So Sports Illustrated is going environmental on us, declaring on the cover that "As the Planet Changes, So Do the Games We Play." It's about global warming. On the cover is our own Dontrelle Willis. He's standing in Dolphin Stadium thigh deep in water. At first I thought he might have gotten drunk again and taken a giant piss (hey, I kid the D-Train because I love him). But the caption for the photograph reads: "Dontrelle Willis at Dolphin Stadium in Florida. Is the future there all wet?"
Inside is a graphic of Florida, p0inting out all the ballparks that will be flooded if global warming raises sea levels during the next century or so. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this is silly. Not global warming, of course, but SI getting all serious on us about it. As if the flooding of the ballparks will mean all that much when millions of people are flooded out of their homes. They also sketch out the environmentally sensitive sports arena of the future, leaving out the obvious inference that one would probably cost taxpayers a billion dollars. And then there's the contention from some pinheaded scientist that if the temperature had been one degree warmer (from 76 to 77 degrees) the famous ball Willie Mays caught over his shoulder in the 1954 World Series would have traveled two inches farther and bounced off his glove. That little supposition may be the stupidest thing ever to be published in the venerable sports mag (which has been in steady decline anyway).
Look, I'm just not into mixing my sports with serious issues. I know it's a public service, and maybe the editors felt they needed to atone for this year's 3-D swimsuit edition, but half the fun of the damn games is that you can live and breath something for a while that really has little significance. Sports give us a break from politics, finances, family problems -- and, until S.I. had to ruin it, the notion that global warming is going to make us homeless and ruin the Earth.
After the jump: Broward Times Reports On Police Shooting Victim Development
Elgin Jones is reporting this morning in the Broward Times that the Broward State Attorney's Office has dropped robbery charges against Travis Jackson, who was shot by police in November. Jackson was in that carjacked SUV off Sistrunk Boulevard that two Fort Lauderdale cops opened fire on as it tried to flee. His friend, Troy Eddines, was killed.
The whole thing reeks of a police falling all over themselves to vindicate fellow officers -- even if it means they have to pervert the criminal justice system to do it.
Right after the shooting, the Broward Sheriff's Office quickly -- and apparently recklessly -- drummed up a robbery case against Jackson. Turns out, not surprisingly, that the rap was shaky as a jittery cop's trigger finger.
