Sen. George Mitchell finally released his roid report on baseball. I didn't read it or get too too deep into it. I am sure it has some solid information and valuable recommendations, but I get the gist of it. MLB, the owners, the commissioner, players and their union did nothing to stop this abuse and they all need to do more, way more to stop the extensive drug use and cheating. What next? The senator is going to spend another 40 million and tell us the sky is blue or the fire is hot? Tell me something I don't know and thats where the names of the players come in! The most interesting part of this whole report for me are the names and I am sure it's that way for most people.
Anybody with a reasonable intelligence shouldn't find the rest of the report too surprising. Call me a sensationalist, but it's just fun to see the names, especially one Mr. Roger Clemens. In fact some people might even accuse Mitchell of releasing all these names just to grab some attention for his report, but who can blame him? He has nothing else to offer in his report that we don't already know. In fact, even Roid-ger Clemens was no surprise to me personally. I am happy this cheater finally got exposed. He is a arrogant bully and I was sick and tired of the media deifying him as a true American hero. I agree with a lot of black callers to radio shows who are saying this is a litmus test for the white media because we get to see how they treat Clemens V Bonds.
Anyways, here's the complete list of tainted players in the report. Mitchell had access only to 3 sources that are under federal investigation including Balco. This only means that the 89 names are just a small percentage of all the roid-heads in the entire game of baseball. It's ironic that at the end of the day, Jose Canseco is the only credible guy in this whole steroid saga.
The following players were connected to steroids, either use or possession, in the report:
Chad Allen
Mike Bell
Gary Bennett
Larry Bigbie
Ricky Bones
Kevin Brown
Ken Caminiti
Mark Carreon
Jason Christiansen
Howie Clark
Roger Clemens
Paxton Crawford
Jack Cust
Brendan Donnelly
Chris Donnels
Lenny Dykstra
Matt Franco
Ryan Franklin
Eric Gagne
Jason Grimsley
Jerry Hairston
Phil Hiatt
Matt Herges
Glenallen Hill
Todd Hundley
Ryan Jorgensen
Wally Joyner
Mike Judd
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Tim Laker
Mike Lansing
Paul Lo Duca
Exavier “Nook” Logan
Josias Manzanillo
Cody McKay
Kent Mercker
Bart Miadich
Hal Morris
Daniel Naulty
Denny Neagle
Rafael Palmeiro
Jim Parque
Luis Perez
Andy Pettitte
Adam Piatt
Todd Pratt
Stephen Randolph
Adam Riggs
Brian Roberts
F.P. Santangelo
David Segui
Mike Stanton
Ricky Stone
Miguel Tejada
Derrick Turnbow
Mo Vaughn
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White
Jeff Williams
Todd Williams
Kevin Young
Gregg Zaun
The following players were cited under “Alleged Internet Purchases of Performance Enhancing Substances By Players in Major League Baseball” in the report:
Rick Ankiel
David Bell
Paul Byrd
Jose Canseco
Jay Gibbons
Troy Glaus
Jose Guillen
Darren Holmes
Gary Matthews Jr.
John Rocker
Scott Schoeneweis
Ismael Valdez
Matt Williams
Steve Woodard
The following players were linked through BALCO in the report:
Marvin Benard
Barry Bonds
Bobby Estalella
Jason Giambi
Jeremy Giambi
Benito Santiago
Gary Sheffield
Randy Velarde
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Suns playing 762 ball, but could be better
Suns are 16-5 which translates to a .762 winning percentage. Thats pretty good by any standards, but a true Suns fan will tell you it could be better. They have lost so far to Lakers (home opener), Atlanta on the road, Golden State and Houston for a 2-game losing streak and the latest defeat at Minnesota. The last one was against a bad team, but it was one of those last game of a 5 game road trip on a back-to-back night against a bad team. Ultimate trap game. A true championship team should close the deal on such games, and thats where there is a slight concern about this Suns team. But any time you can remember all the losses a month in to a NBA season, your team is doing real good. It means they have not lost a whole lot of games.
The 2-game losing streak in the middle against the Warriors on the road and Houston was a little scary. Especially against the Warriors. The Suns have been blown out of Oakland the last 2 times. The Warriors have scored 45 points in the first quarter in both these games and have given Phoenix a bad taste of their own medicine. This is what is disturbing for me when you talk about the Warriors. They may be the only team that plays the Suns style better than them. It takes a lot out of me to say that some other team plays the run-and-gun better than us, but that could be the case with the W's in some sense.
Actually the Warriors don't necessarily play it better than the Suns, but they do play it better against the Suns. In fact lot of people call them "Suns-lite". They also don't shoot quite as well as the Suns. But they match-up very well against the Suns and are very athletic. I will take Amare and Marion's athleticism against anybody, but the Warriors are more athletic at every other position up and down the lineup. They score at ease against the Suns D and they are very active defensively. Their defense is nothing great, but if they put their mind to it, they can be better than the Suns on D. They are quick, athletic, they dig in and are just disruptive. Plus Nellie seems to be having the scoreboard on his ex-stars. After undressing Nowitzki in last year's playoffs, he killed Nash by making him play D. Baron Davis is too big for Nash and Monta Ellis is too athletic for most of the league. Nellie ran pick and rolls with Baron and Monta and just killed Nash on the defensive end. This is not a good match-up for the Suns or the MP3.
Speaking of the MP3, he has been in MVP form the last couple of weeks. His assists totals in the recent road trip were 15, 17, 18, 19 and 15. Thats amazing! He is now averaging 12.3 assists per game and I don't how he does it. Grant Hill has been an awesome fit as expected and Amare is coming into his own. His dunks are getting better and Dwight Howard is the only guy who has made him look a little weak! That will happen against Dwight. 35-20 easy for D12 against the Suns. The Brazilian blur has been good and Marion has been his usual Matrix-self. Diaw is up and down as usual, but Skinner has been a real revelation.
Overall the Suns are doing alright. Lets see how they do against the Spurs and the somewhat struggling Mavs. Until then, the following AD featuring Nash and Amare might be the highlight of this young season.
The 2-game losing streak in the middle against the Warriors on the road and Houston was a little scary. Especially against the Warriors. The Suns have been blown out of Oakland the last 2 times. The Warriors have scored 45 points in the first quarter in both these games and have given Phoenix a bad taste of their own medicine. This is what is disturbing for me when you talk about the Warriors. They may be the only team that plays the Suns style better than them. It takes a lot out of me to say that some other team plays the run-and-gun better than us, but that could be the case with the W's in some sense.
Actually the Warriors don't necessarily play it better than the Suns, but they do play it better against the Suns. In fact lot of people call them "Suns-lite". They also don't shoot quite as well as the Suns. But they match-up very well against the Suns and are very athletic. I will take Amare and Marion's athleticism against anybody, but the Warriors are more athletic at every other position up and down the lineup. They score at ease against the Suns D and they are very active defensively. Their defense is nothing great, but if they put their mind to it, they can be better than the Suns on D. They are quick, athletic, they dig in and are just disruptive. Plus Nellie seems to be having the scoreboard on his ex-stars. After undressing Nowitzki in last year's playoffs, he killed Nash by making him play D. Baron Davis is too big for Nash and Monta Ellis is too athletic for most of the league. Nellie ran pick and rolls with Baron and Monta and just killed Nash on the defensive end. This is not a good match-up for the Suns or the MP3.
Speaking of the MP3, he has been in MVP form the last couple of weeks. His assists totals in the recent road trip were 15, 17, 18, 19 and 15. Thats amazing! He is now averaging 12.3 assists per game and I don't how he does it. Grant Hill has been an awesome fit as expected and Amare is coming into his own. His dunks are getting better and Dwight Howard is the only guy who has made him look a little weak! That will happen against Dwight. 35-20 easy for D12 against the Suns. The Brazilian blur has been good and Marion has been his usual Matrix-self. Diaw is up and down as usual, but Skinner has been a real revelation.
Overall the Suns are doing alright. Lets see how they do against the Spurs and the somewhat struggling Mavs. Until then, the following AD featuring Nash and Amare might be the highlight of this young season.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Close Call!
The Pats had another close call. They lost the game against the Ravens like 3 times before winning it at the end. They got stuffed on 4-Th and 1 only to see the play get erased by a Baltimore time-out. They got stuffed again, but the play was void because of a Pats false start. This might have been the best false start ever for an offense! They got a third shot at 4-Th down and now Brady converted on a QB run. They faced a 4-Th and change again a few plays later and Brady's pass fell incomplete. But wait. Holding penalty on the defense. First down Pats. This penalty was a killer. Sometimes you got to let the kids play when the game is on the line like that. I hate it when refs do more than their job. Just an hour after this game, I was watching the end of the Magic-Warriors game and they called a T on Dwight Howard for punching the hoop-support with just a few seconds to go. I had to make sure D-Stern had not let Tim Donaghy back in to ref this game. That was a ridiculous call since Howard was not even protesting against a call. He was just frustrated with himself. What are these refs thinking with just a few ticks to go in the game? This holding call was not quite that bad, but still a game-changing one. Since it was on a TE and not a WR I would say let the extra contact go.
Pats scored soon after and the game was over. Even the TD looked suspect with the receiver kinda bobbling the ball though both his feet were inbounds. To make matters even worse for the Ravens, they threw a hail-marry at the end that the receiver actually caught, but he was 2 yards short of the end zone. That should have been a fun game for the Ravens fan. I wish I had tuned into those calls on their post-game show. As for the Pats, the cheaters are still undefeated. They almost seem destined to go undefeated, but they have looked VERY shaky the last 2 weeks. Both Phily and Baltimore have made them look shaky and interestingly, those 2 teams have not made too many other teams look bad this season. I was watching this game in a gym and it was interesting how many people were rooting against the Pats! Not sure if it was an underdog thing or a spy-gate thing or just guys being jealous of Brady, but people outside of New England don't dig this unbeaten Pats team and I like it that way. I don't like Pittsburgh either, but I would be their biggest fan for 3 hours next week when they play the Pats.
Speaking of the Steelers, they were very lucky this weekend as well. It appeared like Willie Parker was fumbling the ball every other carry, but just like the Pats and their 4-Th downs, each fumble was reviewed or erased by something or the other. Either his knee was down a milli-second before he fumbled or his butt hit the ground before the ball popped out or something like that. Grandpa Madden was pining for the good old days when a fumble was a fumble and nobody cared about whether the butt hit the heel before the tongue licked your nose while the ball was rolling out! I guess good teams make their own break.
In other news, the McCown brothers were good on Sunday with Luke winning a game for Tamba Bay and Josh guiding the lowly Raiders against the hated Broncos. I think the Mike Shanahan era in Denver is winding to an end. Not sure what's up with that team. The Raiders used their rookie QB JaMarcus Russell for a few plays though it's running back Justin Fargas who gashed the Broncos. In Washington, Joe Gibbs got a penalty for back-to-back timeouts and pretty much gave the game away to the Bills. They went from a difficult 51 yard field goal to a friendly 36 yarder to win the game. That wraps up an interesting week for the Skins to say the least. The best clips from the NFL weekend was the moves that Adrian Peterson put on a couple of hapless defenders on his way to pay-dirt. This guy is an awesome running back.
Pats scored soon after and the game was over. Even the TD looked suspect with the receiver kinda bobbling the ball though both his feet were inbounds. To make matters even worse for the Ravens, they threw a hail-marry at the end that the receiver actually caught, but he was 2 yards short of the end zone. That should have been a fun game for the Ravens fan. I wish I had tuned into those calls on their post-game show. As for the Pats, the cheaters are still undefeated. They almost seem destined to go undefeated, but they have looked VERY shaky the last 2 weeks. Both Phily and Baltimore have made them look shaky and interestingly, those 2 teams have not made too many other teams look bad this season. I was watching this game in a gym and it was interesting how many people were rooting against the Pats! Not sure if it was an underdog thing or a spy-gate thing or just guys being jealous of Brady, but people outside of New England don't dig this unbeaten Pats team and I like it that way. I don't like Pittsburgh either, but I would be their biggest fan for 3 hours next week when they play the Pats.
Speaking of the Steelers, they were very lucky this weekend as well. It appeared like Willie Parker was fumbling the ball every other carry, but just like the Pats and their 4-Th downs, each fumble was reviewed or erased by something or the other. Either his knee was down a milli-second before he fumbled or his butt hit the ground before the ball popped out or something like that. Grandpa Madden was pining for the good old days when a fumble was a fumble and nobody cared about whether the butt hit the heel before the tongue licked your nose while the ball was rolling out! I guess good teams make their own break.
In other news, the McCown brothers were good on Sunday with Luke winning a game for Tamba Bay and Josh guiding the lowly Raiders against the hated Broncos. I think the Mike Shanahan era in Denver is winding to an end. Not sure what's up with that team. The Raiders used their rookie QB JaMarcus Russell for a few plays though it's running back Justin Fargas who gashed the Broncos. In Washington, Joe Gibbs got a penalty for back-to-back timeouts and pretty much gave the game away to the Bills. They went from a difficult 51 yard field goal to a friendly 36 yarder to win the game. That wraps up an interesting week for the Skins to say the least. The best clips from the NFL weekend was the moves that Adrian Peterson put on a couple of hapless defenders on his way to pay-dirt. This guy is an awesome running back.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Greatness in action
Greatness in action
I have not had the time to blog for a few days. The entire Thanksgiving weekend and since, I thought I have been seeing some tremendous performances on the football field and basketball courts. I am talking really impressive, out of the world type game here. The following guys have impressed me a lot over the last 2 weeks.
Tim Tebow - Florida. This guy is just awesome. A unique (white) double-threat QB. Dude has 29 touchdowns throwing and another 22 rushing this season. It's scary how good the Gators can be the next few years with this guy calling the shots. He is a top Heisman candidate though he is just a Soph.
Run DMC, Darren McFadden - Arkansas. As good as Tebow has been, I would say my Heisman is DMC. I couldn't believe what I saw him do against LSU last weekend. 206 yards rushing against the nation's number 1 team and guiding his team to a win single-handedly. It's amazing to watch the Razorbacks routinely line him up at QB and just directly snap to him without even pretending to have a passing game. I don't remember ever seeing the ball snapped to the RB so often. Thats how good Run DMC is.
The guy in the NFL who is dominating right now is Devin Hester. He scored 2 TDs last week on returns, both is the 3-Rd quarter, to single-handedly rip the hearts out of the Denver Broncos. They deserved every bit of their troubles because they brought it upon themselves. Why would anybody kick to this guy? I would give the ball to Rex Grossman and his offense at the 50 yard line every time rather than kicking it to Hester at the 20 or even in the end-zone. This guy is even more exciting than Dante Hall a few years back because at least that Chiefs team had an offense. The Bears have very little going on either side of the ball outside this guy.
D12, Dwight Howard. If you have not been following the NBA closely, you might have missed the growth of a new beast in the East. He is so good I might start calling the conference East again instead of LEast. Howard is a monster. The guy is so big and so athletic, it's a joke. This guy is almost unstoppable in the paint and he plays exclusively above the rim. He has more dunks this season than entire teams and his guards can just throw the ball anywhere near the hoop and he'll catch and crush the ball through the hoop. Double double is considered a good game and 20-10 is usually superstar numbers. But this guy routinely goes for 30-15 and 20-10 is actually a bad game for him.
Howard kind of reminds me of Amare from a couple of years back when he used to lead the league in dunks. Amare is still dominant, but the knee surgeries have definitely taken some juice out of Amare. Howard is now the vicious dunker and bigs like Amare have no shot against him in head-to-head match-ups. He is an inch or two taller than Amare, plus has a great wingspan for his height. He has never missed a game due to injury and can play defense as well. So that next great big man to follow Tim Duncan is D12. He is a cross between Tim Duncan, Shaq and Amare and in a year or two, he will make Timmy look bad. D12's offensive skills are still a work in progress and is nowhere near Timmy's but he has already started winning their individual match-ups. Imagine what happens in 09 or 2010. Scary!
King James. The other true stud of this young NBA season is Lebron James. This guy has become a triple-double machine and is the MP3 front runner. The Cavs didn't do anything this off-season to improve the team, but why should they if this guy keeps improving like this year over year! He just makes everybody around him so much better and his teammates are just growing in confidence playing with this guy everyday. Again, I think his offensive skills are nowhere near where it can be and it's scary to think how complete a player he will be when he gets there. He may never score like Kobe, but he is going to be a much better player if not already.
I have not had the time to blog for a few days. The entire Thanksgiving weekend and since, I thought I have been seeing some tremendous performances on the football field and basketball courts. I am talking really impressive, out of the world type game here. The following guys have impressed me a lot over the last 2 weeks.
Tim Tebow - Florida. This guy is just awesome. A unique (white) double-threat QB. Dude has 29 touchdowns throwing and another 22 rushing this season. It's scary how good the Gators can be the next few years with this guy calling the shots. He is a top Heisman candidate though he is just a Soph.
Run DMC, Darren McFadden - Arkansas. As good as Tebow has been, I would say my Heisman is DMC. I couldn't believe what I saw him do against LSU last weekend. 206 yards rushing against the nation's number 1 team and guiding his team to a win single-handedly. It's amazing to watch the Razorbacks routinely line him up at QB and just directly snap to him without even pretending to have a passing game. I don't remember ever seeing the ball snapped to the RB so often. Thats how good Run DMC is.
The guy in the NFL who is dominating right now is Devin Hester. He scored 2 TDs last week on returns, both is the 3-Rd quarter, to single-handedly rip the hearts out of the Denver Broncos. They deserved every bit of their troubles because they brought it upon themselves. Why would anybody kick to this guy? I would give the ball to Rex Grossman and his offense at the 50 yard line every time rather than kicking it to Hester at the 20 or even in the end-zone. This guy is even more exciting than Dante Hall a few years back because at least that Chiefs team had an offense. The Bears have very little going on either side of the ball outside this guy.
D12, Dwight Howard. If you have not been following the NBA closely, you might have missed the growth of a new beast in the East. He is so good I might start calling the conference East again instead of LEast. Howard is a monster. The guy is so big and so athletic, it's a joke. This guy is almost unstoppable in the paint and he plays exclusively above the rim. He has more dunks this season than entire teams and his guards can just throw the ball anywhere near the hoop and he'll catch and crush the ball through the hoop. Double double is considered a good game and 20-10 is usually superstar numbers. But this guy routinely goes for 30-15 and 20-10 is actually a bad game for him.
Howard kind of reminds me of Amare from a couple of years back when he used to lead the league in dunks. Amare is still dominant, but the knee surgeries have definitely taken some juice out of Amare. Howard is now the vicious dunker and bigs like Amare have no shot against him in head-to-head match-ups. He is an inch or two taller than Amare, plus has a great wingspan for his height. He has never missed a game due to injury and can play defense as well. So that next great big man to follow Tim Duncan is D12. He is a cross between Tim Duncan, Shaq and Amare and in a year or two, he will make Timmy look bad. D12's offensive skills are still a work in progress and is nowhere near Timmy's but he has already started winning their individual match-ups. Imagine what happens in 09 or 2010. Scary!
King James. The other true stud of this young NBA season is Lebron James. This guy has become a triple-double machine and is the MP3 front runner. The Cavs didn't do anything this off-season to improve the team, but why should they if this guy keeps improving like this year over year! He just makes everybody around him so much better and his teammates are just growing in confidence playing with this guy everyday. Again, I think his offensive skills are nowhere near where it can be and it's scary to think how complete a player he will be when he gets there. He may never score like Kobe, but he is going to be a much better player if not already.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Packers are Favre real!
Turkey day means one thing - football. There were 3 NFL games today and they also had a big-time College game between ASU and USC. I would have rather taken the ASU-UofA match-up on Friday after thanksgiving like the old days after looking at this one. ASU looked completely out-classed by the trojans. From the first snap, ASU just could not wrap up the USC guys and bring them down. Awful tackling usually means one thing. The athletes on the other side are either quicker or stronger or both. Unfortunately that was the case today. ASU is still long ways from challenging USC. They had problems tackling and stopping them and on offense, ASU could not run against them at all. The USC pass-rush was also ferocious and with Rudy Carpenter holding on to the ball too long like he always does, the passing game was stuffed as well. The USC line almost killed Rudy. All things considered, this was a great season for ASU and Dennis Erickson, but they aint going to the Rose Bowl. They have lost to both USC and Oregon and that will stop them in most tie-break calculations.
In the pros, it was all about Brett Favre. Dude is looking as good as he has ever looked and he picked the Detroit defense apart with his quick passing. The Packers are spreading the WRs out and killing people with Brett's passes. He is playing at a very high-level and their offensive chemistry is off the charts. The kids are playing hard and their defense is no joke either. Mike Martz and Jon Kitna looked amateurish against the Packers D. Martz needs to go upstairs and do some real work. I don't see his offensive genius with this offense which has enough talent on paper to do some damage. Both their wide receivers are absolute studs - Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson and Kevin Jones and Jon Kitna aren't bad either. In the other game, not sure why the Jets even showed up at Dallas. That game was over long before it started. There's no way the Jets beat the Cowboys. Now the real game is between the 10-1 Pack and the 10-1 Boys next Thursday. It's like the mid to late 90's all over again! Unfortunately none of us can see it because NFL has this game on the stupid NFL channel.
In the pros, it was all about Brett Favre. Dude is looking as good as he has ever looked and he picked the Detroit defense apart with his quick passing. The Packers are spreading the WRs out and killing people with Brett's passes. He is playing at a very high-level and their offensive chemistry is off the charts. The kids are playing hard and their defense is no joke either. Mike Martz and Jon Kitna looked amateurish against the Packers D. Martz needs to go upstairs and do some real work. I don't see his offensive genius with this offense which has enough talent on paper to do some damage. Both their wide receivers are absolute studs - Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson and Kevin Jones and Jon Kitna aren't bad either. In the other game, not sure why the Jets even showed up at Dallas. That game was over long before it started. There's no way the Jets beat the Cowboys. Now the real game is between the 10-1 Pack and the 10-1 Boys next Thursday. It's like the mid to late 90's all over again! Unfortunately none of us can see it because NFL has this game on the stupid NFL channel.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Shake it like a Salt-Shaker!
Another weekend, another major shake-up in college football. 2 top-5 teams lost - Oregon and Oklahoma. Oregon's loss at the hands of Arizona opens the door again for ASU to win the Pac-10. It's still too early for ASU to dream about a BCS berth because they have to play the Trojans on turkey-day and then the slimy Wildcats, but how ironic would it be if Arizona helps Arizona State win the Pac-10? But really it was Dennis Dixon's injury that killed the Ducks. That team has got nothin' goin' on outside that QB. His backup Brady Leaf is pretty good for his last name, but he can't do what what double-D does for that offense. Now the ASU-USC game on Thursday becomes huge. It might be for all the marbles in the Pacific, at least for ASU.
The other big-shot team to lose this weekend was Oklahoma. They lost to Texas Tech and nothing wrong with that. I am not a big fan of Bob Stoops and I like the Texas Tech offense. They just seem to chuck it around year in and year out. This was the 11-Th time this year a top 5 team has lost to an unranked team. How awesome is that? I am loving college football like never before.
No major surprises in the NFL this weekend. New England beat up on Buffalo like a drum and ended with a 56-10 win. They look truly unstoppable. They did not punt the ball even once when their first team offense was on the field. Brady and Moss are playing pitch and catch all over the field, especially in the end-zone. Both Moss and TO had 4 TDs each this weekend. God must have slotted this NFL weekend as the "pure evil weekend" or something. The Colts barely squeaked past the Chiefs and looked mediocre. Pittsburgh lost to the Jets and had to deal with the proverbial "who the hell loses to the Jets?" question while the Chargers lost to the Jaguars and made the Jags look like the best team in the AFC for no reason.
All this means the Patriots have pretty much won the AFC for all practical purposes. Our only hope is for the Colts to get healthy and get good again in a hurry. Otherwise, we might be reduced to watching the hoody go for it on 4Th-and-2 in the 4-Th quarter of the Super Bowl leading 38-10 against the Cowboys. On the bright side, I guess we can get to know which of the 2 evil wide-receivers does the God really like to have a Super Bowl ring.
The other big-shot team to lose this weekend was Oklahoma. They lost to Texas Tech and nothing wrong with that. I am not a big fan of Bob Stoops and I like the Texas Tech offense. They just seem to chuck it around year in and year out. This was the 11-Th time this year a top 5 team has lost to an unranked team. How awesome is that? I am loving college football like never before.
No major surprises in the NFL this weekend. New England beat up on Buffalo like a drum and ended with a 56-10 win. They look truly unstoppable. They did not punt the ball even once when their first team offense was on the field. Brady and Moss are playing pitch and catch all over the field, especially in the end-zone. Both Moss and TO had 4 TDs each this weekend. God must have slotted this NFL weekend as the "pure evil weekend" or something. The Colts barely squeaked past the Chiefs and looked mediocre. Pittsburgh lost to the Jets and had to deal with the proverbial "who the hell loses to the Jets?" question while the Chargers lost to the Jaguars and made the Jags look like the best team in the AFC for no reason.
All this means the Patriots have pretty much won the AFC for all practical purposes. Our only hope is for the Colts to get healthy and get good again in a hurry. Otherwise, we might be reduced to watching the hoody go for it on 4Th-and-2 in the 4-Th quarter of the Super Bowl leading 38-10 against the Cowboys. On the bright side, I guess we can get to know which of the 2 evil wide-receivers does the God really like to have a Super Bowl ring.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Celts, King and the Suns
Celts, King and the Suns
The NBA season is rolling and the only disappointing thing for me is the quality of the NBA league pass transmission. Seems like they are down-converting the HD transmission and sending it non-HD in most cases. Some games look horrible on my HD-TV. I wish the League pass moved to HD wherever available. Still it's NBA basketball and is real fun to flip the channels and see a whole bunch of games from all over. I love being able to TIVO every Suns game and watch it whenever I can.
Speaking of the Suns, they are one of the biggest story again with their 7-2 record. They look awesome with Grant Hill. They are fun to watch as always and MP3 Nash is getting better with age like fine wine and Heather Locklear. He is casually dropping 15 dimes a game and if Amare is out, put him down for 30 points as well. There is really not many surprises in the West except for the 9-2 New Orleans. The Spurs, Mavs are right there at the top and Denver and Utah are joining these teams up there as well. The West is BRUTAL as ever, but so far it sure looks like the Suns have nothing to worry about except Timmy and the Spurs. The only other real surprise in the West are the 1-6 Warriors. They sure can turn it around and probably will, but in the West you don't want to dig yourself too big a hole.
As for the L-East, it's all about the Celts. I am happy for KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce since I like all 3 of them. They are 8-0 and are looking as legit as any team ever can in Mid-November. Everybody knew they had the talent, but they have resoundingly answered questions about their depth and also how quickly and how well the stars can gel. They seem to have quickly found solid role players and a dependable line-up and are getting solid contributions from Rajon Rando, James Posey, Kendrick Perkins and Eddie House. I think Danny Ainge is well on his way to being voted the Executive of the Year. What he has done is simply remarkable. The reason their chemistry is so good and they are able to dominate this early is KG. I call him the "Nash among big men". He is so unselfish and plays so hard, that building a team around him is easier done than said. Unless you are Kevin McHale that is. KG also plays defense and what more do you want to play winning ball in the NBA? They have the Truth to dominate the scoring, they got Ray Allen hitting the 3's and KG takes care of everything else. It's a perfect mix right now.
The other big story for me is the King. LBJ has come out to play this year. There was some concern last year about how he has taken a step back and was also accused of sleep-walking trough the first half of the season. This year, he looks totally different. He is playing hard, he is playing great defense and is passing even more than before. I can't believe how willingly he sets up teammates for scores. If only Kobe had that skill. If LeBron plays with a high-level commitment, it might be game over for most of the other teams. The Cavs came out West and actually went back home with a 500 record. Thats like playing 850 ball at home against the L-East. LeBron was pretty impressive on the road and he then went back home to beat the Jazz with a ridiculous 40-10-9 game. That was after he had a 39-13-14 game against the Magic in a 117-116 loss. LBJ might take his game one more level higher this season and amaze us even more.
The NBA season is rolling and the only disappointing thing for me is the quality of the NBA league pass transmission. Seems like they are down-converting the HD transmission and sending it non-HD in most cases. Some games look horrible on my HD-TV. I wish the League pass moved to HD wherever available. Still it's NBA basketball and is real fun to flip the channels and see a whole bunch of games from all over. I love being able to TIVO every Suns game and watch it whenever I can.
Speaking of the Suns, they are one of the biggest story again with their 7-2 record. They look awesome with Grant Hill. They are fun to watch as always and MP3 Nash is getting better with age like fine wine and Heather Locklear. He is casually dropping 15 dimes a game and if Amare is out, put him down for 30 points as well. There is really not many surprises in the West except for the 9-2 New Orleans. The Spurs, Mavs are right there at the top and Denver and Utah are joining these teams up there as well. The West is BRUTAL as ever, but so far it sure looks like the Suns have nothing to worry about except Timmy and the Spurs. The only other real surprise in the West are the 1-6 Warriors. They sure can turn it around and probably will, but in the West you don't want to dig yourself too big a hole.
As for the L-East, it's all about the Celts. I am happy for KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce since I like all 3 of them. They are 8-0 and are looking as legit as any team ever can in Mid-November. Everybody knew they had the talent, but they have resoundingly answered questions about their depth and also how quickly and how well the stars can gel. They seem to have quickly found solid role players and a dependable line-up and are getting solid contributions from Rajon Rando, James Posey, Kendrick Perkins and Eddie House. I think Danny Ainge is well on his way to being voted the Executive of the Year. What he has done is simply remarkable. The reason their chemistry is so good and they are able to dominate this early is KG. I call him the "Nash among big men". He is so unselfish and plays so hard, that building a team around him is easier done than said. Unless you are Kevin McHale that is. KG also plays defense and what more do you want to play winning ball in the NBA? They have the Truth to dominate the scoring, they got Ray Allen hitting the 3's and KG takes care of everything else. It's a perfect mix right now.
The other big story for me is the King. LBJ has come out to play this year. There was some concern last year about how he has taken a step back and was also accused of sleep-walking trough the first half of the season. This year, he looks totally different. He is playing hard, he is playing great defense and is passing even more than before. I can't believe how willingly he sets up teammates for scores. If only Kobe had that skill. If LeBron plays with a high-level commitment, it might be game over for most of the other teams. The Cavs came out West and actually went back home with a 500 record. Thats like playing 850 ball at home against the L-East. LeBron was pretty impressive on the road and he then went back home to beat the Jazz with a ridiculous 40-10-9 game. That was after he had a 39-13-14 game against the Magic in a 117-116 loss. LBJ might take his game one more level higher this season and amaze us even more.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Call me when you are in my block!
There has been a lot of controversy recently around Don Shula calling the Patriots season "tainted" because of spy-gate. The 1972 Dolphins always come off looking petty and juvenile with their Champagne bottle popping celebration every year when the last unbeaten team loses. But I have to agree with Don Shula about the "taint". May be it's just because I hate the hoody and the Pats, but he does seem to have a point. But today, I think I found my most favorite 72 Dolphin - RB Mercury Morris. He was talking trash to the Pats about how they are barely half-way to perfection and all this talk about 17-0 is premature to say the least. He might have came out with the best quote ever. "Don't call me when they're in my town, call me when they're on my block." Thats awesome. I'll be adding this to my lingo pretty soon!
Speaking of the Dolphins, the league re-instated Ricky Williams. I am a big supporter of this yoga-loving, world-travelling, new-age running back. I welcome him back with open arms. The other big Dolphins news is that they are going to start rookie John Beck this weekend at QB. John who? It's amazing how bad the QB talent in this league is right now. Recently I was talking to my friend about our fellow Sun-Devil Jake Plummer, who is busy playing professional doubles handball with his elder brother. I told him that if Plummer comes back, he should have a starting job within 10 minutes. I am a big fan of the Snake, but even grading him conservatively and dispassionately, he is clearly in the top half (top 16) of QBs in this league. I was watching Alex Smith this Monday and could not stomach how low the QB play has dropped even with the proud Montana-Young 49'ers. Here's the list of QBs I would rank higher than Plummer
Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Brees
Ben Roethlisberger
Brett Favre
Tony Romo
Matt Hasselback
Donavan McNabb
Carson Palmer
Marc Bulger
Eli Manning
Jay Cutler
Jon Kitna
As you can see, I am trying to be real fair here. I have even ranked Jay Cutler and Jon Kitna above him. Why am I in such a giving mood? I really don't know. But the point is, aside from this list, I will argue for Plummer against any other starter in the league today. Give me Plummer over Jeff Garcia or Jake Delhomme. You can have your over-the-hill Warner or Culpepper or McNair or Trent Greene, I'll take Plummer. Leinart and Vince Young and Philip Rivers can't even Carry Jake's jock, at least not yet. Even if you rank some these guys over Jake, he is clearly a quality starter in todays NFL. May be he should come back and make one more team watchable on Sundays.
Speaking of the Dolphins, the league re-instated Ricky Williams. I am a big supporter of this yoga-loving, world-travelling, new-age running back. I welcome him back with open arms. The other big Dolphins news is that they are going to start rookie John Beck this weekend at QB. John who? It's amazing how bad the QB talent in this league is right now. Recently I was talking to my friend about our fellow Sun-Devil Jake Plummer, who is busy playing professional doubles handball with his elder brother. I told him that if Plummer comes back, he should have a starting job within 10 minutes. I am a big fan of the Snake, but even grading him conservatively and dispassionately, he is clearly in the top half (top 16) of QBs in this league. I was watching Alex Smith this Monday and could not stomach how low the QB play has dropped even with the proud Montana-Young 49'ers. Here's the list of QBs I would rank higher than Plummer
Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Brees
Ben Roethlisberger
Brett Favre
Tony Romo
Matt Hasselback
Donavan McNabb
Carson Palmer
Marc Bulger
Eli Manning
Jay Cutler
Jon Kitna
As you can see, I am trying to be real fair here. I have even ranked Jay Cutler and Jon Kitna above him. Why am I in such a giving mood? I really don't know. But the point is, aside from this list, I will argue for Plummer against any other starter in the league today. Give me Plummer over Jeff Garcia or Jake Delhomme. You can have your over-the-hill Warner or Culpepper or McNair or Trent Greene, I'll take Plummer. Leinart and Vince Young and Philip Rivers can't even Carry Jake's jock, at least not yet. Even if you rank some these guys over Jake, he is clearly a quality starter in todays NFL. May be he should come back and make one more team watchable on Sundays.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Steve Nashty!
The NBA season is heating up and Steve Nashty is one of the big stories again. He is already in MVP form and this is in an year when he says he didn't come in top shape like last season because he took time off and wanted to pace himself for the long year. But with Amare sitting out for 3 games after playing 2, Nash had to step up and boy did he ever. Tonight against the Heat, Amare actually played but was ejected in the third. Nash went on a personal 11 point run in the 4-Th to lead the Suns to a victory. Matrix had a 17-24 night. Thats amazing. Nash ended up with a 30-2-8 night. Here's his numbers in the season and more and more I look at these numbers year after year, I am convinced he is one of the top-5 guy in the league and is deserving of every praise he gets. He is averaging 22.2 pts, 8.6 assists, 4.4 boards and is shooting 55% from the field and 54% from 3. Are you kidding me! Is this a 6'-3" white kid from Canada or Wilt Chamberlain?
The Suns are now 4-2 and looking good. I was a little concerned about how they'll start but so far so good. Surprisingly the paper-clips are leading the Pacific and they lost their first game (against Detroit) only today. This shows how talented the Clips are. They can do this even without Elton Brand. Lets see how long they can keep this going. The other exciting team from the Pacific, the Warriors have started 0-5 and they can't win a game in-spite of Boom Dizzle playing like a madman. They played a fantastic game yesterday against their bete-noire Dallas and came up short again. Baron Davis had 37 points, but he needed at least 3 more to send the game to OT. Overall I think the W's will be fine and fun to watch.
In the L-east, Boston is as legit as advertised but Miami is struggling without D-Wade and are 0-5. Shaq scored 25 against the Suns D and that says more about the Suns-D than Shaq these days! Thats how much things have changed with Shaq. He is nowhere near his peak right now. Celts on the other hand are just having fun with the big 3. They have won in every which way possible and are the only undefeated team in the NBA. What's up with Boston and undefeated teams? The Pats are dominating the NFL. Redsox swept the rockies in the World Series and now this. One guy even had a 82-0 sign at their game. The other guy having some fun this season is Sacramento's Kevin Martin. This guy is now in competition with stars like LeBron James in scoring categories. Dude is averaging 26 points for the season with Bibby and Artest not playing.
The Suns are now 4-2 and looking good. I was a little concerned about how they'll start but so far so good. Surprisingly the paper-clips are leading the Pacific and they lost their first game (against Detroit) only today. This shows how talented the Clips are. They can do this even without Elton Brand. Lets see how long they can keep this going. The other exciting team from the Pacific, the Warriors have started 0-5 and they can't win a game in-spite of Boom Dizzle playing like a madman. They played a fantastic game yesterday against their bete-noire Dallas and came up short again. Baron Davis had 37 points, but he needed at least 3 more to send the game to OT. Overall I think the W's will be fine and fun to watch.
In the L-east, Boston is as legit as advertised but Miami is struggling without D-Wade and are 0-5. Shaq scored 25 against the Suns D and that says more about the Suns-D than Shaq these days! Thats how much things have changed with Shaq. He is nowhere near his peak right now. Celts on the other hand are just having fun with the big 3. They have won in every which way possible and are the only undefeated team in the NBA. What's up with Boston and undefeated teams? The Pats are dominating the NFL. Redsox swept the rockies in the World Series and now this. One guy even had a 82-0 sign at their game. The other guy having some fun this season is Sacramento's Kevin Martin. This guy is now in competition with stars like LeBron James in scoring categories. Dude is averaging 26 points for the season with Bibby and Artest not playing.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Colts blow it!
This was a great sports weekend with the ASU-Oregon game on Sat and the Colts-Pats match-up on Sun. The football weekend was nicely sand-wiched between 2 Suns game for me - Fri against the Fakers and Sun night against King James. But now that the games have ended, I am not too happy with the results. I went 1-3 starting with the Suns losing badly on Fri in their home opener to the Fakers. Then ASU loses at Eugene in a rather disturbing fashion. The Colts look like they were going to shock the World by knocking off the Pats, but then with 9 mins to go in the 4-Th quarter, they lose the game by not scoring again as the Pats poured in 2 TDs. Finally, the Suns score a meagre 38 in the first half, but luckily turn it around to beat the Cavs on Jerry Colangelo's "ring of honor" night.
First, ASU. They played a frustrating game in Eugene as they blew some early opportunities and some late opportunities and just did not execute. As always they were behind 21-3 early, but it was not because of their offense starting slowly. The defense could not stop that dude Dennis Dixon and their offense, but the offense moved the ball. They just couldn't punch it in from the 5 yard line. Curious call by the coaches to run on all 3 downs instead of mixing it up even with Rudy Carpenter's sore thumb. So instead of starting the game 7-7, it was 7-3. Oregon scored 2 more times before ASU scored to get the game to 21-10. Suddenly the defense found a way to slow down double-D in the second quarter, This is when Rudy screwed up big time with the 2-min drill before half-time. He completely mis-managed the clock and ran just one play from the 25 yard line with 45 seconds on the clock. ASU had to settle for a field goal that was missed and the Devils who had an opportunity to go in 21-20 ended up with a 21-13 half-time score.
Still not bad for the Devils, but again Dennis Dixon could not be stopped in the 3-Rd quarter. They kept scoring and the Devils either stalled on their own or scored field-goals instead of TDs. The deficit was too high to overcome in the 4-Th even with double-D injured and on the sideline. We got to see Ryan Leaf's brother on the field, but Rudy Carpenter just did not have a great game. ASU lived off of it's running game and they just could not pass protect for Rudy. When he had the time, he did OK, but couple of turnovers in the fourth sealed the deal for Oregon. Great win for the program and a bad loss for the Devils. The championship game is out of the window now for the Devils, but they still need to win out and hope for a BCS bowl. You know what, that ain't all that bad considering where they started this season.
Similar story with the Colts on Sunday. They did great to bottle up Tom Brady and also rode Joseph Addai to to a 20-10 lead with 9 mins to go in the game. Then Brady went Brady. He connected on long bombs to Randy Moss and Donte Stallworth on 2 consecutive TD drives. Peyton just could not move the ball enough to score in that 4-th quarter. I wonder how the game would have looked if the Colts had Marvelous Marvin. I think Colts win if Peyton had one more weapon in Marvin. But even with all the injuries, the Colts looked very good today. They ran all over the Pats and were in control for 3 quarters. They intercepted Brady twice and all they had to do was close it out. That didn't happen and now they probably have to go in to a frozen Boston in Jan for another AFC championship game. But the Colts did show they are a real good football team and all this hype about how this game would be a Patriots blow-out turned out to be just that - hype. Chris Collinsworth is even saying the Pats are the best ever team in the history of the NFL! I think that boy needs to take it easy! May be now he can say that the 2007 Colts are the second best team in the history of the game since they only lost 20-24. In other games, I gotta tell you this Adrian Peterson is an absolute stud! Almost 300 yards rushing for a rookie against a decent Chargers D. This guy's burst and power is awesome to watch.
As for the Suns, they got embarrassed by the Fakers in their home opener on Friday. They looked listless and their offense is just not flowing yet. This offense takes a while to heat up every year and I don't think we should panic yet. Ballers need to get into "run and gun" game shape, incorporate new pieces like Grant Hill and also the shooters need to get their rhythm going with those 3-bombs. This is exactly why the Suns go on huge winning streaks often. It's kind of a streaky style they play that thrives on rhythm and chemistry. Tonight, they started badly against the Cavs as well, but the second half was much better. MP3 is in mid-season form, but the best is yet to come from the others. Amare missed tonight's game against the Cavs, but the Suns hung on instead of using that as an excuse. Colangelo's ring of honor celebration at half-time was pretty nice with Chuck, KJ, Majerle and the gang in the house. As for the Fakers, they start hot every year and this year seem no different. They look real good right now, but lets see how far it goes. Andrew Bynum is in top shape and looks pretty impressive. Boston looks like the real deal in the East and it should be a fun season.
First, ASU. They played a frustrating game in Eugene as they blew some early opportunities and some late opportunities and just did not execute. As always they were behind 21-3 early, but it was not because of their offense starting slowly. The defense could not stop that dude Dennis Dixon and their offense, but the offense moved the ball. They just couldn't punch it in from the 5 yard line. Curious call by the coaches to run on all 3 downs instead of mixing it up even with Rudy Carpenter's sore thumb. So instead of starting the game 7-7, it was 7-3. Oregon scored 2 more times before ASU scored to get the game to 21-10. Suddenly the defense found a way to slow down double-D in the second quarter, This is when Rudy screwed up big time with the 2-min drill before half-time. He completely mis-managed the clock and ran just one play from the 25 yard line with 45 seconds on the clock. ASU had to settle for a field goal that was missed and the Devils who had an opportunity to go in 21-20 ended up with a 21-13 half-time score.
Still not bad for the Devils, but again Dennis Dixon could not be stopped in the 3-Rd quarter. They kept scoring and the Devils either stalled on their own or scored field-goals instead of TDs. The deficit was too high to overcome in the 4-Th even with double-D injured and on the sideline. We got to see Ryan Leaf's brother on the field, but Rudy Carpenter just did not have a great game. ASU lived off of it's running game and they just could not pass protect for Rudy. When he had the time, he did OK, but couple of turnovers in the fourth sealed the deal for Oregon. Great win for the program and a bad loss for the Devils. The championship game is out of the window now for the Devils, but they still need to win out and hope for a BCS bowl. You know what, that ain't all that bad considering where they started this season.
Similar story with the Colts on Sunday. They did great to bottle up Tom Brady and also rode Joseph Addai to to a 20-10 lead with 9 mins to go in the game. Then Brady went Brady. He connected on long bombs to Randy Moss and Donte Stallworth on 2 consecutive TD drives. Peyton just could not move the ball enough to score in that 4-th quarter. I wonder how the game would have looked if the Colts had Marvelous Marvin. I think Colts win if Peyton had one more weapon in Marvin. But even with all the injuries, the Colts looked very good today. They ran all over the Pats and were in control for 3 quarters. They intercepted Brady twice and all they had to do was close it out. That didn't happen and now they probably have to go in to a frozen Boston in Jan for another AFC championship game. But the Colts did show they are a real good football team and all this hype about how this game would be a Patriots blow-out turned out to be just that - hype. Chris Collinsworth is even saying the Pats are the best ever team in the history of the NFL! I think that boy needs to take it easy! May be now he can say that the 2007 Colts are the second best team in the history of the game since they only lost 20-24. In other games, I gotta tell you this Adrian Peterson is an absolute stud! Almost 300 yards rushing for a rookie against a decent Chargers D. This guy's burst and power is awesome to watch.
As for the Suns, they got embarrassed by the Fakers in their home opener on Friday. They looked listless and their offense is just not flowing yet. This offense takes a while to heat up every year and I don't think we should panic yet. Ballers need to get into "run and gun" game shape, incorporate new pieces like Grant Hill and also the shooters need to get their rhythm going with those 3-bombs. This is exactly why the Suns go on huge winning streaks often. It's kind of a streaky style they play that thrives on rhythm and chemistry. Tonight, they started badly against the Cavs as well, but the second half was much better. MP3 is in mid-season form, but the best is yet to come from the others. Amare missed tonight's game against the Cavs, but the Suns hung on instead of using that as an excuse. Colangelo's ring of honor celebration at half-time was pretty nice with Chuck, KJ, Majerle and the gang in the house. As for the Fakers, they start hot every year and this year seem no different. They look real good right now, but lets see how far it goes. Andrew Bynum is in top shape and looks pretty impressive. Boston looks like the real deal in the East and it should be a fun season.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Suns welcome Durant home!
Suns started their season on the road as Seattle welcomed Kevin Durant to the NBA. Durant was very impressive though the other rookie Jeff Green was a little up and down. Durant ended up with 27 pts on 11/23 shooting, though it was against our friendly Suns defense. The Suns didn't quite blow the Sonics out, but they did what they had to do in the 4-Th quarter. Sonics faded in the 4-Th like all young teams do for the second straight night. They have some young pieces and some size as well that bothered the Suns as usual. But the Suns offense got the job done at the end though their 3-point shooting was not quite there except for the MP3 and Marcus Banks. It was nice to see Banks come in and contribute.
Mike D used 8 guys with even a 9-Th guy, Brian Skinner, getting some minutes when Amare got in foul trouble. Grant Hill started and played 33 mins and had a 13-5-6 night. Good start for the vet despite going 1/7 from 3-land with an odd looking shot! Amare was awesome with 23-11 and Marion was Matrix with 14-11. It was business as usual for the Suns though I expected them to score close to 120 in this game. They got to 106 and thats good enough on most nights. In other games, Detroit took care of a Wade-less Miami as Ricky Davis scored 23 and Shaq looked lost scoring just 9 pts. Utah lost to Houston at home after dominating the Warriors on the road. Of course thats going to happen if T-Mac sets the house on fire with 47 on 17/27 shooting. Amazing night for T-Mac as he neutralized C-Booze's 30-16 game.
Anyways, now on to the Lakers for the Suns as tomorrow might be the last time they face Kobe Bryant in a Lakers uniform. It's going to be weird when he leaves. Here's the Suns game 1 box score saved here for posterity in this, their first championship season. Yes, I can dream.
Phoenix
Player Pos Min FGM-FGA FTM-FTA 3M-3A OR-TR A Blk Stl TO PF Pts
G. Hill F 34 5-12 2-4 1-7 0-6 5 0 0 2 1 13
S. Marion F 34 7-10 0-2 0-2 0-11 1 1 2 1 1 14
A. Stoudemire C 32 10-20 3-4 0-1 4-11 1 1 1 3 4 23
S. Nash G 34 6-13 3-3 3-6 0-7 12 0 1 7 1 18
R. Bell G 32 2-9 0-0 2-7 0-1 1 0 1 3 3 6
L. Barbosa 28 3-7 2-2 1-4 0-2 5 0 3 1 2 9
B. Diaw 26 3-5 1-2 0-1 0-4 6 0 2 1 0 7
M. Banks 14 4-6 0-0 4-5 0-1 0 0 0 1 2 12
B. Skinner 8 2-2 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 4
A. Tucker DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
E. Piatkowski DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
S. Marks DNP -- INACTIVE
D. Strawberry DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
Totals 240 42-84
(.500) 11-17
(.647) 11-33
(.333) 5-44 31 2 11 19 14 106
Seattle
Player Pos Min FGM-FGA FTM-FTA 3M-3A OR-TR A Blk Stl TO PF Pts
C. Wilcox F 35 11-17 1-2 0-0 4-11 2 0 3 2 2 23
D. Wilkins F 30 4-14 3-4 1-2 2-8 4 0 2 1 1 12
N. Collison C 32 4-8 0-0 0-0 2-7 1 1 1 1 2 8
K. Durant G 39 11-23 3-4 2-6 0-5 1 1 0 6 2 27
E. Watson G 31 3-8 0-0 1-2 2-6 8 0 1 4 3 7
J. Petro 22 2-5 2-2 0-0 0-6 0 0 2 1 4 6
J. Green 21 3-12 2-2 0-2 0-4 1 0 1 1 1 8
D. West 13 1-5 0-0 0-0 0-1 3 0 0 1 1 2
W. Szczerbiak 8 2-5 1-1 1-1 0-1 1 0 0 1 1 6
L. Ridnour 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 1-1 3 0 0 0 0 0
M. Sene DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
M. Gelabale DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
R. Swift DNP -- INACTIVE
K. Thomas DNP -- INACTIVE
Totals 240 41-99
(.414) 12-15
(.800) 5-13
(.385) 11-50 24 2 10 18 17 99
Mike D used 8 guys with even a 9-Th guy, Brian Skinner, getting some minutes when Amare got in foul trouble. Grant Hill started and played 33 mins and had a 13-5-6 night. Good start for the vet despite going 1/7 from 3-land with an odd looking shot! Amare was awesome with 23-11 and Marion was Matrix with 14-11. It was business as usual for the Suns though I expected them to score close to 120 in this game. They got to 106 and thats good enough on most nights. In other games, Detroit took care of a Wade-less Miami as Ricky Davis scored 23 and Shaq looked lost scoring just 9 pts. Utah lost to Houston at home after dominating the Warriors on the road. Of course thats going to happen if T-Mac sets the house on fire with 47 on 17/27 shooting. Amazing night for T-Mac as he neutralized C-Booze's 30-16 game.
Anyways, now on to the Lakers for the Suns as tomorrow might be the last time they face Kobe Bryant in a Lakers uniform. It's going to be weird when he leaves. Here's the Suns game 1 box score saved here for posterity in this, their first championship season. Yes, I can dream.
Phoenix
Player Pos Min FGM-FGA FTM-FTA 3M-3A OR-TR A Blk Stl TO PF Pts
G. Hill F 34 5-12 2-4 1-7 0-6 5 0 0 2 1 13
S. Marion F 34 7-10 0-2 0-2 0-11 1 1 2 1 1 14
A. Stoudemire C 32 10-20 3-4 0-1 4-11 1 1 1 3 4 23
S. Nash G 34 6-13 3-3 3-6 0-7 12 0 1 7 1 18
R. Bell G 32 2-9 0-0 2-7 0-1 1 0 1 3 3 6
L. Barbosa 28 3-7 2-2 1-4 0-2 5 0 3 1 2 9
B. Diaw 26 3-5 1-2 0-1 0-4 6 0 2 1 0 7
M. Banks 14 4-6 0-0 4-5 0-1 0 0 0 1 2 12
B. Skinner 8 2-2 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 0 1 0 0 4
A. Tucker DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
E. Piatkowski DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
S. Marks DNP -- INACTIVE
D. Strawberry DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
Totals 240 42-84
(.500) 11-17
(.647) 11-33
(.333) 5-44 31 2 11 19 14 106
Seattle
Player Pos Min FGM-FGA FTM-FTA 3M-3A OR-TR A Blk Stl TO PF Pts
C. Wilcox F 35 11-17 1-2 0-0 4-11 2 0 3 2 2 23
D. Wilkins F 30 4-14 3-4 1-2 2-8 4 0 2 1 1 12
N. Collison C 32 4-8 0-0 0-0 2-7 1 1 1 1 2 8
K. Durant G 39 11-23 3-4 2-6 0-5 1 1 0 6 2 27
E. Watson G 31 3-8 0-0 1-2 2-6 8 0 1 4 3 7
J. Petro 22 2-5 2-2 0-0 0-6 0 0 2 1 4 6
J. Green 21 3-12 2-2 0-2 0-4 1 0 1 1 1 8
D. West 13 1-5 0-0 0-0 0-1 3 0 0 1 1 2
W. Szczerbiak 8 2-5 1-1 1-1 0-1 1 0 0 1 1 6
L. Ridnour 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 1-1 3 0 0 0 0 0
M. Sene DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
M. Gelabale DNP -- COACH'S DECISION
R. Swift DNP -- INACTIVE
K. Thomas DNP -- INACTIVE
Totals 240 41-99
(.414) 12-15
(.800) 5-13
(.385) 11-50 24 2 10 18 17 99
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Suns ready to roll!
Suns go in to Seattle to open 07-08. It would be great to see the gang on TV with Grant Hill joining the party. What should the Suns fans expect from this game? First and foremost, a "W" is a must. I expect the Suns to blow Seattle out. The Sonics are playing on a back-to-back night and they couldn't quite hang with Denver tonight. The Suns better handle them easily. I want to see high-percentage shooting from the Suns. They should set the tempo early in the season. Look at Spurs and their 2-0 record. The big-3 in the Spurs are looking bigger than ever. Ginobli did the honors today for them against the Grizz in OT. Back to the Suns, I want to see strong games from Matrix and Amare for different reasons. Matrix, because he should show us he has put the trade rumors behind him Amare because of the surgery. It's also important Suns showcase some new talent. Grant is the obvious choice, but I wouldn't mind seeing some good contributions from Tucker or Strawberry or even Banks. Only thing better than the Phoenix Suns is a new and improved Phoenix Suns.
Thats my wish-list and check back tomorrow to see how it plays out. All of this is important because the West looks as brutal as ever. San Antonio and Dallas have started right where they left off last season. Dallas shut down Cleveland pretty easily, though thats not saying a whole lot. LeBron needs a lot of help. Utah handled the Warriors pretty easily and they are a load to handle. Too big, too talented, too disciplined for the Warriors or for that matter, the Suns. Denver should be better with AI and Melo having 1/2 season under their belt and K-Mart being back. Houston should be better with Adelman as the coach and with Steve Francis coming back and so should be the Warriors with an year of chemistry under their belt. So it's very important for the Suns to stay on top from day 1. The Pacific division doesn't look too difficult with the Lakers, Clippers and the Kings having huge issues. It might end up being a 2 horse race between the Suns and the Warriors. But the Suns need to show the future starts today
In other news, Gil did what he does best as he hit a game-tying 3 to send the game to OT. Wizards lost in OT though. Kobe rumors are still dominating the NBA chatter. I can't belive the Bulls won't give up Luol Deng even for Kobe! I still think Kobe ends up there. In San Antonio, the rich get richer as the Spus locked up Tim Duncan for 2 more years. Thats bad news for the Suns.
Thats my wish-list and check back tomorrow to see how it plays out. All of this is important because the West looks as brutal as ever. San Antonio and Dallas have started right where they left off last season. Dallas shut down Cleveland pretty easily, though thats not saying a whole lot. LeBron needs a lot of help. Utah handled the Warriors pretty easily and they are a load to handle. Too big, too talented, too disciplined for the Warriors or for that matter, the Suns. Denver should be better with AI and Melo having 1/2 season under their belt and K-Mart being back. Houston should be better with Adelman as the coach and with Steve Francis coming back and so should be the Warriors with an year of chemistry under their belt. So it's very important for the Suns to stay on top from day 1. The Pacific division doesn't look too difficult with the Lakers, Clippers and the Kings having huge issues. It might end up being a 2 horse race between the Suns and the Warriors. But the Suns need to show the future starts today
In other news, Gil did what he does best as he hit a game-tying 3 to send the game to OT. Wizards lost in OT though. Kobe rumors are still dominating the NBA chatter. I can't belive the Bulls won't give up Luol Deng even for Kobe! I still think Kobe ends up there. In San Antonio, the rich get richer as the Spus locked up Tim Duncan for 2 more years. Thats bad news for the Suns.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Season is here!
The NBA season is here. It starts today and this is the day I always feel like the Suns are gonna win it all. Either that or the Spurs will win one more! I think the Suns are primed for a take-off this year. It should be fun to watch the run-and-gun again. Marion's trade request notwithstanding, the show should be as good as ever. He ain't no trouble maker. He is probably good for a controversy or 3 this season, but I don't expect anything major. Can't wait to see Grant Hill in a Suns uniform. I think he is going to be a great influence on Amare and the gang both on and off the court. Of course the MP3 still runs the show. Lets see how Nash performs this season - year 4 in this contract. All in all, I hope it's championship time for the Suns.
Aside from the Suns, opening days are always fun. There are so many story-lines. I am expecting a lot from the association this season. Garnett in Boston, a new and (hopefully) improved King James, an injury-free D-Wade, a resurgent Warriors trying to continue that magical playoff run, Kevin Durant in Seattle and Kobe Bryant wherever he ends up. The last one was one of the big stories this off-season. Kobe coming out and just going nuts on radio stations across the country. He then went and met the owner in Spain and decided to shut-up. The trade talks died down eventually but then Buss came out of the blue during the training camp and suggested they may still trade Kobe. Now the fires are burning all over again in So-Cal, no pun intended. Apparently he still wants to be traded and just decided to not say so to the media. So Buss says they are trying to move him since he doesn't want to stay.
The biggest rumor has him going to Chicago in some package. I think that might work for everybody. Kobe will be in a big market inheriting the throne of no-23. If anybody can handle that, it's Kobe. The Bulls have the pieces to pull it off and the Lakers might even get better in the process. The problem is, LA is a show-biz town and I can't believe anybody caring about the Lakers even if they win without Kobe. It might take them a while to get out off "Kobe-withdrawal". He owns that town. It might take a few years before the Lakers win that fan base again if Kobe leaves.
All in all, I am saying bring it on!
Aside from the Suns, opening days are always fun. There are so many story-lines. I am expecting a lot from the association this season. Garnett in Boston, a new and (hopefully) improved King James, an injury-free D-Wade, a resurgent Warriors trying to continue that magical playoff run, Kevin Durant in Seattle and Kobe Bryant wherever he ends up. The last one was one of the big stories this off-season. Kobe coming out and just going nuts on radio stations across the country. He then went and met the owner in Spain and decided to shut-up. The trade talks died down eventually but then Buss came out of the blue during the training camp and suggested they may still trade Kobe. Now the fires are burning all over again in So-Cal, no pun intended. Apparently he still wants to be traded and just decided to not say so to the media. So Buss says they are trying to move him since he doesn't want to stay.
The biggest rumor has him going to Chicago in some package. I think that might work for everybody. Kobe will be in a big market inheriting the throne of no-23. If anybody can handle that, it's Kobe. The Bulls have the pieces to pull it off and the Lakers might even get better in the process. The problem is, LA is a show-biz town and I can't believe anybody caring about the Lakers even if they win without Kobe. It might take them a while to get out off "Kobe-withdrawal". He owns that town. It might take a few years before the Lakers win that fan base again if Kobe leaves.
All in all, I am saying bring it on!
Monday, October 29, 2007
The Good and the Bad.
Good and the Bad.
If you are in to the good, A for ASU and B for Brett Favre. If you are into the bad, A for A-Rod and B for Belichick. That pretty much sums up the Sports weekend. First, ASU stayed undefeated and recorded their first impressive win of the season as they dismantled the Cal Bears. I don't know why the Devils keep starting slowly, but they were again down 13-0 after the first quarter. It looked bleak, but they started to dominate as soon the second quarter started. From that point on, it was no-contest. The Bears had no answers to the Devils offense as Dimitri Nance and Keegan Herring gashed them for big yards almost every run. And this was without my main man Ryan Torain. Rudy Carpenter was more than adequate with the passing game, but once ASU established a running game, this game was over. The Bears were outscored 31-7 in the final 3 quarters and they scored 0 points in the second half! Thats domination folks.
The Bears only shot was in that first quarter where they could have basically gone up 21-0 if they had converted all their opportunities. But you know what, the Devil might have still won at the end. Thats how good they played the rest of the way. Their slow-stars are disturbing, but their half-time adjustments are heart-warming! That shows how good a coach Dennis Erickson is, but if they start this slow on the road at Oregon next week, it might be game over. It reminds me of great pitchers like Greg Maddux. You have to get them in the first inning. If you don't, you may be staring at a shutout. ASU is similar and I sure hope they fix this problem before they run into Oregon and USC. I think USC is over-rated but Oregon is where it's at right now in the Pac-10. Thats a huge game next weekend.
In other news, the RedSox swept the Rockies to win the World series. Nothing surprising here. The Sox were way better than the upstart rockies both on the mound and in the batter's box. But I was shocked to see Scott Boras come up right in the middle of the World Series with the news that A-Rod is opting out. Of all people, thats really dumb coming from Boras. As if A-Rod is not having enough problems as it is, now he is getting crushed for trying to take away from the World Series. I always thought the Yankees were posturing when they said we won't sign A-Rod if he opts out. Of course I knew they lose the 21 mill coming from the Texas Rangers if they sign a new contract with A-Rod. So the Yanks wouldn't just be paying the bump in A-Rod's salary but they'll be paying much more. Still, i thought they have to go after him because they need him as much as he needs them. Who else is going to pay A-Rod 32 mill a year? But apparently it's all over.
The Yanks came out and pretty much said good bye to A-Rod. The tabloids already had "get lost" in their front pages. The RedSox fans in Colorado started chanting "no A-Rod" during their celebrations. This could not be going any worse for A-Rod. Now he has walked away from 76 mill in guaranteed money and is hoping for a mega-contract without the Yankees in the bidding. I have no idea who can pay 30 mill a year, but the Yankees. The RedSox probably can and in my opinion they should, but I don't think Theo will. That guy knows how to run a franchise and I don't think he is paying 30 mill to anybody. They are saying A-Rod's suitors are the Angels, Dodgers, Mets, Giants, RedSox and believe it or not, the Rangers. Why are the Rangers even in the conversation? Anyways, I am very interested in seeing how Boras pulls this off and where A-Rod ends up.
The good B this weekend was Brett Favre. It was awesome to see this guy finish the Broncos off in OT with the very first play. Snap, long bomb to Greg Jennings, game over, drive home safe. Awesome! Typical Brett Favre. The bad B is of course Bill Belichick. This guy is now running up scores on everybody. They are throwing long bombs in the 4-Th quarter, not resting either Brady or Moss until very very late, going for it on 4-Th down in the third quarter while leading 35-3 or whatever. Its ridiculous. I can't believe he is getting away with this just because they are the Patriots and Brady and Belichick are the blue-eyed boys of the East coast media. Beli-cheat has fallen down a bit after the "video-gate", but he still gets off easy because of all the Boston lovers in ESPN and other media outlets. That team is full of "fake" class and I sure hope the real classy Tony Dungy kicks their behinds next week in the big game.
If you are in to the good, A for ASU and B for Brett Favre. If you are into the bad, A for A-Rod and B for Belichick. That pretty much sums up the Sports weekend. First, ASU stayed undefeated and recorded their first impressive win of the season as they dismantled the Cal Bears. I don't know why the Devils keep starting slowly, but they were again down 13-0 after the first quarter. It looked bleak, but they started to dominate as soon the second quarter started. From that point on, it was no-contest. The Bears had no answers to the Devils offense as Dimitri Nance and Keegan Herring gashed them for big yards almost every run. And this was without my main man Ryan Torain. Rudy Carpenter was more than adequate with the passing game, but once ASU established a running game, this game was over. The Bears were outscored 31-7 in the final 3 quarters and they scored 0 points in the second half! Thats domination folks.
The Bears only shot was in that first quarter where they could have basically gone up 21-0 if they had converted all their opportunities. But you know what, the Devil might have still won at the end. Thats how good they played the rest of the way. Their slow-stars are disturbing, but their half-time adjustments are heart-warming! That shows how good a coach Dennis Erickson is, but if they start this slow on the road at Oregon next week, it might be game over. It reminds me of great pitchers like Greg Maddux. You have to get them in the first inning. If you don't, you may be staring at a shutout. ASU is similar and I sure hope they fix this problem before they run into Oregon and USC. I think USC is over-rated but Oregon is where it's at right now in the Pac-10. Thats a huge game next weekend.
In other news, the RedSox swept the Rockies to win the World series. Nothing surprising here. The Sox were way better than the upstart rockies both on the mound and in the batter's box. But I was shocked to see Scott Boras come up right in the middle of the World Series with the news that A-Rod is opting out. Of all people, thats really dumb coming from Boras. As if A-Rod is not having enough problems as it is, now he is getting crushed for trying to take away from the World Series. I always thought the Yankees were posturing when they said we won't sign A-Rod if he opts out. Of course I knew they lose the 21 mill coming from the Texas Rangers if they sign a new contract with A-Rod. So the Yanks wouldn't just be paying the bump in A-Rod's salary but they'll be paying much more. Still, i thought they have to go after him because they need him as much as he needs them. Who else is going to pay A-Rod 32 mill a year? But apparently it's all over.
The Yanks came out and pretty much said good bye to A-Rod. The tabloids already had "get lost" in their front pages. The RedSox fans in Colorado started chanting "no A-Rod" during their celebrations. This could not be going any worse for A-Rod. Now he has walked away from 76 mill in guaranteed money and is hoping for a mega-contract without the Yankees in the bidding. I have no idea who can pay 30 mill a year, but the Yankees. The RedSox probably can and in my opinion they should, but I don't think Theo will. That guy knows how to run a franchise and I don't think he is paying 30 mill to anybody. They are saying A-Rod's suitors are the Angels, Dodgers, Mets, Giants, RedSox and believe it or not, the Rangers. Why are the Rangers even in the conversation? Anyways, I am very interested in seeing how Boras pulls this off and where A-Rod ends up.
The good B this weekend was Brett Favre. It was awesome to see this guy finish the Broncos off in OT with the very first play. Snap, long bomb to Greg Jennings, game over, drive home safe. Awesome! Typical Brett Favre. The bad B is of course Bill Belichick. This guy is now running up scores on everybody. They are throwing long bombs in the 4-Th quarter, not resting either Brady or Moss until very very late, going for it on 4-Th down in the third quarter while leading 35-3 or whatever. Its ridiculous. I can't believe he is getting away with this just because they are the Patriots and Brady and Belichick are the blue-eyed boys of the East coast media. Beli-cheat has fallen down a bit after the "video-gate", but he still gets off easy because of all the Boston lovers in ESPN and other media outlets. That team is full of "fake" class and I sure hope the real classy Tony Dungy kicks their behinds next week in the big game.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Number 4 baby!
ASU is ranked 4-Th in the nation. Awesome, considering that they didn't even play last week and still jumped up 4 spots. Thats how crazy this season has been. We have never had such parity in college football ever! For all the glitter and glamour of college football, parity was never one of it's strengths. Thats what set NFL and NCAA basketball apart from college football. But this year has been completely different. Week after week, undefeated and highly touted teams have been falling by the wayside and I love it. More on the reasons for all the parity in the game later, but just check out the standings below in week 1 and the BCS ranking in week 9. It's crazy beyond explanation.
Week 1
------
1. USC
2. LSU
3. West Virginia
4. Texas
5. Michigan
6. Florida
7. Wisconsin
8. Oklahoma
9. Virginia Tech
10. Louisville
Week 9
-------
1. Ohio State
2. Boston College
3. LSU
4. Arizona State
5. Oregon
6. Oklahoma
7. West Virginia
8. Virginia Tech
9. Kansas
10. South Florida
All the teams in the week 1's top 10 have lost one game, some of them more than one. There are only 4 teams from week 1's top 10 thats even in the top 10 now and some of them like Va-Tech actually dropped out of the top 10 and are now back in it because other teams keep losing and the rankings are getting jumbled up weekly. College football has never been so much fun. I can't wait for Saturdays this season. I hope the Ohio State Suck-eyes lose this week and continue the trend. Entirely likely since they are at Penn state. But of course I don't want ASU to lose rest of the way though. This is the highest ranking they have had since the Jake-the-Snake year in 1996. But in reality, they'll probably lose sometime soon because they have really not played anybody until now and their schedule is brutal the rest of the way. They play Cal this week and then @ Oregon and home to USC. They also play UCLA and U-OF-A. Lets see what happens, but until then, I'll enjoy this ranking along with the BCs and Kansases of the World.
Why so much parity in college suddenly? Apart from some recent scholarship restrictions, there are 2 major reasons, both of which are kind of related. 1) Money in sports and 2) Technology. Of course some of the technology is what brings in the new money. But the point is, there is so much money in Sports, especially the NFL right now, that they cover every inch to gain competitive advantage. So if you are a QB for a local junior college in Alaska and you have any kind of NFL ability, the scouts will find you. They have the money, the resources to come chase you. Multi-million dollar jobs could be won and lost based on your pick. It's that important and thats how high the stakes are. So they will assign 10 scouts just for a town in Alaska each making 100K a year if they have to. That was not the case 30 years back. This helps parity in college because the college recruits don't have to stay in the top schools to get noticed. A good athlete will rather start for Montana state than be the 3-Rd string RB for Florida State. They'll criticize the quality of competition at Montana state etc., but if you are good, they have the resources and systems in place to scout you, dissect you, draft you and train you for the NFL.
Secondly, technology. We now live in a global village. Internet, cell phones, youtube videos, satellite TVs etc. etc. etc. If you are good, you can't hide anywhere. Even 15 years back, people in California probably didn't know if Duke and Wake Forest even had a football program. Today, if you try hard enough, you can probably watch this game live in your living room in one of the 1800 channels that seem to carry college football these days. So there is no reason for any decent player to sit on the bench of big programs. Go start for Duke and make a mark for yourself. And this is exactly why parity is increasing day by day in college though some programs like USC are still loaded with depth. These situations are becoming an exception and is not the norm anymore. For the average fan, it's all fun.
Week 1
------
1. USC
2. LSU
3. West Virginia
4. Texas
5. Michigan
6. Florida
7. Wisconsin
8. Oklahoma
9. Virginia Tech
10. Louisville
Week 9
-------
1. Ohio State
2. Boston College
3. LSU
4. Arizona State
5. Oregon
6. Oklahoma
7. West Virginia
8. Virginia Tech
9. Kansas
10. South Florida
All the teams in the week 1's top 10 have lost one game, some of them more than one. There are only 4 teams from week 1's top 10 thats even in the top 10 now and some of them like Va-Tech actually dropped out of the top 10 and are now back in it because other teams keep losing and the rankings are getting jumbled up weekly. College football has never been so much fun. I can't wait for Saturdays this season. I hope the Ohio State Suck-eyes lose this week and continue the trend. Entirely likely since they are at Penn state. But of course I don't want ASU to lose rest of the way though. This is the highest ranking they have had since the Jake-the-Snake year in 1996. But in reality, they'll probably lose sometime soon because they have really not played anybody until now and their schedule is brutal the rest of the way. They play Cal this week and then @ Oregon and home to USC. They also play UCLA and U-OF-A. Lets see what happens, but until then, I'll enjoy this ranking along with the BCs and Kansases of the World.
Why so much parity in college suddenly? Apart from some recent scholarship restrictions, there are 2 major reasons, both of which are kind of related. 1) Money in sports and 2) Technology. Of course some of the technology is what brings in the new money. But the point is, there is so much money in Sports, especially the NFL right now, that they cover every inch to gain competitive advantage. So if you are a QB for a local junior college in Alaska and you have any kind of NFL ability, the scouts will find you. They have the money, the resources to come chase you. Multi-million dollar jobs could be won and lost based on your pick. It's that important and thats how high the stakes are. So they will assign 10 scouts just for a town in Alaska each making 100K a year if they have to. That was not the case 30 years back. This helps parity in college because the college recruits don't have to stay in the top schools to get noticed. A good athlete will rather start for Montana state than be the 3-Rd string RB for Florida State. They'll criticize the quality of competition at Montana state etc., but if you are good, they have the resources and systems in place to scout you, dissect you, draft you and train you for the NFL.
Secondly, technology. We now live in a global village. Internet, cell phones, youtube videos, satellite TVs etc. etc. etc. If you are good, you can't hide anywhere. Even 15 years back, people in California probably didn't know if Duke and Wake Forest even had a football program. Today, if you try hard enough, you can probably watch this game live in your living room in one of the 1800 channels that seem to carry college football these days. So there is no reason for any decent player to sit on the bench of big programs. Go start for Duke and make a mark for yourself. And this is exactly why parity is increasing day by day in college though some programs like USC are still loaded with depth. These situations are becoming an exception and is not the norm anymore. For the average fan, it's all fun.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
There are no babies in these DBacks.
It's been week since I blogged anything. It has been one of those weeks where my work came in the way of my life! I hate when that happens :-) MLB playoff are in full flow now and I couldn't be happier about the results so far. The baby-Backs are in the NLCS. Thats awesome. Nobody including the fans in Phoenix gave them a shot at the beginning of the season, but they are at the mountain-top right now with the other improbable team, the Colorado Rockies. An all NL-West NLCS. Who would have thought 2 NL-West teams would make it and neither would be the Padres, Dodgers or the Giants. Brandon Webb set the tone as expected in game 1 and the over-rated Cubs never recovered.
There were all kinds of criticism of the baby-backs lack of pitching depth beyond Brandon Webb. But Arizona's pitchers gave up just 6 runs total in 3 games. Livan Hernandez shut the Cubs down on the road today. It was a true team win with a whole of bunch of kids contributing. Chris Young hit a home-run in the very first pitch of the game and that was a blow the Wrigley faithful never really recovered from. Eric Byrnes and Stephen Drew hit home runs as well. Drew had some series with a .500 average. The kids are playing big when it counts the most. It would be awesome if the DBacks win a World Series. After the Marlins won a ring, gutted the team, re-built from scratch and won again in a span of ten years, it would be funny if the DBacks do the same. Cubs and Redsox and even the Giants have been waiting 50, 60, 80 years for championships and these guys are winning one very 5 to 10 years. Ironic!
Colorado swept the Philies to sew up the other NLCS spot. The Rockies are on an absolute roll. Their one-game playoff tie-breaker against the Padres might have been the best game of the year. Trevor Hoffman blew 2 straight saves to keep the Padres out of the playoffs and is taking a lot of heat from the Padres fans. The Rockies on the other hand have been hitting on all cylinders. The Phillies won the division after the Mets choked away the division lead in a spectacular meltdown. Tom Glavine couldn't get the second out in the first inning in the final game of the season and is now rumored to be contemplating not picking up his multi-million dollar player option to play for the Mets next season.
This series was predicted to be a high-scoring one with little pitching, but the Rockies pitching staff stepped up and shut the Phillies down. Phillies scored a total of 8 runs in 3 games against some Rockies pitchers that the rest of the country have not heard of. A Rockies-Dbacks NLCS was my dream and the TV networks nightmare! I was hoping for a similar match-up in the AL between Cleveland and Anaheim. Seems like the Angels are not going to be able to handle the Redsox. Manny came through with a walk-off homer in game 2 to put the Sox ahead 2-0. Many is awesome and so under-appreciated. He may be the only major leaguer I like in that whole over-rated Eastern sea-board. My wishes for a no-Redsox, no-Yankees ALCS is still alive. Cleveland is up 2-0 on the Yanks behind some awesome pitching by Fausto Carmona in a classic game 2 that went to 13 innings. Classic games are even more fun for me when the Yanks lose. A-Rod is 0-for-6 in the series so far and you can't blame him with Carmona pitching like that.
Lets just hope the Indians finish the Yankees off against Roger Clemens in game 3. And the Angels win the next 3 to keep the BoSox out.
There were all kinds of criticism of the baby-backs lack of pitching depth beyond Brandon Webb. But Arizona's pitchers gave up just 6 runs total in 3 games. Livan Hernandez shut the Cubs down on the road today. It was a true team win with a whole of bunch of kids contributing. Chris Young hit a home-run in the very first pitch of the game and that was a blow the Wrigley faithful never really recovered from. Eric Byrnes and Stephen Drew hit home runs as well. Drew had some series with a .500 average. The kids are playing big when it counts the most. It would be awesome if the DBacks win a World Series. After the Marlins won a ring, gutted the team, re-built from scratch and won again in a span of ten years, it would be funny if the DBacks do the same. Cubs and Redsox and even the Giants have been waiting 50, 60, 80 years for championships and these guys are winning one very 5 to 10 years. Ironic!
Colorado swept the Philies to sew up the other NLCS spot. The Rockies are on an absolute roll. Their one-game playoff tie-breaker against the Padres might have been the best game of the year. Trevor Hoffman blew 2 straight saves to keep the Padres out of the playoffs and is taking a lot of heat from the Padres fans. The Rockies on the other hand have been hitting on all cylinders. The Phillies won the division after the Mets choked away the division lead in a spectacular meltdown. Tom Glavine couldn't get the second out in the first inning in the final game of the season and is now rumored to be contemplating not picking up his multi-million dollar player option to play for the Mets next season.
This series was predicted to be a high-scoring one with little pitching, but the Rockies pitching staff stepped up and shut the Phillies down. Phillies scored a total of 8 runs in 3 games against some Rockies pitchers that the rest of the country have not heard of. A Rockies-Dbacks NLCS was my dream and the TV networks nightmare! I was hoping for a similar match-up in the AL between Cleveland and Anaheim. Seems like the Angels are not going to be able to handle the Redsox. Manny came through with a walk-off homer in game 2 to put the Sox ahead 2-0. Many is awesome and so under-appreciated. He may be the only major leaguer I like in that whole over-rated Eastern sea-board. My wishes for a no-Redsox, no-Yankees ALCS is still alive. Cleveland is up 2-0 on the Yanks behind some awesome pitching by Fausto Carmona in a classic game 2 that went to 13 innings. Classic games are even more fun for me when the Yanks lose. A-Rod is 0-for-6 in the series so far and you can't blame him with Carmona pitching like that.
Lets just hope the Indians finish the Yankees off against Roger Clemens in game 3. And the Angels win the next 3 to keep the BoSox out.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Green Bay Rocks!
Last weekend was a special NFL weekend for me as I took a roadie to Green Bay to check out the Lambeau field. It was a great trip. Lambeau was as good as hyped. It has it's outside and atrium re-modelled and looking new, but the core of Lambeau looks incredibly simple, charming, old and historic. The stadium has very few luxury boxes and press boxes and stuff, but the rest of the stadium is all bench. It's like a low-end college football stadium. No seats, no cushions and no cup holders. It's just a metal bench and seat numbers for 60000 people. The crowds at Lambeau were great as well. Fans filled the stadium up well before the game started and thats unusual in places like California. The folks show up hours before the game and tail-gate to heart's content. The people are so nice and the whole mid-western hospitality thing is no fabrication. Even 20 year old drunk guys treat their fellow fans with respect and decency.
The game was just the best game we could have picked. San Diego and LT was in town and the finish was one of the best in recent Lambeau history. Favre got the ball with 2:16 to go in the game and trailing by 4. We were all getting ready for a 2 minute drill, but Favre scored the game winner even before the 2 minute warning! He hit Greg Jennings on a short slant which he took to the house. The crowd went nuts and we knew Philip Rivers was not ready for a 2-minute drive, at least not yet. The crowd went nuts again when Nick Barnett intercepted Rivers to put the game away. Incredible game and an unforgettable experience at Lambeau. Great stadium, incredible history, nice people and my only request is, people in Wisconsin should drink a little less :-)
The other striking part of the trip to me was how Brett Favre absolutely owns Wisconsin. I mean I knew he was popular and the best thing going in the Packers roster, but did not realize how much the fan-base loves him. Of course you take him out of this team, the offense is utter garbage. I should have seen at least 30000 people wearing his number 4 jersey, It's like the entire town of Green Bay is wearing his jersey. I have personally never seen anything like this. After visiting Green Bay, I can't believe there has been rumors about him playing in another town. I don't even know how that'll work. I think it'll look as ugly as Marino would have looked if he signed with the Vikings at the end of his career. Favre belongs to Wisconsin and I don't know what those fans will do if he signs with someone else. Speaking of Marino, Favre tied his TD record in this game and that was a bitter-sweet moment for me because I was happy to be part of this historic game, but I am also a big Marino fan.
All in all, I would say go checkout Green Bay if you have a chance.
The game was just the best game we could have picked. San Diego and LT was in town and the finish was one of the best in recent Lambeau history. Favre got the ball with 2:16 to go in the game and trailing by 4. We were all getting ready for a 2 minute drill, but Favre scored the game winner even before the 2 minute warning! He hit Greg Jennings on a short slant which he took to the house. The crowd went nuts and we knew Philip Rivers was not ready for a 2-minute drive, at least not yet. The crowd went nuts again when Nick Barnett intercepted Rivers to put the game away. Incredible game and an unforgettable experience at Lambeau. Great stadium, incredible history, nice people and my only request is, people in Wisconsin should drink a little less :-)
The other striking part of the trip to me was how Brett Favre absolutely owns Wisconsin. I mean I knew he was popular and the best thing going in the Packers roster, but did not realize how much the fan-base loves him. Of course you take him out of this team, the offense is utter garbage. I should have seen at least 30000 people wearing his number 4 jersey, It's like the entire town of Green Bay is wearing his jersey. I have personally never seen anything like this. After visiting Green Bay, I can't believe there has been rumors about him playing in another town. I don't even know how that'll work. I think it'll look as ugly as Marino would have looked if he signed with the Vikings at the end of his career. Favre belongs to Wisconsin and I don't know what those fans will do if he signs with someone else. Speaking of Marino, Favre tied his TD record in this game and that was a bitter-sweet moment for me because I was happy to be part of this historic game, but I am also a big Marino fan.
All in all, I would say go checkout Green Bay if you have a chance.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Say it ain't so Matrix!
The relative quiet of the Suns off-season was broken today, just a few days before the start of the training camp, by a disturbing trade request from Shawn Marion. He says he is upset at the unending trade rumors and the Suns refusal to extend him beyond the two monster contract years he has. He says the Suns almost tried to force him to Boston and he didn't like that at all. I kind of see his point regarding the trade rumors. It is kind of disrespectful. Of course ultimately all of this is about money. I am sure he will be happy if they extend him at whatever price he wants. He wouldn't be this bothered by the trade rumors if he gets paid. From the Suns side, there is no way they extend him. They just don't have the money to pay the luxury tax and thats the only reason he is even in half the trade rumors in the first place. It's not like the Suns really want to get rid of him. Essentially, it's more of a money issue on both sides.
I am upset that there's always something the last 3 years with this team. There is never a smooth season with the Suns even with all this talent and potential. If it's not Amare's stunning injury, it's trying to integrate him back. If it's not Amare, then it's Matrix asking for a trade. I am sick of this and it almost feels like their is a curse around this franchise. All this team is missing after almost 40 futile years is a catchy name for the curse. Matrix says he will show up and play if he is not traded and I totally believe him. I think he will be the same Matrix when he plays and he is just not wired to be a trouble-maker. But you got to wonder what this does to the already fragile chemistry of this team. If Nash takes care of that and Matrix doesn't go "operation shutdown" a la Derek Bell, I think the Suns will be fine. Matrix might actually have his best year this season because he will be playing for a contract. So I hope the Suns keep him and win one finally.
The trade rumors and options are flat-out scary. It's apparently either Lamar Odom or Andrei Kirilenko. I love both these players, but I just realized I didn't love them enough to replace the Matrix with them :-) The problem with both the guys is that they are injury-prone and the Suns don't have the depth to deal with that. I don't remember watching many Suns game without Marion and that'll not be the case with either of those guys. AK-47 will fit this style and will be awesome defensively but he can't shoot to save his life. Odom is a better offensive player and shooter than Marion but can't run. If somebody put a gun to my head and forced me to pick between these 2 options, I might go with AK-47 only because he is athletic and better defensively. Lamar is just not reliable or consistent. But the Suns lose something either way with these trades though both are younger and taller than Marion. There is only one Matrix and AK-47 is the closest imitation. Life will not be the same for the Suns fan without the Matrix.
I am upset that there's always something the last 3 years with this team. There is never a smooth season with the Suns even with all this talent and potential. If it's not Amare's stunning injury, it's trying to integrate him back. If it's not Amare, then it's Matrix asking for a trade. I am sick of this and it almost feels like their is a curse around this franchise. All this team is missing after almost 40 futile years is a catchy name for the curse. Matrix says he will show up and play if he is not traded and I totally believe him. I think he will be the same Matrix when he plays and he is just not wired to be a trouble-maker. But you got to wonder what this does to the already fragile chemistry of this team. If Nash takes care of that and Matrix doesn't go "operation shutdown" a la Derek Bell, I think the Suns will be fine. Matrix might actually have his best year this season because he will be playing for a contract. So I hope the Suns keep him and win one finally.
The trade rumors and options are flat-out scary. It's apparently either Lamar Odom or Andrei Kirilenko. I love both these players, but I just realized I didn't love them enough to replace the Matrix with them :-) The problem with both the guys is that they are injury-prone and the Suns don't have the depth to deal with that. I don't remember watching many Suns game without Marion and that'll not be the case with either of those guys. AK-47 will fit this style and will be awesome defensively but he can't shoot to save his life. Odom is a better offensive player and shooter than Marion but can't run. If somebody put a gun to my head and forced me to pick between these 2 options, I might go with AK-47 only because he is athletic and better defensively. Lamar is just not reliable or consistent. But the Suns lose something either way with these trades though both are younger and taller than Marion. There is only one Matrix and AK-47 is the closest imitation. Life will not be the same for the Suns fan without the Matrix.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Interesting weekend in both NFL and college
One of the interesting games in the NFL this weekend will be San Diego visiting Green Bay. I will be visiting cheese country and will be at this game to check out Lambeau field and Brett Favre and I am psyched about that. Plus, it's a San Diego team that needs the W badly against a Packers team thats a surprising 2-0. I would expect the Chargers to win, but you never know with Favre on the field. The Chargers are 1-1 after playing 2 tough games. I sure hope LT gets untracked since I own him in one of the fantasy leagues and have gotten nothing out of my NO-1 pick. He has had problems against 2 top defenses the last 2 weeks.
The best game in the NFC is Dallas visiting Chicago. Defense V offense at Soldier field. These are the top-notch teams in the JV conference also called the NFC. I am really interested in seeing how Romo and TO handle the Bears D. Cincy at Seattle should also be interesting with both teams at 1-1. There are 2 other match-ups between a couple of 2-0 teams that should be one-sided despite what the records suggest. Niners visit Pittsburgh and Indy visits Houston. I can't see the Steelers or the Colts losing, especially the Colts if Houston receiver Andre Johnson is out.
In college, Texas A&M got handled by Miami today 34-17. That should take care of the 20-Th ranking A&M is enjoying right now. This is especially bad for A&M because their Big-12 rival Oklahoma just dismembered Miami 2 weeks back. This weekend has few other match-ups involving some big name schools with not so much of a big game - Michigan State @ Notre Dame and Penn State @ Michigan. Penn State should take care of Michigan easily and one can just hope Notre Dame scores an offensive TD finally.
The game of the week should be the Ole' ball coach Steve Spurrier taking his Gamecocks to LSU. Tough one for South Carolina because LSU looks awesome, but they have to prove they are worthy of the 12-Th rank even in defeat. SEC also features another great top-25 matchup as 22 Georgia takes on No. 16 Alabama on the road. This could be Nick Saban's breakthrough game of the year.
The best game in the NFC is Dallas visiting Chicago. Defense V offense at Soldier field. These are the top-notch teams in the JV conference also called the NFC. I am really interested in seeing how Romo and TO handle the Bears D. Cincy at Seattle should also be interesting with both teams at 1-1. There are 2 other match-ups between a couple of 2-0 teams that should be one-sided despite what the records suggest. Niners visit Pittsburgh and Indy visits Houston. I can't see the Steelers or the Colts losing, especially the Colts if Houston receiver Andre Johnson is out.
In college, Texas A&M got handled by Miami today 34-17. That should take care of the 20-Th ranking A&M is enjoying right now. This is especially bad for A&M because their Big-12 rival Oklahoma just dismembered Miami 2 weeks back. This weekend has few other match-ups involving some big name schools with not so much of a big game - Michigan State @ Notre Dame and Penn State @ Michigan. Penn State should take care of Michigan easily and one can just hope Notre Dame scores an offensive TD finally.
The game of the week should be the Ole' ball coach Steve Spurrier taking his Gamecocks to LSU. Tough one for South Carolina because LSU looks awesome, but they have to prove they are worthy of the 12-Th rank even in defeat. SEC also features another great top-25 matchup as 22 Georgia takes on No. 16 Alabama on the road. This could be Nick Saban's breakthrough game of the year.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Chargers lay an egg
The unpredictability of the NFL was on full display in week 2 as the football World turned over upside down over and over again. Good games ended up being bad, expected blowouts went to overtime and bad teams won while good teams lost. The biggest surprise was how one-sided the Chargers-Patriots game was. I knew the hooded spy will get his team ready and the Pats will win, but I was expecting more from the Chargers than a 38-14 drubbing. Pats scored first and they intercepted Phillip Rivers the very first Chargers play and the game was over soon after. The Chargers just could not stop the Pats on offense and they were pretty bad on offense themselves. Moss had another great game. The luckiest guys are those who got Randy cheap in fantasy drafts. His stock has dropped the lost 2 years and he was drafted pretty low this year. Those fantasy owners who "gambled" on him now have a top 3 receiver on their hands again. Chargers need to re-group and the Pats may just win the Super Bowl this season.
The greatest game of the week was actually the supposed dog of a game - Cincinnati @ Cleveland. Cleveland had shipped out Charlie Frye after a horrible week 1. Now they were supposed to tolerate Derek Anderson while waiting for Brady Quinn to get ready for the big show. Boy did Derek Anderson have other ideas. He came out swinging and throwing bombs to match Carson Palmer dart for dart. He may not have seen too many 51-45 games even in the Pac-10 at Oregon state. This game saw crazy scoring with very little defense and Palmer ended up on the losing side despite 401 yards and 6 TDs. Anderson had 328 and 5 TDs. Awesome game for the fans as Ocho-Cinqo had 209 yards and 2 touches for the Bengals while Braylon Edwards had 146 yards and 2 TDs for the Browns. I am sure the Browns fans were as shocked as anybody to see their team play like this and win.
Houston, Detroit, Green Bay, Washington and San Francisco are all a surprising 2-0. Keep an eye on Matt Schaub. This dude can play some QB and he has got a great weapon in Andre Johnson who had 120 yards receiving for Houston on 7 catches. Brett Favre is doing what he does best leading the Packers to 2-0 as the Giants fell to 0-2 despite Eli Manning suiting up and playing. Kitna lead Detroit to it's second win as he went out with a concussion, but came back and showed some serious leadership. This team might be the real deal. Again, he's got a stud in Roy Williams to goto anytime he is in trouble. I am not so sure San-Fran is the real deal despite a close 17-16 win over the Rams. Alex Smith looked horrible again and the Niners won again behind a crazy TD by Frank Gore on a 4-Th and 1. Gore didn't dominate either, but that big play took care of the game. Niners were out-gained 392-186 by the Rams, but the Rams as always hurt themselves with crucial turnovers. Washington is 2-0 after beating Philadelphia 20-12 on Monday night. They might have exposed Phily and Donovan McNabb. McNabb looked terrible and the Eagles are now 0-2. By the way, the most shocking 0-2 might be the Saints as they lost against Tampa Bay. Where are Brees and Reggie Bush hiding?
Arizona shocked Seattle with a 23-20 win. Seems like Seattle is going nowhere this season as they let Matt Leinart have a decent game and let Edge rush for 128 yards on 24 carries. As I had predicted, the NFC West games were close, but both games had different results than what I had expected. This is a mediocre division right now and is up for grabs. Oakland surprisingly took Denver to OT despite Josh McCown passing for just 73 meagre yards. Lamont Jordan carried the Raiders with 159 rushing yards and the D scored a late TD to give them a chance to win. Sea-bass kicked a long 52 yarder through in OT, only to see it wiped away by a timely time-out by Mike Shanahan. He made Janikowski kick it again and sure enough, he missed it this time. Denver got the ball back and moved the ball well to give Elam a 23-yarder to win the game. Elam doesn't miss too many of those. Only the Raiders can lose games like this after celebrating what they thought was a winning field goal.
The greatest game of the week was actually the supposed dog of a game - Cincinnati @ Cleveland. Cleveland had shipped out Charlie Frye after a horrible week 1. Now they were supposed to tolerate Derek Anderson while waiting for Brady Quinn to get ready for the big show. Boy did Derek Anderson have other ideas. He came out swinging and throwing bombs to match Carson Palmer dart for dart. He may not have seen too many 51-45 games even in the Pac-10 at Oregon state. This game saw crazy scoring with very little defense and Palmer ended up on the losing side despite 401 yards and 6 TDs. Anderson had 328 and 5 TDs. Awesome game for the fans as Ocho-Cinqo had 209 yards and 2 touches for the Bengals while Braylon Edwards had 146 yards and 2 TDs for the Browns. I am sure the Browns fans were as shocked as anybody to see their team play like this and win.
Houston, Detroit, Green Bay, Washington and San Francisco are all a surprising 2-0. Keep an eye on Matt Schaub. This dude can play some QB and he has got a great weapon in Andre Johnson who had 120 yards receiving for Houston on 7 catches. Brett Favre is doing what he does best leading the Packers to 2-0 as the Giants fell to 0-2 despite Eli Manning suiting up and playing. Kitna lead Detroit to it's second win as he went out with a concussion, but came back and showed some serious leadership. This team might be the real deal. Again, he's got a stud in Roy Williams to goto anytime he is in trouble. I am not so sure San-Fran is the real deal despite a close 17-16 win over the Rams. Alex Smith looked horrible again and the Niners won again behind a crazy TD by Frank Gore on a 4-Th and 1. Gore didn't dominate either, but that big play took care of the game. Niners were out-gained 392-186 by the Rams, but the Rams as always hurt themselves with crucial turnovers. Washington is 2-0 after beating Philadelphia 20-12 on Monday night. They might have exposed Phily and Donovan McNabb. McNabb looked terrible and the Eagles are now 0-2. By the way, the most shocking 0-2 might be the Saints as they lost against Tampa Bay. Where are Brees and Reggie Bush hiding?
Arizona shocked Seattle with a 23-20 win. Seems like Seattle is going nowhere this season as they let Matt Leinart have a decent game and let Edge rush for 128 yards on 24 carries. As I had predicted, the NFC West games were close, but both games had different results than what I had expected. This is a mediocre division right now and is up for grabs. Oakland surprisingly took Denver to OT despite Josh McCown passing for just 73 meagre yards. Lamont Jordan carried the Raiders with 159 rushing yards and the D scored a late TD to give them a chance to win. Sea-bass kicked a long 52 yarder through in OT, only to see it wiped away by a timely time-out by Mike Shanahan. He made Janikowski kick it again and sure enough, he missed it this time. Denver got the ball back and moved the ball well to give Elam a 23-yarder to win the game. Elam doesn't miss too many of those. Only the Raiders can lose games like this after celebrating what they thought was a winning field goal.
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