(Get) A Sporting Life

The only thing I can call this is nonsense on stilts: Posey's injury stirs debate on baseball collisions Ray Fosse watched the crushing blow to Giants star Buster Posey and wondered why after all these years there are still few rules to protect catchers at the plate. If there's anybody who knows about collisions, it's Fosse. He was at the center of one of the most iconic hits in baseball history, when Pete Rose barreled over him to score the winning run in the 1970 All-Star game. Fosse's right shoulder was permanently rearranged, and while he briefly rebounded from the injury, it started a downward slide to a career that was ultimately cut short. "After Rose hit me in '70, I had two guys that blind-sided me, guys who hit me standing up," said Fosse, who stopped short of asking baseball to rewrite the rule book. "There's never anybody ejected for that." The clean but cringe-inducing crash between Posey and Florida's Scott Cousins this week...

..but my goodness does it looked fixed in favor of Reading. Way fixed.

Last day of the season finds Notts County fending off relegation by the skin of its teeth. After 59 minutes Notts is level with top of the table Brighton 1-1 thanks to a vital own goal. Elsewhere Notts needs Dang & Red or Walsall to drop points. Dag & Red are down 0-1 to Peterborough, and Walsall is down 1-2 to Southampton. That would be enough to stay up. I'll be biting nails for the next 30 minutes.

Things are looking dire in my MLS world : The 2011 season is beginning to look, feel and sound like 2010. The crestfallen expressions in the locker room. The coach questioning the commitment of the players. The shambolic state of the defense. The goals conceded on set pieces (and throw-ins!). The overreliance on inexperienced players. The misguided international signings. The long-term injuries. To this litany of woe should be added the glaringly obvious fact that as a head coach Ben Olsen is hopelessly out of his depth. No one wants to admit this fact as Bennie has been such a huge part of United's history and everyone wants him to succeed. But there is little doubt this team is poorly organized, and that reflects more on the coaching than anything else.

Would someone please put Ryan Franklin out of my misery? He isn't a major league closer. He's barely a major league quality pitcher. That the organization even began the season with him slated for this important a role is criminally negligent.

All I can say is if this is the baseball IQ and the "effort" the Cardinals are content to go with this is gonna be a hell of a long season.

It's about half way through the first game of the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament. All I can say if this is the standard of officiating we have to look forward to its gonna be a long couple of weeks. In the game Union might be better than Minnesota-Duluth but is hard to say for sure since Union has been on the powerplay for roughly half the game so far. I can just hear the fans chanting, "Let's go you Fighting Referees!!"