The Olympics are over. Thank goodness. I admit it: I did not watch one minute of them. There was nothing there that interested me.
        And when the Olympics return four years from now, I promise you, I will care even less.
        Baseball has been thumbed out of the 2012 Olympics because the major leagues refused to kowtow to the pompous, grandstanding frauds who run the Games by interrupting their season once every four years to allow their premier players to participate.
        Hooray for Bud Selig.
        What’s so wrong about sending our top college players, along with some minor leaguers, who are thrilled to represent the red, white and blue?
        Isn’t that what the Olympics are supposed to be all about?
        If TV ratings are all that the Olympic pooh bahs are interested in, why don’t they add poker to their list of so-called sports?
        More to the point, I think baseball and softball, the first sports to be dropped from the Olympics since polo in 1936 by the way, were ejected because they are too American.
        Now, Chicago is vying with Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Madrid for the right to host the 2016 games.
        And baseball is groveling, along with softball, golf, rugby, roller sports, squash and karate for the right to be included eight years hence.
        In 2016, the Summer Olympics may be held in Chicago -- with or without our national pastime.
        I dare say, nearly every kid growing up in America -- or Venezuela, or Cuba, or the Dominican Republic, or Japan -- has at least once dreamed of someday playing baseball in the big leagues.
        But I’ll bet you can’t find one kid in the world who ever dreamed of someday playing baseball on the Olympics.
       
       
       

        As a public service, in an effort to clear up all the commotion and confusion that arose when the story broke that the Tigers had placed Gary Sheffield on waivers, allow me to set the record straight:
        All baseball teams place all of their players, from the biggest stars down to the lowliest bench warmers, on waivers all the time.  It is routine. It is standard operating procedure.
        A game within the game.
        The reason you rarely hear or read about it is because the process is supposed to be confidential.
        And, more importantly, because it is no big deal.
        Back in the 1960s and early ‘70s, the Tigers used to ask waivers on Al Kaline every year.
        I guess sportswriters were smarter or had more sense back then.
        So why do teams do it?
        For one thing, it is the only way a team can trade a player after the July 31 trade deadline. They need waivers in order to make a deal.
        For another, it is the best way for a team to find out which teams might be interested in a particular player they are thinking about trading.
        Asking waivers on Sheffield didn’t mean the Tigers were trying to dump  the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer, as some of the more misleading stories implied.
        The Tigers were merely seeking waivers in order to clear the way in case some power-starved contender makes them an offer next month that they can’t refuse.
        But if some team had claimed Sheffield off the waiver wire, that team would have immediately inherited the $18 million or so remaining on his contract.
        And the Tigers -- not being dummies -- would, in all likelihood, have gladly let him go.
        Granted, they would have received nothing in return. But they would have saved $18 million which could be spent elsewhere next season on some other players.
        On the other hand, when the Tigers ask waivers on Miguel Cabrera -- as I’m sure they have, or will -- it most certainly will not be with the intention of letting him go.
        If some team claims him, the Tigers will simply withdraw their request for waivers. Besides, every other team would realize placing a claim would be a waste of time.
        Finally, trust me: The appearance of Gary Sheffield’s name on the waiver wire had nothing whatsoever to do with the slumping slugger’s little tiff with manager Jim Leyland over the definition of the word “platoon.”
        That was merely the reason the non-story made the news.

        I continue to be amazed at the number of people -- some of them, even knowledgeable -- who view the Tigers’ decision to dump Pudge Rodriguez now, instead of waiting until the end of the season to let him walk away, as evidence the front office has somehow given up on this season.
        Nonsense.
        As Jim Leyland says, “It was a no-brainer.”
        Once the Tigers decided they were not going to offer Rodriguez a new two or three contract for $20 to $30 million at the end of the year -- and given their pressing new for another reliable late inning reliever right now -- the only smart move was to get the best pitcher they could possibly get in exchange for Pudge.
        The fact that the pitcher they picked up, Kyle Farnsworth, may not prove to be the answer to the Tigers’ bullpen woes is irrelevant.
        Mistakes happen. However, trading Rodriguez was not a mistake.
        As Leyland put it on Thursday, “Whether Pudge Rodriguez or Brandon Inge is catching every day will have no bearing on whether we get to the playoffs or not.”
        But the presence of an additional relief pitcher, even Kyle Farnsworth, might.

        I continue to be amazed at the number of people -- some of them, even knowledgeable -- who view the Tigers’ decision to dump Pudge Rodriguez now, instead of waiting until the end of the season to let him walk away, as evidence the front office has somehow given up on this season.
        Nonsense.
        As Jim Leyland says, “It was a no-brainer.”
        Once the Tigers decided they were not going to offer Rodriguez a new two or three contract for $20 to $30 million at the end of the year -- and given their pressing new for another reliable late inning reliever right now -- the only smart move was to get the best pitcher they could possibly get in exchange for Pudge.
        The fact that the pitcher they picked up, Kyle Farnsworth, may not prove to be the answer to the Tigers’ bullpen woes is irrelevant.
        Mistakes happen. However, trading Rodriguez was not a mistake.
        As Leyland put it on Thursday, “Whether Pudge Rodriguez or Brandon Inge is catching every day will have no bearing on whether we get to the playoffs or not.”
        But the presence of an additional relief pitcher, even Kyle Farnsworth, might.

        Have you checked out the American League batting leaders lately?
        Let’s see: The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, last year’s MVP, was leading the league at .322 going into Tuesday night’s games. No surprise there.
        But who was right behind him, in second place, just one point back at .321?
        None other than Magglio Ordonez, the reigning A.L. batting king.
        Quietly, which is always the way Ordonez prefers to do things, Magglio has moved into contention for another crown with his continued consistent hitting.
        At the moment, it’s a very tight race. The Texas Rangers’ Milton Bradley is third at .320 and the Rangers’ Ian Kinsler is fourth at .318.
        No A.L. player has won back-to-back titles since Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra did it in 1999-2000.
        No Tiger has won back-to-back batting championship since Ty Cobb won three  a row from 1917-19, and nine straight before that from 1907-15.
        Harry Heilmann, Cobb’s protégé, made a habit of winning batting titles in alternate years -- 1921, ‘23, ‘25, and ‘27.