Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . . On the surface it may appear that former Nevada Wolf Pack point guard Ramon Sessions is committing career suicide by giving up $4.55 million in the 2012-13 season to become a free agent this summer, especially after his awful playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. But Sessions is doing the right thing. The Los Angeles Lakers want him back and Sessions will get a multiple-year deal from somebody this summer. The ex-Pack guard is just 26 years old. He averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 assists after joining the Lakers last year, so he's earned at least a three-year deal. It would have been silly for him to play this coming season at a bargain rate of $4.5 million and without any security past 2012-13.
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It shouldn't surprise anybody that a jury let Roger Clemens walk this week. Who are you going to believe? One of the greatest pitchers in the history of the sport or some shady steroid dealing trainer like Brian McNamee who keeps his DNA samples in a beer can? That jury was never going to send Clemens to jail, no matter how much money the government spent trying to convict Clemens (at last count it was $120 million). The only people who care anymore that athletes use performance enhancing drugs are holier-than-thou sports writers. Fans (and juries) could not care less. They just want the athlete's autograph.
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Next year's baseball Hall of Fame voting sure is going to be interesting. Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Curt Schilling are all going to be on the ballot for the first time. Here's hoping that Biggio is the only one that gets in. He shouldn't have to share the stage in Cooperstown with any of those steroid users (Bonds, Clemens and Sosa) or over-hyped ESPN media creations (Schilling, Piazza) that also probably used PEDs.
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Everything you need to know about what is wrong with golf is summed up in the list of U.S. Open champions not named Tiger Woods over the past decade. Webb Simpson (sounds like Homer's long-lost uncle), Graeme McDowell, Lucas Glover, Rory McIlroy, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell. Sounds like the pitching staff of the Tucson Padres. Remember the days when you had actually heard of the U.S. Open champ?
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Bruce Bochy is showing once again why he is one of the best managers in baseball. Tim Lincecum has been horrible. Pablo Sandoval has missed half the games. Freddy Sanchez has missed all of the games. Brian Wilson has missed almost all of the games. Aubrey Huff needs to retire. The starting rotation is Matt Cain and pray for four days of rain. Bochy, though, has the Giants within shouting distance of first place and he's doing it without any offense from his middle infield, almost no power from anyone and with Gregor Blanco and Angel Pagan as two of his best offensive weapons.
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Percy Harvin wants out of Minnesota. The Oakland Raiders have no real weapons for Carson Palmer. Sounds like a perfect fit, right? There was a time when the Raiders would pounce on All Pro talent like Harvin who wants out of his current city. But that was when the Raiders were actually trying to win something.
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There are already idiots who are complaining that a four-team playoff to determine a college football champion is going to ruin the regular season. Don't worry. College football fans will watch anything. Over 90 percent of college football fans know their favorite school has absolutely no chance to ever win a national title no matter what happens in the regular season. But, still, they go to the games. Why? They go because college football is an event. It's not about winning championships. It's about drinking beer in the parking lot for six hours before the game and six hours after the game. Half the fans in the stands couldn't tell you the names of two players on the opposing team or four players on the home team. And the other half spend the game taking photos with their cell phone and posting them to Facebook. Nothing can ruin college football's regular season.
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R.A. Dickey is the greatest pitcher in the history of major league baseball. How else can you explain it? The New York Mets knuckleballer has given up just one earned run over his last six starts (48.2 innings) combined while striking out 63 and walking just five. He has tossed two one-hitters in a row. He is 11-1 this year. He's doing it for the Mets and not the 1927 New York Yankees. He's doing it while throwing a pitch that everyone knows is coming. And he's also doing it at the age of 37. Forget performance enhancing drugs, kids. Get out in your backyard and practice your knuckleball.