Before, During, And After Manny's Supension

When Manny Ramirez went on his maternity leave early in the 2009 season, I thought it might be interesting to note some of the main offensive stats for the team and then see what kind of effect Manny's absence would have. At the time, the team was off to an incredibly fast start both with the bats and on the mound. I then recorded the same set of stats at the time Manny returned, and then again at the regular season's end. I wrote down a few hypotheses about what would happen and while a few were supported by the numbers, but I was somewhat surprised by others.

Predictions:
-All offensive statistics will dip dramatically in Manny's absence. Upon his return, they'll improve but overall the team will lose ground down the stretch after extending themselves to wait out the suspension.
-Andre Ethier will experience the most dramatic dip and then increase in stats since he has been hitting in front of Manny in the lineup and will miss that protection.
-Juan Pierre's numbers will experience a dramatic downturn regardless of Manny's presence (Pierre is hitting .346 at the time of the suspension). Playing every day will hurt him and he will not finish the season over .300.
-The pitching staff's hot start will come to a screeching halt as the offense struggles and puts more pressure on the pitching.
-Manny's post-suspension numbers will not dip dramatically upon his return. He will struggle initially after the lay-off, but eventually regain his form.
-The Dodgers' 6.5 game lead at the time of the suspension will initially be extended, but be erased by the end of the season. They may win the West, but not by more than 3 games.

None of my predictions were particularly ground-breaking. The common assumption was that absent of Manny's bat in the middle of the line-up, opposing pitching staffs would not be afraid to pitch to or around the other players when called for. When Manny returned, he might have rust to shake off, but he'd eventually become the fearsome hitter he's been for years. While some of this proved correct, there were some surprises.

Results:
-Juan Pierre held up far better than expected. Prior to the suspension, he batted .346 in limited, back-up duty. As an everyday starter for those 50 games, he batted .322 with 37 runs scored and 24 RBI in 245 at bats. He struggled a lot more coming off the bench after Manny came back (.281, 20 R, 7 RBI in 135 at bats) and finished the season at .308. But his numbers during the suspension probably saved the season for Los Angeles.
-Matt Kemp had a solid season over all, but his power was far better with Manny in the lineup. Kemp hit .275, 17 R, 17 RBI, 3 HR in the first 29 games. During the suspension, but he improved his batting average to .302 but only hit 7 homers in his next approximately 200 at bats. Then when Manny returned, Kemp's power numbers took a huge leap, surging from 10 homers in his first 291 at bats, to 16 homers in his final 315 at bats.
-Andre Ethier did struggle greatly in Manny's absence. Pre-suspension: .317, .76 runs/game, .93 RBI/game, about 15 AB/HR. Without Manny: .257, .38 runs/game, .52 RBI/game, 31.1 AB/HR. Post-suspension: .285, .63 runs/game, .65 RBI/game, 19.8 AB/HR. Even with Manny struggling after his return, Ethier was likely seeing much better pitches to hit, and hit them he did!
-Orlando Hudson's red hot start came to a screeching halt, but that probably had as much to do with the law of averages as it did Manny Ramirez. Hudson hit .342 prior to the suspension, .292 during it, and just .364 afterwards to finish the season right at his career average of .281.
-The team averaged 5.55 runs per game before, 4.40 runs during, and 4.81 runs after the suspension for a season average of 4.81 as well. Their margin of victory went from +1.90 (wow!) to +.58 to +1.02. They were +1.04 on the season.
-The pitching staff did not see any great change despite the increased pressure put on as the offense dipped. In fact, the staff ERA dropped from 3.72 before to 3.46 during the suspension. And if you think that could be attributed to the better defense that Pierre provided over Manny in left field (though Manny's potential errors would only lead to unearned run and not affect ERA), the staff ERA dropped to an amazing 2.75 over the final 83 games of the season! The season ERA was an ML leading 3.41.
-The team did struggle during the suspension, going from an over all winning percentage of .724 to .580. They were only 28-21 during the suspension after starting out 21-8. When Manny returned, the winning percentage continued to dip despite the amazing pitching and the fact that the batting average and runs/game all improved. They were 45-38 (.542) after Manny returned and finished 95-67 (.586).
-Their NL West lead was 6.5 games when Manny went out. It actually stretched out to 7.5 games when Manny returned, and shrunk all the way down to 1 game in the final weekend before stretching back out to 3 games at season's end.
-While Ethier had the biggest slide with Manny out (70 points), Rafael Furcal had the worst numbers. Furcal hit just .240 during the suspension. Furcal hit .293 when Manny returned, but finished the season a disappointing .269 with just 57 runs scored despite playing a full season (150 games played).
-Besides Pierre, Casey Blake was the team's biggest savior during the suspension. 33 or Blake's 79 RBI came during those 50 games. He hit .286 during the suspension (.264 before, .274 after).
-Russell Martin's superstar status seems to be a thing of the past. While he is still becoming known as a great game-caller, his offensive numbers are not good. He struggled before and during the suspension (.246 total BA with 1 HR in 248 at bats). He improved slightly after the suspension, hitting .253 with 6 homers in his final 257 at bats.

And finally, there is Manny Ramirez. Pre-suspension, Manny his .348 and hit a homer every 15.3 at bats. Upon his return, his batting average dipped 79 points (.269), and his homerun average dropped to 1 every 20 at bats (still impressive). With three times the at bats after the suspension as before it, he barely scored and drove in twice the runs.

The slugger's post-suspension numbers were nowhere near the astronomical numbers he had put up in his first nearly full-season with the Dodgers. His struggles have been attributed various things, like being upset that he was being booed for his steroid-related suspension, being distracted by the circus around the suspension, being slow to get back into the groove, etc. Announcers keep saying that Manny is almost all the way back and that any day now, he will take over.

It's been nearly 90 games since the suspension. It's not rust. He was booed for a decade before this drug suspension. It's not his fragile emotions. He's been in the center ring of his own circus his entire career. He's not distracted. It is pretty clear that Manny struggled after coming back from a performance enhancing drug suspension because performance enhancing drugs were not enhancing his performance anymore.

Maybe I am not so upset that the Mets didn't sign him, and that the Dodgers are stuck with his $22 million dollar contract for a 38 year-old defensive liability who'll be lucky to hit .275 and 25 homers next year.

SoCal Sports Hub: Hardball Weekly (6/1/09)

Wanted: Season-Saving Rally Monkey

Ervin Santana’s much anticipated return to the Angels has not gone as the team hoped. He is 0-2 with a 9.50 ERA (31 runs allowed in four games), but he isn’t much worse than the rest of the Angels right now. Hovering just one game over .500, the injury-riddled Angels just stumbled through a 2-4 home stand that left them 4.5 games behind the red-hot Rangers, and staring a 9-game road trip in the face.

But if there is such a thing as a turning point, the Angels may have had one Sunday when they overcame a seven-run deficit in the 6th inning, capped off with a 3-run ninth for the walk-off. Torii Hunter continues to lead the Halos in nearly every offensive category, hitting .313 with 12 homers and nearly an RBI per game. If the Angels can keep riding Hunter until Vlad Guerrero, John Lackey, and Santana get back to form, they are still the favorites in the AL West despite the Rangers’ start.

Odd Man Out

With just 32 calendar days left, the Dodgers are nearly halfway through Manny Ramirez’ steroid-suspension. A few weeks ago, it seemed that the Dodgers might be in deep trouble when their saw they Division lead dwindle and their hitting stop. Now it seems the biggest problem they will deal with in the West is where to put Manny when he is eligible.

Andre Ethier’s batting average has fallen 60-points in Manny’s absence, and Juan Pierre has hit over .400 for most of that span (.374 on the season), but Pierre cannot be played in right field because of his weak throwing arm. Matt Kemp would be tough to move from center field with his solid defense and impressive hitting. But you can’t take Manny’s bat out of the lineup either. So Pierre will likely be relegated to the bench again despite his torrid hitting.

Maybe They Should Threaten To Trade Other Guys Too

The Padres completed a trade with the White Sox to send ace Jake Peavy to Chicago, but Peavy vetoed the deal. Since then, Peavy is 3-0 and the Padres have done what they needed to do to get back into the race in the NL West, going 12-3 (including a 10-game win streak). Unfortunately, the Dodgers regained their form just before that stretch and have surrendered only 1.5 games during that span, and the Padres still sit in third place, 9-games back.

Adrian Gonzalez continues to put up MVP numbers, even though he is a long shot for the All-Star game. Gonzalez leads baseball with 20 homers, and has 40 RBI through 50 games. But Scott Hairston and Gonzalez are the only two Padre regulars hitting over .250, and despite Peavy’s renewed success, they simply cannot compete with the Dodgers over the long haul. The clock is ticking louder and louder on the Padres’ stars careers at Petco.

The Lineup (9 Things To Watch This Week)

Dodgers vs. Phillies in battle of Division Leaders (Thursday-Sunday at Dodger Stadium)
Angels start 9-game road trip (Toronto, Detroit, Tampa Bay)
Jake Peavy vs. Phillies Offense (2nd in NL in runs scored) (Wednesday at Petco Park)
Juan Pierre: 1-13 in last three games (Dodgers went 1-2), 12-24 in previous five (Dodgers were 4-1)
Rangers take West division lead to New York and Boston
Baltimore’s Luke Scott hit .533 with six homers and 14 RBI over a four-game stretch last week
Carlos Zambrano returns to the mound after suspension (Thursday at Atlanta)
Washington (on pace for 43 wins) has lost 6 straight (host San Francisco and New York Mets)
Mets (7-2) and Phillies (12-4) red hot and separated by .5
Phillies (5.02) and Yankees (4.94) have the 4th and 5th worst ERAs in baseball despite leading their divisions

This post is a copy of a weekly feature I write for SoCal Sports Hub. Check out their site for great info., articles, interviews and comments on all Southern California pro and college sports.

Hypocricy, Thy Name Is 'Mannywood'

I try to avoid thinking of individual moments, games, or series as turning points early in a baseball season. It is just so long that even a really significant event that happens today can be followed by 10-15 more momentum shifts (good and bad) before it is all said and done, rendering this really significant event as pretty insignificant in the end.

Obviously the Dodgers losing Manny Ramirez for 50 games is a monumental blow to their season. Or is it? Heading into yesterday's games, the Dodgers were 6.5 up in the N.L. West and running away from a pack of average-at-best teams. Not counting any added emotional stress that may make players choke, they are still more talented than any of the teams chasing them. My guess is that they will still be in the lead in the West 49 games from now, and then they'll just pull away again for the final 70 games after Manny is back.

After all, this team played more than 50 games without Manny last season and are a deeper, more talented team this year.

There are a few wild cards to be played in this scenario though. Will the Dodgers' young players crumble under the pressure without Manny's bat and mouth to make everything easier for them? Will their pitching staff be able to compete over the course of a season (with or without Manny, this is not a good staff)? Will Manny come back hungry to prove he's an all-time great? Will he come back a shadow of his former allegedly steroid-using self? Will he come back apathetic since his chances of a huge free agent contract may have just vanished? Will the Giants make a trade for a bat, making them an actual threat?

If there is no such thing as a turning point this early in the season, Dodger fans should be hoping that last night's game was also not a microcosm of their season: great start but then suddenly the bats went silent, the pitching fell apart, and by the time they got the offense going again, it was too late.

There's a part of me that feels sorry for Dodger fans after yesterday. First they lose Manny, then the team comes out and scores 6 in the first inning: "Ha, we're fine without him!" Then the Washington Nationals, the worst team in baseball, score 11 unanswered runs to steal the game and halt your record home-winning streak. But then I remember how miserable Dodger fans make a trip to that stadium, and all the Dodger fans I know who are obnoxious, and what the Dodgers did to my parents when they left Brooklyn, and what an ass Tommy Lasorda is, and how pissed I still am about the 1988 NLCS and Hong Chi Kuo flipping his bat in the air two years ago when he hit a homer off of John Maine and Guillermo Mota plunking Mike Piazza and then sprinting to the clubhouse to hide six years ago, and then I don't care so much.

And who comes to town next? Of course it is the Giants. Who better than to come in and sweep the Dodgers, cutting the division lead from 6.5 to 2.5 in four days, than the team and fans who Dodger fans crucified for supporting Barry Bonds. Just as San Francisco fans were ripped for standing by an "obvious cheater," now they get to come to L.A. and return the favor to all the Dodger fans who insist that Manny is innocent ("He just wanted to spice up his sex-life" I heard one misinformed fan say). Click here and watch the video to see more Dodger fans.

For the Giants fans' sakes, I hope the Dodgers have extra security in the parking lot after the game. Dodger fans will stab you in the parking lot when things are going well, just imagine what it will be like out there this weekend.

The Jury Is In; Manny's Guilty

So the drug Manny Ramirez took was just revealed.

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), is a women's fertility drug that is often taken by steroid users to help kick-start their natural testosterone production after they stop a steroid cycle.

So either Manny was inspired by the Octomom and wants to make sure he can still give birth even at his advanced age, or "Manny Being Manny" is a euphemism for 'roid rage.

Incidentally, Manny reportedly never asked for an exemption from Major League Baseball to use this banned drug for therapeutic reasons.

Slugger Cheats: Why Does Everyone Seem So Shocked?

I thought I was going to write today about how that Lakers-Rockets series exploded last night. I was going to rip Kobe Bryant, and Ron Artest, and Von Wafer, and Luke Walton, and Sasha Vujacic, and especially Derek Fisher. I was going to rip Lakers' radio announcer, Mychal Thompson, for saying that Fisher had "sacrificed himself for the team" when he made one of the dirtier plays in recent memory to level Luis Scola.

But now I guess I should write about how Manny Ramirez "sacrificed himself for the team." Because by Thompson's definition, "sacrificing one's self" means cheating and getting suspended, and that's just what Manny has done.

At this point, we know very little about this Manny-cheater story, but we know this: he took a banned drug and is out for 50 games, and he says the drug was prescribed for a legitimate medical condition.

Perhaps we should all withhold judgement on this one till we find out what the "medical condition" was, what exactly this drug does, and if the Florida doctor is legit (why are these doctors always from Florida?). But that ship sailed a long time ago for professional athletes, so Manny can kiss the Hall of Fame goodbye.

So Manny cheated and he's gone. And the Dodgers are left to keep the train on track until July without him. Just for posterity's sake, let's record some key stats at this point and see exactly what kind of influence Manny has on this team:

Record: 21-8, .724 (13-0 at home, 8-8 on road)
Standing: 1st in NL West by 6.5 games, 4.5 game ahead of the Wild Card, best record in baseball by 1.5 games
Runs per game: 5.55 (Manny: .815 - 2nd LA)
Batting average: .283 (Manny: .348 - 1st LA)
Homers per game: .83 (Manny: 6 HR - t-1st LA)
Slugging percentage: .426 (Manny: .641 - 1st LA)
On Base percentage: .376 (Manny .492 - 1st LA)
Orlando Hudson: .342, .793 runs/game, .586 RBI/game, .103 HR/game
Andre Ethier: .317, .759 runs/game, .931 RBI/game, .207 HR/game
James Loney: .276 .310 runs/game, .690 RBI/game, .000 HR/game
Matt Kemp: .275, .607 runs/game, .607 RBI/game, .107 HR/game
Rafael Furcal: .264, .808 runs/game, .269 RBI/game, .039 HR/game
Russell Martin: .242, .480 runs/game, .520 RBI/game, .000 HR/game
Casey Blake: .225, .500 runs/game, .536 RBI/game, .179 HR/game
Juan Pierre (Manny's presumptive replacement) is hitting .335 but mostly in pinch-hit role, so his other per-game offenseive statistics are not relevant.
Staff ERA: 3.72
Run Differential: +55
The Dodgers are currently 3rd in baseball is runs/game, 5th in hits/game (9.59), 20th in HR/game (.828), 2nd in BA (.283), 1st in On Base % (.376), 12th in Slugging % (.426) and 7th in OPS (.802).

At least ESPN stopped talking about the Thursday meeting between Brett Favre and Brad Childress (that apparently was never actually planned). Well, they stopped talking about it for about 20 minutes.

Seriously though, what the hell was Derek Fisher thinking?

How I Would Fix The Mets, Vol. I

Rooting for a baseball team is a strange experience. As I sit here on Monday, I feel as though the whole season is a waste because the team has no fire, no starting pitching, and no hope. And I feel as though this last weekend was a complete and utter failure.

But in reality, they're three games back from the Marlins in first place, a team that could easily finish the season 20 games under .500. The Braves are just not that good. And the Phillies are actually happy with how they're playing (but are still only two-and-a-half games up on the Mets).

And that horrible weekend? They beat up the Phillies in Philadelphia on Friday. Then a $36 starter vomitted his career all over the mound on Saturday before the team climbed back into the game and went to extra innings before losing a gut-wrencher. So they split with the Champs on the road with their two worst starting pitchers.

So I suppose you could say that the Mets are kinda sitting pretty. But I wouldn't.

If I was a master of time and space, here is how I would fix the Mets at this point in the season:
-Travel back in time and give Derek Lowe the four-year deal he wanted and let Oliver Perez go. Has there ever been a more obvious personnel move in sports history? You pass on one established veteran ace because he wants a fourth year, even though you are absolutely positive that he will win 15 games with an ERA under 4.00 in each of the next four years at New Shea, in favor of a head-case who doesn't come much cheaper ($3M per year less), and who is as likely to strike out 8 batters as he is to walk 8 batters. He might win 10 games, but could also lose 20. Currently: Perez is 1-2 with a 9.97 ERA, 21 walks and 20 K's, currently headed to the minors, bullpen or "disabled" list. Lowe is 3-1, 3.03, 28 K's and 14 walks.

-Sign Manny Ramirez for whetever he wanted. Don't even negotiate. Just give it to him, win the World Series this year and then he can implode all he wants after that...you already won. Thanks to Deadspin for the image above.

-Without the power to go back in time, send Perez to the DL with with phantom knee injury, then send him to the minors to "rehab" until he figures out what the catcher's mitt looks like. And pray.

-Sign Ben Sheets now before anyone remembers that he is not on a team. They will need another starter down the stretch (everyone does), and while Sheets is still recovering from elbow surgery, he hasn't had an ERA over 3.82 since 2003 (2.70, 3.33, 3.82, 3.82, 3.09), and he averages a 4:1 K:walk ratio over his career. If he is signed before the draft (early June), the Mets have to send a draft pick to the Brewers, but what are the odds that that draft pick will wind up being an ace starter. He is only 30, but considered injury prone, so a one year (or 3/4 year) deal would likely be very cheap.

-Take the leash off of Jose Reyes. He should steal every single time he touches first or second base. He should do as many hand-shakes, high-fives, fist-bumps and hugs as he wants as long as he is inside the dugout. He should bunt on every other at bat and go the other way on the other ones.

-Play small ball. I don't care how much money Carlos Beltran makes, if there is a man on first with less than two outs, he's bunting. If Carlos Delgado makes an out trying to hit through the shift, he should be fined...bunt to third for God's sake! If someone does not slide and are called out, fine him. If someone fails to get a sac-fly in the air with a runner on third and less than two outs, fine him. If someone hits behind a runner or bunts and moves him up, or hits a sac-fly...he is getting paid millions of dollars to do so!

-Get an attitude and a team identity. Pitchers can save pitches by hitting guys instead of intentionally walking them (ok, bad idea perhaps, but logical). Pitchers can throw inside a lot though. Establish that early and make batters respect it. No headhunting, but if someone gets intentionally plunked, one of theirs in getting one in the hip. Take pride in defense. Make hard slides. Relievers should be competing for their jobs every game. Everyone should have to watch tape of Alex Cora play. Be the latest hustling-running-small ball team to go all the way since slugging teams never do.

-Leave Danny Murphy in left field and let him learn to play it and leave Ryan Church in right. As long as Luis Castillo is hitting, he is the second baseman. If he starts to flop again, then perhaps you think about moving Murphy there and Gary Sheffield, Jeremy Reed and Fernando Tatis can plattoon the corner outfield spot. But Murphy is not going to be a third baseman in New York for a long, long time. With his bat, he needs to be in the lineup so he needs to become adept at some other position. Left field is the most logical place. But he had beetter be taking hundreds of fly balls and line drives a day out there.

-Someone slap Carlos Beltran in the face and tell him to wake up (and maybe have him take that thing off of his temple).

-But Brian Schneider on the trade market. He is a great glove and manages pitchers very well, but he simply can't hit, and the Mets have two other catchers than can. He is the starter when he comes back from his injury, but he's on a short leash.

-Tatis needs to play more. He should be the first replacement in the outfield and at first, and probably at second as well. That way Cora is always available off the bench.

-Sean Green is not an elite middle reliever. He does not need to be pitched in key spots to justify the trade...J.J. Putz was the reason for that trade.

-Frankie Rodriguez needs to pitch more. I am all for saving guys' arms, but he has 10 appearances in 22 games. I'm not saying they should pitch him in more non-save situations, I'm saying there need to be more freaking save situations.

What To Root For/Against This Week

So you are trying to figure out who to root for this week as the NCAA Tournament looms. That is part of the problem with betting on sports and playing fantasy sports - you wind up having to root for people like Bob Huggins to win Tourney games, and Chipper Jones to have good seasons. The trick of course, is to only bet/play with teams and players that you already like, or have reason to.

Louisville will be easy to root for because they were the forgotten little sisters, still not unanimously considered a 1-seed even after beating UConn and Pitt in the regular season and outlasting them and winning the Big East Tournament. Though they were eventually rewarded with the benefit of playing within two-and-a-half hours of home for the first four rounds, and having the weakest 2, 3, and 4 seeds in the Tourney.

West Virginia will be easy to root against because, again, Bob Huggins is a sleazeball. I have them beating Dayton in the first round but losing to Kansas, which will be nice considering that Kansas is another team that's easy to root for.

Need a villain? How about Cal State Northridge? I know it seems weird to root against Cinderella, but they are terrible and won't get out of the first round unless Memphis actually fails to appear anyway. More importantly, the Matadors have the lowest graduation rate among all 65 competitors - 8%. Of the 12 guys on the team, one will graduate within six years. And it isn't as though they are losing these kids to the NBA. But just wait till Huggins has been at WVU long enough to be counted in this stat. 8%...ha!

I am not sure if Florida State is a hero or villain. They are a decent pick to knock off 1-seed Pitt in the Sweet 16 and would be a fun story, but they are also an athletic department plagued with academic dishonesty and administrative neglect. The jury is still out on the 'Noles.

Switching gears, someone to root against is an 89-year-old Ohio woman, Edna Jester (who ironically has little or no sense of humor). When Mrs. Jester's neighbors' kids' ball went into her yard one too many times, she kept it and refused to give it back. The kids' parents (who are also not to be rooted for) sued her for the ball. The case was thrown out and she counter-sued for emotional distress...which was also thrown out. But at least our taxes paid for all of this.

Manny Ramirez is another one to root against. Not only is he on the Dodgers, which automatically makes him hate-able, but he has now officially staked claim on a lingering hamstring injury that can't really be fixed or medically disproved. So he has his built-in excuse for lagging for the remainder of the year. Enjoy, Dodger fans. The fantasy value of every player on your team and the potential division championship just flew out the window as Troy Tulowitski's liner flew down into the left field corner, forcing Manny to take 10-15 running steps before "re-injuring" himself. But at least it was determined that Jason Schmidt does not have the arm-strength to be a starter.

Looking for a true American hero? How about Jenyne Butterfly, winner of the 2009 U.S. Pole Dance Championships, hosted by the U.S. Pole Dance Federation. Really, no more needs to be said here...except that this makes it possible for women everywhere to dream big. Way to go Jenyne.

Hmm, Jay Cutler or the Broncos. I tend to want to side with players in messes like this, and I kinda like Cutler because Philip Rivers is such a huge a-hole. But seriously Jay. You are a professional athlete and you do not have a lifetime contract with the team. If they were contacted about a trade for you and said no, isn't that all you need to know about them wanting you around? If they allegedly looked at the market and realized that you were their guy, shouldn't you be happy for now and work hard to make sure that stays the case? Instead, you whine that they have turned their back on you (despite that they turned down the freaking trade!) and now you pull your house on the market and reportedly demand a trade. You sir, will be have whiny brat stamped on your player bio for the rest of your career.

Sergio Escudero. Never heard of him? He is a soccer player, so clearly he is someone to root against, but he is perfect example of why soccer players are to be disliked. Watch the video to see why. And keep in mind that a foul cannot be called on a referee. Perhaps he is a method actor and cannot "turn it off." Somewhere Vlade Divac is smiling. Clearly this guy sucks anyway because he is Brazilian and doesn't go by just one name.

I got distracted...back to the Tourney. You have to root against Big Ten schools, partially because there are eleven schools in the Big Ten. It should be the Big Televen...and so it shall be on this site. Anyway, Purdue was the conference's preseason favorite and was the best team all season till they stumbled at the end of the season. They went on to win the Big Televen tournament however. So it is fair to say that they are the best team in the conference if not second best. And they got a 5-seed. But somehow the Selection Committee (also to be jeered for having hosed small conferences, and also for this) thought that there were six other schools in this league good enough to be among the field. If you're counting, that means you root against Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan as well. If you have a hard time remembering all of them, just look for the teams scoring in the 40's...that'll be the Big Televen.

Obviously that also means Arizona must be jeered as well for being in undeservedly, but more importantly, the mid-majors that did get in need extra support since there were only four selected this year. So be sure to get behind Xavier and Dayton (Atlantic 10), Butler (Horizon) and BYU (Mountain West). Temple, Gonzaga, Utah, Western Kentucky, American, Portland State, Northern Iowa and Siena are all mid-major/small conference automatic bid winners who have good shots to make some early round noise as well, with the Zags being the flag bearers, of course.

I will also be rooting for certain match ups to occur, even if it means rooting for teams I don't like. UCLA-Duke, UNC-Gonzaga, and Memphis-Missouri would make for great Sweet 16 games, and Duke/UCLA-UNC would make for a fantastic Final Four game as well.

The fans in Kansas City and Miami could use some support this week as well. Not only did they not get any local teams to root for, they only got one game that anyone cares about (Maryland-Cal). Memphis-CSUN, Oklahoma-Morgan St., Clemson-Michigan, ASU-Temple, Syracuse-S. F. Austin, Utah-Arizona and Wake Forest-Cleveland St. Ouch. Those people are paying just as much as the people in Greensboro who get to see Duke and UNC play home games, and a potentially awesome 8-9 game (LSU-Butler).

And finally, we should all root against any of the Dayton games being any good, so CBS will air as little of Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery as possible. Of course, they also air every game free on their website, so maybe this last one doesn't matter as much. In related news, hurray for CBS broadcasting every single game for free despite that they could obviously charge ridiculous amounts of money for this, like Major League Baseball and the NFL do.

Huge Personnel Moves Resulting In Very Little

This has been a big week for new contract for big stars so here is a look at some of the big names, what they signed and the expected outcome of the deals.

Manny Ramirez - 1 year, $25M with and player option for a second year at $20M with the Dodgers. Manny will sandbag for 3-4 months, angered that there was no market for him, that the Dodgers never upped their offer, and that he wound up taking less than half of his goal-contract. Then he will go nuts in August and September and bolt for a better deal elsewhere when the economy is improved. He will be pitched around a lot and the Dodgers will struggle with no protection for their new $25M marketing campaign.

Kurt Warner - 2 years, $23M with the Cardinals. Warner's "shopping around" routine was more convincing than Manny's and wound up winning him $3M extra on top of the Cards' original deal, so that's nice. And he is supposedly a great guy and is going to heaven and stuff, so that's cool. But also like Manny, he's not going back to the playoffs under this deal. His age is a problem. Anquan Boldin being gone is a problem. And trying to repeat as the "magical story-team" is a problem.

Terrell Owens - released by the Cowboys. Sometimes clubhouse issues get hyped in the press. We kinda throw around the old "clubhouse cancer" moniker pretty freely because it makes us sound like we really know what the hell is going on. But if you are among the best 2-3 players at your position in your generation and you keep getting released, I think it is safe to say that you are a clubhouse cancer. Where does he go next? Minnesota lost out on T.J. Houshmandzadeh but their coach was T.O.'s offensive coordinator in Phily previously. The Giants need a star at wide receiver but they're too character-happy to go for a slug (again). Miami is like a circus and could throw him into the mix, but Bill Parcells has worked with T.O. before and hated him. Oakland? San Diego? Cincinnati? Which team values character the least? Probably Cincy. But can they pony up the dough? Of course, with just better than average numbers last year, the dough may not be all that tough to pony up? Will there really be a bidding war for this toad?

Ray Lewis - 3 years, $22M with the Ravens. Lewis had one of his best season last year and hasn't killed anyone in nearly a decade (as far as we know), so he was rewarded with a potentially career-ending contract with the only team he's ever been on. Will Lewis' recent admission that he would love to play for the Cowboys hurt his "devotion to the team" quotient this season? Probably not because if anyone doubts him, he might kill them. Lewis' dominance will slowly fade as he gets fatter. The Ravens will miss the playoffs this year and he just won't be a serious threat for too much longer after that.

Laveranues Coles - 4 years, $28M with the Bengals. The only way you will ever hear of Coles in the next four years is when he is invariably arrested.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh - 5 years, $40+M with the Seahawks. The only way you will ever hear of Housh in the next five years is when the story leaks that the quietly asked the team for a new quarterback (because he's a good guy and won't get arrested or demand a trade in the media when he sees how bad a decision it was signing with Seattle).

Matt Cassel - traded to Kansas City. 12 touchdowns, 20 interceptions, 6-10. And so ends the story of Matt Cassel.

Election Day For February's Biggest Sports Moron

It is time for the nominations to the February Edition of the award for the dumbest sports figure of the month. And today is election day, so don't forget to get out the vote (yes we're not done with elections even though Obama won).

Alex Rodriguez - In 2007, A-roid belittled everyone who had ever used performance enhancing drugs, saying he had never even been tempted because his talent was so great, but of course last month the story came out that he had actually taken steroids for three years. Within minutes of the time his admission of steroids went public, he was already being shot full of holes and he has basically lost all credibility. But the genius maneuver that gets him nominated came later. A-roid deflected the blame, saying that he had been injected with a mystery-drug by an unnamed cousin.  Of course, this cousin's identity was very soon discovered.  So you would think that, at least publicly, he would distance himself from this evil cousin who is such a bad influence.  You would think that A-roid would try to distance himself from shady trainers, shady doctors, shady cousins, etc.  Nope.  This moron-nominee had this same needle-pushing cousin pick him up from the first spring training game. Really? Couldn't afford a professional driver? Couldn't get yourself a freaking car to drive?

Daniel Snyder - The owner of the Washington Redskins has turned them into the Yankees of the NFL. "But the 'Skins haven't won anything in ages," you say. Neither have the Yankees. But they just keep spending and spending, damning any sense of team unity or chemistry. The thing is, chemistry is basically irrelevant in baseball so the Yankees don't need to care. But in football, chemistry is significant (ask the 2006 Giants and the 2007 Giants if there is a difference when your team comes together). So last week Snyder bought his latest really, really expensive toy - Albert Haynesworth - for a cool $100,000,000. Never mind that Haynesworth is grossly overweight, nor that he has an anger problem, and that the combination of the two will have him worth half his current value before this deal is halfway done.

Lane Kiffin - First he got hired at Tennessee and promptly accused conference rival Florida of recruiting violations for doing something that isn't illegal. Then he was nailed for recruiting violations of his own. Then he went around ripping high school administrators and other SEC schools for basically being a bunch of inbred, ignorant hicks. Last week he had his assistant coaches ripping off their shirts (Hulk Hogan-style apparently) to impress recruits. To put that another way, he had grown men tearing their clothes off for the entertainment of teenage boys. Enjoy this creative Photoshopping from the greatest moment of Patrick Swayze's career. I would have said it was gonna take a lot for Kiffin to lose all that public good will he carried after Al Davis had a press conference to read his Dear John letter to Kiffin. And within six months I am actually wondering if Kiffin had been in the wrong in Oakland after all.

Frank McCourt - Despite that he is one of the few owners in baseball who makes money every year, despite that Manny Ramirez was the only reason the Dodgers did not finish the season with a win total in the 70's, despite that Manny probably single-handedly sold more merchandise and filled more seats than any player for any team in the last decade in his brief stint in L.A., McCourt refuses to allow his general manager to go out and get Manny. The Dodgers' latest low-ball offer, which the Dodgers billed as their best offer yet, was actually for less per year than any of their previous three crappy offers because the money was to be spread out over five years. The McCourts continue to make comically low offers, knowing he will not accept, so they can then turn to the media and say, "see we're trying." So at this point, you have pissed off a very childish, impulsive, emotional player who also happens to be one of the best in the game. So if you do sign him somehow, you know he will tank on purpose, as he has done before. And if you don't, he'll make it his mission to crush you, as he has done before. It will be funny when the Dodgers give up on Manny (officially, though it is clear they already have privately) and go into the season as Orlando Hudson as their big star. Then by the end of April, someone will lose a left fielder or be 5 games out (or both) and they'll go sign Manny for 3 years, $65 million. I hope it is the DBacks, Padres, Giants or Rockies.

Brandon Marshall - Last season the Broncos star receiver had to sit out the season opener because of his involvement in seven incidents with his ex-girlfriend in which the police got involved. You would think after breaking it off with that girl, he would try to stay out of trouble and get his career back together. Last week, Marshall was arrested (fourth time in three years) for disorderly conduct (charges later dropped) for getting into a fight with his new girlfriend - including when they got into a punching and kicking match on the sidewalk in front of the cops after police arrived and broke them up from the initial fight.

Right now I am leaning towards A-roid or Marshall, but polls don't close for hours so I am going to think it all over first. Leave a comment with your vote or a write-in candidate.

Rivalry Week Hasn't Exactly Been What You'd Call Riveting

When ESPN calls it “Rivalry Week” I definitely feel that that means there will be a few larger-than-normal matchups and that I will be spending a lot more time than normal watching sports. So what happened this week?

Sure Duke hosted North Carolina on ESPN and USA hosted Mexico in soccer Wednesday night (two of the Best Rivalries In Sports that I named last February on CBS2.com – I will update that list here soon). But other than that, what big rivalries are there?

Louisville vs. Notre Dame and UCLA vs. ASU are supposed to excite me? Besides being league opponents and being pretty good, are either of these games actual rivalries? Is this the best they could do? Michigan State vs. Michigan was a decent one on Tuesday, but did anyone outside of Michigan care?

And even UNC-Duke and USA-Mexico were both a little lackluster.

Watching basketball at Cameron Indoor is often worthwhile and watching UNC play there is nearly always worthwhile. But this one never really grabbed your attention and refused to let go. It was a game of spectacular streaks (UNC’s red-hot start and then Duke’s I-wonder-if-they’re-cheating-somehow answer from behind the arc). But in the end, Carolina just out-ran Duke and slowly wore them down. No big shot, no real drama down the stretch. Great basketball, but nothing for the history books.

USA vs. Mexico was similar. The U.S. team was just better. They controlled the time of possession and wore down the Mexicans methodically. Mexico had a few decent chances to get a dumb-luck goal and steal a tie (exactly why soccer blows), but ultimately there was very little drama. There wasn’t even any of the normal US-Mexico unbridled hatred. Sure, the Mexican captain made one half-assed dirty play to kick our goalie and got red carded, but that was it. It was very hard to hate Mexico and normally that is really easy. They didn’t go for cheap shots and they didn’t take dives on every other play. In fact an American (Dempsey) was the most obnoxious player on the field. There weren’t even any really good soccer hairdos. Boring.

Is the Daytona 500 supposed to fire me up for the rest of the week? It isn’t even a sport and the only story I have even heard coming out of this is that Jimmie Johnson is going to drive without a brace on his injured finger. Really? Unless you have a broken leg, a broken arm, or a bladder problem, there really is no physical problem that a racecar driver should complain about.

The rivalry between Elgin Baylor and reality is a decent one. Right now, the two are set very far apart from one another. Seriously Elgin, we all appreciate what you did as a player (on and off the court). We all think that your firing was a little unceremonious. But ageism? Racism? You were underpaid during your tenure? How many winning season did the Clippers have in your 22 years? How many sub 30-win seasons? They had more sub-20 win seasons play playoff appearances. You should have been fired years before you were and thus were overpaid in that you even had the job!

Brett Favre vs. Retirement has been quite a rivalry over the past four years. It appears that while Brett was 2-0-1 going into this year, but retirement finally got a win. Last year he retired and unretired, so that counted as the tie.

Manny Ramirez vs. the Dodgers is a good rivalry playing out this week (though that will likely not go final by week’s end). For a while now it had begun to look like Manny had waited himself into a shorter, smaller contract but after Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn have now both signed elsewhere and the Dodgers are left with just one slugger on the market, it looks like Manny may get closer to what he wanted all along. Was this Scott “Satan” Boras’ plan all along?

Speaking of Manny, Tommy Lasorda said yesterday that the Dodgers will be fine with or without him. I would like to follow this up with a snappy, funny comment, but it is pretty funny in and of itself, so I will leave it alone.

The L.A. Galaxy vs. Some Team In Europe. I don't really know what team David Beckham wants to play for because it is soccer and I can't believe I am bringing up two soccer stories in one post. Anyway, apparently he can't handle playing in the U.S. and wants to go back to play in Europe. What will American sports do without him?

Adam Morrison vs. Vladimir Radmanovic. A showdown for the ages. I think you have to say that Morrison wins this matchup because he was traded from basketball purgatory to the best team in the league on the virtue of being a terrible defender and an average shooter.

Perhaps the rivalry coming this week that will affect the most people for the longest period of time is Fantasy Baseball vs. Free Time. With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training, many fantasy sites have opened for business and I for one have already opened my league. I opened up the league within hours of Yahoo!’s page going active and my league is #46065. I don’t know if that started at #0 or not, but either way, this amount of man-hours spent researching can’t be good for the economy.

Offseason Shopping List

Baseball's Opening Day and the NFL Draft are both a little more than two months away so I was thinking about my shopping list before those big days. It's a short list.

1 - "Reyes moves over to third on the single by Wright as the Mets are off to a fast start here on Opening Day. And that will bring up new leftfielder Manny Ramirez."

Clearly the Dodgers don't want to really sign Manny because they keep low-balling him to a ridiculous degree. They want to be able to tell their fans that they tried, but it didn't work. Then they'll get third in the West, win 78 games, but sell 3,000,000 tickets and be one of three teams to turn a profit.

I don't understand why more teams aren't at least going to Manny with two and three year deals worth a little less per year than he's asking. At least that would be a middle ground. He wants four years and around $25 million a year. Not gonna happen. But couldn't the Mets land him for 3 years and $65 or so? Wouldn't he make up for his salary with jersey sales, wig/hat sales, and ticket sales? Wouldn't he love playing in New York and being on the back page, and sticking it to the Dodgers 8-10 times this year? The Mets are going to platoon an average youngster and a past-his prime veteran in left field. Really? Reyes, Wright, Manny, Beltran, Delgado. Name a better top 5.

Omar Minaya likes making big splash surprise moves. He allegedly likes only going after Latino players. Jerry Manuel said last month that he'd love to have Manny. The team has a hole in left field and a Gold Glove centerfielder to cover for some of Manny's gafs. And they have an offense that is potent (second in runs last year), but still somehow not intimidating. So go get one of the best two or three hitters in the game and stick him right in the middle of all of it.

2 - "Manning drops back, steps in front of the rush, picks up a block from Jacobs as he pumps underneath to Houshmandzadeh and heaves one deep to Boldin..."

Plaxico Burress is toast and no one else on the team (Amani Toomer included) can be a #1 receiver right now. Boldin wants out of Arizona and Housh is a free agent. Signing either one makes the Giants instant favorites in the NFC considering that arguably the conference's best defense played without its best player last season, and the one thing missing at the end was a serious threat at wideout. Signing both makes the Giants Super Bowl favorites. Who gets the double-team with Housh on one side, Boldin on the other, Steve Smith in the slot, Boss at tight end, and Brandon Jacobs behind Manning, who is behind the best offensive line in the league? These guys are both blue-collar star receivers (which is almost a contradiction in terms). They don't cause clubhouse problems. They don't make waves in the media. They don't even celebrate scores really. They block, they are good route runners and they stretch the field.

Is that really so much to ask?

From Lingerie-Clad Football Players To Topless Figure Skaters

The sports world took a bitter blow on Monday. I imagine I don't really need to go into it further and you already know what I am referring to. The Lingerie Bowl was cancelled. Apparently one of the main roadblocks that wound up shutting down the event was that these highly principled, modest, proud young women were unwilling to degrade themselves by having to play the game at a nudist colony...I mean what are they, prostitutes?

As it turns out, this is the third consecutive year that this game has been cancelled. At what point is an event cancelled for the year and what point is it just an historical footnote? And does the fact that no one ever watched it when it (allegedly) was played make a difference?

The Cardinals and Steelers have arrived in Tampa for the other football game that was scheduled for Sunday (apparently still on, as of Tuesday morning). I have heard a lot of talk on sports radio and ESPN about how the Cardinals are built just like the Steelers are, so this success is not a fluke - they drafted well and are now reaping the benefits. So basically, the question is whether this season's success is repeatable.

I have heard a lot of interesting arguments that indeed, it is repeatable, but of course these arguments are all stupid. Kurt Warner is a fantastic story, but he is likely going to retire and even if he doesn't, it is far more likely he will look like the Kurt Warner of the previous five years, and not the one of last year. And besides his phenomenal year, this would have been the same team as last year: no running game, no running defense, great receivers, Matt Leinart.

When you are wondering if the "story of the year" team can repeat the next year, the answer is always no. If it is a miracle that they got this far, is it really fair to expect them to perform another miracle? Not only can they likely not pull it off, but everyone will be gunning for them from day 1. Ask the Rockies what it was likely coming back after that ridiculous 2007 season?

Are you hearing this Tampa Bay Rays?

The 2008 Dodgers are another such team, but their "magical run" was fueled exclusively by Manny Ramirez, there was no synergy, no draft picks that worked out, no coach pulling all the right strings. There was a dude hitting .400 that made all the other crappy players look they belonged in the major leagues.

I saw an interview with Dodgers first baseman James Loney recently where he said he was excited for the upcoming season, especially with the way everyone came together and really hit their strides towards the end of 2008. Does it count as your stride when someone is carrying you?

So then that means they just need Manny back and they'll win 120 games right? Not so much. With every swing, Manny was screaming "F you!" at Theo Epstein. That fire won't be there this year. If he is anywhere but L.A., he'll still hit .300 with 25 homers and 100 RBI, but he won't hit .400 with 50 homers and 150 RBI. If he is in L.A., he will sandbag the whole year and prove Boston was right to dump him.

Does anyone think that a guy with a history of loafing when he feels disrespected is going to hustle and smile and shine if he rejoins the Dodgers after they low-balled him for five months? He just came out Monday are repeated again that he wants 4-5 years at $25 million a year. So all this waiting and posing that the Dodgers have done has not knocked a dime off of his asking price. So in the next month, will he really knock 550,000,000 dimes off and then come to camp happy?

But the McCourts have done what they do best: they've made it look like they tied to fix things but that it was out of their hands. They made their crappy, low-ball offer and then made sure the media knew they did it. Now they can put all the blame on the player when he inevitably bolts for a better deal. I hope Manny relents (not likely with Scott Boras as his agent), takes a 3 year deal for $70 million and then just tanks for the next three years, making the Dodgers wish they still had Andruw Jones.

The last two stories of note: Floyd Landis' two year ban from supposedly doping during the 2006 Tour de France is up this weekend and Landis is training for the Tour of California and ideally the Tour de France, assuming that he can get onto a team that is in it. This means that this year's Tour de France could add Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton, Alberto Cantador, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer to the field after last year's superstar-devoid race. I personally thought the parity in 2008 was very entertaining and that Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans, Christian Vandevelde, Bernhard Kohl, and Denis Menchov put together a great Tour. But the absence of the sports' stars was palpable throughout and it will be great to watch the French swallow having five Americans as potential favorites.

And finally, last week the strap of a pairs figure skater snapped and her breast was exposed during their routine. The pair amazingly didn't stop and actually finished the routine. They finished 12th, so apparently the judges didn't like what they saw.

Favre-Watch 09 Hits ESPN, And MLB Blows Its Awards Season

Well, you can write it down. Week 11 was the first time that ESPN mentioned Brett Favre's future in the NFL and also the week that Mercury Morris was first mentioned in relation to the undefeated Titans. November 19 was the date of the Favre article and November 17th for the Morris article. Let the hype begin.

Sports Illustrated took a different tact in hyping the World Series champions. To be honest, I didn't really notice this when it happened because I was a little bitter that the freaking Phillies won the Series, but yesterday I got the NFL's official catalogue (35 shopping days till Christmas) and in it were quite a few Super Bowl items for the Giants. After subtly circling about 30 items in it and "accidentally" leaving it open on my wife's nightstand, it occurred to me that SI never did a "Phillies Win!" World Series edition.

I went back through the magazines from this month and found that I was only sorta wrong. The November 3rd edition features Rocco Baldelli colliding at home plate with a catcher with red protectors on - I assume that was the Phillies catcher. The headline is "The World Series" - not "The Phillies Win!" The article inside was a tribute to a well played series that no one watched, not to the champs' season. No where in the entire magazine was there a sentence that actually said that the Phillies had won the World Series - the assumption being that you already knew that. If I was a Phillies fan, I would be freaking pissed about all of this! But I would probably also be illiterate, so I wouldn't get SI and it wouldn't matter.

The November 10 edition kinda made up for this oversight. It did say "Phillies Win!" on the cover, but that article wasn't really about the team either. Rather it was about how to fix the Series, not a glorifying recap.

When did the World Series Champ start getting second-billing to the NFL's Midseason Report on fat guys getting paid more than they used to? If baseball is slipping into the background of the major American sports consciousness, the way they announce their awards doesn't help. They announce the managers of the years, Golden Glovers, Silver Sluggers, Rookies of the Year and MVPs weeks after the season ends. By this time, the NFL has taken complete control of ESPN, the NBA is in full swing, college basketball is already started and baseball fans have already put last year behind them and are already bitching about next year's roster.

And they don't even have press conferences where the winners are given trophies and get to thank their dads and high school coaches! They get interviewed over the phone most of the time. Clearly the intent is for baseball to stay in our collective consciousness between the Series ending and free agency beginning, but it doesn't work. It trivializes the importance of these mens' accomplishments, and being that these are the most accomplished men in the Game, it trivializes the Game.

As does the fact that most of the time, the MVP award is give to the best player, but not necessarily the Most Valuable one. I would pick Albert Pujols to start my fantasy team, or my real franchise, over anyone else in the National League, but how valuable was he to the Cardinals this year? They took 4th. I don't think he should have been eligible because he didn't play enough games, but Manny Ramirez was eligible and was third in the voting - how did he not win? The guy joined a team struggling to play .500 that was slowly withering and never going to put it all together and carried them to the NLCS. And keep in mind as you read the following argument that I hate the Dodgers and think Manny is overrated.

So the Dodgers only finished a few games over .500 - the moment he arrived in L.A., the West was won and everyone knew it. Then he went out and hit .400 for two months just to make sure. He made you think James Loney, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier could be All Stars. Sure, Pujols carried the Cardinals, but he carried them to a crappy finish. The measuring stick for MVP is this: if you took the guy in question out and replaced him with any other above-average player of the same position, what is the difference?

Put Conor Jackson, Joey Votto, Loney, Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Carlos Delgado, Lance Berkman or Derek Lee in St. Louis, and they still finish fourth. But put any left fielder from any team in baseball in L.A., and the Dodgers miss the playoffs and possibly wind up behind Colorado.

Most Overrated: Cubs, Torre Or Francona?

The baseball playoffs are not exactly going as I had hoped. For one thing, Omar Minaya is ruining my life and the Mets are not in the playoffs. For another, the only teams I don't like keep winning.

Although there are two sides to the coin that was the Dodgers-Cubs series. On the one hand, the freaking Dodgers (who let's face it, are a crappy team having a good week) won the series and are in the NLCS. This makes me sad because it has been fun getting to tease obnoxious Dodger fans by saying, "At least the Mets have won a series in the last two decades." No more fun there. On the other hand, I can now pretty much expect to stop reading and hearing about the Mets "collapse" this year because of what the Cubs have done. Sure the Mets led the East by a few games and were out of the Wild Card race entering September. Sure the Phillies went nuts and passed the Mets, while the Mets ran down the Brewers before tiring at the end and getting passed up in the last two days. But the Cubs had the best record in the league and were a sure thing to make the World Series since Spring Training. Thank you Cubbies!

Joe Torre is getting a ton of credit for the Dodgers' late success, as he always got in New York, and while I like Torre a lot, I think it is pretty unfounded that he is considered such a managerial genius. His records on teams that did not have the highest payroll that year (including this year) is pretty poor. When he won in New York, he had the perfect teams: youth/experience/defense/pitching/chemistry all rolled together. As his payrolls grew, his players got more talented, his chemistry waned and his teams couldn't win it all.

So he came to L.A. and took over an extraordinarily average team. They were inconsequential for most of the season and reports started to leak out that he and third base coach Larry Bowa were not happy with the Dodgers because the team stunk. Apparently they were unaware that it was their job to do something about it. Then they got Manny Ramirez (and Casey Blake) dumped into their laps and the team suddenly surges, with Torre suddenly a genius again. The common denominator between their pathetic first half and their torrid September was Torre and the everyone but Manny basically. So why is Torre getting credit for the change?

I think managers get far too much credit when things go well. Really what do they do besides get out of the way of guys who get hot? Pitching coaches and hitting coaches deserve credit/blame more often than managers because they tinkering with people's games. They are instructing. How many managers actually do anything during the course of a game that is not by the book? Pitching changes, pinch-hitters, when to steal, etc. It is all predetermined and everyone in the building knows when they're coming. But managers can make unusual decisions which either make them lucky geniuses or get them fired.

In Game 3 of the Angels-Red Sox series Terry Francona made a very strange move. Francona is considered a great manager, but he has also benefited by spectacular pitching and Manny Ramirez/David Ortiz in their primes. A horse could have managed these teams. The score was tied in the eleventh, and Ortiz was on first base. The series-winning run was 270 feet from home in the form of a nearly 300-pound man. Clearly the right move was to pinch-run, then you can either steal second and score on a single (like how the Sox beat the Yanks in THE series), or bunt him over and score on a single, which was less likely since their had the heart of their line-up up, and for some strange reason, logical decision-making is thrown out the window when the guy hitting has a 1 in 15 chance of hitting a homer (and incidentally, a 3 in 4 chance of making an out). Even if you do not steal or bunt, a pinch-runner could go first-to-third on a base hit, and Ortiz could not.

But Francona didn't pinch run for the portly Ortiz. Maybe he didn't have a deep enough bench left. Then it was first and second with two outs...certainly you pinch run for him in this scenario! Screw the bench, the game ends with a speedy runner on second and any hit...what is the bench being saved for if not a game-winning hit!? But no pinch runner came on.

Then Mike Lowell walked and the bases were loaded with Ortiz at third with two outs. Not much need for a pinch-runner for Ortiz now. Even he could score from third on a ball into the outfield. So out comes a pinch-runner...for the guy on first!

I understand that Lowell is slow and has a bad hip so he's really slow, and having a speedy runner there makes it harder for the Angels to have an easy out at second on a ball in the infield. That is not a bad play. But can a fast guy at first really be expected to beat out a ball to the short-stop? And if he does, won't they just throw to first for an easy out anyway? And why was Ortiz running for himself all that time if you had a pinch-runner to waste all along?

With speed on first, the pitcher has to respect it and worry about it and throw over and be distracted. With Ortiz there, no problem. With speed on second, the pitcher is even more stressed because he knows any base hit means the series is over.

You can't say it actually cost the Sox the game because Ortiz did not get thrown out at the plate, or make a base-running blunder to end the inning. But it definitely changed the situation for the pitcher and made it easier for him to relax and focus on the guy at the plate. Terrible move by Francona and the Sox eventually lost in the next inning.

Recapping A 'Magical' Weekend In Sports

Magic Numbers are now being posted in baseball standings, which means the about 80% of the games played don't matter anymore. Thankfully the NFL rushed into the void to make Sports Center worth watching, because otherwise there would only be about five minutes of worthwhile highlights spread over the 60 minute show.

Sunday would have been quite a show to produce! What stories do you pick to squeeze into it? NFL week 1 and its myriad off-field stories (Brady's knee, Favre, Vince Young out, Panthers' finish, rookie QBs, etc.). NCAA Football and the USD Toreros holding the longest home winning streak in Division I. The U.S. Open and Captain Fist-Pump knocking off Nadal to make the Final against the "slumping" Roger Federer. Serena Williams' continued masquerade as a woman and her winning another Grand Slam. And then there was a high stakes weekend in MLB where five of the six divisions are separated by four games or less.

Here would have been my rundown:
NFL: Patriots 17, Chiefs 10 + Tom Brady is out possibly for the season. Trent Dilfer cited an anonymous but "very trustworthy source" within the Pats who said Brady is done for the year. But my question, is who the hell knows since his MRI wasn't completed until Monday? But if he is out, are the Jets the team to beat in the AFC East? I'd still go with the Pats because the gap between them and everyone else was so big last year and the Jets are starting all over. Sure Matt Cassel is new, but what better way to get comfy that with that offense?

NFL: Jets 20, Dolphins 14. The Brett Favre magic works outside of Green Bay as evidenced by the Jets scoring a touchdown on one of the worst pass-decisions or executions I have ever seen.

MLB: Mets and Phillies split a doubleheader. The Phillies had won the first two games of the series, crawling to within a game of the lead, but Johan Santana and Carlos Delgado pushed the divisional lead back to two and Jimmy Rollins went 0-5 and struck out to end the last game the Phillies will ever play at Shea. The Mets' Magic Number is 18. And Mike Schmidt is a huge ass.

U.S. Open: Serena Williams beats Jelena Jankovic to win the Open and Andy Murray hangs on in a rain-suspended match from Saturday to beat Rafael Nadal and advance to Monday's Final against Roger Federer. Murray is suffering from fatigue in his fist-pump muscles and the outlook for the Final isn't pretty. Roger Federer is in the worst slump of his career in 2008 and has only made it to three of the four Grand Slam Finals. Poor bastard.

NFL: Panthers 26, Chargers 24. I was getting ready to leave the house yesterday afternoon and turned on the TV just in time to see the Panthers lining up to go for the win with two-seconds left on the clock, down by five, on about the Chargers' 10-yard line. Instinctively I sprinted to the stereo to switch the audio from the TV feed to A.M. radio and tuned to 570. Alas, all I got was static, but I would have loved to have heard the Chargers' announcers, easily the worst in football, swallow this loss.

Actually, come to think of it, those are the only stories I care about in the least. I guess there were still only about five-minutes of highlights worth watching. Which is why I watched the show straight through three or four times.

I suppose including the Dodgers' sweep over the DBacks is big news. During the Mets-Phillies game last night, ESPN ran a commercial that showed Manny Ramirez with the title "1 Man: The Difference." I will give you that Manny has been fantastic and the team seems to believe and the fans are engaged, and they are in first place. But it has been six weeks since he's been in L.A. and are 19-16 in that time. Before we give the NL Pennant to the Dodgers after this eight-game win streak, let's remember that they are .500 in their last 16 games.

I'm Back...What Did I Miss?

So it has been nearly a month since I last added any new posts to this site but that is just because not much has really been happening in the sports world, plus that photo of the guy getting hit with a soccer ball was too spectacular to replace as the top story photo. Here's a quick, cursory glance at the insignificant stories and events that have taken place since my last post:

The Summer Olympics
I suppose that the fact that NBC is airing 216 hours of coverage per day (I did not make that up, that is their official number) means the Olympics are kindof a big deal. A few months ago, I wrote that the best Olympic rivalry is the U.S. and Australia in swimming. After Michael Phelps (ever heard of him?) tied the Aussies with eight gold medals through the end of the swim meet, I think the rivalry may be no more. Ian Thorpe looked more and more pissed every time they showed him on T.V. as the meet went along. It was wonderful.

Team Handball has once again become my favorite Olympic sport that no one knows about. In the Winter Olympics, it is usually the biathlon because the fact that they race around while armed, having the full capability to shoot their competitors gives me a great thrill. There should be an open-water swimming obstacle course in which the athletes are armed with harpoon guns. That's how to make the most out of those underwater cameras. Tell me you wouldn't watch.

Chris Kaman has taken a lot of flak for playing for the German National Basketball Team in the Olympics from seemingly everyone in the United States, including the Clippers and his own father. But at least Kaman is of German descent. Becky Hammon is playing for Russia because she was a free agent!

Because there is no women's professional basketball league anymore, you may not know about her, but the 2007 WBNA MVP was not selected to the U.S. National Team. (Wait, 2007? Oh, I guess the WNBA does still exist. Oops.) Hammon, who has been about as big a star as anyone not named Lisa Leslie, wasn't chosen to be among those trying out for the U.S. team. She plays for the WNBA's San Antonio Feminine Sounding Mascots, but in the off-season played for a Russian team coached by their National Team coach who offered her a chance to play with them for cash.

Hammon defends herself saying that athletes have competed for other countries than their native homelands quite commonly and that naturalization is a common practice. I agree. The U.S. track team's best milers are from Sudan and Kenya and I root for them. The problem I have with Hammon's situation is that it was purely a financial thing. She doesn't live there. She doesn't even really speak Russian. She has no connection to Russia. She wasn't oppressed or forced from her war-torn homeland. She just wasn't good enough to make it here anymore. Basically, she was an aging free agent and signed a deal to play for a club, and that is what is sad about the Olympics now.

I get that the games need to feature pros now because there is too much money at stake for countries to send people they know are not their countries' best. Advertisers would never pay for a college all-star basketball team. The ironic thing is that sports like baseball and tennis are in danger of disappearing from the Games for good (baseball is already out for 2012) because the best athletes...that is, the pros...don't see the value in playing and often sit out in favor of prepping for their professional leagues (baseball playoffs and U.S. Open). So because they may only get amateurs to play in the future, they will be dumped from the Olympics.

In other Olympic news, the U.S. soccer team stunk so badly, and interest has dipped so deeply, that they weren't even on T.V. Well they were on T.V. because again, there is 216 hours of coverage per day, but they were relegated to the midday time-slots on Oxygen or something. Where have you gone Cobi Jones?

Did you know that little girl who sang the song near the end of the Opening Ceremony (I don't really know what I am talking about because I didn't watch it) was lip-syncing? Government censors stepped in minutes before the Ceremony and forced the 'ole switcheroo because the girl actually singing wasn't cute enough and they didn't want an image of Chinese people possibly being ugly beamed out to billions of people around the world. I have seen some of their athletes and I can say that that ship has sailed.

The New York Bretts
The embarrassing Brett Favre mess finally ended with an abrupt and surprising trade to the Jets. That along with a Mets win that day made for the best day in months for my brother Steve. And he got married a week ago! Favre was traded for a conditional draft pick which means that the more he plays, and the better the Jets do, the higher the pick that the Packers get becomes. The thing is, the Jets still would only have to give up one first round pick next year if they make the Super Bowl. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think there is a single sports fan or front-office person for any sport on earth who would not give their next 3-5 first round draft picks for a trip to their league's championship (besides people in Boston who have completely forgotten what being a real fan is like).

Manny Goes To Hollywood
The Dodgers traded nothing for the best hitter in baseball, thus making their need to sign Barry Bonds disappear. Manny has been spectacular since joining the Dodgers, hitting .424 with 6 homers and 21 RBI in 16 games. He has done everything right, including saying he wanted to finish his career in L.A., invigorating a completely stagnant offense, and saying he'd even gladly cut his hair as per team rules (still waiting on that one). And best of all, they have pulled into a tie for the Division lead with the D-Backs. Of course, they were only one game back when he was traded. So after two weeks of everything going their way, they have gained a game in the standings and have only been playing four-games over .500. They'll miss the playoffs and he'll sign with the Yankees for five-years and $100-million.

Late-Season Baseball Packages
For the last few years, I have waited for the last month of the baseball season or so, and then signed up for the MLB.tv package where I get to watch all the Mets games live online (besides the 4-5 games per week that are blocked out because the whole system is corrupt). I wait on this because the entire season is far too expensive at the start and typically I would not have been able to watch 100+ games, thus making it worth it. But they prorate the package and you can get the last month for $15-$20 (right now it is $30 for the premium package, $20 for the basic with 1/4ish of the season to go).

Before signing up, I decided to try the cable company to see what their prorated price is for the same package on TV instead of the internet because I'd rather sit on the couch than in this chair. They don't prorate it after midseason! That's right, for the low-low price of $130, you too can watch the last 38 games for the same price as if there were 81 games left. What a deal! And Major League Baseball wonders why they're losing fans? I can't afford to go to a game or watch it on T.V. anymore. And the games I get for free are mostly on Fox, which means they take twice as long as they're supposed to and I have to deal with fancy space-themed sound effects and graphics every time Tim McCarver misreads a stat sheet.

Stop The Presses: Manny Legged Out A Triple

Manny Ramirez had a triple and Red Sox fans gave Bill Buckner a standing ovation. Seriously. Both of those things happened on the same day. No joke.

I didn't think I would be able to find anything else to write about today after that, but then I read that the Chinese government asked the American government to prevent protesters from interfering with the Olympic torch relay as it passes through San Francisco today. This story is wonderful on a number of levels.

When China asked the U.S. government to prevent protests from occurring when the torch gets to San Francisco, there had already been people staging huge demonstrations in San Francisco (hanging monstrous signs off of the cables on the Golden Gate bridge, for instance). Apparently China thinks the U.S. government doesn't allow legal demonstrations. And best of all, they expect people in the biggest hippy-peacenik city in the country to not protest for Tibet when literally the entire sports and political world is watching? The relay could not go through a worse/better U.S. city (depending on your point-of-view). This is a city that annually holds the world's biggest pillow fight.

I hope the people of San Francisco hold such a spectacular protest that the Chinese are scared into ending the Torch relay and the U.S. pulls out of the Olympic Opening ceremony. And I LOVE the idea of the Torch relay (though I admittedly cannot stand the Opening Ceremony).

Last night I worked at KCAL and had to watch the Lakers game. What is worse: watching a Laker game or listening to a Laker game? Tough call. NBA referees should be ashamed of themselves for the calls they do not make. Kobe Bryant simply cannot dribble without carrying-over. No one can make a layup or dunk or take a first step on a drive without traveling. Every one of them could punch a guy and spin around in disbelief if a foul called. It is sickening.

But the Lakers lost and Brandon Roy torched Kobe Bryant time after time, so it wasn't a total waste of time for me.

Note to NBA teams: if you make a three-pointer, on the next possession whoever gets the ball first between Sasha Vujacic, Vlad Radmonovich, and Jordan Farmar, will shoot a three-pointer to answer. It happens every single time.

Dick Vitale came out with his top five for college basketball in 2009. The season was over for maybe an hour before he taped it. And who knows what players will leave for the NBA before then. Screw Dick Vitale and screw ESPN for airing him.

Finally, I used to not care about the Phillies. They were just another NL East team. I hate them now. And while Baseball Tonight may be my favorite show on television, I cannot watch a single other game's highlights on days when the Mets lose. Those smug jerks and their game-winning hits. I hate them.