WBC thoughts

Like car-parts, bottles, and cutlery or whatever I find lying around

The WBC is so lame. What did we really expect from the brain of Bud Selig?
Bud: “OK team lets stage a baseball tournament before the season when nobody is ready, the incidence of injury and delaying readiness for the season are rampant, so rampant in fact that most of the good players will either back out of it, or be forced to back out of it because the owners paying these guys millions of dollars force them to feign an injury. and so it will become a horrendous tournament of fringe 4A players….”
Yes-Men Team: “Yeah, good idea BUD I don’t see anything wrong with this idea…”

Awww come on!

The solution is so easy. Have this thing be played over a 5 day span during the all star break. The all star break is already 3 days long, and boring and outdated, so every 4 years or whatever, just expand it to 5 days in the middle of summer so that the venues can be places like Fenway, Shea, Yankee stadium, Wrigley. You mean to tell me that a mid July game between the DR and the US taking place at Fenway wouldn’t be must see TV???? Or Daisuke pitching in the finals at Fenway to Ortiz in the bottom of the 9th bases loaded wouldn’t be the most compelling thing ever?

You can announce a pseudo all star roster and have the game simulated on an Xbox 360 to determine the WS home field advantage (as valid as the current system imho).

Take a page from March Madness, have a seeded (you know the US, DR and Japan are good and the Netherlands and Canada not so much) single game elimination bracket style tournament (round robin is so god awful to watch with listless players in a fairly meaningless game), and every game will have 7th game written all over it.

Expand the rosters of pitchers to like 50, so that you limit each starter to pitch one game or a 7 IP limit for starters and like 3 IP for each reliever, or whatever you want, that way they are all in midseason form, only gain 1 start over the course of the year and the risk of injury is less because they are used to competing at a high level.

Instead of all this we get triple A fill-ins playing round robin joke games in the daytime, where none of us see them on TV anyways. Single elimination bracket style tournament played on prime time TV like the playoffs would be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to be commissioner of Baseball, it pays a lot better than this blog

I am going beer shopping this weekend so ill hit you guys up with a review on Sunday.

Album I am listening to: Post by Bjork
J-1

WBC...Oscars...Big Shot Brob (really? does it get better?)

My thoughts on the World Baseball Classic and Who’s going to win...

But before I get to that, how bad were the Oscars?

I mean really, no flashy epic happenings, a lack-luster seemingly fake Beyonce performance. The highlight of the night was watching them cut 78 times to Angelina Jolie holding back an ear to ear smile while Jennifer Anniston made an ass out of herself just because of the fact she was standing next to Jack Black at the time. Honestly, we all know, she wrecked the marriage, but don’t give her the satisfaction by cutting to her 1/3 of the time Jennifer Anniston was on stage. That’s like everytime you turn on Fox News you see some white old man and Ann Coulter talking about how awful Democrats are, and just being racist...oh wait...

Fox News?

Oh have you seen this NY Post Cartoon? To defend this in any fashion and to think it is not racist would be irresponsible...and downright frigthening...

Anyways I thought the Grammy’s trumped the Oscar’s in every way imaginable. There were no surprises!

Did you really think Ledger wasn’t going to win? I mean, I wanted him to win, but to think anyone else would win? No chance

I texted my brother before it started to put 10 bucks on Sean Penn...at 2-1 Vegas odds, not that significant, but again predictable.

Winslet is the most unappreciated star of the past decade. She nailed Titanic and didn’t get any love after that. The woman is unbelievable and to think she wouldn’t win in a year when she had two critically acclaimed movies for which she could’Ve been nominated...Merryl Streep didn’t even pen an outline for her acceptance speech.

Slumdog delivered on all it’s hype...deservedly so...but i mean c’mon giVe us a surprise or two?

Should it have won best picture? absolutely

but why not haVe Richard Jenkins win best actor...talk about underappreciated, each time I saw him in an interview before the Oscars everyone asked him in not so many words...”How does it feel to be a legitmate unknown (even though you’ve been in a million quality movies for 20 years) with all these stars?”

He’s been around forEVER...check his resume...the guy is a stud
Imdb.com

He’s like the sports equivalent of Big Shot Brob...seriously this guy wins wherever he goes and just goes about his business...


If you wanted it to be a year of the underdog...stick with it!

Ben Stiller as Juaquin Pheonix as the actor-turned rapper on Letterman...genius

So I guess I ranted way longer than I wanted...

As for the WBC...always go with pitching

And because I know nothing about any other teams other than the US...the Dominican...and Venezuela...I’ll let Jason Stark do my point-making for me

It seems in his rankings at the bottom he thinks Japan has the best all-around rotation...
But watch out if the US gets a lead early...because their bullpen reaks havoc if put in the game...

Jason Stark

Nathan
Ryan
Fuentes
Putz

I’m going to predict a Venezuelan...US championship with Nathan closing the final out and a US Victory.

www.myspace.com/losbarricados

J-2

The other half of the Boston Blog Brothers

Mouth full of Cavities

Actually, I have perfect teeth (Jared too). Never had braces and didn’t get my first cavity until I was 23 years old. People, no soda in the house, and sugarless gum! My parents never allowed me either of those things and they saved a ton on dental work until my brother Jake who got the short end of the genetic stick.

Instead of thrusting myself into a sports blog I wanted to do an introduction of sorts so all of you can get to know your new faithful local blogger. So I am 27 years old a current second year graduate student at Northeastern University dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. I love lifting weights (Oak Sq. YMCA) and drinking beer. Not anything from St. Louis MO or Golden CO, but good craft beers that actually have FLAVOR! Just because you guys/girls watch sports doesn’t mean you have to fall in line with the advertising gigantism of Bud/Miller/Coors and thier awful yellow water products. Beer shouldn’t look like piss (apologies to drinkers of good pilsners, cream ales, and Belgian golden ales) Anyways, I am going to post a weekly beer review on a new beer that I hope you can gain insight into and initiate some variety into your beer drinking lives.

Sports in this order: I love hockey and the Bruins, I love the patriots and Brady and Bellicheck, and I get a kick out of coach’s press conferences. I like the Celtics but find it hard to watch a whole game this year because of the blowouts…and boredom expressed by the big 3 with the regular season, can not wait for the playoffs though.
Now the Sox…(bear with me)
I know being from Boston one is supposed to follow the local 9 with fervor and passion and blindly be led over the plank by Red Sox nation and its yahoo fans…but I can’t. Not anymore. I watched every inning in the Pedro years up to 2005, after the Clement game in Chicago I was slightly annoyed. 2006…snooze, and 2007 I couldn’t believe how apathetic I had become towards the sox (probably the best sox team assembled in my lifetime). I fell asleep before most of the games ended in Colorado, whatever. It really started in 2004, after they won. I mean I really enjoyed rooting for a team that I never thought would win, I know it sounds stupid but after they won it just didn’t feel the same. But the straw that broke the camels back was when there was a conflict between a meaningless Red Sox regular season game head to head with a BRUINS-CANADIENS PLAYOFF TILT…two guesses as to which one was shown on NESN. I happened to be working at EF International language school and set up the satellite dish to watch while I worked, but all I saw was Red Sox pre-game. DirecTV didn’t carry whatever the channel the B’s game had been moved to, and the NESN-Red Sox cartel and loser nation had officially lost a customer. A team that happened to be hot at the time was the Tampa Bay Devil Dogs, so I rooted for them all year long, got a little lucky (not so much with rooting for the Bill Simmons inspired Tottenham Hotspurs in the EPL)…If its any consolation Red Sox Nation, I did find it hard to openly root against the sox in the playoffs, so this year I am going to watch the sox, be a fan again, but be more objective because I have seen both sides of being a rabid fan and a rabid red sox hater.

I also like lots of music, the websites hotchickswithdouchebags.com, rotten.com, I’m a left wing lunatic that believes the government which governs best governs least, so a bit of a political curmudgeon. So I am looking forward to being one half of the Boston Blog Brothers (alliteration), and I hope you all enjoy said blog.

J-1

Matt Ryan should send Michael Vick a Christmas Card

Matt Ryan had a wonderful rookie campaign, maybe better than any in the History of the NFL.
How good was he?  After being drafted by the team with maybe the most disgraced NFL off-season in the history of the league, the Atlanta Falcons, what he did was nothing short of amazing.

Stats-

16 TD 11 INT 3,440 YDS 87.7 RTG 1 FUM (Lost) 61.1 Completion PCT 11-5 Record

Other pre-eminent QB Rookie Campaigns

Manning- 26 TD 28 INT 3,739 YDS 71.2 RTG 1 FUM (Lost) 56.7 Completion PCT 3-13 Record
Marino- 20 TD 6 INT 2,210 YDS 96 RTG 3 FUM (Lost) 58.4 Comp PCT 7-2 Record
Brady- 18 TD 12 INT 2,843 YDS 86.5 RTG 3 FUM (Lost) 63.9 Comp PCT 11-5 Record
Bradshaw- 6 TD 24 INT 1,410 YDS 30.4 RTG 38.1 Comp PCT 3-5 Record

All of the people on that list are either in the hall of fame, or are going to in the hall of fame at the end of their respective careers. It’s safe to say that Ryan is in some premiere company and if his career can span as long as those on that list, I think he’ll do alright for himself.

But getting back to Michael Vick and why he is so important to not only Ryan, but most of the First round of the 2008 draft which is turning out to be a pretty good one. Rookies dominated most of the season and it seemed like every week there was a new rookie stand out that people were claiming off the fantasy waiver wire. Personally Matty Ice went behind Favre, Quinn, Schaub, Campbell (by yours truly), Rivers, Rodgers, Delhomme, Bulger, Kitna, and Vince Young in our 3rd year keeper Fantasy league. Now other than Rivers and Rodgers who had great 2008’s, you wouldn’t want any other QB on your team this year and for the future than Ryan. He came into the draft and delivered on a huge level for an embarrassing franchise.

But let’s play the what-if scenario for the top ten picks of 2008.

Let’s disregard picks number one and two because Ryan was picked at 3, and you’d have to assume both Long’s would have gone one and two.

Let’s assume the Michael Vick dog scandal hadn’t happened and coming off a huge statistical 2007 year, the Atlanta falcons who had signed Michael Turner in the off-season would have passed on McFadden.

Going by the Draft the next logical pick would’ve been Glenn Dorsey at Number 3.

The Raiders, who had drafted J-Mar Russel the year before, pass on Ryan and take McFadden anyway (499 yards and 4 TD’s)

The Kansas City Chiefs, laying the future on Brody Croyle, pass on Ryan and with Dorsey off the board go with Vernon Gholston.

The New York Jets, who had recently signed the ever-aging Brett Favre in the off-season, pass on Ryan and draft, DE Derrick Harvey

The Saints, who already have a franchise QB (my boy) Drew Brees, pass on Ryan and go with Vernon Gholston

The Jaguars, tied up with David Garrard (releasing Leftwich the year before), pass on Ryan and go with Sedrick Ellis.

Cincinatti pinning their high powered offense on the Van Olhoffened knee of Carson Palmer, passon Ryan and go with Keith Rivers.

New England with the Golden Boy who never gets hurt and backup who hasn’t started a game since 1999 (high school mind you), stay with Jerod Mayo who still goes on to win the Defensive ROY award because he’s a savage, pass on Ryan.

Looking down the board the next picks are Buffalo and Denver, both with quarterbacks who they have invested in for their future.

The next logical pick would be Carolina, with an aging, fading Jake “the snake” Delhomme the Panthers select Ryan instead of Jonathan Stewart and Deangelo Williams has a mediocre year and doesn’t lead the Kurt Warner All Stars to their first championship season in the Hulke Fantasy Football League.

Matt Ryan’s number 3 contract- 6 years, 72 million dollars
Jonathan Stewarts number 13 contract- 5 years, 14 million dollars

Matt Ryan gained 1 year, and an average of almost 10 million dollars a year because Michael Vick had an underground dog-fighting ring for which he is serving jail time.

For goddsake Matt Ryan I don’t know how you sleep at night...

A-Rod amongst other things

Now before I go off on A-Rod, Bud Selig, the MLB and everything else dealing with sports the last two week. I just want to set a couple things straight (seeing how it’s my first blog post ever, unless you count my high school livejournal.)

I am a Boston sports fan, yes I will watch the Revolution if they’re on and I know who Sharlie Josef is is.
Of the four major sports teams in Boston, the Red Sox are my favorite but I am a victim of Red Sox Nation. I pledge no allegiance that farce of an advertising scheme by Mr. Lucchino.
The Bruins are next on the list. I just don’t know if it’s a bucking the trend thing, if my brother has more influence on me than i think, or if I just love hockey.
The Celtics are next just because I’ve been watching the past three teams since I came from the womb. I’ve watched Larry Bird, Kevin Mchale, Robert Parish (the good) and Dino Radja, Shammond Williams and “Miracle” Milt Pilacio (the bad).
I don’t care what anyone from New England says. Nobody cared about the Patriots until one Bill Parcells and Drew Bledsoe came to town. Before that, even the ’86 team, they were irrellevant in this town, completely.
Tom Brady is the second greatest quarterback of this generation, just behind Peyton Manning (and I was saying this before Manning’s Super Bowl).
Bill Bellicheck is the greatest coach of this generation and the Patriots are the greatest team since the early 90’s Cowboys.
Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player that has ever lived and anyone who says otherwise is absolutely cracked in the head. But there would have never been an MJ without Magic and Bird.
Having a team you can hate in sports is great. And being a fan of one of those teams is even better. You need (in no particular order)- Duke, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Cowboys, the Lakers, the Celtics, Notre Dame, the Canadiens because it makes things interesting when the Devil Rays make a run to the World Series.
The Michael Phelps situation is ridiculous. But if you read Jemele Hill’s article, she’s right.
Soccer will never be big in this country and it’s a shame, because it’s a really beautiful sport if you sit down and actually watch critically. Soccer fans also bring more passion and more enthusiasm than any other fans in any sport around the world.
Bill Simmons is my favorite sports writer, however his increasing popularity is starting bug me, but he’s a clever, insightful writer and probably the reason I’m writing this now.
TMQ (as introduced by my brother) is now becoming my 2nd favorite ESPN article because of everything else he brings to the table. If I could be as creative as Bill Simmons, and as up to current affairs as the TMQ, I would be happy.
If you get the chance, watch the winter Olympic hockey tournament, the USA has a chance this year.

That’s all I could think of for the moment, with more to come.

Now to my thoughts on A-Rod:

Alex Rodriguez had the chance to be greatest baseball player ever to grace the game. He would’ve well surpassed Bonds, Aaron, Ruth and just about every statistical power category lifetime could’ve been his. Now it’s all gone, well so we think. Bud Selig is a criminal and should be held accountable for the steroid ridden lifestyle that he allowed to happen. I used to think that Bettman was the worst thing to happen to sports, but Bud Selig allowed steroids to permeate the sport that he watches over. Fehr is also a horrendous human being because I know that they knew it would have eventually get out.

That being said:

Where are the other 103 baseball players who were tested?
Why is this guy getting goatted out of his records and stats because of a confidential test?

I don’t know what the solution is. MLB has screwed themselves out of many fans, much money and the future of the sport getting off scott free.

Don’t tell me this isn’t happening in other sports as well. NFL,MLB,NHL,NBA should all be tested and punishments given.

I can’t write logically right now because of the anger over the things I enjoy so much...

PS

David Ortiz- took steroids
Nomar Garciaparra- took steroids
Trot Nixon- just gained a lot of weight as he got older
JD Drew- sleeps in a humidor and is a human cigar (au natural baby)