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...

Baseball is truly back this year...

Baseball is back and this season is going to be the most memorable ever. Each division has a team that can win the world series. How many times can you actually say that in your life?  No one would be shocked if the Washington Nationals won the World Series. No one would shocked if the Cincinnati Reds won, the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Tigers, or Oakland A's won the World Series either. This season there are more teams that can eat at the "big boy" table than ever before. So who is going to get it done this year? Who is going to win the M.V.P., Cy Young in both leagues? Here we go....
Usually I give lengthy previews of each division. I will spare you that ad give an synopsis of each division. The American League east will go down to the final day of the season. The Orioles last year shocked the baseball world by the season they had. They won't sneak up on anyone this year. The Rays lost Upton and big game James. The Red sox have a chip on their shoulder but have a lot of holes to fill. The BlueJays spent millions and the Yankees are being counted out with all of its injuries and age issues. I like the Blue Jays and Yankees to come out of this division. The Jays stay healthy they could have a special season. They could put out a speed demon team and a team that can hit home runs. Scary. The Yankees have no one in their corner and that makes them dangerous. If they put their everyday lineup on the field for two months after the all star break, they will be in the post season.
The A.L. central is about as interesting as watching paint dry. The Detroit Tigers are loaded. Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander are the best at their position and want revenge for what happened last year in the world series. Getting Victor Martinez back makes this lineup the most difficult to face. They have bullpen issues. No closer,but they could just outscore e everyone.
The A.L west is just the opposite. No one can name a player on the Oakland A's yet theyre the scariest team in baseball. Every year, they make a second half run and no one can stop them u til post season. Texas lost a lot but they just reload. Losing Josh Hamilton and Michael Young will hurt their chemistry, but they can still rake. The Angels lost Greinke and Haren but gained Hamilton. They are hoping to have the real Pujols and that Mike Trout was not a fluke. Seattle has a lot of pieces and won't be an easy stop on anyone's schedule. Michael Morse and Ackley are looking to make a name for themselves. The Angels and A's will represent in the post season.
The Yankees and A's play in the play in game. Detroit and Angels play for the A.L. title. The Angels represent the A.L. Jerad Weaver is your Cy Young and Robinson Cano is your M.V.P.
The National League east is very top heavy. The Mets, Marlins are rebuilding. The Phillies are a mystery. The Braves and Nationals can win it all. The Nationals are scary good now that they have a closer and no restrictions on Super Steve. They have a balanced offense. They need 140 games from Zimmerman on offense. Zimmerman the pitcher could be x factor all season long.  The Braves have said goodbye to Chipper and Bobby Cox over the last two seasons and haven't missed a beat.  The Nationals and Braves will be in post season.
The Central Division in the National league is for real. The Brewers an Pirates have potential to be dangerous. Ryan Braun and Andrew McCutcheon can carry their teams to a title if  pieces fall into place. The Reds and Cardinals have carried the torch for this division over the past few years. Both teams are licking their wounds after the collapses in the playoffs last season. Yadier Molina is a better player than most think. He stops the running game and he is tough in the clutch. Joey Votto has this beautiful swing but is yet to explode in the post season. They both have great bullpens and good enough starting pitchers.  Both will fight for this division and only one will make post season. The Cincinnati Reds.
The National League west is all about the Giants and Dodgers. The Giants need Buster Posey to stay healthy because every year that he does they win the world series. They have a bunch of guys who have been clutch in big spots over the past three seasons.  A pure team. The Dodgers have a 240 million dollar payroll. They have all stars everywhere.  If they stay healthy, they will be difficult to beat. Matt Kemp pledged last year that he could be a 50-50  guy. He has protection in this lineup. Clayton Kershaw is as good a anyone and if Beckett and Greinke can give them 25 starts, the Dodgers will dominate the National league. Colorado and Arizona are a piece or two away from joining the big two. Arizona is like Oakland. Can't name anyone on the team yet they are always competitive. The Rockies needs healthy Tulo and let's see what they can do. The Padres are still rebuilding but have pieces in place for a good future.
The Giants and Braves will play in play in game. Dodgers and Nationals for N.L title. Nationals in the World Series. Matt Kemp is your M.V.P. and Steven Strasburg is your Cy Young.
The Angels and Nationals world Series. Nationals in 6. 

Eric Winston blasts Chiefs fans for cheering injured Qb.

What rights do we have have as fans of sports? Do we have to show class? Can we cheer when we want? Boo when we want? Can we throw things on the field to show our displeasure of calls made or teams performance? The apparent answer is yes.. but.. The word fan is from the word fanatic. All sports fans have fanatical behavior. Whether it is good behavior or bad, we as fans have a right to be anything we want to be because we spent a ton of money to go to a stadium and arena and watch a game. If we get out of line, which is our right, there are ramifications for our behavior. Someone can point us out to stadium security and have us removed. Someone can have us arrested. Someone can, yes folks, kick the living crap out of us if that is the situation. Someone can also move from their seat. Someone can actually join us in our fanaticism. We are fans and we pay the salaries of the participants on the field, so you cannot tell me how to behave.

Now if you believe that is how i truly feel, I have some swamp land property to sell you in Jersey that has gold, diamonds and oil on it. Eric Winston is 75% right with what he did and said. The only problem that i have with what he said is that he blamed all Chief fans and the city of Kansas City. Every person at the game said he overreacted and generalized when he gave his assessment of the cheering at the stadium. His point is simply no one should be cheering when someone on your team is hurt should be cheering. Matt Cassell has been trying like crazy to get back to the form that enabled him to lead the Chiefs to a division title three years ago. He was injured all season last year and the team fell apart. They have a great running game and he was a perfect compliment to that running attack. What we stupidly do in our society is lump the money he makes into the action on the field and we think that if he or she is a millionaire they are invincible. They can't get hurt because they are being paid 66 million dollars. They are not human. They are my property because I am paying his salary because I am at the the game. Fans are ignorant beyond belief at times. We have a God given right to cheer or boo when we ant to but we need to use common sense and decency. Matt Cassell chose a profession where people get hurt. We should n't boo even when the opposing player gets hurt. What is the point of sportsmanship if being fanatical is accepted behavior at inopportune times.

There is a story about a rugby player in England who this past weekend played in a championship game and ruptured and lost one of his testicles. Would you cheer that? His name is Paul Wood and not only did he rupture his testicle he played with the pain and injury for 20 minutes after he suffered the incident. Fans would cheer people like him because he was willing to lose his testicle in order to try and help his team win a world championship. He was asked today on the Dan Patrick show what was more painful, losing one testicle or losing the game. He said losing the game. My point with this story is that athletes around the world in all sports do whatever it takes to win in most cases for us fans to succeed. They sacrifice there body, minds, life for us to have 3 hours of an escape every time they play. Whether it is Willis Reed limping on the court in the sixties, Jack Youngblood playing a Super Bowl on a broken leg or Isiah Thomas on bad ankle scoring 42 against the Lakers, Micheal playing with 103 temperature in game 5 to help Bulls defeat the Jazz, or Matt Cassell going through rehab to get back on the field to try and help the Chiefs win a football game, fans need to understand the sacrifice and effort these people do for us. They deserve our best behavior and respect. Events of recent weeks indicate that we still that we have a say as to what happens on the field. Brave fans throwing beer bottles on the field because the umpire made a bad judgement call shows that more to me than ever before. I am no saint either, but at least I know when to draw the line.

Wild card baseball keeps us riveted until the end

The Wild Card in Baseball keeps us Riveted until the end of the season..

One of the biggest critcisms of baseball is that the season is too long. There are 162 games that is spread out over 7 months. Most baseball fans dont have a problem with the amount of games but with the length of them. This year Major League baseball decided to implement another game so that the wild card could be significant and more teams would have a chance to get into the post season. Last year, Boston and Atlanta endured collapses that ransacked the Red Sox organzation and humiliated the Braves. Both teams had sizable leads over Tampa and St.Louis and lost them on the last day. This year in both leagues 4 teams had a chance to get into the postseason with 5 games left to play. The Dodgers, Cards, Braves, and Brewers were chasing down the final spots. In the A.L. the Angels, A's, Rays, and Orioles were doing likewise.

In the N.L. the Braves had clinched one spot with a week to go and they had their sites set on trying to win the division. The Nationals however had other plans and were able to get it done without the services of Steven Strasburg. The Nats decided to rest Strasburg who was coming off of Tommy John surgery and the teams put him on an innings limit. The Cardinals won the other spot after the Dodgers suffered a back breaking loss to the Giants. The previous night the Dodger had rallied in the ninth inning averting elimination and most of us thought that they could use that momentum to forge a one game playoff. It did not happen.

In the American League, the Orioles and A's emerged as the two teams that were trying to upset the divisions that they are in. The Yankees and Rangers had been in first place all year and only the Yankees were able to topple the Orioles. The Athletics defeated Texas three straight head to head, which not only eliminated the Angels and Rays, but ascended them to the top of the A.L. west. This accomplishment is extraordinary if you consider that the A's have the lowest payroll of contending teams and no star pitcher. The A's have 18 players that make less than a million dollars. Only 12 players make over a million on the entire roster. Bob Melvin is the clear cut manager of the year for what his team achieved.

The wild card is significant this year because the winner of the play in game gets to host two games against the top seed which will put extra pressure on that top seed to win one game on the road or sweep all three games at home. The Yankees and Nationals are the top seeds. The two first round games pit the Atlanta Braves against the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals and the second game pits the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. The Rangers/ Orioles matchup is intriguing because both teams can score runs at any time and in bunches. The Orioles were 30-9 in one run games this year which is off the charts. The Orioles have won 15 straight extra inning games including winning earlier this season in 19 innings in Seattle. Texas's Josh Hamilton is looking for some vindication after he "flubbed" a routine fly ball that allowed two runs to score in the Oakland game that turned out to be the game in which the A's won the division over the Rangers. Hamilton also hit 4 home runs ina game this year against the Orioles in May.

In the N.L. the Braves are playing to allow certain first ballot hall of famer Chipper Jones an opportunity to prolong his career. The Braves this year were 5-1 against the Cards and are throwing Chris Medlin who does not know how to lose. the braves have 23 straight starts of Medlins and clearly he has been the best pitcher in baseball since August. The Cardinals are used to this role of playing spoiler based on last season's heroics. They not only roared through the playoffs with clutch pitching performances but David Frese is a "walkoff" hitting machine. Ask the Rangers in the World Series about his prowess.

So as much as most people don't like the wild cat format, you cannot dispute how riveted most of has been because of the importance placed on these games in September. Would the right teams have gotten into the playoffs this year? That is up to your interpretation of what the "right " teams are. Chipper getting onelast chance on the big stage is pretty cool and would have happened based on last years format. Baltimore and Texas would have had to have a one game playoff to determine who was in. who would not have been excited to see that. Next year the format will change and they will probably be more games added. If they are exciting like the season has been, I am all for it...

Chipper may go out in style

As an avid and disappointed Met fan today I have to say something that makes me sick to my stomach. Last year like most Met fans, I sat in my home and watched the Atlanta Braves choke away a playoff spot and be eliminated on the last day of the season.  I laughed and cheered so loudly because of all the Braves have done to my teams over the years.  (what also gave me much joy was the Red Sox were collapsing at the same time).  I thought Chipper Jones was going to retire because of his knee injuries and the fact that he was not around to give his team that supportive net or timely hit made it a sad end to a career that most deem a hall of fame one.  Still in all I was pleased that St. Louis got in and later won the World Series and ths looked like they were in a decline.  Finally right?
The Braves have been the National Leagues best regular season team over the last 20 years.  They have won 13 division titles i think and played in 5 World Series.  They have been on television during the Chipper Jones era as much as much as the Yankees and Red Sox have been. In fact the two consistent names over that period that we have heard most about are Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter. They both have become the symbols of dedication and loyaty in sports.  Think about all sports.  How many players have started with one team and finished with that team over the last 20 years? Tim Duncan. John Stockton. Kobe Bryant. Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Leborn James left their teams to chase rings and greener pastures. Chipper Jones has been the face of the Atlanta Braves for 20 years and last night his team got him back to the big stage one last time.  He led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a double and the Freddie Freeman hit a monsterous homerun and the Braves won 4-3 and are in the playoffs.
The funny thing is that Chipper has been getting a send off like no one has seen since Kareem left basketball. Every team has given him gifts. Motorcycles here. Free food there. Trips around the world. Merchandise and commemorative items that he will never forget.  i always thought that Chipper Jones was Public enemy number one around the league.  He was booed as much as any star player can be.  He beat up every team in the league. He could have been a candidate for 500 homeruns if he did not suffer injuries late in his career and if he had played the year the Braves wanted to bring him up.  Remember he wrecked his knee his first season and did not play. Chipper has really been a thorn in the side of the Mets in the regular season as well as the post.  The bigger question that most people have is why did the Baves fail so often in the post season with all of that pitching and annoying timely hitting? How many times did Chipper come up and deliver the big hit to start a rally or win the games for the Braves. How many times did he frustrate your team over the years?
Is he a first ballot hall of famer? Of course he is.  He played on great teams, with great players and had an impact on games like few others before him.  He will probably be ranked in the top 5 or 6 thrid basemen ever to play the game. Brooks Robinson mayhave been a better defender but I would rather face him over Chipper Jones with the game on the line. He is the George Brett of this generation. Brett haunted the Yankees and Chipper haunted the Mets. Atlanta Brave baseball has been blessed over the last 20 years to have had Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Chipper. they also had Bobby Cox who made sure that this fine machine would function properly on all levels.  So I reluctantly wish the Braves well this Post season.  i can take comfort that my team will never have to face Chipper again.  It is an end of a great era of baseball. Get it done Atlanta. You have the pieces...