Yellow Chair Sports

Sunday Preview

2012-01-12T13:42:00.000-06:00

Work this week didn't allow me to write up a Saturday preview (except for my Twitter thoughts), but here are my thoughts on the Saturday in football.

-If the Texans can play in Baltimore the way they played yesterday, they can beat the Ravens. Meaning they run well with Arian Foster and Ben Tate and if Andre Johnson can make a difference like he did on the TD pass. I know their defense will show up, but I expect a tougher time for young T.J. Yates on the road.

-I'd have a whole lot more confidence in the Bengals future if Mike Brown wasn't the man to decide on how to improve it. It's a lot to ask Andy Dalton to win his first road playoff game.

-Detroit is also on the right path, just need a running game and a better secondary. Now, any secondary can look bad against the Saints in New Orleans, but a running game would have kept the ball in the Lions' hands for more of the game. I would click here for the TopBet online sportsbook and place a bet.

-As for the Saints, what else is there to say about their offense. I really can't wait until they play San Francisco; great offense against great defense. Also curious how the Niners play in their first playoff game since Steve Mariucci's last game as coach.

Now onto today's games, one of which I will be attending. That's right, I'll be at MetLife Stadium for Giants-Falcons. Though I can be biased when the Giants are involved, I do think they win today 27-20 because the outdoors will hurt Atlanta, plus the Giants have their pass rush back, and not just Jason Pierre-Paul.

As for the late game, my first thought was no way can the Broncos beat the Steelers after the game they played against Kansas City and after losing their last 3 games. Over the past week, I've seen some people go the other way, with the worry being the Steelers who are hurt and those who are banged up. Also, too much is being made about the fact that 8-8 or worse teams playing home playoff games have done well recently. I expect some turnovers by Tebow and the Broncos and a couple play made by Ben Roethlisberger will be the difference. Steelers will win 20-3.

Week 10 Picks

2011-11-12T20:37:00.000-06:00

Just picks today. However, there won't be quick picks this week, since I haven't wrote much lately. Before the picks, let's look back at Oakland-San Diego and once again, this game says more about the Chargers than it does about the Raiders. Once again, the Chargers can move the ball until they absolutely have to. The fact that the AFC West isn't led by the Chargers is a failure on Norv Turner and it doesn't help that Philip Rivers has been too erratic. Even if San Diego plays great in December and wins the West, that just means they get to lose in the 1st round. Should be the end for Norv if they don't turn this around big time, especially how quick the Chargers pulled the trigger on Marty Schottenheimer's firing.

Now onto the picks, as I attempt to finally end this middling of my picks. Until Thursday's game, I've been at .500, which is unacceptable. Let's see if there's carryover from Thursday's Raiders win. (Home team in CAPS)

Pittsburgh (-3) over CINCINNATI

Tough to pick against the Steelers after a loss. Especially when facing a rookie quarterback, even though Andy Dalton hasn't played like a rookie. Will be very telling of both teams if the Bengals win this one.

Denver (+3.5) over KANSAS CITY

I have a new rule for the AFC West, take the points. Home or away, this division is so bad that if two teams play one another, you're better off taking the underdog. Just remember, a Broncos win means they will be a game out of first with Tim Tebow as the QB.

Jacksonville (-3) over INDIANAPOLIS

Never saw an NFL team look to get the number one draft pick the way the Colts look. They really could go 0-16 to get Andrew Luck. This is a rare winnable game, but the Jags play good enough defense that should see another single-digit Colts offensive effort.

Buffalo (+5.5) over DALLAS

Just when it's time to buy on the Cowboys, this is when a curve is usually thrown and the Cowboys show us why we shouldn't believe in them. Also, expect a much better effort from the Bills, who last week could do anything against the Jets.

Houston (-3.5) over TAMPA BAY

Yes, I'm taking another road team. The Texans are playing very well lately and if they are going to come down to earth, I don't see the Bucs being the team to do so, even though you could say the season for the Bucs is on the line.

CAROLINA (-3.5) over Tennessee

The Titans are just good enough to play close games, then lose them late. As for the Panthers, I think the bye week helps them and Cam Newton is due to win some ballgames, isn't he?

MIAMI (-4) over Washington

Just read that Rex Grossman will start today, not John Beck. The Redskins have no chance to win a game that John Beck starts. At least with Grossman, he's either competent or godawful. Looks like I'm betting on awful. Of course, if the Dolphins want to stay in Suck For Luck, they lose this one.

ATLANTA (+1) over New Orleans

Because I don't trust the Saints on the road anymore. All three losses are road ones (Green Bay, Tampa Bay and St. Louis). Now they are playing a Falcons team that is finally looking like the one who won the NFC South and held the top seed in the playoffs last year. We'll have a new team in first tomorrow.

St. Louis (+3) over CLEVELAND

Two bad teams, but the Rams have the better QB in Sam Bradford. Remember when a matchup between Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy was the biggest game of the weekend? Now it's probably the worst game.

Arizona (+14) over PHILADELPHIA

I probably would of taken the Eagles until we found out DeSean Jackson isn't playing (nice job DeSean during a contract year). Now, I'm taking the points because no one seems to cover double-digit spreads this year. Besides, why should a 3-5 team give 14 points (even with John Skeleton involved)?

Baltimore (-7) over SEATTLE

I fear this game because of the Ravens propensity of losing to bad teams on the road (especially after a Steelers win). Just know that the Ravens can't afford to blow games like this if they want to finally have home playoff games this year. Besides, will Tavaris Jackson/Charlie Whitehurst really beat Lewis, Ngata, Suggs, Reed and the Ravens defense?

CHICAGO (-3) over Detroit

All of a sudden, the Bears look good. Earl Bennett has made Jay Cutler more comfortable, they still play high level defense with Urlacher, Briggs and Peppers. Meanwhile, the Lions haven't played as well as they did to start the year and the Bears could have won the meeting in Detroit if they didn't make a couple mistakes.

Giants (+3.5) over SAN FRANCISCO

Now this is football, when the Giants and 49ers are both top teams in the league. Honestly, this is a tossup, and I'm mostly taking the Giants because of that half point. In the meantime, here's some great video (for both fan bases).

New England (+1) over JETS

Funny feeling about this one. The Pats just don't lose 3 in a row (2002 was the last time). Everyone seems to be on the Jets here, and with reason as the Jets have won three in a row and the Pats have lost two in a row and looked bad offensively in their last 3. I just don't think the Jets take advantage of the Pats problem areas on defense and won't cover the tight ends when Brady is throwing it.

Minnesota (+14) over GREEN BAY

Thinking a close Monday night game here. Now that the Packers are 8-0, they will get every team's best shot. That means Adrian Peterson controls the line of scrimmage and Christian Ponder continues to protect the ball.

This week: 1-0
Last week: 7-7
Season record: 63-62-6

NFL Thoughts

2011-09-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

The NFL resumes tonight with the defending champion Packers hosting the Saints. Unfortunately, work is going to keep me from watching the entire game or write a more detailed preview for the upcoming season. So here's my order of finish in each division with a brief synopsis following it.

AFC EAST

1. New England- I'm with everyone else picking the Pats as the AFC East champs. Can't go wrong picking against Brady, plus a motivated Haynesworth is a scary one.
2. NY Jets- The only way they are better this year is if Sanchez improves. Defense didn't improve and the offensive weapons are older. It's on the Sanchise. Playoffs though.
3. Miami- Too much talent at other positions to finish in last. Of course, when Chad Henne's involved, you never know. 8-8 or 7-9 will be the record.
4. Buffalo- Long time without winning, and they're still not close to legitimate. Fitzpatrick will keep them at about 5 wins; really could use 2 wins and Andrew Luck.

AFC NORTH

1. Pittsburgh- Unlike their two Super Bowl wins with Roethlisberger, they lost and will be hungry this year. Steelers defense is still the same. AFC favorites.
2. Baltimore- Was tempted to shock everyone by having them 3rd, but couldn't pull the trigger. I think it's Ray Lewis last chance to win. Like the Jets, they go where Flacco does. Wild card.
3. Cleveland- They're getting better, let's see if the marriage of Colt McCoy and Pat Shurmur will lead to 8 wins for the Browns, maybe more. There's hope in Cleveland.
4. Cincinnati- Lost Johnathan Joseph and Ochocinco. The great QB battle between Bruce Gradkowski and Andy Dalton. Pencil in 3 wins.

AFC SOUTH

1. Houston- No excuses Texans. Peyton Manning's missing time for the Colts. Wade Phillips is the DC, which he can handle. Gary Kubiak has to be fired if they lose again.
2. Tennessee- Because I think Peyton Manning misses a lot of time. Because Matt Hasselbeck will start more games than Jake Locker and put up 8 wins.
3. Indianapolis- Because Kerry Collins was going to retire. Manning's been the reason the Colts have stayed in the playoffs the last 3 years. No Manning=6 wins.
4. Jacksonville- Even if Blaine Gabbert is any good, Luke McCown isn't and could put the Jags into enough of a hole. The only way this team will is if they need head to a Canadian pharmacy and pick up some special stuff.

AFC WEST

1. San Diego- Better special teams, going along with 1st ranked offense and defense. Full years for Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeil. MVP=Philip Rivers.
2. Kansas City- This team gets a tougher schedule and falls back to 8-8. Kind of like the Dolphins after they won the AFC East in '08. Especially with Matt Cassel's injury status.
3. Denver- Broncos will still play good offense and now their defense is beginning to catch up. AFC West is about to be good again.
4. Oakland- The Raiders will slip. They can't help it after losing Asomugha to Philly. More troubles for the once proud franchise.

NFC EAST

1. Dallas- Surprised? A healthy Tony Romo, another year for Dez Bryant and the Rob Ryan led defense. Also, they have no pressure this year, because of the Eagles.
2. NY Giants- I figure Eli Manning won't throw 25 INT's again. Despite the injuries on defense, Justin Tuck is still there. People will be surprised when they make the playoffs.
3. Philadelphia- And they'll be shocked when the Eagles miss them. Vick doesn't play as well as last year and their front seven weakness will show up at a key point. Gut feeling.
4. Washington- Rex Grossman beat out John Beck for the starting QB job. Add that their roster is average and another Andrew Luck sweepstakes team is compiled.

NFC NORTH

1. Green Bay- The champs get back Jermichael Finley and Ryan Grant and do something they didn't do last year, win the division.
2. Minnesota- My surprise in the NFC because Adrian Peterson will run the ball and run all day like he's supposed to. Plus, McNabb has a better year with AP.
3. Detroit- Because I don't believe Matt Stafford stays healthy all season. If he does, Detroit will be 2nd, with Johnson, Suh and company. Also they make the playoffs with Stafford playing.
4. Chicago- Worst to first? Yes, because they could have easily have finished in last. Lucky team all last year, starting in Week 1. Luck always evens out in this league.

NFC SOUTH

1. New Orleans- The year-after hangover is over. Brees will be his normal great self, the defense will return to '09 mode and with Mark Ingram, the running game improves as well.
2. Atlanta- Good team, not great. Suspect defense put more pressure on Matt Ryan and that offense. They can handle it in the regular season, but not in the playoffs.
3. Tampa Bay- They come back a bit, though I do think Josh Freeman gets better. I have to, he's my fantasy starting QB.
4. Carolina- Growing pains while we watch Cam Newton start from Day 1. Last again, but better, likely 6 wins.

NFC WEST

1. St. Louis- Bradford leads the Rams to the playoffs, though being the NFC West, it doesn't say much. Big year for Steven Jackson will result as well.
2. Arizona- They have a QB in Kevin Kolb; and unlike in Philly, he'll have a chance to play without worried about a backup over his shoulder. Team needs more talent.
3. San Francisco- Enough talent to stay out of last, but too much Alex Smith to make a real run (we all know winning the NFC West doesn't count as a run).
4. Seattle- The team that proves the West means nothing. They won the division, and a playoff game, yet are still in rebuild mode. Qwest Field keeps Andrew Luck away.

AFC Title Game: San Diego over Pittsburgh
NFC Title Game: New Orleans over Green Bay

Super Bowl: New Orleans over San Diego

On Baseball Realignment

2011-06-19T22:43:00.001-05:00

MLB is on the edge of changing the game again. They are planning on making the playoffs 10 teams versus the eight that it currently has, and now there is talk of realignment, something that hasn't happened since 1998. The talk is to move an NL team to the AL and create two 15-team leagues. Not a bad idea, but here's what I've got.

Option A: I like the original idea, so I'll put that as option A. Move the Brewers back to the AL but create six divisions with five teams in each division. Brewers go to the AL Central and then move the Royals to the AL West. Division play was put in play to create more rivals. It's like interleague. Consider the 'natural' rivals that interleague poses, except it is already there with divisional play.

Speaking of 'natural' rivals in interleague, the way to play the game with odd divisions is to have rolling interleague play. Forget the whole designated time slots for interleague play and just have interleague all the time. If there are 23 weeks of baseball that would allow for every team to play each other at one point. Alternate the years for who plays home and who plays on the road. Take the current idea of five playoff teams with the top three division winners getting a bye and you've increased revenue.

Also consider this idea. I'll use the example of the Red Sox for this. When fans can't make it to Fenway they will travel to New York or Baltimore because it is a cheap flight and they can watch their home team play on the road. If the Sox had to play Seattle 10 times a year then this wouldn't benefit the home team, just as if Seattle had to come to Boston more than two road trips. It wouldn't be worth it. Move the Royals to the AL West and they can take a trip down to Dallas to catch games and visa-versa. Well that is if they had fans.

Option B: Consolidate. Get rid of 2 teams and go back to the way things were in 1993, just two divisions in each league with seven teams. Divisions are still somewhat in existences and it helps solve the problem for the lack of attendance. Fans in Miami don't care about the Marlins. You can probably eliminate the Royals too if that were the case.

This would solve another problem aside from lack of attendance; it would create better teams. Have a new draft with those players and expand rosters to 26 active players.This would take 50 'free agent' players on those teams and move them across MLB while getting rid of 22 players to the minors, or moving other players, currently on the bench, to the minors.

This would also curtail increased salaries. If the talent pool is larger, then teams would be willing to spend less and 'settle' for better than average minor league players who can still perform in the big leagues. Each division winner would make the playoffs and then you could have 4 wild cards, making six playoff teams with the division winners getting a bye. Look, another problem solved; increased revenue due to larger playoffs and increased attendance.

There are other ideas floating around for a 'floating realignment' but that just seems too complicated and hectic so we will use these two options as the best. I should just run MLB.

Stanley Cup Preview

2011-06-01T18:41:00.000-05:00

The theme of this year's Stanley Cup Final is the exercising of postseason failure. Both the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins have experienced losing, not just in the history of both franchises, but recent memory as well.

For the Bruins, it's a history of losing to the Montreal Canadiens almost every spring, plus the years of 1988-92 which they reached the Cup Final twice and two Wales Conference Finals as well and couldn't win. It also includes the last two springs which include a Game 7 home overtime loss to Carolina and the loss to the Flyers after leading the series 3-0.

Vancouver's past include losing Game 7 to the Rangers in the 1994 Final, coming within a Nathan Lafayette shot off the post from tying the game. It also includes the Markus Naslund-Todd Bertuzzi years which they were the most entertaining team, yet dealt with playoff failures in the early 2000s. Their recent failures are the back-to-back series losses to the Chicago Blackhawks, which saw the worst of Roberto Luongo by the end of each series.

Now these two teams are set to take the ice tonight in Rogers Arena to begin a Stanley Cup Final which the matchup on paper might mean nothing. Then again, this is hockey, the matchup on paper doesn't always mean anything. The best three players in this series are probably both Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler. Boston can counter with Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton, who might not be as good as the Vancouver three, at the very least are playing as well right now.

Just rewatch both series; the Sedins regained their scoring touch as particularly Henrik dominated the series with his passing. When he gets going, then brother Daniel starts to score, then Alex Burrows and before long, a more confident Canucks team emerges, which is troublesome for the entire league. That doesn't include Kesler, who's a jack of all trades for the Canucks, with his scoring, playmaking, and special teams ability. As for the Bruins, all three men carried the Bruins at times late in the series. Krejci, alone, has been the Bruins catalyst for the last 3 years, only no one really thinks of this as true. When they lost to the Flyers last year, it was due to Krejci's injury and no one else being able to score consistently for them. Along with Horton, who's been the sniper that Boston fans have wanted for years, not so much in huge goal numbers, but just a plain ability to get the puck past the goaltender. Meanwhile, Lucic just seems to be everywhere, skating hard and no one on the ice will take a run at him, for fear of how he'd answer back.

The rest of both teams' rosters are full of depth; players who are willing to step up when needed. It's no different than any other hockey team, only the quality of the depth. Zdeno Chara is the best defensemen in the series and almost certainly will be on Sedin duty this series. Tyler Seguin is the Bruins x-factor, who can carry the Bruins when they aren't scoring with his ability. Mark Recchi, Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley all provide big minutes and timely plays for Boston and Dennis Seidenberg has been key as Chara d-line mate. The Canucks depth includes Kevin Bieksa, a defensemen who while isn't a Chara on the blueline, can do anything that's needed by Vancouver. Chris Higgins has really led the team with his scoring because he's more a grinder than scorer. And then there's Raffi Torres, a man who will be called apon to give big hits to the Bruins, countering what Boston thinks as how they would win this series.

Finally, the goaltenders, where this series story will be told. Roberto Luongo has had all the expectation to reach this stage and after some tough times in the Chicago series, he's really carried the Canucks past the Predators in a low-scoring series and past a more high-octane Sharks squad. Meanwhile, what hasn't already been said about Tim Thomas. The man just competes in goal. He reminds me of Mike Richter to be honest, as both men were battler's in net and while both guys were at times susceptible to a soft goal, also can't be beat if they play at their best. The Tampa series is really what you need to know from Thomas, following up each loss with a near unstoppable performance (yes, I know he gave up 5 goals in Game 2, but followed that game with a shutout). My warning for anyone picking Vancouver; that means you're picking against Tim Thomas.

I've thought this series is a lot like a reverse 1994 with the Canucks in the Rangers role and Boston in Vancouver's role. Vancouver, like the Rangers, probably can do more of what they want to do on the ice, only that goaltender is there to shut them down, and when he does, Boston will counterpunch. This is a series that will go seven, only I see the home team losing and waiting another year.

Predicition: Bruins in 7

NBA Finals Preview

2011-05-31T18:43:00.000-05:00

An interesting NBA Finals begins tonight as we see if the Heat can fulfill it's promise to bring championships to South Beach, while a group of old vets lead Dallas into the Finals with likely their last legitimate run to an NBA title. What makes the Dallas run so compelling is that no one has won before, aside from Rick Carlisle's title with Boston as a player. They also have Dirk Nowitzki, looking to vanquish demons from his last Finals appearance, against the Heat, along with Jason Terry, the other holdover from the 2006 Mavs team. Jason Kidd looks to erase his two title losses with the Nets, Peja Stojakovic looks to right a wrong from the 2002 Western Conference Finals and Shawn Marion will do the same after losses to the Spurs in the mid-2000s.

As for Miami, Dwyane Wade looks for his second title, while LeBron James tries to start making Scottie Pippen right (which he never could) about being a greater player than Michael Jordan. You can't even attempt to argue that until LeBron wins a title. Not when you're dealing with Jordan, who's competitive fire is greater than almost every superstar in history (probably just Russell is in the group, with Kobe a level below). The story for the Heat won't be their other guys, but if Chris Bosh continues to play at the level he showed against the Bulls, if Wade can make up for a weak (for him) series on offense and if LeBron can maintain the ruthlessness he demonstrated since Game 4 against the Celtics.

The matchup itself will be fun, as we'll wonder if Dirk or LeBron will be held by anyone. My guess; no one holds LeBron, while Dallas will survive the games which Dirk is hitting his shots no matter who's guarding him. After those two, it will be seen if the Mavs can hit from the perimeter, negating the Heat's advantage in halfcourt defense.

Prediction: Mavs in 6

Guest Post: NBA Eastern Conference Game 4 Preview

2011-05-24T08:28:00.001-05:00

Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat Game 4 Preview

Current NBA Odds: Heat -5 O/U OFF

By: Mike Cooper of Coopers Pick

Even though 2 of the Big 3 of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade did not have the best Game 3 the Bulls could not contain the 3rd member of Chris Bosh, who scored 34 points on 13/18 shooting in the Miami win. Derrick Rose scored 20 points, but for the 2nd straight game he did not shoot the rock well (8/19 from the floor) and for the game Chicago shot 41.6%. The Bulls are not a high scoring team and they have to play much better D in Game 4, as in Game 3 the Heat shot 50.7% from the floor and this season the Bulls are 2-9 when an opponent shoots over 50%.

Interesting fact that the last team to win a Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals and go on to lose the series was the 2005 Miami Heat.

In Game 3 in Miami the Heat beat the Bulls 96-85 and Miami covered the spread and the posted total went Over.

This season the Heat are 48-46-1 ATS and the Bulls are 56-38-2 ATS. The Heat are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 home games against the Bulls.

Game 4 is in Miami and the Heat have yet to lose at home in this post-season (7-0).

The Bulls did have a solid Game 3 on the boards out-rebounding the Heat by 9, but they have to shoot the rock better and attack the rim and not settle for jumpers. Rose, Luol Deng (6/13 14 points), and Carlos Boozer (8/19 26 points) all shot under 50% from the field and the Bulls only had 36 points in the paint.

Rose has to get it going, as he has struggled in the last couple of games with his shot and Chicago has lost both games. He only had 5 assists in Game 3 and 0 in the first half and if he is not hitting his shot he must dish out the rock more.

Joakim Noah is not a focal part of the Bulls offense, but he has to score off offensive boards and put backs. He only had 1 point in Game 3 and only had 5 rebounds. He has to be more physical inside and get some easy buckets in the paint as well as pull down more boards.

Betting Trends

Chicago is 11-3-1 ATS in their last 15 games against teams with a winning percentage above 60% and they have an Under record of 7-3 in their last 10 games after an ATS loss.

Miami is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games, 6-0 ATS in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest, and they have an Over record of 5-0 in their last 5 home games. Since the beginning of the season my nba picks have said to watch out for the heat this season and right now there is no exception to that. It certainly will be an exciting game 4 in the NBA playoffs

Man, Screw Phil Jackson

2011-05-16T10:31:00.001-05:00

Phil Jackson is on the verge of becoming the next Breff Favre. Will he come or will he go. Here's a question, though. Who Cares? Really, does it matter if he is 335 games over .500 in his career as a coach? Does it matter that he has 11 NBA Championships? He's a mediocre coach.

Go ahead and immediately downplay that notion that he is just an average guy. Players play and coaches coach. When you have the best players on the court you are going to win more often than you lose. Phil Jackson won 70% of the regular season games he coached. That's about 57 games won a year in an 82 game season. Big deal?

Everyone jumped on Eric Spoelstra and the Miami Heat for coming out so slowly to start the year and yet the team still won 58 games. It isn't that Spoelstra is a great coach, rather he has the best players on his team. There's no such thing as luck, it is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. If Spoelstra had a horrible ensemble of players, he might get canned for a bad start, but the fact is he has the best players, much like Phil Jackson did his entire career.

Do you think that if Spoelstra had the same talent on his team for 20 years that he could consistently win 57 games? Without a doubt. But no one is ever going to claim that he was one of the best coaches. Is there an award for best manager of talent? Maybe that is what we could dole out to coaches like Phil Jackson and Eric Spoelstra.

I'm not saying Doc Rivers is the best coach either. Ask anyone who knows me and I was against Doc Rivers coming to Boston. These guys are in the NBA and if they can't get up to play then they won't win. It doesn't take a coach in the NBA to motivate players. This isn't the college game. Phil Jackson has always had the best player on his team, so it is only natural that he be one of the best coaches when it came to winning percentage.

What makes the best coach? A coach that takes his team to new levels, a coach that surpasses expectations. Should the Heat miss their expectations of winning a championship it wouldn't surprise me to see Phil Jackson come and take over. Why would Phil Jackson take over a team like the Sacramento Kings and show what kind of coach he really is? If he really is that great of a coach? Look at any other team in the West right now still playing and they should be defined as better coaches. They all won 56% or more of their regular season games and made the playoffs with far inferior teams. Do that consistently and they have a case.

Sure, no one knew that Jordan and Kobe would be the players they panned out to be when Phil first had them but the only way Jackson would coach is if he had the best players. So if Phil stays, it will only be in a spot beneficial to him. I give coaches like Larry Brown more credit for trying again and again, only to fail again and again. They are trying to flex their coaching muscle, aka, their minds. How hard is it to say, "Kobe, let's get a win, go take over"? It really is that easy and if any NBA team wants to give me a chance with elite players, I'll gladly put a few flex offense sets on a whiteboard and say "Hey, Superstar, go get me a win. And look to Superstar 2 and 3 if you can't get your shot."

If a wrestler retires, is it real?

2011-04-25T09:23:00.002-05:00

Look, I still think wrestling is for fucking dorks, but this was a great post I found about some famous wrestler retiring recently. His name was Edge. He looked like one of those porn stars that grunt to much and make you not want to play with yourself...

Via SOS blog

It happens very often in the world of professional sports that we see careers cut short because of injury. The risks and hazards that all professional athletes take when they step onto the field, court, ice, diamond, and pitch (or whatever their sport’s playing field is called) are always high. Sometimes these injuries occur to younger players leaving us fans to ponder questions like “What if?” and wonder about what could have been. Other times we see injuries occur to older athletes that were just hanging for a few more years. Although career-ending injuries strip away an athlete’s ability to walk away on his or her terms…they sometimes turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Although you probably would not believe it unless you were a fan, professional wrestling is a sport that sees the most amount of injuries besides football. Professional wrestlers land on their backs in a way the human body is not supposed too. There is no off-season in pro wrestling; which means these men and women are landing on their backs, being thrown outside of the ring onto concrete, and jumping off the top rope onto a hard canvas about 250 days out of the year. To say that wrestlers live daily life in pain would be an understatement. It’s amazing what amount of risks pro wrestlers will go through to put on a great show for the fans.

The old school mantra of professional wrestling has always been you suck it up, tape up any injury you have, go out there and perform for the fans. It didn’t matter if you were risking further injury and possibly threatening your ability to walk or even life a pain-free life as you got older. As more awareness about concussions and long-term injuries became prevalent and relevant in today’s sports age, the WWE decided to scale back on high-risk maneuvers and even banned chair shots to the head. Even with a toned down in-ring product, taking the bumps these guys do still leads to pain and injuries.

On the April 11th edition of Monday Night Raw one of the most passionate and talented wrestlers that the WWE has ever seen was forced to retire. Adam Copeland (known to WWE fans Edge) spoke from the heart and let everyone know exactly what the situation was. Edge suffered a broken neck back in 2003 and had to have major surgery performed by renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews. He was forced to miss a year of in-ring competition. Fast forward to 2011 where Edge says he started feeling numbness up and down his arms over the past few months. The WWE asked him to take a few physical tests before WrestleMania 27 earlier this month. The lingering effects of that neck injury on top of 8 straight years of physical pain and punishment to his body had finally caught up with Edge. The test results showed that Edge would never again be cleared to wrestling in a WWE ring or he would risk paralysis and spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

The decision was an easy one for the 37-year-old Copeland. He decided to walk away with his head held high and retire from the business as the World Heavyweight Champion. Edge had stated in recent interviews that he had about 2 good years left in him before he would choose to retire on his own. Although that decision ended up being out of his hands and he did not get to walk away on his own terms, Edge had nothing to be sad about. In the WWE, Edge had accomplished every possible achievement there was.

As a wrestling fan growing up in Toronto, Canada, Edge always dreamed of becoming the World Champion just one time. He ended his career as an 11-time World Champion, as well as a multiple time Intercontinental Champion, U.S. Champion, and Tag Team Champion. Edge also won the King of the Ring tournament in 2001 and won the 2010 Royal Rumble. Edge had basically seen it all and done it all in a Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Edge was set to wrestle at May 1st’s Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View in a ladder match for the World Championship against Alberto Del Rio. It truly was a blessing in disguise that these test results came back at the time they did. A ladder match is one of the most brutal matches the WWE has to offer and one wrong bump or fall off the ladder could have paralyzed Edge for the rest of his life.

Watching and listening to Edge announce his retirement on live television made me a little emotional. After all I have been an Edge fan ever since he debuted in May of 1998; and as my other favorite wrestlers such as Bret Hart, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and The Rock retired and left the business, Edge took the top spot as my favorite active WWE Superstar. I was hoping that this would turn out to be some kind of storyline. I sat there waiting for somebody’s music to hit and interrupt Edge. When that didn’t happen I started to get the feeling that this was as real as it could get. Edge walked backstage and was greeted by a standing round of applause from his fellow Superstars. Edge was crying as he hugged his friends and the screen faded to black. Later in the week on Smackdown, Edge officially vacated his World Heavyweight Championship and gave another heartfelt speech. He thanked his mom who was in the audience and let everyone know that he’d go back to his home in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife and dogs. He even asked the fans if he come out to his entrance and music one more time because he would miss it. Edge really does have the best theme music and entrance in the WWE today and I will greatly miss it. He thanked everyone in the WWE and some his closest friends in the business. The show ended with the wrestlers coming out to the entranceway and giving him a standing ovation as guys like Triple H, Big Show, and Rey Mysterio walked into the ring and gave him hugs.

Although he did not get to walk away on his terms, he walked away with his head high and with great respect, dignity, and honor. Everyone will always respect him for the decision he made. Life -and most importantly a pain-free life- should be the most important thing to any athlete in any sport. When you’ve accomplished everything that Edge has in the WWE it is a lot easier to walk away when the doctor tells you too. Many times an athlete will try to be macho and go against the doctor’s orders because they do not want to be perceived as weak or not tough. Sometimes being smart is a lot better than being tough.

Edge will always be remembered as a young guy who came in as an upstart in the WWE and clawed his way to the top of the business through hard work and dedication to his craft. He was always one of the more entertaining guys on the mic and could have match of the night honors on every single card he wrestled on. He was dedicated to taking fans on emotional rides in any storyline he was involved in by his intense promos. From his days as a member of the gothic Brood to tearing down the house in tag team ladder matches and TLC matches with his best friend Christian. To 5 second poses and kazoo themes to breaking off on his own and winning the King of the Ring. To beating Kurt Angle and shaving his hair to winning the Money in the Bank ladder match. To beating John Cena for his first WWE World Title to the Rated R Superstar era where he had a live sex display with Lita. To main-eventing WrestleMania 24 against the Undertaker to returning at the Royal Rumble in 2010 after a year off and winning it. To winning his 11th World Heavyweight Championship…Edge has always been entertaining and exciting to watch. He called himself the Ultimate Opportunist and The Rated R Superstar.

Edge is the epitome of what happens when you start at the bottom, work hard, and succeed and make it all the way to the top. He can walk away knowing he’s left behind an amazing legacy that WWE fans will never forget. Adam Copeland will one day be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and everyone will know that he truly did deserve it because he was that good and all of his peers respected him.

(This is a video tribute the WWE put together for Edge…as always it’s worth watching and really good.)

Stanley Cup Playoff Preview

2011-04-14T09:21:00.000-05:00

Rangers-Caps: Basically, we get to see if the Caps are truly committed to their defensive gameplan of the past few months. We also see how much regular season success carries over to the playoffs. I still remember when Tampa played the Islanders in 2004, the Islanders won the season series, but still lost in 5 games. The Rangers have the goalie advantage, the advantage at the blueline (which they didn't have in '09), but without Ryan Callahan, some needs to step up (Marian Gaborik?) to put the puck in the net. No prediction, because I'm a biased Rangers fan, may as well get that out of the way.

Flyers-Sabers: The key to this series is will Chris Pronger play. If he does and plays well, the Flyers will win. If not, the Sabres are more dangerous on offense and Ryan Miller can be the difference maker. I still say the Flyers win, because they have better forwards and just need their goalie(s) not to lose it. Flyers in 7.

Bruins-Canadiens: The best series of the first round. Montreal has the history and they have the season series edge, 4-2. The Bruins have the psychological edge after their 7-0 win in March. Who wins? Boston has clear advantages at forward and the blueline, and goaltending is a wash. Unless the Bruins either don't play their physical style, or play it too much, they should win in 6.

Penguins-Lightning: Once again, the question is about a player coming back. This time, it's Sidney Crosby. I don't think he comes back and Pittsburgh has to make due without him. While the Lightning have terrific players such as Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Vinny LeCavalier, I don't think they're ready to win yet. Pittsburgh, with Marc-Andre Fleury leading the way, grinds out a series win in 6.

Canucks-Blackhawks: Are the Canucks capable of finally beating the Blackhawks. Everyone was saying that Vancouver should be upset to play the Hawks again. I think they should be thrilled. To become the champ, you must beat the champ and the Canucks must get over this hill if they are to win. I think it's a challenge they accept and the fact that they have the deepest team in the playoffs, best scoring, best in goals against and they should win. Canucks in 5.

Sharks-Kings: The Kings had a chance to do big things this year, until losing Anze Kopitar. Now they are stuck with a San Jose team who's lurking as a sleeper to win, instead of a favorite. Sharks win in 6.

Red Wings-Coyotes: Until this afternoon, I was willing to make the Coyotes are my upset of the round. Then came the news they could be moving back to Winnipeg after the playoffs (sorry for no link, but I have no time to get one). This means the crowds in Phoenix, which weren't bad last year, will be either empty or full of Wings fans. Plus, it's never smart to pick against Detroit. Wings in 6.

Predators-Ducks: Barry Trotz should be commended for the job he does with a Nashville team who can't score, but seem to make the playoffs every year. If they played 10 years ago like this, they'd have a Cup. Unfortunately you need to score and the Ducks can with Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Teemu Selanne. Not enough firepower again for the Preds. Ducks win in 7.

NBA Playoff Predictions

2011-04-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

The playoffs are once again among us... some predictions for the first round.

EAST

1 Chicago over 8 Indiana in 4 games
The Bulls are the more complete, talented team. They are better offensively and defensively. This should be the least interesting series in round 1.

2 Miami over 7 Philadelphia in 5 games
As much as I want to see the 76ers pull one out, it is not going to happen. They don't have the firepower to hang with the star-studded Heat. Iggy can only guard LeBron or Wade.

3 Boston over 6 New York in 7 games
The Celtics come limping into the playoffs, trying to find an identity again after the Kendrick Perkins trade. Funny things can happen when the Knicks get into the playoffs... Game 7 in Boston, though, gives them the advantage.

4 Orlando over 5 Atlanta in 6 games
I'm not sold on the Magic as legitimate contenders, but I think they have the firepower to overtake the Hawks.

WEST

1 San Antonio over 8 Memphis in 6 games
This is an intriguing game since people think the Spurs are a weak 1 and the Griz a strong 8, but reports of an upset have been greatly exaggerated. The Spurs still have the big 3, and Manu Ginobili will be the best player in this series.

2 Los Angeles over 7 New Orleans in 5 games
If David West were healthy, this might be an interesting series. As it is, I don't see the Lakers faltering, even as poor as they have played down the stretch.

6 Portland over 3 Dallas in 7 games
The upset of the first round, I like the more athletic Blazers to take down Dallas, even though Dirk is playing as well as anyone in the NBA. The Mavs need Tyson Chandler to be huge in this series, but I am not sure he is up to it.

4 Oklahoma City over 5 Denver in 6 games
It should be the most entertaining series in the first round, as both teams get out and run. The difference is that one of these teams have Kevin Durant, and one does not.

What are your predictions?

Baseball Preview

2011-04-01T20:02:00.000-05:00

Earlier than normal and without the National Championship game as the finale of the day, the 2011 MLB season begins today. This season begins off the heels of an offseason which was crazier than expected. Particularly, the moves by the Red Sox and Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke moving were the biggest stories. However, the hot stove has been turned off and its back to diamond where every team (yes, even the Pirates) are in first place on Opening Day, and despite the bad weather here in NYC, you can feel grass is about to grow and spring is coming. It's also time for another preview post (I know it seems like all I do are preview posts anymore) so let's get to it before the first pitch.

We begin in the reigning toughest division in baseball, and the likely toughest for the rest of time in the AL East. You know a division is tough when the fifth-place team can realistically win another division. Baltimore and Toronto are interesting because they are up-and-coming; both teams can hit well and they have young pitching that if they reach potential, could win about 85-90 games. Even that, however, wouldn't mean the playoffs for both. Tampa lost Carl Crawford, Rafael Soriano and many others, but they still have Evan Longoria and David Price and with good years from Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon and B.J. Upton, they can easily go back to the playoffs. However, I don't believe their bullpen without Soriano and Joaquin Benoit can establish themselves good enough to pass the Yankees and Red Sox. Both teams will make the playoffs, Josh Beckett would be the key if the Red Sox win the division or the Yankees. If Beckett's can bounce back to his best, then the Red Sox advantage in the rotation is pronounced over the Yankees. If not, then the rotations are a wash, with maybe a slight edge for Boston. I think the Red Sox win it, only because the Yankees might struggle early with the rotation and whatever trade they make won't swing the division, but solidify the wild card.

The AL Central once again has Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago as their contenders as Cleveland and Kansas City continue the rebuild. The Royals are really close to being a good team, as their best in baseball farm system continues to grow up. It won't be this year they compete for the playoffs, but in 2012 or 2013, they will. I think they hold off the Indians in the battle for last place, as Cleveland is a little behind the rebuild than the Royals (meaning Orlando Cabrera is traded to a contender by July 31). As for the contenders, I'm not sold on either the Tigers or White Sox to overtake the Twins. Chicago always seems to wear down over the year under Ozzie Guillen's managing, while the Tigers don't seem to have the rotation capable of winning the division. I know the Twins lost some major bullpen guys, but if Joe Nathan comes back to his All-Star form, that negates the loss. It also helps to have Justin Morneau back in the lineup, hopefully he can have a season which he's healthy enough for the playoffs, would be important if it's the Yankees they play again.

Last year was a change for the AL West as the Angels went by the wayside and the Rangers won the division and the league. This year, both team look to stagnate a little, opening the door for a surprise winner. Even though the Mariners seem to do good in odd numbered years, they won't win this year. They could settle for another Cy Young for King Felix (better than training him). I look to Oakland as the best team in the West as they have the best rotation (and had it last year) and with Josh Willingham and Hideki Matsui signing there, they have a better offense (of course, who knows with that ballpark). Anaheim is lacking in both offense and pitching to compete, despite Mike Scioscia's ability to manage. As for Texas, they will compete with Oakland to the end, but I must say, not getting Cliff Lee to resign is the difference for this team.

On to the NL, starting in the East where the Philly Phour reside. Despite the early season injuries, the Phillies really shouldn't miss the playoffs; if they do, it's an embarrassment. Speaking of embarrassment, the Mets should be the worst team in the division. I don't see how they pitch well, even in Citi Field, which will also negate the offense. Washington will be fourth, but they won't be any good until we know how Stephen Strasburg responds to Tommy John surgery, as well as when Bryce Harper moves to the majors. Florida is probably a year away from being a legitimate contender as the pitching behind Josh Johnson continues to develop more consistency and the lineup does as well, probably a good year in the new ballpark for them in 2012. The Braves will win the wild card as they are improved from last year. The pitching is still there (unless Derek Lowe comes back down) and more importantly, they will hit better with Dan Uggla and potential Rookie of the Year Freddie Freeman.

Probably the division that has the most potential contenders is the NL Central with Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago and yes, St. Louis who can realistically win. I always think the Cards can compete because of Tony La Russa, Dave Duncan and Albert Pujols (even with the impending free agency). The Cubs are improved with Matt Garza and hope to have a motivated Carlos Pena who's on a one-year deal. Add Starlin Castro, Aramis Ramirez and Marlon Byrd and the lineup is good. Still think they fall short of the division, trailing both the Brewers and Reds. The Reds still have the balanced offense from last year and a dominant bullpen with Aroldis Chapman and Francisco Cordero at the back end. The Brewers offense is better than Cincy's and with Greinke and Shaun Marcum, they should have enough to win the division (and they better, they put too much into this season). No need to discuss the Astros or the Pirates, both will struggle, though Houston's closer to contention because of pitching.

Last but not least, the division of the defending World Series winners, the Giants. The division won't be as difficult now that the Padres traded Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox, and will suffer a bad year because of it, though it might not be too long a dip. The Diamondbacks are still on the long road of rebuilding since the pitching is still porous and they still don't hit with any consistency, though they do have building blocks. The Dodgers are interesting with a solid rotation and a nice lineup, but they don't have the hitting Colorado has or the pitching San Francisco has as well. The Rockies are the contender in the division, but will need more pitching than Ubaldo Jimenez to overtake the Giants. San Francisco will struggle early, but the injuries they have seem short-term and they should tread water until healthy, then win the end.

World Series Pick: Braves over A's

MVP's: Ryan Braun and Robinson Cano

Cy Young's: Roy Halladay and Jon Lester

Rookies of the Year: Freddie Freeman and Jeremy Hellickson

Managers of the Year: Ron Roenicke and Bob Geren

NCAA Preview

2011-03-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

Figured I'd put my entire preview in one post, I'll go through each region, giving you which teams are better than thought, which are worse and picks for the Final Four and Championship. One things for sure, this field is probably as hard as I can remember, only one team I felt any confidence in going to Houston. Maybe that means I'll win big, when if I had all the confidence in my Final Four, I'd probably lose it by Friday. Anyway, here's the regions.

East Region

This is with the West as the toughest region, a little more because of the name schools North Carolina, Syracuse and Kentucky are playing like their reputation, making it harder for number 1 overall Ohio St. Doesn't help that Washington, Xavier, West Virginia and George Mason play here too.

-Potential Cinderella: We have two, Marquette and Washington. The Huskies have Isaiah Thomas, who's capable of starting a long tourney run, while Marquette is one of the better coached teams in the Big Dance.

-Potential Pumpkin: North Carolina. I know they won the ACC and have Harrison Barnes, but they scared me in the ACC Tourney by trailing big in every game. Also, this year seems too soon for a Final Four Tar Heel team.

-Picks: OSU, Kentucky, Syracuse and Washington in Sweet 16. Kentucky and Cuse in Elite 8 and the Wildcats to win region. No one is picking Kentucky and I like how they're playing now. Plus, the early struggles I think will help them at this of year.

West Region

This is the other tough region, talent-wise, the top 4 seeds can each make the Final Four. Kyrie Irving will be back for Duke, Duke haters can only hope he doesn't transition seamlessly back into the flow for the Blue Devils, or you're looking at back-to-back titles.

-Potential Cinderella: This bracket is full of Cinderellas, as Oakland, Temple and Missouri all could outperform their seed; at least are the trending upset picks. Missouri gets that moniker because of Mike Anderson's pressure style, Oakland also plays uptempo and has an NBA-caliber big and Temple plays well in the halfcourt. Other possible Cinderella; Bucknell catching a tired UConn squad.

-Potential Pumpkin: UConn only because they are spent from the Big East Tourney (though it would have to be Kemba Walker who's spent), but Texas is a team I never like in the NCAA's. Rick Barnes is someone you should always pick against in the tournament; hell he couldn't even get the Longhorns to the Sweet 16 when Kevin Durant was playing there.

-Picks: Duke, Arizona, UConn and San Diego State reach Sweet 16 (Zona after beating Oakland in the "third round"). Duke and UConn face in the Elite 8 with Kemba taking the Huskies to the Final Four. Now don't sleep tomorrow against Bucknell.

Southwest Region

This bracket seems like it should go to Kansas. It's not too weak like we'll see in the Southwest, as Notre Dame, Purdue and Louisville are legitimately good. The Jayhawks, of course, will try to right the wrongs of last year's first round exit.

-Potential Cinderella: Richmond is good and can advance far, both VCU and Georgetown can outperform their seed. The Hoyas in particular are a potential Final Four team if Chris Wright is healed from his hand injury. Otherwise, they will be one and done.

-Potential Pumpkin: We outlined Georgetown, but Vanderbilt also stands to be an early loser. They probably are the most nondescript five seed that I can remember.

-Picks: Richmond gets the upset over Vandy, loses to Louisville in the second round (calling it third round before was sarcasm, we'll call the rounds correctly from now on). Louisville is joined by Kansas, ND and Purdue; with a Kansas/Purdue Elite 8 and Kansas heads to Houston.

Southeast Region

A horror show of a region that includes the worst 2 seed, the worst 3 and a 4 who lost their last game 36-33. All signs point to Pitt cleaning up this region, but if you know the history with the Pitt Panthers, you know that you can't make that assumption.

-Potential Cinderella: There are Cinderellas everywhere; Utah St, Belmont and Gonzaga as first round potential upset winners, with St. John's, UCLA and Michigan St as potential surprise Sweet 16's at the very least. Even Old Dominion is getting upset talk, the only 8/9 seed who's I think is getting that talk this year.

-Potential Pumpkin: Also littered, as Florida was overseeded at a 2 (unless you tell my Al Horford is coming back). BYU would have been the potential Final Four team, until they threw Brandon Davies off the team, now it's up to Jimmer to carry the Cougars as far as he can. Meanwhile, both Wisconsin and Kansas State are capable of losing early, the shame is the Wildcats probably could go far like last year, but get a tough draw in Utah State.

-Picks: I have Utah State over Belmont to go to the Sweet 16, joining Pitt, BYU and UCLA. Then the Panthers head to the Final Four with a win over the Bruins.

Final Four

UConn over Kentucky
Kansas over Pitt

Championship

Kansas over UConn

Super Bowl Prediction

2011-02-06T12:21:00.001-06:00

Today is the big day as the Packers and the Steelers finally do battle. It feels like forever since both teams won their way to the Super Bowl, plus while the hype of the Super Bowl is there because it's Green Bay and Pittsburgh, there hasn't been much created in terms of these two teams, aside from Ben Roethlisberger's redemption. Quick question, what has taken place in the past two weeks that made you remember that the Packers are in the Super Bowl? Couldn't think of anything, did you, besides maybe Troy Polamalu over Clay Matthews for the Defensive Player of the Year.

Despite that, let's make sense of this game, which unlike Fox who will take four hours before the game to make sense of it, I'll just use about 10 minutes of your time. Which is plenty for you to watch Caps/Pens, Celtics/Magic and to go to or set up your own party for tonight. Here are the five things to look for as you watch this game, and none of those five include commercials or the Black Eyed Peas (sorry, no alternative halftime viewing recommendations by me, though I know people love the Puppy Bowl).

1. The Packers defense not only plays like the Steelers defense, they are actually better. The reason; because the Packers have Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams and Sam Shields, the best trio of CB's in the NFL. Add Nick Collins and it will be hard for Big Ben to throw against Green Bay. And that's not including Matthews, B.J. Raji and Cullen Jenkins, who can give Roethlisberger as much trouble as James Harrison, James Farrior and Lawrence Timmons can give Aaron Rodgers.

2. However, if Troy Polamalu is healthy and active, that advantage swing right back in the Steelers favor. I've used this space to show my praise for Polamalu, hell, he was my Defensive Player of the Year strictly because his presence makes the Steelers better. He hasn't played well through his injury, but the Steelers have been winning despite this because the Ravens and Jets both have inferior offenses and the games were played in Pittsburgh. Switch to a game with a great offense like the Packers with two weeks to study the Steelers defense on a neutral site and indoors, which the Packers play better, and Polamalu must be more than just on the field. If he is the game changer that you watched against the Ravens in Baltimore or the Cincinnati game, the Steelers will stop Rodgers from having another game like against Atlanta.

3. The kicking game swings the special teams advantage to the Packers. Tim Masthay had a great game against the Bears, and he needed to considering they have Devin Hester returning punts. Mason Crosby is one of the top kickers in football and he gets to play indoors. Shawn Suisham hasn't been bad, and though I'd worry about him outdoors, indoors he should be fine. However, Jeremy Kapinos is an injury replacement and isn't that good. Meaning the Steelers will need to set up punts from around midfield to avoid short Green Bay possessions.

4. Until proven otherwise, the Steelers are the better running team. James Starks has been great for the Packers this postseason, and if he plays well in the Super Bowl, this possibly be a performance like Timmy Smith (hopefully it translates into future seasons). However, the Steelers have a great run defense (despite no Aaron Smith) with the LB's mentioned earlier and LaMarr Woodley, plus Casey Hampton in the middle and Brett Keisel at DE. As for the Steelers, Rashad Mendenhall ran wild against the Jets two weeks ago, but the Packers are better in the front seven than the Jets because of Matthews and Raji. Steelers will also miss Maurkice Pouncey, but they can run right behind Flozell Adams, yes, that Flozell Adams, the Human Penalty Flag. So, yes, the Steelers can run, but if the Packers defense plays well, it won't be a great advantage.

5. The QB matchup is a wash. The reason, Big Ben's experience. Rodgers has the advantage in terms of dealing with the weaker secondary and gets to play indoors. However, if the Steelers get pressure on Rodgers, that advantage is taken away. Meanwhile, while the secondary will be tough for Roethlisberger, he still has Heath Miller to go to as a fallback look. Green Bay, while I think have the better WR's, are about even when you include the TE's (mainly because of no Jermichael Finley). The question is, what do you believe in more, Big Ben's 10-2 playoff record and two titles or this being the year Aaron Rodgers ascends to the top of the list of best QB's in football, like Drew Brees last year.

Prediction: I love Aaron Rodgers indoors, he seems to have control of the offense and their receivers benefit from a fast track. Meanwhile, I think Big Ben will have trouble against the Packers corners, particularly Charles Woodson, who will right things after losing in the Super Bowl as a Raider back in 2003. The Packers will 34-27 and the score is closer because the Steelers get a late TD to make it only 7. Otherwise, enjoy the Super Bowl.

Sunday Playoff Picks

2011-01-15T23:54:00.000-06:00

We now move onto Sunday's games, but first, let's recap yesterday. I probably was as right as I've ever been as the Falcons didn't look good in the spotlight, Aaron Rodgers was just tremendous and played QB yesterday as good as the position can be played. Meanwhile, the Ravens once again couldn't finish a close game while Ben Roethlisberger made a play late as he always does. So what's on tap for today? Probably with me getting both games wrong since I got both right yesterday, but he's my previews anyway.

Last week, I was so down on the Seahawks and they proved me wrong. So does this mean I should go with the Seahawks this week? Not so fast, unlike the Saints, I don't believe the Bears will take Seattle lightly because they lost to them in Chicago this year. Also, back in the beginning of the season, the Bears offensive line was atrocious. Now, it's still not good, but it's better at home. I also don't think the Seahawks will travel well, and the Bears defense could use a good home performance after a few games that they've been shredded at Soldier Field. The real question, should you lay the 10 in this game? Here's the answer, when the Seahawks lose, they lose big. So if you like the Bears, lay the 10 and don't think twice about it. I have the Bears winning 31-14.

Now to the nightcap and the Jets and Pats. So much has been said all week, but that doesn't matter once kickoff happens. Here's the best case for the Jets: They win the toss and they must receive so they have the chance to establish the offense early. I know they like to defer the opening kickoff, but I won't give New England the ball to start the game. Also, LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene can control the clock, the Jets OL can outplay the Pats front seven. When that happens, Mark Sanchez needs to be accurate with his throws, even if they are short passes. Defensively, they need to attack Tom Brady, because the passive approach won't work with him. Brady would eat up the Jets secondary if he has the time. To be fair, I think Peyton Manning would have if he had Dallas Clark and Austin Collie.

So what will happen? I just don't believe Sanchez, after all the struggles in the last few weeks, plus the possibly still injured shoulder will play consistent enough and while it won't be the 45-3 thrashing that it was in December, Brady will still have success against the Jets. Pats will win 27-10.

Week 17

2011-01-02T00:26:00.000-06:00

The regular season comes to a close and it's time for the list of awards. Joel Sherman of the New York Post does a great job with his baseball award column by having his top 5 in each award and an anti-award winner for those who were terrible. So I figured to do the same for this year's NFL season. With all the credit due to Mr. Sherman, he's my awards for this season.

NFL MVP- Tom Brady - Runners up: 2. Mike Vick, 3. Troy Polamalu, 4. Maurice Jones-Drew, 5. Peyton Manning

If Vick played in every game this year, it would be a closer race, but Brady has been nearly flawless this year with 34 TD's and only 4 INT's. Polamalu is the most important defensive player in football, as the Steelers go as he does (in terms of health). MJD was the only reason the Jags are still alive as of Week 17 and ditto for Manning (who can always be in the top 5).

Anti-NFL MVP- Brett Favre - Runners up: 2. Carson Palmer, 3. Chad Henne, 4. The entire Texans secondary, 5. Albert Haynesworth

Favre in so many ways had the worst performance, as his season clearly brought down a Vikings team who should have been to the Super Bowl last year. Palmer and Henne have both helped derail talented teams, but Palmer is more established so he stays ahead of Henne. The Texans secondary was just brutal this year, the Jets game being the best example, while Haynesworth was too fat to be on the field.

Offensive Player of the Year- Arian Foster - Runners up: 2. Phil Rivers, 3. Roddy White, 4. Tom Brady, 5. Maurice Jones-Drew

I don't like to have the same MVP and Offensive Player of the Year and Foster was the best running back this year. Rivers was terrific despite no Vincent Jackson for much of the year and the Chargers not making the playoffs isn't on him. White is the most important weapon on the Falcons offense, yes, even more than Michael Turner. I already got into Brady and MJD's seasons.

Anti-Offensive POTY- Randy Moss- Runners up: 2. Donovan McNabb, 3. Any Dallas RB, 4. Derek Anderson, 5. Marshawn Lynch

Part of this award is that I don't put rookies in this category, thus no Jimmy Clausen. Randy Moss only caught two touchdowns of note this year and his teams were terrible when he played for them. McNabb started to show his age this year and the fact Rex Grossman is starting games says it all. The Cowboys had no running back who was good, while Derek Anderson was so bad, whoever still didn't have Kurt Warner as a Hall of Famer will put him in now. Lynch is officially done as he failed on both Buffalo and Seattle.

Defensive POTY- Troy Polamalu- Runners up: 2. Clay Matthews, 3. Cameron Wake.

Running out of time, so I'm going with the top 3 for the rest of the blog post. As I said earlier, Polamalu is the difference maker on the Steelers and is clearly the best defensive player, look at the Ravens and Bengals games as to why. Matthews is the best player on the Packers defense and Wake has been a revelation for the Dolphins, who also have a good defense.

Anti-Defensive POTY- Albert Haynesworth- Runners up: 2. Jason Taylor, 3. Alphonso Smith

Haynesworth won this award in training camp, just another terrible signing the annual offseason champions Washington Redskins. Taylor has been a failure with the Jets (Vernon Gholston would fit if anyone expected good things from him) and Smith won 3rd place from his Thanksgiving showing.

Coach of the Year- Bill Belichick- Runners up: 2. Todd Haley, 3. Lovie Smith

Belichick had his finest coaching job by getting this Pats team with young defenders and no Randy Moss to the best record in football. Haley led the Chiefs to the playoffs and showed he isn't afraid to be gutsy in the process. Smith gets here by default, since I had little expectation for that team. Not a lot of great coaching to be fair.

Anti-Coach of the Year- Mike Singletary- Runners up: 2. Marvin Lewis, 3. Norv Turner

Singletary was singlehandedly responsible for the 49ers not winning the awful NFC West. Could game manage well, couldn't pick a QB and gave up on games too soon. Lewis is responsible for the Bengals crashing to earth and is likely gone, while a team that's top 2 in offense and defense shouldn't be 8-7, right Norv?

Here's my Week 17 picks:

(Home team in CAPS)

Oakland (+4) over KANSAS CITY
Miami (+6) over NEW ENGLAND
Pittsburgh (-6) over CLEVELAND
BALTIMORE (-10) over Cincinnati
DETROIT (-4) over Minnesota
Buffalo (+3) over JETS
ATLANTA (-14) over Carolina
NEW ORLEANS (-7.5) over Tampa Bay
INDIANAPOLIS (-10) over Tennessee
HOUSTON (-4) over Jacksonville
Giants (-5) over WASHINGTON
Chicago (+10.5) over GREEN BAY- Packers win outright and clinch NFC berth
Dallas (-1) over PHILADELPHIA
Arizona (+6) over SAN FRANCISCO
DENVER (+4) over San Diego
St, Louis (-3) over SEATTLE

Umm... Michael Vick is still a bad guy

2010-11-16T00:11:00.001-06:00

Received this in an e-mail. Unfortunately, I have no idea who wrote it so I can't give credit. Obviously, I'm not taking it either...

I don’t understand why everyone is patting Michael Vick on the ass and calling it an amazing success story.

The dude killed and tortured a bunch of dogs for his own leisure.

If you’re not a star quarterback in the NFL, they call people like that “fucking psychopaths.”

Sorry, but it just annoys me that anyone would buy into Vick’s PR campaign or his “amazing comeback” and would now laud him as someone to look up to for inspiration.

The dude executed dogs because they didn’t kill other dogs and lost him money. He personally killed defenseless animals. What a fucking asshole.

Am I the only human being alive who seems to think that performing well at competitive sports isn’t that important compared to, say, being compassionate to other living things and not raping college chicks?

Ben Rothelwhatever and Michael Vick shouldn’t be allowed to be put on a pedestal where young children can look up to them and call them heroes, solely because they can throw a football well.

All professional sports leagues should take a closer look at their moral standards as to who they allow to work for them. If these leagues want to sell themselves based on heroes and role models, they shouldn’t allow people with such tainted pasts to put themselves in a position to become such.

Also, I’d like to point out that while I am most certainly not a vegetarian, there is certainly a difference between killing animals for the hell of it, and killing animals for food.

Mike Vick can donate as much money as he wants to animal shelters. He gets paid enough, and by the way, most of his charitable work is court ordered. He’s still an asshole.

Week 10 Picks

2010-11-14T10:50:00.001-06:00

(Home team in CAPS)

INDIANAPOLIS (-7) over Cincinnati- Not at Indy do I think the Bengals stay close.
Houstion (+1) over JACKSONVILLE- Both teams frustrate, so the Texans naturally win.
Tennessee (PK) over MIAMI- Titans are better and Chad Pennington won't help.
Minnesota (-1.5) over CHICAGO- Bears aren't that good. Vikings aren't that bad.
BUFFALO (-1.5) over Detroit- Best chance for the Bills to finally get a win.
CLEVELAND (+3) over Jets- Have bought into the Colt McCoy Era.
TAMPA BAY (-7) over Carolina- The Panthers are really bad.
Kansas City (-1.5) over DENVER- Dangerous for the Chiefs if they don't win.
St. Louis (+6) over SAN FRANCISCO- Can't give that much with the Niners, and Rams are good.
ARIZONA (-4) over Seattle- Road game for Seahawks. Another pathetic NFC West game.
Dallas (+14) over GIANTS- Don't think it's a blowout. Cowboys will play hard.
New England (+4.5) over PITTSBURGH- Winner is team to beat in AFC.
WASHINGTON (+3) over Philadelphia- Sneaky feeling that McNabb plays well tomorrow.

This week: 1-0
Last Week: 8-4-1
Season: 75-51-5

On the NFL's illegal hit problem

2010-11-11T02:44:00.000-06:00

Day after day another NFL defensive player is fined for what the league’s new mantra has deemed an “illegal hit.” Growing frustration is mounting among writers, fans and players as it’s becoming clearer that there is no definitive line between a clean hit and a dangerous one.

The NFL wants you to believe that safety is its top priority and that these radical rule changes and dozens of fines will make a difference in the wellbeing of the players. While the absurd player comments (See: Harrison, James) and media lashings are plentiful, we’re missing the underlying reason of the new rules: the all-mighty dollar.

Defensive players come and go throughout the league. The skill positions are where the money is made. With increased awareness on concussion recovery, the NFL loses its marquee players for games at a time. We’ve seen concussions cut prolific careers short, including Hall of Famer Troy Aikman.

There is obviously nothing wrong with greater concern and treatment for post-concussion symptoms, but changing the way the game is played is not the way out of this mess. Athletes are getting bigger, faster and stronger every season. As the ability to inflict pain increases, our spinal structure and tolerance for hits doesn’t grow. This is the reason for more concussions and injuries, not dirty hits.

What the NFL is doing wrong however is placing the blame on players for their unique physical gifts. These are the same guys who have been taught their entire lives to ‘jack someone up.’ Now it’s time to reprogram their brains to play a new way?

Roger Goodell is not protecting the safety of his players as much as he’s protecting his prize investments. Major injuries to star quarterbacks, running backs or receivers are a financial blow to both the teams they play for and the league. Outside of the Jackson residence, no one in Minnesota is wearing a No. 7 jersey on Sundays. Local fans don’t buy tickets and casual fans don’t turn on Monday Night Football to watch Tavaris Jackson.

Go on YouTube and Marlon Pryor’s hit on Brett Favre last Sunday. Until the moment he struck Favre, he is being blocked – then held – by Steve Hutchinson. At no time did he have time to stop, think about the direction his helmet would land on Favre and put a “legal hit” on the ol’ gunslinger. Regardless if the hit was legal or not by the new standards, Pryor was simply doing his job like he would on any other play.

Therein lays the problem with the new system. We’re penalizing players for playing hard, for playing the way they’ve been taught since they were 12 years old.

That’s not going to fix the problem, Mr. Goodell. It’s only going to make them hit harder next time.

Hey, the Knicks are good again...

2010-11-08T22:53:00.000-06:00

There is legitimacy in New York basketball again. I can’t even hide the thesis. I am just so excited for this season. It has been almost a decade since New York fans can be excited about their New York Knickerbockers. The media is buying into this team and people actually care. It’s only been a week and a half into the season and the change is so immense.

I wish basketball cities like Boston, Chicago, LA, and the entire state of Texas could see what a difference has been made. I understand people question Donnie Walsh’s moves and draft picks, but for the first time in years, there is harmony in the basketball capital of the world. Isiah Thomas is gone, even though Jimmy effin Dolan is trying to bring him back (I will get to this later), but his reign and terrible collaboration of players is over.

This past Thursday was the first time the Knicks have been on TNT since November 29, 2007 where they were embarrassed in Boston by a score of 104-59, but the Knicks shot the lights out to beat a good Chicago team in enemy territory. Let’s look at this further though.

Under IT’s (Isiah Thomas) control, here is the starting lineup on that horrible TNT night:

1.Stephon Marbury
2.Jamal Crawford
3.Quentin Richardson
4.Zach Randolph
5.Eddy Curry

Quite the team of winners…

Here is the starting lineup, Donnie Walsh set up this past Thursday:

1.Raymond Felton
2.Landry Fields
3.Danilo Galinari
4.Amare Stoudemire
5.Timofey Mozgov

Now, I understand the argument that these guys haven’t been tested and proven yet, and everyone is absolutely right, but no one can dispute the difference of the lineup setup, attitude, and perspective of this team is. Amare loves the spotlight, I couldn’t stand this signing went it first happened. How could I? A 6′ 10” Power Forward who could only dunk and play little to no defense. A guy who played with arguably the best point guard in the league for his entire career. There was little to like about it. However, he has embraced it, making New York his home and loving every second of it. The people here live on that , that’s why we loved Ewing, Starks, and Oakley They loved playing in the greatest sports arena in the world. They fed off of it. Amare is no different. You can feel it, even watching through the television, and I have not felt this since I was in high school. It’s a superb feeling.

Raymond Felton looks to be in shape and ready to lead New York on a game-to-game basis. Galinari, Fields, and Mozgov illustrate the potential to be great support players and developing into trustworthy teammates. Toney Douglas is a real threat coming of the bench. Anthony Randolph will impact the boards and defense once he is healthy. The team is set to improve in all of the right areas and Mike D’Antoni has finally something to work with. The pieces are set and then… Jimmy Dolan wants to bring back Isiah Thomas.

Let’s place the positives for this…there are none. Dolan is a respected owner and loves to keep his word. He didn’t want to fire IT before, he had to or New York would have burned down MSG out of disgust. Dolan likes IT, in fact, he loves him. He honestly believes he is the right man for the job. 5 million people think otherwise, but that’s not stopping him from considering bringing the destruction of Knickerbocker basketball back to the President of Operations. It breaks my heart, but according to Isiah in an interview conducted by Michael Kay of ESPN Radio, he does not want to come back. Thank God. I am starting to enjoy watching MSG again.

Only time will tell though…

Picking Week 9

2010-11-05T23:01:00.000-05:00

Buffalo (+3) over Chicago- Game in Toronto. Still see Cutler throwing INT's. It's like breathing.

HOUSTON (+3) over San Diego- Close pick, but with no Gates and Johnson playing, go Texans.

New Orleans (-7) over CAROLINA- Probably at my peril, but I hope the Saints play consistent.

MINNESOTA (-8) over Arizona- I know I shouldn't take them, but I don't trust the Cards, go with Peterson to run.

Tampa Bay (+10) over ATLANTA- Falcons might win, but the Bucs will keep it close. Don't give Josh Freeman a chance to win late.

DETROIT (+6) over Jets- Have to go with the Lions when Gus Johnson is announcing.
Miami (+5) over BALTIMORE- Don't trust the Ravens and love the Dolphins on the road.

CLEVELAND (+5.5) over New England- Trap game for the Pats and the Browns have covered a lot this year.

Giants (-7.5) over SEATTLE- The Seahawks have no O-line against the Giants pass rush. Don't make me regret this G-Men.

Kansas City (-1) over OAKLAND- Show me you can show up in a big game Raiders and then I'll take you seriously.

Indianapolis (+3) over PHILADELPHIA- I'm sure Andy Reid's 11-0 record after byes is a great stat, but you lost me when I saw I was getting three with Peyton Manning.

GREEN BAY (-7.5) over Dallas- The final nail in the Dallas coffin, if not here, the Giants will have the chance.

Pittsburgh (-5) over CINCINNATI- I'd be shocked if Carson Palmer plays mediocre. This game will push Palmer to his exit since everyone will watch him stink the joint.

Dan's NFL Power Rankings Week 9

2010-11-03T13:23:00.001-05:00

1. New England (6-1)
2. NY Jets (5-2)
3. Pittsburgh (5-2)
4. Baltimore (5-2)
5. Indianapolis (5-2)
6. NY Giants (5-2)
7. New Orleans (5-3)
8. Green Bay (5-3)
9. Atlanta (5-2)
10. Kansas City (5-2)
11. Miami (4-3)
12. Houston (4-3)
13. Tennessee (5-3)
14. Tampa Bay (5-2)
15. Philadelphia (4-3)
16. San Diego (3-5)
17. St. Louis (4-4)
18. Jacksonville (4-4)
19. Washington (4-4)
20. Seattle (4-3)
21. Chicago (4-3)
22. Oakland (4-4)
23. Minnesota (2-5)
24. Detroit (2-5)
25. Cincinnati (2-5)
26. Cleveland (2-5)
27. San Francisco (2-6)
28. Arizona (3-4)
29. Denver (2-6)
30. Dallas (1-6)
31. Carolina (1-6)
32. Buffalo (0-7)

NFL football had better ratings than World Series in most American markets

2010-10-30T13:06:00.000-05:00

It appears that baseball may be losing its grip as America’s favourite pastime to NFL football. According to the television ratings over the past weekend (Oct. 30-31) the NFL beat out a World Series baseball game in America for the very first time. Even NFL betting is improving in almost all areas.

While NFL games usually draw more viewers than baseball and anything else on TV on a regular basis over the past several years, the league has never had higher rankings when going head to head with a World Series game in prime time before. It seems the times are changing though as the last time an NFL game was broadcast at the same time as the Fall Classic on a Sunday was way back in 1992 and the World Series game beat the football contest by a ratings margin of just over 8 to 1.

But this past Sunday the tables were turned as the NFL game featured the past two Super Bowl champions in the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The baseball matchup was the fourth game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers in Texas. The football game ended up attracting more viewers as the famous Nielsen ratings reported that 10.7 per cent of all American homes that have a TV were tuned into the NFL clash which was broadcast by NBC. The baseball game which was shown by FOX attracted 9 per cent of the viewers.

Before this weekend, the NFL went toe-to-toe with the World Series nine times on a Sunday or Monday night and had come out on the losing end in every single matchup. However, there were some areas in America where the baseball game produced better ratings than the NFL contest. For instance, in St. Louis, Missouri, the World Series game had the highest rating across the country other than the five Texas and California cities which had regional interest in the baseball series. St. Louis was only tied for 33rd place when it came to football ratings.

The local St. Louis station that carried baseball, (KTVI, Channel 2), came in with a 12.5 rating for baseball and the station that showed the football game, (KSDK, Channel 5) had a 11.3 rating. Besides St. Louis and the local Texas and California cities, there were only six other cities out of 56 major markets across America where the ratings were higher for baseball than football.

2010/11 NBA Predictions

2010-10-27T16:47:00.000-05:00

EASTERN CONFERENCE

1. Miami Heat, 64 wins
Yes, they will be hurt by big men, but how many teams actually have the talent to exploit that? Maybe a couple. They'll run around everyone during the regular season. Nobody will be able to come close to matching their wings. LeBron will be supremely motivated after an offseason in which everyone suddenly decided he was no longer the best player in the NBA. He might still have something to say about that.

2. Orlando Magic, 57 wins
The best chance that the East has to knock off Miami. If Dwight Howard asserts himself and takes his offensive game to the next level, nobody has the talent to stop him.

3. Chicago Bulls, 52 wins
Rose and Boozer seems like a perfect fit together, and Noah does all of the little things very well. I think Rose takes a leap to be one of the top 10 players in the NBA and the Bulls move up to a 3 seed.

4. Boston Celtics, 51 wins
Basically, we know what we have with them. They're a solid team that will be a tough out in the postseason. However, a year older for all of the big 3 players means 4th place.

5. Atlanta Hawks, 48 wins
They won 53 games when most things went right for them... hard to see them going anywhere except a little bit backwards after the only real change was to the head coach.

6. Milwaukee Bucks, 46 wins
I thought they played a little above their heads last year at times, but they are a very solid team that could have won a playoff series if Andrew Bogut had been healthy. Things depend on if Brandon Jennings is ready to take another step.

7. New York Knicks, 40 wins
Finally, some excitement in MSG! Amare has plenty of limitations, but he should put up big number under the bright lights and under Mike D'Antoni. Raymond Felton was a nice pickup.

8. Philadelphia 76ers, 38 wins
They do have a bunch of young talent (Young, Speights, Iguodala, Williams, Turner, Holiday), it's just completely mismatched and there is no logic to the roster assembly. Still, Doug Collins can mold an 8 seed out of this group.

9. Indiana Pacers, 37 wins
The pickup of Darren Collison solved some PG woes (he was very good in relief last season), but opened up a hole down low. Granger is a stud but there is still not enough help to make the postseason.

10. Charlotte Bobcats, 35 wins
I think last season was the peak for this group.

11. Detroit Pistons, 35 wins
Another team that has talented players but no logic to the roster assembly. They will be able to put points on the board, but I'm not sure if they can stop anyone.

12. Cleveland Cavaliers, 31 wins
Not a lot positive to say, the Cavs will stink and it will obviously be a terrible season without LeBron. They have the talent to avoid last place in the conference, and they should be highly motivated to prove they aren't a bunch of nobodies, but they don't have too much of a chance here.

13. Washington Wizards, 30 wins
John Wall is here, and that means there is hope for the future of the franchise. However, the present still doesn't look that promising.

14. New Jersey Nets, 27 wins
The good news is that not many teams will be able to double their win total. The bad news is that they are still a big-name aquisition away from being a threat to make the playoffs. Still, a core with Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors, and Devin Harris is exciting.

15. Toronto Raptors, 24 wins
Yuck.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

1. Los Angeles Lakers, 57 wins
Still easily the best in the West, as long as Kobe is healthy. I believe they are the only team that has the horses to challenge the Heat in the postseason.

2. San Antonio Spurs, 53 wins
Parker should be healthier, Ginobili should be healthy (stop me if you have heard that before), and Duncan is still there. The addition of Tiago Splitter should help in the wide open race for the 2 seed.

3. Portland Trailblazers, 52 wins
Greg Oden being healthy would be a big boost, as he is sneakily one of the best rebounders in the NBA. However, that doesn't seem likely to happen for a full season.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder, 51 wins
Everything went right health wise for the Thunder last season. I predict things won't go quite as well this year. However, their core should keep improving as Kevin Durant wins the MVP award.

5. Dallas Mavericks, 51 wins
It seems like they never go away... another 50 win season awaits.

6. Houston Rockets, 49 wins
One of my favorite teams. Will everyone be happy with their minutes? They have a lot of good players, and it will be tough to keep to a rotation. Having Yao back will be a big boost.

7. Utah Jazz, 49 wins
If Al Jefferson is healthy, the Jazz shouldn't miss a beat. However, I'm assuming there will be a little transition.

8. Phoenix Suns, 46 wins
The feel good story of last season, they won't be quite as good, but Nash can still navigate them to the playoffs, maybe for the last time.

9. Denver Nuggets, 44 wins
No depth up front, drama around Carmelo, not a lot of defense... smells like just missing the postseason for the Nugs.

10. New Orleans Hornets, 41 wins
If Chris Paul is healthy, he could easily lead them to the postseason even with a mediocre roster. Remember, the guy had one of the best seasons we have ever seen from a PG... New Orleans will be doing everything possible to convince Paul to want to stay in the Big Easy.

11. Los Angeles Clippers, 38 wins
On paper, they should challenge for a playoff spot, especially with Blake Griffin. However, we know that these games aren't played on paper, but by the little men in our TV sets, which usually means things don't go well for the Clips.

12. Memphis Grizzlies, 36 wins
They have a solid pieces, but no depth. Still, they should be able to semi-maintain the feel good play of last season. Still not enough to get back to the postseason, but it will be fun to watch Grizz games.

13. Sacramento Kings, 31 wins
Tyreke Evans was very good as a rookie last season, and he will have DeMarcus Cousins down low with him. They are starting to build some young talent, but they are still a year at least away from competing.

14. Golden State Warriors, 31 wins
They will at least be fun to watch with Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, and David Lee. Unfortunately, with their defense, they will also be fun to play against.

15. Minnesota Timberwolves, 20 wins
They have some nice young pieces (Kevin Love could win a rebounding title sooner rather than later), but there is not enough to avoid the cellar.

PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
Heat over 76ers in 4
Magic over Knicks in 6
Bucks over Bulls in 7
Celtics over Hawks in 6

Heat over Celtics in 6
Magic over Bucks in 5

Heat over Magic in 6

Lakers over Suns in 5
Spurs over Jazz in 7
Rockets over Blazers in 7
Thunder over Mavs in 5

Lakers over Thunder in 7
Spurs over Rockets in 6

Lakers over Spurs in 5

Heat over Lakers in 7

Week 7 Picks

2010-10-22T23:59:00.001-05:00

These picks come in from one of our favorite sports bloggers. A guy who has been doing it before blogging was cool. I'm sure the picks suck, but it's nice to add a fresh voice.

Pittsburgh (-3) over Miami
I think Pittsburgh is the best team in the NFL, especially with Ben Roethlisberger back, making their offense balanced again. Miami has some nice wins this season, but I'm not sure Chad Henne is going to be very effective against this defense. I like Pittsburgh to win a low-scoring game in Miami, with Roethlisberger making the difference.

Cincinnati (+3.5) over Atlanta
Atlanta looked like it might have a chance to be the class of the NFC, and then they got beat easily by Philly. Cincy started off well before tailing off, but they know they need a win to try and salvage their season. Look for a good gameplan from Mike Zimmer, and just enough plays out of the Cincy offense to pull off an upset.

St. Louis (+2.5) over Tampa Bay
After last week's win over the Chargers, I believe in the Rams in the NFC West. The defensive front is getting after people just like Spagnulo's Giants' teams used to do. The offense, thanks to Sam Bradford, is showing more signs of life than they have in years. Something is brewing in St. Louis, and I think it will be enough to beat the Bucs.

San Francisco (-3) over Carolina
2-5 an the Niners will start to believe. The musical chairs of Carolina quarterback goes back to Matt Moore. Won't make a difference for this punchless offense, as teams will just load the box. Carolina's receivers aren't good enough to beat anyone.

Washington (+3) over Chicago
The Bears correction continues, as the Redskins are showing signs of being solid. Donovan McNabb is playing better than Jay Cutler right now, which is why I will take the Skins. The Bears need to get Matt Forte the ball in the running game, because teams will be going after Cutler with the way the offensive line has performed this season.

New Orleans (-13.5) over Cleveland
The Saints appear to have some of their mojo back, particularly if they can continue a strong rushing attack. Colt McCoy looked surprisingly good in his first game starting in his career, but there is not enough firepower in Cleveland to compete with the Saints.

Buffalo (+13) over Baltimore
Baltimore should win the game easily, but I think the Bills will be able to make the final score respectable. Fred Jackson should get more touches after the trade of Marshawn Lynch, and that could be a good thing. It will also be interesting to see if they have anything new for CJ Spiller. Ryan Fitzgerald is not anyone's answer to a long-term solution at QB, but he is serviceable, which is more than you could say about Trent Edwards.

Philadelphia (+2.5) over Tennessee
I believe in Kevin Kolb. He looked great against Atlanta, and he appears to have the timing of the offense down. The only thing that concerns me is that Desean Jackson will be out of the game, which is a big blow to the offense. Still, I have more faith in Philly's run game than Tennessee's pass game, which is why I will take the Eagles here.

Seattle (-5.5) over Arizona
Nice win by Seattle last week, showing that they could win a road game, which was in question for me before that game. At home, I think they will overwhelm Arizona, who is better with Max Hall than they were with Derek Anderson (or Matt Leinart), but not good enough to be a serious contender.

Denver (-7) over Oakland
The Broncos have played well, just are struggling to get over the hump. The Raiders, meanwhile, looked awful last week, and Kyle Boller could be getting the start this week. I think Denver's offense is a lot more explosive than the Raiders, even with the lack of a running game.

New England (+3) over San Diego
New England looks like the Patriots of old... a bunch of scrappy guys just going out there and playing. I can't put my finger on what is different after essentially trading Randy Moss for Deion Branch, but SOMETHING is. And it's clear that as great as Moss is, things were not working out this season. The Patriots look like a force the rest of the way to me.

Minnesota (+3) over Green Bay
The game that is full of storylines. Favre comes back to Lambeau again, and this time the Packers are reeling. The Packers know that if they lose this game, the Vikings have all of the momentum in the division. Still, I like the Vikings D (which has quietly been excellent) to get after Aaron Rodgers like they did last year, and for Favre to hit Moss on a deep ball that will make the difference.

Dallas (-3) over New York
The NFC East seems to always have these types of games... one team is struggling, the other team is playing well... but talent-wise, they are close to even, and there is one team that really needs the game more than the other team. Dallas will be in desperation mode. At home in Big D, I'll take Dallas to prolong the death of their season for another week.

Alabama and Auburn take it to court

2010-10-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

Filed in state court in Alabama.

I anticipate filling a similar motion in 20 years the next time Marquette makes it to the Final Four.

Weekly NFL Thoughts

2010-10-14T15:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a copy of Dan's notes from the site he writes for. He's a dickbag who doesn't know how to set up a blogger account, so he e-mails them to me. I'll have my picks and a story about my terrible week tomorrow. - Bobby

It is convenient for Pats fans to remember Deion Branch as the former Super Bowl MVP who was one of Tom Brady’s favorite receivers during the early part of the last decade, but let’s make one thing perfectly clear: He’s not, nor has he ever been, Randy Moss.

The 31 year old was a nice fit on a more balanced team five seasons ago, but stepping into Moss’ shoes is like Brian Hoyer taking over for Brady. There will be a huge drop off, which means we’re likely be see a trickledown effect on the entire offense. If that is the case, the Pats’ promising start could quickly fade into a disappointing season.

The team comes off its bye week entering a grueling portion of the schedule that features five games with serious playoff contenders over the next six weeks. It starts Sunday against Baltimore, a team many consider to be the best in the league, and is followed by road trips to San Diego, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and two home games against Minnesota and Indianapolis. With Moss, a 4-2 or even 5-1 stretch was not out of the question. But with Branch, everything is up in the air.

Just like the Pats’ season.

Is Green Bay in trouble?
Coming into the season, Vegas gave the Green Bay Packers 12-1 odds of winning the Super Bowl and they were among every pundit’s picks to at least reach the NFC Championship game. But this week, with the team facing numerous injuries, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King questioned whether or not the Packers have what it takes to be great.

Fantasy favorite Aaron Rodgers is questionable for Sunday’s game with Miami after suffering a concussion in last week’s loss to Washington. The team also lost top tight end Jermichael Finley for what looks to be the rest of the season. If you combine that with a banged up defense, a limited running game and a brutal upcoming schedule, the 3-2 Packers appear to be on the verge of a lost season.

Favre suffering from a hurt elbow, bruised ego.
While it’s unfair to question the injury status of Brett Favre, it is worth mentioning that he also has to be feeling the effects of the recent allegations against him. As the whole world now knows, Favre is accused of sending naked pictures via text message to a former New York Jets’ reporter.

Favre apologized to his team before Monday’s loss to the Jets, but you have to wonder how much of a distraction he is causing in the Vikings’ locker room and whether or not it might be best to call it quits during the season. Favre is the NFL’s versions of Cal Ripken Jr., so his pride might now allow him give up so easily. However, if a suspension is handed down, it is unlikely Favre, who has claimed this will be his final season, will return to the team.

The Giants are good again.
There isn’t a more week-to-week team in the NFL than the New York Giants. Following two blowout losses to Indy and Tennessee, the team rebounded with victories over Chicago and Houston and now is being considered by some the favorites in the NFC East.

It seems the reports of Tom Coughlin’s job being in jeopardy were premature and people are finally starting to respect the team’s receiving corps, which has quietly become one of the best in the league. The jury is still out on Eli Manning’s ability to get it done without the help of a great defense, but that might not matter in this division. With Dallas faltering, Philly limping and Washington being Washington, a return trip to the playoffs seems likely.

The league of parity
For the first time since 1979, there isn’t an unbeaten team left in the NFL after five weeks of play. It appears as though we have a handful of very good teams (Jets, Ravens, Steelers, Falcons), a handful of bad teams (Panthers, 49ers, Bills, Browns), but virtually every other team in the league seems pretty even on paper. It’s the old any given Sunday rule, a socialist’s dream.

But is it good for the league to not have a truly dominant team? The NFL was built on dynasties from the Packers and Steelers on to the more recent Cowboys and Patriots. Now every week is a tossup, which gives fans of traditionally weak teams the chance to taste success, but it also seems as though the product is a bit diluted.

If I had my choice, I’d take a couple great teams over a league filled with average teams any day. There hasn’t been a more exciting team in recent memory than that Patriots team in Moss’ first year, and it was because as they continued to pile it on their opponents, you kept wondering how long it could last. If that happened this year, the answer would probably be one week.

I'm Back, Baby: Week 4 Picks

2010-10-07T16:04:00.003-05:00

I think it's safe to say, after four weeks, that we can officially tell which teams are for real, which teams are too week-to-week to gamble on, and which teams I can safely bet the rest of my student loan refund money against. I think I figured it out last week, when I had my first winning week of the season after a wretched start to the season that involved two "FML" weeks and a week of focusing on my fantasy team.

Here are my picks for the week and we'll reevaluate after the week.

Jacksonville -2 over Buffalo
I wouldn't touch this game, except that two points over any one as bad as the Bills is hard to pass up. Two shitass teams with high school-level quarterbacks and woeful offensive lines. If you need a third game in a parlay, the Jags might be your pick.

Tampa Bay +7 over Cincinnati
Bengals win this game, but probably by three.

Atlanta -3 over Cleveland
A must bet. I love the Falcons here.

St. Louis +3 over Detroit
Another avoid at all costs game. Why would you want to put yourself through the misery of watching these two teams?

Kansas City + 8 over Indy
I'm over Peyton Manning. I still think the Colts will make the playoffs and they'll probably win this game, but the Chiefs are well-coached and have a strong running game. This is one of those 27-21 games.

Green Bay -4 over Washington
A must bet. Washington coming off a high from last weekend is likely to crash. The Packers look like a Super Bowl favorite, even after a weak performance last week. I love them here.

Chicago -3 over Carolina
I'm certainly no where near the Bears' bandwagon. But Carolina is probably the worst team in the league. Them or the Bills.

Baltimore -7 over Denver
Ray Rice is on my fantasy team so maybe I'm biased here, but has any team ever wasted such a talent as much as the Ravens are this year? I know he was hurt last week, but it's beyond me how he was getting so few touches before the injury. Why change what clearly worked last season?

Houston -3 over New York Giants
Don't let the Giants fool you. Eli Manning is the most overpaid athlete in all of sports. And Texans look more and more like a juggernaut.

New Orleans -7 over Arizona
Why is New Orleans underachieving? I like the Saints here, but I'm not betting on them. They're one of the few teams that the jury is still out on.

Dallas -7 over Tennessee
I love Dallas here. After a week off, I think they roll to victory.

San Diego -7 over Oakland
Avoid this game. Inter-division, and the Chargers are similar to the Saints. We just don't know who they are yet.

Philly +4 over San Francisco
The sexy pick to reach the playoffs is already finished. The Eagles will cruise here and everyone will jump back on the Kevin Kolb bandwagon.

New York Jets -4 over Minnesota
I can't wait for this game. Seriously, there's no reason to even bet because it's going to be awesome just to watch. I'm definitely intrigued with Moss to the Vikings though. Think about how often Favre is going to force the ball to him. The biggest loser: Adrian Peterson fantasy owners.

NFL Week 3 Random Tidbits

2010-10-01T22:52:00.001-05:00

Note: This post comes from Dan, who will occasionally be writing here at YCS. He's a bit more put together than I am, with less of a gambling habit and more friends. Consider him the angel of YCS to my devil. He'll provide stronger writing about more standard topics and I'll continue to accuse the NFL of trying to fuck my life up with its parity and bullshit two-running back systems. Good day, y'all.

It would be a mistake to refer to Michael Vick’s latest performance as vintage Michael Vick. We’ve never seen this from the embattled quarterback. Not even when he was at the height of his popularity, leading the Atlanta Falcons to that famous road victory in the playoffs at Lambeau Field eight years ago. Vick now has the head to go with the raw talent that made him the face of the NFL and he’s sending a clear message to fans and the rest of the league: I’m back and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The new and improved Vick had arguably the best game of entire career on Sunday, throwing for 291 yards and three touchdowns and running for another score in Philadelphia’s 28-3 victory at Jacksonville. The 30 year old has now firmly implanted himself as the Eagle’s starter and is, without question, the biggest story of the three-week old season.

So can Vick lead a team to the Super Bowl? Previously, most pundits thought the answer was no. Vick was too reckless. He wasn’t consistent. He was still just as likely to throw a game-changing interception as he was a game-changing touchdown. But he also never played on a team as good as this Philadelphia team. He makes the Eagles already-solid offense elite and the team has always had a strong defense.

For the first time in his career, Vick doesn’t have to go at it alone. And with this supporting cast, a Super Bowl ring isn’t out of the question.

Vick’s jersey a hot commodity again
Vick will never again capture the popularity he had prior to his dog-fighting conviction, but that’s not stopping Eagles fans from purchasing his jersey. CNBC’s Darren Rovell is reporting that Vick’s number seven jersey will crack the top 15 best selling jerseys in the NFL by December.

Three years ago, Vick, who once had the NFL’s best selling jersey, became the first player to have his merchandise suspended by the league.

Coughlin on the hot seat?
Eli Manning was responsible for one of the ugliest throws a by a quarterback all weekend when he tried to left-hand it into the end zone in the first half of Sunday’s Giants/Titans game. New York wound up losing 29-10 at home and left head coach Tom Coughlin scratching his head over his quarterback’s poor play. If Manning’s woes continue, Coughlin might also be checking the classifieds for a new job.

The Giants are just 4-10 in their 14 games and many of those losses have come in blowout fashion. The team collapsed following a hot start last year and now looks like it could be in the cellar of the NFC East this season. Of course, Coughlin has one reason to be optimistic: The last time there were rumors about his dismissal, the Giants won the Super Bowl.

Chiefs have the winning look
New England-Midwest, also known as the Kansas City Chiefs, suddenly appear to be the favorite in the dismal AFC West. At 3-0, the team sits two games atop the division and now that the San Diego Chargers appear to be in turmoil, there is no reason why the Chiefs sneak into the playoffs.

And their doing it the same way the Patriots did it at the early part of this century. By drafting well, playing great defense and outcoaching their opponents. There are still questions about Matt Cassell at quarterback, but how quickly we forget that Tom Brady was also only supposed to manage games at the beginning.

You know how that turned out.

Cowboys look good; Vikings not so much
Facing must-win situations in week 3, both Dallas and Minnesota came out victorious. But while the Cowboys got an incredible performance from their defense to go with a balanced offensive attack, the Vikings had to leave wondering whether Brett Favre can still play quarterback at a high level.

Adrian Peterson carried the Minnesota offense as Favre had yet another awful week. Favre still hasn’t quite found a comfortable replacement for Sidney Rice, who went down in the preseason. You have to wonder just how long it will take for Favre to figure it out, especially considering that the every NFC North game will probably be a battle this season.

Pats should be concerned
When the Buffalo Bills offense puts up 30 points on your defense, you have to be worried. But what the New England Patriots should be more concerned about is what took place in the Sunday night game. That’s when Mark Sanchez suddenly became Joe Namath and the Jets offense looked every bit as talented as its defense. If Sanchez is becoming the franchise quarterback New York thought he would be, the Patriots can expect to be replaced atop the AFC East.

Still, it’s hard to count out a team with Tom Brady and Randy Moss. There is no question that the Patriots can score enough to make the playoffs. But the defense is as poor as any defense in the league and that’s not conducive to championship football.

Minnesota vs. Dallas – Which Team is in Better Shape?

2010-10-01T10:57:00.000-05:00

With the Vikings and Cowboys, two of the preseason favorites for an NFC Championship, boasting a combined two wins heading into the sixth week of the NFL season, things are looking rather bleak for both football squads.

In Minnesota, you have an ever-aging Favre, still with a strong arm, but still up to his old tricks in more ways than one. Not only is Brett still throwing game-clinching interceptions, but turmoil seems to be a-brewing in the Vikings' locker room due to some risqué photos Favre allegedly sent females while with the Jets.

Add to the fact that AP is yet unable to establish himself as the back he was two years ago, and Sidney Rice still out due to a knee injury, and that Jared Allen is DOA on the defensive side of the ball, the Vikings were missing any real thump and thunder in their three games—two losses—leading up to their last game with the Jets, where, with some vintage Favre and a still athletic recently acquired Randy Moss, Minnesota was able to hang around late before losing.

In Dallas, the proverbial foot shooting has left most of these Cowboys without any toes. Dumb penalties, Romo's impression of a hyper Favre, and a complete defensive breakdown allowing teams like Chicago and Tennessee to run up the score has left the 'Boys with a Vikings mirroring 1-3 record heading into their matchup this Sunday.

You don't need to be able to break the internet blackjack to recognize that Dallas is seriously lacking in the chemistry department. Even though Roy Williams is finally coming along and Miles Austin is proving to be a top-flight WR in the league, nothing seems to meld quite well with Dallas, and it perhaps starts with Jerry Jones and trickles down to the field.

These teams are talented. Although their records state, basically, that they're abysmal, we all know that isn't the case. But which team has a better chance of going on a tear and making the playoffs – the Vikings or the Cowboys?

Checking out online casino reviews and sports books summaries will clue you in that even the so-called experts out there don't know how to call these two teams. That's why you'll find Minnesota barely favored over Dallas, giving a point and a half (- 1 ½).

That's how close these teams are but, if you had to look at what they've both done and what they're both capable of doing, Minnesota seems to be in the better position.

Dallas has a decent dual-headed running game, but their O-line is habitually absent. Whereas, with the Vikings, Peterson can instantly become the AP we all know and love now that there's a legitimate offensive threat for Favre to play with.

The acquisition of Randy Moss, even if he doesn't catch passes, simply opens up Minnesota's offense by forcing defenses to thin out the box. Who's brave enough to play 8 to quell AP when you have Percy Harvin and the freak that is Randy Moss going deep?

The Vikings showed a few flashes of brilliance against the Jets last Monday night. And for the Cowboys, they've yet to play a team even close to the Jets' level, and yet they've still managed to get beaten up.

Look for the Vikings to overtake Green Bay in that division and vie for a Wild Card. Dallas, on the other hand, is in danger of finishing 8-8.

NFL's preseason screws everyone

2010-09-20T01:11:00.001-05:00

Look, I know everyone hates preseason football. It’s about as interesting as public access television and for most of the games, features even less talent. But anyone who thinks the NFL should cut its exhibition schedule from four to two games (or abolish it completely) clearly doesn’t give a shit about those of us who like place a few wagers every Sunday each fall.

In fact, if it were up to me, there would be more preseason games. Or I would force teams to play their first team more. I mean I still would rather drop acid and watch music videos than watch games that A)don’t mean anything and B) I can’t bet on (my douche bookie doesn’t take preseason wagers) but at least teams would be prepared when the actual season started.

Every year this shit happens. You might as well flip a coin for the first two weeks of the actual season because no one knows what the fuck is going on. This week, 10 teams didn’t cover the spread and I wouldn’t be surprised if New Orleans made It 11 tonight. I’ve lost more of my parents’ money already this season than I spent all summer on booze, drugs and fast food combined. Now I have to charge idiot freshman $10 to drink cheap jungle juice instead of $5 to make up for my losses. See what you’ve done, NFL? You treat weeks 1 and 2 like the preseason and I’m forced to rip off kids who think I’m cool because my apartment has a beer pong table and a “fuck room.”

But this isn’t even about my problems. I mean it kind of is. But it goes deeper than that. The Dallas Cowboys decided to take the preseason off and look at what happened. They’re 0-2 and as every writer in America will point out this week, being 0-2 means you’re more likely to miss the playoffs than those who are 2-0. Obviousfuckingly.

Dallas isn’t the only team that did this. Minnesota let Brett Favre dick them around for far too long and now they’re suffering too. That’s not to say that some of the 2-0 teams are being rewarded for taking the preseason seriously. It’s just that early in the season, when no one quite has their offensive or defensive game plans figured out, anything can happen. And anything has. I mean Tampa Bay and Kansas City are 2-0. Combined I can name about four players on those teams. Maybe that’s why I’m broke.

Or maybe it’s because the NFL preseason system is broken. But the solution isn’t just to get rid of it completely. There is no reason for teams to be treating the early part of the season as a tune-up. This doesn’t happen in baseball. I guess it does happen in basketball, but that’s only because the entire regular season is like an exhibition before half the league reaches the playoffs. The answer is to take the preseason more seriously and actually play your top guys for more than four series in four games.

As a gambler, I’m furious right now. But as a fan, I’m downright disappointed.

An Intro/Week 1 Picks

2010-09-08T14:15:00.007-05:00

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bob and as mentioned earlier, I’m the Yankee son of a bitch that will be taking over Yellow Chair Sports (see what I did there). I can’t promise you much about the new blog, except that I will be sharing plenty of my gambling adventures, fantasy football stories and sexual exploits (RE: favorite porn sites) while trying to provide a little bit of insight, an attempt at humor and the occasional well-written piece over the course of the next few months.

It seems only fitting to start my writing here with a post on my favorite thing of all – betting football. I don’t buy into that bullshit that football has replaced baseball at the national pastime; mainly because I don’t believe baseball was ever the national pastime in the first place. Old drunks that we’ve turned into poets like Granny Rice came up with this idea that baseball could reflect life, but, and I say this as a huge baseball fan, nothing in life is slower than fucking baseball. Maybe child birth. As long as it’s not Sox/Yankees game.

I came to the conclusion long ago that no sport is the national pastime. Gambling is. Andrew Jackson was betting on how many Indians he could whack off long before Walter Johnson ever threw a pitch. Betting on everything has been a part of the fabric of this country since its founding, so fuck all this sports-as-poetry nonsense.

With that rant out of the way, here are my picks for the week. In bold is the four team parlay I will be playing with my bookie. Thanks Mom and Dad, for contributing to my habit and paying for a spoiled brat who will likely end up living at the track to go to an overpriced college. 

(Home team in caps)

NEW ORLEANS -6 over Minnesota
I’m not the best guy in the world; I fully admit that. But I try to avoid rooting for injuries even if it would help my gambling habit. But I have to say, I hope Brett Favre breaks his leg on the opening drive. No one is more douche than that guy. As far as the games goes, it’s hard to imagine the Super Bowl champs losing their opener (except that it happens every other year).

Detroit +6.5 over CHICAGO
The Lions are sleepers this year. I can’t see how Chicago deserves to be a huge favorite over anybody, much less a team on the rise like Detroit. Plus the Bears and their fans are stuck in the ‘80s doing that retarded truffle shuffle they all do. Fuck them. Calvin Johnson is my top fantasy wideout so I’m picking the Lions in what isn’t really an upset.

Oakland +6.5 over TENNESSEE
This is a stretch. The Raiders won’t win outright, but I think it will be a 3 point game. I don’t trust Vince Young to win any game by more than a field goal all year.

NEW ENGLAND -4.5 over Cincinnati
The Pats won’t ever get back to the offense they had a few years ago, but this is a team that should run it up a Bengals team who is vastly overrated this season.

NEW YORK 7 over Carolina
Eli Manning has somehow gone from the most overrated quarterback in the league to one of the most underrated. It’s true that he’s paid like AROD, but no one wants him in fantasy and I can’t figure it out. More importantly in this game, the Panthers will be among the worst teams in the league and I they haven’t got a shot against the Giants opening a new stadium.

Atlanta +2.5 over PITTSBURGH
A Dennis Dixon-led offense should never be a favorite.

Cleveland +3 over TAMPA BAY
I won’t watch a single second of this game and to be honest, I couldn’t name six players combined on either team. But I fucking hate pirates and I feel bad for you people in Cleveland. The least I could do is pretend to bet on you.

JACKSONVILLE -3 over Denver
Pretty much the same as the above game. I’m just going with the home team here.

HOUSTON +2.5 over Indianapolis
I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. I think this is the year the Texans finally win the division and I love them at home to open the season. This is one of the best games of the weekend and I’m proud to have a financial stake in it.

ST. LOUIS +4 over Arizona
I’m only realizing as I write this how many horrible teams are in the NFL. This is another can’t watch, won’t watch game. That’s why I refused to take Steven Jackson in fantasy. And how the fuck are the Cardinals a 4 point favorite over anyone?

Green Bay +3 over PHILADELPHIA
Everyone is picking the Packers to go to the Super Bowl, but they're dogs this week. We’re giving Kevin Kolb too much credit. Aaron Rodgers is going to light the Eagles up.

San Francisco +3 over SEATTLE
Seattle is another team that should never allowed to be favorite, even if they’re at home. I’m not fully on board with the 49ers this season, but they’re going to win this one.

Dallas -3.5 over WASHINGTON
Dallas is my pick for the Super Bowl champion this year. In that shitass division, I honestly think the Cowboys will go 14-2. And it starts by pissing all over the Redskins.

NEW YORK -2.5 over Baltimore
A possible preview of the AFC Championship. It’s hard to imagine the Ravens having the second best defense in any game, but that’s true here. This will be one of those 16-13 games.

San Diego -4.5 over KANSAS CITY
I’ve got Ryan Mathews in fantasy and I’m betting he has a huge start to his career. Plus, the Chiefs, like Denver, Seattle, Cleveland, Buffalo, Tampa, Jacksonville, Arizona, St. Louis and Chicago are a disaster.

Lock of the Week (I’m betting college book money on this one)
Miami -3 over BUFFALO
I’ve got the Dolphins and Cowboys in the Super Bowl. I love the Chad Henne-Brandon Marshall combo and think that they get off to a nice start by blowing out Buffalo.

Leave your picks in the comments!

That toy in the attic

2010-09-08T02:11:00.002-05:00

Greetings, People Who Don't Clean Up Your RSS Feeds!

No, you're not (necessarily) tripping or still asleep--it's really a post on YCS. And for you former / current / future(?) devotees who may or may not be reading this, I have an exciting announcement:

YCS is back, bay-beeee!

No, really! Or, at least, it will be very soon.

Why, were we struck by a newfound wave of ESPN-hating ambition, you ask?

Ha! Not a chance. I haven't known ambition since at least aught-seven, and besides, I don't have cable anymore.

Even better, two awesome dudes named Bob and Dan [or is it one guy named Bob who sometimes signs his emails as "Dan"? Observe:

I guess we'll all know soon...] have offered to take over YCS.

By incredible coincidence, Bob / Dan / BobDan wanted to start a blog of the exact same name, only to realize we already had it. Seeing that we'd let the blog rot for the last nine months, he / they asked to take it over, rather than starting a new one and creating a confusing Cleveland Browns or Washington Senators situation. And realizing that we'd let the blog rot for nine months, Matt and I we were all like, "Knock yourselves out, fellas."

So here I am tonight, passing the YCS name and all its associated shame over to our new friends to let them make it great, as we never could. I can't promise they'll share our fondness for terrible MS Paint sketches and dated Seinfeld references (see paragraph three), but at least they'll never post a profanity-laden tirade purportedly written by the Westminster Dog Show winner (no link necessary).

And yes, if you're wondering, us old authors might even drop by occasionally to Leno the spotlight away from the new crew until they realize why no one liked us the first time around and strip away our posting permissions.

So to Bones, "Stephen," "Phil Nevin" (who was probably the same guy as "Stephen"), my mom, anonymous dude who commented a lot, and any of you other old fans that might still be out there: I hope you show the same love and support (but hopefully not vulgarity) to the new YCS curators as you showed us.

And with that, a new era of YCS begins!

Bet365 offers new and exciting Money Drop game

2010-07-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

Fans of the new British television game show called the Million Pound Drop will be interested to know they can play an online version of it now at sportsbook site bet365.com, your top site for sports with everything from Darts and Horses to Football and Golf betting. This week contestants can play the game alongside host Davina McColl on the internet version of the game which is called Money Drop Live online.

Bet365 is a popular site also for other products whether it's online casino, real money bingo or online poker. The bet365 version of the Money Drop game is a brand spanking new online contest with fixed odds in which players need to avoid the drop in order to win the cash prizes that are on offer. The exciting new game is based on the popular new Million Pound Drop television game in which the contestants try to hold on to their nerve in order to scoop up some tremendous cash prizes on the live TV show.

The Money Drop game is the newest addition to bet365's impressive and extensive line up of online TV show games such as the X Factor, Deal or No Deal, Millionaire, and Big Brother, and is bound to be another in the site’s long line of hits with visitors due to the game’s five rounds of edge-of-the-seat exciting action. The Money Drop is quite a tense game as you receive the prize money before the game starts. You then have several trapdoors to choose from to place your money on. Trapdoors will open at the end of each round and you keep the money which you placed on the doors that didn’t open. Each player has to decide how to divide their prize money and which doors to place it on. For example, you could place it all on one trapdoor or split it up and place it on several of them. The eligible prize money grows with each round and the amount of doors you play.

The bet365.com sportsbook site, which is licensed and regulated by the government of Gibraltar, is one of the leading sites in the world for betting on sports. It provides a wide variety of entertaining online games as well as live sports betting. The site offers online gambling with things such as sports betting, games, an online casino, financials, bingo and poker, etc. It also features live streaming for members of some of the world’s top sporting events. If you’d like to test your nerves, just head over to the site to check out the Money Drop game and see how you do. The game has a jackpot feature and the bet365 offers a 150 pound bonus on the initial deposit of new players to the site.

Never tell me the odds!

2009-12-13T19:09:00.004-06:00

Get your Dollars, Pesetas, and Euros down now. Odds to win the World Cup, per SI.com. As far as chance for profit goes, I'd say Germany at 12-1 is probably your best bet.

9-2: Spain
9-2: Brazil
6-1: England
9-1: Argentina
12-1: Germany
12-1: Italy
14-1: Netherlands
16-1: France
16-1: Portugal
22-1: Cote d'Ivoire
40-1: Chile
66-1: Ghana
66-1: Paraguay
66-1: Serbia
80-1: USA
80-1: Cameroon
100-1: Mexico
100-1: Australia
100-1: South Africa
100-1: Denmark
100-1: Nigeria
100-1: Greece
100-1: Uruguay
150-1: Switzerland
200-1: Japan
200-1: Slovakia
200-1: Slovenia
250-1: South Korea
300-1: Honduras
300-1: Algeria
500-1: North Korea
1,000-1: New Zealand

Chad Ochocinco wants Facebook to know what he thinks about Tiger Woods' domestic situation while smoking a cigar in his Snuggie

2009-12-04T00:37:00.002-06:00

No further explanation necessary/possible.

DRAW!

2009-12-03T13:45:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow morning, the ping pong balls will bounce around and the "random" draw for the World Cup will be held. So much of getting out of the group stage next summer in South Africa will be determined on the draw. Unfortunately, the US has been sufficiently screwed in pot allocations.

Since North America is a bit of a footballing ghetto on the world stage, the Yanks have been placed in the group with the other "minnows," teams from Asia and Oceania. It's the Stars and Stripes' curse for being the big fish in a little pond. Teams from the same continent cannot be drawn against each other outside of two European teams in each group (ie: Algeria cannot be drawn against South Africa, Paraguay cannot be drawn against Brazil)

Goal.com has a great piece on what the best and worst-case scenarios would be for Landon, Timmy, Jozy and the gang.

Pot 1 (Seeded teams: Host country and top 7 teams in October '09 FIFA World Rankings)
South Africa
Brazil
Argentina
Spain
England
Italy
Germany
Netherlands

Pot 2 (North American, Asian, and Oceanian teams)
USA
Mexico
Honduras
South Korea
North Korea
Australia
Japan
New Zealand

Pot 3 (African and non-seeded South American teams)
Algeria
Cameroon
Nigeria
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Uruguay
Paraguay
Chile

Pot 4 (Non-seeded European teams)
Serbia
France
Denmark
Portugal
Greece
Switzerland
Slovenia
Slovakia

"The Hand of Frog"

2009-11-19T17:11:00.001-06:00

"Finally," Marquette is 2-0.

2009-11-17T23:54:00.002-06:00

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Marquette forward Lazar Hayward "finally steps up," and that this was the Lazar Hayward Coach Buzz expected to see in the season opener. Exact quote.

"This was the Lazar Hayward coach Buzz Williams wanted to see - banging in the paint, grabbing rebounds, spacing the floor, firing up his teammates.

In other words, doing all the stuff he didn't do in Marquette University's opener."

"Finally" = one game.

Ow, my brain.

Irish to French: Piss off, Frogs

2009-11-13T14:02:00.005-06:00

Ireland and France are set to play a home-and-home series over the next few days to determine who goes to the World Cup. Leg 1 is Saturday at Croke Park in Dublin with the return leg at the Stade de France midweek.

Attached is what can only be assumed is dry Irish humor. At least I hope so. Because if this is real, it may well start a war; and a war between Ireland and France could potentially lead to casualties in the range of... a dozen?

Sunshine

2009-11-03T12:36:00.004-06:00

Lots and lots of sunshine. You know, the kind that gives you a really good tan. And stronger thigh muscles. Or maybe it's just all the rabbit chasing.

Freeze it!

2009-10-29T13:30:00.002-05:00

The best thing about preseason polls is how terrible some of the initial rankings look come the end of the season. With that in mind, let's hang onto this.

Life immitates art immitates my crappy jokes

2009-10-28T13:38:00.003-05:00

I wonder how similar this will turn out compared to this.

Philly's bats aren't the only things swingin' BA-ZING!

2009-10-28T10:59:00.002-05:00

Philadelphia woman arrested after offering sex for World Series tickets.

After Craigslist ad reading ""DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX (Philadelphia)"Diehard Phillies fan--gorgeous tall buxom blonde-- in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable--- I'm the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!"

Rebranding opportunity

2009-10-27T22:59:00.004-05:00

Ok, so our blog has a few minor issues right now. Namely:

The image hosting account is expired.
The authors never post new material.
It has no readers.
It has no niche, focus, or any other redeeming value.

On this last point, I don't see much changing in the future, given that we haven't found anything resembling a focus in more than three years, especially with interest at an all-time low. Therefore, rather than restoring the old banner and ill-defined format, I propose we go the opposite route:

Yay? Nay?

MLS End-of-Season Awards and Playoff Predictions

2009-10-27T13:24:00.003-05:00

I've got to get to class so I'll keep this short.

MVP: Shalrie Joesph, New England Revolution. As much as it pains me to award a dirty Rev bastard anything, the fact of the matter is that no player has been more valuable to his team this season than the Grenadan international has been for the Revs. New England squeaked into the playoffs on the last day after fighting a rash of injuries and departures.

Most Outstanding Player: Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Galaxy. Donovan's 12 goals were enough to tie him for third among the scoring leaders in MLS. While Jeff Cunningham of FC Dallas and Conor Casey of Colorado Rapids technically scored more goals (17 and 16, respectively), Donovan's to me rank more impressive because of several reasons. First, Cunningham was nearly invisible in the first half of the season, scoring most of his goals in Dallas' stretch run from irrelevance to the brink of the playoffs, and I can't even remember the last time Casey scored for the Rapids in the run of play. A number of his goals at the end of the season came on penalty kicks. Moreso, Donovan scored his 12 goals in only 25 games, missing a decent chunk of the summer with Confederations Cup and World Cup Qualifying duty with Team USA.

Newcomer of the year: Fredy Montero. The Columbian striker turned Seattle Sounders into an instant contender. With two goals in his first game, Montero set the pace and put the league on notice. While his goal tally tailed off, he still finished with 12 strikes in 27 games, and became a weapon other teams needed to focus on, opening up space for Nate Jaqua (7 goals) and rookie Steve Zakuani (4 goals) in leading the Sounders to the playoffs; the first MLS expansion side to reach the postseason since the 1998 Chicago Fire.

Supporters Section of the Year: Emerald City Supporters, Seattle Sounders. The new boys in Green showed the old guard a thing or two. While points should be docked because the ECS does get a healthy dose of assistance from the Sounders front office, this should show a model for other MLS teams to follow, treating supporters groups like what they are. Passionate supporters that can only grow your business and will be your best customers, instead of a troublesome nuisance that is nothing more than a problem that needs to be dealt with.

Goalkeeper of the Year: Zach Thornton, Chivas USA. As a former keeper, I gotta give an award for the netminders, and on that note, Zach Thornton may inspire me to dust the gloves off. Also making a move for MLS's comeback player of the year, Thornton after being released by the Chicago Fire after the 2006 season, has found his way from from New York to Colorado to LA. Looking like the Zach Thornton of old, he backstopped Chivas USA to 12 shutouts, and posted a 0.87 GAA en route to Chivas USA's third playoff berth in a row. Only three other MLS sides have made the playoffs the last three years (Chicago, New England, Houston) so this is quite a feat in itself.

Playoff Predictions
League Quarterfinals

West #1 Los Angeles vs. West #4 Chivas USA
The Clasico Angelino makes its first playoff appearance. Los Angeles should be able to take down the Goats after winning the season series, and winning their first Division title in 7 years.

West #2 Houston vs. West #3 Seattle
Experience favors Houston. Even when their offense has trouble scoring goals, the backline is solid and they may have just enough to progress. This is going to be a marquee series. At least 70k people will likely attend the two games if past attendance is any guide.

East #1 Columbus vs. West #5 Salt Lake
Columbus is the best team in the league for a reason. They are solid at just about every position from the Keeper all the way to the strikers. They have been dominant at home, and became only the second team to repeat as Supporters Shield Winners (2006 and 2007 DC United). As the only MLS team left in the CONCACAF Champions League, they have shown a deep roster capable of adapting whatever injury challenges are thrown at them. They have to be considered the favorites to come out of the East, but it is worth noting that at least one #1 seed has gone down in the first round the last four years (2008 Houston, 2007 DC United, 2006 Chivas USA, 2005 San Jose). RSL has traditionally been strong at home. A poor outing in the Wasatch range altitude could set the stage for a win or go home game in Columbus a week later. I would welcome an RSL victory....

East #2 Chicago vs. East #3 New England
...Because it would enable Chicago to host the Eastern Conference Final at home for the first time since 2003. The Fire have only won one postseason series where they did not have home-field advantage (1998 vs. LA). On the flip side, the Fire have only lost one series where they did have home field advantage (2001 vs. LA). The Fire won the season series 1-0-2 from New England, including a win and a draw in Foxboro. However, the Fire's home form has been nothing short of dreadful. Both teams are saddled with injury problems, but the archrivals are set to lock horns once again in November. One team has ended the other team's season every year since 2000 save one.

First Round Winners
Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Columbus

MLS Cup 2009
Seattle over Columbus.

Can I cuddle up in your bed?

2009-10-27T01:49:00.007-05:00

I just had a bad dream. I dreamed that the NBA season was about to start, but everything was all weird. I don't know how to describe it, but things just didn't look right:

I was so relieved to wake up and realize that it's still 2001; Allen Iverson is the reining league MVP; Rasheed Wallace and the Jail Blazers a favorite again in the West, and Ron Artest is a budding superstar on the Bulls (who are gonna turn the corner this year--I just know it).

Ok, I'm better now. I'll leave you alone. Sorry if I interrupted any sex.

No, we will not upgrade to Pro

2009-10-27T01:06:00.003-05:00

The "pathetic" level of this blog just went up another notch. This is fun.

Do as I say, not as I did

2009-10-27T00:37:00.003-05:00

So what can a guy who never, ever hit to the opposite field teach those young impressionable kiddies about the fundamentals of hitting? Though I generally consider the role of hitting coach high brand quackery, it's still an odd choice. What next--Mitch Williams as pitching coach? David Wells as trainer? Lenny Dykstra as CFO? I could keep this up all night. Oh, but look at the time. Shucks.

University of Minnesota spokesman: "This is a totally serious matter. So serious, in fact, that I will now reprimand a big, fluffy gopher suit."

2009-10-22T13:13:00.005-05:00

Bad Goldy!

"On behalf of Goldy and the University of Minnesota, I want to apologize to the Penn State player involved and anyone else who may have taken offense from this incident," Wolter said in a statement. "We have reiterated to Goldy the importance of exercising appropriate religious sensitivity in the future."

News and Notes and Half-Stories

2009-10-20T17:44:00.002-05:00

In the past few days I've seen a number of postings, read a few articles, and heard commentators ranging from Sports Illustrated to the Wall Street Journal opining on the early season dominance of dome teams, in particular, the undefeated starts for the Vikings, Colts, and Saints. They say that the Domes are giving them the advantage. I could argue that Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees might have something to do with it as well.

So, before anyone gets carried away on a "Dome-inant" headline pun-writing bonanza, I'd like to point out that the Rams are winless, the Lions are 1-5, and the Cardinals, Cowboys, and Texans are either .500 teams or just a hair better.

Jay Mariotti on Around the Horn this afternoon claimed Yankee Stadium was a "Cathedral of Baseball" despite the stadium only being open for the past six and a half months. Given this standard, one can only conclude that Great American Ballpark is a wonder of the ancient world.

Seconds later he was given a shaving cream pie by my friend Frank from Section 8 Chicago, who works as a program coordinator at ESPN in Chicago. The revolution is coming.

Estamos en El Mundial!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-10-16T17:00:00.002-05:00

Honduran soccer commentators go psycho after Team USA equalizes against Costa Rica in the closing minutes, giving Honduras the result they need to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1982.

Hooked on phonics

2009-10-13T15:58:00.005-05:00

This struck me as odd:

Personally, I think it would be far clearer (and a lot more fun) if they went Classic Concentration style.

Pack Your Bags, Boys

2009-10-11T12:21:00.000-05:00

You're going to South Africa.

Congratulations, Auburn, NY

2009-10-10T13:20:00.002-05:00

Home of my kid brother and the Class A Doubledays, you have just been named worst sports city in America.

...And Adam Carolla as Secretariat

2009-10-08T12:35:00.003-05:00

Ba-dum ptshhh!

Al Franken, please buy the Minnesota Vikings

2009-10-06T15:12:00.003-05:00

So we can settle the debate like men. On the field. Owner of the team that doesn't win has to retire from public life. Hopefully it ends in a tie.

Then again, we have Miley Cyrus

2009-10-05T12:28:00.002-05:00

Interesting tidbit:

Beijing's $423 million Bird's Nest stadium has been used only once since last summer's Olympics, for a Jackie Chan concert.

On the more relevant matter, not only am I happy Chicago won't be hosting the Olympics, but I'd like to see the entire concept of Olympic Games as bloated, grandiose spectacle die and go away forever, just as I'd like to see happen with all sporting events. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen anytime soon, barring large-scale turmoil that I'd otherwise rather not see.

Bitch bitch bitch rabble rabble rabble rabble. The end.

Daily Mail unaware of vast landmass south of Italy

2009-10-02T14:47:00.004-05:00

According to Britain's Daily Mail, there was no doubt once it got down to Madrid and Rio for the 2016 Olympics.

"South America is the only continent that has never hosted the Games - which means that it was the only option of the four currently on the table that gives IOC chiefs the chance to make history. "

Problem with this statement is it isn't even true if you ignore the continent with all the penguins on it. Ever hear of.....well, never mind. I'll just present what I call "The World According to the Daily Mail."

Dear IOC,

2009-10-02T13:14:00.002-05:00

7 Years = History

2009-10-02T13:09:00.004-05:00

Sportscenter just announced that Monday Night, Brett Favre will have the chance to be the first player in NFL history to beat all 32 NFL Franchises.

This was announced with grandiose sentiment.

"He has a chance to make history; to do something NO PLAYER IN NFL HISTORY HAS DONE!!!"

ESPN, taking nothing away from Brett Favre, please remember the Houston Texans have only existed for 7 years. I don't think Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana ever had the chance to beat them.

Other Rematches We'd Like to See

2009-09-23T19:00:00.003-05:00

The offer for a rematch game of 21 between Michael Jordan and Byron Scott got me thinking, what other rematches could be arranged for a worthy cause (or windfall profit)?

Luis Castillo vs. Moises Alou in a game of Pepper

David Tyree and Rodney Harrison playing 500.

Leon Lett vs. Don Beebe in a game of keepaway

Come on YCS Nation! How else can you make us....err....charity some money?

Comes with 15 free hours of Prodigy

2009-09-14T11:51:00.002-05:00

People still use mouse pads?

I think the Cubs need John McDonough back.

A Little Cameo

2009-09-06T20:47:00.004-05:00

So on a quiet Sunday night (which I badly need after last night) I am listening to local sports talk radio and we have quite the doozy from your typical uninformed, stereotypical host:

I'm sure stat people can find something about Scott Podsednik that calls him average, but then again they probably could say something about Ichiro. Not that I'm comparing Podsednik to Ichiro or anything.

Even in this renaissance (read fluke) season for old Scotty Pods, he has an OPS+ of 93, below the league standard of 100 (which is a pretty basic stat that even the ESPN types have started to use in their analysis). Even though I think Ichiro is a bit overrated since he hates taking walks or hitting for any kind of power, he still has an OPS+ of 129 this season and 118 for his career (whereas Podsednik has a career OPS+ of 86 and only one reason of an OPS+ of 100 or better). Not to mention the fact that Ichiro is light years better as an outfielder and a bit better base runner (though both guys get caught on stolen bases way too often).

Basically, I am not saying that Podsednik is an average player. He has (save his rookie year) and always will be a below average player that brings nothing to a team but a lot of smoke and mirrors and I hope White Sox management lets another team overpay for the flash of a fast, yet dumb base runner that cannot play the outfield.

It would be a first

2009-09-02T22:41:00.005-05:00

As YCS's lone MLS geek, with 6-8 games left in the season, the playoff push is well underway. Unfortunately, poor analysis still reigns. Speaking on MLSnet.com's "Extra Time" show, former New York Cosmos goalkeeper and chewing tobacco spokesman Shep Messing said of a potential Chicago-New England first-round playoff matchup.

"New England would salivate if that's the matchup they end up with because they have that history, they've had the ability to upset Chicago; on the field and off the field, so that would be dynamic."

Now, while Chicago and New England have one of the fiercest rivalries in the league, and have met in the MLS Cup Playoffs more times than any other matchup (7 times), the team that finished with the better regular season record won every series. So despite the frequency of meetings, and despite what Shep Messing thinks, neither team has any history of upsetting the other.

2000: #2 Chicago defeats #7 New England
2002: #2 New England defeats #7 Chicago
2003: East #1 Chicago defeats East #2 New England
2005: East #1 New England defeats East #3 Chicago
2006: East #2 New England defeats East #3 Chicago
2007: East #2 New England defeats East #4 Chicago
2008: East #2 Chicago defeats East #3 New England

In addition, Chicago leads the 2009 season series 1-0-1 with a draw at Toyota Park and a win at Foxboro in the Superliga Semifinals.

Chicago won the 2008 season series 4-0-1, a mark that included 3-0, 4-0, and 3-0 routs.

Off the field? I cannot think of one signing where New England beat out Chicago. Even more strangely, I cannot think of one player who has suited up for both teams. So I'm not sure what Shep means by that either.

Gratuitous video that makes me smile.

Fuck you Greg Lalas you revvie bastard.

Iconic

2009-09-01T12:06:00.004-05:00

Congratulations, Kansas City! Not only do you have the lowest-paying tech sector in the nation, but your city's defining image is... Larry Johnson. Pret-ty lame, Milhouse.

No, we hate you because you suck.

2009-08-27T18:21:00.002-05:00

Not because you're black.

But nice try.

Black is Beautiful, if not Plentiful

2009-08-25T11:53:00.006-05:00

You knew you weren't going to get anything resembling rational thought in an article entitled "25 more things we miss in sports," basically a chance of old-timer sportswriters to have a wank about what sports were like when they were 9 years old (No ads in stadiums, wood drivers, "the perceived innocence of college sports," etc.)

But this one took the cake

24. Non-black college uniforms
They were neat for a while, a break from the norm, a variation on the typically retro throwback. But now that nearly every NCAA program has trotted out a variation on all-black uniforms, school colors have become all but obsolete.

The purpose of uniforms is to identify a team or program -- heraldic devices of a sort. While most schools have historically employed a neutral color (black, white or gray) to serve as the signature shade for home games, a number of programs have lately taken to wearing all-black as their primary uniforms. Therein lies the problem: If everyone does it, everyone looks the same, negating the purpose of uniforms in the first place. Only a handful of athletic programs remain true to their roots -- Southern California and Penn State are two that come to mind -- and while they may not sport the prettiest pairing of hues, at least we can tell them apart. -- N.J

Well, just among the D-1 Football programs without black jerseys (let alone all-black jerseys), I also count...

Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Illinois
Indiana
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Northwestern
Syracuse
West Virginia
South Florida
Pitt
UConn
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Georgia Tech
Clemson
Miami (FL)
Duke
Boston College
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Florida
Mississippi State
Kentucky
Tennessee
LSU
Ole Miss
Arkansas
Alabama
Auburn
Texas
Kansas
Kansas State
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Nebraska
Baylor
Iowa State
Washington
Washington State
Arizona
Arizona State
Cal
UCLA
Stanford

of 65 BCS Conference teams.

So by my count, only 16 BCS Conference College football programs have black jerseys or black alternates (Iowa, Purdue, Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, Florida State, Maryland, Wake Forest, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Colorado, Missouri, Oregon, Oregon State).

Oh, don't forget Notre Dame and Navy. But why let facts get in the way of a good argument?

A hazy shade of winter

2009-08-25T00:14:00.002-05:00

A good way to be sure the curtain is closing: Your home run calls sound like, "Ken Griffey Jr.! Number 625!" It may be true that Griffey is, in fact, coasting along the final few miles, the odometer turning evermore slowly until the friction of the road brings him to a halt. But I make it a point not to eulogize the living, and I wish other people would do the same.

Ok, so that was a lot of lame aging metaphors, but seriously--let the man play, and don't genuflect every time he goes yard. If that's how you're gonna be, just come out and call him The Doughy Shell of Ken Griffey Jr., why doncha.

勝手に言ってなｗｗにわかファンがｗｗ

2009-08-21T22:45:00.000-05:00

Hitler Chimes in on Cubs Collapse '09

2009-08-21T07:39:00.001-05:00

Hard to imagine Fratelli d'Italia being played in Oakland, but OK

2009-08-20T11:46:00.004-05:00

The US Bid Committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (whose awarding is less than 2 years away), has released through its site http://www.gousabid.com/ the cities who are still in the running to host a World Cup game should the United States be awarded either tournament. This list is down from a prior list of 70, which frankly included just about every NFL and major college stadium in a town with more than two stoplights.

Did anyone really think Fayetteville, AR would host the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres?

The list has been narrowed to 27 cities, of which likely 12-14 will likely be chosen to host matches.

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Glendale-Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

Just a few notes
12 cities on the list host MLS teams in their metro areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC). The only US Cities with an MLS team that failed to make the cut are Columbus, Salt Lake City, and Portland.

All 9 sites of the 1994 World Cup are still eligible (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Orlando, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, New York, Boston)

Should each city use the venue that most would assume they would use, then 22 of the 27 potential host cities are using venues constructed or substantially renovated in the 15 years SINCE the 1994 World Cup.

21 of the 27 potential host cities have hosted a major soccer event (MLS game, International friendly, Club friendly, World Cup Qualifier, Gold Cup game) since 2006.

Two things on which Hugo Chavez and I agree:

2009-08-12T13:11:00.002-05:00

1) Everything bad in the world is America's fault.

2) Golf is for jerks.

Seriously, golf is for jerks.

There is but one reasonable answer:

2009-08-12T13:04:00.003-05:00

Definitely.

Black Thursday... or Monday... or whatever day it was

2009-08-12T12:54:00.000-05:00

Someone get me a 1994 calendar and settle this. Just in case August 12 doesn't immediately ring familiar for you, today is the 15th anniversary of the start of the 1994 MLB strike. Because numbers that end in 0 or 5 are more important than the other ones, I thought I'd reminisce a little. I was ten at the time, and as I recall, our family was on vacation in Florida when the official news broke. I was all like, "That sucks!" to which my mom was like, "You shouldn't talk like that," and then my brother laughed at me, so I called him a jerk. Then we went and played in the pool, and some old lady started complaining that we were splashing and making too much noise. Then we got out and drank some Publix sodas.

Anyway, before you go to bed tonight, say a prayer for Matt Williams, Tony Gwynn, and all those Expos diehards. I'm sure they're hurting today.

Props To YCS Writer Mike's Little Brother

2009-08-04T22:40:00.002-05:00

Dave Sever has gotten off to an excellent start in his pro baseball career, posting a 3.13 ERA in nine outings (seven starts) with a WHIP under 1.00

Calling all MLB utility players

2009-08-03T13:00:00.004-05:00

Sophisticated Ivy League research.

Participating in this study entails answering three brief questionnaires (about 10 minutes total). Additionally, we will ask you to nominate 3 friends or family members to answer brief questionnaires about you.

I nominate Ryan Theriot, Darin Erstad, and Freddy Sanchez.

Goes great with a refreshing glass of Ovaltine

2009-07-29T12:50:00.004-05:00

Linked from a semi-related article in Time is a gallery of pro-smoking propaganda ads from the Mad Men era. I'd seen most of them before, but this one was new to me:

Mickey Mantle clearly had no values. Changing loyalties like that... it's just wrong.

Over here, we call it a "lift"

2009-07-28T12:54:00.000-05:00

Isn't this basically the same as a Chicagoan tourist overseas hearing "Ya ya, Chicago... Mi-khel Zhor-dan, ja no ees good, si?" everywhere they go or like when I met a Scottish girl at Pitchfork last week and started talking Proclaimers within about two minutes of introducing myself? I guess when you're a certified true-hoopin' juke-jivin' president of the ballin'-est country in the world, it's a slick diplomatic stroke of genius and not a pathetic attempt at ingratiation or precursor to an attempted camera theft.

I'm just curious, though--For all the wonderful things Obama said about Ghana when he visited a few weeks back, why no love for Pops Mensah-Bonsu?

Your daddy's swim trunks

2009-07-27T12:39:00.003-05:00

Via Cheap Talk (my comments here) comes the news that FINA--swimming's international governing body--has banned fancy space-aged swimsuits.

Meanwhile, time and science proceed indifferently in their usual forward direction.

More Uninteresting RSS Headline Typos

2009-07-27T10:22:00.004-05:00

Another intern asleep at the switch:

I shall henceforth formally refer to him as the Commissioner Allan H. "Bud 'Bug'" Selig.

DeWayne Wise is a walking cliche

2009-07-27T00:17:00.006-05:00

Just flipped to AMC, which is showing For the Love of the Game. Those familiar with the movie may remember that the Tigers' center fielder robs a home run to record the 23rd out of Billy Chapel's perfect game. Seems awfully familiar.

Ok, so Wise's catch was in the ninth and not the eighth, and he caught it in left-center, not straightaway center. Nevertheless, it's shocking that Universal hasn't sued Wise for copyright infringement. (Oh, that's right--they've already dispatched every available lawyer to bleed money out of online video distributors and file sharers.)

Anyway, I couldn't find a video with the robbed homer clip, though I did find this, which you may have seen before but is far more entertaining:

UPDATE: The guy who makes the final out for the Yankees would have to be slower than Paul Konerko carrying fat Kevin Mitchell on his back to get thrown out on that play. It's a high chopper off the bat; the ball deflects of Chapel's glove and bounds toward second base long enough to show several slow-mo seconds of agonized Costner-face; the shortstop then has to dive to field the ball--on the far side of second base, no less--before coming to his feet and throwing to first. And the throw still beats the runner by a full stride. Ridiculous.

Also, having never seen the movie before, it's obvious that For the Love of the Game was just a high-budget platform for Kevin Costner to indulge in his fantasies to be a major leaguer and play in Yankee stadium (with a younger woman as a love interest to boot). How pathetic. / I'm jealous.

A Hall of Fame Wish

2009-07-26T12:32:00.004-05:00

Very shortly, Rickey Henderson will give his Hall of Fame speech. Rickey, of course, played many years with Jose Canseco on the Oakland A's. Without turning this into a Raul Ibanez thing, let's just acknowledge there's a probability greater than zero and less than one that he took steroids.

So here's my wish for his speech: Rickey gets announced, walks up to the podium, basks in the applause for a few minutes, coaxes a little more to draw it out, adjusts the mic, flashes a huge grin, and says, "Hey, guess what? I took steroids. You voted me in. Nothing you can do about it now. Suckers!"

Of course, this all rests on the premise that he actually took steroids and would be willing to throw away lots and lots of future monies. That said, he's one of the few people in the history of baseball who'd be crazy enough to pull it off.

Gymnastics

2009-07-24T11:49:00.005-05:00

This graphic (lifted from a friend's Facebook post without permission) appeared on ESPN last night. What it tells us is... something:

All priceless information (especially the bottom scroll). Beamed through your cornea in crystal-clear HD.

For real?

2009-07-23T17:05:00.004-05:00

I mean, seriously:

Perfect games are cool and all, but I'm not sure I could justify one being lead story for the world's biggest news organization. Don't they know that Michael Jackson died???

Comment on real website = Post here

2009-07-23T12:12:00.008-05:00

Over at Craig "Shyster" Calcattera's NBC Sports blog, I had an Andy Rooney moment after reading a post he made regarding a failed attempt at a start-up baseball league in 1959. The comment being more substantive than anything I've posted here in a while, I thought I should re-post it here.

Call me crazy, but I could see the idea of a rival league gaining momentum in the not-too-distant future as the live game experience continues down the path toward stimulatory overload. Assuming that chairback touchscreen monitors and the like will become MLB-wide status quo within a few decades (and assuming that most farm and indy-league teams will piggyback), I expect an underserved market of fans to emerge whose ideal live baseball experience is still an escape from their plugged-in, clamorous world--not the extension of it that MLB have become. It seems the market is already palpable, and it's not just made up of people over fifty.

I'm 25. I love the internet. I love loud music. I love things that flash lights and make noise when I touch them. However, I do not desire these things when I'm watching live baseball. Some things go together well. Others do not. Modern MLB games are like fine merlot with Skittles and a side of fireworks. I long to be one of those fans in the grainy newsreel footage, and I worry for the fate of the endangered organist.

I think this crackpot theory of mine was cemented Friday night when I went to the Sox game with Zuch and a few other friends. Granted, it was a cold night game, and we sat in the club section (ahem, the LG Skyline Club section, as Hawk Harrelson so dutifully refers to it each time a foul ball lands there), which can distort the perceptions a bit. But even still, that familiar good vibe I always get at baseball games was hard to find. Too many colors, too much motion, too much "(I Don't Wanna Lose) Your Love."

Of course, it's not just the Cell. I'm fairly certain the P.A. at Wrigley is several decibels louder than it was, say, six or seven years ago. And for what? A more intense atmosphere? Regular-season baseball is as much about intensity as government work. Trying to fabricate intensity with intro music is futile and obnoxious.

Whether it spawns interest in a new league or not, I do think the tension between escapism and sobriety is poised to build in the next few decades. Ideally, it wouldn't be an all A versus all B choice; rather, both A and B would be a ticket away.

Us romantics have grudgingly tolerated the MLB on FOX for fifteen years, but if we can no longer enjoy the live experience, it may be time to split the congregation and start a new church.

Compensation for...?

2009-07-22T03:50:00.004-05:00

Two words, Eddie: Speaking. Gigs.

"While the NCAA, its member conferences and schools, and its for-profit business partners reap millions of dollars from revenue streams ..., former student athletes whose likenesses are utilized to generate those profit centers receive no compensation whatsoever," the suit claims.

I'm not saying that NCAA athletes shouldn't be compensated, but I think that ship sailed on O'Bannon--ohhh--fourteen years ago.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and calls on the NCAA to pay the former athletes what it has allegedly made from the use of their images.

What you call damages, some call free publicity. The NCAA is still using your image to make you look like a hero a decade and a half after your playing career. CAPITALIZE.

Welcome Back

2009-07-20T17:34:00.001-05:00

Weau is me

2009-07-15T11:51:00.004-05:00

(Oh, right, we have a blog...)

Prior to Tuesday night's game, Grammy Award-winning singer Sheryl Crow performed the Star Spangled Banner at Busch Stadium.

But she didn't sing O Canada -- and neither did anybody else. Instead, an instrumental version of Canada's national anthem was piped through stadium speakers.

After the game, the 28-year-old Morneau told reporters that Major League Baseball could have handled the situation better.

"I wasn't very impressed with that to tell you the truth," he said Tuesday night. "You figure they could find somebody to come and sing the song. They have a hockey team here, the Canadian teams play here.

"It's something that didn't really go over too well. I think if it happened the other way around, if they were playing in Toronto and they did that, it would have been a lot bigger deal. But nothing you can do about it."

Oddly, the Dominican-born players--who outnumber Morneau's countrymen almost seven-to-one league-wide but didn't hear their anthem played via boombox, MIDI, kazoo or any other audible medium--had no complaints.

Totally misleading headline department

2009-07-06T09:48:00.003-05:00

Even if it said "starter" that wouldn't be accurate. Either way, I want Brian Cook's pubilcist working for me. I could be "acclaimed writer."

Correlation may be causation: Is Zach Randolph the worst NBA player of all time?

2009-07-02T12:01:00.005-05:00

Now, for the next installment in my continuing series of commentaries on trades between bad franchises no one cares about, news today is that Zach Randolph has been traded by the L.A. Clippers to the Memphis Grizzlies.

How very appropriate.

As many of you may already know, I have an intense, borderline-pathological dislike for ol' Snack-Attack Zach that's particularly inexplicable considering he's never done anything in his career to hurt my hometown Bulls. Really, my only genuine beef with the guy is the utter stylelessness of his game, which helps preserve the legacy of unwatchable post-Jordan II iso-postup tuhrri-ball.

That said, I can't help but laugh over the fact that he has once again been shipped off to an arguably worse team than the already bad one he's left.

Blazers-->Knicks-->Clippers-->Grizzlies. Throughout his career, Randolph starting for your team has proven a pretty good indicator that your team's fortunes are not so good and are probably going to stay that way.

Randolph did come off the bench for playoff teams in Portland his first two years--the second of which saw him play significantly playoff minutes. Since becoming a full-time starter in his third year, however, Randolph has played for a 50-game loser every year but one--that being his first season starting with Portland, 2003-2004, which saw the Blazers finish 41-41.

Granted, Randolph hasn't been surrounded with the best of talent in that time, but I can't help but feel he's a big part of the problem. Cherrypicking a single advanced metric to prove my point, Randolph finished the year with only 3.1 win shares--good for only third on a 19-win Clippers team. The year before last, he compiled only 2.9, which put him fourth on a 23-win Knicks team. To put it another way, he was only about as valuable to the Clippers as YCS favorite (but subpar NBA player) Steve Novak and less valuable to the Knicks than Nate Robinson.

Of course, things are unlikely to improve for the Grizzlies, which could mean Randolph will have a few more 50-loss seasons on his record by the time he leaves Memphis (if the Grizzlies don't leave there first). That leads me to wonder: Who has the alltime worst winning percentage as a starter in NBA history? Is such a stat kept? If so, I would imagine big Zach is in the running.

So disappointing

2009-07-01T13:04:00.002-05:00

The Pirates make a trade. The trade upsets the players. The players lash out at management. 79 articles are written about the trade. And not a single one has "mutiny" in the headline. How does this happen???

British Empire unaware of the existence of periods

2009-06-24T21:11:00.005-05:00

As seen here, British announcers have a tendency to use run-on sentences in a way so that a regular sentence is as likely as the result of today's semifinal match in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa (a warmup tournament for the 2010 FIFA World Cup; also in South Africa) where in a gutsy performance by keeper Tim Howard, and on the backs of goals from Villareal benchwarmer Jozy Altidore and Fulham FC role player Clint Dempsey, coupled with incredibly solid games from the US backline of Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Wisconsin's own Jay DeMerit, and Chicago's own Jonathan Spector, the United States of America upset Spain; the European Champions and the #1 team in the world, who were owners of a world-record 15-game winning streak, and a tied-world-record 35-game unbeaten streak (having last lost in 2006) by a scoreline of 2-0 to reach their first ever Final in a FIFA competition in a game that has already been dubbed "The Miracle on Turf" and "The Shock Heard Round the World," a reference not only to the 1775 Battle of Lexington, which signaled the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, but also to a 1989 FIFA World Cup Qualifier where the United States faced off against Trinidad and Tobago in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where Paul Caligiuri scored to lead the US to a 1-0 win, clinching qualification for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the Yanks' first appearance at soccer's showcase event since 1950.

Next sentence.

EDIT: According to Yanks Abroad, the South African crowd chanted "USA! USA!" in the closing minutes of the game. I can only assume this means that the US and the rest of the world are cool again.

High times in the 'Querq

2009-06-23T23:55:00.000-05:00

Normally, I'm uninterested or outright annoyed by the superstar minor-league rehab stint media circus angle (Roger Clemens comes to mind), but I guess what's awesome about Manny Ramirez the Isotope is that this time the indignity of superstar-as-sideshow revolves around a guy who I'd doubt is bothered at all by the temporary exile and is playing for a team with a ridiculous name, uniform, and logo--in a small urban island with a funny name to boot--to the grave consternation of those who are somehow unamused by the situation. A freewheeling Dominican stationed in the southwestern plains wearing an advertisement for nuclear power is a match made on the moon that's impossible not to love.

And come on--it's Manny Ramirez.

Crime and punishment

2009-06-23T14:20:00.003-05:00

3 years

120 days

30 days

Or to put it another way:

Analysing the reseeded gentlemen's bracket

2009-06-23T12:21:00.007-05:00

The New York Times tennis blog Straight Sets has a little rundown of how the men's Wimbledon bracket was restructured after Rafael Nadal had to pull out of the tournament last week, vacating the #1 seed.

The explanation makes two things pretty clear:

1) The players are seeded as though the bracket is comprised of four sub-brackets much like the NCAA tournament.

2) There are (at least) four meaningful strata of players in the eyes of the seeding folks: the best four, the next 12, the next 16, and everyone else.

If you translate this to college basketball, that would be like lumping the 2 through 4 seeds together and then lumping the 5 through 8 seeds together. I guess my thought is this: If something similar ever had to be done for the NCAA Tournament (e.g. major violations by one of the teams surface the day before the tournament starts), who would benefit more--the 5 who jumps to the 2 line or the 9 that becomes a 5? My asnwer would be the first, but what do you all think?

And if we have any real tennis fans out there, who benefited / got hosed most by Nadal pulling out?

Does Miller Park have adequate drainage? A rudimentary lesson in hydrology (or our most interesting post ever)

2009-06-22T23:37:00.007-05:00

It's not often I get to use my professional expertise in the environmental sciences to write about sport-related topics, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that the Brewers may be displaced for their upcoming series against the Twins due to severe flooding at Miller Park. As for you Milwaukee-area fans and friends / YCS co-authors who may have flooded basements or--at a minimum--are pissed off at the prospect of the Brewers losing three home games: Sucks to be you. Ha-haw. Etc.

Like any normal person, my first reaction upon reading the story was to check out the USGS website and look up the severity of the storms that caused the flooding. The result: It was a lot of friggin' rain.

The table below shows the Thursday night / Friday mornng rainfall totals and river stage data from the USGS gauge on the Monemonee River in Wauwatosa, about three miles from the stadium. The gauge height in the second column is the water surface elevation relative to a datum of 628.86 above sea level (i.e. a reading of 0.00 = 628.86 above sea level). The rainfall column is the measured rainfall over the given 5-minute interval, and the final three columns are running totals for the time interval given in the column heading.

As the table shows, the rainfall was extremely intense over a two-hour period that resulted in 4.40 inches of rain--just over half of that falling in the first half-hour. In all, from the time the rain began at 11:15 Thursday night through 11:15 Friday night, 5.40 inches of rain fell on 'Tosa.

Without spending the time to look up the rainfall frequency distributions for the Milwaukee area, I'm going to assume that they're only marginally different than those for the northeast Illinois region, which are shown on the following chart pulled from the Illinois State Water Survey, Bulletin 70. The colored lines plot the 30-minute, 1-hour, 2-hour, and 24-hour peak rainfall totals from Thursday / Friday storm that's left the Brewers homeless for the time being.

[For those unfamiliar with the term, a "recurrence interval" is the theoretical period of time that will ellapse between one random event and an event of equal or greater magnitude. For a full explanation, go here.]

By any measure, this was indeed a very rare downpour, and--contrary to popular belief--all that water doesn't just disappear when it hits the ground. If you go back to our table, you see that the Menomonee River crested at 15.35 feet above datum, which, according to NOAA, is expected to occur once every 15 years (roughly) and has been exceeded only three times since 1973. That, my friends, is what we in the biz call a "flood."

Now, none of this answers the question posed in the title. Was Miller Park properly designed to handle severe weather events? Unfortunately, I resold my Standard Design of Stormwater Drainage Systems for 50,000-Seat Baseball Stadiums, 4th Edition textbook for booze money once I got my D in the college course, but I'll guess that a project as costly and conspicuous as Miller Park would have been designed for a 100-year storm and 100-year flood.

If I'm right (probably not the case), it doesn't necessarily signal failure on the part of Miller Park's architects because, after all, it does not sound as though the stadium underwent any permanent damage. Also, my experience has taught me that stormwater management is a highly empirical and highly imperfect art that's very difficult to get "right." (Or at least that's the line I use at work.)

Pretty cool stuff, huh? Well, I hope you've learned something valuable. (Disclosure: You have not.)

Critics a bit o-vuvuzelas

2009-06-20T14:47:00.007-05:00

One constant in this past week's FIFA Confederations Cup, a warm-up tournament for the World Cup pitting the regional champions against one another, other than the suckitude of the United States, and Coach Bradley's asinine decision to stick with worthless players like Damarcus Beasley is the drone of the Vuvuzela. It has been the subject of much commentary in the soccer mediasphere this week, so to prevent YCS from simply being "Yellow Chair Vinnie" and to put these self-righteous, quasi-racist pricks in their place, I am returning to action.

A vuvuzela is a cheap plastic horn about 3 feet in length, that when blown, creates a sound like an elephant or a swarm of bees. It is a popular part of soccer culture in South Africa.

It's humming has become a source of ire for commentators, players, coaches, and fans during the Confederations Cup, and has led to urgings to ban the instrument for next year's World Cup Finals. And they're all full of shit.

Announcers say that the horns drown out their commentary. First, I would like to direct these announcers to a magnificent invention created in the 19th century. It is called a microphone, and can do magical things for voice amplification. That being said, no. I don't want announcers to know about microphones. ESPN's announcing team during the last World Cup took more away from the broadcast than any horn could ever aspire to. See also: Dave O'Brien. Given the choice between a cheap plastic horn, and ESPN's soccer announcers (with the exception of Derek Rae, and on occasion, Andy Gray), I will take the plastic horn any day.

Fans say that they contribute nothing to atmosphere, and have no place in football. I love when fans talk about what has a place in football culture, because when people say "proper football/soccer" what they usually mean is "the way things are done in some Western European countries." This person is the scourge of the American soccer fan, because he usually retains no connection to the local game, choosing instead to support his favorite EPL Big 4 team on Setanta every week, jerking off to an English flag while downing a pint of Beamish.

The fact is, soccer, just like the way it is played, is supported in different styles all over the world. Even in the MLS, styles range from Chicago's Polish/Italian/Mexican influence

To Columbus Crew's German-style support

to Houston Dynamo's El Battalon, which is heavily populated and influenced by support common in Latin America.

If all you watch is one or two leagues, and a handful of teams, then naturally your worldview of what qualifies as "support" is going to be a tad myopic. While I'm not ready to play the race card just yet, it's certainly a thought. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who usually has his head so far up his own ass he can see the inside of his own neck, is for once, dead on the money here. "It's a local sound and I don't know how possible it is to stop it.I always said when we go to South Africa, it is Africa. It is not Western Europe.It's noisy, it's energy, rhythm, dance, drums. This is Africa. We have to adapt a little."

Spain's Xabi Alonso is also in favor of banning the vuvuzela. "They make it very difficult for the players to communicate with each other and concentrate. They are a distraction and do nothing for the atmosphere." This is the biggest bullshit argument I've heard yet, considering its source for two reasons. First, Xabi Alonso plays his club football for Liverpool, whose home ground; Anfield, is regularly one of the loudest in Europe. Yet no problems communicating and concentrating there.

Pregame at Anfield

During the Game (especially starting at the 0:40 mark)

So the argument that the horns are loud and distracting seems a tad misplaced coming from Alonso. Likewise, Alonso plays his club football on a team whose first team features Brazilian, Spanish, English, Israeli, Italian, Danish, Ukrainian, Swiss, French, Dutch, Scottish, Argentinian, Slovak, Moroccan, and Hungarian players. I have to imagine there's more than a few language barriers on that team. Yet, Alonso apparently has no problem communicating at Anfield. You figure with those barriers removed in South Africa (since presumably every player on the Spanish team speaks Spanish, and the players could at least lip-read simple commands), this should be a non issue.

Also gotta wonder about Alonso. Alonso is from Spain, whose soccer games have been plagued by racist chanting at African players (including tossing bananas on to the field at some stadiums). I wonder if that "contributes to atmosphere."

As for the coaches who don't like the sound of the vuvuzela, I think they largely overestimate the importance of their own job. 95% of a soccer manager's job is in preparing the team; once they're out on the pitch, the manager's influence is largely limited to substitutions and half-time adjustments. So unless the vuvuzela is blowing in their ear while they are selecting the team or during training sessions, their impact on a coach's performance would appear to be minimal at best.

So next year, expect the vuvuzelas to be back. Now if only we could do something about the United States team's chronic sucking...

"Now when I say 'sportz!' you say 'nutz!'"

2009-06-19T12:43:00.009-05:00

"Sportz!" "Nutz!" "Sportz!" "Nutz!"

Ok, so this turned up in our inbox today:

Been looking for a good excuse to reclaim the living room from the toys and sewing machine? Finally got sick of scrounging through your neighbor’s trash to find a couch?

1800® Select Silver Tequila is about to make your day. Visit www.1800tequila.com/mancave and enter for a chance to win $10,000 towards putting together the ultimate ManCave! You can deck out your spot with the sickest new home entertainment system, a game console of your choice, plenty of seating arrangements to keep you comfy and a supply of 1800® Silver Select Tequila within an arm’s reach – the Man Cave is sure to secure poker night at YOUR house, indefinitely. So, stand up to the powers that be and enter daily to for a chance to be the envy of all your buddies.

1800® Select Silver is a new kind of Tequila: 100 Proof, double distilled and blended with a touch of aged tequila. It’s got enough gravitas to impress any true Tequila fan. Try 1800® Select Silver and Change The Game!

You hear that guys? It's time to send Sally upstairs to go hem your golf shirt, tell Junior to pick up his rocking horse and train set, get out the poker chips, call up your buddies, and... margarita night? Tequila shots and blacked out by 8:30?

Whatever, it's ridiculous. Last I checked, most guys don't live in the Patty Duke Show, so I'm not sure where all these intrusive sewing machines are coming from. Also, unless your neighbor has an industrial-sized dumpster for his trash, I'm not sure how scrounging through his trash could turn up an entire couch. And when I think tequila, I think of a poker game that doesn't end up so friendly.

More importantly, this male-fantasy-for-the-male-stereotype nonsense is beyond tired. Besides being an impractical, wasteful celebration of disgusting consumerist glut (which has gone way out of style, if you haven't noticed), this whole "man cave" / "man wall" phenomenon is yet more proliferation of the unthinking, competition-crazed male caricature that should have been put to bed with the cancellation of Home Improvement. Yet, this proves that Tim Taylor lives, along with the all the implicit xenophobia and misogyny built into this bad joke. They even call it a cave for god's sake.

But who am I to argue with the reality that sports fans are an uncouth lot of illiterates who hate to think?

The feds are onto us

2009-06-19T12:34:00.003-05:00

Hey Mike--I think I'm gonna go ahead and put your name on that post, ok?