​Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:

*Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway - who's forgotten more Rangers' baseball than I'll ever learn - says a disgruntled former employee blackmailed the organization and ultimately leaked the story of manager Ron Washington's failed drug test to the media. Made perfect sense to me, until Newy and I asked GM Jon Daniels about the theory and he said "I don't know how it got out." But if not the employee (Zack Minasian and Rudy Jaramillo would be "persons of interest"), then how'd this story surface? One thing's for sure: Nothing is secret in baseball.

*The Rangers say they couldn't tell their fans about Washington's episode because of Major League Baseball's "confidentiality clause." So when SI.com breaks the story, what happened to that clause? Seems to me they should've stood by their clause and responded with a simple "No comment."

*And ... we're off. Washington said he hopes this incident doesn't follow him the rest of his career. Good luck with all that. You'd have to be dumber than beetle dung to think opposing stadium's won't play Clapton's "Cocaine" every time Wash strides to the mound for a pitching change. And the stuff like this is just getting started.

*My bracket? Thanks for asking. 13-3 on Thursday including the upsets by Murray State, Washington and St. Mary's.

*By the way, no way in heck I believe a man tries cocaine for the first and only time in his life at age 57. You?

*Went Tuesday for my annual physical. But this time - two days later - doctor's office calls and says "we've got the results of your blood test and you need to come in for a follow-up." Gulpygulpgulp. After a couple of squeamish hours on Thursday, it wasn't so bad: High cholesterol.

*Former Cowboy Rocket Ismael has a new job. As a reporter for the Professional Bull Riders Tour on Country Music Television. Weird.

*Hot.

*Not.

​My bracket

By tonight I can almost guarantee a blemish or three. If you want to talk trash, compare notes or buy me a pitcher of beer and some wings, come out to Hooters in Frisco tonight for the first of my six-stop March Madness tour.

​

Amazingly, the same cannot be said for Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington.

Let me get this out of the way right up front: Washington should have been fired when he tested positive for cocaine last July. I like Wash. Have from the start. But he is not worthy of the privilege of managing a Major League Baseball team.

The fact that he still has a job - and, in fact, was never even disciplined - is another black-eye cover-up for your Rangers and MLB. Embarrassing. Saddening. Maddening.

"I fucked up," Washington told Dallas' Only Daily columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor Wednesday in Surprise, Arizona. "I told Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels that, and I fully expected them to fire me. I would've deserved it."

No shit.

Managers are human. They make mistakes. But they are also paid, respected and charged with the responsibility of not going out after a game and snorting lines of blow. This is as unsightly as it is unprecedented.

My real problem - as it was with the covert handling of Josh Hamilton's famed slip-up last winter - is with the Rangers. And, yes, that means I'm looking at you general manager Jon Daniels and Big Tex icon Nolan Ryan.

You're not liars, but you certainly don't tell us the truth.

​

I'm all for progress and upgrades and the future-is-now and I love Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, but I saw a story on the news last night about the preparations being made to blow up Texas Stadium and it yanked me nostalgic.

Sure the place had become a dump. Dingy roof. Faded, peeling paint. Standing water most everywhere. But to me it was, and always will be, the house that Tom Landry built. It was the playground for Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman and Tony Dorsett.

It was the site for some of my fondest childhood memories. Some of the happiest moments of my life. I worked there. I played there. I graduated high school from there. I watched there. I wrote there.

I'll miss going there.

It's going to be so weird driving 183 or Loop 12 or seeing our area's most cherished trophy case reduced to rubble.

And I'm not real happy that it's not getting a proper funeral.

Just as shocked that the Rangers - and Major League Baseball - did nothing about it.

Holy wow.

​

No, this time the new face at 105.3 The Fan is Gavin Dawson. He apparently will arrive from Portland on March 29 to do ... afternoons?

My co-employers are tight-lipped about the details, but I do know that the midday extravanganza with Newy Scruggs and yours truly will remain unchanged.

​

While we try to decipher his significance, how about a list of area athletes who have a sneaky Irish heritage? Cheers.

10. David Feherty, CBS golf analyst

9. Mike Lucky, Cowboys.

8. Scarborough Green, Rangers.

7. Patrick Cummings, Mavericks.

6. Mike Keane, Stars.

You've come a long way, baby.

​

It's a no-brainer that on May 20 SportsBusiness Journal will award it 2010 Sports Facility of the Year. Right? There is no second place.

And we haven't even yet mentioned the JumboJerry video screens.

​

Played baseball at Texas Tech and with the Fort Worth Cats. Was a superb golfer. And, when he found time from being a devoted family man to wife and two kids, he got out and ran.

Sunday he dropped dead. At age 32. Literally seconds after crossing the finish line of the 13.1-mile half-marathon on Greenville Ave., Austry grabbed a bottled water, took two steps and collapsed. Never to be revived. Gone. Just like that.

Cue the chill bumps.

My annual physical check-up is scheduled for this afternoon. In the wake of Austry's death, it couldn't have come at a better time.

​

According to the NFL's performance-based bonus system, Scandrick was the Cowboys' biggest bang-for-buck player last season. As a 5th-round draft pick who started one game but played primarily on passing downs and special teams, Scandrick had a base salary of $385,000 but earned a bonus of $306,209, 9th-highest in the NFL. Scandrick was also Dallas' highest-paid, lowest-paid (I know, very confusing) player in 2008.

Minnesota Vikings' center John Sullivan received the biggest check, getting $397,555.The league uses a formula based on playing time percentage and a player's salary cap. So the rookie who plays the most to the veteran who plays the least all get a check. For instance, Chicago Bears' middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who played in only 35 snaps in the team's opener before suffering a season-ending injury, got only $452.

Substitute me for Dickie V, and you're looking at my next three weeks.

​

Spent an hour this morning sweating over a bracket. Must be March.

If you want to come have a beer and talk hoops and maybe punch me in the face, I'll be at area Hooters when the NCAA Basketball Tournament tips off later this week. Ah, March Gladness. In conjunction with the good folks at 105.3 The Fan, your friendly Dallas Observer is hooking me up to be at the Hooters in Frisco Thursday night, Lewisville Friday night and Denton Saturday night. (Stay tuned to this channel for next week's itenerary.)

By the weekend my bracket will likely be toilet paper, but for now it looks pristine. Need a cheat sheet?

Okay, how about some pointers at least?

Don't know any of these UFC dudes, but betcha they could all kick Pacquiao's ass.

​

A crowd of almost 51,000 packed the place, which is another smashing success for Jerry Jones and his magnetic sports cathedral. Heard Jerry even saying that for a potential Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight he predicts a crowd that would break the building's record - 108,000 for last month's NBA All-Star Game.

I didn't go, so if you went to the fight and I'm wrong let me know. But from Barry Horn's recap in Dallas' Only Daily, the bigger, stronger Clottey made $2.5 million for essentially playing rope-a-dope. He uses phrases like "a fight almost broke out in the third round", "lousy fight" and "sparring sessions offer more drama."

Like I've said - and written - before ...

​10.

9. Getting nailed in the chest with a honey bun. Um, not so proud. Touche.

8. I love the parade and the after-parties because it feels like the one day a year where cliques are disbanded and Dallas lets its superficial guard down. In a town that's all about what you drive and what you wear and where you sit, Saturday was a day you could be yourself and feel comfortable doing it. If your shades of green didn't match, eff it. Refreshing indeed.

7. That said, it was quite the daring look to show up wearing only a Borat-style, lime green sling. Props to the dude, though. It was pointed out to me that he had several lipstick kisses on his bare buttocks.

6. I saw floats featuring the Hare Krishnas and - swear - the U.S. Census. Or were the jello shots making me hallucinate?

​Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:

*I said upon hearing the Josh Howard-for-Caron Butler trade during the NBA All-Star break that the Dallas Mavericks were not only re-shaping their roster but re-booting their playoff prospects. I had no idea. Since the trade the Mavs are 13-1 and can push their winning streak to 15 games with walkover wins over the Knicks and Bulls. They may still not win the NBA title, but this is indeed a trade of Pau Gasol proportions. This is as good as we felt about the Mavs since the end of the 67-win regular season in 2007 right?

*Didn't get to this before I left for vacation, but - ho hum - it was another dynastic month in January for The Ticket. The station was No. 1 in men 25-54 with a 10.1 rating, light years ahead of ESPN (No. 15, 2.7) and 105.3 The Fan (No. 18, 2.0). The Fan beat ESPN in only two hours - 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

*Not a big boxing guy. Honestly, I prefer UFC. I've covered fights in this town like Evander Holyfield and Luis Yanez, but I'm not going Saturday night to Cowboys Stadium for Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey. To me when Mike Tyson went, so went boxing.

*Texas Rangers' pitcher Neftali Feliz may not be ready to make the jump to starter just yet, but it's jump-out-of-your-seat exciting to watch him at Spring Training hit 99 mph on the gun with a fastball, and back it up on the next delivery with a 74 mph breaking ball. Nasty.

*In case you were wondering, no, Ron Springs isn't dead. Neither, however, is he living. 

*Hot.

*Not.

​

With head coach Matt Doherty's rebuilding program on a pace that's as slow as refrigerated honey - or is it simply a treadmill? - is it time for a change?

SMU's latest losing season was buried last night in a disappointing 16-point loss to a Central Florida team that it whipped by 22 in Dallas in January. With the loss in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament, the Mustangs finished 14-18. After years with 10 and 9 wins I guess you could call it progress, but in Doherty's four years the Ponies are a lethargic 47-75, including 17-48 in the conference.

There was a four-game winning streak in January and a signature win over Memphis, but despite Doherty's arrival the Mustangs are no closer to being on college basketball's map. SMU hasn't had a winning season since 2003 and hasn't beaten a Top 5 team since the days of Jon Koncak in 1985. Moody Coliseum is an empty dump. Doherty recruits Africa better than Dallas. And the $13 million Crum Center practice facility is so far a wasted investment.