COLIN LINNEWEBER

I thank you for your time and I hope that I am able to entertain you with my vantages on the week that was in sports.

CHIEN-MING WANG
New York Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang (5-0) recorded his 50th career victory last Tuesday night to become the fastest pitcher to reach that plateau since Dwight Gooden accomplished the same feat in only 85 starts in 1986. Because Wang, 28, is not an electric strikeout pitcher, he is taken for granted and he is not universally renowned as one of the games best hurlers. In essence, Wang, who finished second in the Cy Young award voting in 2006 and third in its voting last year, is the Rodney Dangerfield of Major League Baseball starters. If fans and observers don’t begin to recognize his vast talent and production, Wang may “get no respect” all the way to Monument Park or, gasp, the Hall of Fame.

PHIL HUGHES
Yankees rookie right-hander Phil Hughes (0-3, 8.82) was removed from his start Thursday night in Chicago against the White Sox after only 2 innings because of a 45-minute rain delay. The pampering that the precocious Hughes is receiving from New York’s hierarchy is frustrating and downright wrong. It shouldn’t matter if Hughes, 21, is the Golden Boy of the Bombers farm system. It is time to put Hughes’ ear against the proverbial stove and force him to show his critics what he has. As the wily and sage Bill Parcells once said, “the easiest way to get a player hurt is to try and keep him healthy.” The Bomber’s brass should heed the words of the “Big Tuna.” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi needs to take the kid gloves off of Hughes and let him throw without the rigid pitch-counts that have been imposed upon the youngster. If they don’t, Hughes’ disastrous start will continue and pundits will look back at this season and consider him the “Big Goat.”

MATT WALSH
Former New England Patriots video employee Matt Walsh reached an agreement with the NFL last week that will provide him with legal protection and he will meet with league Comissioner Roger Goodell on May the 13th to discuss the Patriots illicit spying practices.

“Today, Mr. Walsh and the National Football League reached an agreement under which the NFL will provide legal indemnification and a release of claims against Mr. Walsh relating to his employment by the Patriots and the Patriots’ videotaping operations,” said Walsh’s lawyer, Michael Levy of McKee Nelson LLP. “I am pleased that we now have an agreement that provides Mr. Walsh with appropriate legal protections. Mr. Walsh is looking forward to providing the NFL with the materials he has and telling the NFL what he knows.”

Fans of New England act like Chanel 5 comes out of Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick’s ass and they are confident that Walsh’s meeting with Goodell will finally and mercifully conclude the scandalous fiasco known as “Spygate.” I can’t fathom that will be the case. Walsh would have to be a publicity-craving lunatic to bring nary a new piece of evidence to the table when he meets the NFL’s head honcho next month. If and when Walsh supplies Goodell with fresh documentation regarding the Patsies nefarious sideline activities, expect the commisioner to levy a season-long suspension of the hooded fashion-plate and anticipate Dom Capers to be the man running the show in Foxboro come September.

ROGER CLEMENS
The New York Daily News reported yesterday that notorious juice-head Roger Clemens had a decade-long affair with country singer Mindy McCready that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and Clemens was a 28-year-old father of two. So, circumstantial proof now indicates that Clemens cheated on both the game of baseball and his wife of 24-years. It genuinely would be nice to see the Rocket launched all the way to Guantanamo Bay.

I thank you again for giving me some of your time. Without your readership, I’d have absolutely zero reason to write.

Popularity: 5% [?]