One of the stranger stories of the summer occurred this weekend when the Baltimore Orioles‘ Luke Scott cited Proverbs during an interview criticizing Tampa Bay Rays‘ pitcher for violating the Biblical prohibition against pride. It rubbed Garza the wrong way who responded that Scott was hypocritical for making gestures and actions that likewise showed his own self-indulgence.
As an aside, is it worth pointing out that the Tampa team until recently boasted “devil” in its name? All kidding aside, it appears that this feud has Garza red hot, most likely as a result of his own recognition that Scott was deliberately trying to goad him with his Christian beliefs. Look, Garza’s right that Scott unfairly brought religion into the mix. However, whether religion has no place in baseball is a question worth discussing. Read more
Last night i attended my first fantasy football draft in several years. I am not fielding a team, but i figured it would be a good way for me to get a refresher on where players ranked heading into the season. For a long time, I’ve believed that fantasy sports going mainstream has hurt the coverage of – and therefore my interest in – sports as a whole, especially with football. I can’t help but wonder how many people only care about Favre’s return because they have to figure out if he has more upside than Matt Ryan in the coming year, and not whether Favre’s decision could lead the Vikings back to the playoffs. That was my thinking anyway.
While one fantasy draft wasn’t going to be enough to turn me in the opposite direction and get me to sign up for a league, I am beginning to reevaluate the merits of following football from the fantasy end. In truth, the only thing that seems to be “fantasy” about these leagues is the sense of ownership over the players. Fantasy owners come to drafts prepared with all kinds of stats and lists that take everything into account, from high-profile changes in personnel and coaches to reports about how rookies are faring at training camp. Fantasy football has elevated the level of conversation among obsessive fans and driven them to take greater in-depth looks at teams around the league. Read more
Rather than tell you what I think about the upcoming NFL season, I have a better idea: let me tell you who you might want to read. I have friends do this for me with HBO series – I tell them to watch the first season, tell me if it sucked, and if not I pay a prorated on-demand fee and watch the season in two days, call my cable provider to return on-demand, and no one is any bit the wiser. True story. The same problem applies with the NFL: there’s a whole lot of crappy analysis and no one to sift through it all and tell you where to find the good stuff.
The Tampa Bay Rays use a sports psychologist. That headline grabbed my attention not because I think it’s revolutionary and want to learn more about the way this therapist practices in the clubhouse, but because I’m surprised this is news at all. Shouldn’t all ball clubs have someone on staff – or close by – to speak to the players about what’s going on in their heads, especially available for those who are struggling to make contact or to find the strike zone. I expect this to be standard for all teams in all sports. A consultant like this one would surely do the team good, even if players are hesitant to speak up about their problems. Read more
I admit that I don’t watch the annual awards show every year. And I only caught about a half hour of this year’s gala. But I just don’t get where all the hatred and animosity comes from when it comes to the ESPYs. There are some memorable, even if slightly lame, moments that carry the night the same way that other awards shows do. The only argument I can reason to lobby against the ESPYs as a whole is that awards shows are perceived to be unmanly. There’s nothing that I can tell, however, from the show itself that seems to be so offensive to the point of watching any less than, say the NBA draft Read more
I remember the good ole days when it was okay to not like the UFC. In fact, I remember when the people who liked UFC were the weird ones. Now I’m beginning to feel fringe simply because I don’t watch. In fact, if I didn’t listen to Dan Lebatard’s Miami based radio show, I wouldn’t even know that it was a big deal that some dude named Fedor lost last week. Fedor did lose, right? Okay, just checking. I’ve tried watching UFC, because cool people like the UFC, but I just can’t stomach it. I find Dana White interviews and mental images of Rachelle Leah way more interesting than the actual fights.
So why don’t I like it? Because to me, the UFC is basically porn.
I hope everyone tuned in last night to watch ESPN’s Free Agency Summit. It brought together the four most too-cool-for-school ESPN personalities: Tony Kornheiser, Mike Wilbon, Dan Lebatard, and Bill Simmons, a.k.a. the “Sports Guy.”
I’m curious whether or not viewers enjoyed the segment. I found it kind of disappointing. Read more
There was a time when people wore different attire to baseball games, adorning the top of their heads with more professional caps – the type they’d wear to work, not just the ballpark – instead of baseball caps. But that’s not where the fashion styling discrepancy ended; there was a certain sanctity and purity that the game extolled that its customers just somehow knew to echo with their dress and behavior. Read more
When it comes to Lebron, I am full fledged believer in the gospel according to Skip Bayless.
Lebron, unlike the true NBA greats, lacks the ability to carry teams. He plays a little selfish and fails to get the most from his teammates (see Carlos Boozer and Mo Williams). And as Skip says, he’s the ultimate front-runner. Sure, he’ll destroy the Milwaukee Bucks in historic fashion, but he also won’t show up against real competition even when the experts have picked him to win (think Spurs, Celtics, Magic).
But much as I can’t stand the guy, I find this summer’s free agency brouhaha quite compelling. I can’t get enough of it. I’m even following Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter, so my interest has pretty much reached dork-status.
But maybe you’re not following free agency in the same stalkerish way as I am. Here are four good reasons you should. Btw, everyone’s doing three, five, or ten reasons these days; it’s become cliche. If you want ten good reasons, check out Mike Florio’s lame-ass posts on Sporting News. If you want to read some wise-ass who thinks he’s awesome, keep reading after the break.
The 49ers traded Isaac Bruce back to the Rams today so he could retire with the team that gave him his start and made him a star. Despite having played the past two seasons with San Francisco after the Rams let him go via free agency, Bruce will always be considered a “lifer” to Rams fans who will forever appreciate the contribution that Bruce and other great offensive players made to put the Rams on the map. They were perennial contenders, rarer and rarer in football as the years go by. Fans will salute one of their leaders on Wednesday when Bruce will make his retirement official. Read more
A funny story caught my eye this afternoon. It turns out that the team is suing Jon Lovitz and others over claims they failed to pay nearly $100,000 for their season tickets this year. It immediately reminded me of how last fall the Redskins tried to go after ticket holders who simply couldn’t re-up with the team, despite their contractual commitments. (Look, the recession may have hit Lovitz just as hard, based on his last few years.)
A far cry from 2008 when Lovitz first took over these season tickets. The team welcomed him with open arms, bringing him in for their team festivities in the off-season. Lovitz became a visible, high-profile celebrity, a mainstay, alongside the team when the Dodgers swept the Cubs from the playoffs. It’s actually remarkable to see the way the Dodgers’ media treated Lovitz like a star in their midst, while national sites just a week later labeled him a has-been actor who didn’t carry much weight for the Dodger fan base. Read more
Before I start the following argument, let me be clear about two things. A) I love the United States and was as excited when they scored the game-tying goal as I was when Pitt won the Big East Tournament in 2008. (In fact, the US Hockey team jumped over Pitt Football breaking into the top five sports loves of my life: 1) Steelers, 2) Pirates, 3) Penguins, 4) Pitt Basketball, 5) USA Hockey.) B) NHL players playing in the Olympics is wonderful for the sport , and it would be a horrible detriment if they are disallowed to play in four years. Those two key pieces of information being said, I wasn’t miserable when Crosby scored the game-winner in the Gold Medal game, and I hold a little grudge against the NHL for pushing me to root against my captain oh captain. Read more
Tiger Woods made the sports world stand still for 15 minutes this Friday morning with a horribly unconvincing apology. He sat in front of 40 hand-picked reporters, read prepared remarks with little-to-no emotion, and gave no hint as to when he may return to golf. This man who cheated so furiously on his wife, who lost support from nearly all of his endorsers, who left golf so suddenly and quickly that we didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye…had an opportunity to regain one iota of respect at a time today and, for possibly the first time in his life, failed miserably. He sounded robotic, unhuman, unapologetic. Still, come the Master’s – where I do believe he’ll compete – he’ll find that despite his recent sexcapades and relentless negative press, we – his fans – will still be there for him, unabashedly fist pumping each and every time he approaches the green. Read more
Last night, I was sitting next to my sister-in-law watching Bode Miller race down a monstrous hill, slaloming left and right, tiptoeing against the track, when I said, “I hate Bode Miller.” “Why?” she asked. Ah, she’s 21-years-old, too young to remember what happened in Turin, too young to understand. “He slapped the Olympics – and America – in the face.” “How?” she asked. I thought about it. And then it hit me. I had no idea, couldn’t remember a thing. He didn’t drive drunk. He didn’t guarantee a medal he couldn’t win… No, I remembered that I was supposed to hate Bode but had no idea why. Read more
As the hockey games get underway this week at the Vancouver Olympics, fearless prognosticators are taking their best stabs at predicting which teams will go home with medals. It’s hard to predict which team – with whatever talent they bring to the tournament – will mesh best and live up to their team’s potential. Lots of teams are stacked with talent from around the NHL, but it’s easier said than done to get a group of individual stars to play as a team. Moreover, there’s so little time to practice together that lack of preparation time could be the biggest factor that stands in the way of a standout squad.
Because hockey is such a team sport, we’ve come to accept (and witness) that the best teams are those that show the best chemistry. It’s a term that gets thrown around very easily to represent the cohesion that a hockey team must showcase in order to achieve greatness. Russia, for instance, has the most top-heavy talent on its roster at the Olympics, but it’ll take some carefully crafted lined and willing players to get the most out of the top-tier stars. If they don’t buy into the game plan or system for the tournament, these players could wind up leaving their teammates and supporters wondering what could have been. Read more
