but then again most of the best players are Canadian.
What's giving you a rash this week?
The out-of-control arrogance in professional sports today? The latest in labor? The price of a lousy stadium hotdog?
An overpaid player? An underhanded agent? An owner who would sell the carpet from underneath his own mother's feet for the right amount of PSLs and luxury boxes?
Where can you get off your chest something boiling inside your belly?
Right here. Right now. Buckshots, a weekly dish-it-out-and-duck feature, is designed to give you, the subscriber, a chance to take your best shot at Ray Buck, national columnist for SportsLine USA.
Agree or disagree, let 'er rip. Sign your name -- if you dare -- and tell us a little about yourself: age, city, state, occupation/student. Just remember, Buck has the last word.
E-mail your comments to: buckshots@sportsline.com
E-mails over cocktails, while Whine Cellar takes a beating:
"What in the hell does D. Wayne Lukas and the Cowboys have in common? Nothing. Your trivial attacks on the Cowboys and the cliché nature that the national press takes would indicate to me that there is a genuine lack of original thinking in your columns and in those written by others in the national press.
"Sure, Michael Irvin should get slammed and probably sent to prison, but no one seems to write about the good on that team, i.e., Emmitt Smith getting his college degree, Troy Aikman helping the homeless, etc. You've fallen easy prey and jumped on the 'Slam The Cowboys' bandwagon."
BUCKSHOT: You're right, Jamie, I've fallen, and I have no plans to get up.
"Who really cares about D. Wayne Lukas anyway?"
BUCKSHOT: We checked that out, Jordan, and we found that nobody cares more about Wayne Lukas than ... well, Wayne Lukas.
"Then after you picked up your winnings -- just a guess -- you sat down to your trusty, rusty typewriter and berated D. Wayne Lukas to no end. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, 'Just what is it that sportswriters want?' The rules of racing allow multiple entries (which Lukas had five), so what's your whining all about?
"Just because he's not Mr. Personality, at least in your book, doesn't make him the gargoyle of racing. I think he should be replaced in the Whine Cellar by the sportswriter of your choice."
BUCKSHOT: Sorry, Johnny, no sportswriter shall go into the Cellar before his time.
"Good riddance, Earvin (ain't no magic left) ... the Lakers don't need you."
BUCKSHOT: Actually, Todd, Earvin Johnson is good at turning simple sentences into double talk. That's magic.
"The same people who are in charge of this ban are probably the same ones who bitch about lack of coverage and attention for their sport. Well, you can't have it both ways, boys. (Because) you don't have the leadership to capitalize on recent attention and developments, it looks as if your time will come and go with little significant growth or development. Too bad."
BUCKSHOT: They can't blame Tonya Harding for this one. The U.S. Figure Skating powers-that-be have chosen instead to dribble a little here, a little there, and hope The Washington Post goes away. Can you spell naiveté?
"C'mon!!! Swallow your national pride. Look, we may have lost two teams to the U.S. (Winnipeg and Quebec) -- two teams that had no business moving out. All the Canadian teams are out of the NHL playoffs, but then again most of the best players are Canadian.
"The point is: Canada is going to the gold-medal game. The U.S. is playing for the bronze and will probably end up with a tin cup. Stick with a winner, man. We may be a small insignificant country to you ... but, dammit, we beat those Russians."
BUCKSHOT: Now, where's that nice little country of yours located again?
again," e-mails Mark Streit, a 31-year-old computer technician from Marco Island, Fla.
"Yet another reason a commissioner is needed to get Large Marge out of the game, for the good of the game."
BUCKSHOT: Try for the good of humanity.
"But in her defense, you have to admit she's in the right arena. Sure do like the new (non-existent) baseball contract, don't you? But fans go back as if they were being treated to good baseball. There are only three pitching staffs in both leagues. I think they ought to expand so we can bring in another 20 minor-league pitchers.
"Strike? Why not? They aren't playing baseball anyway."
BUCKSHOT: Looks now like Marge had a "replacement" apology writer.
is a biased crybaby," e-mails "ler@aloha, presumably a Philly Flyers fan. "He should grow up and learn that the butcher (Eric Lindros) is merely defending himself from a few gnats who are intent on injuring him and taking HIM out of the series.
"These wimpy Florida street hockey players can dish it out, but neither they -- nor their amateur sports coverage goons -- can take it."
BUCKSHOT: Be careful who you're calling a goon. Hyde almost never dangles a participle or splits an infinitive. He's clean, man -- clean.
in early 1995 just after he bought the Tampa Bay Bucs. I was a manager at a local supermarket -- this is Glazer's hometown -- and he asked me on which aisle to find prunes. No joke!
"After realizing who he was, I quickly caught up to him and told him how much of a Bucs fan I was, and how it was such a pleasure to meet him. Yeah right. I met his wife and even showed them to the fastest checkout line. I ran to my office to show them my Tampa Bay coat, to show how proud I was of their new franchise.
"I asked, 'You are going to keep the team in Tampa, right?' His reply was, 'Oh, yes, there was never even a thought of leaving. Ever.' Yeah right. I asked a few other minor details, gave my advice, including the retaining of QB Craig Erickson, and he told me they would do whatever was best for the team. Yeah right.
"Too bad these people own our teams."
BUCKSHOT: The three commandments of pro sports ownership are: Always listen to your fans. Never tell them a lie. Keep the team in town. Yeah right.
IS JUST a regular guy who happens to be talented in his field -- baseball -- just like those of us who are top businessmen, computer programmers, doctors -- yes, even newspaper men," writes Mick Ortwein, address unknown. "I think athletes are overpaid lucky slobs who get to play for a living. But I don't think they are any better mannered than the rest of us.
"If you paid them all 100K, then the prima donnas like Barry Bonds, Deion Sanders, Andre Agassi, Dennis Rodman etc., could go into show business where they belong. If the press didn't glorify athletes to the ridiculous level it does, then we wouldn't have all these problems."
BUCKSHOT: Show biz for Andre, Deion and The Worm, I can see, but not Albert Belle. They've already made his movie -- The Jerk.
"I've seen conservatives use dishonest, vacant phrases against lower-income groups. Conservatives -- or hypocrites -- hate taking their own medicine. Does Detlef think he is the only hard-working and talented person who deserves time with his kids? Hey, Detlef, and all you other hypocrites: The NBA. Love it or leave it!" "P.S. -- Actually, I was a Rush Limbaugh Republican until I went to law school."
BUCKSHOT: Dittohead to Detlef basher. You do keep a busy schedule upstairs, Richard.
writes Jeff Ernest, a 19-year-old U.S. Air Force Academy freshman from Newfane, N.Y. "I am a huge Yankee fan. Thanks a lot."
BUCKSHOT: You're welcome. Keegan has promised to keep close tabs on the Yankees all the way through the World Series.