Monday sports rants

Topic No. 1: The San Francisco Giants
As a long-time Giants fan, I was hoping they would do two things in the off-season: improve their pitching by keeping Jason Schmidt and signing another decent starter, and bidding a fond adieu to Barry Bonds.

Instead, much to my chagrin, they signed Bonds for one year at $16 million, meaning he's taking up a fifth of the club's salary in the hopes that he will hit another 21 home runs to catch Hank Aaron, and draw fans who want to see him do it. In the meantime, he (again!) shows he's not a team player -- he could have taken a much smaller contract (it's not like he needs the money) to allow the Giants to pursue some pitching, but instead he took a whopping $2 million less than last year (a year, by the way, in which his 42-year-old knees couldn't handle the AT&T Park outfield duties).

I can't wait to watch Barry Bonds hobble uselessly after fly balls to left field, knowing that we could have used $10 million from his salary to make the team more competitive. I can't wait until his records are asterisked in the books because of his steroid use, thereby proving it's all about Barry.

I also went into convulsions when I read that, not only were the Giants not going after the free-agent Schmidt (their ace pitcher, sporting a 78-37 record since coming to the Giants in 2001), but he had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for Pete's sake! You can't be a Giants fan and like the Dodgers. In fact, I'm pretty sure you have to hate the boys in blue.

I like Schmidt, and I like that he's a Northwest boy, but I hate his decision.

So, I sulk. Grumble grumble.

Topic No. 2: The Jesuit High School football team
The Crusaders, who won the state 6A title on Saturday, were a juggernaut. Their closest challenge was an 11-point victory over Lake Oswego in Game 3 (the latter team, by the way, lost in the state semifinals).

They won their 13 games by an average score of 49-9, never gave up more than 21 points, and recorded four shutouts.

But what really caught my eye was the fact that Jesuit will lose 41 seniors from this year's team, but thanks to their ability to recruit (Jesuit is a private school, after all), they will probably contend for post-season honors in 2007 as well.

Topic No. 3: The Bowl Championship Series
I've written about the stupidity of this topic here and here, and don't really have anything I can say to improve on those posts. I still want a playoff, and even if Ohio State beats Florida in the BCS championship game, it will cap off an unbeaten season but it will not be a "true" national title.

That said, I think the American sports-watching public is growing tired of the BCS. This is the first year I can remember hearing sports announcers dissing on the BCS by noting that every other level of college football manages to overcome its obstacles to settle the title on the field.

And I will say one other thing: this year's BCS was a perfect example of what's wrong with the BCS: the voters didn't want Michigan to be in the title game, so they voted against the Wolverines and in favor of the Florida Gators in the polls, and that pushed Urban Meyer's team past Lloyd Carr's and into the National Championship.

In other words, it was a popularity contest, a beauty pageant, not a football game.

They say you can't put lipstick on a pig and make it something more attractive. Someday soon, I hope they'll stop pretending the BCS represents the public's desires as the true determinant of a national champion, and they wipe the lipstick off the BCS pig.