When was the last time somone stole 100 bases and who was it accomplished by? I'll hold off on giving that answer til after I explain that Mr. Carl Crawford speedster extraordinaire is currently at a pace where 100 steals is with the realm of possibility. Currently through 49 games Crawford has 30 steals. 30! The AL league leader last year was Jacoby Elsbury who stole just 50 bases. Crawford's pace is currently on track for 99 steals, but why not add another 1 and join Vince Coleman (85, 86, 87) and the 100 steal club.

Roy Oswalt is just one of many players on my fantasy roster who has been a colassal disappointment through the first 2 months of the season. In his case he's pitched to a poor 4.62 ERA and has only 1 victory, and to make a long story short drafting him cost me Zack Greinke (Idiot!).

Deducing why he has won just 1 game is simple, he's got a weak ERA and its not like the Astros are a powerhouse offense. Well that's what you would think. Of all the pitchers with a minimum of 60 innings thrown, Roy Oswalt is currently ranked 10th best in team run support.

So what the hell gives? First, in Oswalt's lone victory the Astros scored at total of 12 runs. Secondly, the two games Oswalt actually pitched well coincided with the two games that the offense provided no run support. In the only outing in which Oswalt did not allow a run, Ramon Hernandez hit a walk off two run homer. In the only game Oswalt gave up a total of 1 run, the Astros didn't were stifled for 1 run through the 7 innings he pitched. Throw in the bullpen allowing a bunch of Oswalt's inherited runners to score combined with blowing a few leads and you have a pitcher with excellent run support and only 1 win.

Mr. Cabrera has been cut by the Washington Nationals because, quote the GM, "I was sick of watching him." I'd imagine that's in reference to his 0-5 record and near 6 ERA. But his hitting prowess of 0-11 with 9 Ks and 2 BBs probably didn't help. Overall Cabrera improved his career batting by putting two balls in play and walking twice but still sits with a .000 average and 23 strikeouts in 21 at bats.

If you follow the wonderful site MLBTradeRumors, you've noticed that there have been lots of conversations about the trade value of Adrian Gonzalez. Many people including Jon Heyman have floated about his value. The GM has even stated that "no player" is untouchable, aka Peavy and Gonzalez.

On one hand you can understand the logic. The Padres farm system isn't terribly strong and their current roster can only be classified as poor or worse. Adrian Gonzalez is the ideal player a contender would want to trade for. First off he's terrific, he's already got 18 homers. He's in his prime at age 27. He never misses a game. And most importantly he's signed through 2011, and he's on the cheap. Gonzalez makes just $8.25 million spread over 2009-2011. He'll get a kings ransom on the market.

The problem is that the Padres are already one of the lowest payrolls in the big leagues. Despite this they still have maintained better than average attendance rate. At what point in time do they say we have to have at least on player on our roster who is worth coming to see. If they trade Gonzalez and Peavy to boot, who in their right mind is going to go to a Padres game? Maybe its best for the baseball team to build for the future, but there's got to be a breaking point where telling your fans "don't even bother coming to the stadium for the next two years" is a bad idea.

My Team Meetings are nothing like kids football huddles, instead their pain, lots of pain and equal limited blogging time. Combine that with much lovely homework every night this week and the blog has suffered. Hopefully it'll kick back into action when the meetings slow.

If there's a lesson to be learned in this Magic-Cavaliers series it's that even the best player in the NBA needs a sidekick. Mo Williams was brought in this season to be the sidekick to get the Cavs over the hump and for the most part he's fit the bill. He made the All-Star team. He averaged nearly 18 points per game while shooting well over 40% from three during the regular season. He had solidified the point guard and the secondary scoring position position around Lebron. And then the Magic roll into town and poof, he's gone.

If you simply take a look at his scoring outputs in the 4 games played you might think otherwise. Mo has put up 17+ points in the 4 games, that sounds pretty good right? The problem is the clip he's been shooting at has been absolutely horrendous, especially from down town. In the four games played, Mo has yet to eclipse 33.3% from the field or 30% from downtown. In total he's gone just 6 for 27 from deep. In each game he's missed at least 10 shots. Throw in the fact that despite playing nearly 90 minutes over the last two games he's recorded just 5 total assists, and you're getting limited efficiency from a player who's supposed to be your secondary option.

Lebron doesn't need much to win basketball games, he's almost single handedly won a few of these games this series, what he does need is for the second best player on the roster to step up and start making shots with consistency. If that happens than perhaps it's not too early to write off the Kobe v. Lebron dream matchup all the marketers were hoping for.

Of all words uttered last night during the 4th quarter none was more prevalent than the word "Foul". All in all there were 22 personal fouls, 4 technical fouls and 1 flagrant foul called in the 4th quarter. The whistle blew so much in the final 12 minutes that it truly made the game unwatchable.

Let's take a look at a few of the facts from the foulfest last night.

~The 4 technical fouls were all called on separate instances that occurred with 5:30 minutes from 9:11 to 3:48.

~Luke Walton went from 3 fouls to fouling in a total of 5 Nugget possessions. Throw on an additional personal and a technical and Walton was whistled 5 times in the 4th.

~From 4:05 to 3:00 there were 5 personal fouls and 2 technical fouls. Only one possession wound up in something other than free throws, a J.R. Smith missed three.

~The Nuggets scored 16 of their 43 4th quarter points on the free throw line.

~Kobe Bryant made 4 free throws in a row during one possession at the 3:48 mark thanks to a personal foul by Carmelo and technical fouls on Melo and Kenyon.

In March when I purchased tickets for the Red Sox Mets matchup on Sunday the 24th little did I know that I was going to be in attendance for something so wonderfully delicious. I never could have imagined that on the day I sat on the Budweiser Roof that I would see David Ortiz go 0-5 and watch his average dip below the Mendoza line a full 154 at bats into the season. Oh sweet and delicious fail, how I enjoyed thee.

Too bad the Mets pitched Tim Redding and I was forced to watch them get pummeled and avoid an enjoyable sweep.

I can't stand the Lakers or Kobe Bryant and thus I've been looking for every reason to cheer against them this post season. I hoped the Rockets would shock the world and now I hope that the Nuggets pull off the Conference Final Upset. The Nuggets have plenty of guys I can pull for: I was a big Melo fan back in the 'Cuse days, Chauncey just seems to play the game exactly like how I would want to if I was an NBA point guard, the Birdman is fun to watch, I even for some reason like Kenyon Martin back in the day. With all these players it's been relatively easy to pull for Denver, if not for one person, J.R. Smith.

The problem with J.R. isn't his skill set. Nope, I love his game. He's freakishly athletic, he's got a jumper, he even ahs showed off some passing and defensive prowess this series. The problem I have with J.R. is that his celebrations after he makes a shot are boarderline ridiculous. I understand celebrating every once in awhile after a big dunk or a huge three, but for J.R. it's not even close to every once in awhile, it's every time. After every shot J.R. sinks he acts like he just dropped the Lebron James buzzer beater. Whether it be banging his chest after a wide open dunk, screaming at a Laker after a buried wide open three, or scowling after a 12 foot jumper, J.R. acts like a jackass. It's annoying.

I despise the phrase "Act Like You've Been There Before", but J.R. please take heed to the phrase and stop acting like a complete ass so I can cheer for the Nuggets without ever feeling sick.

The below chart shows a comparison between the Salary spent by each MLB teams and the percentage of attendance in their stadium. The higher you are on the chart the closer you are to the Yankees 200 million dollar payroll, the lower you are on the chart the closer you are to the Marlins 38 million dollar payroll. The further right the team is the closer they are to the Red Sox 101% average capacity. The further left a team is the Pirates 40.8% attendance. Ideally you want your salary low and your attendance high, so the closer you are to the lower right the better and the closer you are to the upper left, i.e. high salary low attendance, the worse off you are.



~The Brewers are doing very well for themselves this year post Sabathia and Sheets as they are 7th in attendance percentage but just 17th in salary.

~Only Milwaukee, Kansas City (Thanks Greinke!) and San Diego have a better than average attendance while also below the median of MLB salaries.

~The Padres apparently pay no one other than Jake Peavy, guess that's why they want to trade him.

~The Braves are still spending cash even though absolutely nobody is coming to their games. It's amazing how a team like the Braves who has been successful for nearly two decades still can't get people out to their ballpark.

~Outside the Braves, the Indians and Mariners are the only two other teams who have an above average payroll but are not above average in attendance.

~Really nothing else surprises here. The Yankees are piss poor, aka 8th, in attendance thanks to exorbitantly over-pricing their tickets. The Red Sox are first which is a combination of rabid fan base as well as incredibly small stadium. No one in Pittsburgh cares despite a sweet ballpark, thanks to not having a winning team in a high schoolers lifetime. And the Bay area may not be a big enough market for two teams.

~All stats were gathered before the interleague games on friday.

For anyone who may have been surprised by Jake Peavy's exercising of his no trade clause yesterday, I would respond with why? After the 2007 season, when the Padres finished in 3rd in the NL West despite terrific seasons by himself and Chris Young, Peavy signed a a 3 year extension on top of his original contract thus dedicating himself to the Padres until at minimum 2012.

When Peavy signed this deal in 2007 he was effectively signing up to be on a losing team for years. The Padres offense was putrid in 2007 and with Mike Cameron's impeding free agency was only set to get worse. He had to fully understand that outside of the emerging Adrian Gonzalez there were no big time hitting prospects on their way. He had to understand that life in Padre land was going to consist of him trying to squeeze out 3-2 victories and watching his fellow pitching staff struggle to do the same. All he had to do to understand this was look at teammate Chris Young, whom in 30 starts in 2007 posted a 3.12 ERA but was only rewarded with 9 wins.

So yesterday when the Padres "traded" Peavy to the White Sox pending his agreement, it was far from a done deal. The man signed up for losing and living in San Diego just a year and a half ago, was one year and one month of losing really going to change his mind? Especially when the change was coming in the way of switching to a more difficult league as well as moving to Chicago, not exactly the tropical paradise of San Diego.

Perhaps at some point in time this season Peavy snaps and says get me out of here. But right now no one should be surprised if he rejects moving again because there only have been 200 games of baseball between now and when he decided to keep playing for a loser.

Perhaps I'm out of the loop on this one but when the hell did Joe Mauer become a slugger? This afternoon in the Twins mauling of the White Sox, Mauer hit his 8th bomb of the season. 8th! He missed the entire month of April. What the hell is going on? His career high for homers in a season is 13 and that was accomplished in a year he played 140 games and accumulated 521 at bats. Last year in 146 games he hit 9 homers. Through 19 games this year he has 8. Someone give him a piss test.

Think Melky Cabrera wears a cup? I don't, he is an outfielder. I bet that was terribly painful.

Courtesy of Jimmy from Hot Clicks

Well I guess Ricky Rubio is in the #1 draft pick discussion considering the Clipshow are hawking both his and Blake Griffin's images to sell season tickets for the big article on their homepage. However, if you're not Rubio or Griffin you can end that hope now.

I went to the Yankee game last night which of course was enjoyable because they picked up their 8th victory in a row. But yet again the stadium and its weak home runs were troubling to me. 2 of the 3 home runs in the back to back to back, were entirely the product of Yankee Stadium. The first of which was Nick Swisher's which went out despite the swing, contact and sound off the bat suggesting bloop single. Take a look.

It's been a rough 2009 for the Davids, both Eckstein and Ortiz. Neither of these classic power hitters are have hit a single ball over the fence in almost two months. Let's take a look at which of these guys has been the better slugger this season.


Ha. F'n Eckstein has had a better slugging percentage almost the entire year. Get back on the Roids David.

It could be argued that last night was amongst the worst nights in Blake Griffin's life. We all knew prior to the lottery last night that Blake Griffin was going to be the first pick, it was just a matter of where. Of all the teams to wind up on, I'd imagine that the Clippers were near the bottom of the list, if not completely rock bottom.

The Clippers have been amongst the worst professional franchises in America since their existence. Their owner is a joke. They are the ugly stepchild in their own city. Despite the NBA inviting over 50% of their teams to the playoffs year after year, the Clippers rarely ever make it. Throw in the fact that the current roster is filled with totally random pieces which include aging All-Stars in Baron Davis and Marcus Camby and most negatively a malcontent best player in Zach Randolph who just so happens to play the same position and has a contract which is completely unloadable.

At some point in time last night someone mentioned Mr. Olowokandi and Mr. Manning to Blake Griffin. Both players never amounted to what they possibly could have been partly due to being a Clipper. In fairness to Griffin he's much closer to Manning than Olowokandi and Manning didn't live up to potential mostly due to injuries. Regardless of the circumstances, being a Clipper has never been a good thing and last night at some point in time you know Blake dropped an F bomb because of the way the ping pong balls fell.

Guess I lied about that 1 post on the NBA Draft

If David Ortiz goes 0-2 tonight he strikes the Mendoza Line. If he goes worse than 0 for 2 than Mr. Ortiz will officially have fallen below the Mendoza line. Come on Brett Cecil.

I like Punchout just as much as anybody, but I'm not sure about this...



Looks to me like it's nearly impossible. The dude is losing to Glass Joe. Nobody loses to Glass Joe. How the hell are you supposed to beat Tyson if you're struggling against the scrubs?

Courtesy of Gizmodo via EC

Optimus Prime would most certainly be able to take Lebron James to the hole.

Courtesy of Deadspin

The 2009 NBA Draft Lottery is tonight and well I'm not that interested. If you flip through ESPN's mock draft lottery tool, there is not a single scenario where Blake Griffin does not get drafted first. In fact I have yet to see one scenario where Ricky Rubio does not get drafted second. Sure, Blake Griffin is a monster and Ricky Rubio is supposed to be some stud Euro-Point Guard, but neither seems a lock to be a perennial all star. It's not like landing either is going to jump a team like the ClipShow from irrelevance to playoff glory.

If this draft closely resembles any of the past its clearly the 1997 Draft, aka the Tim Duncan Lottery. We all knew Duncan was going 1 and Keith Van Horn was going #2. The rest of the picks were uninspiring. Sure Chauncey Billups has morphed into one of the best point guards in the league and for awhile T-Mac was one of the top scorers in the NBA, but neither was a guaranteed thing on draft day or for a few years. The rest of the draft picks were either complete busts or mediocre role players.

The 2009 draft seems likely to have similar results except of course Blake Griffin almost certainly does not equal Tim Duncan. Hasheem Thabeet has shown a softness unacceptable for a man who will bang bodies with the big boys. Could this potentially change? Yes. Is there any chance in hell I'd want to drop the #3 pick on him? No. But there's limited other options. Jordan Hill seems like a Joakim Noah-type hussler, not really a #4 draft pick. Harden disappeared in their tournament games. Can't say I've seen much of Holliday, DeRozan, or Jennings. Do James Johnson or DeJuan Blair scream superstar? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Overall this draft does not inspire much enthusiasm on my end. I have a limited feel on many of the players. The players I do have a feel on, I'm not particularly impressed. Throw in the fact that the top two picks are a lock and the Celtics are not invloved and this might just be the only NBA Draft post of the year.

The Baseball Season is one that leads itself towards drastic day to day over reactions. Your team sucks cause last night they lost. Your team is great cause last night they hit a walk off home run. Your team sucks because your #5 starter gave up 8 runs in 3 innings. Your team is awesome cause your ace is unhittable. The big picture is always overwhelmed by the small picture and this is entirely evident by the past week in the Bronx.

Last week the Yankees sucked because they were 15-17. A 200 million dollar payroll and two games under .500 after 1/5th of the season? How could this be? Terrible just terrible. And who's a bigger bust than Mark Teixeira? Why did they give that bum 180$ million dollars? The Red Sox and Blue Jays are going to pull away from the Yanks. Panic is spreading throughout the Bronx.

Today the Yankees are on a 6 game winning streak coming off a sweep of the Twins with 3 epic walk off victories and so... Everything is Great. The world is a better place, the sun is shining, the Bronx is buzzing. Teixeira is a hero. The Yanks are just a 1/2 game behind the Sox. The Sox are reeling with injuries and a useless Papi. The Yanks are on fire and will surely pass them.

These are the emotions that fill up a baseball season. Highs and lows that should be tempered but they never are. The season as they say is a marathon and not a sprint, yet fans do not heed this advice. Rather they fly day by day, making drastic emotional swings with one at bat or one performance. Fandom does

Last Week the Yankees were Dying, This Week the Yankees Are Thriving, Next Week the Yankees are...

Watching a bitter enemy turn old and useless over night is always delicious, but watching David Ortiz blow up takes it to a whole new level. He's only a few more 0-fors away from the Mendoza line after yesterdays abomination. Do you think he hits the line? Or starts taking roids again and has a resurgence?

We all know about the historic SI Cover jinx, its well chronicled over time. Well now I introduce you to its internet spawn, the SI Hot Clicks jinx. In two days, Jimmy at Hot Clicks has managed to kill off two streaks.

Zimmerman's streak has been going on for a month, yet Jimmy waited until it hit 30 games to mention it up and dedicate a major section to Hot Clicks to Zimm and the streak. What happens? He goes 0 for in the afternoon session and only hours after the Hot Clicks post, the streak is dead and buried. No DiMaggio for Zimmerman. But the Nats one, so I guess that's good.


Then yesterday he apologized to the readers about ending Zimmerman's streak and linked up my post on Chris Davis saying his strikeout streak was the new streak to follow. What does Davis do? He first off doesn't strike out at all, killing the streak. But he also hits a walk off homer. No more fun streak to follow.

So what's next Jimmy? Can you use the damn Jinxing powers for good? Or will they continue to be evil?

This isn't necassarily a breakdown of guys that have moved up the charts like a 100 or so ranking spots, but rather a list of players whom I never thought would have major relivence this year. So Zach Greinke moving up to #1 from the 100s is shocking but not as shocking as it would have been say if Kei Igawa was a top 50 player. Those are the guys I'm going for.

Hitters

Adam "Not Pacman" Jones, Oreos' Outfielder: Jones was just one of the many young players with the potential for 5 category development. He was slightly on your radar as a late round pickup but if you drafted him you certainly weren't expecting him to carry your team. And that's what he's done.Current Yahoo Rank: 6

Jason Bartlett, Rays' Shortstop: To call Bartlett a light hitting shortstop coming into this season would have been entirely accurate. He's never had more than a handful of homers in a season and after a month he's almost already reached his career high, throw in a handful of steals in a solid average and you have a top 30 player. Current Yahoo Rank: 28

Aaron Hill, Blue Jays' Second Baseman: Aaron Hill showed potential in 2007, but the injury riddled 2008 completely stripped him from my attention come draft day. Now after the first month of the season, he's a top 10 player. Current Yahoo Rank: 10

Adam Lind, Blue Jays' Outfielder: If you say you drafted Adam Lind on draft day in a mixed league you are a flat out liar. He hit just 9 homers last season and provided no steals. He was deep on the long list of outfielders, now after a month he's got 6 bombs and is hitting .321. Current Yahoo Rank: 44

Marco Scutaro, Blue Jays' Shortstop: Just to round out the Blue Jays, I present Marco Scutaro. If you're wondering why the Blue Jays are exceeding expectations its because of Doc Halladay and these three players who are tremendously surpassing preseason expectations. Current Yahoo Rank: 59

Pitchers

Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals' Closer: He was slightly on the radar of course because all potential closers are. But league leader in saves when he didn't even have the job on opening day? Highly unexpected. Current Yahoo Rank: 34

Wandy Rodriguez, Houston Astros' Starter: Wandy did have a good year last season with the Astros. His ERA was in the 3s and he was striking out almost a batter per inning. But to me it just seemed fluky and not really repeatable. So far I've been dead wrong. Current Yahoo Rank: 38

Zach Duke, Pirates' Starter: Zach Duke looked like the next Tom Glavine in his rookie season. After that, he looked like Kei Igawa. This season something has clicked and Current Yahoo Rank: 68

Kevin Millwood, Rangers' Starter: Come on it's Kevin Millwood. His ERA is practically in the 6s each year. Never would I ever have thought to draft him unless I was in the deepest of AL only leagues. Yet he's 3-0 with an ERA below 3 after a month. Current Yahoo Rank: 108

Brian Bannister, Royals' Starer: He's a soft throwing 5th starter on the Royals. The fantasy relevance of these types of players is negative. However through a month Bannister sits wtih three wins and an ERA of 1.80.Current Yahoo Rank: 113

Look at the ESPN people playing nice. One jackass who's a TV guy and another jackass who's on the radio conduct a ludicrous shouting match. Wasn't that just lovely? Thank god Mike Missanelli no longer works at 1050 in NYC, just think about him and Stephen A doing a radio show Together. Ya it was painful.

By the way if you GOOGLE MIKE MISSANELLI, my post about his Token Idiocy is on the second page.

Courtesy of AA

People are up in arms over the "Double Standard" in Major League Baseball where an umpire makes contact with Magglio Ordonez and nothing bad happens to him. Let's look at the tape and be the judge for yourself.



He essentially touches his back gives him a directing "Get out of the box Magglio" push. It was absolutely nothing. He's the person with the authority. If your boss give you one of those at work are you filing charges? If you're thinking yes, than I guarantee I wouldn't be friends with you.

Hello Pussification of America. Can we please get a grip, before the entire world turns into flopping soccer players?

This isn't really news worthy, but buddy mentioned how UVA hasn't beaten VaTech in 1994 days so I decided to see just how long it's been since the Wolverines have beaten OSU. And well today is the 2000 day anniversary. UGH...

These guys had to be incredibly inebriated last night, as a result they were highly entertaining in a game that was pretty much done after the Yankees threw up a 5 spot.

Courtesy of HHR

With Ryan Zimmerman's streak falling 26 games short of DiMaggio yesterday, we are all left to search around Major League Baseball to find an intriguing streak to follow. Well, I have the perfect streak for you, it includes 20+ games of whiffitude. That's right it's the Chris Davis strikeout streak.

The sophomore 1B masher for the Rangers has 9 Home Runs through his first 113 at bats this season. Those are pretty solid power numbers. However, it's an all or nothing approach. Chris Davis has recorded at least one strikeout in EACH of his last 21 games. All in all Davis has struck out a total of 52 times, recording at least one in 30 of his 32 games played. In fact his streak would sit at 30 games if not for April 19th when he did not start but rather pinch hit and in his only plate appearance recorded a hit. It's probably safe to say if he got another at bat, the streak would likely be at 30.

In total Davis has only started one game, the second of the season, in which he did not strikeout. He's on pace to strikeout 262 times this season, which would absolutely obliterate the record set by Mark Reynolds last season when he whiffed 204 times.

So keep it going Chris. We love streaks. Push it to 56.

After three quarters on Tuesday Night the Celtics play could be described as nothing other than brutal. They looked like death, but after a little Stephon revitalization the Celtics started to fight back and it appeared as if their Swine Flu transferred over to the Magic. The Magic went into a complete funk, couldn't put the ball in the basket and ended up choking away the game. So naturally the post game interviews were filled with frustration, including Dwight Howard going off about getting the ball.

"Offensively I have to get the ball," Howard said candidly. "I don't think you are going to win a lot of games when your post player only gets 10 shots. It's tough to get yourself going and get a lot of touches without a lot of shots. We have to do a better job with that."

First off I loved Jalen Rose's take, which was essentially "If You're the Leader of the Team You Demand the Ball. Lebron demands the ball in the huddle, Kobe demands the ball in the huddle." Some blame obviously falls on Van Gundy's shoulders for letting his team collapse, but Howard if he's the leader of the team and wants the ball he should be able to demand it.

Secondly, I haven't seen Howard do a single thing this series that has screamed "FEED HIM IN THE POST." I'm sorry but his post moves and presence is not that frightening right now. I've watched this series and one question popped in my head, "If Dwight Howard was 6 foot 5 would he even be an NBA player?". To me he's great because he's bigger, stronger and more athletic than everyone. And against the Celtics small lineup this advantage is entirely evident. But his post skills closely resemble that of Kendrick Perkins, aka near zero.

Want someone who watches a shit load of basketball with paying gig to give you the same opinion, here is John Hollinger of ESPN:

Everyone is killing the Magic for not getting Howard post touches down the stretch. Have you seen this guy's post game? It's not good, especially when he's going against a wide-body like Kendrick Perkins who can get under him and muscle him into a running 10-foot hook shot.

Howard made five field goals and four turnovers Tuesday night, and that's because he couldn't score one-on-one against Perkins, just as he's been unable to do all series. Howard's baskets in this series haven't come on post isolations. They've come when somebody else has penetrated and fed him on the move, or when he has grabbed an offensive board and slammed it home.

Dwight you're an animal, but before you're ever going to morph into a go to player down the stretch of games you're going to have to find some semblance of a post move. So stop your bitching and do a little practicing this offseason.

The Big Picture did a Top 5 Fantasy Baseball Players you want to bludgeon with a baseball bat... I have 3 of the 5. Shit balls.

The NHL is in line for some thrillers over the next two days. They have Sydney Alexander Crosby vs. Ovechkin game 7 tonight. They get the storied Detroit Red Wings in Hockey town in Game 7 on Thursday Night. They get the resurgent #1 seed Boston Bruins in Game 7 on Thursday night. Everything is great in Hockeyland, how could they mess anything up. Oh but of course NHL & Versus can. How? Look at Thursday nights schedule.


You might be thinking "Oh look Versus is carrying both the Red Wings vs. Anaheim Ducks game and the Bruins vs. the Carolina Hurricanes game. The Nation will get to see two great hockey games, everything is great." But take another look, notice something about the timing of these games. Yep, they're only an hour a part. That means that if you really want to watch the Bruins game and not the Red Wings game than unless you get NESN, there will be no soup for you until the Red Wings game is over. In the best case scenario if you're a Bruin or Cane fan outside of the local market you will only miss a period and a half. In the worst case scenario, the Red Wings game could go into several overtimes and you could theoretically not see one second of live action of a game 7.

Why would you schedule two game that close together? Does the NHL purposely want to piss off people that want to watch their game, ie me? Over the past few games the Celtics and Bruins have played at the same time, each time I've opted to spend the bulk of my viewership on the hockey rather than the basketball. Now, I won't even have that option and who knows if by the time 9pm rolls around I even remember to turn on Versus when the Celtics wraps up.

I can understand the desire to not have the Bruins and Celtics games both start at 7 pm but you have two game 7s. Game 7 is by far the best thing hockey can offer and instead of staggering them so that both games can be watched in their entirety you decide that only deserves secondary status. Decisions like this are what continue to put hockey on the back burner of America's sports landscape.

Last night Stephon Marbury went from a sub that many Celtic fans shook their heads at, to a key contributor to a playoff victory. Marbury all of a sudden out of nowhere found the confidence his playoff appearances was lacking. For a few fleeting minutes the swagger was back, the desire to make buckets was back. At the start of the 4th quarter Marbury strapped the offense on his back, dropped 12 points, kept the Celtics in the game and was essentially a playoff hero, a very mild one.

This entire season and playoff with the Celtics, Stephon's main goal has seemingly been to be a good teammate. He cheers on the bench. He never hogs the ball. He never tries to be the star. He often passes on open shots to try to get other teammates better looks. He's even trying to play good defense. Gasp. How can you use Marbury and good defense in the same sentence? I said trying, not playing.

From my perspective I've seen these things for the entire postseason and have thought that he's giving his best effort and that if he ever got the swagger back and combined it with his efforts to be a good teammate than he could potentially be a key component off the bench. Last night was a glimpse into that potential world, and with an entire offseason to workout with the guys and to get a little confidence back in his blood I think Marbury 09-10 may just be good enough to challenge for 6th man of the year. Bring him back.

Everything at Yankee Stadium is starting to go on sale, let's see how well you can figure out the ridiculous prices of the many odd items up for sale.



Try Some More Trivia or Perhaps Some PhotoHunts

There are several Nintendo games that stand the test of time, one of these games is Mike Tyson's Punch Out. As I've mentioned several times on this here blog I have a mild obsession with the game, I even was Glass Joe for Halloween a few years back. So the re-issue of the game on the Wii, makes me contemplate a purchase. Especially after a few humorous youtube clips.


Little Mac looks like he put on a few lbs, and a little muscle mass. I guess now he's in the steroid era so it makes sense.


Doc's in great shape. No one knows boxing Quite like Doc. He's a true Trainer of Trainers.

H/T With Leather

Immediately after Big Baby dropped the game winning basket and ran up the court in celebration, I noticed him tossing aside a little kid. So I laughed, I took a picture and I posted it up as did many others. It was humorous fun the kid obviously didn't get injured in anyway, so it was just harmless fun. But of course as the world turns with rich men having no toughness or scrotum to speak of the bitching came forth.

Instead of sitting around in silence over a harmless incident, Ernest Provetti the father the 12-year old sent the NBA an email calling Big Baby a "Raging Animal" and demanding that Davis apologize for the incident. Essentially he turned his kids classmate reaction from "Dude I can't believe you got hit by Big Baby" to "Dude you're a pansy, there's no way that hurt." Since his email, Provetti has back tracked somewhat from his initial statements and says he will back off. I'm guessing the nasty emails he received on monday likely lead to his retraction.

Just one more example of the Pussification of America.

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you.

Roger Clemens is making the lying rounds today so why not take a lot at his numbers and pinpoint that steroid conversion time.

Explaining It Away
If you're looking to explain away the Clemens Toronto experience you can go one of two angles. Either A) Roger Clemens was unhealthy during his last season in Boston and refound his health in Toronto or B) Getting told he was unwanted in Boston motivated him to be a workout animal in the offseason and motivated him to prove that Dan Duquette was a complete D-Bag. Option B actually works for me. I believe that getting told he sucked might have been just enough to push Clemens towards the edge motivate him to prove everyone wrong. Pin pointing Clemens as a vindictive person is not a very far stretch.

The Verdict
The problem with explaining away the Toronto years and the later resurgence as simply becoming a workout fiend is that it leads exactly towards usage of performance enhancers. If Clemens was out to prove he wasn't finished and that he was still an animal, than why exactly would he just workout hard. Why wouldn't he look for that edge?

Is He Really the Unluckiest Man On the Planet? Doubtful...

Earlier this morning Roger Clemens broke his code of silence and appeared on ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning, why he chose a show that is mostly a comedy show is a question for another day. On this appearance Roger came off as his typical self, someone that either was hit with the Men In Black Memory Eraser or someone that is very very dedicated to his lying ways.

The interview was particularly ground breaking or interesting, but its just another example of how ridiculous. They asked him about the needles that McNamee supposedely had, he said that it was impossible. He reiterated that Andy Pettitte is misremembering their discussions. He said that everything is a lie and that the book that's coming out is just a bunch of lies meant to drag him through the mud. Everything coming out of his mouth is so blah blah blah lie blah lie blah blah lie.

At the end of the day, it's nearly impossible to believe the man. One man has been proven to have told the truth about administering HGH to two former teammates and two former workout partners of Clemens. His wife has admitted using HGH. If Roger Clemens isn't lying than he's the unluckiest man on the planet. And that's pretty much why everyone leans towards the belief he's a lying douche. Plus, he gives off the aura of having a "I'm Better Than You" attitude, all in all he seems like a jackass. Here's hoping if he is in fact guilty that he gets his comeupins.

Bobby Jenks is a massive dude who obviously isn't afraid to speak his mind or get in the middle of a little ruckus. So last week after the White Sox batters were getting pelted by pitch after pitch, Jenks decided to send a "We Ain't Gonna Take This BS" message. With two outs in the 9th and Rangers Star Ian Kinsler at the plate, Jenks dialed up his best fastball and threw it behind him. In the post game Jenks addressed this issue:

Asked if the two-out, ninth-inning pitch to Kinsler "got away from him," Jenks replied without hesitation:

"No, I meant to. To send a message. Basically I was saying, 'I'm sick of seeing our guys get hit and hurt and almost get taken out of the game.' I threw it with intention."

"With a one-run lead, I didn't want to put anyone on base. I just wanted to say, 'Hey, we can play that game, too.' Other than that, the important thing was getting him out after that pitch."

I've seen and heard a few people say this honesty was moronic and that he may wind up with a fine or suspension as a result. To this I say, HOW? Jenks DID NOT hit Kinsler. He DID NOT aim at his head. He DID NOT even throw at Kinsler. He just wanted to let it be known that his team was not going to take beat up ribs anymore so he wanted Kinsler to get a bit squeamish by throwing behind him. Who cares if he admitted what he was trying to do? He threw a ball with no intent to hit a batter, how the hell could you be suspended or fined for such a thing?

Here's a chart showing the correlation between runs allowed and team wins. Can you guess which one is the Yankees?

I'll give you a hint, it's altitude its high and its longitude is close to the Prime Meridian. The resulting dot states, we aren't the worst team in baseball but our pitching just might be. Get it yet? If you didn't you might be a reta...


Well it's not completely you Phil, but you certainly aren't helping much.

At the start of the season the Yankees were supposed to consist of a DEEP 5-man rotation. One with no holes. An Ace at the top in Sabathia. A two with great stuff in Burnett. An emerging Ace in Joba. A quality Vet in Pettitte. And finally a two-time 19 game winner in Wang. Well after 31 games, the Yanks have given up the most runs in baseball. Weak, very very weak.

Last week as we all know Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance on the MLB drug list. The substance was deemed to be a testosterone booster which could easily be linked back to a performance enhancer as it would most commonly be used by a male coming off a cycle. For this clear breaking of MLB policy, Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games or roughly 1/3 of the season.

The man in the image to the right is Richard Gasquet. He's a french tennis player who recently tested positive for Cocaine use. Gasquet is appealing these charges and states that he's an innocent man. If the appeal fails Gasquet could be suspended from the tour for 2 YEARS. 2 full years. See the discrepency there?

I'm far from advocating Cocaine use, but we can certainly categorize it as a drug not used as a performance enhancer, correct? I doubt Gasquet was in the locker room blowing lines before his match at the Australian Open. Yet, his positive test could cost him 2 years of his life, in a sport where the shelf life of an athlete is almost complete at the age of 25. Meanwhile, a player in the MLB can get caught injecting steroids in their ass and miss two months.

If Major League Baseball really wants to have their players stop taking steroids, its time to put forth a penalty which matches the crime. Missing out on two months of the season, coupled with the slap in the face from public perception isn't nearly harsh enough for the crime committed. Now if your throw the suspension up to two full seasons, let's see what potential Hall of Famer risks the entire tail end of his career for the extra boost. I'm willing to bet it would be far fewer than those who are likely currently on the juice.

Big Baby's got Big Nuts, and little puny Magic fans by the bench should not get in the way of his celebration. I hope your hat landed in a puddle of beer.

Just in case you were curious what a 36 million dollar pitcher with a 9.97 ERA does in his free time after forcefully being put on the disabled list, apparently you stalk Scalabrine. Perhaps Ollie P just wants some of Scals north east sex appeal.

A lot has been made about Yankee Stadium giving up boatloads of home runs since its inception. I've tried to remain calm and say that the homers have been deserving but last night was the final straw. Three of last nights homers were a complete joke and I just can't take it anymore.

First of all, Jason Bartlett is FAR from a Power hitter. He now has 15 homers for his entire career, granted 4 of them are this season but I don't care. His career high in a season is 5. So when a player of this ilk, throws his bat at a fast ball pinpointed on the black and knee high and it flys over the 385 sign, something is very very wrong. Jason Bartlett should not be hitting opposite field homers.


Ok I know Longoria is a power hitter and his home run in the 9th was a moon shot, but this home run is a disgrace. Look at where the barrel of his bat is and where the ball hits. That ball is millimeters away from being a cue shot blooper.


And to not be biased for the Yankees, Matsui's homer just might have been the worst of all. The pitcher throws a breaking ball that may have traveled as far as the plate. It was 100% evident that the ball wasn't going to reach the catcher, yet somehow Matsui dips his whole body down, hits a ball that never gets above 20 feet in the air and somehow has enough drive to hit the ball 325 feet?

Bartletts and Longoria high fly balls are likely outs in other stadiums. Matsui's ball is likely just a double. None of these balls should have reached the cheap* seats, nevermind been a few rows back. It's getting very very bad.

Shouldn't everyone be numb by now? Shouldn't everyone get used to big names coming out and getting busted for steroids by now? Maybe it's just that my emotions are deteriorating into mostly apathy in my elder age, but why the outrage and wrath pointed at Manny Ramirez over his positive drug test? Two of the most notable reporters that I've seen come down with hell and fury are ESPN's Jayson Stark and Bill Plaschke of the LA Times. If they had their way Manny might be burnt at the stake. But why? What's the point?

Here's my points for apathy, even if you're the Dodgers organization, you shouldn't really care:

A) The amount of people that cheated over the past two decades is incredible. A-Rod broke the seal. To be surprised by any new name that comes out is incredibly foolish. By now when a new name comes out it should feel like, well there's another one. And really does it taint any of the Red Sox World Series Championships? I'm sure there will be names that pop up on the playoff rosters of their opponents that took steroids as well. Everyone was on it, get it in your head already.

B) Theoretically if Manny was on steroids last season it helped the Dodgers immeasurably. He was a God in LA, the fans loved him, he made the Dodgers boatloads of money, and he was the reason they got in the playoffs. They should actually be happy he was on steroids if it helped his performance.

C) By getting suspended for 50 games, the Dodgers A) Save themselves 7.5 Million, B) save 50 games of potential injury by Manny, C) Should still be in solid position to win the Division come July. 50 Games really isn't that harsh of a punishment.

So Manny's a cheater and a liar. So he would rather you think his penis doesn't work than he took steroids. He's certainly not the first and he won't be the last. Stop wasting your anger and rage on something that just doesn't mean that much.

Looking to lose weight to fit into your summer swimwear? Or perhaps in these trying times you need to feed your dog but don't quite have the money to do so. Well I recommend WATCHING THE YANKEES. It'll induce Vomitting Every Time. Your dog will love those half digested carrots and your abs will never look sexier.

For those unaware, I am a fan of Chelsea. Over the past few years my fandom has grown from a "Hey I'm in London, I should pick a team to like" in 2002 to watching the majority of the Champions League matches and the occasional Premiership match on Fox Soccer Channel. Well yesterday was a day of pain for my relatively small but growing fanhood. Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final scored an early goal over Barca to put them ahead on aggregate. They held this lead throughout the game and had the better chances but couldn't find a way to get the second goal. Then with time dying down, one mistake on a clearance from the box was all Barca needed to score their lone goal and advance to the Champions League finals.

Losing in the closing seconds is a rough way to be defeated in any game but even tougher when the official is horrendous. Below is a recounting of the 4 different opportunities the official had to call a penalty kick in favor of Chelsea. Let's just say the official won't be welcome in south London or at Didier Drogba's house for tea again any time soon.



The Champions League Final is later this month between Man U and Barca, I am officially rooting for... a Natural Disaster.

Ron Artest is at it again. Dude get stabbed in the chest with a table leg, on the court? Umm, WTF?

A Letter From Manny Ramirez to the Baseball Public

Hello faithful Dodger fans, Manny like to say, Manny have never taken steroids ever peroid. The only drug Manny have is Marijuana. But it is prescribed by my doctor to help me relax and for my asthma. Manny never buy steroids, someone slip somthin in my Weed without me knowing. The weed taste funny and some how heel my knee and Manny hit .400 for Dodgers. Manny figure it just better Weed, so Manny keep toking. Now Manny find out someone slip steroids in Weed. Manny never bought steroids, Manny was just being Manny healing terrible asthma and anxiety. Now Manny suspended, is not right. Let Manny be Manny.

My buddy at work gets all these Travelzoo discount emails. Usually the only sports related discounts are the Knicks begging people to come watch their piss poor basketball teams. But as we all have seen the Yankees this season have been struggling to fill up the stadium as well. However, I never thought it would get to the point where they were massively discounting everything and not just the overpriced luxury seats. But it apparently has regressed to that point as tickets in the entire ballpark are not a hot commodity on Ticketmaster's secondary market.

This ad on Travelzoo offers tickets ranging from 6-11$, and they are waving the shipping fee. Additionally some of the Main Level tickets are selling at a 50% reduced rate. Essentially anyone selling their tickets on this market is going to take a loss, even tickets against the defending AL Champions.

The Boston Red Sox currently hold a 5-0 edge in the head to head matchup against the New York Yankees. In addition over the past few seasons there current roster always seems to step up their game against the Yanks. Is this just perception as an angry Yankee fan or is it reality? Hint it's reality.

Let's take a look at the three most notable percentage statistics in MLB: Batting Average, On Base % and Slugging %. I'm going to ignore shortstop because that's ever changing, JD Drew is the one player on the Sox with absolutely horrendous numbers against the Yankees cause he's a choke, and I'm not going to use Varitek because his numbers are very similar between the Yanks and his career numbers (more power less average and OB%). Therefore I'm focusing on the Red Sox we've grown to despise: Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, Ortiz, Bay and Lowell.

The most noticeable of all those stats to me is the vast improvement of averages by both Ellsbury and Pedroia against the Yankees. They are the 1+2 punch at the top of the order. They get things going for the new version of the Boston Red Sox, and them getting on base at such a higher clip naturally leads to more runs for the Sox.

The second stats of note is that in limited time against the Yanks, Jason Bay morphs into Albert F'n Pujols. His OPS is well above 1.000, he does everthing much better against the Yanks than he has in his career.

All the stats are right there in front of your face, if you're a Yankee fan and wondering why your team keeps on losing to its hated rival, its because the best players on the other squad step up in the big spot and your player most likely doesn't.

It's only 5 games and they're only 16% of but losing 5 straight including a mini-sweep in their first series at the New Yankee Stadium is painful. It isn't quite time to panic just yet but there is significant cause for concern.

~First off is the troubling Jorge injury. We saw last season what hit the Yankees lineup takes when Jose Molina is forced to play daily. Now Jorge is on the DL and we get slow poke Jose and his .200 average getting no big hits while clogging up the basepaths when he actually does manage to get on. Additionally Jorge is one of the clubhouse leaders, he's one of the few guys in the clubhouse not afraid to get in the face of a teammate and to tell them to sac up. If he's out for longer than 3 weeks than they could be in trouble.

~Problem #2: Bullpen. 200 Million Dollars apparently does not buy a bullpen that's capable of anything other than suckitude. Who does Joe Girardi go to? Bruney and DUMBASSHO are on the DL. So now he's stuck with the terribly inconsistent Veras. Phil Coke who's been solid. David Robertson, not that superb. Mark Melancon one of their best prospects who promptly walked his first three batters. Edwar Ramirez and his 2.16 WHIP. Albaladejo and his propensity to give up runs in bunches. The options are very very bad and in most cases very very inexperienced.

~Last night Ramiro Pena came up down 1 with runners on 1st and 3rd and one out. All he needed to do was hit a slow roller to the shortstop. Instead he took that swing and struckout easily. Then Molina got up and grounded into the debacle above. It's just more proof how badly the Yankees need A-Rod. Pena has been leaps and bounds better than Cody Ransom was, but he still isn't someone to be trusted in a big spot and he certainly isn't going to collect that meaningless Grand Slam in the late innings.

~Things I'm not terribly worried about are Big Tex and CC getting it together. These two have been consistently great over the past 5 years. There's a reason they got paid so much money. They'll find their groove soon enough.

~Phil Hughes didn't exactly impress in his second outing quite like he did in his first. You don't expect him to be dominant in each outing but it would be nice.

~I'm a tad bit worried about Cano. His April was almighty but he's gone into a little funk the past 4 games and being that he's been a ridiculously streaky hitter over his career, I'm worried that the one consistent bat they've had all year is ready to head into a funk.

~Basically these 5 games have been really annoying because it's not like the Yanks have gotten their doors blown off. They had Mo in for the save in one and in three others they either had a lead or were 1 run away going into the late innings. They had a chance to win several games and couldn't get it done.

~Now onto the Red Sox...

~In years past it was automatic, Manny would come to the Bronx bat .440 and mash. The Big Papi Manny combo was something the Yankees could never figure out. When that was broken up last season, I rejoiced like many Yankee fans and yet Jason Bay has quietly taken his place as a Yankee killer.

~Lester baffles the Yankees lefties consistently.

~Youk and Pedroia have been hated for years now because as soon as they came up from the minors and started to get consistent playing time they have played extremely well against the Yankees.

~David Ortiz has been miserable this entire season. He's batting .225 with zero homers. What does he do against the Yankees? He goes 3 for 6 with 4 walks. He was on base at a .700 clip. His OBP this season is .331.

~All in all their roster just seems to perform better against the Yankees than they do other rosters. Why? I have no idea, but they seem to step it up in the big spot meanwhile the Yankees roster, Not So Much.

Moving teams NHL teams from Canada, a place where hockey is religion, to the US a place where Hockey is on the mind of youngsters in maybe 5 or 6 states, has never made any sense to me. At least in some cases, like moving the Nordiques to Colorado, the environment was a wintry one. One where theoretical kids could grow up playing hockey in their back yard and grow up loving hockey. But moving a team to the Desert? Ya that never made any sense.

Now more than a decade later the mistake is obvious, the Phoenix Coyotes have filed for bankruptcy. What the hell did you really expect? Who the hell plays hockey in Arizona? Who the hell grew up a big time hockey fan in Arizona? And its not like Arizona is a big time market for other sports to begin with, half the people are transplanted retirees, just like Florida, and even the Cardinals struggled selling tickets before their shiny new stadium. So why would anyone think that in an environment with no hockey background and a mediocre market that a hockey team would succeed? And so it didn't and now its time to crawl back to Canada.

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Happy go lucky Bobby Abreu was always a good player for the Yankees but he always did something that baffled your minds. So when time came to offer him abritration this past fall the Yanks scoffed, likely because the market was unfolding and giving Abreu around 16$ million dollars per season was not deemed prudent. So Bobby took his OBP show on the free agent market and found the suitors a bit cold. In the end Bobby was forced to settle for just a 1 year 5$ million dollar contract from the Anaheim Angels of the Pacific Ocean. Let's check in and see just how Bobby has played over the first month.

.363 BA, 0 HR, 12 RBI, 10 Runs, 11 Steals, .427 OBP, .418, SLG%

Why the massive Power Outage? Abreu has 33 hits this season, of which he has only 5 extra base hits, all doubles. Meanwhile the speed is surging. His stolen bases have decreased in each of the past 5 seasons and last year in his 33 attempts he was thrown out 11 times. This season he's 11 for 11 on steal attempts. Another question comes in the form of why just the 10 runs? He's reached base on 44 times via a hit or a walk and 11 times has advanced an additional base via a steal and yet he's only score 10 times. The hitters behind him in the lineup certainly need to step up as does Abreu's power.

All in all, Abreu is playing well but the complete lack of power is a bit scary through the first month.

Earlier today I was informed by a buddy of mine at work that there was a post on the New York Times website that was for "Insiders" only about a potential Braylon Edwards for Thomas Jones trade. This excited me for a second because the Jets desperately need a wideou, I've always been a Braylon fan, and while Thomas Jones is a great asset, getting Leon more touches and utilizing freshly drafted Shonn Greene is a may not result in a massive dropoff.

So with this exuberance I decided to do some digging to see where this rumor originated from. And well, it started with Tony Grossi, a Cleveland Reporter just throwing out the idea and saying it was going to happen. Not exactly much weight behind that other than opinion.

So I decided to take a look to see if it even really makes sense. To me it makes obvious sense for the Jets, they need a big time wide receiver. They just drafted a back in the 3rd round and they have Leon. Thomas is aging and he probably only has a little time left.

But a deal of this manner makes no sense really for the Browns. As Waiting for Next Year puts it "...I’m struggling to see what role we would have for Jones." They already have an elder statesman at running back in Jamal Lewis, is it really bright to go into a season with a two-headed monster that consists of two highly paid 30 year olds? Than with the loss of Edwards, the Browns would need to rely strictly on Youth to get it done at wideout.

This rumor really has no basis and got my hopes up for absolutely no reason. Thanks for wasting my time Tony.

Ron Artest brings back the sweet head shavings for the 2nd round of the playoffs and the Rockets come out and steal the 1st game. I'm not quite sure it's as good as "King" from last season, but it's definitely solid.


H/T Ball Don't Lie

Darren Rovell of CNBC caught up with one of the lucky S.O.B.s that dropped a $1 on the Superfecta over the weekend and took home $278,503. His reasoning? He likes the Jockey...



In all honesty I checked out the Kentucky Derby page on Friday afternoon and said "I like the jockey uniform with the hat. I've never seen that before. If I was going to bet I'd probably throw down on the hat." So I guess liking the jockey is slightly less lucky than what I would have been if I decided to throw 20$ bucks on Mine That Bird because of a stupid uniform design.


I of course did not gamble 20$ and did not win 1000 dollars. Screw me.

Last night the Yankees and Red Sox sat in their respective clubhouses for 2+ hours waiting for the rain to go away and for their first contest at the New Yankee Stadium to begin. Meanwhile the thousands of fans were forced to make one of two decisions, stick it out in the rain hoping that a multiple hour rain delay wouldn't turn into a postponement or pack up their stuff and head home so as to not waste their time. Some of these fans unfortunately chose to do a little bit of both.

See when you're sitting around in the stadium and the rain isn't subsiding you get a bit ancy. You want to know if the game is going to get canceled, you want to stop dropping 10 dollars per bud light. So after a couple of hours you go up to one of the many Yankee Stadium employees and ask them if the game is getting canceled, when they tell you yes, you say well time to head home. Than you get to your car turn on the radio and hear Suzyn and Sterling say, "Well after a 2 hour and 20 minute delay it looks like the Yankees and Sox are going to start up the game and fight through the rain." So, you get your stuff back together head back to the stadium to watch the game, it is in fact the first ever Yankees vs. Red Sox game at the New Stadium, it's semi-historic. You get to the gate, show the turnstile employee your ticket and get told that there's strictly no re-entry. Despite the fact that you purchased a ticket, a ticket now unused, and furthermore were told by a Yankee employee that the game was canceled, you are locked out.

This was the life of many Yankee fans last night. Stuck outside the stadium because the New York Yankees abided by the letter of the law and not by natural common sense. This is just one more case of the Yankees brass just not getting it and treating their fans like shit. There are times when Rules are Meant to be Broken, that wouldn't be a saying if it wasn't the case. Last night was one of these times. Dedicated Yankee fans wanted to watch the game, a game they were told was no longer going to happen but they couldn't because the New York Yankees are unable to live in a world that is not simply black and white.

Zack Greinke through 6 games is pitching at an unbelievable level. He's leading major league baseball in every major pitching metric and why wouldn't he, he's given up just two runs through 6 starts. He's won all 6 games and struck out nearly 9 batters per outing. He's certainly getting a head start on the 2009 Cy Young Award, but let's see just how much of a head start. To do that let's take the past 5 American League Cy Young winners and average out their key stats over the course of a full season. This average will be used as the barometer for a "Cy Young" winner. Next we will calculate just how much and how well Greinke will need to pitch over his remaining 27 starts to accomplish the Cy Young averages.



For the remainder of the season as calculated above Greinke will still have to be a slightly better pitcher than he was last season when he won just 13 games with a 3.47 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. But with the way he's pitched over the first month of the season does it seem like there's any possible way he won't accomplish these stats? If anything, you'd probably predict superior numbers for a 25 year old who is entering his prime and obviously has improved considerably.

Perhaps Zack should start clearing out a little shelf space for that big trophy he's going to take home come November.

Jason's time in the Bronx can be judged as nothing other than a disappointment. After a superb first season in 2002 when Giambi batted .314 with 41 bombs and 120 rbi, Giambi's numbers went on a steady decline. Combined with the "Parasite", the Balco case, and zero World Series collected the Giambi era was not what could have been hoped for. And thus after 7 seasons as the Yankees first baseman, the Bronx Bombers packed up the Giambino's suitcase, gave him a nice farewell and shipped him back across the country to the Oakland A's. So let's check in with Jason and see if he's have a bad ass resurgence in the Bay Area.

.213 BA, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 11 Runs, .330 OPS, .307 SLG%... OUCH!!!

A .307 Slugging Percantage? That's terrible. Even Cody Ransom had a .320 slugging percantage while attempting to get above the Mendoza line. Looks like the Giambino's time as a professional baseball player just might be done. Perhaps he should try to return to the Bane days or at least bring back the Porn Stache, anything to try to bring back the bat.

"I'm Barry Melrose, and I would like someone to hire me. Look at my resume and give me a call."

Carl Crawford must have watched the Sportscenter highlights on Monday Night of Colorado rookie Dexter Fowler running wild and gotten inspired because yesterday he saw Dexter's 5 swipes and one upped him. With fat man Brad Penny on the hill and old man Jason Varitek behind the dish Carl Crawford ran wild, stealing everytime he reached base and sometimes twice.

At the end of the afternoon Crawford tied a modern day record of 6 steals in a game. But it's where he sits right now in the league standings that is almost even more astonishing. At this point of the season, about one month through, Carl Crawford ranks 8th in major league baseball in stolen bases. Wait nevermind, he would rank 8th in major league baseball if he was a team. That's right Carl Crawford has stolen more bases thus far this season than 22 major league baseball teams. In fact he had more stolen bases yesterday than the Braves have had all season long.

Crawford is now 17 for 17 on steal attempts this season through just 21 games, a far cry from the 25 he recorded in 100+ games last season when his legs weren't under him. He also has stolen at least one base in 6 consecutive games. He has the green light everytime he's on base. If you have Crawford on your fantasy team, get ready to have a 30+ steal lead by midseason.

Photos Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

Let's make jokes about brawls. I like Jokes. Jokes are fun.


And cause that last video was just humorous and not crazy, Ron brings the crazy here.

Ya Kobe ain't got nothin' on Mike from Queensbridge.

Videos Courtesy of FanIQ and Outside the Box Score

Farny was definitely a beloved former Yankee. He was the only player on the team that inspired the hatred of Yankee fans on par with that of A-Rod. He was the pillar of bullpen disappointments, yet he is 4th all-time for the Yankees in Holds. YAY HOLDS! In the offseason Farny signed on to be the anchor setup man behind Joakim Soria, so let's check in to see just how he's doing.

0-3 with a 9.94 ERA, 2.05 WHIP, 6Ks in 8 apperances. YIKES!

To point out how its even worse than that line check out his gamelog. They don't even want him anywhere near a close game right now. In fact the Royals are 2-6 in games that Farny has pitched in. They are 10-4 in games Farny has not pitched in. He's like the black plague coming in from the bullpen. Poor Farny, he seems like a nice guy, he's just not very good.

Month 1 is done so here are your Power Rankings.

I haven't posted about the NBA playoffs at all since its start because well the first 3 rounds all seem like a formality to me. So even though the Celtics and Bulls series has been fantastic, it kind of seems like a meaningless undercard matchup. But last night inspired rage, so....

TONY ALLEN STOP SHOOTING THE FUCKING BASKETBALL!!!!

Seriously, Tony you can't shoot. You shouldn't shoot. You shouldn't even be in the game on offensive possessions. Why the hell is Tony Allen taking two of the final three Celtics shots in regulation? This makes no sense to me nor anyone who has ever watch Tony Allen shoot. He has no touch. He has no conscience. He for some reason believes he can make shots. He can't.

Up by 5 with the basketball with a 1:15 left, the game is in the Celtics pocket. Yet, they let Tony Allen shoot the basketball. Brick. Brad Miller comes down and buries a 3. Next possession, Tony Allen shoots the basketball again. STOP FUCKING SHOOTING!!! The Bulls come down the court tie the game on an easy Brad Miller layup.

The Celtics had the game completely locked up and then they let Tony Allen shoot. Their reward is what should be a thrilling game 7. I hope they enjoy it.

You like the NFL, You Like Cheerleaders, You Want to Know the NFL 2009 Schedule. So why not combine it all in 1 with the Cheerleader Schedule? What are you waiting for? Download it. Download it now.

Here's a Backup Download Just in Case

Also don't forget to Download the NFL and College Football Helmet Schedules for your schedule needs.

In addition I created a few print friendly schedules for the cubicle for each NFL Team.