Tiger’s losing his sponsors left and right if you haven’t noticed. Gatorade (aka. Pepsi Co.) just kicked his contract to the curb, which isn’t all that surprising since he never said when he’d return to golf. Why pay the guy that goes into hibernation. I’m think that this is a bigger deal than losing his sponsorship with Accenture since they are a company that caters to the upper class. Gatorade on the other hand is drank by pretty much everyone, at least the people I’m around. I guess they thought his little fake sobbing during the speech wasn’t convincing enough to keep him on the payroll. Maybe it was those references to having a tough life, the Gatorade front office thought “Well, we will try as hard as we can to make your super celebrity life harder!” Maybe they decided they only wanted one robot in Federrer. What’s next for Tiger? Only he could tell you that, and I’m sure he’d have to write up a prepared statement that he can’t even memorize ready for you in six short months. This would only confirm he is indeed some type of cyborg, and has only learned the same amount of emotions as a Terminator.
One thing I’d like to see come out of all this, is him losing ALL of his sponsors, and starting from scratch. As soon as he wins his first major all this will be in the past and new opportunities will be coming along. I’m guessing Nike and EA will stick with him, because they have products based completely on him, but he’s going to have to pick up some new sponsors. Maybe he could get sponsored by Playboy. I’d probably pin him more as a Hustler type guy from all the fetishes he seems to have, but since Playboy is a little classier it would be the more likely of the two scenarios. Playboy has had some rough times lately due to the huge surge of internet porn out there for free. Hugh is an idol to most men, and I’m doubtful Tiger’s marriage will work out, so he’d be an amazing spokesman for the company. Instead of getting sponsored, he should just buy the company! We could even have a reality show with him feeding off the Girls Next Door success called Girls on the 19th hole or maybe Get in the Hole. Hugh you need to make this happen, there isn’t better icon to save your empire than sponsoring the most publicized affair of all time. Would people all of a sudden change their opinion on Tiger? Doubtful, because he doesn’t have the dynamic personality that Hugh does.
Hope you enjoyed the rant. I had a long conversation about this with a buddy today.
Last night I was watching the Warriots play on TNT. A mini part of going to a Warriors games at Oracle is the crowd reactions to Andris Biedrins shooting his free throws. He has has the worst free throw form of anybody in the NBA. He’s worse than most guys playing in an AAU game. I mean, don’t you think he should try something different!?! I’ve heard things from sitting in an inflatable chair, to throwing it up there Rick Barry underhanded style. It sounds like he doesn’t want to change his form, so you can be the judge for yourself what he should do.
On to our next contestant of the worst form known to man, is Charles Barkley, and his golf swing. We’ve seen him get a little better through the Haney project, but Charles is far from fluid with a golf club in his hands. I have to admit the first time I saw him swing a golf club I thought it was a joke!
Personally, I think Chuck’s form is waaay uglier, but since he isn’t a professional golfer, I’m giving Biedrins the nod for the worst form. I’ve seen tons of terrible golf swings, but can’t recall a more awkward jerky one than Charles’s. Biens looks less comfortable than Shaq at the line. It looks like he is throwing a medicine ball on all of his free throw attempts…
I have to admit the only time Durant has failed me was during the NCAA tourney as a Longhorn. He made me a believer that he could single-handedly win a title during the year hitting a few buzzer beaters. Unfortunately, he had a god awful performance in the 2nd round of March Madness, and was out of college basketball forever. Needless to say it destroyed my brackets that year. When he went to Seattle I was pretty happy, and grew a mini-mancrush on him through his rookie season. After Presti hi-jacked the team, I’ve found it very hard to watch them. I feel like I should be boycotting anything that is the Thunder. Another reason why every picture I put up of Durant on posts is him in a Seattle uniform. Alas, it’s impossible not to watch this amazing young team hitting full stride, and Westbrook has grown a TON since he came into the league. The main reason for their success has been Kevin Durant, and how he has put them into contender status at the vetran age of 21 years old.
He's a PC with Windows 7 at least!
The Sonics (still resisting calling them the Thunder) are like that up and coming boxer that is knocking out everyone that they face, skyrocketing up the rankings. Most likely they will fall to the champ in a fight for the belt, but it’s always fun to see the potential of the young guns. Rattling off 9 straight wins has made them relevant in the west, and I don’t see losing the last two being overly devastating. It hasn’t been a small story that KD had 29 straight 25+ point performances, until he scored a measly 21 tonight. He’s turned into the full package, and if he ever learns how to start dishing it, watch out. Then again, why would he pass, when he’s going to score no matter how he’s being defended. I’m already more impressed with his offensive game more so than I am with Melo’s. It doesn’t matter who the other team puts on him or what kind of double team he is facing, he figures it out and finds a way to score! If Melo is a PC, then KD has to be Mac. There’s one thing I’ve always liked about Durant, and that is the fact that he only cares about basketball. I mean, could you ever see him shooting up a night club or even having a gun for that matter? Making a rap video? Sending naked texts of himself? That’s what I thought. He’s a pretty clean cut guy, and only seems to care about getting better at basketball. I wonder if he’ll get arrogant like Kobe and Jordan are. You see something different with him, he’s just one of those competitors that won’t allow himself to waste away his talent.
One thing he has going against him is that he’s playing in the Lebron era, because in any other year, he’d get my MVP vote. It’s wild that if you took Durant or Lebron off either these teams, both would probably be counting how many ping pong balls they had for the John Wall lottery. That is why, I’m picking both of them above Kobe. Their importance to their teams is invaluable. I can still see the Lake Show making the playoffs with the supporting cast they have in place. Lebron looks like he’s hitting his Michael Jordan type stride, where it’s going to be nearly impossible for anyone to get an MVP but him for a few years. I guess Jordan wasn’t given the award a couple times in what many felt was the league getting tired of giving the award to him, and just wanted a change of pace. It seems like as long as Lebron is healthy, and has a good enough cast to get the top seed, it will be his award to lose. I’m praying that I’ll get to see his Big-O impersonation one year, and average a triple double for a entire season. My question is, when are we going to see the third puppet come out in the MVPuppet commercials? KD is already sponsored by Nike, why wouldn’t they throw him in there! He’d be my favorite character of the three.
I guess it might be a stretch, since none of the four teams residing in the AL West are truly considered a threat to knock the Yankees off their thrown, but is there really anyone that looks like they can derail the Yankees besides injuries? I don’t think so… Can you name the only division that had three teams finish the season with 85 wins? Surprisingly, it’s the AL West! Sure you can argue that the AL East had three 84 win teams, but the basement is a lot worse than it is in the West.
The Yankees have pushed over the $1 billion mark in payroll a long time ago, and the Red Sox aren’t all that far behind, so we’ve been trained to see the East as far superior. Surprisingly the AL West had a great record versus the East going 95-79 in 2009. I think the best team in the West (Angels) regressed a little over the off-season losing their horse/ace in Lackey, and their versatile infielder Figgins, and that has put the division up for grabs.
I felt that Seattle made the biggest push to be a force in the west by trading for a bonafied yearly Cy Young contender, Cliff Lee, and last year’s runner up Felix Hernandez was already there setting up one of the deadliest duos in the league. They also stole Figgins away from the Angels, which should get them two guys on base if Ichiro and Figgy are hitting one and two. Milton might be able to knock them in if he’s on the field for more than 80 games, but that’s a big IF.
The Rangers bolstered their roster, but there are question marks already on the health of the players they signed. Vlad seems past his prime, but if he can be productive anywhere, it’s going to be in Arlington where careers being revived happens. They also signed the often injured Rich Harden, which could be a boost if they have a plan b for all the starts he gets scratched from each year. They were in the race for the West crown up to the last couple weeks, and have a ton of young talent that will only be better this coming season. It seems like a lot of the experts are picking them to win the west this year, but those predictions don’t seem to have much confidence behind them.
I’ll do my A’s preview a little closer to the season when I’ve gathered all my expectations of them, but honestly, all I’m hoping for from them is to stay healthy for once. We’ve used the DL more over the past two years than anytime in franchise history, and broke records two straight years in a row for DL usage. Not a good stat for a young team trying to figure out what pieces go where, and far from a recipe for success! Not sure about the offense, but the pitchers must be happy to have a true ace on the staff in Sheets. They owned a better run differential than Seattle last year, so there’s some hope!
All in all, I’d say the top teams of the AL West aren’t as good as the AL East. From top to bottom though, the West has teams that will be able to pull out wins night in and night out. You know you aren’t getting that from Toronto or Baltimore, who have both probably already given up on this year. I’d say that one distinct advantage that the West has over the East is in the farm systems. The East gets better through buying free agents that most of the time we can’t afford, and the West gets better by building up their prospects from within. I’m pretty pumped to see how it all shakes out, and one thing is for sure, the West is up for grabs this year with none of the teams completely out of the picture. Can’t say the same for the AL East.
What really defines the best division in baseball? The degree of difficulty? The balance from top to bottom? General intrigue?
Maybe I’ve been worn down from all the northeastern hype, and the YES network, but I believe there’s a solid argument that the west is the “best” division in baseball!
I’ve actually watched a lot more of the Olympics than I thought I would. I never understood curling until this Olympics, nor really cared to in the past. I guess I thought it was more like shuffle board, but it isn’t quite as simple. For some strange reason I caught myself watching some stones getting thrown around on the ice in Vancouver, and I would’ve never guessed who happened to be in Vancouver as an honorary coach! He is also an avid curling fan. Give up? San Francisco 49ers tight end, Vernon Davis. His presence didn’t speed up the painfully slow paced event, but he joined the booth crew to help announce one of the matches between Switzerland and the USA. Not sure if we won, because I didn’t make it through the grueling 3 hour match, but we were ahead at the time I turned the channel. Vernon went on to say a few interesting things like “I love curling.” “I’ve tried to get teammates to come out and play with me, but they usually just laugh.”
As an honorary coach some people are actually angry at Vernon for not leading the curling team to a better record (USA is 2-7 Men’s and Women’s combined). Really, you want to blame Vernon for not doing well when he didn’t even arrive at the games until yesterday!?! It’s funny that their first two wins happened to come right after Vernon delivered a pre-game speech to inspire them to victory. He even said that the atmosphere last night was like being at a 49ers home game. Really, THAT exciting?!? Or are 49ers games only selling 5,000 seats a game? I wouldn’t blame Vernon for our shortcomings in curling, since he’s NOT even playing. I blame the popularity of the sport within the US. Maybe we need some NFL players on our curling team, so we can take home the gold next time around. I’d definitely watch every match of team Davis, Gore, and Willis! Could you imagine Patrick Willis walking down the ice sweeping huge holes in the ice making those rocks go wherever he wants it to go? I’m sold, sign them up Vernon!
I had to scan youtube for some Vernon curling action. I think it’s safe to say in this clip he looks happier than a pedophile on Halloween. I actually think he looks more passionate about curling than he is about football! We could have another Bo Jackson on our hands!
The trade deadline has come and gone, and there was some activity over the past week leading up to the salary dump or be a contender deadline. I can’t say I was surprised that Amare or Boozer didn’t go anywhere since both teams are still in the playoff hunt, and the Jazz look to be a threat in the west. There were some big moves by teams in contention, so I’ll go through and give you my thoughts on if these teams actually made themselves better to contend for a title…
Great pickup for a team that desperately needed someone to help out Aldridge down low. Aldridge has been playing out of position since Oden and Pryzbilla went down, so moving back to his natural PF spot should increase his productivity. I don’t see Portland as a contender, but this move could get them into the playoffs, and give them a little more experience come next year when they have a better chance at competing for a title. That is, if Brandon Roy starts looking like his old self, and gets that hammy healthy. Trade grade B.
Yeah, I know. I already wrote about this one. I’ll rehash what I wrote before, this does make them better defensively, which should improve their soft image. Caron hasn’t had a great start in Dallas, but I’m sure it will take a little while to assimilate to the new team. I really like Haywood down low. I caught some of the game against the Suns last night and he was swatting all that weak sh** out of the paint. I thought they had a chance before the trade to do something in the west, but this only increases their chances. The trade grade B+
This feels like a terrible trade for the Bulls. They are finally gelling and out of nowhere they ship out a big man that is finally playing well out of town. I like the move for Charlotte, who needed to make a move to be better, and getting rid of Acie Law and Flip Murray won’t effect them at all from an on court standpoint. They’ve easily leapfrogged the Bulls in the east to get destroyed by one of the top three seeds. I still like that they made an improvement, so I’ll give them a B.
Great deal for the Rockets, although I don’t see why they traded away Landry who has a shot at 6th man of the year. I’m just glad he landed in Sac who now has ten PF’s. I think having K-Mart will help the Rockets in the clutch, and since they are in a lot of close games, they will need him at the end of games. I feel like he will give some relief to Ariza and Brooks on the scoring load, and also make their offense tougher to zero in. He’s being reunited with his old coach Adelman so at least there’s a familiarity there. Martin also has that high basketball IQ which never hurts on a team that looks to overachieve. Trade grade B+. I don’t like them giving up their best bench guy in Landry could hurt their chemistry, but overall it’s a good move…
I really like Jamison (partially for his Warriors ties, and partially because it’s my favorite Irish Whiskey). There’s no doubt that Amare would’ve been a bigger acquisition, but Jamison is no slouch. He’s a team guy and his averages are nearly identical to Amare’s 20ppg and 8 rpg. I’m not sure why people don’t view this as a great move. I mean look how well Jamal Crawford is doing for Atlanta after being stuck on crappy teams for years and years. The Cavs didn’t need to add someone that needs to dominate the ball to be effective, and Jamison is a guy that can get his without holding the ball too much! I thought they were the best team to knock off the Lakers, and this only improves them. Trade grade A-. It’s only a minus because they could’ve gone for Amare.
This gem must’ve been caught by the Staples Center kissing cam caught a few years back! I couldn’t resist putting it on the blog… I’ll let the picture speak for itself… Happy V-Day!
Playing host to the All-Star game in the city he owns, Mark Cuban, tried his hand in the celebrity game last night. He didn’t look to good on the court as the super slow white guy, but today he showed why he’s pretty good off the court in the front office. Early today it was reported that the Mavs will be sending two actual players Josh Howard and Drew Gooden, and two contracts Quinton Ross and James Singleton to Washington for Caron Butler, Deshawn Stevenson, and Brandan Haywood. We all knew the Wizards would do something, and it looks like they made their salary dumping choice. My first thought was, damn this is going to hurt Caron’s fantasy value, but then turned optimistic since he will be with Kidd in a faster paced offense putting up better numbers than Josh Smith did in the same role. Maybe going to a winning team will also inspire him to play a little better than he has so far this year.
I really like the move for Dallas. They get better at two positions, and Haywood is having a great year. I guess they didn’t want to do the Josh Howard for Caron straight up, so Washington threw Haywood in the mix and Cuban pulled the trigger. Josh Howard seems to regress more than improve, so Caron will be a huge upgrade. Haywood is one of the best defensive centers in the league this year, so I see him toughening up this soft Mavs team. Their main criticism over the years is being soft, and now with the addition of the three mentioned players it will also give them some attitude, which might actually make a few teams kind of scared of them come playoff time. I wouldn’t put them up there with the Lakers in the west, but it sure improves their chances!
Frank Thomas hung up the spikes today, after his VERY hall of fame worthy 19 year career. He was easily one of the most dominating hitters while I was growing up, and I’m sure I still have a few of his rookie cards laying around in some boxes. I’m not sure if his trade mark will be his large set figure or his big smile. Admittedly I wasn’t a White Sox fan, but always enjoyed watching Frank battle at the plate as he never took a pitch off, and was great at figuring out where pitchers were trying to attack him. He never said the word “retire” in his statement, but did say things like “life goes on”, and “I’m done.” He feels he can still play, but seeing friends like Jermaine Dye struggling to get a contract agreement, he felt his time was probably up.
He compiled some Hall of Fame worthy stats over his career; .301 batting average, .419 OBP, 521 home runs, and 1,704 RBI’s. He walked more than he struck out. He won back to back MVP’s in 1993 and 1994. He won a batting title in 1997 (.347). His numbers through the 90’s are reminiscent to what Pujols has been doing over the past decade. Big Frank is number one in twelve of the all-time categories for the White Sox, and will surely be wearing their cap when he is enshrined into the HOF.
He wasn’t on the A’s for long, but I’m grateful for him for single handedly helping the A’s get to the ALCS in 2006. He hit .270 with 39 HR’s, and 114 RBI’s that year, and it was his last year as a true star at 37 years young. He’s a guy with no ties to steroids, and it’s refreshing this day in age to assume a great player didn’t use PED’s especially since his double 0 decade was filled with injuries. It makes me that much more sure he didn’t use PED’s, because he never came back quickly from those injuries.
Sharing that smile and power with the A's made me even more of a fan of his!
I can’t say I was ever all that into the Dos Equis commercials. I get it, the guy is interesting, but seriously how do you earn the title the most interesting man in the world ! It’s like giving your dad a coffee cup with #1 dad written on it. It’s all subject to opinion! I’m much more into Nash being the most ridiculous man in the world! I guess he might not be the most ridiculous person in the world but he could be the most ridiculous man in the NBA!
This is the second installment of the series. It was mainly inspired by the upcoming AT&T Pro-Am as well as the US Open both being held at Pebble Beach this year. I worked there for two plus years as a customer service rep while in college, and have some random stories that I thought I’d share as I remembered them. If you missed part I here it is.
One funnest parts of my job was seeing various pros come to driving range when I was given that shift. It’s cool to see different pros go through their routines, and what in particular they are working on. One of the funnier things to hear is when the caddies of the players are making bets on their guy to win during warm-ups, but that’s another story for another time. Not all players were friendly, but most would talk to you at least a little, especially if it was slow.
One summer day in 2004, Chi Chi Rodriguez came to the range after a practice round warming up for the First Tee Open. It’s one of Pebble’s Senior Tour events or I guess it’s now called the Champions Tour. Chi Chi was chatting it up near the tent where we gave out the range balls with a couple people including me and my boss. Somehow we ended up talking about Tiger’s Nike commercial with him bouncing a golf ball on the end of his club like soccer players juggle with their feet and bodies. The commercial was pretty new at the time, and caused a mini uproar of guys (including myself) practicing it during the many boring hours at the range. At one point I could pop the ball up and hit it about 30-40 yards, which I thought was pretty good.
Chi Chi’s eyes lit up when we were talking about whether it was real or fake or how many takes Tiger took to shoot the commercial. He grabbed his wedge and said “Tiger didn’t start that sh**. It’s been around forever guys!” He pulled a ball out of his pocket and started juggling it on his wedge while telling a joke. I wish I could remember the joke, but I was mesmerized by the fluidity of his between the legs and behind the back bounces and stalls on the clubface. He never once drop the ball to the ground showing that Tiger most likely did it in one take. After his joke was done, he snatched his ball out of the air, and said I know a trick that nobody I’ve met can duplicate. Of course, we all said, “Let’s see it!”
He once again started juggling the golf ball. This time before he stalled the ball, he flicked the end of the golf club putting some spin on the ball. He then caught it on the end of his wedge like a stall, but this time it wasn’t sitting still. The ball actually had so much spin on it, that it was moving in small circles on the face of his club. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes! Chi Chi is one cool guy, so if you ever happen to be at a senior tour event and run into him, ask him to do this trick! I think he got as much of a kick out from our reactions as we did seeing it! Thanks for the memory Chi Chi!
Usually my Warriors posts are on the bright spots with the team, but there’s so much negativity in the organization over the past few seasons, I can’t resist NOT talking about their shortcomings. Sadly, the Warriors are one of the worst run franchises of all time. They still don’t qualify on my list as a top 5 worst all time franchise, because they’ve had some success albeit mostly before I was born. The past 17 years have had as many bright spots as I can count on one hand. With a .374 winning percentage letting numerous stars go just to save a few bucks only to watch them do great elsewhere would have any fan fed up. It feels like over the past few seasons that most of Warriors nation has finally had enough. The most recent news of the Warriors inability to make a good choices was cutting Speedy Claxton’s $5.2 million expiring contract. I can’t even pretend to understand how this helps us, since there are teams drooling worse than Homer Simpson over doughnuts to get some expiring contracts for the 2010 free agent class, so why are we dumping the contracts that seem to have so much value going into the trade deadline? We probably could’ve gotten something of value for the expiring contract we got in the Crawford deal over the summer right? I don’t have an answer for either of those questions and I’m sure management doesn’t either, but it did inspire this great website which I urge all our readers to click the red button in support of the fans vs. Cohan! This move just sums up many years of bad decisions by the front office, and truly shows they don’t care about the team winning. If they tell you it’s to get the team better, they must be breaking into those Marijuana clubs in SF and eating all the cookies. There is no conceivable reason to do this before the trade deadline. If they waited for the deadline to come and go and then cut him, I’d understand. This post is dedicated to what went wrong, and the only real way to fix them is to have a new owner! Continue reading
I don’t always like Dave or his top ten lists, but I found this one pretty comical. I just wish he threw one more on this list about Peyton leaving without shaking Brees and Shawn Payton’s hands! Maybe next time…
The day before the Super Bowl we were made aware of the players that were going to be enshrined into Football’s Hall of Fame. Obviously there were two of the best offensive players of all-time in Emmit and Jerry that were a lock to get in. It was pretty cool to see how choked up they got when they were named to the HOF! You could truly tell that they were genuinely honored by the induction from their interviews, and the anti-Jordan speech will surely come at the ceremony. I’m a huge fan of the professionalism that Emmit and Jerry showed on and off the field, getting it done without being pre-madonnas. I have to admit I didn’t like Jerry for much of his hayday in a Niners uniform. Mostly because I was surrounded by Niners fans, and was constantly reminded of how good he was. Not to say that I liked the Cowboys or Emmit, but since they did shut up the Niners fans up here and there, I didn’t mind them nearly as much! All that changed when Rice went to the Raiders and helped us get to the playoffs. Too bad his work ethic and love for the game didn’t rub of our young guys like Jerry Porter, but oh well.
The thing that gets me about the Football Hall of Fame, is the voting. I’m not sure exactly what the selection process is, but I feel like there’s a ton of guys on the ballot that are as deserved as the guys that got in. I understand if you don’t let a guy like Tim Brown in, because it’s his first year of eligibility, but if he doesn’t make it next year that’s NOT cool. If for some reason Chris Carter and Tim Brown don’t get in, I won’t feel the HOF is a valid achievement. They were easily top 10 recievers of all time, and if they didn’t play in the same era as Rice, they would be close to the top all time receiver. So here’s my list of guys that should have gotten in over Rickey Jackson who wasn’t even the best linebacker on those late 80’s Saints teams; Tim Brown, Chris Carter, Charles Haley, Eddie George, Shannon Sharpe, and Kevin Greene. I’d say one of the biggest snubs was Haley, since they seemed to pick out of a hat on who to let in. The guy was flat out dominant for the Niners and Cowboys and has five rings!?! He was an integral part of the defenses that won those Super Bowl’s, and I feel that he was better than John Randle that DID make it in. I’d say that Dick Labeau and Floyd Little shouldn’t have made it in, but I never really saw them play since their careers ended before I was born. Based solely on their numbers I wouldn’t have voted for them, if I had actually had a vote. I guess you could give Labeau some credit for his coaching career after playing, and built up the Steelers defense to the way it is today. I think the NFL needs to make an eligibility length like there is with baseball’s HOF, because if these guys haven’t made it in on their first 20 tries, they shouldn’t be elected in. Seems like a fair rule to me, especially because I made it up. Another thing that bugs me about the NFL enshrinement, is that they are required to elect 5-7 guys each year. Instead of just picking out of a hat, they should consider just allowing the best to get in no matter how few or many guys it happens to be. I feel like some of these inductions are rendered meaningless, since they weren’t even the cream of the crop in their era!