Ray McNulty

VERO BEACH, Fla. — So much of what was held sacred for generations had been lost.

Dodger pride.

The Dodger family.

The famed Dodger way.

Anyone who still isn’t sure college football needs a playoff need only look at this week’s Associated Press rankings.

There, you’ll see the built-in bias that has evolved across the past 25 years and has put seven Southeastern Conference teams among the Top 25 -- three of the top four, four of the top 10, most of them ranked higher than they should be.

VERO BEACH, Fla. — The best baseball news of the past weekend didn’t produce the coast-to-coast headlines it deserved, so, chances are, folks might not have heard.

Even in Vero Beach, Fla.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- I have to admit: I rolled my eyes.

And snickered.

There's a reason Dwight Howard's fingerprints are all over the Orlando Magic's cowardly and colossally wrongheaded decision this week to fire the two best basketball men in the organization.

Because he did it.

When, exactly, did we get here?

When did America arrive at a place where every wrong choice of words, every poorly expressed thought that someone else finds offensive must result in somebody losing their livelihood?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- There's no point in arguing whether Danica Patrick deserves to be here, or whining about how her team owner bought her way onto the track, or ripping her for using her marketing magic to get to the Super Bowl of her sport.

She's here.

She's in.