The Sports Beat

• Has any athlete ever been hated on more than Kobe Bryant in rap songs?  Long before Shaq unleashed his weak sauce rhymes on stage in New York the other day, Nas slayed TheRapist, i.e. the psych major, KB24, in “These Are Our Heroes.”  Add this hate to the media’s obsession with the game’s best scorer and Bryant might be the most polarizing figure America’s seen since George W. Bush.
• Please, please, please don’t swing at the first pitch in the 9th inning.  Think about it, if you’ve got more or less a 65% chance of making an out on any ball put in play (that’s just a simple figure for this simpleton’s simplified simplification), why would you choose to give the pitcher a chance at notching the easiest out imagineable?  AND DEAR GOD, NEVER swing at the first pitch with no one on and down.  Quick at-bats are to a pitcher what canines are to homo erectus.  (This rant brought to you by Mike Lowell’s first pitch pop-up against the Diamondbacks down 2-1 in the final frame tonight.)
• At no point should an NBA GM decide to “roll the dice” in the draft.  Potential is great, upside is essential, but don’t take anyone who might be good someday.  Take players who are good and might be great in the future.  While it’s great to take some 7′4″ foreigner with a shot to be a stud, odds are he’ll be firing blanks after four wasted years if he’s averaging 8 minutes per game across the big bay in a league that pales in comparison to what he’ll face in America.  This isn’t oil, the price isn’t guaranteed to rise; you’ve got to find a sound stock to invest in almost every time if you want to remain employed.

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