Ted Kennedy passed away yesterday, so we lead the show with that sad news. Kennedy was a true politician, and we’re not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But he always seemed to have his hand in big things, and he seemed to play the game of politics better than any other. Heck, in the last 40 years, he may have re-invented part of the game.

It’s not just sad that the man has died, but that the First Family of politics may have gone with him. Kennedy was 77 and suffered through strokes, brain cancer and I’m sure other ailments we never knew about. And he was the lucky Kennedy who managed to live long enough to contract those ailments, if that logic holds up. Sure, there some children, nephews and whatnot, but it’s not the same without Ted.

It’s a sad day for politics. It’s a sad day for the country. And it’s a sad two weeks for men named Ted Kennedy. When Googling “Ted Kennedy Sports” to try and get an angle we could use for the show, I came across the NYT obit of Ted Kennedy, star of the five-time Stanley Cup Champion Toronto Maple Leafs, who died August 14, 2009 -- less than two weeks ago.

If you’re reading this, and your name is Ted Kennedy, duck and cover.

Talkin’ Baseball:

So remember that show we did yesterday where we said Billy Wagner is a loser for staying with the Mets and invoking the no trade to get sent to Boston...why don’t we forget that part ever happened? Mkay?

We talk about Wagner’s about face, and if that makes him a winner now, not the loser we called him both on the show, and over at The Sporting Blog. Frankly, we still think the guy is a loser, but at least he wised up and went to play for a contender to end the season. So bully for you, Billy.

We also talk about the timing of things, including Nick’s response to an emailer who had issues with our discussion. About 30 seconds after Nick hit send, word came down of the trade. But that’s the thing...the information we had at the time was good. Ken Rosenthal had reported Wagner was turning down the trade. So everyone ran with it. I started the TSB post at 4:45 in the morning. It was posted around 11am, and less than two hours later, the Wagner trade was being reported.  So sure, some of us may look foolish, but what can you do? We actually discuss what you can do, both as a writer and on our show when news breaks that invalidates your stories/talking points/news. Very inside baseball: baseball edition.

We would be remiss if we didn’t bring up Brad Lidge’s performance yesterday, as I mentioned Lidge on yesterday’s show. In a word, Lidge sucked. And he’s sucked far too many times this year. Something has to change -- either he needs to pitch better or the Phillies will need to find someone who can.

Court Report:

We talk about the ruling in Delaware that will allow gamblers to make two bets, but not one. Yep, we think it makes sense too. You can bet on a team and the over, but you can’t make a single bet just on the team or just the over/under. Parlays seem to be legal, while single bets are not. At least for now.

Why is this about morality? Why have the NFL and other leagues been able to turn the conversation about the ‘seedy underbelly’ of sports gambling? It’s about commerce, and the sports gambling would bring in more than $53 million dollars a year for Delaware. Wouldn’t that help the state’s economy? Is that what the decision should be based on?

This ruling isn’t over, and we suspect it will go all the way to the Supreme Court. With the casinos already investing $10 million on sports books, this fight won’t be going away anytime soon.

And hopefully New Jersey can get in on the action.

Housekeeping:

We talk about the ESPN 30 at 30 event I was supposed to be going to, and Nick tells us about his ESPN tour back in the 90s. No guests this week, but we will have a show tomorrow, which we weren’t going to. So there’s that.

Thanks for listening.