Snubby Awards

    The NBA all star starters and reserves were released, and not every person was happy about who got the nod. Ultimately Devin Booker, who was the biggest snub, got in. But some would say it comes with an asterisk. Anthony Davis, who was an all star starter, can't play due to his injury and Devin Booker slid right in. Reminiscent to Damian Lillard filling in for Kobe when he was injured. King of the NBA, LeBron James also tweeted, "Devin Booker is the most disrespected player in the NBA". After him, is the aforementioned Damian Lillard. Is there some credence to this statement?

    Now, this isn't the, let's bash all of the all stars, blog post. Especially not since this is my first post in quite awhile. I need to reel you guys back in first. But there should be some mention that, 1. Dame Lillard should have been voted as an all s tar starter based off of the fact that he is a top five player in the league, and 2. he is playing better than Luka Doncic, who was voted an all star starter. Don't mind my run on sentence, I had to get that out. Even Luka said, Dame should have been voted in as a starter. Luka only got in because of the fan vote. This man has all of Europe voting for him. Much like Yao Ming and China when he played. But that's neither here nor there. Technically it is here, but you catch my drift. But with every failed attempt at humor, I stray away from the topic at hand. Back to the NBA. For Dame to not be an all star starter after out playing majority of the competition without his backcourt mate CJ McCollum, and starting Center Jusuf Nurkic for a large portion of the season, and still has them as a top 5 team, is a travesty. Not to mention other players not being there and he literally shoulders the load. But lets not stop there. We have to go back to Arizona and mention that Devin Booker who is on this suns team that is red hot only gets in due to an injury to AD. I find that to be a shame. But I won't dwell on it, because he is in.

    

    Other notable snubs are Domantas Sabonis, Trae Young, Bam Adebayo and Khris Middleton, just to name a few. Now, I can make the case that Sabonis should be playing over Ben Simmons, but in the game we play, who to add and who to drop. Can you really drop any of the other all stars from the east? Julius Randle of the Knicks and Zach Lavine of my Chicago Bulls both have been balling and were named to their first all star games. Cant drop them. Nor can you drop Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown of the Celtics. Don't let their free fall from the top of the east discredit what they have been doing, they are playing the best that they can. Maybe you can say take off Nikola Vucevic, but then again, how can you? The only logical player to take off the east would be Ben Simmons. Don't ask me why, if you have watched this season, you would see he doest stack up to any of the players mentioned. Because I know you wouldn't be the one to tell James Harden you are taking him off. 

    The West, is a bit tougher. AD, who is already missing it, Paul George, Rudy Gobert, Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul and Zion Williamson round out the all star reserves in the West. Now lets say AD isn't injured and he's playing. Then where does Booker fall? Does Cp3 give up his spot to give to Booker? That would be the ultimate assist. But no, he deserves it. Don't be upset with who I think should be left oof this list. Remember the song on Sesame Street, one of these things aren't like the other? Well, Zion Williamson sticks out like a green apple on a red apple tree. Now don't get me wrong, Zion is a walking highlight, but I can argue that one of his teammates is having a better season than him. Who? Lonzo? That would be a no. Well then you must mean Steven Adams? No, im referring to Brandon Ingram. If you watched any basketball this year, you would have to agree. Or not, its your choice

    I'll leave you with a cliff hanger ending. Who would you vote in? 

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October Run, Captain History

When the month of September comes around, there are three things that you’re promised. Labor Day weekend, back to school for the kids, and Football season. Wait, this is a baseball article, the Playoffs are coming. Yes, and who is the team that looks like they are going to take it all. Do I even have to introduce them? The New York Yankees looks like the team that will take home their 27th world championship.

The Yankees had a horrible start to the season, leaving Yankee fans with a sour taste in their mouth thinking that this will be a year of disappointment. But don’t worry; upon opening the new Stadium, it looks like they will be bringing number 27 back to the Bronx and number one to the new Stadium.

This isn’t your fathers Yankees of the late 90’s. This is a whole new look with a couple of the same dimensions that made those teams work. Do you remember the Chad Curtis’, the Shane Spencer’s and the Ricky Ledee’s of the 90’s, well Nick Swisher is all of those players in one. Their pitching is spectacular; okay maybe not, but it’s good enough to make a run in the Playoffs. Derek Jeter is looking like he will be the American league MVP and not to be outdone, CC Sabathia just might walk away with the CY Young award. All is well in Yankee land.

So I mentioned Jeter, as we all know he is three hits away from tying Lou Gehrig’s all time hits as a Yankee. But he has been hard pressed to say the least. 2,721 is the mark he is trying to surpass and it would be lovely to do it within the confines of Yankee Stadium, but I think at this point, if he could do it in his backyard and it would count, he would take it. In their day-night double header on Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays, Jeter went 0-10 and last night’s game, he went 0-4 with three strikeouts. But we know the captain; he will look you in your eyes and say, “I’m not worried about the record, as long as we are winning”. But that’s what we would have to speculate.

He has a lot more chances to break the record at home in front of the Yankee faithful. Will you be a witness to his history? But this poses a question, will Jeter reach 3,000 hits? Maybe, but that’s a whole nother article.

You just scratched your sports itch…

Swept Under The Rug

I was looking for my broom this morning, and I couldn’t find it. I was wondering where it went. Then I realized, the New York Yankees took my broom and used it to sweep the Boston Red Sox this weekend in a four game series.

Baseball in the Bronx is back. Now they live true to the name of the Bronx Bombers. It took them to the ninth game, but the Yanks finally got a game against the rival Sox. And they did it a fashion that made it look like they had enough of the Boston beat downs they received in the previous eight games. Imagine the Red Sox as the bully in the yard during recess and the Yankees were the receivers of the punishment, the Yanks finally got tired of the bully and decided to fight back.

Let’s go inside the numbers.

Game one of the 4 game series had the Yankees lighting up the scoreboard to the tune of 13 runs. The story isn’t about Yankee domination in the game; it’s about how John Smoltz of the Red Sox had such a terrible outing. The Yanks roughed up the pitching and they are just running on all cylinders. On Friday, the game was one to watch. This game lasted 15 innings and it ended on a two run homer from Alex Rodriguez. A.J. Burnett started the game and was masterful, but not to be outdone Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett was equally as good. Defense wins championships, and this was definitely on display during this game. But when the smoke cleared it was the Yanks up two in the game and the series.

The most remarkable thing this series was, the Sox went scoreless in game two, and scoreless in game three. CC Sabathia blanked the Six in game three as the yanks cruised to a five to zero score. That runs a total of 24 straight scoreless innings. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Game four was looking to be the final nail in the coffin, as the Sox didn’t score a single run until the 8th inning. Thank goodness they made the trade for Victor Martinez, as he belted a two run bomb off of Yankee reliever Phil Coke. That’s when the Sox were finally up in the score. They were up 2-1. But unfazed by this, Johnny Damon and Mark Texiera went back to back with two outs to give them the lead, and they weren’t looking back. They scored two more runs to add some padding to the lead and Marion Rivera got the final three outs and recorded his 32nd save.

No one expected the Yankees to sweep the Sox. I did, because I know what this team can do when at full strength. The Sox jumped on the Yanks when they were down, and the Yanks just returned the favor. The Sox are now six and a half games behind the Yanks for first place in the east and they are tied with the Texas Rangers for the wildcard. But you can ring them out; the Sox are hung up to dry.

Yanks Sox take 4

There wasn’t really anything too important about basketball going on, so I have to take another route tonight with this here blog. Because the hottest thing on the stove right now, is Yankees vs. Red Sox act 4.

As we all know, the Yanks have lost 8 straight games to the Red Sox, but these aren’t those same Yanks. If you remember, when they first met, the Yankees were all banged up, and Alex Rodriguez was now coming back from his injury. This time around, the Yankees mean business. They have been in first place for about two to three weeks now, and they haven’t looked back since. They are currently two-and a half games in front of the Sox and this weekend series may prove to be the most pivotal time series of the year. The Yanks have the ability to put Boston six and a half games behind them. If they sweep them. No one is expecting a sweep, but Yankee fans surely wouldn’t rule it out.

With this, the Yankees will be back on top where they are used to being. For a good part of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the Yanks were always in first place this time of the year, it’s only been the past two years where they have been looking up at the Sox. Not a position they like to be.

All in all, the Yankees are in the driver’s seat right now with this series. Even if they just win one game out of the four, they would still be a half game up over the Sox. But I don’t see these Yankees folding anytime soon, they have their poker faces on, and they are looking for that royal flush.

Steroids in Boston

This is something that the entire baseball world knew about for a very long time. We just needed proof. Yes, the big bad Boston Red Sox are now linked with steroids. And you’ve guessed it “Big Papi” David Ortiz is the culprit. Back in 2003 when the MLB had anonymous testing, Ortiz, amongst others, were on the list that showed that they tested positive for some sort of performance enhancing drugs. So now that puts a question mark or an asterisk on their championships.

Not to be outdone by his once teammate Ortiz, Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers recently came off of his 50 game suspension for indeed using a drug not sanctioned by the MLB. How long were Ramirez and Ortiz using these drugs, and how much did it affect their playing?

Honestly, I think Ortiz has finally dropped his use of the steroids long before his name was linked to the list. His numbers this year were horrible. He is usually among the top of the all-star votes and MVP votes. This year you won’t even mention his name. He probably knew that sooner or later his name would be thrown out there and I think he just decided to come clean. Not to the media, but to himself. Now you can honestly see evidence that these drugs could really be the reason why he was so good. Now you can make the argument and say, well he had to see the ball to hit the ball. True, but when he made contact, and boy he made plenty contact, that ball went out the park. How many walk-offs did he and Ramirez combine in Boston?

There’s an old adage, cheaters never prosper, well in this case they did. Winning two championships, since the ’03 season. Ramirez’s numbers are slightly off as well. The power numbers just aren’t there. I'm not taking anything away from these hitters, because they are superb in what they do, but did they really have to cheat? How many less homeruns do they have and how many less wins do the Red Sox earn if these guys weren’t using steroids? The buck doesn’t just stop on them though; the entire baseball world is still trying to figure out who is on this list of cheaters.

Ever since the steroids issue began to grow, Ortiz was adamant about the punishment that should be given to steroid users. He willingly stated that he would be tested just to show that he was clean. I guess he was calling the bluff of MLB. But what do you know, his name was linked anyway. What do you have to say now Ortiz?

Hopefully he has nothing left to say, and he just goes out and “cleanly” try’s to win baseball games. The Red Sox are currently a half game behind the New York Yankees, who have steroid problems of their own. But hopefully because of this anonymous list, that has a good amount of players left on it, players that were thinking about “juicing” up, puts the needle down and picks up a bat.

Practice makes perfect, just don’t perfectly practice cheating.

Theres No Place Like a Home

If there is no place like home, why can’t Michael Vick find a place to call his own? The dog fighting case has really put the, once positively talked about Vick, into a world of a NFL cast away. Not a single team wants this player who is considered a game changer? He may not throw as accurate as the upper tier of QB’s (quarter back), but Vick can definitely run a muck on opposing defenses. He’s your second running back. So again, no team really wants this guy?

Since being reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, after being out of the NFL for about two years, Vick is chomping at the bit to return to the grid iron. But not so fast, if he does sign with a team, he will be able to participate in training camp, but he will sit out the first five games of the season. As demanded by Goodell as part of his suspension. It might be a situation of rust that seems to be the underlying reason why Vick hasn’t found a home. Or it could be his troublesome past. But no matter how you slice the cake, as of today 27 out of the 32 NFL teams has expressed that they want nothing to do with the troubled star.

So who are the takers?

The final five teams that haven’t ruled out Vick appearing in their jersey is as followed; the defending NFC champions the Arizona Cardinals, (don’t expect to see Vick there, they already have a QB situation) the Carolina Panthers, the Houston Texans, San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers (that’s Aaron Rogers’ team, he wont be there).

So since you can rule out two teams out of the five that leaves you with, the Panthers, Texans and Chargers. Here is the scenario for the final three.

The Panthers have a star in Steve Smith, one of the games premier wide receivers. The have rather decent, not the greatest, but decent running game. But with Jake Delhomme at the helm and an aging defense, don’t you think Vick would be a nice addition to spice up the locker room? But honestly, Delhomme is getting up there in age and his predecessors are in the form of Matt Moore and Josh McCown. Who? Exactly. Vick would add playoff experience and a cannon of an arm to go along with his fast and elusive running. If and when Smith gets open, Vick could get him the ball in no time. Lets just hope their attitudes can co-exist in the locker room.

Next up is the Houston Texans. Since coming into the league, this team has been begging for a star. Well, they do have wide receiver Andre Johnson and they now have Rex Grossman at QB as household names in Houston. But can you see Vick fitting in? Probably not, because they have two pretty good back up QB’s Matt Schaub and Dan Orlovsky. The Vick saga wouldn’t continue their. Whose left?

The San Diego Chargers are next on the list of the thinning prospect of teams Vick may sign on to. He wont start for them because there is a guy named Philip Rivers there, and he is a pretty darn good QB. He might be able to back him up; because the Chargers back ups are Billy Volek and Charlie Whitehurst. He is definitely a touch better than the both of them even with his two year long rust. Vick and Chargers running backs Darren Sproles and Ladanian Tomlinson would give opposing defenses fits. Running around and chasing these powerful and fast guys. The is a Madden players dream. But that’s something we will just have to wait and see.

It’ll be a total shame if we cant find a place for this talented player in Vick. But maybe this will be a good thing that no team wants to sign him; he can go play in the Canadian Football League and show the NFL teams that he still has it, The speed and the arm, and maybe he could then polish his accuracy and become the player that everyone thought he would be.

But if all else fails, wait, there is nothing else to fall back on. So lets just hope all else doesn’t fail.

Night of Champions

With a cheeseburger in one hand and a Corona that’s almost finished in the other, I took the time away from my BBQ to check out WWE Night of Champions.

There was so much speculation about who would be the tag team partner that Chris Jericho chooses. Who in their right mind would have guessed that the Big Show would’ve who Jericho chooses to be his partner. Nearly dropped the burger, I was so shocked. They went up against Legacy in a match for the unified tag team championship belt. Legacy wouldn’t have been able to beet Jericho and Edge, (Jericho’s original partner, until Edge suffered an injury requiring surgery) let alone Jericho and the Big Show. Honestly, this is a shocker. Jericho and Mr. RKO Randy Orton was the first tandem that came to mind. Then Shawn Michaels, and then maybe the return of a wrestler i.e. Chris Masters. (Hint Hint)

Jeff Hardy is back on top of the championship mountain. He defeated the newly turned heal (bad guy in wrestling) CM Punk. Finally, or at least for the time being, we are done watching this joke of a champ. He just fits the mold of an Intercontinental champ. Punk literally lacks the charisma it takes to be a successful champion and a heal at that. But Hardy on the other hand has the flare and the charisma that goes with being a champion. Isn’t he now the youngest to hold both the WWE championship and the World Heavyweight championship? Answer, yes he is. But back to last night. Punk’s eye “injury” wasn’t the case; Jeff Hardy was just faster, smarter, just plane old better. This is why he’s now on top and everyone on the Smackdown roster is looking up at him. But don’t get too comfortable Mr. Hardy, because one John Morrison is looking over your shoulders.

Now if you saw Monday night Raw, you see that Randy Orton is still the WWE champion. How in the world is he still champion? Did HHH and John Cena lie down and let Randy win? Not likely. Of course Randy did his in ring thing by getting these wrestlers off their game for a bit, but like the afore mentioned Hardy, Orton was just better, but also you know his lackeys Legacy interfered in the match. But if we know Orton, he’ll confess to one thing, he is still the WWE champion.

Im not going to spoil your appetite, especially if you didn’t watch Night of Champions yourself, your going to just have to order it and watch. That’s if you want details and to see what move connected where. Until next week, make sure you scratch your sports itch.