Nov/071
Delmon Young…we got him!
To be fair, the pitch really should have been called a ball... The ump undoubtedly learned his lesson.
Jul/077
A Sad Week In Sports
It has been one incredible and disturbing week in sports. I'm left wondering at what point did ESPN.com become Fox News? As I write this post the top five stories on the AP sports wire have nothing to do with sports but rather the cheaters and law breakers involved in them. You have the NBA ref situation, the Tour de France favorite testing positive after a win, Vick being asked not the report to training camp, the Bonds vs. Selig will he be there debate, Gary Player stating he knows of at least one pro golfer who has used steroids, the Marlins Olsen getting in a police fight, gophers player suspensions and on and on. And all of this after a summer of NFL player problems.
What went wrong? When billions of dollars are wrapped up into TV deals, millions invested in players and 24/7 TV and internet coverage consumes us, does it all fall apart?
With Vick, Pacman, Bonds, steroids, bicyclists doping - these things will be cleaned up and pass with time. But I don't see the NBA recovering soon. The problem is the NBA already lived in a cloud of controversy. As I've blogged about before when the Wolves lost in LA in an "unusually" reffed last few minutes to cover the spread. People have always questioned the refs in the NBA, before we learned of Donaghy. This isn't a new problem, people have been complaining about how the NBA is set up to fix games for years. The ways "special" players like Kobe and Wade some how shoot 20 free throws a game. How star players never foul out.
Bill Simmons is one of my favorite ESPN writers and he has written an unbelievable account of what this could all mean for the NBA. He like myself has always been questioning how the NBA system works. He has written a half dozen articles about ref's manipulating games. In June 2006 Simmons wrote about WWE type help that pulled the Heat out of a 0-2 hole. His opening line of that column over one year ago - "Forget about who's winning the championship. I'm starting to feel like the future of the NBA is at stake."
In Bill's latest article he references ESPN's own J.A. Adande with his take
"When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column on ESPN.com that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?" This was like finding out that your grandfather who smoked three packs a day for 50 years just came down with lung cancer. It was sad but inevitable. It was only a matter of time. "
It was only a matter of time. And we still don't know how many were involved. What if Donaghy knows more? What if he squeals? It could get worse. It was so bad last year that Mavs owner Cuban almost sold his team, he was that heart broken by the officiating irregularities. He started feeling like it wasn't sport anymore, it was manipulated entertainment.
The article is long, but it is very, very good. It deals with everything from fixed games, Championships in doubt to LeBron being completely ineffective at the 2006 World Championships when he couldn't get bailed out like he would in the NBA.
Jul/072
MLB’s Greatest Singles Hitting Team
The one thing that I find very frustrating and very exillerating when watching the Twins is the constant singles parade. I don't know if there has ever been a group of Twins players who hit more singles than the current Twins. I think this fact has led Gardenhire to adopt a run generation model on offense. Going into Sunday's game the Twins are:
- 10th in Hits
- 6th in Runs
- 22nd in Home Runs
- 25th in Doubles
- 4th in Steals
The Twins are manufacturing runs through stolen bases and singles. It's really all they can do, even with Tori and Justin having really good years. In the last three home games against Oakland, the Twins have had runners in scoring position in 17 of the 24 innings played. That is simply amazing.
However, I'd like to see a little more balance. It would be nice to see one more home run/doubles threat in the lineup to help score some of these runs.
Would the Twins make a move for someone like the A's Dan Johnson - Trade Rumors or are they still interested in a deal for someone like Mike Lowell as reported by La Velle? How fun would it be to have Griffey Jr. hitting home runs for a few months in the dome?
With Torii having a career ie. contract year his free agent price is effectively going up every week he plays. Now that Ichiro has signed a ridiculous deal, for what could be marketing reasons and not on field performance, Torii and Andruw Jones are the only two big free agent outfielder's left.
In the past the Twins let Kirby and Herbek test free agent waters before signing them back to the team. That could very well be the case for Torii, which could bring Jacque Jones back into the picture. Jacque and Torii were friends in MN and still are friends. Chicago rumors have Jacque day dreaming about coming back to MN to play in a more comfortable environment free of the 24/7 Cubs Nation scrutiny. Could Jacque actually help decide Torii's fate? Would Jacque help tell tale's of the unhappiness that comes with chasing big money? Would Jacque and Torii want to come back to MN and the outfield foundation until the new stadium opens? Or does Terry Ryan want to bring up some new blood from the farm?
Fox Sports senior writer Ken Rosenthal has a new post examining the Twins situation with Santana. If left open to the market Santana could easily get $15-$20 million/yr. Do the Twins try to move him next season for prospects? The one thing going the Twins way is that Santana wants to stay in MN and is willing to work out a hometown discount, but that may still be $10-$15 million/yr. The other thing to consider is that Santana has a no trade clause running through the end of 2008. If the Twins show him love by not even considering trades would Johan return the favor and play for $5-$10 million/yr. less?
Even with the Torii and Johan situations, we still have Justin, Cuddy and Nathan to think about. Why can't we just have NY and Boston like money?