Just when you think that Barry Bonds can't possibly be a bigger jerk than he already is, he finds a new way to solidify his standing as one of the most obnoxious players in baseball history. Bonds told the Boston Globe last week that he would never play for the Sox because Boston "is too racist" for him. I might be able to sympathize a little if Bonds had actually been the victim of racism while in Boston but he admitted that his opinion is not based on any personal experience but on what he has heard. Boston remains dogged by allegations of racism mainly because of events that occurred in the mid-1970's. The myth that Boston a is racist city is kept alive largely by the New York media, probably to mask their own problems with racism that have occurred in recent years, not three decades ago. If Boston is racist, why was Mo Vaughn Boston's biggest sports hero in the late 1990's? Why is Pokey Reese the new fan favorite? Why did David Ortiz extend his contract if the racial climate is so poor? Even before his smear-job, I was rooting for Bonds to fail in his attempt to overtake the great Hank Aaron and become baseball's all-time home run king. It would be an absolute shame if a true great like Aaron is nudged out of the record books by an egotistical whiner who is more than likely cheating his way to the record. Bonds has undoubtetly experienced racism during his lifetime, but the bigotry that Aaron faced during his playing career was probably 100 times worse. False accusations of racism are just as bad as racism itself.

It infuriates me that pitchers are making it so easy for Bonds to challenge Aaron's record. If Bonds had played in Hammerin' Hank's era, he would be getting drilled in the back at least once per game. No pitcher from the 50's and 60's would allow a player to crowd the plate like Bonds does. The sight of the elbow pad alone would cause most pitchers from that era throw their best fastball into the small of Bonds' back.

The All Star break is fast approaching and teams are beginning to fall out of contention. That can mean only one thing: time for the Yankees to go on a shopping spree. George Steinbrenner knows that the Yankees are an inferior organization to the Red Sox, Twins, White Sox, A's and Angels. The only way that he can beat those clubs and go back to the World Series is to spend more money. New York's $65-130 million payroll advantage over the other clubs simply isn't enough to keep the Yankees on top so Big Stein is likely to go out and grab Carlos Beltran and a top starting pitcher - at the very least. There has been talk about the Red Sox trying to acquire to Beltran, mainly to keep him away from the Yankees, but I seriously doubt that Theo and Company are thinking along those lines. As far as I'm concerned the only thing the Red Sox starting nine needs is health. With the Sox regulars healthy, you have McCarty and Kapler for defense and Bellhorn and Youkilis for offense off of the bench. I really wouldn't change a thing unless an incredible offer crossed the table or if there was a serious injury to a key player. I am also willing to go through the rest of the season with the rotation as is. Lowe and Arroyo are coming around. Wakefield is in a slump but as we all know, he can be absolutely awful for eight starts then come back and win eight in a row. Maybe we should be glad that Wake is getting his slump out of the way now. The late inning bullpen crew of Embree-Timlin-Williamson-Foulke is solid. The Sox will undoubtedly pick up another veteran middle reliever for the stretch run but right now, I don't think this club needs to make any major moves if they can get healthy (that's a big IF). If a deal for someone like Randy Johnson comes along, they should go for it, but there isn't any need to mortgage the future to get a 10% upgrade with a guy like Freddy Garcia.

Nomar's stint on the DL may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for two reasons: (1) It gave Mark Bellhorn the opportunity to emerge and (2) Nomar's wrist won't take as much punishment this season. Last year, Nomar fell into the worst slump of his career in September. I can't help but think that the wear and tear of a 162 game schedule on the wrist had an impact on his hitting. Garciaparra batted .300 or better in nearly every month for three years, so it doesn't make sense that he would drop to a .170 month in the heat of a pennant race unless something was dramatically wrong.

The Brockton Rox of the Northeast League cancelled a Grady Little "Bobble-arm" giveaway. The team President said “The promotion, as great as I think it is, is being canceled because some saw it as distasteful to Grady personally, .." Hmmm, I can't think of anything as distasteful as Grady's managing, but that's just me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of the Grady Bobble-arms on EBay.

It seemed like the Red Sox were giving up an abnormally large number of unearned runs so I checked the stats. I was right. The Sox are leading all of Major League Baseball in unearned runs given up with 49 (the league average is only 27). Kansas City is second with 43. The gap was even larger when I calculated unearned runs as a percentage of total runs allowed. A whopping 14.8% of the runs surrendered by the Sox pitching staff have been unearned. The next worst percentage is again Kansas City at 11.5%. The league average is 8.1%. However, five teams has committed more errors than the Sox. The most annoying part of all of this is that the Yankees have committed only four fewer errors than Boston, but have given up 18 fewer unearned runs.

Breaking News: the Astros pick up Beltran. That's one fewer star that Steinbrenner can buy. Thank you, Astros!

Wal-Mart now faces a class action sex discrimination lawsuit filed by up to 1.6 million current and former employees. The suit charges that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female retail employees in pay and promotions. When reached for comment a Wal-Mart spokesman said "These allegations of sex discrimination are completely false. We treat all of our employees equally crappy."

I wanted to put my foot through my TV when I saw a report about two Army "soliders" named Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Huey who have fled to Canada to escape serving in Iraq. This story wouldn't be so upsetting if these two Army Privates were merely cowards, afraid to do the job that they were trained for. The more disgusting part of the story is that these two slugs are living large in Canada while being treated like heroes for betraying their country. These two "men" have hired publicists, built a website and are attending anti-America rallies to delight of many of our neighbors to North. Even worse, the Canadian Government is apparently considering granting the two traitors asylum. I have a little bit of sympathy for the men who fled to Canada to escape the draft during the Vietnam Era. Those men did not sign up for the military. Privates Hinzman and Huey have been earning a paycheck paid for with taxpayer dollars. My dollars and yours. Their dereliction of duty also means that two brave men not scheduled to go to Iraq will be going in their place. The replacements, whoever they are, will be risking their lives so these two dirtbags can party and burn American flags with unscrupulous Canadians. Hopefully, the Canadian Government will do the right thing and kick Hinzman and Huey out of the country. If not, someone needs to drive up to Canada, throw them in sacks, and drag them back to the United States so they can be arrested and thrown in prison for the maximum penalty allowed. Not surprisingly, the deserters have support in America, including crypt keeper Susan Sarandon.

Phil Jackson will be leaving the Lakers. Unfortunately, he probably won't be leaving the NBA permanently. There is nothing in sports more tiresome than Jackson's constant whining about officiating to the press. The remarkable thing about Jackson's crying is that no coach in the history of sports has benefitted more from friendly officiating than Phil Jackson. Jackson won six championships in Chicago mainly because defenders couldn't get within two feet of Michael Jordan without being called for a foul. With the Lakers, Jackson won in 2000 and 2002 because of egregiously favorable calls against the Blazers and Kings in the Western Conference Finals. Jackson has won nine championships but six of those were won with the best player in NBA history and three more came with the most dominant physical presence in the last three decades. Maybe we'll get a chance to see if Phil can win without extraordinary talent.

When Gary Payton signed for $5 million at the beginning of the year, who would have guessed that he would end up being overpaid?

Los Angeles area hospitals witnessed a 7,000% increase in ankle injuries this season as Laker "fans" jumped off and on the bandwagon an average of once per week. The bandwagon is nearly empty now that Phil Jackson is gone, Kobe has opted for free agency and Shaq has demanded a trade. Hollywood elites are already lining up for Pistons season tickets.