A Look Back on the Week That Was In Sports

The Yankees Will Win the AL East

The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 12-4 Monday night in the Bronx to extend their home winning streak to 8 games.

Despite the inane and inexplicable rush by many to discard the 2008 Yankees from playoff contention in the month of July, the Bombers stand a measly 2 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the loss column and they trail the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by a skimpy 4.5 games.

The notion that the Yankees (54-45) are done is simply comedic and it illustrates the way the team is covered by both the media and fans alike.

The Red Sox (57-43) have won 2 championships in 90 years and they have captured one AL East crown since the 1996 season. Still, many observers and delusional Sox fans act like another divisional title is a foregone conclusion.

In regard to the Rays (58-40), the have had an impressive campaign to date and they deserve great applause for the character and skill they have shown as a team throughout this season. Nevertheless, the Rays will eventually fold like one of Frank Costanza’s cheap suits down the stretch and their demise will leave the opening that the Yankees need to lengthen their run to the post-season to a startling fourteen-consecutive years.

Like Earnest Hemingway wrote in his iconic 1952 novel The Old Man and the Sea, “Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.”

Followers of the sport of baseball should brush-up on Hemingway’s classic. After all, most have expressed little faith in the Yankees and they should. 

Dark Knights: The Most Villainous Athletes of the Past Decade

Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated film The Dark Knight premiered this weekend and all eyes were transfixed on the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of the dynamic villain The Joker. In tribute to Ledger's devilishly mesmerizing character, I have decided to nominate the five most villainous sports figures of the past decade.    

1. Barry Bonds—Bonds, 43, a seven-time MVP and eight-time Gold Glove winner who is baseball's all-time home run king with 762 dingers, is one of the greatest players to ever grace the diamond.Unfortunately, Willie Mays' godson is also one of the most despicable and surly human beings to ever be thrust upon the world of professional sports.

In November of 2007, Bonds was indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for lying about his use of performance enhancing drugs (including the allegation that he utilized a steroid called trenbolone, which is intended to improve the muscle quality in cattle).

Currently, Bonds is an outcast who has been essentially banished from the sport of baseball.   

2. Bill Belichick—Belichick, 56, helped lead the New England Patriots to three Super Bowl championships, and  is widely heralded as one of the greatest coaches in the annals of the NFL.

But, he is also a cheater—both on the field and off of it.In September of 2007, the philandering fashion plate, who has a career record of 41-57 as a "HC" without Tom Brady at the helm, admitted that he had been illegally videotaping his oppositions defensive signals since the 2000 season.   

3. Roger Clemens—Clemens, 45, won 354 games in his career and was awarded the Cy Young Award a record seven times.But, the fat Texan also cheated on his wife, Debbie, at least 354 times, and he likely took a minimum of seven different forms of illegal performance enhancing drugs throughout his sham of a career.

Any time now, "the Rocket" could be launched to prison for lying to congress.   

4. Alex Rodriguez—Rodriguez, 32, is a three-time MVP and 12-time All Star who many believe will one day be revered as the greatest baseball player ever.

Early last year,  A-Rod was asked why he was such a magnet for criticism and he responded, "When people write bad things about me, I don't know if it's because I am good-looking, I'm biracial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team."

The reasons that many dislike the purple-lipped pariah are actually because he is a pompous, robotic, and fake man who is incapable of succeeding in pressurized situations.    

5. Ray Lewis—Lewis, 33, a two-time AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and the MVP of Super Bowl XXXV, is one of the most dominant linebackers to ever step on the gridiron.

He is also a menacing man who was charged (and later acquitted) with murder and aggravated assault after a fight in 2000 left two dead from stab wounds.

Lewis was the first MVP of the Super Bowl to not be asked to say the famous phrase, "I'm going to Disney World!" after the game. One can only assume that Lewis wasn't the image that Disney craved to be associated with their brand.   

*Honorable mention: Kobe Bryant   

Everybody has different vantages and varying likes and dislikes. I would be interested in hearing the opinions of others on this subject. In this case, nobody can be pronounced wrong. 

Is Quinton Jackson’s Life on a Rampage?

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (28-7) was arrested and held on $25,000 bail after he fled from a few traffic accidents in Costa Mesa, California on Tuesday afternoon.

According to authorities, a report was received of an accident on 55 Freeway in which a large Ford pickup truck struck another vehicle and drove away from the scene of the crime.While on patrol, a Costa Mesa officer spotted the same F-350 with a large mural of a shirtless Jackson on its side, strike another automobile and again depart from the collision without stopping.

The officer followed the truck fleeing toward Newport and signaled for the driver to pull over to the side of the road. The operator of the four-wheeled monstrosity, Jackson, 30, ignored the officer's instruction and he continued to drive like a psychotic lush without a conscience or a cause.

After a brief chase, Jackson, who starred in the Pride organization before becoming a force in the UFC, finally stopped his truck and ended his vehicular rampage of terror.Jackson, a born again Christian who knocked out Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell 90 seconds into their 2007 rematch, was charged with felony hit and run and felony evading arrest.

July has been a difficult month for the native of Memphis, Tennessee. Two weeks ago, Jackson lost his title to Forrest Griffin (16-4), 29, and two days ago he lost his dignity.

Jackson needs to get his life in order and he needs to do so quickly. If he doesn't, he'll simply go down as another man who wasted his ample talents and let his skills become rampaged by a lack of focus and discipline. 

Jose Canseco Is “Rotted Inside Out”

Infamous whistle blower and 1988 AL MVP Jose Canseco was knocked out Saturday night by former professional football player Vai Sikahema at Bennie Robbins Stadium in Atlantic City during a celebrity boxing match.

Sikahema, 45, who was an amateur Golden Gloves champion during his youth, before he starred on the gridiron, put Canseco, 44, out of his misery only one minute and 37 seconds into the first round.

Following the massacre, the "Tongan Terror" was asked if he was surprised by any aspect of his fight with the Material Girl's previous boy-toy.

"That it didn't finish in the first 30 seconds," said Sikahema, who is seven inches shorter and 43 pounds lighter than Canseco.

Prior to the donnybrook, Sikahema warned the admitted steroid abuser that his size wouldn't compensate for his lack of skills in the ring.

"Don't even think your size is going to matter," cautioned the onetime running back and kick returner. "I'm going to kick your ass. I'm going to chop you down."

"We'll see bro," responded Canseco, his eyes shifting side-to-side like a paranoid crackhead on a Baltimore street corner.

Canseco received $30,000 for his disgusting imitation of pugilism, and Sikahema was compensated $25,000—$5,000 of which he's donating to the widow of a Philadelphia police sergeant killed in the line of duty earlier this year.

"Canseco's fighting for the money, but I'm fighting for a cause," noted the compassionate scrapper. "In boxing, that means something."

In the long run, because of his scandalous book Juiced, Canseco will always mean something to the world of sports.

Nevertheless, he is still a deplorable and miserable excuse for a human being.

"He's rotted inside out," Sikahema observed. "He's a pathetic figure."

"Like a Prayer", lets hope this past weekend is the last we hear of the washed-up Bash Brother.