched in there is an upcoming weekend series against Washington. Because of Boston's fast start, the O's are four games out of the division lead but  are in a crowded field for second in the wildcard chase (as irrelevant as it may seem at the moment) 2 1/2 games back. If the Orioles can come out of the other side of this still at .500 or even a shade better, it makes June at least worth paying attention to.

It begins tomorrow with a two-game series here -- Jeremy Guthrie and Daniel Cabrera pitch for Baltimore and postseason ace Josh Beckett and Jon Lester for Boston.

You want interesting, at least we've got interesting.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

The Travis County Sheriff's Office has released a tape of Chicago Bears' running back Cedric Benson in custody. The sheriff's office is not the agency that arrested Benson -- that was the Lower Colorado River Authority.

To be frank, the video shows nothing more than Benson walking through a booking facility, apparently compliant. It illustrates little about the events in dispute that involve Lower Colorado River Authority police. It was the river authority police who boarded Benson's boat last weekend and placed him under arrest for allegedly boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest. He was pepper-sprayed when, they said, he was threatening.

Benson has denied being being either intoxicated or uncooperative and has hired a lawyer to fight the charges.

Meanwhile, another witness who saw Benson on land being escorted by police after his arrest suggested they used unnecessarily force on the player.

Toby Patch, who was not a member of Benson's boating party, said:

"As they were taking him up the dock, they stopped. He said, 'I am fine, I can continue walking,' and they put their legs behind his knees and knocked him over his knees and started hog-carrying him," Patch told an Austin TV station.

"They ended up — I don't know why — but laid him on his back, I heard him say, 'Please don't pepper-spray me, please don't pepper-spray me.' It was uncalled for, it was ludicrous, no point for it."

So for whatever it's worth, here's the video of Benson in custody.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Former 49er great Joe Montana has filed a lawsuit for $75,000 against his first ex-wife, Kim Moses, (he has been married three times, I believe) and an auction company for auctioning off several personal items, They included a sentimental note he wrote to her while he was at Notre Dame, a student ID with his photo on it, a letter to Moses' parents in which he discusses football practice and their 1974 marriage certificate. Here's a link to the ID, notes and lawsuit.

Two thoughts. First, Joe has very good penmanship. Second, he ought to be glad she's not selling off the divorce paperwork.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

We have here two goofy videos ... just because it's Friday. The first is of a goldfish playing soccer. What's really amazing about this video is that the goldfish isn't complaining to a referee about being tripped. Oooh-lay, ole, ole, oooh-lay, ole, ole.

The second is of a fan at a Dodgers game making a one-handed snag of a home run ... while holding a child. He got to keep the ball but Child Services took away the baby. Just kidding there.

Thanks to AOL, the Big Lead and Lion in Oil for pointing them out.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Reports detailing the eight video recordings that former Patriots’ employee Matt Walsh turned over to the league may not include any smoking tapes that go beyond what New England coach Bill Belichick already had admitted to but there are a couple of interesting wrinkles.

For one, there was a tape of San Diego offensive signals. To date, it was believed that the Patriots had only been taping defensive signals because sideline-to-quarterback radio communication would have eliminated the need for offensive hand signals.

In addition, the tapes make apparent that was an increasing sophistication in how the tapes were shot and edited as the practice continued. The Walsh tapes date from 2000 to 2002 and later tapes showed a sequence that had coaches signaling instructions, then there was a scoreboard shot of down-and-distance, and then two shots of the resulting play from different angles.

Walsh is expected to meet with NFL officials on Tuesday and then later with Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter who has often shown an interest in the NFL’s activities.

If you take a look at the video that’s part of this link featuring ESPN investigative reporter Mike Fish, he makes an interesting point about the taping. Although it appears there is no new news here, the fact that the older tapes can now be viewed (remember, the league destroyed the more recent spy tapes) raises again the issue of competitive advantage the Patriots may have gained. Fish points out that if the Pats didn’t gain a competitive edge (the league has said that the taping did not impact on the outcome of games), then why would the Patriots have continued to refine their techniques as they went along? It would appear to be an awfully time-consuming exercise if it had no value. Would Belichick waste his staff's valuable time on work that had no payoff?

If nothing else, the Walsh-supplied tapes further fuel the debate over the legitimacy of the Patriots’ legacy.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
                    

I predict that in years to come, the Great Pizza Giveaway will be in all the business school text books as a case of what can happen when you're a corporate smart alec.

People were lined up for blocks in the Cleveland area yesterday as Papa John's made good on its 23-cents pizza mea culpa for dissing Cavaliers' star LeBron James. In the Cavs' playoff series against Washington, the pizza outfit handed out T-shirts at a game in Washington that said "Crybaby" with James' No. 23. It was a reference to a remark made by a Wizards' player about James.

So after a backlash in Cleveland, Papa John's tried to make nice with a promotion where on one day they sold a one-topping pizza for 23 cents (in honor of James' jersey number).  Yesterday, was the day of reckoning and and was it ever popular as you can see here. There wasn't any major unruliness but police were called in at a few locations to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

Apparently, a lot of people like pizza in Cleveland but a few said that they were taking advantage of the offer just to teach the pizza company a lesson not to mess with King James.

Photo: Tony Dejak/AP

Posted by Bill Ordine at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

While the Orioles' 4-1 win over Kansas City can be enjoyed for what it represented at the moment, the end of a five-game losing streak, there are occasionally things that happen in the now that have greater significance as far as the club's future is concerned.

In this case we're obviously talking about pitcher Daniel Cabrera who put together the three-hit complete game. It was the big right-hander's fifth straight start in which he has allowed three or fewer earned runs (four games with two or fewer) and last night on the post-game analysis, I heard a word used that I don't think I've heard applied to Cabrera -- "stopper." We have all heard "dominating" occasionally; "potential" a bunch of times, and too often "disappointing." But stopper was almost startling to have mentioned in the same sentence with Cabrera.

Looking at the big picture, Cabrera is one of those players who really does need to be part of the future. Andy MacPhail can't replace the current roster with 25 entirely new players. Some of these players have to be of a caliber to be part of a contender. Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Jeremy Guthrie are the obvious ones. There are a handful of others that Orioles' fans can be hopeful about and Cabrera is at the top of that list.

The term stopper implies qualities that Cabrera hasn't shown until lately, consistency and reliability -- and those would make him a valuable piece to the proverbial puzzle.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Longtime newspaper readers out there, may recall an old double-panel comic strip called "There Oughta be a Law." It was a humorous take on the incongruities, even the hypocrisies, in life.

Which has me to wondering how it can be OK for Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie to pursue and get a verbal commitment from an eighth-grader last week and a ninth-grader earlier this week.

We hear about all kinds of rules and policies regarding college athletes working, and contact allowed between college coaches and legitimate high school recruits, and inappropriate team mascots – you name it – so how can this be all right? College coaches hanging around grammar school gyms (even figuratively) with designs on precocious athletes? Just on the face of it, it sounds creepy even if the verbal commitment isn't binding and technically, pointless (although the more subtle effect is to emotionally tie the kid and his family to an institution).

A USA Today story took on the issue today and a blog entry on The Big Lead pointed out that Gillispie didn’t invent the practice of cozying up to athletes barely in junior high and blamed several parties – the Internet, the recruiting tip-sheet crowd, AAU coaches, shoe companies and finally, the college coaches who can’t help themselves because of competitive pressures. And so my point is that that’s where the oversight from umbrella organizations should come in -- to help these desperate competition-stricken college coaches because they simply can’t help themselves.

The NCAA returned our phone call on this and a spokeswoman -- without specifically addressing the Gillispie situation -- explained that that organization prohibits active recruitment of young athletes until the student begins the ninth grade. Obviously, there's a huge difference between non-binding verbal commitments and binding letters of intent. The NCAA puts its weight behind the letters of intent. Those can't be signed until the student is a high school junior. The gray area of contact regarding pre-ninth graders can come about when it's the student that initiates contact with the insitution.

Meanwhile, one of our favorite sports pundits, songwriter Ryan Parker, opined on the issue in his own satirical fashion.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Since this is turning out to be TV Thursday, we thought we'd pass along this TNT clip that's making the rounds on the Internet featuring the highly entertaining trio of (left to right) Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. Here, Barkley -- who may not always take kidding all that well (we've seen various reports of his reaction to the Frank Caliendo impersonation) -- is gracious as the target of an Ernie Johnson prank.

Posted by Bill Ordine at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)