>>>>Tebow! Tebow! Tebow!
>>>
>>>Three more.
>>>
>>>What that mean ?
>>
>>Tim Tebow is the quarterback of John's favorite NFL football team, the Denver Broncos. Since being promoted to starting QB earlier this season he has led the woebegone Broncos to 7 wins in 8 games. What has really been notable about it is that almost all the wins have been dramatic late game comebacks. They have played badly before the last quarter -- VERY badly this Sunday against the Chicago Bears -- then somehow pulled the game out.
>>
>>What has given it extra spin is that Tebow is the son of a minister and wears his Christianity on his sleeve. It's almost like the games are being decided by divine intervention. (So not only is there a God, He cares who wins football games). If the Broncos' season to date were a work of fiction no one would believe it.
>
>What I haven't figured out yet, is why they don't use somebody else for the 1st 3 quarters who might actually do something, and then bring in Tebow for the 4th. Or does he need the 1st 3 to warm up?

Good point ;-)

It's good to bump into you because for the past week I have been thinking a lot about about baseball. Specifically, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun.

Pujols first. It's been interesting here since he signed with the Angels. It's not surprising that he left for "greener" pastures but the level of rancor on both sides has surprised me. If he had just kept quiet and kept a lid on Lady Macbeth Pujols I think it would be fine. Cardinals fans are among the most astute and loyal in baseball and I think they understood that as a small market team the Cards would not be able to fend off offers from the rich teams. The Angels are in a much larger market and just came into a $150 per year long term agreement with Fox for broadcast rights. The Cardinals couldn't match it, plain and simple.

Where the resentment came in was that Albert has been saying for two or three years, since his next contract came into view, that it wouldn't be all about the money. Then it did turn out to be about the money. The Cardinals made him a very sweet offer last winter and then upped it a few weeks ago. It was very, very big money and for 9 or 10 years. In a way it was a crazy contract to offer a guy who is about to turn 32. (My housemate and Cardinals fanatic Katrina said she was almost scared that he would take it because they wouldn't have money left for anyone else). But the Angels came in with a little more money and off he went. That was not taken well.

His wife has not been doing him any favors in the PR department. She is a piece of work. What has put me off, along with many others, is her speaking for both of them and not having an off button. Everything she says seems to be "we" and "us." "We were insulted that the Cardinals only offered us a five year contract." "I can't believe the anger of Cardinals fans. I thought we had earned their loyalty." "I am just grateful that God decided to send us to a team named the Angels." Obviously athlete's spouses are impacted by the choice of team but she is really overplaying her hand.

(She and Albert are both very religious, which is fine. They have ownership interest in a local Christian radio station called Joy 99, which was where she gave her now infamous interview about what Albert thinks about it all. One of the snarkier comments in the online comments on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch site was, "And give us our radio station back." Another poster found it interesting that California is a community property state and Missouri is not. Even more to the point, another one advised Diedre to keep that butt in shape or he'll throw you over the wall the same way he did the Cardinals).

The more disturbing baseball news, as you will have guessed, is Ryan Braun testing positive for steroids and due to be suspended for the first 50 games of the season pending his appeal. My first reaction was shock. Utter disbelief. He is not only my favorite player (Tim Lincecum 1-B), he has always seemed aboveboard and shrewd. Not bulked up like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and other famous juicers, If anything he is undersized for a slugger. I was completely stunned. He denied it vehemently, as did his agent, but I suppose that is to be expected. There were a couple of things among the leaked news that gave me hope. One was that the test did not find any specific banned substances, there was just a ratio out of whack between his testosterone level and some other bodily measure. Like, we don't know what it is but there is something going on. Even more encouragingly, it was reported that he immediately appealed the test and voluntarily took a second test two weeks later. The results were normal. Obviously just a false positive the first time, I thought.

Then I read that it takes almost no time for the flag indicators to disappear from the system. There is a documented case of an athlete testing positive by a German lab, the level way higher than Braun's, and then testing clean 12 hours later.

I like to think I have lost most of my illusions. That athletes are not heroes, they're just very good at what they do. But this one really hits me, I'll admit it.