Sports Quick Hits

How much “quan” is enough? Are the bragging rights of being the top paid athlete in your profession worth taking the Rod Tidwell risk? Already having the worst season in his future Hall of Fame career, although swinging a hot bat in June (.314, 8 home runs, 14 RBIs), Albert Pujols choose to not resign with the St. Louis Cardinals before the season began so he could test the free agent market for more money after the 2011 season.

Pujols fractured his left forearm in a collision with Kansas City Royals player, Wilson Betemit; this may be Betemit’s claim to lasting fame as Pujols’ future is now in serious doubt. Pujols didn’t just fracture his forearm but injured his wrist as well. If a hitter’s wrist is not 100%… King Albert is supposed to be on the DL for 4-6 weeks. For the sake of baseball and for the Cardinals’ faithful I hope Pujols comes back full strength. As for Pujols’ free agency contract… good luck getting that $30 million per year long term contract. Prince Fielder has to be happy for a couple of reasons now.

Riley still has the fire… must be the hair gel.

Pat Riley, the Miami Heat team president, held a press conference on Tuesday to wrap up the Heat’s NBA season. While answering several questions from the media he was asked, “Will you ever coach again”? Riley said, “No, I’m not going to. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have the fire, but we have a great young coach here and I want to support him and hope that he can grow like I did. This is just his third year.”

Erik Spoelstra beware! This sounds like code words for “I will take over as head coach if you have so much as a two game losing streak during the 2011-2012 season”.

Remember Riley canned Stan Van Gundy in the middle of the 2005-2006 season so he could win another title as a head coach. This was after Riley stepped down asMiami’s head coach days before the start of the 2003-2004 season. Alonzo Mourning was gone and the Heat were rebuilding. Riley did not have the heart to coach the youth movement of rookie shooting guard Dwayne Wade, Lamar Odom, and undrafted power forward Udonis Haslem.

Once the Heat had acquired Shaquille O’Neal to compliment the play of Dwayne Wade at the start of the 2005 season, that’s win “the fire” to coach again got hot. Riley kicked his long time assistant, Stan Van Gundy, to the curb so he could move up the all-time NBA Championship list for winning coaches.

Riley loves the attention and spotlight. If the “Big Three” add a couple of pieces to their team and look unstoppable… how long will it take before Riley pulls the double switch on Spoelstra? If the Big Three win 3 or 4 NBA Championships Riley could see himself tied for second with Red Auerbach in a few years…. I wouldn’t put it past him.

Riley is currently tied for third on the all-time NBA Championships won by coaches.

Phil Jackson 11

Red Auerbach 9

Pat Riley 5

John Kundla 5

Greg Popovich 4

Ohio State dropping review of car sales

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has issued a report that there was no “wrong doing” in the sales of 24 of 25 cars to OSU players or players families. OSU spokesperson, Jim Lynch, said, “We have seen no evidence that would lead us to believe that Ohio State student athletes violated any policies when purchasing used cars.”

And Somalia pirates are only looking to sunbath on the decks of the cruise ships they encounter, nothing more.

OSU is not going to look into the financing or payments for the cars purchased by the students and/or families. One report that says nothing wrong happened on the sales of those cars and they are going to sweep it under the rug. Hey OSU, way to be an institution of integrity.