Cale Ramaker's Blog

I can't think of a bigger recent fraud in sports than the Chinese female gymnasts who claim to be 16 years old! In case you didn't watch any of the women's gymnastics competition, China has three or more gymnasts who can't be any older than 12. It's obvious to the naked eye. Olympics rules require gymnasts be 16 years of age. China won the gold to the American's silver.

Even the Chinese gymnast who claims to be 20 looks more like she's 16. It's so obvious that the government-run news agency reported months ago that one of the female gymnasts was 13! But since all of the girls have "government" issued passports that say 16, there isn't much the International Olympics Committee can do.

What's sad is the Chinese team deserved to win the gold. They flat out beat the US women. But they clearly got the gold by cheating...Your thoughts?

After watching the unbelievable finish in the men's 4x100 relay Sunday night, I thought back on all the great U.S. Olympic moments...The U.S. men rallying to beat the French on the last half-lap has to rank right near the top. If you missed this, boy did you miss out!

I don't think anything will ever match the 1980 Olympic Hockey game vs. the then-USSR. But watching the men pull of an incredible win against the arrogant French team in the pool doesn't get much better.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has proved, once again, why it's a second-tier sport in America. The Seattle SuperSonics, one of the league's steadier franchises and winner of a league title, are moving to the dust bowl...err Oklahoma City.

The NBA and the Oklahoma-based owners paid out millions to escape Seattle for a city not even a quarter the size of Seattle. Good luck Oklahoma City filling up those 20,000 seats every night...after the new-ness of the team wears off. Sure the arena will fill up for the first season or two. I mean this is the greatest thing to happen in Oklahoma City...maybe ever. But eventually the lack of mass will have the team ownership demanding more taxpayer money.

Sports is nothing more than money. The SuperSonics move proves it. Long before Seattle fans rooted for the Mariners or the Seahawks, there were the Sonics. In fact many still argue Seattle is a Sonics town before anything else. The World Championship in 1978 is, to this day, the city's only professional championship.

What a story baseball in Tampa/St. Pete is! The Rays, as I write this, have the best record in baseball and lead the mighty Boston Red Sox by a game-and-a-half in the American League's East Division.

We're showing more highlights of the Rays during the 11:00pm newscast. Question is: how many more of you are paying attention to the Rays? Anybody planning on making the drive to Tropicana Field simply because they're playing such great baseball?

Well the season is over for the Orlando Magic. And while you can argue whether or not the season was a disappointment, you can't dispute the team went further in the postseason.

Rashard Lewis was brought in as a free agent, signing the largest contract possible. Lewis has always had his critics. I know, I'm from Seattle, and Rashard dealt with them every year he played for the Sonics.

Lewis' critics here are sure to point to his turnovers versus Detroit - 6 in game 5 I believe; almost as many in game 2 - both games on the road where the Magic could've won. Is a guy that makes the league maximum expected to be more careful with the ball? Should he have been more of a scorer and rebounder during the Detroit series? Was he a disappointment?

I can tell you the Seattle Mariners look like junk! A lot of people picked the M's as their darkhorse to make the playoffs. Well after a week it's more like guessing how long their manager has before he's cut...It's amazing isn't it? No hitting and bad bullpen pitching will kill you!

How 'bout your team? I guess it couldn't be worse than being a Detroit Tigers fan. 0-7. Ouch!

The Orlando Magic blew another big-time lead at home - and lost to the New Jersey Nets Wednesday night. The game featured the return of two-time former Magic Head Coach Brian Hill.

Hill is, once again, a top assistant for the Nets. And while he's not the head coach, I gotta think there was sweet revenge in beating his old team...perhaps playing a large role in out-coaching his replacement, Stan Van Gundy. Think Hill being on the other bench helped the Nets come back on the Magic?

One more thing...On New Year's Eve I had Brian Hill as my seatmate as we flew from Newark to Orlando. He had just wrapped up a practice with the Nets - and was headed back to Orlando and his home for a few days before the game. Hill couldn't have been a nicer guy. We talked quite a bit about what happened last season...and Brian made it very clear he wishes he was still in Orlando.

If I was a baseball player I'd be batting .500. You see...I predicted that Hawaii would get the spam kicked out of it by Georgia at the Sugar Bowl. (Note the play on spam - a Hawaiian staple). I'm not sure the final score, the stats...even the dreadful second half that seemed to go on for eternity...come close to describing how out-matched the Rainbows were.

Hawaii had a nice, undefeated regular season....against teams like Idaho, San Jose State, Lousiana Tech, New Mexico State and so on...How many of those schools did you recognize as even having a football program? San Jose State does - and would've upset Hawaii if not for a last minute touchdown. And it took a dropped, sure touchdown pass by last-place Pac-10 school Washington for Hawaii to stay undefeated. Point is: Hawaii had no business playing in a BCS bowl against a SEC powerhouse in Georgia. The outcome was as expected.

That said...back to the batting .500 thing...I thought the same thing would happen to Boise State last year against Oklahoma. After all Boise State also plays in the Western Athletic Conference, or WAC, just like Hawaii. Most of us remember that Boise State shocked the world against Oklahoma.

The Sugar Bowl nuke-job by Georgia will hopefully put to rest the talk, next season, when some non-BCS school starts rolling through its patsy-conference schedule undefeated.

The players on Hawaii should be commended for a great season - in their conference. Hawaii has to overcome the brutal road games which require 6 to 8 hour flights in each direction from Honolulu. But keep in mind: most, if not all, of Hawaii's players were likely not offered scholarships at Pac-10 schools or maybe even those programs in the Mountain West Conference. And what you saw last night was far inferior talent getting schooled by a well-stocked Southeastern Conference program.

That game was like watching a Pac-10 game...back and forth...defense certainly on the defensive. I was surprised at how easily Michigan moved the ball on the Gators. I mean this was a Big-10 team not known for its offense.

Obviously I think you can assume Florida didn't have the same intensity in this game as it did in Glendale, Arizona last year. Was that the only thing wrong?

With this being my first full weekend at home on the couch (with Washington State's underachieving season finally over), I quickly came to the conclusion that I can't take much more of Kirk Herbstreit. He's ESPN/ABC's much over-used college football know-it-all.

I'm sure he's a great guy; seems like it. Knows college football. Played one-year as quarterback at Ohio State. Heck, married an OSU cheerleader! But why does ESPN think every single game/debate/issue needs a comment from Kirk? Is he the only qualified expert on college football out there? The over-use of this guy almost makes me want to see Beano Cook return to the television.

Then again...maybe some of you think the same about me...

In my previous post I mentioned attending the Washington State vs. USC football game in Los Angeles. Despite my presence, the Cougs got spanked!

I have finally invested in a digital camera! So no more of those cruddy pics from my Palm Treo phone that look like they're through the eyes of an all-night drunk.

With the new camera in tow, I took a few pics from my quick venture all the way out west - including a spectacular shot captured just after sunset from high above the LA Coliseum. You can find the pics under "My Photos."