What took Houstons Astros owner Drayton McLane and general manager Ed Wade so long to fire manager Cecil Cooper?

His dismissal Monday came months too late to make a difference.  Houston Chronicle columnist Richard Justice opined that Cooper began losing his team last year and he never got it back.

He wrote: “The first thing a successful major league manager must do is establish trust in the clubhouse. His players have to know that he’s honest with them, that he has their back and will always be there for them. Cooper burned some bridges last year when his veteran s became convinced he lied to them during a team meeting.

“He lost a few players that day, then finished the job this season with two incidents. Two veterans say that on the day Aaron Boone tearfully told his teammates he was to undergo heart surgery, Cooper used the moment to get on his guys for not playing harder. To say his timing was bad would be an understatement.

“And when Pudge Rodriguez broke the all-time record for games caught, Cooper didn’t offer congrat-ulations until the next day.”

Now the Astros are in rebuilding mode under interim manager Dave Clark, whose is tasked with cleaning up the toxic clubhouse atmosphere during the last two weeks of the season. Wish him luck.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Kyle Lohse has finally overcome that nagging forearm strain:

• Is it safe to say Mark DeRosa’s wrist is feeling better?
• Can the Seahawks hang around the NFC West race with Matt Hasselbeck beat up again?
• Will the Milton Bradley Fiasco doom Cubs GM Jim Hendry with the new team ownership group?
• Does the NFL have any second thoughts about picking Jacksonville ahead of St. Louis in its expansion process? Why did the league ever expect pro football to make it that market?
• Why do we revel in the suffering of others so much?
• How can athletes run through so much money so quickly?
• Since when is Buffalo the toughest place to play in the NFL? Why won’t residents there leave these guys alone?
• Why don’t more grown-ups play dodgeball to blow off steam?

THE NO-PASSING LANE

Did Tennessee get ultra-conservative with its play-calling just to stay close to Florida Saturday. Rather than trying to win, was Vols coach Lane Kiffin just trying to avoid a blowout?

Gators coach Urban Meyer suggested as much while explaining why he wasn’t more aggressive with HIS late play calling.

“When I saw them start handing the ball off, I didn’t feel like they were going after the win,” Meyer told Florida reporters. “They wanted to shorten the game. I remember looking out there and there’s 10 minutes left in the game and there’s no no-huddle, they are down, I think it was 23-6 and [there's no] urgency.”

Hence his decision to stay conservative,

“The way we lose a game there is throw an interception,” Meyer said. “Why put yourself in that position? Let’s find a way to win the game. We’re not trying to impress the pollsters. We’re trying to win the game. A lot of it had to do with the way they were playing. It made our life a little easier.”

Kiffin dismissed Meyer’s assessment and took a backhanded swipe at the Gators, who reportedly battled the flu bug in that game.

Was he worried about the flu bug hitting his team? “I don’t know,” Kiffin told Tennessee reporters. “I guess we’ll wait and after we’re not excited about a performance, we’ll tell you everybody was sick.”

Ah, this SEC football season will be fun.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Steve Rosenbloom, ChicagoTribune.com: “The issue isn’t Bradley’s being told to go home. The $21 million issue is making sure he never comes back. But who’d want this guy? Which general manager would choose to infect his clubhouse with the M.B. coli virus? Cubs general manager Jim Hendry would need to find someone who’s a bigger sap than he is, and because Al Davis is a football guy, I don’t think there’s much hope.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “The ‘orange carpet’ overflowed with celebrity part-owners and special guests at the Dolphins’ sold-out home opener Monday night, and not a bit of it mattered. Jimmy Buffett. Gloria and Emilio Estefan. Serena and Venus Williams. Marc Anthony and J-Lo. Dwyane Wade and Tiger Woods. Star power everywhere you looked, and all of it reduced to a superfluous sideshow. Maybe one of them could have covered Colts tight end Dallas Clark. Maybe Serena cold have shoved a (bleepin’) tennis ball down his throat. No amount of flashbulb-popping paparazzi or manufactured glamour can save the Dolphins from themselves if their pass defense continues as horrible as we have seen the first two weeks of this season.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Turning to basketball, the Cavaliers’ Delonte West got stopped for speeding on his motorcycle last week and was found to be carrying two handguns on his person and a shotgun in a guitar case strapped to his back - all loaded. Sounds like he’s been playing the Charles Bronson edition of Guitar Hero.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Michael Crabtree is failing to capture public sympathy. I saw a homeless guy holding a cardboard sign: ‘Will work for $16 million.’”

MEGAPHONE

“They won last year, and I’m the new addition. The fans expect to repeat. Everybody in L.A. expects a second ring. And if we don’t then yeah, they should point it right at me, throwing tomatoes and everything.”

New Laker Ron Artest.