Oh man, here we go some more… Don’t get me wrong, I love the media noticing the A’s, but too much hype can spell doom for a professional baseball team – just ask the Mets. I’m all for the sleeper picks to win the AL West, and even homers like Chappy picking them to win the World Series, but now ESPN’s tagged Jerry Crasnick’s awesome new piece with “AL Favorites?” I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard writers call them the “Giants of 2011.” All this hype just makes me worry more and wish the season would hurry up and get here. Whew… three more days. Trevor Cahill vs. Felix Hernandez on Friday night. Can’t wait!
Category Archives: Sports
The NFL Gives Out Compensation Picks?
I saw that there were compensatory picks handed out to some NFL teams on Friday including one’s like a 3rd rounder to Carolina, and a 4th rounder to Green Bay and Tennessee. I guess this is the second year they’ve done this, and last year I must’ve missed it or not cared, probably a little of both. I checked out the rule a little closer and found out what it meant. If you lose a player from your team, and don’t sign as good a player to fill in for them you get a pick, and depending on the value gap you could end up with a pick in rounds 3-7. I’m confused as to why this was ever put in place. Instead of signing a veteran player to a long term deal, the team dumps the player, and they get a pick for compensation of being cheap? Doesn’t feel like something a team should get rewarded for in any scenario. I understand that Carolina sucks, but should they get an extra 3rd rounder because of not caring to re-up the roster a little more? I understand why teams get extra compensation picks in baseball for losing star players, because there is no way for small market teams to compete with the top half of the league when it comes to spending power. Believe an A’s fan, you’d love to see your team be able to over spend instead of getting some compensation picks for a player about to enter their prime. Since the NFL has a salary cap, why should teams get hooked up for cutting salary? Compensation picks in the NFL are a joke. As a fan I’m offended.
In case you were wondering what I thought of the NFL rule change of moving the kickoff up 5 yards. I care about it as much as I care about the WNBA…
Doin MLB Predictions
For every sport, we make our predictions on how they will play out for the season. Last year By nailed it picking the Giants to win the World Series. We all got some right here and there last season making us feel like our predictions should hold some weight. Even if some of them seem laughable, just remember we did get a lot of stuff right last year!
AL East Winner
Chappy picks Boston Red Sox. If they aren’t the favorite in the AL, I don’t know who is. No need to rattle off their acquisitions because all of them were frontline news with each 9 or 10 figure contract that was signed. This team could set some records on offense. I hope the Rays somehow beat them out, but I’m less than confident that will happen.
By picks Boston Red Sox. Not sure how I feel about the BoSox after this past off-season. Although the Red Sox have never shied away from spending a boat load of money on their players, they have always been second fiddle to the Yanks in the “shoving dollars down a free-agent’s throat” department. But not this time. Chappy won’t mention the names, but I will. Carl “Freakin'” Crawford and Adrian “God Damn” Gonzalez. You don’t need much else to say here. Bahstan takes the AL East.
MCeezy picks New York Yankees. I know Boston looks sexy on paper with Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez in tow, but I see huge question marks in their pitching staff and that’s what may very well kill them. Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon had pretty demoralizing seasons last year. The Yankees on the other hand added the AL leader in Saves last year as their setup man.
AL Central Winner
Chappy picks Chicago White Sox. Chicago came on strong at the end of the year, but their sluggish start killed them. I don’t see that happening this year with basically the same team in tact, and an addition of Adam Dunn to the middle of the order. I picked them last year, and think they got better than they were last year over the off-season, so no reason not to pick them again.
By picks Minnesota Twins. I have to go with Minnesota here. Joe Mauer and the Playstation guy are at it again, and when those two get together (and are both healthy) the Twins are tough to beat. All jokes aside, remember, if Justin Morneau doesn’t suffer a season ending injury just prior to the post-season, the Twins could have very well beaten the Yanks in the ALDS last season. O.K. maybe not.
MCeezy picks Cleveland Indians. Yes, I’m dead serious. Research shows that 1 in 7 division winning teams were not very good the year before. This year, that team will be the Indians. Everybody knows that owner Rachel Phelps just wants the team to tank so they can move to Anaheim with the Kings. But in 2011, the year of winning, how can the Tribe not win the whole f***in thing? Charlie Sheen is going to come back as Ricky Vaughn, whether producers allow him in Major League 3 or not. Since they most likely won’t, we may be lucky enough to see Sheen run onto the field with the Wild Thing hairdo just cause he feels like it.
What Would Tebow Do?
I know this is a bit old, and my intentions was to get this post up during the end of the 2010 NFL Season, but things happened, and I delayed the post. Seeing as to how I’ve had the longest episode of Writer’s Block in the history of my blogging existence, I figured why not just post my past thoughts in the mean time? So here is WWTD Pt. 2, hope you enjoy!
We’ve Got To Put Up With This Now?
Just when it looked like the USF Dons were making their move back into the WCC’s elite, the elite is getting eliter. Gonzaga looked like they had all but fallen from the perch they’ve owned for a decade now, and I even proclaimed that they had – prematurely. St. Mary’s took a big step back this year when they failed to make the NCAA tournament, and subsequently got ousted in the first round of the NIT by Kent State. Though USF has been making strong run to the Elite 8 of the prestigious CIT, surprisingly my attention was squarely focused on the Gonzaga-BYU game yesterday in Denver.
After Gonzaga turned their season around and won the WCC tournament, they dominated St. John’s and looked poised to make another cinderella run in the tournament. But then they ran into BYU. After a pretty close first half, the Cougars steamrolled the Zags and disposed of them 89-67. The scary part is, BYU is coming to the West Coast Conference next season. Gonzaga has ruled the conference for the last 11 years, and BYU has just squashed them like they were nothing. Part of me finds relief in the fact that Jimmer Fredette won’t be around next year, but another part of me knows that Brigham Young is a perennial 20-win team with 8 NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 10 or 11 years. Despite CIT wins over Idaho and Hawaii, the Dons suddenly move down to the fourth best team in the WCC next season. It’s gonna be lot harder to get back into the NCAA tourney for the first time since 98…..
Goodbye Arco
Tonight should be an interesting night. I’ll likely be paying my last visit to a building I practically grew up in. From the first year the Kings played in Sacramento in 1985 through 1998, I paid about 20 visits a year to Arco Arena. For those keeping track, yes I did stop going the year before they acquired Chris Webber, Jason Williams, and Vlade Divac and started winning. That’s when I became a Warriors fan. So, I’ve only seen two playoff appearances between the two while I was a fan.
But unless I end up at one of the five remaining homes games after tonight, this is looking like it’ll be my last time watching the Kings up here. It’d be really nice if they could break out the 80s light blue jerseys for me, but I think they’re trying to avoid any jerseys that says Kings or Sacramento on them. I’m curious to see how tonight will go. Though I’d prefer the Kings to stay, I’m hardly a fan of what’s become of them since the Maloofs took over, so in that aspect, I won’t be sad to see them go. It’s just too bad that someone else is going to enjoy Demarcus Cousins in his prime instead of us. Then I’ll know how Seattle fans feel about Kevin Durant.
Ochocinco Proving My Theory Right!

Back in the beginning of February you may or may not remember my post predicting that between the two lockouts in the NFL and NBA we might see the return of the “two sport athlete”. Low and behold a month and a half after writing that post, Chad Ochocinco decided he wanted to follow his true passion, playing soccer!?! It could just be another one of his publicity stunts, but now that a player is actually going to tryout for a MLS team it might get some of the other NFL players thinking about sports that they were good at growing up. His tryout for the Kansas City MLS team is next week, and will last four days. At the end of the tryout, he will either be joining the team, or be cut. I don’t know a lot about soccer, but Ochocinco sounds like he could be good if he can outrun everyone, but then again, it’s really hard to take him too seriously with anything he does. Here’s a couple of his thoughts on his soccer game;
“I played soccer before football, and I was good. That’s where I get my quick feet, my feet are unbelievable. There’s not one person in soccer right now that would beat me running, that’s including Lionel Messi.” said Ochocinco.
Speaking of the NFL lockout, last night Jimmy Kimmel had his Cousin Sal hit the streets to find out the people’s thoughts on the lockout including a Candian’s point of view. I found it comical enough that it was the perfect video to post after talking about Ochocinco, because some of these questions and answers are as ridiculous as Ochocinco himself!
NBA Refs Gone Wild
Minneapolis – An NBA referee has sued the Associated Press and one of its sports writers over a Twitter message suggesting he intentionally made a bad call to make up for a previous bad call that went against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Minneapolis, veteran NBA referee Bill Spooner claimed AP sports writer Jon Krawcynski defamed him in the Twitter message, sent while he was covering the Jan. 24 Rockets-Timberwolves game.
The Tweet: “Ref Bill Spooner told Rambis he’d ‘get it back’ after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on the Rockets. That’s NBA officiating folks.”
First off, when did Jim from The Office become a sports writer? The main thing here for me is why is this guy suing over this? I think we already know where I stand on NBA officiating – I made it pretty clear last week. Now they’re denying that the “make-up call” even exists? C’mon, we’ve all accepted it as a suitable way to make up for a previous bad call, but to say you are being defamed and even suing someone for it? The league, of course, found the tweet to be “without substance.”
Things I’m Tired Of Hearing About This NBA Season
Anything Heat Related – There might have been one or two Miami Heat squads I actually liked during their entire existence. I can’t name any off the top of my head, but I’d guess that Glen Rice was on the team. To this day, when I think of the Heat, I think of guys like Kevin Edwards, Jon Sundvold, and Rony Seikaly. No matter how much the NBA is trying to shove this Heat team down my throat, I’m not gonna budge. But it’s like Stan Van Gundy said, when you hold the championship celebration in August, the scrutiny will come. I can barely even watch Heat games anymore. If they didn’t have Erick Dampier, they wouldn’t be worth watching at all.
David Stern Still Being David Stern – Seriously, how has this guy not been fired, sued, or bitch-slapped yet?! He’s by far the most arrogant commissioner in the sport with the biggest egos. How is he still in control? (I know, the answer is obvious… money) He has pretty much single-handedly destroyed my favorite sport. I love basketball, but I can barely tolerate the NBA anymore. The officiating has blatantly become just a means of manipulating the outcome of games. It’s like recess was in elementary school: just as you started breaking a sweat and having fun, some asshole blows a whistle and everyone has to go back in the classroom. Or in this case, stand around and watch one guy shoot a ten foot set shot. Add to that the special treatment various players get no matter how obvious, and it just makes me wanna text Rasheed Wallace and say “look at this sh!t NOW, record hater.” I think I’m even more peeved than usual after reading Stern’s cocky-ass comments about SVG today.
The Spurs – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sacramento Kings: Will They or Won’t They? I know… no one outside of Sacramento really has to put up with this news, but there is literally a new story about whether or not the Kings plan to leave town after this season, and more often than not, it’s not even news. For example, today’s biggest story is that fans are trying to sell out the second to last home game of the season, fittingly against the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics. Look, few people spent as much time at Arco Arena as I did growing up (not Power Balance Pavilion, not the Livestrong Center, not the Tiffany Dome, and not the Friendship Bracelet Fieldhouse. Sorry, I’ll stop), but at this point, I feel so alienated by this franchise, I don’t even feel like they’re my home team anymore. This is a city that sold out every game for the first 13 years here, and then after a few down months, the next 7 or 8 again. It’s not the city that’s the problem. I love the movie Major League, but I hate seeing the same strategy being employed in real life. At least the movie had two things the Kings don’t: Charlie Sheen, and duh – winning!
Introducing Snowkiting
Since there isn’t a lot going on lately in the sports world, I thought I’d introduce our readers to what some of our friends are doing these days. Growing up, I was torn between snowboarding and skiing living 45 minutes from North Lake Tahoe it was part of life to be at the ski resorts. I settled on snowboarding by the time I hit the double digits or early teens (I can’t really remember). I was never against skiing, but like anything else, you want your sport to rule the mountain. That didn’t stop me from going up the hill to the Sierra’s with my buddies that skied regularly. I actually had a ton of respect for the freestyle skiers that were busting out flips that I could never do. Anyways, one of my buddies that I used to go up the hill with a lot in high school, Tyler Brown, has taken his two planker pride to a new level with snowkiting. I haven’t seen him a whole lot since college or since he got hitched, but it’s good to know he’s still skiing, and now it’s with a parachute or kite. Although I couldn’t find any videos of him, I’m sure the video below is similar to what he’s doing out there. Here’s his website promoting the sport that I’d never really heard of until a buddy told me that he was doing it. If you live near snow and are tired of the same ol hills, maybe this will spice it up for you.
Here’s to Hoping For a Lockout!
I can’t say I totally understand what is going on with the NFL and NFLPA duking it out for the $9 billion pot. I know there are plenty of gripes on both sides as there are in any type of labor dispute. All the percentages and retirement funds make my head spin, and honestly I could really care less what ends up happening between the two sides when it’s all said and done. There are two things that I want to see come out of this. The first is that they get a team in Los Angeles. Not because I live here or would go to their games unless I got free tickets, but it makes sense. I’ve never been one that enjoys seeing the rich get richer, but as Charlie Sheen would say you win here you win there, WINNING! Putting a team in LA would be winning for both sides, because it’s a huge market that the players and league would all benefit from. Second, the retired players health. I couldn’t be more on the players side for this one, as the NFL really does need to have some kind of medical plan for the guys that bashed their brains in for the sport that made the owners more rich than they already were. It’s amazing to me how bad they treat their former employees. Almost all of the owners are really old, so you’d think they’d understand these types of problems that come with age. As Simmons points out in his article today, they just love money.
The real reason I wrote this was because I actually want to see this lockout happen. I know I’m in the minority with this view. Apparently today they’ve extended talks for another 7 days, but I don’t see much happening in that week. I’m not saying I would enjoy a fall without football (because I wouldn’t), but if these two sides can’t see that they are winning in nearly every phase, then I hope they lockout. My main reason is I’d love to see them lose some fans. We are the ones that fill their pockets by overspending on game tickets that you can barely even see the field from for $100 each, and while they do give us an amazing product that I thoroughly enjoy, they don’t really care about us, they just want to know how much they can make off us raising prices on everything (tickets, merchandise, parking, concessions, etc) in a national recession.
Do they care that we buy licensed NFL products for hundreds of dollars when it cost them one dollar to make in China? No, and I do understand the capitalist point of view on it, but can’t fathom how there’s never enough. Every league is geared for the fans, but I feel like the NFL takes advantage of them a lot more than others, so by all means lockout and lose some of your fans!
That being said if there is a lockout the second football comes back on I’m positive I’ll be watching. I’d love to see a lockout that knocks the NFL down to the #2 or #3 sport in our country in the same way that baseball died after their strike. I’m thinking if it kills a fantasy season that will ultimately take some people away from the game. Would those fantasy players return to being fans of the league without that season? Hopefully not, and I can’t stand being at a bar listening to some guy talk about how his receiver needing 10 yards to take the lead in his matchup. That my friends is something I won’t miss. I can’t say I don’t fall into that trap from time to time, but I know I’d do just fine watching without fantasy sports around. I no longer like the casual fan that doesn’t really root for a team, and I feel like a lockout would kill some of them off. In an era where everything major going on is an open book in the media, I’d love to see them lockout. The league/owners would be crucified in public (rightfully so), and would see a decline in the sports popularity on some level. I wish we could go back to the days when most owners cared more about winning. That’s why I’ll never fault Al Davis for any of the moves he makes no matter how ridiculous they can be. He does them because he thinks it will make them win. You can’t say the same for many teams out there.
Sterling and Sheen
Today, Donald Sterling, released this promo above saying that 1,000 underprivilaged kids and thier parents can go to a game for free in support of Black History Month. Sterling is well known for being racist, heckling his own players, and not caring about anything that doesn’t effect his pocket book. Not sure what you can read into this poster since Black History Month was obviously in February. All kinds of unintentional comedy with this one. The picture is classic, because Sterling has probably one of the whitest black guys out there for the ad. Only reason I say that is because my girlfriend always calls me White instead of Asian… I’d nominate Al-Farouq Aminu, because he descends from a line of Nigerian kings.
Speaking of crazy people that make little to no sense with their actions, Charlie Sheen has made himself into the most quotable guy in recent memory. I’ve always been a fan of Sheen, he had me with the Chase and Major League. I don’t know many people who liked Two and a Half Men, but he’s living the lifestyle that many men wish they could. Yes, he’s got major problems, but his problems don’t seem all that bad when you are constantly winning! I watched him on the Today Show interview and shortly after on his TMZ interview, and thought it would be fun to make a list of my favorite quotes from his wild non-drug enduced tirade.
“I am on a drug, it’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.”
“The only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning,” “Just winning every second,” “Winning, anyone?” “Duh, winning!”
“Drug tests don’t lie. Scoreboard doesn’t lie. Duh. Winning.”
On Himself
“Come on, bro, I won best picture at 20. I wasn’t even trying. Wasn’t even warm yet”
“I tried marriage. I’m 0 for 3 with the marriage thing. So, being a ballplayer — I believe in numbers. I’m not going 0 for 4. I’m not wearing a golden sombrero.”
“I’m tired of pretending I’m not special. I’m tired of pretending like I’m not bitching a total fricking rock star from Mars, and people can’t figure me out; they can’t process me. I don’t expect them to. You can’t process me with a normal brain.”
“We couldn’t really call it rehab because we didn’t have a license to operate one, so it was a crisis management center that we labeled the Sober Valley Lodge. Its primary client achieved radical success.”
“AA was written for normal people. People that don’t have tiger blood and Adonis DNA, I survived drug addiction because I’m me. I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.”
That’s a lot of quotes from one man in two days. There were some others, but this was already getting longer than I expected, because every thing he says is pure gold! I wouldn’t mind being on the drug called Charlie Sheen, unless he is right and it does kill you… I’m going to try and incorporate as many of his quotes into my daily life as possible.



















