Don Alexander: Taking on the humbug of sports

It’s been a long time since my last “Bah Humbug” column but the humbugs have been crawling all over me. So please allow me this one column and I’ll go back to nicey nice next week.

I don’t know why the Manny Ramirez thing bothers me so much. When the Dodgers got him in 2008 he was coming off a bad breakup with the Boston Red Sox. He dogged it or didn’t play there because he felt like it. And he was making over $2 million a month to bad mouth the people who were signing his checks.

But he did come west with a smile on his face and actually seemed like he was trying. People flocked to the left field side of Dodger Stadium and set up “Mannywood.” Fans bought Manny wigs and treated him like God.

Then the last two years he decided to take $45 million from the Dodgers. He became Manny again. He was suspended for 50 games last year (substance abuse) and now some kind of leg ailment keeps him out. He hasn’t regained any form of the 2088 Manny, let alone the Manny of yesteryear. Bah Humbug.

The only way I will be satisfied is if he gives back $35 million and slithers out of town after this season. If he doesn’t? Bah humbug!

The USC football probation bothers me. In 2004 Reggie Bush’s parents allegedly took a few hundred thousand dollars from sports agents. The NCAA says USC must have known about it so they took away 30 scholarships and banned them from two bowl games.

Of course, the players and coaches on the team now had absolutely nothing to do with 2004 but I guess if all this happened to Texas or Florida I’d be calling for their hides.

But I have never taken the hypocritical oath so Bah Humbug. I look forward every year to watching great football as USC and UCLA take on nationally top rated schedules. This is unlike some teams, like Notre Dame, who look for cream puffs to polish their dome.

So now this year USC takes on Notre Dame and UCLA as their bowl games. UCLA plays extremely tough in the Rose Bowl and can upset the Trojans. The only problem is that the game now becomes the last game for the Trojans this year. I wouldn’t miss this game for a free trip to Hawaii!

Now I find out that the BCS and other polls won’t rate the Trojans because they are not eligible for a bowl. Bah Humbug. By the way, the AP poll rates all teams and the Trojans are rated number 14.

The Angels and Dodgers are so far out of the picture I’m looking at a blank screen.

As of deadline, the Dodgers are 11 games out off first place and about seven games from the wild card. The Angels are seven out and 14 games out in the wild card.

Well, bah humbug! Doesn’t pay to get up in the morning, does it? There are under 40 games to play but the teams above my teams are playing well leaving me to look at the standings every day and say, “Bah Humbug!”

Gayle and I will be joining son Dan and Lorri in Minneapolis on Sept. 18 to watch the Trojans play a team with the same colors, the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota.

The state of Minnesota has fewer people residing there than L.A. County, but yet their baseball team has a new stadium, they actually have an NFL football team playing in the Metrodome, and the Golden Gophers have a new stadium.

People in Minnesota are real sports fans. And they are tough too. Not one of the new stadiums have a roof on it. These are hardy people! They don’t want any roof blocking out 10-degree (on a nice winter day) weather or 90 degrees and huge mosquitoes during the summer. Bring’em on baby!

We can’t get an NFL football team in L.A. or here, let alone a new stadium! Bah Humbug,

And now Lorri and my wife just found out that USC plays the Trojans in Hawaii on Sept. 2. Why didn’t we pick that game to go too? All I can say is, Bah Humbug!

E-mail Don Alexander at journaldon@aol.com.