OK, he wasn’t actively hiding.  He was just off the baseball grid.

Now he returns to St Louis to be the Cards hitting coach under new manager, Tony LaRussa.  And LaRussa has said that the organization won’t be doing anything to shield McGwire from the media.  Good.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m glad Mac’s back.  I’ve always been a big fan of his.  The steroids?  If you want to be a sports fan I think you just have to resign yourself to that reality.  It’s like a Snickers bar.  They’re unhealthy, but I love ‘em.

Anyway, being a fan of McGwire, I hope that right now he’s surveying the MLB landscape long and hard.  He should start with the last time we saw him, talking to Congress about the future and not the past, and continue all the way to A-Rod’s present status as World Series-bound hero.

It’s real simple.  Time to step up and get this over with.  Do an interview and do it soon.  Be candid.  Own it.  And, by the way, it’s too late for some kind of “I only did it twice” equivocation.  Take it on the chin, and you’re done.  The story will swirl around for a week or so and that’s it.  It will fade quickly.

Luckily, he’s just the hitting coach.  Once this matter is dispensed with, McGwire will be seen in dugout cameos, and not heard.  Seriously, when did we last hear from Don Mattingly (former hitting coach for the Yankees and currently for the Dodgers)?

The thing is, McGwire is one of those guys who just seems to be made for baseball.  Word has it that a number of top-notch hitters swear by his instruction.  And he’s still beloved in St Louis.  The Cards will be better for having Mac back, and hopefully he’ll be better for returning to the game he once ruled.  By next July he’ll be seen sitting in the St Louis dugout, seldom heard from, and kicking himself for that misguided Congressional Hearing strategy.

If this football season has one theme, in both the college and pro ranks, it has to be the lack of a “team to beat.”  No one is above suspicion this year, and I think part of the problem is that there are so many teams that are exceedingly bad, or much worse than normal.

In the NFL I guess the Saints would be the closest.  Pity them.  They are such perennial under-achievers that it’s going to take a lot of convincing to get the respect they deserve.  Also, there is their schedule.  Before today beating the Jets was their keynote.  That has become less convincing.  Today they dismantled the Giants, but who have they beaten?  They barely squeaked by the Cowboys who needed overtime to beat the Chiefs … and that’s how it goes.  Pick any team, however impressive, and pretty quickly the trail will lead back to a steaming pile of putrid teams.  Parity is not always pretty.

By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the Vikings.  Impressive so far, but Brett Favre is their QB and the clock will soon strike November, and you know what that means.  That’s right!  Time to start chucking the ball around indiscriminately.

College is even worse.  Florida continues their hold on #1 while also continuing their less than impressive performances.  It’s a good thing for them that they really drew a favorable SEC schedule this year.  Hopefully by the Conference Championship Game they’ll be playing up to their potential.

– B –

Ohio State picked up their second loss over the weekend.  You know what that means.  That’s right!  You can kiss any hopes for an undeserved berth in the National Championship Game goodbye.  By the way, that’s 2 and counting.  The Luckeyes still have Iowa, Penn State and Michigan may even be a challenge  given the way Pryor is playing.

– B –

Woe is Sam Bradford.  And how many times have we seen this same story.  Dude could have gone to the NFL but chose to return and pursue and championship.  So far he’s been out more than in.  Oklahoma is nowhere near championship timber this year.  And at the end of this season he’ll have a real tough choice.  Enter the draft with a disappointing season fresh in everyone’s minds, or double down on one more season with the Sooners.  A healthy Bradford could amass some impressive resume material for the ‘11 draft.  But if he gets injured, not only does that suck in and of itself, he also risks solidifying the injury-prone label.

– B –

Ahhh yes, Jerry Jones giving his coach the old endorsement of death.  Nothing says “start packing” quite like a mid-season vote of “confidence” from the owner.

Just caught a headline:  “Balloon Boy’s Parents Willing to Turn Themselves In.”  And so the playing of the media continues.  If you want to demonstrate that you are willing to turn yourself in, you don’t issue a statement, you turn yourself in!

This whole thing makes me ill.  I hope to God they throw the book at these idiots.  Not just because of the major attention whores that they are, but to teach a lesson to those who would come after them.

CPS may take the kids away … seems like closing the door on an empty barn.  I’ve seen the Wife Swap clips, and, while it is almost certainly the parents’ fault, “Balloon Boy” is quite the little monster.  At least shave his head and check for the “666”.

You know, subjecting your family to Wife Swap alone should be grounds for removing the children.  The people they get on there, not quite Springer-esque, but darn close.

And of course, at the root of all this, it’s the media.  Things like this have become so formulaic.  The threshold for attracting the media’s attention is ever-increasing, but once they are on the hook, the self-righteousness, the condescension … it’s all predictable.

This I vow:  if this loser gets his reality show, I will never give any of the show’s sponsors another dime, even if it means I never drink another Diet Coke in my life.

OK, on the recent controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh’s involvement in one of the groups vying to purchase the St. Louis Rams … I have to admit, I’m with the NFL on this one.

Note I said that I’m with “the NFL.”  Not the owners who are gratuitously hopping on the anti-Rush bandwagon and, as usual, kissing the players’ asses.  Not Al Sharpton, who has less than no room to talk about inciting division.

I am with Roger Goodell however.  Granted he hasn’t made any official move to block Limbaugh’s group, but his comments clearly indicate that he probably would if it comes to that.

This isn’t about politics or whether or not one agrees with Limbaugh.  Goodell has consistently attacked controversy on every front in his league.  Having an owner like Rush Limbaugh would be a major distraction.  Whether or not it SHOULD, is a debate for another day.  But, it WOULD be a distraction.

It would be kind of like the trouble David Stern sometimes has with Mark Cuban, except that Cuban doesn’t sit down behind a microphone for three hours each day and intentionally stir the pot.  Sure, Limbaugh talks politics and current events, but sometimes the world of sport, and more particularly the world of the NFL spills over onto his plate.

Goodell and the NFL don’t need to regularly be fielding the “Did you hear what Rush said?” “What are you going to do about it?” questions.

Personally I like Mark Cuban and I think Limbaugh could be that same kind of firebrand owner.  But, I can definitely understand the league’s reservations.  Limbaugh is a victim of his own success here.

Besides, it’s the St. Louis Rams.  They are all doing Rush a favor by shutting him out.

On last week’s Ultimate Fighter we got to see the aftermath of “Big Country” Nelson’s victory over Kimbo Slice – one of the worst fights in the history of the show.  Rampage Jackson couldn’t sing Slice’s praises enough.  To hear Jackson tell it, Slice did everything great – the only problem was that “Big Country” couldn’t handle standing with Slice so he took the fight to the mat.

And in the wake of the Dolphins’ last second victory over the Jets on MNF, Rex Ryan went third-grader, calling the Wildcat offense a “gimmick” and Miami QB Chad Henne a “clown.”

Well Rex, one man’s gimmick is apparently another man’s winning strategy.  Same for Slice.  “Big Country” may have laid on top of him for two rounds and not done a lot, but Slice laid on his back for two rounds and did even less.  Why would “Big Country” stand, trade blows and bring Slice’s one and only weapon into play?

Why would a football team resort to a “gimmick” like the Wildcat?  Because it worked.  Miami goes there for the same reason that the Jets traded for problem child Braylon Edwards.  Because when a teams steps onto the field of play, and when a fighter steps into the octagon, priority one is getting the win.  Style points only matter to sore losers.

So, losers.  You think the Wildcat is a cheap gimmick, stop it.  They’ll stop running it when it stops gaining yards and touchdowns.  Kimbo Slice, you want to stand and slug it out, get your ass up off the mat.  “Big Country” will stand with you when you muster something resembling a takedown defense and / or a ground game.

Now, Kimbo Slice is a human sideshow, so no big deal there.  But this has been a sad development in what had been a magical season for the Jets.  Young brash coach, calling out his opponents and then backing it up.  Rookie QB stepping right into the eye of the storm and kicking butt.  Even when the winning streak came to an end, the Jets still had everything going for them.  But after this little petulant child routine, the bloom is off the rose.  The Jets still have hopes for a great season, but the story just won’t be as fun as it might have been.

I have no direct proof that NBA Commish David Stern is now crafting the post-season schedule for Major League Baseball, but there is certainly plenty of circumstantial evidence to that effect.  Baseball is facing their own NBA-esque post-season death march.  One problem:  Basketball is weather-neutral while all of the teams remaining in MLB’s pennant race play outdoors.

Here’s the crazy thing.  The Yankees and Angels both wrapped up their series today.  But now, in the middle of October, both teams will sit around for four days before starting the ALCS on Friday, in tropical New York City.  There is a decent chance that the World Series, which is scheduled to end Nov 5th if it goes 7 games, could face-off two teams from cold climates.  One of those teams could be the Colorado Rockies who play in Denver.  Any football fan knows that it isn’t unheard of for that city to be shoveling snow by that time.

Yet if it happens there will be much hand-wringing in the baseball world, as if this were all some big surprise.  What?  It gets cold in November?  Who knew?

Baseball is a dish best served warm.  If you keep pushing the beginning of the season earlier and the end later, don’t act all shocked and forlorn when you are dealing with snow-outs.

Florida’s 13-3 victory in Baton Rouge said a lot about LSU, and little about Florida.

Florida used Tim Tebow, rebounding from a concussion, as sparingly as you can use a guy who touches the ball on every play.  TT took a few shots, and a couple of times couldn’t fight the instinct to sacrifice his body for the extra yard.  But, for the most part, Urban Meyer’s game plan was ultra-conservative.  Gator fans need not sweat the low output.

LSU was as fraudulent a top 5 team as Ole Miss was a few weeks earlier.  They were LSU and they were undefeated, so top 5 for sure – quality of the wins and quality of the opponents be damned.  Never mind that the previous week they struggled to hang 20 on a Georgia team that has yielded at least 35 pts 3 times already, to much lesser opponents than “top 5” LSU.

LSU fans can disregard the discussion during the game about how whichever team wound up losing would have the chance to come back and get redemption later in the season, probably in the SEC Championship Game.  Your team isn’t going to get so much as a whiff of that game.  You still have Alabama, whose QB probably won’t be in his first game back from a concussion.  Next week’s contest against Auburn is no gimme. And “top 5” Ole Miss is waiting in the wings.  I see 3 losses for LSU this season.

Urban Meyer could not have asked for a more fortunate schedule if he’d laid it out himself.  The bye week after Tebow suffered the concussion.  No Alabama until the SEC Championship.  Georgia and Tennessee having down years.  With the Gators not even halfway through the season, next week’s visit from Arkansas stands as their toughest remaining test before the Conference Championship.  Tim Tebow will have the luxury of slowly working his way back to peak form without pressing.

So, it’s all setting up pretty well for Florida.  But, even before Tebow went down, the team had moments where they looked like less than National Championship timber.  This one probably won’t be the wire to wire cakewalk that some imagined coming in to the season.  It never is in the SEC.

A busy day for the President.

Word is that in addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama has also won the Heisman Trophy, the Miss Teen USA crown, and the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Sunday he’ll be named Food Network’s Next Iron Chef and tomorrow, over lunch, he’ll win $50 for collecting Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues in McDonald’s Monopoly.

Phew!  No wonder he doesn’t have time to meet with General McChrystal.

Count me among those who won’t be rushing right out to get the H1N1 vaccine, which is now available.  There are two very simple reasons:  1. I’m not convinced that it’s safe, and even if I was, 2. I’m not convinced that it works.

Of course, since the federal government is assuring us that it’s all good, I’m re-thinking.  I mean, this is the same organization that shrewdly turned those billions of dollars of stimulus $$ into how many million lost jobs?  Heck, I may just host a H1N1 vaccine party!  That would rock.  Strictly BYOP … Bring Your Own Prius.

I jest.  Our government is relentlessly trying to establish itself as the perpetual and only savior, and answer to all.  They’ve done nothing to inspire trust.  If this is like anything else they’ve put their hand to, there’s at least an even money chance they’ve screwed it up, and a better than even chance that we wouldn’t find out about it for years if they had.  I’m certainly not letting anyone inject the fruits of their incompetence into my body.

OK, I’m really getting sick of hearing about this one.  Late in last weekend’s Georgia – LSU game, with the Bulldogs having just posted the go-ahead touchdown, the refs inexplicably flagged the team for excessive celebration.  Bad call.  Horrible call.  There was nothing remotely excessive going on.

However, there are those who want to blame Georgia’s loss on that penalty and the ensuing short field which led to LSU’s game-winning score.  There are a couple of problems with that theory.  First, LSU got a great return on the kickoff.  Now, it doesn’t matter where you are kicking from, the kick travels roughly the same distance, and the two teams converge on each other at roughly the same speed.  In other words, regardless of whether you are teeing it up on the 15 or 50, you are still allowed to run downfield and tackle the ball carrier.  Oh, yeah, you are also still allowed to line up in the correct formation.

Second, that drive ended when LSU’s line created a huge hole and RB Charles Scott scampered into the end zone, untouched after breaking through the line.  Scott could have run two miles with the ball and the Bulldogs would have been helpless to do anything about it. Where was the Georgia defense? you may ask.  Well, folks have been wondering that for a month now, but at that particular moment they were five yards off the line of scrimmage looking for their underwear.

Unless you want to argue that four weeks ago Georgia’s defense had a premonition that their team would be called for an unwarranted excessive celebration penalty and the entire team would lose their desire to live, and tackle, you can’t sell that penalty as the cause of the team’s loss.

All of that said, wth with that penalty?  It came out of nowhere and as I said, was completely unjustified.  And of course nothing says, “We blew that one” like a prompt and transparent make-up call (LSU was cited for the same violation, with the same lack of justification, after they scored.l