racingmeridian.com

It just looks wrong every time I encounter this fact; the Dallas Cowboys have not won a playoff game since 1996…S I writer Peter King has been wildly influential in media evaluations of Tony Romo. King jumped on the bandwagon early and proclaimed Romo the next dominant Dallas QB. This summer has seen a stream of commentators, athletes and ex-athletes question that assertion. It is a “put up or shut up” year for Romo. With Terrell Owens shown the door, the QB has been given the keys to the offense and he must produce. A playoff run is the minimum to avoid wholesale changes in Big D next season…Steve Grogan, an NFL quarterback for sixteen years, recalls having a part time job during the offseason when he began playing in 1975. He worked in a sub shop making lunches during his first two off seasons…paid attendance for Roy Halladay’s last start was 15,665. Jettisoning the pitcher would save 22 million dollars, minus the contracts of the three prospects Halladay is expected to fetch. In the current environment, with a failing GM and an indifferent corporate presence, expect the trade to take place…fan reaction to the proposed trade of Halladay is a reason to check out Richard Griffin’s Toronto Star blog. People are, to put it mildly, upset. Key concerns include the miserable eight year run of JP Ricciardi and the decision of the organization to portray Toronto as a mid-market team…the Tour de France gets serious with the first of three days through the Pyrenees. Lance Armstrong’s chances of an historic win will become much clearer after the gruelling mountain climbs. Interestingly, Armstrong has picked a trio of competitors well back at this point as his most serious rivals; Andy Schleck, Fred Schleck and Cervelo Sastre. Veteran analyst Paul Sherwen indicates the Pyrenees and the Alps are going to be a real test for the 37 year old competitor. Sherwen stands by his selection of Alberto Contador as the most likely 2009 winner…Bob Bafferts three year old Pioneerof the Nile has been retired following a “soft tissue” injury to a front leg. Thus ends a rollicking odyssey for the Meridian. Losing objectivity and distance, the Meridian fell hard for the fast son of Empire Maker. We bet the colt enthusiastically in future pools for this years Kentucky Derby, and ended up mortified when the Horse That Shall Not Be Named swept by our hero in the final furlong of that storied event. Par for course for well-bred runners these days, we’ll never know how good the colt might have been. He was exceptionally young, having been born in May, and was demonstrating increased maturity and commitment as his career developed. His final flop in the Preakness seemed indicative of the need for a freshening period, nothing more…the peculiar spelling of the name (Pioneerof the Nile is correct) is due to the limitation of eighteen characters in the spelling of a thoroughbred’s name. It would have looked better to let the whole name run together, as in PioneeroftheNile, but still ranks as a beautiful and evocative title…Woodbine has cancelled their Turbo charged Pick Six after a mere three weekends. The WEG seeded the pool with 150 grand and promised to kick in the same amount if the bet was won. It was won every week during its initial run. Woodbine needs to stop embarrassing themselves with these types of gestures and work on reducing takeout. Increasingly savvy gamblers are recoiling in horror at the percentage, between 20-30 per cent depending on the wager, being picked from the pool before wagers are paid out…Jennifer Morrison has blamed problems with new software for her shoddy blog work the past few weeks. I’m lucky my webmaster actively seeks out the simplest and most user friendly material for this particular eedjit. If the software proclaims “best used by the 7-10 year old age group”, my webmaster thinks of me!…I’m reading Christian Guidice’s “Hands of Stone” , a biography of Roberto Duran, when I come across repeated references to the horror of Montreal. I’m shaking my beer drenched head thinking, huh?, Montreal was the bloody highlight of Duran’s career, a 15 round pounding of legend Sugar Ray Leonard for the welterweight title. It hits me. The writer has confused New Orleans, the infamous “no mas” fight, with the event in Canada. How could a book be published without anyone, anyone, noting this mistake? How can a purported expert on Roberto Duran confuse, in print, the events in Montreal with the ones in New Orleans? Am I nitpicking? How trustworthy would you find an author who wrote of Ali travelling to Manila to fight George Foreman?…