Rick Pitino's Mistake (and why I feel for him)

I don't know Rick Pitino. I tell people I interviewed him a long time ago. I did. I drove to Lexington when I was in college and asked him some questions for a few minutes. But I don't know the guy. I saw him twice at Bravo Pitino's in Lexington. I don't know the man.

But what I do know is this: He didn't break the law.

There's a lot of info swirling around. And as holds true often when there is a lot of information, a lot of that information isn't necessarily true. And nothing is the clear delimitor on that truth that may or may not be found within the information. There are so many people who are out there who are ready to criticize Pitino. There's so much information out there that I have utterly no idea what's in fact true beside this: Rick Pitino didn't break the law.

He apparently had inappropriate relations that supposedly caused a pregnancy in 2003. The woman in question then told him she was pregnant (three weeks later...?). He gave her money, she ended up marrying a friend and coworker of his and slowly began to extort money from him.

Then she tried to extort a whole lot of money. That extortion effort caused Rick Pitino to go to the police. If he had done something illegal, there would be charges against him. There aren't.

Check out the Courior-Journal: they are eating this story up, and not even letting Rick Pitino have his day in court. Oh, wait, he's not the one breaking the law here!

Sunday: Fun inside the house

It's hot out. It's really hot out.

It's a good day to crank up the air conditioner and watch Sunday television. There will be a Cardinal game on. I'll watch it. I will also be flipping between golf and, of course, tennis.

I still think it's funny that I am the only woman I know personally which was (supposedly) the most clutch play of the week (that A-Rod walk-off home run in the bottom of the 15th against their mortal enemies), knows that Tiger is just a few back, on a Sunday, again, and that Andy Roddick (the 'other' A-Rod) will be playing one of the newer up-and-comers (how long does that phrase stick?) in tennis. Oh, and my second favorite player, Albert Pujols, just hit his 100th RBI last last. He may never get the triple crown (he's currently 4th in BA).

My favorite player is, by the way, Yadier Molina. If you love baseball, you would know why.

This is a typical hot Sunday for me. I don't do a lot and watch a lot of television.

Just thought that if you were following (Ha!) that you might want to know a Sunday in the life of....

Witch Hunt 101

Instructors for Witch Hunters:

1. You must find someone to truly dislike, or you must truly like yourself so much that you don't care what you say about others.
2. You must find something that everyone else hates about that person (or people), or hates about what that person could be doing.
3. You must be able to validate, through any means, that whatever you are accusing the 'witch' of doing.

This is not the dictionary definition, but often people are accused and tried in the court of public opinion. Even if they are not guilty, or they are guilty of a lesser offense, the public has a tendency to kick, maim and mutilate whoever they can. I look around the blog posts and the message boards and I see a witch hunt in Major League Baseball.

In 2003, a test for PEDs occured. Beyond that, most of us, most of you, have NO idea what happened. Even the Players Union and MLB came out today and basically said that this was not what we thought it was. I'm willing to bet that some of you see the MLB and the MLBPA playing mind tricks on you, but the bigger picture is this:

Laws are being broken. Did you remember that there is a tacit right to privacy in the US? The First, Third and Fourth Amendments to the constitution, as well as several court cases have told us that. I could go on, but the simple fact is this: I am sick and tired of seeing our constitution trampled due to irresponsible lawyers.

People are, simply, finding the 'witches' that they want to find and accusing them of consuming PEDs, when the bigger story isn't really there. Stop the damned witch hunt and just fix the sport!

Plaxico - The Next Part

Plaxico Burress... again the outside and negative part of sport. Plaxico is being railroaded and that's what I believe. I think his treatment by the New York Justice System is not justified.

He did break the law in New York, so I understand why he needs to 'be punished', and as we know from various places, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

I think that people forget that he shot himself in the leg the day after Sean Taylor was killed, in his home, while sleeping. There is no sense of 'a reason' for the law to be broken. Sometimes, laws are ridiculous. This is one of them.

Father's Day...

It's been a long weekend watching the US Open. My poor husband, and his only love: golf. He's been trying to watch as much as he can and just as soon as it seems to get interesting, the rain starts falling too hard or the lightening starts.

I tried, just the other day, to tell a friend that golfers weren't whimps. The only other sport that plays in the rain is football. And even football games can get called for lightening. Golfers play until the golf course gets unplayable, and it's not them that makes the decision. My hubby is a father. He wants to start playing golf with his kids. I wish that they would. That drama is for another story in another place.

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My Dad is a man who loves his baseball. In particular, he loves the history of the sport and loves the history of his favorite team: the St. Louis Cardinals. He's now rooting for the local, Evansville Otters. They're not having the best of years, but that's okay, he's still rooting for the team.

Next week, not for Father's Day but for his birthday, we're heading to St. Louis, for a Friday and Sunday watching the Cardinals. Saturday is reserved for the Hill, the Zoo and hopefully the Botanical Garden. It'll be a lot of walking for my parents, so I doubt we'll make it to see everything. It'll be a Saturday, which means that the travel around will be a little more 'stilted'.

But we're going to be spending quality time in some of the most expensive seats watching Albert and company hopefully beat an American league team. The Cardinals have had decent luck and decent playing against the AL Central (7-4 this year, thus far) and playing against Minnesota next week. Happy Early Birthday to my Dad. And Happy Father's Day to my Husband and my Dad. And last, but definitely not least, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.