Category: Sports

Grand jury slams arena backdoor dealings

News10 reported yesterday that the County grand jury found that Sacramento officials “violated the public trust” in rushing measures Q and R to the ballot last fall. Ironically, it’s not a binding decision and finds nobody at fault for any specific infraction.

My own take on this saga is completely in evidence so obviously you know how I feel. However, read the PDF of the Grand Jury’s report. It is very strange. With headings like “Hail to the Kings! The Costly Illusion that City Greatness Requires the Presence of Professional Sports” and “Downtown Railyard Development – What Have We Gotten Into?” and “The Train has left and the City now has the Station!” and with language like “Has the city initiated the much wished for revitalization of downtown or has it stepped into a polluted black hole?” it doesn’t read anything like the legal document you will expect. It reads more like some snarky blog poster obviously biased against the whole deal from the start. I don’t know much about grand jury proceedings but is this normal?

Looks like the city and county officials have to respond to the findings in this report later in the year. Specifically, by “June 00, 2007.” So we’ll all stay tuned for that!

Artest arrested on dom. violence charges

ArtestedCBS13 has the goods

Placer County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested Sacramento Kings’ Ron Artest on domestic violence charges.

Deputies say they got a call from Artest’s wife at 9:23 a.m. this morning.

Deputies responded and arrested Artest. He was taken to the Placer County jail in Auburn.

At this point I would like to retract 95% of my statements about the dog abuse thing…

UPDATE: CSI Sac provides the mugshot info

AMGEN Tour of California

For the cycling enthusiasts among(st) you: make sure you’re prepped for the AMGEN Tour of California which is happening February 20th.

The world’s top professional teams will compete over an eight-day, 700-mile race on a route that includes the California redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast.

And yes, that includes the Discovery Team. Stage 2 is from Santa Rosa to Sac (that’s 116 miles, and if you could stretch that out over like 3 days I think it would be really fun). They’ve got a nice page about Sacramento, highlighting popular attractions and such:

Since its founding in 1849, Sacramento has grown into a cosmpolitan (sic) state capital while retaining its Gold Rush flavor.

That ’bout sums it up, I’d say…

Rules of Endangerment

This Ron Artest animal cruelty (allegedly) thing keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Cbs13.com reported over the weekend that Ron “is no stranger to controversy over the treatment of his jobs” (seriously, Cbs13.com, do you even read your own stories?).

As for Artest’s dog “Socks”, CBS13’s Rafer Weigel reports that the dog is still very thing, but vets do expect the dog to make a full recovery.

Meaning the dog has a lot of long hair covering its eyes? And it walks around with a derby on? Oh wait, that was Cousin It, huh? At any rate, you get my point. When we at the Sac Rag publish a post we are immediately hammered with emails pointing out each typo or grammatical error. But I digress…

It appears that Ron Artest’s neighborhood association adopted new rules over the weekend.

It’s one of dozens of new rules the neighborhood association adopted over the weekend.

Well, Sacramento, you haven’t made us laugh in a long time. How’s-a-bout you let us know what other new rules you think they adopted over the weekend.

Sac fitness ranking: #17

Pipeworks
“up to the ceiling…”
by nudiehead on flickr.com

Sacramento was named to the top 25 fittest cities in America last week by Men’s Fitness magazine, which has the most horrible website ever.

“The survey examines lifestyle factors in each city, including fast-food restaurants per capita and availability of gyms or bike paths.”

I mean, Sacramento just executed the way Sacramento did in practice. Some people are saying that Sacramento didn’t earn this honor. But Sacramento can’t worry about what other people think, because at the end of the day, Sacramento is just responsible for Sacramento. And Sacramento just wants to get fit!

Dog’s best friend he’s not

More in The Bee on the problems dogging Ron Artest:

Ron Artest says he loves dogs, but the Kings basketball star has a string of complaints on record in Placer County for failure to care for his own pets and letting them roam loose.

Since July, his four dogs have spent a total of 77 nights at the pound — at a cost to their master of $1,942 in boarding and impound fees.

One of his dogs got out and never returned, another was hit by a car, and yet another was killed in his yard. Artest admits his dogs have aggression issues, but suggests a wild animal killed the dog. Other complaints noted the dogs tied up without food or water. (Incidentally, tethering dogs for extended periods is now illegal in California, in part because animal behavior experts say the practice makes the animals more likely to attack.)

He says he has hired someone to help, but I gotta think the better thing would be to give them all up for adoption to the Placer SPCA., along with a big donation. They’ll find people who do more than claim to care about animals, as King Ron does.

Hey Ron, do the right thing, will ya? Being a dog dad is clearly not your calling.

Earth to Ron: Hire a pet-sitter

Surprise to no one given my non de blog, I love dogs. Got myself Sac County’s legal limit of them, all well-cared-for and not a nuisance to the neighbors. The aforementioned ’98 Plymouth Voyager I schlep around town in is because of them, because you just can’t fit that many dogs in your average sports car.

I’m sure it will also surprise no one that I don’t make as much money as the King’s Ron Artest does. And yet, surprisingly, no one has ever had to get on my case about feeding my dogs. Further, although I don’t travel nearly as much as an NBA star does, I am on the road from time to time. And guess what? There are these lovely people called pet-sitters who will come in and — get this — FEED AND CARE FOR MY PETS while I’m gone. There are also boarding kennels, too, such as the fabulously upscale Wag in West Sac, the cost of which should not give a professional athlete pause.

And yet, King Ron can’t pull it together for his best friends.

Continue reading “Earth to Ron: Hire a pet-sitter”

It’s never too early to think about baseball

I’m looking forward to another exciting River Cats season, full of thrills and spills and inappropriate sponsorship. In preparation I made myself a Google calendar of all the home games (I’m the proud and lucky beneficiary of season tickets again) and I thought this might be of use to others so here it is:

Sacramento River Cats 2007 Home Games (Google Calendar)

  

Get your huntin’ gear here

Get wet! SplashDogs at Cal ExpoAs one of a really small subset of political animal — an urban liberal with guns, an account at Cabela’s and a freezer full of ducks — I find myself both delighted and appalled by the International Sportsmen’s Expo, which wraps up today at CalExpo.

Delighted because I love my huntin’ retrievers, and I love being outdoors with my huntin’ retrievers. And I love looking at gear for huntin’ retrievers. The ISE is a great place to do that, better than the biggest Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop combined. For me it’s all about the dogs, the celebration of the bond between a working dog and handler, and a retriever doing what he was bred to do, with enthusiasm and style. I have come to accept rather grudgingly that what my dogs do involves the occasional demise of some very pretty waterfowl. Sacramento, by the way, is smack dab in the middle of some of the best waterfowl huntin’ areas in the nation.

Continue reading “Get your huntin’ gear here”