the all star game... who are the stars

The all star game in baseball is not the same to me as it was when I was a kid. The players don't evoke the same majesty today as they once did. I used to stay up and see what Reggie did or what Ken Griffey Jr.did. When I moved out here, I would check on Bonds. They did not always want to participate in the festivities at the all star game but did out of loyalty to the fans. The players today have de-valued the game. If you are not hurt, you should be there and play. One inning is not going to kill you. The best players used to participate in the Home run derby and we would look forward to the match ups of certain great players against the great pitcher. Inter league play has deprived us that and there are not as many great players in baseball anymore. When a player is asked what player were they intimidated to meet or see at the game and they all say Ken Griffey Jr. that should tell you all you need to know about today's game. If players are not in awe of Mariano Rivera, Pujols or Jeter or Big Papi, then I don't know what a great player is. Most players tend to dislike Alex Rodriguez and Roy Halliday should have everyone by his locker trying to pick his brain about pitching. think about it, who are the legendary players playing in this game tonight other than the guys i mentioned? Vlad Guererro would be another guy I would be in awe of talking to. He was a five tool super stud player or three teams and if he hadn't suffered so many injuries, he would be in the class with A-rod, Big Papi and Manny. Jim Thome too. Instead we have a game tonight of new stars and new legends and hopefully ten years from now, we will look back on tonight and say that some of these new stars are legends. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are not as anonymous as they were two years ago. Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford will be in this game forever. David Price and UBaldo Jimenez are making debuts. In fact that is what the problem is, too many players are here today and gone tomorrow. Where is Nelson Cruz? Prince Fielder this year? I hope that all of you make the team again next year and then we can really talk about true all stars. Longevity is what separates the men from the boys!!!!

a lot to write about so here we go...

George M. Steinbrenner died today and I am shocked!!! The man was and is the most important sports figure in the last 50 plus years and it is funny because I am sure that so many have other people in mind when referring to that claim to fame, but there really is no denying what I just said. Huh? He taught the sports world that the only reason to play sports is to win. He opened up his pocket book and gave his Yankee teams a chance to win. Many people my say that he failed his constituents in the 80's, I am sure that if he knew then what he knew later on in life, he would not have hung his players and managers out to dry. He would have built his teams around the stars that he had in the 80's and this dynasty would have had more titles than he had. I find it funny that he was being praised today by Dave Winfield and Yogi Berra who had epic and near "fatal" disagreements with the "BOSS". Many people today do not remember that he was once banned from baseball and was convicted of crimes in a crazy affiliation with Richard Nixon in 1974. He was a football guy too!!! He loved Ohio St. and it became ironic that his greatest player in years as a Yankee was a Michigan guy!!! He tried to help every Yankee that he could. Darryl Strawberry will always be a Met to me and I find it ironic that Mr. Steinbrenner did what he could to help him, Canseco, Doc, Steve Howe, Tim Raines, just to name a few. How funny is that? Think if the Yankees had spent money in the 80's like it did in the 90's till today how many more titles would they have won. He was a mentor to many owners and his impact in all sports will never be forgotten. Jerry Jones says that "the Boss" is his role model. He is one Ohio guy that has made his state proud and it is because of him that Yankees are what the are today. On January 3rd, 1920 the Yankees got Babe Ruth. On January 3rd, 1973 the Yankees were bought by Mr. Steinbrenner. I was born on January 3rd. So am I going to something insanely incredible and become famous? I think Hawaii was sold to us on January 3rd, 1959..
Now he and Billy Martin can have a normal conversation without Billy getting fired....

so long Cleveland...

Damn!!! Just when I thought that I knew everything to know about sports, Lebron James leaves Cleveland. He is no Joe Mauer. He is no Micheal Jordan or Magic Johnson. This move is not about money. This move is about a change of scenery and so many other innuendoed other issues that I had to say something about it today. Firts he should have stayed in Cleveland. He does not owe anything to them but he was a schoolboy legend that has put that franchise on the map and now it will quietly disappear. Cleveland has not won a championship since Jim Brown led them to a football title in the 60's and though the Browns and Indians have made strong attempts at winning in the 80's and 90's, this city claim to fame is the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. This city's other claim is that they cannot win the big one and have had some of the most gut wrenching losses in sports. Whether it is the Marlins winning game 7 in the world series, the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot twice, the fans of this sports town most be the toughest anywhere. Lebron was just going through the progression as all of the superstars do and with the addition of a superstar player, he may have won something there. Oh Well!!!
The Owner of the Cavs posted a letter that I think is worse than sour grapes. He clowns Lebron as the self proclaimed "king" and believe that Lebron quit on his teammates in the playoffs. He has even called him a coward. Dan Gilbert is not pulling any punches and I am sure he would like to punch Lebron.
Here is where it gets wacky. There is this rumor that one of his teammates slept with Lebron James' mother. Lebron found out apparently in game 4 of the series and was too distraught to play with his teammates. Calvin Murphy goes on ESPN radio in Houston and tells everyone who is listening that the rumor is true and is confirmed by multiple sources. For what it is worth, the James camp denies the rumor. True or not, I would not be able to play with any player that is alleged to have had intercourse with my mother. I would kill him if it was true. Now they are both consenting adults but that would mess me up for a long time. I would 25 to life to think about it that is for sure. This divorce with the Cavaliers and Lebron is about to get ugly and with owner already slandering Lebron's name I can only imagine what is going to happen when Cleveland and Miami play.
The Knicks have gutted there team for two years and got Amare Stoudamire and a couple of fringe players from Golden St. for David Lee. Lebron supposedly was looking at real estate in New York. Who does he think he is? Tom Brady.. Brady has rings and diplomat status. James has M.V.P. trophies and is still only 25 and has a career ahead of him to surpass almost all N.B.A. records. He would have been the King of New York as Jeter is heading towards his twilight. The Knicks have a plan to thwart the big three in Miami next year.. IT BETTER WORK!!!
I wonder what we are all witnesses to....

a lot to say today...

I had all of this vim and pent up energy to blog about the world of sports today and I still will but without the conviction that i was going to. I just saw over the news wire that Randall Cunningham's 2 year old son was found dead in a hot tub. He was not at home and the adult supervising the child was also watching other children and I am just wrecked at the moment. Obviously being a father of a child who is approaching 2 I am visualizing myself being in his position and I am fighting tears right now. As the summer progresses let this be a reminder to all of us to make sure our children are safe at all times possible. I am really struggling with this thought. For one most of you know that I am a poor swimmer and as it gets hotter out here we will be looking to find a place to cool off during the days and evenings. I don't want to let my child out of my sight ever again after reading that article. Not even to a babysitter.... I am rally shaken right now.. Hug your child extra tight tonight... I sure will

Free agency starts in 7 hours and I hope that it is ant-climactic. I hope Lebron stays in Cleveland and Bosh and Johnson come to New York and then next year we get Carmelo Anthony. He wants to be in New York so his wife can continue to pursue her entertainment goals and he wants to be on the east coast. The NBA is gearing up for a crazy summer and everyone is getting paid somehow. Lebron needs to be somewhere where he can create his own legend. Cleveland should have never fired their coach and should have never let Danny Ferry go. They did not win the title but they are moving in the right direction and quite simply lost to better teams in the last two playoffs. Lebron needs Amare Stoudamire who would give him the low post presence on offense that they need and a point guard who is not afraid to compete in the big games. All of these comparisons to Jordan need to stop. Jordan got lucky to have a guy in Pippen and Rodman,and Paxson, Kerr, who all accepted their roles and did them without complaint. He was lucky. The Celtics have that now. They believe had Perkins not gotten injured they win game 7 against the Lakers. They were out rebounded by over 20 in that game so i tend to give that statement some credit. I cannot wait to see what happens and maybe I will begin to sport my Knick colors again. I am wearing them today.
Roger Federer lost today at Wimbeldon and I think that he is beginning to break down. He still is going to be a threat to win every tournament he enters for the next few years and it is sad the he is being eulogized at age 29. He still has game and I guarantee hat he will be a finalist at the U.S. Open in the fall. It is so sad that we wait for our heroes to fall. He will be back and he will silence his critics.
FIFA is a joke. The world cup is a joke and it deserves to be addressed in small case letters than caps. I hate technology as much as the next old man on the street but if it is something that can help the game and make the games more appropriately called why not use it. This not the 1900's any more. I am so sick of hear about Presidents of powerful organizations saying how human error is a part of the lore of the game. We can accept offsides in soccer because it can happen so so fast and if you are out of position and can not make the call that is on the referee. But when a goal is disallowed or a perfect game is prevented because an umpire blatantly misses a call and replay would solve the problem, then it should be used to make it right. I would hate to see a championship determined because of a call that replay could fix. Ireland was denied a chance to play in the world cup because of two hand balls. Getting the calls right is the most important thing isn't it?
Edwin Jackson threw 149 pitches the other day to get a no-hitter. The ex Dodger, Ray,and Tiger has been solid for those teams and had not pitched well for the Diamondbacks this season. Hopefully he can keep being consistent. Can you believe that there are only 4 African American starting pitchers in the major leagues today? Where are the black pitchers these days? I think that they are Price, Sabathia, Willis and Jackson. That is crazy. Blacks have a great pedigree of great pitchers in baseball history and to only have off the top of my head four pitching right now in baseball, it is illogical. I am surprised by how the influence of football and basketball has completely vanquished the talent pool of my people. The thing that makes no sense to me is that there are more opportunities in baseball than in any sport. You would think that young kids are playing more golf or tennis because of the prowess of the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods. NOT!!! Why is that? Serena and Venus are from Compton so if they are being treated as sellouts then people are stupid. Tiger went a great college and he may talk like a white guy but so what he is the only black face you see in golf. His niece is supposed to be a phenom but that only makes two. What has happened is that young blacks see how uncomplicated it is to succeed in other mediums and don't want to play certain sports that would flourish because of them. Yes it would be difficult to fill Tiger or Serena shoes but one never knows till he tries!!! The success of Jay-Z, Lil Flip, Biggie, 50 Cent,Drake and others buy selling music out of their cars and making the industry come to them has so many believing that they don't need to go through the nonsense that other business people have to. I tried to do a clothing line without any financing or serious support and I have found it quite difficult. A few friends have been great but you need more than a few. If you think about baseball, every era has had a superior black pitcher since Jackie came in in the late forties and and early fifties. I hope that it is a phase and who knows maybe i can coach a few and turn them into major leaguers..
I will talk about more tomorrow as I need to get my blogger legs going..

College Basketball has finally died....

First we lose the greatest coach to ever grace a college basketball sideline this month. John Wooden is probably so disgusted with the sport that he made popular in the 60's and 70's. How can anybody be happy with what just transpired last night? I know for the past few years now any child 19 years and older has gone pro. Most of them have been ready to go and have succeeded. Kevin Durant is about to re-write the record books and become a championship caliber player. Greg Oden is going to be a star one day. Even if it is for one season, he is going to lead a team to a title. Tarik Evans and Derek Rose will be all stars one day and if Micheal Beasley can get his head right, he will be great too. College basketball has become a joke. Every high school kid who has talent to play in the NBA will go to college for one semester and then play his season and then go pro. They will take basic English and Math and in the second semester they will take a hike for they know that they are not going to back to school under any circumstance. Everyone knows this and i am probably the last one to comment on this topic. Last night all of the top 10 players drafted I believe are under the age of 21. In fact none of the players were even pre-season all americans before last season. The saddest thing that happened is when the Utah Jazz drafted that kid from Butler, he was booed. This kid helped lead his team to the final game and within 2 points of winning a national championship and the crowd booed him? There are sooooo many things wrong with that i am saddened too comment. First when a mid major school has a lottery pick, we should all be rejoicing and hopeful that he is going to stay in college for four years. Instead he opted to go pro as a sophomore. That is telling since no mid major players ever are lottery picks. I think that Wally Sczerbiak is the only one in recent years. Micheal Olawakandi could be considered one too. (and we know what kind of career he had). If you look at the draft there are players from Fresno St., Baylor, and Butler all drafted in the first round. Where are the Dukies? Only one Tar Heel? Kansas had a couple and so did Kentucky but does anybody know any of these players? I am okay with new people, i am okay with the cycles of talent and the talent pool being pretty shallow, but don't tell me that these players are the future of the NBA. John Wall is a special talent but he wasn't even his leagues most valuable player or freshman.
So what is my outrage if we expect all of these thing you may ask? My outrage is why do we let these kids go to college if they are only going to go to class for a semester? The Universities are all being punished for poor graduation rates and losing scholarship money for other programs within the school. we know that most universities these days are getting richer because of their sport teams and not because of academics. So why not let a kid go pro out of high school and be done with it. Many people cannot afford to go to college or cannot make three point shots. Why not create more full scholarships for academics and not only for athletics? I am shocked that that practice has not been screamed at by schools across the country. I know that people will say that without the success of the teams, the schools would not have the money for scholarships for anybody, but these kids are going to class for a semester and earning 10-20 million dollars for the school so no one is going to complain because it is free money!!!! Now the Mid Majors are doing it. I think a guy from Nevada went in the 1st round. Pretty soon there will be a 15 year old prodigy who is both athletic and smart and is 7'1. They are telling kids even now that if you don't want to go to class, go play in Europe.
So good bye Dickie V. You are the last of a dying breed. No more diaper dandies and ptper's. I will still watch March Madness. They are already expanding the tournament so there is no special teams anymore. Actually, now that I think of it I think I much rather play basketball myself...

what a day..

Now i cherish my sleep as much as the next guy but today I had to get up and boy I am glad that I did... First off the soccer matches between USA and Algeria and England and Slovenia were compelling to the very end. I allowed my wife to have to have T.V. privilege so we watched the English match and when it concluded we turned to see if the U.S. could get the game winning goal and boom.. Landon Donavan cleans up the rebound and we are on to the second round. So is England. My home is at peace.
i have come to realize just how hated Americans are when it comes to sports. When in two separate games the referees made horrible calls that nearly cost us a chance to make it to the second round this World Cup. FIFA thinks that it is a god like organization and they love telling other countries to stop whining and grow up. Why should we stop whining? Get the fricken calls right and then we will shut up. When Ireland was denied their right to play in the Cup because of the hand ball by Thierry Henry FIFA listened to the protests but did nothing to alleviate the problem. It must make them feel so powerful. No wonder why we don't care about European sports. Yes we just had an umpire screw up a perfect game, but at least he admitted his mistake and felt like he let down his sport. Bud Selig could have declared the game a perfect game but felt that for the lore of the game he will keep it as it ended. People around the world talk about how salaries in our sports are ridiculous and that the skill level in traditional European sports warrant more praise for what they are able to achieve. Their athletes play for country and honor and we play for dollars and dollars. The irony is that soccer players around the world make outrageous amounts of money and so do the coaches. Teams literally go into other countries and buy players for just as much dollars as the Yankees do when they are seeking the best talent out there. They love basketball and are starting to come around on football and baseball. They don't respect us in Hockey but tolerate us because the Canadians need a money market.
Then there is tennis!!! Are you hooked on this Mahut and Isner match? 59-59 in the fifth set. I could not believe what I was seeing. They have combined for 193 aces. That is sick. Isner is a serving machine and at 6 feet 10 inches is probably imposing at the net. Mahut is a moving machine and holding his own with his serve as well. I hope they can go one more day without a winner. I cannot wait to see tomorrow. All of you tennis players out there can you imagine holding your serve 50 consecutive games? Federer the great and Nadal have gone through tournaments without being broken but 50 straight games? Nadal just went through the French without losing a set. To me that is difficult. Holding serve 50 plus times is insane...
Then i had a physical. Now I am all for a ethnic group looking out for his brethren but some of these Mexicanos take it too far. Now this is the second time that I have gone in to see a doctor and be in the waiting room for hours and someone just show up and be seen. Now when i was a bouncer i took care of my friends an so maybe this is retribution for all of those years. All I saw was cash baby and I let anybody in that could put some dough in my pocket. Everybody was my friend. Black, white, asian, latin, persian, i spoke all of the languages for some c.a.s.h. At children's hospital when this happened i warned a group of sistas that they better speak up or they will be here all day. The were and my wife had to remind them of what they needed to do before she was therefor an extra hour. Needless to say when they took my blood pressure it was elevated. We need to get some people working in these clinics. Next time me and jefe are going to throw hands..

Magic is still the man!!!

Tomorrow night, Kobe Bryant attempts to become a 5 time NBA champion. Every pundant is already writing about if the Lakers win the title Kobe will go down as the greatest Laker that has ever lived. I think that winning five titles makes him an all time great but he will never supplant Magic as the greatest Laker. Magic was a revolutionary. He rejuvenated a franchise that needed oxygen. He made going to the Forum and watching Laker games an event. He made his contemporaries better and because of the style of basketball that was played, he made many people money. He as a rookie defeated the 76ers in arguably the greatest game ever played by a person under the age of 21. He played all 5 positions in that game and scored 42 points, grabbed a boat load of rebounds and had many assists. He did everything except sell popcorn and announce the game that night. That game alone makes anything thing that Kobe has done in the playoffs obsolete. Magic was the man. He had great players on his team and two of them are in the Hall of Fame. Even they defer to Magic. Kareem is in a class by himself, but he did a lot of damage as pro as a Milwaukee Buck. Jerry West was Mr. Clutch and the NBA logo bears his silhouette. James Worthy was a great finisher of Magic's passes. Magic carried the Lakers on his back for years. Magic went 9 NBA finals. He was a three time NBA Finals MVP. He was league MVP 3 times as well. He was 1st team all league 9 times. I could go on and on about his accomplishments.
Kobe has been all league 8 times, he has been all star game MVP 3 times. He scored 81 points in a game, 8 time all defensive team. He has a great resume too and he is still writing his history. However 3 of his rings, he was just a sidekick. Shaq got all of the awards. Kobe was great against Indiana, but Shaq carried them to victory against New Jersey and Philadelphia. In the last three years, Kobe has stepped out of the shadow of Shaq and led his team to three straight finals. As impressive as that is think about how many times Magic did it for the Lakers. In the decade of the 80's they went to finals I believe every year but 2. Magic got injured in the finals against Detroit in 88 or the Lakers would have won 6 titles. When he was forced into retirement he had just come from leading the Lakers to his 9 ninth finals appearance. Also lets factor in that the NBA was 100 better in Magic's day than it has been over the last 10 years that Kobe has dominated. I think that this is the final hurrah for Kobe and the Lakers and if they do not win tomorrow they won't get back here again for a few years. This summer is going to destroy the NBA as we know it. I will discuss that on July1st.
Kobe is great, but Magic will always be the greatest Laker for me. He changed west coast basketball and his legacy is still being felt to me. Kobe is unoriginal. He copies every move from Micheal Jordan and we have been there and done that. I love them both and no one has to take a backseat to anyone.

why re-align?

I am trying to get my flow back so hang in there with my blogs. Today i will talk about my thoughts about all of these teams moving conferences. What ever happened to tradition? Over the past decade, college football has used tradition for the reason that we don't have a playoff system. They wanted to keep the bowls in tact and make them as important as conference championships. They talk so much about the tradition of college football. Well so much of the tradition of college football is based on the match ups of teams that are moving to different conferences. Oklahoma and Nebraska was the biggest match up of two super programs when i was a child. Nebraska going to the Big Ten makes sense since they are located in the Mid west. I think that Missouri, Kansas, Kansas St., and Iowa St. should follow them there. Missouri plays Illinois every year in a border war game. Iowa and Iowa St. play each other too. The Kansas schools could give Big Ten basketball more of a lift with its top flight programs. To me it is a win win situation for the conference.
The crazy conference is the Pac-10. I will not address the USC probation but why do they need to add Texas schools and Oklahoma schools. I can understand Colorado because it is at least in a different time zone. They recruit the west coast and they are more Pacific than southern. Don't get me wrong. I think adding the Texas schools and Oklahoma schools puts this conference ina different atmosphere, but shouldn't the Pac-10 go after Fresno St. and Boise St.? Even Hawaii before they raid the Big 12. How about San Diego St.? I know these schools are not juggernauts in grand scheme of things but wouldn't it been cool to have Boise St. play these Pac-10 schools on a regular basis and get invited to the big party like everyone else? Notre Dame was special back in the day and when they got their own television contract a lot of schools felt slapped in the face. I remember that Kansas decided to cancel playing basketball against the Irish because they felt that Notre Dame was acting to high and mighty. Now I have lived out here for 14 years and yes there are more Texans here than any other state. They are happy I am sure. I am sure that USC wants a shot at Texas again. But to me the landscape of college football has been destroyed. What is next? The ACC goes after Virginia Tech, Florida St. and Miami? This is all about MONEY!!! The success of the Big Ten network and has piqued the interest of all of the major conferences. The SEC Network is working out its kinks and I expect that it will try to add some teams to grow its market and constituents. Directv and the other cable networks are about to make crazy loot. I wonder what ESPN will do if all of the games are played on the conference network channels. At Adirondack camp, the slogan is " The traditions are set and the memories are waiting".. For 106 years that has been very true. College football has realigned before and it survived.. I wonder what would happen if Harvard did not play Yale...Lehigh did not play Lafayette.. Duke and North Carolina did not play. A few years ago, there was talk that the Yankees and the Red Sox were going to be split up. Money talks... Bullsh** plays in the WAC conference or Conference USA..

at the quarter pole in baseball

What have we learned? I keep hearing that the pitching has caught up to the hitting and now it has surpassed it. "Four" no-hitters. Three perfect games and 1 no hitter by the most dominant pitcher in the game not named Halladay. Jimenez in Colorado is putting up numbers that no one in this generation has seen. I did not see Gibson pitch so I can not comment about a season when a guy has a 1.12 e.r.a. for the entire year. This season has been shocking because the teams that are winning mainly due to pitching. San Diego has pitchers that no one has ever heard of and they have won over 30 games. The Mets may be at .500 but their pitching has been outstanding. The Braves have Tim Hudson putting together a comeback player of the year type season. Roy Oswalt has had 12 straight quality starts on the worst team in the game. Tampa and David Price is having a great start to a season. Phil Hughes and Andy Petitte are carrying the Yankees. Clay Buchholz is doing the same for the Red Sox. I heard something today that really angered me. Buster Olney from ESPN said that the pitching is dominating because of the steroid testing. He believes that players are not digging in as much and not wearing armor and therefore the pitchers are taking full advantage of hitters fears. I could not disagree more. The one thing from the steroid era that I cannot agree with is that steroids made every player better and they hit for a higher average and made players eyes for some reason better equipped at hitting a baseball. Yes players were stronger and yes they hit balls farther, but why did the steroids not work for everybody? Why did Randy Velarde not 70 homeruns. Why didn't Fernando Vina or Marvin Bernard win any batting titles? Why is it so hard to say that baseball is a cyclical game and things just eventually even out? when all of the players of winning teams in the 80's were all doing cocaine allegedly, how come no one ever came out then and said anything about the effect cocaine on baseball players? Tim "rock" Raines stealing bases with drugs allegedly on him during games. I ranting too much but the point is I just wish that sportwriters would just once shut up and enjoy the game for what it is. Isn't it funny how the post season still comes down to pitching and umpiring and defense.
What is happening today is a simple case of great timing and young teams being exploited for their weaknesses. Cleveland is a minor league team. The Rays, Braves and Marlins may have more established players and are playing well so when they were no hit it was definitely a surprise. Steroids would not have prevented no-hitters on those days. So I wish that we can just drop that word form the baseball vocabulary.
Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Howard, have been very quiet so far. Adrian Gonzales, Miguel Cabrera have been quite great for their teams. Robinson Cano is having a season to remember for the Yankees. Troy Glaus just won player of the month for the month of May. Big Papi is quieting his critics in Boston. Ryan Zimmerman is keeping the Nationals afloat in the east.The Reds and Joey Votto are hanging tough. We will see what happens as the weather heats up what happens. Joe Mauer and the Twins need to avoid the Yankees and I cannot wait to see what is going to happen when baseball games are postponed because of snow. The Phillies cannot score more than 1 run a game. Before the season started all of the media was saying that the Phillies were the best team that the national league has seen in 30 years. I wonder who is saying that now. The Dodgers have finally woken up. Manny is still not the same since the suspension. Texas has a strong offense but they tend to wilt in the heat or get freakish injuries that will disrupt their season. The Angels usually start to come alive now. I will report back in 40 games....

Here is your NBA finals preview

With an hour to go before game 1 of the NBA finals to go I will tell you all you need to know about this series between the Celtics and the Lakers. Did you see the baseball game last night where the umpire blew the perfect game for the pitcher from the Tigers? This series will be determined by the officiating. Both team are equally old, equally stout on defense, and have players who get calls from the referees. Kobe may be the most lethal shooter with the game on the line since Jordan but he gets calls. Paul Pierce gets calls. This is the first series that the Lakers are in where they have to be concerned about a player that is unstoppable. The Lakers are used to having match up advantages all over the floor. This is the first series where all of their players will look eye to eye with its opponent an actually be more than challenged. Ron Artest has matched up with both Pierce and Allen before so they are not expecting anything that they have not seen. Gasol and Garnett have met up several times in their careers too. The Lakers seem to think that wanting revenge or playing with revenge on their minds will motivate them to victory. If you believe that then you don't know Kobe well. He wants a ring to match Magic and then wants another to tie and then get another to pass his idol Micheal Jordan.
The match up of this series Rajon Rondo against the Lakers. If he is allowed to do what he did to Cleveland the Celtics will win this in 6 games. The difference between Nash and Rondo is Nash falls in love with the three point shot. He does not attack the rim as often as Rondo does. Rondo is like that annoying moth that is in your home that no one can seem to catch and the only thing to do is open a window and let him out. The Lakers have people to chase him around all night but if he is creating foul trouble for their big men, that is where they may have problems. The Lakers have faced more dynamic guards than Rondo. Deron Williams was on the Dream Team. Rondo plays more an attacking style than the other guards the Lakers have faced. If he is averaging close to triple double a game this series, the Celtics will win in six.
In short, this series comes down to how physical the referees will allow it to be and whether or not Rajon Rondo is allowed to control the games. The Celtics have faced Lebron and Dwight and made them not matter much in the series. Can they do the same to Kobe? I also fear that the Celtics allow teams to come back to easily against them. Orlando and Cleveland nearly made come backs in games when they were down by large margins. If you let Kobe get a chance to make a shot to win a game he will get it done. So with that being said, I think the Lakers will win in 7 games. I have been wrong with every prediction I have made in 2010. So lets see what happens here!!!!

Ken Griffey Jr......

I just read over the news wire that my favorite baseball player over the past 30 years has retired. I am devastated because this man needs an N.B.A. style send off. He needs to be hailed as a hero and needs to be paraded around all of the major league parks on everyone's shoulder. Ken Griffey Jr. had a legendary career that should have been "Ruthian" and "Jordanian". He was as great a baseball player as Jordan was on the basketball court and as big as Babe Ruth in baseball. When he left Seattle the first time, I was so certain that he was coming to New York and was going to lead the Mets to titles. Instead he went home to Cincinnati and the baseball gods were not kind to him. He never cheated the game. Some of his greatest moments were moments when he crashed into walls catching balls breaking his wrist. He robbed home runs, he ran the bases well, and his swing is still the prettiest swing I have ever seen. When McGwire and Sosa were going nuts with home runs in 98, he sat back and simply gave the spotlight to them.. He watched in awe as Barry Bonds supplanted him as the premier left handed hitter in the game. He never criticized those guys for what they were doing. He just couldn't stay healthy. If he would have stayed healthy, he would no doubt would have passed Aaron and more importantly Mays and Ruth. Every player wants Mays because, most people believe that Mays is the greatest player of all time. Ruth is the goal for most as well because he is considered to be either the second best or the best of all time. Plus Ruth was left Handed and his legend and status in the game dwarfs everyone. Griffey had that talent. He made watching west coast baseball a happening. I cannot count how may times I would stay up just to watch a Griffey Jr. Highlight. He had so many.
I could list his achievements and they are so many. His proudest achievement was hitting a home run in the same game as his father in back to back at bats. Kirk Mccaskill gave up a shot to both dad and Jr. He scored the biggest run in Mariner History when he dashed home on a double hit by Edgar Martinez that scored both A-Rod and Griffey eliminating the Yankees in a divisional series in 1995. He also at that time had hit 5 or 6 home runs in that 5 game series that were epic and announced to the world that he was not afraid of the big stage. He hit a home run that many people don't know about when he promised a family of the Gulf war who had lost their father in combat that he would hit a home run in a game to his son. I met him once at a night club and he was pretty quiet. I did not ask him for an autograph because I was in awe. He was not big or anything special so when i saw him I could not believe that he was the guy hitting all of these home runs. I will never forget how mad I was when I went to see the Angels play the Mariners and he hit a ball into the mountains that the Angels had in center field and no one to this date has ever found that ball. One of the two bad memories I have in sports. I went to see Gretzsky play against the Kings in his first game out here as a Ranger and he scored 10 seconds before we arrived to our seats. I missed Griffey hitting that monstrous home run in Angel stadium.
I could write about people criticizing him for wearing his hat properly or that he did not like to sign autographs and some players did not like that. I could talk about how he did not succumb to the steroid or H.G.H demon of his generation. To me that is not important. If you polled players who have played baseball since 1995 most of them will tell you that he was their favorite player. He mentored Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Not Bonds.. All of the players may have loved Sammy Sosa, but Ken Griffey Jr. was the player that everyone tried to be. I am choked up a little because I feel today that my generation of baseball may finally have come to an end. I ha three posters in my room when I got my first single place here in L.a. Micheal Jordan was two of the posters and Ken Griffey Jr. was the other. I may have loved Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden more because they were on my team, but other than Tiger(who calls Griffey his big brother), Ali, Jordan, and Bonds, Agassi, no one made me pay attention to ports like Griffey. Boy I wish that his career could have ended with the fan fare that it deserved. He is the most complete baseball player I have ever seen. The photo of the pose and swing says it all!!! Today is a sad day....

The major league baseball draft.. not a sure thing

I was listening to a discussion about why the number 1 overall pick in baseball amateur never seems to pan out the other day and I was quite surprised to find how true the statement may be. There are a lot of position players who were drafted number 1 overall and some of them have been simply outstanding and most of them have been have been busts. Darryl Strawberry could have a hall of fame player. He and Bob Horner are the only first overall picks and make the all star game and be rookie of year. Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, and Alex Rodriguez are probably first ballot Hall of Famers. Chipper may be borderline. Harold Baines had a great career but probably won't get unless the veterans committee will vote him in in a few years from now. Darryl should have been a hall of fame guy. Drug addiction killed his career. Joe Mauer is the future of baseball. If he stays healthy, the sky is the limit. Playing a catcher may make it difficult because the body can only take so much punishment. That is the good of the list of number 1 players.
Pitchers however are a different story. David Clyde was drafted and he was supposed to be the future of baseball. He threw in the high 90's and touched 100. He went straight to the major leagues and he got his brains beat out. Brien Taylor was supposed to be the Yankees answer to the Mets Dwight Gooden. He has never once pitched in a major league game. Ben McDonald led LSU to the college world series and was the stud pitcher that was supposed to bring back memories of the Baltimore pitchers of the 70's. He was often injured. Andy Benes was supposed to be the guy in San Diego and his brother was better in the end. Tim Belcher got a ring with the Dodgers in 88, but he never was the horse that they needed. That was Orel Hersheiser. Floyd Bannister and Mike Moore were supposed to be big pieces to help teams that had already established pitchers and injuries hurt their careers and so did inconsistency. Paul Wilson was supposed to be the Mets front man of a dream rotation that never materialized. Kris Benson was supposed to be the Pirates savior and he has bounced around the league in recent years. David Price is impressive but it is early. He like Benson were stars on teams that did not have enough to win the college world series but had enough stuff to get everyone's attention. Just like the new stud on the block Mr. Steven Strasburg. I am sure I am botching his last name but pretty soon he is coming to a park near me and I cannot wait to see how he matures. He has been awesome in triple A and the Nationals are playing pretty good baseball this year. Livan Hernandez and Ryan Zimmerman are leading the way and they look like a team that is on the rise. We shall see..
It is interesting the comparison between players who go the college route and the ones who go to the minor leagues. The same applies to tennis. I think that going to college hurts young players in these sports because they are not playing against the best competition or getting the best training at most Universities and colleges. I could be wrong here but I think that John McEnroe is the last collegian to become number 1 in the world in tennis. Andy Roddick nor James Blake have in recent years. Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras did not go to college. Jim Courier I don't think went to college either. Micheal Chang I believe went to Stanford like McEnroe. The point being most of the great players in the last 30 years all got their "education" playing professionally. Serena, Venus, Lindsay, Monica, Steffi, Justine, Kim, all played pro at a young age and got their brains beat out and then got better and became stars. Jennifer Capriati too. Most of the number 1 draft picks that went to college first have not materialized into stars. Chipper, Alex Rodriguez, Darryl Strawberry, Joe Mauer, Ken Griffey Jr., all went to the minor leagues first then college. Dont get me wrong, there are great players who went to college first and the major leagues. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Albert Belle, Robin Ventura, Will Clark, and Rafael Palmeiro are just a few off of the top of my head. Fred Lynn was M.V.P. and rookie of the year in the same year. I just think that if that is what you know that is what you want to do for a living and have the ability t do it and can afford it, the go for it. Injuries are a son of bitch...

The Super Bowl is coming to the New york and New Jersey area?

Please tell me that I am not accurate!!!! Why the heck would the NFL allow the Super Bowl to go to a stadium that will be affected by the weather is beyond my comprehension. My wife like to tease me and criticize the American Football players for wearing pads instead basically playing rugby. She has commented on why the game has to be played in a climate control setting for the Super Bowl. Now that the game is going to be played in the coldest month of the year in a outdoor stadium I feel that next stop is Europe and we will have football teams over there soon. Why can't we leave things alone in sports. Do you have any idea how much tickets are going to cost much less scalped tickets are going to be? Can you imagine if the Giants or the Jets make it to the game what the price for a ticket will be? I know that Dallas is hosting the super bowl this year and the Cowboys have a chance to be in the game too, but at least their stadium has a retractable roof. This makes about as much since as the Minnesota Twins opening an outdoor stadium for baseball. I cannot wait to see what happens when the Twins are playing the Rays or Yankees in the playoffs and the game is called due to snow flurries. Or at game time the temperature is -10. "Hello sports fans, we are live at Giant Stadium with the temperature is -12 and with the wind chill it is -34 on a blustery and frigid day for football. It is so cold in the booth that I am wearing four shirts, three thermal underwear bottoms and I cannot feel my let leg. Lets go down to the field and get a report from Michele Tafoya. OOps she is frozen solid and her microphone is stuck to her chin. we will hear from her later after she thaws out..." The Halftime show has been canceled because the strings in Bruce Springsteen's guitar break each time he plucks them. Bon Jovi can not comb his hair because the hair product has also frozen so they refuse to go on. But wait, wait, I believe that Amy WineHouse who has nothing to do with New York or New Jersey is going to perform. Once again a British import will be performing at our big game and she is so high that she cannot feel the cold. They should play the game in Buffalo. That would be cool. In fact the Super features the Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers. Two teams that have no cold weather games all season and meet today in the Super Bowl.
If you are a New Yorker or a Tri-Stater this is good news to you why? This may create more jobs in the area. It may create and rejuvenate the economy in the N.Y.and N.J. area but if you don't have a job in sports or are not rich, this does nothing for you except raise the terrorist warning flag level to off the charts. I hope by 2014 to be living in New York. I can't wait to see this debacle unfold...
That logo is not the actual logo for Super Bowl 48 or whatever the number will be in 2014...

online poker.. good or bad

I like to play poker when I am at work and I am bored. Texas Hold 'em is my game and I think that I am pretty good at playing. I was playing the other day and I never realized how mentally disturbed people are around the world. The arguments had on Poker Stars.com are absolutely priceless. People get upset if you take to long to play or if you don't speak English or the language that the table predominantly speaks. When I say upset, I mean upset. People literally will curse you out over any type of comment or if your computer freezes or if you beat them consistently. I have to admit, it is pretty frustrating and you want to play a hand and person is debating whether or not to fold or bet. Some people do take forever. My only problem with that is you are playing for free. I currently have 180,00 plus in my account and as much as i want this money to be real, it is not. I know that there are speed games and those games are even wilder with the commentary. The funny thing is that there is supposed to be a person who monitors all of the conversations and they admonish people for speaking in another language and those who curse. People are smarter than they think. Currently there is an argument going right now as i blog to you. A player named Twinkle eyes is upset because she or he was cursed at in Spanish for winning on the river. So now every one is writing all of their messages in Spanish and she or he is responding in English with profanity. To write the word shit for example, she has typed it as s.h.i.t. The computer allows that.
Yesterday there was a debate whether playing online poker can make you a better player. I said it does because it helps you get familiar with so many types of hands and maybe it helps you develop your own style. Yes there are people who play every hand and go all in on every hand and you just want to slap them. Yes there are people out there who think that they know everything and you just want to strangle them. But there is no better feeling of satisfaction when you beat them. I love it when a person goes in on every hand annoys everyone at the table and then I get a hand and go all in with them and they have nothing. My only weakness is betting. I never know how to bet. Most times i under bet and instead of burying my opponents out of hands I give them the opportunity to stay in them. Sometimes it works because I have a great hand but sometimes it backfires. By the way a table moderator just stopped the game because the table is speaking too much in Spanish. That happens from time to time. I just had a hand that I am sure I was winning and since I did not blow up the pot, someone just hit a club flush. I am quitting now because the moderator has done it again because these idiots starting cursing again in Spanish.
Poker is a cruel game. I have had so many bad beats and tilt moments that I wonder why I still play the game. Online poker is a drug because there are no consequences for your actions. If you lose all of you money, the give you a thousand dollars three times an hour. I prefer to play in the 5 to 10 dollar game. The money tends to last a bit longer and the cards seem to be more friendly. I play the 100 to 200 game when I have had a good few days of winning. I do pretty well on those tables and the dialogue is pretty wacky. Plus once in a while a real pro will play and he or she will spend the entire time guessing your hands and they are usually right. I played with Daniel Negraneau once and after beating him twice in a row on river beats he began telling me every card that i was getting. It was weird that he guessing my hands correctly. Everyone is a genius. I think that the only difference between online and real poker is money pressure. The skill of body reading is over rated. Yes everyone has some kind of tell but you really have to know what you are looking for. I admit I get nervous when I play for real money and you can tell it in my conversation. The very first hand I ever played at a real table I hit three jacks and won a good pot. For the rest of the night I was real quiet. I was so scared that in the next hand when i got a king ten I mucked it and the table flopped a king and a ten. I would have won because the next card was another 10. A full house and because i was scared I let it go. I was out within five hands after because i started chasing bad hands. I have grown into being a better player but I will never forget that night.
Anyways, if you do play online poker, play each hand like you would if you were playing for real stakes. Who knows maybe it will make you a better player. Don't get mad at your opponents if they criticize your ability. Then again you will never see them so talk as much s.h.i.t. as you can.

Just a few observations worth mentioning..

I really have become less of a fan of inter league baseball than I used to be. I know some will say it is because the Mets can't beat the Yankees(which is a lie), but I really think that it has lost something for me. Plus the match ups really are unbalanced. The Royals play St. Louis six times which helps St. Louis. Washington and Baltimore should be the game of the week. Detroit and Los Angeles is a real rivalry that I cannot wait to watch. The Colorado and Kansas City game should be ESPN sunday night baseball. Why do the Boston Red Sox one year play the Braves and then the next year play the Phillies? Did you know that the Florida Marlins for years had the most wins in Inter league play. Who cares right!!!! I think that when the same teams play each other year in and out, if they met in the World Series, the surprise element is gone!!! Plus these days so many players have changed teams that everyone has faced everyone somewhere down the line. With the All star game possibly expanding to get more pitchers in the game and both leagues trying to make sure that the starting nine players play longer the speculation or wonder of how Roy Oswalt would do against Derek Jeter in a real game goes away. I almost said Halliday but i remembered that he is a Philly and he has faced Jeter hundreds of times. The only games worth watching was Phillies and the Blue Jays but the games have been moved out of Toronto because of a G-8 Summit. In short I will still watch them all if I can but I really think that I prefer watching teams play each other for a purpose.
Why is it so difficult to play on clay in Tennis? Every year some unknown male or female makes a name for themselves based on how well they do on the dirt. The French Open is upon us and i wonder how many top players will not make it beyond the first week. Is it conditioning? The rallies are longer, the ball is easier to get to, slicing and side spins tend to win while playing on this surface. Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick never won on this surface because they can not over power an opponent. Serve and volley style tennis works but only in right situation. Serena and Venus use the tactic when they are in trouble and when they are serving well. Rafa uses his spins to move his opponent on and off the baseline and when he is serving well, he is impossible to beat. Federer just makes you hit one more shot and if you miss it he usually makes you pay. We shall see what happens.
A quick observation about Lebron James. He is going to get paid no matter where he goes. He should stay in Cleveland and become a hometown legend bigger than anyone since ..... no one. The city of Cleveland has had some of the worst luck in sports. Micheal Jordan, Edgar Renteria, John Elway are people who have killed the city's hope of winning a title. Think about it,what superstar has been a superstar in his hometown. Joe Mauer is the only one I can think of. He has not won a title there yet and probably will never. Lebron needs to stay home. He can be a Yankee fan anywhere. Cleveland needs you!!!!

Athletes really need to give us a break..

I am not one of these sports junkies that believe in conspiracy theories or one of those guys who point the finger at anyone who can do something better than I can. I believe firmly that just because someone has done P.E.D.'s, it doesn't make them super man or woman just because they took the drugs. They still have perform and sometimes the drugs don't make that much of a difference. My question and my blog today is why do these guys lie after they have been caught or why do athletes go through this period of denial. Are they trying to sample public opinion and see who has their back or who is against them? Are they hoping to stay on the front and back page of the newspaper so society does not forget them? Is what they are involved in so laden with trouble that it keeps them from telling as to protect themselves and their families from violence? Pete Rose lied for twenty years before admitting he bet on baseball. He went to jail and maintained while he was in jail that he was innocent of betting on baseball. Marion Jones denied ever meeting Victor Conte and then Conte supplies ESPN with a photo of him and Jones that he has in his office. She also denied using drugs. Mark McGwire lied for years about steroid use. Now we have Floyd Landis who went to arbitration, went to court, went to all media outlets and proclaimed his innocence. Yesterday he all of sudden is a singing like a canary. Do they all miss the attention? Winning the Tour de France is a huge deal. Pete Rose is one the 15 greatest players ever to play the game of baseball and he did not want to get banned from the game so he lied. Mark McGwire has hit 583 home runs which is in the top 10 in that category and that would have put him in the Hall of Fame. Marion Jones won Olympic Medals and was clearly one of the greatest 10 women sprinters in Track and Field History. It is easy to say you got caught, now come clean. We know that there has to be more to the entire saga than people are letting on. Plus nowadays people are keeping DNA samples around just in case they have to testify and save their own ass. Monica Lewinsky kept President Clinton's sperm on a dress. Roger Clemens is up a creek because his trainer has kept his DNA to cover his ass in Clemens HGH case. What is going to happen next. O.J. is going to admit to killing Nicole and Ron on his deathbed. Robert Blake is too. Still waiting for someone to admit that they killed Kennedy...

hello my friends...

It has been two weeks since I last blogged and a ton of things have happened good and bad in my life and in the sports world. The NHL playoffs have gone mad with a team losing the first three games of a series and comes back to win four straight. They were even down 3-0 in the first period of game seven. OUCH!!! Sorry Bruins fans!!!! I actually like the Bruins and lost a bet that they would still win the series. No Sid the Kid or Alex the great trying to win the Stanley cup. Lebron is "gone fishing" as the Celtics took him over their knees and spanked him and the Cavaliers. Tiger did not make a cut and withdrew from a tournament. Lawrence Taylor is being accused of rape of a 16 year old girl. The Mets went from first to worst in that time period. My baseball team finished its season unceremoniously and we will not have a triple crown winner in horse racing this year. I may touch on those topics later this week but today I am sounding off about this Arizona law.
It is sad that we have as a premise in this country that tells the world to bring us your tired, weary, and poor. No one is from this country. We all came from somewhere and it is disturbing how racist and short sided we are all becoming. Racial profiling is everywhere. I have tanned white friends who tell me that they get pulled over because they are thought to be Latino. I have been lucky that I have not had it happen to me and I think that being 280 pounds and and well spoken may have something to do with it. Arizonans are nice people. Every person that I have met from Arizona has been the nicest person that i have ever been around. This state just has a lot of backwards thinking. They did not have a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and I wonder if they still don't. I cannot understand why a state on the border of foreign country want to anger so many from that foreign country. I live in Los Angeles and we too live on the Mexican border. We took this land just like the land in Arizona was taken and set aside for people to live in. People often wonder why the Mexican Federali's rob almost every American they can. It is due to the stupid laws that discriminate against their people. The funny thing is that right now, the Phoenix Suns are led by a foreigner named Steve Nash. The Arizona Diamondback have a few players from outside the U.S., the Arizona Cardinals do as well, and the Phoenix Coyotes do as well. Many baseball teams have spring training in Arizona and all of these teams have players from all over the world. The money generated from spring training is in the millions and for the legislature to ignore that fact is crazy. Yes the point is that if these athletes are legal to be here then there is no problem, but we all know that they are not. For Phil Jackson to say something supportive of this law shows his ignorance of his own team. There are a few Lakers who are foreign and I wonder if they have their papers in order. The immigration argument in this country is a foolish one because this country was built on the backs of people who were not citizens or natives to this land. I say we tax them all and make some money off of them because that is why most immigrants are here. They are here to get a better life. Do you know how much it costs to go through immigration in this country? The hurdles that my wife and I are going through because I don't make a ton of money is ridiculous. We actually have to find a second sponsor and the second sponsor would be responsible to take care of my family until she became legal if something happened to me. The process takes from 3 months to 10 years!!!! So until you are involved in the situation, I think people should just shut up on the topic. Yes I don't want to live in a world where every criminal around the world comes here and gets asylum or can hide here because we did not protect our border, but how we say to the world to bring us your tired, weary and poor, and expect to tell who is really tired, weary and poor. This country is supposed to be a land of opportunity, and instead it is becoming a land of jealousy and bitterness. I run a youth Hostel and the guests often ask can they leave their passports with us in the office because they don't want to lose them. Can you imagine traveling around world with that fear of losing your identification knowing that at any moment if you lose it in Arizona, you are going to be detained in a prison cell until they can figure out who you are? I tell all of my guest to take their passports everywhere they go in this country... You never know...

this past weekend in sports

This past weekend in sports remind me why I love watching every sporting event there is to see. I wish that I did not pay the 64.99 to watch that fight but both fighters are two of my favorite people to watch. I just wish that Moseley had developed a jab over the years because if he had that fight could have been interesting. Plus over his career, he would have never lost. He is a great two handed fighter but he has never had a jab and that is why some of his losses have been surprises and some of his wins have been as well. He should now retire and become a promoter and develop a young champion because now more than ever boxing needs a new face.
I blogged a while ago that I preferred boxing over the mixed martial arts and I still do. However, boxing needs to get some more prize fighters and say goodbye to some of the veteran fighters. Bernard Hopkins, Shane Moseley, Roy Jones Jr., all served admirably as ambassadors for this sport. Oscar De La Hoya has become a great promoter and should stay retired and help the sport find a new star. The Russian brothers need to fight and give us a universal heavyweight champion. Why participate in a sport if you don't want to be the true champion. Brother or not, they owe the people who spend hundreds of dollars to watch them fight a night to remember.
Now we wait to see if Manny and Floyd can get it on in the fall or by Christmas. I think that they will. I just hope that I have a job and can afford to watch it!!!
I finally get to see the Mets play and both games they lit up like a Christmas tree. Santana is not the pitcher I thought he was. He is so inconsistent with his location. He had a curve ball and a change-up. Now he has confidence in neither. David Wright is hitting for power but he is not hitting for average. Neither is Reyes. The Mets will go as far as those two guys will take them. I like the starting pitching and the bullpen so far, but when Beltran returns can we contend? I think so, but Santana needs to become the horse I know he can be. Bay is finally starting to wake up and the rookie is impressive. The Phillies are really good!!!If they stay healthy, they can score a million runs. They have only one starter though and that might be their undoing.
Golf this weekend had three amazing feats. Rory Mcilroy shot a course record 62 to win a tournament yesterday, Ryijo Ishikawa shot a 58 to win a tournament in Japan and Tiger Woods shot a 79 and did not make the cut for the 6th time in his career. Lorena Ochoa retired after her event this weekend and Justine Henin won her first tournament since she retired to become a mom and a wife. I did not watch the derby. I thought that it was canceled due to the weather. The NBA playoffs are here and I am off to a bad start. Denver and Dallas are gone. I miss the days when the Knicks were in the show.. I will write about that tomorrow. Pray for my team..

what about us?

Tomorrow night 32 men are going to have their dreams come true. They will chosen by a team and become wealthy beyond their imagination. The first 10 picks are going to command at least 400 million dollars in bonuses, salary, and most importantly guaranteed money. The top pick in this draft will be given at least 70 million dollars and about 50 million of that will be guaranteed. The Rams have that selection and they someone who is ready to step on the field tomorrow and deliver. But like I said yesterday I will not about the draft. Today I want to talk about a topic that just seems to get swept under the table. Women professional athletes really have it rough. Can you imagine that you are in your athletic prime and dominating a sport and have to make a biological decision to determine whether or not to end your career or keep it going or to put it on hold so that you can start a family. Over the past four years there have been four women at the top of their profession who have retired so they can start a family. Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Annika Sorenstam, Lindsay Davenport are the four that come to mind. Lisa Leslie did it a couple of years ago and her teammate Candace Parker had a baby last season and came back during the year. So as all of these young are getting rich based on potential, what do these established women have to get some respect. On Friday, Lorena Ochoa is going to announce her retirement from professional golf. She is the number 1 player in the world and she is deciding to leave the game for a awhile so she can focus on a family. The only reason why I am shocked about this decision is that the women's golf tour is struggling and it needs a superstar like her to keep the sport relevant. When Candace Parker had her daughter the WNBA absolutely panicked because its league M.V.P was going to be gone and not the same player when she returned because she was getting used to her body changes. She is also only 22 or 23 so they are lucky that they have many years with her to return to form. Especially now that Lisa Leslie has retired the WNBA needs Parker to be back in Los Angeles ready to dominate again. Most people will agree that if the Williams sisters were not involved with tennis the game would have crumbled when the three ladies mentioned before retired for a bit. Now that Henin is back and so is Clijsters the women's game will be back in the forefront of tennis in general. Ochoa is probably the quietest and most unrecognizable best player in the world than any athlete out there. In fact more people probably know who Ashley Force is than Ochoa and her sport is only on one day a week. ( she is a drag racer who is a lot like Danica Patrick, but wins more).
The women's pro golf tour has had problems over the past years keeping sponsors and networks. ESPN has been covering most of their events and NBC and CBS only doing their majors. Everyone is waiting for an American woman to take this sport over so that the interest level in this country will grow. Whether it is Michelle Wie or Paula Creamer or Megan Pressl, the networks will not put money in this sport until one of them can take it over like Serena has women's tennis.It is sad because Ochoa is a great champion, but she is Mexican and because her English is not very good, she has not made it big time here in the states. Now her departure may open doors for these American girls to fulfill that role but right now they are too inconsistent. Plus the players from Asia are beginning to take over women's golf. Every week there is a new Korean or Japanese player that is challenging for title and though that is great for the expansion of the sport globally, no U.S. company cares. Lorena is a probably going to get some flack for retiring now, but I support her decision to be a woman first and then a golfer second.
Unfortunately in this crazy world we live in you not be both....

here comes the draft..

I am pretty damn mad at the NFL. For the past two months all we have heard is the draft is coming and now that it is 48 hours away, I am sick of the NFL. This off- season has been a disaster for this league. Players getting arrested for domestic violence and battery. Sexual assault, gun possession, public intoxication are the headlines. Trades have also stained this league his off season as many great players have changed uniforms. Mcnabb is in Washington, Marshall is in Miami, they Jets seem to make a smart move every day. Even the Giants signed a decent defensive back. The Cardinals lost Kurt Warner to retirement and the Browns gave Derek Anderson to them. They also traded away Brady Quinn. Thomas Jones is no longer a Jet because they signed L.T. Mike Shanahan is coaching in Washington. The schedule comes out today and i feel like last season never ended. I love football don't get me wrong but the NFL has absolutely pushed every sport off of the back page. Pete Carroll is in Seattle. He signed Mike Williams hoping to rejuvenate his underachieving career. The 49ers have gotten Ted Ginn Jr. to go with Crabtree and the great young tight end. Combine that with Gore and they have a great team coming back this year. The Eagles have so much offensive talent that is Kevin Kolb cannot do the job, Vick will. We haven't even mentioned the super participants and Brett Favre. So many questions and so much mystery going into this season. There will not be an undefeated team this year. The talent has been spread all over the league this off season. There are teams that have made interesting moves to give players a chance. Carolina and Miami are going to trust their weapons to young qb's. Chris Johnson and Vince Young will have a year together and can Houston defense help out their offense?
I will not do a draft preview because the first round has so many stories and I have a feeling that all of the trading has not concluded. I think the Browns want Bradford and want the first spot. I think that they are stupid. They got rid of Brady Quinn so I guess they think that someone in this draft has a better upside. Think about what the Browns have done since they made the playoffs. Edwards gone. Winslow gone. Anderson gone. Mike Holmgren is inheriting a catastrophe. I don't want to comment about the Steelers. They used to be my second favorite team. Perhaps their owner should stop being an ambassador to Ireland and take care of his football team. I heard today that McNabb wants T.O. in Washington. I guess the filmed an episode of the Spike T.v. show when fans compete against pros( Pros Vs Joes) and made peace. Shanahan loves T.O. and wanted him in Denver. I would not be shocked if T.O. does not play a down all season. Then there is Tim Tebow!!! Colt McCoy, Jimmy Clausen. Dez Bryant should be a top 10 pick. C.J.Spiller is going to give teams headaches all season. He is soooooooo fast.
I really hate talking football don't I....

the playoffs are here

The NBA and NHL playoffs are here and normally I am somewhat excited to watch them. The Hockey playoffs are the best playoffs of all of the sports because every night is a different game. One night the goalies can "stand on their head". One Oveckin and Crosby can get a hat trick and dominate. One night the defense of the Devils can be difficult to penetrate. Vancouver can hit and physically beat up teams. Chicago and San Jose can too. The NBA unless you are a fan of west coast basketball, you are bored. The Heat and Celtics are interesting because we want to see if Wade can play like Jordan. We also want to see if this is the end of the Celtics re-emergence or are they about to fade out to oblivion. Lebron is a god. He has Shaquille Oneal and Antawn Jamison on his team. They are going to be a tough out. He needs to win this year and erase Kobe Bryant from out of our conscience. The west has great match ups and on any night any of the teams can beat each other. Kevin Durant is in his first post season and everyone is waiting to see how he handles the pressure. Unfortunately he has to go up against the "black Mamba" who is looking to repeat as a champ. The Spurs and Mavericks should go all seven games. Both teams are on their last legs and want to give their two hall of fame players a proper send off. Jason Kidd has been to the finals twice and this may be his last hurrah. Tim Duncan is finally slowing down and the Spurs defense has not been the same this year. The team on the rise could be the Blazers!!! They are so athletic and with Andre Miller running the point, they have a better identity than they have in years past. Can You imagine how good the would be if they had Greg Oden and Brandon Roy healthy? Phoenix is very nervous about this match up because Portland is very long and quick. They will be a headache to eliminate. Utah should be an easy out but Deron Williams is a beast. Denver should have a 2-0 lead but let their lack of concentration get the best of them the other night. Can they contain Boozer and Williams? We shall see because they have only one mission and that is to beat the Lakers in the western conference finals. We hope that George Karl is getting healthy and that his cancer will not be an excuse why his team lost.
The NHL has some intriguing match ups leading up to the game that we all want to see. For some strange reason Detroit has forgotten how to play defense. The Coyotes have shown great puck movement and have exploited the Red Wings defensively. The Bruins have done the same to Buffalo. The Sabres are supposed to have superior goal tending and the Bruins have shown no fear. Montreal has to start playing better defense or they will be going home real soon. Brodeur has not been sharp yet. The Kings have shown me some moxie that I did not think they had. They are young and show no fear. The Blackhawks have been a shock to me all season. I thought that last year was a fluke but they can really play. Nashville is not impressed. San Jose better start taking Colorado seriously or they may be home for the summer sooner than they want to be. Sid the Kid was awesome the other night and they are ready to make a run. They have to avoid the Devils after what they did against them this season. Should be a fun spring eh?

the people's champion

Every Monday, I have so much to write about and then I get to the computer and I lose what I want to say. I had this whole piece about why America loves Phil Mickelson and I just lost my train of thought. Phil is Joe Frazier. He is the people's champion. Is that a compliment? Joe Frazier was the guy who represented the little guy and when he beat Muhammad Ali his victory was supposed to make all of the little people feel great for one day. (or until the rematch).. Actually Joe Frazier then fought the big bad George Foreman and got knocked around and out after a couple of rounds. Then he and Ali had a rematch and Ali they both nearly killed each other before Frazier's corner threw in the towel. Phil is being portrayed as the family man. The man who would never cheat on his wife. He is being portrayed as the man who would take care of his sick wife and mom and take care of his kids. I remember when Brett Favre's wife had cancer and Brett shaved his head so she would not be bald alone. He became America's dad, brother and friend. I respected him more for doing that than being a football player. I respect Phil Mickelson for winning golf tournaments. If he had won a tournament while Tiger was away, everyone would have minimized his results and tried to take away his joy. He is the people's champion because he does so many bone headed things to lose tournaments and people pity him. I would hate to be called the people's champion if every one only roots for me because I have a "Tin Cup" moments. He is not the anti Tiger that world wants him to be. He loves Tiger and Tiger loves him. They buy each other lavish and fun gifts for each other on their birthdays. Their wives are friends. Phil knows that he could have had the career that Tiger has had had he not made so many mistakes at winning time. He has actually outplayed Tiger head to head in final groups lately.
My entire point of his blog was to say that I want the world to stop calling Phil the peoples champion because he did not cheat on his wife. Phil is a great player but he is only the people champion because he plays golf at times like he is one of us instead of way better than all of us. Joe Frazier was only called the people's champ because he did not speak out against the war like Ali did. I will root for both of them this season and hope that they will be paired together in a final round in a major and settle it on the course...
And today i hear that Mickelson may be a baby daddy.... when will it end

I have come to realize that you cannot work in media if you like people

I have to come to realize that if you like people, you cannot work in the media. You cannot like or be positive about anything. No one is ever sincere. No one tells the truth. No one is redeemable. No one is right. No one can make mistakes. I am sure that there are people in media who can find a way to hate Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Lebron James, Roger Federer. Hell, remember when Keri Strugg broke her foot winning the Olympics for this country and the flack that was caused because she was not in the team and that Bela had carried her and was showing her favoritism? Remember when Oksana Baiul won the gold and Nancy Kerrigan was being accused of showing bad sportsmanship and some of the criticism she took from that. Every one in the media is a critic and they find a way to create ways to hate you. Ever since I was child, for some crazy reason I have always had a stronger affinity for players who the public dislikes. I love Barry Bonds. I love Mike Tyson. I love Terrell Owens. I loved Reggie Jackson. I am becoming a big Alex Rodriguez fan. I hated the Eagles but I always root for Donovan McNabb. I am a big fan of Bernard Hopkins. Serena Williams, John McEnroe, Marty McSorley too. I had the pleasure of having a beer with Marty McSorley after he got banned from hockey after hitting Donald Brashere in the head with his stick. One of the nicest guys I have ever met. Dennis Rodman, one of the nicest people I have ever met.
So Tiger Woods puts out this commercial that everyone either hates or finds creepy. People are shocked today that he got a warm reception. I listened to the reaction of the media after he apologized for not be a person without flaw. Why do they want us to hate these people. Remember the woman on the soccer team that got caught playing a bit too aggressively in the soccer game. Everybody jumped on her for her actions. She should have been arrested. The reason they want you to hate them is each individual media thinks the world is their oyster and that if you don't like them, you don't belong in their oyster. Creating bad guys sells newspapers and keeps you watching. Why else Rush Limbaugh criticize Donovan McNabb or make statements about black quarterbacks when he is new to the sports genre. The media wants to keep reminding us that athletes make millions of dollars so that we can not aspire to be like them, no they want us to remind them that we are paying their salaries dammit and you better sign my piece of paper. To me that is silly. If the New York times paid 252 million dollars to their reporters for every story that they wrote, there would not be any negative stories to write about because they would be on a equal playing field as the athletes. I am tired of being told who I should love or hate. I will tell you all someone to hate. This woman in Florida gave her daughter drugs so she could go out is disgraceful to me. This poor 2 year old is now gone because mommy wanted to go an party. I don't want to hear that she needs compassion or mental health. She deserves to be stoned publicly. I am sorry but she actually has done something to be hated for. Why should we hate Tiger Woods? He did not cheat on me. I do not look to him or any athlete for my morality. Stop trying to make me hate him...

Many topics to touch on today..

What is an impressive streak in your mind? Joe Dimaggio's streak of 56 hits is unbelievable. Rocky Marciano won 49 straight fights without a loss. How about Don Mattingly, Ken Griffey Jr., hitting a home run in 8 straight games. The U.C.L.A. streak and the UCONN women's streak are very impressive but some might say that they had an advantage over every team they played against. The men's game in the 70's was way watered down. Most of the great players went to a handful of schools and the talent pool only started to expand in the 80's and 90's. Some will argue that the same schools in the women's game get the great players so you are only competing with 15 schools a year for a championship and if you are doing it regionally, you are only competing against 4 schools. It seems that every year Tennessee and Connecticut get the blue chip recruit and the other schools get the left overs. Duke, North Carolina, Stanford, Rutgers, Oklahoma, Baylor, Maryland, Notre Dame, are the cream of the crop. Nebraska had a great season only to be knocked out of the tournament early in both the conference and the NCAA tourneys. The women's game is good for have an anomaly team come from out of no where. I can name Texas Tech, Villanova from a few years ago, Louisiana Tech and Vanderbilt were good when I was younger, and USC had the greatest player of all times in Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie play there. So anytime you win more than 20 games in a row it is impressive, anyone one who says differently has never played sports. The amount of pressure that these youngsters have been under over the past two seasons to win is crazy. Herm Edwards said it best,"you Play to Win the Game!" Don't you forget it!!! I salute the Connecticut Huskies women's team because they have truly earned my respect. Coach Geno is 7-0 in championship games. That is an amazing streak. They have 77 out of 78 games by double digits. That is outrageous. Next year they have tough games to start the season and it will be awesome to see if Maya Moore can lead them to another perfect season. I hope she can..
Another topic of discussion is Tiger Woods. I have spoken on his situation and it is time for the world to move on. If he wins the tournament this weekend, it would be the greatest and worse thing in the world. It would be bad because the entire golfing community should retire if he wins because he cannot be that much better than all of these players. The confidence of every player will be crushed and he will ascend higher up in the pantheon of earthly mortals. It becomes a good thing if he wins because in my opinion he needs a hug. He needs someone to hug him and say we love you and move forward with your life and whatever happens happens. Anything is possible...
The start of the baseball season always is exciting and exhilarating until your team loses or someone gets hurt. There so many teams missing key players and already some players are snapping at the media. Don't you love the analysts and their predictions. If Pujols stays on this pace he will hit 330 home runs. Roy Halliday may win 30 games this year. Tim Lincecum may strike out 300. Matt Cain too!!!
Finally, football players need to leave women alone. If you go to a club, ask your security to ask the bouncer to get you some ladies and screen the ladies and whoever does not give you the time of day, let them walk away. When I was a bouncer, I had several athletes ask me to let women in V.I.P room or area and usually the athlete would buy thousands of dollars of alcohol and find one girl he liked and everyone played nice and went about their business. Now recently, this making it rain crap has created havoc in clubs and needs to stop. Some one has already been paralyzed already and if you want to throw money up in the air at least do it in a hotel room where you can control what happens. Also stop touching women. If they want to be touched they will let you know. Women. Don't cheapen yourself to be with a star player. If you don't want to be hit or touched, walk away from trouble. Don't take the free alcohol unless you are ready to entertain what is coming next. Every year it is the same story. When will both sexes learn?

Growing up..

Growing up in a single parent home for most of my childhood, I was left to decide whether or not I wanted to play sports. I played in a recreation league in football, basketball and baseball. My father nor my mother forced me to play any sports. They did not want me staying at home all day either, but they never made me go out for teams in any sport. I was influenced by the players on the television, my brother, and I liked talking sports with my father. My friends that I grew up with were older than me and they influenced me as well. Sports was a good thing and being a fan of brash and cocky players was okay too because they were usually the best players on the field or court. Reggie Jackson comes to mind. Micheal Jordan, the 86 Mets, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes and of course the Greatest! Jon McEnroe is another. The point is I loved playing sports because of what it gave me. It gave me pride, it made me feel important, it made me feel like I was a part of something, it increased my self esteem. Sports also has been a huge reason for some of the jobs I have gotten. I was on a sports trivia show because of my knowledge and I have been on other sports shows because of my passion.
The point of my self serving monologue is I don't know what has happened to our youth today. They would rather play video games or skateboard that pick up a basketball or baseball. These kids are so disinterested in playing sports. they have no passion to play or even learn about the game. One of the biggest reason why kids are so fat today is that they don't want to leave their homes and play sports at all. They will go to a friends home and play video games but break a sweat, you must be crazy. Now today there are games where kids can break a sweat and most kids will play those games when they are younger, but our youths today would rather learn how to get girls, buy drugs, or shoot someone than learn how to throw a baseball or play football. It is sad that young black kids don't even bother playing baseball anymore. When a sport has to go out and purchase fields with the hope of having kids playing on them, that is a problem. The funny thing is that baseball can provide more opportunities than bot football and basketball. Football may 47 to 53 roster spots on a team, but most of the jobs are race specific. Although that may be changing, I don't recall counting more than 3 white running backs and maybe 5 or 6 white wide receivers in the NFL who are actually doing anything. Don't get me started on other positions. The point is why has baseball been so forgotten. Barry Bonds cannot be blamed for kids not wanting to play baseball. Steroids is not a reason either. There is more money in baseball than any sport in this country. Soccer makes more money globally but the money is in baseball. Tiger isn't taking kids away from baseball. People may want to watch golf on a Sunday when Tiger is in contention before they watch a baseball game, but no one I grew up with can afford golf clubs. Lebron and Kobe are taking kids away from baseball, but they are only continuing what Jordan, and Dr.J did before them. I wrote a blog a while ago about how kids think that if they can dunk, they are good players. Well that is only true if you can make the dunk or get to the rim and be able to dunk.
My baseball team cares about as much about playing baseball as I do about eating my favorite sausage and pepper sandwich ten times a day. My job is to get them to play better and catch the ball. That is it. My job is to motivate them to want to win. I don't know what else I can do...

What the he** are eagles doing?

Here is one of the crazy things form the weekend.. What the He** did the Eagles just do? They gave away not only their franchise greatest player, but they gave him a division rival. Ever since Donovan McNabb has been an Eagle he has been treated with little to no respect. The fans wanted Ricky Williams and on Draft day he was booed. Ricky Williams smoked his career away and probably would have been killed if he wen to Philly. He has taken the team to five NFC title games and one Super Bowl. He is not the reason they have not won the big game but he gets blame when they lose and never gets credit when they win. He once threw four touchdown passes in a game on a broken ankle. He completed a fourth and 26 against Green Bay in a playoff game. He has battled Warner, Favre, Brady, Mannings,( Eli and Peyton), Vick, and Rothlisberger just to name a few. He should be a Philadelphia icon. He should be revered like Iverson, but because he never won the Super Bowl, he will never get the love that he deserved. He is not Dr. J, Moses, Mike Schmidt, Ron Hextall, or Pete Rose. He is the most disrespected superstar of my generation. He has done nothing wrong to anyone. Terrell Owens threw him under a bus. He just led this team to the playoffs despite not have one of their key running backs. The Eagles released him too. The team just drafted several talented receivers in the last two seasons for him to play with. Kevin Kolb may be the second coming of Brett Favre but he is no Donovan McNabb. Now McNabb goes to Washington to be tutored by Mike Shanahan. Shannahan has had John Elway, Steve Young, and now gets a hungry McNabb. He gets a hungry Clinton Portis, and a young receiving corp that has under achieved. They have great tight ends who can stretch the field. Chris Cooley is already a pro bowl tight end. Fred Davis is a budding star. I am scratching my head. Micheal Vick and Kevin Kolb will battle for the job. Kolb was great in college and can throw the ball through a wall if needed. Vick has been compared to McNabb his entire life. He was supposed to go to Syracuse and replace McNabb there, but chose Virginia Tech. He has to be wondering what his future holds.
The Eagles also could have had Albert Haynesworth but chose a second round pick instead. Whoever this pick is, he better be ready to have his life scrutinized for the next 15 years...