The Legitimate HR King

So I'm back in Bermuda after a long day of traveling.
But after spending 7 hours on Jet Blue Thursday/Friday with a TV in my seat I got a fat helping of 'The Mitchell Report'.
And I've gotta admit...There was 1 name that I was surprised and happy that Mitchell didn't name.

Sammy Sosa

After basically only having WGN and TBS to watch baseball games for the majority of my childhood, it was either watch the Cubs or watch the Braves. So although I'm an Expos (and now Nationals) fan officially, I developed a bit of a love for Chicago's team from the North Side.

When McGwire and Sosa came out of nowhere and started chasing down Roger Maris's Single Season HR Record I was pulling for Sammy all the way. The little hop out of the batter's box. The two finger salute, blowing kisses to his mother. What's not to love?

But Sammy lost. McGwire, Big Mac, the prototypical all-American with his red beard and his wide grin, smacked more dingers. 70 HR's. 9 more than Roger Maris. 4 more than Sosa's 66. Big Mac, even hit his 62nd against the Cubs. And Sammy was there to give his two finger salute to McGwire. The ultimate gentleman. Sammy may not have hit more homers but I still loved him.
Then came all the talk of steroid and juicing, and everyone said there was no way that the greatest HR chase in baseball history was done without performance enhancing drugs. But after Senator Mitchell's 20-month investigation into steroids, out comes the report, and there's Clemens, Pettite, Tejada, Bonds, yet where is Sammy Sosa's name?
In the entire 409 page report, Sosa's name is mentioned once, simply to say that Mitchell sent a survey to his lawyers which Sosa never returned. That's it. No former teammates claiming Sosa juiced. No strength coaches claiming they injected Sosa. Nothing.
Now I'm not saying Sammy definitively didn't take steroids. In an era were testing was poor, and steroid use was rampant, there is still no way to know for sure. But with no proof to be found on Sosa anywhere....Innocent until proven guilty.

Barry Bonds. 73 HR's. You did steroids.

Mark McGwire. 70 HR's. You did steroids.

Sammy Sosa 66 HR's. Your legitimate HR King.

Later,

Andrew

Crazy Contract Clauses in baseball

Stole this link from college humor.
14 crazy clauses put into MLB contracts


http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/10196#more-10196




wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of leverage at work??

Heres another hit, Barry Bonds...

"We outta here baby
We outta here baby
We outta here baby"
-‘Barry Bonds’- by Kanye West

Bond's big head (both in an ego sense & physically from all the human growth hormone) will undoubtedly love the fact that a superstar rap artist like Kanye has made a song about him. The lyrics are perfect. Bonds is headed outta here- right out of the ballpark and into a prison cell. But I could go on forever talking about how Bonds cheated the game, and cheated the legends of baseball, and cheated the fans. But that's not what I want to do (at least right now, we'll wait until the trial is over and all the facts come out for that).
I just want to ask one simple question.

Why is Barry Bonds so different than Michael Vick?

Michael Vick was convicted of a federal dogfighting charge in August 2007. By no sense of the imagination do i agree with what Vick did. I'm a dog person. I love dogs, I own a dog named Simba. (although anyone that knows him knows he probably couldn't even kill a large possum in a fight), but its time to get off Vick's back!
Vick is sitting in jail. He ate his thanksgiving dinner in jail. He will most likely eat his Christmas dinner and spend his 28th birthday in jail too. His former owner Arthur Blank is suing him for $20 million dollars. Three banks in North America are filing multi million dollar lawsuits against him. He has lost all his sponsorship/endorsement deals. Even his high school removed his jersey from their glass case of champions. His public image is tarnished for life. But he's sorry. He has admitted his crimes. He is paying his debt to society, just like any other regular person would.

Barry Bonds is scheduled to appear in court today (Dec 7) for the first time to hear his charges after he was indicted on federal perjury charges last month. Now while he has not been convicted of anything yet, when the feds bring a perjury charge against a high-profile person, they usually have the evidence to convict them. (For example-
Marion Jones- Convicted
Scooter Libby- Convicted
Lil Kim- Convicted
Martha Stewart- Convicted
Chris Webber- Convicted
So the future does not look bright for Bonds. He'll say he never failed a drug test and he's innocent till proven and guilty and all that nonsense. But we all know where this one is heading, even the most loyal Bonds supporters. Maybe the fallout will come when he is convicted and I'm just jumping the gun a little bit. But nobody is really jumping all over Bonds. Bonds has not lost his marketing deals. Bonds is not being sued by anyone. Bond's records are not being asterisked. His jerseys are still sitting comfortably in his high school and on the backs of fans across the country (especially in California). There's even still talk of Bonds playing baseball in 2008!

I understand that Bonds did not kill any animals with his bare hands like Michael Vick. But he did lie. 5 times. Lie about knowingly taking steroids. Lie about cheating. Lie to protect himself. But the bottom line is, Barry Bonds looks to have committed a federal crime, just the same as Michael Vick. And if we're gonna be so harsh on Michael Vick, why do we let Barry Bonds off the hook. They're in the same boat in my books.

"Yea yea..we outta here baby
Wha wha...we outta here baby"

Later,

Andrew

Referees Says the Darndest Things....

Probably the greatest penalty call ever from the NC State-Maryland college game from 2 weeks ago




I wasn't sure where the hold was...but now its clear. Thanks ref.

Goal of the Week

Its Monday...time for the first edition of

"Goal of the Week"

Sebastien Larsson with a scorcher from outside the 18 for Birmingham to beat Tottenham in extra time.








Beautiful goal from the Arsenal loanee to snatch the 3 points from Spurs.

The mess that is the BCS

So, like I said, I've been thinking about doing this thing for a little while. But the thing that really pushed me to do this (besides the aforementioned hangover) is the BCS being released today. The joke that is the BCS.
Its like a bunch of stoners fighting over the last chip in the bag. What does it matter who gets it when your all still going to be hungry afterwards anyways?

Here are the final BCS top 10 and BCS Bowl Pairings for anyone that missed it.

1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Virginia Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. USC
8. Kansas
9. West Virginia
10. Hawaii

National Championship Game- Ohio State vs. LSU
Rose Bowl- USC vs. Illinois
Fiesta Bowl- West Virginia vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl- Georgia vs. Hawaii
Orange Bowl- Kansas vs. Virginia Tech

Only one word to describe this year in college football: Chaos.
So its only fitting that the final rankings leave us just as confused about who's the best team in the country as we were last week, and the week before that, and back on Aug 30th, when this crazy season got underway.
Lets take a look back at some of the crazy results from this past season-

*Four #1 ranked teams lost.

*6 2nd-ranked teams have lost in the last 2 months

*Division 1-A Appalachian State beat #5 Michigan in the Big House. No subdivision team had ever beaten a team ranked in the AP top 25

*Traditional power Notre Dame went 3-9

*Navy beat Notre Dame for the first time in 44 years.

*Stanford, the doormat of the Pac-10, beat #2 USC in LA

*No Sophomore has ever won the Heisman Trophy yet (Tim Tebow) looks set to do just that

*LSU lost twice, yet still gets to play for the BCS Title, the first time that a two-loss team will get that opportunity

Its been a crazy year. And its hard to argue that this season wasn't one of the most exciting in college football history. Period.
But it once again proved how flawed the BCS system. Unless your a fan of Ohio State or LSU your not going to be happy with the BCS.
Ohio State gets to play in the National Title game on Jan 7, 50 days after they played their last football game. The only team they played that was in the AP top 20 when they played them: Illinois. Who they lost to. At home. Go figure.
Georgia was #4 in the BCS heading into the final weekend. Both #1 and #2 lost. So presumably Georgia will slide into the title game? Wrong. Instead they get jumped by 4 other teams and end the season ranked 5th and playing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Did Georgia deserve to be in the Title Game? Who knows. They're arguably the hottest team in the country right now but they didnt even win their own division in the SEC (LSU won the SEC championship by beating North Division champ Tennessee).
USC is easily the most talented team in the country top to bottom and one of the hottest right now. But like I said, they lost to Stanford. At home. This USC team could probably beat that Stanford team 99 times out of a hundred. But that was that one time. That was this season.
But my real issue is with Missouri. Missouri was ranked #1 before they lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Title game. Now they didn't even get invited to a BCS game. Not are they ranked higher than Kansas and Illinois, two teams that do get to play in a BCS game, but Mizzou beat both of em. So now your telling me that Kansas who outside of Missouri (who they lost to) didnt play a single team ranked in the top 25, and who are ranked 2 spots lower in the rankings, are more deserving?
Who am I to judge but the only answer to this whole mess is to let the kids keep playing. Let it be settled on the field rather than by a bunch of bureaucrats and computers. NCAA Division 1 football remains one of the only NCAA sports without some sort of playoff system, and it has to change. We shouldn't have to debate this year after year.
LSU and Ohio State, you may have got the last chip in the bag this year. But next year it could be you who is left hungry. Meanwhile, I'm gonna set up a nice little playoff of my own on my Xbox. And USC is the best team in that game so I'll get my Trojan national title that slipped through our fingers this year again.

Later,

Drew

Well...

So I've been thinking about doing this for a little while now. I watch ESPN everyday and a lot of the time I agree with what the "experts" are saying, but a lot of the times I don't. So I decided to write my own opinions down on paper (or on screen...i guess).
And what better way to distract me from the mountains of work and finals I have over the next week then to start it now. Coupled with the hangover that I have from a post-UCLA party (thanks flavored Smirnoff vodka shots...) and the $20 of McDonalds that me and Joe just went out and bought, its go time.
Bottom line: I can't think of many things I have more of a love for than sports. And I also can't think of many things that I actually pay attention to for more than 30 seconds that don't involve sports.
So feel free to comment, argue with me, tell me i'm stupid (or tell me I'm really smart), whatever you wan't. And i'll try to get some regular postings going. Who knows I might decide this is a big waste of time in a week and shut it down.
And ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and of you other guys, I finish college in a couple years so feel free to send any job offers to my e-mail.

Later,
Andrew