Things are not going well for people today

Stay hard, Mark

Dallas Mavericks great Mark Aguirre collapsed on a treadmill at a gym this morning. He had clogged plumbing in and around the heart.

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Buddy Ryan -- the former hated Philadelphia Eagles coach and Rob Ryan's poppa -- has cancer.

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Eugene "The Hitting Machine" Lockhart was arrested by the FBI. Mortgage fraud charges. Whatever that means.

Spring Training 4.0: Brandon McCarthy returns!

Godzilla of northern California

The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 6-3 today in Spring Training play.

The win was highlighted by an appearance of Brandon McCarthy and Willie Eyre, two Ranger ex-pats, for the A's. McCarthy went three innings allowing three hits, a run. He struck out three.

Eyre allowed a run in relief.

It's always amazing looking back at how we felt about a player or team. Remember McCarthy. He was the big piece of that John Danks deal. He was supposed to hold down the middle of the rotation starting three years ago. Every decent start just built up this unsubstantiated optimism. In the back of our brains, we knew.

Watch enough dumb sports and you start to just figure shit out. It's, like, weird.

The Good
Brett Tomko and Arthur Rhodes threw perfect frames.

Dave Bush went three scoreless innings. Two strikeouts and no walks. Better yet, he induced six groundouts and one fly out.

Jose Felix has four hits in four at-bats.

Julio Borbon kept up his torrid spring. Two more hits. Average up to .538.

Mitch Moreland went 1-3 with a two-run single. Second straight multi-RBI game.

The Bad
C.J. Wilson put together another lackluster start. Five hits, three runs and two walks in three innings. Of all people, I'd like him clicking as the season starts.

Engel Beltre has zero hits in 12 at-bats.

A wrong, righted

Welcome back

On March 19, 2002, fans of the Dallas Stars were robbed.

Stalwarts of their Stanley Cup teams Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner were traded to the New Jersey Devils for Jason Arnott and Randy McKay.

In my 25 or so years of liking sports, I don't remember ever being so destraught and sad about a player leaving. And I think I speak for so many other fans that were disappointed to.

Looking back, the move was dumb. I do not begrudge a team that is looking to lose the old guard in order to rebuild or regroup for another run at glory.

However, it took another seven or eight years for the Stars to eventually to dump Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen and Sergei Zubov. And Zubie and Jere are gone due to injuries. Who knows if they'd still be on the team if they were healthy.

Today, our fan favorite returns. Nieuwendyk worked a trade with the Devils to get Langenbrunner for a 2011 draft pick.

For the broke Stars, this is "going for it." Veteran forward help, who will work the boards, make the right pass, set some examples -- basically do everything a solid hockey player does. He's 35 (but still looks 17) so I don't think anyone expects him to be a guy sitting on one of the first two lines.

Still, he's put together three 60-point seasons (career highs) in his last four years in New Jersey. He's languished on a bad Devils team this season with four goals and 10 assists. With a better cadre of offensive weapons, I suspect he'll point total improve.

It's cathartic. It's also savvy. Exactly what the Stars needed to plug into a line and solidify the back end of their roster.

Kris Humphries' girlfriend

I wish I were 6-11 and at least half black

Avery returns

Avery Johnson: Back in town

I'm kinda bummed that the Dallas Mavericks had to roll the New Jersey Nets -- of all teams -- for their 11th straight win last night, 102-89.

I like the Nets. I actively root for the Nets. I like Avery Johnson and I like Devin Harris and I've always felt they both got a bum rap in Dallas and I will always feel that way.

The decade-long success of the Mavericks can be pinned on several people. Mark Cuban and Don Nelson, to start. The players, of course. But Avery Johnson brought something else. He quite literally got them over "the hump."

He got them to where Wade Phillips could only wish to get the Cowboys. He got them where Nelson, Buck Showalter and Dave Tippett couldn't get the early-2000s Mavs, 2000s Rangers and Dallas Stars.

Johnson captured the full attention and respect of the Mavericks for about three seasons and thus he got greatness. Too bad it's 2010 because Johnson would've been a powerhouse in 1960. He coached hustle, defense, respect of the game and a commitment to excellence. And it got them a trip to the NBA Finals, a place they will probably never be with Rick Carlisle and that's really no knock on him as much as its a praise for guys like Johnson.

Devin Harris also got hosed in Dallas. Mainly by Johnson, who was too impatient and demanding of the young guard. The Mavericks lost in the Finals and just about every other subsequent playoff trip because they didn't have a defender on the perimeter and they couldn't get within 10 feet of the basket for a big hoop with two minutes left in the game.

Harris brought that. They traded him for Jason Kidd with the eye on the Finals and it didn't work out and won't with Kidd as a starting point guard. And I love Jason Kidd, but he was far beyond his peak when the Mavericks got him. Slow and not the guy we saw with New Jersey and Phoenix eight or 10 years ago.

Nonetheless, I predicted the Nets to be improved this season and they are. Calling 6-17 an improvement is tough. But it is. They were historically bad a year ago and they've improved to just bad.

If they can stay healthy and bring in a bit more talent (thanks to the Russian Mark Cuban) they should be playoff contenders next year.

Notes:
1. Again, loving Shawn Marion's role here. Came off the bench for 18 points, six rebounds and four steals. The numbers don't show it, but it just feels that Marion is more relaxed and playing within the parameters of his own abilities instead of his abilities of 2000.

2. Mavs roll getting 14 points from Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson and Tyson Chandler combined. Kidd has to be hurt, right?

3. The Mavericks have won 11 straight. They have six other streaks that are longer. We are spoiled.

4. Kris Humphries is averaging 8.5 rebounds per game for New Jersey. He averaged 12 minutes a game for the Mavericks. And Carlisle's certain he couldn't play?

5. And that is why Dominique Jones shouldn't be in Frisco and, instead, getting J.J. Barea's minutes in Dallas.

Nate Newton loses 175 pounds and, no, it's not weed

Hey, at least he has a banana there

Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton has apparently lost 175 pounds thanks to getting his stomach shrunk and stapled.

Good news. I've always wondered about these football players and their weight. They retire at 37 and then what? They die of some cardiovascular disease at 60 and that's it.

This goes down to the high schools. I know several guys that were big in high school playing linemen positions and they are still that big. Not a shock since they weren't going to play in college and it's only natural for you to retain weight if you have no real way or intention of getting it off.

I love Nate Newton. Not because he's a jolly person or a former Dallas Cowboys legend. But because he's a guy that got caught hauling large amounts of marijuana across state lines twice, spent time in prison and, yet, is celebrated as a media personality in Dallas-Fort Worth.

And he didn't even need to take a baseball team to the World Series for fans and other media to forget his drug transgressions.

Pat Crayton lets fly from San Diego

Aim, fire

Disgusting. On the front page of the Dallas Morning News' website under the sports stories, there are two about the Texas Rangers (game six of the ALCS) and three about the Dallas Cowboys and generic bullshit surrounding the trainwreck of a season ... despite their next game is on Monday.

No Dallas Stars. No Mavericks. Yuck.

Still, I'm guilty of being the asshole clicking on all the Cowboys stories.

One in particular caught my attention: 'Ex-Cowboy Patrick Crayton: Coach Wade Phillips is too soft.'

Yowza.

Said Crayton: "Wade is very very laid back to where you'd want him to tighten up on some of the young guys and he wouldn't. And just when you think he is, he backs off and wouldn't say anything."

That's killer because the Cowboys are very young with quite a few young players, yet, they're filled with veterans that probably don't appreciate the kids coming in and fucking everything up. I don't know why I'm cursing so much.

I don't think Crayton is saying anything we don't really already know, this in spite of us never attending a team meeting or practice session.

However, it's still meaningful that it comes from a player. Even if it's a player that runs his gums.

The real McCoy

Colt, in younger, gayer times

On the weekend when it was announced that the Texas Longhorns will retire Colt McCoy's No. 12, the current incarnation of the kid born with a handful of Texas dirt under his crib is getting his first NFL start.

And it's a doozy.

McCoy will be the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns just five short weeks after he was nearly cut. It will unfortunately not come against the Carolina Panthers or St. Louis Rams.

It will be against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The best team in the league. In Pittsburgh.

McCoy will need all his God-fearing, Bible-thumping buddies to send a prayer up to heaven because he might be beat to pulp by the end of the day.

It'll still be interesting. McCoy's always won. In high school and college. He not only won, but he was the dude on every team he's ever been on. But so were every other hotshot quarterback that's come through the NFL. It doesn't always translate. Sometimes it does.