Strange News & Ramblings

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-Digger’s Daily-

In reading up on sports headlines this morning a few of wacky stories caught my eye.
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Shawn Johnson, 17 year old Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast, filed a restraining order against a psycho fan who jumped a fence trying to get onto Dancing With The Stars set where the show films. What is it with stalkers? Why bother? In this case, Johnson didn’t know her possible assailant. It’s a lucky thing for her security guards caught this guy before anything screwy happened. Found inside the psycho stalkers car was a loaded shotgun, a loaded Colt .45 handgun, Johnson memorabilia and duct tape. Anything could have happened if this psycho successfully got Johnson alone. Duct tape? Now, here’s the real kicker. A Los Angeles judge set bail at a very low $35,000! You’ve got to be kidding me. Oh yeah, a restraining order was issued stating the stalker cannot come within 100 yards of Johnson, her family and her DWTS partner.

How many more incidents must occur before judges in our country crack down hard on stalkers, rapers, child molesters and others threatening violence? All too often we hear terrible stories of how the court system releases nuts who then go out and do harm? Hopefully, this will not happen here. Only two nights ago, FOX’s Bill O’Reilly sent his crew to interview a Florida judge from a different case who let a repeat offender off easy.

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Terrell Owens is back in the news. He’s skipping out on voluntary practices with his new teammates on the Buffalo Bills. T.O. is no stranger to criticism. Here’s a guy who has badmouthed every one of his former teams (San Francisco, Philadephia & Dallas). Publicly, no harm no foul is how Buffalo seems to be handling his absence. It’s just not the way to mesh with a new team. His presence would have boosted a team looking to regain respectability. Instead, mini-drama stories hit the airwaves of his no show. T.O. has never been, and seems as though he never will be, a team player. True to form for his entire NFL career!

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Miguel Tejada faced sentencing as baseball’s “first” high-profile player convicted of a crime stemming from baseball’s steroids era. Most of the steroid attention focused on other players, The Mitchell Report, BALCO etc. Last month, the former AL MVP pleaded guilty to withholding information when questioned by a House committee’s investigator in August 2005 about an ex-teammate’s use of steroids and human growth hormone.

He received a relatively light sentence of one year of unsupervised release, 100 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine. Now it makes me wonder what’s in store for Roger Clemens and the list of others in similar situations. Clemens case is a bit different due to the lengths he went to lie. My feelings towards this whole steroids mess has been well documented in previous blogs. Until baseball’s commissioner and owners face sanctions or fines… everything else is just a sideshow.

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Don’t Mess with Texas…An over zealous Dallas area cop abused his powers during a traffic stop involving NFL player Ryan Moats who was rushing to the hospital to visit his dying mother-in-law. Apparently, Moats had rolled thru a red light shortly after midnight on his way to Baylor Hospital in Plano (Dallas suburb). The newly re-assigned cop was so insensitive to the situation that he threatened Moats with arrest. Moats was pulled over in the hospital parking lot. His wife and aunt got out of the car and hurried into the hospital as Moats voluntarily remained behind. He was not combative. Not disrespectful. He explained his story (all caught on police cruisers dashboard cam). The cop detained him nonetheless and repeatedly threatened arrest. Moats remaind detained even after hospital security and nurses came out to intervene.

Abuse of power? Racially motivated? Who knows. Sitting here in the peanut gallery I tend to think this cop was way out of bounds. Moats mother-in-law passed before he was free to see her. Part of a policeman’s job is to help people in duress, not create further duress. Flag this guy for an unsportsmanlike penalty!
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