Cheap Seats

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams chronicles two instances of how Texas Motor Speedway helps out in the community.

Texas Motor Speedway & Habitat for Humanity

Texas Motor Speedway & Laps for Charity

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams and copy editor Matt Crider have a two-part racing podcast.

In part one, Texans in racing is discussed, including Bobby Labonte's chances at Richmond.

Texas Racing Report

In part two, Williams and Crider discuss news in NASCAR and IndyCar, including whether David Ragan or Clint Bowyer could make the Chase.

Motor Sports

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams and copy editor Matt Crider have a two-part racing podcast.

In part one, Texans in racing is discussed, including Brad Coleman's debut in the Sprint Cup.

Texas Racing Report

In part two, Williams and Crider discuss news in NASCAR and IndyCar, including the debate whether the Chase for the Championship is now just between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

Motor Sports

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams talks Rangers and MLB baseball with staff writers Adam Boedeker and Jeff Andrews. Subjects include Matt Harrison and the Tampa Bay Rays.

0821 Baseball podcast

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams and staff writers Adam Boedeker and Jeff Andrews talk Rangers baseball, the Adam Dunn trade and the Tampa Bay Rays on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 12th.

0812 Baseball podcast

What happened in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay yesterday at the Water Cube in Beijing was probably the greatest moment this Olympic Games will see, and we're only three days in.

This race had all the makings for a classic. The French team, which was the favorite and has the 100-meter freestyle world-record holder (each swimmer swims 100 meters), Alain Bernard. Yes, his name's Alain.

But that's beside the point. Bernard was quoted as saying the French team was coming to Beijing to "smash the Americans." The NBC announcers even said they'd broken down the race hundreds of times in their heads and saw no way the Americans could win and keep Michael Phelps' hopes of eight gold medals in a single Games alive.

Assistant sports editor Trevor Williams and copy editor Matt Crider discuss NASCAR and IndyCar. Issues include the upcoming Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen and the IndyCar race at Kentucky.

0808 Motor Sports podcast

Also, take a look at Trevor Williams' latest column and read about his experience at driving at the Lake Country Speedway in Ardmore, Oklahoma . Click here

Trying to discipline NFL players' personal lives off the field with no due process, no precedent and no checks and balances is one thing.

Trying to do it to the fans? No, no, no, no, no.

NFL principal Roger Goodell is taking his fight against "bad behavior" to the public with a conduct policy for fans at NFL stadiums. Punishment for not representing NFL fans in a manner become of the beacon of integrity that is the NFL is not only ejection from the game, but banishment from the stadium.

Usually, the collective inner monologue of sports media conglomerate ESPN goes a little something like this:

"Yankees. Red Sox. Yankees. Red Sox. Yankees. New York. Boston. Chicago. Major east-coast media markets. Yankees. Boo-ya. Jessica Simpson. Red Sox. Yankees. Boo-ya. Hockey sucks. Boo-ya. Red Sox."

But after all the drama in Green Bay, ESPN's thought processes include only two words: "Brett" and "Favre."

Most of the time, something like this would set me off on an ESPN rant of epic proportions. The network walked the party line again by basically shutting down its programming today for excessive and needless coverage based not on journalistic integrity, but mass appeal and ratings.

But, sadly, I really can't blame them for this one. This is a huge story. It basically encompasses every adjective recorded in the English language. It's bizarre beyond description. All the criteria for how to determine whether a story is newsworthy that we learn in journalism school are thoroughly met.

So, they get a pass - this time.

The first USA Today Top 25 coaches poll was released today, a poll that unfortunately goes a long way to determining the national champion.

So which team was basically handed the pole position for the BCS title game? Georgia, which finished No. 2 in the nation last year after wasting unworthy Hawaii in its bowl game.

Georgia very well may be the best team in the nation, but in the SEC, the Bulldogs will lose two or three games. What it all comes down to is who they lose to, when they lose and how many undefeated teams there are.

There is a gargantuin amount of disdain for Bill Parcells flowing through the Dallas-Fort area -- in newspapers, on the radio and especially among you Cow fans.

He was in Dallas for four years. The previous three years, the team went 5-11 each year. Parcells never did worse than 7-9 in four years in Dallas.

Let's use BristolParty.com's Cow depth chart as a reference. Know how many starters were aquired before Parcell's arrival? That would be three -- Roy Williams, Greg Ellis and Flozell Adams.

I must say I'm more than a little disappointed that the Texas Rangers didn't pull the trigger on a deal to rid themselves of a spare part in order to gain a prospect at the trade deadline.

Hank Blalock, Eddie Guardado, Jamey Wright, Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padillia, four catchers, Frank Catalanotto, Milton Bradley -- basically anyone not named Hamilton, Young or Kinsler -- came up in trade talks. No one was delt.

All the movers and shakers in the MLB said teams were being very protective of their prospects at the trade deadline, so that makes me want to give Jon Daniels and Co. a pass on this one.

But seriously. You couldn't find something you liked in the Marlins system that would have made dealing Gerald Laird worth it? Surely there was something to be done at the deadline.

For us in the sports media, there's always a lull in July. Basketball is over. NFL training camp is a month away. We struggle for things to talk about other than baseball.

And no, we don't talk about the Turning Left World Championships (NASCAR) because they are pointless.

For us at the DR-C, that means a lot of feature stories we couldn't cram in during the school year. For ESPN, that means pointless (more so than NASCAR) and over-publicized filler.

This year, it's TitleTown USA. Which town is TitleTown USA, New York City or Massillon, Ohio??

Yes, I am a Giants fan. No, I am not a Jeremy Shockey fan.

That's why I'm fairly happy to see that the outspoken, angry, drunken hillbilly was shown the door by the team in the form of a trade to the New Orleans Saints for second- and fifth-round draft picks.

This is the same deal the Saints offered the Giants before the 2008 draft, which New York turned down, for whatever reason. Sean Payton coached Shockey in New York in Shockey's formative years, and should be a good fit there. Look for him to be pissed off and motivated to have a big year.

Well, looks like Crush (Chris) Davis made enough of an impact in his first few weeks as a major leaguer. I mean, six home runs in 18 career games is a pretty decent start, right? Davis still has a lot to learn before becoming a great major league hitter but he's shown the promise and has flashed some serious leather at first base, so he's earned an everyday spot in the lineup.

That means Hammerin' Hank Blalock will not move to first base as originally planned and will be in the lineup tonight back at the hot corner where he came up as a big leaguer. I'm still kind of lukewarm on this whole Hank comeback effort, but this decision opens up a lot of possibilities for the Rangers.

The hope is that Hank will rake over the next week and a half and build up some good value so he can be shipped out of town. Blalock started the season off pretty well before getting hurt and appeared to be back to his old self at the plate.

Stuart Scott's good eye, which ever one it is, recently responded to questions from GQ about Deadspin with some not-so flattering comments.

Stuart falls just shy of calling Blog Nation the downfall of journalism and defends his buddies in Bristol, which are the default punching bags of numerous blogs across the net.

Blogdome would argue that there's a disconnect between the public and the big-wigs at ESPN and across the nation, which has given rise to alternative media.

Who is right here? Me, of course.

I made a random trip to Best Buy last night and went home with a little piece of heaven -- a DVD set of the original broadcasts of the last five games of the 2007 season for the New York Giants.

In case you don't remember, that includes the regular-season finale against the Patriots, the Wild Card round against Tampa, the Division Round win over the Cows, the NFC Championship Game against the Packers, and of course, Super Bowl XLII.

I watched the Super Bowl last night and relived the glory of spoiling the Evil Empire's precious perfect season.

Here are a few observations:

-- Eli Manning's pocket-presence is as good as anyone in the league. He recognized the defense early, and despite not being the most mobile QB, managed to avoid the rush with sound decision-making. Some of his escapes were down-right unreal.

Per my word, I did not tune in at 7 p.m. last night to watch the MLB All Star Game, but when my roommate went to bed, checked his radio and told me the game was still on at midnight, I had to check in to see what kind of stupid face Selig would make when his trumped-up exhibition went grossly awry.

I was hoping for a face like this, or this, or possibly like this.

Instead, unfortunately, much to my chagrin, we got a civil ending in the 15th inning, and Selig was off the hook -- for now.

Can you imagine the backlash if there'd been another tied All Star Game? Not only would it have opened an old wound for Selig, but he would have had to come up with some sort of alternative to determining home-field advantage in the World Series.

And you know that would have been a disaster. Think how ridiculous the first decision Selig made when the All Star Game ended in a tie (tying it to home-field advantage). The next time? Maybe a pidgeon race or a soap-box derby racer. Maybe an NL/AL Family Feud episode.

Sadly, that won't happen thanks to Michael Young's sacrifice RBI in the 15th. And now we don't get to see something like this.

So, MLB commish Bud Selig has come out and said the league could install an instant replay system that could be effective as early as the postseason this year.

Consider me sold. For a long time, I was on the side of the baseball purists, who said it's against baseball's ideals to have instant replay and the calls should be left up to the four umpires on the field.

But it's about time that changes. Baseball is the last of the major sports to have no form of instant replay and although last night's/this morning's All-Star Game did end up being won by the right team (The American League) it could've been a headache for Selig had the NL won and gotten homefield advantage (don't even get me started on that rule).

As part of my furious preparation for the coming football season, I've been watching all the NFL playoff games on NFL Network. Last weekend the network played the divisional round games and, of course, the Giants' win over the Cowboys.

After re-watching it, the main thing I took away from the game was this: Tony Romo unraveled in the fourth quarter.

The Cowboys basically had two drives in the fourth quarter to try to take the lead. On the first drive, Romo looked absolutely jittery, hurling the ball in the end zone on almost every passing play, yelling at the ref after a legit intentional grounding call and freaking out on his offensive line.

To his credit, he calmed down on the last drive, but from 35 yards out on third and 11, he threw an incompletion in the end zone before throwing an interception on fourth down to end the game.

You could even say Romo looked like Brett Favre -- panicking, going for the home run on every play. In fact, I would say Romo looked very much like Brett Favre, and in this context, it is not a compliment.