Randomization: 07/28/06

200. It's just the beginning, but I wanted to mention that this is the 200th post on The Ciskie Blog. Yay. Lots more to come.

Landis tests positive. I'm hearing a lot of "Now we can't trust anyone!" laments from media types today.

Why were you trusting these people in the first place? Hasn't enough gone wrong over the years that if you're going to call one guy into question, you have to call pretty much everyone into question?

I think Patrick Reusse said it best on "Garage Logic" yesterday. He said he wasn't going to pass judgment, and he wasn't going to be shocked. I'm willing to buy Landis' explanation until the second test comes back, but I'm not going to react with shock, awe, horror, or any other extreme reaction, because it's simply not that terribly surprising to me.

The sport of cycling should probably not be taken all that seriously. It's incredibly difficult, both from a strength and endurance standpoint, but there have been too many allegations of serious, organized cheating in the sport. Having a champion ripped off the podium may end up being the wake-up call these athletes need to realize that they are really taking their chances when they cheat, but it probably won't do any good.

Poker is not a sport. I don't care. It's still over huge in this country, and ignoring something like the Main Event of the World Series of Poker would be just stupid on my part. Today begins the Main Event, with something like 8,000 or so players expected to take their shot at a grand prize that will likely exceed $10 million.

Congrats to Phil Hellmuth, who won his tenth WSOP bracelet earlier this week. I'm just happy that he was able to keep his head screwed on straight long enough to win one (maybe he learned from Mike Matusow's Main Event final table appearance last year, along with Matusow's win in the Tournament of Champions, where he bested, among others, Hellmuth at the final table).

(Good luck, by the way, to Brian of MGoBlog, a friend of The Ciskie Blog despite his Michigan biases. Brian is on his way to Vegas for his shot at the grand prize.)

Here's hoping Mount Hellmuth makes a token appearance at the Main Event. The best entertainment of last year's Main Event, outside of Matusow's war of words, and almost fisticuffs, with Shawn Sheikhan, was Hellmuth tearing down the players at his table as he slowly made his way toward an early exit.

I don't know if the expanded poker world is ready for Hellmuth to win this whole thing again.

Later today. The Big East football preview should be up later today. I'm putting the finishing touches on it this afternoon, once my real job duties are complete for the week.