FOOTBALL

In the Penn State scandal, a new interesting development.  It seems the issue now is that everyone is changing their stories and everyone is denying new admissions.  Yesterday, on NBC’s Rock Center, the alleged child rapist Jerry Sandusky gave a disturbing live interview briefly recounting his side of the story.  To keep it brief:  He basically said he didn’t do it.  At this point, very few believe him, but one man knows for sure, which is the key witness in the case — assistant receivers coach Mike McQueary.  McQueary has been under fire for allegedly not doing anything in 2002 when he spotted Sandusky in the shower in the Penn State Locker room with a young boy.  But now McQueary says he did ‘do something’ (i.e. break up the assault), and also immediately told police.  But now the police are saying, “He never came to us”.  This just increases the curiosity to the level of cover up that may have taken place in State College, PA.

BASEBALL

In baseball, the League has handed out its managers of the Year honors.  In the American League, the award went to Joe Maddon, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays.  The Rays had a horrible start to their season, then were lackluster at best.  But, in the last 2 months, they launched an amazingly impressive campaign to get into the playoffs on their final game.  It was an impressive managerial achievement.  And in the National League, a similar story, as the award went to former Dodgers star and now manger of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Kirk Gibson.  The Diamondbacks were known to be one of the worst teams in the league the first two months.  Then, suddenly, they were smashing people.  This all paid off in a wild card appearance.  Gibson took a franchise that looked like it was headed to the basement the next few seasons, and turned them into a contender in his first year.   Well done Maddon and Gibson.

And finally, some good news in the case of the kidnapping of Washington Nationals star Wilson Ramos.  A few weeks ago, Ramos was kidnapped in his homeland of Venezuela.  He was there to play for a local club during the baseball off-season, and was seized outside of his home at gunpoint. He was missing for a few days, and in the case of a kidnapping, the end result is typically 50/50 on life or death.  In Ramos’ case, he got lucky, and returned alive and healthy.  And just yesterday, the Venzuelan police caught the 8 suspects involved in the kidnapping, which actually included a 74 year old and a 59 year old.  His family is happy to have him back, and the Nationals will welcome Ramos back to the field as part of their family next season.  Everyone here is relieved.