Wacky World of Sports

Just like the real world, the world of sports is full of oddities and wackiness.

In Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter was so thankful for the woeful Kansas City Royals' sweep of the Detroit Tigers late last season (which gave the Twins an improbable division title) that he sent them a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon champagnes just recently, to honour a "promise" he made at the time. What started as a joke got Hunter into serious trouble. He was in contravention of the rules regarding gifts given to other teams or players which could have gotten him suspended up to three years.

That's right, it's a THREE-YEAR suspension for sending champagnes to your poor cousins, tax not included.

As Dan Patrick rightly pointed out, the penalty for this innocuous and inadvertent mistake is far more serious that tested positive for banned substances (50 games for first offence, which is about one-third of a season).

Okay, so cheaters can quickly return (and keep cheating) after serving a short suspension and nothing else will happen to them, while genuinely good guys who hand out petty gifts will be condemned in hell.

Good logic.

...

When Salomon Kalou was ready to come on as a second-half substitute for Chelsea against Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions' League semi-final, he put on a jersey and was ready to go.

But there is one problem.

That was not HIS jersey. For the record, his last name is spelled "K-A-L-O-U" and his squad number is "21". A quick check on the jersey shows that the name was spelled "W-R-I-G-H-T-P-H-I-L-L-I-P-S" and has the number "24" on it.

The plan to disguise himself as Shaun Wright-Phillips was spoiled when a team member gave him HIS jersey at the very last second.

Meanwhile, Wright-Phillips also came on as a substitute later on and no, he wasn't wearing Kalou's jersey.

...

When quarterback Brady Quinn started to fall in the NFL Draft over the weekend, all eyes were on the Miami Dolphins to pick him up at the 9th slot.

Voila, despite seriously in need of a top-calibre quarterback, the Dolphins instead selected wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr., a fleet-footed athlete with excellent speed and game-breaking return ability.

Problem was, Ginn was expected to go in the late teens or early 20s', and picking him this high AND neglecting its glaring need in the quarterback position is a doubly-evil sin for the Dolphins.

While some may argue that Ginn is a perfect replacement (or even an upgrade) for the departed Wes Welker, bypassing the chance the pick up a franchise quarterback is one of the stupidest personnel move by an NFL team I have ever seen.