Sam's Notes: Here, there and everywhere

So while the RMA report is being passed around town like a dirty magazine in brown paper bag, while Mike Barber is putting cops on horseback, while Elizabeth Edwards is listening as much as she's talking and while Skip Alston is demanding a boycott of the N&R, here I am, sitting in a hot tub with my wife:

Publius will handle the RMA report. I do not have a copy; but I've been told I am not without resources.

I wasn't totally disconnected from the real world, either. Before heading to Hot Springs, we made a detour through Asheville. It's one of my favorite places to visit, though I'm not sure I could live there. We checked out the setting of one of my favorite books, Look Homeward Angel. The Thomas Wolfe Memorial is open again after being closed for quite some time while damages resulting from a fire were fixed. It looks great; I could swear it used to be white, though.

While eating breakfast this morning, I came across two interesting baseball articles in the Asheville Citizen-Times not including the Tigers' sweep. The first was on former Orioles pitcher Sammy Stewart. I disticntly remember Stewart's major league debut when he set a major league record by striking out six batters in a row. Now he's an inmate in the Buncombe County jail:

"Since 1988, he has been charged 46 times with more than 60 offenses. According to Department of Corrections records, he has been sent to prison six times for a total of 25 months.

Now, just days away from his 52nd birthday and nearly two decades after the cheering stopped, Stewart is facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years on a felony drug charge. He’s being held before the trial because he couldn’t raise the $70,000 bail.

Stewart is on the trial calendar this week in Buncombe County Superior Court, when the district attorney’s office will attempt to convict him as a habitual felon.

“I’m a crack addict, a drug addict,” Stewart said. “I want one more chance. I’m hoping I get 18 months in rehab or three years, and I’ll do that. But don’t give me seven years. Don’t just throw me away.”
With an arrest record that dates back nearly 30 years and runs 17 pages from a court printout, he is asking for another chance while admitting he’s uncertain if he can lick the addiction to drugs that he blames for ruining his life".

The second was Steve Lyons' insenstive remarks to his partner Lou Piniella, which resulted in his ouster from the FOX booth. I saw this coming: While watching an earlier ALCS game, I heard Piniella mention that Jim Leyland came to the Tigers because he knew the franchise had a commitment to winning. That's an important factor for any managerial candidate, he added.

"Then why'd you take the Tampa Bay job?" Lyons asked.

Dead air. Never good.