All Star Boos For Utley And Marmol

Josh Hamilton's spectacular show at the Home Run Derby is getting more than enough press, so I won't bother adding more praise to what he did. What I will say is that none of Hamilton's 500+ foot homers, nor his 28 jacks in the first round, nor Milton Bradley's surprisingly fun antics were my highlights. David Ortiz' self-serving look-at-me antics certainly weren't. Nor was it when the All-State big wig with the giant check called Justin Morneau, "Jason Morneau" as he congratulated him for winning. No the highlight of the night for me came before the balls started flying.

As the players' names were called in the introductions, they would run out to the baseline, turn around and wave to the crowd, with an ESPN camera right in their faces. These cameras have microphones on them to pick up whatever natural sound from the field that they can. When Phillie Chase Utley was announced, he received a pronounced round of boos from the Yankee Stadium crowd (presumably from Mets fans?). That wasn't the best part.

The best part was that when Utley got out to the baseline to join Marlin Dan Uggla, and he heard the boos. Utley turned around to wave to the crowd and said to Uggla, easily loud enough for the live camera to pick up the sound, "Boo!? Fuck you!"

Sorry about the language there, but it was spectacular television and a simple "f--- you" wouldn't have captured it well enough.

A close second, in terms of my favorite moments, was when Hamilton launched a ball to dead center that landed on the black tarp-covered seats and two fans ran out to snag the ball. The cops converged on the two and one went sprinting down the tunnel, presumably to his death. The other was caught and held by the throat with one hand by a cop on national television. When they showed the replay later, they cut before that part.

Finally, with tonight's All Star Game being only hours away, I want to mention how unbelievably stupid it is that Carlos Marmol was the final replacement on the National League team when teammate Kerry Wood dropped out with an injury. First of all, Marmol is a middle reliever and I understand that this may be the most under-appreciated position in all of sports, and that just because he is a middle reliever doesn't mean he isn't one of the best 25-30 players in the league. But the fact that his ERA is over 4.00 does mean that!

After a very nice start to the season, Marmol's ERA in June was 7.36 and in July it has been 13.50! He was named a replacement the day after he blew a 7-2 lead and was booed off the mound at home! This guy is an All Star?

Pat Burrell (who I hate) is fourth in the league in homers with 23 and leads the NL outfielders in slugging. Jose Reyes is hitting .302 with 10 homers and 43 RBI from the lead off spot, along with 68 runs scored and 32 steals! He is fourth in the NL in runs, 2nd in hits, 1st in triples, 3rd in steals, and 12th in batting average. If you want a pitcher, how about Johan Santana who has 8 wins, is 4th in the league in ERA (2.84), and 7th in K's. Or Kyle Lohse, who is third in the league in wins and his era is 3.39. Or Chad Billingsley, who has 9 wins, a 3.25 ERA and is second in the league in K's. If you want a middle reliever, how about another Dodger, Hong-Chih Kuo (who I absolutely hate), whose ERA is 1.69 and has almost 1 1/4 K's per inning pitched.

Carlos Marmol? Really? That said, he'll probably wind up being the MVP of the game.

Showboating Vs. Sportsmanship

Monday night, during the Mets - Nationals game, the Nationals bench was apparently doing little chants and cheers that got under the skin of the Mets' journeyman starter Nelson Figueroa. Figueroa said the Nationals were "cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls...Truly unprofessional. That's why they are who they are."

So is this unprofessional? Is there a difference between playful exuberance and classless showboating? I suppose it depends on the situation. I didn't get to watch the game so I don't know exactly in what spirit that chanting was. Apparently it was loudest in the third inning after Figueroa walked in a run. Perhaps Figueroa was a bit sensitive in his press conference after the game since he'd blown three leads in the first four innings.

These controversies seem to be following the Mets over the past few years. Jose Reyes was bush for giving too many high-fives. Lastings Milledge was bush for giving fans high-fives after his first career home run (among other things). Carlos Delgado was bush for not taking a curtain call. Is it possible that we are looking at these guys a little too closely?

No, the Nationals should not be taunting the opposing pitcher, especially being that they are a last place team. But Figueroa should probably keep his yap shut and just have John Maine put one in Nick Johnson's back (the guy hitting at the time) and let it be done. Now it will live on in the press for the rest of the season.

Sure Reyes and Milledge were being a little over the top, but they were young and how offensive are high-fives really? Ozzie Smith used to do running cartwheels and back-flips when he took the field!

As for Delgado, he was absolutely right to not take a curtain call. He is having a terrible year following the worst year of his career. He booed constantly by his own fans for months. So he has one big game and they fall in love again and expect him to thank them for cheering for him? Screw those fans! The only thing they are entitled to from Delgado is effort because they pay his salary. He doesn't have to crawl around under the table and be thankful for scraps of cheers leftover after David Wright leaves! Delgado didn't give them the finger. He didn't say anything in the media. He just didn't stand up one time. If he wakes up, starts hitting and carries the team to the postseason, then maybe he will feel he has done something worthy of a curtain call.

Joba Chamberlain is in the news for acting like an imbecile on the mound, but he is bringing that on himself. The guy is a middle reliever who celebrates every strikeout like he just won the World Series. What if a hitter did that arm-pump at first base every time he got a single or a walk. He'd get plunked every other at bat.

There is nothing wrong with being excitable and getting excited. We all get on players who don't seem to play with any joy (Jeff Kent, Garret Anderson, Andruw Jones, Gary Sheffield, etc.) but then we can't stand players who play with too much! I guess it is a fine line, and maybe the fans and media are a bit overcritical. It seems like Baseball takes care of this kind of stuff better than other sports though. If some guy gets too high on his horse and shows someone up, there is no need to whine to the press about it - just go tell your pitching staff to take care of it.

NBA Playoff Weekend Roundup And Salma Hayek

Perhaps the biggest tragedy in sports this year will be that either the Spurs or Suns will not make the second round of the playoffs, but either the Magic or Raptors will. I suppose the NBA and the involved TV networks like the idea of having such intriguing first round match ups as the Spurs vs. Suns and having the Pistons lose game 1 at home, but at the same time they must be scared out of their minds.

When you look at it, there is not much to get excited about in in the first round. The Lakers-Nuggets series is a train wreck and will probably be a sweep or 5-gamer. Celtics might win in 3, with Atlanta just conceding. New Orleans vs. Dallas...yawn. There are some interesting subplots, but ultimately does anyone outside of New Orleans or Dallas care? Detroit - Philly is only interesting if Philly wins game 2. Otherwise, Detroit will probably just win it in 5. Utah vs. Houston could be the most boring and anonymous match up of 54-win teams in league history. FYI: Orlando and Toronto both have NBA franchises and are actually meeting in the playoffs. Cleveland vs. Washington is only interesting to see if LeBron will topple under the pressure of playing 12 against 1 every night. Even Ben Wallace's possible hairdo spectacles aren't interesting anymore. And of course, San Antonio vs. Phoenix is one of the best first round playoff match ups in any sport of my lifetime.

So one series is watchable, and it lived up to that title in Game 1 - not that I watched. I did not see any of the games this weekend because I still don't really care yet - or I don't care enough to waste two hours of my life watching the first three quarters of a game yet.

I did watch the Mets vs. Phillies Sunday night and that 6th inning rally made me really, really happy. I also think that Chase Utley would look very good hitting second between Jose Reyes and David Wright. When is his contract up in Philly? The Mets are on TV again tonight, but I get to work at the Dodgers game censoring profanity for the live telecast. This will be like knowing that Salma Hayek is standing next to me naked, but I have to watch Diane Keaton undress instead. I hate Diane Keaton.

In 2006, I was in Boston for Patriots Day. I was at a bar watching the Red Sox, and Mark Loretta hit a game-winning homer and then we ran outside to watch the winners of the Boston Marathon finish - the closest finish in history at the time. It was a pretty spectacular 5 minutes in sports-fandom. Is there a more painful/glorious ending to a sporting even that what happened this morning though? A woman out-leaned an opponent to win the marathon by 2-seconds, gaining the advantage win 100-yards left. Can you imagine dedicating your whole life to training, getting perfectly primed for the biggest event in the sport, going out and being the leader through 99.8% of a 26.2-mile race and then losing it in the last .05 miles? Spectacular.

NFL Schedules Released, And Other Boring Stories

Tuesday's top stories were the Lakers winning the West, Pacman Jones continuing to be a jackass and the NFL schedule being released (yawn). Needless to say, I was not glued to the set for SportsCenter last night. Although the Sharks' come-from-behind win with 9-seconds to go in Calgary, David's Wright's single-handed demolition of the Nationals and the Ducks coming back to life did make me want to watch a little.

Ordinarily the team that wins a conference gains a gigantic advantage: they play a patsy in the first round and the get home court advantage. This year there is no real patsy, except maybe the Nuggets. The Lakers have wound up facing the Nuggets. In the regular season, the Lakers blew them out twice at Staples and won a close one at McNichols Arena (I know the Nuggets no longer play at McNichols Arena but I have always loved the name and am sticking with it). The Nuggets are the only team that has any a-hole power close to what Kobe Bryant brings to the court, so this series will basically be unwatchable. Kenyon Martin will definitely punch someone, Carmelo Anthony will foul out of at least three games and hide booze in his Gatorade bottles, Kobe Bryant will throw his hands out and make the "I-did-not-rape-that-girl" face no less than 8 times per game, Derek Fisher will win the series for the Lakers but not get noticed. Lakers in six because winning in Denver is tough, but the Nuggets are an implosion waiting to happen and can't beat a crappy 1-seed even if that team actually relies on Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovich.

The Dallas Cowboys have apparently decided to abandon their "America's Team" moniker and are going after the "America's Slimiest Team" title instead. Perhaps they finally realized that everyone hates them. As if Jerry Jones existence was not gross enough, they signed Terrell Owens even after the incident at midfield at Texas Stadium. They then let Tony Romo fry for the totally innocent mistake of dropping a snap and losing a playoff game. Then again Romo crumbled down the stretch and got blamed for their losing this year. Then Romo went to Mexico with his girlfriend during the playoff by-week and took entirely too much flack for it...then they lost the following week (I had intended to show Romo was not at fault and gets blamed unfairly, but I think I proved myself wrong). Now they are going to trade half of the team in order to sign Pacman Jones, who isn't even allowed to play in the NFL because he keeps getting arrested.

Don't teams with white helmets all look like Jack's kid running around in those Jack-In-The-Box commercials? I love when the Titans play the Chargers.

The NFL released the schedules for 2008 and I can't remember if ESPN always makes this such a big deal or not - maybe it is just because they air Monday Night Football now. There was a live blog written as the schedules were released on the wires. There were bottom-line updates during programming. There was a whole prime time show dedicated to talking about it with reporters, columnists, coaches and players weighing in. Who cares? We have no clue what any of it means yet. They all say that the Giants' title defense depends on how they do in October based on the schedule. If I am not mistaken, the Super Bowl champion Giants were 0-2 and had been outscored 146 to -5 after the first two games last year. I'd say it is December and January that matters more. What is interesting is that because the AFC East was so incredibly bad last year, the Patriots' strength of schedule is by far the easiest in the NFL, and Jacksonville will play four games in 18 days in December. Actually, now that I think of it, that isn't really all that interesting. News is not news until it happens. The draft is not news because it takes a year or 5 for it all to shake out. The schedules are not news because who cares what your opponents were like last year? This is not an important story until about week 4 this upcoming season.

The Ducks and Sharks put the all-California Western Conference Final back in line yesterday with impressive wins. No Canadian team has won the Cup since Toronto was a fur-trading outpost, and if two California teams play one another for the chance to go to the Stanley Cup and then one of them wins it all for the second year in a row, I honestly think Canada might declare war on the United States.

David Wright was three-for-four with a homer and 5 RBI, and Jose Reyes was a homer shy of the Cycle. If I am not mistaken, the Mets questionable pitching staff has allowed the fewest runs in the league, and the "unreliable" Mike Pelfrey is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Seven players are averaging at least one hit per game. Screw the Phillies.