England Is Better Than You

The UEFA Champions League opening Knockout Round concluded yesterday with one storyline dominating all others. The English Premiership is simply the best league on the planet. With just 8 teams remaining in the competition the English make up half of the field as every single English squad in the tournament has yet to be knocked out.

Chelsea, currently 2nd in the Premiership, knocked off Juventus, 2nd in Serie A, 2-2 thanks to the precious away goal by Didier Drogba.

Arsenal, currently 5th in the Premiership, knocked off AS Roma, 6th in Serie A, on penalty kicks in Rome.

Liverpool, 3rd in the Premiership, pounded powerhouse Real Madrid, 2nd in the Primera Division, 5-0 on aggregate after the 4-0 whoopin at Anfield.

Finally and certainly not least, Manchester United, best in the world, put the Special One in his place by knocking out Inter, 1st in Serie A, 2-0 at Old Trafford.

The thing that elevates Enlgand even higher is the fact that this exact same scenario took place last year. The same exact 4 squads made up half of the Quarterfinals. Unfortunately they were denied the opportunity to make up the entire semis when Arsenal and Liverpool were drawn to play each other. Hopefully the draw this year will be different and avoid all England matchups thus giving the Premiership the opportunity to further embarrass the rest of the soccer world.

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M E T S = Mercifully End The Season

Do it before David Wright gets Hurt!

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Numbers On Steroids: Bret Boone

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. Mr. Boone was once the best power hitting second baseman in the league. How questionable was his success? Averages Say: Why the extra plateu in his mid 30s? At Bats Per Home Run Says: Lowest at Bats Per Home Runs at 37? Hmm.... Explaining It Away Yeak, this one is tough. Umm, late bloomer? He showed potential power early in his career and he just liked playing in Seattle a lot more than everywhere else? And umm, his career was kind of like a running backs in that it just all of a sudden fell off the map? Any of these convincing you? The Verdict Guy never hits more than 24 home runs in a season and then in his age 32 season he hits 37? And in SafeCo a pitchers park to boot? And he follows that up with 24, 35, 24 homer years still at SafeCo? And then he completely falls off the map in 2005 never to be heard from again? We've got a Screamer... Man Get Big Muscles In 30s. Hm...

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Numbers On Steroids: Mickey Mantle

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. Time to look at my dad's favorite athlete of all time, Mickey Mantle. Averages Say: What's with the mysterious dip at 27 and then the uptick? At Bats Per Home Run Says: That's a mighty jump from 22 to 24 Explaining As If It Was the 90s If you take a look at the numbers there are two time frames which in the 1990s would be questioned. First would be the incredible leap he took from his first year in the big leagues to his first MVP season in 1956. His batting average jumped 50 points. His slugging percentage jumped 90 points and he hit 15 more homers than his previous high. This wouldn't merrit a conviction nowadays though because the young age he...

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