Lightening Round II

Apologies for another posting gap. I had hoped to blog more, but Mrs. FCB failed again to win the lottery, so my plans to turn pro had to be put on hold for another week. But here is some of what I would have said:

• I love golf's anti-cheating culture, especially its self-reporting element. I'm sure it would not work in most other sports, and, yes, it sometimes leads to illogical and even unfair results. But if people think you have cheated -- or even might have cheated -- your fellow players never think quite as highly of you ever again (ask Vijay Singh). That said, this is ridiculous. An official witnessed the event, he was consulted, and he said nothing happened, even when asked a second time. A player cannot do more than that. Let it go, Jack.
• Sticking with golf, I am sorry to say that this announcement is at least 10 years too late. Arnold Palmer is by far the most important (not to say the best) golfer ever, but his friends and family did him no favors by not talking him out of playing in tournaments long before now.
• Let's beat the rush and start retching now.
• And speaking of winning the lottery...
• The next time you roll your eyes when you hear a Major League player acting like a Teamster when it comes to supporting the Players Association, remember the numbers you see here. Even though she may lose out on the $1 million accidental death benefit, Cory Lidle's wife will still receive nearly $170,000 per year as a survivor benefit. Union today, union tomorrow, union forever.
• I don't think what Steve Lyons said was particularly "racially insensitive," and standing alone it probably would not have gotten him fired. His comments a couple of years ago about Shawn Green not playing on Yom Kippur were worse, as was his mocking of the visually impaired man at the Mets game last week. The most offensive thing about all this is that the people at Fox apparently thought he was a competent announcer. He, Thom Brennemann, and Lou ("I had him in [Cincinnati/Seattle] and he's really an aggressive [hitter/pitcher/baserunner]" Piniella are the worst baseball announcing crew ever. Thank God Piniella is going back to managing.
• I will never think of the term "lucky stiff" in quite the same way again.
• Let's go, Mets!!