And you think you're nervous

Jon Drummond wasn't a happy guy when he got tossed out of the 100-meter competition at the World Championships of Track and Field in Paris for a false start during a qualifying heat.\nHe engaged in what The Associated Press called "an angry, tearful tirade" and then lay down on the track in protest. This caused about a one-hour delay in the proceedings.\nDrummond wasn't protesting the false start so much as a new international track and field rule which states that whoever commits the second false start in a race is disqualified even if he did not commit the first.\nThe rule, of course, is ridiculous. If somebody commits the false start, only that runner should have his feet nailed in the blocks, not the entire field. Why should the field be punished for one person's mistake?\nDrummond, sadly, used the injustice as a chance to make a fool out of himself. That's too bad because prior to this, it was hard to root against Drummond. He had that abandoned glint in his eye and that fearless confidence. He's displayed longevity, rare in a track athlete, and superb teamwork in relays which has been key since the 1996 Olympic disaster in the sprint relay.\nDrummond finally decided to pull himself out of the World Championships yesterday rather than continue racing and worsen any potential discipline received. He has got to know that it's going to be hard for an American athlete to gain sympathy while competing in France. Actually, hard is an understatement. It's more like impossible.\nVAL-UED OPINIONS\nVal-uable Players\n• The NL Central has officially entered the grind. All three contenders, the Astros, Cardinals and Cubs, can't help but scoreboard-watch as intensely as they play while only a half-game separates them going into last night's games.\nThe most intriguing events of the past week were the Cardinals acquiring Sterling Hitchcock from the Yankees and Mike DeJean from the Brewers on the same day after giving the impression that they neither had the money to spend on a higher payroll or the prospects that other teams wanted. \nClearly, in their hubris, Cardinals management decided that Dave Duncan and Tony LaRussa can take any broken-down rag arm and turn him into an effective pitcher. Look what they did with Rick White and Jeff Fassero last year. In a lot of ways, they are taking more chances on Hitchcock and DeJean because the chances they already took failed.\nA Val-iant Prediction \n• The AL Central is also a three-team race between the White Sox, Royals and Twins. On one hand, this is a cautionary tale for those of you who think starting pitching is 89.74 percent of baseball success or whatever. After all, the White Sox starting pitching is far superior to either of the other two, but they maintain only a one-game lead headed into Tuesday night's play.\nThe White Sox have been a joke on the road, getting swept at Detroit and Texas and losing two of three in Tampa Bay during the last two months, but they have dominated at home, however.\nPart of the problem, however, was that Minnesota took forever to figure out that Johan Santana didn't just belong in the rotation but was actually their best starter. Meanwhile, the Royals tried picking up Kevin Appier off the scrap heap, a pitcher who has so little left that not even the Cardinals wanted him.\nSomebody will win it. That's my prediction.\nAct of Val-or\n• In order to play football well, especially at any defensive position, one needs to get so psyched up as to develop a hatred for one's opponent. In other words, you have to want to take a perfectly nice quarterback who has never offended you and drive him into the turf and rip out his pancreas.\nThen again, Sunday, Raiders teammate Marcus Williams got his eye socket and nose in the way of teammate Bill Romanowski's fist at practice. Williams, out four to six weeks with a broken orbital bone and damage to his nose, decided not to press charges after initially calling police.\nRomanowski's whole character is based on that however-nasty-I-need-be persona. ESPN even did a feature a few years ago on Romanowski: the normal homebody vs. Romanowski: the fearsome linebacker. This, however, is the same Romanowski who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor two years ago for forging a prescription for phentermine, an appetite suppressant that Romanowski was apparently using as a stimulant for his central nervous system.\nLet's face it. This isn't a character flaw. The Raiders ought to cut Romanowski before he has any more "angry, tearful tirades"