The year in sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZjS5pGNg50&feature=youtube_gdata_player

You CANT HAVE It BOTH WAYS..

Robinson Cano just broke the bank in Seattle. Everyone has an opinion. Yankee fans are sad he is gone, but glad that the Yankees didn't give him the key to the kingdom. Baseball is the king of the long term contracts, where players can't possibly be great for 10-12 years. The Dodgers are about to make Kershaw the richest pitcher in history. He is 25 and clearly the games premier hurler. Mike Trout at age 21 has been runner up in the m.v.p. balloting the last 2 years. Strasburg, Fernandez in Florida, Machado in Baltimore, Bryce Harper, Harvey in New York if he comes back healthy are all going to cost teams hundreds of millions of dollars. The only player in recent memory that has lived up to the big contract is Derek Jeter. Jeter had a long hall of fame career and captained five teams to titles.  Pujols did not get the big contract until he left St. Louis. Cabrera has a ring from his Florida days but all he does is rake. Manny Ramirez delivered for Boston two rings. Chipper Jones made it to the playoffs every year. Mike Piazza had a productive career with the Mets. Carlos Beltran did as well.
Here is my point. Media and fans complain that there is no loyalty in sports. Dustin Pedroia might be the last to be on a team for his entire career and get a payday.  David Wright for the Mets might be another. Tulo out here in Colorado? Maybe. Buster Posey? Joe Mauer? The point is you have to pay to keep people around. Seattle has gotten rid of Arod, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey  Jr., Ichiro!!!! They don't know how to pay for loyalty and commitment to excellence. It is a disgrace that those guys bounced around as much as they did. Jacoby Ellsbury should have been a RedSox for life. Todd Helton may not have won a title but he was a vital part of the growth of baseball in Colorado. Jeff Bag well and Craig Biggio were the reasons to watch Astro Baseball. You can't blame the players. They don't want to leave. Cano wanted to be another Jeter. Long term deals keep fans coming to the stadium. You know when healthy if your star player is going to be there everyday if possible.  Pujols in St Louis. You knew he would hit 3rd and play first. Jeter, Ripken Jr., Helton would be at their positions. Owners make millionaires out of average players and now the world hates a sport where showing longtime loyalty is a foolish gesture ?  I stopped liking the Yankees and became a lifelong Met fan when the Yanks traded away Reggie. I almost abandoned the Mets when they let Strawberry go.  I guess if Peyton Manning and Brett Favre can change teams then anyone can. No one wins in all of this. Unless you are a fair weather fan and can cheer for anybody, then this sports world is for you. Don't cry to me about loyalty anymore. I guess I will be a met,dodger, mariner,angel, yankee, red Sox ,rockies, tigers fan. Go team!!!!

Eastern Conference Basketball isn't fantastic, its anonymous

I haven't written for a while, so I am sorry to post an empty blog. I think my blog is a perfect representation of what is in the way for the heat to repeat as champions. Nothing.. The east has one team other than Miami with a winning record.  The very tall and formidable Indiana pacers. The Bulls will get better as the year progresses. Brooklyn and new York have injuries but have insane talent. They both stink right now. Can anyone name another team in the east? Philly? Boston? Cleveland? Toronto? Do you know that the two team that have longest playoff streak in east?  Not Miami. Not New York. It is Boston and the Atlanta Hawks. If you take away the Heat, Pacers, Nets and Knicks, could you name an All star team. Derek Rose is gone till the playoffs. Rudy Gay is in the witness protection program in Toronto. Kyrie Irving is made of paper mache. He gets hurt more frequently than any person I have ever heard of.  Speaking of Cleveland who is this number one draft pick who sits the bench quite often? Anthony Bennett. He may go down as the most under used number one pick in history.  He is the most anonymous first pick of the last 20 years. The east is so bad that western conference teams are asking for realignment. This could be the first time that several teams make the playoffs with a losing record. Teams are tanking for this great college class? I don't think they could if they tried.
Why are they so bad?  The old teams are just old. Brooklyn and New York can't stay healthy or put two games in a row of consistent basketball together. Other teams have lost star players and are trying to fix problems with unproven talent.  Orlando lost Howard. Atlanta lost Joe Johnson and Josh Smith.  They also fired coaches who could win 50 games a season but fail in the playoffs. They have made terrible trades and have not recovered. The Pistons haven't been the same sine Hamilton and Billups left. Philly got nothing from Bynum and traded Igoudola for nothing but promise.  Cleveland lost Lebron and has the number 1 pick twice in 3 years. Milwaukee lost Bogut and Ellis, and last year Jennings.  Toronto lost Bosh.  Who is Demar Derozen? I know he is a l.a.kid but can he play? These teams are mismanaged for the future. They bring in all of this young potential talent and they are not really ready for the NBA. The west is younger and hungrier. The west has two old teams but they can still play. The Spurs are a top 3 team. The Lakers will be better than most think if Kobe is healthy. The death of the east is the one and done players. The life of the west is the mixture of the old,new, and unproven.  I am a east coast guy and I am dying with this.. We shall see what happens..

Just get over it..

My least favorite quote in the world is "just get over it".  Everyone around the world has problems, issues, or situations that they have to overcome and the best way friends or enemies choose to tell their friends or enemies how to handle something is to simply say "just get over it".  How does this apply to sports? i can give you two major examples.  The first one: USC GOT SCREWED by the NCAA. The University of Miami got a slap on the wrist by the NCAA for its lavish scandal.  For almost a decade players, coaches in multiple sports received impermissible benefits from a booster which is at the core of almost every NCAA investigation.  The school imposed its own sanctions and because they cooperated with NCAA officials only lost 9 scholarships to its football program. The coach of the basketball team who coaching at another university now got a 5 game suspension. The matter is now history.  The NCAA threatened that they may impose the death penalty for the violations by the school.  All they got was a slap on the wrist. USC lost 30 scholarships, lost prestige, prominence, a coach who couldn't overcome the sanctions and have floundered over the last 3 years.  The people involved with the scandal lost a Heisman trophy and banishment from the school. They have been trying to pick up the pieces ever since. To make matters worse, Penn State was rewarded for its compliance with the NCAA and are going to start to get scholarships back as early as next year.  USC was not given a chance to "suck up" or kiss ass to get scholarships back. I guess they pissed off the wrong compliance officer. I guess because they tried to defend themselves and that was a bad thing. I guess they knew that Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo was getting benefits and so they had no right to defend their "lack" of knowledge. What a joke. But I guess USC NEEDS to GET OVER IT.  They can't sue the NCAA for unfair litigation. The NCAA governs itself.  They have fired or had several officers resign over the last five years. The NCAA has punished players for selling their jerseys for tattoos, They have ended a players career for having dinner with Deion Sanders. Just get over it.. Right?
The second one is Steve Bartman.  Bartman is a lifelong Cub fan who needs to come out of hiding  and be human again.  The Cubs just stink. They think the hiring Theo Epstein is going o change their luck and win a world series.  The blame Bartman for interfering with Moises Alou chance for catching a foul ball.  Every fan would have done the same thing. Every fan has done the same thing since the beginning of time. The Cubs haven't won a world series in over 100 years.  Bartman, the billy goat, the black cat, make the story sexy and silly. Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson were once in a lifetime players and couldn't deliver the goods.  Sammy Sosa couldn't either.  They burned out Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.  CUB FANS need to GET OVER IT and leave Bartman alone. They need to realize that everyday they wake up they can change the course of their lives with their own actions. Bartman is still in hiding 10 years after this fiasco. GET OVER IT!!! Let him come home. Red Sox fans and the media forgave Buckner for his blunder in the 86 series. Buckner was a Cub too..

The NFL.. How wrong have I been

I have a few friends around the country who enjoy keeping me on my toes or bluntly like to try and prove that I am uneducated or inaccurate when it comes to football prognosticating. With MY football team sitting at 0-6 and looking more and more bleak each week i guess i can take the ribbing this year because because i have never been so wrong.  i said that the AFC is weak. I said 6 teams in the AFC would have winning records.  I said the that the Jets were a mess. i said that the NFC would dominate every AFC team.  I said Seattle, the Giants, San Francisco, Chicago and New Orleans, Atlanta, Green Bay were way better than any AFC team. Hell i even predicted the Super Bowl would be Manning Bowl 4. How wrong have I been.
Denver and Kansas City have three wins against the NFC east. Both have beaten Dallas, The Giants and Eagles. The Patriots have defeated the Bucs, Saints, and Falcons. Indianapolis has beat Seattle and San Fransisco. Bengals have beaten the Packers. Hell the Jets have beaten the Falcons. In fact the Falcons have lost to the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots. This was supposed to be the coming out party for some NFC teams this year. Instead two former NFC coaches are leading the only two unbeaten teams to an undefeated record. John Fox and Andy Reid are NFC alumni and are enjoying a ton of prosperity. Peyton Manning is playing football like a video game.  Alex Smith is not making mistakes and his team keeps on winning.  Jamaal Charles is putting up Jim Brown like stats. Their defense just recorded 10 sacks in a game.
Remember all of that talk about running quarterbacks? No one is talking about them now.  RG3 has not been impressive this year. In fact if we were to gauge the progress of the young qb's from last year, Andrew Luck would be number 1, Ryan Tannehill would be number 2 over Wilson and RG3 and even Colin K. The AFC has had so many impressive wins that it is hard to defend the NFC's honor. I am speechless as to how bad the Giants are.  They give the football away easier than a child gives away candy.  They have no balance, pass rush or fight. I have never been been afraid to watch a game.  I watch with one eye open wondering when the collapse is going to happen.  The Saints could have been the flag bearer for the conference but the crumble in New England was shameful. They had two opportunities to win that game. Green Bay losing at Cincinnati was another disgrace.
Can we turn it around?  I wish I felt confident to say yes. The Seahawks will get better as they get healthy. So will the Niners. Green Bay just got dealt some bad news with their injuries.  Dallas can score on anyone, but cant stop anyone. Like the eagles, Giants, Bears, Redskins... I have one wish for the next 6 games. You know what it is...

who is more disappointing Peyton Manning or the Atlanta Braves

For the record, I think that both Peyton Manning and the Atlanta Braves have nothing to be ashamed of.  Both have put themselves in position to win titles.  Both have one world series ring since 1995. Both have dominated their divisions and leagues for many years. Manning is going to re-write the record books before he is done. The Braves have won the National League east an astounding number of times I think they have won 15 division titles since 1991, including this year. Chipper Jones is as tragic a hero as Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning's teams have won 12 division titles, and lost in the first round or game 8 times. He has one super bowl ring. Who is more disappointing?  In my opinion the answer is the Atlanta Braves.
Peyton Manning has had terrible games in the post season. He would lose to Tennessee in his first playoff game, he would lose to Miami in his next one and then his worse loss was against the Jets and they lost 41-0. The New England Patriots always seemed to have his number.  Hew would put up video game number during the regular season and looked lost and confused in playoff games. He had great players on his offense. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne are hall of Famers.  Edgerin James was efficient and reliable as anyone.  Dallas Clark and Marcus Pollard made a lot of plays for him.  They did not have a great defense.  Dwight Freeney was unblockable during the regular season, but in the playoffs was often a non factor. They had could never get a consistent pass rush or stop the opponents running game. Peyton is often blamed for his teams failures because he would throw a late interception or multiple interceptions in games. Fair or not the quarterback either gets too much credit for good thing or too much blame for bad things. i think he should be appreciated just for getting their. Several great players never got to the super bowl or won a playoff game. Barry Sanders never was as spectacular in the playoffs as he was in the regular season.  Didnt the packers hold him to negative yardage in a playoff game? In fact I dont think he won more than one playoff in a game in his career if at all.  O.J. Simpson ran wild in the NFL no post season legacy to speak of. Dan Fouts lit up every team in the NFL in his brilliant hall of fame career, no rings to show for it.
The Atlanta Braves are tragic and here is why.  They dominated everyone. They out pitched everyone.  They would win games that were insurmountable more than anyone. They matched up well with everyone. Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz Avery, Alejandro Pena, Mark Wohlers, John Rocker, embarrassed everyone. They lost to the Yankeees after dominating them in earlier games. They lost to the Twins who had only Jack Morris as an imposing pitcher. They lost to Toronto who had Winfield and Molitor. The Braves were favored in all of these series. They had a superstar laden lineup. They could beat you with a speed game with Otis Nixon or power game with Gant and Justice. Glavine Smoltz, Maddux, and Chipper Jones are first ballot hall of Famers. What puzzles me about their lack of success is the baseball adage of momentum is the next day starting pitcher.  The Braves threw four top of the line starters at teams each night. They put teams in slumps with their dominance. They never had a team that they dreaded playing. The Colts season was always based on whether they beat the Patriots. When they would win people thought that they could win the title.  when they lost people would say same sorry ass Colts.  The Braves were always the hunted. They had no peer. They just simply could not win. Teams would bleed their starting pitching for 8 innings and get to their bullpen and beat them late quite often.  The Yankees, Blue jays, and Twins had memorable world series wins in the late innings to sting the Braves.  Jim Leyritz name is a sore subject down south.  Kirby Puckett and Dane Iorg dramatics in Minnesota. Dave Winfield, Kelly Gruber. Ernie Witt.  Tom Heinke stifled the bats of the Braves in world series. The Braves had more heart breaking losses than anyone.
I am sure anyone would love to be Peyton Manning or Chipper Jones or Greg Maddux because of their brilliance on the field. However the lack of rings will always haunt these guys. All great players and great teams.  Unfortunately we are all judged by wins and chips. Both only have one in the last 20 years. The Braves are more tragic because they had no peer. They had reservations to be in the playoffs every year and just got beat when you least expected it.  W e all knew that Peyton would throw that pick or we all knew that Peyton wouldn't come through.  He only did it once. We all were shocked when the Braves would fail in the post season. They had everything...

The nfl shoud be ashamed of itself for this concussion settlement

I first started playing football as a six year old in Greenburgh, N.Y. The Fairview Center had it all. Basketball, Baseball, Summer Camp and Football. There was a kid on my team named Sean Williams and he could ball. He had a 80 plus yard touchdown run and it was awesome to see. I remember in Jr. PeeWee football practice doing drills like monkey rolls, reaction drills and something called bull in the ring. Never heard anything about concussions. I remember one practice we practiced against the peewee team and someone got the wind knocked out of them. He was gasping for air like that scene in total recall. I was scared but playing left guard I knew that I wouldn't get hurt unless I hurt my self. As I advanced through the years, I only saw one person get a concussion. Steve Sacks got dinged up pretty badly in a game my junior year. He was my go to guy our senior year. He has turned out fine. Now I am not equating my exploits as a player to that of a NFL player but I am certain no one told us about concussions. There were two really outstanding players in pop Warner. Reggie Battle could really hit,. Alfie Fullwood could too. Again no concussion speech then either. I remember in high school watch these amazing videos where John Facenda would narrate these great sequences where NFL players would get nailed and it would inspire us to want to duplicate what we saw. No concussions were ever discussed.
Fast forward to today, every thing is being done to prevent concussions and there is nothing that can be done to stop them. The only way to stop them us to end football period and we all know that isn't going to happen. We ask these human missiles to entertain us the best way they can and now we are making it worse for the league. Players have been taught knockout shots for years and got paid mucho dinero for putting players out of the game. Now there is a dangerous strike zone that is going to put more players in wheel chairs and not decrease concussions because helmet to knee or leg hits can cause concussions too. Players don't spend a lot of time at practice learning how to tackle because there are not long practice sessions any more.
So what the league does to help those already afflicted by giving them 765 million dollars to help them deal with their issues. The players want 9 billion. 9 billion is the cost of the most recent television contract. The league didn't even give the players a day in court so that a judge or arbitrator could dispense a proper amount. The case is closed and if players want to go back to court, they would have to do it individually or as a group forfeit it all. Also only 10 million dollars is going to research. 465 is going to the players. 200 million is going to lawyers fees!!!!!! When I worked as a security guard at clubs some nights I would take inferior tips just so I would have money in my pocket instead of breaking the bank. I felt like a prostitute because I was only motivated by the money and not the principle of my labor. NFL players took an insulting offer and have hurt the future. They should have opened Pandora's box. Now there will be no accountability. Yes 100,000 plus per person is a huge benefit and more money than a lot of the players before 1970 received in their entire career. They should have forced a national forum. The NFL just showed the players the difference between why they have it all and the players will never. The best interest is supposed to be for the players and their families. We all know medical care is going to evaporate that money faster than one can spell "it". I thank god I have a girl. I am not sure I would let a son of mine play football.