Friday, June 29, 2007
Day Off
Friday will continue to be my day off until my softball team decides not to play at 9 freaking AM on Saturdays. But fear not you will get a Saturday edition instead so enjoy your Friday night and log on after the hang over wears off tomorrow to check out Big O Sports Blog.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thur-what? Thursday!
Well a big big day in sports and you've come to the right place to hear about it. Big O Sports Blog has you covered from the NBA Draft to milestone day in MLB. Let's hit the ground running.
A Chance For New Beginnings
The NBA Draft is really a chance for basketball franchises to show their fans that, yeah even though we suck right now, there's hope for the future see? Well some teams are better at giving their fans hope then others. I am not a big fan of doing the big list of the winners and losers of the NBA Draft, I just want to give you some of the interesting things that went down here.
Let's start out with the Portland TrailBlazers who had an excellent day. To the surprise of no one, they took Greg Oden with the number one pick, yawn. But after that is when they really started making some noise. The Blazers traded Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, and Fred Jones to the New York Knicks for Channing Frye and Steve Francis. Now the first indication I had that this was a good deal for Portland is that Knicks GM Isaiah Thomas was involved in the deal which automatically means his team is assured of getting absolutely hosed. Then, further review of the trade confirmed my original thoughts. The Knicks may not be getting hosed exactly, but Portland got the clear upperhand in this transaction. First of all they unloaded a team cancer in Randolph and they got rid of two guards who combined couldn't average 10 poitns a game. I am sure Jones and Dickau are very nice fellows, but they're just not that good at basketball. Secondly, the Blazers actually added some good talent. You don't know Channing Frye is as good as he is yet, but you will. Picture David Robinson and Tim Duncan except with both of them under 25 and sharing most of their primes at the same time. Channing Frye put up fantastic numbers when he got consistant and significant minutes but as bad of a GM as Isaiah Thomas is, he might be a worse coach seeing as he yanked Frye in and out of the lineup so much that he could barely break a sweat before he was wearing his warmups again. Mark it down, Frye and Oden together will absolutely dominate. And Stevie Franchise as a throw-in really isn't too bad at all. Francis has a history of playing very well for a while in a new city until he gets bored. He is a very talented player, and he is a veteran, he could legitimately help this very young team. Also part of Francis' troubles have to be chalked up to Thomas' ineptitude, they just have to be. Look for Stevie to contribute a good deal to the Blazers. This team just got scary in a hurry. As soon as Steve Nash's window to win a title closes, the West will belong to the Blazers.
One move I did not understand at all was the trade between the Boston Celtics and the Seattle SuperSonics. Boston sent its number five pick, Jeff Green, along with Wally Szerbiack and Delonte West to Seattle for Ray Allen. I believe there was a second round pick tossed in there somewhere but honestly I just don't care enough to look up who it was, that part of the trade is not important. What is important here is that the Sonics essentially picked up two 6'9'' small forwards who really can't play anywhere else, when they drafted Kevin Durant at number two and then traded for Jeff Green. I suppose you could put one of them at shooting guard but I get the feeling they would get backdoor cut to death on defense by smaller and quicker guards. And these two certainly won't be playing power forward anytime soon. Green's game is more of a perimeter game, and while Durant posted up sometimes in college, he will absolutely get eaten alive by NBA post players. Remember that whole not being able to bench his body weight things for Durant? Yeah down in the paint is where that would have come in handy, whoops, small oversight there Kevin. So basically the Sonics can get overpowered with both of their picks on the floor, or outrun, depending on how they line it up. This just isn't a move that makes that much sense. Unless the Sonics trade Green for a big man with a pulse I just don't know how this was a good play on their part.
Well that sums up the biggest moves on NBA Draft day, one that makes a ton of sense and will lead to domination for years to come, and another that leaves you with two 6'9'' guys that both can only play one position. Maybe having the number two pick this year wasn't the easiest draft position ever. Guess we will just have to wait and see.
Two for One Milestone Day at the Ballpark
Frank Thomas hit home run number 500 today and a few hours later Craig Biggio collected his 3,000 career hit as part of a five hit day. Thomas was always a good ball player, but he really never contributed much in the field even before his days of becoming strictly a DH. Biggio on the other hand is a different story. Biggio is the only man in Major League history to spend a full season as a catcher, a second baseman, and a centerfielder. And don't forget he made All-Star teams at catcher and second. This man is just a fantastic athlete. He was also always willing to take one for the team as he's among the all-time leaders in career hit-by-pitches taken. And while Biggio is in the twilight of his career, likely due to the beatings he's taken at the plate, behind the plate, and in the field, Thomas still seems to be going fairly strong, perhaps having a few more years in him.
Biggio definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, considering all of his hits, his exploits on defense and his toughness in the batter's box, it seems like a no-brainer. Thomas on the other hand isn't such a clear cut case. 500 home runs used to be the clincher, the guarantee for a spot in Cooperstown. However as more and more players are racing past that mark, much of the luster of 500 homers has been lost. Sammy Sosa just past 600 dingers, and he isn't even considered a lock for the Hall. Thomas and Biggio shouldn't worry about things that won't happen for at least five more years. They should just enjoy their moment, and happily take their place in history. Congrats to Craig Biggio and Frank Thomas.
THE END!
A Chance For New Beginnings
The NBA Draft is really a chance for basketball franchises to show their fans that, yeah even though we suck right now, there's hope for the future see? Well some teams are better at giving their fans hope then others. I am not a big fan of doing the big list of the winners and losers of the NBA Draft, I just want to give you some of the interesting things that went down here.
Let's start out with the Portland TrailBlazers who had an excellent day. To the surprise of no one, they took Greg Oden with the number one pick, yawn. But after that is when they really started making some noise. The Blazers traded Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, and Fred Jones to the New York Knicks for Channing Frye and Steve Francis. Now the first indication I had that this was a good deal for Portland is that Knicks GM Isaiah Thomas was involved in the deal which automatically means his team is assured of getting absolutely hosed. Then, further review of the trade confirmed my original thoughts. The Knicks may not be getting hosed exactly, but Portland got the clear upperhand in this transaction. First of all they unloaded a team cancer in Randolph and they got rid of two guards who combined couldn't average 10 poitns a game. I am sure Jones and Dickau are very nice fellows, but they're just not that good at basketball. Secondly, the Blazers actually added some good talent. You don't know Channing Frye is as good as he is yet, but you will. Picture David Robinson and Tim Duncan except with both of them under 25 and sharing most of their primes at the same time. Channing Frye put up fantastic numbers when he got consistant and significant minutes but as bad of a GM as Isaiah Thomas is, he might be a worse coach seeing as he yanked Frye in and out of the lineup so much that he could barely break a sweat before he was wearing his warmups again. Mark it down, Frye and Oden together will absolutely dominate. And Stevie Franchise as a throw-in really isn't too bad at all. Francis has a history of playing very well for a while in a new city until he gets bored. He is a very talented player, and he is a veteran, he could legitimately help this very young team. Also part of Francis' troubles have to be chalked up to Thomas' ineptitude, they just have to be. Look for Stevie to contribute a good deal to the Blazers. This team just got scary in a hurry. As soon as Steve Nash's window to win a title closes, the West will belong to the Blazers.
One move I did not understand at all was the trade between the Boston Celtics and the Seattle SuperSonics. Boston sent its number five pick, Jeff Green, along with Wally Szerbiack and Delonte West to Seattle for Ray Allen. I believe there was a second round pick tossed in there somewhere but honestly I just don't care enough to look up who it was, that part of the trade is not important. What is important here is that the Sonics essentially picked up two 6'9'' small forwards who really can't play anywhere else, when they drafted Kevin Durant at number two and then traded for Jeff Green. I suppose you could put one of them at shooting guard but I get the feeling they would get backdoor cut to death on defense by smaller and quicker guards. And these two certainly won't be playing power forward anytime soon. Green's game is more of a perimeter game, and while Durant posted up sometimes in college, he will absolutely get eaten alive by NBA post players. Remember that whole not being able to bench his body weight things for Durant? Yeah down in the paint is where that would have come in handy, whoops, small oversight there Kevin. So basically the Sonics can get overpowered with both of their picks on the floor, or outrun, depending on how they line it up. This just isn't a move that makes that much sense. Unless the Sonics trade Green for a big man with a pulse I just don't know how this was a good play on their part.
Well that sums up the biggest moves on NBA Draft day, one that makes a ton of sense and will lead to domination for years to come, and another that leaves you with two 6'9'' guys that both can only play one position. Maybe having the number two pick this year wasn't the easiest draft position ever. Guess we will just have to wait and see.
Two for One Milestone Day at the Ballpark
Frank Thomas hit home run number 500 today and a few hours later Craig Biggio collected his 3,000 career hit as part of a five hit day. Thomas was always a good ball player, but he really never contributed much in the field even before his days of becoming strictly a DH. Biggio on the other hand is a different story. Biggio is the only man in Major League history to spend a full season as a catcher, a second baseman, and a centerfielder. And don't forget he made All-Star teams at catcher and second. This man is just a fantastic athlete. He was also always willing to take one for the team as he's among the all-time leaders in career hit-by-pitches taken. And while Biggio is in the twilight of his career, likely due to the beatings he's taken at the plate, behind the plate, and in the field, Thomas still seems to be going fairly strong, perhaps having a few more years in him.
Biggio definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, considering all of his hits, his exploits on defense and his toughness in the batter's box, it seems like a no-brainer. Thomas on the other hand isn't such a clear cut case. 500 home runs used to be the clincher, the guarantee for a spot in Cooperstown. However as more and more players are racing past that mark, much of the luster of 500 homers has been lost. Sammy Sosa just past 600 dingers, and he isn't even considered a lock for the Hall. Thomas and Biggio shouldn't worry about things that won't happen for at least five more years. They should just enjoy their moment, and happily take their place in history. Congrats to Craig Biggio and Frank Thomas.
THE END!
You've got to be kidding me
I had a nice and touching post about the ESPN "My Wish" series almost completed when my computer decided to spite me. Well after helping my friend move out of his apartment today with some of the worlds heaviest furniture ever, I've nearly lost the will to live much less re-write a blog, so this ones probably not going to happen. If you really want to know about it, you can ask me, otherwise just check back tomorrow. Sorry about that, blame Toshiba.
Moving Day
I found out how to retrieve one of my lost blogs so here it is. Everything written is as true as it was a few days ago. . . Including the intro about moving.
Well I helped a friend of mine move out of his apartment tonight and to say that it took a lot out of me would pretty much be the understatement of the century. But anyway, the point of me saying that is, this isn't going to be the longest edition of Big O Sports Blog because I need to shower and then pass out. However its quality not quanity right? Let's set it off.
A Dream Come True
For as much crap as a lot of people (including myself) give ESPN, they have gotten one thing right and it makes me more willing to overlook, well just about everything else. The Worldwide Leader has picked up its "My Wish" series during daily editions of SportsCenter and the series continues to be emotional and moving. I am not an overly emotional guy but some of the things these kids go through and the things these athletes do just to give them one good day in the midst of endless battles against various diseases is enough to warm the heart of anyone with a pulse. If you don't know the premise of the "My Wish" program is this; a child with a life threatening illness gets their biggest sports related fantasy fulfilled courtesy of ESPN, Disney, and whichever athlete the child happens to be obsessed with.
A particularly good edition aired two days ago when a racing fan from Iowa who had battled through cancer, got to spend not just a day but an entire weekend experiencing what it's like to essentially be part of her hero Jimmie Johnson's pit crew. The strange thing about this series is not the way it makes you feel for the kids' involved, I mean your heart will go out to them no matter what, but the way it makes you feel about the athlete involved is fairly bizarre. It doesn't make any difference who is profiled in the "My Wish" series, it is simply impossible to root against those athletes after watching what they do for the kids. I realize it is only one day out of their lives, and maybe they only did it in an attempt to stir up some good will on their own behalfs, but what matters is they did it. The kids whose lives they brighten don't care what motives brought the athlete there, they just care that they get to spend a day with their hero. And really, isn't that the point? I mean, if A-Rod made an appearance on "My Wish" I would have a hard time rooting against him still. Don't worry, I would probably find a way, but it'd be tricky. I'm telling you, this is powerful stuff.
Maybe ESPN doesn't have it right most of the time. In fact I'm fairly certain they don't. They publicize people's personal matters as if it were our business. They seem to care more about the well-being of a horse than they do most people on certain occasions. However, sometimes they stumble backwards into a story that actually matters. When an autisitc team manager scores over 20 points in the only basketball game he will ever play in as everyone in his high school absolutely goes bonkers in the gym, that's a story that matters. When a former can't-miss prospect turned drug addict finally overcomes his demons to not just become the player everyone expected, but to find peace of mind, now that's a story that matters. When a child with a fatal illness gets to spend a day with their hero and just for that day feel like a normal kid; that's a story that matters. Way to go ESPN, you got this one right.
Well I helped a friend of mine move out of his apartment tonight and to say that it took a lot out of me would pretty much be the understatement of the century. But anyway, the point of me saying that is, this isn't going to be the longest edition of Big O Sports Blog because I need to shower and then pass out. However its quality not quanity right? Let's set it off.
A Dream Come True
For as much crap as a lot of people (including myself) give ESPN, they have gotten one thing right and it makes me more willing to overlook, well just about everything else. The Worldwide Leader has picked up its "My Wish" series during daily editions of SportsCenter and the series continues to be emotional and moving. I am not an overly emotional guy but some of the things these kids go through and the things these athletes do just to give them one good day in the midst of endless battles against various diseases is enough to warm the heart of anyone with a pulse. If you don't know the premise of the "My Wish" program is this; a child with a life threatening illness gets their biggest sports related fantasy fulfilled courtesy of ESPN, Disney, and whichever athlete the child happens to be obsessed with.
A particularly good edition aired two days ago when a racing fan from Iowa who had battled through cancer, got to spend not just a day but an entire weekend experiencing what it's like to essentially be part of her hero Jimmie Johnson's pit crew. The strange thing about this series is not the way it makes you feel for the kids' involved, I mean your heart will go out to them no matter what, but the way it makes you feel about the athlete involved is fairly bizarre. It doesn't make any difference who is profiled in the "My Wish" series, it is simply impossible to root against those athletes after watching what they do for the kids. I realize it is only one day out of their lives, and maybe they only did it in an attempt to stir up some good will on their own behalfs, but what matters is they did it. The kids whose lives they brighten don't care what motives brought the athlete there, they just care that they get to spend a day with their hero. And really, isn't that the point? I mean, if A-Rod made an appearance on "My Wish" I would have a hard time rooting against him still. Don't worry, I would probably find a way, but it'd be tricky. I'm telling you, this is powerful stuff.
Maybe ESPN doesn't have it right most of the time. In fact I'm fairly certain they don't. They publicize people's personal matters as if it were our business. They seem to care more about the well-being of a horse than they do most people on certain occasions. However, sometimes they stumble backwards into a story that actually matters. When an autisitc team manager scores over 20 points in the only basketball game he will ever play in as everyone in his high school absolutely goes bonkers in the gym, that's a story that matters. When a former can't-miss prospect turned drug addict finally overcomes his demons to not just become the player everyone expected, but to find peace of mind, now that's a story that matters. When a child with a fatal illness gets to spend a day with their hero and just for that day feel like a normal kid; that's a story that matters. Way to go ESPN, you got this one right.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday? Eh.
I would just like to make it known that approximately 24 hours after Big O Sports Blog informed you that the four team Kevin Garnett trade was dead, ESPN reported the same thing. It also reported about a day later than I did, that the Wolves and Lakers probably weren't going to get a deal worked out by themselves because Minny didn't like what LA was bringing to the table. Now I don't claim to have broken these stories as you may be surprised to learn that I don't actually have an NBA inside sources, however I am pretty sure someone is Bristol is browsing the pages of Big O Sports Blog. First Stephen A. Smith is pulled from the NBA Finals coverage the day after Big O Sports Blog rips him, and now this. Coincidence? Probably, but if these things keep happening like this, I am going to have to get a site tracker to find out who is logging in from Connecticut. Well on the schedule for today is the bizarre mystery of Chris Benoit.
First off I would really appreciate it if people would stop chalking the double murder/suicide this weekend of professional wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and 7 year old son to an abnormally bad fit of 'roid rage. This guy strangled his wife, suffocated a SEVEN year old, and then committed suicide over the course of a weekend. That's an awfully drawn out period of time for the whole thing to say an emotional outburst was the root of it all. This sounds like a very deliberate and thought-out act of violence, especially considering the fact that his wife had asked for a restraining order against Benoit before in addition to filing for divorce (which she later withdrew) citing the fact that Benoit had threatened her. Obviously this wasn't the first time the wrestler had considered harming his wife and son.
I by no means want to make light of the tragedy which occurred here, my only point is that this was a clearly unstable man and that likely had much more to do with why he killed his wife and child before taking his own life, than steroids did. Now I am not a doctor or a psychologist, but from what I understand steroids can lead to severe depression, and that makes sense considering you are more or less tinkering with your bodies chemical balances, however most of the time when people are depressed they just kill themselves, they don't kill the people around them. Furthermore, Benoit had a history before of abnormal and unstable behavior. Evidence would suggest that Benoit had been giving his seven year old son human growth hormone because he felt his son was too small. The kid was SEVEN! No one is a normal size when they're growing up. A "normal" sized child is only that way because they happened to land on the average of every other kid who vary from looking like 4 year olds to 11 year olds. Besides Chris Benoit was only 5'10'' tall, and only weighed 220 pounds because of heavy steroid use. If you are 5'10'' I wouldn't really count on your kid to be a giant. By all accounts Benoit was also a shy, recluse type who opened up to a very limited number of individuals. I know it's a cliche but cliches become cliches for a reason, it really is the quiet ones you have to look out for. I don't think the Uni-bomber was exactly the most outgoing individual. These type of things lead me to believe that Chris Benoit was simply not right in the head.
Could the longterm use of steroids have had a psychological effect on Chris Benoit which led to these events? Sure, they could have. However when the facts are taken into consideration it seems likely that something like this might have happened in Chris Benoit's life whether he was a 220 lbs, pro wrestling, longtime steroid user or a 160 lbs grocerystore manager. My heart goes out to those who knew and loved Chris Benoit's wife and son. My prayers go out on their behalf as well.
I was going to write about a couple other things today, but you really can't transition from that to anything so I am just going to go ahead and wrap it up for the day. Sorry there has been a lot of seriousness in Big O Sports Blog lately, I will resume being the hilarious writer you love shortly. Have a good day everybody.
First off I would really appreciate it if people would stop chalking the double murder/suicide this weekend of professional wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and 7 year old son to an abnormally bad fit of 'roid rage. This guy strangled his wife, suffocated a SEVEN year old, and then committed suicide over the course of a weekend. That's an awfully drawn out period of time for the whole thing to say an emotional outburst was the root of it all. This sounds like a very deliberate and thought-out act of violence, especially considering the fact that his wife had asked for a restraining order against Benoit before in addition to filing for divorce (which she later withdrew) citing the fact that Benoit had threatened her. Obviously this wasn't the first time the wrestler had considered harming his wife and son.
I by no means want to make light of the tragedy which occurred here, my only point is that this was a clearly unstable man and that likely had much more to do with why he killed his wife and child before taking his own life, than steroids did. Now I am not a doctor or a psychologist, but from what I understand steroids can lead to severe depression, and that makes sense considering you are more or less tinkering with your bodies chemical balances, however most of the time when people are depressed they just kill themselves, they don't kill the people around them. Furthermore, Benoit had a history before of abnormal and unstable behavior. Evidence would suggest that Benoit had been giving his seven year old son human growth hormone because he felt his son was too small. The kid was SEVEN! No one is a normal size when they're growing up. A "normal" sized child is only that way because they happened to land on the average of every other kid who vary from looking like 4 year olds to 11 year olds. Besides Chris Benoit was only 5'10'' tall, and only weighed 220 pounds because of heavy steroid use. If you are 5'10'' I wouldn't really count on your kid to be a giant. By all accounts Benoit was also a shy, recluse type who opened up to a very limited number of individuals. I know it's a cliche but cliches become cliches for a reason, it really is the quiet ones you have to look out for. I don't think the Uni-bomber was exactly the most outgoing individual. These type of things lead me to believe that Chris Benoit was simply not right in the head.
Could the longterm use of steroids have had a psychological effect on Chris Benoit which led to these events? Sure, they could have. However when the facts are taken into consideration it seems likely that something like this might have happened in Chris Benoit's life whether he was a 220 lbs, pro wrestling, longtime steroid user or a 160 lbs grocerystore manager. My heart goes out to those who knew and loved Chris Benoit's wife and son. My prayers go out on their behalf as well.
I was going to write about a couple other things today, but you really can't transition from that to anything so I am just going to go ahead and wrap it up for the day. Sorry there has been a lot of seriousness in Big O Sports Blog lately, I will resume being the hilarious writer you love shortly. Have a good day everybody.
Monday, June 25, 2007
A Case of the Mondays
A big day today in England as Wimbeldon got underway. I have pretty much watched every Wimbeldon since the mid 90's. When I was young I found out that Pete Sampras had the same birthday as me so I would watch Wimbeldon every year because Sampras pretty much won it every year. Recently I have begun playing tennis just about everyday because not only is it a good workout but its actually pretty fun. That in combination with my longtime love for Wimbeldon will lead to some extended coverage on the event here at Big O Sports Blog. So on the slate today we have my Wimbeldon preview and is KG headed to Hollywood? Let's roll.
Welcome to the All England Club
I am just going to be upfront about this, I really don't have any bold predictions on the men's side of the bracket. Roger Federer will almost certainly win his fifth straight Wimbeldon. This guy just does not lose on grass, it doesn't happen. Federer on grass is like Nadal on clay, just go ahead and consider it a lock. You have to wonder if every other man competing in this tournament has it in the back of his mind that he's pretty much playing for second place. I mean once you get to the final with Federer, you're more or less just trying to not get embarrassed. If you can steal a set than that's just a bonus, but really you just want to get your second place trophy without getting skunked.
Honestly I would really like to see Andy Roddick win this thing, I really would. He's America's best tennis player and to sweeten the pot, he even lived in Omaha for about 15 minutes, so I genuinely root for the guy. That being said, he pretty much doesn't have a shot. This is a family friendly site so I can't tell you exactly the relationship between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, but let's just say that Federer owns him. Further more, Roddick knows it. I was up at about 4 AM when Federer and Roddick's Austrailan Open Match aired live, and after giving Roger a game in the first set, I just wanted Roddick to fake an injury so he didn't have to suffer anymore. It looked as if at any given point Andy would just burst into tears and beg for mercy. It was painful to watch, not just as an American but as a human being. The worst part was Roddick wasn't even playing poorly in that match, he was playing some pretty solid tennis, and Federer was just THAT much better, it was absurd. You could see it in Roddick's face that he knew he was outmatched and he was just trying not to embarrass himself. Something he clearly also knew he was failing at. Roddick will never beat Federer in a meaningful Grand Slam match while both stars are in their prime, you can mark that down. For the sake of Andy Roddick and his friends and family and anyone who even remotely likes the guy, I hope these two don't meet at the All England club. If Roger wants to get upset in the early rounds clearing the path for Andy to win it all I'd be all for that, but I'm not holding my breath for that one.
Could KG Make Kobe a Happy Camper?
There have been talks of sending Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Lakers. The deal was born as a four team blockbuster involving in addition to Minnesota and LA, the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics. That monstrosity fell apart because the Celtics didn't like their end of the deal (basically they didn't like being involved in a KG trade where they didn't get KG), but talks between the T'Wolves and Lakers have continued. Meanwhile SportsCenter continues to report that the four team deal is still being discussed, well don't believe them, its just not true. However KG to the Lakers is a possibility still. ESPN also is reporting that Kobe Bryant's camp claims that acquiring Kevin Garnett would not impact Bryant's desire to be traded. That is also false, you know how I know? Because I'm not retarded. Kobe would happily remain a Laker and become a model citizen faster than Gwen Stefani can crap out another terrible, generic pop songs.
The deal which I have heard would send Garnett to the Lakers and in return Minny would get Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and the Lakers' #19 first round pick. The hold up on this deal is that the Wolves apparently are not big fans of Lamar Odom. This is why Minnesota is just not a winning franchise consistantly, they make bad decisions. Lamar Odom is one of the most dynamic talents in the league and performs better when there is less pressure on him. You say being traded for Kevin Garnett has inherant pressure? Well this guy got traded to Hollywood for SHAQ! Part of the reason he was able to succeed in LA was because the focus is always on Kobe first and everyone else second. I am pretty sure he could handle that pressure cooker up in Minnesota without a lot of problems. Minnesota should jump, you hear me, jump at the opportunity to grab not only Lamar Odom but Andrew Bynum, who many people believe is in the process of developing into a dominant big man, AND a first round draft pick. Anyway unless someone can talk some sense into Wolves GM Kevin McHale, which doesn't seem to be a likely possibility, this deal probably won't happen. It probably should happen, but I wouldn't count on it. No one in an NBA front office is smart enough to do anything that actually makes sense.
That's all folks.
Welcome to the All England Club
I am just going to be upfront about this, I really don't have any bold predictions on the men's side of the bracket. Roger Federer will almost certainly win his fifth straight Wimbeldon. This guy just does not lose on grass, it doesn't happen. Federer on grass is like Nadal on clay, just go ahead and consider it a lock. You have to wonder if every other man competing in this tournament has it in the back of his mind that he's pretty much playing for second place. I mean once you get to the final with Federer, you're more or less just trying to not get embarrassed. If you can steal a set than that's just a bonus, but really you just want to get your second place trophy without getting skunked.
Honestly I would really like to see Andy Roddick win this thing, I really would. He's America's best tennis player and to sweeten the pot, he even lived in Omaha for about 15 minutes, so I genuinely root for the guy. That being said, he pretty much doesn't have a shot. This is a family friendly site so I can't tell you exactly the relationship between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, but let's just say that Federer owns him. Further more, Roddick knows it. I was up at about 4 AM when Federer and Roddick's Austrailan Open Match aired live, and after giving Roger a game in the first set, I just wanted Roddick to fake an injury so he didn't have to suffer anymore. It looked as if at any given point Andy would just burst into tears and beg for mercy. It was painful to watch, not just as an American but as a human being. The worst part was Roddick wasn't even playing poorly in that match, he was playing some pretty solid tennis, and Federer was just THAT much better, it was absurd. You could see it in Roddick's face that he knew he was outmatched and he was just trying not to embarrass himself. Something he clearly also knew he was failing at. Roddick will never beat Federer in a meaningful Grand Slam match while both stars are in their prime, you can mark that down. For the sake of Andy Roddick and his friends and family and anyone who even remotely likes the guy, I hope these two don't meet at the All England club. If Roger wants to get upset in the early rounds clearing the path for Andy to win it all I'd be all for that, but I'm not holding my breath for that one.
Could KG Make Kobe a Happy Camper?
There have been talks of sending Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Lakers. The deal was born as a four team blockbuster involving in addition to Minnesota and LA, the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics. That monstrosity fell apart because the Celtics didn't like their end of the deal (basically they didn't like being involved in a KG trade where they didn't get KG), but talks between the T'Wolves and Lakers have continued. Meanwhile SportsCenter continues to report that the four team deal is still being discussed, well don't believe them, its just not true. However KG to the Lakers is a possibility still. ESPN also is reporting that Kobe Bryant's camp claims that acquiring Kevin Garnett would not impact Bryant's desire to be traded. That is also false, you know how I know? Because I'm not retarded. Kobe would happily remain a Laker and become a model citizen faster than Gwen Stefani can crap out another terrible, generic pop songs.
The deal which I have heard would send Garnett to the Lakers and in return Minny would get Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and the Lakers' #19 first round pick. The hold up on this deal is that the Wolves apparently are not big fans of Lamar Odom. This is why Minnesota is just not a winning franchise consistantly, they make bad decisions. Lamar Odom is one of the most dynamic talents in the league and performs better when there is less pressure on him. You say being traded for Kevin Garnett has inherant pressure? Well this guy got traded to Hollywood for SHAQ! Part of the reason he was able to succeed in LA was because the focus is always on Kobe first and everyone else second. I am pretty sure he could handle that pressure cooker up in Minnesota without a lot of problems. Minnesota should jump, you hear me, jump at the opportunity to grab not only Lamar Odom but Andrew Bynum, who many people believe is in the process of developing into a dominant big man, AND a first round draft pick. Anyway unless someone can talk some sense into Wolves GM Kevin McHale, which doesn't seem to be a likely possibility, this deal probably won't happen. It probably should happen, but I wouldn't count on it. No one in an NBA front office is smart enough to do anything that actually makes sense.
That's all folks.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
Well it looks like we have an all baseball blog today here on Big O Sports Blog, so hardball fans get ready for a good time. On today's slate we have, A Sad Passing, and Remembering a childhood hero. And now onto the show.
Rod Beck Dies at 38
Former major league pitcher Rod Beck was found dead yesterday in his home. Beck was 38. Reports have no revealed a cause of death yet but no foul play is suspected. You may remember Beck for one of several reasons. During a career that spanned 13 years, covering most of the 90's and on through 2004, Beck was one of the best closers in the game. Beck was also well known for his bushy mullet and mustache. You know the guy you see in Wal-Mart wearing a beater and a NASCAR hat? Yeah, that's more or less what Rod Beck looked like. He was the baseball version of a blue-collar, real everyday guy. A player that fans could relate to. While Beck was working his way back to the Majors in 2003, he would park his RV just behind the outfield fence of the minor league team he was with. Soon fans started coming by to see if they could get the former All-Star's autograph. He allowed them to do more than that. Often Beck would have fans in his RV to celebrate victories or commiserate over losses, but either way, they expressed their emotions over beer. Beck soon was not only a former All-Star closer, but he was a folk hero as well.
By all accounts Beck was a great guy, great teammate, and very rough around the edges. When you live as much as Rod Beck did, you almost have to die young. My thoughts and prayers are with Rod Beck's family. Baseball will miss its Ordinary Joe.
Griffey is Griffey Again
On the day that Ken Griffey Jr. completed his first trip back to Seattle with a two homer day, I find this an appropriate time to talk about Junior . . . or perhaps gush about Junior would be a more appropriate term. The way I feel about Ken Griffey Jr. can best be described as man-love. Now there is nothing gay about man-love, it is simply the next level of admiration past being a fanatic. It is the way I feel about Pedro Martinez as well. You don't just follow the player, you don't just root for them to do well. You are emotionally invested in how they do. Now make no mistake, this is an unhealthy and unnatural phenomenon, but once it has occurred there is no getting rid of it, so you might as well embrace it with arms wide open.
Ken Griffey Jr. was my favorite position player growing up. Pedro was my favorite pitcher and favorite overall, but there was just something about Griffey. Maybe the way he was always smiling that made me feel like you really don't have to grow up someday, you can just play baseball your whole life and be happy. Maybe it was that swing, that sweet, sweet swing. It could have been the way he just covered unreal amounts of ground in centerfield before sacrificing his body to make absolutely ridiculous catches. Part of it could have been the fact that when you saw Ken Griffey Jr. you knew you weren't just seeing a great player or a superstar, you knew you were seeing one of the top handful of players to ever put on a uniform. It was probably a combination of everything, but no matter what it was, there was really nothing quite like watching Ken Griffey Jr. playing the game.
And then it happened. The injuries, all the freak injuries. Before I knew it, in a blink of an eye it seemed like, Ken Griffey Jr., MY Ken Griffey Jr. had lost four years of his prime and was considered a has been who didn't look like he would ever find that pure stroke again. He was a step too slow in the outfield and he was behind every pitch. The guy that was a lock to cruise past Hank Aaron as the greatest home run hitter ever suddenly looked like he might not come within 200 dingers of Hammerin' Hank. I would check the boxscores everyday just hoping that Griffey had come of the DL and miraculously found that magic he once had. And everyday the little boy in me died a little as a realized you can't just play baseball and be happy forever.
Then, the miraculous happened. 2005, Ken Griffey Jr. found the fountain of youth. He belted 35 homers, his highest total in five years, and batted over .300. He won the comeback player of the year award, which tells you just how far he'd fallen. Just a few years earlier he was on baseball All-Century team and now he was the comeback player of the year winner. But it didn't matter, it looked like the old Griffey, the Seattle Griffey was back. Last year he took a bit of a step back, the rigors of centerfield allowed him to play in barely more than 100 games, and while he did hit 27 dingers, he hit only .252. After his return to glory in 2005 it looked like Griffey might actually be in the twilight of his career. Could The Kid really be pushing his late 30's?
Well Griffey is 37 now, there's nothing anyone can do about that. But with a move to right field allowing Junior's body to not take such a beating, Griffey found that swing that could be recognized anywhere. He is on pace for 47 homers this year and his average is hovering just under .300. His pitch selection has improved, as he already has taken as many walks this year as he did all of last season. With his two home runs today Junior passed Mark McGwire to be alone in 7th place on the all-time home run list. Griffey may never reach the lofty expectations of his youth, but he may pass 600 homers this year, and 700 isn't out of the question. I don't know how anyone who enjoys baseball can't just be overjoyed at the sight of one of the game's greats playing like he's in his prime again. And while the little boy inside of me found out the hard way that you can't play baseball and be happy forever, there is still a little bit of extra brightness in my day when Ken Griffey Jr. goes yard one more time because it reminds me that finally, Griffey is Griffey again.
We're done for today folks, hope you had a good weekend.
Rod Beck Dies at 38
Former major league pitcher Rod Beck was found dead yesterday in his home. Beck was 38. Reports have no revealed a cause of death yet but no foul play is suspected. You may remember Beck for one of several reasons. During a career that spanned 13 years, covering most of the 90's and on through 2004, Beck was one of the best closers in the game. Beck was also well known for his bushy mullet and mustache. You know the guy you see in Wal-Mart wearing a beater and a NASCAR hat? Yeah, that's more or less what Rod Beck looked like. He was the baseball version of a blue-collar, real everyday guy. A player that fans could relate to. While Beck was working his way back to the Majors in 2003, he would park his RV just behind the outfield fence of the minor league team he was with. Soon fans started coming by to see if they could get the former All-Star's autograph. He allowed them to do more than that. Often Beck would have fans in his RV to celebrate victories or commiserate over losses, but either way, they expressed their emotions over beer. Beck soon was not only a former All-Star closer, but he was a folk hero as well.
By all accounts Beck was a great guy, great teammate, and very rough around the edges. When you live as much as Rod Beck did, you almost have to die young. My thoughts and prayers are with Rod Beck's family. Baseball will miss its Ordinary Joe.
Griffey is Griffey Again
On the day that Ken Griffey Jr. completed his first trip back to Seattle with a two homer day, I find this an appropriate time to talk about Junior . . . or perhaps gush about Junior would be a more appropriate term. The way I feel about Ken Griffey Jr. can best be described as man-love. Now there is nothing gay about man-love, it is simply the next level of admiration past being a fanatic. It is the way I feel about Pedro Martinez as well. You don't just follow the player, you don't just root for them to do well. You are emotionally invested in how they do. Now make no mistake, this is an unhealthy and unnatural phenomenon, but once it has occurred there is no getting rid of it, so you might as well embrace it with arms wide open.
Ken Griffey Jr. was my favorite position player growing up. Pedro was my favorite pitcher and favorite overall, but there was just something about Griffey. Maybe the way he was always smiling that made me feel like you really don't have to grow up someday, you can just play baseball your whole life and be happy. Maybe it was that swing, that sweet, sweet swing. It could have been the way he just covered unreal amounts of ground in centerfield before sacrificing his body to make absolutely ridiculous catches. Part of it could have been the fact that when you saw Ken Griffey Jr. you knew you weren't just seeing a great player or a superstar, you knew you were seeing one of the top handful of players to ever put on a uniform. It was probably a combination of everything, but no matter what it was, there was really nothing quite like watching Ken Griffey Jr. playing the game.
And then it happened. The injuries, all the freak injuries. Before I knew it, in a blink of an eye it seemed like, Ken Griffey Jr., MY Ken Griffey Jr. had lost four years of his prime and was considered a has been who didn't look like he would ever find that pure stroke again. He was a step too slow in the outfield and he was behind every pitch. The guy that was a lock to cruise past Hank Aaron as the greatest home run hitter ever suddenly looked like he might not come within 200 dingers of Hammerin' Hank. I would check the boxscores everyday just hoping that Griffey had come of the DL and miraculously found that magic he once had. And everyday the little boy in me died a little as a realized you can't just play baseball and be happy forever.
Then, the miraculous happened. 2005, Ken Griffey Jr. found the fountain of youth. He belted 35 homers, his highest total in five years, and batted over .300. He won the comeback player of the year award, which tells you just how far he'd fallen. Just a few years earlier he was on baseball All-Century team and now he was the comeback player of the year winner. But it didn't matter, it looked like the old Griffey, the Seattle Griffey was back. Last year he took a bit of a step back, the rigors of centerfield allowed him to play in barely more than 100 games, and while he did hit 27 dingers, he hit only .252. After his return to glory in 2005 it looked like Griffey might actually be in the twilight of his career. Could The Kid really be pushing his late 30's?
Well Griffey is 37 now, there's nothing anyone can do about that. But with a move to right field allowing Junior's body to not take such a beating, Griffey found that swing that could be recognized anywhere. He is on pace for 47 homers this year and his average is hovering just under .300. His pitch selection has improved, as he already has taken as many walks this year as he did all of last season. With his two home runs today Junior passed Mark McGwire to be alone in 7th place on the all-time home run list. Griffey may never reach the lofty expectations of his youth, but he may pass 600 homers this year, and 700 isn't out of the question. I don't know how anyone who enjoys baseball can't just be overjoyed at the sight of one of the game's greats playing like he's in his prime again. And while the little boy inside of me found out the hard way that you can't play baseball and be happy forever, there is still a little bit of extra brightness in my day when Ken Griffey Jr. goes yard one more time because it reminds me that finally, Griffey is Griffey again.
We're done for today folks, hope you had a good weekend.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Special Saturday Edition
Welcome to this very special Saturday Edition of Big O Sports Blog. In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you were, my softball team lost 3-2 this morning. We were up 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th before some mistakes led to the other team pushing a couple of runs across. At 3-2 it was in fact the lowest scoring slow pitch softball game in the history of the world, so when looking at it that way it was nice to be a part of history. Yours truly went 1 for 2 with a run scored. I also made a handful of plays at second base without committing an error. I know you were all on the edge of your seat for the results to that one. Anyway here we go with the day's topics, they're a surprise today so you have to scroll down to see what's on tap. Oh and by the way, the over/under on how many games Paul Lo Duca is suspended for his little meltdown is 4. You may place bets with me if you'd like but I will probably just pocket your money and run.
Oregon State and North Carolina Reverse Rolls
Welcome to the College World Series Championship Series . . . or should I say, The Twilight Zone? I'm just kidding I have never actually seen The Twilight Zone but apparently weird stuff happened kind of like an alternate universe kind of thing, I don't really know. But the rematch of UNC vs the Beaver Nation is full of some kind of bizarre coincidences. If you look at how each team navigated the CWS field to reach this point, the two teams have almost exactly switched places from how they got to this point last year.
Last year North Carolina went unscathed through the tournament field to reach the Championship Series. The Tar Heels won the first game of the series before losing the final two and thus the national title. Oregon State last year suffered an early lost before coming back to beat Rice twice to reach the Championship Series. Fast forward to this year. Oregon State sailed through the CWS unbeaten to reach the final series where as UNC lost a game early before coming back to beat Rice twice in a row to get to the Championship Series. Any of this sounding familiar? Because it should. And guess what happened next, that's right, UNC lost the opening game of the Championship Series tonight, the similarities continue.
So what does this all mean? Well absolutely nothing it's kind of just a neat coincidence. Also I picked UNC to win this whole thing and after the shellacking they took today, I am looking for any glimmer of hope that would lead me to believe they will come back and win it all. Well this is the glimmer I found. Some may call it a stretch, those people would be right.
Bobby Cox One Ejection Away From All-Time Record
Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox is now officially one more ejection away from becoming the all-time most ejected manager of all time. Cox was ejected in the 9th inning today to tie John McGraw for the all-time lead at 131. Some may say this is a dubious record but I disagree. First of all Bobby Cox isn't exactly a spring chicken. The fact that Cox even has enough energy to get fired up enough to get ejected at his age is a miraculous feat in and of itself. So kudos to Bobby for still having a passion and a fire burning for the game still after all these years, you have to love that. Secondly, you have to be a really good manager to get ejected 131 times. That's almost an entire season worth of ejections. If you aren't a really good manager, obviously you won't be around long enough to get tossed 131 times, but also the front office wouldn't put up with you getting run 131 times if you aren't one amazing manager.
Now I feel like the position of manager is fairly overrated to begin with, I mean they just don't do that much, but that's beside the point. Bobby Cox is a man you can never really give enough credit to. The front office in Atlanta has continued to cut back on the payroll thus letting very talented players walk away from the team only to replace them with rookies and cast-offs and somehow Bobby still managed to guide the Braves to domination in the National League for a decade and a half. Just amazing stuff.
I have to say I am really looking forward to Cox breaking this record. I am kind of hoping for a greatest hits type of ejection where he incorporates all of the best parts from his tirades into one mega-ejection. You know, start with kicking some dirt on the umpire, then turn the hat around so you can get close to the ump's face to yell at him, then covering up home plate with dirt since the ump clearly can't see it anyway, then army crawling out to the pitches mound to throw the rosin bag like a hand grenade and topping it all off by throwing a water cooler and trainer's bag onto the field. Of course by this point the crowd would just be erupting so he would have to come out for a curtain call, at which poin he should tip his cap and take a bow. A 48 game suspension from Bud Selig would surely follow, but it would definitely be worth it.
THE END!
Oregon State and North Carolina Reverse Rolls
Welcome to the College World Series Championship Series . . . or should I say, The Twilight Zone? I'm just kidding I have never actually seen The Twilight Zone but apparently weird stuff happened kind of like an alternate universe kind of thing, I don't really know. But the rematch of UNC vs the Beaver Nation is full of some kind of bizarre coincidences. If you look at how each team navigated the CWS field to reach this point, the two teams have almost exactly switched places from how they got to this point last year.
Last year North Carolina went unscathed through the tournament field to reach the Championship Series. The Tar Heels won the first game of the series before losing the final two and thus the national title. Oregon State last year suffered an early lost before coming back to beat Rice twice to reach the Championship Series. Fast forward to this year. Oregon State sailed through the CWS unbeaten to reach the final series where as UNC lost a game early before coming back to beat Rice twice in a row to get to the Championship Series. Any of this sounding familiar? Because it should. And guess what happened next, that's right, UNC lost the opening game of the Championship Series tonight, the similarities continue.
So what does this all mean? Well absolutely nothing it's kind of just a neat coincidence. Also I picked UNC to win this whole thing and after the shellacking they took today, I am looking for any glimmer of hope that would lead me to believe they will come back and win it all. Well this is the glimmer I found. Some may call it a stretch, those people would be right.
Bobby Cox One Ejection Away From All-Time Record
Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox is now officially one more ejection away from becoming the all-time most ejected manager of all time. Cox was ejected in the 9th inning today to tie John McGraw for the all-time lead at 131. Some may say this is a dubious record but I disagree. First of all Bobby Cox isn't exactly a spring chicken. The fact that Cox even has enough energy to get fired up enough to get ejected at his age is a miraculous feat in and of itself. So kudos to Bobby for still having a passion and a fire burning for the game still after all these years, you have to love that. Secondly, you have to be a really good manager to get ejected 131 times. That's almost an entire season worth of ejections. If you aren't a really good manager, obviously you won't be around long enough to get tossed 131 times, but also the front office wouldn't put up with you getting run 131 times if you aren't one amazing manager.
Now I feel like the position of manager is fairly overrated to begin with, I mean they just don't do that much, but that's beside the point. Bobby Cox is a man you can never really give enough credit to. The front office in Atlanta has continued to cut back on the payroll thus letting very talented players walk away from the team only to replace them with rookies and cast-offs and somehow Bobby still managed to guide the Braves to domination in the National League for a decade and a half. Just amazing stuff.
I have to say I am really looking forward to Cox breaking this record. I am kind of hoping for a greatest hits type of ejection where he incorporates all of the best parts from his tirades into one mega-ejection. You know, start with kicking some dirt on the umpire, then turn the hat around so you can get close to the ump's face to yell at him, then covering up home plate with dirt since the ump clearly can't see it anyway, then army crawling out to the pitches mound to throw the rosin bag like a hand grenade and topping it all off by throwing a water cooler and trainer's bag onto the field. Of course by this point the crowd would just be erupting so he would have to come out for a curtain call, at which poin he should tip his cap and take a bow. A 48 game suspension from Bud Selig would surely follow, but it would definitely be worth it.
THE END!
Day Off
I have a softball game at 9 am tomororw morning, so this week Friday is my day off instead of Saturday. I am the editor in chief so I get to make these kinds of executive decisions. And again, once you start paying me then feel welcome to have an input. I'll talk to you tomorrow.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thirsty Thursday
Well let's just jump right in today. The lineup includes, trade talks from the NBA and MLB, and Miguel Tejada Continues His Streak. Let's do it.
Trade Scenarios for Players on the Block
There are several players who are supposedly on the trading block in both the NBA and MLB and while these might not be trade scenarios that are overly likely or that are being talked about, we're going to take a look at a couple deals that I think could or should be made. Just some things to think about.
Ken Griffey Jr.
Well Griffey says he would welcome a trade to the Cubs, but who would the Cubs give up? Certainly even with the year Junior is having, Felix Pie would not be available and I don't know who else would make the Reds pull the trigger on a Griffey deal. A scenario that I think should get a look is Griffey to the Red Sox. Boston could offer CoCo Crisp who has started heating up and perhaps just needs a change of scenery to return to his form in Cleveland and young arm Craig Hansen who still has great stuff but has soured a bit in the eyes of the organization. If that deal isn't sweet enough for the Reds, Boston could add Brandon Moss or David Murphy to the mix. Both are hitting well in AAA Pawtucket and would complete a pretty solid three player package to offer Cincy.
Another possible destination for Griffey could be Atlanta. The Braves are currently using a platoon in one of their outfield spots and Griffey would certainly be an upgrade. Plus there has always been speculation of Junior to the ATL, possibly because of its proximity to Florida (his offseason home) and the fact that they are almost always in contention. Ken Griffey Jr. to the Cubs just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I guess we will just wait and see. Be on the lookout for a deadline deal to the Braves or Red Sox.
Kevin Garnett
A Kevin Garnett deal to the Celtics has been where all the talks have been but that doesn't seem likely to get done, and KG himself said he would like to be traded to the Suns, but the idea of Garnett playing for Phoenix has to be terrifying for every team in the West. Just for kicks I'll give a scenario of The Kid to the Suns and then I'll give you an alternative possibility. First of all the Suns aren't going to give up Amare Stoudemire so just forget about a straight up swap there. A likely possibility would involve Shawn Marion going to Minnesota as the main piece in the trade along with possibly Raja Bell and Marcus Banks to even things out a little bit. That would actually be about as good of quality as the Timberwolves could hope to get in a trade for Garnett. Marion is a 20/10 guy, Raja Bell is a good shooter and scorer and a very capable point guard, and Marcus Banks is actually a very quality guard who kind of just could never get in the flow of the Suns offense. Banks was at the disadvantage of backing up Steve Nash in a system that was designed to be run by Steve Nash. No offense to Banks, but no one in the league can do the things Nash does. Banks never really had a chances to succeed in Phoenix. This trade really is pretty fair and could actually happen. Some minor adjustments would probably have to get made in order to make the salary situations work but I'm not an accountant so I will leave the number crunching to someone with a degree in it.
Here is a different scenario that I think could work as well. KG to the Lakers has always been a pipe dream of LA fans, but maybe it isn't so unrealistic after all. The Lakers could offer Lamar Odom, Smoosh Parker and Jordan Farmar for KG and *insert name of random back-up point guard here*. Again there would probably be other players involved for salary cap reasons but they would likely be inconsequential salary dumps for the most part. You say this deal doesn't look that fair, but Odom is one of the most unique talents in the league. If you think about it, he is kind of the original version of Kevin Durant, except he's probably a better passer than Durant ever will be. With all of the hype surrounding Durant heading into the draft that sounds crazy right now, but Odom and Durant are very similar players in my mind. Except of course Odom can likely bench his body weight. Not saying this deal will happen, but especially if Kobe gets traded, look for the Lakers brass to make a splash like this in order to stop the bleeding with its fanbase.
Tejada Continues Streak, but not Right Way
Miguel Tejada continued his consecutive games played streak Thursday, extending it to 1,152 games, only aproximately 1,500 shy of Cal Ripken's record. Tejada is currently the active leader in consecutive games played but there was some controversy about how the streak lived on in Thursday's game. Tejada was hit by a pitch on the wrist Wednesday night and could barely hold the bat tight enough to bunt in his only plate appearance on Thursday. Tejada reached on a fielder's choice and was promptly removed for a pinch runner. The Orioles had moved Tejada into the number two spot in the batting order so he could get his at bat, and get out of the game quicker. There was really very little deception in what they were trying to do. Cheaply allow Tejada to continue his streak when he was clearly not fit to play. I am all for pursuing records and everything, but this is ridiculous and it makes a mockery of the Iron Man record. What makes the record great is that Cal Ripken was able to go out for over 2,600 straight games and try and help his team win and when Ripken was nearing the end of his career and felt like the team had a better chance to win with someone else in his spot, he told the manage to sit him down. That's what this record is all about, not about how many games you can get an at bat in so you can bunt with a broken wrist.
As it turns out, Tejada's wrist is broken and his streak will likely come to an end in Baltimore's next game, but even cheaply extending his mark by one game is too many. Maybe I'm overreactive, but this really just didn't sit well with me. I am not claiming that I'm being rational about this at all, I just really was not a big fan of this move when I heard about it.
Thats all for today folks, enjoy your Friday.
Trade Scenarios for Players on the Block
There are several players who are supposedly on the trading block in both the NBA and MLB and while these might not be trade scenarios that are overly likely or that are being talked about, we're going to take a look at a couple deals that I think could or should be made. Just some things to think about.
Ken Griffey Jr.
Well Griffey says he would welcome a trade to the Cubs, but who would the Cubs give up? Certainly even with the year Junior is having, Felix Pie would not be available and I don't know who else would make the Reds pull the trigger on a Griffey deal. A scenario that I think should get a look is Griffey to the Red Sox. Boston could offer CoCo Crisp who has started heating up and perhaps just needs a change of scenery to return to his form in Cleveland and young arm Craig Hansen who still has great stuff but has soured a bit in the eyes of the organization. If that deal isn't sweet enough for the Reds, Boston could add Brandon Moss or David Murphy to the mix. Both are hitting well in AAA Pawtucket and would complete a pretty solid three player package to offer Cincy.
Another possible destination for Griffey could be Atlanta. The Braves are currently using a platoon in one of their outfield spots and Griffey would certainly be an upgrade. Plus there has always been speculation of Junior to the ATL, possibly because of its proximity to Florida (his offseason home) and the fact that they are almost always in contention. Ken Griffey Jr. to the Cubs just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I guess we will just wait and see. Be on the lookout for a deadline deal to the Braves or Red Sox.
Kevin Garnett
A Kevin Garnett deal to the Celtics has been where all the talks have been but that doesn't seem likely to get done, and KG himself said he would like to be traded to the Suns, but the idea of Garnett playing for Phoenix has to be terrifying for every team in the West. Just for kicks I'll give a scenario of The Kid to the Suns and then I'll give you an alternative possibility. First of all the Suns aren't going to give up Amare Stoudemire so just forget about a straight up swap there. A likely possibility would involve Shawn Marion going to Minnesota as the main piece in the trade along with possibly Raja Bell and Marcus Banks to even things out a little bit. That would actually be about as good of quality as the Timberwolves could hope to get in a trade for Garnett. Marion is a 20/10 guy, Raja Bell is a good shooter and scorer and a very capable point guard, and Marcus Banks is actually a very quality guard who kind of just could never get in the flow of the Suns offense. Banks was at the disadvantage of backing up Steve Nash in a system that was designed to be run by Steve Nash. No offense to Banks, but no one in the league can do the things Nash does. Banks never really had a chances to succeed in Phoenix. This trade really is pretty fair and could actually happen. Some minor adjustments would probably have to get made in order to make the salary situations work but I'm not an accountant so I will leave the number crunching to someone with a degree in it.
Here is a different scenario that I think could work as well. KG to the Lakers has always been a pipe dream of LA fans, but maybe it isn't so unrealistic after all. The Lakers could offer Lamar Odom, Smoosh Parker and Jordan Farmar for KG and *insert name of random back-up point guard here*. Again there would probably be other players involved for salary cap reasons but they would likely be inconsequential salary dumps for the most part. You say this deal doesn't look that fair, but Odom is one of the most unique talents in the league. If you think about it, he is kind of the original version of Kevin Durant, except he's probably a better passer than Durant ever will be. With all of the hype surrounding Durant heading into the draft that sounds crazy right now, but Odom and Durant are very similar players in my mind. Except of course Odom can likely bench his body weight. Not saying this deal will happen, but especially if Kobe gets traded, look for the Lakers brass to make a splash like this in order to stop the bleeding with its fanbase.
Tejada Continues Streak, but not Right Way
Miguel Tejada continued his consecutive games played streak Thursday, extending it to 1,152 games, only aproximately 1,500 shy of Cal Ripken's record. Tejada is currently the active leader in consecutive games played but there was some controversy about how the streak lived on in Thursday's game. Tejada was hit by a pitch on the wrist Wednesday night and could barely hold the bat tight enough to bunt in his only plate appearance on Thursday. Tejada reached on a fielder's choice and was promptly removed for a pinch runner. The Orioles had moved Tejada into the number two spot in the batting order so he could get his at bat, and get out of the game quicker. There was really very little deception in what they were trying to do. Cheaply allow Tejada to continue his streak when he was clearly not fit to play. I am all for pursuing records and everything, but this is ridiculous and it makes a mockery of the Iron Man record. What makes the record great is that Cal Ripken was able to go out for over 2,600 straight games and try and help his team win and when Ripken was nearing the end of his career and felt like the team had a better chance to win with someone else in his spot, he told the manage to sit him down. That's what this record is all about, not about how many games you can get an at bat in so you can bunt with a broken wrist.
As it turns out, Tejada's wrist is broken and his streak will likely come to an end in Baltimore's next game, but even cheaply extending his mark by one game is too many. Maybe I'm overreactive, but this really just didn't sit well with me. I am not claiming that I'm being rational about this at all, I just really was not a big fan of this move when I heard about it.
Thats all for today folks, enjoy your Friday.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Slammin' Sammy
I am not going to give an entire section to Sammy Sosa but I do want to say, way to go Slammin' Sammy on hitting homer number 600. It took a lot of guts and belief in himself to take a non-guaranteed contract coming into the season. It's easy to forget already that Sosa had to earn his spot on the Rangers this season and for a 38 year old that everyone thought was done, that's pretty impressive if you ask me. Now Sammy isn't having the greatest season, it seems like he's striking out at an alarmingly high rate even for him, and now that he's gotten that No. 600 he wanted so badly he should probably call it a career after this year, but none the less, it is a great accomplishment for Sosa. Now onto the real meat of the post, a story that happened a couple days ago that I meant to write about but didn't get the chance, the Memphis Grizzlies made one of the most perplexing moves I have ever heard of, and in the interest of fairness, Curt Schilling needs to reconsider his desire to keep pitching.
Grizzlies Really Reach for the Stars
The Memphis Grizzlies hired Chris Wallace to be their new General Manager a couple days ago. Wallace had been serving in that same capacity for the Boston Celtics. Yes, THOSE Boston Celtics. The same Celtics who finished with the second worst record in the NBA, second only to, you guessed it, the Memphis Grizzlies. Now I may be missing something but this seems like just about the dumbest move ever. The worst team in the NBA hires the GM of the second worst team in the NBA? How is this a good idea? The Celtics are one of the worst put together basketball teams I have ever seen. The only thing that would have been worse than this would have been if they Grizzlies had hired Isaiah Thomas to be their new GM.
Maybe it's just me, but if you are the Grizzlies and have any desire not to end up in the lottery every season wouldn't you try and hire someone who, I don't know, has any idea what he's doing? The GM of the second worst team in the league is not really the guy you should be shooting for. Maybe a guy with a proven track record, maybe an up and coming front office assistant. But a guy who has been with the Celtics for ten years? Can anyone name more than three good things that have happened to the Celtics in the last ten years? I didn't think so. That's not a coincidence, that's the handywork of Chris Wallace, the runner-up for the Worst GM of the Year Award. I bet that Grizzlies' fans, all 19 of them, are really excited about the new direction the team has taken. If Memphis was trying to alienate their fanbase to prepare for moving the franchise than this is a fantastic move. However since the Grizzlies have already been through a franchise move, that's probably not a likely scenario. There's a chance I am wrong about Chris Wallace, but let's be honest, not a good chance. This is why bad teams stay bad, because they make moves like this. Way to go Griz.
Well I Said it about Clemens, Now its Schilling's Turn.
Curt Schilling came within one out of throwing a no-hitter a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately it was a complete abberation. Schilling has simply not been a reliable starting pitcher this year, or really the last couple years, much less the ace that people still try to claim he is. Very simply put, Schilling needs to seriously reconsider his desire to keep pitching after this season. And for the love of everything good and holy, Boston Red Sox, do not resign this man. I am confident the Red Sox will make the right move in not giving Schilling another contract, the same way they wouldn't overpay for Pedro Martinez after the 2004 season. GM Theo Epstein seems to be able to seperate nastalgia of what the player has done for the team and doing whats best for the team when he is deciding who the team should and shouldn't resign. Schilling will always be a hero in Boston, and rightfully so, they wouldn't have won the World Series without his bloody sock heroics, but I wouldn't count on Schilling pitching for the Red Sox after this season.
To be completely honest Schilling probably should have hung it up after the 2004 postseason. By all accounts the man loves attention and would that not have been the perfect exit for an attention whore? Leaving the game of baseball after having carried his team back from an 0-3 deficit against its biggest rivals and eventually to the most heavily anticipated World Series championship in baseball history, is there really anything to prove after that? Is there any better way to go out? Instead he limped back in 2005, when he rushed his return and did not pitch well at all. He bounced back to a certain extent in 2006 to be respectable again but it wasn't nearly enough to help the Red Sox even make the playoffs. And this year he has not shown good stuff as he has struggled in seemingly at least every other start. So here is my plea, Curt, I like you and I will forever be grateful to you for sacrifing your body and probably your long term health to help the Red Sox win the World Series. With that said, you are currently a borderline Hall of Famer and hanging on too long will not help your case. Just call it quits before you taint the image every Boston fan still holds of you as one of their heroes.
Schilling was placed on the DL today even after the MRI of his shoulder showed no structural damage. So we know that he has the effects of a shoulder injury without any actual injury. You know what that's called? Not having it anymore. It's time to let go Curt, do it for me, do it for all of us.
That's all folks.
Grizzlies Really Reach for the Stars
The Memphis Grizzlies hired Chris Wallace to be their new General Manager a couple days ago. Wallace had been serving in that same capacity for the Boston Celtics. Yes, THOSE Boston Celtics. The same Celtics who finished with the second worst record in the NBA, second only to, you guessed it, the Memphis Grizzlies. Now I may be missing something but this seems like just about the dumbest move ever. The worst team in the NBA hires the GM of the second worst team in the NBA? How is this a good idea? The Celtics are one of the worst put together basketball teams I have ever seen. The only thing that would have been worse than this would have been if they Grizzlies had hired Isaiah Thomas to be their new GM.
Maybe it's just me, but if you are the Grizzlies and have any desire not to end up in the lottery every season wouldn't you try and hire someone who, I don't know, has any idea what he's doing? The GM of the second worst team in the league is not really the guy you should be shooting for. Maybe a guy with a proven track record, maybe an up and coming front office assistant. But a guy who has been with the Celtics for ten years? Can anyone name more than three good things that have happened to the Celtics in the last ten years? I didn't think so. That's not a coincidence, that's the handywork of Chris Wallace, the runner-up for the Worst GM of the Year Award. I bet that Grizzlies' fans, all 19 of them, are really excited about the new direction the team has taken. If Memphis was trying to alienate their fanbase to prepare for moving the franchise than this is a fantastic move. However since the Grizzlies have already been through a franchise move, that's probably not a likely scenario. There's a chance I am wrong about Chris Wallace, but let's be honest, not a good chance. This is why bad teams stay bad, because they make moves like this. Way to go Griz.
Well I Said it about Clemens, Now its Schilling's Turn.
Curt Schilling came within one out of throwing a no-hitter a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately it was a complete abberation. Schilling has simply not been a reliable starting pitcher this year, or really the last couple years, much less the ace that people still try to claim he is. Very simply put, Schilling needs to seriously reconsider his desire to keep pitching after this season. And for the love of everything good and holy, Boston Red Sox, do not resign this man. I am confident the Red Sox will make the right move in not giving Schilling another contract, the same way they wouldn't overpay for Pedro Martinez after the 2004 season. GM Theo Epstein seems to be able to seperate nastalgia of what the player has done for the team and doing whats best for the team when he is deciding who the team should and shouldn't resign. Schilling will always be a hero in Boston, and rightfully so, they wouldn't have won the World Series without his bloody sock heroics, but I wouldn't count on Schilling pitching for the Red Sox after this season.
To be completely honest Schilling probably should have hung it up after the 2004 postseason. By all accounts the man loves attention and would that not have been the perfect exit for an attention whore? Leaving the game of baseball after having carried his team back from an 0-3 deficit against its biggest rivals and eventually to the most heavily anticipated World Series championship in baseball history, is there really anything to prove after that? Is there any better way to go out? Instead he limped back in 2005, when he rushed his return and did not pitch well at all. He bounced back to a certain extent in 2006 to be respectable again but it wasn't nearly enough to help the Red Sox even make the playoffs. And this year he has not shown good stuff as he has struggled in seemingly at least every other start. So here is my plea, Curt, I like you and I will forever be grateful to you for sacrifing your body and probably your long term health to help the Red Sox win the World Series. With that said, you are currently a borderline Hall of Famer and hanging on too long will not help your case. Just call it quits before you taint the image every Boston fan still holds of you as one of their heroes.
Schilling was placed on the DL today even after the MRI of his shoulder showed no structural damage. So we know that he has the effects of a shoulder injury without any actual injury. You know what that's called? Not having it anymore. It's time to let go Curt, do it for me, do it for all of us.
That's all folks.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
And Down the Stretch They Come!
I just think it sounds cool when announcers yell that during a horse race, that's all. And yes, I do watch horse racing three times a year for the Triple Crown races, and I find the races themselves pretty exciting. The all day prerace coverage designed to help me understand the horses mindset I do not enjoy. It's a horse, it doesn't have a mindset, it has instincts, that's all. And that whole Barbaro thing enrages me beyond belief. It was very sad that the horse died, I can understand that, but people saying this horse changed or touched their lives? Seriously, it's a freaking horse, a very fast horse yes (now just very fast glue actually, oh whoops, too soon?), but still just a horse. Care this much about other people you idiots. Anyway moving on to today's topics, we have tragedy in college football, and Kobe Bryant should probably talk less. Let's go.
Terry Hoeppner Loses His Battle
College football suffered a loss greater than any team faces on Saturday's in the fall. Terry Hoeppner, the 59 year old head coach at the University of Indiana, lost his battle with brain cancer. I am sure there's a thousand stories about how Hoeppner was a great second father to countless football players, I know Ben Roethlisberger has made a statement saying as much, but what gets forgotten in this is that aside from being a football coach, Terry Hoeppner was also a husband and a father and no one in the world of college football can hold a candle to how much his wife and three children will miss their husband and father. I know that a lot of people die everyday who leave behind families, but they're not famous so I don't hear about them specifically, so I can't really speak much about those people here. All I can say is that if you're the type who is inclined to pray in these type of situations, asking for comfort for Hoeppner's family, than that's great, but while you're at it, go ahead and toss in a word or two for people's lost loved ones that don't make headlines on SportsCenter. My condolences to Terry Hoeppner's wife and three children.
The World to Kobe Bryant: Shhhhhhh!
OK Black Mamba, we get it, you don't want to play for the Lakers anymore. Now shut-up. For the love of everything good and holy, shut-up. All of the whining in the world won't force LA to trade you. In fact it might make the process counterproductive. If you would have just went to the team, asked for a trade and then kept your mouth shut there's a chance you would have been easier to move. Now any team that is even willing to consider taking on Kobe and his big bag of crazy isn't going to be willing to give up nearly as much for him as they would be if they were considering simply the fact that they were trading for the 2-time defending NBA scoring champ.
Here is what I don't get. Kobe is still a guy that is supposed to be trying to rebuild his image. Remember the whole Colorado thing? For his image's purposes it doesn't matter if he actually did it, or that the charges were dropped, because the minute the story broke his reputation as the league's poster boy good guy was instantly sent into a bigger rebuilding project than the Celtics have been in since Larry Legend left town. My question is, how is looking like a big whining prima dona good for his image? It's not. Doesn't he have a PR lady that proof reads the stuff he posts on his website before he comes off like a guy that just won't shut up about how much it sucks to be the best player in the game on a team that isn't trying hard enough to win? And how on earth did Kobe not realize he was being videotaped when he went off on Andrew Bynum and Mitch Kupchak? I don't care if it was a cell phone camera or whatever it was, isn't it pretty easy to tell when someone has a cell phone fixed in your direction when you're talking to them? Do us all a favor Kobe, just duct tape your mouth closed, and sit on your hands so you don't say or type anything else that makes us want to hate you.
That's all for today folks, hope you enjoyed the double dose.
Terry Hoeppner Loses His Battle
College football suffered a loss greater than any team faces on Saturday's in the fall. Terry Hoeppner, the 59 year old head coach at the University of Indiana, lost his battle with brain cancer. I am sure there's a thousand stories about how Hoeppner was a great second father to countless football players, I know Ben Roethlisberger has made a statement saying as much, but what gets forgotten in this is that aside from being a football coach, Terry Hoeppner was also a husband and a father and no one in the world of college football can hold a candle to how much his wife and three children will miss their husband and father. I know that a lot of people die everyday who leave behind families, but they're not famous so I don't hear about them specifically, so I can't really speak much about those people here. All I can say is that if you're the type who is inclined to pray in these type of situations, asking for comfort for Hoeppner's family, than that's great, but while you're at it, go ahead and toss in a word or two for people's lost loved ones that don't make headlines on SportsCenter. My condolences to Terry Hoeppner's wife and three children.
The World to Kobe Bryant: Shhhhhhh!
OK Black Mamba, we get it, you don't want to play for the Lakers anymore. Now shut-up. For the love of everything good and holy, shut-up. All of the whining in the world won't force LA to trade you. In fact it might make the process counterproductive. If you would have just went to the team, asked for a trade and then kept your mouth shut there's a chance you would have been easier to move. Now any team that is even willing to consider taking on Kobe and his big bag of crazy isn't going to be willing to give up nearly as much for him as they would be if they were considering simply the fact that they were trading for the 2-time defending NBA scoring champ.
Here is what I don't get. Kobe is still a guy that is supposed to be trying to rebuild his image. Remember the whole Colorado thing? For his image's purposes it doesn't matter if he actually did it, or that the charges were dropped, because the minute the story broke his reputation as the league's poster boy good guy was instantly sent into a bigger rebuilding project than the Celtics have been in since Larry Legend left town. My question is, how is looking like a big whining prima dona good for his image? It's not. Doesn't he have a PR lady that proof reads the stuff he posts on his website before he comes off like a guy that just won't shut up about how much it sucks to be the best player in the game on a team that isn't trying hard enough to win? And how on earth did Kobe not realize he was being videotaped when he went off on Andrew Bynum and Mitch Kupchak? I don't care if it was a cell phone camera or whatever it was, isn't it pretty easy to tell when someone has a cell phone fixed in your direction when you're talking to them? Do us all a favor Kobe, just duct tape your mouth closed, and sit on your hands so you don't say or type anything else that makes us want to hate you.
That's all for today folks, hope you enjoyed the double dose.
Take 1
Well here is what I was going to talk about yesterday before my computer decided it should spite me and erase everything. . . .
Seriously, the Athletes on Motorcycles Thing Needs to Stop
I am not against the use of motorcycles. People who ride them in a safe and intelligent manner can have a good time with them without putting themselves at much risk. However, I am beginning to believe it is physically impossible for an athlete to ride a motorcycle in a way that does not almost guarantee they will receive great bodily harm. These guys just have a default mindset that make doing things like riding a motorcycle infinitely more harmful to them.
Most people have a decently firm grasp on their own mortality whether they realize it or not. That anxious feeling you get when you fly? That's your grip on your mortality talking. That fear of heights you have? Yup, same thing. Professional athletes for the most part have a much looser grip on not only their own mortality, but of reality in general. It kind of makes sense when you think about it. These people get paid for performing physical feats with their bodies that 99% of the population can't come close to doing. When you are considered to be physically superior than almost all of society in just about every way, why wouldn't you begin to feel like you're invincible? Most athletes feel as though they only place they can get hurt is on the field of competition and that's only because they are waging war against the only other people in the world who are as physically gifted as themselves. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet at high speeds doesn't fall into the category of things that can hurt them in their minds. Unfortunately this is a very dangerous misconception. Jay Williams. Ben Roethlisberger. Diego "Chico" Corrales. And the latest, LaVar Arrington. Just to name a few. How many names have to be on this list before these guys get a clue? Hire a driver, ride around in a limo all the time, I think that's a pretty good alternative.
Cubs are Heading in the Right Direction
Well the Chicago Cubs appeared to be finally headed in the right direction this season. And I don't mean in the standings, even though the Cubs are in second place in the atrocious NL Central at seven games back (and six games under .500). After an incident recently in the dugout and clubhouse in which Carlos Zambrano apparently beat the daylights out of his catcher Michael Barret, the Cubs finally turned their agression to their opponents rather than on each other. Now I do not condone throwing haymakers during the course of a sporting event that isn't boxing, but I also don't feel like baseball fights are as big of an issue as some people like to make them out to be. All I am saying is it is good to see the Cubs going after the other team rather than their own teammates. I think that means they're heading in the right direction. While I say that almost entirely jokingly, it might actually be true. Fights kind of have a way of uniting teams in baseball. It isn't a good solution to try and turn around a bad season and sometimes it is actually a sign of a team where the wheels are about to fall completely off, but every now and then, the team unites behind a fight like they do when they're trying to keep their best player from getting beat up by a pitcher and it can help turn their season around. Who knows, I don't think the Cubs are good enough to make much noise this season even if they do end up winning their horrific division I wouldn't count on them to do much in the playoffs, but at least they can bust a few heads on the way right?
That's all for now folks. I promised a double header today so check back tonight for the second post, thanks for playing, I'm out.
Seriously, the Athletes on Motorcycles Thing Needs to Stop
I am not against the use of motorcycles. People who ride them in a safe and intelligent manner can have a good time with them without putting themselves at much risk. However, I am beginning to believe it is physically impossible for an athlete to ride a motorcycle in a way that does not almost guarantee they will receive great bodily harm. These guys just have a default mindset that make doing things like riding a motorcycle infinitely more harmful to them.
Most people have a decently firm grasp on their own mortality whether they realize it or not. That anxious feeling you get when you fly? That's your grip on your mortality talking. That fear of heights you have? Yup, same thing. Professional athletes for the most part have a much looser grip on not only their own mortality, but of reality in general. It kind of makes sense when you think about it. These people get paid for performing physical feats with their bodies that 99% of the population can't come close to doing. When you are considered to be physically superior than almost all of society in just about every way, why wouldn't you begin to feel like you're invincible? Most athletes feel as though they only place they can get hurt is on the field of competition and that's only because they are waging war against the only other people in the world who are as physically gifted as themselves. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet at high speeds doesn't fall into the category of things that can hurt them in their minds. Unfortunately this is a very dangerous misconception. Jay Williams. Ben Roethlisberger. Diego "Chico" Corrales. And the latest, LaVar Arrington. Just to name a few. How many names have to be on this list before these guys get a clue? Hire a driver, ride around in a limo all the time, I think that's a pretty good alternative.
Cubs are Heading in the Right Direction
Well the Chicago Cubs appeared to be finally headed in the right direction this season. And I don't mean in the standings, even though the Cubs are in second place in the atrocious NL Central at seven games back (and six games under .500). After an incident recently in the dugout and clubhouse in which Carlos Zambrano apparently beat the daylights out of his catcher Michael Barret, the Cubs finally turned their agression to their opponents rather than on each other. Now I do not condone throwing haymakers during the course of a sporting event that isn't boxing, but I also don't feel like baseball fights are as big of an issue as some people like to make them out to be. All I am saying is it is good to see the Cubs going after the other team rather than their own teammates. I think that means they're heading in the right direction. While I say that almost entirely jokingly, it might actually be true. Fights kind of have a way of uniting teams in baseball. It isn't a good solution to try and turn around a bad season and sometimes it is actually a sign of a team where the wheels are about to fall completely off, but every now and then, the team unites behind a fight like they do when they're trying to keep their best player from getting beat up by a pitcher and it can help turn their season around. Who knows, I don't think the Cubs are good enough to make much noise this season even if they do end up winning their horrific division I wouldn't count on them to do much in the playoffs, but at least they can bust a few heads on the way right?
That's all for now folks. I promised a double header today so check back tonight for the second post, thanks for playing, I'm out.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Ah Crap
Ok so I had the whole post written out for today and as I was going to post it the whole thing deleted and then saved the draft which was now a blank page over the draft that was complete and now I am too disheartened about the whole thing to retype it all, so you will get a double dose of Big O Sports Blog tomorrow I promise. Thanks for understanding.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Happy Fathers Day
Well if you haven't noticed by now, and by now I mean all week and a half that this page has existed, I think I am taking Saturday's off. I know, you are crushed that you can only read new things on Big O Sports Blog six days a week, but until you start paying subscriptions than you just have to deal. If you would like to start paying me than I'll add that seventh update for you, I take cash and checks can be made out to me personally, Big O Sports Blog doesn't have a bank account . . . . yet. Anyway today is just several random things on my mind, so enjoy this snapshot of what its like to spend approximately 5-10 minutes in my head. Here goes.
Early this afternoon after I woke up from my weekly Sunday nap, I was watching the U.S. Open. I don't have a whole lot of in depth analysis on the event just some observations. First of all when did Tiger Woods get so jacked? I mean wasn't it just about a year, maybe a year and a half ago that he was starting to look a little soft around the edges, the double chin starting to emerge a bit. Now look at him, he was practically wearing a Nike version of Under Armour's skin tight heat wear and he looked like he was about to suit up at safety for the Patriots and then challenge for the world middleweight boxing title. I asked my friend about this and he jokingly replied steroids (neither of us actually believe Tiger is juicing) but if Tiger is actually on something, I would like to know what so I can go to GNC and buy some. I am starting to think that Tiger saw himself on SportsCenter one night and had a panic attack. His thoughts probably went something like this "It doesn't matter if I'm the best golfer of all time, I WILL not let Phil Mickelson have a better body than me."
This brings me to my second and last point about the U.S. Open today. While Tiger Woods is clearly a world class athlete, the same cannot be said about most golfers. Not just because several of them are overweight and probably couldn't run a mile in under a half hour, but because today's winner, Angel Cabrera, hit a shot toward the end of his round today and immediately reached into his bag and grabbed a cigarette and lit up. Not even kidding, its probably on Youtube right now. Actually probably not because I don't think Angel Cabrera has the makings of a Youtube sensation, but it happened. All I'm saying is, anything you can smoke do professionally and succeed at WHILE smoking, cannot be considered a sport. I have believed golf wasn't a sport for a long time, but after seeing a Tiger Woods that could break me in half, I was kind of on the fence. Don't worry though, Angel Cabrera, the man they call "the duck" settled things for me once and for all. Thanks Daffy.
Just a note, I am not bagging on golf, I actually really enjoy both playing and to a lesser extent watching, and I think it is an incredibly challenging game but I just cannot consider it a sport.
Moving on From Golf and its U.S. Open Champ Smokey McSmokerson
I was watching the Giants play the Red Sox this afternoon and Boston had a fairly comfortable lead, it was five runs at the time if I recall correctly when Barry Bonds hit a home run off Tim Wakefield. And as the ball sailed over J.D. Drew's outstretched glove and into the bullpen, a very strange thing happened. I wasn't mad. It is literally the first time I can ever remember anyone ever hitting a home run against the Red Sox and I wasn't the least bit upset about it. In fact, I was pretty happy about it. The game felt like it was in hand and you know what, I want Barry Bonds to get this record. Not only that, but I want him to crush it. Give me 775 Barry, I would love it. That's all I have to say.
Speaking of Boston, in the midst of a Yankees hot streak the coincided with a Red Sox funk, my optimism about New York being dead was certainly just that, optimism. Honestly deep down, I always knew the Yanks would make a run at things, I just tried to pretend that they didn't scare me. Well listen, anytime with that lineup should scare everyone, that team can mash. I still think they're a starter and some bullpen help short of winning the division but if they win the Wild Card I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised. You know how I can prove I am not just blowing smoke about this and that I always knew the Spankees were the only threat in the East? The whole time the Red Sox were building that ginormous (which by the way is still 8.5 games, which isn't really all that bad) division lead, I never told people how far we were ahead of second place, I told people how far we were ahead of the Yankees. When New York was 14.5 back, they were in fourth place, and you know what, I have no idea how close the second place team was. I am not even sure who it was. I think it was Baltimore and I think it was double digit games but really it didn't matter because the Yankees were 14.5 back and they're the team we had to worry about. With that though, like I said, I think the Yanks are a starter, some bullpen help and maybe even a guy they can count on at first base away from being a championship team, which obviously is much closer than most team are, and again obviously those are needs that will probably be met at the trade deadline (or by people, Phillip Hughes, getting healthy) but a team with a $200 million payroll shouldn't have to get help at the deadline. And I know the Red Sox have the second highest payroll in baseball, but we're in first so it doesn't matter.
That's all folks, hope you were nice to your dad's today. THE END!
Early this afternoon after I woke up from my weekly Sunday nap, I was watching the U.S. Open. I don't have a whole lot of in depth analysis on the event just some observations. First of all when did Tiger Woods get so jacked? I mean wasn't it just about a year, maybe a year and a half ago that he was starting to look a little soft around the edges, the double chin starting to emerge a bit. Now look at him, he was practically wearing a Nike version of Under Armour's skin tight heat wear and he looked like he was about to suit up at safety for the Patriots and then challenge for the world middleweight boxing title. I asked my friend about this and he jokingly replied steroids (neither of us actually believe Tiger is juicing) but if Tiger is actually on something, I would like to know what so I can go to GNC and buy some. I am starting to think that Tiger saw himself on SportsCenter one night and had a panic attack. His thoughts probably went something like this "It doesn't matter if I'm the best golfer of all time, I WILL not let Phil Mickelson have a better body than me."
This brings me to my second and last point about the U.S. Open today. While Tiger Woods is clearly a world class athlete, the same cannot be said about most golfers. Not just because several of them are overweight and probably couldn't run a mile in under a half hour, but because today's winner, Angel Cabrera, hit a shot toward the end of his round today and immediately reached into his bag and grabbed a cigarette and lit up. Not even kidding, its probably on Youtube right now. Actually probably not because I don't think Angel Cabrera has the makings of a Youtube sensation, but it happened. All I'm saying is, anything you can smoke do professionally and succeed at WHILE smoking, cannot be considered a sport. I have believed golf wasn't a sport for a long time, but after seeing a Tiger Woods that could break me in half, I was kind of on the fence. Don't worry though, Angel Cabrera, the man they call "the duck" settled things for me once and for all. Thanks Daffy.
Just a note, I am not bagging on golf, I actually really enjoy both playing and to a lesser extent watching, and I think it is an incredibly challenging game but I just cannot consider it a sport.
Moving on From Golf and its U.S. Open Champ Smokey McSmokerson
I was watching the Giants play the Red Sox this afternoon and Boston had a fairly comfortable lead, it was five runs at the time if I recall correctly when Barry Bonds hit a home run off Tim Wakefield. And as the ball sailed over J.D. Drew's outstretched glove and into the bullpen, a very strange thing happened. I wasn't mad. It is literally the first time I can ever remember anyone ever hitting a home run against the Red Sox and I wasn't the least bit upset about it. In fact, I was pretty happy about it. The game felt like it was in hand and you know what, I want Barry Bonds to get this record. Not only that, but I want him to crush it. Give me 775 Barry, I would love it. That's all I have to say.
Speaking of Boston, in the midst of a Yankees hot streak the coincided with a Red Sox funk, my optimism about New York being dead was certainly just that, optimism. Honestly deep down, I always knew the Yanks would make a run at things, I just tried to pretend that they didn't scare me. Well listen, anytime with that lineup should scare everyone, that team can mash. I still think they're a starter and some bullpen help short of winning the division but if they win the Wild Card I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised. You know how I can prove I am not just blowing smoke about this and that I always knew the Spankees were the only threat in the East? The whole time the Red Sox were building that ginormous (which by the way is still 8.5 games, which isn't really all that bad) division lead, I never told people how far we were ahead of second place, I told people how far we were ahead of the Yankees. When New York was 14.5 back, they were in fourth place, and you know what, I have no idea how close the second place team was. I am not even sure who it was. I think it was Baltimore and I think it was double digit games but really it didn't matter because the Yankees were 14.5 back and they're the team we had to worry about. With that though, like I said, I think the Yanks are a starter, some bullpen help and maybe even a guy they can count on at first base away from being a championship team, which obviously is much closer than most team are, and again obviously those are needs that will probably be met at the trade deadline (or by people, Phillip Hughes, getting healthy) but a team with a $200 million payroll shouldn't have to get help at the deadline. And I know the Red Sox have the second highest payroll in baseball, but we're in first so it doesn't matter.
That's all folks, hope you were nice to your dad's today. THE END!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Opening Day
It was a good way to end the work week for sports' fans. If you missed the opening day of the College World Series than you seriously missed out on some good ball games. I guess they were not so good if you're a pitching aficionado, but if you enjoy the ping of a metal bat you were in heaven. There was also a full slate of interleague MLB games tonight, including Bonds' first trip to Fenway. So let's get rollin'.
25 runs later . . .
The starting pitchers' at today's CWS games got a rude welcome to Omaha. In the first game of the day their was a total of 25 runs scored and neither starter was able to complete five innings. By the end of the day Rice overcame Louisville, climbing back from a six run deficit to score 11 unanswered runs after trailing 10-4. Ironically in this offensive explosion, it was in fact the highly touted pitching depth of Rice which allowed the Owls to win the game. After giving up runs to Louisville in each of the first five innings, the Rice bullpen shut down the Cardinals' offense, preventing them from scoring the rest of the game. The Louisville pen was not nearly as successful, as their best arm, closer Trystan Magnuson, gave up the final six runs to the Owls in his only inning of work. 34 hits and 25 runs later, the game still came down to who had the better pitching. Overall it was a wildly entertaining battle, the only negative in my mind was the four Louisville errors on defense which led to three unearned runs for Rice. To me at least, that made it clear that experience does matter in the College World Series, as the Cardinals were just unable to make fairly routine defensive plays down the stretch, looking uptight and nervous in the late innings of their first CWS appearance.
In the nightcap, North Carolina also had to overcome an early deficit in its 8-5 victory over Mississippi State. The Tar Heels fell behind 4-0 almost before the National Anthem had been completed. In yet another display of shaky starting pitching, neither starter in this game was able to get through more than 5.1 innings. While the score was much lower, this game was remarkably similar in the way it played out to the first game. The Bulldogs of MSU came out swinging to score their early lead, only to be overcome by the superior pitching depth of UNC. The Tar Heels were able to stick eight unanswered runs on the board to take the lead for good, before MSU got a run late to close the scoring. While not as fast paced as the first game, this matchup completed a very good first day at the College World Series.
A note about yesterday's post, "belmont" accurately pointed out in his comment my error in saying that Arizona State had played UCLA in their Super Regional when they in fact beat Ole Miss to get to Omaha. I got the series mixed up with the Cal St. Fullerton Super Regional. Thanks to belmont for being on the ball there.
Bonds' Greeted in Boston with Asteriks
Barry Bonds made his first ever trip to Fenway Park tonight as the Giants squared off against the Red Sox. As Bonds walked to the plate for his first at bat, some fans were seen holding up pieces of paper with large asterisks on them, clearly stating their belief that the career home run record which Bonds is about to break will be a tainted accomplishment. Now I am a Red Sox fan and normally I find the Fenway faithful's antics both clever and amusing. My favorite has to be a tshirt some fans made for Johnny Damon's first trip to Boston as a Yankee which had a picture of Damon's face on the front and on the back it read, "Looks like Jesus, Throws like Mary, Actus like Judas." Now that's pretty good stuff right there. However I can't say I agree with the Boston fans on this one. To this point I haven't weighed in on the steroids issue here on Big O Sports Blog, and I hope to not have to do so again, but its relevant in this situation so here goes. First of all, Bonds has been under the microscope for a good long time now, and Major League Baseball has yet to pin a positive steroid test on him. This is the country of being innocent until PROVEN guilty still right? But that really isn't even the point. My second and most important contention is this; everyone was doing steroids in baseball. The pitchers, the hitters, probably the bat boys and the public address announcer too. Maybe even the guy that throws batting practice. You cannot arbitrarily decide to put asterisks next to certain things because they matter to you. If you want the steroid aided accomplishments to not count for anything then you'd have to wipe out an at least entire decade of everything that happened in pro baseball.
Baseball is a game that goes through phases and corrective periods. Should the marks pitcher's like Bob Gibson put up have an asterisk next to them because they were pitching from a more elevated mound? No, it is just how the game was at the time and people accept that. You have to remember that using performance enhancing drugs wasn't even against the rules in baseball until a few years ago. Bonds would not have been doing anything against the rules during the time period in which most people allege that he used steroids. How can he be a cheater if he wasn't breaking any rules?
Well that wraps it up for today. I respect everyone who can make a coherent argument on the case of steroids in baseball just to make that clear before you decide to rip into me about this in any comments you might make. Hope you enjoy your weekend and don't forget to tune into the CWS.
25 runs later . . .
The starting pitchers' at today's CWS games got a rude welcome to Omaha. In the first game of the day their was a total of 25 runs scored and neither starter was able to complete five innings. By the end of the day Rice overcame Louisville, climbing back from a six run deficit to score 11 unanswered runs after trailing 10-4. Ironically in this offensive explosion, it was in fact the highly touted pitching depth of Rice which allowed the Owls to win the game. After giving up runs to Louisville in each of the first five innings, the Rice bullpen shut down the Cardinals' offense, preventing them from scoring the rest of the game. The Louisville pen was not nearly as successful, as their best arm, closer Trystan Magnuson, gave up the final six runs to the Owls in his only inning of work. 34 hits and 25 runs later, the game still came down to who had the better pitching. Overall it was a wildly entertaining battle, the only negative in my mind was the four Louisville errors on defense which led to three unearned runs for Rice. To me at least, that made it clear that experience does matter in the College World Series, as the Cardinals were just unable to make fairly routine defensive plays down the stretch, looking uptight and nervous in the late innings of their first CWS appearance.
In the nightcap, North Carolina also had to overcome an early deficit in its 8-5 victory over Mississippi State. The Tar Heels fell behind 4-0 almost before the National Anthem had been completed. In yet another display of shaky starting pitching, neither starter in this game was able to get through more than 5.1 innings. While the score was much lower, this game was remarkably similar in the way it played out to the first game. The Bulldogs of MSU came out swinging to score their early lead, only to be overcome by the superior pitching depth of UNC. The Tar Heels were able to stick eight unanswered runs on the board to take the lead for good, before MSU got a run late to close the scoring. While not as fast paced as the first game, this matchup completed a very good first day at the College World Series.
A note about yesterday's post, "belmont" accurately pointed out in his comment my error in saying that Arizona State had played UCLA in their Super Regional when they in fact beat Ole Miss to get to Omaha. I got the series mixed up with the Cal St. Fullerton Super Regional. Thanks to belmont for being on the ball there.
Bonds' Greeted in Boston with Asteriks
Barry Bonds made his first ever trip to Fenway Park tonight as the Giants squared off against the Red Sox. As Bonds walked to the plate for his first at bat, some fans were seen holding up pieces of paper with large asterisks on them, clearly stating their belief that the career home run record which Bonds is about to break will be a tainted accomplishment. Now I am a Red Sox fan and normally I find the Fenway faithful's antics both clever and amusing. My favorite has to be a tshirt some fans made for Johnny Damon's first trip to Boston as a Yankee which had a picture of Damon's face on the front and on the back it read, "Looks like Jesus, Throws like Mary, Actus like Judas." Now that's pretty good stuff right there. However I can't say I agree with the Boston fans on this one. To this point I haven't weighed in on the steroids issue here on Big O Sports Blog, and I hope to not have to do so again, but its relevant in this situation so here goes. First of all, Bonds has been under the microscope for a good long time now, and Major League Baseball has yet to pin a positive steroid test on him. This is the country of being innocent until PROVEN guilty still right? But that really isn't even the point. My second and most important contention is this; everyone was doing steroids in baseball. The pitchers, the hitters, probably the bat boys and the public address announcer too. Maybe even the guy that throws batting practice. You cannot arbitrarily decide to put asterisks next to certain things because they matter to you. If you want the steroid aided accomplishments to not count for anything then you'd have to wipe out an at least entire decade of everything that happened in pro baseball.
Baseball is a game that goes through phases and corrective periods. Should the marks pitcher's like Bob Gibson put up have an asterisk next to them because they were pitching from a more elevated mound? No, it is just how the game was at the time and people accept that. You have to remember that using performance enhancing drugs wasn't even against the rules in baseball until a few years ago. Bonds would not have been doing anything against the rules during the time period in which most people allege that he used steroids. How can he be a cheater if he wasn't breaking any rules?
Well that wraps it up for today. I respect everyone who can make a coherent argument on the case of steroids in baseball just to make that clear before you decide to rip into me about this in any comments you might make. Hope you enjoy your weekend and don't forget to tune into the CWS.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Let the Madness Begin
OK so it isn't exactly March Madness but if you like baseball at all the College World Series really is a great time. First of all I would encourage everyone who can to make it to at least one game, it is a fantastic experience all around. The first CWS game I ever went to was in 1995 it was LSU vs Miami in the winner take all national title game (this was before they went to the Championship Series format). Honestly I don't remember a whole lot about the game, after all I was like eight years old, but I knew I wanted LSU to win. The one thing I do remember, and will always remember was in the 9th inning, LSU was down but they had the winning run up to bat. His name was Warren Morris and he hadn't hit a home run all year (not because he wasn't good, but he had been injured, although he really wasn't much of a power hitter). It wasn't looking good for LSU and being an eight year old, of course I had already become heavily invested emotionally in the Tigers' fate, so I was getting upset at the prospect of them losing. I mean this could have affected my whole outlook on baseball negatively for the rest of my life. One bad childhood memory and its all over.
So to cheer me up, one of the guys I was with, he was a friend from church, told me to stick my glove as high in the air as I could so that Warren would see where I wanted him to hit it, and then he would hit it to me and the Tigers would win. Well I bought it (again, I was eight) so I stuck my glove as high in the air as I could, and what do you know, the very next pitch, Morris swings, the ball pings off his bat and comes sailing toward us a few rows deep in the stands. The ball ended up landing about four people to my left, and I turned to my friend and as everyone was jumping up and down and going crazy I said "He missed, but we still win right?" And the guy from church laughed and told me that we still won. With that I fell in love with baseball and became a lifelong fan.
By the way it is this start to my baseball fanaticism which causes me to supernaturally control the outcome of games, even from thousands of miles away. In case you need further proof, I am the guy who started wearing a different hat during the 2004 playoffs after the Red Sox fell into an 0-3 hole against the Yankees. The new hat prompted Boston to win eight consecutive games and clinch the World Series. You've probably heard of me, I was named MVP of the series by some baseball insiders. . . . that is if you consider me and my immediately family baseball insiders. Anyway, here is what you need to know about the College World Series from an Omaha native who has been attending the event for over a decade (me).
Your Guide to the CWS
First of all let's get the pesky things out of the way such as who is going to win the series, what surprise team to look for and all of that nonsense. After that I will get to the important things, such as what to eat, where to park, and how to make the right fielder cry.
I watched almost all of the Super Regionals in their entirety and I follow college baseball fairly closely during the regular season so I would like to think I have a pretty solid grip on who has a decent shot to take home the hardware. That being said, I have to go ahead and pick North Carolina to win it all. I really liked what they showed as far as the ability to come from behind in the Super Regionals against South Carolina. I was pretty impressed with their pitching staff and they hit pretty well too. It seems like just about everybody in their lineup can come up with a big hit and needless to say, its hard to beat a team like that, although Rice will provide them with a very tough test. I believe that Arizona State will survive the other half of the bracket to meet UNC in the Championship series. ASU had to beat a very tough UCLA team in their Super Regional and did so in the minimum two games. ASU's pitchers' won't blow you away but they are crafty and for the most part very effective. They pretty much epitomize what it means to be a good college pitcher, just don't go looking for most of them in the Majors in a few years.
The team everyone wants to know about is UC-Irvine. The Anteaters (I swear that's their real nickname) defeated a very talented Wichita State team to get to Omaha for the first time, so it's not like they were given a cupcake in the Super Regionals. That being said if you are looking for them to win the national title, keep on looking, because it won't happen. However they remind me a lot of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette team that was here several years ago. All of the fans from Omaha that don't have a particular team they're rooting for will likely latch on to UC-Irvine due to their obscurity and fun nickname (much like Lafayette, the Ragin' Cajuns, I'll admit, I bought a hat). Look for the Anteaters to ride this wave of pseudo-support to a couple of wins, giving everyone false hope that they could pull of that magical Cinderella story, before they are overwhelmed by a more talented and deeper ball club.
Now onto the important stuff. Let's start with parking, because honestly if you don't know what you are doing, it can be a nightmare. There are a few good options I would suggest. You can park in the neighborhood just south of Rosenblatt Stadium if you arrive somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half before game time (which you should do anyway to enjoy the festivities and to chat with the players as the warm-up). To park in someone's driveway you it'll cost you, but most of the time you can find a nice spot on the street and it is just a couple of blocks from the stadium. If you don't mind spending 30 bucks on parking, their are some parking lots and houses directly across the street from Rosenblatt that will be happy to take your money. If you come for a night game and it has cooled down a little bit, their is a large open area north of the stadium just across the interstate on your left hand side that is free to park in, but it is a bit of a walk so I wouldn't suggest parking their in the heat of the day.
As far as food goes, inside of the stadium there is really only one option aside from going the traditional route with hot dogs, which is always a good choice. Chicken tenders basket. The chicken is surprisingly not dry and you get several strips along with a half-basket full of fries, and all for under $7. It is literally the only thing I have ever bought at a ballgame that I didn't feel like I was getting ripped off for, it is very filling. For desert, funnel cakes are a must, that goes without saying, but you should also try Zesto's ice cream if you are an out of towner (of just a West Omaha kid) and have never been there. Zesto's can be found just south of the stadium, most likely hidden behind some sort of merchandise tent. It will be right on the way to the neighborhood where you parked your car.
Speaking of merchandise, if you are going to buy stuff at the CWS, which I always do (what can I say, I am an impulse buyer) I highly suggest you wait until the second day of the Championship Series. At this point everyone is just trying desperately to get rid of all the stuff they brought so everything is available at just an absurd discount. I am talking like you can get a couple shirts and a couple hats for $20 combined, absurd discounts. The only drawback is some of the more popular items are unavailable, so if you have to be trendy even at the CWS you will have to buy your stuff early in the week at full price.
That's everything you need to know about the College World Series, the pride and joy of Omaha, Nebraska. Don't forget, if your team is getting slaughtered walk across the parking lot and check out the Henry Doorly Zoo (the other pride of Omaha, Nebraska). It is world renowned and widely considered the second best zoo in the world to the San Diego Zoo, although some would claim ours is even better. Anyway hope you enjoy the series, and keep checking back at Big O Sports Blog for updates.
So to cheer me up, one of the guys I was with, he was a friend from church, told me to stick my glove as high in the air as I could so that Warren would see where I wanted him to hit it, and then he would hit it to me and the Tigers would win. Well I bought it (again, I was eight) so I stuck my glove as high in the air as I could, and what do you know, the very next pitch, Morris swings, the ball pings off his bat and comes sailing toward us a few rows deep in the stands. The ball ended up landing about four people to my left, and I turned to my friend and as everyone was jumping up and down and going crazy I said "He missed, but we still win right?" And the guy from church laughed and told me that we still won. With that I fell in love with baseball and became a lifelong fan.
By the way it is this start to my baseball fanaticism which causes me to supernaturally control the outcome of games, even from thousands of miles away. In case you need further proof, I am the guy who started wearing a different hat during the 2004 playoffs after the Red Sox fell into an 0-3 hole against the Yankees. The new hat prompted Boston to win eight consecutive games and clinch the World Series. You've probably heard of me, I was named MVP of the series by some baseball insiders. . . . that is if you consider me and my immediately family baseball insiders. Anyway, here is what you need to know about the College World Series from an Omaha native who has been attending the event for over a decade (me).
Your Guide to the CWS
First of all let's get the pesky things out of the way such as who is going to win the series, what surprise team to look for and all of that nonsense. After that I will get to the important things, such as what to eat, where to park, and how to make the right fielder cry.
I watched almost all of the Super Regionals in their entirety and I follow college baseball fairly closely during the regular season so I would like to think I have a pretty solid grip on who has a decent shot to take home the hardware. That being said, I have to go ahead and pick North Carolina to win it all. I really liked what they showed as far as the ability to come from behind in the Super Regionals against South Carolina. I was pretty impressed with their pitching staff and they hit pretty well too. It seems like just about everybody in their lineup can come up with a big hit and needless to say, its hard to beat a team like that, although Rice will provide them with a very tough test. I believe that Arizona State will survive the other half of the bracket to meet UNC in the Championship series. ASU had to beat a very tough UCLA team in their Super Regional and did so in the minimum two games. ASU's pitchers' won't blow you away but they are crafty and for the most part very effective. They pretty much epitomize what it means to be a good college pitcher, just don't go looking for most of them in the Majors in a few years.
The team everyone wants to know about is UC-Irvine. The Anteaters (I swear that's their real nickname) defeated a very talented Wichita State team to get to Omaha for the first time, so it's not like they were given a cupcake in the Super Regionals. That being said if you are looking for them to win the national title, keep on looking, because it won't happen. However they remind me a lot of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette team that was here several years ago. All of the fans from Omaha that don't have a particular team they're rooting for will likely latch on to UC-Irvine due to their obscurity and fun nickname (much like Lafayette, the Ragin' Cajuns, I'll admit, I bought a hat). Look for the Anteaters to ride this wave of pseudo-support to a couple of wins, giving everyone false hope that they could pull of that magical Cinderella story, before they are overwhelmed by a more talented and deeper ball club.
Now onto the important stuff. Let's start with parking, because honestly if you don't know what you are doing, it can be a nightmare. There are a few good options I would suggest. You can park in the neighborhood just south of Rosenblatt Stadium if you arrive somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half before game time (which you should do anyway to enjoy the festivities and to chat with the players as the warm-up). To park in someone's driveway you it'll cost you, but most of the time you can find a nice spot on the street and it is just a couple of blocks from the stadium. If you don't mind spending 30 bucks on parking, their are some parking lots and houses directly across the street from Rosenblatt that will be happy to take your money. If you come for a night game and it has cooled down a little bit, their is a large open area north of the stadium just across the interstate on your left hand side that is free to park in, but it is a bit of a walk so I wouldn't suggest parking their in the heat of the day.
As far as food goes, inside of the stadium there is really only one option aside from going the traditional route with hot dogs, which is always a good choice. Chicken tenders basket. The chicken is surprisingly not dry and you get several strips along with a half-basket full of fries, and all for under $7. It is literally the only thing I have ever bought at a ballgame that I didn't feel like I was getting ripped off for, it is very filling. For desert, funnel cakes are a must, that goes without saying, but you should also try Zesto's ice cream if you are an out of towner (of just a West Omaha kid) and have never been there. Zesto's can be found just south of the stadium, most likely hidden behind some sort of merchandise tent. It will be right on the way to the neighborhood where you parked your car.
Speaking of merchandise, if you are going to buy stuff at the CWS, which I always do (what can I say, I am an impulse buyer) I highly suggest you wait until the second day of the Championship Series. At this point everyone is just trying desperately to get rid of all the stuff they brought so everything is available at just an absurd discount. I am talking like you can get a couple shirts and a couple hats for $20 combined, absurd discounts. The only drawback is some of the more popular items are unavailable, so if you have to be trendy even at the CWS you will have to buy your stuff early in the week at full price.
That's everything you need to know about the College World Series, the pride and joy of Omaha, Nebraska. Don't forget, if your team is getting slaughtered walk across the parking lot and check out the Henry Doorly Zoo (the other pride of Omaha, Nebraska). It is world renowned and widely considered the second best zoo in the world to the San Diego Zoo, although some would claim ours is even better. Anyway hope you enjoy the series, and keep checking back at Big O Sports Blog for updates.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Wednesday Night Fights
Wednesday Night Fights is what I watched tonight, usually the boxing isn't all that good but let's be honest, I saw the De La Hoya vs Mayweather fight and honestly it wasn't that good either. As a diehard boxing fan it pains me to say that the fight that was supposed to save boxing did not even leave me with lasting memories. Anyway I watch pretty much every edition of Wednesday and Friday Night Fights because every once in a while you see a pair of very talented and rising boxers go after each other and it gives boxing fans a glimmer of hope for the future. Anyway this post isn't about boxing I just didn't have any other titles which remotely tied in to the fact that this is Wednesday.
On tap for today, my U.S. Open preview (yes I am talking about golf), and unless I come up with something else before I'm done writing that, then that will be all.
I will be the first one to admit that I don't know a whole lot about golf, more than the average person? Probably, but I am by no means an expert on the game (I have trouble calling it a sport for two reasons, because their is a tour for your mother and your grandfather, and because John Daly plays, but that's a different topic for a different day). Anyway, the U.S. Open starts tomorrow with the first groups teeing off before my main demographic rolls out of bed, and while I probably will not catch any of it until I flip to it between commercial breaks of something else this weekend, the event is a pretty big deal. Also there is no way it won't be more entertaining than the NBA finals. If you are wondering, yes this is the first time that golf has ever been able to legitimately claim that it is more exciting than basketball played by people with a "y" chromosome. However, moving right a long, here's what you should know about the upcoming U.S. Open.
This year's Masters winner Zach Johnson will win the U.S. Open. OK, maybe not, but if you are an obsessive gambler leading you to bet on things like golf, you should check what Zach Johnson's odds are, because he's most likely a long-ish shot, and put your money on him instead of Tiger who is probably at even odds to win or Phil Mickelson who's wrist might makes him a terrible choice. After hanging up with your bookie, you should then immediately dial 1-800-bets off. I guess what I'm saying is, Zach Johnson is a dark horse, but a really good one who has a legitimate shot to win. Oakmont is a course that plays right into Johnson's strengths. While Johnson doesn't hit the longest ball on tour, he is extremely accurate which should keep him out of the courses' treacherous bunkers and extremely thick and difficult roughs. Most people agree it isn't going to take incredibly low scores to win this tournament, it will mostly just be whoever messes up the least and I believe that will be Zach Johnson.
In case you were wondering, a friend of mine informed me as I was writing this that someone on ESPN also picked Johnson to win the U.S. Open, making my prediction look less impressive when it comes to pass. Well you know what? Screw them, I thought of it first but I was busy helping my nieces put their toys away so I couldn't post until now.
Well that's all for my Wednesday addition, check back on Sunday to see me gloat about being right about Zach Johnson . . . Or check back Friday when I pretend this whole thing never happened after Johnson misses the cut.
On tap for today, my U.S. Open preview (yes I am talking about golf), and unless I come up with something else before I'm done writing that, then that will be all.
I will be the first one to admit that I don't know a whole lot about golf, more than the average person? Probably, but I am by no means an expert on the game (I have trouble calling it a sport for two reasons, because their is a tour for your mother and your grandfather, and because John Daly plays, but that's a different topic for a different day). Anyway, the U.S. Open starts tomorrow with the first groups teeing off before my main demographic rolls out of bed, and while I probably will not catch any of it until I flip to it between commercial breaks of something else this weekend, the event is a pretty big deal. Also there is no way it won't be more entertaining than the NBA finals. If you are wondering, yes this is the first time that golf has ever been able to legitimately claim that it is more exciting than basketball played by people with a "y" chromosome. However, moving right a long, here's what you should know about the upcoming U.S. Open.
This year's Masters winner Zach Johnson will win the U.S. Open. OK, maybe not, but if you are an obsessive gambler leading you to bet on things like golf, you should check what Zach Johnson's odds are, because he's most likely a long-ish shot, and put your money on him instead of Tiger who is probably at even odds to win or Phil Mickelson who's wrist might makes him a terrible choice. After hanging up with your bookie, you should then immediately dial 1-800-bets off. I guess what I'm saying is, Zach Johnson is a dark horse, but a really good one who has a legitimate shot to win. Oakmont is a course that plays right into Johnson's strengths. While Johnson doesn't hit the longest ball on tour, he is extremely accurate which should keep him out of the courses' treacherous bunkers and extremely thick and difficult roughs. Most people agree it isn't going to take incredibly low scores to win this tournament, it will mostly just be whoever messes up the least and I believe that will be Zach Johnson.
In case you were wondering, a friend of mine informed me as I was writing this that someone on ESPN also picked Johnson to win the U.S. Open, making my prediction look less impressive when it comes to pass. Well you know what? Screw them, I thought of it first but I was busy helping my nieces put their toys away so I couldn't post until now.
Well that's all for my Wednesday addition, check back on Sunday to see me gloat about being right about Zach Johnson . . . Or check back Friday when I pretend this whole thing never happened after Johnson misses the cut.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Two for One Tuesday
I don't know what the title means for this one so don't ask . . . come to think of it, I don't know what a lot of my titles mean, I just feel obligated to put something that might be mistaken for cleverness in the title line. Anyway Tuesday brought us a no-hitter in Detroit, Brad Lidge is apparently still having nightmares about Albert Pujols, and an NBA Finals game which makes fun of itself.
Verlander Makes Brewers Look Silly with Some Help From . . . the Brewers
Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, striking out 12 and walking four. No-hitters are a rare and spectacular feat, always have been and always will be, and truly there is nothing like watching a baseball game and suddenly realizing in the 6th inning that no ones gotten a hit yet. Amazing stuff it really is, so congrats to Verlander for a night that he will always remember. I have to be honest here, I wasn't actually watching Verlander pitch, in fact I didn't hear about it until near the end of the Red Sox game I was watching at the time. However I did see the highlights and I have to say that while the Brewers did not get credit for any hits tonight, they certainly deserve credit for making Verlander's no-hit bid a good deal easier on him.
I hate to take credit away from Verlander for what he did but the Brewers had some truly awful at bats tonight. Had Milwaukee exercised any amount of plate discipline at all they probably could have coaxed Verlander to throw some more hittable pitches and avoided going down on the wrong side of history. Don't get me wrong, I can understand striking out on a 99 mph pitch that paints the black, but striking out a half dozen different times on 58-foot sliders? I can understand a couple of times but over half of Verlander's strike outs were on just awful swings at pitches that just weren't close. You get paid to hit a baseball for a living, you have to know that the big breaking ball in the dirt is coming, the least you can do is lay off a pitch that never really even approaches the strike zone.
I didn't really pay much attention to Mark Buerhle's no-hitter earlier this year, and off of the top of my head I can't really remember a lot of the no-hitters in the past, but if I had to guess, the situation between the Brewers' and Verlander tonight is probably a pretty common one when it comes to these kind of pitching performances. Plain and simple it takes a lot of luck, whether it be from over-anxious hitters or some spectacular defense, no-hitters are rare for a reason. If you look at some of the names on the list of people who have thrown no-hitters (Hideo Nomo) or perfect games (Dennis Martinez), it doesn't take you long to realize that a lot of these guys weren't exactly waiting for the Hall of Fame to call five years after they retired. Not to say that Verlander won't go on to have a long Hall of Fame worthy career, because he might. And not to say that throwing a no-hitter isn't something he should always be proud of, because it is. But these things need to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, Verlander threw a great game, but also, he got pretty lucky too.
Lidge has Flashbacks of the 2005 Postseason
I like Brad Lidge and think he is a great pitcher, so I won't harp on this long, but tonight in his first appearance since being reinstated as the Houston Astros closer, Lidge gave up a home run to the first batter he faced to blow the save. Honestly, I just feel bad for the guy. He starts off the season horrible and gets pulled from the closer's roll, and like a trooper he performs fantastically as the set-up man. So well in fact, that he re-earned his job as the closer, and this is what happens his first night back on the job. Now the Astros ended up winning in extra innings, and Lidge did an excellent job to work the rest of the 9th inning without allowing any further damage, that is important to note. The truth of the matter is that Lidge went from invincible 9th inning machine to a pitcher with great stuff and a shaky psyche with one swing of the bat. That swing belonged to Albert Pujols in the 2005 National League Championship Series and the result was one of the hardest and farthest hit baseballs I have ever witnessed. You won't believe me but I remember thinking to myself at that very moment that Lidge would never be the same. I still hope I am wrong about that, but so far I haven't been.
Hopefully Lidge will bounce back from this setback and continue on with a great career as a closer. To be honest the first game back after blowing a game is really where the true test will be for Lidge and the Astros knew that. He could have reeled off a bunch of saves in a row but the team wouldn't have known if he was really back until he had to bounce back from blowing a game. Maybe Lidge just decided to prove he was back, right out of the gate, I hope thats the case.
I Know the NBA Finals are Supposed to be Important but . . .
The final score of tonights game was 75-72 in favor of the Spurs. That's barely a respectable score for a high school game. The Spurs are now up 3-0 in the series. I am seriously done talking about this, the whole thing just makes fun of itself.
That's all everybody, once again thanks for reading. And I apologize if there are some errors or typos in this post, the computer I am working on is being obscenely slow and I don't have the patience to proof read today. Leave some feedback, you know the drill.
Verlander Makes Brewers Look Silly with Some Help From . . . the Brewers
Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, striking out 12 and walking four. No-hitters are a rare and spectacular feat, always have been and always will be, and truly there is nothing like watching a baseball game and suddenly realizing in the 6th inning that no ones gotten a hit yet. Amazing stuff it really is, so congrats to Verlander for a night that he will always remember. I have to be honest here, I wasn't actually watching Verlander pitch, in fact I didn't hear about it until near the end of the Red Sox game I was watching at the time. However I did see the highlights and I have to say that while the Brewers did not get credit for any hits tonight, they certainly deserve credit for making Verlander's no-hit bid a good deal easier on him.
I hate to take credit away from Verlander for what he did but the Brewers had some truly awful at bats tonight. Had Milwaukee exercised any amount of plate discipline at all they probably could have coaxed Verlander to throw some more hittable pitches and avoided going down on the wrong side of history. Don't get me wrong, I can understand striking out on a 99 mph pitch that paints the black, but striking out a half dozen different times on 58-foot sliders? I can understand a couple of times but over half of Verlander's strike outs were on just awful swings at pitches that just weren't close. You get paid to hit a baseball for a living, you have to know that the big breaking ball in the dirt is coming, the least you can do is lay off a pitch that never really even approaches the strike zone.
I didn't really pay much attention to Mark Buerhle's no-hitter earlier this year, and off of the top of my head I can't really remember a lot of the no-hitters in the past, but if I had to guess, the situation between the Brewers' and Verlander tonight is probably a pretty common one when it comes to these kind of pitching performances. Plain and simple it takes a lot of luck, whether it be from over-anxious hitters or some spectacular defense, no-hitters are rare for a reason. If you look at some of the names on the list of people who have thrown no-hitters (Hideo Nomo) or perfect games (Dennis Martinez), it doesn't take you long to realize that a lot of these guys weren't exactly waiting for the Hall of Fame to call five years after they retired. Not to say that Verlander won't go on to have a long Hall of Fame worthy career, because he might. And not to say that throwing a no-hitter isn't something he should always be proud of, because it is. But these things need to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, Verlander threw a great game, but also, he got pretty lucky too.
Lidge has Flashbacks of the 2005 Postseason
I like Brad Lidge and think he is a great pitcher, so I won't harp on this long, but tonight in his first appearance since being reinstated as the Houston Astros closer, Lidge gave up a home run to the first batter he faced to blow the save. Honestly, I just feel bad for the guy. He starts off the season horrible and gets pulled from the closer's roll, and like a trooper he performs fantastically as the set-up man. So well in fact, that he re-earned his job as the closer, and this is what happens his first night back on the job. Now the Astros ended up winning in extra innings, and Lidge did an excellent job to work the rest of the 9th inning without allowing any further damage, that is important to note. The truth of the matter is that Lidge went from invincible 9th inning machine to a pitcher with great stuff and a shaky psyche with one swing of the bat. That swing belonged to Albert Pujols in the 2005 National League Championship Series and the result was one of the hardest and farthest hit baseballs I have ever witnessed. You won't believe me but I remember thinking to myself at that very moment that Lidge would never be the same. I still hope I am wrong about that, but so far I haven't been.
Hopefully Lidge will bounce back from this setback and continue on with a great career as a closer. To be honest the first game back after blowing a game is really where the true test will be for Lidge and the Astros knew that. He could have reeled off a bunch of saves in a row but the team wouldn't have known if he was really back until he had to bounce back from blowing a game. Maybe Lidge just decided to prove he was back, right out of the gate, I hope thats the case.
I Know the NBA Finals are Supposed to be Important but . . .
The final score of tonights game was 75-72 in favor of the Spurs. That's barely a respectable score for a high school game. The Spurs are now up 3-0 in the series. I am seriously done talking about this, the whole thing just makes fun of itself.
That's all everybody, once again thanks for reading. And I apologize if there are some errors or typos in this post, the computer I am working on is being obscenely slow and I don't have the patience to proof read today. Leave some feedback, you know the drill.
Monday, June 11, 2007
A Slow Day In Sports
With only a handful of Major League games on the schedule today and the NBA Finals taking a day off it was a rather quiet day in sports. However don't you worry, I still have some thoughts about the things that did take place, specifically; MLB takes a page from the NBA and in a surprise act the Orlando Magic make a classy move. The most important thing that happened Monday though? Just over 24 hours after Big O Sports Blog ripped Stephen A. Smith for his incessant and incoherent yelling about the NBA Finals during segments of Sportscenter, Smith was no where to be found on the set with the crew covering the Finals during the 6 PM EST edition of the show. Coincidence? I think not.
MLB Handing Out Suspensions Like Candy on Halloween
In a season full of milestone chases like Glavine going for 300 wins, Biggio approaching 3,000 hits, Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, Jim Thome, and Frank Thomas all closing in on 500 dingers, baseball is developing a trend that has to a certain extent been sliding in under the radar. Lately the commissioner's office has been handing out suspensions frequently for actions which are considered fairly normal occurrences, at least in baseball circles. In the past couple of weeks, Lou Pinella was suspended four games for what many considered a rather unspectacular run in with some umpires, A.J. Pierzynski was suspended a game for showing frustrating, apparently at himself for swinging and missing at strike three, and Scott Proctor was suspended four games for the extremely common act of throwing at a batter, just to name a few examples. I don't know what is going on lately, but its absolutely ridiculous.
This is the kind of the you expect to see in the NBA where players are routinely suspended for
simply wondering too far off of their bench. However the NBA has a good reason to enforce such strict penalties, even if they go overboard with suspensions on occasion. If you have forgotten a couple years back some NBA players actually went into the stands during a game and started a melee. When this kind of thing happens the league has a right to overreact to any little thing and suspend a player. To my knowledge though, baseball hasn't had an issue with players hopping into the stands throwing haymakers. Baseball is well known for its brawls but they are more or less harmless seeing as by the looks of things 99% of Major Leaguers punch like junior high girls. Even Albert Belle at his craziest just gave an elbow to Fernando Vina's neck, who by the way was playing second base, not sitting in section C.
There is really just know reason for the commish to crack down on things that are not even violent for the most part in anyway. Managers argue with umps all the time, its just part of the game, how is a four game suspension necessary? Just eject the guy like you always have and move on. As far as the Pierzynski case goes, it is one of the most unjustified suspensions I have ever seen handed down. After striking out A.J. smacked home plate with his bat as he walked away. He had swung and miss so he was likely not acting out toward the umpire, it appeared as though he was simply fed up with himself for striking out. Later that day he was suspended for this. My question is, when is the last time you saw a game where at least a dozen guys didn't react more strongly to this after making an out? What harm did Pierzynski do by hitting the ground as he walked away? Basically Major League Baseball and its commissioner need to relax a little bit. They haven't really had any ugly incidents to incite this type of overreacting, so they just need to take a step back and re-evaluate what merits a suspension and what is just a normal part of baseball.
Magic Offer Fans Refund (Not for Failing to Show up in the Playoffs)
It was recently reported that the Orlando Magic have offered refunds to any fan who purchased Magic season tickets after the team announced the hiring of Florida coach Billy Donovan. Orlando experienced a boom in tickets sales in the 24 hour period after hiring Billy Donovan, only to have Donovan return to Florida a day after the announcement.
Considering the bad reputation professional sports franchises get for caring too much about money and not enough about the fans which fuel their teams' success, it was refreshing to see the Magic make such a classy move. The team was under no legal obligation to offer fans their money back but they did so anyway, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do. I don't have a lot to say about this other than that the Magic deserve their props on this one. So way to go Orlando, hopefully Stan Van Gundy proves to be a good second choice for ya.
Thats all for the Big O Sports Blog today, check back tomorrow for more and as alway, your comments, questions and feedback are more than welcome.
MLB Handing Out Suspensions Like Candy on Halloween
In a season full of milestone chases like Glavine going for 300 wins, Biggio approaching 3,000 hits, Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, Jim Thome, and Frank Thomas all closing in on 500 dingers, baseball is developing a trend that has to a certain extent been sliding in under the radar. Lately the commissioner's office has been handing out suspensions frequently for actions which are considered fairly normal occurrences, at least in baseball circles. In the past couple of weeks, Lou Pinella was suspended four games for what many considered a rather unspectacular run in with some umpires, A.J. Pierzynski was suspended a game for showing frustrating, apparently at himself for swinging and missing at strike three, and Scott Proctor was suspended four games for the extremely common act of throwing at a batter, just to name a few examples. I don't know what is going on lately, but its absolutely ridiculous.
This is the kind of the you expect to see in the NBA where players are routinely suspended for
simply wondering too far off of their bench. However the NBA has a good reason to enforce such strict penalties, even if they go overboard with suspensions on occasion. If you have forgotten a couple years back some NBA players actually went into the stands during a game and started a melee. When this kind of thing happens the league has a right to overreact to any little thing and suspend a player. To my knowledge though, baseball hasn't had an issue with players hopping into the stands throwing haymakers. Baseball is well known for its brawls but they are more or less harmless seeing as by the looks of things 99% of Major Leaguers punch like junior high girls. Even Albert Belle at his craziest just gave an elbow to Fernando Vina's neck, who by the way was playing second base, not sitting in section C.
There is really just know reason for the commish to crack down on things that are not even violent for the most part in anyway. Managers argue with umps all the time, its just part of the game, how is a four game suspension necessary? Just eject the guy like you always have and move on. As far as the Pierzynski case goes, it is one of the most unjustified suspensions I have ever seen handed down. After striking out A.J. smacked home plate with his bat as he walked away. He had swung and miss so he was likely not acting out toward the umpire, it appeared as though he was simply fed up with himself for striking out. Later that day he was suspended for this. My question is, when is the last time you saw a game where at least a dozen guys didn't react more strongly to this after making an out? What harm did Pierzynski do by hitting the ground as he walked away? Basically Major League Baseball and its commissioner need to relax a little bit. They haven't really had any ugly incidents to incite this type of overreacting, so they just need to take a step back and re-evaluate what merits a suspension and what is just a normal part of baseball.
Magic Offer Fans Refund (Not for Failing to Show up in the Playoffs)
It was recently reported that the Orlando Magic have offered refunds to any fan who purchased Magic season tickets after the team announced the hiring of Florida coach Billy Donovan. Orlando experienced a boom in tickets sales in the 24 hour period after hiring Billy Donovan, only to have Donovan return to Florida a day after the announcement.
Considering the bad reputation professional sports franchises get for caring too much about money and not enough about the fans which fuel their teams' success, it was refreshing to see the Magic make such a classy move. The team was under no legal obligation to offer fans their money back but they did so anyway, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do. I don't have a lot to say about this other than that the Magic deserve their props on this one. So way to go Orlando, hopefully Stan Van Gundy proves to be a good second choice for ya.
Thats all for the Big O Sports Blog today, check back tomorrow for more and as alway, your comments, questions and feedback are more than welcome.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sunday Edition
Welcome to the Sunday Edition of Big O Sports Blog. Luckily for you this is a sports blog and not a newspaper so the Sunday Edition will not be twice as long and three times as expensive. Today we have kind of a hodge podge of topics including, a plea to Roger Clemens, how the NBA Finals have become ESPN's dead horse that it should stop beating, and a real life version of a player from "Major League", so let's get started.
Hello, Roger? It's Retirement, We Need to Talk
Roger Clemens made his return to Major League baseball yesterday in stint number two with the New York Yankees. Now just to get this out of the way, I am a Yankee Hater, but this isn't about that. This isn't even about the ridiculous amount of money he is being paid. I mean honestly, if someone was going to pay me $17.4 million over the course of four months (it would be five but lets be honest, the Yanks aren't playing in October this year) than I would take it too. This is about the fact that Roger Clemens is old enough to be the father of Phil Hughes, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Karstens, and Chase Wright. If you don't know, those are the names of four players who along with Clemens have also started games for the Yankees this year. Clippard and Hughes actually were both born AFTER Roger made his first Major league appearance some 24 years ago. This is about Roger Clemens latest bout with a terrible disease called The Michael Jordan Syndrome or MJS. Almost every great boxer suffers from it as well. It is when great athletes just don't know when to quit, and therefore force us to purge their last exploits in their particular sport from our memories so we are still able to enjoy their legacy. MJS symptoms include, white knuckles from holding on too long, frequent injury because the body has already transitioned into celebrity softball game mode and golf mode, and the worst symptom of all is the athlete performing as a shell of them former selves.
To be fair, with his last few go-rounds with this illness, Clemens has been lucky and has escaped disaster. The only symptoms visible on Roger are the white knuckles, and lately (last season with the Astros and early this year) the injuries. The only reported issues have been the hamstring and groin issues but if you have been watching his rehab starts this year you may have noticed Clemens flexing his hand and clenching his fist. Make no mistake, this is ALWAYS a bad sign for pitchers. I had a shoulder reconstructed and had complications after a broken elbow during my pitching career, so believe me; flexing of the hand is bad news. With two of the three symptoms of MJS already in place for Roger, the third, decreased performance, is sure to follow. So please Roger, from a baseball fan to a baseball great, I am asking you to hang it up. Leave the rest of your $17.4 million on the table and walk (gingerly, don't want to aggrivate anything) into the Hall of Fame where you belong. You are going to end up in Cooperstown no matter what you do (as long as you don't pull a Pete Rose), but don't disgrace who you are and what you have accomplished by having to be wheeled into the Hall. Just for the record, I am not a Roger Clemens fan at all, but I don't want baseball fans to have to go through what basketball fans did when Michael Jordan tried to rescue the Wizards . . . And yes even mentioning that gives me horrid flashbacks. Excuse me while I assume the fetal position.
After 3 Days, Stephen A. Smith Still Only One Excited about NBA Finals
The score of Game 1 of the NBA Finals could have easily been mistaken for a WNBA score. The Spurs are always boring to watch, that is not news to anyone. Really the only chance of this series becoming interesting is if Lebron busts out for another performance like he did in Game 5 against the Pistons, this is also not news to anyone. However it has been three days since the Cavs and Spurs played to kick-off the Finals and ESPN still demands that at least half of every Sportscenter is committed to covering the series. OK, maybe not half the show, but honestly Game 1 can be summed up in approximately 30 seconds, time me. Both teams played good defense. Lebron had a bad game. The rest of the Cavs still suck. How's my time? I am pretty sure I still have 15 seconds left. If I really felt it necessary I would use the remaining time begging Tim Duncan to grow a personality or for Manu Ginobli to stop acting like its the World Cup so maybe he should try to stay on his feet for more than four consecutive steps. Here is what I want; for the love of everything good and holy, don't drag out and over-dramatize the NBA Finals. Every time I see highlights from Game 1 they are accompanied by background music which I am pretty sure they stole directly from the battle scenes in Gladiator. These highlights are directly followed by Stephen A. Smith screaming at the top of his lungs for several minutes without even accidentally managing to construct a coherent thought through the course of his rant. Even if the series was thrilling it would be difficult for this to be acceptable, in a defensively dominated series ESPN's antics have left fans searching for a good wall to bang their head against as a suitable substitute for the entertainment they once got from basketball.
The solution to this problem is very very simple. Don't play a seven game series (or mostly likely four or fives games in this case) over the course of three weeks. Game 1, Game 2, travel day, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, travel day, Game 6, Game 7, victory parade. I did not think it was physically possible but I am fairly certain I just unveiled a plan to get the NBA Finals done in a week and a half. Seriously, this needs to happen otherwise people are going to start rioting outside of ESPN studios demanding they stop beating the dead horse which is the NBA Finals.
Batting 7th for the Boston Red Sox . . . Pedro Cerrano?
In the 1989 comedy "Major League" there is a player named Pedro Cerrano (aka the Allstate insurance guy and the president in "24") who is depicted if my memory serves me as Dominican. During the movie Cerrano says something to the effect of "Me hit straight ball very far, me no hit crooked ball." Each time Cerrano bats in the movie, it confirms this statement; fastballs he crushes, curveballs not so much. While watching a Red Sox game the other day I witnessed the real life incarnation of Pedro Cerrano, his name is Wily Mo Pena. I saw Pena take batting practice once and he has more power than David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez, there is no doubt in my mind about that. Every once in a while this power translates to in game situations but most of the time his at bats go something like this: Slider starts on the outside corner, Wily Mo swings with all his might, slider darts and ends up a foot and a half off of the plate, Wily Mo falls down. I don't really have a real point in bringing this up. I actually love Wily Mo Pena (yes mostly just because of his name), so I am not trying to bag on him or anything. I just thought it needed to be brought to the publics attention that Wily Mo Pena is Pedro Cerrano. Thanks to Justin Norvig for bringing this to my attention.
That's the Sunday Edition everybody. Hope you had a great weekend, and as always check back for new posts and leave your comments.
Hello, Roger? It's Retirement, We Need to Talk
Roger Clemens made his return to Major League baseball yesterday in stint number two with the New York Yankees. Now just to get this out of the way, I am a Yankee Hater, but this isn't about that. This isn't even about the ridiculous amount of money he is being paid. I mean honestly, if someone was going to pay me $17.4 million over the course of four months (it would be five but lets be honest, the Yanks aren't playing in October this year) than I would take it too. This is about the fact that Roger Clemens is old enough to be the father of Phil Hughes, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Karstens, and Chase Wright. If you don't know, those are the names of four players who along with Clemens have also started games for the Yankees this year. Clippard and Hughes actually were both born AFTER Roger made his first Major league appearance some 24 years ago. This is about Roger Clemens latest bout with a terrible disease called The Michael Jordan Syndrome or MJS. Almost every great boxer suffers from it as well. It is when great athletes just don't know when to quit, and therefore force us to purge their last exploits in their particular sport from our memories so we are still able to enjoy their legacy. MJS symptoms include, white knuckles from holding on too long, frequent injury because the body has already transitioned into celebrity softball game mode and golf mode, and the worst symptom of all is the athlete performing as a shell of them former selves.
To be fair, with his last few go-rounds with this illness, Clemens has been lucky and has escaped disaster. The only symptoms visible on Roger are the white knuckles, and lately (last season with the Astros and early this year) the injuries. The only reported issues have been the hamstring and groin issues but if you have been watching his rehab starts this year you may have noticed Clemens flexing his hand and clenching his fist. Make no mistake, this is ALWAYS a bad sign for pitchers. I had a shoulder reconstructed and had complications after a broken elbow during my pitching career, so believe me; flexing of the hand is bad news. With two of the three symptoms of MJS already in place for Roger, the third, decreased performance, is sure to follow. So please Roger, from a baseball fan to a baseball great, I am asking you to hang it up. Leave the rest of your $17.4 million on the table and walk (gingerly, don't want to aggrivate anything) into the Hall of Fame where you belong. You are going to end up in Cooperstown no matter what you do (as long as you don't pull a Pete Rose), but don't disgrace who you are and what you have accomplished by having to be wheeled into the Hall. Just for the record, I am not a Roger Clemens fan at all, but I don't want baseball fans to have to go through what basketball fans did when Michael Jordan tried to rescue the Wizards . . . And yes even mentioning that gives me horrid flashbacks. Excuse me while I assume the fetal position.
After 3 Days, Stephen A. Smith Still Only One Excited about NBA Finals
The score of Game 1 of the NBA Finals could have easily been mistaken for a WNBA score. The Spurs are always boring to watch, that is not news to anyone. Really the only chance of this series becoming interesting is if Lebron busts out for another performance like he did in Game 5 against the Pistons, this is also not news to anyone. However it has been three days since the Cavs and Spurs played to kick-off the Finals and ESPN still demands that at least half of every Sportscenter is committed to covering the series. OK, maybe not half the show, but honestly Game 1 can be summed up in approximately 30 seconds, time me. Both teams played good defense. Lebron had a bad game. The rest of the Cavs still suck. How's my time? I am pretty sure I still have 15 seconds left. If I really felt it necessary I would use the remaining time begging Tim Duncan to grow a personality or for Manu Ginobli to stop acting like its the World Cup so maybe he should try to stay on his feet for more than four consecutive steps. Here is what I want; for the love of everything good and holy, don't drag out and over-dramatize the NBA Finals. Every time I see highlights from Game 1 they are accompanied by background music which I am pretty sure they stole directly from the battle scenes in Gladiator. These highlights are directly followed by Stephen A. Smith screaming at the top of his lungs for several minutes without even accidentally managing to construct a coherent thought through the course of his rant. Even if the series was thrilling it would be difficult for this to be acceptable, in a defensively dominated series ESPN's antics have left fans searching for a good wall to bang their head against as a suitable substitute for the entertainment they once got from basketball.
The solution to this problem is very very simple. Don't play a seven game series (or mostly likely four or fives games in this case) over the course of three weeks. Game 1, Game 2, travel day, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, travel day, Game 6, Game 7, victory parade. I did not think it was physically possible but I am fairly certain I just unveiled a plan to get the NBA Finals done in a week and a half. Seriously, this needs to happen otherwise people are going to start rioting outside of ESPN studios demanding they stop beating the dead horse which is the NBA Finals.
Batting 7th for the Boston Red Sox . . . Pedro Cerrano?
In the 1989 comedy "Major League" there is a player named Pedro Cerrano (aka the Allstate insurance guy and the president in "24") who is depicted if my memory serves me as Dominican. During the movie Cerrano says something to the effect of "Me hit straight ball very far, me no hit crooked ball." Each time Cerrano bats in the movie, it confirms this statement; fastballs he crushes, curveballs not so much. While watching a Red Sox game the other day I witnessed the real life incarnation of Pedro Cerrano, his name is Wily Mo Pena. I saw Pena take batting practice once and he has more power than David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez, there is no doubt in my mind about that. Every once in a while this power translates to in game situations but most of the time his at bats go something like this: Slider starts on the outside corner, Wily Mo swings with all his might, slider darts and ends up a foot and a half off of the plate, Wily Mo falls down. I don't really have a real point in bringing this up. I actually love Wily Mo Pena (yes mostly just because of his name), so I am not trying to bag on him or anything. I just thought it needed to be brought to the publics attention that Wily Mo Pena is Pedro Cerrano. Thanks to Justin Norvig for bringing this to my attention.
That's the Sunday Edition everybody. Hope you had a great weekend, and as always check back for new posts and leave your comments.
Friday, June 8, 2007
TGIF
Well Big O Sports Blog has come to the end of its first week on the internet, and it is still alive and kicking. I know it started on a Wednesday, so it isn't really a whole week, but its a big milestone for me, so just don't be a kill joy alright? Thanks. Anyway this is a special edition of the Big O Sports Blog because today we are introducing our very own Omaha Beef football insider; up and coming broadcaster, Matt Santamaria. Matt, who works with the Beef frequently, will be contributing a weekly report on Omaha's favorite indoor football team as well as postgame analysis following each Beef game. Here is this weeks report for their upcoming game tomorrow night against the Billings Outlaws. Don't forget to tune in to Matt as he announces the game at 7:50 central time on 1620 AM The Zone. If you are not in the Omaha area you can tune in via the internet on 1620's website. I proudly present to you, Matt Santamaria with this week's Beef Report (cool name for this section is under construction) . . .
And now what's on my mind tonight. . .
MLB's Race War: Blacks vs Latinos?
It seems as though in baseball more than any other sport, race is always an issue. Yes you have the occasional debate about where the white basketball player has gone from the NBA (the answer is most frequently: the Euro leagues). And from time to time you will have some idiot make an issue about the correlation between ethnicity and scrambling tendencies of college or NFL quarterbacks (much thanks to the U of Florida QBs for making those people looks like morons). For the most part though, those things are just water cooler banter that sometimes has the topic of the skin color of a certain athlete mixed in. However with baseball when the subject of race comes up, it usually isn't just a discussion, its an issue.
For example, this past week three different major leaguers spoke out about the difference in how Latino players are treated as opposed to how Black players are. It is important to note that this isn't a conversation about certain skill sets that are supposedly more prevalent in a given race. This is about treating players differently based on their race. Gary Sheffield kicked it all off by saying Latin players got promoted through minor league systems more quickly because they were easier to control than Black Players. In response, Sheff's teammate Carlos Guillen issued a statement in which he more or less agreed with Sheffield's sentiments. And finally Tori Hunter of the Twins came out and gave a less generalizing, more politically correct version of what Sheffield said. Three players, two Black, one Latino, all in agreement that essentially, Latin players have a better shot of moving through the farm system, because teams feel like they can control them. Of course those who want to make this a race war say that this would imply that teams feel as if black players are uncontrollable thugs.
So there is what brought up this subject and I am not going to beat around the bush as to what it means. This really is not about the Black players at all, its just not. What it is about is the fact that the Carribean has become the breeding ground for baseball slaves. Now slave may be too strong of a word here but nothing else I could think of was strong enough. Sure you have countless Major Leaguers who are Latino, and they are rich and famous, and in their home countries they are national heroes. But those players that we see playing on TV and making the Top 10 on Sportscenter represent the tip of the Latin baseball iceberg. Every year each major league club has scouts in the Dominican Republic and other places like it, signing players for a few thousand dollars, or what really amounts to nothing in terms of baseball money. Countless Latino players get signed and have the promise of a better life held above their head in order to see if they can become the next Pedro Martinez or David Ortiz. Young men, usually ages 16-18, are exploited by baseball, hoping one of them will turn into the next big star. . . and the ones that don't? Which by the way is pretty much all of them, they return to their one-room straw houses because they were of no longer of any use to the team that signed them.
OK, so maybe it isn't slavery, but it is a problem. You want to know the reason baseball looks for its stars in the slums of the Dominican Republic instead of the high school fields in America? It's all about the money. A first round draft pick will cost a team a few million dollars, and if that pick doesn't pan out (which happens a lot, let's be honest, the draft is a crap shoot)? Then that team can kiss that money goodbye. But you know how many ball players can be bought with a few million dollars in Latin America? Hundreds. Now just on average a few to several of those hundreds will almost certainly make it in the big leagues. So baseball teams make the wise financial decision; baseball is a business right? To a certain extent yes, but different rules apply when you are buying and selling people. The point is that baseball needs to regulate how clubs acquire Latino ball players. Much like the flow of illegal immigrant workers coming into the United States, there needs to be a way to keep track of these people so that they can be here legally and can earn a fair wage. The way teams go and buy players from the Carribean isn't illegal (most of the time) but it is wrong. A separate draft for players from Latin America would be a good way to go. This would ensure that these players got fair market value for what they bring to a team and it would prevent teams from using the threat of sending a player back to his home country as a means of controlling them.
That's all for today everybody, sorry about the heavy topic, I will try and lighten things up tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think.
To say Saturday's Omaha Beef/Billings Outlaws affair is a case of two teams heading in opposite directions would be, well, quite the understatement. For Omaha, it was just two long months ago that the 3-0 Beef were heading home from the Metropark Arena flying high into a tilt with rival Sioux Falls. Seven games, and six losses later, the Beef find themselves in full fledged desperation mode. Meanwhile, the Chris Dixon led Outlaws opened their '07 season in disarray, a lowpoint coming in the form of a 51-18 loss @Sioux Falls in Week 4. Since then, however, the Outlaws have rattled off four consecutive wins, one on the 26th of May in Omaha, to even their record at 4-4. With two of the best multi-dimensional QBs in the UIF on display Saturday night, the match-up is certainly intriguing. Billings has the momentum, not to mention homefield advantage for tonight's affair, but the desperate Beef will certainly come out swinging and take the crowd out of the game early. If James McNear can use his legs like he did @Billings in Week 3 (13 carries - 85 yards - 2 TDs), I don't think an undermanned front 3 from Billings has much of an answer. But if the Beef fall behind early and go pass happy with their prized young QB, the Beef may make the busride home firmly on the playoff bubble at 4-7.
Much thanks to Matt SantaMaria for his Beef insider info. Don't forget to check back with the Big O Sports Blog for Matt's postgame analysis which will be posted as soon as he returns from Billings.
Much thanks to Matt SantaMaria for his Beef insider info. Don't forget to check back with the Big O Sports Blog for Matt's postgame analysis which will be posted as soon as he returns from Billings.
And now what's on my mind tonight. . .
MLB's Race War: Blacks vs Latinos?
It seems as though in baseball more than any other sport, race is always an issue. Yes you have the occasional debate about where the white basketball player has gone from the NBA (the answer is most frequently: the Euro leagues). And from time to time you will have some idiot make an issue about the correlation between ethnicity and scrambling tendencies of college or NFL quarterbacks (much thanks to the U of Florida QBs for making those people looks like morons). For the most part though, those things are just water cooler banter that sometimes has the topic of the skin color of a certain athlete mixed in. However with baseball when the subject of race comes up, it usually isn't just a discussion, its an issue.
For example, this past week three different major leaguers spoke out about the difference in how Latino players are treated as opposed to how Black players are. It is important to note that this isn't a conversation about certain skill sets that are supposedly more prevalent in a given race. This is about treating players differently based on their race. Gary Sheffield kicked it all off by saying Latin players got promoted through minor league systems more quickly because they were easier to control than Black Players. In response, Sheff's teammate Carlos Guillen issued a statement in which he more or less agreed with Sheffield's sentiments. And finally Tori Hunter of the Twins came out and gave a less generalizing, more politically correct version of what Sheffield said. Three players, two Black, one Latino, all in agreement that essentially, Latin players have a better shot of moving through the farm system, because teams feel like they can control them. Of course those who want to make this a race war say that this would imply that teams feel as if black players are uncontrollable thugs.
So there is what brought up this subject and I am not going to beat around the bush as to what it means. This really is not about the Black players at all, its just not. What it is about is the fact that the Carribean has become the breeding ground for baseball slaves. Now slave may be too strong of a word here but nothing else I could think of was strong enough. Sure you have countless Major Leaguers who are Latino, and they are rich and famous, and in their home countries they are national heroes. But those players that we see playing on TV and making the Top 10 on Sportscenter represent the tip of the Latin baseball iceberg. Every year each major league club has scouts in the Dominican Republic and other places like it, signing players for a few thousand dollars, or what really amounts to nothing in terms of baseball money. Countless Latino players get signed and have the promise of a better life held above their head in order to see if they can become the next Pedro Martinez or David Ortiz. Young men, usually ages 16-18, are exploited by baseball, hoping one of them will turn into the next big star. . . and the ones that don't? Which by the way is pretty much all of them, they return to their one-room straw houses because they were of no longer of any use to the team that signed them.
OK, so maybe it isn't slavery, but it is a problem. You want to know the reason baseball looks for its stars in the slums of the Dominican Republic instead of the high school fields in America? It's all about the money. A first round draft pick will cost a team a few million dollars, and if that pick doesn't pan out (which happens a lot, let's be honest, the draft is a crap shoot)? Then that team can kiss that money goodbye. But you know how many ball players can be bought with a few million dollars in Latin America? Hundreds. Now just on average a few to several of those hundreds will almost certainly make it in the big leagues. So baseball teams make the wise financial decision; baseball is a business right? To a certain extent yes, but different rules apply when you are buying and selling people. The point is that baseball needs to regulate how clubs acquire Latino ball players. Much like the flow of illegal immigrant workers coming into the United States, there needs to be a way to keep track of these people so that they can be here legally and can earn a fair wage. The way teams go and buy players from the Carribean isn't illegal (most of the time) but it is wrong. A separate draft for players from Latin America would be a good way to go. This would ensure that these players got fair market value for what they bring to a team and it would prevent teams from using the threat of sending a player back to his home country as a means of controlling them.
That's all for today everybody, sorry about the heavy topic, I will try and lighten things up tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think.
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