UP AT 6: SABOTEUR! SABOTEUR!

A skewed view of the sports zeitgeist...

• If the NFL had any kind of players' union -- which it doesn't -- coaches calling timeouts at the last possible second would be on the table in the next round of collective bargaining.
  
  There can't be a player in the league who deep down, ever wants to see a coach call timeout again. Not after what Joe Gibbs did Sunday and what Baltimore defensive co-ordinator Rex Ryan did to his guys in the New England Patriots' narrow escape last night, 27-24.
  
  Short synopsis: The Ravens, up by four, seemed to have deep-sixed the Patriots' chances of going 19-0 when they stood up Tom Brady on a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak in the final two minutes. The play didn't count though since Ryan, who'd called a very good game up until then, couldn't leave well enough alone and called timeout. The Patriots eventually converted, survived another fourth-down play when the Ravens were penalized and won.
  
  Baltimore has of the smartest defenders in the NFL in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. What, neither of them can tell when their team needs to take a timeout?
• Anyone still think sports isn't political? So why did the Baseball Hall of Fame, whose president is a former Reagan Administration hack named Dale Petroskey, change the voting rules to keep labour leader Marvin Miller from being inducted?
  
  (Just google "Dale Petroskey" and "Tim Robbins" and see what comes up.)
• Jeff Blair blogs that the Jays are looking for pitching, including Canada's own Erik Bédard.
  
  By the way, how sad is it to be a Jays fan, weighing which Evil Empire you can live with trading for Johan Santana? (For some reason, right now I would be OK with him going to Boston.)
• The Raptors postings have been light around here, but take a look at Dave Feschuk's column in yesterday's Toronto Star detailing the dressing-down T.J. Ford gave the underachieving Joey Graham -- AKA Nik Antropov in short pants -- in practice.
  
  That scene probably plays out in the braggadocio world of the NBA all the time, but rarely does it make into print. For one night at least, it led to Graham being Good Joey. He had 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting in an easy 98-79 win over Charlotte, and fed Kris Humphries for a dunk on a fast break where four of five players touched the ball without anyone taking a single dribble.
  
  This basically looked like an Ernestown game back in the Kingston high school league -- a well-coached team taking apart a team with some talent but not so much organization.
• So apparently MLSE isn't above cheap ploys either.... when a Charlotte player was at the foul line last night, apparently they showed an Ottawa Senators logo and a New Jersey Nets logo on the video scoreboard to elicit louder booing.
  
  Love the principle behind the idiots who boo when the Raptors don't hit 100 points, so everyone gets pizza. You paid $60 for your seat and you're mad you don't get a $4 slice of warmed-over cardboard pizza.
• Tip of the cap to the Rutgers women's basketball team for beating the No. 3 team in the NCAA on the same day Don Imus returned to the airwaves.