Random thoughts while wondering what ever happened to Gail Hopkins:

Marked for Sale Dept.: Could Mark Cuban be making a play for the Cubs?  Mark, you idiot, we said buy the Blackhawks, not the Cubs.

Would MLB allow him to be an owner?  In the past, people have been turned away.  In fact, Eddie DeBartalo Jr. could have saved Sox fans 26 years of Jerry and Eddie.  Oh to dream.

Payback is Hell Dept.: It wasn't the Pat Summit song and dance that got me, it was the insipid, patronizing, suck up comments from Dick Vitale that did.  Arrgh.

You've Got A Friend in Me Dept.: Former Marlins manager Joe Girardi helped a former teammate last season work out of his pitching issues.  The problem was Jon Leiber played for a divisional rival.  The marlins won't admit this led to the strange dismissal of Girardi following the season, but you have to believe it had something to do with it.

Maybe if the teams would hire guys who have had a few years of managing in the minors instead of guys who just retired they wouldn't have this problem.  In fact, of the two guys who managed in the World Series last year, one barely played in the bigs and the other never did.  What does this tell us? 

Bubble Machine Dept.: Another in depth breakdown of teams sure to get shafted by the NCAA selection committee.

Captain Caveman Dept.: Cornbread Maxwell draws some heat for saying a female official who blew a call should "go back to the kitchen."  This statement offended me because not just women enjoy spending time in the kitchen.

Leaving Las Vegas Dept.: James Caan is leaving the TV show Las Vegas.  Isn't he the only reason people watch the show? 

If you want to keep it from being canceled, hire Ron Silver as Caan's replacement.  That would make it interesting, especially since Silver is a master at playing a heavy.

Black Book Dept.: If you were a professional athlete, would you rather be on this list or on this list?

Going Out of Business Sale: If James Cameron is right, there might be a whole lot of King James Bibles available on EBAY and, a whole more people taking off for Yom Kippur rather than Christmas.

Big Mac Attack Dept.: Prince Charles wants to ban McDonald's in Britain.  Yeah right, he may be the next guy to rule England, but McDonald's rules the universe.

Memo to Chuck: People should make their own choices, same as you.  For instance, if someone wants to leave their foxy wife for a horse faced old flame, you should be able to.  Oh wait.  You did.

Wet Rubber Hose Dept.: An anti- torture advocate group wants to end or modify the way torture is shown on TV (like on 24) because he claims young, impressionable, soon to be military types watch it and assume that's the way it should be.

How about instead of changing things that we see on TV (which are supposed to be rooted in fantasy anyway), we encourage the Bush administration to provide proper training and a code of ethics to all personnel who participate in interrogations?  It's okay, Rumsfeld's gone.

Where No Man Should Go Dept.: Paramount pictures is busily casting for another Star Trek movie which will be a prequel to the original series featuring a younger Kirk, Spock and McCoy.  Matt Damon is rumored to have landed the Kirk part and Gary Sinese will probably play Dr. McCoy (damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a New York crime scene investigator.)

Didn't these guys learn their lesson with "Enterprise", the series that pretty much brought the entire franchise to an end?  None of the people involved with Next Gen, DS 9 and Voyager (Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr) are even involved in this project. 

Please, can't it be dead, Jim?

Take a Seat Dept.: Going to the Principal's office just got a whole lot more interesting.  Guess it's hard to get by on just an administrator's salary.

I'll bet Mr. Guber turned him in.

Good Hands Dept.: Since House wasn't on last night, TIVO decided Princess and I might enjoy "The Unit" on CBS which stars Dennis Haysbert as the leader of a crack commando team, similar to Delta Force.

In last night's episode, the unit had three prisoners in tow when they were followed by insurgents to a communications station.  The unit helped re-enforce the station and shot it out with the bad guys who clearly outnumbered them.

In the end, a despondent, cowardly staff sergeant, who headed security at the station, let the prisoners out.  They then over powered their captors, only to meet Allah in the end.  While their release was on purpose, their demise was clearly an accident.

It was then that Haysbert announced that all of the soldiers would receive "accident forgiveness."