When Do Rams Panic? How About Right Now

What are we to make of the St. Louis Rams? Conventional wisdom suggests they have no chance to repeat as NFC champions. Wrote Bernie Miklasz after the Rams fell to 0-3 after losing Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

“The beautiful passing game: gone.

“The stylish running game: gone.

“The physical toughness: gone.

“The mental toughness: gone.

“The relentless hunger to be the best: gone.

“The swagger: gone.”

That’s a crying shame.

More Rams: “Now would be a very good time for the St. Louis Rams to panic,” radio talk show host Jim Rome said. “They ought to jump on that panic button with both feet and blast it with a sledgehammer because they have fallen and they’re not going to get back up. They are done.”

Promise?

Trivia time: Who was the starting pitcher in the Angels’ last playoff game?

B-a-a-a-d Albert: When former Baltimore Oriole and Cleveland Indian grouch Albert Belle was arrested recently on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol in Scottsdale, Ariz., he spent the night in jail rather than pay for a taxi to take him home. Police rules prohibit an intoxicated person from walking or driving home after booking. Belle, who continues to receive a $13-million salary, had $299 on him, according to the Baltimore Sun.

But he waited until the next morning for a friend to pick him up at the jail.

League night: Ben McGrath in the New Yorker magazine on pro bowler Pete Weber, who favors loud shirts, gold chains and wears sunglasses indoors: “Around cameras, especially television cameras, Pete becomes someone named P.D.W. [his initials]. P.D.W. isn’t entirely unlike Pete Weber, but, in the words of his alter ego, he’s ‘a little more colorful.’ He speaks in the third person: ‘That’s right, and it’s Pee Dee Dubya!’ He taunts his opponents: ‘You better bring it!’ ... P.D.W. acts more like a professional wrestler, in other words, than like a bowler.”

He doesn’t get it: Jon Saraceno of USA Today on Pete Rose: “Of course, Pete being Pete, he keeps sticking it in baseball’s ear, trying to pressure the commissioner’s office through public sentiment and public-relations stunts. That [and making money] was the purpose of Monday’s non-MLB-sanctioned promotion, one night after the Reds’ official goodbye to Cinergy Field, an event from which Rose was banned. Commissioners want to be liked. They don’t like being shown up, but there was Pete flexing his popularity muscle.”

Trivia answer: John Candelaria, who gave up seven unearned runs in 3 2/3 innings of the Angels’ 8-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the 1986 American League championship series.

And finally: Bill Simmons of ESPN.com on the Red Sox: “Here in Boston, we’re like Lt. Kaffee interrogating Col. Jessup--we want answers, we want the truth and we’re not going to be denied [even if it’s risking a potential court martial]. A trite expression like ‘They don’t have it this year’ simply doesn’t fly. Not only has this team gone 84 years without winning a World Series, New Englanders are dying every day without having seen the Red Sox win a championship in their lifetimes.”