Youth seems to be operative word now in sports

FORT WORTH, Texas -- I think I've figured out why Manny Ramirez may have used human chorionic gonadtropin (hCG). A possible side effect is puberty. No kidding. He may have been trying to grow up.
It didn't work, of course, but you have to admit it was quite an effort. It involved lost time and money, betrayed obligations, neglected responsibilities and possibly an injection in the Mannyfanny. But he remained undeterred, all because, I'd like to think, he was steadfastly determined to grow up. I haven't seen Ramirez make an effort like that in . . . well, ever.
And the fans must have appreciated it, too. After his 50-game suspension, Ramirez returned Friday night to the Dodgers' lineup and apparently to the fans' fickle hearts. This was in San Diego, not Mannywood, the popular asylum within Dodger Stadium for Mannyfans, and still Ramirez got a standing O.
But were these fans cheering his efforts to grow up? Or were they applauding his failure to grow up? Hard to say, but it was that kind of week, with day after day devoted to men-children, Peter Pans, younger siblings, youthful accomplishments and childishness. The younger Williams won at Wimbledon; Tommy Hunter celebrated his 23rd birthday with his first victory as a Ranger; another 23-year-old, Julio Borbon, got his first hit as a Ranger; and Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle crashed his car into an apartment building at 2 o'clock in the morning. But crashing cars into buildings doesn't work any better than human chorionic gonadtropin in terms of gaining maturity, and so it all made me want to run out and buy a teething ring.
I would have, too, if not for the University of Tennessee. Given the direction of their athletic program, I figure the Vols are going to need to stockpile such things as teething rings.
Evan Berry, a 13-year-old from Georgia, reportedly has committed to play football in Knoxville. Harry Potter was only 11 when he first went to Hogwarts, and so certainly Berry is of age to commit to the Vols, or at least that's the argument.
The NCAA says a kid is eligible to be recruited when he's in seventh grade. Seventh grade, before home room, between Tootsie Pops. Seventh grade may seem rather arbitrary, but at least it represents movement toward the inevitable: eligibility at conception.
A Benjamin Button attitude has seized sports, at least for the moment, and it's not limited to the NCAA or even to football. The St. Louis Cardinals gave a $3.1 million signing bonus to a 16-year-old outfielder named Wagner Mateo. And Gary Sanchez, a 16-year-old catcher, signed for $3 million with the Yankees.
Sports turn backward, the men-children don't want to grow up and even those that have turned the caps around and are trying to return to Neverland.
And then there's Lance Armstrong. He retired in 2005, of course, after seven victories in the world's most famous bike race. But he's there again, at the Tour de France, where he just finished 10th in the first stage, a 9.6-mile time trial.
Measured in terms of their significance, time trials are rather like the NFL preseason games, and so it's difficult to say what Armstrong's initial run may or may not mean. Does it indicate he's on his way to a successful comeback, and what would that be exactly? Could it mean that Armstrong, like so many Peter Pans and Brett Favres, can't let go of his fame, or that he's trying to recapture his youth? Quite possibly, but recapturing youth is far better than driving a car into an apartment building at 2 o'clock in the morning.