Various and sundry matters come up all the time in sports

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Thursday, May 15, 2008 (2 months ago)
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Just when you think that there’s nothing to write about, reality hits.
First, there’s this tid-bit that I discovered too late last week: the Major League Baseball Players’ Association expressed “concern” to Bug Selig over the lack of offers to the unsigned Barry Bonds and asked for additional information about the offseason’s free-agent market.
The union has not filed a collusion grievance on behalf of Bonds — yet.
Poor, poor Barry Bonds.
Did I not call that in my column several weeks ago?
Oh, by the way, Bonds was just presented with a new indictment of 15 felony counts.
Uh, union, are you kidding me? Any team that would touch this guy with a 100-foot pole has to have a hole in their collective heads.
If memory serves me, this was a great free-agent market that did NOT match the level of talent that was available.
Unbelievable.
Of course, the O.J. Mayo situation erupted over the weekend.
If you know his saga from even junior high, is anyone really surprised that this might have gone on?
Is it surprising that a, well, kid that started out in Kentucky, went to Cincinnati and ended up in West Virginia — all for his “best interests” — would be vulnerable to this sort of situation?
Not just him but the Michael Beasleys and others of the college basketball world?
It’s to the point that even those who try to give the benefit of the doubt — I try to but definitely don’t always succeed — are finding it hard not to become cynical.
O. J. Simpson is also back in the news — again? When will he just be like an old soldier: just fade away?
A close friend of his wrote a book detailing how he helped O.J. literally get away with murder after the pro football Hall-of-Famer admitted to him that he killed his ex-wife and her friend while high on marijuana.
For those who believe he indeed did get away with homicide, this is more fuel to the fire that the justice system was, in this case, unjust.
For those who believed he was not guilty, I’m sure they will be after Mike Gilbert like jackals on a freshly-killed carcass.
In the book, he apologizes for his rotten deed but the family rightfully questions why he didn’t come forward during the trial.
Perhaps O.J. needs a new set of friends?
The powers-that-be in the horse racing world have taken a very smart and prudent step in the wake of Eight Belles’ death at the Kentucky Derby.
They have formed a commission to study everything about the sport, especially how it affects the horses, from how they are bred and on.
I think that is a very measured and appropriate response and if there are ways to make things better, cool.
Then there’s these two late tid-bits: Annika Sorenstam, one of the all-time greats in women’s golf; and Justine Henin, one of the all-time stars on the women’s tennis tour, have announced their retirements.
Henin’s is immediate.
To say I am shocked is an understatement, especially Henin’s.
Sorenstam is 37 and has hinted at it for years — to start a family and devote more time to her off-course life — but Henin is in her prime.
No details of Henin’s announcement were available but I immediately ponder this question: why would an athlete in her prime — who knows how many Grand Slam and other titles she could win? — call it quits?
This is my opinion — and it is my column, so there! — but I think it is a simple matter of burnout. Too many of these women — especially in tennis but it’s starting to affect golf, too — started too early and the sport has beaten them to a pulp.
They did not have a childhood or teen life and they finally say enough.
It also helps to be wealthy in retirement, too.

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