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...