Enough Talk

As of today, the following rule is in effect:  Jake Peavy is not allowed to give the Sox another public pep-talk of any kind until he stops sucking at baseball.

The rah-rah stuff may please some outside the clubhouse, but it just gets old and silly when it comes from a starting pitcher who can't beat a doormat.  So here's where we stand with Peavy 2010:  he is allowed to throw 117 pitches in a spring training game, then opens the season with an ERA of 7.85 through his first five starts (and dumb apologists blame cold weather).  He goes back to his old delivery, implies that Don Cooper had never seen him throw before, and puts together a couple solid outings before struggling in his most recent two.

What's next for this expensive "ace?"  Per my experience, we soon start hearing from trainers and doctors.

Mark Buehrle tries to salvage the series today, and we expect to be on the air around 3:00, if not earlier.

Don't believe a word Phil Jackson says about anything right now, as he denies interest in leaving LA.  The shadow-dance of courtship that evades NBA tampering restrictions exists on a different plane than the daily playoff coverage, and is a separate reality.  Same goes for what the Lakers and Bulls say.

The New York Times reports today that federal investigators may expand the scope of their doping inquiry to include fraud and conspiracy charges against Lance Armstrong and teammates.  Specifically, they want to know if money from the US Postal Service (the team sponsor) was used to buy PEDs.

Making things more interesting is the involvement of federal prosecutors from the US Attorney's office for the Northern District of California -- the office that has worked closely with agent Jeff Novitsky to topple big-name drug cheats.  Seems that Tailwind Sports is based in San Francisco, and that's the company that owned some of Armstrong's former teams.  Armstrong himself is a part-owner of Tailwind.

This could be really fun.