May 4 - Winslow Totals his Bike and his Bank Account

Things have not gone too well for Cleveland Browns Tight End Kellen Winslow Jr. since he shocked the world a few years back by anointing himself as “The Chosen One.” Tell me this – if Winslow was indeed the “Man,” do you think he would have broken his leg on a freak play against the Cowboys in week 2 of the 2004 season? If he were in some way related to the big guy – and I am not talking about Kellen Sr. – do you think he would have flown off his motorcycle the other night and put the rest of his career in jeopardy? Word out of Cleveland is still a bit murky, but this much is clear. Winslow – one of the league’s ten biggest jerks – trashed his right knee after falling off his bike and he perhaps also incurred some fairly serious internal injuries. As such, Winslow’s future on the football field appears to be uncertain to say the least. And if that weren’t bad enough news for Winslow, the story is likely to get worse. I say this because there is a real chance that Winslow violated the specific terms of his contract by riding a motorcycle and could now be on the hook to repay a big chunk of the $10 million in bonuses he has received from the Browns. So let me get this straight – Winslow’s leg injury against the Cowboys cost him roughly $5 million in performance incentives and now he may be on the hook for his signing bonus and a roster bonus he received this March. I hope Kellen didn’t blow his dough on whores, homes and hot wheels because he may have just incurred a pretty serious debt. I hate to say it, but if any kid had this coming to him, Kellen is the one. After all, this was the kid who once confused a football game with actual warfare. This was a guy who prior to having ever played a down in the NFL, claimed he was going to have a better career then his hall-of-fame father. And finally, as mentioned above, this was a guy who once referred to himself as the “Chosen One.” I cannot extend too much sympathy to a guy who sports such a resume. Get well soon Kellen.

Notes from the National: The Cards may have laid an egg last October, but they look like they are just going to overwhelm the NL Central this year, much like they did last season. Jason Marquis threw another strong game last night for the Cards who have now won fourteen of their last 18. St Louis is 15-4 against the NL Central so far but only 2-4 against foes outside the division. That does not bode well for the division in this era of unbalanced scheduling. Tom Glavine has won 263 games in the major leagues but it sure doesn’t look like he will retire with 275, or even 270 for that matter. He got killed again last night and to these eyes, he looks just about shot. While Glavine has been terrible, his teammate, Cliff Floyd, has been terrific. He is riding a 19 game hitting streak while hitting seven bombs for the Mets. It took 118 plate appearances, but Jose Reyes finally drew a walk last night. With that monkey off his back, I don’t see why it will take any longer then 30 more appearances for Reyes to pick up his second free pass. Bret Myers crushed the Mets last night, striking out ten in seven innings. Jim Thome went on the DL yesterday and it got me wondering whether any sluggers from 1999-2001 are still healthy. We saw vintage Al Leiter last night. The Fish gave him five in the top of the third, yet he still couldn’t take the game into the sixth. He walked six in five innings and was pulled after 97 tosses. The Marlins outburst came at the expense of Mike Hampton and that snapped his streak of five strong outings to open the season. Pure and simple – when Derrick Lee doesn’t drive in runs, the Cubs lose. Things got worse for Chicago yesterday when Kerry Wood was put on the DL for the 43rd time in his career. The Brew Crew has actually won five in a row and rumor has it Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin placed a call to the fading Yanks to check on the availability of Mariano Rivera. The Pirates are terrible but Jose Mesa has been rock solid. He picked up his ninth save of the season last night but I suspect he will not be in Pittsburgh six weeks from now. The Assholes lost last night but Craig Biggio kept it going with three more hits - that gives him eight in three games. The Giants lost a tough one to Arizona last night and it is now being reported that Barry Bonds had more surgery on his ailing knee. The new over/under on Bonds returning to the lineup is the All-Star break and I am inclined to take the over. Arizona’s pitching hasn’t been great this year – 8th in NL ERA – but it has been a whole lot better then last year when Randy was around to anchor the staff. Los Madres have now won four out of five and Jake Peavy will try to keep it going tonight against Colorado. That is the good news – the bad news is Brian Giles is now hitting .185. Did anyone notice that MLB forced Washington to play the Sunday night game in Washington and then fly cross country to play in LA on Monday night? I thought stuff like that was supposed to end when they got out of Canada. Don’t laugh, but Jason Phillips is actually contributing to the Dodgers. Mets fans would have taken a box of balls in exchange for Phillips so that begs the question of what they would take for Piazza?

Airmail from the AL: God bless the Toronto Blue Jays who have stepped up this week and stopped the Oriole Express. Josh Towers and Miguel Batista combined on a four hit shutout last night as the Jays were able to eek out a 1-0 victory. The Sox got a nice start out of John Halama and a grand slam from Doug Mirabelli, but Keith Foulke gave up ANOTHER home run in Boston’s 5-3 win at Detroit. It looks to me like Foulke’s confidence is shot. Wade Miller threw five and two-thirds for Pawtucket last night and he looks ready to go Sunday in Boston. Edgar Renteria got a couple of knocks for Boston last night but he also committed a couple of errors, giving him six on the year. When did he win his gold glove? Kevin Brown should just get up and quit. He gave up six runs in the first against Tampa last night and eight over five innings. As expected, his suck ass manager commented after the game that Brown looked pretty solid in innings two through five. He then broke into a rendition of “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Is it too soon to call Jason Giambi the worst position player in the AL? He has now struck out 25 times in 69 at bats and is 2 for 11 with six whiffs over the past week. Meanwhile, Hideki Matsui is a slump that would rival the 1990’s Nikkei. Mark Buerhle was mediocre for the White Sox last night but mediocre is more then enough to get by the Royals. Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi had four hits last night and is now hitting .365. With Matsui slumping, Iguchi is now the second best Japanese player in the AL. Jake Westbrook picked up his first win the year for Cleveland after starting out the season 0-5. Bob Wickman made it interesting against the Twins in the Ninth, but the Tribe’s gasoline can escaped with his sixth save. Aaron Boone may rival Giambolic for that worst player award – he is 9-78 with 22 strikeouts. Curt Young gave the Rangers six good innings last night, although it did come against the anemic A’s. Heck, Curt Young could probably win a Cy Young if he got to pitch against the A’s every fifth. This is hard to believe but John Lackey struck out Ichiro three times last night. I am putting that just below Fletcher defeating Yamamoto at Midway on the list of the great upset victories an American has had against a heavy Japanese favorite.

The game ended at 2:30 this morning so most of you probably missed it, but the Seattle Supersonics did what they had to do last night and put away the Sacramento Queens in five quick games. The striking thing about last night’s game was Sacramento got huge games out of its two big guns yet still couldn’t come up with a victory. Peja and Bibby absolutely had huge games, going for 73 between the two of them, but Sacramento’s defense, particularly in the second half, was abysmal. The Queens were able to control Ray Allen a bit better last night, holding him to a mere 30, but the rest of the team scored at will. If you don’t’ believe me, check out SeaTac’s 56 percent field goal percentage. That sounds more like a Pop-a-Shot number then a number achieved in an NBA playoff game. And if that wasn’t bad enough, SeaTac out rebounded Sacto by a margin of 43-25. With numbers like that, Sacto was lucky it didn’t lose by fifteen or twenty. Seattle now moves on to probably play San Antonio while Sacramento moves toward the abyss. I am in the minority here, but I actually think Seattle could give San Antonia a tough time. The Sonics are a physical and athletic squad that could get under San Antonio’s skin. San Antonio may have size, but they are not nearly as ornery as the Sonics. As such, this could be a series where we see the street kid beat up the pretty boy.