Hit List: Daly's career in the rough

by Kevin Hench

Updated: March 14, 2008, 11:20 AM EST 88 comments

1. John Daly

Ah, golf. The lush green fairways. The lush rolling hillocks. The lush, John Daly.

Hit List

Better watch out. The last place anyone wants to land is on The Henchman's Hit List. Follow along to see why.

We're used to coaches cutting players in almost every sport, but Butch Harmon's axing of Daly this week may be a first on the PGA Tour. In ending his professional affiliation with Big John, Harmon did not mince words.

"My whole goal for him was he's got to show me golf is the most important thing in his life," Harmon told the AP. "And the most important thing in his life is getting drunk."

For many people the best place to spend a golf tournament is in the Hooters' hospitality tent. Apparently John Daly is one of those people. Daly rode out a rain delay of last week's PODS championship in the Hooters' tent then finished his round with Jon Gruden as his caddy, another move that Harmon thought disrespected the sport.

This week Daly got booted from Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill tournament for missing a pro-am obligation.

Over-pronation is a common problem in golf. But in John Daly's case, it has nothing to do with flat feet. For Big John it means lying flat on your face while your career slices off into the woods.

2. Rocco Baldelli

Rocco Baldelli is a five-tool player: and those tools are scalpel, knee brace, cane, sling and Ace bandage.

Baldelli has appeared in 127 of a possible 486 games the last three seasons. And — surprise! — he will begin this season on the disabled list. His latest DL-inducing "injury" is exhaustion. Who does he think he is, Mariah Carey? And what is he exhausted from, the off-season?

Baldelli's career mirrors the sad history of the Rays. Just one downer after another. He may be only 26, but after four seasons he has proven two things definitely: he can't stay healthy and he doesn't know the strike zone. He has a career .324 OBP and strikes out four times as much as he walks. In 1,656 career at bats he has drawn only 83 walks. He's exhausted, and he's exhausted the patience of Rays fans, tired of watching him strike out on balls in the dirt.

3. Raul Castro

While the free world hopes the transfer of power in Cuba from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul might lead to improvements for the people of the island nation, seven Cuban soccer players weren't interested in sticking around to find out.

Almost half of the Cuban under-23 national team defected this week during an Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa. This means that not only have the Castro brothers' political views once again been repudiated by a contingent of athletes, but Raul will have a much worse national soccer team than his bro had.

The news isn't all good, however, for the defectors. Soon they will learn that Americans don't care about soccer.

4. The Red Sox rotation

Uh-oh. The sleepy peace of Red Sox Nation has been interrupted by the cumulative effects of the one that got away, a dodgy shoulder and a balky back.

For a few heady days back in November it looked very seriously like the Red Sox rotation was going to be Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Clay Buchholz. Not anymore. With Santana a Met, Beckett's back flaring up and Schilling's shoulder landing him on the 60-day DL, Boston will open the season with a much less imposing rotation of Dice-K, Buchholz, Tim Wakefield, Jon Lester and... Bartolo Colon?

The Sox can't go back-to-back if Beckett's back — on which he carried the team in last year's playoffs — is not 100 percent.

5. Billy Crystal

Just as he did with his brutal disasters "Fathers' Day" and "My Giant," Billy Crystal struck out Thursday in his spring training at bat for the Yankees. (Although, unlike Rocco Baldelli, Crystal managed to complete an at bat without landing on the DL.)

Billy at the bat

Billy Crystal's lifelong dream came true on Thursday — he got to play for the New York Yankees. Check out all the photos from his day in the sun, and see which special guest showed up to watch it all unfold. PHOTOS

Unsatisfied with a fantasy camp appearance on a rear field, the self-appointed World's No. 1 Yankee Fan stepped in against the Pirates' Paul Maholm. After fouling a pitch off, Crystal got ahead in the count 3-1 before striking out on back-to-back fastballs. Well, fast(ish) balls, since Maholm only gets it up there at about 88.

Of course, if Crystal had declared himself the World's No. 1 Pirate Fan, he'd actually be vying for a roster spot.

Maybe Maholm, against whom batters hit .295 last season, can build on this success in 2008.

6. The Chicago Bulls

Like Indiana Jones escaping the giant rolling ball, Scott Skiles got out just in time.

Poor Jim Boylan inherited the Uncoacha-Bulls and the Excedrin headaches that come with them. A week after Tyrus Thomas blew off practice without telling anyone (and was suspended two games), Chris Duhon missed a team shootaround and then responded sarcastically to his one-game suspension: "Usually, I don't play anyway, so it doesn't have that much of an effect on me."

Hey, at least it's been two months since rookie Joakim Noah berated an assistant coach in practice. What a mess.

7. Goodyear

My first thought upon hearing Tony Stewart's post-race tantrum last Sunday was how 'bout instead of sticking a microphone in this guy's face we just put a bottle in the baby's mouth?

My second thought was that NASCAR has become a totally-predictable three-phase event. First there's the race. Then there's the winner failing inspection. And then there's Tony Stewart whining ad nauseam about the latest indignity that has somehow affected him more than the other drivers.

But after corroborating testimonials started pouring in from other drivers, it was clear that NASCAR has a tire problem and Stewart had given everyone cover to talk about it. After finishing second in last Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, Stewart went ballistic on Goodyear, announcing in a long harangue that "Goodyear can't build a tire that's worth a crap."

In college I had a salesman convince me to buy some overpriced speakers (to go with my overpriced stereo) with the logic that skimping on speakers would be like putting cheap tires on an expensive car. Made sense then, makes sense now.

Goodyear better improve its product right quick because I'm guessing management doesn't want to make this huge PR hit a weekly event. Keep in mind, when players in the NBA complained about last season's new ball, it was gone within months.

8. The Feds

Great news. The War on Terror has been won.

How do I know? Because on the same day Client No. 9 stepped down as governor of New York after being snagged in a taxpayer-funded dragnet, we learned that Federal prosecutors are investigating Dr. Ramon Scruggs for allegedly providing steroids to ballplayers.

I mean, could any government who thought there was even the remotest possibility of a sleeper cell within its borders really allocate resources to nab a doctor whose crime was helping guys hit the longball?

9. Nate Robinson

Is there a more surefire formula for losing in the NBA than a shoot-first point guard? As the embodiment of this immutable hoop law, the little gunner that could earns the Knicks' weekly entry on the Hit List.

Robinson scored a career-high 45 points against Portland last Saturday, but of course the Knicks lost. In seven games in March, Robinson has taken 107 shots and dished out 18 assists for a 6-to-1 shot-to-assist ratio. For comparison, Steve Nash takes 1.06 shots for every assist.

Robinson has stretches — like his 15-shot, one-assist effort Wednesday night in Miami — where he makes his fellow trigger-happy backcourt mate Jamal Crawford look like John Stockton.

New York big men Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry are indifferent enough. But try getting them to run baseline to baseline when a 5-foot-9 gunner only feeds the post as a last resort.

10. Rachelle Washington

Like the end of an Emily Litella rant from Saturday Night Live's glory days, Rachelle Washington has politely asked us to "Never mind." Ms. Washington gave sports-talk radio a bludgeon with which to hammer Randy Moss during the Patriots' run to the Super Bowl in January, accusing him of physically assaulting her.

All the haters gleefully weighed in that the new Randy Moss was just like the old Randy Moss and that the Patriots were his enablers. Ms. Washington's fairly inconsistent grievance was taken as gospel without considering the possibility that it was completely bogus.

I'm sure the retraction of her grievance received the same careful scrutiny from the loudmouth wing of the sports media her discredited accusation did.