From the Bottom of the Bird Cage 2/28

It’s day No. 59, so we tip our hats to all the former 59s in Chiefs history, led by Donnie Edwards, Gary Spani and the unforgettable Percy Snow.

On February 28, 1940 the first televised basketball game goes on the air, between Fordham University and the University of Pittsburgh. On February 28, 1983 the final episode of M*A*S*H was broadcast on CBS, with an estimated 106-125 million viewers, the most watched television episode in history.

Born on February 28, 1906 was gangster Bugsy Siegel, who would be portrayed in film by Warren Beatty, Harvey Keitel and Eric Roberts. Born on February 28, 1931 was Dean Smith, the legendary basketball coach at the University of North Carolina.

On February 28, 1916, American author Henry James passed away in London.

And, in the words of M*A*S*H character psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman: “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice. Pull down your pants and slide on the ice.”

From the Washington Post: We’ve come to expect these big splashes from the Washington Redskins as the calendar creeps toward springtime. Nobody can be surprised to see the Champs of the Offseason strike first — and loudest — during the free agent period. Nobody can be surprised that the Redskins spent the most money to land the biggest fish to elicit the biggest wow.

The recession may apply to little people, but nothing economic was going to keep Daniel Snyder from throwing tens of millions at Albert Haynesworth in that excessive, over-the-top manner that has become Snyder’s signature as an owner.

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Columnist Mike Wilbon goes on to write that the Haynesworth deal with the Redskins will either be boom or bust. Actually, when a guy with the checkered resume that Haynesworth brings to the Redskins, only one thing can justify signing him to that type of money: a Super Bowl championship. In that sense, it is very much boom or bust.

With Snyder’s history, bet the bust. This guy never seems to learn from his past mistakes. Last year, he sat on the sidelines in the early days of free agency and kept his wallet buttoned up. I’m sure that drove him crazy. Snyder is one of those guys that loves the action of the deal, the romance of the negotiations, the dance that comes with attracting a free agent. Of course, the reason free agents are willing to step on the dance floor with him is his propensity for paying excessive dollars. At least this time he signed a player who should be in his prime, not guys like Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders who were over the hill and still got millions out of Snyder’s wallet.

From the New York Times:
Baseball clubhouses seem to be getting bigger this spring, with more room to move around. Or maybe the players are becoming smaller. Out of the roughly 1,000 major leaguers in spring training camps, a couple of dozen appear to have lost significant weight in the off-season, all in the name of health and agility. Some of them did it by eating grilled fish. Others played active video games with their children. Some went on diet programs or took up yoga. Others cut back on alcohol. Whatever they did, clubhouse attendants are coming up with smaller uniforms all over Florida and Arizona.

Among the biggest losers are Brett Myers and Ryan Howard of the championship Phillies, who lost 30 and 20 pounds. Yankees relief pitcher Brian Bruney, Mr. Avant-Garde himself, shed 25 pounds before last season by giving up beer and eating healthy food. He has slimmed down another 10 this year, and essentially does not look like the same person. The Mets’ Marlon Anderson, a 35-year-old trying to come back from a leg injury, lost 22 pounds in 25 days, through a cleansing program of nutrients and drinks and moderate lunches. Concerned he was losing muscle mass, Anderson backed off the diet and regained five pounds.

We have seen some sluggers and power pitchers lose bulk in recent years, in the wake of increased testing and penalties for steroid use … “You have to be a little skeptical, given the context of watching bodies change,” Dr. Gary Wadler, an internist and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said Thursday. “The explanation then was that they were eating more and working out more. Now if you hear players say, ‘We changed our ways,’ all you can do is be suspicious.”

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Antecdotal evidence does not make for scientific fact, but it appears that the increased and random testing of baseball players is pushing the game away from the performance enhancing drugs that seem to have been running through the business even five years ago. Again, the only way this gets solved is through the locker room. If a guy like Derek Jeter has been “quietly seething” because he has to discuss Alex Rodriquez’s use of steroids, then it’s up to guys like Jeter to make it plain PED use won’t be tolerated. The more that happens in the locker room, the more it will force major league baseball and especially the players association into action.

From ESPN. com:
It was a typically frantic Monday morning and, hurrying to get out the door, Kathy Smith started to scratch her name on her son’s homework assignment when she stopped to read what he had written. The fourth-grade creative assignment was pretty straightforward: If I Had Three Wishes.

Kathy smiled as she read the first item on her son’s bucket list: a golden retriever. Ever since he met a slobbering canine friend across the street, Tanner had been hounding his parents for a puppy. But with the holidays closing in, his parents already had warned him: Don’t bother asking Santa for a dog. His second wish was to play professional basketball, hardly a surprise for a young jock like Tanner, who spent his time shuffling between the football fields, baseball diamonds and basketball courts in his Alpharetta, Ga., community. It was the third item that made Kathy stop.

“To make kids with cancer laugh,” Tanner wrote in his 9-year-old scrawl.

Kathy showed the paper to her husband, Craig. “Well, he’s getting a dog,” Craig Smith said. And indeed, that Christmas a big pile of blonde fur who would be christened Griffey bounded into the family living room. Also among the wrappings were a Sacramento Kings locker and a red clown nose.

“The locker was to represent basketball and the nose was to make kids with cancer laugh,” Kathy said. “We figured that would be the end of it.”

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It wasn’t the end of it. Not by a long shot. You probably don’t recognize Tanner Smith’s name unless you are a devout college basketball fan. He’s a freshman at Clemson, playing for the Tigers and averaging 3.9 points per game. That’s not what this story is about. It’s a story about a little boy’s dream that has become a reality. If you know anybody that has dealt with cancer, especially a child or teenager, this story will touch your soul. It’s a story similar to what happened several years ago when Marty Postlethwait wanted to give her sick son Miles a friend like him. That led to Shadow Buddies, a program that has gone all over the world and has drawn the continued support of Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez.

In this day and age of athletes turning up at the cop shop on a regular basis, we need to be reminded that there are good people involved in the sports world. Not good, but great.

I promise you, if this story doesn’t bring a lump in your throat then seek help immediately. Take the time to read about Tanner Smith and his family.