Ugly Loss

The United States seems to have every major sport on lock-down at the olympics...that is, except baseball. As you look through the sports, the softball girls are blazing their way through opponents, seemingly shutting out everyone they play, the men's basketball team played nearly the worst they could in their last game and still won by twenty...but then there's baseball. See where softball has Jennie Finch and Lisa Fernandez mowing down batters, and basketball's got the likes of Kobe, Dwight Howard, and 'Mello, the baseball team stocks it's roster with Matt LaPorta's and Mike Hessman's...minor leaguers. After today's embarassing loss that saw the United States give up 4 home runs in a 10-2 loss to Cuba, the hopes of an Olympic gold were put to rest. This begs the question, "should the U.S. have brought it's best to the Olympic games?" The simple answer of course is "yes." However it's not that easy. Saying that we should have brought our best, and actually bringing our best without problems, is a different story. The MLB has too much money invested into each team and it's players to simply pull them out of the regular season to play in the Olympics. Not to mention teams are fighting for their playoff lives in their respective divisional races. It sounds like it should be easy, but the Olympics are just at a bad time to play baseball. Too much controversy to touch. Let our Major Leaguers play Major League baseball, and allow our future stars a shot at glory for themselves....if not, they could always count the World Baseball Classic as the Olympics...that, and only that, would keep everyone happy without the fear of second-guessing actions.

Questioning Beijing

Sure the U.S. doesn't have as many gold medals as China, but we are dominating the overall medal count, 95 to 83. Sometimes I wonder, especially in contests that judges determine, how much favoritism is played. China, who is obviously hosting this summer's olympics in Beijing, has the same amount of gold medals, 46, as the second and third most combined (U.S. 29, G.B. 17). For example: Nastia Liukin tied in the uneven bars, yet Chinese gymnist He Kexin, won the gold because of some strange ruling that seemed to be pulled out of a hat... I think a simple coin toss may have actually been a more fair deciding factor....but I guess you can't blame China for that...just a strange coincidence. The thing you can blame them for however, is the age controversy, especially with He. You cannot seriously tell me that she's old enough to nab a drivers license this year. Look at our 16 year olds. Shawn Johnson is 16 and what, 4'8"? But she still LOOKS 16. So anyone who says "Oh the Chinese girls are just really petite," can kindly close their mouth. Just nine months ago a Chinese paper reported Kexin as being 13. So in less than a year, she's gone from 13 to 16. Is there a reasonable explanation for this? No. Just looks to me like China is willing to win gold at any cost. Just take a look at the side-by-side pics of Shawn Johnson, 16 and He Kexin, supposedly 16. Enough said.

My Appologies

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I haven't posted since Friday, but I'm trying to get ready for college...packing up, meeting with friends one last time, and so on....so I'm really sorry, but until I get moved and settled in, (moving in on Wednesday) I might not be updating every day. I hope you all understand and please keep checking in! I hope to start things up and really going again later this coming week!

Friday Fantasy Focus

Since we had our fantasy football draft yesterday, I'm going with the NFL this week. Oh and by the way, my team is stacked for a 10 person league. So here's what I'm going to do... I'm going to list my team and tell you why I picked them and why you should pick them... Unfortunately that's about all I can do, because I can't exactly write a book for you. I don't get paid for this.

Quarterback: Donovan McNabb, PHI (6th round, 60th overall)

There's only one word to describe McNabb: Dangerous. Injury risk? You bet he is. Donovan's missed over 31% of the Eagles' games the past three years, but his upside is so great it was hard to pass him up in the 6th round. In McNabb's career he's thrown 171 TDs compared to only 79 interceptions, so he probably won't be getting me negative points. It hurts that he doesn't have T.O. there to catch balls for him anymore, but he's got Mr. "Wes Welker before Wes Welker was cool" Kevin Curtis, and Brian Westbrook is starting to shine. I'll be praying to the football gods every week, asking not to see Donovan on the injury report.

Runningbacks: LaDanian Tomlinson, SD (1st round, 1st overall)

Do I even need to describe why I took L.T.? The only other person I would have considered with my number 1 overall pick would have been Adrian Peterson, but he's an injury risk... A.P. hasn't played a full season since his sophomore year with the Sooners in 2004. Almost as scary as McNabb. We play a points per reception league so that makes L.T. even better. I need to stop wasting my time here. Obvious pick. Next player.

Jamal Lewis, CLE (4th round, 40th overall)

Lewis may not be the punishing bulldozer he was back in 2003 (2,066 yards), but he bounced back nicely with the Browns last season after some thought his career was done. Jamal's only sat 6 games since 2002, and he's big enough that he deals the punishment. 1,300 plus yards last year and 11 total TDs sounds good... Unfortunately he doesn't catch the ball out of the backfield much (30 catches in '07). But Lewis had the 6th most fantasy points for runningbacks in our league last year and grabbing him 15 runningbacks into the draft made me feel VERY good.

Wide Receivers: T.J. Houshmandzadeh, CIN (2nd round, 20th overall)

"Who's your mamma" is a solid go-to guy for Carson Palmer, and the more he and "Ocho-Cinco" bicker, the more balls come T.J.'s way. He's definitely on the rise. The last 4 seasons his receptions and touchdowns have steadily increased, and with the exception of '05 (in which he only played 14 games) his yards have too. The Bengals might struggle this year as well, which means they'll have to throw the ball if they trail...not to mention Rudi Johnson isn't anything special anymore so they have no run game. Another 4,000 yard season for Palmer and another 1,000-plus for Houshy.

Larry Fitzgerald, ARI (3rd round, 21st overall)

Second straight year and 3 out of the last 4 that I've had Fitz on my team. The guy is just so solid. 1,409 yards last year and 10 touchdowns. Hopefully the Cards don't keep Leinart in for long because Fitzgerald and Warner are a lethal combo. Some questions about how many catches he'll get now that Anquan Boldin is back, but they were both together in 2005 and I mean they just played terrible together...cough...1,400-plus for both of them....cough. I'm not worried. Arizona actually has a shot at winning their division and plays some weak defenses on their schedule: (Miami, NYJ, St. Louis and San Fran twice each).

Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ (5th round, 41st overall)

I may have been able to get this guy a little later in the draft but I didn't want to take any chances. Cotchery had a very quiet 82 receptions for 1,130 yards last year on a dismal Jets offense. With Jerricho taking balls from Brett Favre now, I feel even better about this pick. Can you say, "sleeper"?

Tight End: Tony Scheffler, DEN (7th round, 61st overall)

Scheffler is young but has great hands and very good speed for a tight end. I'm sure losing 15 pounds in the offseason will help that speed even more. He has the ability to shine, no doubt. He's too big for corners and safeties to stop him and he's too fast for linebackers. Jay Cutler's young too, still getting used to playing in the NFL, and the first thing young QBs look for is a security blanket short and across the middle. Scheffler is his man. And even if this pick doesn't work out, I've got Ben Watson sitting on my bench.

Kicker: Shayne Graham, CIN (12th round, 120th overall)

With Vinatieri, Folk, and Josh Brown off the board already, I figured I would stick with Mr. Consistency here. First off, you know the Bengals are going to put some points on the board. Graham's never been injured while with Cincy and he's a career 85% kicker. Over the past four seasons he's averaged 125 points, and he's coming off a year that he scored 131 and only missed 3 kicks all year. A career 79% from 40-49 jumps at me too.

Defense: Indianapolis (8th round, 80th pick)

With a healthy Bob Sanders and Dwight Freeney, this defense can be downright scary. Freeney and Robert Mathis on each end will put a lot of pressure on QBs and force some tough throws. Kelvin Hayden and Bob Sanders will be the secondary's anchors. Unfortunately I didn't reach the Chargers defense in time...they will be spectacular. But Indy's D is very solid if it can stay healthy.

Bench: Isaac Bruce, Fed Taylor, Matt Schaub, Ben Watson, Deuce McAllister, Philadelphia

My Take On MLB Replays

Bud Selig said today his "confidence is growing" that technology in ballparks will be ready soon to permit instant replay. Instant replay has been a highly debated issue lately but it appears to have the go-ahead. When asked about the idea in the past, Selig has been against the use of it, however quite a few missed home run calls this season seem to have changed his mind. Replays will be used strictly on fair/foul calls and on determining whether a ball did or did not land over the fence. They will not be used on close calls on the bases or ball/strike calls. I really like this idea. Bud Selig has got to be one of the best MLB commisioners in history in my opinion. I feel he's dealt well with the steroids scandals, he avoided a strike in 2002, and now adding the replay without overstepping his, or the umpires boundaries. If Selig would have added it for any other disputed calls, Major League Baseball would have become an absolute mess. See you can't have replay for ball and strike calls because they are completely based on judgement, which is why you can't challenge a penalty in the NFL. Different umpires have different strike zones and that's not only just part of the game, but also the player's responsibility to adjust to that zone. One more thing to close on...with MLB games already pushing the three hour mark, tell me...how long would it take if we had replay for everything? Recipe for disaster.

What Were They Thinking?

The Spain Olympic men's basketball team, which includes the likes of NBA players Pau Gasol and Jose Calderon, is being criticized for a photo released to the public of the entire team pulling their eyelids back to make them appear more Chinese-like. When asked about it, the players say it was all in good taste and an "affectionate gesture" according to Calderon, and "absurd" that it would be taken as racist, by Gasol. Spain's women's team reportedly did the same thing in a photo. As for my input, what were they thinking? Seriously, that's the same as if they played the Olympics in Kenya and painted their faces black. Could someone tell me what Calderon is talking about? Affectionate? Does he even know what that means when he says it? And Gasol...You screwed up. And now he's trying to defend his actions by pissing more people off by calling it "absurd" if people took it in a racist way. Pau, you're getting paid to play basketball, not to tell people what to think...so please just shut up and go practice your jumper. It's clearly a racist act and they should, and have, appologized for their actions. I believe them when they say they didn't mean to offend anyone, but honestly let's use some common sense here. Didn't anyone step up during this photo shoot and say, "Hey guys, maybe it's not a great idea to mock the largest population of humans on Earth...especially when we're going to be playing on their court."? It's too bad that foolishness like this has to happen during a time of world unity. Oh well...see that's what bothers me...it's Spain so it's an "oh well." If the U.S. players did that it would have hit front page headlines of every sports page in the world...because remember, we as Americans are the bad guys and we do everything wrong in the eyes of the rest of the world. But don't worry about it Spain, the world still loves you.

Texas Shootout At Fenway

It must have been "jack up your stats up night" at Fenway on Tuesday, as the Red Sox and Rangers kicked off the series in a way that only two American League teams could have. Final score: 19-17, Boston. The Red Sox opened up with ten runs in the bottom half of the first inning, then slowly watched the lead diminish. Texas scored two runs in the 2nd, only to be countered by a two-run 3rd by the Sox, thanks to a bases loaded walk and an infield single by newly acquired Jason Bay. In the fifth, Texas came back with eight runs to Boston's two on a Kevin Youkilis long ball. Score update: End of the 5th inning, Boston: 14 Texas: 10. Top of the 6th rolls around and the Rangers put up a five spot to take a one run lead, and get another one in the top of the 7th. Bottom of the 7th, Boston puts one on the board, then sticks a four spot in the 8th. Papelbon comes in to close the door and allows a double and a run, but finishes it off. You know it's a tough night for pitchers when Jonathan Papelbon gives one up...I mean it's not like he has a career 1.71 ERA or anything.... A quick overview and some interesting facts about this joke of a baseball game:

• David Ortiz, AKA Big Papi, had 2 homers and six RBI's....in the first inning...
• The 36 total runs put up by both teams is tied for the AL record.
• Rangers pitcher Scott Feldman gave up 10 runs in the first and stayed in the game, becoming only the second pitcher to ever do that, along with...and this doesn't surprise me a bit...Mark Redman.
• The game showcased 400 pitches, 37 hits, 36 runs, 13 walks, 11 different pitchers, 11 doubles, two 5-hit performances, and despite putting up a football score, the teams combined to only strand 15 runners.
• Scott Feldman allowed 12 runs in 2 and 2/3 innings of work (in which he threw 90 pitches!)...only half of them were earned.
• The sellout crowd at Fenway witnessed a 3 hour 58 minute 9-inning game.
• Every starter on each squad had at least one hit, with the exception of Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash.
• 12 of the 18, or 67% of the starters had multi-hit game.
• Texas joined elite company of being one of only four teams since 1900 to score 17 runs and lose, notably joining the Marlins who lost 18-17 earlier this year against Colorado.