The Post Mortem

Garret Anderson dodged a bad-publicity bullet this weekend when Sunday's game at Boston was postponed. Anderson had drawn some criticism for his refusal to wear No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. Or as Seitz put it, "Why won't Garret Anderson just shut up and wear the No. 42 like all of us white people are telling him to?"

Anderson was able to avoid more abuse with the rainout of the Red Sox/Angels game. Fittingly, the Angels scored nearly as many runs on Sunday that they had in their entire series in Boston. Hopefully today's contest will be rained out, too.

Funny thing though, while watching the Dodgers and Padres, the broadcast theme centered around the lack of black ball players in Major League Baseball. And while the number of black players is lower, percentage wise, look at the number of Hispanic and Asian players in the game. Jackie Robinson opened the doors of baseball for all people of color, not just the African-American community. Maybe ESPN should have spent more time focusing on the fact that baseball is one of the most integrated sports in America.

• And maybe his name was mentioned, but is there ever going to be any credit given to Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League? He and Buzz Aldrin should hang out and grouse.

NBA NO LAUGHING MATTER

Tim Duncan was ejected from Sunday's game for apparently laughing at official Joey Crawford�from the bench. Duncan was sitting on the bench with the Fresh Prince of San Antonio when the duo apparently laughed at one of Crawford�s calls. That was enough for Duncan to draw his second technical and get expelled from the game.

(There also is a similar rule when yours truly performs stand up comedy, fortunately nobody ever laughs.)

The best part of this story is that Crawford allegedly challenged Duncan to a fight. How the NBA keeps this referee employed? Obviously Crawford feels that he is bigger than the game. Eddie Guns might wear tight referee shirts, but you can�t imagine him doing something like this. (And really, no NFL player would want a piece of Guns.)

• Wait a minute, there is debate about the Pro Football Hall of Fame credentials of Drew Bledsoe? That can't be serious, right? Bledsoe was decent during his NFL career, but the Hall of Fame? Think of the recent class of guys such as Troy Aikman, John Elway, et all� does Bledsoe even approach that tier of quarterbacks? Plus he was pushed out of Buffalo by J.P. Losman and out of Dallas by Carrie Underwood's future husband. That doesn't really make a compelling case.

• The Giants signed Anthony Wright to be one of Eli Messiah's backups. Once again, proving the theory that the Giants don't want a competent backup who the fans would clamor for instead of Eli. Very shrewd Giants, very shrewd.

AND FINALLY

This is why you don't complain about other team's motives. Elton Brand was upset that Minnesota star (and future Lakers forward) Kevin Garnet was shutting it down for the rest of the season. Brand felt that Garnet, whose Timberwolves could play spoiler to some of the teams the Clippers are competing against, should stick it out. Well, Brand should have pointed his finger at his teammates who decided to take Sunday off, losing to Sacramento. A team that sat most of its starters. That's fitting.

But why are teams complaining about other teams not in the playoff race? If the Clippers didn�t want to be in this situation, they should have just won more games.