Yesterday Mceezy sent me a text telling me I needed to check out the spoof that Norm MacDonald did on his new show with Comedy Central. After watching it, I have to say, maybe I didn’t give Blake enough credit for having a personality or the ability to be funny, because in this skit Blake was pretty funny. Now that Blake is used to being a star, maybe he’ll show us some more of his personality. I hope Norm Macdonald Sports Show lasts, but I have a feeling it won’t…
Stanley Cup Playoff Preview
It’s the eve of the Stanley Cup Playoffs…. Who better to turn to for expert analysis on the NHL? Collectively, the Doin Work writers have the ice hockey knowledge of an entire nation. (And when I say nation, I’m thinking somewhere like Nepal or Brunei Darussalam) Chappy and I played a lot of NHL 94 on Sega back in the day. Dyslecix and I did fantasy hockey league in 2006. (We finished first and third, respectively) Now that you’re clued in on the level of expertise we’re dealing with here, let’s get into the matchups….
CAMPBELL CONFERENCE
Vancouver Canucks vs. Chicago Blackhawks – The Blackhawks are the defending champs I believe. They were a pretty good checking team on NHL 94 on Sega, so you know opposing teams will be intimidated. The Canucks, however, had the best record in the league, proving that they’ve overcome the loss of superstar Pavel Bure, and more importantly, his wife, DJ Tanner (or was that the other Bure?) Canucks in 6
San Jose Sharks vs. Los Angeles Kings – The Sharks have arguably the most rabid fan base of people who’ve never touched a hockey stick. The Kings might be a close second, if they had more fans. I’d imagine the Sharks will make quick work of the Kings, since David Stern will surely step in and have this series fixed, in order to make sure nothing interferes with any scheduling of Lakers’ playoff games. Sharks in 5
Detroit Red Wings vs. Phoenix Coyotes – One city a storied hockeytown, the other a place where no hockey game was ever played prior to 1996 probably. Shane Doan’s pretty good, because I’ve heard of him. It probably won’t be enough to beat the Wings with Steve Yzerman though. He IS still on the team right? Red Wings in 5
Anaheim Ducks vs. Nashville Predators – The Predators are in the postseason for the 6th time in 7 years… not bad for a 12 year old expansion team in Tennessee. The Ducks are also no stranger to the postseason…. not bad for a team who’s first coach was Emilio Estevez. The Ducks seem poised to make one last run deep into the playoffs, as they enjoy their last season as sole tenants of The Pond, before the NBA team comes in and takes over the place. Ducks in 7
PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCE
Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers – There are a few things we know about these two teams. Ovechkin is pretty good. Okay, make that one thing we know about these two teams. Good enough for me! Capitals in 5
Philadelpha Flyers vs. Buffalo Sabres – I saw a Tweet somewhere online that said Buffalo is the second hottest team in hockey right now. That tells you something. They also play in Buffalo, and since they have to put up with the Bills, I’m rooting for them. I’m sure fans of “The Office” are too. They’re a lock for a first round upset if you ask me. Sabres in 7
Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens – This is a great matchup of cities that are unlike the rest of their respective countries. Montreal is more like France than Canada, and Boston is more like Russia than the United States. On the ice though, these guys are all from the same place: Hockeyville. If I recall, these two teams had a pretty heated series last season. (Upon further review, they didn’t even play each other last year. Boston swept Montreal two years ago). Canadiens in 7
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning – I can’t believe I’m still talking about hockey. I don’t even care anymore at this point. Every 4 or 5 years, I’ll get into hockey and get on the Sharks’ bandwagon and watch their playoff games, but this isn’t one of those years. It isn’t one of those years for the Tampa Bay faithful either. Penguins in 4
Masters, Manny, and a Beat-down in Pittsburgh
Charl was given his green jacket signifying that he is the Master of the Universe, yet the storylines don’t seem to surround his four birdie finish. I’m not one to push golf onto anyone who can’t stand watching guys read putts for five hours, believe me I understand why it would be boring, but this weekend was one of the most exciting finishes we might see in any major for awhile. When there were about 8-10 holes left to play for the leaders, the CBS crew couldn’t even figure out who’s shot or which players they even wanted to show because there were so many people atop the leaderboard. We didn’t see a whole lot of Charl during the day, but did get a lot of Tiger shoved down our throats. Tiger looked great for the front nine, and it looked like he had some of his swagger back busting out his fist pumps. Unsurprisingly to me that seems to be the topic of conversation today on whether Tiger is indeed back or not. It’s tough to say when he missed critical putts down the stretch that he usually would’ve made during his domination days. Regardless of whether he’ll be as dominant as he once was, he’s relevant again. The other story was about how Rory McIlroy caved to the pressure, and was one of the only people to shoot over par on Sunday. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t win, but more so that he caved, and he seemed to give up after his triple bogey on the 10th. He’s a 21-year-old, so I wouldn’t worry about him. It’s like last year when Dustin Johnson choked away a lead on the final day at the US Open. I’m sure he’ll learn from what happened, and his skills aren’t disappearing. All in all, I think golf is healthier than it’s been in awhile. I’m not going to go all Geno Auriemma and cry if you don’t care about golf, but this past Sunday was a finish that I feel like any sports fan would’ve enjoyed.
Manny is retiring… Lots people go to Tampa to retire, and Manny doesn’t seem to be the exception to that rule. I’ve always loved then loved to hate Manny depending on which team he was playing for. I guess the bigger deal about his retirement is if he’ll make it into the HOF. All along I’ve been for the steroid era players getting into the HOF. It’s an era, and whether there was cheating or not, you have to acknowledge the best. Baseball has always had the worst HOF setup in my eyes. The snubs feel ridiculous, and most of the time those who are snubbed were “bad” character guys. I feel like the HOF is a popularity contest that nobody really wins in unless you were a classy person on and off the field. Personally all I care about is what was done on the field, cheating or not, he was still one of the greatest. With that said, I’d put Manny, Clemens, A-Rod, and Bonds in. Who cares if I or anyone else doesn’t like them as people they still were amazing players that carried baseball for two decades.
Apparently, safety in stadiums is an issue… The MLB League passes are free for everyone for the first week of the year, and I’ve watched a lot of teams I probably won’t see for the rest of the year. One common theme seemed to be empty seats in stadiums. I’m not sure if it’s the cold weather across much of the country or if it’s a correlation that fans no longer feel safe bringing their kids to the ballpark after the Dodgers incident. Whatever the case, this recent video from a Pirates game was insane. Dude was either completely wasted or just can straight up take a hit. The rent-a-cop billy clubbed him three times and he didn’t even flinch! This might be the most excitement the Pirates fans have all season…
Elephants and Seals
We sometimes neglect our teams in writing posts since we follow them so closely that we feel like everyone probably already knows what’s going on with them, in reality, that’s probably not true. Now that we have a Giants fan in the mix in By, I figured it would be fun to do an overview of our two favorite bay area teams from our homer perspectives. I’ll be writing up the A’s portion and By will be doing the Giants portion for this season.
Oakland 2-5
San Francisco 3-4
Three Up
Oakland A’s – Our starting pitchers have picked up where they left off last season, and by that I mean dominating the first six innings of their games, and only giving up two earned runs or less in all but one appearance. The new offensive guys (Dejesus, Willingham, and Matsui) in the heart of the order aren’t producing much, and unfortunately the other guys in the lineup are doing what they did last year, which is leaving runners in scoring position. They have had the lead at one point in every game this year, but can’t seem to keep it for too long in most cases. We still seem to have a heavy handicap in the home run department, but we seem to be getting more guys on base than last year, so there’s a little hope on the horizon. They’ve been close in every game late, because of that great starting pitching. If it weren’t for them thinking they were playing soccer to the tune of kicking 9 fielding errors, they could easily be .500 on the year. Somewhat concerned about this start.
San Francisco Giants – This is simple. One, Lincecum, Sanchez, Cain, Zito & Mad Bum. A solid bull pen, and the game’s real life version of Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn to close it. I’m not worried about a 3-4 start. Perhaps I’m being a little generous when mentioning Zito in that list, but I can’t uninclude him when he’s rockin’ the new ‘stache. Two, we have a group of loveable guys who all play hard together and get along with each other. Yes, Aubrey Huff in the outfield scares me, but the young studs in Buster Posey and Brandon Belt in our every day lineup more than make up for it. Do not sleep on Miguel Tejada, by the way. And three, we are still the defending champs. This season is (now) seven games in for the Giants. I’m not worried about a 3-4 start.
Three Down
Oakland A’s – Their bullpen is already injured like it’s mid-season. It was supposed to be a heavy strength for the team coming into the season, so far all we’ve been left with is blown leads. Balfour and Fuentes our big acquisitions in the pen this off-season both blew saves in their first tries as Athletics with Bailey on the DL. Their fielding was never a problem last year, but with 9 errors in only six games this year they are dead last in that category. Their last two games in Toronto that were errorless, and same with the day game in Minnesota today, so that has me feeling like it was just a little early season rust. Hopefully that’s the case. Maybe all the talk of needing to upgrade at third got to Kouz’s head as he’s tied for the team lead with three errors. Lastly the A’s have been terrible with runners in scoring position this season only logging three hits when that chance arises.
San Francisco Giants
1) We got smoked by L.A.
2) Duck the Fodgers.
3) We haven’t produced runs consistently, spoiling some good outings by our starting pitchers. Add to that, our bull pen hasn’t looked as crisp as they did during last season’s historic playoff run, so I guess there’s some cause for concern there.
3a) It would be nice to have Cody Ross back.
Spoof NBA Lockout Ads
Last off-season in the NBA it was all about the big time free agents, and where will they land. This off-season will be all about Billy Hunter vs. David Stern, and how long the lockout will last. It seems like it could get even uglier than the NFL’s lockout and probably will miss more games. As I’ve said before with the NFL lockout, I’m all for it if they lose some fans and some revenue. Nothing puts a billion dollar league in their place like losing fans. I ran across this video of a few spoof lockout ads that we could see in the near future when the war really heats up. Ok, probably not, but we know it’s going to get ugly. The ad that had Stern saying “he knew where the bodies are buried” had a very interesting story to it during all-star weekend and this article by Adrian Wojnarowski is a must read if you haven’t heard the story.
Slow Out Of The Box
There’s quite a few surprise teams here in the first week of the MLB season, like the Orioles and Royals, but let’s focus on the negatives here. There are four teams that are playing downright ugly baseball to start the season. It’s not hard for us A’s fans, since we’ve had the privilege of witnessing 10 errors in the team’s first 4 games. Fortunately they were able to scrape out a 2-1 victory today to pull back up to 2-4. The Giants were able to do the same by beating the Padres pretty handily, though Brian Wilson had a shaky debut. 2-4 ain’t pretty, but to me, it’s a whole lot better than 1-5, or even worse, 0-6…. No one expected the Rays to be contenders this year, but no one thought they’d be this bad. Even fewer people thought the Red Sox would be this bad. I’m loving it of course, but I’ll hold back from piling it on until the season’s over and they DIDN’T make an improbable run into the playoffs. Obviously they’re off to the most disappointing start, but which team here has the most reason to panic early on?….
Color Me Purple The Nuggets are in the Playoffs
At the beginning of the season we made predictions on how we thought the Western Conference would shake out. By and I swung and missed on a few picks like the Clippers, Jazz, Warriors, and Rockets, but we were right about the easy picks aka the top 5 teams. I guess I did write that I wished I included Memphis on the predictions a month into the year, but that’s a moot point. Anyways, the season is nearing it’s end, and the playoff teams seem set, except for seeding. Seriously though, does it look like anyone will beat the Lakers in the west? I can’t say I feel like anyone will beat them, not even the Sonics who I feel like could beat them, but won’t. We all know deep down that the Lakers will be in the Finals no matter who they are matched up against in a week and a half.
The real reason for this post was that the Sportschump was very adamant that we were horribly wrong for leaving the Nuggets out of the playoff picture. They secured a spot a few days ago, and look like they should be the #5 seed. I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that Denver has made the playoffs in a different way than he or anyone expected (without Melo), but nonetheless he was right and I was wrong. The Nuggets have been a very interesting team this season since the Melo trade. It’s weird seeing a team actually use 10 of it’s players every night. Especially since all are getting significant minutes in a guess who’s playing tonight game of musical chairs. Karl goes with the hot hand. If you’re playing well, you play 40 minutes. If you struggle, you’re only playing 15-20. It’s something you rarely see in the NBA, which makes them the anti-big three. They are all about the team over the individual. It’s a good reason to root for them in the playoffs, but if they end up playing the Sonics in the first round I guess I won’t be on that bandwagon…
Rooting For Ryo This Year…
The Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa made a very nice tribute to Japan’s earthquake relief fund for the rest of the current PGA season. The 19-year old is from one of the hardest hit areas in Japan, and while his family was all in the states when the quake struck that doesn’t mean he has forgotten about his countrymen. He said today at a Masters interview that he’d be donating all his tour earnings to the relief of his country. Last year he made a little over $2M, and showed that he will be a force in the near future once he gains a little more experience. I think this generous donation will make me lay off on the jokes when I see him. He usually wears some of the ugliest clothes around, but maybe that’s Yonex’s fault for making those clothes…
If you couldn’t tell, last year I was a huge Dustin Johnson fan, and pretty much rooted for him to win any event that he was in. I’m not abandoning my boy DJ, but with the selfless act that Ryo has decided to put forth, I can’t help but start rooting for the guy to win every tournament or at least make a lot of top tens. I’ve never had a million dollar earnings year, but at the age of 19 I don’t think I’d be able to give it up like he is. To go along with his nice gesture he’s also donating $1,200 per birdie to charity, which will be a very nice chunk of change by the time the year is over considering he gets a few per round. Rarely do I write about things that are good in sports, and this is clearly one that should garner more attention than it does in the national media.
Dubbing Up Your Friday
With opening day for baseball, and the weather hitting the high 80’s and low 90’s over the last couple days in LA, I found myself busting out the reggae music. I’m not sure why, but every year I seem to listen to a lot more reggae during the summer than the other months in the year. Maybe it’s the whole kick back and chill outside by the grill attitude that summer brings. Whatever the case, I thought I’d share with our readers my favorite reggae DUB band 10 Ft. Ganja Plant. It’s strange that of all my friends I can only think of two that really listen to reggae as much as me. I’m kinda glad it’s not mainstream like hip-hop. It’s like following the golf of music, everyone kinda likes playing it, but most people don’t know much about it or the bands. This Born Free track might be better served for a holiday like the 4th of July, but it’s my favorite track of theirs, and the lead singer sounds a lot like Bob Marley. Plus, when I was in little league our baseball coach used to play reggae for our batting practice to try to give us some riddim mon. If you want me to keep posting reggae artists that you probably haven’t heard, let me know. If not, this could be a one and done with the reggae posts.
Overhyping The A’s
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!
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…
OOZINATOR!!!!
Stumbled upon this a little over a week ago and keep forgetting to post it. I don’t remember this from back in the day, and quite frankly I’m glad, but this is pretty funny. I started out checking out old commercials like the Spyrograph and various Play-Doh contraptions, but then I came across this modified Super Soaker. It’s still a water gun, but it also shoots “ooze”. Not sure who’s idea this commercial was, but they inadvertently made a classic. I guess maybe the name Jizzinator was taken…..
…it’s a tad bit late, but Nate Dogg (rip) and Warren G had to oozinate….
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.
Coach K’s Pity Party
It would be an understatement of the day to say I was excited to see Derrick Williams and Arizona upset #1 seeded Duke last night. I’m glad I got to see Derrick in person before this tourney started, so I could jump on his bandwagon a little earlier than others. Anyways, after the game Coach K, the guy that’s almost as untouchable in our media as Tom Brady took offense to some questions being asked after the game. First, he wouldn’t admit that Duke melted down, and said they lost, but it wasn’t a meltdown. I guess he’s never heard of the term “meltdown” either from the transcripts. The second and more emotionally charged reactions he gave reporters was when he got mad that a reporter asked about Kyrie Irving’s future with Duke or if he was heading to the NBA. Very fair question in my opinion. His response upset me enough to write a little slander about Duke’s un-slander-able coach.
First off, he answered the question with the ol this is not the time for that. Very good response to start, I understand totally that he wanted to talk about the game more than Kyrie’s jump to the NBA. The thing I didn’t like about his response was that he made the question sound dumb. Seriously Coach K? ?You’ve been coaching for longer than I’ve been alive and groomed numerous pros, and you didn’t expect this question?!? Couldn’t you just say something like I don’t know what his plans are! Even then I wouldn’t take your answer serious, because we all know that when you went to his house to recruit him, you laid out a plan for him to be in the NBA. There’s no way this didn’t happen in my mind. Either way you didn’t need to make the reporter feel retarded for asking the question since someone would ask it eventually.
The second part of Coach K’s response ended with saying that he was hugging Kyrie after the game because he was crying, and he was not asking him about his plans on going pro or not. Let me see if I got this straight, Coach K pulled a Spolstra, and told the world one of his players is crying and the national media doesn’t care? I’ll call this hypocracy at it’s peak, because what’s the difference between what Coach K and Eric Spolstra did? I guess nobody likes the Heat, so it’s a pussy move when they cry. When a Duke player crys, we consider it natural, and caring about the game. I’ve never been against crying in sports. It’s emotional, and when you come up short, you play the “what” if game until you go mad. I guess that’s the main reason why I never really cared about the Heat’s crygate. It never really resonated with me, because if anything it just shows the player cares. Yes, there are other ways to show you care. Some people cry to get it all out and other like Dwight Howard and Rasheed Wallace get it out through technicals. Point is why don’t we make a big deal out of Coach K calling his crying player out? At least Spolstra didn’t name names…
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