Shanoff’s Wake-Up Call: Boo Canseco, Rah Baylor

Today’s Calls: Jose Canseco vs. Magglio Ordonez, Baylor vs. Texas A&M, Mike Smith vs. Bobby Petrino, Timberwolves vs. Suns, Hornets vs. the West, Barry Bonds vs. the Judge, Colt Brennan vs. the NFL, Cam Cameron vs. Kyle Boller, O.J. Mayo vs. the NCAA, Tom Brady vs. Tom Brady Sr. and More!
The Opening Pitch: Are Jose Canseco’s steroids allegations for sale? There is a report from The New York Times that Canseco offered to keep Magglio Ordonez’s name out of his book if Maggs invested in a film Canseco wants to make.
Now, does that mean Ordonez is clean and Canseco was blackmailing him with a threat? Or does that mean Ordonez is dirty ... and Canseco was blackmailing him with a threat?
Despite being seemingly the only truth-teller in this entire steroids fiasco, Canseco seems determined to undermine his own credibility. What a wasted opportunity.
College Hoops: Baylor! I’m still trying to parse which element of last night’s thriller affirms that the Bears are having a dream season:
That it was against in-state rival Texas A&M? That A&M was ranked? That the game was on the road in College Station? That Baylor was playing its first game as a ranked team since 1969?
Nah: It’s that Baylor won in FIVE overtimes, a 5X gut-check. The star was Curtis Jerrells, who played a team-high 53 minutes and had a game- and career-high 36 points, including 11 in the 5th OT alone.
NFL: Falcons hire Mike “Who?” Smith. Smith was the defensive coordinator of the Jaguars and will be a welcome change from the flashy (and ultimately fallow) Bobby Petrino.
Smith will get instant respect from a team hungry for a change in leadership (or, in Petrino’s case, “leadership”), and Jags ex-pat Byron Leftwich was the first to applaud the hire.
I would say Smith’s first “to-do” item should be to get DeAngelo Hall’s head screwed on right.
But Smith said his emphasis is on the run game -- on both sides of the ball. (Hmm: Wouldn’t it be nice to have the greatest running QB in the history of the NFL? Ah, well...)
NBA: Where “Any Given Night” Happens. The Suns (30 wins) losing to the Timberwolves (now, 7 wins) last night would be the craziest result of the season in the NBA ... if it didn’t already happen earlier this season, back on December 8, also in Minneapolis.
But back then, we didn’t truly understand how good these Suns were (or how bad these T’wolves were). So this upset qualifies as larger. Some things remained the same: Al Jefferson dominated with 39 points and 15 rebounds (32 and 20 in the 12/08 W).
More NBA Last Night: Jose Calderon is the best player you’ve never heard of: 24 points and 13 assists leading the Raptors over the Celtics in Boston (the Raps were 15/21 from 3)... With their 6th straight win (over the Blazers), the Hornets are the No. 1 team in the West (Wow: How about Jannero Pargo with 24 pts and 5 assists off the bench?)... T-Mac 28, K-Durant 25 ... Fantasy Stud: Josh Smith (22 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 5 blocks, 3 steals) ... Trade Rumors: “Nets-cioni?”
Barry Bonds Watch: Bonds wants a judge to dismiss the perjury charges against him because his answers were the result of “scattershot” questions by prosecutors. Aha: So it’s not that Bonds lied... he was tricked!
Senior Bowl Mania: Brennan a dud. It turns out that, yes, in fact Hawaii’s Heisman finalist Colt Brennan WAS a system QB. And if his personal implosion in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia wasn’t evidence enough, the NFL scouts are seeing it now. More Senior Bowl here.
Nolan Ryan doesn’t want to talk about steroids: I’m sick of that as an excuse, particularly from a guy who followed Roger Clemens closely (and who pimped pain-relief medication in TV ads, leveraging his status as the previous generation’s top power pitcher). Ryan does a disservice to the game with his unwillingness to talk about the issue.
MLB in China: The Dodgers and Padres will play an exhibition series there in mid-March, the first time an MLB game will be played in China. It’s a great set-up for an Olympic year -- and I’m sure MLB doesn’t mind creating a foothold for itself in the largest market in the world.
Speaking of MLB in the Far East, the Red Sox will wear “EMC” ads on their legendary uniforms when they open the regular season against the A’s in Japan, an exemption MLB grants to teams playing in Japan.
Hopefully this will show the purists that the Red Sox players’ torsos didn’t melt and the game still survived; the corrosive value of ads on jerseys in American sports is vastly overrated.
Sean Taylor Honors, Cont’d: Redskins Chris Cooley and Chris Samuels will both wear jersey No. 21 in the Pro Bowl, and there’s a rumor the NFC will start the game with 10 players on D to honor Taylor. That’s at least two reasons to watch an otherwise unwatchable game.
NFL Coaching Carousel: Cam Cameron is the new O.C. of the Ravens. Cameron and new coach John Harbaugh have one huge decision: draft a franchise QB (if any are even in the draft class) or import one (Cleo Lemon?). Wait: You mean they might use Kyle Boller or Troy Smith?
Will O.J. Mayo be punished for accepting free tickets to an NBA game from Carmelo Anthony? Well, he DID break the rules; just consider if every player was able to get sweet seats to games from boosters of one sort or another. USC should get in front of it by sitting him for a game or two, then move on.
Say it ain’t so, Urban! Speaking of potential violations, Florida is still investigating Urban Meyer’s recruitment of a top juco WR. I’m sure the school is being overly cautious and everything is fine (but regular readers know this is a bit of a biased topic for me).
The Last Word: No new rumors about Tom Brady? Ahh, the glorious sounds of silence ... (Wait: What’s that? “Much to-do about nothing,“ Tom Brady Sr. told USA Today. Oh, good. Glad we cleared that up.)
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
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