Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. This week they discuss legislation from John McCain, the Jays handling of Ricky Romero, the career of Sir Alex Ferguson and bizarre outing of Rays pitcher Alex Cobb. Dave Naylor, TSN Radio 1050: My thumb is up to Arizona senator John McCain, who has introduced legislation to say that if an NFL team gets taxpayer funding for its stadium, it shouldnt be allowed to black out games. McCain may be on the wrong side of the issue when it comes to the Phoenix Coyotes, but I believe hes on the right side with this one. There are two downsides to taxpayer funding: its a bad investment but its also insulting when, after picking the pockets of taxpayers, you say they cant even watch the games if they dont buy tickets. I dont often line up with Republican senators but with this one, I am with John McCain. Steve Simmons, Sun Media: My thumb is down to the Toronto Blue Jays for their handling of Ricky Romero. A year ago this time, this was the No. 1 starter on the Blue Jays. Last year, rather than send him to the minors or the bullpen, they kept pitching him. He lost his confidence, he lost his way and it hasnt come back since. After a disastrous spring and an attempt to rebuild him, they brought him back for one start and it didnt work. Saturday night in Buffalo, Romero pitched 3.2 innings and gave up 10 hits and six runs. We dont know if well ever see Ricky Romero in the Major Leagues again. Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is up to Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United, who closed his career at Old Trafford on Sunday with a 2-1 win over Swansea. What a career. In 26 years at Man U, he won 13 Premier League titles, two in the Champions League, five FA Cups and, of course, the treble in 1999. Maybe there has never been a greater coach of any sport at any time than Sir Alex. Scotty Bowman was smart enough to adapt to the times. Sir Alex was someone who bent the times to his own will. Dave Hodge, TSN: My thumb is up to Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Alex Cobb for giving us one of those great "how could it happen" baseball teasers. Its all part of Cobbs bizarre Friday night outing against San Diego in which he recorded 13 strikeouts and didnt make it out of the 5th inning… because his pitch count was so high. The 3rd inning was the crazy one - Cobb struck out 4 Padres - a wild pitch third strike put a runner on first, and that runner stole second and third and then scored on a balk. Thats how a pitcher gives up a run despite striking out the side, plus one, and not allowing a hit or a walk, and without an error being committed. So now you know… Sione Takitaki Jersey . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. 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As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. Greg Inglis has hailed Cameron Smith as a benchmark for NRL excellence after the Melbourne captain calmly led his side to the top of the competition ladder.Smith slotted a 39m post-siren penalty to put Saturday nights round 22 clash with South Sydney into extra time, before cooly slotting a field goal four minutes into golden point to give the Storm a 15-14 win.After Cronullas loss to Canberra earlier in the night, the AAMI Park win pushed the Storm to competition lead with four rounds to play.Having played alongside Smith many times at club, state and international level, Souths skipper Inglis could only tip his hat to the Storm hookers match-winning qualities.He is just the ultimate player, Inglis said.Thats the leader he is and the player he is.He takes his opportunities when he can and, unfortunately for us, he took it out in the golden-point.It was Smiths second game-winning field goal for the season, his first giving the Storm victory against North Queensland in round 10.Cooper (Cronk) had a shot earlier and had a fair bbit of heat on him, Smith said.ddddddddddddHe mentioned to me when we got the ball back on those seven tackles that, if I saw the opportunity, to go out to the left side and have a crack.However Storm coach Craig Bellamy wouldnt let the emotion surrounding the win hide the deficiencies of his sides performance.Im not quite sure why we were flat, Bellamy said.We will have a chat to the players through their review and we might find a couple of things out.But we were pretty disappointed, especially in our execution and certainly in the way we defended tonight, to be quite honest.Melbournes next face in-form Canberra in the nations capital on Monday week.The Raiders are playing the house down at the moment, Bellamy said.Its going to be a real tough ask for us up there.We just need to get back to work this week, improve in a couple of areas and hopefully we can go up there and be competitive with them. 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