The NBA has decided to expand what rules they will use in handing out Techincal Fouls for the upcoming season. Are they kidding?!? They tried to do something similar last year, but didn’t really stick to it thankfully. It will be grinding my gears all season if they actually stick to these god awful rules that are solely based on a refs opinion! Some of the refs already head hunt for certain players they don’t like, and now they can T them up for looking at them the wrong way! Simply ridiculous! Here’s what officials have been instructed to call Technicals for this coming season;
Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court.
Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands, or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled.
Running directly at an official to complain about a call.
Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone.
Players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure, or say things like, “Come on!”
They can also consider technicals for players who “take the long path to the official”, walking across the court to make their case.
So are they going to turn the players into a bunch of stiffs and mimes? Would yelling at your own teammate like Kobe constantly does a lot get you a T? I’ve always despised the NBA for changing the rules from its heydays where the Detroit bad boys and those mean Knicks teams ruled the 80’s and 90’s with their overly tough play. Those teams were exciting and fun to watch even if I was only 10 years old. I was young, and their style of play didn’t ever offend, scare, or influence me as a boy, it really just showed me what true competitors look like. The NBA took steps to make it tougher on defenders, and I get that, it made sense since some of those games were slightly too physical for a basketball game, and you were constantly wondering when the two tangled up guys were going to fight. Now though, I feel like the league is giving waay too much power to the officials that weren’t all that good to begin with. Shouldn’t the officials be an afterthought rather than the deciding factor? Of course they should, that’s why these rules don’t make sense.
I know Stern is protecting his BFF’s (the refs), so that they can get him the matchups he wants in the playoffs, but stepping up the technicals rules is above and beyond bad. It’s taking the fun out of the game. I don’t want to watch a bunch of robots on the court, unless that’s their style, I’m looking at you Tim Duncan. I like it when guys get fired up and argue calls showing you that they care about winning. If you don’t like any confrontation, maybe you shouldn’t be watching sports, because it’s a big part of every game. I know I get heated when I play pickup games, so I’m sure if a player is getting shafted at their job/on the court they will get pissed too, and rightfully so! I understand rules that protect players from getting injured like how the NFL babies quarterbacks, but what is this supposed to do? Clean up the NBA’s image? I didn’t know that they wanted their image to be as soft as a Justin Bieber song. Sure a lot of the players are “thugs” or trashy people, but who cares, that’s not why we are watching them. We are watching them because of their amazing talents on the court, and if they happen to get pissed off they shouldn’t be penalized in the heat of a battle, unless it’s warranted. I’m not against the technical foul in general, because you need some order, but the new way of handing them out is going to make guys too passive. They already added suspensions for excess technicals during the season. Now for players that probably didn’t deserve a T to begin with are going to be suspended, because they had too many technicals… They will regret implementing these rules in the playoffs when five or six key guys are suspended for games when their tempers are flaring on the ultimate stage.
This week’s lines are brought to you by the legend Kenny Powers!
I can’t quite get to .500 on the season, and By fell just below .500 for the year. It’s always funny to see the games that you weren’t worried about go completely wrong, and the ones that you questioned picking, coming through without a hitch. I guess it just shows you how good those damn odds makers are, and just how much parody there is in the NFL, but they can be beat, and that shouldn’t be an excuse! Even if I’m more indecisive than all these head coaches are with picking a starting QB, it doesn’t mean that I can’t pick a winner, right?!? Now that I’ve completely lost you, I’m going to try to make this week’s picks without bias, ie. I’m not going to pick teams that I want to win! Rule number two for the week; if you see both of us pick the same team in the same game immediately pick the opposite way. We are 0-2 in games we both picked the same team; hopefully the odds will even us out soon.
Like Vernon Davis, I fell flat on my face on the guarantee to win ’em all. I finished a dismal 1-2-2 last week, but honestly, I thought I came out better than that. Philly was up big, and Oakland had St. Louis at home. Those two should have been a lock to cover, but I check the final scores, and both teams let me down. So this week I’m stepping my game up, not only more focused on spotting the winning lines, but I’m picking a career high six games! So I’m giving you the quantity for sure, and perhaps … the … quality? I guess we’ll find out come Sunday. On to the picks!
Week 2 Results (Chap 3-3, By 1-2-2) Overall Results (Chap 5-6-1, By 4-4-1) Continue reading
It was announced all over today that our new Warriors regime (Lacob and Gruber) would like a fresh start this training camp without Don Nelson holding the keys to their new investment. They can’t officially make moves for the team, but they made it clear to Cohan and Co. that they’d like Keith Smart at the helm to start this season. As By said, the Smart era is upon us! As much bashing as Nellie took over the last two seasons it’s hard to remember why they wanted him in the first place, but looking back he was easily my favorite Warriors coach of my lifetime, and for that I thank him for bringing me some joy in the postseason which is more than I can say about any of the other coaches they had.
Growing up people always wondered why I liked the Warriors. It was hard to justify, but in the late 80’s Nellie made me a huge fan throwing together the Run TMC package of Mullin, Hardaway, and Richmond. Sarunas Marcuilloneus is still my favorite international player of all time. From that moment on, I was going to be a Warriors fan for life, and going to their games every time I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa probably added to it as well. He retooled the dubs with Spreewell and Chris Webber after the Run TMC days were over. Nellie’s teams made the playoffs in four out of his seven years as the Warriors coach. Little did I know then that they wouldn’t make the playoffs for a loooong time after he left, because the beginning of the Cohan Era started in 1995.
His second stint with the Warriors was highlighted by his inability to get along with players, and that shouldn’t have come to a surprise to the fans, since he was behind selling Chris Webber away for a poo poo platter after just getting ROY honors. Alas, he did give us a magical season in 2007. It was probably one of the most exciting teams to watch in the league, unless you’re a big fan of defense for some reason. The year after they won the most games of anyone to miss the playoffs, so he still hadn’t lost the team yet, but that offseason he broke everyone up starting with Baron. Even in this day in age where we only remember what was said last, I still love the guy, even though he was the main catalyst behind breaking up two good teams. He gave me the best basketball for my team during my lifetime, and I’m grateful for that no matter whatever other stuff happened. I wish him the best, and hope that the Smart Era isn’t like the Montgomery, Carlesimo, Musselman, and St. Jean Eras. It can’t be worse than them, and it looks like our new owners actually want to acquire talent that fits together. I’m cracking a Bud Light right now just for you Nellie!
That’s a rhetorical question. Bob Geren is still here because he’s Billy Beane’s BFF. I just really wish the A’s would try to find a good manager instead of apathetically letting the GM’s buddy run the show. Today, the Oakland Athletics exercised the option on Bob Geren’s contract for 2011, meaning he’ll be back for another year at the helm. It’ll be his 5th year as manager and he has yet to top 76 wins. Granted, he’ll most likely top that this year, but the guy hasn’t even managed a .500 season in his tenure. He has a career record of 302-334. What club actively brings back a manager after four consecutive losing seasons? It’s not like they’re a struggling franchise like the Royals where a 70 win season could be considered a success. This is a team that had EIGHT STRAIGHT WINNING SEASONS, capped by an ALCS berth. Then the Geren era began, and it’s been all losing ever since. Sometimes I feel like Lou Wolf and the A’s ownership are recreating the classic film, Major League – I probably allude to that every time I write about the A’s – except Lou Brown would probably do a better job.
I think it’s time for the A’s to do what the other Oakland teams did and bring back an old coach that had success. The Warriors brought back Don Nelson and before you knew it were back in the playoffs. The Raiders brought back Art Shell and they only gave up 332 points – their lowest in a season to date since the Super Bowl season in 2002. They went 2-14 but that’s neither here nor there. It’s time to bring back Art Howe. Maybe Ken Macha will be available after the Brewers finish the season. Shoot, Don Wakamatsu, former A’s bench coach, is available. Oh wait, we’re locked in on Geren for another sub-.500 year. I guess the A’s are just going to milk another revenue sharing season and let attendance dwindle even more so they can continue to build their case to leave Oakland. I’m fed up with this charade. The fanbase is there, but this ownership regime continues to alienate. I’m the biggest A’s fan I know, but it’s hard to support a group that simply can’t compete. Sure, there are some great young players, and the future is bright, yada yada yada. But Get Carter had a great cast and that doesn’t make it a good movie. Anyway, I’ll sit through one more year. It’s not like they signed Geren to an extension; they just exercised his option. That’s same thing as someone putting on Get Carter, so you sit through it, as opposed to going to the theater and buying a ticket. I’ll tell you this much though, if the A’s buy a ticket to Get Geren next year, I’m done. But by then they’ll probably have a deal in place to move somewhere so I won’t really care…..
It’s no secret, during any sports off season I wish that sport was starting it’s season already. Basketball is no different, and with the World Championships over there’s not a lot of entertaining hoops going on, so instead of heading into the past like MCeezy did, I’ll have to make due with amateur’s playing in a one on one tourney at Alcatraz. The venue makes it more entertaining than it actually might be!
I am a strong believer in karma, and the majority of the time, karma works against me, but in the case of the first two weeks of the NFL season, it actually works in my favor.
Why you ask? Because the Minnesota Vikings are 0-2.
Brett Favre has never been bitten in the butt, he’s never gotten what he deserved for the circus-like soap opera of a show he puts on every single off-season. I’m going to retire. I’m not. This is it for me. I love the game too much. And on and on and on. It’s disgusting. Finally the football gods have had enough, and they’ve inflicted karma onto the divo. The Vikings are 0-2, and yes they can talk about how they won the division two years ago after dropping their first two, but it ain’t happening again. Not with Favre and the Scarlett Letter “K” he has sewn on to his jersey. What I’m loving the most out of Favre, is the fact that he’s absolutely not having fun right now. The media, NFL commentators, and all of his groupies always mention how he is a grown man kid, whose love for the game is similar to a child who loves his Legos. Like he’s some innocent, wide-eyed infant. You name me a kid who holds an entire organization and it’s fan base, in fact an entire league hostage. Kid my ass. Well watching Favre this season, it doesn’t look like he’s having fun at all. Which means I’m having crazy fun!
I had high hopes for my San Francisco 49ers, and since they’re going nowhere fast, watching Brett Favre perform like a worn out pair of Wranglers jeans is a great consolation prize. The thread is going to rip at any moment.
If Favre wins the gold medal in receiving karma, than Reggie Bush gets the silver. I like Reggie Bush the player. He lucked into a great situation because Sean Payton has done a brilliant job utilizing Bush in different formations to get him out in the open field. Bush will never be the USC Bush in the NFL, but he’s definitely a weapon now. But while at USC, he cheated, plain and simple. And when the eligibility of his Heisman trophy was put into question, he returned the award, yet stated it was not an admission of guilt. Seriously Bush? Well he broke his leg in Monday Night’s win over the 49ers, it’s not career ending or anything, but he will miss a significant amount of time this season. Karma strikes again.
So although I’m not karma’s bff or anything, as I’ve had my fair share of “getting my just desserts” … I’m glad to see that karma isn’t prejudice, and anyone can fall victim to its bite.
Ahh, how I love taking a trip down memory lane. It seems like the NBA is on its way back to being an exciting game, but until that day comes, there’s always youtube, where the legends of yesteryear are back in their prime. Enjoy some of the top dunks from the 1994-1995 season. Anyone else remember Sean Elliot getting up as much as he does in #9? Dude’s head was above the rim. That’s a big deal these days, and I didn’t know he was doing it 15 years ago….
With the win over the Pats yesterday, the Jets celebrated like they won the Super Bowl IN week 2. WTF!?!
Now that we have two weeks in the books, there are some undefeated teams that look for real, and some that seem lucky to have two wins two weeks into the season. Surprisingly we are already down to only 8 teams that haven’t lost, and if the shocker of the weekend doesn’t happen with the 49ers taking down the Saints, it should stay that way. KC, Tampa, and Chicago are all shockers in my book, considering most people didn’t have them penciled in for their 2nd win before their respective bye weeks. Here’s my rankings for the top 8, with New Orleans in last, because the MNF game is still in progress, and they aren’t undefeated yet.
#1 Green Bay – The pack didn’t do anything to make me think that they aren’t a contender to make the Super Bowl this past weekend. By far the best all around team on the list. I think I’ll be picking them all year long no matter what the spread is. Remember that epic Patriots team that put up huge numbers every week like a video game in 2007? This team is looking like them, good all over the field.
#2 Pittsburgh – I’m not sure how they beat Tennessee and Atlanta, oh wait no, I do know why, their defense! They are 100-0 with Polamalu, and his $1M hair in the lineup. He is the X-factor much more than Big Ben is. The Steelers never have more than one down year, so this success is no fluke.
#3 Houston – Their win over the Colts was HUGE for their mentality going into the rest of the year. I picked them the last two years to make the playoffs, and now that I didn’t pick them, they are tearing it up, go figure…
#4 Chicago – There’s noway I thought the Bears would be good this year. Cutler hadn’t shown much of anything since the trade, but it looks like he finally found a couple of guys to throw to, and actually has the best passer rating in the league, no, that stat is not a typo. Enjoy the undefeated season while it last Bears fans, your next opponent is the Packers.
#5 Miami – Brandon Marshall is exactly what they needed. A receiver that teams will have to double team, and maybe open up a couple more running lanes! Their defense is actually better than I expected it to be too. Maybe all those young players are better than advertised. We will see exactly how good this Dolphins team is when they line up against the Jets this weekend.
#6 Tampa Bay – What!?! Freeman is leading the Bucs to a 2-0 start!?! I still can’t believe they curb stomped the Panthers this weekend, but low and behold this is a new Bucs team, and Freeman is much better than I thought well, his non-five interception game against Carolina made him look good. They need to beat a good team before I buy anything they are selling.
#7 Kansas City – Anyone can beat the Browns, but they beat the Chargers, and made them look bad for good portions of that game. They’ve been lacking a direction for years, and it looks like they might have found one on defense and special teams. Does that win you the AFC West? Maybe, but they will need something from the passing game…
#8 New Orleans – They are up 9-0 in the first quarter, but I can’t call that a win, because there’s a ton of time left. The Saints look like they should win if it keeps going the way it has so far though. A win would probably launch them into the top three knocking Houston down a spot, but we will see what kind of fight the Niners have in them for the final three quarters.
The life of an elite NFL feature back is getting shorter and shorter. I don’t mean that they’re dying at a young age, just that a guy can be the man on his team for just a handful of years, and that lifeline seems to be getting shorter. It seems like just a few decades ago, it’d be the same handful of guys racking up 1,000 yard season for years on end. Now a guy is likely to have one or two, and then be replaced by the next young, healthy back. It’s evident this season when you watch guys like Ladanian Tomlinson and Marion Barber no longer getting the bulk of their teams’ carries. It seems like just yesterday guys like these were dominant on the field, and now are relegated to sharing duties with younger guys. In other sports, you could look at league leaders from five years ago and the majority of those guys are still putting up numbers. I took the top ten rushers from 2006, and it looks like all ten of those guys would be lucky to total 1,000 yards combinedthis year…
SHAUN ALEXANDER, SEA. 1,880 yds: 2005 was Alexander’s 5th and final 1000 yard season. He donned the cover of Madden 07, but failed to tally as many yards as he did in 05 over the next three seasons, his last in the NFL. He totaled 1612 yards over his next two years in Seattle, before adding 24 more in 2008 on the Redskins. That was his final season.
TIKI BARBER, NYG. 1860 yds: Barber totaled 6 1000 yd seasons over a span of 7 years, and though you could argue he retired still in his prime, it was clear that Barber’s days were numbered, which probably prompted his retirement somewhat. Barber’s last season was 2006, but he knew Brandon Jacobs was the back of the team’s future.
No, I’m not talking about my favorite EA basketball video game, NBA Street. I’m talking about skateboarding! I work for Quiksilver at their headquarters in Huntington Beach California if you didn’t know. Naturally I’m plugged into the action sports industry happenings. This year, Rob Dyrdek’s dream came to fruition with the new Street League, and I really wasn’t sure how it would play out when I first heard about it. He pulled together DC Shoes (a company owned by Quiksilver) and Monster to sponsor his skateboarding Street League. Growing up I was much more into snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, and eventually surfing to a lesser extent over the ball and stick sports, but the appeal went away when my free time dwindled. I was never a huge fan of how you couldn’t really declare a winner or call someone “the best” for any of these sports since it’s subjective to whose style you like, but Rob created a league that comes very close to finding a true winner. I do watch some of the X-games, but only for the good events, like the street skate, and find myself more into the contests they show on FuelTV than the X-games ones. To this day, I have so much respect for the pounding that these guys take just to get this good. In my opinion skateboarding is by far the hardest of the action sports to learn, and is probably why I love watching the street skating contests. This contest series really does embody all that is street skating. Last night the first leg of the Street League competition was aired on ESPN, and after watching it, I knew I had to write why you should be watching it too. Skateboarding is probably the most popular non ball and stick sport, and Rob Dyrdek is taking it to a whole new level showcasing the best of the best.
Even if you don't like skateboarding, you had to love Rob & Big when they were on MTV!
Rob’s vision was like nothing we’ve seen from the skateboarding world. He threw out the old style/formats for contests where you can go where ever you want on the street course to make a run that suits your abilities, and instead he made it so the skaters would have seven trick attempts for a specified obstacle in the skate park. Dyrdek basically threw out the whole timed run type of contest, which already made it a better platform for a skating event, since nobody is timed when they are street skating, unless a security guard calls the cops. Last night they had four obstacles set up where each skater was given seven tries to do tricks on that obstacle. This brings out some strategy within the contest. If you go for a big trick and don’t land it, you get zero points. If you do an “easy” trick, you don’t get that many points, but it’s much better than bailing. Nyjah Huston ended up winning the event, and I was happy for the 15 year old. He has a silky smooth style that makes everything look effortless. Plus being from Norcal (Davis), always made me root for him a little more or maybe I just get mesmerized by the flowing dreadlocks. If you don’t know who I’m talking about you can check out clips of him ripping hard here and here. Anyways, this contest came down to the wire, and Nyjah laid it on the line throwing down HUGE tricks that the judges rewarded him with high scores to take over first place, and ultimately winning the contest for him. He had a habit of finishing second in nearly every contest I’ve watched him in, so it was great to see him get his first win, and the $150K check to go along with it.
Nyjah throwing down a switch noseslide.
The genius part of this whole league is how Rob made it have the feel of ball and stick sports game. Each trick is scored live before the next guy goes, so you can see the names jumping up and down the leader board with the real time scoring after each contestant goes, so the scoring looks kinda like a basketball game where you can’t win on the first couple obstacles, but you can definitely lose if you fall too much. What makes it feel like a sporting event? The simple fact that all these contest are going to be held in arenas in front of a crowd oohing and ahhhing over the tricks. Supposedly nearly all of them have been sold out. It’s a big step up from the X-games in terms of declaring a true winner, and I think it will help the sport grow/conform for the viewers. It might not ever be as big as the major sports, but it could give the NHL a run for their money!
How can we be sure that these are really the best 24 skaters there? Well, it’s by invite only, and there’s no way any of the top skaters would turn down the invitation to compete. There’s $1.2M in prize money, and $150K up for grabs at each venue. They also throw $5K to the skater with the best trick (highest scored trick of the night), so even if someone isn’t doing all that well, they can go for huge tricks that have a high failure rate to win that backup prize. If you missed the contest last night, don’t worry, they are going to show all three of the contests on ESPN. As an added bonus Rob and Steve Berra are doing the commentating which is much better than listening to Tony Hawk during the play by play during the X-games.
I’m still not sure what the purpose of making Reggie Bush give back his Heisman is. It just reminds me of when the sucky kid doesn’t get picked on the playground, so he throws a fit and takes his ball home. Perhaps Bush received illegal benefits, but did it really give him an advantage on the field? He would’ve won that Heisman wherever he played, and probably by a more lopsided vote, since he surely split some votes with teammate Matt Leinart. Mack Brown thinks Vince Young should get the award. Are we sure his decision to go to Texas was all on the up and up? Sure, he’s from Houston, so why wouldn’t he go play for Texas? But then again, why not A&M, or Houston, or LSU? Reggie Bush was from San Diego, who’s to say he wouldn’t have ended up at USC anyway? Look, I can name quite a few college athletes who received illegal benefits, and some didn’t even go on to a professional career in their respective sports. The point is, the NCAA can keep targeting USC all they want, e.g. Bush, OJ Mayo, but clearly this goes on at every university in the country. I wonder how long until they cry foul on Demar Derozan. It’s common knowledge he went to SC because they let his buddy Lil Romeo tag along. This whole mess has got me thinking about other players who went to a certain university, where there’s no way there wasn’t foul play. I know they don’t have Heismans per se, but you get the idea. Let’s start pointing some fingers…..
JAMARCUS RUSSELL, LSU: I know it’s not too far fetched for a kid from Alabama to choose LSU, but we all know what kind of guy Russell is, there’s no way he didn’t go play for the highest bidder. Why would he choose LSU over other SEC schools like Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, or Tennessee? Les Miles and the boosters surely offered him the iciest #2 platinum chain of all the competition.
Week one didn’t go bad, but it didn’t go all that well either. I went a less than impressive (2-3-1), while By kept it mediocre with a 2-2 start. Now that we’ve seen a whole week of football action, we are experts and shouldn’t miss another pick for the rest of the year, right!?! I’m still shocked that By called that Texans game. I actually could see the Colts winning the next nine games without anyone noticing. I don’t buy TMQ’s argument that this is Armageddon because the Texans won, but do agree it would be hilarious if Houston ended up playing in the Super Bowl in Jerry Jones billion dollar stadium. Anyways, this should be another fun week, and I’m excited to win the money back that I lost in week one, so here are our picks for week 2!
What a roller coaster opening week for me. I hit the ground running like a Chris Johnson breakaway, after my prediction of the Texans upsetting the Colts came true. I began imagining myself hoisting up the “I Told You So” trophy after that one. Unfortunately that image shattered immediately, as the Houston/Indy game didn’t equate to the biggest upset of the day. The biggest upset of the day went to me. Because I was so damn upset at my 49ers! What a waste of one and a half hours of a beautiful Sunday afternoon. As you can guess, I stopped watching midway through. Anyway, to brighten up my mediocre week, let me just say, “How about ‘dem Cowboys, huh!?” I wanted to stay away from the Jets/Ravens game, but ultimately couldn’t resist. I originally wanted to take KC over SD, but couldn’t pull the trigger on another significant upset. Lesson learned, always go with the gut. But like Chappy said, we learned everything I needed to know about all the teams after the first week, and ala Vernon Davis, I predict we win on all of our picks the rest of the way! Continue reading
With about three weeks left there are a TON of good looking rookies in the NL. For awhile I thought it was Jaime Garcia, then Buster Posey took a slight lead, then Gaby Sanchez, and now Jason Heyward is remaking his case for the ROY award with a hot streak. What I’ve found most interesting about the NL ROY race is that guys like Mike Stanton have 20 homers, Tyler Colvin has 19 homers, Ike Davis has 18 homers, Neil Walker has a .306 average, John Axeford has 21 saves, Stephen Strasberg was insanely good for a bit, and none of these guys are going to be considered for the award. It’s has been an insane year for the youth in the NL, and will probably be just like the NL West race coming down to who has the best final weeks of the season. I’m going to take a look at the top five candidates, and try to figure out which one is the best choice. I’m already leaning towards Heyward during his resurgence, and being in the big leagues all year helps his case. Gaby Sanchez is so underrated that I feel like I should almost just pick him for shock value, but I just can’t do it. Here’s my thoughts on the top five candidates in no particular order. I heavily weighted one thing in my list, and that was the word YEAR, as in playing a complete season. Continue reading
The Rangers have gotten a ton of play on the MLB network over the past month or so. I can’t remember seeing more of their games on TV at any point in my life. They’ve earned those televised games, as they are the clearly the class of the AL West, and playing as good as any team in the league right now. They usually fade during July and August when their home field turns into a launching pad, but not this year. I was hoping for an implosion from them, so maybe the A’s would be able to sneak into the playoffs, but that’s like hoping for the Raiders to show up in back to back games. Once again, I’m starting to wonder if the A’s are cursed. Not because of the numerous injuries they suffered for a third straight year, but because we let Ron Washington go. I’d much rather have Washington as the manger over Geren, but Beane was very pro Geren, so we’re stuck with the schlep. Until A’s fortunes change, I think we are still under The Curse of the Wash. Normally I’d root against the AL West winner if it wasn’t the A’s, but I found myself pulling for the Rangers to succeed this postseason.
The Rangers sweep over the Yankees showed us exactly what they’ve been doing well all year long. Come from behind to win. They came back to win two of the three games, and even made one of those comebacks while Rivera was on the mound. That kind of win can’t be understated when it comes playoff time, and just knowing that they have already beaten up the most dominant closer of all time is a feather in the cap. They also had their ace (Cliff Lee) back on the hill to close out the sweep. It was his first start in two weeks. He showed how healthy he was shutting the Yankees down for 8 innings giving up only one run. It’s only the second time all season the Yankees got swept! What made this even more impressive was that they didn’t need their MVP candidate Josh Hamilton, who is still out with a bruised up ribcage. There’s no rush to get Hamilton back, since they do have a commanding lead in the West (8 ½ games). Now that the Yankees and Rays starting to come back to earth a little, does this give the Twins and Rangers an edge? I’d probably put both of them above the TB and NY on power rankings if I made them right this moment. I’m already envisioning an ALCS matchup between Minnesota and Texas. Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, but if Morneau and Hamilton come back healthy, who’s to say that these two teams are the favorites to make it to the ALCS?
Another thing I’ve noticed about this Rangers team is their swagger factor. It’s crazy how together these guys are. Early in the season after they took out the Angels in the opener of a series in June, right after the final out of the game was recorded Ian Kinsler was out there yelling for them to “get off our field”, as the Angels were heading to the showers. At the time I thought Kinsler was just being the dickhead he is, but now months later I think it was a statement of things to come. It was like they finally believed in themselves before anyone else did, and knew they weren’t going to have a collapse when the weather got hot. They were no longer going to be a pushover and would play every game hard, just the way Wash would’ve played. They were paying attention to more details than they used to, even doing the small ball stuff that wins games utilizing their speed in Bobon and Andrus. We will see if they can continue their good play through the last 19 games. I don’t see any reason for them to slow down since they don’t have the division locked up yet, but they are in as good of a position possible for a solid postseason run, and can let guys like Josh Hamilton and Cliff Lee take some extra rest if it’s needed. I’m glad my prediction of who would win the AL West is working out thus far!
I was too disappointed to post something yesterday, plus my computer crapped out with some Trojan virus on Friday. I’m the one to blame for that since I didn’t ever buy one of those virus protectors…. Anyways, now that I’m a little bit more calm and collected, and at work with a working computer, I can actually assess what happened to the bay area teams. This was supposed to be the year of hope for both franchises, since their divisions suck, and they both made solid offseason moves, but in week one, they were huge disappointments having everyone in the bay saying nothing has changed. Neither team was in their game at the end of the half, which was very disturbing to see both of them give up on both sides of the ball when the game was out of hand. Usually you like to get a couple positives going for the next game during garbage time, but there wasn’t even much of that to draw any hope from. A grade of an F- for both of these franchises to start the season. Actually, I’ll give them an incomplete to start the year since they didn’t even finish all their assignments for week 1.
The Raiders had everything going for them coming into the game, even their “Taking it to them” t-shirts they wore all of training camp. The temperature was mild (77 degrees), and it was surprisingly un-humid in Tennessee. If it was humid, I can only imagine what the score could’ve been. The Raiders had a chance to pull within 14 at the end of the half, and chose to only be down by twenty after kicking a field goal instead. With the ball at the 15, and a yard to go on fourth down we really needed a touchdown. Cable’s fat ass called in the kicking unit, and it felt like we were mailing it in before the half. If we really wanted to be in this game, we don’t go for a field goal when the offense is struggling, and actually has the ball in the redzone for once. Three points wasn’t going give us that boost of confidence we needed going into the locker room. I would’ve been much happier seeing them go for it, and not get the first down, even if that meant we scored zero points on that possession. The most worrisome part of the day was easily the o-line. We couldn’t figure out the no name Tennessee defense. They knocked Campbell down every time he dropped back, and made me hesitantly think, maybe Jamarcus wasn’t completely the problem. Campbell’s line looked familiar for Raiders starting QB’s over the past few years two fumbles, one pick, and one garbage time TD. I might finally be jumping on the fire Cable bandwagon. He seems to have the respect of the players, but what the hell is wrong with our o-line. Isn’t that your specialty Tom!?! If you can’t get your team to be good at what you are supposed to be good at (former o-line coach), then how are you helping this team improve!?! He already gave up the offensive play calling to Hue Jackson, so shouldn’t he be more responsible for other things like coaching the offensive line. The one silver lining is that they played a Tennessee team that is supposed to be pretty good, and a team that was on fire to end last season. If they can’t show up against the Rams, I’m going to be very worried about this team. There was one part of the game that I found entertaining, the Titans mascot ate a cheerleader!
The 49ers had an even worse day than the Raiders. They couldn’t even get a touchdown, and looked terrible in every facet of the game against a team that both By and I predicted to having a good shot at that #1 pick next year in our Doin Lines picks. Coach Singletary thought it was a good “wake up” call for the team, and hopefully he’s right for their sake. If losing to the Seahawks isn’t a wake up call, then I don’t know what this team expects to do this year. Maybe their players were partying in the Castro District a little too much over the offseason and that made them soft, or maybe Vernon Davis is taking to curling more than football… Ok, ok, Vernon was one of the few guys that played well. Seattle played off their 12th man, and somehow looked like the 2007 Seahawks that were perennial playoff contenders. They do have a great home crowd, but the 49ers should’ve made this one at least a little close. It’s sad that they can’t even pin this all on Alex Smith, because every part of their game plan was executed poorly. The scariest part for the Niners is that this isn’t a good team, and preseason this was one of the games I had inked in a W. At least the Raiders got beat down by someone that has playoff aspirations. It’s only one game, but both of these teams have a lot to work on before they are considered anything near a playoff caliber team.
So are they going to turn the players into a bunch of stiffs and mimes? Would yelling at your own teammate like Kobe constantly does a lot get you a T? I’ve always despised the NBA for changing the rules from its heydays where the Detroit bad boys and those mean Knicks teams ruled the 80’s and 90’s with their overly tough play. Those teams were exciting and fun to watch even if I was only 10 years old. I was young, and their style of play didn’t ever offend, scare, or influence me as a boy, it really just showed me what true competitors look like. The NBA took steps to make it tougher on defenders, and I get that, it made sense since some of those games were slightly too physical for a basketball game, and you were constantly wondering when the two tangled up guys were going to fight. Now though, I feel like the league is giving waay too much power to the officials that weren’t all that good to begin with. Shouldn’t the officials be an afterthought rather than the deciding factor? Of course they should, that’s why these rules don’t make sense.
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cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
