racingmeridian.com

The Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers are in hot pursuit of disgruntled Ottawa Senator Danny Heatley. The kid’s a malcontent, not a winner, and he’ll be a disappointment wherever he ends up…the town of Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, is the birthplace of Peter Forsberg, the Sedin twins and, now, young sensation Victor Hedman…you can just feel the fear emanating from Dallas as the Cowboys ask Roy Williams to be their number one receiver and most potent offensive threat. Albert Breer, in the Sporting News, notes that Williams never lead the Detroit Lions in receptions while snagging balls in that cesspool for three years. The stupendous price (first and third rounder, 20 million guaranteed) paid for a player who reported this week he has never lifted weights is particularly worrisome as the team flounders under the purported leadership of QB Tony Romo and Head Coach Wade Phillips. While the Cowboys still ooze talent, they don’t appear to have the organizational smarts to be considered a top tier Superbowl contender…the Minnesota Vikings open their season Sept 13^th in Cleveland. Is there anyone left who does not believe their starting pivot will be Brett Favre?…Dale Earnhardt Jr’s 26^th place finish at Sonoma last weekend effectively ends any chance of the circuit’s most popular driver making the Chase. The flame out of Junior while driving for Hendricks has been one of the most puzzling and disappointing sports stories of the last couple of years…has it really been eight years since David Duval won a tournament? The world’s former number 1, currently ranked 882, earned a piece of second place at the recently concluded U S Open. No word on if the troubled golfer celebrated with a phat spliff……Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra will start in the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont this Saturday. Evidently putting the filly in this easy spot has more merits than an attempt at the Belmont Stakes. Horse racing is dying. This is why…Vladimir Klitschko pulled 61,000 for his heavyweight tilt in Germany on Saturday. The glass jawed bore pawed at the bloated Ruslan Chagaev for a while and, well, I turned it off, like just about every other fan of boxing. The heavyweight division has become unbearable, a gross festering sore…the Manny Pacquiao brain trust is asking for a 70-30 purse split for the proposed Nov 14^th match with Miguel Cotto. He’s going to get his way, or at least a 65-35, as Cotto needs the fight to restore the lustre lost when he dropped the Margarito battle. Cotto needs a big win to develop crossover appeal and the resulting pay per view sales. His courage in choosing to fight the formidable but largely unknown Joshua Clottey was admirable, and a rumble with the decidedly smaller PacMan has to be an encounter he feels he can dominate. Has the Filipino finally pushed it too far? The Puerto Rican could be 15-20 lbs heavier by the time the bell rings…